tmux/Command/Prompt/Q/How can I see the history of commands I entered?

• How can I see the history of commands I entered at the tmux/Command/Prompt? And what is that prompt called?

  • AI Answer

    • Answer/Official from tmux(1), STATUS LINE
    • Short answer: show-prompt-history (alias showphist) prints everything typed at the prompt this server has kept; inside the prompt itself, Key/Arrow/Up and Key/Arrow/Down walk the same list. The prompt is called the command prompt — command-prompt is the command that opens it.

    • Seeing the history with tmux/Command/show-prompt-history

      • tmux show-prompt-history displays history for every prompt type. -T <prompt-type> narrows it to one of command, search, target, window-target.
      • Each prompt type keeps its own list, so a : command and a / search never mix:

        • History for command:
          1: set -g mode-keys vi
          2: set status-keys vi
          3: set mouse on
          History for search:

      • The newest entry is last, and the numbering restarts per type.
      • tmux clear-prompt-history (alias clearphist) wipes it, -T for a single type.
      • From inside the prompt, Key/Arrow/Up and Key/Arrow/Down recall the previous and next entry. Which other editing keys work is set by tmux/Option/status-keys.

    • Making it outlive the server

      • Prompt history lives in the running server's memory, so kill-server, a reboot, or a crash takes it with them.
      • history-file (server option, empty by default) points at a file tmux writes prompt history to on exit and reads back on start. In tmux/Config:

        • set -s history-file ~/.tmux_history

      • prompt-history-limit (server option, default 100) caps entries per prompt type.
      • history-limit is unrelated — that one is pane scrollback.

    • What the prompt is called

      • The wiki and the man page both call it the command prompt: an interactive prompt opened with Prefix : that replaces the status line, and the command behind it is command-prompt.
      • The man page documents it under STATUS LINE, and the sibling commands there name it the status prompt — clear-prompt-history reads "Clear status prompt history". Same thing; the wording follows where the prompt is drawn.
      • Every prompt in tmux is this one widget with a prompt type attached: copy-mode / runs command-prompt -T search, Prefix ' runs -T window-target, Prefix . runs -T target. Prompts bound without -T — rename session, rename window, Prefix f — fall into the command type, so a session name typed at a rename prompt shows up in the command history alongside real commands.