Pane interaction

Send input to a pane and capture its screen to interact with a running program. Attach and send keys provides examples. Sending keys and Capturing output are task guides; this page covers input defaults, capture ranges, and completion handling.

Typing into a pane¶

Two questions come up every time you send something to a pane: should tmux press Enter afterward, and should tmux interpret what you sent as key names (Enter, C-c) rather than literal characters? Choose both explicitly when a command depends on them.

Type without Enter: mpane->send_text(text)

Type + Enter: pane->send_text(text) then mpane->send_key("Enter") separately: no combined convenience exists

How “literal” is chosen: send_text is always literal; send_key is always a key name

Examples¶

Text and Enter can be separate tmux commands. If the second operation fails, the text may already be in the pane. Check the current state before retrying; repeating the whole request can duplicate input.

Send a command line and press Enter:

pane->send_text("echo hi");
pane->send_key("Enter"); // separate command: no combined convenience exists

Reading a pane back¶

Capture reads the pane’s visible screen by default. Request scrollback when you need earlier output. A capture is a snapshot of terminal contents, including any input echoed by the application.

pane->capture();

Waiting for something to finish¶

A send call completes when input reaches tmux. It does not wait for the shell command to finish. Wait for expected output or a completion signal.

Capture pane output shows capture and waiting examples. Waiting and retrying explains completion conditions and timeouts.