# tmux_buffer:show/2

- **Package:** libtmux_erlang
- **Language:** Erlang
- **Kind:** function
- **Source:** https://github.com/libtmux/libtmux-erlang/blob/d1b6308440cf9eb8f6647e7ae434bce60e849368/apps/libtmux_erlang/src/tmux_buffer.erl#L81
- **Page:** https://libtmux.org/en/erlang/latest/reference/tmux_buffer-show-2/

```
show(Server, Buffer)
-spec show(tmux_server:t(), target()) ->
              {ok, binary()} | {error, map()}.
```

Read exact payload bytes with default bounds. See `show/3` for limits.

## Parameters

- `Server` (`tmux_server:t()`)
- `Buffer` (`target()`)

## tmux command

The tmux commands behind `show/2`.

- [`show-buffer`](/en/tmux/latest/manual/show-buffer/)

## tmux C API

The C declarations in tmux that implement these commands.

- [`cmd_show_buffer_entry`](/en/tmux/latest/reference/c-variable-cmd_show_buffer_entry/) (attribute)
- [`cmd_save_buffer_exec`](/en/tmux/latest/reference/c-function-cmd-save-buffer-c-cmd_save_buffer_exec/) (function)

## In other ports

Read a paste buffer's contents

| Language | Equivalent |
| --- | --- |
| Python | [`libtmux.Server.show_buffer`](/en/py/latest/reference/libtmux-server-show_buffer/) (method) |
| Ruby | [`LibTmux::Server#read_buffer`](/en/ruby/latest/reference/libtmux-server-read_buffer/) (method) |
| Lua | [`libtmux.Server:show_buffer`](/en/lua/latest/reference/libtmux-server-show_buffer/) (method) |
| Haskell | No public Haskell equivalent is implemented; the current modules expose scalar values and version parsing. |
| TypeScript | [`server.Server.showBuffer`](/en/ts/latest/reference/server-server-showbuffer/) (method) |
| Rust | [`server.Server.buffer`](/en/rs/latest/reference/server-server-buffer/) (method) |
| Go | [`tmux.Server.ShowBuffer`](/en/go/latest/reference/tmux-server-showbuffer/) (method) |
| Java | no equivalent on `Server` |
| C# | [`LibTmux.TmuxBuffers.GetAsync`](/en/csharp/latest/reference/libtmux-tmuxbuffers-getasync/) (method) |
| C++ | no equivalent on `Server` |
| Swift | [`Server.buffer(named:)`](/en/swift/latest/reference/server-buffer(named-)/) (method) |
| OCaml | No direct public OCaml equivalent is recorded for this operation. |
| Perl | [`LibTmux::Server::show_buffer`](/en/perl/latest/reference/libtmux-server-show_buffer/) (method). Explicit Server operation. Captured entities remain local observations; use a new snapshot to observe changes. |

No equivalent is recorded in PowerShell, Julia, Elixir, Common Lisp, Clojure, Kotlin, Scala or F#.