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: pane.send_keys(text, enter=False)
Type + Enter (default): pane.send_keys(text)
How “literal” is chosen: literal=True flag on the same method
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_keys("echo hi", enter=False) # type without pressing Enterpane.send_keys("echo hi") # default: presses Enter afterwardReading 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_pane()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.
Poll capture output for a marker or use the wait_for signal channel when you
control the command. The test-support module provides
libtmux.test.retry_until(condition, ...) for arbitrary conditions.
Capture pane output shows capture and waiting examples. Waiting and retrying explains completion conditions and timeouts.
tmux manual and source
The tmux manual defines key-name and literal input and screen and history capture. A send operation delivers input; it does not establish the program’s exit status.