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libtmux.Pane.capture_pane

Module: libtmux
Declared in: Pane
Package: libtmux
Source: src/libtmux/pane.py
Other languages: TypeScript Rust Go Java .NET C++Swift

capture_pane ( 16 parameters ) ( self , start : t.Literal["-"] | int | None = ... , end : t.Literal["-"] | int | None = ... , escape_sequences : bool = ... , escape_non_printable : bool = ... , join_wrapped : bool = ... , preserve_trailing : bool = ... , trim_trailing : bool = ... , alternate_screen : bool = ... , quiet : bool = ... , mode_screen : bool = ... , pending : bool = ... , hyperlinks : bool = ... , line_numbers : bool = ... , line_flags : bool = ... , to_buffer : str ) → None ( 16 parameters ) ( self , start : t.Literal["-"] | int | None = ... , end : t.Literal["-"] | int | None = ... , escape_sequences : bool = ... , escape_non_printable : bool = ... , join_wrapped : bool = ... , preserve_trailing : bool = ... , trim_trailing : bool = ... , alternate_screen : bool = ... , quiet : bool = ... , mode_screen : bool = ... , pending : bool = ... , hyperlinks : bool = ... , line_numbers : bool = ... , line_flags : bool = ... , to_buffer : None = ... ) → list[str] ( 16 parameters ) ( self , start : t.Literal["-"] | int | None = None , end : t.Literal["-"] | int | None = None , escape_sequences : bool = False , escape_non_printable : bool = False , join_wrapped : bool = False , preserve_trailing : bool = False , trim_trailing : bool = False , alternate_screen : bool = False , quiet : bool = False , mode_screen : bool = False , pending : bool = False , hyperlinks : bool = False , line_numbers : bool = False , line_flags : bool = False , to_buffer : str | None = None ) → list[str] | None method3 overloads [source] ¶ method3 overloads [source] ¶ capture_pane

Capture text from pane.

$ tmux capture-pane to pane. $ tmux capture-pane -S -10 to pane. $ tmux capture-pane -E 3 to pane. $ tmux capture-pane -S - -E - to pane.

Examples

>>> pane = window.split(shell='sh')
>>> pane.capture_pane()
['$']

>>> pane.send_keys('echo "Hello world"', enter=True)

>>> pane.capture_pane()
['$ echo "Hello world"', 'Hello world', '$']

>>> print(chr(10).join(pane.capture_pane()))
$ echo "Hello world"
Hello world
$

Parameters

start ( t.Literal["-"] | int | None ) – Specify the starting line number. Zero is the first line of the visible pane. Positive numbers are lines in the visible pane. Negative numbers are lines in the history. - is the start of the history. Default: None
end ( t.Literal["-"] | int | None ) – Specify the ending line number. Zero is the first line of the visible pane. Positive numbers are lines in the visible pane. Negative numbers are lines in the history. - is the end of the visible pane. Default: None
escape_sequences ( bool ) – Include ANSI escape sequences for text and background attributes (-e flag). Useful for capturing colored output. Default: False
escape_non_printable ( bool ) – Escape non-printable characters as octal \\xxx format (-C flag). Useful for binary-safe capture. Default: False
join_wrapped ( bool ) – Join wrapped lines and preserve trailing spaces (-J flag). Lines that were wrapped by tmux will be joined back together. Default: False
preserve_trailing ( bool ) – Preserve trailing spaces at each line's end (-N flag). Default: False
trim_trailing ( bool ) – Trim trailing positions with no characters (-T flag). Only includes characters up to the last used cell. Requires tmux 3.4+. If used with tmux < 3.4, a warning is issued and the flag is ignored. Default: False
alternate_screen ( bool ) – Capture from the alternate screen (-a flag). Default: False added 0.56
quiet ( bool ) – Suppress errors silently (-q flag). Default: False added 0.56
mode_screen ( bool ) – Capture from the mode screen (e.g. copy mode) instead of the pane (-M flag). Requires tmux 3.6+. Default: False added 0.56
pending ( bool ) – Capture *pending output* — the bytes tmux has read from the pane but not yet committed to the terminal (-P flag). These are bytes that begin an incomplete escape sequence and are still pending the parser's ground state (tmux's input_pending() / since_ground buffer), distinct from the default capture (the pane's screen history). Useful for diagnosing programs whose output stalls mid-sequence. Default: False added 0.57
hyperlinks ( bool ) – Capture only hyperlink targets in the selected lines (-H flag). Requires tmux 3.7+. If used with tmux < 3.7, a warning is issued and the flag is ignored. Default: False
line_numbers ( bool ) – Prefix each captured line with its line number (-L flag). Requires tmux 3.7+. If used with tmux < 3.7, a warning is issued and the flag is ignored. Default: False
line_flags ( bool ) – Prefix each captured line with its flags, e.g. H for a line with a hyperlink (-F flag). Requires tmux 3.7+. If used with tmux < 3.7, a warning is issued and the flag is ignored. Default: False
to_buffer ( str | None ) – Write the capture into the named tmux buffer (-b flag) instead of returning it. When set, -p is omitted and the wrapper returns None. added 0.56

Returns

list[str] or None Captured pane content, or None when *to_buffer* is set.

In other languages Read a pane’s visible contents

TypeScript pane.Pane.capture
Rust pane.observe.Pane.capture
Go tmux.Pane.Capture
Java io.github.libtmux.Pane.Pane.capture
.NET LibTmux.Pane.CaptureAsync
C++ libtmux::Pane::capture
Swift Server.capture(_:since:limit:)

Examples

Python TypeScript

>>> pane = window.split(shell='sh')
>>> pane.capture_pane()
['$']

>>> pane.send_keys('echo "Hello world"', enter=True)

>>> pane.capture_pane()
['$ echo "Hello world"', 'Hello world', '$']

>>> print(chr(10).join(pane.capture_pane()))
$ echo "Hello world"
Hello world
$

const lines = await pane.capture();
lines.at(-1);

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