How to disconnect all other tmux clients

Hey there! Welcome to my blog. If you’re like me and constantly juggling multiple Tmux sessions, you’ve likely found yourself needing to disconnect all other clients for various reasons. Maybe you need to clean up some hanging sessions, or perhaps you want to keep your Tmux workspace private. Whatever your reasons may be, in this blog post, I’ll walk you through the simple steps on how to disconnect all other Tmux clients. So, sit back, and let’s dive right in!

For the Tmux novices among us, check out the fundamentals of Tmux first. The rest of us can hit the ground running. Ready, set, go!

Tmux is one of the “terminal multiplexer”, it enables a number of terminals (or windows) to be accessed and controlled from a single terminal. It allows you to create a session on a remote box, run applications in that remote session, “detach” from the session, and re-“attach” when desired. It also has advanced features such as multiple windows and split views. Using tmux is recommend when running an interactive CLI program remotely. If you get disconnected from your session, you can re-attach as though nothing happened.

One of the most frustrating thing is when many users attach to your tmux session and you have lost complete control of the situation. Worry not, there is a way to disconnect all other tmux users from the session, when you can be your tmux session’s ruler.

You can use <prefix> D to choose choose the client you want to detach. This will also list the clients and when was the last time they used it.

Please note- Use CAPITAL LETTER ‘D’ (shift + d)

Shortcut to detach all other tmux clients

Here, let’s assume that your <prefix> is Ctrl-B, which is the default prefix.

Ctrl-B + D

Command to detach all other tmux clients

Details of the option-

detach-client [-P] [-a] [-s target-session] [-t target-client]
               (alias: detach)
         Detach the current client if bound to a key, the client specified
         with -t, or all clients currently attached to the session speci-
         fied by -s.  The -a option kills all but the client given with
         -t.  If -P is given, send SIGHUP to the parent process of the
         client, typically causing it to exit.

In a tmux session, tmux detach-client -a will detach all other clients except the current one.

You can also create a function in your ~/.bashrc –

detach_others () { tmux detach-client -a;}

So you can simply call detach_others from your terminal, and all other sessions will be detached.

You can also kill a tmux pane or window without exiting from tmux and exit from tmux session as well. You can reset a tmux config in case you feel some of your tmux plugins are not working as expected and start with a clean config.

And just like that, you’ve learned how to disconnect all other Tmux clients! It’s an essential trick for maintaining order in your Tmux workspace and ensuring you have a handle on all active sessions. I hope you found this blog post useful and are eager to implement this in your Tmux journey. Remember, Tmux is a powerful tool – mastering it will unlock a world of efficiency. Stick around for more Tmux tips and tricks!

You can also check out the complete tmux cheatsheet of keyboard shortcuts and mouse shortcuts.