My Byobu notes

Byobu notes

These notes were originally taken while using Ubuntu Desktop 18.04.1 LTS.

Some notes were updated with Ubuntu Server 22.04.3.

Byobu resources

How to install and use Byobu for terminal management on Ubuntu 16-04.

Verify or install Byobu

Verify whether Byobu is installed

$ byobu --version
byobu version 5.125
tmux 2.6

or with Ubuntu Server 22 (in December 2023):

$ byobu --version
byobu version 5.133
tmux 3.2a

If you do not get a version install Byobu with sudo apt-get install byobu

Start Byobu at login

You can start Byobu manually every time you want to use Byobu or automatically at login.

To manually start Byobu type byobu at prompt.

To automatically start at login type byobu-enable at prompt.

$ byobu-enable

The Byobu window manager will be launched automatically at each text login.

To disable this behavior later, just run:
  byobu-disable

If you want to disable automatic use of Byobu type byobu-disable at prompt.

Byobu help

Press Shift + F1.

Current help output

Byobu is a suite of enhancements to tmux, as a command line
tool providing live system status, dynamic window management,
and some convenient keybindings:

  F1                             * Used by X11 *
    Shift-F1                     Display this help
  F2                             Create a new window
    Shift-F2                     Create a horizontal split
    Ctrl-F2                      Create a vertical split
    Ctrl-Shift-F2                Create a new session
  F3/F4                          Move focus among windows
    Alt-Left/Right               Move focus among windows
    Alt-Up/Down                  Move focus among sessions
    Shift-Left/Right/Up/Down     Move focus among splits
    Shift-F3/F4                  Move focus among splits
    Ctrl-F3/F4                   Move a split
    Ctrl-Shift-F3/F4             Move a window
    Shift-Alt-Left/Right/Up/Down Resize a split
  F5                             Reload profile, refresh status
    Alt-F5                       Toggle UTF-8 support, refresh status
    Shift-F5                     Toggle through status lines
    Ctrl-F5                      Reconnect ssh/gpg/dbus sockets
    Ctrl-Shift-F5                Change status bar's color randomly
  F6                             Detach session and then logout
    Shift-F6                     Detach session and do not logout
    Alt-F6                       Detach all clients but yourself
    Ctrl-F6                      Kill split in focus
  F7                             Enter scrollback history
    Alt-PageUp/PageDown          Enter and move through scrollback
    Shift-F7                     Save history to $BYOBU_RUN_DIR/printscreen
  F8                             Rename the current window
    Ctrl-F8                      Rename the current session
    Shift-F8                     Toggle through split arrangements
    Alt-Shift-F8                 Restore a split-pane layout
    Ctrl-Shift-F8                Save the current split-pane layout
  F9                             Launch byobu-config window
    Ctrl-F9                      Enter command and run in all windows
    Shift-F9                     Enter command and run in all splits
    Alt-F9                       Toggle sending keyboard input to all splits
  F10                            * Used by X11 *
  F11                            * Used by X11 *
    Alt-F11                      Expand split to a full window
    Shift-F11                    Zoom into a split, zoom out of a split
    Ctrl-F11                     Join window into a vertical split
  F12                            Escape sequence
    Shift-F12                    Toggle on/off Byobu's keybindings
    Alt-F12                      Toggle on/off Byobu's mouse support
    Ctrl-Shift-F12               Mondrian squares
(END)

Using Byobu

Put tmux status bar on top of terminal window. Modify or create file ~/.byobu/.tmux.conf and put these commands in file:

set -g status-position top

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