I usually connect to remote linux servers from a specific windows server (W1). On the Windows side, I use putty and on the linux side, I start tmux.

Occasionally, I have to use a different windows server (W2) and connect to the same tmux sessions.

Problem: If I had set a size for the putty windows on W1, then I can not exceed this size on W2. When I maximise the putty window, the extra space is unusable, filled with ~ characters.

Is there a way to "force" resize on W2, even if that means W1 will show only partial output ? Or a way to make W1 get disconnected from tmux session ?


With tmux list-client, you can list all clients connected to tmux sessions. For instance:

$ tmux list-client
/dev/pts/6: 0 [25x80 xterm] (utf8)
/dev/pts/8: 0 [25x80 xterm] (utf8)

From this point, you can choose to detach a specified client, or all clients of a specified session. Say I want to detach everyone connected to session 0:

$ tmux detach-client -s 0

Then, you can attach the session so the size will be yours.

Actually, all that can be done with tmux attach -d (the -d option force all other clients to detach).

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    Cool !! "-d" is exactly what I wanted !! – Prem Jul 28 '15 at 11:54
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    Thanks, in my case it was tmux detach-client -t /dev/pts/X I was looking for. – bufh Nov 10 '16 at 12:08
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    a shortcut to the verbose 'list-client' is: tmux ls – matias elgart Nov 18 '16 at 13:01
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    matias, actually "tmux ls" is a shortcut for "list-sessions" – Matt Aug 8 '17 at 13:23
  • For tmux attach -d, you can use it from within the tmux session by doing <c-b> :attach -d or outside with tmux attach -d -t <session_name> – divibisan May 19 at 14:44

It is not necessary to detach the other sessions. Use

<c-b>:resize-window -A

to grow the window to the largest connected session.

Other useful parameters to resize-window (resizew) are:

  • -a: resize to the smallest session.
  • -U, -D, -L and -R: adjust up, down, left or right, respectively. Can be followed by a number, determining how much to grow (-D and -R) or shrink (-U and -L).
  • -x <width> and/or -y <height> set width and height to the given values.
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    +1 , I like this too ! – Prem Jun 2 at 20:30

if you are already in tmux then you can detach all other connections using :detach-client -a. It leaves your current session only. Consequently you won't have extra space is unusable, filled with ~ characters.

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    +1 ! This way, we do not have to exit and connect again ! – Prem Oct 18 '18 at 14:52

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