---
title: "tmux source-file"
description: "https://youtu.be/dDq0depPrTs"
date: 2021-08-06
published: true
template: blog-post
---


[https://youtu.be/dDq0depPrTs](https://youtu.be/dDq0depPrTs){.youtube-embed}

So you have been tricking out that `.tmux.conf`, you're looking for a silky
smooth workflow that lets you fly through tmux with super speed, but every time
you tweak out that `.tmux.conf` you have to restart your whole session. Not amymore,

Let's add this to the bottom of our tmux.conf so that you can see everytime it
gets sourced.

``` bash
display-message "hello beautiful"
```

## command

We can run this command from your shell to re-source your changed `.tmux.conf`

``` bash
tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf
```

It also works from the tmux command line.

``` bash
source-file ~/.tmux.conf
```

## tmux hotkey

It's very common to set this up as a keybinding so that you can do it easily
without needing to memorize the exact command.

``` bash
bind -T prefix r source-file ~/.tmux.conf
bind -n M-r source-file ~/.tmux.conf
```

## from vim

This is my preferred way of re-sourcing my `.tmux.conf`.  It sits quietly in
the background, and I dont need to remember to do anything.  If you are a vim
user you can automate this process by creating a `autocmd bufwritepost`.  This
will shell out the `tmux source-file` everytime you save your `.tmux.conf`.

``` vim
autocmd bufwritepost .tmux.conf execute ':!tmux source-file %'
autocmd bufwritepost .tmux.local.conf execute ':!tmux source-file %'
```

<a href="/tmux-nav-2021/" class="wikilink" data-title="How I navigate tmux in 2021" data-description="change_speed = (speed) =&gt; [...document.querySelectorAll(&#39;video&#39;)].map(v =&gt; v.playbackRate=v.playbackRate+speed)" data-date="2021-05-11">How I navigate tmux in 2021</a>

> for more information on how I navigate tmux, check out this full post

Also check out the full YouTube
[tmux-playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTRNG6WIHETB4reAxbWza3CZeP9KL6Bkr)
to see all of the videos in this series.