Set the active tmux tab color

Question

Is it possible to change the background of the active (current) tmux tab?

I'm using tmux 1.9 on Ubuntu 15.04.

$ tmux -V
tmux 1.9

I tried to do:

set-option -g pane-active-border-fg red

But the result was not changed:

I expected the 3-bash* to have a red background.

@jasonwryan I don't want to change the status bar foreground color but to make the current tab display a different background color. — Ionică Bizău, Jun 17, 2015 at 8:01

Anudeep Samaiya · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-07 09:34:28Z

45

In version 3.3 use the answer in comment provided here by @AntK.

set-window-option -g window-status-current-style bg=red

In version 2.9 You should change this options to something like:

# Active window title color
setw -g window-status-current-style fg=black,bg=white

There's an argument with a decent explanation here: https://github.com/tmux/tmux/issues/1689

answered May 10, 2019 at 5:03

Anudeep Samaiya

5514 silver badges5 bronze badges

confirmed this works for 2.9a
– imagineerThis
Jun 24, 2019 at 4:39
thanks. that's the actual way to set those colors
– KhaimovMR
Dec 28, 2020 at 12:26
1

This throws syntax error in next-3.3. @AntK's solution worked fine
– vishless
May 14, 2021 at 9:12

Add a comment |

cuonglm · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-17 08:02:40Z

39

You haven't set window active background color, you only set active panel border, try:

set-window-option -g window-status-current-bg red

answered Jun 17, 2015 at 8:02

cuonglm

144k36 gold badges306 silver badges389 bronze badges

Still the same -- i.imgur.com/3AdyVZc.png
– Ionică Bizău
Jun 17, 2015 at 8:06
Yes, I saved ~/.tmux.conf and started tmux in a new terminal.
– Ionică Bizău
Jun 17, 2015 at 8:12
xterm-256color
– Ionică Bizău
Jun 17, 2015 at 8:19
1

Also, for those wondering, you can set the foreground with set-window-option -g window-status-current-fg 'white'
– laurent
Nov 9, 2017 at 11:36
16

if you're looking at this post tmux v2.9 this option will look like so set-window-option -g window-status-current-style bg=red
– AntK
Jun 16, 2019 at 13:36

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