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In various blogs explaining the terminal multiplexer tmux and Git repositories containing a configuration file tmux.conf I find the following two lines (possibly with a varying prefix key):

set -g prefix2 C-a
bind C-a send-prefix -2

But what I couldn't find an answer for is why the second line is needed. As to my understanding the first line already binds the given key as the secondary prefix. I also tried to configure tmux with only the first line present and it seems to work. So why should it be bound a second time to explicitly send the secondary prefix key again?

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The second line means Ctrl-A-Ctrl-A sends a literal Ctrl-A input to the program (send-prefix). If you don't have a use for that, you don't need it, though it also doesn't hurt. It isn't binding the key a second time.

One use case for this is running tmux or screen inside tmux.

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  • Since I mapped my secondary prefix key to C-s and disabled software flow control with Ctrl-S/Ctrl-Q in my Bash shell I should be able to hit Ctrl-A to move to the beginning of a command line. Isn't nesting of tmux advised against? Commented May 27, 2017 at 8:20
  • If bash is in emacs mode and Ctrl-A isn't bound to anything else, yes. Commented May 27, 2017 at 8:22
  • "Advised against" doesn't mean nobody does it, by choice or otherwise. I wouldn't set it up as a long-term workflow personally. Commented May 27, 2017 at 8:24

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