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Created November 29, 2017 01:04
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tmux + mosh OSC 52 clipboard paste hack
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README.md

Problem

Now tmux, mosh and iTerm2 support the OSC 52 sequence that enables clipboard sharing. However, there is a trap that prevents them from working together.

Mosh accepts OSC 52 sequences with the c; option. However, tmux doesn't send that option when it emits OSC 52 sequences, which means you cannot use tmux and mosh together with the default configuration.

Workaround

You can override the OSC 52 sequence generated by tmux by adding the following line to your tmux.conf.

set-option -ag terminal-overrides ",xterm-256color:Ms=\\E]52;c;%p2%s\\7"

Instead of using the default Ms sequence Ms=\\E]52;%p1%s;%p2%s\\7", whose %p1%s; is the option part, this configuration forces use c; as the option value.

Note that xterm-256color must be replaced with your $TERM value.

@VladimirPal
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VladimirPal commented Aug 25, 2025 •
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As for me set -ag terminal-overrides ",xterm-256color:Ms=\\E]52;c%p1%.0s;%p2%s\\7" works well.

But i used to mess with this MS configuration and used a radical way(write OSC52 straight to the client TTY, bypassing tmux’s path), just in case if somebody stucked:

set -s set-clipboard external
set -g allow-passthrough on
set -as terminal-features ",*:RGB,clipboard"

# works for many:
set -ag terminal-overrides ",*:Ms=\\E]52;c%p1%.0s;%p2%s\\7"

# RADICAL: write OSC52 straight to the client TTY, bypassing tmux’s path
bind -T copy-mode-vi y \
  send -X copy-pipe-and-cancel \
  "sh -c 'b64=\$(dd bs=1 count=100000 status=none | base64 | tr -d \"\n\"); printf \"\033]52;c;%s\a\" \"\$b64\" > \"\$1\"' sh #{client_tty}"

bind -T copy-mode-vi Enter \
  send -X copy-pipe-and-cancel \
  "sh -c 'b64=\$(dd bs=1 count=100000 status=none | base64 | tr -d \"\n\"); printf \"\033]52;c;%s\a\" \"\$b64\" > \"\$1\"' sh #{client_tty}"

bind -T copy-mode-vi MouseDragEnd1Pane \
  send -X copy-pipe-and-cancel \
  "sh -c 'b64=\$(dd bs=1 count=100000 status=none | base64 | tr -d \"\n\"); printf \"\033]52;c;%s\a\" \"\$b64\" > \"\$1\"' sh #{client_tty}"

@binarin
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binarin commented Nov 20, 2025 •
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For anyone trying to follow this guide in tmux 3.5 - terminal-overrides is a server option, so it should be -as (or even just -a, as tmux should automatically recognize known options). And if you want to debug this interactively, you should detach and reattach - only at that moment terminal-overrides will kick in (i.e. you can find them in tmux info output). This is what worked for me:

      set-option -s set-clipboard on
      set-option -as terminal-overrides "xterm-256color:Ms=\\E]52;c%p1%.0s;%p2%s\\7" # only for mosh - https://github.com/mobile-shell/mosh/pull/1054

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