How to set tmux terminfo to screen-256color?

Question

If I do not use tmux my terminal is the following:

~$ echo $TERM
xterm

If I use tmux by adding the following into .bashr

# tmux configuration
tmux attach &> /dev/null

if [[ ! $TERM =~ screen ]]; then
    exec tmux
fi

My .tmux.conf has a line set-option -g default-terminal "screen-256color", but the terminal is the following:

~$ echo $TERM
screen

This makes VIM ugly. How can I get the tmux to use screen-256color? Using gnome terminal on Ubuntu 14.02

I also use VIM inside tmux and my TERM environment variable is also set to `screen` by default. This does not affect the colors in VIM however; everything looks just fine. Do you have `set t_Co=256` inside your .vimrc? Also see [this page](http://robotsrule.us/vim) for more information. — Benjamin B., May 06 '15 at 15:15
I do have line in .vimrc `set t_Co=256`. I am asking this question as an outcome of http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/201779/vim-solarized-color-scheme-looks-wrong-when-using-tmux/201793#201793. Not sure why, but it messes up my VIM. — user1135541, May 06 '15 at 15:17
See [Getting 256 colors to work in tmux](http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/1045/getting-256-colors-to-work-in-tmux) and also [tmux, TERM and 256 colours support](http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/118806/tmux-term-and-256-colours-support) — Gilles 'SO- stop being evil', May 06 '15 at 22:22

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 06 '15 at 15:20

1

I do have the same problem (my set-option -g default-terminal "screen-256color" seems useless).

So, whenever I need 256 colors, I use tmux -2 to force it.

That ain't the solution, just a workaround.

answered May 06 '15 at 15:20

apaul

Found the answer for my sistem, what version of tmux are you using? `tmux -V` – user1135541 May 06 '15 at 17:25
@user1135541 thanks, I'm using `1.6`, maybe that's the problem... – apaul May 06 '15 at 17:37

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:39

1

Ubuntu 14.02 uses tmux version 1.8, apperently it does not support screen-256color, so to resolve I followed this advice:

So:

~$ tmux -V
tmux 1.9a
~$ echo $TERM
screen-256color

And now everything works right.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:39

Community

answered May 06 '15 at 17:24

user1135541

2 Answers2