How to reload your tmux config without restarting — prefix r

You edited ~/.tmux.conf and want it live in the running server — no session teardown.

tmux's default prefix is Ctrl-b: “prefix c” means press Ctrl-b, let go, then press c. Every CLI command was run for real against tmux 3.4 in detached test sessions, and every prefix binding was checked against the default binding table.

bind r source-file ~/.tmux.conf \; display "Reloaded!"
# the \; is an escaped separator: it lets ONE key binding run TWO tmux commands
# (source-file, then display). Written as a plain ; the config parser would
# end the bind command there instead. In tmux 3.4 display shows the message
# on the status line — display-message is the same command's full name.

tmux Cheatsheet one-page card — commands that actually work — The full one-page card — tmux Cheatsheet. Get the complete cheatsheet on GitHub