Cannot change history-limit for existing panes #4705
Description
Issue description
When starting a long running tool in tmux on a remote server, I invariable understand after some time, possibly hours, that this tool is going to generate more output than the default history-limit can accept.
One simple fix would be to increase the history-limit to something large enough for what I want to see for the current pane, and come back the next day to inspect and if necessary write out the result to a file for further slicing and dicing.
This I would expect to work:
$ tmux
$ ctrl-b+:
set history-limit 999999999Surprisingly, this does nothing. The docs explain that this setting can only be changed for new windows, not for existing ones, which explains it, but does not help.
What do I want? Be able to increase the history of a pane after it has been created, so I do not have to grieve for the time I lost because I do need to restart a long running process to get full history the next day.
Required information
Please provide the following information. These are required. Note that bug reports without logs may be ignored or closed without comment.
- tmux version (
tmux -V): tmux 3.4 and tmux 3.6 - Platform (
uname -sp). Linux x86_64 and Darwin arm - Terminal in use (xterm, rxvt, etc). Apple Terminal, Ghostty
- $TERM inside tmux (
echo $TERM). tmux-256color - $TERM outside tmux (
echo $TERM). xterm-ghostty and xterm-256color - Logs from tmux (
tmux kill-server; tmux -vv new).
Logs
1764178977.381445 sending message 203 to peer 0x610644d73610 (4 bytes) 1764178977.381450 session 0 freed (0 references) 1764178977.381464 server_signal: Child exited 1764178977.381472 cmdq_next <global>: empty 1764178977.381473 cmdq_next </dev/pts/4>: empty 1764178977.381608 peer 0x610644d73610 message 205 1764178977.381633 removing term xterm-ghostty 1764178977.381681 sending message 204 to peer 0x610644d73610 (0 bytes) 1764178977.381683 cmdq_next <global>: empty 1764178977.381684 cmdq_next </dev/pts/4>: empty 1764178977.381690 cmdq_next <global>: empty 1764178977.381691 cmdq_next </dev/pts/4>: empty 1764178977.382082 lost client 0x610644d72b00 1764178977.382087 lost attached client 0x610644d72b00 1764178977.382089 cmd_find_best_session: 0 sessions to try 1764178977.382091 notify_add: buffer_mode_format=#{t/p:buffer_created}: #{buffer_sample} 1764178977.382092 notify_add: client_mode_format=#{t/p:client_activity}: session #{session_name} 1764178977.382094 notify_add: config_files= 1764178977.382095 notify_add: host=svmkitest01.bkkvbu.local 1764178977.382096 notify_add: host_short=svmkitest01 1764178977.382098 notify_add: next_session_id=$1 1764178977.382099 notify_add: pane_format=0 1764178977.382100 notify_add: pid=181966 1764178977.382101 notify_add: server_sessions=0 1764178977.382102 notify_add: session_format=0 1764178977.382104 notify_add: socket_path=/tmp/tmux-1000/default 1764178977.382105 notify_add: start_time=1764178974 1764178977.382109 notify_add: tree_mode_format=#{?pane_format,#{?pane_marked,#[reverse],}#{pane_current_command}#{?pane_active,*,}#{?pane_marked,M,}#{?#{&&:#{pane_title},#{!=:#{pane_title},#{host_short}}},: "#{pane_title}",},#{?window_format,#{?window_marked_flag,#[reverse],}#{window_name}#{window_flags}#{?#{&&:#{==:#{window_panes},1},#{&&:#{pane_title},#{!=:#{pane_title},#{host_short}}}},: "#{pane_title}",},#{session_windows} windows#{?session_grouped, (group #{session_group}: #{session_group_list}),}#{?session_attached, (attached),}}} 1764178977.382111 notify_add: uid=1000 1764178977.382123 notify_add: user=vbu2858 1764178977.382124 notify_add: version=3.4 1764178977.382125 notify_add: window_format=0 1764178977.382126 notify_add: hook=client-detached 1764178977.382127 notify_add: hook_client=/dev/pts/4 1764178977.382129 cmdq_append <global>: [notify_callback/0x610644d694b0] 1764178977.382140 remove peer 0x610644d73610 1764178977.382151 unref client 0x610644d72b00 (2 references) 1764178977.382154 cmdq_next <global>: enter 1764178977.382155 cmdq_next <global>: [notify_callback/0x610644d694b0] (1), flags 0 1764178977.382156 notify_callback: client-detached 1764178977.382157 notify_insert_hook: inserting hook client-detached 1764178977.382158 cmd_find_best_session: 0 sessions to try 1764178977.382161 unref client 0x610644d72b00 (1 references) 1764178977.382162 cmdq_next <global>: exit (empty) 1764178977.382163 cmdq_next <global>: empty 1764178977.382164 server loop exit vbu2858@svmkitest01:~$ :>|ghostty 1.3.0-main+14abc6a49