What is tmux control mode, and do I need it?
tmux control mode is what makes dotMux feel native. dotMux speaks tmux’s control-mode protocol (tmux -CC) directly, so it doesn’t draw a picture of a terminal — it owns the layout and rebuilds your workspace as native iOS UI:
- each tmux window becomes a tab — see windows and live previews;
- each pane becomes a native view you can tap, swipe, split, and resize — focused full-screen on iPhone, where a layout-proportional pane minimap in the tab bar expands into a pane picker you tap to move between them; true side-by-side splits on iPad.
You switch windows and panes with a tap, the way any iOS app should work.
Do I need to set anything up?
No. It’s on by default, and when you connect dotMux launches or re-attaches a tmux session and renders it natively. Leave it on and it does the right thing per host.
The Multiplexer picker. Every host has a Multiplexer picker in the Add/Edit Host form. Leave it on tmux (the default) for the native tabs-and-panes experience, pick plain for a plain terminal on that host, or pick herdr. The list badges each host so you can tell at a glance.
No tmux? No problem
If a host doesn’t have tmux installed, or control mode can’t start for any reason, dotMux falls back gracefully to a plain terminal. You stay connected — just without the native tabs and panes.