Installation

$ sudo apt-get install tmux

Config

I use Electric Buffer List in emacs and bind it to C-x C-b. The default tmux command prefix keybinding of C-b messes with this and so I have to change it. I do this in ~/.tmux.conf like so …

unbind C-b
  set -g prefix C-t

Usage

Connect to a Linux host using SSH from PuTTY. Run …

$ tmux

… to create the initial session and then just use Linux.

When I want to disconnect, just close PuTTY, do NOT type exit to leave the shell session since that will close the virtual terminal that tmux has created. This protects my work from network issues, my Linux session will persist if I disconnect. To recover the session I just need to reconnect to the host and then type …

$ tmux a

… to reattach to the virtual terminal.

Tmux can do a lot more but the immediate benefit is the protection from a flaky network.