Link and move windows between sessions

A tmux window can appear at different indices in several sessions. Read the window through the session whose placement you intend to change; its native CWindow handle captures that session and index. Start from an explicit endpoint, then choose the source window and destination session. The examples below use $window and $session from the same server.

Link the window into the destination session at index 5 while leaving that session’s selected window alone:

$window |
    New-TmuxWindowLink -Session $session -Index 5 -NoSelect -Confirm:$false

The command emits no placement handle. Read the destination session’s windows and select the new link by physical ID and destination index:

$window = $session | Get-TmuxWindow |
    Where-Object { $_.Id -eq $window.Id -and $_.Index -eq 5 }

-ReplaceExisting permits tmux to displace a window already at the index; it may destroy that window when this was its last link.

Move the link from index 5 to index 6 in the same session. Keep the returned replacement handle because the original still describes the old placement:

$window = $window | Move-TmuxWindow -Index 6 -PassThru -Confirm:$false

Use -DestinationSession $otherSession to move a link to another session on the same endpoint and daemon generation. Omit -Index to use the next free index. -Direction Before or kAfter inserts relative to a destination; -NoSelect keeps the destination’s current selection.

Remove only this session’s link to the window. Links in other sessions and their panes remain:

$window | Remove-TmuxWindowLink -Confirm:$false

Without -KillIfLast, tmux refuses to remove a window’s final link. With it, the final unlink destroys the physical window and its panes. To destroy the window and every link deliberately, use Remove-TmuxWindow.

These three commands request confirmation by default. Use -WhatIf to preview without contacting tmux. They reject a stale source placement in tmux’s native queue; link and cross-session move also reject destination sessions from another endpoint or daemon generation before dispatch. A failed move readback can follow a successful dispatch, so inspect current topology before retrying. See the installed placement test and fcommand reference.