# ChrisJohnsen/tmux-MacOSX-pasteboard

Notes and workarounds for accessing the Mac OS X pasteboard in tmux sessions. Note: The pu branch (“Proposed Updates”) may be rewound without notice.

Repository: https://github.com/ChrisJohnsen/tmux-MacOSX-pasteboard
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/tmux-macosx-pasteboard
Language: C
License: BSD-2-Clause
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2020-10-10T04:22:59+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5639, "days_push": 2153, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2399, forks 85 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:43.763724+00:00)

## What it is
A small C wrapper program (reattach-to-user-namespace) plus documentation that fixes broken Mac OS X pasteboard (pbcopy/pbpaste) access inside tmux and unpatched screen sessions. The functionality was merged into tmux 2.6, so the tool is mainly needed for older tmux versions.

## Use cases
- fix pbcopy and pbpaste not working inside tmux on macOS
- enable clipboard access in screen sessions on Mac OS X
- reattach processes to the user's login namespace under tmux
- configure tmux default-command to preserve macOS clipboard
- make other macOS GUI-connected programs work inside terminal multiplexers

## When to choose
- you run an older tmux (< 2.6) or unpatched screen on macOS and need working clipboard access
- you need a lightweight wrapper instead of patching tmux or screen
- other programs lose access to the GUI session when launched from tmux

## When to avoid
- you use tmux 2.6 or newer, which has this functionality built in
- you are not on macOS
- you need an actively developed tool with ongoing updates

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: developer-tools, cli
- domain: developer-tools, operating-systems
- platform: cli
- tags: tmux, clipboard, pbcopy, pbpaste, reattach-to-user-namespace, macos-pasteboard, terminal-multiplexer, command-line, macos

## Member repositories
- ChrisJohnsen/tmux-MacOSX-pasteboard (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:43.763724+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:34:17.024471+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/ChrisJohnsen/tmux-MacOSX-pasteboard (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:43.763724+00:00, sha de8e4d2eb85a)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.