How can I clear scrollback buffer in Tmux?

Question

FYI, I am using Tmux through the Mac OS X Terminal app.

Answer 1

Ctrl-L is used in console applications to redraw the screen. I found that when bound to send-keys -R it would cause the arrow keys to no longer function correctly in some applications (eg vim, mc).

To retain the redraw functionality in console applications, I used:

bind-key -n C-l if-shell -F '#{alternate_on}' 'send-keys C-l' 'send-keys -R C-l; clear-history'

This requires the tmux option alternate-screen to be on (which it is by default).