title: How to force emacs-style status-keys in tmux?
body: <p>I have this problem with tmux 1.8: I want to set <code>status-keys</code> option to 'emacs' because I really dislike entering commands in vi-mode. However adding the following line to .tmux.conf has no effect:</p>
  
  <pre><code>set -g status-keys emacs
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When tmux is restarted, <code>tmux show-options -g | grep keys</code> says <code>emacs</code> but the actual behaviour is vi-style.</p>
  
  <p>The root of the problem is the <code>$EDITOR</code> environment variable, which it set to <code>vim</code> in my case. The documentations states:</p>
  
  <pre><code>status-keys [vi | emacs]
      Use vi or emacs-style key bindings in the status line,
      for example at the command prompt.  The default is emacs,
      unless the VISUAL or EDITOR environment variables are set
      and contain the string `vi'.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So apparently when the environment variable is "vim" it forces vi status-keys.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a way to override this behaviour and have the prompt behave emacs-style despite the environment variable? I can obviously hack around this (like starting tmux with other env variables and restoring the original later) but I hope there is a clean solution.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks!</p>