Global vs Pane-Scoped tmux Options: Which Allows Safer Rollback After a Schema Change?

Goal

Determine whether assigning a tmux option globally (-g) or to individual panes (-p) provides a safer way to revert the option after a configuration schema change, given that tmux does not retain a history of option values and some options lack the -o flag for in‑place modification.

Constraints and Uncertainty

Options changed without -o affect only newly created panes or windows; existing panes keep the old value until they are recreated. The availability of -o varies by option and tmux version, so relying on it for universal rollback may yield inconsistent results. Consequently, a rollback that must apply uniformly to all current panes without forcing recreation introduces a trade‑off between scope breadth and immediate effect.

Which approach minimizes the need for external bookkeeping or pane recreation while ensuring that a reverted option takes effect everywhere?

• Does a global (-g) assignment combined with the -o flag reliably revert the option for all existing panes, or are there options that ignore -o even at the global scope?
• When using pane‑scoped (-p) assignment, does the -o flag produce an immediate rollback for every option, or must the pane be destroyed and recreated to see the change?
• Is there a documented tmux option that supports both -g and -p scopes and the -o flag, providing a universal undo mechanism, or must users adopt external versioning of option values?