GNU Screen
GNU Screen (Wikipedia) is, according to its GNU homepage, "full-screen window manager that multiplexes a physical terminal between several processes, typically interactive shells". Screen is run at the command line, and allows you to have flexible control over running multiple processes from one shell. A few of the things that screen allows you to do are:
- Logout while leaving a process running, and come back to it where you left off.
- Run multiple interactive (or non-interactive processes) in the same shell
- Run multiple processes on the same screen at the same time
and more.
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Keystrokes
In these examples, I will use the standard of abbreviating a Ctrl key combination as C-x, where x is the second key (pressed simultaneously). A space between key sequences indicates that they are pressed in order.
Exit screen C-d
Exit screen, but leave attached processed running in background C-a d
List detached sessions screen -list
Resume screen session screen -r [PID]
Start a new (named) session screen -S [name]
Resume a named session screen -r [name]
Start a named screen session with an initially running command, then detach it:
screen -S ekg_session -md [command] &
Create a new tab C-a c
Change title of active tab C-a A and enter name
Create a new tab and start running a program in it (tab gets program's name) C-a : screen [program name]
Next tab C-a n
Previous tab C-a p
List all tabs, to select one C-a "
Split screen into two regions C-a S
Switch regions C-a [tab] (then C-a c to create a shell in an unused region)
Resize a tab C-a : resize [size] where size is the height in lines
Code to Create Tabs
Te following code in your ~/.screenrc file will create tabs in screen, such as those in a web browser. Each tab will have a number, name, and date and time:
hardstatus alwayslastline
hardstatus string '%{= mK}%-Lw%{= KW}%50>%n%f* %t%{= mK}
%+Lw%< %{= kG}%-=%D %d %M %Y %c:%s%{-}'
Quick Reference
My (personal) quick reference is available locally as a PDF or the original ODT file:
