screen
screen is a terminal multiplexer for Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Getting started
$ screen
Press Ctrl-A D to detach session
List all screen sessions
$ screen -ls
Re-attach a screen Session
$ screen -r <name/pid>
Options
Options | Example | Description |
---|---|---|
-S | screen -S debug | Start a new session with session name |
-ls | screen -ls | List running sessions / screens |
-x | screen -x | Attach to a running session |
-r | screen -r debug | Attach to a running session with name |
-R | screen -R debug | Attach to a session (Will create if it doesn’t exist) |
-d | screen -d -m wget xxxx.com/large.file | Start screen in detached mode |
-X | screen -X -S debug kill | Kill a running session |
Help
Command | Description |
---|---|
Ctrl-A ? | See help (Lists keybindings) |
Window Management
Command | Description |
---|---|
Ctrl-A C | Create new window |
Ctrl-A Ctrl-A | Change to last-visited active window |
Ctrl-A 0...9 | Change to window by number |
Ctrl-A ' <0...9 or title> | Change to window by number or name |
Ctrl-A N or Ctrl-A <space> | Change to next window in list |
Ctrl-A P or Ctrl-A <backspace> | Change to previous window in list |
Ctrl-A " | See window list |
Ctrl-A W | Show window bar |
Ctrl-A K | Kill current window (not recommended) |
Ctrl-A \ | Kill all windows (not recommended) |
Ctrl-A A | Rename current window |
Getting Out
Command | Description |
---|---|
Ctrl-A D | Detach |
Ctrl-A D D | Detach and logout (quick exit) |
Ctrl-A : | Exit all session |
Ctrl-A C-\ | Force-exit screen (not recommended) |
Split screen
Command | Description |
---|---|
Ctrl-A S | Split display horizontally |
Ctrl-A V | Split display vertically |
Ctrl-A | | Split display vertically |
Ctrl-A TAB | Jump to next display region |
Ctrl-A X | Remove current region |
Ctrl-A Q | Remove all regions but the current one |
Misc
Command | Description |
---|---|
Ctrl-A C-l | Redraw window |
Ctrl-A [ | Copy mode |
Ctrl-A ESC | Copy mode |
Ctrl-A ] | Paste |
Ctrl-A M | Monitor window for activity |
Ctrl-A _ | Monitor window for silence |
Ctrl-A Ctrl-V | Enter digraph (non-ASCII characters) |
Ctrl-A X | Lock (password protect) display |
Ctrl-A : | Enter screen command |
Ctrl-A H | Enable logging in the screen session |
Screen tricks
SSH and attach in one line
$ ssh -t user@host screen -x <name/pid>