GNU Screen

GNU Screen is a full-screen window manager that multiplexes a physical terminal between several processes, typically interactive shells. With this tool, you can keep a process running after disconnecting an SSH session.

Basic usage

Create a new screen session:

$ screen -S sessionname

Resumes a detached screen session:

$ screen -r sessionname

List all of the screen sessions:

$ screen -ls

Kill a session:

$ screen -S sessionname -X quit

Close all screen sessions:

$ killall screen

Useful key bindings:

Ctrl + a, d Detach screen from this terminal
Ctrl + a, c Create a new window
Ctrl + a, space Switch to the next window
Ctrl + a, backspace Switch to the previous window
Ctrl + a, A Rename current window
Ctrl + a, " List of all windows for selection
Ctrl + a, k Destroy current window
Ctrl + a, ? Show key bindings

Multiple shells open in the same terminal:

Ctrl + a, | Split vertically
Ctrl + a, S Split horizontally
Ctrl + a, tab Switch the input focus to the next region
Ctrl + a, X Kill the current region
Ctrl + a, Q Delete all regions but the current one

A worry-free session

$ ssh me@server.com
$ screen -S sessionname
$ start something really important

Disconnect from the server (panic at other times without screen).

$ ssh me@server.com
$ screen -r sessionname

Everything is fine, keep working.

Automate your work

After disconnection, you can log into the remote machine and reattach the session in a single step:

$ ssh me@server.com -t "screen -r sessionname"

How can we improve this? autossh is the answer.

autossh, automatically restarts an SSH session and reattaches a session transparently:

$ ssh me@server.com
$ screen -S sessionname
<Ctrl + a, d>
$ exit
$ autossh me@server.com -t "screen -r sessionname"

In fact, autossh include a script called rscreen for perpetual sessions.

OK, it works. But it’s not so great because first you need to connect to the server, create a new screen session, detach the screen, exit from the server and finally connect it again with autossh.

What can we do? You can use screen -R to reattach a session or even create it first. Finally we solve all problems:

$ autossh me@server.com -t "screen -R sessionname"

January 10, 2012 | @ArturoHerrero