NAME¶
screen - screen manager with VT100/ANSI terminal emulation
SYNOPSIS¶
screen [
-options ] [
cmd [
args ] ]
screen -r [[
pid.]
tty[
.host]]
screen -r
sessionowner/[[
pid.]
tty[
.
host]]
DESCRIPTION¶
Screen is a full-screen window manager that multiplexes a physical
terminal between several processes (typically interactive shells). Each
virtual terminal provides the functions of a DEC VT100 terminal and, in
addition, several control functions from the ISO 6429 (ECMA 48, ANSI X3.64)
and ISO 2022 standards (e.g. insert/delete line and support for multiple
character sets). There is a scrollback history buffer for each virtual
terminal and a copy-and-paste mechanism that allows moving text regions
between windows.
When
screen is called, it creates a single window with a shell in it (or
the specified command) and then gets out of your way so that you can use the
program as you normally would. Then, at any time, you can create new
(full-screen) windows with other programs in them (including more shells),
kill existing windows, view a list of windows, turn output logging on and off,
copy-and-paste text between windows, view the scrollback history, switch
between windows in whatever manner you wish, etc. All windows run their
programs completely independent of each other. Programs continue to run when
their window is currently not visible and even when the whole
screen
session is detached from the user's terminal. When a program terminates,
screen (per default) kills the window that contained it. If this window
was in the foreground, the display switches to the previous window; if none
are left,
screen exits.
Everything you type is sent to the program running in the current window. The
only exception to this is the one keystroke that is used to initiate a command
to the window manager. By default, each command begins with a control-a
(abbreviated C-a from now on), and is followed by one other keystroke. The
command character and all the key bindings can be fully customized to be
anything you like, though they are always two characters in length.
Screen does not understand the prefix "C-" to mean control.
Please use the caret notation ("^A" instead of "C-a") as
arguments to e.g. the
escape command or the
-e option.
Screen will also print out control characters in caret notation.
The standard way to create a new window is to type "C-a c". This
creates a new window running a shell and switches to that window immediately,
regardless of the state of the process running in the current window.
Similarly, you can create a new window with a custom command in it by first
binding the command to a keystroke (in your .screenrc file or at the "C-a
:" command line) and then using it just like the "C-a c"
command. In addition, new windows can be created by running a command like:
- screen emacs prog.c
from a shell prompt within a previously created window. This will not run
another copy of
screen, but will instead supply the command name and
its arguments to the window manager (specified in the $STY environment
variable) who will use it to create the new window. The above example would
start the emacs editor (editing prog.c) and switch to its window. - Note that
you cannot transport environment variables from the invoking shell to the
application (emacs in this case), because it is forked from the parent screen
process, not from the invoking shell.
If "/var/run/utmp" is writable by
screen, an appropriate record
will be written to this file for each window, and removed when the window is
terminated. This is useful for working with "talk",
"script", "shutdown", "rsend", "sccs"
and other similar programs that use the utmp file to determine who you are. As
long as
screen is active on your terminal, the terminal's own record is
removed from the utmp file. See also "C-a L".
GETTING STARTED¶
Before you begin to use
screen you'll need to make sure you have
correctly selected your terminal type, just as you would for any other
termcap/terminfo program. (You can do this by using
tset for example.)
If you're impatient and want to get started without doing a lot more reading,
you should remember this one command: "C-a ?". Typing these two
characters will display a list of the available
screen commands and
their bindings. Each keystroke is discussed in the section "DEFAULT KEY
BINDINGS". The manual section "CUSTOMIZATION" deals with the
contents of your .screenrc.
If your terminal is a "true" auto-margin terminal (it doesn't allow
the last position on the screen to be updated without scrolling the screen)
consider using a version of your terminal's termcap that has automatic margins
turned
off. This will ensure an accurate and optimal update of the
screen in all circumstances. Most terminals nowadays have "magic"
margins (automatic margins plus usable last column). This is the VT100 style
type and perfectly suited for
screen. If all you've got is a
"true" auto-margin terminal
screen will be content to use it,
but updating a character put into the last position on the screen may not be
possible until the screen scrolls or the character is moved into a safe
position in some other way. This delay can be shortened by using a terminal
with insert-character capability.
COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS¶
Screen has the following command-line options:
- -a
- include all capabilities (with some minor
exceptions) in each window's termcap, even if screen must redraw
parts of the display in order to implement a function.
- -A
- Adapt the sizes of all windows to the size of the current
terminal. By default, screen tries to restore its old window sizes
when attaching to resizable terminals (those with "WS" in its
description, e.g. suncmd or some xterm).
- -c file
- override the default configuration file from
"$HOME/.screenrc" to file.
- -d|-D
[pid.tty.host]
- does not start screen, but detaches the elsewhere
running screen session. It has the same effect as typing "C-a
d" from screen's controlling terminal. -D is the
equivalent to the power detach key. If no session can be detached, this
option is ignored. In combination with the -r/-R option more
powerful effects can be achieved:
- -d -r
- Reattach a session and if necessary detach it first.
- -d -R
- Reattach a session and if necessary detach or even create
it first.
- -d -RR
- Reattach a session and if necessary detach or create it.
Use the first session if more than one session is available.
- -D -r
- Reattach a session. If necessary detach and logout remotely
first.
- -D -R
- Attach here and now. In detail this means: If a session is
running, then reattach. If necessary detach and logout remotely first. If
it was not running create it and notify the user. This is the author's
favorite.
- -D -RR
- Attach here and now. Whatever that means, just do it.
-
- Note: It is always a good idea to check the status of your
sessions by means of "screen -list".
- -e xy
- specifies the command character to be x and the
character generating a literal command character to y (when typed
after the command character). The default is "C-a" and `a',
which can be specified as "-e^Aa". When creating a screen
session, this option sets the default command character. In a multiuser
session all users added will start off with this command character. But
when attaching to an already running session, this option changes only the
command character of the attaching user. This option is equivalent to
either the commands "defescape" or "escape"
respectively.
- -f, -fn, and
-fa
- turns flow-control on, off, or "automatic switching
mode". This can also be defined through the "defflow"
.screenrc command.
- -h num
- Specifies the history scrollback buffer to be num
lines high.
- -i
- will cause the interrupt key (usually C-c) to interrupt the
display immediately when flow-control is on. See the "defflow"
.screenrc command for details. The use of this option is discouraged.
- -l and -ln
- turns login mode on or off (for /var/run/utmp updating).
This can also be defined through the "deflogin" .screenrc
command.
- -ls [match]
- -list [match]
- does not start screen, but prints a list of
pid.tty.host strings and creation timestamps identifying your
screen sessions. Sessions marked `detached' can be resumed with
"screen -r". Those marked `attached' are running and have a
controlling terminal. If the session runs in multiuser mode, it is marked
`multi'. Sessions marked as `unreachable' either live on a different host
or are `dead'. An unreachable session is considered dead, when its name
matches either the name of the local host, or the specified parameter, if
any. See the -r flag for a description how to construct matches.
Sessions marked as `dead' should be thoroughly checked and removed. Ask
your system administrator if you are not sure. Remove sessions with the
-wipe option.
- -L
- tells screen to turn on automatic output logging for
the windows.
- -m
- causes screen to ignore the $STY environment
variable. With "screen -m" creation of a new session is
enforced, regardless whether screen is called from within another
screen session or not. This flag has a special meaning in
connection with the `-d' option:
- -d -m
- Start screen in "detached" mode. This
creates a new session but doesn't attach to it. This is useful for system
startup scripts.
- -D -m
- This also starts screen in "detached" mode, but
doesn't fork a new process. The command exits if the session
terminates.
- -O
- selects a more optimal output mode for your terminal rather
than true VT100 emulation (only affects auto-margin terminals without
`LP'). This can also be set in your .screenrc by specifying `OP' in a
"termcap" command.
- -p number_or_name|-|=|+
- Preselect a window. This is useful when you want to
reattach to a specific window or you want to send a command via the
"-X" option to a specific window. As with screen's select
command, "-" selects the blank window. As a special case for
reattach, "=" brings up the windowlist on the blank window,
while a "+" will create a new window. The command will not be
executed if the specified window could not be found.
- -q
- Suppress printing of error messages. In combination with
"-ls" the exit value is as follows: 9 indicates a directory
without sessions. 10 indicates a directory with running but not attachable
sessions. 11 (or more) indicates 1 (or more) usable sessions. In
combination with "-r" the exit value is as follows: 10 indicates
that there is no session to resume. 12 (or more) indicates that there are
2 (or more) sessions to resume and you should specify which one to choose.
In all other cases "-q" has no effect.
- -Q
- Some commands now can be queried from a remote session
using this flag, e.g. "screen -Q windows". The commands will
send the response to the stdout of the querying process. If there was an
error in the command, then the querying process will exit with a non-zero
status.
The commands that can be queried now are:
echo
info
lastmsg
number
select
time
title
windows
- -r [pid.tty.host]
- -r
sessionowner/[pid.tty.host]
- resumes a detached screen session. No other options
(except combinations with -d/-D) may be specified, though an
optional prefix of [ pid.]tty.host may be needed to
distinguish between multiple detached screen sessions. The second
form is used to connect to another user's screen session which runs in
multiuser mode. This indicates that screen should look for sessions in
another user's directory. This requires setuid-root.
- -R
- attempts to resume the youngest (in terms of creation time)
detached screen session it finds. If successful, all other
command-line options are ignored. If no detached session exists, starts a
new session using the specified options, just as if -R had not been
specified. The option is set by default if screen is run as a
login-shell (actually screen uses "-xRR" in that case). For
combinations with the -d/-D option see there. Note:
Time-based session selection is a Debian addition.
- -s program
- sets the default shell to the program specified, instead of
the value in the environment variable $SHELL (or "/bin/sh" if
not defined). This can also be defined through the "shell"
.screenrc command.
- -S sessionname
- When creating a new session, this option can be used to
specify a meaningful name for the session. This name identifies the
session for "screen -list" and "screen -r" actions. It
substitutes the default [ tty.host] suffix.
- -t name
- sets the title (a.k.a.) for the default shell or specified
program. See also the "shelltitle" .screenrc command.
- -T term
- Set the $TERM environment varible using the spcified term
as opposed to the defualt setting of screen.
- -U
- Run screen in UTF-8 mode. This option tells screen that
your terminal sends and understands UTF-8 encoded characters. It also sets
the default encoding for new windows to `utf8'.
- -v
- Print version number.
- -wipe [match]
- does the same as "screen -ls", but removes
destroyed sessions instead of marking them as `dead'. An unreachable
session is considered dead, when its name matches either the name of the
local host, or the explicitly given parameter, if any. See the -r
flag for a description how to construct matches.
- -x
- Attach to a not detached screen session. (Multi
display mode). Screen refuses to attach from within itself. But
when cascading multiple screens, loops are not detected; take care.
- -X
- Send the specified command to a running screen session. You
can use the -d or -r option to tell screen to look only for
attached or detached screen sessions. Note that this command doesn't work
if the session is password protected.
- -4
- Resolve hostnames only to IPv4 addresses.
- -6
- Resolve hostnames only to IPv6 addresses.
DEFAULT KEY BINDINGS¶
As mentioned, each
screen command consists of a "C-a" followed
by one other character. For your convenience, all commands that are bound to
lower-case letters are also bound to their control character counterparts
(with the exception of "C-a a"; see below), thus, "C-a c"
as well as "C-a C-c" can be used to create a window. See section
"CUSTOMIZATION" for a description of the command.
- The following table shows the default key bindings:
- C-a ' (select)
- Prompt for a window name or number to switch to.
- C-a " (windowlist -b)
- Present a list of all windows for selection.
- C-a 0 (select 0)
- … …
- C-a 9 (select 9)
- C-a - (select -)
- Switch to window number 0 - 9, or to the blank window.
- C-a tab (focus)
- Switch the input focus to the next region. See also
split, remove, only.
- C-a C-a (other)
- Toggle to the window displayed previously. Note that this
binding defaults to the command character typed twice, unless overridden.
For instance, if you use the option " -e]x", this command
becomes "]]".
- C-a a (meta)
- Send the command character (C-a) to window. See
escape command.
- C-a A (title)
- Allow the user to enter a name for the current window.
- C-a b
- C-a C-b (break)
- Send a break to window.
- C-a B (pow_break)
- Reopen the terminal line and send a break.
- C-a c
- C-a C-c (screen)
- Create a new window with a shell and switch to that
window.
- C-a C (clear)
- Clear the screen.
- C-a d
- C-a C-d (detach)
- Detach screen from this terminal.
- C-a D D (pow_detach)
- Detach and logout.
- C-a f
- C-a C-f (flow)
- Toggle flow on, off or auto.
- C-a F (fit)
- Resize the window to the current region size.
- C-a C-g (vbell)
- Toggles screen's visual bell mode.
- C-a h (hardcopy)
- Write a hardcopy of the current window to the file
"hardcopy. n".
- C-a H (log)
- Begins/ends logging of the current window to the file
"screenlog. n".
- C-a i
- C-a C-i (info)
- Show info about this window.
- C-a k
- C-a C-k (kill)
- Destroy current window.
- C-a l
- C-a C-l (redisplay)
- Fully refresh current window.
- C-a L (login)
- Toggle this windows login slot. Available only if
screen is configured to update the utmp database.
- C-a m
- C-a C-m (lastmsg)
- Repeat the last message displayed in the message line.
- C-a M (monitor)
- Toggles monitoring of the current window.
- C-a space
- C-a n
- C-a C-n (next)
- Switch to the next window.
- C-a N (number)
- Show the number (and title) of the current window.
- C-a backspace
- C-a C-h
- C-a p
- C-a C-p (prev)
- Switch to the previous window (opposite of C-a
n).
- C-a q
- C-a C-q (xon)
- Send a control-q to the current window.
- C-a Q (only)
- Delete all regions but the current one. See also split,
remove, focus.
- C-a r
- C-a C-r (wrap)
- Toggle the current window's line-wrap setting (turn the
current window's automatic margins on and off).
- C-a s
- C-a C-s (xoff)
- Send a control-s to the current window.
- C-a S (split)
- Split the current region horizontally into two new ones.
See also only, remove, focus.
- C-a t
- C-a C-t (time)
- Show system information.
- C-a v (version)
- Display the version and compilation date.
- C-a C-v (digraph)
- Enter digraph.
- C-a w
- C-a C-w (windows)
- Show a list of window.
- C-a W (width)
- Toggle 80/132 columns.
- C-a x
- C-a C-x (lockscreen)
- Lock this terminal.
- C-a X (remove)
- Kill the current region. See also split, only,
focus.
- C-a z
- C-a C-z (suspend)
- Suspend screen. Your system must support BSD-style
job-control.
- C-a Z (reset)
- Reset the virtual terminal to its "power-on"
values.
- C-a . (dumptermcap)
- Write out a ".termcap" file.
- C-a ? (help)
- Show key bindings.
- C-a \ (quit)
- Kill all windows and terminate screen.
- C-a : (colon)
- Enter command line mode.
- C-a [
- C-a C-[
- C-a esc (copy)
- Enter copy/scrollback mode.
- C-a C-]
- C-a ] (paste .)
- Write the contents of the paste buffer to the stdin queue
of the current window.
- C-a {
- C-a } (history)
- Copy and paste a previous (command) line.
- C-a > (writebuf)
- Write paste buffer to a file.
- C-a < (readbuf)
- Reads the screen-exchange file into the paste buffer.
- C-a = (removebuf)
- Removes the file used by C-a < and C-a
>.
- C-a , (license)
- Shows where screen comes from, where it went to and
why you can use it.
- C-a _ (silence)
- Start/stop monitoring the current window for
inactivity.
- C-a | (split -v)
- Split the current region vertically into two new ones.
- C-a * (displays)
- Show a listing of all currently attached displays.
CUSTOMIZATION¶
The "socket directory" defaults either to $HOME/.screen or simply to
/tmp/screens or preferably to /var/run/screen chosen at compile-time. If
screen is installed setuid-root, then the administrator should compile
screen with an adequate (not NFS mounted) socket directory. If
screen is not running setuid-root, the user can specify any mode 700
directory in the environment variable $SCREENDIR.
When
screen is invoked, it executes initialization commands from the
files "/etc/screenrc" and ".screenrc" in the user's home
directory. These are the "programmer's defaults" that can be
overridden in the following ways: for the global screenrc file
screen
searches for the environment variable $SYSSCREENRC (this override feature may
be disabled at compile-time). The user specific screenrc file is searched in
$SCREENRC, then $HOME/.screenrc. The command line option
-c takes
precedence over the above user screenrc files.
Commands in these files are used to set options, bind functions to keys, and to
automatically establish one or more windows at the beginning of your
screen session. Commands are listed one per line, with empty lines
being ignored. A command's arguments are separated by tabs or spaces, and may
be surrounded by single or double quotes. A `#' turns the rest of the line
into a comment, except in quotes. Unintelligible lines are warned about and
ignored. Commands may contain references to environment variables. The syntax
is the shell-like "$VAR " or "${VAR}". Note that this
causes incompatibility with previous
screen versions, as now the
'$'-character has to be protected with '\' if no variable substitution shall
be performed. A string in single-quotes is also protected from variable
substitution.
Two configuration files are shipped as examples with your screen distribution:
"etc/screenrc" and "etc/etcscreenrc". They contain a
number of useful examples for various commands.
Customization can also be done 'on-line'. To enter the command mode type `C-a
:'. Note that commands starting with "def" change default values,
while others change current settings.
The following commands are available:
acladd usernames [
crypted-pw]
addacl usernames
Enable users to fully access this screen session.
Usernames can be one
user or a comma separated list of users. This command enables to attach to the
screen session and performs the equivalent of `aclchg
usernames
+rwx "#?"'. executed. To add a user with restricted access, use the
`aclchg' command below. If an optional second parameter is supplied, it should
be a crypted password for the named user(s). `Addacl' is a synonym to
`acladd'. Multi user mode only.
aclchg usernames permbits list
chacl usernames permbits list
Change permissions for a comma separated list of users. Permission bits are
represented as `r', `w' and `x'. Prefixing `+' grants the permission, `-'
removes it. The third parameter is a comma separated list of commands and/or
windows (specified either by number or title). The special list `#' refers to
all windows, `?' to all commands. if
usernames consists of a single
`*', all known users are affected. A command can be executed when the user has
the `x' bit for it. The user can type input to a window when he has its `w'
bit set and no other user obtains a writelock for this window. Other bits are
currently ignored. To withdraw the writelock from another user in window 2:
`aclchg
username -w+w 2'. To allow read-only access to the session:
`aclchg
username -w "#"'. As soon as a user's name is known
to
screen he can attach to the session and (per default) has full
permissions for all command and windows. Execution permission for the acl
commands, `at' and others should also be removed or the user may be able to
regain write permission. Rights of the special username
nobody cannot
be changed (see the "su" command). `Chacl' is a synonym to `aclchg'.
Multi user mode only.
acldel username
Remove a user from
screen's access control list. If currently attached,
all the user's displays are detached from the session. He cannot attach again.
Multi user mode only.
aclgrp username [
groupname]
Creates groups of users that share common access rights. The name of the group
is the username of the group leader. Each member of the group inherits the
permissions that are granted to the group leader. That means, if a user fails
an access check, another check is made for the group leader. A user is removed
from all groups the special value "none" is used for
groupname. If the second parameter is omitted all groups the user is in
are listed.
aclumask [[
users]
+bits |[
users]
-bits ….
]
umask [[
users]
+bits |[
users]
-bits …. ]
This specifies the access other users have to windows that will be created by
the caller of the command.
Users may be no, one or a comma separated
list of known usernames. If no users are specified, a list of all currently
known users is assumed.
Bits is any combination of access control bits
allowed defined with the "aclchg" command. The special username
"?" predefines the access that not yet known users will be granted
to any window initially. The special username "??" predefines the
access that not yet known users are granted to any command. Rights of the
special username
nobody cannot be changed (see the "su"
command). `Umask' is a synonym to `aclumask'.
activity message
When any activity occurs in a background window that is being monitored,
screen displays a notification in the message line. The notification
message can be re-defined by means of the "activity" command. Each
occurrence of `%' in
message is replaced by the number of the window in
which activity has occurred, and each occurrence of `^G' is replaced by the
definition for bell in your termcap (usually an audible bell). The default
message is
'Activity in window %n'
Note that monitoring is off for all windows by default, but can be altered by
use of the "monitor" command (C-a M).
allpartial on|
off
If set to on, only the current cursor line is refreshed on window change. This
affects all windows and is useful for slow terminal lines. The previous
setting of full/partial refresh for each window is restored with
"allpartial off". This is a global flag that immediately takes
effect on all windows overriding the "partial" settings. It does not
change the default redraw behavior of newly created windows.
altscreen on|
off
If set to on, "alternate screen" support is enabled in virtual
terminals, just like in xterm. Initial setting is `off'.
at [
identifier][
#|*|%] command
[
args … ]
Execute a command at other displays or windows as if it had been entered there.
"At" changes the context (the `current window' or `current display'
setting) of the command. If the first parameter describes a non-unique
context, the command will be executed multiple times. If the first parameter
is of the form `
identifier*' then identifier is matched against user
names. The command is executed once for each display of the selected user(s).
If the first parameter is of the form `
identifier%' identifier is
matched against displays. Displays are named after the ttys they attach. The
prefix `/dev/' or `/dev/tty' may be omitted from the identifier. If
identifier has a `#' or nothing appended it is matched against window
numbers and titles. Omitting an identifier in front of the `#', `*' or
`%'-character selects all users, displays or windows because a prefix-match is
performed. Note that on the affected display(s) a short message will describe
what happened. Permission is checked for initiator of the "at"
command, not for the owners of the affected display(s). Note that the '#'
character works as a comment introducer when it is preceded by whitespace.
This can be escaped by prefixing a '\'. Permission is checked for the
initiator of the "at" command, not for the owners of the affected
display(s).
Caveat: When matching against windows, the command is executed at least once per
window. Commands that change the internal arrangement of windows (like
"other") may be called again. In shared windows the command will be
repeated for each attached display. Beware, when issuing toggle commands like
"login"! Some commands (e.g. "process") require that a
display is associated with the target windows. These commands may not work
correctly under "at" looping over windows.
attrcolor attrib [
attribute/color-modifier]
This command can be used to highlight attributes by changing the color of the
text. If the attribute
attrib is in use, the specified attribute/color
modifier is also applied. If no modifier is given, the current one is deleted.
See the "STRING ESCAPES" chapter for the syntax of the modifier.
Screen understands two pseudo-attributes, "i" stands for
high-intensity foreground color and "I" for high-intensity
background color.
Examples:
- attrcolor b "R"
Change the color to bright red if bold text is to be printed.
- attrcolor u "-u b"
Use blue text instead of underline.
- attrcolor b ".I"
Use bright colors for bold text. Most terminal emulators do this already.
- attrcolor i "+b"
Make bright colored text also bold.
autodetach on|
off
Sets whether
screen will automatically detach upon hangup, which saves
all your running programs until they are resumed with a
screen -r
command. When turned off, a hangup signal will terminate
screen and all
the processes it contains. Autodetach is on by default.
autonuke on|
off
Sets whether a clear screen sequence should nuke all the output that has not
been written to the terminal. See also "obuflimit".
backtick id lifespan autorefresh cmd
args…
backtick id
Program the backtick command with the numerical id
id. The output of such
a command is used for substitution of the "%`" string escape. The
specified
lifespan is the number of seconds the output is considered
valid. After this time, the command is run again if a corresponding string
escape is encountered. The
autorefresh parameter triggers an automatic
refresh for caption and hardstatus strings after the specified number of
seconds. Only the last line of output is used for substitution.
If both the
lifespan and the
autorefresh parameters are zero, the
backtick program is expected to stay in the background and generate output
once in a while. In this case, the command is executed right away and screen
stores the last line of output. If a new line gets printed screen will
automatically refresh the hardstatus or the captions.
The second form of the command deletes the backtick command with the numerical
id
id.
bce [
on|
off]
Change background-color-erase setting. If "bce" is set to on, all
characters cleared by an erase/insert/scroll/clear operation will be displayed
in the current background color. Otherwise the default background color is
used.
bell_msg [
message]
When a bell character is sent to a background window,
screen displays a
notification in the message line. The notification message can be re-defined
by this command. Each occurrence of `%' in
message is replaced by the
number of the window to which a bell has been sent, and each occurrence of
`^G' is replaced by the definition for bell in your termcap (usually an
audible bell). The default message is
'Bell in window %n'
An empty message can be supplied to the "bell_msg" command to suppress
output of a message line (bell_msg ""). Without parameter, the
current message is shown.
bind [
-c class]
key [
command [
args]]
Bind a command to a key. By default, most of the commands provided by
screen are bound to one or more keys as indicated in the "DEFAULT
KEY BINDINGS" section, e.g. the command to create a new window is bound
to "C-c" and "c". The "bind" command can be used
to redefine the key bindings and to define new bindings. The
key
argument is either a single character, a two-character sequence of the form
"^x" (meaning "C-x"), a backslash followed by an octal
number (specifying the ASCII code of the character), or a backslash followed
by a second character, such as "\^" or "\\". The argument
can also be quoted, if you like. If no further argument is given, any
previously established binding for this key is removed. The
command
argument can be any command listed in this section.
If a command class is specified via the "-c" option, the key is bound
for the specified class. Use the "command" command to activate a
class. Command classes can be used to create multiple command keys or
multi-character bindings.
Some examples:
bind ' ' windows
bind ^k
bind k
bind K kill
bind ^f screen telnet foobar
bind \033 screen -ln -t root -h 1000 9 su
would bind the space key to the command that displays a list of windows (so that
the command usually invoked by "C-a C-w" would also be available as
"C-a space"). The next three lines remove the default kill binding
from "C-a C-k" and "C-a k". "C-a K" is then
bound to the kill command. Then it binds "C-f" to the command
"create a window with a TELNET connection to foobar", and bind
"escape" to the command that creates an non-login window with a.k.a.
"root" in slot #9, with a superuser shell and a scrollback buffer of
1000 lines.
bind -c demo1 0 select 10
bind -c demo1 1 select 11
bind -c demo1 2 select 12
bindkey "^B" command -c demo1
makes "C-b 0" select window 10, "C-b 1" window 11, etc.
bind -c demo2 0 select 10
bind -c demo2 1 select 11
bind -c demo2 2 select 12
bind - command -c demo2
makes "C-a - 0" select window 10, "C-a - 1" window 11, etc.
bindkey [
-d] [
-m] [
-a] [[
-k|
-t]
string [
cmd args]]
This command manages screen's input translation tables. Every entry in one of
the tables tells screen how to react if a certain sequence of characters is
encountered. There are three tables: one that should contain actions
programmed by the user, one for the default actions used for terminal
emulation and one for screen's copy mode to do cursor movement. See section
"INPUT TRANSLATION" for a list of default key bindings.
If the
-d option is given, bindkey modifies the default table,
-m
changes the copy mode table and with neither option the user table is
selected. The argument
string is the sequence of characters to which an
action is bound. This can either be a fixed string or a termcap keyboard
capability name (selectable with the
-k option).
Some keys on a VT100 terminal can send a different string if application mode is
turned on (e.g the cursor keys). Such keys have two entries in the translation
table. You can select the application mode entry by specifying the
-a
option.
The
-t option tells screen not to do inter-character timing. One cannot
turn off the timing if a termcap capability is used.
Cmd can be any of screen's commands with an arbitrary number of
args. If
cmd is omitted the key-binding is removed from the
table.
Here are some examples of keyboard bindings:
bindkey -d
Show all of the default key bindings. The application mode entries are marked
with [A].
bindkey -k k1 select 1
Make the "F1" key switch to window one.
bindkey -t foo stuff barfoo
Make "foo" an abbreviation of the word "barfoo". Timeout is
disabled so that users can type slowly.
bindkey "\024" mapdefault
This key-binding makes "^T" an escape character for key-bindings. If
you did the above "stuff barfoo" binding, you can enter the word
"foo" by typing "^Tfoo". If you want to insert a
"^T" you have to press the key twice (i.e., escape the escape
binding).
bindkey -k F1 command
Make the F11 (not F1!) key an alternative screen escape (besides ^A).
break [
duration]
Send a break signal for
duration*0.25 seconds to this window. For
non-Posix systems the time interval may be rounded up to full seconds. Most
useful if a character device is attached to the window rather than a shell
process (See also chapter "WINDOW TYPES"). The maximum duration of a
break signal is limited to 15 seconds.
blanker
Activate the screen blanker. First the screen is cleared. If no blanker program
is defined, the cursor is turned off, otherwise, the program is started and
it's output is written to the screen. The screen blanker is killed with the
first keypress, the read key is discarded.
This command is normally used together with the "idle" command.
blankerprg [
program args]
Defines a blanker program. Disables the blanker program if an empty argument is
given. Shows the currently set blanker program if no arguments are given.
breaktype [
tcsendbreak|
TIOCSBRK |
TCSBRK]
Choose one of the available methods of generating a break signal for terminal
devices. This command should affect the current window only. But it still
behaves identical to "defbreaktype". This will be changed in the
future. Calling "breaktype" with no parameter displays the break
method for the current window.
bufferfile [
exchange-file]
Change the filename used for reading and writing with the paste buffer. If the
optional argument to the "bufferfile" command is omitted, the
default setting ("/tmp/screen-exchange") is reactivated. The
following example will paste the system's password file into the
screen
window (using the paste buffer, where a copy remains):
C-a : bufferfile /etc/passwd
C-a < C-a ]
C-a : bufferfile
c1 [
on|
off]
Change c1 code processing. "C1 on" tells screen to treat the input
characters between 128 and 159 as control functions. Such an 8-bit code is
normally the same as ESC followed by the corresponding 7-bit code. The default
setting is to process c1 codes and can be changed with the "defc1"
command. Users with fonts that have usable characters in the c1 positions may
want to turn this off.
caption always|
splitonly [
string]
caption string [
string]
This command controls the display of the window captions. Normally a caption is
only used if more than one window is shown on the display (split screen mode).
But if the type is set to
always screen shows a caption even if only
one window is displayed. The default is
splitonly.
The second form changes the text used for the caption. You can use all escapes
from the "STRING ESCAPES" chapter. Screen uses a default of `%3n
%t'.
You can mix both forms by providing a string as an additional argument.
charset set
Change the current character set slot designation and charset mapping. The first
four character of
set are treated as charset designators while the
fifth and sixth character must be in range '0' to '3' and set the GL/GR
charset mapping. On every position a '.' may be used to indicate that the
corresponding charset/mapping should not be changed (
set is padded to
six characters internally by appending '.' chars). New windows have
"BBBB02" as default charset, unless a "encoding" command
is active.
The current setting can be viewed with the "info" command.
chdir [
directory]
Change the
current directory of
screen to the specified directory
or, if called without an argument, to your home directory (the value of the
environment variable $HOME). All windows that are created by means of the
"screen" command from within ".screenrc" or by means of
"C-a : screen …" or "C-a c" use this as their
default directory. Without a chdir command, this would be the directory from
which
screen was invoked. Hardcopy and log files are always written to
the
window's default directory,
not the current directory of the
process running in the window. You can use this command multiple times in your
.screenrc to start various windows in different default directories, but the
last chdir value will affect all the windows you create interactively.
clear
Clears the current window and saves its image to the scrollback buffer.
colon [
prefix]
Allows you to enter ".screenrc" command lines. Useful for on-the-fly
modification of key bindings, specific window creation and changing settings.
Note that the "set" keyword no longer exists! Usually commands
affect the current window rather than default settings for future windows.
Change defaults with commands starting with 'def…'.
If you consider this as the `Ex command mode' of
screen, you may regard
"C-a esc" (copy mode) as its `Vi command mode'.
command [
-c class]
This command has the same effect as typing the screen escape character (^A). It
is probably only useful for key bindings. If the "-c" option is
given, select the specified command class. See also "bind" and
"bindkey".
compacthist [
on|
off]
This tells screen whether to suppress trailing blank lines when scrolling up
text into the history buffer.
console [
on|
off]
Grabs or un-grabs the machines console output to a window.
Note: Only the
owner of /dev/console can grab the console output. This command is only
available if the machine supports the ioctl TIOCCONS.
copy
Enter copy/scrollback mode. This allows you to copy text from the current window
and its history into the paste buffer. In this mode a vi-like `full screen
editor' is active:
Movement keys:
h,
C-h, or
left arrow move the cursor left.
j,
C-n, or
down arrow move the cursor down.
k,
C-p, or
up arrow move the cursor up.
l ('el') or
right arrow move the cursor right.
0 (zero) or
C-a move to the leftmost column.
+ and
- positions one line up and down.
H,
M and
L move the cursor to the leftmost column of the
top, center or bottom line of the window.
| moves to the specified absolute column.
g or
home moves to the beginning of the buffer.
G or
end moves to the specified absolute line (default: end of
buffer).
% jumps to the specified percentage of the buffer.
^ or
$ move to the leftmost column, to the first or last
non-whitespace character on the line.
w,
b, and
e move the cursor word by word.
B,
E move the cursor WORD by WORD (as in vi).
f/F,
t/T move the cursor forward/backward to the next occurence of
the target. (eg, '3fy' will move the cursor to the 3rd 'y' to the right.)
; and
, Repeat the last f/F/t/T command in the same/opposite
direction.
C-e and
C-y scroll the display up/down by one line while
preserving the cursor position.
C-u and
C-d scroll the display up/down by the specified amount of
lines while preserving the cursor position. (Default: half screen-full).
C-b and
C-f scroll the display up/down a full screen.
Note:
Emacs style movement keys can be customized by a .screenrc command. (E.g.
markkeys "h=^B:l=^F:$=^E") There is no simple method for a full
emacs-style keymap, as this involves multi-character codes.
Marking:
The copy range is specified by setting two marks. The text between these marks
will be highlighted. Press:
space or
enter to set the first or second mark respectively. If
mousetrack is set to `on', marks can also be set using
left mouse
click.
Y and
y used to mark one whole line or to mark from start of line.
W marks exactly one word.
Repeat count:
Any of these commands can be prefixed with a repeat count number by pressing
digits
0..
9 which is taken as a repeat count.
Example: "C-a C-[ H 10 j 5 Y" will copy lines 11 to 15 into the paste
buffer.
Searching:
/ Vi-like search forward.
?
Vi-like search backward.
C-a s Emacs style incremental
search forward.
C-r Emacs style reverse i-search.
n Find
next search pattern.
N Find previous search pattern.
Specials:
There are however some keys that act differently than in
vi.
Vi
does not allow one to yank rectangular blocks of text, but
screen does.
Press:
c or
C to set the left or right margin respectively. If no repeat
count is given, both default to the current cursor position.
Example: Try this on a rather full text screen: "C-a [ M 20 l SPACE c 10 l
5 j C SPACE".
This moves one to the middle line of the screen, moves in 20 columns left, marks
the beginning of the paste buffer, sets the left column, moves 5 columns down,
sets the right column, and then marks the end of the paste buffer. Now try:
"C-a [ M 20 l SPACE 10 l 5 j SPACE"
and notice the difference in the amount of text copied.
J joins lines. It toggles between 4 modes: lines separated by a newline
character (012), lines glued seamless, lines separated by a single whitespace
and comma separated lines. Note that you can prepend the newline character
with a carriage return character, by issuing a "crlf on".
v or
V is for all the
vi users with ":set
numbers" - it toggles the left margin between column 9 and 1. Press
a before the final space key to toggle in append mode. Thus the contents
of the paste buffer will not be overwritten, but is appended to.
A toggles in append mode and sets a (second) mark.
> sets the (second) mark and writes the contents of the paste buffer
to the screen-exchange file (/tmp/screen-exchange per default) once copy-mode
is finished.
This example demonstrates how to dump the whole scrollback buffer to that file:
"C-A [ g SPACE G $ >".
C-g gives information about the current line and column.
x or
o exchanges the first mark and the current cursor position.
You can use this to adjust an already placed mark.
C-l ('el') will redraw the screen.
@ does nothing. Does not even exit copy mode.
All keys not described here exit copy mode.
copy_reg [
key]
No longer exists, use "readreg" instead.
crlf [
on|
off]
This affects the copying of text regions with the `C-a [' command. If it is set
to `on', lines will be separated by the two character sequence `CR' - `LF'.
Otherwise (default) only `LF' is used. When no parameter is given, the state
is toggled.
debug on|
off
Turns runtime debugging on or off. If
screen has been compiled with
option -DDEBUG debugging available and is turned on per default. Note that
this command only affects debugging output from the main "SCREEN"
process correctly. Debug output from attacher processes can only be turned off
once and forever.
defc1 on|
off
Same as the
c1 command except that the default setting for new windows is
changed. Initial setting is `on'.
defautonuke on|
off
Same as the
autonuke command except that the default setting for new
displays is changed. Initial setting is `off'. Note that you can use the
special `AN' terminal capability if you want to have a dependency on the
terminal type.
defbce on|
off
Same as the
bce command except that the default setting for new windows
is changed. Initial setting is `off'.
defbreaktype [
tcsendbreak|
TIOCSBRK |
TCSBRK]
Choose one of the available methods of generating a break signal for terminal
devices. The preferred methods are
tcsendbreak and
TIOCSBRK. The
third,
TCSBRK, blocks the complete
screen session for the
duration of the break, but it may be the only way to generate long breaks.
Tcsendbreak and
TIOCSBRK may or may not produce long breaks with
spikes (e.g. 4 per second). This is not only system-dependent, this also
differs between serial board drivers. Calling "defbreaktype" with no
parameter displays the current setting.
defcharset [
set]
Like the
charset command except that the default setting for new windows
is changed. Shows current default if called without argument.
defescape xy
Set the default command characters. This is equivalent to the "escape"
except that it is useful multiuser sessions only. In a multiuser session
"escape" changes the command character of the calling user, where
"defescape" changes the default command characters for users that
will be added later.
defflow on|
off|
auto [
interrupt]
Same as the
flow command except that the default setting for new windows
is changed. Initial setting is `auto'. Specifying "defflow auto
interrupt" is the same as the command-line options
-fa and
-i.
defgr on|
off
Same as the
gr command except that the default setting for new windows is
changed. Initial setting is `off'.
defhstatus [
status]
The hardstatus line that all new windows will get is set to
status. This
command is useful to make the hardstatus of every window display the window
number or title or the like.
Status may contain the same directives as
in the window messages, but the directive escape character is '^E' (octal 005)
instead of '%'. This was done to make a misinterpretation of program generated
hardstatus lines impossible. If the parameter
status is omitted, the
current default string is displayed. Per default the hardstatus line of new
windows is empty.
defencoding enc
Same as the
encoding command except that the default setting for new
windows is changed. Initial setting is the encoding taken from the terminal.
deflog on|
off
Same as the
log command except that the default setting for new windows
is changed. Initial setting is `off'.
deflogin on|
off
Same as the
login command except that the default setting for new windows
is changed. This is initialized with `on' as distributed (see config.h.in).
defmode mode
The mode of each newly allocated pseudo-tty is set to
mode.
Mode
is an octal number. When no "defmode" command is given, mode 0622 is
used.
defmonitor on|
off
Same as the
monitor command except that the default setting for new
windows is changed. Initial setting is `off'.
defmousetrack on|
off
Same as the
mousetrack command except that the default setting for new
windows is changed. Initial setting is `off'.
defnonblock on|
off|
numsecs
Same as the
nonblock command except that the default setting for displays
is changed. Initial setting is `off'.
defobuflimit limit
Same as the
obuflimit command except that the default setting for new
displays is changed. Initial setting is 256 bytes. Note that you can use the
special 'OL' terminal capability if you want to have a dependency on the
terminal type.
defscrollback num
Same as the
scrollback command except that the default setting for new
windows is changed. Initial setting is 100.
defshell command
Synonym to the
shell command. See there.
defsilence on|
off
Same as the
silence command except that the default setting for new
windows is changed. Initial setting is `off'.
defslowpaste msec"
Same as the
slowpaste command except that the default setting for new
windows is changed. Initial setting is 0 milliseconds, meaning `off'.
defutf8 on|
off
Same as the
utf8 command except that the default setting for new windows
is changed. Initial setting is `on' if screen was started with "-U",
otherwise `off'.
defwrap on|
off
Same as the
wrap command except that the default setting for new windows
is changed. Initially line-wrap is on and can be toggled with the
"wrap" command ("C-a r") or by means of "C-a : wrap
on|off".
defwritelock on|
off|
auto
Same as the
writelock command except that the default setting for new
windows is changed. Initially writelocks will off.
defzombie [
keys]
Synonym to the
zombie command. Both currently change the default. See
there.
detach [
-h]
Detach the
screen session (disconnect it from the terminal and put it
into the background). This returns you to the shell where you invoked
screen. A detached
screen can be resumed by invoking
screen with the
-r option (see also section "COMMAND-LINE
OPTIONS"). The
-h option tells screen to immediately close the
connection to the terminal ("hangup").
dinfo
Show what screen thinks about your terminal. Useful if you want to know why
features like color or the alternate charset don't work.
displays
Shows a tabular listing of all currently connected user front-ends (displays).
This is most useful for multiuser sessions. The following keys can be used in
displays list:
k,
C-p, or
up Move up one line.
j,
C-n, or
down Move down one line.
C-a or
home Move to the first line.
C-e or
end Move to the last line.
C-u or
C-d Move one half page up or down.
C-b or
C-f Move one full page up or down.
mouseclick Move to the selected line. Available when
"mousetrack" is set to on.
space Refresh the list
d Detach that display
D Power detach that display
C-g,
enter, or
escape Exit the list
The following is an example of what "displays" could look like:
- xterm 80x42 jnweiger@/dev/ttyp4 0(m11) &rWx
facit 80x24 mlschroe@/dev/ttyhf nb 11(tcsh) rwx
xterm 80x42 jnhollma@/dev/ttyp5 0(m11) &R.x
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) (F)(G) (H)(I)
The legend is as follows:
(A) The terminal type known by screen for this display.
(B) Displays geometry as width x height.
(C) Username who is logged in at the display.
(D) Device name of the display or the attached device
(E) Display is in blocking or nonblocking mode. The available modes are
"nb", "NB", "Z<", "Z>", and
"BL".
(F) Number of the window
(G) Name/title of window
(H) Whether the window is shared
(I) Window permissions. Made up of three characters:
(1st character)
‘-’ : no read
‘r’ : read
‘R’ : read only due to foreign wlock
(2nd character)
‘-’ : no write
‘.’ : write suppressed by foreign wlock
‘w’ : write
‘W’ : own wlock
(3rd character)
‘-’ : no execute
‘x’ : execute
"Displays" needs a region size of at least 10 characters wide and 5
characters high in order to display.
digraph
[
preset[unicode-value]]
This command prompts the user for a digraph sequence. The next two characters
typed are looked up in a builtin table and the resulting character is inserted
in the input stream. For example, if the user enters 'a"', an a-umlaut
will be inserted. If the first character entered is a 0 (zero),
screen
will treat the following characters (up to three) as an octal number instead.
The optional argument
preset is treated as user input, thus one can
create an "umlaut" key. For example the command "bindkey ^K
digraph '"'" enables the user to generate an a-umlaut by typing
CTRL-K a. When a non-zero
unicode-value is specified, a new digraph is
created with the specified preset. The digraph is unset if a zero value is
provided for the
unicode-value.
dumptermcap
Write the termcap entry for the virtual terminal optimized for the currently
active window to the file ".termcap" in the user's
"$HOME/.screen" directory (or wherever
screen stores its
sockets. See the "FILES" section below). This termcap entry is
identical to the value of the environment variable $TERMCAP that is set up by
screen for each window. For terminfo based systems you will need to run
a converter like
captoinfo and then compile the entry with
tic.
echo [
-n]
message
The echo command may be used to annoy
screen users with a 'message of the
day'. Typically installed in a global /etc/screenrc. The option "-n"
may be used to suppress the line feed. See also "sleep". Echo is
also useful for online checking of environment variables.
encoding enc [
enc]
Tell
screen how to interpret the input/output. The first argument sets
the encoding of the current window. Each window can emulate a different
encoding. The optional second parameter overwrites the encoding of the
connected terminal. It should never be needed as screen uses the locale
setting to detect the encoding. There is also a way to select a terminal
encoding depending on the terminal type by using the "KJ" termcap
entry.
Supported encodings are eucJP, SJIS, eucKR, eucCN, Big5, GBK, KOI8-R, CP1251,
UTF-8, ISO8859-2, ISO8859-3, ISO8859-4, ISO8859-5, ISO8859-6, ISO8859-7,
ISO8859-8, ISO8859-9, ISO8859-10, ISO8859-15, jis.
See also "defencoding", which changes the default setting of a new
window.
escape xy
Set the command character to
x and the character generating a literal
command character (by triggering the "meta" command) to
y
(similar to the -e option). Each argument is either a single character, a
two-character sequence of the form "^x" (meaning "C-x"), a
backslash followed by an octal number (specifying the ASCII code of the
character), or a backslash followed by a second character, such as
"\^" or "\\". The default is "^Aa".
eval command1 [
command2 …]
Parses and executes each argument as separate command.
exec [[
fdpat]
newcommand [
args …]]
Run a unix subprocess (specified by an executable path
newcommand and its
optional arguments) in the current window. The flow of data between
newcommands stdin/stdout/stderr, the process originally started in the window
(let us call it "application-process") and screen itself (window) is
controlled by the file descriptor pattern fdpat. This pattern is basically a
three character sequence representing stdin, stdout and stderr of newcommand.
A dot (.) connects the file descriptor to
screen. An exclamation mark
(!) causes the file descriptor to be connected to the application-process. A
colon (:) combines both. User input will go to newcommand unless newcommand
receives the application-process' output (fdpats first character is `!' or
`:') or a pipe symbol (|) is added (as a fourth character) to the end of
fdpat.
Invoking `exec' without arguments shows name and arguments of the currently
running subprocess in this window. Only one subprocess a time can be running
in each window.
When a subprocess is running the `kill' command will affect it instead of the
windows process.
Refer to the postscript file `doc/fdpat.ps' for a confusing illustration of all
21 possible combinations. Each drawing shows the digits 2,1,0 representing the
three file descriptors of newcommand. The box marked `W' is the usual pty that
has the application-process on its slave side. The box marked `P' is the
secondary pty that now has
screen at its master side.
Abbreviations:
Whitespace between the word `exec' and fdpat and the command can be omitted.
Trailing dots and a fdpat consisting only of dots can be omitted. A simple `|'
is synonymous for the pattern `!..|'; the word exec can be omitted here and
can always be replaced by `!'.
Examples:
- exec … /bin/sh
exec /bin/sh
!/bin/sh
Creates another shell in the same window, while the original shell is still
running. Output of both shells is displayed and user input is sent to the new
/bin/sh.
- exec !.. stty 19200
exec ! stty 19200
!!stty 19200
Set the speed of the window's tty. If your stty command operates on stdout, then
add another `!'.
- exec !..| less
|less
This adds a pager to the window output. The special character `|' is needed to
give the user control over the pager although it gets its input from the
window's process. This works, because
less listens on stderr (a
behavior that
screen would not expect without the `|') when its stdin
is not a tty.
Less versions newer than 177 fail miserably here; good
old
pg still works.
- !:sed -n s/.*Error.*/\007/p
Sends window output to both, the user and the sed command. The sed inserts an
additional bell character (oct. 007) to the window output seen by
screen. This will cause "Bell in window x" messages, whenever
the string "Error" appears in the window.
fit
Change the window size to the size of the current region. This command is needed
because screen doesn't adapt the window size automatically if the window is
displayed more than once.
flow [
on|
off|
auto]
Sets the flow-control mode for this window. Without parameters it cycles the
current window's flow-control setting from "automatic" to
"on" to "off". See the discussion on
"FLOW-CONTROL" later on in this document for full details and note,
that this is subject to change in future releases. Default is set by
`defflow'.
focus [
up|
down|
top|
bottom]
Move the input focus to the next region. This is done in a cyclic way so that
the top region is selected after the bottom one. If no subcommand is given it
defaults to `down'. `up' cycles in the opposite order, `top' and `bottom' go
to the top and bottom region respectively. Useful bindings are (j and k as in
vi)
bind j focus down
bind k focus up
bind t focus top
bind b focus bottom
Note that
k is traditionally bound to the
kill command.
focusminsize [ ( width|max|_ ) ( height|max|_ )
]
This forces any currently selected region to be automatically resized at least a
certain
width and
height. All other surrounding regions will be
resized in order to accommodate. This constraint follows everytime the
"focus" command is used. The "resize" command can be used
to increase either dimension of a region, but never below what is set with
"focusminsize". The underscore `_' is a synonym for
max.
Setting a
width and
height of `0 0' (zero zero) will undo any
constraints and allow for manual resizing. Without any parameters, the minimum
width and height is shown.
gr [
on|
off]
Turn GR charset switching on/off. Whenever screen sees an input character with
the 8th bit set, it will use the charset stored in the GR slot and print the
character with the 8th bit stripped. The default (see also "defgr")
is not to process GR switching because otherwise the ISO88591 charset would
not work.
group [
grouptitle]
Change or show the group the current window belongs to. Windows can be moved
around between different groups by specifying the name of the destination
group. Without specifying a group, the title of the current group is
displayed.
hardcopy [
-h] [
file]
Writes out the currently displayed image to the file
file, or, if no
filename is specified, to
hardcopy.n in the default directory, where
n is the number of the current window. This either appends or
overwrites the file if it exists. See below. If the option
-h is
specified, dump also the contents of the scrollback buffer.
hardcopy_append on|
off
If set to "on",
screen will append to the
"hardcopy.n" files created by the command "C-a h",
otherwise these files are overwritten each time. Default is `off'.
hardcopydir directory
Defines a directory where hardcopy files will be placed. If unset, hardcopys are
dumped in
screen's current working directory.
hardstatus [
on|
off]
hardstatus
[always]lastline|message|ignore
[
string]
hardstatus string [
string]
This command configures the use and emulation of the terminal's hardstatus line.
The first form toggles whether
screen will use the hardware status line
to display messages. If the flag is set to `off', these messages are overlaid
in reverse video mode at the display line. The default setting is `on'.
The second form tells
screen what to do if the terminal doesn't have a
hardstatus line (i.e. the termcap/terminfo capabilities "hs",
"ts", "fs" and "ds" are not set). If the type
"lastline" is used,
screen will reserve the last line of the
display for the hardstatus. "message" uses
screen's message
mechanism and "ignore" tells
screen never to display the
hardstatus. If you prepend the word "always" to the type (e.g.,
"alwayslastline"),
screen will use the type even if the
terminal supports a hardstatus.
The third form specifies the contents of the hardstatus line. '%h' is used as
default string, i.e., the stored hardstatus of the current window (settable
via "ESC]0;<string>^G" or "ESC_<string>ESC\")
is displayed. You can customize this to any string you like including the
escapes from the "STRING ESCAPES" chapter. If you leave out the
argument
string, the current string is displayed.
You can mix the second and third form by providing the string as additional
argument.
height [
-w|
-d] [
lines [
cols]]
Set the display height to a specified number of lines. When no argument is given
it toggles between 24 and 42 lines display. You can also specify a width if
you want to change both values. The
-w option tells screen to leave the
display size unchanged and just set the window size,
-d vice versa.
help [
-c class]
Not really a online help, but displays a help
screen showing you all the
key bindings. The first pages list all the internal commands followed by their
current bindings. Subsequent pages will display the custom commands, one
command per key. Press space when you're done reading each page, or return to
exit early. All other characters are ignored. If the "-c" option is
given, display all bound commands for the specified command class. See also
"DEFAULT KEY BINDINGS" section.
history
Usually users work with a shell that allows easy access to previous commands.
For example csh has the command "!!" to repeat the last command
executed.
Screen allows you to have a primitive way of re-calling
"the command that started …": You just type the first letter
of that command, then hit `C-a {' and
screen tries to find a previous
line that matches with the `prompt character' to the left of the cursor. This
line is pasted into this window's input queue. Thus you have a crude command
history (made up by the visible window and its scrollback buffer).
hstatus status
Change the window's hardstatus line to the string
status.
idle [
timeout [
cmd args]]
Sets a command that is run after the specified number of seconds inactivity is
reached. This command will normally be the "blanker" command to
create a screen blanker, but it can be any screen command. If no command is
specified, only the timeout is set. A timeout of zero (or the special timeout
off) disables the timer. If no arguments are given, the current
settings are displayed.
ignorecase [
on|
off]
Tell screen to ignore the case of characters in searches. Default is `off'.
Without any options, the state of ignorecase is toggled.
info
Uses the message line to display some information about the current window: the
cursor position in the form "(column,row)" starting with
"(1,1)", the terminal width and height plus the size of the
scrollback buffer in lines, like in "(80,24)+50", the current state
of window XON/XOFF flow control is shown like this (See also section FLOW
CONTROL):
+flow automatic flow control, currently on.
-flow automatic flow control, currently off.
+(+)flow flow control enabled. Agrees with automatic control.
-(+)flow flow control disabled. Disagrees with automatic control.
+(-)flow flow control enabled. Disagrees with automatic control.
-(-)flow flow control disabled. Agrees with automatic control.
The current line wrap setting (`+wrap' indicates enabled, `-wrap' not) is also
shown. The flags `ins', `org', `app', `log', `mon' or `nored' are displayed
when the window is in insert mode, origin mode, application-keypad mode, has
output logging, activity monitoring or partial redraw enabled.
The currently active character set (
G0,
G1,
G2, or
G3) and in square brackets the terminal character sets that are
currently designated as
G0 through
G3 is shown. If the window is
in UTF-8 mode, the string "UTF-8" is shown instead.
Additional modes depending on the type of the window are displayed at the end of
the status line (See also chapter "WINDOW TYPES").
If the state machine of the terminal emulator is in a non-default state, the
info line is started with a string identifying the current state.
For system information use the "time" command.
ins_reg [
key]
No longer exists, use "paste" instead.
kill
Kill current window.
If there is an `exec' command running then it is killed. Otherwise the process
(shell) running in the window receives a HANGUP condition, the window
structure is removed and
screen (your display) switches to another
window. When the last window is destroyed,
screen exits. After a kill
screen switches to the previously displayed window.
Note:
Emacs users should keep this command in mind, when killing a line.
It is recommended not to use "C-a" as the
screen escape key
or to rebind kill to "C-a K".
lastmsg
Redisplay the last contents of the message/status line. Useful if you're typing
when a message appears, because the message goes away when you press a key
(unless your terminal has a hardware status line). Refer to the commands
"msgwait" and "msgminwait" for fine tuning.
layout new [
title]
Create a new layout. The screen will change to one whole region and be switched
to the blank window. From here, you build the regions and the windows they
show as you desire. The new layout will be numbered with the smallest
available integer, starting with zero. You can optionally give a title to your
new layout. Otherwise, it will have a default title of "layout". You
can always change the title later by using the command
layout title.
layout remove [
n|title]
Remove, or in other words, delete the specified layout. Either the number or the
title can be specified. Without either specification,
screen will
remove the current layout.
Removing a layout does not affect your set windows or regions.
layout next
Switch to the next layout available
layout prev
Switch to the previous layout available
layout select [
n|title]
Select the desired layout. Either the number or the title can be specified.
Without either specification,
screen will prompt and ask which screen
is desired. To see which layouts are available, use the
layout show
command.
layout show
List on the message line the number(s) and title(s) of the available layout(s).
The current layout is flagged.
layout title [
title]
Change or display the title of the current layout. A string given will be used
to name the layout. Without any options, the current title and number is
displayed on the message line.
layout number [
n]
Change or display the number of the current layout. An integer given will be
used to number the layout. Without any options, the current number and title
is displayed on the message line.
layout attach [
title|
:last]
Change or display which layout to reattach back to. The default is
:last,
which tells
screen to reattach back to the last used layout just before
detachment. By supplying a title, You can instruct
screen to reattach
to a particular layout regardless which one was used at the time of
detachment. Without any options, the layout to reattach to will be shown in
the message line.
layout save [
n|title]
Remember the current arrangement of regions. When used,
screen will
remember the arrangement of vertically and horizontally split regions. This
arrangement is restored when a
screen session is reattached or switched
back from a different layout. If the session ends or the
screen process
dies, the layout arrangements are lost. The
layout dump command should
help in this siutation. If a number or title is supplied,
screen will
remember the arrangement of that particular layout. Without any options,
screen will remember the current layout.
Saving your regions can be done automatically by using the
layout
autosave command.
layout autosave [
on|off]
Change or display the status of automatcally saving layouts. The default is
on, meaning when
screen is detached or changed to a different
layout, the arrangement of regions and windows will be remembered at the time
of change and restored upon return. If autosave is set to
off, that
arrangement will only be restored to either to the last manual save, using
layout save, or to when the layout was first created, to a single
region with a single window. Without either an
on or
off, the
current status is displayed on the message line.
layout dump [
filename]
Write to a file the order of splits made in the current layout. This is useful
to recreate the order of your regions used in your current layout. Only the
current layout is recorded. While the order of the regions are recorded, the
sizes of those regions and which windows correspond to which regions are not.
If no filename is specified, the default is
layout-dump, saved in the
directory that the
screen process was started in. If the file already
exists,
layout dump will append to that file. As an example:
C-a : layout dump /home/user/.screenrc
will save or append the layout to the user's
.screenrc file.
license
Display the disclaimer page. This is done whenever
screen is started
without options, which should be often enough. See also the
"startup_message" command.
lockscreen
Lock this display. Call a screenlock program (/local/bin/lck or /usr/bin/lock or
a builtin if no other is available). Screen does not accept any command keys
until this program terminates. Meanwhile processes in the windows may
continue, as the windows are in the `detached' state. The screenlock program
may be changed through the environment variable $LOCKPRG (which must be set in
the shell from which
screen is started) and is executed with the user's
uid and gid.
Warning: When you leave other shells unlocked and you have no password set on
screen, the lock is void: One could easily re-attach from an unlocked
shell. This feature should rather be called `lockterminal'.
log [
on|
off]
Start/stop writing output of the current window to a file "screenlog.
n" in the window's default directory, where
n is the number
of the current window. This filename can be changed with the `logfile'
command. If no parameter is given, the state of logging is toggled. The
session log is appended to the previous contents of the file if it already
exists. The current contents and the contents of the scrollback history are
not included in the session log. Default is `off'.
logfile filename
logfile flush secs
Defines the name the log files will get. The default is
"screenlog.%n". The second form changes the number of seconds
screen will wait before flushing the logfile buffer to the file-system.
The default value is 10 seconds.
login [
on|
off]
Adds or removes the entry in the utmp database file for the current window. This
controls if the window is `logged in'. When no parameter is given, the login
state of the window is toggled. Additionally to that toggle, it is convenient
having a `log in' and a `log out' key. E.g. `bind I login on' and `bind O
login off' will map these keys to be C-a I and C-a O. The default setting (in
config.h.in) should be "on" for a
screen that runs under
suid-root. Use the "deflogin" command to change the default login
state for new windows. Both commands are only present when
screen has
been compiled with utmp support.
logtstamp [
on|
off]
logtstamp after [
secs]
logtstamp string [
string]
This command controls logfile time-stamp mechanism of
screen. If
time-stamps are turned "on",
screen adds a string containing
the current time to the logfile after two minutes of inactivity. When output
continues and more than another two minutes have passed, a second time-stamp
is added to document the restart of the output. You can change this timeout
with the second form of the command. The third form is used for customizing
the time-stamp string (`-- %n:%t -- time-stamp -- %M/%d/%y %c:%s --\n' by
default).
mapdefault
Tell
screen that the next input character should only be looked up in the
default bindkey table. See also "bindkey".
mapnotnext
Like mapdefault, but don't even look in the default bindkey table.
maptimeout [
timeout]
Set the inter-character timer for input sequence detection to a timeout of
timeout ms. The default timeout is 300ms. Maptimeout with no arguments
shows the current setting. See also "bindkey".
markkeys string
This is a method of changing the keymap used for copy/history mode. The string
is made up of
oldchar=
newchar pairs which are separated by `:'.
Example: The string "B=^B:F=^F" will change the keys `C-b' and `C-f'
to the vi style binding (scroll up/down fill page). This happens to be the
default binding for `B' and `F'. The command "markkeys
h=^B:l=^F:$=^E" would set the mode for an emacs-style binding. If your
terminal sends characters, that cause you to abort copy mode, then this
command may help by binding these characters to do nothing. The no-op
character is `@' and is used like this: "markkeys @=L=H" if you do
not want to use the `H' or `L' commands any longer. As shown in this example,
multiple keys can be assigned to one function in a single statement.
maxwin num
Set the maximum window number screen will create. Doesn't affect already
existing windows. The number can be increased only when there are no existing
windows.
meta
Insert the command character (C-a) in the current window's input stream.
monitor [
on|
off]
Toggles activity monitoring of windows. When monitoring is turned on and an
affected window is switched into the background, you will receive the activity
notification message in the status line at the first sign of output and the
window will also be marked with an `@' in the window-status display.
Monitoring is initially off for all windows.
mousetrack [
on|
off]
This command determines whether
screen will watch for mouse clicks. When
this command is enabled, regions that have been split in various ways can be
selected by pointing to them with a mouse and left-clicking them. Without
specifying
on or
off, the current state is displayed. The
default state is determined by the "defmousetrack" command.
msgminwait sec
Defines the time
screen delays a new message when one message is
currently displayed. The default is 1 second.
msgwait sec
Defines the time a message is displayed if
screen is not disturbed by
other activity. The default is 5 seconds.
multiuser on|
off
Switch between singleuser and multiuser mode. Standard
screen operation
is singleuser. In multiuser mode the commands `acladd', `aclchg', `aclgrp' and
`acldel' can be used to enable (and disable) other users accessing this
screen session.
nethack on|
off
Changes the kind of error messages used by
screen. When you are familiar
with the game "nethack", you may enjoy the nethack-style messages
which will often blur the facts a little, but are much funnier to read.
Anyway, standard messages often tend to be unclear as well.
This option is only available if
screen was compiled with the NETHACK
flag defined. The default setting is then determined by the presence of the
environment variable $NETHACKOPTIONS and the file ~/.nethackrc - if either one
is present, the default is
on.
next
Switch to the next window. This command can be used repeatedly to cycle through
the list of windows.
nonblock [
on|
off|
numsecs]
Tell screen how to deal with user interfaces (displays) that cease to accept
output. This can happen if a user presses ^S or a TCP/modem connection gets
cut but no hangup is received. If nonblock is
off (this is the default)
screen waits until the display restarts to accept the output. If nonblock is
on, screen waits until the timeout is reached (
on is treated as
1s). If the display still doesn't receive characters, screen will consider it
"blocked" and stop sending characters to it. If at some time it
restarts to accept characters, screen will unblock the display and redisplay
the updated window contents.
number [[+|-]
n]
Change the current window's number. If the given number
n is already used
by another window, both windows exchange their numbers. If no argument is
specified, the current window number (and title) is shown. Using `+' or `-'
will change the window's number by the relative amount specified.
obuflimit [
limit]
If the output buffer contains more bytes than the specified limit, no more data
will be read from the windows. The default value is 256. If you have a fast
display (like xterm), you can set it to some higher value. If no argument is
specified, the current setting is displayed.
only
Kill all regions but the current one.
other
Switch to the window displayed previously. If this window does no longer exist,
other has the same effect as
next.
partial on|
off
Defines whether the display should be refreshed (as with
redisplay) after
switching to the current window. This command only affects the current window.
To immediately affect all windows use the
allpartial command. Default
is `off', of course. This default is fixed, as there is currently no
defpartial command.
password [
crypted_pw]
Present a crypted password in your ".screenrc" file and
screen
will ask for it, whenever someone attempts to resume a detached. This is
useful if you have privileged programs running under
screen and you
want to protect your session from reattach attempts by another user
masquerading as your uid (i.e. any superuser.) If no crypted password is
specified,
screen prompts twice for typing a password and places its
encryption in the paste buffer. Default is `none', this disables password
checking.
paste [
registers [
dest_reg]]
Write the (concatenated) contents of the specified registers to the stdin queue
of the current window. The register '.' is treated as the paste buffer. If no
parameter is given the user is prompted for a single register to paste. The
paste buffer can be filled with the
copy,
history and
readbuf commands. Other registers can be filled with the
register,
readreg and
paste commands. If
paste is
called with a second argument, the contents of the specified registers is
pasted into the named destination register rather than the window. If '.' is
used as the second argument, the displays paste buffer is the destination.
Note, that "paste" uses a wide variety of resources: Whenever a
second argument is specified no current window is needed. When the source
specification only contains registers (not the paste buffer) then there need
not be a current display (terminal attached), as the registers are a global
resource. The paste buffer exists once for every user.
pastefont [
on|
off]
Tell
screen to include font information in the paste buffer. The default
is not to do so. This command is especially useful for multi character fonts
like kanji.
pow_break
Reopen the window's terminal line and send a break condition. See `break'.
pow_detach
Power detach. Mainly the same as
detach, but also sends a HANGUP signal
to the parent process of
screen. CAUTION: This will result in a logout,
when
screen was started from your login shell.
pow_detach_msg [
message]
The
message specified here is output whenever a `Power detach' was
performed. It may be used as a replacement for a logout message or to reset
baud rate, etc. Without parameter, the current message is shown.
prev
Switch to the window with the next lower number. This command can be used
repeatedly to cycle through the list of windows.
printcmd [
cmd]
If
cmd is not an empty string,
screen will not use the terminal
capabilities "po/pf" if it detects an ansi print sequence
ESC [ 5
i, but pipe the output into
cmd. This should normally be a command
like "lpr" or "'cat > /tmp/scrprint'".
printcmd
without a command displays the current setting. The ansi sequence
ESC \
ends printing and closes the pipe.
Warning: Be careful with this command! If other user have write access to your
terminal, they will be able to fire off print commands.
process [
key]
Stuff the contents of the specified register into
screen's input queue.
If no argument is given you are prompted for a register name. The text is
parsed as if it had been typed in from the user's keyboard. This command can
be used to bind multiple actions to a single key.
quit
Kill all windows and terminate
screen. Note that on VT100-style terminals
the keys C-4 and C-\ are identical. This makes the default bindings dangerous:
Be careful not to type C-a C-4 when selecting window no. 4. Use the empty bind
command (as in "bind '^\'") to remove a key binding.
readbuf [
-e encoding] [
filename]
Reads the contents of the specified file into the paste buffer. You can tell
screen the encoding of the file via the
-e option. If no file is
specified, the screen-exchange filename is used. See also
"bufferfile" command.
readreg [
-e encoding] [
register [
filename]]
Does one of two things, dependent on number of arguments: with zero or one
arguments it it duplicates the paste buffer contents into the register
specified or entered at the prompt. With two arguments it reads the contents
of the named file into the register, just as
readbuf reads the
screen-exchange file into the paste buffer. You can tell screen the encoding
of the file via the
-e option. The following example will paste the
system's password file into the
screen window (using register p, where
a copy remains):
C-a : readreg p /etc/passwd
C-a : paste p
redisplay
Redisplay the current window. Needed to get a full redisplay when in partial
redraw mode.
register [
-e encoding]
key string
Save the specified
string to the register
key. The encoding of the
string can be specified via the
-e option. See also the
"paste" command.
remove
Kill the current region. This is a no-op if there is only one region.
removebuf
Unlinks the screen-exchange file used by the commands "writebuf" and
"readbuf".
rendition bell | monitor | silence | so attr
[color]
Change the way
screen renders the titles of windows that have monitor or
bell flags set in caption or hardstatus or windowlist. See the "STRING
ESCAPES" chapter for the syntax of the modifiers. The default for monitor
is currently "=b " (bold, active colors), for bell "=ub "
(underline, bold and active colors), and "=u " for silence.
reset
Reset the virtual terminal to its "power-on" values. Useful when
strange settings (like scroll regions or graphics character set) are left over
from an application.
resize
Resize the current region. The space will be removed from or added to the region
below or if there's not enough space from the region above.
- resize +N increase current region height by N
- resize -N decrease current region height by N
- resize N set current region height to N
- resize = make all windows equally high
- resize max maximize current region height
- resize min minimize current region height
screen [-opts] [n] [cmd
[args ]|//group]
Establish a new window. The flow-control options (
-f,
-fn and
-fa), title (a.k.a.) option (
-t), login options (
-l and
-ln) , terminal type option (
-T <term>), the
all-capability-flag (
-a) and scrollback option (
-h
<num>) may be specified with each command. The option (
-M) turns
monitoring on for this window. The option (
-L) turns output logging on
for this window. If an optional number
n in the range 0..MAXWIN-1 is
given, the window number
n is assigned to the newly created window (or,
if this number is already in-use, the next available number). If a command is
specified after "screen", this command (with the given arguments) is
started in the window; otherwise, a shell is created. If
//group is
supplied, a container-type window is created in which other windows may be
created inside it.
Thus, if your ".screenrc" contains the lines
# example for .screenrc:
screen 1
screen -fn -t foobar -L 2 telnet foobar
screen creates a shell window (in window #1) and a window with a TELNET
connection to the machine foobar (with no flow-control using the title
"foobar" in window #2) and will write a logfile
("screenlog.2") of the telnet session. Note, that unlike previous
versions of
screen no additional default window is created when
"screen" commands are included in your ".screenrc" file.
When the initialization is completed,
screen switches to the last
window specified in your .screenrc file or, if none, opens a default window
#0.
Screen has built in some functionality of "cu" and "telnet".
See also chapter "WINDOW TYPES".
scrollback num
Set the size of the scrollback buffer for the current windows to
num
lines. The default scrollback is 100 lines. See also the
"defscrollback" command and use "info" to view the current
setting. To access and use the contents in the scrollback buffer, use the
"copy" command.
select [
WindowID]
Switch to the window identified by
WindowID. This can be a prefix of a
window title (alphanumeric window name) or a window number. The parameter is
optional and if omitted, you get prompted for an identifier. When a new window
is established, the first available number is assigned to this window. Thus,
the first window can be activated by "select 0". The number of
windows is limited at compile-time by the MAXWIN configuration parameter
(which defaults to 40). There are two special WindowIDs, "-" selects
the internal blank window and "." selects the current window. The
latter is useful if used with screen's "-X" option.
sessionname [
name]
Rename the current session. Note, that for "screen -list" the name
shows up with the process-id prepended. If the argument "name" is
omitted, the name of this session is displayed. Caution: The $STY environment
variables will still reflect the old name in pre-existing shells. This may
result in confusion. Use of this command is generally discouraged. Use the
"-S" command-line option if you want to name a new session. The
default is constructed from the tty and host names.
setenv [
var [
string]]
Set the environment variable
var to value
string. If only
var is specified, the user will be prompted to enter a value. If no
parameters are specified, the user will be prompted for both variable and
value. The environment is inherited by all subsequently forked shells.
setsid [
on|
off]
Normally screen uses different sessions and process groups for the windows. If
setsid is turned
off, this is not done anymore and all windows will be
in the same process group as the screen backend process. This also breaks
job-control, so be careful. The default is
on, of course. This command
is probably useful only in rare circumstances.
shell command
Set the command to be used to create a new shell. This overrides the value of
the environment variable $SHELL. This is useful if you'd like to run a
tty-enhancer which is expecting to execute the program specified in $SHELL. If
the command begins with a '-' character, the shell will be started as a
login-shell.
shelltitle title
Set the title for all shells created during startup or by the C-A C-c command.
For details about what a title is, see the discussion entitled "TITLES
(naming windows)".
silence [
on|
off|
sec]
Toggles silence monitoring of windows. When silence is turned on and an affected
window is switched into the background, you will receive the silence
notification message in the status line after a specified period of inactivity
(silence). The default timeout can be changed with the `silencewait' command
or by specifying a number of seconds instead of `on' or `off'. Silence is
initially off for all windows.
silencewait sec
Define the time that all windows monitored for silence should wait before
displaying a message. Default 30 seconds.
sleep num
This command will pause the execution of a .screenrc file for
num
seconds. Keyboard activity will end the sleep. It may be used to give users a
chance to read the messages output by "echo".
slowpaste msec
Define the speed at which text is inserted into the current window by the paste
("C-a ]") command. If the slowpaste value is nonzero text is written
character by character.
screen will make a pause of
msec
milliseconds after each single character write to allow the application to
process its input. Only use slowpaste if your underlying system exposes flow
control problems while pasting large amounts of text.
source file
Read and execute commands from file
file. Source commands may be nested
to a maximum recursion level of ten. If file is not an absolute path and
screen is already processing a source command, the parent directory of the
running source command file is used to search for the new command file before
screen's current directory.
Note that termcap/terminfo/termcapinfo commands only work at startup and
reattach time, so they must be reached via the default screenrc files to have
an effect.
sorendition [
attr [
color]]
This command is deprecated. See "rendition so" instead.
split [
-v]
Split the current region into two new ones. All regions on the display are
resized to make room for the new region. The blank window is displayed on the
new region. Splits are made horizontally unless -v is used. Use the
"remove" or the "only" command to delete regions. Use
"focus" to toggle between regions.
startup_message on|off
Select whether you want to see the copyright notice during startup. Default is
`on', as you probably noticed.
stuff [
string]
Stuff the string
string in the input buffer of the current window. This
is like the "paste" command but with much less overhead. Without a
parameter, screen will prompt for a string to stuff. You cannot paste large
buffers with the "stuff" command. It is most useful for key
bindings. See also "bindkey".
su [
username [
password [
password2]]]
Substitute the user of a display. The command prompts for all parameters that
are omitted. If passwords are specified as parameters, they have to be
specified un-crypted. The first password is matched against the systems passwd
database, the second password is matched against the
screen password as
set with the commands "acladd" or "password".
"Su" may be useful for the
screen administrator to test
multiuser setups. When the identification fails, the user has access to the
commands available for user
nobody. These are "detach",
"license", "version", "help" and
"displays".
suspend
Suspend
screen. The windows are in the `detached' state, while
screen is suspended. This feature relies on the shell being able to do
job control.
term term
In each window's environment
screen opens, the $TERM variable is set to
"screen" by default. But when no description for "screen"
is installed in the local termcap or terminfo data base, you set $TERM to -
say - "vt100". This won't do much harm, as
screen is
VT100/ANSI compatible. The use of the "term" command is discouraged
for non-default purpose. That is, one may want to specify special $TERM
settings (e.g. vt100) for the next "screen rlogin othermachine"
command. Use the command "screen -T vt100 rlogin othermachine"
rather than setting and resetting the default.
termcap term terminal-tweaks [
window-tweaks]
terminfo term terminal-tweaks [
window-tweaks]
termcapinfo term terminal-tweaks [
window-tweaks]
Use this command to modify your terminal's termcap entry without going through
all the hassles involved in creating a custom termcap entry. Plus, you can
optionally customize the termcap generated for the windows. You have to place
these commands in one of the screenrc startup files, as they are meaningless
once the terminal emulator is booted.
If your system works uses the terminfo database rather than termcap,
screen will understand the `terminfo' command, which has the same
effects as the `termcap' command. Two separate commands are provided, as there
are subtle syntactic differences, e.g. when parameter interpolation (using
`%') is required. Note that termcap names of the capabilities have to be used
with the `terminfo' command.
In many cases, where the arguments are valid in both terminfo and termcap
syntax, you can use the command `termcapinfo', which is just a shorthand for a
pair of `termcap' and `terminfo' commands with identical arguments.
The first argument specifies which terminal(s) should be affected by this
definition. You can specify multiple terminal names by separating them with
`|'s. Use `*' to match all terminals and `vt*' to match all terminals that
begin with "vt".
Each
tweak argument contains one or more termcap defines (separated by
`:'s) to be inserted at the start of the appropriate termcap entry, enhancing
it or overriding existing values. The first tweak modifies your terminal's
termcap, and contains definitions that your terminal uses to perform certain
functions. Specify a null string to leave this unchanged (e.g. ''). The second
(optional) tweak modifies all the window termcaps, and should contain
definitions that
screen understands (see the "VIRTUAL
TERMINAL" section).
Some examples:
- termcap xterm* LP:hs@
Informs
screen that all terminals that begin with `xterm' have firm
auto-margins that allow the last position on the screen to be updated (LP),
but they don't really have a status line (no 'hs' - append `@' to turn entries
off). Note that we assume `LP' for all terminal names that start with
"vt", but only if you don't specify a termcap command for that
terminal.
- termcap vt* LP
termcap vt102|vt220 Z0=\E[?3h:Z1=\E[?3l
Specifies the firm-margined `LP' capability for all terminals that begin with
`vt', and the second line will also add the escape-sequences to switch into
(Z0) and back out of (Z1) 132-character-per-line mode if this is a VT102 or
VT220. (You must specify Z0 and Z1 in your termcap to use the width-changing
commands.)
- termcap vt100 "" l0=PF1:l1=PF2:l2=PF3:l3=PF4
This leaves your vt100 termcap alone and adds the function key labels to each
window's termcap entry.
- termcap h19|z19 am@:im=\E@:ei=\EO dc=\E[P
Takes a h19 or z19 termcap and turns off auto-margins (am@) and enables the
insert mode (im) and end-insert (ei) capabilities (the `@' in the `im' string
is after the `=', so it is part of the string). Having the `im' and `ei'
definitions put into your terminal's termcap will cause
screen to
automatically advertise the character-insert capability in each window's
termcap. Each window will also get the delete-character capability (dc) added
to its termcap, which
screen will translate into a line-update for the
terminal (we're pretending it doesn't support character deletion).
If you would like to fully specify each window's termcap entry, you should
instead set the $SCREENCAP variable prior to running
screen. See the
discussion on the "VIRTUAL TERMINAL" in this manual, and the
termcap(5) man page for more information on termcap definitions.
time [
string]
Uses the message line to display the time of day, the host name, and the load
averages over 1, 5, and 15 minutes (if this is available on your system). For
window specific information, use "info".
If a string is specified, it changes the format of the time report like it is
described in the "STRING ESCAPES" chapter. Screen uses a default of
"%c:%s %M %d %H%? %l%?".
title [
windowtitle]
Set the name of the current window to
windowtitle. If no name is
specified,
screen prompts for one. This command was known as `aka' in
previous releases.
unbindall
Unbind all the bindings. This can be useful when screen is used solely for its
detaching abilities, such as when letting a console application run as a
daemon. If, for some reason, it is necessary to bind commands after this, use
'screen -X'.
unsetenv var
Unset an environment variable.
utf8 [
on|
off [
on|
off]]
Change the encoding used in the current window. If utf8 is enabled, the strings
sent to the window will be UTF-8 encoded and vice versa. Omitting the
parameter toggles the setting. If a second parameter is given, the display's
encoding is also changed (this should rather be done with screen's
"-U" option). See also "defutf8", which changes the
default setting of a new window.
vbell [
on|
off]
Sets the visual bell setting for this window. Omitting the parameter toggles the
setting. If vbell is switched on, but your terminal does not support a visual
bell, a `vbell-message' is displayed in the status line when the bell
character (^G) is received. Visual bell support of a terminal is defined by
the termcap variable `vb' (terminfo: 'flash').
Per default, vbell is off, thus the audible bell is used. See also `bell_msg'.
vbell_msg [
message]
Sets the visual bell message.
message is printed to the status line if
the window receives a bell character (^G), vbell is set to "on", but
the terminal does not support a visual bell. The default message is
"Wuff, Wuff!!". Without a parameter, the current message is shown.
vbellwait sec
Define a delay in seconds after each display of
screen's visual bell
message. The default is 1 second.
verbose [
on|
off]
If verbose is switched on, the command name is echoed, whenever a window is
created (or resurrected from zombie state). Default is off. Without a
parameter, the current setting is shown.
version
Print the current version and the compile date in the status line.
wall message
Write a message to all displays. The message will appear in the terminal's
status line.
width [
-w|
-d] [
cols [
lines]]
Toggle the window width between 80 and 132 columns or set it to
cols
columns if an argument is specified. This requires a capable terminal and the
termcap entries "Z0" and "Z1". See the "termcap"
command for more information. You can also specify a new height if you want to
change both values. The
-w option tells screen to leave the display
size unchanged and just set the window size,
-d vice versa.
windowlist [
-b] [
-m] [
-g]
windowlist string [
string]
windowlist title [
title]
Display all windows in a table for visual window selection. If screen was in a
window group, screen will back out of the group and then display the windows
in that group. If the
-b option is given, screen will switch to the
blank window before presenting the list, so that the current window is also
selectable. The
-m option changes the order of the windows, instead of
sorting by window numbers screen uses its internal most-recently-used list.
The
-g option will show the windows inside any groups in that level and
downwards.
The following keys are used to navigate in "windowlist":
k,
C-p, or
up Move up one line.
j,
C-n, or
down Move down one line.
C-g or
escape Exit windowlist.
C-a or
home Move to the first line.
C-e or
end Move to the last line.
C-u or
C-d Move one half page up or down.
C-b or
C-f Move one full page up or down.
0..9 Using the number keys, move to the selected line.
mouseclick Move to the selected line. Available when
"mousetrack" is set to "on"
/ Search.
n Repeat search in the forward direction.
N Repeat search in the backward direction.
m Toggle MRU.
g Toggle group nesting.
a All window view.
C-h or backspace Back out the group.
, Switch numbers with the previous window.
. Switch numbers with the next window.
K Kill that window.
space or
enter Select that window.
The table format can be changed with the
string and
title option,
the title is displayed as table heading, while the lines are made by using the
string setting. The default setting is "Num Name%=Flags" for the
title and "%3n %t%=%f" for the lines. See the "STRING
ESCAPES" chapter for more codes (e.g. color settings).
"Windowlist" needs a region size of at least 10 characters wide and 6
characters high in order to display.
windows
Uses the message line to display a list of all the windows. Each window is
listed by number with the name of process that has been started in the window
(or its title); the current window is marked with a `*'; the previous window
is marked with a `-'; all the windows that are "logged in" are
marked with a `$'; a background window that has received a bell is marked with
a `!'; a background window that is being monitored and has had activity occur
is marked with an `@'; a window which has output logging turned on is marked
with `(L)'; windows occupied by other users are marked with `&'; windows
in the zombie state are marked with `Z'. If this list is too long to fit on
the terminal's status line only the portion around the current window is
displayed.
wrap [
on|
off]
Sets the line-wrap setting for the current window. When line-wrap is on, the
second consecutive printable character output at the last column of a line
will wrap to the start of the following line. As an added feature, backspace
(^H) will also wrap through the left margin to the previous line. Default is
`on'. Without any options, the state of wrap is toggled.
writebuf [
-e encoding] [
filename]
Writes the contents of the paste buffer to the specified file, or the public
accessible screen-exchange file if no filename is given. This is thought of as
a primitive means of communication between
screen users on the same
host. If an encoding is specified the paste buffer is recoded on the fly to
match the encoding. The filename can be set with the
bufferfile command
and defaults to "/tmp/screen-exchange".
writelock [
on|
off|auto]
In addition to access control lists, not all users may be able to write to the
same window at once. Per default, writelock is in `auto' mode and grants
exclusive input permission to the user who is the first to switch to the
particular window. When he leaves the window, other users may obtain the
writelock (automatically). The writelock of the current window is disabled by
the command "writelock off". If the user issues the command
"writelock on" he keeps the exclusive write permission while
switching to other windows.
xoff
xon
Insert a CTRL-s / CTRL-q character to the stdin queue of the current window.
zmodem [
off|auto|catch|pass]
zmodem sendcmd [
string]
zmodem recvcmd [
string]
Define zmodem support for screen. Screen understands two different modes when it
detects a zmodem request: "pass" and "catch". If the mode
is set to "pass", screen will relay all data to the attacher until
the end of the transmission is reached. In "catch" mode screen acts
as a zmodem endpoint and starts the corresponding rz/sz commands. If the mode
is set to "auto", screen will use "catch" if the window is
a tty (e.g. a serial line), otherwise it will use "pass".
You can define the templates screen uses in "catch" mode via the
second and the third form.
Note also that this is an experimental feature.
zombie [
keys[onerror
]]
defzombie [
keys]
Per default
screen windows are removed from the window list as soon as
the windows process (e.g. shell) exits. When a string of two keys is specified
to the zombie command, `dead' windows will remain in the list. The
kill
command may be used to remove such a window. Pressing the first key in the
dead window has the same effect. When pressing the second key,
screen
will attempt to resurrect the window. The process that was initially running
in the window will be launched again. Calling
zombie without parameters
will clear the zombie setting, thus making windows disappear when their
process exits.
As the zombie-setting is manipulated globally for all windows, this command
should only be called
defzombie. Until we need this as a per window
setting, the commands
zombie and
defzombie are synonymous.
Optionally you can put the word "onerror" after the keys. This will
cause screen to monitor exit status of the process running in the window. If
it exits normally ('0'), the window disappears. Any other exit value causes
the window to become a zombie.
THE MESSAGE LINE¶
Screen displays informational messages and other diagnostics in a
message line. While this line is distributed to appear at the bottom of
the screen, it can be defined to appear at the top of the screen during
compilation. If your terminal has a status line defined in its termcap,
screen will use this for displaying its messages, otherwise a line of
the current screen will be temporarily overwritten and output will be
momentarily interrupted. The message line is automatically removed after a few
seconds delay, but it can also be removed early (on terminals without a status
line) by beginning to type.
The message line facility can be used by an application running in the current
window by means of the ANSI
Privacy message control sequence. For
instance, from within the shell, try something like:
- echo '<esc>^Hello world from window
'$WINDOW'<esc>\\'
where '<esc>' is an
escape, '^' is a literal up-arrow, and '\\'
turns into a single backslash.
WINDOW TYPES¶
Screen provides three different window types. New windows are created with
screen's
screen command (see also the entry in chapter
"CUSTOMIZATION"). The first parameter to the
screen command
defines which type of window is created. The different window types are all
special cases of the normal type. They have been added in order to allow
screen to be used efficiently as a console multiplexer with 100 or more
windows.
- •
- The normal window contains a shell (default, if no
parameter is given) or any other system command that could be executed
from a shell (e.g. slogin, etc…)
- •
- If a tty (character special device) name (e.g.
"/dev/ttya") is specified as the first parameter, then the
window is directly connected to this device. This window type is similar
to "screen cu -l /dev/ttya". Read and write access is required
on the device node, an exclusive open is attempted on the node to mark the
connection line as busy. An optional parameter is allowed consisting of a
comma separated list of flags in the notation used by stty(1):
- <baud_rate>
- Usually 300, 1200, 9600 or 19200. This affects transmission
as well as receive speed.
- cs8 or cs7
- Specify the transmission of eight (or seven) bits per
byte.
- ixon or -ixon
- Enables (or disables) software flow-control (CTRL-S/CTRL-Q)
for sending data.
- ixoff or -ixoff
- Enables (or disables) software flow-control for receiving
data.
- istrip or -istrip
- Clear (or keep) the eight bit in each received byte.
You may want to specify as many of these options as applicable. Unspecified
options cause the terminal driver to make up the parameter values of the
connection. These values are system dependent and may be in defaults or values
saved from a previous connection.
For tty windows, the
info command shows some of the modem control lines
in the status line. These may include `RTS', `CTS', 'DTR', `DSR', `CD' and
more. This depends on the available ioctl()'s and system header files as well
as the on the physical capabilities of the serial board. Signals that are
logical low (inactive) have their name preceded by an exclamation mark (!),
otherwise the signal is logical high (active). Signals not supported by the
hardware but available to the ioctl() interface are usually shown low.
When the CLOCAL status bit is true, the whole set of modem signals is placed
inside curly braces ({ and }). When the CRTSCTS or TIOCSOFTCAR bit is set, the
signals `CTS' or `CD' are shown in parenthesis, respectively.
For tty windows, the command
break causes the Data transmission line
(TxD) to go low for a specified period of time. This is expected to be
interpreted as break signal on the other side. No data is sent and no modem
control line is changed when a
break is issued.
- •
- If the first parameter is "//telnet", the second
parameter is expected to be a host name, and an optional third parameter
may specify a TCP port number (default decimal 23). Screen will connect to
a server listening on the remote host and use the telnet protocol to
communicate with that server.
For telnet windows, the command info shows details about the
connection in square brackets ([ and ]) at the end of the status
line.
- b
- BINARY. The connection is in binary mode.
- e
- ECHO. Local echo is disabled.
- c
- SGA. The connection is in `character mode' (default: `line
mode').
- t
- TTYPE. The terminal type has been requested by the remote
host. Screen sends the name "screen" unless instructed otherwise
(see also the command `term').
- w
- NAWS. The remote site is notified about window size
changes.
- f
- LFLOW. The remote host will send flow control information.
(Ignored at the moment.)
Additional flags for debugging are x, t and n (XDISPLOC, TSPEED and NEWENV).
For telnet windows, the command
break sends the telnet code IAC BREAK
(decimal 243) to the remote host.
This window type is only available if
screen was compiled with the
BUILTIN_TELNET option defined.
STRING ESCAPES¶
Screen provides an escape mechanism to insert information like the current time
into messages or file names. The escape character is '%' with one exception:
inside of a window's hardstatus '^%' ('^E') is used instead.
Here is the full list of supported escapes:
- %
- the escape character itself
- a
- either 'am' or 'pm'
- A
- either 'AM' or 'PM'
- c
- current time HH:MM in 24h format
- C
- current time HH:MM in 12h format
- d
- day number
- D
- weekday name
- E
- sets %? to true if the escape character has been
pressed.
- f
- flags of the window, see "windows" for meanings
of the various flags
- F
- sets %? to true if the window has the focus
- h
- hardstatus of the window
- H
- hostname of the system
- l
- current load of the system
- m
- month number
- M
- month name
- n
- window number
- P
- sets %? to true if the current region is in copy/paste
mode
- S
- session name
- s
- seconds
- t
- window title
- u
- all other users on this window
- w
- all window numbers and names. With '-' qualifier: up to the
current window; with '+' qualifier: starting with the window after the
current one.
- W
- all window numbers and names except the current one
- y
- last two digits of the year number
- Y
- full year number
- ?
- the part to the next '%?' is displayed only if a '%' escape
inside the part expands to a non-empty string
- :
- else part of '%?'
- =
- pad the string to the display's width (like TeX's hfill).
If a number is specified, pad to the percentage of the window's width. A
'0' qualifier tells screen to treat the number as absolute position. You
can specify to pad relative to the last absolute pad position by adding a
'+' qualifier or to pad relative to the right margin by using '-'. The
padding truncates the string if the specified position lies before the
current position. Add the 'L' qualifier to change this.
- <
- same as '%=' but just do truncation, do not fill with
spaces
- >
- mark the current text position for the next truncation.
When screen needs to do truncation, it tries to do it in a way that the
marked position gets moved to the specified percentage of the output area.
(The area starts from the last absolute pad position and ends with the
position specified by the truncation operator.) The 'L' qualifier tells
screen to mark the truncated parts with '…'.
- {
- attribute/color modifier string terminated by the next
"}"
- `
- Substitute with the output of a 'backtick' command. The
length qualifier is misused to identify one of the commands.
The 'c' and 'C' escape may be qualified with a '0' to make
screen use
zero instead of space as fill character. The '0' qualifier also makes the '='
escape use absolute positions. The 'n' and '=' escapes understand a length
qualifier (e.g. '%3n'), 'D' and 'M' can be prefixed with 'L' to generate long
names, 'w' and 'W' also show the window flags if 'L' is given.
An attribute/color modifier is is used to change the attributes or the color
settings. Its format is "[attribute modifier] [color description]".
The attribute modifier must be prefixed by a change type indicator if it can
be confused with a color description. The following change types are known:
- +
- add the specified set to the current attributes
- -
- remove the set from the current attributes
- !
- invert the set in the current attributes
- =
- change the current attributes to the specified set
The attribute set can either be specified as a hexadecimal number or a
combination of the following letters:
- d
- dim
- u
- underline
- b
- bold
- r
- reverse
- s
- standout
- B
- blinking
Colors are coded either as a hexadecimal number or two letters specifying the
desired background and foreground color (in that order). The following colors
are known:
- k
- black
- r
- red
- g
- green
- y
- yellow
- b
- blue
- m
- magenta
- c
- cyan
- w
- white
- d
- default color
- .
- leave color unchanged
The capitalized versions of the letter specify bright colors. You can also use
the pseudo-color 'i' to set just the brightness and leave the color unchanged.
A one digit/letter color description is treated as foreground or background
color dependent on the current attributes: if reverse mode is set, the
background color is changed instead of the foreground color. If you don't like
this, prefix the color with a ".". If you want the same behavior for
two-letter color descriptions, also prefix them with a ".".
As a special case, "%{-}" restores the attributes and colors that were
set before the last change was made (i.e., pops one level of the color-change
stack).
Examples:
- set color to bright green
- use bold red
- clear all attributes, write in default color on yellow
background.
- %-Lw%{= BW}%50>%n%f* %t%{-}%+Lw%<
- The available windows centered at the current window and
truncated to the available width. The current window is displayed white on
blue. This can be used with "hardstatus alwayslastline".
- %?%F%{.R.}%?%3n %t%? [%h]%?
- The window number and title and the window's hardstatus, if
one is set. Also use a red background if this is the active focus. Useful
for "caption string".
FLOW-CONTROL¶
Each window has a flow-control setting that determines how
screen deals
with the XON and XOFF characters (and perhaps the interrupt character). When
flow-control is turned off,
screen ignores the XON and XOFF characters,
which allows the user to send them to the current program by simply typing
them (useful for the
emacs editor, for instance). The trade-off is that
it will take longer for output from a "normal" program to pause in
response to an XOFF. With flow-control turned on, XON and XOFF characters are
used to immediately pause the output of the current window. You can still send
these characters to the current program, but you must use the appropriate
two-character
screen commands (typically "C-a q" (xon) and
"C-a s" (xoff)). The xon/xoff commands are also useful for typing
C-s and C-q past a terminal that intercepts these characters.
Each window has an initial flow-control value set with either the
-f
option or the "defflow" .screenrc command. Per default the windows
are set to automatic flow-switching. It can then be toggled between the three
states 'fixed on', 'fixed off' and 'automatic' interactively with the
"flow" command bound to "C-a f".
The automatic flow-switching mode deals with flow control using the TIOCPKT mode
(like "rlogin" does). If the tty driver does not support TIOCPKT,
screen tries to find out the right mode based on the current setting of
the application keypad - when it is enabled, flow-control is turned off and
visa versa. Of course, you can still manipulate flow-control manually when
needed.
If you're running with flow-control enabled and find that pressing the interrupt
key (usually C-c) does not interrupt the display until another 6-8 lines have
scrolled by, try running
screen with the "interrupt" option
(add the "interrupt" flag to the "flow" command in your
.screenrc, or use the
-i command-line option). This causes the output
that
screen has accumulated from the interrupted program to be flushed.
One disadvantage is that the virtual terminal's memory contains the
non-flushed version of the output, which in rare cases can cause minor
inaccuracies in the output. For example, if you switch screens and return, or
update the screen with "C-a l" you would see the version of the
output you would have gotten without "interrupt" being on. Also, you
might need to turn off flow-control (or use auto-flow mode to turn it off
automatically) when running a program that expects you to type the interrupt
character as input, as it is possible to interrupt the output of the virtual
terminal to your physical terminal when flow-control is enabled. If this
happens, a simple refresh of the screen with "C-a l" will restore
it. Give each mode a try, and use whichever mode you find more comfortable.
TITLES (naming windows)¶
You can customize each window's name in the window display (viewed with the
"windows" command (C-a w)) by setting it with one of the title
commands. Normally the name displayed is the actual command name of the
program created in the window. However, it is sometimes useful to distinguish
various programs of the same name or to change the name on-the-fly to reflect
the current state of the window.
The default name for all shell windows can be set with the
"shelltitle" command in the .screenrc file, while all other windows
are created with a "screen" command and thus can have their name set
with the
-t option. Interactively, there is the title-string
escape-sequence (<esc>k
name<esc>\) and the
"title" command (C-a A). The former can be output from an
application to control the window's name under software control, and the
latter will prompt for a name when typed. You can also bind pre-defined names
to keys with the "title" command to set things quickly without
prompting.
Finally,
screen has a shell-specific heuristic that is enabled by setting
the window's name to "
search|name" and arranging to have a
null title escape-sequence output as a part of your prompt. The
search
portion specifies an end-of-prompt search string, while the
name
portion specifies the default shell name for the window. If the
name
ends in a `:'
screen will add what it believes to be the current
command running in the window to the end of the window's shell name (e.g.
"
name:cmd"). Otherwise the current command name supersedes
the shell name while it is running.
Here's how it works: you must modify your shell prompt to output a null
title-escape-sequence (<esc>k<esc>\) as a part of your prompt. The
last part of your prompt must be the same as the string you specified for the
search portion of the title. Once this is set up,
screen will
use the title-escape-sequence to clear the previous command name and get ready
for the next command. Then, when a newline is received from the shell, a
search is made for the end of the prompt. If found, it will grab the first
word after the matched string and use it as the command name. If the command
name begins with either '!', '%', or '^'
screen will use the first word
on the following line (if found) in preference to the just-found name. This
helps csh users get better command names when using job control or history
recall commands.
Here's some .screenrc examples:
- screen -t top 2 nice top
Adding this line to your .screenrc would start a nice-d version of the
"top" command in window 2 named "top" rather than
"nice".
shelltitle '> |csh'
screen 1
These commands would start a shell with the given shelltitle. The title
specified is an auto-title that would expect the prompt and the typed command
to look something like the following:
- /usr/joe/src/dir> trn
(it looks after the '> ' for the command name). The window status would show
the name "trn" while the command was running, and revert to
"csh" upon completion.
- bind R screen -t '% |root:' su
Having this command in your .screenrc would bind the key sequence "C-a
R" to the "su" command and give it an auto-title name of
"root:". For this auto-title to work, the screen could look
something like this:
% !em
emacs file.c
Here the user typed the csh history command "!em" which ran the
previously entered "emacs" command. The window status would show
"root:emacs" during the execution of the command, and revert to
simply "root:" at its completion.
bind o title
bind E title ""
bind u title (unknown)
The first binding doesn't have any arguments, so it would prompt you for a
title. when you type "C-a o". The second binding would clear an
auto-title's current setting (C-a E). The third binding would set the current
window's title to "(unknown)" (C-a u).
One thing to keep in mind when adding a null title-escape-sequence to your
prompt is that some shells (like the csh) count all the non-control characters
as part of the prompt's length. If these invisible characters aren't a
multiple of 8 then backspacing over a tab will result in an incorrect display.
One way to get around this is to use a prompt like this:
- set prompt='^[[0000m^[k^[\% '
The escape-sequence "<esc>[0000m" not only normalizes the
character attributes, but all the zeros round the length of the invisible
characters up to 8. Bash users will probably want to echo the escape sequence
in the PROMPT_COMMAND:
- PROMPT_COMMAND='printf "\033k\033\134"'
(I used "134" to output a `\' because of a bug in bash v1.04).
THE VIRTUAL TERMINAL¶
Each window in a
screen session emulates a VT100 terminal, with some
extra functions added. The VT100 emulator is hard-coded, no other terminal
types can be emulated.
Usually
screen tries to emulate as much of the VT100/ANSI standard as
possible. But if your terminal lacks certain capabilities, the emulation may
not be complete. In these cases
screen has to tell the applications
that some of the features are missing. This is no problem on machines using
termcap, because
screen can use the $TERMCAP variable to customize the
standard
screen termcap.
But if you do a rlogin on another machine or your machine supports only terminfo
this method fails. Because of this,
screen offers a way to deal with
these cases. Here is how it works:
When
screen tries to figure out a terminal name for itself, it first
looks for an entry named "screen.<term>", where <term>
is the contents of your $TERM variable. If no such entry exists,
screen
tries "screen" (or "screen-w" if the terminal is wide (132
cols or more)). If even this entry cannot be found, "vt100" is used
as a substitute.
The idea is that if you have a terminal which doesn't support an important
feature (e.g. delete char or clear to EOS) you can build a new
termcap/terminfo entry for
screen (named
"screen.<dumbterm>") in which this capability has been
disabled. If this entry is installed on your machines you are able to do a
rlogin and still keep the correct termcap/terminfo entry. The terminal name is
put in the $TERM variable of all new windows.
Screen also sets the
$TERMCAP variable reflecting the capabilities of the virtual terminal
emulated. Notice that, however, on machines using the terminfo database this
variable has no effect. Furthermore, the variable $WINDOW is set to the window
number of each window.
The actual set of capabilities supported by the virtual terminal depends on the
capabilities supported by the physical terminal. If, for instance, the
physical terminal does not support underscore mode,
screen does not put
the `us' and `ue' capabilities into the window's $TERMCAP variable,
accordingly. However, a minimum number of capabilities must be supported by a
terminal in order to run
screen; namely scrolling, clear screen, and
direct cursor addressing (in addition,
screen does not run on hardcopy
terminals or on terminals that over-strike).
Also, you can customize the $TERMCAP value used by
screen by using the
"termcap" .screenrc command, or by defining the variable $SCREENCAP
prior to startup. When the is latter defined, its value will be copied
verbatim into each window's $TERMCAP variable. This can either be the full
terminal definition, or a filename where the terminal "screen"
(and/or "screen-w") is defined.
Note that
screen honors the "terminfo" .screenrc command if the
system uses the terminfo database rather than termcap.
When the boolean `G0' capability is present in the termcap entry for the
terminal on which
screen has been called, the terminal emulation of
screen supports multiple character sets. This allows an application to
make use of, for instance, the VT100 graphics character set or national
character sets. The following control functions from ISO 2022 are supported:
lock shift G0 (
SI),
lock shift G1 (
SO),
lock
shift G2,
lock shift G3,
single shift G2, and
single
shift G3. When a virtual terminal is created or reset, the ASCII character
set is designated as
G0 through
G3. When the `G0' capability is
present,
screen evaluates the capabilities `S0', `E0', and `C0' if
present. `S0' is the sequence the terminal uses to enable and start the
graphics character set rather than
SI. `E0' is the corresponding
replacement for
SO. `C0' gives a character by character translation
string that is used during semi-graphics mode. This string is built like the
`acsc' terminfo capability.
When the `po' and `pf' capabilities are present in the terminal's termcap entry,
applications running in a
screen window can send output to the printer
port of the terminal. This allows a user to have an application in one window
sending output to a printer connected to the terminal, while all other windows
are still active (the printer port is enabled and disabled again for each
chunk of output). As a side-effect, programs running in different windows can
send output to the printer simultaneously. Data sent to the printer is not
displayed in the window. The
info command displays a line starting
`PRIN' while the printer is active.
Screen maintains a hardstatus line for every window. If a window gets
selected, the display's hardstatus will be updated to match the window's
hardstatus line. If the display has no hardstatus the line will be displayed
as a standard
screen message. The hardstatus line can be changed with
the ANSI Application Program Command (APC):
"ESC_<string>ESC\". As a convenience for xterm users the
sequence "ESC]0..2;<string>^G" is also accepted.
Some capabilities are only put into the $TERMCAP variable of the virtual
terminal if they can be efficiently implemented by the physical terminal. For
instance, `dl' (delete line) is only put into the $TERMCAP variable if the
terminal supports either delete line itself or scrolling regions. Note that
this may provoke confusion, when the session is reattached on a different
terminal, as the value of $TERMCAP cannot be modified by parent processes.
The "alternate screen" capability is not enabled by default. Set the
altscreen .screenrc command to enable it.
The following is a list of control sequences recognized by
screen.
"(V)" and "(A)" indicate VT100-specific and ANSI- or
ISO-specific functions, respectively.
- ESC E
- Next Line
- ESC D
- Index
- ESC M
- Reverse Index
- ESC H
- Horizontal Tab Set
- ESC Z
- Send VT100 Identification String
- ESC 7 (V)
- Save Cursor and Attributes
- ESC 8 (V)
- Restore Cursor and Attributes
- ESC [s (A)
- Save Cursor and Attributes
- ESC [u (A)
- Restore Cursor and Attributes
- ESC c
- Reset to Initial State
- ESC g
- Visual Bell
- ESC Pn p
- Cursor Visibility (97801)
- Pn = 6
- Invisible
- 7
- Visible
- ESC = (V)
- Application Keypad Mode
- ESC > (V)
- Numeric Keypad Mode
- ESC # 8 (V)
- Fill Screen with E's
- ESC \ (A)
- String Terminator
- ESC ^ (A)
- Privacy Message String (Message Line)
- ESC !
- Global Message String (Message Line)
- ESC k
- A.k.a. Definition String
- ESC P (A)
- Device Control String. Outputs a string directly to the
host terminal without interpretation.
- ESC _ (A)
- Application Program Command (Hardstatus)
- ESC ] 0 ; string ^G (A)
- Operating System Command (Hardstatus, xterm title
hack)
- ESC ] 83 ; cmd ^G (A)
- Execute screen command. This only works if multi-user
support is compiled into screen. The pseudo-user ":window:" is
used to check the access control list. Use "addacl :window: -rwx
#?" to create a user with no rights and allow only the needed
commands.
- Control-N (A)
- Lock Shift G1 (SO)
- Control-O (A)
- Lock Shift G0 (SI)
- ESC n (A)
- Lock Shift G2
- ESC o (A)
- Lock Shift G3
- ESC N (A)
- Single Shift G2
- ESC O (A)
- Single Shift G3
- ESC ( Pcs (A)
- Designate character set as G0
- ESC ) Pcs (A)
- Designate character set as G1
- ESC * Pcs (A)
- Designate character set as G2
- ESC + Pcs (A)
- Designate character set as G3
- ESC [ Pn ; Pn H
- Direct Cursor Addressing
- ESC [ Pn ; Pn f
- same as above
- ESC [ Pn J
- Erase in Display
- Pn = None or 0
- From Cursor to End of Screen
- 1
- From Beginning of Screen to Cursor
- 2
- Entire Screen
- ESC [ Pn K
- Erase in Line
- Pn = None or 0
- From Cursor to End of Line
- 1
- From Beginning of Line to Cursor
- 2
- Entire Line
- ESC [ Pn X
- Erase character
- ESC [ Pn A
- Cursor Up
- ESC [ Pn B
- Cursor Down
- ESC [ Pn C
- Cursor Right
- ESC [ Pn D
- Cursor Left
- ESC [ Pn E
- Cursor next line
- ESC [ Pn F
- Cursor previous line
- ESC [ Pn G
- Cursor horizontal position
- ESC [ Pn `
- same as above
- ESC [ Pn d
- Cursor vertical position
- ESC [ Ps ;…;
Ps m
- Select Graphic Rendition
- Ps = None or 0
- Default Rendition
- 1
- Bold
- 2 (A)
- Faint
- 3 (A)
- Standout Mode (ANSI: Italicized)
- 4
- Underlined
- 5
- Blinking
- 7
- Negative Image
- 22 (A)
- Normal Intensity
- 23 (A)
- Standout Mode off (ANSI: Italicized off)
- 24 (A)
- Not Underlined
- 25 (A)
- Not Blinking
- 27 (A)
- Positive Image
- 30 (A)
- Foreground Black
- 31 (A)
- Foreground Red
- 32 (A)
- Foreground Green
- 33 (A)
- Foreground Yellow
- 34 (A)
- Foreground Blue
- 35 (A)
- Foreground Magenta
- 36 (A)
- Foreground Cyan
- 37 (A)
- Foreground White
- 39 (A)
- Foreground Default
- 40 (A)
- Background Black
- …
- …
- 49 (A)
- Background Default
- ESC [ Pn g
- Tab Clear
- Pn = None or 0
- Clear Tab at Current Position
- 3
- Clear All Tabs
- ESC [ Pn ; Pn
r (V)
- Set Scrolling Region
- ESC [ Pn I (A)
- Horizontal Tab
- ESC [ Pn Z (A)
- Backward Tab
- ESC [ Pn L (A)
- Insert Line
- ESC [ Pn M (A)
- Delete Line
- ESC [ Pn @ (A)
- Insert Character
- ESC [ Pn P (A)
- Delete Character
- ESC [ Pn S
- Scroll Scrolling Region Up
- ESC [ Pn T
- Scroll Scrolling Region Down
- ESC [ Pn ^
- same as above
- ESC [ Ps ;…;
Ps h
- Set Mode
- ESC [ Ps ;…;
Ps l
- Reset Mode
- Ps = 4 (A)
- Insert Mode
- 20 (A)
- Automatic Linefeed Mode
- 34
- Normal Cursor Visibility
- ?1 (V)
- Application Cursor Keys
- ?3 (V)
- Change Terminal Width to 132 columns
- ?5 (V)
- Reverse Video
- ?6 (V)
- Origin Mode
- ?7 (V)
- Wrap Mode
- ?9
- X10 mouse tracking
- ?25 (V)
- Visible Cursor
- ?47
- Alternate Screen (old xterm code)
- ?1000 (V)
- VT200 mouse tracking
- ?1047
- Alternate Screen (new xterm code)
- ?1049
- Alternate Screen (new xterm code)
- ESC [ 5 i (A)
- Start relay to printer (ANSI Media Copy)
- ESC [ 4 i (A)
- Stop relay to printer (ANSI Media Copy)
- ESC [ 8 ; Ph ; Pw t
- Resize the window to `Ph' lines and `Pw' columns (SunView
special)
- ESC [ c
- Send VT100 Identification String
- ESC [ x
- Send Terminal Parameter Report
- ESC [ > c
- Send VT220 Secondary Device Attributes String
- ESC [ 6 n
- Send Cursor Position Report
In order to do a full VT100 emulation
screen has to detect that a
sequence of characters in the input stream was generated by a keypress on the
user's keyboard and insert the VT100 style escape sequence.
Screen has
a very flexible way of doing this by making it possible to map arbitrary
commands on arbitrary sequences of characters. For standard VT100 emulation
the command will always insert a string in the input buffer of the window (see
also command
stuff in the command table). Because the sequences
generated by a keypress can change after a reattach from a different terminal
type, it is possible to bind commands to the termcap name of the keys.
Screen will insert the correct binding after each reattach. See the
bindkey command for further details on the syntax and examples.
Here is the table of the default key bindings. (A) means that the command is
executed if the keyboard is switched into application mode.
Key name Termcap name Command
Cursor up ku stuff \033[A
stuff \033OA (A)
Cursor down kd stuff \033[B
stuff \033OB (A)
Cursor right kr stuff \033[C
stuff \033OC (A)
Cursor left kl stuff \033[D
stuff \033OD (A)
Function key 0 k0 stuff \033[10~
Function key 1 k1 stuff \033OP
Function key 2 k2 stuff \033OQ
Function key 3 k3 stuff \033OR
Function key 4 k4 stuff \033OS
Function key 5 k5 stuff \033[15~
Function key 6 k6 stuff \033[17~
Function key 7 k7 stuff \033[18~
Function key 8 k8 stuff \033[19~
Function key 9 k9 stuff \033[20~
Function key 10 k; stuff \033[21~
Function key 11 F1 stuff \033[23~
Function key 12 F2 stuff \033[24~
Home kh stuff \033[1~
End kH stuff \033[4~
Insert kI stuff \033[2~
Delete kD stuff \033[3~
Page up kP stuff \033[5~
Page down kN stuff \033[6~
Keypad 0 f0 stuff 0
stuff \033Op (A)
Keypad 1 f1 stuff 1
stuff \033Oq (A)
Keypad 2 f2 stuff 2
stuff \033Or (A)
Keypad 3 f3 stuff 3
stuff \033Os (A)
Keypad 4 f4 stuff 4
stuff \033Ot (A)
Keypad 5 f5 stuff 5
stuff \033Ou (A)
Keypad 6 f6 stuff 6
stuff \033Ov (A)
Keypad 7 f7 stuff 7
stuff \033Ow (A)
Keypad 8 f8 stuff 8
stuff \033Ox (A)
Keypad 9 f9 stuff 9
stuff \033Oy (A)
Keypad + f+ stuff +
stuff \033Ok (A)
Keypad - f- stuff -
stuff \033Om (A)
Keypad * f* stuff *
stuff \033Oj (A)
Keypad / f/ stuff /
stuff \033Oo (A)
Keypad = fq stuff =
stuff \033OX (A)
Keypad . f. stuff .
stuff \033On (A)
Keypad , f, stuff ,
stuff \033Ol (A)
Keypad enter fe stuff \015
stuff \033OM (A)
SPECIAL TERMINAL CAPABILITIES¶
The following table describes all terminal capabilities that are recognized by
screen and are not in the
termcap(5) manual. You can place these
capabilities in your termcap entries (in `/etc/termcap') or use them with the
commands `termcap', `terminfo' and `termcapinfo' in your screenrc files. It is
often not possible to place these capabilities in the terminfo database.
- LP (bool)
- Terminal has VT100 style margins (`magic margins'). Note
that this capability is obsolete because screen uses the standard
'xn' instead.
- Z0 (str)
- Change width to 132 columns.
- Z1 (str)
- Change width to 80 columns.
- WS (str)
- Resize display. This capability has the desired width and
height as arguments. SunView(tm) example: '\E[8;%d;%dt'.
- NF (bool)
- Terminal doesn't need flow control. Send ^S and ^Q direct
to the application. Same as 'flow off'. The opposite of this capability is
'nx'.
- G0 (bool)
- Terminal can deal with ISO 2022 font selection
sequences.
- S0 (str)
- Switch charset 'G0' to the specified charset. Default is
'\E(%.'.
- E0 (str)
- Switch charset 'G0' back to standard charset. Default is
'\E(B'.
- C0 (str)
- Use the string as a conversion table for font '0'. See the
'ac' capability for more details.
- CS (str)
- Switch cursor-keys to application mode.
- CE (str)
- Switch cursor-keys back to normal mode.
- AN (bool)
- Turn on autonuke. See the 'autonuke' command for more
details.
- OL (num)
- Set the output buffer limit. See the 'obuflimit' command
for more details.
- KJ (str)
- Set the encoding of the terminal. See the 'encoding'
command for valid encodings.
- AF (str)
- Change character foreground color in an ANSI conform way.
This capability will almost always be set to '\E[3%dm' ('\E[3%p1%dm' on
terminfo machines).
- AB (str)
- Same as 'AF', but change background color.
- AX (bool)
- Does understand ANSI set default fg/bg color (\E[39m /
\E[49m).
- XC (str)
- Describe a translation of characters to strings depending
on the current font. More details follow in the next section.
- XT (bool)
- Terminal understands special xterm sequences (OSC, mouse
tracking).
- C8 (bool)
- Terminal needs bold to display high-intensity colors (e.g.
Eterm).
- TF (bool)
- Add missing capabilities to the termcap/info entry. (Set by
default).
CHARACTER TRANSLATION¶
Screen has a powerful mechanism to translate characters to arbitrary
strings depending on the current font and terminal type. Use this feature if
you want to work with a common standard character set (say ISO8851-latin1)
even on terminals that scatter the more unusual characters over several
national language font pages.
Syntax:
XC=<charset-mapping>{,,<charset-mapping>}
<charset-mapping> := <designator><template>{,<mapping>}
<mapping> := <char-to-be-mapped><template-arg>
The things in braces may be repeated any number of times.
A
<charset-mapping> tells
screen how to map characters in
font
<designator> ('B': Ascii, 'A': UK, 'K': German, etc.) to
strings. Every
<mapping> describes to what string a single
character will be translated. A template mechanism is used, as most of the
time the codes have a lot in common (for example strings to switch to and from
another charset). Each occurrence of '%' in
<template> gets
substituted with the
<template-arg> specified together with the
character. If your strings are not similar at all, then use '%' as a template
and place the full string in
<template-arg>. A quoting mechanism
was added to make it possible to use a real '%'. The '\' character quotes the
special characters '\', '%', and ','.
Here is an example:
termcap hp700 'XC=B\E(K%\E(B,\304[,\326\\\\,\334]'
This tells
screen how to translate ISOlatin1 (charset 'B') upper case
umlaut characters on a hp700 terminal that has a German charset. '\304' gets
translated to '\E(K[\E(B' and so on. Note that this line gets parsed *three*
times before the internal lookup table is built, therefore a lot of quoting is
needed to create a single '\'.
Another extension was added to allow more emulation: If a mapping translates the
unquoted '%' char, it will be sent to the terminal whenever
screen
switches to the corresponding
<designator>. In this special case
the template is assumed to be just '%' because the charset switch sequence and
the character mappings normally haven't much in common.
This example shows one use of the extension:
termcap xterm 'XC=K%,%\E(B,[\304,\\\\\326,]\334'
Here, a part of the German ('K') charset is emulated on an xterm. If
screen has to change to the 'K' charset, '\E(B' will be sent to the
terminal, i.e. the ASCII charset is used instead. The template is just '%', so
the mapping is straightforward: '[' to '\304', '\' to '\326', and ']' to
'\334'.
ENVIRONMENT¶
- COLUMNS
- Number of columns on the terminal (overrides termcap
entry).
- HOME
- Directory in which to look for .screenrc.
- LINES
- Number of lines on the terminal (overrides termcap
entry).
- LOCKPRG
- Screen lock program.
- NETHACKOPTIONS
- Turns on nethack option.
- PATH
- Used for locating programs to run.
- SCREENCAP
- For customizing a terminal's TERMCAP value.
- SCREENDIR
- Alternate socket directory.
- SCREENRC
- Alternate user screenrc file.
- SHELL
- Default shell program for opening windows (default
"/bin/sh").
- STY
- Alternate socket name.
- SYSSCREENRC
- Alternate system screenrc file.
- TERM
- Terminal name.
- TERMCAP
- Terminal description.
- WINDOW
- Window number of a window (at creation time).
FILES¶
- …/screen-4.?.??/etc/screenrc
- …/screen-4.?.??/etc/etcscreenrc
- Examples in the screen distribution package for
private and global initialization files.
- $SYSSCREENRC
- /etc/screenrc
- screen initialization commands
- $SCREENRC
- $HOME/.screenrc
- Read in after /etc/screenrc
- $SCREENDIR/S-<login>
- /var/run/screen/S-<login>
- Socket directories (default)
- /usr/tmp/screens/S-<login>
- Alternate socket directories.
- <socket directory>/.termcap
- Written by the "termcap" output function
- /usr/tmp/screens/screen-exchange
- or
- /tmp/screen-exchange
- screen `interprocess communication buffer'
- hardcopy.[0-9]
- Screen images created by the hardcopy function
- screenlog.[0-9]
- Output log files created by the log function
- /usr/lib/terminfo/?/*
- or
- /etc/termcap
- Terminal capability databases
- /var/run/utmp
- Login records
- $LOCKPRG
- Program that locks a terminal.
SEE ALSO¶
termcap(5),
utmp(5),
vi(1),
captoinfo(1),
tic(1)
AUTHORS¶
Originally created by Oliver Laumann, this latest version was produced by
Juergen Weigert, Michael Schroeder, Micah Cowan and Sadrul Habib Chowdhury.
COPYLEFT¶
Copyright (c) 2010
Juergen Weigert (jnweiger@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de)
Sadrul Habib Chowdhury (sadrul@users.sourceforge.net)
Copyright (c) 2008, 2009
Juergen Weigert (jnweiger@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de)
Michael Schroeder (mlschroe@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de)
Micah Cowan (micah@cowan.name)
Sadrul Habib Chowdhury (sadrul@users.sourceforge.net)
Copyright (C) 1993-2003
Juergen Weigert (jnweiger@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de)
Michael Schroeder (mlschroe@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de)
Copyright (C) 1987 Oliver Laumann
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
this program (see the file COPYING); if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA
CONTRIBUTORS¶
Ken Beal (kbeal@amber.ssd.csd.harris.com),
Rudolf Koenig (rfkoenig@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de),
Toerless Eckert (eckert@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de),
Wayne Davison (davison@borland.com),
Patrick Wolfe (pat@kai.com, kailand!pat),
Bart Schaefer (schaefer@cse.ogi.edu),
Nathan Glasser (nathan@brokaw.lcs.mit.edu),
Larry W. Virden (lvirden@cas.org),
Howard Chu (hyc@hanauma.jpl.nasa.gov),
Tim MacKenzie (tym@dibbler.cs.monash.edu.au),
Markku Jarvinen (mta@{cc,cs,ee}.tut.fi),
Marc Boucher (marc@CAM.ORG),
Doug Siebert (dsiebert@isca.uiowa.edu),
Ken Stillson (stillson@tsfsrv.mitre.org),
Ian Frechett (frechett@spot.Colorado.EDU),
Brian Koehmstedt (bpk@gnu.ai.mit.edu),
Don Smith (djs6015@ultb.isc.rit.edu),
Frank van der Linden (vdlinden@fwi.uva.nl),
Martin Schweikert (schweik@cpp.ob.open.de),
David Vrona (dave@sashimi.lcu.com),
E. Tye McQueen (tye%spillman.UUCP@uunet.uu.net),
Matthew Green (mrg@eterna.com.au),
Christopher Williams (cgw@pobox.com),
Matt Mosley (mattm@access.digex.net),
Gregory Neil Shapiro (gshapiro@wpi.WPI.EDU),
Johannes Zellner (johannes@zellner.org),
Pablo Averbuj (pablo@averbuj.com).
VERSION¶
This is version 4.1.0. Its roots are a merge of a custom version 2.3PR7 by Wayne
Davison and several enhancements to Oliver Laumann's version 2.0. Note that
all versions numbered 2.x are copyright by Oliver Laumann.
AVAILABILITY¶
The latest official release of
screen available via anonymous ftp from
gnudist.gnu.org, nic.funet.fi or any other
GNU distribution site. The
home site of
screen is ftp.uni-erlangen.de, in the directory
pub/utilities/screen. The subdirectory `private' contains the latest beta
testing release. If you want to help, send a note to screen@uni-erlangen.de.
BUGS¶
- •
- `dm' (delete mode) and `xs' are not handled correctly (they
are ignored). `xn' is treated as a magic-margin indicator.
- •
- Screen has no clue about double-high or double-wide
characters. But this is the only area where vttest is allowed to
fail.
- •
- It is not possible to change the environment variable
$TERMCAP when reattaching under a different terminal type.
- •
- The support of terminfo based systems is very limited.
Adding extra capabilities to $TERMCAP may not have any effects.
- •
- Screen does not make use of hardware tabs.
- •
- Screen must be installed as set-uid with owner root
on most systems in order to be able to correctly change the owner of the
tty device file for each window. Special permission may also be required
to write the file "/var/run/utmp".
- •
- Entries in "/var/run/utmp" are not removed when
screen is killed with SIGKILL. This will cause some programs (like
"w" or "rwho") to advertise that a user is logged on
who really isn't.
- •
- Screen may give a strange warning when your tty has
no utmp entry.
- •
- When the modem line was hung up, screen may not
automatically detach (or quit) unless the device driver is configured to
send a HANGUP signal. To detach a screen session use the -D or -d
command line option.
- •
- If a password is set, the command line options -d and -D
still detach a session without asking.
- •
- Both "breaktype" and "defbreaktype"
change the break generating method used by all terminal devices. The first
should change a window specific setting, where the latter should change
only the default for new windows.
- •
- When attaching to a multiuser session, the user's .screenrc
file is not sourced. Each user's personal settings have to be included in
the .screenrc file from which the session is booted, or have to be changed
manually.
- •
- A weird imagination is most useful to gain full advantage
of all the features.
- •
- Send bug-reports, fixes, enhancements, t-shirts, money,
beer & pizza to screen@uni-erlangen.de.