| Description |
Command |
| start a new screen session with session name |
screen -S |
| list running sessions/screens |
screen -ls |
| attach to a running session |
screen -x |
| attach to session name |
screen -r |
| the “ultimate attach” |
screen -dRR (Attaches to a screen session. If the session is attached elsewhere, detaches that other display. If no session exists, creates one. If multiple sessions exist, uses the first one.) |
All screen commands are prefixed by an escape key, by default C-a (that's Control-a, sometimes written ^a). To send a literal C-a to the programs in screen, use C-a a. This is useful when working with screen within screen. For example C-a a nwill move screen to a new window on the screen within screen.
| Description |
Command |
| detach |
C-a d |
| detach and logout (quick exit) |
C-a D D |
| exit screen |
C-a \ Exit all of the programs in screen. (not recommended) |
| force-exit screen |
C-a C-\ (not recommended) |
| getting out of the screen session |
exit |
| Description |
Command |
| create new window |
C-a c |
| change to last-visited active window |
C-a C-a (commonly used to flip-flop between two windows) |
| change to window by number |
C-a (only for windows 0 to 9) |
| change to window by number or name |
C-a ' |
| change to next window in list |
C-a n or C-a |
| change to previous window in list |
C-a p or C-a |
| see window list |
C-a " (allows you to select a window to change to) |
| show window bar |
C-a w (if you don't have window bar) |
| close current window |
Close all applications in the current window (including shell) |
| kill current window |
C-a k (not recommended) |
| kill all windows |
C-a \ (not recommended) |
| rename current window |
C-a A |
| Description |
Command |
| split display horizontally |
C-a S |
| split display vertically |
C-a |
| jump to next display region |
C-a tab |
| remove current region |
C-a X |
| remove all regions but the current one |
C-a Q |
| Description |
Command |
| freely navigate buffer |
C-a [ or C-a |
| toggle selection to copy |
space |
| paste |
C-a ] |
| Description |
Command |
| See help |
C-a ? (lists keybindings) |
To any session name,
| Description |
Command |
| send a command to a named session |
screen -S -X |
| create a new window and run ping example.com |
screen -S -X screen ping example.com |
| stuff characters into the input buffer, using bash to expand a newline character |
screen -S [-p ] -X stuff $'quit\r' |
A full example:
# run bash within screen
screen -AmdS bash_shell bash
# run top within that bash session
screen -S bash_shell -p 0 -X stuff $'top\r'
# ... some time later
# stuff 'q' to tell top to quit
screen -S bash_shell -X stuff 'q'
# stuff 'exit\n' to exit bash session
screen -S bash_shell -X stuff $'exit\r'
| Description |
Command |
| redraw window |
C-a C-l |
| monitor window for activity |
C-a M |
| monitor window for silence |
C-a _ |
| enter digraph (for producing non-ASCII characters) |
C-a C-v |
| lock (password protect) session |
C-a x |
| enter screen command |
C-a : |
| enable logging in the screen session |
C-a H |
In copy mode, one can navigate the scrollback buffer in various ways:
| Description |
Command |
| half page up |
C-u |
| back |
C-b |
| cursor left/down/up/right |
h/j/k/l |
| half page down |
C-d |
| forward |
C-f |
