Screen Cheatsheet

screen_cheatsheet.markdown

Screen Quick Reference

Wait a minute, why would anyone use 'screen', and what is it anyway?

Well, because it's both AWESOME and FUN!!

It lets you keep your own session running on all the servers you already use, and chances are, it's probably already installed and waiting for you! (since 1987!)

Basic

Description	Command
Start a named screen session	screen -S <session_name>
List running sessions / screens	screen -ls
Attach to a running session	screen -x
Attach to a running session with name	screen -r <session_name>
Detach a running session	screen -d <session_name>
Enable/disable vertical scrolling mode* in a running session	Ctrl-a ESC

• The vertical scrolling mode works with mouse scrolling as well as up and down arrows. Press ESC to cancel out of this mode.

Escape Key

All screen commands are prefixed by an escape key, by default Ctrl-a (that's Control-a, sometimes written ^a). To send a literal Ctrl-a to the programs in screen, use Ctrl-a a. This is useful when when working with screen within screen. For example Ctrl-a a n will move screen to a new window on the screen within screen.

Getting Out

Description	Command
detach	Ctrl-a d
detach and logout (quick exit)	Ctrl-a D D
exit screen	Ctrl-a : quit or exit all of the programs in screen.
force-exit screen	Ctrl-a C-\ (not recommended)

Spawn & Monitor Named Screen Session on Remote Server

REMOTE_USER="hiphopapotamus" ; USER="rhymenoceros; PRIV_KEY="/home/${USER}/.ssh/id_rsa" ; HOST="conchords.linode.com" ; SESSION_NAME="${HOST}_$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)" ; COMMAND="ssh -i ${PRIV_KEY} ${REMOTE_USER}@${HOST} 'htop' ; exec bash ;" ; screen -dmS ${SESSION_NAME} bash -c " ${COMMAND} " ; screen -r ${SESSION_NAME} ; screen -ls ;

• Change the word "htop" above, leaving the single-quotes in place, to provide the remote command you intend to run.

Help

Description	Command
See help	Ctrl-a ? (Lists keybindings)

Window Management

Description	Command
Create new window	Ctrl-a c
Change to last-visited active window	Ctrl-a Ctrl-a (commonly used to flip-flop between two windows)
Change to window by number	Ctrl-a <number> (only for windows 0 to 9)
Change to window by number or name	Ctrl-a ' <number or title>
Change to next window in list	Ctrl-a n or Ctrl-a <space>
Change to previous window in list	Ctrl-a p or Ctrl-a <backspace>
See window list	Ctrl-a " (allows you to select a window to change to)
Show window bar	Ctrl-a w (if you don't have window bar)
Kill current window	Ctrl-a k (not recommended)
Kill all windows	Ctrl-a \ (not recommended)
Rename current window	Ctrl-a A

Split screen

Description	Command
Split display horizontally	Ctrl-a S
Split display vertically	Ctrl-a | or Ctrl-a V (for the vanilla vertical screen patch)
Jump to next display region	Ctrl-a tab
Remove current region	Ctrl-a X
Remove all regions but the current one	Ctrl-a Q

Misc

Description	Command
Redraw window	Ctrl-a C-l
Enter copy mode	Ctrl-a [ or Ctrl-a <esc> (also used for viewing scrollback buffer)
Paste	Ctrl-a ]
Monitor window for activity	Ctrl-a M
Monitor window for silence	Ctrl-a _
Enter digraph (for producing non-ASCII characters)	Ctrl-a Ctrl-v
Lock (password protect) display	Ctrl-a x
Enter screen command	Ctrl-a :
Enable logging in the screen session	Ctrl-a H

Can't believe yall let me misspell "rhymenoceros" for all these years... Thankfully that's fixed now!