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| Linux Screen tutorial and how-to |
| By Thom Holwerda, submitted by MOS6510 on 2012-08-30 23:11:19 |
| "You are logged into your remote server via SSH and happily plucking along at your keyboard and then it happens. Suddenly, the characters stop moving and then you get the dreaded 'Connection Closed' message. You have just lost your session. You were halfway through some task and now you have to start over. Ugh. Well you can prevent this from happening by using screen. The Linux screen tool can not only save you from disconnection disasters, but it also can increase your productivity by using multiple windows within one SSH session. I use this tool all of the time in our server management work." An older tutorial, and even though I have little to no knowledge about screen, I know one thing: lots of people swear by it. |
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| RE: This is the kind of thing that pisses RMS off |
| By WorknMan on 2012-08-31 01:50:12 |
|
> Yes, RMS has tired everyone out by arguing that people could say GNU/Linux, but come on. It's not the Linux screen tool. If that kind of thing pisses you off, you probably need to get out more. Seriously. Especially if you didn't even write the f**king thing. |
 - Score: -1 |
| RE[2]: Personally, I like tmux better. |
| By broken_symlink on 2012-08-31 01:53:31 |
|
I do this with screen, but I'm sure the same thing would probably work with tmux. Here's how, http://taint.org/wk/RemoteLoginA... edit: Someone already seems to have modified the above to work with tmux, http://william.shallum.net/rando... Edited 2012-08-31 02:11 UTC |
| - Score: 2 |
| Screen... |
| By Almafeta on 2012-08-31 02:45:07 |
| As far as I've seen, the primary use of Screen is to run TinyFugue while you're at work. |
| - Score: 3 |
| I prefer tmux |
| By Shane on 2012-08-31 02:48:21 |
|
I switched from GNU Screen to tmux a few years back because I use vertical splits quite a lot and Screen didn't have that feature built in yet. The first two things that I install on a new server are tmux and Vim. |
| - Score: 7 |
| RE: Screen... |
| By Shane on 2012-08-31 02:53:32 |
| 12 or so years ago, I got introduced to Screen because I wanted to leave my nickname connected to IRC 24/7. Screened BitchX sessions, Eggdrop bots, riding netsplits to wage channel wars. Fun days. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE: I prefer tmux |
| By gan17 on 2012-08-31 03:07:32 |
| Same for me, basically. Switched to tmux after years with screen. Was much easier to get into; partly due to prior experience with screen, mostly because it had clear documentation and didn't require me to be fluent in Klingon to configure it. |
| - Score: 9 |
| RE: I prefer tmux |
| By diegoviola on 2012-08-31 04:28:53 |
| Another vote for tmux as well. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE: Used it all the time for admin tasks |
| By ndrw on 2012-08-31 04:29:35 |
|
Actually, it is more a problem now than it has ever been before (maybe except for times of dial-up connections). I tend to work mostly on laptops, and switching between networks, suspending/waking up the machine, or simply losing a wireless connection happens all the time, often on purpose. Generally, relying on a TCP connection for holding the application state is a poor design decision these days. BTW, this is also the main reason I don't use X for remote work nowadays. It was simply designed for a different use case (a server with fixed terminals). Another reason is that X with its networking performance issues, and without properly configured NFS/NIS, forwarded sound recording/playback, DBUS services, printers, CD-ROMs, card readers etc., is no longer network transparent but it still pretends to be (by mixing up local and remote windows). |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE[2]: This is the kind of thing that pisses RMS off |
| By Moonbuzz on 2012-08-31 05:47:25 |
| No, he's absolutely correct. The name of the software is "GNU screen", not "screen". So while the whole GNU/Linux issue is debatable, calling "GNU screen" "Linux screen" is miss-attribution and wrong. |
| - Score: 9 |
| Comment by MOS6510 |
| By MOS6510 on 2012-08-31 06:31:17 |
|
When I started out on the Internet it was all text and UNIX prompts for me. So when I discovered screen it was great. TinyFugue Pine (private) Pine (work) Tin ircii & a couple of shells to different servers. My 'screen' ran at work, but as it was such a great tool more and more coworkers started using it causing system admins to get annoyed and we had to move server a few times. If you didn't a kill script would kill you (well, your screen session). |
| - Score: 3 |
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