ADDED: This question is now, I believe, subsumed by this one:
  &lt;https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1075947/can-i-use-gnu-screen&gt;

See also this related question:  
https://superuser.com/questions/147873/ssh-sessions-in-xterms-freeze-for-many-minutes-whenever-they-disconnect

Original question:

It would be nice if there were a way to ssh to a machine and immediately reconnect to a specific screen session.  You can do this:

    laptop&gt; ssh server.com screen -ls

and it will show a list of screens available on server.com like so [1]:

    123.pts-1
    456.pts-2

And then you might try to do this:

    laptop&gt; ssh server.com screen -dr pts-2

but that fails, saying &quot;Must be connected to a terminal.&quot;
You have to ssh in first and then do the &quot;screen -dr pts-2&quot; on server.com which is no good if you have a flaky connection and get disconnected a lot. You want to be able to resume with a simple &quot;up-arrow enter&quot; on the laptop.  (Or perhaps make it even more automatic.)

I have a rihackulous solution to this problem which I&#39;ll post as an answer and hope it gets downvoted to oblivion in favor of the Right Way to deal with this.

&lt;hr&gt; 
Footnotes:

[1] Or, better, if you created the screen sessions with names like &quot;`screen -S foo`&quot; and &quot;`screen -S bar`&quot; then you&#39;ll get a friendlier list like:

    123.foo
    456.bar

and can reconnect with, eg, &quot;`screen -dr foo`&quot;.

&lt;hr&gt;

## Mini screen tutorial, incorporating the answer to this question:

Login in to server.com and do 

    screen -S foo 

and then never log out of that session again.
To reconnect to it from elsewhere, do

    ssh -t server.com screen -dr foo

To list available screens to reconect to:

    screen -ls

or, of course, 

    ssh server.com screen -ls

to check on server.com&#39;s available screens remotely.

I now use the following alias (tcsh), based on Jason&#39;s answer below, to connect to a named screen if it exists or create and connect otherwise:

    alias ssc &#39;ssh -t \!:1 &quot;screen -S \!:2 -dr || screen -S \!:2&quot;&#39;


Automatically (or more easily) reconnect to a screen session after network interruption

By default, when you create a new window in GNU Screen, it will start in the directory where Screen is invoked. I want to start a new window in GNU Screen at the current working directory of the window I&#39;m currently in. How can I do that?


How can I make GNU Screen start a new window at the CURRENT working directory?

I was trying to make the syntax highlighting (with 256 colors) of ```vim``` work inside ```screen```, which is running inside ```gterm```.

It works quite fine in the beginning. What I mean by &quot;in the beginning&quot; is, after I start ```screen```, and enter ```vim```, the colors look fine, and there are really 256 colors.

But after a while (I don&#39;t know exactly how long) the colors automatically change back to an appearance as if there are only 8 (or 16?) colors.

For example, after this has already occurred, if I enter the command

    hi Comment ctermfg=68

inside ```vim```, the comments appear to be &quot;pure&quot; green; however, if I open another ```vim``` outside screen (in the same terminal), then with the same command the comments appear to be a &quot;yellowish&quot; green.

The following is my .screenrc settings related to color:

    attrcolor b &quot;.I&quot;
    defbce &quot;on&quot;
    termcapinfo xterm &#39;Co#256:AB=\E[48;5;%dm:AF=\E[38;5;%dm&#39;
    term xterm-256color

After running a python script to display all the colors, I find out that maybe this is a problem of screen itself, and has nothing to do with vim.

What I did is, inside the ```screen``` session with problems, this script gives 256 colors, but many of them are actually the same; however, when I start a new screen session with the same configuration, this script gives 256 colors which are distinct from each other.

Edit:

Last night I connected to my Linux computer (which is in my office and it is always on) with ```putty```, then opened a ```screen``` session with multiple windows in it. The colors are correct last night. Then before I went to sleep I detached the ```screen``` session and closed ```putty```.

Now in the morning when I attach that ```screen``` session in ```putty``` again, the colors crash: they appear as if there are only 8 colors.

The colors are fine outside ```screen``` (but still in ```putty```).


Edit:

Three years later after I asked this question, today I saw a similar problem.  The problem is that ```vim``` can display 256 colors outside ```screen```, and ```screen``` can display 256 colors with a test script, but ```vim``` can&#39;t display any color (can only display black and white) inside ```screen```.  Just as a note to myself, here is the ```.screenrc``` file I am using

    hardstatus alwayslastline &quot;%{.bW}%-w%{.rW}%n %t%{-}%+w %=%{..G} %H %{..Y} %Y-%m-%d %c&quot;
    shell &quot;bash&quot;
    startup_message off
    vbell off
    altscreen on
    attrcolor b &quot;.I&quot;
    defbce &quot;on&quot;
    termcapinfo xterm* &#39;is=\E[r\E[m\E[2J\E[H\E[?7h\E[?1;4;6l&#39;
    termcapinfo xterm &#39;Co#256:AB=\E[48;5;%dm:AF=\E[38;5;%dm&#39;
    term screen-256color

The solution to the problem is already mentioned in the accepted answer, namely, I need to include

    export TERM=xterm-256color

in ```.bashrc```.

Strange behavior of vim color inside screen with 256 colors

I have a bunch of servers, on which I run experiments using `screen`. The procedure is the following :

 1. `ssh` to server XXX
 2. launch `screen`
 3. start experiments in a few tabs
 4. detach `screen`
 5. disconnect from the server

While the experiments are running, I can easily find on which servers they are by `ssh`ing to all servers and listing my running processes (using `top` or `ps`).

However, once the experiments are finished, how could I find on which servers I have a screen session opened (so that I can have a look at the output, relaunch them, etc.) ?

PS: my experiments do print their output to files, too... but this is not the point of my question.

How to list running screen sessions?

How can I setup GNU screen to allow the mouse&#39;s scrollwheel to scroll around in the scrollback buffer? I tried to Google about this, but most hits were on how to allow applications inside screen to use the scrollwheel.

Using the scrollwheel in GNU screen

Lets say I have a currently running [screen][1] session I am interacting with through putty.  I&#39;ve realized that the scrollback buffer is too small and would like to increase it *without* starting a new screen session.

Is there a way to do this?


  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Screen

How do I increase the scrollback buffer in a running screen session?

How do I easily copy the GNU Screen scrollback buffer to a file? I.e., a more powerful version of the &#39;hardcopy&#39; command?

In GNU screen, I can use &quot;&lt;kbd&gt;Ctrl&lt;/kbd&gt; + &lt;kbd&gt;A&lt;/kbd&gt; &lt;kbd&gt;Esc&lt;/kbd&gt;&quot; to enter the scrollback
buffer. I could then mark the entire buffer and use &quot;&lt;kbd&gt;Ctrl&lt;/kbd&gt; + &lt;kbd&gt;A&lt;/kbd&gt; &lt;kbd&gt;Ctrl&lt;/kbd&gt; + &lt;kbd&gt;]&lt;/kbd&gt;&quot; to paste it into an [Emacs][1] buffer, thus saving it to a file.

However, this is tedious. Is there a Screen command that&#39;ll simply copy the scrollback buffer to a file, like &#39;hardcopy&#39; does for the visible portion of the screen?

  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emacs



Copying the GNU screen scrollback buffer to a file (extended hardcopy)

I learned from somewhere a detached screen can be killed by

    screen -X -S [session # you want to kill] kill

where [session # you want to kill] can be gotten from

    screen -ls

But this doesn&#39;t work. Anything wrong? What&#39;s the correct way?

Kill detached screen session

I had Screen running inside an SSH session.  Terminal froze.  After restarting Terminal, that Screen session still thinks it&#39;s attached.  Maybe it is.  Perhaps I don&#39;t really know what that means.

I&#39;d like to attach to that Screen session from a fresh SSH login.  I do not want to kill that Screen session as important things are happening over there.  : )

The options I think I have ( none of which I know how to solve ):

- How do I detach that Screen session?
- How do I kill the SSH session that that Screen session is attached to?



How do I force detach Screen from another SSH session?

I need to save the whole output of [Screen][1] to a file to check later all the content.

The reason is that I&#39;m dumping a flash memory through a serial port, using Screen to interface with it. I would like to save it to a file to check memory structure.

I&#39;ve tried:

    $: screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200 &gt;&gt; foo.txt
    $: screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200 | tee foo.txt

And I&#39;ve also tried to use bufferfile from screen, but I don&#39;t understand how to use it.

Is there an easy way?

  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Screen




Save Screen (program) output to a file

I am looking for a terminal multiplexer for Microsoft Windows. I was unable to locate the installers for Microsoft Windows for both tmux and GNU Screen.

Currently I&#39;m using Putty to connect to my Linux machine from from Windows Machine. Can somebody please suggest how to get GNU Screen or tmux working on Windows Platform.

Are there any other good alternatives to above options.

Terminal Multiplexer for Microsoft Windows - Installers for GNU Screen or tmux

This is what I used to do in tmux to copy-paste (using the mouse, the keyboard works differently and it is not what I am interested about):

 1. Select text with mouse, left-button pressed
 2. Paste text with middle-button

I have upgraded my OS, and this has gotten a new tmux version. I have not changed my `.tmux.conf` config file.

This is what I have to do with the current version of `tmux`, `1.6` (which comes pre-packaged in the latest crunchbang linux):

 1. Select text with mouse, left-button pressed **and** &lt;kbd&gt;shift&lt;/kbd&gt; key
 2. Paste text with middle-button
 3. Terminal gets blocked, a litte information area shows some numbers on the top right of the current pane (i.e. `[0/24]`, probably something related to how many characters have been pasted), which mean little to me and I do not need / want (edit: it seems `copy-mode` is entered automatically here)
 4. I have to press the &lt;kbd&gt;q&lt;/kbd&gt; key to get a functional terminal again.

This is too much hassle for something I do dozens of times a day. How to get the old mechanism working again?

Getting back old copy paste behaviour in tmux, with mouse

I just installed `screen` and like the idea to divide linux terminal into multiple pieces. But I can&#39;t figure out one thing: How to scroll up and down, when I&#39;m in `screen`. When I&#39;m using regular linux terminal I can achieve this with &lt;kbd&gt;Shift&lt;/kbd&gt; + &lt;kbd&gt;Pg Up&lt;/kbd&gt; or &lt;kbd&gt;Shift&lt;/kbd&gt; + &lt;kbd&gt;Pg Dn&lt;/kbd&gt;`. but unfortunatelly it doesn&#39;t work in divided terminal.

That&#39;s what I mean when saying `screen` and divided terminal:
![enter image description here][1]


And that&#39;s a regular termina (just in case):
![enter image description here][2]


  [1]: http://i.stack.imgur.com/0N9vH.png
  [2]: http://i.stack.imgur.com/586le.png

How to scroll up and down in sliced &quot;screen&quot; terminal

I would like to write a Java terminal application that does screen manipulation. Are there any good libraries out there that allow you to manipulate the screen like curses in the *nix/C world?

Minimal features I&#39;m looking for are windowing and user input support.

In feature-speak, I&#39;d like to have a region of the terminal where some data is regularly updated while (at the same time) the user can enter commands/text in some other part of the screen.

What&#39;s a good Java, curses-like, library for terminal applications?

I&#39;ve just introduced a friend to **GNU Screen** and they&#39;re having a hard time getting used to it. That makes me think about the essential things he needs to know about the excellent **Screen** utility, the same things that you&#39;d think worthwhile to teach someone, a beginner, from the ground up. What are some analogies and handy tips for remembering binds, etc.?

It would be awesome.




What must I know to use GNU Screen properly?

I&#39;m using the [Screen][1] multiplexer tool on the command shell and open a lot of screens. I then forget which process ID associates with which task.

I would like to set a name for a screen, but I can&#39;t find an option in the [man page][2].

Currently, listing the screens looks like this:

    There are screens on:
        5422.pts-1.aws1 (Detached)
        5448.pts-1.aws1 (Detached)
        5027.pts-1.aws1 (Detached)
    3 Sockets in /var/run/screen/S-sb.

And I would like to see something like this:

    There are screens on:
        5422.logCleanWorker (Detached)
        5448.overNightLongTask(Detached)
        5027.databaseOverNightLongTask (Detached)
    3 Sockets in /var/run/screen/S-sb.

How can I do this?

  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Screen
  [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_page






How can I assign a name for a screen?

GNU Screen seems to freeze. Unable to enter user input.  

I was using GNU screen and when I pressed the screen it became unresponsive. I can execute all the GNU screen commands, but can&#39;t enter user input. I don&#39;t want to kill this screen as I have important work and I don&#39;t want to lose it.

The GNU screen is unresponsive, seems blocked

How do you check the login tokens for all running jupyter notebook instances?

Example: you have a notebook running in `tmux` or `screen` permanently, and login in remotely through `ssh`. Sometimes, particularly if you&#39;re logging in after a long time, the token is requested again in order to access the notebook session. How do you get hold of the token without having to kill and restart the notebook session with a new token?

List running Jupyter notebooks and tokens

When using screen in linux, how can I tell if I&#39;m in a screen or not?
I could do `exit` and I&#39;ll exit a screen if I was in one, but if I wasn&#39;t, then I&#39;ll end up closing my terminal.

When doing `screen -r`, I could see if I have other screens attached, but how do I know if my current terminal is one of those attached screens?

How can I tell whether I&#39;m in a screen?

I `screen -r`&#39;d into a Django server that&#39;s running and I can&#39;t simply &lt;kbd&gt;Ctrl&lt;/kbd&gt; + &lt;kbd&gt;C&lt;/kbd&gt; and `exit` out of it.

Are there any alternative ways to get out of `screen`?

Currently, I manually close the tab on my local PC and `ssh` back in, but that&#39;s becoming tiresome.


How do I get out of &#39;screen&#39; without typing &#39;exit&#39;?

I&#39;m starting a number of screens in a bash script, then running django&#39;s `runserver` command in each of them. I&#39;d like to be able to programmatically stop them all as well, which requires me to send `Control+c` to `runserver`.

How can I send these keystrokes from my bash script?

How to send control+c from a bash script?

When using **GNU Screen** we can work with **scrollback buffer** also known as **&quot;copy mode&quot;** using the `Ctrl+a+[` command. 

In there we can copy text to the **copy buffer** by pressing `space` selecting the text and pressing `space` again. 

**Is there some way to copy this text from screen copy buffer to the X clipboard?**

In my case I&#39;m using Ubuntu 12.04 with gnome and Xorg.

How to copy the GNU Screen copy buffer to the clipboard?

I created a screen &quot;myscreen&quot; in linux and it stopped responding abruptly.  I closed the terminal and tried to reopen it.    &quot;screen -ls&quot; shows that the screen is Attached.  I tried the following commands but nothing responds.

    screen -r myscreen
    screen -D myscreen
    screen -D -RR myscreen
    screen -X -S myscreen quit

Any help to reattach to the screen or to kill the screen is very much appreciated.

Kill Attached Screen in Linux

I am running a script on a remote server. I ran the script in `screen`, however I need to stop it before it completes since I need to update the script. I can easily detach from `screen`, however, is there a way to kill a `screen` process?

How to stop a screen process in linux?

When I execute `screen -ls`, I see the following. How can I kill all the detached sessions?


&gt; There are screens on:

&gt;         84918.ttys002.ros-mbp   (Detached)

&gt;         84944.ttys008.ros-mbp   (Detached)

&gt;         84970.ttys013.ros-mbp   (Attached)

&gt;         84998.ttys002.ros-mbp   (Detached)

&gt;         85024.ttys002.ros-mbp   (Detached) 
5 Sockets in /var/folders/86/062qtcyx2rxbnmn8mtpkyghs0r0r_z/T/.screen.

Kill all detached screen sessions

Is it possible to set the Screen Title using a shell script?

I thought about something like sending the key commands &lt;kbd&gt;ctrl&lt;/kbd&gt;+&lt;kbd&gt;A&lt;/kbd&gt; &lt;kbd&gt;shift&lt;/kbd&gt;-&lt;kbd&gt;A&lt;/kbd&gt; `Name` &lt;kbd&gt;enter&lt;/kbd&gt;

I searched for about an hour on how to emulate keystrokes in an shell script, but didn&#39;t find the answer.



Set screen-title from shellscript

How can I run a shell script and immediately *background* it, however keep the ability to inspect its output any time by tailing `/tmp/output.txt`.

It would be nice if I can *foreground* the process too later.

---
### P.S.  
It would be really cool if you can also show me how to &quot;send&quot; the backgrounded process in to a GNU screen that may or may not have been initialized.

All Gnu Screen Solutions on Gang of Coders

Total of 27 Gnu Screen Solutions