The Linux Screen Utility

You start the screen program by typing screen at the command prompt. Screen first creates an initial window and places you inside of it.

To create a new window, and be placed inside of it, type CTRL-a c. (Hold down the control key and typing a, then type c for create.) Now you have two virtual windows, and you are in the second one you created.

To navigate back to the first window, type CTRL-a spacebar. Type it again, and you return to the second window. CTRL-a spacebar pages through the open windows.

To go to window 0, type CTRL-a 0. Likewise, to go to window 2, type CTRL-a 2.

In general, screen commands are accessed by typing CTRL-a followed by a keystroke. The following gives a summary of screen commands for basic navigation.

CTRL-a c 	Create a new window
CTRL-a spacebar 	Go to next window
CTRL-a backspace or del 	Go to previous window
CTRL-a 2 	Go to window 2
CTRL-a w 	list windows

To exit a window, just exit from the shell in that window, and the window is killed.

It is possible to detach a session. In this case, the session is running independent of your login window, and when you exit your login window, the session continues to run. When you re-login later, you re-attach the session to your new login window. The following commands are relevant.

screen -d -r 	reattach a session, and if necessary, detach it first
screen -d 	detach session from terminal
screen -list 	show status

Sometimes your screen may appear to freeze. You know the connection is still good, but key strokes do nothing. The problem is that you accidentally pressed Ctrl-S, which causes the terminal window to stop. To exit the stopped state, you need to press Ctrl-Q.