

GNU Screen: an introduction and beginner's tutorial - vinutheraj
http://www.kuro5hin.org/print/2004/3/9/16838/14935

======
indigoviolet
Stop using Screen. Switch to Tmux (<http://tmux.sourceforge.net/>). Screen is
voodoo. Tmux isn't.

EDIT: Compare my tmux.conf (<http://pastebin.com/m2394d7a2>) and my screenrc
(<http://pastebin.com/d7bb649a5>). It was much easier for me to set up tmux
the way I wanted from reading the manpage, than it was to configure screen. My
screenrc is a hotchpotch of cut-and-paste from lots of different sources, but
I never really understood screen. Maybe that's just me.

~~~
Sukotto
Screen has a very large chunk of the potential market share for this sort of
utility app. Tmux is going to have to be 10 times better to get people to
switch. ("Screen" also has a name that's easy to remember, and to spell.)

Is tmux 10 times better than screen? Cause that's what it's going to take to
get people to switch at this point.

~~~
JoachimSchipper
Not 10 times, no. On the other hand, tmux is improving quickly; if not every
day, at least every week. screen, on the other hand, seems pretty stagnant.

~~~
vidarh
That's because screen does what most people who use it want. I haven't used
"new" functionality in newer versions of screen since I first started using it
years and years ago.

------
mattwdelong
The day I learned about Screen...It was pure bliss..it solved so many problems
I didn't know I had.

Copy/pasting, Switching between workstations while working remotely all
without losing your spot. Collaboration.

If you don't know about screen, and you find yourself using a CLI even just a
little bit, you should take the time to learn it.

~~~
hypermatt
First thing I install on solaris, probably my favorite unix tool also ;) Can't
imagine doing giant database imports without it.

------
mhansen
Screen has a hell of a learning curve.

If you're a beginner to screen, consider byobu. It's a user-friendly wrapper
around screen with intelligent defaults and a discoverable menu-based
configuration system. It's also very pretty :)

Screenshots: [http://unixlab.blogspot.com/2009/11/enhancing-terminals-
with...](http://unixlab.blogspot.com/2009/11/enhancing-terminals-with-byobu-
on.html)

Project: <https://launchpad.net/byobu>

------
dzlobin
Does anyone use screen and vim to pair program? Me and my co-founder tried to
by ssh'ing into a common box, doing 1) screen -S pairprog 2) ctrl+a :multiuser
on 3) ctrl-a :acladd username. However the second person always gets an error
with something regarding multiuser

~~~
Psyonic
I've done it a few times with just step 1. I'm not a screen expert, but for
whatever reason we didn't need 2 and 3

~~~
dzlobin
I'll give it a shot thanks! edit; thanks it works!

~~~
Psyonic
I'm glad to hear it worked out. It's been quite helpful the few times I've
needed it

------
rwmj
By coincidence I decided to properly configure screen yesterday, getting rid
of the two stupid defaults that it comes with:

<http://rwmj.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/screen/>

------
idoh
While we are talking about screen - I'd really like to be able to highlight
text in VIM (using the visual mode) and then be able to paste that into
another screen. Does anyone know how to do this?

~~~
guns
ScreenShell. It leverages screen to create a viable REPL-buffer for vim, for
any language that has an interactive interpreter.

<http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2711>

Here's an article describing how to use it with lisp:

[http://www.ktaylor.name/2009/11/vim-screen-lisp-
programming-...](http://www.ktaylor.name/2009/11/vim-screen-lisp-programming-
environment.html)

And finally, some key mappings to bind <C-c><C-c> to sending the current
paragraph or selection to the interpreter, from any mode.

<http://gist.github.com/278733>

~~~
Diakronik
Found this about a week ago and am loving it. Almost all of my time is spent
in Python or LaTeX, and having either ipython or bash open in a small window
just a keystroke away is brilliant!

------
doki_pen
dtach is a lightweight, minimalist alternative.

<http://dtach.sourceforge.net/>

~~~
graywh
Saying dtach is a minimalist alternative to screen or tmux is like saying
notepad is a minimalist alternative to visual studio.

------
tman
It's worth grabbing the latest version of screen from git and installing it.
That way you get vertical splits with _ctrl-a ctrl-|_. If you're running a new
version of Ubuntu, you already have this.

Building screen isn't too hard. Run the autogen.sh script to generate the
configure script.

------
emilind
I love love love screen, but ctrl-a is a terrible binding. ctrl-] works well
for me.

I'm going to check out this tmux thing.

