The "socket directory" defaults either to $HOME/.screen or simply
to /tmp/screens or preferably to /usr/local/screens chosen at
compile-time. If screen is installed setuid-root, then the
administrator should compile screen with an adequate (not NFS
mounted) socket directory. If screen is not running setuid-root,
the user can specify any mode 700 directory in the environment
variable $SCREENDIR.
When screen is invoked, it executes initialization commands from
the files "/usr/local/etc/screenrc" and ".screenrc" in the user's
home directory. These are the "programmer's defaults" that can be
overridden in the following ways: for the global screenrc file
screen searches for the environment variable $SYSTEM_SCREENRC
(this override feature may be disabled at compile-time). The user
specific screenrc file is searched in $SCREENRC, then
$HOME/.screenrc. The command line option -c takes precedence
over the above user screenrc files.
Commands in these files are used to set options, bind functions
to keys, and to automatically establish one or more windows at
the beginning of your screen session. Commands are listed one
per line, with empty lines being ignored. A command's arguments
are separated by tabs or spaces, and may be surrounded by single
or double quotes. A `#' turns the rest of the line into a
comment, except in quotes. Unintelligible lines are warned about
and ignored. Commands may contain references to environment
variables. The syntax is the shell-like "$VAR " or "${VAR}". Note
that this causes incompatibility with previous screen versions,
as now the '$'-character has to be protected with '\' if no
variable substitution shall be performed. A string in single-
quotes is also protected from variable substitution.
Two configuration files are shipped as examples with your screen
distribution: "etc/screenrc" and "etc/etcscreenrc". They contain
a number of useful examples for various commands.
Customization can also be done 'on-line'. To enter the command
mode type `C-a :'. Note that commands starting with "def" change
default values, while others change current settings.
The following commands are available:
acladd usernames [crypted-pw]
addacl usernames
Enable users to fully access this screen session. Usernames can
be one user or a comma separated list of users. This command
enables to attach to the screen session and performs the
equivalent of `aclchg usernames +rwx "#?"'. executed. To add a
user with restricted access, use the `aclchg' command below. If
an optional second parameter is supplied, it should be a crypted
password for the named user(s). `Addacl' is a synonym to
`acladd'. Multi user mode only.
aclchg usernames permbits list
chacl usernames permbits list
Change permissions for a comma separated list of users.
Permission bits are represented as `r', `w' and `x'. Prefixing
`+' grants the permission, `-' removes it. The third parameter is
a comma separated list of commands and/or windows (specified
either by number or title). The special list `#' refers to all
windows, `?' to all commands. if usernames consists of a single
`*', all known users are affected.
A command can be executed when the user has the `x' bit for it.
The user can type input to a window when he has its `w' bit set
and no other user obtains a writelock for this window. Other
bits are currently ignored. To withdraw the writelock from
another user in window 2: `aclchg username -w+w 2'. To allow
read-only access to the session: `aclchg username -w "#"'. As
soon as a user's name is known to screen he can attach to the
session and (per default) has full permissions for all command
and windows. Execution permission for the acl commands, `at' and
others should also be removed or the user may be able to regain
write permission. Rights of the special username nobody cannot
be changed (see the "su" command). `Chacl' is a synonym to
`aclchg'. Multi user mode only.
acldel username
Remove a user from screen's access control list. If currently
attached, all the user's displays are detached from the session.
He cannot attach again. Multi user mode only.
aclgrp username [groupname]
Creates groups of users that share common access rights. The name
of the group is the username of the group leader. Each member of
the group inherits the permissions that are granted to the group
leader. That means, if a user fails an access check, another
check is made for the group leader. A user is removed from all
groups the special value "none" is used for groupname. If the
second parameter is omitted all groups the user is in are listed.
aclumask [[ users ] +bits | [ users ] -bits... ]
umask [[ users ] +bits | [ users ] -bits... ]
This specifies the access other users have to windows that will
be created by the caller of the command. Users may be no, one or
a comma separated list of known usernames. If no users are
specified, a list of all currently known users is assumed. Bits
is any combination of access control bits allowed defined with
the "aclchg" command. The special username "?" predefines the
access that not yet known users will be granted to any window
initially. The special username "??" predefines the access that
not yet known users are granted to any command. Rights of the
special username nobody cannot be changed (see the "su" command).
`Umask' is a synonym to `aclumask'.
activity message
When any activity occurs in a background window that is being
monitored, screen displays a notification in the message line.
The notification message can be re-defined by means of the
"activity" command. Each occurrence of `%' in message is
replaced by the number of the window in which activity has
occurred, and each occurrence of `^G' is replaced by the
definition for bell in your termcap (usually an audible bell).
The default message is
'Activity in window %n'
Note that monitoring is off for all windows by default, but can
be altered by use of the "monitor" command (C-a M).
allpartial on|off
If set to on, only the current cursor line is refreshed on window
change. This affects all windows and is useful for slow terminal
lines. The previous setting of full/partial refresh for each
window is restored with "allpartial off". This is a global flag
that immediately takes effect on all windows overriding the
"partial" settings. It does not change the default redraw
behavior of newly created windows.
altscreen on|off
If set to on, "alternate screen" support is enabled in virtual
terminals, just like in xterm. Initial setting is `off'.
at [identifier][#|*|%] command [args ... ]
Execute a command at other displays or windows as if it had been
entered there. "At" changes the context (the `current window' or
`current display' setting) of the command. If the first parameter
describes a non-unique context, the command will be executed
multiple times. If the first parameter is of the form
`identifier*' then identifier is matched against user names. The
command is executed once for each display of the selected
user(s). If the first parameter is of the form `identifier%'
identifier is matched against displays. Displays are named after
the ttys they attach. The prefix `/dev/' or `/dev/tty' may be
omitted from the identifier. If identifier has a `#' or nothing
appended it is matched against window numbers and titles.
Omitting an identifier in front of the `#', `*' or `%'-character
selects all users, displays or windows because a prefix-match is
performed. Note that on the affected display(s) a short message
will describe what happened. Permission is checked for initiator
of the "at" command, not for the owners of the affected
display(s). Note that the '#' character works as a comment
introducer when it is preceded by whitespace. This can be escaped
by prefixing a '\'. Permission is checked for the initiator of
the "at" command, not for the owners of the affected display(s).
Caveat: When matching against windows, the command is executed at
least once per window. Commands that change the internal
arrangement of windows (like "other") may be called again. In
shared windows the command will be repeated for each attached
display. Beware, when issuing toggle commands like "login"! Some
commands (e.g. "process") require that a display is associated
with the target windows. These commands may not work correctly
under "at" looping over windows.
attrcolor attrib [attribute/color-modifier]
This command can be used to highlight attributes by changing the
color of the text. If the attribute attrib is in use, the
specified attribute/color modifier is also applied. If no
modifier is given, the current one is deleted. See the "STRING
ESCAPES" chapter for the syntax of the modifier. Screen
understands two pseudo-attributes, "i" stands for high-intensity
foreground color and "I" for high-intensity background color.
Examples:
attrcolor b "R"
Change the color to bright red if bold text is to be printed.
attrcolor u "-u b"
Use blue text instead of underline.
attrcolor b ".I"
Use bright colors for bold text. Most terminal emulators do this
already.
attrcolor i "+b"
Make bright colored text also bold.
autodetach on|off
Sets whether screen will automatically detach upon hangup, which
saves all your running programs until they are resumed with a
screen -r command. When turned off, a hangup signal will
terminate screen and all the processes it contains. Autodetach is
on by default.
autonuke on|off
Sets whether a clear screen sequence should nuke all the output
that has not been written to the terminal. See also "obuflimit".
backtick id lifespan autorefresh cmd args...
backtick id
Program the backtick command with the numerical id id. The
output of such a command is used for substitution of the "%`"
string escape. The specified lifespan is the number of seconds
the output is considered valid. After this time, the command is
run again if a corresponding string escape is encountered. The
autorefresh parameter triggers an automatic refresh for caption
and hardstatus strings after the specified number of seconds.
Only the last line of output is used for substitution.
If both the lifespan and the autorefresh parameters are zero, the
backtick program is expected to stay in the background and
generate output once in a while. In this case, the command is
executed right away and screen stores the last line of output. If
a new line gets printed screen will automatically refresh the
hardstatus or the captions.
The second form of the command deletes the backtick command with
the numerical id id.
bce [on|off]
Change background-color-erase setting. If "bce" is set to on, all
characters cleared by an erase/insert/scroll/clear operation will
be displayed in the current background color. Otherwise the
default background color is used.
bell_msg [message]
When a bell character is sent to a background window, screen
displays a notification in the message line. The notification
message can be re-defined by this command. Each occurrence of
`%' in message is replaced by the number of the window to which a
bell has been sent, and each occurrence of `^G' is replaced by
the definition for bell in your termcap (usually an audible
bell). The default message is
'Bell in window %n'
An empty message can be supplied to the "bell_msg" command to
suppress output of a message line (bell_msg ""). Without
parameter, the current message is shown.
bind [class] key [command [args]]
Bind a command to a key. By default, most of the commands
provided by screen are bound to one or more keys as indicated in
the "DEFAULT KEY BINDINGS" section, e.g. the command to create a
new window is bound to "C-c" and "c". The "bind" command can be
used to redefine the key bindings and to define new bindings.
The key argument is either a single character, a two-character
sequence of the form "^x" (meaning "C-x"), a backslash followed
by an octal number (specifying the ASCII code of the character),
or a backslash followed by a second character, such as "\^" or
"\\". The argument can also be quoted, if you like. If no
further argument is given, any previously established binding for
this key is removed. The command argument can be any command
listed in this section.
If a command class is specified via the "-c" option, the key is
bound for the specified class. Use the "command" command to
activate a class. Command classes can be used to create multiple
command keys or multi-character bindings.
Some examples:
bind ' ' windows
bind ^k
bind k
bind K kill
bind ^f screen telnet foobar
bind \033 screen -ln -t root -h 1000 9 su
would bind the space key to the command that displays a list of
windows (so that the command usually invoked by "C-a C-w" would
also be available as "C-a space"). The next three lines remove
the default kill binding from "C-a C-k" and "C-a k". "C-a K" is
then bound to the kill command. Then it binds "C-f" to the
command "create a window with a TELNET connection to foobar", and
bind "escape" to the command that creates an non-login window
with a.k.a. "root" in slot #9, with a superuser shell and a
scrollback buffer of 1000 lines.
bind -c demo1 0 select 10
bind -c demo1 1 select 11
bind -c demo1 2 select 12
bindkey "^B" command -c demo1
makes "C-b 0" select window 10, "C-b 1" window 11, etc.
bind -c demo2 0 select 10
bind -c demo2 1 select 11
bind -c demo2 2 select 12
bind - command -c demo2
makes "C-a - 0" select window 10, "C-a - 1" window 11, etc.
bindkey [-d] [-m] [-a] [[-k|-t] string [cmd-args]]
This command manages screen's input translation tables. Every
entry in one of the tables tells screen how to react if a certain
sequence of characters is encountered. There are three tables:
one that should contain actions programmed by the user, one for
the default actions used for terminal emulation and one for
screen's copy mode to do cursor movement. See section "INPUT
TRANSLATION" for a list of default key bindings.
If the -d option is given, bindkey modifies the default table, -m
changes the copy mode table and with neither option the user
table is selected. The argument string is the sequence of
characters to which an action is bound. This can either be a
fixed string or a termcap keyboard capability name (selectable
with the -k option).
Some keys on a VT100 terminal can send a different string if
application mode is turned on (e.g the cursor keys). Such keys
have two entries in the translation table. You can select the
application mode entry by specifying the -a option.
The -t option tells screen not to do inter-character timing. One
cannot turn off the timing if a termcap capability is used.
Cmd can be any of screen's commands with an arbitrary number of
args. If cmd is omitted the key-binding is removed from the
table.
Here are some examples of keyboard bindings:
bindkey -d
Show all of the default key bindings. The application mode
entries are marked with [A].
bindkey -k k1 select 1
Make the "F1" key switch to window one.
bindkey -t foo stuff barfoo
Make "foo" an abbreviation of the word "barfoo". Timeout is
disabled so that users can type slowly.
bindkey "\024" mapdefault
This key-binding makes "^T" an escape character for key-bindings.
If you did the above "stuff barfoo" binding, you can enter the
word "foo" by typing "^Tfoo". If you want to insert a "^T" you
have to press the key twice (i.e., escape the escape binding).
bindkey -k F1 command
Make the F11 (not F1!) key an alternative screen escape (besides
^A).
break[duration]
Send a break signal for duration*0.25 seconds to this window.
For non-Posix systems the time interval may be rounded up to full
seconds. Most useful if a character device is attached to the
window rather than a shell process (See also chapter "WINDOW
TYPES"). The maximum duration of a break signal is limited to 15
seconds.
blanker
Activate the screen blanker. First the screen is cleared. If no
blanker program is defined, the cursor is turned off, otherwise,
the program is started and it's output is written to the screen.
The screen blanker is killed with the first keypress, the read
key is discarded.
This command is normally used together with the "idle" command.
blankerprg [program-args]
Defines a blanker program. Disables the blanker program if an
empty argument is given. Shows the currently set blanker program
if no arguments are given.
breaktype [tcsendbreak|TIOCSBRK|TCSBRK]
Choose one of the available methods of generating a break signal
for terminal devices. This command should affect the current
window only. But it still behaves identical to "defbreaktype".
This will be changed in the future. Calling "breaktype" with no
parameter displays the break method for the current window.
bufferfile [exchange-file]
Change the filename used for reading and writing with the paste
buffer. If the optional argument to the "bufferfile" command is
omitted, the default setting ("/tmp/screen-exchange") is
reactivated. The following example will paste the system's
password file into the screen window (using the paste buffer,
where a copy remains):
C-a : bufferfile /etc/passwd
C-a < C-a ]
C-a : bufferfile
bumpleft
Swaps window with previous one on window list.
bumpright
Swaps window with next one on window list.
c1 [on|off]
Change c1 code processing. "C1 on" tells screen to treat the
input characters between 128 and 159 as control functions. Such
an 8-bit code is normally the same as ESC followed by the
corresponding 7-bit code. The default setting is to process c1
codes and can be changed with the "defc1" command. Users with
fonts that have usable characters in the c1 positions may want to
turn this off.
caption [ top | bottom ] always|splitonly[string]
caption string [string]
This command controls the display of the window captions.
Normally a caption is only used if more than one window is shown
on the display (split screen mode). But if the type is set to
always screen shows a caption even if only one window is
displayed. The default is splitonly.
The second form changes the text used for the caption. You can
use all escapes from the "STRING ESCAPES" chapter. Screen uses a
default of `%3n %t'.
You can mix both forms by providing a string as an additional
argument.
You can have the caption displayed either at the top or bottom of
the window. The default is bottom.
charset set
Change the current character set slot designation and charset
mapping. The first four character of set are treated as charset
designators while the fifth and sixth character must be in range
'0' to '3' and set the GL/GR charset mapping. On every position a
'.' may be used to indicate that the corresponding
charset/mapping should not be changed (set is padded to six
characters internally by appending '.' chars). New windows have
"BBBB02" as default charset, unless a "encoding" command is
active.
The current setting can be viewed with the "info" command.
chdir [directory]
Change the current directory of screen to the specified directory
or, if called without an argument, to your home directory (the
value of the environment variable $HOME). All windows that are
created by means of the "screen" command from within ".screenrc"
or by means of "C-a : screen ..." or "C-a c" use this as their
default directory. Without a chdir command, this would be the
directory from which screen was invoked.
Hardcopy and log files are always written to the window's default
directory, not the current directory of the process running in
the window. You can use this command multiple times in your
.screenrc to start various windows in different default
directories, but the last chdir value will affect all the windows
you create interactively.
cjkwidth [ on | off ]
Treat ambiguous width characters as full/half width.
clear
Clears the current window and saves its image to the scrollback
buffer.
collapse
Reorders window on window list, removing number gaps between
them.
colon [prefix]
Allows you to enter ".screenrc" command lines. Useful for on-the-
fly modification of key bindings, specific window creation and
changing settings. Note that the "set" keyword no longer exists!
Usually commands affect the current window rather than default
settings for future windows. Change defaults with commands
starting with 'def...'.
If you consider this as the `Ex command mode' of screen, you may
regard "C-a esc" (copy mode) as its `Vi command mode'.
command [-c class]
This command has the same effect as typing the screen escape
character (^A). It is probably only useful for key bindings. If
the "-c" option is given, select the specified command class.
See also "bind" and "bindkey".
compacthist [on|off]
This tells screen whether to suppress trailing blank lines when
scrolling up text into the history buffer.
console [on|off]
Grabs or un-grabs the machines console output to a window. Note:
Only the owner of /dev/console can grab the console output. This
command is only available if the machine supports the ioctl
TIOCCONS.
copy
Enter copy/scrollback mode. This allows you to copy text from the
current window and its history into the paste buffer. In this
mode a vi-like `full screen editor' is active:
The editor's movement keys are:
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
h, C-h, move the cursor left.
left arrow
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
j, C-n, move the cursor down.
down arrow
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
k, C-p, move the cursor up.
up arrow
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
l ('el'), move the cursor right.
right arrow
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
0 (zero) C-a move to the leftmost column.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+ and - positions one line up and down.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
H, M and L move the cursor to the leftmost column of the
top, center or bottom line of the window.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
| moves to the specified absolute column.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
g or home moves to the beginning of the buffer.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
G or end moves to the specified absolute line (default:
end of buffer).
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
% jumps to the specified percentage of the buffer.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
^ or $ move to the leftmost column, to the first or
last non-whitespace character on the line.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
w, b, and e move the cursor word by word.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
B, E move the cursor WORD by WORD (as in vi).
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
f/F, t/T move the cursor forward/backward to the next
occurence of the target. (eg, '3fy' will move
the cursor to the 3rd 'y' to the right.)
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
; and , Repeat the last f/F/t/T command in the
same/opposite direction.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
C-e and C-y scroll the display up/down by one line while
preserving the cursor position.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
C-u and C-d scroll the display up/down by the specified
amount of lines while preserving the cursor
position. (Default: half screen-full).
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
C-b and C-f scroll the display up/down a full screen.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Note: Emacs style movement keys can be customized by a .screenrc
command. (E.g. markkeys "h=^B:l=^F:$=^E") There is no simple
method for a full emacs-style keymap, as this involves multi-
character codes.
Some keys are defined to do mark and replace operations.
The copy range is specified by setting two marks. The text
between these marks will be highlighted. Press:
space or enter to set the first or second mark
respectively. If mousetrack is set to `on', marks can also
be set using left mouse click.
Y and y used to mark one whole line or to mark from start
of line.
W marks exactly one word.
Any of these commands can be prefixed with a repeat count number
by pressing digits
0..9 which is taken as a repeat count.
Example: "C-a C-[ H 10 j 5 Y" will copy lines 11 to 15 into the
paste buffer.
The folllowing search keys are defined:
/ Vi-like search forward.
? Vi-like search backward.
C-a s Emacs style incremental search forward.
C-r Emacs style reverse i-search.
n Find next search pattern.
N Find previous search pattern.
There are however some keys that act differently than in vi. Vi
does not allow one to yank rectangular blocks of text, but screen
does. Press: c or C to set the left or right margin respectively.
If no repeat count is given, both default to the current cursor
position.
Example: Try this on a rather full text screen:
"C-a [ M 20 l SPACE c 10 l 5 j C SPACE".
This moves one to the middle line of the screen, moves in 20
columns left, marks the beginning of the paste buffer, sets the
left column, moves 5 columns down, sets the right column, and
then marks the end of the paste buffer. Now try:
"C-a [ M 20 l SPACE 10 l 5 j SPACE"
and notice the difference in the amount of text copied.
J joins lines. It toggles between 4 modes: lines separated by a
newline character (012), lines glued seamless, lines separated by
a single whitespace and comma separated lines. Note that you can
prepend the newline character with a carriage return character,
by issuing a "crlf on".
v or V is for all the vi users with ":set numbers" - it toggles
the left margin between column 9 and 1. Press
a before the final space key to toggle in append mode. Thus the
contents of the paste buffer will not be overwritten, but is
appended to.
A toggles in append mode and sets a (second) mark.
> sets the (second) mark and writes the contents of the paste
buffer to the screen-exchange file (/tmp/screen-exchange per
default) once copy-mode is finished.
This example demonstrates how to dump the whole scrollback buffer
to that file: "C-A [ g SPACE G $ >".
C-g gives information about the current line and column.
x or o exchanges the first mark and the current cursor position.
You can use this to adjust an already placed mark.
C-l ('el') will redraw the screen.
@ does nothing. Does not even exit copy mode.
All keys not described here exit copy mode.
copy_reg [key]
No longer exists, use "readreg" instead.
crlf [on|off]
This affects the copying of text regions with the `C-a ['
command. If it is set to `on', lines will be separated by the two
character sequence `CR' - `LF'. Otherwise (default) only `LF' is
used. When no parameter is given, the state is toggled.
defc1 on|off
Same as the c1 command except that the default setting for new
windows is changed. Initial setting is `on'.
defautonuke on|off
Same as the autonuke command except that the default setting for
new displays is changed. Initial setting is `off'. Note that you
can use the special `AN' terminal capability if you want to have
a dependency on the terminal type.
defbce on|off
Same as the bce command except that the default setting for new
windows is changed. Initial setting is `off'.
defbreaktype [tcsendbreak|TIOCSBRK|TCSBRK]
Choose one of the available methods of generating a break signal
for terminal devices. The preferred methods are tcsendbreak and
TIOCSBRK. The third, TCSBRK, blocks the complete screen session
for the duration of the break, but it may be the only way to
generate long breaks. Tcsendbreak and TIOCSBRK may or may not
produce long breaks with spikes (e.g. 4 per second). This is not
only system-dependent, this also differs between serial board
drivers. Calling "defbreaktype" with no parameter displays the
current setting.
defcharset [set]
Like the charset command except that the default setting for new
windows is changed. Shows current default if called without
argument.
defdynamictitle on|off
Set default behaviour for new windows regarding if screen should
change window title when seeing proper escape sequence. See also
"TITLES (naming windows)" section.
defescape xy
Set the default command characters. This is equivalent to the
"escape" except that it is useful multiuser sessions only. In a
multiuser session "escape" changes the command character of the
calling user, where "defescape" changes the default command
characters for users that will be added later.
defflow on|off|auto [interrupt]
Same as the flow command except that the default setting for new
windows is changed. Initial setting is `auto'. Specifying
"defflow auto interrupt" is the same as the command-line options
-fa and -i.
defgr on|off
Same as the gr command except that the default setting for new
windows is changed. Initial setting is `off'.
defhstatus [status]
The hardstatus line that all new windows will get is set to
status. This command is useful to make the hardstatus of every
window display the window number or title or the like. Status
may contain the same directives as in the window messages, but
the directive escape character is '^E' (octal 005) instead of
'%'. This was done to make a misinterpretation of program
generated hardstatus lines impossible. If the parameter status
is omitted, the current default string is displayed. Per default
the hardstatus line of new windows is empty.
defencoding enc
Same as the encoding command except that the default setting for
new windows is changed. Initial setting is the encoding taken
from the terminal.
deflog on|off
Same as the log command except that the default setting for new
windows is changed. Initial setting is `off'.
deflogin on|off
Same as the login command except that the default setting for new
windows is changed. This is initialized with `on' as distributed
(see config.h.in).
defmode mode
The mode of each newly allocated pseudo-tty is set to mode. Mode
is an octal number. When no "defmode" command is given, mode
0622 is used.
defmonitor on|off
Same as the monitor command except that the default setting for
new windows is changed. Initial setting is `off'.
defmousetrack on|off
Same as the mousetrack command except that the default setting
for new windows is changed. Initial setting is `off'.
defnonblock on|off|numsecs
Same as the nonblock command except that the default setting for
displays is changed. Initial setting is `off'.
defobuflimit limit
Same as the obuflimit command except that the default setting for
new displays is changed. Initial setting is 256 bytes. Note that
you can use the special 'OL' terminal capability if you want to
have a dependency on the terminal type.
defscrollback num
Same as the scrollback command except that the default setting
for new windows is changed. Initial setting is 100.
defshell command
Synonym to the shell .screenrc command. See there.
defsilence on|off
Same as the silence command except that the default setting for
new windows is changed. Initial setting is `off'.
defslowpaste msec
Same as the slowpaste command except that the default setting for
new windows is changed. Initial setting is 0 milliseconds,
meaning `off'.
defutf8 on|off
Same as the utf8 command except that the default setting for new
windows is changed. Initial setting is `on' if screen was started
with "-U", otherwise `off'.
defwrap on|off
Same as the wrap command except that the default setting for new
windows is changed. Initially line-wrap is on and can be toggled
with the "wrap" command ("C-a r") or by means of "C-a : wrap
on|off".
defwritelock on|off|auto
Same as the writelock command except that the default setting for
new windows is changed. Initially writelocks will off.
detach [-h]
Detach the screen session (disconnect it from the terminal and
put it into the background). This returns you to the shell where
you invoked screen. A detached screen can be resumed by invoking
screen with the -r option (see also section "COMMAND-LINE
OPTIONS"). The -h option tells screen to immediately close the
connection to the terminal ("hangup").
dinfo
Show what screen thinks about your terminal. Useful if you want
to know why features like color or the alternate charset don't
work.
displays
Shows a tabular listing of all currently connected user front-
ends (displays). This is most useful for multiuser sessions.
The following keys can be used in displays list:
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
k, C-p, or up Move up one line.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
j, C-n, or down Move down one line.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
C-a or home Move to the first line.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
C-e or end Move to the last line.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
C-u or C-d Move one half page up or down.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
C-b or C-f Move one full page up or down.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
mouseclick Move to the selected line.
Available when "mousetrack" is
set to on.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
space Refresh the list
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
d Detach that display
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
D Power detach that display
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
C-g, enter, or escape Exit the list
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The following is an example of what "displays" could look like:
xterm 80x42 jnweiger@/dev/ttyp4 0(m11) &rWx
facit 80x24 mlschroe@/dev/ttyhf nb 11(tcsh) rwx
xterm 80x42 jnhollma@/dev/ttyp5 0(m11) &R.x
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) (F)(G) (H)(I)
The legend is as follows:
(A) The terminal type known by screen for this display.
(B) Displays geometry as width x height.
(C) Username who is logged in at the display.
(D) Device name of the display or the attached device
(E) Display is in blocking or nonblocking mode. The
available modes are "nb", "NB", "Z<", "Z>", and "BL".
(F) Number of the window
(G) Name/title of window
(H) Whether the window is shared
(I) Window permissions. Made up of three characters.
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Window permissions indicators │
├─────────────────┬──────────────────┬───────────────────┤
│ 1st character │ 2nd character │ 3rd character │
├────┬────────────┼─────┬────────────┼─────┬─────────────┤
│- │no read │ - │no write │ - │no execute │
├────┼────────────┼─────┼────────────┼─────┼─────────────┤
│r │read │ w │write │ x │execute │
├────┼────────────┼─────┼────────────┼─────┼─────────────┤
│ │ │ W │own wlock │ │ │
├────┴────────────┴─────┴────────────┴─────┴─────────────┤
│Indicators of permissions suppressed by a foreign wlock │
├────┬────────────┬─────┬────────────┬─────┬─────────────┤
│R │read only │ . │no write │ │ │
└────┴────────────┴─────┴────────────┴─────┴─────────────┘
"displays" needs a region size of at least 10 characters
wide and 5 characters high in order to display.
digraph [preset[unicode-value]]
This command prompts the user for a digraph sequence. The next
two characters typed are looked up in a builtin table and the
resulting character is inserted in the input stream. For example,
if the user enters 'a"', an a-umlaut will be inserted. If the
first character entered is a 0 (zero), screen will treat the
following characters (up to three) as an octal number instead.
The optional argument preset is treated as user input, thus one
can create an "umlaut" key. For example the command "bindkey ^K
digraph '"'" enables the user to generate an a-umlaut by typing
CTRL-K a. When a non-zero unicode-value is specified, a new
digraph is created with the specified preset. The digraph is
unset if a zero value is provided for the unicode-value.
dumptermcap
Write the termcap entry for the virtual terminal optimized for
the currently active window to the file ".termcap" in the user's
"$HOME/.screen" directory (or wherever screen stores its sockets.
See the "FILES" section below). This termcap entry is identical
to the value of the environment variable $TERMCAP that is set up
by screen for each window. For terminfo based systems you will
need to run a converter like captoinfo and then compile the entry
with tic.
dynamictitle on|off
Change behaviour for windows regarding if screen should change
window title when seeing proper escape sequence. See also "TITLES
(naming windows)" section.
echo [-n] message
The echo command may be used to annoy screen users with a
'message of the day'. Typically installed in a global
/local/etc/screenrc. The option "-n" may be used to suppress the
line feed. See also "sleep". Echo is also useful for online
checking of environment variables.
encoding enc [enc]
Tell screen how to interpret the input/output. The first argument
sets the encoding of the current window. Each window can emulate
a different encoding. The optional second parameter overwrites
the encoding of the connected terminal. It should never be needed
as screen uses the locale setting to detect the encoding. There
is also a way to select a terminal encoding depending on the
terminal type by using the "KJ" termcap entry.
Supported encodings are eucJP, SJIS, eucKR, eucCN, Big5, GBK,
KOI8-R, KOI8-U, CP1251, UTF-8, ISO8859-2, ISO8859-3, ISO8859-4,
ISO8859-5, ISO8859-6, ISO8859-7, ISO8859-8, ISO8859-9,
ISO8859-10, ISO8859-15, jis.
See also "defencoding", which changes the default setting of a
new window.
escape xy
Set the command character to x and the character generating a
literal command character (by triggering the "meta" command) to y
(similar to the -e option). Each argument is either a single
character, a two-character sequence of the form "^x" (meaning "C-
x"), a backslash followed by an octal number (specifying the
ASCII code of the character), or a backslash followed by a second
character, such as "\^" or "\\". The default is "^Aa".
eval command1[command2 ...]
Parses and executes each argument as separate command.
exec [[fdpat]newcommand [args ...]]
Run a unix subprocess (specified by an executable path newcommand
and its optional arguments) in the current window. The flow of
data between newcommands stdin/stdout/stderr, the process
originally started in the window (let us call it "application-
process") and screen itself (window) is controlled by the file
descriptor pattern fdpat. This pattern is basically a three
character sequence representing stdin, stdout and stderr of
newcommand. A dot (.) connects the file descriptor to screen. An
exclamation mark (!) causes the file descriptor to be connected
to the application-process. A colon (:) combines both. User
input will go to newcommand unless newcommand receives the
application-process' output (fdpats first character is `!' or
`:') or a pipe symbol (|) is added (as a fourth character) to the
end of fdpat.
Invoking `exec' without arguments shows name and arguments of the
currently running subprocess in this window. Only one subprocess
a time can be running in each window.
When a subprocess is running the `kill' command will affect it
instead of the windows process.
Refer to the postscript file `doc/fdpat.ps' for a confusing
illustration of all 21 possible combinations. Each drawing shows
the digits 2,1,0 representing the three file descriptors of
newcommand. The box marked `W' is the usual pty that has the
application-process on its slave side. The box marked `P' is the
secondary pty that now has screen at its master side.
Abbreviations: Whitespace between the word `exec' and fdpat and
the command can be omitted. Trailing dots and a fdpat consisting
only of dots can be omitted. A simple `|' is synonymous for the
pattern `!..|'; the word exec can be omitted here and can always
be replaced by `!'.
Examples:
exec ... /bin/sh
exec /bin/sh
!/bin/sh
Creates another shell in the same window, while the
original shell is still running. Output of both
shells is displayed and user input is sent to the
new /bin/sh.
exec !.. stty 19200
exec ! stty 19200
!!stty 19200
Set the speed of the window's tty. If your stty
command operates on stdout, then add another `!'.
exec !..| less
|less
This adds a pager to the window output. The special
character `|' is needed to give the user control
over the pager although it gets its input from the
window's process. This works, because less listens
on stderr (a behavior that screen would not expect
without the `|') when its stdin is not a tty. Less
versions newer than 177 fail miserably here; good
old pg still works.
!:sed -n s/.*Error.*/\007/p
Sends window output to both, the user and the sed
command. The sed inserts an additional bell
character (oct. 007) to the window output seen by
screen. This will cause "Bell in window x"
messages, whenever the string "Error" appears in
the window.
fit
Change the window size to the size of the current region. This
command is needed because screen doesn't adapt the window size
automatically if the window is displayed more than once.
flow [on|off|auto]
Sets the flow-control mode for this window. Without parameters
it cycles the current window's flow-control setting from
"automatic" to "on" to "off". See the discussion on "FLOW-
CONTROL" later on in this document for full details and note,
that this is subject to change in future releases. Default is
set by `defflow'.
focus [next|prev|up|down|left|right|top|bottom]
Move the input focus to the next region. This is done in a cyclic
way so that the top left region is selected after the bottom
right one. If no option is given it defaults to `next'. The next
region to be selected is determined by how the regions are
layered. Normally, the next region in the same layer would be
selected. However, if that next region contains one or more
layers, the first region in the highest layer is selected first.
If you are at the last region of the current layer, `next' will
move the focus to the next region in the lower layer (if there is
a lower layer). `Prev' cycles in the opposite order. See "split"
for more information about layers.
The rest of the options (`up', `down', `left', `right', `top',
and `bottom') are more indifferent to layers. The option `up'
will move the focus upward to the region that is touching the
upper left corner of the current region. `Down' will move
downward to the region that is touching the lower left corner of
the current region. The option `left' will move the focus
leftward to the region that is touching the upper left corner of
the current region, while `right' will move rightward to the
region that is touching the upper right corner of the current
region. Moving left from a left most region or moving right from
a right most region will result in no action.
The option `top' will move the focus to the very first region in
the upper list corner of the screen, and `bottom' will move to
the region in the bottom right corner of the screen. Moving up
from a top most region or moving down from a bottom most region
will result in no action.
Useful bindings are (h, j, k, and l as in vi)
bind h focus left
bind j focus down
bind k focus up
bind l focus right
bind t focus top
bind b focus bottom
Note that k is traditionally bound to the kill command.
focusminsize [ ( width|max|_ ) ( height|max|_ ) ]
This forces any currently selected region to be automatically
resized at least a certain width and height. All other
surrounding regions will be resized in order to accommodate.
This constraint follows everytime the "focus" command is used.
The "resize" command can be used to increase either dimension of
a region, but never below what is set with "focusminsize". The
underscore `_' is a synonym for max. Setting a width and height
of `0 0' (zero zero) will undo any constraints and allow for
manual resizing. Without any parameters, the minimum width and
height is shown.
gr [on|off]
Turn GR charset switching on/off. Whenever screen sees an input
character with the 8th bit set, it will use the charset stored in
the GR slot and print the character with the 8th bit stripped.
The default (see also "defgr") is not to process GR switching
because otherwise the ISO88591 charset would not work.
group [grouptitle]
Change or show the group the current window belongs to. Windows
can be moved around between different groups by specifying the
name of the destination group. Without specifying a group, the
title of the current group is displayed.
hardcopy [-h] [file]
Writes out the currently displayed image to the file file, or, if
no filename is specified, to hardcopy.n in the default directory,
where n is the number of the current window. This either appends
or overwrites the file if it exists. See below. If the option -h
is specified, dump also the contents of the scrollback buffer.
hardcopy_append on|off
If set to "on", screen will append to the "hardcopy.n" files
created by the command "C-a h", otherwise these files are
overwritten each time. Default is `off'.
hardcopydir directory
Defines a directory where hardcopy files will be placed. If
unset, hardcopys are dumped in screen's current working
directory.
hardstatus [on|off]
hardstatus [always]firstline|lastline|message|ignore[string]
hardstatus string[string]
This command configures the use and emulation of the terminal's
hardstatus line. The first form toggles whether screen will use
the hardware status line to display messages. If the flag is set
to `off', these messages are overlaid in reverse video mode at
the display line. The default setting is `on'.
The second form tells screen what to do if the terminal doesn't
have a hardstatus line (i.e. the termcap/terminfo capabilities
"hs", "ts", "fs" and "ds" are not set). When
"firstline/lastline" is used, screen will reserve the first/last
line of the display for the hardstatus. "message" uses screen's
message mechanism and "ignore" tells screen never to display the
hardstatus. If you prepend the word "always" to the type (e.g.,
"alwayslastline"), screen will use the type even if the terminal
supports a hardstatus.
The third form specifies the contents of the hardstatus line.
'%h' is used as default string, i.e., the stored hardstatus of
the current window (settable via "ESC]0;<string>^G" or
"ESC_<string>ESC\") is displayed. You can customize this to any
string you like including the escapes from the "STRING ESCAPES"
chapter. If you leave out the argument string, the current string
is displayed.
You can mix the second and third form by providing the string as
additional argument.
height [-w|-d] [lines [cols]]
Set the display height to a specified number of lines. When no
argument is given it toggles between 24 and 42 lines display. You
can also specify a width if you want to change both values. The
-w option tells screen to leave the display size unchanged and
just set the window size, -d vice versa.
help[class]
Not really a online help, but displays a help screen showing you
all the key bindings. The first pages list all the internal
commands followed by their current bindings. Subsequent pages
will display the custom commands, one command per key. Press
space when you're done reading each page, or return to exit
early. All other characters are ignored. If the "-c" option is
given, display all bound commands for the specified command
class. See also "DEFAULT KEY BINDINGS" section.
history
Usually users work with a shell that allows easy access to
previous commands. For example csh has the command "!!" to
repeat the last command executed. Screen allows you to have a
primitive way of re-calling "the command that started ...": You
just type the first letter of that command, then hit `C-a {' and
screen tries to find a previous line that matches with the
`prompt character' to the left of the cursor. This line is pasted
into this window's input queue. Thus you have a crude command
history (made up by the visible window and its scrollback
buffer).
hstatus status
Change the window's hardstatus line to the string status.
idle [timeout[cmd-args]]
Sets a command that is run after the specified number of seconds
inactivity is reached. This command will normally be the
"blanker" command to create a screen blanker, but it can be any
screen command. If no command is specified, only the timeout is
set. A timeout of zero (or the special timeout off) disables the
timer. If no arguments are given, the current settings are
displayed.
ignorecase [on|off]
Tell screen to ignore the case of characters in searches. Default
is `off'. Without any options, the state of ignorecase is
toggled.
info
Uses the message line to display some information about the
current window: the cursor position in the form "(column,row)"
starting with "(1,1)", the terminal width and height plus the
size of the scrollback buffer in lines, like in "(80,24)+50", the
current state of window XON/XOFF flow control is shown like this
(See also section FLOW CONTROL):
┌─────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│+flow │ automatic flow control, currently on. │
├─────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│-flow │ automatic flow control, currently off. │
├─────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│+(+)flow │ flow control enabled. Agrees with automatic control. │
├─────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│-(+)flow │ flow control disabled. Disagrees with automatic control. │
├─────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│+(-)flow │ flow control enabled. Disagrees with automatic control. │
├─────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│-(-)flow │ flow control disabled. Agrees with automatic control. │
└─────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The current line wrap setting (`+wrap' indicates enabled, `-wrap'
not) is also shown. The flags `ins', `org', `app', `log', `mon'
or `nored' are displayed when the window is in insert mode,
origin mode, application-keypad mode, has output logging,
activity monitoring or partial redraw enabled.
The currently active character set (G0, G1, G2, or G3) and in
square brackets the terminal character sets that are currently
designated as G0 through G3 is shown. If the window is in UTF-8
mode, the string "UTF-8" is shown instead.
Additional modes depending on the type of the window are
displayed at the end of the status line (See also chapter "WINDOW
TYPES").
If the state machine of the terminal emulator is in a non-default
state, the info line is started with a string identifying the
current state.
For system information use the "time" command.
ins_reg [key]
No longer exists, use "paste" instead.
kill
Kill current window.
If there is an `exec' command running then it is killed.
Otherwise the process (shell) running in the window receives a
HANGUP condition, the window structure is removed and screen
(your display) switches to another window. When the last window
is destroyed, screen exits. After a kill screen switches to the
previously displayed window.
Note: Emacs users should keep this command in mind, when killing
a line. It is recommended not to use "C-a" as the screen escape
key or to rebind kill to "C-a K".
lastmsg
Redisplay the last contents of the message/status line. Useful
if you're typing when a message appears, because the message
goes away when you press a key (unless your terminal has a
hardware status line). Refer to the commands "msgwait" and
"msgminwait" for fine tuning.
layout new [title]
Create a new layout. The screen will change to one whole region
and be switched to the blank window. From here, you build the
regions and the windows they show as you desire. The new layout
will be numbered with the smallest available integer, starting
with zero. You can optionally give a title to your new layout.
Otherwise, it will have a default title of "layout". You can
always change the title later by using the command layout title.
layout remove [n|title]
Remove, or in other words, delete the specified layout. Either
the number or the title can be specified. Without either
specification, screen will remove the current layout.
Removing a layout does not affect your set windows or regions.
layout next
Switch to the next layout available
layout prev
Switch to the previous layout available
layout select [n|title]
Select the desired layout. Either the number or the title can be
specified. Without either specification, screen will prompt and
ask which screen is desired. To see which layouts are available,
use the layout show command.
layout show
List on the message line the number(s) and title(s) of the
available layout(s). The current layout is flagged.
layout title [title]
Change or display the title of the current layout. A string given
will be used to name the layout. Without any options, the current
title and number is displayed on the message line.
layout number [n]
Change or display the number of the current layout. An integer
given will be used to number the layout. Without any options, the
current number and title is displayed on the message line.
layout attach [title|:last]
Change or display which layout to reattach back to. The default
is :last, which tells screen to reattach back to the last used
layout just before detachment. By supplying a title, You can
instruct screen to reattach to a particular layout regardless
which one was used at the time of detachment. Without any
options, the layout to reattach to will be shown in the message
line.
layout save [n|title]
Remember the current arrangement of regions. When used, screen
will remember the arrangement of vertically and horizontally
split regions. This arrangement is restored when a screen session
is reattached or switched back from a different layout. If the
session ends or the screen process dies, the layout arrangements
are lost. The layout dump command should help in this siutation.
If a number or title is supplied, screen will remember the
arrangement of that particular layout. Without any options,
screen will remember the current layout.
Saving your regions can be done automatically by using the layout
autosave command.
layout autosave [on|off]
Change or display the status of automatcally saving layouts. The
default is on, meaning when screen is detached or changed to a
different layout, the arrangement of regions and windows will be
remembered at the time of change and restored upon return. If
autosave is set to off, that arrangement will only be restored to
either to the last manual save, using layout save, or to when the
layout was first created, to a single region with a single
window. Without either an on or off, the current status is
displayed on the message line.
layout dump [filename]
Write to a file the order of splits made in the current layout.
This is useful to recreate the order of your regions used in your
current layout. Only the current layout is recorded. While the
order of the regions are recorded, the sizes of those regions and
which windows correspond to which regions are not. If no filename
is specified, the default is layout-dump, saved in the directory
that the screen process was started in. If the file already
exists, layout dump will append to that file. As an example:
C-a : layout dump /home/user/.screenrc
will save or append the layout to the user's .screenrc file.
license
Display the disclaimer page. This is done whenever screen is
started without options, which should be often enough. See also
the "startup_message" command.
lockscreen
Lock this display. Call a screenlock program (/local/bin/lck or
/usr/bin/lock or a builtin if no other is available). Screen does
not accept any command keys until this program terminates.
Meanwhile processes in the windows may continue, as the windows
are in the `detached' state. The screenlock program may be
changed through the environment variable $LOCKPRG (which must be
set in the shell from which screen is started) and is executed
with the user's uid and gid.
Warning: When you leave other shells unlocked and you have no
password set on screen, the lock is void: One could easily re-
attach from an unlocked shell. This feature should rather be
called `lockterminal'.
log [on|off]
Start/stop writing output of the current window to a file
"screenlog.n" in the window's default directory, where n is the
number of the current window. This filename can be changed with
the `logfile' command. If no parameter is given, the state of
logging is toggled. The session log is appended to the previous
contents of the file if it already exists. The current contents
and the contents of the scrollback history are not included in
the session log. Default is `off'.
logfile filename
logfile flush secs
Defines the name the log files will get. The default is
"screenlog.%n". The second form changes the number of seconds
screen will wait before flushing the logfile buffer to the file-
system. The default value is 10 seconds.
login [on|off]
Adds or removes the entry in the utmp database file for the
current window. This controls if the window is `logged in'.
When no parameter is given, the login state of the window is
toggled. Additionally to that toggle, it is convenient having a
`log in' and a `log out' key. E.g. `bind I login on' and `bind O
login off' will map these keys to be C-a I and C-a O. The
default setting (in config.h.in) should be "on" for a screen that
runs under suid-root. Use the "deflogin" command to change the
default login state for new windows. Both commands are only
present when screen has been compiled with utmp support.
logtstamp [on|off]
logtstamp after [secs]
logtstamp string
[string]
This command controls logfile time-stamp mechanism of screen. If
time-stamps are turned "on", screen adds a string containing the
current time to the logfile after two minutes of inactivity.
When output continues and more than another two minutes have
passed, a second time-stamp is added to document the restart of
the output. You can change this timeout with the second form of
the command. The third form is used for customizing the time-
stamp string (`-- %n:%t -- time-stamp -- %M/%d/%y %c:%s --\n' by
default).
mapdefault
Tell screen that the next input character should only be looked
up in the default bindkey table. See also "bindkey".
mapnotnext
Like mapdefault, but don't even look in the default bindkey
table.
maptimeout [timeout]
Set the inter-character timer for input sequence detection to a
timeout of timeout ms. The default timeout is 300ms. Maptimeout
with no arguments shows the current setting. See also "bindkey".
markkeys string
This is a method of changing the keymap used for copy/history
mode. The string is made up of oldchar=newchar pairs which are
separated by `:'. Example: The string "B=^B:F=^F" will change the
keys `C-b' and `C-f' to the vi style binding (scroll up/down fill
page). This happens to be the default binding for `B' and `F'.
The command "markkeys h=^B:l=^F:$=^E" would set the mode for an
emacs-style binding. If your terminal sends characters, that
cause you to abort copy mode, then this command may help by
binding these characters to do nothing. The no-op character is
`@' and is used like this: "markkeys @=L=H" if you do not want to
use the `H' or `L' commands any longer. As shown in this
example, multiple keys can be assigned to one function in a
single statement.
maxwin num
Set the maximum window number screen will create. Doesn't affect
already existing windows. The number can be increased only when
there are no existing windows.
meta
Insert the command character (C-a) in the current window's input
stream.
monitor [on|off]
Toggles activity monitoring of windows. When monitoring is
turned on and an affected window is switched into the background,
you will receive the activity notification message in the status
line at the first sign of output and the window will also be
marked with an `@' in the window-status display. Monitoring is
initially off for all windows.
mousetrack [on|off]
This command determines whether screen will watch for mouse
clicks. When this command is enabled, regions that have been
split in various ways can be selected by pointing to them with a
mouse and left-clicking them. Without specifying on or off, the
current state is displayed. The default state is determined by
the "defmousetrack" command.
msgminwait sec
Defines the time screen delays a new message when one message is
currently displayed. The default is 1 second.
msgwait sec
Defines the time a message is displayed if screen is not
disturbed by other activity. The default is 5 seconds.
multiuser on|off
Switch between singleuser and multiuser mode. Standard screen
operation is singleuser. In multiuser mode the commands `acladd',
`aclchg', `aclgrp' and `acldel' can be used to enable (and
disable) other users accessing this screen session.
nethack on|off
Changes the kind of error messages used by screen. When you are
familiar with the game "nethack", you may enjoy the nethack-style
messages which will often blur the facts a little, but are much
funnier to read. Anyway, standard messages often tend to be
unclear as well.
This option is only available if screen was compiled with the
NETHACK flag defined. The default setting is then determined by
the presence of the environment variable $NETHACKOPTIONS and the
file ~/.nethackrc - if either one is present, the default is on.
next
Switch to the next window. This command can be used repeatedly
to cycle through the list of windows.
nonblock [on|off|numsecs]
Tell screen how to deal with user interfaces (displays) that
cease to accept output. This can happen if a user presses ^S or a
TCP/modem connection gets cut but no hangup is received. If
nonblock is off (this is the default) screen waits until the
display restarts to accept the output. If nonblock is on, screen
waits until the timeout is reached (on is treated as 1s). If the
display still doesn't receive characters, screen will consider it
"blocked" and stop sending characters to it. If at some time it
restarts to accept characters, screen will unblock the display
and redisplay the updated window contents.
number [[+|-]n]
Change the current window's number. If the given number n is
already used by another window, both windows exchange their
numbers. If no argument is specified, the current window number
(and title) is shown. Using `+' or `-' will change the window's
number by the relative amount specified.
obuflimit [limit]
If the output buffer contains more bytes than the specified
limit, no more data will be read from the windows. The default
value is 256. If you have a fast display (like xterm), you can
set it to some higher value. If no argument is specified, the
current setting is displayed.
only
Kill all regions but the current one.
other
Switch to the window displayed previously. If this window does no
longer exist, other has the same effect as next.
partial on|off
Defines whether the display should be refreshed (as with
redisplay) after switching to the current window. This command
only affects the current window. To immediately affect all
windows use the allpartial command. Default is `off', of course.
This default is fixed, as there is currently no defpartial
command.
password [crypted_pw]
Present a crypted password in your ".screenrc" file and screen
will ask for it, whenever someone attempts to resume a detached.
This is useful if you have privileged programs running under
screen and you want to protect your session from reattach
attempts by another user masquerading as your uid (i.e. any
superuser.) If no crypted password is specified, screen prompts
twice for typing a password and places its encryption in the
paste buffer. Default is `none', this disables password
checking.
paste [registers [dest_reg]]
Write the (concatenated) contents of the specified registers to
the stdin queue of the current window. The register '.' is
treated as the paste buffer. If no parameter is given the user is
prompted for a single register to paste. The paste buffer can be
filled with the copy, history and readbuf commands. Other
registers can be filled with the register, readreg and paste
commands. If paste is called with a second argument, the
contents of the specified registers is pasted into the named
destination register rather than the window. If '.' is used as
the second argument, the displays paste buffer is the
destination. Note, that "paste" uses a wide variety of
resources: Whenever a second argument is specified no current
window is needed. When the source specification only contains
registers (not the paste buffer) then there need not be a current
display (terminal attached), as the registers are a global
resource. The paste buffer exists once for every user.
pastefont [on|off]
Tell screen to include font information in the paste buffer. The
default is not to do so. This command is especially useful for
multi character fonts like kanji.
pow_break
Reopen the window's terminal line and send a break condition. See
`break'.
pow_detach
Power detach. Mainly the same as detach, but also sends a HANGUP
signal to the parent process of screen. CAUTION: This will
result in a logout, when screen was started from your login-
shell.
pow_detach_msg [message]
The message specified here is output whenever a `Power detach'
was performed. It may be used as a replacement for a logout
message or to reset baud rate, etc. Without parameter, the
current message is shown.
prev
Switch to the window with the next lower number. This command
can be used repeatedly to cycle through the list of windows.
printcmd [cmd]
If cmd is not an empty string, screen will not use the terminal
capabilities "po/pf" if it detects an ansi print sequence ESC [ 5
i, but pipe the output into cmd. This should normally be a
command like "lpr" or "'cat > /tmp/scrprint'". printcmd without
a command displays the current setting. The ansi sequence ESC \
ends printing and closes the pipe.
Warning: Be careful with this command! If other user have write
access to your terminal, they will be able to fire off print
commands.
process [key]
Stuff the contents of the specified register into screen's input
queue. If no argument is given you are prompted for a register
name. The text is parsed as if it had been typed in from the
user's keyboard. This command can be used to bind multiple
actions to a single key.
quit
Kill all windows and terminate screen. Note that on VT100-style
terminals the keys C-4 and C-\ are identical. This makes the
default bindings dangerous: Be careful not to type C-a C-4 when
selecting window no. 4. Use the empty bind command (as in "bind
'^\'") to remove a key binding.
readbuf [encoding] [filename]
Reads the contents of the specified file into the paste buffer.
You can tell screen the encoding of the file via the -e option.
If no file is specified, the screen-exchange filename is used.
See also "bufferfile" command.
readreg [encoding] [register [filename]]
Does one of two things, dependent on number of arguments: with
zero or one arguments it duplicates the paste buffer contents
into the register specified or entered at the prompt. With two
arguments it reads the contents of the named file into the
register, just as readbuf reads the screen-exchange file into the
paste buffer. You can tell screen the encoding of the file via
the -e option. The following example will paste the system's
password file into the screen window (using register p, where a
copy remains):
C-a : readreg p /etc/passwd
C-a : paste p
redisplay
Redisplay the current window. Needed to get a full redisplay when
in partial redraw mode.
register [-eencoding]key-string
Save the specified string to the register key. The encoding of
the string can be specified via the -e option. See also the
"paste" command.
remove
Kill the current region. This is a no-op if there is only one
region.
removebuf
Unlinks the screen-exchange file used by the commands "writebuf"
and "readbuf".
rendition bell | monitor | silence | so attr [ color ]
Change the way screen renders the titles of windows that have
monitor or bell flags set in caption or hardstatus or windowlist.
See the "STRING ESCAPES" chapter for the syntax of the modifiers.
The default for monitor is currently "=b " (bold, active colors),
for bell "=ub " (underline, bold and active colors), and "=u "
for silence.
reset
Reset the virtual terminal to its "power-on" values. Useful when
strange settings (like scroll regions or graphics character set)
are left over from an application.
resize [-h|-v|-b|-l|-p] [[+|-] n[%] |=|max|min|_|0]
Resize the current region. The space will be removed from or
added to the surrounding regions depending on the order of the
splits. The available options for resizing are `-h'(horizontal),
`-v'(vertical), `-b'(both), `-l'(local to layer), and
`-p'(perpendicular). Horizontal resizes will add or remove width
to a region, vertical will add or remove height, and both will
add or remove size from both dimensions. Local and perpendicular
are similar to horizontal and vertical, but they take in account
of how a region was split. If a region's last split was
horizontal, a local resize will work like a vertical resize. If a
region's last split was vertical, a local resize will work like a
horizontal resize. Perpendicular resizes work in opposite of
local resizes. If no option is specified, local is the default.
The amount of lines to add or remove can be expressed a couple of
different ways. By specifying a number n by itself will resize
the region by that absolute amount. You can specify a relative
amount by prefixing a plus `+' or minus `-' to the amount, such
as adding +n lines or removing -n lines. Resizing can also be
expressed as an absolute or relative percentage by postfixing a
percent sign `%'. Using zero `0' is a synonym for `min' and using
an underscore `_' is a synonym for `max'.
Some examples are:
resize +N
increase current region by N
resize -N
decrease current region by N
resize N
set current region to N
resize 20%
set current region to 20% of original size
resize +20%
increase current region by 20%
resize -b =
make all windows equally
resize max
maximize current region
resize min
minimize current region
Without any arguments, screen will prompt for how you would like
to resize the current region.
See "focusminsize" if you want to restrict the minimun size a
region can have.
screen [-opts] [n] [cmd [args]|//group]
Establish a new window. The flow-control options (-f, -fn and
-fa), title (a.k.a.) option (-t), login options (-l and -ln) ,
terminal type option (-T <term>), the all-capability-flag (-a)
and scrollback option (-h <num>) may be specified with each
command. The option (-M) turns monitoring on for this window.
The option (-L) turns output logging on for this window. If an
optional number n in the range 0..MAXWIN-1 is given, the window
number n is assigned to the newly created window (or, if this
number is already in-use, the next available number). If a
command is specified after "screen", this command (with the given
arguments) is started in the window; otherwise, a shell is
created. If //group is supplied, a container-type window is
created in which other windows may be created inside it.
Thus, if your ".screenrc" contains the lines
# example for .screenrc:
screen 1
screen -fn -t foobar -L 2 telnet foobar
screen creates a shell window (in window #1) and a window with a
TELNET connection to the machine foobar (with no flow-control
using the title "foobar" in window #2) and will write a logfile
("screenlog.2") of the telnet session. Note, that unlike
previous versions of screen no additional default window is
created when "screen" commands are included in your ".screenrc"
file. When the initialization is completed, screen switches to
the last window specified in your .screenrc file or, if none,
opens a default window #0.
Screen has built in some functionality of "cu" and "telnet". See
also chapter "WINDOW TYPES".
scrollback num
Set the size of the scrollback buffer for the current windows to
num lines. The default scrollback is 100 lines. See also the
"defscrollback" command and use "info" to view the current
setting. To access and use the contents in the scrollback buffer,
use the "copy" command.
select [WindowID]
Switch to the window identified by WindowID. This can be a
prefix of a window title (alphanumeric window name) or a window
number. The parameter is optional and if omitted, you get
prompted for an identifier. When a new window is established,
the first available number is assigned to this window. Thus, the
first window can be activated by "select 0". The number of
windows is limited at compile-time by the MAXWIN configuration
parameter (which defaults to 40). There are two special
WindowIDs, "-" selects the internal blank window and "." selects
the current window. The latter is useful if used with screen's
"-X" option.
sessionname [name]
Rename the current session. Note, that for "screen -list" the
name shows up with the process-id prepended. If the argument
"name" is omitted, the name of this session is displayed.
Caution: The $STY environment variables will still reflect the
old name in pre-existing shells. This may result in confusion.
Use of this command is generally discouraged. Use the "-S"
command-line option if you want to name a new session. The
default is constructed from the tty and host names.
setenv [var [string]]
Set the environment variable var to value string. If only var is
specified, the user will be prompted to enter a value. If no
parameters are specified, the user will be prompted for both
variable and value. The environment is inherited by all
subsequently forked shells.
setsid [on|off]
Normally screen uses different sessions and process groups for
the windows. If setsid is turned off, this is not done anymore
and all windows will be in the same process group as the screen
backend process. This also breaks job-control, so be careful.
The default is on, of course. This command is probably useful
only in rare circumstances.
shell command
Set the command to be used to create a new shell. This overrides
the value of the environment variable $SHELL. This is useful if
you'd like to run a tty-enhancer which is expecting to execute
the program specified in $SHELL. If the command begins with a
'-' character, the shell will be started as a login-shell.
Typical shells do only minimal initialization when not started as
a login-shell. E.g. Bash will not read your "~/.bashrc" unless
it is a login-shell.
shelltitle title
Set the title for all shells created during startup or by the C-A
C-c command. For details about what a title is, see the
discussion entitled "TITLES (naming windows)".
silence [on|off|sec]
Toggles silence monitoring of windows. When silence is turned on
and an affected window is switched into the background, you will
receive the silence notification message in the status line after
a specified period of inactivity (silence). The default timeout
can be changed with the `silencewait' command or by specifying a
number of seconds instead of `on' or `off'. Silence is initially
off for all windows.
silencewait sec
Define the time that all windows monitored for silence should
wait before displaying a message. Default 30 seconds.
sleep num
This command will pause the execution of a .screenrc file for num
seconds. Keyboard activity will end the sleep. It may be used
to give users a chance to read the messages output by "echo".
slowpaste msec
Define the speed at which text is inserted into the current
window by the paste ("C-a ]") command. If the slowpaste value is
nonzero text is written character by character. screen will make
a pause of msec milliseconds after each single character write to
allow the application to process its input. Only use slowpaste if
your underlying system exposes flow control problems while
pasting large amounts of text.
sort
Sort the windows in alphabetical order of the window tiles.
source file
Read and execute commands from file file. Source commands may be
nested to a maximum recursion level of ten. If file is not an
absolute path and screen is already processing a source command,
the parent directory of the running source command file is used
to search for the new command file before screen's current
directory.
Note that termcap/terminfo/termcapinfo commands only work at
startup and reattach time, so they must be reached via the
default screenrc files to have an effect.
sorendition [attr[color]]
This command is deprecated. See "rendition so" instead.
split[-v]
Split the current region into two new ones. All regions on the
display are resized to make room for the new region. The blank
window is displayed in the new region. The default is to create a
horizontal split, putting the new regions on the top and bottom
of each other. Using `-v' will create a vertical split, causing
the new regions to appear side by side of each other. Use the
"remove" or the "only" command to delete regions. Use "focus" to
toggle between regions.
When a region is split opposite of how it was previously split
(that is, vertical then horizontal or horizontal then vertical),
a new layer is created. The layer is used to group together the
regions that are split the same. Normally, as a user, you should
not see nor have to worry about layers, but they will affect how
some commands ("focus" and "resize") behave.
With this current implementation of screen, scrolling data will
appear much slower in a vertically split region than one that is
not. This should be taken into consideration if you need to use
system commands such as "cat" or "tail -f".
startup_message on|off
Select whether you want to see the copyright notice during
startup. Default is `on', as you probably noticed.
status [top|up|down|bottom] [left|right]
The status window by default is in bottom-left corner. This
command can move status messages to any corner of the screen. top
is the same as up, down is the same as bottom.
stuff [string]
Stuff the string string in the input buffer of the current
window. This is like the "paste" command but with much less
overhead. Without a parameter, screen will prompt for a string
to stuff. You cannot paste large buffers with the "stuff"
command. It is most useful for key bindings. See also "bindkey".
su [username [password [password2]]]
Substitute the user of a display. The command prompts for all
parameters that are omitted. If passwords are specified as
parameters, they have to be specified un-crypted. The first
password is matched against the systems passwd database, the
second password is matched against the screen password as set
with the commands "acladd" or "password". "Su" may be useful for
the screen administrator to test multiuser setups. When the
identification fails, the user has access to the commands
available for user nobody. These are "detach", "license",
"version", "help" and "displays".
suspend
Suspend screen. The windows are in the `detached' state, while
screen is suspended. This feature relies on the shell being able
to do job control.
term term
In each window's environment screen opens, the $TERM variable is
set to "screen" by default. But when no description for "screen"
is installed in the local termcap or terminfo data base, you set
$TERM to - say - "vt100". This won't do much harm, as screen is
VT100/ANSI compatible. The use of the "term" command is
discouraged for non-default purpose. That is, one may want to
specify special $TERM settings (e.g. vt100) for the next "screen
rlogin othermachine" command. Use the command "screen -T vt100
rlogin othermachine" rather than setting and resetting the
default.
termcap term terminal-tweaks[window-tweaks]
terminfo term terminal-tweaks[window-tweaks]
termcapinfo term terminal-tweaks[window-tweaks]
Use this command to modify your terminal's termcap entry without
going through all the hassles involved in creating a custom
termcap entry. Plus, you can optionally customize the termcap
generated for the windows. You have to place these commands in
one of the screenrc startup files, as they are meaningless once
the terminal emulator is booted.
If your system uses the terminfo database rather than termcap,
screen will understand the `terminfo' command, which has the same
effects as the `termcap' command. Two separate commands are
provided, as there are subtle syntactic differences, e.g. when
parameter interpolation (using `%') is required. Note that
termcap names of the capabilities have to be used with the
`terminfo' command.
In many cases, where the arguments are valid in both terminfo and
termcap syntax, you can use the command `termcapinfo', which is
just a shorthand for a pair of `termcap' and `terminfo' commands
with identical arguments.
The first argument specifies which terminal(s) should be affected
by this definition. You can specify multiple terminal names by
separating them with `|'s. Use `*' to match all terminals and
`vt*' to match all terminals that begin with "vt".
Each tweak argument contains one or more termcap defines
(separated by `:'s) to be inserted at the start of the
appropriate termcap entry, enhancing it or overriding existing
values. The first tweak modifies your terminal's termcap, and
contains definitions that your terminal uses to perform certain
functions. Specify a null string to leave this unchanged (e.g.
''). The second (optional) tweak modifies all the window
termcaps, and should contain definitions that screen understands
(see the "VIRTUAL TERMINAL" section).
Some examples:
termcap xterm* LP:hs@
Informs screen that all terminals that begin with `xterm' have
firm auto-margins that allow the last position on the screen to
be updated (LP), but they don't really have a status line (no
'hs' - append `@' to turn entries off). Note that we assume `LP'
for all terminal names that start with "vt", but only if you
don't specify a termcap command for that terminal.
termcap vt* LP
termcap vt102|vt220 Z0=\E[?3h:Z1=\E[?3l
Specifies the firm-margined `LP' capability for all terminals
that begin with `vt', and the second line will also add the
escape-sequences to switch into (Z0) and back out of (Z1)
132-character-per-line mode if this is a VT102 or VT220. (You
must specify Z0 and Z1 in your termcap to use the width-changing
commands.)
termcap vt100 "" l0=PF1:l1=PF2:l2=PF3:l3=PF4
This leaves your vt100 termcap alone and adds the function key
labels to each window's termcap entry.
termcap h19|z19 am@:im=\E@:ei=\EO dc=\E[P
Takes a h19 or z19 termcap and turns off auto-margins (am@) and
enables the insert mode (im) and end-insert (ei) capabilities
(the `@' in the `im' string is after the `=', so it is part of
the string). Having the `im' and `ei' definitions put into your
terminal's termcap will cause screen to automatically advertise
the character-insert capability in each window's termcap. Each
window will also get the delete-character capability (dc) added
to its termcap, which screen will translate into a line-update
for the terminal (we're pretending it doesn't support character
deletion).
If you would like to fully specify each window's termcap entry,
you should instead set the $SCREENCAP variable prior to running
screen. See the discussion on the "VIRTUAL TERMINAL" in this
manual, and the termcap(5) man page for more information on
termcap definitions.
title [windowtitle]
Set the name of the current window to windowtitle. If no name is
specified, screen prompts for one. This command was known as
`aka' in previous releases.
truecolor [on|off]
Enables truecolor support. Currently autodetection of truecolor
support cannot be done reliably, as such it's left to user to
enable. Default is off. Known terminals that may support it are:
iTerm2, Konsole, st. Xterm includes support for truecolor
escapes but converts them back to indexed 256 color space.
unbindall
Unbind all the bindings. This can be useful when screen is used
solely for its detaching abilities, such as when letting a
console application run as a daemon. If, for some reason, it is
necessary to bind commands after this, use 'screen -X'.
unsetenv var
Unset an environment variable.
utf8 [on|off[on|off]]
Change the encoding used in the current window. If utf8 is
enabled, the strings sent to the window will be UTF-8 encoded and
vice versa. Omitting the parameter toggles the setting. If a
second parameter is given, the display's encoding is also changed
(this should rather be done with screen's "-U" option). See also
"defutf8", which changes the default setting of a new window.
vbell [on|off]
Sets the visual bell setting for this window. Omitting the
parameter toggles the setting. If vbell is switched on, but your
terminal does not support a visual bell, a `vbell-message' is
displayed in the status line when the bell character (^G) is
received. Visual bell support of a terminal is defined by the
termcap variable `vb' (terminfo: 'flash').
Per default, vbell is off, thus the audible bell is used. See
also `bell_msg'.
vbell_msg [message]
Sets the visual bell message. message is printed to the status
line if the window receives a bell character (^G), vbell is set
to "on", but the terminal does not support a visual bell. The
default message is "Wuff, Wuff!!". Without a parameter, the
current message is shown.
vbellwait sec
Define a delay in seconds after each display of screen's visual
bell message. The default is 1 second.
verbose [on|off]
If verbose is switched on, the command name is echoed, whenever a
window is created (or resurrected from zombie state). Default is
off. Without a parameter, the current setting is shown.
version
Print the current version and the compile date in the status
line.
wall message
Write a message to all displays. The message will appear in the
terminal's status line.
width [-w|-d] [cols [lines]]
Toggle the window width between 80 and 132 columns or set it to
cols columns if an argument is specified. This requires a
capable terminal and the termcap entries "Z0" and "Z1". See the
"termcap" command for more information. You can also specify a
new height if you want to change both values. The -w option
tells screen to leave the display size unchanged and just set the
window size, -d vice versa.
windowlist [-b] [-m] [-g]
windowlist string [string]
windowlist title [title]
Display all windows in a table for visual window selection. If
screen was in a window group, screen will back out of the group
and then display the windows in that group. If the -b option is
given, screen will switch to the blank window before presenting
the list, so that the current window is also selectable. The -m
option changes the order of the windows, instead of sorting by
window numbers screen uses its internal most-recently-used list.
The -g option will show the windows inside any groups in that
level and downwards.
The following keys are used to navigate in "windowlist":
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
k, C-p, or up Move up one line.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
j, C-n, or down Move down one line.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
C-g or escape Exit windowlist.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
C-a or home Move to the first line.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
C-e or end Move to the last line.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
C-u or C-d Move one half page up or down.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
C-b or C-f Move one full page up or down.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
0..9 Using the number keys, move to the selected line.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
mouseclick Move to the selected line. Available when
"mousetrack" is set to "on"
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
/ Search.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
n Repeat search in the forward direction.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
N Repeat search in the backward direction.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
m Toggle MRU.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
g Toggle group nesting.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
a All window view.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
C-h or backspace Back out the group.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
, Switch numbers with the previous window.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
. Switch numbers with the next window.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
K Kill that window.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
space or enter Select that window.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The table format can be changed with the string and title option,
the title is displayed as table heading, while the lines are made
by using the string setting. The default setting is "Num
Name%=Flags" for the title and "%3n %t%=%f" for the lines. See
the "STRING ESCAPES" chapter for more codes (e.g. color
settings).
"Windowlist" needs a region size of at least 10 characters wide
and 6 characters high in order to display.
windows [ string ]
Uses the message line to display a list of all the windows. Each
window is listed by number with the name of process that has been
started in the window (or its title); the current window is
marked with a `*'; the previous window is marked with a `-'; all
the windows that are "logged in" are marked with a `$'; a
background window that has received a bell is marked with a `!';
a background window that is being monitored and has had activity
occur is marked with an `@'; a window which has output logging
turned on is marked with `(L)'; windows occupied by other users
are marked with `&'; windows in the zombie state are marked with
`Z'. If this list is too long to fit on the terminal's status
line only the portion around the current window is displayed.
The optional string parameter follows the "STRING ESCAPES"
format. If string parameter is passed, the output size is
unlimited. The default command without any parameter is limited
to a size of 1024 bytes.
wrap [on|off]
Sets the line-wrap setting for the current window. When line-
wrap is on, the second consecutive printable character output at
the last column of a line will wrap to the start of the following
line. As an added feature, backspace (^H) will also wrap through
the left margin to the previous line. Default is `on'. Without
any options, the state of wrap is toggled.
writebuf [-e encoding] [filename]
Writes the contents of the paste buffer to the specified file, or
the public accessible screen-exchange file if no filename is
given. This is thought of as a primitive means of communication
between screen users on the same host. If an encoding is
specified the paste buffer is recoded on the fly to match the
encoding. The filename can be set with the bufferfile command
and defaults to "/tmp/screen-exchange".
writelock [on|off|auto]
In addition to access control lists, not all users may be able to
write to the same window at once. Per default, writelock is in
`auto' mode and grants exclusive input permission to the user who
is the first to switch to the particular window. When he leaves
the window, other users may obtain the writelock (automatically).
The writelock of the current window is disabled by the command
"writelock off". If the user issues the command "writelock on" he
keeps the exclusive write permission while switching to other
windows.
xoff
xon
Insert a CTRL-s / CTRL-q character to the stdin queue of the
current window.
zmodem [off|auto|catch|pass]
zmodem sendcmd [string]
zmodem recvcmd [string]
Define zmodem support for screen. Screen understands two
different modes when it detects a zmodem request: "pass" and
"catch". If the mode is set to "pass", screen will relay all
data to the attacher until the end of the transmission is
reached. In "catch" mode screen acts as a zmodem endpoint and
starts the corresponding rz/sz commands. If the mode is set to
"auto", screen will use "catch" if the window is a tty (e.g. a
serial line), otherwise it will use "pass".
You can define the templates screen uses in "catch" mode via the
second and the third form.
Note also that this is an experimental feature.
zombie [keys[onerror]]
Per default screen windows are removed from the window list as
soon as the windows process (e.g. shell) exits. When a string of
two keys is specified to the zombie command, `dead' windows will
remain in the list. The kill command may be used to remove such
a window. Pressing the first key in the dead window has the same
effect. When pressing the second key, screen will attempt to
resurrect the window. The process that was initially running in
the window will be launched again. Calling zombie without
parameters will clear the zombie setting, thus making windows
disappear when their process exits.
As the zombie-setting is manipulated globally for all windows,
this command should probably be called defzombie, but it isn't.
Optionally you can put the word "onerror" after the keys. This
will cause screen to monitor exit status of the process running
in the window. If it exits normally ('0'), the window disappears.
Any other exit value causes the window to become a zombie.
zombie_timeout[seconds]
Per default screen windows are removed from the window list as
soon as the windows process (e.g. shell) exits. If zombie keys
are defined (compare with above zombie command), it is possible
to also set a timeout when screen tries to automatically
reconnect a dead screen window.
