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GNU Screen

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Justin W Smith (talk | contribs) at 16:34, 20 November 2012 (Screen is often used when the network connection is unreliable. I think this should be clarified in the lead.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

GNU Screen
Developer(s)GNU Project
Initial release1987
Preview releaseNone [±]
Repository
Written inC
Operating systemUnix-like
Available in?
TypeCommand line interface
LicenseGPL v3
Websitewww.gnu.org/software/screen/

GNU Screen is a software application that can be used to multiplex several virtual consoles, allowing a user to access multiple separate terminal sessions inside a single terminal window or remote terminal session. It is useful for dealing with multiple programs from a command line interface, and for separating programs from the Unix shell that started the program. Thus, screen is often used when a network connection to the terminal is unreliable. (A dropped network connection typically terminates all programs the user was running.)

Released under the terms of version 3 or later of the GNU General Public License, GNU Screen is free software.

Features

Further information: Terminal multiplexer

GNU Screen can be thought of as a text version of graphical window managers, or as a way of putting virtual terminals into any login session. It is a wrapper that allows multiple text programs to run at the same time, and provides features that allow the user to use the programs within a single interface productively. This enables the following features: persistence, multiple windows, and session sharing.

History

Screen was originally designed by Oliver Laumann and Carsten Bormann and published in 1987.[1]

Design criteria included faithful VT100 emulation[dubious – discuss] (including ANSI X3.64 (ISO 6429) and ISO 2022) and reasonable performance for heavy daily use when character-based terminals were still common. Later, the at-the-time novel feature of disconnection/reattachment was added.

Ca. 1990 Oliver Laumann handed over maintenance of the code to Jürgen Weigert and Michael Schroeder at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, who later moved the project to the GNU Project and added features such as split-screen, cut-and-paste, and screen-sharing.[2]

See also

  • xpra: a tool that lets you run X Window System applications on one machine, disconnect them from that machine's display, then reconnect them to another machine's display.
  • Byobu (software): a frontend for GNU Screen
  • tmux: a GNU Screen rewrite under BSD license

Further reading

References

  • Martin Streicher (10 Feb 2009) Speaking UNIX: Stayin' alive with Screen, IBM developerWorks
  • Philip J. Hollenback (22 Aug 2006) Using screen for remote interaction, Linux.com
  • Adam Lazur (January 2003) Power Sessions with Screen, Linux Journal, issue 105
  • William Von Hagen, Brian K. Jones, Linux server hacks, Volume 2, O'Reilly Media, 2005, ISBN 0-596-10082-5, pp. 155–157 (Hack #34)
  • Carl Albing, J. P. Vossen, Cameron Newham, Bash cookbook, O'Reilly Media, 2007, ISBN 0-596-52678-4, pp. 415–418
  • Dru Lavigne, BSD hacks, O'Reilly Media, 2004, ISBN 0-596-00679-9, pp. 44–48 (Hack #12)
  • Noah Gift, Jeremy Jones, Python for Unix and Linux system administration, O'Reilly Germany, 2008, ISBN 0-596-51582-0, pp. 300–301
  • Paul Mutton, IRC hacks, O'Reilly Media, 2004, ISBN 0-596-00687-X, pp. 345–349 (Hack #92)

Notes

  1. ^ "BSD screen manager -- Part 1 of 2 - (nf)". Newsgroup: net.sources. 20 Mar 1987. Retrieved 11 Jun 2009.
  2. ^ screen ftp
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