GNU Screen

Introduction to GNU Screen

Screen is a full-screen window manager that multiplexes a physical terminal between several processes, typically interactive shells. Each virtual terminal provides the functions of the DEC VT100 terminal and, in addition, several control functions from the ANSI X3.64 (ISO 6429) and ISO 2022 standards (e.g., insert/delete line and support for multiple character sets). There is a scrollback history buffer for each virtual terminal and a copy-and-paste mechanism that allows the user to move text regions between windows. When screen is called, it creates a single window with a shell in it (or the specified command) and then gets out of your way so that you can use the program as you normally would. Then, at any time, you can create new (full-screen) windows with other programs in them (including more shells), kill the current window, view a list of the active windows, turn output logging on and off, copy text between windows, view the scrollback history, switch between windows, etc. All windows run their programs completely independent of each other. Programs continue to run when their window is currently not visible and even when the whole screen session is detached from the users terminal.

Downloading GNU Screen

GNU Screen can be found on http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/screen/ [via http] and ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/screen/ [via FTP]. It can also be found on one of our FTP mirrors; please use a mirror if possible.

Source Code

You can get the source code from here.

Mailing Lists

GNU Screen has two mailing lists: <screen-users@gnu.org> and <screen-devel@gnu.org>.

The main discussion list is <screen-users@gnu.org>, and is used for discussion and requests for help with using GNU Screen.

There is a separate list used for development discussions: <screen-devel@gnu.org>.

Announcements about GNU Screen and most other GNU software are made on <info-gnu@gnu.org>.

To subscribe to these or any GNU mailing lists, please send an empty mail with a Subject: header line of just "subscribe" to the relevant -request list. For example, to subscribe yourself to the Screen discussion list, you would send mail to <screen-users-request@gnu.org> with no body and a Subject: header line of just "subscribe". Or you can use the mailing list web interface.

Documentation

GNU Screen documentation can be found at http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/manual/. For other manuals, please see http://www.gnu.org/manual/.

Report a Bug

If you think you have found a bug in GNU Screen, then please file as complete a report as possible at the GNU Savannah bugtracker.