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5.1 Default Key Bindings

As mentioned previously, each keyboard command consists of a C-a followed by one other character. For your convenience, all commands that are bound to lower-case letters are also bound to their control character counterparts (with the exception of C-a a; see below). Thus, both C-a c and C-a C-c can be used to create a window.

The following table shows the default key bindings:

C-a '

(select)
Prompt for a window identifier and switch. See Selecting a Window.

C-a "

(windowlist -b)
Present a list of all windows for selection. See Selecting a Window.

C-a 0…9, -

(select 0…select 9, select -)
Switch to window number 0…9, or the blank window. See Selecting a Window.

C-a Tab

(focus)
Switch the input focus to the next region. See Regions.

C-a C-a

(other)
Toggle to the window displayed previously. If this window does no longer exist, other has the same effect as next. See Selecting a Window.

C-a a

(meta)
Send the command character (C-a) to window. See escape command. See Command Character.

C-a A

(title)
Allow the user to enter a title for the current window. See Naming Windows (Titles).

C-a b

C-a C-b

(break)
Send a break to the tty. See Break.

C-a B

(pow_break)
Close and reopen the tty-line. See Break.

C-a c

C-a C-c

(screen)
Create a new window with a shell and switch to that window. See Screen Command.

C-a C

(clear)
Clear the screen. See Clear.

C-a d

C-a C-d

(detach)
Detach screen from this terminal. See Detach.

C-a D D

(pow_detach)
Detach and logout. See Power Detach.

C-a f

C-a C-f

(flow)
Cycle flow among ‘on’, ‘off’ or ‘auto’. See Flow.

C-a F

(fit)
Resize the window to the current region size. See Fit.

C-a C-g

(vbell)
Toggle visual bell mode. See Bell.

C-a h

(hardcopy)
Write a hardcopy of the current window to the file “hardcopy.n”. See hardcopy.

C-a H

(log)
Toggle logging of the current window to the file “screenlog.n”. See log.

C-a i

C-a C-i

(info)
Show info about the current window. See Info.

C-a k

C-a C-k

(kill)
Destroy the current window. See Kill.

C-a l

C-a C-l

(redisplay)
Fully refresh the current window. See Redisplay.

C-a L

(login)
Toggle the current window’s login state. See Login.

C-a m

C-a C-m

(lastmsg)
Repeat the last message displayed in the message line. See Display Last Message.

C-a M

(monitor) Toggle monitoring of the current window. See Monitoring.

C-a SPC

C-a n

C-a C-n

(next)
Switch to the next window. See Selecting a Window.

C-a N

(number)
Show the number (and title) of the current window. See Number.

C-a p

C-a C-p

C-a C-h

C-a BackSpace

(prev)
Switch to the previous window (opposite of C-a n). See Selecting a Window.

C-a q

C-a C-q

(xon)
Send a ^Q (ASCII XON) to the current window. See XON and XOFF.

C-a Q

(only)
Delete all regions but the current one. See Regions.

C-a r

C-a C-r

(wrap)
Toggle the current window’s line-wrap setting (turn the current window’s automatic margins on or off). See Wrap.

C-a s

C-a C-s

(xoff)
Send a ^S (ASCII XOFF) to the current window. See XON and XOFF.

C-a S

(split)
Split the current region horizontally into two new ones. See Regions.

C-a u

C-a C-u

(parent)
Switch to the parent window. See Selecting a Window.

C-a v

(version)
Display the version and compilation date. See Version.

C-a C-v

(digraph)
Enter digraph. See Digraph.

C-a w

C-a C-w

(windows)
Show a list of active windows. See Windows.

C-a W

(width)
Toggle between 80 and 132 columns. See Window Size.

C-a x

C-a C-x

(lockscreen)
Lock your terminal. See Lock.

C-a X

(remove)
Kill the current region. See Regions.

C-a z

C-a C-z

(suspend)
Suspend screen. See Suspend.

C-a Z

(reset)
Reset the virtual terminal to its “power-on” values. See Reset.

C-a .

(dumptermcap)
Write out a .termcap file. See Write out the window’s termcap entry.

C-a ?

(help)
Show key bindings. See Help.

C-a \

(quit)
Kill all windows and terminate screen. See Quit.

C-a :

(colon)
Enter a command line. See Colon.

C-a [

C-a C-[

C-a ESC

(copy)
Enter copy/scrollback mode. See Copying.

C-a ]

C-a C-]

(paste .)
Write the contents of the paste buffer to the stdin queue of the current window. See Paste.

C-a {

C-a }

(history)
Copy and paste a previous (command) line. See History.

C-a >

(writebuf)
Write the paste buffer out to the screen-exchange file. See Screen Exchange.

C-a <

(readbuf)
Read the screen-exchange file into the paste buffer. See Screen Exchange.

C-a =

(removebuf)
Delete the screen-exchange file. See Screen Exchange.

C-a _

(silence)
Start/stop monitoring the current window for inactivity. See Monitoring.

C-a |

(split -v)
Split the current region vertically into two new ones. See Regions.

C-a ,

(license)
Show the copyright page. See License.

C-a *

(displays)
Show the listing of attached displays. See Displays.