Can I use GNU Screen completely transparently/automatically?

Posted by dreeves on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by dreeves
Published on 2009-07-02T18:26:03Z Indexed on 2010/05/05 6:58 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 149

Filed under:

screen

|

gnu-screen

|

automation

|

ssh

|

scripting

Screen is amazing, of course, but I don't want to have to think about it. I often ssh to a machine, start doing a bunch of stuff, and then think "gosh, I wish I had thought to start a screen session before doing all that so I could reconnect to this from home later".

I'd like to have screen automatically started whenever I log in to a machine. And when I get disconnected, I want to be able to immediately and simply reconnect without fussing with "screen -ls" and "screen -dr".

I have a script that implements one solution to this problem which I'll post as an answer. I'm interested to see other approaches.

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about screen

Unity completely broken after upgrade to 12.10?

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I am facing a very frustrating issue with my computer right now. I successfully upgraded to Ubuntu 12.10 this afternoon, but after the upgrade, the graphical user interface seems completely broken. To be more specific, I can not get the Unity bar to appear on the right. I have tried many things,… >>> More
XNA Screen Manager problem with transitions

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
I'm having issues using the game statemanagement example in the game I am developing. I have no issues with my first three screens transitioning between one another. I have a main menu screen, a splash screen and a high score screen that cycle: mainMenuScreen->splashScreen->highScoreScreen->mainMenuScreen The… >>> More
Confused about home screen widget size in normal screen and larget screen

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am designing a home screen widget. The widget layout file is like below. <RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:id="@+id/widget" android:layout_width="240dip" android:layout_height="200dip" android:background="@drawable/base_all" /> I ran… >>> More
Changing enum in a different class for screen

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
I'm trying to make a start menu for my game and my code uses Enum's to moniter the screen state. Now i want to change the screenstate declared in the main class, in my Background class Screen screen = new Screen(); is declared in the Game1 class Background(ref screen); This is in the update… >>> More
Dual-screen Multimedia Control Suite for Linux (like Screen Monkey)

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I'm looking for some linux software to manage and control a dual monitor/multi screen setup for use in professional-like presentations (ie: monitor1=control, monitor2=projector/audience). I have the dual-monitor configured with my gnome desktop running over both monitors (that's the easy part). What… >>> More

Related posts about gnu-screen

GNU Screen: using VT100 ASCII codes

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I try to move with the VT100 keys here in GNU Screen: $ screen $ hello <left><left> ESC C ESC D but "ESC D" deletes until the end of line and ESC C does nothing. Perhaps, I am not using right VT100 emulation. How can I test it and how can I get the ASCII codes working from commandline… >>> More
Ubuntu Polishes GNU Screen

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
The latest Ubuntu release adds a few bells and whistles to make using terminal multiplexer screen more of a pleasure for busy command line junkies. >>> More
Gnu screen with local scrollback buffer?

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I'm using a remote server over a very slow and unreliable network connection. So, I want to use gnu screen in order not to lose what I'm doing whenever I get disconnected. But I want a local scrollback buffer, on my local computer, so that scrollback doesn't have to go across the network, which… >>> More
Bash vs. Gnu screen : Replace Ctrl-A with Ctrl-Shift-A

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I'm a new user to GNU Screen. I've been using Bash for a very long time, and I want to give GNU Screen a try. As you know, GNU Screen uses 'C-a' (Control-A) as as the command character. Trouble is, this interferes with the Line Editing feature in Bash (and GNU Readline), because Control-A in Bash… >>> More
Detach current session and attach to another session, done with one script, can I?

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
After reading the vague official doc of GNU screen( http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/manual/screen.html ) and asking quite some questions at this site. I still cannot figure out how to accomplish such a task with a shell script. This task costs some words to describe. Assume I'm using PuTTY to… >>> More