neulab/tldr huggingface dataset:
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.
Clears the current window and saves its image to the scrollback buffer.
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.
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.
debug on|off
Turns runtime debugging on or off. If screen has been compiled with option -DDEBUG debugging available and is turned on per default. Note that this command only affects debugging output from the main "SCREEN" process correctly. Debug output from attacher processes can only be turned off once and forever.
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.
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 `!'.
exec ... /bin/sh
exec /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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Display the disclaimer page. This is done whenever screen is started without options, which should be often enough. See also the "startup_message" command.
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.
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.
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.
Kill all regions but the current one.
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.
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.
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