the reality tunnel

I’ve been using the unix screen command a lot lately, and enough to want to learn more.

I used to just scroll through windows with CTRL-a n and CTRL-a p, but now I have a ton of windows in my screen session, so I want to be able to navigate easier.

• List to windows: CTRL-a w (you can also have a persistent display of windows, see http://haller.ws/logs/view.cgi/ScreenTerminal.  Thanks Patrick!)
• Go to window 2: CTRL-a 2
• Set window title: CTRL-a A

According to the manpage, you can automatically set the title of a window, but I think it’s nice to do it interactively because the general task that will identify the window’s functionality might not easily be reflected in a path or command.

You can also use screen to copy/paste text between windows:

• Enter copy mode: CTRL-a [
• Start/End selecting text to copy: SPACE
• Paste text CTRL-a ]

Tags: recipes, screen, shell, unix

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 9:45 am and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.