So, I’ve used screen for years when connecting to remote servers. It’s great for having multiple “virtual terminals” running on one server and also for making sure long running processes don’t die if you get disconnected for some reason.
Today, I wanted to watch the progress of a long-running process (a backup) at the same time as I watched htop and slurm to keep an eye on performance values while it was running. My first thought was to figure out how to make screen cycle through different sessions automatically, every X seconds, like how many KVMs behave. Turns out there’s an even better solution. You can make screen operate split screen, so you can see multiple sessions all at once! Why oh why didn’t I take the time to discover this sooner?
- Start screen.
- Hit ctrl-a/shift-s to split the screen.
- Hit ctrl-a/tab to switch to the other “screen”.
- Hit ctrl-a/c to create a new session or ctrl-a/(screen #)
to switch to an already running session. - Hit ctrl-a/shift-s to split the “screen” again if you like.
So this is what my screen session looks like now:
All the stuff I wanted to keep an eye visible at once. Awesome!
You might also be interested in “screen -x”, which allows you to connect to an already running and attached screen session. This allows multiple separate windows open to a server, but with all of them running in the same screen process. You can also get into allowing other users connect to your screen session, which is good for collaborative working or teaching.
You are a dedicated nerd. I’m glad it brought you so much joy.