The Joy of Screen

Thought I’d post quickly about the joys of GNU Screen. I’ve been using it properly for the last six months or so since starting at Edge Hill. It’s a terminal multiplexer for *nix systems allowing you to connect to multiple shell prompts at once and switch between them at will. But it’s better than that – you can disconnect and reconnect later, even from a different location. If your SSH connection dies you don’t lose anything, simply reconnect and carry on from where you left off.

I use it to connect to the server to manage symfony projects. I constantly have a screen connection with the live and development sites for each project, web logs, home directory and usually a few other locations. There’s too many shortcuts and commands to mention here but Ctrl-A followed by 1-n changes screen; Ctrl-N creates a new screen; Ctrl-A Ctrl-D detaches your connection. If you’re a heavy shell user, especially remotely from Windows with an SSH connection then I strongly recommend taking a look at Screen.