GNU Screen

Screenshot  GNU Screen with split-screen
Developer(s)	GNU Project
Initial release	1987
Stable release	4.0.3 (August 7, 2008; 4 years ago (2008-08-07)) [±]
Preview release	Non [±]
Written in	C
Operating system	Unix-like
Available in	?
Type	Command line interface
License	GNU GPL v3
Website	www.gnu.org/software/screen/

GNU Screen is a software application that can be used to multiplex several virtual consoles, allowing a user to access multiple separate terminal sessions inside a single terminal window or remote terminal session. It is useful for dealing with multiple programs from a command line interface, and for separating programs from the Unix shell that started the program.

Released under the terms of version 3 or later of the GNU General Public License, GNU Screen is free software.

Features [edit]

GNU Screen can be thought of as a text version of graphical window managers, or as a way of putting virtual terminals into any login session. It is a wrapper that allows multiple text programs to run at the same time, and provides features that allow the user to use the programs within a single interface productively. This enables the following features: persistence, multiple windows, and session sharing.

Screen is often used when a network connection to the terminal is unreliable, as a dropped network connection typically terminates all programs the user was running.

History [edit]

Screen was originally designed by Oliver Laumann and Carsten Bormann and published in 1987.^[1]

Design criteria included faithful VT100 emulation^{[dubious – discuss]} (including ANSI X3.64 (ISO 6429) and ISO 2022) and reasonable performance for heavy daily use when character-based terminals were still common. Later, the at-the-time novel feature of disconnection/reattachment was added.

Ca. 1990 Oliver Laumann handed over maintenance of the code to Jürgen Weigert and Michael Schroeder at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, who later moved the project to the GNU Project and added features such as split-screen, cut-and-paste, and screen-sharing.^[2]

See also [edit]

Free software portal

• xpra: a tool that lets you run X Window System applications on one machine, disconnect them from that machine's display, then reconnect them to another machine's display.
• Byobu (software): a frontend for GNU Screen
• tmux: similar software under BSD license

Further reading [edit]

• Jeff Covey (12 Oct 2002) The Antidesktop, Freshmeat

References [edit]

Notes [edit]

External links [edit]

• Official website
• Quick Reference
• Article

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