Linux Screen – Create, Connect, Disconnect, Terminate Sessions

Screen is a handy tool that can help you run scripts on servers remotely without having to worry about the session getting terminated. It seems to operate kinda like a virtual console.

Create Screen Session

Create a new session with a specified name

screen -S SessionName

Example output below. Create session named testsession and print screen sessions.

[bob@localhost imapsync]$ screen -S testsession
[bob@localhost imapsync]$ screen -ls
There are screens on:
3313.testsession (Attached)
1 Sockets in /var/run/screen/S-bob.
[bob@localhost imapsync]$

Disconnect from Screen Session

You can disconnect from a screen session by hitting ctrl + a and then ctrl +d

“ctrl + a” then “ctrl + d”

List Screen Sessions

You can list the screen sessions with

screen -ls

Example

[bob@localhost imapsync]$ screen -ls
There are screens on:
3212.testsession (Detached)
2556.xap (Detached)

2 Sockets in /var/run/screen/S-bob.
[bob@localhost imapsync]$

Connect to screen Session

You can reconnect to a screen session with

screen -r testsession 

Terminate Screen Session

To terminate a screen session, connect to that session and then on a clear line hit ctrl + d

Same way as if you were closing a remote ssh connection.

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