AlanStudio Linux Tutorial

What is Screen?

As the man page states, "Screen is a full-screen window manager that multiplexes a physical terminal between several processes (typically interactive shells)." This can be a life saver when working on your dedicated server. Screen has a several great features for helping you administer your server more productively and safely. I am going to discuss the three features (multiple windows, logging, sessions) that I use the most but be sure to see the man page for full details.

Installing Screen

Chances are that you already have screen on your system. On most RedHat distributions you can find it in /usr/bin/screen. To see if screen is in your path, you can use the which command:

[admin@ensim admin]$ which screen

If you do not have screen, then you can install it easily from an RPM or the package file for your system. On Cobalt Raq servers, you can safely use the RedHat RPMS appropriate for your system.
Screen RPMs: rpmfind
Screen Web site: GNU Screen