Long Running Sessions

Setup box

Long Running Sessions

Using solutions like screen or mosh can help workaround ssh hang-ups which can kill any child processes of an active ssh session.

Screen

  • How do I start screen, during an active ssh session?

    • screen

      • will start a screen session with a random name

      • screen -S SESSIONNAME is good for starting a session with a name

  • How do I list any pre-existing screen sessions?

    • screen -ls

  • How to I re-attach or re-join a previous session?

    • screen -r previous_session_name

  • How do I force detach and then reattach a previous session?

    • screen -d -r previous_session_name

  • How do I rename a pre-existing screen session?

    • screen -S old_session_name -X sessionname new_session_name

  • How to check if I'm in a screen session?

    • echo $STY

      • If you are inside a screen session, the output will be the session name

      • otherwise, the output will be empty

  • How do I find my current screen session's name?

    • echo $STY

  • How do I kill a screen session?

    • screen -X -S <SESSION_ID> quit

  • How do I kill my current screen session?

      screen -X -S `echo -n $STY` quit

  • How do I scroll?

    • Inside the screen session you can use: CTRL+A (release), [

      • You can then use the arrows to scroll around the window. To get out of scrolling you can use CTRL+C

    • Ctrl + A, ESC and then vim-like commands: Ctrl + u or Ctrl + d

    • You can modify .screenrc to allow mouse-based scrollback.

        # added on july 19 2017 by pulkit
  # after editing the source from: https://gist.github.com/ChrisWills/1337178

  # GNU Screen - main configuration file
  # All other .screenrc files will source this file to inherit settings.
  # Author: Christian Wills - cwills.sys@gmail.com

  # Allow bold colors - necessary for some reason
  attrcolor b ".I"

  # Tell screen how to set colors. AB = background, AF=foreground
  termcapinfo xterm 'Co#256:AB=\E[48;5;%dm:AF=\E[38;5;%dm'

  # Enables use of shift-PgUp and shift-PgDn
  termcapinfo xterm|xterms|xs|rxvt ti@:te@

  # Erase background with current bg color
  defbce "on"

  # Enable 256 color term
  term xterm-256color

  # Cache 999999 lines for scroll back
  defscrollback 999999

  hardstatus alwayslastline

  # Very nice tabbed colored hardstatus line
  hardstatus string '%{= Kd} %{= Kd}%-w%{= Kr}[%{= KW}%n %t%{= Kr}]%{= Kd}%+w %-= %{KG} %H%{KW}|%{KY}%101`%{KW}|%D %M %d %Y%{= Kc} %C%A%{-}'

  # Hide hardstatus: ctrl-a f
  bind f eval "hardstatus ignore"

  # Show hardstatus: ctrl-a F
  bind F eval "hardstatus alwayslastline"
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