Multiple Terminal Instances in a Single Terminal Connection With GNU Screen
Posted March 9, 2009 @ 7:37pm by Phil
GNU Screen is one of the coolest tools I have came across in a while. When writing an operating system for one of my classes, I had four terminal windows open on average — one for vim, one for make, and one for both the input and output to the system. I figured there must be a way to redirect the standard input/output to create the illusion of multiple terminals running within a single terminal window. I even started messing around in C to see how complicated it would be to write something that would do just that. Once this school term was over I was going to start working on it. It was when I was telling my friend about the idea when he told me about Screen.
To use Screen, type screen into your shell. If it isn't installed, you can download it from the link above. Some text might come up. Press enter to continue. Eventually you will be presented with a shell prompt. Use it normally, but now you can press:
- CTRL+a c to create a new terminal instance.
- CTRL+a n to move to the next terminal instance.
- CTRL+a p to move to the previous terminal instance.
- CTRL+a w to see a list of your terminal instances.
- CTRL+a # to move to a specific terminal instance.
I just listed the features I use the most. There are plenty more features and lots of tutorials/documentation out there just a search away.
