Screen command in linux

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I have wrote about screen command long back. But I'm writing it again because last few days I was fighting with network connectivity issues. screen is your best friend when you have a bad connection.

Why screen?
Suppose you are running a bash script. What if you lost connection in between? script fails.

How to use?
You can create a screen and run the script inside the screen. You can detach and attach to the  screen later whenever you want. Even if the connection fails between your remote server and laptop; the script will execute safe inside screen.


In this post we will see how to use screen in Redhat / Centos Linux.

Installation:
#yum install screen

#screen
Then execute the command you want

To detatch screen
press "Ctrl+a" , then press "d"

To list the screen sessions
#screen -ls

[root@server ~]# screen
[detached]
[root@server ~]# screen -ls
There is a screen on:
        3063.pts-0.server       (Detached)        #Lists the existing screen session ids.
[root@server ~]#

To attach a screen again
# screen -r screen_id
[root@server ~]# screen -r 3063.pts-0.server

To name a screen while creating
# screen -S name_of_screen

To wipe off a dead screen
#screen -wipe screen_id

If you have only one screen. You can attach it by executing
#screen -x

If you want to attach to a already attached screen
#screen -D -r screen_id