Chris's Wiki :: blog/sysadmin/ScreenX

`screen -x`

June 29, 2006

I have an confession: I don't really like screen. I never have; it's always struck me as an poor substitute for a real windowing system, something you only resort to when you can't get the real thing for one reason or another.

(What really boggles me is the people who aggressively use screen inside X, winding up with one terminal window with everything inside a screen session.)

One of the most painful limitations of screen for me has been that you can't see two screen-bits side by side; you have to keep flipping back and forth. (Naturally, side by side windows are one of the big things I use real windows for.)

Then someone I know happened to mention screen's -x option. To quote the manpage:

-x: Attach to a not detached screen session. (Multi display mode).

Translated into ordinary language, this lets you have multiple windows connected to the same screen session, where they can then view different screen-bits. Or simpler: side-by-side viewing of two different screen-bits; I can get the benefit of windows and screen at once, if I want to.

The one limitation is that every window really needs to be the same size, or rather peculiar things start happening. (I like both very large windows and standard 80x24 windows, so this actually matters to me.)

Comments on this page:

From 71.198.198.158 at 2006-06-30 16:13:33:

You can split your screen into many regions in addition to using -x.

Modern screen also lets you share sessions with other users. Screen is really very powerful, and you can build it into your login scripts once and use it forever.

From 68.165.135.79 at 2006-07-01 09:35:17:

I think you've seen me describe the insane ways I use screen -- not only screen inside xterms, but screens within screens within screens. It works for me!

-- Squiddhartha

By cks at 2006-07-01 16:07:24:

You can split your screen into many regions in addition to using -x.

While this is a useful feature for people who can't use a windowing system for some reason, I continue to think that it's a clumsy duplication if you have one. By the time you've got multiple regions that you can split and resize and overlap, you've effectively recreated a windowing system in text (which means that window borders are eating valuable screen space, if nothing else).

By Squiddhartha at 2006-07-01 17:11:27:

The biggest thing that screen can do that windowing systems can't is to run in the background while the user's logged out. I've been using screen to start stuff while at work, then continue after I've gone home, for so long that I can't imagine working any other way.

By cks at 2006-07-01 18:28:49:

Being able to disconnect and pick things up later is a big win for screen (both for changing where you are and for erratic connections, such as those Pete Zaitcev has experienced). I've been lucky enough to only rarely need either; our on-campus networks are reliable, and I usually don't take work home with me in that way.

(Partly I don't take work home that way because I usually expect it to finish before I leave and thus don't start it in a screen session, so on the rare occasions when it runs too long I'm just stuck.)

From 67.181.30.74 at 2006-07-01 22:12:51:

There is a tool known as "dtach" which simply supports the session disconnect and reconnect without the associated complexity of screen(1). But it never got much traction. Screen's overhead is not all that bad.

Written on 29 June 2006.

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