Screen Quick Reference

Basic

Description	Command
Start a new session with session name	`screen -S <session_name>`
List running sessions / screens	`screen -ls`
Attach to a running session	`screen -x`
Attach to a running session with name	`screen -r <session_name>`
Detach a running session	`screen -d <session_name>`
Enable vertical scrolling mode* in a running session	`Ctrl-a ESC`

The vertical scrolling mode works with mouse scrolling as well as up and down arrows. Press ESC to cancel out of this mode.

Escape Key

All screen commands are prefixed by an escape key, by default Ctrl-a (that's Control-a, sometimes written ^a). To send a literal Ctrl-a to the programs in screen, use Ctrl-a a. This is useful when when working with screen within screen. For example Ctrl-a a n will move screen to a new window on the screen within screen.

Getting Out

Description	Command
detach	`Ctrl-a d`
detach and logout (quick exit)	`Ctrl-a D D`
exit screen	`Ctrl-a :` quit or exit all of the programs in screen.
force-exit screen	`Ctrl-a C-\` (not recommended)

Spawn & Monitor Named Screen Session on Remote Server

REMOTE_USER="hiphopapotamus" ; USER="rhymnoceros; PRIV_KEY="/home/${USER}/.ssh/id_rsa" ; HOST="conchords.linode.com" ; SESSION_NAME="${HOST}_$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)" ; COMMAND="ssh -i ${PRIV_KEY} ${REMOTE_USER}@${HOST} 'htop' ; exec bash ;" ; screen -dmS ${SESSION_NAME} bash -c " ${COMMAND} " ; screen -r ${SESSION_NAME} ; screen -ls ;

Help

Description	Command
See help	`Ctrl-a ?` (Lists keybindings)

Window Management

Description	Command
Create new window	`Ctrl-a c`
Change to last-visited active window	`Ctrl-a Ctrl-a` (commonly used to flip-flop between two windows)
Change to window by number	`Ctrl-a <number>` (only for windows 0 to 9)
Change to window by number or name	`Ctrl-a ' <number or title>`
Change to next window in list	`Ctrl-a n` or `Ctrl-a <space>`
Change to previous window in list	`Ctrl-a p` or `Ctrl-a <backspace>`
See window list	`Ctrl-a "` (allows you to select a window to change to)
Show window bar	`Ctrl-a w` (if you don't have window bar)
Kill current window	`Ctrl-a k` (not recommended)
Kill all windows	`Ctrl-a \` (not recommended)
Rename current window	`Ctrl-a A`

Split screen

Description	Command
Split display horizontally	`Ctrl-a S`
Split display vertically	`Ctrl-a \|` or `Ctrl-a V` (for the vanilla vertical screen patch)
Jump to next display region	`Ctrl-a tab`
Remove current region	`Ctrl-a X`
Remove all regions but the current one	`Ctrl-a Q`

Misc

Description	Command
Redraw window	`Ctrl-a C-l`
Enter copy mode	`Ctrl-a [` or `Ctrl-a <esc>` (also used for viewing scrollback buffer)
Paste	`Ctrl-a ]`
Monitor window for activity	`Ctrl-a M`
Monitor window for silence	`Ctrl-a _`
Enter digraph (for producing non-ASCII characters)	`Ctrl-a Ctrl-v`
Lock (password protect) display	`Ctrl-a x`
Enter screen command	`Ctrl-a :`
Enable logging in the screen session	`Ctrl-a H`

Jhoem/screen_cheatsheet.markdown