Trace: • screen

Screen Usage

Practical screen usage notes

Screen Commands

List of more important screen commands to effectively operate screen

When NOT in screen

Command	Description
screen -D	Power Detach - Close everything but keep the screens running in background. This is when you are done working!
screen -R	When loggin back into the system do this to get back to the screens
screen -d -r	Detach and Reattach. This is used when there are some screens stuck as attached but you are actually detached

When in screen

Command	Description
Ctrl-a c	Create new screen terminal
Ctrl-a d	Detach from screen termial and go to main non screen terminal
Ctrl-a w	List all screen terminals
Ctrl-a :at “#” stuff “echo hello world\n”	Send commands to other screen windows at #. Ref

When in or not in screen

Command	Description
screen -D -RR	Power Detach, Reattach or create new screen if there is no screen running

Sending commands to screen terminals

Reference - Scroll to scripting

Script to send commands to screen. steps

Create two sessions
- One GNU screen session where all the scripting is directed to.
- Another sessions (can be screen if needed) where all the commands are sent from.
Opening a named screen session called thenag as below

In Target Session

screen -S thenag

In the Command (From) Session, open a regular or optionally a screen session. Create and run this script as needed.

#!/bin/bash
#
# Get a list (say server names)
HOSTFILE=$1
# Create a counter for the screen windows
declare sn integer
sn=0
cat $HOSTFILE | while read ServerName
do
  let sn++
  echo "$ServerName - $sn"
  # This creates a blank screen window for each instance
  screen -S thenag -X screen
  # Sleep may be required as sometimes commands get missed!
  sleep 1
  screen -S thenag -p $sn -X stuff "echo $ServerName \n"
  screen -S thenag -p $sn -X stuff "ssh ${ServerName}\n"
  sleep 1
  screen -S thenag -p $sn -X stuff "ls -ld /tmp/files \n"
  screen -S thenag -p $sn -X stuff "sudo /bin/bash \n"
  sleep 1
  # You can even send password!!!
  screen -S thenag -p $sn -X stuff "sudopasswordgoeshere\n"
  sleep 1
  screen -S thenag -p $sn -X stuff "cd /tmp/files \n"
  screen -S thenag -p $sn -X stuff "./run_install \n"
done
# Let the install proceed on all screens
sleep 30
 
# Check on the installs
sn=0
cat $HOSTFILE | while read ServerName
do
  let sn++
  echo "$ServerName - $sn"
  screen -S thenag -p $sn -X stuff "echo $? \n"
  # Display last three lines of screen terminal
  screen -S thenag -p $sn -X hardcopy /tmp/s1.txt
  tail -3 /tmp/s1.txt
  rm /tmp/s1.txt
  echo "--------------------------------"
done

Screen Resources

GNU Screen

Screen User Manual