What it is
GNU Screen runs several shells inside one terminal and lets you detach from them and reattach later, with everything still running. It predates tmux and is found on almost every Unix system, which makes it useful when you’re working on older servers. It can also connect to serial devices.
screen -S work # start a session; detach with Ctrl-a d, return with: screen -r work
Why it’s here
- Familiar. If you learned Screen years ago, it’s still here.
- Detachable sessions. Jobs keep running after you close the terminal or lose SSH.
- Serial consoles.
screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200talks to routers and boards.
On CoreDesktop
Screen is installed from pacman with no extra setup. Type screen in a terminal. update keeps it current along with the rest of the pacman packages.