swegener@gentoo.org
shell-tools@gentoo.org
Gentoo Shell Tools Project
Screen is a full-screen window manager that multiplexes a physical terminal
between several processes, typically interactive shells. Each virtual terminal
provides the functions of the DEC VT100 terminal and, in addition, several
control functions from the ANSI X3.64 (ISO 6429) and ISO 2022 standards (e.g.,
insert/delete line and support for multiple character sets). There is a
scrollback history buffer for each virtual terminal and a copy-and-paste
mechanism that allows the user to move text regions between windows. When screen
is called, it creates a single window with a shell in it (or the specified
command) and then gets out of your way so that you can use the program as you
normally would. Then, at any time, you can create new (full-screen) windows with
other programs in them (including more shells), kill the current window, view a
list of the active windows, turn output logging on and off, copy text between
windows, view the scrollback history, switch between windows, etc. All windows
run their programs completely independent of each other. Programs continue to
run when their window is currently not visible and even when the whole screen
session is detached from the users terminal.