Screen split window howto

Screen is a very handful tool when you are logged to a remote server. At some time during the session you may want to have two prompts at the same time. To do this, you generally need to initiate another session over ssh, typing your password again and 'cd'ing to the appropriate directory.

This is a straight forward howto that explains how to use 'screen' to create a new region in the current window where we can have a second shell prompt.

While in the current shell prompt, type

screen

Once you started screen, you will be able to create regions. To create a region, type:

C-a S

That is, typing a while holding the control key, then typing a capital S. The new region will be below the current shell session with no prompt it in.

To start a new shell in the new region, we first need to move to it, or change the focus to the new region.

C-a TAB

That is, typing a while holding the control key, then pressing the tabulation key. The “C-a TAB” sequence of commands allows us to move through all the created regions. If you do “C-a TAB” again, you will move to the next region.

Once the new region has the focus, we create a new shell by typing

C-a c

That is, typing a while holding the control key, then typing c.

Now you should see the shell prompt in the new region.

If we want to kill a region, we just need to move to the region then type

C-a X

That is, typing a while holding the control key, then typing a capital x.

Labels: unix, howto