A practical look at the Screen terminal multiplexer

Alexey Stiop, 123RF.com

Split Screens

Falko Benthin

With Screen, you can easily manage multiple terminal windows in a single session. This terminal multiplexer provides numerous amenities that allow admins to perform their daily tasks without a graphical environment.

Even in times when administrator desktops include powerful processors and large monitors with great graphical interfaces, servers in datacenters and such still need to be managed through a command line. Upgrades, new installations, program development, and monitoring – many things often happen all at once. Admins sometimes have multiple terminal sessions open to access a multitude of servers. With many open windows, you risk losing track of things.

Terminal multiplexers like Tmux and Screen provide some order to this potential chaos. They allow, among other things, multiple terminal windows in one session or parking and recalling sessions without interrupting any of the running processes.

This approach can also help when network connections go down. Admins can also share sessions with their colleagues, which can often help solve tricky problems more quickly.

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