Baslinux mailing list

[Ian Scott <mriscott AT yahoo.co.uk>]

> I've heard people talk about a program called screen, and did a search for 
> it through google and fond a little about it (found its man page to be 
> exact).
> 
> My question, why is it needed? 

The great thing about screen is that you can detach and reattach sessions.

So, for example, I can telnet into a development server at work, and start a 
long running compile.

I can then log in from home and check how it is doing.

Or we can have two people watching the same screen - useful if you need to 
explain something to someone in a different physical location.

It is also useful if you want to do lots of things at once, and are in an
environment where you don't have multiple virtual consoles (e.g. on a REAL 
dumb terminal).

It is a very useful program.  Learn to use it and it will be your friend!


Ian