Screen for macOS Cheat Sheet

Created: 2025-04-03 01:12:24 | Last updated: 2025-04-03 01:12:24 | Status: Public

Escape Key Basics

All screen commands are prefixed by an escape key, by default C-a (that’s Control-a, sometimes written ^a). To send a literal C-a to the programs in screen, use C-a a. This is useful when working with screen within screen. For example C-a a n will move screen to a new window on the screen within screen.

Getting In

Command	Description
`screen -S <name>`	Start a new screen session with session name
`screen -ls`	List running sessions/screens
`screen -x`	Attach to a running session
`screen -r <name>`	Attach to a running session with name
`screen -dRR`	The “ultimate attach” - Attaches to a screen session. If the session is attached elsewhere, detaches that other display. If no session exists, creates one. If multiple sessions exist, uses the first one.

Getting Out

Command	Description
`screen -d <name>`	Detach a running session
`C-a d`	Detach
`C-a D D`	Detach and logout (quick exit)
`C-a : quit`	Exit screen or exit all of the programs in screen
`C-a C-\`	Force-exit screen (not recommended)

Help

Command	Description
`C-a ?`	See help - Lists keybindings. The man page is the complete reference, but it’s very long.

Window Management

Command	Description
`C-a c`	Create new window
`C-a C-a`	Change to last-visited active window (commonly used to flip-flop between two windows)
`C-a <number>`	Change to window by number (only for windows 0 to 9)
`C-a ' <number or title>`	Change to window by number or name
`C-a n` or `C-a <space>`	Change to next window in list
`C-a p` or `C-a <backspace>`	Change to previous window in list
`C-a "`	See window list (allows you to select a window to change to)
`C-a w`	Show window bar (if you don’t have window bar)
`C-a k`	Kill current window (not recommended)
`C-a \`	Kill all windows (not recommended)
`C-a A`	Rename current window

Split Screen

Command	Description
`C-a S`	Split display horizontally
`C-a \\|`	Split display vertically or `C-a V` (for the vanilla vertical screen patch)
`C-a tab`	Jump to next display region
`C-a X`	Remove current region
`C-a Q`	Remove all regions but the current one

Scripting

Send a command to a named session:

screen -S <name> -X <command>

Create a new window and run ping example.com:

screen -S <name> -X screen ping example.com

Stuff characters into the input buffer using bash to expand a newline character:

screen -S <name> [-p <page>] -X stuff $'quit\r'

A full example:

# run bash within screen
screen -AmdS bash_shell bash

# run top within that bash session
screen -S bash_shell -p 0 -X stuff $'top\r'

# ... some time later

# stuff 'q' to tell top to quit
screen -S bash_shell -X stuff 'q'

# stuff 'exit\n' to exit bash session
screen -S bash_shell -X stuff $'exit\r'

Miscellaneous

Command	Description
`C-a C-l`	Redraw window
`C-a [`	Enter copy mode or `C-a <esc>` (also used for viewing scrollback buffer)
`C-a ]`	Paste
`C-a M`	Monitor window for activity
`C-a _`	Monitor window for silence
`C-a C-v`	Enter digraph (for producing non-ascii characters)
`C-a x`	Lock (password protect) display
`C-a :`	Enter screen command
`C-a H`	Enable logging in the screen session