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GNU Screen - A Hacker's Ideal Terminal

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Re: GNU Screen - A Hacker's Ideal Terminal

#12
post #6

Screen uses C-a as its "command" character. Unfortunately, C-a means "go to start of line" in emacs and terminals. The solution? In your .screenrc file: escape ^Ww This will default C-w as the command character.

Isn't C-w kill-region in emacs? I recently came up against this problem too, but what else to change it to .. ?

You could try C-o (open-line by default) or C-z (suspend/minimize by default). I use C-z as a personal command prefix. Emacs really puts those ctrl shortcuts to work, it's damn near impossible to find one that I don't use at least semi-regularly.

edit: You could maybe try C-9 or use a symbol. I was only thinking in letters.

Re: GNU Screen - A Hacker's Ideal Terminal

#13

Screen uses C-a as its "command" character. Unfortunately, C-a means "go to start of line" in emacs and terminals. The solution? In your .screenrc file: escape ^Ww This will default C-w as the command character.

Which is word delete in bash &c..

Ctrl+T is the menu access character in aptitude, is there any convention around that?

Re: GNU Screen - A Hacker's Ideal Terminal

#14
I've been using Screen for a number of years now, but I've recently come across Ubuntu's repackaging of it - https://help.ubuntu.com/9.04/serverguide/C/screen-profiles.h.... This seems like a fantastic way to introduce screen to new users, who are probably intimidated by screen's default bare-bones config.

Re: GNU Screen - A Hacker's Ideal Terminal

#15
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't C-w kill-region in emacs? I recently came up against this problem too, but what else to change it to .. ?

I'm using C-z, but it's sort of an awkward key to use.

Changing caps lock to control helps. Switching to dvorak helps even more. I kid.

Re: GNU Screen - A Hacker's Ideal Terminal

#16

Screen uses C-a as its "command" character. Unfortunately, C-a means "go to start of line" in emacs and terminals. The solution? In your .screenrc file: escape ^Ww This will default C-w as the command character.

You can start screen with -e to pass the control character in. I use

% screen -e^]]

Then Ctrl-] is my escape.

Re: GNU Screen - A Hacker's Ideal Terminal

#17
post #6

Screen uses C-a as its "command" character. Unfortunately, C-a means "go to start of line" in emacs and terminals. The solution? In your .screenrc file: escape ^Ww This will default C-w as the command character.

Isn't C-w kill-region in emacs? I recently came up against this problem too, but what else to change it to .. ?

I use

escape ^^^

Ctrl+Shift 6

Re: GNU Screen - A Hacker's Ideal Terminal

#18
I use screen for bazillion of years already. When doing stuff with django I like to C-a c to make a new screen, then C-a :resize 10 so that I have two screens on one (you can switch between them with C-a TAB). So in the smaller one I run server and in larger whatever I need to. Excellent when having two or more monitors with one being dedicated to full screen terminal setup like that.

Re: GNU Screen - A Hacker's Ideal Terminal

#19

Screen is an amazingly useful tool. If you aren't using it or something like it, you are really making life more difficult for yourself. If you want something that isn't GNU or GPL'd, take a look at `tmux`.

I'm just curious- Why would you want to specifically avoid the GPL?

Re: GNU Screen - A Hacker's Ideal Terminal

#20
You might want to consider tmux (http://tmux.sourceforge.net/) as an alternative. Its cleaner (and, incidentally, BSD-licensed) codebase means that it's getting features that have been gathering dust on screen's to-do list for ages. Most notably, its dwm/XMonad-style layouts (http://tmux.sourceforge.net/tmux6.png) are really nice. AFAICT, screen doesn't even officially have vertically split windows yet, it's still an unofficial patch.

Either way, if you use Unix, learn to use screen or tmux. They're tremendouslyuseful. (Also: Noisy wireless connections are the new flaky dialup, when it comes to resuming shell sessions.)

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