GNU Screen 5.0 Released

#1

Post by jrepinc » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 2:09 PM UTC

GNU Screen 5.0 Released
savannah.gnu.org

Re: GNU Screen 5.0 Released

#2

Post by freedomben » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 2:19 PM UTC

Looks like a few QoL improvements and bug fixes. Nothing disruptive that would normally come with a major release version.

Looks like you can set a password on it now, which is cool (though I personally like having linux perms govern access to my screen/tmux). Multiinput sounds interesting as well, though in the past that was a feature I thought I'd love to have, but once I had I never use.

I'm glad to see Screen is still getting some love :-)

I ran screen for years before finally switching to tmux around 2011, and it's impact is still heavy as my tmux config is still rocking my "make tmux controls like screen while transitioning" setup which I intended to be temporary. Ctrl+a from my cold dead fingers

Re: GNU Screen 5.0 Released

#3

Post by jmclnx » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 2:31 PM UTC

Very nice, will need to give it a try. For my use there is no difference wuth screen vs tmux except for attaching.

In rare cases I need to do odd things with screen, but that was on AIX and I think Linux. NetBSD no issues. Maybe that works better now.

One thing I do like, screen is a lighter in resource usage these days.

Re: GNU Screen 5.0 Released

#4

Post by chasil » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 2:31 PM UTC

I notice that Screen has moved into EPEL, while tmux is in baseos for the RHEL family.

Is there anything compelling in the latest release?

Re: GNU Screen 5.0 Released

#5

Post by ho_schi » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 2:33 PM UTC

Finally :)

I’m waiting for a year that we don’t have to push Escape twice in Vim/Neovim. Some mouse emulation was catching it.

https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?57748 https://superuser.com/questions/1675761/why-does-gnu-screen-...

I should write the developers a note with thanks :)

Re: GNU Screen 5.0 Released

#6

Post by throw0101d » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 2:37 PM UTC

To anyone to perhaps who has used both a lot:

* Are there particular pros and cons to using screen or tmux?

(I'm generally on macOS for work, but never really go into using iTerm2, so that integration isn't a big thing for me personally.)

Edit: I mean why use one over the other. I generally use something on the destination host I'm SSHing to in case the network goes sideways.

Re: GNU Screen 5.0 Released

#7

Post by panki27 » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 2:38 PM UTC

I used to be an avid user of screen, then later on tmux. My terminal directly launched a session upon opening.

But something that was always bugging me was the "ssh unawareness" - I've always wanted to be able to do splits on the remote end, but that was simply not possible without nesting sessions.

Now, I've switched my terminal to wezterm, which fills all my multiplexing needs, as it supports this exact "remote-or-local-splits" usecase (with some setup, of course).

Re: GNU Screen 5.0 Released

#8

Post by mdaniel » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 2:38 PM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #2

Looks like a few QoL improvements and bug fixes. Nothing disruptive that would normally come with a major release version. Looks like you can set a password on it now, which is cool (though I personally like having linux perms govern access to my screen/tmux). Multiinput sounds interesting as well, though in the past that was a feature I thought I'd love to have, but once I had I never use. I'm glad to see Screen is…

> Ctrl+a from my cold dead fingers

As someone who uses `set -o emacs` I cannot possibly imagine pressing C-a C-a to go to the beginning of the line

Also, as an iTerm2 user: the integration with tmux control mode (tmux -CC) is just amazing for the way I use tmux

Re: GNU Screen 5.0 Released

#9

Post by ur-whale » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 2:41 PM UTC

panki27 wrote: post #7

I used to be an avid user of screen, then later on tmux. My terminal directly launched a session upon opening. But something that was always bugging me was the "ssh unawareness" - I've always wanted to be able to do splits on the remote end, but that was simply not possible without nesting sessions. Now, I've switched my terminal to wezterm, which fills all my multiplexing needs, as it supports this exact "remote-or-…

> with some setup, of course

Care to share the config ?

[EDIT]: and on the topic of modern terminal emulator vs screen/tmux type solutions ... there is of course some feature overlap for which modern terminal emulators are clearly better (my opinion), such as window / pane management.

However, screen and tmux are simply amazing for long-term backgrounding of tasks and/or sessions.

There are some "daemon"-type tasks that I almost exclusively run under screen, only moving them to a systemd-type session control system long after they've been properly debugged and tested.

There are also some semi-permanently running shell sessions that keep alive with screen on remote servers to instantly recover full context of what I was doing there, sometimes weeks apart (old brains become forgetful and need crutches).

Are modern term emulator like wezterm capable of pulling that off these days ?

Re: GNU Screen 5.0 Released

#10

Post by kstrauser » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 2:43 PM UTC

throw0101d wrote: post #6

To anyone to perhaps who has used both a lot: * Are there particular pros and cons to using screen or tmux ? (I'm generally on macOS for work, but never really go into using iTerm2, so that integration isn't a big thing for me personally.) Edit: I mean why use one over the other. I generally use something on the destination host I'm SSHing to in case the network goes sideways.

In that case, try Zellij. I gave it a shot the last time it made the rounds on HN and instantly loved it.

Killer feature: mouse scrolling works out of the box.