Posts Tagged by Gnu Screen

Gnu Screen – split screens

19-Mar-2012 Posted by Sonia Hamilton under
3 Comments

One of the features I’ve always wished Gnu screen had was the ability to split a screen horizontally, so you can for example run a grep or mc in the top half of the terminal, and some commands in the bottom half.

Well it turns out that you can split screens in Screen, here’s how to you do it:

  • C-a S to split
  • C-a X to unsplit (and remove the current region)
  • C-a Q to make the current region the only region

Also, you can bind some keys to move between regions; add these settings to your ~/.screenrc:

bind j focus down
bind k focus up
bind t focus top
bind b focus bottom

Then you can do things like C-a j to move down a region, C-a k to move up a region.

GNU Screen Alternative – Terminator?

19-Mar-2012 Posted by Sonia Hamilton under ,
4 Comments

I’ve been using GNU Screen for years, and I always wished it had a “broadcast” functionality like MultiXterm. Anyway, this morning I came across Terminator – it splits screens, has broadcasts, etc (probably old news for some people…).

By the way, you can split screens in GNU Screen.

Serial Port Access on OSX to Cisco devices

26-Feb-2010 Posted by Sonia Hamilton under , , ,
1 Comment

How to connect to a Cisco device (or other serial devices) using OSX and a USB to Serial converter (eg ATEN). Googling, everyone says to use zterm, but I couldn’t get it to work (and zterm looks and feels like a toy).

This probably isn’t the “Mac way” of doing things, but </whatever>…

Install PL2303 USB to Serial Driver for Mac OS X, restart :-(

sudo port selfupdate
sudo port upgrade outdated
sudo port install minicom

Work out tty of USB-Serial converter:

ls /dev/tty* > pre

Plug in USB-Serial converter.

ls /dev/tty* > pst
% diff pre pst
3a4
> /dev/tty.PL2303-00002006

Link up to make life easier:

cd /dev
sudo ln -s tty.PL2303-00002006 ttyusb

Setup minicom, and use colour:

sudo minicom -s -c on

Setup defaults to:

  • /dev/ttyusb (ctrl-A, O, Serial Port Setup)
  • 8N1
  • 9600
  • no hardware or software flow control
  • init string empty (so garbage doesn’t appear on screen when you connect) – ctrl-A, O, Init string
  • save settings as default (ctrl-A, O, Save setup as dfl)

Always use colour:

  • add export MINICOM=”-c on” to shell rc file (~/.bashrc, .~/zshrc, etc)

Connect (sudo minicom), hit enter a few times, and you should be on the device.

Gnu Screen .screenrc tricks

31-Jan-2008 Posted by Sonia Hamilton under
2 Comments

Here’s a variety of tricks I’ve picked up for Gnu screen and .screenrc from the Screen Users Email List

    • to have a screen change to a different directory when launched, use the chdir command (not cd):

chdir $HOME/rails
screen -t "rails"

    • to change back to a particular screen, after creating a whole lot in .screenrc, and preset the ‘other’ screen:

select 3 (for example)
select 5

multiuser gnu screen

09-Jan-2008 Posted by Sonia Hamilton under
No Comments

A good post on debian-administration on multi-user screen. The key points:

  • when in screen, type ^A:multiuser on[RET]
  • the other user(s) connect to the server, then join using the command screen -x
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