Screen is a command that allows you to have a program running on the server even if you close the ssh connection (deliberately / by mistake / due to network problems). It is particularly useful for longer-running programs.

  • First run command screen and press Enter to dismiss the introductory information.
  • You will get a new shell (command line) on which you work as usual
  • Once the desired program starts running, you can press Ctrl+A and then press D.
  • This will detach the screen and return you to the shell from which you executed the screen command. Here you can work normally, the program running in screen runs in the background (even if you log out from your ssh session).
  • If you want to return to the screen (e.g. after the program finishes or to check its progress), run command screen -r
  • To terminate the screen, simply end the shell session, e.g. by command exit or by pressing Ctrl-D.

Other useful options

  • screen -r -d will detach screen first if it is attached somewhere else.
  • screen -S some_name will name your screen so that later you can distinguish more easily between different running screens

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