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Asked: 2010-06-22 04:26:54 +0800 CST

Can I create and manipulate unix "screens" in a script?

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I have a work environment on my Ubuntu laptop in which I want to use three different screens.

Eg. in terminal, I usually write 

screen -S mywork
run_server_1

then, ctrl-a c to create a second screen

run_server_2

etc.

I'd like to write a script to automate setting up this environment, but how can I control multiple screens from one script?

Update : I really want to be able to do this from a shell script, not a screen config. file. Is there a way to do that?

linux scripting unix gnu-screen

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Reading man pages and tutorials helps

    I would say that you want to do is create a file $HOME/.screenrc.multiwin

    # read in your normal screenrc
# before anything else
source $HOME/.screenrc
# now start opening windows
# it's possible to set the window title with
# the -t option
# you can also specify the window number
# to launch in
screen -t server1 5 run_server_1
screen -t server2 6 run_server_2

    Then running

    screen -c $HOME/.screenrc.multiwin

    will do what you need

    • 5

  2. Commands can be passed from outside using screen -S sessionname -X command for instance screen -S mywork -X screen run_server_2 would create a new window (same as ctrl-a c) but that window would have run_server_2 executing in it. Unlike doing it by hand,there will not be a shell running in that window, so when run_server_2 exits, the window will be closed.

    Controlling multiple screens is simply a matter of making sure they're all named with -S

    • 2

  3. I believe tmux is much more easily scriptable than screen for this type of purpose. tmux program accepts its own commands as arguments on the command line, so for example, to launch two windows: "tmux new-session -d '/bin/bash' \; new-window -d 'top'". In the first window, it will run an interactive "bash" shell, and in the second window it will run "top".

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