screen: Keep Your Processes Running Despite A Dropped Connection

phoenix · May 12, 2011

That's been possible on FreeBSD for a long time, using the snp(4) device and the watch(8) command. You can even use it for a simple chat service. It's something I miss on my non-FreeBSD boxes.

mecano · May 13, 2011

watch(8)? Listen, that's a nice info, I never have been able to make that damn talk(1) to work.

_martin · May 13, 2011

overmind said:
There's also a neat use for screen, other that helping not lose your running app when your ssh disconnects. Two users can connect to the same screen and then one to configure a server and the other to watch and learn configuration steps.

That way you can help your friends to learn how to configure/use a UNIX/Linux machine.

You can use watch(8) for that too.

edit: ehm - I didn't see the @phoenix post above (probably was on last page or st.) - never mind then

_martin · May 14, 2011

mecano said:
watch(8)? Listen, that's a nice info, I never have been able to make that damn talk(1) to work.

First check whether both users have "mesg y" set. Next check if talkd is running. This was usually started by inetd and is commented out by default.

# grep -vE '^$|^#' /etc/inetd.conf

Code:

ntalk   dgram   udp     wait    tty:tty /usr/libexec/ntalkd     ntalkd

Don't forget to enable inetd in /etc/rc.conf and start it.
Then you can call somebody by (assuming localhost communication between 'steven' and 'fry'):

$ talk steven and steven will respond with: $ talk fry

Alt · May 15, 2011

I would ask someone to write a similar howto for tmux

mecano · May 16, 2011

matoatlantis said:
Don't forget to enable inetd in /etc/rc.conf and start it.

Oh, that must be why I didn't get any further with talk(1) - that, and now we are talking about it, also because I remember experimenting it under cousin OSX.

estrabd · May 20, 2011

As a result of this thread, I switched from screen to tmux. It's much, much nicer.

mecano · May 21, 2011

Could you please elaborate?

pmw · Jan 16, 2014

Re: screen: Keep Your Processes Running Despite A Dropped Co

Hello,

Kind of an old thread but I can't get screen's hardstatus to work. It just doesn't appear. Same configuration on a Linux box is working fine. Last time I had the same kind of problems when I had my TERM configured the wrong way; but now, I'm using same TERM in FreeBSD as in Linux. I tried to google my problem but without success. I tried to make my hardstatus as simple as possible for testing purpose. Here's my .screenrc:

Code:

hardstatus on
hardstatus alwayslastline  "test"

env:

Code:

MM_CHARSET=UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
TERM=xterm
CLICOLOR=YES
SSH_CLIENT=192.168.100.10 56630 22
SSH_TTY=/dev/pts/0
USER=user
TERMCAP=SC|screen|VT 100/ANSI X3.64 virtual terminal
LSCOLORS=ExGxFxdxCxDxDxhbadExEx
MAIL=/var/mail/user
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/home/user/bin
STY=60850.pts-0.kekkonen
BLOCKSIZE=K
PWD=/home/user
INPUTRC=/usr/local/etc/inputrc
EDITOR=/usr/local/bin/nano
LANG=fi_FI.UTF-8
PS1=\[\033[0;31m\]\u\[\033[0;32m\]@\[\033[0;31m\]\h\[\033[1;30m\]:\[\033[1;31m\]$(pwd)\[\033[1;30m\]$ \[\033[0m\]
HISTCONTROL=ignoredups
HOME=/home/user
SHLVL=2
LOGNAME=user
WINDOW=1
SSH_CONNECTION=192.168.100.100 56630 192.168.100.30 22
_=/usr/bin/env

Any suggestions?