Linux Screen template

It's been awhile since I have posted anything, but hopefully I will start posting little tidbits of helpful *nix stuff again.

This time, the post is about Linux Screen templates. With more and more linux Distro's going GUI, and trying to get away from the CLI; the screen program has been mostly overlooked. As I have been working in and around linux for the last
12 years or so, I have become quite fond of the screen application.

First things first: man screen
Everything you need to know about custom .screenrc 's is located in the man page, lo and behold, many people don't realize this.

To create a .screenrc that I use every day:

touch /home/username/.screenrc (or /root/.screenrc for root's screen)
vi .screenrc
hardstatus alwayslastline "%{=b}%{G} Screen(s): %{b}%w %=%{kG}%C%A %D, %M/%d/%Y"
startup_message off
msgwait 1

Save and quit the editor, and fire up screen. This will show all of the screens that you have open (Name each one you create with: Ctrl-a A), and puts in a date/time stamp in the lower right hand corner. I put this in because I get so busy that I hardly look up at the clock and end up missing lunch. This way I can easily look over to the right to check my time :-)

As I am using a GIANT monitor, my screen capture of what my screen session looks like here in Blogger, seems to be all wacky. You should be able to click on the image to view it.




As I said, I live by screen for server work. I can create multiple screens, split them Horizontally or Vertically into 1 main screen, detach a screen when I go home, VPN in and re-attach the said screen from another location. And because I spend most of my time in a console, having a custom screenrc file, just make sense.