Key bindings for screen command
2010-06-01
613 words
3 mins read
Key bindings
screen commands consist of a command character (Ctrl-a by default) followed by another character. For many of the commands, you can also specify the character as Ctrl-character–e.g., Ctrl-a Ctrl-d as well as Ctrl-a d. The default key bindings are listed here. You can change the bindings for yourself in the $HOME/.screenrc configuration file, or for all users in /etc/screenrc. The term in parentheses that follows the description is the equivalent configuration-file command for changing the key binding.
Ctrl-a ’
Prompt for window name or number to switch to. (select)
Ctrl-a ”
List all windows for selection. (windowlist -b)
Ctrl-a num
Switch to window num, where num is a digit in the range 0-9 or – (the blank window). (select num)
Ctrl-a Tab
Switch input focus to next region. (focus)
Ctrl-a Ctrl-a
Toggle to previously displayed window. (other)
Ctrl-a a
Send the command character (Ctrl-a) to the window. (meta)
Ctrl-a A
Prompt user to enter a name for the current window. (title)
Ctrl-a b
Send a break to the window. (break)
Ctrl-a B
Reopen the terminal line and send a break. (pow-break)
Ctrl-a c
Create a new window with a shell and switch to it. (screen)
Ctrl-a C
Clear the screen. (clear)
Ctrl-a d
Detach screen from this terminal. (detach)
Ctrl-a D D
Detach and log out. (pow-detach)
Ctrl-a f
Toggle flow control between on, off, and auto. (flow)
Ctrl-a F
Resize window to current region size. (fit)
Ctrl-a Ctrl-g
Toggle visual bell mode. (vbell)
Ctrl-a h
Write contents of the current window to the file hardcopy.n. (hardcopy)
Ctrl-a H
Begin/end logging of the current window to the file screenlog.n. (log)
Ctrl-a i
Show information about this window. (info)
Ctrl-a k
Kill current window. (kill)
Ctrl-a l
Refresh current window. (redisplay)
Ctrl-a L
Toggle window’s login slot. Requires that screen be configured to update the utmp database. (login)
Ctrl-a m
Redisplay last message. (lastmsg)
Ctrl-a M
Toggle monitoring of the current window. (monitor)
Ctrl-a Space
Ctrl-a n
Switch to next window. (next)
Ctrl-a N
Show number and title of current window. (number)
Ctrl-a Backspace
Ctrl-a h
Ctrl-a p
Switch to previous window. (prev)
Ctrl-a q
Send a start signal (associated with Ctrl-q by terminals) to current window. (xon)
Ctrl-a Q
Delete all regions except the current one. (only)
Ctrl-a r
Toggle current window’s line-wrap setting. (wrap)
Ctrl-a s
Send a stop signal (associated with Ctrl-s by terminals) to current window. (xoff)
Ctrl-a S
Split current region into two new regions. (split)
Ctrl-a t
Show system information, including time and date. (time)
Ctrl-a v
Display version information. (version)
Ctrl-a Ctrl-v
Enter digraph for entering characters that can’t normally be entered. (digraph)
Ctrl-a w
List all windows. (windows)
Ctrl-a W
Toggle 80/132 columns. (width)
Ctrl-a x
Lock terminal. (lockscreen)
Ctrl-a X
Kill the current region. (remove)
Ctrl-a z
Suspend screen. (suspend)
Ctrl-a Z
Reset virtual terminal to its ”power-on” values. (reset)
Ctrl-a .
Write out a .termcap file. (dumptermcap)
Ctrl-a ?
Show all key bindings. (help)
Ctrl-a Ctrl-\
Kill all windows and terminate screen. (quit)
Ctrl-a :
Enter command-line mode. (colon)
Ctrl-a [
Ctrl-a Esc
Enter copy/scrollback mode. (copy)
Ctrl-a ]
Write contents of the paste buffer to the standard input queue of the current window. (paste)
Ctrl-a {
Ctrl-a }
Copy and paste a previous line. (history)
Ctrl-a >
Write paste buffer to a file. (writebuf)
Ctrl-a <
Read screen-exchange file into paste buffer. (readbuf)
Ctrl-a =
Remove file used by Ctrl-a < and Ctrl-a >. (removebuf)
Ctrl-a ,
Show where screen comes from, where it went to, and why you can use it. (license)
Ctrl-a _
Start/stop monitoring the current window for inactivity. (silence)
Ctrl-a *
List all currently attached displays. (displays)
Related Articles:
- 2010/05/27 UFRaw – Open open format raw images in Linux.
- 2010/05/27 vim – get the list of all the scripts available.
- 2010/05/27 command not found – packagekit plugin
- 2010/05/25 mussh - Multihost SSH wrapper
- 2010/05/24 The power of find command in Linux – advanced.
Authored By Amit Agarwal
Amit Agarwal, Linux and Photography are my hobbies.Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.