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)

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