GNU Screen Cheatsheet

Quick reference for GNU Screen keyboard shortcuts, CLI flags, copy mode navigation, and region management.

Session Management

Action	Command
Start named session	screen -S name
List sessions	screen -ls
Reattach to session	screen -r name
Force-detach and reattach	screen -D -r name
Detach remote, reattach here	screen -d -r name
Multi-display attach	screen -x name
Start detached session	screen -dmS name
Remove dead sessions	screen -wipe
Send command to session	screen -S name -X quit
Enable logging from start	screen -L -S name

Keyboard Shortcuts

All shortcuts start with the prefix Ctrl-a (default escape key).

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl-a d	Detach from session
Ctrl-a c	Create new window
Ctrl-a n	Next window
Ctrl-a p	Previous window
Ctrl-a 0-9	Jump to window by number
Ctrl-a "	List windows (interactive)
Ctrl-a A	Rename current window
Ctrl-a k	Kill current window
Ctrl-a ?	Show all key bindings

Region (Split) Management

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl-a S	Split horizontally
Ctrl-a |	Split vertically
Ctrl-a Tab	Move to next region
Ctrl-a X	Close current region
Ctrl-a Q	Close all regions except current
Ctrl-a :resize +5	Grow region by 5 lines
Ctrl-a :resize -5	Shrink region by 5 lines

Region layouts are lost on detach. Recreate them manually after reattaching.

Copy Mode

Enter copy mode with Ctrl-a [ or Ctrl-a Esc. Paste with Ctrl-a ].

Key	Action
Arrow keys / h/j/k/l	Move cursor
Ctrl-u / Ctrl-d	Scroll half page up / down
0 / $	Beginning / end of line
g / G	Top / bottom of scrollback
/ / ?	Search forward / backward
Space	Set mark (start/end selection)
Enter	Copy selection and exit
Esc	Exit without copying

Increase the default 100-line scrollback buffer in .screenrc:

defscrollback 10000

Essential .screenrc

startup_message off
shell /bin/bash
defscrollback 10000
term screen-256color
vbell off
altscreen on
autodetach on
nonblock on
deflogin on
hardstatus alwayslastline
hardstatus string '%{= kG}[%{G}%H%{g}][%=%{=kw}%?%-Lw%?%{r}(%{W}%n*%f%t%?(%u)%?%{r})%{w}%?%+Lw%?%?%=%{g}][%{B}%Y-%m-%d %{W}%c%{g}]'

Troubleshooting Quick Fixes

Problem	Fix
Session stuck as "Attached"	screen -D -r name
Dead sessions in list	screen -wipe
Terminal frozen (XOFF)	Ctrl-a q
Garbled characters	Add defutf8 on and term screen-256color to .screenrc
Enable window logging	Ctrl-a H (logs to screenlog.N)

For the full tutorial, see How to Use GNU Screen on a Linux VPS.