GNU SCREEN ON MY LAPTOP

+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| tl;dr                                                            |
|                                                                  |
| GNU screen gives me splits and session persistence without       |
| opening multiple terminals. One st window, multiple panels,      |
| simple workflow.                                                 |
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OVERVIEW

I use GNU screen to avoid opening many terminal windows.

Instead of managing multiple st instances, I keep everything
inside a single session with splits and windows.

Setup:

    st + screen + nvi + coreutils

Nothing fancy. Just a minimal configuration and muscle memory.


BACKGROUND

GNU screen is old, stable, and widely available.

It provides:

    - session persistence (detach/reattach)
    - window management
    - panel splitting

It is not modern, but it is reliable.


WORKFLOW

A typical workflow looks like:

    - one screen session
    - multiple splits (panels)
    - each panel running a shell or nvi

Navigation is kept simple using:

    - Ctrl+A + Tab (default)
    - vim-style hjkl bindings (custom)

The goal is:

    one terminal, everything inside


CONFIGURATION

File: ~/.screenrc

    # No welcome message
    startup_message off

    # Mouse support (basic)
    mousetrack on

    # Better background handling
    defbce on

    # 256 colors
    term screen-256color

    # Preserve output after exit
    termcapinfo xterm* ti@:te@

    # Scrollback buffer
    defscrollback 5000

    # UTF-8
    defutf8 on

    # Window list
    caption always "%{= kw}%-w%{= BW}%n %t%{-}%+w"

    # Arrow navigation
    bindkey "\001\033[A" focus up
    bindkey "\001\033[B" focus down
    bindkey "\001\033[D" focus left
    bindkey "\001\033[C" focus right

    # vim-style navigation
    bind h focus left
    bind j focus down
    bind k focus up
    bind l focus right


CHEATSHEET

File: ~/.screen-cheatsheet.txt

    PREFIX: Ctrl+A

    Splits:
      Ctrl+A S       split horizontal
      Ctrl+A |       split vertical
      Ctrl+A Q       remove all splits
      Ctrl+A X       remove current panel

    Navigation:
      Ctrl+A Tab     Next panel
      Ctrl+A h  ←    Focus left
      Ctrl+A j  ↓    Focus down
      Ctrl+A k  ↑    Focus up
      Ctrl+A l  →    Focus right

    Windows:
      Ctrl+A c       new window
      Ctrl+A n       next window
      Ctrl+A p       previous window
      Ctrl+A "       list windows
      Ctrl+A A       rename window

    Session:
      Ctrl+A d       detach
      screen -r      reattach
      screen -ls     list sessions

    Kill:
      screen -X -S <name> quit
      screen -wipe
      pkill screen   (nuclear)

    Scrollback:
      Ctrl+A [       copy/scroll mode


QUICK ACCESS

    alias screenhelp='cat ~/.screen-cheatsheet.txt'

Then:

    $ screenhelp


ADVANTAGES

    - no extra terminals
    - persistent sessions
    - minimal configuration
    - works everywhere


LIMITATIONS

    - UI is not intuitive
    - defaults are confusing
    - needs custom bindings for usability


CONCLUSION

GNU screen remains a solid tool in 2026.

If you want something simple, stable, and available on any Unix
system, it does the job.

One terminal. Multiple panels. No complexity.


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Last Modified: 2026-04-16