screen — Simple Persistent Terminal Sessions¶

Problem¶

Same problem as tmux: SSH sessions die, jobs get killed, long-running tasks need to survive disconnects. screen is the older, simpler alternative to tmux — universally available and gets the job done with minimal setup.

Solution¶

screen creates detachable terminal sessions. It's installed by default on many systems, making it useful when tmux isn't available.

Installation (Fedora)¶

sudo dnf install screen

Core Workflow¶

# Start a named session
screen -S mysession

# Detach (keeps running)
Ctrl+a, d

# List sessions
screen -list

# Reattach
screen -r mysession

# If session shows as "Attached" (stuck)
screen -d -r mysession

Start a Background Job Directly¶

screen -dmS mysession bash -c "long-running-command 2>&1 | tee /root/output.log"

-d — start detached
-m — create new session even if already inside screen
-S — name the session

Capture Current Output Without Attaching¶

screen -S mysession -X hardcopy /tmp/screen_output.txt
cat /tmp/screen_output.txt

Send a Command to a Running Session¶

screen -S mysession -X stuff "tail -f /root/output.log\n"

screen vs tmux¶

Feature	screen	tmux
Availability	Installed by default on most systems	Usually needs installing
Split panes	Basic (Ctrl+a, S)	Better (Ctrl+b, ")
Scripting	Limited	More capable
Config complexity	Simple	More options

Use screen when it's already there or for quick throwaway sessions. Use tmux for anything more complex. See tmux.