Ubuntu – Default GNU screen “screens”

gnu-screen

As the title says, I would like to set up GNU screen on my headless box such that when it starts up with some screens already running.

My .bashrc file runs screen on the first login with screen -xRR and I would like htop and various logs to be automatically opened.

Is it also possible to assign titles to the screens at the same time?

Best Answer

You can define default windows in your Screen configuration file, ~/.screenrc.

Window titles can be set inline with the -t option, but working directories must be set in advance of launching each window. For example, in your case you might include the following:

~/.screenrc

# ...

chdir ~
screen -t "Htop" htop

chdir /var/log
screen -t "System log" tail -F syslog
screen -t "Mail log" tail -F mail.log

chdir ~
screen   # Extra Bash window for running commands

# ...

Note that the screen here is not the screen command you run, but an internal screen command. See man screen, section on Customization, or the GNU manual for more.

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Ubuntu – Execute command on Gnu Screen attachment

What exactly are you trying to do? These probably don't exactly answer your question but you might be able to adapt them to your needs:

You could create a script called screenr that will reattach a screen session after first executing your script in that session.

#!/bin/bash
screen -X exec /command/to/run
screen -r $@

Another idea might be to put something in your .bashrc to check if you're running screen and then execute a command. That will run whenever you start a new screen session or create a new shell in screen but it won't run if you attach an already running screen session.

if [ $TERM = "screen-256color-bce" ]; then
    /command/to/run
fi

Edit: After seeing your other question it looks like the screen command setenv might be what you want, but it only sets environment variables for new shells started in screen, not already running ones.

screen -X setenv DISPLAY $DISPLAY

Ubuntu – GNU screen: Running commands in different window when screen is started

Sure you can. On my servers i have a /etc/screenrc with:

screen -t TOP 0 top
screen -t ETC 1 cd /etc
screen -t Console 2

Best Answer

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