GNU Screen – How to Split Window Vertically

screen commands for switching between regions are: actually focus up, focus down, focus right and focus left. To type these commands (or any other screen command, for that matter) you type C-a :focus up, for example.

These commands are tedious to type, that's why you must create key bindings in your ~/.screenrc file. Since I'm a Vim user I opted for these lines in my ~/.screenrc file:

bind j focus down
bind k focus up
bind l focus right
bind h focus left

To switch to the left region I type C-a h

GNU screen doesn't come with any layouts predefined, so you need to roll your own. Here is what I've added to my ~/.screenrc :

# define layouts
layout new 'horizontal'
split
layout new 'vertical'
split -v
layout new  'main' 

# bind control sequences for new layouts
bind V layout select 'vertical'
bind H layout select 'horizontal'
bind ' ' layout next # <- actually means Ctrl-a + Space

With this it's possible to switch layouts with Ctrl+a Space | V | H.

(Actually, all control sequences start with Ctrl+a by default, so I'll omit it from now on.)

This solution is not ideal - after starting a screen session you initially have to tediously focus on each 'region' (parts of a layout) with TAB, and attach a process (man screen of all places insists on calling them 'windows' ) with n|p|0-9|Ctrl+c or a different method of your choice.

I imagine you'll want to detach instead of killing when possible.

... and this should hopefully cover your use case. Cheers!