I'm using the Screen multiplexer tool on the command shell and open a lot of screens. I then forget which process ID associates with which task.

I would like to set a name for a screen, but I can't find an option in the man page.

Currently, listing the screens looks like this:

There are screens on: 5422.pts-1.aws1 (Detached) 5448.pts-1.aws1 (Detached) 5027.pts-1.aws1 (Detached) 3 Sockets in /var/run/screen/S-sb. 

And I would like to see something like this:

There are screens on: 5422.logCleanWorker (Detached) 5448.overNightLongTask(Detached) 5027.databaseOverNightLongTask (Detached) 3 Sockets in /var/run/screen/S-sb. 

How can I do this?

5 Answers

To start a new session

screen -S your_session_name

To rename an existing session

Ctrl+a, : sessionname YOUR_SESSION_NAME Enter

You must be inside the session

To create a new screen with the name foo, use

screen -S foo 

Then to reattach it, run

screen -r foo # or use -x, as in screen -x foo # for "Multi display mode" (see the man page) 

As already stated, screen -S SESSIONTITLE works for starting a session with a title (SESSIONTITLE), but if you start a session and later decide to change its title. This can be accomplished by using the default key bindings:

Ctrl+a, A

Which prompts:

Set windows title to:SESSIONTITLE 

Change SESSIONTITLE by backspacing and typing in the desired title. To confirm the name change and list all titles.

Ctrl+a, "

The easiest way is to use Screen with a name:

screen -S 'name' 'application' 

• Ctrl + a, d = exit and leave the application open

Return to Screen:

screen -r 'name' 

For example, using Lynx with Screen.

Create a screen:

screen -S lynx lynx 

Ctrl+a, d = exit

Later, you can return with:

screen -r lynx 

I am a beginner to Screen, but I find it immensely useful while restoring lost connections.

Your question has already been answered, but this information might serve as an add on - I use PuTTY with PuTTY connection manager and name my screens - "tab1", "tab2", etc. - as for me the overall picture of the 8-10 tabs is more important than each individual tab name. I use the 8th tab for connecting to db, the 7th for viewing logs, etc. So when I want to reattach my screens I have written a simple wrapper which says:

#!/bin/bash screen -d -r tab$1 

where first argument is the tab number.