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I am using GNU screen a lot. I find it very annoying that everytime the server has to be rebooted I lose all my sessions (even if I know in advance, I need to set-up everything again).

I've searched the web for possibilities how to make screen survive a reboot, but found nothing that works for me. Some of the methods I found and there flaws:

  • CryoPID: seems to be dead, promising since 2005 to include support for screen
  • DMCTP: has problems with setuid(), didn't work for me (I admit I didn't try very hard)
  • some script trying to recreate the session from scratch; you still lose your history and I think also the environments variables are not correctly set (and when I tried it didn't bring up all sessions)

Maybe somebody knows some better process freezer? This seems to be the most promising way.

fuenfundachtzig
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3 Answers3

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There is no way to save a screen session in the fashion that you desire. What I did was the next best thing: scripted autossh to connect to my servers and set up my rig the way I like it.

Love it.

Local connection down, I wait, it comes back up and there's my work ( I use nested screens ). Server down or rebooted, I wait, and am back in my default position. This gives me the feeling of continuity that I desired.

Anyway, I asked this exact question years ago on the screen list.

Summary: Seek not eternal life for screen. Instead learn to resurrect.

This is the meat of the .screenrc config:

There is an example, rscreen, in the autossh package that I modified into the econnect program.

The --esc parameter is to set the remote screen escape to something different ( my escape is `)

#add much much more scrollback
defscrollback 10000

# make some default windows

screen -t ADMIN     1
chdir /Users/chiggsy/Sites/
screen -t SITES    2
chdir /Users/chiggsy/src/
screen -t SRC 3
chdir
screen -t FERGUS  4 /Users/chiggsy/bin/econnect --host host.example.com --port 50000 --esc g --user sol
screen -t LAEG 5  /Users/chiggsy/bin/econnect --host host.example2.com --port 505000  --esc g --user invictus

screen -t ROOT      0   sudo su -m
chiggsy
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3

See: http://skoneka.github.io/screen-session/

Available screen-session modes: 

---- 
save              - save Screen ( and VIM ) session 
load              - load session 
ls                - list saved sessions 
---- 

dump              - print detailed informations about windows in the session 
group             - move windows to a group 
layoutlist        - display a list of layouts 
layout-checkpoint - record a snapshot of the current layout. 
layout-history    - display saved snapshots of the current layout 
layout-redo       - load a snapshot of the current layout, 
layout-undo       - load a snapshot of the current layout, 
layout-zoom       - zoom into and out of a region 
kill              - send SIGTERM to last the process started in a window 
kill-zombie       - kill all zombie windows in the session 
kill-group        - recursively kill all windows in a group 
manager           - sessions manager (screenie like) but featuring session 
                    preview in a split window 
nest-layout       - copy a layout to the current region 
new-window        - start a new Screen window in the same working directory 
                    on the position next to the current window 
name              - get or set the sessionname 
regions           - display a number in every region (like tmux display-panes) 
renumber          - renumber windows to fill gaps 
subwindows        - recursively print windows contained in groups
Erik Aronesty
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2

On Server Fault, the same question has received one hint which is missing here: use tmux with tmux-resurrect, which is:

Restore[s] tmux environment after system restart.

What it can restore for you:

  • all sessions, windows, panes and their order
  • current working directory for each pane
  • exact pane layouts within windows (even when zoomed)
  • active and alternative session
  • active and alternative window for each session
  • windows with focus
  • active pane for each window
  • "grouped sessions" (useful feature when using tmux with multiple monitors)
  • programs running within a pane! More details in the restoring programs doc.
Community
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serv-inc
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