ESCREEN
1 - What is it?
Eterm now offers you to compile in experimental support for the
"screen" program. "screen" is a terminal multiplexer (one window,
several shells). Yes, it's like konsole or multi-gnome-terminal,
only that your shells won't die just because X or the Window Manager
do. Oh, and you can pick up your home session from work, and vice
versa. And several people can connect to the same session at once,
and...
You get this picture -- if you're a power-user, this is for you.
Also, if you're not a power-user, this is *not* for you. It's alpha.
It's experimental. Reported bugs will get fixed where possible, but
there can be no newbie support at this time.
2 - How do I get it?
You already have all you need. Now, compile with ESCREEN defined in
the DEFS in src/Makefile.
If you don't know how to do that, sorry, but you're not Escreen's
intended audience at this point; please hold on.
Oh, and you also need the screen program. In our tests, we used
$ screen -version
Screen version 3.09.11 (FAU) 14-Feb-02
3 - How do I start it?
If you call it an Eterm, it will behave like one. Same for an Escreen.
(ln -s Eterm Escreen; ./Escreen).
Additionally, when called with a command-line (-e "/some/program"), the
suite will *always* behave like an Eterm, even if invoked as Escreen.
Likewise, when called with an URL (-U "screen://user@some.host.gov/"),
it will behave like an Escreen, even if invoked under another name.
4 - What should I expect from it? (subject to change)
An Eterm should open with a screen (without a status-line) running
inside of it. There should be a button-bar in the Eterm enumerating
the multiplexed terminal (you usually start with one). If you normally
don't use a button-bar, Escreen will create one for you. Otherwise, it
will add buttons to your existing bar.
5 - What should I expect in the future? (TODO)
* Limited support for scrolling. screen doesn't give us all the info
we'd need to make this really sexy. There will likely be limited
support for screen (we need to keep this, it will be what we'll find
on remote machine), and possibly support for enhanced screen-clones
(like the perchance forthcoming "scream").
* Support for ".screenrc". This was temporarily disabled to aid in
debugging and will soon return in conjunction with
* Escreen accepting non-default key setups and
* menus for "screen"-functions so those unfamiliar with the program
will not need to learn a dozen arcance key-sequences (or even get
used to ^A meaning something new).
9 - FAQ
Q I don't see any buttons!
A Debian-users reported this before, and it is presumed to be a problem
with the terminfo-data. Call up Eterm (or xterm, or whatnot). *Then*
call up "screen" from inside that terminal. Is the last line inverted?
If it isn'T, something is seriously weird with your setup, and it's not
a problem in Escreen. Sorry. : (
Q ^A does funny things!
A Well, yes. ^A talks to the screen program. You will be able to move
that to a key of your choice with the next release.
Q I'd like for the button labels to be in a different colour.
A At this time, the labels follow the general (text) colours.
You will be able to define colours for (foreground|background|active|bell)
windows' labels in later releases.
Q Escreen opens, then closes again.
A Escreen cannot run "screen". If you do have "screen", and it is in
the search path, screen apparently terminates right away. Normally
this means that your screen-sessions are messed up; "screen -ls" will
give you a list of them; "screen -wipe" will do the cleaning up.
NOTE: If this happens with a remote session, the remote end might just
find our terminal type confusing. The "--term-name" option with some-
thing vanilla (--term-name vt100) should remedy this.
Q "screen" support rocks! Can we have it in konsole/multi-gnome-terminal?
A I will not attempt anything like that before I am happy with Escreen.
The code, however, is GPL'd, and its use is documented by example of
Eterm. If you can work with that, do.
Q Who's responsible for this?
A Escreen is an Eterm extension conceived and written by Azundris.
Do not complain to KainX (who courteously added the patch for the
enjoyment of the hardy) if you break your Eterm by compiling this
in (or by trying to use the alpha-functionality). By using this,
you agree that anything happening while or because of using it is
your fault, and your fault only.
-- Azundris 2002/05/03 <escreen@azundris.com> http://www.azundris.com/
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