How to run a second command in same screen session

Question

I'm starting the first command in screen like this: screen -d -m -S testen -t lalala watch df -h

Now I have a screen session running in background and I can reconnect at a later time.

But how can I run a second command (in a new window) in the same screen session?

For any help! : )

Answer 1

Inside screen:

• Ctrl-A, c to open a new shell window
• Ctrl-A, :screen newcmd to run newcmd

Outside:

screen -X testen "screen newcmd"

Answer 2

Start a named screen session (-S) with a named window (-t) adapting to the terminal size (-A) in detached mode (-d -m)

screen -S mySessionName -t myWinName0 -A -d -m

Start another named window (-t) in the same screen session (-S)

screen -S mySessionName -X screen -t myWinName2

Stuff a few commands (-X stuff $'cmds') into the 1st named window (-p) in the session (-S)

screen -S mySessionName -p myWinName0 -X stuff $'echo myWinName0\necho cmd1\necho cmd2\n'

Stuff a few commands (-X stuff $'cmds') into the 2nd named window (-p) in the session (-S)

screen -S mySessionName -p myWinName1 -X stuff $'echo myWinName1\necho cmd1\necho cmd2\n'

List the screen sessions and reattach to see what happened

screen -ls
screen -r mySessionName

Note: The linefeed (\n) simulates pressing enter. You could use semicolons to separate commands as well.

Answer 3

Tried above approach, but the second command didn't execute on the second window. I slightly adjusted the example by using the window number, instead of the window name:

1. create session

   screen -S mySessionName -t 0 -A -d -m
   

2. create second window

   screen -S mySessionName -X screen -t 1
   

3. send command to first window

   screen -S mySessionName -p 0 -X stuff $'echo myWinName0\necho cmd1\necho cmd2\n'
   

4. send command to second window

   screen -S mySessionName -p 1 -X stuff $'echo myWinName0\necho cmd1\necho cmd2\n'
   

5. now check if the command has been runned on the first window

   screen -R mySessionName -p 0
   

6. now check if the command has been runned on the second window

   screen -R mySessionName -p 1
   

Tested with Screen 4.00.03 (CENTOS 6.3 x64).

Answer 4

You can setup an alternate .screenrc via the -c argument. In this new screenrc you can setup multiple commands to start when the screen session is initialized.

At the end of this alternate .screenrc put the following commands:

screen 1 cmd1 args
screen 2 cmd2 args

You don't need to setup an alternate configuration file if you only plan to run one type of screen session and the default commands run are always fine.