Exit Your SSH Session Without Killing Your Job
December 31st, 2007
Murphy loves this one. If you connect to a remote machine and kick off something like a file copy you have to stay connected to the remote machine for the job to complete. Unless you use the screen command, which lets you detach from the running session while your job chugs away.
This is great for a process that might take a long time to complete. Murphy can use his hacked ipod touch to ssh to a remote machine, tell it to start copying files, detach, then turn the touch off. The screen command will even let you reconnect to the remote machine to check the progress of the job.
In the screencast Murphy covers how to get screen going, and how to switch between active screens and close them down. There’s plenty of other information on screen if you look around.
With screen running you can hit CTRL-A and then a key to issue a screen command. For example, CTRL-A followed by D lets you detach from a screen without closing it. Murphy also uses CTRL-A followed by ” (double-quote key) to get a list of screens he can switch to. Follow the link above for more screen tips. Or take a look at the screencast.
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