copy mode as scrollback viewer

[Rod Nussbaumer]

Hi all.

I use screen in multiuser mode, to allow various people to concurrently 
monitor the output of a program that controls some equipment, and is 
intended to run perpetually. At times, we use the copy mode of screen as 
a scrollback function, to view reporting of recent history. I have 
discovered that during the time when the screen session is in copy mode, 
the application running in screen blocks while trying to write to it's 
standard output. In this situation, it is definitely a bad thing.

Is there some setting that can be applied to prevent this? What about a 
true scrollback mode, such as xterm provides? What underlying mechanism 
is causing this to happen?

BTW, all of this is 'Screen version 4.00.02 (FAU) 5-Dec-03', running on 
Scientific Linux 4.2 (2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp), a RHEL4 knock-off.

Thanks for your attention.

Rod Nussbaumer
address@hidden