Re: how to start screen from .bashrc

[Peder Stray]

On Tue, 19 Sep 2006, Michael Parson wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 19, 2006 at 05:27:51PM +0200, Xavier Nicollet wrote:
> > Le 19 septembre 2006 ? 09:59, Peter a ?crit:
> > > I want to have screen launched when I log in to a Linux system with
> > > SSH.  I have put the screen command inside ~/.bashrc.  The result is
> > > that screen will reread .bashrc and sets up a loop which keeps starting
> > > screen over and over.  My .screenrc file automatically starts 3
> > > windows.  How do I prevent this loop?
> >
> > I read somewhere that it is not advised to do that.
>
> One of the features of screen is that you can disconnect from screen
> and log out, log back in later and reconnect to the existing session.
> Having it auto-start a new screen every time you log in could make that
> difficult.
>
> If you want to start screen faster than having to type out 'screen' (or
> 'screen -r') after you log in, then learn to use the history features of
> the bash shell.
>
> When I log in, I hit ^R, then start typing screen, I usually don't have
> to get farther than about sc before it has found the match and I just
> hit return and I'm off.

Remember that screen adds $STY to your environment, so you can test for 
it:

if [ -z "$STY" ]; then
    exec screen -dR
fi

which would exec screen, attach to an already running or start a new 
screen if you aren't already in one.  No problem there...

Of course, you wouldn't want to do this on a host you start xterms on i 
guess, since all of them would attach to the same screen, effectively 
detatching the other ones.  But for a host you ssh into, it would be ok.

--
  Peder Stray