How to scroll up and look at data in GNU screen

Question

I am using a mac (snow leopard). I am a ruby on rails developer and I watched a screencast on GNU screen and am trying it out. So far I like it.

On a window when I start server I get to see the log messages. However I can't seem to scroll up. I do get a scroll bar. However when I use the scroll bar and scroll up I don't see anything.

How do people use GNU screen and scroll up?

score 44 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 25 '16 at 14:35

44

There's a 'copy mode' in screen, activated by pressing, Ctrl + A, followed by [. This gives you a cursor that you can use to scroll backwards.

edited Aug 25 '16 at 14:35

clhy

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answered May 07 '10 at 14:27

Babu

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Thanks that works. Is there a faster way to go up rather than just having the up arrow pressed. – Nadal May 07 '10 at 15:27
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@dorelal: The vim-like shortcuts `Ctrl-U` and `Ctrl-D` move up a half page and down a half page while in copy mode. Also, `ESC` will take you out of copy mode. – Trey Hunner May 07 '10 at 16:09
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@dorelal I usually use the other shortcut ctrl-A, then Esc quickly, to get into copy mode rather than [. It is easier for me to remember. – Jarvin May 07 '10 at 19:27
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What's this *quickly?* It does not seem to matter how fast you do it... – Kevin Panko Aug 18 '10 at 15:11
@kevin: quite right, the "quickly" was meant to explicitly convey "not simultaneously". – Babu Aug 18 '10 at 17:09
Isn't piping the output to less also an option, or am I missing something? – Vic Goldfeld Mar 25 '13 at 03:36
@VicGoldfeld Yes, that is also an option, but this works even after you forgot to pipe the output, so it's still useful. – Kevin Panko Oct 25 '13 at 18:49
But this remains annoying... see the next two answers for much more elegant solutions... – Dagelf Aug 04 '15 at 19:00

score 17 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 18 '10 at 14:56

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Add the following to your ~/.screenrc:

termcapinfo xterm ti@:te@
termcapinfo xterm-color ti@:te@

This will let you use the Terminal.app scrollbar instead of relying on screen's scrollback buffer.

answered Aug 18 '10 at 14:56

Frank Szczerba

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This should really become a default setting. I keep on coming back here to get this, thanks! – Dagelf Oct 17 '14 at 13:43
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....And again.... and again... the gift that keeps on giving... – Dagelf Jul 08 '15 at 16:40
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...And again... – Dagelf Aug 04 '15 at 19:00
Or: `termcapinfo xterm* ti@:te@` for both. – kenorb Jan 17 '16 at 12:30
It doesn't work with SHIFT+PgUp, so I still can't scroll up the terminal. – hopeseekr Nov 02 '19 at 12:22
A downside is that the terminal's scroll may be much more limited than screen's. – Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com Sep 13 '22 at 16:18

score 9 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 19 '17 at 10:42

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The correct way is to use the copy mode, as Babu pointed out.

You could speed things up a bit by automatically entering into copy mode when you press your favourite scroll keys.

For example, using PgUp and PgDown:

# easier scroll
bindkey "^[[5~" eval 'copy' 'stuff ^b'  # PgUp   | Enter copy/scrollback mode and page up
bindkey "^[[6~" eval 'copy' 'stuff ^f'  # PgDown | Enter copy/scrollback mode and page down

edited Sep 19 '17 at 10:42

Scott - Слава Україні

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answered Apr 20 '15 at 07:34

lgaggini

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`bindkey` is the solution, but binding [Page Up] or [Page Down] will interfere with using `less`. We just need one key to enter `copy mode`. For completeness: To bind the [Insert] key (otherwise useless and right besides the navigation keys) with `copy mode`, we should add `bindkey -k kI copy` to `.screenrc` and restart the screen session. – Small Boy Dec 25 '20 at 15:33

Doug Harris · Answer 4 · 2014-01-08T16:00:30.307

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Take a look at GNU Screen: Working with the Scrollback Buffer for a good introduction.

edited Jan 08 '14 at 16:00

answered May 07 '10 at 15:22

Doug Harris

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And... it's gone. 404 – Tom Stephens Jan 07 '14 at 22:12
Replaced link with archive.org link – Doug Harris Jan 08 '14 at 16:01

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 22 '14 at 08:38

6

I use Ctrl+A Esc to go in copy mode.
Then use arrows or PageUp/PageDown to move through the scroll buffer.
To exit copy mode, just hit Esc.

that’s a little more intuitive by this way.

answered Aug 22 '14 at 08:38

TeChn4K

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How to scroll up and look at data in GNU screen

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