Can I rebind Screen's escape combination to something else?

Question

I'm so used to using C-a for the home key (based on my being an emacs nerd) that it bothers me that this is the combination that screen uses to start commands. Can I bind something else to it?

score 13 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 19 '09 at 15:06

13

From my own .screenrc :

# replace Ctrl-A with Ctrl-O
escape ^Oo

answered Aug 19 '09 at 15:06

GodEater

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I use Ctrl-Z personally, because that's the least frequently used key in Emacs, at least for me. – Teddy Oct 24 '09 at 21:43
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But Ctrl-Z is used in the shell to suspend jobs - so not ideal imo. – GodEater Oct 28 '09 at 09:17
is that thebest combo though? ctrl a, is normally left hand, this messes a user up to moving it to either two hand, or right hand. cant you find something closer to the a key? – Brian Thomas Mar 18 '16 at 17:58

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 19 '09 at 13:27

7

The C-a combination can be remapped from the .screenrc file, with the bind command.

This website should be a huge help to you: http://www.softpanorama.org/Utilities/Screen/screenrc_examples.shtml

answered Aug 19 '09 at 13:27

Andrew Scagnelli

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Sorry - do you mean the `escape` command? – Greg Apr 12 '16 at 23:19
it may be almost 10 years late, but pointing to help file is frowned upon in Stack Exchange, perhaps the mods weren't so mean back then!! – vfclists Feb 18 '19 at 02:56

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 19 '09 at 14:16

From screen's man page related to the -e option:

       -e xy
            specifies the command character to be x and the character generat-
            ing a literal command character to y (when typed after the command
            character).   The default is "C-a" and `a', which can be specified
            as "-e^Aa".  When creating a screen session, this option sets  the
            default  command character. In a multiuser session all users added
            will start off with this command character. But when attaching  to
            an  already  running session, this option changes only the command
            character of the attaching user.  This  option  is  equivalent  to
            either the commands "defescape" or "escape" respectively.

Sigh... when in doubt, check the man page. :-/ – Jason Baker Aug 22 '09 at 14:40 — Jason Baker, Aug 22 '09 at 14:40
Could you put an example of invocation? – ssice Jan 12 '13 at 18:56 — ssice, Jan 12 '13 at 18:56

score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 19 '09 at 13:25

-1

It helps to go through the menu. :-/

I changed it by hitting F9, and selecting "change escape sequence."

answered Aug 19 '09 at 13:25

Jason Baker

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Can I rebind Screen's escape combination to something else?

4 Answers4