Screen colours

Alastair Grant | Tuesday 10 December 2013

I'm a big fan of GNU screen for Linux consoles. When you're connected to a command line you can use Screen to have multiple terminals (similar to the Alt+Fn buttons when at the computer).

Type "screen" to use it, simple commands:
New terminal: Ctrl+A,Ctrl+C
Change terminal: Ctrl+A,Ctrl+N

To close a terminal, type exit in the prompt as you would to logoff.

There are a few teething issues with it to get it to act like a native console. One of my minor annoyances is the lack of colour in my directory listings. This is due to the terminal type being changed from "linux" to "screen.linux". The fix though is simple. Edit /etc/DIR_COLORS and simply add "TERM screen.linux" in the appropriate list and restart your screen session.

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