If you're already familiar with NetBSD, this information may not be particulary new or useful to you. It's not particularly Atari-specific. I do however use this for my own reference when I install NetBSD/atari.
Compiling programs on the Atari can take days (or weeks!). Screen allows you to regain control of a disconnected session if your terminal connection disconnects for whatever reason.
- Make sure to run through the pkgsrc configuration described in the packages section.
- cd /usr/pkgsrc/misc/screen
- sudo make PKG_OPTIONS.screen="ncurses" install
- cp /usr/pkg/share/examples/screen/screenrc ~/.screenrc
Notes:
- It seems pretty logical to include ncurses support per above, though I'm not sure to what extent this is really necessary.
- The screenrc example seems to have better, more reasonable defaults than the /etc example.
- The screen user's manual is here.
- screen -ls allows you to view what screen sessions are currently active.
- screen -R reconnects to a disconnected session, creating a new session if one doesn't already exist.
- screen -x connects to an existing session (multi-display mode).
- Once you're in screen, the following escape sequences are handy:
- Create a new window: Ctrl-A c
- Switch to a different window via a menu: Ctrl-A "
- Toggle to the next window: Ctrl-A <space>
- Create a new region: Ctrl-A S
- Toggle to the next region: Ctrl-A <tab>
- Detach from screen: Ctrl-A d
- Enter scrollback mode: Ctrl-A [
- Use arrows, page-up / page-down to move around, Esc when done.
- Scrollback mode is necessary as once screen is running, scrolling in your terminal program won't be functional.
- With the default .screenrc the scrollback buffer is set to 1000 lines.