dtamayo.github.io/screen.html at master · Supa-wich/dtamayo.github.io · GitHub

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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>

    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
    <meta name="description" content="">
    <meta name="author" content="">

    <title>Dan Tamayo</title>

    <!-- Bootstrap Core CSS -->
    <link href="css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">

    <!-- Custom CSS -->
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    <!-- Custom Fonts -->
    <link href="font-awesome/css/font-awesome.min.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
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    <![endif]-->

</head>

<body>

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    <nav class="navbar navbar-default navbar-fixed-top topnav" role="navigation">
        <div class="container topnav">
            <!-- Brand and toggle get grouped for better mobile display -->
            <div class="navbar-header">
                <button type="button" class="navbar-toggle" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#bs-example-navbar-collapse-1">
                    <span class="sr-only">Toggle navigation</span>
                    <span class="icon-bar"></span>
                    <span class="icon-bar"></span>
                    <span class="icon-bar"></span>
                </button>
                <a class="navbar-brand topnav"></a>
            </div>
            <!-- Collect the nav links, forms, and other content for toggling -->
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                <ul class="nav navbar-nav navbar-right">
                    <li>
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                    <li>
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            </div>
        </div>
    </nav>

    <!-- Header -->
    <div class="intro-header"></div>

    <div class="container">
        <div class="row">
            <div class="col-lg-12">
                <div class="main-section-heading">Keeping a terminal session running with the screen command</div>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>

    <div class="container">
        <div class="row topbot-buffer">
            <div class="col-lg-12">
                <p class="lead">
                    While there are other applications, the most common problem this solves for me is when I log into a workstation remotely to start a jupyter notebook, and want to leave it running (to finish a set of runs, or just to leave it up so I can pick up where I left off when I have to work on things throughout the week). The problem is that the process running our jupyter notebook will terminate as soon as our ssh session ends. We can prevent that by using the screen command. Once you've ssh'ed into the workstation you want to use (i.e., we want to run the jupyter notebook on the workstation, not on our own laptop!), the trick is to start a new screen session before launching jupyter notebook:
                </p>
                <pre>
                    <code>
                        screen -S danjupyter
                        jupyter notebook
                    </code>
                </pre>
                <p class="lead">
                    The first command starts a new screen session, and names that screen session 'danjupyter' (you may need to choose another name if someone has already used that). The second starts a jupyter notebook as usual. Once that is running, you hold Ctrl + a, and while holding those keys, press d. This detaches your screen session, and you get back your original ssh session with your screen session now running in the background. Now you can close your terminal window (which will end your ssh session), or even shut down your laptop, and the screen session will continue running on the workstation in the background. You can google screen commands, but useful ones include
                </p>
                <pre>
                    <code>
                        screen -r danjupyter
                    </code>
                </pre>
                <p class="lead">
                    to reconnect to your running screen session called 'danjupyter' (can replace with whatever you chose to call it). This is useful to close jupyter notebook after you're all done (Ctrl + c). If you're done with the screen session, you can end it by typing
                </p>
                <pre>
                    <code>
                        exit
                    </code>
                </pre>
                <p class="lead">
                    This will take you back to wherever you were / whatever machine you were on when you started the screen session. To check the names of all screen sessions currently running in the background you use
                </p>
                <pre>
                    <code>
                        screen -ls
                    </code>
                </pre>
                <p class="lead">
                    If you want to kill a screen session that's running, you need to know the name of that session, or use the above command to get the number that's in front (e.g., 20351 in 20351.jupyter). Then
                <pre>
                    <code>
                        screen -X -S danjupyter kill
                    </code>
                </pre>
                </p><p class="lead">
                    where you would replace 'danjupyter' with the name (or number) of the screen session you want to kill. This can be useful in cases where you get mixed up with the commands above, and it won't let you reconnect to a screen session because it says it's already attached (and you want to start over, killing anything that's running in it).
                </p>
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