My screen workflow

I use GNU Screen to keep a few terminal windows open over a shared set of screen windows logged into a large number of other machines.

Wrapper screen

I log in to the machine that will host my screens and start the wrapper screen.

  screen -S wrapper -c .screenrc_wrapper

The wrapper screen's configuration just specifies the interrupt key.

  escape ^Ww

I create a screen window in wrapper for each terminal window I want to use, as many as four. Each terminal window will run one of the wrapper windows.

SSH agent

I use SSH agent forwarding to log in to my screen host, but if you don't then you might need to run ssh-agent inside the wrapper screen before starting the ssh screen.

  exec ssh-agent bash
  ssh-add

This is necessary for the next step where I ssh into a bunch of other machines. I have already installed my public key on the destination machines.

SSH screen

I start the ssh screen from inside the wrapper screen.

  screen -S ssh -c .screenrc_ssh

The ssh screen's configuration creates a bunch of windows that ssh into other machines I want to work on. I like to have at least two windows for each machine.

  screen -t "host 1" ssh host1
  screen -t "host 1" ssh host1

  screen -t "host 2" ssh host2
  screen -t "host 2" ssh host2

  screen -t "host 3" ssh host3
  screen -t "host 3" ssh host3

  select 0

Inside the other wrapper windows, I attach to the running ssh screen.

  screen -x ssh

At the start of the day, I open up a few terminal windows, log in into the screen server, and attach to the running wrapper screen. This is simplified with an alias.

  alias wrapper='screen -x wrapper'

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