+1 for tmux. I've never used screen, but from what I read, tmux's client-server model is more straightforward than screen's approach, plus it has emacs and vi modes for the scrollback buffer. I'm a vi boy, and I quite like using my vi keys to move around, select and copy text, etc, in the scrollback buffer.
But whether it's screen or tmux, a terminal multiplexer is one of those things that until you start using it you don't know what you've been missing. When you shell up to a remote box and then open up new shell windows on the remote box with a quick shortcut key (i.e., without having to open up a new tab and shell up again), it's very nice. Since I tend to jump between users on remote boxes a lot for my current job, I've set up a bash alias for each "non-me" user I log in as, which alias launches tmux with my own config file from my home directory. So with a single command I'm in my own environment with my own shortcuts and vi command-line editing and vi scrollback buffer and immediate launching of new windows and the ability to come back to this session latter. (Admittedly, you could do some of that by just sourcing a /home/me/.bashrc file in your alias, but this shows the sort of fun stuff I'm doing in my environment.) I've gotten so used to tmux that I run it locally as well. So I'll be in a terminal on my machine at work, detach the session, and go home and shell into my work machine, reattach the session, and pick up where I left off. I don't know if you can do this one in screen or not, but tmux's client-server model allows for multiple clients to be attached to the *same* session. So, for example, I can be working from home and on a skype call with another developer, each of us logged in as a user whose credentials we both know. I'll attach to a tmux session he's already started, and we'll get dual controls. He sees as I type, and I see as he types. Anyway, I could probably describe lots of fun things that I enjoy doing with tmux, and I'm sure screen users would say the same. Give it a try, spend enough time to get past the light learning curve, and I bet you'll never go back. - Brett /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
