Screen program

The screen program is a useful Linux utility that can leave a session running without a terminal window open. Do 'man screen' to get more information, but here are the basics:

• Log into whatever machine you plan to run your program on.
• Type 'screen' to start the program.
• Get everything ready and start your long-running job.
• Type 'ctrl-A' and then 'd' for 'detach' and the screen you were just looking at will disappear.
• You can now log off and your job will keep on running.

Don't forget to make a note of which machine you were running it on, though. There are a lot of machines in the sunlab and you don't want to have to log onto them all to find the program you left running.

Later, when you want to resume work:

• Log in to the same machine you were running on before.
• Type 'screen -r' to resume where you left off.
• The screen you had before should reappear.

Screen can manage multiple sessions, too, and is useful in dozens of other ways, but there is real documentation out there to consult for that purpose. Type 'ctrl-A' and '?' to get a tiny taste, but don't go much further without at least reading the man page or the rest of its ample documentation.