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Default Key Bindings

As mentioned, each screen command consists of a “C-a” followed by one other character. For your convenience, all commands that are bound to lower-case letters are also bound to their control character counterparts (with the exception of “C-a a”; see below), thus, “C-a c” as well as “C-a C-c” can be used to create a window. See section “Customization” for a description of the command.

The following table shows the default key bindings:

C-a ' select Prompt for a window name or number to switch to.
C-a " windowlist -b Present a list of all windows for selection.
C-a 0

C-a 9
C-a -
select 0

select 9
select -
Switch to window number 0-9, or to the blank window.
C-a tab focus Switch the input focus to the next region. See also split, remove, only.
C-a C-a other Toggle to the window displayed previously. Note that this binding defaults to the command character typed twice, unless overridden. For instance, if you use the option “-e]x”, this command becomes “]]”.
C-a a meta Send the command character (C-a) to window. See escape command.
C-a A title Allow the user to enter a name for the current window.
C-a b
C-a C-b
break Send a break to window.
C-a B pow_break Reopen the terminal line and send a break.
C-a c
C-a C-c
screen Create a new window with a shell and switch to that window.
C-a C clear Clear the screen.
C-a d
C-a C-d
detach Detach screen from this terminal.
C-a D D pow_detach Detach and logout.
C-a f
C-a C-f
flow Toggle flow on, off or auto.
C-a F fit Resize the window to the current region size.
C-a C-g vbell Toggles screen's visual bell mode.
C-a h hardcopy Write a hardcopy of the current window to the file “hardcopy.n”.
C-a H log Begins/ends logging of the current window to the file “screenlog.n”.
C-a i
C-a C-i
info Show info about this window.
C-a k
C-a C-k
kill Destroy current window.
C-a l
C-a C-l
redisplay Fully refresh current window.
C-a L login Toggle this window's login slot. Available only if screen is configured to update the utmp database.
C-a m
C-a C-m
lastmsg Repeat the last message displayed in the message line.
C-a M monitor Toggles monitoring of the current window.
C-a space
C-a n
C-a C-n
next Switch to the next window.
C-a N number Show the number (and title) of the current window.
C-a backspace
C-a h
C-a p
C-a C-p
prev Switch to the previous window (opposite of C-a n).
C-a q
C-a C-q
xon Send a control-q to the current window.
C-a Q only Delete all regions but the current one. See also split, remove, focus.
C-a r
C-a C-r
wrap Toggle the current window's line-wrap setting (turn the current window's automatic margins on and off).
C-a s
C-a C-s
xoff Send a control-s to the current window.
C-a S split Split the current region horizontally into two new ones. See also only, remove, focus.
C-a t
C-a C-t
time Show system information.
C-a v version Display the version and compilation date.
C-a C-v digraph Enter digraph.
C-a w
C-a C-w
windows Show a list of windows.
C-a W width Toggle 80/132 columns.
C-a x
C-a C-x
lockscreen Lock this terminal.
C-a X remove Kill the current region. See also split, only, focus.
C-a z
C-a C-z
suspend Suspend screen. Your system must support BSD-style job-control.
C-a Z reset Reset the virtual terminal to its “power-on” values.
C-a . dumptermcap Write out a “.termcap” file.
C-a ? help Show key bindings.
C-a C-\ quit Kill all windows and terminate screen.
C-a : colon Enter command line mode.
C-a [
C-a C-[
C-a esc
copy Enter copy/scrollback mode.
C-a ] paste . Write the contents of the paste buffer to the stdin queue of the current window.
C-a {
C-a }
history Copy and paste a previous (command) line.
C-a > writebuf Write paste buffer to a file.
C-a < readbuf Reads the screen-exchange file into the paste buffer.
C-a = removebuf Removes the file used by C-a < and C-a >.
C-a , license Shows where screen comes from, where it went to and why you can use it.
C-a _ silence Start/stop monitoring the current window for inactivity.
C-a | split -v Split the current region vertically into two new ones.
C-a * displays Show a listing of all currently attached displays.

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