---
title: "Auto-start Screen"
date: "2009-01-14"
modified: "2013-03-03"
path: "/20-auto-start-screen.html"
section: "/ramblings"
aliases:
  - "/20"
  - "/20-auto-start-screen"
  - "/20.html"
  - "/ramblings/20-auto-start-screen.html"
---

Recently I had the task of updating a large remote database. Occasionally my laptop would lose it's wireless connection so I remembered the old faithful "screen" and thought how handy would it be to get it automatically started when logged into a remote shell.

In the case of the gentoo box I am accessing I simply placed at the bottom of the file ".bash_profile"

`exec /usr/bin/screen -R`

It's also handy to be reminded that your using screen, so by editing the ".bashrc" file you can add:

```
if [ "$TERM" = "screen" ]; then
echo "Running Screen."
fi
```

This little tip means that each time you log in to the system, it will start screen using the last created session (-R = reattach). I modified the screen config file to increase the "defscrollback", located here: `nano /etc/screenrc`