Re: Killing screens

[Brian Mathis]

On 8/27/07, Sam Tardif <address@hidden> wrote:
> Hi screen users,
>
> We currently use Zterm to communicate with serial devices, but due to
> some problems it has I am looking for alternatives. screen was a good
> choice, but I have come across a stumbling block that I can't find a way
> around.
>
> Basically, user A logs in (on Mac OS X machine), runs a script that
> attaches a screen to the serial device, gets their output from the
> device, closes the terminal window (without ctrl-A k) and logs out. When
> user B comes along, user A's screen still exists and hogs the connection
> to the serial device. Is there any way to kill user A's screen so that
> user B can make the connection (without forcing users to kill the screen
> with ctrl-A k, because I know they will never remember)? sending screen
> -X quit before opening a new screen doesn't work as user B doesn't have
> permission. Would like not to have to use multiuser and setuid root.
>
> Any suggestions? Is there a way to tell screens not to be persistent? Or
> is this something screen just isn't capable of?
>
> Cheers,
> Sam.

It sounds like you should be using another program to attach to the
serial devices, like minicom.  Leaving things running when you close
the terminal is one of the major features of screen, and multiplexing
is the other one.  If you're not using either of those features, maybe
screen isn't the right program for your application.