Rename screen session

Question

Is it possible to change the name of a GNU screen session? Say I called started it with "screen -S foo" and I want to rename it to bar.

@l0b0 That's about naming. This is about renaming. – moinudin Aug 09 '12 at 18:06 — moinudin, Aug 09 '12 at 18:06

score 383 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 16 '15 at 17:10

Summary

C-a :sessionname mySessionName

Details

This is,

Attach to the session in question.
Press Ctrl+A.
Type :sessionname mySessionName – yes, the first colon is needed there, no extra spaces.
Type Enter.

Example

$ screen -S foo
[detached from 8890.foo]
$ screen -ls
There is a screen on:
    8890.foo    (22/12/11 18:39:22) (Detached)
1 Socket in /var/run/screen/S-user.

$ screen -r

Ctrl+A:sessionname bars

[detached from 8890.bars]
$ screen -ls
There is a screen on:
    8890.bars   (22/12/11 18:39:21) (Detached)
1 Socket in /var/run/screen/S-user.

$

Renaming without attaching

Screen's -X switch lets you rename a session without attaching it.

$ screen -X sessionname foobars
$ screen -ls
There is a screen on:
    8890.foobars    (22/12/11 18:39:22) (Detached)
1 Socket in /var/run/screen/S-user.

$

Alternatively, you can specifically target a screen session by its existing name or id (useful if there are already multiple sessions):

$ screen -ls
There is a screen on:
    8890.foo        (02/23/2015 18:39:22)   (Detached)
    5136.barfoos    (02/23/2015 18:39:22)   (Detached)
1 Socket in /var/run/screen/S-user.

$ screen -S 8890.foo -X sessionname foobars
$ screen -ls
There is a screen on:
    8890.foobars    (02/23/2015 18:39:22)   (Detached)
    5136.barfoos    (02/23/2015 18:39:22)   (Detached)
1 Socket in /var/run/screen/S-user.

$

score 119 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 18 '12 at 17:08

119

If there are several sessions, use:

screen -S 8890.foo -X sessionname bar

edited Dec 18 '12 at 17:08

Oliver Salzburg

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answered Dec 18 '12 at 16:30

Memo

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This is a better answer than the one above because it deals with the general case of multiple sessions – doon May 21 '13 at 17:21
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This is the best answer – Coc Dec 03 '13 at 10:18
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get the actual session name with `screen -ls` as mentioned in the other answers – swiesend Feb 13 '19 at 03:39
This is a much better answer, which is clear and simple. Thank you so much. – Mars Lee Apr 02 '19 at 13:45
use -R is better to find the full default session name rather than -S (type manually) – dtlam26 Oct 25 '21 at 07:59
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For people having trouble parsing the command, it is `screen -S -X sessionname ` – Konstantin Tarashchanskiy Feb 03 '23 at 18:27

ccpizza · Answer 3 · 2016-10-02T19:03:04.870

11

This renames the current window title within a session, as displayed in the window list when you press Ctrl - a+":

While in a screen session press Ctrl - a + A (it's an uppercase a, i.e. Shift+a), type the new name, and press Enter

Now when you do Ctrl - a+" the name you set will appear in the window list instead of bash.

NOTE: This does not answer the original question, but I am not deleting the answer since apparently some of the visitors to this thread searched for a way to rename the window title, and not the actual session as the OP asked.

edited Oct 02 '16 at 19:03

answered Jul 03 '14 at 13:02

ccpizza

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I think the question was about renaming the _session_, but this answer renames _windows_. – Dan Gravell Sep 09 '14 at 09:48

Rename screen session

3 Answers3

Summary

Details

Example

Renaming without attaching