tscreen is a fork of GNU Screen. It is a perpetual work in progress.

Why fork?

I use Debian GNU/Linux, and the screen packages there have several things missing, or not available fully. Typically the response to these issues is that unless GNU Screen's upstream agrees with a patch, or change, that the Debian package will not be updated.

This is a principle I agree with in general, but it does mean that we can't extend screen or change the configuration. So given that I use GNU Screen on a lot of boxes I'd like to have my own version which doesn't necessarily have to wait for the upstream to update.

What changes will you make?

Specifically I'd like to :

• Use a saner build system.
• Enable the built-in telnet support by default.
• Add to and enhance the primitives.

What changes have you made so far?

There is a list of the changes implemented so far, with examples.

If you have something specific you'd like to see, or any other suggestions please don't hesistate to get in touch.

Will your fork die?

If it does then it deserves to.

I believe there is enough room for changes, updates, and minor tweaks that I'll commit to maintaining it for the forseeable future.

Will other people use it? That is really up to them and I have no way of knowing in advance.

You may download a tarball of the latest version, or source & binary packages for Debian GNU/Linux:

• A tarball.
• Debian Etch packages:
  • amd64
  • i386
• Debian Lenny packages:
  • amd64
  • i386
• Debian Unstable packages:
  • amd64
  • i386

These binary packages work correctly regardless of whether you have the GNU screen package installed or not.

You may install the packages directly via apt if you add a line such as the following to your sources.list:

#
#  Repository for tscreen
#
#   change "sid" to "etch", or "lenny" if you use those releases.
#   "amd64" may similarly be changed to "i386".
#
deb     http://www.steve.org.uk/Software/tscreen/dist/sid.amd64/ ./
deb-src http://www.steve.org.uk/Software/tscreen/dist/sid.amd64/ ./

The source code itself is hosted in a public public mercurial repository, and you may fetch a copy via:

hg clone http://tscreen.repository.steve.org.uk/ tscreen

Migrating to tscreen, from GNU Screen, shouldn't be difficult. Just rename your existing configuration file ~/.screenrc to ~/.tscreenrc and start enjoying the new primitives.

It might be worth updating your shell configuration file to include something like the following as an aid though:

if [ -x /usr/bin/tscreen ]; then
   alias screen='tscreen'
fi

If you'd like to suggest a new feature, a change, or otherwise get in touch please do so.