i have started using the "screen" utility to launch processes that i need to dis- and re-connect to.

but i also need to stop and start these screen sessions with crontab (i.e. on a schedule)

this is the command i use to start a rtorrent screen session:
screen -d -m rtorrent

currently, i then use this to end it:
screen -r -X quit

however, the proper way to exit rtorrent is by pressing Control-A (key combo) and then the "q" key.

HOW CAN I SCRIPT THIS??!??!?? i am going insane!
so far, i know i need to use the "-X stuff ...." option, but i do not know how to pass in a control key combo sequence!

i have tried this, unsuccessfully:
screen -r -X stuff ^aq

this is within a bash shell session, so alternatively, if anyone can tell me how to script sending a control key combo, this may help...

please, anyone that can help me... you're my only hope!

regards,

jingo_man

You can assign the value of ctrl-A in its octal representation to a shell variable, by means of the echo command and then use it in the command line. From man page of echo:
so the command substitution
where 001 is the octal code for Ctrl-A should give the desired value inside scripts or crontab entries.

Hey, I've been trying to do this also. Actually I'm just trying to use aliases to do some quick gameserver startup/exiting. I've got remote access to my dedicated server that is running CentOS, and I connect to it from my Windows client using PuTTY.

Currently I have these aliases:

alias bf2s='screen -S bf2screen;'
alias bf2run='cd /home/bf2user/gamecreate/bf2/; /bin/bash ./start.sh +dedicated +lowPriority'
alias bf2show='screen -r bf2screen'

And what I do to start up the server is:

- I type bf2s, which opens the blank screen.
- Inside the screen I type bf2run, which starts the gameserver inside the screen session.
- Then I do a Ctrl-A, Ctrl-D to leave the screen.
- If I ever want to view the status I type bf2show, and do another Ctrl-A, Ctrl-D to leave the screen again.
- To shutdown this gameserver I either have to kill the screen and server processes manually by their PID, or I have to type bf2show, and then type exit, to close the screen session containing the game server.

What I'd like to do is:

- Have an alias (or a script that could be called by an alias) that would start up the server inside a screen using only one command.
- Have an alias (or a script that could be called by an alias) that would shutdown the server and the screen using only one command.

I've tried a number of things including piping and using < and > to send commands to the screen from a single prompt with no luck.

Can anyone give me a clue here? I've taken a basic linux class and am taking an Admin and Install linux class this coming semester, but this is beyond my knowledge.

Many thanks for any help!

- Matt

jingo_man:

# Start screen session `rtorrent'
screen -S RTORRENT -d -m rtorrent
# Stop screen session `rtorrent'
screen -S RTORRENT -p 0 -X stuff ^Aq # Enter literal `^A' in bash by pressing CTRL-V followed by CTRL-A
# Alternative notations for ^A:
screen -S RTORRENT -p 0 -X stuff $'\001q' # $'\001' is octal notation for CTRL-A
screen -S RTORRENT -p 0 -X stuff $'\cAq' # $'\cx' is bash notation for a control-x character

msing:

If the current directory if import for start.sh, put this line at the begin of start.sh:

cd "$(dirname "$(which "$0")")" # Go to script directory

See also: http://fvue.nl/wiki/Cd_to_script-directory
This allows passing a single command to screen:

# Start screen session `bf2screen'
screen -S BF2SCREEN -d -m /home/bf2user/gamecreate/bf2/start.sh +dedicated +lowPriority
# Stop screen session `bf2screen'
screen -S BF2SCREEN -p 0 -X stuff $'\cC'

See also:
http://fvue.nl/wiki/Screen:_Start/st...ia_one_command


Freddy Vulto
http://fvue.nl/wiki

Thanks a lot for the lead. I'll play around with that code for a bit.