Software, Physics, Data, Mountains

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Multiuser Screen Sessions

ok, trying to do this for real…

I set suid on screen, so

mmm@kojiro:~/projects/ttu/doc$ ls -al /usr/bin/screen
-rwxr-sr-x 1 root utmp 340604 2010-08-17 10:55 /usr/bin/screen

becomes

mmm@kojiro:~/projects/ttu/doc$ ls -al /usr/bin/screen
-rwsr-sr-x 1 root utmp 340604 2010-08-17 10:55 /usr/bin/screen

and then /var/run/screen needs to be 755 instead of 775… i.e.,

mmm@kojiro:~/projects/ttu/doc$ ls -al /var/run | grep screen
drwxrwxr-x  5 root     utmp      100 2011-02-08 10:17 screen

becomes

mmm@kojiro:~/projects/ttu/doc$ ls -al /var/run | grep screen
drwxr-xr-x  5 root     utmp      100 2011-02-08 10:17 screen

Now, user1:

user1@kojiro:~$ screen -x -S junk -t junk

or just

user1@kojiro:~$ screen -S junk

user1 sets multiusermode

Ctrl-A :multiuser on
Ctrl-A :acladd user2
Ctrl-A :acladd user3

user2

user2@kojiro:~$ screen -x mmm/

user3

user3@kojiro:~$ screen -x mmm/

another version

For security reasons, screen by default is installed so that other users within the system can not attach to your screen sessions. To allow this to be changed one must set screen to run SUID root by doing the following (once):
sudo chmod +s /usr/bin/screen
sudo chmod 755 /var/run/screen
Then user1 can share their session on host as follows:
screen -S shared-session
Ctrla :multiuser on
Ctrla :acladd user2

user2 on host can then connect to the shared session like:
ssh user2@host
screen -x user1/shared-session

first view screen -S junk

second view screen -x -R junk


maybe this’ll work…

user1

screen -t junk

user2 becomes user1

screen -x -t junk

looks like this works… maybe overkill but wtf?

screen -xR -t junk -S junk

allegedly, screen -t junk screen -x -t junk should work

below is old

It’s possible for two users to share a screen session. This is particularly useful if multiple people want to monitor a long running task, and it’s easy to do.

user #1:

screen -R longbuild

user #2:

screen -x -R longbuild

The -x flag tells screen to allow you to attach to an already attached session. This is also good for crazy stuff like a collaborative Vim session (if you’re into that sort of thing).

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