DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages

dtach(1)               DragonFly General Commands Manual              dtach(1)

NAME
       dtach - simple program that emulates the detach feature of screen.

SYNOPSIS
       dtach -a <socket> <options>
       dtach -A <socket> <options> <command...>
       dtach -c <socket> <options> <command...>
       dtach -n <socket> <options> <command...>

DESCRIPTION
       dtach is a program that emulates the detach feature of screen. It is
       designed to be transparent and un-intrusive; it avoids interpreting the
       input and output between attached terminals and the program under its
       control. Consequently, it works best with full-screen applications such
       as emacs.

       dtach is intended for users who want the detach feature of screen
       without the other overhead of screen. It is tiny, does not use many
       libraries, and stays out of the way as much as possible.

   SESSIONS
       A session in dtach is a single instance in which a program is running
       under the control of dtach.  The program is disassociated from the
       original terminal, and is thus protected from your original terminal
       being disconnected for some reason.

       Other instances of dtach can attach themselves to a particular session.
       Input and output is copied between the program running in the dtach
       session, and the attached terminals.

       dtach avoids interpreting the communication stream between the program
       and the attached terminals; it instead relies on the ability of the
       attached terminals to manage the screen.

       Sessions are represented by Unix-domain sockets in the filesystem. No
       other permission checking other than the filesystem access checks is
       performed.  dtach creates a master process that monitors the session
       socket, the program, and any attached terminals.

   MODES
       dtach has several modes of operation. It can create a new session in
       which a program is executed, or it can attach to an existing session.
       The first argument specifies which mode dtach should operate in.

       -a     Attach to an existing session.  dtach attaches itself to the
              session specified by <socket>.  After the attach is completed,
              the window size of the current terminal is sent to the master
              process, and a redraw is also requested.

       -A     Attach to an existing session, or create a new one.  dtach first
              tries to attach to the session specified by <socket> if
              possible. If the attempt to open the socket fails, dtach tries
              to create a new session before attaching to it.

       -c     Creates a new session. A new session is created in which the
              specified program is executed.  dtach then tries to attach
              itself to the newly created session.

       -n     Creates a new session, without attaching to it. A new session is
              created in which the specified program is executed.  dtach does
              not try to attach to the newly created session, however, and
              exits instead.

   OPTIONS
       dtach has a few options that allow you to modify its behavior. Each
       attaching process can have separate settings for these options, which
       allows for some flexibility.

       -e <char>
              Sets the detach character to <char>.  When the detach character
              is pressed, dtach detaches itself from the current session and
              exits. The process running in the session is unaffected by the
              detach. By default, the detach character is set to ^\ (Ctrl-\).

       -E     Disables the detach character.  dtach does not try to scan input
              from the terminal for a detach character. The only way to detach
              from the session is then by sending the attaching process an
              appropriate signal.

       -r <method>
              Sets the redraw method to <method>.  The valid methods are none,
              ctrl_l, or winch.

              none disables redrawing completely, ctrl_l sends a Ctrl L
              character to the program if the terminal is in character-at-a-
              time and no-echo mode, and winch forces a WINCH signal to be
              sent to the program.

              When creating a new session, the specified method is used as the
              default redraw method for the session. If not specified, the
              ctrl_l method is used.

       -z     Disables processing of the suspend key.  Normally, dtach will
              suspend itself when the suspend key is pressed. With this
              option, the suspend character is sent to the session instead of
              being handled by dtach.

EXAMPLES
       The following example creates a new session that has the detach
       character and suspend processing disabled. A socket is created in the
       /tmp directory for the session.

          $ dtach -c /tmp/foozle -Ez bash

       The following example attaches to the /tmp/foozle session if it exists,
       and if not, creates a new session using /tmp/foozle as the socket for
       the session.  Processing of the suspend character is also disabled for
       the attach instance.

          $ dtach -A /tmp/foozle -z bash

       The following example attaches to the /tmp/foozle session, using the
       winch redraw method to redraw the screen.

          $ dtach -a /tmp/foozle -r winch

       The following example creates a new session and sets the default redraw
       method for the session to the winch redraw method.

          $ dtach -c /tmp/foozle -r winch bash

AUTHOR
       Ned T. Crigler <crigler@users.sourceforge.net>.

SEE ALSO
       screen(1)

dtach 0.8                          Jan 2008                           dtach(1)