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# HOW TO : Use screen to multitask
- URL: https://kudithipudi.org/howto-use-screen-to-multitask/
- Published: 2012-05-30T20:36:28.000Z
- Updated: 2012-05-30T20:36:28.000Z
- Description: Want your terminal to look like this? In addition to the coolness, factor it also helps you do (monitor) multiple things at a time. In this...
- Author: admin
- Tags: HOWTO, Linux, Technology, Uncategorized, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-23 02:32

Want your terminal to look like this? 

![](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7082/7303838454_eae69642e6_z_d.jpg "Screen : Screenshot")

In addition to the coolness, factor it also helps you do (monitor) multiple things at a time. In this screenshot

- I am checking the resource utilization on my web server
- Tailing the web server logs to look for errors
- have a small console for me to run any commands

You can achieve this by using the nifty [screen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU%5FScreen?ref=kudithipudi.org) utility. Screen allows you to multiplex between multiple consoles. So you can open one terminal and have multiple consoles on it. The commands for using screen are a bit hard to get used to. Here are the shortcuts I used to achieve the screen above

1. Install the screen package

Name the different consoled by executing

```
ctrl + a
```

```
Shift + a
```

Split the screen by executing

```
ctrl + a
```

```
Shift + s
```

Add a new screen console by executing

```
ctrl + a
```

```
c
```

Create a new screen session by running

```
screen
```

As you might have figured out by now, “ctrl + a” puts you into screen command mode. You can get a list of all available options by executing

```
ctrl +a
```

```
?
```

Here’s a quick reference guide that has more details [http://aperiodic.net/screen/quick\_reference ](http://aperiodic.net/screen/quick%5Freference?ref=kudithipudi.org)

Have fun multitasking 🙂