The very useful GNU Screen program for multiplexing terminals between processes is out with a shiny new feature release.

GNU Screen 5.0 is now available with a number of updates compared to the prior release. GNU Screen 5.0 provides a rewritten authentication mechanism, new escape sequences, new commands, and other changes. The official GNU Screen 5.0 highlights include:

* Rewritten authentication mechanism

* Add escape %T to show current tty for window

* Add escape %O to show number of currently open windows

* Use wcwdith() instead of UTF-8 hard-coded tables

* New commands:

- auth [on|off]

Provides password protection

- status [top|up|down|bottom] [left|right]

The status window by default is in the bottom-left corner.

This command can move status messages to any corner of the screen.

- truecolor [on|off]

- multiinput

Input to multiple windows at the same time

* Removed commands:

- time

- debug

- password

- maxwin

- nethack

* Fixes:

- Screen buffers ESC keypresses indefinitely

- Crashes after passing through a zmodem transfer

- Fix double -U issue

Downloads and more details on the GNU Screen 5.0 release via the [1]GNU.org mailing list .



[1] https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-gnu/2024-08/msg00004.html