No match for argument: screen

I love using Screen, but CentOS 8 dropped it and it appears to be unavailable in AlmaLinux 8 as well.

Can I please request that it gets added?

dnf install screen

Last metadata expiration check: 1:06:15 ago on Mon 03 Jan 2022 04:11:38 PM EST.
No match for argument: screen
Error: Unable to find a match: screen

Resultion;

dnf install epel-release
dnf install screen

@Cranky There is also ‘tmux’ and it is in Alma’s repo:

Name : tmux
Repository : baseos
Summary : A terminal multiplexer
Description : tmux is a “terminal multiplexer.” It enables a number of terminals (or
: windows) to be accessed and controlled from a single terminal. tmux is
: intended to be a simple, modern, BSD-licensed alternative to programs such
: as GNU Screen.

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that’s not really a solution, you don’t really want to install epel unless you have to. the real solution is to migrate to tmux

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AlmaLinux has what RHEL has. Therefore, it does not add (except some “extras”).

RHEL is ascetic. EPEL, ELRepo, and “CentOS SIGs” are quite reputable as far as third-party repos are considered.

Respectfully @jlehtone, I am with @sej7278 on this one. Not all organizations are permitted to use ELRepo and EPEL for security reasons - citing primarily that no specific person is held accountable.

Adopting tmux is the more appropriate path to take with respect to RHEL 8 variants.

I cannot say that I have actually adopted it myself yet. I use RHEL 7 variants at work, and have been dabbling in RHEL 8 variants at home for the past 1-2 years (has it really been that long?).

That is a good point.

Personally, I would not install neither tmux nor screen to any system.

I can respect that. Considering the same systems will likely limit the number of users that can logon (establishing distinct sessions) which can be limited via ulimit (limits.conf) and other security configurations.

However, screen|tmux has its uses. I am guessing written for the days of green (serial) screens, not positive about that statement.

There is a use case - long running jobs - and for that I find them indispensable. Without tmux or screen, if you start a job per ssh and the ssh connection dies, the job dies with your remote shell.

you should only ever run a yum update (over ssh) from within screen/tmux, as you’re in a world of pain if your session drops. there are security implications though.

as rhel has deprecated gnu screen (as it hasn’t had a commit in 2 years) it seems silly to add a repo just to get it back when tmux is the maintained replacement.

same for ifconfig/netstat vs ip/route and all that jazz.

Be aware that tmux is not a suitable replacement for all use cases.
screen can be used as a serial terminal (think configuring switches or routers over serial connections), tmux can not.

Non-interactive jobs can surely be run in the background by other means than detached sessions. For example, PBS/SGE/SLURM or even into such (remote) clusters via a grid-utils.