25. Bugs

Just like any other significant piece of software, screen has a few bugs and missing features. Please send in a bug report if you have found a bug not mentioned here.

25.1 Known Bugs

• `dm' (delete mode) and `xs' are not handled correctly (they are ignored). `xn' is treated as a magic-margin indicator.

• screen has no clue about double-high or double-wide characters. But this is the only area where vttest is allowed to fail.

• It is not possible to change the environment variable $TERMCAP when reattaching under a different terminal type.

• The support of terminfo based systems is very limited. Adding extra capabilities to $TERMCAP may not have any effects.

• screen does not make use of hardware tabs.

• screen must be installed setuid root on most systems in order to be able to correctly change the owner of the tty device file for each window. Special permission may also be required to write the file `/var/run/utmp'.

• Entries in `/var/run/utmp' are not removed when screen is killed with SIGKILL. This will cause some programs (like "w" or "rwho") to advertise that a user is logged on who really isn't.

• screen may give a strange warning when your tty has no utmp entry.

• When the modem line was hung up, screen may not automatically detach (or quit) unless the device driver sends a HANGUP signal. To detach such a screen session use the -D or -d command line option.

• If a password is set, the command line options -d and -D still detach a session without asking.

• Both breaktype and defbreaktype change the break generating method used by all terminal devices. The first should change a window specific setting, where the latter should change only the default for new windows.

• When attaching to a multiuser session, the user's `.screenrc' file is not sourced. Each users personal settings have to be included in the `.screenrc' file from which the session is booted, or have to be changed manually.

• A weird imagination is most useful to gain full advantage of all the features.

25.2 Reporting Bugs

If you find a bug in Screen, please send electronic mail to `screen@uni-erlangen.de', and also to `bug-gnu-utils@prep.ai.mit.edu'. Include the version number of Screen which you are using. Also include in your message the hardware and operating system, the compiler used to compile, a description of the bug behavior, and the conditions that triggered the bug. Please recompile screen with the `-DDEBUG' options enabled, reproduce the bug, and have a look at the debug output written to the directory `/tmp/debug'. If necessary quote suspect passages from the debug output and show the contents of your `config.h' if it matters.

25.3 Availability

Screen is available under the GNU copyleft.

The latest official release of screen available via anonymous ftp from `prep.ai.mit.edu', `nic.funet.fi' or any other GNU distribution site. The home site of screen is `ftp.uni-erlangen.de (131.188.3.71)', in the directory `pub/utilities/screen'. The subdirectory `private' contains the latest beta testing release. If you want to help, send a note to screen@uni-erlangen.de.