Commands Reference, Volume 2

dscreen Command

Purpose

Starts the Dynamic Screen utility.

Syntax

dscreen [ -i InfoFile ] [ -t TermType ]

Description

The dscreen command starts the Dynamic Screen utility, which allows a single physical terminal to be connected to several virtual sessions, or screens, at one time.

If no flags are specified, the dscreen command reads the description for the terminal specified in the TERM environment variable from the file specified in the DSINFO environment variable. If the DSINFO environment variable is not specified, the terminal description is read from the /etc/dsinfo file. A terminal description typically contains the following configuration information:

• Keys used with the Dynamic Screen utility and their function
• Number of pages of screen memory the terminal has available
• Code sequences that must be sent or received to access and use Dynamic Screen features

Flags

Examples

1. To start the Dynamic Screen utility using key mapping defaults, enter:

   dscreen
   

   This sets the DSINFO and TERM environment variables as designated in the default /etc/dsinfo file.

2. To start the Dynamic Screen utility and specify a file that contains alternate key mappings and also identifies a terminal description to be read from the file, enter:

   dscreen -i myfile -t myterm
   

   This uses information from a user-created dsinfo-type file named myinfo to handle unusual key mapping needs. The myinfo file also contains a terminal definition named myterm.

3. To start the Dynamic Screen utility and specify an alternate terminal setup, enter:

   dscreen -t wy60-wp
   

   This terminal definition (maintained in the /etc/dsinfo file) sets dscreen assigned key actions so they do not conflict with control key command sequences in the word processing application being used.

Files

Related Information

Dynamic Screen Utility in AIX 5L Version 5.1 System Management Guide: Communications and Networks book.