“Using GNU Screen can make life much easier, but how often do
you start a job and then realize “I wish I’d started screen first”?
I used to do it all the time, then I configured things so screen
starts by default when I log into my server.“Why do I want screen to start automatically when I log in? Like
many folks, I work from more than one computer. I like to be able
to SSH into a machine and pick up where I left off from another
system. Many admins and other users like to run their IRC sessions
with a combination of GNU Screen and irrsi, just so they can have a
persistent session. The more you use screen, the more you’ll find
that it’s a good idea to jump right in on startup. But to do that,
you must either remember to start screen every time, or do it
automatically. I vote for the automatic startup.“Sometimes people try to set GNU Screen as the default shell.
That might work to some extent, but you also get some weirdness
with programs that look into /etc/passwd for your default
shell.”