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From vi, if you issue the command :sp, the screen splits into two "views", allowing you to edit more than one file from the same terminal.

Along those same lines, is there a way to have multiple shells open in the same terminal?

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6 Answers

up vote 35 down vote accepted

You can do it in screen the terminal multiplexer.

  • To split vertically: ctrla then |.
  • To split horizontally: ctrla then S (uppercase one).
  • To unsplit: ctrla then Q (uppercase one).
  • To switch from one to the other: ctrla then tab

Note: After splitting, you need to go into the new region and start a new session via ctrla then c before you can use that area.

EDIT, basic screen usage:

  • New terminal: ctrla then c.
  • Next terminal: ctrla then space.
  • Previous terminal: ctrla then backspace.
  • N'th terminal ctrla then [n]. (works for n∈{0,1…9})
  • Switch between terminals using list: ctrla then " (useful when more than 10 terminals)
  • Send ctrla to the underlying terminal ctrla then a.
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Tmux also does this, and many terminal programs have split views and tabs. – Shawn J. Goff Feb 15 '11 at 16:51
Just what I was looking for, thanks! – Justin Ethier Feb 15 '11 at 16:58
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One thing you might want to add - after splitting, you need to go into the new region and start a new session via ctrl-a c before you can use that area. – Justin Ethier Feb 15 '11 at 17:10
I'm having some trouble splitting my screen (either vertically or horizontally) under Centos 5 using zsh (under Virtual Box). When you refer to "uppercase one" for <kbd>ctrl</kbd><kbd>a</kbd><kbd>S</kbd>, do you mean that I should hold <kbd>shift</kbd> or use caps lock, as neither of these seem to be working. Apologies in advance if this is a noob question. OFF TOPIC - I'm not completely sure why my markup isn't working - I have already tried to follow the guidelines here meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/1777/… – Aaron Newton Dec 2 '11 at 13:26
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@AaronNewton ctrl+a then release everything then shift+s (don't know for caps lock, mine is disabled) – shellholic Dec 5 '11 at 12:43
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up vote 9 down vote

Try tmux (Terminal MUltipleXer)

Home Page

wikipedia tmux screenshot

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Screen vs tmux? tmux is probably better for advanced usage and is more modern, but screen is installed everywhere and works just fine. – user606723 Apr 11 at 21:31
up vote 7 down vote

As mentioned in the comments, besides screen, another good terminal multiplexer is tmux. You can refer to the manual for a complete description and command reference. Some basic operations to get started are:

  • Split screen vertically: Ctrlb and Shift5
  • Split screen horizontally: Ctrlb and Shift"
  • Toggle between panes: Ctrlb and o
  • Close current pane: Ctrlb and x

You can achieve more complex layouts by splitting panes. You can also have multiple windows with panes and switch between them.

  • Create windows: Ctrlb and c
  • Switch to next window: Ctrlb and n
  • Switch to previous window: Ctrlb and p
  • Destroy current window: Ctrlb and Shift5
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Note that you can change tmux's prefix to something easier to reach than <C-b>. – Evan Teitelman Apr 7 at 12:04
up vote 6 down vote

If you want a program that just splits a terminal¹, there's splitvt. There are programs that split a terminal and do a lot of other stuff besides, such as Screen, Tmux, Emacs, …

¹ It's the terminal you're splitting, not the shell.

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+1, good point about how the terminal is what is really being split. – Justin Ethier Feb 21 '11 at 14:37
up vote 1 down vote

Apart from the excellent suggestions on Screen and Tmux if you are using some sort of window manager you may be interested in Terminator you can split horizontally or vertically fashions, plus tabs and more... here's a list of features taken from the author's web site:

  • Arrange terminals in a grid
  • Tabs
  • Drag and drop re-ordering of terminals
  • Lots of keyboard shortcuts
  • Save multiple layouts and profiles via GUI preferences editor
  • Simultaneous typing to arbitrary groups of terminals

Have a look to the screenshots on the project site.

Most important you can combine Terminator with Screen/Tmux.

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Note that using Terminator splits will be less convenient when copypasting between two windows of your editor. – gb. Aug 7 '12 at 2:00
up vote 0 down vote

Try Vertical Split for GNU Screen

This patch provides a vertical split feature for current releases of GNU Screen. The feature is designed to function in the same manner as screen's existing split command, but dividing the regions vertically instead of horizontally. Both forms of splits can be used together in any combination/quantity/order desired. Something similar is slated to appear in GNU Screen 4.1 soon, and is already available in CVS per this mailing list thread (and has been included in the Debian and Ubuntu screen packages starting with 4.0.3-10). Also, a recent project named ScreenWM is designed specifically to work with a vsplit-patched screen (check it out!).

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