Kill detached screen session [closed]

I learned from somewhere a detached screen can be killed by

screen -X -S [session # you want to kill] kill

where [session # you want to kill] can be gotten from

screen -ls

But this doesn't work. Anything wrong? What's the correct way?

11 Answers

"kill" will only kill one screen window. To "kill" the complete session, use quit.

Example

$ screen -X -S [session # you want to kill] quit

For dead sessions use: $ screen -wipe

You can kill a detached session which is not responding within the screen session by doing the following.

Type screen -list to identify the detached screen session.
```
 ~$ screen -list There are screens on: 20751.Melvin_Peter_V42 (Detached) 
```
Note: 20751.Melvin_Peter_V42 is your session id.
Get attached to the detached screen session
```
screen -r 20751.Melvin_Peter_V42
```
Once connected to the session press Ctrl + A then type :quit

List screens:

screen -list

Output:

There is a screen on: 23536.pts-0.wdzee (10/04/2012 08:40:45 AM) (Detached) 1 Socket in /var/run/screen/S-root.

Kill screen session:

screen -S 23536 -X quit

It's easier to kill a session, when some meaningful name is given:

//Creation: screen -S some_name proc // Kill detached session screen -S some_name -X quit

You can just go to the place where the screen session is housed and run:

 screen -ls

which results in

 There is a screen on: 26727.pts-0.devxxx (Attached) 1 Socket in /tmp/uscreens/S-xxx. <------ this is where the session is.

And just remove it:

```
cd /tmp/uscreens/S-xxx
```
```
ls
```
```
26727.pts-0.devxxx
```
```
rm 26727.pts-0.devxxx
```
```
ls
```

The uscreens directory will not have the 26727.pts-0.devxxx file in it anymore. Now to make sure just type this:

screen -ls

and you should get:

No Sockets found in /tmp/uscreens/S-xxx.

screen -wipe

Should clean all dead screen sessions.

add this to your ~/.bashrc:

alias cleanscreen="screen -ls | tail -n +2 | head -n -2 | awk '{print $1}'| xargs -I{} screen -S {} -X quit"

Then use cleanscreen to clean all screen session.

For me a simple

exit

works. This is from within the screen session.

To kill all detached screen sessions, include this function in your .bash_profile:

killd () { for session in $(screen -ls | grep -o '[0-9]\{5\}') do screen -S "${session}" -X quit; done }

to run it, call killd

== ISSUE THIS COMMAND [xxx@devxxx ~]$ screen -ls == SCREEN RESPONDS There are screens on: 23487.pts-0.devxxx (Detached) 26727.pts-0.devxxx (Attached) 2 Sockets in /tmp/uscreens/S-xxx. == NOW KILL THE ONE YOU DONT WANT [xxx@devxxx ~]$ screen -X -S 23487.pts-0.devxxx kill == WANT PROOF? [xxx@devxxx ~]$ screen -ls There is a screen on: 26727.pts-0.devxxx (Attached) 1 Socket in /tmp/uscreens/S-xxx.

Alternatively, while in your screen session all you have to do is type exit

This will kill the shell session initiated by the screen, which effectively terminates the screen session you are on.

No need to bother with screen session id, etc.