kill a screen session

Question

I'm trying to kill a screen session. I noticed a lot of other related questions, but none of those answers are working for me. I am trying to kill the following session:

screen -ls
There is a screen on:
    23520.pts-6.porkypig    (09/30/2013 02:49:47 PM)    (Detached)
1 Socket in /var/run/screen/S-root.

screen -r 23520.pts-6.porkypig

Now I am in the session. According to the documentation:

http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/manual/screen.html#Quit

I am supposed to press "control a" and then "control \". I do that and nothing happens.

Another solution said to press Ctrl+a and type :quit. However, again it doesn't do anything. In fact, pressing control+a, absolutely nothing happens afterwards except a message "No Other Window"

Solution 1

first you need to re attach to the screen session
screen -r 23520 as you have done. Then press ctrl + a and then a k and press y when it asks if you really want to kill the session

Source

Solution 2

1. Identify the name of the session:

 $ screen -ls

2. Close a session:

$ screen -XS <session-id> quit

• Rationale: -X = Execute command, -S session PID to execute on
• Example: screen -XS 20411 quit
• Source: innaM's Answer

Solution 3

This command will kill all screen sessions, if that is desired:

So with all those official suggestions, I have one here that i feel is easier, and just as effective, and kind of more straight forward:

pkill screen

Who wants to go into an unknown and un-needed screen just to press in a couple commands that most might barely remember? This avoids going into it at all, and kills it straight off.

Plus, if you have more than one, this will take them all in one fell swoop.

Solution 4

This will kill all the detached screens:

screen -ls | grep detached | cut -d. -f1 | awk '{print $1}' | xargs kill

This will kill all screens, attached or detached

screen -ls | grep pts | cut -d. -f1 | awk '{print $1}' | xargs kill

Solution 5

Like you, I wanted to kill my screen session and found the documentation unhelpful. Convinced that there must be a keyboard shortcut, I found that
ctrl + a then \
works

I then get the prompt: "Really quit and kill all your windows [y\n]"

I am not sure why the documentation says ctrl + a then ctrl + \. That doesn't do anything for me.

View more solutions

Comments

[Admin]

in screen v4.x, to kill all sessions, ps aux | grep "SCREEN" | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kill

[Admin]

For the record, you can just do screen -r porkypig or screen -r 23520, rather than having to include the full string. Screen names are supposed to make things easier, not more complicated.

[Admin]

we can also use the exit command to terminating screen

[Mikkel]

This works if there is a problem with a process running inside the screen, but not if there is a problem with screen itself. That is the case 99% of the time, and has the added benefit of only affecting a single window within the screen rather than terminating all windows.

[Mikkel]

Note that this will kill all running screens, which may or may not be what you want.

[AJ.]

This was pretty simple. You can simplify it even more by combining the -X -S with -XS

[Martin Thoma]

You should give credit to innaM answer if you copy it

[kRazzy R]

After 6 hours breaking my head all over internet... yours was the only answer that worked. Thanks mate!

[MAChitgarha]

Not a good choice. I've been doing it for some time. Sometimes it causes bad behaviors (e.g. logging out from your user account immediately). Also, as @Mikkel mentioned, it could cause to close all your screens, which would not be what you want. Sometimes you need to keep running some (e.g. some are running by system) and stop some other screens.

[Eric Wang]

It is to kill a window, not a session

[birgersp]

Is there a way to kill the session without having to answer the prompt? I'd rather skip the y part.

[avia]

This answer is most probably the most straightforward, quick yet efficient one.

[gillesC]

Easiest and most straightforward approach! You will, of course, first need to reattach to the screen session.

[Coljac]

This doesn't answer the question (how to kill a screen session, as opposed how to exit normally) and it doesn't expand on the other answers. A good answer might cover the normal exiting procedure and then document a few ways you can kill screen if that doesn't work.

[user2965003]

Ctrl + a then UPPERCASE K, then y