Use terminal sessions in EC2: tmux, screen

Pre-requisites and installation

No pre-requisites or installation required. Both programs are already installed in the EC2.

Usage

Using tmux or screen in the EC2 (or in life) is useful because you can run a job in a session without it being cancelled due to a dropped connection. For example, you can run an hca-util upload job that takes hours to complete, and you don’t have to worry about it being interrupted. Below are some hints for using tmux, but screen acts in a similar manner. Try man tmux or man screen in the EC2 to view the manual for the two commands.

1. Make and enter a session using tmux:

    tmux new -s <session_name>
   

2. Run any command(s) like you normally would in the EC2:

    hca upload files *.fastq.gz
   

3. To detach from your session: press CTRL+b, release both keys, and then press d. You’ll be back in EC2, and the command will still be running.
4. To view all the session you have running:

    tmux ls
   

5. To get back to a session to see how the job is going:

    tmux a -t <session_name>
   

See the cheat sheet for more details like how to delete sessions and some other cool stuff: https://gist.github.com/henrik/1967800.