Keep SSH Sessions running after disconnection

Question

I am using my laptop via shell terminal to log on school’s server to run a Matlab session. The session will take about 10 hours and I want to close my laptop, go home, have dinner, and re-engage the shell terminal to check the progress of my Matlab session.

From this link I know I should use nohup nohup to keep my terminal alive, but I meet the following problem. Here is a screenshot of my shell after I start running Matlab session:

where a = cv000_29590 is the respond from the Matlab. It should keep running until cv999999 and take about 10 hours.

The problem is, this shell is not interactive anymore. I can’t enter anymore commands, that is, I have no where to enter nohup commend to keep my SSH session alive.

Answer 1

It's not really possible after you've already started a session. But for new sessions you can do the following:

1. Add the following to the top of your .bash_profile:

   if [ -z "${PS1}" ] ; then
       return
   fi
   
   if [ "${TERM}" != "screen" ] ; then
       export HOSTNAME
       exec screen -xRR
   fi
   
   function new {
       u=${1:-$USER}
       test ${u} = ${USER} && screen -t ${u}@${HOSTNAME} || screen -t ${u}@${HOSTNAME} su --login ${u}
   }
   

2. Put the following content into .screenrc:

   escape ^bb
   shell -$SHELL
   termcapinfo xterm ti@:te@
   hardstatus lastline "%-Lw[%n%f %t]%+Lw%<"
   screen -t ${USER}@${HOSTNAME}
   

   These are mostly my own customizations of screen. The most important of which is that I set the screen escape character to CTRL-b instead of the default CTRL-a so I can still use CTRL-a in bash to go to the beginning of a line.

3. Use CTRL-b c to create shells in new windows (or just type new at the bash prompt to use the function). And use CTRL-b d to detach your session and leave it running. Next time you login, you'll be reattached to your session and everything will be as it was. Use CTRL-b n to cycle through the windows you've created. If you don't want to multiple windows, you don't have to, just use the ability to leave a session running and reattach later.