Screen Screen is a 'virtual terminal' inside your normal terminal connnection. I.e. you can make a ssh, console or serial login and inside it establish a 'screen' connection. At any later point you can 'reconnect' or take over that screen from another login. This way you can manage processes which either take a very long time (during which you may loose connection) or reconnect to a task from a different location point you can 'reconnect' or take over that screen from another login. - install with pkg_add -r screen - start screen - see what terminals there are screen -ls - reconnect to a to a terminal you 'lost' screen -r Example procedue: -> ssh mymachine Password: su root # screen # cd /usr/svn/master # sh makemaster.sh .... -> during this 5-10 hour process you loose the connection; or move to another machine somewhere. From this new machine do: ssh mymachine screen -r OR screen -ls screen -r 1672 Where 1672 is the pid/id of the process you lost connection with. Alternatively you can also press 'ctrl-A', 'D' to detatch from a 'screen' in a manner which allows you to reconnect later.