To get the divider bars, do NOT use the vertical split patch which can be found here: http://fungi.yuggoth.org/vsp4s/

But instead use the CVS snapshot of the current development version of screen. Here is the link:
http://fungi.yuggoth.org/debian/

What is the proper way to configure my system to have screen start automatically (and reconnect to any pre-existing sessions if there are any running) ???

To enter Copy mode:

C-a [
or
C-a Esc
or even
C-a C-[

Then you can use the direction arrows, as well as pg up/down to navigate accross the pages of a screen. To begin selecting a text, press space, and then go to the end of your selection. Then, press space again.

You will see something like:

Copied 6 characters into buffer.

Now, try changing your window and press:

C-a ]

You will be pasting your buffer directly to the standard input of your other window. Pay attention, as it is very important: Paste pastes into your standard input, not standard output. Thus, it is like you have really typed what you have pasted.

Instead, if you want to paste it to a file, say, a log, or something, just do like this:

C-a >

Screen will create a file under /tmp with a name like screen-exchange containing exactly what you have copied into the buffer.

While yet in Copy mode, you can use it just to search for a pattern. It’s like less and vi:

/pattern

searches for a pattern from the point you are to the end of the page, while:

?pattern

searches backwards for a pattern.

escape ^zz

Since C-z is normally used to suspend a process if I forget where I am and use C-z in a non-screen terminal I can easily recover using “fg”.

Cool article. I’ve been using screen for about 5 years and I learned a couple of useful tricks here.

On my system, adding the following two lines at the end of ~/.bash_profile worked:

screen
logout

In any case, if you are worried about infinite recursion, you can always test against $SHLVL. At login it is 1. After starting screen, it will be 2, etc.

I think adding it to my .bashrc will lead to infinite recursion since screen will launch bash which then will launch screen etc etc.

Making screen my shell won’t work either, because then it will try to start itself.

So how do I avoid having to type “screen” (or “control-r sc” ) every time I log in?

By the way, you don’t need to type “control-a :screen somecommand” to run somecommand in a new window, “screen somecommand” from the shell will work too.

In latest/CVS version of GNU screen, you able to ‘VERTICAL SPLIT’ (using key ‘C-a |’ (left|right) , too.