GNU screen multiuser mode is broken in OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

Posted by schustafa on Super User See other posts from Super User or by schustafa
Published on 2010-03-08T22:43:42Z Indexed on 2010/03/08 22:51 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 463

Filed under:
|

I'm using GNU screen for remote pair programming. Let's call the local account for the remote user 'pairpair'. I have the following lines in my .screenrc:

multiuser on
acladd pairpair

I have run sudo chmod u+s /usr/bin/screen. However, when the remote user tries to connect to my screen with the command screen -r [my_account_name]/[pid_of_screen] I receive the following message:

Attach attempt with bad pid(xxx)

The pid listed in the error message matches the pid of the screen process run by the remote user. The remote user's screen process hangs; my screen session continues happily along after the error message disappears.

I've tried using both the built-in screen (at /usr/bin/screen) and the screen available from MacPorts, but I get the same error in both cases.

This worked on OS X 10.5 (Leopard).

I've googled around for the error message, but most of the hits relate to some BSD bug from 2003 or so (which was fixed). Has anyone else seen this behavior? Does anyone have any idea how to make multiuser support in screen work in SL?

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about mac

Related posts about screen