GNU Screen Copy mode blocks execution?

Solution 1:

The reason that your processes are blocking is because screen will block the output pipe of the process while you are in copy paste mode. I don't see it as really being a bug, since realistically you are asking screen to store a potentially unlimited amount of information in its buffer while you are copy/pasting. If you want to have output of a program pass by, but also be able to pause it once in a while, try this.

program > logfile 2>&1 & 
less logfile

The 2>&1 will combine stderr and stdout from your program. The & sends the program into the background. Use fg to bring it to the foreground if you need. Now press F to follow the end of the logfile as it grows with less. Press ctrl+c if you need to stop and examine something, then F to follow again. You can also press & to limit the visible lines in less to a regular expression. Very handy when going through log files.