Scrot

Scrot is a handy program that runs your terminal-based applications in a screen session, but only once. The first time you run a program with Scrot, it kicks off a new session. If you run it again with the same program name (or ID), it connects to that existing screen session. Super useful, right?

Why Use Scrot?

If you're into using terminal-based apps like IRC clients, mail clients, or audio players, Scrot makes life easier! Imagine your X session crashes or you lose your terminal for some reason. No worries! You can easily take control of those apps on the console again.

Understanding Program IDs

Every program you run with Scrot gets assigned an ID that keeps things unique. By default, this ID is just the program's name without any extra arguments. However, if you want to be specific, you can set it using the -i option.

Useful Options

• -f: This option forces the current terminal to grab existing sessions. Usually, if there's already a session with the same ID running, you'll get a warning. But if you use -f, Scrot takes over that session!


• -h: Need help? This option prints out the command line syntax and details about options.


• -i id: Want to specify which program to run? Use this option! Otherwise, it'll stick to the program name by default.


• -v: Curious about what version you're using? This will print out the program description and version info.

An Example Usage

I personally use Scrot for my IRC client called IRSSI. I set up an alias like this: alias irc='scrot -f irssi'. What this does is ensure that there's only one instance of IRSSI running at any time. If I already have it open in another terminal, using -f will disconnect me from there so I can switch between console and xterm sessions without quitting!

What's New in This Release?

• Added some minor tweaks and improvements!