[Beowulf] Users abusing screen

[Ellis H. Wilson III]

On 10/21/11 15:14, Andrew Piskorski wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 09:10:18AM -0400, Prentice Bisbal wrote:
> 
>> My opinion is these these are shared resources, and if you aren't
>> interactively using them, you should log out to free up resources for
>> others.
> 
> "running under screen" != "non-interactive".

What I think Prentice was pointing out here was more along the lines of:
"non-interactive" >= "running under screen" <= interactive
Where interactivity is more of a spectrum than a != or =.  More
pointedly, he stated his users are acting in a non-interactive manner,
in some cases even after they leave, which is irresponsible at all
levels.  Obviously he has to balance a rule-set between the good users
and the bad users, such that abuse isn't quite as easy.

>> I would like to remove screen from my environment entirely to prevent
>> this. My fellow sysadmins here agree. I'm expecting massive backlash
>> from the users.
> 
> No shit.  If you allow users to login at all, then (IMNSHO) removing
> screen is insane.  That's not a solution to your problem, that's
> creating a totally new problem and pretending it's a solution.

Insane?  I mean, I do a lot of work on a bunch of different distros and
hardware types, and have found little use for screen /unless/ I was on a
really, really poor internet connection that cut out on the minutes
level.  Can you give some examples regarding something you can do with
screen you cannot do with nohup and tail?

> I essentially always use screen whenever I ssh to any Linux box for
> any reason.

But why?  Just leave a terminal open if you want interactivity,
otherwise nohup something.  Perhaps I've understated screen's
usefulness, but I'm glad to be corrected/educated on it's efficacy in
this area.

Best,

ellis