Using ‘screen’ - The Absolute Essentials (blog.amir.rachum.com)

    screen -d -R

will reconnect to your screen session if it exists, or start a new one if it doesn't.

People not yet proficient with screen should learn tmux instead.

why not tmux

step 1 - use tmux

I would strongly recommend tmux over screen to anyone, if it is available on your platform.

Screen's development is basically dead. Tmux is under active development, and the developers are responsive and intelligent.

Tmux is sudo safe, where screen is not.

Tmux lacks screen's ability to connect to serial devices, which is used by some sysadmins and router monkeys like myself, but that's okay.

Tmux also sucks for tee-ing it's output to a log file, which screen does nicely, but this will probably be fixed some day.

"Essentials" being "how to install screen using apt". I wish I could downvote.

Here's an actual quick reference for screen:

http://www.pixelbeat.org/lkdb/screen.html

I was using screen, but figured that emacs server+client worked just fine for me. All I do now is ssh to the machine where my emacs server is running and run 'emacsclient -c' -- emacsclient works fine in the terminal, as well as a native GUI application. The only possible downside I can think of, is the lack of persistence of the buffer positions on the display, which terminal emulators like screen and tmux provide. Not a deal breaker for me.

Best screen reference/walkthrough I've found: http://www.bangmoney.org/presentations/screen.html