12.1.2 Scrollback

To access and use the contents in the scrollback buffer, use the copy command. See Copy.

Command: defscrollback num

(none)
Same as the scrollback command except that the default setting for new windows is changed. Defaults to 100.

Command: scrollback num

(none)
Set the size of the scrollback buffer for the current window to num lines. The default scrollback is 100 lines. Use info to view the current setting.

Command: compacthist [state]

(none)
This tells screen whether to suppress trailing blank lines when scrolling up text into the history buffer. Turn compacting ‘on’ to hold more useful lines in your scrollback buffer.