ssh disconnects immediately upon successful login

[factorial]

The title says it all. I recently put `exec screen -R` in my .bash_profile, and that's the only change I've made. I have disconnected/reconnected several times since then.

Specifically: I get a login prompt, type my username, type my valid password, and see my 'last login' message before the puTTY window closes. If I type the incorrect password I get 'access denied' and get to try again (no disconnect until I login).

OS: Fedora 9 I believe.

Any ideas?

[factorial]

Turns out I had SCP access, so I scp'd in and renamed .bash_profile to .bash_profile.ignore and now I can ssh again. Apparently screen wasn't happy with being in .bash_profile... hope this helps someone in the future.

[DanL@VPSLink]

screen's default behavior will kill your present TTY session when run from a .bash_profile or .bashrc script as soon as screen successfully runs.

If you plan to experiment with your login scripts, I would highly recommend adding a sleep 5 call before the experimental commands in your login script (this will give you a chance to break from the script back to the shell if you find that subsequent commands have an undesirable effect).

You will also want to use a comparison to ensure that your screen sessions do not start screen sessions

if [ $TERM != "screen" ]; then
  echo -n "Ctrl-C now to avoid screen - in 5 secs..." && sleep 1 && echo -n " 4 secs..." && sleep 1 && echo -n " 3 secs..." && sleep 1 && echo -n " 2 secs..." && sleep 1 && echo -n " 1 sec..." && sleep 1 && screen -D -RR
else
  echo "Running in screen session..."
fi

[factorial]

Many thanks, Dan, very helpful info.

[DanL@VPSLink]

You are most welcome - here's a more configurable alternative, should you want to experiment:

# screen autostart
if [ $TERM != "screen" ]; then
  # Configuration
  SCRAUTO_CMD='screen -D -RR'
  SCRAUTO_DELAY=10
  # EOF - Configuration
  SCRAUTO_DISPLAY=$SCRAUTO_DELAY+1
  echo -n "(Ctrl+C to skip) Running "${SCRAUTO_CMD}" in "
  for (( i=0; i<=$SCRAUTO_DELAY; i++ ))
  do
    let SCRAUTO_DISPLAY=SCRAUTO_DISPLAY-1
    echo -n ${SCRAUTO_DISPLAY}"... "
	sleep 1
  done
  ${SCRAUTO_CMD}
else
  echo "Running in screen session..."
fi

[DanL@VPSLink]

... our support manager has informed me that screen -D -R added at the end of your .bash_profile script should accomplish everything the above script does in about 6% of the lines (see man screen for "Author's favorite" for full details).