} } With screen you wouldn't put it in the background. If you } have several machines in the location with reliable connections } between them you would only have to run screen on one of them } with ssh sessions out to the others and you'd still be able } to disconnect and reconnect. I prefer to do this from a box } running X with vnc enabled, but you get the same effect of being } able to get back to long-running commands. } well, i am novice at screen. havent used for over a decade i did this screen then i did this screen yum update answered y watched it. of course about 3/4 of way through i lost connectivity briefly on wireless. it completed fine. i ssh'd back in and rebooted and now am back in and [root at ns2 ~]# cat /etc/redhat-release CentOS release 4.2 (Final) thanks for help! thing is, i need to learn how to make a new screen and be able to attach back to it as i wasnt able o attach to this one even though it was still there till done and went away. thanks again - rh -- Robert Hanson - Abba Communications Computer & Internet Services www.abbacomm.net