No further comments received, closing this issue therefore.

* Frank Terbeck <bts@bts.grml.org> [20090407 02:12]:

> > To sum up, I believe the important setting is the last, so-called,
> > autorefresh. Hence `backtick 1 0 60' should suffice for our needs.

> Well, believing is not knowing.
> Are there any news on this? Did someone ask the screen-devs if the
> manual isn't clear enough?

The manual nowadays says:

| backtick id lifespan autorefresh cmd args...
| [...]
| Program the backtick command with the numerical id id.  The output
| of such a command is used for substitution of the "%‘" string
| escape. The specified lifespan is the number  of seconds the output
| is considered valid. After this time, the command is run again if a
| corresponding string escape is encountered. The autorefresh parame‐
| ter triggers an automatic refresh for caption and hardstatus strings
| after the specified number of seconds. Only the last line of output
| is used for substitution. If both the lifespan and the autorefresh
| parameters are zero, the backtick program is expected to stay in the
| background and generate output once in a while.  In this case, the
| command is executed right away and screen stores the last line of
| output. If a new line gets printed screen will automatically refresh
| the hardstatus or the captions.

Though I'm still not 100% sure what we really want for cpu-screen +
ip-screen. ;)

Well, the current setting works:

% grep backtick /etc/grml/screenrc
  backtick 1 0 60   /usr/bin/cpu-screen
  backtick 2 0 60   /usr/bin/ip-screen

- though I'm not sure whether it's the optimum in regards to "be
updated as often as useful but don't waste ressources on the other
hand".

Any further comments?

regards,
-mika-

> To sum up, I believe the important setting is the last, so-called,
> autorefresh. Hence `backtick 1 0 60' should suffice for our needs.

Well, believing is not knowing.
Are there any news on this? Did someone ask the screen-devs if the
manual isn't clear enough?

Regards, Frank

> Only with `backtick 1 60 0' the output does not get refreshed.
With this setting, the hardstatus line is only refreshed when doing
'screen stuff', hence e.g. changing to another window.

To sum up, I believe the important setting is the last, so-called,
autorefresh. Hence `backtick 1 0 60' should suffice for our needs.

According to my tests, the current setting `backtick 1 0 60' as well
as `backtick 1 60 60' work. Even when modifying screenrc within screen
and sourcing it again.

Only with `backtick 1 60 0' the output does not get refreshed.

So, afaics the setting *autorefresh* seems to be the important one here.

---------------
P.S.: JFYI. I was using the attached script and `backtick 1 0 3
~/screen_trial' and it's aforementioned variants for testing. As well
as `touch /tmp/test' and `rm /tmp/test' within screen then.

% grep backtick /etc/grml/screenrc
  backtick 1 0 60   /usr/bin/cpu-screen
  backtick 2 0 60   /usr/bin/ip-screen

change that to something like:

% grep backtick /etc/grml/screenrc
  backtick 1 60 60   /usr/bin/cpu-screen
  backtick 2 60 60   /usr/bin/ip-screen

or:

% grep backtick /etc/grml/screenrc
  backtick 1 60 0   /usr/bin/cpu-screen
  backtick 2 60 0   /usr/bin/ip-screen

?