---
name: "byobu-select-session"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "byobu"
version: "5.133-1.1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/byobu-select-session"
---

# byobu-select-session(1)

select and connect to a byobu session

## NAME

byobu-select-session - select and connect to a byobu session

## DESCRIPTION

**byobu-select-session** is an application that lists the available screen sessions running on the system, and prompts the user to select one.  The user also has the option to create a new Byobu session, or launch the default shell without Byobu.

If an invalid selection is chosen 3 times in a row, the user is connected to the youngest session.

By default, if only one session exists, the user is connected to that session, and if no sessions exist, a new session is created -- such that there is no interactive prompt in the normal behavior.  However, some users may choose to always be prompted, by touching the file $BYOBU\_CONFIG\_DIR/.always-select.

Note that BYOBU\_CONFIG\_DIR=$HOME/.byobu.

Named sessions that begin with a "." are "hidden" from [**byobu-select-session**(1)](/byobu-select-session/1.md).  This is useful, for instance, if you do not want a session to be automatically selected at login.  Example:\
   byobu -S .hidden

## FILES

*$BYOBU\_CONFIG\_DIR/.always-select*

## SEE ALSO

- [**byobu**(1)](/byobu/1.md), [**screen**(1)](/screen/1.md)

  - *http://byobu.org*

  ## AUTHOR

This manpage and the utility were written by Dustin Kirkland \<kirkland@byobu.org\> for Ubuntu systems (but may be used by others).  Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document and the utility under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 3 published by the Free Software Foundation.

The complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in */usr/share/common-licenses/GPL* on Debian/Ubuntu systems, or in */usr/share/doc/fedora-release-\*/GPL* on Fedora systems, or on the web at *http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt*.