A simple tutorial of screen command

If you work with IoT devices, most of the time you'll communicate with those devices using COM ports. In Mac OS you have a tool integrated in the operating system in order to communicate with them, this tool is called screen.

In order to know which port is using your device, just type in terminal this line:

ls /dev

This will list all possible devices, just found the device you need to communicate with. To communicate with the device type:

screen /dev/tty* BAUD_RATE

where * is your device and BAUD_RATE is the baud rate used for your device.

And that's all, you have a simple serial connection opened with your device. If you want to finalize or close that serial terminal, just type:

CTRL+a

followed by

k

This will ask you to close the screen session, just answer Y or N. If you want to detach the console without closing it, press d instead of k.

And to reconnect to the serial terminal:

screen -r

For more information visit its on-line manual and this cheatsheet from linoxide.