dtach ☆

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Description:
Emulates the detach feature of screen

Type: Formula | Latest Version: 0.9@0 | Tracked Since: Dec 17, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: Developer tools

Tags: terminal session detachment background utility

Install: brew install dtach

About:
dtach is a lightweight utility that detaches a program from its terminal, allowing it to run independently in the background. It emulates the detach feature of the GNU Screen utility but without the overhead of terminal emulation and session management. This enables users to close their terminal or lose SSH connection without terminating the running process.

Key Features:

Minimal overhead compared to full terminal multiplexers
Simple attach/detach functionality
Preserves the program's standard input/output
No terminal emulation or session management features

Use Cases:

Running long-running processes on remote servers without keeping SSH sessions active
Backgrounding command-line tools that need to persist after terminal closure
Maintaining persistent sessions for simple programs without complex multiplexer overhead

Alternatives:

screen – Full terminal multiplexer with window management but higher resource usage
tmux – Modern terminal multiplexer with advanced features and session management
nohup – Unix built-in for ignoring hangup signals but lacks re-attach capability

License: GPL-2.0-or-later

Bottles available for: arm64_tahoe, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_ventura, arm64_monterey, arm64_big_sur, sonoma, ventura, monterey, big_sur, catalina, arm64_linux, x86_64_linux

Version History

Detected	Version	Rev	Change	Commit
Sep 13, 2025 4:13pm		0	VERSION_BUMP	1570c3f2
Sep 12, 2024 8:20am		0	VERSION_BUMP	9067c602