How do you start Unix screen command with a command?

Question

According to the docs for the Unix \"screen\" command, you can configure it in .screenrc to start with a bunch of default screens, each running a command that you specify.

Answer 1

You can also "stuff" characters into the screen as if you had typed them.

Here's how you can do that with your example:

screen -t "shell_0"  1

# create the following screen in the desired dir, instead of cd-ing afterwards :)
chdir ~/project/contactdb
screen -t "autotest" 2

# (without this sometimes screens fail to start correctly for me)
sleep 5

# paste some text into screen number 2:
select 2
stuff "autotest\012"