Bash: Capture command line to file?

gctaylor1 · 09-08-2016, 08:39 PM

I have a long command line that I want to capture to a log file every time it is run? How do I this?

This not the exact command line but close enough. I've tried many permutations of this.

Code:

FILE=/tmp/params.txt ; date &>> $FILE; ls &>> $FILE; uptime &>> $FILE ; echo "${@}" &>> $FILE &

My file has the output of the commands but not the actual command line. Are my expectations incorrect about being able to do this?

Thanks,
Gary

rknichols · 09-08-2016, 08:57 PM

I have a little function that I put in scripts that need to do that:

Code:

function run() {          # Display a command and run it
    echo "${PS4}$*" >&2
    PS4="+$PS4" "$@"
}

Commands for which I want to see that output are executed with

Code:

run some_command [options] arg_1 arg_2 ...

The output mimics the way the "-x" in bash displays nested commands, with the output going to stderr.