Redirect ALL terminal output to file and screen (for entire session)

Mountain · 07-06-2010, 11:45 AM

Is there one command that will let me record an entire terminal session (with any possible errors) to a text file while also seeing all output on screen too?

I know it can be done for individual commands, but I'm looking to do this for an entire session where the individual commands will be normal (i.e., not piped into tee, etc.).

It would be even better if the command prompt is captured too. The obvious utility of this makes me think someone surely has come up with a solution long ago (probably in the 60's).

(I'm sure it goes without saying, but subsequent output in that session should be appended to the file. The file should contain the full history, with all output and errors, of the session.)

Mountain · 07-06-2010, 12:09 PM

OK, so I found out about script (man script).
Is this the only solution? It would be great to have an output file that looks more like what I see on the screen (i.e., without showing all the special non-printing characters).

AlucardZero · 07-06-2010, 12:10 PM

Code:

man 1 script

Mountain · 07-06-2010, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlucardZero

Code:

man 1 script

Yes, I already read the man page for script as I said. I do not see anything in there about cleaning up the non-printing chars from the output. Am I missing something? Thanks

AlucardZero · 07-06-2010, 12:25 PM

You posted at the same time I was posting and I did not see your reply.

Mountain · 07-06-2010, 12:30 PM

OK, found at least one solution here:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/ai...ca=drs-#script

Code:

#!/bin/bash

    if [ $# -ne 2 ] ; then 
      echo "Usage: cleanup script-file output-file"
      exit
    fi

    cat $1 | \
      perl -pe 's/\e([^\[\]]|\[.*?[a-zA-Z]|\].*?\a)//g' |\
        col -b > $2

SaintDanBert · 07-06-2010, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mountain

Is there one command that will let me record an entire terminal session (with any possible errors) to a text file while also seeing all output on screen too?

Take a look at the 'screen' command. Using the logging option (-L)
whatever you type and whatever is output to STDERR or STDOUT goes into the log file.

While 'screen' is intended to permit multiple terminal or console sessions connected to a single terminal, the logging feature is at least as important for me.

~~~ 0;-Dan

Mountain · 07-06-2010, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaintDanBert

Take a look at the 'screen' command. Using the logging option (-L)
whatever you type and whatever is output to STDERR or STDOUT goes into the log file.

While 'screen' is intended to permit multiple terminal or console sessions connected to a single terminal, the logging feature is at least as important for me.

~~~ 0;-Dan

Thank you. It's nice to have another option in addition to script.

If I understand correctly, I simply open konsole and type "screen -L". then I do whatever work I planned to do in the terminal session. When finished, I type "exit". The log is found in screenlog.0 (or generally, screenlog.N, I presume).

The output doesn't need to be run through a cleanup script.

unSpawn · 07-06-2010, 05:54 PM

Another option could be to use 'rootsh'. While 'rootsh' can be started and used like 'screen' or 'script' it is a shell wrapper. So in contrast to the others it can be used as a login shell, recording input and output without requiring the user to remember to start it and without user intervention. Logs must be ran through a scrubber though, yours will work just fine.

SaintDanBert · 07-08-2010, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mountain

...
The output doesn't need to be run through a cleanup script.

It is human readable without intervention. Since STDIN and STDOUT/ERR are mixed, you will need to scrub the log if you want a script for later execution.
~~~ );-Dan