script(1)



SCRIPT(1)                        User Commands                       SCRIPT(1)

NAME
       script - make typescript of terminal session

SYNOPSIS
       script [options] [file]

DESCRIPTION
       script  makes a typescript of everything on your terminal session.  The
       terminal data are stored in raw form to the log  file  and  information
       about timing to another (optional) structured log file.  The timing log
       file is necessary to replay the session later by scriptreplay  (1)  and
       to store additional information about the session.

       Since  version  2.35 script supports multiple streams and allows to log
       input and output to separate files or all the one file.   This  version
       also  supports  new  timing  file which records additional information.
       The command scriptreplay --summary then provides all the information.

       If the argument file or option --log-out file is  given,  script  saves
       the  dialogue  in  this file.  If no filename is given, the dialogue is
       saved in the file typescript.

       Note that log input by --log-in or --log-io may be  security  sensitive
       operation as the log file contains all terminal session input (it means
       also passwords) independently on the terminal echo flag setting.

OPTIONS
       Below, the size argument may be followed by the multiplicative suffixes
       KiB  (=1024),  MiB  (=1024*1024), and so on for GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB
       and YiB (the "iB" is optional,  e.g.,  "K"  has  the  same  meaning  as
       "KiB"),  or the suffixes KB (=1000), MB (=1000*1000), and so on for GB,
       TB, PB, EB, ZB and YB.

       -a, --append
              Append the output to file or to typescript, retaining the  prior
              contents.

       -c, --command command
              Run the command rather than an interactive shell.  This makes it
              easy for a script to capture the output of a  program  that  be-
              haves differently when its stdout is not a tty.

       -E, --echo when
              This option controls the ECHO flag for pseudoterminal within the
              session.  The supported modes are always, never, or  auto.   The
              default is auto -- in this case, ECHO is disabled if the current
              standard input is a terminal to avoid double-echo,  and  enabled
              if standard input is not terminal (for example pipe: echo date |
              script) to avoid missing input in the session log.

       -e, --return
              Return the exit code of the child process.  Uses the same format
              as  bash  termination  on signal termination exit code is 128+n.
              The exit code of the child process  is  always  stored  in  type
              script file too.

       -f, --flush
              Flush  output  after  each write.  This is nice for telecoopera-
              tion: one person does `mkfifo foo; script -f foo',  and  another
              can  supervise  real-time  what  is  being done using `cat foo'.
              Note that flush has an impact on performance, it's  possible  to
              use SIGUSR1 to flush logs on demand.

       --force
              Allow  the  default  output file typescript to be a hard or sym-
              bolic link.  The command will follow a symbolic link.

       -B, --log-io file
              Log input and output to the same file.  Note, this option  makes
              sense only if --log-timing is also specified, otherwise it's im-
              possible to separate output and input streams from the log file.

       -I, --log-in file
              Log input to the file.  The  log  output  is  disabled  if  only
              --log-in specified.

              Use  this  logging functionality carefully as it logs all input,
              including input when terminal has disabled echo flag (for  exam-
              ple password inputs).

       -O, --log-out file
              Log  output  to  the  file.  The default is to log output to the
              file with name typescript if the option --log-out or --log-in is
              not  given.   The log output is disabled if only --log-in speci-
              fied.

       -T, --log-timing file
              Log timing information to the file.  Two timing file formats are
              supported  now.  The classic format is used when only one stream
              (input or output) logging is enabled.  The  multi-stream  format
              is  used on --log-io or when --log-in and --log-out are used to-
              gether.  See also --logging-format.

       -m, --logging-format format
              Force use advanced or classic format.  The default is the  clas-
              sic format to log only output and the advanced format when input
              as well as output logging is requested.

              Classic format

              The log contains two fields, separated by a  space.   The  first
              field indicates how much time elapsed since the previous output.
              The second field indicates how many characters were output  this
              time.

              Advanced (multi-stream) format

              The  first  field  is  entry type itentifier ('I'nput, 'O'utput,
              'H'eader, 'S'ignal).  The socond field is how much time  elapsed
              since the previous entry, and rest of the entry is type specific
              data.

       -o, --output-limit size
              Limit the size of the typescript and timing files  to  size  and
              stop  the child process after this size is exceeded.  The calcu-
              lated file size does not include the  start  and  done  messages
              that  the  script  command  prepends  and  appends  to the child
              process output.  Due to buffering,  the  resulting  output  file
              might be larger than the specified value.

       -q, --quiet
              Be  quiet (do not write start and done messages to standard out-
              put).

       -t[file], --timing[=file]
              Output timing data to standard error, or  to  file  when  given.
              This  option  is  deprecated in favour of --log-timing where the
              file argument is not optional.

       -V, --version
              Display version information and exit.

       -h, --help
              Display help text and exit.

NOTES
       The script ends when the forked shell exits (a control-D for the Bourne
       shell (sh(1p)), and exit, logout or control-d (if ignoreeof is not set)
       for the C-shell, csh(1)).

       Certain interactive commands, such as  vi(1),  create  garbage  in  the
       typescript  file.   script works best with commands that do not manipu-
       late the screen, the results are meant to emulate a hardcopy terminal.

       It is not recommended to run script in non-interactive shells.  The in-
       ner shell of script is always interactive, and this could lead to unex-
       pected results.  If you use script in the  shell  initialization  file,
       you  have  to avoid entering an infinite loop.  You can use for example
       the .profile file, which is read by login shells only:

              if test -t 0 ; then
                  script
                  exit
              fi

       You should also avoid use of script in command  pipes,  as  script  can
       read more input than you would expect.

SIGNALS
       Upon receiving SIGUSR1, script immediately flushes the output files.

ENVIRONMENT
       The following environment variable is utilized by script:

       SHELL  If the variable SHELL exists, the shell forked by script will be
              that shell.  If SHELL is not set, the Bourne shell  is  assumed.
              (Most shells set this variable automatically).

SEE ALSO
       csh(1) (for the history mechanism), scriptreplay(1), scriptlive(1),

HISTORY
       The script command appeared in 3.0BSD.

BUGS
       script  places  everything  in  the  log  file, including linefeeds and
       backspaces.  This is not what the naive user expects.

       script is primarily designed for interactive terminal  sessions.   When
       stdin is not a terminal (for example: echo foo | script), then the ses-
       sion can hang, because the interactive shell within the script  session
       misses  EOF  and script has no clue when to close the session.  See the
       NOTES section for more information.

AVAILABILITY
       The script command is part of the util-linux package and  is  available
       from Linux Kernel Archive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-
       linux/>.

util-linux                       October 2019                        SCRIPT(1)

Man(1) output converted with man2html
list of all man pages