term-utils/script.1

   1 .\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990 Regents of the University of California.
   2 .\" All rights reserved.
   3 .\"
   4 .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
   5 .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
   6 .\" are met:
   7 .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
   8 .\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
   9 .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
  10 .\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
  11 .\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
  12 .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
  13 .\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
  14 .\"     This product includes software developed by the University of
  15 .\"     California, Berkeley and its contributors.
  16 .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
  17 .\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
  18 .\"    without specific prior written permission.
  19 .\"
  20 .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
  21 .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
  22 .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
  23 .\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
  24 .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
  25 .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
  26 .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
  27 .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
  28 .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
  29 .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
  30 .\" SUCH DAMAGE.
  31 .\"
  32 .\"     @(#)script.1    6.5 (Berkeley) 7/27/91
  33 .\"
  34 .TH SCRIPT "1" "June 2014" "util-linux" "User Commands"
  35 .SH NAME
  36 script \- make typescript of terminal session
  37 .SH SYNOPSIS
  38 .B script
  39 [options]
  40 .RI [ file ]
  41 .SH DESCRIPTION
  42 .B script
  43 makes a typescript of everything displayed on your terminal.  It is useful for
  44 students who need a hardcopy record of an interactive session as proof of an
  45 assignment, as the typescript file can be printed out later with
  46 .BR lpr (1).
  47 .PP
  48 If the argument
  49 .I file
  50 is given,
  51 .B script
  52 saves the dialogue in this
  53 .IR file .
  54 If no filename is given, the dialogue is saved in the file
  55 .BR typescript .
  56 .SH OPTIONS
  57 Below, the \fIsize\fR argument may be followed by the multiplicative
  58 suffixes KiB (=1024), MiB (=1024*1024), and so on for GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB
  59 (the "iB" is optional, e.g. "K" has the same meaning as "KiB"), or the suffixes
  60 KB (=1000), MB (=1000*1000), and so on for GB, TB, PB, EB, ZB and YB.
  61 .TP
  62 \fB\-a\fR, \fB\-\-append\fR
  63 Append the output to
  64 .I file
  65 or to
  66 .BR typescript ,
  67 retaining the prior contents.
  68 .TP
  69 \fB\-c\fR, \fB\-\-command\fR \fIcommand\fR
  70 Run the
  71 .I command
  72 rather than an interactive shell.  This makes it easy for a script to capture
  73 the output of a program that behaves differently when its stdout is not a
  74 tty.
  75 .TP
  76 \fB\-e\fR, \fB\-\-return\fR
  77 Return the exit code of the child process.  Uses the same format as bash
  78 termination on signal termination exit code is 128+n.  The exit code of
  79 the child process is always stored in type script file too.
  80 .TP
  81 \fB\-f\fR, \fB\-\-flush\fR
  82 Flush output after each write.  This is nice for telecooperation: one person
  83 does `mkfifo foo; script -f foo', and another can supervise real-time what is
  84 being done using `cat foo'.
  85 .TP
  86 \fB\-\-force\fR
  87 Allow the default output destination, i.e. the typescript file, to be a hard
  88 or symbolic link.  The command will follow a symbolic link.
  89 .TP
  90 \fB\-o\fR, \fB\-\-output-limit\fR \fIsize\fR
  91 Limit the size of the typescript and timing files to
  92 .I size
  93 and stop the child process after this size is exceeded.  The calculated
  94 file size does not include the start and done messages that the
  95 .B script
  96 command prepends and appends to the child process output.
  97 Due to buffering, the resulting output file might be larger than the specified value.
  98 .TP
  99 \fB\-q\fR, \fB\-\-quiet\fR
 100 Be quiet (do not write start and done messages to standard output).
 101 .TP
 102 \fB\-t\fR[\fIfile\fR], \fB\-\-timing\fR[=\fIfile\fR]
 103 Output timing data to standard error, or to
 104 .I file
 105 when given.  This data contains two fields, separated by a space.  The first
 106 field indicates how much time elapsed since the previous output.  The second
 107 field indicates how many characters were output this time.  This information
 108 can be used to replay typescripts with realistic typing and output delays.
 109 .TP
 110 \fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR
 111 Display version information and exit.
 112 .TP
 113 \fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-help\fR
 114 Display help text and exit.
 115 .SH NOTES
 116 The script ends when the forked shell exits (a
 117 .I control-D
 118 for the Bourne shell
 119 .RB ( sh (1)),
 120 and
 121 .IR exit ,
 122 .I logout
 123 or
 124 .I control-d
 125 (if
 126 .I ignoreeof
 127 is not set) for the
 128 C-shell,
 129 .BR csh (1)).
 130 .PP
 131 Certain interactive commands, such as
 132 .BR vi (1),
 133 create garbage in the typescript file.
 134 .B script
 135 works best with commands that do not manipulate the screen, the results are
 136 meant to emulate a hardcopy terminal.
 137 .PP
 138 It is not recommended to run
 139 .B script
 140 in non-interactive shells.  The inner shell of
 141 .B script
 142 is always interactive, and this could lead to unexpected results.  If you use
 143 .B script
 144 in the shell initialization file, you have to avoid entering an infinite
 145 loop.  You can use for example the \fB\%.profile\fR file, which is read
 146 by login shells only:
 147 .RS
 148 .RE
 149 .sp
 150 .na
 151 .RS
 152 .nf
 153 if test -t 0 ; then
 154     script
 155     exit
 156 fi
 157 .fi
 158 .RE
 159 .ad
 160 .PP
 161 You should also avoid use of script in command pipes, as
 162 .B script
 163 can read more input than you would expect.
 164 .PP
 165 .SH ENVIRONMENT
 166 The following environment variable is utilized by
 167 .BR script :
 168 .TP
 169 .B SHELL
 170 If the variable
 171 .B SHELL
 172 exists, the shell forked by
 173 .B script
 174 will be that shell.  If
 175 .B SHELL
 176 is not set, the Bourne shell is assumed.  (Most shells set this variable
 177 automatically).
 178 .SH SEE ALSO
 179 .BR csh (1)
 180 (for the
 181 .I history
 182 mechanism),
 183 .BR scriptreplay (1)
 184 .SH HISTORY
 185 The
 186 .B script
 187 command appeared in 3.0BSD.
 188 .SH BUGS
 189 .B script
 190 places
 191 .I everything
 192 in the log file, including linefeeds and backspaces.  This is not what the
 193 naive user expects.
 194 .PP
 195 .B script
 196 is primarily designed for interactive terminal sessions.  When stdin
 197 is not a terminal (for example: \fBecho foo | script\fR), then the session
 198 can hang, because the interactive shell within the script session misses EOF and
 199 .B script
 200 has no clue when to close the session.  See the \fBNOTES\fR section for more information.
 201 .SH AVAILABILITY
 202 The script command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
 203 .UR https://\:www.kernel.org\:/pub\:/linux\:/utils\:/util-linux/
 204 Linux Kernel Archive
 205 .UE .