script(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | SIGNALS | ENVIRONMENT | NOTES | HISTORY | BUGS | SEE ALSO | REPORTING BUGS | AVAILABILITY

SCRIPT(1)                     User Commands                    SCRIPT(1)

NAME         top

       script - make typescript of terminal session

SYNOPSIS         top

       script [options] [file]

DESCRIPTION         top

       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
       the logging of input and output to separate files or all the one
       file. This version also supports a 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 logging input using --log-in or --log-io may record
       security-sensitive information as the log file contains all
       terminal session input (e.g., passwords) independently of the
       terminal echo flag setting.

OPTIONS         top

       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
           behaves differently when its stdout is not a tty.

       -E, --echo when
           This option controls the ECHO flag for the slave end of the
           session’s pseudoterminal. The supported modes are always,
           never, or auto.

           The default is auto — in this case, ECHO enabled for the
           pseudoterminal slave; if the current standard input is a
           terminal, ECHO is disabled for it to prevent double echo; if
           the current standard input is not a terminal (for example
           pipe: echo date | script) then keeping ECHO enabled for the
           pseudoterminal slave enables the standard input data to be
           viewed on screen while being recorded to session log
           simultaneously.

           Note that 'never' mode affects content of the session output
           log, because users input is not repeated on output.

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

       -f, --flush
           Flush output after each write. This is nice for
           telecooperation: one person does mkfifo foo; script -f foo,
           and another can supervise in 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
           symbolic 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 impossible 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 example, 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
           specified.

       -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 together. See also --logging-format.

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

           Classic format
               The timing 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 an entry type identifier ('I’nput,
               'O’utput, 'H’eader, 'S’ignal). The second field is how
               much time elapsed since the previous entry, and the 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
           calculated 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
           output).

       -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.

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

       -V, --version
           Print version and exit.

SIGNALS         top

       Upon receiving SIGUSR1, script immediately flushes the output
       files.

ENVIRONMENT         top

       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).

NOTES         top

       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
       manipulate the screen, the results are meant to emulate a
       hardcopy terminal.

       It is not recommended to run script in non-interactive shells.
       The inner shell of script is always interactive, and this could
       lead to unexpected 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.

HISTORY         top

       The script command appeared in 3.0BSD.

BUGS         top

       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 session 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.

SEE ALSO         top

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

REPORTING BUGS         top

       For bug reports, use the issue tracker at
       https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues.

AVAILABILITY         top

       The script command is part of the util-linux package which can be
       downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
       <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>. This page
       is part of the util-linux (a random collection of Linux
       utilities) project. Information about the project can be found at
       ⟨https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/⟩. If you have
       a bug report for this manual page, send it to
       util-linux@vger.kernel.org. This page was obtained from the
       project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/util-linux/util-linux.git⟩ on
       2024-06-14. (At that time, the date of the most recent commit
       that was found in the repository was 2024-06-10.) If you discover
       any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
       believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page,
       or you have corrections or improvements to the information in
       this COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page),
       send a mail to man-pages@man7.org

util-linux 2.39.594-1e0ad      2023-07-19                      SCRIPT(1)

Pages that refer to this page: scriptlive(1)scriptreplay(1)pty(7)e2fsck(8)