SCRIPT(1) | User Commands | SCRIPT(1) |
script - make typescript of terminal session
script [options] [file]
script makes a typescript of everything displayed on your terminal. It is useful for students who need a hardcopy record of an interactive session as proof of an assignment, as the typescript file can be printed out later with lpr(1).
If the argument file is given, script saves the dialogue in this file. If no filename is given, the dialogue is saved in the file typescript.
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.
The script ends when the forked shell exits (a control-D for the Bourne shell (sh(1)), 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.
The following environment variable is utilized by script:
csh(1) (for the history mechanism), scriptreplay(1)
The script command appeared in 3.0BSD.
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.
The script command is part of the util-linux package and is available from Linux Kernel Archive.
June 2014 | util-linux |