Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
SCRIPT(1)		FreeBSD	General	Commands Manual		     SCRIPT(1)

NAME
     script -- make typescript of terminal session

SYNOPSIS
     script [-aefkqr] [-F pipe]	[-t time] [file	[command ...]]
     script -p [-deq] [file]

DESCRIPTION
     The script	utility	makes a	typescript of everything printed on your ter-
     minal.  It	is useful for students who need	a hardcopy record of an	inter-
     active 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 all dialogue in file.	If no
     file name is given, the typescript	is saved in the	file typescript.

     If	the argument command is	given, script will run the specified command
     with an optional argument vector instead of an interactive	shell.

     The following options are available:

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

     -d	      When playing back	a session with the -p flag, do not sleep be-
	      tween records when playing back a	timestamped session.

     -e	      Accepted for compatibility with util-linux script.  The child
	      command exit status is always the	exit status of script.

     -F	pipe  Immediately flush	output after each write.  This will allow a
	      user to create a named pipe using	mkfifo(1) and another user may
	      watch the	live session using a utility like cat(1).

     -f	      Create file.filemon or typescript.filemon	using filemon(4).

     -k	      Log keys sent to the program as well as output.

     -p	      Play back	a session recorded with	the -r flag in real time.

     -q	      Run in quiet mode, omit the start, stop and command status mes-
	      sages.

     -r	      Record a session with input, output, and timestamping.

     -t	time  Specify the interval at which the	script output file will	be
	      flushed to disk, in seconds.  A value of 0 causes	script to
	      flush after every	character I/O event.  The default interval is
	      30 seconds.

     The script	ends when the forked shell (or command)	exits (a control-D to
     exit 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	type-
     script file.  The script utility works best with commands that do not ma-
     nipulate the screen.  The results are meant to emulate a hardcopy termi-
     nal, not an addressable one.

ENVIRONMENT
     The following environment variables are utilized by script:

     SCRIPT  The SCRIPT	environment variable is	added to the sub-shell.	 If
	     SCRIPT already existed in the users environment, its value	is
	     overwritten within	the sub-shell.	The value of SCRIPT is the
	     name of the typescript file.

     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).

EXAMPLES
     Record a simple csh(1) session with no additional details like input,
     output, and timestamping:

	   $ SHELL=/bin/csh script
	   Script started, output file is typescript
	   % date
	   Tue Jan  5 15:08:10 UTC 2021
	   % exit
	   exit

	   Script done,	output file is typescript

     Now, replay the session recorded in the previous example:

	   $ cat ./typescript
	   Script started on Tue Jan  5	15:08:08 2021
	   % date
	   Tue Jan  5 15:08:10 UTC 2021
	   % exit
	   exit

	   Script done on Tue Jan  5 15:08:13 2021

     Record a csh(1) session, but this time with additional details like
     timestamping:

	   $ SHELL=/bin/csh script -r
	   Script started, output file is typescript
	   % date
	   Tue Jan  5 15:17:11 UTC 2021
	   % exit
	   exit

	   Script done,	output file is typescript

     In	order to replay	a sessions recorded with the -r	flag, it is necessary
     to	specify	-p (cat(1) will	not work because of all	the aditional
     information stored	in the session file).  Also, let us use	-d to print
     the whole session at once:

	   $ script -dp	./typescript
	   Script started on Tue Jan  5	15:17:09 2021
	   % date
	   Tue Jan  5 15:17:11 UTC 2021
	   % exit
	   exit

	   Script done on Tue Jan  5 15:17:14 2021

SEE ALSO
     csh(1) (for the history mechanism), filemon(4)

HISTORY
     The script	command	appeared in 3.0BSD.

     The -d, -p	and -r options first appeared in NetBSD	2.0 and	were ported to
     FreeBSD 9.2.

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

     It	is not possible	to specify a command without also naming the script
     file because of argument parsing compatibility issues.

     When running in -k	mode, echo cancelling is far from ideal.  The slave
     terminal mode is checked for ECHO mode to check when to avoid manual echo
     logging.  This does not work when the terminal is in a raw	mode where the
     program being run is doing	manual echo.

     If	script reads zero bytes	from the terminal, it switches to a mode when
     it	only attempts to read once a second until there	is data	to read.  This
     prevents script from spinning on zero-byte	reads, but might cause a
     1-second delay in processing of user input.

FreeBSD	13.0			January	5, 2021			  FreeBSD 13.0

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | ENVIRONMENT | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | BUGS

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=script&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+13.1-RELEASE+and+Ports>

home | help