SCRIPT(1) User Commands SCRIPT(1)

NAME
       script - make typescript of terminal session

SYNOPSIS
       script [options] [file]

DESCRIPTION
       script  makes  a typescript of everything printed 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 all dialogue in  file.   If
       no file name is given, the typescript is saved in the file typescript.

OPTIONS
       -a, append
              Append  the  output  to  file or 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, return
              Return the exit code of the child process.  Uses the same format
              as bash termination on signal termination exit code is 128+n.

       -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'.

       force
              Allow  the default output destination, i.e. the typescript file,
              to be a hard or symbolic link.  The command will follow  a  sym‐
              bolic link.

       -q, quiet
              Be quiet.

       -t, timing[=file]
              Output  timing  data  to  standard error, or to file when given.
              This data 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.   This  information can be used to replay typescripts with
              realistic typing and output delays.

       -V, version
              Output version information and exit.

       -h, help
              Output help and exit.

NOTES
       The script ends when the forked shell 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
       typescript  file.   Script works best with commands that do not manipu‐
       late the screen, the results are meant to emulate a hardcopy terminal.

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).

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.

AVAILABILITY
       The  script  command is part of the util-linux package and is available
       from Linux Kernel  Archive  ⟨ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-
       linux/⟩.



util-linux                      September 2011                       SCRIPT(1)