Save all the terminal output to a file
You can use script
. It will basically save everything printed on the terminal in that script
session.
From man script
:
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).
You can start a script
session by just typing script
in the terminal, all the subsequent commands and their outputs will all be saved in a file named typescript
in the current directory. You can save the result to a different file too by just starting script
like:
script output.txt
To logout of the script
session (stop saving the contents), just type exit
.
Here is an example:
$ script output.txt
Script started, file is output.txt
$ ls
output.txt testfile.txt foo.txt
$ exit
exit
Script done, file is output.txt
Now if I read the file:
$ cat output.txt
Script started on Mon 20 Apr 2015 08:00:14 AM BDT
$ ls
output.txt testfile.txt foo.txt
$ exit
exit
Script done on Mon 20 Apr 2015 08:00:21 AM BDT
script
also has many options e.g. running quietly -q
(--quiet
) without showing/saving program messages, it can also run a specific command -c
(--command
) rather than a session, it also has many other options. Check man script
to get more ideas.
I too faced the same problem and after some search came up with this solution:
Add to your .bash_aliases
this:
# Execute "script" command just once
smart_script(){
# if there's no SCRIPT_LOG_FILE exported yet
if [ -z "$SCRIPT_LOG_FILE" ]; then
# make folder paths
logdirparent=~/Terminal_typescripts
logdirraw=raw/$(date +%F)
logdir=$logdirparent/$logdirraw
logfile=$logdir/$(date +%F_%T).$$.rawlog
# if no folder exist - make one
if [ ! -d $logdir ]; then
mkdir -p $logdir
fi
export SCRIPT_LOG_FILE=$logfile
export SCRIPT_LOG_PARENT_FOLDER=$logdirparent
# quiet output if no args are passed
if [ ! -z "$1" ]; then
script -f $logfile
else
script -f -q $logfile
fi
exit
fi
}
# Start logging into new file
alias startnewlog='unset SCRIPT_LOG_FILE && smart_script -v'
# Manually saves current log file: $ savelog logname
savelog(){
# make folder path
manualdir=$SCRIPT_LOG_PARENT_FOLDER/manual
# if no folder exists - make one
if [ ! -d $manualdir ]; then
mkdir -p $manualdir
fi
# make log name
logname=${SCRIPT_LOG_FILE##*/}
logname=${logname%.*}
# add user logname if passed as argument
if [ ! -z $1 ]; then
logname=$logname'_'$1
fi
# make filepaths
txtfile=$manualdir/$logname'.txt'
rawfile=$manualdir/$logname'.rawlog'
# make .rawlog readable and save it to .txt file
cat $SCRIPT_LOG_FILE | perl -pe 's/\e([^\[\]]|\[.*?[a-zA-Z]|\].*?\a)//g' | col -b > $txtfile
# copy corresponding .rawfile
cp $SCRIPT_LOG_FILE $rawfile
printf 'Saved logs:\n '$txtfile'\n '$rawfile'\n'
}
And to the end of your .bashrc
file add this:
smart_script
After you've done this, "script" command will be executed once in every terminal session, logging everything to ~/Terminal_typescripts/raw
.
If you want, you can save current session log after the fact (in the end of the session) by typing savelog
or savelog logname
– this will copy current raw log to ~/Terminal_typescripts/manual
and also create readable .txt log in this folder.
(If you forget to do so, raw log files will still be in their folder;
you'll just have to find them.)
Also you may start recording to a new log file by typing startnewlog
.
There will be a lot of junk log files, but you can clean old ones from time to time, so it's not a big problem.
(Based on https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-terminal/+question/7131 , https://askubuntu.com/a/493326/473790 )