1SCRIPT(1) User Commands SCRIPT(1)
2
6 script - make typescript of terminal session
7
9 script [options] [file]
10
12 script makes a typescript of everything displayed on your terminal. It
13 is useful for students who need a hardcopy record of an interactive
14 session as proof of an assignment, as the typescript file can be
15 printed out later with lpr(1).
16 If the argument file is given, script saves the dialogue in this file.
18 If no filename is given, the dialogue is saved in the file typescript.
19
21 -a, --append
22 Append the output to file or to typescript, retaining the prior
23 contents.
24 -c, --command command
26 Run the command rather than an interactive shell. This makes it
27 easy for a script to capture the output of a program that
28 behaves differently when its stdout is not a tty.
29 -e, --return
31 Return the exit code of the child process. Uses the same format
32 as bash termination on signal termination exit code is 128+n.
33 -f, --flush
35 Flush output after each write. This is nice for telecoopera‐
36 tion: one person does `mkfifo foo; script -f foo', and another
37 can supervise real-time what is being done using `cat foo'.
38 --force
40 Allow the default output destination, i.e. the typescript file,
41 to be a hard or symbolic link. The command will follow a sym‐
42 bolic link.
43 -q, --quiet
45 Be quiet (do not write start and done messages to standard out‐
46 put).
47 -t[file], --timing[=file]
49 Output timing data to standard error, or to file when given.
50 This data contains two fields, separated by a space. The first
51 field indicates how much time elapsed since the previous output.
52 The second field indicates how many characters were output this
53 time. This information can be used to replay typescripts with
54 realistic typing and output delays.
55 -V, --version
57 Display version information and exit.
58 -h, --help
60 Display help text and exit.
61
63 The script ends when the forked shell exits (a control-D for the Bourne
64 shell (sh(1)), and exit, logout or control-d (if ignoreeof is not set)
65 for the C-shell, csh(1)).
66 Certain interactive commands, such as vi(1), create garbage in the
68 typescript file. script works best with commands that do not manipu‐
69 late the screen, the results are meant to emulate a hardcopy terminal.
70 It is not recommended to run script in non-interactive shells. The
72 inner shell of script is always interactive, and this could lead to
73 unexpected results. If you use script in the shell initialization
74 file, you have to avoid entering an infinite loop. You can use for
75 example the .profile file, which is read by login shells only:
76 if test -t 0 ; then
78 script
79 exit
80 fi
81 You should also avoid use of script in command pipes, as script can
83 read more input than you would expect.
84
86 The following environment variable is utilized by script:
87 SHELL If the variable SHELL exists, the shell forked by script will be
89 that shell. If SHELL is not set, the Bourne shell is assumed.
90 (Most shells set this variable automatically).
91
93 csh(1) (for the history mechanism), scriptreplay(1)
94
96 The script command appeared in 3.0BSD.
97
99 script places everything in the log file, including linefeeds and
100 backspaces. This is not what the naive user expects.
101 script is primarily designed for interactive terminal sessions. When
103 stdin is not a terminal (for example: echo foo | script), then the ses‐
104 sion can hang, because the interactive shell within the script session
105 misses EOF and script has no clue when to close the session. See the
106 NOTES section for more information.
107
109 The script command is part of the util-linux package and is available
110 from Linux Kernel Archive ⟨https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-
111 linux/⟩.
112util-linux June 2014 SCRIPT(1)