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 Below, the size argument may be followed by the multiplicative suffixes
22 KiB (=1024), MiB (=1024*1024), and so on for GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB
23 and YiB (the "iB" is optional, e.g. "K" has the same meaning as "KiB"),
24 or the suffixes KB (=1000), MB (=1000*1000), and so on for GB, TB, PB,
25 EB, ZB and YB.
26 -a, --append
28 Append the output to file or to typescript, retaining the prior
29 contents.
30 -c, --command command
32 Run the command rather than an interactive shell. This makes it
33 easy for a script to capture the output of a program that
34 behaves differently when its stdout is not a tty.
35 -e, --return
37 Return the exit code of the child process. Uses the same format
38 as bash termination on signal termination exit code is 128+n.
39 The exit code of the child process is always stored in type
40 script file too.
41 -f, --flush
43 Flush output after each write. This is nice for telecoopera‐
44 tion: one person does `mkfifo foo; script -f foo', and another
45 can supervise real-time what is being done using `cat foo'.
46 --force
48 Allow the default output destination, i.e. the typescript file,
49 to be a hard or symbolic link. The command will follow a sym‐
50 bolic link.
51 -o, --output-limit size
53 Limit the size of the typescript and timing files to size and
54 stop the child process after this size is exceeded. The calcu‐
55 lated file size does not include the start and done messages
56 that the script command prepends and appends to the child
57 process output. Due to buffering, the resulting output file
58 might be larger than the specified value.
59 -q, --quiet
61 Be quiet (do not write start and done messages to standard out‐
62 put).
63 -t[file], --timing[=file]
65 Output timing data to standard error, or to file when given.
66 This data contains two fields, separated by a space. The first
67 field indicates how much time elapsed since the previous output.
68 The second field indicates how many characters were output this
69 time. This information can be used to replay typescripts with
70 realistic typing and output delays.
71 -V, --version
73 Display version information and exit.
74 -h, --help
76 Display help text and exit.
77
79 The script ends when the forked shell exits (a control-D for the Bourne
80 shell (sh(1)), and exit, logout or control-d (if ignoreeof is not set)
81 for the C-shell, csh(1)).
82 Certain interactive commands, such as vi(1), create garbage in the
84 typescript file. script works best with commands that do not manipu‐
85 late the screen, the results are meant to emulate a hardcopy terminal.
86 It is not recommended to run script in non-interactive shells. The
88 inner shell of script is always interactive, and this could lead to
89 unexpected results. If you use script in the shell initialization
90 file, you have to avoid entering an infinite loop. You can use for
91 example the .profile file, which is read by login shells only:
92 if test -t 0 ; then
94 script
95 exit
96 fi
97 You should also avoid use of script in command pipes, as script can
99 read more input than you would expect.
100
102 The following environment variable is utilized by script:
103 SHELL If the variable SHELL exists, the shell forked by script will be
105 that shell. If SHELL is not set, the Bourne shell is assumed.
106 (Most shells set this variable automatically).
107
109 csh(1) (for the history mechanism), scriptreplay(1)
110
112 The script command appeared in 3.0BSD.
113
115 script places everything in the log file, including linefeeds and
116 backspaces. This is not what the naive user expects.
117 script is primarily designed for interactive terminal sessions. When
119 stdin is not a terminal (for example: echo foo | script), then the ses‐
120 sion can hang, because the interactive shell within the script session
121 misses EOF and script has no clue when to close the session. See the
122 NOTES section for more information.
123
125 The script command is part of the util-linux package and is available
126 from Linux Kernel Archive ⟨https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-
127 linux/⟩.
128util-linux June 2014 SCRIPT(1)