script(1)

DESCRIPTION

script makes a typescript of everything printed on your terminal. It starts a shell named by the SHELL environment variable, or by default /usr/bin/sh, and silently records a copy of output to your terminal from that shell or its descendents, using a pseudo-terminal device (see pty(7)).

All output is written to file, or appended to file if the -a option is given. If no file name is given, the output is saved in a file named typescript. The recording can be sent to a line printer later with lp(1), or reviewed safely with the -v option of cat(1).

The recording ends when the forked shell exits (or the user ends the session by typing "exit") or the shell and all its descendents close the pseudo-terminal device.

This program is useful when operating a CRT display and a hard-copy record of the dialog is desired. It can also be used for a simple form of session auditing.

script respects the convention for login shells as described in su(1), sh(1), and ksh(1). Thus, if it is invoked with a command name beginning with a hyphen (-) (that is, -script), script passes a basename to the shell that is also preceded by a hyphen.

The input flow control can be enabled by setting environmental variable SCRIPT_USE_IXOFF, before running script. Please see WARNINGS section for details on using this environment variable.

EXAMPLES

Save everything printed on the user's screen into file scott:

Append a copy of everything printed to the user's screen to file temp:

WARNINGS

A command such as cat scott, which displays the contents of the destination file, should not be issued while executing script because it would cause script to log the output of the cat command to itself until all available disk space is filled. Other commands, such as more(1), can cause the same problem but to a lesser degree.

script records all received output in the file, including typing errors, backspaces, and cursor motions. Note that it does not record typed characters; only echoed characters. Thus passwords are not recorded in the file. Responses other than simple echoes (such as output from screen-oriented editors and ksh command editing) are recorded as they appeared in the original session.

When there is no input flow control (SCRIPT_USE_IXOFF is not set), there can be some data loss while using script. However, script(1) can behave unexpectedly, if SCRIPT_USE_IXOFF is set and IXANY is not set.

AUTHOR

script was developed by the University of California, Berkeley and HP.