Script - Record Terminal Session

Script is a command line tool in Linux that allows you to record anything that scrolls through your terminal.

Suppose you are compiling a program and all the error messages, scroll off your screen without giving you time to read.

The script command will come to your aid. Using script it is possible to collect all the error messages scrolling through your screen for later use.

Script Command Syntax

script <filename>

... where, filename is the name of the file in which script saves the terminal messages.

Once the script command is executed, you can continue doing what you were doing like compiling or running a command and so on.

And everything that you see on the screen will be written to the file you supplied with the script command. Once you have finished your task, type exit to terminate the script command.

Script Command Usage

$ script my_log_file
Script started, file is my_log_file
$ ls -l
...
$ ps aux
...
$ cat testfile
...
$ exit
Script done, file is my_log_file 

Explanation of the above steps

1. You first start the script command and pass a file name to it - my_log_file.
2. Now script will start logging everything that is written to your terminal, including the output.
3. Finally to terminate the script, type exit.
4. Later you can open the my_log_file file to see the output.

script command can record the output of any Linux command.