SCRIPT(1) BSD General Commands Manual SCRIPT(1)NAMEscript — make typescript of terminal session
SYNOPSISscript [-akq] [-t time] [file [command ...]]
DESCRIPTION
The script utility makes a typescript of everything printed on your ter‐
minal. It is useful for students who need a hardcopy record of an inter‐
active session as proof of an assignment, as the typescript file can be
printed out later with lpr(1).
If the argument file is given, script saves all dialogue in file. If no
file name is given, the typescript is saved in the file typescript.
If the argument command is given, script will run the specified command
with an optional argument vector instead of an interactive shell.
The following options are available:
-a Append the output to file or typescript, retaining the prior con‐
tents.
-k Log keys sent to program as well as output.
-q Run in quiet mode, omit the start and stop status messages.
-t time
Specify time interval between flushing script output file. A
value of 0 causes script to flush for every character I/O event.
The default interval is 30 seconds.
The script ends when the forked shell (or command) exits (a control-D to
exit the Bourne shell (sh(1)), and exit, logout or control-D (if
ignoreeof is not set) for the C-shell, csh(1)).
Certain interactive commands, such as vi(1), create garbage in the type‐
script file. The script utility works best with commands that do not
manipulate the screen. The results are meant to emulate a hardcopy ter‐
minal, not an addressable one.
ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variables are utilized by script:
SCRIPT
The SCRIPT environment variable is added to the sub-shell. If
SCRIPT already existed in the users environment, its value is
overwritten within the sub-shell. The value of SCRIPT is the name
of the typescript file.
SHELL If the variable SHELL exists, the shell forked by script will be
that shell. If SHELL is not set, the Bourne shell is assumed.
(Most shells set this variable automatically).
SEE ALSOcsh(1) (for the history mechanism).
HISTORY
The script command appeared in 3.0BSD.
BUGS
The script utility places everything in the log file, including linefeeds
and backspaces. This is not what the naive user expects.
It is not possible to specify a command without also naming the script
file because of argument parsing compatibility issues.
When running in -k mode, echo cancelling is far from ideal. The slave
terminal mode is checked for ECHO mode to check when to avoid manual echo
logging. This does not work when in a raw mode where the program being
run is doing manual echo.
BSD January 22, 2004 BSD
