Manual Pages  — SCRIPT

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 contents.
-d
	When playing back a session with the -p flag, do not sleep between records when playing back a timestamped session.
-F pipe
	Immediately flush output after each write. This will allow a user to create a named pipe using mkfifo(1) and another user may watch the live session using a utility like cat(1).
-f
	Create file.filemon or typescript.filemon using filemon(4).
-k
	Log keys sent to the program as well as output.
-p
	Play back a session recorded with the -r flag in real time.
-q
	Run in quiet mode, omit the start, stop and command status messages.
-r
	Record a session with input, output, and timestamping.
-t time
	Specify the interval at which the script output file will be flushed to disk, in seconds. A value of 0 causes script to flush after 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 typescript file. The script utility works best with commands that do not manipulate the screen. The results are meant to emulate a hardcopy terminal, not an addressable one.

$ SHELL=/bin/csh script
Script started, output file is typescript
% date
Tue Jan  5 15:08:10 UTC 2021
% exit
exit

Script done, output file is typescript

Now, replay the session recorded in the previous example:

$ cat ./typescript
Script started on Tue Jan  5 15:08:08 2021
% date
Tue Jan  5 15:08:10 UTC 2021
% exit
exit

Script done on Tue Jan  5 15:08:13 2021

Record a csh(1) session, but this time with additional details like timestamping:

$ SHELL=/bin/csh script -r
Script started, output file is typescript
% date
Tue Jan  5 15:17:11 UTC 2021
% exit
exit

Script done, output file is typescript

In order to replay a sessions recorded with the -r flag, it is necessary to specify -p ( cat(1) will not work because of all the aditional information stored in the session file ). Also, let us use -d to print the whole session at once:

$ script -dp ./typescript
Script started on Tue Jan  5 15:17:09 2021
% date
Tue Jan  5 15:17:11 UTC 2021
% exit
exit

Script done on Tue Jan  5 15:17:14 2021