terminal logger using script command

[niki+a]

Hi,

every time I open up a terminal to do some cml magic, I'd like the entire session to automatically be logged. (Including what is set by PS1 variable before the $, I already added a timestamp + date to PS1 so I can know when I did what.)

I was trying to do something like so inside .bashrc file:



#log everything i do in terminal
script -afq ~/log/shell.log.txt


But it does not work, I get really strange output and the standard .bashrc run does not exit properly. I have to ctrl + c and that obviously kills the .bashrc invocation because I do not get my ps1 colors/date formatted.

It's hard to Google this strategy also, because every time I type in .bashrc + logger + script in Google I get newbie tutorials about "running scripts and what is purpose of bashrc".

Next step would be to write a bash script to archive every terminal run in individual files with a time stamp. But I'm sure that will be a breeze once I get this figured out.

One more thing, if I run script inside terminal, output is formatted very strangely. I get weird line feed characters like so:


^C^[]0;

Any advice on how I can format the output I get from script command? And if you have advice or a resource on how I can Google script command examples or tutorials I would appreciate it, because when I Google script + format output, I don't get the most pertinent results.

[papibe]

I've tried the script command interactively, and it has work for me in the past (except when running an editor like vi though). Have you tried just running it manually when you initiate a session?

BTW, are you running Ubuntu Desktop edition? Because another alternative would be to modify your gnome-terminal launcher, and add the -e option:


Right click on the launcher.
Select properties.
Modify the command line so it looks like this:

gnome-terminal -e "script ./log/shell.log.txt"

Just a thought, I hope it helps.

[niki+a]

gnome-terminal -e "script ./log/shell.log.txt"


I thought that would do the trick, but unfortunately it doesn't work. I have a shortcut mapped to pop open a terminal and when I hit it, the terminal blinks open for a millisecond then dies.

Any other suggestions?

[jerenept]

I thought that would do the trick, but unfortunately it doesn't work. I have a shortcut mapped to pop open a terminal and when I hit it, the terminal blinks open for a millisecond then dies.

Any other suggestions?

The only thing I can think of is bash history, using the command "history", the output of which can be grepped etc.

For example:

jerenept@media-server:~$ history | grep -i "sheep"
1994 man electricsheep-preferences
1995 electricsheep
1996 electricsheep-preferences
1997 electricsheep
1998 electricsheep-preferences
1999 history | grep -i "sheep"
jerenept@media-server:~$

history | grep -i "sheep"

does a case-insensitive (-i) search for the string "sheep" in my command history.

Not exactly what you were looking for, but I hope it helps.

[niki+a]

Problem solved thanks to this post.

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-terminal/+question/7131



if [ -z "$UNDER_SCRIPT" ]; then
logdir=$HOME/terminal-logs
if [ ! -d $logdir ]; then
mkdir $logdir
fi
gzip -q $logdir/*.log
logfile=$logdir/$(date +%F_%T).$$.log
export UNDER_SCRIPT=$logfile
script -f -q $logfile
exit
fi


Code is courtesy of a poster on that link.

(you put it in .bashrc)