How to clean up output of linux 'script' command

Question

I'm using the linux 'script' command http://www.linuxcommand.org/man_pages/script1.html to track some interactive sessions. The output files from that contain unprintable characters, including my backspace keystrokes.

Is there a way to tidy these output files up so they only contain what was displayed on screen?

Or is there another way to record an interactive shell session (input and output)?

Answer 1

If you want to view the file, then you can send the output through col -bp; this interprets the control characters. Then you can pipe through less, if you like.

col -bp typescript | less -R

Answer 2

An answer to the second part of my question is to use the logging facility in gnu screen: ^A H from within a running screen session. The documentation is at http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/manual/screen.html#Logging

Answer 3

I used cat filename which removes control characters :-)

Answer 4

For a large quantity of script output, I'd hack a perl script together iteratively. Otherwise hand edit with a good editor.

There is unlikely to be an existing automated method of removing control characters from script output in a way that reproduces what was displayed on the screen at certain important moments (such as when the host was waiting for that first character of some user input).

For example the screen might be blank except for Andrew $, if you then typed rm /* and pressed backspace twelve times (far more than needed), what gets shown on the screen at the end of that depends on what shell was running, what your current stty settings are (which you might change partway through a session) and probably some other factors too.

The above applies to any automated method of continuously capturing input and output. The main alternative is taking "screen shots" or cutting and pasting the screen at appropriate times during the session (which is what I do for user guides, notes for a day-log, etc).

Answer 5

If what you're after is to record your commands (e.g. to later turn them into a bash script), then a reasonable hack is to run script(1), then inside it run bash -x. Afterwards grep the output file (usually "typescript") looking for lines starting with a "+". The regular expression ^\+ will do the trick.

Enjoy!