SUMMARY: Session log

Alberto Ferrari (FERRARIA@mz.astra.com.ar)
Fri, 18 Apr 1997 01:36:18 -0400

>Dear friends:
>Most times I would like to capture a whole *text* session in
>a file.
>I mean, given a shell (csh or ksh, or even sh), I would like
to
>log standard input, output and error into a file whose
>progress could be shown on-line on another terminal
>(through tail -f, for example).
>
>Besides auditing reasons, this could be useful to monitor
>somebody's behaviour or to show a parter an installation
>procedure or to explain him your latest script, for example.

ALSO: to document upgrades so as to remind myself of
what actually
happened
>
>How about near-graphical text sessions?
>
>I know there was product in SCO, but it was intended to
>monitor users.
>Thank you

Due to overwhelming reponse, I propose this to be a FAQ
The answers were:
a) /usr/bin/script command - make record of a terminal
session
The 'script' program can be used to log everything going
to/from your
screen/keyboard.
Don't forget to type "exit" when you're done logging or
you'll have a VERY
large log after a while.
Not useful for edit sessions.

2) To share a terminal session with someone so that both
can see and type,
use the 'kibitz' program, it comes with the expect package.

Exploring Expect
Don Libes
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
ISBN 1-56592-090-2
$32.95 USA
$46.95 Canada

The book includes an example of how to do the kind of
capture you're
interested in. The O'Reilly company has a WWW site:
HTTP://WWW.ORA.COM.

3) the /usr/openwin/bin/xterm should have an option 'Log
to File', which is
accessible via Contol-LeftMouseButton. It can be turned on
and off and logs
to a file XtermLog.XXXXX, where XXXXX is a PID.

4) I add: OpenLook textedit has a menu option that lets you
save the screen buffer
(which can be *very* long) into a file.

5) There's also a program that lets you tap into a tty and
monitor the traffic but
I can't remember the name - ttywatch?

6) there is a public-domain program you could use... i
believe it is
'typescript.' it comes with most linux distributions,

7) We sell a product called PEEK that will let you see what
someone is doing.
You see their input, their output. When their screen clears,
yours does, etc.
You can also log this information to a file. Finally, you can
type on their
behalf, if you wish; what you type will act as if they had
typed it.
Computronics - (info@computron.com)

Many thanks to (sorry if I miss one):
Gene Rackow <rackow@mcs.anl.gov>
Frank Pardo <fpardo@tisny.com>
Barry Brown <bbrown@dottie.sna.com>
"Rick von Richter" <rickv@mwh.com>

"Bruetsch, Markus" <BruetschM@ES1.INFONET.com>
Steve Ehrhardt <see@eng.ascend.com>
Bob Fulwiler <bobf@psa.pencom.com>
Brent Chivers <bchivers@karoshi.mitretek.org>
"Craig Loudon" <Craig_Loudon@tscorp.com>
Per Akesson <Per.Akesson@carmenta.se>

"K.Ravi"
<RAVKRISH.IN.ORACLE.COM.ofcmail@in.oracle.com>
<mjb@liffe.com>

Glenn Satchell - Uniq Professional Services
<Glenn.Satchell@Uniq.com.au>

"Mike Salehi" <mrs@cadem.mc.xerox.com>
Morgan Jones <morgan@euclid.math.temple.edu>

D461-Viet_Q_Hoang082572 <vqh@dwrock.dw.lucent.com>
Gregory M Polanski <gmp@adc.com>
"William L. Hamlin" <whamlin@connetsys.com>
"Marcus Pless" <mpless@ljswc.ucsd.edu>
"Matthew J. Hill" <MHILL@graver.com>
"Matthew Stier" <mstier@hotmail.com>
Randy Styka <randy@computron.com>
Stuart Bailey <baileys@syntegra.bt.co.uk>
Stefan <s.voss@terradata.de>