18. Logging

This section describes the commands for keeping a record of your session.

18.1 hardcopy

Command: hardcopy [-h] [file]

(C-a h, C-a C-h)
Writes out the currently displayed image to the file file, or, if no filename is specified, to `hardcopy.n' in the default directory, where n is the number of the current window. This either appends or overwrites the file if it exists, as determined by the hardcopy_append command. If the option -h is specified, dump also the contents of the scrollback buffer.

Command: hardcopy_append state

(none)
If set to `on', screen will append to the `hardcopy.n' files created by the command hardcopy; otherwise, these files are overwritten each time.

Command: hardcopydir directory

(none)
Defines a directory where hardcopy files will be placed. If unset hardcopys are dumped in screen's current working directory.

18.2 log

Command: deflog state

(none)
Same as the log command except that the default setting for new windows is changed. Initial setting is `off'.

Command: log [state]

(C-a H)
Begins/ends logging of the current window to the file `screenlog.n' in the window's default directory, where n is the number of the current window. This filename can be changed with the `logfile' command. If no parameter is given, the logging state is toggled. The session log is appended to the previous contents of the file if it already exists. The current contents and the contents of the scrollback history are not included in the session log. Default is `off'.

Command: logfile filename

Command: logfile flush secs

(none)
Defines the name the logfiles will get. The default is `screenlog.%n'. The second form changes the number of seconds screen will wait before flushing the logfile buffer to the file-system. The default value is 10 seconds.

Command: logtstamp [state]

Command: logtstamp after secs

Command: logtstamp string string

(none)
This command controls logfile time-stamp mechanism of screen. If time-stamps are turned `on', screen adds a string containing the current time to the logfile after two minutes of inactivity. When output continues and more than another two minutes have passed, a second time-stamp is added to document the restart of the output. You can change this timeout with the second form of the command. The third form is used for customizing the time-stamp string (`-- %n:%t -- time-stamp -- %M/%d/%y %c:%s --\n' by default).