Suggestions on constructing a log file

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi,

I have a series of BASH shell scripts that run together. I would like it so that these scripts construct a log file as they run. This log file would ideally be a text file that contains exactly (including blank lines) what is output to the terminal.

What is the best way to accomplish this? My initial assumption is that I will use the "tee" command, ie:

echo 'Start Processing' tee -a 'log.txt'

However I wonder if this is the most efficient thing to do, as I will be using that command A LOT? Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you for the help,
Mike

2

Try the 'script' command. It gives you an interactive shell that records the session into the file 'typescript'.

Or you could just redirect the output of the scripts themselves instead of trying to build in the redirection from the inside.

3

Another way for simple cases is to enclose the script (or parts of it) in curly brackets and direct the output from that to a file:

TestScript.sh
===========
#!/bin/bash
 
{
function TestFunc {
  echo "$(date):  $0:  $@"
}

TestFunc this is
TestFunc just
TestFunc a test
} | tee MyLog.txt
 
 
cat MyLog.txt
Fri Aug 14 11:19:54 UTC 2009:  TestFunc:  this is
Fri Aug 14 11:19:54 UTC 2009:  TestFunc:  just
Fri Aug 14 11:19:54 UTC 2009:  TestFunc:  a test

You can apply the same on the command-line

{
  date
  sleep 1
  date
  sleep 1
  date
} | tee dates.txt
Fri Aug 14 11:27:46 UTC 2009
Fri Aug 14 11:27:47 UTC 2009
Fri Aug 14 11:27:48 UTC 2009

cat dates.txt
Fri Aug 14 11:27:46 UTC 2009
Fri Aug 14 11:27:47 UTC 2009
Fri Aug 14 11:27:48 UTC 2009
4

Plan B: 'exec'