Howto capture and record the console screen output to a file on disk

The basic of capturing a data to a file require simple redirection or using of 'tee' program for example.

Examples:

$ ls -la > /var/tmp/output.ls.txt
$ ls -la | tee /var/tmp/output.ls.txt

But sometimes programs can be interactive or we simply want to capture all our session without to worry to redirect the stdout to a file.

The solution is to use the 'screen' tool.

Example #1: Screen basic usage

# to start the session with a name 'example' run
$screen -h
$screen -S example

# to leave the screen session type: CONTROL-a d
# you are placed back in the original shell

# to reattach to the created session
$ screen -ls
$ screen -r example

Example #1: Enable screen logging

The options '-L' instruct screen to create a log file that will capture all the commands output in the screen session.

$ screen -S logexample -L

# inside the screen session
$ echo 'some output'

# to leave the screen session type: CONTROL-a d

# this is the default log file for screen
$ ls -la screenlog.0

$ cat screenlog.0