how to increase size of the console screen buffer ? - UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

the_learner · #1 (**permalink**) 04-24-2007

Its difficult to explain what I am exactly looking for, so let me try with an example..
Suppose my program prints out thousands lines. But once my program ends.. I am not able to scroll up and see all the 1000 lines. The size of the screen buffer is obviously limited. Is there anyway I can increase this size ?

If there is a way, then is there any harm in increasing the size?

[MA]Flying_Meat · #2 (**permalink**) 04-24-2007

what flavor is your OS?
what terminal software (xterm, gterm...)?

Worst case, you redirect the output to a text file (which is kinda better from a resource usage perspective...)

the_learner · #3 (**permalink**) 04-24-2007

SunOS

and how do I find out which terminal software ???

hmm, yea I can redirect the output.. but lets say its an interactive application... hmm well... lets just suppose u dont want to direct the output to a text file.

Percy · #4 (**permalink**) 04-25-2007

dependant on the terminal software that you're using, quite a few have an option somewhere that you can change to show the number of lines of 'history'
PuTTY for example.

Alternatively, if you need to interactively run a program, you could always use 'typescript'

1) type "typescript" at the prompt, then run your program.
2) everything outputted to screen now goes to a file called 'typescript' including your key inputs.
3) ctrl-d at the end to stop typescript.

Hope that makes sense, I've not explained it that clearly.

cfajohnson · #5 (**permalink**) 04-25-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_learner

Its difficult to explain what I am exactly looking for, so let me try with an example..
Suppose my program prints out thousands lines. But once my program ends.. I am not able to scroll up and see all the 1000 lines. The size of the screen buffer is obviously limited. Is there anyway I can increase this size ?

Are you talking about a real or virtual console (e.g., such as you get on a Linux system with Ctrl-Alt-F1), or a terminal window (e.g., xterm or rxvt in X)?

If the latter, the terminal program probably has an option to set the buffer size; in xterm and rxvt, it's -sl NUM, where NUM is the number of lines you want to save. See your terminal's man page for more details.

In either a console or a terminal window, you can use typescript to save the session to a file, or you can use a pager such as [i/less[/i] or more to display the output of the command:
Code:
COMMAND | less
Or redirect the output of the command to a file:
Code:
COMMAND > FILE

Quote:

If there is a way, then is there any harm in increasing the size?

So long as you don't exceed available memory, no.

the_learner · #6 (**permalink**) 04-25-2007

hey thanks guys, typescript is working. Only thingi s the command name was 'script' which created the file 'typescript'

Thanks again everyone !!

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