linux man page for screendump

SCREENDUMP(1)							   Linux Console						     SCREENDUMP(1)

NAME
       screendump - dump the contents of a virtual console to stdout

SYNOPSIS
       screendump [ N ]

DESCRIPTION
       The screendump command dumps the contents of virtual console N , (or the current console if N is omitted) to standard out.

       Just saying
	      cat /dev/vcsN
       has a similar effect.

NOTES
       For  security  reasons,	screendump uses linux devices "virtual console screen" and "virtual console screen with attributes" to give access
       for screendump.

       Ensure these files exist, using

	      cd /dev for i in 0 1 2 3 ...; do
		   mknod vcs$i c 7 $i
		   mknod vcsa$i c 7 `expr 128 + $i`
	      done

       (filling in the ellipses) and give the device files appropriate permissions, or run screendump as root.

SEE ALSO
       setterm(1)

								    2002-02-24							     SCREENDUMP(1)