Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi Guys,

My problem looks simple. I have a software-proprietary command (not linux) that provides an output, let's say 200 lines.
Unfortunately the dumb coders of the software did not include the option ">" or ">>" which allows to transfer output to a file, so I need a way to do that using some linux trick (like print-screen and paste into a file).

Do you have any idea how can I do that ?

BR

Liviu

It's not an 'option' that 'has to be included'. It's not something anything has built into it. All > and >> do is capture a program's standard output. It's something they must have worked pretty hard to intentionally avoid.

So the question is, what does this program send its output to, if not standard output?

Hi,

It sends the output to the display but when I add ">" or ">>" it just outputs the first line into the file. I guess it's something related to the EOL character they might have badly implemented.

Not sure if this will work, but can you try using tee:-

Code:

command | tee filename

Hmmm, I dont think mixing that software's proprietary commands with linux commands would actually work I'll give it a try tomorrow.
What I was thinking, but not sure if it's doable :

1. launch a linux script that will perform a "print screen" of what's going to come next..
2. launching the software's command which outputs all lines
3. pasting the "print screen" content into a file.

Now I need a good idea of how that could be done..

It's probably not because it's "proprietary", but because of how it uses the terminal. Lots of Linux commands behave badly with redirection. Try redirecting the output of nano or vi or top -- won't work right, and you wouldn't even expect them to, because they're not programs that print line by line, they're interactive ones. They jump all over the terminal as they do things.

Put that file into a hex editor and it may surprise you; there may be things in it that don't show up in a terminal because it may be rewriting the same line over and over. It may contain control sequences that you wouldn't see by dumping it to a terminal.

You can use the script command to capture the output of any command that prints to the terminal. Whether the output will be useful later is a different question, since if it's not outputting line by line, it won't be stored line by line either.

Code:

script
some_command
exit

Then look at the contents of 'typescript'.

There is not a 'print screen' command for terminal, terminals don't work that way.