90 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
90 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
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---
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title: "How to Revisit your Terminal Session's History"
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date: 2024-03-19T11:00:53-04:00
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tags: ["cli", "terminal", "documentation"]
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author: "Me"
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showToc: true
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TocOpen: false
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draft: false
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hidemeta: false
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description: 'Go beyond zsh/bash_history and save both your commands and the output to a file for later review! This command will help any homelabber that struggles with documentation for their network and services.'
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disableHLJS: true # to disable highlightjs
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disableShare: false
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disableHLJS: false
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hideSummary: false
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searchHidden: true
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ShowReadingTime: true
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ShowBreadCrumbs: true
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ShowPostNavLinks: true
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ShowWordCount: true
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ShowRssButtonInSectionTermList: true
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UseHugoToc: true
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cover:
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image: "<image path/url>"
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alt: "<alt text>"
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caption: "<text>"
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relative: false
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hidden: true
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---
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I can't believe I didn't know about this command beforehand. When I first got into self-hosting and homelabbing, one of the app ideas I had that would help me with internal documentation is a terminal program that saves your input and output to a file for you to review later and extract the key commands you used. I also had the bonus idea that you could add comments as you were writing out commands.
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Little did I know at the time that comments from the CLI were already possible! I've already begun using comments which has been helpful if I need to look back at my `zsh_history` file. Here's an example of a command I would use with my docker services.
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```bash
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docker logs {container_name} --since 5m ;: The container is failing 5 minutes after startup.
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```
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{{< box info >}}
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You can write comments in `bash` and `powershell` as well!
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* Powershell: `rem`
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* ZSH: `;:`
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* Bash: `#`
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{{< /box >}}
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Turns out, I don't need a fancy app to log the input/output of a terminal session! It exists in most unix based systems already and the command is simply this: `script`. That's it!
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Unlike `.zsh_history` or `.bash_history` which only saves the commands you input into the terminal, `script` will save both your commands _and_ it's output. Why didn't I know about this before I started setting up my homelab?!
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The next time I want to setup a new service or debug something on a server, I will now make sure I start my session with `script {date}-{service_name}.txt` and then start writing out commands. As long as I can remember to write my inline comments during the session, looking back and trying to figure out what I was thinking at the time should be a breeze! I can dump these files into my internal wiki as placeholders. Then, ideally, I'll remove the commands that lead me down a dead end, clean up and expand comments, and easily keep my wiki growing. Ideally being the key word here... I'll take a dump of history files for the time being.
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Either way, I will literally have the output of my brain when doing CLI work in a file. Incredible.
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Here's a quick overview about script, taken from `man script`.
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```bash
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SCRIPT(1)
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NAME
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script – make typescript of terminal session
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SYNOPSIS
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script [-aeFkqr] [-t time] [file [command ...]]
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script -p [-deq] [-T fmt] [file]
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DESCRIPTION
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The script utility makes a typescript of everything printed on your terminal. It is useful for students who need a hardcopy record of an interactive session as proof of an assignment, as the typescript file can be
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printed out later with lpr(1).
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If the argument file is given, script saves all dialogue in file. If no file name is given, the typescript is saved in the file typescript.
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If the argument command is given, script will run the specified command with an optional argument vector instead of an interactive shell.
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```
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<style>
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.box-shortcode {
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color: #e8e8e8;
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border: none;
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}
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.post-content img {
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margin: auto
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}
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details {
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margin: 0;
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padding: 0;
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border: none;
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background: transparent;
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box-shadow: none;
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}
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</style>
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