scriptlive(1) — Linux manual page

SCRIPTLIVE(1)                 User Commands                 SCRIPTLIVE(1)

NAME         top

       scriptlive - re-run session typescripts, using timing information

SYNOPSIS         top

       scriptlive [options] timingfile typescript

DESCRIPTION         top

       This program re-runs a typescript, using stdin typescript and
       timing information to ensure that input happens in the same rhythm
       as it originally appeared when the script was recorded.

       The session is executed in a newly created pseudoterminal with the
       user’s $SHELL, the shell from the user’s passwd(5) entry, or
       /bin/sh as the fallback.

       Be careful! The typescript may contain arbitrary commands. It is
       recommended to use "scriptreplay --stream in --log-in typescript"
       (or with --log-io instead of --log-in) to verify the typescript
       before it is executed with scriptlive.

       The timing information is what script(1) outputs to the file
       specified by --log-timing. The typescript has to contain stdin
       information, and is what script(1) outputs to the file specified
       by --log-in or --log-io.

OPTIONS         top

       -c, --command command
           Execute command instead of an interactive shell. The command
           is passed as argument to the -c option of the execution shell.
           The used shell is either $SHELL, the shell defined in the
           user’s passwd(5) database or _PATH_BSHELL, selected in
           respective order.

       -I, --log-in file
           File containing script's terminal input.

       -B, --log-io file
           File containing script's terminal output and input.

       -E, --echo when
           This option controls the ECHO flag for the slave end of the
           session’s pseudoterminal. The supported modes are always,
           never, and auto.

           The default is auto — in which case ECHO is enabled. This
           default behavior is subject to change.

       -t, --timing file
           File containing script's timing output. This option replaces
           the timingfile positional argument.

       -T, --log-timing file
           An alias for -t; maintained for compatibility with the
           script(1) command-line options.

       -d, --divisor number
           Speed up the replay displaying this number of times. The
           argument is a floating-point number. It’s called divisor
           because it divides the timings by this factor. This option
           overrides old-style arguments.

       -m, --maxdelay number
           Set the maximum delay between updates to number of seconds.
           The argument is a floating-point number. This can be used to
           avoid long pauses in the typescript replay.

       -h, --help
           Display help text and exit.

       -V, --version
           Display version and exit.

ENVIRONMENT         top

       SHELL
           Override the default shell. If SHELL is not set, the shell
           from the user’s passwd(5) entry is used. If no shell is
           defined there either, /bin/sh is used as the fallback.

       SCRIPTREPLAY_DEBUG=all
           Enable scriptreplay debug output.

       ULPTY_DEBUG=all
           Enable pty debug output.

EXAMPLES         top

           % script --log-timing file.tm --log-in script.in
           Script started, file is script.out
           % date
           <etc, etc>
           % exit
           Script done, file is script.out
           % scriptlive --log-timing file.tm --log-in script.in

AUTHORS         top

       Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>

COPYRIGHT         top

       Copyright © 2019 Karel Zak

       This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
       There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR
       A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

       Released under the GNU General Public License version 2 or later.

SEE ALSO         top

       script(1), scriptreplay(1)

REPORTING BUGS         top

       For bug reports, use the issue tracker
       <https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues>.

AVAILABILITY         top

       The scriptlive command is part of the util-linux package which can
       be downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
       <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>. This page is
       part of the util-linux (a random collection of Linux utilities)
       project. Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/⟩. If you have a
       bug report for this manual page, send it to
       util-linux@vger.kernel.org. This page was obtained from the
       project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/util-linux/util-linux.git⟩ on
       2026-05-24. (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that
       was found in the repository was 2026-05-20.) If you discover any
       rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
       believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page,
       or you have corrections or improvements to the information in this
       COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page), send a
       mail to man-pages@man7.org

util-linux 2.43.devel-739-eee2e 2026-05-24                  SCRIPTLIVE(1)

Pages that refer to this page: script(1),  scriptreplay(1)

HTML rendering created 2026-05-24 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH.