This is a follow-up to this question:
How do I get both STDOUT and STDERR to go to the terminal and a log file?
In short: I want to run a command and store both, STDOUT and STDERR in one log file (to keep time correlation) but I need STDERR output still to be printed on STDERR.
Motivation: there are tools which run a command and treat STDOUT and STDERR differently - e.g. printing STDERR in a different color or print STDERR when the command returns non-zero.
So I'd like to have a way to store all output in one log file but preserve the distinction between STDOUT and STDERR (as well as the return code).
log-output --file=command.log -c "make stuff-with-stderr"
From what I found in the above links answers there are at least two different approaches:
the_cmd 1> >(tee stdout.txt ) 2> >(tee stderr.txt >&2 )
will store STDOUT and STDERR in separate files, thus loosing time correlation. And unfortunately both STDOUT and STDERR will be printed on STDOUT only.
script -e -B build.log -c "the_cmd"
will store both STDOUT and STDERR in one file, keeping time correlation but still prints both STDOUT and STDERR on on STDOUT only.
So none of those approaches meets my requirements. Is there something else?
Edit:
Using my approach and your command from the comment below (pip3 install -U pytest) in a bash shell you get your desired outcome:
(((pip3 install -U pytest | tee -a log.txt) 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3 | tee -a log.txt) 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3)
The entries in log.txt are always in the correct order (same as executing pip3 install -U pytest in a terminal) and the output is printed to the terminal correctly (separate streams for stdout and stderr). I suspect a better solution exists, but this appears to be a 'workable' solution to the problem.
Original answer:
There's probably a less awkward solution than this, but you could tee stdout to log.txt, then swap stdout with stderr and tee the 'new' stdout (stderr) to log.txt, then swap stderr back with stdout, then print both streams to terminal (similar to the example here):
((({ echo "test_out"; echo "test_err" 1>&2; } | tee -a log.txt) 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3 | tee -a log.txt) 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3)
test_out
test_err
cat log.txt
test_out
test_err
# show stdout/stderr are still separate streams:
((({ echo "test_out"; echo "test_err" 1>&2; } | tee -a log.txt) 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3 | tee -a log.txt) 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3) 1>std.out 2>std.err
cat std.out
test_out
cat std.err
test_err
I know that it is possible to redirect both to a specific file:
./command 1> out.log 2> err.log
or
./command 1>test.log 2>&1
to write both to a file. But I don't know a way to write both to the same file (preserving the output order) while printing just one of both. tee isn't very helpful because it prints both file descriptors.
Writing standard output to one file and both to another is fairly simple with tee:
{ cmd | tee stdout.log; } &> both.log
Both descriptors of the compound command are redirected to both.log, but the standard output of cmd is first passed through tee to stdout.log before also being written to both.log.
Writing standard error to one and both to another is trickier.
{ foo 2>&1 1>&3 | tee stderr.log ; } 3>&1 | tee both.log > /dev/null
It's a little tricky to describe correctly. First, the command group's standard error is ignored; it's standard output is the pipe to tee both.log. But 3>&1 also copies its fd 3 to its standard output. So the question is, what gets written to that?
Inside the command group, foo's standard output is the pipe to tee stderr.log. The 2>&1 copies tee's standard error to that descriptor, and 1>&3 copies foo's standard output to the inherited fd 3.
It will be better to write them to different files, in this case it will be very easy:
cmd 2>/stderr.log| tee -a stdout.log
But if you want a single file, you will need some tricks here and additional process running for redirection.
You can use several redirections:
foo () { echo 1 ; echo 2 >&2 ; }
(( foo | tee >(cat) >&3) &>log ) 3>&1
The tee command sends the stdout to file descriptors 1 (through the process substitution) and 3. Both stdout and stderr are redirected to the log. In the end, 3, the copy of stdout, is sent back to the terminal.
Alternatively, you can do without the process substitution, redirect the output directly to log, but use -a and >> for append. You need to clear the log beforehand.
: > log; (( foo | tee -a log >&3) 2>> log ) 3>&1
stdout to the console and stdout and error to a file?
{ cmd | tee /dev/tty; } &> /tmp/both.log
To answer the question :
stderr to the console and stdout and error to a file?
{ cmd 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3 | tee /dev/tty; } &> /tmp/both.log
3>&1 1>&2 2>&3 means swapping stdout and stderr
I want to write a shell script that runs a command, writing its stderr to my terminal as it arrives. However, I also want to save stderr to a variable, so I can inspect it later.
How can I achieve this? Should I use tee, or a subshell, or something else?
I've tried this:
# Create FD 3 that can be used so stdout still comes through
exec 3>&1
# Run the command, piping stdout to normal stdout, but saving stderr.
{ ERROR=$( $# 2>&1 1>&3) ; }
echo "copy of stderr: $ERROR"
However, this doesn't write stderr to the console, it only saves it.
I've also tried:
{ $#; } 2> >(tee stderr.txt >&2 )
echo "stderr was:"
cat stderr.txt
However, I don't want the temporary file.
I often want to do this, and find myself reaching for /dev/stderr, but there can be problems with this approach; for example, Nix build scripts give "permission denied" errors if they try to write to /dev/stdout or /dev/stderr.
After reinventing this wheel a few times, my current approach is to use process substitution as follows:
myCmd 2> >(tee >(cat 1>&2))
Reading this from the outside in:
This will run myCmd, leaving its stdout as-is. The 2> will redirect the stderr of myCmd to a different destination; the destination here is >(tee >(cat 1>&2)) which will cause it to be piped into the command tee >(cat 1>&2).
The tee command duplicates its input (in this case, the stderr of myCmd) to its stdout and to the given destination. The destination here is >(cat 1>&2), which will cause the data to be piped into the command cat 1>&2.
The cat command just passes its input straight to stdout. The 1>&2 redirects stdout to go to stderr.
Reading from the inside out:
The cat 1>&2 command redirects its stdin to stderr, so >(cat 1>&2) acts like /dev/stderr.
Hence tee >(cat 1>&2) duplicates its stdin to both stdout and stderr, acting like tee /dev/stderr.
We use 2> >(tee >(cat 1>&2)) to get 2 copies of stderr: one on stdout and one on stderr.
We can use the copy on stdout as normal, for example storing it in a variable. We can leave the copy on stderr to get printed to the terminal.
We can combine this with other redirections if we like, e.g.
# Create FD 3 that can be used so stdout still comes through
exec 3>&1
# Run the command, redirecting its stdout to the shell's stdout,
# duplicating its stderr and sending one copy to the shell's stderr
# and using the other to replace the command's stdout, which we then
# capture
{ ERROR=$( $# 2> >(tee >(cat 1>&2)) 1>&3) ; }
echo "copy of stderr: $ERROR"
Credit goes to #Etan Reisner for the fundamentals of the approach; however, it's better to use tee with /dev/stderr rather than /dev/tty in order to preserve normal behavior (if you send to /dev/tty, the outside world doesn't see it as stderr output, and can neither capture nor suppress it):
Here's the full idiom:
exec 3>&1 # Save original stdout in temp. fd #3.
# Redirect stderr to *captured* stdout, send stdout to *saved* stdout, also send
# captured stdout (and thus stderr) to original stderr.
errOutput=$("$#" 2>&1 1>&3 | tee /dev/stderr)
exec 3>&- # Close temp. fd.
echo "copy of stderr: $errOutput"
The script should redirect all the output (stdout and stderr) to a log file, and only display stderr to the screen (notifying user if an error happens). The command tee may help but don't know how to write it.
Thanks.
P.S., thanks lihao and konsolebox for the answer, but is there a way to keep the output in order. For example:
$ cat test.sh
echo "to stdout..1"
echo "to stderr..1" >&2
echo "to stdout..2"
echo "to stderr..2" >&2
$ sh test.sh 2>&1 >test.log | tee -a test.log
to stderr..1
to stderr..2
$ cat test.log
to stdout..1
to stdout..2
to stderr..1
to stderr..2
Command: { sh test.sh 2> >(tee /dev/fd/4); } 4>&1 >test.log has the same output.
how about the following:
cmd args 2>&1 >logfile | tee -a logfile
You should map normal stdout to another file descriptor (4), make the file the default output, then use tee to redirect output to the new file descriptor through /dev/fd. Of course you'd need process substitution to pass stderr output to tee:
{ cmd args 2> >(exec tee /dev/fd/4); } 4>&1 >file
If you want to make a general redirection for the script, place this at the beginning of it:
exec 4>&1 >file 2> >(exec tee /dev/fd/4)
You can restore normal output with:
exec >&4 4>&-
I have a script which will be run interactively by non-technical users. The script writes status updates to STDOUT so that the user can be sure that the script is running OK.
I want both STDOUT and STDERR redirected to the terminal (so that the user can see that the script is working as well as see if there was a problem). I also want both streams redirected to a log file.
I've seen a bunch of solutions on the net. Some don't work and others are horribly complicated. I've developed a workable solution (which I'll enter as an answer), but it's kludgy.
The perfect solution would be a single line of code that could be incorporated into the beginning of any script that sends both streams to both the terminal and a log file.
EDIT: Redirecting STDERR to STDOUT and piping the result to tee works, but it depends on the users remembering to redirect and pipe the output. I want the logging to be fool-proof and automatic (which is why I'd like to be able to embed the solution into the script itself.)
Use "tee" to redirect to a file and the screen. Depending on the shell you use, you first have to redirect stderr to stdout using
./a.out 2>&1 | tee output
or
./a.out |& tee output
In csh, there is a built-in command called "script" that will capture everything that goes to the screen to a file. You start it by typing "script", then doing whatever it is you want to capture, then hit control-D to close the script file. I don't know of an equivalent for sh/bash/ksh.
Also, since you have indicated that these are your own sh scripts that you can modify, you can do the redirection internally by surrounding the whole script with braces or brackets, like
#!/bin/sh
{
... whatever you had in your script before
} 2>&1 | tee output.file
Approaching half a decade later...
I believe this is the "perfect solution" sought by the OP.
Here's a one liner you can add to the top of your Bash script:
exec > >(tee -a $HOME/logfile) 2>&1
Here's a small script demonstrating its use:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
exec > >(tee -a $HOME/logfile) 2>&1
# Test redirection of STDOUT
echo test_stdout
# Test redirection of STDERR
ls test_stderr___this_file_does_not_exist
(Note: This only works with Bash. It will not work with /bin/sh.)
Adapted from here; the original did not, from what I can tell, catch STDERR in the logfile. Fixed with a note from here.
The Pattern
the_cmd 1> >(tee stdout.txt ) 2> >(tee stderr.txt >&2 )
This redirects both stdout and stderr separately, and it sends separate copies of stdout and stderr to the caller (which might be your terminal).
In zsh, it will not proceed to the next statement until the tees have finished.
In bash, you may find that the final few lines of output appear after whatever statement comes next.
In either case, the right bits go to the right places.
Explanation
Here's a script (stored in ./example):
#! /usr/bin/env bash
the_cmd()
{
echo out;
1>&2 echo err;
}
the_cmd 1> >(tee stdout.txt ) 2> >(tee stderr.txt >&2 )
Here's a session:
$ foo=$(./example)
err
$ echo $foo
out
$ cat stdout.txt
out
$ cat stderr.txt
err
Here's how it works:
Both tee processes are started, their stdins are assigned to file descriptors. Because they're enclosed in process substitutions, the paths to those file descriptors are substituted in the calling command, so now it looks something like this:
the_cmd 1> /proc/self/fd/13 2> /proc/self/fd/14
the_cmd runs, writing stdout to the first file descriptor, and stderr to the second one.
In the bash case, once the_cmd finishes, the following statement happens immediately (if your terminal is the caller, then you will see your prompt appear).
In the zsh case, once the_cmd finishes, the shell waits for both of the tee processes to finish before moving on. More on this here.
The first tee process, which is reading from the_cmd's stdout, writes a copy of that stdout back to the caller because that's what tee does. Its outputs are not redirected, so they make it back to the caller unchanged
The second tee process has it's stdout redirected to the caller's stderr (which is good, because it's stdin is reading from the_cmd's stderr). So when it writes to its stdout, those bits go to the caller's stderr.
This keeps stderr separate from stdout both in the files and in the command's output.
If the first tee writes any errors, they'll show up in both the stderr file and in the command's stderr, if the second tee writes any errors, they'll only show up only in the terminal's stderr.
the to redirect stderr to stdout append this at your command: 2>&1
For outputting to terminal and logging into file you should use tee
Both together would look like this:
mycommand 2>&1 | tee mylogfile.log
EDIT: For embedding into your script you would do the same. So your script
#!/bin/sh
whatever1
whatever2
...
whatever3
would end up as
#!/bin/sh
( whatever1
whatever2
...
whatever3 ) 2>&1 | tee mylogfile.log
EDIT:
I see I got derailed and ended up answering a different question from the one asked. The answer to the real question is at the bottom of Paul Tomblin's answer. (If you want to enhance that solution to redirect stdout and stderr separately for some reason, you could use the technique I describe here.)
I've been wanting an answer that preserves the distinction between stdout and stderr.
Unfortunately all of the answers given so far that preserve that distinction
are race-prone: they risk programs seeing incomplete input, as I pointed out in comments.
I think I finally found an answer that preserves the distinction,
is not race prone, and isn't terribly fiddly either.
First building block: to swap stdout and stderr:
my_command 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3-
Second building block: if we wanted to filter (e.g. tee) only stderr,
we could accomplish that by swapping stdout&stderr, filtering, and then swapping back:
{ my_command 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3- | stderr_filter;} 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3-
Now the rest is easy: we can add a stdout filter, either at the beginning:
{ { my_command | stdout_filter;} 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3- | stderr_filter;} 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3-
or at the end:
{ my_command 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3- | stderr_filter;} 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3- | stdout_filter
To convince myself that both of the above commands work, I used the following:
alias my_command='{ echo "to stdout"; echo "to stderr" >&2;}'
alias stdout_filter='{ sleep 1; sed -u "s/^/teed stdout: /" | tee stdout.txt;}'
alias stderr_filter='{ sleep 2; sed -u "s/^/teed stderr: /" | tee stderr.txt;}'
Output is:
...(1 second pause)...
teed stdout: to stdout
...(another 1 second pause)...
teed stderr: to stderr
and my prompt comes back immediately after the "teed stderr: to stderr", as expected.
Footnote about zsh:
The above solution works in bash (and maybe some other shells, I'm not sure), but it doesn't work in zsh. There are two reasons it fails in zsh:
the syntax 2>&3- isn't understood by zsh; that has to be rewritten
as 2>&3 3>&-
in zsh (unlike other shells), if you redirect a file descriptor
that's already open, in some cases (I don't completely understand how it decides) it does a built-in tee-like behavior instead. To avoid this, you have to close each fd prior to
redirecting it.
So, for example, my second solution has to be rewritten for zsh as {my_command 3>&1 1>&- 1>&2 2>&- 2>&3 3>&- | stderr_filter;} 3>&1 1>&- 1>&2 2>&- 2>&3 3>&- | stdout_filter (which works in bash too, but is awfully verbose).
On the other hand, you can take advantage of zsh's mysterious built-in implicit teeing to get a much shorter solution for zsh, which doesn't run tee at all:
my_command >&1 >stdout.txt 2>&2 2>stderr.txt
(I wouldn't have guessed from the docs I found that the >&1 and 2>&2 are the thing that trigger zsh's implicit teeing; I found that out by trial-and-error.)
Use the tee program and dup stderr to stdout.
program 2>&1 | tee > logfile
Use the script command in your script (man 1 script)
Create a wrapper shellscript (2 lines) that sets up script() and then calls exit.
Part 1: wrap.sh
#!/bin/sh
script -c './realscript.sh'
exit
Part 2: realscript.sh
#!/bin/sh
echo 'Output'
Result:
~: sh wrap.sh
Script started, file is typescript
Output
Script done, file is typescript
~: cat typescript
Script started on fr. 12. des. 2008 kl. 18.07 +0100
Output
Script done on fr. 12. des. 2008 kl. 18.07 +0100
~:
I created a script called "RunScript.sh". The contents of this script is:
${APP_HOME}/${1}.sh ${2} ${3} ${4} ${5} ${6} 2>&1 | tee -a ${APP_HOME}/${1}.log
I call it like this:
./RunScript.sh ScriptToRun Param1 Param2 Param3 ...
This works, but it requires the application's scripts to be run via an external script. It's a bit kludgy.
A year later, here's an old bash script for logging anything. For example,
teelog make ... logs to a generated log name (and see the trick for logging nested makes too.)
#!/bin/bash
me=teelog
Version="2008-10-9 oct denis-bz"
Help() {
cat <<!
$me anycommand args ...
logs the output of "anycommand ..." as well as displaying it on the screen,
by running
anycommand args ... 2>&1 | tee `day`-command-args.log
That is, stdout and stderr go to both the screen, and to a log file.
(The Unix "tee" command is named after "T" pipe fittings, 1 in -> 2 out;
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tee_(command) ).
The default log file name is made up from "command" and all the "args":
$me cmd -opt dir/file logs to `day`-cmd--opt-file.log .
To log to xx.log instead, either export log=xx.log or
$me log=xx.log cmd ...
If "logdir" is set, logs are put in that directory, which must exist.
An old xx.log is moved to /tmp/\$USER-xx.log .
The log file has a header like
# from: command args ...
# run: date pwd etc.
to show what was run; see "From" in this file.
Called as "Log" (ln -s $me Log), Log anycommand ... logs to a file:
command args ... > `day`-command-args.log
and tees stderr to both the log file and the terminal -- bash only.
Some commands that prompt for input from the console, such as a password,
don't prompt if they "| tee"; you can only type ahead, carefully.
To log all "make" s, including nested ones like
cd dir1; \$(MAKE)
cd dir2; \$(MAKE)
...
export MAKE="$me make"
!
# See also: output logging in screen(1).
exit 1
}
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# bzutil.sh denisbz may2008 --
day() { # 30mar, 3mar
/bin/date +%e%h | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]' | tr -d ' '
}
edate() { # 19 May 2008 15:56
echo `/bin/date "+%e %h %Y %H:%M"`
}
From() { # header # from: $* # run: date pwd ...
case `uname` in Darwin )
mac=" mac `sw_vers -productVersion`"
esac
cut -c -200 <<!
${comment-#} from: $#
${comment-#} run: `edate` in $PWD `uname -n` $mac `arch`
!
# mac $PWD is pwd -L not -P real
}
# log name: day-args*.log, change this if you like --
logfilename() {
log=`day`
[[ $1 == "sudo" ]] && shift
for arg
do
log="$log-${arg##*/}" # basename
(( ${#log} >= 100 )) && break # max len 100
done
# no blanks etc in logfilename please, tr them to "-"
echo $logdir/` echo "$log".log | tr -C '.:+=[:alnum:]_\n' - `
}
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
case "$1" in
-v* | --v* )
echo "$0 version: $Version"
exit 1 ;;
"" | -* )
Help
esac
# scan log= etc --
while [[ $1 == [a-zA-Z_]*=* ]]; do
export "$1"
shift
done
: ${logdir=.}
[[ -w $logdir ]] || {
echo >&2 "error: $me: can't write in logdir $logdir"
exit 1
}
: ${log=` logfilename "$#" `}
[[ -f $log ]] &&
/bin/mv "$log" "/tmp/$USER-${log##*/}"
case ${0##*/} in # basename
log | Log ) # both to log, stderr to caller's stderr too --
{
From "$#"
"$#"
} > $log 2> >(tee /dev/stderr) # bash only
# see http://wooledge.org:8000/BashFAQ 47, stderr to a pipe
;;
* )
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
{
From "$#" # header: from ... date pwd etc.
"$#" 2>&1 # run the cmd with stderr and stdout both to the log
} | tee $log
# mac tee buffers stdout ?
esac
This question seems has not been gracefully solved yet.
Everytime I search "how to output to stdout and stderr at same time", google directs me to this post.
Today, I finally found a simple & effective way to solve almost all these kind of needs.
The essential idea is the tee command which can print to multiple output at same time, and linux-specific /proc/self/fd/{1,2,...} to represent stdout, stderr...
print stdin to both stdout and stderr
tee /proc/self/fd/2
print stdin to both stdout and stderr, and file
tee /proc/self/fd/2 file
Hope this be helpful.
Here is a solution working for bash by redirection, by combining the solution of "kvantour, MatrixManAtYrService" and "Jason Sydes":
#!/bin/bash
exec 1> >(tee x.log) 2> >(tee x.err >&2)
echo "test for log"
echo "test for err" 1>&2
Save the script above as x.sh. After running ./x.sh, the x.log only include the stdout, while the x.err only include the stderr.