ttyrec: a tty recorder

What's ttyrec?

ttyrec is a tty recorder. Recorded data can be played back with the included ttyplay command. ttyrec is just a derivative of script command for recording timing information with microsecond accuracy as well. It can record emacs -nw, vi, lynx, or any programs running on tty.

What's New

• 2006-06-11: ttyrec 1.0.8 Released
  
  • Introduced a hack to reduce the playback time drift.
    Based on Matthias Kilian's patch. Thanks!
• 2005-12-17: IPBT is added to Links .
• 2003-05-15: TTYPLAYER is added to Links .
• 2000-12-27: ttyrec 1.0 Released
  It's the first version.

Usage

Recording

  % ttyrec
  (In the executed shell, do whatever you want and exit)

  % ttyrec -e command
  (command specified by -e option will be executed)

Playback

  % ttyplay ttyrecord  

-s2 option makes the playback speed doubled. With -p option, you can peek another person's ttyrecord in real time. Have fun!

You can change the speed while playback by the following key strokes.

• "+" or "f" to speed up the playback twice
• "-" or "s" to speed down the playback twice
• "1" to change the playback to the normal speed

File Transfer

ttyrec -u option allows you to transfer a file using uuencode command. you can transfer foo.zip file in a remotehost to a localhost as the following.

  % ttyrec -u                 # Invoke ttyrec command with -u option.
  % ssh remotehost            # Log in to remotehost.
  % uuencode foo.zip foo.zip  # Transfer foo.zip with uuencode.
  % exit                      # Log out from remotehost.
  % ls foo.zip                # foo.zip is transfered!
  foo.zip   

You need uuencode command in the remotehost and uudecode command in the localhost. ttyrec -u automatically invokes uudecode command in the localhost when the uuencoded data is tranfered.

Measuring the time of recorded data

ttytime tells you the time of recorded data in seconds.

  % ttytime *.tty
      173 foo.tty
     1832 bar.tty

Let's play with ttyplay server!

You can run "ttyplay server" by simply using inetd. Just add a line like the following to /etc/inetd.conf.

12345 stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/local/bin/ttyplay /var/tmp/foo.tty 2>/dev/null

And type the following command in the shell.

% telnet localhost 12345

With -p option, live streaming can be performed.

12345 stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/local/bin/ttyplay -p /var/tmp/foo.tty 2>/dev/null

Please visit tty mania for sample videos.

Suggested by Takuo Kitame

Tips

Recording all-the-day works results a large data file. You can gzip it for saving space and gunzip it for playback.
Suggested by : Takatsugu Nokubi

  % gzip ttyrecod
  % gunzip < ttyrecord.gz | ttyplay

Download

ttyrec is a free software under the terms of the BSD Licence.

• ttyrec-1.0.8.tar.gz
• RPM packages
• CVS

Known Problems

• On SVR4 system such as Solaris, try `make CFLAGS=-DSVR4'.
  I don't want to employ autoconf because brevity is the beauty of ttyrec.
• ttyrec doesn't work on IRIX 6.4.
• ttyrec depends on terminal size.

Links

• IPBT
  A ttyrec player that can rewind based on PuTTY's terminal emulator
• TTYPLAYER
  A Java applet for playing back ttyrec's data on a web browser.
• Term::TtyRec (Perl module)
• x11rec: a very ad hoc X11 recorder
• Debian Bug report logs - #68556
  A friend of mine told me that Mr. Joey Hess implemented the same thing. If I had only known that earlier, I would have never reinvented the wheel...
• Gerd
  Gtk+ Event Recorder
• chatty: a chatty tty
  chatty displays chatty messages in the title bar of your tty according to your input strings.

ttyrec terminal

I want the ttyrec-built-in terminal...