Recording desktop activity
For the Record
We look at several tools, ranging from very simple to more complex – that can help you record various desktop activities.
Recording your desktop can serve many purposes: It can be a way of permanently recording a complicated procedure; it can prove that a student has completed an assignment, as the man page for the script command suggests; or it can enhance documentation, provide animated how-tos, and even assist with automatic testing, depending on the tools you choose.
The tools described in this article operate on several levels. At the simplest level, commands like script, ttyrec, and shelr serve as more permanent alternatives to a shell's history. By contrast, scrot takes stills, cnee records not so much visual events as the technical information behind them, and recordmydesktop produces movies made from desktop events. You could accurately say that recording tools are available for every purpose and level of users.
script
The script command writes a record of all actions within a shell (Figure 1). It is not much different from viewing a shell's history, except that it writes to file and is stored permanently. Script is one of several dozen commands installed in distributions as part of the linux-utils package.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Ubuntu 25.04 Coming Soon
Ubuntu 25.04 (Plucky Puffin) has been given an April release date with many notable updates.
-
Gnome Developers Consider Dropping RPM Support
In a move that might shock a lot of users, the Gnome development team has proposed the idea of going straight up Flatpak.
-
openSUSE Tumbleweed Ditches AppArmor for SELinux
If you're an openSUSE Tumbleweed user, you can expect a major change to the distribution.
-
Plasma 6.3 Now Available
Plasma desktop v6.3 has a couple of pretty nifty tricks up its sleeve.
-
LibreOffice 25.2 Has Arrived
If you've been hoping for a release that offers more UI customizations, you're in for a treat.
-
TuxCare Has a Big AlmaLinux 9 Announcement in Store
TuxCare announced it has successfully completed a Security Technical Implementation Guide for AlmaLinux OS 9.
-
First Release Candidate for Linux Kernel 6.14 Now Available
Linus Torvalds has officially released the first release candidate for kernel 6.14 and it includes over 500,000 lines of modified code, making for a small release.
-
System76 Refreshes Meerkat Mini PC
If you're looking for a small form factor PC powered by Linux, System76 has exactly what you need in the Meerkat mini PC.
-
Gnome 48 Alpha Ready for Testing
The latest Gnome desktop alpha is now available with plenty of new features and improvements.
-
Wine 10 Includes Plenty to Excite Users
With its latest release, Wine has the usual crop of bug fixes and improvements, along with some exciting new features.