Re: Modify the scrollback buffer in console

[Tzafrir Cohen <tzafrir@cohens.org.il>]

On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 06:53:53PM -0500, Girish Venkatasubramanian wrote:
> Hello,
> I am desperately trying to find out how to increase the size of the
> scrollback buffer in the non-graphical mode console (no X).
> 
> I am running a stock debian etch distribution without any X manager,
> starting in runlevel 2. The machine boots up and I sign into the
> console. Then, say I do an "ls -R /". This command will produce many
> screens of output. Using the Shift+PgUp, I can scrollback by a few
> screens-worth of lines - but the number of lines I can scrollback is
> limited. I would like to increase this.
> 
> I need this to watch the output of some long running make (and
> redirecting the output to a file does not work satisfactorily). I have
> thought about using screen, but if there is a way to do it natively,
> that would work the best.

Two easy options:

  make 2>&1 | tee log

(loses the return value. On bash you can still check $PIPESTATUS)

or: run this in a screen session.

A similar option to first one:

  script log

and in to:

  make

Though it means that your log will contain control characters.

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