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Ask HN: What is the best way to record a terminal session?

7 pointsby yenohamalmost 5 years ago
I am writing some documentation for our product. In it, we need to document several terminal command sequences, like what you see on this Cypress guide - https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.cypress.io&#x2F;guides&#x2F;getting-started&#x2F;installing-cypress.html#npm-install<p>Whilst I can record it all in video, the problem I find is that you get several steps in, then make a minor typo which is in your video unless you re-record or do a bunch of editing.<p>It made me wonder if there are any tools that allow you to easily &#x27;fake&#x27; the process (e.g. a web app that lets you type in the commands you want to emulate, then have those print out one after the other)?<p>If anyone knows of something, or can think of a better solution, that would be great!

5 comments

Memosynealmost 5 years ago
You could try using asciinema[1].<p>[1] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;asciinema&#x2F;asciinema" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;asciinema&#x2F;asciinema</a>
japhyralmost 5 years ago
I&#x27;m not sure if it affects your specific situation, but I&#x27;ll share that mistakes in CLI demos have never bothered me. They always make me feel better about the everyday typos I make, and they make me feel like I&#x27;m watching a human interact with a system. I wouldn&#x27;t want to watch a distracting number of typos when I&#x27;m learning how to use a system, but a few are perfectly acceptable.<p>It reminds me of listening to podcasts. The podcasts with huge budgets are sometimes overproduced. The pauses all feel dramatic and acted, and everything feels well-rehearsed. My favorite podcasts are ones that have received light editing for content, but leave in the natural flow of human conversation.
elviejoalmost 5 years ago
the commands: script &#x2F; scriptreplay are the ones you are looking for.<p>Now if you also would like to reproduce the video experience you coul use: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;asciinema.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;asciinema.org&#x2F;</a><p>Wich records a your terminal session, looks like a video but is in fact text characters.
jimsmartalmost 5 years ago
Approaching from another angle: develop&#x2F;debug a simple script containing your setup commands, possibly using Vagrant (or similar) in your cycle to test.<p>Then later you can make a video, perhaps using the software you&#x27;ve already tried (or recommended in other replies), by pasting the commands one by one from the script into the terminal.
raizinhoalmost 5 years ago
Simple Screen Recorder is pretty good.