How to redirect stdout and stderr from csh script.

Question

For the following script

install.csh:

#!/bin/csh -f
tar -zxf Python-3.1.1.tgz
cd Python-3.1.1
./configure
make
make install
cd ..
rm -rf Python-3.1.1

Intended use:

./install.csh |& tee install.log

How can I change the script so that I still get a install.log and the output on console without asking the user to do the redirecting?

Answer 1

G'day,

I highly recommend moving away from csh towards something like bash or zsh.

stdio manipulation is not possible in csh. Have a read of "csh programming considered harmful". An elegant treatise on this topic.

Sorry it's not a direct answer but you'll find that you'll keep banging your head against the constraints of csh the longer you stick with it.

A lot of csh syntax is already available in bash so your learning curve won't be too steep.

Here's a quick suggestion for the same thing written in bash. It's not elegant though.

#!/bin/bash
TO_LOGFILE= "| tee -a ./install.log"
tar -zxf Python-3.1.1.tgz 2>&1 ${TO_LOGFILE}
if [ $? -ne 0 ];then
    echo "Untar of Python failed. Exiting..."; exit 5
fi

cd Python-3.1.1 2>&1 ${TO_LOGFILE}
if [ $? -ne 0 ];then
    echo "Can't change into Python dir. Exiting..."; exit 5
fi
echo "============== configure ================"
./configure 2>&1 ${TO_LOGFILE}
if [ $? -ne 0 ];then
    echo "Configure failed. Exiting..."; exit 5
fi
echo "================ make ==================="
make 2>&1 ${TO_LOGFILE}
if [ $? -ne 0 ];then
    echo "Compile of Python failed. Exiting..."; exit 5
fi
echo "================ install ================"
make install 2>&1 ${TO_LOGFILE}
if [ $? -ne 0 ];then
    echo "Install of Python failed. Exiting..."; exit 5
fi

cd ..
rm -rf Python-3.1.1 2>&1 ${TO_LOGFILE}
exit 0

I've added a bit more checking and reporting so that if there's a problem in an earlier step the log file will just contain up until the error was uncovered rather than a stack of pretty useless error messages from the later phases that wouldn't complete anyway.

cheers,

Answer 2

Some simple solutions:

Solution 1: tee every line you want to log independently, make use of -a switch of tee to append

#!/bin/csh -f    
tar -zxf Python-3.1.1.tgz |& tee -a install.log
cd Python-3.1.1 |& tee -a install.log
./configure |& tee -a install.log
make |& tee -a install.log
make install |& tee -a install.log
cd .. |& tee -a install.log
rm -rf Python-3.1.1 |& tee -a install.log

Solution 2: Add a second script. For example, rename current install.csh to install_commands, then add a new install.csh script:

#!/bin/csh -f 
/bin/csh install_commands |& tee install.log