Feature request: export console history as txt

[mdtauk]

Perhaps this is a right click option within the console itself, or a setting to save and export on exit/closing tab.

But the option to save/export the console output and input into a txt file

[zadjii-msft]

This is a good idea

[SjoerdNijboer]

There could also be a secondary right click option that only saves the output of the last run command to reduce file size and only capture what is relevant.

[ChristophePichaud]

Two options:

• save the commands list
• save the last command output

All with a right-click in a popup menu two items choice ?
I would be happy to implement that features.
I am looking at the source code to see where to impl it...

[oising]

@SjoerdNijboer @ChristophePichaud

The terminal can't distinguish between what a command is, nor what is strictly a result of its execution (its output.) All the terminal "sees" is the keys typed (raw input) and the screen buffer (raw output.) The decision as to what comprises a command can only be performed by the application handling it (cmd, bash, powershell etc.) So ultimately all the terminal can do is to save the output buffer for the current session (tab.)

[zadjii-msft]

From @19317362 in #3044

I've tried WSL2 + docker + Windows Terminal. It's very good for developing.

It will be better if some features in SecureCRT & ConEmu can be introduced,

Save or redirect the output text in the terminal to some file with this feature

1. The format of the filename can be generated like yyyy-mm-dd_HH_MM_SS.log
   (like SecureCRT).
   This is very useful while using something like adb logcat etc.

2. Can change a new file while day changing.

3. File name has session name (just like SecureCRT & ConEmu

[19317362]

Perhaps this is a right click option within the console itself, or a setting to save and export on exit/closing tab.

But the option to save/export the console output and input into a txt file

This is a snap from SecueCRT. It's very useful for everything.

[19317362]

Perhaps this is a right click option within the console itself, or a setting to save and export on exit/closing tab.

But the option to save/export the console output and input into a txt file

The menu item to Start/Stop logging in SecueCRT

[19317362]

The similar feature of ConEmu.

[yellow-starburst]

Why has this not been pushed out yet as mentioned with conemu or cmder? Terminal would be great once this is fixed :)

[ChristophePichaud]

I can handle it if you want.
Let me know if you are interested in.
Chris.

[zadjii-msft]

@ChristophePichaud I think we'd love your contribution 😄

I think it'd be important to scope the work here, to try and get a handle on what could be accomplished in 1.0 vs 1.1+. IMO, just exporting the current buffer to a text file seems like something that could be accomplished in the 1.0 timeframe pretty reasonably, but more elaborate logging features like ComEmu might be harder to manage. Automatically logging the output to a file is what might require a more fully fledged spec. But I think it wouldn't be terribly hard to add a "Export to file" keybinding, or possibly even an action to the right click menu that's being added in #3789. That hardest part might be the file picker UI tbh 😝

If you really wanted to work on the more elaborate logging feature too, we'd certainly welcome that, but we'd probably want some sort of spec written up first 😉

As far as implementing the "export to file" action - I'd probably start by copying the Copy keybinding implementation - that's something similar that gets the text content from TermControl and attempts to handle it somehow in TerminalPage. I'd make the TermControl and Terminal figure out the string of text to report back as "the whole buffer", and then have TerminalPage figure out how to save that string of text. I'm happy to help with any questions you might have along the way

[ChristophePichaud]

[Windows Terminal - Save History Spec.docx](https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/files/4119159/Windows.Terminal.-.Save.History.Spec.docx) Here is a small spec (md file). ## Solution Design Using the Commands History vector, a combination of CTRL^S can open the common file dialog and save the history of commands in a text file. It’s easy to do. Next, we could use a dialog to put the setting and the format of the logs. But first, let’s save as raw text the various commands. The problem of the setting UI is that it should be in XAML and I am not comfortable with that. But I can do the plumbing. Let me know.

[ChristophePichaud]

It could be something like this:
InteractivityWin32 - WindowsIO.cpp

    if (VirtualKeyCode == VK_F10 &&
        bKeyDown &&
        inputKeyInfo.HasNoModifiers() &&
        ShouldTakeOverKeyboardShortcuts())
    {
        auto& cookedReadData = ServiceLocator::LocateGlobals().getConsoleInformation().CookedReadData();
        auto history = cookedReadData.History();
        size_t commandCount = history->GetNumberOfCommands();
        std::wstring all_command;
        for (SHORT i = 0; i < commandCount; ++i)
        {
            std::wstring_view str = history->GetNth(i);
            all_command += str;
            all_command += std::wstring(L"\r\n");
        }
        ::MessageBox(NULL, all_command.c_str(), NULL, MB_OK);
        // replace MsgBox by file i/o writefile and hop its done with the date_time.log
        // then later, provide an UI for cutsom stuff logging format
        return;
    }

[ChristophePichaud]

There is also another solution... Log every time we have a new command:
host - readDataCooked.cpp line 1000 in _handlePostCharInputLoop()

    if (FoundCR)
    {
        if (_commandHistory)
        {
            // add to command line recall list if we have a history list.
            CONSOLE_INFORMATION& gci = ServiceLocator::LocateGlobals().getConsoleInformation();
            LOG_IF_FAILED(_commandHistory->Add({ _backupLimit, StringLength / sizeof(wchar_t) },
                                               WI_IsFlagSet(gci.Flags, CONSOLE_HISTORY_NODUP)));

            // It's dirty but it works
            wchar_t tempPath[MAX_PATH];
            DWORD dwPath = MAX_PATH;
            ::GetTempPath(dwPath, tempPath);

            std::wstring wpath = tempPath + std::wstring(L"WindowsTerminal.log");

            std::wstring_view buffer(_backupLimit, StringLength / sizeof(wchar_t));
            std::wofstream ofs(wpath, std::ios_base::app);
            ofs << buffer << std::endl;
            ofs.close();
        }

        // check for alias
        ProcessAliases(LineCount);
    }

[starhound]

As a software dev trying to switch to using Windows Terminal completely, I require full terminal logging for some activities.

I know this feature request was for command history, but this would be a much more effective tool for my team should it have complete logging features.

Other than the lack of said feature above, this terminal has been one of the best I've ever had to interact with.

[ghost]

🎉This issue was addressed in #11062, which has now been successfully released as Windows Terminal Preview v1.12.2922.0.:tada:

Handy links:

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