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I had run a program that resulted in many more lines of output than my current terminal window width. As a result, I could only see partial results...is there any way to get the full output?

I am using the bash shell.

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3 Answers

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You could send the output to a file:

$ your_command > /tmp/output.txt

You could then open up that file in any text editor and examine it at your leisure.

Or, you could pipe the output directly to a program such as less that is specifically designed as a text reader and can help you page through data when it is more than a screen-full:

$ your_command | less
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Yes I am aware of redirection, but I was hoping if there is any way I could resuscitate my last output, fully without having to run the program again. – Sayan Jul 19 '11 at 15:24
@Sayan There isn't, sorry. – Gilles Jul 19 '11 at 15:26
1  
@Sayan: You can only do that if you are running in some sort of terminal that keeps a buffer for you. If you use tmux (or the older screen) you can set them to keep hefty scroll-back buffers so that you can browse and even search the output quite a ways back ... but you have to be running in one ahead of time you can't roll back time and capture output that's already come and gone. – Caleb Jul 19 '11 at 21:05
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You can use Shift+Page Up/Down to scroll the current output.

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up vote 0 down vote

In addition to which shell you are using, we need to know which terminal app you are using, for instance Gnome-terminal, or Konsole are the 2 popular ones in Linux. As mentioned by another answerer, SHIFT+PAGEUP is a common keystroke to scroll back through previous screens of terminal output.

P.S. When you said "terminal window width" did you mean "terminal window height?"

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