An all-in-one debug/documentation/audit/monitoring tool

Starting any session with the "script" command provides many benefits.

Usage: script /home/username/20020822.serverupgrade

Debugging: All the admin's commands and responses are recorded in a file for review.

Documentation: Use an edited form of the product file as a published procedure document to reproduce previously successful activities.

Audit: Confirm executed command and responses in an activity occurred as expected.

Monitoring: From another desktop or server, telnet to the server on which the script command is executed and perform a tail -f (tail -f /home/username/20020822.serverupgrade) to be able to monitor an activity as it happens. This allows for team participation and consulting during an activity which may involve the expertise of many.

We've used this technique for all the above reasons and more to record critical session in our system administrator responsibilities always to add an extra layer of benefit to the executor as well as to other members of the team. It's easy to use and should never provide for a problem unless you do something like a "cat scriptfile" from the same session as you are executing "script scriptfile".