A simple utility to clean shell typescript files by removing terminal escape sequences and (optionally) applying backspace characters.
Typescript files (created using the script command) contain escape sequences for backspaces, font colors, tab completion, etc., which make them difficult to read (without using cat) or grep through. This utility aims to fix that. Just provide one or more typescript filepaths as an argument, and the script will automatically remove escape sequences (optionally leaving BELL and/or backspace characters) and output the result to a matching file with _cleaned appended to the filename. Files that contain _cleaned as a suffix as assumed to have already been cleaned and will be skipped.
Requires Python 3.6+ due to use of type hinting.
python3 typescript_cleaner.py [-h] [--keep_backspace] [--keep_bell] [filepaths ...]
Cleans shell typescript files by removing terminal escape sequences and applying backspace characters
positional arguments:
filepaths Paths to typescript files (i.e., logs created using the "script" command)
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--keep_backspace Keep BACKSPACE characters; useful for identifying things typed accidentally (like passwords)
--keep_bell Keep BELL characters; useful for identifying tab completion
# Create a typescript
script -f ssh_session_$(date +%F).log
# Remove all escape sequences and metacharacters
python3 typescript_cleaner.py ssh_session_2022-09-24.log
# Remove all escape sequences and metacharacters and files in and below the 'logs' directory
python3 typescript_cleaner.py ./logs
# Keep BELL characters (to show tab completion)
python3 typescript_cleaner.py -keep_bell ssh_session_2022-09-24.log
# Keep BACKSPACE characters
python3 typescript_cleaner.py -keep_backspace ssh_session_2022-09-24.log
# Keep BACKSPACE and BELL characters
python3 typescript_cleaner.py -keep_backspace -keep_bell ssh_session_2022-09-24.log