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There is a bash script which prints some logs and allows some arguments. The script prints the logs to STDOUT. Let's say the script's name is

I'd also like to make the script to print the logs to STDOUT and a file. This can be done with tee.

$ -a -b --c=d | tee 2012-07-03-080000.log

But my team often forgets to pipe the output to tee. We should save the logs to file. So I'd like to wrap the script with tee.

What I want to do is

$ -a -b --c=d

Then should print the log to STDOUT and a log file.
How can I wrap the

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2 Answers 2

up vote 8 down vote accepted

This script will work better than the previous answer:


exec "$@" | tee "$(date +'%F-%H%M%S').log"

This will work properly with spaces and give a unique name to the log file, based on the current time. The exec also makes it a little more efficient and removes the wrapper from your process tree, once the child has launched.

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Your should contain:

#!/bin/bash "$@" | tee 2012-07-03-080000.log

tee will function normally inside a script, and "$@" will contain all parent arguments.

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oh, thank you. Could you also know how to generate the datetime format dynamically? –  Benjamin Jul 3 '12 at 10:05
Use ` ... | tee $(date +"%Y-%m-%d-%H%M%S").log`. If you want to have the log files all at at fixed directory, put an absolute path in front of the(generated) filename. –  jofel Jul 3 '12 at 10:23
No no no no! Always use "$@" (with quotes) or you will have horrible problems as soon as you try a parameter with a space in it! –  ams Jul 3 '12 at 10:38

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