Windows command prompt log to a file

Question

I\'d like to easily save the log of the Windows command prompt into a file. Is there any alternative to select everything and right-click on copy?

Answer 1

First method

For Windows 7 and above users, Windows PowerShell give you this option. Users with windows version less than 7 can download PowerShell online and install it.

Steps:

1. type PowerShell in search area and click on "Windows PowerShell"

2. If you have a .bat (batch) file go to step 3 OR copy your commands to a file and save it with .bat extension (e.g. file.bat)

3. run the .bat file with following command

   PS (location)> <path to bat file>/file.bat | Tee-Object -file log.txt

This will generate a log.txt file with all command prompt output in it. Advantage is that you can also the output on command prompt.

Second method

You can use file redirection (>, >>) as suggest by Bali C above.

I will recommend first method if you have lots of commands to run or a script to run. I will recommend last method if there is only few commands to run.

Answer 2

You can redirect the output of a cmd prompt to a file using > or >> to append to a file.

i.e.

echo Hello World >C:\output.txt
echo Hello again! >>C:\output.txt

or

mybatchfile.bat >C:\output.txt

Note that using > will automatically overwrite the file if it already exists.

You also have the option of redirecting stdin, stdout and stderr.

See here for a complete list of options.

Answer 3

In cmd when you use > or >> the output will be only written on the file. Is it possible to see the output in the cmd windows and also save it in a file. Something similar if you use teraterm, when you can start saving all the log in a file meanwhile you use the console and view it (only for ssh, telnet and serial).