Capture stdout, stderr, and other file descriptors of running processes on-the-fly, without redirects, screen, or tmux.

Ever started a long-running process but forgot to redirect the output to a file or run it in screen? fdspy is a standalone shell script that uses strace to monitor writes of already-running processes, ensuring you don’t have to restart your work.

File descriptors are non-negative integers that represent open files, sockets, or other I/O streams. By default, fdspy captures writes to standard output (i.e. stdout or file descriptor 1), but you can also monitor other file descriptors or specific files.

• Reasonable defaults: Captures stdout by default, just like piping directly from the process.
• Multi-Process Monitoring: Automatically tracks forked processes to keep an eye on complex applications.
• Flexible Write Selection: Allows precise control over data capture by selecting writes based on specific file descriptors or paths.

• strace: fdspy relies on strace to attach to processes and monitor their system calls.
• POSIX-compliant shell: Works with shells like bash or even plain sh.

To use fdspy, just download the latest release to where you want it, then make it executable:

sudo curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/fdspy https://github.com/jwueller/fdspy.sh/releases/latest/download/fdspy
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/fdspy

Note: Make sure that fdspy has the correct permissions to strace the process you want to monitor.

fdspy 1337                # defaults to stdout if no selectors are given
fdspy $(pgrep rsync)      # dynamic PID discovery
fdspy -- $(pgrep rsync)   # explicit PID separator, exits cleanly if empty

fdspy 1337 --fd 1     # capture stdout (same as default, but explicit)
fdspy 1337 --stdout   # convenience alias for --fd 1

fdspy 1337 --fd 2     # capture stderr
fdspy 1337 --stderr   # convenience alias for --fd 2

fdspy 1337 --fd 1 --fd 2   # capture both
fdspy 1337 --fd 1,2        # also valid
fdspy 1337 --stdio         # convenience alias for --fd 1,2

fdspy 1337 --fd '*'   # capture everything

# Capture process writes to specific files; behaves like `tail -f <file>`,
# but for a specific process only.
fdspy 1337 --path info.log --path error.log

# Capture muted process output.
fdspy --path /dev/null -- $(pgrep verbose-app)

Note that filtering happens after capture, so it is generally preferable to explicitly select only the streams you are interested in, if feasible.

fdspy 1337 --fd '*' --ignore-fd 1,2   # everything except stdout and stderr
fdspy 1337 --fd '*' --ignore-stdio    # convenience alias for --ignore-fd 1,2
fdspy 1337 --fd '*' --ignore-stdout   # convenience alias for --ignore-fd 1
fdspy 1337 --fd '*' --ignore-stderr   # convenience alias for --ignore-fd 2

Some examples of what the output might look like for a process 1337, that writes the non-printable byte 0x01, Hello, fdspy!, and a newline to stdout (see test/src/hello_stdout.c):

# Raw encoding is the default, and replicates the original output exactly.
# This example uses `cat -v` to illustrate non-printable characters:
fdspy 1337 -x raw | cat -v
# => ^AHello, fdspy!

# For further processing, it can be useful to use a very minimal encoding
# instead:
fdspy 1337 -x hex
# => 01 48 65 6c 6c 6f 2c 20 66 64 73 70 79 21 0a
#    │  └ Hello, fdspy!                        └ line feed
#    └ non-printable 0x01 byte

# Alternatively, you might want to pass the output to a C compiler:
fdspy 1337 -x c
# => \1Hello, fdspy!\n

# However, if you are in a shell environment, POSIX `printf "%b"` is a
# convenient and portable way to access the raw data without having to worry
# about the shell script breaking:
fdspy 1337 -x posix
# => \01Hello, fdspy!\n

This project uses Semantic Versioning, so you can expect a new release to indicate backwards-incompatible changes with a new major version number, although those will be avoided if at all possible.

Changes that don't affect user-visible behavior (e.g. documentation, tests, etc.) will not trigger a new version. Please note though that stderr status messages are not considered stable and may vary between minor versions.

Copyright 2024 Johannes Wüller [email protected]

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.