CMD: Export all the screen content to a text file

Question

In command prompt - How do I export all the content of the screen to a text file(basically a copy command, just not by using right-clicking and the clipboard)

This command works, but only for the commands you executed, not the actual output as well

doskey /HISTORY > history.txt

Answer 1

If you are looking for each command separately

To export all the output of the command prompt in text files. Simply follow the following syntax.

C:> [syntax] >file.txt

The above command will create result of syntax in file.txt. Where new file.txt will be created on the current folder that you are in.

For example,

C:Result> dir >file.txt

To copy the whole session, Try this:

Copy & Paste a command session as follows:

1.) At the end of your session, click the upper left corner to display the menu.
Then select.. Edit -> Select all

2.) Again, click the upper left corner to display the menu.
Then select.. Edit -> Copy

3.) Open your favorite text editor and use Ctrl+V or your normal
Paste operation to paste in the text.

Answer 2

How about this:

<command> > <filename.txt> & <filename.txt>

Example:

ipconfig /all > network.txt & network.txt

This will give the results in Notepad instead of the command prompt.

Answer 3

If you want to append a file instead of constantly making a new one/deleting the old one's content, use double > marks. A single > mark will overwrite all the file's content.

Overwrite file

MyCommand.exe>file.txt

^This will open file.txt if it already exists and overwrite the data, or create a new file and fill it with your output

Append file from its end-point

MyCommand.exe>>file.txt

^This will append file.txt from its current end of file if it already exists, or create a new file and fill it with your output.

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Update #1 (advanced):

My batch-fu has improved over time, so here's some minor updates.

If you want to differentiate between error output and normal output for a program that correctly uses Standard streams, STDOUT/STDERR, you can do this with minor changes to the syntax. I'll just use > for overwriting for these examples, but they work perfectly fine with >> for append, in regards to file-piping output re-direction.

The 1 before the >> or > is the flag for STDOUT. If you need to actually output the number one or two before the re-direction symbols, this can lead to strange, unintuitive errors if you don't know about this mechanism. That's especially relevant when outputting a single result number into a file. 2 before the re-direction symbols is for STDERR.

Now that you know that you have more than one stream available, this is a good time to show the benefits of outputting to nul. Now, outputting to nul works the same way conceptually as outputting to a file. You don't see the content in your console. Instead of it going to file or your console output, it goes into the void.

STDERR to file and suppress STDOUT

MyCommand.exe 1>nul 2>errors.txt

STDERR to file to only log errors. Will keep STDOUT in console

MyCommand.exe 2>errors.txt

STDOUT to file and suppress STDERR

MyCommand.exe 1>file.txt 2>nul

STDOUT only to file. Will keep STDERR in console

MyCommand.exe 1>file.txt

STDOUT to one file and STDERR to another file

MyCommand.exe 1>stdout.txt 2>errors.txt

The only caveat I have here is that it can create a 0-byte file for an unused stream if one of the streams never gets used. Basically, if no errors occurred, you might end up with a 0-byte errors.txt file.

Update #2

I started noticing weird behavior when writing console apps that wrote directly to STDERR, and realized that if I wanted my error output to go to the same file when using basic piping, I either had to combine streams 1 and 2 or just use STDOUT. The problem with that problem is I didn't know about the correct way to combine streams, which is this:

%command% > outputfile 2>&1

Therefore, if you want all STDOUT and STDERR piped into the same stream, make sure to use that like so:

MyCommand.exe > file.txt 2>&1

The redirector actually defaults to 1> or 1>>, even if you don't explicitly use 1 in front of it if you don't use a number in front of it, and the 2>&1 combines the streams.

Copying a CMD or Powershell session's command output

If all you want is the command output from a CMD or Powershell session that you just finished up, or any other shell for that matter you can usually just select that console from that session, CTRL + A to select all content, then CTRL + C to copy the content. Then you can do whatever you like with the copied content while it's in your clipboard.

Answer 4

Just see this page

in cmd type:

Command | clip

Then open a *.Txt file and Paste. That's it. Done.

Answer 5

If your batch file is not interactive and you don't need to see it run then this should work.

@echo off
call file.bat >textfile.txt 2>&1

Otherwise use a tee filter. There are many, some not NT compatible. SFK the Swiss Army Knife has a tee feature and is still being developed. Maybe that will work for you.

Answer 6

From command prompt Run as Administrator. Example below is to print a list of Services running on your PC run the command below:

net start > c:\netstart.txt

You should see a copy of the text file you just exported with a listing all the PC services running at the root of your C:\ drive.