How To Create Simple Log File From Script

Question

I'm trying to create a simple log file called "users.txt" that contains the username, full name, and home directory of the username entered. I also want to include the time that the script was initially running.

Any suggestions?

The script name is called catbash.sh

I have tried things such as catbash.sh > user.txt

But I have no idea how to get specific information etc.

clear
LOGFILE=/home/student/gg193/FileTypes/TextFiles/ShellScripts/user.txt

read -p "What is your username?" username
read -p "May I know your name please? " name surname

echo "$(date) $username $name $surname $LOGFILE" >> $LOGFILE

TIME=$(date "+%H")

if [ $TIME -ge 0 -a $TIME -lt 12 ]
then
        echo "\nGood Morning, $surname"
elif [ $TIME -ge 12 -a $TIME -lt 18 ] 
then
        echo "\nGood afternoon $surname"
else 
        echo "\nGood evening $surname"
fi

echo "1. nonblank\n2. number\n3. ends\n4. nends\n"

while : 
do
    read INPUT_STRING
    case $INPUT_STRING in

        nonblank)
            NonEmptyLine=$(cat catbash.sh | sed '/^\s*$/d' | wc -l)
            echo "\nNumber of Non-Empty Lines are:" $NonEmptyLine
            break
            ;;
        number)
            EmptyLine=$(grep -cvP '\S' catbash.sh)
            echo "\nNumber of Empty Lines are:" $EmptyLine
            break
            ;;
        ends)
            echo "================================================================================="
            sed 's/$/$/' catbash.sh
            echo "================================================================================="
            break
            ;;
        nends)
            NonEmptyLine=$(cat catbash.sh | sed '/^\s*$/d' | wc -l)
                        echo "\nNumber of Non-Empty Lines are:" $NonEmptyLine
            EmptyLine=$(grep -cvP '\S' catbash.sh)
                        echo "\nNumber of Empty Lines are:" $EmptyLine
            echo "================================================================================="
            sed 's/$/$/' catbash.sh
            echo "================================================================================="
            break
            ;;
        *)
            echo "\nSorry, I don't understand"
            ;;
    esac
done

DURATION=$(ps -o etime= -p "$$")
echo "\nAmount of time that has passed since the script was initially executed:" $DURATION

echo "\nThanks for using catbash.sh!"

Answer 1

You have to do the logging from inside the sh script. For ex, you could echo the info that you want on the terminal (which you are already doing) and then append | tee -a $LOGFILE | tee -a $LOGFILE (define LOGFILE at the top so you only have to change once if you need a different file name/location).

As further improvements you can look at defining your own logger function or even explore existing ones. For ex a simpler logger func could take 2 args - message, file name. The message itself could be composed of the user name, date/timestamp etc as you want.

With the info currently in your question, this is the best pointer I can give.