---
name: "logsave"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "e2fsprogs"
version: "1.47.4-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/logsave"
---

# logsave(8)

save the output of a command in a logfile

## NAME

logsave - save the output of a command in a logfile

## SYNOPSIS

**logsave** \[ **-asv** \] *logfile cmd\_prog \[ ... \]*

## DESCRIPTION

The **logsave** program will execute *cmd\_prog* with the specified argument(s), and save a copy of its output to *logfile*. If the containing directory for *logfile* does not exist, **logsave** will accumulate the output in memory until it can be written out. A copy of the output will also be written to standard output.

If *cmd\_prog* is a single hyphen ('-'), then instead of executing a program, **logsave** will take its input from standard input and save it in *logfile*

**logsave** is useful for saving the output of initial boot scripts until the /var partition is mounted, so the output can be written to /var/log.

## OPTIONS

- **-a**

  This option will cause the output to be appended to *logfile*, instead of replacing its current contents.

- **-s**

  This option will cause **logsave** to skip writing to the log file text which is bracketed with a control-A (ASCII 001 or Start of Header) and control-B (ASCII 002 or Start of Text).  This allows progress bar information to be visible to the user on the console, while not being written to the log file.

- **-v**

  This option will make **logsave** to be more verbose in its output to the user.

## AUTHOR

Theodore Ts'o (tytso@mit.edu)

## SEE ALSO

[**fsck**(8)](/fsck/8.md)