outputbuddy

🚀 outputbuddy

Flexible output redirection with color preservation - Never lose your terminal colors when logging to files again!

outputbuddy (or ob for short) is a powerful command-line tool that lets you redirect stdout and stderr to multiple destinations simultaneously while preserving ANSI color codes and handling terminal control sequences intelligently.

✨ Features

• 🎨 Preserves Colors: Maintains ANSI color codes when redirecting to terminals
• 📝 Smart ANSI Stripping: Automatically removes ANSI codes from file outputs (configurable)
• 🔀 Multiple Destinations: Route stdout/stderr to any combination of files and terminal
• 🚀 Smart Defaults: Automatically logs to buddy.log when no options specified
• 🔄 PTY Support: Full pseudo-terminal support for interactive applications
• 🧹 Progress Bar Filtering: Intelligently filters out progress bars and spinners from logs
• ⚡ High Performance: Efficient buffering and parallel processing
• 🎯 Flexible Routing: Use intuitive shorthand syntax (1=stdout, 2=stderr)

📦 Installation

From Source

go install github.com/zmunro/outputbuddy@latest

Using Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew tap zmunro/outputbuddy https://github.com/zmunro/outputbuddy
brew install outputbuddy

Pre-built Binaries

Download the latest release from the releases page.

🚀 Quick Start

# Default behavior: logs to buddy.log AND shows on terminal
outputbuddy -- python script.py

# Or use the short alias
ob -- python script.py

# Custom logging: redirect both to a specific file AND show on terminal
ob 2+1=output.log 2+1 -- python script.py

# Separate stdout and stderr to different files
ob 1=out.log 2=err.log -- make

# Only log errors, but still show them on screen
ob 2=errors.log 2 -- ./my-program

📖 Usage

outputbuddy [options] -- command [args...]

Default Behavior

When no options are provided, outputbuddy automatically:

• Redirects both stdout and stderr to buddy.log
• Shows both stdout and stderr on the terminal
• Strips ANSI codes from the log file

This makes it perfect for quick debugging sessions where you want to see and log everything.

Note: The buddy.log file is ONLY created when you don't specify any routing options. As soon as you provide any routing argument (even just 1 or 2 for terminal output), outputbuddy switches to explicit routing mode and won't create buddy.log.

Options

Examples

🚀 Default Behavior

# Quick logging with default settings (logs to buddy.log)
ob -- npm test
ob -- python manage.py runserver

🎯 Basic Logging

# Log everything to a custom file while watching output
ob 2+1=build.log 2+1 -- cargo build --release

🔍 Debug Logging

# Separate streams for debugging
ob 1=output.log 2=debug.log 1 2 -- node app.js

🎨 Preserve Colors in Files

# Keep ANSI codes for later viewing with 'less -R'
ob --keep-ansi 2+1=colored.log -- npm test

# Default behavior with ANSI preservation
ob --keep-ansi -- npm test  # logs to buddy.log with colors preserved

🤫 Silent Logging

# Log everything but show nothing on terminal
ob 2+1=silent.log -- ./batch-process.sh

# Discard output entirely
ob 2+1=/dev/null -- ./batch-process.sh

🚫 Preventing Default buddy.log

# IMPORTANT: buddy.log is ONLY created when NO routing options are provided
# These commands will NOT create buddy.log:

# Show only on terminal (no files created)
ob 2+1 -- ./my-script.sh

# Use custom log file instead of buddy.log
ob 2+1=custom.log -- ./my-script.sh

# Separate files (no buddy.log)
ob 1=out.log 2=err.log -- make

# Even just specifying terminal output prevents buddy.log
ob 1 -- ./script.sh  # Only stdout to terminal, no files

⚡ Development Workflow

# Perfect for development - see and log everything
ob 2+1=dev.log 2+1 -- npm run dev

🎮 Advanced Features

PTY Mode

By default, outputbuddy uses a pseudo-terminal (PTY) to capture output. This ensures:

• Interactive applications work correctly
• Colors are preserved in terminal output
• Terminal size changes are handled properly

Disable PTY mode with --no-pty if you need pure pipe behavior.

Smart Filtering

outputbuddy automatically filters out:

• Progress bars and spinners
• Carriage return overwrites
• Braille pattern characters
• Empty lines from progress updates

This keeps your log files clean and readable while preserving important output.

Multiple File Handling

You can redirect the same stream to multiple files:

# Log errors to both general log and error-specific log
ob 2+1=all.log 2=errors-only.log 2+1 -- ./app

🏗️ Building from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/zmunro/outputbuddy.git
cd outputbuddy

# Build
go build -o outputbuddy

# Install to $GOPATH/bin
go install

Requirements

• Go 1.18 or higher
• POSIX-compliant system (Linux, macOS, BSD)

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

📝 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Built with creack/pty for PTY handling
• Inspired by the need for better logging in CI/CD pipelines

💡 Tips & Tricks

Alias Setup

Add to your shell configuration:

alias ob='outputbuddy'

Default Log File

The default buddy.log file is created in the current directory when no routing options are specified:

# Quick debugging session
ob -- ./my-script.sh
# Check the log afterwards
cat buddy.log

Viewing Colored Logs

If you used --keep-ansi, view colored logs with:

less -R colored.log
# or
cat colored.log  # if your terminal supports it

CI/CD Integration

Perfect for CI/CD pipelines where you need both real-time output and complete logs:

ob 2+1=ci-build.log 2+1 -- make test

# Or use default logging for quick CI runs
ob -- make test  # automatically logs to buddy.log

Made with ❤️ by developers, for developers

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