How to Install TermRecord on Ubuntu 16.04 and Debian 9

TermRecord is a simple open source tool written in Python, which allows saving terminal sessions to an easy-to-share, self-contained HTML file. In this tutorial, we will go through the installation of TermRecord on Ubuntu 16.04 and Debian 9.

Update your System Software

First of all, connect to your server via SSH and make sure that all of your system software is up to date. Run the following command to update the package list and upgrade all of your system software to the latest version available:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y upgrade

Install Pip

Install Pip:

sudo apt-get install python-pip

Once the installation has completed, you can verify that it was successful by using the following command:

pip -V

You will see something similar to the following:

# pip -V
pip 8.1.1 from /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages (python 2.7)

Install TermRecord

Install TermRecord using the Python package manager (Pip):

sudo pip install TermRecord

Usage

Taking a video of the terminal with TermRecord is rather simple, just run the following command (be attentive to capital letters):

TermRecord -o record.html

Note: We specify the output file in which the video will be recorded using the -o option. the .html format is the default format.

Directly after executing this command, we will get a message that the recording script has started and a temporary recording file has been created. From that moment, everything you enter in the terminal will be recorded and visible in the video. Once the demonstration is over, and you want to finish the video, just enter exit and then press the ENTER.

For more complex operations check out TermRecord --help.