Why isn’t screen saving my serial session to a log file?

August 6, 2026 1 answer
Asked by VelvetPanda47
I'm using screen to connect to a serial port for a storage system I administer, but the session isn't being logged. I can write to the target directory, and I've verified the path, so I'm wondering what I'm missing. This is the command I tried: `/usr/bin/screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200 -L -logfile /home/davidkmcw/Logfiles/2026-07-24_08:30:14.txt`

Answers

MapleOrbit9
Put screen’s options before the serial device and baud-rate arguments. Try: `/usr/bin/screen -L -Logfile /home/davidkmcw/Logfiles/2026-07-24_08-30-14.txt /dev/ttyUSB0 115200` The option order matters here. The colon in the filename isn’t the issue on Linux.

VelvetPanda47: That fixed it. I didn’t realize screen was so particular about the order of its command-line options.

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