ets is a command output timestamper — it prefixes each line of a command's output with a timestamp.
The purpose of ets is similar to that of moreutils ts(1), but ets differentiates itself from similar offerings by running commands directly within ptys, hence solving thorny issues like pipe buffering and commands disabling color and interactive features when detecting a pipe as output. (ets does provide a reading-from-stdin mode if you insist.) ets also recognizes carriage return as a line seperator, so it doesn't choke if your command prints a progress bar. A more detailed comparison of ets and ts can be found below.
ets currently supports macOS, Linux, and various other *ix variants.
Run a command with ets:
$ ets ping localhost
[2020-06-16 17:13:03] PING localhost (127.0.0.1): 56 data bytes
[2020-06-16 17:13:03] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.036 ms
[2020-06-16 17:13:04] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.077 ms
[2020-06-16 17:13:05] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.037 ms
...Run a shell command:
$ ets 'ping localhost | grep icmp'
[2020-06-16 17:13:03] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.036 ms
[2020-06-16 17:13:04] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.077 ms
[2020-06-16 17:13:05] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.037 ms
...Pipe command output into stdin:
$ ping localhost | grep icmp | ets
[2020-06-16 17:13:03] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.036 ms
[2020-06-16 17:13:04] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.077 ms
[2020-06-16 17:13:05] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.037 ms
...Show elapsed time:
$ ets -s ping -i5 localhost
[00:00:00] PING localhost (127.0.0.1): 56 data bytes
[00:00:00] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.039 ms
[00:00:05] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.031 ms
[00:00:10] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.030 ms
[00:00:15] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.045 ms
...Show incremental time (since last timestamp):
$ ets -i ping -i5 localhost
[00:00:00] PING localhost (127.0.0.1): 56 data bytes
[00:00:00] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.043 ms
[00:00:05] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.047 ms
[00:00:05] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.116 ms
[00:00:05] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.071 ms
...Use a different timestamp format:
$ ets -f '%b %d %T|' ping localhost
Jun 16 17:13:03| PING localhost (127.0.0.1): 56 data bytes
Jun 16 17:13:03| 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.036 ms
Jun 16 17:13:04| 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.077 ms
Jun 16 17:13:05| 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.037 ms
...Millisecond precision (microsecond available too):
$ ets -s -f '[%T.%L]' ping -i 0.1 localhost
[00:00:00.004] PING localhost (127.0.0.1): 56 data bytes
[00:00:00.004] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.032 ms
[00:00:00.108] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.038 ms
[00:00:00.209] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.051 ms
[00:00:00.311] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.049 ms
...Use a different timezone:
$ ets ping localhost # UTC
[2020-06-16 09:13:03] PING localhost (127.0.0.1): 56 data bytes
[2020-06-16 09:13:03] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.036 ms
[2020-06-16 09:13:04] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.077 ms
[2020-06-16 09:13:05] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.037 ms$ ets -z America/Los_Angeles -f '[%F %T%z]' ping localhost
[2020-06-16 02:13:03-0700] PING localhost (127.0.0.1): 56 data bytes
[2020-06-16 02:13:03-0700] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.036 ms
[2020-06-16 02:13:04-0700] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.077 ms
[2020-06-16 02:13:05-0700] 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.037 msColor the timestamps:
$ ets -c ping localhost
...-
On macOS you can install ets with Homebrew:
brew tap zmwangx/ets https://github.com/zmwangx/ets brew install zmwangx/ets/ets -
On macOS and Linux you get download a prebuilt tarball/package from the release page.
-
On Arch Linux you can install the ets-bin binary package from AUR:
pacman -S ets-bin # or yay -S ets-bin -
On a supported platform, if you have the Go toolchain installed, you may install with
go get github.com/zmwangx/ets
ETS(1) BSD General Commands Manual ETS(1)
NAME
ets -- command output timestamper
SYNOPSIS
ets [-s | -i] [-f format] [-u | -z timezone] command [arg ...]
ets [options] shell_command
ets [options]
DESCRIPTION
ets prefixes each line of a command's output with a timestamp. Lines are
delimited by CR, LF, or CRLF.
The three forms in SYNOPSIS correspond to three command execution modes:
o If given a single command without whitespace(s), or a command and its
arguments, execute the command with exec in a pty;
o If given a single command with whitespace(s), the command is treated as
a shell command and executed as `SHELL -c shell_command', where SHELL
is the current user's login shell, or sh if login shell cannot be
determined;
o If given no command, output is read from stdin, and the user is respon-
sible for piping in a command's output.
There are three mutually exclusive timestamp modes:
o The default is absolute time mode, where timestamps from the wall clock
are shown;
o -s, --elapsed turns on elapsed time mode, where every timestamp is the
time elapsed from the start of the command (using a monotonic clock);
o -i, --incremental turns on incremental time mode, where every timestamp
is the time elapsed since the last timestamp (using a monotonic clock).
The default format of the prefixed timestamps depends on the timestamp
mode active. Users may supply a custom format string with the -f,
--format option.
The timezone for absolute timestamps can be controlled via the -u, --utc
and -z, --timezone options. Local time is used by default.
The full list of options:
-s, --elapsed
Run in elapsed time mode.
-i, --incremental
Run in incremental time mode.
-f, --format format
Use custom strftime(3)-style format string format for prefixed
timestamps.
The default is ``[%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S]'' for absolute time mode
and ``[%H:%M:%S]'' for elapsed and incremental time modes.
See FORMATTING DIRECTIVES for details.
-u, --utc
Use UTC for absolute timestamps instead of local time.
This option is mutually exclusive with --z, --timezone.
-z, --timezone timezone
Use timezone for absolute timestamps instead of local time.
timezone is an IANA time zone name, e.g.
``America/Los_Angeles''.
This option is mutually exclusive with -u, --utc.
-c, --color
Print timestamps in color.
FORMATTING DIRECTIVES
Formatting directives largely match strftime(3)'s directives on FreeBSD
and macOS, with the following differences:
o Additional directives %f for microsecond and %L for millisecond are
supported.
o POSIX locale extensions %E* and %O* are not supported;
o glibc extensions %-*, %_*, and %0* are not supported;
o Directives %G, %g, and %+ are not supported.
Below is the full list of supported directives:
%A is replaced by national representation of the full weekday name.
%a is replaced by national representation of the abbreviated weekday
name.
%B is replaced by national representation of the full month name.
%b is replaced by national representation of the abbreviated month
name.
%C is replaced by (year / 100) as decimal number; single digits are
preceded by a zero.
%c is replaced by national representation of time and date.
%D is equivalent to ``%m/%d/%y''.
%d is replaced by the day of the month as a decimal number (01-31).
%e is replaced by the day of the month as a decimal number (1-31);
single digits are preceded by a blank.
%F is equivalent to ``%Y-%m-%d''.
%f is replaced by the microsecond as a decimal number (000000-999999).
%H is replaced by the hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number
(00-23).
%h the same as %b.
%I is replaced by the hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number
(01-12).
%j is replaced by the day of the year as a decimal number (001-366).
%k is replaced by the hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number (0-23);
single digits are preceded by a blank.
%L is replaced by the millisecond as a decimal number (000-999).
%l is replaced by the hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number (1-12);
single digits are preceded by a blank.
%M is replaced by the minute as a decimal number (00-59).
%m is replaced by the month as a decimal number (01-12).
%n is replaced by a newline.
%p is replaced by national representation of either "ante meridiem"
(a.m.) or "post meridiem" (p.m.) as appropriate.
%R is equivalent to ``%H:%M''.
%r is equivalent to ``%I:%M:%S %p''.
%S is replaced by the second as a decimal number (00-60).
%s is replaced by the number of seconds since the Epoch, UTC (see
mktime(3)).
%T is equivalent to ``%H:%M:%S''.
%t is replaced by a tab.
%U is replaced by the week number of the year (Sunday as the first day
of the week) as a decimal number (00-53).
%u is replaced by the weekday (Monday as the first day of the week) as
a decimal number (1-7).
%V is replaced by the week number of the year (Monday as the first day
of the week) as a decimal number (01-53). If the week containing
January 1 has four or more days in the new year, then it is week 1;
otherwise it is the last week of the previous year, and the next
week is week 1.
%v is equivalent to ``%e-%b-%Y''.
%W is replaced by the week number of the year (Monday as the first day
of the week) as a decimal number (00-53).
%w is replaced by the weekday (Sunday as the first day of the week) as
a decimal number (0-6).
%X is replaced by national representation of the time.
%x is replaced by national representation of the date.
%Y is replaced by the year with century as a decimal number.
%y is replaced by the year without century as a decimal number
(00-99).
%Z is replaced by the time zone name.
%z is replaced by the time zone offset from UTC; a leading plus sign
stands for east of UTC, a minus sign for west of UTC, hours and
minutes follow with two digits each and no delimiter between them
(common form for RFC 822 date headers).
%% is replaced by `%'.
SEE ALSO
ts(1), strftime(3)
HISTORY
The name ets comes from ``enhanced ts'', referring to moreutils ts(1).
AUTHORS
Zhiming Wang <i@zhimingwang.org>
December 24, 2024
Advantages:
- Runs commands in ptys, making ets mostly transparent and avoiding pipe-related issues like buffering and lost coloring and interactivity.
- Recognizes carriage return as line separator, does not choke on progress bars.
- Has better operating defaults (uses monotonic clock where appropriate) and better formatting defaults (subjective).
- Supports alternative time zones.
- Is written in Go, not Perl, so you install a single executable, not script plus modules.
- Has an executable name that doesn't conflict with other known packages. moreutils as a whole is a conflicting hell, and ts alone conflicts with at least task-spooler.
Disadvantages:
- Needs an additional
-ffor format string, because ets reserves positional arguments for its core competency. Hopefully offset by better default. - Does not support the
-rmode of ts. It's a largely unrelated mode of operation and I couldn't even getts -rto work anywhere, maybe because optional dependencies aren't satisfied, or maybe I misunderstood the feature altogether. Anyway, not interested. - Supports fewer formatting directives. Let me know if this is actually an issue, it could be fixable.
Copyright © 2020 Zhiming Wang i@zhimingwang.org
The project is distributed under the MIT license.
Special thanks to DinosoftLab on None Project for the hourglass icon used in the logo, and termtosvg for the animated terminal recording.