# man > screendump(1)

[_SCREENDUMP_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/SCREENDUMP/1/markdown)                          General Commands Manual                         [_SCREENDUMP_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/SCREENDUMP/1/markdown)

## NAME
       screendump - dump the contents of a virtual console to stdout


## SYNOPSIS
       **screendump **[ _N_ ]


## DESCRIPTION
       The **screendump **command dumps the contents of virtual console **N **, (or the current console if N
       is omitted) to standard out.

       Just saying
              cat /dev/vcsN
       has a similar effect.


## NOTES
       For  security  reasons,  **screendump  **uses linux devices "virtual console screen" and "virtual
       console screen with attributes" to give access for screendump.

       Ensure these files exist, using

              cd /dev for i in 0 1 2 3 ...; do
                   mknod vcs$i c 7 $i
                   mknod vcsa$i c 7 `expr 128 + $i`
              done

       (filling in the ellipses) and give the device files appropriate permissions, or  run  **screen‐**
       **dump **as root.


## SEE ALSO
       [**setterm**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/setterm/1/markdown)


kbd                                          2002-02-24                                [_SCREENDUMP_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/SCREENDUMP/1/markdown)