Showing the possibilities of having a log friendly init.d script. At the same time this script still shows instant output as well if run directly. Overrides default echo and functions success and failure.

init_d_logg

#!/bin/sh
. /etc/init.d/functions

successVar="-ne \t\t\t\t\t[ \033[32mOK\033[0m ]\n"
failureVar="-ne \t\t\t\t\t[ \033[31mFailed\033[0m ]\n"
function success(){
  echo $successVar
}
function failure(){
  echo $failureVar
}
function std_echo(){
  /bin/echo $*
}
function logg_echo(){
  /bin/echo `date` : -  $* >> ~/init_d.log 2>&1 & 
}
function echo(){
  #log  & echo at the same time
  all=$*
  if [[ "$all" == "$successVar"  ]]; then
    loggOnly="[ Ok ]"
  elif [[ "$all" == "$failureVar"  ]]; then
    loggOnly="[ Failed ]"
  else
    loggOnly="$all"
  fi
  std_echo `date`
  std_echo ${all}
  logg_echo ${loggOnly}  

}

if [ $1 == 1 ]; then
  success
else
  failure
fi

#test normal echos
echo Holla back! sweet!!!!!!
echo WOWZA!