What is the meaning of 2 >& 1 in Linux?

What is the meaning of 2 >& 1 in Linux?

Now to the point 2>&1 means “Redirect the stderr to the same place we are redirecting the stdout” Now you can do this. output.txt 2>&1. both Standard output (stdout) and Standard Error (stderr) will redirected to output.

What does 2 >& 1 mean in shell script?

“You use &1 to reference the value of the file descriptor 1 (stdout). So when you use 2>&1 you are basically saying “Redirect the stderr to the same place we are redirecting the stdout”. And that’s why we can do something like this to redirect both stdout and stderr to the same place:”

What does stderr do in Unix?

Stderr, also known as standard error, is the default file descriptor where a process can write error messages. In Unix-like operating systems, such as Linux, macOS X, and BSD, stderr is defined by the POSIX standard. Its default file descriptor number is 2. In the terminal, standard error defaults to the user’s screen.

What does 2 >& 1 at the end of a command do?

The 1 denotes standard output (stdout). The 2 denotes standard error (stderr). So 2>&1 says to send standard error to where ever standard output is being redirected as well.

What is the use of 2 >& 1?

2>&1 means that STDERR redirects to the target of STDOUT (which is the file dirlist) We are redirecting error output to standard output which in turn is being re-directed to file dirlist. Hence, both the output is written to file dirlist.

What does 2 >> mean in Linux?

3. 41. File descriptor 2 represents standard error. (other special file descriptors include 0 for standard input and 1 for standard output). 2> /dev/null means to redirect standard error to /dev/null . /dev/null is a special device that discards everything that is written to it.

Where is stderr stored?

Command output, i.e. stdout and stderr, is not logged anywhere by default. It goes to the terminal and when the terminal is closed, the output is gone forever. If you want to store such output, you must redirect it to a file (or capture it into a variable and do something with it that ends with writing it to a file).

How do I redirect stderr?

To redirect stderr as well, you have a few choices:

  1. Redirect stdout to one file and stderr to another file: command > out 2>error.
  2. Redirect stdout to a file ( >out ), and then redirect stderr to stdout ( 2>&1 ): command >out 2>&1.

What is the difference between stderr and stdout?

stdout: Stands for standard output. The text output of a command is stored in the stdout stream. stderr: Stands for standard error. Whenever a command faces an error, the error message is stored in this stream.

What does stderr mean?

Standard error
Standard error (stderr) Standard error is another output stream typically used by programs to output error messages or diagnostics. It is a stream independent of standard output and can be redirected separately.

What is and2 in bash?

and >&2 means send the output to STDERR, So it will print the message as an error on the console. You can understand more about shell redirecting from those references: https://www.gnu.org/savannah-checkouts/gnu/bash/manual/bash.html#Redirections.

What is the >> in Linux?

So, what we learned is, the “>” is the output redirection operator used for overwriting files that already exist in the directory. While, the “>>” is an output operator as well, but, it appends the data of an existing file. Often, both of these operators are used together to modify files in Linux.

How does stdout and stderr work in Linux?

The first line of the script echoes text to the terminal window, via the stdout stream. The second line tries to access a file that doesn’t exist. This will generate an error message that is delivered via stderr. We can see that both streams of output, stdout and stderr, have been displayed in the terminal windows.

Where do I find stderr in my terminal?

These three standards I/O devices are the streams that are declared in the header file stdio.h file. Stderr is directly linked by OS to either window terminal or Unix terminal. Stderr is the standard error message that is used to print the output on the screen or windows terminal.

What is the function of stderr in Windows?

Stderr is directly linked by OS to either window terminal or Unix terminal. Stderr is the standard error message that is used to print the output on the screen or windows terminal. Stderr is used to print the error on the output screen or window terminal. Stderr is also one of the command output as stdout, which is logged anywhere by default.

Can you write both stderr and stdout at the same time?

You can write both stderr and stdout to two separate files: To suppress the error messages from being displayed on the screen, redirect stderr to /dev/null: When saving the program’s output to a file, it is quite common to redirect stderr to stdout so that you can have everything in a single file.