In the last episode (Dec 18), White Hat said: > I am trying to find out exactly what is the difference between: > > {command} 2>&1 >> /dev/null > > and > > {command} dev/null 2>&1 (I assume you mean >/dev/null 2>&1 )
> I have seen both used and have not been able to decipher what the > difference is. It would seem that the first one would be the one that > is correct. If you want to redirect both stderr and stdout to /dev/null, the 2nd is correct. Your first command does this: assign fd 2 to whatever fd 1 is pointing to assign fd 1 to /dev/null That leaves stderr going to wherever stdout usually goes (i.e. your tty), and stdout going to /dev/null. That might actually be what you want, depending on the program you're running. Your second command does this: assign fd 1 to /dev/null assign fd 2 to whatever fd 1 is pointing to I ran this test script with different redirections to verify what was going on: #! /bin/sh echo I am stdout echo I am stderr 1>&2 -- Dan Nelson [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"