[Techtalk] Using > to redirect standard error?

[John Clarke]

On Tue, Jan 13, 2004 at 07:01:47 -0800, Rachel McConnell wrote:

> So I've come up with the theory that there are two outputs which both
> normally print to console, call them stdout and stderr.  > appears to
> redirect stdout, but not stderr.

You're right.  If you're using a bash (or sh, but not csh) shell:

    command > file redirects stdout to 'file'
    command 2> file redirects stderr (file descriptor 2) to 'file'
    command > file 2>&1 redirects both stdout and stderr to 'file'

This is a function of the shell, not the o/s, so it will work on
cygwin.  For csh:

    command > file redirects stdout to 'file'
    command >& file redirects both stdout and stderr to 'file'

You can't redirect only stderr in csh.


Cheers,

John
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