2>&1 redirects standard error to standard output. &1 indicates file descriptor (standard output), otherwise (if you use just 1 ) you will redirect standard error to a file named 1 . [any command] >>/dev/null 2>&1 redirects all standard error to standard output, and writes all of that to /dev/null .
What does 2 dev Null mean in Linux?
The N> syntax in Bash means to redirect a file descriptor to somewhere else. 2 is the file descriptor of stderr , and this example redirects it to /dev/null . What this means in simple terms: ignore error output from the command.
What is the meaning of 2 >& 1 in Linux?
&1 is used to reference the value of the file descriptor 1 (stdout). Now to the point 2>&1 means “Redirect the stderr to the same place we are redirecting the stdout”
What is dev Null in UNIX?
The null device is typically used for disposing of unwanted output streams of a process, or as a convenient empty file for input streams. This is usually done by redirection. The /dev/null device is a special file, not a directory, so one cannot move a whole file or directory into it with the Unix mv command.
What is dev Null in cron job?
cron will only email you if there is some output from you job. With everything redirected to null , there is no output and hence cron will not email you. /dev/null is a device file that acts like a blackhole. Whatever that is written to it, get discarded or disappears.
Can you read from Dev Null?
You write to /dev/null every time you use it in a command such as touch file 2> /dev/null. You read from /dev/null every time you empty an existing file using a command such as cat /dev/null > bigfile or just > bigfile. Because of the file’s nature, you can’t change it in any way; you can only use it.
What is 2 NUL?
Standard output is going to nul and standard error output (file descriptor 2) is being sent to standard output (file descriptor 1) so both error and normal output go to the same place. In Windows, nul is a null device, which means the output is just flushed and you don’t see it.
What does 2 mean in bash?
2 refers to the second file descriptor of the process, i.e. stderr . > means redirection. &1 means the target of the redirection should be the same location as the first file descriptor, i.e. stdout .
What is Echo $1?
$1 is the argument passed for shell script. Suppose, you run ./myscript.sh hello 123. then. $1 will be hello.
Why do we use 2 >> redirection?
You can use &[FILE_DESCRIPTOR] to reference a file descriptor value; Using 2>&1 will redirect stderr to whatever value is set to stdout (and 1>&2 will do the opposite).
What does cat Dev Null?
cat /dev/null outputs the “contents” of /dev/null , which is to say its output is blank. > messages (or > wtmp ) causes this blank output to be redirected to the file on the right side of the > operator.
What is tail Dev Null?
4. @Sokre – The tail -f /dev/null is a common idiom for keeping a container alive indefinitely if the “real” command isn’t long-lived. – Oliver Charlesworth. May 8 ’17 at 9:07. Just to add some detail to tail -f /dev/null .
How do I send stderr to Dev Null?
You can send output to /dev/null, by using command >/dev/null syntax. However, this will not work when command will use the standard error (FD # 2). So you need to modify >/dev/null as follows to redirect both output and errors to /dev/null.
What happens when you write to Dev Null?
1 Answer. The null device acts like a black hole. Anything written to it is discarded, and if you try to read from it you receive an end-of-file immediately. It is used to discard unwanted output and to provide null input.
How do I redirect Cron to Dev Null?
You can easily suppress output of any cronjob by redirecting output to /dev/null. You can do this by appending >/dev/null 2>&1 to cronjob, for which you want to suppress output. This is more useful for the cron jobs running wget command.
How do I know if crontab is running?
To check to see if the cron daemon is running, search the running processes with the ps command. The cron daemon’s command will show up in the output as crond. The entry in this output for grep crond can be ignored but the other entry for crond can be seen running as root. This shows that the cron daemon is running.