Quick Tip

Redirecting `stderr` to `stdout` for Unified Logging

Challenge: When running commands or scripts, error messages (stderr) and normal output (stdout) are often displayed separately. This can make it difficult to capture all output for logging or analysis, especially when dealing with complex pipelines.

The Solution: Use the `2>&1` redirection operator to merge stderr into stdout.

your_command_here 2>&1 | tee logfile.txt

Why it works: The `2` represents the file descriptor for stderr, and `1` represents stdout. The `>&` redirects the stream of `2` to the stream of `1`. Piping this combined output to `tee` then saves it to a file while still displaying it on your terminal.

Pro-Tip: For more granular control, you can redirect stderr to a separate file using `2> error.log` and stdout to another using `1> output.log` (or just `> output.log` as stdout is the default).

Linux Tips & Tricks | © ngelinux.com | 5/9/2026