Quick Tip

Tame Terminal Noise: Unified Logging with `2>&1`

Challenge: When running commands or scripts, you often want to capture both standard output (stdout) and standard error (stderr) into a single log file. By default, these go to different streams, making unified logging tricky.

The Solution: Redirect stderr to stdout using the `2>&1` syntax.

your_command &> output.log # Or for more explicit control: your_command > output.log 2>&1

Why it works: The `>` redirects stdout (file descriptor 1) to output.log. The `2>&1` then redirects stderr (file descriptor 2) to the same place as stdout (file descriptor 1), effectively merging them. The shorthand `&>` achieves the same result in a more concise way.

Pro-Tip: Use your_command &>> output.log to append both stdout and stderr to the log file instead of overwriting it.

Linux Tips & Tricks | © ngelinux.com | 6/28/2026