Quick Tip

Tame Your Logs: Unified `stderr` and `stdout` with `2>&1`

Challenge: When troubleshooting, you often need to capture both standard output (stdout) and standard error (stderr) from a command into a single log file to get a complete picture of what’s happening. Relying on separate captures can be cumbersome.

The Solution: Redirect both `stderr` and `stdout` to the same destination using `2>&1`.

your_command &> /path/to/your/logfile.txt

Why it works: The `&>` is a shorthand for `> /path/to/your/logfile.txt 2>&1`. This tells the shell to redirect file descriptor 1 (stdout) to the specified file, and then redirect file descriptor 2 (stderr) to the same location as file descriptor 1.

Pro-Tip: For a more explicit way to achieve the same result, you can use your_command > /path/to/your/logfile.txt 2>&1, which first redirects stdout and then redirects stderr to where stdout is already going.

Linux Tips & Tricks | © ngelinux.com | 6/15/2026