Quick Tip

Tame Your Terminal: 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 for easier analysis. By default, these go to separate streams.

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

your_command_here > output.log 2>&1

Why it works: The `>` operator redirects stdout (file descriptor 1). The `2>&1` tells the shell to send file descriptor 2 (stderr) to the same location as file descriptor 1 (stdout).

Pro-Tip: To append to an existing log file instead of overwriting it, use `>>` instead of `>`: `your_command_here >> output.log 2>&1`

Linux Tips & Tricks | © ngelinux.com | 5/22/2026