Quick Tip

Taming Terminal Noise: Redirecting `stderr` with `2>&1`

Challenge: You’re running a script or command that produces both useful standard output (stdout) and noisy error messages to standard error (stderr). You want to capture only the important information, or perhaps redirect both for unified logging.

The Solution: Redirect standard error to standard output using the `2>&1` construct.

your_command &> output.log

Why it works: File descriptor 1 represents stdout and file descriptor 2 represents stderr. By using `2>&1`, you’re telling the shell to send anything that would normally go to stderr to the same destination as stdout. The `&>` is a shorthand for `> … 2>&1` which redirects both stdout and stderr to a file.

Pro-Tip: If you only want to discard stderr and keep stdout, you can redirect stderr to `/dev/null` like this: your_command 2>/dev/null

Linux Tips & Tricks | © ngelinux.com | 4/30/2026