Quick Tip

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

Challenge: When running commands or scripts, you often need to capture both standard output (stdout) and standard error (stderr) into a single log file. Manually redirecting each can be tedious and error-prone.

The Solution: Use the `2>&1` redirection operator to send stderr to the same destination as stdout.

your_command &> output.log

Why it works: The `&>` is a shorthand that redirects both stdout (file descriptor 1) and stderr (file descriptor 2) to the specified file. This ensures all output, including errors, is captured in one place.

Pro-Tip: For RHEL/Ubuntu systems, you can also achieve this with `your_command > output.log 2>&1`. The `&>` is generally considered more concise.

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