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Date: Fri, 28 Nov 1997 19:15:55 +1030
From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
To: Jacques Hugo <jacques@wired.ctech.ac.za>
Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: 2>&1 ???
References: <347E7CEE.41C67EA6@wired.ctech.ac.za>
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In-Reply-To: <347E7CEE.41C67EA6@wired.ctech.ac.za>; from Jacques Hugo on Fri, Nov 28, 1997 at 10:12:30AM +0200
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On Fri, Nov 28, 1997 at 10:12:30AM +0200, Jacques Hugo wrote:
> Hi there ...
>
> What exacltly does this means under sh/bash:
> 	do something 2>&1 wherever.

Presumably you don't mean 'do' in the line above.  The 2>&1 means
"redirect file descriptor 2 (stderr) to file descriptor 1 (stdout)".
This allows you, for example, to pipe both output streams to another
process.

> What does the 2>&1 do and where can you use
> other vatiations with it?

There are lots of variations.  Read O'Reilly's "UNIX Power Tools" for
some neat suggestions.

Greg