What happens when writing to Dev null?
It’s a special file that’s present in every single Linux system. However, unlike most other virtual files, instead of reading, it’s used to write. Whatever you write to /dev/null will be discarded, forgotten into the void. It’s known as the null device in a UNIX system.
What does script Dev null do?
script /dev/null prevent any message from appearing on your screen. It supresses the messages, byt directing them to the “black hole.”
What is the purpose of Dev null in Linux?
/dev/null in Linux is a null device file. This will discard anything written to it, and will return EOF on reading. This is a command-line hack that acts as a vacuum, that sucks anything thrown to it.
What does this mean Dev null 2 >& 1?
2>&1 redirects standard error to standard output. &1 indicates file descriptor (standard output), otherwise (if you use just 1 ) you will redirect standard error to a file named 1 . [any command] >>/dev/null 2>&1 redirects all standard error to standard output, and writes all of that to /dev/null .
What does the script / dev / null do?
Nevertheless, /dev/null can be quite useful from both the command line and in scripts. It discards all data written to it but reports that the write operation succeeded. script /dev/null prevent any message from appearing on your screen.
What does redirecting to / dev / null mean?
This is because of using > /dev/null 2>&1 will redirect all your command output (both stdout and stderr) to /dev/null, meaning no outputs are printed to the terminal. To understand this easily, write it out explicitly. Below is an example command that tries to remove a nonexisting file (to simulate an error)
What does 2 > / dev / null mean in Linux?
In more detail: 2 represents the error descriptor, which is where errors are written to. By default they are printed out on the console. > redirects output to the specified place, in this case /dev/null /dev/null is the standard Linux device where you send output that you want ignored.
How to redirect shell script to null device?
(Essentially all the output from the command would be redirected to the null device .) without causing the script to crash (kind of like try catch exception handling in programming languages). It’s not quite like a try/catch or anything. It simply silences any sort of output (including error) from the command.