What does redirecting to Dev Null do?
The > operator redirects the output usually to a file but it can be to a device. You can also use >> to append. /dev/null is the null device it takes any input you want and throws it away. It can be used to suppress any output.
What is the full meaning of null?
Null means having no value; in other words null is zero, like if you put so little sugar in your coffee that it’s practically null. Null also means invalid, or having no binding force. From the Latin nullus, meaning “not any,” poor, powerless null is not actually there at all.
Why does stderr redirect to / dev / null?
STDERR redirects to THE ADDRESS of STDOUT (File descriptor 1 in that moment, or /proc/self/fd/1), and then STDOUT redirects to /dev/null , but STDERR keeps redirecting to fd1!! As a result the normal output from STDOUT is discarded, but the errors coming from STDERR are still being written onto the console.
Why does shell redirect to / dev / null?
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.
How to set stdout to / dev / null?
Well, that’s because you can’t. STDOUT and STDERR are just two files, represented by file descriptors, which are just integers, specifically 1 and 2. What you’re asking is to set descriptor 2 to /dev/null, then set descriptor 3 to the same file descriptor 2 and have that output go somewhere else.
How to send output to / dev / null?
You can send output to /dev/null, by using command >/dev/null syntax. However, this will not work when command will use the standard error (FD # 2). So you need to modify >/dev/null as follows to redirect both output and errors to /dev/null. Syntax to redirect error and output messages to /dev/null