When using echo "foo">> bar.txt more than once it appends to the end of a file. How to overwrite bar.txt each time?
1 Answer
> is for redirecting to a file (overwriting it), while >> is for appending.
To overwrite bar.txt, use this:
echo "foo" > bar.txt
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1More commonly,
>is referred to as redirecting (standard output to a file) whilst the pipe symbol|is referred to as piping (standard output to another process). You run the risk of confusing people like me when you refer to>as 'piping' Apr 19, 2012 at 18:52 -
@RedGrittyBrick: I've seen piping in a few books (and I've been saying it for years), but redirecting seems to be far more common. Thanks.– DennisApr 19, 2012 at 18:56
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@Dennis Piping is using the pipe
|for connecting the output of one program/command to the input of another. Related.– Daniel Beck ♦Apr 19, 2012 at 18:58 -
@DanielBeck: I meant I saw piping to a file. Example: Learn Windows PowerShell in a Month of Lunches - Piping to a file or printer– DennisApr 19, 2012 at 19:01
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Note that according to page 43, in PowerShell
> foois just syntactic sugar for| Out-File foo, and therefore is a form of piping ;-)– Daniel Beck ♦Apr 19, 2012 at 19:06
man bashand search (using/) for the section on "REDIRECTION". Specifically subsections "Redirecting Output" and "Appending Redirected Output".