There is no file in my directory called a. I used the command "rm a 2>a" to redirect the standard output error to file a. But when I tried the "ls" command, there is no file called a. Can someone explain this?
2 Answers
2>a
causes the shell to redirect the standard error stream to a file called a
. This file is created before the command is started. rm
is then executed. It finds a file called a
(already created by the shell) and unlinks it.
-
4Right... the file still exists, so that anything
rm
writes to stderr after callingunlink
can go into it, but it no longer has its name. When the process quits, the file finally goes away. Aug 2, 2010 at 17:17
stdout
?