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Accepted
Gary
Asked: 2013-03-28 19:59:52 +0800 CST

Can't redirect all output of program

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I am attempting to redirect all output of a program (Steam) to /dev/null so it doesn't show up in the terminal.

Here's what I've tried: steam & > /dev/null 2>/dev/null and steam & > /dev/null 2>&1

Neither of which suppress it's messages whatsoever (as far as I can tell.)

My understanding is that & detaches the process from the terminal, and > redirects input/output, with the default/blank > being stdout and 2> being stderr. Are there more outputs than those two? Why am I still seeing output if I'm redirecting all of it away?

bash

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Try:

    steam 2>&1 > /dev/null &

    2>&1 redirects stderr to stdin, and > /dev/null redirects stdin to /dev/null.

    The & to background the process was misplaced. It must go at the end of the line. If placed after steam but before >, nothing from steam will be redirected, though the process will properly background.

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