Learn Linux Shell Scripting - Fundamentals of Bash 4.4

Redirect all output

In most situations, output that is sent to stderr instead of stdout will contain words that make it clear you're dealing with an error. This will include examples such as permission denied, cannot execute binary file, syntax error near unexpected token, and so on.

Because of this, it is often not really necessary to split output into stdout and stderr (but, obviously, sometimes it will be great functionality). In these cases, the addition to Bash 4.x that allows us to redirect both stdout and stderr with a single command is perfect. This redirection, which you can use with the syntax &>, does not work differently to the earlier examples we have seen.

Let's review our previous example and see how this makes our lives easier: ...