refer to: man bash
Redirecting Input
Redirection of input causes the file whose name results from the expansion of word to be opened for reading on file descriptor n, or the stan-dard input (file descriptor 0) if n is not specified.
The general format for redirecting input is:
[n]<word
Redirecting Output
Redirection of output causes the file whose name results from the expansion of word to be opened for writing on file descriptor n, or the stan-
dard output (file descriptor 1) if n is not specified. If the file does not exist it is created; if it does exist it is truncated to zero size.
The general format for redirecting output is:
[n]>word
If the redirection operator is >, and the noclobber option to the set builtin has been enabled, the redirection will fail if the file whose name
results from the expansion of word exists and is a regular file. If the redirection operator is >|, or the redirection operator is > and the
noclobber option to the set builtin command is not enabled, the redirection is attempted even if the file named by word exists.
Appending Redirected Output
Redirection of output in this fashion causes the file whose name results from the expansion of word to be opened for appending on file descrip-
tor n, or the standard output (file descriptor 1) if n is not specified. If the file does not exist it is created.
The general format for appending output is:
[n]>>word
Redirecting Standard Output and Standard Error
This construct allows both the standard output (file descriptor 1) and the standard error output (file descriptor 2) to be redirected to the
file whose name is the expansion of word.
There are two formats for redirecting standard output and standard error:
&>word
and
>&word
Of the two forms, the first is preferred. This is semantically equivalent to
>word 2>&1
Appending Standard Output and Standard Error
This construct allows both the standard output (file descriptor 1) and the standard error output (file descriptor 2) to be appended to the file
whose name is the expansion of word.
The format for appending standard output and standard error is:
&>>word
This is semantically equivalent to
>>word 2>&1
Here Documents
This type of redirection instructs the shell to read input from the current source until a line containing only delimiter (with no trailing
blanks) is seen. All of the lines read up to that point are then used as the standard input for a command.
The format of here-documents is:
<<[-]word
here-document
delimiter
No parameter expansion, command substitution, arithmetic expansion, or pathname expansion is performed on word. If any characters in word are
quoted, the delimiter is the result of quote removal on word, and the lines in the here-document are not expanded. If word is unquoted, all
lines of the here-document are subjected to parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic expansion. In the latter case, the char-
acter sequence \<newline> is ignored, and \ must be used to quote the characters \, $, and `.
If the redirection operator is <<-, then all leading tab characters are stripped from input lines and the line containing delimiter. This
allows here-documents within shell scripts to be indented in a natural fashion.
Here Strings
A variant of here documents, the format is:
<<<word
The word is expanded and supplied to the command on its standard input.
Duplicating File Descriptors
The redirection operator
[n]<&word
is used to duplicate input file descriptors. If word expands to one or more digits, the file descriptor denoted by n is made to be a copy of
that file descriptor. If the digits in word do not specify a file descriptor open for input, a redirection error occurs. If word evaluates to
-, file descriptor n is closed. If n is not specified, the standard input (file descriptor 0) is used.
The operator
[n]>&word
is used similarly to duplicate output file descriptors. If n is not specified, the standard output (file descriptor 1) is used. If the digits
in word do not specify a file descriptor open for output, a redirection error occurs. As a special case, if n is omitted, and word does not
expand to one or more digits, the standard output and standard error are redirected as described previously.
Moving File Descriptors
The redirection operator
[n]<&digit-
moves the file descriptor digit to file descriptor n, or the standard input (file descriptor 0) if n is not specified. digit is closed after
being duplicated to n.
Similarly, the redirection operator
[n]>&digit-
moves the file descriptor digit to file descriptor n, or the standard output (file descriptor 1) if n is not specified.
Opening File Descriptors for Reading and Writing
The redirection operator
[n]<>word
causes the file whose name is the expansion of word to be opened for both reading and writing on file descriptor n, or on file descriptor 0 if n
is not specified. If the file does not exist, it is created.