> I'm not sure this is a bug or please let me know the concept: > What is the difference between: > ls -R /etc/ 2>&1 1>/dev/null > and > ls -R /etc/ 1>/dev/null 2>&1 > > the second one redirect everything to /dev/null but the first one, still > prints errors (run as a non root user would unveil the problem) > it the order of arguments important? If yes, what is the idea/concept behind > this behavior?
Redirections are processed left-to-right (or, if you prefer, beginning to end). The manual page has this to say: Note that the order of redirections is significant. For example, the command ls > dirlist 2>&1 directs both standard output and standard error to the file dirlist, while the command ls 2>&1 > dirlist directs only the standard output to file dirlist, because the standard error was duplicated as standard output before the standard output was redirected to dirlist. -- ``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU c...@case.edu http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/