Append a Command's Output to a File>>As you learned previously, the > character redirects output from stdout to a file. For instance, you can redirect the output of the date command to a file easily enough: $ date Mon Nov 21 21:33:58 CST 2005 $ date > hank_mobley.txt $ cat hank_mobley.txt Mon Nov 21 21:33:58 CST 2005 Remember that > creates a new file if it doesn't already exist and overwrites a file that already exists. If you use >> instead of >, however, your output is appended to the bottom of the named file (and yes, if the file doesn't exist, it's created). $ cat hank_mobley.txt Mon Nov 21 21:33:58 CST 2005 $ ls -1F Hank_Mobley/* >> hank_mobley.txt $ cat hank_mobley.txt Mon Nov 21 21:33:58 CST 2005 1958_Peckin' _Time/ 1960_Roll_Call/ 1960_Soul_Station/ 1961_Workout/ 1963_No_Room_For_Squares/ Caution Be careful with >>. If you accidentally type > instead, you won't append, you'll overwrite! |