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    Using « > » to redirect output to a file is destructive: in other words, the command

/home/larry/papers# ls > file-list overwrites the contents of the file file-list. If, instead, you redirect with the symbol « >> », the output will be appended to the named file, instead of overwriting it.

/home/larry/papers# ls >> file-list will append the output of the ls command to file-list.

Just keep in mind that redirection and using pipes are features provided by the shell—the shell provides this handy syntax using « > » and « >> » and « | ». It has nothing to do with the commands themselves, but the shell.

Next: 3.9 File Permissions Up: 3.8 UNIX Plumbing Previous: 3.8.3 Using pipes

Matt Welsh
mdw@sunsite.unc.edu