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Ignoring Command Output in Linux

In Linux, you can ignore the output of a command by redirecting it to /dev/null, a special file that discards all data written to it. There are different ways to ignore various types of output:

command > /dev/null # To ignore the standard output of a command command 2> /dev/null # To ignore the standard error of a command command > /dev/null 2>&1 # To ignore both the standard output and standard error of a command # Examples: ls > /dev/null # If you want to ignore the standard output of ls ls /root 2> /dev/null # If you want to ignore the standard error of ls (e.g., when it encounters a directory it cannot access) ls /root > /dev/null 2>&1 # If you want to ignore both the standard output and standard error of ls command &>/dev/null # In Bash, you can use &>/dev/null to ignore both stdout and stderr ls /some/directory > /dev/null 2>&1 # To ignore the output of a command that lists the contents of a directory