linux - nohup redirection command difference

Question

What is the difference between these 2 below lines?

nohup $CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh $CATALINA_HOME 2> /dev/null &

nohup $CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh $CATALINA_HOME > /dev/null &

I've these lines in 2 of my projects having Tomcat server. One of them is having 2> & other one is just with > symbol.

Appreciate youe help!

Note: The line with 2> if ran in CentOS runs fine but the other one gives warning: "nohup: redirecting stderr to stdout"

Thanks!

Answer 1

Both redirect to /dev/null the first one redirects stderr the second one redirects stdout.

More on that: http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/io-redirection.html, also a few examples always from tldp http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prog-Intro-HOWTO-3.html

Side note: if you want to redirect both stdout and stderr you could do:

nohup $CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh $CATALINA_HOME &> /dev/null &