err?

Asked Jul 09 '20 at 18:50

Active Jul 09 '20 at 18:59

Viewed 97 times

I'm looking at a pre-commit git hook script. Here's the part I'm struggling with:

#!/bin/sh
...
testcmd="go test -race ${godirs} "
failed=
${testcmd} &> /dev/null # problematic line
if [ $? -ne 0 ] ; then
    failed=1
    ${testcmd}
fi

godirs is a list of folders built earlier in the script. When I run this, I see the output of testcmd running slightly delayed (it prints over my next prompt). It seems that &> isn't redirecting 2 outputs. It's running the go test in the background and not even redirecting output.

I'm no good at shell scripting. I know I could rewrite it as > /dev/null 2> /dev/null but this is a learning opportunity. How can I fix this so I can still use &>?

asked Jul 09 '20 at 18:50

Corey Ogburn

1

&> (as a redirection) is a bashism - either change your shebang to #!/bin/bash or use the POSIX > /dev/null 2>&1 – steeldriver Jul 09 '20 at 18:54
@steeldriver That sounds like a legitimate answer. You should post it. – Corey Ogburn Jul 09 '20 at 18:56
as an aside: How can we run a command stored in a variable? – ilkkachu Jul 09 '20 at 19:06
Gilles's answer here also has the explanation of how &> is interpreted in a POSIX shell, at the very end. – ilkkachu Jul 09 '20 at 19:08

&> is running the command in the background instead of redirecting stdout/err?

0 Answers0