Redirect stderr and stdout in Bash

Question

I want to redirect both stdout and stderr of a process to a single file. How do I do that in Bash?

Answer 1

The following functions can be used to automate the process of toggling outputs beetwen stdout/stderr and a logfile.

#!/bin/bash

    #set -x

    # global vars
    OUTPUTS_REDIRECTED="false"
    LOGFILE=/dev/stdout

    # "private" function used by redirect_outputs_to_logfile()
    function save_standard_outputs {
        if [ "$OUTPUTS_REDIRECTED" == "true" ]; then
            echo "[ERROR]: ${FUNCNAME[0]}: Cannot save standard outputs because they have been redirected before"
            exit 1;
        fi
        exec 3>&1
        exec 4>&2

        trap restore_standard_outputs EXIT
    }

    # Params: $1 => logfile to write to
    function redirect_outputs_to_logfile {
        if [ "$OUTPUTS_REDIRECTED" == "true" ]; then
            echo "[ERROR]: ${FUNCNAME[0]}: Cannot redirect standard outputs because they have been redirected before"
            exit 1;
        fi
        LOGFILE=$1
        if [ -z "$LOGFILE" ]; then
            echo "[ERROR]: ${FUNCNAME[0]}: logfile empty [$LOGFILE]"

        fi
        if [ ! -f $LOGFILE ]; then
            touch $LOGFILE
        fi
        if [ ! -f $LOGFILE ]; then
            echo "[ERROR]: ${FUNCNAME[0]}: creating logfile [$LOGFILE]"
            exit 1
        fi

        save_standard_outputs

        exec 1>>${LOGFILE%.log}.log
        exec 2>&1
        OUTPUTS_REDIRECTED="true"
    }

    # "private" function used by save_standard_outputs() 
    function restore_standard_outputs {
        if [ "$OUTPUTS_REDIRECTED" == "false" ]; then
            echo "[ERROR]: ${FUNCNAME[0]}: Cannot restore standard outputs because they have NOT been redirected"
            exit 1;
        fi
        exec 1>&-   #closes FD 1 (logfile)
        exec 2>&-   #closes FD 2 (logfile)
        exec 2>&4   #restore stderr
        exec 1>&3   #restore stdout

        OUTPUTS_REDIRECTED="false"
    }

Example of usage inside script:

echo "this goes to stdout"
redirect_outputs_to_logfile /tmp/one.log
echo "this goes to logfile"
restore_standard_outputs 
echo "this goes to stdout"