Redirect STDOUT Append File

Redirect STDOUT Append to File

Bash also provides a STDOUT redirection append to file operator. In this case the contents of the existing file would not be overwritten, but instead a new line(s) would be added (append) at the end of the file.

Let’s try this out using the echo command:

echo "Hello, world!" >> hello-from-bash.txt

Output and Validation:

echo “Hello, world!” » hello-from-bash.txt && cat hello-from-bash.txt output

Similarly to the write redirection operator, the append operator created a new file and added the contents from STDOUT to the file.

The difference is the file wasn’t overwritten with the contents of STDOUT.

This can be tested by executing another append redirection from bash:

echo "Good morning!" >> hello-from-bash.txt

Output and Validation

echo “Good morning!” » hello-from-bash.txt && cat hello-from-bash.txt

The STDOUT redirect append operator simply added the text to the contents of the file.