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I can understand the statements like.

  1. bzip2 --version >/tmp/list_right 2>/tmp/list_error
  2. bzip2 --version >/tmp/list 2>&1

But I don't understand the statement:

bzip2 --version 2>&1 < /dev/null | head -n1
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  • bzip2 --version outputs info to stderr but pipe (|) transfer stdout only. So in the case to be able format info (prints just 1st line) the stderr of bzip2 --version is redirected to stdout. Is there any reason to input /dev/null I have no idea. Commented Mar 1, 2015 at 12:43
  • this question is not constructive. Commented Mar 1, 2015 at 13:04

1 Answer 1

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2>&1 duplicates standard output as standard error. </dev/null redirects standard input to the null character special device, eof is encountered immediately when reading. |head -n1 pipes standard output to the command, thus the first line is printed, and lines after the first are discarded.

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