thank you. this does work!
what does /dev/null stand for?
what does 2 and &1 stand for
how to interpret this command
I am new to perl. I am sorry if these questions sound trivial
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This is not Perl, this is shell. When you call the system function, you pass a string that is executed by a shell (usually /bin/sh) just like you called
/bin/sh -c your-command-here
/dev/null is a special device that acts like a well for your data - it silently eats them and throws them into nowhere. Useful for problems, ain't it? :)
2>&1 redirects standard error (file descriptor 2, where error messages usually are written) to standard output (file descriptor 1, where normal messages are usually printed). I don't know what the Anonymous Monk wanted to do, but I bet that he should change the order of redirections:
... >/dev/null 2>&1
Otherwise, you'll have errors on the standard output, and the normal standard output thrown away (while I think that he inteded to throw away both of them).
You can learn a bunch of things about the shell viewing the bash man page, anyway.
Flavio
Don't fool yourself.
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