Re: Troubles redirecting git output
On 2021-07-09 7:59 a.m., Baptiste Chocot wrote:
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> Hello guys, hope you're doing great.
>
> I'm reaching out today because I cannot find a fix for my issue. I'm
> using git 2.25.1 from the debian repo. I'm having difficulties to
> redirect git stderr, here is an example:
>
> ---
> $ git init
> Initialized empty lol/.git/
> $ git branch >&2 2>/dev/null
Try swapping the two redirections:
git branch 2>/dev/null >&2
I believe that standard shell behaviour is to apply a redirection
immediately when it appears while parsing the command. I believe that
although the man pages say "redirect" internally the code just
*replaces* the old file descriptor, e.g. basically something equivalent to
stdout = 2
So when you say
git branch >&2 2>/dev/null
The shell sees
">&2" -- The shell redirects stdout to file descriptor 2.
"2>/dev/null" -- The shell opens /dev/null (as descriptor 3) and *replaces* descriptor 2 with the new descriptor. But at this point, stdout is still being sent to the original descriptor 2.
When I redirect, I'm in the habit of setting stdout first, then set
stderr to stdout. The numerical ordering helps me avoid this mistake:
git branch >/dev/null 2>&1
M.
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> fatal: your current branch 'master' does not have any commits yet
> ---
>
> Is this an expected behavior? I find it weird not to be able to silent
> git. Are you aware of a workaround? I've been browsing a bit but did not
> find an answer yet.
>
> Thanks for your time!
>
> Baptiste
>
