Ubuntu – How to hide terminal output when executing a command

command line

When I launch certain programs from the command line like eclipse and document viewer in 11.10 it spews a load of information that seems inconsequential.

Also when they are run in the background they sometimes continue to produce output to the terminal which I am currently working on, which is irritating.

I would like them just launch and keep the background stuff in the background. My reasoning is that if you launch these programs through the GUI (eg double clicking on an icon) these messages are never shown to me, so I don't need them in the command line.

Best Answer

If you can avoid writing stuff in the console, it depends on how output from the program is created. If it is streamed to standard output, then it is just enough to do

$ eclipse >/dev/null

and no output should be made.

To suppress error messages as well:

$ eclipse >/dev/null 2>&1

Or in bash, simply:

$ eclipse &>/dev/null

But if they do it somehow differently then it might be a problem to stop it from writing in the console.

if possible use the solution given by MuffinStateWide

Related Solutions

Terminal Output – How to Really Hide Terminal Output

What you are seeing are the errors, being printed to stderr (standard error). By default stderr is printed to the terminal used to start the program. We can change this easily though, to point to /dev/null, which is basically a black hole. It's a device that doesn't do anything, so when you write to it, nothing actually happens. The following command will redirect ALL output (stderr and stdout) to /dev/null and then give you back your terminal.

firefox &> /dev/null &

The &> is the redirector, /dev/null is where we are redirecting to, and the last & means to "background" the process, so we can have our terminal back.

On a side note, if you ever want to bring a backgrounded program back to the terminal, you can use the fg (short for foreground) command to bring it back. And if you type the combination of keys Ctrl+Z you will be able to "suspend" the process, then you can type bg to send it back to background.

Command-Line – Stop Terminal Auto Executing When Pasting Command

There's no auto execution. You probably are also copying a line break (or more) after the command.

If you paste a command with a break, the shell (command line) thinks that you hit the break (Enter, Return) button by yourself.

This answer only explains why OP is getting the undesired behaviour. However, in another answer, there is a real solution to the OP’s problem.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Terminal Output – How to Really Hide Terminal Output

Command-Line – Stop Terminal Auto Executing When Pasting Command

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