Question

I’m writing a bash script that I want by default to output everything into a log file. However, I also want the ability to output it to the calling terminal by request (e.g. parameter) INSTEAD of the log file (so tee is out I believe). Does anyone know of a simple way to do this?

It would be nice if the parameter could be a custom log file OR a reference to a calling terminal.

I’m thinking along the lines of this: (pseudo-code)

#!/bin/bash

if [ ! $1 ]; then
    OUT="default.log"
else
    OUT=$1
fi

#then do this to every call in the script
commands [param] [param] >> ${OUT}

I guess more of what I am asking is, is there an easy way to reference the current terminal for output to? So I could do ./script.sh, ./script.sh custom.log or script.sh TERMINAL?

Answer 1

Using /dev/stdout as a filename would do what you want.