Question

The error message always gets printed to the terminal whenever I get an error in bash shell (e.g. poor syntax)

$ totem Desktop/songs/song1.mp3
** Message: Error: Resource not found.
gstfilesrc.c(1055): gst_file_src_start (): /GstPlayBin2:play/GstURIDecodeBin:uridecodebin0/GstFileSrc:source:
No such file "/home/me/Desktop/songs/song1.mp3"

So what is the purpose of redirecting stderr to stdout if stderr gets printed to terminal by default?

$ command-name 2>&1

Answer 1

By default, both stdout and stderr are directed to the terminal. If you redirect stderr to stdout, then it also goes to the terminal.

If you want to get rid of the stderr output, redirect it to the void:

$ command-name 2> /dev/null