losing stderr messages

losing stderr messages

[Charles Hallenbeck]

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Hi list,

I am pretty new to zsh, using it for login shells now for about a month. 
My question may be simple.

I have a command sequence which works as expected when bash is the 
default shell (/bin/sh) but which fails to capture stderr output when 
/bin/sh points to zsh. Can someone tell me why, and better yet how to 
find the missing stderr messages? The sequence is:

{ ./configure && make && make install } &> log &

When run under bash, all three tasks are backgrounded, and all output is 
sent to log. Under zsh, all three tasks are backgrounded, but only 
stdout goes to log. stderr output vanishes somewhere. 

Details: zsh 4.3.2 (i686-pc-linux-gnu)
Linux hq 2.6.16 #2 PREEMPT Mon Jun 12 10:37:27 EDT 2006 i686 GNU/Linux
Distro is Debian unstable.

Any insights appreciated.

Chuck

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Re: losing stderr messages

[Frank Terbeck]

Charles Hallenbeck <chuckh@hhs48.com>:
> I have a command sequence which works as expected when bash is the 
> default shell (/bin/sh) but which fails to capture stderr output when 
> /bin/sh points to zsh. Can someone tell me why, and better yet how to 
> find the missing stderr messages? The sequence is:
> 
> { ./configure && make && make install } &> log &
> 
> When run under bash, all three tasks are backgrounded, and all output is 
> sent to log. Under zsh, all three tasks are backgrounded, but only 
> stdout goes to log. stderr output vanishes somewhere. 

Hi Charles,
'&>' is not a POSIX compliant. It's a shortcut that bash uses, AFAIK.
You could use '>&', which is zsh's shortcut, or (if it's a script,
that uses '#!/bin/sh') stay compatible and use: '> log 2>&1 &'.

Regards, Frank

Re: losing stderr messages

[Peter Stephenson]

Charles Hallenbeck wrote:
> I have a command sequence which works as expected when bash is the
> default shell (/bin/sh) but which fails to capture stderr output when
> /bin/sh points to zsh. Can someone tell me why, and better yet how to
> find the missing stderr messages? The sequence is:
> 
> { ./configure && make && make install } &> log &

This should work fine.  Most people would probably write ">&" but they
have the same effect.  The problem may be deeper inside the scripts.

-- 
Peter Stephenson <pws@csr.com>                  Software Engineer
CSR PLC, Churchill House, Cambridge Business Park, Cowley Road
Cambridge, CB4 0WZ, UK                          Tel: +44 (0)1223 692070


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Re: losing stderr messages

[Frank Terbeck]

Peter Stephenson <pws@csr.com>:
> Charles Hallenbeck wrote:
> > I have a command sequence which works as expected when bash is the
> > default shell (/bin/sh) but which fails to capture stderr output when
> > /bin/sh points to zsh. Can someone tell me why, and better yet how to
> > find the missing stderr messages? The sequence is:
> > 
> > { ./configure && make && make install } &> log &
> 
> This should work fine.  Most people would probably write ">&" but they
> have the same effect.  The problem may be deeper inside the scripts.

Oops, I always thought '&>' didn't work in zsh, but I was wrong.
So, the OP can ignore my Statement about that.

Regards, Frank