How to resolve the issue of an empty file when redirecting with nohup in Linux?
There could be several possible reasons why a file is empty when using the nohup command in Linux and redirecting the output to a file, and some ways to resolve them.
- The command did not generate any output: check if the command is executing correctly and producing output. You can try running the command directly in the terminal to see if there is output. If the command still does not produce any output, then the redirected file will be empty. The solution is to ensure that the command is able to generate output.
- File permission issue: Check if the specified output file has the correct permissions to allow for writing operations. You can use the ls -l command to check the file permissions and use the chmod command to modify them.
- File path issue: Check if the specified output file path is correct. Make sure that the file path is either an absolute path or a correct path relative to the current working directory.
- By default, the redirection operator “>” only redirects standard output (stdout) and not standard error output (stderr). If a command’s output is through standard error output, the redirected file will be empty. To redirect standard error output to a file as well, you can use the following command:
- Run the command in the background and redirect its output to a file called output.txt while combining standard output and standard error.
- Output from commands is buffered: some commands will buffer their output until the buffer is full or until a certain condition is met before flushing it to a file. You can try using the stdbuf or unbuffer command to disable output buffering, for example:
- Run the command with the output redirected to output.txt using the nohup and stdbuf options.
- Perhaps
- Run the command in the background and save the output to a file called output.txt without buffering.
By examining the potential reasons listed above and addressing them one by one, you should be able to resolve the issue of an empty redirection file in Linux’s nohup.