Add to a File with >> (Linux Essentials)

> empties the file first. To add to a file, use >>. It writes after the last line, and the old text stays.

	The file does not exist	The file exists
`>`	Makes it	Empties it, then writes
`>>`	Makes it	Writes after the last line

mon: anawas in the file

tue: benadded at the end

echo "tue: ben" >> rota.txt

text

learner@tidepool:~$ cat rota.txt
mon: ana
learner@tidepool:~$ echo "tue: ben" >> rota.txt
learner@tidepool:~$ cat rota.txt
mon: ana
tue: ben

Collect output from more than one command

Make a report from several commands. Use > for the first command, then >> for each command after it:

text

learner@tidepool:~$ grep ERROR till.log > ~/reports/errors.txt
learner@tidepool:~$ grep ERROR web.log >> ~/reports/errors.txt

The first > empties the file, so that nothing from yesterday stays in the report.