> sends the standard output of a command to a file. Nothing appears on the screen. The output is in the file:

learner@tidepool:~$ grep ERROR shop.log > errors.txt
learner@tidepool:~$ cat errors.txt
09:30 ERROR printer not found

This works with every command that writes standard output: ls, cat, echo, wc, find.

Use echo and > to put text in a file without an editor:

learner@tidepool:~$ echo "status=open" > status.txt

The rules of >

The shell prepares > first

The shell opens and empties the file before the program starts. Two results of this:

• If the command fails, the file still exists, and it is empty.
• Never send output into the file that the same command reads. grep ERROR shop.log > shop.log empties shop.log before grep reads it.