Day 9 – Linux Output Redirection and Error Logs

---

On Day 9 of my DevOps journey, I focused on redirecting output, logging errors, generating basic system reports, and searching files effectively with grep, find, and locate.

---

Commands I Practiced

📄 Output Redirection & System Info Logging

• Created a basic system status report:

    echo "########################################" > /tmp/sysinfo.txt
    date >> /tmp/sysinfo.txt
    echo "########################################" >> /tmp/sysinfo.txt
    uptime >> /tmp/sysinfo.txt
    free -m >> /tmp/sysinfo.txt
    df -h >> /tmp/sysinfo.txt
  

• Redirected output:

    uptime > /tmp/sysinfo.txt
    uptime >> /tmp/sysinfo.txt
  

  Overwrote and appended to files using:

  • > for overwrite

  • >> for append

  • 2>> for error loggin

Error Redirection

Captured command errors:

    freeeee -m 2>> /tmp/error.log
    freesdsd -m &>> /tmp/error.log
    cat /tmp/error.log

Combined standard output and error:

    free -m &>> /tmp/error.log

📊 Text & File Utilities

• Counted lines:

• Grep & pipe combinations:

• File search:

• Installed and used mlocate:

  • searches a prebuilt database rather than scanning the filesystem each time, making searches very quick.

🚀 Key Learnings

✅ Redirection is crucial for logging and automation
✅ 2>> and &>> help track and isolate errors
✅ grep, find, and locate are essential for sysadmin file discovery
✅ Created a real-world sysinfo.txt file combining date, uptime, memory, and disk usage

---