Echo into a file

I've found 2 slightly different syntaxes for redirecting the output of echo into a file on the shell:

Code:

echo "something" > file

and

Code:

echo "something" >> file

What's the difference between these 2 commands?

 

Code:

echo "something" > file

means that everything that's in "file" will be deleted, and "something" will be written to it (which means that "something" will be right at the beginning of "file".

Code:

echo "something" >> file

means that "something" will be appended to "file", so nothing will be deleted from "file", and "something will be at the end of "file".

"file" will be created if it doesn't exist in both cases.

A little example:

We have the file "file" with the following contents:

Code:

line 1
line 2
line 3

Now when you execute the command

Code:

echo "something" > file

the content of "file" will be

Code:

something

When you run

Code:

echo "something" >> file

instead, the content of "file" will be

Code:

line 1
line 2
line 3
something

jojo

 

>> means append

You are just addiing to the file as stated above.

 

thank you for the informative post and keep up the good work!

 

Echo to another server

Just wondering how to echo to another (fingerprinted) server?

Code:

echo "something" >> user@server:file

or

Code:

ssh user@server echo "something" >> file

Doesn't seem to work..

 

use variable:
X_X="echo something >> file"
ssh user@server $X_X