Created SC2261 (markdown)

Vidar Holen
2020-05-03 12:29:16 -07:00
parent ae018d0404
commit 9d34c3a39e

34
SC2261.md Normal file

@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
## Multiple redirections compete for stdout. Use cat, tee, or pass filenames instead.
(or `stdin`, or `stderr`, or `FD 3`)
### Problematic code:
```sh
grep foo < input1 < input2 > output1 > output2 > output3
```
### Correct code:
```sh
# Merge inputs into a single stream, write outputs individually
cat input1 input2 | grep foo | tee output1 output2 > output3
# Pass inputs as filenames, write outputs individually
grep foo input1 input2 | tee output1 output2 > output3
```
### Rationale:
A file descriptor, whether stdin, stdout, stderr, or non-standard ones, can only point to a single file/pipe.
For input, many commands support processing multiple filenames. In these cases you can just specify the filenames instead of redirecting. Alternatively, you can use `cat` to merge multiple filenames into a single stream.
For output, you can use `tee` to write to multiple output sinks in parallel.
### Exceptions:
Zsh will automatically `cat` inputs and `tee` outputs, but none of the shells supported by ShellCheck do.
### Related resources:
* Help by adding links to BashFAQ, StackOverflow, man pages, POSIX, etc!