Redirect STDERR / STDOUT of a process AFTER it's been started, using command line?

Ian_Kelling_14456 0
Viewed 88460

In the shell you can do redirection, > <, etc., but how about AFTER a program is started?

Here's how I came to ask this question, a program running in the background of my terminal keeps outputting annoying text. It's an important process so I have to open another shell to avoid the text. I'd like to be able to >/dev/null or some other redirection so I can keep working in the same shell.

shell linux bash
8 Answers

Short of closing and reopening your tty (i.e. logging off and back on, which may also terminate some of your background processes in the process) you only have one choice left:

  • attach to the process in question using gdb, and run:
    • p dup2(open("/dev/null", 0), 1)
    • p dup2(open("/dev/null", 0), 2)
    • detach
    • quit

e.g.:

$ tail -f /var/log/lastlog &
[1] 5636

$ ls -l /proc/5636/fd
total 0
lrwx------ 1 myuser myuser 64 Feb 27 07:36 0 -> /dev/pts/0
lrwx------ 1 myuser myuser 64 Feb 27 07:36 1 -> /dev/pts/0
lrwx------ 1 myuser myuser 64 Feb 27 07:36 2 -> /dev/pts/0
lr-x------ 1 myuser myuser 64 Feb 27 07:36 3 -> /var/log/lastlog

$ gdb -p 5636
GNU gdb 6.8-debian
Copyright (C) 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.  Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "x86_64-linux-gnu".
Attaching to process 5636
Reading symbols from /usr/bin/tail...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Reading symbols from /lib/librt.so.1...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib/librt.so.1
Reading symbols from /lib/libc.so.6...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib/libc.so.6
Reading symbols from /lib/libpthread.so.0...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
[New Thread 0x7f3c8f5a66e0 (LWP 5636)]
Loaded symbols for /lib/libpthread.so.0
Reading symbols from /lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2

(no debugging symbols found)
0x00007f3c8eec7b50 in nanosleep () from /lib/libc.so.6

(gdb) p dup2(open("/dev/null",0),1)
[Switching to Thread 0x7f3c8f5a66e0 (LWP 5636)]
$1 = 1

(gdb) p dup2(open("/dev/null",0),2)
$2 = 2

(gdb) detach
Detaching from program: /usr/bin/tail, process 5636

(gdb) quit

$ ls -l /proc/5636/fd
total 0
lrwx------ 1 myuser myuser 64 Feb 27 07:36 0 -> /dev/pts/0
lrwx------ 1 myuser myuser 64 Feb 27 07:36 1 -> /dev/null
lrwx------ 1 myuser myuser 64 Feb 27 07:36 2 -> /dev/null
lr-x------ 1 myuser myuser 64 Feb 27 07:36 3 -> /var/log/lastlog
lr-x------ 1 myuser myuser 64 Feb 27 07:36 4 -> /dev/null
lr-x------ 1 myuser myuser 64 Feb 27 07:36 5 -> /dev/null

You may also consider:

  • using screen; screen provides several virtual TTYs you can switch between without having to open new SSH/telnet/etc, sessions
  • using nohup; this allows you to close and reopen your session without losing any background processes in the... process.
Vlad_R_665160

Not a direct answer to your question, but it's a technique I've been finding useful over the last few days: Run the initial command using 'screen', and then detach.

Roger_Lipscombe_84460

You can use reredirect (https://github.com/jerome-pouiller/reredirect/).

Type

reredirect -m FILE PID

and outputs (standard and error) will be written in FILE.

reredirect README also explains how to restore original state of process, how to redirect to another command or to redirect only stdout or stderr.

reredirect also provide a script called relink that allows to redirect to current terminal:

relink PID
relink PID | grep usefull_content

(reredirect seems to have same features than Dupx described in another answer but, it does not depends on Gdb).

user_3017170
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