What does >& mean in command?

Question

module load PrgEnv/intel/default >& /dev/null

What is the meaning of >& in this command?

Answer 1

Let's look it up in man bash:

   Redirecting Standard Output and Standard Error
   This construct allows both the standard output (file descriptor 1) and the  stan‐
   dard  error output (file descriptor 2) to be redirected to the file whose name is
   the expansion of word.

   There are two formats for redirecting standard output and standard error:

          &>word
   and
          >&word

   Of the two forms, the first is preferred.  This is semantically equivalent to

          >word 2>&1

In other words, >& /dev/null suppresses both output and error/informational messages from the command.