How to run all shell commands in background by default with the output redirected as well?

Question

I am looking for a way when I don't have to type:

emacs abc.txt >/tmp/emacs.log 2>&1 &

Instead just emacs command works like above.

All commands should be treated this way by default. Is there a way to convert bash to behave this way? Or is there a shell that does this by default?

Making all commands behave this way would be terrible. All output redirected to file. Then you want to view that file, I suppose using `cat` or `tail`? Nope, their output also goes to that same file. You see the problem? Maybe your plan is to open a different shell that doesn't have this redirection and view file contents from there? — TCvD, Dec 18 '20 at 19:18

that other guy · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-18T19:20:58.090

4

I would create a file wtfmode containing:

realpath="$PATH"
PATH="/"
command_not_found_handle() (
    cmd=${1##*/}
    PATH=$realpath
    "$@" > "/tmp/$cmd.log" 2>&1 &
)

Then source wtfmode manually to enable it, since putting it in .bashrc would could things very awkward.

Here's an example:

$ source wtfmode
$ ls
$ whoami
$ vim wtfmode
$ asdfasdfasdfsasdfasdf
$ ^C
$ ^C

edited Dec 18 '20 at 19:20

answered Dec 18 '20 at 19:14

that other guy

1

I'd give this answer another + if I could. Didn't know about `command_not_found_handle`. – TCvD Dec 18 '20 at 19:20
@CharlesDuffy Hah, I didn't know that either, so I used an explicit subshell here – that other guy Dec 18 '20 at 20:19
Oh! I missed the `(` vs `{`, so had a completely different-and-wrong theory about why this worked. :) – Charles Duffy Dec 18 '20 at 20:21
You were still right, I checked :P – that other guy Dec 18 '20 at 20:23
@thatotherguy Could you pl explain the ${1##*/} and thanks for the answer. I tried to figure that out but the documentation was not very helpful and easy to find. – Champ Dec 20 '20 at 07:47
1

See [this question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2059794/what-is-the-meaning-of-the-0-syntax-with-variable-braces-and-hash-chara) – that other guy Dec 20 '20 at 08:02

1 Answers1