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Old 05-23-2017, 11:43 PM   #1
NotionCommotion
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cat with a tee?


I often use the following, however, it doesn't work very well when root access is needed and I don't want to su as root.
Code:
cat > /path/to/my/file.conf <<'EoT'
bla
bla bal
bla
EoT
Could you explain what this is doing?
Code:
cat <<EoT | sudo tee -a /path/to/my/file.conf
bla
bla bal
bla
EoT
 
Old 05-24-2017, 12:02 AM   #2
AwesomeMachine
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tee writes to 2 different outputs, usually STDOUT and a file. The "-a" means to append to the given file, so if it already has contents, tee will write the new output below the existing contents.
 
Old 05-24-2017, 12:51 AM   #3
Turbocapitalist
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In the first example of a here document, the redirection is happening as the current account. If you want it to also happen under the effects of sudo, presumably as root, then you'd would have needed to wrap it in a shell:

Code:
sh -c "cat > /path/to/my/file.conf <<'EoT'
bla
bla bal
bla
EoT
"
But that puts the here document under root as well. If you use the sudo method, only tee runs under root and thus the file it writes can be owned by root.
 
Old 05-24-2017, 12:46 PM   #4
RandomTroll
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http://98.131.64.253/images/cat-t-shirt.jpg
 
Old 05-26-2017, 12:02 PM   #5
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Using tee is like a redirect ">" to a file, but still echoes the output to the terminal to view it. I've used it to record a .WAV file and output a .mp3 at the same time. The -a appends so it's like a ">>" redirect. You don't "have to" use tee. Baring my use of outputting two media types in one pass at the same time. If the output to STDOUT is ignored, you can just redirect. It's kind of like having tail -f on a file and outputting to that file in two terminals, without needing two terminals.

The sudo in the example is to ensure permissions to write to that file. It's not the ONLY way to achieve permissions. But it's one of the few that doesn't require a lot of setup and customization.

$ arecord -D default -d 10 -c 2 -r 48000 -f S16_LE -t wav - | tee test.wav | lame -b 320 -q 0 - test.mp3
 
  


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