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If I do this:

iptables -nvL > output.txt

output.txt ends up empty. If I do:

iptables -nvL >> output.txt

It works fine. Appending is working, but overwriting is not. Why?

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Are you running both as root and/or with sudo? What are the permissions on the directory and file? – OldTimer Aug 26 '11 at 19:27
I am running with root. – Chankey Pathak Aug 26 '11 at 19:29
3  
Did you actually typo the name (ouput.txt), or is that just in the question? – Michael Mrozek♦ Aug 26 '11 at 19:48
Yes I typed the correct name. – Chankey Pathak Aug 29 '11 at 16:09

1 Answer

up vote 3 down vote

You probably have the noclobber option enabled in your shell. This protects existing files from being overwritten by output redirection. To disable it, run set +o noclobber. Probably noclobber is set somewhere in your .bashrc, /etc/profile or other equivalent file.

See also man set or man bash for details.

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That would result in the file getting zeroed out? That seems like a poor protection – Michael Mrozek♦ Aug 28 '11 at 0:07
1  
No, empty file is not the result of noclobber but of the fact that it has been created earlier and nothing was written to it. – rozcietrzewiacz Aug 28 '11 at 0:15

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