The Linux tee command is used to process the standard input and copy the input data into another output or a file. The tee command is generally used with other commands in order to save their input into a file and also redirect into the other commands for processing.
tee Command Syntax
The Linux tee command has the following syntax. The tee command standard input feed by a previous command output by using pipe | in general.
tee OPTION FILE- OPTION is used to specify different behaviors for the tee command. This is optional.
- FILE is the file where the tee command input is written. This is required. Also, multiple file names can be used by separating them with spaces.
Print tee Command Help
Even tee is a very simple command we may need to list helpful information about it. The –help option is used to display help information of the tee command.
tee --help
Write Command Output Into A File
The most popular and basic usage of the tee command is writing the previous command output into a file. The previous command output stream is redirected into the tee command input stream. The tee commands both print this input and also writes it into the specified file.
ls -l | tee file.txtWrite Command Output Into Multiple Files
The tee command can be used to put a command output into multiple files with the same output. We will just provide the file names by separating them with spaces.
ls -l | tee file.txt data.txt list.txtAppend Command Output Into A File
Another useful feature of the tee command is appending the input into the existing file. This does not overwrite the file output into the existing. The -a option is used to append tee command input into the specified file.
ls -l | tee -a file.txtAlternatively the input can be appended into multiple files like below.
ls -l | tee -a file.txt data.txt list.txtDelete Command Output or Do Not Display
The tee can be used to delete a specific command output by redirecting into the /dev/null device.
ls -l | tee /dev/nullIgnore Interrupts
While working with the tee command the interrupt signals or SIGINT can be ignored by using the -i option. This prevents user CTRL+C keyboard shortcut.
ls -l | tee -i list.txtChained Tee Commands
The tee command can be used multiple times by chaining multiple tee commands. This has the same effect by providing multiple files into single tee command.
ls -l | tee file.txt | tee data.txt | tee list.txt