40.7 Making Your at Jobs Quiet

Most modern versions of at will mail (1.33 ) you any output that your commands make. Some people try the command line below to throw that output into the UNIX trash can, /dev/null (13.14 ) :

>&
 

% at \f[CBO]sometime... >& /dev/null

     ...wrong

But that won't work because it throws away the output of the at command itself. at just saves your job in a file to be run later by a system program. The commands you want quiet are the commands stored in that file. One way to keep at quiet, if you use the C shell, is:

% at 

sometime

...


at> some command

 >& /dev/null


at> another command

 >& /dev/null


at> ...etc...

 >& /dev/null


at> [CTRL-d]

The Bourne shell makes it easier:

exec >
 

$ at 

sometime

...


at> exec >

 /dev/null 2>&1


at> some command


at> another command


at> ...etc...


at> [CTRL-d]

Two notes:

• Some versions of at have a -s option that runs your job with the Bourne shell.

• Not all versions of at prompt you with at> as I showed above.