How can I suppress output of a bash script from within the script itself?

Question

I have a script that connects to an FTP server and while doing so prints out a load of junk.

Is there a way to 'mute' the ouput of the script, similar to windows @echoff ? I saw on another question very similar to mine, not the same though that you could use scriptname >/dev/null . When I put this in my program, obviously replacing scriptname with the name of the script, I got a command not found error message.

Does anyone have any idea why this might be happening.

Answer 1

If you mean you want to redirect all output to /dev/null from within the script , rather than when you execute the script, you can do this:

#!/bin/bash
echo Hi

and run that, like this

./script

then do this

#!/bin/bash
exec 1> /dev/null
echo Hi

and run it again exactly the same way, and see that the output is discarded.

Answer 2

You wouldn't put that in your program, but rather, would use it when calling your program. On the command line:

$ scriptname >/dev/null