Redirect all output to file and run in background

Solution

$ command-to-run arguments > output_file 2>&1 &

Explanation

• > is used to redirect the command’s (command-to-run) output to the output file (output_file) and replace the file’s current content. If you want to append to the file’s current content you can use the >> operator instead.
• 2>&1 – redirects stderr to “where stdout is currently going”. In our case that is output_file. In other words the &1 reuses the file descriptor that stdout is currently using.
• & tells our command to run in the background.