In Bash, one can direct the output of a function to multiple destinations. By default, the output will be directed to the terminal, in two different channels: Standard Output (1) and Standard Error (2).
Directing the output to a file
function arguments > Path/to/File
Note that this will create a new file or overwrite an existing file.
Changing output channels
function arguments 1>&2
This, for example, will redirect the standard output of the command to standard error.
Negating output
function arguments #>&-
A special case of changing channels, this will redirect the # (any number, pick 1 for stdoutput) to nowhere, so you get rid of the output.
Preserving colour coding
Functions such as ls or grep have very useful colour coding, which, because of the implied --color=auto when calling them, gets lost when redirecting output through pipes or a script. However, it can be maintained by specifying --color (the equivalent of --color=always).
