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.