Linux tee command
On Unix-like operating systems, the tee command reads from standard input, and writes to files or standard output.
This page covers the GNU/Linux version of tee.
Description
The tee command is named after the T-splitter in plumbing, which splits water into two directions and is shaped like an uppercase T.
tee copies data from standard input to each FILE, and also to standard output. In effect, tee duplicates its input, routing it to multiple outputs at once.
Syntax
tee [OPTION]... [FILE]...
Options
| -a, --append | Append to the given FILEs. Do not overwrite. |
| -i, --ignore-interrupts | Ignore interrupt signals. |
| --help | Display a help message, and exit. |
| --version | Display version information, and exit. |
If a FILE is specified as a dash ("-"), tee writes again to standard output.
Examples
ls -1 *.txt | wc -l | tee count.txt
In the above example, the ls command lists all files in the current directory that have the file name extension .txt, one file per line; this output is piped to wc, which counts the lines and outputs the number; this output is piped to tee, which writes the output to the terminal, and writes the same information to the file count.txt. If count.txt already exists, it is overwritten.
Related commands
cat — Output the contents of a file.