If a command produces no standard error, what will file.txt contain after using 2> file.txt?

• A. The command's standard output
• B. A blank file
• C. The command's standard error
• D. The shell prompt

Answer: (B)

2> redirects the standard error stream (stderr) to a file. If the command writes nothing to stderr, there’s nothing to store, but the redirection still creates the file, so file.txt ends up empty (zero bytes). The command’s standard output is not affected by this redirection and will still display on the screen unless stdout is redirected as well. For contrast, if there were error messages, they would appear in file.txt.