What does the shell do when you use > file.txt before a command?

• A. Redirects standard input to file.txt
• B. Redirects standard output to file.txt
• C. Redirects standard error to file.txt
• D. Redirects standard output to file.txt

Answer: (D)

Redirecting output with the > operator sends the command’s standard output to a file instead of the screen. Before the command runs, the shell opens file.txt for writing, truncates it if it already exists (or creates it if it doesn’t), and connects the process’s stdout (file descriptor 1) to that file. As a result, any normal output from the command goes into file.txt. If you want to append instead of overwriting, use >>; to redirect errors as well, use 2> for standard error or combine streams with >file 2>&1.