How can I launch an AppImage quietly from a shell alias?
Asked by
MellowPine42
I want to create a shell alias that launches an AppImage stored at ~/Documentos/helium/helium-0.10.7.1-x86_64.AppImage. The application prints debug, warning, or error messages while starting, so I'd like to run it silently or redirect that output. Is there a command-line option or shell syntax I can add to the alias?
Answers
You can pass an application-specific option inside the quoted alias, for example:
alias He='~/Documentos/helium/helium-0.10.7.1-x86_64.AppImage -mute'
However, the application itself must support -mute. If it does not recognize that option, it will not silence the output. Shell redirection such as 2>/dev/null is the general way to hide stderr messages.
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If your goal is to hide messages written to standard error, redirect stderr to /dev/null in the alias:
alias He='~/Documentos/helium/helium-0.10.7.1-x86_64.AppImage 2>/dev/null'
This suppresses the messages rather than fixing them, so genuine errors will be hidden too. If you want to keep a record, redirect stderr to a log file instead, such as 2>~/helium.log.
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If the AppImage is not executable yet, make it executable once and then launch it:
chmod +x ~/Documentos/helium/helium-0.10.7.1-x86_64.AppImage
~/Documentos/helium/helium-0.10.7.1-x86_64.AppImage
This only controls whether the file can run; it does not suppress output.
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MellowPine42: Thanks, that solved it. Redirecting stderr to /dev/null gives me the quiet launch I wanted.