automatically redirect output to /dev/null

Question

I have a simple script with a lot of output:

#!/bin/bash
{
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade
} 2>&1

Starting it with ./script.sh >/dev/null 2>&1 silences it.

Can I silence the script from the inside?

Answer 1

You can add the redirection in your script:

--EDIT-- after Jeff Schaller comment

#!/bin/bash
# case 1: if you want to hide all message even errors
{
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade
} > /dev/null 2>&1


#!/bin/bash
# case 2: if you want to hide all messages but errors
{
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade
} > /dev/null 

Answer 2

This is what the bash built-in command exec is for (although it can perform other actions as well).

Excerpted from man bash on a CentOS 6.6 box:

   exec [-cl] [-a name] [command [arguments]]
          ...
          If command is not specified, any redirections take effect in the
          current shell, and the return status is 0.  If there is a 
          redirection error, the return status is 1.

So what you're looking for is exec >/dev/null 2>&1. You can use a getopts wrapper to only silence the script if the -q option is passed:

#!/bin/bash

getopts :q opt
case $opt in
  q)
    exec >/dev/null 2>&1
    ;;
esac
shift "$((OPTIND-1))"

You don't need the getopts wrapper, but it might be nice. Either way, this is much cleaner than sticking your whole script in curly braces. You can also use exec to append output to a logfile:

exec 2>>/var/myscript_errors.log
exec >>/var/myscript_output.log

You get the idea. Very handy tool.