I find this construct quite interesting.... help_msg() { >&$1 echo "Usage: $0 [file.c... >&$1 echo "Execute C progams from the command line."

I find this construct quite interesting.... help_msg() { >&$1 echo "Usage: $0 [file.c... >&$1 echo "Execute C progams from the command line." ... } for that it puts the redirection at the beginning of the line, which is unusual and I didn't even realize until now that it's valid. ( example: >&55 redirects stdout to filescriptor number 55, and here >&$1 redirects stdout of echo to the filedescriptor number given as the first argument to the function) # help if we have no arguments and no stdin if [ $# -eq 0 ] && [ -t 0 ]; then help_msg 2 # <--- NOTE 2 = stderr exit 1 fi # help if we get the flags if [ "$1" == "--help" ] || [ "$1" == "-h" ]; then help_msg 1 - <--- NOTE 1 = stdout exit 0 fi And second, that the author seems to switch between outputting the help_msg on stdout or stderr, depending on if stdout exists. I always was under the impression that only the actual script result ought to go to stdout, and personally I always put out general debugging, error messages, but also the usage, unconditionally to stderr.