The way I read it, the prefix to the > indicates which file descriptor to redirect, and there is just a default that means no indicated file descriptor means st

The way I read it, the prefix to the > indicates which file descriptor to redirect, and there is just a default that means no indicated file descriptor means stdout. So, >foo is the same as 1>foo If you want to get really into the weeds, I think 2>>&1 will create a file called 1, append to a file descriptor makes no sense (or maybe, truncate to a file descriptor makes no sense is maybe what I mean), but why this is the case is probably an oversight 50 years ago in sh, although i'd be surprised if this was codified anywhere, or relied upon in scripts.