rerouting STDOUT

[Anonymous Monk]

Hi. I am writing a program where i sometimes have to redirect STDOUT. When i want to restore it I use the following code

open ($oldout,'>&',\*STDOUT);

I found this on the internet and it works fine, but i don't know what '>&' means exactly. I've been going through my documentation but i can't find anything. Can someone explain why the & sign needs to be there? ty.

[LanX]

It's bourne shell syntax for duplicating a filehandle.

After

open ($oldout,'>&',\*STDOUT);

$oldout is a copy of STDOUT, which can now be safely closed or redirected and later restored by reversing the copy.

[vinoth.ree]

You will find the answer from perldoc perldoc:open