Redirecting output from a function block to a file in Linux

Question

Just like we redirect output from a for loop block to a file

for ()
do
  //do something
  //print logs
done >> output file

Similarly in shell script, is there a way to redirect output from a function block to a file, something like this?

function initialize {
         //do something
         //print something
} >> output file

//call initialize

If not, is there some other way I can achieve that? Please note my function has lot of messages to be printed in a log. Redirecting output to a file at every line would result in a lot of I/O utilization.

Answer 1

Do the redirection when you are calling the function.

#!/bin/bash
initialize() {
  echo 'initializing'
  ...
}
#call the function with the redirection you want
initialize >> your_file.log

Alternatively, open a subshell in the function and redirect the subshell output:

#!/bin/bash
initialize() {
  (  # opening the subshell
    echo 'initializing'
    ...
  # closing and redirecting the subshell
  ) >> your_file.log
}
# call the function normally
initialize