title: What does "< /dev/null >& /dev/null" at the end of a command do?
body: <p>One of the scripts I run over ssh was hanging and I found a solution for it on this site:
  <a href="http://www.snailbook.com/faq/background-jobs.auto.html">http://www.snailbook.com/faq/background-jobs.auto.html</a></p>
  
  <p>The site resolves the problem by adding this to the end of the command:</p>
  
  <pre><code>xterm &lt; /dev/null &gt;&amp; /dev/null &amp;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I think I know what part of it does, but can someone help explain?</p>
  
  <p>The first part:</p>
  
  <pre><code># For stdin, read from /dev/null
  &lt; /dev/null
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The second part:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;&amp; /dev/null
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What does <code>&gt;&amp;</code> do? I've seen <code>2&gt;&amp;1</code> which is direct STDERR to STDOUT, but when there are no numbers, does that mean redirect everything to <code>/dev/null</code>?</p>