title: prevent output from called bash function in subshell
body: <p>If I call a function in bash, and that function itself is designed to output messages to the terminal using printf, how can I suppress that functionality. Allow me to explain further.</p>
  
  <p>Normally I would have a main script. This script calls a function. That function does its normal stuff and outputs to the terminal using printf.</p>
  
  <p>I am trying to create an alternative option where you can say, run that function in the background and don't output anything.</p>
  
  <p>Normally I would think to do the following:</p>
  
  <pre><code>FUNCTION &amp; &gt; /dev/null 2&gt;&amp;1
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This will run the normal function in the background and discard all output.</p>
  
  <p>It seems to work at first. Where the messages usually appear is blank and the main script finishes running. Once back to a prompt though, the function(s) (which is looped for lots of different things) complete and start outputting to the terminal below the prompt.</p>
  
  <p>Thoughts?</p>