Redirection and 2>&1

In Unix, one often finds a input and output redirection "<", ">", ">>". These are simple to understand.

Users can also do redirect one stream into another stream. This is done by using standard file descriptors. So, if someone wants to redirect all standard errors to whereever standard output is going, add 2>&1 in the end of the command. 2>&1 means send the standard errors to where standard output is going. 2 is the default file descriptor for stderr and 1 for stdout. If certain command is redirecting stdout to, say some file, stderr still goes to default screen. If you want stderr also to be sent to the file where stdout is going, use 2>&1.
Similarly, you can also redirect stdout to whereever stderr is going by 1>&2.

Also, remember that "some unix command > some_file 2>&1" is different from "some unix command 2>&1 > some_file". The first one redirects stderr to some_file, whereas the second won't.