Timestamp ts not working with thinkfan

Question

I wanted the output of thinkfan -n output with a timestamp next to it so I can later analyse the patterns, and found this question: Prepending a timestamp to each line of output from a command, which had a seemingly good answer to this problem, namely using:

thinkfan -n | ts

Except it doesn't work. ts works fine with all other programs I tried, just not with thinkfan. Why doesn't it work with thinkfan? Is there some way to get this to work?

Does `thinkfan -n 2>&1 | ts` work? (or `thinkfan -n |& ts` if you've got a new-enough bash) — derobert, Jan 29 '14 at 17:52
@derobert yes, it does... stupid me :D should have thought of that. — fifaltra, Jan 29 '14 at 17:55
I'll add an answer, then... At least it'll leave a Google artifact for the next person who's having an "is it plugged in?" day. — derobert, Jan 29 '14 at 17:58

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 29 '14 at 18:02

There are two output streams from a program—standard output and standard error. | redirects standard output, leaving standard error going straight to your terminal.

You can redirect both:

thinkfan -n 2>&1 | ts    # should work everywhere
thinkfan -n |& ts        # newer versions of bash, maybe other shells

Timestamp ts not working with thinkfan

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