The single right angle bracket will overwrite a file if it is used to redirect output. To avoid this you can use the double right-angle bracket (>>) to append the output of a command to an existing file.

Examples

$ cal 9 1999 > sept.oct

$ cat sept.oct

Sept 1999

S M Tu W Th F S
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31

$ cal 10 1999>> sept.oct

$ cat sept.oct

Sept 1999

S M Tu W Th F S
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31

Oct 1999

S M Tu W Th F S
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30

$