How to redirect the output of an application in background to /dev/null

You use:

yourcommand  > /dev/null 2>&1

If it should run in the Background add an &

yourcommand > /dev/null 2>&1 &

>/dev/null 2>&1 means redirect stdout to /dev/null AND stderr to the place where stdout points at that time

If you want stderr to occur on console and only stdout going to /dev/null you can use:

yourcommand 2>&1 > /dev/null

In this case stderr is redirected to stdout (e.g. your console) and afterwards the original stdout is redirected to /dev/null

If the program should not terminate you can use:

nohup yourcommand &

Without any parameter all output lands in nohup.out

These will also redirect both:

yourcommand  &> /dev/null

yourcommand  >& /dev/null

though the bash manual says the first is preferred.