What is the function of the tee command?

The tee command is designed to read from standard input and write the output simultaneously to one or more files as well as to standard output. This functionality is particularly useful in shell scripting and data processing, allowing users to see the output of a command on the terminal while also saving that output to a file for later use. For instance, using tee can help capture the results of a command that generates a lot of output without needing to redirect all the output to a file and then view it separately.

Other options describe functionalities that are handled by different commands in the Linux environment. For example, displaying network configurations is typically accomplished using commands like ifconfig or ip. Killing unresponsive processes is managed with commands such as kill or killall, which are designed to terminate processes by their process IDs. Encrypting files for secure transfer is usually done using tools such as gpg or openssl, which provide the necessary capabilities for file encryption and secure communication. Thus, the functionality of the tee command is distinctly focused on input/output operations rather than the other tasks mentioned.