I like visible proofs, so here's a test I ran:
(terminal output was as is shown)

[jon@localhost ~]$ rm temp
[jon@localhost ~]$ echo >>temp
[jon@localhost ~]$ echo $?
0
[jon@localhost ~]$ cat temp

[jon@localhost ~]$ echo >>temp 2>&1
[jon@localhost ~]$ echo $?
0
[jon@localhost ~]$ cat temp


[jon@localhost ~]$

as you can see, no errors and the single ">" did not erase the file when used in this manner.  So Mike's script should work as intended
at least if there is no stderr output.

but suppose there was an error? (apologizing for the length of ...)

[jon@localhost ~]$ echo "echo" >test
[jon@localhost ~]$ echo "ls temp2" >>test
[jon@localhost ~]$ # test ls of non-existent file
[jon@localhost ~]$ ls temp2
ls: cannot access temp2: No such file or directory
[jon@localhost ~]$ echo $?
2
[jon@localhost ~]$ # see, we get both an error and stderr message
[jon@localhost ~]$ # so
[jon@localhost ~]$ mv test test.sh
[jon@localhost ~]$ chgmod +x test.sh
bash: chgmod: command not found...
[jon@localhost ~]$ chmod +x test.sh
[jon@localhost ~]$ # i'm not perfect!
[jon@localhost ~]$ rm temp
[jon@localhost ~]$ ./test.sh >>temp
ls: cannot access temp2: No such file or directory
[jon@localhost ~]$ echo $?
2
[jon@localhost ~]$ cat temp

[jon@localhost ~]$ ./test.sh >>temp 2>&1
[jon@localhost ~]$ echo $?
2
[jon@localhost ~]$ cat temp


ls: cannot access temp2: No such file or directory
[jon@localhost ~]$

as you can see, Mike's script will work as he apparently intended,
providing he's using a modern version of bash.

On 08/24/2014 09:56 PM, James Mcphee wrote:

you've said make, append stdout (default file descriptor 1) to file
make.fail, assign stderr (default filedescriptor 2) the same
filedescriptor as stdout.  So...  If the intent was to have both stderr
and stdout append make.fail, then it is correct.


On Sun, Aug 24, 2014 at 6:06 PM, Michael Havens <bmike1@gmail.com

<mailto:bmike1@gmail.com>> wrote:

    what I really need to know is will this:

        make>>make.fail 2>&1

    send stderr and stdout to the file 'make.fail' or did I write it
    incorrectly?

    :-)~MIKE~(-:


    On Sun, Aug 24, 2014 at 2:56 PM, Brian Cluff <brian@snaptek.com

    <mailto:brian@snaptek.com>> wrote:

        the > will delete any file that it points at even if the command
        doesn't actually output anything.  It will even delete the file
        is the command doesn't exist like if you type grep as gerp
         >file, file will still be created/overwritten.

        If you want to make sure that your command doesn't overwrite any
        existing files you have to set the noclobber option like:
        $ set -o noclobber

        A good trick to know:
        You can use the > to delete the contents of a file without
        having to delete and recreate the file by simply doing this:
        $ >yourfile

        Brian Cluff


        On 08/24/2014 02:36 PM, Michael Havens wrote:

            I have a question about redirections:

                 make>>make.fail 2>&1

            tells it make and then to send (>) stderr (2) to stdout (1)
            and also to
            send stdout that way also (&1). finally all of that gets
            sent to a file
            named make.fail (>>). Isn't '>>' actually 'append' whereas
            '>' would
            work just as well so long as the file didn't already exist?
            If the file
            did exist would I get an error or would the file be overwritten?
            :-)~MIKE~(-:

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