Connecting and Expanding Commands

One of the shell's superpowers is the capability to redirect the input and output of commands to and from other commands and files. To make all this magic happen, the shell employs these things called metacharacters. Think of them as special characters with VIP access, designed to link commands or jazz things up a bit.

Metacharacters include the following:

• Pipe character |

• Ampersand &

• Semicolon ;

• Right parenthesis )

• Left parenthesis (

• Less than sign <

• Greater than sign >

In the sections that follow, we'll dive into the art of wielding metacharacters on the command line and reshaping the actions of commands. Strap in!