Linux Phrasebook, Second Edition

5. Building Blocks

When you’re young, you learn numbers, and then later you learn how to combine and work with those numbers using symbols such as +, –, ×, and =. So far in this book, you’ve learned several commands, but each one has been run one at a time. Commands can actually be combined in more complex and interesting ways, however, using various symbols such as |, >, >>, <, and even < and > together. In fact, the ability to join commands using those symbols goes a long way to explaining the power of UNIX, as you’ll see. This chapter takes a look at those building blocks that enable you to do some awesomely useful things with the commands you’ve learned and the commands you’ll be examining in greater detail in subsequent chapters.

Run Several ...