Metacharacter Summary
Table 3.12 lists the metacharacters that appeared in this chapter, and their purpose.
Metacharacters Used in GNU and Unix Commands
Metacharacter |
Purpose |
' ' |
Cancel the special meaning of anything but the backquote |
" " |
Cancel the special meaning of most characters |
$ |
Treat the next string as a variable |
$() |
Allow a command to be treated as a variable |
* |
Any number of characters |
; |
Separate dissimilar commands |
? |
Any single character |
[ ] |
Any of the enclosed characters |
\ |
Treat the next character literally |
´ ´ |
Execute the enclosed command |
| |
Allow one command's output to be the next command's input |
< |
Input redirection |
<< |
"Here" |
> |
Output redirection |
>> |
Output append |