A Practical Guide to Linux® Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming

Chapter 5. The Shell

IN THIS CHAPTER

The Command Line 108

Standard Input and Standard Output 113

Redirection 116

Pipes 122

Running a Program in the Background 125

kill: Aborting a Background Job 127

Filename Generation/Pathname Expansion 127

Builtins 132

This chapter takes a close look at the shell and explains how to use some of its features. For example, it discusses command line syntax and also describes how the shell processes a command line and initiates execution of a program. The chapter also explains how to redirect input to and output from a command, construct pipes and filters on the command line, and run a command in the background. The final section covers filename expansion and explains how you can use this feature in your everyday work.