Shell Meta characters For Linux

Meta characters - These are special characters that are recognised by the shell.

 * - matches 0 or more characters.

     eg: ls *.c

? - matches any single character

    eg: ls ab?.c

[] - This will match any single character in the range.

     eg: ls tut[0-9].m

     This will find files such as tut0.m, tut9.m etc.,

> - Redirect standard output to a file.

    echo “hello world” > hello.txt

>> - Appends standard output to a file.

    eg: echo “Hello Again” >> hello.txt

< - Takes standard input from a file

| - This is pipe character. Sends the output of first command as input for the

second command.

mkdir – make directory

     usage: mkdir <dirname>

     eg: mkdir -p path/test/test1

     -p -> no error if existing, make parent directories as needed

cd - change directories

    Use cd to change directories. Type cd followed by the name of a directory to

access that directory.

mv - change the name of a directory

Type mv followed by the current name of a directory and the new name of

the directory.

    Ex: mv testdir newnamedir

cp - copy files and directories

usage: cp source destination

     cp -i myfile yourfile

     With the "-i" option, if the file "yourfile" exists, you will be prompted before it is

overwritten.

     cp -r srcdir destdir

     Copy all files from the directory "srcdir" to the directory "destdir" recursively.

rmdir - Remove an existing directory

rm - remove files or directories

Usage: rm -r name

     Removes directories and files within the directories recursively.

Shell Meta characters For Linux