EXPLAIN: Piping Commands Together in GNU/Linux

I’ve discussed redirection which is the process of telling a command line application to either write its output or take its input from a stream other than what it normally would. The ls command normally writes its output to the screen, for example, but by using redirection you can redirect that output to a file instead.

The next logical step from redirection is piping. Since we’ve established that most command line applications can have their input and output redirected, it stands to reason that those commands don’t actually care where their input comes from or where their output goes. This opens up the possibility of telling an application to use the output from one application as its input. Chaining applications together like this is accomplished using the pip ‘|’ symbol.

I sat down to write this entry and then realized I had already done so many months ago. So, instead of copying myself, read my original entry on piping here.