command_2.
md 2025-10-24
Redirection
By default every command reads input from the terminal (stdin), writes output to the terminal (stdout),
and writes errors to the terminal (stderr).
These three streams are open for every process.
Standard streams
stdin — standard input (file descriptor 0)
stdout — standard output (file descriptor 1)
stderr — standard error (file descriptor 2)
There are Three Types of redirection
Input redirection
Read input from a file instead of stdin:
To do input redirection '<' symbol is used
command < file # read input from file
Output redirection
Write stdout to a file instead of the terminal [Link] will be written into file instead of stdout
To do output redirection '>' or '>>' symbol is used
command > file # overwrite file
command >> file # append to file
Error redirection
Write stderr to a file:
Error will be written into file instead of stderr
To do output redirection '2>' or '2>>' symbol is used
command 2> file # overwrite file
command 2>> file # append to file
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Pipes
Using pipe, we can redirect output of any command to the input of any other command.
Two processes are connected using pipe operator (|).
Two processes runs simultaneously and are automatically rescheduled as data flows between them.
If you don’t use pipes, you must use several steps to do single task.
command1 | command2 #output of command1 will be given as input to command 2
Example:
who | wc # output of who command is given as input to wc command
cat [Link] | wc # output of cat command is given as input to wc command
cut
Extract Specific Fields or Characters
The cut command is used to extract columns, fields, or character ranges from each line of a file or input.
cut [options] [file]
Common options:
-d : Specify a delimiter (default is tab)
-f : Specify fields (columns) to extract
-c : Specify character positions to extract
Examples:
echo "DBDA DESD DAC DMC DITISS" | cut -d " " -f1
Extracts fields 1 using comma (" ") as a delimiter.
echo "DBDA DESD DAC DMC DITISS" | cut -d " " -f2
echo "DBDA DESD DAC DMC DITISS" | cut -d " " -f5
echo "DBDA DESD DAC DMC DITISS" | cut -d " " -f1,2
Extracts fields 1 and 2, using comma (" ")as a delimiter.
echo "DBDA DESD DAC DMC DITISS" | cut -d " " -f2,3
cut -d ',' -f1,3 [Link]
Extracts fields 1 and 3, using comma (,) as a delimiter.
ls -l -i -s | cut -d " " -f2
Extracts the second field (file size) from the output of ls -l -i -s command.
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tr
The tr (translate) command is used to convert, squeeze, or delete characters from input.
tr works only with stdin (standard input).
You must use input redirection or pipes.
tr [options] SET1 [SET2]
Common options:
-d : Delete characters in SET1
-s : Squeeze repeated characters in SET1
Examples:
echo "linux" | tr 'a-z' 'A-Z'
Convert sting uppercase
echo "HELLO" | tr 'A-Z' 'a-z'
Convert string lowercase
echo "hi there" | tr -s ' '
Squeeze Repeated Characters (-s)
echo "hello123" | tr -d '0-9'
Remove Characters
tr 'a-z' 'A-Z' < [Link]
Converts all text in a file to uppercase
Shell metacharacters (globbing)
* — zero or more occurrences of any character
e.g., a* matches a, ab, abc, etc.
? — exactly one occurrence of any character
e.g., a? matches ab, ac, but not a or abc
Regular expressions (regex)
Find a pattern in text file(s).
Regular expressions are patterns used to match text.
A regular expression pattern is composed of simple characters, or a combination
of simple and special characters e.g. /abc/, /ab*c/
grep family
grep : GNU Regular Expression Parser
Basic wild-card
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Basic wild-card characters
$ - find at the end of line.
^ - find at the start of line.
* - zero or more occurrences of previous character
. - any single character
[ ] - any single char in give range or set of chars
[^ ] - any single char not in give range or set of chars
[...] — any single character in the set or range
[^...] — any single character not in the set
egrep or grep -E : Extended Grep
Basic + Extended wild-card
All basic wild-card characters plus:
- + - one or more occurrences of previous character
- ? - zero or one occurrence of previous character
- {n} - exactly n occurrences of previous character
- {m,} - at least m occurrences of previous character
- {m,n} - between m and n occurrences of previous character
- | - alternation (one of the groups)
- (...) - grouping characters
- (word1|word2) - match either word1 or word2
fgrep or fgrep -F : Fixed Grep
No wild-card
grep usage and common options
grep "pattern" filepath
Options:
-c : count number of matching lines
-v : invert match (show non-matching lines)
-i : case-insensitive search
-w : match whole words only
-R : recursive search in a directory
-n : show line numbers
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