Metacharacters are special characters used to represent something other than themselves. Shell metacharacters are called wildcards. Table 13.10 lists metacharacters and what they do.
Table 13.10. Metacharacters
Metacharacter | Meaning |
|---|
\ | Interprets the following character literally |
& | Processes in the background |
; | Separates commands |
$ | Substitutes variables |
? | Matches for a single character |
[abc] | Matches for one character from a set of characters; for example, a, b, or c |
[!abc] | Matches for one character not from the set of characters; for example, not a, b, or c |
* | Matches for zero or more characters |
(cmds) | Executes commands in a subshell |
{cmds} | Executes commands in current shell |
