Basic Syntax and Special Characters

Character Description
# comment, shebang, #
\ nextline, escapecode
; used to interpret what follows as a new command to be executed
$ environment variable
> redirect output
» Append output
< Redirect input
| pipe the result into next command

Putting Multiple Commands on a Single Line

# run consequent command whether or not preceding one succeeded.
$ make ; make install ; make clean

# proceed next command only when preceding one succeeded.
$ make && make install && make clean

# if cat is succeed, then stop executing any further steps.
$ cat file1 || cat file2 || cat file3

Script Parameters

Parameter Meaning
$0 script name
$1, $2.. second, third parameter
$* all parameter
$# number of arguments

Command Substitution

$()

Exporting Environment Variables

export with no arguments will give a list of all currently exported environment variables.

Function

showmess() {
    echo My favorite Linux Distribution is: $1
}
showmess Ubuntu