•Arnošt Havelka
Command Pipelines
Connect commands together with pipes to create powerful workflows.
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Command Pipelines
Pipes (|) connect commands together, sending the output of one command as input to the next. This is where Bash becomes truly powerful.
Basic Pipe: |
The | operator chains commands together. Think of it as "pass the output to the next command."
Usage:command1|command2
|
Pipe - sends output from command1 to command2 as input.
Chain commands together:
Command Prompt
INFO: Started
ERROR: Connection failed
INFO: Retrying
ERROR: Timeout
C:\Users\User>cat log.txt
Multiple Pipes
Chain as many commands as you need. Each passes output to the next.
Usage:command1|command2|command3
command1 | command2 | command3
Chain multiple pipes for complex processing.
Process step by step:
Command Prompt
alice
zoe
bob
alice
carol
C:\Users\User>cat names.txt
Pipe With Grep and wc
Count matching lines with a pipe chain.
Command Prompt
INFO: Message 1
ERROR: Problem
INFO: Message 2
ERROR: Issue
ERROR: Fail
C:\Users\User>cat log.txt
Real-World Example
Extract and count web server errors.
Command Prompt
200 /index.html
404 /missing.html
200 /about.html
404 /error.html
500 /api
C:\Users\User>cat access.log
Knowledge Check
1 / 3What does the pipe operator | do?
References
These Microsoft Learn and Windows documentation links provide authoritative details for the commands used in this article.