Command separators

Commands can also be combined in such a way that they are executed in a particular sequence.

Command1; command2

A command line can consist of multiple commands. Each command is separated by a semicolon, and the command line is terminated with a newline. The exit status is that of the last command in the chain of commands.

The first command is executed, and the second one is started as soon as the first one has finished.

$ w; date

Output:

$ w ; date > whoandwhen

Output of the date command will be redirected to the whoandwhen file.

In the preceding example, we can see that when we put multiple commands on the same line, but separated by the ";" command, then those commands execute sequentially one by one.

$ date; who am i
Tue Mar 10 23:21:38 PDT 201
student  pts/0        2015-03-10 23:12 (:0.0)

In the preceding example, the date command is executed first and the who am I command will be executed next. Both the commands are typed on same lines, separated by the ";" " command...