Executing Multiple Commands

Often you may want to execute several commands together, either one after another or by passing output from one to another.

Run Sequentially

If you need to execute multiple commands in sequence, but don't need to pass output between them, you can run them using ; between each command. Each command will be executed, and the following command will be run. If you want to make the running of the second command conditional on the successful completion of the first command, separate the commands with &&.

If you need to execute multiple commands in sequence, but don't need to pass output between them, there are two options based on whether or not you want the subsequent commands to run only if the previous commands succeed or not. If you want the commands to run one after the other regardless of whether or not preceding commands succeed, place a ; between the commands. For example, if you want to get information about your hardware, you could run lspci ; lsusb, which would output information on your PCI buses and USB devices in sequence.

However, if you need to conditionally run the commands based on whether the previous command has succeeded, insert && between commands. An example of this is building a program from source, which is traditionally done with ./configure, make, and make install. The commands make and make install require that the previous commands have completed successfully, so you would use ./configure && make && make install.

Passing Output

If you need to pass the output of one command so that it goes to the input of the next, you need something called piping after the character used between the commands, | , which looks like a vertical bar or pipe.

To use the pipe, insert the | between each command. For example, using the | in the command ls | less allows you to view the contents of the ls more easily.