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