Linux Tips - Command Pipelines Linux Tips Command Pipelines by David Newall .
Pipes are easy.
We call that a pipeline. A pipeline is composed of a data generator, a series of filters, and a data consumer. Often that final stage is as simple as displaying the final output on stdout, and sometimes the first stage is as simple as reading from stdin. Each stage of the pipeline runs in parallel, within the limits which the system permits. Hey, look closely, because that last phrase is important.