linux shell

gistfile1.txt

    ; commands separated by a ; are executed sequentially. The shell waits for each command to terminate in turn.

    && command after && is executed if, and only if, command before && returns an exit status of zero. You can think of it as AND operator.

    | a pipe. In expression command1 | command2 The standard output of command1 is connected via a pipe to the standard input of command2.

There are more similar control operators, worth to mention:

    || command after || is executed if, and only if, command before || returns a non-zero exit status. You can think of it as OR operator. Please note, that | and || are completely different animals.

    & the shell executes the command terminated by & in the background, does not wait for the command to finish and immediately returns exit code 0. Once again, & has nothing to do with &&.

    |& a shorthand for 2>&1 | i.e. both standard output and standard error of command1 are connected to command2's standard input through the pipe.

Additionally if you use zsh then you can also start command with &| or &!. In this case job is immediately disowned, after startup it does not have a place in the job table.