Final answer:
The pipe metacharacter, represented by the symbol '|', is used in command-line operations to redirect the output of one command as input to another command. It allows for the chaining of multiple commands together to perform complex tasks.
Step-by-step explanation:
The pipe metacharacter, represented by the symbol '|', is used in command-line operations to redirect the output of one command as input to another command. It allows for the chaining of multiple commands together to perform complex tasks. For example, if you have a command that produces a lot of output, you can use the pipe metacharacter to send that output to another command that can filter or process the data.
This command first lists the files in a directory using the 'ls' command. The output of this command is then piped using the '|' character to the 'grep' command, which filters the output to only show files that contain 'txt' in their names.
The command line is a text interface for your computer. It's a program that takes in commands, which it passes on to the computer's operating system to run. From the command line, you can navigate through files and folders on your computer, just as you would with Windows Explorer on Windows or Finder on Mac OS.