The backslash is an upward-to-the-left sloping straight line character that is used mostly in a computer context. Its main use in Unix-like operating systems and in some programming languages (e.g., C and Perl) is as an escape character, that is, to indicate that the following character has a special meaning.
What does the backslash mean in Linux?
A backslash at the end of a line in a shell script makes the shell ignore the newline for the purposes of executing the script. This is normally used to split long lines in a script file into multiple text lines, which will be handeled as a single script line by the shell.
What does the backslash symbol mean?
The backslash symbol. is used to denote a set difference, quotient group, or integer division.
What does Slash mean in Unix?
In Linux and other Unix-like operating systems, a forward slash is used to represent the root directory, which is the directory that is at the top of the directory hierarchy and that contains all other directories and files on the system. …
How do I use backslash in Linux?
Use a “” (backslash) before the command to run it without the alias. The backslash escape character can be used before a shell command to override any aliases. For example if rm was made into an alias for rm -i then typing “rm” would actually run rm -i.
Is a special character Bash?
Special characters. Some characters are evaluated by Bash to have a non-literal meaning. Instead, these characters carry out a special instruction, or have an alternate meaning; they are called “special characters”, or “meta-characters”.
How do you escape characters?
Escape Characters
Use the backslash character to escape a single character or symbol. Only the character immediately following the backslash is escaped. Note: If you use braces to escape an individual character within a word, the character is escaped, but the word is broken into three tokens.
What is a backslash called?
The backslash is a typographical mark used mainly in computing and is the mirror image of the common slash /. It is sometimes called a hack, whack, escape (from C/UNIX), reverse slash, slosh, downwhack, backslant, backwhack, bash, reverse slant, and reversed virgule.
What do two slashes mean?
Particularly as a double slash in written work usually means “new line here“.