Running multiple commands in one line in shell

Question

Say I have a file /templates/apple and I want to

1. put it in two different places and then
2. remove the original.

So, /templates/apple will be copied to /templates/used AND /templates/inuse and then after that I’d like to remove the original.

Is cp the best way to do this, followed by rm? Or is there a better way?

I want to do it all in one line so I’m thinking it would look something like:

cp /templates/apple /templates/used | cp /templates/apple /templates/inuse | rm /templates/apple 

Is this the correct syntax?

Answer 1

You are using | (pipe) to direct the output of a command into another command. What you are looking for is && operator to execute the next command only if the previous one succeeded:

cp /templates/apple /templates/used && cp /templates/apple /templates/inuse && rm /templates/apple 

Or

cp /templates/apple /templates/used && mv /templates/apple /templates/inuse 

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To summarize (non-exhaustively) bash's command operators/separators:

• | pipes (pipelines) the standard output (stdout) of one command into the standard input of another one. Note that stderr still goes into its default destination, whatever that happen to be.
• |&pipes both stdout and stderr of one command into the standard input of another one. Very useful, available in bash version 4 and above.
• && executes the right-hand command of && only if the previous one succeeded.
• || executes the right-hand command of || only it the previous one failed.
• ; executes the right-hand command of ; always regardless whether the previous command succeeded or failed. Unless set -e was previously invoked, which causes bash to fail on an error.