| Character | Meaning | 
| ; | Command separator | 
| & | Background execution | 
| () | Command grouping | 
| │ | Pipe | 
| < > & | Redirection symbols | 
| * ? [ ] ~ + - @ ! | Filename metacharacters | 
| " ' / | Used in quoting other characters | 
| ` | Command substitution | 
| $ | Variable substitution (or command or arithmetic substitution) | 
| # | Start a comment that continues to the end of the line | 
| space tab newline | Word separators | 
| Sequence | Availability | Value | 
| \a | All | ASCII BEL (visual or audible alert) | 
| \b | All | Backspace | 
| \e | All | Escape | 
| \E | All | Escape | 
| \f | All | Formfeed | 
| \n | All | Newline | 
| \r | All | Carriage return | 
| \t | All | Tab | 
| \uHHHH | All | Unicode character HHHH | 
| \v | All | Vertical tab | 
| \xHH | All | Hexadecimal value HH | 
| \` | $'...' | Single quote | 
| \" | $'...' | Double quote | 
| \? | $'...' | Question mark | 
| \\ | $'...' | Backslash | 
prompt> echo 'Single quotes "protect" double quotes'
Single quotes "protect" double quotes
prompt> echo "Well, isn’t that \"special\"?"
Well, isn’t that "special"?
prompt> echo "You have `ls | wc -l` files in `pwd`"
You have 43 files in /home/bob	
prompt> echo "The value of \$x is $x"
The value of $x is 100	
prompt> echo $'A\tB'
A	B