| 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