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linux

What is the difference between < : direction and | pipe?

I am learning about Linux to take the LPIC Lv.1 which is the exam of Linux these days.

$ ps aux > proc.txt

As you can see above, I made a file by the output of the ps command named proc.txt. Then I tried to show the content of proc.txt as hit the command like this.

×
$ cat proc.txt > less

However, It didn`t work, nothing was shown.

Even though this worked.

◯
$ cat proc.txt | less

I thought pipe:| and direction:<, > both make the result itself the input for the next command but it is not actually.

What is the difference between them?

Solution

  • > redirects stdout to a file. | redirects stdout to another command.