käskyputkitusta

Käskyputkitusta, a Finnish term, translates directly to "command piping" or "command pipelining" in English. It refers to a method used in computer programming and command-line interfaces where the output of one command or program is used as the input for another command or program. This chaining of commands allows for the creation of complex operations by combining simpler, single-purpose tools.

The fundamental concept behind käskyputkitusta relies on the use of a pipe, often represented by the vertical bar character "|" in many operating systems and shells. When a pipe is used, the standard output (stdout) of the command on the left of the pipe is redirected to the standard input (stdin) of the command on the right. This enables a sequential processing of data, where each command performs a specific task on the data it receives before passing it along.

This technique is widely utilized in Unix-like operating systems, such as Linux and macOS, and is also available in Windows PowerShell and some other command-line environments. It is a powerful tool for data manipulation, text processing, system administration, and scripting, allowing users to automate tasks and build sophisticated workflows efficiently. For example, one might use `ls -l | grep ".txt"` to list all files in a directory and then filter that list to show only those with a ".txt" extension. The output of `ls -l` becomes the input for `grep`.