CompTIA PenTest+ 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

In shell scripting and command-line environments, the semicolon is used to separate multiple commands that you want to execute sequentially. When you place a semicolon between commands, it tells the shell to execute each command one after the other, regardless of whether the previous command was successful or not.

For example, if you have two commands such as `echo "First command"; echo "Second command"`, the shell will execute both commands in the order they are written—first printing "First command", then "Second command".

The other symbols have different purposes: a colon is typically used for various syntax-related functions in programming and scripts but does not serve the purpose of command separation. A pipe is used to take the output of one command and use it as the input for another, creating a feedback loop between commands instead of executing them in sequence. A comma is often used in different contexts, like separating items in a list or function parameters, but it does not have any significant function in the context of command execution within a shell.

Thus, using a semicolon is the correct approach for chaining commands in a shell, allowing for straightforward sequential execution.