To be pedantic, > and < aren't pipes, only | is. A pipeline means that stdout of the first program is stdin for the next program. > and < set stdout or stdin to

To be pedantic, > and < aren't pipes, only | is. A pipeline means that stdout of the first program is stdin for the next program. > and < set stdout or stdin to a file, not another program. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipeline_%28Unix%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipeline_%28Unix%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redirection_%28computing%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redirection_%28computing%29