(Unix) Term used for shell code, so called because of the prevalence of " pipeline s" that feed the output of one program to the input of another. Under Unix , user utilities can often be implemented or at least prototyped by a suitable collection of pipelines and temporary file grind ing encapsulated in a shell script . This is much less effort than writing C every time, and the capability is considered one of Unix's major winning features. A few other operating system s such as IBM 's VM/CMS support similar facilities.
The tee utility is specifically designed for plumbing.
[ Jargon File ]
(1995-02-23)