Quotes: 1)single quote it protect everything enclosed in it it is used to turn off the special meaning of all characters it prints copy to copy enclosed inside it in simple words it disregards the meaning of anything to shell variable == no wildcards == no command substitution == no below are the examples on how it removes the meaning of a varibles enclosed in it echo '$SHELL' echo '/etc/*.conf' echo 'Today is $(date)' example howdy='Good Morning $USER !' echo $howdy Good Morning $USER ! --> shell special characters : * ? [ ] ' " \ $ ; & ( ) | ^ < > new-line space tab 2)double quote this also protects everything inside it, execept $ ' " and \ we should use them only when we want Variables == YES Wildcard == no Command substitution == YES echo "$SHELL" echo "/etc/*.conf" echo "Today is $(date)" 3) backslash (\) 3)backslash 4)back quotes