Using meta chars

To use one of the OS/2 meta chars (e.g. |, <, >, ...) as normal, literal 
chars in OS/2 commands you can precede the meta char with a caret ^. This 
char, known as an "escape character", will keep the meta char from being 
interpreted by the shell. 

Thus, whereas the meta char ">" normally will redirect output from a 
program or other source, the two characters "^>" will be seen by the 
system as ">" with no special meaning. This is one way in which you could 
execute the following command without producing an error: 

 
  echo The objectID of the Connection folder is ^<WP_CONNECTIONSFOLDER^>.

To use a literal caret character you must use ^^. 

The other method to use these chars as literal chars is to surround the 
whole string with double quotes ". 

To prevent the CMD.EXE from interpreting the percent char % you can also 
use two of them: %%. That's also necessary if you want to use the percent 
char in a string enclosed in double quotes. 

To use filenames beginning with a dash (-) wihtout having the system 
interpret the filenames as command parameters, use either the absolute 
path or a relative path in your command. 

Example: 

 
  attrib -r .\-test.log

  attrib -r c:\temp\-test.log

Note:  Users of alternate command shells such as 4OS2 should check to see 
       what char their command interpreter is using as the escape char 
       (CMD.EXE uses "^") before using the caret symbol.  Some command 
       interpreters allow the user to change the character used.  This is 
       usually controlled by a setting in an INI file or environment 
       variable.