xcowsay:tldr:609e2
xcowsay: Display a cow with output from another command.
$ ls | xcowsay
try on your machine
The command "ls" is used to list the files and directories in the current working directory. On its own, it would display the output in the terminal.
The vertical bar character "|" is a pipe operator, which allows the output of one command to be used as the input for another command.
"xcowsay" is a program that can display text in a speech bubble from a cartoonish cow's mouth on the desktop.
Therefore, when you execute the command "ls | xcowsay", it will first list the files and directories in the current directory using "ls", and then pass that output as input to "xcowsay". As a result, a speech bubble with the file and directory names will appear on the desktop in the form of xcowsay's cow character.
This explanation was created by an AI. In most cases those are correct. But please always be careful and
never run a command you are not sure if it is safe.