Delimeters and special characters
Delimeters and special characters for composer lists characters
have special meanings in composer commands.   
| Character | Description | 
|---|---|
| & | Command delimiter. See Running the composer program. | 
| ; | Argument delimiter. For example:  | 
| = | Value delimiter. For example:  | 
| : ! | Command prefixes that pass the command on to the
system. These prefixes are optional; if composer does not recognize
the command, it is passed automatically to the system. For example:  | 
| << >> | Comment brackets. Comments can be placed on a single line anywhere in a job
                           stream. For example:  | 
| * | Comment prefix. When this prefix is the first character
on a line, the entire line is a comment. When the prefix follows a
command, the remainder of the line is a comment. For example:  | 
| > | Redirects command output to a file, overwriting
the contents of that file. If the file does not exist, it is created.
For example:  | 
| >> | Redirects command output to a file and appends
the output to the end of file. If the file does not exist, it is created.
For example:  | 
| | | Pipes command output to a system command or process.
The system command is run whether or not output is generated. For
example:  | 
| || | Pipes command output to a system command or process.
The system command is not run if there is no output. For example:  |