This is an extract from the bash manual obtained by typing 'man bash'.


BASH(1) 							       BASH(1)

   Pipelines
       A pipeline is a sequence of one or more commands separated by the char
       acter |.  The format for a pipeline is:

	      [time [-p]] [ ! ] command [ | command2 ... ]

       The standard output of command is connected via a pipe to the  standard
       input  of  command2.   This connection is performed before any redirec
       tions specified by the command (see REDIRECTION below).

       The return status of a pipeline is the exit status of the last command,
       unless  the  pipefail  option  is enabled.  If pipefail is enabled, the
       pipelines return status is the value of the last  (rightmost)  command
       to  exit  with a non-zero status, or zero if all commands exit success
       fully.  If the reserved word !  precedes a pipeline, the exit status of
       that  pipeline  is the logical negation of the exit status as described
       above.  The shell waits for all commands in the pipeline  to  terminate
       before returning a value.

       If  the	time reserved word precedes a pipeline, the elapsed as well as
       user and system time consumed by its execution are  reported  when  the
       pipeline  terminates.   The -p option changes the output format to that
       specified by POSIX.  The TIMEFORMAT variable may be  set  to  a	format
       string  that  specifies how the timing information should be displayed;
       see the description of TIMEFORMAT under Shell Variables below.

       Each command in a pipeline is executed as a separate process (i.e.,  in
       a subshell).