title: What does "&" at the end of a linux command mean?
body: <p>I am a system administrator and I have been asked to run a linux script to clean the system.</p>
  
  <p>The command is this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>perl script.pl &gt; output.log &amp;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>so this command is ending with a <code>&amp;</code> sign, is there any special significance of it?</p>
  
  <p>I have basic knowledge of shell but I have never seen this before.</p>