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32 .\" @(#)sh.1 8.6 (Berkeley) 5/4/95
39 .Nd command interpreter (shell)
43 .Op Fl aCefnuvxIimqVEb
44 .Op Cm +aCefnuvxIimqVEb
47 .Op Fl o Ar option_name
48 .Op Cm +o Ar option_name
51 .Op Ar command_file Oo Ar argument ... Oc
56 .Op Fl aCefnuvxIimqVEb
57 .Op Cm +aCefnuvxIimqVEb
60 .Op Fl o Ar option_name
61 .Op Cm +o Ar option_name
65 .Op Ar command_name Oo Ar argument ... Oc
70 .Op Fl aCefnuvxIimqVEb
71 .Op Cm +aCefnuvxIimqVEb
74 .Op Fl o Ar option_name
75 .Op Cm +o Ar option_name
82 is the standard command interpreter for the system.
83 The current version of
85 is in the process of being changed to conform with the
87 1003.2 and 1003.2a specifications for the shell.
89 features which make it appear similar in some respects to the Korn shell,
90 but it is not a Korn shell clone (see
92 Only features designated by
94 plus a few Berkeley extensions, are being incorporated into this shell.
97 .\" conformance by the time 4.4 BSD is released.
98 This man page is not intended
99 to be a tutorial or a complete specification of the shell.
101 The shell is a command that reads lines from either a file or the
102 terminal, interprets them, and generally executes other commands.
103 It is the program that is running when a user logs into the system
104 (although a user can select a different shell with the
107 The shell implements a language that has flow control
108 constructs, a macro facility that provides a variety of features in
109 addition to data storage, along with built in history and line editing
111 It incorporates many features to aid interactive use and
112 has the advantage that the interpretative language is common to both
113 interactive and non-interactive use (shell scripts).
115 can be typed directly to the running shell or can be put into a file and
116 the file can be executed directly by the shell.
118 If no args are present and if the standard input of the shell
119 is connected to a terminal (or if the
124 option is not present, the shell is considered an interactive shell.
125 An interactive shell generally prompts before each command and handles
126 programming and command errors differently (as described below).
128 the shell inspects argument 0, and if it begins with a dash
130 the shell is also considered
132 This is normally done automatically by the system
133 when the user first logs in.
134 A login shell first reads commands
140 If the environment variable
142 is set on entry to a shell, or is set in the
144 of a login shell, the shell next reads
145 commands from the file named in
147 Therefore, a user should place commands that are to be executed only at
150 file, and commands that are executed for every shell inside the
155 variable to some file, place the following line in your
157 of your home directory
159 .Dl ENV=$HOME/.shinit; export ENV
163 any filename you wish.
166 file is read for every invocation of the shell, including shell scripts
167 and non-interactive shells, the following paradigm is useful for
168 restricting commands in the
170 file to interactive invocations.
171 Place commands within the
175 below (these commands are described later):
177 .Bl -item -compact -offset indent
180 .Bl -item -compact -offset indent
182 .Li # commands for interactive use only
190 If command line arguments besides the options have been specified, then
191 the shell treats the first argument as the name of a file from which to
192 read commands (a shell script), and the remaining arguments are set as the
193 positional parameters of the shell ($1, $2, etc).
195 reads commands from its standard input.
196 .Ss Argument List Processing
197 All of the single letter options have a corresponding name that can be
198 used as an argument to the
203 name is provided next to the single letter option in
204 the description below.
207 turns the option on, while using a plus
210 The following options can be set from the command line or
213 builtin (described later).
214 .Bl -tag -width aaaallexportfoo -offset indent
215 .It Fl a Em allexport
216 Export all variables assigned to.
218 Read commands from the
220 operand instead of from the standard input.
221 Special parameter 0 will be set from the
223 operand and the positional parameters ($1, $2, etc.)
224 set from the remaining argument operands.
225 .It Fl C Em noclobber
226 Don't overwrite existing files with
229 If not interactive, exit immediately if any untested command fails.
230 The exit status of a command is considered to be
231 explicitly tested if the command is used to control an
237 or if the command is the left hand operand of an
243 Disable pathname expansion.
245 If not interactive, read commands but do not execute them.
246 This is useful for checking the syntax of shell scripts.
248 Write a message to standard error when attempting to expand a variable
249 that is not set, and if the shell is not interactive, exit immediately.
251 The shell writes its input to standard error as it is read.
252 Useful for debugging.
254 Write each command to standard error (preceded by a
256 before it is executed.
257 Useful for debugging.
258 .It Fl q Em quietprofile
263 options have been set, do not apply them when reading
264 initialization files, these being
267 and the file specified by the
269 environment variable.
270 .It Fl I Em ignoreeof
271 Ignore EOF's from input when interactive.
272 .It Fl i Em interactive
273 Force the shell to behave interactively.
275 Turn on job control (set automatically when interactive).
277 Read commands from standard input (set automatically if no file arguments
279 This option has no effect when set after the shell has
280 already started running (i.e. with
285 command line editor (disables
289 .Sx Command Line Editing
292 Enable the built-in emacs style
293 command line editor (disables
297 .Sx Command Line Editing
300 Enable asynchronous notification of background job completion.
301 (UNIMPLEMENTED for 4.4alpha)
302 .It "\ \ " Em cdprint
303 Make an interactive shell always print the new directory name when
307 .It "\ \ " Em tabcomplete
308 Enables filename completion in the command line editor.
309 Typing a tab character will extend the current input word to match a
311 If more than one filename matches it is only extended to be the common prefix.
312 Typing a second tab character will list all the matching names.
314 .Ss Lexical Structure
315 The shell reads input in terms of lines from a file and breaks it up into
316 words at whitespace (blanks and tabs), and at certain sequences of
317 characters that are special to the shell called
319 There are two types of operators: control operators and redirection
320 operators (their meaning is discussed later).
321 Following is a list of operators:
322 .Bl -ohang -offset indent
323 .It "Control operators:"
324 .Dl \*[Am] \*[Am]\*[Am] \&( \&) \&; ;; | || \*[Lt]newline\*[Gt]
325 .It "Redirection operators:"
326 .Dl \*[Lt] \*[Gt] \*[Gt]| \*[Lt]\*[Lt] \*[Gt]\*[Gt] \*[Lt]\*[Am] \*[Gt]\*[Am] \*[Lt]\*[Lt]- \*[Lt]\*[Gt]
329 Quoting is used to remove the special meaning of certain characters or
330 words to the shell, such as operators, whitespace, or keywords.
331 There are three types of quoting: matched single quotes,
332 matched double quotes, and backslash.
334 A backslash preserves the literal meaning of the following
335 character, with the exception of
337 A backslash preceding a
339 is treated as a line continuation.
341 Enclosing characters in single quotes preserves the literal meaning of all
342 the characters (except single quotes, making it impossible to put
343 single-quotes in a single-quoted string).
345 Enclosing characters within double quotes preserves the literal
346 meaning of all characters except dollarsign
352 The backslash inside double quotes is historically weird, and serves to
353 quote only the following characters:
354 .Dl $ ` \*q \e \*[Lt]newline\*[Gt] .
355 Otherwise it remains literal.
357 Reserved words are words that have special meaning to the
358 shell and are recognized at the beginning of a line and
359 after a control operator.
360 The following are reserved words:
361 .Bl -column while while while while while -offset indent
362 .It ! Ta elif Ta fi Ta while Ta case
363 .It else Ta for Ta then Ta { Ta }
364 .It do Ta done Ta until Ta if Ta esac
367 Their meaning is discussed later.
369 An alias is a name and corresponding value set using the
372 Whenever a reserved word may occur (see above),
373 and after checking for reserved words, the shell
374 checks the word to see if it matches an alias.
375 If it does, it replaces it in the input stream with its value.
376 For example, if there is an alias called
382 .Dl lf foobar Aq return
386 .Dl ls -F foobar Aq return
388 Aliases provide a convenient way for naive users to create shorthands for
389 commands without having to learn how to create functions with arguments.
390 They can also be used to create lexically obscure code.
391 This use is discouraged.
393 The shell interprets the words it reads according to a language, the
394 specification of which is outside the scope of this man page (refer to the
398 Essentially though, a line is read and if the first
399 word of the line (or after a control operator) is not a reserved word,
400 then the shell has recognized a simple command.
402 command or some other special construct may have been recognized.
404 If a simple command has been recognized, the shell performs
405 the following actions:
406 .Bl -enum -offset indent
408 Leading words of the form
410 are stripped off and assigned to the environment of the simple command.
411 Redirection operators and their arguments (as described below) are
412 stripped off and saved for processing.
414 The remaining words are expanded as described in
417 and the first remaining word is considered the command name and the
419 The remaining words are considered the arguments of the command.
420 If no command name resulted, then the
422 variable assignments recognized in item 1 affect the current shell.
424 Redirections are performed as described in the next section.
427 Redirections are used to change where a command reads its input or sends
429 In general, redirections open, close, or duplicate an
430 existing reference to a file.
431 The overall format used for redirection is:
433 .Dl [n] Va redir-op Ar file
437 is one of the redirection operators mentioned previously.
438 Following is a list of the possible redirections.
441 is an optional number, as in
445 that refers to a file descriptor.
446 .Bl -tag -width aaabsfiles -offset indent
447 .It [n] Ns \*[Gt] file
448 Redirect standard output (or n) to file.
449 .It [n] Ns \*[Gt]| file
450 Same, but override the
453 .It [n] Ns \*[Gt]\*[Gt] file
454 Append standard output (or n) to file.
455 .It [n] Ns \*[Lt] file
456 Redirect standard input (or n) from file.
457 .It [n1] Ns \*[Lt]\*[Am] Ns n2
458 Duplicate standard input (or n1) from file descriptor n2.
459 .It [n] Ns \*[Lt]\*[Am]-
460 Close standard input (or n).
461 .It [n1] Ns \*[Gt]\*[Am] Ns n2
462 Duplicate standard output (or n1) to n2.
463 .It [n] Ns \*[Gt]\*[Am]-
464 Close standard output (or n).
465 .It [n] Ns \*[Lt]\*[Gt] file
466 Open file for reading and writing on standard input (or n).
469 The following redirection is often called a
471 .Bl -item -offset indent
473 .Li [n]\*[Lt]\*[Lt] delimiter
474 .Dl here-doc-text ...
478 All the text on successive lines up to the delimiter is saved away and
479 made available to the command on standard input, or file descriptor n if
481 If the delimiter as specified on the initial line is
482 quoted, then the here-doc-text is treated literally, otherwise the text is
483 subjected to parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic
484 expansion (as described in the section on
490 then leading tabs in the here-doc-text are stripped.
491 .Ss Search and Execution
492 There are three types of commands: shell functions, builtin commands, and
493 normal programs -- and the command is searched for (by name) in that order.
494 They each are executed in a different way.
496 When a shell function is executed, all of the shell positional parameters
497 (except $0, which remains unchanged) are set to the arguments of the shell
499 The variables which are explicitly placed in the environment of
500 the command (by placing assignments to them before the function name) are
501 made local to the function and are set to the values given.
502 Then the command given in the function definition is executed.
503 The positional parameters are restored to their original values
504 when the command completes.
505 This all occurs within the current shell.
507 Shell builtins are executed internally to the shell, without spawning a
510 Otherwise, if the command name doesn't match a function or builtin, the
511 command is searched for as a normal program in the file system (as
512 described in the next section).
513 When a normal program is executed, the shell runs the program,
514 passing the arguments and the environment to the program.
515 If the program is not a normal executable file (i.e., if it does
516 not begin with the "magic number" whose
518 representation is "#!", so
522 then) the shell will interpret the program in a subshell.
523 The child shell will reinitialize itself in this case,
524 so that the effect will be as if a
525 new shell had been invoked to handle the ad-hoc shell script, except that
526 the location of hashed commands located in the parent shell will be
527 remembered by the child.
529 Note that previous versions of this document and the source code itself
530 misleadingly and sporadically refer to a shell script without a magic
531 number as a "shell procedure".
533 When locating a command, the shell first looks to see if it has a shell
534 function by that name.
535 Then it looks for a builtin command by that name.
536 If a builtin command is not found, one of two things happen:
539 Command names containing a slash are simply executed without performing
542 The shell searches each entry in
544 in turn for the command.
547 variable should be a series of entries separated by colons.
548 Each entry consists of a directory name.
549 The current directory may be indicated
550 implicitly by an empty directory name, or explicitly by a single period.
552 .Ss Command Exit Status
553 Each command has an exit status that can influence the behavior
554 of other shell commands.
555 The paradigm is that a command exits
556 with zero for normal or success, and non-zero for failure,
557 error, or a false indication.
558 The man page for each command
559 should indicate the various exit codes and what they mean.
560 Additionally, the builtin commands return exit codes, as does
561 an executed shell function.
563 If a command consists entirely of variable assignments then the
564 exit status of the command is that of the last command substitution
567 Complex commands are combinations of simple commands with control
568 operators or reserved words, together creating a larger complex command.
569 More generally, a command is one of the following:
576 list or compound-list
583 Unless otherwise stated, the exit status of a command is that of the last
584 simple command executed by the command.
586 A pipeline is a sequence of one or more commands separated
587 by the control operator |.
588 The standard output of all but
589 the last command is connected to the standard input
591 The standard output of the last
592 command is inherited from the shell, as usual.
594 The format for a pipeline is:
596 .Dl [!] command1 [ | command2 ...]
598 The standard output of command1 is connected to the standard input of
600 The standard input, standard output, or both of a command is
601 considered to be assigned by the pipeline before any redirection specified
602 by redirection operators that are part of the command.
604 If the pipeline is not in the background (discussed later), the shell
605 waits for all commands to complete.
607 If the reserved word ! does not precede the pipeline, the exit status is
608 the exit status of the last command specified in the pipeline.
609 Otherwise, the exit status is the logical NOT of the exit status of the
611 That is, if the last command returns zero, the exit status
612 is 1; if the last command returns greater than zero, the exit status is
615 Because pipeline assignment of standard input or standard output or both
616 takes place before redirection, it can be modified by redirection.
619 .Dl $ command1 2\*[Gt]\*[Am]1 | command2
621 sends both the standard output and standard error of command1
622 to the standard input of command2.
626 terminator causes the preceding AND-OR-list (described
627 next) to be executed sequentially; a \*[Am] causes asynchronous execution of
628 the preceding AND-OR-list.
630 Note that unlike some other shells, each process in the pipeline is a
631 child of the invoking shell (unless it is a shell builtin, in which case
632 it executes in the current shell -- but any effect it has on the
633 environment is wiped).
634 .Ss Background Commands -- \*[Am]
635 If a command is terminated by the control operator ampersand (\*[Am]), the
636 shell executes the command asynchronously -- that is, the shell does not
637 wait for the command to finish before executing the next command.
639 The format for running a command in background is:
641 .Dl command1 \*[Am] [command2 \*[Am] ...]
643 If the shell is not interactive, the standard input of an asynchronous
646 .Ss Lists -- Generally Speaking
647 A list is a sequence of zero or more commands separated by newlines,
648 semicolons, or ampersands, and optionally terminated by one of these three
650 The commands in a list are executed in the order they are written.
651 If command is followed by an ampersand, the shell starts the
652 command and immediately proceed onto the next command; otherwise it waits
653 for the command to terminate before proceeding to the next one.
654 .Ss Short-Circuit List Operators
658 are AND-OR list operators.
660 executes the first command, and then executes the second command if and only
661 if the exit status of the first command is zero.
663 is similar, but executes the second command if and only if the exit status
664 of the first command is nonzero.
668 both have the same priority.
669 Note that these operators are left-associative, so
670 .Dq true || echo bar && echo baz
674 This is not the way it works in C.
675 .Ss Flow-Control Constructs -- if, while, for, case
676 The syntax of the if command is
677 .Bd -literal -offset indent
686 The syntax of the while command is
687 .Bd -literal -offset indent
693 The two lists are executed repeatedly while the exit status of the
695 The until command is similar, but has the word
696 until in place of while, which causes it to
697 repeat until the exit status of the first list is zero.
699 The syntax of the for command is
700 .Bd -literal -offset indent
701 for variable in word ...
706 The words are expanded, and then the list is executed repeatedly with the
707 variable set to each word in turn.
708 do and done may be replaced with
713 The syntax of the break and continue command is
714 .Bd -literal -offset indent
719 Break terminates the num innermost for or while loops.
720 Continue continues with the next iteration of the innermost loop.
721 These are implemented as builtin commands.
723 The syntax of the case command is
724 .Bd -literal -offset indent
731 The pattern can actually be one or more patterns (see
733 described later), separated by
736 .Ss Grouping Commands Together
737 Commands may be grouped by writing either
745 The first of these executes the commands in a subshell.
746 Builtin commands grouped into a (list) will not affect the current shell.
747 The second form does not fork another shell so is slightly more efficient.
748 Grouping commands together this way allows you to redirect
749 their output as though they were one program:
751 .Bd -literal -offset indent
752 { echo -n \*q hello \*q ; echo \*q world" ; } \*[Gt] greeting
757 must follow a control operator (here,
759 so that it is recognized as a reserved word and not as another command argument.
761 The syntax of a function definition is
765 A function definition is an executable statement; when executed it
766 installs a function named name and returns an exit status of zero.
767 The command is normally a list enclosed between
772 Variables may be declared to be local to a function by using a local
774 This should appear as the first statement of a function, and the syntax is
776 .Dl local [ variable | - ] ...
778 Local is implemented as a builtin command.
780 When a variable is made local, it inherits the initial value and exported
781 and readonly flags from the variable with the same name in the surrounding
782 scope, if there is one.
783 Otherwise, the variable is initially unset.
784 The shell uses dynamic scoping, so that if you make the variable x local to
785 function f, which then calls function g, references to the variable x made
786 inside g will refer to the variable x declared inside f, not to the global
789 The only special parameter that can be made local is
793 local any shell options that are changed via the set command inside the
794 function to be restored to their original values when the function
797 The syntax of the return command is
799 .Dl return [ exitstatus ]
801 It terminates the currently executing function.
802 Return is implemented as a builtin command.
803 .Ss Variables and Parameters
804 The shell maintains a set of parameters.
805 A parameter denoted by a name is called a variable.
806 When starting up, the shell turns all the environment
807 variables into shell variables.
808 New variables can be set using the form
812 Variables set by the user must have a name consisting solely of
813 alphabetics, numerics, and underscores - the first of which must not be
815 A parameter can also be denoted by a number or a special
816 character as explained below.
817 .Ss Positional Parameters
818 A positional parameter is a parameter denoted by a number (n \*[Gt] 0).
819 The shell sets these initially to the values of its command line arguments
820 that follow the name of the shell script.
823 builtin can also be used to set or reset them.
824 .Ss Special Parameters
825 A special parameter is a parameter denoted by one of the following special
827 The value of the parameter is listed next to its character.
828 .Bl -tag -width thinhyphena
830 Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one.
832 expansion occurs within a double-quoted string it expands to a single
833 field with the value of each parameter separated by the first character of
842 Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one.
843 When the expansion occurs within double-quotes, each positional
844 parameter expands as a separate argument.
845 If there are no positional parameters, the
846 expansion of @ generates zero arguments, even when @ is
848 What this basically means, for example, is
859 .Dl \*q abc \*q \ \*q def\ ghi \*q
862 Expands to the number of positional parameters.
864 Expands to the exit status of the most recent pipeline.
866 Expands to the current option flags (the single-letter
867 option names concatenated into a string) as specified on
868 invocation, by the set builtin command, or implicitly
871 Expands to the process ID of the invoked shell.
872 A subshell retains the same value of $ as its parent.
874 Expands to the process ID of the most recent background
875 command executed from the current shell.
876 For a pipeline, the process ID is that of the last command in the pipeline.
878 Expands to the name of the shell or shell script.
881 This clause describes the various expansions that are performed on words.
882 Not all expansions are performed on every word, as explained later.
884 Tilde expansions, parameter expansions, command substitutions, arithmetic
885 expansions, and quote removals that occur within a single word expand to a
887 It is only field splitting or pathname expansion that can
888 create multiple fields from a single word.
889 The single exception to this
890 rule is the expansion of the special parameter @ within double-quotes, as
893 The order of word expansion is:
896 Tilde Expansion, Parameter Expansion, Command Substitution,
897 Arithmetic Expansion (these all occur at the same time).
899 Field Splitting is performed on fields
900 generated by step (1) unless the
904 Pathname Expansion (unless set
911 The $ character is used to introduce parameter expansion, command
912 substitution, or arithmetic evaluation.
913 .Ss Tilde Expansion (substituting a user's home directory)
914 A word beginning with an unquoted tilde character (~) is
915 subjected to tilde expansion.
916 All the characters up to
917 a slash (/) or the end of the word are treated as a username
918 and are replaced with the user's home directory.
919 If the username is missing (as in
921 the tilde is replaced with the value of the
923 variable (the current user's home directory).
924 .Ss Parameter Expansion
925 The format for parameter expansion is as follows:
929 where expression consists of all characters until the matching
933 escaped by a backslash or within a quoted string, and characters in
934 embedded arithmetic expansions, command substitutions, and variable
935 expansions, are not examined in determining the matching
938 The simplest form for parameter expansion is:
942 The value, if any, of parameter is substituted.
944 The parameter name or symbol can be enclosed in braces, which are
945 optional except for positional parameters with more than one digit or
946 when parameter is followed by a character that could be interpreted as
948 If a parameter expansion occurs inside double-quotes:
951 Pathname expansion is not performed on the results of the expansion.
953 Field splitting is not performed on the results of the
954 expansion, with the exception of the special rules for @.
957 In addition, a parameter expansion can be modified by using one of the
959 .Bl -tag -width aaparameterwordaaaaa
960 .It ${parameter:-word}
962 If parameter is unset or null, the expansion of word
963 is substituted; otherwise, the value of parameter is substituted.
964 .It ${parameter:=word}
965 Assign Default Values.
966 If parameter is unset or null, the expansion of
967 word is assigned to parameter.
968 In all cases, the final value of parameter is substituted.
969 Only variables, not positional parameters or special
970 parameters, can be assigned in this way.
971 .It ${parameter:?[word]}
972 Indicate Error if Null or Unset.
973 If parameter is unset or null, the
974 expansion of word (or a message indicating it is unset if word is omitted)
975 is written to standard error and the shell exits with a nonzero exit status.
976 Otherwise, the value of parameter is substituted.
977 An interactive shell need not exit.
978 .It ${parameter:+word}
979 Use Alternative Value.
980 If parameter is unset or null, null is
981 substituted; otherwise, the expansion of word is substituted.
984 In the parameter expansions shown previously, use of the colon in the
985 format results in a test for a parameter that is unset or null; omission
986 of the colon results in a test for a parameter that is only unset.
987 .Bl -tag -width aaparameterwordaaaaa
990 The length in characters of the value of parameter.
993 The following four varieties of parameter expansion provide for substring
995 In each case, pattern matching notation (see
996 .Sx Shell Patterns ) ,
997 rather than regular expression notation, is used to evaluate the patterns.
998 If parameter is * or @, the result of the expansion is unspecified.
999 Enclosing the full parameter expansion string in double-quotes does not
1000 cause the following four varieties of pattern characters to be quoted,
1001 whereas quoting characters within the braces has this effect.
1002 .Bl -tag -width aaparameterwordaaaaa
1003 .It ${parameter%word}
1004 Remove Smallest Suffix Pattern.
1005 The word is expanded to produce a pattern.
1006 The parameter expansion then results in parameter, with the
1007 smallest portion of the suffix matched by the pattern deleted.
1008 .It ${parameter%%word}
1009 Remove Largest Suffix Pattern.
1010 The word is expanded to produce a pattern.
1011 The parameter expansion then results in parameter, with the largest
1012 portion of the suffix matched by the pattern deleted.
1013 .It ${parameter#word}
1014 Remove Smallest Prefix Pattern.
1015 The word is expanded to produce a pattern.
1016 The parameter expansion then results in parameter, with the
1017 smallest portion of the prefix matched by the pattern deleted.
1018 .It ${parameter##word}
1019 Remove Largest Prefix Pattern.
1020 The word is expanded to produce a pattern.
1021 The parameter expansion then results in parameter, with the largest
1022 portion of the prefix matched by the pattern deleted.
1024 .Ss Command Substitution
1025 Command substitution allows the output of a command to be substituted in
1026 place of the command name itself.
1027 Command substitution occurs when the command is enclosed as follows:
1039 The shell expands the command substitution by executing command in a
1040 subshell environment and replacing the command substitution with the
1041 standard output of the command, removing sequences of one or more
1043 at the end of the substitution.
1047 the end of the output are not removed; however, during field splitting,
1048 they may be translated into
1050 depending on the value of
1052 and quoting that is in effect.)
1053 .Ss Arithmetic Expansion
1054 Arithmetic expansion provides a mechanism for evaluating an arithmetic
1055 expression and substituting its value.
1056 The format for arithmetic expansion is as follows:
1060 The expression is treated as if it were in double-quotes, except
1061 that a double-quote inside the expression is not treated specially.
1062 The shell expands all tokens in the expression for parameter expansion,
1063 command substitution, and quote removal.
1065 Next, the shell treats this as an arithmetic expression and
1066 substitutes the value of the expression.
1067 .Ss White Space Splitting (Field Splitting)
1068 After parameter expansion, command substitution, and
1069 arithmetic expansion the shell scans the results of
1070 expansions and substitutions that did not occur in double-quotes for
1071 field splitting and multiple fields can result.
1073 The shell treats each character of the
1075 as a delimiter and use the delimiters to split the results of parameter
1076 expansion and command substitution into fields.
1078 Non-whitespace characters in
1080 are treated strictly as parameter terminators.
1081 So adjacent non-whitespace
1083 characters will produce empty parameters.
1087 is unset it is assumed to contain space, tab, and newline.
1088 .Ss Pathname Expansion (File Name Generation)
1091 flag is set, file name generation is performed after word splitting is
1093 Each word is viewed as a series of patterns, separated by slashes.
1094 The process of expansion replaces the word with the names of all
1095 existing files whose names can be formed by replacing each pattern with a
1096 string that matches the specified pattern.
1097 There are two restrictions on
1098 this: first, a pattern cannot match a string containing a slash, and
1099 second, a pattern cannot match a string starting with a period unless the
1100 first character of the pattern is a period.
1101 The next section describes the
1102 patterns used for both Pathname Expansion and the
1106 A pattern consists of normal characters, which match themselves,
1107 and meta-characters.
1108 The meta-characters are
1114 These characters lose their special meanings if they are quoted.
1115 When command or variable substitution is performed
1116 and the dollar sign or back quotes are not double quoted,
1117 the value of the variable or the output of
1118 the command is scanned for these characters and they are turned into
1123 matches any string of characters.
1124 A question mark matches any single character.
1127 introduces a character class.
1128 The end of the character class is indicated by a
1136 rather than introducing a character class.
1137 A character class matches any of the characters between the square brackets.
1138 A range of characters may be specified using a minus sign.
1139 The character class may be complemented
1140 by making an exclamation point the first character of the character class.
1144 in a character class, make it the first character listed (after the
1147 To include a minus sign, make it the first or last character listed.
1149 This section lists the builtin commands which are builtin because they
1150 need to perform some operation that can't be performed by a separate
1152 In addition to these, there are several other commands that may
1153 be builtin for efficiency (e.g.
1160 A null command that returns a 0 (true) exit value.
1162 The commands in the specified file are read and executed by the shell.
1163 .It alias Op Ar name Ns Op Ar "=string ..."
1166 is specified, the shell defines the alias
1172 is specified, the value of the alias
1175 With no arguments, the
1178 names and values of all defined aliases (see
1180 .It bg [ Ar job ] ...
1181 Continue the specified jobs (or the current job if no
1182 jobs are given) in the background.
1190 Execute the specified command but ignore shell functions when searching
1192 (This is useful when you
1193 have a shell function with the same name as a builtin command.)
1196 search for command using a
1198 that guarantees to find all the standard utilities.
1200 Do not execute the command but
1201 search for the command and print the resolution of the
1203 This is the same as the type builtin.
1205 Do not execute the command but
1206 search for the command and print the absolute pathname
1207 of utilities, the name for builtins or the expansion of aliases.
1209 .It cd Op Ar directory Op Ar replace
1210 Switch to the specified directory (default
1214 is specified, then the new directory name is generated by replacing
1215 the first occurrence of
1217 in the current directory name with
1219 Otherwise if an entry for
1221 appears in the environment of the
1223 command or the shell variable
1225 is set and the directory name does not begin with a slash, then the
1226 directories listed in
1228 will be searched for the specified directory.
1231 is the same as that of
1233 In an interactive shell, the
1235 command will print out the name of the
1236 directory that it actually switched to if this is different from the name
1238 These may be different either because the
1240 mechanism was used or because a symbolic link was crossed.
1241 .It eval Ar string ...
1242 Concatenate all the arguments with spaces.
1243 Then re-parse and execute the command.
1244 .It exec Op Ar command arg ...
1245 Unless command is omitted, the shell process is replaced with the
1246 specified program (which must be a real program, not a shell builtin or
1248 Any redirections on the
1250 command are marked as permanent, so that they are not undone when the
1253 .It exit Op Ar exitstatus
1254 Terminate the shell process.
1257 is given it is used as the exit status of the shell; otherwise the
1258 exit status of the preceding command is used.
1259 .It export Ar name ...
1261 The specified names are exported so that they will appear in the
1262 environment of subsequent commands.
1263 The only way to un-export a variable is to unset it.
1264 The shell allows the value of a variable to be set at the
1265 same time it is exported by writing
1267 .Dl export name=value
1269 With no arguments the export command lists the names of all exported variables.
1272 option specified the output will be formatted suitably for non-interactive use.
1273 .It Xo fc Op Fl e Ar editor
1274 .Op Ar first Op Ar last
1278 .Op Ar first Op Ar last
1280 .It Xo fc Fl s Op Ar old=new
1285 builtin lists, or edits and re-executes, commands previously entered
1286 to an interactive shell.
1289 Use the editor named by editor to edit the commands.
1290 The editor string is a command name, subject to search via the
1295 variable is used as a default when
1300 is null or unset, the value of the
1307 is used as the editor.
1309 List the commands rather than invoking an editor on them.
1310 The commands are written in the sequence indicated by
1311 the first and last operands, as affected by
1313 with each command preceded by the command number.
1315 Suppress command numbers when listing with -l.
1317 Reverse the order of the commands listed (with
1319 or edited (with neither
1324 Re-execute the command without invoking an editor.
1327 Select the commands to list or edit.
1328 The number of previous commands that
1329 can be accessed are determined by the value of the
1332 The value of first or last or both are one of the following:
1335 A positive number representing a command number; command numbers can be
1340 A negative decimal number representing the command that was executed
1341 number of commands previously.
1342 For example, \-1 is the immediately previous command.
1345 A string indicating the most recently entered command that begins with
1347 If the old=new operand is not also specified with
1349 the string form of the first operand cannot contain an embedded equal sign.
1352 The following environment variables affect the execution of fc:
1353 .Bl -tag -width HISTSIZE
1355 Name of the editor to use.
1357 The number of previous commands that are accessible.
1360 Move the specified job or the current job to the foreground.
1361 .It getopts Ar optstring var
1365 command, not to be confused with the
1370 The first argument should be a series of letters, each of which may be
1371 optionally followed by a colon to indicate that the option requires an
1373 The variable specified is set to the parsed option.
1377 command deprecates the older
1379 utility due to its handling of arguments containing whitespace.
1383 builtin may be used to obtain options and their arguments
1384 from a list of parameters.
1387 places the value of the next option from the option string in the list in
1388 the shell variable specified by
1390 and its index in the shell variable
1392 When the shell is invoked,
1394 is initialized to 1.
1395 For each option that requires an argument, the
1397 builtin will place it in the shell variable
1399 If an option is not allowed for in the
1406 is a string of recognized option letters (see
1408 If a letter is followed by a colon, the option is expected to have an
1409 argument which may or may not be separated from it by whitespace.
1410 If an option character is not found where expected,
1412 will set the variable
1419 and write output to standard error.
1420 By specifying a colon as the first character of
1422 all errors will be ignored.
1424 A nonzero value is returned when the last option is reached.
1425 If there are no remaining arguments,
1429 to the special option,
1431 otherwise, it will set
1436 The following code fragment shows how one might process the arguments
1437 for a command that can take the options
1443 which requires an argument.
1445 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1446 while getopts abc: f
1451 \\?) echo $USAGE; exit 1;;
1454 shift `expr $OPTIND - 1`
1457 This code will accept any of the following as equivalent:
1459 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1460 cmd \-acarg file file
1461 cmd \-a \-c arg file file
1462 cmd \-carg -a file file
1463 cmd \-a \-carg \-\- file file
1465 .It hash Fl rv Ar command ...
1466 The shell maintains a hash table which remembers the
1467 locations of commands.
1468 With no arguments whatsoever,
1471 command prints out the contents of this table.
1472 Entries which have not been looked at since the last
1474 command are marked with an asterisk; it is possible for these entries
1479 command removes the specified commands from the hash table (unless
1480 they are functions) and then locates them.
1483 option, hash prints the locations of the commands as it finds them.
1486 option causes the hash command to delete all the entries in the hash table
1487 except for functions.
1491 to set keybindings as defined by
1494 Print the process id's of the processes in the job.
1497 argument is omitted, the current job is used.
1499 This command lists out all the background processes
1500 which are children of the current shell process.
1502 Print the current directory.
1505 is specified the cached value (initially set from
1507 is checked to see if it refers to the current directory, if it does
1508 the value is printed.
1509 Otherwise the current directory name is found using
1511 The environment variable
1513 is set to printed value.
1518 but note that the builtin
1520 command doesn't currently support
1524 and will cache (almost) the absolute path.
1529 may be changed to default to
1533 If the current directory is renamed and replaced by a symlink to the
1534 same directory, or the initial
1536 value followed a symbolic link, then the cached value may not
1537 be the absolute path.
1539 The builtin command may differ from the program of the same name because
1540 the program will use
1542 and the builtin uses a separately cached value.
1543 .It Xo read Op Fl p Ar prompt
1548 The prompt is printed if the
1550 option is specified and the standard input is a terminal.
1551 Then a line is read from the standard input.
1552 The trailing newline is deleted from the
1553 line and the line is split as described in the section on word splitting
1554 above, and the pieces are assigned to the variables in order.
1555 If there are more pieces than variables, the remaining pieces
1556 (along with the characters in
1558 that separated them) are assigned to the last variable.
1559 If there are more variables than pieces,
1560 the remaining variables are assigned the null string.
1563 builtin will indicate success unless EOF is encountered on input, in
1564 which case failure is returned.
1566 By default, unless the
1568 option is specified, the backslash
1570 acts as an escape character, causing the following character to be treated
1572 If a backslash is followed by a newline, the backslash and the
1573 newline will be deleted.
1574 .It readonly Ar name ...
1576 The specified names are marked as read only, so that they cannot be
1577 subsequently modified or unset.
1578 The shell allows the value of a variable
1579 to be set at the same time it is marked read only by writing
1581 .Dl readonly name=value
1583 With no arguments the readonly command lists the names of all read only
1587 option specified the output will be formatted suitably for non-interactive use.
1591 .Fl options | Cm +options | Cm -- }
1596 command performs three different functions.
1598 With no arguments, it lists the values of all shell variables.
1600 If options are given, it sets the specified option
1601 flags, or clears them as described in the section called
1602 .Sx Argument List Processing .
1604 The third use of the set command is to set the values of the shell's
1605 positional parameters to the specified args.
1606 To change the positional
1607 parameters without changing any options, use
1609 as the first argument to set.
1610 If no args are present, the set command
1611 will clear all the positional parameters (equivalent to executing
1613 .It setvar Ar variable Ar value
1614 Assigns value to variable.
1615 (In general it is better to write
1616 variable=value rather than using
1619 is intended to be used in
1620 functions that assign values to variables whose names are passed as
1623 Shift the positional parameters n times.
1634 and so on, decreasing
1638 If there are zero positional parameters,
1648 Cause the shell to parse and execute action when any of the specified
1649 signals are received.
1650 The signals are specified by signal number or as the name of the signal.
1655 the action is executed when the shell exits.
1657 may be null, which cause the specified signals to be ignored.
1660 omitted or set to `-' the specified signals are set to their default action.
1661 When the shell forks off a subshell, it resets trapped (but not ignored)
1662 signals to the default action.
1665 command has no effect on signals that were
1666 ignored on entry to the shell.
1671 will print a list of valid signal names.
1673 without any arguments cause it to write a list of signals and their
1674 associated action to the standard output in a format that is suitable
1675 as an input to the shell that achieves the same trapping results.
1681 List trapped signals and their corresponding action
1685 Print a list of valid signals
1687 .Dl trap '' INT QUIT tstp 30
1689 Ignore signals INT QUIT TSTP USR1
1693 Print date upon receiving signal INT
1694 .It type Op Ar name ...
1695 Interpret each name as a command and print the resolution of the command
1697 Possible resolutions are:
1698 shell keyword, alias, shell builtin,
1699 command, tracked alias and not found.
1700 For aliases the alias expansion is
1701 printed; for commands and tracked aliases the complete pathname of the
1705 .Op Fl a \*(Ba Fl tfdscmlpn Op Ar value
1707 Inquire about or set the hard or soft limits on processes or set new
1709 The choice between hard limit (which no process is allowed to
1710 violate, and which may not be raised once it has been lowered) and soft
1711 limit (which causes processes to be signaled but not necessarily killed,
1712 and which may be raised) is made with these flags:
1715 set or inquire about hard limits
1717 set or inquire about soft limits.
1722 is specified, the soft limit is displayed or both limits are set.
1723 If both are specified, the last one wins.
1727 The limit to be interrogated or set, then, is chosen by specifying
1728 any one of these flags:
1730 show all the current limits
1732 show or set the limit on the socket buffer size of a process (in bytes)
1734 show or set the limit on CPU time (in seconds)
1736 show or set the limit on the largest file that can be created
1737 (in 512-byte blocks)
1739 show or set the limit on the data segment size of a process (in kilobytes)
1741 show or set the limit on the stack size of a process (in kilobytes)
1743 show or set the limit on the largest core dump size that can be produced
1744 (in 512-byte blocks)
1746 show or set the limit on the total physical memory that can be
1747 in use by a process (in kilobytes)
1749 show or set the limit on how much memory a process can lock with
1753 show or set the limit on the number of processes this user can
1756 show or set the limit on the number of files a process can have open at once
1759 If none of these is specified, it is the limit on file size that is shown
1761 If value is specified, the limit is set to that number; otherwise
1762 the current limit is displayed.
1764 Limits of an arbitrary process can be displayed or set using the
1768 .It umask Op Ar mask
1769 Set the value of umask (see
1771 to the specified octal value.
1772 If the argument is omitted, the umask value is printed.
1779 is specified, the shell removes that alias.
1782 is specified, all aliases are removed.
1783 .It unset Ar name ...
1784 The specified variables and functions are unset and unexported.
1785 If a given name corresponds to both a variable and a function, both
1786 the variable and the function are unset.
1788 Wait for the specified job to complete and return the exit status of the
1789 last process in the job.
1790 If the argument is omitted, wait for all jobs to
1791 complete and then return an exit status of zero.
1793 .Ss Command Line Editing
1796 is being used interactively from a terminal, the current command
1797 and the command history (see
1801 can be edited using emacs-mode or vi-mode command-line editing.
1804 enables emacs-mode editing.
1807 enables vi-mode editing and places sh into vi insert mode.
1809 .Sx Argument List Processing
1812 The vi mode uses commands similar to a subset of those described in the
1816 enabled, sh can be switched between insert mode and command mode.
1817 It's similar to vi: typing
1819 will throw you into command VI command mode.
1822 while in command mode will pass the line to the shell.
1824 The emacs mode uses commands similar to a subset available in
1826 With emacs-mode enabled, special keys can be used to modify the text
1827 in the buffer using the control key.
1834 Errors that are detected by the shell, such as a syntax error, will cause the
1835 shell to exit with a non-zero exit status.
1836 If the shell is not an
1837 interactive shell, the execution of the shell file will be aborted.
1839 the shell will return the exit status of the last command executed, or
1840 if the exit builtin is used with a numeric argument, it will return the
1843 .Bl -tag -width MAILCHECK
1845 Set automatically by
1847 from the user's login directory in the password file
1849 This environment variable also functions as the default argument for the
1852 The default search path for executables.
1853 See the above section
1856 The search path used with the cd builtin.
1858 The string used to specify localization information that allows users
1859 to work with different culture-specific and language conventions.
1863 The name of a mail file, that will be checked for the arrival of new mail.
1867 The frequency in seconds that the shell checks for the arrival of mail
1868 in the files specified by the
1873 If set to 0, the check will occur at each prompt.
1877 separated list of file names, for the shell to check for incoming mail.
1878 This environment setting overrides the
1881 There is a maximum of 10 mailboxes that can be monitored at once.
1883 The primary prompt string, which defaults to
1885 unless you are the superuser, in which case it defaults to
1888 The secondary prompt string, which defaults to
1891 Output before each line when execution trace (set -x) is enabled,
1895 Input Field Separators.
1896 This is normally set to
1902 .Sx White Space Splitting
1903 section for more details.
1905 The default terminal setting for the shell.
1906 This is inherited by
1907 children of the shell, and is used in the history editing modes.
1909 The number of lines in the history buffer for the shell.
1912 .Bl -item -width HOMEprofilexxxx
1939 It was, however, unmaintainable so we wrote this one.
1941 Setuid shell scripts should be avoided at all costs, as they are a
1942 significant security risk.
1944 PS1, PS2, and PS4 should be subject to parameter expansion before
1947 The characters generated by filename completion should probably be quoted
1948 to ensure that the filename is still valid after the input line has been