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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 arguments 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 built-in (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 EOFs 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 dollar sign
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, built-in 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 built-ins are executed internally to the shell, without spawning a
510 Otherwise, if the command name doesn't match a function or built-in, 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 built-in command by that name.
536 If a built-in 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 built-in 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 built-in, 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 \*[Am]\*[Am] echo baz
674 This is not the way it works in C.
675 Also, if you forget the left-hand side (for example when continuing lines but
676 forgetting to use a backslash) it defaults to a true statement.
677 This behavior is not useful and should not be relied upon.
678 .Ss Flow-Control Constructs -- if, while, for, case
679 The syntax of the if command is
680 .Bd -literal -offset indent
689 The syntax of the while command is
690 .Bd -literal -offset indent
696 The two lists are executed repeatedly while the exit status of the
698 The until command is similar, but has the word
699 until in place of while, which causes it to
700 repeat until the exit status of the first list is zero.
702 The syntax of the for command is
703 .Bd -literal -offset indent
704 for variable in word ...
709 The words are expanded, and then the list is executed repeatedly with the
710 variable set to each word in turn.
711 do and done may be replaced with
716 The syntax of the break and continue command is
717 .Bd -literal -offset indent
722 Break terminates the num innermost for or while loops.
723 Continue continues with the next iteration of the innermost loop.
724 These are implemented as built-in commands.
726 The syntax of the case command is
727 .Bd -literal -offset indent
734 The pattern can actually be one or more patterns (see
736 described later), separated by
739 .Ss Grouping Commands Together
740 Commands may be grouped by writing either
748 The first of these executes the commands in a subshell.
749 Built-in commands grouped into a (list) will not affect the current shell.
750 The second form does not fork another shell so is slightly more efficient.
751 Grouping commands together this way allows you to redirect
752 their output as though they were one program:
754 .Bd -literal -offset indent
755 { echo -n \*q hello \*q ; echo \*q world" ; } \*[Gt] greeting
760 must follow a control operator (here,
762 so that it is recognized as a reserved word and not as another command argument.
764 The syntax of a function definition is
768 A function definition is an executable statement; when executed it
769 installs a function named name and returns an exit status of zero.
770 The command is normally a list enclosed between
775 Variables may be declared to be local to a function by using a local
777 This should appear as the first statement of a function, and the syntax is
779 .Dl local [ variable | - ] ...
782 is implemented as a built-in command.
784 When a variable is made local, it inherits the initial value and exported
785 and read-only flags from the variable with the same name in the surrounding
786 scope, if there is one.
787 Otherwise, the variable is initially unset.
788 The shell uses dynamic scoping, so that if you make the variable x local to
789 function f, which then calls function g, references to the variable x made
790 inside g will refer to the variable x declared inside f, not to the global
793 The only special parameter that can be made local is
797 local causes any shell options that are changed via the set command inside the
798 function to be restored to their original values when the function
801 The syntax of the return command is
803 .Dl return [ exitstatus ]
805 It terminates the currently executing function.
806 Return is implemented as a built-in command.
807 .Ss Variables and Parameters
808 The shell maintains a set of parameters.
809 A parameter denoted by a name is called a variable.
810 When starting up, the shell turns all the environment
811 variables into shell variables.
812 New variables can be set using the form
816 Variables set by the user must have a name consisting solely of
817 alphabetics, numerics, and underscores - the first of which must not be
819 A parameter can also be denoted by a number or a special
820 character as explained below.
821 .Ss Positional Parameters
822 A positional parameter is a parameter denoted by a number (n \*[Gt] 0).
823 The shell sets these initially to the values of its command line arguments
824 that follow the name of the shell script.
827 built-in can also be used to set or reset them.
828 .Ss Special Parameters
829 A special parameter is a parameter denoted by one of the following special
831 The value of the parameter is listed next to its character.
832 .Bl -tag -width thinhyphena
834 Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one.
836 expansion occurs within a double-quoted string it expands to a single
837 field with the value of each parameter separated by the first character of
846 Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one.
847 When the expansion occurs within double-quotes, each positional
848 parameter expands as a separate argument.
849 If there are no positional parameters, the
850 expansion of @ generates zero arguments, even when @ is
852 What this basically means, for example, is
863 .Dl \*q abc \*q \ \*q def\ ghi \*q
866 Expands to the number of positional parameters.
868 Expands to the exit status of the most recent pipeline.
870 Expands to the current option flags (the single-letter
871 option names concatenated into a string) as specified on
872 invocation, by the set built-in command, or implicitly
875 Expands to the process ID of the invoked shell.
876 A subshell retains the same value of $ as its parent.
878 Expands to the process ID of the most recent background
879 command executed from the current shell.
880 For a pipeline, the process ID is that of the last command in the pipeline.
882 Expands to the name of the shell or shell script.
885 This clause describes the various expansions that are performed on words.
886 Not all expansions are performed on every word, as explained later.
888 Tilde expansions, parameter expansions, command substitutions, arithmetic
889 expansions, and quote removals that occur within a single word expand to a
891 It is only field splitting or pathname expansion that can
892 create multiple fields from a single word.
893 The single exception to this
894 rule is the expansion of the special parameter @ within double-quotes, as
897 The order of word expansion is:
900 Tilde Expansion, Parameter Expansion, Command Substitution,
901 Arithmetic Expansion (these all occur at the same time).
903 Field Splitting is performed on fields
904 generated by step (1) unless the
908 Pathname Expansion (unless set
915 The $ character is used to introduce parameter expansion, command
916 substitution, or arithmetic evaluation.
917 .Ss Tilde Expansion (substituting a user's home directory)
918 A word beginning with an unquoted tilde character (~) is
919 subjected to tilde expansion.
920 All the characters up to
921 a slash (/) or the end of the word are treated as a username
922 and are replaced with the user's home directory.
923 If the username is missing (as in
925 the tilde is replaced with the value of the
927 variable (the current user's home directory).
928 .Ss Parameter Expansion
929 The format for parameter expansion is as follows:
933 where expression consists of all characters until the matching
937 escaped by a backslash or within a quoted string, and characters in
938 embedded arithmetic expansions, command substitutions, and variable
939 expansions, are not examined in determining the matching
942 The simplest form for parameter expansion is:
946 The value, if any, of parameter is substituted.
948 The parameter name or symbol can be enclosed in braces, which are
949 optional except for positional parameters with more than one digit or
950 when parameter is followed by a character that could be interpreted as
952 If a parameter expansion occurs inside double-quotes:
955 Pathname expansion is not performed on the results of the expansion.
957 Field splitting is not performed on the results of the
958 expansion, with the exception of the special rules for @.
961 In addition, a parameter expansion can be modified by using one of the
963 .Bl -tag -width aaparameterwordaaaaa
964 .It ${parameter:-word}
966 If parameter is unset or null, the expansion of word
967 is substituted; otherwise, the value of parameter is substituted.
968 .It ${parameter:=word}
969 Assign Default Values.
970 If parameter is unset or null, the expansion of
971 word is assigned to parameter.
972 In all cases, the final value of parameter is substituted.
973 Only variables, not positional parameters or special
974 parameters, can be assigned in this way.
975 .It ${parameter:?[word]}
976 Indicate Error if Null or Unset.
977 If parameter is unset or null, the
978 expansion of word (or a message indicating it is unset if word is omitted)
979 is written to standard error and the shell exits with a nonzero exit status.
980 Otherwise, the value of parameter is substituted.
981 An interactive shell need not exit.
982 .It ${parameter:+word}
983 Use Alternative Value.
984 If parameter is unset or null, null is
985 substituted; otherwise, the expansion of word is substituted.
988 In the parameter expansions shown previously, use of the colon in the
989 format results in a test for a parameter that is unset or null; omission
990 of the colon results in a test for a parameter that is only unset.
991 .Bl -tag -width aaparameterwordaaaaa
994 The length in characters of the value of parameter.
997 The following four varieties of parameter expansion provide for substring
999 In each case, pattern matching notation (see
1000 .Sx Shell Patterns ) ,
1001 rather than regular expression notation, is used to evaluate the patterns.
1002 If parameter is * or @, the result of the expansion is unspecified.
1003 Enclosing the full parameter expansion string in double-quotes does not
1004 cause the following four varieties of pattern characters to be quoted,
1005 whereas quoting characters within the braces has this effect.
1006 .Bl -tag -width aaparameterwordaaaaa
1007 .It ${parameter%word}
1008 Remove Smallest Suffix Pattern.
1009 The word is expanded to produce a pattern.
1010 The parameter expansion then results in parameter, with the
1011 smallest portion of the suffix matched by the pattern deleted.
1012 .It ${parameter%%word}
1013 Remove Largest Suffix Pattern.
1014 The word is expanded to produce a pattern.
1015 The parameter expansion then results in parameter, with the largest
1016 portion of the suffix matched by the pattern deleted.
1017 .It ${parameter#word}
1018 Remove Smallest Prefix Pattern.
1019 The word is expanded to produce a pattern.
1020 The parameter expansion then results in parameter, with the
1021 smallest portion of the prefix matched by the pattern deleted.
1022 .It ${parameter##word}
1023 Remove Largest Prefix Pattern.
1024 The word is expanded to produce a pattern.
1025 The parameter expansion then results in parameter, with the largest
1026 portion of the prefix matched by the pattern deleted.
1028 .Ss Command Substitution
1029 Command substitution allows the output of a command to be substituted in
1030 place of the command name itself.
1031 Command substitution occurs when the command is enclosed as follows:
1043 The shell expands the command substitution by executing command in a
1044 subshell environment and replacing the command substitution with the
1045 standard output of the command, removing sequences of one or more
1047 at the end of the substitution.
1051 the end of the output are not removed; however, during field splitting,
1052 they may be translated into
1054 depending on the value of
1056 and quoting that is in effect.)
1057 .Ss Arithmetic Expansion
1058 Arithmetic expansion provides a mechanism for evaluating an arithmetic
1059 expression and substituting its value.
1060 The format for arithmetic expansion is as follows:
1064 The expression is treated as if it were in double-quotes, except
1065 that a double-quote inside the expression is not treated specially.
1066 The shell expands all tokens in the expression for parameter expansion,
1067 command substitution, and quote removal.
1069 Next, the shell treats this as an arithmetic expression and
1070 substitutes the value of the expression.
1072 Arithmetic expressions use a syntax similar to that
1073 of the C language, and are evaluated using the
1075 data type (this is an extension to
1080 Shell variables may be referenced by name inside an arithmetic
1081 expression, without needing a
1084 .Ss White Space Splitting (Field Splitting)
1085 After parameter expansion, command substitution, and
1086 arithmetic expansion the shell scans the results of
1087 expansions and substitutions that did not occur in double-quotes for
1088 field splitting and multiple fields can result.
1090 The shell treats each character of the
1092 as a delimiter and use the delimiters to split the results of parameter
1093 expansion and command substitution into fields.
1095 Non-whitespace characters in
1097 are treated strictly as parameter terminators.
1098 So adjacent non-whitespace
1100 characters will produce empty parameters.
1104 is unset it is assumed to contain space, tab, and newline.
1105 .Ss Pathname Expansion (File Name Generation)
1108 flag is set, file name generation is performed after word splitting is
1110 Each word is viewed as a series of patterns, separated by slashes.
1111 The process of expansion replaces the word with the names of all
1112 existing files whose names can be formed by replacing each pattern with a
1113 string that matches the specified pattern.
1114 There are two restrictions on
1115 this: first, a pattern cannot match a string containing a slash, and
1116 second, a pattern cannot match a string starting with a period unless the
1117 first character of the pattern is a period.
1118 The next section describes the
1119 patterns used for both Pathname Expansion and the
1123 A pattern consists of normal characters, which match themselves,
1124 and meta-characters.
1125 The meta-characters are
1131 These characters lose their special meanings if they are quoted.
1132 When command or variable substitution is performed
1133 and the dollar sign or back quotes are not double quoted,
1134 the value of the variable or the output of
1135 the command is scanned for these characters and they are turned into
1140 matches any string of characters.
1141 A question mark matches any single character.
1144 introduces a character class.
1145 The end of the character class is indicated by a
1153 rather than introducing a character class.
1154 A character class matches any of the characters between the square brackets.
1155 A range of characters may be specified using a minus sign.
1156 The character class may be complemented
1157 by making an exclamation point the first character of the character class.
1161 in a character class, make it the first character listed (after the
1164 To include a minus sign, make it the first or last character listed.
1166 This section lists the built-in commands which are built-in because they
1167 need to perform some operation that can't be performed by a separate
1169 In addition to these, there are several other commands that may
1170 be built in for efficiency (e.g.
1177 A null command that returns a 0 (true) exit value.
1179 The commands in the specified file are read and executed by the shell.
1180 .It alias Op Ar name Ns Op Ar "=string ..."
1183 is specified, the shell defines the alias
1189 is specified, the value of the alias
1192 With no arguments, the
1195 names and values of all defined aliases (see
1197 .It bg [ Ar job ] ...
1198 Continue the specified jobs (or the current job if no
1199 jobs are given) in the background.
1200 .It command Oo Fl p Oc Oo Fl v Oc Oo Fl V Oc Ar command Oo Ar arg ... Oc
1201 Execute the specified command but ignore shell functions when searching
1203 (This is useful when you
1204 have a shell function with the same name as a built-in command.)
1207 search for command using a
1209 that guarantees to find all the standard utilities.
1211 Do not execute the command but
1212 search for the command and print the resolution of the
1214 This is the same as the
1218 Do not execute the command but
1219 search for the command and print the absolute pathname
1220 of utilities, the name for built-ins or the expansion of aliases.
1222 .It cd Oo Fl P Oc Op Ar directory Op Ar replace
1223 Switch to the specified directory (default
1227 is specified, then the new directory name is generated by replacing
1228 the first occurrence of
1230 in the current directory name with
1232 Otherwise if an entry for
1234 appears in the environment of the
1236 command or the shell variable
1238 is set and the directory name does not begin with a slash,
1239 or its first (or only) component isn't dot or dot dot,
1240 then the directories listed in
1242 will be searched for the specified directory.
1245 is the same as that of
1250 option instructs the shell to update
1252 with the specified directory and change to that directory.
1253 This is the default.
1255 Some shells also support a
1257 option, which instructs the shell to update
1259 with incorrect information and to change the current directory
1261 This is not supported.
1263 In an interactive shell, the
1265 command will print out the name of the
1266 directory that it actually switched to if this is different from the name
1268 These may be different either because the
1270 mechanism was used or because a symbolic link was crossed.
1271 .It eval Ar string ...
1272 Concatenate all the arguments with spaces.
1273 Then re-parse and execute the command.
1274 .It exec Op Ar command arg ...
1275 Unless command is omitted, the shell process is replaced with the
1276 specified program (which must be a real program, not a shell built-in or
1278 Any redirections on the
1280 command are marked as permanent, so that they are not undone when the
1283 .It exit Op Ar exitstatus
1284 Terminate the shell process.
1287 is given it is used as the exit status of the shell; otherwise the
1288 exit status of the preceding command is used.
1289 .It export Ar name ...
1291 The specified names are exported so that they will appear in the
1292 environment of subsequent commands.
1293 The only way to un-export a variable is to unset it.
1294 The shell allows the value of a variable to be set at the
1295 same time it is exported by writing
1297 .Dl export name=value
1299 With no arguments the export command lists the names of all exported variables.
1302 option specified the output will be formatted suitably for non-interactive use.
1303 .It fc Oo Fl e Ar editor Oc Oo Ar first Oo Ar last Oc Oc
1304 .It fc Fl l Oo Fl nr Oc Oo Ar first Oo Ar last Oc Oc
1305 .It fc Fl s Oo Ar old=new Oc Oo Ar first Oc
1308 built-in lists, or edits and re-executes, commands previously entered
1309 to an interactive shell.
1312 Use the editor named by editor to edit the commands.
1313 The editor string is a command name, subject to search via the
1318 variable is used as a default when
1323 is null or unset, the value of the
1330 is used as the editor.
1332 List the commands rather than invoking an editor on them.
1333 The commands are written in the sequence indicated by
1334 the first and last operands, as affected by
1336 with each command preceded by the command number.
1338 Suppress command numbers when listing with -l.
1340 Reverse the order of the commands listed (with
1342 or edited (with neither
1347 Re-execute the command without invoking an editor.
1350 Select the commands to list or edit.
1351 The number of previous commands that
1352 can be accessed are determined by the value of the
1355 The value of first or last or both are one of the following:
1358 A positive number representing a command number; command numbers can be
1363 A negative decimal number representing the command that was executed
1364 number of commands previously.
1365 For example, \-1 is the immediately previous command.
1368 A string indicating the most recently entered command that begins with
1370 If the old=new operand is not also specified with
1372 the string form of the first operand cannot contain an embedded equal sign.
1375 The following environment variables affect the execution of fc:
1376 .Bl -tag -width HISTSIZE
1378 Name of the editor to use.
1380 The number of previous commands that are accessible.
1383 Move the specified job or the current job to the foreground.
1384 .It getopts Ar optstring var
1388 command, not to be confused with the
1393 The first argument should be a series of letters, each of which may be
1394 optionally followed by a colon to indicate that the option requires an
1396 The variable specified is set to the parsed option.
1400 command deprecates the older
1402 utility due to its handling of arguments containing whitespace.
1406 built-in may be used to obtain options and their arguments
1407 from a list of parameters.
1410 places the value of the next option from the option string in the list in
1411 the shell variable specified by
1413 and its index in the shell variable
1415 When the shell is invoked,
1417 is initialized to 1.
1418 For each option that requires an argument, the
1420 built-in will place it in the shell variable
1422 If an option is not allowed for in the
1429 is a string of recognized option letters (see
1431 If a letter is followed by a colon, the option is expected to have an
1432 argument which may or may not be separated from it by whitespace.
1433 If an option character is not found where expected,
1435 will set the variable
1442 and write output to standard error.
1443 By specifying a colon as the first character of
1445 all errors will be ignored.
1447 A nonzero value is returned when the last option is reached.
1448 If there are no remaining arguments,
1452 to the special option,
1454 otherwise, it will set
1459 The following code fragment shows how one might process the arguments
1460 for a command that can take the options
1466 which requires an argument.
1468 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1469 while getopts abc: f
1474 \\?) echo $USAGE; exit 1;;
1477 shift `expr $OPTIND - 1`
1480 This code will accept any of the following as equivalent:
1482 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1483 cmd \-acarg file file
1484 cmd \-a \-c arg file file
1485 cmd \-carg -a file file
1486 cmd \-a \-carg \-\- file file
1488 .It hash Fl rv Ar command ...
1489 The shell maintains a hash table which remembers the
1490 locations of commands.
1491 With no arguments whatsoever,
1494 command prints out the contents of this table.
1495 Entries which have not been looked at since the last
1497 command are marked with an asterisk; it is possible for these entries
1502 command removes the specified commands from the hash table (unless
1503 they are functions) and then locates them.
1506 option, hash prints the locations of the commands as it finds them.
1509 option causes the hash command to delete all the entries in the hash table
1510 except for functions.
1514 to set keybindings as defined by
1517 Print the process id's of the processes in the job.
1520 argument is omitted, the current job is used.
1522 This command lists out all the background processes
1523 which are children of the current shell process.
1525 Print the current directory.
1528 is specified the cached value (initially set from
1530 is checked to see if it refers to the current directory; if it does
1531 the value is printed.
1532 Otherwise the current directory name is found using
1534 The environment variable
1536 is set to the printed value.
1541 but note that the built-in
1543 command doesn't currently support the
1545 option and will cache (almost) the absolute path.
1550 may be changed to default to
1554 If the current directory is renamed and replaced by a symlink to the
1555 same directory, or the initial
1557 value followed a symbolic link, then the cached value may not
1558 be the absolute path.
1560 The built-in command may differ from the program of the same name because
1561 the program will use
1563 and the built-in uses a separately cached value.
1564 .It read Oo Fl p Ar prompt Oc Oo Fl r Oc Ar variable Oo Ar ... Oc
1565 The prompt is printed if the
1567 option is specified and the standard input is a terminal.
1568 Then a line is read from the standard input.
1569 The trailing newline is deleted from the
1570 line and the line is split as described in the section on word splitting
1571 above, and the pieces are assigned to the variables in order.
1572 If there are more pieces than variables, the remaining pieces
1573 (along with the characters in
1575 that separated them) are assigned to the last variable.
1576 If there are more variables than pieces,
1577 the remaining variables are assigned the null string.
1580 built-in will indicate success unless EOF is encountered on input, in
1581 which case failure is returned.
1583 By default, unless the
1585 option is specified, the backslash
1587 acts as an escape character, causing the following character to be treated
1589 If a backslash is followed by a newline, the backslash and the
1590 newline will be deleted.
1591 .It readonly Ar name ...
1593 The specified names are marked as read only, so that they cannot be
1594 subsequently modified or unset.
1595 The shell allows the value of a variable
1596 to be set at the same time it is marked read only by writing
1598 .Dl readonly name=value
1600 With no arguments the readonly command lists the names of all read only
1604 option specified the output will be formatted suitably for non-interactive use.
1606 .It set Oo { Fl options | Cm +options | Cm \-- } Oc Ar arg ...
1609 command performs three different functions.
1611 With no arguments, it lists the values of all shell variables.
1613 If options are given, it sets the specified option
1614 flags, or clears them as described in the section called
1615 .Sx Argument List Processing .
1617 The third use of the set command is to set the values of the shell's
1618 positional parameters to the specified arguments.
1619 To change the positional
1620 parameters without changing any options, use
1622 as the first argument to set.
1623 If no arguments are present, the set command
1624 will clear all the positional parameters (equivalent to executing
1626 .It setvar Ar variable Ar value
1627 Assigns value to variable.
1628 (In general it is better to write
1629 variable=value rather than using
1632 is intended to be used in
1633 functions that assign values to variables whose names are passed as
1636 Shift the positional parameters n times.
1647 and so on, decreasing
1651 If there are zero positional parameters,
1655 .It trap Oo Ar action Oc Ar signal ...
1656 Cause the shell to parse and execute action when any of the specified
1657 signals are received.
1658 The signals are specified by signal number or as the name of the signal.
1663 or its equivalent, EXIT,
1664 the action is executed when the shell exits.
1666 may be null, which cause the specified signals to be ignored.
1669 omitted or set to `-' the specified signals are set to their default action.
1670 When the shell forks off a subshell, it resets trapped (but not ignored)
1671 signals to the default action.
1672 On non-interactive shells, the
1674 command has no effect on signals that were
1675 ignored on entry to the shell.
1676 On interactive shells, the
1678 command will catch or reset signals ignored on entry.
1683 will print a list of valid signal names.
1685 without any arguments cause it to write a list of signals and their
1686 associated action to the standard output in a format that is suitable
1687 as an input to the shell that achieves the same trapping results.
1693 List trapped signals and their corresponding action
1697 Print a list of valid signals
1699 .Dl trap '' INT QUIT tstp 30
1701 Ignore signals INT QUIT TSTP USR1
1705 Print date upon receiving signal INT
1706 .It type Op Ar name ...
1707 Interpret each name as a command and print the resolution of the command
1709 Possible resolutions are:
1710 shell keyword, alias, shell built-in,
1711 command, tracked alias and not found.
1712 For aliases the alias expansion is
1713 printed; for commands and tracked aliases the complete pathname of the
1715 .It ulimit Oo Fl H \*(Ba Fl S Oc Oo Fl a \*(Ba Fl tfdscmlpnv Oo Ar value Oc Oc
1716 Inquire about or set the hard or soft limits on processes or set new
1718 The choice between hard limit (which no process is allowed to
1719 violate, and which may not be raised once it has been lowered) and soft
1720 limit (which causes processes to be signaled but not necessarily killed,
1721 and which may be raised) is made with these flags:
1724 set or inquire about hard limits
1726 set or inquire about soft limits.
1731 is specified, the soft limit is displayed or both limits are set.
1732 If both are specified, the last one wins.
1735 The limit to be interrogated or set, then, is chosen by specifying
1736 any one of these flags:
1739 show all the current limits
1741 show or set the limit on the socket buffer size of a process (in bytes)
1743 show or set the limit on CPU time (in seconds)
1745 show or set the limit on the largest file that can be created
1746 (in 512-byte blocks)
1748 show or set the limit on the data segment size of a process (in kilobytes)
1750 show or set the limit on the stack size of a process (in kilobytes)
1752 show or set the limit on the largest core dump size that can be produced
1753 (in 512-byte blocks)
1755 show or set the limit on the total physical memory that can be
1756 in use by a process (in kilobytes)
1758 show or set the limit on how much memory a process can lock with
1762 show or set the limit on the number of processes this user can
1765 show or set the limit on the number of files a process can have open at once
1767 show or set the limit on how large a process address space can be
1770 If none of these is specified, it is the limit on file size that is shown
1772 If value is specified, the limit is set to that number; otherwise
1773 the current limit is displayed.
1775 Limits of an arbitrary process can be displayed or set using the
1779 .It umask Op Ar mask
1780 Set the value of umask (see
1782 to the specified octal value.
1783 If the argument is omitted, the umask value is printed.
1784 .It unalias Oo Fl a Oc Oo Ar name Oc
1787 is specified, the shell removes that alias.
1790 is specified, all aliases are removed.
1791 .It unset Ar name ...
1792 The specified variables and functions are unset and unexported.
1793 If a given name corresponds to both a variable and a function, both
1794 the variable and the function are unset.
1796 Wait for the specified job to complete and return the exit status of the
1797 last process in the job.
1798 If the argument is omitted, wait for all jobs to
1799 complete and then return an exit status of zero.
1801 .Ss Command Line Editing
1804 is being used interactively from a terminal, the current command
1805 and the command history (see
1809 can be edited using emacs-mode or vi-mode command-line editing.
1812 enables emacs-mode editing.
1815 enables vi-mode editing and places the current shell process into
1819 .Sx Argument List Processing
1824 mode uses commands similar to a subset of those described in the
1830 can be switched between insert mode and command mode.
1835 key will throw you into command VI command mode.
1838 key while in command mode will pass the line to the shell.
1842 mode uses commands similar to a subset available in
1846 With emacs-mode enabled, special keys can be used to modify the text
1847 in the buffer using the control key.
1854 Errors that are detected by the shell, such as a syntax error, will cause the
1855 shell to exit with a non-zero exit status.
1856 If the shell is not an
1857 interactive shell, the execution of the shell file will be aborted.
1859 the shell will return the exit status of the last command executed, or
1860 if the exit built-in is used with a numeric argument, it will return the
1863 .Bl -tag -width MAILCHECK
1865 Set automatically by
1867 from the user's login directory in the password file
1869 This environment variable also functions as the default argument for the
1873 The default search path for executables.
1874 See the above section
1877 The search path used with the
1881 The string used to specify localization information that allows users
1882 to work with different culture-specific and language conventions.
1886 The name of a mail file, that will be checked for the arrival of new mail.
1890 The frequency in seconds that the shell checks for the arrival of mail
1891 in the files specified by the
1896 If set to 0, the check will occur at each prompt.
1900 separated list of file names, for the shell to check for incoming mail.
1901 This environment setting overrides the
1904 There is a maximum of 10 mailboxes that can be monitored at once.
1906 The primary prompt string, which defaults to
1908 unless you are the superuser, in which case it defaults to
1911 The secondary prompt string, which defaults to
1914 Output before each line when execution trace (set -x) is enabled,
1918 Input Field Separators.
1919 This is normally set to
1925 .Sx White Space Splitting
1926 section for more details.
1928 The default terminal setting for the shell.
1929 This is inherited by
1930 children of the shell, and is used in the history editing modes.
1932 The number of lines in the history buffer for the shell.
1935 .Bl -item -width HOMEprofilexxxx
1962 It was, however, unmaintainable so we wrote this one.
1964 Setuid shell scripts should be avoided at all costs, as they are a
1965 significant security risk.
1967 PS1, PS2, and PS4 should be subject to parameter expansion before
1970 The characters generated by filename completion should probably be quoted
1971 to ensure that the filename is still valid after the input line has been