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36 .\" from: @(#)sh.1 8.6 (Berkeley) 5/4/95
37 .\" $FreeBSD: src/bin/sh/sh.1,v 1.124 2006/10/07 16:51:16 stefanf Exp $
38 .\" $DragonFly: src/bin/sh/sh.1,v 1.14 2008/09/15 20:24:41 thomas Exp $
45 .Nd command interpreter (shell)
48 .Op Fl /+abCEefIimnPpsTuVvx
49 .Op Fl /+o Ar longname
55 utility is the standard command interpreter for the system.
56 The current version of
58 is in the process of being changed to
61 specification for the shell.
62 This version has many features which make
64 similar in some respects to the Korn shell, but it is not a Korn
65 shell clone like pdksh.
67 designated by POSIX, plus a few Berkeley extensions, are being
68 incorporated into this shell.
69 This man page is not intended to be a tutorial nor a complete
70 specification of the shell.
72 The shell is a command that reads lines from
73 either a file or the terminal, interprets them, and
74 generally executes other commands.
75 It is the program that is started when a user logs into the system,
76 although a user can select a different shell with the
80 implements a language that has flow control constructs,
81 a macro facility that provides a variety of features in
82 addition to data storage, along with built-in history and line
84 It incorporates many features to
85 aid interactive use and has the advantage that the interpretative
86 language is common to both interactive and non-interactive
88 That is, commands can be typed directly
89 to the running shell or can be put into a file,
90 which can be executed directly by the shell.
93 .\" XXX This next sentence is incredibly confusing.
95 If no arguments are present and if the standard input of the shell
96 is connected to a terminal
100 the shell is considered an interactive shell.
102 generally prompts before each command and handles programming
103 and command errors differently (as described below).
104 When first starting, the shell inspects argument 0, and
105 if it begins with a dash
107 the shell is also considered a login shell.
108 This is normally done automatically by the system
109 when the user first logs in.
110 A login shell first reads commands
116 If the environment variable
118 is set on entry to a shell, or is set in the
120 of a login shell, the shell then reads commands from the file named in
122 Therefore, a user should place commands that are to be executed only
125 file, and commands that are executed for every shell inside the
130 variable to some file by placing the following line in the file
132 in the home directory,
135 the filename desired:
137 .Dl ENV=$HOME/.shinit; export ENV
139 The first non-option argument specified on the command line
140 will be treated as the
141 name of a file from which to read commands (a shell script), and
142 the remaining arguments are set as the positional parameters
143 of the shell ($1, $2, etc).
144 Otherwise, the shell reads commands
145 from its standard input.
147 Unlike older versions of
151 script is only sourced on invocation of interactive shells.
153 closes a well-known, and sometimes easily exploitable security
154 hole related to poorly thought out
157 .Ss Argument List Processing
158 All of the single letter options to
160 have a corresponding long name,
161 with the exception of
165 These long names are provided next to the single letter options
166 in the descriptions below.
167 The long name for an option may be specified as an argument to the
171 Once the shell is running,
172 the long name for an option may be specified as an argument to the
177 (described later in the section called
178 .Sx Built-in Commands ) .
179 Introducing an option with a dash
189 will stop option processing and will force the remaining
190 words on the command line to be treated as arguments.
195 options do not have long names.
196 They take arguments and are described after the single letter options.
197 .Bl -tag -width indent
198 .It Fl a Li allexport
199 Flag variables for export when assignments are made to them.
201 Enable asynchronous notification of background job
204 .It Fl C Li noclobber
205 Do not overwrite existing files with
210 command line editor (disables the
212 option if it has been set).
214 Exit immediately if any untested command fails in non-interactive mode.
215 The exit status of a command is considered to be
216 explicitly tested if the command is part of the list used to control
218 .Ic if , elif , while ,
221 if the command is the left
226 operator; or if the command is a pipeline preceded by the
229 If a shell function is executed and its exit status is explicitly
230 tested, all commands of the function are considered to be tested as
233 Disable pathname expansion.
234 .It Fl I Li ignoreeof
237 from input when in interactive mode.
238 .It Fl i Li interactive
239 Force the shell to behave interactively.
241 Turn on job control (set automatically when interactive).
243 If not interactive, read commands but do not
245 This is useful for checking the
246 syntax of shell scripts.
248 Change the default for the
254 (logical directory layout)
257 (physical directory layout).
258 .It Fl p Li privileged
259 Turn on privileged mode.
260 This mode is enabled on startup
261 if either the effective user or group id is not equal to the
262 real user or group id.
263 Turning this mode off sets the
264 effective user and group ids to the real user and group ids.
265 When this mode is enabled for interactive shells, the file
266 .Pa /etc/suid_profile
267 is sourced instead of
271 is sourced, and the contents of the
273 variable are ignored.
275 Read commands from standard input (set automatically
276 if no file arguments are present).
278 no effect when set after the shell has already started
279 running (i.e., when set with the
282 .It Fl T Li trapsasync
283 When waiting for a child, execute traps immediately.
284 If this option is not set,
285 traps are executed after the child exits,
288 This nonstandard option is useful for putting guarding shells around
289 children that block signals.
290 The surrounding shell may kill the child
291 or it may just return control to the tty and leave the child alone,
293 .Bd -literal -offset indent
294 sh -T -c "trap 'exit 1' 2 ; some-blocking-program"
298 Write a message to standard error when attempting
299 to expand a variable that is not set, and if the
300 shell is not interactive, exit immediately.
304 command line editor (disables
308 The shell writes its input to standard error
310 Useful for debugging.
313 (preceded by the value of the
316 to standard error before it is executed.
317 Useful for debugging.
318 .It "\ \ " Em tabcomplete
319 Enables filename completion in the command line editor.
320 Typing a tab character will extend the current input word to match a
322 If more than one filename matches it is only extended to be the common prefix.
323 Typing a second tab character will list all the matching names.
324 Turned on by default in an interactive shell.
329 option causes the commands to be read from the
331 operand instead of from the standard input.
332 Keep in mind that this option only accepts a single string as its
333 argument, hence multi-word strings must be quoted.
337 option takes as its only argument the long name of an option
338 to be enabled or disabled.
339 For example, the following two invocations of
341 both enable the built-in
344 .Bd -literal -offset indent
349 If used without an argument, the
351 option displays the current option settings in a human-readable format.
354 is used without an argument, the current option settings are output
355 in a format suitable for re-input into the shell.
356 .Ss Lexical Structure
357 The shell reads input in terms of lines from a file and breaks
358 it up into words at whitespace (blanks and tabs), and at
362 which are special to the shell.
363 There are two types of operators: control operators and
364 redirection operators (their meaning is discussed later).
365 The following is a list of valid operators:
366 .Bl -tag -width indent
367 .It Control operators:
368 .Bl -column "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" -offset center -compact
369 .It Li & Ta Li && Ta Li ( Ta Li ) Ta Li \en
370 .It Li ;; Ta Li ; Ta Li | Ta Li ||
372 .It Redirection operators:
373 .Bl -column "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" -offset center -compact
374 .It Li < Ta Li > Ta Li << Ta Li >> Ta Li <>
375 .It Li <& Ta Li >& Ta Li <<- Ta Li >|
381 introduces a comment if used at the beginning of a word.
382 The word starting with
384 and the rest of the line are ignored.
386 Quoting is used to remove the special meaning of certain characters
387 or words to the shell, such as operators, whitespace, keywords,
390 There are three types of quoting: matched single quotes,
391 matched double quotes, and backslash.
392 .Bl -tag -width indent
394 Enclosing characters in single quotes preserves the literal
395 meaning of all the characters (except single quotes, making
396 it impossible to put single-quotes in a single-quoted string).
398 Enclosing characters within double quotes preserves the literal
399 meaning of all characters except dollarsign
405 The backslash inside double quotes is historically weird.
406 It remains literal unless it precedes the following characters,
407 which it serves to quote:
408 .Bl -column "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" -offset center -compact
409 .It Li $ Ta Li ` Ta Li \&" Ta Li \e\ Ta Li \en
412 A backslash preserves the literal meaning of the following
413 character, with the exception of the newline character
415 A backslash preceding a newline is treated as a line continuation.
418 Reserved words are words that have special meaning to the
419 shell and are recognized at the beginning of a line and
420 after a control operator.
421 The following are reserved words:
422 .Bl -column "doneXX" "elifXX" "elseXX" "untilXX" "whileX" -offset center
423 .It Li \&! Ta { Ta } Ta Ic case Ta Ic do
424 .It Ic done Ta Ic elif Ta Ic else Ta Ic esac Ta Ic fi
425 .It Ic for Ta Ic if Ta Ic then Ta Ic until Ta Ic while
428 An alias is a name and corresponding value set using the
431 Whenever a reserved word may occur (see above),
432 and after checking for reserved words, the shell
433 checks the word to see if it matches an alias.
434 If it does, it replaces it in the input stream with its value.
435 For example, if there is an alias called
440 .Bd -literal -offset indent
445 .Bd -literal -offset indent
449 Aliases provide a convenient way for naive users to
450 create shorthands for commands without having to learn how
451 to create functions with arguments.
453 used to create lexically obscure code.
454 This use is discouraged.
456 An alias name may be escaped in a command line, so that it is not
457 replaced by its alias value, by using quoting characters within or
458 adjacent to the alias name.
459 This is most often done by prefixing
460 an alias name with a backslash to execute a function, built-in, or
461 normal program with the same name.
466 The shell interprets the words it reads according to a
467 language, the specification of which is outside the scope
468 of this man page (refer to the BNF in the
471 Essentially though, a line is read and if
472 the first word of the line (or after a control operator)
473 is not a reserved word, then the shell has recognized a
475 Otherwise, a complex command or some
476 other special construct may have been recognized.
478 If a simple command has been recognized, the shell performs
479 the following actions:
482 Leading words of the form
484 are stripped off and assigned to the environment of
486 Redirection operators and
487 their arguments (as described below) are stripped
488 off and saved for processing.
490 The remaining words are expanded as described in
492 .Sx Word Expansions ,
493 and the first remaining word is considered the command
494 name and the command is located.
496 words are considered the arguments of the command.
497 If no command name resulted, then the
499 variable assignments recognized in 1) affect the
502 Redirections are performed as described in
506 Redirections are used to change where a command reads its input
508 In general, redirections open, close, or
509 duplicate an existing reference to a file.
511 used for redirection is:
513 .Dl [n] redir-op file
517 is one of the redirection operators mentioned
519 The following gives some examples of how these
520 operators can be used.
521 Note that stdin and stdout are commonly used abbreviations
522 for standard input and standard output respectively.
523 .Bl -tag -width "1234567890XX" -offset indent
525 redirect stdout (or file descriptor n) to file
527 same as above, but override the
531 append stdout (or file descriptor n) to file
533 redirect stdin (or file descriptor n) from file
535 redirect stdin (or file descriptor n) to and from file
537 duplicate stdin (or file descriptor n1) from file descriptor n2
539 close stdin (or file descriptor n)
541 duplicate stdout (or file descriptor n1) to file descriptor n2
543 close stdout (or file descriptor n)
546 The following redirection is often called a
548 .Bd -literal -offset indent
555 All the text on successive lines up to the delimiter is
556 saved away and made available to the command on standard
557 input, or file descriptor n if it is specified.
559 as specified on the initial line is quoted, then the here-doc-text
560 is treated literally, otherwise the text is subjected to
561 parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic
562 expansion (as described in the section on
563 .Sx Word Expansions ) .
569 in the here-doc-text are stripped.
570 .Ss Search and Execution
571 There are three types of commands: shell functions,
572 built-in commands, and normal programs.
573 The command is searched for (by name) in that order.
574 The three types of commands are all executed in a different way.
576 When a shell function is executed, all of the shell positional
577 parameters (except $0, which remains unchanged) are
578 set to the arguments of the shell function.
579 The variables which are explicitly placed in the environment of
580 the command (by placing assignments to them before the
581 function name) are made local to the function and are set
583 Then the command given in the function definition is executed.
584 The positional parameters are restored to their original values
585 when the command completes.
586 This all occurs within the current shell.
588 Shell built-in commands are executed internally to the shell, without
589 spawning a new process.
591 Otherwise, if the command name does not match a function
592 or built-in command, the command is searched for as a normal
593 program in the file system (as described in the next section).
594 When a normal program is executed, the shell runs the program,
595 passing the arguments and the environment to the program.
596 If the program is not a normal executable file
597 (i.e., if it does not begin with the
607 the shell will interpret the program in a subshell.
608 The child shell will reinitialize itself in this case,
609 so that the effect will be
610 as if a new shell had been invoked to handle the ad-hoc shell script,
611 except that the location of hashed commands located in
612 the parent shell will be remembered by the child.
614 Note that previous versions of this document
615 and the source code itself misleadingly and sporadically
616 refer to a shell script without a magic number
618 .Qq shell procedure .
620 When locating a command, the shell first looks to see if
621 it has a shell function by that name.
623 built-in command by that name.
624 If a built-in command is not found,
625 one of two things happen:
628 Command names containing a slash are simply executed without
629 performing any searches.
631 The shell searches each entry in
633 in turn for the command.
636 variable should be a series of
637 entries separated by colons.
638 Each entry consists of a
640 The current directory
641 may be indicated implicitly by an empty directory name,
642 or explicitly by a single period.
644 .Ss Command Exit Status
645 Each command has an exit status that can influence the behavior
646 of other shell commands.
647 The paradigm is that a command exits
648 with zero for normal or success, and non-zero for failure,
649 error, or a false indication.
650 The man page for each command
651 should indicate the various exit codes and what they mean.
652 Additionally, the built-in commands return exit codes, as does
653 an executed shell function.
655 If a command is terminated by a signal, its exit status is 128 plus
657 Signal numbers are defined in the header file
660 Complex commands are combinations of simple commands
661 with control operators or reserved words, together creating a larger complex
663 More generally, a command is one of the following:
664 .Bl -item -offset indent
670 list or compound-list
677 Unless otherwise stated, the exit status of a command is
678 that of the last simple command executed by the command.
680 A pipeline is a sequence of one or more commands separated
681 by the control operator |.
682 The standard output of all but
683 the last command is connected to the standard input
685 The standard output of the last
686 command is inherited from the shell, as usual.
688 The format for a pipeline is:
690 .Dl [!] command1 [ | command2 ...]
692 The standard output of command1 is connected to the standard
694 The standard input, standard output, or
695 both of a command is considered to be assigned by the
696 pipeline before any redirection specified by redirection
697 operators that are part of the command.
699 If the pipeline is not in the background (discussed later),
700 the shell waits for all commands to complete.
704 does not precede the pipeline, the
705 exit status is the exit status of the last command specified
707 Otherwise, the exit status is the logical
708 NOT of the exit status of the last command.
710 the last command returns zero, the exit status is 1; if
711 the last command returns greater than zero, the exit status
714 Because pipeline assignment of standard input or standard
715 output or both takes place before redirection, it can be
716 modified by redirection.
719 .Dl $ command1 2>&1 | command2
721 sends both the standard output and standard error of
723 to the standard input of
728 or newline terminator causes the preceding
730 (described below in the section called
731 .Sx Short-Circuit List Operators )
732 to be executed sequentially;
735 causes asynchronous execution of the preceding AND-OR-list.
737 Note that unlike some other shells,
739 executes each process in the pipeline as a child of the
742 Shell built-in commands are the exception to this rule.
743 They are executed in the current shell, although they do not affect its
744 environment when used in pipelines.
745 .Ss Background Commands (&)
746 If a command is terminated by the control operator ampersand
748 the shell executes the command asynchronously;
749 the shell does not wait for the command to finish
750 before executing the next command.
752 The format for running a command in background is:
753 .Bd -literal -offset indent
754 command1 & [command2 & ...]
757 If the shell is not interactive, the standard input of an
758 asynchronous command is set to /dev/null.
759 .Ss Lists (Generally Speaking)
760 A list is a sequence of zero or more commands separated by
761 newlines, semicolons, or ampersands,
762 and optionally terminated by one of these three characters.
764 list are executed in the order they are written.
765 If command is followed by an ampersand, the shell starts the
766 command and immediately proceeds onto the next command;
767 otherwise it waits for the command to terminate before
768 proceeding to the next one.
769 .Ss Short-Circuit List Operators
773 are AND-OR list operators.
775 executes the first command, and then executes the second command
776 if the exit status of the first command is zero.
778 is similar, but executes the second command if the exit
779 status of the first command is nonzero.
783 both have the same priority.
784 .Ss Flow-Control Constructs (if, while, for, case)
789 .\" XXX Use .Dl to work around broken handling of .Ic inside .Bd and .Ed .
793 .Dl [ Ic elif Ar list
794 .Dl Ic then Ar list ] ...
795 .Dl [ Ic else Ar list ]
805 The two lists are executed repeatedly while the exit status of the
809 command is similar, but has the word
814 repeat until the exit status of the first list is zero.
819 .Dl Ic for Ar variable Op Ic in Ar word ...
825 and the following words are omitted,
828 The words are expanded, and then the list is executed
829 repeatedly with the variable set to each word in turn.
834 commands may be replaced with
844 .Dl Ic break Op Ar num
845 .Dl Ic continue Op Ar num
849 command terminates the
858 command continues with the next iteration of the innermost loop.
859 These are implemented as built-in commands.
864 .Dl Ic case Ar word Ic in
869 The pattern can actually be one or more patterns
876 .Ss Grouping Commands Together
877 Commands may be grouped by writing either
878 .Bd -literal -offset indent
883 .Bd -literal -offset indent
887 The first form executes the commands in a subshell.
888 Note that built-in commands thus executed do not affect the current shell.
889 The second form does not fork another shell,
890 so it is slightly more efficient.
891 Grouping commands together this way allows the user to
892 redirect their output as though they were one program:
893 .Bd -literal -offset indent
894 { echo -n "hello"; echo " world"; } > greeting
897 The syntax of a function definition is
898 .Bd -literal -offset indent
902 A function definition is an executable statement; when
903 executed it installs a function named name and returns an
905 The command is normally a list
911 Variables may be declared to be local to a function by
915 This should appear as the first statement of a function,
917 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
925 command is implemented as a built-in command.
927 When a variable is made local, it inherits the initial
928 value and exported and readonly flags from the variable
929 with the same name in the surrounding scope, if there is
931 Otherwise, the variable is initially unset.
933 uses dynamic scoping, so that if the variable
935 is made local to function
937 which then calls function
939 references to the variable
943 will refer to the variable
947 not to the global variable named
950 The only special parameter that can be made local is
954 local causes any shell options that are
955 changed via the set command inside the function to be
956 restored to their original values when the function
962 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
967 It terminates the current executional scope, returning from the previous
968 nested function, sourced script, or shell instance, in that order.
971 command is implemented as a built-in command.
972 .Ss Variables and Parameters
973 The shell maintains a set of parameters.
975 denoted by a name is called a variable.
977 the shell turns all the environment variables into shell
979 New variables can be set using the form
980 .Bd -literal -offset indent
984 Variables set by the user must have a name consisting solely
985 of alphabetics, numerics, and underscores.
986 The first letter of a variable name must not be numeric.
987 A parameter can also be denoted by a number
988 or a special character as explained below.
989 .Ss Positional Parameters
990 A positional parameter is a parameter denoted by a number greater than zero.
991 The shell sets these initially to the values of its command line
992 arguments that follow the name of the shell script.
995 built-in command can also be used to set or reset them.
996 .Ss Special Parameters
997 A special parameter is a parameter denoted by a special one-character
999 The special parameters recognized
1000 are shown in the following list, exactly as they would appear in input
1001 typed by the user or in the source of a shell script.
1004 Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one.
1006 the expansion occurs within a double-quoted string
1007 it expands to a single field with the value of each parameter
1008 separated by the first character of the
1017 Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one.
1019 the expansion occurs within double-quotes, each positional
1020 parameter expands as a separate argument.
1021 If there are no positional parameters, the
1024 generates zero arguments, even when
1027 What this basically means, for example, is
1036 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1040 Expands to the number of positional parameters.
1042 Expands to the exit status of the most recent pipeline.
1044 (hyphen) Expands to the current option flags (the single-letter
1045 option names concatenated into a string) as specified on
1046 invocation, by the set built-in command, or implicitly
1049 Expands to the process ID of the invoked shell.
1051 retains the same value of $ as its parent.
1053 Expands to the process ID of the most recent background
1054 command executed from the current shell.
1056 pipeline, the process ID is that of the last command in the
1059 (zero) Expands to the name of the shell or shell script.
1062 This clause describes the various expansions that are
1064 Not all expansions are performed on
1065 every word, as explained later.
1067 Tilde expansions, parameter expansions, command substitutions,
1068 arithmetic expansions, and quote removals that occur within
1069 a single word expand to a single field.
1071 splitting or pathname expansion that can create multiple
1072 fields from a single word.
1073 The single exception to this rule is
1074 the expansion of the special parameter
1076 within double-quotes,
1077 as was described above.
1079 The order of word expansion is:
1082 Tilde Expansion, Parameter Expansion, Command Substitution,
1083 Arithmetic Expansion (these all occur at the same time).
1085 Field Splitting is performed on fields generated by step (1)
1090 Pathname Expansion (unless the
1092 option is in effect).
1099 character is used to introduce parameter expansion, command
1100 substitution, or arithmetic evaluation.
1101 .Ss Tilde Expansion (substituting a user's home directory)
1102 A word beginning with an unquoted tilde character
1105 subjected to tilde expansion.
1106 All the characters up to a slash
1108 or the end of the word are treated as a username
1109 and are replaced with the user's home directory.
1111 username is missing (as in ~/foobar), the tilde is replaced
1112 with the value of the HOME variable (the current user's
1114 .Ss Parameter Expansion
1115 The format for parameter expansion is as follows:
1116 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1120 where expression consists of all characters until the matching
1124 escaped by a backslash or within a quoted string, and characters in
1125 embedded arithmetic expansions, command substitutions, and variable
1126 expansions, are not examined in determining the matching
1129 The simplest form for parameter expansion is:
1130 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1134 The value, if any, of parameter is substituted.
1136 The parameter name or symbol can be enclosed in braces, which are
1137 optional except for positional parameters with more than one digit or
1138 when parameter is followed by a character that could be interpreted as
1140 If a parameter expansion occurs inside double-quotes:
1143 Pathname expansion is not performed on the results of the
1146 Field splitting is not performed on the results of the
1147 expansion, with the exception of the special parameter
1151 In addition, a parameter expansion can be modified by using one of the
1153 .Bl -tag -width indent
1154 .It Li ${parameter:-word}
1156 If parameter is unset or
1157 null, the expansion of word is
1158 substituted; otherwise, the value of
1159 parameter is substituted.
1160 .It Li ${parameter:=word}
1161 Assign Default Values.
1162 If parameter is unset
1163 or null, the expansion of word is
1164 assigned to parameter.
1166 final value of parameter is
1168 Only variables, not positional
1169 parameters or special parameters, can be
1170 assigned in this way.
1171 .It Li ${parameter:?[word]}
1172 Indicate Error if Null or Unset.
1174 parameter is unset or null, the expansion of
1175 word (or a message indicating it is unset if
1176 word is omitted) is written to standard
1177 error and the shell exits with a nonzero
1179 Otherwise, the value of
1180 parameter is substituted.
1182 interactive shell need not exit.
1183 .It Li ${parameter:+word}
1184 Use Alternate Value.
1185 If parameter is unset
1186 or null, null is substituted;
1187 otherwise, the expansion of word is
1191 In the parameter expansions shown previously, use of the colon in the
1192 format results in a test for a parameter that is unset or null; omission
1193 of the colon results in a test for a parameter that is only unset.
1194 .Bl -tag -width indent
1195 .It Li ${#parameter}
1197 The length in characters of
1198 the value of parameter.
1201 The following four varieties of parameter expansion provide for substring
1203 In each case, pattern matching notation
1205 .Sx Shell Patterns ) ,
1206 rather than regular expression notation,
1207 is used to evaluate the patterns.
1208 If parameter is one of the special parameters
1212 the result of the expansion is unspecified.
1213 Enclosing the full parameter expansion string in double-quotes does not
1214 cause the following four varieties of pattern characters to be quoted,
1215 whereas quoting characters within the braces has this effect.
1216 .Bl -tag -width indent
1217 .It Li ${parameter%word}
1218 Remove Smallest Suffix Pattern.
1220 is expanded to produce a pattern.
1222 parameter expansion then results in
1223 parameter, with the smallest portion of the
1224 suffix matched by the pattern deleted.
1225 .It Li ${parameter%%word}
1226 Remove Largest Suffix Pattern.
1228 is expanded to produce a pattern.
1230 parameter expansion then results in
1231 parameter, with the largest portion of the
1232 suffix matched by the pattern deleted.
1233 .It Li ${parameter#word}
1234 Remove Smallest Prefix Pattern.
1236 is expanded to produce a pattern.
1238 parameter expansion then results in
1239 parameter, with the smallest portion of the
1240 prefix matched by the pattern deleted.
1241 .It Li ${parameter##word}
1242 Remove Largest Prefix Pattern.
1244 is expanded to produce a pattern.
1246 parameter expansion then results in
1247 parameter, with the largest portion of the
1248 prefix matched by the pattern deleted.
1250 .Ss Command Substitution
1251 Command substitution allows the output of a command to be substituted in
1252 place of the command name itself.
1253 Command substitution occurs when
1254 the command is enclosed as follows:
1255 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1259 or the backquoted version:
1260 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1264 The shell expands the command substitution by executing command in a
1265 subshell environment and replacing the command substitution
1266 with the standard output of the command,
1267 removing sequences of one or more newlines at the end of the substitution.
1268 Embedded newlines before the end of the output are not removed;
1269 however, during field splitting, they may be translated into spaces
1270 depending on the value of
1272 and the quoting that is in effect.
1273 .Ss Arithmetic Expansion
1274 Arithmetic expansion provides a mechanism for evaluating an arithmetic
1275 expression and substituting its value.
1276 The format for arithmetic expansion is as follows:
1277 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1281 The expression is treated as if it were in double-quotes, except
1282 that a double-quote inside the expression is not treated specially.
1284 shell expands all tokens in the expression for parameter expansion,
1285 command substitution, and quote removal.
1287 Next, the shell treats this as an arithmetic expression and
1288 substitutes the value of the expression.
1289 .Ss White Space Splitting (Field Splitting)
1290 After parameter expansion, command substitution, and
1291 arithmetic expansion the shell scans the results of
1292 expansions and substitutions that did not occur in double-quotes for
1293 field splitting and multiple fields can result.
1295 The shell treats each character of the
1297 as a delimiter and uses
1298 the delimiters to split the results of parameter expansion and command
1299 substitution into fields.
1300 .Ss Pathname Expansion (File Name Generation)
1304 file name generation is performed
1305 after word splitting is complete.
1307 viewed as a series of patterns, separated by slashes.
1309 process of expansion replaces the word with the names of
1310 all existing files whose names can be formed by replacing
1311 each pattern with a string that matches the specified pattern.
1312 There are two restrictions on this: first, a pattern cannot match
1313 a string containing a slash, and second,
1314 a pattern cannot match a string starting with a period
1315 unless the first character of the pattern is a period.
1316 The next section describes the patterns used for both
1317 Pathname Expansion and the
1321 A pattern consists of normal characters, which match themselves,
1322 and meta-characters.
1323 The meta-characters are
1329 These characters lose their special meanings if they are quoted.
1330 When command or variable substitution is performed and the dollar sign
1331 or back quotes are not double-quoted, the value of the
1332 variable or the output of the command is scanned for these
1333 characters and they are turned into meta-characters.
1337 matches any string of characters.
1340 matches any single character.
1343 introduces a character class.
1344 The end of the character class is indicated by a
1352 rather than introducing a character class.
1353 A character class matches any of the characters between the square brackets.
1354 A range of characters may be specified using a minus sign.
1355 The character class may be complemented by making an exclamation point
1359 the first character of the character class.
1363 in a character class, make it the first character listed
1371 make it the first or last character listed.
1372 .Ss Built-in Commands
1373 This section lists the commands which
1374 are built-in because they need to perform some operation
1375 that cannot be performed by a separate process.
1377 these, built-in versions of essential utilities
1378 are provided for efficiency.
1379 .Bl -tag -width indent
1381 A null command that returns a 0 (true) exit value.
1383 The commands in the specified file are read and executed by the shell.
1386 command may be used to return to the
1393 characters, it is used as is.
1394 Otherwise, the shell searches the
1397 If it is not found in the
1399 it is sought in the current working directory.
1401 A built-in equivalent of
1403 .It Ic alias Oo Ar name Ns Oo = Ns Ar string Oc Ar ... Oc
1405 .Ar name Ns = Ns Ar string
1406 is specified, the shell defines the alias
1412 is specified, the value of the alias
1415 With no arguments, the
1417 built-in command prints the names and values of all defined aliases
1420 Alias values are written with appropriate quoting so that they are
1421 suitable for re-input to the shell.
1425 .It Ic bg Op Ar job ...
1426 Continue the specified jobs
1427 (or the current job if no jobs are given)
1429 .It Ic builtin Ar cmd Op Ar arg ...
1430 Execute the specified built-in command,
1432 This is useful when the user wishes to override a shell function
1433 with the same name as a built-in command.
1434 .It Ic bind Oo Fl aeklrsv Oc Oo Ar key Oo Ar command Oc Oc
1435 List or alter key bindings for the line editor.
1436 This command is documented in
1438 .It Ic cd Oo Fl L | P Oc Op Ar directory
1439 Switch to the specified
1441 or to the directory specified in the
1443 environment variable if no
1452 then the directories listed in the
1455 searched for the specified
1459 is unset, the current directory is searched.
1462 is the same as that of
1464 In an interactive shell,
1467 command will print out the name of the directory
1468 that it actually switched to
1469 if this is different from the name that the user gave.
1470 These may be different either because the
1472 mechanism was used or because a symbolic link was crossed.
1476 option is specified,
1478 is handled physically and symbolic links are resolved before
1480 components are processed.
1483 option is specified,
1485 is handled logically.
1486 This is the default.
1491 .It Ic command Oo Fl p Oc Op Ar utility Op Ar argument ...
1492 .It Ic command Oo Fl v | V Oc Op Ar utility
1493 The first form of invocation executes the specified
1495 as a simple command (see the
1501 option is specified, the command search is performed using a
1504 that is guaranteed to find all of the standard utilities.
1508 option is specified,
1510 is not executed but a description of its interpretation by the shell is
1512 For ordinary commands the output is the path name; for shell built-in
1513 commands, shell functions and keywords only the name is written.
1514 Aliases are printed as
1515 .Dq Ic alias Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value .
1519 option is identical to
1521 except for the output.
1523 .Dq Ar utility Ic is Ar description
1535 .It Ic echo Oo Fl e | n Oc Op Ar string ...
1536 Print a space-separated list of the arguments to the standard output
1537 and append a newline character.
1538 .Bl -tag -width indent
1540 Suppress the output of the trailing newline.
1542 Process C-style backslash escape sequences.
1544 understands the following character escapes:
1545 .Bl -tag -width indent
1547 Alert (ring the terminal bell)
1551 Suppress the trailing newline (this has the side-effect of truncating the
1552 line if it is not the last character)
1554 The ESC character (ASCII 0x1b)
1568 (Zero) The character whose octal value is nnn
1573 is not enclosed in quotes then the backslash itself must be escaped
1574 with a backslash to protect it from the shell.
1576 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1585 $ echo -e a\e\e\e\eb
1594 options may be specified.
1595 .It Ic eval Ar string ...
1596 Concatenate all the arguments with spaces.
1597 Then re-parse and execute the command.
1598 .It Ic exec Op Ar command Op Ar arg ...
1602 the shell process is replaced with the specified program
1603 (which must be a real program, not a shell built-in command or function).
1604 Any redirections on the
1606 command are marked as permanent,
1607 so that they are not undone when the
1610 .It Ic exit Op Ar exitstatus
1611 Terminate the shell process.
1615 it is used as the exit status of the shell;
1616 otherwise the exit status of the preceding command is used.
1617 .It Ic export Ar name ...
1618 .It Ic export Op Fl p
1619 The specified names are exported so that they will
1620 appear in the environment of subsequent commands.
1621 The only way to un-export a variable is to
1624 The shell allows the value of a variable to be set
1625 at the same time as it is exported by writing
1626 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1630 With no arguments the export command lists the names
1631 of all exported variables.
1634 option is specified, the exported variables are printed as
1635 .Dq Ic export Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
1636 lines, suitable for re-input to the shell.
1638 A null command that returns a non-zero (false) exit value.
1639 .It Ic fc Oo Fl e Ar editor Oc Op Ar first Op Ar last
1640 .It Ic fc Fl l Oo Fl nr Oc Op Ar first Op Ar last
1641 .It Ic fc Fl s Oo Ar old Ns = Ns Ar new Oc Op Ar first
1644 built-in command lists, or edits and re-executes,
1645 commands previously entered to an interactive shell.
1646 .Bl -tag -width indent
1648 Use the editor named by
1650 to edit the commands.
1651 The editor string is a command name,
1652 subject to search via the
1657 variable is used as a default when
1662 is null or unset, the value of the
1669 is used as the editor.
1671 List the commands rather than invoking
1673 The commands are written in the
1674 sequence indicated by the first and last operands, as
1677 with each command preceded by the command number.
1679 Suppress command numbers when listing with
1682 Reverse the order of the commands listed
1691 Re-execute the command without invoking an editor.
1694 Select the commands to list or edit.
1695 The number of previous commands that can be accessed
1696 are determined by the value of the
1703 or both are one of the following:
1704 .Bl -tag -width indent
1706 A positive number representing a command number;
1707 command numbers can be displayed with the
1711 A negative decimal number representing the
1712 command that was executed
1715 commands previously.
1716 For example, -1 is the immediately previous command.
1718 A string indicating the most recently entered command
1719 that begins with that string.
1722 operand is not also specified with
1724 the string form of the first operand cannot contain an embedded equal sign.
1728 The following environment variables affect the execution of
1730 .Bl -tag -width ".Ev HISTSIZE"
1732 Name of the editor to use for history editing.
1734 The number of previous commands that are accessible.
1739 or the current job to the foreground.
1740 .It Ic getopts Ar optstring Ar var
1746 command deprecates the older
1749 The first argument should be a series of letters, each possibly
1750 followed by a colon which indicates that the option takes an argument.
1751 The specified variable is set to the parsed option.
1753 the next argument is placed into the shell variable
1755 If an option takes an argument, it is placed into the shell variable
1757 If an invalid option is encountered,
1761 It returns a false value (1) when it encounters the end of the options.
1762 .It Ic hash Oo Fl rv Oc Op Ar command ...
1763 The shell maintains a hash table which remembers the locations of commands.
1764 With no arguments whatsoever, the
1766 command prints out the contents of this table.
1767 Entries which have not been looked at since the last
1769 command are marked with an asterisk;
1770 it is possible for these entries to be invalid.
1774 command removes each specified
1776 from the hash table (unless they are functions) and then locates it.
1781 prints the locations of the commands as it finds them.
1786 command to delete all the entries in the hash table except for functions.
1787 .It Ic jobid Op Ar job
1788 Print the process id's of the processes in the specified
1792 argument is omitted, use the current job.
1793 .It Ic jobs Oo Fl lps Oc Op Ar job ...
1794 Print information about the specified jobs, or all jobs if no
1797 The information printed includes job ID, status and command name.
1801 option is specified, the PID of each job is also printed.
1804 option is specified, only the process IDs for the process group leaders
1805 are printed, one per line.
1808 option is specified, only the PIDs of the job commands are printed, one per
1810 .It Ic local Oo Ar variable ... Oc Op Fl
1814 .It Ic pwd Op Fl L | P
1815 Print the path of the current directory.
1816 The built-in command may
1817 differ from the program of the same name because the
1818 built-in command remembers what the current directory
1819 is rather than recomputing it each time.
1822 However, if the current directory is
1824 the built-in version of
1826 will continue to print the old name for the directory.
1830 option is specified, symbolic links are resolved.
1833 option is specified, the shell's notion of the current directory
1834 is printed (symbolic links are not resolved).
1835 This is the default.
1836 .It Ic read Oo Fl p Ar prompt Oc Oo Fl t Ar timeout Oc Oo Fl er Oc Ar variable ...
1842 and the standard input is a terminal.
1844 read from the standard input.
1845 The trailing newline
1846 is deleted from the line and the line is split as
1847 described in the section on
1848 .Sx White Space Splitting (Field Splitting)
1850 the pieces are assigned to the variables in order.
1851 If there are more pieces than variables, the remaining
1852 pieces (along with the characters in
1854 that separated them)
1855 are assigned to the last variable.
1856 If there are more variables than pieces, the remaining
1857 variables are assigned the null string.
1859 Backslashes are treated specially, unless the
1863 If a backslash is followed by
1864 a newline, the backslash and the newline will be
1866 If a backslash is followed by any other
1867 character, the backslash will be deleted and the following
1868 character will be treated as though it were not in
1874 option is specified and the
1876 elapses before any input is supplied,
1879 command will return an exit status of 1 without assigning any values.
1882 value may optionally be followed by one of
1887 to explicitly specify seconds, minutes or hours.
1888 If none is supplied,
1894 option exists only for backward compatibility with older scripts.
1895 .It Ic readonly Oo Fl p Oc Op Ar name ...
1898 is marked as read only,
1899 so that it cannot be subsequently modified or unset.
1900 The shell allows the value of a variable to be set
1901 at the same time as it is marked read only
1902 by using the following form:
1903 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1907 With no arguments the
1909 command lists the names of all read only variables.
1912 option is specified, the read-only variables are printed as
1913 .Dq Ic readonly Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
1914 lines, suitable for re-input to the shell.
1915 .It Ic return Op Ar exitstatus
1919 .It Ic set Oo Fl /+abCEefIimnpTuVvx Oc Oo Fl /+o Ar longname Oc Oo
1920 .Fl c Ar string Oc Op Fl - Ar arg ...
1923 command performs three different functions:
1926 With no arguments, it lists the values of all shell variables.
1928 If options are given,
1929 either in short form or using the long
1930 .Dq Fl /+o Ar longname
1932 it sets or clears the specified options as described in the section called
1933 .Sx Argument List Processing .
1937 option is specified,
1939 will replace the shell's positional parameters with the subsequent
1941 If no arguments follow the
1944 all the positional parameters will be cleared,
1945 which is equivalent to executing the command
1949 flag may be omitted when specifying arguments to be used
1950 as positional replacement parameters.
1951 This is not recommended,
1952 because the first argument may begin with a dash
1958 command will interpret as a request to enable or disable options.
1960 .It Ic setvar Ar variable Ar value
1961 Assigns the specified
1966 is intended to be used in functions that
1967 assign values to variables whose names are passed as parameters.
1968 In general it is better to write
1969 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1974 .It Ic shift Op Ar n
1975 Shift the positional parameters
1980 A shift sets the value of $1 to the value of $2,
1981 the value of $2 to the value of $3, and so on,
1982 decreasing the value of $# by one.
1983 If there are zero positional parameters, shifting does not do anything.
1985 A built-in equivalent of
1988 Print the amount of time spent executing the shell and its children.
1989 The first output line shows the user and system times for the shell
1990 itself, the second one contains the user and system times for the
1992 .It Ic trap Oo Ar action Oc Ar signal ...
1994 Cause the shell to parse and execute
1999 The signals are specified by name or number.
2000 In addition, the pseudo-signal
2002 may be used to specify an action that is performed when the shell terminates.
2005 may be an empty string or a dash
2007 the former causes the specified signal to be ignored
2008 and the latter causes the default action to be taken.
2011 is another way to request the default action, for compatibility reasons this
2012 usage is not recommended though.
2013 When the shell forks off a subshell,
2014 it resets trapped (but not ignored) signals to the default action.
2017 command has no effect on signals that were ignored on entry to the shell.
2023 command to display a list of valid signal names.
2025 A null command that returns a 0 (true) exit value.
2026 .It Ic type Op Ar name ...
2029 as a command and print the resolution of the command search.
2030 Possible resolutions are:
2031 shell keyword, alias, shell built-in command, command, tracked alias
2033 For aliases the alias expansion is printed;
2034 for commands and tracked aliases
2035 the complete pathname of the command is printed.
2036 .It Ic ulimit Oo Fl HSabcdflmnstuv Oc Op Ar limit
2037 Set or display resource limits (see
2041 is specified, the named resource will be set;
2042 otherwise the current resource value will be displayed.
2046 is specified, the hard limits will be set or displayed.
2047 While everybody is allowed to reduce a hard limit,
2048 only the superuser can increase it.
2052 specifies the soft limits instead.
2053 When displaying limits,
2059 The default is to display the soft limits,
2060 and to set both the hard and the soft limits.
2066 command to display all resources.
2069 is not acceptable in this mode.
2071 The remaining options specify which resource value is to be
2072 displayed or modified.
2073 They are mutually exclusive.
2074 .Bl -tag -width indent
2076 The maximum size of socket buffer usage, in bytes.
2077 .It Fl c Ar coredumpsize
2078 The maximal size of core dump files, in 512-byte blocks.
2079 .It Fl d Ar datasize
2080 The maximal size of the data segment of a process, in kilobytes.
2081 .It Fl f Ar filesize
2082 The maximal size of a file, in 512-byte blocks.
2083 .It Fl l Ar lockedmem
2084 The maximal size of memory that can be locked by a process, in
2086 .It Fl m Ar memoryuse
2087 The maximal resident set size of a process, in kilobytes.
2089 The maximal number of descriptors that could be opened by a process.
2090 .It Fl s Ar stacksize
2091 The maximal size of the stack segment, in kilobytes.
2093 The maximal amount of CPU time to be used by each process, in seconds.
2094 .It Fl u Ar userproc
2095 The maximal number of simultaneous processes for this user ID.
2096 .It Fl v Ar virtualmem
2097 The maximal virtual size of a process, in kilobytes.
2099 .It Ic umask Oo Fl S Oc Op Ar mask
2100 Set the file creation mask (see
2102 to the octal or symbolic (see
2106 If the argument is omitted, the current mask value is printed.
2109 option is specified, the output is symbolic, otherwise the output is octal.
2110 .It Ic unalias Oo Fl a Oc Op Ar name ...
2111 The specified alias names are removed.
2114 is specified, all aliases are removed.
2115 .It Ic unset Oo Fl fv Oc Ar name ...
2116 The specified variables or functions are unset and unexported.
2119 option is specified or no options are given, the
2121 arguments are treated as variable names.
2124 option is specified, the
2126 arguments are treated as function names.
2127 .It Ic wait Op Ar job
2128 Wait for the specified
2130 to complete and return the exit status of the last process in the
2132 If the argument is omitted, wait for all jobs to complete
2133 and return an exit status of zero.
2135 .Ss Commandline Editing
2138 is being used interactively from a terminal, the current command
2139 and the command history
2143 .Sx Built-in Commands )
2144 can be edited using vi-mode command line editing.
2145 This mode uses commands similar
2146 to a subset of those described in the vi man page.
2151 enables vi-mode editing and places
2153 into vi insert mode.
2154 With vi-mode enabled,
2156 can be switched between insert mode and command mode by typing
2160 while in command mode will pass the line to the shell.
2166 command can be used to enable a subset of
2167 emacs-style command line editing features.
2169 The following environment variables affect the execution of
2171 .Bl -tag -width ".Ev HISTSIZE"
2173 The search path used with the
2177 The fallback editor used with the
2180 If not set, the default editor is
2183 The default editor used with the
2187 The number of previous commands that are accessible.
2189 The starting directory of
2192 Input Field Separators.
2193 This is normally set to
2199 .Sx White Space Splitting
2200 section for more details.
2202 The name of a mail file, that will be checked for the arrival of new
2209 separated list of file names, for the shell to check for incoming
2211 This environment setting overrides the
2214 There is a maximum of 10 mailboxes that can be monitored at once.
2216 The default search path for executables.
2219 section for details.
2221 The primary prompt string, which defaults to
2223 unless you are the superuser, in which case it defaults to
2226 The secondary prompt string, which defaults to
2229 The prefix for the trace output (if
2235 The default terminal setting for the shell.
2236 This is inherited by children of the shell, and is used in the history
2240 Errors that are detected by the shell, such as a syntax error, will
2241 cause the shell to exit with a non-zero exit status.
2242 If the shell is not an interactive shell, the execution of the shell
2243 file will be aborted.
2244 Otherwise the shell will return the exit status of the last command
2245 executed, or if the exit builtin is used with a numeric argument, it
2246 will return the argument.
2252 .Xr emacs 1 Pq Pa pkgsrc/editors/emacs ,
2267 command, the Thompson shell, appeared in
2269 It was superseded in
2271 by the Bourne shell, which inherited the name
2276 was rewritten in 1989 under the
2278 license after the Bourne shell from
2283 was originally written by
2284 .An Kenneth Almquist .
2288 utility does not recognize multibyte characters.
2290 The characters generated by filename completion should probably be quoted
2291 to ensure that the filename is still valid after the input line has been