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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 1.13 2008/01/26 15:14:41 swildner 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.
322 option causes the commands to be read from the
324 operand instead of from the standard input.
325 Keep in mind that this option only accepts a single string as its
326 argument, hence multi-word strings must be quoted.
330 option takes as its only argument the long name of an option
331 to be enabled or disabled.
332 For example, the following two invocations of
334 both enable the built-in
337 .Bd -literal -offset indent
342 If used without an argument, the
344 option displays the current option settings in a human-readable format.
347 is used without an argument, the current option settings are output
348 in a format suitable for re-input into the shell.
349 .Ss Lexical Structure
350 The shell reads input in terms of lines from a file and breaks
351 it up into words at whitespace (blanks and tabs), and at
355 which are special to the shell.
356 There are two types of operators: control operators and
357 redirection operators (their meaning is discussed later).
358 The following is a list of valid operators:
359 .Bl -tag -width indent
360 .It Control operators:
361 .Bl -column "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" -offset center -compact
362 .It Li & Ta Li && Ta Li ( Ta Li ) Ta Li \en
363 .It Li ;; Ta Li ; Ta Li | Ta Li ||
365 .It Redirection operators:
366 .Bl -column "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" -offset center -compact
367 .It Li < Ta Li > Ta Li << Ta Li >> Ta Li <>
368 .It Li <& Ta Li >& Ta Li <<- Ta Li >|
374 introduces a comment if used at the beginning of a word.
375 The word starting with
377 and the rest of the line are ignored.
379 Quoting is used to remove the special meaning of certain characters
380 or words to the shell, such as operators, whitespace, keywords,
383 There are three types of quoting: matched single quotes,
384 matched double quotes, and backslash.
385 .Bl -tag -width indent
387 Enclosing characters in single quotes preserves the literal
388 meaning of all the characters (except single quotes, making
389 it impossible to put single-quotes in a single-quoted string).
391 Enclosing characters within double quotes preserves the literal
392 meaning of all characters except dollarsign
398 The backslash inside double quotes is historically weird.
399 It remains literal unless it precedes the following characters,
400 which it serves to quote:
401 .Bl -column "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" -offset center -compact
402 .It Li $ Ta Li ` Ta Li \&" Ta Li \e\ Ta Li \en
405 A backslash preserves the literal meaning of the following
406 character, with the exception of the newline character
408 A backslash preceding a newline is treated as a line continuation.
411 Reserved words are words that have special meaning to the
412 shell and are recognized at the beginning of a line and
413 after a control operator.
414 The following are reserved words:
415 .Bl -column "doneXX" "elifXX" "elseXX" "untilXX" "whileX" -offset center
416 .It Li \&! Ta { Ta } Ta Ic case Ta Ic do
417 .It Ic done Ta Ic elif Ta Ic else Ta Ic esac Ta Ic fi
418 .It Ic for Ta Ic if Ta Ic then Ta Ic until Ta Ic while
421 An alias is a name and corresponding value set using the
424 Whenever a reserved word may occur (see above),
425 and after checking for reserved words, the shell
426 checks the word to see if it matches an alias.
427 If it does, it replaces it in the input stream with its value.
428 For example, if there is an alias called
433 .Bd -literal -offset indent
438 .Bd -literal -offset indent
442 Aliases provide a convenient way for naive users to
443 create shorthands for commands without having to learn how
444 to create functions with arguments.
446 used to create lexically obscure code.
447 This use is discouraged.
449 An alias name may be escaped in a command line, so that it is not
450 replaced by its alias value, by using quoting characters within or
451 adjacent to the alias name.
452 This is most often done by prefixing
453 an alias name with a backslash to execute a function, built-in, or
454 normal program with the same name.
459 The shell interprets the words it reads according to a
460 language, the specification of which is outside the scope
461 of this man page (refer to the BNF in the
464 Essentially though, a line is read and if
465 the first word of the line (or after a control operator)
466 is not a reserved word, then the shell has recognized a
468 Otherwise, a complex command or some
469 other special construct may have been recognized.
471 If a simple command has been recognized, the shell performs
472 the following actions:
475 Leading words of the form
477 are stripped off and assigned to the environment of
479 Redirection operators and
480 their arguments (as described below) are stripped
481 off and saved for processing.
483 The remaining words are expanded as described in
485 .Sx Word Expansions ,
486 and the first remaining word is considered the command
487 name and the command is located.
489 words are considered the arguments of the command.
490 If no command name resulted, then the
492 variable assignments recognized in 1) affect the
495 Redirections are performed as described in
499 Redirections are used to change where a command reads its input
501 In general, redirections open, close, or
502 duplicate an existing reference to a file.
504 used for redirection is:
506 .Dl [n] redir-op file
510 is one of the redirection operators mentioned
512 The following gives some examples of how these
513 operators can be used.
514 Note that stdin and stdout are commonly used abbreviations
515 for standard input and standard output respectively.
516 .Bl -tag -width "1234567890XX" -offset indent
518 redirect stdout (or file descriptor n) to file
520 same as above, but override the
524 append stdout (or file descriptor n) to file
526 redirect stdin (or file descriptor n) from file
528 redirect stdin (or file descriptor n) to and from file
530 duplicate stdin (or file descriptor n1) from file descriptor n2
532 close stdin (or file descriptor n)
534 duplicate stdout (or file descriptor n1) to file descriptor n2
536 close stdout (or file descriptor n)
539 The following redirection is often called a
541 .Bd -literal -offset indent
548 All the text on successive lines up to the delimiter is
549 saved away and made available to the command on standard
550 input, or file descriptor n if it is specified.
552 as specified on the initial line is quoted, then the here-doc-text
553 is treated literally, otherwise the text is subjected to
554 parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic
555 expansion (as described in the section on
556 .Sx Word Expansions ) .
562 in the here-doc-text are stripped.
563 .Ss Search and Execution
564 There are three types of commands: shell functions,
565 built-in commands, and normal programs.
566 The command is searched for (by name) in that order.
567 The three types of commands are all executed in a different way.
569 When a shell function is executed, all of the shell positional
570 parameters (except $0, which remains unchanged) are
571 set to the arguments of the shell function.
572 The variables which are explicitly placed in the environment of
573 the command (by placing assignments to them before the
574 function name) are made local to the function and are set
576 Then the command given in the function definition is executed.
577 The positional parameters are restored to their original values
578 when the command completes.
579 This all occurs within the current shell.
581 Shell built-in commands are executed internally to the shell, without
582 spawning a new process.
584 Otherwise, if the command name does not match a function
585 or built-in command, the command is searched for as a normal
586 program in the file system (as described in the next section).
587 When a normal program is executed, the shell runs the program,
588 passing the arguments and the environment to the program.
589 If the program is not a normal executable file
590 (i.e., if it does not begin with the
600 the shell will interpret the program in a subshell.
601 The child shell will reinitialize itself in this case,
602 so that the effect will be
603 as if a new shell had been invoked to handle the ad-hoc shell script,
604 except that the location of hashed commands located in
605 the parent shell will be remembered by the child.
607 Note that previous versions of this document
608 and the source code itself misleadingly and sporadically
609 refer to a shell script without a magic number
611 .Qq shell procedure .
613 When locating a command, the shell first looks to see if
614 it has a shell function by that name.
616 built-in command by that name.
617 If a built-in command is not found,
618 one of two things happen:
621 Command names containing a slash are simply executed without
622 performing any searches.
624 The shell searches each entry in
626 in turn for the command.
629 variable should be a series of
630 entries separated by colons.
631 Each entry consists of a
633 The current directory
634 may be indicated implicitly by an empty directory name,
635 or explicitly by a single period.
637 .Ss Command Exit Status
638 Each command has an exit status that can influence the behavior
639 of other shell commands.
640 The paradigm is that a command exits
641 with zero for normal or success, and non-zero for failure,
642 error, or a false indication.
643 The man page for each command
644 should indicate the various exit codes and what they mean.
645 Additionally, the built-in commands return exit codes, as does
646 an executed shell function.
648 If a command is terminated by a signal, its exit status is 128 plus
650 Signal numbers are defined in the header file
653 Complex commands are combinations of simple commands
654 with control operators or reserved words, together creating a larger complex
656 More generally, a command is one of the following:
657 .Bl -item -offset indent
663 list or compound-list
670 Unless otherwise stated, the exit status of a command is
671 that of the last simple command executed by the command.
673 A pipeline is a sequence of one or more commands separated
674 by the control operator |.
675 The standard output of all but
676 the last command is connected to the standard input
678 The standard output of the last
679 command is inherited from the shell, as usual.
681 The format for a pipeline is:
683 .Dl [!] command1 [ | command2 ...]
685 The standard output of command1 is connected to the standard
687 The standard input, standard output, or
688 both of a command is considered to be assigned by the
689 pipeline before any redirection specified by redirection
690 operators that are part of the command.
692 If the pipeline is not in the background (discussed later),
693 the shell waits for all commands to complete.
697 does not precede the pipeline, the
698 exit status is the exit status of the last command specified
700 Otherwise, the exit status is the logical
701 NOT of the exit status of the last command.
703 the last command returns zero, the exit status is 1; if
704 the last command returns greater than zero, the exit status
707 Because pipeline assignment of standard input or standard
708 output or both takes place before redirection, it can be
709 modified by redirection.
712 .Dl $ command1 2>&1 | command2
714 sends both the standard output and standard error of
716 to the standard input of
721 or newline terminator causes the preceding
723 (described below in the section called
724 .Sx Short-Circuit List Operators )
725 to be executed sequentially;
728 causes asynchronous execution of the preceding AND-OR-list.
730 Note that unlike some other shells,
732 executes each process in the pipeline as a child of the
735 Shell built-in commands are the exception to this rule.
736 They are executed in the current shell, although they do not affect its
737 environment when used in pipelines.
738 .Ss Background Commands (&)
739 If a command is terminated by the control operator ampersand
741 the shell executes the command asynchronously;
742 the shell does not wait for the command to finish
743 before executing the next command.
745 The format for running a command in background is:
746 .Bd -literal -offset indent
747 command1 & [command2 & ...]
750 If the shell is not interactive, the standard input of an
751 asynchronous command is set to /dev/null.
752 .Ss Lists (Generally Speaking)
753 A list is a sequence of zero or more commands separated by
754 newlines, semicolons, or ampersands,
755 and optionally terminated by one of these three characters.
757 list are executed in the order they are written.
758 If command is followed by an ampersand, the shell starts the
759 command and immediately proceeds onto the next command;
760 otherwise it waits for the command to terminate before
761 proceeding to the next one.
762 .Ss Short-Circuit List Operators
766 are AND-OR list operators.
768 executes the first command, and then executes the second command
769 if the exit status of the first command is zero.
771 is similar, but executes the second command if the exit
772 status of the first command is nonzero.
776 both have the same priority.
777 .Ss Flow-Control Constructs (if, while, for, case)
782 .\" XXX Use .Dl to work around broken handling of .Ic inside .Bd and .Ed .
786 .Dl [ Ic elif Ar list
787 .Dl Ic then Ar list ] ...
788 .Dl [ Ic else Ar list ]
798 The two lists are executed repeatedly while the exit status of the
802 command is similar, but has the word
807 repeat until the exit status of the first list is zero.
812 .Dl Ic for Ar variable Op Ic in Ar word ...
818 and the following words are omitted,
821 The words are expanded, and then the list is executed
822 repeatedly with the variable set to each word in turn.
827 commands may be replaced with
837 .Dl Ic break Op Ar num
838 .Dl Ic continue Op Ar num
842 command terminates the
851 command continues with the next iteration of the innermost loop.
852 These are implemented as built-in commands.
857 .Dl Ic case Ar word Ic in
862 The pattern can actually be one or more patterns
869 .Ss Grouping Commands Together
870 Commands may be grouped by writing either
871 .Bd -literal -offset indent
876 .Bd -literal -offset indent
880 The first form executes the commands in a subshell.
881 Note that built-in commands thus executed do not affect the current shell.
882 The second form does not fork another shell,
883 so it is slightly more efficient.
884 Grouping commands together this way allows the user to
885 redirect their output as though they were one program:
886 .Bd -literal -offset indent
887 { echo -n "hello"; echo " world"; } > greeting
890 The syntax of a function definition is
891 .Bd -literal -offset indent
895 A function definition is an executable statement; when
896 executed it installs a function named name and returns an
898 The command is normally a list
904 Variables may be declared to be local to a function by
908 This should appear as the first statement of a function,
910 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
918 command is implemented as a built-in command.
920 When a variable is made local, it inherits the initial
921 value and exported and readonly flags from the variable
922 with the same name in the surrounding scope, if there is
924 Otherwise, the variable is initially unset.
926 uses dynamic scoping, so that if the variable
928 is made local to function
930 which then calls function
932 references to the variable
936 will refer to the variable
940 not to the global variable named
943 The only special parameter that can be made local is
947 local causes any shell options that are
948 changed via the set command inside the function to be
949 restored to their original values when the function
955 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
960 It terminates the current executional scope, returning from the previous
961 nested function, sourced script, or shell instance, in that order.
964 command is implemented as a built-in command.
965 .Ss Variables and Parameters
966 The shell maintains a set of parameters.
968 denoted by a name is called a variable.
970 the shell turns all the environment variables into shell
972 New variables can be set using the form
973 .Bd -literal -offset indent
977 Variables set by the user must have a name consisting solely
978 of alphabetics, numerics, and underscores.
979 The first letter of a variable name must not be numeric.
980 A parameter can also be denoted by a number
981 or a special character as explained below.
982 .Ss Positional Parameters
983 A positional parameter is a parameter denoted by a number greater than zero.
984 The shell sets these initially to the values of its command line
985 arguments that follow the name of the shell script.
988 built-in command can also be used to set or reset them.
989 .Ss Special Parameters
990 A special parameter is a parameter denoted by a special one-character
992 The special parameters recognized
993 are shown in the following list, exactly as they would appear in input
994 typed by the user or in the source of a shell script.
997 Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one.
999 the expansion occurs within a double-quoted string
1000 it expands to a single field with the value of each parameter
1001 separated by the first character of the
1010 Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one.
1012 the expansion occurs within double-quotes, each positional
1013 parameter expands as a separate argument.
1014 If there are no positional parameters, the
1017 generates zero arguments, even when
1020 What this basically means, for example, is
1029 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1033 Expands to the number of positional parameters.
1035 Expands to the exit status of the most recent pipeline.
1037 (hyphen) Expands to the current option flags (the single-letter
1038 option names concatenated into a string) as specified on
1039 invocation, by the set built-in command, or implicitly
1042 Expands to the process ID of the invoked shell.
1044 retains the same value of $ as its parent.
1046 Expands to the process ID of the most recent background
1047 command executed from the current shell.
1049 pipeline, the process ID is that of the last command in the
1052 (zero) Expands to the name of the shell or shell script.
1055 This clause describes the various expansions that are
1057 Not all expansions are performed on
1058 every word, as explained later.
1060 Tilde expansions, parameter expansions, command substitutions,
1061 arithmetic expansions, and quote removals that occur within
1062 a single word expand to a single field.
1064 splitting or pathname expansion that can create multiple
1065 fields from a single word.
1066 The single exception to this rule is
1067 the expansion of the special parameter
1069 within double-quotes,
1070 as was described above.
1072 The order of word expansion is:
1075 Tilde Expansion, Parameter Expansion, Command Substitution,
1076 Arithmetic Expansion (these all occur at the same time).
1078 Field Splitting is performed on fields generated by step (1)
1083 Pathname Expansion (unless the
1085 option is in effect).
1092 character is used to introduce parameter expansion, command
1093 substitution, or arithmetic evaluation.
1094 .Ss Tilde Expansion (substituting a user's home directory)
1095 A word beginning with an unquoted tilde character
1098 subjected to tilde expansion.
1099 All the characters up to a slash
1101 or the end of the word are treated as a username
1102 and are replaced with the user's home directory.
1104 username is missing (as in ~/foobar), the tilde is replaced
1105 with the value of the HOME variable (the current user's
1107 .Ss Parameter Expansion
1108 The format for parameter expansion is as follows:
1109 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1113 where expression consists of all characters until the matching
1117 escaped by a backslash or within a quoted string, and characters in
1118 embedded arithmetic expansions, command substitutions, and variable
1119 expansions, are not examined in determining the matching
1122 The simplest form for parameter expansion is:
1123 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1127 The value, if any, of parameter is substituted.
1129 The parameter name or symbol can be enclosed in braces, which are
1130 optional except for positional parameters with more than one digit or
1131 when parameter is followed by a character that could be interpreted as
1133 If a parameter expansion occurs inside double-quotes:
1136 Pathname expansion is not performed on the results of the
1139 Field splitting is not performed on the results of the
1140 expansion, with the exception of the special parameter
1144 In addition, a parameter expansion can be modified by using one of the
1146 .Bl -tag -width indent
1147 .It Li ${parameter:-word}
1149 If parameter is unset or
1150 null, the expansion of word is
1151 substituted; otherwise, the value of
1152 parameter is substituted.
1153 .It Li ${parameter:=word}
1154 Assign Default Values.
1155 If parameter is unset
1156 or null, the expansion of word is
1157 assigned to parameter.
1159 final value of parameter is
1161 Only variables, not positional
1162 parameters or special parameters, can be
1163 assigned in this way.
1164 .It Li ${parameter:?[word]}
1165 Indicate Error if Null or Unset.
1167 parameter is unset or null, the expansion of
1168 word (or a message indicating it is unset if
1169 word is omitted) is written to standard
1170 error and the shell exits with a nonzero
1172 Otherwise, the value of
1173 parameter is substituted.
1175 interactive shell need not exit.
1176 .It Li ${parameter:+word}
1177 Use Alternate Value.
1178 If parameter is unset
1179 or null, null is substituted;
1180 otherwise, the expansion of word is
1184 In the parameter expansions shown previously, use of the colon in the
1185 format results in a test for a parameter that is unset or null; omission
1186 of the colon results in a test for a parameter that is only unset.
1187 .Bl -tag -width indent
1188 .It Li ${#parameter}
1190 The length in characters of
1191 the value of parameter.
1194 The following four varieties of parameter expansion provide for substring
1196 In each case, pattern matching notation
1198 .Sx Shell Patterns ) ,
1199 rather than regular expression notation,
1200 is used to evaluate the patterns.
1201 If parameter is one of the special parameters
1205 the result of the expansion is unspecified.
1206 Enclosing the full parameter expansion string in double-quotes does not
1207 cause the following four varieties of pattern characters to be quoted,
1208 whereas quoting characters within the braces has this effect.
1209 .Bl -tag -width indent
1210 .It Li ${parameter%word}
1211 Remove Smallest Suffix Pattern.
1213 is expanded to produce a pattern.
1215 parameter expansion then results in
1216 parameter, with the smallest portion of the
1217 suffix matched by the pattern deleted.
1218 .It Li ${parameter%%word}
1219 Remove Largest Suffix Pattern.
1221 is expanded to produce a pattern.
1223 parameter expansion then results in
1224 parameter, with the largest portion of the
1225 suffix matched by the pattern deleted.
1226 .It Li ${parameter#word}
1227 Remove Smallest Prefix Pattern.
1229 is expanded to produce a pattern.
1231 parameter expansion then results in
1232 parameter, with the smallest portion of the
1233 prefix matched by the pattern deleted.
1234 .It Li ${parameter##word}
1235 Remove Largest Prefix Pattern.
1237 is expanded to produce a pattern.
1239 parameter expansion then results in
1240 parameter, with the largest portion of the
1241 prefix matched by the pattern deleted.
1243 .Ss Command Substitution
1244 Command substitution allows the output of a command to be substituted in
1245 place of the command name itself.
1246 Command substitution occurs when
1247 the command is enclosed as follows:
1248 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1252 or the backquoted version:
1253 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1257 The shell expands the command substitution by executing command in a
1258 subshell environment and replacing the command substitution
1259 with the standard output of the command,
1260 removing sequences of one or more newlines at the end of the substitution.
1261 Embedded newlines before the end of the output are not removed;
1262 however, during field splitting, they may be translated into spaces
1263 depending on the value of
1265 and the quoting that is in effect.
1266 .Ss Arithmetic Expansion
1267 Arithmetic expansion provides a mechanism for evaluating an arithmetic
1268 expression and substituting its value.
1269 The format for arithmetic expansion is as follows:
1270 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1274 The expression is treated as if it were in double-quotes, except
1275 that a double-quote inside the expression is not treated specially.
1277 shell expands all tokens in the expression for parameter expansion,
1278 command substitution, and quote removal.
1280 Next, the shell treats this as an arithmetic expression and
1281 substitutes the value of the expression.
1282 .Ss White Space Splitting (Field Splitting)
1283 After parameter expansion, command substitution, and
1284 arithmetic expansion the shell scans the results of
1285 expansions and substitutions that did not occur in double-quotes for
1286 field splitting and multiple fields can result.
1288 The shell treats each character of the
1290 as a delimiter and uses
1291 the delimiters to split the results of parameter expansion and command
1292 substitution into fields.
1293 .Ss Pathname Expansion (File Name Generation)
1297 file name generation is performed
1298 after word splitting is complete.
1300 viewed as a series of patterns, separated by slashes.
1302 process of expansion replaces the word with the names of
1303 all existing files whose names can be formed by replacing
1304 each pattern with a string that matches the specified pattern.
1305 There are two restrictions on this: first, a pattern cannot match
1306 a string containing a slash, and second,
1307 a pattern cannot match a string starting with a period
1308 unless the first character of the pattern is a period.
1309 The next section describes the patterns used for both
1310 Pathname Expansion and the
1314 A pattern consists of normal characters, which match themselves,
1315 and meta-characters.
1316 The meta-characters are
1322 These characters lose their special meanings if they are quoted.
1323 When command or variable substitution is performed and the dollar sign
1324 or back quotes are not double-quoted, the value of the
1325 variable or the output of the command is scanned for these
1326 characters and they are turned into meta-characters.
1330 matches any string of characters.
1333 matches any single character.
1336 introduces a character class.
1337 The end of the character class is indicated by a
1345 rather than introducing a character class.
1346 A character class matches any of the characters between the square brackets.
1347 A range of characters may be specified using a minus sign.
1348 The character class may be complemented by making an exclamation point
1352 the first character of the character class.
1356 in a character class, make it the first character listed
1364 make it the first or last character listed.
1365 .Ss Built-in Commands
1366 This section lists the commands which
1367 are built-in because they need to perform some operation
1368 that cannot be performed by a separate process.
1370 these, built-in versions of essential utilities
1371 are provided for efficiency.
1372 .Bl -tag -width indent
1374 A null command that returns a 0 (true) exit value.
1376 The commands in the specified file are read and executed by the shell.
1379 command may be used to return to the
1386 characters, it is used as is.
1387 Otherwise, the shell searches the
1390 If it is not found in the
1392 it is sought in the current working directory.
1394 A built-in equivalent of
1396 .It Ic alias Oo Ar name Ns Oo = Ns Ar string Oc ... Oc
1398 .Ar name Ns = Ns Ar string
1399 is specified, the shell defines the alias
1405 is specified, the value of the alias
1408 With no arguments, the
1410 built-in command prints the names and values of all defined aliases
1413 Alias values are written with appropriate quoting so that they are
1414 suitable for re-input to the shell.
1418 .It Ic bg Op Ar job ...
1419 Continue the specified jobs
1420 (or the current job if no jobs are given)
1422 .It Ic builtin Ar cmd Op Ar arg ...
1423 Execute the specified built-in command,
1425 This is useful when the user wishes to override a shell function
1426 with the same name as a built-in command.
1427 .It Ic bind Oo Fl aeklrsv Oc Oo Ar key Oo Ar command Oc Oc
1428 List or alter key bindings for the line editor.
1429 This command is documented in
1431 .It Ic cd Oo Fl L | P Oc Op Ar directory
1432 Switch to the specified
1434 or to the directory specified in the
1436 environment variable if no
1445 then the directories listed in the
1448 searched for the specified
1452 is unset, the current directory is searched.
1455 is the same as that of
1457 In an interactive shell,
1460 command will print out the name of the directory
1461 that it actually switched to
1462 if this is different from the name that the user gave.
1463 These may be different either because the
1465 mechanism was used or because a symbolic link was crossed.
1469 option is specified,
1471 is handled physically and symbolic links are resolved before
1473 components are processed.
1476 option is specified,
1478 is handled logically.
1479 This is the default.
1484 .It Ic command Oo Fl p Oc Op Ar utility Op Ar argument ...
1485 .It Ic command Oo Fl v | V Oc Op Ar utility
1486 The first form of invocation executes the specified
1488 as a simple command (see the
1494 option is specified, the command search is performed using a
1497 that is guaranteed to find all of the standard utilities.
1501 option is specified,
1503 is not executed but a description of its interpretation by the shell is
1505 For ordinary commands the output is the path name; for shell built-in
1506 commands, shell functions and keywords only the name is written.
1507 Aliases are printed as
1508 .Dq Ic alias Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value .
1512 option is identical to
1514 except for the output.
1516 .Dq Ar utility Ic is Ar description
1528 .It Ic echo Oo Fl e | n Oc Op Ar string ...
1529 Print a space-separated list of the arguments to the standard output
1530 and append a newline character.
1531 .Bl -tag -width indent
1533 Suppress the output of the trailing newline.
1535 Process C-style backslash escape sequences.
1537 understands the following character escapes:
1538 .Bl -tag -width indent
1540 Alert (ring the terminal bell)
1544 Suppress the trailing newline (this has the side-effect of truncating the
1545 line if it is not the last character)
1547 The ESC character (ASCII 0x1b)
1561 (Zero) The character whose octal value is nnn
1566 is not enclosed in quotes then the backslash itself must be escaped
1567 with a backslash to protect it from the shell.
1569 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1578 $ echo -e a\e\e\e\eb
1587 options may be specified.
1588 .It Ic eval Ar string ...
1589 Concatenate all the arguments with spaces.
1590 Then re-parse and execute the command.
1591 .It Ic exec Op Ar command Op arg ...
1595 the shell process is replaced with the specified program
1596 (which must be a real program, not a shell built-in command or function).
1597 Any redirections on the
1599 command are marked as permanent,
1600 so that they are not undone when the
1603 .It Ic exit Op Ar exitstatus
1604 Terminate the shell process.
1608 it is used as the exit status of the shell;
1609 otherwise the exit status of the preceding command is used.
1610 .It Ic export Ar name ...
1611 .It Ic export Op Fl p
1612 The specified names are exported so that they will
1613 appear in the environment of subsequent commands.
1614 The only way to un-export a variable is to
1617 The shell allows the value of a variable to be set
1618 at the same time as it is exported by writing
1619 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1623 With no arguments the export command lists the names
1624 of all exported variables.
1627 option is specified, the exported variables are printed as
1628 .Dq Ic export Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
1629 lines, suitable for re-input to the shell.
1631 A null command that returns a non-zero (false) exit value.
1632 .It Ic fc Oo Fl e Ar editor Oc Op Ar first Op Ar last
1633 .It Ic fc Fl l Oo Fl nr Oc Op Ar first Op Ar last
1634 .It Ic fc Fl s Oo Ar old Ns = Ns Ar new Oc Op Ar first
1637 built-in command lists, or edits and re-executes,
1638 commands previously entered to an interactive shell.
1639 .Bl -tag -width indent
1641 Use the editor named by
1643 to edit the commands.
1644 The editor string is a command name,
1645 subject to search via the
1650 variable is used as a default when
1655 is null or unset, the value of the
1662 is used as the editor.
1664 List the commands rather than invoking
1666 The commands are written in the
1667 sequence indicated by the first and last operands, as
1670 with each command preceded by the command number.
1672 Suppress command numbers when listing with
1675 Reverse the order of the commands listed
1684 Re-execute the command without invoking an editor.
1687 Select the commands to list or edit.
1688 The number of previous commands that can be accessed
1689 are determined by the value of the
1696 or both are one of the following:
1697 .Bl -tag -width indent
1699 A positive number representing a command number;
1700 command numbers can be displayed with the
1704 A negative decimal number representing the
1705 command that was executed
1708 commands previously.
1709 For example, -1 is the immediately previous command.
1711 A string indicating the most recently entered command
1712 that begins with that string.
1715 operand is not also specified with
1717 the string form of the first operand cannot contain an embedded equal sign.
1721 The following environment variables affect the execution of
1723 .Bl -tag -width ".Ev HISTSIZE"
1725 Name of the editor to use for history editing.
1727 The number of previous commands that are accessible.
1732 or the current job to the foreground.
1733 .It Ic getopts Ar optstring Ar var
1739 command deprecates the older
1742 The first argument should be a series of letters, each possibly
1743 followed by a colon which indicates that the option takes an argument.
1744 The specified variable is set to the parsed option.
1746 the next argument is placed into the shell variable
1748 If an option takes an argument, it is placed into the shell variable
1750 If an invalid option is encountered,
1754 It returns a false value (1) when it encounters the end of the options.
1755 .It Ic hash Oo Fl rv Oc Op Ar command ...
1756 The shell maintains a hash table which remembers the locations of commands.
1757 With no arguments whatsoever, the
1759 command prints out the contents of this table.
1760 Entries which have not been looked at since the last
1762 command are marked with an asterisk;
1763 it is possible for these entries to be invalid.
1767 command removes each specified
1769 from the hash table (unless they are functions) and then locates it.
1774 prints the locations of the commands as it finds them.
1779 command to delete all the entries in the hash table except for functions.
1780 .It Ic jobid Op Ar job
1781 Print the process id's of the processes in the specified
1785 argument is omitted, use the current job.
1786 .It Ic jobs Oo Fl lps Oc Op Ar job ...
1787 Print information about the specified jobs, or all jobs if no
1790 The information printed includes job ID, status and command name.
1794 option is specified, the PID of each job is also printed.
1797 option is specified, only the process IDs for the process group leaders
1798 are printed, one per line.
1801 option is specified, only the PIDs of the job commands are printed, one per
1803 .It Ic local Oo Ar variable ... Oc Op Fl
1807 .It Ic pwd Op Fl L | P
1808 Print the path of the current directory.
1809 The built-in command may
1810 differ from the program of the same name because the
1811 built-in command remembers what the current directory
1812 is rather than recomputing it each time.
1815 However, if the current directory is
1817 the built-in version of
1819 will continue to print the old name for the directory.
1823 option is specified, symbolic links are resolved.
1826 option is specified, the shell's notion of the current directory
1827 is printed (symbolic links are not resolved).
1828 This is the default.
1829 .It Ic read Oo Fl p Ar prompt Oc Oo Fl t Ar timeout Oc Oo Fl er Oc Ar variable ...
1835 and the standard input is a terminal.
1837 read from the standard input.
1838 The trailing newline
1839 is deleted from the line and the line is split as
1840 described in the section on
1841 .Sx White Space Splitting (Field Splitting)
1843 the pieces are assigned to the variables in order.
1844 If there are more pieces than variables, the remaining
1845 pieces (along with the characters in
1847 that separated them)
1848 are assigned to the last variable.
1849 If there are more variables than pieces, the remaining
1850 variables are assigned the null string.
1852 Backslashes are treated specially, unless the
1856 If a backslash is followed by
1857 a newline, the backslash and the newline will be
1859 If a backslash is followed by any other
1860 character, the backslash will be deleted and the following
1861 character will be treated as though it were not in
1867 option is specified and the
1869 elapses before any input is supplied,
1872 command will return an exit status of 1 without assigning any values.
1875 value may optionally be followed by one of
1880 to explicitly specify seconds, minutes or hours.
1881 If none is supplied,
1887 option exists only for backward compatibility with older scripts.
1888 .It Ic readonly Oo Fl p Oc Op Ar name ...
1891 is marked as read only,
1892 so that it cannot be subsequently modified or unset.
1893 The shell allows the value of a variable to be set
1894 at the same time as it is marked read only
1895 by using the following form:
1896 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1900 With no arguments the
1902 command lists the names of all read only variables.
1905 option is specified, the read-only variables are printed as
1906 .Dq Ic readonly Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
1907 lines, suitable for re-input to the shell.
1908 .It Ic return Op Ar exitstatus
1912 .It Ic set Oo Fl /+abCEefIimnpTuVvx Oc Oo Fl /+o Ar longname Oc Oo
1913 .Fl c Ar string Oc Op Fl - Ar arg ...
1916 command performs three different functions:
1919 With no arguments, it lists the values of all shell variables.
1921 If options are given,
1922 either in short form or using the long
1923 .Dq Fl /+o Ar longname
1925 it sets or clears the specified options as described in the section called
1926 .Sx Argument List Processing .
1930 option is specified,
1932 will replace the shell's positional parameters with the subsequent
1934 If no arguments follow the
1937 all the positional parameters will be cleared,
1938 which is equivalent to executing the command
1942 flag may be omitted when specifying arguments to be used
1943 as positional replacement parameters.
1944 This is not recommended,
1945 because the first argument may begin with a dash
1951 command will interpret as a request to enable or disable options.
1953 .It Ic setvar Ar variable Ar value
1954 Assigns the specified
1959 is intended to be used in functions that
1960 assign values to variables whose names are passed as parameters.
1961 In general it is better to write
1962 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1967 .It Ic shift Op Ar n
1968 Shift the positional parameters
1973 A shift sets the value of $1 to the value of $2,
1974 the value of $2 to the value of $3, and so on,
1975 decreasing the value of $# by one.
1976 If there are zero positional parameters, shifting does not do anything.
1978 A built-in equivalent of
1981 Print the amount of time spent executing the shell and its children.
1982 The first output line shows the user and system times for the shell
1983 itself, the second one contains the user and system times for the
1985 .It Ic trap Oo Ar action Oc Ar signal ...
1987 Cause the shell to parse and execute
1992 The signals are specified by name or number.
1993 In addition, the pseudo-signal
1995 may be used to specify an action that is performed when the shell terminates.
1998 may be an empty string or a dash
2000 the former causes the specified signal to be ignored
2001 and the latter causes the default action to be taken.
2004 is another way to request the default action, for compatibility reasons this
2005 usage is not recommended though.
2006 When the shell forks off a subshell,
2007 it resets trapped (but not ignored) signals to the default action.
2010 command has no effect on signals that were ignored on entry to the shell.
2016 command to display a list of valid signal names.
2018 A null command that returns a 0 (true) exit value.
2019 .It Ic type Op Ar name ...
2022 as a command and print the resolution of the command search.
2023 Possible resolutions are:
2024 shell keyword, alias, shell built-in command, command, tracked alias
2026 For aliases the alias expansion is printed;
2027 for commands and tracked aliases
2028 the complete pathname of the command is printed.
2029 .It Ic ulimit Oo Fl HSabcdflmnstuv Oc Op Ar limit
2030 Set or display resource limits (see
2034 is specified, the named resource will be set;
2035 otherwise the current resource value will be displayed.
2039 is specified, the hard limits will be set or displayed.
2040 While everybody is allowed to reduce a hard limit,
2041 only the superuser can increase it.
2045 specifies the soft limits instead.
2046 When displaying limits,
2052 The default is to display the soft limits,
2053 and to set both the hard and the soft limits.
2059 command to display all resources.
2062 is not acceptable in this mode.
2064 The remaining options specify which resource value is to be
2065 displayed or modified.
2066 They are mutually exclusive.
2067 .Bl -tag -width indent
2069 The maximum size of socket buffer usage, in bytes.
2070 .It Fl c Ar coredumpsize
2071 The maximal size of core dump files, in 512-byte blocks.
2072 .It Fl d Ar datasize
2073 The maximal size of the data segment of a process, in kilobytes.
2074 .It Fl f Ar filesize
2075 The maximal size of a file, in 512-byte blocks.
2076 .It Fl l Ar lockedmem
2077 The maximal size of memory that can be locked by a process, in
2079 .It Fl m Ar memoryuse
2080 The maximal resident set size of a process, in kilobytes.
2082 The maximal number of descriptors that could be opened by a process.
2083 .It Fl s Ar stacksize
2084 The maximal size of the stack segment, in kilobytes.
2086 The maximal amount of CPU time to be used by each process, in seconds.
2087 .It Fl u Ar userproc
2088 The maximal number of simultaneous processes for this user ID.
2089 .It Fl v Ar virtualmem
2090 The maximal virtual size of a process, in kilobytes.
2092 .It Ic umask Oo Fl S Oc Op Ar mask
2093 Set the file creation mask (see
2095 to the octal or symbolic (see
2099 If the argument is omitted, the current mask value is printed.
2102 option is specified, the output is symbolic, otherwise the output is octal.
2103 .It Ic unalias Oo Fl a Oc Op Ar name ...
2104 The specified alias names are removed.
2107 is specified, all aliases are removed.
2108 .It Ic unset Oo Fl fv Oc Ar name ...
2109 The specified variables or functions are unset and unexported.
2112 option is specified or no options are given, the
2114 arguments are treated as variable names.
2117 option is specified, the
2119 arguments are treated as function names.
2120 .It Ic wait Op Ar job
2121 Wait for the specified
2123 to complete and return the exit status of the last process in the
2125 If the argument is omitted, wait for all jobs to complete
2126 and return an exit status of zero.
2128 .Ss Commandline Editing
2131 is being used interactively from a terminal, the current command
2132 and the command history
2136 .Sx Built-in Commands )
2137 can be edited using vi-mode command line editing.
2138 This mode uses commands similar
2139 to a subset of those described in the vi man page.
2144 enables vi-mode editing and places
2146 into vi insert mode.
2147 With vi-mode enabled,
2149 can be switched between insert mode and command mode by typing
2153 while in command mode will pass the line to the shell.
2159 command can be used to enable a subset of
2160 emacs-style command line editing features.
2162 The following environment variables affect the execution of
2164 .Bl -tag -width ".Ev HISTSIZE"
2166 The search path used with the
2170 The fallback editor used with the
2173 If not set, the default editor is
2176 The default editor used with the
2180 The number of previous commands that are accessible.
2182 The starting directory of
2185 Input Field Separators.
2186 This is normally set to
2192 .Sx White Space Splitting
2193 section for more details.
2195 The name of a mail file, that will be checked for the arrival of new
2202 separated list of file names, for the shell to check for incoming
2204 This environment setting overrides the
2207 There is a maximum of 10 mailboxes that can be monitored at once.
2209 The default search path for executables.
2212 section for details.
2214 The primary prompt string, which defaults to
2216 unless you are the superuser, in which case it defaults to
2219 The secondary prompt string, which defaults to
2222 The prefix for the trace output (if
2228 The default terminal setting for the shell.
2229 This is inherited by children of the shell, and is used in the history
2233 Errors that are detected by the shell, such as a syntax error, will
2234 cause the shell to exit with a non-zero exit status.
2235 If the shell is not an interactive shell, the execution of the shell
2236 file will be aborted.
2237 Otherwise the shell will return the exit status of the last command
2238 executed, or if the exit builtin is used with a numeric argument, it
2239 will return the argument.
2245 .Xr emacs 1 Pq Pa pkgsrc/editors/emacs ,
2260 command, the Thompson shell, appeared in
2262 It was superseded in
2264 by the Bourne shell, which inherited the name
2269 was rewritten in 1989 under the
2271 license after the Bourne shell from
2276 was originally written by
2277 .An Kenneth Almquist .
2281 utility does not recognize multibyte characters.