KSH(1) KSH(1)
NAME
ksh, rksh, pfksh - KornShell, a standard/restricted command and programming language
NOTE
Currently, rksh and pfksh are not available on Mac OS X / Darwin.
SYNOPSIS
[ +-abcefhikmnoprstuvxBCDP ] [ -R file ] [ +-o option ] ... [ - ] [ arg ... ]
rksh [ +-abcefhikmnoprstuvxBCD ] [ -R file ] [ +-o option ] ... [ - ] [ arg ... ]
DESCRIPTION
Ksh is a command and programming language that executes commands read from a terminal or a file.
Rksh is a restricted version of the command interpreter ksh; it is used to set up login names and
execution environments whose capabilities are more controlled than those of the standard shell.
Rpfksh is a profile shell version of the command interpreter ksh; it is used to to execute commands
with the attributes specified by the user's profiles (see pfexec(1)). See Invocation below for the
meaning of arguments to the shell.
Definitions.
A metacharacter is one of the following characters:
; & ( ) | < > new-line space tab
A blank is a tab or a space. An identifier is a sequence of letters, digits, or underscores starting
with a letter or underscore. Identifiers are used as components of variable names. A vname is a
sequence of one or more identifiers separated by a . and optionally preceded by a .. Vnames are used
as function and variable names. A word is a sequence of characters from the character set defined by
the current locale, excluding non-quoted metacharacters.
A command is a sequence of characters in the syntax of the shell language. The shell reads each com-mand command
mand and carries out the desired action either directly or by invoking separate utilities. A built-in builtin
in command is a command that is carried out by the shell itself without creating a separate process.
Some commands are built-in purely for convenience and are not documented here. Built-ins that cause
side effects in the shell environment and built-ins that are found before performing a path search
(see Execution below) are documented here. For historical reasons, some of these built-ins behave
differently than other built-ins and are called special built-ins.
Commands.
A simple-command is a list of variable assignments (see Variable Assignments below) or a sequence of
blank separated words which may be preceded by a list of variable assignments (see Environment
below). The first word specifies the name of the command to be executed. Except as specified below,
the remaining words are passed as arguments to the invoked command. The command name is passed as
argument 0 (see exec(2)). The value of a simple-command is its exit status; 0-255 if it terminates
normally; 256+signum if it terminates abnormally (the name of the signal corresponding to the exit
status can be obtained via the -l option of the kill built-in utility).
A pipeline is a sequence of one or more commands separated by |. The standard output of each command
but the last is connected by a pipe(2) to the standard input of the next command. Each command,
except possibly the last, is run as a separate process; the shell waits for the last command to ter-minate. terminate.
minate. The exit status of a pipeline is the exit status of the last command unless the pipefail
option is enabled. Each pipeline can be preceded by the reserved word ! which causes the exit sta-tus status
tus of the pipeline to become 0 if the exit status of the last command is non-zero, and 1 if the exit
status of the last command is 0.
A list is a sequence of one or more pipelines separated by ;, &, |&, &&, or ||, and optionally termi-nated terminated
nated by ;, &, or |&. Of these five symbols, ;, &, and |& have equal precedence, which is lower than
that of && and ||. The symbols && and || also have equal precedence. A semicolon (;) causes sequen-tial sequential
tial execution of the preceding pipeline; an ampersand (&) causes asynchronous execution of the pre-ceding preceding
ceding pipeline (i.e., the shell does not wait for that pipeline to finish). The symbol |& causes
asynchronous execution of the preceding pipeline with a two-way pipe established to the parent shell;
the standard input and output of the spawned pipeline can be written to and read from by the parent
shell by applying the redirection operators <& and >& with arg p to commands and by using -p option
of the built-in commands read and print described later. The symbol && (||) causes the list follow-ing following
ing it to be executed only if the preceding pipeline returns a zero (non-zero) value. One or more
new-lines may appear in a list instead of a semicolon, to delimit a command. The first item of the
first pipeline of a list that is a simple command not beginning with a redirection, and not occuring
within a while, until, or if list, can be prededed by a semicolon. This semicolon is ignored unless
the showme option is enabled as described with the set built-in below.
A command is either a simple-command or one of the following. Unless otherwise stated, the value
returned by a command is that of the last simple-command executed in the command.
for vname [ in word ... ] ;do list ;done
Each time a for command is executed, vname is set to the next word taken from the in word
list. If in word ... is omitted, then the for command executes the do list once for each
positional parameter that is set starting from 1 (see Parameter Expansion below). Execution
ends when there are no more words in the list.
for (( [expr1] ; [expr2] ; [expr3] )) ;do list ;done
The arithmetic expression expr1 is evaluated first (see Arithmetic evaluation below). The
arithmetic expression expr2 is repeatedly evaluated until it evaluates to zero and when non-zero, nonzero,
zero, list is executed and the arithmetic expression expr3 evaluated. If any expression is
omitted, then it behaves as if it evaluated to 1.
select vname [ in word ... ] ;do list ;done
A select command prints on standard error (file descriptor 2) the set of words, each preceded
by a number. If in word ... is omitted, then the positional parameters starting from 1 are
used instead (see Parameter Expansion below). The PS3 prompt is printed and a line is read
from the standard input. If this line consists of the number of one of the listed words, then
the value of the variable vname is set to the word corresponding to this number. If this line
is empty, the selection list is printed again. Otherwise the value of the variable vname is
set to null. The contents of the line read from standard input is saved in the variable
REPLY. The list is executed for each selection until a break or end-of-file is encountered.
If the REPLY variable is set to null by the execution of list, then the selection list is
printed before displaying the PS3 prompt for the next selection.
case word in [ [(]pattern [ | pattern ] ... ) list ;; ] ... esac
A case command executes the list associated with the first pattern that matches word. The
form of the patterns is the same as that used for file-name generation (see File Name Genera-tion Generation
tion below). The ;; operator causes execution of case to terminate. If ;& is used in place
of ;; the next subsequent list, if any, is executed.
if list ;then list [ ;elif list ;then list ] ... [ ;else list ] ;fi
The list following if is executed and, if it returns a zero exit status, the list following
the first then is executed. Otherwise, the list following elif is executed and, if its value
is zero, the list following the next then is executed. Failing each successive elif list, the
else list is executed. If the if list has non-zero exit status and there is no else list,
then the if command returns a zero exit status.
while list ;do list ;done
until list ;do list ;done
A while command repeatedly executes the while list and, if the exit status of the last command
in the list is zero, executes the do list; otherwise the loop terminates. If no commands in
the do list are executed, then the while command returns a zero exit status; until may be used
in place of while to negate the loop termination test.
((expression))
The expression is evaluated using the rules for arithmetic evaluation described below. If the
value of the arithmetic expression is non-zero, the exit status is 0, otherwise the exit sta-tus status
tus is 1.
(list)
Execute list in a separate environment. Note, that if two adjacent open parentheses are
needed for nesting, a space must be inserted to avoid evaluation as an arithmetic command as
described above.
{ list;}
list is simply executed. Note that unlike the metacharacters ( and ), { and } are reserved
words and must occur at the beginning of a line or after a ; in order to be recognized.
[[ expression ]]
Evaluates expression and returns a zero exit status when expression is true. See Conditional
Expressions below, for a description of expression.
function varname { list ;}
varname () { list ;}
Define a function which is referenced by varname. A function whose varname contains a . is
called a discipline function and the portion of the varname preceding the last . must refer
to an existing variable. The body of the function is the list of commands between { and }. A
function defined with the function varname syntax can also be used as an argument to the .
special built-in command to get the equivalent behavior as if the varname() syntax were used
to define it. (See Functions below.)
time [ pipeline ]
If pipeline is omitted the user and system time for the current shell and completed child pro-cesses processes
cesses is printed on standard error. Otherwise, pipeline is executed and the elapsed time as
well as the user and system time are printed on standard error. The TIMEFORMAT variable may
be set to a format string that specifies how the timing information should be displayed. See
Shell Variables below for a description of the TIMEFORMAT variable.
The following reserved words are recognized as reserved only when they are the first word of a com-mand command
mand and are not quoted:
if then else elif fi case esac for while until do done { } function select time [[ ]] !
Variable Assignments.
One or more variable assignments can start a simple command or can be arguments to the typeset,
export, or readonly special built-in commands. The syntax for an assignment is of the form:
varname=word
varname[word]=word
No space is permitted between varname and the = or between = and word.
varname=(assign_list)
No space is permitted between varname and the =. An assign_list can be one of the following:
word ...
Indexed array assignment.
[word]=word ...
Associative array assignment. If preceded by typeset -a this will create an
indexed array instead.
assignment ...
Compound variable assignment. This creates a compound variable varname with
sub-variables of the form varname.name, where name is the name portion of
assignment. The value of varname will contain all the assignment elements.
Additional assignments made to sub-variables of varname will also be displayed
as part of the value of varname. If no assignments are specified, varname will
be a compound variable allowing subsequence child elements to be defined.
typeset [options] assignment ...
Nested variable assignment. Multiple assignments can be specified by separat-ing separating
ing each of them with a ;. The previous value is unset before the assignment.
In addition, a += can be used in place of the = to signify adding to or appending to the previous
value. When += is applied to an arithmetic type, word is evaluated as an arithmetic expression and
added to the current value. When applied to a string variable, the value defined by word is appended
to the value. For compound assignments, the previous value is not unset and the new values are
appended to the current ones provided that the types are compatible.
Comments.
A word beginning with # causes that word and all the following characters up to a new-line to be
ignored.
Aliasing.
The first word of each command is replaced by the text of an alias if an alias for this word has been
defined. An alias name consists of any number of characters excluding metacharacters, quoting char-acters, characters,
acters, file expansion characters, parameter expansion and command substitution characters, and =.
The replacement string can contain any valid shell script including the metacharacters listed above.
The first word of each command in the replaced text, other than any that are in the process of being
replaced, will be tested for aliases. If the last character of the alias value is a blank then the
word following the alias will also be checked for alias substitution. Aliases can be used to rede-fine redefine
fine built-in commands but cannot be used to redefine the reserved words listed above. Aliases can
be created and listed with the alias command and can be removed with the unalias command.
Aliasing is performed when scripts are read, not while they are executed. Therefore, for an alias to
take effect, the alias definition command has to be executed before the command which references the
alias is read.
The following aliases are compiled into the shell but can be unset or redefined:
autoload='typeset -fu'
command='command '
fc=hist
float='typeset -lE'
functions='typeset -f'
hash='alias -t --'
history='hist -l'
integer='typeset -li'
nameref='typeset -n'
nohup='nohup '
r='hist -s'
redirect='command exec'
source='command .'
stop='kill -s STOP'
suspend='kill -s STOP $$'
times='{ { time;} 2>&1;}'
type='whence -v'
Tilde Substitution.
After alias substitution is performed, each word is checked to see if it begins with an unquoted ~.
For tilde substitution, word also refers to the word portion of parameter expansion (see Parameter
Expansion below). If it does, then the word up to a / is checked to see if it matches a user name in
the password database (See getpwname(3).) If a match is found, the ~ and the matched login name are
replaced by the login directory of the matched user. If no match is found, the original text is left
unchanged. A ~ by itself, or in front of a /, is replaced by $HOME. A ~ followed by a + or - is
replaced by the value of $PWD and $OLDPWD respectively.
In addition, when expanding a variable assignment, tilde substitution is attempted when the value of
the assignment begins with a ~, and when a ~ appears after a :. The : also terminates a ~ login
name.
Command Substitution.
The standard output from a command enclosed in parentheses preceded by a dollar sign ( $() ) or a
pair of grave accents (``) may be used as part or all of a word; trailing new-lines are removed. In
the second (obsolete) form, the string between the quotes is processed for special quoting characters
before the command is executed (see Quoting below). The command substitution $(cat file) can be
replaced by the equivalent but faster $(<file). The command substitution $(n<#) will expand to the
current byte offset for file descriptor n.
Arithmetic Substitution.
An arithmetic expression enclosed in double parentheses preceded by a dollar sign ( $(()) ) is
replaced by the value of the arithmetic expression within the double parentheses.
Process Substitution.
This feature is only available on versions of the UNIX operating system that support the /dev/fd
directory for naming open files. Each command argument of the form <(list) or >(list) will run
process list asynchronously connected to some file in /dev/fd. The name of this file will become the
argument to the command. If the form with > is selected then writing on this file will provide input
for list. If < is used, then the file passed as an argument will contain the output of the list
process. For example,
paste <(cut -f1 file1) <(cut -f3 file2) | tee >(process1) >(process2)
cuts fields 1 and 3 from the files file1 and file2 respectively, pastes the results together, and
sends it to the processes process1 and process2, as well as putting it onto the standard output.
Note that the file, which is passed as an argument to the command, is a UNIX pipe(2) so programs that
expect to lseek(2) on the file will not work.
Parameter Expansion.
A parameter is a variable, one or more digits, or any of the characters *, @, #, ?, -, $, and !. A
variable is denoted by a vname. To create a variable whose vname contains a ., a variable whose
vname consists of everything before the last . must already exist. A variable has a value and zero
or more attributes. Variables can be assigned values and attributes by using the typeset special
built-in command. The attributes supported by the shell are described later with the typeset special
built-in command. Exported variables pass values and attributes to the environment.
The shell supports both indexed and associative arrays. An element of an array variable is refer-enced referenced
enced by a subscript. A subscript for an indexed array is denoted by an arithmetic expression (see
Arithmetic evaluation below) between a [ and a ]. To assign values to an indexed array, use set -A
vname value ... . The value of all subscripts must be in the range of 0 through 1,048,575. Indexed
arrays need not be declared. Any reference to a variable with a valid subscript is legal and an
array will be created if necessary.
An associative array is created with the -A option to typeset. A subscript for an associative array
is denoted by a string enclosed between [ and ].
Referencing any array without a subscript is equivalent to referencing the array with subscript 0.
The value of a variable may be assigned by writing:
vname=value [ vname=value ] ...
or
vname[subscript]=value [ vname[subscript]=value ] ...
Note that no space is allowed before or after the =.
A nameref is a variable that is a reference to another variable. A nameref is created with the -n
attribute of typeset. The value of the variable at the time of the typeset command becomes the vari-able variable
able that will be referenced whenever the nameref variable is used. The name of a nameref cannot
contain a .. When a variable or function name contains a ., and the portion of the name up to the
first . matches the name of a nameref, the variable referred to is obtained by replacing the nameref
portion with the name of the variable referenced by the nameref. If a nameref is used as the index
of a for loop, a name reference is established for each item in the list. A nameref provides a con-venient convenient
venient way to refer to the variable inside a function whose name is passed as an argument to a func-tion. function.
tion. For example, if the name of a variable is passed as the first argument to a function, the com-mand command
mand
typeset -n var=$1
inside the function causes references and assignments to var to be references and assignments to the
variable whose name has been passed to the function.
If either of the floating point attributes, -E, or -F, or the integer attribute, -i, is set for
vname, then the value is subject to arithmetic evaluation as described below.
Positional parameters, parameters denoted by a number, may be assigned values with the set special
built-in command. Parameter $0 is set from argument zero when the shell is invoked.
The character $ is used to introduce substitutable parameters.
${parameter}
The shell reads all the characters from ${ to the matching } as part of the same word even if
it contains braces or metacharacters. The value, if any, of the parameter is substituted.
The braces are required when parameter is followed by a letter, digit, or underscore that is
not to be interpreted as part of its name, when the variable name contains a .. The braces
are also required when a variable is subscripted unless it is part of an Arithmetic Expression
or a Conditional Expression. If parameter is one or more digits then it is a positional
parameter. A positional parameter of more than one digit must be enclosed in braces. If
parameter is * or @, then all the positional parameters, starting with $1, are substituted
(separated by a field separator character). If an array vname with subscript * or @ is used,
then the value for each of the elements is substituted, separated by the first character of
the value of IFS.
${#parameter}
If parameter is * or @, the number of positional parameters is substituted. Otherwise, the
length of the value of the parameter is substituted.
${#vname[*]}
${#vname[@]}
The number of elements in the array vname is substituted.
${!vname}
Expands to the name of the variable referred to by vname. This will be vname except when
vname is a name reference.
${!vname[subscript]}
Expands to name of the subscript unless subscript is * or @. When subscript is *, the list of
array subscripts for vname is generated. For a variable that is not an array, the value is 0
if the variable is set. Otherwise it is null. When subscript is @, same as above, except
that when used in double quotes, each array subscript yields a separate argument.
${!prefix*}
Expands to the names of the variables whose names begin with prefix.
${parameter:-word}
If parameter is set and is non-null then substitute its value; otherwise substitute word.
${parameter:=word}
If parameter is not set or is null then set it to word; the value of the parameter is then
substituted. Positional parameters may not be assigned to in this way.
${parameter:?word}
If parameter is set and is non-null then substitute its value; otherwise, print word and exit
from the shell (if not interactive). If word is omitted then a standard message is printed.
${parameter:+word}
If parameter is set and is non-null then substitute word; otherwise substitute nothing.
In the above, word is not evaluated unless it is to be used as the substituted string, so that, in
the following example, pwd is executed only if d is not set or is null:
print ${d:-$(pwd)}
If the colon ( : ) is omitted from the above expressions, then the shell only checks whether parame-ter parameter
ter is set or not.
${parameter:offset:length}
${parameter:offset}
Expands to the portion of the value of parameter starting at the character (counting from 0)
determined by expanding offset as an arithmetic expression and consisting of the number of
characters determined by the arithmetic expression defined by length. In the second form, the
remainder of the value is used. If A negative offset counts backwards from the end of parame-ter. parameter.
ter. Note that one or more blanks is required in front of a minus sign to prevent the shell
from interpreting the operator as :-. If parameter is * or @, or is an array name indexed by
* or @, then offset and length refer to the array index and number of elements respectively.
A negative offset is taken relative to one greater than the highest subscript for indexed
arrays. The order for associate arrays is unspecified.
${parameter#pattern}
${parameter##pattern}
If the shell pattern matches the beginning of the value of parameter, then the value of this
expansion is the value of the parameter with the matched portion deleted; otherwise the value
of this parameter is substituted. In the first form the smallest matching pattern is deleted
and in the second form the largest matching pattern is deleted. When parameter is @, *, or an
array variable with subscript @ or *, the substring operation is applied to each element in
turn.
${parameter%pattern}
${parameter%%pattern}
If the shell pattern matches the end of the value of parameter, then the value of this expan-sion expansion
sion is the value of the parameter with the matched part deleted; otherwise substitute the
value of parameter. In the first form the smallest matching pattern is deleted and in the
second form the largest matching pattern is deleted. When parameter is @, *, or an array
variable with subscript @ or *, the substring operation is applied to each element in turn.
${parameter/pattern/string}
${parameter//pattern/string}
${parameter/#pattern/string}
${parameter/%pattern/string}
Expands parameter and replaces the longest match of pattern with the given string. Each
occurrence of \n in string is replaced by the portion of parameter that matches the n-th sub-pattern. subpattern.
pattern. In the first form, only the first occurrence of pattern is replaced. In the second
form, each match for pattern is replaced by the given string. The third form restricts the
pattern match to the beginning of the string while the fourth form restricts the pattern match
to the end of the string. When string is null, the pattern will be deleted and the / in front
of string may be omitted. When parameter is @, *, or an array variable with subscript @ or *,
the substitution operation is applied to each element in turn. In this case, the string por-tion portion
tion of word will be re-evaluated for each element.
The following parameters are automatically set by the shell:
# The number of positional parameters in decimal.
- Options supplied to the shell on invocation or by the set command.
? The decimal value returned by the last executed command.
$ The process number of this shell.
_ Initially, the value of _ is an absolute pathname of the shell or script being executed
as passed in the environment. Subsequently it is assigned the last argument of the
previous command. This parameter is not set for commands which are asynchronous. This
parameter is also used to hold the name of the matching MAIL file when checking for
mail.
! The process number of the last background command invoked or the most recent job put in
the background with the bg built-in command.
.sh.command
When processing a DEBUG trap, this variable contains the current command line that is
about to run.
.sh.edchar
This variable contains the value of the keyboard character (or sequence of characters
if the first character is an ESC, ascii 033) that has been entered when processing a
KEYBD trap (see Key Bindings below). If the value is changed as part of the trap
action, then the new value replaces the key (or key sequence) that caused the trap.
.sh.edcol
The character position of the cursor at the time of the most recent KEYBD trap.
.sh.edmode
The value is set to ESC when processing a KEYBD trap while in vi insert mode. (See Vi
Editing Mode below.) Otherwise, .sh.edmode is null when processing a KEYBD trap.
.sh.edtext
The characters in the input buffer at the time of the most recent KEYBD trap. The
value is null when not processing a KEYBD trap.
.sh.file
The pathname of the file than contains the current command.
.sh.fun
The name of the current function that is being executed.
.sh.match
An indexed array which stores the most recent match and sub-pattern matches after con-ditional conditional
ditional pattern matches that match and after variables expansions using the operators
#, %, or /. The 0-th element stores the complete match and the i-th. element stores
the i-th submatch. The .sh.match variable becomes unset when the variable that has
expanded is assigned a new value.
.sh.name
Set to the name of the variable at the time that a discipline function is invoked.
.sh.subscript
Set to the name subscript of the variable at the time that a discipline function is
invoked.
.sh.subshell
The current depth for subshells and command substitution.
.sh.value
Set to the value of the variable at the time that the set or append discipline function
is invoked.
.sh.version
Set to a value that identifies the version of this shell.
LINENO The current line number within the script or function being executed.
OLDPWD The previous working directory set by the cd command.
OPTARG The value of the last option argument processed by the getopts built-in command.
OPTIND The index of the last option argument processed by the getopts built-in command.
PPID The process number of the parent of the shell.
PWD The present working directory set by the cd command.
RANDOM Each time this variable is referenced, a random integer, uniformly distributed between
0 and 32767, is generated. The sequence of random numbers can be initialized by
assigning a numeric value to RANDOM.
REPLY This variable is set by the select statement and by the read built-in command when no
arguments are supplied.
SECONDS
Each time this variable is referenced, the number of seconds since shell invocation is
returned. If this variable is assigned a value, then the value returned upon reference
will be the value that was assigned plus the number of seconds since the assignment.
The following variables are used by the shell:
CDPATH The search path for the cd command.
COLUMNS
If this variable is set, the value is used to define the width of the edit window for
the shell edit modes and for printing select lists.
EDITOR If the VISUAL variable is not set, the value of this variable will be checked for the
patterns as described with VISUAL below and the corresponding editing option (see Spe-cial Special
cial Command set below) will be turned on.
ENV If this variable is set, then parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic
substitution are performed on the value to generate the pathname of the script that
will be executed when the shell is invoked (see Invocation below). This file is typi-cally typically
cally used for alias and function definitions. The default value is $HOME/.kshrc.
FCEDIT Obsolete name for the default editor name for the hist command. FCEDIT is not used
when HISTEDIT is set.
FIGNORE
A pattern that defines the set of filenames that will be ignored when performing file-name filename
name matching.
FPATH The search path for function definitions. The directories in this path are searched
for a file with the same name as the function or command when a function with the -u
attribute is referenced and when a command is not found. If an executable file with
the name of that command is found, then it is read and executed in the current environ-ment. environment.
ment. Unlike PATH, the current directory must be represented explictily by . rather
than by adjacent : characters or a beginning or ending :.
HISTCMD
Number of the current command in the history file.
HISTEDIT
Name for the default editor name for the hist command.
HISTFILE
If this variable is set when the shell is invoked, then the value is the pathname of
the file that will be used to store the command history (see Command Re-entry below).
HISTSIZE
If this variable is set when the shell is invoked, then the number of previously
entered commands that are accessible by this shell will be greater than or equal to
this number. The default is 512.
HOME The default argument (home directory) for the cd command.
IFS Internal field separators, normally space, tab, and new-line that are used to separate
the results of command substitution or parameter expansion and to separate fields with
the built-in command read. The first character of the IFS variable is used to separate
arguments for the "$*" substitution (see Quoting below). Each single occurrence of an
IFS character in the string to be split, that is not in the isspace character class,
and any adjacent characters in IFS that are in the isspace character class, delimit a
field. One or more characters in IFS that belong to the isspace character class,
delimit a field. In addition, if the same isspace character appears consecutively
inside IFS, this character is treated as if it were not in the isspace class, so that
if IFS consists of two tab characters, then two adjacent tab characters delimit a null
field.
LANG This variable determines the locale category for any category not specifically selected
with a variable starting with LC_ or LANG.
LC_ALL This variable overrides the value of the LANG variable and any other LC_ variable.
LC_COLLATE
This variable determines the locale category for character collation information.
LC_CTYPE
This variable determines the locale category for character handling functions. It
determines the character classes for pattern matching (see File Name Generation below).
LC_NUMERIC
This variable determines the locale category for the decimal point character.
LINES If this variable is set, the value is used to determine the column length for printing
select lists. Select lists will print vertically until about two-thirds of LINES lines
are filled.
MAIL If this variable is set to the name of a mail file and the MAILPATH variable is not
set, then the shell informs the user of arrival of mail in the specified file.
MAILCHECK
This variable specifies how often (in seconds) the shell will check for changes in the
modification time of any of the files specified by the MAILPATH or MAIL variables. The
default value is 600 seconds. When the time has elapsed the shell will check before
issuing the next prompt.
MAILPATH
A colon ( : ) separated list of file names. If this variable is set, then the shell
informs the user of any modifications to the specified files that have occurred within
the last MAILCHECK seconds. Each file name can be followed by a ? and a message that
will be printed. The message will undergo parameter expansion, command substitution,
and arithmetic substitution with the variable $_ defined as the name of the file that
has changed. The default message is you have mail in $_.
PATH The search path for commands (see Execution below). The user may not change PATH if
executing under rksh (except in .profile).
PS1 The value of this variable is expanded for parameter expansion, command substitution,
and arithmetic substitution to define the primary prompt string which by default is
``$''. The character ! in the primary prompt string is replaced by the command number
(see Command Re-entry below). Two successive occurrences of ! will produce a single !
when the prompt string is printed.
PS2 Secondary prompt string, by default ``> ''.
PS3 Selection prompt string used within a select loop, by default ``#? ''.
PS4 The value of this variable is expanded for parameter evaluation, command substitution,
and arithmetic substitution and precedes each line of an execution trace. By default,
PS4 is ``+ ''. In addition when PS4 is unset, the execution trace prompt is also ``+
''.
SHELL The pathname of the shell is kept in the environment. At invocation, if the basename
of this variable is rsh, rksh, or krsh, then the shell becomes restricted. If it is
pfsh or pfksh, then the shell becomes a profile shell (see pfexec(1)).
TIMEFORMAT
The value of this parameter is used as a format string specifying how the timing infor-mation information
mation for pipelines prefixed with the time reserved word should be displayed. The %
character introduces a format sequence that is expanded to a time value or other infor-mation. information.
mation. The format sequences and their meanings are as follows.
%% A literal %.
%[p][l]R The elapsed time in seconds.
%[p][l]U The number of CPU seconds spent in user mode.
%[p][l]S The number of CPU seconds spent in system mode.
%P The CPU percentage, computed as (U + S) / R.
The braces denote optional portions. The optional p is a digit specifying the preci-sion, precision,
sion, the number of fractional digits after a decimal point. A value of 0 causes no
decimal point or fraction to be output. At most three places after the decimal point
can be displayed; values of p greater than 3 are treated as 3. If p is not specified,
the value 3 is used.
The optional l specifies a longer format, including hours if greater than zero, min-utes, minutes,
utes, and seconds of the form HHhMMmSS.FFs. The value of p determines whether or not
the fraction is included.
All other characters are output without change and a trailing newline is added. If
unset, the default value, $'\nreal\t%2lR\nuser\t%2lU\nsys%2lS', is used. If the value
is null, no timing information is displayed.
TMOUT If set to a value greater than zero, TMOUT will be the default timeout value for the
read built-in command. The select compound command terminates after TMOUT seconds when
input is from a terminal. Otherwise, the shell will terminate if a line is not entered
within the prescribed number of seconds while reading from a terminal. (Note that the
shell can be compiled with a maximum bound for this value which cannot be exceeded.)
VISUAL If the value of this variable matches the pattern *[Vv][Ii]*, then the vi option (see
Special Command set below) is turned on. If the value matches the pattern *gmacs* ,
the gmacs option is turned on. If the value matches the pattern *macs*, then the emacs
option will be turned on. The value of VISUAL overrides the value of EDITOR.
The shell gives default values to PATH, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, MAILCHECK, FCEDIT, TMOUT and IFS, while
HOME, SHELL, ENV, and MAIL are not set at all by the shell (although HOME is set by login(1)). On
some systems MAIL and SHELL are also set by login(1).
Field Splitting.
After parameter expansion and command substitution, the results of substitutions are scanned for the
field separator characters (those found in IFS) and split into distinct fields where such characters
are found. Explicit null fields ("" or '') are retained. Implicit null fields (those resulting from
parameters that have no values or command substitutions with no output) are removed.
If the braceexpand (-B) option is set then each of the fields resulting from IFS are checked to see
if they contain one or more of the brace patterns {*,*}, {l1..l2} , {n1..n2} , {n1..n2% fmt} ,
{n1..n2 ..n3} , or {n1..n2 ..n3%fmt} , where * represents any character, l1,l2 are letters and
n1,n2,n3 are signed numbers and fmt is a format specified as used by printf. In each case, fields
are created by prepending the characters before the { and appending the characters after the } to
each of the strings generated by the characters between the { and }. The resulting fields are
checked to see if they have any brace patterns.
In the first form, a field is created for each string between { and ,, between , and ,, and between ,
and }. The string represented by * can contain embedded matching { and } without quoting. Other-wise, Otherwise,
wise, each { and } with * must be quoted.
In the seconds form, l1 and l2 must both be either upper case or both be lower case characters in the
C locale. In this case a field is created for each character from l1 thru l2.
In the remaining forms, a field is created for each number starting at n1 and continuing until it
reaches n2 incrementing n1 by n3. The cases where n3 is not specified behave as if n3 where 1 if
n1<=n2 and -1 otherwise. If forms which specify %fmt any format flags, widths and precisions can be
specified and fmt can end in any of the specifiers cdiouxX. For example, {a,z}{1..5..3%02d}{b..c}x
expands to the 8 fields, a01bx, a01cx, a04bx, a04cx, z01bx, z01cx, z04bx and z4cx.
File Name Generation.
Following splitting, each field is scanned for the characters *, ?, (, and [ unless the -f option has
been set. If one of these characters appears, then the word is regarded as a pattern. Each file
name component that contains any pattern character is replaced with a lexicographically sorted set of
names that matches the pattern from that directory. If no file name is found that matches the pat-
tern, then that component of the filename is left unchanged unless the pattern is prefixed with ~(N)
in which case it is removed as described below. If FIGNORE is set, then each file name component
that matches the pattern defined by the value of FIGNORE is ignored when generating the matching
filenames. The names . and .. are also ignored. If FIGNORE is not set, the character . at the
start of each file name component will be ignored unless the first character of the pattern corre-sponding corresponding
sponding to this component is the character . itself. Note, that for other uses of pattern matching
the / and . are not treated specially.
* Matches any string, including the null string. When used for filename expansion, if
the globstar option is on, two adjacent *'s by itself will match all files and zero or
more directories and subdirectories. If followed by a / than only directories and sub-directories subdirectories
directories will match.
? Matches any single character.
[...] Matches any one of the enclosed characters. A pair of characters separated by -matches bymatches
matches any character lexically between the pair, inclusive. If the first character
following the opening [ is a ! then any character not enclosed is matched. A - can be
included in the character set by putting it as the first or last character.
Within [ and ], character classes can be specified with the syntax [:class:] where
class is one of the following classes defined in the ANSI-C standard: (Note that word
is equivalent to alnum plus the character _).
alnum alpha blank cntrl digit graph lower print punct space upper word xdigit
Within [ and ], an equivalence class can be specified with the syntax [=c=] which matches all
characters with the same primary collation weight (as defined by the current locale) as the
character c.
Within [ and ], [.symbol.] matches the collating symbol symbol.
A pattern-list is a list of one or more patterns separated from each other with a & or |. A & signi-fies signifies
fies that all patterns must be matched whereas | requires that only one pattern be matched. Compos-ite Composite
ite patterns can be formed with one or more of the following sub-patterns:
?(pattern-list)
Optionally matches any one of the given patterns.
*(pattern-list)
Matches zero or more occurrences of the given patterns.
+(pattern-list)
Matches one or more occurrences of the given patterns.
{n}(pattern-list)
Matches n occurrences of the given patterns.
{m,n}(pattern-list)
Matches from m to n occurrences of the given patterns. If m is omitted, 0 will be
used. If n is omitted at least m occurrences will be matched.
@(pattern-list)
Matches exactly one of the given patterns.
!(pattern-list)
Matches anything except one of the given patterns.
By default, each pattern, or sub-pattern will match the longest string possible consistent with gen-erating generating
erating the longest overall match. If more than one match is possible, the one starting closest to
the beginning of the string will be chosen. However, for each of the above compound patterns a -can acan
can be inserted in front of the ( to cause the shortest match to the specified pattern-list to be
used.
When pattern-list is contained within parenthesis, the backslash character \ is treated specially
even when inside a character class. All ANSI-C character escapes are recognized and match the spec-ified specified
ified character. In addition the following escape sequences are recognized:
\d Matches any character in the digit class.
\D Matches any character not in the digit class.
\s Matches any character in the space class.
\S Matches any character not in the space class.
\w Matches any character in the word class.
\W Matches any character not in the word class.
A pattern of the form %(pattern-pair(s)) is a sub-pattern that can be used to match nested character
expressions. Each pattern-pair is a two character sequence which cannot contain & or |. The first
pattern-pair specifies the starting and ending characters for the match. Each subsequent pattern-pair patternpair
pair represents the beginning and ending characters of a nested group that will be skipped over when
counting starting and ending character matches. The behavior is unspecified when the first character
of a pattern-pair is alpha-numeric except for the following:
D Causes the ending character to terminate the search for this pattern without finding a
match.
E Causes the ending character to be interpreted as an escape character.
L Causes the ending character to be interpreted as a quote character causing all charac-ters characters
ters to be ignored when looking for a match.
Q Causes the ending character to be interpreted as a quote character causing all charac-ters characters
ters other than any escape character to be ignored when looking for a match.
Thus, %({}Q"E\), matches characters starting at { until the matching } is found not counting any { or
} that is inside a double quoted string or preceded by the escape character \. Without the {} this
pattern matches any C language string.
Each sub-pattern in a composite pattern is numbered, starting at 1, by the location of the ( within
the pattern. The sequence \n, where n is a single digit and \n comes after the n-th. sub-pattern,
matches the same string as the sub-pattern itself.
Finally a pattern can contain sub-patterns of the form ~(options:pattern-list). where either options
or :pattern-list can be omitted. Unlike, the other compound patterns, these sub-patterns are not
counted in the numbered sub-patterns. If options is present, it can consist of one or more of the
following:
+ Enable the following options. This is the default.
- Disable the following options.
E The remainder of the pattern uses extended regular expression syntax like the egrep(1)
command.
F The remainder of the pattern uses fgrep(1) expression syntax.
G The remainder of the pattern uses basic regular expression syntax like the grep(1) com-mand. command.
mand.
K The remainder of the pattern uses shell pattern syntax. This is the default.
N This is ignored. However, when it is the first letter and is used with file name gen-eration, generation,
eration, and no matches occur, the file pattern expands to the empty string.
i Treat the match as case insensitive.
g File the longest match (greedy). This is the default.
l Left anchor the pattern. This is the default for K style patterns.
r Right anchor the pattern. This is the default for K style patterns.
If both options and :pattern-list are specified, then the options apply only to pattern-list. Oth-erwise, Otherwise,
erwise, these options remain in effect until they are disabled by a subsequent ~(...) or at the end
of the sub-pattern containing ~(...).
Quoting.
Each of the metacharacters listed earlier (see Definitions above) has a special meaning to the shell
i Treat the match as case insensitive.
g File the longest match (greedy). This is the default.
If both options and :pattern-list are specified, then the options apply only to pattern-list. Oth-erwise, Otherwise,
erwise, these options remain in effect until they are disabled by a subsequent ~(...) or at the end
of the sub-pattern containing ~(...).
Quoting.
Each of the metacharacters listed earlier (see Definitions above) has a special meaning to the shell
and causes termination of a word unless quoted. A character may be quoted (i.e., made to stand for
itself) by preceding it with a \. The pair \new-line is removed. All characters enclosed between a
pair of single quote marks ('') that is not preceded by a $ are quoted. A single quote cannot appear
within the single quotes. A single quoted string preceded by an unquoted $ is processed as an ANSI-C
string except for the following:
\0 Causes the remainder of the string to be ignored.
\E Equivalent to the escape character (ascii 033),
\e Equivalent to the escape character (ascii 033),
\cx Expands to the character control-x.
\C[.name.]
Expands to the collating element name.
Inside double quote marks (""), parameter and command substitution occur and \ quotes the characters
\, `, ", and $. A $ in front of a double quoted string will be ignored in the "C" or "POSIX" locale,
and may cause the string to be replaced by a locale specific string otherwise. The meaning of $* and
$@ is identical when not quoted or when used as a variable assignment value or as a file name. How-ever, However,
ever, when used as a command argument, "$*" is equivalent to "$1d$2d...", where d is the first char-acter character
acter of the IFS variable, whereas "$@" is equivalent to "$1" "$2" .... Inside grave quote marks
(``), \ quotes the characters \, `, and $. If the grave quotes occur within double quotes, then \
also quotes the character ".
The special meaning of reserved words or aliases can be removed by quoting any character of the
reserved word. The recognition of function names or built-in command names listed below cannot be
altered by quoting them.
Arithmetic Evaluation.
The shell performs arithmetic evaluation for arithmetic substitution, to evaluate an arithmetic com-mand, command,
mand, to evaluate an indexed array subscript, and to evaluate arguments to the built-in commands
shift and let. Evaluations are performed using double precision floating point arithmetic or long
double precision floating point for systems that provide this data type. Floating point constants
follow the ANSI-C programming language floating point conventions. Integer constants follow the
ANSI-C programming language integer constant conventions although only single byte character con-stants constants
stants are recognized and character casts are not recognized. In addition constants can be of the
form [base#]n where base is a decimal number between two and sixty-four representing the arithmetic
base and n is a number in that base. The digits above 9 are represented by the lower case letters,
the upper case letters, @, and _ respectively. For bases less than or equal to 36, upper and lower
case characters can be used interchangeably.
An arithmetic expression uses the same syntax, precedence, and associativity of expression as the C
language. All the C language operators that apply to floating point quantities can be used. In
addition, the operator ** can be used for exponentiation. It has higher precedence than multiplica-tion multiplication
tion as is left associative. In addition, when the value of an arithmetic variable or sub-expression
can be represented as a long integer, all C language integer arithmetic operations can be performed.
Variables can be referenced by name within an arithmetic expression without using the parameter
expansion syntax. When a variable is referenced, its value is evaluated as an arithmetic expression.
Any of the following math library functions that are in the C math library can be used within an
arithmetic expression:
abs acos acosh asin asinh atan atan2 atanh cbrt copysign cos cosh erf erfc exp exp2 expm1 fabs fdim
finite floor fma fmax fmod hypot ilogb int isinf isnan lgamma log log2 logb nearbyint nextafter next-toward nexttoward
toward pow remainder rint round sin sinh sqrt tan tanh tgamma trunc
An internal representation of a variable as a double precision floating point can be specified with
the -E [n] or -F [n] option of the typeset special built-in command. The -E option causes the expan-sion expansion
sion of the value to be represented using scientific notation when it is expanded. The optional
option argument n defines the number of significant figures. The -F option causes the expansion to
be represented as a floating decimal number when it is expanded. The optional option argument n
defines the number of places after the decimal point in this case.
An internal integer representation of a variable can be specified with the -i [n] option of the type-set typeset
set special built-in command. The optional option argument n specifies an arithmetic base to be used
when expanding the variable. If you do not specify an arithmetic base, base 10 will be used.
Arithmetic evaluation is performed on the value of each assignment to a variable with the -E, -F, or
-i attribute. Assigning a floating point number to a variable whose type is an integer causes the
fractional part to be truncated.
Prompting.
When used interactively, the shell prompts with the value of PS1 after expanding it for parameter
expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic substitution, before reading a command. In addition,
each single ! in the prompt is replaced by the command number. A !! is required to place ! in the
prompt. If at any time a new-line is typed and further input is needed to complete a command, then
the secondary prompt (i.e., the value of PS2) is issued.
Conditional Expressions.
A conditional expression is used with the [[ compound command to test attributes of files and to com-pare compare
pare strings. Field splitting and file name generation are not performed on the words between [[ and
]]. Each expression can be constructed from one or more of the following unary or binary expres-sions: expressions:
sions:
string True, if string is not null.
-a file
Same as -e below. This is obsolete.
-b file
True, if file exists and is a block special file.
-c file
True, if file exists and is a character special file.
-d file
True, if file exists and is a directory.
-e file
True, if file exists.
-f file
True, if file exists and is an ordinary file.
-g file
True, if file exists and it has its setgid bit set.
-k file
True, if file exists and it has its sticky bit set.
-n string
True, if length of string is non-zero.
-o ?option
True, if option named option is a valid option name.
-o option
True, if option named option is on.
-p file
True, if file exists and is a fifo special file or a pipe.
-r file
True, if file exists and is readable by current process.
-s file
True, if file exists and has size greater than zero.
-t fildes
True, if file descriptor number fildes is open and associated with a terminal device.
-u file
True, if file exists and it has its setuid bit set.
-w file
True, if file exists and is writable by current process.
-x file
True, if file exists and is executable by current process. If file exists and is a directory,
then true if the current process has permission to search in the directory.
-z string
True, if length of string is zero.
-L file
True, if file exists and is a symbolic link.
-h file
True, if file exists and is a symbolic link.
-N file
True, if file exists and the modification time is greater than the last access time.
-O file
True, if file exists and is owned by the effective user id of this process.
-G file
True, if file exists and its group matches the effective group id of this process.
-S file
True, if file exists and is a socket.
file1 -nt file2
True, if file1 exists and file2 does not, or file1 is newer than file2.
file1 -ot file2
True, if file2 exists and file1 does not, or file1 is older than file2.
file1 -ef file2
True, if file1 and file2 exist and refer to the same file.
string == pattern
True, if string matches pattern. Any part of pattern can be quoted to cause it to be matched
as a string. With a successful match to a pattern, the .sh.match array variable will contain
the match and sub-pattern matches.
string = pattern
Same as == above, but is obsolete.
string != pattern
True, if string does not match pattern. With the string matches the pattern the .sh.match
array variable will contain the match and sub-pattern matches.
string =~ ere
True if string matches the pattern ~(E)ere where ere is an extended regular expression.
string1 < string2
True, if string1 comes before string2 based on ASCII value of their characters.
string1 > string2
True, if string1 comes after string2 based on ASCII value of their characters.
The following obsolete arithmetic comparisons are also permitted:
exp1 -eq exp2
True, if exp1 is equal to exp2.
exp1 -ne exp2
True, if exp1 is not equal to exp2.
exp1 -lt exp2
True, if exp1 is less than exp2.
exp1 -gt exp2
True, if exp1 is greater than exp2.
exp1 -le exp2
True, if exp1 is less than or equal to exp2.
exp1 -ge exp2
True, if exp1 is greater than or equal to exp2.
In each of the above expressions, if file is of the form /dev/fd/n, where n is an integer, then the
test is applied to the open file whose descriptor number is n.
A compound expression can be constructed from these primitives by using any of the following, listed
in decreasing order of precedence.
(expression)
True, if expression is true. Used to group expressions.
! expression
True if expression is false.
expression1 && expression2
True, if expression1 and expression2 are both true.
expression1 || expression2
True, if either expression1 or expression2 is true.
Input/Output.
Before a command is executed, its input and output may be redirected using a special notation inter-preted interpreted
preted by the shell. The following may appear anywhere in a simple-command or may precede or follow
a command and are not passed on to the invoked command. Command substitution, parameter expansion,
and arithmetic substitution occur before word or digit is used except as noted below. File name gen-eration generation
eration occurs only if the shell is interactive and the pattern matches a single file. Field split-ting splitting
ting is not performed.
In each of the following redirections, if file is of the form /dev/sctp/host/port,
/dev/tcp/host/port, or /dev/udp/host/port, where host is a hostname or host address, and port is a
service given by name or an integer port number, then the redirection attempts to make a tcp, sctp or
udp connection to the corresponding socket.
No intervening space is allowed between the characters of redirection operators.
<word Use file word as standard input (file descriptor 0).
>word Use file word as standard output (file descriptor 1). If the file does not exist then
it is created. If the file exists, and the noclobber option is on, this causes an
error; otherwise, it is truncated to zero length.
>|word Sames as >, except that it overrides the noclobber option.
>>word Use file word as standard output. If the file exists, then output is appended to it
(by first seeking to the end-of-file); otherwise, the file is created.
<>word Open file word for reading and writing as standard input.
<<[-]word The shell input is read up to a line that is the same as word after any quoting has
been removed, or to an end-of-file. No parameter substitution, command substitution,
arithmetic substitution or file name generation is performed on word. The resulting
document, called a here-document, becomes the standard input. If any character of word
is quoted, then no interpretation is placed upon the characters of the document; other-
wise, parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic substitution occur,
\new-line is ignored, and \ must be used to quote the characters \, $, `. If - is
appended to <<, then all leading tabs are stripped from word and from the document. If
# is appended to <<, then leading spaces and tabs will be stripped off the first line
of the document and up to an equivalent indentation will be stripped from the remaining
lines and from word. A tab stop is assumend to occur at every 8 columns for the pur-
poses of determining the indentation.
<<<word A short form of here document in which word becomes the contents of the here-document
after any parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic substitution occur.
<&digit The standard input is duplicated from file descriptor digit (see dup(2)). Similarly
for the standard output using >&digit.
<&digit- The file descriptor given by digit is moved to standard input. Similarly for the stan-
dard output using >&digit-.
<&- The standard input is closed. Similarly for the standard output using >&-.
<&p The input from the co-process is moved to standard input.
>&p The output to the co-process is moved to standard output.
<#((expr)) Evaluate arithmetic expression expr and position file descriptor 0 to the resulting
value bytes from the start of the file. The variables CUR and EOF evaluate to the cur-
rent offset and end-of-file offset respectively when evaluating expr.
>#((offset)) The same as <# except applies to file descriptor 1.
<#pattern Seeks forward to the beginning of the next line containing pattern.
<##pattern The same as <# except that the portion of the file that is skipped is copied to stan-
dard output.
If one of the above is preceded by a digit, with no intervening space, then the file descriptor num-ber number
ber referred to is that specified by the digit (instead of the default 0 or 1). If one of the above,
other than >&- and the ># and ># forms, is preceded by {varname} with no intervening space, then a
file descriptor number > 10 will be selected by the shell and stored in the variable varname. If >&-or >&or
or the any of the ># and ># forms is preceded by {varname} the value of varname defines the file
descriptor to close or position. For example:
... 2>&1
means file descriptor 2 is to be opened for writing as a duplicate of file descriptor 1 and
exec {n}<file
means open file named file for reading and store the file descriptor number in variable n.
The order in which redirections are specified is significant. The shell evaluates each redirection
in terms of the (file descriptor, file) association at the time of evaluation. For example:
... 1>fname 2>&1
first associates file descriptor 1 with file fname. It then associates file descriptor 2 with the
file associated with file descriptor 1 (i.e. fname). If the order of redirections were reversed,
file descriptor 2 would be associated with the terminal (assuming file descriptor 1 had been) and
then file descriptor 1 would be associated with file fname.
If a command is followed by & and job control is not active, then the default standard input for the
command is the empty file /dev/null. Otherwise, the environment for the execution of a command con-tains contains
tains the file descriptors of the invoking shell as modified by input/output specifications.
Environment.
The environment (see environ(7)) is a list of name-value pairs that is passed to an executed program
in the same way as a normal argument list. The names must be identifiers and the values are charac-ter character
ter strings. The shell interacts with the environment in several ways. On invocation, the shell
scans the environment and creates a variable for each name found, giving it the corresponding value
and attributes and marking it export. Executed commands inherit the environment. If the user modi-fies modifies
fies the values of these variables or creates new ones, using the export or typeset -x commands, they
become part of the environment. The environment seen by any executed command is thus composed of any
name-value pairs originally inherited by the shell, whose values may be modified by the current
shell, plus any additions which must be noted in export or typeset -x commands.
The environment for any simple-command or function may be augmented by prefixing it with one or more
variable assignments. A variable assignment argument is a word of the form identifier=value. Thus:
TERM=450 cmd args and
(export TERM; TERM=450; cmd args)
are equivalent (as far as the above execution of cmd is concerned except for special built-in com-mands commands
mands listed below - those that are preceded with a dagger).
If the obsolete -k option is set, all variable assignment arguments are placed in the environment,
even if they occur after the command name. The following first prints a=b c and then c:
echo a=b c
set -k
echo a=b c
This feature is intended for use with scripts written for early versions of the shell and its use in
new scripts is strongly discouraged. It is likely to disappear someday.
Functions.
For historical reasons, there are two ways to define functions, the name() syntax and the function
name syntax, described in the Commands section above. Shell functions are read in and stored inter-nally. internally.
nally. Alias names are resolved when the function is read. Functions are executed like commands
with the arguments passed as positional parameters. (See Execution below.)
Functions defined by the function name syntax and called by name execute in the same process as the
caller and share all files and present working directory with the caller. Traps caught by the caller
are reset to their default action inside the function. A trap condition that is not caught or
ignored by the function causes the function to terminate and the condition to be passed on to the
caller. A trap on EXIT set inside a function is executed in the environment of the caller after the
function completes. Ordinarily, variables are shared between the calling program and the function.
However, the typeset special built-in command used within a function defines local variables whose
scope includes the current function. They can be passed to functions that they call in the variable
assignment list the precedes the call or as arguments passed as name references. Errors within func-tions functions
tions return control to the caller.
Functions defined with the name() syntax and functions defined with the function name syntax that are
invoked with the . special built-in are executed in the caller's environment and share all variables
and traps with the caller. Errors within these function executions cause the script that contains
them to abort.
The special built-in command return is used to return from function calls.
Function names can be listed with the -f or +f option of the typeset special built-in command. The
text of functions, when available, will also be listed with -f. Functions can be undefined with the
-f option of the unset special built-in command.
Ordinarily, functions are unset when the shell executes a shell script. Functions that need to be
defined across separate invocations of the shell should be placed in a directory and the FPATH vari-able variable
able should contain the name of this directory. They may also be specified in the ENV file.
Discipline Functions.
Each variable can have zero or more discipline functions associated with it. The shell initially
understands the discipline names get, set, append, and unset but on most systems others can be added
at run time via the C programming interface extension provided by the builtin built-in utility. If
the get discipline is defined for a variable, it is invoked whenever the given variable is refer-enced. referenced.
enced. If the variable .sh.value is assigned a value inside the discipline function, the referenced
variable will evaluate to this value instead. If the set discipline is defined for a variable, it is
invoked whenever the given variable is assigned a value. If the append discipline is defined for a
variable, it is invoked whenever a value is appended to the given variable. The variable .sh.value
is given the value of the variable before invoking the discipline, and the variable will be assigned
the value of .sh.value after the discipline completes. If .sh.value is unset inside the discipline,
then that value is unchanged. If the unset discipline is defined for a variable, it is invoked when-ever whenever
ever the given variable is unset. The variable will not be unset unless it is unset explicitly from
within this discipline function.
The variable .sh.name contains the name of the variable for which the discipline function is called,
.sh.subscript is the subscript of the variable, and .sh.value will contain the value being assigned
inside the .set discipline function. For the set discipline, changing .sh.value will change the
value that gets assigned.
Jobs.
If the monitor option of the set command is turned on, an interactive shell associates a job with
each pipeline. It keeps a table of current jobs, printed by the jobs command, and assigns them small
integer numbers. When a job is started asynchronously with &, the shell prints a line which looks
like:
[1] 1234
indicating that the job which was started asynchronously was job number 1 and had one (top-level)
process, whose process id was 1234.
This paragraph and the next require features that are not in all versions of UNIX and may not apply.
If you are running a job and wish to do something else you may hit the key ^Z (control-Z) which sends
a STOP signal to the current job. The shell will then normally indicate that the job has been
`Stopped', and print another prompt. You can then manipulate the state of this job, putting it in
the background with the bg command, or run some other commands and then eventually bring the job back
into the foreground with the foreground command fg. A ^Z takes effect immediately and is like an
interrupt in that pending output and unread input are discarded when it is typed.
A job being run in the background will stop if it tries to read from the terminal. Background jobs
are normally allowed to produce output, but this can be disabled by giving the command stty tostop.
If you set this tty option, then background jobs will stop when they try to produce output like they
do when they try to read input.
There are several ways to refer to jobs in the shell. A job can be referred to by the process id of
any process of the job or by one of the following:
%number
The job with the given number.
%string
Any job whose command line begins with string.
%?string
Any job whose command line contains string.
%% Current job.
%+ Equivalent to %%.
%- Previous job.
The shell learns immediately whenever a process changes state. It normally informs you whenever a
job becomes blocked so that no further progress is possible, but only just before it prints a prompt.
This is done so that it does not otherwise disturb your work. The notify option of the set command
causes the shell to print these job change messages as soon as they occur.
When the monitor option is on, each background job that completes triggers any trap set for CHLD.
When you try to leave the shell while jobs are running or stopped, you will be warned that `You have
stopped(running) jobs.' You may use the jobs command to see what they are. If you immediately try
to exit again, the shell will not warn you a second time, and the stopped jobs will be terminated.
When a login shell receives a HUP signal, it sends a HUP signal to each job that has not been dis-owned disowned
owned with the disown built-in command described below.
Signals.
The INT and QUIT signals for an invoked command are ignored if the command is followed by & and the
monitor option is not active. Otherwise, signals have the values inherited by the shell from its
parent (but see also the trap built-in command below).
Execution.
Each time a command is read, the above substitutions are carried out. If the command name matches
one of the Special Built-in Commands listed below, it is executed within the current shell process.
Next, the command name is checked to see if it matches a user defined function. If it does, the
positional parameters are saved and then reset to the arguments of the function call. A function is
also executed in the current shell process. When the function completes or issues a return, the
positional parameter list is restored. For functions defined with the function name syntax, any trap
set on EXIT within the function is executed. The exit value of a function is the value of the last
command executed. If a command name is not a special built-in command or a user defined function,
but it is one of the built-in commands listed below, it is executed in the current shell process.
The shell variable PATH defines the search path for the directory containing the command. Alterna-tive Alternative
tive directory names are separated by a colon (:). The default path is /bin:/usr/bin: (specifying
/bin, /usr/bin, and the current directory in that order). The current directory can be specified by
two or more adjacent colons, or by a colon at the beginning or end of the path list. If the command
name contains a /, then the search path is not used. Otherwise, each directory in the path is
searched for an executable file of the given name that is not a directory. If found, and if the
shell determines that there is a built-in version of a command corresponding to a given pathname,
this built-in is invoked in the current process. If found, and this directory is also contained in
the value of the FPATH variable, then this file is loaded into the current shell environment as if it
were the argument to the . command except that only preset aliases are expanded, and a function of
the given name is executed as described above. If not found, and the file .paths is found, and the
this file contains a line of the form FPATH=path where path names an existing directory, and this
directory contains a file of the given name, then this file is loaded into the current shell environ-ment environment
ment as if it were the argument to the . special built-in command and a function of the given name is
executed. Otherwise, if found, a process is created and an attempt is made to execute the command
via exec(2).
When an executable is found, the directory where it is found in is searched for a file named .paths.
If this file is found and it contains a line of the form BUILTIN_LIB=value , then the library named
by value will be searched for as if it were an option argument to builtin -f, and if it contains a
built-in of the specified name this will be executed instead of a command by this name. Otherwise,
if this file is found and it contains a line of the form name=value in the first or second line, then
the environment variable name is modified by prepending the directory specified by value to the
directory list. If value is not an absolute directory, then it specifies a directory relative to the
directory that the executable was found. If the environment variable name does not already exist it
will be added to the environment list for the specified command.
If the file has execute permission but is not an a.out file, it is assumed to be a file containing
shell commands. A separate shell is spawned to read it. All non-exported variables are removed in
this case. If the shell command file doesn't have read permission, or if the setuid and/or setgid
bits are set on the file, then the shell executes an agent whose job it is to set up the permissions
and execute the shell with the shell command file passed down as an open file. A parenthesized com-mand command
mand is executed in a sub-shell without removing non-exported variables.
Command Re-entry.
The text of the last HISTSIZE (default 512) commands entered from a terminal device is saved in a
history file. The file $HOME/.sh_history is used if the HISTFILE variable is not set or if the file
it names is not writable. A shell can access the commands of all interactive shells which use the
same named HISTFILE. The built-in command hist is used to list or edit a portion of this file. The
portion of the file to be edited or listed can be selected by number or by giving the first character
or characters of the command. A single command or range of commands can be specified. If you do not
specify an editor program as an argument to hist then the value of the variable HISTEDIT is used. If
HISTEDIT is unset, the obsolete variable FCEDIT is used. If FCEDIT is not defined, then /bin/ed is
used. The edited command(s) is printed and re-executed upon leaving the editor unless you quit with-out without
out writing. The -s option (and in obsolete versions, the editor name -) is used to skip the editing
phase and to re-execute the command. In this case a substitution parameter of the form old=new can
be used to modify the command before execution. For example, with the preset alias r, which is
aliased to 'hist -s', typing `r bad=good c' will re-execute the most recent command which starts with
the letter c, replacing the first occurrence of the string bad with the string good.
In-line Editing Options.
Normally, each command line entered from a terminal device is simply typed followed by a new-line
(`RETURN' or `LINE FEED'). If either the emacs, gmacs, or vi option is active, the user can edit the
command line. To be in either of these edit modes set the corresponding option. An editing option
is automatically selected each time the VISUAL or EDITOR variable is assigned a value ending in
either of these option names.
The editing features require that the user's terminal accept `RETURN' as carriage return without line
feed and that a space (` ') must overwrite the current character on the screen.
Unless the multiline option is on, the editing modes implement a concept where the user is looking
through a window at the current line. The window width is the value of COLUMNS if it is defined,
otherwise 80. If the window width is too small to display the prompt and leave at least 8 columns to
enter input, the prompt is truncated from the left. If the line is longer than the window width
minus two, a mark is displayed at the end of the window to notify the user. As the cursor moves and
reaches the window boundaries the window will be centered about the cursor. The mark is a > (<, *)
if the line extends on the right (left, both) side(s) of the window.
The search commands in each edit mode provide access to the history file. Only strings are matched,
not patterns, although a leading ^ in the string restricts the match to begin at the first character
in the line.
Each of the edit modes has an operation to list the files or commands that match a partially entered
word. When applied to the first word on the line, or the first word after a ;, |, &, or (, and the
word does not begin with ~ or contain a /, the list of aliases, functions, and executable commands
defined by the PATH variable that could match the partial word is displayed. Otherwise, the list of
files that match the given word is displayed. If the partially entered word does not contain any
file expansion characters, a * is appended before generating these lists. After displaying the gen-
erated list, the input line is redrawn. These operations are called command name listing and file
name listing, respectively. There are additional operations, referred to as command name completion
and file name completion, which compute the list of matching commands or files, but instead of print-ing printing
ing the list, replace the current word with a complete or partial match. For file name completion,
if the match is unique, a / is appended if the file is a directory and a space is appended if the
file is not a directory. Otherwise, the longest common prefix for all the matching files replaces
the word. For command name completion, only the portion of the file names after the last / are used
to find the longest command prefix. If only a single name matches this prefix, then the word is
replaced with the command name followed by a space. When using a tab for completion that does not
yield a unique match, a subsequent tab will provide a numbered list of matching alternatives. A spe-cific specific
cific selection can be made by entering the selection number followed by a tab.
Key Bindings.
The KEYBD trap can be used to intercept keys as they are typed and change the characters that are
actually seen by the shell. This trap is executed after each character (or sequence of characters
when the first character is ESC) is entered while reading from a terminal. The variable .sh.edchar
contains the character or character sequence which generated the trap. Changing the value of
.sh.edchar in the trap action causes the shell to behave as if the new value were entered from the
keyboard rather than the original value.
The variable .sh.edcol is set to the input column number of the cursor at the time of the input. The
variable .sh.edmode is set to ESC when in vi insert mode (see below) and is null otherwise. By
prepending ${.sh.editmode} to a value assigned to .sh.edchar it will cause the shell to change to
control mode if it is not already in this mode.
This trap is not invoked for characters entered as arguments to editing directives, or while reading
input for a character search.
Emacs Editing Mode.
This mode is entered by enabling either the emacs or gmacs option. The only difference between these
two modes is the way they handle ^T. To edit, the user moves the cursor to the point needing correc-tion correction
tion and then inserts or deletes characters or words as needed. All the editing commands are control
characters or escape sequences. The notation for control characters is caret (^) followed by the
character. For example, ^F is the notation for control F. This is entered by depressing `f' while
holding down the `CTRL' (control) key. The `SHIFT' key is not depressed. (The notation ^? indi-cates indicates
cates the DEL (delete) key.)
The notation for escape sequences is M- followed by a character. For example, M-f (pronounced Meta
f) is entered by depressing ESC (ascii 033) followed by `f'. (M-F would be the notation for ESC fol-lowed followed
lowed by `SHIFT' (capital) `F'.)
All edit commands operate from any place on the line (not just at the beginning). Neither the
`RETURN' nor the `LINE FEED' key is entered after edit commands except when noted.
^F Move cursor forward (right) one character.
M-[C Move cursor forward (right) one character.
M-f Move cursor forward one word. (The emacs editor's idea of a word is a string of characters
consisting of only letters, digits and underscores.)
^B Move cursor backward (left) one character.
M-[D Move cursor backward (left) one character.
M-b Move cursor backward one word.
^A Move cursor to start of line.
M-[H Move cursor to start of line.
^E Move cursor to end of line.
M-[Y Move cursor to end of line.
^]char Move cursor forward to character char on current line.
M-^]char Move cursor backward to character char on current line.
^X^X Interchange the cursor and mark.
erase (User defined erase character as defined by the stty(1) command, usually ^H or #.) Delete
previous character.
lnext (User defined literal next character as defined by the stty(1) command. or ^V if not
defined.) Removes the next character's editing features (if any).
^D Delete current character.
M-d Delete current word.
M-^H (Meta-backspace) Delete previous word.
M-h Delete previous word.
M-^? (Meta-DEL) Delete previous word (if your interrupt character is ^? (DEL, the default) then
this command will not work).
^T Transpose current character with previous character and advance the cursor in emacs mode.
Transpose two previous characters in gmacs mode.
^C Capitalize current character.
M-c Capitalize current word.
M-l Change the current word to lower case.
^K Delete from the cursor to the end of the line. If preceded by a numerical parameter whose
value is less than the current cursor position, then delete from given position up to the
cursor. If preceded by a numerical parameter whose value is greater than the current cur-sor cursor
sor position, then delete from cursor up to given cursor position.
^W Kill from the cursor to the mark.
M-p Push the region from the cursor to the mark on the stack.
kill (User defined kill character as defined by the stty command, usually ^G or @.) Kill the
entire current line. If two kill characters are entered in succession, all kill characters
from then on cause a line feed (useful when using paper terminals).
^Y Restore last item removed from line. (Yank item back to the line.)
^L Line feed and print current line.
M-^L Clear the screen.
^@ (Null character) Set mark.
M-space (Meta space) Set mark.
^J (New line) Execute the current line.
^M (Return) Execute the current line.
eof End-of-file character, normally ^D, is processed as an End-of-file only if the current line
is null.
^P Fetch previous command. Each time ^P is entered the previous command back in time is
accessed. Moves back one line when not on the first line of a multi-line command.
M-[A Equivalent to ^P.
M-< Fetch the least recent (oldest) history line.
M-> Fetch the most recent (youngest) history line.
^N Fetch next command line. Each time ^N is entered the next command line forward in time is
accessed.
M-[B Equivalent to ^N.
^Rstring Reverse search history for a previous command line containing string. If a parameter of
zero is given, the search is forward. String is terminated by a `RETURN' or `NEW LINE'.
If string is preceded by a ^, the matched line must begin with string. If string is omit-ted, omitted,
ted, then the next command line containing the most recent string is accessed. In this
case a parameter of zero reverses the direction of the search.
^O Operate - Execute the current line and fetch the next line relative to current line from
the history file.
M-digits (Escape) Define numeric parameter, the digits are taken as a parameter to the next command.
The commands that accept a parameter are ^F, ^B, erase, ^C, ^D, ^K, ^R, ^P, ^N, ^], M-.,
M-^], M-_, M-=, M-b, M-c, M-d, M-f, M-h, M-l and M-^H.
M-letter Soft-key - Your alias list is searched for an alias by the name _letter and if an alias of
this name is defined, its value will be inserted on the input queue. The letter must not
be one of the above meta-functions.
M-[letter Soft-key - Your alias list is searched for an alias by the name __letter and if an alias of
this name is defined, its value will be inserted on the input queue. The can be used to
program functions keys on many terminals.
M-. The last word of the previous command is inserted on the line. If preceded by a numeric
parameter, the value of this parameter determines which word to insert rather than the last
word.
M-_ Same as M-..
M-* Attempt file name generation on the current word. An asterisk is appended if the word
doesn't match any file or contain any special pattern characters.
M-ESC Command or file name completion as described above.
^I tab Attempts command or file name completion as described above. If a partial completion
occurs, repeating this will behave as if M-= were entered. If no match is found or entered
after space, a tab is inserted.
M-= If not preceded by a numeric parameter, it generates the list of matching commands or file
names as described above. Otherwise, the word under the cursor is replaced by the item
corresponding to the value of the numeric parameter from the most recently generated com-mand command
mand or file list. If the cursor is not on a word, it is inserted instead.
^U Multiply parameter of next command by 4.
\ Escape next character. Editing characters, the user's erase, kill and interrupt (normally
^?) characters may be entered in a command line or in a search string if preceded by a \.
The \ removes the next character's editing features (if any).
M-^V Display version of the shell.
M-# If the line does not begin with a #, a # is inserted at the beginning of the line and after
each new-line, and the line is entered. This causes a comment to be inserted in the his-tory history
tory file. If the line begins with a #, the # is deleted and one # after each new-line is
also deleted.
Vi Editing Mode.
There are two typing modes. Initially, when you enter a command you are in the input mode. To edit,
the user enters control mode by typing ESC (033) and moves the cursor to the point needing correction
and then inserts or deletes characters or words as needed. Most control commands accept an optional
repeat count prior to the command.
When in vi mode on most systems, canonical processing is initially enabled and the command will be
echoed again if the speed is 1200 baud or greater and it contains any control characters or less than
one second has elapsed since the prompt was printed. The ESC character terminates canonical process-ing processing
ing for the remainder of the command and the user can then modify the command line. This scheme has
the advantages of canonical processing with the type-ahead echoing of raw mode.
If the option viraw is also set, the terminal will always have canonical processing disabled. This
mode is implicit for systems that do not support two alternate end of line delimiters, and may be
helpful for certain terminals.
Input Edit Commands
By default the editor is in input mode.
erase (User defined erase character as defined by the stty command, usually ^H or #.)
Delete previous character.
^W Delete the previous blank separated word. On some systems the viraw option may be
required for this to work.
eof As the first character of the line causes the shell to terminate unless the
ignoreeof option is set. Otherwise this character is ignored.
lnext (User defined literal next character as defined by the stty(1) or ^V if not
defined.) Removes the next character's editing features (if any). On some systems
the viraw option may be required for this to work.
\ Escape the next erase or kill character.
^I tab Attempts command or file name completion as described above and returns to input
mode. If a partial completion occurs, repeating this will behave as if = were
entered from control mode. If no match is found or entered after space, a tab is
inserted.
Motion Edit Commands
These commands will move the cursor.
[count]l Cursor forward (right) one character.
[count][C Cursor forward (right) one character.
[count]w Cursor forward one alpha-numeric word.
[count]W Cursor to the beginning of the next word that follows a blank.
[count]e Cursor to end of word.
[count]E Cursor to end of the current blank delimited word.
[count]h Cursor backward (left) one character.
[count][D Cursor backward (left) one character.
[count]b Cursor backward one word.
[count]B Cursor to preceding blank separated word.
[count]| Cursor to column count.
[count]fc Find the next character c in the current line.
[count]Fc Find the previous character c in the current line.
[count]tc Equivalent to f followed by h.
[count]Tc Equivalent to F followed by l.
[count]; Repeats count times, the last single character find command, f, F, t, or T.
[count], Reverses the last single character find command count times.
0 Cursor to start of line.
^ Cursor to start of line.
[H Cursor to first non-blank character in line.
$ Cursor to end of line.
[Y Cursor to end of line.
% Moves to balancing (, ), {, }, [, or ]. If cursor is not on one of the above char-acters, characters,
acters, the remainder of the line is searched for the first occurrence of one of the
above characters first.
Search Edit Commands
These commands access your command history.
[count]k Fetch previous command. Each time k is entered the previous command back in time is
accessed.
[count]- Equivalent to k.
[count][A Equivalent to k.
[count]j Fetch next command. Each time j is entered the next command forward in time is
accessed.
[count]+ Equivalent to j.
[count][B Equivalent to j.
[count]G The command number count is fetched. The default is the least recent history com-mand. command.
mand.
/string Search backward through history for a previous command containing string. String is
terminated by a `RETURN' or `NEW LINE'. If string is preceded by a ^, the matched
line must begin with string. If string is null, the previous string will be used.
?string Same as / except that search will be in the forward direction.
n Search for next match of the last pattern to / or ? commands.
N Search for next match of the last pattern to / or ?, but in reverse direction.
Text Modification Edit Commands
These commands will modify the line.
a Enter input mode and enter text after the current character.
A Append text to the end of the line. Equivalent to $a.
[count]cmotion
c[count]motion
Delete current character through the character that motion would move the cursor to
and enter input mode. If motion is c, the entire line will be deleted and input
mode entered.
C Delete the current character through the end of line and enter input mode. Equiva-lent Equivalent
lent to c$.
S Equivalent to cc.
[count]s Replace characters under the cursor in input mode.
D Delete the current character through the end of line. Equivalent to d$.
[count]dmotion
d[count]motion
Delete current character through the character that motion would move to. If motion
is d , the entire line will be deleted.
i Enter input mode and insert text before the current character.
I Insert text before the beginning of the line. Equivalent to 0i.
[count]P Place the previous text modification before the cursor.
[count]p Place the previous text modification after the cursor.
R Enter input mode and replace characters on the screen with characters you type over-lay overlay
lay fashion.
[count]rc Replace the count character(s) starting at the current cursor position with c, and
advance the cursor.
[count]x Delete current character.
[count]X Delete preceding character.
[count]. Repeat the previous text modification command.
[count]~ Invert the case of the count character(s) starting at the current cursor position
and advance the cursor.
[count]_ Causes the count word of the previous command to be appended and input mode entered.
The last word is used if count is omitted.
* Causes an * to be appended to the current word and file name generation attempted.
If no match is found, it rings the bell. Otherwise, the word is replaced by the
matching pattern and input mode is entered.
\ Command or file name completion as described above.
Other Edit Commands
Miscellaneous commands.
[count]ymotion
y[count]motion
Yank current character through character that motion would move the cursor to and
puts them into the delete buffer. The text and cursor are unchanged.
yy Yanks the entire line.
Y Yanks from current position to end of line. Equivalent to y$.
u Undo the last text modifying command.
U Undo all the text modifying commands performed on the line.
[count]v Returns the command hist -e ${VISUAL:-${EDITOR:-vi}} count in the input buffer. If
count is omitted, then the current line is used.
^L Line feed and print current line. Has effect only in control mode.
^J (New line) Execute the current line, regardless of mode.
^M (Return) Execute the current line, regardless of mode.
# If the first character of the command is a #, then this command deletes this # and
each # that follows a newline. Otherwise, sends the line after inserting a # in
front of each line in the command. Useful for causing the current line to be
inserted in the history as a comment and uncommenting previously commented commands
in the history file.
[count]= If count is not specified, it generates the list of matching commands or file names
as described above. Otherwise, the word under the the cursor is replaced by the
count item from the most recently generated command or file list. If the cursor is
not on a word, it is inserted instead.
@letter Your alias list is searched for an alias by the name _letter and if an alias of this
name is defined, its value will be inserted on the input queue for processing.
^V Display version of the shell.
Built-in Commands.
The following simple-commands are executed in the shell process. Input/Output redirection is permit-ted. permitted.
ted. Unless otherwise indicated, the output is written on file descriptor 1 and the exit status,
when there is no syntax error, is zero. Except for :, true, false, echo, newgrp, and login, all
built-in commands accept -- to indicate end of options. They also interpret the option --man as a
request to display the man page onto standard error and -? as a help request which prints a usage
message on standard error. Commands that are preceded by one or two symbols are special built-in
commands and are treated specially in the following ways:
1. Variable assignment lists preceding the command remain in effect when the command completes.
2. I/O redirections are processed after variable assignments.
3. Errors cause a script that contains them to abort.
4. They are not valid function names.
5. Words following a command preceded by that are in the format of a variable assignment are
expanded with the same rules as a variable assignment. This means that tilde substitution is
performed after the = sign and field splitting and file name generation are not performed.
: [ arg ... ]
The command only expands parameters.
. name [ arg ... ]
If name is a function defined with the function name reserved word syntax, the function is
executed in the current environment (as if it had been defined with the name() syntax.) Oth-erwise Otherwise
erwise if name refers to a file, the file is read in its entirety and the commands are exe-cuted executed
cuted in the current shell environment. The search path specified by PATH is used to find the
directory containing the file. If any arguments arg are given, they become the positional
parameters while processing the . command and the original positional parameters are restored
upon completion. Otherwise the positional parameters are unchanged. The exit status is the
exit status of the last command executed.
alias [ -ptx ] [ name[ =value ] ] ...
alias with no arguments prints the list of aliases in the form name=value on standard output.
The -p option causes the word alias to be inserted before each one. When one or more argu-ments arguments
ments are given, an alias is defined for each name whose value is given. A trailing space in
value causes the next word to be checked for alias substitution. The obsolete -t option is
used to set and list tracked aliases. The value of a tracked alias is the full pathname cor-responding corresponding
responding to the given name. The value becomes undefined when the value of PATH is reset but
the alias remains tracked. Without the -t option, for each name in the argument list for
which no value is given, the name and value of the alias is printed. The obsolete -x option
has no effect. The exit status is non-zero if a name is given, but no value, and no alias has
been defined for the name.
bg [ job... ]
This command is only on systems that support job control. Puts each specified job into the
background. The current job is put in the background if job is not specified. See Jobs for a
description of the format of job.
break [ n ]
Exit from the enclosing for, while, until, or select loop, if any. If n is specified, then
break n levels.
builtin [ -ds ] [ -f file ] [ name ... ]
If name is not specified, and no -f option is specified, the built-ins are printed on standard
output. The -s option prints only the special built-ins. Otherwise, each name represents the
pathname whose basename is the name of the built-in. The entry point function name is deter-mined determined
mined by prepending b_ to the built-in name. The ISO C/C++ prototype is b_mycommand(int argc,
char *argv[], void *context) for the builtin command mycommand where argv is array an of argc
elements and context is an optional pointer to a Shell_t structure as described in
<ast/shell.h>.
Special built-ins cannot be bound to a pathname or deleted. The -d option deletes each of the
given built-ins. On systems that support dynamic loading, the -f option names a shared
library containing the code for built-ins. The shared library prefix and/or suffix, which
depend on the system, can be omitted. Once a library is loaded, its symbols become available
for subsequent invocations of builtin. Multiple libraries can be specified with separate
invocations of the builtin command. Libraries are searched in the reverse order in which they
are specified. When a library is loaded, it looks for a function in the library whose name is
lib_init() and invokes this function with an argument of 0.
cd [ -LP ] [ arg ]
cd [ -LP ] old new
This command can be in either of two forms. In the first form it changes the current direc-tory directory
tory to arg. If arg is - the directory is changed to the previous directory. The shell vari-able variable
able HOME is the default arg. The variable PWD is set to the current directory. The shell
variable CDPATH defines the search path for the directory containing arg. Alternative direc-tory directory
tory names are separated by a colon (:). The default path is <null> (specifying the current
directory). Note that the current directory is specified by a null path name, which can
appear immediately after the equal sign or between the colon delimiters anywhere else in the
path list. If arg begins with a / then the search path is not used. Otherwise, each direc-tory directory
tory in the path is searched for arg.
The second form of cd substitutes the string new for the string old in the current directory
name, PWD, and tries to change to this new directory.
By default, symbolic link names are treated literally when finding the directory name. This
is equivalent to the -L option. The -P option causes symbolic links to be resolved when
determining the directory. The last instance of -L or -P on the command line determines which
method is used.
The cd command may not be executed by rksh. rksh93.
command [ -pvxV ] name [ arg ... ]
Without the -v or -V options, command executes name with the arguments given by arg. The -p
option causes a default path to be searched rather than the one defined by the value of PATH.
Functions will not be searched for when finding name. In addition, if name refers to a spe-cial special
cial built-in, none of the special properties associated with the leading daggers will be hon-ored. honored.
ored. (For example, the predefined alias redirect='command exec' prevents a script from ter-minating terminating
minating when an invalid redirection is given.) With the -x option, if command execution
would result in a failure because there are too many arguments, errno E2BIG, the shell will
invoke command name multiple times with a subset of the arguments on each invocation. Argu-ments Arguments
ments that occur prior to the first word that expands to multiple arguments and after the last
word that expands to multiple arguments will be passed on each invocation. The exit status
will be the maximum invocation exit status. With the -v option, command is equivalent to the
built-in whence command described below. The -V option causes command to act like whence -v.
continue [ n ]
Resume the next iteration of the enclosing for, while, until, or select loop. If n is speci-fied, specified,
fied, then resume at the n-th enclosing loop.
disown [ job... ]
Causes the shell not to send a HUP signal to each given job, or all active jobs if job is
omitted, when a login shell terminates.
echo [ arg ... ]
When the first arg does not begin with a -, and none of the arguments contain a \, then echo
prints each of its arguments separated by a space and terminated by a new-line. Otherwise,
the behavior of echo is system dependent and print or printf described below should be used.
See echo(1) for usage and description.
eval [ arg ... ]
The arguments are read as input to the shell and the resulting command(s) executed.
exec [ -c ] [ -a name ] [ arg ... ]
If arg is given, the command specified by the arguments is executed in place of this shell
without creating a new process. The -c option causes the environment to be cleared before
applying variable assignments associated with the exec invocation. The -a option causes name
rather than the first arg, to become argv[0] for the new process. Input/output arguments may
appear and affect the current process. If arg is not given, the effect of this command is to
modify file descriptors as prescribed by the input/output redirection list. In this case, any
file descriptor numbers greater than 2 that are opened with this mechanism are closed when
invoking another program.
exit [ n ]
Causes the shell to exit with the exit status specified by n. The value will be the least
significant 8 bits of the specified status. If n is omitted, then the exit status is that of
the last command executed. An end-of-file will also cause the shell to exit except for a
shell which has the ignoreeof option (see set below) turned on.
export [ -p ] [ name[=value] ] ...
If name is not given, the names and values of each variable with the export attribute are
printed with the values quoted in a manner that allows them to be re-input. The -p option
causes the word export to be inserted before each one. Otherwise, the given names are marked
for automatic export to the environment of subsequently-executed commands.
false Does nothing, and exits 1. Used with until for infinite loops.
fg [ job... ]
This command is only on systems that support job control. Each job specified is brought to
the foreground and waited for in the specified order. Otherwise, the current job is brought
into the foreground. See Jobs for a description of the format of job.
getconf [ name [ pathname ] ]
Prints the current value of the configuration parameter given by name. The configuration
parameters are defined by the IEEE POSIX 1003.1 and IEEE POSIX 1003.2 standards. (See path-conf(2) pathconf(2)
conf(2) and sysconf(2).) The pathname argument is required for parameters whose value depends
on the location in the file system. If no arguments are given, getconf prints the names and
values of the current configuration parameters. The pathname / is used for each of the param-eters parameters
eters that requires pathname.
getopts [ -a name ] optstring vname [ arg ... ]
Checks arg for legal options. If arg is omitted, the positional parameters are used. An
option argument begins with a + or a -. An option not beginning with + or - or the argument
-- ends the options. Options beginning with + are only recognized when optstring begins with
a +. optstring contains the letters that getopts recognizes. If a letter is followed by a :,
that option is expected to have an argument. The options can be separated from the argument
by blanks. The option -? causes getopts to generate a usage message on standard error. The
-a argument can be used to specify the name to use for the usage message, which defaults to
$0.
getopts places the next option letter it finds inside variable vname each time it is invoked.
The option letter will be prepended with a + when arg begins with a +. The index of the next
arg is stored in OPTIND. The option argument, if any, gets stored in OPTARG.
A leading : in optstring causes getopts to store the letter of an invalid option in OPTARG,
and to set vname to ? for an unknown option and to : when a required option argument is miss-ing. missing.
ing. Otherwise, getopts prints an error message. The exit status is non-zero when there are
no more options.
There is no way to specify any of the options :, +, -, ?, [, and ]. The option # can only be
specified as the first option.
hist [ -e ename ] [ -nlr ] [ first [ last ] ]
hist -s [ old=new ] [ command ]
In the first form, a range of commands from first to last is selected from the last HISTSIZE
commands that were typed at the terminal. The arguments first and last may be specified as a
number or as a string. A string is used to locate the most recent command starting with the
given string. A negative number is used as an offset to the current command number. If the
-l option is selected, the commands are listed on standard output. Otherwise, the editor pro-gram program
gram ename is invoked on a file containing these keyboard commands. If ename is not supplied,
then the value of the variable HISTEDIT is used. If HISTEDIT is not set, then FCEDIT (default
/bin/ed) is used as the editor. When editing is complete, the edited command(s) is executed
if the changes have been saved. If last is not specified, then it will be set to first. If
first is not specified, the default is the previous command for editing and -16 for listing.
The option -r reverses the order of the commands and the option -n suppresses command numbers
when listing. In the second form, command is interpreted as first described above and
defaults to the last command executed. The resulting command is executed after the optional
substitution old=new is performed.
jobs [ -lnp ] [ job ... ]
Lists information about each given job; or all active jobs if job is omitted. The -l option
lists process ids in addition to the normal information. The -n option only displays jobs
that have stopped or exited since last notified. The -p option causes only the process group
to be listed. See Jobs for a description of the format of job.
kill [ -s signame ] job ...
kill [ -n signum ] job ...
kill -l [ sig ... ]
Sends either the TERM (terminate) signal or the specified signal to the specified jobs or pro-cesses. processes.
cesses. Signals are either given by number with the -n option or by name with the -s option
(as given in <signal.h>, stripped of the prefix ``SIG'' with the exception that SIGCLD is
named CHLD). For backward compatibility, the n and s can be omitted and the number or name
placed immediately after the -. If the signal being sent is TERM (terminate) or HUP (hangup),
then the job or process will be sent a CONT (continue) signal if it is stopped. The argument
job can be the process id of a process that is not a member of one of the active jobs. See
Jobs for a description of the format of job. In the third form, kill -l, if sig is not speci-fied, specified,
fied, the signal names are listed. Otherwise, for each sig that is a name, the corresponding
signal number is listed. For each sig that is a number, the signal name corresponding to the
least significant 8 bits of sig is listed.
let arg ...
Each arg is a separate arithmetic expression to be evaluated. See Arithmetic Evaluation
above, for a description of arithmetic expression evaluation.
The exit status is 0 if the value of the last expression is non-zero, and 1 otherwise.
newgrp [ arg ... ]
Equivalent to exec /bin/newgrp arg ....
print [ -Renprs ] [ -u unit] [ -f format ] [ arg ... ]
With no options or with option - or --, each arg is printed on standard output. The -f option
causes the arguments to be printed as described by printf. In this case, any e, n, r, R
options are ignored. Otherwise, unless the -R or -r, are specified, the following escape con-ventions conventions
ventions will be applied:
\a The alert character (ascii 07).
\b The backspace character (ascii 010).
\c Causes print to end without processing more arguments and not adding a new-line.
\f The formfeed character (ascii 014).
\n The new-line character (ascii 012).
\r The carriage return character (ascii 015).
\t The tab character (ascii 011).
\v The vertical tab character (ascii 013).
\E The escape character (ascii 033).
\\ The backslash character \.
\0x The character defined by the 1, 2, or 3-digit octal string given by x.
The -R option will print all subsequent arguments and options other than -n. The -e causes
the above escape conventions to be applied This is the default behavior. It reverses the
effect of an earlier -r. The -p option causes the arguments to be written onto the pipe of
the process spawned with |& instead of standard output. The -s option causes the arguments to
be written onto the history file instead of standard output. The -u option can be used to
specify a one digit file descriptor unit number unit on which the output will be placed. The
default is 1. If the option -n is used, no new-line is added to the output.
printf format [ arg ... ]
The arguments arg are printed on standard output in accordance with the ANSI-C formatting
rules associated with the format string format. If the number of arguments exceeds the number
of format specifications, the format string is reused to format remaining arguments. The fol-lowing following
lowing extensions can also be used: A %b format can be used instead of %s to cause escape
sequences in the corresponding arg to be expanded as described in print. A %B option causes
each of the arguments to be treated as variable names and the binary value of variable will be
printed. This is most useful for variables whose attribute is -b. A %H format can be used
instead of %s to cause characters in arg that are special in HTML and XML to be output to be
output as their entity name. A %P format can be used instead of %s to cause arg to be inter-preted interpreted
preted as an extended regular expression and be printed as a shell pattern. A %R format can
be used instead of %s to cause arg interpreted as a shell pattern and to be printed as an
extended regular expression. A %q format can be used instead of %s to cause the resulting
string to be quoted in a manner than can be reinput to the shell. A %(date-format)T format
can be use to treat an argument as a date/time string and to format the date/time according to
the date-format as defined for the date(1) command. A %Z format will output a byte whose
value is 0. The precision field of the %d format can be followed by a . and the output base.
In this case, the # flag character caues base# to be prepended. The # flag when used with the
d specifier without an output base, causes the output to be displayed in thousands units with
one of the suffixes k M G T P E to indicate the unit. The # flag when used with the i speci-fier specifier
fier causes the output to be displayed in 1024 with one of the suffixes Ki Mi Gi Ti Pi Ei to
indicate the unit. The = flag has been added to center the output within the specified field
width.
pwd [ -LP ]
Outputs the value of the current working directory. The -L option is the default; it prints
the logical name of the current directory. If the -P option is given, all symbolic links are
resolved from the name. The last instance of -L or -P on the command line determines which
method is used.
read [ -Aprs ] [ -d delim] [ -n n] [ [ -N n] [ [ -t timeout] [ -u unit] [ vname?prompt ] [ vname ...
]
The shell input mechanism. One line is read and is broken up into fields using the characters
in IFS as separators. The escape character, \, is used to remove any special meaning for the
next character and for line continuation. The -d option causes the read to continue to the
first character of delim rather than new-line. The -n option causes at most n bytes to read
rather a full line but will return when reading from a slow device as soon as any characters
have been read. The -N option causes exactly n to be read unless an end-of-file has been
encountered or the read times out because of the -t option. In raw mode, -r, the \ character
is not treated specially. The first field is assigned to the first vname, the second field to
the second vname, etc., with leftover fields assigned to the last vname. When vname has the
binary attribute and -n or -N is specified, the bytes that are read are stored directly into
the variable. If the -v is specified, then the value of the first vname will be used as a
default value when reading from a terminal device. The -A option causes the variable vname to
be unset and each field that is read to be stored in successive elements of the indexed array
vname. The -p option causes the input line to be taken from the input pipe of a process
spawned by the shell using |&. If the -s option is present, the input will be saved as a com-mand command
mand in the history file. The option -u can be used to specify a one digit file descriptor
unit unit to read from. The file descriptor can be opened with the exec special built-in com-mand. command.
mand. The default value of unit n is 0. The option -t is used to specify a timeout in sec-onds seconds
onds when reading from a terminal or pipe. If vname is omitted, then REPLY is used as the
default vname. An end-of-file with the -p option causes cleanup for this process so that
another can be spawned. If the first argument contains a ?, the remainder of this word is
used as a prompt on standard error when the shell is interactive. The exit status is 0 unless
an end-of-file is encountered or read has timed out.
readonly [ -p ] [ vname[=value] ] ...
If vname is not given, the names and values of each variable with the readonly attribute is
printed with the values quoted in a manner that allows them to be re-inputted. The -p option
causes the word readonly to be inserted before each one. Otherwise, the given vnames are
marked readonly and these names cannot be changed by subsequent assignment.
return [ n ]
Causes a shell function or . script to return to the invoking script with the exit status
specified by n. The value will be the least significant 8 bits of the specified status. If n
is omitted, then the return status is that of the last command executed. If return is invoked
while not in a function or a . script, then it behaves the same as exit.
set [ +-CGabefhkmnoprstuvx ] [ +-o [ option ] ] ... [ +-A vname ] [ arg ... ]
The options for this command have meaning as follows:
-A Array assignment. Unset the variable vname and assign values sequentially from the
arg list. If +A is used, the variable vname is not unset first.
-B Enable brace pattern field generation. This is the default behavior.
-C Prevents redirection > from truncating existing files. Files that are created are
opened with the O_EXCL mode. Requires >| to truncate a file when turned on.
-G Causes the pattern ** by itself to match files and zero or more directories and sub-directories subdirectories
directories when used for file name generation. If followed by a / only directories
and sub-directories are matched.
-a All subsequent variables that are defined are automatically exported.
-b Prints job completion messages as soon as a background job changes state rather than
waiting for the next prompt.
-e If a command has a non-zero exit status, execute the ERR trap, if set, and exit. This
mode is disabled while reading profiles.
-f Disables file name generation.
-h Each command becomes a tracked alias when first encountered.
-k (Obsolete). All variable assignment arguments are placed in the environment for a com-mand, command,
mand, not just those that precede the command name.
-m Background jobs will run in a separate process group and a line will print upon com-pletion. completion.
pletion. The exit status of background jobs is reported in a completion message. On
systems with job control, this option is turned on automatically for interactive
shells.
-n Read commands and check them for syntax errors, but do not execute them. Ignored for
interactive shells.
-o The following argument can be one of the following option names:
allexport
Same as -a.
errexit Same as -e.
bgnice All background jobs are run at a lower priority. This is the default mode.
bracexpand
Sans as -B.
emacs Puts you in an emacs style in-line editor for command entry.
globstar
Same as -G.
gmacs Puts you in a gmacs style in-line editor for command entry.
ignoreeof
The shell will not exit on end-of-file. The command exit must be used.
keyword Same as -k.
markdirs
All directory names resulting from file name generation have a trailing /
appended.
monitor Same as -m.
multiline
The built-in editors will use multiple lines on the screen for lines that are
longer than the width of the screen. This may not work for all terminals.
noclobber
Same as -C.
noexec Same as -n.
noglob Same as -f.
nolog Do not save function definitions in the history file.
notify Same as -b.
nounset Same as -u.
pipefail
A pipeline will not complete until all components of the pipeline have com-pleted, completed,
pleted, and the return value will be the value of the last non-zero command to
fail or zero of no command has failed.
showme When enabled, simple commands or pipelines preceded by a semicolon (;) will be
displayed as if the xtrace option were enabled but will not be executed. Oth-erwise, Otherwise,
erwise, the leading ; will be ignored.
privileged
Same as -p.
verbose Same as -v.
trackall
Same as -h.
vi Puts you in insert mode of a vi style in-line editor until you hit the escape
character 033. This puts you in control mode. A return sends the line.
viraw Each character is processed as it is typed in vi mode.
xtrace Same as -x.
If no option name is supplied, then the current option settings are printed.
-p Disables processing of the $HOME/.profile file and uses the file /etc/suid_profile
instead of the ENV file. This mode is on whenever the effective uid (gid) is not
equal to the real uid (gid). Turning this off causes the effective uid and gid to be
set to the real uid and gid.
-r Enables the restricted shell. This option cannot be unset once set.
-s Sort the positional parameters lexicographically.
-t (Obsolete). Exit after reading and executing one command.
-u Treat unset parameters as an error when substituting.
-v Print shell input lines as they are read.
-x Print commands and their arguments as they are executed.
-- Do not change any of the options; useful in setting $1 to a value beginning with -.
If no arguments follow this option then the positional parameters are unset.
As an obsolete feature, if the first arg is - then the -x and -v options are turned off and
the next arg is treated as the first argument. Using + rather than - causes these options to
be turned off. These options can also be used upon invocation of the shell. The current set
of options may be found in $-. Unless -A is specified, the remaining arguments are positional
parameters and are assigned, in order, to $1 $2 .... If no arguments are given, then the
names and values of all variables are printed on the standard output.
shift [ n ]
The positional parameters from $n+1 ... are renamed $1 ... , default n is 1. The parameter n
can be any arithmetic expression that evaluates to a non-negative number less than or equal to
$#.
sleep seconds
Suspends execution for the number of decimal seconds or fractions of a second given by sec-onds. seconds.
onds.
trap [ -p ] [ action ] [ sig ] ...
The -p option causes the trap action associated with each trap as specified by the arguments
to be printed with appropriate quoting. Otherwise, action will be processed as if it were an
argument to eval when the shell receives signal(s) sig. Each sig can be given as a number or
as the name of the signal. Trap commands are executed in order of signal number. Any attempt
to set a trap on a signal that was ignored on entry to the current shell is ineffective. If
action is omitted and the first sig is a number, or if action is -, then the trap(s) for each
sig are reset to their original values. If action is the null string then this signal is
ignored by the shell and by the commands it invokes. If sig is ERR then action will be exe-cuted executed
cuted whenever a command has a non-zero exit status. If sig is DEBUG then action will be exe-cuted executed
cuted before each command. The variable .sh.command will contain the contents of the current
command line when action is running. If sig is 0 or EXIT and the trap statement is executed
inside the body of a function defined with the function name syntax, then the command action
is executed after the function completes. If sig is 0 or EXIT for a trap set outside any
function then the command action is executed on exit from the shell. If sig is KEYBD, then
action will be executed whenever a key is read while in emacs, gmacs, or vi mode. The trap
command with no arguments prints a list of commands associated with each signal number.
true Does nothing, and exits 0. Used with while for infinite loops.
typeset [ +-AHflabnprtux ] [ +-EFLRZi[n] ] [ vname[=value ] ] ...
Sets attributes and values for shell variables and functions. When invoked inside a function
defined with the function name syntax, a new instance of the variable vname is created, and
the variable's value and type are restored when the function completes. The following list of
attributes may be specified:
-A Declares vname to be an associative array. Subscripts are strings rather than arith-metic arithmetic
metic expressions.
-a Declares vname to be an indexed array. This is optional unless except for compound
variable assignments.
-E Declares vname to be a double precision floating point number. If n is non-zero, it
defines the number of significant figures that are used when expanding vname. Other-wise, Otherwise,
wise, ten significant figures will be used.
-F Declares vname to be a double precision floating point number. If n is non-zero, it
defines the number of places after the decimal point that are used when expanding
vname. Otherwise ten places after the decimal point will be used.
-H This option provides UNIX to host-name file mapping on non-UNIX machines.
-L Left justify and remove leading blanks from value. If n is non-zero, it defines the
width of the field, otherwise it is determined by the width of the value of first
assignment. When the variable is assigned to, it is filled on the right with blanks or
truncated, if necessary, to fit into the field. The -R option is turned off.
-R Right justify and fill with leading blanks. If n is non-zero, it defines the width of
the field, otherwise it is determined by the width of the value of first assignment.
The field is left filled with blanks or truncated from the end if the variable is reas-signed. reassigned.
signed. The -L option is turned off.
-Z Right justify and fill with leading zeros if the first non-blank character is a digit
and the -L option has not been set. Remove leading zeros if the -L option is also set.
If n is non-zero, it defines the width of the field, otherwise it is determined by the
width of the value of first assignment.
-f The names refer to function names rather than variable names. No assignments can be
made and the only other valid options are -t, -u and -x. The -t option turns on execu-tion execution
tion tracing for this function. The -u option causes this function to be marked unde-fined. undefined.
fined. The FPATH variable will be searched to find the function definition when the
function is referenced. If no options other than -f is specified, then the function
definition will be displayed on standard output. If +f is specified, then a line con-taining containing
taining the function name followed by a shell comment containing the line number and
path name of the file where this function was defined, if any, is displayed.
-b The variable can hold any number of bytes of data. The data can be text or binary.
The value is represented by the base64 encoding of the data. If -Z is also specified,
the size in bytes of the data in the buffer will be determined by the size associated
with the -Z. If the base64 string assigned results in more data, it will be truncated.
Otherwise, it will be filled with bytes whose value is zero. The printf format %B can
be used to output the actual data in this buffer instead of the base64 encoding of the
data.
-i Declares vname to be represented internally as integer. The right hand side of an
assignment is evaluated as an arithmetic expression when assigning to an integer. If n
is non-zero, it defines the output arithmetic base, otherwise the output base will be
ten.
-l All upper-case characters are converted to lower-case. The upper-case option, -u, is
turned off.
-n Declares vname to be a reference to the variable whose name is defined by the value of
variable vname. This is usually used to reference a variable inside a function whose
name has been passed as an argument.
-r The given vnames are marked readonly and these names cannot be changed by subsequent
assignment.
-t Tags the variables. Tags are user definable and have no special meaning to the shell.
-u All lower-case characters are converted to upper-case. The lower-case option, -l, is
turned off.
-x The given vnames are marked for automatic export to the environment of subsequently-executed subsequentlyexecuted
executed commands. Variables whose names contain a . cannot be exported.
The -i attribute cannot be specified along with -R, -L, -Z, or -f.
Using + rather than - causes these options to be turned off. If no vname arguments are given,
a list of vnames (and optionally the values) of the variables is printed. (Using + rather
than - keeps the values from being printed.) The -p option causes typeset followed by the
option letters to be printed before each name rather than the names of the options. If any
option other than -p is given, only those variables which have all of the given options are
printed. Otherwise, the vnames and attributes of all variables that have attributes are
printed.
ulimit [ -HSacdfmnpstv ] [ limit ]
Set or display a resource limit. The available resource limits are listed below. Many sys-tems systems
tems do not support one or more of these limits. The limit for a specified resource is set
when limit is specified. The value of limit can be a number in the unit specified below with
each resource, or the value unlimited. The -H and -S options specify whether the hard limit
or the soft limit for the given resource is set. A hard limit cannot be increased once it is
set. A soft limit can be increased up to the value of the hard limit. If neither the H nor S
options is specified, the limit applies to both. The current resource limit is printed when
limit is omitted. In this case, the soft limit is printed unless H is specified. When more
than one resource is specified, then the limit name and unit is printed before the value.
-a Lists all of the current resource limits.
-c The number of 512-byte blocks on the size of core dumps.
-d The number of K-bytes on the size of the data area.
-f The number of 512-byte blocks on files that can be written by the current process or by
child processes (files of any size may be read).
-m The number of K-bytes on the size of physical memory.
-n The number of file descriptors plus 1.
-p The number of 512-byte blocks for pipe buffering.
-s The number of K-bytes on the size of the stack area.
-t The number of CPU seconds to be used by each process.
-v The number of K-bytes for virtual memory.
If no option is given, -f is assumed.
umask [ -S ] [ mask ]
The user file-creation mask is set to mask (see umask(2)). mask can either be an octal number
or a symbolic value as described in chmod(1). If a symbolic value is given, the new umask
value is the complement of the result of applying mask to the complement of the previous umask
value. If mask is omitted, the current value of the mask is printed. The -S option causes
the mode to be printed as a symbolic value. Otherwise, the mask is printed in octal.
unalias [ -a ] name ...
The aliases given by the list of names are removed from the alias list. The -a option causes
all the aliases to be unset.
unset [ -fnv ] vname ...
The variables given by the list of vnames are unassigned, i.e., their values and attributes
are erased. Readonly variables cannot be unset. If the -f option is set, then the names
refer to function names. If the -v option is set, then the names refer to variable names.
The -f option overrides -v. If -n is set and name is a name reference, then name will be
unset rather than the variable that it references. The default is equivalent to -v. Unset-ting Unsetting
ting LINENO, MAILCHECK, OPTARG, OPTIND, RANDOM, SECONDS, TMOUT, and _ removes their special
meaning even if they are subsequently assigned to.
wait [ job ... ]
Wait for the specified job and report its termination status. If job is not given, then all
currently active child processes are waited for. The exit status from this command is that of
the last process waited for if job is specified; otherwise it is zero. See Jobs for a
description of the format of job.
whence [ -afpv ] name ...
For each name, indicate how it would be interpreted if used as a command name.
The -v option produces a more verbose report. The -f options skips the search for functions.
The -p option does a path search for name even if name is an alias, a function, or a reserved
word. The -p option turns off the -v option. The -a option is similar to the -v option but
causes all interpretations of the given name to be reported.
Invocation.
If the shell is invoked by exec(2), and the first character of argument zero ($0) is -, then the
shell is assumed to be a login shell and commands are read from /etc/profile and then from either
.profile in the current directory or $HOME/.profile, if either file exists. Next, for interactive
shells, commands are read from the file named by performing parameter expansion, command substitu-tion, substitution,
tion, and arithmetic substitution on the value of the environment variable ENV if the file exists.
If the -s option is not present and arg and a file by the name of arg exits, then it reads and exe-cutes executes
cutes this script. Otherwise, if the first arg does not contain a /, a path search is performed on
the first arg to determine the name of the script to execute. The script arg must have execute per-mission permission
mission and any setuid and setgid settings will be ignored. If the script is not found on the path,
arg is processed as if it named a built-in command or function. Commands are then read as described
below; the following options are interpreted by the shell when it is invoked:
-c If the -c option is present, then commands are read from the first arg. Any remaining
arguments become positional parameters starting at 0.
-s If the -s option is present or if no arguments remain, then commands are read from the
standard input. Shell output, except for the output of the Special Commands listed above,
is written to file descriptor 2.
-i If the -i option is present or if the shell input and output are attached to a terminal (as
told by tcgetattr(2)), then this shell is interactive. In this case TERM is ignored (so
that kill 0 does not kill an interactive shell) and INTR is caught and ignored (so that
wait is interruptible). In all cases, QUIT is ignored by the shell.
-r If the -r option is present, the shell is a restricted shell.
-D A list of all double quoted strings that are preceded by a $ will be printed on standard
output and the shell will exit. This set of strings will be subject to language transla-tion translation
tion when the locale is not C or POSIX. No commands will be executed.
-P If -P or -o profile is present, the shell is a profile shell (see pfexec(1)).
-R filename
The -R filename option is used to generate a cross reference database that can be used by a
separate utility to find definitions and references for variables and commands.
The remaining options and arguments are described under the set command above. An optional - as the
first argument is ignored.
Rksh Only.
Rksh is used to set up login names and execution environments whose capabilities are more controlled
than those of the standard shell. The actions of rksh are identical to those of ksh, except that the
following are disallowed:
Unsetting the restricted option.
changing directory (see cd(1)),
setting or unsetting the value or attributes of SHELL, ENV, FPATH, or PATH,
specifying path or command names containing /,
redirecting output (>, >|, <>, and >>).
adding or deleting built-in commands.
using command -p to invoke a command.
The restrictions above are enforced after .profile and the ENV files are interpreted.
When a command to be executed is found to be a shell procedure, rksh invokes ksh to execute it.
Thus, it is possible to provide to the end-user shell procedures that have access to the full power
of the standard shell, while imposing a limited menu of commands; this scheme assumes that the end-user enduser
user does not have write and execute permissions in the same directory.
The net effect of these rules is that the writer of the .profile has complete control over user
actions, by performing guaranteed setup actions and leaving the user in an appropriate directory
(probably not the login directory).
The system administrator often sets up a directory of commands (e.g., /usr/rbin) that can be safely
invoked by rksh.
EXIT STATUS
Errors detected by the shell, such as syntax errors, cause the shell to return a non-zero exit sta-tus. status.
tus. If the shell is being used non-interactively, then execution of the shell file is abandoned
unless the error occurs inside a subshell in which case the subshell is abandoned. Otherwise, the
shell returns the exit status of the last command executed (see also the exit command above). Run
time errors detected by the shell are reported by printing the command or function name and the error
condition. If the line number that the error occurred on is greater than one, then the line number
is also printed in square brackets ([]) after the command or function name.
FILES
/etc/profile The system wide initialization file, executed for login shells.
$HOME/.profile
The personal initialization file, executed for login shells after /etc/profile.
$HOME/..kshrc
Default personal initialization file, executed for interactive shells when ENV is not set.
/etc/suid_profile
Alternative initialization file, executed when instead of personal initialization file when
the real and effective user or group id do not match.
/dev/null
NULL device
SEE ALSO
cat(1), cd(1), chmod(1), cut(1), egrep(1), echo(1), emacs(1), env(1), fgrep(1), gmacs(1), grep(1),
newgrp(1), pfexec(1), stty(1), test(1), umask(1), vi(1), dup(2), exec(2), fork(2), getpwnam(3),
ioctl(2), lseek(2), paste(1), pathconf(2), pipe(2), sysconf(2), umask(2), ulimit(2), wait(2),
rand(3), a.out(5), profile(5), environ(7).
Morris I. Bolsky and David G. Korn, The New KornShell Command and Programming Language, Prentice
Hall, 1995.
POSIX - Part 2: Shell and Utilities, IEEE Std 1003.2-1992, ISO/IEC 9945-2, IEEE, 1993.
CAVEATS
If a command is executed, and then a command with the same name is installed in a directory in the
search path before the directory where the original command was found, the shell will continue to
exec the original command. Use the -t option of the alias command to correct this situation.
Some very old shell scripts contain a ^ as a synonym for the pipe character |.
Using the hist built-in command within a compound command will cause the whole command to disappear
from the history file.
The built-in command . file reads the whole file before any commands are executed. Therefore, alias
and unalias commands in the file will not apply to any commands defined in the file.
Traps are not processed while a job is waiting for a foreground process. Thus, a trap on CHLD won't
be executed until the foreground job terminates.
It is a good idea to leave a space after the comma operator in arithmetic expressions to prevent the
comma from being interpreted as the decimal point character in certain locales.
KSH(1)
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