xref: /freebsd/bin/sh/sh.1 (revision 031beb4e239bfce798af17f5fe8dba8bcaf13d99)
1.\"-
2.\" Copyright (c) 1991, 1993
3.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
4.\"
5.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
6.\" Kenneth Almquist.
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9.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
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31.\"
32.\"	from: @(#)sh.1	8.6 (Berkeley) 5/4/95
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd December 14, 2022
36.Dt SH 1
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm sh
40.Nd command interpreter (shell)
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl /+abCEefhIimnPpTuVvx
44.Op Fl /+o Ar longname
45.Oo
46.Ar script
47.Op Ar arg ...
48.Oc
49.Nm
50.Op Fl /+abCEefhIimnPpTuVvx
51.Op Fl /+o Ar longname
52.Fl c Ar string
53.Oo
54.Ar name
55.Op Ar arg ...
56.Oc
57.Nm
58.Op Fl /+abCEefhIimnPpTuVvx
59.Op Fl /+o Ar longname
60.Fl s
61.Op Ar arg ...
62.Sh DESCRIPTION
63The
64.Nm
65utility is the standard command interpreter for the system.
66The current version of
67.Nm
68is close to the
69.St -p1003.1
70specification for the shell.
71It only supports features
72designated by POSIX,
73plus a few Berkeley extensions.
74This man page is not intended to be a tutorial nor a complete
75specification of the shell.
76.Ss Overview
77The shell is a command that reads lines from
78either a file or the terminal, interprets them, and
79generally executes other commands.
80It is the program that is started when a user logs into the system,
81although a user can select a different shell with the
82.Xr chsh 1
83command.
84The shell
85implements a language that has flow control constructs,
86a macro facility that provides a variety of features in
87addition to data storage, along with built-in history and line
88editing capabilities.
89It incorporates many features to
90aid interactive use and has the advantage that the interpretative
91language is common to both interactive and non-interactive
92use (shell scripts).
93That is, commands can be typed directly
94to the running shell or can be put into a file,
95which can be executed directly by the shell.
96.Ss Invocation
97.\"
98.\" XXX This next sentence is incredibly confusing.
99.\"
100If no arguments are present and if the standard input of the shell
101is connected to a terminal
102(or if the
103.Fl i
104option is set),
105the shell is considered an interactive shell.
106An interactive shell
107generally prompts before each command and handles programming
108and command errors differently (as described below).
109When first starting, the shell inspects argument 0, and
110if it begins with a dash
111.Pq Ql - ,
112the shell is also considered a login shell.
113This is normally done automatically by the system
114when the user first logs in.
115A login shell first reads commands
116from the files
117.Pa /etc/profile
118and then
119.Pa .profile
120in a user's home directory,
121if they exist.
122If the environment variable
123.Ev ENV
124is set on entry to a shell, or is set in the
125.Pa .profile
126of a login shell, the shell then subjects its value to parameter expansion
127and arithmetic expansion and reads commands from the named file.
128Therefore, a user should place commands that are to be executed only
129at login time in the
130.Pa .profile
131file, and commands that are executed for every shell inside the
132.Ev ENV
133file.
134The user can set the
135.Ev ENV
136variable to some file by placing the following line in the file
137.Pa .profile
138in the home directory,
139substituting for
140.Pa .shrc
141the filename desired:
142.Pp
143.Dl "ENV=$HOME/.shrc; export ENV"
144.Pp
145The first non-option argument specified on the command line
146will be treated as the
147name of a file from which to read commands (a shell script), and
148the remaining arguments are set as the positional parameters
149of the shell
150.Li ( $1 , $2 ,
151etc.).
152Otherwise, the shell reads commands
153from its standard input.
154.Pp
155Unlike older versions of
156.Nm
157the
158.Ev ENV
159script is only sourced on invocation of interactive shells.
160This
161closes a well-known, and sometimes easily exploitable security
162hole related to poorly thought out
163.Ev ENV
164scripts.
165.Ss Argument List Processing
166All of the single letter options to
167.Nm
168have a corresponding long name,
169with the exception of
170.Fl c
171and
172.Fl /+o .
173These long names are provided next to the single letter options
174in the descriptions below.
175The long name for an option may be specified as an argument to the
176.Fl /+o
177option of
178.Nm .
179Once the shell is running,
180the long name for an option may be specified as an argument to the
181.Fl /+o
182option of the
183.Ic set
184built-in command
185(described later in the section called
186.Sx Built-in Commands ) .
187Introducing an option with a dash
188.Pq Ql -
189enables the option,
190while using a plus
191.Pq Ql +
192disables the option.
193A
194.Dq Li --
195or plain
196.Ql -
197will stop option processing and will force the remaining
198words on the command line to be treated as arguments.
199The
200.Fl /+o
201and
202.Fl c
203options do not have long names.
204They take arguments and are described after the single letter options.
205.Bl -tag -width indent
206.It Fl a Li allexport
207Flag variables for export when assignments are made to them.
208.It Fl b Li notify
209Enable asynchronous notification of background job
210completion.
211(UNIMPLEMENTED)
212.It Fl C Li noclobber
213Do not overwrite existing files with
214.Ql > .
215.It Fl E Li emacs
216Enable the built-in
217.Xr emacs 1 Pq Pa ports/editors/emacs
218command line editor (disables the
219.Fl V
220option if it has been set;
221set automatically when interactive on terminals).
222.It Fl e Li errexit
223Exit immediately if any untested command fails in non-interactive mode.
224The exit status of a command is considered to be
225explicitly tested if the command is part of the list used to control
226an
227.Ic if , elif , while ,
228or
229.Ic until ;
230if the command is the left
231hand operand of an
232.Dq Li &&
233or
234.Dq Li ||
235operator; or if the command is a pipeline preceded by the
236.Ic !\&
237keyword.
238If a shell function is executed and its exit status is explicitly
239tested, all commands of the function are considered to be tested as
240well.
241.Pp
242It is recommended to check for failures explicitly
243instead of relying on
244.Fl e
245because it tends to behave in unexpected ways,
246particularly in larger scripts.
247.It Fl f Li noglob
248Disable pathname expansion.
249.It Fl h Li trackall
250A do-nothing option for POSIX compliance.
251.It Fl I Li ignoreeof
252Ignore
253.Dv EOF Ap s
254from input when in interactive mode.
255.It Fl i Li interactive
256Force the shell to behave interactively.
257.It Fl m Li monitor
258Turn on job control (set automatically when interactive).
259A new process group is created for each pipeline (called a job).
260It is possible to suspend jobs or to have them run in the foreground or
261in the background.
262In a non-interactive shell,
263this option can be set even if no terminal is available
264and is useful to place processes in separate process groups.
265.It Fl n Li noexec
266If not interactive, read commands but do not
267execute them.
268This is useful for checking the
269syntax of shell scripts.
270.It Fl P Li physical
271Change the default for the
272.Ic cd
273and
274.Ic pwd
275commands from
276.Fl L
277(logical directory layout)
278to
279.Fl P
280(physical directory layout).
281.It Fl p Li privileged
282Turn on privileged mode.
283This mode is enabled on startup
284if either the effective user or group ID is not equal to the
285real user or group ID.
286Turning this mode off sets the
287effective user and group IDs to the real user and group IDs.
288When this mode is enabled for interactive shells, the file
289.Pa /etc/suid_profile
290is sourced instead of
291.Pa ~/.profile
292after
293.Pa /etc/profile
294is sourced, and the contents of the
295.Ev ENV
296variable are ignored.
297.It Fl s Li stdin
298Read commands from standard input (set automatically
299if no file arguments are present).
300This option has
301no effect when set after the shell has already started
302running (i.e., when set with the
303.Ic set
304command).
305.It Fl T Li trapsasync
306When waiting for a child, execute traps immediately.
307If this option is not set,
308traps are executed after the child exits,
309as specified in
310.St -p1003.2 .
311This nonstandard option is useful for putting guarding shells around
312children that block signals.
313The surrounding shell may kill the child
314or it may just return control to the tty and leave the child alone,
315like this:
316.Bd -literal -offset indent
317sh -T -c "trap 'exit 1' 2 ; some-blocking-program"
318.Ed
319.It Fl u Li nounset
320Write a message to standard error when attempting
321to expand a variable, a positional parameter or
322the special parameter
323.Va \&!
324that is not set, and if the
325shell is not interactive, exit immediately.
326.It Fl V Li vi
327Enable the built-in
328.Xr vi 1
329command line editor (disables
330.Fl E
331if it has been set).
332.It Fl v Li verbose
333The shell writes its input to standard error
334as it is read.
335Useful for debugging.
336.It Fl x Li xtrace
337Write each command
338(preceded by the value of the
339.Va PS4
340variable subjected to parameter expansion and arithmetic expansion)
341to standard error before it is executed.
342Useful for debugging.
343.It Li nolog
344Another do-nothing option for POSIX compliance.
345It only has a long name.
346.It Li pipefail
347Change the exit status of a pipeline to the last non-zero exit status of
348any command in the pipeline, if any.
349Since an exit due to
350.Dv SIGPIPE
351counts as a non-zero exit status,
352this option may cause non-zero exit status for successful pipelines
353if a command such as
354.Xr head 1
355in the pipeline terminates with status 0 without reading its
356input completely.
357This option only has a long name.
358.It Li verify
359Set
360.Dv O_VERIFY
361when sourcing files or loading profiles.
362.\" See also
363.\" .Xr mac_veriexec 4 . TODO Does not exist; write it.
364.El
365.Pp
366The
367.Fl c
368option causes the commands to be read from the
369.Ar string
370operand instead of from the standard input.
371Keep in mind that this option only accepts a single string as its
372argument, hence multi-word strings must be quoted.
373.Pp
374The
375.Fl /+o
376option takes as its only argument the long name of an option
377to be enabled or disabled.
378For example, the following two invocations of
379.Nm
380both enable the built-in
381.Xr emacs 1 Pq Pa ports/editors/emacs
382command line editor:
383.Bd -literal -offset indent
384set -E
385set -o emacs
386.Ed
387.Pp
388If used without an argument, the
389.Fl o
390option displays the current option settings in a human-readable format.
391If
392.Cm +o
393is used without an argument, the current option settings are output
394in a format suitable for re-input into the shell.
395.Ss Lexical Structure
396The shell reads input in terms of lines from a file and breaks
397it up into words at whitespace (blanks and tabs), and at
398certain sequences of
399characters called
400.Dq operators ,
401which are special to the shell.
402There are two types of operators: control operators and
403redirection operators (their meaning is discussed later).
404The following is a list of valid operators:
405.Bl -tag -width indent
406.It Control operators:
407.Bl -column "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" -offset center -compact
408.It Li & Ta Li && Ta Li \&( Ta Li \&) Ta Li \en
409.It Li ;; Ta Li ;& Ta Li \&; Ta Li \&| Ta Li ||
410.El
411.It Redirection operators:
412.Bl -column "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" -offset center -compact
413.It Li < Ta Li > Ta Li << Ta Li >> Ta Li <>
414.It Li <& Ta Li >& Ta Li <<- Ta Li >| Ta \&
415.El
416.El
417.Pp
418The character
419.Ql #
420introduces a comment if used at the beginning of a word.
421The word starting with
422.Ql #
423and the rest of the line are ignored.
424.Pp
425ASCII
426.Dv NUL
427characters (character code 0) are not allowed in shell input.
428.Ss Quoting
429Quoting is used to remove the special meaning of certain characters
430or words to the shell, such as operators, whitespace, keywords,
431or alias names.
432.Pp
433There are four types of quoting: matched single quotes,
434dollar-single quotes,
435matched double quotes, and backslash.
436.Bl -tag -width indent
437.It Single Quotes
438Enclosing characters in single quotes preserves the literal
439meaning of all the characters (except single quotes, making
440it impossible to put single-quotes in a single-quoted string).
441.It Dollar-Single Quotes
442Enclosing characters between
443.Li $'
444and
445.Li '
446preserves the literal meaning of all characters
447except backslashes and single quotes.
448A backslash introduces a C-style escape sequence:
449.Bl -tag -width xUnnnnnnnn
450.It \ea
451Alert (ring the terminal bell)
452.It \eb
453Backspace
454.It \ec Ns Ar c
455The control character denoted by
456.Li ^ Ns Ar c
457in
458.Xr stty 1 .
459If
460.Ar c
461is a backslash, it must be doubled.
462.It \ee
463The ESC character (ASCII 0x1b)
464.It \ef
465Formfeed
466.It \en
467Newline
468.It \er
469Carriage return
470.It \et
471Horizontal tab
472.It \ev
473Vertical tab
474.It \e\e
475Literal backslash
476.It \e\&'
477Literal single-quote
478.It \e\&"
479Literal double-quote
480.It \e Ns Ar nnn
481The byte whose octal value is
482.Ar nnn
483(one to three digits)
484.It \ex Ns Ar nn
485The byte whose hexadecimal value is
486.Ar nn
487(one or more digits only the last two of which are used)
488.It \eu Ns Ar nnnn
489The Unicode code point
490.Ar nnnn
491(four hexadecimal digits)
492.It \eU Ns Ar nnnnnnnn
493The Unicode code point
494.Ar nnnnnnnn
495(eight hexadecimal digits)
496.El
497.Pp
498The sequences for Unicode code points are currently only useful with
499UTF-8 locales.
500They reject code point 0 and UTF-16 surrogates.
501.Pp
502If an escape sequence would produce a byte with value 0,
503that byte and the rest of the string until the matching single-quote
504are ignored.
505.Pp
506Any other string starting with a backslash is an error.
507.It Double Quotes
508Enclosing characters within double quotes preserves the literal
509meaning of all characters except dollar sign
510.Pq Ql $ ,
511backquote
512.Pq Ql ` ,
513and backslash
514.Pq Ql \e .
515The backslash inside double quotes is historically weird.
516It remains literal unless it precedes the following characters,
517which it serves to quote:
518.Pp
519.Bl -column "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" -offset center -compact
520.It Li $ Ta Li ` Ta Li \&" Ta Li \e Ta Li \en
521.El
522.It Backslash
523A backslash preserves the literal meaning of the following
524character, with the exception of the newline character
525.Pq Ql \en .
526A backslash preceding a newline is treated as a line continuation.
527.El
528.Ss Keywords
529Keywords or reserved words are words that have special meaning to the
530shell and are recognized at the beginning of a line and
531after a control operator.
532The following are keywords:
533.Bl -column "doneXX" "elifXX" "elseXX" "untilXX" "whileX" -offset center
534.It Li \&! Ta { Ta } Ta Ic case Ta Ic do
535.It Ic done Ta Ic elif Ta Ic else Ta Ic esac Ta Ic fi
536.It Ic for Ta Ic if Ta Ic then Ta Ic until Ta Ic while
537.El
538.Ss Aliases
539An alias is a name and corresponding value set using the
540.Ic alias
541built-in command.
542Wherever the command word of a simple command may occur,
543and after checking for keywords if a keyword may occur, the shell
544checks the word to see if it matches an alias.
545If it does, it replaces it in the input stream with its value.
546For example, if there is an alias called
547.Dq Li lf
548with the value
549.Dq Li "ls -F" ,
550then the input
551.Pp
552.Dl "lf foobar"
553.Pp
554would become
555.Pp
556.Dl "ls -F foobar"
557.Pp
558Aliases are also recognized after an alias
559whose value ends with a space or tab.
560For example, if there is also an alias called
561.Dq Li nohup
562with the value
563.Dq Li "nohup " ,
564then the input
565.Pp
566.Dl "nohup lf foobar"
567.Pp
568would become
569.Pp
570.Dl "nohup ls -F foobar"
571.Pp
572Aliases provide a convenient way for naive users to
573create shorthands for commands without having to learn how
574to create functions with arguments.
575Using aliases in scripts is discouraged
576because the command that defines them must be executed
577before the code that uses them is parsed.
578This is fragile and not portable.
579.Pp
580An alias name may be escaped in a command line, so that it is not
581replaced by its alias value, by using quoting characters within or
582adjacent to the alias name.
583This is most often done by prefixing
584an alias name with a backslash to execute a function, built-in, or
585normal program with the same name.
586See the
587.Sx Quoting
588subsection.
589.Ss Commands
590The shell interprets the words it reads according to a
591language, the specification of which is outside the scope
592of this man page (refer to the BNF in the
593.St -p1003.2
594document).
595Essentially though, a line is read and if
596the first word of the line (or after a control operator)
597is not a keyword, then the shell has recognized a
598simple command.
599Otherwise, a complex command or some
600other special construct may have been recognized.
601.Ss Simple Commands
602If a simple command has been recognized, the shell performs
603the following actions:
604.Bl -enum
605.It
606Leading words of the form
607.Dq Li name=value
608are stripped off and assigned to the environment of
609the simple command
610(they do not affect expansions).
611Redirection operators and
612their arguments (as described below) are stripped
613off and saved for processing.
614.It
615The remaining words are expanded as described in
616the section called
617.Sx Word Expansions ,
618and the first remaining word is considered the command
619name and the command is located.
620The remaining
621words are considered the arguments of the command.
622If no command name resulted, then the
623.Dq Li name=value
624variable assignments recognized in 1) affect the
625current shell.
626.It
627Redirections are performed as described in
628the next section.
629.El
630.Ss Redirections
631Redirections are used to change where a command reads its input
632or sends its output.
633In general, redirections open, close, or
634duplicate an existing reference to a file.
635The overall format
636used for redirection is:
637.Pp
638.D1 Oo Ar n Oc Ar redir-op file
639.Pp
640The
641.Ar redir-op
642is one of the redirection operators mentioned
643previously.
644The following gives some examples of how these
645operators can be used.
646Note that stdin and stdout are commonly used abbreviations
647for standard input and standard output respectively.
648.Bl -tag -width "1234567890XX" -offset indent
649.It Oo Ar n Oc Ns Li > Ar file
650redirect stdout (or file descriptor
651.Ar n )
652to
653.Ar file
654.It Oo Ar n Oc Ns Li >| Ar file
655same as above, but override the
656.Fl C
657option
658.It Oo Ar n Oc Ns Li >> Ar file
659append stdout (or file descriptor
660.Ar n )
661to
662.Ar file
663.It Oo Ar n Oc Ns Li < Ar file
664redirect stdin (or file descriptor
665.Ar n )
666from
667.Ar file
668.It Oo Ar n Oc Ns Li <> Ar file
669redirect stdin (or file descriptor
670.Ar n )
671to and from
672.Ar file
673.It Oo Ar n1 Oc Ns Li <& Ns Ar n2
674duplicate stdin (or file descriptor
675.Ar n1 )
676from file descriptor
677.Ar n2
678.It Oo Ar n Oc Ns Li <&-
679close stdin (or file descriptor
680.Ar n )
681.It Oo Ar n1 Oc Ns Li >& Ns Ar n2
682duplicate stdout (or file descriptor
683.Ar n1 )
684to file descriptor
685.Ar n2
686.It Oo Ar n Oc Ns Li >&-
687close stdout (or file descriptor
688.Ar n )
689.El
690.Pp
691The following redirection is often called a
692.Dq here-document .
693.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
694.Oo Ar n Oc Ns Li << Ar delimiter
695.Ar here-doc-text
696.Ar ...
697.Ar delimiter
698.Ed
699.Pp
700All the text on successive lines up to the delimiter is
701saved away and made available to the command on standard
702input, or file descriptor
703.Ar n
704if it is specified.
705If the
706.Ar delimiter
707as specified on the initial line is quoted, then the
708.Ar here-doc-text
709is treated literally, otherwise the text is subjected to
710parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic
711expansion (as described in the section on
712.Sx Word Expansions ) .
713If the operator is
714.Dq Li <<-
715instead of
716.Dq Li << ,
717then leading tabs
718in the
719.Ar here-doc-text
720are stripped.
721.Ss Search and Execution
722There are three types of commands: shell functions,
723built-in commands, and normal programs.
724The command is searched for (by name) in that order.
725The three types of commands are all executed in a different way.
726.Pp
727When a shell function is executed, all of the shell positional
728parameters (except
729.Li $0 ,
730which remains unchanged) are
731set to the arguments of the shell function.
732The variables which are explicitly placed in the environment of
733the command (by placing assignments to them before the
734function name) are made local to the function and are set
735to the values given.
736Then the command given in the function definition is executed.
737The positional parameters are restored to their original values
738when the command completes.
739This all occurs within the current shell.
740.Pp
741Shell built-in commands are executed internally to the shell, without
742spawning a new process.
743There are two kinds of built-in commands: regular and special.
744Assignments before special builtins persist after they finish
745executing and assignment errors, redirection errors and certain
746operand errors cause a script to be aborted.
747Special builtins cannot be overridden with a function.
748Both regular and special builtins can affect the shell in ways
749normal programs cannot.
750.Pp
751Otherwise, if the command name does not match a function
752or built-in command, the command is searched for as a normal
753program in the file system (as described in the next section).
754When a normal program is executed, the shell runs the program,
755passing the arguments and the environment to the program.
756If the program is not a normal executable file
757(i.e., if it does not begin with the
758.Dq "magic number"
759whose ASCII representation is
760.Dq Li #! ,
761resulting in an
762.Er ENOEXEC
763return value from
764.Xr execve 2 )
765but appears to be a text file,
766the shell will run a new instance of
767.Nm
768to interpret it.
769.Pp
770Note that previous versions of this document
771and the source code itself misleadingly and sporadically
772refer to a shell script without a magic number
773as a
774.Dq "shell procedure" .
775.Ss Path Search
776When locating a command, the shell first looks to see if
777it has a shell function by that name.
778Then it looks for a
779built-in command by that name.
780If a built-in command is not found,
781one of two things happen:
782.Bl -enum
783.It
784Command names containing a slash are simply executed without
785performing any searches.
786.It
787The shell searches each entry in the
788.Va PATH
789variable
790in turn for the command.
791The value of the
792.Va PATH
793variable should be a series of
794entries separated by colons.
795Each entry consists of a
796directory name.
797The current directory
798may be indicated implicitly by an empty directory name,
799or explicitly by a single period.
800.El
801.Ss Command Exit Status
802Each command has an exit status that can influence the behavior
803of other shell commands.
804The paradigm is that a command exits
805with zero for normal or success, and non-zero for failure,
806error, or a false indication.
807The man page for each command
808should indicate the various exit codes and what they mean.
809Additionally, the built-in commands return exit codes, as does
810an executed shell function.
811.Pp
812If a command is terminated by a signal, its exit status is greater than 128.
813The signal name can be found by passing the exit status to
814.Li kill -l .
815.Pp
816If there is no command word,
817the exit status is the exit status of the last command substitution executed,
818or zero if the command does not contain any command substitutions.
819.Ss Complex Commands
820Complex commands are combinations of simple commands
821with control operators or keywords, together creating a larger complex
822command.
823More generally, a command is one of the following:
824.Bl -item -offset indent
825.It
826simple command
827.It
828pipeline
829.It
830list or compound-list
831.It
832compound command
833.It
834function definition
835.El
836.Pp
837Unless otherwise stated, the exit status of a command is
838that of the last simple command executed by the command,
839or zero if no simple command was executed.
840.Ss Pipelines
841A pipeline is a sequence of one or more commands separated
842by the control operator
843.Ql \&| .
844The standard output of all but
845the last command is connected to the standard input
846of the next command.
847The standard output of the last
848command is inherited from the shell, as usual.
849.Pp
850The format for a pipeline is:
851.Pp
852.D1 Oo Li \&! Oc Ar command1 Op Li \&| Ar command2 ...
853.Pp
854The standard output of
855.Ar command1
856is connected to the standard input of
857.Ar command2 .
858The standard input, standard output, or
859both of a command is considered to be assigned by the
860pipeline before any redirection specified by redirection
861operators that are part of the command.
862.Pp
863Note that unlike some other shells,
864.Nm
865executes each process in a pipeline with more than one command
866in a subshell environment and as a child of the
867.Nm
868process.
869.Pp
870If the pipeline is not in the background (discussed later),
871the shell waits for all commands to complete.
872.Pp
873If the keyword
874.Ic !\&
875does not precede the pipeline, the
876exit status is the exit status of the last command specified
877in the pipeline if the
878.Cm pipefail
879option is not set or all commands returned zero,
880or the last non-zero exit status of any command in the pipeline otherwise.
881Otherwise, the exit status is the logical
882NOT of that exit status.
883That is, if
884that status is zero, the exit status is 1; if
885that status is greater than zero, the exit status
886is zero.
887.Pp
888Because pipeline assignment of standard input or standard
889output or both takes place before redirection, it can be
890modified by redirection.
891For example:
892.Pp
893.Dl "command1 2>&1 | command2"
894.Pp
895sends both the standard output and standard error of
896.Ar command1
897to the standard input of
898.Ar command2 .
899.Pp
900A
901.Ql \&;
902or newline terminator causes the preceding
903AND-OR-list
904(described below in the section called
905.Sx Short-Circuit List Operators )
906to be executed sequentially;
907an
908.Ql &
909causes asynchronous execution of the preceding AND-OR-list.
910.Ss Background Commands (&)
911If a command is terminated by the control operator ampersand
912.Pq Ql & ,
913the shell executes the command in a subshell environment (see
914.Sx Grouping Commands Together
915below) and asynchronously;
916the shell does not wait for the command to finish
917before executing the next command.
918.Pp
919The format for running a command in background is:
920.Pp
921.D1 Ar command1 Li & Op Ar command2 Li & Ar ...
922.Pp
923If the shell is not interactive, the standard input of an
924asynchronous command is set to
925.Pa /dev/null .
926.Pp
927The exit status is zero.
928.Ss Lists (Generally Speaking)
929A list is a sequence of zero or more commands separated by
930newlines, semicolons, or ampersands,
931and optionally terminated by one of these three characters.
932The commands in a
933list are executed in the order they are written.
934If command is followed by an ampersand, the shell starts the
935command and immediately proceeds onto the next command;
936otherwise it waits for the command to terminate before
937proceeding to the next one.
938.Ss Short-Circuit List Operators
939.Dq Li &&
940and
941.Dq Li ||
942are AND-OR list operators.
943.Dq Li &&
944executes the first command, and then executes the second command
945if the exit status of the first command is zero.
946.Dq Li ||
947is similar, but executes the second command if the exit
948status of the first command is nonzero.
949.Dq Li &&
950and
951.Dq Li ||
952both have the same priority.
953.Ss Flow-Control Constructs (if, while, for, case)
954The syntax of the
955.Ic if
956command is:
957.Bd -unfilled -offset indent -compact
958.Ic if Ar list
959.Ic then Ar list
960.Oo Ic elif Ar list
961.Ic then Ar list Oc Ar ...
962.Op Ic else Ar list
963.Ic fi
964.Ed
965.Pp
966The exit status is that of selected
967.Ic then
968or
969.Ic else
970list,
971or zero if no list was selected.
972.Pp
973The syntax of the
974.Ic while
975command is:
976.Bd -unfilled -offset indent -compact
977.Ic while Ar list
978.Ic do Ar list
979.Ic done
980.Ed
981.Pp
982The two lists are executed repeatedly while the exit status of the
983first list is zero.
984The
985.Ic until
986command is similar, but has the word
987.Ic until
988in place of
989.Ic while ,
990which causes it to
991repeat until the exit status of the first list is zero.
992.Pp
993The exit status is that of the last execution of the second list,
994or zero if it was never executed.
995.Pp
996The syntax of the
997.Ic for
998command is:
999.Bd -unfilled -offset indent -compact
1000.Ic for Ar variable Op Ic in Ar word ...
1001.Ic do Ar list
1002.Ic done
1003.Ed
1004.Pp
1005If
1006.Ic in
1007and the following words are omitted,
1008.Ic in Li \&"$@\&"
1009is used instead.
1010The words are expanded, and then the list is executed
1011repeatedly with the variable set to each word in turn.
1012The
1013.Ic do
1014and
1015.Ic done
1016commands may be replaced with
1017.Ql {
1018and
1019.Ql } .
1020.Pp
1021The syntax of the
1022.Ic break
1023and
1024.Ic continue
1025commands is:
1026.D1 Ic break Op Ar num
1027.D1 Ic continue Op Ar num
1028.Pp
1029The
1030.Ic break
1031command terminates the
1032.Ar num
1033innermost
1034.Ic for
1035or
1036.Ic while
1037loops.
1038The
1039.Ic continue
1040command continues with the next iteration of the innermost loop.
1041These are implemented as special built-in commands.
1042.Pp
1043The syntax of the
1044.Ic case
1045command is:
1046.Bd -unfilled -offset indent -compact
1047.Ic case Ar word Ic in
1048.Ar pattern ) Ar list Li ;;
1049.Ar ...
1050.Ic esac
1051.Ed
1052.Pp
1053The pattern can actually be one or more patterns
1054(see
1055.Sx Shell Patterns
1056described later),
1057separated by
1058.Ql \&|
1059characters.
1060Tilde expansion, parameter expansion, command substitution,
1061arithmetic expansion and quote removal are applied to the word.
1062Then, each pattern is expanded in turn using tilde expansion,
1063parameter expansion, command substitution and arithmetic expansion and
1064the expanded form of the word is checked against it.
1065If a match is found, the corresponding list is executed.
1066If the selected list is terminated by the control operator
1067.Ql ;&
1068instead of
1069.Ql ;; ,
1070execution continues with the next list,
1071continuing until a list terminated with
1072.Ql ;;
1073or the end of the
1074.Ic case
1075command.
1076.Ss Grouping Commands Together
1077Commands may be grouped by writing either
1078.Pp
1079.Sm off
1080.Bd -literal -offset -ident
1081.Po Ar list Pc
1082.Ed
1083.Sm on
1084.Pp
1085or
1086.Bd -literal -offset -ident
1087.No { Ar list ; }
1088.Ed
1089.Pp
1090The first form executes the commands in a subshell environment.
1091A subshell environment has its own copy of:
1092.Bl -enum
1093.It
1094The current working directory as set by
1095.Ic cd .
1096.It
1097The file creation mask as set by
1098.Ic umask .
1099.It
1100Resource limits as set by
1101.Ic ulimit .
1102.It
1103References to open files.
1104.It
1105Traps as set by
1106.Ic trap .
1107.It
1108Known jobs.
1109.It
1110Positional parameters and variables.
1111.It
1112Shell options.
1113.It
1114Shell functions.
1115.It
1116Shell aliases.
1117.El
1118.Pp
1119These are copied from the parent shell environment,
1120except that trapped (but not ignored) signals are reset to the default action
1121and known jobs are cleared.
1122Any changes do not affect the parent shell environment.
1123.Pp
1124A subshell environment may be implemented as a child process or differently.
1125If job control is enabled in an interactive shell,
1126commands grouped in parentheses can be suspended and continued as a unit.
1127.Pp
1128For compatibility with other shells,
1129two open parentheses in sequence should be separated by whitespace.
1130.Pp
1131The second form never forks another shell,
1132so it is slightly more efficient.
1133Grouping commands together this way allows the user to
1134redirect their output as though they were one program:
1135.Bd -literal -offset indent
1136{ echo -n "hello"; echo " world"; } > greeting
1137.Ed
1138.Ss Functions
1139The syntax of a function definition is
1140.Pp
1141.D1 Ar name Li \&( \&) Ar command
1142.Pp
1143A function definition is an executable statement; when
1144executed it installs a function named
1145.Ar name
1146and returns an
1147exit status of zero.
1148The
1149.Ar command
1150is normally a list
1151enclosed between
1152.Ql {
1153and
1154.Ql } .
1155.Pp
1156Variables may be declared to be local to a function by
1157using the
1158.Ic local
1159command.
1160This should appear as the first statement of a function,
1161and the syntax is:
1162.Pp
1163.D1 Ic local Oo Ar variable ... Oc Op Fl
1164.Pp
1165The
1166.Ic local
1167command is implemented as a built-in command.
1168The exit status is zero
1169unless the command is not in a function or a variable name is invalid.
1170.Pp
1171When a variable is made local, it inherits the initial
1172value and exported and readonly flags from the variable
1173with the same name in the surrounding scope, if there is
1174one.
1175Otherwise, the variable is initially unset.
1176The shell
1177uses dynamic scoping, so that if the variable
1178.Va x
1179is made local to function
1180.Em f ,
1181which then calls function
1182.Em g ,
1183references to the variable
1184.Va x
1185made inside
1186.Em g
1187will refer to the variable
1188.Va x
1189declared inside
1190.Em f ,
1191not to the global variable named
1192.Va x .
1193.Pp
1194The only special parameter that can be made local is
1195.Ql - .
1196Making
1197.Ql -
1198local causes any shell options
1199(including those that only have long names)
1200that are
1201changed via the
1202.Ic set
1203command inside the function to be
1204restored to their original values when the function
1205returns.
1206.Pp
1207The syntax of the
1208.Ic return
1209command is
1210.Pp
1211.D1 Ic return Op Ar exitstatus
1212.Pp
1213It terminates the current executional scope, returning from the closest
1214nested function or sourced script;
1215if no function or sourced script is being executed,
1216it exits the shell instance.
1217The
1218.Ic return
1219command is implemented as a special built-in command.
1220.Ss Variables and Parameters
1221The shell maintains a set of parameters.
1222A parameter
1223denoted by a name
1224(consisting solely
1225of alphabetics, numerics, and underscores,
1226and starting with an alphabetic or an underscore)
1227is called a variable.
1228When starting up,
1229the shell turns all environment variables with valid names into shell
1230variables.
1231New variables can be set using the form
1232.Pp
1233.D1 Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
1234.Pp
1235A parameter can also be denoted by a number
1236or a special character as explained below.
1237.Pp
1238Assignments are expanded differently from other words:
1239tilde expansion is also performed after the equals sign and after any colon
1240and usernames are also terminated by colons,
1241and field splitting and pathname expansion are not performed.
1242.Pp
1243This special expansion applies not only to assignments that form a simple
1244command by themselves or precede a command word,
1245but also to words passed to the
1246.Ic export ,
1247.Ic local
1248or
1249.Ic readonly
1250built-in commands that have this form.
1251For this, the builtin's name must be literal
1252(not the result of an expansion)
1253and may optionally be preceded by one or more literal instances of
1254.Ic command
1255without options.
1256.Ss Positional Parameters
1257A positional parameter is a parameter denoted by a number greater than zero.
1258The shell sets these initially to the values of its command line
1259arguments that follow the name of the shell script.
1260The
1261.Ic set
1262built-in command can also be used to set or reset them.
1263.Ss Special Parameters
1264Special parameters are parameters denoted by a single special character
1265or the digit zero.
1266They are shown in the following list, exactly as they would appear in input
1267typed by the user or in the source of a shell script.
1268.Bl -hang
1269.It Li $*
1270Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one.
1271When
1272the expansion occurs within a double-quoted string
1273it expands to a single field with the value of each parameter
1274separated by the first character of the
1275.Va IFS
1276variable,
1277or by a space if
1278.Va IFS
1279is unset.
1280.It Li $@
1281Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one.
1282When
1283the expansion occurs within double-quotes, each positional
1284parameter expands as a separate argument.
1285If there are no positional parameters, the
1286expansion of
1287.Li @
1288generates zero arguments, even when
1289.Li @
1290is double-quoted.
1291What this basically means, for example, is
1292if
1293.Li $1
1294is
1295.Dq Li abc
1296and
1297.Li $2
1298is
1299.Dq Li "def ghi" ,
1300then
1301.Li \&"$@\&"
1302expands to
1303the two arguments:
1304.Bd -literal -offset indent
1305"abc"   "def ghi"
1306.Ed
1307.It Li $#
1308Expands to the number of positional parameters.
1309.It Li $?
1310Expands to the exit status of the most recent pipeline.
1311.It Li $-
1312(hyphen) Expands to the current option flags (the single-letter
1313option names concatenated into a string) as specified on
1314invocation, by the
1315.Ic set
1316built-in command, or implicitly
1317by the shell.
1318.It Li $$
1319Expands to the process ID of the invoked shell.
1320A subshell
1321retains the same value of
1322.Va $
1323as its parent.
1324.It Li $!
1325Expands to the process ID of the most recent background
1326command executed from the current shell.
1327For a
1328pipeline, the process ID is that of the last command in the
1329pipeline.
1330If this parameter is referenced, the shell will remember
1331the process ID and its exit status until the
1332.Ic wait
1333built-in command reports completion of the process.
1334.It Li $0
1335(zero) Expands to the name of the shell script if passed on the command line,
1336the
1337.Ar name
1338operand if given (with
1339.Fl c )
1340or otherwise argument 0 passed to the shell.
1341.El
1342.Ss Special Variables
1343The following variables are set by the shell or
1344have special meaning to it:
1345.Bl -tag -width ".Va HISTSIZE"
1346.It Va CDPATH
1347The search path used with the
1348.Ic cd
1349built-in.
1350.It Va EDITOR
1351The fallback editor used with the
1352.Ic fc
1353built-in.
1354If not set, the default editor is
1355.Xr ed 1 .
1356.It Va FCEDIT
1357The default editor used with the
1358.Ic fc
1359built-in.
1360.It Va HISTFILE
1361File used for persistent history storage.
1362If unset
1363.Pa ~/.sh_history
1364will be used.
1365If set but empty or
1366.Va HISTSIZE
1367is set to 0
1368the shell will not load and save the history.
1369.It Va HISTSIZE
1370The number of previous commands that are accessible.
1371.It Va HOME
1372The user's home directory,
1373used in tilde expansion and as a default directory for the
1374.Ic cd
1375built-in.
1376.It Va IFS
1377Input Field Separators.
1378This is initialized at startup to
1379.Aq space ,
1380.Aq tab ,
1381and
1382.Aq newline
1383in that order.
1384This value also applies if
1385.Va IFS
1386is unset, but not if it is set to the empty string.
1387See the
1388.Sx White Space Splitting
1389section for more details.
1390.It Va LINENO
1391The current line number in the script or function.
1392.It Va MAIL
1393The name of a mail file, that will be checked for the arrival of new
1394mail.
1395Overridden by
1396.Va MAILPATH .
1397.It Va MAILPATH
1398A colon
1399.Pq Ql \&:
1400separated list of file names, for the shell to check for incoming
1401mail.
1402This variable overrides the
1403.Va MAIL
1404setting.
1405There is a maximum of 10 mailboxes that can be monitored at once.
1406.It Va OPTIND
1407The index of the next argument to be processed by
1408.Ic getopts .
1409This is initialized to 1 at startup.
1410.It Va PATH
1411The default search path for executables.
1412See the
1413.Sx Path Search
1414section for details.
1415.It Va PPID
1416The parent process ID of the invoked shell.
1417This is set at startup
1418unless this variable is in the environment.
1419A later change of parent process ID is not reflected.
1420A subshell retains the same value of
1421.Va PPID .
1422.It Va PS1
1423The primary prompt string, which defaults to
1424.Dq Li "$ " ,
1425unless you are the superuser, in which case it defaults to
1426.Dq Li "# " .
1427.Va PS1
1428may include any of the following formatting sequences,
1429which are replaced by the given information:
1430.Bl -tag -width indent
1431.It Li \eH
1432This system's fully-qualified hostname (FQDN).
1433.It Li \eh
1434This system's hostname.
1435.It Li \eu
1436User name.
1437.It Li \eW
1438The final component of the current working directory.
1439.It Li \ew
1440The entire path of the current working directory.
1441.It Li \e$
1442Superuser status.
1443.Dq Li "$"
1444for normal users and
1445.Dq Li "#"
1446for superusers.
1447.It Li \e\e
1448A literal backslash.
1449.It Li \e[
1450Start of a sequence of non-printing characters (used, for example,
1451to embed ANSI CSI sequences into the prompt).
1452.It Li \e]
1453End of a sequence of non-printing characters.
1454.El
1455.Pp
1456The following special and non-printing characters are supported
1457within the sequence of non-printing characters:
1458.Bl -tag -width indent
1459.It Li \ea
1460Emits ASCII BEL (0x07, 007) character.
1461.It Li \ee
1462Emits ASCII ESC (0x1b, 033) character.
1463.It Li \er
1464Emits ASCII CR (0x0d, 015) character.
1465.It Li \en
1466Emits CRLF sequence.
1467.El
1468.It Va PS2
1469The secondary prompt string, which defaults to
1470.Dq Li "> " .
1471.Va PS2
1472may include any of the formatting sequences from
1473.Va PS1 .
1474.It Va PS4
1475The prefix for the trace output (if
1476.Fl x
1477is active).
1478The default is
1479.Dq Li "+ " .
1480.El
1481.Ss Word Expansions
1482This clause describes the various expansions that are
1483performed on words.
1484Not all expansions are performed on
1485every word, as explained later.
1486.Pp
1487Tilde expansions, parameter expansions, command substitutions,
1488arithmetic expansions, and quote removals that occur within
1489a single word expand to a single field.
1490It is only field
1491splitting or pathname expansion that can create multiple
1492fields from a single word.
1493The single exception to this rule is
1494the expansion of the special parameter
1495.Va @
1496within double-quotes,
1497as was described above.
1498.Pp
1499The order of word expansion is:
1500.Bl -enum
1501.It
1502Tilde Expansion, Parameter Expansion, Command Substitution,
1503Arithmetic Expansion (these all occur at the same time).
1504.It
1505Field Splitting is performed on fields generated by step (1)
1506unless the
1507.Va IFS
1508variable is null.
1509.It
1510Pathname Expansion (unless the
1511.Fl f
1512option is in effect).
1513.It
1514Quote Removal.
1515.El
1516.Pp
1517The
1518.Ql $
1519character is used to introduce parameter expansion, command
1520substitution, or arithmetic expansion.
1521.Ss Tilde Expansion (substituting a user's home directory)
1522A word beginning with an unquoted tilde character
1523.Pq Ql ~
1524is
1525subjected to tilde expansion.
1526All the characters up to a slash
1527.Pq Ql /
1528or the end of the word are treated as a username
1529and are replaced with the user's home directory.
1530If the
1531username is missing (as in
1532.Pa ~/foobar ) ,
1533the tilde is replaced with the value of the
1534.Va HOME
1535variable (the current user's home directory).
1536.Ss Parameter Expansion
1537The format for parameter expansion is as follows:
1538.Pp
1539.D1 Li ${ Ns Ar expression Ns Li }
1540.Pp
1541where
1542.Ar expression
1543consists of all characters until the matching
1544.Ql } .
1545Any
1546.Ql }
1547escaped by a backslash or within a single-quoted or double-quoted
1548string, and characters in
1549embedded arithmetic expansions, command substitutions, and variable
1550expansions, are not examined in determining the matching
1551.Ql } .
1552If the variants with
1553.Ql + ,
1554.Ql - ,
1555.Ql =
1556or
1557.Ql ?\&
1558occur within a double-quoted string,
1559as an extension there may be unquoted parts
1560(via double-quotes inside the expansion);
1561.Ql }
1562within such parts are also not examined in determining the matching
1563.Ql } .
1564.Pp
1565The simplest form for parameter expansion is:
1566.Pp
1567.D1 Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li }
1568.Pp
1569The value, if any, of
1570.Ar parameter
1571is substituted.
1572.Pp
1573The parameter name or symbol can be enclosed in braces, which are
1574optional except for positional parameters with more than one digit or
1575when parameter is followed by a character that could be interpreted as
1576part of the name.
1577If a parameter expansion occurs inside double-quotes:
1578.Bl -enum
1579.It
1580Field splitting is not performed on the results of the
1581expansion, with the exception of the special parameter
1582.Va @ .
1583.It
1584Pathname expansion is not performed on the results of the
1585expansion.
1586.El
1587.Pp
1588In addition, a parameter expansion can be modified by using one of the
1589following formats.
1590.Bl -tag -width indent
1591.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li :- Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1592Use Default Values.
1593If
1594.Ar parameter
1595is unset or null, the expansion of
1596.Ar word
1597is substituted; otherwise, the value of
1598.Ar parameter
1599is substituted.
1600.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li := Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1601Assign Default Values.
1602If
1603.Ar parameter
1604is unset or null, the expansion of
1605.Ar word
1606is assigned to
1607.Ar parameter .
1608In all cases, the
1609final value of
1610.Ar parameter
1611is substituted.
1612Quoting inside
1613.Ar word
1614does not prevent field splitting or pathname expansion.
1615Only variables, not positional
1616parameters or special parameters, can be
1617assigned in this way.
1618.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li :? Ns Oo Ar word Oc Ns Li }
1619Indicate Error if Null or Unset.
1620If
1621.Ar parameter
1622is unset or null, the expansion of
1623.Ar word
1624(or a message indicating it is unset if
1625.Ar word
1626is omitted) is written to standard
1627error and the shell exits with a nonzero
1628exit status.
1629Otherwise, the value of
1630.Ar parameter
1631is substituted.
1632An
1633interactive shell need not exit.
1634.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li :+ Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1635Use Alternate Value.
1636If
1637.Ar parameter
1638is unset or null, null is substituted;
1639otherwise, the expansion of
1640.Ar word
1641is substituted.
1642.El
1643.Pp
1644In the parameter expansions shown previously, use of the colon in the
1645format results in a test for a parameter that is unset or null; omission
1646of the colon results in a test for a parameter that is only unset.
1647.Pp
1648The
1649.Ar word
1650inherits the type of quoting
1651(unquoted, double-quoted or here-document)
1652from the surroundings,
1653with the exception that a backslash that quotes a closing brace is removed
1654during quote removal.
1655.Bl -tag -width indent
1656.It Li ${# Ns Ar parameter Ns Li }
1657String Length.
1658The length in characters of
1659the value of
1660.Ar parameter .
1661.El
1662.Pp
1663The following four varieties of parameter expansion provide for substring
1664processing.
1665In each case, pattern matching notation
1666(see
1667.Sx Shell Patterns ) ,
1668rather than regular expression notation,
1669is used to evaluate the patterns.
1670If parameter is one of the special parameters
1671.Va *
1672or
1673.Va @ ,
1674the result of the expansion is unspecified.
1675Enclosing the full parameter expansion string in double-quotes does not
1676cause the following four varieties of pattern characters to be quoted,
1677whereas quoting characters within the braces has this effect.
1678.Bl -tag -width indent
1679.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li % Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1680Remove Smallest Suffix Pattern.
1681The
1682.Ar word
1683is expanded to produce a pattern.
1684The
1685parameter expansion then results in
1686.Ar parameter ,
1687with the smallest portion of the
1688suffix matched by the pattern deleted.
1689.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li %% Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1690Remove Largest Suffix Pattern.
1691The
1692.Ar word
1693is expanded to produce a pattern.
1694The
1695parameter expansion then results in
1696.Ar parameter ,
1697with the largest portion of the
1698suffix matched by the pattern deleted.
1699.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li # Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1700Remove Smallest Prefix Pattern.
1701The
1702.Ar word
1703is expanded to produce a pattern.
1704The
1705parameter expansion then results in
1706.Ar parameter ,
1707with the smallest portion of the
1708prefix matched by the pattern deleted.
1709.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li ## Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1710Remove Largest Prefix Pattern.
1711The
1712.Ar word
1713is expanded to produce a pattern.
1714The
1715parameter expansion then results in
1716.Ar parameter ,
1717with the largest portion of the
1718prefix matched by the pattern deleted.
1719.El
1720.Ss Command Substitution
1721Command substitution allows the output of a command to be substituted in
1722place of the command name itself.
1723Command substitution occurs when
1724the command is enclosed as follows:
1725.Pp
1726.D1 Li $( Ns Ar command Ns Li )\&
1727.Pp
1728or the backquoted version:
1729.Pp
1730.D1 Li ` Ns Ar command Ns Li `
1731.Pp
1732The shell expands the command substitution by executing command
1733and replacing the command substitution
1734with the standard output of the command,
1735removing sequences of one or more newlines at the end of the substitution.
1736Embedded newlines before the end of the output are not removed;
1737however, during field splitting, they may be translated into spaces
1738depending on the value of
1739.Va IFS
1740and the quoting that is in effect.
1741The command is executed in a subshell environment,
1742except that the built-in commands
1743.Ic jobid ,
1744.Ic jobs ,
1745and
1746.Ic trap
1747return information about the parent shell environment
1748and
1749.Ic times
1750returns information about the same process
1751if they are the only command in a command substitution.
1752.Pp
1753If a command substitution of the
1754.Li $(
1755form begins with a subshell,
1756the
1757.Li $(
1758and
1759.Li (\&
1760must be separated by whitespace
1761to avoid ambiguity with arithmetic expansion.
1762.Ss Arithmetic Expansion
1763Arithmetic expansion provides a mechanism for evaluating an arithmetic
1764expression and substituting its value.
1765The format for arithmetic expansion is as follows:
1766.Pp
1767.D1 Li $(( Ns Ar expression Ns Li ))
1768.Pp
1769The
1770.Ar expression
1771is treated as if it were in double-quotes, except
1772that a double-quote inside the expression is not treated specially.
1773The
1774shell expands all tokens in the
1775.Ar expression
1776for parameter expansion,
1777command substitution,
1778arithmetic expansion
1779and quote removal.
1780.Pp
1781The allowed expressions are a subset of C expressions,
1782summarized below.
1783.Bl -tag -width "Variables" -offset indent
1784.It Values
1785All values are of type
1786.Ft intmax_t .
1787.It Constants
1788Decimal, octal (starting with
1789.Li 0 )
1790and hexadecimal (starting with
1791.Li 0x )
1792integer constants.
1793.It Variables
1794Shell variables can be read and written
1795and contain integer constants.
1796.It Unary operators
1797.Li "! ~ + -"
1798.It Binary operators
1799.Li "* / % + - << >> < <= > >= == != & ^ | && ||"\&
1800.It Assignment operators
1801.Li "= += -= *= /= %= <<= >>= &= ^= |="
1802.It Conditional operator
1803.Li "? :"\&
1804.El
1805.Pp
1806The result of the expression is substituted in decimal.
1807.Ss White Space Splitting (Field Splitting)
1808In certain contexts,
1809after parameter expansion, command substitution, and
1810arithmetic expansion the shell scans the results of
1811expansions and substitutions that did not occur in double-quotes for
1812field splitting and multiple fields can result.
1813.Pp
1814Characters in
1815.Va IFS
1816that are whitespace
1817.Po
1818.Aq space ,
1819.Aq tab ,
1820and
1821.Aq newline
1822.Pc
1823are treated differently from other characters in
1824.Va IFS .
1825.Pp
1826Whitespace in
1827.Va IFS
1828at the beginning or end of a word is discarded.
1829.Pp
1830Subsequently, a field is delimited by either
1831.Bl -enum
1832.It
1833a non-whitespace character in
1834.Va IFS
1835with any whitespace in
1836.Va IFS
1837surrounding it, or
1838.It
1839one or more whitespace characters in
1840.Va IFS .
1841.El
1842.Pp
1843If a word ends with a non-whitespace character in
1844.Va IFS ,
1845there is no empty field after this character.
1846.Pp
1847If no field is delimited, the word is discarded.
1848In particular, if a word consists solely of an unquoted substitution
1849and the result of the substitution is null,
1850it is removed by field splitting even if
1851.Va IFS
1852is null.
1853.Ss Pathname Expansion (File Name Generation)
1854Unless the
1855.Fl f
1856option is set,
1857file name generation is performed
1858after word splitting is complete.
1859Each word is
1860viewed as a series of patterns, separated by slashes.
1861The
1862process of expansion replaces the word with the names of
1863all existing files whose names can be formed by replacing
1864each pattern with a string that matches the specified pattern.
1865There are two restrictions on this: first, a pattern cannot match
1866a string containing a slash, and second,
1867a pattern cannot match a string starting with a period
1868unless the first character of the pattern is a period.
1869The next section describes the patterns used for
1870Pathname Expansion,
1871the four varieties of parameter expansion for substring processing and the
1872.Ic case
1873command.
1874.Ss Shell Patterns
1875A pattern consists of normal characters, which match themselves,
1876and meta-characters.
1877The meta-characters are
1878.Ql * ,
1879.Ql \&? ,
1880and
1881.Ql \&[ .
1882These characters lose their special meanings if they are quoted.
1883When command or variable substitution is performed and the dollar sign
1884or back quotes are not double-quoted, the value of the
1885variable or the output of the command is scanned for these
1886characters and they are turned into meta-characters.
1887.Pp
1888An asterisk
1889.Pq Ql *
1890matches any string of characters.
1891A question mark
1892.Pq Ql \&?
1893matches any single character.
1894A left bracket
1895.Pq Ql \&[
1896introduces a character class.
1897The end of the character class is indicated by a
1898.Ql \&] ;
1899if the
1900.Ql \&]
1901is missing then the
1902.Ql \&[
1903matches a
1904.Ql \&[
1905rather than introducing a character class.
1906A character class matches any of the characters between the square brackets.
1907A locale-dependent range of characters may be specified using a minus sign.
1908A named class of characters (see
1909.Xr wctype 3 )
1910may be specified by surrounding the name with
1911.Ql \&[:\&
1912and
1913.Ql :\&] .
1914For example,
1915.Ql \&[\&[:alpha:\&]\&]
1916is a shell pattern that matches a single letter.
1917The character class may be complemented by making an exclamation point
1918.Pq Ql !\&
1919the first character of the character class.
1920A caret
1921.Pq Ql ^
1922has the same effect but is non-standard.
1923.Pp
1924To include a
1925.Ql \&]
1926in a character class, make it the first character listed
1927(after the
1928.Ql \&!
1929or
1930.Ql ^ ,
1931if any).
1932To include a
1933.Ql - ,
1934make it the first or last character listed.
1935.Ss Built-in Commands
1936This section lists the built-in commands.
1937.Bl -tag -width indent
1938.It Ic \&:
1939A null command that returns a 0 (true) exit value.
1940.It Ic \&. Ar file
1941The commands in the specified file are read and executed by the shell.
1942The
1943.Ic return
1944command may be used to return to the
1945.Ic \&.
1946command's caller.
1947If
1948.Ar file
1949contains any
1950.Ql /
1951characters, it is used as is.
1952Otherwise, the shell searches the
1953.Va PATH
1954for the file.
1955If it is not found in the
1956.Va PATH ,
1957it is sought in the current working directory.
1958.It Ic \&[
1959A built-in equivalent of
1960.Xr test 1 .
1961.It Ic alias Oo Ar name Ns Oo = Ns Ar string Oc ... Oc
1962If
1963.Ar name Ns = Ns Ar string
1964is specified, the shell defines the alias
1965.Ar name
1966with value
1967.Ar string .
1968If just
1969.Ar name
1970is specified, the value of the alias
1971.Ar name
1972is printed.
1973With no arguments, the
1974.Ic alias
1975built-in command prints the names and values of all defined aliases
1976(see
1977.Ic unalias ) .
1978Alias values are written with appropriate quoting so that they are
1979suitable for re-input to the shell.
1980Also see the
1981.Sx Aliases
1982subsection.
1983.It Ic bg Op Ar job ...
1984Continue the specified jobs
1985(or the current job if no jobs are given)
1986in the background.
1987.It Ic bind Oo Fl aeklrsv Oc Oo Ar key Oo Ar command Oc Oc
1988List or alter key bindings for the line editor.
1989This command is documented in
1990.Xr editrc 5 .
1991.It Ic break Op Ar num
1992See the
1993.Sx Flow-Control Constructs
1994subsection.
1995.It Ic builtin Ar cmd Op Ar arg ...
1996Execute the specified built-in command,
1997.Ar cmd .
1998This is useful when the user wishes to override a shell function
1999with the same name as a built-in command.
2000.It Ic cd Oo Fl L | P Oc Oo Fl e Oc Op Ar directory
2001.It Ic cd Fl
2002Switch to the specified
2003.Ar directory ,
2004to the directory specified in the
2005.Va HOME
2006environment variable if no
2007.Ar directory
2008is specified or
2009to the directory specified in the
2010.Va OLDPWD
2011environment variable if
2012.Ar directory
2013is
2014.Fl .
2015If
2016.Ar directory
2017does not begin with
2018.Pa / , \&. ,
2019or
2020.Pa .. ,
2021then the directories listed in the
2022.Va CDPATH
2023variable will be
2024searched for the specified
2025.Ar directory .
2026If
2027.Va CDPATH
2028is unset, the current directory is searched.
2029The format of
2030.Va CDPATH
2031is the same as that of
2032.Va PATH .
2033In an interactive shell,
2034the
2035.Ic cd
2036command will print out the name of the directory
2037that it actually switched to
2038if the
2039.Va CDPATH
2040mechanism was used or if
2041.Ar directory
2042was
2043.Fl .
2044.Pp
2045If the
2046.Fl P
2047option is specified,
2048.Pa ..
2049is handled physically and symbolic links are resolved before
2050.Pa ..
2051components are processed.
2052If the
2053.Fl L
2054option is specified,
2055.Pa ..
2056is handled logically.
2057This is the default.
2058.Pp
2059The
2060.Fl e
2061option causes
2062.Ic cd
2063to return exit status 1 if the full pathname of the new directory
2064cannot be determined reliably or at all.
2065Normally this is not considered an error,
2066although a warning is printed.
2067.Pp
2068If changing the directory fails, the exit status is greater than 1.
2069If the directory is changed, the exit status is 0, or also 1 if
2070.Fl e
2071was given.
2072.It Ic chdir
2073A synonym for the
2074.Ic cd
2075built-in command.
2076.It Ic command Oo Fl p Oc Op Ar utility Op Ar argument ...
2077.It Ic command Oo Fl p Oc Fl v Ar utility
2078.It Ic command Oo Fl p Oc Fl V Ar utility
2079The first form of invocation executes the specified
2080.Ar utility ,
2081ignoring shell functions in the search.
2082If
2083.Ar utility
2084is a special builtin,
2085it is executed as if it were a regular builtin.
2086.Pp
2087If the
2088.Fl p
2089option is specified, the command search is performed using a
2090default value of
2091.Va PATH
2092that is guaranteed to find all of the standard utilities.
2093.Pp
2094If the
2095.Fl v
2096option is specified,
2097.Ar utility
2098is not executed but a description of its interpretation by the shell is
2099printed.
2100For ordinary commands the output is the path name; for shell built-in
2101commands, shell functions and keywords only the name is written.
2102Aliases are printed as
2103.Dq Ic alias Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value .
2104.Pp
2105The
2106.Fl V
2107option is identical to
2108.Fl v
2109except for the output.
2110It prints
2111.Dq Ar utility Ic is Ar description
2112where
2113.Ar description
2114is either
2115the path name to
2116.Ar utility ,
2117a special shell builtin,
2118a shell builtin,
2119a shell function,
2120a shell keyword
2121or
2122an alias for
2123.Ar value .
2124.It Ic continue Op Ar num
2125See the
2126.Sx Flow-Control Constructs
2127subsection.
2128.It Ic echo Oo Fl e | n Oc Op Ar string ...
2129Print a space-separated list of the arguments to the standard output
2130and append a newline character.
2131.Bl -tag -width indent
2132.It Fl n
2133Suppress the output of the trailing newline.
2134.It Fl e
2135Process C-style backslash escape sequences.
2136The
2137.Ic echo
2138command understands the following character escapes:
2139.Bl -tag -width indent
2140.It \ea
2141Alert (ring the terminal bell)
2142.It \eb
2143Backspace
2144.It \ec
2145Suppress the trailing newline (this has the side-effect of truncating the
2146line if it is not the last character)
2147.It \ee
2148The ESC character (ASCII 0x1b)
2149.It \ef
2150Formfeed
2151.It \en
2152Newline
2153.It \er
2154Carriage return
2155.It \et
2156Horizontal tab
2157.It \ev
2158Vertical tab
2159.It \e\e
2160Literal backslash
2161.It \e0nnn
2162(Zero) The character whose octal value is
2163.Ar nnn
2164.El
2165.Pp
2166If
2167.Ar string
2168is not enclosed in quotes then the backslash itself must be escaped
2169with a backslash to protect it from the shell.
2170For example
2171.Bd -literal -offset indent
2172$ echo -e "a\evb"
2173a
2174 b
2175$ echo -e a\e\evb
2176a
2177 b
2178$ echo -e "a\e\eb"
2179a\eb
2180$ echo -e a\e\e\e\eb
2181a\eb
2182.Ed
2183.El
2184.Pp
2185Only one of the
2186.Fl e
2187and
2188.Fl n
2189options may be specified.
2190.It Ic eval Ar string ...
2191Concatenate all the arguments with spaces.
2192Then re-parse and execute the command.
2193.It Ic exec Op Ar command Op arg ...
2194Unless
2195.Ar command
2196is omitted,
2197the shell process is replaced with the specified program
2198(which must be a real program, not a shell built-in command or function).
2199Any redirections on the
2200.Ic exec
2201command are marked as permanent,
2202so that they are not undone when the
2203.Ic exec
2204command finishes.
2205.It Ic exit Op Ar exitstatus
2206Terminate the shell process.
2207If
2208.Ar exitstatus
2209is given
2210it is used as the exit status of the shell.
2211Otherwise, if the shell is executing an
2212.Cm EXIT
2213trap, the exit status of the last command before the trap is used;
2214if the shell is executing a trap for a signal,
2215the shell exits by resending the signal to itself.
2216Otherwise, the exit status of the preceding command is used.
2217The exit status should be an integer between 0 and 255.
2218.It Ic export Ar name ...
2219.It Ic export Op Fl p
2220The specified names are exported so that they will
2221appear in the environment of subsequent commands.
2222The only way to un-export a variable is to
2223.Ic unset
2224it.
2225The shell allows the value of a variable to be set
2226at the same time as it is exported by writing
2227.Pp
2228.D1 Ic export Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
2229.Pp
2230With no arguments the
2231.Ic export
2232command lists the names
2233of all exported variables.
2234If the
2235.Fl p
2236option is specified, the exported variables are printed as
2237.Dq Ic export Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
2238lines, suitable for re-input to the shell.
2239.It Ic false
2240A null command that returns a non-zero (false) exit value.
2241.It Ic fc Oo Fl e Ar editor Oc Op Ar first Op Ar last
2242.It Ic fc Fl l Oo Fl nr Oc Op Ar first Op Ar last
2243.It Ic fc Fl s Oo Ar old Ns = Ns Ar new Oc Op Ar first
2244The
2245.Ic fc
2246built-in command lists, or edits and re-executes,
2247commands previously entered to an interactive shell.
2248.Bl -tag -width indent
2249.It Fl e Ar editor
2250Use the editor named by
2251.Ar editor
2252to edit the commands.
2253The
2254.Ar editor
2255string is a command name,
2256subject to search via the
2257.Va PATH
2258variable.
2259The value in the
2260.Va FCEDIT
2261variable is used as a default when
2262.Fl e
2263is not specified.
2264If
2265.Va FCEDIT
2266is null or unset, the value of the
2267.Va EDITOR
2268variable is used.
2269If
2270.Va EDITOR
2271is null or unset,
2272.Xr ed 1
2273is used as the editor.
2274.It Fl l No (ell)
2275List the commands rather than invoking
2276an editor on them.
2277The commands are written in the
2278sequence indicated by the
2279.Ar first
2280and
2281.Ar last
2282operands, as affected by
2283.Fl r ,
2284with each command preceded by the command number.
2285.It Fl n
2286Suppress command numbers when listing with
2287.Fl l .
2288.It Fl r
2289Reverse the order of the commands listed
2290(with
2291.Fl l )
2292or edited
2293(with neither
2294.Fl l
2295nor
2296.Fl s ) .
2297.It Fl s
2298Re-execute the command without invoking an editor.
2299.It Ar first
2300.It Ar last
2301Select the commands to list or edit.
2302The number of previous commands that can be accessed
2303are determined by the value of the
2304.Va HISTSIZE
2305variable.
2306The value of
2307.Ar first
2308or
2309.Ar last
2310or both are one of the following:
2311.Bl -tag -width indent
2312.It Oo Cm + Oc Ns Ar num
2313A positive number representing a command number;
2314command numbers can be displayed with the
2315.Fl l
2316option.
2317.It Fl Ar num
2318A negative decimal number representing the
2319command that was executed
2320.Ar num
2321of
2322commands previously.
2323For example, \-1 is the immediately previous command.
2324.It Ar string
2325A string indicating the most recently entered command
2326that begins with that string.
2327If the
2328.Ar old Ns = Ns Ar new
2329operand is not also specified with
2330.Fl s ,
2331the string form of the first operand cannot contain an embedded equal sign.
2332.El
2333.El
2334.Pp
2335The following variables affect the execution of
2336.Ic fc :
2337.Bl -tag -width ".Va HISTSIZE"
2338.It Va FCEDIT
2339Name of the editor to use for history editing.
2340.It Va HISTSIZE
2341The number of previous commands that are accessible.
2342.El
2343.It Ic fg Op Ar job
2344Move the specified
2345.Ar job
2346or the current job to the foreground.
2347.It Ic getopts Ar optstring var
2348The POSIX
2349.Ic getopts
2350command.
2351The
2352.Ic getopts
2353command deprecates the older
2354.Xr getopt 1
2355command.
2356The first argument should be a series of letters, each possibly
2357followed by a colon which indicates that the option takes an argument.
2358The specified variable is set to the parsed option.
2359The index of
2360the next argument is placed into the shell variable
2361.Va OPTIND .
2362If an option takes an argument, it is placed into the shell variable
2363.Va OPTARG .
2364If an invalid option is encountered,
2365.Ar var
2366is set to
2367.Ql \&? .
2368It returns a false value (1) when it encounters the end of the options.
2369A new set of arguments may be parsed by assigning
2370.Li OPTIND=1 .
2371.It Ic hash Oo Fl rv Oc Op Ar command ...
2372The shell maintains a hash table which remembers the locations of commands.
2373With no arguments whatsoever, the
2374.Ic hash
2375command prints out the contents of this table.
2376.Pp
2377With arguments, the
2378.Ic hash
2379command removes each specified
2380.Ar command
2381from the hash table (unless they are functions) and then locates it.
2382With the
2383.Fl v
2384option,
2385.Ic hash
2386prints the locations of the commands as it finds them.
2387The
2388.Fl r
2389option causes the
2390.Ic hash
2391command to delete all the entries in the hash table except for functions.
2392.It Ic jobid Op Ar job
2393Print the process IDs of the processes in the specified
2394.Ar job .
2395If the
2396.Ar job
2397argument is omitted, use the current job.
2398.It Ic jobs Oo Fl lps Oc Op Ar job ...
2399Print information about the specified jobs, or all jobs if no
2400.Ar job
2401argument is given.
2402The information printed includes job ID, status and command name.
2403.Pp
2404If the
2405.Fl l
2406option is specified, the PID of each job is also printed.
2407If the
2408.Fl p
2409option is specified, only the process IDs for the process group leaders
2410are printed, one per line.
2411If the
2412.Fl s
2413option is specified, only the PIDs of the job commands are printed, one per
2414line.
2415.It Ic kill
2416A built-in equivalent of
2417.Xr kill 1
2418that additionally supports sending signals to jobs.
2419.It Ic local Oo Ar variable ... Oc Op Fl
2420See the
2421.Sx Functions
2422subsection.
2423.It Ic printf
2424A built-in equivalent of
2425.Xr printf 1 .
2426.It Ic pwd Op Fl L | P
2427Print the path of the current directory.
2428The built-in command may
2429differ from the program of the same name because the
2430built-in command remembers what the current directory
2431is rather than recomputing it each time.
2432This makes
2433it faster.
2434However, if the current directory is
2435renamed,
2436the built-in version of
2437.Xr pwd 1
2438will continue to print the old name for the directory.
2439.Pp
2440If the
2441.Fl P
2442option is specified, symbolic links are resolved.
2443If the
2444.Fl L
2445option is specified, the shell's notion of the current directory
2446is printed (symbolic links are not resolved).
2447This is the default.
2448.It Ic read Oo Fl p Ar prompt Oc Oo
2449.Fl t Ar timeout Oc Oo Fl er Oc Ar variable ...
2450The
2451.Ar prompt
2452is printed if the
2453.Fl p
2454option is specified
2455and the standard input is a terminal.
2456Then a line is
2457read from the standard input.
2458The trailing newline
2459is deleted from the line and the line is split as
2460described in the section on
2461.Sx White Space Splitting (Field Splitting)\&
2462above, and
2463the pieces are assigned to the variables in order.
2464If there are more pieces than variables, the remaining
2465pieces (along with the characters in
2466.Va IFS
2467that separated them)
2468are assigned to the last variable.
2469If there are more variables than pieces, the remaining
2470variables are assigned the null string.
2471.Pp
2472Backslashes are treated specially, unless the
2473.Fl r
2474option is
2475specified.
2476If a backslash is followed by
2477a newline, the backslash and the newline will be
2478deleted.
2479If a backslash is followed by any other
2480character, the backslash will be deleted and the following
2481character will be treated as though it were not in
2482.Va IFS ,
2483even if it is.
2484.Pp
2485If the
2486.Fl t
2487option is specified and the
2488.Ar timeout
2489elapses before a complete line of input is supplied,
2490the
2491.Ic read
2492command will return an exit status as if terminated by
2493.Dv SIGALRM
2494without assigning any values.
2495The
2496.Ar timeout
2497value may optionally be followed by one of
2498.Ql s ,
2499.Ql m
2500or
2501.Ql h
2502to explicitly specify seconds, minutes or hours.
2503If none is supplied,
2504.Ql s
2505is assumed.
2506.Pp
2507The
2508.Fl e
2509option exists only for backward compatibility with older scripts.
2510.Pp
2511The exit status is 0 on success, 1 on end of file,
2512between 2 and 128 if an error occurs
2513and greater than 128 if a trapped signal interrupts
2514.Ic read .
2515.It Ic readonly Oo Fl p Oc Op Ar name ...
2516Each specified
2517.Ar name
2518is marked as read only,
2519so that it cannot be subsequently modified or unset.
2520The shell allows the value of a variable to be set
2521at the same time as it is marked read only
2522by using the following form:
2523.Pp
2524.D1 Ic readonly Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
2525.Pp
2526With no arguments the
2527.Ic readonly
2528command lists the names of all read only variables.
2529If the
2530.Fl p
2531option is specified, the read-only variables are printed as
2532.Dq Ic readonly Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
2533lines, suitable for re-input to the shell.
2534.It Ic return Op Ar exitstatus
2535See the
2536.Sx Functions
2537subsection.
2538.It Ic set Oo Fl /+abCEefIimnpTuVvx Oc Oo Fl /+o Ar longname
2539.Oc Op Fl - Ar arg ...
2540The
2541.Ic set
2542command performs three different functions:
2543.Bl -item
2544.It
2545With no arguments, it lists the values of all shell variables.
2546.It
2547If options are given,
2548either in short form or using the long
2549.Dq Fl /+o Ar longname
2550form,
2551it sets or clears the specified options as described in the section called
2552.Sx Argument List Processing .
2553.It
2554If the
2555.Dq Fl -
2556option is specified,
2557.Ic set
2558will replace the shell's positional parameters with the subsequent
2559arguments.
2560If no arguments follow the
2561.Dq Fl -
2562option,
2563all the positional parameters will be cleared,
2564which is equivalent to executing the command
2565.Dq Li "shift $#" .
2566The
2567.Dq Fl -
2568flag may be omitted when specifying arguments to be used
2569as positional replacement parameters.
2570This is not recommended,
2571because the first argument may begin with a dash
2572.Pq Ql -
2573or a plus
2574.Pq Ql + ,
2575which the
2576.Ic set
2577command will interpret as a request to enable or disable options.
2578.El
2579.It Ic setvar Ar variable value
2580Assigns the specified
2581.Ar value
2582to the specified
2583.Ar variable .
2584The
2585.Ic setvar
2586command is intended to be used in functions that
2587assign values to variables whose names are passed as parameters.
2588In general it is better to write
2589.Dq Ar variable Ns = Ns Ar value
2590rather than using
2591.Ic setvar .
2592.It Ic shift Op Ar n
2593Shift the positional parameters
2594.Ar n
2595times, or once if
2596.Ar n
2597is not specified.
2598A shift sets the value of
2599.Li $1
2600to the value of
2601.Li $2 ,
2602the value of
2603.Li $2
2604to the value of
2605.Li $3 ,
2606and so on,
2607decreasing the value of
2608.Li $#
2609by one.
2610For portability, shifting if there are zero positional parameters
2611should be avoided, since the shell may abort.
2612.It Ic test
2613A built-in equivalent of
2614.Xr test 1 .
2615.It Ic times
2616Print the amount of time spent executing the shell process and its children.
2617The first output line shows the user and system times for the shell process
2618itself, the second one contains the user and system times for the
2619children.
2620.It Ic trap Oo Ar action Oc Ar signal ...
2621.It Ic trap Fl l
2622Cause the shell to parse and execute
2623.Ar action
2624when any specified
2625.Ar signal
2626is received.
2627The signals are specified by name or number.
2628In addition, the pseudo-signal
2629.Cm EXIT
2630may be used to specify an
2631.Ar action
2632that is performed when the shell terminates.
2633The
2634.Ar action
2635may be an empty string or a dash
2636.Pq Ql - ;
2637the former causes the specified signal to be ignored
2638and the latter causes the default action to be taken.
2639Omitting the
2640.Ar action
2641and using only signal numbers is another way to request the default action.
2642In a subshell or utility environment,
2643the shell resets trapped (but not ignored) signals to the default action.
2644The
2645.Ic trap
2646command has no effect on signals that were ignored on entry to the shell.
2647.Pp
2648Option
2649.Fl l
2650causes the
2651.Ic trap
2652command to display a list of valid signal names.
2653.It Ic true
2654A null command that returns a 0 (true) exit value.
2655.It Ic type Op Ar name ...
2656Interpret each
2657.Ar name
2658as a command and print the resolution of the command search.
2659Possible resolutions are:
2660shell keyword, alias, special shell builtin, shell builtin, command,
2661tracked alias
2662and not found.
2663For aliases the alias expansion is printed;
2664for commands and tracked aliases
2665the complete pathname of the command is printed.
2666.It Ic ulimit Oo Fl HSabcdfklmnopstuvw Oc Op Ar limit
2667Set or display resource limits (see
2668.Xr getrlimit 2 ) .
2669If
2670.Ar limit
2671is specified, the named resource will be set;
2672otherwise the current resource value will be displayed.
2673.Pp
2674If
2675.Fl H
2676is specified, the hard limits will be set or displayed.
2677While everybody is allowed to reduce a hard limit,
2678only the superuser can increase it.
2679The
2680.Fl S
2681option
2682specifies the soft limits instead.
2683When displaying limits,
2684only one of
2685.Fl S
2686or
2687.Fl H
2688can be given.
2689The default is to display the soft limits,
2690and to set both the hard and the soft limits.
2691.Pp
2692Option
2693.Fl a
2694causes the
2695.Ic ulimit
2696command to display all resources.
2697The parameter
2698.Ar limit
2699is not acceptable in this mode.
2700.Pp
2701The remaining options specify which resource value is to be
2702displayed or modified.
2703They are mutually exclusive.
2704.Bl -tag -width indent
2705.It Fl b Ar sbsize
2706The maximum size of socket buffer usage, in bytes.
2707.It Fl c Ar coredumpsize
2708The maximal size of core dump files, in 512-byte blocks.
2709Setting
2710.Ar coredumpsize
2711to 0 prevents core dump files from being created.
2712.It Fl d Ar datasize
2713The maximal size of the data segment of a process, in kilobytes.
2714.It Fl f Ar filesize
2715The maximal size of a file, in 512-byte blocks.
2716.It Fl k Ar kqueues
2717The maximal number of kqueues
2718(see
2719.Xr kqueue 2 )
2720for this user ID.
2721.It Fl l Ar lockedmem
2722The maximal size of memory that can be locked by a process, in
2723kilobytes.
2724.It Fl m Ar memoryuse
2725The maximal resident set size of a process, in kilobytes.
2726.It Fl n Ar nofiles
2727The maximal number of descriptors that could be opened by a process.
2728.It Fl o Ar umtxp
2729The maximal number of process-shared locks
2730(see
2731.Xr pthread 3 )
2732for this user ID.
2733.It Fl p Ar pseudoterminals
2734The maximal number of pseudo-terminals for this user ID.
2735.It Fl s Ar stacksize
2736The maximal size of the stack segment, in kilobytes.
2737.It Fl t Ar time
2738The maximal amount of CPU time to be used by each process, in seconds.
2739.It Fl u Ar userproc
2740The maximal number of simultaneous processes for this user ID.
2741.It Fl v Ar virtualmem
2742The maximal virtual size of a process, in kilobytes.
2743.It Fl w Ar swapuse
2744The maximum amount of swap space reserved or used for this user ID,
2745in kilobytes.
2746.El
2747.It Ic umask Oo Fl S Oc Op Ar mask
2748Set the file creation mask (see
2749.Xr umask 2 )
2750to the octal or symbolic (see
2751.Xr chmod 1 )
2752value specified by
2753.Ar mask .
2754If the argument is omitted, the current mask value is printed.
2755If the
2756.Fl S
2757option is specified, the output is symbolic, otherwise the output is octal.
2758.It Ic unalias Oo Fl a Oc Op Ar name ...
2759The specified alias names are removed.
2760If
2761.Fl a
2762is specified, all aliases are removed.
2763.It Ic unset Oo Fl fv Oc Ar name ...
2764The specified variables or functions are unset and unexported.
2765If the
2766.Fl v
2767option is specified or no options are given, the
2768.Ar name
2769arguments are treated as variable names.
2770If the
2771.Fl f
2772option is specified, the
2773.Ar name
2774arguments are treated as function names.
2775.It Ic wait Op Ar job ...
2776Wait for each specified
2777.Ar job
2778to complete and return the exit status of the last process in the
2779last specified
2780.Ar job .
2781If any
2782.Ar job
2783specified is unknown to the shell, it is treated as if it
2784were a known job that exited with exit status 127.
2785If no operands are given, wait for all jobs to complete
2786and return an exit status of zero.
2787.El
2788.Ss Command Line Editing
2789When
2790.Nm
2791is being used interactively from a terminal, the current command
2792and the command history
2793(see
2794.Ic fc
2795in
2796.Sx Built-in Commands )
2797can be edited using
2798.Nm vi Ns -mode
2799command line editing.
2800This mode uses commands similar
2801to a subset of those described in the
2802.Xr vi 1
2803man page.
2804The command
2805.Dq Li "set -o vi"
2806(or
2807.Dq Li "set -V" )
2808enables
2809.Nm vi Ns -mode
2810editing and places
2811.Nm
2812into
2813.Nm vi
2814insert mode.
2815With
2816.Nm vi Ns -mode
2817enabled,
2818.Nm
2819can be switched between insert mode and command mode by typing
2820.Aq ESC .
2821Hitting
2822.Aq return
2823while in command mode will pass the line to the shell.
2824.Pp
2825Similarly, the
2826.Dq Li "set -o emacs"
2827(or
2828.Dq Li "set -E" )
2829command can be used to enable a subset of
2830.Nm emacs Ns -style
2831command line editing features.
2832.Sh ENVIRONMENT
2833The following environment variables affect the execution of
2834.Nm :
2835.Bl -tag -width ".Ev LANGXXXXXX"
2836.It Ev ENV
2837Initialization file for interactive shells.
2838.It Ev LANG , Ev LC_*
2839Locale settings.
2840These are inherited by children of the shell,
2841and is used in a limited manner by the shell itself.
2842.It Ev OLDPWD
2843The previous current directory.
2844This is used and updated by
2845.Ic cd .
2846.It Ev PWD
2847An absolute pathname for the current directory,
2848possibly containing symbolic links.
2849This is used and updated by the shell.
2850.It Ev TERM
2851The default terminal setting for the shell.
2852This is inherited by children of the shell, and is used in the history
2853editing modes.
2854.El
2855.Pp
2856Additionally, environment variables are turned into shell variables
2857at startup,
2858which may affect the shell as described under
2859.Sx Special Variables .
2860.Sh FILES
2861.Bl -tag -width "/etc/suid_profileXX" -compact
2862.It Pa ~/.profile
2863User's login profile.
2864.It Pa /etc/profile
2865System login profile.
2866.It Pa /etc/shells
2867Shell database.
2868.It Pa /etc/suid_profile
2869Privileged shell profile.
2870.El
2871.Sh EXIT STATUS
2872If the
2873.Ar script
2874cannot be found, the exit status will be 127;
2875if it cannot be opened for another reason, the exit status will be 126.
2876Other errors that are detected by the shell, such as a syntax error, will
2877cause the shell to exit with a non-zero exit status.
2878If the shell is not an interactive shell, the execution of the shell
2879file will be aborted.
2880Otherwise the shell will return the exit status of the last command
2881executed, or if the
2882.Ic exit
2883builtin is used with a numeric argument, it
2884will return the argument.
2885.Sh SEE ALSO
2886.Xr builtin 1 ,
2887.Xr chsh 1 ,
2888.Xr echo 1 ,
2889.Xr ed 1 ,
2890.Xr emacs 1 Pq Pa ports/editors/emacs ,
2891.Xr kill 1 ,
2892.Xr printf 1 ,
2893.Xr pwd 1 ,
2894.Xr test 1 ,
2895.Xr vi 1 ,
2896.Xr execve 2 ,
2897.Xr getrlimit 2 ,
2898.Xr umask 2 ,
2899.Xr wctype 3 ,
2900.Xr editrc 5 ,
2901.Xr shells 5
2902.Sh HISTORY
2903A
2904.Nm
2905command, the Thompson shell, appeared in
2906.At v1 .
2907It was superseded in
2908.At v7
2909by the Bourne shell, which inherited the name
2910.Nm .
2911.Pp
2912This version of
2913.Nm
2914was rewritten in 1989 under the
2915.Bx
2916license after the Bourne shell from
2917.At V.4 .
2918.Sh AUTHORS
2919This version of
2920.Nm
2921was originally written by
2922.An Kenneth Almquist .
2923.Sh BUGS
2924The
2925.Nm
2926utility does not recognize multibyte characters other than UTF-8.
2927Splitting using
2928.Va IFS
2929does not recognize multibyte characters.
2930