xref: /freebsd/bin/sh/sh.1 (revision 895a7e604db4ddf2b5d58833a82c2b4956585d02)
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 July 6, 2020
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
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.El
359.Pp
360The
361.Fl c
362option causes the commands to be read from the
363.Ar string
364operand instead of from the standard input.
365Keep in mind that this option only accepts a single string as its
366argument, hence multi-word strings must be quoted.
367.Pp
368The
369.Fl /+o
370option takes as its only argument the long name of an option
371to be enabled or disabled.
372For example, the following two invocations of
373.Nm
374both enable the built-in
375.Xr emacs 1
376command line editor:
377.Bd -literal -offset indent
378set -E
379set -o emacs
380.Ed
381.Pp
382If used without an argument, the
383.Fl o
384option displays the current option settings in a human-readable format.
385If
386.Cm +o
387is used without an argument, the current option settings are output
388in a format suitable for re-input into the shell.
389.Ss Lexical Structure
390The shell reads input in terms of lines from a file and breaks
391it up into words at whitespace (blanks and tabs), and at
392certain sequences of
393characters called
394.Dq operators ,
395which are special to the shell.
396There are two types of operators: control operators and
397redirection operators (their meaning is discussed later).
398The following is a list of valid operators:
399.Bl -tag -width indent
400.It Control operators:
401.Bl -column "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" -offset center -compact
402.It Li & Ta Li && Ta Li \&( Ta Li \&) Ta Li \en
403.It Li ;; Ta Li ;& Ta Li \&; Ta Li \&| Ta Li ||
404.El
405.It Redirection operators:
406.Bl -column "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" -offset center -compact
407.It Li < Ta Li > Ta Li << Ta Li >> Ta Li <>
408.It Li <& Ta Li >& Ta Li <<- Ta Li >| Ta \&
409.El
410.El
411.Pp
412The character
413.Ql #
414introduces a comment if used at the beginning of a word.
415The word starting with
416.Ql #
417and the rest of the line are ignored.
418.Pp
419ASCII
420.Dv NUL
421characters (character code 0) are not allowed in shell input.
422.Ss Quoting
423Quoting is used to remove the special meaning of certain characters
424or words to the shell, such as operators, whitespace, keywords,
425or alias names.
426.Pp
427There are four types of quoting: matched single quotes,
428dollar-single quotes,
429matched double quotes, and backslash.
430.Bl -tag -width indent
431.It Single Quotes
432Enclosing characters in single quotes preserves the literal
433meaning of all the characters (except single quotes, making
434it impossible to put single-quotes in a single-quoted string).
435.It Dollar-Single Quotes
436Enclosing characters between
437.Li $'
438and
439.Li '
440preserves the literal meaning of all characters
441except backslashes and single quotes.
442A backslash introduces a C-style escape sequence:
443.Bl -tag -width xUnnnnnnnn
444.It \ea
445Alert (ring the terminal bell)
446.It \eb
447Backspace
448.It \ec Ns Ar c
449The control character denoted by
450.Li ^ Ns Ar c
451in
452.Xr stty 1 .
453If
454.Ar c
455is a backslash, it must be doubled.
456.It \ee
457The ESC character (ASCII 0x1b)
458.It \ef
459Formfeed
460.It \en
461Newline
462.It \er
463Carriage return
464.It \et
465Horizontal tab
466.It \ev
467Vertical tab
468.It \e\e
469Literal backslash
470.It \e\&'
471Literal single-quote
472.It \e\&"
473Literal double-quote
474.It \e Ns Ar nnn
475The byte whose octal value is
476.Ar nnn
477(one to three digits)
478.It \ex Ns Ar nn
479The byte whose hexadecimal value is
480.Ar nn
481(one or more digits only the last two of which are used)
482.It \eu Ns Ar nnnn
483The Unicode code point
484.Ar nnnn
485(four hexadecimal digits)
486.It \eU Ns Ar nnnnnnnn
487The Unicode code point
488.Ar nnnnnnnn
489(eight hexadecimal digits)
490.El
491.Pp
492The sequences for Unicode code points are currently only useful with
493UTF-8 locales.
494They reject code point 0 and UTF-16 surrogates.
495.Pp
496If an escape sequence would produce a byte with value 0,
497that byte and the rest of the string until the matching single-quote
498are ignored.
499.Pp
500Any other string starting with a backslash is an error.
501.It Double Quotes
502Enclosing characters within double quotes preserves the literal
503meaning of all characters except dollar sign
504.Pq Ql $ ,
505backquote
506.Pq Ql ` ,
507and backslash
508.Pq Ql \e .
509The backslash inside double quotes is historically weird.
510It remains literal unless it precedes the following characters,
511which it serves to quote:
512.Pp
513.Bl -column "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" -offset center -compact
514.It Li $ Ta Li ` Ta Li \&" Ta Li \e Ta Li \en
515.El
516.It Backslash
517A backslash preserves the literal meaning of the following
518character, with the exception of the newline character
519.Pq Ql \en .
520A backslash preceding a newline is treated as a line continuation.
521.El
522.Ss Keywords
523Keywords or reserved words are words that have special meaning to the
524shell and are recognized at the beginning of a line and
525after a control operator.
526The following are keywords:
527.Bl -column "doneXX" "elifXX" "elseXX" "untilXX" "whileX" -offset center
528.It Li \&! Ta { Ta } Ta Ic case Ta Ic do
529.It Ic done Ta Ic elif Ta Ic else Ta Ic esac Ta Ic fi
530.It Ic for Ta Ic if Ta Ic then Ta Ic until Ta Ic while
531.El
532.Ss Aliases
533An alias is a name and corresponding value set using the
534.Ic alias
535built-in command.
536Wherever the command word of a simple command may occur,
537and after checking for keywords if a keyword may occur, the shell
538checks the word to see if it matches an alias.
539If it does, it replaces it in the input stream with its value.
540For example, if there is an alias called
541.Dq Li lf
542with the value
543.Dq Li "ls -F" ,
544then the input
545.Pp
546.Dl "lf foobar"
547.Pp
548would become
549.Pp
550.Dl "ls -F foobar"
551.Pp
552Aliases are also recognized after an alias
553whose value ends with a space or tab.
554For example, if there is also an alias called
555.Dq Li nohup
556with the value
557.Dq Li "nohup " ,
558then the input
559.Pp
560.Dl "nohup lf foobar"
561.Pp
562would become
563.Pp
564.Dl "nohup ls -F foobar"
565.Pp
566Aliases provide a convenient way for naive users to
567create shorthands for commands without having to learn how
568to create functions with arguments.
569Using aliases in scripts is discouraged
570because the command that defines them must be executed
571before the code that uses them is parsed.
572This is fragile and not portable.
573.Pp
574An alias name may be escaped in a command line, so that it is not
575replaced by its alias value, by using quoting characters within or
576adjacent to the alias name.
577This is most often done by prefixing
578an alias name with a backslash to execute a function, built-in, or
579normal program with the same name.
580See the
581.Sx Quoting
582subsection.
583.Ss Commands
584The shell interprets the words it reads according to a
585language, the specification of which is outside the scope
586of this man page (refer to the BNF in the
587.St -p1003.2
588document).
589Essentially though, a line is read and if
590the first word of the line (or after a control operator)
591is not a keyword, then the shell has recognized a
592simple command.
593Otherwise, a complex command or some
594other special construct may have been recognized.
595.Ss Simple Commands
596If a simple command has been recognized, the shell performs
597the following actions:
598.Bl -enum
599.It
600Leading words of the form
601.Dq Li name=value
602are stripped off and assigned to the environment of
603the simple command
604(they do not affect expansions).
605Redirection operators and
606their arguments (as described below) are stripped
607off and saved for processing.
608.It
609The remaining words are expanded as described in
610the section called
611.Sx Word Expansions ,
612and the first remaining word is considered the command
613name and the command is located.
614The remaining
615words are considered the arguments of the command.
616If no command name resulted, then the
617.Dq Li name=value
618variable assignments recognized in 1) affect the
619current shell.
620.It
621Redirections are performed as described in
622the next section.
623.El
624.Ss Redirections
625Redirections are used to change where a command reads its input
626or sends its output.
627In general, redirections open, close, or
628duplicate an existing reference to a file.
629The overall format
630used for redirection is:
631.Pp
632.D1 Oo Ar n Oc Ar redir-op file
633.Pp
634The
635.Ar redir-op
636is one of the redirection operators mentioned
637previously.
638The following gives some examples of how these
639operators can be used.
640Note that stdin and stdout are commonly used abbreviations
641for standard input and standard output respectively.
642.Bl -tag -width "1234567890XX" -offset indent
643.It Oo Ar n Oc Ns Li > Ar file
644redirect stdout (or file descriptor
645.Ar n )
646to
647.Ar file
648.It Oo Ar n Oc Ns Li >| Ar file
649same as above, but override the
650.Fl C
651option
652.It Oo Ar n Oc Ns Li >> Ar file
653append stdout (or file descriptor
654.Ar n )
655to
656.Ar file
657.It Oo Ar n Oc Ns Li < Ar file
658redirect stdin (or file descriptor
659.Ar n )
660from
661.Ar file
662.It Oo Ar n Oc Ns Li <> Ar file
663redirect stdin (or file descriptor
664.Ar n )
665to and from
666.Ar file
667.It Oo Ar n1 Oc Ns Li <& Ns Ar n2
668duplicate stdin (or file descriptor
669.Ar n1 )
670from file descriptor
671.Ar n2
672.It Oo Ar n Oc Ns Li <&-
673close stdin (or file descriptor
674.Ar n )
675.It Oo Ar n1 Oc Ns Li >& Ns Ar n2
676duplicate stdout (or file descriptor
677.Ar n1 )
678to file descriptor
679.Ar n2
680.It Oo Ar n Oc Ns Li >&-
681close stdout (or file descriptor
682.Ar n )
683.El
684.Pp
685The following redirection is often called a
686.Dq here-document .
687.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
688.Oo Ar n Oc Ns Li << Ar delimiter
689.Ar here-doc-text
690.Ar ...
691.Ar delimiter
692.Ed
693.Pp
694All the text on successive lines up to the delimiter is
695saved away and made available to the command on standard
696input, or file descriptor
697.Ar n
698if it is specified.
699If the
700.Ar delimiter
701as specified on the initial line is quoted, then the
702.Ar here-doc-text
703is treated literally, otherwise the text is subjected to
704parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic
705expansion (as described in the section on
706.Sx Word Expansions ) .
707If the operator is
708.Dq Li <<-
709instead of
710.Dq Li << ,
711then leading tabs
712in the
713.Ar here-doc-text
714are stripped.
715.Ss Search and Execution
716There are three types of commands: shell functions,
717built-in commands, and normal programs.
718The command is searched for (by name) in that order.
719The three types of commands are all executed in a different way.
720.Pp
721When a shell function is executed, all of the shell positional
722parameters (except
723.Li $0 ,
724which remains unchanged) are
725set to the arguments of the shell function.
726The variables which are explicitly placed in the environment of
727the command (by placing assignments to them before the
728function name) are made local to the function and are set
729to the values given.
730Then the command given in the function definition is executed.
731The positional parameters are restored to their original values
732when the command completes.
733This all occurs within the current shell.
734.Pp
735Shell built-in commands are executed internally to the shell, without
736spawning a new process.
737There are two kinds of built-in commands: regular and special.
738Assignments before special builtins persist after they finish
739executing and assignment errors, redirection errors and certain
740operand errors cause a script to be aborted.
741Special builtins cannot be overridden with a function.
742Both regular and special builtins can affect the shell in ways
743normal programs cannot.
744.Pp
745Otherwise, if the command name does not match a function
746or built-in command, the command is searched for as a normal
747program in the file system (as described in the next section).
748When a normal program is executed, the shell runs the program,
749passing the arguments and the environment to the program.
750If the program is not a normal executable file
751(i.e., if it does not begin with the
752.Dq "magic number"
753whose ASCII representation is
754.Dq Li #! ,
755resulting in an
756.Er ENOEXEC
757return value from
758.Xr execve 2 )
759but appears to be a text file,
760the shell will run a new instance of
761.Nm
762to interpret it.
763.Pp
764Note that previous versions of this document
765and the source code itself misleadingly and sporadically
766refer to a shell script without a magic number
767as a
768.Dq "shell procedure" .
769.Ss Path Search
770When locating a command, the shell first looks to see if
771it has a shell function by that name.
772Then it looks for a
773built-in command by that name.
774If a built-in command is not found,
775one of two things happen:
776.Bl -enum
777.It
778Command names containing a slash are simply executed without
779performing any searches.
780.It
781The shell searches each entry in the
782.Va PATH
783variable
784in turn for the command.
785The value of the
786.Va PATH
787variable should be a series of
788entries separated by colons.
789Each entry consists of a
790directory name.
791The current directory
792may be indicated implicitly by an empty directory name,
793or explicitly by a single period.
794.El
795.Ss Command Exit Status
796Each command has an exit status that can influence the behavior
797of other shell commands.
798The paradigm is that a command exits
799with zero for normal or success, and non-zero for failure,
800error, or a false indication.
801The man page for each command
802should indicate the various exit codes and what they mean.
803Additionally, the built-in commands return exit codes, as does
804an executed shell function.
805.Pp
806If a command is terminated by a signal, its exit status is greater than 128.
807The signal name can be found by passing the exit status to
808.Li kill -l .
809.Pp
810If there is no command word,
811the exit status is the exit status of the last command substitution executed,
812or zero if the command does not contain any command substitutions.
813.Ss Complex Commands
814Complex commands are combinations of simple commands
815with control operators or keywords, together creating a larger complex
816command.
817More generally, a command is one of the following:
818.Bl -item -offset indent
819.It
820simple command
821.It
822pipeline
823.It
824list or compound-list
825.It
826compound command
827.It
828function definition
829.El
830.Pp
831Unless otherwise stated, the exit status of a command is
832that of the last simple command executed by the command,
833or zero if no simple command was executed.
834.Ss Pipelines
835A pipeline is a sequence of one or more commands separated
836by the control operator
837.Ql \&| .
838The standard output of all but
839the last command is connected to the standard input
840of the next command.
841The standard output of the last
842command is inherited from the shell, as usual.
843.Pp
844The format for a pipeline is:
845.Pp
846.D1 Oo Li \&! Oc Ar command1 Op Li \&| Ar command2 ...
847.Pp
848The standard output of
849.Ar command1
850is connected to the standard input of
851.Ar command2 .
852The standard input, standard output, or
853both of a command is considered to be assigned by the
854pipeline before any redirection specified by redirection
855operators that are part of the command.
856.Pp
857Note that unlike some other shells,
858.Nm
859executes each process in a pipeline with more than one command
860in a subshell environment and as a child of the
861.Nm
862process.
863.Pp
864If the pipeline is not in the background (discussed later),
865the shell waits for all commands to complete.
866.Pp
867If the keyword
868.Ic !\&
869does not precede the pipeline, the
870exit status is the exit status of the last command specified
871in the pipeline if the
872.Cm pipefail
873option is not set or all commands returned zero,
874or the last non-zero exit status of any command in the pipeline otherwise.
875Otherwise, the exit status is the logical
876NOT of that exit status.
877That is, if
878that status is zero, the exit status is 1; if
879that status is greater than zero, the exit status
880is zero.
881.Pp
882Because pipeline assignment of standard input or standard
883output or both takes place before redirection, it can be
884modified by redirection.
885For example:
886.Pp
887.Dl "command1 2>&1 | command2"
888.Pp
889sends both the standard output and standard error of
890.Ar command1
891to the standard input of
892.Ar command2 .
893.Pp
894A
895.Ql \&;
896or newline terminator causes the preceding
897AND-OR-list
898(described below in the section called
899.Sx Short-Circuit List Operators )
900to be executed sequentially;
901an
902.Ql &
903causes asynchronous execution of the preceding AND-OR-list.
904.Ss Background Commands (&)
905If a command is terminated by the control operator ampersand
906.Pq Ql & ,
907the shell executes the command in a subshell environment (see
908.Sx Grouping Commands Together
909below) and asynchronously;
910the shell does not wait for the command to finish
911before executing the next command.
912.Pp
913The format for running a command in background is:
914.Pp
915.D1 Ar command1 Li & Op Ar command2 Li & Ar ...
916.Pp
917If the shell is not interactive, the standard input of an
918asynchronous command is set to
919.Pa /dev/null .
920.Pp
921The exit status is zero.
922.Ss Lists (Generally Speaking)
923A list is a sequence of zero or more commands separated by
924newlines, semicolons, or ampersands,
925and optionally terminated by one of these three characters.
926The commands in a
927list are executed in the order they are written.
928If command is followed by an ampersand, the shell starts the
929command and immediately proceeds onto the next command;
930otherwise it waits for the command to terminate before
931proceeding to the next one.
932.Ss Short-Circuit List Operators
933.Dq Li &&
934and
935.Dq Li ||
936are AND-OR list operators.
937.Dq Li &&
938executes the first command, and then executes the second command
939if the exit status of the first command is zero.
940.Dq Li ||
941is similar, but executes the second command if the exit
942status of the first command is nonzero.
943.Dq Li &&
944and
945.Dq Li ||
946both have the same priority.
947.Ss Flow-Control Constructs (if, while, for, case)
948The syntax of the
949.Ic if
950command is:
951.Bd -unfilled -offset indent -compact
952.Ic if Ar list
953.Ic then Ar list
954.Oo Ic elif Ar list
955.Ic then Ar list Oc Ar ...
956.Op Ic else Ar list
957.Ic fi
958.Ed
959.Pp
960The exit status is that of selected
961.Ic then
962or
963.Ic else
964list,
965or zero if no list was selected.
966.Pp
967The syntax of the
968.Ic while
969command is:
970.Bd -unfilled -offset indent -compact
971.Ic while Ar list
972.Ic do Ar list
973.Ic done
974.Ed
975.Pp
976The two lists are executed repeatedly while the exit status of the
977first list is zero.
978The
979.Ic until
980command is similar, but has the word
981.Ic until
982in place of
983.Ic while ,
984which causes it to
985repeat until the exit status of the first list is zero.
986.Pp
987The exit status is that of the last execution of the second list,
988or zero if it was never executed.
989.Pp
990The syntax of the
991.Ic for
992command is:
993.Bd -unfilled -offset indent -compact
994.Ic for Ar variable Op Ic in Ar word ...
995.Ic do Ar list
996.Ic done
997.Ed
998.Pp
999If
1000.Ic in
1001and the following words are omitted,
1002.Ic in Li \&"$@\&"
1003is used instead.
1004The words are expanded, and then the list is executed
1005repeatedly with the variable set to each word in turn.
1006The
1007.Ic do
1008and
1009.Ic done
1010commands may be replaced with
1011.Ql {
1012and
1013.Ql } .
1014.Pp
1015The syntax of the
1016.Ic break
1017and
1018.Ic continue
1019commands is:
1020.D1 Ic break Op Ar num
1021.D1 Ic continue Op Ar num
1022.Pp
1023The
1024.Ic break
1025command terminates the
1026.Ar num
1027innermost
1028.Ic for
1029or
1030.Ic while
1031loops.
1032The
1033.Ic continue
1034command continues with the next iteration of the innermost loop.
1035These are implemented as special built-in commands.
1036.Pp
1037The syntax of the
1038.Ic case
1039command is:
1040.Bd -unfilled -offset indent -compact
1041.Ic case Ar word Ic in
1042.Ar pattern ) Ar list Li ;;
1043.Ar ...
1044.Ic esac
1045.Ed
1046.Pp
1047The pattern can actually be one or more patterns
1048(see
1049.Sx Shell Patterns
1050described later),
1051separated by
1052.Ql \&|
1053characters.
1054Tilde expansion, parameter expansion, command substitution,
1055arithmetic expansion and quote removal are applied to the word.
1056Then, each pattern is expanded in turn using tilde expansion,
1057parameter expansion, command substitution and arithmetic expansion and
1058the expanded form of the word is checked against it.
1059If a match is found, the corresponding list is executed.
1060If the selected list is terminated by the control operator
1061.Ql ;&
1062instead of
1063.Ql ;; ,
1064execution continues with the next list,
1065continuing until a list terminated with
1066.Ql ;;
1067or the end of the
1068.Ic case
1069command.
1070.Ss Grouping Commands Together
1071Commands may be grouped by writing either
1072.Pp
1073.Sm off
1074.Bd -literal -offset -ident
1075.Po Ar list Pc
1076.Ed
1077.Sm on
1078.Pp
1079or
1080.Bd -literal -offset -ident
1081.No { Ar list ; }
1082.Ed
1083.Pp
1084The first form executes the commands in a subshell environment.
1085A subshell environment has its own copy of:
1086.Bl -enum
1087.It
1088The current working directory as set by
1089.Ic cd .
1090.It
1091The file creation mask as set by
1092.Ic umask .
1093.It
1094Resource limits as set by
1095.Ic ulimit .
1096.It
1097References to open files.
1098.It
1099Traps as set by
1100.Ic trap .
1101.It
1102Known jobs.
1103.It
1104Positional parameters and variables.
1105.It
1106Shell options.
1107.It
1108Shell functions.
1109.It
1110Shell aliases.
1111.El
1112.Pp
1113These are copied from the parent shell environment,
1114except that trapped (but not ignored) signals are reset to the default action
1115and known jobs are cleared.
1116Any changes do not affect the parent shell environment.
1117.Pp
1118A subshell environment may be implemented as a child process or differently.
1119If job control is enabled in an interactive shell,
1120commands grouped in parentheses can be suspended and continued as a unit.
1121.Pp
1122For compatibility with other shells,
1123two open parentheses in sequence should be separated by whitespace.
1124.Pp
1125The second form never forks another shell,
1126so it is slightly more efficient.
1127Grouping commands together this way allows the user to
1128redirect their output as though they were one program:
1129.Bd -literal -offset indent
1130{ echo -n "hello"; echo " world"; } > greeting
1131.Ed
1132.Ss Functions
1133The syntax of a function definition is
1134.Pp
1135.D1 Ar name Li \&( \&) Ar command
1136.Pp
1137A function definition is an executable statement; when
1138executed it installs a function named
1139.Ar name
1140and returns an
1141exit status of zero.
1142The
1143.Ar command
1144is normally a list
1145enclosed between
1146.Ql {
1147and
1148.Ql } .
1149.Pp
1150Variables may be declared to be local to a function by
1151using the
1152.Ic local
1153command.
1154This should appear as the first statement of a function,
1155and the syntax is:
1156.Pp
1157.D1 Ic local Oo Ar variable ... Oc Op Fl
1158.Pp
1159The
1160.Ic local
1161command is implemented as a built-in command.
1162The exit status is zero
1163unless the command is not in a function or a variable name is invalid.
1164.Pp
1165When a variable is made local, it inherits the initial
1166value and exported and readonly flags from the variable
1167with the same name in the surrounding scope, if there is
1168one.
1169Otherwise, the variable is initially unset.
1170The shell
1171uses dynamic scoping, so that if the variable
1172.Va x
1173is made local to function
1174.Em f ,
1175which then calls function
1176.Em g ,
1177references to the variable
1178.Va x
1179made inside
1180.Em g
1181will refer to the variable
1182.Va x
1183declared inside
1184.Em f ,
1185not to the global variable named
1186.Va x .
1187.Pp
1188The only special parameter that can be made local is
1189.Ql - .
1190Making
1191.Ql -
1192local causes any shell options
1193(including those that only have long names)
1194that are
1195changed via the
1196.Ic set
1197command inside the function to be
1198restored to their original values when the function
1199returns.
1200.Pp
1201The syntax of the
1202.Ic return
1203command is
1204.Pp
1205.D1 Ic return Op Ar exitstatus
1206.Pp
1207It terminates the current executional scope, returning from the closest
1208nested function or sourced script;
1209if no function or sourced script is being executed,
1210it exits the shell instance.
1211The
1212.Ic return
1213command is implemented as a special built-in command.
1214.Ss Variables and Parameters
1215The shell maintains a set of parameters.
1216A parameter
1217denoted by a name
1218(consisting solely
1219of alphabetics, numerics, and underscores,
1220and starting with an alphabetic or an underscore)
1221is called a variable.
1222When starting up,
1223the shell turns all environment variables with valid names into shell
1224variables.
1225New variables can be set using the form
1226.Pp
1227.D1 Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
1228.Pp
1229A parameter can also be denoted by a number
1230or a special character as explained below.
1231.Pp
1232Assignments are expanded differently from other words:
1233tilde expansion is also performed after the equals sign and after any colon
1234and usernames are also terminated by colons,
1235and field splitting and pathname expansion are not performed.
1236.Pp
1237This special expansion applies not only to assignments that form a simple
1238command by themselves or precede a command word,
1239but also to words passed to the
1240.Ic export ,
1241.Ic local
1242or
1243.Ic readonly
1244built-in commands that have this form.
1245For this, the builtin's name must be literal
1246(not the result of an expansion)
1247and may optionally be preceded by one or more literal instances of
1248.Ic command
1249without options.
1250.Ss Positional Parameters
1251A positional parameter is a parameter denoted by a number greater than zero.
1252The shell sets these initially to the values of its command line
1253arguments that follow the name of the shell script.
1254The
1255.Ic set
1256built-in command can also be used to set or reset them.
1257.Ss Special Parameters
1258Special parameters are parameters denoted by a single special character
1259or the digit zero.
1260They are shown in the following list, exactly as they would appear in input
1261typed by the user or in the source of a shell script.
1262.Bl -hang
1263.It Li $*
1264Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one.
1265When
1266the expansion occurs within a double-quoted string
1267it expands to a single field with the value of each parameter
1268separated by the first character of the
1269.Va IFS
1270variable,
1271or by a space if
1272.Va IFS
1273is unset.
1274.It Li $@
1275Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one.
1276When
1277the expansion occurs within double-quotes, each positional
1278parameter expands as a separate argument.
1279If there are no positional parameters, the
1280expansion of
1281.Li @
1282generates zero arguments, even when
1283.Li @
1284is double-quoted.
1285What this basically means, for example, is
1286if
1287.Li $1
1288is
1289.Dq Li abc
1290and
1291.Li $2
1292is
1293.Dq Li "def ghi" ,
1294then
1295.Li \&"$@\&"
1296expands to
1297the two arguments:
1298.Bd -literal -offset indent
1299"abc"   "def ghi"
1300.Ed
1301.It Li $#
1302Expands to the number of positional parameters.
1303.It Li $?
1304Expands to the exit status of the most recent pipeline.
1305.It Li $-
1306(hyphen) Expands to the current option flags (the single-letter
1307option names concatenated into a string) as specified on
1308invocation, by the
1309.Ic set
1310built-in command, or implicitly
1311by the shell.
1312.It Li $$
1313Expands to the process ID of the invoked shell.
1314A subshell
1315retains the same value of
1316.Va $
1317as its parent.
1318.It Li $!
1319Expands to the process ID of the most recent background
1320command executed from the current shell.
1321For a
1322pipeline, the process ID is that of the last command in the
1323pipeline.
1324If this parameter is referenced, the shell will remember
1325the process ID and its exit status until the
1326.Ic wait
1327built-in command reports completion of the process.
1328.It Li $0
1329(zero) Expands to the name of the shell script if passed on the command line,
1330the
1331.Ar name
1332operand if given (with
1333.Fl c )
1334or otherwise argument 0 passed to the shell.
1335.El
1336.Ss Special Variables
1337The following variables are set by the shell or
1338have special meaning to it:
1339.Bl -tag -width ".Va HISTSIZE"
1340.It Va CDPATH
1341The search path used with the
1342.Ic cd
1343built-in.
1344.It Va EDITOR
1345The fallback editor used with the
1346.Ic fc
1347built-in.
1348If not set, the default editor is
1349.Xr ed 1 .
1350.It Va FCEDIT
1351The default editor used with the
1352.Ic fc
1353built-in.
1354.It Va HISTSIZE
1355The number of previous commands that are accessible.
1356.It Va HOME
1357The user's home directory,
1358used in tilde expansion and as a default directory for the
1359.Ic cd
1360built-in.
1361.It Va IFS
1362Input Field Separators.
1363This is initialized at startup to
1364.Aq space ,
1365.Aq tab ,
1366and
1367.Aq newline
1368in that order.
1369This value also applies if
1370.Va IFS
1371is unset, but not if it is set to the empty string.
1372See the
1373.Sx White Space Splitting
1374section for more details.
1375.It Va LINENO
1376The current line number in the script or function.
1377.It Va MAIL
1378The name of a mail file, that will be checked for the arrival of new
1379mail.
1380Overridden by
1381.Va MAILPATH .
1382.It Va MAILPATH
1383A colon
1384.Pq Ql \&:
1385separated list of file names, for the shell to check for incoming
1386mail.
1387This variable overrides the
1388.Va MAIL
1389setting.
1390There is a maximum of 10 mailboxes that can be monitored at once.
1391.It Va OPTIND
1392The index of the next argument to be processed by
1393.Ic getopts .
1394This is initialized to 1 at startup.
1395.It Va PATH
1396The default search path for executables.
1397See the
1398.Sx Path Search
1399section for details.
1400.It Va PPID
1401The parent process ID of the invoked shell.
1402This is set at startup
1403unless this variable is in the environment.
1404A later change of parent process ID is not reflected.
1405A subshell retains the same value of
1406.Va PPID .
1407.It Va PS1
1408The primary prompt string, which defaults to
1409.Dq Li "$ " ,
1410unless you are the superuser, in which case it defaults to
1411.Dq Li "# " .
1412.Va PS1
1413may include any of the following formatting sequences,
1414which are replaced by the given information:
1415.Bl -tag -width indent
1416.It Li \eH
1417This system's fully-qualified hostname (FQDN).
1418.It Li \eh
1419This system's hostname.
1420.It Li \eu
1421User name.
1422.It Li \eW
1423The final component of the current working directory.
1424.It Li \ew
1425The entire path of the current working directory.
1426.It Li \e$
1427Superuser status.
1428.Dq Li "$"
1429for normal users and
1430.Dq Li "#"
1431for superusers.
1432.It Li \e\e
1433A literal backslash.
1434.El
1435.It Va PS2
1436The secondary prompt string, which defaults to
1437.Dq Li "> " .
1438.Va PS2
1439may include any of the formatting sequences from
1440.Va PS1 .
1441.It Va PS4
1442The prefix for the trace output (if
1443.Fl x
1444is active).
1445The default is
1446.Dq Li "+ " .
1447.El
1448.Ss Word Expansions
1449This clause describes the various expansions that are
1450performed on words.
1451Not all expansions are performed on
1452every word, as explained later.
1453.Pp
1454Tilde expansions, parameter expansions, command substitutions,
1455arithmetic expansions, and quote removals that occur within
1456a single word expand to a single field.
1457It is only field
1458splitting or pathname expansion that can create multiple
1459fields from a single word.
1460The single exception to this rule is
1461the expansion of the special parameter
1462.Va @
1463within double-quotes,
1464as was described above.
1465.Pp
1466The order of word expansion is:
1467.Bl -enum
1468.It
1469Tilde Expansion, Parameter Expansion, Command Substitution,
1470Arithmetic Expansion (these all occur at the same time).
1471.It
1472Field Splitting is performed on fields generated by step (1)
1473unless the
1474.Va IFS
1475variable is null.
1476.It
1477Pathname Expansion (unless the
1478.Fl f
1479option is in effect).
1480.It
1481Quote Removal.
1482.El
1483.Pp
1484The
1485.Ql $
1486character is used to introduce parameter expansion, command
1487substitution, or arithmetic expansion.
1488.Ss Tilde Expansion (substituting a user's home directory)
1489A word beginning with an unquoted tilde character
1490.Pq Ql ~
1491is
1492subjected to tilde expansion.
1493All the characters up to a slash
1494.Pq Ql /
1495or the end of the word are treated as a username
1496and are replaced with the user's home directory.
1497If the
1498username is missing (as in
1499.Pa ~/foobar ) ,
1500the tilde is replaced with the value of the
1501.Va HOME
1502variable (the current user's home directory).
1503.Ss Parameter Expansion
1504The format for parameter expansion is as follows:
1505.Pp
1506.D1 Li ${ Ns Ar expression Ns Li }
1507.Pp
1508where
1509.Ar expression
1510consists of all characters until the matching
1511.Ql } .
1512Any
1513.Ql }
1514escaped by a backslash or within a single-quoted or double-quoted
1515string, and characters in
1516embedded arithmetic expansions, command substitutions, and variable
1517expansions, are not examined in determining the matching
1518.Ql } .
1519If the variants with
1520.Ql + ,
1521.Ql - ,
1522.Ql =
1523or
1524.Ql ?\&
1525occur within a double-quoted string,
1526as an extension there may be unquoted parts
1527(via double-quotes inside the expansion);
1528.Ql }
1529within such parts are also not examined in determining the matching
1530.Ql } .
1531.Pp
1532The simplest form for parameter expansion is:
1533.Pp
1534.D1 Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li }
1535.Pp
1536The value, if any, of
1537.Ar parameter
1538is substituted.
1539.Pp
1540The parameter name or symbol can be enclosed in braces, which are
1541optional except for positional parameters with more than one digit or
1542when parameter is followed by a character that could be interpreted as
1543part of the name.
1544If a parameter expansion occurs inside double-quotes:
1545.Bl -enum
1546.It
1547Field splitting is not performed on the results of the
1548expansion, with the exception of the special parameter
1549.Va @ .
1550.It
1551Pathname expansion is not performed on the results of the
1552expansion.
1553.El
1554.Pp
1555In addition, a parameter expansion can be modified by using one of the
1556following formats.
1557.Bl -tag -width indent
1558.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li :- Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1559Use Default Values.
1560If
1561.Ar parameter
1562is unset or null, the expansion of
1563.Ar word
1564is substituted; otherwise, the value of
1565.Ar parameter
1566is substituted.
1567.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li := Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1568Assign Default Values.
1569If
1570.Ar parameter
1571is unset or null, the expansion of
1572.Ar word
1573is assigned to
1574.Ar parameter .
1575In all cases, the
1576final value of
1577.Ar parameter
1578is substituted.
1579Quoting inside
1580.Ar word
1581does not prevent field splitting or pathname expansion.
1582Only variables, not positional
1583parameters or special parameters, can be
1584assigned in this way.
1585.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li :? Ns Oo Ar word Oc Ns Li }
1586Indicate Error if Null or Unset.
1587If
1588.Ar parameter
1589is unset or null, the expansion of
1590.Ar word
1591(or a message indicating it is unset if
1592.Ar word
1593is omitted) is written to standard
1594error and the shell exits with a nonzero
1595exit status.
1596Otherwise, the value of
1597.Ar parameter
1598is substituted.
1599An
1600interactive shell need not exit.
1601.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li :+ Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1602Use Alternate Value.
1603If
1604.Ar parameter
1605is unset or null, null is substituted;
1606otherwise, the expansion of
1607.Ar word
1608is substituted.
1609.El
1610.Pp
1611In the parameter expansions shown previously, use of the colon in the
1612format results in a test for a parameter that is unset or null; omission
1613of the colon results in a test for a parameter that is only unset.
1614.Pp
1615The
1616.Ar word
1617inherits the type of quoting
1618(unquoted, double-quoted or here-document)
1619from the surroundings,
1620with the exception that a backslash that quotes a closing brace is removed
1621during quote removal.
1622.Bl -tag -width indent
1623.It Li ${# Ns Ar parameter Ns Li }
1624String Length.
1625The length in characters of
1626the value of
1627.Ar parameter .
1628.El
1629.Pp
1630The following four varieties of parameter expansion provide for substring
1631processing.
1632In each case, pattern matching notation
1633(see
1634.Sx Shell Patterns ) ,
1635rather than regular expression notation,
1636is used to evaluate the patterns.
1637If parameter is one of the special parameters
1638.Va *
1639or
1640.Va @ ,
1641the result of the expansion is unspecified.
1642Enclosing the full parameter expansion string in double-quotes does not
1643cause the following four varieties of pattern characters to be quoted,
1644whereas quoting characters within the braces has this effect.
1645.Bl -tag -width indent
1646.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li % Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1647Remove Smallest Suffix Pattern.
1648The
1649.Ar word
1650is expanded to produce a pattern.
1651The
1652parameter expansion then results in
1653.Ar parameter ,
1654with the smallest portion of the
1655suffix matched by the pattern deleted.
1656.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li %% Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1657Remove Largest Suffix Pattern.
1658The
1659.Ar word
1660is expanded to produce a pattern.
1661The
1662parameter expansion then results in
1663.Ar parameter ,
1664with the largest portion of the
1665suffix matched by the pattern deleted.
1666.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li # Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1667Remove Smallest Prefix Pattern.
1668The
1669.Ar word
1670is expanded to produce a pattern.
1671The
1672parameter expansion then results in
1673.Ar parameter ,
1674with the smallest portion of the
1675prefix matched by the pattern deleted.
1676.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li ## Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1677Remove Largest Prefix Pattern.
1678The
1679.Ar word
1680is expanded to produce a pattern.
1681The
1682parameter expansion then results in
1683.Ar parameter ,
1684with the largest portion of the
1685prefix matched by the pattern deleted.
1686.El
1687.Ss Command Substitution
1688Command substitution allows the output of a command to be substituted in
1689place of the command name itself.
1690Command substitution occurs when
1691the command is enclosed as follows:
1692.Pp
1693.D1 Li $( Ns Ar command Ns Li )\&
1694.Pp
1695or the backquoted version:
1696.Pp
1697.D1 Li ` Ns Ar command Ns Li `
1698.Pp
1699The shell expands the command substitution by executing command
1700and replacing the command substitution
1701with the standard output of the command,
1702removing sequences of one or more newlines at the end of the substitution.
1703Embedded newlines before the end of the output are not removed;
1704however, during field splitting, they may be translated into spaces
1705depending on the value of
1706.Va IFS
1707and the quoting that is in effect.
1708The command is executed in a subshell environment,
1709except that the built-in commands
1710.Ic jobid ,
1711.Ic jobs ,
1712and
1713.Ic trap
1714return information about the parent shell environment
1715and
1716.Ic times
1717returns information about the same process
1718if they are the only command in a command substitution.
1719.Pp
1720If a command substitution of the
1721.Li $(
1722form begins with a subshell,
1723the
1724.Li $(
1725and
1726.Li (\&
1727must be separated by whitespace
1728to avoid ambiguity with arithmetic expansion.
1729.Ss Arithmetic Expansion
1730Arithmetic expansion provides a mechanism for evaluating an arithmetic
1731expression and substituting its value.
1732The format for arithmetic expansion is as follows:
1733.Pp
1734.D1 Li $(( Ns Ar expression Ns Li ))
1735.Pp
1736The
1737.Ar expression
1738is treated as if it were in double-quotes, except
1739that a double-quote inside the expression is not treated specially.
1740The
1741shell expands all tokens in the
1742.Ar expression
1743for parameter expansion,
1744command substitution,
1745arithmetic expansion
1746and quote removal.
1747.Pp
1748The allowed expressions are a subset of C expressions,
1749summarized below.
1750.Bl -tag -width "Variables" -offset indent
1751.It Values
1752All values are of type
1753.Ft intmax_t .
1754.It Constants
1755Decimal, octal (starting with
1756.Li 0 )
1757and hexadecimal (starting with
1758.Li 0x )
1759integer constants.
1760.It Variables
1761Shell variables can be read and written
1762and contain integer constants.
1763.It Unary operators
1764.Li "! ~ + -"
1765.It Binary operators
1766.Li "* / % + - << >> < <= > >= == != & ^ | && ||"\&
1767.It Assignment operators
1768.Li "= += -= *= /= %= <<= >>= &= ^= |="
1769.It Conditional operator
1770.Li "? :"\&
1771.El
1772.Pp
1773The result of the expression is substituted in decimal.
1774.Ss White Space Splitting (Field Splitting)
1775In certain contexts,
1776after parameter expansion, command substitution, and
1777arithmetic expansion the shell scans the results of
1778expansions and substitutions that did not occur in double-quotes for
1779field splitting and multiple fields can result.
1780.Pp
1781Characters in
1782.Va IFS
1783that are whitespace
1784.Po
1785.Aq space ,
1786.Aq tab ,
1787and
1788.Aq newline
1789.Pc
1790are treated differently from other characters in
1791.Va IFS .
1792.Pp
1793Whitespace in
1794.Va IFS
1795at the beginning or end of a word is discarded.
1796.Pp
1797Subsequently, a field is delimited by either
1798.Bl -enum
1799.It
1800a non-whitespace character in
1801.Va IFS
1802with any whitespace in
1803.Va IFS
1804surrounding it, or
1805.It
1806one or more whitespace characters in
1807.Va IFS .
1808.El
1809.Pp
1810If a word ends with a non-whitespace character in
1811.Va IFS ,
1812there is no empty field after this character.
1813.Pp
1814If no field is delimited, the word is discarded.
1815In particular, if a word consists solely of an unquoted substitution
1816and the result of the substitution is null,
1817it is removed by field splitting even if
1818.Va IFS
1819is null.
1820.Ss Pathname Expansion (File Name Generation)
1821Unless the
1822.Fl f
1823option is set,
1824file name generation is performed
1825after word splitting is complete.
1826Each word is
1827viewed as a series of patterns, separated by slashes.
1828The
1829process of expansion replaces the word with the names of
1830all existing files whose names can be formed by replacing
1831each pattern with a string that matches the specified pattern.
1832There are two restrictions on this: first, a pattern cannot match
1833a string containing a slash, and second,
1834a pattern cannot match a string starting with a period
1835unless the first character of the pattern is a period.
1836The next section describes the patterns used for
1837Pathname Expansion,
1838the four varieties of parameter expansion for substring processing and the
1839.Ic case
1840command.
1841.Ss Shell Patterns
1842A pattern consists of normal characters, which match themselves,
1843and meta-characters.
1844The meta-characters are
1845.Ql * ,
1846.Ql \&? ,
1847and
1848.Ql \&[ .
1849These characters lose their special meanings if they are quoted.
1850When command or variable substitution is performed and the dollar sign
1851or back quotes are not double-quoted, the value of the
1852variable or the output of the command is scanned for these
1853characters and they are turned into meta-characters.
1854.Pp
1855An asterisk
1856.Pq Ql *
1857matches any string of characters.
1858A question mark
1859.Pq Ql \&?
1860matches any single character.
1861A left bracket
1862.Pq Ql \&[
1863introduces a character class.
1864The end of the character class is indicated by a
1865.Ql \&] ;
1866if the
1867.Ql \&]
1868is missing then the
1869.Ql \&[
1870matches a
1871.Ql \&[
1872rather than introducing a character class.
1873A character class matches any of the characters between the square brackets.
1874A locale-dependent range of characters may be specified using a minus sign.
1875A named class of characters (see
1876.Xr wctype 3 )
1877may be specified by surrounding the name with
1878.Ql \&[:\&
1879and
1880.Ql :\&] .
1881For example,
1882.Ql \&[\&[:alpha:\&]\&]
1883is a shell pattern that matches a single letter.
1884The character class may be complemented by making an exclamation point
1885.Pq Ql !\&
1886the first character of the character class.
1887A caret
1888.Pq Ql ^
1889has the same effect but is non-standard.
1890.Pp
1891To include a
1892.Ql \&]
1893in a character class, make it the first character listed
1894(after the
1895.Ql \&!
1896or
1897.Ql ^ ,
1898if any).
1899To include a
1900.Ql - ,
1901make it the first or last character listed.
1902.Ss Built-in Commands
1903This section lists the built-in commands.
1904.Bl -tag -width indent
1905.It Ic \&:
1906A null command that returns a 0 (true) exit value.
1907.It Ic \&. Ar file
1908The commands in the specified file are read and executed by the shell.
1909The
1910.Ic return
1911command may be used to return to the
1912.Ic \&.
1913command's caller.
1914If
1915.Ar file
1916contains any
1917.Ql /
1918characters, it is used as is.
1919Otherwise, the shell searches the
1920.Va PATH
1921for the file.
1922If it is not found in the
1923.Va PATH ,
1924it is sought in the current working directory.
1925.It Ic \&[
1926A built-in equivalent of
1927.Xr test 1 .
1928.It Ic alias Oo Ar name Ns Oo = Ns Ar string Oc ... Oc
1929If
1930.Ar name Ns = Ns Ar string
1931is specified, the shell defines the alias
1932.Ar name
1933with value
1934.Ar string .
1935If just
1936.Ar name
1937is specified, the value of the alias
1938.Ar name
1939is printed.
1940With no arguments, the
1941.Ic alias
1942built-in command prints the names and values of all defined aliases
1943(see
1944.Ic unalias ) .
1945Alias values are written with appropriate quoting so that they are
1946suitable for re-input to the shell.
1947Also see the
1948.Sx Aliases
1949subsection.
1950.It Ic bg Op Ar job ...
1951Continue the specified jobs
1952(or the current job if no jobs are given)
1953in the background.
1954.It Ic bind Oo Fl aeklrsv Oc Oo Ar key Oo Ar command Oc Oc
1955List or alter key bindings for the line editor.
1956This command is documented in
1957.Xr editrc 5 .
1958.It Ic break Op Ar num
1959See the
1960.Sx Flow-Control Constructs
1961subsection.
1962.It Ic builtin Ar cmd Op Ar arg ...
1963Execute the specified built-in command,
1964.Ar cmd .
1965This is useful when the user wishes to override a shell function
1966with the same name as a built-in command.
1967.It Ic cd Oo Fl L | P Oc Oo Fl e Oc Op Ar directory
1968.It Ic cd Fl
1969Switch to the specified
1970.Ar directory ,
1971to the directory specified in the
1972.Va HOME
1973environment variable if no
1974.Ar directory
1975is specified or
1976to the directory specified in the
1977.Va OLDPWD
1978environment variable if
1979.Ar directory
1980is
1981.Fl .
1982If
1983.Ar directory
1984does not begin with
1985.Pa / , \&. ,
1986or
1987.Pa .. ,
1988then the directories listed in the
1989.Va CDPATH
1990variable will be
1991searched for the specified
1992.Ar directory .
1993If
1994.Va CDPATH
1995is unset, the current directory is searched.
1996The format of
1997.Va CDPATH
1998is the same as that of
1999.Va PATH .
2000In an interactive shell,
2001the
2002.Ic cd
2003command will print out the name of the directory
2004that it actually switched to
2005if the
2006.Va CDPATH
2007mechanism was used or if
2008.Ar directory
2009was
2010.Fl .
2011.Pp
2012If the
2013.Fl P
2014option is specified,
2015.Pa ..
2016is handled physically and symbolic links are resolved before
2017.Pa ..
2018components are processed.
2019If the
2020.Fl L
2021option is specified,
2022.Pa ..
2023is handled logically.
2024This is the default.
2025.Pp
2026The
2027.Fl e
2028option causes
2029.Ic cd
2030to return exit status 1 if the full pathname of the new directory
2031cannot be determined reliably or at all.
2032Normally this is not considered an error,
2033although a warning is printed.
2034.Pp
2035If changing the directory fails, the exit status is greater than 1.
2036If the directory is changed, the exit status is 0, or also 1 if
2037.Fl e
2038was given.
2039.It Ic chdir
2040A synonym for the
2041.Ic cd
2042built-in command.
2043.It Ic command Oo Fl p Oc Op Ar utility Op Ar argument ...
2044.It Ic command Oo Fl p Oc Fl v Ar utility
2045.It Ic command Oo Fl p Oc Fl V Ar utility
2046The first form of invocation executes the specified
2047.Ar utility ,
2048ignoring shell functions in the search.
2049If
2050.Ar utility
2051is a special builtin,
2052it is executed as if it were a regular builtin.
2053.Pp
2054If the
2055.Fl p
2056option is specified, the command search is performed using a
2057default value of
2058.Va PATH
2059that is guaranteed to find all of the standard utilities.
2060.Pp
2061If the
2062.Fl v
2063option is specified,
2064.Ar utility
2065is not executed but a description of its interpretation by the shell is
2066printed.
2067For ordinary commands the output is the path name; for shell built-in
2068commands, shell functions and keywords only the name is written.
2069Aliases are printed as
2070.Dq Ic alias Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value .
2071.Pp
2072The
2073.Fl V
2074option is identical to
2075.Fl v
2076except for the output.
2077It prints
2078.Dq Ar utility Ic is Ar description
2079where
2080.Ar description
2081is either
2082the path name to
2083.Ar utility ,
2084a special shell builtin,
2085a shell builtin,
2086a shell function,
2087a shell keyword
2088or
2089an alias for
2090.Ar value .
2091.It Ic continue Op Ar num
2092See the
2093.Sx Flow-Control Constructs
2094subsection.
2095.It Ic echo Oo Fl e | n Oc Op Ar string ...
2096Print a space-separated list of the arguments to the standard output
2097and append a newline character.
2098.Bl -tag -width indent
2099.It Fl n
2100Suppress the output of the trailing newline.
2101.It Fl e
2102Process C-style backslash escape sequences.
2103The
2104.Ic echo
2105command understands the following character escapes:
2106.Bl -tag -width indent
2107.It \ea
2108Alert (ring the terminal bell)
2109.It \eb
2110Backspace
2111.It \ec
2112Suppress the trailing newline (this has the side-effect of truncating the
2113line if it is not the last character)
2114.It \ee
2115The ESC character (ASCII 0x1b)
2116.It \ef
2117Formfeed
2118.It \en
2119Newline
2120.It \er
2121Carriage return
2122.It \et
2123Horizontal tab
2124.It \ev
2125Vertical tab
2126.It \e\e
2127Literal backslash
2128.It \e0nnn
2129(Zero) The character whose octal value is
2130.Ar nnn
2131.El
2132.Pp
2133If
2134.Ar string
2135is not enclosed in quotes then the backslash itself must be escaped
2136with a backslash to protect it from the shell.
2137For example
2138.Bd -literal -offset indent
2139$ echo -e "a\evb"
2140a
2141 b
2142$ echo -e a\e\evb
2143a
2144 b
2145$ echo -e "a\e\eb"
2146a\eb
2147$ echo -e a\e\e\e\eb
2148a\eb
2149.Ed
2150.El
2151.Pp
2152Only one of the
2153.Fl e
2154and
2155.Fl n
2156options may be specified.
2157.It Ic eval Ar string ...
2158Concatenate all the arguments with spaces.
2159Then re-parse and execute the command.
2160.It Ic exec Op Ar command Op arg ...
2161Unless
2162.Ar command
2163is omitted,
2164the shell process is replaced with the specified program
2165(which must be a real program, not a shell built-in command or function).
2166Any redirections on the
2167.Ic exec
2168command are marked as permanent,
2169so that they are not undone when the
2170.Ic exec
2171command finishes.
2172.It Ic exit Op Ar exitstatus
2173Terminate the shell process.
2174If
2175.Ar exitstatus
2176is given
2177it is used as the exit status of the shell.
2178Otherwise, if the shell is executing an
2179.Cm EXIT
2180trap, the exit status of the last command before the trap is used;
2181if the shell is executing a trap for a signal,
2182the shell exits by resending the signal to itself.
2183Otherwise, the exit status of the preceding command is used.
2184The exit status should be an integer between 0 and 255.
2185.It Ic export Ar name ...
2186.It Ic export Op Fl p
2187The specified names are exported so that they will
2188appear in the environment of subsequent commands.
2189The only way to un-export a variable is to
2190.Ic unset
2191it.
2192The shell allows the value of a variable to be set
2193at the same time as it is exported by writing
2194.Pp
2195.D1 Ic export Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
2196.Pp
2197With no arguments the
2198.Ic export
2199command lists the names
2200of all exported variables.
2201If the
2202.Fl p
2203option is specified, the exported variables are printed as
2204.Dq Ic export Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
2205lines, suitable for re-input to the shell.
2206.It Ic false
2207A null command that returns a non-zero (false) exit value.
2208.It Ic fc Oo Fl e Ar editor Oc Op Ar first Op Ar last
2209.It Ic fc Fl l Oo Fl nr Oc Op Ar first Op Ar last
2210.It Ic fc Fl s Oo Ar old Ns = Ns Ar new Oc Op Ar first
2211The
2212.Ic fc
2213built-in command lists, or edits and re-executes,
2214commands previously entered to an interactive shell.
2215.Bl -tag -width indent
2216.It Fl e Ar editor
2217Use the editor named by
2218.Ar editor
2219to edit the commands.
2220The
2221.Ar editor
2222string is a command name,
2223subject to search via the
2224.Va PATH
2225variable.
2226The value in the
2227.Va FCEDIT
2228variable is used as a default when
2229.Fl e
2230is not specified.
2231If
2232.Va FCEDIT
2233is null or unset, the value of the
2234.Va EDITOR
2235variable is used.
2236If
2237.Va EDITOR
2238is null or unset,
2239.Xr ed 1
2240is used as the editor.
2241.It Fl l No (ell)
2242List the commands rather than invoking
2243an editor on them.
2244The commands are written in the
2245sequence indicated by the
2246.Ar first
2247and
2248.Ar last
2249operands, as affected by
2250.Fl r ,
2251with each command preceded by the command number.
2252.It Fl n
2253Suppress command numbers when listing with
2254.Fl l .
2255.It Fl r
2256Reverse the order of the commands listed
2257(with
2258.Fl l )
2259or edited
2260(with neither
2261.Fl l
2262nor
2263.Fl s ) .
2264.It Fl s
2265Re-execute the command without invoking an editor.
2266.It Ar first
2267.It Ar last
2268Select the commands to list or edit.
2269The number of previous commands that can be accessed
2270are determined by the value of the
2271.Va HISTSIZE
2272variable.
2273The value of
2274.Ar first
2275or
2276.Ar last
2277or both are one of the following:
2278.Bl -tag -width indent
2279.It Oo Cm + Oc Ns Ar num
2280A positive number representing a command number;
2281command numbers can be displayed with the
2282.Fl l
2283option.
2284.It Fl Ar num
2285A negative decimal number representing the
2286command that was executed
2287.Ar num
2288of
2289commands previously.
2290For example, \-1 is the immediately previous command.
2291.It Ar string
2292A string indicating the most recently entered command
2293that begins with that string.
2294If the
2295.Ar old Ns = Ns Ar new
2296operand is not also specified with
2297.Fl s ,
2298the string form of the first operand cannot contain an embedded equal sign.
2299.El
2300.El
2301.Pp
2302The following variables affect the execution of
2303.Ic fc :
2304.Bl -tag -width ".Va HISTSIZE"
2305.It Va FCEDIT
2306Name of the editor to use for history editing.
2307.It Va HISTSIZE
2308The number of previous commands that are accessible.
2309.El
2310.It Ic fg Op Ar job
2311Move the specified
2312.Ar job
2313or the current job to the foreground.
2314.It Ic getopts Ar optstring var
2315The POSIX
2316.Ic getopts
2317command.
2318The
2319.Ic getopts
2320command deprecates the older
2321.Xr getopt 1
2322command.
2323The first argument should be a series of letters, each possibly
2324followed by a colon which indicates that the option takes an argument.
2325The specified variable is set to the parsed option.
2326The index of
2327the next argument is placed into the shell variable
2328.Va OPTIND .
2329If an option takes an argument, it is placed into the shell variable
2330.Va OPTARG .
2331If an invalid option is encountered,
2332.Ar var
2333is set to
2334.Ql \&? .
2335It returns a false value (1) when it encounters the end of the options.
2336A new set of arguments may be parsed by assigning
2337.Li OPTIND=1 .
2338.It Ic hash Oo Fl rv Oc Op Ar command ...
2339The shell maintains a hash table which remembers the locations of commands.
2340With no arguments whatsoever, the
2341.Ic hash
2342command prints out the contents of this table.
2343.Pp
2344With arguments, the
2345.Ic hash
2346command removes each specified
2347.Ar command
2348from the hash table (unless they are functions) and then locates it.
2349With the
2350.Fl v
2351option,
2352.Ic hash
2353prints the locations of the commands as it finds them.
2354The
2355.Fl r
2356option causes the
2357.Ic hash
2358command to delete all the entries in the hash table except for functions.
2359.It Ic jobid Op Ar job
2360Print the process IDs of the processes in the specified
2361.Ar job .
2362If the
2363.Ar job
2364argument is omitted, use the current job.
2365.It Ic jobs Oo Fl lps Oc Op Ar job ...
2366Print information about the specified jobs, or all jobs if no
2367.Ar job
2368argument is given.
2369The information printed includes job ID, status and command name.
2370.Pp
2371If the
2372.Fl l
2373option is specified, the PID of each job is also printed.
2374If the
2375.Fl p
2376option is specified, only the process IDs for the process group leaders
2377are printed, one per line.
2378If the
2379.Fl s
2380option is specified, only the PIDs of the job commands are printed, one per
2381line.
2382.It Ic kill
2383A built-in equivalent of
2384.Xr kill 1
2385that additionally supports sending signals to jobs.
2386.It Ic local Oo Ar variable ... Oc Op Fl
2387See the
2388.Sx Functions
2389subsection.
2390.It Ic printf
2391A built-in equivalent of
2392.Xr printf 1 .
2393.It Ic pwd Op Fl L | P
2394Print the path of the current directory.
2395The built-in command may
2396differ from the program of the same name because the
2397built-in command remembers what the current directory
2398is rather than recomputing it each time.
2399This makes
2400it faster.
2401However, if the current directory is
2402renamed,
2403the built-in version of
2404.Xr pwd 1
2405will continue to print the old name for the directory.
2406.Pp
2407If the
2408.Fl P
2409option is specified, symbolic links are resolved.
2410If the
2411.Fl L
2412option is specified, the shell's notion of the current directory
2413is printed (symbolic links are not resolved).
2414This is the default.
2415.It Ic read Oo Fl p Ar prompt Oc Oo
2416.Fl t Ar timeout Oc Oo Fl er Oc Ar variable ...
2417The
2418.Ar prompt
2419is printed if the
2420.Fl p
2421option is specified
2422and the standard input is a terminal.
2423Then a line is
2424read from the standard input.
2425The trailing newline
2426is deleted from the line and the line is split as
2427described in the section on
2428.Sx White Space Splitting (Field Splitting)\&
2429above, and
2430the pieces are assigned to the variables in order.
2431If there are more pieces than variables, the remaining
2432pieces (along with the characters in
2433.Va IFS
2434that separated them)
2435are assigned to the last variable.
2436If there are more variables than pieces, the remaining
2437variables are assigned the null string.
2438.Pp
2439Backslashes are treated specially, unless the
2440.Fl r
2441option is
2442specified.
2443If a backslash is followed by
2444a newline, the backslash and the newline will be
2445deleted.
2446If a backslash is followed by any other
2447character, the backslash will be deleted and the following
2448character will be treated as though it were not in
2449.Va IFS ,
2450even if it is.
2451.Pp
2452If the
2453.Fl t
2454option is specified and the
2455.Ar timeout
2456elapses before a complete line of input is supplied,
2457the
2458.Ic read
2459command will return an exit status as if terminated by
2460.Dv SIGALRM
2461without assigning any values.
2462The
2463.Ar timeout
2464value may optionally be followed by one of
2465.Ql s ,
2466.Ql m
2467or
2468.Ql h
2469to explicitly specify seconds, minutes or hours.
2470If none is supplied,
2471.Ql s
2472is assumed.
2473.Pp
2474The
2475.Fl e
2476option exists only for backward compatibility with older scripts.
2477.Pp
2478The exit status is 0 on success, 1 on end of file,
2479between 2 and 128 if an error occurs
2480and greater than 128 if a trapped signal interrupts
2481.Ic read .
2482.It Ic readonly Oo Fl p Oc Op Ar name ...
2483Each specified
2484.Ar name
2485is marked as read only,
2486so that it cannot be subsequently modified or unset.
2487The shell allows the value of a variable to be set
2488at the same time as it is marked read only
2489by using the following form:
2490.Pp
2491.D1 Ic readonly Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
2492.Pp
2493With no arguments the
2494.Ic readonly
2495command lists the names of all read only variables.
2496If the
2497.Fl p
2498option is specified, the read-only variables are printed as
2499.Dq Ic readonly Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
2500lines, suitable for re-input to the shell.
2501.It Ic return Op Ar exitstatus
2502See the
2503.Sx Functions
2504subsection.
2505.It Ic set Oo Fl /+abCEefIimnpTuVvx Oc Oo Fl /+o Ar longname
2506.Oc Op Fl - Ar arg ...
2507The
2508.Ic set
2509command performs three different functions:
2510.Bl -item
2511.It
2512With no arguments, it lists the values of all shell variables.
2513.It
2514If options are given,
2515either in short form or using the long
2516.Dq Fl /+o Ar longname
2517form,
2518it sets or clears the specified options as described in the section called
2519.Sx Argument List Processing .
2520.It
2521If the
2522.Dq Fl -
2523option is specified,
2524.Ic set
2525will replace the shell's positional parameters with the subsequent
2526arguments.
2527If no arguments follow the
2528.Dq Fl -
2529option,
2530all the positional parameters will be cleared,
2531which is equivalent to executing the command
2532.Dq Li "shift $#" .
2533The
2534.Dq Fl -
2535flag may be omitted when specifying arguments to be used
2536as positional replacement parameters.
2537This is not recommended,
2538because the first argument may begin with a dash
2539.Pq Ql -
2540or a plus
2541.Pq Ql + ,
2542which the
2543.Ic set
2544command will interpret as a request to enable or disable options.
2545.El
2546.It Ic setvar Ar variable value
2547Assigns the specified
2548.Ar value
2549to the specified
2550.Ar variable .
2551The
2552.Ic setvar
2553command is intended to be used in functions that
2554assign values to variables whose names are passed as parameters.
2555In general it is better to write
2556.Dq Ar variable Ns = Ns Ar value
2557rather than using
2558.Ic setvar .
2559.It Ic shift Op Ar n
2560Shift the positional parameters
2561.Ar n
2562times, or once if
2563.Ar n
2564is not specified.
2565A shift sets the value of
2566.Li $1
2567to the value of
2568.Li $2 ,
2569the value of
2570.Li $2
2571to the value of
2572.Li $3 ,
2573and so on,
2574decreasing the value of
2575.Li $#
2576by one.
2577For portability, shifting if there are zero positional parameters
2578should be avoided, since the shell may abort.
2579.It Ic test
2580A built-in equivalent of
2581.Xr test 1 .
2582.It Ic times
2583Print the amount of time spent executing the shell process and its children.
2584The first output line shows the user and system times for the shell process
2585itself, the second one contains the user and system times for the
2586children.
2587.It Ic trap Oo Ar action Oc Ar signal ...
2588.It Ic trap Fl l
2589Cause the shell to parse and execute
2590.Ar action
2591when any specified
2592.Ar signal
2593is received.
2594The signals are specified by name or number.
2595In addition, the pseudo-signal
2596.Cm EXIT
2597may be used to specify an
2598.Ar action
2599that is performed when the shell terminates.
2600The
2601.Ar action
2602may be an empty string or a dash
2603.Pq Ql - ;
2604the former causes the specified signal to be ignored
2605and the latter causes the default action to be taken.
2606Omitting the
2607.Ar action
2608and using only signal numbers is another way to request the default action.
2609In a subshell or utility environment,
2610the shell resets trapped (but not ignored) signals to the default action.
2611The
2612.Ic trap
2613command has no effect on signals that were ignored on entry to the shell.
2614.Pp
2615Option
2616.Fl l
2617causes the
2618.Ic trap
2619command to display a list of valid signal names.
2620.It Ic true
2621A null command that returns a 0 (true) exit value.
2622.It Ic type Op Ar name ...
2623Interpret each
2624.Ar name
2625as a command and print the resolution of the command search.
2626Possible resolutions are:
2627shell keyword, alias, special shell builtin, shell builtin, command,
2628tracked alias
2629and not found.
2630For aliases the alias expansion is printed;
2631for commands and tracked aliases
2632the complete pathname of the command is printed.
2633.It Ic ulimit Oo Fl HSabcdfklmnopstuvw Oc Op Ar limit
2634Set or display resource limits (see
2635.Xr getrlimit 2 ) .
2636If
2637.Ar limit
2638is specified, the named resource will be set;
2639otherwise the current resource value will be displayed.
2640.Pp
2641If
2642.Fl H
2643is specified, the hard limits will be set or displayed.
2644While everybody is allowed to reduce a hard limit,
2645only the superuser can increase it.
2646The
2647.Fl S
2648option
2649specifies the soft limits instead.
2650When displaying limits,
2651only one of
2652.Fl S
2653or
2654.Fl H
2655can be given.
2656The default is to display the soft limits,
2657and to set both the hard and the soft limits.
2658.Pp
2659Option
2660.Fl a
2661causes the
2662.Ic ulimit
2663command to display all resources.
2664The parameter
2665.Ar limit
2666is not acceptable in this mode.
2667.Pp
2668The remaining options specify which resource value is to be
2669displayed or modified.
2670They are mutually exclusive.
2671.Bl -tag -width indent
2672.It Fl b Ar sbsize
2673The maximum size of socket buffer usage, in bytes.
2674.It Fl c Ar coredumpsize
2675The maximal size of core dump files, in 512-byte blocks.
2676Setting
2677.Ar coredumpsize
2678to 0 prevents core dump files from being created.
2679.It Fl d Ar datasize
2680The maximal size of the data segment of a process, in kilobytes.
2681.It Fl f Ar filesize
2682The maximal size of a file, in 512-byte blocks.
2683.It Fl k Ar kqueues
2684The maximal number of kqueues
2685(see
2686.Xr kqueue 2 )
2687for this user ID.
2688.It Fl l Ar lockedmem
2689The maximal size of memory that can be locked by a process, in
2690kilobytes.
2691.It Fl m Ar memoryuse
2692The maximal resident set size of a process, in kilobytes.
2693.It Fl n Ar nofiles
2694The maximal number of descriptors that could be opened by a process.
2695.It Fl o Ar umtxp
2696The maximal number of process-shared locks
2697(see
2698.Xr pthread 3 )
2699for this user ID.
2700.It Fl p Ar pseudoterminals
2701The maximal number of pseudo-terminals for this user ID.
2702.It Fl s Ar stacksize
2703The maximal size of the stack segment, in kilobytes.
2704.It Fl t Ar time
2705The maximal amount of CPU time to be used by each process, in seconds.
2706.It Fl u Ar userproc
2707The maximal number of simultaneous processes for this user ID.
2708.It Fl v Ar virtualmem
2709The maximal virtual size of a process, in kilobytes.
2710.It Fl w Ar swapuse
2711The maximum amount of swap space reserved or used for this user ID,
2712in kilobytes.
2713.El
2714.It Ic umask Oo Fl S Oc Op Ar mask
2715Set the file creation mask (see
2716.Xr umask 2 )
2717to the octal or symbolic (see
2718.Xr chmod 1 )
2719value specified by
2720.Ar mask .
2721If the argument is omitted, the current mask value is printed.
2722If the
2723.Fl S
2724option is specified, the output is symbolic, otherwise the output is octal.
2725.It Ic unalias Oo Fl a Oc Op Ar name ...
2726The specified alias names are removed.
2727If
2728.Fl a
2729is specified, all aliases are removed.
2730.It Ic unset Oo Fl fv Oc Ar name ...
2731The specified variables or functions are unset and unexported.
2732If the
2733.Fl v
2734option is specified or no options are given, the
2735.Ar name
2736arguments are treated as variable names.
2737If the
2738.Fl f
2739option is specified, the
2740.Ar name
2741arguments are treated as function names.
2742.It Ic wait Op Ar job ...
2743Wait for each specified
2744.Ar job
2745to complete and return the exit status of the last process in the
2746last specified
2747.Ar job .
2748If any
2749.Ar job
2750specified is unknown to the shell, it is treated as if it
2751were a known job that exited with exit status 127.
2752If no operands are given, wait for all jobs to complete
2753and return an exit status of zero.
2754.El
2755.Ss Command Line Editing
2756When
2757.Nm
2758is being used interactively from a terminal, the current command
2759and the command history
2760(see
2761.Ic fc
2762in
2763.Sx Built-in Commands )
2764can be edited using
2765.Nm vi Ns -mode
2766command line editing.
2767This mode uses commands similar
2768to a subset of those described in the
2769.Xr vi 1
2770man page.
2771The command
2772.Dq Li "set -o vi"
2773(or
2774.Dq Li "set -V" )
2775enables
2776.Nm vi Ns -mode
2777editing and places
2778.Nm
2779into
2780.Nm vi
2781insert mode.
2782With
2783.Nm vi Ns -mode
2784enabled,
2785.Nm
2786can be switched between insert mode and command mode by typing
2787.Aq ESC .
2788Hitting
2789.Aq return
2790while in command mode will pass the line to the shell.
2791.Pp
2792Similarly, the
2793.Dq Li "set -o emacs"
2794(or
2795.Dq Li "set -E" )
2796command can be used to enable a subset of
2797.Nm emacs Ns -style
2798command line editing features.
2799.Sh ENVIRONMENT
2800The following environment variables affect the execution of
2801.Nm :
2802.Bl -tag -width ".Ev LANGXXXXXX"
2803.It Ev ENV
2804Initialization file for interactive shells.
2805.It Ev LANG , Ev LC_*
2806Locale settings.
2807These are inherited by children of the shell,
2808and is used in a limited manner by the shell itself.
2809.It Ev OLDPWD
2810The previous current directory.
2811This is used and updated by
2812.Ic cd .
2813.It Ev PWD
2814An absolute pathname for the current directory,
2815possibly containing symbolic links.
2816This is used and updated by the shell.
2817.It Ev TERM
2818The default terminal setting for the shell.
2819This is inherited by children of the shell, and is used in the history
2820editing modes.
2821.El
2822.Pp
2823Additionally, environment variables are turned into shell variables
2824at startup,
2825which may affect the shell as described under
2826.Sx Special Variables .
2827.Sh FILES
2828.Bl -tag -width "/etc/suid_profileXX" -compact
2829.It Pa ~/.profile
2830User's login profile.
2831.It Pa /etc/profile
2832System login profile.
2833.It Pa /etc/shells
2834Shell database.
2835.It Pa /etc/suid_profile
2836Privileged shell profile.
2837.El
2838.Sh EXIT STATUS
2839If the
2840.Ar script
2841cannot be found, the exit status will be 127;
2842if it cannot be opened for another reason, the exit status will be 126.
2843Other errors that are detected by the shell, such as a syntax error, will
2844cause the shell to exit with a non-zero exit status.
2845If the shell is not an interactive shell, the execution of the shell
2846file will be aborted.
2847Otherwise the shell will return the exit status of the last command
2848executed, or if the
2849.Ic exit
2850builtin is used with a numeric argument, it
2851will return the argument.
2852.Sh SEE ALSO
2853.Xr builtin 1 ,
2854.Xr chsh 1 ,
2855.Xr echo 1 ,
2856.Xr ed 1 ,
2857.Xr emacs 1 ,
2858.Xr kill 1 ,
2859.Xr printf 1 ,
2860.Xr pwd 1 ,
2861.Xr test 1 ,
2862.Xr vi 1 ,
2863.Xr execve 2 ,
2864.Xr getrlimit 2 ,
2865.Xr umask 2 ,
2866.Xr wctype 3 ,
2867.Xr editrc 5 ,
2868.Xr shells 5
2869.Sh HISTORY
2870A
2871.Nm
2872command, the Thompson shell, appeared in
2873.At v1 .
2874It was superseded in
2875.At v7
2876by the Bourne shell, which inherited the name
2877.Nm .
2878.Pp
2879This version of
2880.Nm
2881was rewritten in 1989 under the
2882.Bx
2883license after the Bourne shell from
2884.At V.4 .
2885.Sh AUTHORS
2886This version of
2887.Nm
2888was originally written by
2889.An Kenneth Almquist .
2890.Sh BUGS
2891The
2892.Nm
2893utility does not recognize multibyte characters other than UTF-8.
2894Splitting using
2895.Va IFS
2896does not recognize multibyte characters.
2897