xref: /freebsd/bin/sh/sh.1 (revision 8ddb146abcdf061be9f2c0db7e391697dafad85c)
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.
7.\"
8.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
9.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
10.\" are met:
11.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
12.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
13.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
14.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
15.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
16.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
17.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
18.\"    without specific prior written permission.
19.\"
20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
30.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
31.\"
32.\"	from: @(#)sh.1	8.6 (Berkeley) 5/4/95
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd May 10, 2021
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.El
1450.It Va PS2
1451The secondary prompt string, which defaults to
1452.Dq Li "> " .
1453.Va PS2
1454may include any of the formatting sequences from
1455.Va PS1 .
1456.It Va PS4
1457The prefix for the trace output (if
1458.Fl x
1459is active).
1460The default is
1461.Dq Li "+ " .
1462.El
1463.Ss Word Expansions
1464This clause describes the various expansions that are
1465performed on words.
1466Not all expansions are performed on
1467every word, as explained later.
1468.Pp
1469Tilde expansions, parameter expansions, command substitutions,
1470arithmetic expansions, and quote removals that occur within
1471a single word expand to a single field.
1472It is only field
1473splitting or pathname expansion that can create multiple
1474fields from a single word.
1475The single exception to this rule is
1476the expansion of the special parameter
1477.Va @
1478within double-quotes,
1479as was described above.
1480.Pp
1481The order of word expansion is:
1482.Bl -enum
1483.It
1484Tilde Expansion, Parameter Expansion, Command Substitution,
1485Arithmetic Expansion (these all occur at the same time).
1486.It
1487Field Splitting is performed on fields generated by step (1)
1488unless the
1489.Va IFS
1490variable is null.
1491.It
1492Pathname Expansion (unless the
1493.Fl f
1494option is in effect).
1495.It
1496Quote Removal.
1497.El
1498.Pp
1499The
1500.Ql $
1501character is used to introduce parameter expansion, command
1502substitution, or arithmetic expansion.
1503.Ss Tilde Expansion (substituting a user's home directory)
1504A word beginning with an unquoted tilde character
1505.Pq Ql ~
1506is
1507subjected to tilde expansion.
1508All the characters up to a slash
1509.Pq Ql /
1510or the end of the word are treated as a username
1511and are replaced with the user's home directory.
1512If the
1513username is missing (as in
1514.Pa ~/foobar ) ,
1515the tilde is replaced with the value of the
1516.Va HOME
1517variable (the current user's home directory).
1518.Ss Parameter Expansion
1519The format for parameter expansion is as follows:
1520.Pp
1521.D1 Li ${ Ns Ar expression Ns Li }
1522.Pp
1523where
1524.Ar expression
1525consists of all characters until the matching
1526.Ql } .
1527Any
1528.Ql }
1529escaped by a backslash or within a single-quoted or double-quoted
1530string, and characters in
1531embedded arithmetic expansions, command substitutions, and variable
1532expansions, are not examined in determining the matching
1533.Ql } .
1534If the variants with
1535.Ql + ,
1536.Ql - ,
1537.Ql =
1538or
1539.Ql ?\&
1540occur within a double-quoted string,
1541as an extension there may be unquoted parts
1542(via double-quotes inside the expansion);
1543.Ql }
1544within such parts are also not examined in determining the matching
1545.Ql } .
1546.Pp
1547The simplest form for parameter expansion is:
1548.Pp
1549.D1 Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li }
1550.Pp
1551The value, if any, of
1552.Ar parameter
1553is substituted.
1554.Pp
1555The parameter name or symbol can be enclosed in braces, which are
1556optional except for positional parameters with more than one digit or
1557when parameter is followed by a character that could be interpreted as
1558part of the name.
1559If a parameter expansion occurs inside double-quotes:
1560.Bl -enum
1561.It
1562Field splitting is not performed on the results of the
1563expansion, with the exception of the special parameter
1564.Va @ .
1565.It
1566Pathname expansion is not performed on the results of the
1567expansion.
1568.El
1569.Pp
1570In addition, a parameter expansion can be modified by using one of the
1571following formats.
1572.Bl -tag -width indent
1573.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li :- Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1574Use Default Values.
1575If
1576.Ar parameter
1577is unset or null, the expansion of
1578.Ar word
1579is substituted; otherwise, the value of
1580.Ar parameter
1581is substituted.
1582.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li := Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1583Assign Default Values.
1584If
1585.Ar parameter
1586is unset or null, the expansion of
1587.Ar word
1588is assigned to
1589.Ar parameter .
1590In all cases, the
1591final value of
1592.Ar parameter
1593is substituted.
1594Quoting inside
1595.Ar word
1596does not prevent field splitting or pathname expansion.
1597Only variables, not positional
1598parameters or special parameters, can be
1599assigned in this way.
1600.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li :? Ns Oo Ar word Oc Ns Li }
1601Indicate Error if Null or Unset.
1602If
1603.Ar parameter
1604is unset or null, the expansion of
1605.Ar word
1606(or a message indicating it is unset if
1607.Ar word
1608is omitted) is written to standard
1609error and the shell exits with a nonzero
1610exit status.
1611Otherwise, the value of
1612.Ar parameter
1613is substituted.
1614An
1615interactive shell need not exit.
1616.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li :+ Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1617Use Alternate Value.
1618If
1619.Ar parameter
1620is unset or null, null is substituted;
1621otherwise, the expansion of
1622.Ar word
1623is substituted.
1624.El
1625.Pp
1626In the parameter expansions shown previously, use of the colon in the
1627format results in a test for a parameter that is unset or null; omission
1628of the colon results in a test for a parameter that is only unset.
1629.Pp
1630The
1631.Ar word
1632inherits the type of quoting
1633(unquoted, double-quoted or here-document)
1634from the surroundings,
1635with the exception that a backslash that quotes a closing brace is removed
1636during quote removal.
1637.Bl -tag -width indent
1638.It Li ${# Ns Ar parameter Ns Li }
1639String Length.
1640The length in characters of
1641the value of
1642.Ar parameter .
1643.El
1644.Pp
1645The following four varieties of parameter expansion provide for substring
1646processing.
1647In each case, pattern matching notation
1648(see
1649.Sx Shell Patterns ) ,
1650rather than regular expression notation,
1651is used to evaluate the patterns.
1652If parameter is one of the special parameters
1653.Va *
1654or
1655.Va @ ,
1656the result of the expansion is unspecified.
1657Enclosing the full parameter expansion string in double-quotes does not
1658cause the following four varieties of pattern characters to be quoted,
1659whereas quoting characters within the braces has this effect.
1660.Bl -tag -width indent
1661.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li % Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1662Remove Smallest Suffix Pattern.
1663The
1664.Ar word
1665is expanded to produce a pattern.
1666The
1667parameter expansion then results in
1668.Ar parameter ,
1669with the smallest portion of the
1670suffix matched by the pattern deleted.
1671.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li %% Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1672Remove Largest Suffix Pattern.
1673The
1674.Ar word
1675is expanded to produce a pattern.
1676The
1677parameter expansion then results in
1678.Ar parameter ,
1679with the largest portion of the
1680suffix matched by the pattern deleted.
1681.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li # Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1682Remove Smallest Prefix Pattern.
1683The
1684.Ar word
1685is expanded to produce a pattern.
1686The
1687parameter expansion then results in
1688.Ar parameter ,
1689with the smallest portion of the
1690prefix matched by the pattern deleted.
1691.It Li ${ Ns Ar parameter Ns Li ## Ns Ar word Ns Li }
1692Remove Largest Prefix Pattern.
1693The
1694.Ar word
1695is expanded to produce a pattern.
1696The
1697parameter expansion then results in
1698.Ar parameter ,
1699with the largest portion of the
1700prefix matched by the pattern deleted.
1701.El
1702.Ss Command Substitution
1703Command substitution allows the output of a command to be substituted in
1704place of the command name itself.
1705Command substitution occurs when
1706the command is enclosed as follows:
1707.Pp
1708.D1 Li $( Ns Ar command Ns Li )\&
1709.Pp
1710or the backquoted version:
1711.Pp
1712.D1 Li ` Ns Ar command Ns Li `
1713.Pp
1714The shell expands the command substitution by executing command
1715and replacing the command substitution
1716with the standard output of the command,
1717removing sequences of one or more newlines at the end of the substitution.
1718Embedded newlines before the end of the output are not removed;
1719however, during field splitting, they may be translated into spaces
1720depending on the value of
1721.Va IFS
1722and the quoting that is in effect.
1723The command is executed in a subshell environment,
1724except that the built-in commands
1725.Ic jobid ,
1726.Ic jobs ,
1727and
1728.Ic trap
1729return information about the parent shell environment
1730and
1731.Ic times
1732returns information about the same process
1733if they are the only command in a command substitution.
1734.Pp
1735If a command substitution of the
1736.Li $(
1737form begins with a subshell,
1738the
1739.Li $(
1740and
1741.Li (\&
1742must be separated by whitespace
1743to avoid ambiguity with arithmetic expansion.
1744.Ss Arithmetic Expansion
1745Arithmetic expansion provides a mechanism for evaluating an arithmetic
1746expression and substituting its value.
1747The format for arithmetic expansion is as follows:
1748.Pp
1749.D1 Li $(( Ns Ar expression Ns Li ))
1750.Pp
1751The
1752.Ar expression
1753is treated as if it were in double-quotes, except
1754that a double-quote inside the expression is not treated specially.
1755The
1756shell expands all tokens in the
1757.Ar expression
1758for parameter expansion,
1759command substitution,
1760arithmetic expansion
1761and quote removal.
1762.Pp
1763The allowed expressions are a subset of C expressions,
1764summarized below.
1765.Bl -tag -width "Variables" -offset indent
1766.It Values
1767All values are of type
1768.Ft intmax_t .
1769.It Constants
1770Decimal, octal (starting with
1771.Li 0 )
1772and hexadecimal (starting with
1773.Li 0x )
1774integer constants.
1775.It Variables
1776Shell variables can be read and written
1777and contain integer constants.
1778.It Unary operators
1779.Li "! ~ + -"
1780.It Binary operators
1781.Li "* / % + - << >> < <= > >= == != & ^ | && ||"\&
1782.It Assignment operators
1783.Li "= += -= *= /= %= <<= >>= &= ^= |="
1784.It Conditional operator
1785.Li "? :"\&
1786.El
1787.Pp
1788The result of the expression is substituted in decimal.
1789.Ss White Space Splitting (Field Splitting)
1790In certain contexts,
1791after parameter expansion, command substitution, and
1792arithmetic expansion the shell scans the results of
1793expansions and substitutions that did not occur in double-quotes for
1794field splitting and multiple fields can result.
1795.Pp
1796Characters in
1797.Va IFS
1798that are whitespace
1799.Po
1800.Aq space ,
1801.Aq tab ,
1802and
1803.Aq newline
1804.Pc
1805are treated differently from other characters in
1806.Va IFS .
1807.Pp
1808Whitespace in
1809.Va IFS
1810at the beginning or end of a word is discarded.
1811.Pp
1812Subsequently, a field is delimited by either
1813.Bl -enum
1814.It
1815a non-whitespace character in
1816.Va IFS
1817with any whitespace in
1818.Va IFS
1819surrounding it, or
1820.It
1821one or more whitespace characters in
1822.Va IFS .
1823.El
1824.Pp
1825If a word ends with a non-whitespace character in
1826.Va IFS ,
1827there is no empty field after this character.
1828.Pp
1829If no field is delimited, the word is discarded.
1830In particular, if a word consists solely of an unquoted substitution
1831and the result of the substitution is null,
1832it is removed by field splitting even if
1833.Va IFS
1834is null.
1835.Ss Pathname Expansion (File Name Generation)
1836Unless the
1837.Fl f
1838option is set,
1839file name generation is performed
1840after word splitting is complete.
1841Each word is
1842viewed as a series of patterns, separated by slashes.
1843The
1844process of expansion replaces the word with the names of
1845all existing files whose names can be formed by replacing
1846each pattern with a string that matches the specified pattern.
1847There are two restrictions on this: first, a pattern cannot match
1848a string containing a slash, and second,
1849a pattern cannot match a string starting with a period
1850unless the first character of the pattern is a period.
1851The next section describes the patterns used for
1852Pathname Expansion,
1853the four varieties of parameter expansion for substring processing and the
1854.Ic case
1855command.
1856.Ss Shell Patterns
1857A pattern consists of normal characters, which match themselves,
1858and meta-characters.
1859The meta-characters are
1860.Ql * ,
1861.Ql \&? ,
1862and
1863.Ql \&[ .
1864These characters lose their special meanings if they are quoted.
1865When command or variable substitution is performed and the dollar sign
1866or back quotes are not double-quoted, the value of the
1867variable or the output of the command is scanned for these
1868characters and they are turned into meta-characters.
1869.Pp
1870An asterisk
1871.Pq Ql *
1872matches any string of characters.
1873A question mark
1874.Pq Ql \&?
1875matches any single character.
1876A left bracket
1877.Pq Ql \&[
1878introduces a character class.
1879The end of the character class is indicated by a
1880.Ql \&] ;
1881if the
1882.Ql \&]
1883is missing then the
1884.Ql \&[
1885matches a
1886.Ql \&[
1887rather than introducing a character class.
1888A character class matches any of the characters between the square brackets.
1889A locale-dependent range of characters may be specified using a minus sign.
1890A named class of characters (see
1891.Xr wctype 3 )
1892may be specified by surrounding the name with
1893.Ql \&[:\&
1894and
1895.Ql :\&] .
1896For example,
1897.Ql \&[\&[:alpha:\&]\&]
1898is a shell pattern that matches a single letter.
1899The character class may be complemented by making an exclamation point
1900.Pq Ql !\&
1901the first character of the character class.
1902A caret
1903.Pq Ql ^
1904has the same effect but is non-standard.
1905.Pp
1906To include a
1907.Ql \&]
1908in a character class, make it the first character listed
1909(after the
1910.Ql \&!
1911or
1912.Ql ^ ,
1913if any).
1914To include a
1915.Ql - ,
1916make it the first or last character listed.
1917.Ss Built-in Commands
1918This section lists the built-in commands.
1919.Bl -tag -width indent
1920.It Ic \&:
1921A null command that returns a 0 (true) exit value.
1922.It Ic \&. Ar file
1923The commands in the specified file are read and executed by the shell.
1924The
1925.Ic return
1926command may be used to return to the
1927.Ic \&.
1928command's caller.
1929If
1930.Ar file
1931contains any
1932.Ql /
1933characters, it is used as is.
1934Otherwise, the shell searches the
1935.Va PATH
1936for the file.
1937If it is not found in the
1938.Va PATH ,
1939it is sought in the current working directory.
1940.It Ic \&[
1941A built-in equivalent of
1942.Xr test 1 .
1943.It Ic alias Oo Ar name Ns Oo = Ns Ar string Oc ... Oc
1944If
1945.Ar name Ns = Ns Ar string
1946is specified, the shell defines the alias
1947.Ar name
1948with value
1949.Ar string .
1950If just
1951.Ar name
1952is specified, the value of the alias
1953.Ar name
1954is printed.
1955With no arguments, the
1956.Ic alias
1957built-in command prints the names and values of all defined aliases
1958(see
1959.Ic unalias ) .
1960Alias values are written with appropriate quoting so that they are
1961suitable for re-input to the shell.
1962Also see the
1963.Sx Aliases
1964subsection.
1965.It Ic bg Op Ar job ...
1966Continue the specified jobs
1967(or the current job if no jobs are given)
1968in the background.
1969.It Ic bind Oo Fl aeklrsv Oc Oo Ar key Oo Ar command Oc Oc
1970List or alter key bindings for the line editor.
1971This command is documented in
1972.Xr editrc 5 .
1973.It Ic break Op Ar num
1974See the
1975.Sx Flow-Control Constructs
1976subsection.
1977.It Ic builtin Ar cmd Op Ar arg ...
1978Execute the specified built-in command,
1979.Ar cmd .
1980This is useful when the user wishes to override a shell function
1981with the same name as a built-in command.
1982.It Ic cd Oo Fl L | P Oc Oo Fl e Oc Op Ar directory
1983.It Ic cd Fl
1984Switch to the specified
1985.Ar directory ,
1986to the directory specified in the
1987.Va HOME
1988environment variable if no
1989.Ar directory
1990is specified or
1991to the directory specified in the
1992.Va OLDPWD
1993environment variable if
1994.Ar directory
1995is
1996.Fl .
1997If
1998.Ar directory
1999does not begin with
2000.Pa / , \&. ,
2001or
2002.Pa .. ,
2003then the directories listed in the
2004.Va CDPATH
2005variable will be
2006searched for the specified
2007.Ar directory .
2008If
2009.Va CDPATH
2010is unset, the current directory is searched.
2011The format of
2012.Va CDPATH
2013is the same as that of
2014.Va PATH .
2015In an interactive shell,
2016the
2017.Ic cd
2018command will print out the name of the directory
2019that it actually switched to
2020if the
2021.Va CDPATH
2022mechanism was used or if
2023.Ar directory
2024was
2025.Fl .
2026.Pp
2027If the
2028.Fl P
2029option is specified,
2030.Pa ..
2031is handled physically and symbolic links are resolved before
2032.Pa ..
2033components are processed.
2034If the
2035.Fl L
2036option is specified,
2037.Pa ..
2038is handled logically.
2039This is the default.
2040.Pp
2041The
2042.Fl e
2043option causes
2044.Ic cd
2045to return exit status 1 if the full pathname of the new directory
2046cannot be determined reliably or at all.
2047Normally this is not considered an error,
2048although a warning is printed.
2049.Pp
2050If changing the directory fails, the exit status is greater than 1.
2051If the directory is changed, the exit status is 0, or also 1 if
2052.Fl e
2053was given.
2054.It Ic chdir
2055A synonym for the
2056.Ic cd
2057built-in command.
2058.It Ic command Oo Fl p Oc Op Ar utility Op Ar argument ...
2059.It Ic command Oo Fl p Oc Fl v Ar utility
2060.It Ic command Oo Fl p Oc Fl V Ar utility
2061The first form of invocation executes the specified
2062.Ar utility ,
2063ignoring shell functions in the search.
2064If
2065.Ar utility
2066is a special builtin,
2067it is executed as if it were a regular builtin.
2068.Pp
2069If the
2070.Fl p
2071option is specified, the command search is performed using a
2072default value of
2073.Va PATH
2074that is guaranteed to find all of the standard utilities.
2075.Pp
2076If the
2077.Fl v
2078option is specified,
2079.Ar utility
2080is not executed but a description of its interpretation by the shell is
2081printed.
2082For ordinary commands the output is the path name; for shell built-in
2083commands, shell functions and keywords only the name is written.
2084Aliases are printed as
2085.Dq Ic alias Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value .
2086.Pp
2087The
2088.Fl V
2089option is identical to
2090.Fl v
2091except for the output.
2092It prints
2093.Dq Ar utility Ic is Ar description
2094where
2095.Ar description
2096is either
2097the path name to
2098.Ar utility ,
2099a special shell builtin,
2100a shell builtin,
2101a shell function,
2102a shell keyword
2103or
2104an alias for
2105.Ar value .
2106.It Ic continue Op Ar num
2107See the
2108.Sx Flow-Control Constructs
2109subsection.
2110.It Ic echo Oo Fl e | n Oc Op Ar string ...
2111Print a space-separated list of the arguments to the standard output
2112and append a newline character.
2113.Bl -tag -width indent
2114.It Fl n
2115Suppress the output of the trailing newline.
2116.It Fl e
2117Process C-style backslash escape sequences.
2118The
2119.Ic echo
2120command understands the following character escapes:
2121.Bl -tag -width indent
2122.It \ea
2123Alert (ring the terminal bell)
2124.It \eb
2125Backspace
2126.It \ec
2127Suppress the trailing newline (this has the side-effect of truncating the
2128line if it is not the last character)
2129.It \ee
2130The ESC character (ASCII 0x1b)
2131.It \ef
2132Formfeed
2133.It \en
2134Newline
2135.It \er
2136Carriage return
2137.It \et
2138Horizontal tab
2139.It \ev
2140Vertical tab
2141.It \e\e
2142Literal backslash
2143.It \e0nnn
2144(Zero) The character whose octal value is
2145.Ar nnn
2146.El
2147.Pp
2148If
2149.Ar string
2150is not enclosed in quotes then the backslash itself must be escaped
2151with a backslash to protect it from the shell.
2152For example
2153.Bd -literal -offset indent
2154$ echo -e "a\evb"
2155a
2156 b
2157$ echo -e a\e\evb
2158a
2159 b
2160$ echo -e "a\e\eb"
2161a\eb
2162$ echo -e a\e\e\e\eb
2163a\eb
2164.Ed
2165.El
2166.Pp
2167Only one of the
2168.Fl e
2169and
2170.Fl n
2171options may be specified.
2172.It Ic eval Ar string ...
2173Concatenate all the arguments with spaces.
2174Then re-parse and execute the command.
2175.It Ic exec Op Ar command Op arg ...
2176Unless
2177.Ar command
2178is omitted,
2179the shell process is replaced with the specified program
2180(which must be a real program, not a shell built-in command or function).
2181Any redirections on the
2182.Ic exec
2183command are marked as permanent,
2184so that they are not undone when the
2185.Ic exec
2186command finishes.
2187.It Ic exit Op Ar exitstatus
2188Terminate the shell process.
2189If
2190.Ar exitstatus
2191is given
2192it is used as the exit status of the shell.
2193Otherwise, if the shell is executing an
2194.Cm EXIT
2195trap, the exit status of the last command before the trap is used;
2196if the shell is executing a trap for a signal,
2197the shell exits by resending the signal to itself.
2198Otherwise, the exit status of the preceding command is used.
2199The exit status should be an integer between 0 and 255.
2200.It Ic export Ar name ...
2201.It Ic export Op Fl p
2202The specified names are exported so that they will
2203appear in the environment of subsequent commands.
2204The only way to un-export a variable is to
2205.Ic unset
2206it.
2207The shell allows the value of a variable to be set
2208at the same time as it is exported by writing
2209.Pp
2210.D1 Ic export Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
2211.Pp
2212With no arguments the
2213.Ic export
2214command lists the names
2215of all exported variables.
2216If the
2217.Fl p
2218option is specified, the exported variables are printed as
2219.Dq Ic export Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
2220lines, suitable for re-input to the shell.
2221.It Ic false
2222A null command that returns a non-zero (false) exit value.
2223.It Ic fc Oo Fl e Ar editor Oc Op Ar first Op Ar last
2224.It Ic fc Fl l Oo Fl nr Oc Op Ar first Op Ar last
2225.It Ic fc Fl s Oo Ar old Ns = Ns Ar new Oc Op Ar first
2226The
2227.Ic fc
2228built-in command lists, or edits and re-executes,
2229commands previously entered to an interactive shell.
2230.Bl -tag -width indent
2231.It Fl e Ar editor
2232Use the editor named by
2233.Ar editor
2234to edit the commands.
2235The
2236.Ar editor
2237string is a command name,
2238subject to search via the
2239.Va PATH
2240variable.
2241The value in the
2242.Va FCEDIT
2243variable is used as a default when
2244.Fl e
2245is not specified.
2246If
2247.Va FCEDIT
2248is null or unset, the value of the
2249.Va EDITOR
2250variable is used.
2251If
2252.Va EDITOR
2253is null or unset,
2254.Xr ed 1
2255is used as the editor.
2256.It Fl l No (ell)
2257List the commands rather than invoking
2258an editor on them.
2259The commands are written in the
2260sequence indicated by the
2261.Ar first
2262and
2263.Ar last
2264operands, as affected by
2265.Fl r ,
2266with each command preceded by the command number.
2267.It Fl n
2268Suppress command numbers when listing with
2269.Fl l .
2270.It Fl r
2271Reverse the order of the commands listed
2272(with
2273.Fl l )
2274or edited
2275(with neither
2276.Fl l
2277nor
2278.Fl s ) .
2279.It Fl s
2280Re-execute the command without invoking an editor.
2281.It Ar first
2282.It Ar last
2283Select the commands to list or edit.
2284The number of previous commands that can be accessed
2285are determined by the value of the
2286.Va HISTSIZE
2287variable.
2288The value of
2289.Ar first
2290or
2291.Ar last
2292or both are one of the following:
2293.Bl -tag -width indent
2294.It Oo Cm + Oc Ns Ar num
2295A positive number representing a command number;
2296command numbers can be displayed with the
2297.Fl l
2298option.
2299.It Fl Ar num
2300A negative decimal number representing the
2301command that was executed
2302.Ar num
2303of
2304commands previously.
2305For example, \-1 is the immediately previous command.
2306.It Ar string
2307A string indicating the most recently entered command
2308that begins with that string.
2309If the
2310.Ar old Ns = Ns Ar new
2311operand is not also specified with
2312.Fl s ,
2313the string form of the first operand cannot contain an embedded equal sign.
2314.El
2315.El
2316.Pp
2317The following variables affect the execution of
2318.Ic fc :
2319.Bl -tag -width ".Va HISTSIZE"
2320.It Va FCEDIT
2321Name of the editor to use for history editing.
2322.It Va HISTSIZE
2323The number of previous commands that are accessible.
2324.El
2325.It Ic fg Op Ar job
2326Move the specified
2327.Ar job
2328or the current job to the foreground.
2329.It Ic getopts Ar optstring var
2330The POSIX
2331.Ic getopts
2332command.
2333The
2334.Ic getopts
2335command deprecates the older
2336.Xr getopt 1
2337command.
2338The first argument should be a series of letters, each possibly
2339followed by a colon which indicates that the option takes an argument.
2340The specified variable is set to the parsed option.
2341The index of
2342the next argument is placed into the shell variable
2343.Va OPTIND .
2344If an option takes an argument, it is placed into the shell variable
2345.Va OPTARG .
2346If an invalid option is encountered,
2347.Ar var
2348is set to
2349.Ql \&? .
2350It returns a false value (1) when it encounters the end of the options.
2351A new set of arguments may be parsed by assigning
2352.Li OPTIND=1 .
2353.It Ic hash Oo Fl rv Oc Op Ar command ...
2354The shell maintains a hash table which remembers the locations of commands.
2355With no arguments whatsoever, the
2356.Ic hash
2357command prints out the contents of this table.
2358.Pp
2359With arguments, the
2360.Ic hash
2361command removes each specified
2362.Ar command
2363from the hash table (unless they are functions) and then locates it.
2364With the
2365.Fl v
2366option,
2367.Ic hash
2368prints the locations of the commands as it finds them.
2369The
2370.Fl r
2371option causes the
2372.Ic hash
2373command to delete all the entries in the hash table except for functions.
2374.It Ic jobid Op Ar job
2375Print the process IDs of the processes in the specified
2376.Ar job .
2377If the
2378.Ar job
2379argument is omitted, use the current job.
2380.It Ic jobs Oo Fl lps Oc Op Ar job ...
2381Print information about the specified jobs, or all jobs if no
2382.Ar job
2383argument is given.
2384The information printed includes job ID, status and command name.
2385.Pp
2386If the
2387.Fl l
2388option is specified, the PID of each job is also printed.
2389If the
2390.Fl p
2391option is specified, only the process IDs for the process group leaders
2392are printed, one per line.
2393If the
2394.Fl s
2395option is specified, only the PIDs of the job commands are printed, one per
2396line.
2397.It Ic kill
2398A built-in equivalent of
2399.Xr kill 1
2400that additionally supports sending signals to jobs.
2401.It Ic local Oo Ar variable ... Oc Op Fl
2402See the
2403.Sx Functions
2404subsection.
2405.It Ic printf
2406A built-in equivalent of
2407.Xr printf 1 .
2408.It Ic pwd Op Fl L | P
2409Print the path of the current directory.
2410The built-in command may
2411differ from the program of the same name because the
2412built-in command remembers what the current directory
2413is rather than recomputing it each time.
2414This makes
2415it faster.
2416However, if the current directory is
2417renamed,
2418the built-in version of
2419.Xr pwd 1
2420will continue to print the old name for the directory.
2421.Pp
2422If the
2423.Fl P
2424option is specified, symbolic links are resolved.
2425If the
2426.Fl L
2427option is specified, the shell's notion of the current directory
2428is printed (symbolic links are not resolved).
2429This is the default.
2430.It Ic read Oo Fl p Ar prompt Oc Oo
2431.Fl t Ar timeout Oc Oo Fl er Oc Ar variable ...
2432The
2433.Ar prompt
2434is printed if the
2435.Fl p
2436option is specified
2437and the standard input is a terminal.
2438Then a line is
2439read from the standard input.
2440The trailing newline
2441is deleted from the line and the line is split as
2442described in the section on
2443.Sx White Space Splitting (Field Splitting)\&
2444above, and
2445the pieces are assigned to the variables in order.
2446If there are more pieces than variables, the remaining
2447pieces (along with the characters in
2448.Va IFS
2449that separated them)
2450are assigned to the last variable.
2451If there are more variables than pieces, the remaining
2452variables are assigned the null string.
2453.Pp
2454Backslashes are treated specially, unless the
2455.Fl r
2456option is
2457specified.
2458If a backslash is followed by
2459a newline, the backslash and the newline will be
2460deleted.
2461If a backslash is followed by any other
2462character, the backslash will be deleted and the following
2463character will be treated as though it were not in
2464.Va IFS ,
2465even if it is.
2466.Pp
2467If the
2468.Fl t
2469option is specified and the
2470.Ar timeout
2471elapses before a complete line of input is supplied,
2472the
2473.Ic read
2474command will return an exit status as if terminated by
2475.Dv SIGALRM
2476without assigning any values.
2477The
2478.Ar timeout
2479value may optionally be followed by one of
2480.Ql s ,
2481.Ql m
2482or
2483.Ql h
2484to explicitly specify seconds, minutes or hours.
2485If none is supplied,
2486.Ql s
2487is assumed.
2488.Pp
2489The
2490.Fl e
2491option exists only for backward compatibility with older scripts.
2492.Pp
2493The exit status is 0 on success, 1 on end of file,
2494between 2 and 128 if an error occurs
2495and greater than 128 if a trapped signal interrupts
2496.Ic read .
2497.It Ic readonly Oo Fl p Oc Op Ar name ...
2498Each specified
2499.Ar name
2500is marked as read only,
2501so that it cannot be subsequently modified or unset.
2502The shell allows the value of a variable to be set
2503at the same time as it is marked read only
2504by using the following form:
2505.Pp
2506.D1 Ic readonly Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
2507.Pp
2508With no arguments the
2509.Ic readonly
2510command lists the names of all read only variables.
2511If the
2512.Fl p
2513option is specified, the read-only variables are printed as
2514.Dq Ic readonly Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
2515lines, suitable for re-input to the shell.
2516.It Ic return Op Ar exitstatus
2517See the
2518.Sx Functions
2519subsection.
2520.It Ic set Oo Fl /+abCEefIimnpTuVvx Oc Oo Fl /+o Ar longname
2521.Oc Op Fl - Ar arg ...
2522The
2523.Ic set
2524command performs three different functions:
2525.Bl -item
2526.It
2527With no arguments, it lists the values of all shell variables.
2528.It
2529If options are given,
2530either in short form or using the long
2531.Dq Fl /+o Ar longname
2532form,
2533it sets or clears the specified options as described in the section called
2534.Sx Argument List Processing .
2535.It
2536If the
2537.Dq Fl -
2538option is specified,
2539.Ic set
2540will replace the shell's positional parameters with the subsequent
2541arguments.
2542If no arguments follow the
2543.Dq Fl -
2544option,
2545all the positional parameters will be cleared,
2546which is equivalent to executing the command
2547.Dq Li "shift $#" .
2548The
2549.Dq Fl -
2550flag may be omitted when specifying arguments to be used
2551as positional replacement parameters.
2552This is not recommended,
2553because the first argument may begin with a dash
2554.Pq Ql -
2555or a plus
2556.Pq Ql + ,
2557which the
2558.Ic set
2559command will interpret as a request to enable or disable options.
2560.El
2561.It Ic setvar Ar variable value
2562Assigns the specified
2563.Ar value
2564to the specified
2565.Ar variable .
2566The
2567.Ic setvar
2568command is intended to be used in functions that
2569assign values to variables whose names are passed as parameters.
2570In general it is better to write
2571.Dq Ar variable Ns = Ns Ar value
2572rather than using
2573.Ic setvar .
2574.It Ic shift Op Ar n
2575Shift the positional parameters
2576.Ar n
2577times, or once if
2578.Ar n
2579is not specified.
2580A shift sets the value of
2581.Li $1
2582to the value of
2583.Li $2 ,
2584the value of
2585.Li $2
2586to the value of
2587.Li $3 ,
2588and so on,
2589decreasing the value of
2590.Li $#
2591by one.
2592For portability, shifting if there are zero positional parameters
2593should be avoided, since the shell may abort.
2594.It Ic test
2595A built-in equivalent of
2596.Xr test 1 .
2597.It Ic times
2598Print the amount of time spent executing the shell process and its children.
2599The first output line shows the user and system times for the shell process
2600itself, the second one contains the user and system times for the
2601children.
2602.It Ic trap Oo Ar action Oc Ar signal ...
2603.It Ic trap Fl l
2604Cause the shell to parse and execute
2605.Ar action
2606when any specified
2607.Ar signal
2608is received.
2609The signals are specified by name or number.
2610In addition, the pseudo-signal
2611.Cm EXIT
2612may be used to specify an
2613.Ar action
2614that is performed when the shell terminates.
2615The
2616.Ar action
2617may be an empty string or a dash
2618.Pq Ql - ;
2619the former causes the specified signal to be ignored
2620and the latter causes the default action to be taken.
2621Omitting the
2622.Ar action
2623and using only signal numbers is another way to request the default action.
2624In a subshell or utility environment,
2625the shell resets trapped (but not ignored) signals to the default action.
2626The
2627.Ic trap
2628command has no effect on signals that were ignored on entry to the shell.
2629.Pp
2630Option
2631.Fl l
2632causes the
2633.Ic trap
2634command to display a list of valid signal names.
2635.It Ic true
2636A null command that returns a 0 (true) exit value.
2637.It Ic type Op Ar name ...
2638Interpret each
2639.Ar name
2640as a command and print the resolution of the command search.
2641Possible resolutions are:
2642shell keyword, alias, special shell builtin, shell builtin, command,
2643tracked alias
2644and not found.
2645For aliases the alias expansion is printed;
2646for commands and tracked aliases
2647the complete pathname of the command is printed.
2648.It Ic ulimit Oo Fl HSabcdfklmnopstuvw Oc Op Ar limit
2649Set or display resource limits (see
2650.Xr getrlimit 2 ) .
2651If
2652.Ar limit
2653is specified, the named resource will be set;
2654otherwise the current resource value will be displayed.
2655.Pp
2656If
2657.Fl H
2658is specified, the hard limits will be set or displayed.
2659While everybody is allowed to reduce a hard limit,
2660only the superuser can increase it.
2661The
2662.Fl S
2663option
2664specifies the soft limits instead.
2665When displaying limits,
2666only one of
2667.Fl S
2668or
2669.Fl H
2670can be given.
2671The default is to display the soft limits,
2672and to set both the hard and the soft limits.
2673.Pp
2674Option
2675.Fl a
2676causes the
2677.Ic ulimit
2678command to display all resources.
2679The parameter
2680.Ar limit
2681is not acceptable in this mode.
2682.Pp
2683The remaining options specify which resource value is to be
2684displayed or modified.
2685They are mutually exclusive.
2686.Bl -tag -width indent
2687.It Fl b Ar sbsize
2688The maximum size of socket buffer usage, in bytes.
2689.It Fl c Ar coredumpsize
2690The maximal size of core dump files, in 512-byte blocks.
2691Setting
2692.Ar coredumpsize
2693to 0 prevents core dump files from being created.
2694.It Fl d Ar datasize
2695The maximal size of the data segment of a process, in kilobytes.
2696.It Fl f Ar filesize
2697The maximal size of a file, in 512-byte blocks.
2698.It Fl k Ar kqueues
2699The maximal number of kqueues
2700(see
2701.Xr kqueue 2 )
2702for this user ID.
2703.It Fl l Ar lockedmem
2704The maximal size of memory that can be locked by a process, in
2705kilobytes.
2706.It Fl m Ar memoryuse
2707The maximal resident set size of a process, in kilobytes.
2708.It Fl n Ar nofiles
2709The maximal number of descriptors that could be opened by a process.
2710.It Fl o Ar umtxp
2711The maximal number of process-shared locks
2712(see
2713.Xr pthread 3 )
2714for this user ID.
2715.It Fl p Ar pseudoterminals
2716The maximal number of pseudo-terminals for this user ID.
2717.It Fl s Ar stacksize
2718The maximal size of the stack segment, in kilobytes.
2719.It Fl t Ar time
2720The maximal amount of CPU time to be used by each process, in seconds.
2721.It Fl u Ar userproc
2722The maximal number of simultaneous processes for this user ID.
2723.It Fl v Ar virtualmem
2724The maximal virtual size of a process, in kilobytes.
2725.It Fl w Ar swapuse
2726The maximum amount of swap space reserved or used for this user ID,
2727in kilobytes.
2728.El
2729.It Ic umask Oo Fl S Oc Op Ar mask
2730Set the file creation mask (see
2731.Xr umask 2 )
2732to the octal or symbolic (see
2733.Xr chmod 1 )
2734value specified by
2735.Ar mask .
2736If the argument is omitted, the current mask value is printed.
2737If the
2738.Fl S
2739option is specified, the output is symbolic, otherwise the output is octal.
2740.It Ic unalias Oo Fl a Oc Op Ar name ...
2741The specified alias names are removed.
2742If
2743.Fl a
2744is specified, all aliases are removed.
2745.It Ic unset Oo Fl fv Oc Ar name ...
2746The specified variables or functions are unset and unexported.
2747If the
2748.Fl v
2749option is specified or no options are given, the
2750.Ar name
2751arguments are treated as variable names.
2752If the
2753.Fl f
2754option is specified, the
2755.Ar name
2756arguments are treated as function names.
2757.It Ic wait Op Ar job ...
2758Wait for each specified
2759.Ar job
2760to complete and return the exit status of the last process in the
2761last specified
2762.Ar job .
2763If any
2764.Ar job
2765specified is unknown to the shell, it is treated as if it
2766were a known job that exited with exit status 127.
2767If no operands are given, wait for all jobs to complete
2768and return an exit status of zero.
2769.El
2770.Ss Command Line Editing
2771When
2772.Nm
2773is being used interactively from a terminal, the current command
2774and the command history
2775(see
2776.Ic fc
2777in
2778.Sx Built-in Commands )
2779can be edited using
2780.Nm vi Ns -mode
2781command line editing.
2782This mode uses commands similar
2783to a subset of those described in the
2784.Xr vi 1
2785man page.
2786The command
2787.Dq Li "set -o vi"
2788(or
2789.Dq Li "set -V" )
2790enables
2791.Nm vi Ns -mode
2792editing and places
2793.Nm
2794into
2795.Nm vi
2796insert mode.
2797With
2798.Nm vi Ns -mode
2799enabled,
2800.Nm
2801can be switched between insert mode and command mode by typing
2802.Aq ESC .
2803Hitting
2804.Aq return
2805while in command mode will pass the line to the shell.
2806.Pp
2807Similarly, the
2808.Dq Li "set -o emacs"
2809(or
2810.Dq Li "set -E" )
2811command can be used to enable a subset of
2812.Nm emacs Ns -style
2813command line editing features.
2814.Sh ENVIRONMENT
2815The following environment variables affect the execution of
2816.Nm :
2817.Bl -tag -width ".Ev LANGXXXXXX"
2818.It Ev ENV
2819Initialization file for interactive shells.
2820.It Ev LANG , Ev LC_*
2821Locale settings.
2822These are inherited by children of the shell,
2823and is used in a limited manner by the shell itself.
2824.It Ev OLDPWD
2825The previous current directory.
2826This is used and updated by
2827.Ic cd .
2828.It Ev PWD
2829An absolute pathname for the current directory,
2830possibly containing symbolic links.
2831This is used and updated by the shell.
2832.It Ev TERM
2833The default terminal setting for the shell.
2834This is inherited by children of the shell, and is used in the history
2835editing modes.
2836.El
2837.Pp
2838Additionally, environment variables are turned into shell variables
2839at startup,
2840which may affect the shell as described under
2841.Sx Special Variables .
2842.Sh FILES
2843.Bl -tag -width "/etc/suid_profileXX" -compact
2844.It Pa ~/.profile
2845User's login profile.
2846.It Pa /etc/profile
2847System login profile.
2848.It Pa /etc/shells
2849Shell database.
2850.It Pa /etc/suid_profile
2851Privileged shell profile.
2852.El
2853.Sh EXIT STATUS
2854If the
2855.Ar script
2856cannot be found, the exit status will be 127;
2857if it cannot be opened for another reason, the exit status will be 126.
2858Other errors that are detected by the shell, such as a syntax error, will
2859cause the shell to exit with a non-zero exit status.
2860If the shell is not an interactive shell, the execution of the shell
2861file will be aborted.
2862Otherwise the shell will return the exit status of the last command
2863executed, or if the
2864.Ic exit
2865builtin is used with a numeric argument, it
2866will return the argument.
2867.Sh SEE ALSO
2868.Xr builtin 1 ,
2869.Xr chsh 1 ,
2870.Xr echo 1 ,
2871.Xr ed 1 ,
2872.Xr emacs 1 Pq Pa ports/editors/emacs ,
2873.Xr kill 1 ,
2874.Xr printf 1 ,
2875.Xr pwd 1 ,
2876.Xr test 1 ,
2877.Xr vi 1 ,
2878.Xr execve 2 ,
2879.Xr getrlimit 2 ,
2880.Xr umask 2 ,
2881.Xr wctype 3 ,
2882.Xr editrc 5 ,
2883.Xr shells 5
2884.Sh HISTORY
2885A
2886.Nm
2887command, the Thompson shell, appeared in
2888.At v1 .
2889It was superseded in
2890.At v7
2891by the Bourne shell, which inherited the name
2892.Nm .
2893.Pp
2894This version of
2895.Nm
2896was rewritten in 1989 under the
2897.Bx
2898license after the Bourne shell from
2899.At V.4 .
2900.Sh AUTHORS
2901This version of
2902.Nm
2903was originally written by
2904.An Kenneth Almquist .
2905.Sh BUGS
2906The
2907.Nm
2908utility does not recognize multibyte characters other than UTF-8.
2909Splitting using
2910.Va IFS
2911does not recognize multibyte characters.
2912