xref: /freebsd/bin/sh/sh.1 (revision e653b48c80fb85b2a10372d664a4b55dbdc51dae)
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4.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
5.\" Kenneth Almquist.
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31.\"	from: @(#)sh.1	8.6 (Berkeley) 5/4/95
32.\" $FreeBSD$
33.\"
34.Dd July 3, 2004
35.Dt SH 1
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm sh
39.Nd command interpreter (shell)
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.Nm
42.Op Fl /+abCEefIimnPpsTuVvx
43.Op Fl /+o Ar longname
44.Op Fl c Ar string
45.Op Ar arg ...
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47The
48.Nm
49utility is the standard command interpreter for the system.
50The current version of
51.Nm
52is in the process of being changed to
53conform with the
54.St -p1003.2
55specification for the shell.
56This version has many features which make
57it appear
58similar in some respects to the Korn shell, but it is not a Korn
59shell clone like pdksh.
60Only features
61designated by POSIX, plus a few Berkeley extensions, are being
62incorporated into this shell.
63This man page is not intended to be a tutorial nor a complete
64specification of the shell.
65.Ss Overview
66The shell is a command that reads lines from
67either a file or the terminal, interprets them, and
68generally executes other commands.
69It is the program that is started when a user logs into the system,
70although a user can select a different shell with the
71.Xr chsh 1
72command.
73The shell
74implements a language that has flow control constructs,
75a macro facility that provides a variety of features in
76addition to data storage, along with built-in history and line
77editing capabilities.
78It incorporates many features to
79aid interactive use and has the advantage that the interpretative
80language is common to both interactive and non-interactive
81use (shell scripts).
82That is, commands can be typed directly
83to the running shell or can be put into a file,
84which can be executed directly by the shell.
85.Ss Invocation
86.\"
87.\" XXX This next sentence is incredibly confusing.
88.\"
89If no arguments are present and if the standard input of the shell
90is connected to a terminal
91(or if the
92.Fl i
93option is set),
94the shell is considered an interactive shell.
95An interactive shell
96generally prompts before each command and handles programming
97and command errors differently (as described below).
98When first starting, the shell inspects argument 0, and
99if it begins with a dash
100.Pq Li - ,
101the shell is also considered a login shell.
102This is normally done automatically by the system
103when the user first logs in.
104A login shell first reads commands
105from the files
106.Pa /etc/profile
107and then
108.Pa .profile
109if they exist.
110If the environment variable
111.Ev ENV
112is set on entry to a shell, or is set in the
113.Pa .profile
114of a login shell, the shell then reads commands from the file named in
115.Ev ENV .
116Therefore, a user should place commands that are to be executed only
117at login time in the
118.Pa .profile
119file, and commands that are executed for every shell inside the
120.Ev ENV
121file.
122The user can set the
123.Ev ENV
124variable to some file by placing the following line in the file
125.Pa .profile
126in the home directory,
127substituting for
128.Pa .shinit
129the filename desired:
130.Pp
131.Dl ENV=$HOME/.shinit; export ENV
132.Pp
133The first non-option argument specified on the command line
134will be treated as the
135name of a file from which to read commands (a shell script), and
136the remaining arguments are set as the positional parameters
137of the shell ($1, $2, etc).
138Otherwise, the shell reads commands
139from its standard input.
140.Pp
141Unlike older versions of
142.Nm
143the
144.Ev ENV
145script is only sourced on invocation of interactive shells.
146This
147closes a well-known, and sometimes easily exploitable security
148hole related to poorly thought out
149.Ev ENV
150scripts.
151.Ss Argument List Processing
152All of the single letter options to
153.Nm
154have a corresponding long name,
155with the exception of
156.Fl c
157and
158.Fl /+o .
159These long names are provided next to the single letter options
160in the descriptions below.
161The long name for an option may be specified as an argument to the
162.Fl /+o
163option of
164.Nm .
165Once the shell is running,
166the long name for an option may be specified as an argument to the
167.Fl /+o
168option of the
169.Ic set
170built-in command
171(described later in the section called
172.Sx Built-in Commands ) .
173Introducing an option with a dash
174.Pq Li -
175enables the option,
176while using a plus
177.Pq Li +
178disables the option.
179A
180.Dq Li --
181or plain
182.Dq Li -
183will stop option processing and will force the remaining
184words on the command line to be treated as arguments.
185The
186.Fl /+o
187and
188.Fl c
189options do not have long names.
190They take arguments and are described after the single letter options.
191.Bl -tag -width indent
192.It Fl a Li allexport
193Flag variables for export when assignments are made to them.
194.It Fl b Li notify
195Enable asynchronous notification of background job
196completion.
197(UNIMPLEMENTED)
198.It Fl C Li noclobber
199Do not overwrite existing files with
200.Dq Li > .
201.It Fl E Li emacs
202Enable the built-in
203.Xr emacs 1
204command line editor (disables the
205.Fl V
206option if it has been set).
207.It Fl e Li errexit
208Exit immediately if any untested command fails in non-interactive mode.
209The exit status of a command is considered to be
210explicitly tested if the command is used to control
211an if, elif, while, or until; or if the command is the left
212hand operand of an
213.Dq Li &&
214or
215.Dq Li ||
216operator.
217.It Fl f Li noglob
218Disable pathname expansion.
219.It Fl I Li ignoreeof
220Ignore
221.Dv EOF Ns ' Ns s
222from input when in interactive mode.
223.It Fl i Li interactive
224Force the shell to behave interactively.
225.It Fl m Li monitor
226Turn on job control (set automatically when interactive).
227.It Fl n Li noexec
228If not interactive, read commands but do not
229execute them.
230This is useful for checking the
231syntax of shell scripts.
232.It Fl P Li physical
233Change the default for the
234.Ic cd
235and
236.Ic pwd
237commands from
238.Fl L
239(logical directory layout)
240to
241.Fl P
242(physical directory layout).
243.It Fl p Li privileged
244Turn on privileged mode.
245This mode is enabled on startup
246if either the effective user or group id is not equal to the
247real user or group id.
248Turning this mode off sets the
249effective user and group ids to the real user and group ids.
250When this mode is enabled for interactive shells, the file
251.Pa /etc/suid_profile
252is sourced instead of
253.Pa ~/.profile
254after
255.Pa /etc/profile
256is sourced, and the contents of the
257.Ev ENV
258variable are ignored.
259.It Fl s Li stdin
260Read commands from standard input (set automatically
261if no file arguments are present).
262This option has
263no effect when set after the shell has already started
264running (i.e., when set with the
265.Ic set
266command).
267.It Fl T Li trapsasync
268When waiting for a child, execute traps immediately.
269If this option is not set,
270traps are executed after the child exits,
271as specified in
272.St -p1003.2 .
273This nonstandard option is useful for putting guarding shells around
274children that block signals.
275The surrounding shell may kill the child
276or it may just return control to the tty and leave the child alone,
277like this:
278.Bd -literal -offset indent
279sh -T -c "trap 'exit 1' 2 ; some-blocking-program"
280.Ed
281.Pp
282.It Fl u Li nounset
283Write a message to standard error when attempting
284to expand a variable that is not set, and if the
285shell is not interactive, exit immediately.
286.It Fl V Li vi
287Enable the built-in
288.Xr vi 1
289command line editor (disables
290.Fl E
291if it has been set).
292.It Fl v Li verbose
293The shell writes its input to standard error
294as it is read.
295Useful for debugging.
296.It Fl x Li xtrace
297Write each command
298(preceded by
299.Dq Li +\  )
300to standard error before it is executed.
301Useful for debugging.
302.El
303.Pp
304The
305.Fl c
306option may be used to pass its string argument to the shell
307to be interpreted as input.
308Keep in mind that this option only accepts a single string as its
309argument, hence multi-word strings must be quoted.
310.Pp
311The
312.Fl /+o
313option takes as its only argument the long name of an option
314to be enabled or disabled.
315For example, the following two invocations of
316.Nm
317both enable the built-in
318.Xr emacs 1
319command line editor:
320.Bd -literal -offset indent
321set -E
322set -o emacs
323.Ed
324.Pp
325If used without an argument, the
326.Fl o
327option displays the current option settings in a human-readable format.
328If
329.Cm +o
330is used without an argument, the current option settings are output
331in a format suitable for re-input into the shell.
332.Ss Lexical Structure
333The shell reads input in terms of lines from a file and breaks
334it up into words at whitespace (blanks and tabs), and at
335certain sequences of
336characters called
337.Dq operators ,
338which are special to the shell.
339There are two types of operators: control operators and
340redirection operators (their meaning is discussed later).
341The following is a list of valid operators:
342.Bl -tag -width indent
343.It Control operators:
344.Bl -column "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" -offset center -compact
345.It Li & Ta Li && Ta Li ( Ta Li ) Ta Li \en
346.It Li ;; Ta Li ; Ta Li | Ta Li ||
347.El
348.It Redirection operators:
349.Bl -column "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" -offset center -compact
350.It Li < Ta Li > Ta Li << Ta Li >> Ta Li <>
351.It Li <& Ta Li >& Ta Li <<- Ta Li >|
352.El
353.El
354.Ss Quoting
355Quoting is used to remove the special meaning of certain characters
356or words to the shell, such as operators, whitespace, or
357keywords.
358There are three types of quoting: matched single quotes,
359matched double quotes, and backslash.
360.Bl -tag -width indent
361.It Single Quotes
362Enclosing characters in single quotes preserves the literal
363meaning of all the characters (except single quotes, making
364it impossible to put single-quotes in a single-quoted string).
365.It Double Quotes
366Enclosing characters within double quotes preserves the literal
367meaning of all characters except dollarsign
368.Pq Li $ ,
369backquote
370.Pq Li ` ,
371and backslash
372.Pq Li \e .
373The backslash inside double quotes is historically weird.
374It remains literal unless it precedes the following characters,
375which it serves to quote:
376.Bl -column "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" "XXX" -offset center -compact
377.It Li $ Ta Li ` Ta Li \&" Ta Li \e\  Ta Li \en
378.El
379.It Backslash
380A backslash preserves the literal meaning of the following
381character, with the exception of the newline character
382.Pq Li \en .
383A backslash preceding a newline is treated as a line continuation.
384.El
385.Ss Reserved Words
386Reserved words are words that have special meaning to the
387shell and are recognized at the beginning of a line and
388after a control operator.
389The following are reserved words:
390.Bl -column "doneXX" "elifXX" "elseXX" "untilXX" "whileX" -offset center
391.It Li \&! Ta { Ta } Ta Ic case Ta Ic do
392.It Ic done Ta Ic elif Ta Ic else Ta Ic esac Ta Ic fi
393.It Ic for Ta Ic if Ta Ic then Ta Ic until Ta Ic while
394.El
395.Ss Aliases
396An alias is a name and corresponding value set using the
397.Ic alias
398built-in command.
399Whenever a reserved word may occur (see above),
400and after checking for reserved words, the shell
401checks the word to see if it matches an alias.
402If it does, it replaces it in the input stream with its value.
403For example, if there is an alias called
404.Dq Li lf
405with the value
406.Dq Li ls -F ,
407then the input
408.Bd -literal -offset indent
409lf foobar
410.Ed
411.Pp
412would become
413.Bd -literal -offset indent
414ls -F foobar
415.Ed
416.Pp
417Aliases provide a convenient way for naive users to
418create shorthands for commands without having to learn how
419to create functions with arguments.
420They can also be
421used to create lexically obscure code.
422This use is discouraged.
423.Ss Commands
424The shell interprets the words it reads according to a
425language, the specification of which is outside the scope
426of this man page (refer to the BNF in the
427.St -p1003.2
428document).
429Essentially though, a line is read and if
430the first word of the line (or after a control operator)
431is not a reserved word, then the shell has recognized a
432simple command.
433Otherwise, a complex command or some
434other special construct may have been recognized.
435.Ss Simple Commands
436If a simple command has been recognized, the shell performs
437the following actions:
438.Bl -enum
439.It
440Leading words of the form
441.Dq Li name=value
442are stripped off and assigned to the environment of
443the simple command.
444Redirection operators and
445their arguments (as described below) are stripped
446off and saved for processing.
447.It
448The remaining words are expanded as described in
449the section called
450.Sx Word Expansions ,
451and the first remaining word is considered the command
452name and the command is located.
453The remaining
454words are considered the arguments of the command.
455If no command name resulted, then the
456.Dq Li name=value
457variable assignments recognized in 1) affect the
458current shell.
459.It
460Redirections are performed as described in
461the next section.
462.El
463.Ss Redirections
464Redirections are used to change where a command reads its input
465or sends its output.
466In general, redirections open, close, or
467duplicate an existing reference to a file.
468The overall format
469used for redirection is:
470.Pp
471.Dl [n] redir-op file
472.Pp
473The
474.Ql redir-op
475is one of the redirection operators mentioned
476previously.
477The following gives some examples of how these
478operators can be used.
479Note that stdin and stdout are commonly used abbreviations
480for standard input and standard output respectively.
481.Bl -tag -width "1234567890XX" -offset indent
482.It Li [n]> file
483redirect stdout (or file descriptor n) to file
484.It Li [n]>| file
485same as above, but override the
486.Fl C
487option
488.It Li [n]>> file
489append stdout (or file descriptor n) to file
490.It Li [n]< file
491redirect stdin (or file descriptor n) from file
492.It Li [n]<> file
493redirect stdin (or file descriptor n) to and from file
494.It Li [n1]<&n2
495duplicate stdin (or file descriptor n1) from file descriptor n2
496.It Li [n]<&-
497close stdin (or file descriptor n)
498.It Li [n1]>&n2
499duplicate stdout (or file descriptor n1) to file descriptor n2
500.It Li [n]>&-
501close stdout (or file descriptor n)
502.El
503.Pp
504The following redirection is often called a
505.Dq here-document .
506.Bd -literal -offset indent
507[n]<< delimiter
508	here-doc-text
509	...
510delimiter
511.Ed
512.Pp
513All the text on successive lines up to the delimiter is
514saved away and made available to the command on standard
515input, or file descriptor n if it is specified.
516If the delimiter
517as specified on the initial line is quoted, then the here-doc-text
518is treated literally, otherwise the text is subjected to
519parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic
520expansion (as described in the section on
521.Sx Word Expansions ) .
522If the operator is
523.Dq Li <<-
524instead of
525.Dq Li << ,
526then leading tabs
527in the here-doc-text are stripped.
528.Ss Search and Execution
529There are three types of commands: shell functions,
530built-in commands, and normal programs.
531The command is searched for (by name) in that order.
532The three types of commands are all executed in a different way.
533.Pp
534When a shell function is executed, all of the shell positional
535parameters (except $0, which remains unchanged) are
536set to the arguments of the shell function.
537The variables which are explicitly placed in the environment of
538the command (by placing assignments to them before the
539function name) are made local to the function and are set
540to the values given.
541Then the command given in the function definition is executed.
542The positional parameters are restored to their original values
543when the command completes.
544This all occurs within the current shell.
545.Pp
546Shell built-in commands are executed internally to the shell, without
547spawning a new process.
548.Pp
549Otherwise, if the command name does not match a function
550or built-in command, the command is searched for as a normal
551program in the file system (as described in the next section).
552When a normal program is executed, the shell runs the program,
553passing the arguments and the environment to the program.
554If the program is not a normal executable file
555(i.e., if it does not begin with the
556.Qq magic number
557whose
558.Tn ASCII
559representation is
560.Qq #! ,
561resulting in an
562.Er ENOEXEC
563return value from
564.Xr execve 2 )
565the shell will interpret the program in a subshell.
566The child shell will reinitialize itself in this case,
567so that the effect will be
568as if a new shell had been invoked to handle the ad-hoc shell script,
569except that the location of hashed commands located in
570the parent shell will be remembered by the child.
571.Pp
572Note that previous versions of this document
573and the source code itself misleadingly and sporadically
574refer to a shell script without a magic number
575as a
576.Qq shell procedure .
577.Ss Path Search
578When locating a command, the shell first looks to see if
579it has a shell function by that name.
580Then it looks for a
581built-in command by that name.
582If a built-in command is not found,
583one of two things happen:
584.Bl -enum
585.It
586Command names containing a slash are simply executed without
587performing any searches.
588.It
589The shell searches each entry in
590.Ev PATH
591in turn for the command.
592The value of the
593.Ev PATH
594variable should be a series of
595entries separated by colons.
596Each entry consists of a
597directory name.
598The current directory
599may be indicated implicitly by an empty directory name,
600or explicitly by a single period.
601.El
602.Ss Command Exit Status
603Each command has an exit status that can influence the behavior
604of other shell commands.
605The paradigm is that a command exits
606with zero for normal or success, and non-zero for failure,
607error, or a false indication.
608The man page for each command
609should indicate the various exit codes and what they mean.
610Additionally, the built-in commands return exit codes, as does
611an executed shell function.
612.Pp
613If a command is terminated by a signal, its exit status is 128 plus
614the signal number.
615Signal numbers are defined in the header file
616.In sys/signal.h .
617.Ss Complex Commands
618Complex commands are combinations of simple commands
619with control operators or reserved words, together creating a larger complex
620command.
621More generally, a command is one of the following:
622.Bl -item -offset indent
623.It
624simple command
625.It
626pipeline
627.It
628list or compound-list
629.It
630compound command
631.It
632function definition
633.El
634.Pp
635Unless otherwise stated, the exit status of a command is
636that of the last simple command executed by the command.
637.Ss Pipelines
638A pipeline is a sequence of one or more commands separated
639by the control operator |.
640The standard output of all but
641the last command is connected to the standard input
642of the next command.
643The standard output of the last
644command is inherited from the shell, as usual.
645.Pp
646The format for a pipeline is:
647.Pp
648.Dl [!] command1 [ | command2 ...]
649.Pp
650The standard output of command1 is connected to the standard
651input of command2.
652The standard input, standard output, or
653both of a command is considered to be assigned by the
654pipeline before any redirection specified by redirection
655operators that are part of the command.
656.Pp
657If the pipeline is not in the background (discussed later),
658the shell waits for all commands to complete.
659.Pp
660If the reserved word
661.Ic !\&
662does not precede the pipeline, the
663exit status is the exit status of the last command specified
664in the pipeline.
665Otherwise, the exit status is the logical
666NOT of the exit status of the last command.
667That is, if
668the last command returns zero, the exit status is 1; if
669the last command returns greater than zero, the exit status
670is zero.
671.Pp
672Because pipeline assignment of standard input or standard
673output or both takes place before redirection, it can be
674modified by redirection.
675For example:
676.Pp
677.Dl $ command1 2>&1 | command2
678.Pp
679sends both the standard output and standard error of
680.Ql command1
681to the standard input of
682.Ql command2 .
683.Pp
684A
685.Dq Li \&;
686or newline terminator causes the preceding
687AND-OR-list
688(described below in the section called
689.Sx Short-Circuit List Operators )
690to be executed sequentially;
691an
692.Dq Li &
693causes asynchronous execution of the preceding AND-OR-list.
694.Pp
695Note that unlike some other shells,
696.Nm
697executes each process in the pipeline as a child of the
698.Nm
699process.
700Shell built-in commands are the exception to this rule.
701They are executed in the current shell, although they do not affect its
702environment when used in pipelines.
703.Ss Background Commands (&)
704If a command is terminated by the control operator ampersand
705.Pq Li & ,
706the shell executes the command asynchronously;
707the shell does not wait for the command to finish
708before executing the next command.
709.Pp
710The format for running a command in background is:
711.Bd -literal -offset indent
712command1 & [command2 & ...]
713.Ed
714.Pp
715If the shell is not interactive, the standard input of an
716asynchronous command is set to /dev/null.
717.Ss Lists (Generally Speaking)
718A list is a sequence of zero or more commands separated by
719newlines, semicolons, or ampersands,
720and optionally terminated by one of these three characters.
721The commands in a
722list are executed in the order they are written.
723If command is followed by an ampersand, the shell starts the
724command and immediately proceeds onto the next command;
725otherwise it waits for the command to terminate before
726proceeding to the next one.
727.Ss Short-Circuit List Operators
728.Dq Li &&
729and
730.Dq Li ||
731are AND-OR list operators.
732.Dq Li &&
733executes the first command, and then executes the second command
734if the exit status of the first command is zero.
735.Dq Li ||
736is similar, but executes the second command if the exit
737status of the first command is nonzero.
738.Dq Li &&
739and
740.Dq Li ||
741both have the same priority.
742.Ss Flow-Control Constructs (if, while, for, case)
743The syntax of the
744.Ic if
745command is:
746.\"
747.\" XXX Use .Dl to work around broken handling of .Ic inside .Bd and .Ed .
748.\"
749.Dl Ic if Ar list
750.Dl Ic then Ar list
751.Dl [ Ic elif Ar list
752.Dl Ic then Ar list ] ...
753.Dl [ Ic else Ar list ]
754.Dl Ic fi
755.Pp
756The syntax of the
757.Ic while
758command is:
759.Dl Ic while Ar list
760.Dl Ic do Ar list
761.Dl Ic done
762.Pp
763The two lists are executed repeatedly while the exit status of the
764first list is zero.
765The
766.Ic until
767command is similar, but has the word
768.Ic until
769in place of
770.Ic while ,
771which causes it to
772repeat until the exit status of the first list is zero.
773.Pp
774The syntax of the
775.Ic for
776command is:
777.Dl Ic for Ar variable Ic in Ar word ...
778.Dl Ic do Ar list
779.Dl Ic done
780.Pp
781The words are expanded, and then the list is executed
782repeatedly with the variable set to each word in turn.
783The
784.Ic do
785and
786.Ic done
787commands may be replaced with
788.Dq Li {
789and
790.Dq Li } .
791.Pp
792The syntax of the
793.Ic break
794and
795.Ic continue
796commands is:
797.Dl Ic break Op Ar num
798.Dl Ic continue Op Ar num
799.Pp
800The
801.Ic break
802command terminates the
803.Ar num
804innermost
805.Ic for
806or
807.Ic while
808loops.
809The
810.Ic continue
811command continues with the next iteration of the innermost loop.
812These are implemented as built-in commands.
813.Pp
814The syntax of the
815.Ic case
816command is
817.Dl Ic case Ar word Ic in
818.Dl pattern) list ;;
819.Dl ...
820.Dl Ic esac
821.Pp
822The pattern can actually be one or more patterns
823(see
824.Sx Shell Patterns
825described later),
826separated by
827.Dq Li \&|
828characters.
829.Ss Grouping Commands Together
830Commands may be grouped by writing either
831.Bd -literal -offset indent
832(list)
833.Ed
834.Pp
835or
836.Bd -literal -offset indent
837{ list; }
838.Ed
839.Pp
840The first form executes the commands in a subshell.
841Note that built-in commands thus executed do not affect the current shell.
842The second form does not fork another shell,
843so it is slightly more efficient.
844Grouping commands together this way allows the user to
845redirect their output as though they were one program:
846.Bd -literal -offset indent
847{ echo -n "hello"; echo " world"; } > greeting
848.Ed
849.Ss Functions
850The syntax of a function definition is
851.Bd -literal -offset indent
852name ( ) command
853.Ed
854.Pp
855A function definition is an executable statement; when
856executed it installs a function named name and returns an
857exit status of zero.
858The command is normally a list
859enclosed between
860.Dq Li {
861and
862.Dq Li } .
863.Pp
864Variables may be declared to be local to a function by
865using the
866.Ic local
867command.
868This should appear as the first statement of a function,
869and the syntax is:
870.Bd -ragged -offset indent
871.Ic local
872.Op Ar variable ...
873.Op Ar -
874.Ed
875.Pp
876The
877.Ic local
878command is implemented as a built-in command.
879.Pp
880When a variable is made local, it inherits the initial
881value and exported and readonly flags from the variable
882with the same name in the surrounding scope, if there is
883one.
884Otherwise, the variable is initially unset.
885The shell
886uses dynamic scoping, so that if the variable
887.Em x
888is made local to function
889.Em f ,
890which then calls function
891.Em g ,
892references to the variable
893.Em x
894made inside
895.Em g
896will refer to the variable
897.Em x
898declared inside
899.Em f ,
900not to the global variable named
901.Em x .
902.Pp
903The only special parameter than can be made local is
904.Dq Li - .
905Making
906.Dq Li -
907local causes any shell options that are
908changed via the set command inside the function to be
909restored to their original values when the function
910returns.
911.Pp
912The syntax of the
913.Ic return
914command is
915.Bd -ragged -offset indent
916.Ic return
917.Op Ar exitstatus
918.Ed
919.Pp
920It terminates the current executional scope, returning from the previous
921nested function, sourced script, or shell instance, in that order.
922The
923.Ic return
924command is implemented as a built-in command.
925.Ss Variables and Parameters
926The shell maintains a set of parameters.
927A parameter
928denoted by a name is called a variable.
929When starting up,
930the shell turns all the environment variables into shell
931variables.
932New variables can be set using the form
933.Bd -literal -offset indent
934name=value
935.Ed
936.Pp
937Variables set by the user must have a name consisting solely
938of alphabetics, numerics, and underscores.
939The first letter of a variable name must not be numeric.
940A parameter can also be denoted by a number
941or a special character as explained below.
942.Ss Positional Parameters
943A positional parameter is a parameter denoted by a number greater than zero.
944The shell sets these initially to the values of its command line
945arguments that follow the name of the shell script.
946The
947.Ic set
948built-in command can also be used to set or reset them.
949.Ss Special Parameters
950A special parameter is a parameter denoted by a special one-character
951name.
952The special parameters recognized by the
953.Nm
954shell of
955.Fx
956are shown in the following list, exactly as they would appear in input
957typed by the user or in the source of a shell script.
958.Bl -hang
959.It Li $*
960Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one.
961When
962the expansion occurs within a double-quoted string
963it expands to a single field with the value of each parameter
964separated by the first character of the
965.Ev IFS
966variable,
967or by a
968.Aq space
969if
970.Ev IFS
971is unset.
972.It Li $@
973Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one.
974When
975the expansion occurs within double-quotes, each positional
976parameter expands as a separate argument.
977If there are no positional parameters, the
978expansion of
979.Li @
980generates zero arguments, even when
981.Li @
982is double-quoted.
983What this basically means, for example, is
984if $1 is
985.Dq abc
986and $2 is
987.Dq def ghi ,
988then
989.Qq Li $@
990expands to
991the two arguments:
992.Bd -literal -offset indent
993"abc"   "def ghi"
994.Ed
995.It Li $#
996Expands to the number of positional parameters.
997.It Li $\&?
998Expands to the exit status of the most recent pipeline.
999.It Li $-
1000(hyphen) Expands to the current option flags (the single-letter
1001option names concatenated into a string) as specified on
1002invocation, by the set built-in command, or implicitly
1003by the shell.
1004.It Li $$
1005Expands to the process ID of the invoked shell.
1006A subshell
1007retains the same value of $ as its parent.
1008.It Li $\&!
1009Expands to the process ID of the most recent background
1010command executed from the current shell.
1011For a
1012pipeline, the process ID is that of the last command in the
1013pipeline.
1014.It Li $0
1015(zero) Expands to the name of the shell or shell script.
1016.El
1017.Ss Word Expansions
1018This clause describes the various expansions that are
1019performed on words.
1020Not all expansions are performed on
1021every word, as explained later.
1022.Pp
1023Tilde expansions, parameter expansions, command substitutions,
1024arithmetic expansions, and quote removals that occur within
1025a single word expand to a single field.
1026It is only field
1027splitting or pathname expansion that can create multiple
1028fields from a single word.
1029The single exception to this rule is
1030the expansion of the special parameter
1031.Li @
1032within double-quotes,
1033as was described above.
1034.Pp
1035The order of word expansion is:
1036.Bl -enum
1037.It
1038Tilde Expansion, Parameter Expansion, Command Substitution,
1039Arithmetic Expansion (these all occur at the same time).
1040.It
1041Field Splitting is performed on fields generated by step (1)
1042unless the
1043.Ev IFS
1044variable is null.
1045.It
1046Pathname Expansion (unless the
1047.Fl f
1048option is in effect).
1049.It
1050Quote Removal.
1051.El
1052.Pp
1053The
1054.Dq Li $
1055character is used to introduce parameter expansion, command
1056substitution, or arithmetic evaluation.
1057.Ss Tilde Expansion (substituting a user's home directory)
1058A word beginning with an unquoted tilde character
1059.Pq Li ~
1060is
1061subjected to tilde expansion.
1062All the characters up to a slash
1063.Pq Li /
1064or the end of the word are treated as a username
1065and are replaced with the user's home directory.
1066If the
1067username is missing (as in ~/foobar), the tilde is replaced
1068with the value of the HOME variable (the current user's
1069home directory).
1070.Ss Parameter Expansion
1071The format for parameter expansion is as follows:
1072.Bd -literal -offset indent
1073${expression}
1074.Ed
1075.Pp
1076where expression consists of all characters until the matching
1077.Dq Li } .
1078Any
1079.Dq Li }
1080escaped by a backslash or within a quoted string, and characters in
1081embedded arithmetic expansions, command substitutions, and variable
1082expansions, are not examined in determining the matching
1083.Dq Li } .
1084.Pp
1085The simplest form for parameter expansion is:
1086.Bd -literal -offset indent
1087${parameter}
1088.Ed
1089.Pp
1090The value, if any, of parameter is substituted.
1091.Pp
1092The parameter name or symbol can be enclosed in braces, which are
1093optional except for positional parameters with more than one digit or
1094when parameter is followed by a character that could be interpreted as
1095part of the name.
1096If a parameter expansion occurs inside double-quotes:
1097.Bl -enum
1098.It
1099Pathname expansion is not performed on the results of the
1100expansion.
1101.It
1102Field splitting is not performed on the results of the
1103expansion, with the exception of the special parameter
1104.Li @ .
1105.El
1106.Pp
1107In addition, a parameter expansion can be modified by using one of the
1108following formats.
1109.Bl -tag -width indent
1110.It Li ${parameter:-word}
1111Use Default Values.
1112If parameter is unset or
1113null, the expansion of word is
1114substituted; otherwise, the value of
1115parameter is substituted.
1116.It Li ${parameter:=word}
1117Assign Default Values.
1118If parameter is unset
1119or null, the expansion of word is
1120assigned to parameter.
1121In all cases, the
1122final value of parameter is
1123substituted.
1124Only variables, not positional
1125parameters or special parameters, can be
1126assigned in this way.
1127.It Li ${parameter:?[word]}
1128Indicate Error if Null or Unset.
1129If
1130parameter is unset or null, the expansion of
1131word (or a message indicating it is unset if
1132word is omitted) is written to standard
1133error and the shell exits with a nonzero
1134exit status.
1135Otherwise, the value of
1136parameter is substituted.
1137An
1138interactive shell need not exit.
1139.It Li ${parameter:+word}
1140Use Alternate Value.
1141If parameter is unset
1142or null, null is substituted;
1143otherwise, the expansion of word is
1144substituted.
1145.El
1146.Pp
1147In the parameter expansions shown previously, use of the colon in the
1148format results in a test for a parameter that is unset or null; omission
1149of the colon results in a test for a parameter that is only unset.
1150.Bl -tag -width indent
1151.It Li ${#parameter}
1152String Length.
1153The length in characters of
1154the value of parameter.
1155.El
1156.Pp
1157The following four varieties of parameter expansion provide for substring
1158processing.
1159In each case, pattern matching notation
1160(see
1161.Sx Shell Patterns ) ,
1162rather than regular expression notation,
1163is used to evaluate the patterns.
1164If parameter is one of the special parameters
1165.Li *
1166or
1167.Li @ ,
1168the result of the expansion is unspecified.
1169Enclosing the full parameter expansion string in double-quotes does not
1170cause the following four varieties of pattern characters to be quoted,
1171whereas quoting characters within the braces has this effect.
1172.Bl -tag -width indent
1173.It Li ${parameter%word}
1174Remove Smallest Suffix Pattern.
1175The word
1176is expanded to produce a pattern.
1177The
1178parameter expansion then results in
1179parameter, with the smallest portion of the
1180suffix matched by the pattern deleted.
1181.It Li ${parameter%%word}
1182Remove Largest Suffix Pattern.
1183The word
1184is expanded to produce a pattern.
1185The
1186parameter expansion then results in
1187parameter, with the largest portion of the
1188suffix matched by the pattern deleted.
1189.It Li ${parameter#word}
1190Remove Smallest Prefix Pattern.
1191The word
1192is expanded to produce a pattern.
1193The
1194parameter expansion then results in
1195parameter, with the smallest portion of the
1196prefix matched by the pattern deleted.
1197.It Li ${parameter##word}
1198Remove Largest Prefix Pattern.
1199The word
1200is expanded to produce a pattern.
1201The
1202parameter expansion then results in
1203parameter, with the largest portion of the
1204prefix matched by the pattern deleted.
1205.El
1206.Ss Command Substitution
1207Command substitution allows the output of a command to be substituted in
1208place of the command name itself.
1209Command substitution occurs when
1210the command is enclosed as follows:
1211.Bd -literal -offset indent
1212$(command)
1213.Ed
1214.Pp
1215or the backquoted version:
1216.Bd -literal -offset indent
1217`command`
1218.Ed
1219.Pp
1220The shell expands the command substitution by executing command in a
1221subshell environment and replacing the command substitution
1222with the standard output of the command,
1223removing sequences of one or more newlines at the end of the substitution.
1224Embedded newlines before the end of the output are not removed;
1225however, during field splitting, they may be translated into spaces
1226depending on the value of
1227.Ev IFS
1228and the quoting that is in effect.
1229.Ss Arithmetic Expansion
1230Arithmetic expansion provides a mechanism for evaluating an arithmetic
1231expression and substituting its value.
1232The format for arithmetic expansion is as follows:
1233.Bd -literal -offset indent
1234$((expression))
1235.Ed
1236.Pp
1237The expression is treated as if it were in double-quotes, except
1238that a double-quote inside the expression is not treated specially.
1239The
1240shell expands all tokens in the expression for parameter expansion,
1241command substitution, and quote removal.
1242.Pp
1243Next, the shell treats this as an arithmetic expression and
1244substitutes the value of the expression.
1245.Ss White Space Splitting (Field Splitting)
1246After parameter expansion, command substitution, and
1247arithmetic expansion the shell scans the results of
1248expansions and substitutions that did not occur in double-quotes for
1249field splitting and multiple fields can result.
1250.Pp
1251The shell treats each character of the
1252.Ev IFS
1253as a delimiter and uses
1254the delimiters to split the results of parameter expansion and command
1255substitution into fields.
1256.Ss Pathname Expansion (File Name Generation)
1257Unless the
1258.Fl f
1259option is set,
1260file name generation is performed
1261after word splitting is complete.
1262Each word is
1263viewed as a series of patterns, separated by slashes.
1264The
1265process of expansion replaces the word with the names of
1266all existing files whose names can be formed by replacing
1267each pattern with a string that matches the specified pattern.
1268There are two restrictions on this: first, a pattern cannot match
1269a string containing a slash, and second,
1270a pattern cannot match a string starting with a period
1271unless the first character of the pattern is a period.
1272The next section describes the patterns used for both
1273Pathname Expansion and the
1274.Ic case
1275command.
1276.Ss Shell Patterns
1277A pattern consists of normal characters, which match themselves,
1278and meta-characters.
1279The meta-characters are
1280.Dq Li \&! ,
1281.Dq Li * ,
1282.Dq Li \&? ,
1283and
1284.Dq Li [ .
1285These characters lose their special meanings if they are quoted.
1286When command or variable substitution is performed and the dollar sign
1287or back quotes are not double-quoted, the value of the
1288variable or the output of the command is scanned for these
1289characters and they are turned into meta-characters.
1290.Pp
1291An asterisk
1292.Pq Li *
1293matches any string of characters.
1294A question mark
1295.Pq Li \&?
1296matches any single character.
1297A left bracket
1298.Pq Li [
1299introduces a character class.
1300The end of the character class is indicated by a
1301.Dq Li \&] ;
1302if the
1303.Dq Li \&]
1304is missing then the
1305.Dq Li [
1306matches a
1307.Dq Li [
1308rather than introducing a character class.
1309A character class matches any of the characters between the square brackets.
1310A range of characters may be specified using a minus sign.
1311The character class may be complemented by making an exclamation point
1312.Pq Li !\&
1313the first character of the character class.
1314.Pp
1315To include a
1316.Dq Li \&]
1317in a character class, make it the first character listed
1318(after the
1319.Dq Li \&! ,
1320if any).
1321To include a
1322.Dq Li - ,
1323make it the first or last character listed.
1324.Ss Built-in Commands
1325This section lists the commands which
1326are built-in because they need to perform some operation
1327that cannot be performed by a separate process.
1328In addition to
1329these, a built-in version of the
1330.Xr test 1
1331command is provided for efficiency.
1332.Bl -tag -width indent
1333.It Ic \&:
1334A null command that returns a 0 (true) exit value.
1335.It Ic \&. Ar file
1336The commands in the specified file are read and executed by the shell.
1337The
1338.Ic return
1339command may be used to return to the
1340.Ic \&.
1341command's caller.
1342If
1343.Ar file
1344contains any
1345.Dq /
1346characters, it is used as is.
1347Otherwise, the shell searches the
1348.Ev PATH
1349for the file.
1350If it is not found in the
1351.Ev PATH ,
1352it is sought in the current working directory.
1353.It Ic alias Op Ar name ...
1354.It Ic alias Op Ar name Ns = Ns Ar string ...
1355If
1356.Ar name Ns = Ns Ar string
1357is specified, the shell defines the alias
1358.Ar name
1359with value
1360.Ar string .
1361If just
1362.Ar name
1363is specified, the value of the alias
1364.Ar name
1365is printed.
1366With no arguments, the
1367.Ic alias
1368built-in command prints the names and values of all defined aliases
1369(see
1370.Ic unalias ) .
1371Alias values are written with appropriate quoting so that they are
1372suitable for re-input to the shell.
1373.It Ic bg Op Ar job ...
1374Continue the specified jobs
1375(or the current job if no jobs are given)
1376in the background.
1377.It Ic builtin Ar cmd Op Ar arg ...
1378Execute the specified built-in command,
1379.Ar cmd .
1380This is useful when the user wishes to override a shell function
1381with the same name as a built-in command.
1382.It Ic bind Oo Fl aeklrsv Oc Oo Ar key Oo Ar command Oc Oc
1383List or alter key bindings for the line editor.
1384This command is documented in
1385.Xr editrc 5 .
1386.It Ic cd Oo Fl L | P Oc Op Ar directory
1387Switch to the specified
1388.Ar directory ,
1389or to the directory specified in the
1390.Ev HOME
1391environment variable if no
1392.Ar directory
1393is specified.
1394If
1395.Ar directory
1396does not begin with
1397.Pa / , \&. ,
1398or
1399.Pa .. ,
1400then the directories listed in the
1401.Ev CDPATH
1402variable will be
1403searched for the specified
1404.Ar directory .
1405If
1406.Ev CDPATH
1407is unset, the current directory is searched.
1408The format of
1409.Ar CDPATH
1410is the same as that of
1411.Ev PATH .
1412In an interactive shell,
1413the
1414.Ic cd
1415command will print out the name of the directory
1416that it actually switched to
1417if this is different from the name that the user gave.
1418These may be different either because the
1419.Ev CDPATH
1420mechanism was used or because a symbolic link was crossed.
1421.Pp
1422If the
1423.Fl P
1424option is specified,
1425.Pa ..
1426is handled physically and symbolic links are resolved before
1427.Pa ..
1428components are processed.
1429If the
1430.Fl L
1431option is specified,
1432.Pa ..
1433is handled logically.
1434This is the default.
1435.It Ic chdir
1436A synonym for the
1437.Ic cd
1438built-in command.
1439.It Ic command Oo Fl p Oc Op Ar utility Op Ar argument ...
1440Execute the specified
1441.Ar utility
1442as a simple command (see the
1443.Sx Simple Commands
1444section).
1445.Pp
1446If the
1447.Fl p
1448option is specified, the command search is performed using a
1449default value of
1450.Ev PATH
1451that is guaranteed to find all of the standard utilities.
1452.It Ic echo Oo Fl e | n Oc Op Ar string
1453Print
1454.Ar string
1455to the standard output with a newline appended.
1456.Bl -tag -width indent
1457.It Fl n
1458Suppress the output of the trailing newline.
1459.It Fl e
1460Process C-style backslash escape sequences.
1461.Ic echo
1462understands the following character escapes:
1463.Bl -tag -width indent
1464.It \ea
1465Alert (ring the terminal bell)
1466.It \eb
1467Backspace
1468.It \ec
1469Suppress the trailing newline (this has the side-effect of truncating the
1470line if it is not the last character)
1471.It \ee
1472The ESC character (ASCII 0x1b)
1473.It \ef
1474Formfeed
1475.It \en
1476Newline
1477.It \er
1478Carriage return
1479.It \et
1480Horizontal tab
1481.It \ev
1482Vertical tab
1483.It \e\e
1484Literal backslash
1485.It \e0nnn
1486(Zero) The character whose octal value is nnn
1487.El
1488.Pp
1489If
1490.Ar string
1491is not enclosed in quotes then the backslash itself must be escaped
1492with a backslash to protect it from the shell.
1493For example
1494.Bd -literal -offset indent
1495$ echo -e "a\evb"
1496a
1497 b
1498$ echo -e a\e\evb
1499a
1500 b
1501$ echo -e "a\e\eb"
1502a\eb
1503$ echo -e a\e\e\e\eb
1504a\eb
1505.Ed
1506.El
1507.Pp
1508Only one of the
1509.Fl e
1510and
1511.Fl n
1512options may be specified.
1513.It Ic eval Ar string ...
1514Concatenate all the arguments with spaces.
1515Then re-parse and execute the command.
1516.It Ic exec Op Ar command Op arg ...
1517Unless
1518.Ar command
1519is omitted,
1520the shell process is replaced with the specified program
1521(which must be a real program, not a shell built-in command or function).
1522Any redirections on the
1523.Ic exec
1524command are marked as permanent,
1525so that they are not undone when the
1526.Ic exec
1527command finishes.
1528.It Ic exit Op Ar exitstatus
1529Terminate the shell process.
1530If
1531.Ar exitstatus
1532is given
1533it is used as the exit status of the shell;
1534otherwise the exit status of the preceding command is used.
1535.It Ic export Oo Fl p Oc Op Ar name ...
1536The specified names are exported so that they will
1537appear in the environment of subsequent commands.
1538The only way to un-export a variable is to
1539.Ic unset
1540it.
1541The shell allows the value of a variable to be set
1542at the same time as it is exported by writing
1543.Bd -literal -offset indent
1544export name=value
1545.Ed
1546.Pp
1547With no arguments the export command lists the names
1548of all exported variables.
1549If the
1550.Fl p
1551option is specified, the exported variables are printed as
1552.Dq Ic export Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
1553lines, suitable for re-input to the shell.
1554.It Ic fc Oo Fl e Ar editor Oc Op Ar first Op Ar last
1555.It Ic fc Fl l Oo Fl nr Oc Op Ar first Op Ar last
1556.It Ic fc Fl s Oo Ar old Ns = Ns Ar new Oc Op Ar first
1557The
1558.Ic fc
1559built-in command lists, or edits and re-executes,
1560commands previously entered to an interactive shell.
1561.Bl -tag -width indent
1562.It Fl e Ar editor
1563Use the editor named by
1564.Ar editor
1565to edit the commands.
1566The editor string is a command name,
1567subject to search via the
1568.Ev PATH
1569variable.
1570The value in the
1571.Ev FCEDIT
1572variable is used as a default when
1573.Fl e
1574is not specified.
1575If
1576.Ev FCEDIT
1577is null or unset, the value of the
1578.Ev EDITOR
1579variable is used.
1580If
1581.Ev EDITOR
1582is null or unset,
1583.Xr ed 1
1584is used as the editor.
1585.It Fl l No (ell)
1586List the commands rather than invoking
1587an editor on them.
1588The commands are written in the
1589sequence indicated by the first and last operands, as
1590affected by
1591.Fl r ,
1592with each command preceded by the command number.
1593.It Fl n
1594Suppress command numbers when listing with
1595.Fl l .
1596.It Fl r
1597Reverse the order of the commands listed
1598(with
1599.Fl l )
1600or edited
1601(with neither
1602.Fl l
1603nor
1604.Fl s ) .
1605.It Fl s
1606Re-execute the command without invoking an editor.
1607.It Ar first
1608.It Ar last
1609Select the commands to list or edit.
1610The number of previous commands that can be accessed
1611are determined by the value of the
1612.Ev HISTSIZE
1613variable.
1614The value of
1615.Ar first
1616or
1617.Ar last
1618or both are one of the following:
1619.Bl -tag -width indent
1620.It Ar [+]num
1621A positive number representing a command number;
1622command numbers can be displayed with the
1623.Fl l
1624option.
1625.It Ar -num
1626A negative decimal number representing the
1627command that was executed
1628.Ar num
1629of
1630commands previously.
1631For example, -1 is the immediately previous command.
1632.It Ar string
1633A string indicating the most recently entered command
1634that begins with that string.
1635If the
1636.Ar old=new
1637operand is not also specified with
1638.Fl s ,
1639the string form of the first operand cannot contain an embedded equal sign.
1640.El
1641.El
1642.Pp
1643The following environment variables affect the execution of
1644.Ic fc :
1645.Bl -tag -width indent
1646.It Ev FCEDIT
1647Name of the editor to use.
1648.It Ev HISTSIZE
1649The number of previous commands that are accessible.
1650.El
1651.It Ic fg Op Ar job
1652Move the specified
1653.Ar job
1654or the current job to the foreground.
1655.It Ic getopts Ar optstring Ar var
1656The POSIX
1657.Ic getopts
1658command.
1659The
1660.Ic getopts
1661command deprecates the older
1662.Xr getopt 1
1663command.
1664The first argument should be a series of letters, each possibly
1665followed by a colon which indicates that the option takes an argument.
1666The specified variable is set to the parsed option.
1667The index of
1668the next argument is placed into the shell variable
1669.Ev OPTIND .
1670If an option takes an argument, it is placed into the shell variable
1671.Ev OPTARG .
1672If an invalid option is encountered,
1673.Ev var
1674is set to
1675.Dq Li \&? .
1676It returns a false value (1) when it encounters the end of the options.
1677.It Ic hash Oo Fl rv Oc Op Ar command ...
1678The shell maintains a hash table which remembers the locations of commands.
1679With no arguments whatsoever, the
1680.Ic hash
1681command prints out the contents of this table.
1682Entries which have not been looked at since the last
1683.Ic cd
1684command are marked with an asterisk;
1685it is possible for these entries to be invalid.
1686.Pp
1687With arguments, the
1688.Ic hash
1689command removes each specified
1690.Ar command
1691from the hash table (unless they are functions) and then locates it.
1692With the
1693.Fl v
1694option,
1695.Ic hash
1696prints the locations of the commands as it finds them.
1697The
1698.Fl r
1699option causes the
1700.Ic hash
1701command to delete all the entries in the hash table except for functions.
1702.It Ic jobid Op Ar job
1703Print the process id's of the processes in the specified
1704.Ar job .
1705If the
1706.Ar job
1707argument is omitted, use the current job.
1708.It Ic jobs Oo Fl ls Oc Op Ar job ...
1709Print information about the specified jobs, or all jobs if no
1710.Ar job
1711argument is given.
1712The information printed includes job ID, status and command name.
1713.Pp
1714If the
1715.Fl l
1716option is specified, the PID of each job is also printed.
1717If the
1718.Fl s
1719option is specified, only the PIDs of the jobs are printed, one per line.
1720.It Ic pwd Op Fl L | P
1721Print the path of the current directory.
1722The built-in command may
1723differ from the program of the same name because the
1724built-in command remembers what the current directory
1725is rather than recomputing it each time.
1726This makes
1727it faster.
1728However, if the current directory is
1729renamed,
1730the built-in version of
1731.Xr pwd 1
1732will continue to print the old name for the directory.
1733.Pp
1734If the
1735.Fl P
1736option is specified, symbolic links are resolved.
1737If the
1738.Fl L
1739option is specified, the shell's notion of the current directory
1740is printed (symbolic links are not resolved).
1741This is the default.
1742.It Ic read Oo Fl p Ar prompt Oc Oo Fl t Ar timeout Oc Oo Fl er Oc Ar variable ...
1743The
1744.Ar prompt
1745is printed if the
1746.Fl p
1747option is specified
1748and the standard input is a terminal.
1749Then a line is
1750read from the standard input.
1751The trailing newline
1752is deleted from the line and the line is split as
1753described in the section on
1754.Sx White Space Splitting (Field Splitting)
1755above, and
1756the pieces are assigned to the variables in order.
1757If there are more pieces than variables, the remaining
1758pieces (along with the characters in
1759.Ev IFS
1760that separated them)
1761are assigned to the last variable.
1762If there are more variables than pieces, the remaining
1763variables are assigned the null string.
1764.Pp
1765Backslashes are treated specially, unless the
1766.Fl r
1767option is
1768specified.
1769If a backslash is followed by
1770a newline, the backslash and the newline will be
1771deleted.
1772If a backslash is followed by any other
1773character, the backslash will be deleted and the following
1774character will be treated as though it were not in
1775.Ev IFS ,
1776even if it is.
1777.Pp
1778If the
1779.Fl t
1780option is specified and the
1781.Ar timeout
1782elapses before any input is supplied,
1783the
1784.Ic read
1785command will return without assigning any values.
1786The
1787.Ar timeout
1788value may optionally be followed by one of
1789.Dq s ,
1790.Dq m
1791or
1792.Dq h
1793to explicitly specify seconds, minutes or hours.
1794If none is supplied,
1795.Dq s
1796is assumed.
1797.Pp
1798The
1799.Fl e
1800option exists only for backward compatibility with older scripts.
1801.It Ic readonly Oo Fl p Oc Op Ar name ...
1802Each specified
1803.Ar name
1804is marked as read only,
1805so that it cannot be subsequently modified or unset.
1806The shell allows the value of a variable to be set
1807at the same time as it is marked read only
1808by using the following form:
1809.Bd -literal -offset indent
1810readonly name=value
1811.Ed
1812.Pp
1813With no arguments the
1814.Ic readonly
1815command lists the names of all read only variables.
1816If the
1817.Fl p
1818option is specified, the read-only variables are printed as
1819.Dq Ic readonly Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
1820lines, suitable for re-input to the shell.
1821.It Ic set Oo Fl /+abCEefIimnpTuVvx Oc Oo Fl /+o Ar longname Oc Oo
1822.Fl c Ar string Oc Op Fl - Ar arg ...
1823The
1824.Ic set
1825command performs three different functions:
1826.Bl -item
1827.It
1828With no arguments, it lists the values of all shell variables.
1829.It
1830If options are given,
1831either in short form or using the long
1832.Dq Fl /+o Ar longname
1833form,
1834it sets or clears the specified options as described in the section called
1835.Sx Argument List Processing .
1836.It
1837If the
1838.Dq Fl -
1839option is specified,
1840.Ic set
1841will replace the shell's positional parameters with the subsequent
1842arguments.
1843If no arguments follow the
1844.Dq Fl -
1845option,
1846all the positional parameters will be cleared,
1847which is equivalent to executing the command
1848.Dq Li shift $# .
1849The
1850.Dq Fl -
1851flag may be omitted when specifying arguments to be used
1852as positional replacement parameters.
1853This is not recommended,
1854because the first argument may begin with a dash
1855.Pq Li -
1856or a plus
1857.Pq Li + ,
1858which the
1859.Ic set
1860command will interpret as a request to enable or disable options.
1861.El
1862.It Ic setvar Ar variable Ar value
1863Assigns the specified
1864.Ar value
1865to the specified
1866.Ar variable .
1867.Ic Setvar
1868is intended to be used in functions that
1869assign values to variables whose names are passed as parameters.
1870In general it is better to write
1871.Bd -literal -offset indent
1872variable=value
1873.Ed
1874rather than using
1875.Ic setvar .
1876.It Ic shift Op Ar n
1877Shift the positional parameters
1878.Ar n
1879times, or once if
1880.Ar n
1881is not specified.
1882A shift sets the value of $1 to the value of $2,
1883the value of $2 to the value of $3, and so on,
1884decreasing the value of $# by one.
1885If there are zero positional parameters, shifting does not do anything.
1886.It Ic trap Oo Ar action Oc Ar signal ...
1887Cause the shell to parse and execute
1888.Ar action
1889when any specified
1890.Ar signal
1891is received.
1892The signals are specified by name or number.
1893In addition, the pseudo-signal
1894.Cm EXIT
1895may be used to specify an action that is performed when the shell terminates.
1896The
1897.Ar action
1898may be null or omitted;
1899the former causes the specified signal to be ignored
1900and the latter causes the default action to be taken.
1901When the shell forks off a subshell,
1902it resets trapped (but not ignored) signals to the default action.
1903The
1904.Ic trap
1905command has no effect on signals that were ignored on entry to the shell.
1906.It Ic type Op Ar name ...
1907Interpret each
1908.Ar name
1909as a command and print the resolution of the command search.
1910Possible resolutions are:
1911shell keyword, alias, shell built-in command, command, tracked alias
1912and not found.
1913For aliases the alias expansion is printed;
1914for commands and tracked aliases
1915the complete pathname of the command is printed.
1916.It Ic ulimit Oo Fl HSabcdflmnstuv Oc Op Ar limit
1917Set or display resource limits (see
1918.Xr getrlimit 2 ) .
1919If
1920.Ar limit
1921is specified, the named resource will be set;
1922otherwise the current resource value will be displayed.
1923.Pp
1924If
1925.Fl H
1926is specified, the hard limits will be set or displayed.
1927While everybody is allowed to reduce a hard limit,
1928only the superuser can increase it.
1929The
1930.Fl S
1931option
1932specifies the soft limits instead.
1933When displaying limits,
1934only one of
1935.Fl S
1936or
1937.Fl H
1938can be given.
1939The default is to display the soft limits,
1940and to set both the hard and the soft limits.
1941.Pp
1942Option
1943.Fl a
1944causes the
1945.Ic ulimit
1946command to display all resources.
1947The parameter
1948.Ar limit
1949is not acceptable in this mode.
1950.Pp
1951The remaining options specify which resource value is to be
1952displayed or modified.
1953They are mutually exclusive.
1954.Bl -tag -width indent
1955.It Fl b Ar sbsize
1956The maximum size of socket buffer usage, in bytes.
1957.It Fl c Ar coredumpsize
1958The maximal size of core dump files, in 512-byte blocks.
1959.It Fl d Ar datasize
1960The maximal size of the data segment of a process, in kilobytes.
1961.It Fl f Ar filesize
1962The maximal size of a file, in 512-byte blocks.
1963.It Fl l Ar lockedmem
1964The maximal size of memory that can be locked by a process, in
1965kilobytes.
1966.It Fl m Ar memoryuse
1967The maximal resident set size of a process, in kilobytes.
1968.It Fl n Ar nofiles
1969The maximal number of descriptors that could be opened by a process.
1970.It Fl s Ar stacksize
1971The maximal size of the stack segment, in kilobytes.
1972.It Fl t Ar time
1973The maximal amount of CPU time to be used by each process, in seconds.
1974.It Fl u Ar userproc
1975The maximal number of simultaneous processes for this user ID.
1976.It Fl v Ar virtualmem
1977The maximal virtual size of a process, in kilobytes.
1978.El
1979.It Ic umask Op Ar mask
1980Set the file creation mask (see
1981.Xr umask 2 )
1982to the octal value specified by
1983.Ar mask .
1984If the argument is omitted, the current mask value is printed.
1985.It Ic unalias Oo Fl a Oc Op Ar name
1986If
1987.Ar name
1988is specified, the shell removes that alias.
1989If
1990.Fl a
1991is specified, all aliases are removed.
1992.It Ic unset Oo Fl fv Oc Ar name ...
1993The specified variables or functions are unset and unexported.
1994If the
1995.Fl v
1996option is specified or no options are given, the
1997.Ar name
1998arguments are treated as variable names.
1999If the
2000.Fl f
2001option is specified, the
2002.Ar name
2003arguments are treated as function names.
2004.It Ic wait Op Ar job
2005Wait for the specified
2006.Ar job
2007to complete and return the exit status of the last process in the
2008.Ar job .
2009If the argument is omitted, wait for all jobs to complete
2010and return an exit status of zero.
2011.El
2012.Ss Commandline Editing
2013When
2014.Nm
2015is being used interactively from a terminal, the current command
2016and the command history
2017(see
2018.Ic fc
2019in
2020.Sx Built-in Commands )
2021can be edited using vi-mode command line editing.
2022This mode uses commands similar
2023to a subset of those described in the vi man page.
2024The command
2025.Dq Li set -o vi
2026(or
2027.Dq Li set -V )
2028enables vi-mode editing and places
2029.Nm
2030into vi insert mode.
2031With vi-mode enabled,
2032.Nm
2033can be switched between insert mode and command mode by typing
2034.Aq ESC .
2035Hitting
2036.Aq return
2037while in command mode will pass the line to the shell.
2038.Pp
2039Similarly, the
2040.Dq Li set -o emacs
2041(or
2042.Dq Li set -E )
2043command can be used to enable a subset of
2044emacs-style command line editing features.
2045.Sh SEE ALSO
2046.Xr builtin 1 ,
2047.Xr echo 1 ,
2048.Xr expr 1 ,
2049.Xr pwd 1 ,
2050.Xr test 1
2051.Sh HISTORY
2052A
2053.Nm
2054command appeared in
2055.At v1 .
2056.Sh BUGS
2057The
2058.Nm
2059utility does not recognize multibyte characters.
2060