Yahxin.spaceBASH(1) General Commands Manual BASH(1)
NAME bash - GNU Bourne-Again SHell
SYNOPSIS bash [options] [file]
COPYRIGHT Bash is Copyright (C) 1989-2005 by the Free Software Foundation, Inc.
DESCRIPTION Bash is an sh-compatible command language interpreter that executes commands read from the standard input or from a file. Bash also incorporates useful features from the Korn and C shells (ksh and csh).
Bash is intended to be a conformant implementation of the Shell and
Utilities portion of the IEEE POSIX specification (IEEE Standard
1003.1). Bash can be configured to be POSIX-conformant by default.
OPTIONS In addition to the single-character shell options documented in the description of the set builtin command, bash interprets the following options when it is invoked:
-c string If the -c option is present, then commands are read from
string. If there are arguments after the string, they are
assigned to the positional parameters, starting with $0.
-i If the -i option is present, the shell is interactive.
-l Make bash act as if it had been invoked as a login shell (see
INVOCATION below).
-r If the -r option is present, the shell becomes restricted
(see RESTRICTED SHELL below).
-s If the -s option is present, or if no arguments remain after
option processing, then commands are read from the standard
input. This option allows the positional parameters to be
set when invoking an interactive shell.
-D A list of all double-quoted strings preceded by $ is printed
on the standard output. These are the strings that are
subject to language translation when the current locale is
not C or POSIX. This implies the -n option; no commands will
be executed.
[-+]O [shopt_option]
shopt_option is one of the shell options accepted by the
shopt builtin (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below). If
shopt_option is present, -O sets the value of that option; +O
unsets it. If shopt_option is not supplied, the names and
values of the shell options accepted by shopt are printed on
the standard output. If the invocation option is +O, the
output is displayed in a format that may be reused as input.
-- A -- signals the end of options and disables further option
processing. Any arguments after the -- are treated as
filenames and arguments. An argument of - is equivalent to
--.
Bash also interprets a number of multi-character options. These
options must appear on the command line before the single-character
options to be recognized.
--debugger
Arrange for the debugger profile to be executed before the shell
starts. Turns on extended debugging mode (see the description
of the extdebug option to the shopt builtin below) and shell
function tracing (see the description of the -o functrace option
to the set builtin below).
--dump-po-strings
Equivalent to -D, but the output is in the GNU gettext po
(portable object) file format.
--dump-strings
Equivalent to -D.
--help Display a usage message on standard output and exit
successfully.
--init-file file
--rcfile file
Execute commands from file instead of the standard personal
initialization file ~/.bashrc if the shell is interactive (see
INVOCATION below).
--login
Equivalent to -l.
--noediting
Do not use the GNU readline library to read command lines when
the shell is interactive.
--noprofile
Do not read either the system-wide startup file /etc/profile or
any of the personal initialization files ~/.bash_profile,
~/.bash_login, or ~/.profile. By default, bash reads these
files when it is invoked as a login shell (see INVOCATION
below).
--norc Do not read and execute the personal initialization file
~/.bashrc if the shell is interactive. This option is on by
default if the shell is invoked as sh.
--posix
Change the behavior of bash where the default operation differs
from the POSIX standard to match the standard (posix mode).
--restricted
The shell becomes restricted (see RESTRICTED SHELL below).
--verbose
Equivalent to -v.
--version
Show version information for this instance of bash on the
standard output and exit successfully.
ARGUMENTS If arguments remain after option processing, and neither the -c nor the -s option has been supplied, the first argument is assumed to be the name of a file containing shell commands. If bash is invoked in this fashion, $0 is set to the name of the file, and the positional parameters are set to the remaining arguments. Bash reads and executes commands from this file, then exits. Bash’s exit status is the exit status of the last command executed in the script. If no commands are executed, the exit status is 0. An attempt is first made to open the file in the current directory, and, if no file is found, then the shell searches the directories in PATH for the script.
INVOCATION A login shell is one whose first character of argument zero is a -, or one started with the —login option.
An interactive shell is one started without non-option arguments and
without the -c option whose standard input and error are both connected
to terminals (as determined by isatty(3)), or one started with the -i
option. PS1 is set and $- includes i if bash is interactive, allowing
a shell script or a startup file to test this state.
The following paragraphs describe how bash executes its startup files.
If any of the files exist but cannot be read, bash reports an error.
Tildes are expanded in file names as described below under Tilde
Expansion in the EXPANSION section.
When bash is invoked as an interactive login shell, or as a non-
interactive shell with the --login option, it first reads and executes
commands from the file /etc/profile, if that file exists. After
reading that file, it looks for ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and
~/.profile, in that order, and reads and executes commands from the
first one that exists and is readable. The --noprofile option may be
used when the shell is started to inhibit this behavior.
When a login shell exits, bash reads and executes commands from the
file ~/.bash_logout, if it exists.
When an interactive shell that is not a login shell is started, bash
reads and executes commands from ~/.bashrc, if that file exists. This
may be inhibited by using the --norc option. The --rcfile file option
will force bash to read and execute commands from file instead of
~/.bashrc.
When bash is started non-interactively, to run a shell script, for
example, it looks for the variable BASH_ENV in the environment, expands
its value if it appears there, and uses the expanded value as the name
of a file to read and execute. Bash behaves as if the following
command were executed:
if [ -n "$BASH_ENV" ]; then . "$BASH_ENV"; fi
but the value of the PATH variable is not used to search for the file
name.
If bash is invoked with the name sh, it tries to mimic the startup
behavior of historical versions of sh as closely as possible, while
conforming to the POSIX standard as well. When invoked as an
interactive login shell, or a non-interactive shell with the --login
option, it first attempts to read and execute commands from
/etc/profile and ~/.profile, in that order. The --noprofile option may
be used to inhibit this behavior. When invoked as an interactive shell
with the name sh, bash looks for the variable ENV, expands its value if
it is defined, and uses the expanded value as the name of a file to
read and execute. Since a shell invoked as sh does not attempt to read
and execute commands from any other startup files, the --rcfile option
has no effect. A non-interactive shell invoked with the name sh does
not attempt to read any other startup files. When invoked as sh, bash
enters posix mode after the startup files are read.
When bash is started in posix mode, as with the --posix command line
option, it follows the POSIX standard for startup files. In this mode,
interactive shells expand the ENV variable and commands are read and
executed from the file whose name is the expanded value. No other
startup files are read.
Bash attempts to determine when it is being run by the remote shell
daemon, usually rshd. If bash determines it is being run by rshd, it
reads and executes commands from ~/.bashrc, if that file exists and is
readable. It will not do this if invoked as sh. The --norc option may
be used to inhibit this behavior, and the --rcfile option may be used
to force another file to be read, but rshd does not generally invoke
the shell with those options or allow them to be specified.
If the shell is started with the effective user (group) id not equal to
the real user (group) id, and the -p option is not supplied, no startup
files are read, shell functions are not inherited from the environment,
the SHELLOPTS variable, if it appears in the environment, is ignored,
and the effective user id is set to the real user id. If the -p option
is supplied at invocation, the startup behavior is the same, but the
effective user id is not reset.
DEFINITIONS
The following definitions are used throughout the rest of this
document.
blank A space or tab.
word A sequence of characters considered as a single unit by the
shell. Also known as a token.
name A word consisting only of alphanumeric characters and
underscores, and beginning with an alphabetic character or an
underscore. Also referred to as an identifier.
metacharacter
A character that, when unquoted, separates words. One of the
following:
| & ; ( ) < > space tab
control operator
A token that performs a control function. It is one of the
following symbols:
|| & && ; ;; ( ) |
RESERVED WORDS Reserved words are words that have a special meaning to the shell. The following words are recognized as reserved when unquoted and either the first word of a simple command (see SHELL GRAMMAR below) or the third word of a case or for command:
! case do done elif else esac fi for function if in select then until
while { } time [[ ]]
SHELL GRAMMAR Simple Commands A simple command is a sequence of optional variable assignments followed by blank-separated words and redirections, and terminated by a control operator. The first word specifies the command to be executed, and is passed as argument zero. The remaining words are passed as arguments to the invoked command.
The return value of a simple command is its exit status, or 128+n if
the command is terminated by signal n.
Pipelines A pipeline is a sequence of one or more commands separated by the character |. The format for a pipeline is:
[time [-p]] [ ! ] command [ | command2 ... ]
The standard output of command is connected via a pipe to the standard
input of command2. This connection is performed before any
redirections specified by the command (see REDIRECTION below).
The return status of a pipeline is the exit status of the last command,
unless the pipefail option is enabled. If pipefail is enabled, the
pipeline's return status is the value of the last (rightmost) command
to exit with a non-zero status, or zero if all commands exit
successfully. If the reserved word ! precedes a pipeline, the exit
status of that pipeline is the logical negation of the exit status as
described above. The shell waits for all commands in the pipeline to
terminate before returning a value.
If the time reserved word precedes a pipeline, the elapsed as well as
user and system time consumed by its execution are reported when the
pipeline terminates. The -p option changes the output format to that
specified by POSIX. The TIMEFORMAT variable may be set to a format
string that specifies how the timing information should be displayed;
see the description of TIMEFORMAT under Shell Variables below.
Each command in a pipeline is executed as a separate process (i.e., in
a subshell).
Lists
A list is a sequence of one or more pipelines separated by one of the
operators ;, &, &&, or ⎪⎪, and optionally terminated by one of ;, &, or
Of these list operators, && and ⎪⎪ have equal precedence, followed by ;
and &, which have equal precedence.
A sequence of one or more newlines may appear in a list instead of a
semicolon to delimit commands.
If a command is terminated by the control operator &, the shell
executes the command in the background in a subshell. The shell does
not wait for the command to finish, and the return status is 0.
Commands separated by a ; are executed sequentially; the shell waits
for each command to terminate in turn. The return status is the exit
status of the last command executed.
The control operators && and ⎪⎪ denote AND lists and OR lists,
respectively. An AND list has the form
command1 && command2
command2 is executed if, and only if, command1 returns an exit status
of zero.
An OR list has the form
command1 ⎪⎪ command2
command2 is executed if and only if command1 returns a non-zero exit
status. The return status of AND and OR lists is the exit status of
the last command executed in the list.
Compound Commands A compound command is one of the following:
(list) list is executed in a subshell environment (see COMMAND
EXECUTION ENVIRONMENT below). Variable assignments and builtin
commands that affect the shell's environment do not remain in
effect after the command completes. The return status is the
exit status of list.
{ list; }
list is simply executed in the current shell environment. list
must be terminated with a newline or semicolon. This is known
as a group command. The return status is the exit status of
list. Note that unlike the metacharacters ( and ), { and } are
reserved words and must occur where a reserved word is permitted
to be recognized. Since they do not cause a word break, they
must be separated from list by whitespace.
((expression))
The expression is evaluated according to the rules described
below under ARITHMETIC EVALUATION. If the value of the
expression is non-zero, the return status is 0; otherwise the
return status is 1. This is exactly equivalent to let
"expression".
[[ expression ]]
Return a status of 0 or 1 depending on the evaluation of the
conditional expression expression. Expressions are composed of
the primaries described below under CONDITIONAL EXPRESSIONS.
Word splitting and pathname expansion are not performed on the
words between the [[ and ]]; tilde expansion, parameter and
variable expansion, arithmetic expansion, command substitution,
process substitution, and quote removal are performed.
Conditional operators such as -f must be unquoted to be
recognized as primaries.
When the == and != operators are used, the string to the right
of the operator is considered a pattern and matched according to
the rules described below under Pattern Matching. If the shell
option nocasematch is enabled, the match is performed without
regard to the case of alphabetic characters. The return value
is 0 if the string matches (==) or does not match (!=) the
pattern, and 1 otherwise. Any part of the pattern may be quoted
to force it to be matched as a string.
An additional binary operator, =~, is available, with the same
precedence as == and !=. When it is used, the string to the
right of the operator is considered an extended regular
expression and matched accordingly (as in regex(3)). The return
value is 0 if the string matches the pattern, and 1 otherwise.
If the regular expression is syntactically incorrect, the
conditional expression's return value is 2. If the shell option
nocasematch is enabled, the match is performed without regard to
the case of alphabetic characters. Substrings matched by
parenthesized subexpressions within the regular expression are
saved in the array variable BASH_REMATCH. The element of
BASH_REMATCH with index 0 is the portion of the string matching
the entire regular expression. The element of BASH_REMATCH with
index n is the portion of the string matching the nth
parenthesized subexpression.
Expressions may be combined using the following operators,
listed in decreasing order of precedence:
( expression )
Returns the value of expression. This may be used to
override the normal precedence of operators.
! expression
True if expression is false.
expression1 && expression2
True if both expression1 and expression2 are true.
expression1 || expression2
True if either expression1 or expression2 is true.
The && and || operators do not evaluate expression2 if the value
of expression1 is sufficient to determine the return value of
the entire conditional expression.
for name [ in word ] ; do list ; done
The list of words following in is expanded, generating a list of
items. The variable name is set to each element of this list in
turn, and list is executed each time. If the in word is
omitted, the for command executes list once for each positional
parameter that is set (see PARAMETERS below). The return status
is the exit status of the last command that executes. If the
expansion of the items following in results in an empty list, no
commands are executed, and the return status is 0.
for (( expr1 ; expr2 ; expr3 )) ; do list ; done
First, the arithmetic expression expr1 is evaluated according to
the rules described below under ARITHMETIC EVALUATION. The
arithmetic expression expr2 is then evaluated repeatedly until
it evaluates to zero. Each time expr2 evaluates to a non-zero
value, list is executed and the arithmetic expression expr3 is
evaluated. If any expression is omitted, it behaves as if it
evaluates to 1. The return value is the exit status of the last
command in list that is executed, or false if any of the
expressions is invalid.
select name [ in word ] ; do list ; done
The list of words following in is expanded, generating a list of
items. The set of expanded words is printed on the standard
error, each preceded by a number. If the in word is omitted,
the positional parameters are printed (see PARAMETERS below).
The PS3 prompt is then displayed and a line read from the
standard input. If the line consists of a number corresponding
to one of the displayed words, then the value of name is set to
that word. If the line is empty, the words and prompt are
displayed again. If EOF is read, the command completes. Any
other value read causes name to be set to null. The line read
is saved in the variable REPLY. The list is executed after each
selection until a break command is executed. The exit status of
select is the exit status of the last command executed in list,
or zero if no commands were executed.
case word in [ [(] pattern [ | pattern ] ... ) list ;; ] ... esac
A case command first expands word, and tries to match it against
each pattern in turn, using the same matching rules as for
pathname expansion (see Pathname Expansion below). The word is
expanded using tilde expansion, parameter and variable
expansion, arithmetic substitution, command substitution,
process substitution and quote removal. Each pattern examined
is expanded using tilde expansion, parameter and variable
expansion, arithmetic substitution, command substitution, and
process substitution. If the shell option nocasematch is
enabled, the match is performed without regard to the case of
alphabetic characters. When a match is found, the corresponding
list is executed. After the first match, no subsequent matches
are attempted. The exit status is zero if no pattern matches.
Otherwise, it is the exit status of the last command executed in
list.
if list; then list; [ elif list; then list; ] ... [ else list; ] fi
The if list is executed. If its exit status is zero, the then
list is executed. Otherwise, each elif list is executed in
turn, and if its exit status is zero, the corresponding then
list is executed and the command completes. Otherwise, the else
list is executed, if present. The exit status is the exit
status of the last command executed, or zero if no condition
tested true.
while list; do list; done
until list; do list; done
The while command continuously executes the do list as long as
the last command in list returns an exit status of zero. The
until command is identical to the while command, except that the
test is negated; the do list is executed as long as the last
command in list returns a non-zero exit status. The exit status
of the while and until commands is the exit status of the last
do list command executed, or zero if none was executed.
Shell Function Definitions A shell function is an object that is called like a simple command and executes a compound command with a new set of positional parameters. Shell functions are declared as follows:
[ function ] name () compound-command [redirection]
This defines a function named name. The reserved word function
is optional. If the function reserved word is supplied, the
parentheses are optional. The body of the function is the
compound command compound-command (see Compound Commands above).
That command is usually a list of commands between { and }, but
may be any command listed under Compound Commands above.
compound-command is executed whenever name is specified as the
name of a simple command. Any redirections (see REDIRECTION
below) specified when a function is defined are performed when
the function is executed. The exit status of a function
definition is zero unless a syntax error occurs or a readonly
function with the same name already exists. When executed, the
exit status of a function is the exit status of the last command
executed in the body. (See FUNCTIONS below.)
COMMENTS In a non-interactive shell, or an interactive shell in which the interactive_comments option to the shopt builtin is enabled (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below), a word beginning with # causes that word and all remaining characters on that line to be ignored. An interactive shell without the interactive_comments option enabled does not allow comments. The interactive_comments option is on by default in interactive shells.
QUOTING Quoting is used to remove the special meaning of certain characters or words to the shell. Quoting can be used to disable special treatment for special characters, to prevent reserved words from being recognized as such, and to prevent parameter expansion.
Each of the metacharacters listed above under DEFINITIONS has special
meaning to the shell and must be quoted if it is to represent itself.
When the command history expansion facilities are being used (see
HISTORY EXPANSION below), the history expansion character, usually !,
must be quoted to prevent history expansion.
There are three quoting mechanisms: the escape character, single
quotes, and double quotes.
A non-quoted backslash (\) is the escape character. It preserves the
literal value of the next character that follows, with the exception of
<newline>. If a \<newline> pair appears, and the backslash is not
itself quoted, the \<newline> is treated as a line continuation (that
is, it is removed from the input stream and effectively ignored).
Enclosing characters in single quotes preserves the literal value of
each character within the quotes. A single quote may not occur between
single quotes, even when preceded by a backslash.
Enclosing characters in double quotes preserves the literal value of
all characters within the quotes, with the exception of $, `, \, and,
when history expansion is enabled, !. The characters $ and ` retain
their special meaning within double quotes. The backslash retains its
special meaning only when followed by one of the following characters:
$, `, ", \, or <newline>. A double quote may be quoted within double
quotes by preceding it with a backslash. If enabled, history expansion
will be performed unless an ! appearing in double quotes is escaped
using a backslash. The backslash preceding the ! is not removed.
The special parameters * and @ have special meaning when in double
quotes (see PARAMETERS below).
Words of the form $'string' are treated specially. The word expands to
string, with backslash-escaped characters replaced as specified by the
ANSI C standard. Backslash escape sequences, if present, are decoded
as follows:
\a alert (bell)
\b backspace
\e an escape character
\f form feed
\n new line
\r carriage return
\t horizontal tab
\v vertical tab
\\ backslash
\' single quote
\nnn the eight-bit character whose value is the octal value
nnn (one to three digits)
\xHH the eight-bit character whose value is the hexadecimal
value HH (one or two hex digits)
\cx a control-x character
The expanded result is single-quoted, as if the dollar sign had not
been present.
A double-quoted string preceded by a dollar sign ($) will cause the
string to be translated according to the current locale. If the
current locale is C or POSIX, the dollar sign is ignored. If the
string is translated and replaced, the replacement is double-quoted.
PARAMETERS A parameter is an entity that stores values. It can be a name, a number, or one of the special characters listed below under Special Parameters. A variable is a parameter denoted by a name. A variable has a value and zero or more attributes. Attributes are assigned using the declare builtin command (see declare below in SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS).
A parameter is set if it has been assigned a value. The null string is
a valid value. Once a variable is set, it may be unset only by using
the unset builtin command (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).
A variable may be assigned to by a statement of the form
name=[value]
If value is not given, the variable is assigned the null string. All
values undergo tilde expansion, parameter and variable expansion,
command substitution, arithmetic expansion, and quote removal (see
EXPANSION below). If the variable has its integer attribute set, then
value is evaluated as an arithmetic expression even if the $((...))
expansion is not used (see Arithmetic Expansion below). Word splitting
is not performed, with the exception of "$@" as explained below under
Special Parameters. Pathname expansion is not performed. Assignment
statements may also appear as arguments to the alias, declare, typeset,
export, readonly, and local builtin commands.
In the context where an assignment statement is assigning a value to a
shell variable or array index, the += operator can be used to append to
or add to the variable's previous value. When += is applied to a
variable for which the integer attribute has been set, value is
evaluated as an arithmetic expression and added to the variable's
current value, which is also evaluated. When += is applied to an array
variable using compound assignment (see Arrays below), the variable's
value is not unset (as it is when using =), and new values are appended
to the array beginning at one greater than the array's maximum index.
When applied to a string-valued variable, value is expanded and
appended to the variable's value.
Positional Parameters A positional parameter is a parameter denoted by one or more digits, other than the single digit 0. Positional parameters are assigned from the shell’s arguments when it is invoked, and may be reassigned using the set builtin command. Positional parameters may not be assigned to with assignment statements. The positional parameters are temporarily replaced when a shell function is executed (see FUNCTIONS below).
When a positional parameter consisting of more than a single digit is
expanded, it must be enclosed in braces (see EXPANSION below).
Special Parameters The shell treats several parameters specially. These parameters may only be referenced; assignment to them is not allowed. * Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one. When the expansion occurs within double quotes, it expands to a single word with the value of each parameter separated by the first character of the IFS special variable. That is, “1c@” is equivalent to “2” … If the double-quoted expansion occurs within a word, the expansion of the first parameter is joined with the beginning part of the original word, and the expansion of the last parameter is joined with the last part of the original word. When there are no positional parameters, ”@ expand to nothing (i.e., they are removed). # Expands to the number of positional parameters in decimal. ? Expands to the status of the most recently executed foreground pipeline. - Expands to the current option flags as specified upon invocation, by the set builtin command, or those set by the shell itself (such as the -i option). 0 is set to the name of that file. If bash is started with the -c option, then $0 is set to the first argument after the string to be executed, if one is present. Otherwise, it is set to the file name used to invoke bash, as given by argument zero. _ At shell startup, set to the absolute pathname used to invoke the shell or shell script being executed as passed in the environment or argument list. Subsequently, expands to the last argument to the previous command, after expansion. Also set to the full pathname used to invoke each command executed and placed in the environment exported to that command. When checking mail, this parameter holds the name of the mail file currently being checked.
Shell Variables The following variables are set by the shell:
BASH Expands to the full file name used to invoke this instance of
bash.
BASH_ARGC
An array variable whose values are the number of parameters in
each frame of the current bash execution call stack. The number
of parameters to the current subroutine (shell function or
script executed with . or source) is at the top of the stack.
When a subroutine is executed, the number of parameters passed
is pushed onto BASH_ARGC. The shell sets BASH_ARGC only when in
extended debugging mode (see the description of the extdebug
option to the shopt builtin below)
BASH_ARGV
An array variable containing all of the parameters in the
current bash execution call stack. The final parameter of the
last subroutine call is at the top of the stack; the first
parameter of the initial call is at the bottom. When a
subroutine is executed, the parameters supplied are pushed onto
BASH_ARGV. The shell sets BASH_ARGV only when in extended
debugging mode (see the description of the extdebug option to
the shopt builtin below)
BASH_COMMAND
The command currently being executed or about to be executed,
unless the shell is executing a command as the result of a trap,
in which case it is the command executing at the time of the
trap.
BASH_EXECUTION_STRING
The command argument to the -c invocation option.
BASH_LINENO
An array variable whose members are the line numbers in source
files corresponding to each member of FUNCNAME.
${BASH_LINENO[$i]} is the line number in the source file where
${FUNCNAME[$ifP]} was called. The corresponding source file
name is ${BASH_SOURCE[$i]}. Use LINENO to obtain the current
line number.
BASH_REMATCH
An array variable whose members are assigned by the =~ binary
operator to the [[ conditional command. The element with index
0 is the portion of the string matching the entire regular
expression. The element with index n is the portion of the
string matching the nth parenthesized subexpression. This
variable is read-only.
BASH_SOURCE
An array variable whose members are the source filenames
corresponding to the elements in the FUNCNAME array variable.
BASH_SUBSHELL
Incremented by one each time a subshell or subshell environment
is spawned. The initial value is 0.
BASH_VERSINFO
A readonly array variable whose members hold version information
for this instance of bash. The values assigned to the array
members are as follows:
BASH_VERSINFO[0] The major version number (the release).
BASH_VERSINFO[1] The minor version number (the version).
BASH_VERSINFO[2] The patch level.
BASH_VERSINFO[3] The build version.
BASH_VERSINFO[4] The release status (e.g., beta1).
BASH_VERSINFO[5] The value of MACHTYPE.
BASH_VERSION
Expands to a string describing the version of this instance of
bash.
COMP_CWORD
An index into ${COMP_WORDS} of the word containing the current
cursor position. This variable is available only in shell
functions invoked by the programmable completion facilities (see
Programmable Completion below).
COMP_LINE
The current command line. This variable is available only in
shell functions and external commands invoked by the
programmable completion facilities (see Programmable Completion
below).
COMP_POINT
The index of the current cursor position relative to the
beginning of the current command. If the current cursor
position is at the end of the current command, the value of this
variable is equal to ${#COMP_LINE}. This variable is available
only in shell functions and external commands invoked by the
programmable completion facilities (see Programmable Completion
below).
COMP_WORDBREAKS
The set of characters that the Readline library treats as word
separators when performing word completion. If COMP_WORDBREAKS
is unset, it loses its special properties, even if it is
subsequently reset.
COMP_WORDS
An array variable (see Arrays below) consisting of the
individual words in the current command line. The words are
split on shell metacharacters as the shell parser would separate
them. This variable is available only in shell functions
invoked by the programmable completion facilities (see
Programmable Completion below).
DIRSTACK
An array variable (see Arrays below) containing the current
contents of the directory stack. Directories appear in the
stack in the order they are displayed by the dirs builtin.
Assigning to members of this array variable may be used to
modify directories already in the stack, but the pushd and popd
builtins must be used to add and remove directories. Assignment
to this variable will not change the current directory. If
DIRSTACK is unset, it loses its special properties, even if it
is subsequently reset.
EUID Expands to the effective user ID of the current user,
initialized at shell startup. This variable is readonly.
FUNCNAME
An array variable containing the names of all shell functions
currently in the execution call stack. The element with index 0
is the name of any currently-executing shell function. The
bottom-most element is "main". This variable exists only when a
shell function is executing. Assignments to FUNCNAME have no
effect and return an error status. If FUNCNAME is unset, it
loses its special properties, even if it is subsequently reset.
GROUPS An array variable containing the list of groups of which the
current user is a member. Assignments to GROUPS have no effect
and return an error status. If GROUPS is unset, it loses its
special properties, even if it is subsequently reset.
HISTCMD
The history number, or index in the history list, of the current
command. If HISTCMD is unset, it loses its special properties,
even if it is subsequently reset.
HOSTNAME
Automatically set to the name of the current host.
HOSTTYPE
Automatically set to a string that uniquely describes the type
of machine on which bash is executing. The default is system-
dependent.
LINENO Each time this parameter is referenced, the shell substitutes a
decimal number representing the current sequential line number
(starting with 1) within a script or function. When not in a
script or function, the value substituted is not guaranteed to
be meaningful. If LINENO is unset, it loses its special
properties, even if it is subsequently reset.
MACHTYPE
Automatically set to a string that fully describes the system
type on which bash is executing, in the standard GNU cpu-
company-system format. The default is system-dependent.
OLDPWD The previous working directory as set by the cd command.
OPTARG The value of the last option argument processed by the getopts
builtin command (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).
OPTIND The index of the next argument to be processed by the getopts
builtin command (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).
OSTYPE Automatically set to a string that describes the operating
system on which bash is executing. The default is system-
dependent.
PIPESTATUS
An array variable (see Arrays below) containing a list of exit
status values from the processes in the most-recently-executed
foreground pipeline (which may contain only a single command).
PPID The process ID of the shell's parent. This variable is
readonly.
PWD The current working directory as set by the cd command.
RANDOM Each time this parameter is referenced, a random integer between
0 and 32767 is generated. The sequence of random numbers may be
initialized by assigning a value to RANDOM. If RANDOM is unset,
it loses its special properties, even if it is subsequently
reset.
REPLY Set to the line of input read by the read builtin command when
no arguments are supplied.
SECONDS
Each time this parameter is referenced, the number of seconds
since shell invocation is returned. If a value is assigned to
SECONDS, the value returned upon subsequent references is the
number of seconds since the assignment plus the value assigned.
If SECONDS is unset, it loses its special properties, even if it
is subsequently reset.
SHELLOPTS
A colon-separated list of enabled shell options. Each word in
the list is a valid argument for the -o option to the set
builtin command (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below). The options
appearing in SHELLOPTS are those reported as on by set -o. If
this variable is in the environment when bash starts up, each
shell option in the list will be enabled before reading any
startup files. This variable is read-only.
SHLVL Incremented by one each time an instance of bash is started.
UID Expands to the user ID of the current user, initialized at shell
startup. This variable is readonly.
The following variables are used by the shell. In some cases, bash
assigns a default value to a variable; these cases are noted below.
BASH_ENV
If this parameter is set when bash is executing a shell script,
its value is interpreted as a filename containing commands to
initialize the shell, as in ~/.bashrc. The value of BASH_ENV is
subjected to parameter expansion, command substitution, and
arithmetic expansion before being interpreted as a file name.
PATH is not used to search for the resultant file name.
CDPATH The search path for the cd command. This is a colon-separated
list of directories in which the shell looks for destination
directories specified by the cd command. A sample value is
".:~:/usr".
COLUMNS
Used by the select builtin command to determine the terminal
width when printing selection lists. Automatically set upon
receipt of a SIGWINCH.
COMPREPLY
An array variable from which bash reads the possible completions
generated by a shell function invoked by the programmable
completion facility (see Programmable Completion below).
EMACS If bash finds this variable in the environment when the shell
starts with value "t", it assumes that the shell is running in
an emacs shell buffer and disables line editing.
FCEDIT The default editor for the fc builtin command.
FIGNORE
A colon-separated list of suffixes to ignore when performing
filename completion (see READLINE below). A filename whose
suffix matches one of the entries in FIGNORE is excluded from
the list of matched filenames. A sample value is ".o:~".
GLOBIGNORE
A colon-separated list of patterns defining the set of filenames
to be ignored by pathname expansion. If a filename matched by a
pathname expansion pattern also matches one of the patterns in
GLOBIGNORE, it is removed from the list of matches.
HISTCONTROL
A colon-separated list of values controlling how commands are
saved on the history list. If the list of values includes
ignorespace, lines which begin with a space character are not
saved in the history list. A value of ignoredups causes lines
matching the previous history entry to not be saved. A value of
ignoreboth is shorthand for ignorespace and ignoredups. A value
of erasedups causes all previous lines matching the current line
to be removed from the history list before that line is saved.
Any value not in the above list is ignored. If HISTCONTROL is
unset, or does not include a valid value, all lines read by the
shell parser are saved on the history list, subject to the value
of HISTIGNORE. The second and subsequent lines of a multi-line
compound command are not tested, and are added to the history
regardless of the value of HISTCONTROL.
HISTFILE
The name of the file in which command history is saved (see
HISTORY below). The default value is ~/.bash_history. If
unset, the command history is not saved when an interactive
shell exits.
HISTFILESIZE
The maximum number of lines contained in the history file. When
this variable is assigned a value, the history file is
truncated, if necessary, by removing the oldest entries, to
contain no more than that number of lines. The default value is
500. The history file is also truncated to this size after
writing it when an interactive shell exits.
HISTIGNORE
A colon-separated list of patterns used to decide which command
lines should be saved on the history list. Each pattern is
anchored at the beginning of the line and must match the
complete line (no implicit `*' is appended). Each pattern is
tested against the line after the checks specified by
HISTCONTROL are applied. In addition to the normal shell
pattern matching characters, `&' matches the previous history
line. `&' may be escaped using a backslash; the backslash is
removed before attempting a match. The second and subsequent
lines of a multi-line compound command are not tested, and are
added to the history regardless of the value of HISTIGNORE.
HISTSIZE
The number of commands to remember in the command history (see
HISTORY below). The default value is 500.
HISTTIMEFORMAT
If this variable is set and not null, its value is used as a
format string for strftime(3) to print the time stamp associated
with each history entry displayed by the history builtin. If
this variable is set, time stamps are written to the history
file so they may be preserved across shell sessions.
HOME The home directory of the current user; the default argument for
the cd builtin command. The value of this variable is also used
when performing tilde expansion.
HOSTFILE
Contains the name of a file in the same format as /etc/hosts
that should be read when the shell needs to complete a hostname.
The list of possible hostname completions may be changed while
the shell is running; the next time hostname completion is
attempted after the value is changed, bash adds the contents of
the new file to the existing list. If HOSTFILE is set, but has
no value, bash attempts to read /etc/hosts to obtain the list of
possible hostname completions. When HOSTFILE is unset, the
hostname list is cleared.
IFS The Internal Field Separator that is used for word splitting
after expansion and to split lines into words with the read
builtin command. The default value is
``<space><tab><newline>''.
IGNOREEOF
Controls the action of an interactive shell on receipt of an EOF
character as the sole input. If set, the value is the number of
consecutive EOF characters which must be typed as the first
characters on an input line before bash exits. If the variable
exists but does not have a numeric value, or has no value, the
default value is 10. If it does not exist, EOF signifies the
end of input to the shell.
INPUTRC
The filename for the readline startup file, overriding the
default of ~/.inputrc (see READLINE below).
LANG Used to determine the locale category for any category not
specifically selected with a variable starting with LC_.
LC_ALL This variable overrides the value of LANG and any other LC_
variable specifying a locale category.
LC_COLLATE
This variable determines the collation order used when sorting
the results of pathname expansion, and determines the behavior
of range expressions, equivalence classes, and collating
sequences within pathname expansion and pattern matching.
LC_CTYPE
This variable determines the interpretation of characters and
the behavior of character classes within pathname expansion and
pattern matching.
LC_MESSAGES
This variable determines the locale used to translate double-
quoted strings preceded by a $.
LC_NUMERIC
This variable determines the locale category used for number
formatting.
LINES Used by the select builtin command to determine the column
length for printing selection lists. Automatically set upon
receipt of a SIGWINCH.
MAIL If this parameter is set to a file name and the MAILPATH
variable is not set, bash informs the user of the arrival of
mail in the specified file.
MAILCHECK
Specifies how often (in seconds) bash checks for mail. The
default is 60 seconds. When it is time to check for mail, the
shell does so before displaying the primary prompt. If this
variable is unset, or set to a value that is not a number
greater than or equal to zero, the shell disables mail checking.
MAILPATH
A colon-separated list of file names to be checked for mail.
The message to be printed when mail arrives in a particular file
may be specified by separating the file name from the message
with a `?'. When used in the text of the message, $_ expands to
the name of the current mailfile. Example:
MAILPATH='/var/mail/bfox?"You have mail":~/shell-mail?"$_ has
mail!"'
Bash supplies a default value for this variable, but the
location of the user mail files that it uses is system dependent
(e.g., /var/mail/$USER).
OPTERR If set to the value 1, bash displays error messages generated by
the getopts builtin command (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).
OPTERR is initialized to 1 each time the shell is invoked or a
shell script is executed.
PATH The search path for commands. It is a colon-separated list of
directories in which the shell looks for commands (see COMMAND
EXECUTION below). A zero-length (null) directory name in the
value of PATH indicates the current directory. A null directory
name may appear as two adjacent colons, or as an initial or
trailing colon. The default path is system-dependent, and is
set by the administrator who installs bash. A common value is
``/usr/gnu/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/ucb:/bin:/usr/bin''.
POSIXLY_CORRECT
If this variable is in the environment when bash starts, the
shell enters posix mode before reading the startup files, as if
the --posix invocation option had been supplied. If it is set
while the shell is running, bash enables posix mode, as if the
command set -o posix had been executed.
PROMPT_COMMAND
If set, the value is executed as a command prior to issuing each
primary prompt.
PS1 The value of this parameter is expanded (see PROMPTING below)
and used as the primary prompt string. The default value is
``\s-\v\$ ''.
PS2 The value of this parameter is expanded as with PS1 and used as
the secondary prompt string. The default is ``> ''.
PS3 The value of this parameter is used as the prompt for the select
command (see SHELL GRAMMAR above).
PS4 The value of this parameter is expanded as with PS1 and the
value is printed before each command bash displays during an
execution trace. The first character of PS4 is replicated
multiple times, as necessary, to indicate multiple levels of
indirection. The default is ``+ ''.
SHELL The full pathname to the shell is kept in this environment
variable. If it is not set when the shell starts, bash assigns
to it the full pathname of the current user's login shell.
TIMEFORMAT
The value of this parameter is used as a format string
specifying how the timing information for pipelines prefixed
with the time reserved word should be displayed. The %
character introduces an escape sequence that is expanded to a
time value or other information. The escape sequences and their
meanings are as follows; the braces denote optional portions.
word}
The word is expanded to produce a pattern just as in pathname
expansion. If the pattern matches a trailing portion of the
expanded value of parameter, then the result of the expansion is
the expanded value of parameter with the shortest matching
pattern (the ``%'' case) or the longest matching pattern (the
`` and %+ refer to the shell's notion of the current job, which
is the last job stopped while it was in the foreground or started in
the background. The previous job may be referenced using %-. In
output pertaining to jobs (e.g., the output of the jobs command), the
current job is always flagged with a +, and the previous job with a -.
A single % (with no accompanying job specification) also refers to the
current job.
Simply naming a job can be used to bring it into the foreground: %1 is
a synonym for ``fg %1'', bringing job 1 from the background into the
foreground. Similarly, ``%1 &'' resumes job 1 in the background,
equivalent to ``bg %1''.
The shell learns immediately whenever a job changes state. Normally,
bash waits until it is about to print a prompt before reporting changes
in a job's status so as to not interrupt any other output. If the -b
option to the set builtin command is enabled, bash reports such changes
immediately. Any trap on SIGCHLD is executed for each child that
exits.
If an attempt to exit bash is made while jobs are stopped, the shell
prints a warning message. The jobs command may then be used to inspect
their status. If a second attempt to exit is made without an
intervening command, the shell does not print another warning, and the
stopped jobs are terminated.
PROMPTING When executing interactively, bash displays the primary prompt PS1 when it is ready to read a command, and the secondary prompt PS2 when it needs more input to complete a command. Bash allows these prompt strings to be customized by inserting a number of backslash-escaped special characters that are decoded as follows: \a an ASCII bell character (07) \d the date in “Weekday Month Date” format (e.g., “Tue May 26”) \D{format} the format is passed to strftime(3) and the result is inserted into the prompt string; an empty format results in a locale-specific time representation. The braces are required \e an ASCII escape character (033) \h the hostname up to the first `.’ \H the hostname \j the number of jobs currently managed by the shell \l the basename of the shell’s terminal device name \n newline \r carriage return \s the name of the shell, the basename of HOME abbreviated with a tilde \W the basename of the current working directory, with HOME abbreviated with a tilde \! the history number of this command \# the command number of this command \ if the effective UID is 0, a #, otherwise a $ \nnn the character corresponding to the octal number nnn \ a backslash [ begin a sequence of non-printing characters, which could be used to embed a terminal control sequence into the prompt ] end a sequence of non-printing characters
The command number and the history number are usually different: the
history number of a command is its position in the history list, which
may include commands restored from the history file (see HISTORY
below), while the command number is the position in the sequence of
commands executed during the current shell session. After the string
is decoded, it is expanded via parameter expansion, command
substitution, arithmetic expansion, and quote removal, subject to the
value of the promptvars shell option (see the description of the shopt
command under SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).
READLINE This is the library that handles reading input when using an interactive shell, unless the —noediting option is given at shell invocation. By default, the line editing commands are similar to those of emacs. A vi-style line editing interface is also available. To turn off line editing after the shell is running, use the +o emacs or +o vi options to the set builtin (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).
Readline Notation In this section, the emacs-style notation is used to denote keystrokes. Control keys are denoted by C-key, e.g., C-n means Control-N. Similarly, meta keys are denoted by M-key, so M-x means Meta-X. (On keyboards without a meta key, M-x means ESC x, i.e., press the Escape key then the x key. This makes ESC the meta prefix. The combination M-C-x means ESC-Control-x, or press the Escape key then hold the Control key while pressing the x key.)
Readline commands may be given numeric arguments, which normally act as
a repeat count. Sometimes, however, it is the sign of the argument
that is significant. Passing a negative argument to a command that
acts in the forward direction (e.g., kill-line) causes that command to
act in a backward direction. Commands whose behavior with arguments
deviates from this are noted below.
When a command is described as killing text, the text deleted is saved
for possible future retrieval (yanking). The killed text is saved in a
kill ring. Consecutive kills cause the text to be accumulated into one
unit, which can be yanked all at once. Commands which do not kill text
separate the chunks of text on the kill ring.
Readline Initialization Readline is customized by putting commands in an initialization file (the inputrc file). The name of this file is taken from the value of the INPUTRC variable. If that variable is unset, the default is ~/.inputrc. When a program which uses the readline library starts up, the initialization file is read, and the key bindings and variables are set. There are only a few basic constructs allowed in the readline initialization file. Blank lines are ignored. Lines beginning with a # are comments. Lines beginning with a $ indicate conditional constructs. Other lines denote key bindings and variable settings.
The default key-bindings may be changed with an inputrc file. Other
programs that use this library may add their own commands and bindings.
For example, placing
M-Control-u: universal-argument
or
C-Meta-u: universal-argument
into the inputrc would make M-C-u execute the readline command
universal-argument.
The following symbolic character names are recognized: RUBOUT, DEL,
ESC, LFD, NEWLINE, RET, RETURN, SPC, SPACE, and TAB.
In addition to command names, readline allows keys to be bound to a
string that is inserted when the key is pressed (a macro).
Readline Key Bindings The syntax for controlling key bindings in the inputrc file is simple. All that is required is the name of the command or the text of a macro and a key sequence to which it should be bound. The name may be specified in one of two ways: as a symbolic key name, possibly with Meta- or Control- prefixes, or as a key sequence.
When using the form keyname:function-name or macro, keyname is the name
of a key spelled out in English. For example:
Control-u: universal-argument
Meta-Rubout: backward-kill-word
Control-o: "> output"
In the above example, C-u is bound to the function universal-argument,
M-DEL is bound to the function backward-kill-word, and C-o is bound to
run the macro expressed on the right hand side (that is, to insert the
text ``> output'' into the line).
In the second form, "keyseq":function-name or macro, keyseq differs
from keyname above in that strings denoting an entire key sequence may
be specified by placing the sequence within double quotes. Some GNU
Emacs style key escapes can be used, as in the following example, but
the symbolic character names are not recognized.
"\C-u": universal-argument
"\C-x\C-r": re-read-init-file
"\e[11~": "Function Key 1"
In this example, C-u is again bound to the function universal-argument.
C-x C-r is bound to the function re-read-init-file, and ESC [ 1 1 ~ is
bound to insert the text ``Function Key 1''.
The full set of GNU Emacs style escape sequences is
\C- control prefix
\M- meta prefix
\e an escape character
\\ backslash
\" literal "
\' literal '
In addition to the GNU Emacs style escape sequences, a second set of
backslash escapes is available:
\a alert (bell)
\b backspace
\d delete
\f form feed
\n newline
\r carriage return
\t horizontal tab
\v vertical tab
\nnn the eight-bit character whose value is the octal value
nnn (one to three digits)
\xHH the eight-bit character whose value is the hexadecimal
value HH (one or two hex digits)
When entering the text of a macro, single or double quotes must be used
to indicate a macro definition. Unquoted text is assumed to be a
function name. In the macro body, the backslash escapes described
above are expanded. Backslash will quote any other character in the
macro text, including " and '.
Bash allows the current readline key bindings to be displayed or
modified with the bind builtin command. The editing mode may be
switched during interactive use by using the -o option to the set
builtin command (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).
Readline Variables Readline has variables that can be used to further customize its behavior. A variable may be set in the inputrc file with a statement of the form
set variable-name value
Except where noted, readline variables can take the values On or Off
(without regard to case). Unrecognized variable names are ignored.
When a variable value is read, empty or null values, "on" (case-
insensitive), and "1" are equivalent to On. All other values are
equivalent to Off. The variables and their default values are:
bell-style (audible)
Controls what happens when readline wants to ring the terminal
bell. If set to none, readline never rings the bell. If set to
visible, readline uses a visible bell if one is available. If
set to audible, readline attempts to ring the terminal's bell.
bind-tty-special-chars (On)
If set to On, readline attempts to bind the control characters
treated specially by the kernel's terminal driver to their
readline equivalents.
comment-begin (``#'')
The string that is inserted when the readline insert-comment
command is executed. This command is bound to M-# in emacs mode
and to # in vi command mode.
completion-ignore-case (Off)
If set to On, readline performs filename matching and completion
in a case-insensitive fashion.
completion-query-items (100)
This determines when the user is queried about viewing the
number of possible completions generated by the
possible-completions command. It may be set to any integer
value greater than or equal to zero. If the number of possible
completions is greater than or equal to the value of this
variable, the user is asked whether or not he wishes to view
them; otherwise they are simply listed on the terminal.
convert-meta (On)
If set to On, readline will convert characters with the eighth
bit set to an ASCII key sequence by stripping the eighth bit and
prefixing an escape character (in effect, using escape as the
meta prefix).
disable-completion (Off)
If set to On, readline will inhibit word completion. Completion
characters will be inserted into the line as if they had been
mapped to self-insert.
editing-mode (emacs)
Controls whether readline begins with a set of key bindings
similar to emacs or vi. editing-mode can be set to either emacs
or vi.
enable-keypad (Off)
When set to On, readline will try to enable the application
keypad when it is called. Some systems need this to enable the
arrow keys.
expand-tilde (Off)
If set to on, tilde expansion is performed when readline
attempts word completion.
history-preserve-point (Off)
If set to on, the history code attempts to place point at the
same location on each history line retrieved with previous-
history or next-history.
horizontal-scroll-mode (Off)
When set to On, makes readline use a single line for display,
scrolling the input horizontally on a single screen line when it
becomes longer than the screen width rather than wrapping to a
new line.
input-meta (Off)
If set to On, readline will enable eight-bit input (that is, it
will not strip the high bit from the characters it reads),
regardless of what the terminal claims it can support. The name
meta-flag is a synonym for this variable.
isearch-terminators (``C-[C-J'')
The string of characters that should terminate an incremental
search without subsequently executing the character as a
command. If this variable has not been given a value, the
characters ESC and C-J will terminate an incremental search.
keymap (emacs)
Set the current readline keymap. The set of valid keymap names
is emacs, emacs-standard, emacs-meta, emacs-ctlx, vi,
vi-command, and vi-insert. vi is equivalent to vi-command;
emacs is equivalent to emacs-standard. The default value is
emacs; the value of editing-mode also affects the default
keymap.
mark-directories (On)
If set to On, completed directory names have a slash appended.
mark-modified-lines (Off)
If set to On, history lines that have been modified are
displayed with a preceding asterisk (*).
mark-symlinked-directories (Off)
If set to On, completed names which are symbolic links to
directories have a slash appended (subject to the value of
mark-directories).
match-hidden-files (On)
This variable, when set to On, causes readline to match files
whose names begin with a `.' (hidden files) when performing
filename completion, unless the leading `.' is supplied by the
user in the filename to be completed.
output-meta (Off)
If set to On, readline will display characters with the eighth
bit set directly rather than as a meta-prefixed escape sequence.
page-completions (On)
If set to On, readline uses an internal more-like pager to
display a screenful of possible completions at a time.
print-completions-horizontally (Off)
If set to On, readline will display completions with matches
sorted horizontally in alphabetical order, rather than down the
screen.
show-all-if-ambiguous (Off)
This alters the default behavior of the completion functions.
If set to on, words which have more than one possible completion
cause the matches to be listed immediately instead of ringing
the bell.
show-all-if-unmodified (Off)
This alters the default behavior of the completion functions in
a fashion similar to show-all-if-ambiguous. If set to on, words
which have more than one possible completion without any
possible partial completion (the possible completions don't
share a common prefix) cause the matches to be listed
immediately instead of ringing the bell.
visible-stats (Off)
If set to On, a character denoting a file's type as reported by
stat(2) is appended to the filename when listing possible
completions.
Readline Conditional Constructs Readline implements a facility similar in spirit to the conditional compilation features of the C preprocessor which allows key bindings and variable settings to be performed as the result of tests. There are four parser directives used.
$if The $if construct allows bindings to be made based on the
editing mode, the terminal being used, or the application using
readline. The text of the test extends to the end of the line;
no characters are required to isolate it.
mode The mode= form of the $if directive is used to test
whether readline is in emacs or vi mode. This may be
used in conjunction with the set keymap command, for
instance, to set bindings in the emacs-standard and
emacs-ctlx keymaps only if readline is starting out in
emacs mode.
term The term= form may be used to include terminal-specific
key bindings, perhaps to bind the key sequences output by
the terminal's function keys. The word on the right side
of the = is tested against the both full name of the
terminal and the portion of the terminal name before the
first -. This allows sun to match both sun and sun-cmd,
for instance.
application
The application construct is used to include application-
specific settings. Each program using the readline
library sets the application name, and an initialization
file can test for a particular value. This could be used
to bind key sequences to functions useful for a specific
program. For instance, the following command adds a key
sequence that quotes the current or previous word in
Bash:
$if Bash
# Quote the current or previous word
"\C-xq": "\eb\"\ef\""
$endif
$endif This command, as seen in the previous example, terminates an $if
command.
$else Commands in this branch of the $if directive are executed if the
test fails.
$include
This directive takes a single filename as an argument and reads
commands and bindings from that file. For example, the
following directive would read /etc/inputrc:
$include /etc/inputrc
Searching Readline provides commands for searching through the command history (see HISTORY below) for lines containing a specified string. There are two search modes: incremental and non-incremental.
Incremental searches begin before the user has finished typing the
search string. As each character of the search string is typed,
readline displays the next entry from the history matching the string
typed so far. An incremental search requires only as many characters
as needed to find the desired history entry. The characters present in
the value of the isearch-terminators variable are used to terminate an
incremental search. If that variable has not been assigned a value the
Escape and Control-J characters will terminate an incremental search.
Control-G will abort an incremental search and restore the original
line. When the search is terminated, the history entry containing the
search string becomes the current line.
To find other matching entries in the history list, type Control-S or
Control-R as appropriate. This will search backward or forward in the
history for the next entry matching the search string typed so far.
Any other key sequence bound to a readline command will terminate the
search and execute that command. For instance, a newline will
terminate the search and accept the line, thereby executing the command
from the history list.
Readline remembers the last incremental search string. If two Control-
Rs are typed without any intervening characters defining a new search
string, any remembered search string is used.
Non-incremental searches read the entire search string before starting
to search for matching history lines. The search string may be typed
by the user or be part of the contents of the current line.
Readline Command Names The following is a list of the names of the commands and the default key sequences to which they are bound. Command names without an accompanying key sequence are unbound by default. In the following descriptions, point refers to the current cursor position, and mark refers to a cursor position saved by the set-mark command. The text between the point and mark is referred to as the region.
Commands for Moving beginning-of-line (C-a) Move to the start of the current line. end-of-line (C-e) Move to the end of the line. forward-char (C-f) Move forward a character. backward-char (C-b) Move back a character. forward-word (M-f) Move forward to the end of the next word. Words are composed of alphanumeric characters (letters and digits). backward-word (M-b) Move back to the start of the current or previous word. Words are composed of alphanumeric characters (letters and digits). clear-screen (C-l) Clear the screen leaving the current line at the top of the screen. With an argument, refresh the current line without clearing the screen. redraw-current-line Refresh the current line.
Commands for Manipulating the History
accept-line (Newline, Return)
Accept the line regardless of where the cursor is. If this line
is non-empty, add it to the history list according to the state
of the HISTCONTROL variable. If the line is a modified history
line, then restore the history line to its original state.
previous-history (C-p)
Fetch the previous command from the history list, moving back in
the list.
next-history (C-n)
Fetch the next command from the history list, moving forward in
the list.
beginning-of-history (M-<)
Move to the first line in the history.
end-of-history (M→)
Move to the end of the input history, i.e., the line currently
being entered.
reverse-search-history (C-r)
Search backward starting at the current line and moving up' through the history as necessary. This is an incremental search. forward-search-history (C-s) Search forward starting at the current line and moving down’
through the history as necessary. This is an incremental
search.
non-incremental-reverse-search-history (M-p)
Search backward through the history starting at the current line
using a non-incremental search for a string supplied by the
user.
non-incremental-forward-search-history (M-n)
Search forward through the history using a non-incremental
search for a string supplied by the user.
history-search-forward
Search forward through the history for the string of characters
between the start of the current line and the point. This is a
non-incremental search.
history-search-backward
Search backward through the history for the string of characters
between the start of the current line and the point. This is a
non-incremental search.
yank-nth-arg (M-C-y)
Insert the first argument to the previous command (usually the
second word on the previous line) at point. With an argument n,
insert the nth word from the previous command (the words in the
previous command begin with word 0). A negative argument
inserts the nth word from the end of the previous command. Once
the argument n is computed, the argument is extracted as if the
“!n” history expansion had been specified.
yank-last-arg (M-., M-_)
Insert the last argument to the previous command (the last word
of the previous history entry). With an argument, behave
exactly like yank-nth-arg. Successive calls to yank-last-arg
move back through the history list, inserting the last argument
of each line in turn. The history expansion facilities are used
to extract the last argument, as if the “!FCEDIT,
$EDITOR, and emacs as the editor, in that order.
Commands for Changing Text delete-char (C-d) Delete the character at point. If point is at the beginning of the line, there are no characters in the line, and the last character typed was not bound to delete-char, then return EOF. backward-delete-char (Rubout) Delete the character behind the cursor. When given a numeric argument, save the deleted text on the kill ring. forward-backward-delete-char Delete the character under the cursor, unless the cursor is at the end of the line, in which case the character behind the cursor is deleted. quoted-insert (C-q, C-v) Add the next character typed to the line verbatim. This is how to insert characters like C-q, for example. tab-insert (C-v TAB) Insert a tab character. self-insert (a, b, A, 1, !, …) Insert the character typed. transpose-chars (C-t) Drag the character before point forward over the character at point, moving point forward as well. If point is at the end of the line, then this transposes the two characters before point. Negative arguments have no effect. transpose-words (M-t) Drag the word before point past the word after point, moving point over that word as well. If point is at the end of the line, this transposes the last two words on the line. upcase-word (M-u) Uppercase the current (or following) word. With a negative argument, uppercase the previous word, but do not move point. downcase-word (M-l) Lowercase the current (or following) word. With a negative argument, lowercase the previous word, but do not move point. capitalize-word (M-c) Capitalize the current (or following) word. With a negative argument, capitalize the previous word, but do not move point. overwrite-mode Toggle overwrite mode. With an explicit positive numeric argument, switches to overwrite mode. With an explicit non- positive numeric argument, switches to insert mode. This command affects only emacs mode; vi mode does overwrite differently. Each call to readline() starts in insert mode. In overwrite mode, characters bound to self-insert replace the text at point rather than pushing the text to the right. Characters bound to backward-delete-char replace the character before point with a space. By default, this command is unbound.
Killing and Yanking kill-line (C-k) Kill the text from point to the end of the line. backward-kill-line (C-x Rubout) Kill backward to the beginning of the line. unix-line-discard (C-u) Kill backward from point to the beginning of the line. The killed text is saved on the kill-ring. kill-whole-line Kill all characters on the current line, no matter where point is. kill-word (M-d) Kill from point to the end of the current word, or if between words, to the end of the next word. Word boundaries are the same as those used by forward-word. backward-kill-word (M-Rubout) Kill the word behind point. Word boundaries are the same as those used by backward-word. unix-word-rubout (C-w) Kill the word behind point, using white space as a word boundary. The killed text is saved on the kill-ring. unix-filename-rubout Kill the word behind point, using white space and the slash character as the word boundaries. The killed text is saved on the kill-ring. delete-horizontal-space (M-) Delete all spaces and tabs around point. kill-region Kill the text in the current region. copy-region-as-kill Copy the text in the region to the kill buffer. copy-backward-word Copy the word before point to the kill buffer. The word boundaries are the same as backward-word. copy-forward-word Copy the word following point to the kill buffer. The word boundaries are the same as forward-word. yank (C-y) Yank the top of the kill ring into the buffer at point. yank-pop (M-y) Rotate the kill ring, and yank the new top. Only works following yank or yank-pop.
Numeric Arguments digit-argument (M-0, M-1, …, M—) Add this digit to the argument already accumulating, or start a new argument. M— starts a negative argument. universal-argument This is another way to specify an argument. If this command is followed by one or more digits, optionally with a leading minus sign, those digits define the argument. If the command is followed by digits, executing universal-argument again ends the numeric argument, but is otherwise ignored. As a special case, if this command is immediately followed by a character that is neither a digit or minus sign, the argument count for the next command is multiplied by four. The argument count is initially one, so executing this function the first time makes the argument count four, a second time makes the argument count sixteen, and so on.
Completing complete (TAB) Attempt to perform completion on the text before point. Bash attempts completion treating the text as a variable (if the text begins with ) Attempt completion on the text before point, treating it as a shell variable. possible-variable-completions (C-x $) List the possible completions of the text before point, treating it as a shell variable. complete-hostname (M-@) Attempt completion on the text before point, treating it as a hostname. possible-hostname-completions (C-x @) List the possible completions of the text before point, treating it as a hostname. complete-command (M-!) Attempt completion on the text before point, treating it as a command name. Command completion attempts to match the text against aliases, reserved words, shell functions, shell builtins, and finally executable filenames, in that order. possible-command-completions (C-x !) List the possible completions of the text before point, treating it as a command name. dynamic-complete-history (M-TAB) Attempt completion on the text before point, comparing the text against lines from the history list for possible completion matches. complete-into-braces (M-{) Perform filename completion and insert the list of possible completions enclosed within braces so the list is available to the shell (see Brace Expansion above).
Keyboard Macros start-kbd-macro (C-x () Begin saving the characters typed into the current keyboard macro. end-kbd-macro (C-x )) Stop saving the characters typed into the current keyboard macro and store the definition. call-last-kbd-macro (C-x e) Re-execute the last keyboard macro defined, by making the characters in the macro appear as if typed at the keyboard.
Miscellaneous
re-read-init-file (C-x C-r)
Read in the contents of the inputrc file, and incorporate any
bindings or variable assignments found there.
abort (C-g)
Abort the current editing command and ring the terminal’s bell
(subject to the setting of bell-style).
do-uppercase-version (M-a, M-b, M-x, …)
If the metafied character x is lowercase, run the command that
is bound to the corresponding uppercase character.
prefix-meta (ESC)
Metafy the next character typed. ESC f is equivalent to Meta-f.
undo (C-_, C-x C-u)
Incremental undo, separately remembered for each line.
revert-line (M-r)
Undo all changes made to this line. This is like executing the
undo command enough times to return the line to its initial
state.
tilde-expand (M-&)
Perform tilde expansion on the current word.
set-mark (C-@, M-
Programmable Completion When word completion is attempted for an argument to a command for which a completion specification (a compspec) has been defined using the complete builtin (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below), the programmable completion facilities are invoked.
First, the command name is identified. If a compspec has been defined
for that command, the compspec is used to generate the list of possible
completions for the word. If the command word is a full pathname, a
compspec for the full pathname is searched for first. If no compspec
is found for the full pathname, an attempt is made to find a compspec
for the portion following the final slash.
Once a compspec has been found, it is used to generate the list of
matching words. If a compspec is not found, the default bash
completion as described above under Completing is performed.
First, the actions specified by the compspec are used. Only matches
which are prefixed by the word being completed are returned. When the
-f or -d option is used for filename or directory name completion, the
shell variable FIGNORE is used to filter the matches.
Any completions specified by a filename expansion pattern to the -G
option are generated next. The words generated by the pattern need not
match the word being completed. The GLOBIGNORE shell variable is not
used to filter the matches, but the FIGNORE variable is used.
Next, the string specified as the argument to the -W option is
considered. The string is first split using the characters in the IFS
special variable as delimiters. Shell quoting is honored. Each word
is then expanded using brace expansion, tilde expansion, parameter and
variable expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic expansion, as
described above under EXPANSION. The results are split using the rules
described above under Word Splitting. The results of the expansion are
prefix-matched against the word being completed, and the matching words
become the possible completions.
After these matches have been generated, any shell function or command
specified with the -F and -C options is invoked. When the command or
function is invoked, the COMP_LINE and COMP_POINT variables are
assigned values as described above under Shell Variables. If a shell
function is being invoked, the COMP_WORDS and COMP_CWORD variables are
also set. When the function or command is invoked, the first argument
is the name of the command whose arguments are being completed, the
second argument is the word being completed, and the third argument is
the word preceding the word being completed on the current command
line. No filtering of the generated completions against the word being
completed is performed; the function or command has complete freedom in
generating the matches.
Any function specified with -F is invoked first. The function may use
any of the shell facilities, including the compgen builtin described
below, to generate the matches. It must put the possible completions
in the COMPREPLY array variable.
Next, any command specified with the -C option is invoked in an
environment equivalent to command substitution. It should print a list
of completions, one per line, to the standard output. Backslash may be
used to escape a newline, if necessary.
After all of the possible completions are generated, any filter
specified with the -X option is applied to the list. The filter is a
pattern as used for pathname expansion; a & in the pattern is replaced
with the text of the word being completed. A literal & may be escaped
with a backslash; the backslash is removed before attempting a match.
Any completion that matches the pattern will be removed from the list.
A leading ! negates the pattern; in this case any completion not
matching the pattern will be removed.
Finally, any prefix and suffix specified with the -P and -S options are
added to each member of the completion list, and the result is returned
to the readline completion code as the list of possible completions.
If the previously-applied actions do not generate any matches, and the
-o dirnames option was supplied to complete when the compspec was
defined, directory name completion is attempted.
If the -o plusdirs option was supplied to complete when the compspec
was defined, directory name completion is attempted and any matches are
added to the results of the other actions.
By default, if a compspec is found, whatever it generates is returned
to the completion code as the full set of possible completions. The
default bash completions are not attempted, and the readline default of
filename completion is disabled. If the -o bashdefault option was
supplied to complete when the compspec was defined, the bash default
completions are attempted if the compspec generates no matches. If the
-o default option was supplied to complete when the compspec was
defined, readline's default completion will be performed if the
compspec (and, if attempted, the default bash completions) generate no
matches.
When a compspec indicates that directory name completion is desired,
the programmable completion functions force readline to append a slash
to completed names which are symbolic links to directories, subject to
the value of the mark-directories readline variable, regardless of the
setting of the mark-symlinked-directories readline variable.
HISTORY When the -o history option to the set builtin is enabled, the shell provides access to the command history, the list of commands previously typed. The value of the HISTSIZE variable is used as the number of commands to save in a history list. The text of the last HISTSIZE commands (default 500) is saved. The shell stores each command in the history list prior to parameter and variable expansion (see EXPANSION above) but after history expansion is performed, subject to the values of the shell variables HISTIGNORE and HISTCONTROL.
On startup, the history is initialized from the file named by the
variable HISTFILE (default ~/.bash_history). The file named by the
value of HISTFILE is truncated, if necessary, to contain no more than
the number of lines specified by the value of HISTFILESIZE. When an
interactive shell exits, the last $HISTSIZE lines are copied from the
history list to $HISTFILE. If the histappend shell option is enabled
(see the description of shopt under SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below), the
lines are appended to the history file, otherwise the history file is
overwritten. If HISTFILE is unset, or if the history file is
unwritable, the history is not saved. After saving the history, the
history file is truncated to contain no more than HISTFILESIZE lines.
If HISTFILESIZE is not set, no truncation is performed.
The builtin command fc (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below) may be used
to list or edit and re-execute a portion of the history list. The
history builtin may be used to display or modify the history list and
manipulate the history file. When using command-line editing, search
commands are available in each editing mode that provide access to the
history list.
The shell allows control over which commands are saved on the history
list. The HISTCONTROL and HISTIGNORE variables may be set to cause the
shell to save only a subset of the commands entered. The cmdhist shell
option, if enabled, causes the shell to attempt to save each line of a
multi-line command in the same history entry, adding semicolons where
necessary to preserve syntactic correctness. The lithist shell option
causes the shell to save the command with embedded newlines instead of
semicolons. See the description of the shopt builtin below under SHELL
BUILTIN COMMANDS for information on setting and unsetting shell
options.
HISTORY EXPANSION The shell supports a history expansion feature that is similar to the history expansion in csh. This section describes what syntax features are available. This feature is enabled by default for interactive shells, and can be disabled using the +H option to the set builtin command (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below). Non-interactive shells do not perform history expansion by default.
History expansions introduce words from the history list into the input
stream, making it easy to repeat commands, insert the arguments to a
previous command into the current input line, or fix errors in previous
commands quickly.
History expansion is performed immediately after a complete line is
read, before the shell breaks it into words. It takes place in two
parts. The first is to determine which line from the history list to
use during substitution. The second is to select portions of that line
for inclusion into the current one. The line selected from the history
is the event, and the portions of that line that are acted upon are
words. Various modifiers are available to manipulate the selected
words. The line is broken into words in the same fashion as when
reading input, so that several metacharacter-separated words surrounded
by quotes are considered one word. History expansions are introduced
by the appearance of the history expansion character, which is ! by
default. Only backslash (\) and single quotes can quote the history
expansion character.
Several characters inhibit history expansion if found immediately
following the history expansion character, even if it is unquoted:
space, tab, newline, carriage return, and =. If the extglob shell
option is enabled, ( will also inhibit expansion.
Several shell options settable with the shopt builtin may be used to
tailor the behavior of history expansion. If the histverify shell
option is enabled (see the description of the shopt builtin), and
readline is being used, history substitutions are not immediately
passed to the shell parser. Instead, the expanded line is reloaded
into the readline editing buffer for further modification. If readline
is being used, and the histreedit shell option is enabled, a failed
history substitution will be reloaded into the readline editing buffer
for correction. The -p option to the history builtin command may be
used to see what a history expansion will do before using it. The -s
option to the history builtin may be used to add commands to the end of
the history list without actually executing them, so that they are
available for subsequent recall.
The shell allows control of the various characters used by the history
expansion mechanism (see the description of histchars above under Shell
Variables).
Event Designators An event designator is a reference to a command line entry in the history list.
! Start a history substitution, except when followed by a blank,
newline, carriage return, = or ( (when the extglob shell option
is enabled using the shopt builtin).
!n Refer to command line n.
!-n Refer to the current command line minus n.
!! Refer to the previous command. This is a synonym for `!-1'.
!string
Refer to the most recent command starting with string.
!?string[?]
Refer to the most recent command containing string. The
trailing ? may be omitted if string is followed immediately by a
newline.
^string1^string2^
Quick substitution. Repeat the last command, replacing string1
with string2. Equivalent to ``!!:s/string1/string2/'' (see
Modifiers below).
!# The entire command line typed so far.
Word Designators Word designators are used to select desired words from the event. A : separates the event specification from the word designator. It may be omitted if the word designator begins with a ^, $, *, -, or %. Words are numbered from the beginning of the line, with the first word being denoted by 0 (zero). Words are inserted into the current line separated by single spaces.
0 (zero)
The zeroth word. For the shell, this is the command word.
n The nth word.
^ The first argument. That is, word 1.
$ The last argument.
% The word matched by the most recent `?string?' search.
x-y A range of words; `-y' abbreviates `0-y'.
* All of the words but the zeroth. This is a synonym for `1-$'.
It is not an error to use * if there is just one word in the
event; the empty string is returned in that case.
x* Abbreviates x-$.
x- Abbreviates x-$ like x*, but omits the last word.
If a word designator is supplied without an event specification, the
previous command is used as the event.
Modifiers After the optional word designator, there may appear a sequence of one or more of the following modifiers, each preceded by a `:‘.
h Remove a trailing file name component, leaving only the head.
t Remove all leading file name components, leaving the tail.
r Remove a trailing suffix of the form .xxx, leaving the basename.
e Remove all but the trailing suffix.
p Print the new command but do not execute it.
q Quote the substituted words, escaping further substitutions.
x Quote the substituted words as with q, but break into words at
blanks and newlines.
s/old/new/
Substitute new for the first occurrence of old in the event
line. Any delimiter can be used in place of /. The final
delimiter is optional if it is the last character of the event
line. The delimiter may be quoted in old and new with a single
backslash. If & appears in new, it is replaced by old. A
single backslash will quote the &. If old is null, it is set to
the last old substituted, or, if no previous history
substitutions took place, the last string in a !?string[?]
search.
& Repeat the previous substitution.
g Cause changes to be applied over the entire event line. This is
used in conjunction with `:s' (e.g., `:gs/old/new/') or `:&'.
If used with `:s', any delimiter can be used in place of /, and
the final delimiter is optional if it is the last character of
the event line. An a may be used as a synonym for g.
G Apply the following `s' modifier once to each word in the event
line.
SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS Unless otherwise noted, each builtin command documented in this section as accepting options preceded by - accepts — to signify the end of the options. For example, the :, true, false, and test builtins do not accept options. : [arguments] No effect; the command does nothing beyond expanding arguments and performing any specified redirections. A zero exit code is returned.
. filename [arguments]
source filename [arguments]
Read and execute commands from filename in the current shell
environment and return the exit status of the last command
executed from filename. If filename does not contain a slash,
file names in PATH are used to find the directory containing
filename. The file searched for in PATH need not be executable.
When bash is not in posix mode, the current directory is
searched if no file is found in PATH. If the sourcepath option
to the shopt builtin command is turned off, the PATH is not
searched. If any arguments are supplied, they become the
positional parameters when filename is executed. Otherwise the
positional parameters are unchanged. The return status is the
status of the last command exited within the script (0 if no
commands are executed), and false if filename is not found or
cannot be read.
alias [-p] [name[=value] ...]
Alias with no arguments or with the -p option prints the list of
aliases in the form alias name=value on standard output. When
arguments are supplied, an alias is defined for each name whose
value is given. A trailing space in value causes the next word
to be checked for alias substitution when the alias is expanded.
For each name in the argument list for which no value is
supplied, the name and value of the alias is printed. Alias
returns true unless a name is given for which no alias has been
defined.
bg [jobspec ...]
Resume each suspended job jobspec in the background, as if it
had been started with &. If jobspec is not present, the shell's
notion of the current job is used. bg jobspec returns 0 unless
run when job control is disabled or, when run with job control
enabled, any specified jobspec was not found or was started
without job control.
bind [-m keymap] [-lpsvPSV]
bind [-m keymap] [-q function] [-u function] [-r keyseq]
bind [-m keymap] -f filename
bind [-m keymap] -x keyseq:shell-command
bind [-m keymap] keyseq:function-name
bind readline-command
Display current readline key and function bindings, bind a key
sequence to a readline function or macro, or set a readline
variable. Each non-option argument is a command as it would
appear in .inputrc, but each binding or command must be passed
as a separate argument; e.g., '"\C-x\C-r": re-read-init-file'.
Options, if supplied, have the following meanings:
-m keymap
Use keymap as the keymap to be affected by the subsequent
bindings. Acceptable keymap names are emacs,
emacs-standard, emacs-meta, emacs-ctlx, vi, vi-move,
vi-command, and vi-insert. vi is equivalent to
vi-command; emacs is equivalent to emacs-standard.
-l List the names of all readline functions.
-p Display readline function names and bindings in such a
way that they can be re-read.
-P List current readline function names and bindings.
-v Display readline variable names and values in such a way
that they can be re-read.
-V List current readline variable names and values.
-s Display readline key sequences bound to macros and the
strings they output in such a way that they can be re-
read.
-S Display readline key sequences bound to macros and the
strings they output.
-f filename
Read key bindings from filename.
-q function
Query about which keys invoke the named function.
-u function
Unbind all keys bound to the named function.
-r keyseq
Remove any current binding for keyseq.
-x keyseq:shell-command
Cause shell-command to be executed whenever keyseq is
entered.
The return value is 0 unless an unrecognized option is given or
an error occurred.
break [n]
Exit from within a for, while, until, or select loop. If n is
specified, break n levels. n must be ≥ 1. If n is greater than
the number of enclosing loops, all enclosing loops are exited.
The return value is 0 unless the shell is not executing a loop
when break is executed.
builtin shell-builtin [arguments]
Execute the specified shell builtin, passing it arguments, and
return its exit status. This is useful when defining a function
whose name is the same as a shell builtin, retaining the
functionality of the builtin within the function. The cd
builtin is commonly redefined this way. The return status is
false if shell-builtin is not a shell builtin command.
cd [-L|-P] [dir]
Change the current directory to dir. The variable HOME is the
default dir. The variable CDPATH defines the search path for
the directory containing dir. Alternative directory names in
CDPATH are separated by a colon (:). A null directory name in
CDPATH is the same as the current directory, i.e., ``.''. If
dir begins with a slash (/), then CDPATH is not used. The -P
option says to use the physical directory structure instead of
following symbolic links (see also the -P option to the set
builtin command); the -L option forces symbolic links to be
followed. An argument of - is equivalent to $OLDPWD. If a non-
empty directory name from CDPATH is used, or if - is the first
argument, and the directory change is successful, the absolute
pathname of the new working directory is written to the standard
output. The return value is true if the directory was
successfully changed; false otherwise.
caller [expr]
Returns the context of any active subroutine call (a shell
function or a script executed with the . or source builtins.
Without expr, caller displays the line number and source
filename of the current subroutine call. If a non-negative
integer is supplied as expr, caller displays the line number,
subroutine name, and source file corresponding to that position
in the current execution call stack. This extra information may
be used, for example, to print a stack trace. The current frame
is frame 0. The return value is 0 unless the shell is not
executing a subroutine call or expr does not correspond to a
valid position in the call stack.
command [-pVv] command [arg ...]
Run command with args suppressing the normal shell function
lookup. Only builtin commands or commands found in the PATH are
executed. If the -p option is given, the search for command is
performed using a default value for PATH that is guaranteed to
find all of the standard utilities. If either the -V or -v
option is supplied, a description of command is printed. The -v
option causes a single word indicating the command or file name
used to invoke command to be displayed; the -V option produces a
more verbose description. If the -V or -v option is supplied,
the exit status is 0 if command was found, and 1 if not. If
neither option is supplied and an error occurred or command
cannot be found, the exit status is 127. Otherwise, the exit
status of the command builtin is the exit status of command.
compgen [option] [word]
Generate possible completion matches for word according to the
options, which may be any option accepted by the complete
builtin with the exception of -p and -r, and write the matches
to the standard output. When using the -F or -C options, the
various shell variables set by the programmable completion
facilities, while available, will not have useful values.
The matches will be generated in the same way as if the
programmable completion code had generated them directly from a
completion specification with the same flags. If word is
specified, only those completions matching word will be
displayed.
The return value is true unless an invalid option is supplied,
or no matches were generated.
complete [-abcdefgjksuv] [-o comp-option] [-A action] [-G globpat] [-W
wordlist] [-P prefix] [-S suffix]
[-X filterpat] [-F function] [-C command] name [name ...]
complete -pr [name ...]
Specify how arguments to each name should be completed. If the
-p option is supplied, or if no options are supplied, existing
completion specifications are printed in a way that allows them
to be reused as input. The -r option removes a completion
specification for each name, or, if no names are supplied, all
completion specifications.
The process of applying these completion specifications when
word completion is attempted is described above under
Programmable Completion.
Other options, if specified, have the following meanings. The
arguments to the -G, -W, and -X options (and, if necessary, the
-P and -S options) should be quoted to protect them from
expansion before the complete builtin is invoked.
-o comp-option
The comp-option controls several aspects of the
compspec's behavior beyond the simple generation of
completions. comp-option may be one of:
bashdefault
Perform the rest of the default bash completions
if the compspec generates no matches.
default Use readline's default filename completion if
the compspec generates no matches.
dirnames
Perform directory name completion if the
compspec generates no matches.
filenames
Tell readline that the compspec generates
filenames, so it can perform any
filename-specific processing (like adding a
slash to directory names or suppressing trailing
spaces). Intended to be used with shell
functions.
nospace Tell readline not to append a space (the
default) to words completed at the end of the
line.
plusdirs
After any matches defined by the compspec are
generated, directory name completion is
attempted and any matches are added to the
results of the other actions.
-A action
The action may be one of the following to generate a
list of possible completions:
alias Alias names. May also be specified as -a.
arrayvar
Array variable names.
binding Readline key binding names.
builtin Names of shell builtin commands. May also be
specified as -b.
command Command names. May also be specified as -c.
directory
Directory names. May also be specified as -d.
disabled
Names of disabled shell builtins.
enabled Names of enabled shell builtins.
export Names of exported shell variables. May also be
specified as -e.
file File names. May also be specified as -f.
function
Names of shell functions.
group Group names. May also be specified as -g.
helptopic
Help topics as accepted by the help builtin.
hostname
Hostnames, as taken from the file specified by
the HOSTFILE shell variable.
job Job names, if job control is active. May also
be specified as -j.
keyword Shell reserved words. May also be specified as
-k.
running Names of running jobs, if job control is active.
service Service names. May also be specified as -s.
setopt Valid arguments for the -o option to the set
builtin.
shopt Shell option names as accepted by the shopt
builtin.
signal Signal names.
stopped Names of stopped jobs, if job control is active.
user User names. May also be specified as -u.
variable
Names of all shell variables. May also be
specified as -v.
-G globpat
The filename expansion pattern globpat is expanded to
generate the possible completions.
-W wordlist
The wordlist is split using the characters in the IFS
special variable as delimiters, and each resultant word
is expanded. The possible completions are the members
of the resultant list which match the word being
completed.
-C command
command is executed in a subshell environment, and its
output is used as the possible completions.
-F function
The shell function function is executed in the current
shell environment. When it finishes, the possible
completions are retrieved from the value of the
COMPREPLY array variable.
-X filterpat
filterpat is a pattern as used for filename expansion.
It is applied to the list of possible completions
generated by the preceding options and arguments, and
each completion matching filterpat is removed from the
list. A leading ! in filterpat negates the pattern; in
this case, any completion not matching filterpat is
removed.
-P prefix
prefix is added at the beginning of each possible
completion after all other options have been applied.
-S suffix
suffix is appended to each possible completion after all
other options have been applied.
The return value is true unless an invalid option is supplied,
an option other than -p or -r is supplied without a name
argument, an attempt is made to remove a completion
specification for a name for which no specification exists, or
an error occurs adding a completion specification.
continue [n]
Resume the next iteration of the enclosing for, while, until, or
select loop. If n is specified, resume at the nth enclosing
loop. n must be ≥ 1. If n is greater than the number of
enclosing loops, the last enclosing loop (the ``top-level''
loop) is resumed. The return value is 0 unless the shell is not
executing a loop when continue is executed.
declare [-afFirtx] [-p] [name[=value] ...]
typeset [-afFirtx] [-p] [name[=value] ...]
Declare variables and/or give them attributes. If no names are
given then display the values of variables. The -p option will
display the attributes and values of each name. When -p is
used, additional options are ignored. The -F option inhibits
the display of function definitions; only the function name and
attributes are printed. If the extdebug shell option is enabled
using shopt, the source file name and line number where the
function is defined are displayed as well. The -F option
implies -f. The following options can be used to restrict
output to variables with the specified attribute or to give
variables attributes:
-a Each name is an array variable (see Arrays above).
-f Use function names only.
-i The variable is treated as an integer; arithmetic
evaluation (see ARITHMETIC EVALUATION ) is performed
when the variable is assigned a value.
-r Make names readonly. These names cannot then be assigned
values by subsequent assignment statements or unset.
-t Give each name the trace attribute. Traced functions
inherit the DEBUG and RETURN traps from the calling
shell. The trace attribute has no special meaning for
variables.
-x Mark names for export to subsequent commands via the
environment.
Using `+' instead of `-' turns off the attribute instead, with
the exception that +a may not be used to destroy an array
variable. When used in a function, makes each name local, as
with the local command. If a variable name is followed by
=value, the value of the variable is set to value. The return
value is 0 unless an invalid option is encountered, an attempt
is made to define a function using ``-f foo=bar'', an attempt is
made to assign a value to a readonly variable, an attempt is
made to assign a value to an array variable without using the
compound assignment syntax (see Arrays above), one of the names
is not a valid shell variable name, an attempt is made to turn
off readonly status for a readonly variable, an attempt is made
to turn off array status for an array variable, or an attempt is
made to display a non-existent function with -f.
dirs [-clpv] [+n] [-n]
Without options, displays the list of currently remembered
directories. The default display is on a single line with
directory names separated by spaces. Directories are added to
the list with the pushd command; the popd command removes
entries from the list.
+n Displays the nth entry counting from the left of the list
shown by dirs when invoked without options, starting with
zero.
-n Displays the nth entry counting from the right of the
list shown by dirs when invoked without options, starting
with zero.
-c Clears the directory stack by deleting all of the
entries.
-l Produces a longer listing; the default listing format
uses a tilde to denote the home directory.
-p Print the directory stack with one entry per line.
-v Print the directory stack with one entry per line,
prefixing each entry with its index in the stack.
The return value is 0 unless an invalid option is supplied or n
indexes beyond the end of the directory stack.
disown [-ar] [-h] [jobspec ...]
Without options, each jobspec is removed from the table of
active jobs. If the -h option is given, each jobspec is not
removed from the table, but is marked so that SIGHUP is not sent
to the job if the shell receives a SIGHUP. If no jobspec is
present, and neither the -a nor the -r option is supplied, the
current job is used. If no jobspec is supplied, the -a option
means to remove or mark all jobs; the -r option without a
jobspec argument restricts operation to running jobs. The
return value is 0 unless a jobspec does not specify a valid job.
echo [-neE] [arg ...]
Output the args, separated by spaces, followed by a newline.
The return status is always 0. If -n is specified, the trailing
newline is suppressed. If the -e option is given,
interpretation of the following backslash-escaped characters is
enabled. The -E option disables the interpretation of these
escape characters, even on systems where they are interpreted by
default. The xpg_echo shell option may be used to dynamically
determine whether or not echo expands these escape characters by
default. echo does not interpret -- to mean the end of options.
echo interprets the following escape sequences:
\a alert (bell)
\b backspace
\c suppress trailing newline
\e an escape character
\f form feed
\n new line
\r carriage return
\t horizontal tab
\v vertical tab
\\ backslash
\0nnn the eight-bit character whose value is the octal value
nnn (zero to three octal digits)
\xHH the eight-bit character whose value is the hexadecimal
value HH (one or two hex digits)
enable [-adnps] [-f filename] [name ...]
Enable and disable builtin shell commands. Disabling a builtin
allows a disk command which has the same name as a shell builtin
to be executed without specifying a full pathname, even though
the shell normally searches for builtins before disk commands.
If -n is used, each name is disabled; otherwise, names are
enabled. For example, to use the test binary found via the PATH
instead of the shell builtin version, run ``enable -n test''.
The -f option means to load the new builtin command name from
shared object filename, on systems that support dynamic loading.
The -d option will delete a builtin previously loaded with -f.
If no name arguments are given, or if the -p option is supplied,
a list of shell builtins is printed. With no other option
arguments, the list consists of all enabled shell builtins. If
-n is supplied, only disabled builtins are printed. If -a is
supplied, the list printed includes all builtins, with an
indication of whether or not each is enabled. If -s is
supplied, the output is restricted to the POSIX special
builtins. The return value is 0 unless a name is not a shell
builtin or there is an error loading a new builtin from a shared
object.
eval [arg ...]
The args are read and concatenated together into a single
command. This command is then read and executed by the shell,
and its exit status is returned as the value of eval. If there
are no args, or only null arguments, eval returns 0.
exec [-cl] [-a name] [command [arguments]]
If command is specified, it replaces the shell. No new process
is created. The arguments become the arguments to command. If
the -l option is supplied, the shell places a dash at the
beginning of the zeroth arg passed to command. This is what
login(1) does. The -c option causes command to be executed with
an empty environment. If -a is supplied, the shell passes name
as the zeroth argument to the executed command. If command
cannot be executed for some reason, a non-interactive shell
exits, unless the shell option execfail is enabled, in which
case it returns failure. An interactive shell returns failure
if the file cannot be executed. If command is not specified,
any redirections take effect in the current shell, and the
return status is 0. If there is a redirection error, the return
status is 1.
exit [n]
Cause the shell to exit with a status of n. If n is omitted,
the exit status is that of the last command executed. A trap on
EXIT is executed before the shell terminates.
export [-fn] [name[=word]] ...
export -p
The supplied names are marked for automatic export to the
environment of subsequently executed commands. If the -f option
is given, the names refer to functions. If no names are given,
or if the -p option is supplied, a list of all names that are
exported in this shell is printed. The -n option causes the
export property to be removed from each name. If a variable
name is followed by =word, the value of the variable is set to
word. export returns an exit status of 0 unless an invalid
option is encountered, one of the names is not a valid shell
variable name, or -f is supplied with a name that is not a
function.
fc [-e ename] [-nlr] [first] [last]
fc -s [pat=rep] [cmd]
Fix Command. In the first form, a range of commands from first
to last is selected from the history list. First and last may
be specified as a string (to locate the last command beginning
with that string) or as a number (an index into the history
list, where a negative number is used as an offset from the
current command number). If last is not specified it is set to
the current command for listing (so that ``fc -l -10'' prints
the last 10 commands) and to first otherwise. If first is not
specified it is set to the previous command for editing and -16
for listing.
The -n option suppresses the command numbers when listing. The
-r option reverses the order of the commands. If the -l option
is given, the commands are listed on standard output.
Otherwise, the editor given by ename is invoked on a file
containing those commands. If ename is not given, the value of
the FCEDIT variable is used, and the value of EDITOR if FCEDIT
is not set. If neither variable is set, vi is used. When
editing is complete, the edited commands are echoed and
executed.
In the second form, command is re-executed after each instance
of pat is replaced by rep. A useful alias to use with this is
``r="fc -s"'', so that typing ``r cc'' runs the last command
beginning with ``cc'' and typing ``r'' re-executes the last
command.
If the first form is used, the return value is 0 unless an
invalid option is encountered or first or last specify history
lines out of range. If the -e option is supplied, the return
value is the value of the last command executed or failure if an
error occurs with the temporary file of commands. If the second
form is used, the return status is that of the command re-
executed, unless cmd does not specify a valid history line, in
which case fc returns failure.
fg [jobspec]
Resume jobspec in the foreground, and make it the current job.
If jobspec is not present, the shell's notion of the current job
is used. The return value is that of the command placed into
the foreground, or failure if run when job control is disabled
or, when run with job control enabled, if jobspec does not
specify a valid job or jobspec specifies a job that was started
without job control.
getopts optstring name [args]
getopts is used by shell procedures to parse positional
parameters. optstring contains the option characters to be
recognized; if a character is followed by a colon, the option is
expected to have an argument, which should be separated from it
by white space. The colon and question mark characters may not
be used as option characters. Each time it is invoked, getopts
places the next option in the shell variable name, initializing
name if it does not exist, and the index of the next argument to
be processed into the variable OPTIND. OPTIND is initialized to
1 each time the shell or a shell script is invoked. When an
option requires an argument, getopts places that argument into
the variable OPTARG. The shell does not reset OPTIND
automatically; it must be manually reset between multiple calls
to getopts within the same shell invocation if a new set of
parameters is to be used.
When the end of options is encountered, getopts exits with a
return value greater than zero. OPTIND is set to the index of
the first non-option argument, and name is set to ?.
getopts normally parses the positional parameters, but if more
arguments are given in args, getopts parses those instead.
getopts can report errors in two ways. If the first character
of optstring is a colon, silent error reporting is used. In
normal operation diagnostic messages are printed when invalid
options or missing option arguments are encountered. If the
variable OPTERR is set to 0, no error messages will be
displayed, even if the first character of optstring is not a
colon.
If an invalid option is seen, getopts places ? into name and, if
not silent, prints an error message and unsets OPTARG. If
getopts is silent, the option character found is placed in
OPTARG and no diagnostic message is printed.
If a required argument is not found, and getopts is not silent,
a question mark (?) is placed in name, OPTARG is unset, and a
diagnostic message is printed. If getopts is silent, then a
colon (:) is placed in name and OPTARG is set to the option
character found.
getopts returns true if an option, specified or unspecified, is
found. It returns false if the end of options is encountered or
an error occurs.
hash [-lr] [-p filename] [-dt] [name]
For each name, the full file name of the command is determined
by searching the directories in $PATH and remembered. If the -p
option is supplied, no path search is performed, and filename is
used as the full file name of the command. The -r option causes
the shell to forget all remembered locations. The -d option
causes the shell to forget the remembered location of each name.
If the -t option is supplied, the full pathname to which each
name corresponds is printed. If multiple name arguments are
supplied with -t, the name is printed before the hashed full
pathname. The -l option causes output to be displayed in a
format that may be reused as input. If no arguments are given,
or if only -l is supplied, information about remembered commands
is printed. The return status is true unless a name is not
found or an invalid option is supplied.
help [-s] [pattern]
Display helpful information about builtin commands. If pattern
is specified, help gives detailed help on all commands matching
pattern; otherwise help for all the builtins and shell control
structures is printed. The -s option restricts the information
displayed to a short usage synopsis. The return status is 0
unless no command matches pattern.
history [n]
history -c
history -d offset
history -anrw [filename]
history -p arg [arg ...]
history -s arg [arg ...]
With no options, display the command history list with line
numbers. Lines listed with a * have been modified. An argument
of n lists only the last n lines. If the shell variable
HISTTIMEFORMAT is set and not null, it is used as a format
string for strftime(3) to display the time stamp associated with
each displayed history entry. No intervening blank is printed
between the formatted time stamp and the history line. If
filename is supplied, it is used as the name of the history
file; if not, the value of HISTFILE is used. Options, if
supplied, have the following meanings:
-c Clear the history list by deleting all the entries.
-d offset
Delete the history entry at position offset.
-a Append the ``new'' history lines (history lines entered
since the beginning of the current bash session) to the
history file.
-n Read the history lines not already read from the history
file into the current history list. These are lines
appended to the history file since the beginning of the
current bash session.
-r Read the contents of the history file and use them as the
current history.
-w Write the current history to the history file,
overwriting the history file's contents.
-p Perform history substitution on the following args and
display the result on the standard output. Does not
store the results in the history list. Each arg must be
quoted to disable normal history expansion.
-s Store the args in the history list as a single entry.
The last command in the history list is removed before
the args are added.
If the HISTTIMEFORMAT is set, the time stamp information
associated with each history entry is written to the history
file. The return value is 0 unless an invalid option is
encountered, an error occurs while reading or writing the
history file, an invalid offset is supplied as an argument to
-d, or the history expansion supplied as an argument to -p
fails.
jobs [-lnprs] [ jobspec ... ]
jobs -x command [ args ... ]
The first form lists the active jobs. The options have the
following meanings:
-l List process IDs in addition to the normal information.
-p List only the process ID of the job's process group
leader.
-n Display information only about jobs that have changed
status since the user was last notified of their status.
-r Restrict output to running jobs.
-s Restrict output to stopped jobs.
If jobspec is given, output is restricted to information about
that job. The return status is 0 unless an invalid option is
encountered or an invalid jobspec is supplied.
If the -x option is supplied, jobs replaces any jobspec found in
command or args with the corresponding process group ID, and
executes command passing it args, returning its exit status.
kill [-s sigspec | -n signum | -sigspec] [pid | jobspec] ...
kill -l [sigspec | exit_status]
Send the signal named by sigspec or signum to the processes
named by pid or jobspec. sigspec is either a case-insensitive
signal name such as SIGKILL (with or without the SIG prefix) or
a signal number; signum is a signal number. If sigspec is not
present, then SIGTERM is assumed. An argument of -l lists the
signal names. If any arguments are supplied when -l is given,
the names of the signals corresponding to the arguments are
listed, and the return status is 0. The exit_status argument to
-l is a number specifying either a signal number or the exit
status of a process terminated by a signal. kill returns true
if at least one signal was successfully sent, or false if an
error occurs or an invalid option is encountered.
let arg [arg ...]
Each arg is an arithmetic expression to be evaluated (see
ARITHMETIC EVALUATION). If the last arg evaluates to 0, let
returns 1; 0 is returned otherwise.
local [option] [name[=value] ...]
For each argument, a local variable named name is created, and
assigned value. The option can be any of the options accepted
by declare. When local is used within a function, it causes the
variable name to have a visible scope restricted to that
function and its children. With no operands, local writes a
list of local variables to the standard output. It is an error
to use local when not within a function. The return status is 0
unless local is used outside a function, an invalid name is
supplied, or name is a readonly variable.
logout Exit a login shell.
popd [-n] [+n] [-n]
Removes entries from the directory stack. With no arguments,
removes the top directory from the stack, and performs a cd to
the new top directory. Arguments, if supplied, have the
following meanings:
+n Removes the nth entry counting from the left of the list
shown by dirs, starting with zero. For example: ``popd
+0'' removes the first directory, ``popd +1'' the second.
-n Removes the nth entry counting from the right of the list
shown by dirs, starting with zero. For example: ``popd
-0'' removes the last directory, ``popd -1'' the next to
last.
-n Suppresses the normal change of directory when removing
directories from the stack, so that only the stack is
manipulated.
If the popd command is successful, a dirs is performed as well,
and the return status is 0. popd returns false if an invalid
option is encountered, the directory stack is empty, a non-
existent directory stack entry is specified, or the directory
change fails.
printf [-v var] format [arguments]
Write the formatted arguments to the standard output under the
control of the format. The format is a character string which
contains three types of objects: plain characters, which are
simply copied to standard output, character escape sequences,
which are converted and copied to the standard output, and
format specifications, each of which causes printing of the next
successive argument. In addition to the standard printf(1)
formats, %b causes printf to expand backslash escape sequences
in the corresponding argument (except that \c terminates output,
backslashes in \', \", and \? are not removed, and octal escapes
beginning with \0 may contain up to four digits), and %q causes
printf to output the corresponding argument in a format that can
be reused as shell input.
The -v option causes the output to be assigned to the variable
var rather than being printed to the standard output.
The format is reused as necessary to consume all of the
arguments. If the format requires more arguments than are
supplied, the extra format specifications behave as if a zero
value or null string, as appropriate, had been supplied. The
return value is zero on success, non-zero on failure.
pushd [-n] [dir]
pushd [-n] [+n] [-n]
Adds a directory to the top of the directory stack, or rotates
the stack, making the new top of the stack the current working
directory. With no arguments, exchanges the top two directories
and returns 0, unless the directory stack is empty. Arguments,
if supplied, have the following meanings:
+n Rotates the stack so that the nth directory (counting
from the left of the list shown by dirs, starting with
zero) is at the top.
-n Rotates the stack so that the nth directory (counting
from the right of the list shown by dirs, starting with
zero) is at the top.
-n Suppresses the normal change of directory when adding
directories to the stack, so that only the stack is
manipulated.
dir Adds dir to the directory stack at the top, making it the
new current working directory.
If the pushd command is successful, a dirs is performed as well.
If the first form is used, pushd returns 0 unless the cd to dir
fails. With the second form, pushd returns 0 unless the
directory stack is empty, a non-existent directory stack element
is specified, or the directory change to the specified new
current directory fails.
pwd [-LP]
Print the absolute pathname of the current working directory.
The pathname printed contains no symbolic links if the -P option
is supplied or the -o physical option to the set builtin command
is enabled. If the -L option is used, the pathname printed may
contain symbolic links. The return status is 0 unless an error
occurs while reading the name of the current directory or an
invalid option is supplied.
read [-ers] [-u fd] [-t timeout] [-a aname] [-p prompt] [-n nchars] [-d
delim] [name ...]
One line is read from the standard input, or from the file
descriptor fd supplied as an argument to the -u option, and the
first word is assigned to the first name, the second word to the
second name, and so on, with leftover words and their
intervening separators assigned to the last name. If there are
fewer words read from the input stream than names, the remaining
names are assigned empty values. The characters in IFS are used
to split the line into words. The backslash character (\) may
be used to remove any special meaning for the next character
read and for line continuation. Options, if supplied, have the
following meanings:
-a aname
The words are assigned to sequential indices of the array
variable aname, starting at 0. aname is unset before any
new values are assigned. Other name arguments are
ignored.
-d delim
The first character of delim is used to terminate the
input line, rather than newline.
-e If the standard input is coming from a terminal, readline
(see READLINE above) is used to obtain the line.
-n nchars
read returns after reading nchars characters rather than
waiting for a complete line of input.
-p prompt
Display prompt on standard error, without a trailing
newline, before attempting to read any input. The prompt
is displayed only if input is coming from a terminal.
-r Backslash does not act as an escape character. The
backslash is considered to be part of the line. In
particular, a backslash-newline pair may not be used as a
line continuation.
-s Silent mode. If input is coming from a terminal,
characters are not echoed.
-t timeout
Cause read to time out and return failure if a complete
line of input is not read within timeout seconds. This
option has no effect if read is not reading input from
the terminal or a pipe.
-u fd Read input from file descriptor fd.
If no names are supplied, the line read is assigned to the
variable REPLY. The return code is zero, unless end-of-file is
encountered, read times out, or an invalid file descriptor is
supplied as the argument to -u.
readonly [-apf] [name[=word] ...]
The given names are marked readonly; the values of these names
may not be changed by subsequent assignment. If the -f option
is supplied, the functions corresponding to the names are so
marked. The -a option restricts the variables to arrays. If no
name arguments are given, or if the -p option is supplied, a
list of all readonly names is printed. The -p option causes
output to be displayed in a format that may be reused as input.
If a variable name is followed by =word, the value of the
variable is set to word. The return status is 0 unless an
invalid option is encountered, one of the names is not a valid
shell variable name, or -f is supplied with a name that is not a
function.
return [n]
Causes a function to exit with the return value specified by n.
If n is omitted, the return status is that of the last command
executed in the function body. If used outside a function, but
during execution of a script by the . (source) command, it
causes the shell to stop executing that script and return either
n or the exit status of the last command executed within the
script as the exit status of the script. If used outside a
function and not during execution of a script by ., the return
status is false. Any command associated with the RETURN trap is
executed before execution resumes after the function or script.
set [--abefhkmnptuvxBCHP] [-o option] [arg ...]
Without options, the name and value of each shell variable are
displayed in a format that can be reused as input for setting or
resetting the currently-set variables. Read-only variables
cannot be reset. In posix mode, only shell variables are
listed. The output is sorted according to the current locale.
When options are specified, they set or unset shell attributes.
Any arguments remaining after the options are processed are
treated as values for the positional parameters and are
assigned, in order, to $1, $2, ... $n. Options, if specified,
have the following meanings:
-a Automatically mark variables and functions which are
modified or created for export to the environment of
subsequent commands.
-b Report the status of terminated background jobs
immediately, rather than before the next primary prompt.
This is effective only when job control is enabled.
-e Exit immediately if a simple command (see SHELL GRAMMAR
above) exits with a non-zero status. The shell does not
exit if the command that fails is part of the command
list immediately following a while or until keyword,
part of the test in an if statement, part of a && or ⎪⎪
list, or if the command's return value is being inverted
via !. A trap on ERR, if set, is executed before the
shell exits.
-f Disable pathname expansion.
-h Remember the location of commands as they are looked up
for execution. This is enabled by default.
-k All arguments in the form of assignment statements are
placed in the environment for a command, not just those
that precede the command name.
-m Monitor mode. Job control is enabled. This option is
on by default for interactive shells on systems that
support it (see JOB CONTROL above). Background
processes run in a separate process group and a line
containing their exit status is printed upon their
completion.
-n Read commands but do not execute them. This may be used
to check a shell script for syntax errors. This is
ignored by interactive shells.
-o option-name
The option-name can be one of the following:
allexport
Same as -a.
braceexpand
Same as -B.
emacs Use an emacs-style command line editing
interface. This is enabled by default when the
shell is interactive, unless the shell is
started with the --noediting option.
errtrace
Same as -E.
functrace
Same as -T.
errexit Same as -e.
hashall Same as -h.
histexpand
Same as -H.
history Enable command history, as described above under
HISTORY. This option is on by default in
interactive shells.
ignoreeof
The effect is as if the shell command
``IGNOREEOF=10'' had been executed (see Shell
Variables above).
keyword Same as -k.
monitor Same as -m.
noclobber
Same as -C.
noexec Same as -n.
noglob Same as -f. nolog Currently ignored.
notify Same as -b.
nounset Same as -u.
onecmd Same as -t.
physical
Same as -P.
pipefail
If set, the return value of a pipeline is the
value of the last (rightmost) command to exit
with a non-zero status, or zero if all commands
in the pipeline exit successfully. This option
is disabled by default.
posix Change the behavior of bash where the default
operation differs from the POSIX standard to
match the standard (posix mode).
privileged
Same as -p.
verbose Same as -v.
vi Use a vi-style command line editing interface.
xtrace Same as -x.
If -o is supplied with no option-name, the values of the
current options are printed. If +o is supplied with no
option-name, a series of set commands to recreate the
current option settings is displayed on the standard
output.
-p Turn on privileged mode. In this mode, the $ENV and
$BASH_ENV files are not processed, shell functions are
not inherited from the environment, and the SHELLOPTS
variable, if it appears in the environment, is ignored.
If the shell is started with the effective user (group)
id not equal to the real user (group) id, and the -p
option is not supplied, these actions are taken and the
effective user id is set to the real user id. If the -p
option is supplied at startup, the effective user id is
not reset. Turning this option off causes the effective
user and group ids to be set to the real user and group
ids.
-t Exit after reading and executing one command.
-u Treat unset variables as an error when performing
parameter expansion. If expansion is attempted on an
unset variable, the shell prints an error message, and,
if not interactive, exits with a non-zero status.
-v Print shell input lines as they are read.
-x After expanding each simple command, for command, case
command, select command, or arithmetic for command,
display the expanded value of PS4, followed by the
command and its expanded arguments or associated word
list.
-B The shell performs brace expansion (see Brace Expansion
above). This is on by default.
-C If set, bash does not overwrite an existing file with
the >, >&, and <> redirection operators. This may be
overridden when creating output files by using the
redirection operator >| instead of >.
-E If set, any trap on ERR is inherited by shell functions,
command substitutions, and commands executed in a
subshell environment. The ERR trap is normally not
inherited in such cases.
-H Enable ! style history substitution. This option is on
by default when the shell is interactive.
-P If set, the shell does not follow symbolic links when
executing commands such as cd that change the current
working directory. It uses the physical directory
structure instead. By default, bash follows the logical
chain of directories when performing commands which
change the current directory.
-T If set, any traps on DEBUG and RETURN are inherited by
shell functions, command substitutions, and commands
executed in a subshell environment. The DEBUG and
RETURN traps are normally not inherited in such cases.
-- If no arguments follow this option, then the positional
parameters are unset. Otherwise, the positional
parameters are set to the args, even if some of them
begin with a -.
- Signal the end of options, cause all remaining args to
be assigned to the positional parameters. The -x and -v
options are turned off. If there are no args, the
positional parameters remain unchanged.
The options are off by default unless otherwise noted. Using +
rather than - causes these options to be turned off. The
options can also be specified as arguments to an invocation of
the shell. The current set of options may be found in $-. The
return status is always true unless an invalid option is
encountered.
shift [n]
The positional parameters from n+1 ... are renamed to $1 ....
Parameters represented by the numbers $# down to $#-n+1 are
unset. n must be a non-negative number less than or equal to
$#. If n is 0, no parameters are changed. If n is not given,
it is assumed to be 1. If n is greater than $#, the positional
parameters are not changed. The return status is greater than
zero if n is greater than $# or less than zero; otherwise 0.
shopt [-pqsu] [-o] [optname ...]
Toggle the values of variables controlling optional shell
behavior. With no options, or with the -p option, a list of all
settable options is displayed, with an indication of whether or
not each is set. The -p option causes output to be displayed in
a form that may be reused as input. Other options have the
following meanings:
-s Enable (set) each optname.
-u Disable (unset) each optname.
-q Suppresses normal output (quiet mode); the return status
indicates whether the optname is set or unset. If
multiple optname arguments are given with -q, the return
status is zero if all optnames are enabled; non-zero
otherwise.
-o Restricts the values of optname to be those defined for
the -o option to the set builtin.
If either -s or -u is used with no optname arguments, the
display is limited to those options which are set or unset,
respectively. Unless otherwise noted, the shopt options are
disabled (unset) by default.
The return status when listing options is zero if all optnames
are enabled, non-zero otherwise. When setting or unsetting
options, the return status is zero unless an optname is not a
valid shell option.
The list of shopt options is:
cdable_vars
If set, an argument to the cd builtin command that is
not a directory is assumed to be the name of a variable
whose value is the directory to change to.
cdspell If set, minor errors in the spelling of a directory
component in a cd command will be corrected. The errors
checked for are transposed characters, a missing
character, and one character too many. If a correction
is found, the corrected file name is printed, and the
command proceeds. This option is only used by
interactive shells.
checkhash
If set, bash checks that a command found in the hash
table exists before trying to execute it. If a hashed
command no longer exists, a normal path search is
performed.
checkwinsize
If set, bash checks the window size after each command
and, if necessary, updates the values of LINES and
COLUMNS.
cmdhist If set, bash attempts to save all lines of a multiple-
line command in the same history entry. This allows
easy re-editing of multi-line commands.
compat31
If set, bash changes its behavior to that of version 3.1
with respect to quoted arguments to the conditional
command's =~ operator.
dotglob If set, bash includes filenames beginning with a `.' in
the results of pathname expansion.
execfail
If set, a non-interactive shell will not exit if it
cannot execute the file specified as an argument to the
exec builtin command. An interactive shell does not
exit if exec fails.
expand_aliases
If set, aliases are expanded as described above under
ALIASES. This option is enabled by default for
interactive shells.
extdebug
If set, behavior intended for use by debuggers is
enabled:
1. The -F option to the declare builtin displays the
source file name and line number corresponding to
each function name supplied as an argument.
2. If the command run by the DEBUG trap returns a
non-zero value, the next command is skipped and
not executed.
3. If the command run by the DEBUG trap returns a
value of 2, and the shell is executing in a
subroutine (a shell function or a shell script
executed by the . or source builtins), a call to
return is simulated.
4. BASH_ARGC and BASH_ARGV are updated as described
in their descriptions above.
5. Function tracing is enabled: command
substitution, shell functions, and subshells
invoked with ( command ) inherit the DEBUG and
RETURN traps.
6. Error tracing is enabled: command substitution,
shell functions, and subshells invoked with (
command ) inherit the ERROR trap.
extglob If set, the extended pattern matching features described
above under Pathname Expansion are enabled.
extquote
If set, $'string' and $"string" quoting is performed
within ${parameter} expansions enclosed in double
quotes. This option is enabled by default.
failglob
If set, patterns which fail to match filenames during
pathname expansion result in an expansion error.
force_fignore
If set, the suffixes specified by the FIGNORE shell
variable cause words to be ignored when performing word
completion even if the ignored words are the only
possible completions. See SHELL VARIABLES above for a
description of FIGNORE. This option is enabled by
default.
gnu_errfmt
If set, shell error messages are written in the standard
GNU error message format.
histappend
If set, the history list is appended to the file named
by the value of the HISTFILE variable when the shell
exits, rather than overwriting the file.
histreedit
If set, and readline is being used, a user is given the
opportunity to re-edit a failed history substitution.
histverify
If set, and readline is being used, the results of
history substitution are not immediately passed to the
shell parser. Instead, the resulting line is loaded
into the readline editing buffer, allowing further
modification.
hostcomplete
If set, and readline is being used, bash will attempt to
perform hostname completion when a word containing a @
is being completed (see Completing under READLINE
above). This is enabled by default.
huponexit
If set, bash will send SIGHUP to all jobs when an
interactive login shell exits.
interactive_comments
If set, allow a word beginning with # to cause that word
and all remaining characters on that line to be ignored
in an interactive shell (see COMMENTS above). This
option is enabled by default.
lithist If set, and the cmdhist option is enabled, multi-line
commands are saved to the history with embedded newlines
rather than using semicolon separators where possible.
login_shell
The shell sets this option if it is started as a login
shell (see INVOCATION above). The value may not be
changed.
mailwarn
If set, and a file that bash is checking for mail has
been accessed since the last time it was checked, the
message ``The mail in mailfile has been read'' is
displayed.
no_empty_cmd_completion
If set, and readline is being used, bash will not
attempt to search the PATH for possible completions when
completion is attempted on an empty line.
nocaseglob
If set, bash matches filenames in a case-insensitive
fashion when performing pathname expansion (see Pathname
Expansion above).
nocasematch
If set, bash matches patterns in a case-insensitive
fashion when performing matching while executing case or
[[ conditional commands.
nullglob
If set, bash allows patterns which match no files (see
Pathname Expansion above) to expand to a null string,
rather than themselves.
progcomp
If set, the programmable completion facilities (see
Programmable Completion above) are enabled. This option
is enabled by default.
promptvars
If set, prompt strings undergo parameter expansion,
command substitution, arithmetic expansion, and quote
removal after being expanded as described in PROMPTING
above. This option is enabled by default.
restricted_shell
The shell sets this option if it is started in
restricted mode (see RESTRICTED SHELL below). The value
may not be changed. This is not reset when the startup
files are executed, allowing the startup files to
discover whether or not a shell is restricted.
shift_verbose
If set, the shift builtin prints an error message when
the shift count exceeds the number of positional
parameters.
sourcepath
If set, the source (.) builtin uses the value of PATH to
find the directory containing the file supplied as an
argument. This option is enabled by default.
xpg_echo
If set, the echo builtin expands backslash-escape
sequences by default.
suspend [-f]
Suspend the execution of this shell until it receives a SIGCONT
signal. The -f option says not to complain if this is a login
shell; just suspend anyway. The return status is 0 unless the
shell is a login shell and -f is not supplied, or if job control
is not enabled.
test expr
[ expr ]
Return a status of 0 or 1 depending on the evaluation of the
conditional expression expr. Each operator and operand must be
a separate argument. Expressions are composed of the primaries
described above under CONDITIONAL EXPRESSIONS. test does not
accept any options, nor does it accept and ignore an argument of
-- as signifying the end of options.
Expressions may be combined using the following operators,
listed in decreasing order of precedence.
! expr True if expr is false.
( expr )
Returns the value of expr. This may be used to override
the normal precedence of operators.
expr1 -a expr2
True if both expr1 and expr2 are true.
expr1 -o expr2
True if either expr1 or expr2 is true.
test and [ evaluate conditional expressions using a set of rules
based on the number of arguments.
0 arguments
The expression is false.
1 argument
The expression is true if and only if the argument is not
null.
2 arguments
If the first argument is !, the expression is true if and
only if the second argument is null. If the first
argument is one of the unary conditional operators listed
above under CONDITIONAL EXPRESSIONS, the expression is
true if the unary test is true. If the first argument is
not a valid unary conditional operator, the expression is
false.
3 arguments
If the second argument is one of the binary conditional
operators listed above under CONDITIONAL EXPRESSIONS, the
result of the expression is the result of the binary test
using the first and third arguments as operands. If the
first argument is !, the value is the negation of the
two-argument test using the second and third arguments.
If the first argument is exactly ( and the third argument
is exactly ), the result is the one-argument test of the
second argument. Otherwise, the expression is false.
The -a and -o operators are considered binary operators
in this case.
4 arguments
If the first argument is !, the result is the negation of
the three-argument expression composed of the remaining
arguments. Otherwise, the expression is parsed and
evaluated according to precedence using the rules listed
above.
5 or more arguments
The expression is parsed and evaluated according to
precedence using the rules listed above.
times Print the accumulated user and system times for the shell and
for processes run from the shell. The return status is 0.
trap [-lp] [[arg] sigspec ...]
The command arg is to be read and executed when the shell
receives signal(s) sigspec. If arg is absent (and there is a
single sigspec) or -, each specified signal is reset to its
original disposition (the value it had upon entrance to the
shell). If arg is the null string the signal specified by each
sigspec is ignored by the shell and by the commands it invokes.
If arg is not present and -p has been supplied, then the trap
commands associated with each sigspec are displayed. If no
arguments are supplied or if only -p is given, trap prints the
list of commands associated with each signal. The -l option
causes the shell to print a list of signal names and their
corresponding numbers. Each sigspec is either a signal name
defined in <signal.h>, or a signal number. Signal names are
case insensitive and the SIG prefix is optional. If a sigspec
is EXIT (0) the command arg is executed on exit from the shell.
If a sigspec is DEBUG, the command arg is executed before every
simple command, for command, case command, select command, every
arithmetic for command, and before the first command executes in
a shell function (see SHELL GRAMMAR above). Refer to the
description of the extdebug option to the shopt builtin for
details of its effect on the DEBUG trap. If a sigspec is ERR,
the command arg is executed whenever a simple command has a
non-zero exit status, subject to the following conditions. The
ERR trap is not executed if the failed command is part of the
command list immediately following a while or until keyword,
part of the test in an if statement, part of a && or ⎪⎪ list, or
if the command's return value is being inverted via !. These
are the same conditions obeyed by the errexit option. If a
sigspec is RETURN, the command arg is executed each time a shell
function or a script executed with the . or source builtins
finishes executing. Signals ignored upon entry to the shell
cannot be trapped or reset. Trapped signals that are not being
ignored are reset to their original values in a child process
when it is created. The return status is false if any sigspec
is invalid; otherwise trap returns true.
type [-aftpP] name [name ...]
With no options, indicate how each name would be interpreted if
used as a command name. If the -t option is used, type prints a
string which is one of alias, keyword, function, builtin, or
file if name is an alias, shell reserved word, function,
builtin, or disk file, respectively. If the name is not found,
then nothing is printed, and an exit status of false is
returned. If the -p option is used, type either returns the
name of the disk file that would be executed if name were
specified as a command name, or nothing if ``type -t name''
would not return file. The -P option forces a PATH search for
each name, even if ``type -t name'' would not return file. If a
command is hashed, -p and -P print the hashed value, not
necessarily the file that appears first in PATH. If the -a
option is used, type prints all of the places that contain an
executable named name. This includes aliases and functions, if
and only if the -p option is not also used. The table of hashed
commands is not consulted when using -a. The -f option
suppresses shell function lookup, as with the command builtin.
type returns true if any of the arguments are found, false if
none are found.
ulimit [-SHacdefilmnpqrstuvx [limit]]
Provides control over the resources available to the shell and
to processes started by it, on systems that allow such control.
The -H and -S options specify that the hard or soft limit is set
for the given resource. A hard limit cannot be increased once
it is set; a soft limit may be increased up to the value of the
hard limit. If neither -H nor -S is specified, both the soft
and hard limits are set. The value of limit can be a number in
the unit specified for the resource or one of the special values
hard, soft, or unlimited, which stand for the current hard
limit, the current soft limit, and no limit, respectively. If
limit is omitted, the current value of the soft limit of the
resource is printed, unless the -H option is given. When more
than one resource is specified, the limit name and unit are
printed before the value. Other options are interpreted as
follows:
-a All current limits are reported
-c The maximum size of core files created
-d The maximum size of a process's data segment
-e The maximum scheduling priority ("nice")
-f The maximum size of files written by the shell and its
children
-i The maximum number of pending signals
-l The maximum size that may be locked into memory
-m The maximum resident set size
-n The maximum number of open file descriptors (most systems
do not allow this value to be set)
-p The pipe size in 512-byte blocks (this may not be set)
-q The maximum number of bytes in POSIX message queues
-r The maximum real-time scheduling priority
-s The maximum stack size
-t The maximum amount of cpu time in seconds
-u The maximum number of processes available to a single
user
-v The maximum amount of virtual memory available to the
shell
-x The maximum number of file locks
If limit is given, it is the new value of the specified resource
(the -a option is display only). If no option is given, then -f
is assumed. Values are in 1024-byte increments, except for -t,
which is in seconds, -p, which is in units of 512-byte blocks,
and -n and -u, which are unscaled values. The return status is
0 unless an invalid option or argument is supplied, or an error
occurs while setting a new limit.
umask [-p] [-S] [mode]
The user file-creation mask is set to mode. If mode begins with
a digit, it is interpreted as an octal number; otherwise it is
interpreted as a symbolic mode mask similar to that accepted by
chmod(1). If mode is omitted, the current value of the mask is
printed. The -S option causes the mask to be printed in
symbolic form; the default output is an octal number. If the -p
option is supplied, and mode is omitted, the output is in a form
that may be reused as input. The return status is 0 if the mode
was successfully changed or if no mode argument was supplied,
and false otherwise.
unalias [-a] [name ...]
Remove each name from the list of defined aliases. If -a is
supplied, all alias definitions are removed. The return value
is true unless a supplied name is not a defined alias.
unset [-fv] [name ...]
For each name, remove the corresponding variable or function.
If no options are supplied, or the -v option is given, each name
refers to a shell variable. Read-only variables may not be
unset. If -f is specified, each name refers to a shell
function, and the function definition is removed. Each unset
variable or function is removed from the environment passed to
subsequent commands. If any of RANDOM, SECONDS, LINENO,
HISTCMD, FUNCNAME, GROUPS, or DIRSTACK are unset, they lose
their special properties, even if they are subsequently reset.
The exit status is true unless a name is readonly.
wait [n ...]
Wait for each specified process and return its termination
status. Each n may be a process ID or a job specification; if a
job spec is given, all processes in that job's pipeline are
waited for. If n is not given, all currently active child
processes are waited for, and the return status is zero. If n
specifies a non-existent process or job, the return status is
127. Otherwise, the return status is the exit status of the
last process or job waited for.
RESTRICTED SHELL If bash is started with the name rbash, or the -r option is supplied at invocation, the shell becomes restricted. A restricted shell is used to set up an environment more controlled than the standard shell. It behaves identically to bash with the exception that the following are disallowed or not performed:
• changing directories with cd
• setting or unsetting the values of SHELL, PATH, ENV, or BASH_ENV
• specifying command names containing /
• specifying a file name containing a / as an argument to the .
builtin command
• Specifying a filename containing a slash as an argument to the
-p option to the hash builtin command
• importing function definitions from the shell environment at
startup
• parsing the value of SHELLOPTS from the shell environment at
startup
• redirecting output using the >, >|, <>, >&, &>, and >>
redirection operators
• using the exec builtin command to replace the shell with another
command
• adding or deleting builtin commands with the -f and -d options
to the enable builtin command
• Using the enable builtin command to enable disabled shell
builtins
• specifying the -p option to the command builtin command
• turning off restricted mode with set +r or set +o restricted.
These restrictions are enforced after any startup files are read.
When a command that is found to be a shell script is executed (see
COMMAND EXECUTION above), rbash turns off any restrictions in the shell
spawned to execute the script.
SEE ALSO Bash Reference Manual, Brian Fox and Chet Ramey The Gnu Readline Library, Brian Fox and Chet Ramey The Gnu History Library, Brian Fox and Chet Ramey Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) Part 2: Shell and Utilities, IEEE sh(1), ksh(1), csh(1) emacs(1), vi(1) readline(3)
FILES /bin/bash The bash executable /etc/profile The systemwide initialization file, executed for login shells ~/.bash_profile The personal initialization file, executed for login shells ~/.bashrc The individual per-interactive-shell startup file ~/.bash_logout The individual login shell cleanup file, executed when a login shell exits ~/.inputrc Individual readline initialization file
AUTHORS Brian Fox, Free Software Foundation [email protected]
Chet Ramey, Case Western Reserve University
[email protected]
BUG REPORTS If you find a bug in bash, you should report it. But first, you should make sure that it really is a bug, and that it appears in the latest version of bash. The latest version is always available from ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/bash/.
Once you have determined that a bug actually exists, use the bashbug
command to submit a bug report. If you have a fix, you are encouraged
to mail that as well! Suggestions and `philosophical' bug reports may
be mailed to [email protected] or posted to the Usenet newsgroup
gnu.bash.bug.
ALL bug reports should include:
The version number of bash
The hardware and operating system
The compiler used to compile
A description of the bug behaviour
A short script or `recipe' which exercises the bug
bashbug inserts the first three items automatically into the template
it provides for filing a bug report.
Comments and bug reports concerning this manual page should be directed
to [email protected].
BUGS It’s too big and too slow.
There are some subtle differences between bash and traditional versions
of sh, mostly because of the POSIX specification.
Aliases are confusing in some uses.
Shell builtin commands and functions are not stoppable/restartable.
Compound commands and command sequences of the form `a ; b ; c' are not
handled gracefully when process suspension is attempted. When a
process is stopped, the shell immediately executes the next command in
the sequence. It suffices to place the sequence of commands between
parentheses to force it into a subshell, which may be stopped as a
unit.
Commands inside of $(...) command substitution are not parsed until
substitution is attempted. This will delay error reporting until some
time after the command is entered. For example, unmatched parentheses,
even inside shell comments, will result in error messages while the
construct is being read.
Array variables may not (yet) be exported.
GNU Bash-3.2 2006 September 28 BASH(1)