BashReferenceManual

TableofContents
1Introduction 1.1WhatisBash? 1.2Whatisashell? 2Definitions 3BasicShellFeatures 3.1ShellSyntax 3.1.1ShellOperation 3.1.2Quoting 3.1.2.1EscapeCharacter 3.1.2.2SingleQuotes 3.1.2.3DoubleQuotes 3.1.2.4ANSICQuoting 3.1.2.5LocaleSpecificTranslation 3.1.3Comments 3.2ShellCommands 3.2.1SimpleCommands 3.2.2Pipelines 3.2.3ListsofCommands 3.2.4CompoundCommands 3.2.4.1LoopingConstructs 3.2.4.2ConditionalConstructs 3.2.4.3GroupingCommands 3.2.5Coprocesses 3.2.6GNUParallel 3.3ShellFunctions 3.4ShellParameters 3.4.1PositionalParameters 3.4.2SpecialParameters 3.5ShellExpansions 3.5.1BraceExpansion 3.5.2TildeExpansion 3.5.3ShellParameterExpansion 3.5.4CommandSubstitution 3.5.5ArithmeticExpansion 3.5.6ProcessSubstitution 3.5.7WordSplitting 3.5.8FilenameExpansion 3.5.8.1PatternMatching 3.5.9QuoteRemoval 3.6Redirections 3.6.1RedirectingInput 3.6.2RedirectingOutput 3.6.3AppendingRedirectedOutput 3.6.4RedirectingStandardOutputandStandardError 3.6.5AppendingStandardOutputandStandardError 3.6.6HereDocuments 3.6.7HereStrings 3.6.8DuplicatingFileDescriptors 3.6.9MovingFileDescriptors 3.6.10OpeningFileDescriptorsforReadingandWriting 3.7ExecutingCommands 3.7.1SimpleCommandExpansion 3.7.2CommandSearchandExecution 3.7.3CommandExecutionEnvironment 3.7.4Environment 3.7.5ExitStatus 3.7.6Signals 3.8ShellScripts 4ShellBuiltinCommands 4.1BourneShellBuiltins 4.2BashBuiltinCommands 4.3ModifyingShellBehavior 4.3.1TheSetBuiltin 4.3.2TheShoptBuiltin 4.4SpecialBuiltins 5ShellVariables

5.1BourneShellVariables 5.2BashVariables 6BashFeatures 6.1InvokingBash 6.2BashStartupFiles 6.3InteractiveShells 6.3.1WhatisanInteractiveShell? 6.3.2IsthisShellInteractive? 6.3.3InteractiveShellBehavior 6.4BashConditionalExpressions 6.5ShellArithmetic 6.6Aliases 6.7Arrays 6.8TheDirectoryStack 6.8.1DirectoryStackBuiltins 6.9ControllingthePrompt 6.10TheRestrictedShell 6.11BashPOSIXMode 7JobControl 7.1JobControlBasics 7.2JobControlBuiltins 7.3JobControlVariables 8CommandLineEditing 8.1IntroductiontoLineEditing 8.2ReadlineInteraction 8.2.1ReadlineBareEssentials 8.2.2ReadlineMovementCommands 8.2.3ReadlineKillingCommands 8.2.4ReadlineArguments 8.2.5SearchingforCommandsintheHistory 8.3ReadlineInitFile 8.3.1ReadlineInitFileSyntax 8.3.2ConditionalInitConstructs 8.3.3SampleInitFile 8.4BindableReadlineCommands 8.4.1CommandsForMoving 8.4.2CommandsForManipulatingTheHistory 8.4.3CommandsForChangingText 8.4.4KillingAndYanking 8.4.5SpecifyingNumericArguments 8.4.6LettingReadlineTypeForYou 8.4.7KeyboardMacros 8.4.8SomeMiscellaneousCommands 8.5ReadlineviMode 8.6ProgrammableCompletion 8.7ProgrammableCompletionBuiltins 9UsingHistoryInteractively 9.1BashHistoryFacilities 9.2BashHistoryBuiltins 9.3HistoryExpansion 9.3.1EventDesignators 9.3.2WordDesignators 9.3.3Modifiers 10InstallingBash 10.1BasicInstallation 10.2CompilersandOptions 10.3CompilingForMultipleArchitectures 10.4InstallationNames 10.5SpecifyingtheSystemType 10.6SharingDefaults 10.7OperationControls 10.8OptionalFeatures AppendixAReportingBugs AppendixBMajorDifferencesFromTheBourneShell B.1ImplementationDifferencesFromTheSVR4.2Shell AppendixCGNUFreeDocumentationLicense AppendixDIndexes D.1IndexofShellBuiltinCommands D.2IndexofShellReservedWords D.3ParameterandVariableIndex D.4FunctionIndex D.5ConceptIndex

Next:Introduction,Previous:(dir),Up:(dir)[Contents][Index]

BashFeatures
ThistextisabriefdescriptionofthefeaturesthatarepresentintheBashshell(version4.2,28December2010). ThisisEdition4.2,lastupdated28December2010,ofTheGNUBashReferenceManual,forB a s h ,Version4.2. Bashcontainsfeaturesthatappearinotherpopularshells,andsomefeaturesthatonlyappearinBash.SomeoftheshellsthatBashhasborrowed conceptsfromaretheBourneShell(s h ),theKornShell(k s h ),andtheCshell(c s h anditssuccessor,t c s h ).Thefollowingmenubreaksthefeatures upintocategoriesbaseduponwhichoneoftheseothershellsinspiredthefeature. ThismanualismeantasabriefintroductiontofeaturesfoundinBash.TheBashmanualpageshouldbeusedasthedefinitivereferenceonshell behavior. Introduction: Anintroductiontotheshell. Definitions: Somedefinitionsusedintherestofthismanual. BasicShellFeatures: Theshell"buildingblocks". ShellBuiltinCommands: Commandsthatareapartoftheshell. ShellVariables: VariablesusedorsetbyBash. BashFeatures: FeaturesfoundonlyinBash. JobControl: WhatjobcontrolisandhowBashallowsyoutouseit. CommandLineEditing: Chapterdescribingthecommandlineeditingfeatures. UsingHistoryInteractively: CommandHistoryExpansion InstallingBash: HowtobuildandinstallBashonyoursystem. ReportingBugs: HowtoreportbugsinBash. MajorDifferencesFromTheBourneShell: AterselistofthedifferencesbetweenBashandhistoricalversionsof/bin/sh. GNUFreeDocumentationLicense: Copyingandsharingthisdocumentation. Indexes: Variousindexesforthismanual. Next:Definitions,Up:Top[Contents][Index]

1Introduction
WhatisBash?: AshortdescriptionofBash. Whatisashell?: Abriefintroductiontoshells. Next:Whatisashell?,Up:Introduction[Contents][Index]

1.1WhatisBash?
Bashistheshell,orcommandlanguageinterpreter,fortheGNUoperatingsystem.ThenameisanacronymfortheB o u r n e A g a i nS H e l l ,apunon StephenBourne,theauthorofthedirectancestorofthecurrentUnixshells h ,whichappearedintheSeventhEditionBellLabsResearchversionof Unix. Bashislargelycompatiblewiths h andincorporatesusefulfeaturesfromtheKornshellk s h andtheCshellc s h .Itisintendedtobeaconformant implementationoftheIEEEPOSIXShellandToolsportionoftheIEEEPOSIXspecification(IEEEStandard1003.1).Itoffersfunctionalimprovements overs h forbothinteractiveandprogramminguse. WhiletheGNUoperatingsystemprovidesothershells,includingaversionofc s h ,Bashisthedefaultshell.LikeotherGNUsoftware,Bashisquite portable.ItcurrentlyrunsonnearlyeveryversionofUnixandafewotheroperatingsystemsindependentlysupportedportsexistforMSDOS,OS/2, andWindowsplatforms. Previous:WhatisBash?,Up:Introduction[Contents][Index]

1.2Whatisashell?
Atitsbase,ashellissimplyamacroprocessorthatexecutescommands.Thetermmacroprocessormeansfunctionalitywheretextandsymbolsare expandedtocreatelargerexpressions. AUnixshellisbothacommandinterpreterandaprogramminglanguage.Asacommandinterpreter,theshellprovidestheuserinterfacetotherichset ofGNUutilities.Theprogramminglanguagefeaturesallowtheseutilitiestobecombined.Filescontainingcommandscanbecreated,andbecome commandsthemselves.Thesenewcommandshavethesamestatusassystemcommandsindirectoriessuchas/ b i n ,allowingusersorgroupsto establishcustomenvironmentstoautomatetheircommontasks. Shellsmaybeusedinteractivelyornoninteractively.Ininteractivemode,theyacceptinputtypedfromthekeyboard.Whenexecutingnon interactively,shellsexecutecommandsreadfromafile. AshellallowsexecutionofGNUcommands,bothsynchronouslyandasynchronously.Theshellwaitsforsynchronouscommandstocompletebefore

acceptingmoreinputasynchronouscommandscontinuetoexecuteinparallelwiththeshellwhileitreadsandexecutesadditionalcommands.The redirectionconstructspermitfinegrainedcontroloftheinputandoutputofthosecommands.Moreover,theshellallowscontroloverthecontentsof commandsenvironments. Shellsalsoprovideasmallsetofbuiltincommands(builtins)implementingfunctionalityimpossibleorinconvenienttoobtainviaseparateutilities.For example,c d ,b r e a k ,c o n t i n u e ,ande x e c )cannotbeimplementedoutsideoftheshellbecausetheydirectlymanipulatetheshellitself.Theh i s t o r y , g e t o p t s ,k i l l ,orp w d builtins,amongothers,couldbeimplementedinseparateutilities,buttheyaremoreconvenienttouseasbuiltincommands.All oftheshellbuiltinsaredescribedinsubsequentsections. Whileexecutingcommandsisessential,mostofthepower(andcomplexity)ofshellsisduetotheirembeddedprogramminglanguages.Likeanyhigh levellanguage,theshellprovidesvariables,flowcontrolconstructs,quoting,andfunctions. Shellsofferfeaturesgearedspecificallyforinteractiveuseratherthantoaugmenttheprogramminglanguage.Theseinteractivefeaturesincludejob control,commandlineediting,commandhistoryandaliases.Eachofthesefeaturesisdescribedinthismanual. Next:BasicShellFeatures,Previous:Introduction,Up:Top[Contents][Index]

2Definitions
Thesedefinitionsareusedthroughouttheremainderofthismanual.
P O S I X

AfamilyofopensystemstandardsbasedonUnix.BashisprimarilyconcernedwiththeShellandUtilitiesportionofthePOSIX1003.1standard.
b l a n k

Aspaceortabcharacter.
b u i l t i n

Acommandthatisimplementedinternallybytheshellitself,ratherthanbyanexecutableprogramsomewhereinthefilesystem.
c o n t r o lo p e r a t o r

At o k e n thatperformsacontrolfunction.Itisan e w l i n e oroneofthefollowing:| | ,& & ,& ,; ,; ; ,| ,| & ,( ,or) .

e x i ts t a t u s

Thevaluereturnedbyacommandtoitscaller.Thevalueisrestrictedtoeightbits,sothemaximumvalueis255.
f i e l d

Aunitoftextthatistheresultofoneoftheshellexpansions.Afterexpansion,whenexecutingacommand,theresultingfieldsareusedasthe commandnameandarguments.
f i l e n a m e

Astringofcharactersusedtoidentifyafile.
j o b

Asetofprocessescomprisingapipeline,andanyprocessesdescendedfromit,thatareallinthesameprocessgroup.
j o bc o n t r o l

Amechanismbywhichuserscanselectivelystop(suspend)andrestart(resume)executionofprocesses.
m e t a c h a r a c t e r

Acharacterthat,whenunquoted,separateswords.Ametacharacterisab l a n k oroneofthefollowingcharacters:| ,& ,; ,( ,) ,< ,or> .

n a m e

Aw o r d consistingsolelyofletters,numbers,andunderscores,andbeginningwithaletterorunderscore.N a m e sareusedasshellvariableand functionnames.Alsoreferredtoasani d e n t i f i e r .

o p e r a t o r

Ac o n t r o lo p e r a t o r orar e d i r e c t i o no p e r a t o r .SeeRedirections,foralistofredirectionoperators.Operatorscontainatleastone unquotedm e t a c h a r a c t e r .

p r o c e s sg r o u p

AcollectionofrelatedprocesseseachhavingthesameprocessgroupID.
p r o c e s sg r o u pI D

Auniqueidentifierthatrepresentsap r o c e s sg r o u p duringitslifetime.

r e s e r v e dw o r d

Aw o r d thathasaspecialmeaningtotheshell.Mostreservedwordsintroduceshellflowcontrolconstructs,suchasf o r andw h i l e .
r e t u r ns t a t u s

Asynonymfore x i ts t a t u s .
s i g n a l

Amechanismbywhichaprocessmaybenotifiedbythekernelofaneventoccurringinthesystem.
s p e c i a lb u i l t i n

AshellbuiltincommandthathasbeenclassifiedasspecialbythePOSIXstandard.
t o k e n

Asequenceofcharactersconsideredasingleunitbytheshell.Itiseitheraw o r d orano p e r a t o r .
w o r d

Asequenceofcharacterstreatedasaunitbytheshell.Wordsmaynotincludeunquotedm e t a c h a r a c t e r s . Next:ShellBuiltinCommands,Previous:Definitions,Up:Top[Contents][Index]

3BasicShellFeatures
BashisanacronymforB o u r n e A g a i nS H e l l .TheBourneshellisthetraditionalUnixshelloriginallywrittenbyStephenBourne.AlloftheBourne shellbuiltincommandsareavailableinBash,TherulesforevaluationandquotingaretakenfromthePOSIXspecificationforthestandardUnixshell. Thischapterbrieflysummarizestheshellsbuildingblocks:commands,controlstructures,shellfunctions,shellparameters,shellexpansions, redirections,whichareawaytodirectinputandoutputfromandtonamedfiles,andhowtheshellexecutescommands. ShellSyntax: ShellCommands: ShellFunctions: ShellParameters: Whatyourinputmeanstotheshell. Thetypesofcommandsyoucanuse. Groupingcommandsbyname. Howtheshellstoresvalues.

ShellExpansions: HowBashexpandsparametersandthevariousexpansionsavailable. Redirections: Awaytocontrolwhereinputandoutputgo. ExecutingCommands: Whathappenswhenyourunacommand. ShellScripts: Executingfilesofshellcommands. Next:ShellCommands,Up:BasicShellFeatures[Contents][Index]

3.1ShellSyntax
ShellOperation: Thebasicoperationoftheshell. Quoting: Howtoremovethespecialmeaningfromcharacters. Comments: Howtospecifycomments. Whentheshellreadsinput,itproceedsthroughasequenceofoperations.Iftheinputindicatesthebeginningofacomment,theshellignoresthe commentsymbol(# ),andtherestofthatline. Otherwise,roughlyspeaking,theshellreadsitsinputanddividestheinputintowordsandoperators,employingthequotingrulestoselectwhich meaningstoassignvariouswordsandcharacters. Theshellthenparsesthesetokensintocommandsandotherconstructs,removesthespecialmeaningofcertainwordsorcharacters,expandsothers, redirectsinputandoutputasneeded,executesthespecifiedcommand,waitsforthecommandsexitstatus,andmakesthatexitstatusavailablefor furtherinspectionorprocessing. Next:Quoting,Up:ShellSyntax[Contents][Index] 3.1.1ShellOperation Thefollowingisabriefdescriptionoftheshellsoperationwhenitreadsandexecutesacommand.Basically,theshelldoesthefollowing: 1. Readsitsinputfromafile(seeShellScripts),fromastringsuppliedasanargumenttothec invocationoption(seeInvokingBash),orfromthe usersterminal. 2. Breakstheinputintowordsandoperators,obeyingthequotingrulesdescribedinQuoting.Thesetokensareseparatedbym e t a c h a r a c t e r s . Aliasexpansionisperformedbythisstep(seeAliases). 3. Parsesthetokensintosimpleandcompoundcommands(seeShellCommands).

4. Performsthevariousshellexpansions(seeShellExpansions),breakingtheexpandedtokensintolistsoffilenames(seeFilenameExpansion)and commandsandarguments. 5. Performsanynecessaryredirections(seeRedirections)andremovestheredirectionoperatorsandtheiroperandsfromtheargumentlist. 6. Executesthecommand(seeExecutingCommands). 7. Optionallywaitsforthecommandtocompleteandcollectsitsexitstatus(seeExitStatus). Next:Comments,Previous:ShellOperation,Up:ShellSyntax[Contents][Index] 3.1.2Quoting EscapeCharacter: Howtoremovethespecialmeaningfromasinglecharacter. SingleQuotes: Howtoinhibitallinterpretationofasequenceofcharacters. DoubleQuotes: Howtosuppressmostoftheinterpretationofasequenceofcharacters. ANSICQuoting: HowtoexpandANSICsequencesinquotedstrings. LocaleTranslation: Howtotranslatestringsintodifferentlanguages. Quotingisusedtoremovethespecialmeaningofcertaincharactersorwordstotheshell.Quotingcanbeusedtodisablespecialtreatmentforspecial characters,topreventreservedwordsfrombeingrecognizedassuch,andtopreventparameterexpansion. Eachoftheshellmetacharacters(seeDefinitions)hasspecialmeaningtotheshellandmustbequotedifitistorepresentitself.Whenthecommand historyexpansionfacilitiesarebeingused(seeHistoryInteraction),thehistoryexpansioncharacter,usually! ,mustbequotedtopreventhistory expansion.SeeBashHistoryFacilities,formoredetailsconcerninghistoryexpansion. Therearethreequotingmechanisms:theescapecharacter,singlequotes,anddoublequotes. Next:SingleQuotes,Up:Quoting[Contents][Index] 3.1.2.1EscapeCharacter Anonquotedbackslash\ istheBashescapecharacter.Itpreservestheliteralvalueofthenextcharacterthatfollows,withtheexceptionofn e w l i n e . Ifa\ n e w l i n e pairappears,andthebackslashitselfisnotquoted,the\ n e w l i n e istreatedasalinecontinuation(thatis,itisremovedfromtheinput streamandeffectivelyignored). Next:DoubleQuotes,Previous:EscapeCharacter,Up:Quoting[Contents][Index] 3.1.2.2SingleQuotes Enclosingcharactersinsinglequotes(' )preservestheliteralvalueofeachcharacterwithinthequotes.Asinglequotemaynotoccurbetweensingle quotes,evenwhenprecededbyabackslash. Next:ANSICQuoting,Previous:SingleQuotes,Up:Quoting[Contents][Index] 3.1.2.3DoubleQuotes Enclosingcharactersindoublequotes(" )preservestheliteralvalueofallcharacterswithinthequotes,withtheexceptionof$ ,` ,\ ,and,when historyexpansionisenabled,! .Thecharacters$ and` retaintheirspecialmeaningwithindoublequotes(seeShellExpansions).Thebackslash retainsitsspecialmeaningonlywhenfollowedbyoneofthefollowingcharacters:$ ,` ," ,\ ,orn e w l i n e .Withindoublequotes,backslashesthat arefollowedbyoneofthesecharactersareremoved.Backslashesprecedingcharacterswithoutaspecialmeaningareleftunmodified.Adoublequote maybequotedwithindoublequotesbyprecedingitwithabackslash.Ifenabled,historyexpansionwillbeperformedunlessan! appearingindouble quotesisescapedusingabackslash.Thebackslashprecedingthe! isnotremoved. Thespecialparameters* and@ havespecialmeaningwhenindoublequotes(seeShellParameterExpansion). Next:LocaleTranslation,Previous:DoubleQuotes,Up:Quoting[Contents][Index] 3.1.2.4ANSICQuoting Wordsoftheform$ ' s t r i n g ' aretreatedspecially.Thewordexpandstostring,withbackslashescapedcharactersreplacedasspecifiedbytheANSI Cstandard.Backslashescapesequences,ifpresent,aredecodedasfollows:
\ a

alert(bell)
\ b

backspace
\ e

\ E

anescapecharacter(notANSIC)
\ f

formfeed
\ n

newline
\ r

carriagereturn
\ t

horizontaltab
\ v

verticaltab
\ \

backslash
\ '

singlequote
\ "

doublequote
\ n n n

theeightbitcharacterwhosevalueistheoctalvaluennn(onetothreedigits)
\ x H H

theeightbitcharacterwhosevalueisthehexadecimalvalueHH(oneortwohexdigits)
\ u H H H H

theUnicode(ISO/IEC10646)characterwhosevalueisthehexadecimalvalueHHHH(onetofourhexdigits)
\ U H H H H H H H H

theUnicode(ISO/IEC10646)characterwhosevalueisthehexadecimalvalueHHHHHHHH(onetoeighthexdigits)
\ c x

acontrolxcharacter Theexpandedresultissinglequoted,asifthedollarsignhadnotbeenpresent. Previous:ANSICQuoting,Up:Quoting[Contents][Index] 3.1.2.5LocaleSpecificTranslation Adoublequotedstringprecededbyadollarsign($ )willcausethestringtobetranslatedaccordingtothecurrentlocale.IfthecurrentlocaleisC or P O S I X ,thedollarsignisignored.Ifthestringistranslatedandreplaced,thereplacementisdoublequoted. SomesystemsusethemessagecatalogselectedbytheL C _ M E S S A G E S shellvariable.Otherscreatethenameofthemessagecatalogfromthevalueofthe T E X T D O M A I N shellvariable,possiblyaddingasuffixof. m o .IfyouusetheT E X T D O M A I N variable,youmayneedtosettheT E X T D O M A I N D I R variableto thelocationofthemessagecatalogfiles.Stillothersusebothvariablesinthisfashion: T E X T D O M A I N D I R /L C _ M E S S A G E S /LC_MESSAGES/T E X T D O M A I N .mo. Previous:Quoting,Up:ShellSyntax[Contents][Index] 3.1.3Comments Inanoninteractiveshell,oraninteractiveshellinwhichthei n t e r a c t i v e _ c o m m e n t s optiontothes h o p t builtinisenabled(seeTheShoptBuiltin),a wordbeginningwith# causesthatwordandallremainingcharactersonthatlinetobeignored.Aninteractiveshellwithoutthe i n t e r a c t i v e _ c o m m e n t s optionenableddoesnotallowcomments.Thei n t e r a c t i v e _ c o m m e n t s optionisonbydefaultininteractiveshells.See InteractiveShells,foradescriptionofwhatmakesashellinteractive.

Next:ShellFunctions,Previous:ShellSyntax,Up:BasicShellFeatures[Contents][Index]

3.2ShellCommands
Asimpleshellcommandsuchase c h oabc consistsofthecommanditselffollowedbyarguments,separatedbyspaces. Morecomplexshellcommandsarecomposedofsimplecommandsarrangedtogetherinavarietyofways:inapipelineinwhichtheoutputofone commandbecomestheinputofasecond,inalooporconditionalconstruct,orinsomeothergrouping. SimpleCommands: Themostcommontypeofcommand. Pipelines: Connectingtheinputandoutputofseveralcommands. Lists: Howtoexecutecommandssequentially. CompoundCommands: Shellcommandsforcontrolflow. Coprocesses: Twowaycommunicationbetweencommands. GNUParallel: Runningcommandsinparallel. Next:Pipelines,Up:ShellCommands[Contents][Index] 3.2.1SimpleCommands Asimplecommandisthekindofcommandencounteredmostoften.Itsjustasequenceofwordsseparatedbyb l a n k s,terminatedbyoneoftheshells controloperators(seeDefinitions).Thefirstwordgenerallyspecifiesacommandtobeexecuted,withtherestofthewordsbeingthatcommands arguments. Thereturnstatus(seeExitStatus)ofasimplecommandisitsexitstatusasprovidedbythePOSIX1003.1w a i t p i d function,or128+nifthecommand wasterminatedbysignaln. Next:Lists,Previous:SimpleCommands,Up:ShellCommands[Contents][Index] 3.2.2Pipelines Ap i p e l i n e isasequenceofsimplecommandsseparatedbyoneofthecontroloperators| or| & . Theformatforapipelineis
[ t i m e[ p ] ][ ! ]c o m m a n d 1[[ |o r| & ]c o m m a n d 2 ]

Theoutputofeachcommandinthepipelineisconnectedviaapipetotheinputofthenextcommand.Thatis,eachcommandreadstheprevious commandsoutput.Thisconnectionisperformedbeforeanyredirectionsspecifiedbythecommand. If| & isused,thestandarderrorofcommand1isconnectedtocommand2sstandardinputthroughthepipeitisshorthandfor2 > & 1| .Thisimplicit redirectionofthestandarderrorisperformedafteranyredirectionsspecifiedbythecommand. Thereservedwordt i m e causestimingstatisticstobeprintedforthepipelineonceitfinishes.Thestatisticscurrentlyconsistofelapsed(wallclock)time anduserandsystemtimeconsumedbythecommandsexecution.Thep optionchangestheoutputformattothatspecifiedbyPOSIX.Whentheshell isinPOSIXmode(seeBashPOSIXMode),itdoesnotrecognizet i m e asareservedwordifthenexttokenbeginswitha.TheT I M E F O R M A T variable maybesettoaformatstringthatspecifieshowthetiminginformationshouldbedisplayed.SeeBashVariables,foradescriptionoftheavailable formats.Theuseoft i m e asareservedwordpermitsthetimingofshellbuiltins,shellfunctions,andpipelines.Anexternalt i m e commandcannottime theseeasily. WhentheshellisinPOSIXmode(seeBashPOSIXMode),t i m e maybefollowedbyanewline.Inthiscase,theshelldisplaysthetotaluserandsystem timeconsumedbytheshellanditschildren.TheT I M E F O R M A T variablemaybeusedtospecifytheformatofthetimeinformation. Ifthepipelineisnotexecutedasynchronously(seeLists),theshellwaitsforallcommandsinthepipelinetocomplete. Eachcommandinapipelineisexecutedinitsownsubshell(seeCommandExecutionEnvironment).Theexitstatusofapipelineistheexitstatusof thelastcommandinthepipeline,unlessthep i p e f a i l optionisenabled(seeTheSetBuiltin).Ifp i p e f a i l isenabled,thepipelinesreturnstatusisthe valueofthelast(rightmost)commandtoexitwithanonzerostatus,orzeroifallcommandsexitsuccessfully.Ifthereservedword! precedesthe pipeline,theexitstatusisthelogicalnegationoftheexitstatusasdescribedabove.Theshellwaitsforallcommandsinthepipelinetoterminatebefore returningavalue. Next:CompoundCommands,Previous:Pipelines,Up:ShellCommands[Contents][Index] 3.2.3ListsofCommands Al i s t isasequenceofoneormorepipelinesseparatedbyoneoftheoperators; ,& ,& & ,or| | ,andoptionallyterminatedbyoneof; ,& ,ora n e w l i n e . Oftheselistoperators,& & and| | haveequalprecedence,followedby; and& ,whichhaveequalprecedence. Asequenceofoneormorenewlinesmayappearinal i s t todelimitcommands,equivalenttoasemicolon.

Ifacommandisterminatedbythecontroloperator& ,theshellexecutesthecommandasynchronouslyinasubshell.Thisisknownasexecutingthe commandinthebackground.Theshelldoesnotwaitforthecommandtofinish,andthereturnstatusis0(true).Whenjobcontrolisnotactive(seeJob Control),thestandardinputforasynchronouscommands,intheabsenceofanyexplicitredirections,isredirectedfrom/ d e v / n u l l . Commandsseparatedbya; areexecutedsequentiallytheshellwaitsforeachcommandtoterminateinturn.Thereturnstatusistheexitstatusofthe lastcommandexecuted.

ANDandORlistsaresequencesofoneormorepipelinesseparatedbythecontroloperators& & and| | ,respectively.ANDandORlistsareexecuted

withleftassociativity. AnANDlisthastheform
c o m m a n d 1& &c o m m a n d 2

command2isexecutedif,andonlyif,command1returnsanexitstatusofzero. AnORlisthastheform
c o m m a n d 1| |c o m m a n d 2

command2isexecutedif,andonlyif,command1returnsanonzeroexitstatus. ThereturnstatusofANDandORlistsistheexitstatusofthelastcommandexecutedinthelist. Next:Coprocesses,Previous:Lists,Up:ShellCommands[Contents][Index] 3.2.4CompoundCommands LoopingConstructs: Shellcommandsforiterativeaction. ConditionalConstructs: Shellcommandsforconditionalexecution. CommandGrouping: Waystogroupcommands. Compoundcommandsaretheshellprogrammingconstructs.Eachconstructbeginswithareservedwordorcontroloperatorandisterminatedbya correspondingreservedwordoroperator.Anyredirections(seeRedirections)associatedwithacompoundcommandapplytoallcommandswithinthat compoundcommandunlessexplicitlyoverridden. Bashprovidesloopingconstructs,conditionalcommands,andmechanismstogroupcommandsandexecutethemasaunit. Next:ConditionalConstructs,Up:CompoundCommands[Contents][Index] 3.2.4.1LoopingConstructs Bashsupportsthefollowingloopingconstructs. Notethatwherevera; appearsinthedescriptionofacommandssyntax,itmaybereplacedwithoneormorenewlines.
u n t i l

Thesyntaxoftheu n t i l commandis:
u n t i lt e s t c o m m a n d s ;d oc o n s e q u e n t c o m m a n d s ;d o n e

Executeconsequentcommandsaslongastestcommandshasanexitstatuswhichisnotzero.Thereturnstatusistheexitstatusofthelast commandexecutedinconsequentcommands,orzeroifnonewasexecuted.
w h i l e

Thesyntaxofthew h i l e commandis:
w h i l et e s t c o m m a n d s ;d oc o n s e q u e n t c o m m a n d s ;d o n e

Executeconsequentcommandsaslongastestcommandshasanexitstatusofzero.Thereturnstatusistheexitstatusofthelastcommand executedinconsequentcommands,orzeroifnonewasexecuted.
f o r

Thesyntaxofthef o r commandis:
f o rn a m e[[ i n[ w o r d s ]];]d oc o m m a n d s ;d o n e

Expandwords,andexecutecommandsonceforeachmemberintheresultantlist,withnameboundtothecurrentmember.Ifi nw o r d s isnot present,thef o r commandexecutesthecommandsonceforeachpositionalparameterthatisset,asifi n" $ @ " hadbeenspecified(seeSpecial Parameters).Thereturnstatusistheexitstatusofthelastcommandthatexecutes.Iftherearenoitemsintheexpansionofwords,nocommands areexecuted,andthereturnstatusiszero. Analternateformofthef o r commandisalsosupported:

f o r( (e x p r 1;e x p r 2;e x p r 3) );d oc o m m a n d s;d o n e

First,thearithmeticexpressionexpr1isevaluatedaccordingtotherulesdescribedbelow(seeShellArithmetic).Thearithmeticexpressionexpr2 isthenevaluatedrepeatedlyuntilitevaluatestozero.Eachtimeexpr2evaluatestoanonzerovalue,commandsareexecutedandthearithmetic expressionexpr3isevaluated.Ifanyexpressionisomitted,itbehavesasifitevaluatesto1.Thereturnvalueistheexitstatusofthelastcommand incommandsthatisexecuted,orfalseifanyoftheexpressionsisinvalid. Theb r e a k andc o n t i n u e builtins(seeBourneShellBuiltins)maybeusedtocontrolloopexecution. Next:CommandGrouping,Previous:LoopingConstructs,Up:CompoundCommands[Contents][Index] 3.2.4.2ConditionalConstructs

i f

Thesyntaxofthei f commandis:
i ft e s t c o m m a n d s ;t h e n c o n s e q u e n t c o m m a n d s ; [ e l i fm o r e t e s t c o m m a n d s ;t h e n m o r e c o n s e q u e n t s ; ] [ e l s ea l t e r n a t e c o n s e q u e n t s ; ] f i

Thetestcommandslistisexecuted,andifitsreturnstatusiszero,theconsequentcommandslistisexecuted.Iftestcommandsreturnsanonzero status,eache l i f listisexecutedinturn,andifitsexitstatusiszero,thecorrespondingmoreconsequentsisexecutedandthecommand completes.Ife l s ea l t e r n a t e c o n s e q u e n t s ispresent,andthefinalcommandinthefinali f ore l i f clausehasanonzeroexitstatus,then alternateconsequentsisexecuted.Thereturnstatusistheexitstatusofthelastcommandexecuted,orzeroifnoconditiontestedtrue.

c a s e

Thesyntaxofthec a s e commandis:
c a s ew o r di n[[ ( ]p a t t e r n[ |p a t t e r n ] )c o m m a n d l i s t; ; ] e s a c c a s e willselectivelyexecutethecommandlistcorrespondingtothefirstpatternthatmatchesword.Iftheshelloptionn o c a s e m a t c h (seethe descriptionofs h o p t inTheShoptBuiltin)isenabled,thematchisperformedwithoutregardtothecaseofalphabeticcharacters.The| isused toseparatemultiplepatterns,andthe) operatorterminatesapatternlist.Alistofpatternsandanassociatedcommandlistisknownasaclause.

Eachclausemustbeterminatedwith; ; ,; & ,or; ; & .Thewordundergoestildeexpansion,parameterexpansion,commandsubstitution, arithmeticexpansion,andquoteremovalbeforematchingisattempted.Eachpatternundergoestildeexpansion,parameterexpansion,command substitution,andarithmeticexpansion. Theremaybeanarbitrarynumberofc a s e clauses,eachterminatedbya; ; ,; & ,or; ; & .Thefirstpatternthatmatchesdeterminesthe commandlistthatisexecuted. Hereisanexampleusingc a s e inascriptthatcouldbeusedtodescribeoneinterestingfeatureofananimal:
e c h on" E n t e rt h en a m eo fa na n i m a l :" r e a dA N I M A L e c h on" T h e$ A N I M A Lh a s" c a s e$ A N I M A Li n h o r s e|d o g|c a t )e c h on" f o u r " ; ; m a n|k a n g a r o o)e c h on" t w o " ; ; * )e c h on" a nu n k n o w nn u m b e ro f " ; ; e s a c e c h o"l e g s . "

Ifthe; ; operatorisused,nosubsequentmatchesareattemptedafterthefirstpatternmatch.Using; & inplaceof; ; causesexecutionto continuewiththecommandlistassociatedwiththenextclause,ifany.Using; ; & inplaceof; ; causestheshelltotestthepatternsinthenext clause,ifany,andexecuteanyassociatedcommandlistonasuccessfulmatch. Thereturnstatusiszeroifnopatternismatched.Otherwise,thereturnstatusistheexitstatusofthecommandlistexecuted.
s e l e c t

Thes e l e c t constructallowstheeasygenerationofmenus.Ithasalmostthesamesyntaxasthef o r command:

s e l e c tn a m e[ i nw o r d s ] ;d oc o m m a n d s ;d o n e

Thelistofwordsfollowingi n isexpanded,generatingalistofitems.Thesetofexpandedwordsisprintedonthestandarderroroutputstream, eachprecededbyanumber.Ifthei nw o r d s isomitted,thepositionalparametersareprinted,asifi n" $ @ " hadbeenspecified.TheP S 3 promptisthendisplayedandalineisreadfromthestandardinput.Ifthelineconsistsofanumbercorrespondingtooneofthedisplayedwords, thenthevalueofnameissettothatword.Ifthelineisempty,thewordsandpromptaredisplayedagain.IfE O F isread,thes e l e c t command completes.Anyothervaluereadcausesnametobesettonull.ThelinereadissavedinthevariableR E P L Y . Thecommandsareexecutedaftereachselectionuntilab r e a k commandisexecuted,atwhichpointthes e l e c t commandcompletes. Hereisanexamplethatallowstheusertopickafilenamefromthecurrentdirectory,anddisplaysthenameandindexofthefileselected.

s e l e c tf n a m ei n* ; d o e c h oy o up i c k e d$ f n a m e\ ( $ R E P L Y \ ) b r e a k ; d o n e ( ( ) ) ( (e x p r e s s i o n) )

Thearithmeticexpressionisevaluatedaccordingtotherulesdescribedbelow(seeShellArithmetic).Ifthevalueoftheexpressionisnonzero, thereturnstatusis0otherwisethereturnstatusis1.Thisisexactlyequivalentto
l e t" e x p r e s s i o n "

SeeBashBuiltins,forafulldescriptionofthel e t builtin.
[ [ ] ] [ [e x p r e s s i o n] ]

Returnastatusof0or1dependingontheevaluationoftheconditionalexpressionexpression.Expressionsarecomposedoftheprimaries describedbelowinBashConditionalExpressions.Wordsplittingandfilenameexpansionarenotperformedonthewordsbetweenthe[ [ and ] ] tildeexpansion,parameterandvariableexpansion,arithmeticexpansion,commandsubstitution,processsubstitution,andquoteremovalare performed.Conditionaloperatorssuchasf mustbeunquotedtoberecognizedasprimaries. Whenusedwith[ [ ,the< and> operatorssortlexicographicallyusingthecurrentlocale. Whenthe= = and! = operatorsareused,thestringtotherightoftheoperatorisconsideredapatternandmatchedaccordingtotherules describedbelowinPatternMatching.Iftheshelloptionn o c a s e m a t c h (seethedescriptionofs h o p t inTheShoptBuiltin)isenabled,thematchis performedwithoutregardtothecaseofalphabeticcharacters.Thereturnvalueis0ifthestringmatches(= = )ordoesnotmatch(! = )the pattern,and1otherwise.Anypartofthepatternmaybequotedtoforceittobematchedasastring. Anadditionalbinaryoperator,= ~ ,isavailable,withthesameprecedenceas= = and! = .Whenitisused,thestringtotherightoftheoperator isconsideredanextendedregularexpressionandmatchedaccordingly(asinregex3)).Thereturnvalueis0ifthestringmatchesthepattern,and 1otherwise.Iftheregularexpressionissyntacticallyincorrect,theconditionalexpressionsreturnvalueis2.Iftheshelloptionn o c a s e m a t c h (see thedescriptionofs h o p t inTheShoptBuiltin)isenabled,thematchisperformedwithoutregardtothecaseofalphabeticcharacters.Anypartof thepatternmaybequotedtoforceittobematchedasastring.Substringsmatchedbyparenthesizedsubexpressionswithintheregularexpression aresavedinthearrayvariableB A S H _ R E M A T C H .TheelementofB A S H _ R E M A T C H withindex0istheportionofthestringmatchingtheentireregular expression.TheelementofB A S H _ R E M A T C H withindexnistheportionofthestringmatchingthenthparenthesizedsubexpression. Expressionsmaybecombinedusingthefollowingoperators,listedindecreasingorderofprecedence:
(e x p r e s s i o n)

Returnsthevalueofexpression.Thismaybeusedtooverridethenormalprecedenceofoperators.
!e x p r e s s i o n

Trueifexpressionisfalse.
e x p r e s s i o n 1& &e x p r e s s i o n 2

Trueifbothexpression1andexpression2aretrue.
e x p r e s s i o n 1| |e x p r e s s i o n 2

Trueifeitherexpression1orexpression2istrue. The& & and| | operatorsdonotevaluateexpression2ifthevalueofexpression1issufficienttodeterminethereturnvalueoftheentire conditionalexpression. Previous:ConditionalConstructs,Up:CompoundCommands[Contents][Index] 3.2.4.3GroupingCommands Bashprovidestwowaystogroupalistofcommandstobeexecutedasaunit.Whencommandsaregrouped,redirectionsmaybeappliedtotheentire commandlist.Forexample,theoutputofallthecommandsinthelistmayberedirectedtoasinglestream.
( ) (l i s t)

Placingalistofcommandsbetweenparenthesescausesasubshellenvironmenttobecreated(seeCommandExecutionEnvironment),andeach ofthecommandsinlisttobeexecutedinthatsubshell.Sincethelistisexecutedinasubshell,variableassignmentsdonotremainineffectafter thesubshellcompletes.

{ } {l i s t ;}

Placingalistofcommandsbetweencurlybracescausesthelisttobeexecutedinthecurrentshellcontext.Nosubshelliscreated.Thesemicolon (ornewline)followinglistisrequired. Inadditiontothecreationofasubshell,thereisasubtledifferencebetweenthesetwoconstructsduetohistoricalreasons.Thebracesarer e s e r v e d w o r d s ,sotheymustbeseparatedfromthelistbyb l a n k sorothershellmetacharacters.Theparenthesesareo p e r a t o r s ,andarerecognizedasseparate tokensbytheshelleveniftheyarenotseparatedfromthelistbywhitespace. Theexitstatusofbothoftheseconstructsistheexitstatusoflist. Next:GNUParallel,Previous:CompoundCommands,Up:ShellCommands[Contents][Index] 3.2.5Coprocesses Ac o p r o c e s s isashellcommandprecededbythec o p r o c reservedword.Acoprocessisexecutedasynchronouslyinasubshell,asifthecommand hadbeenterminatedwiththe& controloperator,withatwowaypipeestablishedbetweentheexecutingshellandthecoprocess. Theformatforacoprocessis:
c o p r o c[ N A M E ]c o m m a n d[ r e d i r e c t i o n s ]

ThiscreatesacoprocessnamedNAME.IfNAMEisnotsupplied,thedefaultnameisCOPROC.NAMEmustnotbesuppliedifcommandisasimple command(seeSimpleCommands)otherwise,itisinterpretedasthefirstwordofthesimplecommand. Whenthecoprocisexecuted,theshellcreatesanarrayvariable(seeArrays)namedNAMEinthecontextoftheexecutingshell.Thestandardoutputof commandisconnectedviaapipetoafiledescriptorintheexecutingshell,andthatfiledescriptorisassignedtoNAME[0].Thestandardinputof commandisconnectedviaapipetoafiledescriptorintheexecutingshell,andthatfiledescriptorisassignedtoNAME[1].Thispipeisestablished beforeanyredirectionsspecifiedbythecommand(seeRedirections).Thefiledescriptorscanbeutilizedasargumentstoshellcommandsand redirectionsusingstandardwordexpansions. TheprocessIDoftheshellspawnedtoexecutethecoprocessisavailableasthevalueofthevariableNAME_PID.Thew a i t builtincommandmaybe usedtowaitforthecoprocesstoterminate. Thereturnstatusofacoprocessistheexitstatusofcommand. Previous:Coprocesses,Up:ShellCommands[Contents][Index] 3.2.6GNUParallel GNUParallel,asitsnamesuggests,canbeusedtobuildandruncommandsinparallel.Youmayrunthesamecommandwithdifferentarguments, whethertheyarefilenames,usernames,hostnames,orlinesreadfromfiles. Foracompletedescription,refertotheGNUParalleldocumentation.Afewexamplesshouldprovideabriefintroductiontoitsuse. Forexample,itiseasytoprefixeachlineinatextfilewithaspecifiedstring:
c a tf i l e|p a r a l l e lke c h op r e f i x _ s t r i n g

Thek optionisrequiredtopreservethelinesorder. Similarly,youcanappendaspecifiedstringtoeachlineinatextfile:

c a tf i l e|p a r a l l e lke c h o{ }a p p e n d _ s t r i n g

YoucanuseParalleltomovefilesfromthecurrentdirectorywhenthenumberoffilesistoolargetoprocesswithonem v invocation:
l s|p a r a l l e lm v{ }d e s t d i r

Asyoucansee,the{}isreplacedwitheachlinereadfromstandardinput.Thiswillrunasmanym v commandsastherearefilesinthecurrent directory.Youcanemulateaparallelx a r g s byaddingtheX option:

l s|p a r a l l e lXm v{ }d e s t d i r

GNUParallelcanreplacecertaincommonidiomsthatoperateonlinesreadfromafile(inthiscase,filenames):
f o rxi n$ ( c a tl i s t ) ;d o d o s o m e t h i n g 1$ xc o n f i g $ x d o s o m e t h i n g 2<$ x d o n e|p r o c e s s o u t p u t

withamorecompactsyntaxreminiscentoflambdas:
c a tl i s t|p a r a l l e l" d o s o m e t h i n g 1{ }c o n f i g { };d o s o m e t h i n g 2<{ } "|p r o c e s s o u t p u t

Parallelprovidesabuiltinmechanismtoremovefilenameextensions,whichlendsitselftobatchfiletransformationsorrenaming:
l s* . g z|p a r a l l e lj + 0" z c a t{ }|b z i p 2> { . } . b z 2& &r m{ } "

Thiswillrecompressallfilesinthecurrentdirectorywithnamesendingin.gzusingbzip2,runningonejobperCPU(j+0)inparallel. Ifacommandgeneratesoutput,youmaywanttopreservetheinputorderintheoutput.Forinstance,thefollowingcommand
{e c h of o s s . o r g . m y;e c h od e b i a n . o r g ;e c h of r e e n e t p r o j e c t . o r g ;}|p a r a l l e lt r a c e r o u t e

willdisplayasoutputthetracerouteinvocationthatfinishesfirst.Usingthek option,aswesawabove
{e c h of o s s . o r g . m y;e c h od e b i a n . o r g ;e c h of r e e n e t p r o j e c t . o r g ;}|p a r a l l e lkt r a c e r o u t e

willensurethattheoutputoft r a c e r o u t ef o s s . o r g . m y isdisplayedfirst. Next:ShellParameters,Previous:ShellCommands,Up:BasicShellFeatures[Contents][Index]

3.3ShellFunctions
Shellfunctionsareawaytogroupcommandsforlaterexecutionusingasinglenameforthegroup.Theyareexecutedjustlikea"regular"command. Whenthenameofashellfunctionisusedasasimplecommandname,thelistofcommandsassociatedwiththatfunctionnameisexecuted.Shell functionsareexecutedinthecurrentshellcontextnonewprocessiscreatedtointerpretthem. Functionsaredeclaredusingthissyntax:
n a m e( )c o m p o u n d c o m m a n d[r e d i r e c t i o n s] o r f u n c t i o nn a m e[ ( ) ]c o m p o u n d c o m m a n d[r e d i r e c t i o n s]

Thisdefinesashellfunctionnamedname.Thereservedwordf u n c t i o n isoptional.Ifthef u n c t i o n reservedwordissupplied,theparenthesesare optional.Thebodyofthefunctionisthecompoundcommandcompoundcommand(seeCompoundCommands).Thatcommandisusuallyalist enclosedbetween{and},butmaybeanycompoundcommandlistedabove.compoundcommandisexecutedwhenevernameisspecifiedasthe nameofacommand.Anyredirections(seeRedirections)associatedwiththeshellfunctionareperformedwhenthefunctionisexecuted. Afunctiondefinitionmaybedeletedusingthef optiontotheu n s e t builtin(seeBourneShellBuiltins). Theexitstatusofafunctiondefinitioniszerounlessasyntaxerroroccursorareadonlyfunctionwiththesamenamealreadyexists.Whenexecuted, theexitstatusofafunctionistheexitstatusofthelastcommandexecutedinthebody. Notethatforhistoricalreasons,inthemostcommonusagethecurlybracesthatsurroundthebodyofthefunctionmustbeseparatedfromthebodyby b l a n k sornewlines.Thisisbecausethebracesarereservedwordsandareonlyrecognizedassuchwhentheyareseparatedfromthecommandlistby whitespaceoranothershellmetacharacter.Also,whenusingthebraces,thelistmustbeterminatedbyasemicolon,a& ,oranewline. Whenafunctionisexecuted,theargumentstothefunctionbecomethepositionalparametersduringitsexecution(seePositionalParameters).The specialparameter# thatexpandstothenumberofpositionalparametersisupdatedtoreflectthechange.Specialparameter0 isunchanged.Thefirst elementoftheF U N C N A M E variableissettothenameofthefunctionwhilethefunctionisexecuting. Allotheraspectsoftheshellexecutionenvironmentareidenticalbetweenafunctionanditscallerwiththeseexceptions:theD E B U G andR E T U R N traps arenotinheritedunlessthefunctionhasbeengiventhet r a c e attributeusingthed e c l a r e builtinortheof u n c t r a c e optionhasbeenenabledwith thes e t builtin,(inwhichcaseallfunctionsinherittheD E B U G andR E T U R N traps),andtheE R R trapisnotinheritedunlesstheoe r r t r a c e shelloption hasbeenenabled.SeeBourneShellBuiltins,forthedescriptionofthet r a p builtin. TheF U N C N E S T variable,ifsettoanumericvaluegreaterthan0,definesamaximumfunctionnestinglevel.Functioninvocationsthatexceedthelimit causetheentirecommandtoabort. Ifthebuiltincommandr e t u r n isexecutedinafunction,thefunctioncompletesandexecutionresumeswiththenextcommandafterthefunctioncall. AnycommandassociatedwiththeR E T U R N trapisexecutedbeforeexecutionresumes.Whenafunctioncompletes,thevaluesofthepositional parametersandthespecialparameter# arerestoredtothevaluestheyhadpriortothefunctionsexecution.Ifanumericargumentisgiventor e t u r n , thatisthefunctionsreturnstatusotherwisethefunctionsreturnstatusistheexitstatusofthelastcommandexecutedbeforether e t u r n . Variableslocaltothefunctionmaybedeclaredwiththel o c a l builtin.Thesevariablesarevisibleonlytothefunctionandthecommandsitinvokes. Functionnamesanddefinitionsmaybelistedwiththef optiontothed e c l a r e ort y p e s e t builtincommands(seeBashBuiltins).TheF optionto d e c l a r e ort y p e s e t willlistthefunctionnamesonly(andoptionallythesourcefileandlinenumber,ifthee x t d e b u g shelloptionisenabled). Functionsmaybeexportedsothatsubshellsautomaticallyhavethemdefinedwiththef optiontothee x p o r t builtin(seeBourneShellBuiltins).Note thatshellfunctionsandvariableswiththesamenamemayresultinmultipleidenticallynamedentriesintheenvironmentpassedtotheshellschildren. Careshouldbetakenincaseswherethismaycauseaproblem. Functionsmayberecursive.TheF U N C N E S T variablemaybeusedtolimitthedepthofthefunctioncallstackandrestrictthenumberoffunction invocations.Bydefault,nolimitisplacedonthenumberofrecursivecalls. Next:ShellExpansions,Previous:ShellFunctions,Up:BasicShellFeatures[Contents][Index]

3.4ShellParameters
PositionalParameters: Theshellscommandlinearguments. SpecialParameters: Parametersdenotedbyspecialcharacters.

Aparameterisanentitythatstoresvalues.Itcanbean a m e ,anumber,oroneofthespecialcharacterslistedbelow.Avariableisaparameterdenoted byan a m e .Avariablehasavalueandzeroormoreattributes.Attributesareassignedusingthed e c l a r e builtincommand(seethedescriptionofthe d e c l a r e builtininBashBuiltins). Aparameterissetifithasbeenassignedavalue.Thenullstringisavalidvalue.Onceavariableisset,itmaybeunsetonlybyusingtheu n s e t builtin command. Avariablemaybeassignedtobyastatementoftheform
n a m e = [ v a l u e ]

Ifvalueisnotgiven,thevariableisassignedthenullstring.Allvaluesundergotildeexpansion,parameterandvariableexpansion,command substitution,arithmeticexpansion,andquoteremoval(detailedbelow).Ifthevariablehasitsi n t e g e r attributeset,thenvalueisevaluatedasan arithmeticexpressionevenifthe$ ( ( ) ) expansionisnotused(seeArithmeticExpansion).Wordsplittingisnotperformed,withtheexceptionof" $ @ " asexplainedbelow.Filenameexpansionisnotperformed.Assignmentstatementsmayalsoappearasargumentstothea l i a s ,d e c l a r e ,t y p e s e t , e x p o r t ,r e a d o n l y ,andl o c a l builtincommands. Inthecontextwhereanassignmentstatementisassigningavaluetoashellvariableorarrayindex(seeArrays),the+ = operatorcanbeusedtoappend tooraddtothevariablespreviousvalue.When+ = isappliedtoavariableforwhichtheintegerattributehasbeenset,valueisevaluatedasan arithmeticexpressionandaddedtothevariablescurrentvalue,whichisalsoevaluated.When+ = isappliedtoanarrayvariableusingcompound assignment(seeArrays),thevariablesvalueisnotunset(asitiswhenusing= ),andnewvaluesareappendedtothearraybeginningatonegreater thanthearraysmaximumindex(forindexedarrays),oraddedasadditionalkeyvaluepairsinanassociativearray.Whenappliedtoastringvalued variable,valueisexpandedandappendedtothevariablesvalue. Next:SpecialParameters,Up:ShellParameters[Contents][Index] 3.4.1PositionalParameters Apositionalparameterisaparameterdenotedbyoneormoredigits,otherthanthesingledigit0 .Positionalparametersareassignedfromtheshells argumentswhenitisinvoked,andmaybereassignedusingthes e t builtincommand.PositionalparameterN maybereferencedas$ { N } ,oras$ N when N consistsofasingledigit.Positionalparametersmaynotbeassignedtowithassignmentstatements.Thes e t ands h i f t builtinsareusedtosetand unsetthem(seeShellBuiltinCommands).Thepositionalparametersaretemporarilyreplacedwhenashellfunctionisexecuted(seeShellFunctions). Whenapositionalparameterconsistingofmorethanasingledigitisexpanded,itmustbeenclosedinbraces. Previous:PositionalParameters,Up:ShellParameters[Contents][Index] 3.4.2SpecialParameters Theshelltreatsseveralparametersspecially.Theseparametersmayonlybereferencedassignmenttothemisnotallowed.
*

Expandstothepositionalparameters,startingfromone.Whentheexpansionoccurswithindoublequotes,itexpandstoasinglewordwiththe valueofeachparameterseparatedbythefirstcharacteroftheI F S specialvariable.Thatis," $ * " isequivalentto" $ 1 c $ 2 c " ,wherecisthefirst characterofthevalueoftheI F S variable.IfI F S isunset,theparametersareseparatedbyspaces.IfI F S isnull,theparametersarejoinedwithout interveningseparators.
@

Expandstothepositionalparameters,startingfromone.Whentheexpansionoccurswithindoublequotes,eachparameterexpandstoaseparate word.Thatis," $ @ " isequivalentto" $ 1 "" $ 2 " .Ifthedoublequotedexpansionoccurswithinaword,theexpansionofthefirstparameteris joinedwiththebeginningpartoftheoriginalword,andtheexpansionofthelastparameterisjoinedwiththelastpartoftheoriginalword.When therearenopositionalparameters," $ @ " and$ @ expandtonothing(i.e.,theyareremoved).
#

Expandstothenumberofpositionalparametersindecimal.
?

Expandstotheexitstatusofthemostrecentlyexecutedforegroundpipeline.
-

(Ahyphen.)Expandstothecurrentoptionflagsasspecifieduponinvocation,bythes e t builtincommand,orthosesetbytheshellitself(suchas thei option).

$

ExpandstotheprocessIDoftheshell.Ina( ) subshell,itexpandstotheprocessIDoftheinvokingshell,notthesubshell.
!

ExpandstotheprocessIDofthemostrecentlyexecutedbackground(asynchronous)command.

Expandstothenameoftheshellorshellscript.Thisissetatshellinitialization.IfBashisinvokedwithafileofcommands(seeShellScripts),$ 0 issettothenameofthatfile.IfBashisstartedwiththec option(seeInvokingBash),then$ 0 issettothefirstargumentafterthestringtobe executed,ifoneispresent.Otherwise,itissettothefilenameusedtoinvokeBash,asgivenbyargumentzero.

_

(Anunderscore.)Atshellstartup,settotheabsolutepathnameusedtoinvoketheshellorshellscriptbeingexecutedaspassedintheenvironment orargumentlist.Subsequently,expandstothelastargumenttothepreviouscommand,afterexpansion.Alsosettothefullpathnameusedto invokeeachcommandexecutedandplacedintheenvironmentexportedtothatcommand.Whencheckingmail,thisparameterholdsthenameof themailfile. Next:Redirections,Previous:ShellParameters,Up:BasicShellFeatures[Contents][Index]

3.5ShellExpansions
Expansionisperformedonthecommandlineafterithasbeensplitintot o k e n s.Therearesevenkindsofexpansionperformed: braceexpansion tildeexpansion parameterandvariableexpansion commandsubstitution arithmeticexpansion wordsplitting filenameexpansion BraceExpansion: Expansionofexpressionswithinbraces. TildeExpansion: Expansionofthe~character. ShellParameterExpansion: HowBashexpandsvariablestotheirvalues. CommandSubstitution: Usingtheoutputofacommandasanargument. ArithmeticExpansion: Howtousearithmeticinshellexpansions. ProcessSubstitution: Awaytowriteandreadtoandfromacommand. WordSplitting: Howtheresultsofexpansionaresplitintoseparatearguments. FilenameExpansion: Ashorthandforspecifyingfilenamesmatchingpatterns. QuoteRemoval: Howandwhenquotecharactersareremovedfromwords. Theorderofexpansionsis:braceexpansion,tildeexpansion,parameter,variable,andarithmeticexpansionandcommandsubstitution(doneinaleftto rightfashion),wordsplitting,andfilenameexpansion. Onsystemsthatcansupportit,thereisanadditionalexpansionavailable:processsubstitution.Thisisperformedatthesametimeasparameter, variable,andarithmeticexpansionandcommandsubstitution. Onlybraceexpansion,wordsplitting,andfilenameexpansioncanchangethenumberofwordsoftheexpansionotherexpansionsexpandasingle wordtoasingleword.Theonlyexceptionstothisaretheexpansionsof" $ @ " (seeSpecialParameters)and" $ { n a m e [ @ ] } " (seeArrays). Afterallexpansions,q u o t er e m o v a l (seeQuoteRemoval)isperformed. Next:TildeExpansion,Up:ShellExpansions[Contents][Index] 3.5.1BraceExpansion Braceexpansionisamechanismbywhicharbitrarystringsmaybegenerated.Thismechanismissimilartofilenameexpansion(seeFilename Expansion),butthefilenamesgeneratedneednotexist.Patternstobebraceexpandedtaketheformofanoptionalpreamble,followedbyeithera seriesofcommaseparatedstringsoraseqeunceexpressionbetweenapairofbraces,followedbyanoptionalpostscript.Thepreambleisprefixedto eachstringcontainedwithinthebraces,andthepostscriptisthenappendedtoeachresultingstring,expandinglefttoright. Braceexpansionsmaybenested.Theresultsofeachexpandedstringarenotsortedlefttorightorderispreserved.Forexample,
b a s h $e c h oa { d , c , b } e a d ea c ea b e

Asequenceexpressiontakestheform{ x . . y [ . . i n c r ] } ,wherexandyareeitherintegersorsinglecharacters,andincr,anoptionalincrement,isan integer.Whenintegersaresupplied,theexpressionexpandstoeachnumberbetweenxandy,inclusive.Suppliedintegersmaybeprefixedwith0 to forceeachtermtohavethesamewidth.Wheneitherxorybeginswithazero,theshellattemptstoforceallgeneratedtermstocontainthesame numberofdigits,zeropaddingwherenecessary.Whencharactersaresupplied,theexpressionexpandstoeachcharacterlexicographicallybetweenx andy,inclusive.Notethatbothxandymustbeofthesametype.Whentheincrementissupplied,itisusedasthedifferencebetweeneachterm.The defaultincrementis1or1asappropriate. Braceexpansionisperformedbeforeanyotherexpansions,andanycharactersspecialtootherexpansionsarepreservedintheresult.Itisstrictly textual.Bashdoesnotapplyanysyntacticinterpretationtothecontextoftheexpansionorthetextbetweenthebraces.Toavoidconflictswith parameterexpansion,thestring$ { isnotconsideredeligibleforbraceexpansion.

Acorrectlyformedbraceexpansionmustcontainunquotedopeningandclosingbraces,andatleastoneunquotedcommaoravalidsequence expression.Anyincorrectlyformedbraceexpansionisleftunchanged. A{or, maybequotedwithabackslashtopreventitsbeingconsideredpartofabraceexpression.Toavoidconflictswithparameterexpansion,the string$ { isnotconsideredeligibleforbraceexpansion. Thisconstructistypicallyusedasshorthandwhenthecommonprefixofthestringstobegeneratedislongerthanintheaboveexample:

m k d i r/ u s r / l o c a l / s r c / b a s h / { o l d , n e w , d i s t , b u g s }

or
c h o w nr o o t/ u s r / { u c b / { e x , e d i t } , l i b / { e x ? . ? * , h o w _ e x } }

Next:ShellParameterExpansion,Previous:BraceExpansion,Up:ShellExpansions[Contents][Index] 3.5.2TildeExpansion Ifawordbeginswithanunquotedtildecharacter(~ ),allofthecharactersuptothefirstunquotedslash(orallcharacters,ifthereisnounquotedslash) areconsideredatildeprefix.Ifnoneofthecharactersinthetildeprefixarequoted,thecharactersinthetildeprefixfollowingthetildearetreatedasa possibleloginname.Ifthisloginnameisthenullstring,thetildeisreplacedwiththevalueoftheH O M E shellvariable.IfH O M E isunset,thehome directoryoftheuserexecutingtheshellissubstitutedinstead.Otherwise,thetildeprefixisreplacedwiththehomedirectoryassociatedwiththe specifiedloginname. Ifthetildeprefixis~ + ,thevalueoftheshellvariableP W D replacesthetildeprefix.Ifthetildeprefixis~ ,thevalueoftheshellvariableO L D P W D ,ifit isset,issubstituted. IfthecharactersfollowingthetildeinthetildeprefixconsistofanumberN,optionallyprefixedbya+ ora,thetildeprefixisreplacedwiththe correspondingelementfromthedirectorystack,asitwouldbedisplayedbythed i r s builtininvokedwiththecharactersfollowingtildeinthetilde prefixasanargument(seeTheDirectoryStack).Ifthetildeprefix,sansthetilde,consistsofanumberwithoutaleading+ or,+ isassumed. Iftheloginnameisinvalid,orthetildeexpansionfails,thewordisleftunchanged. Eachvariableassignmentischeckedforunquotedtildeprefixesimmediatelyfollowinga: orthefirst= .Inthesecases,tildeexpansionisalso performed.Consequently,onemayusefilenameswithtildesinassignmentstoP A T H ,M A I L P A T H ,andC D P A T H ,andtheshellassignstheexpandedvalue. ThefollowingtableshowshowBashtreatsunquotedtildeprefixes:
~

Thevalueof$ H O M E
~ / f o o $ H O M E / f o o ~ f r e d / f o o

Thesubdirectoryf o o ofthehomedirectoryoftheuserf r e d
~ + / f o o $ P W D / f o o ~ / f o o $ { O L D P W D ' ~ ' } / f o o ~ N

Thestringthatwouldbedisplayedbyd i r s+ N
~ + N

Thestringthatwouldbedisplayedbyd i r s+ N
~ N

Thestringthatwouldbedisplayedbyd i r sN Next:CommandSubstitution,Previous:TildeExpansion,Up:ShellExpansions[Contents][Index] 3.5.3ShellParameterExpansion The$ characterintroducesparameterexpansion,commandsubstitution,orarithmeticexpansion.Theparameternameorsymboltobeexpandedmay beenclosedinbraces,whichareoptionalbutservetoprotectthevariabletobeexpandedfromcharactersimmediatelyfollowingitwhichcouldbe interpretedaspartofthename.

Whenbracesareused,thematchingendingbraceisthefirst} notescapedbyabackslashorwithinaquotedstring,andnotwithinanembedded arithmeticexpansion,commandsubstitution,orparameterexpansion. Thebasicformofparameterexpansionis${parameter}.Thevalueofparameterissubstituted.Thebracesarerequiredwhenparameterisapositional parameterwithmorethanonedigit,orwhenparameterisfollowedbyacharacterthatisnottobeinterpretedaspartofitsname. Ifthefirstcharacterofparameterisanexclamationpoint(!),alevelofvariableindirectionisintroduced.Bashusesthevalueofthevariableformed fromtherestofparameterasthenameofthevariablethisvariableisthenexpandedandthatvalueisusedintherestofthesubstitution,ratherthanthe valueofparameteritself.Thisisknownasi n d i r e c te x p a n s i o n .Theexceptionstothisaretheexpansionsof${!prefix }and${!name[@]}describedbelow.Theexclamationpointmustimmediatelyfollowtheleftbraceinordertointroduceindirection. Ineachofthecasesbelow,wordissubjecttotildeexpansion,parameterexpansion,commandsubstitution,andarithmeticexpansion. Whennotperformingsubstringexpansion,usingtheformdescribedbelow,Bashtestsforaparameterthatisunsetornull.Omittingthecolonresultsin atestonlyforaparameterthatisunset.Putanotherway,ifthecolonisincluded,theoperatortestsforbothparametersexistenceandthatitsvalueis notnullifthecolonisomitted,theoperatortestsonlyforexistence.
$ { p a r a m e t e r : w o r d }

Ifparameterisunsetornull,theexpansionofwordissubstituted.Otherwise,thevalueofparameterissubstituted.
$ { p a r a m e t e r : = w o r d }

Ifparameterisunsetornull,theexpansionofwordisassignedtoparameter.Thevalueofparameteristhensubstituted.Positionalparameters andspecialparametersmaynotbeassignedtointhisway.
$ { p a r a m e t e r : ? w o r d }

Ifparameterisnullorunset,theexpansionofword(oramessagetothateffectifwordisnotpresent)iswrittentothestandarderrorandthe shell,ifitisnotinteractive,exits.Otherwise,thevalueofparameterissubstituted.
$ { p a r a m e t e r : + w o r d }

Ifparameterisnullorunset,nothingissubstituted,otherwisetheexpansionofwordissubstituted.
$ { p a r a m e t e r : o f f s e t } $ { p a r a m e t e r : o f f s e t : l e n g t h }

Expandstouptolengthcharactersofparameterstartingatthecharacterspecifiedbyoffset.Iflengthisomitted,expandstothesubstringof parameterstartingatthecharacterspecifiedbyoffset.lengthandoffsetarearithmeticexpressions(seeShellArithmetic).Thisisreferredtoas SubstringExpansion. Ifoffsetevaluatestoanumberlessthanzero,thevalueisusedasanoffsetfromtheendofthevalueofparameter.Iflengthevaluatestoanumber lessthanzero,andparameterisnot@ andnotanindexedorassociativearray,itisinterpretedasanoffsetfromtheendofthevalueof parameterratherthananumberofcharacters,andtheexpansionisthecharactersbetweenthetwooffsets.Ifparameteris@ ,theresultislength positionalparametersbeginningatoffset.Ifparameterisanindexedarraynamesubscriptedby@ or* ,theresultisthelengthmembersofthe arraybeginningwith$ { p a r a m e t e r [ o f f s e t ] } .Anegativeoffsetistakenrelativetoonegreaterthanthemaximumindexofthespecifiedarray. Substringexpansionappliedtoanassociativearrayproducesundefinedresults. Notethatanegativeoffsetmustbeseparatedfromthecolonbyatleastonespacetoavoidbeingconfusedwiththe: expansion.Substring indexingiszerobasedunlessthepositionalparametersareused,inwhichcasetheindexingstartsat1bydefault.Ifoffsetis0,andthepositional parametersareused,$ @ isprefixedtothelist.
$ { ! p r e f i x * } $ { ! p r e f i x @ }

Expandstothenamesofvariableswhosenamesbeginwithprefix,separatedbythefirstcharacteroftheI F S specialvariable.When@ isused andtheexpansionappearswithindoublequotes,eachvariablenameexpandstoaseparateword.

$ { ! n a m e [ @ ] } $ { ! n a m e [ * ] }

Ifnameisanarrayvariable,expandstothelistofarrayindices(keys)assignedinname.Ifnameisnotanarray,expandsto0ifnameissetand nullotherwise.When@ isusedandtheexpansionappearswithindoublequotes,eachkeyexpandstoaseparateword.

$ { # p a r a m e t e r }

Thelengthincharactersoftheexpandedvalueofparameterissubstituted.Ifparameteris* or@ ,thevaluesubstitutedisthenumberof positionalparameters.Ifparameterisanarraynamesubscriptedby* or@ ,thevaluesubstitutedisthenumberofelementsinthearray.

$ { p a r a m e t e r # w o r d } $ { p a r a m e t e r # # w o r d }

Thewordisexpandedtoproduceapatternjustasinfilenameexpansion(seeFilenameExpansion).Ifthepatternmatchesthebeginningofthe expandedvalueofparameter,thentheresultoftheexpansionistheexpandedvalueofparameterwiththeshortestmatchingpattern(the# case)orthelongestmatchingpattern(the# # case)deleted.Ifparameteris@ or* ,thepatternremovaloperationisappliedtoeachpositional parameterinturn,andtheexpansionistheresultantlist.Ifparameterisanarrayvariablesubscriptedwith@ or* ,thepatternremoval operationisappliedtoeachmemberofthearrayinturn,andtheexpansionistheresultantlist.
$ { p a r a m e t e r % w o r d }

$ { p a r a m e t e r % % w o r d }

Thewordisexpandedtoproduceapatternjustasinfilenameexpansion.Ifthepatternmatchesatrailingportionoftheexpandedvalueof parameter,thentheresultoftheexpansionisthevalueofparameterwiththeshortestmatchingpattern(the% case)orthelongestmatching pattern(the% % case)deleted.Ifparameteris@ or* ,thepatternremovaloperationisappliedtoeachpositionalparameterinturn,andthe expansionistheresultantlist.Ifparameterisanarrayvariablesubscriptedwith@ or* ,thepatternremovaloperationisappliedtoeach memberofthearrayinturn,andtheexpansionistheresultantlist.
$ { p a r a m e t e r / p a t t e r n / s t r i n g }

Thepatternisexpandedtoproduceapatternjustasinfilenameexpansion.Parameterisexpandedandthelongestmatchofpatternagainstits valueisreplacedwithstring.Ifpatternbeginswith/ ,allmatchesofpatternarereplacedwithstring.Normallyonlythefirstmatchisreplaced. Ifpatternbeginswith# ,itmustmatchatthebeginningoftheexpandedvalueofparameter.Ifpatternbeginswith% ,itmustmatchattheend oftheexpandedvalueofparameter.Ifstringisnull,matchesofpatternaredeletedandthe/ followingpatternmaybeomitted.Ifparameteris @ or* ,thesubstitutionoperationisappliedtoeachpositionalparameterinturn,andtheexpansionistheresultantlist.Ifparameterisanarray variablesubscriptedwith@ or* ,thesubstitutionoperationisappliedtoeachmemberofthearrayinturn,andtheexpansionistheresultantlist.
$ { p a r a m e t e r ^ p a t t e r n } $ { p a r a m e t e r ^ ^ p a t t e r n } $ { p a r a m e t e r , p a t t e r n } $ { p a r a m e t e r , , p a t t e r n }

Thisexpansionmodifiesthecaseofalphabeticcharactersinparameter.Thepatternisexpandedtoproduceapatternjustasinfilename expansion.The^ operatorconvertslowercaselettersmatchingpatterntouppercasethe, operatorconvertsmatchinguppercaselettersto lowercase.The^ ^ and, , expansionsconverteachmatchedcharacterintheexpandedvaluethe^ and, expansionsmatchandconvert onlythefirstcharacterintheexpandedvalue.Ifpatternisomitted,itistreatedlikea? ,whichmatcheseverycharacter.Ifparameteris@ or * ,thecasemodificationoperationisappliedtoeachpositionalparameterinturn,andtheexpansionistheresultantlist.Ifparameterisanarray variablesubscriptedwith@ or* ,thecasemodificationoperationisappliedtoeachmemberofthearrayinturn,andtheexpansionisthe resultantlist. Next:ArithmeticExpansion,Previous:ShellParameterExpansion,Up:ShellExpansions[Contents][Index] 3.5.4CommandSubstitution Commandsubstitutionallowstheoutputofacommandtoreplacethecommanditself.Commandsubstitutionoccurswhenacommandisenclosedas follows:
$ ( c o m m a n d )

or
` c o m m a n d `

Bashperformstheexpansionbyexecutingcommandandreplacingthecommandsubstitutionwiththestandardoutputofthecommand,withany trailingnewlinesdeleted.Embeddednewlinesarenotdeleted,buttheymayberemovedduringwordsplitting.Thecommandsubstitution$ ( c a t f i l e ) canbereplacedbytheequivalentbutfaster$ ( <f i l e ) . Whentheoldstylebackquoteformofsubstitutionisused,backslashretainsitsliteralmeaningexceptwhenfollowedby$ ,` ,or\ .Thefirst backquotenotprecededbyabackslashterminatesthecommandsubstitution.Whenusingthe$ ( c o m m a n d ) form,allcharactersbetweentheparentheses makeupthecommandnonearetreatedspecially. Commandsubstitutionsmaybenested.Tonestwhenusingthebackquotedform,escapetheinnerbackquoteswithbackslashes. Ifthesubstitutionappearswithindoublequotes,wordsplittingandfilenameexpansionarenotperformedontheresults. Next:ProcessSubstitution,Previous:CommandSubstitution,Up:ShellExpansions[Contents][Index] 3.5.5ArithmeticExpansion Arithmeticexpansionallowstheevaluationofanarithmeticexpressionandthesubstitutionoftheresult.Theformatforarithmeticexpansionis:
$ ( (e x p r e s s i o n) )

Theexpressionistreatedasifitwerewithindoublequotes,butadoublequoteinsidetheparenthesesisnottreatedspecially.Alltokensinthe expressionundergoparameterexpansion,commandsubstitution,andquoteremoval.Arithmeticexpansionsmaybenested. Theevaluationisperformedaccordingtotheruleslistedbelow(seeShellArithmetic).Iftheexpressionisinvalid,Bashprintsamessageindicating failuretothestandarderrorandnosubstitutionoccurs. Next:WordSplitting,Previous:ArithmeticExpansion,Up:ShellExpansions[Contents][Index] 3.5.6ProcessSubstitution Processsubstitutionissupportedonsystemsthatsupportnamedpipes(FIFOs)orthe/ d e v / f d methodofnamingopenfiles.Ittakestheformof

< ( l i s t )

or
> ( l i s t )

TheprocesslistisrunwithitsinputoroutputconnectedtoaFIFOorsomefilein/ d e v / f d .Thenameofthisfileispassedasanargumenttothecurrent commandastheresultoftheexpansion.Ifthe> ( l i s t ) formisused,writingtothefilewillprovideinputforlist.Ifthe< ( l i s t ) formisused,thefile passedasanargumentshouldbereadtoobtaintheoutputoflist.Notethatnospacemayappearbetweenthe< or> andtheleftparenthesis,otherwise theconstructwouldbeinterpretedasaredirection. Whenavailable,processsubstitutionisperformedsimultaneouslywithparameterandvariableexpansion,commandsubstitution,andarithmetic expansion. Next:FilenameExpansion,Previous:ProcessSubstitution,Up:ShellExpansions[Contents][Index] 3.5.7WordSplitting Theshellscanstheresultsofparameterexpansion,commandsubstitution,andarithmeticexpansionthatdidnotoccurwithindoublequotesforword splitting. Theshelltreatseachcharacterof$ I F S asadelimiter,andsplitstheresultsoftheotherexpansionsintowordsonthesecharacters.IfI F S isunset,orits valueisexactly< s p a c e > < t a b > < n e w l i n e > ,thedefault,thensequencesof< s p a c e > ,< t a b > ,and< n e w l i n e > atthebeginningandendoftheresultsof thepreviousexpansionsareignored,andanysequenceofI F S charactersnotatthebeginningorendservestodelimitwords.IfI F S hasavalueother thanthedefault,thensequencesofthewhitespacecharacterss p a c e andt a b areignoredatthebeginningandendoftheword,aslongasthe whitespacecharacterisinthevalueofI F S (anI F S whitespacecharacter).AnycharacterinI F S thatisnotI F S whitespace,alongwithanyadjacentI F S whitespacecharacters,delimitsafield.AsequenceofI F S whitespacecharactersisalsotreatedasadelimiter.IfthevalueofI F S isnull,noword splittingoccurs. Explicitnullarguments(" " or' ' )areretained.Unquotedimplicitnullarguments,resultingfromtheexpansionofparametersthathavenovalues,are removed.Ifaparameterwithnovalueisexpandedwithindoublequotes,anullargumentresultsandisretained. Notethatifnoexpansionoccurs,nosplittingisperformed. Next:QuoteRemoval,Previous:WordSplitting,Up:ShellExpansions[Contents][Index] 3.5.8FilenameExpansion PatternMatching: Howtheshellmatchespatterns. Afterwordsplitting,unlessthef optionhasbeenset(seeTheSetBuiltin),Bashscanseachwordforthecharacters* ,? ,and[ .Ifoneofthese charactersappears,thenthewordisregardedasapattern,andreplacedwithanalphabeticallysortedlistoffilenamesmatchingthepattern.Ifno matchingfilenamesarefound,andtheshelloptionn u l l g l o b isdisabled,thewordisleftunchanged.Ifthen u l l g l o b optionisset,andnomatchesare found,thewordisremoved.Ifthef a i l g l o b shelloptionisset,andnomatchesarefound,anerrormessageisprintedandthecommandisnot executed.Iftheshelloptionn o c a s e g l o b isenabled,thematchisperformedwithoutregardtothecaseofalphabeticcharacters. Whenapatternisusedforfilenameexpansion,thecharacter. atthestartofafilenameorimmediatelyfollowingaslashmustbematchedexplicitly, unlesstheshelloptiond o t g l o b isset.Whenmatchingafilename,theslashcharactermustalwaysbematchedexplicitly.Inothercases,the. characterisnottreatedspecially. Seethedescriptionofs h o p t inTheShoptBuiltin,foradescriptionofthen o c a s e g l o b ,n u l l g l o b ,f a i l g l o b ,andd o t g l o b options. TheG L O B I G N O R E shellvariablemaybeusedtorestrictthesetoffilenamesmatchingapattern.IfG L O B I G N O R E isset,eachmatchingfilenamethatalso matchesoneofthepatternsinG L O B I G N O R E isremovedfromthelistofmatches.Thefilenames. and. . arealwaysignoredwhenG L O B I G N O R E isset andnotnull.However,settingG L O B I G N O R E toanonnullvaluehastheeffectofenablingthed o t g l o b shelloption,soallotherfilenamesbeginning witha. willmatch.Togettheoldbehaviorofignoringfilenamesbeginningwitha. ,make. * oneofthepatternsinG L O B I G N O R E .Thed o t g l o b optionisdisabledwhenG L O B I G N O R E isunset. Up:FilenameExpansion[Contents][Index] 3.5.8.1PatternMatching Anycharacterthatappearsinapattern,otherthanthespecialpatterncharactersdescribedbelow,matchesitself.TheNULcharactermaynotoccurina pattern.Abackslashescapesthefollowingcharactertheescapingbackslashisdiscardedwhenmatching.Thespecialpatterncharactersmustbequoted iftheyaretobematchedliterally. Thespecialpatterncharactershavethefollowingmeanings:
*

Matchesanystring,includingthenullstring.Whentheg l o b s t a r shelloptionisenabled,and* isusedinafilenameexpansioncontext,two adjacent* susedasasinglepatternwillmatchallfilesandzeroormoredirectoriesandsubdirectories.Iffollowedbya/ ,twoadjacent* s

willmatchonlydirectoriesandsubdirectories.
?

Matchesanysinglecharacter.
[ ]

Matchesanyoneoftheenclosedcharacters.Apairofcharactersseparatedbyahyphendenotesarangeexpressionanycharacterthatsorts betweenthosetwocharacters,inclusive,usingthecurrentlocalescollatingsequenceandcharacterset,ismatched.Ifthefirstcharacterfollowing the[ isa! ora^ thenanycharacternotenclosedismatched.Amaybematchedbyincludingitasthefirstorlastcharacterintheset.A ] maybematchedbyincludingitasthefirstcharacterintheset.Thesortingorderofcharactersinrangeexpressionsisdeterminedbythe currentlocaleandthevalueoftheL C _ C O L L A T E shellvariable,ifset. Forexample,inthedefaultClocale,[ a d x z ] isequivalentto[ a b c d x y z ] .Manylocalessortcharactersindictionaryorder,andinthese locales[ a d x z ] istypicallynotequivalentto[ a b c d x y z ] itmightbeequivalentto[ a B b C c D d x X y Y z ] ,forexample.Toobtainthe traditionalinterpretationofrangesinbracketexpressions,youcanforcetheuseoftheClocalebysettingtheL C _ C O L L A T E orL C _ A L L environmentvariabletothevalueC . Within[ and] ,characterclassescanbespecifiedusingthesyntax[ : class: ] ,whereclassisoneofthefollowingclassesdefinedinthe POSIXstandard:
a l n u m p r i n t a l p h a p u n c t a s c i i s p a c e b l a n k u p p e r c n t r l w o r d d i g i t g r a p h x d i g i t l o w e r

Acharacterclassmatchesanycharacterbelongingtothatclass.Thew o r d characterclassmatchesletters,digits,andthecharacter_ . Within[ and] ,anequivalenceclasscanbespecifiedusingthesyntax[ = c= ] ,whichmatchesallcharacterswiththesamecollationweight(as definedbythecurrentlocale)asthecharacterc. Within[ and] ,thesyntax[ . symbol. ] matchesthecollatingsymbolsymbol. Ifthee x t g l o b shelloptionisenabledusingthes h o p t builtin,severalextendedpatternmatchingoperatorsarerecognized.Inthefollowingdescription, apatternlistisalistofoneormorepatternsseparatedbya| .Compositepatternsmaybeformedusingoneormoreofthefollowingsubpatterns:
? ( p a t t e r n l i s t )

Matcheszerooroneoccurrenceofthegivenpatterns.
* ( p a t t e r n l i s t )

Matcheszeroormoreoccurrencesofthegivenpatterns.
+ ( p a t t e r n l i s t )

Matchesoneormoreoccurrencesofthegivenpatterns.
@ ( p a t t e r n l i s t )

Matchesoneofthegivenpatterns.
! ( p a t t e r n l i s t )

Matchesanythingexceptoneofthegivenpatterns. Previous:FilenameExpansion,Up:ShellExpansions[Contents][Index] 3.5.9QuoteRemoval Aftertheprecedingexpansions,allunquotedoccurrencesofthecharacters\ ,' ,and" thatdidnotresultfromoneoftheaboveexpansionsare removed. Next:ExecutingCommands,Previous:ShellExpansions,Up:BasicShellFeatures[Contents][Index]

3.6Redirections
Beforeacommandisexecuted,itsinputandoutputmayberedirectedusingaspecialnotationinterpretedbytheshell.Redirectionmayalsobeusedto openandclosefilesforthecurrentshellexecutionenvironment.Thefollowingredirectionoperatorsmayprecedeorappearanywherewithinasimple commandormayfollowacommand.Redirectionsareprocessedintheordertheyappear,fromlefttoright. Eachredirectionthatmaybeprecededbyafiledescriptornumbermayinsteadbeprecededbyawordoftheform{varname}.Inthiscase,foreach redirectionoperatorexcept>&and<&,theshellwillallocateafiledescriptorgreaterthan10andassignitto{varname}.If>&or<&ispreceded by{varname},thevalueofvarnamedefinesthefiledescriptortoclose. Inthefollowingdescriptions,ifthefiledescriptornumberisomitted,andthefirstcharacteroftheredirectionoperatoris< ,theredirectionreferstothe standardinput(filedescriptor0).Ifthefirstcharacteroftheredirectionoperatoris> ,theredirectionreferstothestandardoutput(filedescriptor1).

Thewordfollowingtheredirectionoperatorinthefollowingdescriptions,unlessotherwisenoted,issubjectedtobraceexpansion,tildeexpansion, parameterexpansion,commandsubstitution,arithmeticexpansion,quoteremoval,filenameexpansion,andwordsplitting.Ifitexpandstomorethan oneword,Bashreportsanerror. Notethattheorderofredirectionsissignificant.Forexample,thecommand

l s>d i r l i s t2 > & 1

directsbothstandardoutput(filedescriptor1)andstandarderror(filedescriptor2)tothefiledirlist,whilethecommand
l s2 > & 1>d i r l i s t

directsonlythestandardoutputtofiledirlist,becausethestandarderrorwasmadeacopyofthestandardoutputbeforethestandardoutputwas redirectedtodirlist. Bashhandlesseveralfilenamesspeciallywhentheyareusedinredirections,asdescribedinthefollowingtable:

/ d e v / f d / f d

Iffdisavalidinteger,filedescriptorfdisduplicated.
/ d e v / s t d i n

Filedescriptor0isduplicated.
/ d e v / s t d o u t

Filedescriptor1isduplicated.
/ d e v / s t d e r r

Filedescriptor2isduplicated.
/ d e v / t c p / h o s t / p o r t

IfhostisavalidhostnameorInternetaddress,andportisanintegerportnumberorservicename,BashattemptstoopenaTCPconnectiontothe correspondingsocket.
/ d e v / u d p / h o s t / p o r t

IfhostisavalidhostnameorInternetaddress,andportisanintegerportnumberorservicename,BashattemptstoopenaUDPconnectionto thecorrespondingsocket. Afailuretoopenorcreateafilecausestheredirectiontofail. Redirectionsusingfiledescriptorsgreaterthan9shouldbeusedwithcare,astheymayconflictwithfiledescriptorstheshellusesinternally. 3.6.1RedirectingInput Redirectionofinputcausesthefilewhosenameresultsfromtheexpansionofwordtobeopenedforreadingonfiledescriptorn ,orthestandardinput (filedescriptor0)ifn isnotspecified. Thegeneralformatforredirectinginputis:
[ n ] < w o r d

3.6.2RedirectingOutput Redirectionofoutputcausesthefilewhosenameresultsfromtheexpansionofwordtobeopenedforwritingonfiledescriptorn,orthestandardoutput (filedescriptor1)ifnisnotspecified.Ifthefiledoesnotexistitiscreatedifitdoesexistitistruncatedtozerosize. Thegeneralformatforredirectingoutputis:

[ n ] > [ | ] w o r d

Iftheredirectionoperatoris> ,andthen o c l o b b e r optiontothes e t builtinhasbeenenabled,theredirectionwillfailifthefilewhosenameresults fromtheexpansionofwordexistsandisaregularfile.Iftheredirectionoperatoris> | ,ortheredirectionoperatoris> andthen o c l o b b e r optionis notenabled,theredirectionisattemptedevenifthefilenamedbywordexists. 3.6.3AppendingRedirectedOutput Redirectionofoutputinthisfashioncausesthefilewhosenameresultsfromtheexpansionofwordtobeopenedforappendingonfiledescriptorn,or thestandardoutput(filedescriptor1)ifnisnotspecified.Ifthefiledoesnotexistitiscreated. Thegeneralformatforappendingoutputis:
[ n ] > > w o r d

3.6.4RedirectingStandardOutputandStandardError

Thisconstructallowsboththestandardoutput(filedescriptor1)andthestandarderroroutput(filedescriptor2)toberedirectedtothefilewhosename istheexpansionofword. Therearetwoformatsforredirectingstandardoutputandstandarderror:

& > w o r d

and
> & w o r d

Ofthetwoforms,thefirstispreferred.Thisissemanticallyequivalentto
> w o r d2 > & 1

3.6.5AppendingStandardOutputandStandardError Thisconstructallowsboththestandardoutput(filedescriptor1)andthestandarderroroutput(filedescriptor2)tobeappendedtothefilewhosename istheexpansionofword. Theformatforappendingstandardoutputandstandarderroris:

& > > w o r d

Thisissemanticallyequivalentto
> > w o r d2 > & 1

3.6.6HereDocuments Thistypeofredirectioninstructstheshelltoreadinputfromthecurrentsourceuntilalinecontainingonlyword(withnotrailingblanks)isseen.Allof thelinesreaduptothatpointarethenusedasthestandardinputforacommand. Theformatofheredocumentsis:

< < [ ] w o r d h e r e d o c u m e n t d e l i m i t e r

Noparameterexpansion,commandsubstitution,arithmeticexpansion,orfilenameexpansionisperformedonword.Ifanycharactersinwordare quoted,thedelimiteristheresultofquoteremovalonword,andthelinesintheheredocumentarenotexpanded.Ifwordisunquoted,alllinesofthe heredocumentaresubjectedtoparameterexpansion,commandsubstitution,andarithmeticexpansion.Inthelattercase,thecharactersequence \ n e w l i n e isignored,and\ mustbeusedtoquotethecharacters\ ,$ ,and` . Iftheredirectionoperatoris< < ,thenallleadingtabcharactersarestrippedfrominputlinesandthelinecontainingdelimiter.Thisallowshere documentswithinshellscriptstobeindentedinanaturalfashion. 3.6.7HereStrings Avariantofheredocuments,theformatis:
< < <w o r d

Thewordisexpandedandsuppliedtothecommandonitsstandardinput. 3.6.8DuplicatingFileDescriptors Theredirectionoperator

[ n ] < & w o r d

isusedtoduplicateinputfiledescriptors.Ifwordexpandstooneormoredigits,thefiledescriptordenotedbynismadetobeacopyofthatfile descriptor.Ifthedigitsinworddonotspecifyafiledescriptoropenforinput,aredirectionerroroccurs.Ifwordevaluatesto,filedescriptornis closed.Ifnisnotspecified,thestandardinput(filedescriptor0)isused. Theoperator

[ n ] > & w o r d

isusedsimilarlytoduplicateoutputfiledescriptors.Ifnisnotspecified,thestandardoutput(filedescriptor1)isused.Ifthedigitsinworddonot specifyafiledescriptoropenforoutput,aredirectionerroroccurs.Asaspecialcase,ifnisomitted,andworddoesnotexpandtooneormoredigits, thestandardoutputandstandarderrorareredirectedasdescribedpreviously. 3.6.9MovingFileDescriptors Theredirectionoperator

[ n ] < & d i g i t -

movesthefiledescriptordigittofiledescriptorn,orthestandardinput(filedescriptor0)ifnisnotspecified.digitisclosedafterbeingduplicatedton. Similarly,theredirectionoperator
[ n ] > & d i g i t -

movesthefiledescriptordigittofiledescriptorn,orthestandardoutput(filedescriptor1)ifnisnotspecified. 3.6.10OpeningFileDescriptorsforReadingandWriting Theredirectionoperator

[ n ] < > w o r d

causesthefilewhosenameistheexpansionofwordtobeopenedforbothreadingandwritingonfiledescriptorn,oronfiledescriptor0ifnisnot specified.Ifthefiledoesnotexist,itiscreated. Next:ShellScripts,Previous:Redirections,Up:BasicShellFeatures[Contents][Index]

3.7ExecutingCommands
SimpleCommandExpansion: HowBashexpandssimplecommandsbeforeexecutingthem. CommandSearchandExecution: HowBashfindscommandsandrunsthem. CommandExecutionEnvironment: TheenvironmentinwhichBashexecutescommandsthatarenotshellbuiltins. Environment: Theenvironmentgiventoacommand. ExitStatus: ThestatusreturnedbycommandsandhowBashinterpretsit. Signals: WhathappenswhenBashoracommanditrunsreceivesasignal. Next:CommandSearchandExecution,Up:ExecutingCommands[Contents][Index] 3.7.1SimpleCommandExpansion Whenasimplecommandisexecuted,theshellperformsthefollowingexpansions,assignments,andredirections,fromlefttoright. 1. Thewordsthattheparserhasmarkedasvariableassignments(thoseprecedingthecommandname)andredirectionsaresavedforlater processing. 2. Thewordsthatarenotvariableassignmentsorredirectionsareexpanded(seeShellExpansions).Ifanywordsremainafterexpansion,thefirst wordistakentobethenameofthecommandandtheremainingwordsarethearguments. 3. Redirectionsareperformedasdescribedabove(seeRedirections). 4. Thetextafterthe= ineachvariableassignmentundergoestildeexpansion,parameterexpansion,commandsubstitution,arithmeticexpansion, andquoteremovalbeforebeingassignedtothevariable. Ifnocommandnameresults,thevariableassignmentsaffectthecurrentshellenvironment.Otherwise,thevariablesareaddedtotheenvironmentofthe executedcommandanddonotaffectthecurrentshellenvironment.Ifanyoftheassignmentsattemptstoassignavaluetoareadonlyvariable,anerror occurs,andthecommandexitswithanonzerostatus. Ifnocommandnameresults,redirectionsareperformed,butdonotaffectthecurrentshellenvironment.Aredirectionerrorcausesthecommandtoexit withanonzerostatus. Ifthereisacommandnameleftafterexpansion,executionproceedsasdescribedbelow.Otherwise,thecommandexits.Ifoneoftheexpansions containedacommandsubstitution,theexitstatusofthecommandistheexitstatusofthelastcommandsubstitutionperformed.Iftherewereno commandsubstitutions,thecommandexitswithastatusofzero. Next:CommandExecutionEnvironment,Previous:SimpleCommandExpansion,Up:ExecutingCommands[Contents][Index] 3.7.2CommandSearchandExecution Afteracommandhasbeensplitintowords,ifitresultsinasimplecommandandanoptionallistofarguments,thefollowingactionsaretaken. 1. Ifthecommandnamecontainsnoslashes,theshellattemptstolocateit.Ifthereexistsashellfunctionbythatname,thatfunctionisinvokedas describedinShellFunctions. 2. Ifthenamedoesnotmatchafunction,theshellsearchesforitinthelistofshellbuiltins.Ifamatchisfound,thatbuiltinisinvoked. 3. Ifthenameisneitherashellfunctionnorabuiltin,andcontainsnoslashes,Bashsearcheseachelementof$ P A T H foradirectorycontainingan executablefilebythatname.BashusesahashtabletorememberthefullpathnamesofexecutablefilestoavoidmultipleP A T H searches(seethe descriptionofh a s h inBourneShellBuiltins).Afullsearchofthedirectoriesin$ P A T H isperformedonlyifthecommandisnotfoundinthehash table.Ifthesearchisunsuccessful,theshellsearchesforadefinedshellfunctionnamedc o m m a n d _ n o t _ f o u n d _ h a n d l e .Ifthatfunctionexists,itis invokedwiththeoriginalcommandandtheoriginalcommandsargumentsasitsarguments,andthefunctionsexitstatusbecomestheexitstatus oftheshell.Ifthatfunctionisnotdefined,theshellprintsanerrormessageandreturnsanexitstatusof127. 4. Ifthesearchissuccessful,orifthecommandnamecontainsoneormoreslashes,theshellexecutesthenamedprograminaseparateexecution environment.Argument0issettothenamegiven,andtheremainingargumentstothecommandaresettotheargumentssupplied,ifany. 5. Ifthisexecutionfailsbecausethefileisnotinexecutableformat,andthefileisnotadirectory,itisassumedtobeashellscriptandtheshell

executesitasdescribedinShellScripts. 6. Ifthecommandwasnotbegunasynchronously,theshellwaitsforthecommandtocompleteandcollectsitsexitstatus. Next:Environment,Previous:CommandSearchandExecution,Up:ExecutingCommands[Contents][Index] 3.7.3CommandExecutionEnvironment Theshellhasanexecutionenvironment,whichconsistsofthefollowing: openfilesinheritedbytheshellatinvocation,asmodifiedbyredirectionssuppliedtothee x e c builtin thecurrentworkingdirectoryassetbyc d ,p u s h d ,orp o p d ,orinheritedbytheshellatinvocation thefilecreationmodemaskassetbyu m a s k orinheritedfromtheshellsparent currenttrapssetbyt r a p shellparametersthataresetbyvariableassignmentorwiths e t orinheritedfromtheshellsparentintheenvironment shellfunctionsdefinedduringexecutionorinheritedfromtheshellsparentintheenvironment optionsenabledatinvocation(eitherbydefaultorwithcommandlinearguments)orbys e t optionsenabledbys h o p t (seeTheShoptBuiltin) shellaliasesdefinedwitha l i a s (seeAliases) variousprocessIDs,includingthoseofbackgroundjobs(seeLists),thevalueof$ $ ,andthevalueof$ P P I D Whenasimplecommandotherthanabuiltinorshellfunctionistobeexecuted,itisinvokedinaseparateexecutionenvironmentthatconsistsofthe following.Unlessotherwisenoted,thevaluesareinheritedfromtheshell. theshellsopenfiles,plusanymodificationsandadditionsspecifiedbyredirectionstothecommand thecurrentworkingdirectory thefilecreationmodemask shellvariablesandfunctionsmarkedforexport,alongwithvariablesexportedforthecommand,passedintheenvironment(seeEnvironment) trapscaughtbytheshellareresettothevaluesinheritedfromtheshellsparent,andtrapsignoredbytheshellareignored Acommandinvokedinthisseparateenvironmentcannotaffecttheshellsexecutionenvironment. Commandsubstitution,commandsgroupedwithparentheses,andasynchronouscommandsareinvokedinasubshellenvironmentthatisaduplicateof theshellenvironment,exceptthattrapscaughtbytheshellareresettothevaluesthattheshellinheritedfromitsparentatinvocation.Builtincommands thatareinvokedaspartofapipelinearealsoexecutedinasubshellenvironment.Changesmadetothesubshellenvironmentcannotaffecttheshells executionenvironment. Subshellsspawnedtoexecutecommandsubstitutionsinheritthevalueofthee optionfromtheparentshell.WhennotinPOSIXmode,Bashclearsthe e optioninsuchsubshells. Ifacommandisfollowedbya& andjobcontrolisnotactive,thedefaultstandardinputforthecommandistheemptyfile/ d e v / n u l l .Otherwise,the invokedcommandinheritsthefiledescriptorsofthecallingshellasmodifiedbyredirections. Next:ExitStatus,Previous:CommandExecutionEnvironment,Up:ExecutingCommands[Contents][Index] 3.7.4Environment Whenaprogramisinvokeditisgivenanarrayofstringscalledtheenvironment.Thisisalistofnamevaluepairs,oftheformn a m e = v a l u e . Bashprovidesseveralwaystomanipulatetheenvironment.Oninvocation,theshellscansitsownenvironmentandcreatesaparameterforeachname found,automaticallymarkingitforexporttochildprocesses.Executedcommandsinherittheenvironment.Thee x p o r t andd e c l a r ex commands allowparametersandfunctionstobeaddedtoanddeletedfromtheenvironment.Ifthevalueofaparameterintheenvironmentismodified,thenew valuebecomespartoftheenvironment,replacingtheold.Theenvironmentinheritedbyanyexecutedcommandconsistsoftheshellsinitial environment,whosevaluesmaybemodifiedintheshell,lessanypairsremovedbytheu n s e t ande x p o r tn commands,plusanyadditionsviathe e x p o r t andd e c l a r ex commands. Theenvironmentforanysimplecommandorfunctionmaybeaugmentedtemporarilybyprefixingitwithparameterassignments,asdescribedinShell Parameters.Theseassignmentstatementsaffectonlytheenvironmentseenbythatcommand. Ifthek optionisset(seeTheSetBuiltin),thenallparameterassignmentsareplacedintheenvironmentforacommand,notjustthosethatprecedethe commandname. WhenBashinvokesanexternalcommand,thevariable$ _ issettothefullpathnameofthecommandandpassedtothatcommandinitsenvironment. Next:Signals,Previous:Environment,Up:ExecutingCommands[Contents][Index] 3.7.5ExitStatus Theexitstatusofanexecutedcommandisthevaluereturnedbythewaitpidsystemcallorequivalentfunction.Exitstatusesfallbetween0and255, though,asexplainedbelow,theshellmayusevaluesabove125specially.Exitstatusesfromshellbuiltinsandcompoundcommandsarealsolimitedto thisrange.Undercertaincircumstances,theshellwillusespecialvaluestoindicatespecificfailuremodes. Fortheshellspurposes,acommandwhichexitswithazeroexitstatushassucceeded.Anonzeroexitstatusindicatesfailure.Thisseeminglycounter

intuitiveschemeisusedsothereisonewelldefinedwaytoindicatesuccessandavarietyofwaystoindicatevariousfailuremodes.Whenacommand terminatesonafatalsignalwhosenumberisN,Bashusesthevalue128+Nastheexitstatus. Ifacommandisnotfound,thechildprocesscreatedtoexecuteitreturnsastatusof127.Ifacommandisfoundbutisnotexecutable,thereturnstatusis 126. Ifacommandfailsbecauseofanerrorduringexpansionorredirection,theexitstatusisgreaterthanzero. TheexitstatusisusedbytheBashconditionalcommands(seeConditionalConstructs)andsomeofthelistconstructs(seeLists). AlloftheBashbuiltinsreturnanexitstatusofzeroiftheysucceedandanonzerostatusonfailure,sotheymaybeusedbytheconditionalandlist constructs.Allbuiltinsreturnanexitstatusof2toindicateincorrectusage. Previous:ExitStatus,Up:ExecutingCommands[Contents][Index] 3.7.6Signals WhenBashisinteractive,intheabsenceofanytraps,itignoresS I G T E R M (sothatk i l l0 doesnotkillaninteractiveshell),andS I G I N T iscaughtand handled(sothatthew a i t builtinisinterruptible).WhenBashreceivesaS I G I N T ,itbreaksoutofanyexecutingloops.Inallcases,Bashignores S I G Q U I T .Ifjobcontrolisineffect(seeJobControl),BashignoresS I G T T I N ,S I G T T O U ,andS I G T S T P . NonbuiltincommandsstartedbyBashhavesignalhandlerssettothevaluesinheritedbytheshellfromitsparent.Whenjobcontrolisnotineffect, asynchronouscommandsignoreS I G I N T andS I G Q U I T inadditiontotheseinheritedhandlers.Commandsrunasaresultofcommandsubstitutionignore thekeyboardgeneratedjobcontrolsignalsS I G T T I N ,S I G T T O U ,andS I G T S T P . TheshellexitsbydefaultuponreceiptofaS I G H U P .Beforeexiting,aninteractiveshellresendstheS I G H U P toalljobs,runningorstopped.Stoppedjobs aresentS I G C O N T toensurethattheyreceivetheS I G H U P .TopreventtheshellfromsendingtheS I G H U P signaltoaparticularjob,itshouldberemoved fromthejobstablewiththed i s o w n builtin(seeJobControlBuiltins)ormarkedtonotreceiveS I G H U P usingd i s o w nh . Iftheh u p o n e x i t shelloptionhasbeensetwiths h o p t (seeTheShoptBuiltin),BashsendsaS I G H U P toalljobswhenaninteractiveloginshellexits. IfBashiswaitingforacommandtocompleteandreceivesasignalforwhichatraphasbeenset,thetrapwillnotbeexecuteduntilthecommand completes.WhenBashiswaitingforanasynchronouscommandviathew a i t builtin,thereceptionofasignalforwhichatraphasbeensetwillcause thew a i t builtintoreturnimmediatelywithanexitstatusgreaterthan128,immediatelyafterwhichthetrapisexecuted. Previous:ExecutingCommands,Up:BasicShellFeatures[Contents][Index]

3.8ShellScripts
Ashellscriptisatextfilecontainingshellcommands.WhensuchafileisusedasthefirstnonoptionargumentwheninvokingBash,andneitherthec nors optionissupplied(seeInvokingBash),Bashreadsandexecutescommandsfromthefile,thenexits.Thismodeofoperationcreatesanon interactiveshell.Theshellfirstsearchesforthefileinthecurrentdirectory,andlooksinthedirectoriesin$ P A T H ifnotfoundthere. WhenBashrunsashellscript,itsetsthespecialparameter0 tothenameofthefile,ratherthanthenameoftheshell,andthepositionalparametersare settotheremainingarguments,ifanyaregiven.Ifnoadditionalargumentsaresupplied,thepositionalparametersareunset. Ashellscriptmaybemadeexecutablebyusingthec h m o d commandtoturnontheexecutebit.WhenBashfindssuchafilewhilesearchingthe$ P A T H foracommand,itspawnsasubshelltoexecuteit.Inotherwords,executing
f i l e n a m ea r g u m e n t s

isequivalenttoexecuting
b a s hf i l e n a m ea r g u m e n t s

iff i l e n a m e isanexecutableshellscript.Thissubshellreinitializesitself,sothattheeffectisasifanewshellhadbeeninvokedtointerpretthescript, withtheexceptionthatthelocationsofcommandsrememberedbytheparent(seethedescriptionofh a s h inBourneShellBuiltins)areretainedbythe child. MostversionsofUnixmakethisapartoftheoperatingsystemscommandexecutionmechanism.Ifthefirstlineofascriptbeginswiththetwo characters# ! ,theremainderofthelinespecifiesaninterpreterfortheprogram.Thus,youcanspecifyBash,a w k ,Perl,orsomeotherinterpreterand writetherestofthescriptfileinthatlanguage. Theargumentstotheinterpreterconsistofasingleoptionalargumentfollowingtheinterpreternameonthefirstlineofthescriptfile,followedbythe nameofthescriptfile,followedbytherestofthearguments.Bashwillperformthisactiononoperatingsystemsthatdonothandleitthemselves.Note thatsomeolderversionsofUnixlimittheinterpreternameandargumenttoamaximumof32characters. Bashscriptsoftenbeginwith# !/ b i n / b a s h (assumingthatBashhasbeeninstalledin/ b i n ),sincethisensuresthatBashwillbeusedtointerpretthe script,evenifitisexecutedunderanothershell. Next:ShellVariables,Previous:BasicShellFeatures,Up:Top[Contents][Index]

4ShellBuiltinCommands

BourneShellBuiltins: BuiltincommandsinheritedfromtheBourneShell. BashBuiltins: TableofbuiltinsspecifictoBash. ModifyingShellBehavior: Builtinstomodifyshellattributesandoptionalbehavior. SpecialBuiltins: BuiltincommandsclassifiedspeciallybyPOSIX. Builtincommandsarecontainedwithintheshellitself.Whenthenameofabuiltincommandisusedasthefirstwordofasimplecommand(seeSimple Commands),theshellexecutesthecommanddirectly,withoutinvokinganotherprogram.Builtincommandsarenecessarytoimplementfunctionality impossibleorinconvenienttoobtainwithseparateutilities. ThissectionbrieflydescribesthebuiltinswhichBashinheritsfromtheBourneShell,aswellasthebuiltincommandswhichareuniquetoorhavebeen extendedinBash. Severalbuiltincommandsaredescribedinotherchapters:builtincommandswhichprovidetheBashinterfacetothejobcontrolfacilities(seeJob ControlBuiltins),thedirectorystack(seeDirectoryStackBuiltins),thecommandhistory(seeBashHistoryBuiltins),andtheprogrammable completionfacilities(seeProgrammableCompletionBuiltins). ManyofthebuiltinshavebeenextendedbyPOSIXorBash. Unlessotherwisenoted,eachbuiltincommanddocumentedasacceptingoptionsprecededbyacceptstosignifytheendoftheoptions.The: , t r u e ,f a l s e ,andt e s t builtinsdonotacceptoptionsanddonottreatspecially.Thee x i t ,l o g o u t ,b r e a k ,c o n t i n u e ,l e t ,ands h i f t builtins acceptandprocessargumentsbeginningwithwithoutrequiring.Otherbuiltinsthatacceptargumentsbutarenotspecifiedasacceptingoptions interpretargumentsbeginningwithasinvalidoptionsandrequiretopreventthisinterpretation. Next:BashBuiltins,Up:ShellBuiltinCommands[Contents][Index]

4.1BourneShellBuiltins
ThefollowingshellbuiltincommandsareinheritedfromtheBourneShell.ThesecommandsareimplementedasspecifiedbythePOSIXstandard.
: (acolon) :[ a r g u m e n t s ]

Donothingbeyondexpandingargumentsandperformingredirections.Thereturnstatusiszero.
. (aperiod) .f i l e n a m e[ a r g u m e n t s ]

Readandexecutecommandsfromthefilenameargumentinthecurrentshellcontext.Iffilenamedoesnotcontainaslash,theP A T H variableis usedtofindfilename.WhenBashisnotinPOSIXmode,thecurrentdirectoryissearchediffilenameisnotfoundin$ P A T H .Ifanyargumentsare supplied,theybecomethepositionalparameterswhenfilenameisexecuted.Otherwisethepositionalparametersareunchanged.Thereturnstatus istheexitstatusofthelastcommandexecuted,orzeroifnocommandsareexecuted.Iffilenameisnotfound,orcannotberead,thereturnstatus isnonzero.Thisbuiltinisequivalenttos o u r c e .

b r e a k b r e a k[ n ]

Exitfromaf o r ,w h i l e ,u n t i l ,ors e l e c t loop.Ifnissupplied,thenthenclosingloopisexited.nmustbegreaterthanorequalto1.Thereturn statusiszerounlessnisnotgreaterthanorequalto1.

c d c d[ L | [ P[ e ] ] ][ d i r e c t o r y ]

Changethecurrentworkingdirectorytodirectory.Ifdirectoryisnotgiven,thevalueoftheH O M E shellvariableisused.Iftheshellvariable C D P A T H exists,itisusedasasearchpath.Ifdirectorybeginswithaslash,C D P A T H isnotused. TheP optionmeanstonotfollowsymboliclinkssymboliclinksarefollowedbydefaultorwiththeL option.Ifthee optionissuppliedwith P andthecurrentworkingdirectorycannotbesuccessfullydeterminedafterasuccessfuldirectorychange,c d willreturnanunsuccessfulstatus. Ifdirectoryis,itisequivalentto$ O L D P W D . IfanonemptydirectorynamefromC D P A T H isused,orifisthefirstargument,andthedirectorychangeissuccessful,theabsolutepathname ofthenewworkingdirectoryiswrittentothestandardoutput. Thereturnstatusiszeroifthedirectoryissuccessfullychanged,nonzerootherwise.
c o n t i n u e c o n t i n u e[ n ]

Resumethenextiterationofanenclosingf o r ,w h i l e ,u n t i l ,ors e l e c t loop.Ifnissupplied,theexecutionofthenthenclosingloopis resumed.nmustbegreaterthanorequalto1.Thereturnstatusiszerounlessnisnotgreaterthanorequalto1.

e v a l e v a l[ a r g u m e n t s ]

Theargumentsareconcatenatedtogetherintoasinglecommand,whichisthenreadandexecuted,anditsexitstatusreturnedastheexitstatusof e v a l .Iftherearenoargumentsoronlyemptyarguments,thereturnstatusiszero.
e x e c e x e c[ c l ][ an a m e ][ c o m m a n d[ a r g u m e n t s ] ]

Ifcommandissupplied,itreplacestheshellwithoutcreatinganewprocess.Ifthel optionissupplied,theshellplacesadashatthebeginning ofthezerothargumentpassedtocommand.Thisiswhatthel o g i n programdoes.Thec optioncausescommandtobeexecutedwithanempty environment.Ifa issupplied,theshellpassesnameasthezerothargumenttocommand.Ifnocommandisspecified,redirectionsmaybeused toaffectthecurrentshellenvironment.Iftherearenoredirectionerrors,thereturnstatusiszerootherwisethereturnstatusisnonzero.

e x i t e x i t[ n ]

Exittheshell,returningastatusofntotheshellsparent.Ifnisomitted,theexitstatusisthatofthelastcommandexecuted.AnytraponE X I T is executedbeforetheshellterminates.
e x p o r t e x p o r t[ f n ][ p ][ n a m e [ = v a l u e ] ]

Markeachnametobepassedtochildprocessesintheenvironment.Ifthef optionissupplied,thenamesrefertoshellfunctionsotherwisethe namesrefertoshellvariables.Then optionmeanstonolongermarkeachnameforexport.Ifnonamesaresupplied,orifthep optionis given,alistofexportednamesisdisplayed.Thep optiondisplaysoutputinaformthatmaybereusedasinput.Ifavariablenameisfollowed by=value,thevalueofthevariableissettovalue. Thereturnstatusiszerounlessaninvalidoptionissupplied,oneofthenamesisnotavalidshellvariablename,orf issuppliedwithaname thatisnotashellfunction.
g e t o p t s g e t o p t so p t s t r i n gn a m e[ a r g s ] g e t o p t s isusedbyshellscriptstoparsepositionalparameters.optstringcontainstheoptioncharacterstoberecognizedifacharacterisfollowed byacolon,theoptionisexpectedtohaveanargument,whichshouldbeseparatedfromitbywhitespace.Thecolon(: )andquestionmark (? )maynotbeusedasoptioncharacters.Eachtimeitisinvoked,g e t o p t s placesthenextoptionintheshellvariablename,initializingnameif itdoesnotexist,andtheindexofthenextargumenttobeprocessedintothevariableO P T I N D .O P T I N D isinitializedto1eachtimetheshellora shellscriptisinvoked.Whenanoptionrequiresanargument,g e t o p t s placesthatargumentintothevariableO P T A R G .Theshelldoesnotreset O P T I N D automaticallyitmustbemanuallyresetbetweenmultiplecallstog e t o p t s withinthesameshellinvocationifanewsetofparametersis

tobeused. Whentheendofoptionsisencountered,g e t o p t s exitswithareturnvaluegreaterthanzero.O P T I N D issettotheindexofthefirstnonoption argument,andnameissetto? .

g e t o p t s normallyparsesthepositionalparameters,butifmoreargumentsaregiveninargs,g e t o p t s parsesthoseinstead. g e t o p t s canreporterrorsintwoways.Ifthefirstcharacterofoptstringisacolon,silenterrorreportingisused.Innormaloperationdiagnostic messagesareprintedwheninvalidoptionsormissingoptionargumentsareencountered.IfthevariableO P T E R R issetto0,noerrormessageswill bedisplayed,evenifthefirstcharacterofo p t s t r i n g isnotacolon.

Ifaninvalidoptionisseen,g e t o p t s places? intonameand,ifnotsilent,printsanerrormessageandunsetsO P T A R G .Ifg e t o p t s issilent,the optioncharacterfoundisplacedinO P T A R G andnodiagnosticmessageisprinted. Ifarequiredargumentisnotfound,andg e t o p t s isnotsilent,aquestionmark(? )isplacedinname,O P T A R G isunset,andadiagnosticmessage isprinted.Ifg e t o p t s issilent,thenacolon(: )isplacedinnameandO P T A R G issettotheoptioncharacterfound.
h a s h h a s h[ r ][ pf i l e n a m e ][ d t ][ n a m e ]

Eachtimeh a s h isinvoked,itremembersthefullpathnamesofthecommandsspecifiedasnamearguments,sotheyneednotbesearchedforon subsequentinvocations.Thecommandsarefoundbysearchingthroughthedirectorieslistedin$ P A T H .Anypreviouslyrememberedpathnameis discarded.Thep optioninhibitsthepathsearch,andfilenameisusedasthelocationofname.Ther optioncausestheshelltoforgetall rememberedlocations.Thed optioncausestheshelltoforgettherememberedlocationofeachname.Ifthet optionissupplied,thefull pathnametowhicheachnamecorrespondsisprinted.Ifmultiplenameargumentsaresuppliedwitht thenameisprintedbeforethehashedfull pathname.Thel optioncausesoutputtobedisplayedinaformatthatmaybereusedasinput.Ifnoargumentsaregiven,orifonlyl is supplied,informationaboutrememberedcommandsisprinted.Thereturnstatusiszerounlessanameisnotfoundoraninvalidoptionis supplied.
p w d p w d[ L P ]

Printtheabsolutepathnameofthecurrentworkingdirectory.IftheP optionissupplied,thepathnameprintedwillnotcontainsymboliclinks.If theL optionissupplied,thepathnameprintedmaycontainsymboliclinks.Thereturnstatusiszerounlessanerrorisencounteredwhile determiningthenameofthecurrentdirectoryoraninvalidoptionissupplied.

r e a d o n l y

r e a d o n l y[ a A f ][ p ][ n a m e [ = v a l u e ] ]

Markeachnameasreadonly.Thevaluesofthesenamesmaynotbechangedbysubsequentassignment.Ifthef optionissupplied,eachname referstoashellfunction.Thea optionmeanseachnamereferstoanindexedarrayvariabletheA optionmeanseachnamereferstoan associativearrayvariable.Ifbothoptionsaresupplied,A takesprecedence.Ifnonameargumentsaregiven,orifthep optionissupplied,alist ofallreadonlynamesisprinted.Theotheroptionsmaybeusedtorestricttheoutputtoasubsetofthesetofreadonlynames.Thep option causesoutputtobedisplayedinaformatthatmaybereusedasinput.Ifavariablenameisfollowedby=value,thevalueofthevariableissetto value.Thereturnstatusiszerounlessaninvalidoptionissupplied,oneofthenameargumentsisnotavalidshellvariableorfunctionname,or thef optionissuppliedwithanamethatisnotashellfunction.
r e t u r n r e t u r n[ n ]

Causeashellfunctiontoexitwiththereturnvaluen.Ifnisnotsupplied,thereturnvalueistheexitstatusofthelastcommandexecutedinthe function.Thismayalsobeusedtoterminateexecutionofascriptbeingexecutedwiththe. (ors o u r c e )builtin,returningeithernortheexit statusofthelastcommandexecutedwithinthescriptastheexitstatusofthescript.AnycommandassociatedwiththeR E T U R N trapisexecuted beforeexecutionresumesafterthefunctionorscript.Thereturnstatusisnonzeroifr e t u r n isusedoutsideafunctionandnotduringthe executionofascriptby. ors o u r c e .
s h i f t s h i f t[ n ]

Shiftthepositionalparameterstotheleftbyn.Thepositionalparametersfromn+1$ # arerenamedto$ 1 $ # n.Parametersrepresentedby thenumbers$ # to$ # n+1areunset.nmustbeanonnegativenumberlessthanorequalto$ # .Ifniszeroorgreaterthan$ # ,thepositional parametersarenotchanged.Ifnisnotsupplied,itisassumedtobe1.Thereturnstatusiszerounlessnisgreaterthan$ # orlessthanzero,non zerootherwise.
t e s t [

Evaluateaconditionalexpressionexpr.Eachoperatorandoperandmustbeaseparateargument.Expressionsarecomposedoftheprimaries describedbelowinBashConditionalExpressions.t e s t doesnotacceptanyoptions,nordoesitacceptandignoreanargumentofas signifyingtheendofoptions. Whenthe[ formisused,thelastargumenttothecommandmustbea] . Expressionsmaybecombinedusingthefollowingoperators,listedindecreasingorderofprecedence.Theevaluationdependsonthenumberof argumentsseebelow.Operatorprecedenceisusedwhentherearefiveormorearguments.

!e x p r

Trueifexprisfalse.
(e x p r)

Returnsthevalueofexpr.Thismaybeusedtooverridethenormalprecedenceofoperators.
e x p r 1ae x p r 2

Trueifbothexpr1andexpr2aretrue.
e x p r 1oe x p r 2

Trueifeitherexpr1orexpr2istrue. Thet e s t and[ builtinsevaluateconditionalexpressionsusingasetofrulesbasedonthenumberofarguments. 0arguments Theexpressionisfalse. 1argument Theexpressionistrueifandonlyiftheargumentisnotnull. 2arguments Ifthefirstargumentis! ,theexpressionistrueifandonlyifthesecondargumentisnull.Ifthefirstargumentisoneoftheunary conditionaloperators(seeBashConditionalExpressions),theexpressionistrueiftheunarytestistrue.Ifthefirstargumentisnotavalid unaryoperator,theexpressionisfalse. 3arguments Thefollowingconditionsareappliedintheorderlisted.Ifthesecondargumentisoneofthebinaryconditionaloperators(seeBash ConditionalExpressions),theresultoftheexpressionistheresultofthebinarytestusingthefirstandthirdargumentsasoperands.Thea ando operatorsareconsideredbinaryoperatorswhentherearethreearguments.Ifthefirstargumentis! ,thevalueisthenegation ofthetwoargumenttestusingthesecondandthirdarguments.Ifthefirstargumentisexactly( andthethirdargumentisexactly) ,the resultistheoneargumenttestofthesecondargument.Otherwise,theexpressionisfalse.

4arguments Ifthefirstargumentis! ,theresultisthenegationofthethreeargumentexpressioncomposedoftheremainingarguments.Otherwise,the expressionisparsedandevaluatedaccordingtoprecedenceusingtheruleslistedabove. 5ormorearguments Theexpressionisparsedandevaluatedaccordingtoprecedenceusingtheruleslistedabove. Whenusedwitht e s t or[ ,the< and> operatorssortlexicographicallyusingASCIIordering.
t i m e s t i m e s

Printouttheuserandsystemtimesusedbytheshellanditschildren.Thereturnstatusiszero.
t r a p t r a p[ l p ][ a r g ][ s i g s p e c ]

Thecommandsinargaretobereadandexecutedwhentheshellreceivessignalsigspec.Ifargisabsent(andthereisasinglesigspec)orequal to,eachspecifiedsignalsdispositionisresettothevalueithadwhentheshellwasstarted.Ifargisthenullstring,thenthesignalspecifiedby eachsigspecisignoredbytheshellandcommandsitinvokes.Ifargisnotpresentandp hasbeensupplied,theshelldisplaysthetrap commandsassociatedwitheachsigspec.Ifnoargumentsaresupplied,oronlyp isgiven,t r a p printsthelistofcommandsassociatedwitheach signalnumberinaformthatmaybereusedasshellinput.Thel optioncausestheshelltoprintalistofsignalnamesandtheircorresponding numbers.Eachsigspeciseitherasignalnameorasignalnumber.SignalnamesarecaseinsensitiveandtheS I G prefixisoptional. Ifasigspecis0 orE X I T ,argisexecutedwhentheshellexits.IfasigspecisD E B U G ,thecommandargisexecutedbeforeeverysimplecommand, f o r command,c a s e command,s e l e c t command,everyarithmeticf o r command,andbeforethefirstcommandexecutesinashellfunction. Refertothedescriptionofthee x t d e b u g optiontothes h o p t builtin(seeTheShoptBuiltin)fordetailsofitseffectontheD E B U G trap.Ifasigspec isR E T U R N ,thecommandargisexecutedeachtimeashellfunctionorascriptexecutedwiththe. ors o u r c e builtinsfinishesexecuting. IfasigspecisE R R ,thecommandargisexecutedwheneverasimplecommandhasanonzeroexitstatus,subjecttothefollowingconditions.The E R R trapisnotexecutedifthefailedcommandispartofthecommandlistimmediatelyfollowinganu n t i l orw h i l e keyword,partofthetest followingthei f ore l i f reservedwords,partofacommandexecutedina& & or| | list,orifthecommandsreturnstatusisbeinginvertedusing ! .Thesearethesameconditionsobeyedbythee r r e x i t option. Signalsignoreduponentrytotheshellcannotbetrappedorreset.Trappedsignalsthatarenotbeingignoredareresettotheiroriginalvaluesina subshellorsubshellenvironmentwhenoneiscreated. Thereturnstatusiszerounlessasigspecdoesnotspecifyavalidsignal.
u m a s k u m a s k[ p ][ S ][ m o d e ]

Settheshellprocesssfilecreationmasktomode.Ifmodebeginswithadigit,itisinterpretedasanoctalnumberifnot,itisinterpretedasa symbolicmodemasksimilartothatacceptedbythec h m o d command.Ifmodeisomitted,thecurrentvalueofthemaskisprinted.IftheS option issuppliedwithoutamodeargument,themaskisprintedinasymbolicformat.Ifthep optionissupplied,andmodeisomitted,theoutputisina formthatmaybereusedasinput.Thereturnstatusiszeroifthemodeissuccessfullychangedorifnomodeargumentissupplied,andnonzero otherwise. Notethatwhenthemodeisinterpretedasanoctalnumber,eachnumberoftheumaskissubtractedfrom7 .Thus,aumaskof0 2 2 resultsin permissionsof7 5 5 .
u n s e t u n s e t[ f v ][ n a m e ]

Eachvariableorfunctionnameisremoved.Ifnooptionsaresupplied,orthev optionisgiven,eachnamereferstoashellvariable.Ifthef optionisgiven,thenamesrefertoshellfunctions,andthefunctiondefinitionisremoved.Readonlyvariablesandfunctionsmaynotbeunset. Thereturnstatusiszerounlessanameisreadonly. Next:ModifyingShellBehavior,Previous:BourneShellBuiltins,Up:ShellBuiltinCommands[Contents][Index]

4.2BashBuiltinCommands
ThissectiondescribesbuiltincommandswhichareuniquetoorhavebeenextendedinBash.SomeofthesecommandsarespecifiedinthePOSIX standard.
a l i a s a l i a s[ p ][ n a m e [ = v a l u e ] ]

Withoutargumentsorwiththep option,a l i a s printsthelistofaliasesonthestandardoutputinaformthatallowsthemtobereusedasinput.If argumentsaresupplied,analiasisdefinedforeachnamewhosevalueisgiven.Ifnovalueisgiven,thenameandvalueofthealiasisprinted. AliasesaredescribedinAliases.

b i n d b i n d[ mk e y m a p ][ l p s v P S V ] b i n d[ mk e y m a p ][ qf u n c t i o n ][ uf u n c t i o n ][ rk e y s e q ] b i n d[ mk e y m a p ]ff i l e n a m e b i n d[ mk e y m a p ]xk e y s e q : s h e l l c o m m a n d b i n d[ mk e y m a p ]k e y s e q : f u n c t i o n n a m e b i n dr e a d l i n e c o m m a n d

DisplaycurrentReadline(seeCommandLineEditing)keyandfunctionbindings,bindakeysequencetoaReadlinefunctionormacro,orseta Readlinevariable.EachnonoptionargumentisacommandasitwouldappearinaReadlineinitializationfile(seeReadlineInitFile),buteach bindingorcommandmustbepassedasaseparateargumente.g.," \ C x \ C r " : r e r e a d i n i t f i l e . Options,ifsupplied,havethefollowingmeanings:

mk e y m a p

Usekeymapasthekeymaptobeaffectedbythesubsequentbindings.Acceptablekeymapnamesaree m a c s ,e m a c s s t a n d a r d ,e m a c s m e t a ,e m a c s c t l x ,v i ,v i m o v e ,v i c o m m a n d ,andv i i n s e r t .v i isequivalenttov i c o m m a n d e m a c s isequivalenttoe m a c s s t a n d a r d .

l

ListthenamesofallReadlinefunctions.
p

DisplayReadlinefunctionnamesandbindingsinsuchawaythattheycanbeusedasinputorinaReadlineinitializationfile.
P

ListcurrentReadlinefunctionnamesandbindings.
v

DisplayReadlinevariablenamesandvaluesinsuchawaythattheycanbeusedasinputorinaReadlineinitializationfile.
V

ListcurrentReadlinevariablenamesandvalues.
s

DisplayReadlinekeysequencesboundtomacrosandthestringstheyoutputinsuchawaythattheycanbeusedasinputorinaReadline initializationfile.
S

DisplayReadlinekeysequencesboundtomacrosandthestringstheyoutput.
ff i l e n a m e

Readkeybindingsfromfilename.
qf u n c t i o n

Queryaboutwhichkeysinvokethenamedfunction.
uf u n c t i o n

Unbindallkeysboundtothenamedfunction.
rk e y s e q

Removeanycurrentbindingforkeyseq.
xk e y s e q : s h e l l c o m m a n d

Causeshellcommandtobeexecutedwheneverkeyseqisentered.Whenshellcommandisexecuted,theshellsetstheR E A D L I N E _ L I N E variabletothecontentsoftheReadlinelinebufferandtheR E A D L I N E _ P O I N T variabletothecurrentlocationoftheinsertionpoint.Ifthe executedcommandchangesthevalueofR E A D L I N E _ L I N E orR E A D L I N E _ P O I N T ,thosenewvalueswillbereflectedintheeditingstate. Thereturnstatusiszerounlessaninvalidoptionissuppliedoranerroroccurs.

b u i l t i n b u i l t i n[ s h e l l b u i l t i n[ a r g s ] ]

Runashellbuiltin,passingitargs,andreturnitsexitstatus.Thisisusefulwhendefiningashellfunctionwiththesamenameasashellbuiltin, retainingthefunctionalityofthebuiltinwithinthefunction.Thereturnstatusisnonzeroifshellbuiltinisnotashellbuiltincommand.
c a l l e r c a l l e r[ e x p r ]

Returnsthecontextofanyactivesubroutinecall(ashellfunctionorascriptexecutedwiththe. ors o u r c e builtins). Withoutexpr,c a l l e r displaysthelinenumberandsourcefilenameofthecurrentsubroutinecall.Ifanonnegativeintegerissuppliedasexpr, c a l l e r displaysthelinenumber,subroutinename,andsourcefilecorrespondingtothatpositioninthecurrentexecutioncallstack.Thisextra informationmaybeused,forexample,toprintastacktrace.Thecurrentframeisframe0. Thereturnvalueis0unlesstheshellisnotexecutingasubroutinecallorexprdoesnotcorrespondtoavalidpositioninthecallstack.

c o m m a n d c o m m a n d[ p V v ]c o m m a n d[ a r g u m e n t s ]

Runscommandwithargumentsignoringanyshellfunctionnamedcommand.Onlyshellbuiltincommandsorcommandsfoundbysearchingthe P A T H areexecuted.Ifthereisashellfunctionnamedl s ,runningc o m m a n dl s withinthefunctionwillexecutetheexternalcommandl s instead ofcallingthefunctionrecursively.Thep optionmeanstouseadefaultvalueforP A T H thatisguaranteedtofindallofthestandardutilities.The returnstatusinthiscaseis127ifcommandcannotbefoundoranerroroccurred,andtheexitstatusofcommandotherwise. IfeithertheV orv optionissupplied,adescriptionofcommandisprinted.Thev optioncausesasinglewordindicatingthecommandorfile nameusedtoinvokecommandtobedisplayedtheV optionproducesamoreverbosedescription.Inthiscase,thereturnstatusiszeroif commandisfound,andnonzeroifnot.
d e c l a r e d e c l a r e[ a A f F i l r t u x ][ p ][ n a m e [ = v a l u e ] ]

Declarevariablesandgivethemattributes.Ifnonamesaregiven,thendisplaythevaluesofvariablesinstead. Thep optionwilldisplaytheattributesandvaluesofeachname.Whenp isusedwithnamearguments,additionaloptionsareignored. Whenp issuppliedwithoutnamearguments,d e c l a r e willdisplaytheattributesandvaluesofallvariableshavingtheattributesspecifiedbythe additionaloptions.Ifnootheroptionsaresuppliedwithp ,d e c l a r e willdisplaytheattributesandvaluesofallshellvariables.Thef option willrestrictthedisplaytoshellfunctions. TheF optioninhibitsthedisplayoffunctiondefinitionsonlythefunctionnameandattributesareprinted.Ifthee x t d e b u g shelloptionis enabledusings h o p t (seeTheShoptBuiltin),thesourcefilenameandlinenumberwherethefunctionisdefinedaredisplayedaswell.F impliesf . Theg optionforcesvariablestobecreatedormodifiedattheglobalscope,evenwhend e c l a r e isexecutedinashellfunction.Itisignoredin allothercases. Thefollowingoptionscanbeusedtorestrictoutputtovariableswiththespecifiedattributesortogivevariablesattributes:
a

Eachnameisanindexedarrayvariable(seeArrays).
A

Eachnameisanassociativearrayvariable(seeArrays).
f

Usefunctionnamesonly.
i

Thevariableistobetreatedasanintegerarithmeticevaluation(seeShellArithmetic)isperformedwhenthevariableisassignedavalue.
l

Whenthevariableisassignedavalue,alluppercasecharactersareconvertedtolowercase.Theuppercaseattributeisdisabled.
r

Makenamesreadonly.Thesenamescannotthenbeassignedvaluesbysubsequentassignmentstatementsorunset.
t

Giveeachnamethet r a c e attribute.TracedfunctionsinherittheD E B U G andR E T U R N trapsfromthecallingshell.Thetraceattributehasno specialmeaningforvariables.

u

Whenthevariableisassignedavalue,alllowercasecharactersareconvertedtouppercase.Thelowercaseattributeisdisabled.
x

Markeachnameforexporttosubsequentcommandsviatheenvironment. Using+ insteadofturnsofftheattributeinstead,withtheexceptionsthat+ a maynotbeusedtodestroyanarrayvariableand+ r willnot removethereadonlyattribute.Whenusedinafunction,d e c l a r e makeseachnamelocal,aswiththel o c a l command,unlesstheg optionis

used.Ifavariablenameisfollowedby=value,thevalueofthevariableissettovalue. Thereturnstatusiszerounlessaninvalidoptionisencountered,anattemptismadetodefineafunctionusingff o o = b a r ,anattemptismade toassignavaluetoareadonlyvariable,anattemptismadetoassignavaluetoanarrayvariablewithoutusingthecompoundassignmentsyntax (seeArrays),oneofthenamesisnotavalidshellvariablename,anattemptismadetoturnoffreadonlystatusforareadonlyvariable,anattempt ismadetoturnoffarraystatusforanarrayvariable,oranattemptismadetodisplayanonexistentfunctionwithf .

e c h o e c h o[ n e E ][ a r g ]

Outputtheargs,separatedbyspaces,terminatedwithanewline.Thereturnstatusisalways0.Ifn isspecified,thetrailingnewlineis suppressed.Ifthee optionisgiven,interpretationofthefollowingbackslashescapedcharactersisenabled.TheE optiondisablesthe interpretationoftheseescapecharacters,evenonsystemswheretheyareinterpretedbydefault.Thex p g _ e c h o shelloptionmaybeusedto dynamicallydeterminewhetherornote c h o expandstheseescapecharactersbydefault.e c h o doesnotinterprettomeantheendofoptions.
e c h o interpretsthefollowingescapesequences: \ a

alert(bell)
\ b

backspace
\ c

suppressfurtheroutput
\ e \ E

escape
\ f

formfeed
\ n

newline
\ r

carriagereturn
\ t

horizontaltab
\ v

verticaltab
\ \

backslash
\ 0 n n n

theeightbitcharacterwhosevalueistheoctalvaluennn(zerotothreeoctaldigits)
\ x H H

theeightbitcharacterwhosevalueisthehexadecimalvalueHH(oneortwohexdigits)
\ u H H H H

theUnicode(ISO/IEC10646)characterwhosevalueisthehexadecimalvalueHHHH(onetofourhexdigits)
\ U H H H H H H H H

theUnicode(ISO/IEC10646)characterwhosevalueisthehexadecimalvalueHHHHHHHH(onetoeighthexdigits)
e n a b l e e n a b l e[ a ][ d n p s ][ ff i l e n a m e ][ n a m e ]

Enableanddisablebuiltinshellcommands.Disablingabuiltinallowsadiskcommandwhichhasthesamenameasashellbuiltintobeexecuted withoutspecifyingafullpathname,eventhoughtheshellnormallysearchesforbuiltinsbeforediskcommands.Ifn isused,thenamesbecome disabled.Otherwisenamesareenabled.Forexample,tousethet e s t binaryfoundvia$ P A T H insteadoftheshellbuiltinversion,typee n a b l ent e s t .

Ifthep optionissupplied,ornonameargumentsappear,alistofshellbuiltinsisprinted.Withnootherarguments,thelistconsistsofall enabledshellbuiltins.Thea optionmeanstolisteachbuiltinwithanindicationofwhetherornotitisenabled. Thef optionmeanstoloadthenewbuiltincommandnamefromsharedobjectfilename,onsystemsthatsupportdynamicloading.Thed optionwilldeleteabuiltinloadedwithf . Iftherearenooptions,alistoftheshellbuiltinsisdisplayed.Thes optionrestrictse n a b l e tothePOSIXspecialbuiltins.Ifs isusedwithf , thenewbuiltinbecomesaspecialbuiltin(seeSpecialBuiltins). Thereturnstatusiszerounlessanameisnotashellbuiltinorthereisanerrorloadinganewbuiltinfromasharedobject.
h e l p h e l p[ d m s ][ p a t t e r n ]

Displayhelpfulinformationaboutbuiltincommands.Ifpatternisspecified,h e l p givesdetailedhelponallcommandsmatchingpattern, otherwisealistofthebuiltinsisprinted. Options,ifsupplied,havethefollowingmeanings:

d

Displayashortdescriptionofeachpattern
m

Displaythedescriptionofeachpatterninamanpagelikeformat
s

Displayonlyashortusagesynopsisforeachpattern Thereturnstatusiszerounlessnocommandmatchespattern.
l e t l e te x p r e s s i o n[ e x p r e s s i o n ]

Thel e t builtinallowsarithmetictobeperformedonshellvariables.EachexpressionisevaluatedaccordingtotherulesgivenbelowinShell Arithmetic.Ifthelastexpressionevaluatesto0,l e t returns1otherwise0isreturned.

l o c a l l o c a l[ o p t i o n ]n a m e [ = v a l u e ]

Foreachargument,alocalvariablenamednameiscreated,andassignedvalue.Theoptioncanbeanyoftheoptionsacceptedbyd e c l a r e . l o c a l canonlybeusedwithinafunctionitmakesthevariablenamehaveavisiblescoperestrictedtothatfunctionanditschildren.Thereturn statusiszerounlessl o c a l isusedoutsideafunction,aninvalidnameissupplied,ornameisareadonlyvariable.

l o g o u t l o g o u t[ n ]

Exitaloginshell,returningastatusofntotheshellsparent.
m a p f i l e m a p f i l e[ nc o u n t ][ Oo r i g i n ][ sc o u n t ][ t ][ uf d ][ Cc a l l b a c k ][ cq u a n t u m ][ a r r a y ]

Readlinesfromthestandardinputintotheindexedarrayvariablearray,orfromfiledescriptorfdiftheu optionissupplied.Thevariable M A P F I L E isthedefaultarray.Options,ifsupplied,havethefollowingmeanings:

n

Copyatmostcountlines.Ifcountis0,alllinesarecopied.
O

Beginassigningtoarrayatindexorigin.Thedefaultindexis0.
s

Discardthefirstcountlinesread.
t

Removeatrailingnewlinefromeachlineread.
u

Readlinesfromfiledescriptorfdinsteadofthestandardinput.
C

EvaluatecallbackeachtimequantumPlinesareread.Thec optionspecifiesquantum.
c

Specifythenumberoflinesreadbetweeneachcalltocallback. IfC isspecifiedwithoutc ,thedefaultquantumis5000.Whencallbackisevaluated,itissuppliedtheindexofthenextarrayelementtobe assignedandthelinetobeassignedtothatelementasadditionalarguments.callbackisevaluatedafterthelineisreadbutbeforethearray elementisassigned. Ifnotsuppliedwithanexplicitorigin,m a p f i l e willcleararraybeforeassigningtoit.

m a p f i l e returnssuccessfullyunlessaninvalidoptionoroptionargumentissupplied,arrayisinvalidorunassignable,orarrayisnotanindexed

array.
p r i n t f p r i n t f[ vv a r ]f o r m a t[ a r g u m e n t s ]

Writetheformattedargumentstothestandardoutputunderthecontroloftheformat.Thev optioncausestheoutputtobeassignedtothe variablevarratherthanbeingprintedtothestandardoutput. Theformatisacharacterstringwhichcontainsthreetypesofobjects:plaincharacters,whicharesimplycopiedtostandardoutput,character escapesequences,whichareconvertedandcopiedtothestandardoutput,andformatspecifications,eachofwhichcausesprintingofthenext successiveargument.Inadditiontothestandardp r i n t f ( 1 ) formats,p r i n t f interpretsthefollowingextensions:

% b

causesp r i n t f toexpandbackslashescapesequencesinthecorrespondingargument,(exceptthat\ c terminatesoutput,backslashesin \ ' ,\ " ,and\ ? arenotremoved,andoctalescapesbeginningwith\ 0 maycontainuptofourdigits).

% q

causesp r i n t f tooutputthecorrespondingargumentinaformatthatcanbereusedasshellinput.
% ( d a t e f m t ) T

causesp r i n t f tooutputthedatetimestringresultingfromusingdatefmtasaformatstringfors t r f t i m e (3).Thecorrespondingargument isanintegerrepresentingthenumberofsecondssincetheepoch.Twospecialargumentvaluesmaybeused:1representsthecurrenttime, and2representsthetimetheshellwasinvoked. ArgumentstononstringformatspecifiersaretreatedasClanguageconstants,exceptthataleadingplusorminussignisallowed,andifthe leadingcharacterisasingleordoublequote,thevalueistheASCIIvalueofthefollowingcharacter. Theformatisreusedasnecessarytoconsumeallofthearguments.Iftheformatrequiresmoreargumentsthanaresupplied,theextraformat specificationsbehaveasifazerovalueornullstring,asappropriate,hadbeensupplied.Thereturnvalueiszeroonsuccess,nonzeroonfailure.

r e a d r e a d[ e r s ][ aa n a m e ][ dd e l i m ][ it e x t ][ nn c h a r s ][ Nn c h a r s ][ pp r o m p t ][ tt i m e o u t ][ uf d ][ n a m e ]

Onelineisreadfromthestandardinput,orfromthefiledescriptorfdsuppliedasanargumenttotheu option,andthefirstwordisassignedto thefirstname,thesecondwordtothesecondname,andsoon,withleftoverwordsandtheirinterveningseparatorsassignedtothelastname.If therearefewerwordsreadfromtheinputstreamthannames,theremainingnamesareassignedemptyvalues.Thecharactersinthevalueofthe I F S variableareusedtosplitthelineintowords.Thebackslashcharacter\ maybeusedtoremoveanyspecialmeaningforthenextcharacter readandforlinecontinuation.Ifnonamesaresupplied,thelinereadisassignedtothevariableR E P L Y .Thereturncodeiszero,unlessendoffile isencountered,r e a d timesout(inwhichcasethereturncodeisgreaterthan128),oraninvalidfiledescriptorissuppliedastheargumenttou . Options,ifsupplied,havethefollowingmeanings:
aa n a m e

Thewordsareassignedtosequentialindicesofthearrayvariableaname,startingat0.Allelementsareremovedfromanamebeforethe assignment.Othernameargumentsareignored.
dd e l i m

Thefirstcharacterofdelimisusedtoterminatetheinputline,ratherthannewline.
e

Readline(seeCommandLineEditing)isusedtoobtaintheline.Readlineusesthecurrent(ordefault,iflineeditingwasnotpreviously active)editingsettings.
it e x t

IfReadlineisbeingusedtoreadtheline,textisplacedintotheeditingbufferbeforeeditingbegins.
nn c h a r s r e a d returnsafterreadingncharscharactersratherthanwaitingforacompletelineofinput,buthonoradelimiteriffewerthannchars

charactersarereadbeforethedelimiter.
Nn c h a r s r e a d returnsafterreadingexactlyncharscharactersratherthanwaitingforacompletelineofinput,unlessEOFisencounteredorr e a d timesout.Delimitercharactersencounteredintheinputarenottreatedspeciallyanddonotcauser e a d toreturnuntilncharscharactersare

read.
pp r o m p t

Displayprompt,withoutatrailingnewline,beforeattemptingtoreadanyinput.Thepromptisdisplayedonlyifinputiscomingfroma terminal.
r

Ifthisoptionisgiven,backslashdoesnotactasanescapecharacter.Thebackslashisconsideredtobepartoftheline.Inparticular,a backslashnewlinepairmaynotbeusedasalinecontinuation.
s

Silentmode.Ifinputiscomingfromaterminal,charactersarenotechoed.
tt i m e o u t

Causer e a d totimeoutandreturnfailureifacompletelineofinputisnotreadwithintimeoutseconds.timeoutmaybeadecimalnumber withafractionalportionfollowingthedecimalpoint.Thisoptionisonlyeffectiveifr e a d isreadinginputfromaterminal,pipe,orother specialfileithasnoeffectwhenreadingfromregularfiles.Iftimeoutis0,r e a d returnssuccessifinputisavailableonthespecifiedfile descriptor,failureotherwise.Theexitstatusisgreaterthan128ifthetimeoutisexceeded.

uf d

Readinputfromfiledescriptorfd.
r e a d a r r a y r e a d a r r a y[ nc o u n t ][ Oo r i g i n ][ sc o u n t ][ t ][ uf d ][ Cc a l l b a c k ][ cq u a n t u m ][ a r r a y ]

Readlinesfromthestandardinputintotheindexedarrayvariablearray,orfromfiledescriptorfdiftheu optionissupplied. Asynonymform a p f i l e .

s o u r c e s o u r c ef i l e n a m e

Asynonymfor. (seeBourneShellBuiltins).
t y p e t y p e[ a f p t P ][ n a m e ]

Foreachname,indicatehowitwouldbeinterpretedifusedasacommandname. Ifthet optionisused,t y p e printsasinglewordwhichisoneofa l i a s ,f u n c t i o n ,b u i l t i n ,f i l e ork e y w o r d ,ifnameisanalias, shellfunction,shellbuiltin,diskfile,orshellreservedword,respectively.Ifthenameisnotfound,thennothingisprinted,andt y p e returnsa failurestatus. Ifthep optionisused,t y p e eitherreturnsthenameofthediskfilethatwouldbeexecuted,ornothingift wouldnotreturnf i l e . TheP optionforcesapathsearchforeachname,evenift wouldnotreturnf i l e . Ifacommandishashed,p andP printthehashedvalue,notnecessarilythefilethatappearsfirstin$ P A T H . Ifthea optionisused,t y p e returnsalloftheplacesthatcontainanexecutablenamedfile.Thisincludesaliasesandfunctions,ifandonlyifthe p optionisnotalsoused. Ifthef optionisused,t y p e doesnotattempttofindshellfunctions,aswiththec o m m a n d builtin. Thereturnstatusiszeroifallofthenamesarefound,nonzeroifanyarenotfound.
t y p e s e t t y p e s e t[ a f F r x i ][ p ][ n a m e [ = v a l u e ] ]

Thet y p e s e t commandissuppliedforcompatibilitywiththeKornshellhowever,ithasbeendeprecatedinfavorofthed e c l a r e builtin command.

u l i m i t u l i m i t[ a b c d e f i l m n p q r s t u v x H S T ][ l i m i t ] u l i m i t providescontrolovertheresourcesavailabletoprocessesstartedbytheshell,onsystemsthatallowsuchcontrol.Ifanoptionisgiven,it

isinterpretedasfollows:
S

Changeandreportthesoftlimitassociatedwitharesource.
H

Changeandreportthehardlimitassociatedwitharesource.
a

Allcurrentlimitsarereported.
b

Themaximumsocketbuffersize.
c

Themaximumsizeofcorefilescreated.
d

Themaximumsizeofaprocesssdatasegment.
e

Themaximumschedulingpriority("nice").
f

Themaximumsizeoffileswrittenbytheshellanditschildren.
i

Themaximumnumberofpendingsignals.
l

Themaximumsizethatmaybelockedintomemory.
m

Themaximumresidentsetsize(manysystemsdonothonorthislimit).
n

Themaximumnumberofopenfiledescriptors(mostsystemsdonotallowthisvaluetobeset).
p

Thepipebuffersize.
q

ThemaximumnumberofbytesinPOSIXmessagequeues.
r

Themaximumrealtimeschedulingpriority.
s

Themaximumstacksize.
t

Themaximumamountofcputimeinseconds.
u

Themaximumnumberofprocessesavailabletoasingleuser.
v

Themaximumamountofvirtualmemoryavailabletotheshell,and,onsomesystems,toitschildren.
x

Themaximumnumberoffilelocks.
T

Themaximumnumberofthreads. Iflimitisgiven,itisthenewvalueofthespecifiedresourcethespeciallimitvaluesh a r d ,s o f t ,andu n l i m i t e d standforthecurrenthardlimit, thecurrentsoftlimit,andnolimit,respectively.Ahardlimitcannotbeincreasedbyanonrootuseronceitissetasoftlimitmaybeincreasedup tothevalueofthehardlimit.Otherwise,thecurrentvalueofthesoftlimitforthespecifiedresourceisprinted,unlesstheH optionissupplied. Whensettingnewlimits,ifneitherH norS issupplied,boththehardandsoftlimitsareset.Ifnooptionisgiven,thenf isassumed.Values arein1024byteincrements,exceptfort ,whichisinseconds,p ,whichisinunitsof512byteblocks,andn andu ,whichareunscaled values. Thereturnstatusiszerounlessaninvalidoptionorargumentissupplied,oranerroroccurswhilesettinganewlimit.
u n a l i a s u n a l i a s[ a ][ n a m e]

Removeeachnamefromthelistofaliases.Ifa issupplied,allaliasesareremoved.AliasesaredescribedinAliases. Next:SpecialBuiltins,Previous:BashBuiltins,Up:ShellBuiltinCommands[Contents][Index]

4.3ModifyingShellBehavior
TheSetBuiltin: Changethevaluesofshellattributesandpositionalparameters. TheShoptBuiltin: Modifyshelloptionalbehavior. Next:TheShoptBuiltin,Up:ModifyingShellBehavior[Contents][Index] 4.3.1TheSetBuiltin Thisbuiltinissocomplicatedthatitdeservesitsownsection.s e t allowsyoutochangethevaluesofshelloptionsandsetthepositionalparameters,or todisplaythenamesandvaluesofshellvariables.
s e t s e t[ a b e f h k m n p t u v x B C E H P T ][ oo p t i o n n a m e ][ a r g u m e n t ] s e t[ + a b e f h k m n p t u v x B C E H P T ][ + oo p t i o n n a m e ][ a r g u m e n t ]

Ifnooptionsorargumentsaresupplied,s e t displaysthenamesandvaluesofallshellvariablesandfunctions,sortedaccordingtothecurrent locale,inaformatthatmaybereusedasinputforsettingorresettingthecurrentlysetvariables.Readonlyvariablescannotbereset.InPOSIX mode,onlyshellvariablesarelisted. Whenoptionsaresupplied,theysetorunsetshellattributes.Options,ifspecified,havethefollowingmeanings:

a

Markvariablesandfunctionwhicharemodifiedorcreatedforexporttotheenvironmentofsubsequentcommands.
b

Causethestatusofterminatedbackgroundjobstobereportedimmediately,ratherthanbeforeprintingthenextprimaryprompt.
e

Exitimmediatelyifapipeline(seePipelines),whichmayconsistofasinglesimplecommand(seeSimpleCommands),asubshell commandenclosedinparentheses(seeCommandGrouping),oroneofthecommandsexecutedaspartofacommandlistenclosedby braces(seeCommandGrouping)returnsanonzerostatus.Theshelldoesnotexitifthecommandthatfailsispartofthecommandlist immediatelyfollowingaw h i l e oru n t i l keyword,partofthetestinani f statement,partofanycommandexecutedina& & or| | list exceptthecommandfollowingthefinal& & or| | ,anycommandinapipelinebutthelast,orifthecommandsreturnstatusisbeing invertedwith! .AtraponE R R ,ifset,isexecutedbeforetheshellexits. Thisoptionappliestotheshellenvironmentandeachsubshellenvironmentseparately(seeCommandExecutionEnvironment),andmay causesubshellstoexitbeforeexecutingallthecommandsinthesubshell.
f

Disablefilenameexpansion(globbing).
h

Locateandremember(hash)commandsastheyarelookedupforexecution.Thisoptionisenabledbydefault.
k

Allargumentsintheformofassignmentstatementsareplacedintheenvironmentforacommand,notjustthosethatprecedethecommand name.
m

Jobcontrolisenabled(seeJobControl).

Readcommandsbutdonotexecutethemthismaybeusedtocheckascriptforsyntaxerrors.Thisoptionisignoredbyinteractiveshells.
oo p t i o n n a m e

Settheoptioncorrespondingtooptionname:
a l l e x p o r t

Sameasa .
b r a c e e x p a n d

SameasB .
e m a c s

Useane m a c s stylelineeditinginterface(seeCommandLineEditing).Thisalsoaffectstheeditinginterfaceusedforr e a de .
e r r e x i t

Samease .
e r r t r a c e

SameasE .
f u n c t r a c e

SameasT .
h a s h a l l

Sameash .
h i s t e x p a n d

SameasH .
h i s t o r y

Enablecommandhistory,asdescribedinBashHistoryFacilities.Thisoptionisonbydefaultininteractiveshells.
i g n o r e e o f

AninteractiveshellwillnotexituponreadingEOF.
k e y w o r d

Sameask .
m o n i t o r

Sameasm .
n o c l o b b e r

SameasC .
n o e x e c

Sameasn .
n o g l o b

Sameasf .
n o l o g

Currentlyignored.
n o t i f y

Sameasb .
n o u n s e t

Sameasu .
o n e c m d

Sameast .

p h y s i c a l

SameasP .
p i p e f a i l

Ifset,thereturnvalueofapipelineisthevalueofthelast(rightmost)commandtoexitwithanonzerostatus,orzeroifall commandsinthepipelineexitsuccessfully.Thisoptionisdisabledbydefault.
p o s i x

ChangethebehaviorofBashwherethedefaultoperationdiffersfromthePOSIXstandardtomatchthestandard(seeBashPOSIX Mode).ThisisintendedtomakeBashbehaveasastrictsupersetofthatstandard.
p r i v i l e g e d

Sameasp .
v e r b o s e

Sameasv .
v i

Useav i stylelineeditinginterface.Thisalsoaffectstheeditinginterfaceusedforr e a de .
x t r a c e

Sameasx .
p

Turnonprivilegedmode.Inthismode,the$ B A S H _ E N V and$ E N V filesarenotprocessed,shellfunctionsarenotinheritedfromthe environment,andtheS H E L L O P T S ,B A S H O P T S ,C D P A T H andG L O B I G N O R E variables,iftheyappearintheenvironment,areignored.Ifthe shellisstartedwiththeeffectiveuser(group)idnotequaltotherealuser(group)id,andthep optionisnotsupplied,theseactionsare takenandtheeffectiveuseridissettotherealuserid.Ifthep optionissuppliedatstartup,theeffectiveuseridisnotreset.Turningthis optionoffcausestheeffectiveuserandgroupidstobesettotherealuserandgroupids.
t

Exitafterreadingandexecutingonecommand.
u

Treatunsetvariablesandparametersotherthanthespecialparameters@ or* asanerrorwhenperformingparameterexpansion.An errormessagewillbewrittentothestandarderror,andanoninteractiveshellwillexit.

v

Printshellinputlinesastheyareread.
x

Printatraceofsimplecommands,f o r commands,c a s e commands,s e l e c t commands,andarithmeticf o r commandsandtheir argumentsorassociatedwordlistsaftertheyareexpandedandbeforetheyareexecuted.ThevalueoftheP S 4 variableisexpandedandthe resultantvalueisprintedbeforethecommandanditsexpandedarguments.

B

Theshellwillperformbraceexpansion(seeBraceExpansion).Thisoptionisonbydefault.
C

Preventoutputredirectionusing> ,> & ,and< > fromoverwritingexistingfiles.

E

Ifset,anytraponE R R isinheritedbyshellfunctions,commandsubstitutions,andcommandsexecutedinasubshellenvironment.TheE R R trapisnormallynotinheritedinsuchcases.

H

Enable! stylehistorysubstitution(seeHistoryInteraction).Thisoptionisonbydefaultforinteractiveshells.
P

Ifset,donotfollowsymboliclinkswhenperformingcommandssuchasc d whichchangethecurrentdirectory.Thephysicaldirectoryis usedinstead.Bydefault,Bashfollowsthelogicalchainofdirectorieswhenperformingcommandswhichchangethecurrentdirectory. Forexample,if/ u s r / s y s isasymboliclinkto/ u s r / l o c a l / s y s then:

$c d/ u s r / s y s ;e c h o$ P W D

/ u s r / s y s $c d. . ;p w d / u s r

Ifs e tP ison,then:
$c d/ u s r / s y s ;e c h o$ P W D / u s r / l o c a l / s y s $c d. . ;p w d / u s r / l o c a l T

Ifset,anytraponD E B U G andR E T U R N areinheritedbyshellfunctions,commandsubstitutions,andcommandsexecutedinasubshell environment.TheD E B U G andR E T U R N trapsarenormallynotinheritedinsuchcases.

-

Ifnoargumentsfollowthisoption,thenthepositionalparametersareunset.Otherwise,thepositionalparametersaresettothearguments, evenifsomeofthembeginwitha.
-

Signaltheendofoptions,causeallremainingargumentstobeassignedtothepositionalparameters.Thex andv optionsareturnedoff. Iftherearenoarguments,thepositionalparametersremainunchanged. Using+ ratherthancausestheseoptionstobeturnedoff.Theoptionscanalsobeuseduponinvocationoftheshell.Thecurrentsetof optionsmaybefoundin$ . TheremainingNargumentsarepositionalparametersandareassigned,inorder,to$ 1 ,$ 2 ,$ N .Thespecialparameter# issettoN. Thereturnstatusisalwayszerounlessaninvalidoptionissupplied. Previous:TheSetBuiltin,Up:ModifyingShellBehavior[Contents][Index] 4.3.2TheShoptBuiltin Thisbuiltinallowsyoutochangeadditionalshelloptionalbehavior.
s h o p t s h o p t[ p q s u ][ o ][ o p t n a m e ]

Togglethevaluesofvariablescontrollingoptionalshellbehavior.Withnooptions,orwiththep option,alistofallsettableoptionsisdisplayed, withanindicationofwhetherornoteachisset.Thep optioncausesoutputtobedisplayedinaformthatmaybereusedasinput.Otheroptions havethefollowingmeanings:

s

Enable(set)eachoptname.
u

Disable(unset)eachoptname.
q

Suppressesnormaloutputthereturnstatusindicateswhethertheoptnameissetorunset.Ifmultipleoptnameargumentsaregivenwithq , thereturnstatusiszeroifalloptnamesareenablednonzerootherwise.
o

Restrictsthevaluesofoptnametobethosedefinedfortheo optiontothes e t builtin(seeTheSetBuiltin). Ifeithers oru isusedwithnooptnamearguments,thedisplayislimitedtothoseoptionswhicharesetorunset,respectively. Unlessotherwisenoted,thes h o p t optionsaredisabled(off)bydefault. Thereturnstatuswhenlistingoptionsiszeroifalloptnamesareenabled,nonzerootherwise.Whensettingorunsettingoptions,thereturnstatus iszerounlessanoptnameisnotavalidshelloption. Thelistofs h o p t optionsis:
a u t o c d

Ifset,acommandnamethatisthenameofadirectoryisexecutedasifitweretheargumenttothec d command.Thisoptionisonlyused byinteractiveshells.

c d a b l e _ v a r s

Ifthisisset,anargumenttothec d builtincommandthatisnotadirectoryisassumedtobethenameofavariablewhosevalueisthe

directorytochangeto.
c d s p e l l

Ifset,minorerrorsinthespellingofadirectorycomponentinac d commandwillbecorrected.Theerrorscheckedforaretransposed characters,amissingcharacter,andacharactertoomany.Ifacorrectionisfound,thecorrectedpathisprinted,andthecommandproceeds. Thisoptionisonlyusedbyinteractiveshells.

c h e c k h a s h

Ifthisisset,Bashchecksthatacommandfoundinthehashtableexistsbeforetryingtoexecuteit.Ifahashedcommandnolongerexists,a normalpathsearchisperformed.
c h e c k j o b s

Ifset,Bashliststhestatusofanystoppedandrunningjobsbeforeexitinganinteractiveshell.Ifanyjobsarerunning,thiscausestheexitto bedeferreduntilasecondexitisattemptedwithoutaninterveningcommand(seeJobControl).Theshellalwayspostponesexitingifany jobsarestopped.

c h e c k w i n s i z e

Ifset,Bashchecksthewindowsizeaftereachcommandand,ifnecessary,updatesthevaluesofL I N E S andC O L U M N S .
c m d h i s t

Ifset,Bashattemptstosavealllinesofamultiplelinecommandinthesamehistoryentry.Thisallowseasyreeditingofmultiline commands.
c o m p a t 3 1

Ifset,Bashchangesitsbehaviortothatofversion3.1withrespecttoquotedargumentstotheconditionalcommands= ~ operator.
c o m p a t 3 2

Ifset,Bashchangesitsbehaviortothatofversion3.2withrespecttolocalespecificstringcomparisonwhenusingthe[ [ conditional commands< and> operators.Bashversionspriortobash4.0useASCIIcollationandstrcmp(3)bash4.1andlaterusethecurrent localescollationsequenceandstrcoll(3).

c o m p a t 4 0

Ifset,Bashchangesitsbehaviortothatofversion4.0withrespecttolocalespecificstringcomparisonwhenusingthe[ [ conditional commands< and> operators(seepreviousitem)andtheeffectofinterruptingacommandlist.

c o m p a t 4 1

Ifset,Bash,wheninposixmode,treatsasinglequoteinadoublequotedparameterexpansionasaspecialcharacter.Thesinglequotes mustmatch(anevennumber)andthecharactersbetweenthesinglequotesareconsideredquoted.ThisisthebehaviorofPOSIXmode throughversion4.1.ThedefaultBashbehaviorremainsasinpreviousversions.

d i r s p e l l

Ifset,Bashattemptsspellingcorrectionondirectorynamesduringwordcompletionifthedirectorynameinitiallysupplieddoesnotexist.
d o t g l o b

Ifset,Bashincludesfilenamesbeginningwitha.intheresultsoffilenameexpansion.
e x e c f a i l

Ifthisisset,anoninteractiveshellwillnotexitifitcannotexecutethefilespecifiedasanargumenttothee x e c builtincommand.An interactiveshelldoesnotexitife x e c fails.

e x p a n d _ a l i a s e s

Ifset,aliasesareexpandedasdescribedbelowunderAliases,Aliases.Thisoptionisenabledbydefaultforinteractiveshells.
e x t d e b u g

Ifset,behaviorintendedforusebydebuggersisenabled: 1. TheF optiontothed e c l a r e builtin(seeBashBuiltins)displaysthesourcefilenameandlinenumbercorrespondingtoeach functionnamesuppliedasanargument. 2. IfthecommandrunbytheD E B U G trapreturnsanonzerovalue,thenextcommandisskippedandnotexecuted. 3. IfthecommandrunbytheD E B U G trapreturnsavalueof2,andtheshellisexecutinginasubroutine(ashellfunctionorashellscript executedbythe. ors o u r c e builtins),acalltor e t u r n issimulated. 4. B A S H _ A R G C andB A S H _ A R G V areupdatedasdescribedintheirdescriptions(seeBashVariables). 5. Functiontracingisenabled:commandsubstitution,shellfunctions,andsubshellsinvokedwith( c o m m a n d) inherittheD E B U G and R E T U R N traps. 6. Errortracingisenabled:commandsubstitution,shellfunctions,andsubshellsinvokedwith( c o m m a n d) inherittheE R R trap.
e x t g l o b

Ifset,theextendedpatternmatchingfeaturesdescribedabove(seePatternMatching)areenabled.
e x t q u o t e

Ifset,$ ' s t r i n g ' and$ " s t r i n g " quotingisperformedwithin$ { p a r a m e t e r } expansionsenclosedindoublequotes.Thisoptionis enabledbydefault.

f a i l g l o b

Ifset,patternswhichfailtomatchfilenamesduringfilenameexpansionresultinanexpansionerror.
f o r c e _ f i g n o r e

Ifset,thesuffixesspecifiedbytheF I G N O R E shellvariablecausewordstobeignoredwhenperformingwordcompletionevenifthe ignoredwordsaretheonlypossiblecompletions.SeeBashVariables,foradescriptionofF I G N O R E .Thisoptionisenabledbydefault.

g l o b s t a r

Ifset,thepattern* * usedinafilenameexpansioncontextwillmatchallfilesandzeroormoredirectoriesandsubdirectories.Ifthe patternisfollowedbya/ ,onlydirectoriesandsubdirectoriesmatch.

g n u _ e r r f m t

Ifset,shellerrormessagesarewritteninthestandardGNUerrormessageformat.
h i s t a p p e n d

Ifset,thehistorylistisappendedtothefilenamedbythevalueoftheH I S T F I L E variablewhentheshellexits,ratherthanoverwritingthe file.

h i s t r e e d i t

Ifset,andReadlineisbeingused,auserisgiventheopportunitytoreeditafailedhistorysubstitution.
h i s t v e r i f y

Ifset,andReadlineisbeingused,theresultsofhistorysubstitutionarenotimmediatelypassedtotheshellparser.Instead,theresultingline isloadedintotheReadlineeditingbuffer,allowingfurthermodification.
h o s t c o m p l e t e

Ifset,andReadlineisbeingused,Bashwillattempttoperformhostnamecompletionwhenawordcontaininga@ isbeingcompleted(see CommandsForCompletion).Thisoptionisenabledbydefault.

h u p o n e x i t

Ifset,BashwillsendS I G H U P toalljobswhenaninteractiveloginshellexits(seeSignals).
i n t e r a c t i v e _ c o m m e n t s

Allowawordbeginningwith# tocausethatwordandallremainingcharactersonthatlinetobeignoredinaninteractiveshell.This optionisenabledbydefault.

l a s t p i p e

Ifset,andjobcontrolisnotactive,theshellrunsthelastcommandofapipelinenotexecutedinthebackgroundinthecurrentshell environment.
l i t h i s t

Ifenabled,andthec m d h i s t optionisenabled,multilinecommandsaresavedtothehistorywithembeddednewlinesratherthanusing semicolonseparatorswherepossible.

l o g i n _ s h e l l

Theshellsetsthisoptionifitisstartedasaloginshell(seeInvokingBash).Thevaluemaynotbechanged.
m a i l w a r n

Ifset,andafilethatBashischeckingformailhasbeenaccessedsincethelasttimeitwaschecked,themessage" T h em a i li nm a i l f i l e h a sb e e nr e a d " isdisplayed.

n o _ e m p t y _ c m d _ c o m p l e t i o n

Ifset,andReadlineisbeingused,BashwillnotattempttosearchtheP A T H forpossiblecompletionswhencompletionisattemptedonan emptyline.

n o c a s e g l o b

Ifset,Bashmatchesfilenamesinacaseinsensitivefashionwhenperformingfilenameexpansion.
n o c a s e m a t c h

Ifset,Bashmatchespatternsinacaseinsensitivefashionwhenperformingmatchingwhileexecutingc a s e or[ [ conditionalcommands.

n u l l g l o b

Ifset,Bashallowsfilenamepatternswhichmatchnofilestoexpandtoanullstring,ratherthanthemselves.
p r o g c o m p

Ifset,theprogrammablecompletionfacilities(seeProgrammableCompletion)areenabled.Thisoptionisenabledbydefault.
p r o m p t v a r s

Ifset,promptstringsundergoparameterexpansion,commandsubstitution,arithmeticexpansion,andquoteremovalafterbeingexpanded asdescribedbelow(seePrintingaPrompt).Thisoptionisenabledbydefault.
r e s t r i c t e d _ s h e l l

Theshellsetsthisoptionifitisstartedinrestrictedmode(seeTheRestrictedShell).Thevaluemaynotbechanged.Thisisnotresetwhen thestartupfilesareexecuted,allowingthestartupfilestodiscoverwhetherornotashellisrestricted.
s h i f t _ v e r b o s e

Ifthisisset,thes h i f t builtinprintsanerrormessagewhentheshiftcountexceedsthenumberofpositionalparameters.
s o u r c e p a t h

Ifset,thes o u r c e builtinusesthevalueofP A T H tofindthedirectorycontainingthefilesuppliedasanargument.Thisoptionisenabledby default.

x p g _ e c h o

Ifset,thee c h o builtinexpandsbackslashescapesequencesbydefault. Thereturnstatuswhenlistingoptionsiszeroifalloptnamesareenabled,nonzerootherwise.Whensettingorunsettingoptions,thereturnstatus iszerounlessanoptnameisnotavalidshelloption. Previous:ModifyingShellBehavior,Up:ShellBuiltinCommands[Contents][Index]

4.4SpecialBuiltins
Forhistoricalreasons,thePOSIXstandardhasclassifiedseveralbuiltincommandsasspecial.WhenBashisexecutinginPOSIXmode,thespecial builtinsdifferfromotherbuiltincommandsinthreerespects: 1. Specialbuiltinsarefoundbeforeshellfunctionsduringcommandlookup. 2. Ifaspecialbuiltinreturnsanerrorstatus,anoninteractiveshellexits. 3. Assignmentstatementsprecedingthecommandstayineffectintheshellenvironmentafterthecommandcompletes. WhenBashisnotexecutinginPOSIXmode,thesebuiltinsbehavenodifferentlythantherestoftheBashbuiltincommands.TheBashPOSIXmodeis describedinBashPOSIXMode. ThesearethePOSIXspecialbuiltins:
b r e a k:.c o n t i n u ee v a le x e ce x i te x p o r tr e a d o n l yr e t u r ns e t s h i f tt r a pu n s e t

Next:BashFeatures,Previous:ShellBuiltinCommands,Up:Top[Contents][Index]

5ShellVariables
BourneShellVariables: VariableswhichBashusesinthesamewayastheBourneShell. BashVariables: ListofvariablesthatexistinBash. ThischapterdescribestheshellvariablesthatBashuses.Bashautomaticallyassignsdefaultvaluestoanumberofvariables. Next:BashVariables,Up:ShellVariables[Contents][Index]

5.1BourneShellVariables
BashusescertainshellvariablesinthesamewayastheBourneshell.Insomecases,Bashassignsadefaultvaluetothevariable.
C D P A T H

Acolonseparatedlistofdirectoriesusedasasearchpathforthec d builtincommand.
H O M E

Thecurrentusershomedirectorythedefaultforthec d builtincommand.Thevalueofthisvariableisalsousedbytildeexpansion(seeTilde Expansion).

I F S

Alistofcharactersthatseparatefieldsusedwhentheshellsplitswordsaspartofexpansion.
M A I L

IfthisparameterissettoafilenameordirectorynameandtheM A I L P A T H variableisnotset,Bashinformstheuserofthearrivalofmailinthe specifiedfileorMaildirformatdirectory.

M A I L P A T H

Acolonseparatedlistoffilenameswhichtheshellperiodicallychecksfornewmail.Eachlistentrycanspecifythemessagethatisprintedwhen newmailarrivesinthemailfilebyseparatingthefilenamefromthemessagewitha? .Whenusedinthetextofthemessage,$ _ expandstothe nameofthecurrentmailfile.

O P T A R G

Thevalueofthelastoptionargumentprocessedbytheg e t o p t s builtin.
O P T I N D

Theindexofthelastoptionargumentprocessedbytheg e t o p t s builtin.
P A T H

Acolonseparatedlistofdirectoriesinwhichtheshelllooksforcommands.Azerolength(null)directorynameinthevalueofP A T H indicatesthe currentdirectory.Anulldirectorynamemayappearastwoadjacentcolons,orasaninitialortrailingcolon.

P S 1

Theprimarypromptstring.Thedefaultvalueis\ s \ v \ $ .SeePrintingaPrompt,forthecompletelistofescapesequencesthatareexpanded beforeP S 1 isdisplayed.

P S 2

Thesecondarypromptstring.Thedefaultvalueis> . Previous:BourneShellVariables,Up:ShellVariables[Contents][Index]

5.2BashVariables
ThesevariablesaresetorusedbyBash,butothershellsdonotnormallytreatthemspecially. AfewvariablesusedbyBasharedescribedindifferentchapters:variablesforcontrollingthejobcontrolfacilities(seeJobControlVariables).
B A S H

ThefullpathnameusedtoexecutethecurrentinstanceofBash.
B A S H O P T S

Acolonseparatedlistofenabledshelloptions.Eachwordinthelistisavalidargumentforthes optiontothes h o p t builtincommand(seeThe ShoptBuiltin).TheoptionsappearinginB A S H O P T S arethosereportedaso n bys h o p t .IfthisvariableisintheenvironmentwhenBashstarts up,eachshelloptioninthelistwillbeenabledbeforereadinganystartupfiles.Thisvariableisreadonly.

B A S H P I D

ExpandstotheprocessIDofthecurrentBashprocess.Thisdiffersfrom$ $ undercertaincircumstances,suchassubshellsthatdonotrequire Bashtobereinitialized.

B A S H _ A L I A S E S

Anassociativearrayvariablewhosememberscorrespondtotheinternallistofaliasesasmaintainedbythea l i a s builtin.(seeBourneShell Builtins).Elementsaddedtothisarrayappearinthealiaslistunsettingarrayelementscausealiasestoberemovedfromthealiaslist.

B A S H _ A R G C

Anarrayvariablewhosevaluesarethenumberofparametersineachframeofthecurrentbashexecutioncallstack.Thenumberofparametersto thecurrentsubroutine(shellfunctionorscriptexecutedwith. ors o u r c e )isatthetopofthestack.Whenasubroutineisexecuted,thenumberof parameterspassedispushedontoB A S H _ A R G C .TheshellsetsB A S H _ A R G C onlywheninextendeddebuggingmode(seeTheShoptBuiltinfora descriptionofthee x t d e b u g optiontothes h o p t builtin).
B A S H _ A R G V

Anarrayvariablecontainingalloftheparametersinthecurrentbashexecutioncallstack.Thefinalparameterofthelastsubroutinecallisatthe topofthestackthefirstparameteroftheinitialcallisatthebottom.Whenasubroutineisexecuted,theparameterssuppliedarepushedonto

B A S H _ A R G V .TheshellsetsB A S H _ A R G V onlywheninextendeddebuggingmode(seeTheShoptBuiltinforadescriptionofthee x t d e b u g option tothes h o p t builtin). B A S H _ C M D S

Anassociativearrayvariablewhosememberscorrespondtotheinternalhashtableofcommandsasmaintainedbytheh a s h builtin(seeBourne ShellBuiltins).Elementsaddedtothisarrayappearinthehashtableunsettingarrayelementscausecommandstoberemovedfromthehash table.

B A S H _ C O M M A N D

Thecommandcurrentlybeingexecutedorabouttobeexecuted,unlesstheshellisexecutingacommandastheresultofatrap,inwhichcaseitis thecommandexecutingatthetimeofthetrap.
B A S H _ E N V

IfthisvariableissetwhenBashisinvokedtoexecuteashellscript,itsvalueisexpandedandusedasthenameofastartupfiletoreadbefore executingthescript.SeeBashStartupFiles.
B A S H _ E X E C U T I O N _ S T R I N G

Thecommandargumenttothec invocationoption.
B A S H _ L I N E N O

AnarrayvariablewhosemembersarethelinenumbersinsourcefileswhereeachcorrespondingmemberofFUNCNAMEwasinvoked. $ { B A S H _ L I N E N O [ $ i ] } isthelinenumberinthesourcefile($ { B A S H _ S O U R C E [ $ i + 1 ] } )where$ { F U N C N A M E [ $ i ] } wascalled(or $ { B A S H _ L I N E N O [ $ i 1 ] } ifreferencedwithinanothershellfunction).UseL I N E N O toobtainthecurrentlinenumber.

B A S H _ R E M A T C H

Anarrayvariablewhosemembersareassignedbythe= ~ binaryoperatortothe[ [ conditionalcommand(seeConditionalConstructs).The elementwithindex0istheportionofthestringmatchingtheentireregularexpression.Theelementwithindexnistheportionofthestring matchingthenthparenthesizedsubexpression.Thisvariableisreadonly.

B A S H _ S O U R C E

AnarrayvariablewhosemembersarethesourcefilenameswherethecorrespondingshellfunctionnamesintheF U N C N A M E arrayvariableare defined.Theshellfunction$ { F U N C N A M E [ $ i ] } isdefinedinthefile$ { B A S H _ S O U R C E [ $ i ] } andcalledfrom$ { B A S H _ S O U R C E [ $ i + 1 ] }

B A S H _ S U B S H E L L

Incrementedbyoneeachtimeasubshellorsubshellenvironmentisspawned.Theinitialvalueis0.
B A S H _ V E R S I N F O

Areadonlyarrayvariable(seeArrays)whosemembersholdversioninformationforthisinstanceofBash.Thevaluesassignedtothearray membersareasfollows:
B A S H _ V E R S I N F O [ 0 ]

Themajorversionnumber(therelease).
B A S H _ V E R S I N F O [ 1 ]

Theminorversionnumber(theversion).
B A S H _ V E R S I N F O [ 2 ]

Thepatchlevel.
B A S H _ V E R S I N F O [ 3 ]

Thebuildversion.
B A S H _ V E R S I N F O [ 4 ]

Thereleasestatus(e.g.,beta1).
B A S H _ V E R S I N F O [ 5 ]

ThevalueofM A C H T Y P E .
B A S H _ V E R S I O N

TheversionnumberofthecurrentinstanceofBash.
B A S H _ X T R A C E F D

Ifsettoanintegercorrespondingtoavalidfiledescriptor,Bashwillwritethetraceoutputgeneratedwhens e tx isenabledtothatfile descriptor.Thisallowstracingoutputtobeseparatedfromdiagnosticanderrormessages.ThefiledescriptorisclosedwhenB A S H _ X T R A C E F D is unsetorassignedanewvalue.UnsettingB A S H _ X T R A C E F D orassigningittheemptystringcausesthetraceoutputtobesenttothestandarderror.

NotethatsettingB A S H _ X T R A C E F D to2(thestandarderrorfiledescriptor)andthenunsettingitwillresultinthestandarderrorbeingclosed.
C O L U M N S

Usedbythes e l e c t commandtodeterminetheterminalwidthwhenprintingselectionlists.AutomaticallysetuponreceiptofaS I G W I N C H .
C O M P _ C W O R D

Anindexinto$ { C O M P _ W O R D S } ofthewordcontainingthecurrentcursorposition.Thisvariableisavailableonlyinshellfunctionsinvokedbythe programmablecompletionfacilities(seeProgrammableCompletion).

C O M P _ L I N E

Thecurrentcommandline.Thisvariableisavailableonlyinshellfunctionsandexternalcommandsinvokedbytheprogrammablecompletion facilities(seeProgrammableCompletion).
C O M P _ P O I N T

Theindexofthecurrentcursorpositionrelativetothebeginningofthecurrentcommand.Ifthecurrentcursorpositionisattheendofthecurrent command,thevalueofthisvariableisequalto$ { # C O M P _ L I N E } .Thisvariableisavailableonlyinshellfunctionsandexternalcommandsinvoked bytheprogrammablecompletionfacilities(seeProgrammableCompletion).

C O M P _ T Y P E

Settoanintegervaluecorrespondingtothetypeofcompletionattemptedthatcausedacompletionfunctiontobecalled:TAB,fornormal completion,? ,forlistingcompletionsaftersuccessivetabs,! ,forlistingalternativesonpartialwordcompletion,@ ,tolistcompletionsifthe wordisnotunmodified,or% ,formenucompletion.Thisvariableisavailableonlyinshellfunctionsandexternalcommandsinvokedbythe programmablecompletionfacilities(seeProgrammableCompletion).

C O M P _ K E Y

Thekey(orfinalkeyofakeysequence)usedtoinvokethecurrentcompletionfunction.
C O M P _ W O R D B R E A K S

ThesetofcharactersthattheReadlinelibrarytreatsaswordseparatorswhenperformingwordcompletion.IfC O M P _ W O R D B R E A K S isunset,itloses itsspecialproperties,evenifitissubsequentlyreset.

C O M P _ W O R D S

Anarrayvariableconsistingoftheindividualwordsinthecurrentcommandline.ThelineissplitintowordsasReadlinewouldsplitit,using C O M P _ W O R D B R E A K S asdescribedabove.Thisvariableisavailableonlyinshellfunctionsinvokedbytheprogrammablecompletionfacilities(see ProgrammableCompletion).

C O M P R E P L Y

AnarrayvariablefromwhichBashreadsthepossiblecompletionsgeneratedbyashellfunctioninvokedbytheprogrammablecompletion facility(seeProgrammableCompletion).
C O P R O C

Anarrayvariablecreatedtoholdthefiledescriptorsforoutputfromandinputtoanunnamedcoprocess(seeCoprocesses).
D I R S T A C K

Anarrayvariablecontainingthecurrentcontentsofthedirectorystack.Directoriesappearinthestackintheordertheyaredisplayedbythed i r s builtin.Assigningtomembersofthisarrayvariablemaybeusedtomodifydirectoriesalreadyinthestack,butthep u s h d andp o p d builtinsmust beusedtoaddandremovedirectories.Assignmenttothisvariablewillnotchangethecurrentdirectory.IfD I R S T A C K isunset,itlosesitsspecial properties,evenifitissubsequentlyreset.

E M A C S

IfBashfindsthisvariableintheenvironmentwhentheshellstartswithvaluet ,itassumesthattheshellisrunninginanEmacsshellbufferand disableslineediting.

E N V

SimilartoB A S H _ E N V usedwhentheshellisinvokedinPOSIXMode(seeBashPOSIXMode).
E U I D

Thenumericeffectiveuseridofthecurrentuser.Thisvariableisreadonly.
F C E D I T

Theeditorusedasadefaultbythee optiontothef c builtincommand.

F I G N O R E

Acolonseparatedlistofsuffixestoignorewhenperformingfilenamecompletion.Afilenamewhosesuffixmatchesoneoftheentriesin F I G N O R E isexcludedfromthelistofmatchedfilenames.Asamplevalueis. o : ~

F U N C N A M E

Anarrayvariablecontainingthenamesofallshellfunctionscurrentlyintheexecutioncallstack.Theelementwithindex0isthenameofany currentlyexecutingshellfunction.Thebottommostelement(theonewiththehighestindex)is" m a i n " .Thisvariableexistsonlywhenashell functionisexecuting.AssignmentstoF U N C N A M E havenoeffectandreturnanerrorstatus.IfF U N C N A M E isunset,itlosesitsspecialproperties,even ifitissubsequentlyreset. ThisvariablecanbeusedwithB A S H _ L I N E N O andB A S H _ S O U R C E .EachelementofF U N C N A M E hascorrespondingelementsinB A S H _ L I N E N O and B A S H _ S O U R C E todescribethecallstack.Forinstance,$ { F U N C N A M E [ $ i ] } wascalledfromthefile$ { B A S H _ S O U R C E [ $ i + 1 ] } atlinenumber $ { B A S H _ L I N E N O [ $ i ] } .Thec a l l e r builtindisplaysthecurrentcallstackusingthisinformation.
F U N C N E S T

Ifsettoanumericvaluegreaterthan0,definesamaximumfunctionnestinglevel.Functioninvocationsthatexceedthisnestinglevelwillcause thecurrentcommandtoabort.
G L O B I G N O R E

Acolonseparatedlistofpatternsdefiningthesetoffilenamestobeignoredbyfilenameexpansion.Ifafilenamematchedbyafilename expansionpatternalsomatchesoneofthepatternsinG L O B I G N O R E ,itisremovedfromthelistofmatches.

G R O U P S

Anarrayvariablecontainingthelistofgroupsofwhichthecurrentuserisamember.AssignmentstoG R O U P S havenoeffectandreturnanerror status.IfG R O U P S isunset,itlosesitsspecialproperties,evenifitissubsequentlyreset.

h i s t c h a r s

Uptothreecharacterswhichcontrolhistoryexpansion,quicksubstitution,andtokenization(seeHistoryInteraction).Thefirstcharacteristhe historyexpansioncharacter,thatis,thecharacterwhichsignifiesthestartofahistoryexpansion,normally! .Thesecondcharacteristhe characterwhichsignifiesquicksubstitutionwhenseenasthefirstcharacteronaline,normally^ .Theoptionalthirdcharacteristhecharacter whichindicatesthattheremainderofthelineisacommentwhenfoundasthefirstcharacterofaword,usually# .Thehistorycomment charactercauseshistorysubstitutiontobeskippedfortheremainingwordsontheline.Itdoesnotnecessarilycausetheshellparsertotreatthe restofthelineasacomment.

H I S T C M D

Thehistorynumber,orindexinthehistorylist,ofthecurrentcommand.IfH I S T C M D isunset,itlosesitsspecialproperties,evenifitis subsequentlyreset.

H I S T C O N T R O L

Acolonseparatedlistofvaluescontrollinghowcommandsaresavedonthehistorylist.Ifthelistofvaluesincludesi g n o r e s p a c e ,lineswhich beginwithaspacecharacterarenotsavedinthehistorylist.Avalueofi g n o r e d u p s causeslineswhichmatchtheprevioushistoryentrytonot besaved.Avalueofi g n o r e b o t h isshorthandfori g n o r e s p a c e andi g n o r e d u p s .Avalueofe r a s e d u p s causesallpreviouslines matchingthecurrentlinetoberemovedfromthehistorylistbeforethatlineissaved.Anyvaluenotintheabovelistisignored.IfH I S T C O N T R O L isunset,ordoesnotincludeavalidvalue,alllinesreadbytheshellparseraresavedonthehistorylist,subjecttothevalueofH I S T I G N O R E .The secondandsubsequentlinesofamultilinecompoundcommandarenottested,andareaddedtothehistoryregardlessofthevalueof H I S T C O N T R O L .
H I S T F I L E

Thenameofthefiletowhichthecommandhistoryissaved.Thedefaultvalueis~ / . b a s h _ h i s t o r y .
H I S T F I L E S I Z E

Themaximumnumberoflinescontainedinthehistoryfile.Whenthisvariableisassignedavalue,thehistoryfileistruncated,ifnecessary,by removingtheoldestentries,tocontainnomorethanthatnumberoflines.Thehistoryfileisalsotruncatedtothissizeafterwritingitwhenan interactiveshellexits.Thedefaultvalueis500.

H I S T I G N O R E

Acolonseparatedlistofpatternsusedtodecidewhichcommandlinesshouldbesavedonthehistorylist.Eachpatternisanchoredatthe beginningofthelineandmustmatchthecompleteline(noimplicit* isappended).Eachpatternistestedagainstthelineafterthechecks specifiedbyH I S T C O N T R O L areapplied.Inadditiontothenormalshellpatternmatchingcharacters,& matchestheprevioushistoryline.& may beescapedusingabackslashthebackslashisremovedbeforeattemptingamatch.Thesecondandsubsequentlinesofamultilinecompound commandarenottested,andareaddedtothehistoryregardlessofthevalueofH I S T I G N O R E .

H I S T I G N O R E subsumesthefunctionofH I S T C O N T R O L .Apatternof& isidenticaltoi g n o r e d u p s ,andapatternof[ ] * isidenticalto i g n o r e s p a c e .Combiningthesetwopatterns,separatingthemwithacolon,providesthefunctionalityofi g n o r e b o t h . H I S T S I Z E

Themaximumnumberofcommandstorememberonthehistorylist.Thedefaultvalueis500.
H I S T T I M E F O R M A T

Ifthisvariableissetandnotnull,itsvalueisusedasaformatstringforstrftimetoprintthetimestampassociatedwitheachhistoryentry displayedbytheh i s t o r y builtin.Ifthisvariableisset,timestampsarewrittentothehistoryfilesotheymaybepreservedacrossshellsessions.

Thisusesthehistorycommentcharactertodistinguishtimestampsfromotherhistorylines.
H O S T F I L E

Containsthenameofafileinthesameformatas/ e t c / h o s t s thatshouldbereadwhentheshellneedstocompleteahostname.Thelistof possiblehostnamecompletionsmaybechangedwhiletheshellisrunningthenexttimehostnamecompletionisattemptedafterthevalueis changed,Bashaddsthecontentsofthenewfiletotheexistinglist.IfH O S T F I L E isset,buthasnovalue,ordoesnotnameareadablefile,Bash attemptstoread/ e t c / h o s t s toobtainthelistofpossiblehostnamecompletions.WhenH O S T F I L E isunset,thehostnamelistiscleared.

H O S T N A M E

Thenameofthecurrenthost.
H O S T T Y P E

AstringdescribingthemachineBashisrunningon.
I G N O R E E O F

ControlstheactionoftheshellonreceiptofanE O F characterasthesoleinput.Ifset,thevaluedenotesthenumberofconsecutiveE O F characters thatcanbereadasthefirstcharacteronaninputlinebeforetheshellwillexit.Ifthevariableexistsbutdoesnothaveanumericvalue(orhasno value)thenthedefaultis10.Ifthevariabledoesnotexist,thenE O F signifiestheendofinputtotheshell.Thisisonlyineffectforinteractive shells.

I N P U T R C

ThenameoftheReadlineinitializationfile,overridingthedefaultof~ / . i n p u t r c .
L A N G

UsedtodeterminethelocalecategoryforanycategorynotspecificallyselectedwithavariablestartingwithL C _ .
L C _ A L L

ThisvariableoverridesthevalueofL A N G andanyotherL C _ variablespecifyingalocalecategory.

L C _ C O L L A T E

Thisvariabledeterminesthecollationorderusedwhensortingtheresultsoffilenameexpansion,anddeterminesthebehaviorofrange expressions,equivalenceclasses,andcollatingsequenceswithinfilenameexpansionandpatternmatching(seeFilenameExpansion).
L C _ C T Y P E

Thisvariabledeterminestheinterpretationofcharactersandthebehaviorofcharacterclasseswithinfilenameexpansionandpatternmatching (seeFilenameExpansion).
L C _ M E S S A G E S

Thisvariabledeterminesthelocaleusedtotranslatedoublequotedstringsprecededbya$ (seeLocaleTranslation).
L C _ N U M E R I C

Thisvariabledeterminesthelocalecategoryusedfornumberformatting.
L I N E N O

Thelinenumberinthescriptorshellfunctioncurrentlyexecuting.
L I N E S

Usedbythes e l e c t commandtodeterminethecolumnlengthforprintingselectionlists.AutomaticallysetuponreceiptofaS I G W I N C H .
M A C H T Y P E

AstringthatfullydescribesthesystemtypeonwhichBashisexecuting,inthestandardGNUcpucompanysystemformat.
M A I L C H E C K

Howoften(inseconds)thattheshellshouldcheckformailinthefilesspecifiedintheM A I L P A T H orM A I L variables.Thedefaultis60seconds. Whenitistimetocheckformail,theshelldoessobeforedisplayingtheprimaryprompt.Ifthisvariableisunset,orsettoavaluethatisnota numbergreaterthanorequaltozero,theshelldisablesmailchecking.

M A P F I L E

Anarrayvariablecreatedtoholdthetextreadbythem a p f i l e builtinwhennovariablenameissupplied.
O L D P W D

Thepreviousworkingdirectoryassetbythec d builtin.
O P T E R R

Ifsettothevalue1,Bashdisplayserrormessagesgeneratedbytheg e t o p t s builtincommand.
O S T Y P E

AstringdescribingtheoperatingsystemBashisrunningon.
P I P E S T A T U S

Anarrayvariable(seeArrays)containingalistofexitstatusvaluesfromtheprocessesinthemostrecentlyexecutedforegroundpipeline(which maycontainonlyasinglecommand).
P O S I X L Y _ C O R R E C T

Ifthisvariableisintheenvironmentwhenb a s h starts,theshellentersPOSIXmode(seeBashPOSIXMode)beforereadingthestartupfiles,asif thep o s i x invocationoptionhadbeensupplied.Ifitissetwhiletheshellisrunning,b a s h enablesPOSIXmode,asifthecommand

s e top o s i x

hadbeenexecuted.
P P I D

TheprocessIDoftheshellsparentprocess.Thisvariableisreadonly.
P R O M P T _ C O M M A N D

Ifset,thevalueisinterpretedasacommandtoexecutebeforetheprintingofeachprimaryprompt($ P S 1 ).
P R O M P T _ D I R T R I M

Ifsettoanumbergreaterthanzero,thevalueisusedasthenumberoftrailingdirectorycomponentstoretainwhenexpandingthe\ w and\ W promptstringescapes(seePrintingaPrompt).Charactersremovedarereplacedwithanellipsis.

P S 3

Thevalueofthisvariableisusedasthepromptforthes e l e c t command.Ifthisvariableisnotset,thes e l e c t commandpromptswith# ?

P S 4

Thevalueisthepromptprintedbeforethecommandlineisechoedwhenthex optionisset(seeTheSetBuiltin).ThefirstcharacterofP S 4 is replicatedmultipletimes,asnecessary,toindicatemultiplelevelsofindirection.Thedefaultis+ .

P W D

Thecurrentworkingdirectoryassetbythec d builtin.
R A N D O M

Eachtimethisparameterisreferenced,arandomintegerbetween0and32767isgenerated.Assigningavaluetothisvariableseedstherandom numbergenerator.
R E A D L I N E _ L I N E

ThecontentsoftheReadlinelinebuffer,forusewithb i n dx (seeBashBuiltins).
R E A D L I N E _ P O I N T

ThepositionoftheinsertionpointintheReadlinelinebuffer,forusewithb i n dx (seeBashBuiltins).
R E P L Y

Thedefaultvariableforther e a d builtin.
S E C O N D S

Thisvariableexpandstothenumberofsecondssincetheshellwasstarted.Assignmenttothisvariableresetsthecounttothevalueassigned,and theexpandedvaluebecomesthevalueassignedplusthenumberofsecondssincetheassignment.
S H E L L

Thefullpathnametotheshelliskeptinthisenvironmentvariable.Ifitisnotsetwhentheshellstarts,Bashassignstoitthefullpathnameofthe currentusersloginshell.
S H E L L O P T S

Acolonseparatedlistofenabledshelloptions.Eachwordinthelistisavalidargumentfortheo optiontothes e t builtincommand(seeThe SetBuiltin).TheoptionsappearinginS H E L L O P T S arethosereportedaso n bys e to .IfthisvariableisintheenvironmentwhenBashstarts up,eachshelloptioninthelistwillbeenabledbeforereadinganystartupfiles.Thisvariableisreadonly.

S H L V L

IncrementedbyoneeachtimeanewinstanceofBashisstarted.ThisisintendedtobeacountofhowdeeplyyourBashshellsarenested.

T I M E F O R M A T

Thevalueofthisparameterisusedasaformatstringspecifyinghowthetiminginformationforpipelinesprefixedwiththet i m e reservedword shouldbedisplayed.The% characterintroducesanescapesequencethatisexpandedtoatimevalueorotherinformation.Theescape sequencesandtheirmeaningsareasfollowsthebracesdenoteoptionalportions.

% %

Aliteral% .
% [ p ] [ l ] R

Theelapsedtimeinseconds.
% [ p ] [ l ] U

ThenumberofCPUsecondsspentinusermode.
% [ p ] [ l ] S

ThenumberofCPUsecondsspentinsystemmode.
% P

TheCPUpercentage,computedas(%U+%S)/%R. Theoptionalpisadigitspecifyingtheprecision,thenumberoffractionaldigitsafteradecimalpoint.Avalueof0causesnodecimalpointor fractiontobeoutput.Atmostthreeplacesafterthedecimalpointmaybespecifiedvaluesofpgreaterthan3arechangedto3.Ifpisnot specified,thevalue3isused. Theoptionall specifiesalongerformat,includingminutes,oftheformMMmSS.FFs.Thevalueofpdetermineswhetherornotthefractionis included. Ifthisvariableisnotset,Bashactsasifithadthevalue

$ ' \ n r e a l \ t % 3 l R \ n u s e r \ t % 3 l U \ n s y s \ t % 3 l S '

Ifthevalueisnull,notiminginformationisdisplayed.Atrailingnewlineisaddedwhentheformatstringisdisplayed.
T M O U T

Ifsettoavaluegreaterthanzero,T M O U T istreatedasthedefaulttimeoutforther e a d builtin(seeBashBuiltins).Thes e l e c t command(see ConditionalConstructs)terminatesifinputdoesnotarriveafterT M O U T secondswheninputiscomingfromaterminal. Inaninteractiveshell,thevalueisinterpretedasthenumberofsecondstowaitforinputafterissuingtheprimarypromptwhentheshellis interactive.Bashterminatesafterthatnumberofsecondsifinputdoesnotarrive.

T M P D I R

Ifset,BashusesitsvalueasthenameofadirectoryinwhichBashcreatestemporaryfilesfortheshellsuse.
U I D

Thenumericrealuseridofthecurrentuser.Thisvariableisreadonly. Next:JobControl,Previous:ShellVariables,Up:Top[Contents][Index]

6BashFeatures
ThissectiondescribesfeaturesuniquetoBash. InvokingBash: CommandlineoptionsthatyoucangivetoBash. BashStartupFiles: WhenandhowBashexecutesscripts. InteractiveShells: Whataninteractiveshellis. BashConditionalExpressions: Primitivesusedincomposingexpressionsforthet e s t builtin. ShellArithmetic: Arithmeticonshellvariables. Aliases: Substitutingonecommandforanother. Arrays: ArrayVariables. TheDirectoryStack: Historyofvisiteddirectories. PrintingaPrompt: ControllingthePS1string. TheRestrictedShell: Amorecontrolledmodeofshellexecution. BashPOSIXMode: MakingBashbehavemorecloselytowhatthePOSIXstandardspecifies. Next:BashStartupFiles,Up:BashFeatures[Contents][Index]

6.1InvokingBash

b a s h[ l o n g o p t ][ i r ][ a b e f h k m n p t u v x d B C D H P ][ oo p t i o n ][ Os h o p t _ o p t i o n ][ a r g u m e n t ] b a s h[ l o n g o p t ][ a b e f h k m n p t u v x d B C D H P ][ oo p t i o n ][ Os h o p t _ o p t i o n ]cs t r i n g[ a r g u m e n t ] b a s h[ l o n g o p t ]s[ a b e f h k m n p t u v x d B C D H P ][ oo p t i o n ][ Os h o p t _ o p t i o n ][ a r g u m e n t ]

Allofthesinglecharacteroptionsusedwiththes e t builtin(seeTheSetBuiltin)canbeusedasoptionswhentheshellisinvoked.Inaddition,thereare severalmulticharacteroptionsthatyoucanuse.Theseoptionsmustappearonthecommandlinebeforethesinglecharacteroptionstoberecognized.

d e b u g g e r

Arrangeforthedebuggerprofiletobeexecutedbeforetheshellstarts.Turnsonextendeddebuggingmode(seeTheShoptBuiltinfora descriptionofthee x t d e b u g optiontothes h o p t builtin).

d u m p p o s t r i n g s

Alistofalldoublequotedstringsprecededby$ isprintedonthestandardoutputintheGNUg e t t e x t PO(portableobject)fileformat. EquivalenttoD exceptfortheoutputformat.

d u m p s t r i n g s

EquivalenttoD .
h e l p

Displayausagemessageonstandardoutputandexitsuccessfully.
i n i t f i l ef i l e n a m e r c f i l ef i l e n a m e

Executecommandsfromfilename(insteadof~ / . b a s h r c )inaninteractiveshell.
l o g i n

Equivalenttol .
n o e d i t i n g

DonotusetheGNUReadlinelibrary(seeCommandLineEditing)toreadcommandlineswhentheshellisinteractive.
n o p r o f i l e

Dontloadthesystemwidestartupfile/ e t c / p r o f i l e oranyofthepersonalinitializationfiles~ / . b a s h _ p r o f i l e ,~ / . b a s h _ l o g i n ,or ~ / . p r o f i l e whenBashisinvokedasaloginshell.

n o r c

Dontreadthe~ / . b a s h r c initializationfileinaninteractiveshell.Thisisonbydefaultiftheshellisinvokedass h .
p o s i x

ChangethebehaviorofBashwherethedefaultoperationdiffersfromthePOSIXstandardtomatchthestandard.ThisisintendedtomakeBash behaveasastrictsupersetofthatstandard.SeeBashPOSIXMode,foradescriptionoftheBashPOSIXmode.
r e s t r i c t e d

Maketheshellarestrictedshell(seeTheRestrictedShell).
v e r b o s e

Equivalenttov .Printshellinputlinesastheyreread.
v e r s i o n

ShowversioninformationforthisinstanceofBashonthestandardoutputandexitsuccessfully. Thereareseveralsinglecharacteroptionsthatmaybesuppliedatinvocationwhicharenotavailablewiththes e t builtin.

cs t r i n g

Readandexecutecommandsfromstringafterprocessingtheoptions,thenexit.Anyremainingargumentsareassignedtothepositional parameters,startingwith$ 0 .
i

Forcetheshelltoruninteractively.InteractiveshellsaredescribedinInteractiveShells.
l

Makethisshellactasifithadbeendirectlyinvokedbylogin.Whentheshellisinteractive,thisisequivalenttostartingaloginshellwithe x e clb a s h .Whentheshellisnotinteractive,theloginshellstartupfileswillbeexecuted.e x e cb a s hl ore x e cb a s hl o g i n willreplace thecurrentshellwithaBashloginshell.SeeBashStartupFiles,foradescriptionofthespecialbehaviorofaloginshell.

r

Maketheshellarestrictedshell(seeTheRestrictedShell).
s

Ifthisoptionispresent,orifnoargumentsremainafteroptionprocessing,thencommandsarereadfromthestandardinput.Thisoptionallows thepositionalparameterstobesetwheninvokinganinteractiveshell.
D

Alistofalldoublequotedstringsprecededby$ isprintedonthestandardoutput.Thesearethestringsthataresubjecttolanguagetranslation whenthecurrentlocaleisnotC orP O S I X (seeLocaleTranslation).Thisimpliesthen optionnocommandswillbeexecuted.

[ + ] O[ s h o p t _ o p t i o n ]

shopt_optionisoneoftheshelloptionsacceptedbythes h o p t builtin(seeTheShoptBuiltin).Ifshopt_optionispresent,O setsthevalueofthat option+ O unsetsit.Ifshopt_optionisnotsupplied,thenamesandvaluesoftheshelloptionsacceptedbys h o p t areprintedonthestandard output.Iftheinvocationoptionis+ O ,theoutputisdisplayedinaformatthatmaybereusedasinput.

-

Asignalstheendofoptionsanddisablesfurtheroptionprocessing.Anyargumentsafterthearetreatedasfilenamesandarguments. Aloginshellisonewhosefirstcharacterofargumentzerois,oroneinvokedwiththel o g i n option. Aninteractiveshellisonestartedwithoutnonoptionarguments,unlesss isspecified,withoutspecifyingthec option,andwhoseinputandoutput arebothconnectedtoterminals(asdeterminedbyi s a t t y ( 3 ) ),oronestartedwiththei option.SeeInteractiveShells,formoreinformation. Ifargumentsremainafteroptionprocessing,andneitherthec northes optionhasbeensupplied,thefirstargumentisassumedtobethenameofa filecontainingshellcommands(seeShellScripts).WhenBashisinvokedinthisfashion,$ 0 issettothenameofthefile,andthepositionalparameters aresettotheremainingarguments.Bashreadsandexecutescommandsfromthisfile,thenexits.Bashsexitstatusistheexitstatusofthelastcommand executedinthescript.Ifnocommandsareexecuted,theexitstatusis0. Next:InteractiveShells,Previous:InvokingBash,Up:BashFeatures[Contents][Index]

6.2BashStartupFiles
ThissectiondescribeshowBashexecutesitsstartupfiles.Ifanyofthefilesexistbutcannotberead,Bashreportsanerror.Tildesareexpandedinfile namesasdescribedaboveunderTildeExpansion(seeTildeExpansion). InteractiveshellsaredescribedinInteractiveShells. Invokedasaninteractiveloginshell,orwithl o g i n WhenBashisinvokedasaninteractiveloginshell,orasanoninteractiveshellwiththel o g i n option,itfirstreadsandexecutescommandsfromthe file/ e t c / p r o f i l e ,ifthatfileexists.Afterreadingthatfile,itlooksfor~ / . b a s h _ p r o f i l e ,~ / . b a s h _ l o g i n ,and~ / . p r o f i l e ,inthatorder,andreads andexecutescommandsfromthefirstonethatexistsandisreadable.Then o p r o f i l e optionmaybeusedwhentheshellisstartedtoinhibitthis behavior. Whenaloginshellexits,Bashreadsandexecutescommandsfromthefile~ / . b a s h _ l o g o u t ,ifitexists. Invokedasaninteractivenonloginshell Whenaninteractiveshellthatisnotaloginshellisstarted,Bashreadsandexecutescommandsfrom~ / . b a s h r c ,ifthatfileexists.Thismaybe inhibitedbyusingthen o r c option.Ther c f i l ef i l e optionwillforceBashtoreadandexecutecommandsfromfileinsteadof~ / . b a s h r c . So,typically,your~ / . b a s h _ p r o f i l e containstheline
i f[f~ / . b a s h r c] ;t h e n.~ / . b a s h r c ;f i

after(orbefore)anyloginspecificinitializations. Invokednoninteractively WhenBashisstartednoninteractively,torunashellscript,forexample,itlooksforthevariableB A S H _ E N V intheenvironment,expandsitsvalueifit appearsthere,andusestheexpandedvalueasthenameofafiletoreadandexecute.Bashbehavesasifthefollowingcommandwereexecuted:

i f[n" $ B A S H _ E N V "] ;t h e n." $ B A S H _ E N V " ;f i

butthevalueoftheP A T H variableisnotusedtosearchforthefilename. Asnotedabove,ifanoninteractiveshellisinvokedwiththel o g i n option,Bashattemptstoreadandexecutecommandsfromtheloginshellstartup files. Invokedwithnames h

IfBashisinvokedwiththenames h ,ittriestomimicthestartupbehaviorofhistoricalversionsofs h ascloselyaspossible,whileconformingtothe POSIXstandardaswell. Wheninvokedasaninteractiveloginshell,orasanoninteractiveshellwiththel o g i n option,itfirstattemptstoreadandexecutecommandsfrom / e t c / p r o f i l e and~ / . p r o f i l e ,inthatorder.Then o p r o f i l e optionmaybeusedtoinhibitthisbehavior.Wheninvokedasaninteractiveshell withthenames h ,BashlooksforthevariableE N V ,expandsitsvalueifitisdefined,andusestheexpandedvalueasthenameofafiletoreadand execute.Sinceashellinvokedass h doesnotattempttoreadandexecutecommandsfromanyotherstartupfiles,ther c f i l e optionhasnoeffect.A noninteractiveshellinvokedwiththenames h doesnotattempttoreadanyotherstartupfiles. Wheninvokedass h ,BashentersPOSIXmodeafterthestartupfilesareread. InvokedinPOSIXmode WhenBashisstartedinPOSIXmode,aswiththep o s i x commandlineoption,itfollowsthePOSIXstandardforstartupfiles.Inthismode,interactive shellsexpandtheE N V variableandcommandsarereadandexecutedfromthefilewhosenameistheexpandedvalue.Nootherstartupfilesareread. Invokedbyremoteshelldaemon Bashattemptstodeterminewhenitisbeingrunwithitsstandardinputconnectedtoanetworkconnection,aswhenexecutedbytheremoteshell daemon,usuallyr s h d ,orthesecureshelldaemons s h d .IfBashdeterminesitisbeingruninthisfashion,itreadsandexecutescommandsfrom ~ / . b a s h r c ,ifthatfileexistsandisreadable.Itwillnotdothisifinvokedass h .Then o r c optionmaybeusedtoinhibitthisbehavior,andther c f i l e optionmaybeusedtoforceanotherfiletoberead,butr s h d doesnotgenerallyinvoketheshellwiththoseoptionsorallowthemtobe specified. InvokedwithunequaleffectiveandrealUID/GIDs IfBashisstartedwiththeeffectiveuser(group)idnotequaltotherealuser(group)id,andthep optionisnotsupplied,nostartupfilesareread,shell functionsarenotinheritedfromtheenvironment,theS H E L L O P T S ,B A S H O P T S ,C D P A T H ,andG L O B I G N O R E variables,iftheyappearintheenvironment,are ignored,andtheeffectiveuseridissettotherealuserid.Ifthep optionissuppliedatinvocation,thestartupbehavioristhesame,buttheeffective useridisnotreset. Next:BashConditionalExpressions,Previous:BashStartupFiles,Up:BashFeatures[Contents][Index]

6.3InteractiveShells
WhatisanInteractiveShell?: WhatdetermineswhetherashellisInteractive. IsthisShellInteractive?: Howtotellifashellisinteractive. InteractiveShellBehavior: Whatchangesinainteractiveshell? Next:IsthisShellInteractive?,Up:InteractiveShells[Contents][Index] 6.3.1WhatisanInteractiveShell? Aninteractiveshellisonestartedwithoutnonoptionarguments,unlesss isspecified,withoutspecifyingthec option,andwhoseinputanderror outputarebothconnectedtoterminals(asdeterminedbyi s a t t y ( 3 ) ),oronestartedwiththei option. Aninteractiveshellgenerallyreadsfromandwritestoausersterminal. Thes invocationoptionmaybeusedtosetthepositionalparameterswhenaninteractiveshellisstarted. Next:InteractiveShellBehavior,Previous:WhatisanInteractiveShell?,Up:InteractiveShells[Contents][Index] 6.3.2IsthisShellInteractive? TodeterminewithinastartupscriptwhetherornotBashisrunninginteractively,testthevalueofthespecialparameter.Itcontainsi whentheshell isinteractive.Forexample:
c a s e" $ "i n * i * ) e c h oT h i ss h e l li si n t e r a c t i v e; ; * ) e c h oT h i ss h e l li sn o ti n t e r a c t i v e; ; e s a c

Alternatively,startupscriptsmayexaminethevariableP S 1 itisunsetinnoninteractiveshells,andsetininteractiveshells.Thus:
i f[z" $ P S 1 "] ;t h e n e c h oT h i ss h e l li sn o ti n t e r a c t i v e e l s e e c h oT h i ss h e l li si n t e r a c t i v e f i

Previous:IsthisShellInteractive?,Up:InteractiveShells[Contents][Index]

6.3.3InteractiveShellBehavior Whentheshellisrunninginteractively,itchangesitsbehaviorinseveralways. 1. StartupfilesarereadandexecutedasdescribedinBashStartupFiles. 2. JobControl(seeJobControl)isenabledbydefault.Whenjobcontrolisineffect,Bashignoresthekeyboardgeneratedjobcontrolsignals S I G T T I N ,S I G T T O U ,andS I G T S T P . 3. BashexpandsanddisplaysP S 1 beforereadingthefirstlineofacommand,andexpandsanddisplaysP S 2 beforereadingthesecondand subsequentlinesofamultilinecommand. 4. BashexecutesthevalueoftheP R O M P T _ C O M M A N D variableasacommandbeforeprintingtheprimaryprompt,$ P S 1 (seeBashVariables). 5. Readline(seeCommandLineEditing)isusedtoreadcommandsfromtheusersterminal. 6. Bashinspectsthevalueofthei g n o r e e o f optiontos e to insteadofexitingimmediatelywhenitreceivesanE O F onitsstandardinputwhen readingacommand(seeTheSetBuiltin). 7. Commandhistory(seeBashHistoryFacilities)andhistoryexpansion(seeHistoryInteraction)areenabledbydefault.Bashwillsavethe commandhistorytothefilenamedby$ H I S T F I L E whenaninteractiveshellexits. 8. Aliasexpansion(seeAliases)isperformedbydefault. 9. Intheabsenceofanytraps,BashignoresS I G T E R M (seeSignals). 10. Intheabsenceofanytraps,S I G I N T iscaughtandhandled((seeSignals).S I G I N T willinterruptsomeshellbuiltins. 11. AninteractiveloginshellsendsaS I G H U P toalljobsonexitiftheh u p o n e x i t shelloptionhasbeenenabled(seeSignals). 12. Then invocationoptionisignored,ands e tn hasnoeffect(seeTheSetBuiltin). 13. Bashwillcheckformailperiodically,dependingonthevaluesoftheM A I L ,M A I L P A T H ,andM A I L C H E C K shellvariables(seeBashVariables). 14. Expansionerrorsduetoreferencestounboundshellvariablesafters e tu hasbeenenabledwillnotcausetheshelltoexit(seeTheSet Builtin). 15. Theshellwillnotexitonexpansionerrorscausedbyvarbeingunsetornullin$ { v a r : ? w o r d } expansions(seeShellParameterExpansion). 16. Redirectionerrorsencounteredbyshellbuiltinswillnotcausetheshelltoexit. 17. WhenrunninginPOSIXmode,aspecialbuiltinreturninganerrorstatuswillnotcausetheshelltoexit(seeBashPOSIXMode). 18. Afailede x e c willnotcausetheshelltoexit(seeBourneShellBuiltins). 19. Parsersyntaxerrorswillnotcausetheshelltoexit. 20. Simplespellingcorrectionfordirectoryargumentstothec d builtinisenabledbydefault(seethedescriptionofthec d s p e l l optiontothes h o p t builtininTheShoptBuiltin). 21. TheshellwillcheckthevalueoftheT M O U T variableandexitifacommandisnotreadwithinthespecifiednumberofsecondsafterprinting$ P S 1 (seeBashVariables). Next:ShellArithmetic,Previous:InteractiveShells,Up:BashFeatures[Contents][Index]

6.4BashConditionalExpressions
Conditionalexpressionsareusedbythe[ [ compoundcommandandthet e s t and[ builtincommands. Expressionsmaybeunaryorbinary.Unaryexpressionsareoftenusedtoexaminethestatusofafile.Therearestringoperatorsandnumeric comparisonoperatorsaswell.Ifthefileargumenttooneoftheprimariesisoftheform/ d e v / f d / N ,thenfiledescriptorNischecked.Ifthefile argumenttooneoftheprimariesisoneof/ d e v / s t d i n ,/ d e v / s t d o u t ,or/ d e v / s t d e r r ,filedescriptor0,1,or2,respectively,ischecked. Whenusedwith[ [ ,the< and> operatorssortlexicographicallyusingthecurrentlocale.Thet e s t commandusesASCIIordering. Unlessotherwisespecified,primariesthatoperateonfilesfollowsymboliclinksandoperateonthetargetofthelink,ratherthanthelinkitself.
af i l e

Trueiffileexists.
bf i l e

Trueiffileexistsandisablockspecialfile.
cf i l e

Trueiffileexistsandisacharacterspecialfile.
df i l e

Trueiffileexistsandisadirectory.
ef i l e

Trueiffileexists.
ff i l e

Trueiffileexistsandisaregularfile.
gf i l e

Trueiffileexistsanditssetgroupidbitisset.
hf i l e

Trueiffileexistsandisasymboliclink.
kf i l e

Trueiffileexistsandits"sticky"bitisset.
pf i l e

Trueiffileexistsandisanamedpipe(FIFO).
rf i l e

Trueiffileexistsandisreadable.
sf i l e

Trueiffileexistsandhasasizegreaterthanzero.
tf d

Trueiffiledescriptorfdisopenandreferstoaterminal.
uf i l e

Trueiffileexistsanditssetuseridbitisset.
wf i l e

Trueiffileexistsandiswritable.
xf i l e

Trueiffileexistsandisexecutable.
Gf i l e

Trueiffileexistsandisownedbytheeffectivegroupid.
Lf i l e

Trueiffileexistsandisasymboliclink.
Nf i l e

Trueiffileexistsandhasbeenmodifiedsinceitwaslastread.
Of i l e

Trueiffileexistsandisownedbytheeffectiveuserid.
Sf i l e

Trueiffileexistsandisasocket.
f i l e 1e ff i l e 2

Trueiffile1andfile2refertothesamedeviceandinodenumbers.
f i l e 1n tf i l e 2

Trueiffile1isnewer(accordingtomodificationdate)thanfile2,oriffile1existsandfile2doesnot.
f i l e 1o tf i l e 2

Trueiffile1isolderthanfile2,oriffile2existsandfile1doesnot.
oo p t n a m e

Trueiftheshelloptionoptnameisenabled.Thelistofoptionsappearsinthedescriptionoftheo optiontothes e t builtin(seeTheSetBuiltin).

vv a r n a m e

Trueiftheshellvariablevarnameisset(hasbeenassignedavalue).
zs t r i n g

Trueifthelengthofstringiszero.
ns t r i n g s t r i n g

Trueifthelengthofstringisnonzero.
s t r i n g 1= =s t r i n g 2

s t r i n g 1=s t r i n g 2

Trueifthestringsareequal.= shouldbeusedwiththet e s t commandforPOSIXconformance.

s t r i n g 1! =s t r i n g 2

Trueifthestringsarenotequal.
s t r i n g 1<s t r i n g 2

Trueifstring1sortsbeforestring2lexicographically.
s t r i n g 1>s t r i n g 2

Trueifstring1sortsafterstring2lexicographically.
a r g 1O Pa r g 2 O P isoneofe q ,n e ,l t ,l e ,g t ,org e .Thesearithmeticbinaryoperatorsreturntrueifarg1isequalto,notequalto,lessthan,

lessthanorequalto,greaterthan,orgreaterthanorequaltoarg2,respectively.Arg1andarg2maybepositiveornegativeintegers. Next:Aliases,Previous:BashConditionalExpressions,Up:BashFeatures[Contents][Index]

6.5ShellArithmetic
Theshellallowsarithmeticexpressionstobeevaluated,asoneoftheshellexpansionsorbythel e t andthei optiontothed e c l a r e builtins. Evaluationisdoneinfixedwidthintegerswithnocheckforoverflow,thoughdivisionby0istrappedandflaggedasanerror.Theoperatorsandtheir precedence,associativity,andvaluesarethesameasintheClanguage.Thefollowinglistofoperatorsisgroupedintolevelsofequalprecedence operators.Thelevelsarelistedinorderofdecreasingprecedence.
i d + +i d -

variablepostincrementandpostdecrement
+ + i di d

variablepreincrementandpredecrement
-+

unaryminusandplus
!~

logicalandbitwisenegation
* *

exponentiation
*/%

multiplication,division,remainder
+-

addition,subtraction
< <> >

leftandrightbitwiseshifts
< => =<>

comparison
= =! =

equalityandinequality
&

bitwiseAND
^

bitwiseexclusiveOR
|

bitwiseOR
& &

logicalAND
| |

logicalOR
e x p r?e x p r:e x p r

conditionaloperator
=* =/ =% =+ ==< < => > =& =^ =| =

assignment
e x p r 1,e x p r 2

comma Shellvariablesareallowedasoperandsparameterexpansionisperformedbeforetheexpressionisevaluated.Withinanexpression,shellvariablesmay alsobereferencedbynamewithoutusingtheparameterexpansionsyntax.Ashellvariablethatisnullorunsetevaluatesto0whenreferencedbyname withoutusingtheparameterexpansionsyntax.Thevalueofavariableisevaluatedasanarithmeticexpressionwhenitisreferenced,orwhenavariable whichhasbeengiventheintegerattributeusingd e c l a r ei isassignedavalue.Anullvalueevaluatesto0.Ashellvariableneednothaveits integerattributeturnedontobeusedinanexpression. Constantswithaleading0areinterpretedasoctalnumbers.Aleading0 x or0 X denoteshexadecimal.Otherwise,numberstaketheform[base# ]n, wheretheoptionalbaseisadecimalnumberbetween2and64representingthearithmeticbase,andnisanumberinthatbase.Ifbase# isomitted,then base10isused.Thedigitsgreaterthan9arerepresentedbythelowercaseletters,theuppercaseletters,@ ,and_ ,inthatorder.Ifbaseislessthanor equalto36,lowercaseanduppercaselettersmaybeusedinterchangeablytorepresentnumbersbetween10and35. Operatorsareevaluatedinorderofprecedence.Subexpressionsinparenthesesareevaluatedfirstandmayoverridetheprecedencerulesabove. Next:Arrays,Previous:ShellArithmetic,Up:BashFeatures[Contents][Index]

6.6Aliases
Aliasesallowastringtobesubstitutedforawordwhenitisusedasthefirstwordofasimplecommand.Theshellmaintainsalistofaliasesthatmaybe setandunsetwiththea l i a s andu n a l i a s builtincommands. Thefirstwordofeachsimplecommand,ifunquoted,ischeckedtoseeifithasanalias.Ifso,thatwordisreplacedbythetextofthealias.The characters/ ,$ ,` ,= andanyoftheshellmetacharactersorquotingcharacterslistedabovemaynotappearinanaliasname.Thereplacementtext maycontainanyvalidshellinput,includingshellmetacharacters.Thefirstwordofthereplacementtextistestedforaliases,butawordthatisidentical toanaliasbeingexpandedisnotexpandedasecondtime.Thismeansthatonemayaliasl s to" l sF " ,forinstance,andBashdoesnottryto recursivelyexpandthereplacementtext.Ifthelastcharacterofthealiasvalueisaspaceortabcharacter,thenthenextcommandwordfollowingthe aliasisalsocheckedforaliasexpansion. Aliasesarecreatedandlistedwiththea l i a s command,andremovedwiththeu n a l i a s command. Thereisnomechanismforusingargumentsinthereplacementtext,asinc s h .Ifargumentsareneeded,ashellfunctionshouldbeused(seeShell Functions). Aliasesarenotexpandedwhentheshellisnotinteractive,unlessthee x p a n d _ a l i a s e s shelloptionissetusings h o p t (seeTheShoptBuiltin). Therulesconcerningthedefinitionanduseofaliasesaresomewhatconfusing.Bashalwaysreadsatleastonecompletelineofinputbeforeexecuting anyofthecommandsonthatline.Aliasesareexpandedwhenacommandisread,notwhenitisexecuted.Therefore,analiasdefinitionappearingon thesamelineasanothercommanddoesnottakeeffectuntilthenextlineofinputisread.Thecommandsfollowingthealiasdefinitiononthatlineare notaffectedbythenewalias.Thisbehaviorisalsoanissuewhenfunctionsareexecuted.Aliasesareexpandedwhenafunctiondefinitionisread,not whenthefunctionisexecuted,becauseafunctiondefinitionisitselfacompoundcommand.Asaconsequence,aliasesdefinedinafunctionarenot availableuntilafterthatfunctionisexecuted.Tobesafe,alwaysputaliasdefinitionsonaseparateline,anddonotusea l i a s incompoundcommands. Foralmosteverypurpose,shellfunctionsarepreferredoveraliases. Next:TheDirectoryStack,Previous:Aliases,Up:BashFeatures[Contents][Index]

6.7Arrays
Bashprovidesonedimensionalindexedandassociativearrayvariables.Anyvariablemaybeusedasanindexedarraythed e c l a r e builtinwill explicitlydeclareanarray.Thereisnomaximumlimitonthesizeofanarray,noranyrequirementthatmembersbeindexedorassignedcontiguously. Indexedarraysarereferencedusingintegers(includingarithmeticexpressions(seeShellArithmetic)andarezerobasedassociativearraysusearbitrary strings. Anindexedarrayiscreatedautomaticallyifanyvariableisassignedtousingthesyntax

n a m e [ s u b s c r i p t ] = v a l u e

Thesubscriptistreatedasanarithmeticexpressionthatmustevaluatetoanumber.Ifsubscriptevaluatestoanumberlessthanzero,itisusedasan offsetfromonegreaterthanthearraysmaximumindex(soasubcriptof1referstothelastelementofthearray).Toexplicitlydeclareanarray,use
d e c l a r ean a m e

Thesyntax
d e c l a r ean a m e [ s u b s c r i p t ]

isalsoacceptedthesubscriptisignored. Associativearraysarecreatedusing
d e c l a r eAn a m e .

Attributesmaybespecifiedforanarrayvariableusingthed e c l a r e andr e a d o n l y builtins.Eachattributeappliestoallmembersofanarray. Arraysareassignedtousingcompoundassignmentsoftheform

n a m e = ( v a l u e 1v a l u e n )

whereeachvalueisoftheform[ s u b s c r i p t ] = string.Indexedarrayassignmentsdonotrequirethebracketandsubscript.Whenassigningtoindexed arrays,iftheoptionalsubscriptissupplied,thatindexisassignedtootherwisetheindexoftheelementassignedisthelastindexassignedtobythe statementplusone.Indexingstartsatzero. Whenassigningtoanassociativearray,thesubscriptisrequired. Thissyntaxisalsoacceptedbythed e c l a r e builtin.Individualarrayelementsmaybeassignedtousingthen a m e [ subscript] = valuesyntaxintroduced above. Anyelementofanarraymaybereferencedusing$ { n a m e [ subscript] } .Thebracesarerequiredtoavoidconflictswiththeshellsfilenameexpansion operators.Ifthesubscriptis@ or* ,thewordexpandstoallmembersofthearrayname.Thesesubscriptsdifferonlywhenthewordappearswithin doublequotes.Ifthewordisdoublequoted,$ { n a m e [ * ] } expandstoasinglewordwiththevalueofeacharraymemberseparatedbythefirstcharacter oftheI F S variable,and$ { n a m e [ @ ] } expandseachelementofnametoaseparateword.Whentherearenoarraymembers,$ { n a m e [ @ ] } expandsto nothing.Ifthedoublequotedexpansionoccurswithinaword,theexpansionofthefirstparameterisjoinedwiththebeginningpartoftheoriginal word,andtheexpansionofthelastparameterisjoinedwiththelastpartoftheoriginalword.Thisisanalogoustotheexpansionofthespecial parameters@ and* .$ { # n a m e [ subscript] } expandstothelengthof$ { n a m e [ subscript] } .Ifsubscriptis@ or* ,theexpansionisthenumberof elementsinthearray.Referencinganarrayvariablewithoutasubscriptisequivalenttoreferencingwithasubscriptof0. Anarrayvariableisconsideredsetifasubscripthasbeenassignedavalue.Thenullstringisavalidvalue. Theu n s e t builtinisusedtodestroyarrays.u n s e t name[subscript]destroysthearrayelementatindexsubscript.Caremustbetakentoavoidunwanted sideeffectscausedbyfilenameexpansion.u n s e t name,wherenameisanarray,removestheentirearray.Asubscriptof* or@ alsoremovesthe entirearray. Thed e c l a r e ,l o c a l ,andr e a d o n l y builtinseachacceptaa optiontospecifyanindexedarrayandaA optiontospecifyanassociativearray.Ifboth optionsaresupplied,A takesprecedence.Ther e a d builtinacceptsaa optiontoassignalistofwordsreadfromthestandardinputtoanarray,and canreadvaluesfromthestandardinputintoindividualarrayelements.Thes e t andd e c l a r e builtinsdisplayarrayvaluesinawaythatallowsthemto bereusedasinput. Next:PrintingaPrompt,Previous:Arrays,Up:BashFeatures[Contents][Index]

6.8TheDirectoryStack
DirectoryStackBuiltins: Bashbuiltincommandstomanipulatethedirectorystack. Thedirectorystackisalistofrecentlyvisiteddirectories.Thep u s h d builtinaddsdirectoriestothestackasitchangesthecurrentdirectory,andthe p o p d builtinremovesspecifieddirectoriesfromthestackandchangesthecurrentdirectorytothedirectoryremoved.Thed i r s builtindisplaysthe contentsofthedirectorystack. ThecontentsofthedirectorystackarealsovisibleasthevalueoftheD I R S T A C K shellvariable. Up:TheDirectoryStack[Contents][Index] 6.8.1DirectoryStackBuiltins
d i r s d i r s[ + N|N ][ c l p v ]

Displaythelistofcurrentlyremembereddirectories.Directoriesareaddedtothelistwiththep u s h d commandthep o p d commandremoves directoriesfromthelist.

+ N

DisplaystheNthdirectory(countingfromtheleftofthelistprintedbyd i r s wheninvokedwithoutoptions),startingwithzero.
N

DisplaystheNthdirectory(countingfromtherightofthelistprintedbyd i r s wheninvokedwithoutoptions),startingwithzero.
c

Clearsthedirectorystackbydeletingalloftheelements.
l

Producesalongerlistingthedefaultlistingformatusesatildetodenotethehomedirectory.
p

Causesd i r s toprintthedirectorystackwithoneentryperline.
v

Causesd i r s toprintthedirectorystackwithoneentryperline,prefixingeachentrywithitsindexinthestack.
p o p d p o p d[ + N|N ][ n ]

Removethetopentryfromthedirectorystack,andc d tothenewtopdirectory.Whennoargumentsaregiven,p o p d removesthetopdirectory fromthestackandperformsac d tothenewtopdirectory.Theelementsarenumberedfrom0startingatthefirstdirectorylistedwithd i r s i.e., p o p d isequivalenttop o p d+ 0 .

+ N

RemovestheNthdirectory(countingfromtheleftofthelistprintedbyd i r s ),startingwithzero.
N

RemovestheNthdirectory(countingfromtherightofthelistprintedbyd i r s ),startingwithzero.
n

Suppressesthenormalchangeofdirectorywhenremovingdirectoriesfromthestack,sothatonlythestackismanipulated.
p u s h d p u s h d[ n ][ + N|N|d i r]

Savethecurrentdirectoryonthetopofthedirectorystackandthenc d todir.Withnoarguments,p u s h d exchangesthetoptwodirectories.

n

Suppressesthenormalchangeofdirectorywhenaddingdirectoriestothestack,sothatonlythestackismanipulated.
+ N

BringstheNthdirectory(countingfromtheleftofthelistprintedbyd i r s ,startingwithzero)tothetopofthelistbyrotatingthestack.
N

BringstheNthdirectory(countingfromtherightofthelistprintedbyd i r s ,startingwithzero)tothetopofthelistbyrotatingthestack.
d i r

Makesthecurrentworkingdirectorybethetopofthestack,andthenexecutestheequivalentofc d dir.c d stodir. Next:TheRestrictedShell,Previous:TheDirectoryStack,Up:BashFeatures[Contents][Index]

6.9ControllingthePrompt
ThevalueofthevariableP R O M P T _ C O M M A N D isexaminedjustbeforeBashprintseachprimaryprompt.IfP R O M P T _ C O M M A N D issetandhasanonnull value,thenthevalueisexecutedjustasifithadbeentypedonthecommandline. Inaddition,thefollowingtabledescribesthespecialcharacterswhichcanappearinthepromptvariables:
\ a

Abellcharacter.
\ d

Thedate,in"WeekdayMonthDate"format(e.g.,"TueMay26").
\ D { f o r m a t }

Theformatispassedtos t r f t i m e (3)andtheresultisinsertedintothepromptstringanemptyformatresultsinalocalespecifictime representation.Thebracesarerequired.

\ e

Anescapecharacter.
\ h

Thehostname,uptothefirst..
\ H

Thehostname.
\ j

Thenumberofjobscurrentlymanagedbytheshell.
\ l

Thebasenameoftheshellsterminaldevicename.
\ n

Anewline.
\ r

Acarriagereturn.
\ s

Thenameoftheshell,thebasenameof$ 0 (theportionfollowingthefinalslash).
\ t

Thetime,in24hourHH:MM:SSformat.
\ T

Thetime,in12hourHH:MM:SSformat.
\ @

Thetime,in12houram/pmformat.
\ A

Thetime,in24hourHH:MMformat.
\ u

Theusernameofthecurrentuser.
\ v

TheversionofBash(e.g.,2.00)
\ V

ThereleaseofBash,version+patchlevel(e.g.,2.00.0)
\ w

Thecurrentworkingdirectory,with$ H O M E abbreviatedwithatilde(usesthe$ P R O M P T _ D I R T R I M variable).

\ W

Thebasenameof$ P W D ,with$ H O M E abbreviatedwithatilde.

\ !

Thehistorynumberofthiscommand.
\ #

Thecommandnumberofthiscommand.
\ $

Iftheeffectiveuidis0,# ,otherwise$ .
\ n n n

ThecharacterwhoseASCIIcodeistheoctalvaluennn.
\ \

Abackslash.
\ [

Beginasequenceofnonprintingcharacters.Thiscouldbeusedtoembedaterminalcontrolsequenceintotheprompt.
\ ]

Endasequenceofnonprintingcharacters. Thecommandnumberandthehistorynumberareusuallydifferent:thehistorynumberofacommandisitspositioninthehistorylist,whichmay includecommandsrestoredfromthehistoryfile(seeBashHistoryFacilities),whilethecommandnumberisthepositioninthesequenceofcommands executedduringthecurrentshellsession. Afterthestringisdecoded,itisexpandedviaparameterexpansion,commandsubstitution,arithmeticexpansion,andquoteremoval,subjecttothe valueofthep r o m p t v a r s shelloption(seeBashBuiltins). Next:BashPOSIXMode,Previous:PrintingaPrompt,Up:BashFeatures[Contents][Index]

6.10TheRestrictedShell
IfBashisstartedwiththenamer b a s h ,orther e s t r i c t e d orr optionissuppliedatinvocation,theshellbecomesrestricted.Arestrictedshellis usedtosetupanenvironmentmorecontrolledthanthestandardshell.Arestrictedshellbehavesidenticallytob a s h withtheexceptionthatthe followingaredisallowedornotperformed: Changingdirectorieswiththec d builtin. SettingorunsettingthevaluesoftheS H E L L ,P A T H ,E N V ,orB A S H _ E N V variables. Specifyingcommandnamescontainingslashes. Specifyingafilenamecontainingaslashasanargumenttothe. builtincommand. Specifyingafilenamecontainingaslashasanargumenttothep optiontotheh a s h builtincommand. Importingfunctiondefinitionsfromtheshellenvironmentatstartup. ParsingthevalueofS H E L L O P T S fromtheshellenvironmentatstartup. Redirectingoutputusingthe> ,> | ,< > ,> & ,& > ,and> > redirectionoperators. Usingthee x e c builtintoreplacetheshellwithanothercommand. Addingordeletingbuiltincommandswiththef andd optionstothee n a b l e builtin. Usingthee n a b l e builtincommandtoenabledisabledshellbuiltins. Specifyingthep optiontothec o m m a n d builtin. Turningoffrestrictedmodewiths e t+ r ors e t+ or e s t r i c t e d . Theserestrictionsareenforcedafteranystartupfilesareread. Whenacommandthatisfoundtobeashellscriptisexecuted(seeShellScripts),r b a s h turnsoffanyrestrictionsintheshellspawnedtoexecutethe script. Previous:TheRestrictedShell,Up:BashFeatures[Contents][Index]

6.11BashPOSIXMode
StartingBashwiththep o s i x commandlineoptionorexecutings e top o s i x whileBashisrunningwillcauseBashtoconformmorecloselyto thePOSIXstandardbychangingthebehaviortomatchthatspecifiedbyPOSIXinareaswheretheBashdefaultdiffers. Wheninvokedass h ,BashentersPOSIXmodeafterreadingthestartupfiles. ThefollowinglistiswhatschangedwhenPOSIXmodeisineffect: 1. Whenacommandinthehashtablenolongerexists,Bashwillresearch$ P A T H tofindthenewlocation.Thisisalsoavailablewiths h o p ts c h e c k h a s h . 2. ThemessageprintedbythejobcontrolcodeandbuiltinswhenajobexitswithanonzerostatusisDone(status). 3. ThemessageprintedbythejobcontrolcodeandbuiltinswhenajobisstoppedisStopped(signame),wheresignameis,forexample,S I G T S T P . 4. Theb g builtinusestherequiredformattodescribeeachjobplacedinthebackground,whichdoesnotincludeanindicationofwhetherthejobis thecurrentorpreviousjob. 5. Reservedwordsappearinginacontextwherereservedwordsarerecognizeddonotundergoaliasexpansion. 6. ThePOSIXP S 1 andP S 2 expansionsof! tothehistorynumberand! ! to! areenabled,andparameterexpansionisperformedonthevalues ofP S 1 andP S 2 regardlessofthesettingofthep r o m p t v a r s option. 7. ThePOSIXstartupfilesareexecuted($ E N V )ratherthanthenormalBashfiles. 8. Tildeexpansionisonlyperformedonassignmentsprecedingacommandname,ratherthanonallassignmentstatementsontheline. 9. Thedefaulthistoryfileis~ / . s h _ h i s t o r y (thisisthedefaultvalueof$ H I S T F I L E ). 10. Theoutputofk i l ll printsallthesignalnamesonasingleline,separatedbyspaces,withouttheS I G prefix. 11. Thek i l l builtindoesnotacceptsignalnameswithaS I G prefix. 12. Noninteractiveshellsexitiffilenamein. filenameisnotfound.

13. Noninteractiveshellsexitifasyntaxerrorinanarithmeticexpansionresultsinaninvalidexpression. 14. Noninteractiveshellsexitifthereisasyntaxerrorinascriptreadwiththe. ors o u r c e builtins,orinastringprocessedbythee v a l builtin. 15. Redirectionoperatorsdonotperformfilenameexpansiononthewordintheredirectionunlesstheshellisinteractive. 16. Redirectionoperatorsdonotperformwordsplittingonthewordintheredirection. 17. Functionnamesmustbevalidshelln a m e s.Thatis,theymaynotcontaincharactersotherthanletters,digits,andunderscores,andmaynotstart withadigit.Declaringafunctionwithaninvalidnamecausesafatalsyntaxerrorinnoninteractiveshells. 18. POSIXspecialbuiltinsarefoundbeforeshellfunctionsduringcommandlookup. 19. Thet i m e reservedwordmaybeusedbyitselfasacommand.Whenusedinthisway,itdisplaystimingstatisticsfortheshellanditscompleted children.TheT I M E F O R M A T variablecontrolstheformatofthetiminginformation. 20. Whenparsingandexpandinga${}expansionthatappearswithindoublequotes,singlequotesarenolongerspecialandcannotbeusedto quoteaclosingbraceorotherspecialcharacter,unlesstheoperatorisoneofthosedefinedtoperformpatternremoval.Inthiscase,theydonot havetoappearasmatchedpairs. 21. Theparserdoesnotrecognizet i m e asareservedwordifthenexttokenbeginswitha. 22. IfaPOSIXspecialbuiltinreturnsanerrorstatus,anoninteractiveshellexits.ThefatalerrorsarethoselistedinthePOSIXstandard,andinclude thingslikepassingincorrectoptions,redirectionerrors,variableassignmenterrorsforassignmentsprecedingthecommandname,andsoon. 23. Anoninteractiveshellexitswithanerrorstatusifavariableassignmenterroroccurswhennocommandnamefollowstheassignmentstatements. Avariableassignmenterroroccurs,forexample,whentryingtoassignavaluetoareadonlyvariable. 24. Anoninteractiveshellexistswithanerrorstatusifavariableassignmenterroroccursinanassignmentstatementprecedingaspecialbuiltin,but notwithanyothersimplecommand. 25. Anoninteractiveshellexitswithanerrorstatusiftheiterationvariableinaf o r statementortheselectionvariableinas e l e c t statementisa readonlyvariable. 26. Processsubstitutionisnotavailable. 27. AssignmentstatementsprecedingPOSIXspecialbuiltinspersistintheshellenvironmentafterthebuiltincompletes. 28. Assignmentstatementsprecedingshellfunctioncallspersistintheshellenvironmentafterthefunctionreturns,asifaPOSIXspecialbuiltin commandhadbeenexecuted. 29. Thee x p o r t andr e a d o n l y builtincommandsdisplaytheiroutputintheformatrequiredbyPOSIX. 30. Thet r a p builtindisplayssignalnameswithouttheleadingS I G . 31. Thet r a p builtindoesntcheckthefirstargumentforapossiblesignalspecificationandrevertthesignalhandlingtotheoriginaldispositionifit is,unlessthatargumentconsistssolelyofdigitsandisavalidsignalnumber.Ifuserswanttoresetthehandlerforagivensignaltotheoriginal disposition,theyshoulduseasthefirstargument. 32. The. ands o u r c e builtinsdonotsearchthecurrentdirectoryforthefilenameargumentifitisnotfoundbysearchingP A T H . 33. Subshellsspawnedtoexecutecommandsubstitutionsinheritthevalueofthee optionfromtheparentshell.WhennotinPOSIXmode,Bash clearsthee optioninsuchsubshells. 34. Aliasexpansionisalwaysenabled,eveninnoninteractiveshells. 35. Whenthea l i a s builtindisplaysaliasdefinitions,itdoesnotdisplaythemwithaleadinga l i a s unlessthep optionissupplied. 36. Whenthes e t builtinisinvokedwithoutoptions,itdoesnotdisplayshellfunctionnamesanddefinitions. 37. Whenthes e t builtinisinvokedwithoutoptions,itdisplaysvariablevalueswithoutquotes,unlesstheycontainshellmetacharacters,evenifthe resultcontainsnonprintingcharacters. 38. Whenthec d builtinisinvokedinlogicalmode,andthepathnameconstructedfrom$ P W D andthedirectorynamesuppliedasanargumentdoes notrefertoanexistingdirectory,c d willfailinsteadoffallingbacktophysicalmode. 39. Thep w d builtinverifiesthatthevalueitprintsisthesameasthecurrentdirectory,evenifitisnotaskedtocheckthefilesystemwiththeP option. 40. Whenlistingthehistory,thef c builtindoesnotincludeanindicationofwhetherornotahistoryentryhasbeenmodified. 41. Thedefaulteditorusedbyf c ise d . 42. Thet y p e andc o m m a n d builtinswillnotreportanonexecutablefileashavingbeenfound,thoughtheshellwillattempttoexecutesuchafileifit istheonlysonamedfilefoundin$ P A T H . 43. Thev i editingmodewillinvokethev i editordirectlywhenthev commandisrun,insteadofchecking$ V I S U A L and$ E D I T O R . 44. Whenthex p g _ e c h o optionisenabled,Bashdoesnotattempttointerpretanyargumentstoe c h o asoptions.Eachargumentisdisplayed,after escapecharactersareconverted. 45. Theu l i m i t builtinusesablocksizeof512bytesforthec andf options. 46. ThearrivalofS I G C H L D whenatrapissetonS I G C H L D doesnotinterruptthew a i t builtinandcauseittoreturnimmediately.Thetrapcommandis runonceforeachchildthatexits. ThereisotherPOSIXbehaviorthatBashdoesnotimplementbydefaultevenwheninPOSIXmode.Specifically: 1. Thef c builtinchecks$ E D I T O R asaprogramtoedithistoryentriesifF C E D I T isunset,ratherthandefaultingdirectlytoe d .f c usese d ifE D I T O R is unset. 2. Asnotedabove,Bashrequiresthex p g _ e c h o optiontobeenabledforthee c h o builtintobefullyconformant. BashcanbeconfiguredtobePOSIXconformantbydefault,byspecifyingthee n a b l e s t r i c t p o s i x d e f a u l t toc o n f i g u r e whenbuilding(see OptionalFeatures). Next:CommandLineEditing,Previous:BashFeatures,Up:Top[Contents][Index]

7JobControl
Thischapterdiscusseswhatjobcontrolis,howitworks,andhowBashallowsyoutoaccessitsfacilities. JobControlBasics: Howjobcontrolworks. JobControlBuiltins: Bashbuiltincommandsusedtointeractwithjobcontrol. JobControlVariables: VariablesBashusestocustomizejobcontrol.

Next:JobControlBuiltins,Up:JobControl[Contents][Index]

7.1JobControlBasics
Jobcontrolreferstotheabilitytoselectivelystop(suspend)theexecutionofprocessesandcontinue(resume)theirexecutionatalaterpoint.Auser typicallyemploysthisfacilityviaaninteractiveinterfacesuppliedjointlybytheoperatingsystemkernelsterminaldriverandBash. Theshellassociatesajobwitheachpipeline.Itkeepsatableofcurrentlyexecutingjobs,whichmaybelistedwiththej o b s command.WhenBash startsajobasynchronously,itprintsalinethatlookslike:
[ 1 ]2 5 6 4 7

indicatingthatthisjobisjobnumber1andthattheprocessIDofthelastprocessinthepipelineassociatedwiththisjobis25647.Alloftheprocessesin asinglepipelinearemembersofthesamejob.Bashusesthejobabstractionasthebasisforjobcontrol. Tofacilitatetheimplementationoftheuserinterfacetojobcontrol,theoperatingsystemmaintainsthenotionofacurrentterminalprocessgroupID. Membersofthisprocessgroup(processeswhoseprocessgroupIDisequaltothecurrentterminalprocessgroupID)receivekeyboardgeneratedsignals suchasS I G I N T .Theseprocessesaresaidtobeintheforeground.BackgroundprocessesarethosewhoseprocessgroupIDdiffersfromtheterminals suchprocessesareimmunetokeyboardgeneratedsignals.Onlyforegroundprocessesareallowedtoreadfromor,iftheusersospecifieswiths t t y t o s t o p ,writetotheterminal.Backgroundprocesseswhichattempttoreadfrom(writetowhens t t yt o s t o p isineffect)theterminalaresenta S I G T T I N (S I G T T O U )signalbythekernelsterminaldriver,which,unlesscaught,suspendstheprocess. IftheoperatingsystemonwhichBashisrunningsupportsjobcontrol,Bashcontainsfacilitiestouseit.Typingthesuspendcharacter(typically^ Z , ControlZ)whileaprocessisrunningcausesthatprocesstobestoppedandreturnscontroltoBash.Typingthedelayedsuspendcharacter(typically ^ Y ,ControlY)causestheprocesstobestoppedwhenitattemptstoreadinputfromtheterminal,andcontroltobereturnedtoBash.Theuserthen manipulatesthestateofthisjob,usingtheb g commandtocontinueitinthebackground,thef g commandtocontinueitintheforeground,orthek i l l commandtokillit.A^ Z takeseffectimmediately,andhastheadditionalsideeffectofcausingpendingoutputandtypeaheadtobediscarded. Thereareanumberofwaystorefertoajobintheshell.Thecharacter% introducesajobspecification(jobspec). Jobnumbern maybereferredtoas% n .Thesymbols% % and% + refertotheshellsnotionofthecurrentjob,whichisthelastjobstoppedwhileit wasintheforegroundorstartedinthebackground.Asingle% (withnoaccompanyingjobspecification)alsoreferstothecurrentjob.Theprevious jobmaybereferencedusing% .Ifthereisonlyasinglejob,% + and% canbothbeusedtorefertothatjob.Inoutputpertainingtojobs(e.g.,the outputofthej o b s command),thecurrentjobisalwaysflaggedwitha+ ,andthepreviousjobwitha. Ajobmayalsobereferredtousingaprefixofthenameusedtostartit,orusingasubstringthatappearsinitscommandline.Forexample,% c e refers toastoppedc e job.Using% ? c e ,ontheotherhand,referstoanyjobcontainingthestringc e initscommandline.Iftheprefixorsubstringmatches morethanonejob,Bashreportsanerror. Simplynamingajobcanbeusedtobringitintotheforeground:% 1 isasynonymforf g% 1 ,bringingjob1fromthebackgroundintothe foreground.Similarly,% 1& resumesjob1inthebackground,equivalenttob g% 1 Theshelllearnsimmediatelywheneverajobchangesstate.Normally,Bashwaitsuntilitisabouttoprintapromptbeforereportingchangesinajobs statussoastonotinterruptanyotheroutput.Iftheb optiontothes e t builtinisenabled,Bashreportssuchchangesimmediately(seeTheSetBuiltin). AnytraponS I G C H L D isexecutedforeachchildprocessthatexits. IfanattempttoexitBashismadewhilejobsarestopped,(orrunning,ifthec h e c k j o b s optionisenabledseeTheShoptBuiltin),theshellprintsa warningmessage,andifthec h e c k j o b s optionisenabled,liststhejobsandtheirstatuses.Thej o b s commandmaythenbeusedtoinspecttheirstatus. Ifasecondattempttoexitismadewithoutaninterveningcommand,Bashdoesnotprintanotherwarning,andanystoppedjobsareterminated. Next:JobControlVariables,Previous:JobControlBasics,Up:JobControl[Contents][Index]

7.2JobControlBuiltins
b g b g[ j o b s p e c ]

Resumeeachsuspendedjobjobspecinthebackground,asifithadbeenstartedwith& .Ifjobspecisnotsupplied,thecurrentjobisused.The returnstatusiszerounlessitisrunwhenjobcontrolisnotenabled,or,whenrunwithjobcontrolenabled,anyjobspecwasnotfoundorspecifies ajobthatwasstartedwithoutjobcontrol.

f g f g[ j o b s p e c ]

Resumethejobjobspecintheforegroundandmakeitthecurrentjob.Ifjobspecisnotsupplied,thecurrentjobisused.Thereturnstatusisthat ofthecommandplacedintotheforeground,ornonzeroifrunwhenjobcontrolisdisabledor,whenrunwithjobcontrolenabled,jobspecdoes notspecifyavalidjoborjobspecspecifiesajobthatwasstartedwithoutjobcontrol.

j o b s j o b s[ l n p r s ][ j o b s p e c ] j o b sxc o m m a n d[ a r g u m e n t s ]

Thefirstformliststheactivejobs.Theoptionshavethefollowingmeanings:

ListprocessIDsinadditiontothenormalinformation.
n

Displayinformationonlyaboutjobsthathavechangedstatussincetheuserwaslastnotifiedoftheirstatus.
p

ListonlytheprocessIDofthejobsprocessgroupleader.
r

Restrictoutputtorunningjobs.
s

Restrictoutputtostoppedjobs. Ifjobspecisgiven,outputisrestrictedtoinformationaboutthatjob.Ifjobspecisnotsupplied,thestatusofalljobsislisted. Ifthex optionissupplied,j o b s replacesanyjobspecfoundincommandorargumentswiththecorrespondingprocessgroupID,andexecutes command,passingitarguments,returningitsexitstatus.

k i l l k i l l[ ss i g s p e c ][ ns i g n u m ][ s i g s p e c ]j o b s p e co rp i d k i l ll[ e x i t _ s t a t u s ]

SendasignalspecifiedbysigspecorsignumtotheprocessnamedbyjobspecificationjobspecorprocessIDpid.sigspeciseitheracase insensitivesignalnamesuchasS I G I N T (withorwithouttheS I G prefix)orasignalnumbersignumisasignalnumber.Ifsigspecandsignumare notpresent,S I G T E R M isused.Thel optionliststhesignalnames.Ifanyargumentsaresuppliedwhenl isgiven,thenamesofthesignals correspondingtotheargumentsarelisted,andthereturnstatusiszero.exit_statusisanumberspecifyingasignalnumberortheexitstatusofa processterminatedbyasignal.Thereturnstatusiszeroifatleastonesignalwassuccessfullysent,ornonzeroifanerroroccursoraninvalid optionisencountered.
w a i t w a i t[ j o b s p e co rp i d. . . ]

WaituntilthechildprocessspecifiedbyeachprocessIDpidorjobspecificationjobspecexitsandreturntheexitstatusofthelastcommand waitedfor.Ifajobspecisgiven,allprocessesinthejobarewaitedfor.Ifnoargumentsaregiven,allcurrentlyactivechildprocessesarewaited for,andthereturnstatusiszero.Ifneitherjobspecnorpidspecifiesanactivechildprocessoftheshell,thereturnstatusis127.

d i s o w n d i s o w n[ a r ][ h ][ j o b s p e c ]

Withoutoptions,eachjobspecisremovedfromthetableofactivejobs.Iftheh optionisgiven,thejobisnotremovedfromthetable,butis markedsothatS I G H U P isnotsenttothejobiftheshellreceivesaS I G H U P .Ifjobspecisnotpresent,andneitherthea norr optionissupplied, thecurrentjobisused.Ifnojobspecissupplied,thea optionmeanstoremoveormarkalljobsther optionwithoutajobspecargument restrictsoperationtorunningjobs.
s u s p e n d s u s p e n d[ f ]

SuspendtheexecutionofthisshelluntilitreceivesaS I G C O N T signal.Aloginshellcannotbesuspendedthef optioncanbeusedtooverride thisandforcethesuspension. Whenjobcontrolisnotactive,thek i l l andw a i t builtinsdonotacceptjobspecarguments.TheymustbesuppliedprocessIDs. Previous:JobControlBuiltins,Up:JobControl[Contents][Index]

7.3JobControlVariables
a u t o _ r e s u m e

Thisvariablecontrolshowtheshellinteractswiththeuserandjobcontrol.Ifthisvariableexiststhensinglewordsimplecommandswithout redirectionsaretreatedascandidatesforresumptionofanexistingjob.Thereisnoambiguityallowedifthereismorethanonejobbeginning withthestringtyped,thenthemostrecentlyaccessedjobwillbeselected.Thenameofastoppedjob,inthiscontext,isthecommandlineusedto startit.Ifthisvariableissettothevaluee x a c t ,thestringsuppliedmustmatchthenameofastoppedjobexactlyifsettos u b s t r i n g ,the stringsuppliedneedstomatchasubstringofthenameofastoppedjob.Thes u b s t r i n g valueprovidesfunctionalityanalogoustothe% ? job ID(seeJobControlBasics).Ifsettoanyothervalue,thesuppliedstringmustbeaprefixofastoppedjobsnamethisprovidesfunctionality analogoustothe% jobID. Next:UsingHistoryInteractively,Previous:JobControl,Up:Top[Contents][Index]

8CommandLineEditing
ThischapterdescribesthebasicfeaturesoftheGNUcommandlineeditinginterface.CommandlineeditingisprovidedbytheReadlinelibrary,whichis usedbyseveraldifferentprograms,includingBash.Commandlineeditingisenabledbydefaultwhenusinganinteractiveshell,unlessthen o e d i t i n g optionissuppliedatshellinvocation.Lineeditingisalsousedwhenusingthee optiontother e a d builtincommand(seeBashBuiltins). Bydefault,thelineeditingcommandsaresimilartothoseofEmacs.Avistylelineeditinginterfaceisalsoavailable.Lineeditingcanbeenabledatany timeusingtheoe m a c s orov i optionstothes e t builtincommand(seeTheSetBuiltin),ordisabledusingthe+ oe m a c s or+ ov i optionstos e t . IntroductionandNotation: Notationusedinthistext. ReadlineInteraction: Theminimumsetofcommandsforeditingaline. ReadlineInitFile: CustomizingReadlinefromausersview. BindableReadlineCommands: AdescriptionofmostoftheReadlinecommandsavailableforbinding ReadlineviMode: AshortdescriptionofhowtomakeReadlinebehavelikethevieditor. ProgrammableCompletion: Howtospecifythepossiblecompletionsforaspecificcommand. ProgrammableCompletionBuiltins: Builtincommandstospecifyhowtocompleteargumentsforaparticularcommand. Next:ReadlineInteraction,Up:CommandLineEditing[Contents][Index]

8.1IntroductiontoLineEditing
Thefollowingparagraphsdescribethenotationusedtorepresentkeystrokes. ThetextC k isreadasControlKanddescribesthecharacterproducedwhenthek keyispressedwhiletheControlkeyisdepressed. ThetextM k isreadasMetaKanddescribesthecharacterproducedwhentheMetakey(ifyouhaveone)isdepressed,andthek keyispressed.The MetakeyislabeledA L T onmanykeyboards.OnkeyboardswithtwokeyslabeledA L T (usuallytoeithersideofthespacebar),theA L T ontheleftside isgenerallysettoworkasaMetakey.TheA L T keyontherightmayalsobeconfiguredtoworkasaMetakeyormaybeconfiguredassomeother modifier,suchasaComposekeyfortypingaccentedcharacters. IfyoudonothaveaMetaorA L T key,oranotherkeyworkingasaMetakey,theidenticalkeystrokecanbegeneratedbytypingE S C first,andthen typingk .Eitherprocessisknownasmetafyingthek key. ThetextM C k isreadasMetaControlkanddescribesthecharacterproducedbymetafyingC k . Inaddition,severalkeyshavetheirownnames.Specifically,D E L ,E S C ,L F D ,S P C ,R E T ,andT A B allstandforthemselveswhenseeninthistext,orinan initfile(seeReadlineInitFile).IfyourkeyboardlacksaL F D key,typingC j willproducethedesiredcharacter.TheR E T keymaybelabeledR e t u r n or E n t e r onsomekeyboards. Next:ReadlineInitFile,Previous:IntroductionandNotation,Up:CommandLineEditing[Contents][Index]

8.2ReadlineInteraction
Oftenduringaninteractivesessionyoutypeinalonglineoftext,onlytonoticethatthefirstwordonthelineismisspelled.TheReadlinelibrarygives youasetofcommandsformanipulatingthetextasyoutypeitin,allowingyoutojustfixyourtypo,andnotforcingyoutoretypethemajorityofthe line.Usingtheseeditingcommands,youmovethecursortotheplacethatneedscorrection,anddeleteorinsertthetextofthecorrections.Then,when youaresatisfiedwiththeline,yousimplypressR E T .YoudonothavetobeattheendofthelinetopressR E T theentirelineisacceptedregardlessof thelocationofthecursorwithintheline. ReadlineBareEssentials: TheleastyouneedtoknowaboutReadline. ReadlineMovementCommands: Movingabouttheinputline. ReadlineKillingCommands: Howtodeletetext,andhowtogetitback! ReadlineArguments: Givingnumericargumentstocommands. Searching: Searchingthroughpreviouslines. Next:ReadlineMovementCommands,Up:ReadlineInteraction[Contents][Index] 8.2.1ReadlineBareEssentials Inordertoentercharactersintotheline,simplytypethem.Thetypedcharacterappearswherethecursorwas,andthenthecursormovesonespaceto theright.Ifyoumistypeacharacter,youcanuseyourerasecharactertobackupanddeletethemistypedcharacter. Sometimesyoumaymistypeacharacter,andnotnoticetheerroruntilyouhavetypedseveralothercharacters.Inthatcase,youcantypeC b tomove thecursortotheleft,andthencorrectyourmistake.Afterwards,youcanmovethecursortotherightwithC f . Whenyouaddtextinthemiddleofaline,youwillnoticethatcharacterstotherightofthecursorarepushedovertomakeroomforthetextthatyou haveinserted.Likewise,whenyoudeletetextbehindthecursor,characterstotherightofthecursorarepulledbacktofillintheblankspacecreated bytheremovalofthetext.Alistofthebareessentialsforeditingthetextofaninputlinefollows.
C b

Movebackonecharacter.

C f

Moveforwardonecharacter.
D E L orB a c k s p a c e

Deletethecharactertotheleftofthecursor.
C d

Deletethecharacterunderneaththecursor. Printingcharacters Insertthecharacterintothelineatthecursor.

C _ orC xC u

Undothelasteditingcommand.Youcanundoallthewaybacktoanemptyline. (Dependingonyourconfiguration,theB a c k s p a c e keybesettodeletethecharactertotheleftofthecursorandtheD E L keysettodeletethecharacter underneaththecursor,likeC d ,ratherthanthecharactertotheleftofthecursor.) Next:ReadlineKillingCommands,Previous:ReadlineBareEssentials,Up:ReadlineInteraction[Contents][Index] 8.2.2ReadlineMovementCommands Theabovetabledescribesthemostbasickeystrokesthatyouneedinordertodoeditingoftheinputline.Foryourconvenience,manyothercommands havebeenaddedinadditiontoC b ,C f ,C d ,andD E L .Herearesomecommandsformovingmorerapidlyabouttheline.
C a

Movetothestartoftheline.
C e

Movetotheendoftheline.
M f

Moveforwardaword,whereawordiscomposedoflettersanddigits.
M b

Movebackwardaword.
C l

Clearthescreen,reprintingthecurrentlineatthetop. NoticehowC f movesforwardacharacter,whileM f movesforwardaword.Itisalooseconventionthatcontrolkeystrokesoperateoncharacters whilemetakeystrokesoperateonwords. Next:ReadlineArguments,Previous:ReadlineMovementCommands,Up:ReadlineInteraction[Contents][Index] 8.2.3ReadlineKillingCommands Killingtextmeanstodeletethetextfromtheline,buttosaveitawayforlateruse,usuallybyyanking(reinserting)itbackintotheline.(Cutand pastearemorerecentjargonforkillandyank.) Ifthedescriptionforacommandsaysthatitkillstext,thenyoucanbesurethatyoucangetthetextbackinadifferent(orthesame)placelater. Whenyouuseakillcommand,thetextissavedinakillring.Anynumberofconsecutivekillssaveallofthekilledtexttogether,sothatwhenyou yankitback,yougetitall.Thekillringisnotlinespecificthetextthatyoukilledonapreviouslytypedlineisavailabletobeyankedbacklater,when youaretypinganotherline. Hereisthelistofcommandsforkillingtext.
C k

Killthetextfromthecurrentcursorpositiontotheendoftheline.
M d

Killfromthecursortotheendofthecurrentword,or,ifbetweenwords,totheendofthenextword.Wordboundariesarethesameasthose usedbyM f .

M D E L

Killfromthecursorthestartofthecurrentword,or,ifbetweenwords,tothestartofthepreviousword.Wordboundariesarethesameasthose usedbyM b .
C w

Killfromthecursortothepreviouswhitespace.ThisisdifferentthanM D E L becausethewordboundariesdiffer. Hereishowtoyankthetextbackintotheline.Yankingmeanstocopythemostrecentlykilledtextfromthekillbuffer.

C y

Yankthemostrecentlykilledtextbackintothebufferatthecursor.
M y

Rotatethekillring,andyankthenewtop.YoucanonlydothisifthepriorcommandisC y orM y . Next:Searching,Previous:ReadlineKillingCommands,Up:ReadlineInteraction[Contents][Index] 8.2.4ReadlineArguments YoucanpassnumericargumentstoReadlinecommands.Sometimestheargumentactsasarepeatcount,othertimesitisthesignoftheargumentthat issignificant.Ifyoupassanegativeargumenttoacommandwhichnormallyactsinaforwarddirection,thatcommandwillactinabackwarddirection. Forexample,tokilltextbacktothestartoftheline,youmighttypeM -C k . Thegeneralwaytopassnumericargumentstoacommandistotypemetadigitsbeforethecommand.Ifthefirstdigittypedisaminussign(),then thesignoftheargumentwillbenegative.Onceyouhavetypedonemetadigittogettheargumentstarted,youcantypetheremainderofthedigits,and thenthecommand.Forexample,togivetheC d commandanargumentof10,youcouldtypeM 10C d ,whichwilldeletethenexttencharacters ontheinputline. Previous:ReadlineArguments,Up:ReadlineInteraction[Contents][Index] 8.2.5SearchingforCommandsintheHistory Readlineprovidescommandsforsearchingthroughthecommandhistory(seeBashHistoryFacilities)forlinescontainingaspecifiedstring.Thereare twosearchmodes:incrementalandnonincremental. Incrementalsearchesbeginbeforetheuserhasfinishedtypingthesearchstring.Aseachcharacterofthesearchstringistyped,Readlinedisplaysthe nextentryfromthehistorymatchingthestringtypedsofar.Anincrementalsearchrequiresonlyasmanycharactersasneededtofindthedesired historyentry.Tosearchbackwardinthehistoryforaparticularstring,typeC r .TypingC s searchesforwardthroughthehistory.Thecharacters presentinthevalueofthei s e a r c h t e r m i n a t o r s variableareusedtoterminateanincrementalsearch.Ifthatvariablehasnotbeenassignedavalue, theE S C andC J characterswillterminateanincrementalsearch.C g willabortanincrementalsearchandrestoretheoriginalline.Whenthesearchis terminated,thehistoryentrycontainingthesearchstringbecomesthecurrentline. Tofindothermatchingentriesinthehistorylist,typeC r orC s asappropriate.Thiswillsearchbackwardorforwardinthehistoryforthenextentry matchingthesearchstringtypedsofar.AnyotherkeysequenceboundtoaReadlinecommandwillterminatethesearchandexecutethatcommand. Forinstance,aR E T willterminatethesearchandaccepttheline,therebyexecutingthecommandfromthehistorylist.Amovementcommandwill terminatethesearch,makethelastlinefoundthecurrentline,andbeginediting. Readlineremembersthelastincrementalsearchstring.IftwoC r saretypedwithoutanyinterveningcharactersdefininganewsearchstring,any rememberedsearchstringisused. Nonincrementalsearchesreadtheentiresearchstringbeforestartingtosearchformatchinghistorylines.Thesearchstringmaybetypedbytheuseror bepartofthecontentsofthecurrentline. Next:BindableReadlineCommands,Previous:ReadlineInteraction,Up:CommandLineEditing[Contents][Index]

8.3ReadlineInitFile
AlthoughtheReadlinelibrarycomeswithasetofEmacslikekeybindingsinstalledbydefault,itispossibletouseadifferentsetofkeybindings.Any usercancustomizeprogramsthatuseReadlinebyputtingcommandsinaninputrcfile,conventionallyinhishomedirectory.Thenameofthisfileis takenfromthevalueoftheshellvariableI N P U T R C .Ifthatvariableisunset,thedefaultis~ / . i n p u t r c .Ifthatfiledoesnotexistorcannotberead,the ultimatedefaultis/ e t c / i n p u t r c . WhenaprogramwhichusestheReadlinelibrarystartsup,theinitfileisread,andthekeybindingsareset. Inaddition,theC xC r commandrereadsthisinitfile,thusincorporatinganychangesthatyoumighthavemadetoit. ReadlineInitFileSyntax: Syntaxforthecommandsintheinputrcfile. ConditionalInitConstructs: Conditionalkeybindingsintheinputrcfile.

SampleInitFile:

Anexampleinputrcfile.

Next:ConditionalInitConstructs,Up:ReadlineInitFile[Contents][Index] 8.3.1ReadlineInitFileSyntax ThereareonlyafewbasicconstructsallowedintheReadlineinitfile.Blanklinesareignored.Linesbeginningwitha# arecomments.Lines beginningwitha$ indicateconditionalconstructs(seeConditionalInitConstructs).Otherlinesdenotevariablesettingsandkeybindings. VariableSettings YoucanmodifytheruntimebehaviorofReadlinebyalteringthevaluesofvariablesinReadlineusingthes e t commandwithintheinitfile.The syntaxissimple:
s e tv a r i a b l ev a l u e

Here,forexample,ishowtochangefromthedefaultEmacslikekeybindingtousev i lineeditingcommands:
s e te d i t i n g m o d ev i

Variablenamesandvalues,whereappropriate,arerecognizedwithoutregardtocase.Unrecognizedvariablenamesareignored. Booleanvariables(thosethatcanbesettoonoroff)aresettoonifthevalueisnullorempty,on(caseinsensitive),or1.Anyothervalueresults inthevariablebeingsettooff. Theb i n dV commandliststhecurrentReadlinevariablenamesandvalues.SeeBashBuiltins. Agreatdealofruntimebehaviorischangeablewiththefollowingvariables.

b e l l s t y l e

ControlswhathappenswhenReadlinewantstoringtheterminalbell.Ifsetton o n e ,Readlineneverringsthebell.Ifsettov i s i b l e , Readlineusesavisiblebellifoneisavailable.Ifsettoa u d i b l e (thedefault),Readlineattemptstoringtheterminalsbell.

b i n d t t y s p e c i a l c h a r s

Ifsettoo n ,ReadlineattemptstobindthecontrolcharacterstreatedspeciallybythekernelsterminaldrivertotheirReadlineequivalents.
c o m m e n t b e g i n

Thestringtoinsertatthebeginningofthelinewhenthei n s e r t c o m m e n t commandisexecuted.Thedefaultvalueis" # " .

c o m p l e t i o n d i s p l a y w i d t h

Thenumberofscreencolumnsusedtodisplaypossiblematcheswhenperformingcompletion.Thevalueisignoredifitislessthan0or greaterthantheterminalscreenwidth.Avalueof0willcausematchestobedisplayedoneperline.Thedefaultvalueis1.
c o m p l e t i o n i g n o r e c a s e

Ifsettoo n ,Readlineperformsfilenamematchingandcompletioninacaseinsensitivefashion.Thedefaultvalueiso f f .
c o m p l e t i o n m a p c a s e

Ifsettoo n ,andcompletionignorecaseisenabled,Readlinetreatshyphens()andunderscores(_ )asequivalentwhenperforming caseinsensitivefilenamematchingandcompletion.

c o m p l e t i o n p r e f i x d i s p l a y l e n g t h

Thelengthincharactersofthecommonprefixofalistofpossiblecompletionsthatisdisplayedwithoutmodification.Whensettoavalue greaterthanzero,commonprefixeslongerthanthisvaluearereplacedwithanellipsiswhendisplayingpossiblecompletions.
c o m p l e t i o n q u e r y i t e m s

Thenumberofpossiblecompletionsthatdetermineswhentheuserisaskedwhetherthelistofpossibilitiesshouldbedisplayed.Ifthe numberofpossiblecompletionsisgreaterthanthisvalue,Readlinewillasktheuserwhetherornothewishestoviewthemotherwise, theyaresimplylisted.Thisvariablemustbesettoanintegervaluegreaterthanorequalto0.AnegativevaluemeansReadlineshould neverask.Thedefaultlimitis1 0 0 .

c o n v e r t m e t a

Ifsettoo n ,ReadlinewillconvertcharacterswiththeeighthbitsettoanASCIIkeysequencebystrippingtheeighthbitandprefixingan E S C character,convertingthemtoametaprefixedkeysequence.Thedefaultvalueiso n .

d i s a b l e c o m p l e t i o n

IfsettoO n ,Readlinewillinhibitwordcompletion.Completioncharacterswillbeinsertedintothelineasiftheyhadbeenmappedto s e l f i n s e r t .Thedefaultiso f f .

e d i t i n g m o d e

Thee d i t i n g m o d e variablecontrolswhichdefaultsetofkeybindingsisused.Bydefault,ReadlinestartsupinEmacseditingmode, wherethekeystrokesaremostsimilartoEmacs.Thisvariablecanbesettoeithere m a c s orv i .

e c h o c o n t r o l c h a r a c t e r s

Whensettoo n ,onoperatingsystemsthatindicatetheysupportit,readlineechoesacharactercorrespondingtoasignalgeneratedfrom thekeyboard.Thedefaultiso n .

e n a b l e k e y p a d

Whensettoo n ,Readlinewilltrytoenabletheapplicationkeypadwhenitiscalled.Somesystemsneedthistoenablethearrowkeys. Thedefaultiso f f .

e n a b l e m e t a k e y

Whensettoo n ,Readlinewilltrytoenableanymetamodifierkeytheterminalclaimstosupportwhenitiscalled.Onmanyterminals,the metakeyisusedtosendeightbitcharacters.Thedefaultiso n .

e x p a n d t i l d e

Ifsettoo n ,tildeexpansionisperformedwhenReadlineattemptswordcompletion.Thedefaultiso f f .
h i s t o r y p r e s e r v e p o i n t

Ifsettoo n ,thehistorycodeattemptstoplacethepoint(thecurrentcursorposition)atthesamelocationoneachhistorylineretrieved withp r e v i o u s h i s t o r y orn e x t h i s t o r y .Thedefaultiso f f .

h i s t o r y s i z e

Setthemaximumnumberofhistoryentriessavedinthehistorylist.Ifsettozero,thenumberofentriesinthehistorylistisnotlimited.
h o r i z o n t a l s c r o l l m o d e

Thisvariablecanbesettoeithero n oro f f .Settingittoo n meansthatthetextofthelinesbeingeditedwillscrollhorizontallyona singlescreenlinewhentheyarelongerthanthewidthofthescreen,insteadofwrappingontoanewscreenline.Bydefault,thisvariableis settoo f f .

i n p u t m e t a

Ifsettoo n ,Readlinewillenableeightbitinput(itwillnotcleartheeighthbitinthecharactersitreads),regardlessofwhattheterminal claimsitcansupport.Thedefaultvalueiso f f .Thenamem e t a f l a g isasynonymforthisvariable.

i s e a r c h t e r m i n a t o r s

Thestringofcharactersthatshouldterminateanincrementalsearchwithoutsubsequentlyexecutingthecharacterasacommand(see Searching).Ifthisvariablehasnotbeengivenavalue,thecharactersE S C andC J willterminateanincrementalsearch.

k e y m a p

SetsReadlinesideaofthecurrentkeymapforkeybindingcommands.Acceptablek e y m a p namesaree m a c s ,e m a c s s t a n d a r d ,e m a c s m e t a ,e m a c s c t l x ,v i ,v i m o v e ,v i c o m m a n d ,andv i i n s e r t .v i isequivalenttov i c o m m a n d e m a c s isequivalenttoe m a c s s t a n d a r d .Thedefaultvalueise m a c s .Thevalueofthee d i t i n g m o d e variablealsoaffectsthedefaultkeymap.

m a r k d i r e c t o r i e s

Ifsettoo n ,completeddirectorynameshaveaslashappended.Thedefaultiso n .
m a r k m o d i f i e d l i n e s

Thisvariable,whensettoo n ,causesReadlinetodisplayanasterisk(* )atthestartofhistorylineswhichhavebeenmodified.This variableiso f f bydefault.

m a r k s y m l i n k e d d i r e c t o r i e s

Ifsettoo n ,completednameswhicharesymboliclinkstodirectorieshaveaslashappended(subjecttothevalueofm a r k d i r e c t o r i e s ). Thedefaultiso f f .

m a t c h h i d d e n f i l e s

Thisvariable,whensettoo n ,causesReadlinetomatchfileswhosenamesbeginwitha. (hiddenfiles)whenperformingfilename completion.Ifsettoo f f ,theleading. mustbesuppliedbytheuserinthefilenametobecompleted.Thisvariableiso n bydefault.

m e n u c o m p l e t e d i s p l a y p r e f i x

Ifsettoo n ,menucompletiondisplaysthecommonprefixofthelistofpossiblecompletions(whichmaybeempty)beforecycling throughthelist.Thedefaultiso f f .

o u t p u t m e t a

Ifsettoo n ,Readlinewilldisplaycharacterswiththeeighthbitsetdirectlyratherthanasametaprefixedescapesequence.Thedefaultis o f f .

p a g e c o m p l e t i o n s

Ifsettoo n ,Readlineusesaninternalm o r e likepagertodisplayascreenfulofpossiblecompletionsatatime.Thisvariableiso n by default.

p r i n t c o m p l e t i o n s h o r i z o n t a l l y

Ifsettoo n ,Readlinewilldisplaycompletionswithmatchessortedhorizontallyinalphabeticalorder,ratherthandownthescreen.The defaultiso f f .

r e v e r t a l l a t n e w l i n e

Ifsettoo n ,Readlinewillundoallchangestohistorylinesbeforereturningwhena c c e p t l i n e isexecuted.Bydefault,historylinesmay bemodifiedandretainindividualundolistsacrosscallstor e a d l i n e .Thedefaultiso f f .

s h o w a l l i f a m b i g u o u s

Thisaltersthedefaultbehaviorofthecompletionfunctions.Ifsettoo n ,wordswhichhavemorethanonepossiblecompletioncausethe matchestobelistedimmediatelyinsteadofringingthebell.Thedefaultvalueiso f f .

s h o w a l l i f u n m o d i f i e d

Thisaltersthedefaultbehaviorofthecompletionfunctionsinafashionsimilartoshowallifambiguous.Ifsettoo n ,wordswhichhave morethanonepossiblecompletionwithoutanypossiblepartialcompletion(thepossiblecompletionsdontshareacommonprefix)cause thematchestobelistedimmediatelyinsteadofringingthebell.Thedefaultvalueiso f f .

s k i p c o m p l e t e d t e x t

Ifsettoo n ,thisaltersthedefaultcompletionbehaviorwheninsertingasinglematchintotheline.Itsonlyactivewhenperforming completioninthemiddleofaword.Ifenabled,readlinedoesnotinsertcharactersfromthecompletionthatmatchcharactersafterpointin thewordbeingcompleted,soportionsofthewordfollowingthecursorarenotduplicated.Forinstance,ifthisisenabled,attempting completionwhenthecursorisafterthee inM a k e f i l e willresultinM a k e f i l e ratherthanM a k e f i l e f i l e ,assumingthereisasingle possiblecompletion.Thedefaultvalueiso f f .
v i s i b l e s t a t s

Ifsettoo n ,acharacterdenotingafilestypeisappendedtothefilenamewhenlistingpossiblecompletions.Thedefaultiso f f . KeyBindings Thesyntaxforcontrollingkeybindingsintheinitfileissimple.Firstyouneedtofindthenameofthecommandthatyouwanttochange.The followingsectionscontaintablesofthecommandname,thedefaultkeybinding,ifany,andashortdescriptionofwhatthecommanddoes. Onceyouknowthenameofthecommand,simplyplaceonalineintheinitfilethenameofthekeyyouwishtobindthecommandto,acolon, andthenthenameofthecommand.Therecanbenospacebetweenthekeynameandthecolonthatwillbeinterpretedaspartofthekeyname. Thenameofthekeycanbeexpressedindifferentways,dependingonwhatyoufindmostcomfortable. Inadditiontocommandnames,readlineallowskeystobeboundtoastringthatisinsertedwhenthekeyispressed(amacro). Theb i n dp commanddisplaysReadlinefunctionnamesandbindingsinaformatthatcanputdirectlyintoaninitializationfile.SeeBash Builtins. keyname:functionnameormacro keynameisthenameofakeyspelledoutinEnglish.Forexample:
C o n t r o l u :u n i v e r s a l a r g u m e n t M e t a R u b o u t :b a c k w a r d k i l l w o r d C o n t r o l o :" >o u t p u t "

Intheaboveexample,C u isboundtothefunctionu n i v e r s a l a r g u m e n t ,M D E L isboundtothefunctionb a c k w a r d k i l l w o r d ,andC o isboundtorunthemacroexpressedontherighthandside(thatis,toinsertthetext> o u t p u t intotheline). Anumberofsymboliccharacternamesarerecognizedwhileprocessingthiskeybindingsyntax:DEL,ESC,ESCAPE,LFD,NEWLINE, RET,RETURN,RUBOUT,SPACE,SPC,andTAB. "keyseq":functionnameormacro keyseqdiffersfromkeynameaboveinthatstringsdenotinganentirekeysequencecanbespecified,byplacingthekeysequenceindouble quotes.SomeGNUEmacsstylekeyescapescanbeused,asinthefollowingexample,butthespecialcharacternamesarenotrecognized.
" \ C u " :u n i v e r s a l a r g u m e n t " \ C x \ C r " :r e r e a d i n i t f i l e " \ e [ 1 1 ~ " :" F u n c t i o nK e y1 "

Intheaboveexample,C u isagainboundtothefunctionu n i v e r s a l a r g u m e n t (justasitwasinthefirstexample),C xC r isboundto thefunctionr e r e a d i n i t f i l e ,andE S C[11~ isboundtoinsertthetextF u n c t i o nK e y1 . ThefollowingGNUEmacsstyleescapesequencesareavailablewhenspecifyingkeysequences:

\ C -

controlprefix
\ M -

metaprefix
\ e

anescapecharacter
\ \

backslash
\ " " ,adoublequotationmark \ ' ' ,asinglequoteorapostrophe

InadditiontotheGNUEmacsstyleescapesequences,asecondsetofbackslashescapesisavailable:
\ a

alert(bell)
\ b

backspace
\ d

delete
\ f

formfeed
\ n

newline
\ r

carriagereturn
\ t

horizontaltab
\ v

verticaltab
\ n n n

theeightbitcharacterwhosevalueistheoctalvaluennn(onetothreedigits)
\ x H H

theeightbitcharacterwhosevalueisthehexadecimalvalueHH(oneortwohexdigits) Whenenteringthetextofamacro,singleordoublequotesmustbeusedtoindicateamacrodefinition.Unquotedtextisassumedtobeafunction name.Inthemacrobody,thebackslashescapesdescribedaboveareexpanded.Backslashwillquoteanyothercharacterinthemacrotext, including" and' .Forexample,thefollowingbindingwillmakeC x\ insertasingle\ intotheline:

" \ C x \ \ " :" \ \ "

Next:SampleInitFile,Previous:ReadlineInitFileSyntax,Up:ReadlineInitFile[Contents][Index] 8.3.2ConditionalInitConstructs ReadlineimplementsafacilitysimilarinspirittotheconditionalcompilationfeaturesoftheCpreprocessorwhichallowskeybindingsandvariable settingstobeperformedastheresultoftests.Therearefourparserdirectivesused.

$ i f

The$ i f constructallowsbindingstobemadebasedontheeditingmode,theterminalbeingused,ortheapplicationusingReadline.Thetextof thetestextendstotheendofthelinenocharactersarerequiredtoisolateit.

m o d e

Them o d e = formofthe$ i f directiveisusedtotestwhetherReadlineisine m a c s orv i mode.Thismaybeusedinconjunctionwiththe s e tk e y m a p command,forinstance,tosetbindingsinthee m a c s s t a n d a r d ande m a c s c t l x keymapsonlyifReadlineisstartingoutin e m a c s mode.

t e r m

Thet e r m = formmaybeusedtoincludeterminalspecifickeybindings,perhapstobindthekeysequencesoutputbytheterminals functionkeys.Thewordontherightsideofthe= istestedagainstboththefullnameoftheterminalandtheportionoftheterminalname beforethefirst.Thisallowss u n tomatchboths u n ands u n c m d ,forinstance.

a p p l i c a t i o n

Theapplicationconstructisusedtoincludeapplicationspecificsettings.EachprogramusingtheReadlinelibrarysetstheapplication name,andyoucantestforaparticularvalue.Thiscouldbeusedtobindkeysequencestofunctionsusefulforaspecificprogram.For instance,thefollowingcommandaddsakeysequencethatquotesthecurrentorpreviouswordinBash:

$ i fB a s h #Q u o t et h ec u r r e n to rp r e v i o u sw o r d " \ C x q " :" \ e b \ " \ e f \ " " $ e n d i f $ e n d i f

Thiscommand,asseeninthepreviousexample,terminatesan$ i f command.
$ e l s e

Commandsinthisbranchofthe$ i f directiveareexecutedifthetestfails.
$ i n c l u d e

Thisdirectivetakesasinglefilenameasanargumentandreadscommandsandbindingsfromthatfile.Forexample,thefollowingdirectivereads from/ e t c / i n p u t r c :
$ i n c l u d e/ e t c / i n p u t r c

Previous:ConditionalInitConstructs,Up:ReadlineInitFile[Contents][Index] 8.3.3SampleInitFile Hereisanexampleofaninputrcfile.Thisillustrateskeybinding,variableassignment,andconditionalsyntax.

#T h i sf i l ec o n t r o l st h eb e h a v i o u ro fl i n ei n p u te d i t i n gf o r #p r o g r a m st h a tu s et h eG N UR e a d l i n el i b r a r y . E x i s t i n g #p r o g r a m si n c l u d eF T P ,B a s h ,a n dG D B . # #Y o uc a nr e r e a dt h ei n p u t r cf i l ew i t hC xC r . #L i n e sb e g i n n i n gw i t h' # 'a r ec o m m e n t s . # #F i r s t ,i n c l u d ea n ys y s t e m w i d eb i n d i n g sa n dv a r i a b l e #a s s i g n m e n t sf r o m/ e t c / I n p u t r c $ i n c l u d e/ e t c / I n p u t r c # #S e tv a r i o u sb i n d i n g sf o re m a c sm o d e . s e te d i t i n g m o d ee m a c s $ i fm o d e = e m a c s M e t a C o n t r o l h :b a c k w a r d k i l l w o r d # #A r r o wk e y si nk e y p a dm o d e # # " \ M O D " : b a c k w a r d c h a r # " \ M O C " : f o r w a r d c h a r # " \ M O A " : p r e v i o u s h i s t o r y # " \ M O B " : n e x t h i s t o r y # #A r r o wk e y si nA N S Im o d e # " \ M [ D " : b a c k w a r d c h a r " \ M [ C " : f o r w a r d c h a r " \ M [ A " : p r e v i o u s h i s t o r y " \ M [ B " : n e x t h i s t o r y # #A r r o wk e y si n8b i tk e y p a dm o d e # T e x ta f t e rt h ef u n c t i o nn a m ei si g n o r e d

# " \ M \ C O D " : b a c k w a r d c h a r # " \ M \ C O C " : f o r w a r d c h a r # " \ M \ C O A " : p r e v i o u s h i s t o r y # " \ M \ C O B " : n e x t h i s t o r y # #A r r o wk e y si n8b i tA N S Im o d e # # " \ M \ C [ D " : b a c k w a r d c h a r # " \ M \ C [ C " : f o r w a r d c h a r # " \ M \ C [ A " : p r e v i o u s h i s t o r y # " \ M \ C [ B " : n e x t h i s t o r y C q :q u o t e d i n s e r t $ e n d i f #A no l d s t y l eb i n d i n g . T h i sh a p p e n st ob et h ed e f a u l t . T A B :c o m p l e t e #M a c r o st h a ta r ec o n v e n i e n tf o rs h e l li n t e r a c t i o n $ i fB a s h #e d i tt h ep a t h " \ C x p " :" P A T H = $ { P A T H } \ e \ C e \ C a \ e f \ C f " #p r e p a r et ot y p eaq u o t e dw o r d#i n s e r to p e na n dc l o s ed o u b l eq u o t e s #a n dm o v et oj u s ta f t e rt h eo p e nq u o t e " \ C x \ " " :" \ " \ " \ C b " #i n s e r tab a c k s l a s h( t e s t i n gb a c k s l a s he s c a p e s #i ns e q u e n c e sa n dm a c r o s ) " \ C x \ \ " :" \ \ " #Q u o t et h ec u r r e n to rp r e v i o u sw o r d " \ C x q " :" \ e b \ " \ e f \ " " #A d dab i n d i n gt or e f r e s ht h el i n e ,w h i c hi su n b o u n d " \ C x r " :r e d r a w c u r r e n t l i n e #E d i tv a r i a b l eo nc u r r e n tl i n e . " \ M \ C v " :" \ C a \ C k $ \ C y \ M \ C e \ C a \ C y = " $ e n d i f #u s eav i s i b l eb e l li fo n ei sa v a i l a b l e s e tb e l l s t y l ev i s i b l e #d o n ' ts t r i pc h a r a c t e r st o7b i t sw h e nr e a d i n g s e ti n p u t m e t ao n #a l l o wi s o l a t i n 1c h a r a c t e r st ob ei n s e r t e dr a t h e r #t h a nc o n v e r t e dt op r e f i x m e t as e q u e n c e s s e tc o n v e r t m e t ao f f #d i s p l a yc h a r a c t e r sw i t ht h ee i g h t hb i ts e td i r e c t l y #r a t h e rt h a na sm e t a p r e f i x e dc h a r a c t e r s s e to u t p u t m e t ao n #i ft h e r ea r em o r et h a n1 5 0p o s s i b l ec o m p l e t i o n sf o r #aw o r d ,a s kt h eu s e ri fh ew a n t st os e ea l lo ft h e m s e tc o m p l e t i o n q u e r y i t e m s1 5 0 #F o rF T P $ i fF t p " \ C x g " :" g e t\ M ? " " \ C x t " :" p u t\ M ? " " \ M . " :y a n k l a s t a r g $ e n d i f

Next:ReadlineviMode,Previous:ReadlineInitFile,Up:CommandLineEditing[Contents][Index]

8.4BindableReadlineCommands
CommandsForMoving: Movingabouttheline. CommandsForHistory: Gettingatpreviouslines. CommandsForText: Commandsforchangingtext. CommandsForKilling: Commandsforkillingandyanking. NumericArguments: Specifyingnumericarguments,repeatcounts. CommandsForCompletion: GettingReadlinetodothetypingforyou. KeyboardMacros: Savingandreexecutingtypedcharacters MiscellaneousCommands: Othermiscellaneouscommands. ThissectiondescribesReadlinecommandsthatmaybeboundtokeysequences.Youcanlistyourkeybindingsbyexecutingb i n dP or,foramore terseformat,suitableforaninputrcfile,b i n dp .(SeeBashBuiltins.)Commandnameswithoutanaccompanyingkeysequenceareunboundby default. Inthefollowingdescriptions,pointreferstothecurrentcursorposition,andmarkreferstoacursorpositionsavedbythes e t m a r k command.Thetext betweenthepointandmarkisreferredtoastheregion. Next:CommandsForHistory,Up:BindableReadlineCommands[Contents][Index]

8.4.1CommandsForMoving
b e g i n n i n g o f l i n e( C a )

Movetothestartofthecurrentline.
e n d o f l i n e( C e )

Movetotheendoftheline.
f o r w a r d c h a r( C f )

Moveforwardacharacter.
b a c k w a r d c h a r( C b )

Movebackacharacter.
f o r w a r d w o r d( M f )

Moveforwardtotheendofthenextword.Wordsarecomposedoflettersanddigits.
b a c k w a r d w o r d( M b )

Movebacktothestartofthecurrentorpreviousword.Wordsarecomposedoflettersanddigits.
s h e l l f o r w a r d w o r d( )

Moveforwardtotheendofthenextword.Wordsaredelimitedbynonquotedshellmetacharacters.
s h e l l b a c k w a r d w o r d( )

Movebacktothestartofthecurrentorpreviousword.Wordsaredelimitedbynonquotedshellmetacharacters.
c l e a r s c r e e n( C l )

Clearthescreenandredrawthecurrentline,leavingthecurrentlineatthetopofthescreen.
r e d r a w c u r r e n t l i n e( )

Refreshthecurrentline.Bydefault,thisisunbound. Next:CommandsForText,Previous:CommandsForMoving,Up:BindableReadlineCommands[Contents][Index] 8.4.2CommandsForManipulatingTheHistory

a c c e p t l i n e( N e w l i n eo rR e t u r n )

Acceptthelineregardlessofwherethecursoris.Ifthislineisnonempty,addittothehistorylistaccordingtothesettingoftheH I S T C O N T R O L andH I S T I G N O R E variables.Ifthislineisamodifiedhistoryline,thenrestorethehistorylinetoitsoriginalstate.

p r e v i o u s h i s t o r y( C p )

Movebackthroughthehistorylist,fetchingthepreviouscommand.
n e x t h i s t o r y( C n )

Moveforwardthroughthehistorylist,fetchingthenextcommand.
b e g i n n i n g o f h i s t o r y( M < )

Movetothefirstlineinthehistory.
e n d o f h i s t o r y( M > )

Movetotheendoftheinputhistory,i.e.,thelinecurrentlybeingentered.
r e v e r s e s e a r c h h i s t o r y( C r )

Searchbackwardstartingatthecurrentlineandmovingupthroughthehistoryasnecessary.Thisisanincrementalsearch.
f o r w a r d s e a r c h h i s t o r y( C s )

Searchforwardstartingatthecurrentlineandmovingdownthroughthethehistoryasnecessary.Thisisanincrementalsearch.
n o n i n c r e m e n t a l r e v e r s e s e a r c h h i s t o r y( M p )

Searchbackwardstartingatthecurrentlineandmovingupthroughthehistoryasnecessaryusinganonincrementalsearchforastringsupplied bytheuser.
n o n i n c r e m e n t a l f o r w a r d s e a r c h h i s t o r y( M n )

Searchforwardstartingatthecurrentlineandmovingdownthroughthethehistoryasnecessaryusinganonincrementalsearchforastring suppliedbytheuser.
h i s t o r y s e a r c h f o r w a r d( )

Searchforwardthroughthehistoryforthestringofcharactersbetweenthestartofthecurrentlineandthepoint.Thisisanonincrementalsearch. Bydefault,thiscommandisunbound.
h i s t o r y s e a r c h b a c k w a r d( )

Searchbackwardthroughthehistoryforthestringofcharactersbetweenthestartofthecurrentlineandthepoint.Thisisanonincremental search.Bydefault,thiscommandisunbound.
y a n k n t h a r g( M C y )

Insertthefirstargumenttothepreviouscommand(usuallythesecondwordonthepreviousline)atpoint.Withanargumentn,insertthenth wordfromthepreviouscommand(thewordsinthepreviouscommandbeginwithword0).Anegativeargumentinsertsthenthwordfromthe endofthepreviouscommand.Oncetheargumentniscomputed,theargumentisextractedasifthe! n historyexpansionhadbeenspecified.

y a n k l a s t a r g( M .o rM _ )

Insertlastargumenttothepreviouscommand(thelastwordoftheprevioushistoryentry).Withanumericargument,behaveexactlylikey a n k n t h a r g .Successivecallstoy a n k l a s t a r g movebackthroughthehistorylist,insertingthelastword(orthewordspecifiedbytheargument tothefirstcall)ofeachlineinturn.Anynumericargumentsuppliedtothesesuccessivecallsdeterminesthedirectiontomovethroughthe history.Anegativeargumentswitchesthedirectionthroughthehistory(backorforward).Thehistoryexpansionfacilitiesareusedtoextractthe lastargument,asifthe! $ historyexpansionhadbeenspecified. Next:CommandsForKilling,Previous:CommandsForHistory,Up:BindableReadlineCommands[Contents][Index] 8.4.3CommandsForChangingText

d e l e t e c h a r( C d )

Deletethecharacteratpoint.Ifpointisatthebeginningoftheline,therearenocharactersintheline,andthelastcharactertypedwasnotbound tod e l e t e c h a r ,thenreturnEOF.

b a c k w a r d d e l e t e c h a r( R u b o u t )

Deletethecharacterbehindthecursor.Anumericargumentmeanstokillthecharactersinsteadofdeletingthem.
f o r w a r d b a c k w a r d d e l e t e c h a r( )

Deletethecharacterunderthecursor,unlessthecursorisattheendoftheline,inwhichcasethecharacterbehindthecursorisdeleted.By default,thisisnotboundtoakey.
q u o t e d i n s e r t( C qo rC v )

Addthenextcharactertypedtothelineverbatim.ThisishowtoinsertkeysequenceslikeC q ,forexample.
s e l f i n s e r t( a ,b ,A ,1 ,! , )

Insertyourself.
t r a n s p o s e c h a r s( C t )

Dragthecharacterbeforethecursorforwardoverthecharacteratthecursor,movingthecursorforwardaswell.Iftheinsertionpointisattheend oftheline,thenthistransposesthelasttwocharactersoftheline.Negativeargumentshavenoeffect.
t r a n s p o s e w o r d s( M t )

Dragthewordbeforepointpastthewordafterpoint,movingpointpastthatwordaswell.Iftheinsertionpointisattheendoftheline,this transposesthelasttwowordsontheline.
u p c a s e w o r d( M u )

Uppercasethecurrent(orfollowing)word.Withanegativeargument,uppercasethepreviousword,butdonotmovethecursor.
d o w n c a s e w o r d( M l )

Lowercasethecurrent(orfollowing)word.Withanegativeargument,lowercasethepreviousword,butdonotmovethecursor.
c a p i t a l i z e w o r d( M c )

Capitalizethecurrent(orfollowing)word.Withanegativeargument,capitalizethepreviousword,butdonotmovethecursor.
o v e r w r i t e m o d e( )

Toggleoverwritemode.Withanexplicitpositivenumericargument,switchestooverwritemode.Withanexplicitnonpositivenumeric argument,switchestoinsertmode.Thiscommandaffectsonlye m a c s modev i modedoesoverwritedifferently.Eachcalltor e a d l i n e ( ) starts

ininsertmode. Inoverwritemode,charactersboundtos e l f i n s e r t replacethetextatpointratherthanpushingthetexttotheright.Charactersboundto b a c k w a r d d e l e t e c h a r replacethecharacterbeforepointwithaspace. Bydefault,thiscommandisunbound. Next:NumericArguments,Previous:CommandsForText,Up:BindableReadlineCommands[Contents][Index] 8.4.4KillingAndYanking

k i l l l i n e( C k )

Killthetextfrompointtotheendoftheline.
b a c k w a r d k i l l l i n e( C xR u b o u t )

Killbackwardtothebeginningoftheline.
u n i x l i n e d i s c a r d( C u )

Killbackwardfromthecursortothebeginningofthecurrentline.
k i l l w h o l e l i n e( )

Killallcharactersonthecurrentline,nomatterwherepointis.Bydefault,thisisunbound.
k i l l w o r d( M d )

Killfrompointtotheendofthecurrentword,orifbetweenwords,totheendofthenextword.Wordboundariesarethesameasf o r w a r d w o r d .
b a c k w a r d k i l l w o r d( M D E L )

Killthewordbehindpoint.Wordboundariesarethesameasb a c k w a r d w o r d .
s h e l l k i l l w o r d( )

Killfrompointtotheendofthecurrentword,orifbetweenwords,totheendofthenextword.Wordboundariesarethesameass h e l l f o r w a r d w o r d .
s h e l l b a c k w a r d k i l l w o r d( )

Killthewordbehindpoint.Wordboundariesarethesameass h e l l b a c k w a r d w o r d .
u n i x w o r d r u b o u t( C w )

Killthewordbehindpoint,usingwhitespaceasawordboundary.Thekilledtextissavedonthekillring.
u n i x f i l e n a m e r u b o u t( )

Killthewordbehindpoint,usingwhitespaceandtheslashcharacterasthewordboundaries.Thekilledtextissavedonthekillring.
d e l e t e h o r i z o n t a l s p a c e( )

Deleteallspacesandtabsaroundpoint.Bydefault,thisisunbound.
k i l l r e g i o n( )

Killthetextinthecurrentregion.Bydefault,thiscommandisunbound.
c o p y r e g i o n a s k i l l( )

Copythetextintheregiontothekillbuffer,soitcanbeyankedrightaway.Bydefault,thiscommandisunbound.
c o p y b a c k w a r d w o r d( )

Copythewordbeforepointtothekillbuffer.Thewordboundariesarethesameasb a c k w a r d w o r d .Bydefault,thiscommandisunbound.
c o p y f o r w a r d w o r d( )

Copythewordfollowingpointtothekillbuffer.Thewordboundariesarethesameasf o r w a r d w o r d .Bydefault,thiscommandisunbound.
y a n k( C y )

Yankthetopofthekillringintothebufferatpoint.
y a n k p o p( M y )

Rotatethekillring,andyankthenewtop.Youcanonlydothisifthepriorcommandisy a n k ory a n k p o p .

Next:CommandsForCompletion,Previous:CommandsForKilling,Up:BindableReadlineCommands[Contents][Index] 8.4.5SpecifyingNumericArguments
d i g i t a r g u m e n t( M 0 ,M 1 ,M )

Addthisdigittotheargumentalreadyaccumulating,orstartanewargument.M startsanegativeargument.
u n i v e r s a l a r g u m e n t( )

Thisisanotherwaytospecifyanargument.Ifthiscommandisfollowedbyoneormoredigits,optionallywithaleadingminussign,thosedigits definetheargument.Ifthecommandisfollowedbydigits,executingu n i v e r s a l a r g u m e n t againendsthenumericargument,butisotherwise ignored.Asaspecialcase,ifthiscommandisimmediatelyfollowedbyacharacterthatisneitheradigitorminussign,theargumentcountforthe nextcommandismultipliedbyfour.Theargumentcountisinitiallyone,soexecutingthisfunctionthefirsttimemakestheargumentcountfour, asecondtimemakestheargumentcountsixteen,andsoon.Bydefault,thisisnotboundtoakey. Next:KeyboardMacros,Previous:NumericArguments,Up:BindableReadlineCommands[Contents][Index] 8.4.6LettingReadlineTypeForYou

c o m p l e t e( T A B )

Attempttoperformcompletiononthetextbeforepoint.Theactualcompletionperformedisapplicationspecific.Bashattemptscompletion treatingthetextasavariable(ifthetextbeginswith$ ),username(ifthetextbeginswith~ ),hostname(ifthetextbeginswith@ ),or command(includingaliasesandfunctions)inturn.Ifnoneoftheseproducesamatch,filenamecompletionisattempted.

p o s s i b l e c o m p l e t i o n s( M ? )

Listthepossiblecompletionsofthetextbeforepoint.Whendisplayingcompletions,Readlinesetsthenumberofcolumnsusedfordisplaytothe valueofc o m p l e t i o n d i s p l a y w i d t h ,thevalueoftheenvironmentvariableC O L U M N S ,orthescreenwidth,inthatorder.

i n s e r t c o m p l e t i o n s( M * )

Insertallcompletionsofthetextbeforepointthatwouldhavebeengeneratedbyp o s s i b l e c o m p l e t i o n s .
m e n u c o m p l e t e( )

Similartoc o m p l e t e ,butreplacesthewordtobecompletedwithasinglematchfromthelistofpossiblecompletions.Repeatedexecutionof m e n u c o m p l e t e stepsthroughthelistofpossiblecompletions,insertingeachmatchinturn.Attheendofthelistofcompletions,thebellisrung (subjecttothesettingofb e l l s t y l e )andtheoriginaltextisrestored.Anargumentofnmovesnpositionsforwardinthelistofmatchesa negativeargumentmaybeusedtomovebackwardthroughthelist.ThiscommandisintendedtobeboundtoT A B ,butisunboundbydefault.

m e n u c o m p l e t e b a c k w a r d( )

Identicaltom e n u c o m p l e t e ,butmovesbackwardthroughthelistofpossiblecompletions,asifm e n u c o m p l e t e hadbeengivenanegative argument.

d e l e t e c h a r o r l i s t( )

Deletesthecharacterunderthecursorifnotatthebeginningorendoftheline(liked e l e t e c h a r ).Ifattheendoftheline,behavesidenticallyto p o s s i b l e c o m p l e t i o n s .Thiscommandisunboundbydefault.

c o m p l e t e f i l e n a m e( M / )

Attemptfilenamecompletiononthetextbeforepoint.
p o s s i b l e f i l e n a m e c o m p l e t i o n s( C x/ )

Listthepossiblecompletionsofthetextbeforepoint,treatingitasafilename.
c o m p l e t e u s e r n a m e( M ~ )

Attemptcompletiononthetextbeforepoint,treatingitasausername.
p o s s i b l e u s e r n a m e c o m p l e t i o n s( C x~ )

Listthepossiblecompletionsofthetextbeforepoint,treatingitasausername.
c o m p l e t e v a r i a b l e( M $ )

Attemptcompletiononthetextbeforepoint,treatingitasashellvariable.
p o s s i b l e v a r i a b l e c o m p l e t i o n s( C x$ )

Listthepossiblecompletionsofthetextbeforepoint,treatingitasashellvariable.
c o m p l e t e h o s t n a m e( M @ )

Attemptcompletiononthetextbeforepoint,treatingitasahostname.

p o s s i b l e h o s t n a m e c o m p l e t i o n s( C x@ )

Listthepossiblecompletionsofthetextbeforepoint,treatingitasahostname.
c o m p l e t e c o m m a n d( M ! )

Attemptcompletiononthetextbeforepoint,treatingitasacommandname.Commandcompletionattemptstomatchthetextagainstaliases, reservedwords,shellfunctions,shellbuiltins,andfinallyexecutablefilenames,inthatorder.
p o s s i b l e c o m m a n d c o m p l e t i o n s( C x! )

Listthepossiblecompletionsofthetextbeforepoint,treatingitasacommandname.
d y n a m i c c o m p l e t e h i s t o r y( M T A B )

Attemptcompletiononthetextbeforepoint,comparingthetextagainstlinesfromthehistorylistforpossiblecompletionmatches.
d a b b r e v e x p a n d( )

Attemptmenucompletiononthetextbeforepoint,comparingthetextagainstlinesfromthehistorylistforpossiblecompletionmatches.
c o m p l e t e i n t o b r a c e s( M { )

Performfilenamecompletionandinsertthelistofpossiblecompletionsenclosedwithinbracessothelistisavailabletotheshell(seeBrace Expansion). Next:MiscellaneousCommands,Previous:CommandsForCompletion,Up:BindableReadlineCommands[Contents][Index] 8.4.7KeyboardMacros

s t a r t k b d m a c r o( C x( )

Beginsavingthecharacterstypedintothecurrentkeyboardmacro.
e n d k b d m a c r o( C x) )

Stopsavingthecharacterstypedintothecurrentkeyboardmacroandsavethedefinition.
c a l l l a s t k b d m a c r o( C xe )

Reexecutethelastkeyboardmacrodefined,bymakingthecharactersinthemacroappearasiftypedatthekeyboard. Previous:KeyboardMacros,Up:BindableReadlineCommands[Contents][Index] 8.4.8SomeMiscellaneousCommands

r e r e a d i n i t f i l e( C xC r )

Readinthecontentsoftheinputrcfile,andincorporateanybindingsorvariableassignmentsfoundthere.
a b o r t( C g )

Abortthecurrenteditingcommandandringtheterminalsbell(subjecttothesettingofb e l l s t y l e ).
d o u p p e r c a s e v e r s i o n( M a ,M b ,M x , )

Ifthemetafiedcharacterxislowercase,runthecommandthatisboundtothecorrespondinguppercasecharacter.
p r e f i x m e t a( E S C )

Metafythenextcharactertyped.Thisisforkeyboardswithoutametakey.TypingE S Cf isequivalenttotypingM f .
u n d o( C _o rC xC u )

Incrementalundo,separatelyrememberedforeachline.
r e v e r t l i n e( M r )

Undoallchangesmadetothisline.Thisislikeexecutingtheu n d o commandenoughtimestogetbacktothebeginning.
t i l d e e x p a n d( M & )

Performtildeexpansiononthecurrentword.
s e t m a r k( C @ )

Setthemarktothepoint.Ifanumericargumentissupplied,themarkissettothatposition.
e x c h a n g e p o i n t a n d m a r k( C xC x )

Swapthepointwiththemark.Thecurrentcursorpositionissettothesavedposition,andtheoldcursorpositionissavedasthemark.
c h a r a c t e r s e a r c h( C ] )

Acharacterisreadandpointismovedtothenextoccurrenceofthatcharacter.Anegativecountsearchesforpreviousoccurrences.
c h a r a c t e r s e a r c h b a c k w a r d( M C ] )

Acharacterisreadandpointismovedtothepreviousoccurrenceofthatcharacter.Anegativecountsearchesforsubsequentoccurrences.
s k i p c s i s e q u e n c e( )

ReadenoughcharacterstoconsumeamultikeysequencesuchasthosedefinedforkeyslikeHomeandEnd.Suchsequencesbeginwitha ControlSequenceIndicator(CSI),usuallyESC[.Ifthissequenceisboundto"\e[",keysproducingsuchsequenceswillhavenoeffectunless explicitlyboundtoareadlinecommand,insteadofinsertingstraycharactersintotheeditingbuffer.Thisisunboundbydefault,butusuallybound toESC[.

i n s e r t c o m m e n t( M # )

Withoutanumericargument,thevalueofthec o m m e n t b e g i n variableisinsertedatthebeginningofthecurrentline.Ifanumericargumentis supplied,thiscommandactsasatoggle:ifthecharactersatthebeginningofthelinedonotmatchthevalueofc o m m e n t b e g i n ,thevalueis inserted,otherwisethecharactersinc o m m e n t b e g i n aredeletedfromthebeginningoftheline.Ineithercase,thelineisacceptedasifanewline hadbeentyped.Thedefaultvalueofc o m m e n t b e g i n causesthiscommandtomakethecurrentlineashellcomment.Ifanumericargument causesthecommentcharactertoberemoved,thelinewillbeexecutedbytheshell.

d u m p f u n c t i o n s( )

PrintallofthefunctionsandtheirkeybindingstotheReadlineoutputstream.Ifanumericargumentissupplied,theoutputisformattedinsucha waythatitcanbemadepartofaninputrcfile.Thiscommandisunboundbydefault.
d u m p v a r i a b l e s( )

PrintallofthesettablevariablesandtheirvaluestotheReadlineoutputstream.Ifanumericargumentissupplied,theoutputisformattedinsuch awaythatitcanbemadepartofaninputrcfile.Thiscommandisunboundbydefault.
d u m p m a c r o s( )

PrintalloftheReadlinekeysequencesboundtomacrosandthestringstheyoutput.Ifanumericargumentissupplied,theoutputisformattedin suchawaythatitcanbemadepartofaninputrcfile.Thiscommandisunboundbydefault.
g l o b c o m p l e t e w o r d( M g )

Thewordbeforepointistreatedasapatternforpathnameexpansion,withanasteriskimplicitlyappended.Thispatternisusedtogeneratealist ofmatchingfilenamesforpossiblecompletions.
g l o b e x p a n d w o r d( C x* )

Thewordbeforepointistreatedasapatternforpathnameexpansion,andthelistofmatchingfilenamesisinserted,replacingtheword.Ifa numericargumentissupplied,a* isappendedbeforepathnameexpansion.

g l o b l i s t e x p a n s i o n s( C xg )

Thelistofexpansionsthatwouldhavebeengeneratedbyg l o b e x p a n d w o r d isdisplayed,andthelineisredrawn.Ifanumericargumentis supplied,a* isappendedbeforepathnameexpansion.

d i s p l a y s h e l l v e r s i o n( C xC v )

DisplayversioninformationaboutthecurrentinstanceofBash.
s h e l l e x p a n d l i n e( M C e )

Expandthelineastheshelldoes.Thisperformsaliasandhistoryexpansionaswellasalloftheshellwordexpansions(seeShellExpansions).
h i s t o r y e x p a n d l i n e( M ^ )

Performhistoryexpansiononthecurrentline.
m a g i c s p a c e( )

Performhistoryexpansiononthecurrentlineandinsertaspace(seeHistoryInteraction).
a l i a s e x p a n d l i n e( )

Performaliasexpansiononthecurrentline(seeAliases).
h i s t o r y a n d a l i a s e x p a n d l i n e( )

Performhistoryandaliasexpansiononthecurrentline.
i n s e r t l a s t a r g u m e n t( M .o rM _ )

Asynonymfory a n k l a s t a r g .

o p e r a t e a n d g e t n e x t( C o )

Acceptthecurrentlineforexecutionandfetchthenextlinerelativetothecurrentlinefromthehistoryforediting.Anyargumentisignored.
e d i t a n d e x e c u t e c o m m a n d( C x C e )

Invokeaneditoronthecurrentcommandline,andexecutetheresultasshellcommands.Bashattemptstoinvoke$ V I S U A L ,$ E D I T O R ,ande m a c s astheeditor,inthatorder. Next:ProgrammableCompletion,Previous:BindableReadlineCommands,Up:CommandLineEditing[Contents][Index]

8.5ReadlineviMode
WhiletheReadlinelibrarydoesnothaveafullsetofv i editingfunctions,itdoescontainenoughtoallowsimpleeditingoftheline.TheReadlinev i modebehavesasspecifiedinthePOSIXstandard. Inordertoswitchinteractivelybetweene m a c s andv i editingmodes,usethes e toe m a c s ands e tov i commands(seeTheSetBuiltin).The Readlinedefaultise m a c s mode. Whenyouenteralineinv i mode,youarealreadyplacedininsertionmode,asifyouhadtypedani .PressingE S C switchesyouintocommand mode,whereyoucaneditthetextofthelinewiththestandardv i movementkeys,movetoprevioushistorylineswithk andsubsequentlineswith j ,andsoforth. Next:ProgrammableCompletionBuiltins,Previous:ReadlineviMode,Up:CommandLineEditing[Contents][Index]

8.6ProgrammableCompletion
Whenwordcompletionisattemptedforanargumenttoacommandforwhichacompletionspecification(acompspec)hasbeendefinedusingthe c o m p l e t e builtin(seeProgrammableCompletionBuiltins),theprogrammablecompletionfacilitiesareinvoked. First,thecommandnameisidentified.Ifacompspechasbeendefinedforthatcommand,thecompspecisusedtogeneratethelistofpossible completionsfortheword.Ifthecommandwordistheemptystring(completionattemptedatthebeginningofanemptyline),anycompspecdefined withtheE optiontoc o m p l e t e isused.Ifthecommandwordisafullpathname,acompspecforthefullpathnameissearchedforfirst.Ifnocompspec isfoundforthefullpathname,anattemptismadetofindacompspecfortheportionfollowingthefinalslash.Ifthosesearchesdonotresultina compspec,anycompspecdefinedwiththeD optiontoc o m p l e t e isusedasthedefault. Onceacompspechasbeenfound,itisusedtogeneratethelistofmatchingwords.Ifacompspecisnotfound,thedefaultBashcompletiondescribed above(seeCommandsForCompletion)isperformed. First,theactionsspecifiedbythecompspecareused.Onlymatcheswhichareprefixedbythewordbeingcompletedarereturned.Whenthef ord optionisusedforfilenameordirectorynamecompletion,theshellvariableF I G N O R E isusedtofilterthematches.SeeBashVariables,foradescription ofF I G N O R E . AnycompletionsspecifiedbyafilenameexpansionpatterntotheG optionaregeneratednext.Thewordsgeneratedbythepatternneednotmatchthe wordbeingcompleted.TheG L O B I G N O R E shellvariableisnotusedtofilterthematches,buttheF I G N O R E shellvariableisused. Next,thestringspecifiedastheargumenttotheW optionisconsidered.ThestringisfirstsplitusingthecharactersintheI F S specialvariableas delimiters.Shellquotingishonored.Eachwordisthenexpandedusingbraceexpansion,tildeexpansion,parameterandvariableexpansion,command substitution,andarithmeticexpansion,asdescribedabove(seeShellExpansions).Theresultsaresplitusingtherulesdescribedabove(seeWord Splitting).Theresultsoftheexpansionareprefixmatchedagainstthewordbeingcompleted,andthematchingwordsbecomethepossiblecompletions. Afterthesematcheshavebeengenerated,anyshellfunctionorcommandspecifiedwiththeF andC optionsisinvoked.Whenthecommandor functionisinvoked,theC O M P _ L I N E ,C O M P _ P O I N T ,C O M P _ K E Y ,andC O M P _ T Y P E variablesareassignedvaluesasdescribedabove(seeBashVariables).If ashellfunctionisbeinginvoked,theC O M P _ W O R D S andC O M P _ C W O R D variablesarealsoset.Whenthefunctionorcommandisinvoked,thefirstargument isthenameofthecommandwhoseargumentsarebeingcompleted,thesecondargumentisthewordbeingcompleted,andthethirdargumentisthe wordprecedingthewordbeingcompletedonthecurrentcommandline.Nofilteringofthegeneratedcompletionsagainstthewordbeingcompletedis performedthefunctionorcommandhascompletefreedomingeneratingthematches. AnyfunctionspecifiedwithF isinvokedfirst.Thefunctionmayuseanyoftheshellfacilities,includingthec o m p g e n andc o m p o p t builtinsdescribed below(seeProgrammableCompletionBuiltins),togeneratethematches.ItmustputthepossiblecompletionsintheC O M P R E P L Y arrayvariable. Next,anycommandspecifiedwiththeC optionisinvokedinanenvironmentequivalenttocommandsubstitution.Itshouldprintalistofcompletions, oneperline,tothestandardoutput.Backslashmaybeusedtoescapeanewline,ifnecessary. Afterallofthepossiblecompletionsaregenerated,anyfilterspecifiedwiththeX optionisappliedtothelist.Thefilterisapatternasusedfor pathnameexpansiona& inthepatternisreplacedwiththetextofthewordbeingcompleted.Aliteral& maybeescapedwithabackslashthe backslashisremovedbeforeattemptingamatch.Anycompletionthatmatchesthepatternwillberemovedfromthelist.Aleading! negatesthe patterninthiscaseanycompletionnotmatchingthepatternwillberemoved. Finally,anyprefixandsuffixspecifiedwiththeP andS optionsareaddedtoeachmemberofthecompletionlist,andtheresultisreturnedtothe Readlinecompletioncodeasthelistofpossiblecompletions. Ifthepreviouslyappliedactionsdonotgenerateanymatches,andtheod i r n a m e s optionwassuppliedtoc o m p l e t e whenthecompspecwas defined,directorynamecompletionisattempted.

Iftheop l u s d i r s optionwassuppliedtoc o m p l e t e whenthecompspecwasdefined,directorynamecompletionisattemptedandanymatchesare addedtotheresultsoftheotheractions. Bydefault,ifacompspecisfound,whateveritgeneratesisreturnedtothecompletioncodeasthefullsetofpossiblecompletions.ThedefaultBash completionsarenotattempted,andtheReadlinedefaultoffilenamecompletionisdisabled.Iftheob a s h d e f a u l t optionwassuppliedtoc o m p l e t e whenthecompspecwasdefined,thedefaultBashcompletionsareattemptedifthecompspecgeneratesnomatches.Iftheod e f a u l t optionwas suppliedtoc o m p l e t e whenthecompspecwasdefined,Readlinesdefaultcompletionwillbeperformedifthecompspec(and,ifattempted,thedefault Bashcompletions)generatenomatches. Whenacompspecindicatesthatdirectorynamecompletionisdesired,theprogrammablecompletionfunctionsforceReadlinetoappendaslashto completednameswhicharesymboliclinkstodirectories,subjecttothevalueofthemarkdirectoriesReadlinevariable,regardlessofthesettingofthe marksymlinkeddirectoriesReadlinevariable. Thereissomesupportfordynamicallymodifyingcompletions.ThisismostusefulwhenusedincombinationwithadefaultcompletionspecifiedwithD .Itspossibleforshellfunctionsexecutedascompletionhandlerstoindicatethatcompletionshouldberetriedbyreturninganexitstatusof124.Ifa shellfunctionreturns124,andchangesthecompspecassociatedwiththecommandonwhichcompletionisbeingattempted(suppliedasthefirst argumentwhenthefunctionisexecuted),programmablecompletionrestartsfromthebeginning,withanattempttofindanewcompspecforthat command.Thisallowsasetofcompletionstobebuiltdynamicallyascompletionisattempted,ratherthanbeingloadedallatonce. Forinstance,assumingthatthereisalibraryofcompspecs,eachkeptinafilecorrespondingtothenameofthecommand,thefollowingdefault completionfunctionwouldloadcompletionsdynamically:
_ c o m p l e t i o n _ l o a d e r ( ) { ." / e t c / b a s h _ c o m p l e t i o n . d / $ 1 . s h "> / d e v / n u l l2 > & 1& &r e t u r n1 2 4 } c o m p l e t eDF_ c o m p l e t i o n _ l o a d e r

Previous:ProgrammableCompletion,Up:CommandLineEditing[Contents][Index]

8.7ProgrammableCompletionBuiltins
Twobuiltincommandsareavailabletomanipulatetheprogrammablecompletionfacilities.
c o m p g e n c o m p g e n[ o p t i o n ][ w o r d ]

Generatepossiblecompletionmatchesforwordaccordingtotheoptions,whichmaybeanyoptionacceptedbythec o m p l e t e builtinwiththe exceptionofp andr ,andwritethematchestothestandardoutput.WhenusingtheF orC options,thevariousshellvariablessetbythe programmablecompletionfacilities,whileavailable,willnothaveusefulvalues. Thematcheswillbegeneratedinthesamewayasiftheprogrammablecompletioncodehadgeneratedthemdirectlyfromacompletion specificationwiththesameflags.Ifwordisspecified,onlythosecompletionsmatchingwordwillbedisplayed. Thereturnvalueistrueunlessaninvalidoptionissupplied,ornomatchesweregenerated.
c o m p l e t e c o m p l e t e[ a b c d e f g j k s u v ][ oc o m p o p t i o n ][ D E ][ Aa c t i o n ][ Gg l o b p a t ][ Ww o r d l i s t ] [ Ff u n c t i o n ][ Cc o m m a n d ][ Xf i l t e r p a t ] [ Pp r e f i x ][ Ss u f f i x ]n a m e[ n a m e ] c o m p l e t ep r[ D E ][ n a m e ]

Specifyhowargumentstoeachnameshouldbecompleted.Ifthep optionissupplied,orifnooptionsaresupplied,existingcompletion specificationsareprintedinawaythatallowsthemtobereusedasinput.Ther optionremovesacompletionspecificationforeachname,or,if nonamesaresupplied,allcompletionspecifications.TheD optionindicatesthattheremainingoptionsandactionsshouldapplytothedefault commandcompletionthatis,completionattemptedonacommandforwhichnocompletionhaspreviouslybeendefined.TheE option indicatesthattheremainingoptionsandactionsshouldapplytoemptycommandcompletionthatis,completionattemptedonablankline. Theprocessofapplyingthesecompletionspecificationswhenwordcompletionisattemptedisdescribedabove(seeProgrammableCompletion). TheD optiontakesprecedenceoverE . Otheroptions,ifspecified,havethefollowingmeanings.TheargumentstotheG ,W ,andX options(and,ifnecessary,theP andS options) shouldbequotedtoprotectthemfromexpansionbeforethec o m p l e t e builtinisinvoked.
oc o m p o p t i o n

Thecompoptioncontrolsseveralaspectsofthecompspecsbehaviorbeyondthesimplegenerationofcompletions.compoptionmaybe oneof:
b a s h d e f a u l t

PerformtherestofthedefaultBashcompletionsifthecompspecgeneratesnomatches.
d e f a u l t

UseReadlinesdefaultfilenamecompletionifthecompspecgeneratesnomatches.

d i r n a m e s

Performdirectorynamecompletionifthecompspecgeneratesnomatches.
f i l e n a m e s

TellReadlinethatthecompspecgeneratesfilenames,soitcanperformanyfilenamespecificprocessing(likeaddingaslashto directorynamesquotingspecialcharacters,orsuppressingtrailingspaces).Thisoptionisintendedtobeusedwithshellfunctions specifiedwithF .

n o s p a c e

TellReadlinenottoappendaspace(thedefault)towordscompletedattheendoftheline.
p l u s d i r s

Afteranymatchesdefinedbythecompspecaregenerated,directorynamecompletionisattemptedandanymatchesareaddedtothe resultsoftheotheractions.
Aa c t i o n

Theactionmaybeoneofthefollowingtogeneratealistofpossiblecompletions:
a l i a s

Aliasnames.Mayalsobespecifiedasa .
a r r a y v a r

Arrayvariablenames.
b i n d i n g

Readlinekeybindingnames(seeBindableReadlineCommands).
b u i l t i n

Namesofshellbuiltincommands.Mayalsobespecifiedasb .
c o m m a n d

Commandnames.Mayalsobespecifiedasc .
d i r e c t o r y

Directorynames.Mayalsobespecifiedasd .
d i s a b l e d

Namesofdisabledshellbuiltins.
e n a b l e d

Namesofenabledshellbuiltins.
e x p o r t

Namesofexportedshellvariables.Mayalsobespecifiedase .
f i l e

Filenames.Mayalsobespecifiedasf .
f u n c t i o n

Namesofshellfunctions.
g r o u p

Groupnames.Mayalsobespecifiedasg .
h e l p t o p i c

Helptopicsasacceptedbytheh e l p builtin(seeBashBuiltins).
h o s t n a m e

Hostnames,astakenfromthefilespecifiedbytheH O S T F I L E shellvariable(seeBashVariables).
j o b

Jobnames,ifjobcontrolisactive.Mayalsobespecifiedasj .
k e y w o r d

Shellreservedwords.Mayalsobespecifiedask .
r u n n i n g

Namesofrunningjobs,ifjobcontrolisactive.
s e r v i c e

Servicenames.Mayalsobespecifiedass .
s e t o p t

Validargumentsfortheo optiontothes e t builtin(seeTheSetBuiltin).

s h o p t

Shelloptionnamesasacceptedbythes h o p t builtin(seeBashBuiltins).
s i g n a l

Signalnames.
s t o p p e d

Namesofstoppedjobs,ifjobcontrolisactive.
u s e r

Usernames.Mayalsobespecifiedasu .
v a r i a b l e

Namesofallshellvariables.Mayalsobespecifiedasv .
Cc o m m a n d

commandisexecutedinasubshellenvironment,anditsoutputisusedasthepossiblecompletions.
Ff u n c t i o n

Theshellfunctionfunctionisexecutedinthecurrentshellenvironment.Whenitfinishes,thepossiblecompletionsareretrievedfromthe valueoftheC O M P R E P L Y arrayvariable.

Gg l o b p a t

Thefilenameexpansionpatternglobpatisexpandedtogeneratethepossiblecompletions.
Pp r e f i x

prefixisaddedatthebeginningofeachpossiblecompletionafterallotheroptionshavebeenapplied.
Ss u f f i x

suffixisappendedtoeachpossiblecompletionafterallotheroptionshavebeenapplied.
Ww o r d l i s t

ThewordlistissplitusingthecharactersintheI F S specialvariableasdelimiters,andeachresultantwordisexpanded.Thepossible completionsarethemembersoftheresultantlistwhichmatchthewordbeingcompleted.

Xf i l t e r p a t

filterpatisapatternasusedforfilenameexpansion.Itisappliedtothelistofpossiblecompletionsgeneratedbytheprecedingoptionsand arguments,andeachcompletionmatchingfilterpatisremovedfromthelist.Aleading! infilterpatnegatesthepatterninthiscase,any completionnotmatchingfilterpatisremoved. Thereturnvalueistrueunlessaninvalidoptionissupplied,anoptionotherthanp orr issuppliedwithoutanameargument,anattemptis madetoremoveacompletionspecificationforanameforwhichnospecificationexists,oranerroroccursaddingacompletionspecification.

c o m p o p t c o m p o p t[ oo p t i o n ][ D E ][ + oo p t i o n ][ n a m e ]

Modifycompletionoptionsforeachnameaccordingtotheoptions,orforthecurrentlyexecutingcompletionifnonamesaresupplied.Ifno optionsaregiven,displaythecompletionoptionsforeachnameorthecurrentcompletion.Thepossiblevaluesofoptionarethosevalidforthe c o m p l e t e builtindescribedabove.TheD optionindicatesthattheremainingoptionsshouldapplytothedefaultcommandcompletionthatis, completionattemptedonacommandforwhichnocompletionhaspreviouslybeendefined.TheE optionindicatesthattheremainingoptions shouldapplytoemptycommandcompletionthatis,completionattemptedonablankline. TheD optiontakesprecedenceoverE .

Thereturnvalueistrueunlessaninvalidoptionissupplied,anattemptismadetomodifytheoptionsforanameforwhichnocompletion specificationexists,oranoutputerroroccurs. Next:InstallingBash,Previous:CommandLineEditing,Up:Top[Contents][Index]

9UsingHistoryInteractively
ThischapterdescribeshowtousetheGNUHistoryLibraryinteractively,fromausersstandpoint.Itshouldbeconsideredausersguide.For informationonusingtheGNUHistoryLibraryinotherprograms,seetheGNUReadlineLibraryManual. BashHistoryFacilities: HowBashletsyoumanipulateyourcommandhistory. BashHistoryBuiltins: TheBashbuiltincommandsthatmanipulatethecommandhistory. HistoryInteraction: WhatitfeelslikeusingHistoryasauser. Next:BashHistoryBuiltins,Up:UsingHistoryInteractively[Contents][Index]

9.1BashHistoryFacilities
Whentheoh i s t o r y optiontothes e t builtinisenabled(seeTheSetBuiltin),theshellprovidesaccesstothecommandhistory,thelistofcommands previouslytyped.ThevalueoftheH I S T S I Z E shellvariableisusedasthenumberofcommandstosaveinahistorylist.Thetextofthelast$ H I S T S I Z E commands(default500)issaved.Theshellstoreseachcommandinthehistorylistpriortoparameterandvariableexpansionbutafterhistory expansionisperformed,subjecttothevaluesoftheshellvariablesH I S T I G N O R E andH I S T C O N T R O L . Whentheshellstartsup,thehistoryisinitializedfromthefilenamedbytheH I S T F I L E variable(default~ / . b a s h _ h i s t o r y ).Thefilenamedbythe valueofH I S T F I L E istruncated,ifnecessary,tocontainnomorethanthenumberoflinesspecifiedbythevalueoftheH I S T F I L E S I Z E variable.When aninteractiveshellexits,thelast$ H I S T S I Z E linesarecopiedfromthehistorylisttothefilenamedby$ H I S T F I L E .Iftheh i s t a p p e n d shelloptionisset (seeBashBuiltins),thelinesareappendedtothehistoryfile,otherwisethehistoryfileisoverwritten.IfH I S T F I L E isunset,orifthehistoryfileis unwritable,thehistoryisnotsaved.Aftersavingthehistory,thehistoryfileistruncatedtocontainnomorethan$ H I S T F I L E S I Z E lines.If H I S T F I L E S I Z E isnotset,notruncationisperformed. IftheH I S T T I M E F O R M A T isset,thetimestampinformationassociatedwitheachhistoryentryiswrittentothehistoryfile,markedwiththehistory commentcharacter.Whenthehistoryfileisread,linesbeginningwiththehistorycommentcharacterfollowedimmediatelybyadigitareinterpretedas timestampsfortheprevioushistoryline. Thebuiltincommandf c maybeusedtolistoreditandreexecuteaportionofthehistorylist.Theh i s t o r y builtinmaybeusedtodisplayormodify thehistorylistandmanipulatethehistoryfile.Whenusingcommandlineediting,searchcommandsareavailableineacheditingmodethatprovide accesstothehistorylist(seeCommandsForHistory). Theshellallowscontroloverwhichcommandsaresavedonthehistorylist.TheH I S T C O N T R O L andH I S T I G N O R E variablesmaybesettocausetheshell tosaveonlyasubsetofthecommandsentered.Thec m d h i s t shelloption,ifenabled,causestheshelltoattempttosaveeachlineofamultiline commandinthesamehistoryentry,addingsemicolonswherenecessarytopreservesyntacticcorrectness.Thel i t h i s t shelloptioncausestheshellto savethecommandwithembeddednewlinesinsteadofsemicolons.Thes h o p t builtinisusedtosettheseoptions.SeeBashBuiltins,foradescriptionof s h o p t . Next:HistoryInteraction,Previous:BashHistoryFacilities,Up:UsingHistoryInteractively[Contents][Index]

9.2BashHistoryBuiltins
Bashprovidestwobuiltincommandswhichmanipulatethehistorylistandhistoryfile.
f c f c[ ee n a m e ][ l n r ][ f i r s t ][ l a s t ] f cs[ p a t = r e p ][ c o m m a n d ]

FixCommand.Inthefirstform,arangeofcommandsfromfirsttolastisselectedfromthehistorylist.Bothfirstandlastmaybespecifiedasa string(tolocatethemostrecentcommandbeginningwiththatstring)orasanumber(anindexintothehistorylist,whereanegativenumberis usedasanoffsetfromthecurrentcommandnumber).Iflastisnotspecifieditissettofirst.Iffirstisnotspecifieditissettotheprevious commandforeditingand16forlisting.Ifthel flagisgiven,thecommandsarelistedonstandardoutput.Then flagsuppressesthecommand numberswhenlisting.Ther flagreversestheorderofthelisting.Otherwise,theeditorgivenbyenameisinvokedonafilecontainingthose commands.Ifenameisnotgiven,thevalueofthefollowingvariableexpansionisused:$ { F C E D I T : $ { E D I T O R : v i } } .Thissaystousethe valueoftheF C E D I T variableifset,orthevalueoftheE D I T O R variableifthatisset,orv i ifneitherisset.Wheneditingiscomplete,theedited commandsareechoedandexecuted. Inthesecondform,commandisreexecutedaftereachinstanceofpatintheselectedcommandisreplacedbyrep. Ausefulaliastousewiththef c commandisr = ' f cs ' ,sothattypingr c c runsthelastcommandbeginningwithc c andtypingr re executesthelastcommand(seeAliases).
h i s t o r y h i s t o r y[ n ] h i s t o r yc

h i s t o r ydo f f s e t h i s t o r y[ a n r w ][ f i l e n a m e ] h i s t o r yp sa r g

Withnooptions,displaythehistorylistwithlinenumbers.Linesprefixedwitha* havebeenmodified.Anargumentofnlistsonlythelastn lines.IftheshellvariableH I S T T I M E F O R M A T issetandnotnull,itisusedasaformatstringforstrftimetodisplaythetimestampassociatedwith eachdisplayedhistoryentry.Nointerveningblankisprintedbetweentheformattedtimestampandthehistoryline. Options,ifsupplied,havethefollowingmeanings:

c

Clearthehistorylist.Thismaybecombinedwiththeotheroptionstoreplacethehistorylistcompletely.
do f f s e t

Deletethehistoryentryatpositionoffset.offsetshouldbespecifiedasitappearswhenthehistoryisdisplayed.
a

Appendthenewhistorylines(historylinesenteredsincethebeginningofthecurrentBashsession)tothehistoryfile.
n

Appendthehistorylinesnotalreadyreadfromthehistoryfiletothecurrenthistorylist.Thesearelinesappendedtothehistoryfilesince thebeginningofthecurrentBashsession.
r

Readthecurrenthistoryfileandappenditscontentstothehistorylist.
w

Writeoutthecurrenthistorytothehistoryfile.
p

Performhistorysubstitutionontheargsanddisplaytheresultonthestandardoutput,withoutstoringtheresultsinthehistorylist.
s

Theargsareaddedtotheendofthehistorylistasasingleentry. Whenanyofthew ,r ,a ,orn optionsisused,iffilenameisgiven,thenitisusedasthehistoryfile.Ifnot,thenthevalueoftheH I S T F I L E variableisused. Previous:BashHistoryBuiltins,Up:UsingHistoryInteractively[Contents][Index]

9.3HistoryExpansion
TheHistorylibraryprovidesahistoryexpansionfeaturethatissimilartothehistoryexpansionprovidedbyc s h .Thissectiondescribesthesyntaxused tomanipulatethehistoryinformation. Historyexpansionsintroducewordsfromthehistorylistintotheinputstream,makingiteasytorepeatcommands,inserttheargumentstoaprevious commandintothecurrentinputline,orfixerrorsinpreviouscommandsquickly. Historyexpansiontakesplaceintwoparts.Thefirstistodeterminewhichlinefromthehistorylistshouldbeusedduringsubstitution.Thesecondisto selectportionsofthatlineforinclusionintothecurrentone.Thelineselectedfromthehistoryiscalledtheevent,andtheportionsofthatlinethatare acteduponarecalledwords.Variousmodifiersareavailabletomanipulatetheselectedwords.Thelineisbrokenintowordsinthesamefashionthat Bashdoes,sothatseveralwordssurroundedbyquotesareconsideredoneword.Historyexpansionsareintroducedbytheappearanceofthehistory expansioncharacter,whichis! bydefault.Only\ and' maybeusedtoescapethehistoryexpansioncharacter. Severalshelloptionssettablewiththes h o p t builtin(seeBashBuiltins)maybeusedtotailorthebehaviorofhistoryexpansion.Iftheh i s t v e r i f y shell optionisenabled,andReadlineisbeingused,historysubstitutionsarenotimmediatelypassedtotheshellparser.Instead,theexpandedlineisreloaded intotheReadlineeditingbufferforfurthermodification.IfReadlineisbeingused,andtheh i s t r e e d i t shelloptionisenabled,afailedhistory expansionwillbereloadedintotheReadlineeditingbufferforcorrection.Thep optiontotheh i s t o r y builtincommandmaybeusedtoseewhata historyexpansionwilldobeforeusingit.Thes optiontotheh i s t o r y builtinmaybeusedtoaddcommandstotheendofthehistorylistwithout actuallyexecutingthem,sothattheyareavailableforsubsequentrecall.ThisismostusefulinconjunctionwithReadline. Theshellallowscontrolofthevariouscharactersusedbythehistoryexpansionmechanismwiththeh i s t c h a r s variable,asexplainedabove(seeBash Variables).Theshellusesthehistorycommentcharactertomarkhistorytimestampswhenwritingthehistoryfile. EventDesignators: Howtospecifywhichhistorylinetouse. WordDesignators: Specifyingwhichwordsareofinterest. Modifiers: Modifyingtheresultsofsubstitution. Next:WordDesignators,Up:HistoryInteraction[Contents][Index]

9.3.1EventDesignators Aneventdesignatorisareferencetoacommandlineentryinthehistorylist.Unlessthereferenceisabsolute,eventsarerelativetothecurrentposition inthehistorylist.

!

Startahistorysubstitution,exceptwhenfollowedbyaspace,tab,theendoftheline,= or( (whenthee x t g l o b shelloptionisenabledusing thes h o p t builtin).

! n

Refertocommandlinen.
! n

Refertothecommandnlinesback.
! !

Refertothepreviouscommand.Thisisasynonymfor! 1 .
! s t r i n g

Refertothemostrecentcommandprecedingthecurrentpositioninthehistoryliststartingwithstring.
! ? s t r i n g [ ? ]

Refertothemostrecentcommandprecedingthecurrentpositioninthehistorylistcontainingstring.Thetrailing? maybeomittedifthestring isfollowedimmediatelybyanewline.

^ s t r i n g 1 ^ s t r i n g 2 ^

QuickSubstitution.Repeatthelastcommand,replacingstring1withstring2.Equivalentto! ! : s / s t r i n g 1 / s t r i n g 2 / .
! #

Theentirecommandlinetypedsofar. Next:Modifiers,Previous:EventDesignators,Up:HistoryInteraction[Contents][Index] 9.3.2WordDesignators Worddesignatorsareusedtoselectdesiredwordsfromtheevent.A: separatestheeventspecificationfromtheworddesignator.Itmaybeomittedif theworddesignatorbeginswitha^ ,$ ,* ,,or% .Wordsarenumberedfromthebeginningoftheline,withthefirstwordbeingdenotedby0 (zero).Wordsareinsertedintothecurrentlineseparatedbysinglespaces. Forexample,
! !

designatestheprecedingcommand.Whenyoutypethis,theprecedingcommandisrepeatedintoto.
! ! : $

designatesthelastargumentoftheprecedingcommand.Thismaybeshortenedto! $ .
! f i : 2

designatesthesecondargumentofthemostrecentcommandstartingwiththelettersf i . Herearetheworddesignators:
0( z e r o )

The0 thword.Formanyapplications,thisisthecommandword.
n

Thenthword.
^

Thefirstargumentthatis,word1.
$

Thelastargument.
%

Thewordmatchedbythemostrecent? s t r i n g ? search.
x y

Arangeofwordsy abbreviates0 y .
*

Allofthewords,exceptthe0 th.Thisisasynonymfor1 $ .Itisnotanerrortouse* ifthereisjustonewordintheeventtheemptystringis returnedinthatcase.

x *

Abbreviatesx $
x -

Abbreviatesx $ likex * ,butomitsthelastword. Ifaworddesignatorissuppliedwithoutaneventspecification,thepreviouscommandisusedastheevent. Previous:WordDesignators,Up:HistoryInteraction[Contents][Index] 9.3.3Modifiers Aftertheoptionalworddesignator,youcanaddasequenceofoneormoreofthefollowingmodifiers,eachprecededbya: .

h

Removeatrailingpathnamecomponent,leavingonlythehead.
t

Removeallleadingpathnamecomponents,leavingthetail.
r

Removeatrailingsuffixoftheform. s u f f i x ,leavingthebasename.
e

Removeallbutthetrailingsuffix.
p

Printthenewcommandbutdonotexecuteit.
q

Quotethesubstitutedwords,escapingfurthersubstitutions.
x

Quotethesubstitutedwordsaswithq ,butbreakintowordsatspaces,tabs,andnewlines.
s / o l d / n e w /

Substitutenewforthefirstoccurrenceofoldintheeventline.Anydelimitermaybeusedinplaceof/ .Thedelimitermaybequotedinoldand newwithasinglebackslash.If& appearsinnew,itisreplacedbyold.Asinglebackslashwillquotethe& .Thefinaldelimiterisoptionalifitis thelastcharacterontheinputline.

&

Repeattheprevioussubstitution.
g a

Causechangestobeappliedovertheentireeventline.Usedinconjunctionwiths ,asing s / o l d / n e w / ,orwith& .

G

Applythefollowings modifieroncetoeachwordintheevent. Next:ReportingBugs,Previous:UsingHistoryInteractively,Up:Top[Contents][Index]

10InstallingBash
ThischapterprovidesbasicinstructionsforinstallingBashonthevarioussupportedplatforms.ThedistributionsupportstheGNUoperatingsystems,

nearlyeveryversionofUnix,andseveralnonUnixsystemssuchasBeOSandInterix.OtherindependentportsexistforMSDOS,OS/2,andWindows platforms. BasicInstallation: Installationinstructions. CompilersandOptions: Howtosetspecialoptionsforvarioussystems. CompilingForMultipleArchitectures: HowtocompileBashformorethanonekindofsystemfromthesamesourcetree. InstallationNames: Howtosetthevariouspathsusedbytheinstallation. SpecifyingtheSystemType: HowtoconfigureBashforaparticularsystem. SharingDefaults: HowtosharedefaultconfigurationvaluesamongGNUprograms. OperationControls: Optionsrecognizedbytheconfigurationprogram. OptionalFeatures: HowtoenableanddisableoptionalfeatureswhenbuildingBash. Next:CompilersandOptions,Up:InstallingBash[Contents][Index]

10.1BasicInstallation
TheseareinstallationinstructionsforBash. ThesimplestwaytocompileBashis: 1. c d tothedirectorycontainingthesourcecodeandtype. / c o n f i g u r e toconfigureBashforyoursystem.Ifyoureusingc s h onanoldversion ofSystemV,youmightneedtotypes h. / c o n f i g u r e insteadtopreventc s h fromtryingtoexecutec o n f i g u r e itself. Runningc o n f i g u r e takessometime.Whilerunning,itprintsmessagestellingwhichfeaturesitischeckingfor. 2. Typem a k e tocompileBashandbuildtheb a s h b u g bugreportingscript. 3. Optionally,typem a k et e s t s toruntheBashtestsuite. 4. Typem a k ei n s t a l l toinstallb a s h andb a s h b u g .ThiswillalsoinstallthemanualpagesandInfofile. Thec o n f i g u r e shellscriptattemptstoguesscorrectvaluesforvarioussystemdependentvariablesusedduringcompilation.Itusesthosevaluesto createaM a k e f i l e ineachdirectoryofthepackage(thetopdirectory,theb u i l t i n s ,d o c ,ands u p p o r t directories,eachdirectoryunderl i b ,and severalothers).Italsocreatesac o n f i g . h filecontainingsystemdependentdefinitions.Finally,itcreatesashellscriptnamedc o n f i g . s t a t u s thatyou canruninthefuturetorecreatethecurrentconfiguration,afilec o n f i g . c a c h e thatsavestheresultsofitsteststospeedupreconfiguring,andafile c o n f i g . l o g containingcompileroutput(usefulmainlyfordebuggingc o n f i g u r e ).Ifatsomepointc o n f i g . c a c h e containsresultsyoudontwantto keep,youmayremoveoreditit. Tofindoutmoreabouttheoptionsandargumentsthatthec o n f i g u r e scriptunderstands,type
b a s h 2 . 0 4 $. / c o n f i g u r eh e l p

attheBashpromptinyourBashsourcedirectory. IfyouneedtodounusualthingstocompileBash,pleasetrytofigureouthowc o n f i g u r e couldcheckwhetherornottodothem,andmaildiffsor instructionstobashmaintainers@gnu.orgsotheycanbeconsideredforthenextrelease. Thefilec o n f i g u r e . i n isusedtocreatec o n f i g u r e byaprogramcalledAutoconf.Youonlyneedc o n f i g u r e . i n ifyouwanttochangeitor regeneratec o n f i g u r e usinganewerversionofAutoconf.Ifyoudothis,makesureyouareusingAutoconfversion2.50ornewer. Youcanremovetheprogrambinariesandobjectfilesfromthesourcecodedirectorybytypingm a k ec l e a n .Toalsoremovethefilesthatc o n f i g u r e created(soyoucancompileBashforadifferentkindofcomputer),typem a k ed i s t c l e a n . Next:CompilingForMultipleArchitectures,Previous:BasicInstallation,Up:InstallingBash[Contents][Index]

10.2CompilersandOptions
Somesystemsrequireunusualoptionsforcompilationorlinkingthatthec o n f i g u r e scriptdoesnotknowabout.Youcangivec o n f i g u r e initial valuesforvariablesbysettingthemintheenvironment.UsingaBournecompatibleshell,youcandothatonthecommandlinelikethis:
C C = c 8 9C F L A G S = O 2L I B S = l p o s i x. / c o n f i g u r e

Onsystemsthathavethee n v program,youcandoitlikethis:
e n vC P P F L A G S = I / u s r / l o c a l / i n c l u d eL D F L A G S = s. / c o n f i g u r e

TheconfigurationprocessusesGCCtobuildBashifitisavailable. Next:InstallationNames,Previous:CompilersandOptions,Up:InstallingBash[Contents][Index]

10.3CompilingForMultipleArchitectures
YoucancompileBashformorethanonekindofcomputeratthesametime,byplacingtheobjectfilesforeacharchitectureintheirowndirectory.To dothis,youmustuseaversionofm a k e thatsupportstheV P A T H variable,suchasGNUm a k e .c d tothedirectorywhereyouwanttheobjectfilesand executablestogoandrunthec o n f i g u r e scriptfromthesourcedirectory.Youmayneedtosupplythes r c d i r = P A T H argumenttotellc o n f i g u r e

wherethesourcefilesare.c o n f i g u r e automaticallychecksforthesourcecodeinthedirectorythatc o n f i g u r e isinandin... Ifyouhavetouseam a k e thatdoesnotsupportstheV P A T H variable,youcancompileBashforonearchitectureatatimeinthesourcecodedirectory. AfteryouhaveinstalledBashforonearchitecture,usem a k ed i s t c l e a n beforereconfiguringforanotherarchitecture. Alternatively,ifyoursystemsupportssymboliclinks,youcanusethes u p p o r t / m k c l o n e scripttocreateabuildtreewhichhassymboliclinksbackto eachfileinthesourcedirectory.Heresanexamplethatcreatesabuilddirectoryinthecurrentdirectoryfromasourcedirectory/ u s r / g n u / s r c / b a s h 2 . 0 :
b a s h/ u s r / g n u / s r c / b a s h 2 . 0 / s u p p o r t / m k c l o n es/ u s r / g n u / s r c / b a s h 2 . 0.

Them k c l o n e scriptrequiresBash,soyoumusthavealreadybuiltBashforatleastonearchitecturebeforeyoucancreatebuilddirectoriesforother architectures. Next:SpecifyingtheSystemType,Previous:CompilingForMultipleArchitectures,Up:InstallingBash[Contents][Index]

10.4InstallationNames
Bydefault,m a k ei n s t a l l willinstallinto/ u s r / l o c a l / b i n ,/ u s r / l o c a l / m a n ,etc.Youcanspecifyaninstallationprefixotherthan/ u s r / l o c a l by givingc o n f i g u r e theoptionp r e f i x = P A T H ,orbyspecifyingavaluefortheD E S T D I R m a k e variablewhenrunningm a k ei n s t a l l . Youcanspecifyseparateinstallationprefixesforarchitecturespecificfilesandarchitectureindependentfiles.Ifyougivec o n f i g u r e theoptione x e c p r e f i x = P A T H ,m a k ei n s t a l l willusePATHastheprefixforinstallingprogramsandlibraries.Documentationandotherdatafileswillstilluse theregularprefix. Next:SharingDefaults,Previous:InstallationNames,Up:InstallingBash[Contents][Index]

10.5SpecifyingtheSystemType
Theremaybesomefeaturesc o n f i g u r e cannotfigureoutautomatically,butneedtodeterminebythetypeofhostBashwillrunon.Usually c o n f i g u r e canfigurethatout,butifitprintsamessagesayingitcannotguessthehosttype,giveittheh o s t = T Y P E option.T Y P E caneitherbea shortnameforthesystemtype,suchass u n 4 ,oracanonicalnamewiththreefields:C P U C O M P A N Y S Y S T E M (e.g.,i 3 8 6 u n k n o w n f r e e b s d 4 . 2 ). Seethefiles u p p o r t / c o n f i g . s u b forthepossiblevaluesofeachfield. Next:OperationControls,Previous:SpecifyingtheSystemType,Up:InstallingBash[Contents][Index]

10.6SharingDefaults
Ifyouwanttosetdefaultvaluesforc o n f i g u r e scriptstoshare,youcancreateasiteshellscriptcalledc o n f i g . s i t e thatgivesdefaultvaluesfor variableslikeC C ,c a c h e _ f i l e ,andp r e f i x .c o n f i g u r e looksforP R E F I X / s h a r e / c o n f i g . s i t e ifitexists,thenP R E F I X / e t c / c o n f i g . s i t e ifit exists.Or,youcansettheC O N F I G _ S I T E environmentvariabletothelocationofthesitescript.Awarning:theBashc o n f i g u r e looksforasitescript, butnotallc o n f i g u r e scriptsdo. Next:OptionalFeatures,Previous:SharingDefaults,Up:InstallingBash[Contents][Index]

10.7OperationControls
c o n f i g u r e recognizesthefollowingoptionstocontrolhowitoperates. c a c h e f i l e = f i l e

Useandsavetheresultsofthetestsinfileinsteadof. / c o n f i g . c a c h e .Setfileto/ d e v / n u l l todisablecaching,fordebuggingc o n f i g u r e .

h e l p

Printasummaryoftheoptionstoc o n f i g u r e ,andexit.
q u i e t s i l e n t q

Donotprintmessagessayingwhichchecksarebeingmade.
s r c d i r = d i r

LookfortheBashsourcecodeindirectorydir.Usuallyc o n f i g u r e candeterminethatdirectoryautomatically.
v e r s i o n

PrinttheversionofAutoconfusedtogeneratethec o n f i g u r e script,andexit.
c o n f i g u r e alsoacceptssomeother,notwidelyused,boilerplateoptions.c o n f i g u r eh e l p printsthecompletelist.

Previous:OperationControls,Up:InstallingBash[Contents][Index]

10.8OptionalFeatures
TheBashc o n f i g u r e hasanumberofe n a b l e f e a t u r e options,wherefeatureindicatesanoptionalpartofBash.Therearealsoseveralw i t h p a c k a g e options,wherepackageissomethinglikeb a s h m a l l o c orp u r i f y .Toturnoffthedefaultuseofapackage,usew i t h o u t p a c k a g e .To configureBashwithoutafeaturethatisenabledbydefault,used i s a b l e f e a t u r e . Hereisacompletelistofthee n a b l e andw i t h optionsthattheBashc o n f i g u r e recognizes.
w i t h a f s

DefineifyouareusingtheAndrewFileSystemfromTransarc.
w i t h b a s h m a l l o c

UsetheBashversionofm a l l o c inthedirectoryl i b / m a l l o c .Thisisnotthesamem a l l o c thatappearsinGNUlibc,butanolderversion originallyderivedfromthe4.2BSDm a l l o c .Thism a l l o c isveryfast,butwastessomespaceoneachallocation.Thisoptionisenabledby default.TheN O T E S filecontainsalistofsystemsforwhichthisshouldbeturnedoff,andc o n f i g u r e disablesthisoptionautomaticallyfora numberofsystems.
w i t h c u r s e s

Usethecurseslibraryinsteadofthetermcaplibrary.Thisshouldbesuppliedifyoursystemhasaninadequateorincompletetermcapdatabase.
w i t h g n u m a l l o c

Asynonymforw i t h b a s h m a l l o c .
w i t h i n s t a l l e d r e a d l i n e [ = P R E F I X ]

DefinethistomakeBashlinkwithalocallyinstalledversionofReadlineratherthantheversioninl i b / r e a d l i n e .Thisworksonlywith Readline5.0andlaterversions.IfPREFIXisy e s ornotsupplied,c o n f i g u r e usesthevaluesofthemakevariablesi n c l u d e d i r andl i b d i r , whicharesubdirectoriesofp r e f i x bydefault,tofindtheinstalledversionofReadlineifitisnotinthestandardsystemincludeandlibrary directories.IfPREFIXisn o ,Bashlinkswiththeversioninl i b / r e a d l i n e .IfPREFIXissettoanyothervalue,c o n f i g u r e treatsitasa directorypathnameandlooksfortheinstalledversionofReadlineinsubdirectoriesofthatdirectory(includefilesinPREFIX/i n c l u d e andthe libraryinPREFIX/l i b ).
w i t h p u r i f y

DefinethistousethePurifymemoryallocationcheckerfromRationalSoftware.
e n a b l e m i n i m a l c o n f i g

Thisproducesashellwithminimalfeatures,closetothehistoricalBourneshell. Thereareseverale n a b l e optionsthatalterhowBashiscompiledandlinked,ratherthanchangingruntimefeatures.

e n a b l e l a r g e f i l e

Enablesupportforlargefilesiftheoperatingsystemrequiresspecialcompileroptionstobuildprogramswhichcanaccesslargefiles.Thisis enabledbydefault,iftheoperatingsystemprovideslargefilesupport.
e n a b l e p r o f i l i n g

ThisbuildsaBashbinarythatproducesprofilinginformationtobeprocessedbyg p r o f eachtimeitisexecuted.
e n a b l e s t a t i c l i n k

ThiscausesBashtobelinkedstatically,ifg c c isbeingused.Thiscouldbeusedtobuildaversiontouseasrootsshell. Them i n i m a l c o n f i g optioncanbeusedtodisableallofthefollowingoptions,butitisprocessedfirst,soindividualoptionsmaybeenabledusing e n a b l e f e a t u r e . Allofthefollowingoptionsexceptford i s a b l e d b u i l t i n s andx p g e c h o d e f a u l t areenabledbydefault,unlesstheoperatingsystemdoesnot providethenecessarysupport.

e n a b l e a l i a s

Allowaliasexpansionandincludethea l i a s andu n a l i a s builtins(seeAliases).

e n a b l e a r i t h f o r c o m m a n d

Includesupportforthealternateformofthef o r commandthatbehavesliketheClanguagef o r statement(seeLoopingConstructs).

e n a b l e a r r a y v a r i a b l e s

Includesupportforonedimensionalarrayshellvariables(seeArrays).

e n a b l e b a n g h i s t o r y

Includesupportforc s h likehistorysubstitution(seeHistoryInteraction).
e n a b l e b r a c e e x p a n s i o n

Includec s h likebraceexpansion(b { a , b } c b a cb b c ).SeeBraceExpansion,foracompletedescription.

e n a b l e c a s e m o d a t t r i b u t e s

Includesupportforcasemodifyingattributesinthed e c l a r e builtinandassignmentstatements.Variableswiththeuppercaseattribute,for example,willhavetheirvaluesconvertedtouppercaseuponassignment.

e n a b l e c a s e m o d e x p a n s i o n

Includesupportforcasemodifyingwordexpansions.
e n a b l e c o m m a n d t i m i n g

Includesupportforrecognizingt i m e asareservedwordandfordisplayingtimingstatisticsforthepipelinefollowingt i m e (seePipelines).This allowspipelinesaswellasshellbuiltinsandfunctionstobetimed.

e n a b l e c o n d c o m m a n d

Includesupportforthe[ [ conditionalcommand.(seeConditionalConstructs).
e n a b l e c o n d r e g e x p

IncludesupportformatchingPOSIXregularexpressionsusingthe= ~ binaryoperatorinthe[ [ conditionalcommand.(seeConditional Constructs).

e n a b l e c o p r o c e s s e s

Includesupportforcoprocessesandthec o p r o c reservedword(seePipelines).
e n a b l e d e b u g g e r

Includesupportforthebashdebugger(distributedseparately).
e n a b l e d i r e c t o r y s t a c k

Includesupportforac s h likedirectorystackandthep u s h d ,p o p d ,andd i r s builtins(seeTheDirectoryStack).

e n a b l e d i s a b l e d b u i l t i n s

Allowbuiltincommandstobeinvokedviab u i l t i nx x x evenafterx x x hasbeendisabledusinge n a b l enx x x .SeeBashBuiltins,for detailsoftheb u i l t i n ande n a b l e builtincommands.

e n a b l e d p a r e n a r i t h m e t i c

Includesupportforthe( ( ) ) command(seeConditionalConstructs).
e n a b l e e x t e n d e d g l o b

IncludesupportfortheextendedpatternmatchingfeaturesdescribedaboveunderPatternMatching.
e n a b l e e x t e n d e d g l o b d e f a u l t

SetthedefaultvalueoftheextglobshelloptiondescribedaboveunderTheShoptBuiltintobeenabled.
e n a b l e h e l p b u i l t i n

Includetheh e l p builtin,whichdisplayshelponshellbuiltinsandvariables(seeBashBuiltins).
e n a b l e h i s t o r y

Includecommandhistoryandthef c andh i s t o r y builtincommands(seeBashHistoryFacilities).

e n a b l e j o b c o n t r o l

Thisenablesthejobcontrolfeatures(seeJobControl),iftheoperatingsystemsupportsthem.
e n a b l e m u l t i b y t e

Thisenablessupportformultibytecharactersiftheoperatingsystemprovidesthenecessarysupport.
e n a b l e n e t r e d i r e c t i o n s

Thisenablesthespecialhandlingoffilenamesoftheform/ d e v / t c p / h o s t / p o r t and/ d e v / u d p / h o s t / p o r t whenusedinredirections(see Redirections).

e n a b l e p r o c e s s s u b s t i t u t i o n

Thisenablesprocesssubstitution(seeProcessSubstitution)iftheoperatingsystemprovidesthenecessarysupport.
e n a b l e p r o g c o m p

Enabletheprogrammablecompletionfacilities(seeProgrammableCompletion).IfReadlineisnotenabled,thisoptionhasnoeffect.
e n a b l e p r o m p t s t r i n g d e c o d i n g

Turnontheinterpretationofanumberofbackslashescapedcharactersinthe$ P S 1 ,$ P S 2 ,$ P S 3 ,and$ P S 4 promptstrings.SeePrintingaPrompt, foracompletelistofpromptstringescapesequences.

e n a b l e r e a d l i n e

IncludesupportforcommandlineeditingandhistorywiththeBashversionoftheReadlinelibrary(seeCommandLineEditing).
e n a b l e r e s t r i c t e d

Includesupportforarestrictedshell.Ifthisisenabled,Bash,whencalledasr b a s h ,entersarestrictedmode.SeeTheRestrictedShell,fora descriptionofrestrictedmode.

e n a b l e s e l e c t

Includethes e l e c t compoundcommand,whichallowsthegenerationofsimplemenus(seeConditionalConstructs).
e n a b l e s e p a r a t e h e l p f i l e s

Useexternalfilesforthedocumentationdisplayedbytheh e l p builtininsteadofstoringthetextinternally.
e n a b l e s i n g l e h e l p s t r i n g s

Storethetextdisplayedbytheh e l p builtinasasinglestringforeachhelptopic.Thisaidsintranslatingthetexttodifferentlanguages.Youmay needtodisablethisifyourcompilercannothandleverylongstringliterals.

e n a b l e s t r i c t p o s i x d e f a u l t

MakeBashPOSIXconformantbydefault(seeBashPOSIXMode).
e n a b l e u s g e c h o d e f a u l t

Asynonymfore n a b l e x p g e c h o d e f a u l t .
e n a b l e x p g e c h o d e f a u l t

Makethee c h o builtinexpandbackslashescapedcharactersbydefault,withoutrequiringthee option.Thissetsthedefaultvalueofthe x p g _ e c h o shelloptiontoo n ,whichmakestheBashe c h o behavemoreliketheversionspecifiedintheSingleUnixSpecification,version3.See BashBuiltins,foradescriptionoftheescapesequencesthate c h o recognizes. Thefilec o n f i g t o p . h containsCPreprocessor# d e f i n e statementsforoptionswhicharenotsettablefromc o n f i g u r e .Someofthesearenotmeant tobechangedbewareoftheconsequencesifyoudo.Readthecommentsassociatedwitheachdefinitionformoreinformationaboutitseffect. Next:MajorDifferencesFromTheBourneShell,Previous:InstallingBash,Up:Top[Contents][Index]

AppendixAReportingBugs
PleasereportallbugsyoufindinBash.Butfirst,youshouldmakesurethatitreallyisabug,andthatitappearsinthelatestversionofBash.Thelatest versionofBashisalwaysavailableforFTPfromftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/bash/. Onceyouhavedeterminedthatabugactuallyexists,usetheb a s h b u g commandtosubmitabugreport.Ifyouhaveafix,youareencouragedtomail thataswell!Suggestionsandphilosophicalbugreportsmaybemailedtobugbash@gnu.orgorpostedtotheUsenetnewsgroupg n u . b a s h . b u g . Allbugreportsshouldinclude: TheversionnumberofBash. Thehardwareandoperatingsystem. ThecompilerusedtocompileBash. Adescriptionofthebugbehaviour. Ashortscriptorrecipewhichexercisesthebugandmaybeusedtoreproduceit.
b a s h b u g insertsthefirstthreeitemsautomaticallyintothetemplateitprovidesforfilingabugreport.

Pleasesendallreportsconcerningthismanualtochet.ramey@case.edu. Next:GNUFreeDocumentationLicense,Previous:ReportingBugs,Up:Top[Contents][Index]

AppendixBMajorDifferencesFromTheBourneShell

Bashimplementsessentiallythesamegrammar,parameterandvariableexpansion,redirection,andquotingastheBourneShell.BashusesthePOSIX standardasthespecificationofhowthesefeaturesaretobeimplemented.TherearesomedifferencesbetweenthetraditionalBourneshellandBash thissectionquicklydetailsthedifferencesofsignificance.Anumberofthesedifferencesareexplainedingreaterdepthinprevioussections.This sectionusestheversionofs h includedinSVR4.2(thelastversionofthehistoricalBourneshell)asthebaselinereference. BashisPOSIXconformant,evenwherethePOSIXspecificationdiffersfromtraditionals h behavior(seeBashPOSIXMode). Bashhasmulticharacterinvocationoptions(seeInvokingBash). Bashhascommandlineediting(seeCommandLineEditing)andtheb i n d builtin. Bashprovidesaprogrammablewordcompletionmechanism(seeProgrammableCompletion),andbuiltincommandsc o m p l e t e ,c o m p g e n ,and c o m p o p t ,tomanipulateit. Bashhascommandhistory(seeBashHistoryFacilities)andtheh i s t o r y andf c builtinstomanipulateit.TheBashhistorylistmaintains timestampinformationandusesthevalueoftheH I S T T I M E F O R M A T variabletodisplayit. Bashimplementsc s h likehistoryexpansion(seeHistoryInteraction). Bashhasonedimensionalarrayvariables(seeArrays),andtheappropriatevariableexpansionsandassignmentsyntaxtousethem.Severalof theBashbuiltinstakeoptionstoactonarrays.Bashprovidesanumberofbuiltinarrayvariables. The$ ' ' quotingsyntax,whichexpandsANSICbackslashescapedcharactersinthetextbetweenthesinglequotes,issupported(seeANSIC Quoting). Bashsupportsthe$ " " quotingsyntaxtodolocalespecifictranslationofthecharactersbetweenthedoublequotes.TheD ,d u m p s t r i n g s , andd u m p p o s t r i n g s invocationoptionslistthetranslatablestringsfoundinascript(seeLocaleTranslation). Bashimplementsthe! keywordtonegatethereturnvalueofapipeline(seePipelines).Veryusefulwhenani f statementneedstoactonlyifa testfails.TheBashop i p e f a i l optiontos e t willcauseapipelinetoreturnafailurestatusifanycommandfails. Bashhasthet i m e reservedwordandcommandtiming(seePipelines).Thedisplayofthetimingstatisticsmaybecontrolledwiththe T I M E F O R M A T variable. Bashimplementsthef o r( (e x p r 1;e x p r 2;e x p r 3) ) arithmeticforcommand,similartotheClanguage(seeLoopingConstructs). Bashincludesthes e l e c t compoundcommand,whichallowsthegenerationofsimplemenus(seeConditionalConstructs). Bashincludesthe[ [ compoundcommand,whichmakesconditionaltestingpartoftheshellgrammar(seeConditionalConstructs),including optionalregularexpressionmatching. Bashprovidesoptionalcaseinsensitivematchingforthec a s e and[ [ constructs. Bashincludesbraceexpansion(seeBraceExpansion)andtildeexpansion(seeTildeExpansion). Bashimplementscommandaliasesandthea l i a s andu n a l i a s builtins(seeAliases). Bashprovidesshellarithmetic,the( ( compoundcommand(seeConditionalConstructs),andarithmeticexpansion(seeShellArithmetic). Variablespresentintheshellsinitialenvironmentareautomaticallyexportedtochildprocesses.TheBourneshelldoesnotnormallydothis unlessthevariablesareexplicitlymarkedusingthee x p o r t command. Bashsupportsthe+ = assignmentoperator,whichappendstothevalueofthevariablenamedonthelefthandside. BashincludesthePOSIXpatternremoval% ,# ,% % and# # expansionstoremoveleadingortrailingsubstringsfromvariablevalues(seeShell ParameterExpansion). Theexpansion$ { # x x } ,whichreturnsthelengthof$ { x x } ,issupported(seeShellParameterExpansion). Theexpansion$ { v a r : offset[ : length] } ,whichexpandstothesubstringofv a r svalueoflengthlength,beginningatoffset,ispresent(seeShell ParameterExpansion). Theexpansion$ { v a r / [ / ] pattern[ / replacement] } ,whichmatchespatternandreplacesitwithreplacementinthevalueofv a r ,isavailable(see ShellParameterExpansion). Theexpansion$ { ! p r e f i x } * expansion,whichexpandstothenamesofallshellvariableswhosenamesbeginwithprefix,isavailable(seeShell ParameterExpansion). Bashhasindirectvariableexpansionusing$ { ! w o r d } (seeShellParameterExpansion). Bashcanexpandpositionalparametersbeyond$ 9 using$ { n u m } . ThePOSIX$ ( ) formofcommandsubstitutionisimplemented(seeCommandSubstitution),andpreferredtotheBourneshells` ` (whichisalso implementedforbackwardscompatibility). Bashhasprocesssubstitution(seeProcessSubstitution). Bashautomaticallyassignsvariablesthatprovideinformationaboutthecurrentuser(U I D ,E U I D ,andG R O U P S ),thecurrenthost(H O S T T Y P E , O S T Y P E ,M A C H T Y P E ,andH O S T N A M E ),andtheinstanceofBashthatisrunning(B A S H ,B A S H _ V E R S I O N ,andB A S H _ V E R S I N F O ).SeeBashVariables, fordetails. TheI F S variableisusedtosplitonlytheresultsofexpansion,notallwords(seeWordSplitting).Thisclosesalongstandingshellsecurityhole. BashimplementsthefullsetofPOSIXfilenameexpansionoperators,includingcharacterclasses,equivalenceclasses,andcollatingsymbols(see FilenameExpansion). Bashimplementsextendedpatternmatchingfeatureswhenthee x t g l o b shelloptionisenabled(seePatternMatching). Itispossibletohaveavariableandafunctionwiththesamenames h doesnotseparatethetwonamespaces. Bashfunctionsarepermittedtohavelocalvariablesusingthel o c a l builtin,andthususefulrecursivefunctionsmaybewritten(seeBash Builtins). Variableassignmentsprecedingcommandsaffectonlythatcommand,evenbuiltinsandfunctions(seeEnvironment).Ins h ,allvariable assignmentsprecedingcommandsareglobalunlessthecommandisexecutedfromthefilesystem. Bashperformsfilenameexpansiononfilenamesspecifiedasoperandstoinputandoutputredirectionoperators(seeRedirections). Bashcontainsthe< > redirectionoperator,allowingafiletobeopenedforbothreadingandwriting,andthe& > redirectionoperator,for directingstandardoutputandstandarderrortothesamefile(seeRedirections). Bashincludesthe< < < redirectionoperator,allowingastringtobeusedasthestandardinputtoacommand. Bashimplementsthe[ n ] < & w o r d and[ n ] > & w o r d redirectionoperators,whichmoveonefiledescriptortoanother. Bashtreatsanumberoffilenamesspeciallywhentheyareusedinredirectionoperators(seeRedirections). Bashcanopennetworkconnectionstoarbitrarymachinesandserviceswiththeredirectionoperators(seeRedirections). Then o c l o b b e r optionisavailabletoavoidoverwritingexistingfileswithoutputredirection(seeTheSetBuiltin).The> | redirectionoperator maybeusedtooverriden o c l o b b e r . TheBashc d andp w d builtins(seeBourneShellBuiltins)eachtakeL andP optionstoswitchbetweenlogicalandphysicalmodes. Bashallowsafunctiontooverrideabuiltinwiththesamename,andprovidesaccesstothatbuiltinsfunctionalitywithinthefunctionviathe b u i l t i n andc o m m a n d builtins(seeBashBuiltins). Thec o m m a n d builtinallowsselectivedisablingoffunctionswhencommandlookupisperformed(seeBashBuiltins).

Individualbuiltinsmaybeenabledordisabledusingthee n a b l e builtin(seeBashBuiltins). TheBashe x e c builtintakesadditionaloptionsthatallowuserstocontrolthecontentsoftheenvironmentpassedtotheexecutedcommand,and whatthezerothargumenttothecommandistobe(seeBourneShellBuiltins). Shellfunctionsmaybeexportedtochildrenviatheenvironmentusinge x p o r tf (seeShellFunctions). TheBashe x p o r t ,r e a d o n l y ,andd e c l a r e builtinscantakeaf optiontoactonshellfunctions,ap optiontodisplayvariableswithvarious attributessetinaformatthatcanbeusedasshellinput,an optiontoremovevariousvariableattributes,andn a m e = v a l u e argumentstoset variableattributesandvaluessimultaneously. TheBashh a s h builtinallowsanametobeassociatedwithanarbitraryfilename,evenwhenthatfilenamecannotbefoundbysearchingthe $ P A T H ,usingh a s hp (seeBourneShellBuiltins). Bashincludesah e l p builtinforquickreferencetoshellfacilities(seeBashBuiltins). Thep r i n t f builtinisavailabletodisplayformattedoutput(seeBashBuiltins). TheBashr e a d builtin(seeBashBuiltins)willreadalineendingin\ withther option,andwillusetheR E P L Y variableasadefaultifnonon optionargumentsaresupplied.TheBashr e a d builtinalsoacceptsapromptstringwiththep optionandwilluseReadlinetoobtaintheline whengiventhee option.Ther e a d builtinalsohasadditionaloptionstocontrolinput:thes optionwillturnoffechoingofinputcharactersas theyareread,thet optionwillallowr e a d totimeoutifinputdoesnotarrivewithinaspecifiednumberofseconds,then optionwillallow readingonlyaspecifiednumberofcharactersratherthanafullline,andthed optionwillreaduntilaparticularcharacterratherthannewline. Ther e t u r n builtinmaybeusedtoabortexecutionofscriptsexecutedwiththe. ors o u r c e builtins(seeBourneShellBuiltins). Bashincludesthes h o p t builtin,forfinercontrolofshelloptionalcapabilities(seeTheShoptBuiltin),andallowstheseoptionstobesetand unsetatshellinvocation(seeInvokingBash). Bashhasmuchmoreoptionalbehaviorcontrollablewiththes e t builtin(seeTheSetBuiltin). Thex (x t r a c e )optiondisplayscommandsotherthansimplecommandswhenperforminganexecutiontrace(seeTheSetBuiltin). Thet e s t builtin(seeBourneShellBuiltins)isslightlydifferent,asitimplementsthePOSIXalgorithm,whichspecifiesthebehaviorbasedonthe numberofarguments. Bashincludesthec a l l e r builtin,whichdisplaysthecontextofanyactivesubroutinecall(ashellfunctionorascriptexecutedwiththe. or s o u r c e builtins).Thissupportsthebashdebugger. Thet r a p builtin(seeBourneShellBuiltins)allowsaD E B U G pseudosignalspecification,similartoE X I T .CommandsspecifiedwithaD E B U G trap areexecutedbeforeeverysimplecommand,f o r command,c a s e command,s e l e c t command,everyarithmeticf o r command,andbeforethe firstcommandexecutesinashellfunction.TheD E B U G trapisnotinheritedbyshellfunctionsunlessthefunctionhasbeengiventhet r a c e attributeorthef u n c t r a c e optionhasbeenenabledusingthes h o p t builtin.Thee x t d e b u g shelloptionhasadditionaleffectsontheD E B U G trap. Thet r a p builtin(seeBourneShellBuiltins)allowsanE R R pseudosignalspecification,similartoE X I T andD E B U G .Commandsspecifiedwithan E R R trapareexecutedafterasimplecommandfails,withafewexceptions.TheE R R trapisnotinheritedbyshellfunctionsunlesstheo e r r t r a c e optiontothes e t builtinisenabled. Thet r a p builtin(seeBourneShellBuiltins)allowsaR E T U R N pseudosignalspecification,similartoE X I T andD E B U G .Commandsspecifiedwith anR E T U R N trapareexecutedbeforeexecutionresumesafterashellfunctionorashellscriptexecutedwith. ors o u r c e returns.TheR E T U R N trap isnotinheritedbyshellfunctionsunlessthefunctionhasbeengiventhet r a c e attributeorthef u n c t r a c e optionhasbeenenabledusingthe s h o p t builtin. TheBasht y p e builtinismoreextensiveandgivesmoreinformationaboutthenamesitfinds(seeBashBuiltins). TheBashu m a s k builtinpermitsap optiontocausetheoutputtobedisplayedintheformofau m a s k commandthatmaybereusedasinput(see BourneShellBuiltins). Bashimplementsac s h likedirectorystack,andprovidesthep u s h d ,p o p d ,andd i r s builtinstomanipulateit(seeTheDirectoryStack).Bash alsomakesthedirectorystackvisibleasthevalueoftheD I R S T A C K shellvariable. Bashinterpretsspecialbackslashescapedcharactersinthepromptstringswheninteractive(seePrintingaPrompt). TheBashrestrictedmodeismoreuseful(seeTheRestrictedShell)theSVR4.2shellrestrictedmodeistoolimited. Thed i s o w n builtincanremoveajobfromtheinternalshelljobtable(seeJobControlBuiltins)orsuppressthesendingofS I G H U P toajobwhen theshellexitsastheresultofaS I G H U P . Bashincludesanumberoffeaturestosupportaseparatedebuggerforshellscripts. TheSVR4.2shellhastwoprivilegerelatedbuiltins(m l d m o d e andp r i v )notpresentinBash. Bashdoesnothavethes t o p orn e w g r p builtins. BashdoesnotusetheS H A C C T variableorperformshellaccounting. TheSVR4.2s h usesaT I M E O U T variablelikeBashusesT M O U T . MorefeaturesuniquetoBashmaybefoundinBashFeatures.

B.1ImplementationDifferencesFromTheSVR4.2Shell
SinceBashisacompletelynewimplementation,itdoesnotsufferfrommanyofthelimitationsoftheSVR4.2shell.Forinstance: Bashdoesnotforkasubshellwhenredirectingintooroutofashellcontrolstructuresuchasani f orw h i l e statement. Bashdoesnotallowunbalancedquotes.TheSVR4.2shellwillsilentlyinsertaneededclosingquoteatE O F undercertaincircumstances.This canbethecauseofsomehardtofinderrors. TheSVR4.2shellusesabaroquememorymanagementschemebasedontrappingS I G S E G V .IftheshellisstartedfromaprocesswithS I G S E G V blocked(e.g.,byusingthes y s t e m ( ) Clibraryfunctioncall),itmisbehavesbadly. Inaquestionableattemptatsecurity,theSVR4.2shell,wheninvokedwithoutthep option,willalteritsrealandeffectiveUIDandGIDifthey arelessthansomemagicthresholdvalue,commonly100.Thiscanleadtounexpectedresults. TheSVR4.2shelldoesnotallowuserstotrapS I G S E G V ,S I G A L R M ,orS I G C H L D . TheSVR4.2shelldoesnotallowtheI F S ,M A I L C H E C K ,P A T H ,P S 1 ,orP S 2 variablestobeunset. TheSVR4.2shelltreats^ astheundocumentedequivalentof| . Bashallowsmultipleoptionargumentswhenitisinvoked(xv )theSVR4.2shellallowsonlyoneoptionargument(x v ).Infact,some versionsoftheshelldumpcoreifthesecondargumentbeginswitha. TheSVR4.2shellexitsascriptifanybuiltinfailsBashexitsascriptonlyifoneofthePOSIXspecialbuiltinsfails,andonlyforcertainfailures,as

enumeratedinthePOSIXstandard. TheSVR4.2shellbehavesdifferentlywheninvokedasj s h (itturnsonjobcontrol). Next:Indexes,Previous:MajorDifferencesFromTheBourneShell,Up:Top[Contents][Index]

AppendixCGNUFreeDocumentationLicense
Version1.3,3November2008 Copyright2000,2001,2002,2007,2008FreeSoftwareFoundation,Inc. http://fsf.org/ Everyoneispermittedtocopyanddistributeverbatimcopies ofthislicensedocument,butchangingitisnotallowed. 1. PREAMBLE ThepurposeofthisLicenseistomakeamanual,textbook,orotherfunctionalandusefuldocumentfreeinthesenseoffreedom:toassure everyonetheeffectivefreedomtocopyandredistributeit,withorwithoutmodifyingit,eithercommerciallyornoncommercially.Secondarily, thisLicensepreservesfortheauthorandpublisherawaytogetcreditfortheirwork,whilenotbeingconsideredresponsibleformodifications madebyothers. ThisLicenseisakindofcopyleft,whichmeansthatderivativeworksofthedocumentmustthemselvesbefreeinthesamesense.It complementstheGNUGeneralPublicLicense,whichisacopyleftlicensedesignedforfreesoftware. WehavedesignedthisLicenseinordertouseitformanualsforfreesoftware,becausefreesoftwareneedsfreedocumentation:afreeprogram shouldcomewithmanualsprovidingthesamefreedomsthatthesoftwaredoes.ButthisLicenseisnotlimitedtosoftwaremanualsitcanbeused foranytextualwork,regardlessofsubjectmatterorwhetheritispublishedasaprintedbook.WerecommendthisLicenseprincipallyforworks whosepurposeisinstructionorreference. 2. APPLICABILITYANDDEFINITIONS ThisLicenseappliestoanymanualorotherwork,inanymedium,thatcontainsanoticeplacedbythecopyrightholdersayingitcanbe distributedunderthetermsofthisLicense.Suchanoticegrantsaworldwide,royaltyfreelicense,unlimitedinduration,tousethatworkunder theconditionsstatedherein.TheDocument,below,referstoanysuchmanualorwork.Anymemberofthepublicisalicensee,andis addressedasyou.Youacceptthelicenseifyoucopy,modifyordistributetheworkinawayrequiringpermissionundercopyrightlaw. AModifiedVersionoftheDocumentmeansanyworkcontainingtheDocumentoraportionofit,eithercopiedverbatim,orwith modificationsand/ortranslatedintoanotherlanguage. ASecondarySectionisanamedappendixorafrontmattersectionoftheDocumentthatdealsexclusivelywiththerelationshipofthe publishersorauthorsoftheDocumenttotheDocumentsoverallsubject(ortorelatedmatters)andcontainsnothingthatcouldfalldirectlywithin thatoverallsubject.(Thus,iftheDocumentisinpartatextbookofmathematics,aSecondarySectionmaynotexplainanymathematics.)The relationshipcouldbeamatterofhistoricalconnectionwiththesubjectorwithrelatedmatters,oroflegal,commercial,philosophical,ethicalor politicalpositionregardingthem. TheInvariantSectionsarecertainSecondarySectionswhosetitlesaredesignated,asbeingthoseofInvariantSections,inthenoticethatsays thattheDocumentisreleasedunderthisLicense.IfasectiondoesnotfittheabovedefinitionofSecondarythenitisnotallowedtobedesignated asInvariant.TheDocumentmaycontainzeroInvariantSections.IftheDocumentdoesnotidentifyanyInvariantSectionsthentherearenone. TheCoverTextsarecertainshortpassagesoftextthatarelisted,asFrontCoverTextsorBackCoverTexts,inthenoticethatsaysthatthe DocumentisreleasedunderthisLicense.AFrontCoverTextmaybeatmost5words,andaBackCoverTextmaybeatmost25words. ATransparentcopyoftheDocumentmeansamachinereadablecopy,representedinaformatwhosespecificationisavailabletothegeneral public,thatissuitableforrevisingthedocumentstraightforwardlywithgenerictexteditorsor(forimagescomposedofpixels)genericpaint programsor(fordrawings)somewidelyavailabledrawingeditor,andthatissuitableforinputtotextformattersorforautomatictranslationtoa varietyofformatssuitableforinputtotextformatters.AcopymadeinanotherwiseTransparentfileformatwhosemarkup,orabsenceof markup,hasbeenarrangedtothwartordiscouragesubsequentmodificationbyreadersisnotTransparent.AnimageformatisnotTransparentif usedforanysubstantialamountoftext.AcopythatisnotTransparentiscalledOpaque. ExamplesofsuitableformatsforTransparentcopiesincludeplainASCIIwithoutmarkup,Texinfoinputformat,LaTeXinputformat,SGMLor XMLusingapubliclyavailableDTD,andstandardconformingsimpleHTML,PostScriptorPDFdesignedforhumanmodification.Examples oftransparentimageformatsincludePNG,XCFandJPG.Opaqueformatsincludeproprietaryformatsthatcanbereadandeditedonlyby proprietarywordprocessors,SGMLorXMLforwhichtheDTDand/orprocessingtoolsarenotgenerallyavailable,andthemachinegenerated HTML,PostScriptorPDFproducedbysomewordprocessorsforoutputpurposesonly. TheTitlePagemeans,foraprintedbook,thetitlepageitself,plussuchfollowingpagesasareneededtohold,legibly,thematerialthisLicense requirestoappearinthetitlepage.Forworksinformatswhichdonothaveanytitlepageassuch,TitlePagemeansthetextnearthemost prominentappearanceoftheworkstitle,precedingthebeginningofthebodyofthetext. ThepublishermeansanypersonorentitythatdistributescopiesoftheDocumenttothepublic. AsectionEntitledXYZmeansanamedsubunitoftheDocumentwhosetitleeitherispreciselyXYZorcontainsXYZinparentheses followingtextthattranslatesXYZinanotherlanguage.(HereXYZstandsforaspecificsectionnamementionedbelow,suchas

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ADDENDUM:HowtousethisLicenseforyourdocuments
TousethisLicenseinadocumentyouhavewritten,includeacopyoftheLicenseinthedocumentandputthefollowingcopyrightandlicensenotices justafterthetitlepage:
C o p y r i g h t( C ) y e a r y o u rn a m e . P e r m i s s i o ni sg r a n t e dt oc o p y ,d i s t r i b u t ea n d / o rm o d i f yt h i sd o c u m e n t u n d e rt h et e r m so ft h eG N UF r e eD o c u m e n t a t i o nL i c e n s e ,V e r s i o n1 . 3 o ra n yl a t e rv e r s i o np u b l i s h e db yt h eF r e eS o f t w a r eF o u n d a t i o n ; w i t hn oI n v a r i a n tS e c t i o n s ,n oF r o n t C o v e rT e x t s ,a n dn oB a c k C o v e r T e x t s . Ac o p yo ft h el i c e n s ei si n c l u d e di nt h es e c t i o ne n t i t l e d` ` G N U F r e eD o c u m e n t a t i o nL i c e n s e ' ' .

IfyouhaveInvariantSections,FrontCoverTextsandBackCoverTexts,replacethewithTexts.linewiththis:
w i t ht h eI n v a r i a n tS e c t i o n sb e i n gl i s tt h e i rt i t l e s ,w i t h t h eF r o n t C o v e rT e x t sb e i n gl i s t ,a n dw i t ht h eB a c k C o v e rT e x t s b e i n gl i s t .

IfyouhaveInvariantSectionswithoutCoverTexts,orsomeothercombinationofthethree,mergethosetwoalternativestosuitthesituation. Ifyourdocumentcontainsnontrivialexamplesofprogramcode,werecommendreleasingtheseexamplesinparallelunderyourchoiceoffreesoftware license,suchastheGNUGeneralPublicLicense,topermittheiruseinfreesoftware. Previous:GNUFreeDocumentationLicense,Up:Top[Contents][Index]

AppendixDIndexes
BuiltinIndex: IndexofBashbuiltincommands. ReservedWordIndex: IndexofBashreservedwords. VariableIndex: Quickreferencehelpsyoufindthevariableyouwant. FunctionIndex: IndexofbindableReadlinefunctions. ConceptIndex: Generalindexforconceptsdescribedinthismanual. Next:ReservedWordIndex,Up:Indexes[Contents][Index]

D.1IndexofShellBuiltinCommands
Jumpto: .:[ ABCDEFGHJKLMPRSTUW

IndexEntry Section .
. :

BourneShellBuiltins

:
: :

BourneShellBuiltins

[
[ :

BourneShellBuiltins

A
a l i a s :

BashBuiltins

B
b g : b i n d : b r e a k : b u i l t i n :

JobControlBuiltins BashBuiltins BourneShellBuiltins BashBuiltins

C
c a l l e r : c d : c o m m a n d : c o m p g e n : c o m p l e t e : c o m p o p t : c o n t i n u e :

BashBuiltins BourneShellBuiltins BashBuiltins ProgrammableCompletionBuiltins ProgrammableCompletionBuiltins ProgrammableCompletionBuiltins BourneShellBuiltins

D
d e c l a r e : d i r s : d i s o w n :

BashBuiltins DirectoryStackBuiltins JobControlBuiltins

E
e c h o : e n a b l e : e v a l : e x e c : e x i t : e x p o r t :

BashBuiltins BashBuiltins BourneShellBuiltins BourneShellBuiltins BourneShellBuiltins BourneShellBuiltins

F
f c : f g :

BashHistoryBuiltins JobControlBuiltins

G
g e t o p t s :

BourneShellBuiltins

H
h a s h : h e l p : h i s t o r y :

BourneShellBuiltins BashBuiltins BashHistoryBuiltins

J
j o b s :

JobControlBuiltins

K
k i l l :

JobControlBuiltins

l e t : l o c a l : l o g o u t :

BashBuiltins BashBuiltins BashBuiltins

M
m a p f i l e :

BashBuiltins

P
p o p d : p r i n t f : p u s h d : p w d :

DirectoryStackBuiltins BashBuiltins DirectoryStackBuiltins BourneShellBuiltins

R
r e a d : r e a d a r r a y : r e a d o n l y : r e t u r n :

BashBuiltins BashBuiltins BourneShellBuiltins BourneShellBuiltins

S
s e t : s h i f t : s h o p t : s o u r c e : s u s p e n d :

TheSetBuiltin BourneShellBuiltins TheShoptBuiltin BashBuiltins JobControlBuiltins

T
t e s t : t i m e s : t r a p : t y p e : t y p e s e t :

BourneShellBuiltins BourneShellBuiltins BourneShellBuiltins BashBuiltins BashBuiltins

U
u l i m i t : u m a s k : u n a l i a s : u n s e t :

BashBuiltins BourneShellBuiltins BashBuiltins BourneShellBuiltins

W
w a i t :

JobControlBuiltins

Jumpto: .:[ ABCDEFGHJKLMPRSTUW Next:VariableIndex,Previous:BuiltinIndex,Up:Indexes[Contents][Index]

D.2IndexofShellReservedWords
Jumpto: ![]{} CDEFISTUW IndexEntry Section !
! :

Pipelines

[
[ [ :

ConditionalConstructs

]
] ] :

ConditionalConstructs

{
{ :

CommandGrouping

}
} :

CommandGrouping

C
c a s e :

ConditionalConstructs

D
d o : d o n e :

LoopingConstructs LoopingConstructs

E
e l i f : e l s e : e s a c :

ConditionalConstructs ConditionalConstructs ConditionalConstructs

F
f i : f o r : f u n c t i o n :

ConditionalConstructs LoopingConstructs ShellFunctions

I
i f : i n :

ConditionalConstructs ConditionalConstructs

S
s e l e c t :

ConditionalConstructs

T
t h e n : t i m e :

ConditionalConstructs Pipelines

U
u n t i l :

LoopingConstructs

W
w h i l e :

LoopingConstructs

Jumpto: ![]{} CDEFISTUW Next:FunctionIndex,Previous:ReservedWordIndex,Up:Indexes[Contents][Index]

D.3ParameterandVariableIndex
Jumpto: !#$*0?@_ ABCDEFGHIKLMOPRSTUV IndexEntry !
! :

Section

SpecialParameters

#
# :

SpecialParameters

$
$ :

SpecialParameters

*
* :

SpecialParameters

SpecialParameters

0
0 :

SpecialParameters

?
? :

SpecialParameters

@
@ :

SpecialParameters

_
_ :

SpecialParameters

A
a u t o _ r e s u m e :

JobControlVariables

B
B A S H : B A S H O P T S : B A S H P I D : B A S H _ A L I A S E S : B A S H _ A R G C : B A S H _ A R G V : B A S H _ C M D S : B A S H _ C O M M A N D : B A S H _ E N V : B A S H _ E X E C U T I O N _ S T R I N G : B A S H _ L I N E N O : B A S H _ R E M A T C H : B A S H _ S O U R C E : B A S H _ S U B S H E L L : B A S H _ V E R S I N F O : B A S H _ V E R S I O N : B A S H _ X T R A C E F D : b e l l s t y l e : b i n d t t y s p e c i a l c h a r s :

BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables ReadlineInitFileSyntax ReadlineInitFileSyntax

C
C D P A T H :

BourneShellVariables BashVariables c o m m e n t b e g i n : ReadlineInitFileSyntax c o m p l e t i o n d i s p l a y w i d t h : ReadlineInitFileSyntax c o m p l e t i o n i g n o r e c a s e : ReadlineInitFileSyntax c o m p l e t i o n m a p c a s e : ReadlineInitFileSyntax c o m p l e t i o n p r e f i x d i s p l a y l e n g t h : ReadlineInitFileSyntax c o m p l e t i o n q u e r y i t e m s : ReadlineInitFileSyntax C O M P R E P L Y : BashVariables C O M P _ C W O R D : BashVariables C O M P _ K E Y : BashVariables C O M P _ L I N E : BashVariables C O M P _ P O I N T : BashVariables C O M P _ T Y P E : BashVariables C O M P _ W O R D B R E A K S : BashVariables C O M P _ W O R D S : BashVariables c o n v e r t m e t a : ReadlineInitFileSyntax C O P R O C : BashVariables
C O L U M N S :

D
D I R S T A C K : d i s a b l e c o m p l e t i o n :

BashVariables ReadlineInitFileSyntax

E
e d i t i n g m o d e : E M A C S : e n a b l e k e y p a d : E N V : E U I D : e x p a n d t i l d e :

ReadlineInitFileSyntax BashVariables ReadlineInitFileSyntax BashVariables BashVariables ReadlineInitFileSyntax

F
F C E D I T : F I G N O R E : F U N C N A M E : F U N C N E S T :

BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables

G
G L O B I G N O R E : G R O U P S :

BashVariables BashVariables

H
h i s t c h a r s : H I S T C M D : H I S T C O N T R O L : H I S T F I L E : H I S T F I L E S I Z E : H I S T I G N O R E : h i s t o r y p r e s e r v e p o i n t : h i s t o r y s i z e : H I S T S I Z E : H I S T T I M E F O R M A T : H O M E : h o r i z o n t a l s c r o l l m o d e : H O S T F I L E : H O S T N A M E : H O S T T Y P E :

BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables ReadlineInitFileSyntax ReadlineInitFileSyntax BashVariables BashVariables BourneShellVariables ReadlineInitFileSyntax BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables

I
I F S : I G N O R E E O F : i n p u t m e t a : I N P U T R C : i s e a r c h t e r m i n a t o r s :

BourneShellVariables BashVariables ReadlineInitFileSyntax BashVariables ReadlineInitFileSyntax

K
k e y m a p :

ReadlineInitFileSyntax

L
L A N G : L C _ A L L : L C _ C O L L A T E : L C _ C T Y P E : L C _ M E S S A G E S : L C _ M E S S A G E S : L C _ N U M E R I C : L I N E N O : L I N E S :

BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables LocaleTranslation BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables

M
M A C H T Y P E : M A I L : M A I L C H E C K : M A I L P A T H : M A P F I L E : m a r k m o d i f i e d l i n e s : m a r k s y m l i n k e d d i r e c t o r i e s : m a t c h h i d d e n f i l e s : m e n u c o m p l e t e d i s p l a y p r e f i x : m e t a f l a g :

BashVariables BourneShellVariables BashVariables BourneShellVariables BashVariables ReadlineInitFileSyntax ReadlineInitFileSyntax ReadlineInitFileSyntax ReadlineInitFileSyntax ReadlineInitFileSyntax

O
O L D P W D : O P T A R G : O P T E R R : O P T I N D : O S T Y P E : o u t p u t m e t a :

BashVariables BourneShellVariables BashVariables BourneShellVariables BashVariables ReadlineInitFileSyntax

P
p a g e c o m p l e t i o n s : P A T H : P I P E S T A T U S : P O S I X L Y _ C O R R E C T : P P I D : P R O M P T _ C O M M A N D : P R O M P T _ D I R T R I M : P S 1 : P S 2 : P S 3 : P S 4 : P W D :

ReadlineInitFileSyntax BourneShellVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BourneShellVariables BourneShellVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables

R
R A N D O M : R E A D L I N E _ L I N E : R E A D L I N E _ P O I N T : R E P L Y : r e v e r t a l l a t n e w l i n e :

BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables ReadlineInitFileSyntax

S
S E C O N D S : S H E L L : S H E L L O P T S : S H L V L : s h o w a l l i f a m b i g u o u s : s h o w a l l i f u n m o d i f i e d : s k i p c o m p l e t e d t e x t :

BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables ReadlineInitFileSyntax ReadlineInitFileSyntax ReadlineInitFileSyntax

T
T E X T D O M A I N : T E X T D O M A I N D I R : T I M E F O R M A T : T M O U T : T M P D I R :

LocaleTranslation LocaleTranslation BashVariables BashVariables BashVariables

U
U I D :

BashVariables

V
v i s i b l e s t a t s :

ReadlineInitFileSyntax

Jumpto: !#$*0?@_ ABCDEFGHIKLMOPRSTUV Next:ConceptIndex,Previous:VariableIndex,Up:Indexes[Contents][Index]

D.4FunctionIndex
Jumpto: ABCDEFGHIKMNOPQRSTUY IndexEntry A
a b o r t( C g ) : a c c e p t l i n e( N e w l i n eo rR e t u r n ) : a l i a s e x p a n d l i n e( ) :

Section

MiscellaneousCommands CommandsForHistory MiscellaneousCommands

B
b a c k w a r d c h a r( C b ) : b a c k w a r d d e l e t e c h a r( R u b o u t ) : b a c k w a r d k i l l l i n e( C xR u b o u t ) : b a c k w a r d k i l l w o r d( M D E L ) : b a c k w a r d w o r d( M b ) : b e g i n n i n g o f h i s t o r y( M < ) : b e g i n n i n g o f l i n e( C a ) :

CommandsForMoving CommandsForText CommandsForKilling CommandsForKilling CommandsForMoving CommandsForHistory CommandsForMoving

C
c a l l l a s t k b d m a c r o( C xe ) : c a p i t a l i z e w o r d( M c ) : c h a r a c t e r s e a r c h( C ] ) : c h a r a c t e r s e a r c h b a c k w a r d( M C ] ) : c l e a r s c r e e n( C l ) : c o m p l e t e( T A B ) : c o m p l e t e c o m m a n d( M ! ) : c o m p l e t e f i l e n a m e( M / ) : c o m p l e t e h o s t n a m e( M @ ) : c o m p l e t e i n t o b r a c e s( M { ) : c o m p l e t e u s e r n a m e( M ~ ) : c o m p l e t e v a r i a b l e( M $ ) : c o p y b a c k w a r d w o r d( ) : c o p y f o r w a r d w o r d( ) : c o p y r e g i o n a s k i l l( ) :

KeyboardMacros CommandsForText MiscellaneousCommands MiscellaneousCommands CommandsForMoving CommandsForCompletion CommandsForCompletion CommandsForCompletion CommandsForCompletion CommandsForCompletion CommandsForCompletion CommandsForCompletion CommandsForKilling CommandsForKilling CommandsForKilling

D
d a b b r e v e x p a n d( ) : d e l e t e c h a r( C d ) : d e l e t e c h a r o r l i s t( ) : d e l e t e h o r i z o n t a l s p a c e( ) : d i g i t a r g u m e n t( M 0 ,M 1 ,M ) : d i s p l a y s h e l l v e r s i o n( C xC v ) : d o u p p e r c a s e v e r s i o n( M a ,M b ,M x , ) : d o w n c a s e w o r d( M l ) : d u m p f u n c t i o n s( ) : d u m p m a c r o s( ) : d u m p v a r i a b l e s( ) : d y n a m i c c o m p l e t e h i s t o r y( M T A B ) :

CommandsForCompletion CommandsForText CommandsForCompletion CommandsForKilling NumericArguments MiscellaneousCommands MiscellaneousCommands CommandsForText MiscellaneousCommands MiscellaneousCommands MiscellaneousCommands CommandsForCompletion

E
e d i t a n d e x e c u t e c o m m a n d( C x C e ) :

MiscellaneousCommands

e n d k b d m a c r o( C x) ) : e n d o f h i s t o r y( M > ) : e n d o f l i n e( C e ) : e x c h a n g e p o i n t a n d m a r k( C xC x ) :

KeyboardMacros CommandsForHistory CommandsForMoving MiscellaneousCommands

F
f o r w a r d b a c k w a r d d e l e t e c h a r( ) : f o r w a r d c h a r( C f ) : f o r w a r d s e a r c h h i s t o r y( C s ) : f o r w a r d w o r d( M f ) :

CommandsForText CommandsForMoving CommandsForHistory CommandsForMoving

G
g l o b c o m p l e t e w o r d( M g ) : g l o b e x p a n d w o r d( C x* ) : g l o b l i s t e x p a n s i o n s( C xg ) :

MiscellaneousCommands MiscellaneousCommands MiscellaneousCommands

H
h i s t o r y a n d a l i a s e x p a n d l i n e( ) : h i s t o r y e x p a n d l i n e( M ^ ) : h i s t o r y s e a r c h b a c k w a r d( ) : h i s t o r y s e a r c h f o r w a r d( ) :

MiscellaneousCommands MiscellaneousCommands CommandsForHistory CommandsForHistory

I
i n s e r t c o m m e n t( M # ) : i n s e r t c o m p l e t i o n s( M * ) : i n s e r t l a s t a r g u m e n t( M .o rM _ ) :

MiscellaneousCommands CommandsForCompletion MiscellaneousCommands

K
k i l l l i n e( C k ) : k i l l r e g i o n( ) : k i l l w h o l e l i n e( ) : k i l l w o r d( M d ) :

CommandsForKilling CommandsForKilling CommandsForKilling CommandsForKilling

M
m a g i c s p a c e( ) : m e n u c o m p l e t e( ) : m e n u c o m p l e t e b a c k w a r d( ) :

MiscellaneousCommands CommandsForCompletion CommandsForCompletion

N
n e x t h i s t o r y( C n ) :

CommandsForHistory CommandsForHistory n o n i n c r e m e n t a l r e v e r s e s e a r c h h i s t o r y( M p ) : CommandsForHistory

n o n i n c r e m e n t a l f o r w a r d s e a r c h h i s t o r y( M n ) :

O
o p e r a t e a n d g e t n e x t( C o ) : o v e r w r i t e m o d e( ) :

MiscellaneousCommands CommandsForText

P
p o s s i b l e c o m m a n d c o m p l e t i o n s( C x! ) : p o s s i b l e c o m p l e t i o n s( M ? ) : p o s s i b l e f i l e n a m e c o m p l e t i o n s( C x/ ) : p o s s i b l e h o s t n a m e c o m p l e t i o n s( C x@ ) : p o s s i b l e u s e r n a m e c o m p l e t i o n s( C x~ ) : p o s s i b l e v a r i a b l e c o m p l e t i o n s( C x$ ) : p r e f i x m e t a( E S C ) : p r e v i o u s h i s t o r y( C p ) :

CommandsForCompletion CommandsForCompletion CommandsForCompletion CommandsForCompletion CommandsForCompletion CommandsForCompletion MiscellaneousCommands CommandsForHistory

Q
q u o t e d i n s e r t( C qo rC v ) :

CommandsForText

r e r e a d i n i t f i l e( C xC r ) : r e d r a w c u r r e n t l i n e( ) : r e v e r s e s e a r c h h i s t o r y( C r ) : r e v e r t l i n e( M r ) :

MiscellaneousCommands CommandsForMoving CommandsForHistory MiscellaneousCommands

S
s e l f i n s e r t( a ,b ,A ,1 ,! , ) : s e t m a r k( C @ ) : s h e l l b a c k w a r d k i l l w o r d( ) : s h e l l b a c k w a r d w o r d( ) : s h e l l e x p a n d l i n e( M C e ) : s h e l l f o r w a r d w o r d( ) : s h e l l k i l l w o r d( ) : s k i p c s i s e q u e n c e( ) : s t a r t k b d m a c r o( C x( ) :

CommandsForText MiscellaneousCommands CommandsForKilling CommandsForMoving MiscellaneousCommands CommandsForMoving CommandsForKilling MiscellaneousCommands KeyboardMacros

T
t i l d e e x p a n d( M & ) : t r a n s p o s e c h a r s( C t ) : t r a n s p o s e w o r d s( M t ) :

MiscellaneousCommands CommandsForText CommandsForText

U
u n d o( C _o rC xC u ) : u n i v e r s a l a r g u m e n t( ) : u n i x f i l e n a m e r u b o u t( ) : u n i x l i n e d i s c a r d( C u ) : u n i x w o r d r u b o u t( C w ) : u p c a s e w o r d( M u ) :

MiscellaneousCommands NumericArguments CommandsForKilling CommandsForKilling CommandsForKilling CommandsForText

Y
y a n k( C y ) : y a n k l a s t a r g( M .o rM _ ) : y a n k n t h a r g( M C y ) : y a n k p o p( M y ) :

CommandsForKilling CommandsForHistory CommandsForHistory CommandsForKilling

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D.5ConceptIndex
Jumpto: ABCDEFHIJKLMNOPQRSTVWY IndexEntry A aliasexpansion: arithmeticevaluation: arithmeticexpansion: arithmetic,shell: arrays: B background: Bashconfiguration: Bashinstallation: Bourneshell: braceexpansion: builtin: C JobControlBasics BasicInstallation BasicInstallation BasicShellFeatures BraceExpansion Definitions Aliases ShellArithmetic ArithmeticExpansion ShellArithmetic Arrays Section

commandediting: commandexecution: commandexpansion: commandhistory: commandsearch: commandsubstitution: commandtiming: commands,compound: commands,conditional: commands,grouping: commands,lists: commands,looping: commands,pipelines: commands,shell: commands,simple: comments,shell: completionbuiltins: configuration: controloperator: coprocess: D directorystack: E editingcommandlines: environment: evaluation,arithmetic: eventdesignators: executionenvironment: exitstatus: exitstatus: expansion: expansion,arithmetic: expansion,brace: expansion,filename: expansion,parameter: expansion,pathname: expansion,tilde: expressions,arithmetic: expressions,conditional: F field: filename: filenameexpansion: foreground: functions,shell: H historybuiltins: historyevents: historyexpansion: historylist: History,howtouse: I identifier: initializationfile,readline: installation:

ReadlineBareEssentials CommandSearchandExecution SimpleCommandExpansion BashHistoryFacilities CommandSearchandExecution CommandSubstitution Pipelines CompoundCommands ConditionalConstructs CommandGrouping Lists LoopingConstructs Pipelines ShellCommands SimpleCommands Comments ProgrammableCompletionBuiltins BasicInstallation Definitions Coprocesses

TheDirectoryStack

ReadlineBareEssentials Environment ShellArithmetic EventDesignators CommandExecutionEnvironment Definitions ExitStatus ShellExpansions ArithmeticExpansion BraceExpansion FilenameExpansion ShellParameterExpansion FilenameExpansion TildeExpansion ShellArithmetic BashConditionalExpressions

Definitions Definitions FilenameExpansion JobControlBasics ShellFunctions

BashHistoryBuiltins EventDesignators HistoryInteraction BashHistoryFacilities ProgrammableCompletionBuiltins

Definitions ReadlineInitFile BasicInstallation

interaction,readline: interactiveshell: interactiveshell: internationalization: J job: jobcontrol: jobcontrol: K killring: killingtext: L localization: loginshell: M matching,pattern: metacharacter: N name: nativelanguages: notation,readline: O operator,shell: P parameterexpansion: parameters: parameters,positional: parameters,special: pathnameexpansion: patternmatching: pipeline: POSIX: POSIXMode: processgroup: processgroupID: processsubstitution: programmablecompletion: prompting: Q quoting: quoting,ANSI: R Readline,howtouse: redirection: reservedword: restrictedshell: returnstatus: S shellarithmetic: shellfunction:

ReadlineInteraction InvokingBash InteractiveShells LocaleTranslation

Definitions Definitions JobControlBasics

ReadlineKillingCommands ReadlineKillingCommands

LocaleTranslation InvokingBash

PatternMatching Definitions

Definitions LocaleTranslation ReadlineBareEssentials

Definitions

ShellParameterExpansion ShellParameters PositionalParameters SpecialParameters FilenameExpansion PatternMatching Pipelines Definitions BashPOSIXMode Definitions Definitions ProcessSubstitution ProgrammableCompletion PrintingaPrompt

Quoting ANSICQuoting

JobControlVariables Redirections Definitions TheRestrictedShell Definitions

ShellArithmetic ShellFunctions

shellscript: shellvariable: shell,interactive: signal: signalhandling: specialbuiltin: specialbuiltin: startupfiles: suspendingjobs: T

ShellScripts ShellParameters InteractiveShells Definitions Signals Definitions SpecialBuiltins BashStartupFiles JobControlBasics

tildeexpansion: TildeExpansion token: Definitions translation,nativelanguages: LocaleTranslation V variable,shell: variables,readline: W word: wordsplitting: Y yankingtext: ReadlineKillingCommands Definitions WordSplitting ShellParameters ReadlineInitFileSyntax

Jumpto: ABCDEFHIJKLMNOPQRSTVWY