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KSH(1) General Commands Manual KSH(1)
NAME
ksh2020, rksh2020 - KornShell, a standard/restricted command and programming language
NOTE
Currently, rksh and pfksh are not available on macOS / Darwin.
SYNOPSIS
ksh [ ±abcefhiknoprstuvxBCDP ] [ -R file ] [ ±o option ] ... [ - ] [ arg ... ]
DESCRIPTION
Ksh is a command and programming language that executes commands read from a terminal or a file.
Rksh is a restricted version of the command interpreter ksh; See Invocation below for the meaning of
arguments to the shell.
Definitions.
A metacharacter is one of the following characters:
; & ( ) ⎪ < > new-line space tab
A blank is a tab or a space. An identifier is a sequence of letters, digits, or underscores start‐
ing with a letter or underscore. Identifiers are used as components of variable names. A vname is
a sequence of one or more identifiers separated by a . and optionally preceded by a .. Vnames are
used as function and variable names. A word is a sequence of characters from the character set de‐
fined by the current locale, excluding non-quoted metacharacters.
A command is a sequence of characters in the syntax of the shell language. The shell reads each
command and carries out the desired action either directly or by invoking separate utilities. A
built-in command is a command that is carried out by the shell itself without creating a separate
process. Some commands are built-in purely for convenience and are not documented here. Built-ins
that cause side effects in the shell environment and built-ins that are found before performing a
path search (see Execution below) are documented here. For historical reasons, some of these built-
ins behave differently than other built-ins and are called special built-ins.
Commands.
A simple-command is a list of variable assignments (see Variable Assignments below) or a sequence of
blank separated words which may be preceded by a list of variable assignments (see Environment be‐
low). The first word specifies the name of the command to be executed. Except as specified below,
the remaining words are passed as arguments to the invoked command. The command name is passed as
argument 0 (see exec(2)). The value of a simple-command is its exit status; 0-255 if it terminates
normally; 256+signum if it terminates abnormally (the name of the signal corresponding to the exit
status can be obtained via the -l option of the kill built-in utility).
A pipeline is a sequence of one or more commands separated by ⎪. The standard output of each com‐
mand but the last is connected by a pipe(2) to the standard input of the next command. Each com‐
mand, except possibly the last, is run as a separate process; the shell waits for the last command
to terminate. The exit status of a pipeline is the exit status of the last command unless the
pipefail option is enabled. Each pipeline can be preceded by the reserved word ! which causes the
exit status of the pipeline to become 0 if the exit status of the last command is non-zero, and 1 if
the exit status of the last command is 0.
A list is a sequence of one or more pipelines separated by ;, &, ⎪&, &&, or ⎪⎪, and optionally ter‐
minated by ;, &, or ⎪&. Of these five symbols, ;, &, and ⎪& have equal precedence, which is lower
than that of && and ⎪⎪. The symbols && and ⎪⎪ also have equal precedence. A semicolon (;) causes
sequential execution of the preceding pipeline; an ampersand (&) causes asynchronous execution of
the preceding pipeline (i.e., the shell does not wait for that pipeline to finish). The symbol ⎪&
causes asynchronous execution of the preceding pipeline with a two-way pipe established to the par‐
ent shell; the standard input and output of the spawned pipeline can be written to and read from by
the parent shell by applying the redirection operators <& and >& with arg p to commands and by using
-p option of the built-in commands read and print described later. The symbol && (⎪⎪) causes the
list following it to be executed only if the preceding pipeline returns a zero (non-zero) value.
One or more new-lines may appear in a list instead of a semicolon, to delimit a command. The first
item of the first pipeline of a list that is a simple command not beginning with a redirection, and
not occurring within a while, until, or if list, can be preceded by a semicolon. This semicolon is
ignored unless the showme option is enabled as described with the set built-in below.
A command is either a simple-command or one of the following. Unless otherwise stated, the value
returned by a command is that of the last simple-command executed in the command.
for vname [ in word ... ] ;do list ;done
Each time a for command is executed, vname is set to the next word taken from the in word
list. If in word ... is omitted, then the for command executes the do list once for each
positional parameter that is set starting from 1 (see Parameter Expansion below). Execution
ends when there are no more words in the list.
for (( [expr1] ; [expr2] ; [expr3] )) ;do list ;done
The arithmetic expression expr1 is evaluated first (see Arithmetic evaluation below). The
arithmetic expression expr2 is repeatedly evaluated until it evaluates to zero and when non-
zero, list is executed and the arithmetic expression expr3 evaluated. If any expression is
omitted, then it behaves as if it evaluated to 1.
select vname [ in word ... ] ;do list ;done
A select command prints on standard error (file descriptor 2) the set of words, each preceded
by a number. If in word ... is omitted, then the positional parameters starting from 1 are
used instead (see Parameter Expansion below). The PS3 prompt is printed and a line is read
from the standard input. If this line consists of the number of one of the listed words,
then the value of the variable vname is set to the word corresponding to this number. If
this line is empty, the selection list is printed again. Otherwise the value of the variable
vname is set to null. The contents of the line read from standard input is saved in the
variable REPLY. The list is executed for each selection until a break or end-of-file is en‐
countered. If the REPLY variable is set to null by the execution of list, then the selection
list is printed before displaying the PS3 prompt for the next selection.
case word in [ [(]pattern [ ⎪ pattern ] ... ) list ;; ] ... esac
A case command executes the list associated with the first pattern that matches word. The
form of the patterns is the same as that used for file-name generation (see File Name Genera‐
tion below). The ;; operator causes execution of case to terminate. If ;& is used in place
of ;; the next subsequent list, if any, is executed.
if list ;then list [ ;elif list ;then list ] ... [ ;else list ] ;fi
The list following if is executed and, if it returns a zero exit status, the list following
the first then is executed. Otherwise, the list following elif is executed and, if its value
is zero, the list following the next then is executed. Failing each successive elif list,
the else list is executed. If the if list has non-zero exit status and there is no else
list, then the if command returns a zero exit status.
while list ;do list ;done
until list ;do list ;done
A while command repeatedly executes the while list and, if the exit status of the last com‐
mand in the list is zero, executes the do list; otherwise the loop terminates. If no com‐
mands in the do list are executed, then the while command returns a zero exit status; until
may be used in place of while to negate the loop termination test.
((expression))
The expression is evaluated using the rules for arithmetic evaluation described below. If
the value of the arithmetic expression is non-zero, the exit status is 0, otherwise the exit
status is 1.
(list)
Execute list in a separate environment. Note, that if two adjacent open parentheses are
needed for nesting, a space must be inserted to avoid evaluation as an arithmetic command as
described above.
{ list;}
list is simply executed. Note that unlike the metacharacters ( and ), { and } are reserved
words and must occur at the beginning of a line or after a ; in order to be recognized.
[[ expression ]]
Evaluates expression and returns a zero exit status when expression is true. See Conditional
Expressions below, for a description of expression.
function varname { list ;}
varname () { list ;}
Define a function which is referenced by varname. A function whose varname contains a . is
called a discipline function and the portion of the varname preceding the last . must refer
to an existing variable. The body of the function is the list of commands between { and }.
A function defined with the function varname syntax can also be used as an argument to the .
special built-in command to get the equivalent behavior as if the varname() syntax were used
to define it. (See Functions below.)
namespace varname { list ;}
Defines or uses the name space identifier and runs the commands in list in this name space.
(See Name Spaces below.)
& [ name [ arg... ] ]
Causes subsequent list commands terminated by & to be placed in the background job pool name.
If name is omitted a default unnamed pool is used. Commands in a named background pool may
be executed remotely.
time [ pipeline ]
If pipeline is omitted the user and system time for the current shell and completed child
processes is printed on standard error. Otherwise, pipeline is executed and the elapsed time
as well as the user and system time are printed on standard error. The TIMEFORMAT variable
may be set to a format string that specifies how the timing information should be displayed.
See Shell Variables below for a description of the TIMEFORMAT variable.
The following reserved words are recognized as reserved only when they are the first word of a com‐
mand and are not quoted:
if then else elif fi case esac for while until do done { } function select time [[ ]] !
Variable Assignments.
One or more variable assignments can start a simple command or can be arguments to the typeset,
enum, export, or readonly special built-in commands as well as to other declaration commands created
as types. The syntax for an assignment is of the form:
varname=word
varname[word]=word
No space is permitted between varname and the = or between = and word.
varname=(assign_list)
No space is permitted between varname and the =. The variable varname is unset before the
assignment. An assign_list can be one of the following:
word ...
Indexed array assignment.
[word]=word ...
Associative array assignment. If preceded by typeset -a this will create an
indexed array instead.
assignment ...
Compound variable assignment. This creates a compound variable varname with
sub-variables of the form varname.name, where name is the name portion of as‐
signment. The value of varname will contain all the assignment elements. Ad‐
ditional assignments made to sub-variables of varname will also be displayed
as part of the value of varname. If no assignments are specified, varname
will be a compound variable allowing subsequence child elements to be defined.
typeset [options] assignment ...
Nested variable assignment. Multiple assignments can be specified by separat‐
ing each of them with a ;. The previous value is unset before the assignment.
Other declaration commands such as readonly, enum, and other declaration com‐
mands can be used in place of typeset.
. filename
Include the assignment commands contained in filename.
In addition, a += can be used in place of the = to signify adding to or appending to the previous
value. When += is applied to an arithmetic type, word is evaluated as an arithmetic expression and
added to the current value. When applied to a string variable, the value defined by word is ap‐
pended to the value. For compound assignments, the previous value is not unset and the new values
are appended to the current ones provided that the types are compatible.
The right hand side of a variable assignment undergoes all the expansion listed below except word
splitting, brace expansion, and file name generation. When the left hand side is an assignment is a
compound variable and the right hand is the name of a compound variable, the compound variable on
the right will be copied or appended to the compound variable on the left.
Comments.
A word beginning with # causes that word and all the following characters up to a new-line to be ig‐
nored.
Aliasing.
The first word of each command is replaced by the text of an alias if an alias for this word has
been defined. An alias name consists of any number of characters excluding metacharacters, quoting
characters, file expansion characters, parameter expansion and command substitution characters, the
characters / and =. The replacement string can contain any valid shell script including the
metacharacters listed above. The first word of each command in the replaced text, other than any
that are in the process of being replaced, will be tested for aliases. If the last character of the
alias value is a blank then the word following the alias will also be checked for alias substitu‐
tion. Aliases can be used to redefine built-in commands but cannot be used to redefine the reserved
words listed above. Aliases can be created and listed with the alias command and can be removed
with the unalias command.
Aliasing is performed when scripts are read, not while they are executed. Therefore, for an alias
to take effect, the alias definition command has to be executed before the command which references
the alias is read.
The following aliases are compiled into the shell but can be unset or redefined:
autoload=′typeset -fu′
bool=′_Bool′
command=′command ′
compound=′typeset -C′
fc=hist
float=′typeset -lE′
functions=′typeset -f′
hash=′alias -t --′
history=′hist -l′
integer=′typeset -li′
nameref=′typeset -n′
nohup=′nohup ′
r=′hist -s′
redirect=′command exec′
source=′command .′
stop=′kill -s STOP′
suspend=′kill -s STOP "$$"′
type=′whence -v′
Tilde Substitution.
After alias substitution is performed, each word is checked to see if it begins with an unquoted ∼.
For tilde substitution, word also refers to the word portion of parameter expansion (see Parameter
Expansion below). If it does, then the word up to a / is checked to see if it matches a user name
in the password database (See getpwname(3).) If a match is found, the ∼ and the matched login name
are replaced by the login directory of the matched user. If no match is found, the original text is
left unchanged. A ∼ by itself, or in front of a /, is replaced by $HOME. A ∼ followed by a + or -
is replaced by the value of $PWD and $OLDPWD respectively. A ∼ followed by {fd} where fd is a file
descriptor number or the name of a variable whose value is a file descriptor, is replaced by a
string that is the equivalent to the path name of the file or directory corresponding to this file
descriptor.
In addition, when expanding a variable assignment, tilde substitution is attempted when the value of
the assignment begins with a ∼, and when a ∼ appears after a :. The : also terminates a ∼ login
name.
Command Substitution.
The standard output from a command list enclosed in parentheses preceded by a dollar sign ( $(list)
), or in a brace group preceded by a dollar sign ( ${ list;} ), or in a pair of grave accents (``)
may be used as part or all of a word; trailing new-lines are removed. In the second case, the { and
} are treated as a reserved words so that { must be followed by a blank and } must appear at the be‐
ginning of the line or follow a ;. In the third (obsolete) form, the string between the quotes is
processed for special quoting characters before the command is executed (see Quoting below). The
command substitution $(cat file) can be replaced by the equivalent but faster $(<file). The command
substitution $(n<#) will expand to the current byte offset for file descriptor n. Except for the
second form, the command list is run in a subshell so that no side effects are possible. For the
second form, the final } will be recognized as a reserved word after any token.
Arithmetic Substitution.
An arithmetic expression enclosed in double parentheses preceded by a dollar sign ( $(()) ) is re‐
placed by the value of the arithmetic expression within the double parentheses.
Process Substitution.
Each command argument of the form <(list) or >(list) will run process list asynchronously connected
to some file in /dev/fd if this directory exists, or else a fifo a temporary directory. The name of
this file will become the argument to the command. If the form with > is selected then writing on
this file will provide input for list. If < is used, then the file passed as an argument will con‐
tain the output of the list process. For example,
paste <(cut -f1 file1) <(cut -f3 file2) | tee >(process1) >(process2)
cuts fields 1 and 3 from the files file1 and file2 respectively, pastes the results together, and
sends it to the processes process1 and process2, as well as putting it onto the standard output.
Note that the file, which is passed as an argument to the command, is a UNIX pipe(2) so programs
that expect to lseek(2) on the file will not work.
Process substitution of the form <(list) can also be used with the < redirection operator which
causes the output of list to be standard input or the input for whatever file descriptor is speci‐
fied.
Parameter Expansion.
A parameter is a variable, one or more digits, or any of the characters *, @, #, ?, -, $, and !. A
variable is denoted by a vname. To create a variable whose vname contains a ., a variable whose
vname consists of everything before the last . must already exist. A variable has a value and zero
or more attributes. Variables can be assigned values and attributes by using the typeset special
built-in command. The attributes supported by the shell are described later with the typeset spe‐
cial built-in command. Exported variables pass values and attributes to the environment.
The shell supports both indexed and associative arrays. An element of an array variable is refer‐
enced by a subscript. A subscript for an indexed array is denoted by an arithmetic expression (see
Arithmetic evaluation below) between a [ and a ]. To assign values to an indexed array, use
vname=(value ...) or set -A vname value ... . The value of all non-negative subscripts must be in
the range of 0 through 4,194,303. A negative subscript is treated as an offset from the maximum
current index +1 so that -1 refers to the last element. Indexed arrays can be declared with the -a
option to typeset. Indexed arrays need not be declared. Any reference to a variable with a valid
subscript is legal and an array will be created if necessary.
An associative array is created with the -A option to typeset. A subscript for an associative array
is denoted by a string enclosed between [ and ].
Referencing any array without a subscript is equivalent to referencing the array with subscript 0.
The value of a variable may be assigned by writing:
vname=value [ vname=value ] ...
or
vname[subscript]=value [ vname[subscript]=value ] ...
Note that no space is allowed before or after the =.
Attributes assigned by the typeset special built-in command apply to all elements of the array. An
array element can be a simple variable, a compound variable or an array variable. An element of an
indexed array can be either an indexed array or an associative array. An element of an associative
array can also be either. To refer to an array element that is part of an array element, concate‐
nate the subscript in brackets. For example, to refer to the foobar element of an associative array
that is defined as the third element of the indexed array, use ${vname[3][foobar]}
A nameref is a variable that is a reference to another variable. A nameref is created with the -n
attribute of typeset. The value of the variable at the time of the typeset command becomes the
variable that will be referenced whenever the nameref variable is used. The name of a nameref can‐
not contain a .. When a variable or function name contains a ., and the portion of the name up to
the first . matches the name of a nameref, the variable referred to is obtained by replacing the
nameref portion with the name of the variable referenced by the nameref. If a nameref is used as
the index of a for loop, a name reference is established for each item in the list. A nameref pro‐
vides a convenient way to refer to the variable inside a function whose name is passed as an argu‐
ment to a function. For example, if the name of a variable is passed as the first argument to a
function, the command
typeset -n var=$1
inside the function causes references and assignments to var to be references and assignments to the
variable whose name has been passed to the function.
If any of the floating point attributes, -E, -F, or -X, or the integer attribute, -i, is set for
vname, then the value is subject to arithmetic evaluation as described below.
Positional parameters, parameters denoted by a number, may be assigned values with the set special
built-in command. Parameter $0 is set from argument zero when the shell is invoked.
The character $ is used to introduce substitutable parameters.
${parameter}
The shell reads all the characters from ${ to the matching } as part of the same word even if
it contains braces or metacharacters. The value, if any, of the parameter is substituted.
The braces are required when parameter is followed by a letter, digit, or underscore that is
not to be interpreted as part of its name, when the variable name contains a .. The braces
are also required when a variable is subscripted unless it is part of an Arithmetic Expres‐
sion or a Conditional Expression. If parameter is one or more digits then it is a positional
parameter. A positional parameter of more than one digit must be enclosed in braces. If pa‐
rameter is * or @, then all the positional parameters, starting with $1, are substituted
(separated by a field separator character). If an array vname with last subscript * @, or
for index arrays of the form sub1 .. sub2. is used, then the value for each of the elements
between sub1 and sub2 inclusive (or all elements for * and @) is substituted, separated by
the first character of the value of IFS.
${#parameter}
If parameter is * or @, the number of positional parameters is substituted. Otherwise, the
length of the value of the parameter is substituted.
${#vname[*]}
${#vname[@]}
The number of elements in the array vname is substituted.
${@vname}
Expands to the type name (See Type Variables below) or attributes of the variable referred
to by vname.
${$parameter}
If $parameter expands to the name of a variable, this expands to the value of that variable.
Otherwise, it expands to the empty string. It is undefined for special parameters.
${!vname}
Expands to the name of the variable referred to by vname. This will be vname except when
vname is a name reference.
${!vname[subscript]}
Expands to name of the subscript unless subscript is *, @. or of the form sub1 .. sub2.
When subscript is *, the list of array subscripts for vname is generated. For a variable
that is not an array, the value is 0 if the variable is set. Otherwise it is null. When
subscript is @, same as above, except that when used in double quotes, each array subscript
yields a separate argument. When subscript is of the form sub1 .. sub2 it expands to the
list of subscripts between sub1 and sub2 inclusive using the same quoting rules as @.
${!prefix*}
Expands to the names of the variables whose names begin with prefix.
${parameter:-word}
If parameter is set and is non-null then substitute its value; otherwise substitute word.
${parameter:=word}
If parameter is not set or is null then set it to word; the value of the parameter is then
substituted. Positional parameters may not be assigned to in this way.
${parameter:?word}
If parameter is set and is non-null then substitute its value; otherwise, print word and exit
from the shell (if not interactive). If word is omitted then a standard message is printed.
${parameter:+word}
If parameter is set and is non-null then substitute word; otherwise substitute nothing.
In the above, word is not evaluated unless it is to be used as the substituted string, so that, in
the following example, pwd is executed only if d is not set or is null:
print ${d:-$(pwd)}
If the colon ( : ) is omitted from the above expressions, then the shell only checks whether parame‐
ter is set or not.
${parameter:offset:length}
${parameter:offset}
Expands to the portion of the value of parameter starting at the character (counting from 0)
determined by expanding offset as an arithmetic expression and consisting of the number of
characters determined by the arithmetic expression defined by length. In the second form,
the remainder of the value is used. If A negative offset counts backwards from the end of
parameter. Note that one or more blanks is required in front of a minus sign to prevent the
shell from interpreting the operator as :-. If parameter is * or @, or is an array name in‐
dexed by * or @, then offset and length refer to the array index and number of elements re‐
spectively. A negative offset is taken relative to one greater than the highest subscript
for indexed arrays. The order for associate arrays is unspecified.
${parameter#pattern}
${parameter##pattern}
If the shell pattern matches the beginning of the value of parameter, then the value of this
expansion is the value of the parameter with the matched portion deleted; otherwise the value
of this parameter is substituted. In the first form the smallest matching pattern is deleted
and in the second form the largest matching pattern is deleted. When parameter is @, *, or
an array variable with subscript @ or *, the substring operation is applied to each element
in turn.
${parameter%pattern}
${parameter%%pattern}
If the shell pattern matches the end of the value of parameter, then the value of this expan‐
sion is the value of the parameter with the matched part deleted; otherwise substitute the
value of parameter. In the first form the smallest matching pattern is deleted and in the
second form the largest matching pattern is deleted. When parameter is @, *, or an array
variable with subscript @ or *, the substring operation is applied to each element in turn.
${parameter/pattern/string}
${parameter//pattern/string}
${parameter/#pattern/string}
${parameter/%pattern/string}
Expands parameter and replaces the longest match of pattern with the given string. Each oc‐
currence of \n in string is replaced by the portion of parameter that matches the n-th sub-
pattern. In the first form, only the first occurrence of pattern is replaced. In the second
form, each match for pattern is replaced by the given string. The third form restricts the
pattern match to the beginning of the string while the fourth form restricts the pattern
match to the end of the string. When string is null, the pattern will be deleted and the /
in front of string may be omitted. When parameter is @, *, or an array variable with sub‐
script @ or *, the substitution operation is applied to each element in turn. In this case,
the string portion of word will be re-evaluated for each element.
${parameter^pattern}
${parameter^^pattern}
${parameter,pattern}
${parameter,,pattern}
Case modification. This expansion modifies the case of alphabetic characters in parameter.
The pattern is expanded to produce a pattern just as in pathname expansion. The ^ operator
converts lowercase characters matching pattern to uppercase. The , operator converts match‐
ing uppercase characters to lowercase. The ^^ and ,, expansions convert all matched
character in the expanded value. The ^ and , expansions match and convert only the first
character in the expanded value. If pattern is omitted it is treated like a ?, which
matches every character. If parameter is @ or *, or an array subscripted by @ or *, the case
modification operation is applied to each element.
The following parameters are automatically set by the shell:
# The number of positional parameters in decimal.
- Options supplied to the shell on invocation or by the set command.
? The decimal value returned by the last executed command.
$ The process number of this shell.
_ Initially, the value of _ is an absolute pathname of the shell or script being exe‐
cuted as passed in the environment. Subsequently it is assigned the last argument of
the previous command. This parameter is not set for commands which are asynchronous.
This parameter is also used to hold the name of the matching MAIL file when checking
for mail. While defining a compound variable or a type, _ is initialized as a refer‐
ence to the compound variable or type. When a discipline function is invoked, _ is
initialized as a reference to the variable associated with the call to this function.
Finally when _ is used as the name of the first variable of a type definition, the new
type is derived from the type of the first variable (See Type Variables below.).
! The process id or the pool name and job number of the last background command invoked
or the most recent job put in the background with the bg built-in command. Background
jobs started in a named pool will be in the form pool.number where pool is the pool
name and number is the job number within that pool.
.sh.command
When processing a DEBUG trap, this variable contains the current command line that is
about to run.
.sh.edchar
This variable contains the value of the keyboard character (or sequence of characters
if the first character is an ESC, ascii 033) that has been entered when processing a
KEYBD trap (see Key Bindings below). If the value is changed as part of the trap ac‐
tion, then the new value replaces the key (or key sequence) that caused the trap.
.sh.edcol
The character position of the cursor at the time of the most recent KEYBD trap.
.sh.edmode
The value is set to ESC when processing a KEYBD trap while in vi insert mode. (See Vi
Editing Mode below.) Otherwise, .sh.edmode is null when processing a KEYBD trap.
.sh.edtext
The characters in the input buffer at the time of the most recent KEYBD trap. The
value is null when not processing a KEYBD trap.
.sh.file
The pathname of the file than contains the current command.
.sh.fun
The name of the current function that is being executed.
.sh.level
Set to the current function depth. This can be changed inside a DEBUG trap and will
set the context to the specified level.
.sh.lineno
Set during a DEBUG trap to the line number for the caller of each function.
.sh.match
An indexed array which stores the most recent match and sub-pattern matches after con‐
ditional pattern matches that match and after variables expansions using the operators
#, %, or /. The 0-th element stores the complete match and the i-th. element stores
the i-th submatch. For // the array is two dimensional with the first subscript indi‐
cating the most recent match and sub-pattern match and the second script indicating
which match with 0 representing the first match. The .sh.match variable becomes unset
when the variable that has expanded is assigned a new value.
.sh.math
Used for defining arithmetic functions (see Arithmetic evaluation below). and stores
the list of user defined arithmetic functions.
.sh.name
Set to the name of the variable at the time that a discipline function is invoked.
.sh.op_astbin
The directory where several shell built-in commands are bound to. The default is
/opt/ast/bin. When the value is /bin, then builtins will be bound to /bin or /usr/bin
depending on where the executable is found. This variable can be set by including it
in the SH_OPTIONS variable.
.sh.pgrp
The current process group of this shell.
.sh.pwdfd
The file descriptor number for the present working directory.
.sh.sig
Set when executing a trap to the information contained in the siginfo_t structure (See
siginfo(2) for a description of this structure.)
.sh.subscript
Set to the name subscript of the variable at the time that a discipline function is
invoked.
.sh.subshell
The current depth for subshells and command substitution.
.sh.value
Set to the value of the variable at the time that the set or append discipline func‐
tion is invoked. When a user defined arithmetic function is invoked, the value of
.sh.value is saved and .sh.value is set to long double precision floating point.
.sh.value is restored when the function returns.
.sh.version
Set to a value that identifies the version of this shell.
KSH_VERSION
A name reference to .sh.version.
LINENO The current line number within the script or function being executed.
OLDPWD The previous working directory set by the cd command.
OPTARG The value of the last option argument processed by the getopts built-in command.
OPTIND The index of the last option argument processed by the getopts built-in command.
PPID The process number of the parent of the shell.
PWD The present working directory set by the cd command.
RANDOM Each time this variable is referenced, a random integer, uniformly distributed between
0 and 32767, is generated. The sequence of random numbers can be initialized by as‐
signing a numeric value to RANDOM.
REPLY This variable is set by the select statement and by the read built-in command when no
arguments are supplied.
SECONDS
Each time this variable is referenced, the number of seconds since shell invocation is
returned. If this variable is assigned a value, then the value returned upon refer‐
ence will be the value that was assigned plus the number of seconds since the assign‐
ment.
SHLVL An integer variable the is incremented each time the shell is invoked and is exported.
If SHLVL is not in the environment when the shell is invoked, it is set to 1.
The following variables are used by the shell:
CDPATH The search path for the cd command.
COLUMNS
If this variable is set, the value is used to define the width of the edit window for
the shell edit modes and for printing select lists.
EDITOR If the VISUAL variable is not set, the value of this variable will be checked for the
patterns as described with VISUAL below and the corresponding editing option (see Spe‐
cial Command set below) will be turned on.
ENV If this variable is set, then parameter expansion, command substitution, and arith‐
metic substitution are performed on the value to generate the pathname of the script
that will be executed when the shell is invoked interactively (see Invocation below).
This file is typically used for alias and function definitions. The default value is
$HOME/.kshrc. On systems that support a system wide /etc/ksh.kshrc initialization
file, if the filename generated by the expansion of ENV begins with /./ or ././ the
system wide initialization file will not be executed.
FCEDIT Obsolete name for the default editor name for the hist command. FCEDIT is not used
when HISTEDIT is set.
FIGNORE
A pattern that defines the set of filenames that will be ignored when performing file‐
name matching.
FPATH The search path for function definitions. The directories in this path are searched
for a file with the same name as the function or command when a function with the -u
attribute is referenced and when a command is not found. If an executable file with
the name of that command is found, then it is read and executed in the current envi‐
ronment. Unlike PATH, the current directory must be represented explicitly by .
rather than by adjacent : characters or a beginning or ending :.
HISTCMD
Number of the current command in the history file.
HISTEDIT
Name for the default editor name for the hist command.
HISTFILE
If this variable is set when the shell is invoked, then the value is the pathname of
the file that will be used to store the command history (see Command Re-entry below).
HISTSIZE
If this variable is set when the shell is invoked, then the number of previously en‐
tered commands that are accessible by this shell will be greater than or equal to this
number. The default is 512.
HOME The default argument (home directory) for the cd command.
IFS Internal field separators, normally space, tab, and new-line that are used to separate
the results of command substitution or parameter expansion and to separate fields with
the built-in command read. The first character of the IFS variable is used to sepa‐
rate arguments for the "$*" substitution (see Quoting below). Each single occurrence
of an IFS character in the string to be split, that is not in the isspace character
class, and any adjacent characters in IFS that are in the isspace character class, de‐
limit a field. One or more characters in IFS that belong to the isspace character
class, delimit a field. In addition, if the same isspace character appears consecu‐
tively inside IFS, this character is treated as if it were not in the isspace class,
so that if IFS consists of two tab characters, then two adjacent tab characters de‐
limit a null field.
JOBMAX This variable defines the maximum number running background jobs that can run at a
time. When this limit is reached, the shell will wait for a job to complete before
staring a new job.
LANG This variable determines the locale category for any category not specifically se‐
lected with a variable starting with LC_ or LANG.
LC_ALL This variable overrides the value of the LANG variable and any other LC_ variable.
LC_COLLATE
This variable determines the locale category for character collation information.
LC_CTYPE
This variable determines the locale category for character handling functions. It de‐
termines the character classes for pattern matching (see File Name Generation below).
LC_NUMERIC
This variable determines the locale category for the decimal point character.
LINES If this variable is set, the value is used to determine the column length for printing
select lists. Select lists will print vertically until about two-thirds of LINES
lines are filled.
MAIL If this variable is set to the name of a mail file and the MAILPATH variable is not
set, then the shell informs the user of arrival of mail in the specified file.
MAILCHECK
This variable specifies how often (in seconds) the shell will check for changes in the
modification time of any of the files specified by the MAILPATH or MAIL variables.
The default value is 600 seconds. When the time has elapsed the shell will check be‐
fore issuing the next prompt.
MAILPATH
A colon ( : ) separated list of file names. If this variable is set, then the shell
informs the user of any modifications to the specified files that have occurred within
the last MAILCHECK seconds. Each file name can be followed by a ? and a message that
will be printed. The message will undergo parameter expansion, command substitution,
and arithmetic substitution with the variable $_ defined as the name of the file that
has changed. The default message is you have mail in $_.
PATH The search path for commands (see Execution below). The user may not change PATH if
executing under rksh (except in .profile).
PS1 The value of this variable is expanded for parameter expansion, command substitution,
and arithmetic substitution to define the primary prompt string which by default is
``$ ''. The character ! in the primary prompt string is replaced by the command num‐
ber (see Command Re-entry below). Two successive occurrences of ! will produce a
single ! when the prompt string is printed.
PS2 Secondary prompt string, by default ``> ''.
PS3 Selection prompt string used within a select loop, by default ``#? ''.
PS4 The value of this variable is expanded for parameter evaluation, command substitution,
and arithmetic substitution and precedes each line of an execution trace. By default,
PS4 is ``+ ''. In addition when PS4 is unset, the execution trace prompt is also ``+
''.
SH_OPTIONS
The value consists of blank separated name=value words. For each name that is the
name of a known option the variable .sh.opt_name is assigned value. Currently the
only valid option name is astbin.
SHELL The pathname of the shell is kept in the environment. At invocation, if the basename
of this variable is rsh, rksh, or krsh, then the shell becomes restricted.
TIMEFORMAT
The value of this parameter is used as a format string specifying how the timing in‐
formation for pipelines prefixed with the time reserved word should be displayed. The
% character introduces a format sequence that is expanded to a time value or other in‐
formation. The format sequences and their meanings are as follows.
%% A literal %.
%[p][l]R The elapsed time in seconds.
%[p][l]U The number of CPU seconds spent in user mode.
%[p][l]S The number of CPU seconds spent in system mode.
%[p][l]C The total number of CPU seconds; i.e., the sum of the time spent in user
plus system mode.
%P The CPU percentage (i.e., CPU utilization), computed as C / R.
The brackets denote optional portions. The optional p is a digit specifying the pre‐
cision, the number of fractional digits after a decimal point. A value of 0 causes no
decimal point or fraction to be output. At most three places after the decimal point
can be displayed; values of p greater than 3 are treated as 3. If p is not specified,
the value 3 is used.
The optional l specifies a longer format, including hours if greater than zero, min‐
utes, and seconds of the form HHhMMmSS.FFs. The value of p determines whether or not
the fraction is included.
All other characters are output without change and a trailing newline is added. If
unset, the default value, $'\nreal\t%2lR\nuser\t%2lU\nsys%2lS', is used. If the value
is null, no timing information is displayed.
TMOUT If set to a value greater than zero, TMOUT will be the default timeout value for the
read built-in command. The select compound command terminates after TMOUT seconds
when input is from a terminal. Otherwise, the shell will terminate if a line is not
entered within the prescribed number of seconds while reading from a terminal. (Note
that the shell can be compiled with a maximum bound for this value which cannot be ex‐
ceeded.)
VISUAL If the value of this variable matches the pattern *[Vv][Ii]*, then the vi option (see
Special Command set below) is turned on. If the value matches the pattern *gmacs* ,
the gmacs option is turned on. If the value matches the pattern *macs*, then the
emacs option will be turned on. The value of VISUAL overrides the value of EDITOR.
The shell gives default values to PATH, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, MAILCHECK, FCEDIT, TMOUT and IFS, while
HOME, SHELL, ENV, and MAIL are not set at all by the shell (although HOME is set by login(1)). On
some systems MAIL and SHELL are also set by login(1).
Field Splitting.
After parameter expansion and command substitution, the results of substitutions are scanned for the
field separator characters (those found in IFS) and split into distinct fields where such characters
are found. Explicit null fields ("" or ′′) are retained. Implicit null fields (those resulting
from parameters that have no values or command substitutions with no output) are removed.
If the braceexpand (-B) option is set then each of the fields resulting from IFS are checked to see
if they contain one or more of the brace patterns {*,*}, {l1..l2} , {n1..n2} , {n1..n2% fmt} ,
{n1..n2 ..n3} , or {n1..n2 ..n3%fmt} , where * represents any character, l1,l2 are letters and
n1,n2,n3 are signed numbers and fmt is a format specified as used by printf. In each case, fields
are created by prepending the characters before the { and appending the characters after the } to
each of the strings generated by the characters between the { and }. The resulting fields are
checked to see if they have any brace patterns.
In the first form, a field is created for each string between { and ,, between , and ,, and between
, and }. The string represented by * can contain embedded matching { and } without quoting. Other‐
wise, each { and } with * must be quoted.
In the seconds form, l1 and l2 must both be either upper case or both be lower case characters in
the C locale. In this case a field is created for each character from l1 thru l2.
In the remaining forms, a field is created for each number starting at n1 and continuing until it
reaches n2 incrementing n1 by n3. The cases where n3 is not specified behave as if n3 where 1 if
n1<=n2 and -1 otherwise. If forms which specify %fmt any format flags, widths and precisions can be
specified and fmt can end in any of the specifiers cdiouxX. For example, {a,z}{1..5..3%02d}{b..c}x
expands to the 8 fields, a01bx, a01cx, a04bx, a04cx, z01bx, z01cx, z04bx and z4cx.
File Name Generation.
Following splitting, each field is scanned for the characters *, ?, (, and [ unless the -f option
has been set. If one of these characters appears, then the word is regarded as a pattern. Each
file name component that contains any pattern character is replaced with a lexicographically sorted
set of names that matches the pattern from that directory. If no file name is found that matches
the pattern, then that component of the filename is left unchanged unless the pattern is prefixed
with ∼(N) in which case it is removed as described below. If FIGNORE is set, then each file name
component that matches the pattern defined by the value of FIGNORE is ignored when generating the
matching filenames. The names . and .. are also ignored. If FIGNORE is not set, the character .
at the start of each file name component will be ignored unless the first character of the pattern
corresponding to this component is the character . itself. Note, that for other uses of pattern
matching the / and . are not treated specially.
* Matches any string, including the null string. When used for filename expansion, if
the globstar option is on, an isolated pattern of two adjacent *'s will match all
files and zero or more directories and subdirectories. If followed by a / then only
directories and subdirectories will match.
? Matches any single character.
[...] Matches any one of the enclosed characters. A pair of characters separated by -
matches any character lexically between the pair, inclusive. If the first character
following the opening [ is a ! or ^ then any character not enclosed is matched. A -
can be included in the character set by putting it as the first or last character.
Within [ and ], character classes can be specified with the syntax [:class:] where
class is one of the following classes defined in the ANSI-C standard: (Note that word
is equivalent to alnum plus the character _.)
alnum alpha blank cntrl digit graph lower print punct space upper word xdigit
Within [ and ], an equivalence class can be specified with the syntax [=c=] which
matches all characters with the same primary collation weight (as defined by the cur‐
rent locale) as the character c. Within [ and ], [.symbol.] matches the collating
symbol symbol.
A pattern-list is a list of one or more patterns separated from each other with a & or ⎪. A & sig‐
nifies that all patterns must be matched whereas ⎪ requires that only one pattern be matched. Com‐
posite patterns can be formed with one or more of the following sub-patterns:
?(pattern-list)
Optionally matches any one of the given patterns.
*(pattern-list)
Matches zero or more occurrences of the given patterns.
+(pattern-list)
Matches one or more occurrences of the given patterns.
{n}(pattern-list)
Matches n occurrences of the given patterns.
{m,n}(pattern-list)
Matches from m to n occurrences of the given patterns. If m is omitted, 0 will be
used. If n is omitted at least m occurrences will be matched.
@(pattern-list)
Matches exactly one of the given patterns.
!(pattern-list)
Matches anything except one of the given patterns.
By default, each pattern, or sub-pattern will match the longest string possible consistent with gen‐
erating the longest overall match. If more than one match is possible, the one starting closest to
the beginning of the string will be chosen. However, for each of the above compound patterns a -
can be inserted in front of the ( to cause the shortest match to the specified pattern-list to be
used.
When pattern-list is contained within parentheses, the backslash character \ is treated specially
even when inside a character class. All ANSI-C character escapes are recognized and match the
specified character. In addition the following escape sequences are recognized:
\d Matches any character in the digit class.
\D Matches any character not in the digit class.
\s Matches any character in the space class.
\S Matches any character not in the space class.
\w Matches any character in the word class.
\W Matches any character not in the word class.
A pattern of the form %(pattern-pair(s)) is a sub-pattern that can be used to match nested character
expressions. Each pattern-pair is a two character sequence which cannot contain & or ⎪. The first
pattern-pair specifies the starting and ending characters for the match. Each subsequent pattern-
pair represents the beginning and ending characters of a nested group that will be skipped over when
counting starting and ending character matches. The behavior is unspecified when the first charac‐
ter of a pattern-pair is alpha-numeric except for the following:
D Causes the ending character to terminate the search for this pattern without finding a
match.
E Causes the ending character to be interpreted as an escape character.
L Causes the ending character to be interpreted as a quote character causing all charac‐
ters to be ignored when looking for a match.
Q Causes the ending character to be interpreted as a quote character causing all charac‐
ters other than any escape character to be ignored when looking for a match.
Thus, %({}Q"E\), matches characters starting at { until the matching } is found not counting any {
or } that is inside a double quoted string or preceded by the escape character \. Without the {}
this pattern matches any C language string.
Each sub-pattern in a composite pattern is numbered, starting at 1, by the location of the ( within
the pattern. The sequence \n, where n is a single digit and \n comes after the n-th. sub-pattern,
matches the same string as the sub-pattern itself.
Finally a pattern can contain sub-patterns of the form ∼(options:pattern-list), where either options
or :pattern-list can be omitted. Unlike the other compound patterns, these sub-patterns are not
counted in the numbered sub-patterns. :pattern-list must be omitted for options F, G, N , and V be‐
low. If options is present, it can consist of one or more of the following:
+ Enable the following options. This is the default.
- Disable the following options.
E The remainder of the pattern uses extended regular expression syntax like the egrep(1)
command.
F The remainder of the pattern uses fgrep(1) expression syntax.
G The remainder of the pattern uses basic regular expression syntax like the grep(1)
command.
K The remainder of the pattern uses shell pattern syntax. This is the default.
N This is ignored. However, when it is the first letter and is used with file name gen‐
eration, and no matches occur, the file pattern expands to the empty string.
X The remainder of the pattern uses augmented regular expression syntax like the
xgrep(1) command.
P The remainder of the pattern uses perl(1) regular expression syntax. Not all perl
regular expression syntax is currently implemented.
V The remainder of the pattern uses System V regular expression syntax.
i Treat the match as case insensitive.
g File the longest match (greedy). This is the default.
l Left anchor the pattern. This is the default for K style patterns.
r Right anchor the pattern. This is the default for K style patterns.
If both options and :pattern-list are specified, then the options apply only to pattern-list. Oth‐
erwise, these options remain in effect until they are disabled by a subsequent ∼(...) or at the end
of the sub-pattern containing ∼(...).
Quoting.
Each of the metacharacters listed earlier (see Definitions above) has a special meaning to the shell
and causes termination of a word unless quoted. A character may be quoted (i.e., made to stand for
itself) by preceding it with a \. The pair \new-line is removed. All characters enclosed between a
pair of single quote marks (′′) that is not preceded by a $ are quoted. A single quote cannot ap‐
pear within the single quotes. A single quoted string preceded by an unquoted $ is processed as an
ANSI-C string except for the following:
\0 Causes the remainder of the string to be ignored.
\E Equivalent to the escape character (ascii 033),
\e Equivalent to the escape character (ascii 033),
\cx Expands to the character control-x.
\C[.name.]
Expands to the collating element name.
Inside double quote marks (""), parameter and command substitution occur and \ quotes the characters
\, `, ", and $. A $ in front of a double quoted string will be ignored in the "C" or "POSIX" lo‐
cale, and may cause the string to be replaced by a locale specific string otherwise. The meaning of
$* and $@ is identical when not quoted or when used as a variable assignment value or as a file
name. However, when used as a command argument, "$*" is equivalent to "$1d$2d...", where d is the
first character of the IFS variable, whereas "$@" is equivalent to "$1" "$2" .... Inside grave
quote marks (``), \ quotes the characters \, `, and $. If the grave quotes occur within double
quotes, then \ also quotes the character ".
The special meaning of reserved words or aliases can be removed by quoting any character of the re‐
served word. The recognition of function names or built-in command names listed below cannot be al‐
tered by quoting them.
Arithmetic Evaluation.
The shell performs arithmetic evaluation for arithmetic substitution, to evaluate an arithmetic com‐
mand, to evaluate an indexed array subscript, and to evaluate arguments to the built-in commands
shift and let. Evaluations are performed using double precision floating point arithmetic or long
double precision floating point for systems that provide this data type. Floating point constants
follow the ANSI-C programming language floating point conventions. The floating point constants Nan
and Inf can be use to represent "not a number" and infinity respectively. Integer constants follow
the ANSI-C programming language integer constant conventions although only single byte character
constants are recognized and character casts are not recognized. In addition constants can be of
the form [base#]n where base is a decimal number between two and sixty-four representing the arith‐
metic base and n is a number in that base. The digits above 9 are represented by the lower case
letters, the upper case letters, @, and _ respectively. For bases less than or equal to 36, upper
and lower case characters can be used interchangeably.
An arithmetic expression uses the same syntax, precedence, and associativity of expression as the C
language. All the C language operators that apply to floating point quantities can be used. In ad‐
dition, the operator ** can be used for exponentiation. It has higher precedence than multiplica‐
tion and is left associative. In addition, when the value of an arithmetic variable or sub-expres‐
sion can be represented as a long integer, all C language integer arithmetic operations can be per‐
formed. Variables can be referenced by name within an arithmetic expression without using the pa‐
rameter expansion syntax. When a variable is referenced, its value is evaluated as an arithmetic
expression.
Any of the following math library functions that are in the C math library can be used within an
arithmetic expression:
abs acos acosh asin asinh atan atan2 atanh cbrt ceil copysign cos cosh erf erfc exp exp2 expm1 fabs
fdim finite floor fma fmax fmin fmod hypot ilogb int isfinite sinf isnan isnormal issubnormal issub‐
ordered iszero j0 j1 jn lgamma log log10 log2 logb nearbyint pow remainder rint round scanb signbit
sin sinh sqrt tan tanh tgamma trunc y0 y1 yn In addition, arithmetic functions can be defined as
shell functions with a variant of the function name syntax,
function .sh.math.name ident ... { list ;}
where name is the function name used in the arithmetic expression. If the calling argument
corresponding to ident is the name of an array variable, then ident is a name reference to
this array. Otherwise, ident is a reference to long double precision floating point variable
containing the value from the caller. The value of .sh.value when the function returns is
the value of this function. User defined functions can take up to 3 arguments and override C
math library functions.
An internal representation of a variable as a double precision floating point can be specified with
the -E [n], -F [n], or -X [n] option of the typeset special built-in command. The -E option causes
the expansion of the value to be represented using scientific notation when it is expanded. The op‐
tional option argument n defines the number of significant figures. The -F option causes the expan‐
sion to be represented as a floating decimal number when it is expanded. The -X option cause the
expansion to be represented using the %a format defined by ISO C-99. The optional option argument n
defines the number of places after the decimal (or radix) point in this case.
An internal integer representation of a variable can be specified with the -i [n] option of the
typeset special built-in command. The optional option argument n specifies an arithmetic base to be
used when expanding the variable. If you do not specify an arithmetic base, base 10 will be used.
Arithmetic evaluation is performed on the value of each assignment to a variable with the -E, -F,
-X, or -i attribute. Assigning a floating point number to a variable whose type is an integer
causes the fractional part to be truncated.
Inside an arithmetic expression, all integer and floating point variables can be following by .MIN,
.MAX, or .DIG to give the maximum value, minimum value, or number of significant digits for vari‐
ables of that type.
Floating point variables can be also followed by .INT_MAX or .INT_MIN to give the largest or small‐
est integers represented by that type.
Floating point variables can also be followed by .EPSILON to give the distance to the next floating
point number of that type. Floating point variables can be followed by MAX_10_EXP to give the maxi‐
mum base 10 exponent that can be represented by that type.
Inside an arithmetic expression, the following constants are recongnized and are of type typeset-lE.
NaN Not a number. It is case insensitive.
Inf Infinity. It is case insensitive.
E
PI
1_PI 1.0/PI.
2_PI 2.0/PI.
PI_2 PI/2.0
PI_4 PI/4.0.
SQRTPI sqrt(PI).
SQRT2 sqrt(2.0).
SQRT1_2
sqrt(1./2.)
LOGE log(E)
LOG10E log10(E)
LN2 log(2.0)
LOG2E log2(E)
Array Sorting.
The -s option of the set built-in command can be used to sort its arguments or to sort indexed ar‐
rays, indexed arrays of compound variables, and indexed arrays of types (see "Type Variables" sec‐
tion below). By default the sort order is defined by the current locale. For compound variables
and for types, the -K option for set can be followed by a comma separated list of sub-fields to sort
on. Each field can be followed by a : and the letter n for numerical sorting and/or r for reverse
sorting. For an plain indexed array the -K option can be followed by :n and :r for numerical or
reverse sorting.
Prompting.
When used interactively, the shell prompts with the value of PS1 after expanding it for parameter
expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic substitution, before reading a command. In addi‐
tion, each single ! in the prompt is replaced by the command number. A !! is required to place !
in the prompt. If at any time a new-line is typed and further input is needed to complete a com‐
mand, then the secondary prompt (i.e., the value of PS2) is issued.
Conditional Expressions.
A conditional expression is used with the [[ compound command to test attributes of files and to
compare strings. Field splitting and file name generation are not performed on the words between [[
and ]]. Each expression can be constructed from one or more of the following unary or binary ex‐
pressions:
string True, if string is not null.
-a file
Same as -e below. This is obsolete.
-b file
True, if file exists and is a block special file.
-c file
True, if file exists and is a character special file.
-d file
True, if file exists and is a directory.
-e file
True, if file exists.
-f file
True, if file exists and is an ordinary file.
-g file
True, if file exists and it has its setgid bit set.
-k file
True, if file exists and it has its sticky bit set.
-n string
True, if length of string is non-zero.
-o ?option
True, if option named option is a valid option name.
-o option
True, if option named option is on.
-p file
True, if file exists and is a fifo special file or a pipe.
-r file
True, if file exists and is readable by current process.
-s file
True, if file exists and has size greater than zero.
-t fildes
True, if file descriptor number fildes is open and associated with a terminal device.
-u file
True, if file exists and it has its setuid bit set.
-v name
True, if variable name is a valid variable name and is set.
-w file
True, if file exists and is writable by current process.
-x file
True, if file exists and is executable by current process. If file exists and is a direc‐
tory, then true if the current process has permission to search in the directory.
-z string
True, if length of string is zero.
-L file
True, if file exists and is a symbolic link.
-h file
True, if file exists and is a symbolic link.
-N file
True, if file exists and the modification time is greater than the last access time.
-O file
True, if file exists and is owned by the effective user id of this process.
-G file
True, if file exists and its group matches the effective group id of this process.
-R name
True if variable name is a name reference.
-S file
True, if file exists and is a socket.
file1 -nt file2
True, if file1 exists and file2 does not, or file1 is newer than file2.
file1 -ot file2
True, if file2 exists and file1 does not, or file1 is older than file2.
file1 -ef file2
True, if file1 and file2 exist and refer to the same file.
string == pattern
True, if string matches pattern. Any part of pattern can be quoted to cause it to be matched
as a string. With a successful match to a pattern, the .sh.match array variable will contain
the match and sub-pattern matches.
string = pattern
Same as == above, but is obsolete.
string != pattern
True, if string does not match pattern. When the string matches the pattern the .sh.match
array variable will contain the match and sub-pattern matches.
string =∼ ere
True if string matches the pattern ∼(E)ere where ere is an extended regular expression.
string1 < string2
True, if string1 comes before string2 based on the current locale.
string1 > string2
True, if string1 comes after string2 based on the current locale.
The following obsolete arithmetic comparisons are also permitted:
exp1 -eq exp2
True, if exp1 is equal to exp2.
exp1 -ne exp2
True, if exp1 is not equal to exp2.
exp1 -lt exp2
True, if exp1 is less than exp2.
exp1 -gt exp2
True, if exp1 is greater than exp2.
exp1 -le exp2
True, if exp1 is less than or equal to exp2.
exp1 -ge exp2
True, if exp1 is greater than or equal to exp2.
In each of the above expressions, if file is of the form /dev/fd/n, where n is an integer, then the
test is applied to the open file whose descriptor number is n.
A compound expression can be constructed from these primitives by using any of the following, listed
in decreasing order of precedence.
(expression)
True, if expression is true. Used to group expressions.
! expression
True if expression is false.
expression1 && expression2
True, if expression1 and expression2 are both true.
expression1 ⎪⎪ expression2
True, if either expression1 or expression2 is true.
Input/Output.
Before a command is executed, its input and output may be redirected using a special notation inter‐
preted by the shell. The following may appear anywhere in a simple-command or may precede or follow
a command and are not passed on to the invoked command. Command substitution, parameter expansion,
and arithmetic substitution occur before word or digit is used except as noted below. File name
generation occurs only if the shell is interactive and the pattern matches a single file. Field
splitting is not performed.
In each of the following redirections, if file is of the form /dev/sctp/host/port,
/dev/tcp/host/port, or /dev/udp/host/port, where host is a hostname or host address, and port is a
service given by name or an integer port number, then the redirection attempts to make a tcp, sctp
or udp connection to the corresponding socket.
No intervening space is allowed between the characters of redirection operators.
<word Use file word as standard input (file descriptor 0).
>word Use file word as standard output (file descriptor 1). If the file does not exist then
it is created. If the file exists, and the noclobber option is on, this causes an er‐
ror; otherwise, it is truncated to zero length.
>|word Same as >, except that it overrides the noclobber option.
>;word Write output to a temporary file. If the command completes successfully rename it to
word, otherwise, delete the temporary file. >;word cannot be used with the exec(2).
built-in.
>>word Use file word as standard output. If the file exists, then output is appended to it
(by first seeking to the end-of-file); otherwise, the file is created.
<>word Open file word for reading and writing as standard input.
<>;word The same as <>word except that if the command completes successfully, word is trun‐
cated to the offset at command completion. <>;word cannot be used with the exec(2).
built-in.
<<[-]word The shell input is read up to a line that is the same as word after any quoting has
been removed, or to an end-of-file. No parameter substitution, command substitution,
arithmetic substitution or file name generation is performed on word. The resulting
document, called a here-document, becomes the standard input. If any character of
word is quoted, then no interpretation is placed upon the characters of the document;
otherwise, parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic substitution oc‐
cur, \new-line is ignored, and \ must be used to quote the characters \, $, `. If -
is appended to <<, then all leading tabs are stripped from word and from the document.
If # is appended to <<, then leading spaces and tabs will be stripped off the first
line of the document and up to an equivalent indentation will be stripped from the re‐
maining lines and from word. A tab stop is assumed to occur at every 8 columns for
the purposes of determining the indentation.
<<<word A short form of here document in which word becomes the contents of the here-document
after any parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic substitution oc‐
cur.
<&digit The standard input is duplicated from file descriptor digit (see dup(2)). Similarly
for the standard output using >&digit.
<&digit- The file descriptor given by digit is moved to standard input. Similarly for the
standard output using >&digit-.
<&- The standard input is closed. Similarly for the standard output using >&-.
<&p The input from the co-process is moved to standard input.
>&p The output to the co-process is moved to standard output.
<#((expr)) Evaluate arithmetic expression expr and position file descriptor 0 to the resulting
value bytes from the start of the file. The variables CUR and EOF evaluate to the
current offset and end-of-file offset respectively when evaluating expr.
>#((offset)) The same as <# except applies to file descriptor 1.
<#pattern Seeks forward to the beginning of the next line containing pattern.
<##pattern The same as <# except that the portion of the file that is skipped is copied to stan‐
dard output.
If one of the above is preceded by a digit, with no intervening space, then the file descriptor num‐
ber referred to is that specified by the digit (instead of the default 0 or 1). If one of the
above, other than >&- and the ># and <# forms, is preceded by {varname} with no intervening space,
then a file descriptor number > 10 will be selected by the shell and stored in the variable varname.
If >&- or the any of the ># and <# forms is preceded by {varname} the value of varname defines the
file descriptor to close or position. For example:
... 2>&1
means file descriptor 2 is to be opened for writing as a duplicate of file descriptor 1 and
exec {n}<file
means open file named file for reading and store the file descriptor number in variable n.
The order in which redirections are specified is significant. The shell evaluates each redirection
in terms of the (file descriptor, file) association at the time of evaluation. For example:
... 1>fname 2>&1
first associates file descriptor 1 with file fname. It then associates file descriptor 2 with the
file associated with file descriptor 1 (i.e. fname). If the order of redirections were reversed,
file descriptor 2 would be associated with the terminal (assuming file descriptor 1 had been) and
then file descriptor 1 would be associated with file fname.
If a command is followed by & and job control is not active, then the default standard input for the
command is the empty file /dev/null. Otherwise, the environment for the execution of a command con‐
tains the file descriptors of the invoking shell as modified by input/output specifications.
Environment.
The environment (see environ(7)) is a list of name-value pairs that is passed to an executed program
in the same way as a normal argument list. The names must be identifiers and the values are charac‐
ter strings. The shell interacts with the environment in several ways. On invocation, the shell
scans the environment and creates a variable for each name found, giving it the corresponding value
and attributes and marking it export. Executed commands inherit the environment. If the user modi‐
fies the values of these variables or creates new ones, using the export or typeset -x commands,
they become part of the environment. The environment seen by any executed command is thus composed
of any name-value pairs originally inherited by the shell, whose values may be modified by the cur‐
rent shell, plus any additions which must be noted in export or typeset -x commands.
The environment for any simple-command or function may be augmented by prefixing it with one or more
variable assignments. A variable assignment argument is a word of the form identifier=value. Thus:
TERM=450 cmd args and
(export TERM; TERM=450; cmd args)
are equivalent (as far as the above execution of cmd is concerned except for special built-in com‐
mands listed below - those that are preceded with a dagger).
If the obsolete -k option is set, all variable assignment arguments are placed in the environment,
even if they occur after the command name. The following first prints a=b c and then c:
echo a=b c
set -k
echo a=b c
This feature is intended for use with scripts written for early versions of the shell and its use in
new scripts is strongly discouraged. It is likely to disappear someday.
Functions.
For historical reasons, there are two ways to define functions, the name() syntax and the function
name syntax, described in the Commands section above. Shell functions are read in and stored inter‐
nally. Alias names are resolved when the function is read. Functions are executed like commands
with the arguments passed as positional parameters. (See Execution below.)
Functions defined by the function name syntax and called by name execute in the same process as the
caller and share all files and present working directory with the caller. Traps caught by the
caller are reset to their default action inside the function. A trap condition that is not caught
or ignored by the function causes the function to terminate and the condition to be passed on to the
caller. A trap on EXIT set inside a function is executed in the environment of the caller after the
function completes. Ordinarily, variables are shared between the calling program and the function.
However, the typeset special built-in command used within a function defines local variables whose
scope includes the current function. They can be passed to functions that they call in the variable
assignment list that precedes the call or as arguments passed as name references. Errors within
functions return control to the caller.
Functions defined with the name() syntax and functions defined with the function name syntax that
are invoked with the . special built-in are executed in the caller's environment and share all
variables and traps with the caller. Errors within these function executions cause the script that
contains them to abort.
The special built-in command return is used to return from function calls.
Function names can be listed with the -f or +f option of the typeset special built-in command. The
text of functions, when available, will also be listed with -f. Functions can be undefined with the
-f option of the unset special built-in command.
Ordinarily, functions are unset when the shell executes a shell script. Functions that need to be
defined across separate invocations of the shell should be placed in a directory and the FPATH vari‐
able should contain the name of this directory. They may also be specified in the ENV file.
Discipline Functions.
Each variable can have zero or more discipline functions associated with it. The shell initially
understands the discipline names get, set, append, and unset but can be added when defining new
types. On most systems others can be added at run time via the C programming interface extension
provided by the builtin built-in utility. If the get discipline is defined for a variable, it is
invoked whenever the given variable is referenced. If the variable .sh.value is assigned a value
inside the discipline function, the referenced variable will evaluate to this value instead. If the
set discipline is defined for a variable, it is invoked whenever the given variable is assigned a
value. If the append discipline is defined for a variable, it is invoked whenever a value is ap‐
pended to the given variable. The variable .sh.value is given the value of the variable before in‐
voking the discipline, and the variable will be assigned the value of .sh.value after the discipline
completes. If .sh.value is unset inside the discipline, then that value is unchanged. If the unset
discipline is defined for a variable, it is invoked whenever the given variable is unset. The vari‐
able will not be unset unless it is unset explicitly from within this discipline function.
The variable .sh.name contains the name of the variable for which the discipline function is called,
.sh.subscript is the subscript of the variable, and .sh.value will contain the value being assigned
inside the set discipline function. The variable _ is a reference to the variable including the
subscript if any. For the set discipline, changing .sh.value will change the value that gets as‐
signed. Finally, the expansion ${var.name}, when name is the name of a discipline, and there is no
variable of this name, is equivalent to the command substitution ${ var.name;}.
Name Spaces.
Commands and functions that are executed as part of the list of a namespace command that modify
variables or create new ones, create a new variable whose name is the name of the name space as
given by identifier preceded by .. When a variable whose name is name is referenced, it is first
searched for using .identifier.name. Similarly, a function defined by a command in the namespace
list is created using the name space name preceded by a ..
When the list of a namespace command contains a namespace command, the names of variables and func‐
tions that are created consist of the variable or function name preceded by the list of identifiers
each preceded by ..
Outside of a name space, a variable or function created inside a name space can be referenced by
preceding it with the name space name.
By default, variables staring with .sh are in the sh name space.
Type Variables.
Typed variables provide a way to create data structure and objects. A type can be defined either by
a shared library, by the enum built-in command described below, or by using the new -T option of the
typeset built-in command. With the -T option of typeset, the type name, specified as an option ar‐
gument to -T, is set with a compound variable assignment that defines the type. Function defini‐
tions can appear inside the compound variable assignment and these become discipline functions for
this type and can be invoked or redefined by each instance of the type. The function name create is
treated specially. It is invoked for each instance of the type that is created but is not inherited
and cannot be redefined for each instance.
When a type is defined a special built-in command of that name is added. These built-ins are decla‐
ration commands and follow the same expansion rules as all the special built-in commands defined be‐
low that are preceded by ††. These commands can subsequently be used inside further type defini‐
tions. The man page for these commands can be generated by using the --man option or any of the
other -- options described with getopts. The -r, -a, -A, -h, and -S options of typeset are permit‐
ted with each of these new built-ins.
An instance of a type is created by invoking the type name followed by one or more instance names.
Each instance of the type is initialized with a copy of the sub-variables except for sub-variables
that are defined with the -S option. Variables defined with the -S are shared by all instances of
the type. Each instance can change the value of any sub-variable and can also define new discipline
functions of the same names as those defined by the type definition as well as any standard disci‐
pline names. No additional sub-variables can be defined for any instance.
When defining a type, if the value of a sub-variable is not set and the -r attribute is specified,
it causes the sub-variable to be a required sub-variable. Whenever an instance of a type is cre‐
ated, all required sub-variables must be specified. These sub-variables become readonly in each in‐
stance.
When unset is invoked on a sub-variable within a type, and the -r attribute has not been specified
for this field, the value is reset to the default value associative with the type. Invoking unset
on a type instance not contained within another type deletes all sub-variables and the variable it‐
self.
A type definition can be derived from another type definition by defining the first sub-variable
name as _ and defining its type as the base type. Any remaining definitions will be additions and
modifications that apply to the new type. If the new type name is the same as that of the base
type, the type will be replaced and the original type will no longer be accessible.
The typeset command with the -T and no option argument or operands will write all the type defini‐
tions to standard output in a form that can be read in to create all the types.
Jobs.
If the monitor option of the set command is turned on, an interactive shell associates a job with
each pipeline. It keeps a table of current jobs, printed by the jobs command, and assigns them
small integer numbers. When a job is started asynchronously with &, the shell prints a line which
looks like:
[1] 1234
indicating that the job which was started asynchronously was job number 1 and had one (top-level)
process, whose process id was 1234.
This paragraph and the next require features that are not in all versions of UNIX and may not apply.
If you are running a job and wish to do something else you may hit the key ^Z (control-Z) which
sends a STOP signal to the current job. The shell will then normally indicate that the job has been
`Stopped', and print another prompt. You can then manipulate the state of this job, putting it in
the background with the bg command, or run some other commands and then eventually bring the job
back into the foreground with the foreground command fg. A ^Z takes effect immediately and is like
an interrupt in that pending output and unread input are discarded when it is typed.
A job being run in the background will stop if it tries to read from the terminal. Background jobs
are normally allowed to produce output, but this can be disabled by giving the command stty tostop.
If you set this tty option, then background jobs will stop when they try to produce output like they
do when they try to read input.
A job pool is a collection of jobs started with list & associated with a name.
There are several ways to refer to jobs in the shell. A job can be referred to by the process id of
any process of the job or by one of the following:
%number
The job with the given number.
pool All the jobs in the job pool named by pool.
pool.number
The job number number in the job pool named by pool.
%string
Any job whose command line begins with string.
%?string
Any job whose command line contains string.
%% Current job.
%+ Equivalent to %%.
%- Previous job. In addition, unless noted otherwise, wherever a job can be specified, the name
of a background job pool can be used to represent all the jobs in that pool.
The shell learns immediately whenever a process changes state. It normally informs you whenever a
job becomes blocked so that no further progress is possible, but only just before it prints a
prompt. This is done so that it does not otherwise disturb your work. The notify option of the set
command causes the shell to print these job change messages as soon as they occur.
When the monitor option is on, each background job that completes triggers any trap set for CHLD.
When you try to leave the shell while jobs are running or stopped, you will be warned that `You have
stopped(running) jobs.' You may use the jobs command to see what they are. If you immediately try
to exit again, the shell will not warn you a second time, and the stopped jobs will be terminated.
When a login shell receives a HUP signal, it sends a HUP signal to each job that has not been dis‐
owned with the disown built-in command described below.
Signals.
The INT and QUIT signals for an invoked command are ignored if the command is followed by & and the
monitor option is active. Otherwise, signals have the values inherited by the shell from its parent
(but see also the trap built-in command below).
Execution.
Each time a command is read, the above substitutions are carried out. If the command name matches
one of the Special Built-in Commands listed below, it is executed within the current shell process.
Next, the command name is checked to see if it matches a user defined function. If it does, the po‐
sitional parameters are saved and then reset to the arguments of the function call. A function is
also executed in the current shell process. When the function completes or issues a return, the po‐
sitional parameter list is restored. For functions defined with the function name syntax, any trap
set on EXIT within the function is executed. The exit value of a function is the value of the last
command executed. If a command name is not a special built-in command or a user defined function,
but it is one of the built-in commands listed below, it is executed in the current shell process.
The shell variables PATH followed by the variable FPATH defines the list of directories to search
for the command name. Alternative directory names are separated by a colon (:). The default path
is equal to getconf PATH output. The current directory can be specified by two or more adjacent
colons, or by a colon at the beginning or end of the path list. If the command name contains a /,
then the search path is not used. Otherwise, each directory in the list of directories defined by
PATH and FPATH is checked in order. If the directory being searched is contained in FPATH and con‐
tains a file whose name matches the command being searched, then this file is loaded into the cur‐
rent shell environment as if it were the argument to the . command except that only preset aliases
are expanded, and a function of the given name is executed as described above.
If this directory is not in FPATH the shell first determines whether there is a built-in version of
a command corresponding to a given pathname and if so it is invoked in the current process. If no
built-in is found, the shell checks for a file named .paths in this directory. If found and there
is a line of the form FPATH=path where path names an existing directory then that directory is
searched immediately after the current directory as if it were found in the FPATH variable. If path
does not begin with /, it is checked for relative to the directory being searched.
The .paths file is then checked for a line of the form PLUGIN_LIB=libname [ : libname ] ... . Each
library named by libname will be searched for as if it were an option argument to builtin -f, and if
it contains a built-in of the specified name this will be executed instead of a command by this
name. Any built-in loaded from a library found this way will be associated with the directory con‐
taining the .paths file so it will only execute if not found in an earlier directory.
Finally, the directory will be checked for a file of the given name. If the file has execute per‐
mission but is not an a.out file, it is assumed to be a file containing shell commands. A separate
shell is spawned to read it. All non-exported variables are removed in this case. If the shell
command file doesn't have read permission, or if the setuid and/or setgid bits are set on the file,
then the shell executes an agent whose job it is to set up the permissions and execute the shell
with the shell command file passed down as an open file. If the .paths contains a line of the form
name=value in the first or second line, then the environment variable name is modified by prepending
the directory specified by value to the directory list. If value is not an absolute directory, then
it specifies a directory relative to the directory that the executable was found. If the environ‐
ment variable name does not already exist it will be added to the environment list for the specified
command. A parenthesized command is executed in a sub-shell without removing non-exported vari‐
ables.
Command Re-entry.
The text of the last HISTSIZE (default 512) commands entered from a terminal device is saved in a
history file. The file $HOME/.sh_history is used if the HISTFILE variable is not set or if the file
it names is not writable. A shell can access the commands of all interactive shells which use the
same named HISTFILE. The built-in command hist is used to list or edit a portion of this file. The
portion of the file to be edited or listed can be selected by number or by giving the first charac‐
ter or characters of the command. A single command or range of commands can be specified. If you
do not specify an editor program as an argument to hist then the value of the variable HISTEDIT is
used. If HISTEDIT is unset, the obsolete variable FCEDIT is used. If FCEDIT is not defined, then
/bin/ed is used. The edited command(s) is printed and re-executed upon leaving the editor unless
you quit without writing. The -s option (and in obsolete versions, the editor name -) is used to
skip the editing phase and to re-execute the command. In this case a substitution parameter of the
form old=new can be used to modify the command before execution. For example, with the preset alias
r, which is aliased to ′hist -s′, typing `r bad=good c' will re-execute the most recent command
which starts with the letter c, replacing the first occurrence of the string bad with the string
good.
In-line Editing Options.
Normally, each command line entered from a terminal device is simply typed followed by a new-line
(`RETURN' or `LINE FEED'). If either the emacs, gmacs, or vi option is active, the user can edit
the command line. To be in either of these edit modes set the corresponding option. An editing op‐
tion is automatically selected each time the VISUAL or EDITOR variable is assigned a value ending in
either of these option names.
The editing features require that the user's terminal accept `RETURN' as carriage return without
line feed and that a space (` ') must overwrite the current character on the screen.
Unless the multiline option is on, the editing modes implement a concept where the user is looking
through a window at the current line. The window width is the value of COLUMNS if it is defined,
otherwise 80. If the window width is too small to display the prompt and leave at least 8 columns
to enter input, the prompt is truncated from the left. If the line is longer than the window width
minus two, a mark is displayed at the end of the window to notify the user. As the cursor moves and
reaches the window boundaries the window will be centered about the cursor. The mark is a > (<, *)
if the line extends on the right (left, both) side(s) of the window.
The search commands in each edit mode provide access to the history file. Only strings are matched,
not patterns, although a leading ^ in the string restricts the match to begin at the first character
in the line.
Each of the edit modes has an operation to list the files or commands that match a partially entered
word. When applied to the first word on the line, or the first word after a ;, ⎪, &, or (, and the
word does not begin with ∼ or contain a /, the list of aliases, functions, and executable commands
defined by the PATH variable that could match the partial word is displayed. Otherwise, the list of
files that match the given word is displayed. If the partially entered word does not contain any
file expansion characters, a * is appended before generating these lists. After displaying the gen‐
erated list, the input line is redrawn. These operations are called command name listing and file
name listing, respectively. There are additional operations, referred to as command name completion
and file name completion, which compute the list of matching commands or files, but instead of
printing the list, replace the current word with a complete or partial match. For file name comple‐
tion, if the match is unique, a / is appended if the file is a directory and a space is appended if
the file is not a directory. Otherwise, the longest common prefix for all the matching files re‐
places the word. For command name completion, only the portion of the file names after the last /
are used to find the longest command prefix. If only a single name matches this prefix, then the
word is replaced with the command name followed by a space. When using a tab for completion that
does not yield a unique match, a subsequent tab will provide a numbered list of matching alterna‐
tives. A specific selection can be made by entering the selection number followed by a tab.
Key Bindings.
The KEYBD trap can be used to intercept keys as they are typed and change the characters that are
actually seen by the shell. This trap is executed after each character (or sequence of characters
when the first character is ESC) is entered while reading from a terminal. The variable .sh.edchar
contains the character or character sequence which generated the trap. Changing the value of
.sh.edchar in the trap action causes the shell to behave as if the new value were entered from the
keyboard rather than the original value.
The variable .sh.edcol is set to the input column number of the cursor at the time of the input.
The variable .sh.edmode is set to ESC when in vi insert mode (see below) and is null otherwise. By
prepending ${.sh.editmode} to a value assigned to .sh.edchar it will cause the shell to change to
control mode if it is not already in this mode.
This trap is not invoked for characters entered as arguments to editing directives, or while reading
input for a character search.
Emacs Editing Mode.
This mode is entered by enabling either the emacs or gmacs option. The only difference between
these two modes is the way they handle ^T. To edit, the user moves the cursor to the point needing
correction and then inserts or deletes characters or words as needed. All the editing commands are
control characters or escape sequences. The notation for control characters is caret (^) followed
by the character. For example, ^F is the notation for control F. This is entered by depressing `f'
while holding down the `CTRL' (control) key. The `SHIFT' key is not depressed. (The notation ^?
indicates the DEL (delete) key.)
The notation for escape sequences is M- followed by a character. For example, M-f (pronounced Meta
f) is entered by depressing ESC (ascii 033) followed by `f'. (M-F would be the notation for ESC
followed by `SHIFT' (capital) `F'.)
All edit commands operate from any place on the line (not just at the beginning). Neither the `RE‐
TURN' nor the `LINE FEED' key is entered after edit commands except when noted.
^F Move cursor forward (right) one character.
M-[C Move cursor forward (right) one character.
M-f Move cursor forward one word. (The emacs editor's idea of a word is a string of charac‐
ters consisting of only letters, digits and underscores.)
^B Move cursor backward (left) one character.
M-[D Move cursor backward (left) one character.
M-b Move cursor backward one word.
^A Move cursor to start of line.
M-[H Move cursor to start of line.
^E Move cursor to end of line.
M-[Y Move cursor to end of line.
^]char Move cursor forward to character char on current line.
M-^]char Move cursor backward to character char on current line.
^X^X Interchange the cursor and mark.
erase (User defined erase character as defined by the stty(1) command, usually ^H or #.) Delete
previous character.
lnext (User defined literal next character as defined by the stty(1) command, or ^V if not de‐
fined.) Removes the next character's editing features (if any).
^D Delete current character.
M-d Delete current word.
M-^H (Meta-backspace) Delete previous word.
M-h Delete previous word.
M-^? (Meta-DEL) Delete previous word (if your interrupt character is ^? (DEL, the default)
then this command will not work).
^T Transpose current character with previous character and advance the cursor in emacs mode.
Transpose two previous characters in gmacs mode.
^C Capitalize current character.
M-c Capitalize current word.
M-l Change the current word to lower case.
^K Delete from the cursor to the end of the line. If preceded by a numerical parameter whose
value is less than the current cursor position, then delete from given position up to the
cursor. If preceded by a numerical parameter whose value is greater than the current cur‐
sor position, then delete from cursor up to given cursor position.
^W Kill from the cursor to the mark.
M-p Push the region from the cursor to the mark on the stack.
kill (User defined kill character as defined by the stty command, usually ^G or @.) Kill the
entire current line. If two kill characters are entered in succession, all kill charac‐
ters from then on cause a line feed (useful when using paper terminals).
^Y Restore last item removed from line. (Yank item back to the line.)
^L Line feed and print current line.
M-^L Clear the screen.
^@ (Null character) Set mark.
M-space (Meta space) Set mark.
^J (New line) Execute the current line.
^M (Return) Execute the current line.
eof End-of-file character, normally ^D, is processed as an End-of-file only if the current
line is null.
^P Fetch previous command. Each time ^P is entered the previous command back in time is ac‐
cessed. Moves back one line when not on the first line of a multi-line command.
M-[A If the cursor is at the end of the line, it is equivalent to ^R with string set to the
contents of the current line. Otherwise, it is equivalent to ^P.
M-< Fetch the least recent (oldest) history line.
M-> Fetch the most recent (youngest) history line.
^N Fetch next command line. Each time ^N is entered the next command line forward in time is
accessed.
M-[B Equivalent to ^N.
^Rstring Reverse search history for a previous command line containing string. If a parameter of
zero is given, the search is forward. String is terminated by a `RETURN' or `NEW LINE'.
If string is preceded by a ^, the matched line must begin with string. If string is omit‐
ted, then the next command line containing the most recent string is accessed. In this
case a parameter of zero reverses the direction of the search.
^O Operate - Execute the current line and fetch the next line relative to current line from
the history file.
M-digits (Escape) Define numeric parameter, the digits are taken as a parameter to the next com‐
mand. The commands that accept a parameter are ^F, ^B, erase, ^C, ^D, ^K, ^R, ^P, ^N, ^],
M-., M-^], M-_, M-=, M-b, M-c, M-d, M-f, M-h, M-l and M-^H.
M-letter Soft-key - Your alias list is searched for an alias by the name _letter and if an alias of
this name is defined, its value will be inserted on the input queue. The letter must not
be one of the above meta-functions.
M-[letter Soft-key - Your alias list is searched for an alias by the name __letter and if an alias
of this name is defined, its value will be inserted on the input queue. This can be used
to program function keys on many terminals.
M-. The last word of the previous command is inserted on the line. If preceded by a numeric
parameter, the value of this parameter determines which word to insert rather than the
last word.
M-_ Same as M-..
M-* Attempt file name generation on the current word. An asterisk is appended if the word
doesn't match any file or contain any special pattern characters.
M-ESC Command or file name completion as described above.
^I tab Attempts command or file name completion as described above. If a partial completion oc‐
curs, repeating this will behave as if M-= were entered. If no match is found or entered
after space, a tab is inserted.
M-= If not preceded by a numeric parameter, it generates the list of matching commands or file
names as described above. Otherwise, the word under the cursor is replaced by the item
corresponding to the value of the numeric parameter from the most recently generated com‐
mand or file list. If the cursor is not on a word, it is inserted instead.
^U Multiply parameter of next command by 4.
\ Escape next character. Editing characters, the user's erase, kill and interrupt (normally
^?) characters may be entered in a command line or in a search string if preceded by a \.
The \ removes the next character's editing features (if any).
M-^V Display version of the shell.
M-# If the line does not begin with a #, a # is inserted at the beginning of the line and af‐
ter each new-line, and the line is entered. This causes a comment to be inserted in the
history file. If the line begins with a #, the # is deleted and one # after each new-line
is also deleted.
Vi Editing Mode.
There are two typing modes. Initially, when you enter a command you are in the input mode. To
edit, the user enters control mode by typing ESC (033) and moves the cursor to the point needing
correction and then inserts or deletes characters or words as needed. Most control commands accept
an optional repeat count prior to the command.
When in vi mode on most systems, canonical processing is initially enabled and the command will be
echoed again if the speed is 1200 baud or greater and it contains any control characters or less
than one second has elapsed since the prompt was printed. The ESC character terminates canonical
processing for the remainder of the command and the user can then modify the command line. This
scheme has the advantages of canonical processing with the type-ahead echoing of raw mode.
If the option viraw is also set, the terminal will always have canonical processing disabled. This
mode is implicit for systems that do not support two alternate end of line delimiters, and may be
helpful for certain terminals.
Input Edit Commands
By default the editor is in input mode.
erase (User defined erase character as defined by the stty command, usually ^H or #.)
Delete previous character.
^W Delete the previous blank separated word.
eof As the first character of the line causes the shell to terminate unless the ig‐
noreeof option is set. Otherwise this character is ignored.
lnext (User defined literal next character as defined by the stty(1) or ^V if not de‐
fined.) Removes the next character's editing features (if any).
\ Escape the next erase or kill character.
^I tab Attempts command or file name completion as described above and returns to input
mode. If a partial completion occurs, repeating this will behave as if = were en‐
tered from control mode. If no match is found or entered after space, a tab is in‐
serted.
Motion Edit Commands
These commands will move the cursor.
[count]l Cursor forward (right) one character.
[count][C Cursor forward (right) one character.
[count]w Cursor forward one alpha-numeric word.
[count]W Cursor to the beginning of the next word that follows a blank.
[count]e Cursor to end of word.
[count]E Cursor to end of the current blank delimited word.
[count]h Cursor backward (left) one character.
[count][D Cursor backward (left) one character.
[count]b Cursor backward one word.
[count]B Cursor to preceding blank separated word.
[count]⎪ Cursor to column count.
[count]fc Find the next character c in the current line.
[count]Fc Find the previous character c in the current line.
[count]tc Equivalent to f followed by h.
[count]Tc Equivalent to F followed by l.
[count]; Repeats count times, the last single character find command, f, F, t, or T.
[count], Reverses the last single character find command count times.
0 Cursor to start of line.
^ Cursor to start of line.
[H Cursor to first non-blank character in line.
$ Cursor to end of line.
[Y Cursor to end of line.
% Moves to balancing (, ), {, }, [, or ]. If cursor is not on one of the above char‐
acters, the remainder of the line is searched for the first occurrence of one of
the above characters first.
Search Edit Commands
These commands access your command history.
[count]k Fetch previous command. Each time k is entered the previous command back in time
is accessed.
[count]- Equivalent to k.
[count][A If cursor is at the end of the line it is equivalent to / with string^set to the
contents of the current line. Otherwise, it is equivalent to k.
[count]j Fetch next command. Each time j is entered the next command forward in time is ac‐
cessed.
[count]+ Equivalent to j.
[count][B Equivalent to j.
[count]G The command number count is fetched. The default is the least recent history com‐
mand.
/string Search backward through history for a previous command containing string. String
is terminated by a `RETURN' or `NEW LINE'. If string is preceded by a ^, the
matched line must begin with string. If string is null, the previous string will
be used.
?string Same as / except that search will be in the forward direction.
n Search for next match of the last pattern to / or ? commands.
N Search for next match of the last pattern to / or ?, but in reverse direction.
Text Modification Edit Commands
These commands will modify the line.
a Enter input mode and enter text after the current character.
A Append text to the end of the line. Equivalent to $a.
[count]cmotion
c[count]motion
Delete current character through the character that motion would move the cursor to
and enter input mode. If motion is c, the entire line will be deleted and input
mode entered.
C Delete the current character through the end of line and enter input mode. Equiva‐
lent to c$.
S Equivalent to cc.
[count]s Replace characters under the cursor in input mode.
D Delete the current character through the end of line. Equivalent to d$.
[count]dmotion
d[count]motion
Delete current character through the character that motion would move to. If mo‐
tion is d , the entire line will be deleted.
i Enter input mode and insert text before the current character.
I Insert text before the beginning of the line. Equivalent to 0i.
[count]P Place the previous text modification before the cursor.
[count]p Place the previous text modification after the cursor.
R Enter input mode and replace characters on the screen with characters you type
overlay fashion.
[count]rc Replace the count character(s) starting at the current cursor position with c, and
advance the cursor.
[count]x Delete current character.
[count]X Delete preceding character.
[count]. Repeat the previous text modification command.
[count]∼ Invert the case of the count character(s) starting at the current cursor position
and advance the cursor.
[count]_ Causes the count word of the previous command to be appended and input mode en‐
tered. The last word is used if count is omitted.
* Causes an * to be appended to the current word and file name generation attempted.
If no match is found, it rings the bell. Otherwise, the word is replaced by the
matching pattern and input mode is entered.
\ Command or file name completion as described above.
Other Edit Commands
Miscellaneous commands.
[count]ymotion
y[count]motion
Yank current character through character that motion would move the cursor to and
puts them into the delete buffer. The text and cursor are unchanged.
yy Yanks the entire line.
Y Yanks from current position to end of line. Equivalent to y$.
u Undo the last text modifying command.
U Undo all the text modifying commands performed on the line.
[count]v Returns the command hist -e ${VISUAL:-${EDITOR:-vi}} count in the input buffer. If
count is omitted, then the current line is used.
^L Line feed and print current line. Has effect only in control mode.
^J (New line) Execute the current line, regardless of mode.
^M (Return) Execute the current line, regardless of mode.
# If the first character of the command is a #, then this command deletes this # and
each # that follows a newline. Otherwise, sends the line after inserting a # in
front of each line in the command. Useful for causing the current line to be in‐
serted in the history as a comment and uncommenting previously commented commands
in the history file.
[count]= If count is not specified, it generates the list of matching commands or file names
as described above. Otherwise, the word under the cursor is replaced by the count
item from the most recently generated command or file list. If the cursor is not
on a word, it is inserted instead.
@letter Your alias list is searched for an alias by the name _letter and if an alias of
this name is defined, its value will be inserted on the input queue for processing.
^V Display version of the shell.
Programmable Completion.
By default, hitting the tab key causes the current word to be matched against files starting with
the characters you typed and adding as many characters that provide a unique match. If the matching
prefix is not unique hitting tab again will output a numbered list with the choices and entering
number tab will replace the current word with that selection.
Programmable completion allows you to control how words are expanded when you enter the tab key for
one or more specified commands. The complete built-in command allows you to specify how to complete
the current word of the specified command.
Built-in Commands.
The following simple-commands are executed in the shell process. Input/Output redirection is per‐
mitted. Unless otherwise indicated, the output is written on file descriptor 1 and the exit status,
when there is no syntax error, is zero. Except for :, true, false, echo, newgrp, and login, all
built-in commands accept -- to indicate end of options. They also interpret the option --man as a
request to display the man page onto standard error and -? as a help request which prints a usage
message on standard error. Commands that are preceded by one or two † symbols are special built-in
commands and are treated specially in the following ways:
1. Variable assignment lists preceding the command remain in effect when the command completes.
2. I/O redirections are processed after variable assignments.
3. Errors cause a script that contains them to abort.
4. They are not valid function names.
5. Words following a command preceded by †† that are in the format of a variable assignment are
expanded with the same rules as a variable assignment. This means that tilde substitution is
performed after the = sign and field splitting and file name generation are not performed.
These are called declaration built-ins.
† : [ arg ... ]
The command only expands parameters.
† . name [ arg ... ]
If name is a function defined with the function name reserved word syntax, the function is
executed in the current environment (as if it had been defined with the name() syntax.) Oth‐
erwise if name refers to a file, the file is read in its entirety and the commands are exe‐
cuted in the current shell environment. The search path specified by PATH is used to find
the directory containing the file. If any arguments arg are given, they become the posi‐
tional parameters while processing the . command and the original positional parameters are
restored upon completion. Otherwise the positional parameters are unchanged. The exit sta‐
tus is the exit status of the last command executed.
†† alias [ -ptx ] [ name[ =value ] ] ...
alias with no arguments prints the list of aliases in the form name=value on standard output.
The -p option causes the word alias to be inserted before each one. When one or more argu‐
ments are given, an alias is defined for each name whose value is given. A trailing space in
value causes the next word to be checked for alias substitution. The obsolete -t option is
used to set and list tracked aliases. The value of a tracked alias is the full pathname cor‐
responding to the given name. The value becomes undefined when the value of PATH is reset
but the alias remains tracked. Without the -t option, for each name in the argument list for
which no value is given, the name and value of the alias is printed. The obsolete -x option
has no effect. The exit status is non-zero if a name is given, but no value, and no alias
has been defined for the name.
bg [ job... ]
This command is only on systems that support job control. Puts each specified job into the
background. The current job is put in the background if job is not specified. See Jobs for
a description of the format of job.
† break [ n ]
Exit from the enclosing for, while, until, or select loop, if any. If n is specified, then
break n levels.
builtin [ -dsp ] [ -f file ] [ name ... ]
If name is not specified, and no -f option is specified, the built-ins are printed on stan‐
dard output. The -s option prints only the special built-ins. Otherwise, each name repre‐
sents the pathname whose basename is the name of the built-in. The entry point function name
is determined by prepending b_ to the built-in name. A built-in specified by a pathname will
only be executed when that pathname would be found during the path search. Built-ins found
in libraries loaded via the .paths file will be associate with the pathname of the directory
containing the .paths file.
The ISO C/C++ prototype is b_mycommand(int argc, char *argv[], void *context) for the builtin
command mycommand where argv is array an of argc elements and context is an optional pointer
to a Shell_t structure as described in <ast/shell.h>.
Special built-ins cannot be bound to a pathname or deleted. The -d option deletes each of
the given built-ins. On systems that support dynamic loading, the -f option names a shared
library containing the code for built-ins. The shared library prefix and/or suffix, which
depend on the system, can be omitted. Once a library is loaded, its symbols become available
for subsequent invocations of builtin. Multiple libraries can be specified with separate in‐
vocations of the builtin command. Libraries are searched in the reverse order in which they
are specified. When a library is loaded, it looks for a function in the library whose name
is lib_init() and invokes this function with an argument of 0.
The -p causes the output to be in a form of builtin commands that can be used as input to the
shell to recreate the current set of builtins.
cd [ -LP ] [ arg ]
cd [ -LP ] old new
This command can be in either of two forms. In the first form it changes the current direc‐
tory to arg. If arg is - the directory is changed to the previous directory. The shell
variable HOME is the default arg. The variable PWD is set to the current directory. The
shell variable CDPATH defines the search path for the directory containing arg. Alternative
directory names are separated by a colon (:). The default path is <null> (specifying the
current directory). Note that the current directory is specified by a null path name, which
can appear immediately after the equal sign or between the colon delimiters anywhere else in
the path list. If arg begins with a / then the search path is not used. Otherwise, each di‐
rectory in the path is searched for arg.
The second form of cd substitutes the string new for the string old in the current directory
name, PWD, and tries to change to this new directory.
By default, symbolic link names are treated literally when finding the directory name. This
is equivalent to the -L option. The -P option causes symbolic links to be resolved when de‐
termining the directory. The last instance of -L or -P on the command line determines which
method is used.
The cd command may not be executed by rksh.
command [ -pvxV ] name [ arg ... ]
Without the -v or -V options, command executes name with the arguments given by arg. The -p
option causes a default path to be searched rather than the one defined by the value of PATH.
Functions will not be searched for when finding name. In addition, if name refers to a spe‐
cial built-in, none of the special properties associated with the leading daggers will be
honored. (For example, the predefined alias redirect=′command exec′ prevents a script from
terminating when an invalid redirection is given.) With the -x option, if command execution
would result in a failure because there are too many arguments, errno E2BIG, the shell will
invoke command name multiple times with a subset of the arguments on each invocation. Argu‐
ments that occur prior to the first word that expands to multiple arguments and after the
last word that expands to multiple arguments will be passed on each invocation. The exit
status will be the maximum invocation exit status. With the -v option, command is equivalent
to the built-in whence command described below. The -V option causes command to act like
whence -v.
† continue [ n ]
Resume the next iteration of the enclosing for, while, until, or select loop. If n is speci‐
fied, then resume at the n-th enclosing loop.
disown [ job... ]
Causes the shell not to send a HUP signal to each given job, or all active jobs if job is
omitted, when a login shell terminates.
echo [ -n -e ] [ arg ... ]
echo builtin prints all of its arguments separated by space and terminated by new-line. -n
will skip putting a newline character at the end of output. If -e is set, it will enable in‐
terpreting escape sequences.
†† enum [ -i ] type[=(value ...) ]
Creates a declaration command named type that is an integer type that allows one of the spec‐
ified values as enumeration names. If =(value ...) is omitted, then type must be an indexed
array variable with at least two elements and the values are taken from this array variable.
If -i is specified the values are case insensitive.
When an enumeration variable is used in arithmetic expression, its value is the index into
the array that defined it starting from index 0. Enumeration strings can be used in an
arithmetic expression when comparing against an enumeration variable. Also, each non-sub‐
scripted enumeration variable followed by .name where name is one of the enumeration names
expands to the index corresponding to name.
The enum _Bool is created with values true and false. The predefined alias bool is defined
as _Bool.
† eval [ arg ... ]
The arguments are read as input to the shell and the resulting command(s) executed.
† exec [ -c ] [ -a name ] [ arg ... ]
If arg is given, the command specified by the arguments is executed in place of this shell
without creating a new process. The -c option causes the environment to be cleared before
applying variable assignments associated with the exec invocation. The -a option causes name
rather than the first arg, to become argv[0] for the new process. Input/output arguments may
appear and affect the current process. If arg is not given, the effect of this command is to
modify file descriptors as prescribed by the input/output redirection list. In this case,
any file descriptor numbers greater than 2 that are opened with this mechanism are closed
when invoking another program.
† exit [ n ]
Causes the shell to exit with the exit status specified by n. The value will be the least
significant 8 bits of the specified status. If n is omitted, then the exit status is that of
the last command executed. An end-of-file will also cause the shell to exit except for a
shell which has the ignoreeof option (see set below) turned on.
†† export [ -p ] [ name[=value] ] ...
If name is not given, the names and values of each variable with the export attribute are
printed with the values quoted in a manner that allows them to be re-input. The export com‐
mand is the same as typeset -x except that if you use export within a function, no local
variable is created. The -p option causes the word export to be inserted before each one.
Otherwise, the given names are marked for automatic export to the environment of subse‐
quently-executed commands.
false Does nothing, and exits 1. Used with until for infinite loops.
fg [ job... ]
This command is only on systems that support job control. Each job specified is brought to
the foreground and waited for in the specified order. Otherwise, the current job is brought
into the foreground. See Jobs for a description of the format of job.
getopts [ -a name ] optstring vname [ arg ... ]
Checks arg for legal options. If arg is omitted, the positional parameters are used. An op‐
tion argument begins with a + or a -. An option not beginning with + or - or the argument --
ends the options. Options beginning with + are only recognized when optstring begins with a
+. optstring contains the letters that getopts recognizes. If a letter is followed by a :,
that option is expected to have an argument. The options can be separated from the argument
by blanks. The option -? causes getopts to generate a usage message on standard error. The
-a argument can be used to specify the name to use for the usage message, which defaults to
$0.
getopts places the next option letter it finds inside variable vname each time it is invoked.
The option letter will be prepended with a + when arg begins with a +. The index of the next
arg is stored in OPTIND. The option argument, if any, gets stored in OPTARG.
A leading : in optstring causes getopts to store the letter of an invalid option in OPTARG,
and to set vname to ? for an unknown option and to : when a required option argument is
missing. Otherwise, getopts prints an error message. The exit status is non-zero when there
are no more options.
There is no way to specify any of the options :, +, -, ?, [, and ]. The option # can only be
specified as the first option.
hist [ -e ename ] [ -nlr ] [ first [ last ] ]
hist -s [ old=new ] [ command ]
In the first form, a range of commands from first to last is selected from the last HISTSIZE
commands that were typed at the terminal. The arguments first and last may be specified as a
number or as a string. A string is used to locate the most recent command starting with the
given string. A negative number is used as an offset to the current command number. If the
-l option is selected, the commands are listed on standard output. Otherwise, the editor
program ename is invoked on a file containing these keyboard commands. If ename is not sup‐
plied, then the value of the variable HISTEDIT is used. If HISTEDIT is not set, then FCEDIT
(default /bin/ed) is used as the editor. When editing is complete, the edited command(s) is
executed if the changes have been saved. If last is not specified, then it will be set to
first. If first is not specified, the default is the previous command for editing and -16
for listing. The option -r reverses the order of the commands and the option -n suppresses
command numbers when listing. In the second form, command is interpreted as first described
above and defaults to the last command executed. The resulting command is executed after the
optional substitution old=new is performed.
jobs [ -lnp ] [ job ... ]
Lists information about each given job; or all active jobs if job is omitted. The -l option
lists process ids in addition to the normal information. The -n option only displays jobs
that have stopped or exited since last notified. The -p option causes only the process group
to be listed. See Jobs for a description of the format of job.
kill [ -s signame ] [ -q n ] job ...
kill [ -n signum ] [ -q n ] job ...
kill -Ll [ sig ... ]
Sends either the TERM (terminate) signal or the specified signal to the specified jobs or
processes. Signals are either given by number with the -n option or by name with the -s op‐
tion (as given in <signal.h>, stripped of the prefix ``SIG'' with the exception that SIGCLD
is named CHLD). For backward compatibility, the n and s can be omitted and the number or
name placed immediately after the -. If the signal being sent is TERM (terminate) or HUP
(hangup), then the job or process will be sent a CONT (continue) signal if it is stopped.
The argument job can be the process id of a process that is not a member of one of the active
jobs. See Jobs for a description of the format of job. In the third form, kill -l, or kill
-L, if sig is not specified, the signal names are listed. The -l option list only the signal
names. -L options lists each signal name and corresponding number. Otherwise, for each sig
that is a name, the corresponding signal number is listed. For each sig that is a number,
the signal name corresponding to the least significant 8 bits of sig is listed.
On systems that support sigqueue(2) the -q option can be used to send a queued signal with
message number n. Each specified job must be a positive number. On systems that do not sup‐
port sigqueue(2), a signal is sent without the message number n and the signal will not be
queued. If the signal cannot be queued because of a return of EAGAIN, the exit status will
be 2.
let arg ...
Each arg is a separate arithmetic expression to be evaluated. let only recognizes octal con‐
stants starting with 0 when the set option letoctal is on. See Arithmetic Evaluation above,
for a description of arithmetic expression evaluation.
The exit status is 0 if the value of the last expression is non-zero, and 1 otherwise.
† newgrp [ arg ... ]
Equivalent to exec /bin/newgrp arg ....
print [ -CRenprsv ] [ -u unit] [ -f format ] [ arg ... ]
With no options or with option - or --, each arg is printed on standard output. The -f op‐
tion causes the arguments to be printed as described by printf. In this case, any e, n, r, R
options are ignored. Otherwise, unless the -C, -R, -r, or -v are specified, the following
escape conventions will be applied:
\a The alert character (ascii 07).
\b The backspace character (ascii 010).
\c Causes print to end without processing more arguments and not adding a new-line.
\f The formfeed character (ascii 014).
\n The new-line character (ascii 012).
\r The carriage return character (ascii 015).
\t The tab character (ascii 011).
\v The vertical tab character (ascii 013).
\E The escape character (ascii 033).
\\ The backslash character \.
\0x The character defined by the 1, 2, or 3-digit octal string given by x.
The -R option will print all subsequent arguments and options other than -n. The -e causes
the above escape conventions to be applied. This is the default behavior. It reverses the
effect of an earlier -r. The -p option causes the arguments to be written onto the pipe of
the process spawned with ⎪& instead of standard output. The -v option treats each arg as a
variable name and writes the value in the printf %B format. The -C option treats each arg as
a variable name and writes the value in the printf %#B format. The -s option causes the ar‐
guments to be written onto the history file instead of standard output. The -u option can be
used to specify a one digit file descriptor unit number unit on which the output will be
placed. The default is 1. If the option -n is used, no new-line is added to the output.
printf [ -v varname ] format [ arg ... ]
The arguments arg are printed on standard output in accordance with the ANSI-C formatting
rules associated with the format string format. If the number of arguments exceeds the num‐
ber of format specifications, the format string is reused to format remaining arguments. If
the -v option is specified the output is assigned to the variable varname. The following ex‐
tensions can also be used:
%b A %b format can be used instead of %s to cause escape sequences in the corresponding
arg to be expanded as described in print.
%B A %B option causes each of the arguments to be treated as variable names and the bi‐
nary value of variable will be printed. The alternate flag # causes a compound vari‐
able to be output on a single line. This is most useful for compound variables and
variables whose attribute is -b.
%H A %H format can be used instead of %s to cause characters in arg that are special in
HTML and XML to be output as their entity name. The alternate flag # formats the out‐
put for use as a URI.
%P A %P format can be used instead of %s to cause arg to be interpreted as an extended
regular expression and be printed as a shell pattern.
%R A %R format can be used instead of %s to cause arg to be interpreted as a shell pat‐
tern and to be printed as an extended regular expression.
%q A %q format can be used instead of %s to cause the resulting string to be quoted in a
manner than can be reinput to the shell. When q is preceded by the alternative format
specifier, #, the string is quoted in manner suitable as a field in a .csv format
file.
%(date-format)T
A %(date-format)T format can be use to treat an argument as a date/time string and to
format the date/time according to the date-format as defined for the date(1) command.
Values specified as digits are interpreted as described in the touch(1) command.
%Z A %Z format will output a byte whose value is 0.
%d The precision field of the %d format can be followed by a . and the output base. In
this case, the # flag character causes base# to be prepended.
# The # flag, when used with the %d format without an output base, displays the output
in powers of 1000 indicated by one of the following suffixes: k M G T P E, and when
used with the %i format displays the output in powers of 1024 indicated by one of the
following suffixes: Ki Mi Gi Ti Pi Ei.
= The = flag centers the output within the specified field width.
L The L flag, when used with the %c or %s formats, treats precision as character width
instead of byte count.
, The , flag, when used with the %d or %f formats, separates groups of digits with the
grouping delimiter (, on groups of 3 in the C locale.)
pwd [ -LP ] [ -f fd ]
Outputs the value of the current working directory. The -L option is the default; it prints
the logical name of the current directory. If the -P option is given, all symbolic links are
resolved from the name. The last instance of -L or -P on the command line determines which
method is used. If the -f option is specified, the directory name corresponding to file de‐
scriptor fd is outputted.
read [ -AaCSprsv ] [ -d delim] [ -n n] [ -N n] [ -m method] [ -t timeout] [ -u unit] [ vname?prompt
] [ vname ... ]
The shell input mechanism. One line is read and is broken up into fields using the charac‐
ters in IFS as separators. The escape character, \, is used to remove any special meaning
for the next character and for line continuation. The -d option causes the read to continue
to the first character of delim rather than new-line. The -n option causes at most n bytes
to read rather a full line but will return when reading from a slow device as soon as any
characters have been read. The -N option causes exactly n to be read unless an end-of-file
has been encountered or the read times out because of the -t option. In raw mode, -r, the \
character is not treated specially. The first field is assigned to the first vname, the sec‐
ond field to the second vname, etc., with leftover fields assigned to the last vname. When
vname has the binary attribute and -n or -N is specified, the bytes that are read are stored
directly into the variable. If the -v is specified, then the value of the first vname will
be used as a default value when reading from a terminal device. The -A option causes the
variable vname to be unset and each field that is read to be stored in successive elements of
the indexed array vname. -a is an alias for -A. The -m option reads a compound variable
with the read method defined by method. Currently, only the json and ksh methods exist. The
-C option causes the variable vname to be read as a compound variable. Blanks will be ig‐
nored when finding the beginning open parenthesis. This is equivalent to -m ksh. The -S op‐
tion causes the line to be treated like a record in a .csv format file so that double quotes
can be used to allow the delimiter character and the new-line character to appear within a
field. The -p option causes the input line to be taken from the input pipe of a process
spawned by the shell using ⎪&. If the -s option is present, the input will be saved as a
command in the history file. The option -u can be used to specify a one digit file descrip‐
tor unit unit to read from. The file descriptor can be opened with the exec special built-in
command. The default value of unit n is 0. The option -t is used to specify a timeout in
seconds when reading from a terminal or pipe. If vname is omitted, then REPLY is used as the
default vname. An end-of-file with the -p option causes cleanup for this process so that an‐
other can be spawned. If the first argument contains a ?, the remainder of this word is used
as a prompt on standard error when the shell is interactive. The exit status is 0 unless an
end-of-file is encountered or read has timed out.
†† readonly [ -p ] [ vname[=value] ] ...
If vname is not given, the names and values of each variable with the readonly attribute is
printed with the values quoted in a manner that allows them to be re-inputted. The -p option
causes the word readonly to be inserted before each one. Otherwise, the given vnames are
marked readonly and these names cannot be changed by subsequent assignment. When defining a
type, if the value of a readonly sub-variable is not defined the value is required when cre‐
ating each instance.
† return [ n ]
Causes a shell function or . script to return to the invoking script with the exit status
specified by n. The value will be the least significant 8 bits of the specified status. If
n is omitted, then the return status is that of the last command executed. If return is in‐
voked while not in a function or a . script, then it behaves the same as exit.
† set [ ±BCGabefhkmnoprstuvx ] [ ±o [ option ] ] ... [ ±A vname ] [ -K keylist ] [ arg ... ]
The options for this command have meaning as follows:
-A Array assignment. If arg is specified, unset the variable vname and assign values
sequentially from the arg list. If +A is used, the variable vname is not unset
first.
-B Enable brace group expansion. On by default.
-C Prevents redirection > from truncating existing files. Files that are created are
opened with the O_EXCL mode. Requires >⎪ to truncate a file when turned on.
-G Causes the pattern ** by itself to match files and zero or more directories and sub-
directories when used for file name generation. If followed by a / only directories
and sub-directories are matched.
-H Enable !-style history expansion similar to csh(1).
-K When no arguments are specified, it is used along with -s to specify the sort fields
and sort options for sorting an array. (See "Array Sorting" above for the descrip‐
tion of the keylist option.)
-a All subsequent variables that are defined are automatically exported.
-b Prints job completion messages as soon as a background job changes state rather than
waiting for the next prompt.
-e Unless contained in a ⎪⎪ or && command, or the command following an if while or until
command or in the pipeline following !, if a command has a non-zero exit status, exe‐
cute the ERR trap, if set, and exit. This mode is disabled while reading profiles.
-f Disables file name generation.
-h Each command becomes a tracked alias when first encountered.
-k (Obsolete). All variable assignment arguments are placed in the environment for a
command, not just those that precede the command name.
-m Background jobs will run in a separate process group and a line will print upon com‐
pletion. The exit status of background jobs is reported in a completion message. On
systems with job control, this option is turned on automatically for interactive
shells.
-n Read commands and check them for syntax errors, but do not execute them. Ignored for
interactive shells.
-o The following argument can be one of the following option names:
allexport
Same as -a.
bgnice All background jobs are run at a lower priority. This is the default mode.
braceexpand
Same as -B.
emacs Puts you in an emacs style in-line editor for command entry.
errexit Same as -e.
globstar
Same as -G.
gmacs Puts you in a gmacs style in-line editor for command entry.
histexpand
Same as -H.
ignoreeof
The shell will not exit on end-of-file. The command exit must be used.
keyword Same as -k.
letoctal
The let command allows octal constants starting with 0.
markdirs
All directory names resulting from file name generation have a trailing / ap‐
pended.
monitor Same as -m.
multiline
The built-in editors will use multiple lines on the screen for lines that are
longer than the width of the screen. This may not work for all terminals.
noclobber
Same as -C.
noexec Same as -n.
noglob Same as -f.
nolog Do not save function definitions in the history file.
notify Same as -b.
nounset Same as -u.
pipefail
A pipeline will not complete until all components of the pipeline have com‐
pleted, and the return value will be the value of the last non-zero command
to fail or zero if no command has failed.
privileged
Same as -p.
showme When enabled, simple commands or pipelines preceded by a semicolon (;) will
be displayed as if the xtrace option were enabled but will not be executed.
Otherwise, the leading ; will be ignored.
trackall
Same as -h.
verbose Same as -v.
vi Puts you in insert mode of a vi style in-line editor until you hit the escape
character 033. This puts you in control mode. A return sends the line.
viraw Each character is processed as it is typed in vi mode. This is now always
enabled. Disabling the option at run time has no effect.
xtrace Same as -x.
If no option name is supplied, then the current option settings are printed.
-p Disables processing of the $HOME/.profile file and uses the file /etc/suid_profile
instead of the ENV file. This mode is on whenever the effective uid (gid) is not
equal to the real uid (gid). Turning this off causes the effective uid and gid to be
set to the real uid and gid.
-r Enables the restricted shell. This option cannot be unset once set.
-s Sort the positional parameters lexicographically. When used with -A
sorts the elements of the array.
-t (Obsolete). Exit after reading and executing one command.
-u Treat unset parameters as an error when substituting.
-v Print shell input lines as they are read.
-x Print commands and their arguments as they are executed.
-- Do not change any of the options; useful in setting $1 to a value beginning with -.
If no arguments follow this option then the positional parameters are unset.
As an obsolete feature, if the first arg is - then the -x and -v options are turned off and
the next arg is treated as the first argument. Using + rather than - causes these options to
be turned off. These options can also be used upon invocation of the shell. The current set
of options may be found in $-. Unless -A is specified, the remaining arguments are posi‐
tional parameters and are assigned, in order, to $1 $2 .... If no arguments are given, then
the names and values of all variables are printed on the standard output.
† shift [ n ]
The positional parameters from $n+1 ... are renamed $1 ... , default n is 1. The parameter
n can be any arithmetic expression that evaluates to a non-negative number less than or equal
to $#.
sleep seconds
Suspends execution for the number of decimal seconds or fractions of a second given by sec‐
onds. seconds A suffix of one of smhd can be used to indicate seconds, minutes, hours, and
days respectively. Seconds can also be specified using a date/time format.
times Display CPU time used by the shell and all of its child processes.
† trap [ -alp ] [ action ] [ sig ] ...
The -p option causes the trap action associated with each trap as specified by the arguments
to be printed with appropriate quoting. Otherwise, action will be processed as if it were an
argument to eval when the shell receives signal(s) sig.
The -a option causes the current trap setting to be appended to action. Each sig can be
given as a number or as the name of the signal. Trap commands are executed in order of sig‐
nal number. Any attempt to set a trap on a signal that was ignored on entry to the current
shell is ineffective. If action is omitted and the first sig is a number, or if action is -,
then the trap(s) for each sig are reset to their original values. If action is the null
string then this signal is ignored by the shell and by the commands it invokes.
If sig is ERR then action will be executed whenever a command has a non-zero exit status.
If sig is DEBUG then action will be executed before each command. The variable .sh.command
will contain the contents of the current command line when action is running. If the exit
status of the trap is 2 the command will not be executed. If the exit status of the trap is
255 and inside a function or a dot script, the function or dot script will return.
If sig is 0 or EXIT and the trap statement is executed inside the body of a function defined
with the function name syntax, then the command action is executed after the function com‐
pletes. For a trap set outside any function then the command action is executed on exit from
the shell.
If sig is KEYBD, then action will be executed whenever a key is read while in emacs, gmacs,
or vi mode. The trap command with no arguments prints a list of commands associated with
each signal number.
An exit or return without an argument in a trap action will preserve the exit status of the
command that invoked the trap. action. Each sig can be given as a number or as the name of
the signal. Trap commands are executed in order of signal number. Any attempt to set a trap
on a signal that was ignored on entry to the current shell is ineffective. If action is
omitted and the first sig is a number, or if action is -, then the trap(s) for each sig are
reset to their original values. The -l option lists the signals and their numbers to stan‐
dard output.
true Does nothing, and exits 0. Used with while for infinite loops.
†† typeset [ ±ACHSfblmnprstux ] [ ±EFLRXZi[n] ] [ +-M [ mapname ] ] [ -T [ tname=(assign_list) ]
] [ -h str ] [ -a [type] ] [ vname[=value ] ] ...
Sets attributes and values for shell variables and functions. When invoked inside a function
defined with the function name syntax, a new instance of the variable vname is created, and
the variable's value and type are restored when the function completes. The following list
of attributes may be specified:
-A Declares vname to be an associative array. Subscripts are strings rather than arith‐
metic expressions.
-C causes each vname to be a compound variable. value names a compound variable it is
copied into vname. Otherwise, it unsets each vname.
-a Declares vname to be an indexed array. If type is specified, it must be the name of
an enumeration type created with the enum command and it allows enumeration constants
to be used as subscripts.
-E Declares vname to be a double precision floating point number. If n is non-zero, it
defines the number of significant figures that are used when expanding vname. Other‐
wise, ten significant figures will be used.
-F Declares vname to be a double precision floating point number. If n is non-zero, it
defines the number of places after the decimal point that are used when expanding
vname. Otherwise ten places after the decimal point will be used.
-H This option provides UNIX to host-name file mapping on non-UNIX machines.
-L Left justify and remove leading blanks from value. If n is non-zero, it defines the
width of the field, otherwise it is determined by the width of the value of first as‐
signment. When the variable is assigned to, it is filled on the right with blanks or
truncated, if necessary, to fit into the field. The -R option is turned off.
-M Use the character mapping mapping defined by wctrans(3). such as tolower and toupper
when assigning a value to each of the specified operands. When mapping is specified
and there are not operands, all variables that use this mapping are written to stan‐
dard output. When mapping is omitted and there are no operands, all mapped variables
are written to standard output.
-R Right justify and fill with leading blanks. If n is non-zero, it defines the width of
the field, otherwise it is determined by the width of the value of first assignment.
The field is left filled with blanks or truncated from the end if the variable is re‐
assigned. The -L option is turned off.
-S When used within the assign_list of a type definition, it causes the specified sub-
variable to be shared by all instances of the type. When used inside a function de‐
fined with the function reserved word, the specified variables will have function
static scope. Otherwise, the variable is unset prior to processing the assignment
list.
-T If followed by tname, it creates a type named by tname using the compound assignment
assign_list to tname. Otherwise, it writes all the type definitions to standard out‐
put.
-X Declares vname to be a double precision floating point number and expands using the %a
format of ISO-C99. If n is non-zero, it defines the number of hex digits after the
radix point that is used when expanding vname. The default is 10.
-Z Right justify and fill with leading zeros if the first non-blank character is a digit
and the -L option has not been set. Remove leading zeros if the -L option is also
set. If n is non-zero, it defines the width of the field, otherwise it is determined
by the width of the value of first assignment.
-f The names refer to function names rather than variable names. No assignments can be
made and the only other valid options are -S, -t, -u and -x. The -S can be used with
discipline functions defined in a type to indicate that the function is static. For a
static function, the same method will be used by all instances of that type no matter
which instance references it. In addition, it can only use value of variables from
the original type definition. These discipline functions cannot be redefined in any
type instance. The -t option turns on execution tracing for this function. The -u
option causes this function to be marked undefined. The FPATH variable will be
searched to find the function definition when the function is referenced. If no op‐
tions other than -f is specified, then the function definition will be displayed on
standard output. If +f is specified, then a line containing the function name fol‐
lowed by a shell comment containing the line number and path name of the file where
this function was defined, if any, is displayed. The exit status can be used to de‐
termine whether the function is defined so that typeset -f .sh.math.name will return 0
when math function name is defined and non-zero otherwise.
-b The variable can hold any number of bytes of data. The data can be text or binary.
The value is represented by the base64 encoding of the data. If -Z is also specified,
the size in bytes of the data in the buffer will be determined by the size associated
with the -Z. If the base64 string assigned results in more data, it will be trun‐
cated. Otherwise, it will be filled with bytes whose value is zero. The printf for‐
mat %B can be used to output the actual data in this buffer instead of the base64 en‐
coding of the data.
-h Used within type definitions to add information when generating information about the
sub-variable on the man page. It is ignored when used outside of a type definition.
When used with -f the information is associated with the corresponding discipline
function.
-i Declares vname to be represented internally as integer. The right hand side of an as‐
signment is evaluated as an arithmetic expression when assigning to an integer. If n
is non-zero, it defines the output arithmetic base, otherwise the output base will be
ten.
-l Used with -i, -E or -F, to indicate long integer, or long double. Otherwise, all up‐
per-case characters are converted to lower-case. The upper-case option, -u, is turned
off. Equivalent to -M tolower .
-m moves or renames the variable. The value is the name of a variable whose value will
be moved to vname. The original variable will be unset. Cannot be used with any
other options.
-n Declares vname to be a reference to the variable whose name is defined by the value of
variable vname. This is usually used to reference a variable inside a function whose
name has been passed as an argument. Cannot be used with any other options.
-p The name, attributes and values for the given vnames are written on standard output in
a form that can be used as shell input. If +p is specified, then the values are not
displayed.
-r The given vnames are marked readonly and these names cannot be changed by subsequent
assignment.
-s Used with -i, -E or -F, to indicate short integer, or float.
-t Tags the variables. Tags are user definable and have no special meaning to the shell.
-u When given along with -i, specifies unsigned integer. Otherwise, all lower-case char‐
acters are converted to upper-case. The lower-case option, -l, is turned off. Equiv‐
alent to -M toupper .
-x The given vnames are marked for automatic export to the environment of subsequently-
executed commands. Variables whose names contain a . cannot be exported.
The -i attribute cannot be specified along with -R, -L, -Z, or -f.
Using + rather than - causes these options to be turned off. If no vname arguments are
given, a list of vnames (and optionally the values) of the variables is printed. (Using +
rather than - keeps the values from being printed.) The -p option causes typeset followed by
the option letters to be printed before each name rather than the names of the options. If
any option other than -p is given, only those variables which have all of the given options
are printed. Otherwise, the vnames and attributes of all variables that have attributes are
printed.
ulimit [ -HSacdfmnpstv ] [ limit ]
Set or display a resource limit. The available resource limits are listed below. Many sys‐
tems do not support one or more of these limits. The limit for a specified resource is set
when limit is specified. The value of limit can be a number in the unit specified below with
each resource, or the value unlimited. The -H and -S options specify whether the hard limit
or the soft limit for the given resource is set. A hard limit cannot be increased once it is
set. A soft limit can be increased up to the value of the hard limit. If neither the H nor
S option is specified, the limit applies to both. The current resource limit is printed when
limit is omitted. In this case, the soft limit is printed unless H is specified. When more
than one resource is specified, then the limit name and unit is printed before the value.
-a Lists all of the current resource limits.
-c The number of 512-byte blocks on the size of core dumps.
-d The number of K-bytes on the size of the data area.
-f The number of 512-byte blocks on files that can be written by the current process or
by child processes (files of any size may be read).
-m The number of K-bytes on the size of physical memory.
-n The number of file descriptors plus 1.
-p The number of 512-byte blocks for pipe buffering.
-s The number of K-bytes on the size of the stack area.
-t The number of CPU seconds to be used by each process.
-v The number of K-bytes for virtual memory.
If no option is given, -f is assumed.
umask [ -pS ] [ mask ]
The user file-creation mask is set to mask (see umask(2)). mask can either be an octal num‐
ber or a symbolic value as described in chmod(1). If a symbolic value is given, the new
umask value is the complement of the result of applying mask to the complement of the previ‐
ous umask value. If mask is omitted, the current value of the mask is printed. The -S op‐
tion causes the mode to be printed as a symbolic value. Otherwise, the mask is printed in
octal. The -p option cause the output to be in a form that can be use for reinput.
† unalias [ -a ] name ...
The aliases given by the list of names are removed from the alias list. The -a option causes
all the aliases to be unset.
†unset [ -fnv ] vname ...
The variables given by the list of vnames are unassigned, i.e., except for sub-variables
within a type, their values and attributes are erased. For sub-variables of a type, the val‐
ues are reset to the default value from the type definition. Readonly variables cannot be
unset. If the -f option is set, then the names refer to function names. If the -v option is
set, then the names refer to variable names. The -f option overrides -v. If -n is set and
name is a name reference, then name will be unset rather than the variable that it refer‐
ences. The default is equivalent to -v. Unsetting LINENO, MAILCHECK, OPTARG, OPTIND, RAN‐
DOM, SECONDS, TMOUT, and _ removes their special meaning even if they are subsequently as‐
signed to.
wait [ job ... ]
Wait for the specified job and report its termination status. If job is not given, then all
currently active child processes are waited for. The exit status from this command is that
of the last process waited for if job is specified; otherwise it is zero. See Jobs for a de‐
scription of the format of job.
whence [ -afpv ] name ...
For each name, indicate how it would be interpreted if used as a command name.
The -v option produces a more verbose report. The -f option skips the search for functions.
The -p option does a path search for name even if name is an alias, a function, or a reserved
word. The -p option turns off the -v option. The -a option is similar to the -v option but
causes all interpretations of the given name to be reported.
Invocation.
If the shell is invoked by exec(2), and the first character of argument zero ($0) is -, then the
shell is assumed to be a login shell and commands are read from /etc/profile and then from
$HOME/.profile, if it exists. Alternatively, the option -l causes the shell to a treated as a login
shell. Next, for interactive shells, commands are read from the file named by performing parameter
expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic substitution on the value of the environment vari‐
able ENV if the file exists. If the -s option is not present and arg and a file by the name of arg
exists, then it reads and executes this script. Otherwise, if the first arg does not contain a /, a
path search is performed on the first arg to determine the name of the script to execute. The
script arg must have execute permission and any setuid and setgid settings will be ignored. If the
script is not found on the path, arg is processed as if it named a built-in command or function.
Commands are then read as described below; the following options are interpreted by the shell when
it is invoked:
-D A list of all double quoted strings that are preceded by a $ will be printed on standard
output and the shell will exit. This set of strings will be subject to language translation
when the locale is not C or POSIX. No commands will be executed.
-E Reads the file named by the ENV variable or by $HOME/.kshrc if not defined after the pro‐
files.
-c If the -c option is present, then commands are read from the first arg. Any remaining argu‐
ments become positional parameters starting at 0.
-s If the -s option is present or if no arguments remain, then commands are read from the stan‐
dard input. Shell output, except for the output of the Special Commands listed above, is
written to file descriptor 2.
-i If the -i option is present or if the shell input and error output are attached to a termi‐
nal (as told by tcgetattr(2)), then this shell is interactive. In this case TERM is ignored
(so that kill 0 does not kill an interactive shell) and INTR is caught and ignored (so that
wait is interruptible). In all cases, QUIT is ignored by the shell.
-r If the -r option is present, the shell is a restricted shell.
-R filename
The -R filename option is used to generate a cross reference database that can be used by a
separate utility to find definitions and references for variables and commands. The file‐
name argument specifies the generated database. A script file must be provided on the com‐
mand line as well.
The remaining options and arguments are described under the set command above. An optional - as the
first argument is ignored.
Rksh Only.
Rksh is used to set up login names and execution environments whose capabilities are more controlled
than those of the standard shell. The actions of rksh are identical to those of ksh, except that
the following are disallowed:
Unsetting the restricted option.
changing directory (see cd(1)),
setting or unsetting the value or attributes of SHELL, ENV, FPATH, or PATH,
specifying path or command names containing /,
redirecting output (>, >|, <>, and >>).
adding or deleting built-in commands.
using command -p to invoke a command.
The restrictions above are enforced after .profile and the ENV files are interpreted.
When a command to be executed is found to be a shell procedure, rksh invokes ksh to execute it.
Thus, it is possible to provide to the end-user shell procedures that have access to the full power
of the standard shell, while imposing a limited menu of commands; this scheme assumes that the end-
user does not have write and execute permissions in the same directory.
The net effect of these rules is that the writer of the .profile has complete control over user ac‐
tions, by performing guaranteed setup actions and leaving the user in an appropriate directory
(probably not the login directory).
The system administrator often sets up a directory of commands (e.g., /usr/rbin) that can be safely
invoked by rksh.
EXIT STATUS
Errors detected by the shell, such as syntax errors, cause the shell to return a non-zero exit sta‐
tus. If the shell is being used non-interactively, then execution of the shell file is abandoned
unless the error occurs inside a subshell in which case the subshell is abandoned. Otherwise, the
shell returns the exit status of the last command executed (see also the exit command above). Run
time errors detected by the shell are reported by printing the command or function name and the er‐
ror condition. If the line number that the error occurred on is greater than one, then the line
number is also printed in square brackets ([]) after the command or function name.
FILES
/etc/profile
The system wide initialization file, executed for login shells.
$HOME/.profile
The personal initialization file, executed for login shells after /etc/profile.
$HOME/.kshrc
Default personal initialization file, executed for interactive shells when ENV is not set.
/etc/suid_profile
Alternative initialization file, executed instead of the personal initialization file when
the real and effective user or group id do not match.
/dev/null
NULL device
SEE ALSO
cat(1), cd(1), chmod(1), cut(1), date(1), egrep(1), echo(1), emacs(1), env(1), fgrep(1), gmacs(1),
grep(1), newgrp(1), stty(1), test(1), touch(1), umask(1), vi(1), dup(2), exec(2), fork(2), getpw‐
nam(3), ioctl(2), lseek(2), paste(1), pathconf(2), pipe(2), sigsetinfo(2), sysconf(2), umask(2),
ulimit(2), wait(2), wctrans(3), rand(3), a.out(5), profile(5), environ(7).
Morris I. Bolsky and David G. Korn, The New KornShell Command and Programming Language, Prentice
Hall, 1995.
POSIX - Part 2: Shell and Utilities, IEEE Std 1003.2-1992, ISO/IEC 9945-2, IEEE, 1993.
CAVEATS
If a command is executed, and then a command with the same name is installed in a directory in the
search path before the directory where the original command was found, the shell will continue to
exec the original command. Use the -t option of the alias command to correct this situation.
Some very old shell scripts contain a ^ as a synonym for the pipe character ⎪.
Using the hist built-in command within a compound command will cause the whole command to disappear
from the history file.
The built-in command . file reads the whole file before any commands are executed. Therefore, alias
and unalias commands in the file will not apply to any commands defined in the file.
Traps are not processed while a job is waiting for a foreground process. Thus, a trap on CHLD won't
be executed until the foreground job terminates.
It is a good idea to leave a space after the comma operator in arithmetic expressions to prevent the
comma from being interpreted as the decimal point character in certain locales.
KSH(1)
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