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SH(1)			     General Commands Manual			   SH(1)

NAME
     sh -- command interpreter (shell)

SYNOPSIS
     sh [-/+abCEefhIilmnPpTuVvx] [-/+o longname] [script [arg ...]]
     sh [-/+abCEefhIilmnPpTuVvx] [-/+o longname] -c string [name [arg ...]]
     sh [-/+abCEefhIilmnPpTuVvx] [-/+o longname] -s [arg ...]

DESCRIPTION
     The  sh  utility  is  the standard command interpreter for the system.  The
     current version of sh is close to the IEEE Std 1003.1 ("POSIX.1")	specifi-
     cation  for the shell.  It only supports features designated by POSIX, plus
     a few Berkeley extensions.  This man page is not intended to be a	tutorial
     nor a complete specification of the shell.

   Overview
     The shell is a command that reads lines from either a file or the terminal,
     interprets  them, and generally executes other commands.  It is the program
     that is started when a user logs into the system, although a user	can  se-
     lect  a  different  shell with the chsh(1) command.  The shell implements a
     language that has flow control constructs, a macro facility that provides a
     variety of features in addition to data storage, along with  built-in  his-
     tory  and	line editing capabilities.  It incorporates many features to aid
     interactive use and has the advantage that the interpretative  language  is
     common  to  both interactive and non-interactive use (shell scripts).  That
     is, commands can be typed directly to the running shell or can be put  into
     a file, which can be executed directly by the shell.

   Invocation
     If  no arguments are present and if the standard input of the shell is con-
     nected to a terminal (or if the -i option is set), the shell is  considered
     an  interactive  shell.  An interactive shell generally prompts before each
     command and handles programming and  command  errors  differently	(as  de-
     scribed below).  When first starting, the shell inspects argument 0, and if
     it  begins  with  a dash (`-'), the shell is also considered a login shell.
     This is normally done automatically by the system when the user first  logs
     in.   A  login  shell  first reads commands from the files /etc/profile and
     then .profile in a user's home directory, if they exist.  If  the	environ-
     ment  variable ENV is set on entry to a shell, or is set in the .profile of
     a login shell, the shell then subjects its value to parameter expansion and
     arithmetic expansion and reads commands from the named file.  Therefore,  a
     user  should  place  commands that are to be executed only at login time in
     the .profile file, and commands that are executed for  every  shell  inside
     the  ENV  file.   The user can set the ENV variable to some file by placing
     the following line in the file .profile in the home directory, substituting
     for .shrc the filename desired:

	   ENV=$HOME/.shrc; export ENV

     The first non-option argument specified on the command line will be treated
     as the name of a file from which to read commands (a shell script), and the
     remaining arguments are set as the positional parameters of the shell  ($1,
     $2, etc.).  Otherwise, the shell reads commands from its standard input.

     Unlike older versions of sh the ENV script is only sourced on invocation of
     interactive  shells.   This  closes  a well-known, and sometimes easily ex-
     ploitable security hole related to poorly thought out ENV scripts.

   Argument List Processing
     All of the single letter options to sh have a corresponding long name, with
     the exception of -c and -/+o.  These long names are provided  next  to  the
     single  letter options in the descriptions below.	The long name for an op-
     tion may be specified as an argument to the -/+o option of  sh.   Once  the
     shell  is running, the long name for an option may be specified as an argu-
     ment to the -/+o option of the set built-in command (described later in the
     section called "Built-in Commands").  Introducing an  option  with  a  dash
     (`-')  enables the option, while using a plus (`+') disables the option.  A
     "--" or plain `-' will stop option processing and will force the  remaining
     words  on the command line to be treated as arguments.  The -/+o and -c op-
     tions do not have long names.  They take arguments and are described  after
     the single letter options.

     -a allexport
	     Flag variables for export when assignments are made to them.

     -b notify
	     Enable  asynchronous  notification  of  background  job completion.
	     (UNIMPLEMENTED)

     -C noclobber
	     Do not overwrite existing files with `>'.

     -E emacs
	     Enable the built-in emacs(1)(ports/editors/emacs) command line edi-
	     tor (disables the -V option if it has been set;  set  automatically
	     when interactive on terminals).

     -e errexit
	     Exit  immediately	if any untested command fails in non-interactive
	     mode.  The exit status of a command is considered to be  explicitly
	     tested  if  the  command is part of the list used to control an if,
	     elif, while, or until; if the command is the left hand  operand  of
	     an  "&&" or "||" operator; or if the command is a pipeline preceded
	     by the ! keyword.	If a shell function is	executed  and  its  exit
	     status  is explicitly tested, all commands of the function are con-
	     sidered to be tested as well.

	     Note that many commands return non-zero values to	convey	informa-
	     tion other than errors, which can cause unexpected program termina-
	     tion with -e.

     -f noglob
	     Disable pathname expansion.

     -h trackall
	     A do-nothing option for POSIX compliance.

     -I ignoreeof
	     Ignore EOF's from input when in interactive mode.

     -i interactive
	     Force the shell to behave interactively.

     -l      Force the shell to act as if it has been invoked as a login shell.

     -m monitor
	     Turn  on  job  control (set automatically when interactive).  A new
	     process group is created for each pipeline (called a job).   It  is
	     possible  to  suspend jobs or to have them run in the foreground or
	     in the background.  In a non-interactive shell, this option can  be
	     set  even	if  no	terminal  is  available  and  is useful to place
	     processes in separate process groups.

     -n noexec
	     If not interactive, read commands but do not execute them.  This is
	     useful for checking the syntax of shell scripts.

     -P physical
	     Change the default for the cd and pwd commands from -L (logical di-
	     rectory layout) to -P (physical directory layout).

     -p privileged
	     Turn on privileged mode.  This mode is enabled on startup if either
	     the effective user or group ID is not equal to  the  real	user  or
	     group  ID.  Turning this mode off sets the effective user and group
	     IDs to the real user and group IDs.  When this mode is enabled  for
	     interactive  shells,  the file /etc/suid_profile is sourced instead
	     of ~/.profile after /etc/profile is sourced, and  the  contents  of
	     the ENV variable are ignored.

     -s stdin
	     Read commands from standard input (set automatically if no file ar-
	     guments are present).  This option has no effect when set after the
	     shell has already started running (i.e., when set with the set com-
	     mand).

     -T trapsasync
	     When  waiting  for a child, execute traps immediately.  If this op-
	     tion is not set, traps are executed after the child exits, as spec-
	     ified in IEEE Std 1003.2 ("POSIX.2").  This nonstandard  option  is
	     useful  for putting guarding shells around children that block sig-
	     nals.  The surrounding shell may kill the child or it may just  re-
	     turn control to the tty and leave the child alone, like this:

		   sh -T -c "trap 'exit 1' 2 ; some-blocking-program"

     -u nounset
	     Write a message to standard error when attempting to expand a vari-
	     able, a positional parameter or the special parameter ! that is not
	     set, and if the shell is not interactive, exit immediately.

     -V vi   Enable  the  built-in  vi(1) command line editor (disables -E if it
	     has been set).

     -v verbose
	     The shell writes its input to standard error as it is read.  Useful
	     for debugging.

     -x xtrace
	     Write each command (preceded by the value of the PS4 variable  sub-
	     jected to parameter expansion and arithmetic expansion) to standard
	     error before it is executed.  Useful for debugging.

     nolog   Another do-nothing option for POSIX compliance.  It only has a long
	     name.

     pipefail
	     Change the exit status of a pipeline to the last non-zero exit sta-
	     tus  of  any command in the pipeline, if any.  Since an exit due to
	     SIGPIPE counts as a non-zero exit status,	this  option  may  cause
	     non-zero  exit status for successful pipelines if a command such as
	     head(1) in the pipeline terminates with status  0	without  reading
	     its input completely.  This option only has a long name.

     verify  Set O_VERIFY when sourcing files or loading profiles.

     The  -c  option  causes the commands to be read from the string operand in-
     stead of from the standard input.	Keep in mind that this option  only  ac-
     cepts  a  single  string  as its argument, hence multi-word strings must be
     quoted.

     The -/+o option takes as its only argument the long name of an option to be
     enabled or disabled.  For example, the following two invocations of sh both
     enable the built-in emacs(1)(ports/editors/emacs) command line editor:

	   set -E
	   set -o emacs

     If used without an argument, the -o option displays the current option set-
     tings in a human-readable format.	If +o is used without an  argument,  the
     current  option  settings are output in a format suitable for re-input into
     the shell.

   Lexical Structure
     The shell reads input in terms of lines from a file and breaks it	up  into
     words  at whitespace (blanks and tabs), and at certain sequences of charac-
     ters called "operators", which are special to the	shell.	 There	are  two
     types  of	operators:  control  operators	and redirection operators (their
     meaning is discussed later).  The following is a list of valid operators:

     Control operators:
		   &	 &&    (     )	   \n
		   ;;	 ;&    ;     |	   ||

     Redirection operators:
		   <	 >     <<    >>    <>
		   <&	 >&    <<-   >|

     The character `#' introduces a comment if used at the beginning of a  word.
     The word starting with `#' and the rest of the line are ignored.

     ASCII NUL characters (character code 0) are not allowed in shell input.

   Quoting
     Quoting  is  used	to  remove  the special meaning of certain characters or
     words to the shell, such  as  operators,  whitespace,  keywords,  or  alias
     names.

     There  are  four  types  of  quoting:  matched single quotes, dollar-single
     quotes, matched double quotes, and backslash.

     Single Quotes
	     Enclosing characters in single quotes preserves the literal meaning
	     of all the characters (except single quotes, making  it  impossible
	     to put single-quotes in a single-quoted string).

     Dollar-Single Quotes
	     Enclosing characters between $' and ' preserves the literal meaning
	     of  all  characters  except backslashes and single quotes.  A back-
	     slash introduces a C-style escape sequence:

	     \a 	 Alert (ring the terminal bell)

	     \b 	 Backspace

	     \cc	 The control character denoted by ^c in stty(1).   If  c
			 is a backslash, it must be doubled.

	     \e 	 The ESC character (ASCII 0x1b)

	     \f 	 Formfeed

	     \n 	 Newline

	     \r 	 Carriage return

	     \t 	 Horizontal tab

	     \v 	 Vertical tab

	     \\ 	 Literal backslash

	     \' 	 Literal single-quote

	     \" 	 Literal double-quote

	     \nnn	 The byte whose octal value is nnn (one to three digits)

	     \xnn	 The  byte  whose  hexadecimal	value is nn (one or more
			 digits only the last two of which are used)

	     \unnnn	 The Unicode code point nnnn (four hexadecimal digits)

	     \Unnnnnnnn  The Unicode code point nnnnnnnn (eight hexadecimal dig-
			 its)

	     The sequences for Unicode code points  are  currently  only  useful
	     with  UTF-8  locales.   They  reject code point 0 and UTF-16 surro-
	     gates.

	     If an escape sequence would produce a byte with value 0, that  byte
	     and  the rest of the string until the matching single-quote are ig-
	     nored.

	     Any other string starting with a backslash is an error.

     Double Quotes
	     Enclosing characters within double  quotes  preserves  the  literal
	     meaning  of  all  characters  except  dollar  sign (`$'), backquote
	     (``'), and backslash (`\').  The backslash inside double quotes  is
	     historically weird.  It remains literal unless it precedes the fol-
	     lowing characters, which it serves to quote:

		   $	 `     "     \	   \n

     Backslash
	     A	backslash preserves the literal meaning of the following charac-
	     ter, with the exception of the newline character (`\n').	A  back-
	     slash preceding a newline is treated as a line continuation.

   Keywords
     Keywords or reserved words are words that have special meaning to the shell
     and are recognized at the beginning of a line and after a control operator.
     The following are keywords:

	   !	    {	     }	      case	do
	   done     elif     else     esac	fi
	   for	    if	     then     until	while

   Aliases
     An  alias	is  a  name and corresponding value set using the alias built-in
     command.  Wherever the command word of a simple command may occur, and  af-
     ter checking for keywords if a keyword may occur, the shell checks the word
     to  see  if  it  matches an alias.  If it does, it replaces it in the input
     stream with its value.  For example, if there is an alias called "lf"  with
     the value "ls -F", then the input

	   lf foobar

     would become

	   ls -F foobar

     Aliases are also recognized after an alias whose value ends with a space or
     tab.   For example, if there is also an alias called "nohup" with the value
     "nohup ", then the input

	   nohup lf foobar

     would become

	   nohup ls -F foobar

     Aliases provide a convenient way for naive users to create  shorthands  for
     commands  without	having	to learn how to create functions with arguments.
     Using aliases in scripts is discouraged because the  command  that  defines
     them  must  be  executed before the code that uses them is parsed.  This is
     fragile and not portable.

     An alias name may be escaped in a command line, so that it is not	replaced
     by  its  alias value, by using quoting characters within or adjacent to the
     alias name.  This is most often done by prefixing	an  alias  name  with  a
     backslash	to execute a function, built-in, or normal program with the same
     name.  See the "Quoting" subsection.

   Commands
     The shell interprets the words it reads according to a language, the speci-
     fication of which is outside the scope of this man page (refer to	the  BNF
     in  the  IEEE Std 1003.2 ("POSIX.2") document).  Essentially though, a line
     is read and if the first word of the line (or after a control operator)  is
     not  a keyword, then the shell has recognized a simple command.  Otherwise,
     a complex command or some other special construct may have been recognized.

   Simple Commands
     If a simple command has been recognized, the shell performs  the  following
     actions:

     1.   Leading  words  of the form "name=value" are stripped off and assigned
	  to the environment of the simple command (they do  not  affect  expan-
	  sions).   Redirection  operators and their arguments (as described be-
	  low) are stripped off and saved for processing.

     2.   The remaining words are expanded as described in  the  section  called
	  "Word Expansions", and the first remaining word is considered the com-
	  mand name and the command is located.  The remaining words are consid-
	  ered	the arguments of the command.  If no command name resulted, then
	  the "name=value" variable assignments recognized in 1) affect the cur-
	  rent shell.

     3.   Redirections are performed as described in the next section.

   Redirections
     Redirections are used to change where a command reads its	input  or  sends
     its output.  In general, redirections open, close, or duplicate an existing
     reference to a file.  The overall format used for redirection is:

	   [n] redir-op file

     The redir-op is one of the redirection operators mentioned previously.  The
     following	gives  some  examples  of how these operators can be used.  Note
     that stdin and stdout are commonly used abbreviations  for  standard  input
     and standard output respectively.

	   [n]> file	 redirect stdout (or file descriptor n) to file

	   [n]>| file	 same as above, but override the -C option

	   [n]>> file	 append stdout (or file descriptor n) to file

	   [n]< file	 redirect stdin (or file descriptor n) from file

	   [n]<> file	 redirect stdin (or file descriptor n) to and from file

	   [n1]<&n2	 duplicate  stdin  (or file descriptor n1) from file de-
			 scriptor n2

	   [n]<&-	 close stdin (or file descriptor n)

	   [n1]>&n2	 duplicate stdout (or file descriptor n1)  to  file  de-
			 scriptor n2

	   [n]>&-	 close stdout (or file descriptor n)

     The following redirection is often called a "here-document".

	   [n]<< delimiter
	   here-doc-text
	   ...
	   delimiter

     All the text on successive lines up to the delimiter is saved away and made
     available	to  the command on standard input, or file descriptor n if it is
     specified.  If the delimiter as specified on the initial  line  is  quoted,
     then  the	here-doc-text  is  treated literally, otherwise the text is sub-
     jected to parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic  expan-
     sion  (as	described in the section on "Word Expansions").  If the operator
     is "<<-" instead of "<<",	then  leading  tabs  in  the  here-doc-text  are
     stripped.

   Search and Execution
     There  are three types of commands: shell functions, built-in commands, and
     normal programs.  The command is searched for (by name) in that order.  The
     three types of commands are all executed in a different way.

     When a shell function is executed, all of the shell  positional  parameters
     (except  $0, which remains unchanged) are set to the arguments of the shell
     function.	The variables which are explicitly placed in the environment  of
     the  command  (by placing assignments to them before the function name) are
     made local to the function and are set to the values given.  Then the  com-
     mand  given in the function definition is executed.  The positional parame-
     ters are restored to their original  values  when	the  command  completes.
     This all occurs within the current shell.

     Shell  built-in  commands	are  executed  internally  to the shell, without
     spawning a new process.  There are two kinds of built-in commands:  regular
     and special.  Assignments before special builtins persist after they finish
     executing and assignment errors, redirection errors and certain operand er-
     rors  cause  a script to be aborted.  Special builtins cannot be overridden
     with a function.  Both regular and special builtins can affect the shell in
     ways normal programs cannot.

     Otherwise, if the command name does not match a function or  built-in  com-
     mand,  the  command  is searched for as a normal program in the file system
     (as described in the next section).  When a normal program is executed, the
     shell runs the program, passing the arguments and the  environment  to  the
     program.	If the program is not a normal executable file (i.e., if it does
     not begin with the "magic number" whose ASCII representation is  "#!",  re-
     sulting in an ENOEXEC return value from execve(2)) but appears to be a text
     file, the shell will run a new instance of sh to interpret it.

     Note  that  previous  versions  of this document and the source code itself
     misleadingly and sporadically refer to a shell script without a magic  num-
     ber as a "shell procedure".

   Path Search
     When  locating  a	command,  the shell first looks to see if it has a shell
     function by that name.  Then it looks for a built-in command by that  name.
     If a built-in command is not found, one of two things happen:

     1.   Command  names containing a slash are simply executed without perform-
	  ing any searches.

     2.   The shell searches each entry in the PATH variable  in  turn	for  the
	  command.  The value of the PATH variable should be a series of entries
	  separated  by  colons.   Each entry consists of a directory name.  The
	  current directory may be indicated implicitly by  an	empty  directory
	  name, or explicitly by a single period.

   Command Exit Status
     Each  command  has  an exit status that can influence the behavior of other
     shell commands.  The paradigm is that a command exits with zero for  normal
     or  success,  and	non-zero for failure, error, or a false indication.  The
     man page for each command should indicate the various exit codes  and  what
     they  mean.  Additionally, the built-in commands return exit codes, as does
     an executed shell function.

     If a command is terminated by a signal, its exit  status  is  greater  than
     128.  The signal name can be found by passing the exit status to kill -l.

     If there is no command word, the exit status is the exit status of the last
     command  substitution executed, or zero if the command does not contain any
     command substitutions.

   Complex Commands
     Complex commands are combinations of simple commands with control operators
     or keywords, together creating a larger complex command.  More generally, a
     command is one of the following:

	   simple command

	   pipeline

	   list or compound-list

	   compound command

	   function definition

     Unless otherwise stated, the exit status of a command is that of  the  last
     simple  command  executed	by the command, or zero if no simple command was
     executed.

   Pipelines
     A pipeline is a sequence of one or more commands separated by  the  control
     operator `|'.  The standard output of all but the last command is connected
     to the standard input of the next command.  The standard output of the last
     command is inherited from the shell, as usual.

     The format for a pipeline is:

	   [!] command1 [| command2 ...]

     The  standard  output  of	command1  is  connected to the standard input of
     command2.	The standard input, standard output, or both  of  a  command  is
     considered  to be assigned by the pipeline before any redirection specified
     by redirection operators that are part of the command.

     Note that unlike some other shells, sh executes each process in a	pipeline
     with  more than one command in a subshell environment and as a child of the
     sh process.

     If the pipeline is not in the background (discussed later), the shell waits
     for all commands to complete.

     If the keyword ! does not precede the pipeline, the exit status is the exit
     status of the last command specified in the pipeline if the pipefail option
     is not set or all commands returned zero, or the last non-zero exit  status
     of  any  command  in the pipeline otherwise.  Otherwise, the exit status is
     the logical NOT of that exit status.  That is, if that status is zero,  the
     exit  status  is 1; if that status is greater than zero, the exit status is
     zero.

     Because pipeline assignment of standard input or standard	output	or  both
     takes place before redirection, it can be modified by redirection.  For ex-
     ample:

	   command1 2>&1 | command2

     sends  both the standard output and standard error of command1 to the stan-
     dard input of command2.

     A `;' or newline terminator causes the preceding AND-OR-list (described be-
     low in the section called "Short-Circuit List Operators")	to  be	executed
     sequentially; an `&' causes asynchronous execution of the preceding AND-OR-
     list.

   Background Commands (&)
     If  a  command  is  terminated by the control operator ampersand (`&'), the
     shell executes  the  command  in  a  subshell  environment  (see  "Grouping
     Commands  Together"  below) and asynchronously; the shell does not wait for
     the command to finish before executing the next command.

     The format for running a command in background is:

	   command1 & [command2 & ...]

     If the shell is not interactive, the standard input of an asynchronous com-
     mand is set to /dev/null.

     The exit status is zero.

   Lists (Generally Speaking)
     A list is a sequence of zero or more commands separated by newlines,  semi-
     colons,  or  ampersands,  and  optionally	terminated by one of these three
     characters.  The commands in a list are executed  in  the	order  they  are
     written.  If command is followed by an ampersand, the shell starts the com-
     mand and immediately proceeds onto the next command; otherwise it waits for
     the command to terminate before proceeding to the next one.

   Short-Circuit List Operators
     "&&"  and "||" are AND-OR list operators.	"&&" executes the first command,
     and then executes the second command if the exit status of the  first  com-
     mand is zero.  "||" is similar, but executes the second command if the exit
     status  of  the first command is nonzero.	"&&" and "||" both have the same
     priority.

   Flow-Control Constructs (if, while, for, case)
     The syntax of the if command is:
	   if list
	   then list
	   [elif list
	   then list] ...
	   [else list]
	   fi

     The exit status is that of selected then or else list, or zero if	no  list
     was selected.

     The syntax of the while command is:
	   while list
	   do list
	   done

     The  two  lists  are executed repeatedly while the exit status of the first
     list is zero.  The until command is similar, but  has  the  word  until  in
     place  of	while,	which  causes  it to repeat until the exit status of the
     first list is zero.

     The exit status is that of the last execution of the second list,	or  zero
     if it was never executed.

     The syntax of the for command is:
	   for variable [in word ...]
	   do list
	   done

     If  in  and  the following words are omitted, in "$@" is used instead.  The
     words are expanded, and then the list is executed repeatedly with the vari-
     able set to each word in turn.  The do and done commands  may  be	replaced
     with `{' and `}'.

     The syntax of the break and continue commands is:
	   break [num]
	   continue [num]

     The  break  command  terminates  the num innermost for or while loops.  The
     continue command continues with the next iteration of the	innermost  loop.
     These are implemented as special built-in commands.

     The syntax of the case command is:
	   case word in
	   pattern) list ;;
	   ...
	   esac

     The  pattern can actually be one or more patterns (see "Shell Patterns" de-
     scribed later), separated by `|' characters.   Tilde  expansion,  parameter
     expansion, command substitution, arithmetic expansion and quote removal are
     applied  to  the  word.  Then, each pattern is expanded in turn using tilde
     expansion, parameter expansion, command substitution and arithmetic  expan-
     sion  and	the expanded form of the word is checked against it.  If a match
     is found, the corresponding list is executed.  If the selected list is ter-
     minated by the control operator `;&' instead of `;;',  execution  continues
     with the next list, continuing until a list terminated with `;;' or the end
     of the case command.

   Grouping Commands Together
     Commands may be grouped by writing either

	   (list)

     or

	   { list; }

     The first form executes the commands in a subshell environment.  A subshell
     environment has its own copy of:

     1.   The current working directory as set by cd.

     2.   The file creation mask as set by umask.

     3.   Resource limits as set by ulimit.

     4.   References to open files.

     5.   Traps as set by trap.

     6.   Known jobs.

     7.   Positional parameters and variables.

     8.   Shell options.

     9.   Shell functions.

     10.  Shell aliases.

     These  are  copied  from  the parent shell environment, except that trapped
     (but not ignored) signals are reset to the default action	and  known  jobs
     are cleared.  Any changes do not affect the parent shell environment.

     A	subshell  environment  may  be implemented as a child process or differ-
     ently.  If job control is enabled in an interactive shell, commands grouped
     in parentheses can be suspended and continued as a unit.

     For compatibility with other  shells,  two  open  parentheses  in	sequence
     should be separated by whitespace.

     The  second  form	never  forks another shell, so it is slightly more effi-
     cient.  Grouping commands together this way allows  the  user  to	redirect
     their output as though they were one program:

	   { echo -n "hello"; echo " world"; } > greeting

   Functions
     The syntax of a function definition is

	   name ( ) command

     A function definition is an executable statement; when executed it installs
     a	function  named name and returns an exit status of zero.  The command is
     normally a list enclosed between `{' and `}'.

     Variables may be declared to be local to a function by using the local com-
     mand.  This should appear as the first statement of  a  function,	and  the
     syntax is:

	   local [variable ...] [-]

     The local command is implemented as a built-in command.  The exit status is
     zero unless the command is not in a function or a variable name is invalid.

     When  a  variable is made local, it inherits the initial value and exported
     and readonly flags from the variable with the same name in the  surrounding
     scope,  if  there is one.	Otherwise, the variable is initially unset.  The
     shell uses dynamic scoping, so that if the variable  x  is  made  local  to
     function  f, which then calls function g, references to the variable x made
     inside g will refer to the variable x declared inside f, not to the  global
     variable named x.

     The only special parameter that can be made local is `-'.	Making `-' local
     causes  any  shell options (including those that only have long names) that
     are changed via the set command inside the function to be restored to their
     original values when the function returns.

     The syntax of the return command is

	   return [exitstatus]

     It terminates the current executional scope,  returning  from  the  closest
     nested  function or sourced script; if no function or sourced script is be-
     ing executed, it exits the shell instance.  The return  command  is  imple-
     mented as a special built-in command.

   Variables and Parameters
     The  shell  maintains  a  set of parameters.  A parameter denoted by a name
     (consisting solely of alphabetics, numerics, and underscores, and	starting
     with  an  alphabetic or an underscore) is called a variable.  When starting
     up, the shell turns all environment variables with valid names  into  shell
     variables.  New variables can be set using the form

	   name=value

     A	parameter  can also be denoted by a number or a special character as ex-
     plained below.

     Assignments are expanded differently from other words: tilde  expansion  is
     also  performed after the equals sign and after any colon and usernames are
     also terminated by colons, and field splitting and pathname  expansion  are
     not performed.

     This  special  expansion applies not only to assignments that form a simple
     command by themselves or precede a command word, but also to  words  passed
     to  the  export,  local  or readonly built-in commands that have this form.
     For this, the builtin's name must be literal (not the result of  an  expan-
     sion)  and  may  optionally be preceded by one or more literal instances of
     command without options.

   Positional Parameters
     A positional parameter is a parameter denoted  by	a  number  greater  than
     zero.  The shell sets these initially to the values of its command line ar-
     guments that follow the name of the shell script.	The set built-in command
     can also be used to set or reset them.

   Special Parameters
     Special  parameters are parameters denoted by a single special character or
     the digit zero.  They are shown in the  following	list,  exactly	as  they
     would appear in input typed by the user or in the source of a shell script.

     $*      Expands  to the positional parameters, starting from one.	When the
	     expansion occurs within a double-quoted string it expands to a sin-
	     gle field with the value of each parameter separated by  the  first
	     character of the IFS variable, or by a space if IFS is unset.

     $@      Expands  to the positional parameters, starting from one.	When the
	     expansion occurs within double-quotes,  each  positional  parameter
	     expands as a separate argument.  If there are no positional parame-
	     ters,  the  expansion of @ generates zero arguments, even when @ is
	     double-quoted.  What this basically means, for example, is if $1 is
	     "abc" and $2 is "def ghi", then "$@" expands to the two arguments:

		   "abc"   "def ghi"

     $#      Expands to the number of positional parameters.

     $?      Expands to the exit status of the most recent pipeline.

     $-      (hyphen) Expands to the current option flags (the single-letter op-
	     tion names concatenated into a string) as specified on  invocation,
	     by the set built-in command, or implicitly by the shell.

     $$      Expands to the process ID of the invoked shell.  A subshell retains
	     the same value of $ as its parent.

     $!      Expands to the process ID of the most recent background command ex-
	     ecuted  from  the current shell.  For a pipeline, the process ID is
	     that of the last command in the pipeline.	 If  this  parameter  is
	     referenced,  the  shell  will  remember the process ID and its exit
	     status until the wait built-in command reports  completion  of  the
	     process.

     $0      (zero)  Expands  to  the  name of the shell script if passed on the
	     command line, the name operand if given (with -c) or otherwise  ar-
	     gument 0 passed to the shell.

   Special Variables
     The following variables are set by the shell or have special meaning to it:

     CDPATH    The search path used with the cd built-in.

     EDITOR    The  fallback  editor used with the fc built-in.  If not set, the
	       default editor is ed(1).

     FCEDIT    The default editor used with the fc built-in.

     HISTFILE  File used for persistent history storage.  If unset ~/.sh_history
	       will be used.  If set but empty or HISTSIZE is set to 0 the shell
	       will not load and save the history.

     HISTSIZE  The number of previous commands that are accessible.

     HOME      The user's home directory, used in tilde expansion and as  a  de-
	       fault directory for the cd built-in.

     IFS       Input  Field  Separators.   This  is  initialized  at  startup to
	       <space>, <tab>, and <newline> in that order.  This value also ap-
	       plies if IFS is unset, but not if it is set to the empty  string.
	       See the "White Space Splitting" section for more details.

     LINENO    The current line number in the script or function.

     MAIL      The  name of a mail file, that will be checked for the arrival of
	       new mail.  Overridden by MAILPATH.

     MAILPATH  A colon (`:') separated list of file  names,  for  the  shell  to
	       check  for  incoming mail.  This variable overrides the MAIL set-
	       ting.  There is a maximum of 10 mailboxes that can  be  monitored
	       at once.

     OPTIND    The  index of the next argument to be processed by getopts.  This
	       is initialized to 1 at startup.

     PATH      The default search path for executables.  See the  "Path  Search"
	       section for details.

     PPID      The  parent  process  ID  of  the  invoked shell.  This is set at
	       startup unless this variable is	in  the  environment.	A  later
	       change of parent process ID is not reflected.  A subshell retains
	       the same value of PPID.

     PS1       The primary prompt string, which defaults to "$ ", unless you are
	       the  superuser,	in  which case it defaults to "# ".  PS1 may in-
	       clude any of the following formatting sequences,  which	are  re-
	       placed by the given information:

	       \D{format}
		       The  current  time in strftime(3) format.  The braces are
		       required.  Empty format is  equivalent  to  %X,	national
		       representation of the time.

	       \H      This system's fully-qualified hostname (FQDN).

	       \h      This system's hostname.

	       \u      User name.

	       \W      The final component of the current working directory.

	       \w      The entire path of the current working directory.

	       \$      Superuser status.  "$" for normal users and "#" for supe-
		       rusers.

	       \\      A literal backslash.

	       \[      Start of a sequence of non-printing characters (used, for
		       example, to embed ANSI CSI sequences into the prompt).

	       \]      End of a sequence of non-printing characters.

	       The  following  special and non-printing characters are supported
	       within the sequence of non-printing characters:

	       \a      Emits ASCII BEL (0x07, 007) character.

	       \e      Emits ASCII ESC (0x1b, 033) character.

	       \r      Emits ASCII CR (0x0d, 015) character.

	       \n      Emits CRLF sequence.

     PS2       The secondary prompt string, which defaults to "> ".  PS2 may in-
	       clude any of the formatting sequences from PS1.

     PS4       The prefix for the trace output (if -x is active).   The  default
	       is "+ ".

   Word Expansions
     This  clause  describes the various expansions that are performed on words.
     Not all expansions are performed on every word, as explained later.

     Tilde expansions, parameter expansions, command  substitutions,  arithmetic
     expansions,  and quote removals that occur within a single word expand to a
     single field.  It is only field splitting or pathname  expansion  that  can
     create  multiple  fields  from a single word.  The single exception to this
     rule is the expansion of the special parameter @ within  double-quotes,  as
     was described above.

     The order of word expansion is:

     1.   Tilde Expansion, Parameter Expansion, Command Substitution, Arithmetic
	  Expansion (these all occur at the same time).

     2.   Field  Splitting  is	performed on fields generated by step (1) unless
	  the IFS variable is null.

     3.   Pathname Expansion (unless the -f option is in effect).

     4.   Quote Removal.

     The `$' character is used to introduce parameter expansion, command substi-
     tution, or arithmetic expansion.

   Tilde Expansion (substituting a user's home directory)
     A word beginning with an unquoted tilde character	(`~')  is  subjected  to
     tilde  expansion.	All the characters up to a slash (`/') or the end of the
     word are treated as a username and are replaced with the user's home direc-
     tory.  If the username is missing (as in ~/foobar), the tilde  is	replaced
     with the value of the HOME variable (the current user's home directory).

   Parameter Expansion
     The format for parameter expansion is as follows:

	   ${expression}

     where  expression	consists  of all characters until the matching `}'.  Any
     `}' escaped by a backslash  or  within  a	single-quoted  or  double-quoted
     string, and characters in embedded arithmetic expansions, command substitu-
     tions,  and variable expansions, are not examined in determining the match-
     ing `}'.  If the variants with `+', `-', `=' or `?' occur within a  double-
     quoted  string,  as  an  extension there may be unquoted parts (via double-
     quotes inside the expansion); `}' within such parts are also  not	examined
     in determining the matching `}'.

     The simplest form for parameter expansion is:

	   ${parameter}

     The value, if any, of parameter is substituted.

     The  parameter name or symbol can be enclosed in braces, which are optional
     except for positional parameters with more than one digit or when parameter
     is followed by a character that could be interpreted as part of  the  name.
     If a parameter expansion occurs inside double-quotes:

     1.   Field splitting is not performed on the results of the expansion, with
	  the exception of the special parameter @.

     2.   Pathname expansion is not performed on the results of the expansion.

     In addition, a parameter expansion can be modified by using one of the fol-
     lowing formats.

     ${parameter:-word}
	     Use  Default  Values.  If parameter is unset or null, the expansion
	     of word is substituted; otherwise, the value of parameter	is  sub-
	     stituted.

     ${parameter:=word}
	     Assign  Default  Values.  If parameter is unset or null, the expan-
	     sion of word is assigned to parameter.  In  all  cases,  the  final
	     value  of	parameter  is substituted.  Quoting inside word does not
	     prevent field splitting or pathname expansion.  Only variables, not
	     positional parameters or special parameters,  can	be  assigned  in
	     this way.

     ${parameter:?[word]}
	     Indicate  Error  if  Null or Unset.  If parameter is unset or null,
	     the expansion of word (or a message indicating it is unset if  word
	     is omitted) is written to standard error and the shell exits with a
	     nonzero  exit status.  Otherwise, the value of parameter is substi-
	     tuted.  An interactive shell need not exit.

     ${parameter:+word}
	     Use Alternate Value.  If parameter is unset or null, null	is  sub-
	     stituted; otherwise, the expansion of word is substituted.

     In  the parameter expansions shown previously, use of the colon in the for-
     mat results in a test for a parameter that is unset or  null;  omission  of
     the colon results in a test for a parameter that is only unset.

     The word inherits the type of quoting (unquoted, double-quoted or here-doc-
     ument)  from  the	surroundings,  with  the exception that a backslash that
     quotes a closing brace is removed during quote removal.

     ${#parameter}
	     String Length.  The length in characters of the value of parameter.

     The following four varieties of parameter expansion provide  for  substring
     processing.    In	 each	case,  pattern	matching  notation  (see  "Shell
     Patterns"), rather than regular expression notation, is  used  to	evaluate
     the  patterns.   If  parameter is one of the special parameters * or @, the
     result of the expansion is unspecified.  Enclosing the full  parameter  ex-
     pansion string in double-quotes does not cause the following four varieties
     of  pattern  characters to be quoted, whereas quoting characters within the
     braces has this effect.

     ${parameter%word}
	     Remove Smallest Suffix Pattern.  The word is expanded to produce  a
	     pattern.	The  parameter expansion then results in parameter, with
	     the smallest portion of the suffix matched by the pattern deleted.

     ${parameter%%word}
	     Remove Largest Suffix Pattern.  The word is expanded to  produce  a
	     pattern.	The  parameter expansion then results in parameter, with
	     the largest portion of the suffix matched by the pattern deleted.

     ${parameter#word}
	     Remove Smallest Prefix Pattern.  The word is expanded to produce  a
	     pattern.	The  parameter expansion then results in parameter, with
	     the smallest portion of the prefix matched by the pattern deleted.

     ${parameter##word}
	     Remove Largest Prefix Pattern.  The word is expanded to  produce  a
	     pattern.	The  parameter expansion then results in parameter, with
	     the largest portion of the prefix matched by the pattern deleted.

   Command Substitution
     Command substitution allows the output of a command to  be  substituted  in
     place  of	the  command  name itself.  Command substitution occurs when the
     command is enclosed as follows:

	   $(command)

     or the backquoted version:

	   `command`

     The shell expands the command substitution by executing command and replac-
     ing the command substitution with the standard output of the  command,  re-
     moving  sequences	of  one or more newlines at the end of the substitution.
     Embedded newlines before the end of the output are  not  removed;	however,
     during field splitting, they may be translated into spaces depending on the
     value of IFS and the quoting that is in effect.  The command is executed in
     a	subshell environment, except that the built-in commands jobid, jobs, and
     trap return information about the parent shell environment  and  times  re-
     turns  information about the same process if they are the only command in a
     command substitution.

     If a command substitution of the $( form begins with a subshell, the $( and
     ( must be separated by whitespace to avoid ambiguity with arithmetic expan-
     sion.

   Arithmetic Expansion
     Arithmetic expansion provides a mechanism for evaluating an arithmetic  ex-
     pression  and  substituting its value.  The format for arithmetic expansion
     is as follows:

	   $((expression))

     The expression is treated as if it were in  double-quotes,  except  that  a
     double-quote inside the expression is not treated specially.  The shell ex-
     pands all tokens in the expression for parameter expansion, command substi-
     tution, arithmetic expansion and quote removal.

     The allowed expressions are a subset of C expressions, summarized below.

	   Values     All values are of type intmax_t.

	   Constants  Decimal, octal (starting with 0) and hexadecimal (starting
		      with 0x) integer constants.

	   Variables  Shell  variables can be read and written and contain inte-
		      ger constants.

	   Unary operators
		      ! ~ + -

	   Binary operators
		      * / % + - << >> < <= > >= == != & ^ | && ||

	   Assignment operators
		      = += -= *= /= %= <<= >>= &= ^= |=

	   Conditional operator
		      ? :

     The result of the expression is substituted in decimal.

   White Space Splitting (Field Splitting)
     In certain contexts, after parameter expansion, command  substitution,  and
     arithmetic  expansion the shell scans the results of expansions and substi-
     tutions that did not occur in double-quotes for field splitting and  multi-
     ple fields can result.

     Characters  in  IFS that are whitespace (<space>, <tab>, and <newline>) are
     treated differently from other characters in IFS.

     Whitespace in IFS at the beginning or end of a word is discarded.

     Subsequently, a field is delimited by either

     1.   a non-whitespace character in IFS with any whitespace in IFS surround-
	  ing it, or

     2.   one or more whitespace characters in IFS.

     If a word ends with a non-whitespace character in IFS, there  is  no  empty
     field after this character.

     If  no field is delimited, the word is discarded.	In particular, if a word
     consists solely of an unquoted substitution and the result of the substitu-
     tion is null, it is removed by field splitting even if IFS is null.

   Pathname Expansion (File Name Generation)
     Unless the -f option is set, file name generation is performed  after  word
     splitting	is complete.  Each word is viewed as a series of patterns, sepa-
     rated by slashes.	The process of expansion  replaces  the  word  with  the
     names  of	all  existing  files whose names can be formed by replacing each
     pattern with a string that matches the specified pattern.	 There	are  two
     restrictions  on  this: first, a pattern cannot match a string containing a
     slash, and second, a pattern cannot match a string starting with  a  period
     unless  the  first  character of the pattern is a period.	The next section
     describes the patterns used for Pathname Expansion, the four  varieties  of
     parameter expansion for substring processing and the case command.

   Shell Patterns
     A	pattern consists of normal characters, which match themselves, and meta-
     characters.  The meta-characters are `*', `?', and `['.   These  characters
     lose  their  special meanings if they are quoted.	When command or variable
     substitution is performed and the dollar sign or back quotes are  not  dou-
     ble-quoted,  the  value  of  the  variable  or the output of the command is
     scanned for these characters and they are turned into meta-characters.

     An asterisk (`*') matches any string of characters.  A question mark  (`?')
     matches  any single character.  A left bracket (`[') introduces a character
     class.  The end of the character class is indicated by a `]'; if the `]' is
     missing then the `[' matches a `['  rather  than  introducing  a  character
     class.   A character class matches any of the characters between the square
     brackets.	A locale-dependent range of characters may be specified using  a
     minus  sign.   A named class of characters (see wctype(3)) may be specified
     by surrounding the name with `[:' and `:]'.  For example, `[[:alpha:]]'  is
     a	shell  pattern that matches a single letter.  The character class may be
     complemented by making an exclamation point (`!') the  first  character  of
     the  character  class.   A caret (`^') has the same effect but is non-stan-
     dard.

     To include a `]' in a character class, make it the first  character  listed
     (after  the  `!'  or  `^', if any).  To include a `-', make it the first or
     last character listed.

   Built-in Commands
     This section lists the built-in commands.

     : [arg ...]
	     A null command that returns a 0 (true) exit value.   Any  arguments
	     are discarded.

     . file  The  commands  in	the  specified file are read and executed by the
	     shell.  The return command may be used to return to the . command's
	     caller.  If file contains any `/' characters, it  is  used  as  is.
	     Otherwise,  the shell searches the PATH for the file.  If it is not
	     found in the PATH, it is sought in the current working directory.

     [	     A built-in equivalent of test(1).

     alias [name[=string] ...]
	     If name=string is specified, the shell defines the alias name  with
	     value  string.   If  just name is specified, the value of the alias
	     name is printed.  With no arguments,  the	alias  built-in  command
	     prints  the  names and values of all defined aliases (see unalias).
	     Alias values are written with appropriate quoting so that they  are
	     suitable for re-input to the shell.  Also see the "Aliases" subsec-
	     tion.

     bg [job ...]
	     Continue  the  specified  jobs  (or  the current job if no jobs are
	     given) in the background.

     bind [-aeklrsv] [key [command]]
	     List or alter key bindings for the line editor.   This  command  is
	     documented in editrc(5).

     break [num]
	     See the "Flow-Control Constructs" subsection.

     builtin cmd [arg ...]
	     Execute  the  specified built-in command, cmd.  This is useful when
	     the user wishes to override a shell function with the same name  as
	     a built-in command.

     cd [-L | -P] [-e] [directory]

     cd -    Switch  to  the  specified directory, to the directory specified in
	     the HOME environment variable if no directory is  specified  or  to
	     the  directory  specified	in  the  OLDPWD  environment variable if
	     directory is -.  If directory does not begin with /, ., or .., then
	     the directories listed in the CDPATH variable will be searched  for
	     the specified directory.  If CDPATH is unset, the current directory
	     is searched.  The format of CDPATH is the same as that of PATH.  In
	     an interactive shell, the cd command will print out the name of the
	     directory	that it actually switched to if the CDPATH mechanism was
	     used or if directory was -.

	     If the -P option is specified, .. is handled  physically  and  sym-
	     bolic  links  are	resolved before .. components are processed.  If
	     the -L option is specified, .. is handled logically.  This  is  the
	     default.

	     The  -e  option causes cd to return exit status 1 if the full path-
	     name of the new directory cannot be determined reliably or at  all.
	     Normally  this  is  not  considered an error, although a warning is
	     printed.

	     If changing the directory fails, the exit status is greater than 1.
	     If the directory is changed, the exit status is 0, or also 1 if  -e
	     was given.

     chdir   A synonym for the cd built-in command.

     command [-p] [utility [argument ...]]

     command [-p] -v utility

     command [-p] -V utility
	     The first form of invocation executes the specified utility, ignor-
	     ing  shell  functions  in	the  search.   If  utility  is a special
	     builtin, it is executed as if it were a regular builtin.

	     If the -p option is specified, the command search is performed  us-
	     ing  a  default value of PATH that is guaranteed to find all of the
	     standard utilities.

	     If the -v option is specified, utility is not executed  but  a  de-
	     scription of its interpretation by the shell is printed.  For ordi-
	     nary  commands the output is the path name; for shell built-in com-
	     mands, shell functions and  keywords  only  the  name  is	written.
	     Aliases are printed as "alias name=value".

	     The  -V option is identical to -v except for the output.  It prints
	     "utility is description" where description is either the path  name
	     to utility, a special shell builtin, a shell builtin, a shell func-
	     tion, a shell keyword or an alias for value.

     continue [num]
	     See the "Flow-Control Constructs" subsection.

     echo [-e | -n] [string ...]
	     Print  a space-separated list of the arguments to the standard out-
	     put and append a newline character.

	     -n      Suppress the output of the trailing newline.

	     -e      Process C-style backslash escape sequences.  The echo  com-
		     mand understands the following character escapes:

		     \a      Alert (ring the terminal bell)

		     \b      Backspace

		     \c      Suppress  the  trailing newline (this has the side-
			     effect of truncating the line if it is not the last
			     character)

		     \e      The ESC character (ASCII 0x1b)

		     \f      Formfeed

		     \n      Newline

		     \r      Carriage return

		     \t      Horizontal tab

		     \v      Vertical tab

		     \\      Literal backslash

		     \0nnn   (Zero) The character whose octal value is nnn

		     If string is not enclosed in quotes then the backslash  it-
		     self  must  be  escaped with a backslash to protect it from
		     the shell.  For example

			   $ echo -e "a\vb"
			   a
			    b
			   $ echo -e a\\vb
			   a
			    b
			   $ echo -e "a\\b"
			   a\b
			   $ echo -e a\\\\b
			   a\b

	     Only one of the -e and -n options may be specified.

     eval string ...
	     Concatenate all the arguments with spaces.  Then re-parse and  exe-
	     cute the command.

     exec [command [arg ...]]
	     Unless  command  is omitted, the shell process is replaced with the
	     specified program (which must be a real program, not a shell built-
	     in command or function).  Any redirections on the exec command  are
	     marked as permanent, so that they are not undone when the exec com-
	     mand finishes.

     exit [exitstatus]
	     Terminate	the shell process.  If exitstatus is given it is used as
	     the exit status of the shell.  Otherwise, if the shell is executing
	     an EXIT trap, the exit status of the last command before  the  trap
	     is  used;	if the shell is executing a trap for a signal, the shell
	     exits by resending the signal to itself.  Otherwise, the exit  sta-
	     tus of the preceding command is used.  The exit status should be an
	     integer between 0 and 255.

     export name ...

     export [-p]
	     The  specified  names  are exported so that they will appear in the
	     environment of subsequent commands.  The only way	to  un-export  a
	     variable  is to unset it.	The shell allows the value of a variable
	     to be set at the same time as it is exported by writing

		   export name=value

	     With no arguments the export command lists the  names  of	all  ex-
	     ported  variables.   If  the  -p  option is specified, the exported
	     variables are printed as "export name=value"  lines,  suitable  for
	     re-input to the shell.

     false   A null command that returns a non-zero (false) exit value.

     fc [-e editor] [first [last]]

     fc -l [-nr] [first [last]]

     fc -s [old=new] [first]
	     The  fc  built-in command lists, or edits and re-executes, commands
	     previously entered to an interactive shell.

	     -e editor
		     Use the editor named by editor to edit the  commands.   The
		     editor  string is a command name, subject to search via the
		     PATH variable.  The value in the FCEDIT variable is used as
		     a default when -e is not specified.  If FCEDIT is	null  or
		     unset, the value of the EDITOR variable is used.  If EDITOR
		     is null or unset, ed(1) is used as the editor.

	     -l (ell)
		     List  the	commands rather than invoking an editor on them.
		     The commands are written in the sequence indicated  by  the
		     first  and last operands, as affected by -r, with each com-
		     mand preceded by the command number.

	     -n      Suppress command numbers when listing with -l.

	     -r      Reverse the order of  the	commands  listed  (with  -l)  or
		     edited (with neither -l nor -s).

	     -s      Re-execute the command without invoking an editor.

	     first

	     last    Select  the commands to list or edit.  The number of previ-
		     ous commands that can be accessed	are  determined  by  the
		     value of the HISTSIZE variable.  The value of first or last
		     or both are one of the following:

		     [+]num  A	positive  number  representing a command number;
			     command numbers can be displayed with  the  -l  op-
			     tion.

		     -num    A	negative decimal number representing the command
			     that was executed num of commands previously.   For
			     example, -1 is the immediately previous command.

		     string  A	string indicating the most recently entered com-
			     mand that begins with that string.  If the  old=new
			     operand  is  not also specified with -s, the string
			     form of the first operand cannot contain an  embed-
			     ded equal sign.

	     The following variables affect the execution of fc:

	     FCEDIT    Name of the editor to use for history editing.

	     HISTSIZE  The number of previous commands that are accessible.

     fg [job]
	     Move the specified job or the current job to the foreground.

     getopts optstring var
	     Parse  command-line  options  and	arguments.   The  first argument
	     optstring should be a series of letters, each possibly followed  by
	     a	colon  which  indicates  that the option takes an argument.  The
	     specified variable var is set to the parsed option.  The  index  of
	     the  next argument is placed into the shell variable OPTIND.  If an
	     option takes an argument, it is  placed  into  the  shell	variable
	     OPTARG.

	     If  the  found  character is not specified by optstring or if it is
	     missing a required argument, the option is considered invalid and:
     If the first character of optstring is not a colon then  OPTARG  is  unset,
	     var is set to `?' and a diagnostic message is written to stderr.
     If  the  first  character of optstring is a colon then OPTARG is set to the
	     option character found, var is set to `:' when a required	argument
	     is  missing  or  to  `?'  when  the  option  was  not  specified by
	     optstring, and no diagnostic message is written to stderr.

     getopts returns a false value (1) when it encounters the  end  of	the  op-
     tions.   A  new  set of arguments may be parsed by assigning OPTIND=1.  The
     POSIX getopts command deprecates the older getopt(1) command.
     The shell maintains a hash table which remembers the locations of commands.
     With no arguments whatsoever, the hash command prints out the  contents  of
     this table.

     With  arguments,  the  hash command removes each specified command from the
     hash table (unless they are functions) and then locates it.   With  the  -v
     option, hash prints the locations of the commands as it finds them.  The -r
     option  causes the hash command to delete all the entries in the hash table
     except for functions.
     Print the process IDs of the processes in the specified job.   If	the  job
     argument is omitted, use the current job.
     Print  information about the specified jobs, or all jobs if no job argument
     is given.	The information printed includes  job  ID,  status  and  command
     name.

     If the -l option is specified, the PID of each job is also printed.  If the
     -p  option is specified, only the process IDs for the process group leaders
     are printed, one per line.  If the -s option is specified, only the PIDs of
     the job commands are printed, one per line.
     A built-in equivalent of kill(1) that additionally supports sending signals
     to jobs.
     See the "Functions" subsection.
     A built-in equivalent of printf(1).
     Print the path of the current directory.  The built-in command  may  differ
     from  the	program  of the same name because the built-in command remembers
     what the current directory is rather than recomputing it each  time.   This
     makes  it faster.	However, if the current directory is renamed, the built-
     in version of pwd(1) will continue to print the old name for the directory.

     If the -P option is specified, symbolic links are resolved.  If the -L  op-
     tion  is  specified, the shell's notion of the current directory is printed
     (symbolic links are not resolved).  This is the default.
     -t timeout
     ] [-er] variable ... The prompt is printed if the -p  option  is  specified
     and  the  standard input is a terminal.  Then a line is read from the stan-
     dard input.  The trailing newline is deleted from the line and the line  is
     split  as	described  in  the  section  on  "White  Space	Splitting (Field
     Splitting)" above, and the pieces are assigned to the variables  in  order.
     If  there	are more pieces than variables, the remaining pieces (along with
     the characters in IFS that separated them) are assigned to the  last  vari-
     able.  If there are more variables than pieces, the remaining variables are
     assigned the null string.

     Backslashes are treated specially, unless the -r option is specified.  If a
     backslash	is  followed by a newline, the backslash and the newline will be
     deleted.  If a backslash is followed by any other character, the  backslash
     will  be  deleted	and the following character will be treated as though it
     were not in IFS, even if it is.

     If the -t option is specified and the timeout  elapses  before  a	complete
     line  of  input is supplied, the read command will return an exit status as
     if terminated by SIGALRM without assigning any values.  The  timeout  value
     may  optionally be followed by one of `s', `m' or `h' to explicitly specify
     seconds, minutes or hours.  If none is supplied, `s' is assumed.

     The -e option exists only for backward compatibility with older scripts.

     The exit status is 0 on success, 1 on end of file, between 2 and 128 if  an
     error occurs and greater than 128 if a trapped signal interrupts read.
     Each  specified  name  is	marked as read only, so that it cannot be subse-
     quently modified or unset.  The shell allows the value of a variable to  be
     set at the same time as it is marked read only by using the following form:

	   readonly name=value

     With  no  arguments  the  readonly command lists the names of all read only
     variables.  If the -p option is  specified,  the  read-only  variables  are
     printed as "readonly name=value" lines, suitable for re-input to the shell.
     See the "Functions" subsection.
     ] [-- arg ...] The set command performs three different functions:

     With no arguments, it lists the values of all shell variables.

     If  options  are  given,  either  in  short  form	or  using the long "-/+o
     longname" form, it sets or clears the specified options as described in the
     section called "Argument List Processing".

     If the "--" option is specified, set will replace	the  shell's  positional
     parameters  with the subsequent arguments.  If no arguments follow the "--"
     option, all the positional parameters will be cleared, which is  equivalent
     to  executing  the  command  "shift $#".  The "--" flag may be omitted when
     specifying arguments to be used as positional replacement parameters.  This
     is not recommended, because the first argument may begin with a dash  (`-')
     or  a  plus (`+'), which the set command will interpret as a request to en-
     able or disable options.
     Assigns the specified value to the specified variable.  The setvar  command
     is  intended  to be used in functions that assign values to variables whose
     names are	passed	as  parameters.   In  general  it  is  better  to  write
     "variable=value" rather than using setvar.
     Shift  the positional parameters n times, or once if n is not specified.  A
     shift sets the value of $1 to the value of $2, the value of $2 to the value
     of $3, and so on, decreasing the value of	$#  by	one.   For  portability,
     shifting  if  there are zero positional parameters should be avoided, since
     the shell may abort.
     A built-in equivalent of test(1).
     Print the amount of time spent executing the shell process  and  its  chil-
     dren.   The first output line shows the user and system times for the shell
     process itself, the second one contains the user and system times	for  the
     children.
     Cause  the  shell	to parse and execute action when any specified signal is
     received.	The signals are specified by name or number.  In  addition,  the
     pseudo-signal  EXIT may be used to specify an action that is performed when
     the shell terminates.  The action may be an empty string or a  dash  (`-');
     the  former causes the specified signal to be ignored and the latter causes
     the default action to be taken.  Omitting the action and using only  signal
     numbers  is  another  way	to request the default action.	In a subshell or
     utility environment, the shell resets trapped (but not ignored) signals  to
     the  default  action.   The trap command has no effect on signals that were
     ignored on entry to the shell.

     Option -l causes the trap command to display a list of valid signal names.
     A null command that returns a 0 (true) exit value.
     Interpret each name as a command and print the resolution	of  the  command
     search.   Possible  resolutions  are:  shell  keyword, alias, special shell
     builtin, shell builtin, command, tracked alias and not found.  For  aliases
     the  alias  expansion is printed; for commands and tracked aliases the com-
     plete pathname of the command is printed.
     Set or display resource limits (see getrlimit(2)).  If limit is  specified,
     the  named  resource will be set; otherwise the current resource value will
     be displayed.

     If -H is specified, the hard limits will be set or displayed.  While every-
     body is allowed to reduce a hard limit, only the superuser can increase it.
     The -S option specifies the soft limits instead.  When  displaying  limits,
     only one of -S or -H can be given.  The default is to display the soft lim-
     its, and to set both the hard and the soft limits.

     Option  -a causes the ulimit command to display all resources.  The parame-
     ter limit is not acceptable in this mode.

     The remaining options specify which resource value is to  be  displayed  or
     modified.	They are mutually exclusive.

     -b sbsize
	     The maximum size of socket buffer usage, in bytes.

     -c coredumpsize
	     The  maximal  size of core dump files, in 512-byte blocks.  Setting
	     coredumpsize to 0 prevents core dump files from being created.

     -d datasize
	     The maximal size of the data segment of a process, in kilobytes.

     -f filesize
	     The maximal size of a file, in 512-byte blocks.

     -k kqueues
	     The maximal number of kqueues (see kqueue(2)) for this user ID.

     -l lockedmem
	     The maximal size of memory that can be  locked  by  a  process,  in
	     kilobytes.

     -m memoryuse
	     The maximal resident set size of a process, in kilobytes.

     -n nofiles
	     The  maximal  number  of  descriptors  that  could  be  opened by a
	     process.

     -o umtxp
	     The maximal number of process-shared  locks  (see	pthread(3))  for
	     this user ID.

     -p pseudoterminals
	     The maximal number of pseudo-terminals for this user ID.

     -s stacksize
	     The maximal size of the stack segment, in kilobytes.

     -t time
	     The  maximal amount of CPU time to be used by each process, in sec-
	     onds.

     -u userproc
	     The maximal number of simultaneous processes for this user ID.

     -v virtualmem
	     The maximal virtual size of a process, in kilobytes.

     -w swapuse
	     The maximum amount of swap space reserved or used for this user ID,
	     in kilobytes.
     Set the file creation mask (see umask(2)) to the  octal  or  symbolic  (see
     chmod(1)) value specified by mask.  If the argument is omitted, the current
     mask  value  is printed.  If the -S option is specified, the output is sym-
     bolic, otherwise the output is octal.
     The specified alias names are removed.  If -a is specified, all aliases are
     removed.
     The specified variables or functions are unset and unexported.  If  the  -v
     option is specified or no options are given, the name arguments are treated
     as  variable  names.  If the -f option is specified, the name arguments are
     treated as function names.
     Wait for each specified job to complete and return the exit status  of  the
     last process in the last specified job.  If any job specified is unknown to
     the  shell,  it  is treated as if it were a known job that exited with exit
     status 127.  If no operands are given, wait for all jobs  to  complete  and
     return an exit status of zero.

   Command Line Editing
   When  sh is being used interactively from a terminal, the current command and
   the command history (see fc in  "Built-in  Commands")  can  be  edited  using
   vi-mode command line editing.  This mode uses commands similar to a subset of
   those described in the vi(1) man page.  The command "set -o vi" (or "set -V")
   enables  vi-mode editing and places sh into vi insert mode.	With vi-mode en-
   abled, sh can be switched between insert mode  and  command	mode  by  typing
   <ESC>.   Hitting  <return>  while  in  command mode will pass the line to the
   shell.

   Similarly, the "set -o emacs" (or "set -E") command can be used to  enable  a
   subset of emacs-style command line editing features.

ENVIRONMENT
     The following environment variables affect the execution of sh:

     ENV	 Initialization file for interactive shells.

     LANG, LC_*  Locale settings.  These are inherited by children of the shell,
		 and is used in a limited manner by the shell itself.

     OLDPWD	 The  previous	current  directory.  This is used and updated by
		 cd.

     PWD	 An absolute pathname for the current directory,  possibly  con-
		 taining symbolic links.  This is used and updated by the shell.

     TERM	 The  default terminal setting for the shell.  This is inherited
		 by children of the shell, and is used in  the	history  editing
		 modes.

     Additionally,  environment  variables  are  turned  into shell variables at
     startup, which may affect the shell as described under "Special Variables".

FILES
     ~/.profile 	  User's login profile.
     /etc/profile	  System login profile.
     /etc/shells	  Shell database.
     /etc/suid_profile	  Privileged shell profile.

EXIT STATUS
     If the script cannot be found, the exit status will be 127; if it cannot be
     opened for another reason, the exit status will be 126.  Other errors  that
     are  detected by the shell, such as a syntax error, will cause the shell to
     exit with a non-zero exit status.	If  the  shell	is  not  an  interactive
     shell,  the  execution  of  the  shell file will be aborted.  Otherwise the
     shell will return the exit status of the last command executed, or  if  the
     exit builtin is used with a numeric argument, it will return the argument.

SEE ALSO
     builtin(1),   chsh(1),   echo(1),	 ed(1),   emacs(1)(ports/editors/emacs),
     kill(1),  printf(1),  pwd(1),  test(1),  vi(1),  execve(2),   getrlimit(2),
     umask(2), wctype(3), editrc(5), shells(5)

HISTORY
     A	sh command, the Thompson shell, appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.  It was
     superseded in Version 7 AT&T UNIX by the Bourne shell, which inherited  the
     name sh.

     This  version  of	sh was rewritten in 1989 under the BSD license after the
     Bourne shell from AT&T System V Release 4 UNIX and first appeared in 4.3BSD
     Net/2.

AUTHORS
     This version of sh was originally written by Kenneth Almquist.

BUGS
     The sh utility does not recognize multibyte characters  other  than  UTF-8.
     Splitting using IFS does not recognize multibyte characters.

FreeBSD 15.0			   May 1, 2025				   SH(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=sh&manpath=FreeBSD+15.0-RELEASE+and+Ports>

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