Manual: sh
DASH(1) General Commands Manual DASH(1)
NAME
dash — command interpreter (shell)
SYNOPSIS
dash [-aCefnuvxIimqVEbp] [+aCefnuvxIimqVEbp] [-o option_name] [+o option_name] [command_file [argument ...]]
dash -c [-aCefnuvxIimqVEbp] [+aCefnuvxIimqVEbp] [-o option_name] [+o option_name] command_string
[command_name [argument ...]]
dash -s [-aCefnuvxIimqVEbp] [+aCefnuvxIimqVEbp] [-o option_name] [+o option_name] [argument ...]
DESCRIPTION
dash is the standard command interpreter for the system. The current version of dash is in the process of being
changed to conform with the POSIX 1003.2 and 1003.2a specifications for the shell. This version has many features
which make it appear similar in some respects to the Korn shell, but it is not a Korn shell clone (see ksh(1)). Only
features designated by POSIX, plus a few Berkeley extensions, are being incorporated into this shell. This man page
is not intended to be a tutorial or 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 running when a user logs into the system (although a user can select 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 history and line edit‐
ing 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 di‐
rectly to the running shell or can be put into a file and the file can be executed directly by the shell.
Invocation
If no args are present and if the standard input of the shell is connected to a terminal (or if the -i flag is set),
and the -c option is not present, the shell is considered an interactive shell. An interactive shell generally
prompts before each command and handles programming and command errors differently (as described 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 .profile if they exist. If the environment variable ENV is set on entry to
an interactive shell, or is set in the .profile of a login shell, the shell next reads commands from the file named
in ENV. 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 interactive shell inside the ENV file. To set the ENV variable to some file,
place the following line in your .profile of your home directory
ENV=$HOME/.shinit; export ENV
substituting for “.shinit” any filename you wish.
If command line arguments besides the options have been specified, then the shell treats the first argument 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.
Argument List Processing
All of the single letter options that have a corresponding name can be used as an argument to the -o option. The set
-o name is provided next to the single letter option in the description below. Specifying a dash “-” turns the op‐
tion on, while using a plus “+” disables the option. The following options can be set from the command line or with
the set builtin (described later).
-a allexport Export all variables assigned to.
-c Read commands from the command_string operand instead of from the standard input. Special pa‐
rameter 0 will be set from the command_name operand and the positional parameters ($1, $2,
etc.) set from the remaining argument operands.
-C noclobber Don't overwrite existing files with “>”.
-e errexit If not interactive, exit immediately if any untested command fails. The exit status of a com‐
mand is considered to be explicitly tested if the command is used to control an if, elif,
while, or until; or if the command is the left hand operand of an “&&” or “||” operator.
-f noglob Disable pathname expansion.
-n noexec If not interactive, read commands but do not execute them. This is useful for checking the
syntax of shell scripts.
-u nounset Write a message to standard error when attempting to expand a variable that is not set, and if
the shell is not interactive, exit immediately.
-v verbose The shell writes its input to standard error as it is read. Useful for debugging.
-x xtrace Write each command to standard error (preceded by a ‘+ ’) before it is executed. Useful for
debugging.
-I ignoreeof Ignore EOF's from input when interactive.
-i interactive Force the shell to behave interactively.
-l Make dash act as if it had been invoked as a login shell.
-m monitor Turn on job control (set automatically when interactive).
-s stdin Read commands from standard input (set automatically if no file arguments are present). This
option has no effect when set after the shell has already started running (i.e. with set).
-V vi Enable the built-in vi(1) command line editor (disables -E if it has been set).
-E emacs Enable the built-in emacs(1) command line editor (disables -V if it has been set).
-b notify Enable asynchronous notification of background job completion. (UNIMPLEMENTED for 4.4alpha)
-p priviliged Do not attempt to reset effective uid if it does not match uid. This is not set by default to
help avoid incorrect usage by setuid root programs via system(3) or popen(3).
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 characters that are special to the shell called “operators”. There are two types of opera‐
tors: control operators and redirection operators (their meaning is discussed later). Following is a list of opera‐
tors:
Control operators:
& && ( ) ; ;; | ||
Redirection operators:
< > >| << >> <& >& <<- <>
Quoting
Quoting is used to remove the special meaning of certain characters or words to the shell, such as operators, white‐
space, or keywords. There are three types of quoting: matched single quotes, matched double quotes, and backslash.
Backslash
A backslash preserves the literal meaning of the following character, with the exception of ⟨newline⟩. A backslash
preceding a ⟨newline⟩ is treated as a line continuation.
Single Quotes
Enclosing characters in single quotes preserves the literal meaning of all the characters (except single quotes, mak‐
ing it impossible to put single-quotes in a single-quoted string).
Double Quotes
Enclosing characters within double quotes preserves the literal meaning of all characters except dollarsign ($),
backquote (`), and backslash (\). The backslash inside double quotes is historically weird, and serves to quote only
the following characters:
$ ` " \ .
Otherwise it remains literal.
Reserved Words
Reserved words are words that have special meaning to the shell and are recognized at the beginning of a line and af‐
ter a control operator. The following are reserved words:
! elif fi while case
else for then { }
do done until if esac
Their meaning is discussed later.
Aliases
An alias is a name and corresponding value set using the alias(1) builtin command. Whenever a reserved word may oc‐
cur (see above), and after checking for reserved words, 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 ⟨return⟩
would become
ls -F foobar ⟨return⟩
Aliases provide a convenient way for naive users to create shorthands for commands without having to learn how to
create functions with arguments. They can also be used to create lexically obscure code. This use is discouraged.
Commands
The shell interprets the words it reads according to a language, the specification of which is outside the scope of
this man page (refer to the BNF in the POSIX 1003.2 document). Essentially though, a line is read and if the first
word of the line (or after a control operator) is not a reserved word, then the shell has recognized a simple com‐
mand. 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 com‐
mand. Redirection operators and their arguments (as described below) are stripped off and saved for pro‐
cessing.
2. The remaining words are expanded as described in the section called “Expansions”, and the first remaining
word is considered the command name and the command is located. The remaining words are considered the
arguments of the command. If no command name resulted, then the “name=value” variable assignments recog‐
nized in item 1 affect the current 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
where redir-op is one of the redirection operators mentioned previously. Following is a list of the possible redi‐
rections. The [n] is an optional number between 0 and 9, as in ‘3’ (not ‘[3]’), that refers to a file descriptor.
[n]> file Redirect standard output (or n) to file.
[n]>| file Same, but override the -C option.
[n]>> file Append standard output (or n) to file.
[n]< file Redirect standard input (or n) from file.
[n1]<&n2 Copy file descriptor n2 as stdout (or fd n1). fd n2.
[n]<&- Close standard input (or n).
[n1]>&n2 Copy file descriptor n2 as stdin (or fd n1). fd n2.
[n]>&- Close standard output (or n).
[n]<> file Open file for reading and writing on standard input (or 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 in‐
put, 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 subjected to parameter expansion, command substitution, and
arithmetic expansion (as described in the section on “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, builtin commands, and normal programs – and the command is
searched for (by name) in that order. They each are 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 com‐
mand (by placing assignments to them before the function name) are made local to the function and are set to the val‐
ues given. Then the command given in the function definition is executed. The positional parameters are restored to
their original values when the command completes. This all occurs within the current shell.
Shell builtins are executed internally to the shell, without spawning a new process.
Otherwise, if the command name doesn't match a function or builtin, 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 pro‐
gram, 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 "#!", so execve(2) returns ENOEXEC
then) the shell will interpret the program in a subshell. The child shell will reinitialize itself in this case, so
that the effect will be as if a new shell had been invoked to handle the ad-hoc shell script, except that the loca‐
tion of hashed commands located in the parent shell will be remembered by the child.
Note that previous versions of this document and the source code itself misleadingly and sporadically refer to a
shell script without a magic number 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
builtin command by that name. If a builtin command is not found, one of two things happen:
1. Command names containing a slash are simply executed without performing any searches.
2. The shell searches each entry in PATH in turn for the command. The value of the PATH variable should be a se‐
ries of entries separated by colons. Each entry consists of a directory name. The current directory may be in‐
dicated 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 behaviour 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 builtin commands re‐
turn exit codes, as does an executed shell function.
If a command consists entirely of variable assignments then the exit status of the command is that of the last com‐
mand substitution if any, otherwise 0.
Complex Commands
Complex commands are combinations of simple commands with control operators or reserved words, 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.
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 op‐
erators that are part of the command.
If the pipeline is not in the background (discussed later), the shell waits for all commands to complete.
If the pipefail option was enabled when the shell began execution of the pipeline, the pipeline's exit status is the
exit status of the last command specified in the pipeline that exited with non-zero status, or zero if all commands
in the pipeline exited with a status of zero. If the pipefail option was not enabled, the pipeline's exit status is
the exit status of the last command specified in the pipeline; the exit statuses of any other commands are not used.
If the reserved word ! precedes the pipeline, its exit status is the logical NOT of the exit status described above.
Because pipeline assignment of standard input or standard output or both takes place before redirection, it can be
modified by redirection. For example:
$ command1 2>&1 | command2
sends both the standard output and standard error of command1 to the standard input of command2.
A ; or ⟨newline⟩ terminator causes the preceding AND-OR-list (described next) to be executed sequentially; a & causes
asynchronous execution of the preceding AND-OR-list.
Note that unlike some other shells, each process in the pipeline is a child of the invoking shell (unless it is a
shell builtin, in which case it executes in the current shell – but any effect it has on the environment is wiped).
Background Commands – &
If a command is terminated by the control operator ampersand (&), the shell executes the command asynchronously –
that is, 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 command is set to /dev/null.
Lists – Generally Speaking
A list is a sequence of zero or more commands separated by newlines, semicolons, or ampersands, and optionally termi‐
nated by one of these three characters. The commands in a list are executed in the order they are written. If com‐
mand is followed by an ampersand, the shell starts the command and immediately proceeds onto the next command; other‐
wise 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
and only if the exit status of the first command is zero. “||” is similar, but executes the second command if and
only 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 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 syntax of the for command is
for variable [ in [ word ... ] ]
do list
done
The words following in are expanded, and then the list is executed repeatedly with the variable set to each word in
turn. Omitting in word ... is equivalent to in "$@".
The syntax of the break and continue command is
break [ num ]
continue [ num ]
Break terminates the num innermost for or while loops. Continue continues with the next iteration of the innermost
loop. These are implemented as builtin 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” described later), separated by “|” characters.
The “(” character before the pattern is optional.
Grouping Commands Together
Commands may be grouped by writing either
(list)
or
{ list; }
The first of these executes the commands in a subshell. Builtin commands grouped into a (list) will not affect the
current shell. The second form does not fork another shell so is slightly more efficient. Grouping commands to‐
gether this way allows you to redirect their output as though they were one program:
{ printf " hello " ; printf " world\n" ; } > greeting
Note that “}” must follow a control operator (here, “;”) so that it is recognized as a reserved word and not as an‐
other command argument.
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 a local command. This should appear as the first state‐
ment of a function, and the syntax is
local [variable | -] ...
Local is implemented as a builtin command.
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 you make the variable x 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 any shell options 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 currently executing function. Return is implemented as a builtin command.
Variables and Parameters
The shell maintains a set of parameters. A parameter denoted by a name is called a variable. When starting up, the
shell turns all the environment variables into shell variables. New variables can be set using the form
name=value
Variables set by the user must have a name consisting solely of alphabetics, numerics, and underscores - the first of
which must not be numeric. A parameter can also be denoted by a number or a special character as explained below.
Positional Parameters
A positional parameter is a parameter denoted by a number (n > 0). The shell sets these initially to the values of
its command line arguments that follow the name of the shell script. The set builtin can also be used to set or re‐
set them.
Special Parameters
A special parameter is a parameter denoted by one of the following special characters. The value of the parameter is
listed next to its character.
* Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one. When the expansion occurs within a double-
quoted string it expands to a single field with the value of each parameter separated by the first char‐
acter 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 option names concatenated into a string) as spec‐
ified on invocation, by the set builtin 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 executed from the current shell. For a
pipeline, the process ID is that of the last command in the pipeline.
0 (Zero.) Expands to the name of the shell or shell script.
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 mul‐
tiple 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 set -f is in effect).
4. Quote Removal.
The $ character is used to introduce parameter expansion, command substitution, or arithmetic evaluation.
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 directory. 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
quoted string, and characters in embedded arithmetic expansions, command substitutions, and variable expansions, are
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 pa‐
rameter expansion occurs inside double-quotes:
1. Pathname expansion is not performed on the results of the expansion.
2. Field splitting is not performed on the results of the expansion, with the exception of @.
In addition, a parameter expansion can be modified by using one of the following formats.
${parameter:-word} Use Default Values. If parameter is unset or null, the expansion of word is substituted; oth‐
erwise, the value of parameter is substituted.
${parameter:=word} Assign Default Values. If parameter is unset or null, the expansion of word is assigned to pa‐
rameter. In all cases, the final value of parameter is substituted. Only variables, not posi‐
tional 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 substituted. An inter‐
active shell need not exit.
${parameter:+word} Use Alternative Value. If parameter is unset or null, null is substituted; otherwise, the ex‐
pansion of word is substituted.
In the parameter expansions shown previously, use of the colon in the format 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.
${#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 para‐
meter is * or @, the result of the expansion is unspecified. Enclosing the full parameter expansion string in dou‐
ble-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 ex‐
pansion then results in parameter, with the smallest portion of the suffix matched by the pat‐
tern deleted.
${parameter%%word} Remove Largest Suffix Pattern. The word is expanded to produce a pattern. The parameter ex‐
pansion then results in parameter, with the largest portion of the suffix matched by the pat‐
tern deleted.
${parameter#word} Remove Smallest Prefix Pattern. The word is expanded to produce a pattern. The parameter ex‐
pansion then results in parameter, with the smallest portion of the prefix matched by the pat‐
tern deleted.
${parameter##word} Remove Largest Prefix Pattern. The word is expanded to produce a pattern. The parameter ex‐
pansion then results in parameter, with the largest portion of the prefix matched by the pat‐
tern 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 (“backquoted” version):
`command`
The shell expands the command substitution by executing command in a subshell environment and replacing the command
substitution with the standard output of the command, removing sequences of one or more ⟨newline⟩s at the end of the
substitution. (Embedded ⟨newline⟩s before the end of the output are not removed; however, during field splitting,
they may be translated into ⟨space⟩s, depending on the value of IFS and quoting that is in effect.)
Arithmetic Expansion
Arithmetic expansion provides a mechanism for evaluating an arithmetic expression 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 expands all tokens in the expression for parameter expansion, command substitution, and
quote removal.
Next, the shell treats this as an arithmetic expression and substitutes the value of the expression.
White Space Splitting (Field Splitting)
After parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic expansion the shell scans the results of expansions
and substitutions that did not occur in double-quotes for field splitting and multiple fields can result.
The shell treats each character of the IFS as a delimiter and uses the delimiters to split the results of parameter
expansion and command substitution into fields.
Pathname Expansion (File Name Generation)
Unless the -f flag is set, file name generation is performed after word splitting is complete. Each word is viewed
as a series of patterns, separated by slashes. The process of expansion replaces the word with the names of all ex‐
isting 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 both Pathname Expansion 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 sub‐
stitution is performed and the dollar sign or back quotes are not double 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 charac‐
ters between the square brackets. A range of characters may be specified using a minus sign. The character class
may be complemented by making an exclamation point the first character of the character class.
To include a “]” in a character class, make it the first character listed (after the “!”, if any). To include a mi‐
nus sign, make it the first or last character listed.
Builtins
This section lists the builtin commands which are builtin because they need to perform some operation that can't be
performed by a separate process. In addition to these, there are several other commands that may be builtin for ef‐
ficiency (e.g. printf(1), echo(1), test(1), etc).
:
true A null command that returns a 0 (true) exit value.
false A null command that returns a 1 (false) exit value.
. file
The commands in the specified file are read and executed by the shell.
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 builtin prints the names and values of
all defined aliases (see unalias).
bg [job] ...
Continue the specified jobs (or the current job if no jobs are given) in the background.
command [-p] [-v] [-V] command [arg ...]
Execute the specified command but ignore shell functions when searching for it. (This is useful when you have
a shell function with the same name as a builtin command.)
-p search for command using a PATH that guarantees to find all the standard utilities.
-V Do not execute the command but search for the command and print the resolution of the command search.
This is the same as the type builtin.
-v Do not execute the command but search for the command and print the absolute pathname of utilities, the
name for builtins or the expansion of aliases.
cd|chdir -
cd|chdir [-LP] [directory]
Switch to the specified directory (default HOME). If an entry for CDPATH appears in the environment of the cd
command or the shell variable CDPATH is set and the directory name does not begin with a slash, then the di‐
rectories listed in CDPATH will be searched for the specified directory. The format of CDPATH is the same as
that of PATH. If a single dash is specified as the argument, it will be replaced by the value of OLDPWD. The
cd command will print out the name of the directory that it actually switched to if this is different from the
name that the user gave. These may be different either because the CDPATH mechanism was used or because the
argument is a single dash. The -P option causes the physical directory structure to be used, that is, all
symbolic links are resolved to their respective values. The -L option turns off the effect of any preceding
-P options.
echo [-n] args...
Print the arguments on the standard output, separated by spaces. Unless the -n option is present, a newline
is output following the arguments.
If any of the following sequences of characters is encountered during output, the sequence is not output. In‐
stead, the specified action is performed:
\b A backspace character is output.
\c Subsequent output is suppressed. This is normally used at the end of the last argument to suppress
the trailing newline that echo would otherwise output.
\e Outputs an escape character (ESC).
\f Output a form feed.
\n Output a newline character.
\r Output a carriage return.
\t Output a (horizontal) tab character.
\v Output a vertical tab.
\0digits
Output the character whose value is given by zero to three octal digits. If there are zero digits, a
nul character is output.
\\ Output a backslash.
All other backslash sequences elicit undefined behaviour.
eval string ...
Concatenate all the arguments with spaces. Then re-parse and execute the command.
exec [command arg ...]
Unless command is omitted, the shell process is replaced with the specified program (which must be a real pro‐
gram, not a shell builtin or function). Any redirections on the exec command are marked as permanent, so that
they are not undone when the exec command finishes.
exit [exitstatus]
Terminate the shell process. If exitstatus is given it is used as the exit status of the shell; otherwise the
exit status of the preceding command is used.
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 it is exported by writing
export name=value
With no arguments the export command lists the names of all exported variables. With the -p option specified
the output will be formatted suitably for non-interactive use.
fc [-e editor] [first [last]]
fc -l [-nr] [first [last]]
fc -s [old=new] [first]
The fc builtin 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 in‐
dicated by the first and last operands, as affected by -r, with each command 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 previous commands that can be accessed are deter‐
mined by the value of the HISTSIZE variable. The value of first or last or both are one of the follow‐
ing:
[+]number
A positive number representing a command number; command numbers can be displayed with the -l
option.
-number
A negative decimal number representing the command that was executed number of commands previ‐
ously. For example, -1 is the immediately previous command.
string
A string indicating the most recently entered command 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 embedded
equal sign.
The following environment variables affect the execution of fc:
FCEDIT Name of the editor to use.
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 [arg ...]
The POSIX getopts command, not to be confused with the Bell Labs-derived getopt(1).
The first argument should be a series of letters, each of which may be optionally followed by a colon to indi‐
cate that the option requires an argument. The variable specified is set to the parsed option.
The getopts command deprecates the older getopt(1) utility due to its handling of arguments containing white‐
space.
The getopts builtin may be used to obtain options and their arguments from a list of parameters. When in‐
voked, getopts places the value of the next option from the option string in the list in the shell variable
specified by var and its index in the shell variable OPTIND. When the shell is invoked, OPTIND is initialized
to 1. For each option that requires an argument, the getopts builtin will place it in the shell variable
OPTARG. If an option is not allowed for in the optstring, then OPTARG will be unset.
By default, the variables $1, ..., $n are inspected; if args are specified, they'll be parsed instead.
optstring is a string of recognized option letters (see getopt(3)). If a letter is followed by a colon, the
option is expected to have an argument which may or may not be separated from it by white space. If an option
character is not found where expected, getopts will set the variable var to a “?”; getopts will then unset
OPTARG and write output to standard error. By specifying a colon as the first character of optstring all er‐
rors will be ignored.
After the last option getopts will return a non-zero value and set var to “?”.
The following code fragment shows how one might process the arguments for a command that can take the options
[a] and [b], and the option [c], which requires an argument.
while getopts abc: f
do
case $f in
a | b) flag=$f;;
c) carg=$OPTARG;;
\?) echo $USAGE; exit 1;;
esac
done
shift $((OPTIND - 1))
This code will accept any of the following as equivalent:
cmd -acarg file file
cmd -a -c arg file file
cmd -carg -a file file
cmd -a -carg -- file file
hash [command ...]
hash -r
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. Entries which have not been looked at since the last cd
command are marked with an asterisk; it is possible for these entries to be invalid.
With arguments, the hash command removes the specified commands from the hash table (unless they are func‐
tions) and then locates them. The -r option causes the hash command to delete all the entries in the hash ta‐
ble except for functions.
jobs [-lp] [job ...]
Display the status of all, or just the specified, jobs:
By default display the job number, currency (+-) status, if any, the job state, and its shell command.
-l also output the PID of the group leader, and just the PID and shell commands of other members
of the job.
-p Display only leader PIDs, one per line.
kill [-s sigspec | -signum | -sigspec] [pid | job ...]
Equivalent to kill(1), but a job spec may also be specified. Signals can be either case-insensitive names
without SIG prefixes or decimal numbers; the default is TERM.
kill -l [signum | exitstatus]
List available signal names without the SIG prefix (sigspecs). If signum specified, display just the sigspec
for that signal. If exitstatus specified (> 128), display just the sigspec that caused it.
pwd [-LP]
builtin 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 builtin version of pwd will continue to print the
old name for the directory. The -P option causes the physical value of the current working directory to be
shown, that is, all symbolic links are resolved to their respective values. The -L option turns off the ef‐
fect of any preceding -P options.
read [-p prompt] [-r] 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 standard input. The trailing newline is deleted from the line and the line is split as described in
the section on word splitting above, and the pieces are assigned to the variables in order. At least one
variable must be specified. If there are more pieces than variables, the remaining pieces (along with the
characters in IFS that separated them) are assigned to the last variable. If there are more variables than
pieces, the remaining variables are assigned the null string. The read builtin will indicate success unless
EOF is encountered on input, in which case failure is returned.
By default, unless the -r option is specified, the backslash “\” acts as an escape character, causing the fol‐
lowing character to be treated literally. If a backslash is followed by a newline, the backslash and the new‐
line will be deleted.
readonly name ...
readonly -p
The specified names are marked as read only, so that they cannot be subsequently modified or unset. The shell
allows the value of a variable to be set at the same time it is marked read only by writing
readonly name=value
With no arguments the readonly command lists the names of all read only variables. With the -p option speci‐
fied the output will be formatted suitably for non-interactive use.
printf format [value]...
printf formats and prints its arguments according to format, a character string which contains three types of
objects: plain characters, which are simply copied to standard output, character escape sequences which are
converted and copied to the standard output, and format specifications, each of which causes printing of the
next successive value.
Each value is treated as a string if the corresponding format specification is either b, c, or s; otherwise it
is evaluated as a C constant, with the following additions:
• A leading plus or minus sign is allowed.
• If the leading character is a single or double quote, the value of the next byte.
The format string is reused as often as necessary until all values are consumed. Any extra format specifica‐
tions are evaluated with zero or the null string.
Character escape sequences are in backslash notation as defined in ANSI X3.159-1989 (“ANSI C89”). The charac‐
ters and their meanings are as follows:
\a Write a character.
\b Write a character.
\e Write an (ESC) character.
\f Write a character.
\n Write a character.
\r Write a character.
\t Write a character.
\v Write a character.
\\ Write a backslash character.
\num Write an 8-bit character whose ASCII value is the 1-, 2-, or 3-digit octal number num.
Each format specification is introduced by the percent character (``%''). The remainder of the format speci‐
fication includes, in the following order:
Zero or more of the following flags:
# A `#' character specifying that the value should be printed in an ``alternative form''. For
b, c, d, and s formats, this option has no effect. For the o format the precision of the num‐
ber is increased to force the first character of the output string to a zero. For the x (X)
format, a non-zero result has the string 0x (0X) prepended to it. For e, E, f, g, and G for‐
mats, the result will always contain a decimal point, even if no digits follow the point (nor‐
mally, a decimal point only appears in the results of those formats if a digit follows the
decimal point). For g and G formats, trailing zeros are not removed from the result as they
would otherwise be.
- A minus sign `-' which specifies left adjustment of the output in the indicated field;
+ A `+' character specifying that there should always be a sign placed before the number when
using signed formats.
‘ ’ A space specifying that a blank should be left before a positive number for a signed format.
A `+' overrides a space if both are used;
0 A zero `0' character indicating that zero-padding should be used rather than blank-padding. A
`-' overrides a `0' if both are used;
Field Width:
An optional digit string specifying a field width; if the output string has fewer characters than the
field width it will be blank-padded on the left (or right, if the left-adjustment indicator has been
given) to make up the field width (note that a leading zero is a flag, but an embedded zero is part of
a field width);
Precision:
An optional period, ‘.’, followed by an optional digit string giving a precision which specifies the
number of digits to appear after the decimal point, for e and f formats, or the maximum number of
bytes to be printed from a string (b and s formats); if the digit string is missing, the precision is
treated as zero;
Format:
A character which indicates the type of format to use (one of diouxXfwEgGbcs).
A field width or precision may be ‘*’ instead of a digit string. In this case an argument supplies the field
width or precision.
The format characters and their meanings are:
diouXx The argument is printed as a signed decimal (d or i), unsigned octal, unsigned decimal, or un‐
signed hexadecimal (X or x), respectively.
f The argument is printed in the style [-]ddd.ddd where the number of d's after the decimal point is
equal to the precision specification for the argument. If the precision is missing, 6 digits are
given; if the precision is explicitly 0, no digits and no decimal point are printed.
eE The argument is printed in the style [-]d.ddde±dd where there is one digit before the decimal
point and the number after is equal to the precision specification for the argument; when the pre‐
cision is missing, 6 digits are produced. An upper-case E is used for an `E' format.
gG The argument is printed in style f or in style e (E) whichever gives full precision in minimum
space.
b Characters from the string argument are printed with backslash-escape sequences expanded.
The following additional backslash-escape sequences are supported:
\c Causes dash to ignore any remaining characters in the string operand containing it, any
remaining string operands, and any additional characters in the format operand.
\0num Write an 8-bit character whose ASCII value is the 1-, 2-, or 3-digit octal number num.
c The first character of argument is printed.
s Characters from the string argument are printed until the end is reached or until the number of
bytes indicated by the precision specification is reached; if the precision is omitted, all char‐
acters in the string are printed.
% Print a `%'; no argument is used.
In no case does a non-existent or small field width cause truncation of a field; padding takes place only if
the specified field width exceeds the actual width.
set [{ -options | +options | -- }] arg ...
The set command performs three different functions.
With no arguments, it lists the values of all shell variables.
If options are given, it sets the specified option flags, or clears them as described in the section called
“Argument List Processing”. As a special case, if the option is -o or +o and no argument is supplied, the
shell prints the settings of all its options. If the option is -o, the settings are printed in a human-read‐
able format; if the option is +o, the settings are printed in a format suitable for reinput to the shell to
affect the same option settings.
In addition to the option names listed in the “Argument List Processing” section, the following options may be
specified as arguments to -o or +o:
pipefail Derive the exit status of a pipeline from the exit statuses of all of the commands in the pipeline,
not just the last command, as described in the “Pipelines” section.
The third use of the set command is to set the values of the shell's positional parameters to the specified
args. To change the positional parameters without changing any options, use “--” as the first argument to
set. If no args are present, the set command will clear all the positional parameters (equivalent to execut‐
ing “shift $#”.)
shift [n]
Shift the positional parameters n times. 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. If n is greater than the number of positional
parameters, shift will issue an error message, and exit with return status 2.
test expression
[ expression ]
The test utility evaluates the expression and, if it evaluates to true, returns a zero (true) exit status;
otherwise it returns 1 (false). If there is no expression, test also returns 1 (false).
All operators and flags are separate arguments to the test utility.
The following primaries are used to construct expression:
-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 (regardless of type).
-f file True if file exists and is a regular file.
-g file True if file exists and its set group ID flag is set.
-h file True if file exists and is a symbolic link.
-k file True if file exists and its sticky bit is set.
-n string True if the length of string is nonzero.
-p file True if file is a named pipe (FIFO).
-r file True if file exists and is readable.
-s file True if file exists and has a size greater than zero.
-t file_descriptor
True if the file whose file descriptor number is file_descriptor is open and is associated with
a terminal.
-u file True if file exists and its set user ID flag is set.
-w file True if file exists and is writable. True indicates only that the write flag is on. The file
is not writable on a read-only file system even if this test indicates true.
-x file True if file exists and is executable. True indicates only that the execute flag is on. If
file is a directory, true indicates that file can be searched.
-z string True if the length of string is zero.
-L file True if file exists and is a symbolic link. This operator is retained for compatibility with
previous versions of this program. Do not rely on its existence; use -h instead.
-O file True if file exists and its owner matches the effective user id of this process.
-G file True if file exists and its group matches the effective group id of this process.
-S file True if file exists and is a socket.
file1 -nt file2
True if file1 and file2 exist and file1 is newer than file2, or if file1 exists but file2
doesn't.
file1 -ot file2
True if file1 and file2 exist and file1 is older than file2, or if file2 exists but file1
doesn't.
file1 -ef file2
True if file1 and file2 exist and refer to the same file.
string True if string is not the null string.
s1 = s2 True if the strings s1 and s2 are identical.
s1 != s2 True if the strings s1 and s2 are not identical.
s1 < s2 True if string s1 comes before s2 based on the ASCII value of their characters.
s1 > s2 True if string s1 comes after s2 based on the ASCII value of their characters.
n1 -eq n2 True if the integers n1 and n2 are algebraically equal.
n1 -ne n2 True if the integers n1 and n2 are not algebraically equal.
n1 -gt n2 True if the integer n1 is algebraically greater than the integer n2.
n1 -ge n2 True if the integer n1 is algebraically greater than or equal to the integer n2.
n1 -lt n2 True if the integer n1 is algebraically less than the integer n2.
n1 -le n2 True if the integer n1 is algebraically less than or equal to the integer n2.
These primaries can be combined with the following operators:
! expression True if expression is false.
expression1 -a expression2
True if both expression1 and expression2 are true.
expression1 -o expression2
True if either expression1 or expression2 are true.
(expression) True if expression is true.
The -a operator has higher precedence than the -o operator.
times Print the accumulated user and system times for the shell and for processes run from the shell. The return
status is 0.
trap [action signal ...]
Cause the shell to parse and execute action when any of the specified signals are received. The signals are
specified by signal number or as the name of the signal. If signal is 0 or EXIT, the action is executed when
the shell exits. action may be empty (''), which causes the specified signals to be ignored. With action
omitted or set to `-' the specified signals are set to their default action. When the shell forks off a sub‐
shell, it 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. trap without any arguments cause it to write a list of sig‐
nals and their associated action to the standard output in a format that is suitable as an input to the shell
that achieves the same trapping results.
Examples:
trap
List trapped signals and their corresponding action
trap '' INT QUIT tstp 30
Ignore signals INT QUIT TSTP USR1
trap date INT
Print date upon receiving signal INT
type [name ...]
Interpret each name as a command and print the resolution of the command search. Possible resolutions are:
shell keyword, alias, shell builtin, command, tracked alias and not found. For aliases the alias expansion is
printed; for commands and tracked aliases the complete pathname of the command is printed.
ulimit [-H | -S] [-a | -tfdscmlpnvwr [value]]
Inquire about or set the hard or soft limits on processes or set new limits. The choice between hard limit
(which no process is allowed to violate, and which may not be raised once it has been lowered) and soft limit
(which causes processes to be signaled but not necessarily killed, and which may be raised) is made with these
flags:
-H set or inquire about hard limits
-S set or inquire about soft limits. If neither -H nor -S is specified, the soft limit is displayed
or both limits are set. If both are specified, the last one wins.
The limit to be interrogated or set, then, is chosen by specifying any one of these flags:
-a show all the current limits
-t show or set the limit on CPU time (in seconds)
-f show or set the limit on the largest file that can be created (in 512-byte blocks)
-d show or set the limit on the data segment size of a process (in kilobytes)
-s show or set the limit on the stack size of a process (in kilobytes)
-c show or set the limit on the largest core dump size that can be produced (in 512-byte blocks)
-m show or set the limit on the total physical memory that can be in use by a process (in kilobytes)
-l show or set the limit on how much memory a process can lock with mlock(2) (in kilobytes)
-p show or set the limit on the number of processes this user can have at one time
-n show or set the limit on the number files a process can have open at once
-v show or set the limit on the total virtual memory that can be in use by a process (in kilobytes)
-w show or set the limit on the total number of locks held by a process
-r show or set the limit on the real-time scheduling priority of a process
If none of these is specified, it is the limit on file size that is shown or set. If value is specified, the
limit is set to that number; otherwise the current limit is displayed.
Limits of an arbitrary process can be displayed or set using the sysctl(8) utility.
umask [mask]
Set the value of umask (see umask(2)) to the specified octal value. If the argument is omitted, the umask
value is printed.
unalias [-a] [name]
If name is specified, the shell removes that alias. If -a is specified, all aliases are removed.
unset [-fv] name ...
The specified variables and functions are unset and unexported. If -f or -v is specified, the corresponding
function or variable is unset, respectively. If a given name corresponds to both a variable and a function,
and no options are given, only the variable is unset.
wait [job]
Wait for the specified job to complete and return the exit status of the last process in the job. If the ar‐
gument is omitted, wait for all jobs to complete and return an exit status of zero.
Command Line Editing
When dash is being used interactively from a terminal, the current command and the command history (see fc in
“Builtins”) can be edited using vi-mode command-line editing. This mode uses commands, described below, similar to a
subset of those described in the vi man page. The command ‘set -o vi’ enables vi-mode editing and places sh into vi
insert mode. With vi-mode enabled, sh can be switched between insert mode and command mode. It is similar to vi:
typing ⟨ESC⟩ enters vi command mode. Hitting ⟨return⟩ while in command mode will pass the line to the shell.
EXIT STATUS
Errors that are detected by the shell, such as a syntax error, will cause the shell to exit with a non-zero exit sta‐
tus. 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.
ENVIRONMENT
HOME Set automatically by login(1) from the user's login directory in the password file (passwd(4)). This en‐
vironment variable also functions as the default argument for the cd builtin.
PATH The default search path for executables. See the above section “Path Search”.
CDPATH The search path used with the cd builtin.
MAIL The name of a mail file, that will be checked for the arrival of new mail. Overridden by MAILPATH.
MAILCHECK The frequency in seconds that the shell checks for the arrival of mail in the files specified by the
MAILPATH or the MAIL file. If set to 0, the check will occur at each prompt.
MAILPATH A colon “:” separated list of file names, for the shell to check for incoming mail. This environment set‐
ting overrides the MAIL setting. There is a maximum of 10 mailboxes that can be monitored at once.
PS1 The primary prompt string, which defaults to “$ ”, unless you are the superuser, in which case it defaults
to “# ”.
PS2 The secondary prompt string, which defaults to “> ”.
PS4 Output before each line when execution trace (set -x) is enabled, defaults to “+ ”.
IFS Input Field Separators. This is normally set to ⟨space⟩, ⟨tab⟩, and ⟨newline⟩. See the “White Space
Splitting” section for more details.
TERM The default terminal setting for the shell. This is inherited by children of the shell, and is used in
the history editing modes.
HISTSIZE The number of lines in the history buffer for the shell.
PWD The logical value of the current working directory. This is set by the cd command.
OLDPWD The previous logical value of the current working directory. This is set by the cd command.
PPID The process ID of the parent process of the shell.
FILES
$HOME/.profile
/etc/profile
SEE ALSO
csh(1), echo(1), getopt(1), ksh(1), login(1), printf(1), test(1), getopt(3), passwd(5), environ(7), sysctl(8)
HISTORY
dash is a POSIX-compliant implementation of /bin/sh that aims to be as small as possible. dash is a direct descen‐
dant of the NetBSD version of ash (the Almquist SHell), ported to Linux in early 1997. It was renamed to dash in
2002.
BUGS
Setuid shell scripts should be avoided at all costs, as they are a significant security risk.
PS1, PS2, and PS4 should be subject to parameter expansion before being displayed.
Debian January 19, 2003 DASH(1)