BASH(1)                                                                BASH(1)



NAME
       bash - GNU Bourne-Again SHell

SYNOPSIS
       bash [options] [file]

COPYRIGHT
       Bash is Copyright (C) 1989-2005 by the Free Software Foundation, Inc.

DESCRIPTION
       Bash  is  an  sh-compatible  command language interpreter that executes
       commands read from the standard input or from a file.  Bash also incor-
       porates useful features from the Korn and C shells (ksh and csh).

       Bash  is  intended  to  be a conformant implementation of the Shell and
       Utilities portion  of  the  IEEE  POSIX  specification  (IEEE  Standard
       1003.1).  Bash can be configured to be POSIX-conformant by default.

OPTIONS
       In  addition  to  the  single-character shell options documented in the
       description of the set builtin command, bash interprets  the  following
       options when it is invoked:

       -c string If  the  -c  option  is  present, then commands are read from
                 string.  If there are arguments after the  string,  they  are
                 assigned to the positional parameters, starting with $0.
       -i        If the -i option is present, the shell is interactive.
       -l        Make bash act as if it had been invoked as a login shell (see
                 INVOCATION below).
       -r        If the -r option is present,  the  shell  becomes  restricted
                 (see RESTRICTED SHELL below).
       -s        If  the -s option is present, or if no arguments remain after
                 option processing, then commands are read from  the  standard
                 input.   This  option  allows the positional parameters to be
                 set when invoking an interactive shell.
       -D        A list of all double-quoted strings preceded by $ is  printed
                 on  the standard output.  These are the strings that are sub-
                 ject to language translation when the current locale is not C
                 or  POSIX.   This  implies the -n option; no commands will be
                 executed.
       [-+]O [shopt_option]
                 shopt_option is one of the  shell  options  accepted  by  the
                 shopt   builtin  (see  SHELL  BUILTIN  COMMANDS  below).   If
                 shopt_option is present, -O sets the value of that option; +O
                 unsets  it.   If  shopt_option is not supplied, the names and
                 values of the shell options accepted by shopt are printed  on
                 the  standard  output.   If  the invocation option is +O, the
                 output is displayed in a format that may be reused as  input.
       --        A  --  signals the end of options and disables further option
                 processing.  Any arguments after the -- are treated as  file-
                 names and arguments.  An argument of - is equivalent to --.

       Bash  also  interprets  a  number  of  multi-character  options.  These
       options must appear on the command  line  before  the  single-character
       options to be recognized.

       --debugger
              Arrange for the debugger profile to be executed before the shell
              starts.  Turns on extended debugging mode (see  the  description
              of  the  extdebug  option  to the shopt builtin below) and shell
              function tracing (see the description of the -o functrace option
              to the set builtin below).
       --dump-po-strings
              Equivalent  to -D, but the output is in the GNU gettext po (por-
              table object) file format.
       --dump-strings
              Equivalent to -D.
       --help Display a usage message on standard  output  and  exit  success-
              fully.
       --init-file file
       --rcfile file
              Execute commands from file instead of the standard personal ini-
              tialization file ~/.bashrc if  the  shell  is  interactive  (see
              INVOCATION below).

       --login
              Equivalent to -l.

       --noediting
              Do  not  use the GNU readline library to read command lines when
              the shell is interactive.

       --noprofile
              Do not read either the system-wide startup file /etc/profile  or
              any   of  the  personal  initialization  files  ~/.bash_profile,
              ~/.bash_login, or ~/.profile.   By  default,  bash  reads  these
              files  when  it  is  invoked  as  a  login shell (see INVOCATION
              below).

       --norc Do  not  read  and  execute  the  personal  initialization  file
              ~/.bashrc  if  the  shell  is interactive.  This option is on by
              default if the shell is invoked as sh.

       --posix
              Change the behavior of bash where the default operation  differs
              from the POSIX standard to match the standard (posix mode).

       --restricted
              The shell becomes restricted (see RESTRICTED SHELL below).

       --verbose
              Equivalent to  -v.

       --version
              Show  version information for this instance of bash on the stan-
              dard output and exit successfully.

ARGUMENTS
       If arguments remain after option processing, and neither the -c nor the
       -s  option  has  been supplied, the first argument is assumed to be the
       name of a file containing shell commands.  If bash is invoked  in  this
       fashion,  $0 is set to the name of the file, and the positional parame-
       ters are set to the remaining arguments.  Bash reads and executes  com-
       mands  from this file, then exits.  Bash's exit status is the exit sta-
       tus of the last command executed in the script.   If  no  commands  are
       executed,  the  exit status is 0.  An attempt is first made to open the
       file in the current directory, and, if no file is found, then the shell
       searches the directories in PATH for the script.

INVOCATION
       A  login shell is one whose first character of argument zero is a -, or
       one started with the --login option.

       An interactive shell is one started without  non-option  arguments  and
       without the -c option whose standard input and error are both connected
       to terminals (as determined by isatty(3)), or one started with  the  -i
       option.   PS1 is set and $- includes i if bash is interactive, allowing
       a shell script or a startup file to test this state.

       The following paragraphs describe how bash executes its startup  files.
       If  any  of  the files exist but cannot be read, bash reports an error.
       Tildes are expanded in file names as described below under Tilde Expan-
       sion in the EXPANSION section.

       When  bash is invoked as an interactive login shell, or as a non-inter-
       active shell with the --login option, it first reads and executes  com-
       mands  from  the file /etc/profile, if that file exists.  After reading
       that file, it looks for ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and ~/.profile,
       in  that order, and reads and executes commands from the first one that
       exists and is readable.  The --noprofile option may be  used  when  the
       shell is started to inhibit this behavior.

       When  a  login  shell  exits, bash reads and executes commands from the
       file ~/.bash_logout, if it exists.

       When an interactive shell that is not a login shell  is  started,  bash
       reads  and executes commands from ~/.bashrc, if that file exists.  This
       may be inhibited by using the --norc option.  The --rcfile file  option
       will  force  bash  to  read  and  execute commands from file instead of
       ~/.bashrc.

       When bash is started non-interactively, to  run  a  shell  script,  for
       example, it looks for the variable BASH_ENV in the environment, expands
       its value if it appears there, and uses the expanded value as the  name
       of  a  file to read and execute.  Bash behaves as if the following com-
       mand were executed:
              if [ -n "$BASH_ENV" ]; then . "$BASH_ENV"; fi
       but the value of the PATH variable is not used to search for  the  file
       name.

       If  bash  is  invoked  with  the name sh, it tries to mimic the startup
       behavior of historical versions of sh as  closely  as  possible,  while
       conforming  to the POSIX standard as well.  When invoked as an interac-
       tive login shell, or a non-interactive shell with the  --login  option,
       it  first  attempts  to read and execute commands from /etc/profile and
       ~/.profile, in that order.  The  --noprofile  option  may  be  used  to
       inhibit  this  behavior.  When invoked as an interactive shell with the
       name sh, bash looks for the variable ENV, expands its value  if  it  is
       defined,  and uses the expanded value as the name of a file to read and
       execute.  Since a shell invoked as sh does not attempt to read and exe-
       cute  commands from any other startup files, the --rcfile option has no
       effect.  A non-interactive shell invoked with  the  name  sh  does  not
       attempt  to  read  any  other  startup files.  When invoked as sh, bash
       enters posix mode after the startup files are read.

       When bash is started in posix mode, as with the  --posix  command  line
       option, it follows the POSIX standard for startup files.  In this mode,
       interactive shells expand the ENV variable and commands  are  read  and
       executed  from  the  file  whose  name is the expanded value.  No other
       startup files are read.

       Bash attempts to determine when it is being run  by  the  remote  shell
       daemon,  usually  rshd.  If bash determines it is being run by rshd, it
       reads and executes commands from ~/.bashrc, if that file exists and  is
       readable.  It will not do this if invoked as sh.  The --norc option may
       be used to inhibit this behavior, and the --rcfile option may  be  used
       to  force  another  file to be read, but rshd does not generally invoke
       the shell with those options or allow them to be specified.

       If the shell is started with the effective user (group) id not equal to
       the real user (group) id, and the -p option is not supplied, no startup
       files are read, shell functions are not inherited from the environment,
       the  SHELLOPTS  variable, if it appears in the environment, is ignored,
       and the effective user id is set to the real user id.  If the -p option
       is  supplied  at  invocation, the startup behavior is the same, but the
       effective user id is not reset.

DEFINITIONS
       The following definitions are used throughout the rest  of  this  docu-
       ment.
       blank  A space or tab.
       word   A  sequence  of  characters  considered  as a single unit by the
              shell.  Also known as a token.
       name   A word consisting only of  alphanumeric  characters  and  under-
              scores,  and beginning with an alphabetic character or an under-
              score.  Also referred to as an identifier.
       metacharacter
              A character that, when unquoted, separates words.   One  of  the
              following:
              |  & ; ( ) < > space tab
       control operator
              A token that performs a control function.  It is one of the fol-
              lowing symbols:
              || & && ; ;; ( ) | <newline>

RESERVED WORDS
       Reserved words are words that have a special meaning to the shell.  The
       following words are recognized as reserved when unquoted and either the
       first word of a simple command (see SHELL GRAMMAR below) or  the  third
       word of a case or for command:

       !  case  do done elif else esac fi for function if in select then until
       while { } time [[ ]]

SHELL GRAMMAR
   Simple Commands
       A simple command is a sequence of optional  variable  assignments  fol-
       lowed  by  blank-separated  words and redirections, and terminated by a
       control operator.  The first word specifies the command to be executed,
       and  is  passed  as  argument  zero.  The remaining words are passed as
       arguments to the invoked command.

       The return value of a simple command is its exit status,  or  128+n  if
       the command is terminated by signal n.

   Pipelines
       A pipeline is a sequence of one or more commands separated by the char-
       acter |.  The format for a pipeline is:

              [time [-p]] [ ! ] command [ | command2 ... ]

       The standard output of command is connected via a pipe to the  standard
       input  of  command2.   This connection is performed before any redirec-
       tions specified by the command (see REDIRECTION below).

       The return status of a pipeline is the exit status of the last command,
       unless  the  pipefail  option  is enabled.  If pipefail is enabled, the
       pipeline's return status is the value of the last  (rightmost)  command
       to  exit  with a non-zero status, or zero if all commands exit success-
       fully.  If the reserved word !  precedes a pipeline, the exit status of
       that  pipeline  is the logical negation of the exit status as described
       above.  The shell waits for all commands in the pipeline  to  terminate
       before returning a value.

       If  the  time reserved word precedes a pipeline, the elapsed as well as
       user and system time consumed by its execution are  reported  when  the
       pipeline  terminates.   The -p option changes the output format to that
       specified by POSIX.  The TIMEFORMAT variable may be  set  to  a  format
       string  that  specifies how the timing information should be displayed;
       see the description of TIMEFORMAT under Shell Variables below.

       Each command in a pipeline is executed as a separate process (i.e.,  in
       a subshell).

   Lists
       A  list  is a sequence of one or more pipelines separated by one of the
       operators ;, &, &&, or ||, and optionally terminated by one of ;, &, or
       <newline>.

       Of these list operators, && and || have equal precedence, followed by ;
       and &, which have equal precedence.

       A sequence of one or more newlines may appear in a list  instead  of  a
       semicolon to delimit commands.

       If  a  command  is terminated by the control operator &, the shell exe-
       cutes the command in the background in a subshell.  The shell does  not
       wait  for  the command to finish, and the return status is 0.  Commands
       separated by a ; are executed sequentially; the shell  waits  for  each
       command  to terminate in turn.  The return status is the exit status of
       the last command executed.

       The control operators && and || denote AND lists and OR lists,  respec-
       tively.  An AND list has the form

              command1 && command2

       command2  is  executed if, and only if, command1 returns an exit status
       of zero.

       An OR list has the form

              command1 || command2


       command2 is executed if and only if command1 returns  a  non-zero  exit
       status.   The  return  status of AND and OR lists is the exit status of
       the last command executed in the list.

   Compound Commands
       A compound command is one of the following:

       (list) list is executed in a subshell environment (see  COMMAND  EXECU-
              TION  ENVIRONMENT below).  Variable assignments and builtin com-
              mands that affect the  shell's  environment  do  not  remain  in
              effect  after  the  command completes.  The return status is the
              exit status of list.

       { list; }
              list is simply executed in the current shell environment.   list
              must  be  terminated with a newline or semicolon.  This is known
              as a group command.  The return status is  the  exit  status  of
              list.   Note that unlike the metacharacters ( and ), { and } are
              reserved words and must occur where a reserved word is permitted
              to  be  recognized.   Since they do not cause a word break, they
              must be separated from list by whitespace.

       ((expression))
              The expression is evaluated according  to  the  rules  described
              below  under ARITHMETIC EVALUATION.  If the value of the expres-
              sion is non-zero, the return status is 0; otherwise  the  return
              status is 1.  This is exactly equivalent to let "expression".

       [[ expression ]]
              Return  a  status  of  0 or 1 depending on the evaluation of the
              conditional expression expression.  Expressions are composed  of
              the  primaries  described  below  under CONDITIONAL EXPRESSIONS.
              Word splitting and pathname expansion are not performed  on  the
              words  between  the  [[  and  ]]; tilde expansion, parameter and
              variable expansion, arithmetic expansion, command  substitution,
              process  substitution,  and quote removal are performed.  Condi-
              tional operators such as -f must be unquoted to be recognized as
              primaries.

              When  the  == and != operators are used, the string to the right
              of the operator is considered a pattern and matched according to
              the  rules described below under Pattern Matching.  If the shell
              option nocasematch is enabled, the match  is  performed  without
              regard  to  the case of alphabetic characters.  The return value
              is 0 if the string matches (==) or does not match (!=) the  pat-
              tern, and 1 otherwise.  Any part of the pattern may be quoted to
              force it to be matched as a string.

              An additional binary operator, =~, is available, with  the  same
              precedence  as  ==  and  !=.  When it is used, the string to the
              right of the operator is considered an extended regular  expres-
              sion and matched accordingly (as in regex(3)).  The return value
              is 0 if the string matches the pattern, and 1 otherwise.  If the
              regular  expression  is syntactically incorrect, the conditional
              expression's return value is 2.  If the shell option nocasematch
              is enabled, the match is performed without regard to the case of
              alphabetic  characters.   Substrings  matched  by  parenthesized
              subexpressions  within  the  regular expression are saved in the
              array variable BASH_REMATCH.  The element of  BASH_REMATCH  with
              index 0 is the portion of the string matching the entire regular
              expression.  The element of BASH_REMATCH with  index  n  is  the
              portion  of the string matching the nth parenthesized subexpres-
              sion.

              Expressions may  be  combined  using  the  following  operators,
              listed in decreasing order of precedence:

              ( expression )
                     Returns  the  value  of  expression.  This may be used to
                     override the normal precedence of operators.
              ! expression
                     True if expression is false.
              expression1 && expression2
                     True if both expression1 and expression2 are true.
              expression1 || expression2
                     True if either expression1 or expression2 is true.

              The && and || operators do not evaluate expression2 if the value
              of  expression1  is  sufficient to determine the return value of
              the entire conditional expression.

       for name [ in word ] ; do list ; done
              The list of words following in is expanded, generating a list of
              items.  The variable name is set to each element of this list in
              turn, and list is executed each time.  If the in word  is  omit-
              ted,  the  for  command  executes  list once for each positional
              parameter that is set (see PARAMETERS below).  The return status
              is  the  exit  status of the last command that executes.  If the
              expansion of the items following in results in an empty list, no
              commands are executed, and the return status is 0.

       for (( expr1 ; expr2 ; expr3 )) ; do list ; done
              First, the arithmetic expression expr1 is evaluated according to
              the rules described  below  under  ARITHMETIC  EVALUATION.   The
              arithmetic  expression  expr2 is then evaluated repeatedly until
              it evaluates to zero.  Each time expr2 evaluates to  a  non-zero
              value,  list  is executed and the arithmetic expression expr3 is
              evaluated.  If any expression is omitted, it behaves  as  if  it
              evaluates to 1.  The return value is the exit status of the last
              command in list that is executed, or false if any of the expres-
              sions is invalid.

       select name [ in word ] ; do list ; done
              The list of words following in is expanded, generating a list of
              items.  The set of expanded words is  printed  on  the  standard
              error,  each  preceded  by a number.  If the in word is omitted,
              the positional parameters are printed  (see  PARAMETERS  below).
              The  PS3 prompt is then displayed and a line read from the stan-
              dard input.  If the line consists of a number  corresponding  to
              one  of  the  displayed  words, then the value of name is set to
              that word.  If the line is empty, the words and prompt are  dis-
              played again.  If EOF is read, the command completes.  Any other
              value read causes name to be set to  null.   The  line  read  is
              saved  in  the  variable REPLY.  The list is executed after each
              selection until a break command is executed.  The exit status of
              select  is the exit status of the last command executed in list,
              or zero if no commands were executed.

       case word in [ [(] pattern [ | pattern ] ... ) list ;; ] ... esac
              A case command first expands word, and tries to match it against
              each pattern in turn, using the same matching rules as for path-
              name expansion (see Pathname  Expansion  below).   The  word  is
              expanded  using  tilde  expansion, parameter and variable expan-
              sion, arithmetic  substitution,  command  substitution,  process
              substitution  and  quote  removal.   Each  pattern  examined  is
              expanded using tilde expansion, parameter  and  variable  expan-
              sion, arithmetic substitution, command substitution, and process
              substitution.  If the shell option nocasematch is  enabled,  the
              match  is  performed  without  regard  to the case of alphabetic
              characters.  When a match is found, the  corresponding  list  is
              executed.   After  the  first  match,  no subsequent matches are
              attempted.  The exit status is zero if no pattern matches.  Oth-
              erwise,  it  is  the exit status of the last command executed in
              list.

       if list; then list; [ elif list; then list; ] ... [ else list; ] fi
              The if list is executed.  If its exit status is zero,  the  then
              list  is  executed.   Otherwise,  each  elif list is executed in
              turn, and if its exit status is  zero,  the  corresponding  then
              list is executed and the command completes.  Otherwise, the else
              list is executed, if present.  The exit status is the exit  sta-
              tus of the last command executed, or zero if no condition tested
              true.

       while list; do list; done
       until list; do list; done
              The while command continuously executes the do list as  long  as
              the  last  command  in list returns an exit status of zero.  The
              until command is identical to the while command, except that the
              test  is  negated;  the  do list is executed as long as the last
              command in list returns a non-zero exit status.  The exit status
              of  the  while and until commands is the exit status of the last
              do list command executed, or zero if none was executed.

   Shell Function Definitions
       A shell function is an object that is called like a simple command  and
       executes  a  compound  command with a new set of positional parameters.
       Shell functions are declared as follows:

       [ function ] name () compound-command [redirection]
              This defines a function named name.  The reserved word  function
              is  optional.   If  the  function reserved word is supplied, the
              parentheses are optional.  The body of the function is the  com-
              pound  command  compound-command  (see Compound Commands above).
              That command is usually a list of commands between { and },  but
              may  be  any command listed under Compound Commands above.  com-
              pound-command is executed whenever name is specified as the name
              of  a  simple command.  Any redirections (see REDIRECTION below)
              specified when a function is  defined  are  performed  when  the
              function  is executed.  The exit status of a function definition
              is zero unless a syntax error occurs or a readonly function with
              the same name already exists.  When executed, the exit status of
              a function is the exit status of the last  command  executed  in
              the body.  (See FUNCTIONS below.)

COMMENTS
       In a non-interactive shell, or an interactive shell in which the inter-
       active_comments option to the  shopt  builtin  is  enabled  (see  SHELL
       BUILTIN  COMMANDS  below), a word beginning with # causes that word and
       all remaining characters on that line to be  ignored.   An  interactive
       shell  without  the  interactive_comments option enabled does not allow
       comments.  The interactive_comments option is on by default in interac-
       tive shells.

QUOTING
       Quoting  is used to remove the special meaning of certain characters or
       words to the shell.  Quoting can be used to disable  special  treatment
       for special characters, to prevent reserved words from being recognized
       as such, and to prevent parameter expansion.

       Each of the metacharacters listed above under DEFINITIONS  has  special
       meaning to the shell and must be quoted if it is to represent itself.

       When  the command history expansion facilities are being used (see HIS-
       TORY EXPANSION below), the history expansion character, usually !, must
       be quoted to prevent history expansion.

       There  are  three  quoting  mechanisms:  the  escape  character, single
       quotes, and double quotes.

       A non-quoted backslash (\) is the escape character.  It  preserves  the
       literal value of the next character that follows, with the exception of
       <newline>.  If a \<newline> pair appears,  and  the  backslash  is  not
       itself  quoted,  the \<newline> is treated as a line continuation (that
       is, it is removed from the input stream and effectively ignored).

       Enclosing characters in single quotes preserves the  literal  value  of
       each character within the quotes.  A single quote may not occur between
       single quotes, even when preceded by a backslash.

       Enclosing characters in double quotes preserves the  literal  value  of
       all  characters  within the quotes, with the exception of $, `, \, and,
       when history expansion is enabled, !.  The characters $  and  `  retain
       their  special meaning within double quotes.  The backslash retains its
       special meaning only when followed by one of the following  characters:
       $,  `,  ", \, or <newline>.  A double quote may be quoted within double
       quotes by preceding it with a backslash.  If enabled, history expansion
       will  be  performed  unless an !  appearing in double quotes is escaped
       using a backslash.  The backslash preceding the !  is not removed.

       The special parameters * and @ have  special  meaning  when  in  double
       quotes (see PARAMETERS below).

       Words of the form $'string' are treated specially.  The word expands to
       string, with backslash-escaped characters replaced as specified by  the
       ANSI  C  standard.  Backslash escape sequences, if present, are decoded
       as follows:
              \a     alert (bell)
              \b     backspace
              \e     an escape character
              \f     form feed
              \n     new line
              \r     carriage return
              \t     horizontal tab
              \v     vertical tab
              \\     backslash
              \'     single quote
              \nnn   the eight-bit character whose value is  the  octal  value
                     nnn (one to three digits)
              \xHH   the  eight-bit  character  whose value is the hexadecimal
                     value HH (one or two hex digits)
              \cx    a control-x character

       The expanded result is single-quoted, as if the  dollar  sign  had  not
       been present.

       A  double-quoted  string  preceded  by a dollar sign ($) will cause the
       string to be translated according to the current locale.  If  the  cur-
       rent  locale  is C or POSIX, the dollar sign is ignored.  If the string
       is translated and replaced, the replacement is double-quoted.

PARAMETERS
       A parameter is an entity that stores values.  It can be a name, a  num-
       ber, or one of the special characters listed below under Special Param-
       eters.  A variable is a parameter denoted by a name.  A variable has  a
       value  and  zero or more attributes.  Attributes are assigned using the
       declare builtin command (see declare below in SHELL BUILTIN  COMMANDS).

       A parameter is set if it has been assigned a value.  The null string is
       a valid value.  Once a variable is set, it may be unset only  by  using
       the unset builtin command (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).

       A variable may be assigned to by a statement of the form

              name=[value]

       If  value  is not given, the variable is assigned the null string.  All
       values undergo tilde expansion, parameter and variable expansion,  com-
       mand  substitution, arithmetic expansion, and quote removal (see EXPAN-
       SION below).  If the variable has its integer attribute set, then value
       is evaluated as an arithmetic expression even if the $((...)) expansion
       is not used (see Arithmetic Expansion below).  Word  splitting  is  not
       performed,  with the exception of "$@" as explained below under Special
       Parameters.  Pathname expansion is not  performed.   Assignment  state-
       ments  may  also  appear  as  arguments to the alias, declare, typeset,
       export, readonly, and local builtin commands.

       In the context where an assignment statement is assigning a value to  a
       shell variable or array index, the += operator can be used to append to
       or add to the variable's previous value.  When += is applied to a vari-
       able  for  which the integer attribute has been set, value is evaluated
       as an arithmetic expression and added to the variable's current  value,
       which is also evaluated.  When += is applied to an array variable using
       compound assignment (see Arrays below), the  variable's  value  is  not
       unset (as it is when using =), and new values are appended to the array
       beginning at one greater than the array's maximum index.  When  applied
       to  a  string-valued  variable,  value  is expanded and appended to the
       variable's value.

   Positional Parameters
       A positional parameter is a parameter denoted by one  or  more  digits,
       other than the single digit 0.  Positional parameters are assigned from
       the shell's arguments when it is invoked, and may be  reassigned  using
       the  set builtin command.  Positional parameters may not be assigned to
       with assignment statements.  The positional parameters are  temporarily
       replaced when a shell function is executed (see FUNCTIONS below).

       When  a  positional parameter consisting of more than a single digit is
       expanded, it must be enclosed in braces (see EXPANSION below).

   Special Parameters
       The shell treats several parameters specially.   These  parameters  may
       only be referenced; assignment to them is not allowed.
       *      Expands  to  the positional parameters, starting from one.  When
              the expansion occurs within double quotes, it expands to a  sin-
              gle word with the value of each parameter separated by the first
              character of the IFS special variable.  That is, "$*" is equiva-
              lent to "$1c$2c...", where c is the first character of the value
              of the IFS variable.  If IFS is unset, the parameters are  sepa-
              rated  by  spaces.   If  IFS  is null, the parameters are joined
              without intervening separators.
       @      Expands to the positional parameters, starting from  one.   When
              the  expansion  occurs  within  double  quotes,  each  parameter
              expands to a separate word.  That is, "$@" is equivalent to "$1"
              "$2"  ...   If the double-quoted expansion occurs within a word,
              the expansion of the first parameter is joined with  the  begin-
              ning  part  of  the original word, and the expansion of the last
              parameter is joined with the last part  of  the  original  word.
              When  there  are no positional parameters, "$@" and $@ expand to
              nothing (i.e., they are removed).
       #      Expands to the number of positional parameters in decimal.
       ?      Expands to the status of the most recently  executed  foreground
              pipeline.
       -      Expands  to  the  current option flags as specified upon invoca-
              tion, by the set builtin command, or  those  set  by  the  shell
              itself (such as the -i option).
       $      Expands  to  the  process ID of the shell.  In a () subshell, it
              expands to the process ID of the current  shell,  not  the  sub-
              shell.
       !      Expands  to  the  process ID of the most recently executed back-
              ground (asynchronous) command.
       0      Expands to the name of the shell or shell script.  This  is  set
              at shell initialization.  If bash is invoked with a file of com-
              mands, $0 is set to the name of that file.  If bash  is  started
              with  the  -c option, then $0 is set to the first argument after
              the string to be executed, if one is present.  Otherwise, it  is
              set  to  the file name used to invoke bash, as given by argument
              zero.
       _      At shell startup, set to the absolute pathname  used  to  invoke
              the  shell or shell script being executed as passed in the envi-
              ronment or argument list.  Subsequently,  expands  to  the  last
              argument  to the previous command, after expansion.  Also set to
              the full pathname used  to  invoke  each  command  executed  and
              placed in the environment exported to that command.  When check-
              ing mail, this parameter holds the name of the  mail  file  cur-
              rently being checked.

   Shell Variables
       The following variables are set by the shell:

       BASH   Expands  to  the  full file name used to invoke this instance of
              bash.
       BASH_ARGC
              An array variable whose values are the number of  parameters  in
              each frame of the current bash execution call stack.  The number
              of parameters to  the  current  subroutine  (shell  function  or
              script  executed  with  . or source) is at the top of the stack.
              When a subroutine is executed, the number of  parameters  passed
              is pushed onto BASH_ARGC.  The shell sets BASH_ARGC only when in
              extended debugging mode (see the  description  of  the  extdebug
              option to the shopt builtin below)
       BASH_ARGV
              An  array  variable containing all of the parameters in the cur-
              rent bash execution call stack.  The final parameter of the last
              subroutine  call is at the top of the stack; the first parameter
              of the initial call is at the bottom.  When a subroutine is exe-
              cuted,  the  parameters supplied are pushed onto BASH_ARGV.  The
              shell sets BASH_ARGV only when in extended debugging  mode  (see
              the  description  of  the  extdebug  option to the shopt builtin
              below)
       BASH_COMMAND
              The command currently being executed or about  to  be  executed,
              unless the shell is executing a command as the result of a trap,
              in which case it is the command executing at  the  time  of  the
              trap.
       BASH_EXECUTION_STRING
              The command argument to the -c invocation option.
       BASH_LINENO
              An  array  variable whose members are the line numbers in source
              files   corresponding    to    each    member    of    FUNCNAME.
              ${BASH_LINENO[$i]}  is  the line number in the source file where
              ${FUNCNAME[$ifP]} was called.   The  corresponding  source  file
              name  is  ${BASH_SOURCE[$i]}.   Use LINENO to obtain the current
              line number.
       BASH_REMATCH
              An array variable whose members are assigned by  the  =~  binary
              operator  to the [[ conditional command.  The element with index
              0 is the portion of  the  string  matching  the  entire  regular
              expression.   The  element  with  index  n is the portion of the
              string matching the nth parenthesized subexpression.  This vari-
              able is read-only.
       BASH_SOURCE
              An  array variable whose members are the source filenames corre-
              sponding to the elements in the FUNCNAME array variable.
       BASH_SUBSHELL
              Incremented by one each time a subshell or subshell  environment
              is spawned.  The initial value is 0.
       BASH_VERSINFO
              A readonly array variable whose members hold version information
              for this instance of bash.  The values  assigned  to  the  array
              members are as follows:
              BASH_VERSINFO[0]        The  major version number (the release).
              BASH_VERSINFO[1]        The minor version number (the  version).
              BASH_VERSINFO[2]        The patch level.
              BASH_VERSINFO[3]        The build version.
              BASH_VERSINFO[4]        The release status (e.g., beta1).
              BASH_VERSINFO[5]        The value of MACHTYPE.

       BASH_VERSION
              Expands  to  a string describing the version of this instance of
              bash.

       COMP_CWORD
              An index into ${COMP_WORDS} of the word containing  the  current
              cursor position.  This variable is available only in shell func-
              tions invoked by the  programmable  completion  facilities  (see
              Programmable Completion below).

       COMP_LINE
              The  current  command  line.  This variable is available only in
              shell functions  and  external  commands  invoked  by  the  pro-
              grammable  completion  facilities  (see  Programmable Completion
              below).

       COMP_POINT
              The index of the current cursor position relative to the  begin-
              ning  of the current command.  If the current cursor position is
              at the end of the current command, the value of this variable is
              equal  to  ${#COMP_LINE}.   This  variable  is available only in
              shell functions  and  external  commands  invoked  by  the  pro-
              grammable  completion  facilities  (see  Programmable Completion
              below).

       COMP_WORDBREAKS
              The set of characters that the Readline library treats  as  word
              separators  when performing word completion.  If COMP_WORDBREAKS
              is unset, it loses its special properties, even if it is  subse-
              quently reset.

       COMP_WORDS
              An  array variable (see Arrays below) consisting of the individ-
              ual words in the current command line.  The words are  split  on
              shell  metacharacters  as  the shell parser would separate them.
              This variable is available only in shell  functions  invoked  by
              the programmable completion facilities (see Programmable Comple-
              tion below).

       DIRSTACK
              An array variable (see Arrays below) containing the current con-
              tents  of  the directory stack.  Directories appear in the stack
              in the order they are displayed by the dirs builtin.   Assigning
              to members of this array variable may be used to modify directo-
              ries already in the stack, but the pushd and popd builtins  must
              be used to add and remove directories.  Assignment to this vari-
              able will not change the  current  directory.   If  DIRSTACK  is
              unset,  it  loses  its  special properties, even if it is subse-
              quently reset.

       EUID   Expands to the effective user ID of the current  user,  initial-
              ized at shell startup.  This variable is readonly.

       FUNCNAME
              An  array  variable  containing the names of all shell functions
              currently in the execution call stack.  The element with index 0
              is the name of any currently-executing shell function.  The bot-
              tom-most element is "main".  This variable exists  only  when  a
              shell  function  is  executing.  Assignments to FUNCNAME have no
              effect and return an error status.  If  FUNCNAME  is  unset,  it
              loses  its special properties, even if it is subsequently reset.

       GROUPS An array variable containing the list of  groups  of  which  the
              current  user is a member.  Assignments to GROUPS have no effect
              and return an error status.  If GROUPS is unset,  it  loses  its
              special properties, even if it is subsequently reset.

       HISTCMD
              The history number, or index in the history list, of the current
              command.  If HISTCMD is unset, it loses its special  properties,
              even if it is subsequently reset.

       HOSTNAME
              Automatically set to the name of the current host.

       HOSTTYPE
              Automatically  set  to a string that uniquely describes the type
              of machine on which bash is executing.  The default  is  system-
              dependent.

       LINENO Each  time this parameter is referenced, the shell substitutes a
              decimal number representing the current sequential  line  number
              (starting  with  1)  within a script or function.  When not in a
              script or function, the value substituted is not  guaranteed  to
              be meaningful.  If LINENO is unset, it loses its special proper-
              ties, even if it is subsequently reset.

       MACHTYPE
              Automatically set to a string that fully  describes  the  system
              type  on  which  bash is executing, in the standard GNU cpu-com-
              pany-system format.  The default is system-dependent.

       OLDPWD The previous working directory as set by the cd command.

       OPTARG The value of the last option argument processed by  the  getopts
              builtin command (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).

       OPTIND The  index  of  the next argument to be processed by the getopts
              builtin command (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).

       OSTYPE Automatically set to a string that describes the operating  sys-
              tem  on  which  bash is executing.  The default is system-depen-
              dent.

       PIPESTATUS
              An array variable (see Arrays below) containing a list  of  exit
              status  values  from the processes in the most-recently-executed
              foreground pipeline (which may contain only a single command).

       PPID   The process ID of the shell's parent.  This  variable  is  read-
              only.

       PWD    The current working directory as set by the cd command.

       RANDOM Each time this parameter is referenced, a random integer between
              0 and 32767 is generated.  The sequence of random numbers may be
              initialized by assigning a value to RANDOM.  If RANDOM is unset,
              it loses its special properties,  even  if  it  is  subsequently
              reset.

       REPLY  Set  to  the line of input read by the read builtin command when
              no arguments are supplied.

       SECONDS
              Each time this parameter is referenced, the  number  of  seconds
              since  shell  invocation is returned.  If a value is assigned to
              SECONDS, the value returned upon subsequent  references  is  the
              number  of seconds since the assignment plus the value assigned.
              If SECONDS is unset, it loses its special properties, even if it
              is subsequently reset.

       SHELLOPTS
              A  colon-separated  list of enabled shell options.  Each word in
              the list is a valid argument  for  the  -o  option  to  the  set
              builtin command (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).  The options
              appearing in SHELLOPTS are those reported as on by set  -o.   If
              this  variable  is  in the environment when bash starts up, each
              shell option in the list will  be  enabled  before  reading  any
              startup files.  This variable is read-only.

       SHLVL  Incremented by one each time an instance of bash is started.

       UID    Expands to the user ID of the current user, initialized at shell
              startup.  This variable is readonly.

       The following variables are used by the shell.   In  some  cases,  bash
       assigns a default value to a variable; these cases are noted below.

       BASH_ENV
              If  this parameter is set when bash is executing a shell script,
              its value is interpreted as a filename  containing  commands  to
              initialize the shell, as in ~/.bashrc.  The value of BASH_ENV is
              subjected to  parameter  expansion,  command  substitution,  and
              arithmetic  expansion  before  being interpreted as a file name.
              PATH is not used to search for the resultant file name.
       CDPATH The search path for the cd command.  This is  a  colon-separated
              list  of  directories  in  which the shell looks for destination
              directories specified by the cd  command.   A  sample  value  is
              ".:~:/usr".
       COLUMNS
              Used  by  the  select  builtin command to determine the terminal
              width when printing selection  lists.   Automatically  set  upon
              receipt of a SIGWINCH.
       COMPREPLY
              An array variable from which bash reads the possible completions
              generated by a shell function invoked by the  programmable  com-
              pletion facility (see Programmable Completion below).
       EMACS  If  bash  finds  this variable in the environment when the shell
              starts with value "t", it assumes that the shell is  running  in
              an emacs shell buffer and disables line editing.
       FCEDIT The default editor for the fc builtin command.
       FIGNORE
              A  colon-separated  list  of  suffixes to ignore when performing
              filename completion (see READLINE below).  A filename whose suf-
              fix  matches  one of the entries in FIGNORE is excluded from the
              list of matched filenames.  A sample value is ".o:~".
       GLOBIGNORE
              A colon-separated list of patterns defining the set of filenames
              to be ignored by pathname expansion.  If a filename matched by a
              pathname expansion pattern also matches one of the  patterns  in
              GLOBIGNORE, it is removed from the list of matches.
       HISTCONTROL
              A  colon-separated  list  of values controlling how commands are
              saved on the history list.   If  the  list  of  values  includes
              ignorespace,  lines  which  begin with a space character are not
              saved in the history list.  A value of ignoredups  causes  lines
              matching the previous history entry to not be saved.  A value of
              ignoreboth is shorthand for ignorespace and ignoredups.  A value
              of erasedups causes all previous lines matching the current line
              to be removed from the history list before that line  is  saved.
              Any  value  not in the above list is ignored.  If HISTCONTROL is
              unset, or does not include a valid value, all lines read by  the
              shell parser are saved on the history list, subject to the value
              of HISTIGNORE.  The second and subsequent lines of a  multi-line
              compound  command  are  not tested, and are added to the history
              regardless of the value of HISTCONTROL.
       HISTFILE
              The name of the file in which command history is saved (see HIS-
              TORY  below).   The default value is ~/.bash_history.  If unset,
              the command history is  not  saved  when  an  interactive  shell
              exits.
       HISTFILESIZE
              The maximum number of lines contained in the history file.  When
              this variable is assigned a value, the  history  file  is  trun-
              cated,  if necessary, by removing the oldest entries, to contain
              no more than that number of lines.  The default  value  is  500.
              The history file is also truncated to this size after writing it
              when an interactive shell exits.
       HISTIGNORE
              A colon-separated list of patterns used to decide which  command
              lines  should  be  saved  on  the history list.  Each pattern is
              anchored at the beginning of the line and must  match  the  com-
              plete  line  (no  implicit  `*'  is  appended).  Each pattern is
              tested against the line after the checks specified  by  HISTCON-
              TROL  are  applied.   In  addition  to  the normal shell pattern
              matching characters, `&' matches the previous history line.  `&'
              may  be  escaped  using  a  backslash;  the backslash is removed
              before attempting a match.  The second and subsequent lines of a
              multi-line compound command are not tested, and are added to the
              history regardless of the value of HISTIGNORE.
       HISTSIZE
              The number of commands to remember in the command  history  (see
              HISTORY below).  The default value is 500.
       HISTTIMEFORMAT
              If  this  variable  is  set and not null, its value is used as a
              format string for strftime(3) to print the time stamp associated
              with  each  history  entry displayed by the history builtin.  If
              this variable is set, time stamps are  written  to  the  history
              file so they may be preserved across shell sessions.
       HOME   The home directory of the current user; the default argument for
              the cd builtin command.  The value of this variable is also used
              when performing tilde expansion.
       HOSTFILE
              Contains  the  name  of  a file in the same format as /etc/hosts
              that should be read when the shell needs to complete a hostname.
              The  list  of possible hostname completions may be changed while
              the shell is running;  the  next  time  hostname  completion  is
              attempted  after the value is changed, bash adds the contents of
              the new file to the existing list.  If HOSTFILE is set, but  has
              no value, bash attempts to read /etc/hosts to obtain the list of
              possible hostname completions.   When  HOSTFILE  is  unset,  the
              hostname list is cleared.
       IFS    The  Internal  Field  Separator  that is used for word splitting
              after expansion and to split lines  into  words  with  the  read
              builtin  command.   The  default  value  is  ``<space><tab><new-
              line>''.
       IGNOREEOF
              Controls the action of an interactive shell on receipt of an EOF
              character as the sole input.  If set, the value is the number of
              consecutive EOF characters which must  be  typed  as  the  first
              characters  on an input line before bash exits.  If the variable
              exists but does not have a numeric value, or has no  value,  the
              default  value  is  10.  If it does not exist, EOF signifies the
              end of input to the shell.
       INPUTRC
              The filename for  the  readline  startup  file,  overriding  the
              default of ~/.inputrc (see READLINE below).
       LANG   Used  to  determine  the  locale  category  for any category not
              specifically selected with a variable starting with LC_.
       LC_ALL This variable overrides the value of  LANG  and  any  other  LC_
              variable specifying a locale category.
       LC_COLLATE
              This  variable  determines the collation order used when sorting
              the results of pathname expansion, and determines  the  behavior
              of   range   expressions,  equivalence  classes,  and  collating
              sequences within pathname expansion and pattern matching.
       LC_CTYPE
              This variable determines the interpretation  of  characters  and
              the  behavior of character classes within pathname expansion and
              pattern matching.
       LC_MESSAGES
              This variable determines the locale used  to  translate  double-
              quoted strings preceded by a $.
       LC_NUMERIC
              This  variable  determines  the  locale category used for number
              formatting.
       LINES  Used by the select  builtin  command  to  determine  the  column
              length  for  printing  selection  lists.  Automatically set upon
              receipt of a SIGWINCH.
       MAIL   If this parameter is set to a file name and the  MAILPATH  vari-
              able is not set, bash informs the user of the arrival of mail in
              the specified file.
       MAILCHECK
              Specifies how often (in seconds)  bash  checks  for  mail.   The
              default  is  60 seconds.  When it is time to check for mail, the
              shell does so before displaying the  primary  prompt.   If  this
              variable  is  unset,  or  set  to  a  value that is not a number
              greater than or equal to zero, the shell disables mail checking.
       MAILPATH
              A  colon-separated  list  of  file names to be checked for mail.
              The message to be printed when mail arrives in a particular file
              may  be  specified  by separating the file name from the message
              with a `?'.  When used in the text of the message, $_ expands to
              the name of the current mailfile.  Example:
              MAILPATH='/var/mail/bfox?"You  have  mail":~/shell-mail?"$_  has
              mail!"'
              Bash supplies a default value for this variable, but  the  loca-
              tion  of  the  user  mail files that it uses is system dependent
              (e.g., /var/mail/$USER).
       OPTERR If set to the value 1, bash displays error messages generated by
              the  getopts builtin command (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).
              OPTERR is initialized to 1 each time the shell is invoked  or  a
              shell script is executed.
       PATH   The  search  path for commands.  It is a colon-separated list of
              directories in which the shell looks for commands  (see  COMMAND
              EXECUTION  below).   A  zero-length (null) directory name in the
              value of PATH indicates the current directory.  A null directory
              name  may  appear  as  two  adjacent colons, or as an initial or
              trailing colon.  The default path is  system-dependent,  and  is
              set  by  the administrator who installs bash.  A common value is
              ``/usr/gnu/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/ucb:/bin:/usr/bin''.
       POSIXLY_CORRECT
              If this variable is in the environment  when  bash  starts,  the
              shell  enters posix mode before reading the startup files, as if
              the --posix invocation option had been supplied.  If it  is  set
              while  the  shell is running, bash enables posix mode, as if the
              command set -o posix had been executed.
       PROMPT_COMMAND
              If set, the value is executed as a command prior to issuing each
              primary prompt.
       PS1    The  value  of  this parameter is expanded (see PROMPTING below)
              and used as the primary prompt string.   The  default  value  is
              ``\s-\v\$ ''.
       PS2    The  value of this parameter is expanded as with PS1 and used as
              the secondary prompt string.  The default is ``> ''.
       PS3    The value of this parameter is used as the prompt for the select
              command (see SHELL GRAMMAR above).
       PS4    The  value  of  this  parameter  is expanded as with PS1 and the
              value is printed before each command  bash  displays  during  an
              execution  trace.  The first character of PS4 is replicated mul-
              tiple times, as necessary, to indicate multiple levels of  indi-
              rection.  The default is ``+ ''.
       SHELL  The full pathname to the shell is kept in this environment vari-
              able.  If it is not set when the shell starts, bash  assigns  to
              it the full pathname of the current user's login shell.
       TIMEFORMAT
              The  value of this parameter is used as a format string specify-
              ing how the timing information for pipelines prefixed  with  the
              time  reserved word should be displayed.  The % character intro-
              duces an escape sequence that is expanded to  a  time  value  or
              other  information.  The escape sequences and their meanings are
              as follows; the braces denote optional portions.
              %%        A literal %.
              %[p][l]R  The elapsed time in seconds.
              %[p][l]U  The number of CPU seconds spent in user mode.
              %[p][l]S  The number of CPU seconds spent in system mode.
              %P        The CPU percentage, computed as (%U + %S) / %R.

              The optional p is a digit specifying the precision,  the  number
              of fractional digits after a decimal point.  A value of 0 causes
              no decimal point or fraction to be output.  At most three places
              after  the  decimal  point may be specified; values of p greater
              than 3 are changed to 3.  If p is not specified, the value 3  is
              used.

              The  optional l specifies a longer format, including minutes, of
              the form MMmSS.FFs.  The value of p determines  whether  or  not
              the fraction is included.

              If  this  variable  is not set, bash acts as if it had the value
              $'\nreal\t%3lR\nuser\t%3lU\nsys%3lS'.  If the value is null,  no
              timing  information  is  displayed.  A trailing newline is added
              when the format string is displayed.

       TMOUT  If set to a value greater than zero, TMOUT  is  treated  as  the
              default timeout for the read builtin.  The select command termi-
              nates if input does not arrive after TMOUT seconds when input is
              coming  from  a terminal.  In an interactive shell, the value is
              interpreted as the number of seconds to  wait  for  input  after
              issuing  the  primary prompt.  Bash terminates after waiting for
              that number of seconds if input does not arrive.

       TMPDIR If set, Bash uses its value as the name of a directory in  which
              Bash creates temporary files for the shell's use.

       auto_resume
              This variable controls how the shell interacts with the user and
              job control.  If this variable is set, single word  simple  com-
              mands without redirections are treated as candidates for resump-
              tion of an existing stopped job.  There is no ambiguity allowed;
              if  there  is more than one job beginning with the string typed,
              the job most recently accessed  is  selected.   The  name  of  a
              stopped  job, in this context, is the command line used to start
              it.  If set to the value exact, the string supplied  must  match
              the  name  of  a  stopped  job exactly; if set to substring, the
              string supplied needs to match a substring  of  the  name  of  a
              stopped  job.  The substring value provides functionality analo-
              gous to the %?  job identifier (see JOB CONTROL below).  If  set
              to  any  other  value, the supplied string must be a prefix of a
              stopped job's name; this provides functionality analogous to the
              %string job identifier.

       histchars
              The  two or three characters which control history expansion and
              tokenization (see HISTORY EXPANSION below).  The first character
              is  the history expansion character, the character which signals
              the start of a history  expansion,  normally  `!'.   The  second
              character  is the quick substitution character, which is used as
              shorthand for re-running the previous command  entered,  substi-
              tuting  one  string  for another in the command.  The default is
              `^'.  The optional third character is the character which  indi-
              cates  that the remainder of the line is a comment when found as
              the first character of a word, normally `#'.  The  history  com-
              ment character causes history substitution to be skipped for the
              remaining words on the line.  It does not necessarily cause  the
              shell parser to treat the rest of the line as a comment.

   Arrays
       Bash  provides  one-dimensional  array  variables.  Any variable may be
       used as an array; the declare builtin will explicitly declare an array.
       There  is no maximum limit on the size of an array, nor any requirement
       that members be indexed or assigned contiguously.  Arrays  are  indexed
       using integers and are zero-based.

       An  array is created automatically if any variable is assigned to using
       the syntax name[subscript]=value.   The  subscript  is  treated  as  an
       arithmetic  expression  that  must evaluate to a number greater than or
       equal to zero.  To explicitly declare an array,  use  declare  -a  name
       (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).  declare -a name[subscript] is also
       accepted; the subscript is ignored.  Attributes may be specified for an
       array variable using the declare and readonly builtins.  Each attribute
       applies to all members of an array.

       Arrays  are  assigned  to  using  compound  assignments  of  the   form
       name=(value1  ...  valuen),  where  each  value  is  of  the form [sub-
       script]=string.  Only string is required.  If the optional brackets and
       subscript  are supplied, that index is assigned to; otherwise the index
       of the element assigned is the last index assigned to by the  statement
       plus  one.   Indexing  starts at zero.  This syntax is also accepted by
       the declare builtin.  Individual array  elements  may  be  assigned  to
       using the name[subscript]=value syntax introduced above.

       Any  element  of  an  array may be referenced using ${name[subscript]}.
       The braces are required to avoid conflicts with pathname expansion.  If
       subscript  is  @  or *, the word expands to all members of name.  These
       subscripts differ only when the word appears within double quotes.   If
       the word is double-quoted, ${name[*]} expands to a single word with the
       value of each array member separated by the first character of the  IFS
       special variable, and ${name[@]} expands each element of name to a sep-
       arate word.  When there are no array  members,  ${name[@]}  expands  to
       nothing.   If  the  double-quoted  expansion  occurs within a word, the
       expansion of the first parameter is joined with the beginning  part  of
       the  original  word,  and the expansion of the last parameter is joined
       with the last part of the original word.   This  is  analogous  to  the
       expansion  of  the  special  parameters * and @ (see Special Parameters
       above).  ${#name[subscript]}  expands  to  the  length  of  ${name[sub-
       script]}.   If subscript is * or @, the expansion is the number of ele-
       ments in the array.  Referencing an array variable without a  subscript
       is equivalent to referencing element zero.

       The  unset  builtin  is  used to destroy arrays.  unset name[subscript]
       destroys the array element at index subscript.  Care must be  taken  to
       avoid unwanted side effects caused by filename generation.  unset name,
       where name is an array, or unset name[subscript], where subscript is  *
       or @, removes the entire array.

       The  declare,  local,  and readonly builtins each accept a -a option to
       specify an array.  The read builtin accepts a -a  option  to  assign  a
       list  of  words  read from the standard input to an array.  The set and
       declare builtins display array values in a way that allows them  to  be
       reused as assignments.

EXPANSION
       Expansion is performed on the command line after it has been split into
       words.  There are seven kinds of expansion performed: brace  expansion,
       tilde  expansion,  parameter  and variable expansion, command substitu-
       tion, arithmetic expansion, word splitting, and pathname expansion.

       The order of expansions is: brace expansion, tilde  expansion,  parame-
       ter,  variable  and arithmetic expansion and command substitution (done
       in a left-to-right fashion), word splitting, and pathname expansion.

       On systems that can support it, there is an additional expansion avail-
       able: process substitution.

       Only brace expansion, word splitting, and pathname expansion can change
       the number of words of the expansion; other expansions expand a  single
       word  to a single word.  The only exceptions to this are the expansions
       of "$@" and "${name[@]}" as explained above (see PARAMETERS).

   Brace Expansion
       Brace expansion is a mechanism by which arbitrary strings may be gener-
       ated.   This  mechanism is similar to pathname expansion, but the file-
       names generated need not exist.  Patterns to be brace expanded take the
       form of an optional preamble, followed by either a series of comma-sep-
       arated strings or a sequence expression between a pair of braces,  fol-
       lowed  by  an  optional  postscript.   The preamble is prefixed to each
       string contained within the braces, and the postscript is then appended
       to each resulting string, expanding left to right.

       Brace  expansions  may  be nested.  The results of each expanded string
       are not sorted;  left  to  right  order  is  preserved.   For  example,
       a{d,c,b}e expands into `ade ace abe'.

       A  sequence  expression takes the form {x..y}, where x and y are either
       integers or single characters.  When integers are supplied, the expres-
       sion  expands  to each number between x and y, inclusive.  When charac-
       ters are supplied, the expression expands  to  each  character  lexico-
       graphically between x and y, inclusive.  Note that both x and y must be
       of the same type.

       Brace expansion is performed before any other expansions, and any char-
       acters  special to other expansions are preserved in the result.  It is
       strictly textual.  Bash does not apply any syntactic interpretation  to
       the context of the expansion or the text between the braces.

       A  correctly-formed  brace  expansion must contain unquoted opening and
       closing braces, and at least one unquoted comma  or  a  valid  sequence
       expression.   Any incorrectly formed brace expansion is left unchanged.
       A { or , may be quoted with a backslash to prevent its being considered
       part  of  a brace expression.  To avoid conflicts with parameter expan-
       sion, the string ${ is not considered eligible for brace expansion.

       This construct is typically used as shorthand when the common prefix of
       the strings to be generated is longer than in the above example:

              mkdir /usr/local/src/bash/{old,new,dist,bugs}
       or
              chown root /usr/{ucb/{ex,edit},lib/{ex?.?*,how_ex}}

       Brace  expansion  introduces  a  slight incompatibility with historical
       versions of sh.  sh does not treat opening or closing braces  specially
       when  they  appear as part of a word, and preserves them in the output.
       Bash removes braces from words as a  consequence  of  brace  expansion.
       For  example,  a word entered to sh as file{1,2} appears identically in
       the output.  The same word is output as file1 file2 after expansion  by
       bash.   If strict compatibility with sh is desired, start bash with the
       +B option or disable brace expansion with the +B option to the set com-
       mand (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).

   Tilde Expansion
       If  a  word  begins  with an unquoted tilde character (`~'), all of the
       characters preceding the first unquoted slash (or  all  characters,  if
       there  is no unquoted slash) are considered a tilde-prefix.  If none of
       the characters in the tilde-prefix are quoted, the  characters  in  the
       tilde-prefix  following the tilde are treated as a possible login name.
       If this login name is the null string, the tilde is replaced  with  the
       value  of  the shell parameter HOME.  If HOME is unset, the home direc-
       tory of the user executing the shell is  substituted  instead.   Other-
       wise,  the  tilde-prefix is replaced with the home directory associated
       with the specified login name.

       If the tilde-prefix is a `~+', the value  of  the  shell  variable  PWD
       replaces the tilde-prefix.  If the tilde-prefix is a `~-', the value of
       the shell variable OLDPWD, if it is set, is substituted.  If the  char-
       acters  following  the tilde in the tilde-prefix consist of a number N,
       optionally prefixed by a `+' or a `-',  the  tilde-prefix  is  replaced
       with the corresponding element from the directory stack, as it would be
       displayed by the dirs builtin invoked with the tilde-prefix as an argu-
       ment.   If  the characters following the tilde in the tilde-prefix con-
       sist of a number without a leading `+' or `-', `+' is assumed.

       If the login name is invalid, or the tilde expansion fails, the word is
       unchanged.

       Each variable assignment is checked for unquoted tilde-prefixes immedi-
       ately following a : or the first =.  In these cases, tilde expansion is
       also  performed.   Consequently,  one may use file names with tildes in
       assignments to PATH, MAILPATH, and CDPATH, and the  shell  assigns  the
       expanded value.

   Parameter Expansion
       The `$' character introduces parameter expansion, command substitution,
       or arithmetic expansion.  The parameter name or symbol to  be  expanded
       may  be enclosed in braces, which are optional but serve to protect the
       variable to be expanded from characters immediately following it  which
       could be interpreted as part of the name.

       When  braces  are  used, the matching ending brace is the first `}' not
       escaped by a backslash or within a quoted string,  and  not  within  an
       embedded  arithmetic  expansion,  command  substitution,  or  parameter
       expansion.

       ${parameter}
              The value of parameter is substituted.  The braces are  required
              when  parameter  is  a  positional  parameter with more than one
              digit, or when parameter is followed by a character which is not
              to be interpreted as part of its name.

       If the first character of parameter is an exclamation point, a level of
       variable indirection is introduced.  Bash uses the value of  the  vari-
       able  formed  from  the  rest of parameter as the name of the variable;
       this variable is then expanded and that value is used in  the  rest  of
       the  substitution,  rather than the value of parameter itself.  This is
       known as indirect expansion.  The exceptions to this are the expansions
       of  ${!prefix*} and ${!name[@]} described below.  The exclamation point
       must immediately follow the left brace in order to  introduce  indirec-
       tion.

       In each of the cases below, word is subject to tilde expansion, parame-
       ter expansion, command substitution, and  arithmetic  expansion.   When
       not  performing substring expansion, bash tests for a parameter that is
       unset or null; omitting the colon results in a test only for a  parame-
       ter that is unset.

       ${parameter:-word}
              Use  Default  Values.  If parameter is unset or null, the expan-
              sion of word is substituted.  Otherwise, the value of  parameter
              is substituted.
       ${parameter:=word}
              Assign  Default  Values.   If  parameter  is  unset or null, the
              expansion of word is assigned to parameter.  The value of param-
              eter  is  then  substituted.   Positional parameters and special
              parameters may not be assigned to in this way.
       ${parameter:?word}
              Display Error if Null or Unset.  If parameter is null or  unset,
              the  expansion  of  word (or a message to that effect if word is
              not present) is written to the standard error and the shell,  if
              it is not interactive, exits.  Otherwise, the value of parameter
              is substituted.
       ${parameter:+word}
              Use Alternate Value.  If parameter is null or unset, nothing  is
              substituted, otherwise the expansion of word is substituted.
       ${parameter:offset}
       ${parameter:offset:length}
              Substring  Expansion.   Expands  to  up  to length characters of
              parameter starting at the character  specified  by  offset.   If
              length  is omitted, expands to the substring of parameter start-
              ing at the character specified by offset.  length and offset are
              arithmetic   expressions   (see  ARITHMETIC  EVALUATION  below).
              length must evaluate to a number greater than or equal to  zero.
              If  offset  evaluates  to  a number less than zero, the value is
              used as an offset from the end of the value  of  parameter.   If
              parameter  is  @,  the  result  is  length positional parameters
              beginning at offset.  If parameter is an array name indexed by @
              or  *,  the  result is the length members of the array beginning
              with ${parameter[offset]}.  A negative offset is taken  relative
              to  one  greater  than the maximum index of the specified array.
              Note that a negative offset must be separated from the colon  by
              at  least  one  space to avoid being confused with the :- expan-
              sion.  Substring indexing is zero-based  unless  the  positional
              parameters are used, in which case the indexing starts at 1.

       ${!prefix*}
       ${!prefix@}
              Expands to the names of variables whose names begin with prefix,
              separated by the first character of the IFS special variable.

       ${!name[@]}
       ${!name[*]}
              If name is an array variable,  expands  to  the  list  of  array
              indices  (keys)  assigned  in  name.   If  name is not an array,
              expands to 0 if name is set and null otherwise.  When @ is  used
              and the expansion appears within double quotes, each key expands
              to a separate word.

       ${#parameter}
              The length in characters of the value of  parameter  is  substi-
              tuted.   If  parameter  is  * or @, the value substituted is the
              number of positional parameters.  If parameter is an array  name
              subscripted  by  *  or @, the value substituted is the number of
              elements in the array.

       ${parameter#word}
       ${parameter##word}
              The word is expanded to produce a pattern just  as  in  pathname
              expansion.  If the pattern matches the beginning of the value of
              parameter, then the result of  the  expansion  is  the  expanded
              value of parameter with the shortest matching pattern (the ``#''
              case) or the longest matching pattern (the ``##'' case) deleted.
              If parameter is @ or *, the pattern removal operation is applied
              to each positional parameter in turn, and the expansion  is  the
              resultant  list.   If parameter is an array variable subscripted
              with @ or *, the pattern removal operation is  applied  to  each
              member  of the array in turn, and the expansion is the resultant
              list.

       ${parameter%word}
       ${parameter%%word}
              The word is expanded to produce a pattern just  as  in  pathname
              expansion.   If  the  pattern  matches a trailing portion of the
              expanded value of parameter, then the result of the expansion is
              the  expanded value of parameter with the shortest matching pat-
              tern (the ``%'' case)  or  the  longest  matching  pattern  (the
              ``%%''  case)  deleted.   If  parameter  is  @ or *, the pattern
              removal operation is applied to  each  positional  parameter  in
              turn,  and the expansion is the resultant list.  If parameter is
              an array variable subscripted with @ or *, the  pattern  removal
              operation  is  applied  to each member of the array in turn, and
              the expansion is the resultant list.

       ${parameter/pattern/string}
              The pattern is expanded to produce a pattern just as in pathname
              expansion.   Parameter is expanded and the longest match of pat-
              tern against its value is replaced  with  string.   If  Ipattern
              begins  with /, all matches of pattern are replaced with string.
              Normally only the first match is replaced.   If  pattern  begins
              with  #, it must match at the beginning of the expanded value of
              parameter.  If pattern begins with %, it must match at  the  end
              of  the expanded value of parameter.  If string is null, matches
              of pattern are deleted and the / following pattern may be  omit-
              ted.   If  parameter  is  @  or *, the substitution operation is
              applied to each positional parameter in turn, and the  expansion
              is  the  resultant list.  If parameter is an array variable sub-
              scripted with @ or *, the substitution operation is  applied  to
              each  member  of  the  array  in  turn, and the expansion is the
              resultant list.

   Command Substitution
       Command substitution allows the output of a command to replace the com-
       mand name.  There are two forms:


              $(command)
       or
              `command`

       Bash performs the expansion by executing command and replacing the com-
       mand substitution with the standard output of  the  command,  with  any
       trailing newlines deleted.  Embedded newlines are not deleted, but they
       may be removed during word splitting.  The command  substitution  $(cat
       file) can be replaced by the equivalent but faster $(< file).

       When  the  old-style  backquote form of substitution is used, backslash
       retains its literal meaning except when followed by $, `,  or  \.   The
       first backquote not preceded by a backslash terminates the command sub-
       stitution.  When using the $(command) form, all characters between  the
       parentheses make up the command; none are treated specially.

       Command substitutions may be nested.  To nest when using the backquoted
       form, escape the inner backquotes with backslashes.

       If the substitution appears within double quotes,  word  splitting  and
       pathname expansion are not performed on the results.

   Arithmetic Expansion
       Arithmetic  expansion allows the evaluation of an arithmetic expression
       and the substitution of the result.  The format for  arithmetic  expan-
       sion is:

              $((expression))

       The  expression  is  treated  as if it were within double quotes, but a
       double quote inside the parentheses  is  not  treated  specially.   All
       tokens in the expression undergo parameter expansion, string expansion,
       command substitution, and quote removal.  Arithmetic expansions may  be
       nested.

       The  evaluation  is performed according to the rules listed below under
       ARITHMETIC EVALUATION.  If expression is invalid, bash prints a message
       indicating failure and no substitution occurs.

   Process Substitution
       Process  substitution  is supported on systems that support named pipes
       (FIFOs) or the /dev/fd method of naming open files.  It takes the  form
       of  <(list) or >(list).  The process list is run with its input or out-
       put connected to a FIFO or some file in /dev/fd.  The name of this file
       is  passed  as  an argument to the current command as the result of the
       expansion.  If the >(list) form is used, writing to the file will  pro-
       vide  input  for list.  If the <(list) form is used, the file passed as
       an argument should be read to obtain the output of list.

       When available, process substitution is performed  simultaneously  with
       parameter  and variable expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic
       expansion.

   Word Splitting
       The shell scans the results of parameter expansion,  command  substitu-
       tion,  and arithmetic expansion that did not occur within double quotes
       for word splitting.

       The shell treats each character of IFS as a delimiter, and  splits  the
       results of the other expansions into words on these characters.  If IFS
       is unset, or its value is exactly <space><tab><newline>,  the  default,
       then  any  sequence  of IFS characters serves to delimit words.  If IFS
       has a value other than the default, then sequences  of  the  whitespace
       characters  space  and  tab are ignored at the beginning and end of the
       word, as long as the whitespace character is in the value  of  IFS  (an
       IFS whitespace character).  Any character in IFS that is not IFS white-
       space, along with any adjacent IFS whitespace  characters,  delimits  a
       field.   A  sequence  of IFS whitespace characters is also treated as a
       delimiter.  If the value of IFS is null, no word splitting occurs.

       Explicit null arguments ("" or '')  are  retained.   Unquoted  implicit
       null arguments, resulting from the expansion of parameters that have no
       values, are removed.  If a parameter with no value is  expanded  within
       double quotes, a null argument results and is retained.

       Note that if no expansion occurs, no splitting is performed.

   Pathname Expansion
       After  word  splitting,  unless  the -f option has been set, bash scans
       each word for the characters *, ?, and [.  If one of  these  characters
       appears,  then  the word is regarded as a pattern, and replaced with an
       alphabetically sorted list of file names matching the pattern.   If  no
       matching  file  names  are found, and the shell option nullglob is dis-
       abled, the word is left unchanged.  If the nullglob option is set,  and
       no  matches  are  found,  the  word  is removed.  If the failglob shell
       option is set, and no matches are found, an error  message  is  printed
       and  the  command  is  not executed.  If the shell option nocaseglob is
       enabled, the match is performed without regard to the  case  of  alpha-
       betic  characters.   When a pattern is used for pathname expansion, the
       character ``.''  at the start of a  name  or  immediately  following  a
       slash  must  be  matched explicitly, unless the shell option dotglob is
       set.  When matching a pathname, the  slash  character  must  always  be
       matched  explicitly.   In  other  cases,  the  ``.''   character is not
       treated specially.  See the description  of  shopt  below  under  SHELL
       BUILTIN  COMMANDS  for a description of the nocaseglob, nullglob, fail-
       glob, and dotglob shell options.

       The GLOBIGNORE shell variable may be used to restrict the set  of  file
       names  matching  a  pattern.   If GLOBIGNORE is set, each matching file
       name that also matches one of the patterns  in  GLOBIGNORE  is  removed
       from the list of matches.  The file names ``.''  and ``..''  are always
       ignored when GLOBIGNORE is set and not null.  However, setting  GLOBIG-
       NORE  to  a non-null value has the effect of enabling the dotglob shell
       option, so all other file names beginning with a ``.''  will match.  To
       get  the  old  behavior  of ignoring file names beginning with a ``.'',
       make ``.*''  one of the patterns in GLOBIGNORE.  The dotglob option  is
       disabled when GLOBIGNORE is unset.

       Pattern Matching

       Any character that appears in a pattern, other than the special pattern
       characters described below, matches itself.  The NUL character may  not
       occur  in  a pattern.  A backslash escapes the following character; the
       escaping backslash is discarded when  matching.   The  special  pattern
       characters must be quoted if they are to be matched literally.

       The special pattern characters have the following meanings:

       *      Matches any string, including the null string.
       ?      Matches any single character.
       [...]  Matches  any  one of the enclosed characters.  A pair of charac-
              ters separated by a hyphen denotes a range expression; any char-
              acter  that sorts between those two characters, inclusive, using
              the current locale's collating sequence and  character  set,  is
              matched.   If the first character following the [ is a !  or a ^
              then any character not enclosed is matched.  The  sorting  order
              of  characters in range expressions is determined by the current
              locale and the value of the LC_COLLATE shell variable,  if  set.
              A  - may be matched by including it as the first or last charac-
              ter in the set.  A ] may be matched by including it as the first
              character in the set.

              Within  [  and  ],  character classes can be specified using the
              syntax [:class:], where class is one of  the  following  classes
              defined in the POSIX standard:
              alnum  alpha  ascii  blank  cntrl  digit graph lower print punct
              space upper word xdigit
              A character class matches any character belonging to that class.
              The  word character class matches letters, digits, and the char-
              acter _.

              Within [ and ], an equivalence class can be specified using  the
              syntax  [=c=], which matches all characters with the same colla-
              tion weight (as defined by the current locale) as the  character
              c.

              Within [ and ], the syntax [.symbol.] matches the collating sym-
              bol symbol.

       If the extglob shell option is enabled using the shopt builtin, several
       extended  pattern  matching operators are recognized.  In the following
       description, a pattern-list is a list of one or more patterns separated
       by a |.  Composite patterns may be formed using one or more of the fol-
       lowing sub-patterns:

              ?(pattern-list)
                     Matches zero or one occurrence of the given patterns
              *(pattern-list)
                     Matches zero or more occurrences of the given patterns
              +(pattern-list)
                     Matches one or more occurrences of the given patterns
              @(pattern-list)
                     Matches one of the given patterns
              !(pattern-list)
                     Matches anything except one of the given patterns

   Quote Removal
       After the preceding expansions, all unquoted occurrences of the charac-
       ters  \,  ', and " that did not result from one of the above expansions
       are removed.

REDIRECTION
       Before a command is executed, its input and output  may  be  redirected
       using  a  special  notation  interpreted by the shell.  Redirection may
       also be used to open and close files for the  current  shell  execution
       environment.  The following redirection operators may precede or appear
       anywhere within a simple command or may follow a command.  Redirections
       are processed in the order they appear, from left to right.

       In  the  following descriptions, if the file descriptor number is omit-
       ted, and the first character of the redirection operator is <, the  re-
       direction  refers  to  the  standard input (file descriptor 0).  If the
       first character of the  redirection  operator  is  >,  the  redirection
       refers to the standard output (file descriptor 1).

       The  word  following the redirection operator in the following descrip-
       tions, unless otherwise noted, is subjected to brace  expansion,  tilde
       expansion, parameter expansion, command substitution, arithmetic expan-
       sion, quote removal, pathname expansion, and  word  splitting.   If  it
       expands to more than one word, bash reports an error.

       Note  that  the order of redirections is significant.  For example, the
       command

              ls > dirlist 2>&1

       directs both standard output and standard error to  the  file  dirlist,
       while the command

              ls 2>&1 > dirlist

       directs  only the standard output to file dirlist, because the standard
       error was duplicated as standard output before the standard output  was
       redirected to dirlist.

       Bash handles several filenames specially when they are used in redirec-
       tions, as described in the following table:

              /dev/fd/fd
                     If fd is a valid integer, file descriptor  fd  is  dupli-
                     cated.
              /dev/stdin
                     File descriptor 0 is duplicated.
              /dev/stdout
                     File descriptor 1 is duplicated.
              /dev/stderr
                     File descriptor 2 is duplicated.
              /dev/tcp/host/port
                     If host is a valid hostname or Internet address, and port
                     is an integer port number or service name, bash  attempts
                     to open a TCP connection to the corresponding socket.
              /dev/udp/host/port
                     If host is a valid hostname or Internet address, and port
                     is an integer port number or service name, bash  attempts
                     to open a UDP connection to the corresponding socket.

       A failure to open or create a file causes the redirection to fail.

       Redirections  using file descriptors greater than 9 should be used with
       care, as they may conflict with file descriptors the shell uses  inter-
       nally.

   Redirecting Input
       Redirection of input causes the file whose name results from the expan-
       sion of word to be opened for reading on  file  descriptor  n,  or  the
       standard input (file descriptor 0) if n is not specified.

       The general format for redirecting input is:

              [n]<word

   Redirecting Output
       Redirection  of  output  causes  the  file  whose name results from the
       expansion of word to be opened for writing on file descriptor n, or the
       standard output (file descriptor 1) if n is not specified.  If the file
       does not exist it is created; if it does exist it is truncated to  zero
       size.

       The general format for redirecting output is:

              [n]>word

       If  the  redirection operator is >, and the noclobber option to the set
       builtin has been enabled, the redirection will fail if the  file  whose
       name  results  from the expansion of word exists and is a regular file.
       If the redirection operator is >|, or the redirection operator is > and
       the noclobber option to the set builtin command is not enabled, the re-
       direction is attempted even if the file named by word exists.

   Appending Redirected Output
       Redirection of output in  this  fashion  causes  the  file  whose  name
       results  from  the expansion of word to be opened for appending on file
       descriptor n, or the standard output (file descriptor 1) if  n  is  not
       specified.  If the file does not exist it is created.

       The general format for appending output is:

              [n]>>word


   Redirecting Standard Output and Standard Error
       Bash  allows both the standard output (file descriptor 1) and the stan-
       dard error output (file descriptor 2) to  be  redirected  to  the  file
       whose name is the expansion of word with this construct.

       There  are  two  formats  for  redirecting standard output and standard
       error:

              &>word
       and
              >&word

       Of the two forms, the first is preferred.  This is semantically equiva-
       lent to

              >word 2>&1

   Here Documents
       This  type  of  redirection  instructs the shell to read input from the
       current source until a line containing  only  word  (with  no  trailing
       blanks)  is seen.  All of the lines read up to that point are then used
       as the standard input for a command.

       The format of here-documents is:

              <<[-]word
                      here-document
              delimiter

       No parameter expansion, command substitution, arithmetic expansion,  or
       pathname expansion is performed on word.  If any characters in word are
       quoted, the delimiter is the result of quote removal on word,  and  the
       lines  in the here-document are not expanded.  If word is unquoted, all
       lines of the here-document are subjected to parameter  expansion,  com-
       mand  substitution,  and arithmetic expansion.  In the latter case, the
       character sequence \<newline> is ignored, and \ must be used  to  quote
       the characters \, $, and `.

       If the redirection operator is <<-, then all leading tab characters are
       stripped from input lines and  the  line  containing  delimiter.   This
       allows  here-documents within shell scripts to be indented in a natural
       fashion.

   Here Strings
       A variant of here documents, the format is:

              <<<word

       The word is expanded and supplied to the command on its standard input.

   Duplicating File Descriptors
       The redirection operator

              [n]<&word

       is used to duplicate input file descriptors.  If word expands to one or
       more digits, the file descriptor denoted by n is made to be a  copy  of
       that  file  descriptor.   If  the  digits in word do not specify a file
       descriptor open for input, a redirection error occurs.  If word  evalu-
       ates  to  -,  file  descriptor n is closed.  If n is not specified, the
       standard input (file descriptor 0) is used.

       The operator

              [n]>&word

       is used similarly to duplicate output file descriptors.  If  n  is  not
       specified,  the  standard  output  (file descriptor 1) is used.  If the
       digits in word do not specify a file descriptor open for output, a  re-
       direction  error  occurs.  As a special case, if n is omitted, and word
       does not expand to one or more digits, the standard output and standard
       error are redirected as described previously.

   Moving File Descriptors
       The redirection operator

              [n]<&digit-

       moves  the  file descriptor digit to file descriptor n, or the standard
       input (file descriptor 0) if n is not specified.  digit is closed after
       being duplicated to n.

       Similarly, the redirection operator

              [n]>&digit-

       moves  the  file descriptor digit to file descriptor n, or the standard
       output (file descriptor 1) if n is not specified.

   Opening File Descriptors for Reading and Writing
       The redirection operator

              [n]<>word

       causes the file whose name is the expansion of word to  be  opened  for
       both  reading and writing on file descriptor n, or on file descriptor 0
       if n is not specified.  If the file does not exist, it is created.

ALIASES
       Aliases allow a string to be substituted for a word when it is used  as
       the  first  word  of  a  simple command.  The shell maintains a list of
       aliases that may be set and unset with the alias  and  unalias  builtin
       commands  (see  SHELL  BUILTIN COMMANDS below).  The first word of each
       simple command, if unquoted, is checked to see if it has an alias.   If
       so,  that word is replaced by the text of the alias.  The characters /,
       $, `, and = and any of the shell metacharacters or  quoting  characters
       listed above may not appear in an alias name.  The replacement text may
       contain any valid shell input,  including  shell  metacharacters.   The
       first  word  of  the replacement text is tested for aliases, but a word
       that is identical to an alias being expanded is not expanded  a  second
       time.   This  means  that  one may alias ls to ls -F, for instance, and
       bash does not try to recursively expand the replacement text.   If  the
       last  character  of  the  alias value is a blank, then the next command
       word following the alias is also checked for alias expansion.

       Aliases are created and listed with the alias command, and removed with
       the unalias command.

       There  is no mechanism for using arguments in the replacement text.  If
       arguments are needed, a shell function should be  used  (see  FUNCTIONS
       below).

       Aliases  are not expanded when the shell is not interactive, unless the
       expand_aliases shell option is set using shopt (see the description  of
       shopt under SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).

       The  rules  concerning  the  definition and use of aliases are somewhat
       confusing.  Bash always reads at  least  one  complete  line  of  input
       before  executing  any  of  the  commands  on  that  line.  Aliases are
       expanded when a command is read, not when it is  executed.   Therefore,
       an  alias definition appearing on the same line as another command does
       not take effect until the next line of input  is  read.   The  commands
       following the alias definition on that line are not affected by the new
       alias.  This behavior is also an issue  when  functions  are  executed.
       Aliases  are  expanded when a function definition is read, not when the
       function is executed, because a function definition is  itself  a  com-
       pound command.  As a consequence, aliases defined in a function are not
       available until after that function is executed.  To  be  safe,  always
       put  alias definitions on a separate line, and do not use alias in com-
       pound commands.

       For almost every purpose, aliases are superseded by shell functions.

FUNCTIONS
       A shell function, defined  as  described  above  under  SHELL  GRAMMAR,
       stores  a  series  of commands for later execution.  When the name of a
       shell function is used as a simple command name, the list  of  commands
       associated with that function name is executed.  Functions are executed
       in the context of the current shell;  no  new  process  is  created  to
       interpret  them  (contrast  this with the execution of a shell script).
       When a function is executed, the arguments to the function  become  the
       positional parameters during its execution.  The special parameter # is
       updated to reflect the change.  Special parameter 0 is unchanged.   The
       first  element of the FUNCNAME variable is set to the name of the func-
       tion while the function is executing.  All other aspects of  the  shell
       execution  environment  are identical between a function and its caller
       with the exception that the DEBUG and RETURN traps (see the description
       of  the trap builtin under SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below) are not inher-
       ited unless the function has been given the trace  attribute  (see  the
       description  of  the  declare  builtin below) or the -o functrace shell
       option has been enabled with the set builtin (in which case  all  func-
       tions inherit the DEBUG and RETURN traps).

       Variables  local to the function may be declared with the local builtin
       command.  Ordinarily, variables and their values are shared between the
       function and its caller.

       If  the  builtin command return is executed in a function, the function
       completes and execution resumes with the next command after  the  func-
       tion  call.   Any  command  associated with the RETURN trap is executed
       before execution resumes.  When a function completes, the values of the
       positional  parameters  and the special parameter # are restored to the
       values they had prior to the function's execution.

       Function names and definitions may be listed with the -f option to  the
       declare or typeset builtin commands.  The -F option to declare or type-
       set will list the function names only (and optionally the  source  file
       and  line  number, if the extdebug shell option is enabled).  Functions
       may be exported so that subshells automatically have them defined  with
       the  -f  option  to  the  export builtin.  A function definition may be
       deleted using the -f option to the  unset  builtin.   Note  that  shell
       functions and variables with the same name may result in multiple iden-
       tically-named entries in the environment passed to  the  shell's  chil-
       dren.  Care should be taken in cases where this may cause a problem.

       Functions  may  be  recursive.   No  limit  is imposed on the number of
       recursive calls.

ARITHMETIC EVALUATION
       The shell allows arithmetic expressions to be evaluated, under  certain
       circumstances  (see the let and declare builtin commands and Arithmetic
       Expansion).  Evaluation is done in fixed-width integers with  no  check
       for  overflow, though division by 0 is trapped and flagged as an error.
       The operators and their precedence, associativity, and values  are  the
       same  as in the C language.  The following list of operators is grouped
       into levels of equal-precedence operators.  The levels  are  listed  in
       order of decreasing precedence.

       id++ id--
              variable post-increment and post-decrement
       ++id --id
              variable pre-increment and pre-decrement
       - +    unary minus and plus
       ! ~    logical and bitwise negation
       **     exponentiation
       * / %  multiplication, division, remainder
       + -    addition, subtraction
       << >>  left and right bitwise shifts
       <= >= < >
              comparison
       == !=  equality and inequality
       &      bitwise AND
       ^      bitwise exclusive OR
       |      bitwise OR
       &&     logical AND
       ||     logical OR
       expr?expr:expr
              conditional operator
       = *= /= %= += -= <<= >>= &= ^= |=
              assignment
       expr1 , expr2
              comma

       Shell  variables  are  allowed as operands; parameter expansion is per-
       formed before the expression is evaluated.  Within an expression, shell
       variables  may  also  be referenced by name without using the parameter
       expansion syntax.  A shell variable that is null or unset evaluates  to
       0 when referenced by name without using the parameter expansion syntax.
       The value of a variable is evaluated as an arithmetic  expression  when
       it  is  referenced, or when a variable which has been given the integer
       attribute using declare -i is assigned a value.  A null value evaluates
       to  0.   A shell variable need not have its integer attribute turned on
       to be used in an expression.

       Constants with a leading 0 are interpreted as octal numbers.  A leading
       0x  or  0X  denotes  hexadecimal.   Otherwise,  numbers  take  the form
       [base#]n, where base is a decimal number between 2 and 64  representing
       the arithmetic base, and n is a number in that base.  If base# is omit-
       ted, then base 10 is used.  The digits greater than 9  are  represented
       by  the  lowercase  letters,  the  uppercase letters, @, and _, in that
       order.  If base is less than or equal to 36,  lowercase  and  uppercase
       letters may be used interchangeably to represent numbers between 10 and
       35.

       Operators are evaluated in order  of  precedence.   Sub-expressions  in
       parentheses  are  evaluated first and may override the precedence rules
       above.

CONDITIONAL EXPRESSIONS
       Conditional expressions are used by the [[  compound  command  and  the
       test  and [ builtin commands to test file attributes and perform string
       and arithmetic comparisons.  Expressions are formed from the  following
       unary  or  binary  primaries.   If any file argument to one of the pri-
       maries is of the form /dev/fd/n, then file descriptor n is checked.  If
       the  file  argument  to  one  of  the  primaries  is one of /dev/stdin,
       /dev/stdout, or /dev/stderr, file descriptor 0, 1, or 2,  respectively,
       is checked.

       Unless otherwise specified, primaries that operate on files follow sym-
       bolic links and operate on the target of the link, rather than the link
       itself.

       -a file
              True if file exists.
       -b file
              True if file exists and is a block special file.
       -c file
              True if file exists and is a character special file.
       -d file
              True if file exists and is a directory.
       -e file
              True if file exists.
       -f file
              True if file exists and is a regular file.
       -g file
              True if file exists and is set-group-id.
       -h file
              True if file exists and is a symbolic link.
       -k file
              True if file exists and its ``sticky'' bit is set.
       -p file
              True if file exists and 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 fd  True if file descriptor fd is open and refers to a terminal.
       -u file
              True if file exists and its set-user-id bit is set.
       -w file
              True if file exists and is writable.
       -x file
              True if file exists and is executable.
       -O file
              True if file exists and is owned by the effective user id.
       -G file
              True if file exists and is owned by the effective group id.
       -L file
              True if file exists and is a symbolic link.
       -S file
              True if file exists and is a socket.
       -N file
              True  if  file  exists  and  has been modified since it was last
              read.
       file1 -nt file2
              True if file1 is newer (according  to  modification  date)  than
              file2, or if file1 exists and file2 does not.
       file1 -ot file2
              True  if file1 is older than file2, or if file2 exists and file1
              does not.
       file1 -ef file2
              True if file1 and file2 refer to the same device and inode  num-
              bers.
       -o optname
              True  if  shell  option  optname  is  enabled.   See the list of
              options under the description  of  the  -o  option  to  the  set
              builtin below.
       -z string
              True if the length of string is zero.
       string
       -n string
              True if the length of string is non-zero.

       string1 == string2
              True if the strings are equal.  = may be used in place of == for
              strict POSIX compliance.

       string1 != string2
              True if the strings are not equal.

       string1 < string2
              True if string1 sorts before string2  lexicographically  in  the
              current locale.

       string1 > string2
              True  if  string1  sorts  after string2 lexicographically in the
              current locale.

       arg1 OP arg2
              OP is one of -eq, -ne, -lt, -le, -gt, or -ge.  These  arithmetic
              binary  operators return true if arg1 is equal to, not equal to,
              less than, less than or equal to, greater than, or greater  than
              or  equal  to arg2, respectively.  Arg1 and arg2 may be positive
              or negative integers.

SIMPLE COMMAND EXPANSION
       When a simple command is executed, the  shell  performs  the  following
       expansions, assignments, and redirections, from left to right.

       1.     The  words  that  the  parser has marked as variable assignments
              (those preceding the command name) and  redirections  are  saved
              for later processing.

       2.     The  words that are not variable assignments or redirections are
              expanded.  If any words remain after expansion, the  first  word
              is  taken  to be the name of the command and the remaining words
              are the arguments.

       3.     Redirections are performed as described above under REDIRECTION.

       4.     The text after the = in each variable assignment undergoes tilde
              expansion, parameter expansion, command substitution, arithmetic
              expansion,  and quote removal before being assigned to the vari-
              able.

       If no command name results, the variable assignments affect the current
       shell  environment.  Otherwise, the variables are added to the environ-
       ment of the executed command and do not affect the current shell  envi-
       ronment.   If  any  of  the assignments attempts to assign a value to a
       readonly variable, an error occurs, and the command exits with  a  non-
       zero status.

       If  no  command  name  results,  redirections are performed, but do not
       affect the current shell environment.  A redirection error  causes  the
       command to exit with a non-zero status.

       If  there is a command name left after expansion, execution proceeds as
       described below.  Otherwise, the command exits.  If one of  the  expan-
       sions  contained a command substitution, the exit status of the command
       is the exit status of the  last  command  substitution  performed.   If
       there were no command substitutions, the command exits with a status of
       zero.

COMMAND EXECUTION
       After a command has been split into words, if it results  in  a  simple
       command  and  an  optional list of arguments, the following actions are
       taken.

       If the command name contains no slashes, the shell attempts  to  locate
       it.   If  there  exists a shell function by that name, that function is
       invoked as described above in FUNCTIONS.  If the name does not match  a
       function,  the shell searches for it in the list of shell builtins.  If
       a match is found, that builtin is invoked.

       If the name is neither a shell function nor a builtin, and contains  no
       slashes,  bash  searches  each element of the PATH for a directory con-
       taining an executable file by that name.  Bash uses  a  hash  table  to
       remember  the  full pathnames of executable files (see hash under SHELL
       BUILTIN COMMANDS below).  A full search of the directories in  PATH  is
       performed  only  if the command is not found in the hash table.  If the
       search is unsuccessful, the shell prints an error message  and  returns
       an exit status of 127.

       If  the  search  is  successful, or if the command name contains one or
       more slashes, the shell executes the named program in a separate execu-
       tion environment.  Argument 0 is set to the name given, and the remain-
       ing arguments to the command are set to the arguments given, if any.

       If this execution fails because the file is not in  executable  format,
       and  the file is not a directory, it is assumed to be a shell script, a
       file containing shell commands.  A subshell is spawned to  execute  it.
       This  subshell  reinitializes itself, so that the effect is as if a new
       shell had been invoked to handle the script, with  the  exception  that
       the  locations  of  commands  remembered  by the parent (see hash below
       under SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS) are retained by the child.

       If the program is a file beginning with #!, the remainder of the  first
       line  specifies an interpreter for the program.  The shell executes the
       specified interpreter on operating systems that do not handle this exe-
       cutable format themselves.  The arguments to the interpreter consist of
       a single optional argument following the interpreter name on the  first
       line  of  the program, followed by the name of the program, followed by
       the command arguments, if any.

COMMAND EXECUTION ENVIRONMENT
       The shell has an execution environment, which consists of  the  follow-
       ing:


       o      open  files inherited by the shell at invocation, as modified by
              redirections supplied to the exec builtin

       o      the current working directory as set by cd, pushd, or  popd,  or
              inherited by the shell at invocation

       o      the  file  creation  mode mask as set by umask or inherited from
              the shell's parent

       o      current traps set by trap

       o      shell parameters that are set by variable assignment or with set
              or inherited from the shell's parent in the environment

       o      shell  functions  defined during execution or inherited from the
              shell's parent in the environment

       o      options enabled at invocation (either by default  or  with  com-
              mand-line arguments) or by set

       o      options enabled by shopt

       o      shell aliases defined with alias

       o      various  process  IDs,  including  those of background jobs, the
              value of $$, and the value of $PPID

       When a simple command other than a builtin or shell function is  to  be
       executed,  it  is invoked in a separate execution environment that con-
       sists of the following.  Unless otherwise noted, the values are  inher-
       ited from the shell.


       o      the  shell's  open  files,  plus any modifications and additions
              specified by redirections to the command

       o      the current working directory

       o      the file creation mode mask

       o      shell variables and functions  marked  for  export,  along  with
              variables exported for the command, passed in the environment

       o      traps caught by the shell are reset to the values inherited from
              the shell's parent, and traps ignored by the shell are ignored

       A command invoked  in  this  separate  environment  cannot  affect  the
       shell's execution environment.

       Command  substitution, commands grouped with parentheses, and asynchro-
       nous commands are invoked in a subshell environment that is a duplicate
       of  the  shell  environment,  except that traps caught by the shell are
       reset to the values that the shell inherited from its parent at invoca-
       tion.  Builtin commands that are invoked as part of a pipeline are also
       executed in a subshell environment.  Changes made to the subshell envi-
       ronment cannot affect the shell's execution environment.

       If  a  command  is  followed  by a & and job control is not active, the
       default standard input for the command is  the  empty  file  /dev/null.
       Otherwise,  the  invoked  command  inherits the file descriptors of the
       calling shell as modified by redirections.

ENVIRONMENT
       When a program is invoked it is given an array of  strings  called  the
       environment.   This  is  a  list  of  name-value  pairs,  of  the  form
       name=value.

       The shell provides several ways  to  manipulate  the  environment.   On
       invocation, the shell scans its own environment and creates a parameter
       for each name found, automatically marking it for export to child  pro-
       cesses.   Executed  commands  inherit  the environment.  The export and
       declare -x commands allow parameters and functions to be added  to  and
       deleted from the environment.  If the value of a parameter in the envi-
       ronment is modified, the new value becomes  part  of  the  environment,
       replacing  the  old.  The environment inherited by any executed command
       consists of the shell's initial environment, whose values may be  modi-
       fied  in  the  shell, less any pairs removed by the unset command, plus
       any additions via the export and declare -x commands.

       The environment for any simple command or  function  may  be  augmented
       temporarily  by  prefixing  it with parameter assignments, as described
       above in PARAMETERS.  These assignment statements affect only the envi-
       ronment seen by that command.

       If  the  -k option is set (see the set builtin command below), then all
       parameter assignments are placed in the environment for a command,  not
       just those that precede the command name.

       When  bash  invokes  an  external command, the variable _ is set to the
       full file name of the command and passed to that command in  its  envi-
       ronment.

EXIT STATUS
       For the shell's purposes, a command which exits with a zero exit status
       has succeeded.  An exit status of zero indicates success.   A  non-zero
       exit  status  indicates  failure.  When a command terminates on a fatal
       signal N, bash uses the value of 128+N as the exit status.

       If a command is not found, the child  process  created  to  execute  it
       returns  a status of 127.  If a command is found but is not executable,
       the return status is 126.

       If a command fails because of an error during expansion or redirection,
       the exit status is greater than zero.

       Shell  builtin  commands return a status of 0 (true) if successful, and
       non-zero (false) if an error occurs while they execute.   All  builtins
       return an exit status of 2 to indicate incorrect usage.

       Bash  itself  returns  the  exit  status  of the last command executed,
       unless a syntax error occurs, in which case it exits  with  a  non-zero
       value.  See also the exit builtin command below.

SIGNALS
       When  bash  is  interactive,  in  the  absence of any traps, it ignores
       SIGTERM (so that kill 0 does not kill an interactive shell), and SIGINT
       is  caught and handled (so that the wait builtin is interruptible).  In
       all cases, bash ignores SIGQUIT.  If job control  is  in  effect,  bash
       ignores SIGTTIN, SIGTTOU, and SIGTSTP.

       Non-builtin commands run by bash have signal handlers set to the values
       inherited by the shell from its parent.  When job  control  is  not  in
       effect,  asynchronous commands ignore SIGINT and SIGQUIT in addition to
       these inherited handlers.  Commands run as a result of command  substi-
       tution ignore the keyboard-generated job control signals SIGTTIN, SIGT-
       TOU, and SIGTSTP.

       The shell exits by default upon receipt of a SIGHUP.   Before  exiting,
       an  interactive  shell  resends  the  SIGHUP  to  all  jobs, running or
       stopped.  Stopped jobs are sent SIGCONT to ensure that they receive the
       SIGHUP.   To  prevent the shell from sending the signal to a particular
       job, it should be removed from the jobs table with the  disown  builtin
       (see  SHELL  BUILTIN  COMMANDS  below)  or marked to not receive SIGHUP
       using disown -h.

       If the huponexit shell option has been set with  shopt,  bash  sends  a
       SIGHUP to all jobs when an interactive login shell exits.

       If  bash is waiting for a command to complete and receives a signal for
       which a trap has been set, the trap will not be executed until the com-
       mand  completes.   When bash is waiting for an asynchronous command via
       the wait builtin, the reception of a signal for which a trap  has  been
       set will cause the wait builtin to return immediately with an exit sta-
       tus greater than 128, immediately after which the trap is executed.

JOB CONTROL
       Job control refers to the ability to  selectively  stop  (suspend)  the
       execution of processes and continue (resume) their execution at a later
       point.  A user typically  employs  this  facility  via  an  interactive
       interface supplied jointly by the system's terminal driver and bash.

       The  shell  associates  a  job with each pipeline.  It keeps a table of
       currently executing jobs, which may be listed with  the  jobs  command.
       When  bash starts a job asynchronously (in the background), it prints a
       line that looks like:

              [1] 25647

       indicating that this job is job number 1 and that the process ID of the
       last process in the pipeline associated with this job is 25647.  All of
       the processes in a single pipeline are members of the same  job.   Bash
       uses the job abstraction as the basis for job control.

       To  facilitate the implementation of the user interface to job control,
       the operating system maintains the notion of a current terminal process
       group ID.  Members of this process group (processes whose process group
       ID is equal to the current terminal process group ID) receive keyboard-
       generated  signals  such  as SIGINT.  These processes are said to be in
       the foreground.  Background processes are those whose process group  ID
       differs from the terminal's; such processes are immune to keyboard-gen-
       erated signals.  Only foreground processes are allowed to read from  or
       write to the terminal.  Background processes which attempt to read from
       (write to) the terminal are sent a SIGTTIN (SIGTTOU) signal by the ter-
       minal driver, which, unless caught, suspends the process.

       If  the operating system on which bash is running supports job control,
       bash contains facilities to use it.  Typing the suspend character (typ-
       ically ^Z, Control-Z) while a process is running causes that process to
       be stopped and returns control to bash.   Typing  the  delayed  suspend
       character  (typically  ^Y,  Control-Y) causes the process to be stopped
       when it attempts to read input from the terminal,  and  control  to  be
       returned  to bash.  The user may then manipulate the state of this job,
       using the bg command to continue it in the background, the  fg  command
       to continue it in the foreground, or the kill command to kill it.  A ^Z
       takes effect immediately, and has the additional side effect of causing
       pending output and typeahead to be discarded.

       There are a number of ways to refer to a job in the shell.  The charac-
       ter % introduces a job name.  Job number n may be referred to as %n.  A
       job  may  also  be referred to using a prefix of the name used to start
       it, or using a substring that appears in its command line.   For  exam-
       ple, %ce refers to a stopped ce job.  If a prefix matches more than one
       job, bash reports an error.  Using %?ce, on the other hand,  refers  to
       any job containing the string ce in its command line.  If the substring
       matches more than one job, bash reports an error.  The symbols  %%  and
       %+  refer  to  the shell's notion of the current job, which is the last
       job stopped while it was in the foreground  or  started  in  the  back-
       ground.   The  previous job may be referenced using %-.  In output per-
       taining to jobs (e.g., the output of the jobs command), the current job
       is  always flagged with a +, and the previous job with a -.  A single %
       (with no accompanying job specification) also  refers  to  the  current
       job.

       Simply  naming a job can be used to bring it into the foreground: %1 is
       a synonym for ``fg %1'', bringing job 1 from the  background  into  the
       foreground.   Similarly,  ``%1  &''  resumes  job  1 in the background,
       equivalent to ``bg %1''.

       The shell learns immediately whenever a job changes  state.   Normally,
       bash waits until it is about to print a prompt before reporting changes
       in a job's status so as to not interrupt any other output.  If  the  -b
       option to the set builtin command is enabled, bash reports such changes
       immediately.  Any trap on SIGCHLD  is  executed  for  each  child  that
       exits.

       If  an  attempt  to exit bash is made while jobs are stopped, the shell
       prints a warning message.  The jobs command may then be used to inspect
       their status.  If a second attempt to exit is made without an interven-
       ing command, the shell does not print another warning, and the  stopped
       jobs are terminated.

PROMPTING
       When executing interactively, bash displays the primary prompt PS1 when
       it is ready to read a command, and the secondary  prompt  PS2  when  it
       needs  more  input  to  complete  a  command.  Bash allows these prompt
       strings to be customized by inserting  a  number  of  backslash-escaped
       special characters that are decoded as follows:
              \a     an ASCII bell character (07)
              \d     the  date  in "Weekday Month Date" format (e.g., "Tue May
                     26")
              \D{format}
                     the format is passed to strftime(3)  and  the  result  is
                     inserted  into the prompt string; an empty format results
                     in a locale-specific time representation.  The braces are
                     required
              \e     an ASCII escape character (033)
              \h     the hostname up to the first `.'
              \H     the hostname
              \j     the number of jobs currently managed by the shell
              \l     the basename of the shell's terminal device name
              \n     newline
              \r     carriage return
              \s     the  name  of  the shell, the basename of $0 (the portion
                     following the final slash)
              \t     the current time in 24-hour HH:MM:SS format
              \T     the current time in 12-hour HH:MM:SS format
              \@     the current time in 12-hour am/pm format
              \A     the current time in 24-hour HH:MM format
              \u     the username of the current user
              \v     the version of bash (e.g., 2.00)
              \V     the release of bash, version + patch level (e.g., 2.00.0)
              \w     the  current  working  directory,  with $HOME abbreviated
                     with a tilde
              \W     the basename of the current working directory, with $HOME
                     abbreviated with a tilde
              \!     the history number of this command
              \#     the command number of this command
              \$     if the effective UID is 0, a #, otherwise a $
              \nnn   the character corresponding to the octal number nnn
              \\     a backslash
              \[     begin  a sequence of non-printing characters, which could
                     be used to embed a terminal  control  sequence  into  the
                     prompt
              \]     end a sequence of non-printing characters

       The  command  number  and the history number are usually different: the
       history number of a command is its position in the history list,  which
       may  include  commands  restored  from  the  history  file (see HISTORY
       below), while the command number is the position  in  the  sequence  of
       commands  executed  during the current shell session.  After the string
       is decoded, it is expanded via parameter expansion,  command  substitu-
       tion,  arithmetic expansion, and quote removal, subject to the value of
       the promptvars shell option (see the description of the  shopt  command
       under SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).

READLINE
       This  is  the library that handles reading input when using an interac-
       tive shell, unless the --noediting option is given at shell invocation.
       By default, the line editing commands are similar to those of emacs.  A
       vi-style line editing interface is also available.  To  turn  off  line
       editing  after  the shell is running, use the +o emacs or +o vi options
       to the set builtin (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).

   Readline Notation
       In this section, the emacs-style notation is used to denote keystrokes.
       Control  keys  are  denoted by C-key, e.g., C-n means Control-N.  Simi-
       larly, meta keys are denoted by M-key, so M-x means Meta-X.   (On  key-
       boards  without a meta key, M-x means ESC x, i.e., press the Escape key
       then the x key.  This makes ESC the meta prefix.  The combination M-C-x
       means  ESC-Control-x, or press the Escape key then hold the Control key
       while pressing the x key.)

       Readline commands may be given numeric arguments, which normally act as
       a  repeat  count.   Sometimes,  however, it is the sign of the argument
       that is significant.  Passing a negative argument  to  a  command  that
       acts  in the forward direction (e.g., kill-line) causes that command to
       act in a backward direction.  Commands whose  behavior  with  arguments
       deviates from this are noted below.

       When  a command is described as killing text, the text deleted is saved
       for possible future retrieval (yanking).  The killed text is saved in a
       kill ring.  Consecutive kills cause the text to be accumulated into one
       unit, which can be yanked all at once.  Commands which do not kill text
       separate the chunks of text on the kill ring.

   Readline Initialization
       Readline  is  customized  by putting commands in an initialization file
       (the inputrc file).  The name of this file is taken from the  value  of
       the  INPUTRC  variable.   If  that  variable  is  unset, the default is
       ~/.inputrc.  When a program which uses the readline library starts  up,
       the initialization file is read, and the key bindings and variables are
       set.  There are only a few basic constructs  allowed  in  the  readline
       initialization  file.  Blank lines are ignored.  Lines beginning with a
       # are comments.  Lines beginning with a  $  indicate  conditional  con-
       structs.  Other lines denote key bindings and variable settings.

       The  default  key-bindings  may be changed with an inputrc file.  Other
       programs that use this library may add their own commands and bindings.

       For example, placing

              M-Control-u: universal-argument
       or
              C-Meta-u: universal-argument
       into  the inputrc would make M-C-u execute the readline command univer-
       sal-argument.

       The following symbolic character names  are  recognized:  RUBOUT,  DEL,
       ESC, LFD, NEWLINE, RET, RETURN, SPC, SPACE, and TAB.

       In  addition  to  command  names, readline allows keys to be bound to a
       string that is inserted when the key is pressed (a macro).

   Readline Key Bindings
       The syntax for controlling key bindings in the inputrc file is  simple.
       All  that is required is the name of the command or the text of a macro
       and a key sequence to which it should be bound. The name may be  speci-
       fied in one of two ways: as a symbolic key name, possibly with Meta- or
       Control- prefixes, or as a key sequence.

       When using the form keyname:function-name or macro, keyname is the name
       of a key spelled out in English.  For example:

              Control-u: universal-argument
              Meta-Rubout: backward-kill-word
              Control-o: "> output"

       In  the above example, C-u is bound to the function universal-argument,
       M-DEL is bound to the function backward-kill-word, and C-o is bound  to
       run  the macro expressed on the right hand side (that is, to insert the
       text ``> output'' into the line).

       In the second form, "keyseq":function-name  or  macro,  keyseq  differs
       from  keyname above in that strings denoting an entire key sequence may
       be specified by placing the sequence within double  quotes.   Some  GNU
       Emacs  style  key escapes can be used, as in the following example, but
       the symbolic character names are not recognized.

              "\C-u": universal-argument
              "\C-x\C-r": re-read-init-file
              "\e[11~": "Function Key 1"

       In this example, C-u is again bound to the function universal-argument.
       C-x  C-r is bound to the function re-read-init-file, and ESC [ 1 1 ~ is
       bound to insert the text ``Function Key 1''.

       The full set of GNU Emacs style escape sequences is
              \C-    control prefix
              \M-    meta prefix
              \e     an escape character
              \\     backslash
              \"     literal "
              \'     literal '

       In addition to the GNU Emacs style escape sequences, a  second  set  of
       backslash escapes is available:
              \a     alert (bell)
              \b     backspace
              \d     delete
              \f     form feed
              \n     newline
              \r     carriage return
              \t     horizontal tab
              \v     vertical tab
              \nnn   the  eight-bit  character  whose value is the octal value
                     nnn (one to three digits)
              \xHH   the eight-bit character whose value  is  the  hexadecimal
                     value HH (one or two hex digits)

       When entering the text of a macro, single or double quotes must be used
       to indicate a macro definition.  Unquoted text is assumed to be a func-
       tion  name.   In  the macro body, the backslash escapes described above
       are expanded.  Backslash will quote any other character  in  the  macro
       text, including " and '.

       Bash  allows the current readline key bindings to be displayed or modi-
       fied with the bind builtin command.  The editing mode may  be  switched
       during  interactive  use by using the -o option to the set builtin com-
       mand (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).

   Readline Variables
       Readline has variables that can be used to further customize its behav-
       ior.  A variable may be set in the inputrc file with a statement of the
       form

              set variable-name value

       Except where noted, readline variables can take the values  On  or  Off
       (without  regard  to  case).   Unrecognized variable names are ignored.
       When a variable value is read, empty or null values, "on"  (case-insen-
       sitive), and "1" are equivalent to On.  All other values are equivalent
       to Off.  The variables and their default values are:

       bell-style (audible)
              Controls what happens when readline wants to ring  the  terminal
              bell.  If set to none, readline never rings the bell.  If set to
              visible, readline uses a visible bell if one is  available.   If
              set to audible, readline attempts to ring the terminal's bell.
       bind-tty-special-chars (On)
              If  set  to On, readline attempts to bind the control characters
              treated specially by the kernel's terminal driver to their read-
              line equivalents.
       comment-begin (``#'')
              The  string  that  is  inserted when the readline insert-comment
              command is executed.  This command is bound to M-# in emacs mode
              and to # in vi command mode.
       completion-ignore-case (Off)
              If set to On, readline performs filename matching and completion
              in a case-insensitive fashion.
       completion-query-items (100)
              This determines when the user is queried about viewing the  num-
              ber  of  possible  completions generated by the possible-comple-
              tions command.  It may be set to any integer value greater  than
              or  equal  to  zero.   If  the number of possible completions is
              greater than or equal to the value of this variable, the user is
              asked  whether or not he wishes to view them; otherwise they are
              simply listed on the terminal.
       convert-meta (On)
              If set to On, readline will convert characters with  the  eighth
              bit set to an ASCII key sequence by stripping the eighth bit and
              prefixing an escape character (in effect, using  escape  as  the
              meta prefix).
       disable-completion (Off)
              If set to On, readline will inhibit word completion.  Completion
              characters will be inserted into the line as if  they  had  been
              mapped to self-insert.
       editing-mode (emacs)
              Controls whether readline begins with a set of key bindings sim-
              ilar to emacs or vi.  editing-mode can be set to either emacs or
              vi.
       enable-keypad (Off)
              When set to On, readline will try to enable the application key-
              pad when it is called.  Some systems need  this  to  enable  the
              arrow keys.
       expand-tilde (Off)
              If  set  to  on,  tilde  expansion  is  performed  when readline
              attempts word completion.
       history-preserve-point (Off)
              If set to on, the history code attempts to place  point  at  the
              same  location on each history line retrieved with previous-his-
              tory or next-history.
       horizontal-scroll-mode (Off)
              When set to On, makes readline use a single  line  for  display,
              scrolling the input horizontally on a single screen line when it
              becomes longer than the screen width rather than wrapping  to  a
              new line.
       input-meta (Off)
              If  set to On, readline will enable eight-bit input (that is, it
              will not strip the high  bit  from  the  characters  it  reads),
              regardless of what the terminal claims it can support.  The name
              meta-flag is a synonym for this variable.
       isearch-terminators (``C-[C-J'')
              The string of characters that should  terminate  an  incremental
              search  without  subsequently  executing the character as a com-
              mand.  If this variable has not been given a value, the  charac-
              ters ESC and C-J will terminate an incremental search.
       keymap (emacs)
              Set  the current readline keymap.  The set of valid keymap names
              is emacs, emacs-standard, emacs-meta,  emacs-ctlx,  vi,  vi-com-
              mand,  and  vi-insert.  vi is equivalent to vi-command; emacs is
              equivalent to emacs-standard.  The default value is  emacs;  the
              value of editing-mode also affects the default keymap.
       mark-directories (On)
              If set to On, completed directory names have a slash appended.
       mark-modified-lines (Off)
              If  set  to  On,  history lines that have been modified are dis-
              played with a preceding asterisk (*).
       mark-symlinked-directories (Off)
              If set to On, completed names which are symbolic links to direc-
              tories   have   a  slash  appended  (subject  to  the  value  of
              mark-directories).
       match-hidden-files (On)
              This variable, when set to On, causes readline  to  match  files
              whose  names  begin  with  a  `.' (hidden files) when performing
              filename completion, unless the leading `.' is supplied  by  the
              user in the filename to be completed.
       output-meta (Off)
              If  set  to On, readline will display characters with the eighth
              bit set directly rather than as a meta-prefixed escape sequence.
       page-completions (On)
              If  set to On, readline uses an internal more-like pager to dis-
              play a screenful of possible completions at a time.
       print-completions-horizontally (Off)
              If set to On, readline will  display  completions  with  matches
              sorted  horizontally in alphabetical order, rather than down the
              screen.
       show-all-if-ambiguous (Off)
              This alters the default behavior of  the  completion  functions.
              If set to on, words which have more than one possible completion
              cause the matches to be listed immediately  instead  of  ringing
              the bell.
       show-all-if-unmodified (Off)
              This  alters the default behavior of the completion functions in
              a fashion similar to show-all-if-ambiguous.  If set to on, words
              which  have more than one possible completion without any possi-
              ble partial completion (the possible completions don't  share  a
              common  prefix)  cause  the  matches  to  be  listed immediately
              instead of ringing the bell.
       visible-stats (Off)
              If set to On, a character denoting a file's type as reported  by
              stat(2)  is  appended to the filename when listing possible com-
              pletions.

   Readline Conditional Constructs
       Readline implements a facility similar in  spirit  to  the  conditional
       compilation  features  of  the C preprocessor which allows key bindings
       and variable settings to be performed as the result  of  tests.   There
       are four parser directives used.

       $if    The  $if construct allows bindings to be made based on the edit-
              ing mode, the terminal being  used,  or  the  application  using
              readline.   The text of the test extends to the end of the line;
              no characters are required to isolate it.

              mode   The mode= form of the  $if  directive  is  used  to  test
                     whether  readline  is  in  emacs or vi mode.  This may be
                     used in conjunction with  the  set  keymap  command,  for
                     instance,  to  set  bindings  in  the  emacs-standard and
                     emacs-ctlx keymaps only if readline is  starting  out  in
                     emacs mode.

              term   The  term=  form may be used to include terminal-specific
                     key bindings, perhaps to bind the key sequences output by
                     the terminal's function keys.  The word on the right side
                     of the = is tested against the both full name of the ter-
                     minal  and  the  portion  of the terminal name before the
                     first -.  This allows sun to match both sun and  sun-cmd,
                     for instance.

              application
                     The application construct is used to include application-
                     specific  settings.   Each  program  using  the  readline
                     library  sets the application name, and an initialization
                     file can test for a particular value.  This could be used
                     to  bind key sequences to functions useful for a specific
                     program.  For instance, the following command adds a  key
                     sequence  that  quotes  the  current  or previous word in
                     Bash:

                     $if Bash
                     # Quote the current or previous word
                     "\C-xq": "\eb\"\ef\""
                     $endif

       $endif This command, as seen in the previous example, terminates an $if
              command.

       $else  Commands in this branch of the $if directive are executed if the
              test fails.

       $include
              This directive takes a single filename as an argument and  reads
              commands  and bindings from that file.  For example, the follow-
              ing directive would read /etc/inputrc:

              $include  /etc/inputrc

   Searching
       Readline provides commands for searching through  the  command  history
       (see HISTORY below) for lines containing a specified string.  There are
       two search modes: incremental and non-incremental.

       Incremental searches begin before the  user  has  finished  typing  the
       search  string.  As each character of the search string is typed, read-
       line displays the next entry from the history matching the string typed
       so  far.   An  incremental  search  requires only as many characters as
       needed to find the desired history entry.  The  characters  present  in
       the  value of the isearch-terminators variable are used to terminate an
       incremental search.  If that variable has not been assigned a value the
       Escape  and  Control-J characters will terminate an incremental search.
       Control-G will abort an incremental search  and  restore  the  original
       line.   When the search is terminated, the history entry containing the
       search string becomes the current line.

       To find other matching entries in the history list, type  Control-S  or
       Control-R  as appropriate.  This will search backward or forward in the
       history for the next entry matching the search  string  typed  so  far.
       Any  other  key sequence bound to a readline command will terminate the
       search and execute that command.  For instance, a newline  will  termi-
       nate the search and accept the line, thereby executing the command from
       the history list.

       Readline remembers the last incremental search string.  If two Control-
       Rs  are  typed without any intervening characters defining a new search
       string, any remembered search string is used.

       Non-incremental searches read the entire search string before  starting
       to  search  for matching history lines.  The search string may be typed
       by the user or be part of the contents of the current line.

   Readline Command Names
       The following is a list of the names of the commands  and  the  default
       key sequences to which they are bound.  Command names without an accom-
       panying key sequence are unbound by default.  In the following descrip-
       tions,  point refers to the current cursor position, and mark refers to
       a cursor position saved by the set-mark command.  The text between  the
       point and mark is referred to as the region.

   Commands for Moving
       beginning-of-line (C-a)
              Move to the start of the current line.
       end-of-line (C-e)
              Move to the end of the line.
       forward-char (C-f)
              Move forward a character.
       backward-char (C-b)
              Move back a character.
       forward-word (M-f)
              Move forward to the end of the next word.  Words are composed of
              alphanumeric characters (letters and digits).
       backward-word (M-b)
              Move back to the start of the current or previous  word.   Words
              are composed of alphanumeric characters (letters and digits).
       clear-screen (C-l)
              Clear  the  screen  leaving  the  current line at the top of the
              screen.  With an argument,  refresh  the  current  line  without
              clearing the screen.
       redraw-current-line
              Refresh the current line.

   Commands for Manipulating the History
       accept-line (Newline, Return)
              Accept the line regardless of where the cursor is.  If this line
              is non-empty, add it to the history list according to the  state
              of  the HISTCONTROL variable.  If the line is a modified history
              line, then restore the history line to its original state.
       previous-history (C-p)
              Fetch the previous command from the history list, moving back in
              the list.
       next-history (C-n)
              Fetch  the next command from the history list, moving forward in
              the list.
       beginning-of-history (M-<)
              Move to the first line in the history.
       end-of-history (M->)
              Move to the end of the input history, i.e., the  line  currently
              being entered.
       reverse-search-history (C-r)
              Search  backward  starting  at  the current line and moving `up'
              through the  history  as  necessary.   This  is  an  incremental
              search.
       forward-search-history (C-s)
              Search  forward  starting  at the current line and moving `down'
              through the  history  as  necessary.   This  is  an  incremental
              search.
       non-incremental-reverse-search-history (M-p)
              Search backward through the history starting at the current line
              using a non-incremental search for  a  string  supplied  by  the
              user.
       non-incremental-forward-search-history (M-n)
              Search  forward  through  the  history  using  a non-incremental
              search for a string supplied by the user.
       history-search-forward
              Search forward through the history for the string of  characters
              between  the start of the current line and the point.  This is a
              non-incremental search.
       history-search-backward
              Search backward through the history for the string of characters
              between  the start of the current line and the point.  This is a
              non-incremental search.
       yank-nth-arg (M-C-y)
              Insert the first argument to the previous command  (usually  the
              second word on the previous line) at point.  With an argument n,
              insert the nth word from the previous command (the words in  the
              previous  command  begin  with  word  0).   A  negative argument
              inserts the nth word from the end of the previous command.  Once
              the  argument n is computed, the argument is extracted as if the
              "!n" history expansion had been specified.
       yank-last-arg (M-., M-_)
              Insert the last argument to the previous command (the last  word
              of  the  previous  history  entry).   With  an  argument, behave
              exactly like yank-nth-arg.  Successive  calls  to  yank-last-arg
              move  back through the history list, inserting the last argument
              of each line in turn.  The history expansion facilities are used
              to  extract  the last argument, as if the "!$" history expansion
              had been specified.
       shell-expand-line (M-C-e)
              Expand the line as the shell does.  This performs alias and his-
              tory expansion as well as all of the shell word expansions.  See
              HISTORY EXPANSION below for a description of history  expansion.
       history-expand-line (M-^)
              Perform  history  expansion  on  the  current line.  See HISTORY
              EXPANSION below for a description of history expansion.
       magic-space
              Perform history expansion on  the  current  line  and  insert  a
              space.  See HISTORY EXPANSION below for a description of history
              expansion.
       alias-expand-line
              Perform alias expansion on the current line.  See ALIASES  above
              for a description of alias expansion.
       history-and-alias-expand-line
              Perform history and alias expansion on the current line.
       insert-last-argument (M-., M-_)
              A synonym for yank-last-arg.
       operate-and-get-next (C-o)
              Accept  the  current  line for execution and fetch the next line
              relative to the current line from the history for editing.   Any
              argument is ignored.
       edit-and-execute-command (C-xC-e)
              Invoke  an  editor  on the current command line, and execute the
              result as shell commands.   Bash  attempts  to  invoke  $FCEDIT,
              $EDITOR, and emacs as the editor, in that order.

   Commands for Changing Text
       delete-char (C-d)
              Delete  the character at point.  If point is at the beginning of
              the line, there are no characters in  the  line,  and  the  last
              character typed was not bound to delete-char, then return EOF.
       backward-delete-char (Rubout)
              Delete  the  character  behind the cursor.  When given a numeric
              argument, save the deleted text on the kill ring.
       forward-backward-delete-char
              Delete the character under the cursor, unless the cursor  is  at
              the end of the line, in which case the character behind the cur-
              sor is deleted.
       quoted-insert (C-q, C-v)
              Add the next character typed to the line verbatim.  This is  how
              to insert characters like C-q, for example.
       tab-insert (C-v TAB)
              Insert a tab character.
       self-insert (a, b, A, 1, !, ...)
              Insert the character typed.
       transpose-chars (C-t)
              Drag  the  character  before point forward over the character at
              point, moving point forward as well.  If point is at the end  of
              the  line, then this transposes the two characters before point.
              Negative arguments have no effect.
       transpose-words (M-t)
              Drag the word before point past the  word  after  point,  moving
              point  over  that  word  as well.  If point is at the end of the
              line, this transposes the last two words on the line.
       upcase-word (M-u)
              Uppercase the current (or  following)  word.   With  a  negative
              argument, uppercase the previous word, but do not move point.
       downcase-word (M-l)
              Lowercase  the  current  (or  following)  word.  With a negative
              argument, lowercase the previous word, but do not move point.
       capitalize-word (M-c)
              Capitalize the current (or following)  word.   With  a  negative
              argument, capitalize the previous word, but do not move point.
       overwrite-mode
              Toggle  overwrite mode.  With an explicit positive numeric argu-
              ment, switches to overwrite mode.  With an explicit non-positive
              numeric argument, switches to insert mode.  This command affects
              only emacs mode; vi mode does overwrite differently.  Each  call
              to readline() starts in insert mode.  In overwrite mode, charac-
              ters bound to self-insert replace the text at point rather  than
              pushing  the  text  to  the  right.   Characters  bound to back-
              ward-delete-char replace  the  character  before  point  with  a
              space.  By default, this command is unbound.

   Killing and Yanking
       kill-line (C-k)
              Kill the text from point to the end of the line.
       backward-kill-line (C-x Rubout)
              Kill backward to the beginning of the line.
       unix-line-discard (C-u)
              Kill  backward  from  point  to  the beginning of the line.  The
              killed text is saved on the kill-ring.
       kill-whole-line
              Kill all characters on the current line, no matter  where  point
              is.
       kill-word (M-d)
              Kill  from  point  to the end of the current word, or if between
              words, to the end of the next word.   Word  boundaries  are  the
              same as those used by forward-word.
       backward-kill-word (M-Rubout)
              Kill  the  word  behind  point.  Word boundaries are the same as
              those used by backward-word.
       unix-word-rubout (C-w)
              Kill the word behind point, using white space as a  word  bound-
              ary.  The killed text is saved on the kill-ring.
       unix-filename-rubout
              Kill  the  word  behind  point,  using white space and the slash
              character as the word boundaries.  The killed text is  saved  on
              the kill-ring.
       delete-horizontal-space (M-\)
              Delete all spaces and tabs around point.
       kill-region
              Kill the text in the current region.
       copy-region-as-kill
              Copy the text in the region to the kill buffer.
       copy-backward-word
              Copy  the word before point to the kill buffer.  The word bound-
              aries are the same as backward-word.
       copy-forward-word
              Copy the word following point to  the  kill  buffer.   The  word
              boundaries are the same as forward-word.
       yank (C-y)
              Yank the top of the kill ring into the buffer at point.
       yank-pop (M-y)
              Rotate  the kill ring, and yank the new top.  Only works follow-
              ing yank or yank-pop.

   Numeric Arguments
       digit-argument (M-0, M-1, ..., M--)
              Add this digit to the argument already accumulating, or start  a
              new argument.  M-- starts a negative argument.
       universal-argument
              This  is another way to specify an argument.  If this command is
              followed by one or more digits, optionally with a leading  minus
              sign,  those digits define the argument.  If the command is fol-
              lowed by digits, executing  universal-argument  again  ends  the
              numeric  argument, but is otherwise ignored.  As a special case,
              if this command is immediately followed by a character  that  is
              neither  a  digit or minus sign, the argument count for the next
              command is multiplied by four.  The argument count is  initially
              one,  so  executing this function the first time makes the argu-
              ment count four, a second time makes the argument count sixteen,
              and so on.

   Completing
       complete (TAB)
              Attempt  to  perform  completion on the text before point.  Bash
              attempts completion treating the text as a variable (if the text
              begins  with  $), username (if the text begins with ~), hostname
              (if the text begins with @), or command (including  aliases  and
              functions) in turn.  If none of these produces a match, filename
              completion is attempted.
       possible-completions (M-?)
              List the possible completions of the text before point.
       insert-completions (M-*)
              Insert all completions of the text before point that would  have
              been generated by possible-completions.
       menu-complete
              Similar  to complete, but replaces the word to be completed with
              a single match from the list of possible completions.   Repeated
              execution  of  menu-complete  steps through the list of possible
              completions, inserting each match in turn.  At the  end  of  the
              list of completions, the bell is rung (subject to the setting of
              bell-style) and the original text is restored.  An argument of n
              moves  n  positions  forward  in the list of matches; a negative
              argument may be used to move backward through  the  list.   This
              command  is  intended  to  be  bound  to  TAB, but is unbound by
              default.
       delete-char-or-list
              Deletes the character under the cursor if not at  the  beginning
              or  end  of  the  line (like delete-char).  If at the end of the
              line, behaves identically to possible-completions.  This command
              is unbound by default.
       complete-filename (M-/)
              Attempt filename completion on the text before point.
       possible-filename-completions (C-x /)
              List the possible completions of the text before point, treating
              it as a filename.
       complete-username (M-~)
              Attempt completion on the text before point, treating  it  as  a
              username.
       possible-username-completions (C-x ~)
              List the possible completions of the text before point, treating
              it as a username.
       complete-variable (M-$)
              Attempt completion on the text before point, treating  it  as  a
              shell variable.
       possible-variable-completions (C-x $)
              List the possible completions of the text before point, treating
              it as a shell variable.
       complete-hostname (M-@)
              Attempt completion on the text before point, treating  it  as  a
              hostname.
       possible-hostname-completions (C-x @)
              List the possible completions of the text before point, treating
              it as a hostname.
       complete-command (M-!)
              Attempt completion on the text before point, treating  it  as  a
              command  name.   Command  completion  attempts to match the text
              against  aliases,  reserved  words,   shell   functions,   shell
              builtins, and finally executable filenames, in that order.
       possible-command-completions (C-x !)
              List the possible completions of the text before point, treating
              it as a command name.
       dynamic-complete-history (M-TAB)
              Attempt completion on the text before point, comparing the  text
              against  lines  from  the  history  list for possible completion
              matches.
       complete-into-braces (M-{)
              Perform filename completion and insert the list of possible com-
              pletions  enclosed within braces so the list is available to the
              shell (see Brace Expansion above).

   Keyboard Macros
       start-kbd-macro (C-x ()
              Begin saving the characters  typed  into  the  current  keyboard
              macro.
       end-kbd-macro (C-x ))
              Stop saving the characters typed into the current keyboard macro
              and store the definition.
       call-last-kbd-macro (C-x e)
              Re-execute the last keyboard macro defined, by making the  char-
              acters in the macro appear as if typed at the keyboard.

   Miscellaneous
       re-read-init-file (C-x C-r)
              Read  in  the  contents of the inputrc file, and incorporate any
              bindings or variable assignments found there.
       abort (C-g)
              Abort the current editing command and ring the  terminal's  bell
              (subject to the setting of bell-style).
       do-uppercase-version (M-a, M-b, M-x, ...)
              If  the  metafied character x is lowercase, run the command that
              is bound to the corresponding uppercase character.
       prefix-meta (ESC)
              Metafy the next character typed.  ESC f is equivalent to Meta-f.
       undo (C-_, C-x C-u)
              Incremental undo, separately remembered for each line.
       revert-line (M-r)
              Undo  all changes made to this line.  This is like executing the
              undo command enough times to return  the  line  to  its  initial
              state.
       tilde-expand (M-&)
              Perform tilde expansion on the current word.
       set-mark (C-@, M-<space>)
              Set  the  mark to the point.  If a numeric argument is supplied,
              the mark is set to that position.
       exchange-point-and-mark (C-x C-x)
              Swap the point with the mark.  The current  cursor  position  is
              set  to the saved position, and the old cursor position is saved
              as the mark.
       character-search (C-])
              A character is read and point is moved to the next occurrence of
              that  character.   A negative count searches for previous occur-
              rences.
       character-search-backward (M-C-])
              A character is read and point is moved to  the  previous  occur-
              rence  of  that character.  A negative count searches for subse-
              quent occurrences.
       insert-comment (M-#)
              Without a numeric argument,  the  value  of  the  readline  com-
              ment-begin  variable is inserted at the beginning of the current
              line.  If a numeric argument is supplied, this command acts as a
              toggle:   if  the characters at the beginning of the line do not
              match the value of comment-begin, the value is inserted,  other-
              wise the characters in comment-begin are deleted from the begin-
              ning of the line.  In either case, the line is accepted as if  a
              newline  had  been  typed.   The  default value of comment-begin
              causes this command to make the current line  a  shell  comment.
              If  a  numeric  argument  causes  the  comment  character  to be
              removed, the line will be executed by the shell.
       glob-complete-word (M-g)
              The word before point is  treated  as  a  pattern  for  pathname
              expansion,  with  an asterisk implicitly appended.  This pattern
              is used to generate a list of matching file names  for  possible
              completions.
       glob-expand-word (C-x *)
              The  word  before  point  is  treated  as a pattern for pathname
              expansion, and the list of  matching  file  names  is  inserted,
              replacing  the  word.   If  a  numeric  argument is supplied, an
              asterisk is appended before pathname expansion.
       glob-list-expansions (C-x g)
              The list  of  expansions  that  would  have  been  generated  by
              glob-expand-word  is  displayed,  and the line is redrawn.  If a
              numeric argument is supplied, an  asterisk  is  appended  before
              pathname expansion.
       dump-functions
              Print  all  of the functions and their key bindings to the read-
              line output stream.  If a numeric argument is supplied, the out-
              put  is  formatted  in such a way that it can be made part of an
              inputrc file.
       dump-variables
              Print all of the settable readline variables and their values to
              the  readline output stream.  If a numeric argument is supplied,
              the output is formatted in such a way that it can be  made  part
              of an inputrc file.
       dump-macros
              Print  all of the readline key sequences bound to macros and the
              strings they output.  If a numeric  argument  is  supplied,  the
              output is formatted in such a way that it can be made part of an
              inputrc file.
       display-shell-version (C-x C-v)
              Display version information about the current instance of  bash.

   Programmable Completion
       When  word  completion  is  attempted  for an argument to a command for
       which a completion specification (a compspec) has  been  defined  using
       the  complete  builtin  (see  SHELL  BUILTIN  COMMANDS below), the pro-
       grammable completion facilities are invoked.

       First, the command name is identified.  If a compspec has been  defined
       for that command, the compspec is used to generate the list of possible
       completions for the word.  If the command word is a  full  pathname,  a
       compspec  for  the full pathname is searched for first.  If no compspec
       is found for the full pathname, an attempt is made to find  a  compspec
       for the portion following the final slash.

       Once  a  compspec  has  been  found, it is used to generate the list of
       matching words.  If a compspec is not found, the default  bash  comple-
       tion as described above under Completing is performed.

       First,  the  actions  specified by the compspec are used.  Only matches
       which are prefixed by the word being completed are returned.  When  the
       -f  or -d option is used for filename or directory name completion, the
       shell variable FIGNORE is used to filter the matches.

       Any completions specified by a filename expansion  pattern  to  the  -G
       option are generated next.  The words generated by the pattern need not
       match the word being completed.  The GLOBIGNORE shell variable  is  not
       used to filter the matches, but the FIGNORE variable is used.

       Next,  the string specified as the argument to the -W option is consid-
       ered.  The string is first split using the characters in the  IFS  spe-
       cial  variable  as delimiters.  Shell quoting is honored.  Each word is
       then expanded using brace expansion,  tilde  expansion,  parameter  and
       variable  expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic expansion, as
       described above under EXPANSION.  The results are split using the rules
       described above under Word Splitting.  The results of the expansion are
       prefix-matched against the word being completed, and the matching words
       become the possible completions.

       After  these matches have been generated, any shell function or command
       specified with the -F and -C options is invoked.  When the  command  or
       function  is  invoked,  the  COMP_LINE  and  COMP_POINT  variables  are
       assigned values as described above under Shell Variables.  If  a  shell
       function  is being invoked, the COMP_WORDS and COMP_CWORD variables are
       also set.  When the function or command is invoked, the first  argument
       is  the  name  of  the command whose arguments are being completed, the
       second argument is the word being completed, and the third argument  is
       the  word  preceding  the  word  being completed on the current command
       line.  No filtering of the generated completions against the word being
       completed is performed; the function or command has complete freedom in
       generating the matches.

       Any function specified with -F is invoked first.  The function may  use
       any  of  the  shell facilities, including the compgen builtin described
       below, to generate the matches.  It must put the  possible  completions
       in the COMPREPLY array variable.

       Next,  any  command specified with the -C option is invoked in an envi-
       ronment equivalent to command substitution.  It should print a list  of
       completions,  one  per  line, to the standard output.  Backslash may be
       used to escape a newline, if necessary.

       After all of the possible completions are generated, any filter  speci-
       fied  with  the -X option is applied to the list.  The filter is a pat-
       tern as used for pathname expansion; a & in  the  pattern  is  replaced
       with  the text of the word being completed.  A literal & may be escaped
       with a backslash; the backslash is removed before attempting  a  match.
       Any  completion that matches the pattern will be removed from the list.
       A leading ! negates the pattern; in this case any completion not match-
       ing the pattern will be removed.

       Finally, any prefix and suffix specified with the -P and -S options are
       added to each member of the completion list, and the result is returned
       to the readline completion code as the list of possible completions.

       If  the previously-applied actions do not generate any matches, and the
       -o dirnames option was supplied  to  complete  when  the  compspec  was
       defined, directory name completion is attempted.

       If  the  -o  plusdirs option was supplied to complete when the compspec
       was defined, directory name completion is attempted and any matches are
       added to the results of the other actions.

       By  default,  if a compspec is found, whatever it generates is returned
       to the completion code as the full set of  possible  completions.   The
       default bash completions are not attempted, and the readline default of
       filename completion is disabled.  If the -o bashdefault option was sup-
       plied  to complete when the compspec was defined, the bash default com-
       pletions are attempted if the compspec generates no matches.  If the -o
       default  option was supplied to complete when the compspec was defined,
       readline's default completion will be performed if the  compspec  (and,
       if attempted, the default bash completions) generate no matches.

       When  a  compspec  indicates that directory name completion is desired,
       the programmable completion functions force readline to append a  slash
       to  completed names which are symbolic links to directories, subject to
       the value of the mark-directories readline variable, regardless of  the
       setting of the mark-symlinked-directories readline variable.

HISTORY
       When  the  -o  history  option to the set builtin is enabled, the shell
       provides access to the command history, the list of commands previously
       typed.   The  value  of  the HISTSIZE variable is used as the number of
       commands to save in a history list.  The text of the last HISTSIZE com-
       mands  (default  500)  is  saved.  The shell stores each command in the
       history list prior to parameter and variable expansion  (see  EXPANSION
       above)  but after history expansion is performed, subject to the values
       of the shell variables HISTIGNORE and HISTCONTROL.

       On startup, the history is initialized from the file named by the vari-
       able  HISTFILE  (default ~/.bash_history).  The file named by the value
       of HISTFILE is truncated, if necessary, to contain  no  more  than  the
       number of lines specified by the value of HISTFILESIZE.  When an inter-
       active shell exits, the last $HISTSIZE lines are copied from  the  his-
       tory list to $HISTFILE.  If the histappend shell option is enabled (see
       the description of shopt under SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below), the lines
       are  appended  to the history file, otherwise the history file is over-
       written.  If HISTFILE is unset, or if the history file  is  unwritable,
       the  history  is not saved.  After saving the history, the history file
       is truncated to contain no more than HISTFILESIZE lines.  If  HISTFILE-
       SIZE is not set, no truncation is performed.

       The  builtin  command fc (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below) may be used
       to list or edit and re-execute a portion of the history list.  The his-
       tory  builtin  may  be  used  to display or modify the history list and
       manipulate the history file.  When using command-line  editing,  search
       commands  are available in each editing mode that provide access to the
       history list.

       The shell allows control over which commands are saved on  the  history
       list.  The HISTCONTROL and HISTIGNORE variables may be set to cause the
       shell to save only a subset of the commands entered.  The cmdhist shell
       option,  if enabled, causes the shell to attempt to save each line of a
       multi-line command in the same history entry, adding  semicolons  where
       necessary  to preserve syntactic correctness.  The lithist shell option
       causes the shell to save the command with embedded newlines instead  of
       semicolons.  See the description of the shopt builtin below under SHELL
       BUILTIN  COMMANDS  for  information  on  setting  and  unsetting  shell
       options.

HISTORY EXPANSION
       The  shell  supports a history expansion feature that is similar to the
       history expansion in csh.  This section describes what syntax  features
       are  available.   This  feature  is  enabled by default for interactive
       shells, and can be disabled using the +H option to the set builtin com-
       mand (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).  Non-interactive shells do not
       perform history expansion by default.

       History expansions introduce words from the history list into the input
       stream,  making  it  easy to repeat commands, insert the arguments to a
       previous command into the current input line, or fix errors in previous
       commands quickly.

       History  expansion  is  performed  immediately after a complete line is
       read, before the shell breaks it into words.  It  takes  place  in  two
       parts.   The  first is to determine which line from the history list to
       use during substitution.  The second is to select portions of that line
       for inclusion into the current one.  The line selected from the history
       is the event, and the portions of that line that  are  acted  upon  are
       words.   Various  modifiers  are  available  to manipulate the selected
       words.  The line is broken into words in the same fashion as when read-
       ing  input, so that several metacharacter-separated words surrounded by
       quotes are considered one word.  History expansions are  introduced  by
       the  appearance  of  the  history  expansion  character,  which is ! by
       default.  Only backslash (\) and single quotes can  quote  the  history
       expansion character.

       Several  characters inhibit history expansion if found immediately fol-
       lowing the history expansion character, even if it is unquoted:  space,
       tab,  newline,  carriage return, and =.  If the extglob shell option is
       enabled, ( will also inhibit expansion.

       Several shell options settable with the shopt builtin may  be  used  to
       tailor  the  behavior  of  history  expansion.  If the histverify shell
       option is enabled (see the description of the shopt builtin), and read-
       line is being used, history substitutions are not immediately passed to
       the shell parser.  Instead, the expanded  line  is  reloaded  into  the
       readline editing buffer for further modification.  If readline is being
       used, and the histreedit shell option is enabled, a failed history sub-
       stitution will be reloaded into the readline editing buffer for correc-
       tion.  The -p option to the history builtin command may be used to  see
       what a history expansion will do before using it.  The -s option to the
       history builtin may be used to add commands to the end of  the  history
       list  without  actually  executing them, so that they are available for
       subsequent recall.

       The shell allows control of the various characters used by the  history
       expansion mechanism (see the description of histchars above under Shell
       Variables).

   Event Designators
       An event designator is a reference to a command line entry in the  his-
       tory list.

       !      Start  a  history substitution, except when followed by a blank,
              newline, carriage return, = or ( (when the extglob shell  option
              is enabled using the shopt builtin).
       !n     Refer to command line n.
       !-n    Refer to the current command line minus n.
       !!     Refer to the previous command.  This is a synonym for `!-1'.
       !string
              Refer to the most recent command starting with string.
       !?string[?]
              Refer  to the most recent command containing string.  The trail-
              ing ? may be omitted if string is followed immediately by a new-
              line.
       ^string1^string2^
              Quick  substitution.  Repeat the last command, replacing string1
              with string2.  Equivalent to ``!!:s/string1/string2/'' (see Mod-
              ifiers below).
       !#     The entire command line typed so far.

   Word Designators
       Word  designators are used to select desired words from the event.  A :
       separates the event specification from the word designator.  It may  be
       omitted  if  the word designator begins with a ^, $, *, -, or %.  Words
       are numbered from the beginning of the line, with the first word  being
       denoted  by  0  (zero).  Words are inserted into the current line sepa-
       rated by single spaces.

       0 (zero)
              The zeroth word.  For the shell, this is the command word.
       n      The nth word.
       ^      The first argument.  That is, word 1.
       $      The last argument.
       %      The word matched by the most recent `?string?' search.
       x-y    A range of words; `-y' abbreviates `0-y'.
       *      All of the words but the zeroth.  This is a synonym  for  `1-$'.
              It  is  not  an  error to use * if there is just one word in the
              event; the empty string is returned in that case.
       x*     Abbreviates x-$.
       x-     Abbreviates x-$ like x*, but omits the last word.

       If a word designator is supplied without an  event  specification,  the
       previous command is used as the event.

   Modifiers
       After  the optional word designator, there may appear a sequence of one
       or more of the following modifiers, each preceded by a `:'.

       h      Remove a trailing file name component, leaving only the head.
       t      Remove all leading file name components, leaving the tail.
       r      Remove a trailing suffix of the form .xxx, leaving the basename.
       e      Remove all but the trailing suffix.
       p      Print the new command but do not execute it.
       q      Quote the substituted words, escaping further substitutions.
       x      Quote  the  substituted words as with q, but break into words at
              blanks and newlines.
       s/old/new/
              Substitute new for the first occurrence  of  old  in  the  event
              line.   Any  delimiter  can  be  used  in place of /.  The final
              delimiter is optional if it is the last character of  the  event
              line.   The delimiter may be quoted in old and new with a single
              backslash.  If & appears in new, it is replaced by old.  A  sin-
              gle  backslash  will  quote the &.  If old is null, it is set to
              the last old substituted, or, if no previous  history  substitu-
              tions took place, the last string in a !?string[?]  search.
       &      Repeat the previous substitution.
       g      Cause changes to be applied over the entire event line.  This is
              used in conjunction with `:s' (e.g.,  `:gs/old/new/')  or  `:&'.
              If  used with `:s', any delimiter can be used in place of /, and
              the final delimiter is optional if it is the last  character  of
              the event line.  An a may be used as a synonym for g.
       G      Apply  the following `s' modifier once to each word in the event
              line.

SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS
       Unless otherwise noted, each builtin command documented in this section
       as accepting options preceded by - accepts -- to signify the end of the
       options.  For example, the :, true, false, and  test  builtins  do  not
       accept options.
       : [arguments]
              No  effect;  the command does nothing beyond expanding arguments
              and performing any specified redirections.  A zero exit code  is
              returned.

        .  filename [arguments]
       source filename [arguments]
              Read  and  execute  commands  from filename in the current shell
              environment and return the exit status of the last command  exe-
              cuted from filename.  If filename does not contain a slash, file
              names in PATH are used to find the  directory  containing  file-
              name.   The  file  searched  for in PATH need not be executable.
              When bash is  not  in  posix  mode,  the  current  directory  is
              searched  if no file is found in PATH.  If the sourcepath option
              to the shopt builtin command is turned  off,  the  PATH  is  not
              searched.   If any arguments are supplied, they become the posi-
              tional parameters when  filename  is  executed.   Otherwise  the
              positional  parameters  are unchanged.  The return status is the
              status of the last command exited within the  script  (0  if  no
              commands  are  executed),  and false if filename is not found or
              cannot be read.

       alias [-p] [name[=value] ...]
              Alias with no arguments or with the -p option prints the list of
              aliases  in  the form alias name=value on standard output.  When
              arguments are supplied, an alias is defined for each name  whose
              value is given.  A trailing space in  value causes the next word
              to be checked for alias substitution when the alias is expanded.
              For  each  name  in the argument list for which no value is sup-
              plied, the name and  value  of  the  alias  is  printed.   Alias
              returns  true unless a name is given for which no alias has been
              defined.

       bg [jobspec ...]
              Resume each suspended job jobspec in the background,  as  if  it
              had been started with &.  If jobspec is not present, the shell's
              notion of the current job is used.  bg jobspec returns 0  unless
              run  when  job control is disabled or, when run with job control
              enabled, any specified jobspec was  not  found  or  was  started
              without job control.

       bind [-m keymap] [-lpsvPSV]
       bind [-m keymap] [-q function] [-u function] [-r keyseq]
       bind [-m keymap] -f filename
       bind [-m keymap] -x keyseq:shell-command
       bind [-m keymap] keyseq:function-name
       bind readline-command
              Display  current  readline key and function bindings, bind a key
              sequence to a readline function or  macro,  or  set  a  readline
              variable.   Each  non-option  argument  is a command as it would
              appear in .inputrc, but each binding or command must  be  passed
              as  a  separate argument; e.g., '"\C-x\C-r": re-read-init-file'.
              Options, if supplied, have the following meanings:
              -m keymap
                     Use keymap as the keymap to be affected by the subsequent
                     bindings.  Acceptable keymap names are emacs, emacs-stan-
                     dard, emacs-meta, emacs-ctlx,  vi,  vi-move,  vi-command,
                     and  vi-insert.  vi is equivalent to vi-command; emacs is
                     equivalent to emacs-standard.
              -l     List the names of all readline functions.
              -p     Display readline function names and bindings  in  such  a
                     way that they can be re-read.
              -P     List current readline function names and bindings.
              -v     Display  readline variable names and values in such a way
                     that they can be re-read.
              -V     List current readline variable names and values.
              -s     Display readline key sequences bound to  macros  and  the
                     strings  they  output  in such a way that they can be re-
                     read.
              -S     Display readline key sequences bound to  macros  and  the
                     strings they output.
              -f filename
                     Read key bindings from filename.
              -q function
                     Query about which keys invoke the named function.
              -u function
                     Unbind all keys bound to the named function.
              -r keyseq
                     Remove any current binding for keyseq.
              -x keyseq:shell-command
                     Cause  shell-command  to  be  executed whenever keyseq is
                     entered.

              The return value is 0 unless an unrecognized option is given  or
              an error occurred.

       break [n]
              Exit  from  within a for, while, until, or select loop.  If n is
              specified, break n levels.  n must be >= 1.   If  n  is  greater
              than  the  number  of  enclosing  loops, all enclosing loops are
              exited.  The return value is 0 unless the shell is not executing
              a loop when break is executed.

       builtin shell-builtin [arguments]
              Execute  the  specified shell builtin, passing it arguments, and
              return its exit status.  This is useful when defining a function
              whose  name  is the same as a shell builtin, retaining the func-
              tionality of the builtin within the function.  The cd builtin is
              commonly  redefined  this  way.   The  return status is false if
              shell-builtin is not a shell builtin command.

       cd [-L|-P] [dir]
              Change the current directory to dir.  The variable HOME  is  the
              default  dir.   The  variable CDPATH defines the search path for
              the directory containing dir.  Alternative  directory  names  in
              CDPATH  are  separated by a colon (:).  A null directory name in
              CDPATH is the same as the current directory,  i.e.,  ``.''.   If
              dir  begins  with  a  slash (/), then CDPATH is not used. The -P
              option says to use the physical directory structure  instead  of
              following  symbolic  links  (see  also  the -P option to the set
              builtin command); the -L option forces symbolic links to be fol-
              lowed.   An  argument  of - is equivalent to $OLDPWD.  If a non-
              empty directory name from CDPATH is used, or if - is  the  first
              argument,  and  the directory change is successful, the absolute
              pathname of the new working directory is written to the standard
              output.   The return value is true if the directory was success-
              fully changed; false otherwise.

       caller [expr]
              Returns the context of any active subroutine call (a shell func-
              tion  or a script executed with the . or source builtins.  With-
              out expr, caller displays the line number and source filename of
              the  current subroutine call.  If a non-negative integer is sup-
              plied as expr, caller displays the line number, subroutine name,
              and  source  file  corresponding to that position in the current
              execution call stack.  This extra information may be  used,  for
              example,  to print a stack trace.  The current frame is frame 0.
              The return value is 0 unless the shell is not executing  a  sub-
              routine  call or expr does not correspond to a valid position in
              the call stack.

       command [-pVv] command [arg ...]
              Run command with args  suppressing  the  normal  shell  function
              lookup.  Only builtin commands or commands found in the PATH are
              executed.  If the -p option is given, the search for command  is
              performed  using  a default value for PATH that is guaranteed to
              find all of the standard utilities.  If  either  the  -V  or  -v
              option is supplied, a description of command is printed.  The -v
              option causes a single word indicating the command or file  name
              used to invoke command to be displayed; the -V option produces a
              more verbose description.  If the -V or -v option  is  supplied,
              the  exit  status  is  0 if command was found, and 1 if not.  If
              neither option is supplied and an error occurred or command can-
              not  be found, the exit status is 127.  Otherwise, the exit sta-
              tus of the command builtin is the exit status of command.

       compgen [option] [word]
              Generate possible completion matches for word according  to  the
              options,  which  may  be  any  option  accepted  by the complete
              builtin with the exception of -p and -r, and write  the  matches
              to  the  standard  output.  When using the -F or -C options, the
              various shell  variables  set  by  the  programmable  completion
              facilities, while available, will not have useful values.

              The  matches  will  be  generated in the same way as if the pro-
              grammable completion code had generated  them  directly  from  a
              completion specification with the same flags.  If word is speci-
              fied, only those completions matching word will be displayed.

              The return value is true unless an invalid option  is  supplied,
              or no matches were generated.

       complete  [-abcdefgjksuv] [-o comp-option] [-A action] [-G globpat] [-W
       wordlist] [-P prefix] [-S suffix]
              [-X filterpat] [-F function] [-C command] name [name ...]
       complete -pr [name ...]
              Specify  how arguments to each name should be completed.  If the
              -p option is supplied, or if no options are  supplied,  existing
              completion  specifications are printed in a way that allows them
              to be reused as input.  The -r option removes a completion spec-
              ification  for each name, or, if no names are supplied, all com-
              pletion specifications.

              The process of applying  these  completion  specifications  when
              word  completion  is  attempted  is  described  above under Pro-
              grammable Completion.

              Other options, if specified, have the following  meanings.   The
              arguments  to the -G, -W, and -X options (and, if necessary, the
              -P and -S options) should be quoted to protect them from  expan-
              sion before the complete builtin is invoked.
              -o comp-option
                      The  comp-option  controls  several aspects of the comp-
                      spec's behavior beyond the simple generation of  comple-
                      tions.  comp-option may be one of:
                      bashdefault
                              Perform the rest of the default bash completions
                              if the compspec generates no matches.
                      default Use readline's default  filename  completion  if
                              the compspec generates no matches.
                      dirnames
                              Perform  directory  name completion if the comp-
                              spec generates no matches.
                      filenames
                              Tell readline that the compspec generates  file-
                              names,  so  it can perform any filename-specific
                              processing (like adding  a  slash  to  directory
                              names or suppressing trailing spaces).  Intended
                              to be used with shell functions.
                      nospace Tell  readline  not  to  append  a  space   (the
                              default)  to  words  completed at the end of the
                              line.
                      plusdirs
                              After any matches defined by  the  compspec  are
                              generated,    directory   name   completion   is
                              attempted and  any  matches  are  added  to  the
                              results of the other actions.
              -A action
                      The  action  may  be  one of the following to generate a
                      list of possible completions:
                      alias   Alias names.  May also be specified as -a.
                      arrayvar
                              Array variable names.
                      binding Readline key binding names.
                      builtin Names of shell builtin commands.   May  also  be
                              specified as -b.
                      command Command names.  May also be specified as -c.
                      directory
                              Directory names.  May also be specified as -d.
                      disabled
                              Names of disabled shell builtins.
                      enabled Names of enabled shell builtins.
                      export  Names  of exported shell variables.  May also be
                              specified as -e.
                      file    File names.  May also be specified as -f.
                      function
                              Names of shell functions.
                      group   Group names.  May also be specified as -g.
                      helptopic
                              Help topics as accepted by the help builtin.
                      hostname
                              Hostnames, as taken from the file  specified  by
                              the HOSTFILE shell variable.
                      job     Job  names,  if job control is active.  May also
                              be specified as -j.
                      keyword Shell reserved words.  May also be specified  as
                              -k.
                      running Names of running jobs, if job control is active.
                      service Service names.  May also be specified as -s.
                      setopt  Valid arguments for the -o  option  to  the  set
                              builtin.
                      shopt   Shell  option  names  as  accepted  by the shopt
                              builtin.
                      signal  Signal names.
                      stopped Names of stopped jobs, if job control is active.
                      user    User names.  May also be specified as -u.
                      variable
                              Names of all shell variables.  May also be spec-
                              ified as -v.
              -G globpat
                      The filename expansion pattern globpat  is  expanded  to
                      generate the possible completions.
              -W wordlist
                      The  wordlist  is  split using the characters in the IFS
                      special variable as delimiters, and each resultant  word
                      is  expanded.   The possible completions are the members
                      of the resultant list which match the  word  being  com-
                      pleted.
              -C command
                      command  is  executed in a subshell environment, and its
                      output is used as the possible completions.
              -F function
                      The shell function function is executed in  the  current
                      shell  environment.  When it finishes, the possible com-
                      pletions are retrieved from the value of  the  COMPREPLY
                      array variable.
              -X filterpat
                      filterpat  is  a pattern as used for filename expansion.
                      It is applied to the list of possible completions gener-
                      ated  by  the  preceding options and arguments, and each
                      completion matching filterpat is removed from the  list.
                      A  leading  !  in filterpat negates the pattern; in this
                      case, any completion not matching filterpat is  removed.
              -P prefix
                      prefix  is  added at the beginning of each possible com-
                      pletion after all other options have been applied.
              -S suffix
                      suffix is appended to each possible completion after all
                      other options have been applied.

              The  return  value is true unless an invalid option is supplied,
              an option other than -p or -r is supplied without a  name  argu-
              ment,  an  attempt  is made to remove a completion specification
              for a name for which no specification exists, or an error occurs
              adding a completion specification.

       continue [n]
              Resume the next iteration of the enclosing for, while, until, or
              select loop.  If n is specified, resume  at  the  nth  enclosing
              loop.   n  must  be  >=  1.   If n is greater than the number of
              enclosing loops, the  last  enclosing  loop  (the  ``top-level''
              loop) is resumed.  The return value is 0 unless the shell is not
              executing a loop when continue is executed.

       declare [-afFirtx] [-p] [name[=value] ...]
       typeset [-afFirtx] [-p] [name[=value] ...]
              Declare variables and/or give them attributes.  If no names  are
              given  then display the values of variables.  The -p option will
              display the attributes and values of  each  name.   When  -p  is
              used,  additional  options  are ignored.  The -F option inhibits
              the display of function definitions; only the function name  and
              attributes are printed.  If the extdebug shell option is enabled
              using shopt, the source file name  and  line  number  where  the
              function  is  defined  are  displayed  as  well.   The -F option
              implies -f.  The following options can be used to restrict  out-
              put  to  variables with the specified attribute or to give vari-
              ables attributes:
              -a     Each name is an array variable (see Arrays above).
              -f     Use function names only.
              -i     The variable is treated as an integer; arithmetic evalua-
                     tion  (see  ARITHMETIC EVALUATION ) is performed when the
                     variable is assigned a value.
              -r     Make names readonly.  These names cannot then be assigned
                     values by subsequent assignment statements or unset.
              -t     Give  each  name  the  trace attribute.  Traced functions
                     inherit the DEBUG  and  RETURN  traps  from  the  calling
                     shell.   The  trace  attribute has no special meaning for
                     variables.
              -x     Mark names for export  to  subsequent  commands  via  the
                     environment.

              Using  `+'  instead of `-' turns off the attribute instead, with
              the exception that +a may not be used to destroy an array  vari-
              able.   When  used in a function, makes each name local, as with
              the local command.  If a variable name is  followed  by  =value,
              the  value of the variable is set to value.  The return value is
              0 unless an invalid option is encountered, an attempt is made to
              define  a  function  using ``-f foo=bar'', an attempt is made to
              assign a value to a readonly variable, an  attempt  is  made  to
              assign  a  value to an array variable without using the compound
              assignment syntax (see Arrays above), one of the names is not  a
              valid  shell variable name, an attempt is made to turn off read-
              only status for a readonly variable, an attempt is made to  turn
              off array status for an array variable, or an attempt is made to
              display a non-existent function with -f.

       dirs [-clpv] [+n] [-n]
              Without options,  displays  the  list  of  currently  remembered
              directories.   The  default  display  is  on  a single line with
              directory names separated by spaces.  Directories are  added  to
              the  list  with  the  pushd  command;  the  popd command removes
              entries from the list.
              +n     Displays the nth entry counting from the left of the list
                     shown by dirs when invoked without options, starting with
                     zero.
              -n     Displays the nth entry counting from  the  right  of  the
                     list shown by dirs when invoked without options, starting
                     with zero.
              -c     Clears  the  directory  stack  by  deleting  all  of  the
                     entries.
              -l     Produces  a  longer  listing;  the default listing format
                     uses a tilde to denote the home directory.
              -p     Print the directory stack with one entry per line.
              -v     Print the directory stack with one entry per  line,  pre-
                     fixing each entry with its index in the stack.

              The  return value is 0 unless an invalid option is supplied or n
              indexes beyond the end of the directory stack.

       disown [-ar] [-h] [jobspec ...]
              Without options, each jobspec  is  removed  from  the  table  of
              active  jobs.   If  the  -h option is given, each jobspec is not
              removed from the table, but is marked so that SIGHUP is not sent
              to  the  job  if  the shell receives a SIGHUP.  If no jobspec is
              present, and neither the -a nor the -r option is  supplied,  the
              current  job  is used.  If no jobspec is supplied, the -a option
              means to remove or mark all jobs; the -r option without  a  job-
              spec  argument  restricts operation to running jobs.  The return
              value is 0 unless a jobspec does not specify a valid job.

       echo [-neE] [arg ...]
              Output the args, separated by spaces,  followed  by  a  newline.
              The return status is always 0.  If -n is specified, the trailing
              newline is suppressed.  If the -e option is  given,  interpreta-
              tion  of  the following backslash-escaped characters is enabled.
              The -E option disables the interpretation of these escape  char-
              acters,  even  on systems where they are interpreted by default.
              The xpg_echo shell option may be used to  dynamically  determine
              whether  or not echo expands these escape characters by default.
              echo does not interpret -- to mean the  end  of  options.   echo
              interprets the following escape sequences:
              \a     alert (bell)
              \b     backspace
              \c     suppress trailing newline
              \e     an escape character
              \f     form feed
              \n     new line
              \r     carriage return
              \t     horizontal tab
              \v     vertical tab
              \\     backslash
              \0nnn  the  eight-bit  character  whose value is the octal value
                     nnn (zero to three octal digits)
              \xHH   the eight-bit character whose value  is  the  hexadecimal
                     value HH (one or two hex digits)

       enable [-adnps] [-f filename] [name ...]
              Enable  and disable builtin shell commands.  Disabling a builtin
              allows a disk command which has the same name as a shell builtin
              to  be  executed without specifying a full pathname, even though
              the shell normally searches for builtins before  disk  commands.
              If  -n  is  used,  each  name  is disabled; otherwise, names are
              enabled.  For example, to use the test binary found via the PATH
              instead  of  the  shell builtin version, run ``enable -n test''.
              The -f option means to load the new builtin  command  name  from
              shared object filename, on systems that support dynamic loading.
              The -d option will delete a builtin previously loaded  with  -f.
              If no name arguments are given, or if the -p option is supplied,
              a list of shell builtins is printed.  With no other option argu-
              ments,  the  list consists of all enabled shell builtins.  If -n
              is supplied, only disabled builtins are printed.  If -a is  sup-
              plied,  the  list printed includes all builtins, with an indica-
              tion of whether or not each is enabled.  If -s is supplied,  the
              output  is restricted to the POSIX special builtins.  The return
              value is 0 unless a name is not a shell builtin or there  is  an
              error loading a new builtin from a shared object.

       eval [arg ...]
              The  args  are read and concatenated together into a single com-
              mand.  This command is then read and executed by the shell,  and
              its  exit status is returned as the value of eval.  If there are
              no args, or only null arguments, eval returns 0.

       exec [-cl] [-a name] [command [arguments]]
              If command is specified, it replaces the shell.  No new  process
              is  created.  The arguments become the arguments to command.  If
              the -l option is supplied, the shell places a dash at the begin-
              ning of the zeroth arg passed to command.  This is what login(1)
              does.  The -c option causes command to be executed with an empty
              environment.   If  -a  is supplied, the shell passes name as the
              zeroth argument to the executed command.  If command  cannot  be
              executed  for some reason, a non-interactive shell exits, unless
              the shell option execfail is enabled, in which case  it  returns
              failure.   An interactive shell returns failure if the file can-
              not be executed.  If command is not specified, any  redirections
              take  effect  in  the current shell, and the return status is 0.
              If there is a redirection error, the return status is 1.

       exit [n]
              Cause the shell to exit with a status of n.  If  n  is  omitted,
              the exit status is that of the last command executed.  A trap on
              EXIT is executed before the shell terminates.

       export [-fn] [name[=word]] ...
       export -p
              The supplied names are marked for automatic export to the  envi-
              ronment  of subsequently executed commands.  If the -f option is
              given, the names refer to functions.  If no names are given,  or
              if  the  -p  option  is  supplied,  a list of all names that are
              exported in this shell is printed.  The  -n  option  causes  the
              export  property  to  be  removed from each name.  If a variable
              name is followed by =word, the value of the variable is  set  to
              word.   export  returns  an  exit  status of 0 unless an invalid
              option is encountered, one of the names is  not  a  valid  shell
              variable name, or -f is supplied with a name that is not a func-
              tion.

       fc [-e ename] [-nlr] [first] [last]
       fc -s [pat=rep] [cmd]
              Fix Command.  In the first form, a range of commands from  first
              to  last  is selected from the history list.  First and last may
              be specified as a string (to locate the last  command  beginning
              with  that  string)  or  as  a number (an index into the history
              list, where a negative number is used as an offset from the cur-
              rent command number).  If last is not specified it is set to the
              current command for listing (so that ``fc -l  -10''  prints  the
              last 10 commands) and to first otherwise.  If first is not spec-
              ified it is set to the previous command for editing and -16  for
              listing.

              The  -n option suppresses the command numbers when listing.  The
              -r option reverses the order of the commands.  If the -l  option
              is  given,  the  commands are listed on standard output.  Other-
              wise, the editor given by ename is invoked on a file  containing
              those  commands.  If ename is not given, the value of the FCEDIT
              variable is used, and the value of EDITOR if FCEDIT is not  set.
              If  neither  variable  is set, vi is used.  When editing is com-
              plete, the edited commands are echoed and executed.

              In the second form, command is re-executed after  each  instance
              of  pat  is replaced by rep.  A useful alias to use with this is
              ``r="fc -s"'', so that typing ``r cc''  runs  the  last  command
              beginning with ``cc'' and typing ``r'' re-executes the last com-
              mand.

              If the first form is used, the  return  value  is  0  unless  an
              invalid  option  is encountered or first or last specify history
              lines out of range.  If the -e option is  supplied,  the  return
              value is the value of the last command executed or failure if an
              error occurs with the temporary file of commands.  If the second
              form  is  used, the return status is that of the command re-exe-
              cuted, unless cmd does not specify  a  valid  history  line,  in
              which case fc returns failure.

       fg [jobspec]
              Resume  jobspec  in the foreground, and make it the current job.
              If jobspec is not present, the shell's notion of the current job
              is  used.   The  return value is that of the command placed into
              the foreground, or failure if run when job control  is  disabled
              or, when run with job control enabled, if jobspec does not spec-
              ify a valid job or jobspec specifies  a  job  that  was  started
              without job control.

       getopts optstring name [args]
              getopts  is used by shell procedures to parse positional parame-
              ters.  optstring contains the option  characters  to  be  recog-
              nized;  if  a  character  is  followed by a colon, the option is
              expected to have an argument, which should be separated from  it
              by  white space.  The colon and question mark characters may not
              be used as option characters.  Each time it is invoked,  getopts
              places  the next option in the shell variable name, initializing
              name if it does not exist, and the index of the next argument to
              be processed into the variable OPTIND.  OPTIND is initialized to
              1 each time the shell or a shell script  is  invoked.   When  an
              option  requires  an argument, getopts places that argument into
              the variable OPTARG.  The shell does not reset OPTIND  automati-
              cally;  it  must  be  manually  reset  between multiple calls to
              getopts within the same shell invocation if a new set of parame-
              ters is to be used.

              When  the  end  of  options is encountered, getopts exits with a
              return value greater than zero.  OPTIND is set to the  index  of
              the first non-option argument, and name is set to ?.

              getopts  normally  parses the positional parameters, but if more
              arguments are given in args, getopts parses those instead.

              getopts can report errors in two ways.  If the  first  character
              of  optstring  is  a  colon, silent error reporting is used.  In
              normal operation diagnostic messages are  printed  when  invalid
              options  or  missing  option  arguments are encountered.  If the
              variable OPTERR is set to 0, no  error  messages  will  be  dis-
              played, even if the first character of optstring is not a colon.

              If an invalid option is seen, getopts places ? into name and, if
              not  silent,  prints  an  error  message  and unsets OPTARG.  If
              getopts is silent, the  option  character  found  is  placed  in
              OPTARG and no diagnostic message is printed.

              If  a required argument is not found, and getopts is not silent,
              a question mark (?) is placed in name, OPTARG is  unset,  and  a
              diagnostic  message  is  printed.   If getopts is silent, then a
              colon (:) is placed in name and OPTARG  is  set  to  the  option
              character found.

              getopts  returns true if an option, specified or unspecified, is
              found.  It returns false if the end of options is encountered or
              an error occurs.

       hash [-lr] [-p filename] [-dt] [name]
              For  each  name, the full file name of the command is determined
              by searching the directories in $PATH and remembered.  If the -p
              option is supplied, no path search is performed, and filename is
              used as the full file name of the command.  The -r option causes
              the  shell  to  forget  all remembered locations.  The -d option
              causes the shell to forget the remembered location of each name.
              If  the  -t  option is supplied, the full pathname to which each
              name corresponds is printed.  If  multiple  name  arguments  are
              supplied  with  -t,  the  name is printed before the hashed full
              pathname.  The -l option causes output to be displayed in a for-
              mat  that may be reused as input.  If no arguments are given, or
              if only -l is supplied, information about remembered commands is
              printed.   The  return status is true unless a name is not found
              or an invalid option is supplied.

       help [-s] [pattern]
              Display helpful information about builtin commands.  If  pattern
              is  specified, help gives detailed help on all commands matching
              pattern; otherwise help for all the builtins and  shell  control
              structures  is printed.  The -s option restricts the information
              displayed to a short usage synopsis.  The  return  status  is  0
              unless no command matches pattern.

       history [n]
       history -c
       history -d offset
       history -anrw [filename]
       history -p arg [arg ...]
       history -s arg [arg ...]
              With no options, display the command history list with line num-
              bers.  Lines listed with a * have been modified.  An argument of
              n  lists only the last n lines.  If the shell variable HISTTIME-
              FORMAT is set and not null, it is used as a  format  string  for
              strftime(3)  to display the time stamp associated with each dis-
              played history entry.  No intervening blank is  printed  between
              the  formatted  time stamp and the history line.  If filename is
              supplied, it is used as the name of the history  file;  if  not,
              the  value  of HISTFILE is used.  Options, if supplied, have the
              following meanings:
              -c     Clear the history list by deleting all the entries.
              -d offset
                     Delete the history entry at position offset.
              -a     Append the ``new'' history lines (history  lines  entered
                     since  the  beginning of the current bash session) to the
                     history file.
              -n     Read the history lines not already read from the  history
                     file  into  the  current  history  list.  These are lines
                     appended to the history file since the beginning  of  the
                     current bash session.
              -r     Read the contents of the history file and use them as the
                     current history.
              -w     Write the current history to the history file,  overwrit-
                     ing the history file's contents.
              -p     Perform  history  substitution  on the following args and
                     display the result on  the  standard  output.   Does  not
                     store  the results in the history list.  Each arg must be
                     quoted to disable normal history expansion.
              -s     Store the args in the history list  as  a  single  entry.
                     The  last  command  in the history list is removed before
                     the args are added.

              If the HISTTIMEFORMAT is set, the time stamp information associ-
              ated  with  each  history  entry is written to the history file.
              The return value is 0 unless an invalid option  is  encountered,
              an  error  occurs  while reading or writing the history file, an
              invalid offset is supplied as an argument to -d, or the  history
              expansion supplied as an argument to -p fails.

       jobs [-lnprs] [ jobspec ... ]
       jobs -x command [ args ... ]
              The first form lists the active jobs.  The options have the fol-
              lowing meanings:
              -l     List process IDs in addition to the normal information.
              -p     List only the process  ID  of  the  job's  process  group
                     leader.
              -n     Display  information  only  about  jobs that have changed
                     status since the user was last notified of their  status.
              -r     Restrict output to running jobs.
              -s     Restrict output to stopped jobs.

              If  jobspec  is given, output is restricted to information about
              that job.  The return status is 0 unless an  invalid  option  is
              encountered or an invalid jobspec is supplied.

              If the -x option is supplied, jobs replaces any jobspec found in
              command or args with the corresponding  process  group  ID,  and
              executes command passing it args, returning its exit status.

       kill [-s sigspec | -n signum | -sigspec] [pid | jobspec] ...
       kill -l [sigspec | exit_status]
              Send  the  signal  named  by  sigspec or signum to the processes
              named by pid or jobspec.  sigspec is either  a  case-insensitive
              signal  name such as SIGKILL (with or without the SIG prefix) or
              a signal number; signum is a signal number.  If sigspec  is  not
              present,  then  SIGTERM is assumed.  An argument of -l lists the
              signal names.  If any arguments are supplied when -l  is  given,
              the  names  of  the  signals  corresponding to the arguments are
              listed, and the return status is 0.  The exit_status argument to
              -l  is  a  number  specifying either a signal number or the exit
              status of a process terminated by a signal.  kill  returns  true
              if  at  least  one  signal was successfully sent, or false if an
              error occurs or an invalid option is encountered.

       let arg [arg ...]
              Each arg is an arithmetic expression to be evaluated (see ARITH-
              METIC  EVALUATION).  If the last arg evaluates to 0, let returns
              1; 0 is returned otherwise.

       local [option] [name[=value] ...]
              For each argument, a local variable named name is  created,  and
              assigned  value.   The option can be any of the options accepted
              by declare.  When local is used within a function, it causes the
              variable  name  to have a visible scope restricted to that func-
              tion and its children.  With no operands, local writes a list of
              local  variables  to the standard output.  It is an error to use
              local when not within a function.  The return status is 0 unless
              local  is  used outside a function, an invalid name is supplied,
              or name is a readonly variable.

       logout Exit a login shell.

       popd [-n] [+n] [-n]
              Removes entries from the directory stack.   With  no  arguments,
              removes  the  top directory from the stack, and performs a cd to
              the new top directory.  Arguments, if supplied, have the follow-
              ing meanings:
              +n     Removes  the nth entry counting from the left of the list
                     shown by dirs, starting with zero.  For  example:  ``popd
                     +0'' removes the first directory, ``popd +1'' the second.
              -n     Removes the nth entry counting from the right of the list
                     shown  by  dirs, starting with zero.  For example: ``popd
                     -0'' removes the last directory, ``popd -1'' the next  to
                     last.
              -n     Suppresses  the  normal change of directory when removing
                     directories from the stack, so that  only  the  stack  is
                     manipulated.

              If  the popd command is successful, a dirs is performed as well,
              and the return status is 0.  popd returns false  if  an  invalid
              option is encountered, the directory stack is empty, a non-exis-
              tent directory stack entry is specified, or the directory change
              fails.

       printf [-v var] format [arguments]
              Write  the  formatted arguments to the standard output under the
              control of the format.  The format is a character  string  which
              contains  three  types  of  objects: plain characters, which are
              simply copied to standard output,  character  escape  sequences,
              which  are converted and copied to the standard output, and for-
              mat specifications, each of which causes printing  of  the  next
              successive argument.  In addition to the standard printf(1) for-
              mats, %b causes printf to expand backslash escape  sequences  in
              the  corresponding  argument  (except that \c terminates output,
              backslashes in \', \", and \? are not removed, and octal escapes
              beginning  with \0 may contain up to four digits), and %q causes
              printf to output the corresponding argument in a format that can
              be reused as shell input.

              The  -v  option causes the output to be assigned to the variable
              var rather than being printed to the standard output.

              The format is reused as necessary to consume all  of  the  argu-
              ments.  If the format requires more arguments than are supplied,
              the extra format specifications behave as if  a  zero  value  or
              null  string,  as  appropriate,  had  been supplied.  The return
              value is zero on success, non-zero on failure.

       pushd [-n] [dir]
       pushd [-n] [+n] [-n]
              Adds a directory to the top of the directory stack,  or  rotates
              the  stack,  making the new top of the stack the current working
              directory.  With no arguments, exchanges the top two directories
              and  returns 0, unless the directory stack is empty.  Arguments,
              if supplied, have the following meanings:
              +n     Rotates the stack so that  the  nth  directory  (counting
                     from  the  left  of the list shown by dirs, starting with
                     zero) is at the top.
              -n     Rotates the stack so that  the  nth  directory  (counting
                     from  the  right of the list shown by dirs, starting with
                     zero) is at the top.
              -n     Suppresses the normal change  of  directory  when  adding
                     directories  to  the  stack,  so  that  only the stack is
                     manipulated.
              dir    Adds dir to the directory stack at the top, making it the
                     new current working directory.

              If the pushd command is successful, a dirs is performed as well.
              If the first form is used, pushd returns 0 unless the cd to  dir
              fails.   With the second form, pushd returns 0 unless the direc-
              tory stack is empty, a non-existent directory stack  element  is
              specified,  or the directory change to the specified new current
              directory fails.

       pwd [-LP]
              Print the absolute pathname of the  current  working  directory.
              The pathname printed contains no symbolic links if the -P option
              is supplied or the -o physical option to the set builtin command
              is  enabled.  If the -L option is used, the pathname printed may
              contain symbolic links.  The return status is 0 unless an  error
              occurs  while  reading  the  name of the current directory or an
              invalid option is supplied.

       read [-ers] [-u fd] [-t timeout] [-a aname] [-p prompt] [-n nchars] [-d
       delim] [name ...]
              One line is read from the  standard  input,  or  from  the  file
              descriptor  fd supplied as an argument to the -u option, and the
              first word is assigned to the first name, the second word to the
              second  name, and so on, with leftover words and their interven-
              ing separators assigned to the last name.  If  there  are  fewer
              words read from the input stream than names, the remaining names
              are assigned empty values.  The characters in IFS  are  used  to
              split  the  line into words.  The backslash character (\) may be
              used to remove any special meaning for the next  character  read
              and  for line continuation.  Options, if supplied, have the fol-
              lowing meanings:
              -a aname
                     The words are assigned to sequential indices of the array
                     variable aname, starting at 0.  aname is unset before any
                     new  values  are  assigned.   Other  name  arguments  are
                     ignored.
              -d delim
                     The  first  character  of  delim is used to terminate the
                     input line, rather than newline.
              -e     If the standard input is coming from a terminal, readline
                     (see READLINE above) is used to obtain the line.
              -n nchars
                     read  returns after reading nchars characters rather than
                     waiting for a complete line of input.
              -p prompt
                     Display prompt on standard error, without a trailing new-
                     line, before attempting to read any input.  The prompt is
                     displayed only if input is coming from a terminal.
              -r     Backslash does not act as an escape character.  The back-
                     slash  is considered to be part of the line.  In particu-
                     lar, a backslash-newline pair may not be used as  a  line
                     continuation.
              -s     Silent mode.  If input is coming from a terminal, charac-
                     ters are not echoed.
              -t timeout
                     Cause read to time out and return failure if  a  complete
                     line  of  input is not read within timeout seconds.  This
                     option has no effect if read is not  reading  input  from
                     the terminal or a pipe.
              -u fd  Read input from file descriptor fd.

              If no names are supplied, the line read is assigned to the vari-
              able REPLY.  The return code  is  zero,  unless  end-of-file  is
              encountered,  read  times  out, or an invalid file descriptor is
              supplied as the argument to -u.

       readonly [-apf] [name[=word] ...]
              The given names are marked readonly; the values of  these  names
              may  not  be changed by subsequent assignment.  If the -f option
              is supplied, the functions corresponding to  the  names  are  so
              marked.  The -a option restricts the variables to arrays.  If no
              name arguments are given, or if the -p  option  is  supplied,  a
              list  of  all  readonly  names is printed.  The -p option causes
              output to be displayed in a format that may be reused as  input.
              If  a variable name is followed by =word, the value of the vari-
              able is set to word.  The return status is 0 unless  an  invalid
              option  is  encountered,  one  of the names is not a valid shell
              variable name, or -f is supplied with a name that is not a func-
              tion.

       return [n]
              Causes  a function to exit with the return value specified by n.
              If n is omitted, the return status is that of the  last  command
              executed  in the function body.  If used outside a function, but
              during execution of a script by  the  .   (source)  command,  it
              causes the shell to stop executing that script and return either
              n or the exit status of the last  command  executed  within  the
              script  as  the  exit  status  of the script.  If used outside a
              function and not during execution of a script by .,  the  return
              status is false.  Any command associated with the RETURN trap is
              executed before execution resumes after the function or  script.

       set [--abefhkmnptuvxBCHP] [-o option] [arg ...]
              Without  options,  the name and value of each shell variable are
              displayed in a format that can be reused as input for setting or
              resetting the currently-set variables.  Read-only variables can-
              not be reset.  In posix mode, only shell variables  are  listed.
              The  output  is  sorted  according  to the current locale.  When
              options are specified, they set or unset shell attributes.   Any
              arguments  remaining after the options are processed are treated
              as values for the positional parameters  and  are  assigned,  in
              order, to $1, $2, ...  $n.  Options, if specified, have the fol-
              lowing meanings:
              -a      Automatically mark variables  and  functions  which  are
                      modified  or  created  for  export to the environment of
                      subsequent commands.
              -b      Report the status of terminated background jobs  immedi-
                      ately, rather than before the next primary prompt.  This
                      is effective only when job control is enabled.
              -e      Exit immediately if a simple command (see SHELL  GRAMMAR
                      above) exits with a non-zero status.  The shell does not
                      exit if the command that fails is part  of  the  command
                      list  immediately  following  a  while or until keyword,
                      part of the test in an if statement, part of a && or  ||
                      list, or if the command's return value is being inverted
                      via !.  A trap on ERR, if set, is  executed  before  the
                      shell exits.
              -f      Disable pathname expansion.
              -h      Remember  the location of commands as they are looked up
                      for execution.  This is enabled by default.
              -k      All arguments in the form of assignment  statements  are
                      placed  in the environment for a command, not just those
                      that precede the command name.
              -m      Monitor mode.  Job control is enabled.  This  option  is
                      on  by  default  for  interactive shells on systems that
                      support it (see JOB  CONTROL  above).   Background  pro-
                      cesses  run  in a separate process group and a line con-
                      taining their exit status is printed upon their  comple-
                      tion.
              -n      Read commands but do not execute them.  This may be used
                      to check a shell script  for  syntax  errors.   This  is
                      ignored by interactive shells.
              -o option-name
                      The option-name can be one of the following:
                      allexport
                              Same as -a.
                      braceexpand
                              Same as -B.
                      emacs   Use  an  emacs-style command line editing inter-
                              face.  This is enabled by default when the shell
                              is interactive, unless the shell is started with
                              the --noediting option.
                      errtrace
                              Same as -E.
                      functrace
                              Same as -T.
                      errexit Same as -e.
                      hashall Same as -h.
                      histexpand
                              Same as -H.
                      history Enable command history, as described above under
                              HISTORY.  This option is on by default in inter-
                              active shells.
                      ignoreeof
                              The  effect  is  as   if   the   shell   command
                              ``IGNOREEOF=10''  had  been  executed (see Shell
                              Variables above).
                      keyword Same as -k.
                      monitor Same as -m.
                      noclobber
                              Same as -C.
                      noexec  Same as -n.
                      noglob  Same as -f.  nolog Currently ignored.
                      notify  Same as -b.
                      nounset Same as -u.
                      onecmd  Same as -t.
                      physical
                              Same as -P.
                      pipefail
                              If set, the return value of a  pipeline  is  the
                              value  of  the  last (rightmost) command to exit
                              with a non-zero status, or zero if all  commands
                              in  the pipeline exit successfully.  This option
                              is disabled by default.
                      posix   Change the behavior of bash  where  the  default
                              operation  differs  from  the  POSIX standard to
                              match the standard (posix mode).
                      privileged
                              Same as -p.
                      verbose Same as -v.
                      vi      Use a vi-style command line editing interface.
                      xtrace  Same as -x.
                      If -o is supplied with no option-name, the values of the
                      current  options are printed.  If +o is supplied with no
                      option-name, a series of set commands  to  recreate  the
                      current  option  settings  is  displayed on the standard
                      output.
              -p      Turn on privileged mode.  In this  mode,  the  $ENV  and
                      $BASH_ENV  files  are not processed, shell functions are
                      not inherited from the environment,  and  the  SHELLOPTS
                      variable,  if it appears in the environment, is ignored.
                      If the shell is started with the effective user  (group)
                      id  not  equal  to  the real user (group) id, and the -p
                      option is not supplied, these actions are taken and  the
                      effective user id is set to the real user id.  If the -p
                      option is supplied at startup, the effective user id  is
                      not reset.  Turning this option off causes the effective
                      user and group ids to be set to the real user and  group
                      ids.
              -t      Exit after reading and executing one command.
              -u      Treat unset variables as an error when performing param-
                      eter expansion.  If expansion is attempted on  an  unset
                      variable, the shell prints an error message, and, if not
                      interactive, exits with a non-zero status.
              -v      Print shell input lines as they are read.
              -x      After expanding each simple command, for  command,  case
                      command, select command, or arithmetic for command, dis-
                      play the expanded value of PS4, followed by the  command
                      and its expanded arguments or associated word list.
              -B      The  shell performs brace expansion (see Brace Expansion
                      above).  This is on by default.
              -C      If set, bash does not overwrite an  existing  file  with
                      the  >,  >&,  and <> redirection operators.  This may be
                      overridden when creating output files by using the redi-
                      rection operator >| instead of >.
              -E      If set, any trap on ERR is inherited by shell functions,
                      command substitutions, and commands executed in  a  sub-
                      shell  environment.  The ERR trap is normally not inher-
                      ited in such cases.
              -H      Enable !  style history substitution.  This option is on
                      by default when the shell is interactive.
              -P      If  set,  the  shell does not follow symbolic links when
                      executing commands such as cd that  change  the  current
                      working  directory.   It  uses  the  physical  directory
                      structure instead.  By default, bash follows the logical
                      chain  of  directories  when  performing  commands which
                      change the current directory.
              -T      If set, any traps on DEBUG and RETURN are  inherited  by
                      shell  functions,  command  substitutions,  and commands
                      executed in  a  subshell  environment.   The  DEBUG  and
                      RETURN traps are normally not inherited in such cases.
              --      If  no arguments follow this option, then the positional
                      parameters are unset.  Otherwise, the positional parame-
                      ters  are  set  to  the args, even if some of them begin
                      with a -.
              -       Signal the end of options, cause all remaining  args  to
                      be assigned to the positional parameters.  The -x and -v
                      options are turned off.  If there are no args, the posi-
                      tional parameters remain unchanged.

              The  options are off by default unless otherwise noted.  Using +
              rather than - causes  these  options  to  be  turned  off.   The
              options  can  also be specified as arguments to an invocation of
              the shell.  The current set of options may be found in $-.   The
              return status is always true unless an invalid option is encoun-
              tered.

       shift [n]
              The positional parameters from n+1 ... are renamed  to  $1  ....
              Parameters  represented  by  the  numbers  $# down to $#-n+1 are
              unset.  n must be a non-negative number less than  or  equal  to
              $#.   If  n is 0, no parameters are changed.  If n is not given,
              it is assumed to be 1.  If n is greater than $#, the  positional
              parameters  are  not changed.  The return status is greater than
              zero if n is greater than $# or less than zero; otherwise 0.

       shopt [-pqsu] [-o] [optname ...]
              Toggle the values of variables controlling optional shell behav-
              ior.  With no options, or with the -p option, a list of all set-
              table options is displayed, with an indication of whether or not
              each  is  set.  The -p option causes output to be displayed in a
              form that may be reused as input.  Other options have  the  fol-
              lowing meanings:
              -s     Enable (set) each optname.
              -u     Disable (unset) each optname.
              -q     Suppresses  normal output (quiet mode); the return status
                     indicates whether the optname is set or unset.  If multi-
                     ple  optname arguments are given with -q, the return sta-
                     tus is zero if all optnames are enabled; non-zero  other-
                     wise.
              -o     Restricts  the  values of optname to be those defined for
                     the -o option to the set builtin.

              If either -s or -u is used with no optname arguments,  the  dis-
              play is limited to those options which are set or unset, respec-
              tively.  Unless otherwise noted, the shopt options are  disabled
              (unset) by default.

              The  return  status when listing options is zero if all optnames
              are enabled, non-zero  otherwise.   When  setting  or  unsetting
              options,  the  return  status is zero unless an optname is not a
              valid shell option.

              The list of shopt options is:

              cdable_vars
                      If set, an argument to the cd builtin  command  that  is
                      not  a directory is assumed to be the name of a variable
                      whose value is the directory to change to.
              cdspell If set, minor errors in the spelling of a directory com-
                      ponent  in  a  cd command will be corrected.  The errors
                      checked for are transposed characters, a missing charac-
                      ter,  and  one  character  too many.  If a correction is
                      found, the corrected file name is printed, and the  com-
                      mand  proceeds.  This option is only used by interactive
                      shells.
              checkhash
                      If set, bash checks that a command found in the hash ta-
                      ble  exists  before  trying  to execute it.  If a hashed
                      command no longer exists, a normal path search  is  per-
                      formed.
              checkwinsize
                      If  set,  bash checks the window size after each command
                      and, if necessary, updates the values of LINES and  COL-
                      UMNS.
              cmdhist If  set,  bash attempts to save all lines of a multiple-
                      line command in the same  history  entry.   This  allows
                      easy re-editing of multi-line commands.
              dotglob If  set, bash includes filenames beginning with a `.' in
                      the results of pathname expansion.
              execfail
                      If set, a non-interactive shell will not exit if it can-
                      not  execute  the  file  specified as an argument to the
                      exec builtin command.  An  interactive  shell  does  not
                      exit if exec fails.
              expand_aliases
                      If  set,  aliases  are expanded as described above under
                      ALIASES.  This option is enabled by default for interac-
                      tive shells.
              extdebug
                      If  set,  behavior  intended  for  use  by  debuggers is
                      enabled:
                      1.     The -F option to the declare builtin displays the
                             source file name and line number corresponding to
                             each function name supplied as an argument.
                      2.     If the command run by the DEBUG  trap  returns  a
                             non-zero  value,  the next command is skipped and
                             not executed.
                      3.     If the command run by the DEBUG  trap  returns  a
                             value  of 2, and the shell is executing in a sub-
                             routine (a shell function or a shell script  exe-
                             cuted  by  the  .  or source builtins), a call to
                             return is simulated.
                      4.     BASH_ARGC and BASH_ARGV are updated as  described
                             in their descriptions above.
                      5.     Function  tracing  is enabled:  command substitu-
                             tion, shell functions, and subshells invoked with
                             ( command ) inherit the DEBUG and RETURN traps.
                      6.     Error  tracing is enabled:  command substitution,
                             shell functions, and  subshells  invoked  with  (
                             command ) inherit the ERROR trap.
              extglob If set, the extended pattern matching features described
                      above under Pathname Expansion are enabled.
              extquote
                      If set, $'string' and  $"string"  quoting  is  performed
                      within   ${parameter}   expansions  enclosed  in  double
                      quotes.  This option is enabled by default.
              failglob
                      If set, patterns which fail to  match  filenames  during
                      pathname expansion result in an expansion error.
              force_fignore
                      If  set,  the  suffixes  specified  by the FIGNORE shell
                      variable cause words to be ignored when performing  word
                      completion even if the ignored words are the only possi-
                      ble  completions.   See  SHELL  VARIABLES  above  for  a
                      description  of  FIGNORE.   This  option  is  enabled by
                      default.
              gnu_errfmt
                      If set, shell error messages are written in the standard
                      GNU error message format.
              histappend
                      If  set,  the history list is appended to the file named
                      by the value of the HISTFILE  variable  when  the  shell
                      exits, rather than overwriting the file.
              histreedit
                      If  set, and readline is being used, a user is given the
                      opportunity to re-edit a failed history substitution.
              histverify
                      If set, and readline is being used, the results of  his-
                      tory  substitution  are  not  immediately  passed to the
                      shell parser.  Instead, the  resulting  line  is  loaded
                      into the readline editing buffer, allowing further modi-
                      fication.
              hostcomplete
                      If set, and readline is being used, bash will attempt to
                      perform  hostname  completion when a word containing a @
                      is  being  completed  (see  Completing  under   READLINE
                      above).  This is enabled by default.
              huponexit
                      If set, bash will send SIGHUP to all jobs when an inter-
                      active login shell exits.
              interactive_comments
                      If set, allow a word beginning with # to cause that word
                      and  all remaining characters on that line to be ignored
                      in an interactive  shell  (see  COMMENTS  above).   This
                      option is enabled by default.
              lithist If  set,  and  the cmdhist option is enabled, multi-line
                      commands are saved to the history with embedded newlines
                      rather than using semicolon separators where possible.
              login_shell
                      The  shell  sets this option if it is started as a login
                      shell (see INVOCATION above).   The  value  may  not  be
                      changed.
              mailwarn
                      If  set,  and  a file that bash is checking for mail has
                      been accessed since the last time it  was  checked,  the
                      message  ``The  mail in mailfile has been read'' is dis-
                      played.
              no_empty_cmd_completion
                      If set, and  readline  is  being  used,  bash  will  not
                      attempt to search the PATH for possible completions when
                      completion is attempted on an empty line.
              nocaseglob
                      If set, bash matches  filenames  in  a  case-insensitive
                      fashion when performing pathname expansion (see Pathname
                      Expansion above).
              nocasematch
                      If set, bash  matches  patterns  in  a  case-insensitive
                      fashion when performing matching while executing case or
                      [[ conditional commands.
              nullglob
                      If set, bash allows patterns which match no  files  (see
                      Pathname  Expansion  above)  to expand to a null string,
                      rather than themselves.
              progcomp
                      If set, the programmable completion facilities (see Pro-
                      grammable Completion above) are enabled.  This option is
                      enabled by default.
              promptvars
                      If set, prompt strings undergo parameter expansion, com-
                      mand   substitution,  arithmetic  expansion,  and  quote
                      removal after being expanded as described  in  PROMPTING
                      above.  This option is enabled by default.
              restricted_shell
                      The   shell  sets  this  option  if  it  is  started  in
                      restricted mode (see RESTRICTED SHELL below).  The value
                      may  not be changed.  This is not reset when the startup
                      files are executed, allowing the startup files  to  dis-
                      cover whether or not a shell is restricted.
              shift_verbose
                      If  set,  the shift builtin prints an error message when
                      the shift count exceeds the number of positional parame-
                      ters.
              sourcepath
                      If set, the source (.) builtin uses the value of PATH to
                      find the directory containing the file  supplied  as  an
                      argument.  This option is enabled by default.
              xpg_echo
                      If   set,  the  echo  builtin  expands  backslash-escape
                      sequences by default.
       suspend [-f]
              Suspend the execution of this shell until it receives a  SIGCONT
              signal.   The  -f option says not to complain if this is a login
              shell; just suspend anyway.  The return status is 0  unless  the
              shell is a login shell and -f is not supplied, or if job control
              is not enabled.
       test expr
       [ expr ]
              Return a status of 0 or 1 depending on  the  evaluation  of  the
              conditional  expression expr.  Each operator and operand must be
              a separate argument.  Expressions are composed of the  primaries
              described  above  under  CONDITIONAL EXPRESSIONS.  test does not
              accept any options, nor does it accept and ignore an argument of
              -- as signifying the end of options.

              Expressions  may  be  combined  using  the  following operators,
              listed in decreasing order of precedence.
              ! expr True if expr is false.
              ( expr )
                     Returns the value of expr.  This may be used to  override
                     the normal precedence of operators.
              expr1 -a expr2
                     True if both expr1 and expr2 are true.
              expr1 -o expr2
                     True if either expr1 or expr2 is true.

              test and [ evaluate conditional expressions using a set of rules
              based on the number of arguments.

              0 arguments
                     The expression is false.
              1 argument
                     The expression is true if and only if the argument is not
                     null.
              2 arguments
                     If the first argument is !, the expression is true if and
                     only if the second argument is null.  If the first  argu-
                     ment  is  one  of  the unary conditional operators listed
                     above under CONDITIONAL EXPRESSIONS,  the  expression  is
                     true if the unary test is true.  If the first argument is
                     not a valid unary conditional operator, the expression is
                     false.
              3 arguments
                     If  the  second argument is one of the binary conditional
                     operators listed above under CONDITIONAL EXPRESSIONS, the
                     result of the expression is the result of the binary test
                     using the first and third arguments as operands.  If  the
                     first  argument  is  !,  the value is the negation of the
                     two-argument test using the second and  third  arguments.
                     If the first argument is exactly ( and the third argument
                     is exactly ), the result is the one-argument test of  the
                     second  argument.   Otherwise,  the  expression is false.
                     The -a and -o operators are considered  binary  operators
                     in this case.
              4 arguments
                     If the first argument is !, the result is the negation of
                     the three-argument expression composed of  the  remaining
                     arguments.  Otherwise, the expression is parsed and eval-
                     uated according to  precedence  using  the  rules  listed
                     above.
              5 or more arguments
                     The  expression  is  parsed  and  evaluated  according to
                     precedence using the rules listed above.

       times  Print the accumulated user and system times for  the  shell  and
              for processes run from the shell.  The return status is 0.

       trap [-lp] [[arg] sigspec ...]
              The  command  arg  is  to  be  read  and executed when the shell
              receives signal(s) sigspec.  If arg is absent (and  there  is  a
              single  sigspec)  or  -,  each  specified signal is reset to its
              original disposition (the value it  had  upon  entrance  to  the
              shell).   If arg is the null string the signal specified by each
              sigspec is ignored by the shell and by the commands it  invokes.
              If  arg  is  not present and -p has been supplied, then the trap
              commands associated with each  sigspec  are  displayed.   If  no
              arguments  are  supplied or if only -p is given, trap prints the
              list of commands associated with each  signal.   The  -l  option
              causes  the shell to print a list of signal names and their cor-
              responding numbers.   Each  sigspec  is  either  a  signal  name
              defined  in  <signal.h>,  or  a signal number.  Signal names are
              case insensitive and the SIG prefix is optional.  If  a  sigspec
              is  EXIT (0) the command arg is executed on exit from the shell.
              If a sigspec is DEBUG, the command arg is executed before  every
              simple command, for command, case command, select command, every
              arithmetic for command, and before the first command executes in
              a  shell  function  (see  SHELL  GRAMMAR  above).   Refer to the
              description of the extdebug option  to  the  shopt  builtin  for
              details  of  its effect on the DEBUG trap.  If a sigspec is ERR,
              the command arg is executed whenever  a  simple  command  has  a
              non-zero  exit status, subject to the following conditions.  The
              ERR trap is not executed if the failed command is  part  of  the
              command  list  immediately  following  a while or until keyword,
              part of the test in an if statement, part of a && or || list, or
              if  the  command's  return value is being inverted via !.  These
              are the same conditions obeyed by  the  errexit  option.   If  a
              sigspec is RETURN, the command arg is executed each time a shell
              function or a script executed with the . or source builtins fin-
              ishes executing.  Signals ignored upon entry to the shell cannot
              be trapped or reset.  Trapped signals that are not being ignored
              are reset to their original values in a child process when it is
              created.  The return status is false if any sigspec is  invalid;
              otherwise trap returns true.

       type [-aftpP] name [name ...]
              With  no options, indicate how each name would be interpreted if
              used as a command name.  If the -t option is used, type prints a
              string  which  is  one  of alias, keyword, function, builtin, or
              file if  name  is  an  alias,  shell  reserved  word,  function,
              builtin,  or disk file, respectively.  If the name is not found,
              then nothing  is  printed,  and  an  exit  status  of  false  is
              returned.   If  the  -p  option is used, type either returns the
              name of the disk file that would be executed if name were speci-
              fied as a command name, or nothing if ``type -t name'' would not
              return file.  The -P option forces a PATH search for each  name,
              even if ``type -t name'' would not return file.  If a command is
              hashed, -p and -P print the hashed value,  not  necessarily  the
              file that appears first in PATH.  If the -a option is used, type
              prints all of the places that contain an executable named  name.
              This  includes  aliases  and  functions,  if  and only if the -p
              option is not also used.  The table of hashed  commands  is  not
              consulted  when  using -a.  The -f option suppresses shell func-
              tion lookup, as with the command builtin.  type returns true  if
              any of the arguments are found, false if none are found.

       ulimit [-SHacdefilmnpqrstuvx [limit]]
              Provides  control  over the resources available to the shell and
              to processes started by it, on systems that allow such  control.
              The -H and -S options specify that the hard or soft limit is set
              for the given resource.  A hard limit cannot be  increased  once
              it  is set; a soft limit may be increased up to the value of the
              hard limit.  If neither -H nor -S is specified,  both  the  soft
              and  hard limits are set.  The value of limit can be a number in
              the unit specified for the resource or one of the special values
              hard,  soft,  or  unlimited,  which  stand  for the current hard
              limit, the current soft limit, and no limit,  respectively.   If
              limit  is  omitted,  the  current value of the soft limit of the
              resource is printed, unless the -H option is given.   When  more
              than  one  resource  is  specified,  the limit name and unit are
              printed before the value.  Other options are interpreted as fol-
              lows:
              -a     All current limits are reported
              -c     The maximum size of core files created
              -d     The maximum size of a process's data segment
              -e     The maximum scheduling priority ("nice")
              -f     The  maximum  size  of files written by the shell and its
                     children
              -i     The maximum number of pending signals
              -l     The maximum size that may be locked into memory
              -m     The maximum resident set size
              -n     The maximum number of open file descriptors (most systems
                     do not allow this value to be set)
              -p     The pipe size in 512-byte blocks (this may not be set)
              -q     The maximum number of bytes in POSIX message queues
              -r     The maximum real-time scheduling priority
              -s     The maximum stack size
              -t     The maximum amount of cpu time in seconds
              -u     The  maximum  number  of  processes available to a single
                     user
              -v     The maximum amount of virtual  memory  available  to  the
                     shell
              -x     The maximum number of file locks

              If limit is given, it is the new value of the specified resource
              (the -a option is display only).  If no option is given, then -f
              is  assumed.  Values are in 1024-byte increments, except for -t,
              which is in seconds, -p, which is in units of  512-byte  blocks,
              and  -n and -u, which are unscaled values.  The return status is
              0 unless an invalid option or argument is supplied, or an  error
              occurs while setting a new limit.

       umask [-p] [-S] [mode]
              The user file-creation mask is set to mode.  If mode begins with
              a digit, it is interpreted as an octal number; otherwise  it  is
              interpreted  as a symbolic mode mask similar to that accepted by
              chmod(1).  If mode is omitted, the current value of the mask  is
              printed.   The  -S  option causes the mask to be printed in sym-
              bolic form; the default output is an octal number.   If  the  -p
              option is supplied, and mode is omitted, the output is in a form
              that may be reused as input.  The return status is 0 if the mode
              was  successfully  changed  or if no mode argument was supplied,
              and false otherwise.

       unalias [-a] [name ...]
              Remove each name from the list of defined  aliases.   If  -a  is
              supplied,  all  alias definitions are removed.  The return value
              is true unless a supplied name is not a defined alias.

       unset [-fv] [name ...]
              For each name, remove the corresponding  variable  or  function.
              If no options are supplied, or the -v option is given, each name
              refers to a shell variable.   Read-only  variables  may  not  be
              unset.   If  -f  is specified, each name refers to a shell func-
              tion, and the function definition is removed.  Each unset  vari-
              able  or function is removed from the environment passed to sub-
              sequent commands.  If any of RANDOM, SECONDS,  LINENO,  HISTCMD,
              FUNCNAME, GROUPS, or DIRSTACK are unset, they lose their special
              properties, even if they are subsequently reset.  The exit  sta-
              tus is true unless a name is readonly.

       wait [n ...]
              Wait  for each specified process and return its termination sta-
              tus.  Each n may be a process ID or a job  specification;  if  a
              job  spec  is  given,  all  processes in that job's pipeline are
              waited for.  If n is not given, all currently active child  pro-
              cesses  are  waited  for,  and  the return status is zero.  If n
              specifies a non-existent process or job, the  return  status  is
              127.   Otherwise,  the  return  status is the exit status of the
              last process or job waited for.

RESTRICTED SHELL
       If bash is started with the name rbash, or the -r option is supplied at
       invocation,  the  shell becomes restricted.  A restricted shell is used
       to set up an environment more controlled than the standard  shell.   It
       behaves  identically  to bash with the exception that the following are
       disallowed or not performed:

       o      changing directories with cd

       o      setting or unsetting the values of SHELL, PATH, ENV, or BASH_ENV

       o      specifying command names containing /

       o      specifying  a  file  name containing a / as an argument to the .
              builtin command

       o      Specifying a filename containing a slash as an argument  to  the
              -p option to the hash builtin command

       o      importing  function  definitions  from  the shell environment at
              startup

       o      parsing the value of SHELLOPTS from  the  shell  environment  at
              startup

       o      redirecting output using the >, >|, <>, >&, &>, and >> redirect-
              ion operators

       o      using the exec builtin command to replace the shell with another
              command

       o      adding  or  deleting builtin commands with the -f and -d options
              to the enable builtin command

       o      Using the  enable  builtin  command  to  enable  disabled  shell
              builtins

       o      specifying the -p option to the command builtin command

       o      turning off restricted mode with set +r or set +o restricted.

       These restrictions are enforced after any startup files are read.

       When a command that is found to be a shell script is executed (see COM-
       MAND EXECUTION above), rbash turns off any restrictions  in  the  shell
       spawned to execute the script.

SEE ALSO
       Bash Reference Manual, Brian Fox and Chet Ramey
       The Gnu Readline Library, Brian Fox and Chet Ramey
       The Gnu History Library, Brian Fox and Chet Ramey
       Portable  Operating  System  Interface (POSIX) Part 2: Shell and Utili-
       ties, IEEE
       sh(1), ksh(1), csh(1)
       emacs(1), vi(1)
       readline(3)

FILES
       /bin/bash
              The bash executable
       /etc/profile
              The systemwide initialization file, executed for login shells
       ~/.bash_profile
              The personal initialization file, executed for login shells
       ~/.bashrc
              The individual per-interactive-shell startup file
       ~/.bash_logout
              The  individual  login shell cleanup file, executed when a login
              shell exits
       ~/.inputrc
              Individual readline initialization file

AUTHORS
       Brian Fox, Free Software Foundation
       bfox@gnu.org

       Chet Ramey, Case Western Reserve University
       chet@po.cwru.edu

BUG REPORTS
       If you find a bug in bash, you should report it.  But first, you should
       make  sure  that  it really is a bug, and that it appears in the latest
       version  of  bash.   The  latest  version  is  always  available   from
       ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/bash/.

       Once  you  have  determined that a bug actually exists, use the bashbug
       command to submit a bug report.  If you have a fix, you are  encouraged
       to  mail that as well!  Suggestions and `philosophical' bug reports may
       be mailed  to  bug-bash@gnu.org  or  posted  to  the  Usenet  newsgroup
       gnu.bash.bug.

       ALL bug reports should include:

       The version number of bash
       The hardware and operating system
       The compiler used to compile
       A description of the bug behaviour
       A short script or `recipe' which exercises the bug

       bashbug  inserts  the first three items automatically into the template
       it provides for filing a bug report.

       Comments and bug reports concerning this manual page should be directed
       to chet@po.cwru.edu.

BUGS
       It's too big and too slow.

       There are some subtle differences between bash and traditional versions
       of sh, mostly because of the POSIX specification.

       Aliases are confusing in some uses.

       Shell builtin commands and functions are not stoppable/restartable.

       Compound commands and command sequences of the form `a ; b ; c' are not
       handled  gracefully  when  process  suspension  is  attempted.   When a
       process is stopped, the shell immediately executes the next command  in
       the  sequence.   It  suffices to place the sequence of commands between
       parentheses to force it into a subshell, which  may  be  stopped  as  a
       unit.

       Commands  inside  of  $(...)  command substitution are not parsed until
       substitution is attempted.  This will delay error reporting until  some
       time after the command is entered.  For example, unmatched parentheses,
       even inside shell comments, will result in  error  messages  while  the
       construct is being read.

       Array variables may not (yet) be exported.



GNU Bash-3.2                   2006 September 28                       BASH(1)
