6. Bash Features

This section describes features unique to Bash.

6.1 Invoking Bash

bash [long-opt] [-ir] [-abefhkmnptuvxdBCDHP] [-o option] [-O shopt_option] [argument …]
bash [long-opt] [-abefhkmnptuvxdBCDHP] [-o option] [-O shopt_option] -c string [argument …]
bash [long-opt] -s [-abefhkmnptuvxdBCDHP] [-o option] [-O shopt_option] [argument …]

In addition to the single-character shell command-line options (see section The Set Builtin), there are several multi-character options that you can use. 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 Shopt Builtin for a description of the extdebug option to the shopt builtin) and shell function tracing (see The Set Builtin for a description of the -o functrace option).

--dump-po-strings

A list of all double-quoted strings preceded by `$' is printed on the standard output in the GNU gettext PO (portable object) file format. Equivalent to `-D' except for the output format.

--dump-strings

Equivalent to `-D'.

--help

Display a usage message on standard output and exit successfully.

--init-file filename

--rcfile filename

Execute commands from filename (instead of `~/.bashrc') in an interactive shell.

--login

Equivalent to `-l'.

--noediting

Do not use the GNU Readline library (see section Command Line Editing) to read command lines when the shell is interactive.

--noprofile

Don't load the system-wide startup file `/etc/profile' or any of the personal initialization files `~/.bash_profile', `~/.bash_login', or `~/.profile' when Bash is invoked as a login shell.

--norc

Don't read the `~/.bashrc' initialization file in an interactive shell. This 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. This is intended to make Bash behave as a strict superset of that standard. See section Bash POSIX Mode, for a description of the Bash POSIX mode.

--restricted

Make the shell a restricted shell (see section The Restricted Shell).

--verbose

Equivalent to `-v'. Print shell input lines as they're read.

--version

Show version information for this instance of Bash on the standard output and exit successfully.

There are several single-character options that may be supplied at invocation which are not available with the set builtin.

-c string

Read and execute commands from string after processing the options, then exit. Any remaining arguments are assigned to the positional parameters, starting with $0.

-i

Force the shell to run interactively. Interactive shells are described in Interactive Shells.

-l

Make this shell act as if it had been directly invoked by login. When the shell is interactive, this is equivalent to starting a login shell with `exec -l bash'. When the shell is not interactive, the login shell startup files will be executed. `exec bash -l' or `exec bash --login' will replace the current shell with a Bash login shell. See section Bash Startup Files, for a description of the special behavior of a login shell.

-r

Make the shell a restricted shell (see section The Restricted Shell).

-s

If this 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 subject to language translation when the current locale is not C or POSIX (see section Locale-Specific Translation). 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 section The Shopt Builtin). 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 filenames and arguments.

A login shell is one whose first character of argument zero is `-', or one invoked with the `--login' option.

An interactive shell is one started without non-option arguments, unless `-s' is specified, without specifying the `-c' option, and whose input and output are both connected to terminals (as determined by isatty(3)), or one started with the `-i' option. See section Interactive Shells, for more information.

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 (see section Shell Scripts). When Bash is invoked in this fashion, $0 is set to the name of the file, and the positional parameters are set to the remaining arguments. Bash reads and executes commands from this file, then exits. Bash's exit status is the exit status of the last command executed in the script. If no commands are executed, the exit status is 0.

6.2 Bash Startup Files

This section describes 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 above under Tilde Expansion (see section Tilde Expansion).

Interactive shells are described in Interactive Shells.

Invoked as an interactive login shell, or with `--login'

When Bash is invoked as an interactive login shell, or as a non-interactive shell with the `--login' option, it first reads and executes commands 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.

Invoked as an interactive non-login shell

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'.

So, typically, your `~/.bash_profile' contains the line

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then . ~/.bashrc; fi

after (or before) any login-specific initializations.

Invoked non-interactively

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 command 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.

As noted above, if a non-interactive shell is invoked with the `--login' option, Bash attempts to read and execute commands from the login shell startup files.

Invoked with name sh

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 interactive login shell, or as 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 execute 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.

Invoked in POSIX mode

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.

Invoked by remote shell daemon

Bash attempts to determine when it is being run with its standard input connected to a a network connection, as if by the remote shell daemon, usually rshd, or the secure shell daemon sshd. If Bash determines it is being run in this fashion, 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.

Invoked with unequal effective and real UID/GIDs

If Bash 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.

6.3 Interactive Shells

6.3.1 What is an Interactive Shell?

An interactive shell is one started without non-option arguments, unless `-s' is specified, without specifying the `-c' option, and whose input and error output are both connected to terminals (as determined by isatty(3)), or one started with the `-i' option.

An interactive shell generally reads from and writes to a user's terminal.

The `-s' invocation option may be used to set the positional parameters when an interactive shell is started.

6.3.2 Is this Shell Interactive?

To determine within a startup script whether or not Bash is running interactively, test the value of the `-' special parameter. It contains i when the shell is interactive. For example:

case "$-" in
*i*)	echo This shell is interactive ;;
*)	echo This shell is not interactive ;;
esac

Alternatively, startup scripts may examine the variable PS1; it is unset in non-interactive shells, and set in interactive shells. Thus:

if [ -z "$PS1" ]; then
        echo This shell is not interactive
else
        echo This shell is interactive
fi

6.3.3 Interactive Shell Behavior

When the shell is running interactively, it changes its behavior in several ways.

1. Startup files are read and executed as described in Bash Startup Files.
2. Job Control (see section Job Control) is enabled by default. When job control is in effect, Bash ignores the keyboard-generated job control signals SIGTTIN, SIGTTOU, and SIGTSTP.
3. Bash expands and displays PS1 before reading the first line of a command, and expands and displays PS2 before reading the second and subsequent lines of a multi-line command.
4. Bash executes the value of the PROMPT_COMMAND variable as a command before printing the primary prompt, $PS1 (see section Bash Variables).
5. Readline (see section Command Line Editing) is used to read commands from the user's terminal.
6. Bash inspects the value of the ignoreeof option to set -o instead of exiting immediately when it receives an EOF on its standard input when reading a command (see section The Set Builtin).
7. Command history (see section Bash History Facilities) and history expansion (see section History Expansion) are enabled by default. Bash will save the command history to the file named by $HISTFILE when an interactive shell exits.
8. Alias expansion (see section Aliases) is performed by default.
9. In the absence of any traps, Bash ignores SIGTERM (see section Signals).
10. In the absence of any traps, SIGINT is caught and handled ((see section Signals). SIGINT will interrupt some shell builtins.
11. An interactive login shell sends a SIGHUP to all jobs on exit if the huponexit shell option has been enabled (see section Signals).
12. The `-n' invocation option is ignored, and `set -n' has no effect (see section The Set Builtin).
13. Bash will check for mail periodically, depending on the values of the MAIL, MAILPATH, and MAILCHECK shell variables (see section Bash Variables).
14. Expansion errors due to references to unbound shell variables after `set -u' has been enabled will not cause the shell to exit (see section The Set Builtin).
15. The shell will not exit on expansion errors caused by var being unset or null in ${var:?word} expansions (see section Shell Parameter Expansion).
16. Redirection errors encountered by shell builtins will not cause the shell to exit.
17. When running in POSIX mode, a special builtin returning an error status will not cause the shell to exit (see section Bash POSIX Mode).
18. A failed exec will not cause the shell to exit (see section Bourne Shell Builtins).
19. Parser syntax errors will not cause the shell to exit.
20. Simple spelling correction for directory arguments to the cd builtin is enabled by default (see the description of the cdspell option to the shopt builtin in The Shopt Builtin).
21. The shell will check the value of the TMOUT variable and exit if a command is not read within the specified number of seconds after printing $PS1 (see section Bash Variables).

6.4 Bash Conditional Expressions

Conditional expressions are used by the [[ compound command and the test and [ builtin commands.

Expressions may be unary or binary. Unary expressions are often used to examine the status of a file. There are string operators and numeric comparison operators as well. If the file argument to one of the primaries 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 symbolic 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 its set-group-id bit is set.

-h file

True if file exists and is a symbolic link.

-k file

True if file exists and its "sticky" bit is set.

-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 numbers.

-o optname

True if shell option optname is enabled. The list of options appears in the description of the `-o' option to the set builtin (see section The Set Builtin).

-z string

True if the length of string is zero.

-n string

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.

6.5 Shell Arithmetic

The shell allows arithmetic expressions to be evaluated, as one of the shell expansions or by the let and the `-i' option to the declare builtins.

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 performed 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 omitted, 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.

6.6 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.

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 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 space or tab character, 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, as in csh. If arguments are needed, a shell function should be used (see section Shell Functions).

Aliases are not expanded when the shell is not interactive, unless the expand_aliases shell option is set using shopt (see section The Shopt Builtin).

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 compound 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 compound commands.

For almost every purpose, shell functions are preferred over aliases.

6.7 Arrays

Bash provides one-dimensional indexed and associative array variables. Any variable may be used as an indexed 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. Indexed arrays are referenced using integers (including arithmetic expressions (see section Shell Arithmetic) and are zero-based; associative arrays use arbitrary strings.

An indexed 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

The syntax

declare -a name[subscript]

is also accepted; the subscript is ignored.

Associative arrays are created using

declare -A name.

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 [subscript]=string. Indexed array assignments do not require the bracket and subscript. When assigning to indexed arrays, if the optional subscript is 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.

When assigning to an associative array, the subscript is required.

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 the shell's filename expansion operators. If the subscript is `@' or `*', the word expands to all members of the array 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 variable, and ${name[@]} expands each element of name to a separate 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 `*'. ${#name[subscript]} expands to the length of ${name[subscript]}. If subscript is `@' or `*', the expansion is the number of elements in the array. Referencing an array variable without a subscript is equivalent to referencing with a subscript of 0.

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, removes the entire array. A subscript of `*' or `@' also removes the entire array.

The declare, local, and readonly builtins each accept a `-a' option to specify an indexed array and a `-A' option to specify an associative array. The read builtin accepts a `-a' option to assign a list of words read from the standard input to an array, and can read values from the standard input into individual array elements. The set and declare builtins display array values in a way that allows them to be reused as input.

6.8 The Directory Stack

The directory stack is a list of recently-visited directories. The pushd builtin adds directories to the stack as it changes the current directory, and the popd builtin removes specified directories from the stack and changes the current directory to the directory removed. The dirs builtin displays the contents of the directory stack.

The contents of the directory stack are also visible as the value of the DIRSTACK shell variable.

6.8.1 Directory Stack Builtins

dirs

dirs [+N | -N] [-clpv]

Display the list of currently remembered directories. Directories are added to the list with the pushd command; the popd command removes directories from the list.

+N

Displays the Nth directory (counting from the left of the list printed by dirs when invoked without options), starting with zero.

-N

Displays the Nth directory (counting from the right of the list printed by dirs when invoked without options), starting with zero.

-c

Clears the directory stack by deleting all of the elements.

-l

Produces a longer listing; the default listing format uses a tilde to denote the home directory.

-p

Causes dirs to print the directory stack with one entry per line.

-v

Causes dirs to print the directory stack with one entry per line, prefixing each entry with its index in the stack.

popd

popd [+N | -N] [-n]

Remove the top entry from the directory stack, and cd to the new top directory. When no arguments are given, popd removes the top directory from the stack and performs a cd to the new top directory. The elements are numbered from 0 starting at the first directory listed with dirs; i.e., popd is equivalent to popd +0.

+N

Removes the Nth directory (counting from the left of the list printed by dirs), starting with zero.

-N

Removes the Nth directory (counting from the right of the list printed by dirs), starting with zero.

-n

Suppresses the normal change of directory when removing directories from the stack, so that only the stack is manipulated.

pushd

pushd [-n] [+N | -N | dir ]

Save the current directory on the top of the directory stack and then cd to dir. With no arguments, pushd exchanges the top two directories.

-n

Suppresses the normal change of directory when adding directories to the stack, so that only the stack is manipulated.

+N

Brings the Nth directory (counting from the left of the list printed by dirs, starting with zero) to the top of the list by rotating the stack.

-N

Brings the Nth directory (counting from the right of the list printed by dirs, starting with zero) to the top of the list by rotating the stack.

dir

Makes the current working directory be the top of the stack, and then executes the equivalent of `cd dir'. cds to dir.

6.9 Controlling the Prompt

The value of the variable PROMPT_COMMAND is examined just before Bash prints each primary prompt. If PROMPT_COMMAND is set and has a non-null value, then the value is executed just as if it had been typed on the command line.

In addition, the following table describes the special characters which can appear in the prompt variables:

\a

A bell character.

\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 escape character.

\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

A newline.

\r

A carriage return.

\s

The name of the shell, the basename of $0 (the portion following the final slash).

\t

The time, in 24-hour HH:MM:SS format.

\T

The time, in 12-hour HH:MM:SS format.

\@

The time, in 12-hour am/pm format.

\A

The 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 + patchlevel (e.g., 2.00.0)

\w

The current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde (uses the $PROMPT_DIRTRIM variable).

\W

The basename of $PWD, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde.

\!

The history number of this command.

\#

The command number of this command.

\$

If the effective uid is 0, #, otherwise $.

\nnn

The character whose ASCII code is the octal value nnn.

\\

A backslash.

\[

Begin a sequence of non-printing characters. This 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 section Bash History Facilities), 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 substitution, arithmetic expansion, and quote removal, subject to the value of the promptvars shell option (see section Bash Builtin Commands).

6.10 The Restricted Shell

If Bash is started with the name rbash, or the `--restricted' or `-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. A restricted shell behaves identically to bash with the exception that the following are disallowed or not performed:

• Changing directories with the cd builtin.
• Setting or unsetting the values of the SHELL, PATH, ENV, or BASH_ENV variables.
• Specifying command names containing slashes.
• Specifying a filename containing a slash as an argument to the . builtin command.
• Specifying a filename containing a slash as an argument to the `-p' option to the hash builtin command.
• Importing function definitions from the shell environment at startup.
• Parsing the value of SHELLOPTS from the shell environment at startup.
• Redirecting output using the `>', `>|', `<>', `>&', `&>', and `>>' redirection operators.
• Using the exec builtin to replace the shell with another command.
• Adding or deleting builtin commands with the `-f' and `-d' options to the enable builtin.
• Using the enable builtin command to enable disabled shell builtins.
• Specifying the `-p' option to the command builtin.
• 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 section Shell Scripts), rbash turns off any restrictions in the shell spawned to execute the script.

6.11 Bash POSIX Mode

Starting Bash with the `--posix' command-line option or executing `set -o posix' while Bash is running will cause Bash to conform more closely to the POSIX standard by changing the behavior to match that specified by POSIX in areas where the Bash default differs.

When invoked as sh, Bash enters POSIX mode after reading the startup files.

The following list is what's changed when `POSIX mode' is in effect:

1. When a command in the hash table no longer exists, Bash will re-search $PATH to find the new location. This is also available with `shopt -s checkhash'.
2. The message printed by the job control code and builtins when a job exits with a non-zero status is `Done(status)'.
3. The message printed by the job control code and builtins when a job is stopped is `Stopped(signame)', where signame is, for example, SIGTSTP.
4. The bg builtin uses the required format to describe each job placed in the background, which does not include an indication of whether the job is the current or previous job.
5. Reserved words appearing in a context where reserved words are recognized do not undergo alias expansion.
6. The POSIX PS1 and PS2 expansions of `!' to the history number and `!!' to `!' are enabled, and parameter expansion is performed on the values of PS1 and PS2 regardless of the setting of the promptvars option.
7. The POSIX startup files are executed ($ENV) rather than the normal Bash files.
8. Tilde expansion is only performed on assignments preceding a command name, rather than on all assignment statements on the line.
9. The default history file is `~/.sh_history' (this is the default value of $HISTFILE).
10. The output of `kill -l' prints all the signal names on a single line, separated by spaces, without the `SIG' prefix.
11. The kill builtin does not accept signal names with a `SIG' prefix.
12. Non-interactive shells exit if filename in . filename is not found.
13. Non-interactive shells exit if a syntax error in an arithmetic expansion results in an invalid expression.
14. Redirection operators do not perform filename expansion on the word in the redirection unless the shell is interactive.
15. Redirection operators do not perform word splitting on the word in the redirection.
16. Function names must be valid shell names. That is, they may not contain characters other than letters, digits, and underscores, and may not start with a digit. Declaring a function with an invalid name causes a fatal syntax error in non-interactive shells.
17. POSIX special builtins are found before shell functions during command lookup.
18. If a POSIX special builtin returns an error status, a non-interactive shell exits. The fatal errors are those listed in the POSIX standard, and include things like passing incorrect options, redirection errors, variable assignment errors for assignments preceding the command name, and so on.
19. If CDPATH is set, the cd builtin will not implicitly append the current directory to it. This means that cd will fail if no valid directory name can be constructed from any of the entries in $CDPATH, even if the a directory with the same name as the name given as an argument to cd exists in the current directory.
20. A non-interactive shell exits with an error status if a variable assignment error occurs when no command name follows the assignment statements. A variable assignment error occurs, for example, when trying to assign a value to a readonly variable.
21. A non-interactive shell exits with an error status if the iteration variable in a for statement or the selection variable in a select statement is a readonly variable.
22. Process substitution is not available.
23. Assignment statements preceding POSIX special builtins persist in the shell environment after the builtin completes.
24. Assignment statements preceding shell function calls persist in the shell environment after the function returns, as if a POSIX special builtin command had been executed.
25. The export and readonly builtin commands display their output in the format required by POSIX.
26. The trap builtin displays signal names without the leading SIG.
27. The trap builtin doesn't check the first argument for a possible signal specification and revert the signal handling to the original disposition if it is, unless that argument consists solely of digits and is a valid signal number. If users want to reset the handler for a given signal to the original disposition, they should use `-' as the first argument.
28. The . and source builtins do not search the current directory for the filename argument if it is not found by searching PATH.
29. Subshells spawned to execute command substitutions inherit the value of the `-e' option from the parent shell. When not in POSIX mode, Bash clears the `-e' option in such subshells.
30. Alias expansion is always enabled, even in non-interactive shells.
31. When the alias builtin displays alias definitions, it does not display them with a leading `alias ' unless the `-p' option is supplied.
32. When the set builtin is invoked without options, it does not display shell function names and definitions.
33. When the set builtin is invoked without options, it displays variable values without quotes, unless they contain shell metacharacters, even if the result contains nonprinting characters.
34. When the cd builtin is invoked in logical mode, and the pathname constructed from $PWD and the directory name supplied as an argument does not refer to an existing directory, cd will fail instead of falling back to physical mode.
35. When the pwd builtin is supplied the `-P' option, it resets $PWD to a pathname containing no symlinks.
36. The pwd builtin verifies that the value it prints is the same as the current directory, even if it is not asked to check the file system with the `-P' option.
37. When listing the history, the fc builtin does not include an indication of whether or not a history entry has been modified.
38. The default editor used by fc is ed.
39. The type and command builtins will not report a non-executable file as having been found, though the shell will attempt to execute such a file if it is the only so-named file found in $PATH.
40. The vi editing mode will invoke the vi editor directly when the `v' command is run, instead of checking $VISUAL and $EDITOR.
41. When the xpg_echo option is enabled, Bash does not attempt to interpret any arguments to echo as options. Each argument is displayed, after escape characters are converted.
42. The ulimit builtin uses a block size of 512 bytes for the `-c' and `-f' options.

There is other POSIX behavior that Bash does not implement by default even when in POSIX mode. Specifically:

1. The fc builtin checks $EDITOR as a program to edit history entries if FCEDIT is unset, rather than defaulting directly to ed. fc uses ed if EDITOR is unset.
2. As noted above, Bash requires the xpg_echo option to be enabled for the echo builtin to be fully conformant.

Bash can be configured to be POSIX-conformant by default, by specifying the `--enable-strict-posix-default' to configure when building (see section Optional Features).

This document was generated on February, 24 2009 using texi2html 1.76.