Bash Reference Manual

Reference Documentation for Bash

Edition 2.2, for bash Version 2.02.

1 April 1998

• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1 What is Bash?
  • 1.2 What is a shell?
• 2. Definitions
• 3. Basic Shell Features
  • 3.1 Shell Syntax
    • 3.1.1 Shell Operation
    • 3.1.2 Quoting
      • 3.1.2.1 Escape Character
      • 3.1.2.2 Single Quotes
      • 3.1.2.3 Double Quotes
      • 3.1.2.4 ANSI-C Quoting
      • 3.1.2.5 Locale-Specific Translation
    • 3.1.3 Comments
  • 3.2 Shell Commands
    • 3.2.1 Simple Commands
    • 3.2.2 Pipelines
    • 3.2.3 Lists of Commands
    • 3.2.4 Looping Constructs
    • 3.2.5 Conditional Constructs
    • 3.2.6 Grouping Commands
  • 3.3 Shell Functions
  • 3.4 Shell Parameters
    • 3.4.1 Positional Parameters
    • 3.4.2 Special Parameters
  • 3.5 Shell Expansions
    • 3.5.1 Brace Expansion
    • 3.5.2 Tilde Expansion
    • 3.5.3 Shell Parameter Expansion
    • 3.5.4 Command Substitution
    • 3.5.5 Arithmetic Expansion
    • 3.5.6 Process Substitution
    • 3.5.7 Word Splitting
    • 3.5.8 Filename Expansion
      • 3.5.8.1 Pattern Matching
    • 3.5.9 Quote Removal
  • 3.6 Redirections
    • 3.6.1 Redirecting Input
    • 3.6.2 Redirecting Output
    • 3.6.3 Appending Redirected Output
    • 3.6.4 Redirecting Standard Output and Standard Error
    • 3.6.5 Here Documents
    • 3.6.6 Duplicating File Descriptors
    • 3.6.7 Opening File Descriptors for Reading and Writing
  • 3.7 Executing Commands
    • 3.7.1 Simple Command Expansion
    • 3.7.2 Command Search and Execution
    • 3.7.3 Command Execution Environment
    • 3.7.4 Environment
    • 3.7.5 Exit Status
    • 3.7.6 Signals
  • 3.8 Shell Scripts
• 4. Bourne Shell Style Features
  • 4.1 Bourne Shell Builtins
  • 4.2 Bourne Shell Variables
  • 4.3 Other Bourne Shell Features
    • 4.3.1 Major Differences From The SVR4.2 Bourne Shell
    • 4.3.2 Implementation Differences From The SVR4.2 Shell
• 5. Bash Features
  • 5.1 Invoking Bash
  • 5.2 Bash Startup Files
  • 5.3 Is This Shell Interactive?
  • 5.4 Bash Builtin Commands
  • 5.5 The Set Builtin
  • 5.6 Bash Conditional Expressions
  • 5.7 Bash Variables
  • 5.8 Shell Arithmetic
  • 5.9 Aliases
    • 5.9.1 Alias Builtins
  • 5.10 Arrays
  • 5.11 The Directory Stack
  • 5.12 Controlling the Prompt
  • 5.13 The Restricted Shell
  • 5.14 Bash POSIX Mode
• 6. Job Control
  • 6.1 Job Control Basics
  • 6.2 Job Control Builtins
  • 6.3 Job Control Variables
• 7. Using History Interactively
  • 7.1 Bash History Facilities
  • 7.2 Bash History Builtins
  • 7.3 History Expansion
    • 7.3.1 Event Designators
    • 7.3.2 Word Designators
    • 7.3.3 Modifiers
• 8. Command Line Editing
  • 8.1 Introduction to Line Editing
  • 8.2 Readline Interaction
    • 8.2.1 Readline Init File Syntax
    • 8.2.2 Conditional Init Constructs
    • 8.2.3 Sample Init File
  • 8.3 Bindable Readline Commands
    • 8.3.1 Commands For Moving
    • 8.3.2 Commands For Manipulating The History
    • 8.3.3 Commands For Changing Text
    • 8.3.4 Killing And Yanking
    • 8.3.5 Specifying Numeric Arguments
    • 8.3.6 Letting Readline Type For You
    • 8.3.7 Keyboard Macros
    • 8.3.8 Some Miscellaneous Commands
  • 8.4 Readline vi Mode
• 9. Installing Bash
  • 9.1 Basic Installation
  • 9.2 Compilers and Options
  • 9.3 Compiling For Multiple Architectures
  • 9.4 Installation Names
  • 9.5 Specifying the System Type
  • 9.6 Sharing Defaults
  • 9.7 Operation Controls
  • 9.8 Optional Features
• A. Reporting Bugs
• B. Index of Shell Builtin Commands
• C. Shell Reserved Words
• D. Parameter and Variable Index
• E. Function Index
• F. Concept Index

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