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 BASH(1)                        GNU Bash 5.0                         BASH(1)
                               2018 December 7



 NAME
      bash - GNU Bourne-Again SHell

 SYNOPSIS
      bash [options] [command_string | file]

 COPYRIGHT
      Bash is Copyright (C) 1989-2018 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
      incorporates 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
      All of the single-character shell options documented in the
      description of the set builtin command, including -o, can be used as
      options when the shell is invoked.  In addition, bash interprets the
      following options when it is invoked:

      -c        If the -c option is present, then commands are read from the
                first non-option argument command_string.  If there are
                arguments after the command_string, the first argument is
                assigned to $0 and any remaining arguments are assigned to
                the positional parameters.  The assignment to $0 sets the
                name of the shell, which is used in warning and error
                messages.
      -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 or when reading input
                through a pipe.
      -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.  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



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                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.  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).
      --dump-po-strings
           Equivalent to -D, but the output is in the GNU gettext po
           (portable object) file format.
      --dump-strings
           Equivalent to -D.
      --help
           Display a usage message on standard output and exit successfully.
      --init-file file
      --rcfile file
           Execute commands from file instead of the standard personal
           initialization 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).  See



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           SEE ALSO below for a reference to a document that details how
           posix mode affects bash's behavior.

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

      --verbose
           Equivalent to -v.

      --version
           Show version information for this instance of bash on the
           standard 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
      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.  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
      (unless -s is specified) 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 filenames as described below under Tilde
      Expansion in the EXPANSION section.

      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 an interactive login shell exits, or a non-interactive login
      shell executes the exit builtin command, bash reads and executes



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      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 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
      filename.

      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 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.

      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 with its standard
      input connected to a network connection, as when executed 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 neither rshd nor sshd generally invoke
      the shell with those options or allow them to be specified.





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      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, BASHOPTS, CDPATH, and GLOBIGNORE
      variables, if they appear in the environment, are 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
      document.
      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
           underscores, and beginning with an alphabetic character or an
           underscore.  Also referred to as an identifier.
      metacharacter
           A character that, when unquoted, separates words.  One of the
           following:
           |  & ; ( ) < > space tab newline
      control operator
           A token that performs a control function.  It is one of the
           following 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  coproc  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
      followed 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 one of
      the control operators | or |&.  The format for a pipeline is:



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           [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
      redirections specified by the command (see REDIRECTION below).  If |&
      is used, command's standard error, in addition to its standard output,
      is connected to command2's standard input through the pipe; it is
      shorthand for 2>&1 |.  This implicit redirection of the standard error
      to the standard output is performed after any redirections specified
      by the command.

      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 successfully.  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.  When the shell is in posix mode, it does not
      recognize time as a reserved word if the next token begins with a `-'.
      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.

      When the shell is in posix mode, time may be followed by a newline.
      In this case, the shell displays the total user and system time
      consumed by the shell and its children.  The TIMEFORMAT variable may
      be used to specify the format of the time information.

      Each command in a pipeline is executed as a separate process (i.e., in
      a subshell).  See COMMAND EXECUTION ENVIRONMENT for a description of a
      subshell environment.  If the lastpipe option is enabled using the
      shopt builtin (see the description of shopt below), the last element
      of a pipeline may be run by the shell process.

    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.




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      If a command is terminated by the control operator &, the shell
      executes the command in the background in a subshell.  The shell does
      not wait for the command to finish, and the return status is 0.  These
      are referred to as asynchronous commands.  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.

      AND and OR lists are sequences of one or more pipelines separated by
      the && and || control operators, respectively.  AND and OR lists are
      executed with left associativity.  An AND list has the form

           command1 && command2

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

      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.  In most cases a list in a
      command's description may be separated from the rest of the command by
      one or more newlines, and may be followed by a newline in place of a
      semicolon.

      (list)
           list is executed in a subshell environment (see COMMAND EXECUTION
           ENVIRONMENT below).  Variable assignments and builtin commands
           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 or another shell metacharacter.

      ((expression))
           The expression is evaluated according to the rules described
           below under ARITHMETIC EVALUATION.  If the value of the
           expression is non-zero, the return status is 0; otherwise the



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           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.
           Conditional operators such as -f must be unquoted to be
           recognized as primaries.

           When used with [[, the < and > operators sort lexicographically
           using the current locale.

           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, as if the extglob
           shell option were enabled.  The = operator is equivalent to ==.
           If the nocasematch shell option 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 pattern, and 1 otherwise.  Any part of the pattern
           may be quoted to force the quoted portion 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 a POSIX extended regular
           expression 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 nocasematch
           shell option is enabled, the match is performed without regard to
           the case of alphabetic characters.  Any part of the pattern may
           be quoted to force the quoted portion to be matched as a string.
           Bracket expressions in regular expressions must be treated
           carefully, since normal quoting characters lose their meanings
           between brackets.  If the pattern is stored in a shell variable,
           quoting the variable expansion forces the entire pattern to be
           matched as a string.  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
           subexpression.

           Expressions may be combined using the following operators, listed



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           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 omitted,
           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
           expressions 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 standard
           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 displayed 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.



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      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 matching rules described under
           Pattern Matching below.  The word is expanded using tilde
           expansion, parameter and variable expansion, arithmetic
           expansion, command substitution, process substitution and quote
           removal.  Each pattern examined is expanded using tilde
           expansion, parameter and variable expansion, arithmetic
           expansion, command substitution, and process substitution.  If
           the nocasematch shell option is enabled, the match is performed
           without regard to the case of alphabetic characters.  When a
           match is found, the corresponding list is executed.  If the ;;
           operator is used, no subsequent matches are attempted after the
           first pattern match.  Using ;& in place of ;; causes execution to
           continue with the list associated with the next set of patterns.
           Using ;;& in place of ;; causes the shell to test the next
           pattern list in the statement, if any, and execute any associated
           list on a successful match.  The exit status is zero if no
           pattern matches.  Otherwise, 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 status of the
           last command executed, or zero if no condition tested true.

      while list-1; do list-2; done
      until list-1; do list-2; done
           The while command continuously executes the list list-2 as long
           as the last command in the list list-1 returns an exit status of
           zero.  The until command is identical to the while command,
           except that the test is negated: list-2 is executed as long as
           the last command in list-1 returns a non-zero exit status.  The
           exit status of the while and until commands is the exit status of
           the last command executed in list-2, or zero if none was
           executed.

    Coprocesses
      A coprocess is a shell command preceded by the coproc reserved word.
      A coprocess is executed asynchronously in a subshell, as if the
      command had been terminated with the & control operator, with a two-
      way pipe established between the executing shell and the coprocess.

      The format for a coprocess is:

           coproc [NAME] command [redirections]





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      This creates a coprocess named NAME.  If NAME is not supplied, the
      default name is COPROC.  NAME must not be supplied if command is a
      simple command (see above); otherwise, it is interpreted as the first
      word of the simple command.  When the coprocess is executed, the shell
      creates an array variable (see Arrays below) named NAME in the context
      of the executing shell.  The standard output of command is connected
      via a pipe to a file descriptor in the executing shell, and that file
      descriptor is assigned to NAME[0].  The standard input of command is
      connected via a pipe to a file descriptor in the executing shell, and
      that file descriptor is assigned to NAME[1].  This pipe is established
      before any redirections specified by the command (see REDIRECTION
      below).  The file descriptors can be utilized as arguments to shell
      commands and redirections using standard word expansions.  Other than
      those created to execute command and process substitutions, the file
      descriptors are not available in subshells.  The process ID of the
      shell spawned to execute the coprocess is available as the value of
      the variable NAME_PID.  The wait builtin command may be used to wait
      for the coprocess to terminate.

      Since the coprocess is created as an asynchronous command, the coproc
      command always returns success.  The return status of a coprocess is
      the exit status of command.

    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:

      name () compound-command [redirection]
      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
           compound 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, with one
           exception: If the function reserved word is used, but the
           parentheses are not supplied, the braces are required.
           compound-command is executed whenever name is specified as the
           name of a simple command.  When in posix mode, name may not be
           the name of one of the POSIX special builtins.  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
      interactive_comments option to the shopt builtin is enabled (see SHELL



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      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
      interactive 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
      HISTORY 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, !.  When the shell is in posix
      mode, the ! has no special meaning within double quotes, even 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



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      as follows:
           \a   alert (bell)
           \b   backspace
           \e
           \E   an escape character
           \f   form feed
           \n   new line
           \r   carriage return
           \t   horizontal tab
           \v   vertical tab
           \\   backslash
           \    single quote
           \    double quote
           \?   question mark
           \nnn the eight-bit character whose value is the octal value nnn
                (one to three octal digits)
           \xHH the eight-bit character whose value is the hexadecimal value
                HH (one or two hex digits)
           \uHHHH
                the Unicode (ISO/IEC 10646) character whose value is the
                hexadecimal value HHHH (one to four hex digits)
           \UHHHHHHHH
                the Unicode (ISO/IEC 10646) character whose value is the
                hexadecimal value HHHHHHHH (one to eight 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 ($string) will cause
      the string to be translated according to the current locale.  If the
      current 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
      number, or one of the special characters listed below under Special
      Parameters.  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,



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      command substitution, arithmetic expansion, and quote removal (see
      EXPANSION 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 statements may also appear as arguments to the alias,
      declare, typeset, export, readonly, and local builtin commands
      (declaration commands).  When in posix mode, these builtins may appear
      in a command after one or more instances of the command builtin and
      retain these assignment statement properties.

      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.  This includes arguments
      to builtin commands such as declare that accept assignment statements
      (declaration commands).  When += is applied to a variable 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 (for
      indexed arrays) or added as additional key-value pairs in an
      associative array.  When applied to a string-valued variable, value is
      expanded and appended to the variable's value.

      A variable can be assigned the nameref attribute using the -n option
      to the declare or local builtin commands (see the descriptions of
      declare and local below) to create a nameref, or a reference to
      another variable.  This allows variables to be manipulated indirectly.
      Whenever the nameref variable is referenced, assigned to, unset, or
      has its attributes modified (other than using or changing the nameref
      attribute itself), the operation is actually performed on the variable
      specified by the nameref variable's value.  A nameref is commonly used
      within shell functions to refer to a variable whose name is passed as
      an argument to the function.  For instance, if a variable name is
      passed to a shell function as its first argument, running

           declare -n ref=$1
      inside the function creates a nameref variable ref whose value is the
      variable name passed as the first argument.  References and
      assignments to ref, and changes to its attributes, are treated as
      references, assignments, and attribute modifications to the variable
      whose name was passed as $1.  If the control variable in a for loop
      has the nameref attribute, the list of words can be a list of shell
      variables, and a name reference will be established for each word in
      the list, in turn, when the loop is executed.  Array variables cannot
      be given the nameref attribute.  However, nameref variables can
      reference array variables and subscripted array variables.  Namerefs
      can be unset using the -n option to the unset builtin.  Otherwise, if



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      unset is executed with the name of a nameref variable as an argument,
      the variable referenced by the nameref variable will be unset.

    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 is not within double quotes, each positional
           parameter expands to a separate word.  In contexts where it is
           performed, those words are subject to further word splitting and
           pathname expansion.  When the expansion occurs within double
           quotes, it expands to a single word with the value of each
           parameter separated by the first character of the IFS special
           variable.  That is, "$*" is equivalent to "$1c$2c...", where c is
           the first character of the value of the IFS variable.  If IFS is
           unset, the parameters are separated by spaces.  If IFS is null,
           the parameters are joined without intervening separators.
      @    Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one.  In
           contexts where word splitting is performed, this expands each
           positional parameter to a separate word; if not within double
           quotes, these words are subject to word splitting.  In contexts
           where word splitting is not performed, this expands to a single
           word with each positional parameter separated by a space.  When
           the expansion occurs within double quotes, each parameter expands
           to a separate word.  That is, "$@" is equivalent to "$1" "$2" ...
           If the double-quoted expansion occurs within a word, the
           expansion of the first parameter is joined with the beginning
           part of the original word, and the expansion of the last
           parameter is joined with the last part of the original word.
           When there are no positional parameters, "$@" and $@ expand to
           nothing (i.e., they are removed).
      #    Expands to the number of positional parameters in decimal.
      ?    Expands to the exit status of the most recently executed
           foreground pipeline.
      -    Expands to the current option flags as specified upon invocation,
           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 subshell.



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      !    Expands to the process ID of the job most recently placed into
           the background, whether executed as an asynchronous command or
           using the bg builtin (see JOB CONTROL below).
      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
           commands, $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 filename 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 environment
           or argument list.  Subsequently, expands to the last argument to
           the previous simple command executed in the foreground, after
           expansion.  Also set to the full pathname used to invoke each
           command executed and placed in the environment exported to that
           command.  When checking mail, this parameter holds the name of
           the mail file currently being checked.

    Shell Variables
      The following variables are set by the shell:

      BASH Expands to the full filename used to invoke this instance of
           bash.
      BASHOPTS
           A colon-separated list of enabled shell options.  Each word in
           the list is a valid argument for the -s option to the shopt
           builtin command (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).  The options
           appearing in BASHOPTS are those reported as on by shopt.  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.
      BASHPID
           Expands to the process ID of the current bash process.  This
           differs from $$ under certain circumstances, such as subshells
           that do not require bash to be re-initialized.  Assignments to
           BASHPID have no effect.  If BASHPID is unset, it loses its
           special properties, even if it is subsequently reset.
      BASH_ALIASES
           An associative array variable whose members correspond to the
           internal list of aliases as maintained by the alias builtin.
           Elements added to this array appear in the alias list; however,
           unsetting array elements currently does not cause aliases to be
           removed from the alias list.  If BASH_ALIASES is unset, it loses
           its special properties, even if it is subsequently reset.
      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



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           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).  Setting extdebug after the shell has
           started to execute a script, or referencing this variable when
           extdebug is not set, may result in inconsistent values.
      BASH_ARGV
           An array variable containing all of the parameters in the current
           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
           executed, 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).  Setting extdebug after the shell has started to execute
           a script, or referencing this variable when extdebug is not set,
           may result in inconsistent values.
      BASH_ARGV0
           When referenced, this variable expands to the name of the shell
           or shell script (identical to $0; see the description of special
           parameter 0 above).  Assignment to BASH_ARGV0 causes the value
           assigned to also be assigned to $0.  If BASH_ARGV0 is unset, it
           loses its special properties, even if it is subsequently reset.
      BASH_CMDS
           An associative array variable whose members correspond to the
           internal hash table of commands as maintained by the hash
           builtin.  Elements added to this array appear in the hash table;
           however, unsetting array elements currently does not cause
           command names to be removed from the hash table.  If BASH_CMDS is
           unset, it loses its special properties, even if it is
           subsequently reset.
      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 where each corresponding member of FUNCNAME was invoked.
           ${BASH_LINENO[$i]} is the line number in the source file
           (${BASH_SOURCE[$i+1]}) where ${FUNCNAME[$i]} was called (or
           ${BASH_LINENO[$i-1]} if referenced within another shell
           function).  Use LINENO to obtain the current line number.
      BASH_LOADABLES_PATH
           A colon-separated list of directories in which the shell looks
           for dynamically loadable builtins specified by the enable
           command.
      BASH_REMATCH
           An array variable whose members are assigned by the =~ binary
           operator to the [[ conditional command.  The element with index 0



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           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
           variable is read-only.
      BASH_SOURCE
           An array variable whose members are the source filenames where
           the corresponding shell function names in the FUNCNAME array
           variable are defined.  The shell function ${FUNCNAME[$i]} is
           defined in the file ${BASH_SOURCE[$i]} and called from
           ${BASH_SOURCE[$i+1]}.
      BASH_SUBSHELL
           Incremented by one within each subshell or subshell environment
           when the shell begins executing in that environment.  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
           functions invoked by the programmable completion facilities (see
           Programmable Completion below).
      COMP_KEY
           The key (or final key of a key sequence) used to invoke the
           current completion function.
      COMP_LINE
           The current command line.  This variable is available only in
           shell functions and external commands invoked by the programmable
           completion facilities (see Programmable Completion below).
      COMP_POINT
           The index of the current cursor position relative to the
           beginning 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 programmable
           completion facilities (see Programmable Completion below).
      COMP_TYPE
           Set to an integer value corresponding to the type of completion
           attempted that caused a completion function to be called: TAB,
           for normal completion, ?, for listing completions after



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           successive tabs, !, for listing alternatives on partial word
           completion, @, to list completions if the word is not unmodified,
           or %, for menu completion.  This variable is available only in
           shell functions and external commands invoked by the programmable
           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
           subsequently reset.
      COMP_WORDS
           An array variable (see Arrays below) consisting of the individual
           words in the current command line.  The line is split into words
           as readline would split it, using COMP_WORDBREAKS as described
           above.  This variable is available only in shell functions
           invoked by the programmable completion facilities (see
           Programmable Completion below).
      COPROC
           An array variable (see Arrays below) created to hold the file
           descriptors for output from and input to an unnamed coprocess
           (see Coprocesses above).
      DIRSTACK
           An array variable (see Arrays below) containing the current
           contents 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
           directories already in the stack, but the pushd and popd builtins
           must be used to add and remove directories.  Assignment to this
           variable will not change the current directory.  If DIRSTACK is
           unset, it loses its special properties, even if it is
           subsequently reset.
      EPOCHREALTIME
           Each time this parameter is referenced, it expands to the number
           of seconds since the Unix Epoch (see time(3)) as a floating point
           value with micro-second granularity.  Assignments to
           EPOCHREALTIME are ignored.  If EPOCHREALTIME is unset, it loses
           its special properties, even if it is subsequently reset.
      EPOCHSECONDS
           Each time this parameter is referenced, it expands to the number
           of seconds since the Unix Epoch (see time(3)).  Assignments to
           EPOCHSECONDS are ignored.  If EPOCHSECONDS is unset, it loses its
           special properties, even if it is subsequently reset.
      EUID Expands to the effective user ID of the current user, initialized
           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
           bottom-most element (the one with the highest index) is "main".
           This variable exists only when a shell function is executing.
           Assignments to FUNCNAME have no effect.  If FUNCNAME is unset, it



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           loses its special properties, even if it is subsequently reset.

           This variable can be used with BASH_LINENO and BASH_SOURCE.  Each
           element of FUNCNAME has corresponding elements in BASH_LINENO and
           BASH_SOURCE to describe the call stack.  For instance,
           ${FUNCNAME[$i]} was called from the file ${BASH_SOURCE[$i+1]} at
           line number ${BASH_LINENO[$i]}.  The caller builtin displays the
           current call stack using this information.
      GROUPS
           An array variable containing the list of groups of which the
           current user is a member.  Assignments to GROUPS have no effect.
           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 properties,
           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-
           company-system format.  The default is system-dependent.
      MAPFILE
           An array variable (see Arrays below) created to hold the text
           read by the mapfile builtin when no variable name is supplied.
      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 system
           on which bash is executing.  The default is system-dependent.
      PIPESTATUS
           An array variable (see Arrays below) containing a list of exit
           status values from the processes in the most-recently-executed



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           foreground pipeline (which may contain only a single command).
      PPID The process ID of the shell's parent.  This variable is readonly.
      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.
      READLINE_LINE
           The contents of the readline line buffer, for use with "bind -x"
           (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).
      READLINE_POINT
           The position of the insertion point in the readline line buffer,
           for use with "bind -x" (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).
      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_COMPAT
           The value is used to set the shell's compatibility level.  See
           the description of the shopt builtin below under SHELL BUILTIN
           COMMANDS for a description of the various compatibility levels
           and their effects.  The value may be a decimal number (e.g., 4.2)
           or an integer (e.g., 42) corresponding to the desired
           compatibility level.  If BASH_COMPAT is unset or set to the empty
           string, the compatibility level is set to the default for the
           current version.  If BASH_COMPAT is set to a value that is not
           one of the valid compatibility levels, the shell prints an error



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           message and sets the compatibility level to the default for the
           current version.  The valid compatibility levels correspond to
           the compatibility options accepted by the shopt builtin described
           below (for example, compat42 means that 4.2 and 42 are valid
           values).  The current version is also a valid value.
      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 filename.
           PATH is not used to search for the resultant filename.
      BASH_XTRACEFD
           If set to an integer corresponding to a valid file descriptor,
           bash will write the trace output generated when set -x is enabled
           to that file descriptor.  The file descriptor is closed when
           BASH_XTRACEFD is unset or assigned a new value.  Unsetting
           BASH_XTRACEFD or assigning it the empty string causes the trace
           output to be sent to the standard error.  Note that setting
           BASH_XTRACEFD to 2 (the standard error file descriptor) and then
           unsetting it will result in the standard error being closed.
      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".
      CHILD_MAX
           Set the number of exited child status values for the shell to
           remember.  Bash will not allow this value to be decreased below a
           POSIX-mandated minimum, and there is a maximum value (currently
           8192) that this may not exceed.  The minimum value is system-
           dependent.
      COLUMNS
           Used by the select compound command to determine the terminal
           width when printing selection lists.  Automatically set if the
           checkwinsize option is enabled or in an interactive shell 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
           completion facility (see Programmable Completion below).  Each
           array element contains one possible completion.
      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.
      ENV  Similar to BASH_ENV; used when the shell is invoked in posix
           mode.
      EXECIGNORE
           A colon-separated list of shell patterns (see Pattern Matching)
           defining the list of filenames to be ignored by command search



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           using PATH.  Files whose full pathnames match one of these
           patterns are not considered executable files for the purposes of
           completion and command execution via PATH lookup.  This does not
           affect the behavior of the [, test, and [[ commands.  Full
           pathnames in the command hash table are not subject to
           EXECIGNORE.  Use this variable to ignore shared library files
           that have the executable bit set, but are not executable files.
           The pattern matching honors the setting of the extglob shell
           option.
      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
           suffix matches one of the entries in FIGNORE is excluded from the
           list of matched filenames.  A sample value is ".o:~".
      FUNCNEST
           If set to a numeric value greater than 0, defines a maximum
           function nesting level.  Function invocations that exceed this
           nesting level will cause the current command to abort.
      GLOBIGNORE
           A colon-separated list of patterns defining the set of file names
           to be ignored by pathname expansion.  If a file name 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
           HISTORY below).  The default value is ~/.bash_history.  If unset,
           the command history is not saved when a shell exits.
      HISTFILESIZE
           The maximum number of lines contained in the history file.  When
           this variable is assigned a value, the history file is truncated,
           if necessary, to contain no more than that number of lines by
           removing the oldest entries.  The history file is also truncated
           to this size after writing it when a shell exits.  If the value
           is 0, the history file is truncated to zero size.  Non-numeric



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           values and numeric values less than zero inhibit truncation.  The
           shell sets the default value to the value of HISTSIZE after
           reading any startup files.
      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 complete
           line (no implicit `*' is appended).  Each pattern is tested
           against the line after the checks specified by HISTCONTROL 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.  The pattern
           matching honors the setting of the extglob shell option.
      HISTSIZE
           The number of commands to remember in the command history (see
           HISTORY below).  If the value is 0, commands are not saved in the
           history list.  Numeric values less than zero result in every
           command being saved on the history list (there is no limit).  The
           shell sets the default value to 500 after reading any startup
           files.
      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.  This uses the
           history comment character to distinguish timestamps from other
           history lines.
      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,
           or does not name a readable file, 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><newline>''.
      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



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           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).
      INSIDE_EMACS
           If this variable appears in the environment when the shell
           starts, bash assumes that it is running inside an Emacs shell
           buffer and may disable line editing, depending on the value of
           TERM.
      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.
      LC_TIME
           This variable determines the locale category used for data and
           time formatting.
      LINES
           Used by the select compound command to determine the column
           length for printing selection lists.  Automatically set if the
           checkwinsize option is enabled or in an interactive shell upon
           receipt of a SIGWINCH.
      MAIL If this parameter is set to a file or directory name and the
           MAILPATH variable is not set, bash informs the user of the
           arrival of mail in the specified file or Maildir-format
           directory.
      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.




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      MAILPATH
           A colon-separated list of filenames to be checked for mail.  The
           message to be printed when mail arrives in a particular file may
           be specified by separating the filename 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 can be configured to supply a default value for this
           variable (there is no value by default), but the location 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/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin''.
      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.  When  the  shell  enters
           posix mode, it sets this variable if it was not already set.
      PROMPT_COMMAND
           If set, the value is executed as a command prior to issuing  each
           primary prompt.
      PROMPT_DIRTRIM
           If set to a number greater than zero, the value is  used  as  the
           number  of trailing directory components to retain when expanding
           the \w and  \W  prompt  string  escapes  (see  PROMPTING  below).
           Characters removed are replaced with an ellipsis.
      PS0  The value of this parameter is expanded (see PROMPTING below) and
           displayed  by  interactive  shells  after  reading  a command and
           before the command is executed.
      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).




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      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  the  expanded  value  of  PS4  is
           replicated  multiple  times,  as  necessary, to indicate multiple
           levels of indirection.  The default is ``+ ''.
      SHELL
           The full pathname to  the  shell  is  kept  in  this  environment
           variable.   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 specifying
           how  the  timing information for pipelines prefixed with the time
           reserved word should be displayed.  The % character introduces 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\t%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
           terminates 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 a  line
           of input after issuing the primary prompt.  Bash terminates after
           waiting for that number of seconds if a complete  line  of  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



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           This variable controls how the shell interacts with the user  and
           job  control.   If  this  variable  is  set,  single  word simple
           commands without  redirections  are  treated  as  candidates  for
           resumption  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
           analogous  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,
           substituting one string for another in the command.  The  default
           is  `^'.   The  optional  third  character is the character which
           indicates that the remainder of the line is a comment when  found
           as  the  first  character  of  a word, normally `#'.  The history
           comment 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 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)  and  are  zero-based; associative arrays are
      referenced using arbitrary strings.  Unless otherwise  noted,  indexed
      array indices must be non-negative integers.

      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.   To
      explicitly  declare  an  indexed array, use declare -a name (see SHELL
      BUILTIN COMMANDS below).  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



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      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 anything
      but  string.   When  assigning  to  indexed  arrays,  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.

      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.  When assigning to an  indexed  array,  if  name  is
      subscripted  by  a  negative  number,  that  number  is interpreted as
      relative to one greater than the maximum index of  name,  so  negative
      indices  count  back  from  the  end  of the array, and an index of -1
      references the last element.

      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 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  @  (see
      Special  Parameters above).  ${#name[subscript]} expands to the length
      of ${name[subscript]}.  If subscript is * or @, the expansion  is  the
      number  of  elements in the array.  If the subscript used to reference
      an element of an indexed array evaluates to a number less  than  zero,
      it is interpreted as relative to one greater than the maximum index of
      the array, so negative indices count back from the end of  the  array,
      and an index of -1 references the last element.

      Referencing an array variable without a  subscript  is  equivalent  to
      referencing  the  array  with  a  subscript  of 0.  Any reference to a
      variable using a valid subscript is legal, and  bash  will  create  an
      array if necessary.

      An array variable is considered set if a subscript has been assigned a
      value.  The null string is a valid value.

      It is possible to obtain the keys (indices) of an array as well as the
      values.  ${!name[@]} and ${!name[*]} expand to the indices assigned in



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      array variable name.  The treatment when in double quotes  is  similar
      to  the  expansion  of  the  special  parameters @ and * within double
      quotes.

      The unset builtin is used to destroy  arrays.   unset  name[subscript]
      destroys  the  array  element at index subscript, for both indexed and
      associative  arrays.   Negative  subscripts  to  indexed  arrays   are
      interpreted  as  described  above.   Unsetting  the last element of an
      array variable does not unset the variable.  unset name, where name is
      an array, or unset name[subscript], where subscript is * or @, removes
      the entire array.

      When using a variable name with  a  subscript  as  an  argument  to  a
      command,  such  as with unset, without using the word expansion syntax
      described above, the argument is subject to  pathname  expansion.   If
      pathname expansion is not desired, the argument should be quoted.

      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.  If both options are supplied, -A takes precedence.   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
      substitution,  arithmetic  expansion,  word  splitting,  and  pathname
      expansion.

      The  order  of  expansions  is:  brace  expansion;  tilde   expansion,
      parameter  and  variable  expansion, 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
      available:  process  substitution.  This is performed at the same time
      as tilde, parameter, variable, and arithmetic  expansion  and  command
      substitution.

      After these expansions are performed, quote characters present in  the
      original  word  are  removed  unless  they have been quoted themselves
      (quote removal).

      Only brace expansion,  word  splitting,  and  pathname  expansion  can
      increase 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[@]}",  and,  in  most cases, $* and
      ${name[*]} as explained above (see PARAMETERS).




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    Brace Expansion
      Brace expansion is a mechanism  by  which  arbitrary  strings  may  be
      generated.   This  mechanism is similar to pathname expansion, but the
      filenames generated need not exist.  Patterns  to  be  brace  expanded
      take  the form of an optional preamble, followed by either a series of
      comma-separated strings or a sequence expression  between  a  pair  of
      braces,  followed 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[..incr]}, where x and y are
      either integers or single characters, and incr, an optional increment,
      is an integer.  When integers are supplied, the expression expands  to
      each  number  between  x  and  y, inclusive.  Supplied integers may be
      prefixed with 0 to force each term  to  have  the  same  width.   When
      either  x  or  y  begins  with a zero, the shell attempts to force all
      generated terms to contain the same  number  of  digits,  zero-padding
      where necessary.  When characters are supplied, the expression expands
      to each character lexicographically between x and y, inclusive,  using
      the  default  C  locale.   Note  that both x and y must be of the same
      type.  When the increment is supplied, it is used  as  the  difference
      between each term.  The default increment is 1 or -1 as appropriate.

      Brace expansion is performed before  any  other  expansions,  and  any
      characters  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  expansion,  the  string  ${  is not considered eligible for
      brace expansion, and inhibits brace expansion until the closing }.

      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.



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      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
      command (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
      directory  of  the  user  executing  the shell is substituted instead.
      Otherwise, 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
      characters 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
      argument.   If  the characters following the tilde in the tilde-prefix
      consist 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
      immediately  following  a  :  or  the  first =.  In these cases, tilde
      expansion is also performed.  Consequently, one may use filenames with
      tildes  in  assignments  to  PATH, MAILPATH, and CDPATH, and the shell
      assigns the expanded value.

      Bash also performs tilde expansion on words satisfying the  conditions
      of  variable  assignments  (as  described above under PARAMETERS) when
      they appear as arguments to simple commands.  Bash does not  do  this,
      except for the declaration commands listed above, when in posix mode.

    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.





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      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.  The parameter is a shell
           parameter as described above PARAMETERS) or  an  array  reference
           (Arrays).

      If the first character of parameter is an exclamation point  (!),  and
      parameter  is  not  a  nameref,  it introduces a level of indirection.
      Bash uses the value formed by expanding the rest of parameter  as  the
      new  parameter;  this  is  then expanded and that value is used in the
      rest of the expansion, rather  than  the  expansion  of  the  original
      parameter.  This is known as indirect expansion.  The value is subject
      to tilde expansion, parameter  expansion,  command  substitution,  and
      arithmetic  expansion.  If parameter is a nameref, this expands to the
      name of the parameter referenced by parameter  instead  of  performing
      the  complete  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 indirection.

      In each of the cases  below,  word  is  subject  to  tilde  expansion,
      parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic expansion.

      When not performing substring expansion, using  the  forms  documented
      below  (e.g.,  :-),  bash tests for a parameter that is unset or null.
      Omitting the colon results in a test only  for  a  parameter  that  is
      unset.

      ${parameter:-word}
           Use Default Values.  If parameter is unset or null, the expansion
           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
           parameter 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.




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      ${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  the
           value of parameter starting at the character specified by offset.
           If parameter is @, an indexed array subscripted by @ or *, or  an
           associative  array  name,  the results differ as described below.
           If length is omitted, expands to the substring of  the  value  of
           parameter  starting  at  the  character  specified  by offset and
           extending to the  end  of  the  value.   length  and  offset  are
           arithmetic expressions (see ARITHMETIC EVALUATION below).

           If offset evaluates to a number less than zero, the value is used
           as  an  offset  in  characters  from  the  end  of  the  value of
           parameter.  If length evaluates to a number less than zero, it is
           interpreted  as an offset in characters from the end of the value
           of  parameter  rather  than  a  number  of  characters,  and  the
           expansion is the characters between offset and that result.  Note
           that a negative offset must be separated from  the  colon  by  at
           least one space to avoid being confused with the :- expansion.

           If parameter is @, the result  is  length  positional  parameters
           beginning  at offset.  A negative offset is taken relative to one
           greater than the greatest positional parameter, so an  offset  of
           -1  evaluates  to  the  last  positional  parameter.   It  is  an
           expansion error if length evaluates to a number less than zero.

           If parameter is an indexed array name subscripted 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.  It is an
           expansion error if length evaluates to a number less than zero.

           Substring expansion applied  to  an  associative  array  produces
           undefined results.

           Substring indexing is zero-based unless the positional parameters
           are  used, in which case the indexing starts at 1 by default.  If
           offset is 0, and  the  positional  parameters  are  used,  $0  is
           prefixed to the list.

      ${!prefix*}
      ${!prefix@}
           Names matching prefix.  Expands to the names of  variables  whose
           names  begin with prefix, separated by the first character of the
           IFS special variable.  When @ is used and the  expansion  appears
           within  double  quotes,  each variable name expands to a separate
           word.




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      ${!name[@]}
      ${!name[*]}
           List of array keys.  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}
           Parameter length.  The length  in  characters  of  the  value  of
           parameter  is  substituted.   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.  If parameter is an  indexed
           array  name  subscripted  by  a  negative  number, that number is
           interpreted as relative to one greater than the maximum index  of
           parameter,  so  negative  indices  count back from the end of the
           array, and an index of -1 references the last element.

      ${parameter#word}
      ${parameter##word}
           Remove matching prefix pattern.  The word is expanded to  produce
           a  pattern just as in pathname expansion, and matched against the
           expanded value of  parameter  using  the  rules  described  under
           Pattern  Matching below.  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}
           Remove matching suffix pattern.  The word is expanded to  produce
           a  pattern just as in pathname expansion, and matched against the
           expanded value of  parameter  using  the  rules  described  under
           Pattern  Matching  below.   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  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.




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      ${parameter/pattern/string}
           Pattern substitution.  The  pattern  is  expanded  to  produce  a
           pattern  just as in pathname expansion, Parameter is expanded and
           the longest match of pattern against its value is  replaced  with
           string.   The  match is performed using the rules described under
           Pattern Matching below.  If pattern 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 omitted.  If the nocasematch shell
           option  is  enabled, the match is performed without regard to the
           case of alphabetic characters.  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  subscripted  with  @  or *, the substitution
           operation is applied to each member of the array in turn, and the
           expansion is the resultant list.

      ${parameter^pattern}
      ${parameter^^pattern}
      ${parameter,pattern}
      ${parameter,,pattern}
           Case  modification.   This  expansion  modifies   the   case   of
           alphabetic  characters  in parameter.  The pattern is expanded to
           produce a pattern just as in pathname expansion.  Each  character
           in  the  expanded  value  of parameter is tested against pattern,
           and, if it matches the  pattern,  its  case  is  converted.   The
           pattern should not attempt to match more than one character.  The
           ^  operator  converts  lowercase  letters  matching  pattern   to
           uppercase;  the , operator converts matching uppercase letters to
           lowercase.   The  ^^  and  ,,  expansions  convert  each  matched
           character in the expanded value; the ^ and , expansions match and
           convert only the first  character  in  the  expanded  value.   If
           pattern  is  omitted, it is treated like a ?, which matches every
           character.  If  parameter  is  @  or  *,  the  case  modification
           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 case modification operation
           is applied to each member of the array in turn, and the expansion
           is the resultant list.

      ${parameter@operator}
           Parameter   transformation.    The   expansion   is   either    a
           transformation  of  the  value  of parameter or information about
           parameter itself, depending  on  the  value  of  operator.   Each
           operator is a single letter:

           Q    The expansion is a string that is  the  value  of  parameter
                quoted in a format that can be reused as input.



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           E    The expansion is a string that is  the  value  of  parameter
                with  backslash escape sequences expanded as with the $'...'
                quoting mechanism.
           P    The expansion is a string that is the  result  of  expanding
                the  value  of  parameter as if it were a prompt string (see
                PROMPTING below).
           A    The expansion is a string  in  the  form  of  an  assignment
                statement  or  declare  command  that,  if  evaluated,  will
                recreate parameter with its attributes and value.
           a     The  expansion  is  a  string  consisting  of  flag  values
                representing parameter's attributes.

           If parameter is  @  or  *,  the  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 operation is applied to each member of the array in turn, and
           the expansion is the resultant list.

           The result of the expansion is  subject  to  word  splitting  and
           pathname expansion as described below.

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

           $(command)
      or
           `command`

      Bash performs  the  expansion  by  executing  command  in  a  subshell
      environment  and  replacing the command 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
      substitution.   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



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      expansion 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  and  variable  expansion,
      command substitution, and quote removal.  The result is treated as the
      arithmetic expression to be evaluated.  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 allows a process's input or output to be referred
      to  using  a  filename.  It takes the form of <(list) or >(list).  The
      process list is run asynchronously, and its input or output appears as
      a  filename.   This  filename  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 provide input for list.  If the <(list) form
      is used, the file passed as an argument should be read to  obtain  the
      output  of  list.   Process  substitution is supported on systems that
      support named pipes (FIFOs) or  the  /dev/fd  method  of  naming  open
      files.

      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
      substitution,  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 using these characters as
      field  terminators.   If  IFS  is  unset,  or  its  value  is  exactly
      <space><tab><newline>,  the default, then sequences of <space>, <tab>,
      and <newline> at the beginning and end of the results of the  previous
      expansions  are ignored, and any sequence of IFS characters not at the
      beginning or end serves to delimit words.  If IFS has  a  value  other
      than  the  default, then sequences of the whitespace characters space,
      tab, and newline 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
      whitespace,   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.



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      Explicit null arguments ("" or ) are retained and passed  to  commands
      as  empty  strings.   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 and passed to a command as  an  empty
      string.   When  a quoted null argument appears as part of a word whose
      expansion is non-null, the null argument is  removed.   That  is,  the
      word -d becomes -d after word splitting and null argument removal.

      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  filenames  matching the pattern (see
      Pattern Matching below).  If no matching filenames are found, and  the
      shell  option nullglob is not enabled, 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 alphabetic 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.  The filenames ``.'' and
      ``..'' must always be matched explicitly, even if dotglob is set.   In
      other  cases,  the  ``.''  character  is  not treated specially.  When
      matching a pathname,  the  slash  character  must  always  be  matched
      explicitly  by  a slash in the pattern, but in other matching contexts
      it can be matched by a special pattern character  as  described  below
      under  Pattern  Matching.   See  the  description of shopt below under
      SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS for a description of the nocaseglob,  nullglob,
      failglob, 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.   If  the  nocaseglob option is set, the
      matching against the  patterns  in  GLOBIGNORE  is  performed  without
      regard  to  case.   The  filenames ``.'' and ``..'' are always ignored
      when GLOBIGNORE is set and not null.  However, setting GLOBIGNORE to a
      non-null value has the effect of enabling the dotglob shell option, so
      all other filenames beginning with a ``.'' will match.  To get the old
      behavior of ignoring filenames beginning with a ``.'', make ``.*'' one
      of the patterns in GLOBIGNORE.  The dotglob option  is  disabled  when
      GLOBIGNORE  is  unset.  The pattern matching honors the setting of the
      extglob shell option.

      Pattern Matching




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      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.   When  the
                globstar  shell  option  is  enabled,  and  *  is  used in a
                pathname expansion context, two adjacent *s used as a single
                pattern  will  match  all files and zero or more directories
                and subdirectories.  If followed by a  /,  two  adjacent  *s
                will match only directories and subdirectories.
           ?    Matches any single character.
           [...]
                Matches any one of  the  enclosed  characters.   A  pair  of
                characters separated by a hyphen denotes a range expression;
                any character  that  falls  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
                values of the LC_COLLATE or LC_ALL shell variables, if  set.
                To   obtain   the   traditional   interpretation   of  range
                expressions, where [a-d] is equivalent to [abcd], set  value
                of   the   LC_ALL   shell  variable  to  C,  or  enable  the
                globasciiranges  shell  option.   A  -  may  be  matched  by
                including it as the first or last character 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 character _.

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

                Within [ and ], the syntax [.symbol.] matches the  collating
                symbol symbol.




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      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 following 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

      Complicated extended pattern matching against long  strings  is  slow,
      especially  when  the  patterns  contain  alternations and the strings
      contain multiple matches.   Using  separate  matches  against  shorter
      strings,  or  using arrays of strings instead of a single long string,
      may be faster.

    Quote Removal
      After the  preceding  expansions,  all  unquoted  occurrences  of  the
      characters  \,    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 allows
      commands' file handles to be duplicated, opened, closed, made to refer
      to  different  files,  and can change the files the command reads from
      and writes to.  Redirection may also be used to modify file handles in
      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.

      Each redirection that may be preceded by a file descriptor number  may
      instead  be  preceded  by a word of the form {varname}.  In this case,
      for each redirection operator except  >&-  and  <&-,  the  shell  will
      allocate  a  file descriptor greater than or equal to 10 and assign it
      to varname.  If >&- or <&- is preceded  by  {varname},  the  value  of
      varname  defines  the  file  descriptor  to  close.   If  {varname} is
      supplied, the redirection persists beyond the scope  of  the  command,
      allowing the shell programmer to manage the file descriptor himself.

      In the following  descriptions,  if  the  file  descriptor  number  is
      omitted, and the first character of the redirection operator is <, the
      redirection refers to the standard input (file descriptor 0).  If  the



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      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
      descriptions, unless otherwise noted, is subjected to brace expansion,
      tilde   expansion,   parameter   and   variable   expansion,   command
      substitution, arithmetic expansion, 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  from  the  standard output before the standard
      output was redirected to dirlist.

      Bash handles  several  filenames  specially  when  they  are  used  in
      redirections,  as  described in the following table.  If the operating
      system on which bash is running provides  these  special  files,  bash
      will  use  them;  otherwise  it  will emulate them internally with the
      behavior described below.

           /dev/fd/fd
                If fd is a valid integer, file descriptor fd is duplicated.
           /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 the corresponding TCP 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 the corresponding UDP 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



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      internally.

    Redirecting Input
      Redirection of input causes the  file  whose  name  results  from  the
      expansion  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 redirection 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
      This construct allows both the standard output (file descriptor 1) and
      the  standard error output (file descriptor 2) to be redirected to the
      file whose name is the expansion of word.

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

           &>word
      and
           >&word




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      Of the two forms,  the  first  is  preferred.   This  is  semantically
      equivalent to

           >word 2>&1

      When using the second form, word may not expand to a number or -.   If
      it  does,  other  redirection  operators  apply  (see Duplicating File
      Descriptors below) for compatibility reasons.

    Appending Standard Output and Standard Error
      This construct allows both the standard output (file descriptor 1) and
      the  standard  error  output (file descriptor 2) to be appended to the
      file whose name is the expansion of word.

      The format for appending standard output and standard error is:

           &>>word

      This is semantically equivalent to

           >>word 2>&1

      (see Duplicating File Descriptors below).

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

      The format of here-documents is:

           [n]<<[-]word
                   here-document
           delimiter

      No parameter and variable expansion, command substitution,  arithmetic
      expansion, or pathname expansion is performed on word.  If any part of
      word is 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,   command   substitution,  and  arithmetic  expansion,  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.




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

           [n]<<<word

      The word undergoes tilde expansion, parameter and variable  expansion,
      command   substitution,   arithmetic  expansion,  and  quote  removal.
      Pathname expansion and word splitting are not performed.   The  result
      is  supplied  as  a  single  string,  with  a newline appended, to the
      command  on  its  standard  input  (or  file  descriptor  n  if  n  is
      specified).

    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
      evaluates 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
      redirection  error  occurs.  If word evaluates to -, file descriptor n
      is closed.  As a special case, if n is  omitted,  and  word  does  not
      expand  to  one  or more digits or -, 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.



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    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, and
      all lines that make up a compound command, before executing any of the
      commands  on  that line or the compound command.  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 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



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      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 function while the function is executing.

      All other aspects of the shell  execution  environment  are  identical
      between a function and its caller with these exceptions: the DEBUG and
      RETURN traps (see the description of  the  trap  builtin  under  SHELL
      BUILTIN COMMANDS below) are not inherited 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 functions  inherit  the  DEBUG  and  RETURN
      traps), and the ERR trap is not inherited unless the -o errtrace shell
      option has been enabled.

      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 a variable  is  declared  local,  the
      variable's  visible  scope  is  restricted  to  that  function and its
      children (including the functions it calls).  Local variables "shadow"
      variables  with  the  same  name  declared  at  previous  scopes.  For
      instance, a local variable declared  in  a  function  hides  a  global
      variable  of  the  same  name: references and assignments refer to the
      local variable, leaving the  global  variable  unmodified.   When  the
      function returns, the global variable is once again visible.

      The shell uses dynamic scoping  to  control  a  variable's  visibility
      within  functions.   With dynamic scoping, visible variables and their
      values are a result of the sequence  of  function  calls  that  caused
      execution to reach the current function.  The value of a variable that
      a function sees depends on  its  value  within  its  caller,  if  any,
      whether  that  caller is the "global" scope or another shell function.
      This is also the value that a local  variable  declaration  "shadows",
      and the value that is restored when the function returns.

      For example, if a variable var is declared as local in function func1,
      and  func1  calls  another function func2, references to var made from
      within func2 will resolve  to  the  local  variable  var  from  func1,
      shadowing any global variable named var.



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      The unset builtin also  acts  using  the  same  dynamic  scope:  if  a
      variable is local to the current scope, unset will unset it; otherwise
      the unset will refer to the variable found in  any  calling  scope  as
      described  above.   If a variable at the current local scope is unset,
      it will remain so until it  is  reset  in  that  scope  or  until  the
      function  returns.   Once  the  function  returns, any instance of the
      variable at a previous scope will become visible.  If the  unset  acts
      on  a  variable  at  a previous scope, any instance of a variable with
      that name that had been shadowed will become visible.

      The FUNCNEST variable, if set to  a  numeric  value  greater  than  0,
      defines  a  maximum function nesting level.  Function invocations that
      exceed the limit cause the entire command to abort.

      If the builtin command return is executed in a function, the  function
      completes  and  execution  resumes  with  the  next  command after the
      function 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
      typeset 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.

      Functions may be recursive.  The FUNCNEST  variable  may  be  used  to
      limit  the depth of the function call stack and restrict the number of
      function invocations.  By default, 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, the ((
      compound command, 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
      - +  unary minus and plus
      ++id --id
           variable pre-increment and pre-decrement




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      ! ~  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 the optional 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.  When specifying  n,
      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



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      and arithmetic comparisons.  The test abd [ commands  determine  their
      behavior  based  on  the  number of arguments; see the descriptions of
      those commands for any other command-specific actions.

      Expressions are formed from the following unary or  binary  primaries.
      Bash  handles  several  filenames  specially  when  they  are  used in
      expressions.  If  the  operating  system  on  which  bash  is  running
      provides  these  special  files, bash will use them; otherwise it will
      emulate them internally with this behavior: If any  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.

      When used with [[, the < and > operators sort lexicographically  using
      the current locale.  The test command sorts using ASCII ordering.

      -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.



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      -x file
           True if file exists and is executable.
      -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.
      -N file
           True if file exists and has been modified since it was last read.
      -O file
           True if file exists and is owned by the effective user id.
      -S file
           True if file exists and is a socket.
      file1 -ef file2
           True if file1 and file2  refer  to  the  same  device  and  inode
           numbers.
      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.
      -o optname
           True if the shell option optname is enabled.   See  the  list  of
           options under the description of the -o option to the set builtin
           below.
      -v varname
           True if the shell variable varname is set (has  been  assigned  a
           value).
      -R varname
           True if  the  shell  variable  varname  is  set  and  is  a  name
           reference.
      -z string
           True if the length of string is zero.
      string
      -n string
           True if the length of string is non-zero.

      string1 == string2
      string1 = string2
           True if the strings are equal.  = should be used  with  the  test
           command  for  POSIX  conformance.  When used with the [[ command,
           this performs  pattern  matching  as  described  above  (Compound
           Commands).

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

      string1 < string2
           True if string1 sorts before string2 lexicographically.





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      string1 > string2
           True if string1 sorts after string2 lexicographically.

      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.  When used with the [[ command, Arg1 and  Arg2
           are   evaluated   as   arithmetic  expressions   (see  ARITHMETIC
           EVALUATION above).

 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
           variable.

      If no command  name  results,  the  variable  assignments  affect  the
      current  shell environment.  Otherwise, the variables are added to the
      environment of the executed command and  do  not  affect  the  current
      shell  environment.   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
      expansions 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.





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 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
      containing 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  searches  for  a  defined  shell
      function  named command_not_found_handle.  If that function exists, it
      is invoked in a  separate  execution  environment  with  the  original
      command and the original command's arguments as its arguments, and the
      function's exit status becomes the exit status of that  subshell.   If
      that  function  is  not defined, 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
      execution environment.  Argument 0 is set to the name given,  and  the
      remaining  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
      executable  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
      following:




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

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

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

      +    current traps set by trap

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

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

      +     options  enabled  at  invocation  (either  by  default  or  with
           command-line arguments) or by set

      +    options enabled by shopt

      +    shell aliases defined with alias

      +    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
      consists of the following.  Unless otherwise  noted,  the  values  are
      inherited from the shell.


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

      +    the current working directory

      +    the file creation mode mask

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

      +    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
      asynchronous  commands are invoked in a subshell environment that is a



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      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 invocation.  Builtin  commands  that  are  invoked  as  part  of  a
      pipeline are also executed in a subshell environment.  Changes made to
      the  subshell  environment  cannot  affect   the   shell's   execution
      environment.

      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.

      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  processes.   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 environment 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 modified 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
      environment 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  filename  of  the  command  and  passed  to  that command in its
      environment.

 EXIT STATUS
      The exit status of an executed command is the value  returned  by  the
      waitpid  system  call  or  equivalent  function.   Exit  statuses fall
      between 0 and 255, though, as  explained  below,  the  shell  may  use



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      values  above  125  specially.   Exit statuses from shell builtins and
      compound commands are also  limited  to  this  range.   Under  certain
      circumstances,  the shell will use special values to indicate specific
      failure modes.

      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,  generally
      invalid options or missing arguments.

      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 substitution ignore the keyboard-generated job control signals
      SIGTTIN, SIGTTOU, 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.




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      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
      command 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  status  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  operating  system
      kernel'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-generated signals.  Only foreground processes are
      allowed to read from or, if the user so specifies  with  stty  tostop,
      write  to  the  terminal.   Background processes which attempt to read
      from (write to when stty tostop is in effect) the terminal are sent  a
      SIGTTIN  (SIGTTOU)  signal  by  the  kernel's  terminal 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
      (typically ^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



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      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
      character  %  introduces  a job specification (jobspec).  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 example, %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 background.   The  previous  job  may  be
      referenced  using  %-.   If  there is only a single job, %+ and %- can
      both be used to refer to that  job.   In  output  pertaining  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 (or, if  the
      checkjobs  shell  option  has  been  enabled  using the shopt builtin,
      running), the shell prints a warning message, and,  if  the  checkjobs
      option  is  enabled,  lists  the  jobs  and  their statuses.  The jobs
      command may then be used to inspect their status.  If a second attempt
      to  exit  is  made  without an intervening command, the shell does not
      print another warning, and any stopped jobs are terminated.

      When the shell is waiting for a job or process using the wait builtin,
      and  job  control  is  enabled,  wait will return when the job changes
      state. The -f option will force wait to wait until the job or  process
      terminates before returning.

 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 displays PS0 after it
      reads  a  command  but  before  executing  it.   Bash  displays PS4 as
      described above before tracing each command  when  the  -x  option  is
      enabled.   Bash  allows  these  prompt  strings  to  be  customized by



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      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 (uses the value of the PROMPT_DIRTRIM variable)
           \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
      substitution, 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
      interactive  shell,  unless  the  --noediting option is given at shell



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      invocation.  Line editing is also used when using the -e option to the
      read  builtin.   By  default, the line editing commands are similar to
      those of Emacs.  A vi-style line editing interface is also  available.
      Line  editing  can  be enabled at any time using the -o emacs or -o vi
      options to the set builtin (see SHELL  BUILTIN  COMMANDS  below).   To
      turn  off line editing after the shell is running, use the +o emacs or
      +o vi options to the set builtin.

    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.  Similarly, meta keys are denoted by M-key,  so  M-x  means
      Meta-X.   (On  keyboards  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 constructs.  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



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      into the  inputrc  would  make  M-C-u  execute  the  readline  command
      universal-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
      specified  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





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      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
      function 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
      modified  with  the  bind  builtin  command.   The editing mode may be
      switched during interactive use by using the  -o  option  to  the  set
      builtin command (see SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).

    Readline Variables
      Readline has variables that can  be  used  to  further  customize  its
      behavior.   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-
      insensitive),  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
           readline equivalents.
      blink-matching-paren (Off)
           If set to On, readline attempts to briefly move the cursor to  an
           opening parenthesis when a closing parenthesis is inserted.



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      colored-completion-prefix (Off)
           If set to On, when listing  completions,  readline  displays  the
           common  prefix  of  the  set  of  possible  completions  using  a
           different color.  The color definitions are taken from the  value
           of the LS_COLORS environment variable.
      colored-stats (Off)
           If set  to  On,  readline  displays  possible  completions  using
           different   colors  to  indicate  their  file  type.   The  color
           definitions are taken from the value of the LS_COLORS environment
           variable.
      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-display-width (-1)
           The number of screen columns used  to  display  possible  matches
           when  performing  completion.  The value is ignored if it is less
           than 0 or greater than the terminal screen width.  A value  of  0
           will  cause  matches  to  be displayed one per line.  The default
           value is -1.
      completion-ignore-case (Off)
           If set to On, readline performs filename matching and  completion
           in a case-insensitive fashion.
      completion-map-case (Off)
           If set to On, and  completion-ignore-case  is  enabled,  readline
           treats  hyphens  (-)  and  underscores  (_)  as  equivalent  when
           performing case-insensitive filename matching and completion.
      completion-prefix-display-length (0)
           The length in characters of  the  common  prefix  of  a  list  of
           possible  completions  that  is  displayed  without modification.
           When set to a value greater than  zero,  common  prefixes  longer
           than  this  value  are  replaced with an ellipsis when displaying
           possible completions.
      completion-query-items (100)
           This determines when the user is queried about viewing the number
           of  possible  completions  generated  by the possible-completions
           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).  The default is On, but readline will set it to Off
           if the locale contains eight-bit characters.
      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.



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      echo-control-characters (On)
           When set to On, on operating systems that indicate  they  support
           it,  readline  echoes  a  character  corresponding  to  a  signal
           generated from the keyboard.
      editing-mode (emacs)
           Controls whether readline begins  with  a  set  of  key  bindings
           similar  to Emacs or vi.  editing-mode can be set to either emacs
           or vi.
      emacs-mode-string (@)
           If the show-mode-in-prompt variable is enabled,  this  string  is
           displayed  immediately before the last line of the primary prompt
           when emacs editing mode is active.  The value is expanded like  a
           key  binding,  so  the standard set of meta- and control prefixes
           and backslash escape sequences is available.  Use the \1  and  \2
           escapes  to  begin  and end sequences of non-printing characters,
           which can be used to embed a terminal control sequence  into  the
           mode string.
      enable-bracketed-paste (Off)
           When set to On, readline will configure the  terminal  in  a  way
           that  will enable it to insert each paste into the editing buffer
           as a single  string  of  characters,  instead  of  treating  each
           character  as  if  it  had been read from the keyboard.  This can
           prevent pasted  characters  from  being  interpreted  as  editing
           commands.
      enable-keypad (Off)
           When set to On, readline  will  try  to  enable  the  application
           keypad  when  it is called.  Some systems need this to enable the
           arrow keys.
      enable-meta-key (On)
           When set to On, readline will try to enable any meta modifier key
           the  terminal  claims  to  support  when  it  is called.  On many
           terminals, the meta key is used to send eight-bit characters.
      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-
           history or next-history.
      history-size (unset)
           Set the maximum number of history entries saved  in  the  history
           list.   If  set to zero, any existing history entries are deleted
           and no new entries are saved.  If set to a value less than  zero,
           the  number  of  history entries is not limited.  By default, the
           number of history entries is set to the  value  of  the  HISTSIZE
           shell  variable.   If an attempt is made to set history-size to a
           non-numeric value, the maximum number of history entries will  be
           set to 500.
      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



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           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  eighth  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.  The default is Off,
           but readline will set it to On if the locale  contains  eight-bit
           characters.
      isearch-terminators (``C-[C-J'')
           The string of characters that  should  terminate  an  incremental
           search without subsequently executing the character as a command.
           If this variable has not been given a value, the  characters  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-command,
           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.
      keyseq-timeout (500)
           Specifies the duration readline will wait for  a  character  when
           reading  an  ambiguous key sequence (one that can form a complete
           key sequence using the input read so far, or can take  additional
           input  to  complete  a  longer  key  sequence).   If  no input is
           received within the timeout, readline will use  the  shorter  but
           complete  key  sequence.  The value is specified in milliseconds,
           so a value of 1000 means that readline will wait one  second  for
           additional  input.   If this variable is set to a value less than
           or equal to zero, or to a non-numeric value, readline  will  wait
           until  another  key  is  pressed  to decide which key sequence to
           complete.
      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 displayed
           with a preceding asterisk (*).
      mark-symlinked-directories (Off)
           If set to  On,  completed  names  which  are  symbolic  links  to
           directories  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.  If set to Off,  the  leading  `.'  must  be
           supplied by the user in the filename to be completed.
      menu-complete-display-prefix (Off)
           If set to On, menu completion displays the common prefix  of  the
           list  of possible completions (which may be empty) before cycling
           through the list.




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      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.
           The default is Off, but readline will set it to On if the  locale
           contains eight-bit characters.
      page-completions (On)
           If set to On,  readline  uses  an  internal  more-like  pager  to
           display 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.
      revert-all-at-newline (Off)
           If set to On, readline will undo all  changes  to  history  lines
           before  returning  when  accept-line  is  executed.   By default,
           history lines may be modified and retain  individual  undo  lists
           across calls to readline.
      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 possible
           partial completion (the possible completions don't share a common
           prefix) cause the matches to be  listed  immediately  instead  of
           ringing the bell.
      show-mode-in-prompt (Off)
           If set to On, add  a  string  to  the  beginning  of  the  prompt
           indicating  the editing mode: emacs, vi command, or vi insertion.
           The mode strings are user-settable (e.g., emacs-mode-string).
      skip-completed-text (Off)
           If set to On, this alters the default  completion  behavior  when
           inserting  a  single  match into the line.  It's only active when
           performing completion in the  middle  of  a  word.   If  enabled,
           readline  does  not  insert  characters  from the completion that
           match characters after point in  the  word  being  completed,  so
           portions of the word following the cursor are not duplicated.
      vi-cmd-mode-string ((cmd))
           If the show-mode-in-prompt variable is enabled,  this  string  is
           displayed  immediately before the last line of the primary prompt
           when vi editing mode is active and in command mode.  The value is
           expanded  like  a  key  binding, so the standard set of meta- and
           control prefixes and backslash  escape  sequences  is  available.
           Use  the  \1  and  \2  escapes to begin and end sequences of non-
           printing characters, which  can  be  used  to  embed  a  terminal
           control sequence into the mode string.
      vi-ins-mode-string ((ins))
           If the show-mode-in-prompt variable is enabled,  this  string  is



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           displayed  immediately before the last line of the primary prompt
           when vi editing mode is active and in insertion mode.  The  value
           is  expanded like a key binding, so the standard set of meta- and
           control prefixes and backslash  escape  sequences  is  available.
           Use  the  \1  and  \2  escapes to begin and end sequences of non-
           printing characters, which  can  be  used  to  embed  a  terminal
           control sequence into the mode string.
      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
           completions.

    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 editing
           mode, the terminal being used, or the application using readline.
           The text of the test, after any comparison operator,
            extends to the end of  the  line;  unless  otherwise  noted,  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 both the full name of the terminal and
                the portion of the terminal name before the first  -.   This
                allows sun to match both sun and sun-cmd, for instance.

           version
                The version test may be used to perform comparisons  against
                specific  readline  versions.   The  version  expands to the
                current readline version.  The set of  comparison  operators
                includes  =,  (and  ==),  !=, <=, >=, <, and >.  The version
                number supplied on the right side of the  operator  consists
                of a major version number, an optional decimal point, and an
                optional minor version (e.g., 7.1). If the minor version  is
                omitted,  it  is  assumed  to  be  0.   The  operator may be
                separated from the  string  version  and  from  the  version
                number argument by whitespace.

           application
                The application construct is used  to  include  application-



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                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

           variable
                The variable construct provides simple  equality  tests  for
                readline  variables  and  values.   The permitted comparison
                operators are =, ==, and !=.   The  variable  name  must  be
                separated  from  the  comparison operator by whitespace; the
                operator may be separated from the value on the  right  hand
                side  by  whitespace.  Both string and boolean variables may
                be tested. Boolean variables  must  be  tested  against  the
                values on and off.

      $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 following
           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,
      readline 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



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      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
      terminate  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
      accompanying key sequence are unbound by default.   In  the  following
      descriptions,  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).
      shell-forward-word
           Move forward to the end of the next word.  Words are delimited by
           non-quoted shell metacharacters.
      shell-backward-word
           Move back to the start of the current or  previous  word.   Words
           are delimited by non-quoted shell metacharacters.
      previous-screen-line
           Attempt to move point to the same physical screen column  on  the
           previous  physical  screen  line.  This will not have the desired



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           effect if the current Readline line does not take  up  more  than
           one  physical  line or if point is not greater than the length of
           the prompt plus the screen width.
      next-screen-line
           Attempt to move point to the same physical screen column  on  the
           next  physical screen line. This will not have the desired effect
           if the current Readline line does  not  take  up  more  than  one
           physical  line  or  if the length of the current Readline line is
           not greater than the length of the prompt plus the screen width.
      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



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           between  the  start of the current line and the point.  This is a
           non-incremental search.
      history-substring-search-backward
           Search backward through the history for the string of  characters
           between  the  start  of  the  current line and the current cursor
           position (the point).  The search string may match anywhere in  a
           history line.  This is a non-incremental search.
      history-substring-search-forward
           Search forward through the history for the string  of  characters
           between  the start of the current line and the point.  The search
           string may match anywhere in a history  line.   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 a numeric argument, behave
           exactly like yank-nth-arg.   Successive  calls  to  yank-last-arg
           move  back  through the history list, inserting the last word (or
           the word specified by the argument to the  first  call)  of  each
           line  in turn.  Any numeric argument supplied to these successive
           calls determines the direction to move through  the  history.   A
           negative  argument  switches  the  direction  through the history
           (back or forward).  The history expansion facilities are used  to
           extract  the last word, 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
           history  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.



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      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.  A
           numeric argument, if supplied, specifies the history entry to use
           instead of the current line.
      edit-and-execute-command (C-x C-e)
           Invoke an editor on the current command  line,  and  execute  the
           result  as  shell  commands.   Bash  attempts  to invoke $VISUAL,
           $EDITOR, and emacs as the editor, in that order.

    Commands for Changing Text
      end-of-file (usually C-d)
           The character indicating end-of-file  as  set,  for  example,  by
           ``stty''.  If this character is read when there are no characters
           on the line, and point is at the beginning of the line,  Readline
           interprets it as the end of input and returns EOF.
      delete-char (C-d)
           Delete the character at point.  If this function is bound to  the
           same  character as the tty EOF character, as C-d commonly is, see
           above for the effects.
      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
           cursor 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



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           argument, capitalize the previous word, but do not move point.
      overwrite-mode
           Toggle  overwrite  mode.   With  an  explicit  positive   numeric
           argument,  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,  characters  bound to self-insert replace the text at point
           rather than pushing the text to the right.  Characters  bound  to
           backward-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.
      shell-kill-word
           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 shell-forward-word.
      shell-backward-kill-word
           Kill the word behind point.  Word  boundaries  are  the  same  as
           those used by shell-backward-word.
      unix-word-rubout (C-w)
           Kill the word behind point, using white space as a word boundary.
           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.




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      copy-backward-word
           Copy the  word  before  point  to  the  kill  buffer.   The  word
           boundaries 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 following
           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
           followed  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 nor 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 argument
           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



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           command is intended to  be  bound  to  TAB,  but  is  unbound  by
           default.
      menu-complete-backward
           Identical to menu-complete, but moves backward through  the  list
           of  possible  completions,  as  if menu-complete had been given a
           negative argument.  This command 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.
      dabbrev-expand
           Attempt menu completion on the text before point,  comparing  the
           text  against lines from the history list for possible completion
           matches.




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      complete-into-braces (M-{)
           Perform filename completion  and  insert  the  list  of  possible
           completions  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
           characters in the macro appear as if typed at the keyboard.
      print-last-kbd-macro ()
           Print the last keyboard macro defined in a  format  suitable  for
           the inputrc file.

    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-lowercase-version (M-A, M-B, M-x, ...)
           If the metafied character x is uppercase, run the command that is
           bound  to  the  corresponding  metafied  lowercase character. The
           behavior is undefined if x is already lowercase.
      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
           occurrences.



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      character-search-backward (M-C-])
           A character is read and point is moved to the previous occurrence
           of  that  character.   A  negative  count searches for subsequent
           occurrences.
      skip-csi-sequence
           Read enough characters to consume a multi-key  sequence  such  as
           those  defined  for keys like Home and End.  Such sequences begin
           with a Control Sequence Indicator (CSI), usually ESC-[.  If  this
           sequence  is  bound  to  "\[", keys producing such sequences will
           have no effect unless explicitly bound  to  a  readline  command,
           instead  of  inserting  stray characters into the editing buffer.
           This is unbound by default, but usually bound to ESC-[.
      insert-comment (M-#)
           Without  a  numeric  argument,  the   value   of   the   readline
           comment-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,
           otherwise  the  characters  in comment-begin are deleted from the
           beginning 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  filenames  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  filenames  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 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-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



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           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
      programmable completion facilities are invoked.

      First, the command name is identified.  If the  command  word  is  the
      empty string (completion attempted at the beginning of an empty line),
      any compspec defined with the -E option to complete  is  used.   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.  If those searches do not result in a  compspec,  any  compspec
      defined  with  the  -D  option to complete is used as the default.  If
      there is no default compspec, bash attempts  alias  expansion  on  the
      command  word  as  a final resort, and attempts to find a compspec for
      the command word from any successful expansion.

      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
      completion 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 pathname 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
      considered.  The string is first split using the characters in the IFS
      special 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.





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      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,  COMP_POINT,   COMP_KEY,   and
      COMP_TYPE 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 ($1) is the  name  of  the  command  whose
      arguments  are  being  completed, the second argument ($2) is the word
      being completed, and the third argument ($3) 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, one per array element.

      Next, any command specified with  the  -C  option  is  invoked  in  an
      environment  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
      specified  with the -X option is applied to the list.  The filter is a
      pattern 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
      matching the pattern will be removed.  If the nocasematch shell option
      is enabled, the match is performed  without  regard  to  the  case  of
      alphabetic characters.

      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



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      of  filename completion is disabled.  If the -o bashdefault option was
      supplied to complete when the compspec was defined, the  bash  default
      completions  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.

      There is some support for dynamically modifying completions.  This  is
      most  useful  when  used  in  combination  with  a  default completion
      specified  with  complete  -D.   It's  possible  for  shell  functions
      executed  as completion handlers to indicate that completion should be
      retried by returning an exit status  of  124.   If  a  shell  function
      returns  124,  and changes the compspec associated with the command on
      which completion is being attempted (supplied as  the  first  argument
      when  the function is executed), programmable completion restarts from
      the beginning, with an  attempt  to  find  a  new  compspec  for  that
      command.   This allows a set of completions to be built dynamically as
      completion is attempted, rather than being loaded all at once.

      For instance, assuming that there is a library of compspecs, each kept
      in  a  file  corresponding  to  the name of the command, the following
      default completion function would load completions dynamically:

      _completion_loader()
      {
           . "/etc/bash_completion.d/$1.sh" >/dev/null 2>&1 && return 124
      }
      complete -D -F _completion_loader -o bashdefault -o default


 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 commands (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
      variable  HISTFILE  (default  ~/.bash_history).  The file named by the
      value of HISTFILE is truncated, if necessary, to contain no more  than



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      the  number  of  lines  specified  by  the  value of HISTFILESIZE.  If
      HISTFILESIZE is unset, or set to  null,  a  non-numeric  value,  or  a
      numeric value less than zero, the history file is not truncated.  When
      the history file is read, lines beginning  with  the  history  comment
      character   followed   immediately  by  a  digit  are  interpreted  as
      timestamps for the  following  history  line.   These  timestamps  are
      optionally  displayed  depending  on  the  value of the HISTTIMEFORMAT
      variable.  When a shell with history enabled exits, the last $HISTSIZE
      lines  are  copied  from  the  history  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  overwritten.   If  HISTFILE  is
      unset, or if the history file is unwritable, the history is not saved.
      If the HISTTIMEFORMAT variable is set, time stamps are written to  the
      history  file,  marked with the history comment character, so they may
      be preserved across shell sessions.  This  uses  the  history  comment
      character  to  distinguish timestamps from other history lines.  After
      saving the history, the history file is truncated to contain  no  more
      than  HISTFILESIZE lines.  If HISTFILESIZE is unset, or set to null, a
      non-numeric value, or a numeric value less than zero, the history file
      is not truncated.

      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
      history 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
      command (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



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      previous commands quickly.

      History expansion is performed immediately after a  complete  line  is
      read,  before the shell breaks it into words, and is performed on each
      line individually  without  taking  quoting  on  previous  lines  into
      account.   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 reading 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, but the history expansion  character  is  also  treated  as
      quoted  if  it  immediately  precedes  the  closing  double quote in a
      double-quoted string.

      Several characters inhibit  history  expansion  if  found  immediately
      following  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  below),
      and  readline 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 substitution will be reloaded into the readline editing
      buffer for correction.  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).  The shell uses the  history  comment  character  to
      mark history timestamps when writing the history file.

    Event Designators
      An event designator is a reference to a  command  line  entry  in  the
      history  list.   Unless the reference is absolute, events are relative
      to the current position in the history list.

      !    Start a history substitution, except when followed  by  a  blank,
           newline,  carriage  return, = or ( (when the extglob shell option



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           is enabled using the shopt builtin).
      !n   Refer to command line n.
      !-n  Refer to the current command minus n.
      !!   Refer to the previous command.  This is a synonym for `!-1'.
      !string
           Refer to the most recent command preceding the  current  position
           in the history list starting with string.
      !?string[?]
           Refer to the most recent command preceding the  current  position
           in  the  history  list  containing string.  The trailing ? may be
           omitted if string is followed immediately by a newline.

      ^string1^string2^
           Quick  substitution.   Repeat  the  previous  command,  replacing
           string1  with  string2.   Equivalent to ``!!:s/string1/string2/''
           (see Modifiers 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
      separated 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 word.  This is  usually  the  last  argument,  but  will
           expand to the zeroth word if there is only one word in the line.
      %    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 filename component, leaving only the head.
      t    Remove all leading filename components, leaving the tail.
      r    Remove a trailing suffix of the form .xxx, leaving the basename.
      e    Remove all but the trailing suffix.



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      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  single  backslash
           will  quote  the  &.   If  old is null, it is set to the last old
           substituted, or, if no previous history substitutions 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.  The :, true, false, and test/[  builtins  do  not
      accept  options  and  do  not  treat  -- specially.  The exit, logout,
      return, break, continue, let, and shift builtins  accept  and  process
      arguments  beginning with - without requiring --.  Other builtins that
      accept arguments but are not specified as accepting options  interpret
      arguments  beginning  with  -  as  invalid  options  and require -- to
      prevent this interpretation.

      : [arguments]
           No effect; the command does nothing  beyond  expanding  arguments
           and  performing any specified redirections.  The return status is
           zero.

       .  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
           executed from filename.  If filename does not  contain  a  slash,
           filenames  in  PATH  are  used  to  find the directory containing
           filename.  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  positional
           parameters  when  filename is executed.  Otherwise the positional
           parameters are unchanged.  If the -T option  is  enabled,  source



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           inherits  any  trap on DEBUG; if it is not, any DEBUG trap string
           is saved and restored around  the  call  to  source,  and  source
           unsets  the  DEBUG trap while it executes.  If -T is not set, and
           the sourced file  changes  the  DEBUG  trap,  the  new  value  is
           retained  when source completes.  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
           supplied, 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] [-lpsvPSVX]
      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 [-m keymap] keyseq: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-standard,   emacs-meta,   emacs-ctlx,   vi,   vi-move,
                vi-command,  and  vi-insert.  vi is equivalent to vi-command
                (vi-move  is  also  a  synonym);  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.




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           -P   List current readline function names and bindings.
           -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.
           -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.
           -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.  When shell-command is executed, the shell sets the
                READLINE_LINE variable to the contents of the readline  line
                buffer  and  the  READLINE_POINT  variable  to  the  current
                location of the insertion point.  If  the  executed  command
                changes  the value of READLINE_LINE or READLINE_POINT, those
                new values will be reflected in the editing state.
           -X   List all key sequences  bound  to  shell  commands  and  the
                associated commands in a format that can be reused as input.

           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 n is not greater than or equal to 1.

      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
           functionality 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.

      caller [expr]
           Returns the context  of  any  active  subroutine  call  (a  shell
           function  or  a  script  executed with the . or source builtins).
           Without expr, caller displays the line number and source filename
           of  the  current  subroutine  call.  If a non-negative integer is
           supplied as expr, caller displays  the  line  number,  subroutine
           name,  and  source  file  corresponding  to  that position in the



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           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 subroutine call or expr does not correspond to a valid position
           in the call stack.

      cd [-L|[-P [-e]] [-@]] [dir]
           Change the current directory to dir.  if dir is not supplied, the
           value  of the HOME shell variable is the default.  Any additional
           arguments following dir are ignored.  The variable CDPATH defines
           the  search path for the directory containing dir: each directory
           name in CDPATH is searched for 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
           causes cd to use the physical directory  structure  by  resolving
           symbolic   links  while  traversing  dir  and  before  processing
           instances of .. in dir (see also the -P option to the set builtin
           command);  the  -L option forces symbolic links to be followed by
           resolving the link after processing instances of .. in  dir.   If
           ..  appears  in  dir, it is processed by removing the immediately
           previous pathname component from dir, back  to  a  slash  or  the
           beginning  of dir.  If the -e option is supplied with -P, and the
           current working directory cannot be successfully determined after
           a  successful  directory  change,  cd will return an unsuccessful
           status.  On systems that support it, the -@ option  presents  the
           extended  attributes  associated  with a file as a directory.  An
           argument of - is converted to $OLDPWD before the directory change
           is attempted.  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 successfully changed; false otherwise.

      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  filename
           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
           cannot  be  found,  the  exit status is 127.  Otherwise, the exit
           status of the command builtin is the exit status of command.

      compgen [option] [word]
           Generate possible completion matches for word  according  to  the



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           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
           programmable  completion  code had generated them directly from a
           completion  specification  with  the  same  flags.   If  word  is
           specified,   only   those   completions  matching  word  will  be
           displayed.

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

 [-W wordlist] [-F function] [-C command]
      complete [-abcdefgjksuv] [-o comp-
           option] [-DEI] [-A action]  [-G  globpat]
           [-X filterpat] [-P prefix] [-S suffix] name [name ...]
      complete -pr [-DEI] [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
           specification for each name, or, if no names  are  supplied,  all
           completion  specifications.   The  -D option indicates that other
           supplied options and actions  should  apply  to  the  ``default''
           command  completion;  that  is, completion attempted on a command
           for which no completion has  previously  been  defined.   The  -E
           option  indicates  that other supplied options and actions should
           apply  to  ``empty''  command  completion;  that  is,  completion
           attempted  on  a  blank line.  The -I option indicates that other
           supplied options and actions should apply to  completion  on  the
           inital  non-assignment  word  on  the  line,  or  after a command
           delimiter  such  as  ;  or  |,  which  is  usually  command  name
           completion.   If  multiple  options  are  supplied, the -D option
           takes precedence over -E, and both take precedence over  -I.   If
           any  of  -D, -E, or -I are supplied, any other name arguments are
           ignored; these completions only apply to the  case  specified  by
           the option.

           The process of applying these completion specifications when word
           completion  is  attempted  is  described above under Programmable
           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
           expansion before the complete builtin is invoked.
           -o comp-option
                   The  comp-option  controls   several   aspects   of   the



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                   compspec's  behavior  beyond  the  simple  generation  of
                   completions.  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 compspec
                           generates no matches.
                   filenames
                           Tell  readline  that   the   compspec   generates
                           filenames,     so     it    can    perform    any
                           filename-specific processing (like adding a slash
                           to  directory  names, quoting special characters,
                           or suppressing trailing spaces).  Intended to  be
                           used with shell functions.
                   noquote Tell readline not to quote the completed words if
                           they  are  filenames  (quoting  filenames  is the
                           default).
                   nosort  Tell readline not to sort the  list  of  possible
                           completions alphabetically.
                   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.




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                   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
                           specified as -v.
           -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  the function is executed, the
                   first argument ($1) is the  name  of  the  command  whose
                   arguments  are  being completed, the second argument ($2)
                   is the word being completed, and the third argument  ($3)
                   is  the  word  preceding  the word being completed on the
                   current command line.  When  it  finishes,  the  possible
                   completions are retrieved from the value of the COMPREPLY
                   array variable.
           -G globpat
                   The pathname expansion pattern  globpat  is  expanded  to
                   generate the possible completions.
           -P prefix
                   prefix  is  added  at  the  beginning  of  each  possible
                   completion after all other options have been applied.
           -S suffix
                   suffix is appended to each possible completion after  all
                   other options have been applied.
           -W wordlist
                   The wordlist is split using the  characters  in  the  IFS
                   special  variable  as delimiters, and each resultant word
                   is expanded.  Shell quoting is honored  within  wordlist,
                   in  order to provide a mechanism for the words to contain
                   shell metacharacters or characters in the value  of  IFS.
                   The possible completions are the members of the resultant
                   list which match the word being completed.



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           -X filterpat
                   filterpat is a pattern as used  for  pathname  expansion.
                   It  is  applied  to  the  list  of  possible  completions
                   generated 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.

           The return value is true unless an invalid option is supplied, an
           option  other  than -p or -r is supplied without a name argument,
           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.

      compopt [-o option] [-DEI] [+o option] [name]
           Modify completion options for each name according to the options,
           or  for  the  currently-executing  completion  if  no  names  are
           supplied.  If  no  options  are  given,  display  the  completion
           options  for  each  name or the current completion.  The possible
           values of  option  are  those  valid  for  the  complete  builtin
           described  above.   The  -D  option indicates that other supplied
           options should apply to the ``default'' command completion;  that
           is, completion attempted on a command for which no completion has
           previously been defined.  The  -E  option  indicates  that  other
           supplied  options  should  apply to ``empty'' command completion;
           that is, completion attempted on a blank  line.   The  -I  option
           indicates  that other supplied options should apply to completion
           on the inital non-assignment word on the line, or after a command
           delimiter  such  as  ;  or  |,  which  is  usually  command  name
           completion.

           The return value is true unless an invalid option is supplied, an
           attempt  is  made  to  modify the options for a name for which no
           completion specification exists, or an output error occurs.

      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 n is not  greater  than
           or equal to 1.

      declare [-aAfFgilnrtux] [-p] [name[=value] ...]
      typeset [-aAfFgilnrtux] [-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
           with  name  arguments,  additional options, other than -f and -F,
           are ignored.  When -p is supplied without name arguments, it will



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           display  the  attributes  and  values of all variables having the
           attributes specified by the  additional  options.   If  no  other
           options are supplied with -p, declare will display the attributes
           and values of all shell variables.  The -f option  will  restrict
           the  display  to  shell  functions.   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 each name
           is defined are displayed as well.  The -F option implies -f.  The
           -g option forces variables to  be  created  or  modified  at  the
           global  scope, even when declare is executed in a shell function.
           It is ignored in all other cases.  The following options  can  be
           used to restrict output to variables with the specified attribute
           or to give variables attributes:
           -a   Each name is an indexed array variable (see Arrays above).
           -A   Each name is  an  associative  array  variable  (see  Arrays
                above).
           -f   Use function names only.
           -i   The variable is treated as an integer; arithmetic evaluation
                (see  ARITHMETIC  EVALUATION  above)  is  performed when the
                variable is assigned a value.
           -l   When the  variable  is  assigned  a  value,  all  upper-case
                characters  are  converted  to  lower-case.   The upper-case
                attribute is disabled.
           -n   Give each name the  nameref  attribute,  making  it  a  name
                reference  to  another  variable.   That  other  variable is
                defined by the value of name.  All references,  assignments,
                and  attribute  modifications to name, except those using or
                changing the -n  attribute  itself,  are  performed  on  the
                variable  referenced by name's value.  The nameref attribute
                cannot be applied to array variables.
           -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.
           -u   When the  variable  is  assigned  a  value,  all  lower-case
                characters  are  converted  to  upper-case.   The lower-case
                attribute is disabled.
           -x   Mark  names  for  export  to  subsequent  commands  via  the
                environment.

           Using `+' instead of `-' turns off the  attribute  instead,  with
           the  exceptions  that  +a and +A may not be used to destroy array
           variables and +r will not remove the  readonly  attribute.   When
           used  in a function, declare and typeset make each name local, as
           with the local command, unless the -g option is supplied.   If  a
           variable name is followed by =value, the value of the variable is
           set to value.  When using -a or -A and  the  compound  assignment
           syntax  to  create  array variables, additional attributes do not
           take effect until subsequent assignments.  The return value is  0



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           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
           readonly  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.   The  current  directory  is  always  the  first
           directory in the stack.
           -c   Clears the directory stack by deleting all of the entries.
           -l   Produces a listing using full pathnames; 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, prefixing
                each entry with its index in the stack.
           +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.

           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 ... | pid ... ]
           Without options, remove each jobspec from  the  table  of  active
           jobs.   If  jobspec is not present, and neither the -a nor the -r
           option is supplied, the current job is used.  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 supplied, the -a option means to remove
           or mark all jobs;  the  -r  option  without  a  jobspec  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  0  unless  a  write  error  occurs.  If -n is
           specified, the trailing newline is suppressed.  If the -e  option
           is  given,  interpretation  of  the  following  backslash-escaped
           characters is enabled.  The -E option disables the interpretation
           of  these  escape  characters,  even  on  systems  where they are



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           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 further output
           \e
           \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)
           \uHHHH
                the Unicode (ISO/IEC 10646) character  whose  value  is  the
                hexadecimal value HHHH (one to four hex digits)
           \UHHHHHHHH
                the Unicode (ISO/IEC 10646) character  whose  value  is  the
                hexadecimal value HHHHHHHH (one to eight hex digits)

      enable [-a] [-dnps] [-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
           arguments, the list consists of all enabled shell  builtins.   If
           -n  is  supplied,  only  disabled builtins are printed.  If -a is
           supplied,  the  list  printed  includes  all  builtins,  with  an
           indication 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
           command.   This  command  is then read and executed by the shell,



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           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
           beginning of the zeroth argument 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 execfail shell  option  is  enabled.   In  that
           case,  it  returns failure.  An interactive shell returns failure
           if the file cannot be executed.  A subshell exits unconditionally
           if  exec  fails.   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
           environment  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 names of all exported
           variables 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 function.

      fc [-e ename] [-lnr] [first] [last]
      fc -s [pat=rep] [cmd]
           The first form selects a range of commands  from  first  to  last
           from the history list and displays or edits and re-executes them.
           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  current 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 specified, it is set to the previous command for editing  and
           -16 for listing.

           The -n option suppresses the command numbers when  listing.   The



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           -r  option  reverses the order of the commands.  If the -l option
           is given, the commands are listed on standard output.  Otherwise,
           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
           complete, the edited commands are echoed and executed.

           In the second form, command is re-executed after each instance of
           pat is replaced by rep.  Command is interpreted the same as first
           above.  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 command.

           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-
           executed, 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 specify  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
           parameters.   optstring  contains  the  option  characters  to be
           recognized; 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
           automatically; it must be manually reset between  multiple  calls
           to  getopts  within  the  same  shell  invocation if a new set of
           parameters 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



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           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 displayed, 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]
           Each time hash is invoked, the full pathname of the command  name
           is   determined   by  searching  the  directories  in  $PATH  and
           remembered.  Any previously-remembered pathname is discarded.  If
           the  -p  option  is  supplied,  no  path search is performed, and
           filename is used as the full filename 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  format  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 [-dms] [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.
           -d   Display a short description of each pattern




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           -m   Display the description of each pattern  in  a  manpage-like
                format
           -s   Display only a short usage synopsis for each pattern

           The return status is 0 unless no command matches pattern.

      history [n]
      history -c
      history -d offset
      history -d start-end
      history -anrw [filename]
      history -p arg [arg ...]
      history -s arg [arg ...]
           With no options, display  the  command  history  list  with  line
           numbers.   Lines listed with a * have been modified.  An argument
           of n lists  only  the  last  n  lines.   If  the  shell  variable
           HISTTIMEFORMAT is set and not null, it is used as a format string
           for strftime(3) to display the time stamp  associated  with  each
           displayed 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.  If  offset  is
                negative,  it is interpreted as relative to one greater than
                the last history position, so negative  indices  count  back
                from  the  end  of the history, and an index of -1 refers to
                the current history -d command.
           -d start-end
                Delete the history entries between positions start and  end,
                inclusive.   Positive  and negative values for start and end
                are interpreted as described above.
           -a   Append the ``new'' history lines to the history file.  These
                are history lines entered since the beginning of the current
                bash session, but not already appended 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 append them to the
                current history list.
           -w    Write  the  current  history  list  to  the  history  file,
                overwriting 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



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                are added.

           If the HISTTIMEFORMAT variable is set, the time stamp information
           associated  with  each  history  entry  is written to the history
           file, marked  with  the  history  comment  character.   When  the
           history  file  is  read, lines beginning with the history comment
           character followed immediately by  a  digit  are  interpreted  as
           timestamps  for the following history entry.  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
           following meanings:
           -l   List process IDs in addition to the normal information.
           -n   Display information only about jobs that have changed status
                since the user was last notified of their status.
           -p   List only the process ID of the job's process group leader.
           -r   Display only running jobs.
           -s   Display only 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|-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.  The -L option is equivalent to -l.  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
           ARITHMETIC  EVALUATION  above).   If the last arg evaluates to 0,
           let returns 1; 0 is returned otherwise.



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      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 function
           and its children.  If name is -, the set of shell options is made
           local  to  the  function in which local is invoked: shell options
           changed using the set builtin inside the function are restored to
           their  original  values  when  the  function  returns.   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.

 callback] [-c quantum] [array]
      mapfile [-d delim] [-n count] [-O origin]  [-s  count]  [-t]  [-u  fd]  [-C
 callback] [-c quantum] [array]
      readarray  [-d  delim]  [-n  count] [-O origin] [-s count] [-t] [-u fd] [-C
           Read  lines  from  the  standard  input  into  the  indexed array
           variable array, or from file descriptor fd if the  -u  option  is
           supplied.   The  variable MAPFILE is the default array.  Options,
           if supplied, have the following meanings:
           -d   The first character of delim is used to terminate each input
                line,  rather  than  newline.  If delim is the empty string,
                mapfile will terminate a line when it reads a NUL character.
           -n   Copy at most count lines.  If count  is  0,  all  lines  are
                copied.
           -O   Begin assigning to array at index origin.  The default index
                is 0.
           -s   Discard the first count lines read.
           -t   Remove a trailing delim (default  newline)  from  each  line
                read.
           -u   Read lines from file descriptor fd instead of  the  standard
                input.
           -C   Evaluate callback each time quantum lines are read.  The  -c
                option specifies quantum.
           -c   Specify the number  of  lines  read  between  each  call  to
                callback.

           If -C is specified without -c, the default quantum is 5000.  When
           callback is evaluated, it is supplied the index of the next array
           element to be assigned and  the  line  to  be  assigned  to  that
           element as additional arguments.  callback is evaluated after the
           line is read but before the array element is assigned.

           If not supplied with an explicit origin, mapfile will clear array
           before assigning to it.




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           mapfile returns successfully unless an invalid option  or  option
           argument  is  supplied,  array  is invalid or unassignable, or if
           array is not an indexed array.

      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
           following meanings:
           -n   Suppresses the normal  change  of  directory  when  removing
                directories  from  the  stack,  so  that  only  the stack is
                manipulated.
           +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.

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

           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 format specifications, each of
           which causes  printing  of  the  next  successive  argument.   In
           addition  to the standard printf(1) format specifications, printf
           interprets the following extensions:
           %b   causes printf to expand backslash escape  sequences  in  the
                corresponding argument in the same way as echo -e.
           %q   causes printf to output  the  corresponding  argument  in  a
                format that can be reused as shell input.
           %(datefmt)T
                causes printf to output the date-time string resulting  from
                using  datefmt  as  a  format  string  for strftime(3).  The
                corresponding argument is an integer representing the number
                of seconds since the epoch.  Two special argument values may
                be used: -1 represents the current time, and  -2  represents
                the   time  the  shell  was  invoked.   If  no  argument  is
                specified, conversion behaves as if -1 had been given.  This
                is an exception to the usual printf behavior.



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           Arguments to  non-string  format  specifiers  are  treated  as  C
           constants,  except  that a leading plus or minus sign is allowed,
           and if the leading character is a single  or  double  quote,  the
           value is the ASCII value of the following character.

           The  format  is  reused  as  necessary  to  consume  all  of  the
           arguments.   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] [+n] [-n]
      pushd [-n] [dir]
           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,  pushd  exchanges  the  top  two
           directories  and  returns 0, unless the directory stack is empty.
           Arguments, if supplied, have the following meanings:
           -n   Suppresses the normal change of directory when  rotating  or
                adding  directories  to the stack, so that only the stack is
                manipulated.
           +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.
           dir  Adds dir to the directory stack at the top,  making  it  the
                new  current working directory as if it had been supplied as
                the argument to the cd builtin.

           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
           directory  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.

 prompt] [-t timeout] [-u fd] [name ...]
      read [-ers] [-a aname] [-d delim] [-i text] [-n  nchars]  [-N  nchars]  [-p
           One  line  is  read  from  the  standard  input, or from the file
           descriptor fd supplied as an argument to  the  -u  option,  split



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           into words as described above under Word Splitting, and the first
           word is assigned to the first name, the second word to the second
           name,  and  so  on.   If  there  are  more  words than names, the
           remaining words and their intervening delimiters are 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 using
           the same rules the shell  uses  for  expansion  (described  above
           under  Word  Splitting).  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 following
           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.  If delim is the empty string,
                read will terminate a line when it reads a NUL character.
           -e   If the standard input is coming from  a  terminal,  readline
                (see  READLINE  above) is used to obtain the line.  Readline
                uses the current  (or  default,  if  line  editing  was  not
                previously  active)  editing  settings,  but uses Readline's
                default filename completion.
           -i text
                If readline is being used to read the line, text  is  placed
                into the editing buffer before editing begins.
           -n nchars
                read returns after reading  nchars  characters  rather  than
                waiting for a complete line of input, but honors a delimiter
                if  fewer  than  nchars  characters  are  read  before   the
                delimiter.
           -N nchars
                read returns after reading exactly nchars characters  rather
                than  waiting  for  a  complete line of input, unless EOF is
                encountered  or  read  times  out.    Delimiter   characters
                encountered  in  the  input are not treated specially and do
                not cause read to return until nchars characters  are  read.
                The result is not split on the characters in IFS; the intent
                is that the variable is assigned exactly the characters read
                (with the exception of backslash; see the -r option below).
           -p prompt
                Display  prompt  on  standard  error,  without  a   trailing
                newline, 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
                backslash  is  considered  to  be  part  of  the  line.   In
                particular, a backslash-newline pair may not then be used as
                a line continuation.




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           -s   Silent mode.  If input is coming from a terminal, characters
                are not echoed.
           -t timeout
                Cause read to time out and return failure if a complete line
                of  input  (or a specified number of characters) is not read
                within timeout seconds.  timeout may  be  a  decimal  number
                with a fractional portion following the decimal point.  This
                option is only effective if read is  reading  input  from  a
                terminal, pipe, or other special file; it has no effect when
                reading from regular files.  If read times out,  read  saves
                any partial input read into the specified variable name.  If
                timeout is 0, read returns immediately,  without  trying  to
                read  any  data.  The exit status is 0 if input is available
                on the specified file descriptor, non-zero  otherwise.   The
                exit status is greater than 128 if the timeout is exceeded.
           -u fd
                Read input from file descriptor fd.

           If no names are supplied,  the  line  read  is  assigned  to  the
           variable  REPLY.   The exit status is zero, unless end-of-file is
           encountered, read times out (in which case the status is  greater
           than  128),  a  variable assignment error (such as assigning to a
           readonly variable) occurs,  or  an  invalid  file  descriptor  is
           supplied as the argument to -u.

      readonly [-aAf] [-p] [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 indexed arrays; the -A
           option restricts the variables to associative  arrays.   If  both
           options  are supplied, -A takes precedence.  If no name arguments
           are given, or if the  -p  option  is  supplied,  a  list  of  all
           readonly  names  is  printed.   The  other options may be used to
           restrict the output to a subset of the  set  of  readonly  names.
           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  variable  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 function.

      return [n]
           Causes  a  function  to  stop  executing  and  return  the  value
           specified by n to its caller.  If n is omitted, the return status
           is that of the last command executed in the  function  body.   If
           return  is  executed  by a trap handler, the last command used to
           determine the status is the last command executed before the trap
           handler.   If  return  is  executed during a DEBUG trap, the last
           command used to determine the status is the last command executed
           by the trap handler before return was invoked.  If return is used



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           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
           n is supplied, the return value is its least significant 8  bits.
           The return status is non-zero if return is supplied a non-numeric
           argument, or is used outside a function and not during  execution
           of  a  script  by  .  or source.  Any command associated with the
           RETURN trap  is  executed  before  execution  resumes  after  the
           function or script.

      set [--abefhkmnptuvxBCEHPT] [-o option-name] [arg ...]
      set [+abefhkmnptuvxBCEHPT] [+o option-name] [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
           cannot 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 option processing are treated as values
           for  the positional parameters and are assigned, in order, to $1,
           $2, ... $n.  Options, if specified, have the following meanings:
           -a      Each variable or function that is created or modified  is
                   given  the  export attribute and marked for export to the
                   environment of subsequent commands.
           -b       Report  the  status  of   terminated   background   jobs
                   immediately,  rather than before the next primary prompt.
                   This is effective only when job control is enabled.
           -e      Exit immediately if a pipeline (which may  consist  of  a
                   single  simple  command),  a  list, or a compound 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 following the if or elif
                   reserved words, part of any command executed in a  &&  or
                   ||  list except the command following the final && or ||,
                   any command in  a  pipeline  but  the  last,  or  if  the
                   command's  return  value  is being inverted with !.  If a
                   compound command other than a subshell returns a non-zero
                   status  because  a  command  failed  while  -e  was being
                   ignored, the shell does not exit.  A trap on ERR, if set,
                   is  executed before the shell exits.  This option applies
                   to the shell environment and  each  subshell  environment
                   separately (see COMMAND EXECUTION ENVIRONMENT above), and
                   may cause subshells to  exit  before  executing  all  the
                   commands in the subshell.

                   If a compound command or shell  function  executes  in  a
                   context  where  -e is being ignored, none of the commands
                   executed within the compound  command  or  function  body
                   will be affected by the -e setting, even if -e is set and



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                   a command  returns  a  failure  status.   If  a  compound
                   command  or  shell  function sets -e while executing in a
                   context where -e is ignored, that setting will  not  have
                   any  effect  until  the  compound  command or the command
                   containing the function call completes.
           -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).   All  processes  run  in  a
                   separate process group.  When a background job completes,
                   the shell prints a line containing its exit status.
           -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
                           interface.   This  is enabled by default when the
                           shell is interactive, unless the shell is started
                           with  the  --noediting option.  This also affects
                           the editing interface used for read -e.
                   errexit Same as -e.
                   errtrace
                           Same as -E.
                   functrace
                           Same as -T.
                   hashall Same as -h.
                   histexpand
                           Same as -H.
                   history Enable command history, as described above  under
                           HISTORY.    This  option  is  on  by  default  in
                           interactive 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.




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                   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).   See  SEE  ALSO
                           below  for a reference to a document that details
                           how posix mode affects bash's behavior.
                   privileged
                           Same as -p.
                   verbose Same as -v.
                   vi      Use a vi-style command  line  editing  interface.
                           This  also affects the editing interface used for
                           read -e.
                   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,
                   BASHOPTS,  CDPATH,  and  GLOBIGNORE  variables,  if  they
                   appear in the environment, are 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  and  parameters  other  than  the
                   special   parameters   "@"  and  "*"  as  an  error  when
                   performing  parameter   expansion.    If   expansion   is
                   attempted  on  an  unset variable or parameter, 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.



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           -x      After expanding each simple command,  for  command,  case
                   command,  select  command,  or  arithmetic  for  command,
                   display 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
                   redirection operator >| instead of >.
           -E      If set, any trap on ERR is inherited by shell  functions,
                   command   substitutions,   and  commands  executed  in  a
                   subshell environment.   The  ERR  trap  is  normally  not
                   inherited 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 resolve  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
                   parameters 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
                   positional 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 encountered.

      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.




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      shopt [-pqsu] [-o] [optname ...]
           Toggle  the  values  of  settings  controlling   optional   shell
           behavior.   The settings can be either those listed below, or, if
           the -o option is used, those available with the -o option to  the
           set  builtin  command.  With no options, or with the -p option, a
           list of all settable options is displayed, with an indication  of
           whether  or not each is set; if optnames are supplied, the output
           is restricted to those options.  The -p option causes  output  to
           be  displayed  in  a  form  that  may  be reused as input.  Other
           options have the following 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 multiple
                optname arguments are given with -q, the  return  status  is
                zero if all optnames are enabled; non-zero otherwise.
           -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, shopt shows
           only  those options which are set or unset, respectively.  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:

           assoc_expand_once
                   If set,  the  shell  suppresses  multiple  evaluation  of
                   associative array subscripts during arithmetic expression
                   evaluation, while executing  builtins  that  can  perform
                   variable  assignments,  and while executing builtins that
                   perform array dereferencing.
           autocd  If set, a command name that is the name of a directory is
                   executed  as  if  it were the argument to the cd command.
                   This option is only used by interactive shells.
           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
                   component  in a cd command will be corrected.  The errors
                   checked  for  are  transposed   characters,   a   missing
                   character,  and  one character too many.  If a correction
                   is found, the corrected  filename  is  printed,  and  the
                   command   proceeds.    This   option   is  only  used  by
                   interactive shells.



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           checkhash
                   If set, bash checks that a  command  found  in  the  hash
                   table  exists  before  trying to execute it.  If a hashed
                   command  no  longer  exists,  a  normal  path  search  is
                   performed.
           checkjobs
                   If set, bash lists the status of any stopped and  running
                   jobs  before  exiting  an interactive shell.  If any jobs
                   are running, this causes the exit to be deferred until  a
                   second  exit  is attempted without an intervening command
                   (see JOB CONTROL  above).   The  shell  always  postpones
                   exiting if any jobs are stopped.
           checkwinsize
                   If set, bash checks the window size after  each  external
                   (non-builtin)  command  and,  if  necessary,  updates the
                   values of LINES and COLUMNS.  This option is  enabled  by
                   default.
           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.   This  option   is
                   enabled  by  default,  but  only has an effect if command
                   history is enabled, as described above under HISTORY.
           compat31
                   If set, bash changes its behavior to that of version  3.1
                   with  respect  to  quoted arguments to the [[ conditional
                   command's  =~   operator   and   locale-specific   string
                   comparison  when using the [[ conditional command's < and
                   > operators.  Bash versions prior to bash-4.1  use  ASCII
                   collation  and  strcmp(3);  bash-4.1  and  later  use the
                   current locale's collation sequence and strcoll(3).
           compat32
                   If set, bash changes its behavior to that of version  3.2
                   with  respect  to  locale-specific string comparison when
                   using the [[ conditional command's < and > operators (see
                   previous  item)  and the effect of interrupting a command
                   list.  Bash versions 3.2 and earlier  continue  with  the
                   next  command  in the list after one terminates due to an
                   interrupt.
           compat40
                   If set, bash changes its behavior to that of version  4.0
                   with  respect  to  locale-specific string comparison when
                   using the [[ conditional command's < and > operators (see
                   description of compat31) and the effect of interrupting a
                   command list.  Bash versions 4.0 and later interrupt  the
                   list  as  if  the  shell received the interrupt; previous
                   versions continue with the next command in the list.
           compat41
                   If set, bash, when in posix mode, treats a  single  quote
                   in  a  double-quoted  parameter  expansion  as  a special
                   character.  The single quotes must match (an even number)
                   and   the   characters  between  the  single  quotes  are



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                   considered quoted.  This is the behavior  of  posix  mode
                   through  version  4.1.  The default bash behavior remains
                   as in previous versions.
           compat42
                   If set, bash does not process the replacement  string  in
                   the  pattern  substitution  word  expansion  using  quote
                   removal.
           compat43
                   If set, bash does not  print  a  warning  message  if  an
                   attempt is made to use a quoted compound array assignment
                   as an argument to declare, makes  word  expansion  errors
                   non-fatal  errors  that cause the current command to fail
                   (the default behavior is to make them fatal  errors  that
                   cause  the  shell  to  exit), and does not reset the loop
                   state when a shell  function  is  executed  (this  allows
                   break  or continue in a shell function to affect loops in
                   the caller's context).
           compat44
                   If set, bash saves the positional parameters to BASH_ARGV
                   and BASH_ARGC before they are used, regardless of whether
                   or not extended debugging mode is enabled.
           complete_fullquote
                   If set, bash quotes all shell metacharacters in filenames
                   and  directory  names when performing completion.  If not
                   set, bash removes metacharacters such as the dollar  sign
                   from  the  set  of  characters  that  will  be  quoted in
                   completed filenames when these metacharacters  appear  in
                   shell variable references in words to be completed.  This
                   means that dollar signs in variable names that expand  to
                   directories will not be quoted; however, any dollar signs
                   appearing in filenames will not be quoted, either.   This
                   is  active  only  when bash is using backslashes to quote
                   completed filenames.  This variable is  set  by  default,
                   which  is  the  default bash behavior in versions through
                   4.2.
           direxpand
                   If set, bash replaces directory names with the results of
                   word expansion when performing filename completion.  This
                   changes the contents of the readline editing buffer.   If
                   not set, bash attempts to preserve what the user typed.
           dirspell
                   If set, bash attempts spelling  correction  on  directory
                   names  during  word  completion  if  the  directory  name
                   initially supplied does not exist.
           dotglob If set, bash includes filenames beginning with a  `.'  in
                   the  results  of pathname expansion.  The filenames ``.''
                   and ``..'' must always be  matched  explicitly,  even  if
                   dotglob is set.
           execfail
                   If set, a non-interactive  shell  will  not  exit  if  it
                   cannot  execute  the file specified as an argument to the



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                   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
                   interactive shells.
           extdebug
                   If set  at  shell  invocation,  arrange  to  execute  the
                   debugger  profile  before  the shell starts, identical to
                   the --debugger option.  If set after invocation, 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 subroutine (a
                        shell function or a shell script executed by  the  .
                        or  source  builtins), the shell simulates a call to
                        return.
                   4.   BASH_ARGC and BASH_ARGV are updated as described  in
                        their descriptions above.
                   5.   Function tracing is enabled:  command  substitution,
                        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 ERR 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
                   possible  completions.   See  SHELL VARIABLES above for a
                   description  of  FIGNORE.   This  option  is  enabled  by
                   default.
           globasciiranges
                   If  set,  range  expressions  used  in  pattern  matching
                   bracket  expressions  (see Pattern Matching above) behave
                   as  if  in  the  traditional  C  locale  when  performing
                   comparisons.   That  is,  the  current locale's collating



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                   sequence is not taken into account, so b will not collate
                   between  A  and  B,  and  upper-case and lower-case ASCII
                   characters will collate together.
           globstar
                   If set, the pattern  **  used  in  a  pathname  expansion
                   context will match all files and zero or more directories
                   and subdirectories.  If the pattern is followed by  a  /,
                   only directories and subdirectories match.
           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
                   history  substitution  are  not immediately passed to the
                   shell parser.  Instead, the resulting line is loaded into
                   the    readline    editing   buffer,   allowing   further
                   modification.
           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
                   interactive login shell exits.
           inherit_errexit
                   If set, command substitution inherits the  value  of  the
                   errexit  option,  instead of unsetting it in the subshell
                   environment.  This option is enabled when posix  mode  is
                   enabled.
           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.
           lastpipe
                   If set, and job control is not active, the shell runs the
                   last command of a pipeline not executed in the background
                   in the current shell environment.
           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.
           localvar_inherit
                   If set, local variables inherit the value and  attributes



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                   of  a variable of the same name that exists at a previous
                   scope before any new  value  is  assigned.   The  nameref
                   attribute is not inherited.
           localvar_unset
                   If set, calling unset  on  local  variables  in  previous
                   function  scopes  marks  them  so subsequent lookups find
                   them unset until that function returns. This is identical
                   to  the  behavior  of  unsetting  local  variables at the
                   current function scope.
           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
                   displayed.
           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,   when   performing   pattern
                   substitution  word expansions, or when filtering possible
                   completions as part of programmable completion.
           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
                   Programmable  Completion above) are enabled.  This option
                   is enabled by default.
           progcomp_alias
                   If set, and  programmable  completion  is  enabled,  bash
                   treats  a  command name that doesn't have any completions
                   as a possible alias and attempts alias expansion.  If  it
                   has an alias, bash attempts programmable completion using
                   the command word resulting from the expanded alias.
           promptvars
                   If  set,  prompt  strings  undergo  parameter  expansion,
                   command  substitution,  arithmetic  expansion,  and quote
                   removal after being expanded as  described  in  PROMPTING
                   above.  This option is enabled by default.



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           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 discover 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
                   parameters.
           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.   A login shell cannot be suspended; the -f option can be
           used to override this  and  force  the  suspension.   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  (true)  or  1  (false)  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.  The evaluation depends on the
           number of arguments; see below.  Operator precedence is used when
           there are five or more arguments.
           ! 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.




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           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 argument
                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
                The following conditions are applied in  the  order  listed.
                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.  The -a and
                -o  operators are considered binary operators when there are
                three arguments.  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.
           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
                evaluated  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.

                When used with test  or  [,  the  <  and  >  operators  sort
                lexicographically using ASCII ordering.

      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



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           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
           corresponding  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 RETURN, the command arg is executed each time a shell
           function or a script executed  with  the  .  or  source  builtins
           finishes executing.

           If a sigspec is ERR, the  command  arg  is  executed  whenever  a
           pipeline  (which may consist of a single simple command), a list,
           or a compound command returns 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 command executed in a && or || list except the  command
           following  the  final && or ||, any command in a pipeline but the
           last, or if the command's return value is being inverted using !.
           These are the same conditions obeyed by the errexit (-e) option.

           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 subshell or subshell environment  when
           one  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 specified 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, which is 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



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           not  also  used.   The  table of hashed commands is not consulted
           when using -a.  The -f option suppresses shell  function  lookup,
           as  with  the  command  builtin.  type returns true if all of the
           arguments are found, false if any are not found.

      ulimit [-HSabcdefiklmnpqrstuvxPT [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 by a non-
           root user 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
           follows:
           -a   All current limits are reported
           -b   The maximum socket buffer size
           -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
           -k   The maximum number of kqueues that may be allocated
           -l   The maximum size that may be locked into memory
           -m   The maximum resident set size (many  systems  do  not  honor
                this limit)
           -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
                and, on some systems, to its children
           -x   The maximum number of file locks
           -P   The maximum number of pseudoterminals
           -T   The maximum number of threads

           If limit is given, and the -a option is not used,  limit  is  the
           new value of the specified resource.  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



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           blocks; -P, -T, -b, -k, -n, and -u, which  are  unscaled  values;
           and,  when  in  posix  mode,  -c  and  -f,  which are in 512-byte
           increments.  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 symbolic
           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] [-n] [name ...]
           For each name, remove the corresponding variable or function.  If
           the -v option is given, each name refers to a shell variable, and
           that variable is removed.  Read-only variables may not be  unset.
           If -f is specified, each name refers to a shell function, and the
           function definition is removed.  If the -n  option  is  supplied,
           and  name  is a variable with the nameref attribute, name will be
           unset rather than the variable it references.  -n has  no  effect
           if  the  -f option is supplied.  If no options are supplied, each
           name refers to a variable; if there is no variable by that  name,
           any  function  with  that  name is unset.  Each unset variable or
           function is removed from the  environment  passed  to  subsequent
           commands.   If  any  of COMP_WORDBREAKS, RANDOM, SECONDS, LINENO,
           HISTCMD, FUNCNAME, GROUPS, or DIRSTACK are unset, they lose their
           special  properties,  even  if  they are subsequently reset.  The
           exit status is true unless a name is readonly.

      wait [-fn] [id ...]
           Wait for each specified child process and return its  termination
           status.  Each id 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  id  is  not  given, all currently active child
           processes are waited for, and the return status is zero.  If  the
           -n  option  is  supplied, wait waits for any job to terminate and
           returns its exit status.  If the -f option is supplied,  and  job
           control  is enabled, wait forces id to terminate before returning
           its status, instead of returning when it changes status.   If  id
           specifies  a  non-existent  process  or job, the return status is



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           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:

      +    changing directories with cd

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

      +    specifying command names containing /

      +    specifying a filename containing a / 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 command to replace the shell with  another
           command

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

      +    using  the  enable  builtin  command  to  enable  disabled  shell
           builtins

      +    specifying the -p option to the command builtin command

      +    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
      COMMAND  EXECUTION  above),    rbash turns off any restrictions in the
      shell spawned to execute the script.





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 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
 IEEE --
      Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) Part 2:  Shell  and  Utilities,
           http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/
      http://tiswww.case.edu/~chet/bash/POSIX -- a description of posix mode
      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.ramey@case.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/gnu/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




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      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.ramey@case.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.

      Array variables may not (yet) be exported.

      There may be only one active coprocess at a time.
























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