Table B-4 shows a summary of all built-in commands and reserved words. The letters in the Type column of the table have the following meanings: R = reserved word, blank = Builtin.
Table B-4. Commands and reserved words
Command | Chapter | Type | Summary |
---|
! | 5 | R | Logical NOT of a command exit status. |
: | 7 | | Do nothing (just do expansions of any arguments). |
. | 4 | | Read file and execute its contents in current shell. |
alias | 3 | | Set up shorthand for command or command line. |
bg | 8 | | Put job in background. |
bind | 2 | | Bind a key sequence to a readline function or macro. |
break | 5 | | Exit from surrounding for, select, while, or until loop. |
builtin | 5 | | Execute the specified shell built-in. |
case | 5 | R | Reserved word. Multi-way conditional construct. |
cd | 1 | | Change working directory. |
command | 7 | | Run a command bypassing shell function lookup. |
compgen | D | | Generate possible completion matches. |
complete | D | | Specify how completion should be performed. |
continue | | | Skip to next iteration of for, select, while, or until loop. |
declare | 6 | | Declare variables and give them attributes. |
dirs | 6 | | Display the list of currently remembered directories. |
disown | 8 | | Remove a job from the job table. |
do | 5 | R | Part of a for, select, while, or until looping construct. |
done | 5 | R | Part of a for, select, while, or until looping construct. |
echo | 4 | | Expand and print any arguments. |
elif | 5 | R | Part of an if construct. |
else | 5 | R | Part of an if construct. |
enable | 7 | | Enable and disable built-in shell commands. |
esac | 5 | R | Part of a case construct. |
eval | 7 | | Run the given arguments through command-line processing. |
exec | 9 | | Replace the shell with the given program. |
exit | 5 | | Exit from the shell. |
export | 3 | | Create environment variables. |
fc | 2 | | Fix command (edit history file). |
fg | 8 | | Put background job in foreground. |
fi | 5 | R | Part of an if construct. |
for | 5 | R | Looping construct. |
function | 4 | R | Define a function. |
getopts | 6 | | Process command-line options. |
hash | 3 | | Full pathnames are determined and remembered. |
help | 1 | | Display helpful information on built-in commands. |
history | 1 | | Display command history. |
if | 5 | R | Conditional construct. |
in | 5 | R | Part of a case construct. |
jobs | 1 | | List any background jobs. |
kill | 8 | | Send a signal to a process. |
let | 6 | | Arithmetic variable assignment. |
local | 4 | | Create a local variable. |
logout | 1 | | Exits a login shell. |
popd | 4 | | Removes a directory from the directory stack. |
pushd | 4 | | Adds a directory to the directory stack. |
pwd | 1 | | Print the working directory. |
read | 7 | | Read a line from standard input. |
readonly | 6 | | Make variables read-only (unassignable). |
return | 5 | | Return from the surrounding function or script. |
select | 5 | R | Menu-generation construct. |
set | 3 | | Set options. |
shift | 6 | | Shift command-line arguments. |
suspend | | | Suspend execution of a shell. |
test | 5 | | Evaluates a conditional expression. |
then | 5 | R | Part of an if construct. |
time | | R | Run command pipeline and print execution times. The format of the output can be controlled with TIMEFORMAT. |
times | | | Print the accumulated user and system times for processes run from the shell. |
trap | 8 | | Set up a signal-catching routine. |
type | 3 | | Identify the source of a command. |
typeset | 6 | | Declare variables and give them attributes. Same as declare. |
ulimit | 10 | | Set/show process resource limits. |
umask | 10 | | Set/show file permission mask. |
unalias | 3 | | Remove alias definitions. |
unset | 3 | | Remove definitions of variables or functions. |
until | 5 | R | Looping construct. |
wait | 8 | | Wait for background job(s) to finish. |
while | 5 | R | Looping construct. |