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Bash Reference Manual for version 2.05.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

1.1 What is Bash?
1.2 What is a shell?

2. Definitions
3. Basic Shell Features

3.1 Shell Syntax

3.1.1 Shell Operation
3.1.2 Quoting

3.1.2.1 Escape Character
3.1.2.2 Single Quotes
3.1.2.3 Double Quotes
3.1.2.4 ANSI-C Quoting
3.1.2.5 Locale-Specific Translation

3.1.3 Comments

3.2 Shell Commands

3.2.1 Simple Commands
3.2.2 Pipelines
3.2.3 Lists of Commands
3.2.4 Looping Constructs
3.2.5 Conditional Constructs
3.2.6 Grouping Commands

3.3 Shell Functions
3.4 Shell Parameters

3.4.1 Positional Parameters
3.4.2 Special Parameters

3.5 Shell Expansions

3.5.1 Brace Expansion
3.5.2 Tilde Expansion
3.5.3 Shell Parameter Expansion
3.5.4 Command Substitution
3.5.5 Arithmetic Expansion
3.5.6 Process Substitution
3.5.7 Word Splitting
3.5.8 Filename Expansion

3.5.8.1 Pattern Matching

3.5.9 Quote Removal

3.6 Redirections

3.6.1 Redirecting Input
3.6.2 Redirecting Output
3.6.3 Appending Redirected Output
3.6.4 Redirecting Standard Output and Standard Error
3.6.5 Here Documents
3.6.6 Duplicating File Descriptors
3.6.7 Opening File Descriptors for Reading and Writing

3.7 Executing Commands

3.7.1 Simple Command Expansion
3.7.2 Command Search and Execution
3.7.3 Command Execution Environment
3.7.4 Environment
3.7.5 Exit Status
3.7.6 Signals

3.8 Shell Scripts

4. Shell Builtin Commands

4.1 Bourne Shell Builtins
4.2 Bash Builtin Commands
4.3 The Set Builtin
4.4 Special Builtins

5. Shell Variables

5.1 Bourne Shell Variables
5.2 Bash Variables

6. Bash Features

6.1 Invoking Bash
6.2 Bash Startup Files
6.3 Interactive Shells

6.3.1 What is an Interactive Shell?
6.3.2 Is this Shell Interactive?
6.3.3 Interactive Shell Behavior

6.4 Bash Conditional Expressions
6.5 Shell Arithmetic
6.6 Aliases
6.7 Arrays
6.8 The Directory Stack

6.8.1 Directory Stack Builtins

6.9 Controlling the Prompt
6.10 The Restricted Shell
6.11 Bash POSIX Mode

7. Job Control

7.1 Job Control Basics
7.2 Job Control Builtins
7.3 Job Control Variables

8. Installing Bash

8.1 Basic Installation
8.2 Compilers and Options
8.3 Compiling For Multiple Architectures
8.4 Installation Names
8.5 Specifying the System Type
8.6 Sharing Defaults
8.7 Operation Controls
8.8 Optional Features

A. Reporting Bugs
B. Major Differences From The Bourne Shell

B.1 Implementation Differences From The SVR4.2 Shell

Index of Shell Builtin Commands
Index of Shell Reserved Words
Parameter and Variable Index
Function Index
Concept Index