ASH.1
上传用户:jnzhq888
上传日期:2007-01-18
资源大小:51694k
文件大小:40k
- SH(1) Minix Programmer's Manual SH(1)
- NAME
- ash, command, getopts, hash, jobs, local, return, setvar, unset - a shell
- SYNOPSIS
- ash [ -efIijnsxz ] [ +efIijnsxz ] [ -c command ] [ arg ] ...
- COPYRIGHT
- Copyright 1989 by Kenneth Almquist.
- DESCRIPTION
- Ash is a version of sh with features similar to those of the System V
- shell. This manual page lists all the features of ash but concentrates
- on the ones not in other shells.
- Invocation
- If the -c options is given, then the shell executes the specified shell
- command. The -s flag cause the shell to read commands from the standard
- input (after executing any command specified with the -c option. If
- neither the -s or -c options are set, then the first arg is taken as the
- name of a file to read commands from. If this is impossible because
- there are no arguments following the options, then ash will set the -s
- flag and will read commands from the standard input.
- The shell sets the initial value of the positional parameters from the
- args remaining after any arg used as the name of a file of commands is
- deleted.
- The flags (other than -c) are set by preceding them with ``-'' and
- cleared by preceding them with ``+''; see the set builtin command for a
- list of flags. If no value is specified for the -i flag, the -s flag is
- set, and the standard input and output of the shell are connected to
- terminals, then the -i flag will be set. If no value is specified for
- the -j flag, then the -j flag will be set if the -i flag is set.
- When the shell is invoked with the -c option, it is good practice to
- include the -i flag if the command was entered interactively by a user.
- For compatibility with the System V shell, the -i option should come
- after the -c option.
- If the first character of argument zero to the shell is ``-'', the shell
- is assumed to be a login shell, and the files /etc/profile and .profile
- are read if they exist. If the environment variable SHINIT is set on
- entry to the shell, the commands in SHINIT are normally parsed and
- executed. SHINIT is not examined if the shell is a login shell, or if it
- the shell is running a shell procedure. (A shell is considered to be
- running a shell procedure if neither the -s nor the -c options are set.)
- Control Structures
- 7BSD March 7, 1991 1
- SH(1) Minix Programmer's Manual SH(1)
- A list is a sequence of zero or more commands separated by newlines,
- semicolons, or ampersands, and optionally terminated by one of these
- three characters. (This differs from the System V shell, which requires
- a list to contain at least one command in most cases.) The commands in a
- list are executed in the order they are written. If command is followed
- by an ampersand, the shell starts the command and immediately proceed
- onto the next command; otherwise it waits for the command to terminate
- before proceeding to the next one.
- ``&&'' and ``||'' are binary operators. ``&&'' executes the first
- command, and then executes the second command iff the exit status of the
- first command is zero. ``||'' is similar, but executes the second
- command iff the exit status of the first command is nonzero. ``&&'' and
- ``||'' both have the same priority.
- The ``|'' operator is a binary operator which feeds the standard output
- of the first command into the standard input of the second command. The
- exit status of the ``|'' operator is the exit status of the second
- command. ``|'' has a higher priority than ``||'' or ``&&''.
- An if command looks like
- if list
- then list
- [ elif list
- then list ] ...
- [ else list ]
- fi
- A while command looks like
- while list
- do list
- done
- The two lists are executed repeatedly while the exit status of the first
- list is zero. The until command is similar, but has the word until in
- place of while
- repeats until the exit status of the first list is zero.
- The for command looks like
- for variable in word...
- do list
- done
- The words are expanded, and then the list is executed repeatedly with the
- variable set to each word in turn. do and done may be replaced with
- ``{'' and ``}''.
- 7BSD March 7, 1991 2
- SH(1) Minix Programmer's Manual SH(1)
- The break and continue commands look like
- break [ num ]
- continue [ num ]
- Break terminates the num innermost for or while loops. Continue
- continues with the next iteration of the num'th innermost loop. These
- are implemented as builtin commands.
- The case command looks like
- case word in
- pattern) list ;;
- ...
- esac
- The pattern can actually be one or more patterns (see Patterns below),
- separated by ``|'' characters.
- Commands may be grouped by writing either
- (list)
- or
- { list; }
- The first of these executes the commands in a subshell.
- A function definition looks like
- name ( ) command
- A function definition is an executable statement; when executed it
- installs a function named name and returns an exit status of zero. The
- command is normally a list enclosed between ``{'' and ``}''.
- Variables may be declared to be local to a function by using a local
- command. This should appear as the first staement of a function, and
- looks like
- local [ variable | - ] ...
- Local is implemented as a builtin command.
- When a variable is made local, it inherits the initial value and exported
- and readonly flags from the variable with the same name in the
- surrounding scope, if there is one. Otherwise, the variable is initially
- unset. Ash uses dynamic scoping, so that if you make the variable x
- local to function f, which then calls function g, references to the
- 7BSD March 7, 1991 3
- SH(1) Minix Programmer's Manual SH(1)
- variable x made inside g will refer to the variable x declared inside f,
- not to the global variable named x.
- The only special parameter than can be made local is ``-''. Making ``-''
- local any shell options that are changed via the set command inside the
- function to be restored to their original values when the function
- returns.
- The return command looks like
- return [ exitstatus ]
- It terminates the currently executing function. Return is implemented as
- a builtin command.
- Simple Commands
- A simple command is a sequence of words. The execution of a simple
- command proceeds as follows. First, the leading words of the form
- ``name=value'' are stripped off and assigned to the environment of the
- command. Second, the words are expanded. Third, the first remaining
- word is taken as the command name that command is located. Fourth, any
- redirections are performed. Fifth, the command is executed. We look at
- these operations in reverse order.
- The execution of the command varies with the type of command. There are
- three types of commands: shell functions, builtin commands, and normal
- programs.
- When a shell function is executed, all of the shell positional parameters
- (except $0, which remains unchanged) are set to the parameters to the
- shell function. The variables which are explicitly placed in the
- environment of the command (by placing assignments to them before the
- function name) are made local to the function and are set to values
- given. Then the command given in the function definition is executed.
- The positional parameters are restored to their original values when the
- command completes.
- Shell builtins are executed internally to the shell, without spawning a
- new process.
- When a normal program is executed, the shell runs the program, passing
- the parameters and the environment to the program. If the program is a
- shell procedure, the shell will interpret the program in a subshell. The
- shell will reinitialize itself in this case, so that the effect will be
- as if a new shell had been invoked to handle the shell procedure, except
- that the location of commands located in the parent shell will be
- remembered 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 (or the operating system, under Berkeley UNIX) will run the
- 7BSD March 7, 1991 4
- SH(1) Minix Programmer's Manual SH(1)
- interpreter in this case. The arguments to the interpreter will consist
- of any arguments given on the first line of the program, followed by the
- name of the program, followed by the arguments passed to the program.
- Redirection
- Input/output redirections can be intermixed with the words in a simple
- command and can be placed following any of the other commands. When
- redirection occurs, the shell saves the old values of the file
- descriptors and restores them when the command completes. The ``<'',
- ``>'', and ``>>'' redirections open a file for input, output, and
- appending, respectively. The ``<&digit'' and ``>&digit'' makes the input
- or output a duplicate of the file descriptor numbered by the digit. If a
- minus sign is used in place of a digit, the standard input or standard
- output are closed.
- The ``<< word'' redirection takes input from a here document. As the
- shell encounters ``<<'' redirections, it collects them. The next time it
- encounters an unescaped newline, it reads the documents in turn. The
- word following the ``<<'' specifies the contents of the line that
- terminates the document. If none of the quoting methods ('', "", or )
- are used to enter the word, then the document is treated like a word
- inside double quotes: ``$'' and backquote are expanded and backslash can
- be used to escape these and to continue long lines. The word cannot
- contain any variable or command substitutions, and its length (after
- quoting) must be in the range of 1 to 79 characters. If ``<<-'' is used
- in place of ``<<'', then leading tabs are deleted from the lines of the
- document. (This is to allow you do indent shell procedures containing
- here documents in a natural fashion.)
- Any of the preceding redirection operators may be preceded by a single
- digit specifying the file descriptor to be redirected. There cannot be
- any white space between the digit and the redirection operator.
- Path Search
- When locating a command, the shell first looks to see if it has a shell
- function by that name. Then, if PATH does not contain an entry for
- "%builtin", it looks for a builtin command by that name. Finally, it
- searches each entry in PATH in turn for the command.
- The value of the PATH variable should be a series of entries separated by
- colons. Each entry consists of a directory name, or a directory name
- followed by a flag beginning with a percent sign. The current directory
- should be indicated by an empty directory name.
- If no percent sign is present, then the entry causes the shell to search
- for the command in the specified directory. If the flag is ``%builtin''
- then the list of shell builtin commands is searched. If the flag is
- ``%func'' then the directory is searched for a file which is read as
- 7BSD March 7, 1991 5
- SH(1) Minix Programmer's Manual SH(1)
- input to the shell. This file should define a function whose name is the
- name of the command being searched for.
- Command names containing a slash are simply executed without performing
- any of the above searches.
- The Environment
- The environment of a command is a set of name/value pairs. When the
- shell is invoked, it reads these names and values, sets the shell
- variables with these names to the corresponding values, and marks the
- variables as exported. The export command can be used to mark additional
- variables as exported.
- The environment of a command is constructed by constructing name/value
- pairs from all the exported shell variables, and then modifying this set
- by the assignments which precede the command, if any.
- Expansion
- The process of evaluating words when a shell procedure is executed is
- called expansion. Expansion consists of four steps: variable
- substitution, command substitution, word splitting, and file name
- generation. If a word is the expression following the word case in a
- case statement, the file name which follows a redirection symbol, or an
- assignment to the environment of a command, then the word cannot be split
- into multiple words. In these cases, the last two steps of the expansion
- process are omitted.
- Variable Substitution
- To be written.
- Command Substitution
- Ash accepts two syntaxes for command substitution:
- `list`
- and
- $(list)
- Either of these may be included in a word. During the command
- substitution process, the command (syntactly a list) will be executed and
- anything that the command writes to the standard output will be captured
- by the shell. The final newline (if any) of the output will be deleted;
- the rest of the output will be substituted for the command in the word.
- Word Splitting
- 7BSD March 7, 1991 6
- SH(1) Minix Programmer's Manual SH(1)
- When the value of a variable or the output of a command is substituted,
- the resulting text is subject to word splitting, unless the dollar sign
- introducing the variable or backquotes containing the text were enclosed
- in double quotes. In addition, ``$@'' is subject to a special type of
- splitting, even in the presence of double quotes.
- Ash uses two different splitting algorithms. The normal approach, which
- is intended for splitting text separated by which space, is used if the
- first character of the shell variable IFS is a space. Otherwise an
- alternative experimental algorithm, which is useful for splitting
- (possibly empty) fields separated by a separator character, is used.
- When performing splitting, the shell scans the replacement text looking
- for a character (when IFS does not begin with a space) or a sequence of
- characters (when IFS does begin with a space), deletes the character or
- sequence of characters, and spits the word into two strings at that
- point. When IFS begins with a space, the shell deletes either of the
- strings if they are null. As a special case, if the word containing the
- replacement text is the null string, the word is deleted.
- The variable ``$@'' is special in two ways. First, splitting takes place
- between the positional parameters, even if the text is enclosed in double
- quotes. Second, if the word containing the replacement text is the null
- string and there are no positional parameters, then the word is deleted.
- The result of these rules is that "$@" is equivalent to "$1" "$2" ...
- "$n", where n is the number of positional parameters. (Note that this
- differs from the System V shell. The System V documentation claims that
- "$@" behaves this way; in fact on the System V shell "$@" is equivalent
- to "" when there are no positional paramteters.)
- File Name Generation
- Unless the -f flag is set, file name generation is performed after word
- splitting is complete. Each word is viewed as a series of patterns,
- separated by slashes. The process of expansion replaces the word with
- the names of all existing files whose names can be formed by replacing
- each pattern with a string that matches the specified pattern. There are
- two restrictions on this: first, a pattern cannot match a string
- containing a slash, and second, a pattern cannot match a string starting
- with a period unless the first character of the pattern is a period.
- If a word fails to match any files and the -z flag is not set, then the
- word will be left unchanged (except that the meta-characters will be
- converted to normal characters). If the -z flag is set, then the word is
- only left unchanged if none of the patterns contain a character that can
- match anything besides itself. Otherwise the -z flag forces the word to
- be replaced with the names of the files that it matches, even if there
- are zero names.
- Patterns
- 7BSD March 7, 1991 7
- SH(1) Minix Programmer's Manual SH(1)
- A pattern consists of normal characters, which match themselves, and
- meta-characters. The meta-characters are ``!'', ``*'', ``?'', and ``[''.
- These characters lose there special meanings if they are quoted. When
- command or variable substitution is performed and the dollar sign or back
- quotes are not double quoted, the value of the variable or the output of
- the command is scanned for these characters and they are turned into
- meta-characters.
- Two exclamation points at the beginning of a pattern function as a
- ``not'' operator, causing the pattern to match any string that the
- remainder of the pattern does not match. Other occurances of exclamation
- points in a pattern match exclamation points. Two exclamation points are
- required rather than one to decrease the incompatibility with the System
- V shell (which does not treat exclamation points specially).
- An asterisk (``*'') matches any string of characters. A question mark
- matches any single character. A left bracket (``['') introduces a
- character class. The end of the character class is indicated by a ``]'';
- if the ``]'' is missing then the ``['' matches a ``['' rather than
- introducing a character class. A character class matches any of the
- characters between the square brackets. A range of characters may be
- specified using a minus sign. The character class may be complemented by
- making an exclamation point the first character of the character class.
- To include a ``]'' in a character class, make it the first character
- listed (after the ``!'', if any). To include a minus sign, make it the
- first or last character listed.
- The /u Directory
- By convention, the name ``/u/user'' refers to the home directory of the
- specified user. There are good reasons why this feature should be
- supported by the file system (using a feature such as symbolic links)
- rather than by the shell, but ash is capable of performing this mapping
- if the file system doesn't. If the mapping is done by ash, setting the
- -f flag will turn it off.
- Character Set
- Ash silently discards nul characters. Any other character will be
- handled correctly by ash, including characters with the high order bit
- set.
- Job Names and Job Control
- The term job refers to a process created by a shell command, or in the
- case of a pipeline, to the set of processes in the pipeline. The ways to
- refer to a job are:
- %number
- 7BSD March 7, 1991 8
- SH(1) Minix Programmer's Manual SH(1)
- %string
- %%
- process_id
- The first form identifies a job by job number. When a command is run,
- ash assigns it a job number (the lowest unused number is assigned). The
- second form identifies a job by giving a prefix of the command used to
- create the job. The prefix must be unique. If there is only one job,
- then the null prefix will identify the job, so you can refer to the job
- by writing ``%''. The third form refers to the current job. The current
- job is the last job to be stopped while it was in the foreground. (See
- the next paragraph.) The last form identifies a job by giving the
- process id of the last process in the job.
- If the operating system that ash is running on supports job control, ash
- will allow you to use it. In this case, typing the suspend character
- (typically ^Z) while running a command will return you to ash and will
- make the suspended command the current job. You can then continue the
- job in the background by typing bg, or you can continue it in the
- foreground by typing fg.
- Atty
- If the shell variable ATTY is set, and the shell variable TERM is not set
- to ``emacs'', then ash generates appropriate escape sequences to talk to
- atty(1).
- Exit Statuses
- By tradition, an exit status of zero means that a command has succeeded
- and a nonzero exit status indicates that the command failed. This is
- better than no convention at all, but in practice it is extremely useful
- to allow commands that succeed to use the exit status to return
- information to the caller. A variety of better conventions have been
- proposed, but none of them has met with universal approval. The
- convention used by ash and all the programs included in the ash
- distribution is as follows:
- 0 Success.
- 1 Alternate success.
- 2 Failure.
- 129-... Command terminated by a signal.
- The alternate success return is used by commands to indicate various
- conditions which are not errors but which can, with a little imagination,
- be conceived of as less successful than plain success. For example, test
- returns 1 when the tested condition is false and getopts returns 1 when
- there are no more options. Because this convention is not used
- universally, the -e option of ash causes the shell to exit when a command
- returns 1 even though that contradicts the convention described here.
- 7BSD March 7, 1991 9
- SH(1) Minix Programmer's Manual SH(1)
- When a command is terminated by a signal, the uses 128 plus the signal
- number as the exit code for the command.
- Builtin Commands
- This concluding section lists the builtin commands which are builtin
- because they need to perform some operation that can't be performed by a
- separate process. In addition to these, there are several other commands
- (catf, echo, expr, line, nlecho, test, ``:'', and true) which can
- optionally be compiled into the shell. The builtin commands described
- below that accept options use the System V Release 2 getopt(3) syntax.
- bg [ job ] ...
- Continue the specified jobs (or the current job if no jobs are given) in
- the background. This command is only available on systems with Bekeley
- job control.
- command command arg...
- Execute the specified builtin command. (This is useful when you have a
- shell function with the same name as a builtin command.)
- cd [ directory ]
- Switch to the specified directory (default $HOME). If the an entry for
- CDPATH appears in the environment of the cd command or the shell variable
- CDPATH is set and the directory name does not begin with a slash, then
- the directories listed in CDPATH will be searched for the specified
- directory. The format of CDPATH is the same as that of PATH. In an
- interactive shell, the cd command will print out the name of the
- directory that it actually switched to if this is different from the name
- that the user gave. These may be different either because the CDPATH
- mechanism was used or because a symbolic link was crossed.
- . file
- The commands in the specified file are read and executed by the shell. A
- path search is not done to find the file because the directories in PATH
- generally contain files that are intended to be executed, not read.
- eval string...
- The strings are parsed as shell commands and executed. (This differs
- from the System V shell, which concatenates the arguments (separated by
- spaces) and parses the result as a single command.)
- exec [ command arg... ]
- Unless command is omitted, the shell process is replaced with the
- specified program (which must be a real program, not a shell builtin or
- function). Any redirections on the exec command are marked as permanent,
- so that they are not undone when the exec command finishes. If the
- command is not found, the exec command causes the shell to exit.
- 7BSD March 7, 1991 10
- SH(1) Minix Programmer's Manual SH(1)
- exit [ exitstatus ]
- Terminate the shell process. If exitstatus is given it is used as the
- exit status of the shell; otherwise the exit status of the preceding
- command is used.
- export name...
- The specified names are exported so that they will appear in the
- environment of subsequent commands. The only way to un-export a variable
- is to unset it. Ash allows the value of a variable to be set at the same
- time it is exported by writing
- export name=value
- With no arguments the export command lists the names of all exported
- variables.
- fg [ job ]
- Move the specified job or the current job to the foreground. This
- command is only available on systems with Bekeley job control.
- getopts optstring var
- The System V getopts command.
- hash -rv command...
- The shell maintains a hash table which remembers the locations of
- commands. With no arguments whatsoever, the hash command prints out the
- contents of this table. Entries which have not been looked at since the
- last cd command are marked with an asterisk; it is possible for these
- entries to be invalid.
- With arguments, the hash command removes the specified commands from the
- hash table (unless they are functions) and then locates them. With the
- -v option, hash prints the locations of the commands as it finds them.
- The -r option causes the hash command to delete all the entries in the
- hash table except for functions.
- jobid [ job ]
- Print the process id's of the processes in the job. If the job argument
- is omitted, use the current job.
- jobs
- This command lists out all the background processes which are children of
- the current shell process.
- pwd
- Print the current directory. The builtin command may differ from the
- program of the same name because the builtin command remembers what the
- current directory is rather than recomputing it each time. This makes it
- faster. However, if the current directory is renamed, the builtin
- version of pwd will continue to print the old name for the directory.
- 7BSD March 7, 1991 11
- SH(1) Minix Programmer's Manual SH(1)
- read [ -p prompt ] [ -e ] variable...
- The prompt is printed if the -p option is specified and the standard
- input is a terminal. Then a line is read from the standard input. The
- trailing newline is deleted from the line and the line is split as
- described in the section on word splitting above, and the pieces are
- assigned to the variables in order. If there are more pieces than
- variables, the remaining pieces (along with the characters in IFS that
- separated them) are assigned to the last variable. If there are more
- variables than pieces, the remaining variables are assigned the null
- string.
- The -e option causes any backslashes in the input to be treated
- specially. If a backslash is followed by a newline, the backslash and
- the newline will be deleted. If a backslash is followed by any other
- character, the backslash will be deleted and the following character will
- be treated as though it were not in IFS, even if it is.
- readonly name...
- The specified names are marked as read only, so that they cannot be
- subsequently modified or unset. Ash allows the value of a variable to be
- set at the same time it is marked read only by writing
- readonly name=value
- With no arguments the readonly command lists the names of all read only
- variables.
- set [ { -options | +options | -- } ] arg...
- The set command performs three different functions.
- With no arguments, it lists the values of all shell variables.
- If options are given, it sets the specified option flags, or clears them
- if the option flags are introduced with a + rather than a -. Only the
- first argument to set can contain options. The possible options are:
- -e Causes the shell to exit when a command terminates with a nonzero
- exit status, except when the exit status of the command is explicitly
- tested. The exit status of a command is considered to be explicitly
- tested if the command is used to control an if, elif, while, or
- until; or if the command is the left hand operand of an ``&&'' or
- ``||'' operator.
- -f Turn off file name generation.
- -I Cause the shell to ignore end of file conditions. (This doesn't
- apply when the shell a script sourced using the ``.'' command.) The
- shell will in fact exit if it gets 50 eof's in a row.
- -i Make the shell interactive. This causes the shell to prompt for
- 7BSD March 7, 1991 12
- SH(1) Minix Programmer's Manual SH(1)
- input, to trap interrupts, to ignore quit and terminate signals, and
- to return to the main command loop rather than exiting on error.
- -j Turns on Berkeley job control, on systems that support it. When the
- shell starts up, the -j is set by default if the -i flag is set.
- -n Causes the shell to read commands but not execute them. (This is
- marginally useful for checking the syntax of scripts.)
- -s If this flag is set when the shell starts up, the shell reads
- commands from its standard input. The shell doesn't examine the
- value of this flag any other time.
- -x If this flag is set, the shell will print out each command before
- executing it.
- -z If this flag is set, the file name generation process may generate
- zero files. If it is not set, then a pattern which does not match
- any files will be replaced by a quoted version of the pattern.
- The third use of the set command is to set the values of the shell's
- positional parameters to the specified args. To change the positional
- parameters without changing any options, use ``--'' as the first argument
- to set. If no args are present, the set command will leave the value of
- the positional parameters unchanged, so to set the positional parameters
- to set of values that may be empty, execute the command
- shift $#
- first to clear out the old values of the positional parameters.
- setvar variable value
- Assigns value to variable. (In general it is better to write
- variable=value rather than using setvar. Setvar is intended to be used
- in functions that assign values to variables whose names are passed as
- parameters.)
- shift [ n ]
- Shift the positional parameters n times. A shift sets the value of $1 to
- the value of $2, the value of $2 to the value of $3, and so on,
- decreasing the value of $# by one. If there are zero positional
- parameters, shifting doesn't do anything.
- trap [ action ] signal...
- Cause the shell to parse and execute action when any of the specified
- signals are received. The signals are specified by signal number.
- Action may be null or omitted; the former causes the specified signal to
- be ignored and the latter causes the default action to be taken. When
- the shell forks off a subshell, it resets trapped (but not ignored)
- signals to the default action. The trap command has no effect on signals
- 7BSD March 7, 1991 13
- SH(1) Minix Programmer's Manual SH(1)
- that were ignored on entry to the shell.
- umask [ mask ]
- Set the value of umask (see umask(2)) to the specified octal value. If
- the argument is omitted, the umask value is printed.
- unset name...
- The specified variables and functions are unset and unexported. If a
- given name corresponds to both a variable and a function, both the
- variable and the function are unset.
- wait [ job ]
- Wait for the specified job to complete and return the exit status of the
- last process in the job. If the argument is omitted, wait for all jobs
- to complete and the return an exit status of zero.
- EXAMPLES
- The following function redefines the cd command:
- cd() {
- if command cd "$@"
- then if test -f .enter
- then . .enter
- else return 0
- fi
- fi
- }
- This function causes the file ``.enter'' to be read when you enter a
- directory, if it exists. The command command is used to access the real
- cd command. The ``return 0'' ensures that the function will return an
- exit status of zero if it successfully changes to a directory that does
- not contain a ``.enter'' file. Redefining existing commands is not
- always a good idea, but this example shows that you can do it if you want
- to.
- The suspend function distributed with ash looks like
- # Copyright (C) 1989 by Kenneth Almquist. All rights reserved.
- # This file is part of ash, which is distributed under the terms
- # specified by the Ash General Public License.
- suspend() {
- local -
- set +j
- kill -TSTP 0
- }
- This turns off job control and then sends a stop signal to the current
- process group, which suspends the shell. (When job control is turned on,
- 7BSD March 7, 1991 14
- SH(1) Minix Programmer's Manual SH(1)
- the shell ignores the TSTP signal.) Job control will be turned back on
- when the function returns because ``-'' is local to the function. As an
- example of what not to do, consider an earlier version of suspend:
- suspend() {
- suspend_flag=$-
- set +j
- kill -TSTP 0
- set -$suspend_flag
- }
- There are two problems with this. First, suspend_flag is a global
- variable rather than a local one, which will cause problems in the
- (unlikely) circumstance that the user is using that variable for some
- other purpose. Second, consider what happens if shell received an
- interrupt signal after it executes the first set command but before it
- executes the second one. The interrupt signal will abort the shell
- function, so that the second set command will never be executed and job
- control will be left off. The first version of suspend avoids this
- problem by turning job control off only in a local copy of the shell
- options. The local copy of the shell options is discarded when the
- function is terminated, no matter how it is terminated.
- HINTS
- Shell variables can be used to provide abbreviations for things which you
- type frequently. For example, I set
- export h=$HOME
- in my .profile so that I can type the name of my home directory simply by
- typing ``$h''.
- When writing shell procedures, try not to make assumptions about what is
- imported from the environment. Explicitly unset or initialize all
- variables, rather than assuming they will be unset. If you use cd, it is
- a good idea to unset CDPATH.
- People sometimes use ``<&-'' or ``>&-'' to provide no input to a command
- or to discard the output of a command. A better way to do this is to
- redirect the input or output of the command to /dev/null.
- Word splitting and file name generation are performed by default, and you
- have to explicitly use double quotes to suppress it. This is backwards,
- but you can learn to live with it. Just get in the habit of writing
- double quotes around variable and command substitutions, and omit them
- only when you really want word splitting and file name generation. If
- you want word splitting but not file name generation, use the -f option.
- 7BSD March 7, 1991 15
- SH(1) Minix Programmer's Manual SH(1)
- AUTHORS
- Kenneth Almquist
- SEE ALSO
- echo(1), expr(1), line(1), pwd(1), true(1).
- BUGS
- When command substitution occurs inside a here document, the commands
- inside the here document are run with their standard input closed. For
- example, the following will not word because the standard input of the
- line command will be closed when the command is run:
- cat <<-!
- Line 1: $(line)
- Line 2: $(line)
- !
- Unsetting a function which is currently being executed may cause strange
- behavior.
- The shell syntax allows a here document to be terminated by an end of
- file as well as by a line containing the terminator word which follows
- the ``<<''. What this means is that if you mistype the terminator line,
- the shell will silently swallow up the rest of your shell script and
- stick it in the here document.
- 7BSD March 7, 1991 16