man(1) Manual page archive


     SH(1)                                                       SH(1)

     NAME
          sh, builtin, exit, load, loaded, local, whatis, quote, run,
          set, unload, unquote - command language

     SYNOPSIS
          sh [ -ilxvn ] [ -c command ] [ file [ arg ... ]

     DESCRIPTION
          Sh is a programmable user level interface (a shell) for
          Inferno.  It executes command lines read from a terminal or
          a file or, with the -c flag, from sh's argument list. It can
          also be used to give programmable functionality to Limbo
          modules (see sh

        Command Lines
          A command line is a sequence of commands, separated by
          ampersands or semicolons (& or ;), terminated by a newline.
          The commands are executed in sequence from left to right.
          Sh does not wait for a command followed by & to finish exe-
          cuting before starting the following command.  Whenever a
          command followed by & is executed, its process id is
          assigned to the sh variable $apid.  Whenever a command not
          followed by & exits or is terminated, the sh variable
          $status gets the process's wait message (see prog(3)); it
          will be the null string if the command was successful.

          A number-sign (#) and any following characters up to (but
          not including) the next newline are ignored, except in quo-
          tation marks.

        Simple Commands
          A simple command is a sequence of arguments interspersed
          with I/O redirections.  If the first argument is the name of
          a sh builtin or it is a braced command block (see Compound
          Commands, below), it is executed by sh. If the first charac-
          ter of the name is a brace ({), the shell tries to parse it
          and execute it as a braced command block; if the parsing
          fails, an exception is raised.  Otherwise sh looks for an
          external program to execute.

          If the name ends in .dis, sh looks for a Dis module of that
          name; otherwise it tries first to find a Dis module of that
          name with .dis appended and failing that, it looks for an
          executable file of the same name, which should be a read-
          able, executable script file.  If the name does not start
          with a slash (/) or dot-slash (./), then the name is first
          looked for relative to /dis, and then relative to the cur-
          rent directory.  A Dis module will be executed only if it
          implements the Command interface (see sh(1)); a script file
          will be executed only if it starts with the characters

     SH(1)                                                       SH(1)

          ``#!''  followed by the name of a file executable under the
          rules above. In this case the command will be executed with
          any following arguments mentioned in the #! header, followed
          by the path of the script file, followed by any arguments
          originally given to the command.

          For example, to execute the simple command ls, sh will look
          for one of the following things, in order, stopping the
          search when one is found:

               1)   a built-in command named ``ls''.

               2)   a Dis module named ``/dis/ls.dis'',

               3)   an executable script file named ``/dis/ls'',

               4)   a Dis module named ``./ls.dis'',

               5)   an executable script file named ``./ls''.

        Arguments and Variables
          A number of constructions may be used where sh's syntax
          requires an argument to appear.  In many cases a
          construction's value will be a list of arguments rather than
          a single string.

          The simplest kind of argument is the unquoted word: a
          sequence of one or more characters none of which is a blank,
          tab, newline, or any of the following:
               # ; & | ^ $ ` ' { } ( ) < > " =
          An unquoted word that contains any of the characters * ? [
          is a pattern for matching against file names.  The character
          * matches any sequence of characters, ? matches any single
          character, and [class] matches any character in the class.
          If the first character of class is ^, the class is comple-
          mented. (As this character is special to the shell, it may
          only be included in a pattern if this character is quoted,
          as long as the leading [ is not quoted).  The class may also
          contain pairs of characters separated by -, standing for all
          characters lexically between the two.  The character / must
          appear explicitly in a pattern.  A pattern is replaced by a
          list of arguments, one for each path name matched, except
          that a pattern matching no names is not replaced by the
          empty list, but rather stands for itself.  Pattern matching
          is done after all other operations.  Thus,
               x=/tmp; echo $x^/*.b
          matches /tmp/*.b, rather than matching /*.b and then prefix-
          ing /tmp.

          A quoted word is a sequence of characters surrounded by sin-
          gle quotes (').  A single quote is represented in a quoted
          word by a pair of quotes ('').

     SH(1)                                                       SH(1)

          Each of the following is an argument.
          (arguments)
               The value of a sequence of arguments enclosed in paren-
               theses is a list comprising the members of each element
               of the sequence.  Argument lists have no recursive
               structure, although their syntax may suggest it.  The
               following are entirely equivalent:
                    echo hi there everybody
                    ((echo) (hi there) everybody)
                    echo (hi
                    there
                    everybody
                    )
               Newlines within parentheses count as simple white
               space; they do not terminate the command. This can be
               useful to give some more freedom of layout to commands
               that take several commands as arguments, for instance
               several of the commands defined in sh-std(1).
          $argument
               The argument after the $ is the name of a variable
               whose value is substituted.  Multiple levels of indi-
               rection are possible.  Variable values are lists of
               strings.  If argument is a number n, the value is the
               nth element of $*, unless $* doesn't have n elements,
               in which case the value is empty.  Assignments to vari-
               ables are described under Assignment , below.
          $#argument
               The value is the number of elements in the named vari-
               able.  A variable never assigned a value has zero ele-
               ments.
          $"argument
               The value is a single string containing the components
               of the named variable separated by spaces.  A variable
               with zero elements yields the empty string.
          `{command}
          "{command}
               Sh executes the command and reads its standard output.
               If backquote (`) is used, it is split into a list of
               arguments, using characters in $ifs as separators.  If
               $ifs is not otherwise set, its value is ' \t\n'.  If
               doublequote (") is used, no tokenization takes place.
          argument^argument
               The ^ operator concatenates its two operands.  If the
               two operands have the same number of components, they
               are concatenated pairwise.  If not, then one operand
               must have one component, and the other must be non-
               empty, and concatenation is distributive.
          ${command}
               Command must be a simple command with no redirections;
               its first word must be the name of a builtin substitu-
               tion operator.  The operator is invoked and its value
               substituted.  See Built-in Commands, below, for more

     SH(1)                                                       SH(1)

               information on builtins.
          <{command}
          >{command}
               The command is executed asynchronously with its stan-
               dard output or standard input connected to a pipe.  The
               value of the argument is the name of a file referring
               to the other end of the pipe.  This allows the con-
               struction of non-linear pipelines.  For example, the
               following runs two commands old and new and uses cmp to
               compare their outputs
                    cmp <{old} <{new}

        Free Carets
          In most circumstances, sh will insert the ^ operator auto-
          matically between words that are not separated by white
          space.  Whenever one of $ ' ` follows a quoted or unquoted
          word or an unquoted word follows a quoted word with no
          intervening blanks or tabs, a ^ is inserted between the two.
          If an unquoted word immediately follows a $ and contains a
          character other than an alphanumeric, underscore, or *, a ^
          is inserted before the first such character.  Thus

               limbo -$flags $stem.b

          is equivalent to

               limbo -^$flags $stem^.b

        Assignment
          A command of the form name=value or name:=value assigns
          value to the environment variable named name. Value is
          either a list of arguments or an assignment statement. In
          the latter case value is taken from the value assigned in
          the assignment statement.  If := is used, the value is
          stored in the innermost local scope.  A local scope is cre-
          ated every time a braced block is entered, and destroyed
          when the block is left. If = is used, the value is stored in
          the innermost scope that contains any definition of name.

          A list of names can also be used in place of name, which
          causes each element of value in turn to be assigned the
          respective variable name in the list. The last variable in
          the list is assigned any elements that are left over. If
          there are more variable names than elements in value, the
          remaining elements are assigned the null list.  For
          instance, after the assignment:
               (a b c) = one two three four five
          $a is one, $b is two, and $c contains the remaining three
          elements (three four five).

        I/O Redirections
          The sequence >file redirects the standard output file (file

     SH(1)                                                       SH(1)

          descriptor 1, normally the terminal) to the named file;
          >>file appends standard output to the file.  The standard
          input file (file descriptor 0, also normally the terminal)
          may be redirected from a file by the sequence <file, or by
          the sequence <>file, which opens the file for writing as
          well as reading.  Note that if file is in fact a parsed
          braced block, the redirection will be treated as pipe to the
          given command - it is identical to the <{} operator men-
          tioned above.

          Redirections may be applied to a file-descriptor other than
          standard input or output by qualifying the redirection oper-
          ator with a number in square brackets.  For example, the
          diagnostic output (file descriptor 2) may be redirected by
          writing limbo junk.b >[2] junk.

          A file descriptor may be redirected to an already open
          descriptor by writing >[fd0=fd1] or <[fd0=fd1].  Fd1 is a
          previously opened file descriptor and fd0 becomes a new copy
          (in the sense of sys-dup(2)) of it.

          Redirections are executed from left to right.  Therefore,
          limbo junk.b >/dev/null >[2=1] and limbo junk.b >[2=1]
          >/dev/null have different effects: the first puts standard
          output in /dev/null and then puts diagnostic output in the
          same place, where the second directs diagnostic output to
          the terminal and sends standard output to /dev/null.

        Compound Commands
          A pair of commands separated by a pipe operator (|) is a
          command.  The standard output of the left command is sent
          through a pipe to the standard input of the right command.
          The pipe operator may be decorated to use different file
          descriptors.  |[fd] connects the output end of the pipe to
          file descriptor fd rather than 1.  |[fd0=fd1] connects out-
          put to fd1 of the left command and input to fd0 of the right
          command.

          A sequence of commands separated by &, ;, or newline may be
          grouped by surrounding them with braces ({}), elsewhere
          referred to as a braced block. A braced block may be used
          anywhere that a simple word is expected. If a simple command
          is found with a braced block as its first word, the variable
          $* is set to any following arguments, $0 is set to the block
          itself, and the commands are executed in sequence. If a
          braced block is passed as an argument, no execution takes
          place: the block is converted to a functionally equivalent
          string, suitable for later re-interpretation by the shell.
          The null command ({}) has no effect and always gives a nil
          status. For instance the following commands all produce the
          same result:
               echo hello world

     SH(1)                                                       SH(1)

               {echo hello world}
               '{echo hello world}'
               {echo $*} hello world
               sh -c {echo hello world}
               {$*} {echo hello world}
               {$*} {{$*} {echo hello world}}
               "{echo {echo hello world}}
               '{echo hello' ^ ' world}'
               x := {echo hello world}; $x
          It is important to note that the value of $* is lost every
          time a braced block is entered, so for instance, the follow-
          ing command prints an empty string:
               {{echo $*}} hello world

        Built-in Commands
          The term ``built-in command'', or just ``builtin'', is used
          somewhat loosely in this document to refer to any command
          that is executed directly by the shell; most built-in com-
          mands are defined by externally loaded modules; there are a
          few that are not, known as ``internal'' builtins, listed
          below.

          Given sh's ability to pass compound commands (braced blocks)
          as arguments to other commands, most control-flow function-
          ality that is traditionally hard-wired into a shell is in sh
          implemented by loadable modules. See sh-std(1), sh-expr(1),
          and sh-tk(1) for more details.

          There are two classes of built-in commands; the first class,
          known simply as ``builtins'', are used in the same way as
          normal commands, the only difference being that builtins can
          raise exceptions, while external commands cannot, as they
          are run in a separate process.  The second class, known as
          ``builtin substitutions'' can only be used as the first word
          of the command in the ${} operator. The two classes exist in
          different name-spaces: a builtin  may do something quite
          different from a builtin substitution of the same name.

          In general, normal builtins perform some action or test some
          condition; the return status of a normal builtin usually
          indicates error status or conditional success. The rĂ´le of a
          substitution builtin is to yield a value, (possibly a list)
          which is substituted directly into place as part of the
          argument list of a command.

          @ command ...
               Execute command in a subshell, allowing (for instance)
               the name-space to be forked independently of main
               shell.
          run file ...
               Execute commands from file. $* is set for the duration
               to the remainder of the argument list following file.

     SH(1)                                                       SH(1)

          builtin command ...
               Execute command as usual except that any command
               defined by an external module is ignored in favour of
               the original meaning.  This command cannot be redefined
               by an external module.
          exit
               Terminate the current process.
          load path...
               Load tries to load each of its arguments as a builtin
               module into sh. If a module load succeeds, each builtin
               command defined by that module is added to the list of
               builtin commands.  If there was a previous definition
               of the command, it is replaced, with the exception of
               internal sh builtins, which are covered up and reappear
               when the module is unloaded. If a module with the same
               path has already been loaded, sh does not try to load
               it again.  Unless the path begins with / or ./, the
               shell looks in the standard builtins directory /dis/sh
               for the module.  If a load fails, a bad module excep-
               tion is raised.  The environment variable $autoload can
               be set to a list of Shell modules that each instance of
               sh should load automatically during its initialisation.
               (More precisely, the modules are loaded when a new
               Sh->Context is created: see sh(2) for details.)
          unload path...
               Unload undoes previous load commands. To succeed, path
               must be the same as that given to a previous invocation
               of load.
          loaded
               Loaded prints all the builtin commands currently
               defined, along with the name of the module that defined
               them.  Internally defined commands are tagged with mod-
               ule builtin.
          whatis name ...
               Print the value of each name in a form suitable for
               input to sh. The forms are:
                    varname = value...
                         Varname is a non-nil environment variable.
                    load module; name
                         Name has been defined as a builtin by the
                         externally loaded module.
                    load module; ${name}
                         Name has been defined as a builtin substitu-
                         tion by the externally loaded module.
                    builtin name
                         Name is defined as a builtin internally by
                         sh.
                    ${name}
                         Name is defined as a builtin substitution
                         internally by the shell.
                    pathname
                         The completed pathname of an external file.

     SH(1)                                                       SH(1)

          ${builtin command }
               Does for substitution builtin commands what builtin
               does for normal commands.
          ${loaded}
               The loaded builtin substitution yields a list of the
               names of all the modules currently loaded, as passed to
               load.
          ${quote list}
               Quote yields a single element list which if reparsed by
               the shell will recreate list.
          ${bquote list}
               Same as quote except that items in list that are known
               to be well-formed command blocks are not quoted.
          ${unquote arg}
               Unquote reverses the operation of quote, yielding the
               original list of values. For example, ${unquote ${quote
               list}} yields list. A list quoted with bquote can only
               be unquoted by parsing.

        Environment
          The environment is a list of strings made available to
          externally executing commands by the env module (see
          env(2)). If the env module does not exist or cannot be
          loaded, no error will be reported, but no variables can be
          exported to external commands.  Sh creates an environment
          entry for each variable whose value is non-empty.  This is
          formatted as if it had been run through ${quote}.  Note that
          in order for a variable to be exported, its name must con-
          form to the restrictions imposed by env(3); names that do
          not will not be exported.

          When sh starts executing it reads variable definitions from
          its environment.

          Internally, the shell holds a context, which holds a stack
          of environment variables, the current execution flags and
          the list of built-in modules.  A copy is made whereever par-
          allel access to the context might occur. This happens for
          processes executing in a pipeline, processes run asyn-
          chronously with &, and in any builtin command that runs a
          shell command asynchronously.

        Exceptions
          When sh encounters an error processing its input, an excep-
          tion is raised, and if the -v flag is set, an error message
          is printed to standard error.  An exception causes process-
          ing of the current command to terminate and control to be
          transferred back up the invocation stack.  In an interactive
          shell, the central command processing loop catches all
          exceptions and sets $status to the name of the exception.
          Exceptions are not propagated between processes. Any command
          that requires I/O redirection is run in a separate process,

     SH(1)                                                       SH(1)

          namely pipes (|), redirections (>, <, >>, and <>), backquote
          substitution (`, ") and background processes (&).  Excep-
          tions can be raised and rescued using the raise and rescue
          functions in the standard builtins module, std.  (See sh-
          std(1)). Names of exceptions raised by sh include:

          parse error
                    An error has occurred trying to parse a command.

          usage     A builtin has been passed an invalid set of argu-
                    ments;

          bad redir An error was encountered trying to open files
                    prior to running a process.

          bad $ arg An invalid name was given to the $ or ${} opera-
                    tor.

          no pipe   Sh failed to make a pipe.

          bad wait read
                    An error occurred while waiting for a process to
                    exit.

          builtin not found
                    A substitution builtin was named but not found.

        Special Variables
          The following variables are set or used by sh.
          $*       Set to sh's argument list during initialization.
                   Whenever a braced block is executed, the current
                   value is saved and $* receives the new argument
                   list.  The saved value is restored on completion of
                   the block.
          $apid    Whenever a process is started asynchronously with
                   &, $apid is set to its process id.
          $ifs     The input field separators used in backquote sub-
                   stitutions.  If $ifs is not set in sh's environ-
                   ment, it is initialized to blank, tab and newline.
          $prompt  When sh is run interactively, the first component
                   of $prompt is printed before reading each command.
                   The second component is printed whenever a newline
                   is typed and more lines are required to complete
                   the command.  If not set in the environment, it is
                   initialized by prompt=('% ' '').
          $status  Set to the wait message of the last-executed pro-
                   gram, the return status of the last-executed buil-
                   tin (unless started with &), or the name of the
                   last-raised exception, whichever is most recent.
                   When sh exits at end-of-file of its input, $status
                   is its exit status.

     SH(1)                                                       SH(1)

        Invocation
          If sh is started with no arguments it reads commands from
          standard input.  Otherwise its first non-flag argument is
          the name of a file from which to read commands (but see -c
          below).  Subsequent arguments become the initial value of
          $*.  Sh accepts the following command-line flags.
          -c string  Commands are read from string.
          -i         If -i is present, or sh is given no arguments and
                     its standard input is a terminal, it runs inter-
                     actively.  Commands are prompted for using
                     $prompt.  This option implies -v.
          -l         If -l is given or the first character of argument
                     zero is -, sh reads commands from
                     /lib/sh/profile, if it exists, and then
                     ./lib/profile, if it exists, before reading its
                     normal input.
          -n         Normally, sh forks its namespace on startup; if
                     -n is given, this behaviour is suppressed.
          -v         Within a non-interactive shell, informational
                     messages printed to standard error are usually
                     disabled; giving the -v flag enables them.
          -x         Print each simple command to stderr before exe-
                     cuting it.

     SOURCE
          /appl/cmd/sh/sh.y

     SEE ALSO
          sh(1), sh-std(1), sh-expr(1), sh-file2chan(1), sh-tk(1),
          sh-arg(1), sh-regex(1), sh-string(1), sh-csv(1), sh(2),
          env(2)

     BUGS
          Due to lack of system support, appending to a file with >>
          will not work correctly when there are multiple concurrent
          writers (but see the examples section of sh-file2chan(1) for
          one solution to this).

          While it is possible to use the shell as a general purpose
          programming language, it is a very slow one!  Intensive
          tasks are best done in Limbo, which is a much safer language
          to boot.