builtin(1) User Commands builtin(1)NAMEbuiltin - ksh93 built-in function to add, delete, or display shell
built-ins
SYNOPSISbuiltin [-ds] [-f lib] [pathname ...]
DESCRIPTION
The ksh93 builtin command adds, deletes, or displays built-in commands
in the current shell environment. A built-in command executes in the
current shell process and can have side effects in the current shell.
On most systems, the invocation time for built-in commands is one or
two orders of magnitude less than commands that create a separate
process.
For each pathname specified, the basename of the pathname determines
the name of the built-in. For each basename, the shell looks for a C
level function in the current shell whose name is determined by pre-
pending b_ to the built-in name. If pathname contains a forward slash
(/), the built-in is bound to pathname. A built-in bound to a pathname
is only executed if pathname is the first executable found during a
path search. Otherwise, built-ins are found prior to performing the
path search.
If pathname is not specified, builtin displays the current list of
built-ins, or just the special built-ins if the -s option is specified,
on standard output. The full pathname for built-ins that are bound to
pathnames are displayed.
Libraries containing built-ins can be specified with the -f option. If
the library contains a function named lib_init(), this function is
invoked with argument 0 when the library is loaded. The lib_init()
function can load built-ins by invoking an appropriate C level func‐
tion. In this case there is no restriction on the C level function
name.
The C level function is invoked with three arguments. The first two are
the same as main() and the third one is a pointer.
The ksh93 builtin command cannot be invoked from a restricted shell.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-d Delete each of the specified built-ins. Special built-ins
cannot be deleted.
-f lib On systems with dynamic linking, load and search for built-
ins in the shared library, lib.
Libraries are searched for in $PATH and system dependent
library directories. The system dependent shared library pre‐
fix or suffix can be omitted. Once a library is loaded, its
symbols become available for the current and subsequent invo‐
cations of builtin. Multiple libraries can be specified with
separate invocations of builtin. Libraries are searched in
the reverse order in which they are specified.
-s Display only the special built-ins.
OPERANDS
The following operands are supported:
pathname Specifies the pathname. The basename of the pathname deter‐
mines the name of the built-in.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 Successful completion.
>0 An error occurred.
EXAMPLES
Example 1 Loading a builtin Command
The following example loads a builtin command mycmd from the library
libfoo.so:
example% builtin-f foo mycmd
AUTHORS
David Korn, dgk@research.att.com
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │SUNWcs │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │Uncommitted │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOksh93(1), whence(1), attributes(5)SunOS 5.11 1 May 2007 builtin(1)
