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COMMAND(1P)		   POSIX Programmer's Manual		   COMMAND(1P)

PROLOG
       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux
       implementation of this interface may differ (consult the	 corresponding
       Linux  manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
       not be implemented on Linux.

NAME
       command — execute a simple command

SYNOPSIS
       command [−p] command_name [argument...]

       command [−p][−v|−V] command_name

DESCRIPTION
       The command utility shall cause the shell to treat the arguments	 as  a
       simple command, suppressing the shell function lookup that is described
       in Section 2.9.1.1, Command Search and Execution, item 1b.

       If the command_name is the same as the  name  of	 one  of  the  special
       built-in	 utilities,  the  special properties in the enumerated list at
       the beginning of Section 2.14, Special  Built-In	 Utilities  shall  not
       occur.  In  every  other	 respect, if command_name is not the name of a
       function, the effect of command (with no options) shall be the same  as
       omitting command.

       When  the  −v  or  −V option is used, the command utility shall provide
       information concerning how a command name is interpreted by the shell.

OPTIONS
       The command utility shall conform to the	 Base  Definitions  volume  of
       POSIX.1‐2008, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.

       The following options shall be supported:

       −p	 Perform  the  command	search	using a default value for PATH
		 that is guaranteed to find all of the standard utilities.

       −v	 Write a string to standard output that indicates the pathname
		 or  command  that  will  be used by the shell, in the current
		 shell execution environment (see Section 2.12,	 Shell	Execu‐
		 tion  Environment), to invoke command_name, but do not invoke
		 command_name.

		  *  Utilities,	 regular  built-in  utilities,	 command_names
		     including	a  <slash>  character, and any implementation-
		     defined functions that are found using the PATH  variable
		     (as described in Section 2.9.1.1, Command Search and Exe‐
		     cution), shall be written as absolute pathnames.

		  *  Shell  functions,	special	 built-in  utilities,  regular
		     built-in utilities not associated with a PATH search, and
		     shell reserved words  shall  be  written  as  just	 their
		     names.

		  *  An	 alias	shall be written as a command line that repre‐
		     sents its alias definition.

		  *  Otherwise, no output shall be written and the exit status
		     shall reflect that the name was not found.

       −V	 Write a string to standard output that indicates how the name
		 given in the command_name operand will be interpreted by  the
		 shell,	 in  the current shell execution environment (see Sec‐
		 tion 2.12, Shell Execution Environment), but  do  not	invoke
		 command_name.	Although the format of this string is unspeci‐
		 fied, it shall indicate in which of the following  categories
		 command_name falls and shall include the information stated:

		  *  Utilities,	 regular built-in utilities, and any implemen‐
		     tation-defined functions that are found  using  the  PATH
		     variable (as described in Section 2.9.1.1, Command Search
		     and Execution), shall be identified as such  and  include
		     the absolute pathname in the string.

		  *  Other shell functions shall be identified as functions.

		  *  Aliases  shall be identified as aliases and their defini‐
		     tions included in the string.

		  *  Special built-in utilities shall be identified as special
		     built-in utilities.

		  *  Regular  built-in	utilities  not	associated with a PATH
		     search shall be identified as regular built-in utilities.
		     (The term ``regular'' need not be used.)

		  *  Shell  reserved  words  shall  be	identified as reserved
		     words.

OPERANDS
       The following operands shall be supported:

       argument	 One of the strings treated as an argument to command_name.

       command_name
		 The name of a utility or a special built-in utility.

STDIN
       Not used.

INPUT FILES
       None.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of  com‐
       mand:

       LANG	 Provide  a  default  value for the internationalization vari‐
		 ables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions  vol‐
		 ume  of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
		 ables for the precedence  of  internationalization  variables
		 used to determine the values of locale categories.)

       LC_ALL	 If  set  to  a non-empty string value, override the values of
		 all the other internationalization variables.

       LC_CTYPE	 Determine the locale for the interpretation of	 sequences  of
		 bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
		 opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).

       LC_MESSAGES
		 Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format
		 and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error
		 and informative messages written to standard output.

       NLSPATH	 Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing
		 of LC_MESSAGES.

       PATH	 Determine  the	 search	 path  used  during the command search
		 described in Section 2.9.1.1, Command Search  and  Execution,
		 except as described under the −p option.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
       Default.

STDOUT
       When the −v option is specified, standard output shall be formatted as:

	   "%s\n", <pathname or command>

       When the −V option is specified, standard output shall be formatted as:

	   "%s\n", <unspecified>

STDERR
       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES
       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
       None.

EXIT STATUS
       When  the  −v  or  −V  options are specified, the following exit values
       shall be returned:

	0    Successful completion.

       >0    The command_name could not be found or an error occurred.

       Otherwise, the following exit values shall be returned:

       126   The utility specified by command_name was found but could not  be
	     invoked.

       127   An error occurred in the command utility or the utility specified
	     by command_name could not be found.

       Otherwise, the exit status of command shall be that of the simple  com‐
       mand specified by the arguments to command.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE
       The  order  for	command	 search	 allows	 functions to override regular
       built-ins and path searches. This utility is necessary to  allow	 func‐
       tions that have the same name as a utility to call the utility (instead
       of a recursive call to the function).

       The system default path is available using getconf; however, since get‐
       conf  may  need to have the PATH set up before it can be called itself,
       the following can be used:

	   command −p getconf PATH

       There are some advantages to suppressing the special characteristics of
       special built-ins on occasion. For example:

	   command exec > unwritable-file

       does  not  cause	 a non-interactive script to abort, so that the output
       status can be checked by the script.

       The command, env, nohup, time, and xargs utilities have been  specified
       to  use	exit code 127 if an error occurs so that applications can dis‐
       tinguish ``failure to find a utility'' from  ``invoked  utility	exited
       with  an error indication''. The value 127 was chosen because it is not
       commonly used for other meanings; most utilities use small  values  for
       ``normal	 error	conditions''  and the values above 128 can be confused
       with termination due to receipt of a signal. The value 126  was	chosen
       in  a  similar  manner to indicate that the utility could be found, but
       not invoked. Some scripts produce meaningful error messages differenti‐
       ating the 126 and 127 cases. The distinction between exit codes 126 and
       127 is based on KornShell practice that uses 127 when all  attempts  to
       exec  the  utility fail with [ENOENT], and uses 126 when any attempt to
       exec the utility fails for any other reason.

       Since the −v and −V options of command produce output  in  relation  to
       the  current shell execution environment, command is generally provided
       as a shell regular built-in. If it is called in a subshell or  separate
       utility execution environment, such as one of the following:

	   (PATH=foo command −v)
	    nohup command −v

       it  does	 not  necessarily  produce  correct results. For example, when
       called with nohup or an exec function, in a separate utility  execution
       environment,  most  implementations  are	 not able to identify aliases,
       functions, or special built-ins.

       Two types of regular built-ins could be encountered  on	a  system  and
       these  are described separately by command.  The description of command
       search in Section 2.9.1.1, Command Search and Execution	allows	for  a
       standard	 utility to be implemented as a regular built-in as long as it
       is found in the appropriate place in a PATH search.  So,	 for  example,
       command	−v  true might yield /bin/true or some similar pathname. Other
       implementation-defined utilities that are not defined by this volume of
       POSIX.1‐2008 might exist only as built-ins and have no pathname associ‐
       ated with them. These produce output identified as (regular) built-ins.
       Applications  encountering these are not able to count on execing them,
       using them with nohup, overriding them with a different	PATH,  and  so
       on.

EXAMPLES
	1. Make	 a version of cd that always prints out the new working direc‐
	   tory exactly once:

	       cd() {
		   command cd "$@" >/dev/null
		   pwd
	       }

	2. Start off a ``secure shell script''	in  which  the	script	avoids
	   being spoofed by its parent:

	       IFS='
	       '
	       #    The preceding value should be <space><tab><newline>.
	       #    Set IFS to its default value.

	       \unalias −a
	       #    Unset all possible aliases.
	       #    Note that unalias is escaped to prevent an alias
	       #    being used for unalias.

	       unset −f command
	       #    Ensure command is not a user function.

	       PATH="$(command −p getconf PATH):$PATH"
	       #    Put on a reliable PATH prefix.

	       #    ...

	   At  this point, given correct permissions on the directories called
	   by PATH, the script has the ability to ensure that any  utility  it
	   calls  is  the  intended  one. It is being very cautious because it
	   assumes that implementation extensions may be  present  that	 would
	   allow  user	functions to exist when it is invoked; this capability
	   is not specified by this volume of POSIX.1‐2008, but it is not pro‐
	   hibited as an extension. For example, the ENV variable precedes the
	   invocation of the script with a user start-up script. Such a script
	   could define functions to spoof the application.

RATIONALE
       Since command is a regular built-in utility it is always found prior to
       the PATH search.

       There is nothing in the description of command that implies the command
       line  is	 parsed any differently from that of any other simple command.
       For example:

	   command a | b ; c

       is not parsed in any special way that causes '|' or ';' to  be  treated
       other  than  a  pipe  operator or <semicolon> or that prevents function
       lookup on b or c.

       The command utility is somewhat similar to  the	Eighth	Edition	 shell
       builtin	command,  but  since  command  also goes to the file system to
       search for utilities, the name builtin would not be intuitive.

       The command utility is most likely to be provided as a  regular	built-
       in. It is not listed as a special built-in for the following reasons:

	*  The	removal of exportable functions made the special precedence of
	   a special built-in unnecessary.

	*  A special built-in has special properties (see Section  2.14,  Spe‐
	   cial Built-In Utilities) that were inappropriate for invoking other
	   utilities. For example, two commands such as:

	       date > unwritable-file

	       command date > unwritable-file

	   would have entirely different results; in a non-interactive script,
	   the	former	would continue to execute the next command, the latter
	   would abort. Introducing this semantic difference along  with  sup‐
	   pressing functions was seen to be non-intuitive.

       The  −p	option	is present because it is useful to be able to ensure a
       safe path search that finds all the  standard  utilities.  This	search
       might  not  be identical to the one that occurs through one of the exec
       functions (as defined in the System Interfaces volume of	 POSIX.1‐2008)
       when  PATH  is  unset.  At  the very least, this feature is required to
       allow the script to access the correct version of getconf so  that  the
       value of the default path can be accurately retrieved.

       The  command  −v and −V options were added to satisfy requirements from
       users that are currently accomplished  by  three	 different  historical
       utilities:  type	 in  the  System V shell, whence in the KornShell, and
       which in the C shell. Since there is no historical agreement on how and
       what to accomplish here, the POSIX command utility was enhanced and the
       historical utilities were left unmodified.  The C  shell	 which	merely
       conducts a path search. The KornShell whence is more elaborate—in addi‐
       tion to the categories required by POSIX, it also  reports  on  tracked
       aliases, exported aliases, and undefined functions.

       The output format of −V was left mostly unspecified because human users
       are its only audience.  Applications should  not	 be  written  to  care
       about  this information; they can use the output of −v to differentiate
       between various types of commands, but the additional information  that
       may  be	emitted by the more verbose −V is not needed and should not be
       arbitrarily constrained in its verbosity or localization	 for  applica‐
       tion parsing reasons.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.

SEE ALSO
       Section 2.9.1.1, Command Search and Execution, Section 2.12, Shell Exe‐
       cution Environment, Section 2.14, Special Built-In Utilities, sh, type

       The Base Definitions volume of  POSIX.1‐2008,  Chapter  8,  Environment
       Variables, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines

       The System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2008, exec

COPYRIGHT
       Portions	 of  this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
       --  Portable  Operating	System	Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
       Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri‐
       cal  and	 Electronics  Engineers,  Inc  and  The	 Open Group.  (This is
       POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum	 1  applied.)  In  the
       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
       The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group  Standard
       is  the	referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
       at http://www.unix.org/online.html .

       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear  in  this  page  are
       most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
       files to man page format. To report such errors,	 see  https://www.ker‐
       nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

IEEE/The Open Group		     2013			   COMMAND(1P)
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