shift(1) User Commands shift(1)NAMEshift - shell built-in function to traverse either a shell's argument
list or a list of field-separated words
SYNOPSIS
sh
shift [n]
csh
shift [variable]
ksh
*shift [n]
ksh
+shift [n]
DESCRIPTION
sh
The positional parameters from $n+1 ... are renamed $1 ... . If n is
not specified, it is assumed to be 1.
csh
The components of argv, or variable, if supplied, are shifted to the
left, discarding the first component. It is an error for the variable
not to be set or to have a null value.
ksh
The positional parameters from $n+1 $n+1 ... are renamed $1 ...,
default n is 1. The parameter n can be any arithmetic expression that
evaluates to a non-negative number less than or equal to $#.
On this manual page, ksh(1) commands that are preceded by one or two *
(asterisks) are treated specially in the following ways:
1. Variable assignment lists preceding the command remain in
effect when the command completes.
2. I/O redirections are processed after variable assignments.
3. Errors cause a script that contains them to abort.
4. Words, following a command preceded by ** that are in the
format of a variable assignment, are expanded with the same
rules as a variable assignment. This means that tilde sub‐
stitution is performed after the = sign and word splitting
and file name generation are not performed.
ksh93
shift is a shell special built-in that shifts the positional parameters
to the left by the number of places defined by n, or 1 if n is omitted.
The number of positional parameters remaining is reduced by the number
of places that are shifted.
If n is specified, it is evaluated as an arithmetic expression to
determine the number of places to shift. It is an error to shift more
than the number of positional parameters or a negative number of
places.
The following exit values are returned by shift in ksh93:
0 Successful completion. The positional parameters were success‐
fully shifted.
>0 An error occurred.
On this manual page, ksh93(1) commands that are preceded by one or two
+ are treated specially in the following ways:
1. Variable assignment lists preceding the command remain in
effect when the command completes.
2. I/O redirections are processed after variable assignments.
3. Errors cause a script that contains them to abort.
4. They are not valid function names.
5. Words, following a command preceded by ++ that are in the
format of a variable assignment, are expanded with the same
rules as a variable assignment. This means that tilde sub‐
stitution is performed after the = sign and field splitting
and file name generation are not performed.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │SUNWcs │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOcsh(1), ksh(1), ksh93(1), sh(1), attributes(5)SunOS 5.11 20 Nov 2007 shift(1)
