Bash 5.0 Manual

This is Edition 5.0, last updated 12 May 2019, of The GNU Bash Reference Manual, for Bash, Version 5.0.

Bash contains features that appear in other popular shells, and some features that only appear in Bash. Some of the shells that Bash has borrowed concepts from are the Bourne Shell (sh), the Korn Shell (ksh), and the C-shell (csh and its successor, tcsh). The following menu breaks the features up into categories, noting which features were inspired by other shells and which are specific to Bash.

This manual is meant as a brief introduction to features found in Bash. The Bash manual page should be used as the definitive reference on shell behavior.

Table of content

Bash Features

1 Introduction

1.2 What is a shell?

1.1 What is Bash?

2 Definitions

3 Basic Shell Features

3.1 Shell Syntax

3.2 Shell Commands

3.3 Shell Functions

3.4 Shell Parameters

3.5 Shell Expansions

3.6 Redirections

3.7 Executing Commands

3.8 Shell Scripts

4 Shell Builtin Commands

4.1 Bourne Shell Builtins

4.2 Bash Builtin Commands

4.3 Modifying Shell Behavior

4.4 Special Builtins

5 Shell Variables

5.1 Bourne Shell Variables

5.2 Bash Variables

6 Bash Features

6.1 Invoking Bash

6.2 Bash Startup Files

6.3 Interactive Shells

6.4 Bash Conditional Expressions

6.5 Shell Arithmetic

6.6 Aliases

6.7 Arrays

6.8 The Directory Stack

6.9 Controlling the Prompt

6.10 The Restricted Shell

6.11 Bash POSIX Mode

7 Job Control

7.1 Job Control Basics

7.2 Job Control Builtins

7.3 Job Control Variables

8 Command Line Editing

8.1 Introduction to Line Editing

8.2 Readline Interaction

8.3 Readline Init File

8.4 Bindable Readline Commands

8.5 Readline vi Mode

8.6 Programmable Completion

8.7 Programmable Completion Builtins

8.8 A Programmable Completion Example

9 Using History Interactively

9.1 Bash History Facilities

9.2 Bash History Builtins

9.3 History Expansion

10 Installing Bash

10.1 Basic Installation

10.2 Compilers and Options

10.3 Compiling For Multiple Architectures

10.4 Installation Names

10.5 Specifying the System Type

10.6 Sharing Defaults

10.7 Operation Controls

10.8 Optional Features

Appendix A Reporting Bugs

Appendix B Major Differences From The Bourne Shell

B.1 Implementation Differences From The SVR4.2 Shell

Appendix C GNU Free Documentation License

ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents