Learning the bash Shell, Second Edition

Built-In Commands and Reserved Words

Table 2.3 shows a summary of all built-in commands and reserved words.

Table B-3. Commands and Reserved Words

Command	Chapter	Summary
!	5	Reserved word. Logical NOT of a command exit status.
:	7	Do nothing (just do expansions of any arguments).
.	4	Read file and execute its contents in current shell.
alias	3	Set up shorthand for command or command line.
bg	8	Put job in background.
bind	2	Bind a key sequence to a readline function or macro.
break	5	Exit from surrounding for, select, while, or until loop.
builtin	5	Execute the specified shell built-in.
case	5	Reserved word. Multi-way conditional construct.
cd	1	Change working directory.
command	7	Run a command bypassing shell function lookup.
continue		Skip to next iteration of for, select, while, or until loop.
declare	6	Declare variables and give them attributes.
dirs	6	Display the list of currently remembered directories.
disown	8	Remove a job from the job table.
do	5	Reserved word. Part of a for, select, while, or until looping construct.
done	5	Reserved word. Part of a for, select, while, or until looping construct.
echo	4	Expand and print any arguments.
elif	5	Reserved word. Part of an if construct.
else	5	Reserved word. Part of an if construct.
enable	7	Enable and disable built-in shell commands.
esac	5	Reserved word. Part of a case construct.
eval	7	Run the given arguments through command-line processing.
exec	9	Replace the shell with the given program.
exit	5	Exit from the shell.
export ...