Linux in a Nutshell, 6th Edition

Name

function

Synopsis

[function] name (  ) { commands; }
function name { commands; }

Define name as a shell function. See the description of semantic issues in the section Functions in Functions. If the reserved word function is given, the parentheses following name are optional.

Example

Define a function to count files:

$ function fcount {
    >    ls | wc -l
    >}