Linux® Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible, Second Edition

Appendix A

Quick Guide to bash Commands

In This Appendix

• The bash built-in commands
• The GNU additional shell commands
• The bash environment variables

As you've seen throughout this book, the bash shell contains lots of features and thus has lots of commands available. This appendix provides a concise guide to allow you to quickly look up a feature or command that you can use from the bash command line or from a bash shell script.

Built-in Commands

The bash shell includes many popular commands built into the shell. This provides for faster processing times when using these commands. Table A.1 shows the built-in commands available directly from the bash shell.

Table A.1 bash Built-in Commands

Command	Description
alias	Define an alias for the specified command.
bg	Resume a job in background mode.
bind	Bind a keyboard sequence to a readline function or macro.
break	Exit from a for, while, select, or until loop.
builtin	Execute the specified shell built-in command.
cd	Change the current directory to the specified directory.
caller	Return the context of any active subroutine call.
command	Execute the specified command without the normal shell lookup.
compgen	Generate possible completion matches for the specified word.
complete	Display how the specified words would be completed.
continue	Resume the next iteration of a for, while, select, or until loop.
declare	Declare a variable or variable type.
dirs	Display a list of currently remembered directories.
disown	Remove ...