Quick Start Guide:Bash

bash is the Bourne Again Shell (based on sh, the Bourne shell). It is part of the GNU Project.

Syntax

Here is a brief outline of common syntax issues.

Login/Logout Scripts

The startup files used depend on whether the session is interactive or not, and whether it is a login shell.

• ~/.bash_profile
• ~/.bash_login
• ~/.profile
• ~/.bashrc
• ~/.bash_logout

Aliases

The syntax for defining aliases is:

   alias ls='ls -FC --color=auto'
   alias l='ls'
   alias ll='l -l'
   alias la='ll -a'

Environment Variables

The syntax for defining environment variables is:

   export SPECIAL_ENV=some_string_or_other
   export VERY_SPECIAL_ENV=${SPECIAL_ENV}:another_string

See Also

• The GNU info standalone manual is a complete hyperlinked online manual
• The man page is terse but useful for quick lookups
• The online manual covers the latest release. It contains information identical to the info page.
• bash Quick Reference by Arnold Robbins (2006)
• Learning the bash Shell, 3/e by Cameron Newham (2005)