Invoking the Shell
The command interpreter for bash can be invoked as follows:
bash [options] [arguments]
bash can execute commands from a terminal (when -i is specified), from a file (when the first argument is an executable script), or from standard input (if no arguments remain or if -s is specified).
Options
Options that appear here with double hyphens also work when entered with single hyphens, but the double-hyphen versions are recommended because they are standard.
- -, --
Treat all subsequent strings as arguments, not options.
- --dump-po-strings
Same as --dump-strings but uses a special “portable object” format suitable for scripting.
- --dump-strings
For execution in non-English locales, dump all strings that bash translates.
- -c str
Read commands from string str.
- -i
Create an interactive shell (prompt for input).
- --help
Print information about which version of bash is installed, plus a list of options.
- --login
Behave like a login shell; try to process /etc/profile on startup. Then process ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, or ~/.profile (searching for each file only if the previous file is not found).
- --nobraceexpansion
Disable brace expansion.
- --noediting
Disable line editing with arrow and control keys.
- --noprofile
Do not process /etc/profile, ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, or ~/.profile on startup.
- --norc
Do not process ~/.bashrc on startup.
- -p
Start up as a privileged user; don’t process $HOME/.profile.
- --posix
Conform to POSIX standard.
- -r
Restrict users to a ...
Get Linux in a Nutshell, Third Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.