User Commands                                            shift(1)



NAME
     shift - shell built-in function to traverse either a shell's
     argument list or a list of field-separated words

SYNOPSIS
  sh
     shift [n]


  csh
     shift [variable]


  ksh
     *shift [n]


  ksh
     ]shift [n]


DESCRIPTION
  sh
     The positional parameters from $n]1 ... are renamed $1 ... .
     If n is not specified, it is assumed to be 1.

  csh
     The components  of  argv,  or  variable,  if  supplied,  are
     shifted  to  the left, discarding the first component. It is
     an error for the variable not to be set or to  have  a  null
     value.

  ksh
     The positional parameters from $n]1 $n]1 ... are renamed  $1
     ...,  default  n is 1. The parameter n can be any arithmetic
     expression that evaluates to a non-negative number less than
     or equal to $#.


     On this manual page, ksh(1) commands that  are  preceded  by
     one  or  two * (asterisks) are treated specially in the fol-
     lowing ways:

         1.   Variable assignment  lists  preceding  the  command
              remain in effect when the command completes.

         2.   I/O  redirections  are  processed  after   variable
              assignments.

         3.   Errors cause a script that contains them to abort.

         4.   Words, following a command preceded by ** that  are



SunOS 5.11          Last change: 20 Nov 2007                    1






User Commands                                            shift(1)



              in   the  format  of  a  variable  assignment,  are
              expanded with the same rules as a variable  assign-
              ment.  This  means  that tilde substitution is per-
              formed after the = sign and word splitting and file
              name generation are not performed.

  ksh93
     shift is a shell special built-in that shifts the positional
     parameters to the left by the number of places defined by n,
     or 1 if n is omitted. The number  of  positional  parameters
     remaining  is  reduced  by  the  number  of  places that are
     shifted.


     If n is specified, it is evaluated as an arithmetic  expres-
     sion  to  determine  the number of places to shift. It is an
     error to shift more than the number of positional parameters
     or a negative number of places.


     The following exit values are returned by shift in ksh93:

     0     Successful completion. The positional parameters  were
           successfully shifted.


     >0    An error occurred.



     On this manual page, ksh93(1) commands that are preceded  by
     one or two ] are treated specially in the following ways:

         1.   Variable assignment  lists  preceding  the  command
              remain in effect when the command completes.

         2.   I/O  redirections  are  processed  after   variable
              assignments.

         3.   Errors cause a script that contains them to abort.

         4.   They are not valid function names.

         5.   Words, following a command preceded by ] that  are
              in   the  format  of  a  variable  assignment,  are
              expanded with the same rules as a variable  assign-
              ment.  This  means  that tilde substitution is per-
              formed after the = sign  and  field  splitting  and
              file name generation are not performed.

ATRIBUTES




SunOS 5.11          Last change: 20 Nov 2007                    2






User Commands                                            shift(1)



     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:



     
           ATRIBUTE TYPE               ATRIBUTE VALUE       
    
     Availability                 SUNWcsu                     
    


SEE ALSO
     csh(1), ksh(1), ksh93(1), sh(1), attributes(5)









































SunOS 5.11          Last change: 20 Nov 2007                    3