NAME

type — write a description of command type

SYNOPSIS

[XSI] type name...

DESCRIPTION

The type utility shall indicate how each argument would be interpreted if used as a command name.

OPTIONS

None.

OPERANDS

The following operand shall be supported:

name

A name to be interpreted.

STDIN

Not used.

INPUT FILES

None.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

The following environment variables shall affect the execution of type:

LANG

Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See XBD 8.2 Internationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)

LC_ALL

If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables.

LC_CTYPE

Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).

LC_MESSAGES

Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.

NLSPATH

Determine the location of messages objects and message catalogs.

PATH

Determine the location of name, as described in XBD 8. Environment Variables.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

Default.

STDOUT

The standard output of type contains information about each operand in an unspecified format. The information provided typically identifies the operand as a shell built-in, function, alias, or keyword, and where applicable, may display the operand's pathname.

STDERR

The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES

None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

None.

EXIT STATUS

The following exit values shall be returned:

 0

Successful completion.

>0

An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS

Default.

APPLICATION USAGE

This utility is required to be intrinsic. See 1.7 Intrinsic Utilities for details.

Since type must be aware of the contents of the current shell execution environment (such as the lists of commands, functions, and built-ins processed by hash), it is always provided as a shell regular built-in. If it is called in a separate utility execution environment, such as one of the following:

nohup type writer
find . -type f -exec type {} +

it might not produce accurate results.

EXAMPLES

None.

RATIONALE

None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

If this utility is directed to display a pathname that contains any bytes that have the encoded value of a <newline> character when <newline> is a terminator or separator in the output format being used, implementations are encouraged to treat this as an error. A future version of this standard may require implementations to treat this as an error.

SEE ALSO

command, hash

XBD 8. Environment Variables

CHANGE HISTORY

First released in Issue 2.

Issue 8

Austin Group Defect 248 is applied, changing a command line in the APPLICATION USAGE section.

Austin Group Defect 251 is applied, encouraging implementations to report an error if a utility is directed to display a pathname that contains any bytes that have the encoded value of a <newline> character when <newline> is a terminator or separator in the output format being used.

Austin Group Defect 854 is applied, adding a note to the APPLICATION USAGE section that this utility is required to be intrinsic.

Austin Group Defect 1122 is applied, changing the description of NLSPATH .