RETURN
Section: POSIX Programmer's Manual (1P)
Updated: 2013
Index
Return to Main Contents
PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.
The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult
the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior),
or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
return
--- return from a function or dot script
SYNOPSIS
return [n]
DESCRIPTION
The
return
utility shall cause the shell to stop executing the current function or
dot
script. If the shell is not currently executing a function or
dot
script, the results are unspecified.
OPTIONS
None.
OPERANDS
See the DESCRIPTION.
STDIN
Not used.
INPUT FILES
None.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
None.
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.
STDOUT
Not used.
STDERR
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
OUTPUT FILES
None.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
None.
EXIT STATUS
The value of the special parameter
'?'
shall be set to
n,
an unsigned decimal integer, or to the exit status of the last command
executed if
n
is not specified. If the value of
n
is greater than 255, the results are undefined. When
return
is executed in a
trap
action, the last command is considered to be the command that
executed immediately preceding the
trap
action.
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
Default.
The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
None.
EXAMPLES
None.
RATIONALE
The behavior of
return
when not in a function or
dot
script differs between the System V shell and the KornShell. In the
System V shell this is an error, whereas in the KornShell, the effect
is the same as
exit.
The results of returning a number greater than 255 are undefined
because of differing practices in the various historical
implementations. Some shells AND out all but the low-order 8 bits;
others allow larger values, but not of unlimited size.
See the discussion of appropriate exit status values under
exit.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
Section 2.9.5,
Function Definition Command,
Section 2.14,
Special Built-In Utilities,
dot
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.
(This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear
in this page are most likely
to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to
man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
Index
- PROLOG
-
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- OPTIONS
-
- OPERANDS
-
- STDIN
-
- INPUT FILES
-
- ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
-
- ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
-
- STDOUT
-
- STDERR
-
- OUTPUT FILES
-
- EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
-
- EXIT STATUS
-
- CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
-
- APPLICATION USAGE
-
- EXAMPLES
-
- RATIONALE
-
- FUTURE DIRECTIONS
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- COPYRIGHT
-
|
|
- Running on 
-
:
: 