TYPE(1) General Commands Manual TYPE(1)

type — write a description of command type


type name...

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

None.

The following operand shall be supported:

name
A name to be interpreted.

Not used.

None.

The following environment variables shall affect the execution of type:

Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See XBD for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)
If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables.
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).

Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
Determine the location of messages objects and message catalogs.
Determine the location of name , as described in XBD .

Default.

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.

The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

None.

None.

The following exit values shall be returned:

Successful completion.
An error occurred.

Default.

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(1)), 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.

None.

None.

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.

command(1), hash(1)

XBD V1_chap08(7)

First released in Issue 2.

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 .

June 14, 2024 posix.fail