break(1p) — Linux manual page

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

BREAK(1P)               POSIX Programmer's Manual              BREAK(1P)

PROLOG         top

       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         top

       break — exit from for, while, or until loop

SYNOPSIS         top

       break [n]

DESCRIPTION         top

       If n is specified, the break utility shall exit from the nth
       enclosing for, while, or until loop. If n is not specified, break
       shall behave as if n was specified as 1. Execution shall continue
       with the command immediately following the exited loop. The value
       of n is a positive decimal integer. If n is greater than the
       number of enclosing loops, the outermost enclosing loop shall be
       exited. If there is no enclosing loop, the behavior is
       unspecified.

       A loop shall enclose a break or continue command if the loop
       lexically encloses the command. A loop lexically encloses a break
       or continue command if the command is:

        *  Executing in the same execution environment (see Section
           2.12, Shell Execution Environment) as the compound-list of
           the loop's do-group (see Section 2.10.2, Shell Grammar
           Rules), and

        *  Contained in a compound-list associated with the loop (either
           in the compound-list of the loop's do-group or, if the loop
           is a while or until loop, in the compound-list following the
           while or until reserved word), and

        *  Not in the body of a function whose function definition
           command (see Section 2.9.5, Function Definition Command) is
           contained in a compound-list associated with the loop.

       If n is greater than the number of lexically enclosing loops and
       there is a non-lexically enclosing loop in progress in the same
       execution environment as the break or continue command, it is
       unspecified whether that loop encloses the command.

OPTIONS         top

       None.

OPERANDS         top

       See the DESCRIPTION.

STDIN         top

       Not used.

INPUT FILES         top

       None.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES         top

       None.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS         top

       Default.

STDOUT         top

       Not used.

STDERR         top

       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES         top

       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION         top

       None.

EXIT STATUS         top

        0    Successful completion.

       >0    The n value was not an unsigned decimal integer greater
             than or equal to 1.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS         top

       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE         top

       None.

EXAMPLES         top

       for i in *
       do
           if test -d "$i"
           then break
           fi
       done

       The results of running the following example are unspecified:
       there are two loops in progress when the break command is
       executed, and they are in the same execution environment, but
       neither loop is lexically enclosing the break command. (There are
       no loops lexically enclosing the continue commands, either.)

       foo() {
           for j in 1 2; do
               echo 'break 2' >/tmp/do_break
               echo "  sourcing /tmp/do_break ($j)..."
               # the behavior of the break from running the following command
               # results in unspecified behavior:
               . /tmp/do_break

               do_continue() { continue 2; }
               echo "  running do_continue ($j)..."
               # the behavior of the continue in the following function call
               # results in unspecified behavior (if execution reaches this
               # point):
               do_continue

               trap 'continue 2' USR1
               echo "  sending SIGUSR1 to self ($j)..."
               # the behavior of the continue in the trap invoked from the
               # following signal results in unspecified behavior (if
               # execution reaches this point):
               kill -s USR1 $$
               sleep 1
           done
       }
       for i in 1 2; do
           echo "running foo ($i)..."
           foo
       done

RATIONALE         top

       In early proposals, consideration was given to expanding the
       syntax of break and continue to refer to a label associated with
       the appropriate loop as a preferable alternative to the n method.
       However, this volume of POSIX.1‐2017 does reserve the name space
       of command names ending with a <colon>.  It is anticipated that a
       future implementation could take advantage of this and provide
       something like:

           outofloop: for i in a b c d e
           do
               for j in 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
               do
                   if test -r "${i}${j}"
                   then break outofloop
                   fi
               done
           done

       and that this might be standardized after implementation
       experience is achieved.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS         top

       None.

SEE ALSO         top

       Section 2.14, Special Built-In Utilities

COPYRIGHT         top

       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic
       form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information
       Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The
       Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright
       (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
       Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.  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.opengroup.org/unix/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 .

IEEE/The Open Group               2017                         BREAK(1P)