type(1p) — Linux manual page

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

       type — write a description of command type

SYNOPSIS         top

       type name...

DESCRIPTION         top

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

OPTIONS         top

       None.

OPERANDS         top

       The following operand shall be supported:

       name      A name to be interpreted.

STDIN         top

       Not used.

INPUT FILES         top

       None.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES         top

       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 the Base
                 Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 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 message catalogs for the
                 processing of LC_MESSAGES.

       PATH      Determine the location of name, as described in the Base
                 Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Chapter 8,
                 Environment Variables.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS         top

       Default.

STDOUT         top

       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         top

       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES         top

       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION         top

       None.

EXIT STATUS         top

       The following exit values shall be returned:

        0    Successful completion.

       >0    An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS         top

       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE         top

       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 | xargs type

       it might not produce accurate results.

EXAMPLES         top

       None.

RATIONALE         top

       None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS         top

       None.

SEE ALSO         top

       command(1p), hash(1p)

       The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Chapter 8,
       Environment Variables

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                          TYPE(1P)

Pages that refer to this page: command(1p)

HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH.