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This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface

Application Usage

       None.

Asynchronous Events

       Default.

Consequences Of Errors

       Default.

       Thefollowingsectionsareinformative.

Description

       The exec utility shall open, close, and/or copy file descriptors as specified by any redirections as part
       of the command.

       If  exec  is specified without command or arguments, and any file descriptors with numbers greater than 2
       are opened with associated redirection statements, it  is  unspecified  whether  those  file  descriptors
       remain  open  when  the  shell invokes another utility.  Scripts concerned that child shells could misuse
       open file descriptors can always close them explicitly, as shown in one of the following examples.

       If exec is specified with command, it shall replace  the  shell  with  command  without  creating  a  new
       process. If arguments are specified, they shall be arguments to command.  Redirection affects the current
       shell execution environment.

Environment Variables

       None.

Examples

       Open readfile as file descriptor 3 for reading:

           exec 3< readfile

       Open writefile as file descriptor 4 for writing:

           exec 4> writefile

       Make file descriptor 5 a copy of file descriptor 0:

           exec 5<&0

       Close file descriptor 3:

           exec 3<&-

       Cat the file maggie by replacing the current shell with the cat utility:

           exec cat maggie

Exit Status

       If command is specified, exec shall not return to the shell; rather, the exit status of the process shall
       be  the  exit  status  of  the  program implementing command, which overlaid the shell. If command is not
       found, the exit status shall be 127. If command is found, but it is not an executable utility,  the  exit
       status shall be 126. If a redirection error occurs (see Section2.8.1, ConsequencesofShellErrors), the
       shell shall exit with a value in the range 1-125. Otherwise, exec shall return a zero exit status.

Extended Description

       None.

Future Directions

       None.

Input Files

       None.

Name

       exec — execute commands and open, close, or copy file descriptors

Operands

       See the DESCRIPTION.

Options

       None.

Output Files

       None.

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.

Rationale

       Most historical implementations were not conformant in that:

           foo=bar exec cmd

       did not pass foo to cmd.

See Also

Section2.14, SpecialBuilt-InUtilities

Stderr

       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

Stdin

       Not used.

Stdout

       Not used.

Synopsis

       exec [command[argument...]]

See Also