false(1)

false1

Return false value

Usage

false

Overview

The false utility always returns with a non-zero exit code.

Some shells may provide a builtin false command which is identical to this utility. Consult the builtin(1) manual page.

Releases

87 releases since FreeBSD 2.0.5-RELEASE; the text changed 38 times.

  1. 2.0.5–3.5.1
  2. 4.0–4.2
  3. 4.3
  4. 4.4
  5. 4.5–4.11
  6. 5.0–6.3
  7. 6.4
  8. 7.0
  9. 7.1
  10. 7.2
  11. 7.3
  12. 7.4
  13. 8.0
  14. 8.1
  15. 8.2
  16. 8.3
  17. 8.4
  18. 9.0
  19. 9.1
  20. 9.2
  21. 9.3
  22. 10.0
  23. 10.1
  24. 10.2
  25. 10.3
  26. 10.4
  27. 11.0
  28. 11.1
  29. 11.2
  30. 11.3
  31. 11.4
  32. 12.0
  33. 12.1
  34. 12.2
  35. 12.3
  36. 12.4
  37. 13.0–13.2
  38. 13.3–14.5
  39. 15.0–16.0

Standards

The false utility is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”) compatible.

From base 16.0-CURRENT-20261027-61c70dc16a79 in FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT (2026-10-27). Parsed by carta from the page's mdoc source.