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.
Overview
The type utility shall indicate how each argument would be interpreted if used as a command name.
Options
None.
Operands
The following operand shall be supported:
name
A name to be interpreted.
Stdin
Not used.
Input files
None.
Environment
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
Default.
Stdout
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
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
Output files
None.
Extended description
None.
Exit status
The following exit values shall be returned:
0
Successful completion.
>0
An error occurred.
Consequences of errors
Default.
The following sections are informative.
Application usage
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: