Shift built-in

The shift built-in removes some positional parameters.

Synopsis

shift [n]

Description

The built-in removes the first n positional parameters from the list of positional parameters. If n is omitted, it is assumed to be 1.

Options

None.

Operands

The operand specifies the number of positional parameters to remove. It must be a non-negative decimal integer less than or equal to the number of positional parameters.

Errors

It is an error to try to remove more than the number of existing positional parameters.

Exit status

Zero if successful, non-zero if an error occurred.

Examples

Modifying positional parameters includes an example of the shift built-in.

Compatibility

The shift built-in is part of POSIX.1-2024.

In some shells, the shift built-in lacks support for the -- separator.