UNALIAS(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual UNALIAS(1P)
PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the correspond-
ing Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
unalias -- remove alias definitions
SYNOPSIS
unalias alias-name...
unalias -a
DESCRIPTION
The unalias utility shall remove the definition for each alias name specified. See Section 2.3.1, Alias Substitution. The aliases shall be
removed from the current shell execution environment; see Section 2.12, Shell Execution Environment.
OPTIONS
The unalias utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2008, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
The following option shall be supported:
-a Remove all alias definitions from the current shell execution environment.
OPERANDS
The following operand shall be supported:
alias-name
The name of an alias to be removed.
STDIN
Not used.
INPUT FILES
None.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of unalias:
LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of
POSIX.1-2008, 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.
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.
STDOUT
Not used.
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 One of the alias-name operands specified did not represent a valid alias definition, or an error occurred.
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
Default.
The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
Since unalias affects the current shell execution environment, it is generally provided as a shell regular built-in.
EXAMPLES
None.
RATIONALE
The unalias description is based on that from historical KornShell implementations. Known differences exist between that and the C shell.
The KornShell version was adopted to be consistent with all the other KornShell features in this volume of POSIX.1-2008, such as command
line editing.
The -a option is the equivalent of the unalias * form of the C shell and is provided to address security concerns about unknown aliases
entering the environment of a user (or application) through the allowable implementation-defined predefined alias route or as a result of
an ENV file. (Although unalias could be used to simplify the ``secure'' shell script shown in the command rationale, it does not obviate
the need to quote all command names. An initial call to unalias -a would have to be quoted in case there was an alias for unalias.)
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
Chapter 2, Shell Command Language, alias
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2008, Chapter 8, Environment Variables, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technol-
ogy -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) 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 Stan-
dard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.unix.org/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 2013 UNALIAS(1P)