Programming Tutorials

builtin in Mac OS X

By: Strauss K  

Execute the specified shell builtin, passing it arguments, and return its exit status.

Syntax
      builtin shell-builtin [arguments]

This is useful when defining a function whose name is the same as a shell builtin, retaining the functionality of the builtin within the function. The cd builtin is commonly redefined this way.

The return status is false if shell-builtin is not a shell builtin command.

Example

$ builtin ls

builtin is a builtin command

Archived Comments