xref: /dragonfly/bin/expr/expr.1 (revision 1de703da)
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31.\" $FreeBSD: src/bin/expr/expr.1,v 1.9.2.4 2003/05/16 22:55:19 keramida Exp $
32.\" $DragonFly: src/bin/expr/expr.1,v 1.2 2003/06/17 04:22:50 dillon Exp $
33.\"
34.Dd May 10, 2002
35.Dt EXPR 1
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm expr
39.Nd evaluate expression
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.Nm
42.Ar expression
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Nm
46utility evaluates
47.Ar expression
48and writes the result on standard output.
49.Pp
50All operators and operands must be passed as separate arguments.
51Several of the operators have special meaning to command interpreters
52and must therefore be quoted appropriately.
53All integer operands are interpreted in base 10.
54.Pp
55Arithmetic operations are performed using signed integer math.
56.Pp
57Operators are listed below in order of increasing precedence; all
58are left-associative.
59Operators with equal precedence are grouped within { } symbols.
60.Bl -tag -width indent
61.It Ar expr1 Li | Ar expr2
62Return the evaluation of
63.Ar expr1
64if it is neither an empty string nor zero;
65otherwise, returns the evaluation of
66.Ar expr2 .
67.It Ar expr1 Li & Ar expr2
68Return the evaluation of
69.Ar expr1
70if neither expression evaluates to an empty string or zero;
71otherwise, returns zero.
72.It Ar expr1 Li "{=, >, >=, <, <=, !=}" Ar expr2
73Return the results of integer comparison if both arguments are integers;
74otherwise, returns the results of string comparison using the locale-specific
75collation sequence.
76The result of each comparison is 1 if the specified relation is true,
77or 0 if the relation is false.
78.It Ar expr1 Li "{+, -}" Ar expr2
79Return the results of addition or subtraction of integer-valued arguments.
80.It Ar expr1 Li "{*, /, %}" Ar expr2
81Return the results of multiplication, integer division, or remainder of integer-valued arguments.
82.It Ar expr1 Li : Ar expr2
83The
84.Dq \&:
85operator matches
86.Ar expr1
87against
88.Ar expr2 ,
89which must be a regular expression.  The regular expression is anchored
90to the beginning of  the string with an implicit
91.Dq ^ .
92.Pp
93If the match succeeds and the pattern contains at least one regular
94expression subexpression
95.Dq "\e(...\e)" ,
96the string corresponding to
97.Dq "\e1"
98is returned;
99otherwise the matching operator returns the number of characters matched.
100If the match fails and the pattern contains a regular expression subexpression
101the null string is returned;
102otherwise 0.
103.El
104.Pp
105Parentheses are used for grouping in the usual manner.
106.Sh EXAMPLES
107.Bl -enum
108.It
109The following example adds one to the variable a.
110.Dl a=`expr $a + 1`
111.It
112The following example returns the filename portion of a pathname stored
113in variable a.  The // characters act to eliminate ambiguity with the
114division operator.
115.Dl expr "//$a" Li : '.*/\e(.*\e)'
116.It
117The following example returns the number of characters in variable a.
118.Dl expr $a Li : '.*'
119.El
120.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
121The
122.Nm
123utility exits with one of the following values:
124.Bl -tag -width indent -compact
125.It 0
126the expression is neither an empty string nor 0.
127.It 1
128the expression is an empty string or 0.
129.It 2
130the expression is invalid.
131.El
132.Sh SEE ALSO
133.Xr sh 1 ,
134.Xr test 1
135.Sh STANDARDS
136The
137.Nm
138utility conforms to
139.St -p1003.2 .
140