BREAK(1P)                                           POSIX Programmer's Manual                                          BREAK(1P)



PROLOG
       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (con-
       sult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the  interface  may  not  be  implemented  on
       Linux.

NAME
       break - exit from for, while, or until loop

SYNOPSIS
       break [n]

DESCRIPTION
       The  break  utility  shall  exit from the smallest enclosing for, while, or until loop, if any; or from the nth enclosing
       loop if n is specified. The value of n is an unsigned decimal integer greater than or equal to 1. The  default  shall  be
       equivalent to n=1. If n is greater than the number of enclosing loops, the outermost enclosing loop shall be exited. Exe-
       cution shall continue with the command immediately following the loop.

OPTIONS
       None.

OPERANDS
       See the DESCRIPTION.

STDIN
       Not used.

INPUT FILES
       None.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       None.

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
        0     Successful completion.

       >0     The n value was not an unsigned decimal integer greater than or equal to 1.


CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE
       None.

EXAMPLES
              for i in * do
                  if test -d "$i" then break fi done

RATIONALE
       In early proposals, consideration was given to expanding the syntax of break and continue to refer to a label  associated
       with  the appropriate loop as a preferable alternative to the n method. However, this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 does
       reserve the name space of command names ending with a colon. It is anticipated that a future  implementation  could  take
       advantage of this and provide something like:


              outofloop: for i in a b c d e
              do
                  for j in 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
                  do
                      if test -r "${i}${j}"
                      then break outofloop
                      fi
                  done
              done

       and that this might be standardized after implementation experience is achieved.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.

SEE ALSO
       Special Built-In Utilities

COPYRIGHT
       Portions  of  this  text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for
       Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6,  Copy-
       right (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. 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
       Standard   is   the   referee   document.   The   original   Standard   can   be   obtained  online  at  http://www.open-
       group.org/unix/online.html .



IEEE/The Open Group                                           2003                                                     BREAK(1P)