.\" Copyright (c) 2001-2003 The Open Group, All Rights Reserved 
.TH "BREAK" P 2003 "IEEE/The Open Group" "POSIX Programmer's Manual"
.\" break 
.SH NAME
break \- exit from for, while, or until loop
.SH SYNOPSIS
.LP
\fBbreak\fP \fB[\fP\fIn\fP\fB]\fP
.SH DESCRIPTION
.LP
The \fIbreak\fP utility shall exit from the smallest enclosing \fBfor\fP,
\fBwhile\fP, or \fBuntil\fP loop, if any; or from
the \fIn\fPth enclosing loop if \fIn\fP is specified. The value of
\fIn\fP is an unsigned decimal integer greater than or equal
to 1. The default shall be equivalent to \fIn\fP=1. If \fIn\fP is
greater than the number of enclosing loops, the outermost
enclosing loop shall be exited. Execution shall continue with the
command immediately following the loop.
.SH OPTIONS
.LP
None.
.SH OPERANDS
.LP
See the DESCRIPTION.
.SH STDIN
.LP
Not used.
.SH INPUT FILES
.LP
None.
.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
.LP
None.
.SH ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
.LP
Default.
.SH STDOUT
.LP
Not used.
.SH STDERR
.LP
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
.SH OUTPUT FILES
.LP
None.
.SH EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
.LP
None.
.SH EXIT STATUS
.TP 7
\ 0
Successful completion.
.TP 7
>0
The \fIn\fP value was not an unsigned decimal integer greater than
or equal to 1.
.sp
.SH CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
.LP
Default.
.LP
\fIThe following sections are informative.\fP
.SH APPLICATION USAGE
.LP
None.
.SH EXAMPLES
.sp
.RS
.nf

\fBfor i in * do
    if test -d "$i" then break fi done
\fP
.fi
.RE
.SH RATIONALE
.LP
In early proposals, consideration was given to expanding the syntax
of \fIbreak\fP and \fIcontinue\fP to refer to a label associated with
the appropriate loop as a preferable
alternative to the \fIn\fP 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:
.sp
.RS
.nf

\fBoutofloop: 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
\fP
.fi
.RE
.LP
and that this might be standardized after implementation experience
is achieved.
.SH FUTURE DIRECTIONS
.LP
None.
.SH SEE ALSO
.LP
\fISpecial Built-In Utilities\fP
.SH 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, Copyright (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.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .