Summary

Changes made using the following commands affect the current login session only. If you want to change your prompt permanently, for example, you should modify or add the prompt setting command in the appropriate startup file for your shell.

 To change your prompt:   In sh or ksh:
                          PS1=newprompt 
                          In csh:
                          set prompt=newprompt 
 To add a directory to    In sh or ksh:
 your path:               PATH=$PATH:newdir 
                          In csh:
                          set path=(/bin /usr/bin $HOME/bin newdir .)
 To change the default    umask permsmask 
 file permissions:
 To change where the      In sh:
 shell looks for mail     MAILPATH=pathname%message 
 and the new mail         In ksh:
 message:                 MAILPATH=pathname?message 
                          In csh:
                          set MAILPATH=pathname 
                          (You cannot change the new mail message in
                          csh.)
 To change how often      In sh or ksh:
 your shell looks for     MAILCHECK=seconds 
 new mail:                In csh:
                          set MAIL=(seconds pathname)
 To create a command      In sh:
 alias:                   aliasname() { command 
                          }
                          In ksh:
                          alias aliasname='command'
                          In csh:
                          alias aliasname 'command'

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 For more information about   See
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 File permissions             chmod(C) 
 File creation mask           umask(C) 
 The files your shell reads   Appendix D, ``Sample shell startup files'' 
 at startup
 The Bourne shell             Chapter  11, ``Automating frequent tasks'' 
                              sh(C) 
 The Korn shell               Chapter  11, ``Automating frequent tasks'' 
                              ksh(C) 
 The C shell                  Chapter  11, ``Automating frequent tasks'' 
                              csh(C)