Re: Command not found with builtins and variables

[Chet Ramey]

On 10/10/18 7:42 AM, bugs@feusi.co wrote:
> Hi,
> I'm not exactly sure if the following is actually a bug or whether bash
> is actually supposed to behave like this. However, I couldn't find any
> documentation concerning it so I decided to ask.
> 
> The thing I noticed is that when setting a variable and then running the
> command "time", bash reports "command not found". For example, the
> command:
> 
> TEST=1 time ls
> 
> Results in "bash: time: command not found"

You don't have a command named `time' in a directory in your $PATH.
Bash doesn't have a `time' builtin; it has a `time' reserved word.
Preceding `time' with a variable assignment removes its special meaning
and causes it to not be recognized as a reserved word.

-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
                 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, UTech, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://tiswww.cwru.edu/~chet/