Bash 5 reference · Shell Builtins and Syntax

for (Bash builtin)

Loop over words, files, ranges or array elements, or use the C-style form for counters.

Bash 5

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Syntax

for NAME in WORDS; do ...; done   |   for (( init; cond; step )); do ...; done

Parameter	Description
`{1..5}`	Brace expansion range.
`"${arr[@]}"`	Array elements, each kept intact.
`*.log`	Files matching a glob.

Words and ranges

for env in dev prod; do echo "deploy $env"; done
for i in {1..3}; do printf '%s ' "$i"; done; echo

Output

deploy dev
deploy prod
1 2 3

Run this on your computer — see “Get Started” for setup.

C-style loop

for (( i = 10; i > 0; i -= 4 )); do echo "$i"; done

Output

10
6
2

Run this on your computer — see “Get Started” for setup.

while · Repeat commands while a condition succeeds; with read, it's the standard way to process input line by line.
arrays · Indexed and associative arrays: create, append, read elements, count, slice and loop over them safely.
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