command (Unix)

command is a shell command for executing a command without invoking a function or alias that has the same name.^[1] The command line arguments consist of an inner command line to executed. If the first argument is the name of a function or alias as well as the name of a command, then normally the function or alias takes precedence, but when passed as an argument to command the inner command is invoked instead of the function.^[2]

The command is available on Unix and Unix-like operating systems. It is specified in the POSIX standard and is often implemented in Unix shells as a shell builtin function or alias.

In the following, the ls command is run directly instead of invoking a function or alias with the same name.

$ command ls 

• List of POSIX commands

• command – Shell and Utilities Reference, The Single UNIX Specification, Version 5 from The Open Group