TRUE(1)            User Commands           TRUE(1)

NAME
 true - do nothing, successfully
SYNOPSIS
 true [ignored command line arguments]
 true OPTION
DESCRIPTION
 Exit with a status code indicating success.
 --help display this help and exit
 --version
 output version information and exit
 NOTE: your shell may have its own version of true, which usually
supersedes the version described here. 
 Please refer to your shell's documentation for details about the
options it supports. 
AUTHOR
 Written by Jim Meyering.
REPORTING BUGS
 Report bugs to <bug-coreutils@gnu.org>.
COPYRIGHT
 Copyright <co> 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License
GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later 
 <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
 This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute
it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. 
SEE ALSO
 The full documentation for true is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If
the info and true programs are properly installed at your site, the
command 

 info true

 should give you access to the complete manual.


GNU coreutils 6.10         August 2008             1

File: coreutils.info,  Node: true invocation,  Next: test invocation,
Prev: false invocation,  Up: Conditions 

16.2 `true': Do nothing, successfully
=====================================

`true' does nothing except return an exit status of 0, meaning
"success".  It can be used as a place holder in shell scripts where a
successful command is needed, although the shell built-in command `:'
(colon) may do the same thing faster.  In most modern shells, `true' is
a built-in command, so when you use `true' in a script, you're probably
using the built-in command, not the one documented here.

   `true' honors the `--help' and `--version' options.

   Note, however, that it is possible to cause `true' to exit with
nonzero status: with the `--help' or `--version' option, and with
standard output already closed or redirected to a file that evokes an
I/O error.  For example, using a Bourne-compatible shell:

     $ ./true --version >&-
     ./true: write error: Bad file number
     $ ./true --version > /dev/full
     ./true: write error: No space left on device

   This version of `true' is implemented as a C program, and is thus
more secure and faster than a shell script implementation, and may
safely be used as a dummy shell for the purpose of disabling accounts.