break

Additional Notes

break is a shell builtin used inside loops. It exits the current loop, or multiple nested loops when given a numeric argument.

Use it in shell scripts when a condition means the loop should stop early.

Syntax

break [n]

Parameters

• n: Optional number of nested loops to exit. Default is 1.

Examples

for file in *.log; do
  [ -e "$file" ] || break
  echo "$file"
done

Stop if the glob did not match a real file.

while true; do
  read -r answer
  [ "$answer" = "quit" ] && break
done

Exit an infinite loop when the user types quit.

for a in 1 2; do
  for b in 1 2; do
    break 2
  done
done

Exit two nested loops.

Practical Notes

• break only makes sense inside loops.
• Use continue when you want the next iteration instead of leaving the loop.
• In scripts, clear loop conditions are usually easier to read than too many nested breaks.