Using the shift command

Usually only nine command line arguments can be accessed using positional parameters. The shift command gives access to command line arguments greater than nine by shifting each of the arguments.

The second argument ($2) becomes the first ($1), the third ($3) becomes the second ($2) and so on. This gives you access to the tenth command line argument by making it the ninth. The first argument is no longer available.

Successive shift commands make additional arguments available. Note that there is no "unshift" command to bring back arguments that are no longer available!

• Example