Types of Commands

When a command is executed, it is an alias, a function, a built-in command, or an executable

program on disk. Aliases are abbreviations (nicknames) for existing commands and apply to
the C, TC, Bash, and Korn shells. Functions apply to the Bourne (introduced with AT&T
System V, Release 2.0), Bash, and Korn shells. They are groups of commands organized as
separate routines. Aliases and functions are defined within the shell's memory. Built-in
commands are internal routines in the shell, and executable programs reside on disk. The shell
uses the path variable to locate the executable programs on disk and forks a child process
before the command can be executed. This takes time. When the shell is ready to execute the
command, it evaluates command types in the following order:
[2]

1. Aliases
2. Keywords
3. Functions (bash)
4. Built-in commands
5. Executable programs
If, for example, the command is xyz the shell will check to see if xyz is an alias. If not, is it a
built-in command or a function? If neither of those, it must be an executable command
residing on the disk. The shell then must search the path for the command.