index

A User's Guide to the Z-Shell.

Peter Stephenson — 2003/03/23

Table of Contents

• Chapter 1: A short introduction
  • 1.1: Other shells and other guides
  • 1.2: Versions of zsh
  • 1.3: Conventions
  • 1.4: Acknowledgments
• Chapter 2: What to put in your startup files
  • 2.1: Types of shell: interactive and login shells
    • 2.1.1: What is a login shell? Simple tests
  • 2.2: All the startup files
  • 2.3: Options
  • 2.4: Parameters
    • 2.4.1: Arrays
  • 2.5: What to put in your startup files
    • 2.5.1: Compatibility options: SH_WORD_SPLIT and others
    • 2.5.2: Options for csh junkies
    • 2.5.3: The history mechanism: types of history
    • 2.5.4: Setting up history
    • 2.5.5: History options
    • 2.5.6: Prompts
    • 2.5.7: Named directories
    • 2.5.8: `Go faster' options for power users
    • 2.5.9: aliases
    • 2.5.10: Environment variables
    • 2.5.11: Path
    • 2.5.12: Mail
    • 2.5.13: Other path-like things
    • 2.5.14: Version-specific things
    • 2.5.15: Everything else
• Chapter 3: Dealing with basic shell syntax
  • 3.1: External commands
  • 3.2: Builtin commands
    • 3.2.1: Builtins for printing
    • 3.2.2: Other builtins just for speed
    • 3.2.3: Builtins which change the shell's state
    • 3.2.4: cd and friends
    • 3.2.5: Command control and information commands
    • 3.2.6: Parameter control
    • 3.2.7: History control commands
    • 3.2.8: Job control and process control
    • 3.2.9: Terminals, users, etc.
    • 3.2.10: Syntactic oddments
    • 3.2.11: More precommand modifiers: exec , noglob
    • 3.2.12: Testing things
    • 3.2.13: Handling options to functions and scripts
    • 3.2.14: Random file control things
    • 3.2.15: Don't watch this space, watch some other
    • 3.2.16: And also
  • 3.3: Functions
    • 3.3.1: Loading functions
    • 3.3.2: Function parameters
    • 3.3.3: Compiling functions
  • 3.4: Aliases
  • 3.5: Command summary
  • 3.6: Expansions and quotes
    • 3.6.1: History expansion
    • 3.6.2: Alias expansion
    • 3.6.3: Process, parameter, command, arithmetic and brace expansion
    • 3.6.4: Filename Expansion
    • 3.6.5: Filename Generation
  • 3.7: Redirection: greater-thans and less-thans
    • 3.7.1: Clobber
    • 3.7.2: File descriptors
    • 3.7.3: Appending, here documents, here strings, read write
    • 3.7.4: Clever tricks: exec and other file descriptors
    • 3.7.5: Multios
  • 3.8: Shell syntax: loops, (sub)shells and so on
    • 3.8.1: Logical command connectors
    • 3.8.2: Structures
    • 3.8.3: Subshells and current shell constructs
    • 3.8.4: Subshells and current shells
  • 3.9: Emulation and portability
    • 3.9.1: Differences in detail
    • 3.9.2: Making your own scripts and functions portable
  • 3.10: Running scripts
• Chapter 4: The Z-Shell Line Editor
  • 4.1: Introducing zle
    • 4.1.1: The simple facts
    • 4.1.2: Vi mode
  • 4.2: Basic editing
    • 4.2.1: Moving
    • 4.2.2: Deleting
    • 4.2.3: More deletion
  • 4.3: Fancier editing
    • 4.3.1: Options controlling zle
    • 4.3.2: The minibuffer and extended commands
    • 4.3.3: Prefix (digit) arguments
    • 4.3.4: Words, regions and marks
    • 4.3.5: Regions and marks
  • 4.4: History and searching
    • 4.4.1: Moving through the history
    • 4.4.2: Searching through the history
    • 4.4.3: Extracting words from the history
  • 4.5: Binding keys and handling keymaps
    • 4.5.1: Simple key bindings
    • 4.5.2: Removing key bindings
    • 4.5.3: Function keys and so on
    • 4.5.4: Binding strings instead of commands
    • 4.5.5: Keymaps
  • 4.6: Advanced editing
    • 4.6.1: Multi-line editing
    • 4.6.2: The builtin vared and the function zed
    • 4.6.3: The buffer stack
  • 4.7: Extending zle
    • 4.7.1: Widgets
    • 4.7.2: Executing other widgets
    • 4.7.3: Some special builtin widgets and their uses
    • 4.7.4: Special parameters: normal text
    • 4.7.5: Other special parameters
    • 4.7.6: Reading keys and using the minibuffer
    • 4.7.7: Examples
• Chapter 5: Substitutions
  • 5.1: Quoting
    • 5.1.1: Backslashes
    • 5.1.2: Single quotes
    • 5.1.3: POSIX quotes
    • 5.1.4: Double quotes
    • 5.1.5: Backquotes
  • 5.2: Modifiers and what they modify
  • 5.3: Process Substitution
  • 5.4: Parameter substitution
    • 5.4.1: Using arrays
    • 5.4.2: Using associative arrays
    • 5.4.3: Substituted substitutions, top- and tailing, etc.
    • 5.4.4: Flags for options: splitting and joining
    • 5.4.5: Flags for options: GLOB_SUBST and RC_EXPAND_PARAM
    • 5.4.6: Yet more parameter flags
    • 5.4.7: A couple of parameter substitution tricks
    • 5.4.8: Nested parameter substitutions
  • 5.5: That substitution again
  • 5.6: Arithmetic Expansion
    • 5.6.1: Entering and outputting bases
    • 5.6.2: Parameter typing
  • 5.7: Brace Expansion and Arrays
  • 5.8: Filename Expansion
  • 5.9: Filename Generation and Pattern Matching
    • 5.9.1: Comparing patterns and regular expressions
    • 5.9.2: Standard features
    • 5.9.3: Extensions usually available
    • 5.9.4: Extensions requiring EXTENDED_GLOB
    • 5.9.5: Recursive globbing
    • 5.9.6: Glob qualifiers
    • 5.9.7: Globbing flags: alter the behaviour of matches
    • 5.9.8: The function zmv
• Chapter 6: Completion, old and new
  • 6.1: Completion and expansion
  • 6.2: Configuring completion using shell options
    • 6.2.1: Ambiguous completions
    • 6.2.2: ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT
    • 6.2.3: Menu completion and menu selection
    • 6.2.4: Other ways of changing completion behaviour
    • 6.2.5: Changing the way completions are displayed
  • 6.3: Getting started with new completion
  • 6.4: How the shell finds the right completions
    • 6.4.1: Contexts
    • 6.4.2: Tags
  • 6.5: Configuring completion using styles
    • 6.5.1: Specifying completers and their options
    • 6.5.2: Changing the format of listings: groups etc.
    • 6.5.3: Styles affecting particular completions
  • 6.6: Command widgets
    • 6.6.1: _complete_help
    • 6.6.2: _correct_word , _correct_filename , _expand_word
    • 6.6.3: _history_complete_word
    • 6.6.4: _most_recent_file
    • 6.6.5: _next_tags
    • 6.6.6: _bash_completions
    • 6.6.7: _read_comp
    • 6.6.8: _generic
    • 6.6.9: predict-on , incremental-complete-word
  • 6.7: Matching control and controlling where things are inserted
    • 6.7.1: Case-insensitive matching
    • 6.7.2: Matching option names
    • 6.7.3: Partial word completion
    • 6.7.4: Substring completion
    • 6.7.5: Partial words with capitals
    • 6.7.6: Final notes
  • 6.8: Tutorial
    • 6.8.1: The dispatcher
    • 6.8.2: Subcommand completion: _arguments
    • 6.8.3: Completing particular argument types
    • 6.8.4: The rest
  • 6.9: Writing new completion functions and widgets
    • 6.9.1: Loading completion functions: compdef
    • 6.9.2: Adding a set of completions: compadd
    • 6.9.3: Functions for generating filenames, etc.
    • 6.9.4: The zsh/parameter module
    • 6.9.5: Special completion parameters and compset
    • 6.9.6: Fancier completion: using the tags and styles mechanism
    • 6.9.7: Getting the work done for you: handling arguments etc.
    • 6.9.8: More completion utility functions
  • 6.10: Finally
• Chapter 7: Modules and other bits and pieces Not written
  • 7.1: Control over modules: zmodload
    • 7.1.1: Modules defining parameters
    • 7.1.2: Low-level system interaction
    • 7.1.3: ZFTP
  • 7.2: Contributed bits
    • 7.2.1: Prompt themes
  • 7.3: What's new in 4.1
• Appendix 1: Obtaining zsh and getting more information Not written