Manual Pages for UNIX Darwin command on man zshroadmap

ZSHROADMAP(1) ZSHROADMAP(1)

NAME

zshroadmap - informal introduction to the zsh manual

The Zsh Manual, like the shell itself, is large and often complicated. This section of the manual provides some pointers to areas of the shell

that are likely to be of particular interest to new users, and indi-

cates where in the rest of the manual the documentation is to be found. WWHHEENN TTHHEE SSHHEELLLL SSTTAARRTTSS When it starts, the shell reads commands from various files. These can be created or edited to customize the shell. See the section Startup/Shutdown Files in zsh(1).

If no personal intialization files exist for the current user, a func-

tion is run to help you change some of the most common settings. It won't appear if your administrator has disabled the zzsshh//nneewwuusseerr module.

The function is designed to be self-explanatory. You can run it by

hand with `aauuttoollooaadd -UUzz zzsshh-nneewwuusseerr-iinnssttaallll;; zzsshh-nneewwuusseerr-iinnssttaallll -ff'.

IINNTTEERRAACCTTIIVVEE UUSSEE Interaction with the shell uses the builtin Zsh Line Editor, ZLE. This is described in detail in zshzle(1). The first decision a user must make is whether to use the Emacs or Vi editing mode as the keys for editing are substantially different. Emacs editing mode is probably more natural for beginners and can be

selected explicitly with the command bbiinnddkkeeyy -ee.

A history mechanism for retrieving previously typed lines (most simply with the Up or Down arrow keys) is available; note that, unlike other shells, zsh will not save these lines when the shell exits unless you set appropriate variables, and the number of history lines retained by default is quite small (30 lines). See the description of the shell variables (referred to in the documentation as parameters) HHIISSTTFFIILLEE, HHIISSTTSSIIZZEE and SSAAVVEEHHIISSTT in zshparam(1). CCoommpplleettiioonn Completion is a feature present in many shells. It allows the user to type only a part (usually the prefix) of a word and have the shell fill

in the rest. The completion system in zsh is programmable. For exam-

ple, the shell can be set to complete email addresses in arguments to the mail command from your ~~//..aabbooookk//aaddddrreessssbbooookk; usernames, hostnames, and even remote paths in arguments to scp, and so on. Anything that can be written in or glued together with zsh can be the source of what the line editor offers as possible completions. Zsh has two completion systems, an old, so called ccoommppccttll completion (named after the builtin command that serves as its complete and only user interface), and a new one, referred to as ccoommppssyyss, organized as

library of builtin and user-defined functions. The two systems differ

in their interface for specifying the completion behavior. The new system is more customizable and is supplied with completions for many commonly used commands; it is therefore to be preferred. The completion system must be enabled explicitly when the shell starts. For more information see zshcompsys(1). EExxtteennddiinngg tthhee lliinnee eeddiittoorr Apart from completion, the line editor is highly extensible by means of shell functions. Some useful functions are provided with the shell; they provide facilities such as:

iinnsseerrtt-ccoommppoosseedd-cchhaarr

composing characters not found on the keyboard

mmaattcchh-wwoorrddss-bbyy-ssttyyllee

configuring what the line editor considers a word when moving or deleting by word

hhiissttoorryy-bbeeggiinnnniinngg-sseeaarrcchh-bbaacckkwwaarrdd-eenndd, etc.

alternative ways of searching the shell history

rreeppllaaccee-ssttrriinngg, rreeppllaaccee-ppaatttteerrnn

functions for replacing strings or patterns globally in the com-

mand line

eeddiitt-ccoommmmaanndd-lliinnee

edit the command line with an external editor. See the section `ZLE Functions' in zshcontrib(1) for descriptions of these. OOPPTTIIOONNSS The shell has a large number of options for changing its behaviour. These cover all aspects of the shell; browsing the full documentation is the only good way to become acquainted with the many possibilities. See zshoptions(1). PPAATTTTEERRNN MMAATTCCHHIINNGG The shell has a rich set of patterns which are available for file matching (described in the documentation as `filename generation' and

also known for historical reasons as `globbing') and for use when pro-

gramming. These are described in the section `Filename Generation' in zshexpn(1). Of particular interest are the following patterns that are not commonly supported by other systems of pattern matching: **** for matching over multiple directories ~~, ^^ the ability to exclude patterns from matching when the EEXXTTEENNDDEEDDGGLLOOBB option is set

((...)) glob qualifiers, included in parentheses at the end of the pat-

tern, which select files by type (such as directories) or attribute (such as size). GGEENNEERRAALL CCOOMMMMEENNTTSS OONN SSYYNNTTAAXX Although the syntax of zsh is in ways similar to the Korn shell, and therefore more remotely to the original UNIX shell, the Bourne shell, its default behaviour does not entirely correspond to those shells. General shell syntax is introduced in the section `Shell Grammar' in zshmisc(1). One commonly encountered difference is that variables substituted onto the command line are not split into words. See the description of the

shell option SSHHWWOORRDDSSPPLLIITT in the section `Parameter Expansion' in zsh-

expn(1). In zsh, you can either explicitly request the splitting (e.g.

$${{==ffoooo}}) or use an array when you want a variable to expand to more

than one word. See the section `Array Parameters' in zshparam(1). PPRROOGGRRAAMMMMIINNGG

The most convenient way of adding enhancements to the shell is typi-

cally by writing a shell function and arranging for it to be

autoloaded. Functions are described in the section `Functions' in zsh-

misc(1). Users changing from the C shell and its relatives should notice that aliases are less used in zsh as they don't perform argument substitution, only simple text replacement. A few general functions, other than those for the line editor described above, are provided with the shell and are described in zshcontrib(1). Features include: pprroommppttiinniitt

a prompt theme system for changing prompts easily, see the sec-

tion `Prompt Themes'

zzsshh-mmiimmee-sseettuupp

a MIME-handling system which dispatches commands according to

the suffix of a file as done by graphical file managers zzccaallcc a calculator zzaarrggss a version of xxaarrggss that makes the ffiinndd command redundant zzmmvv a command for renaming files by means of shell patterns. zsh 4.3.4 April 19, 2006 ZSHROADMAP(1)