1ZSHBUILTINS(1) General Commands Manual ZSHBUILTINS(1)
2
6 zshbuiltins - zsh built-in commands
7
9 Some shell builtin commands take options as described in individual en‐
10 tries; these are often referred to in the list below as `flags' to
11 avoid confusion with shell options, which may also have an effect on
12 the behaviour of builtin commands. In this introductory section, `op‐
13 tion' always has the meaning of an option to a command that should be
14 familiar to most command line users.
15 Typically, options are single letters preceded by a hyphen (-). Op‐
17 tions that take an argument accept it either immediately following the
18 option letter or after white space, for example `print -C3 {1..9}' or
19 `print -C 3 {1..9}' are equivalent. Arguments to options are not the
20 same as arguments to the command; the documentation indicates which is
21 which. Options that do not take an argument may be combined in a sin‐
22 gle word, for example `print -rca -- *' and `print -r -c -a -- *' are
23 equivalent.
24 Some shell builtin commands also take options that begin with `+' in‐
26 stead of `-'. The list below makes clear which commands these are.
27 Options (together with their individual arguments, if any) must appear
29 in a group before any non-option arguments; once the first non-option
30 argument has been found, option processing is terminated.
31 All builtin commands other than `echo' and precommand modifiers, even
33 those that have no options, can be given the argument `--' to terminate
34 option processing. This indicates that the following words are non-op‐
35 tion arguments, but is otherwise ignored. This is useful in cases
36 where arguments to the command may begin with `-'. For historical rea‐
37 sons, most builtin commands (including `echo') also recognize a single
38 `-' in a separate word for this purpose; note that this is less stan‐
39 dard and use of `--' is recommended.
40 - simple command
42 See the section `Precommand Modifiers' in zshmisc(1).
43 . file [ arg ... ]
45 Read commands from file and execute them in the current shell
46 environment.
47 If file does not contain a slash, or if PATH_DIRS is set, the
49 shell looks in the components of $path to find the directory
50 containing file. Files in the current directory are not read
51 unless `.' appears somewhere in $path. If a file named
52 `file.zwc' is found, is newer than file, and is the compiled
53 form (created with the zcompile builtin) of file, then commands
54 are read from that file instead of file.
55 If any arguments arg are given, they become the positional pa‐
57 rameters; the old positional parameters are restored when the
58 file is done executing. However, if no arguments are given, the
59 positional parameters remain those of the calling context, and
60 no restoring is done.
61 If file was not found the return status is 127; if file was
63 found but contained a syntax error the return status is 126;
64 else the return status is the exit status of the last command
65 executed.
66 : [ arg ... ]
68 This command does nothing, although normal argument expansions
69 is performed which may have effects on shell parameters. A zero
70 exit status is returned.
71 alias [ {+|-}gmrsL ] [ name[=value] ... ]
73 For each name with a corresponding value, define an alias with
74 that value. A trailing space in value causes the next word to
75 be checked for alias expansion. If the -g flag is present, de‐
76 fine a global alias; global aliases are expanded even if they do
77 not occur in command position.
78 If the -s flag is present, define a suffix alias: if the command
80 word on a command line is in the form `text.name', where text is
81 any non-empty string, it is replaced by the text `value
82 text.name'. Note that name is treated as a literal string, not
83 a pattern. A trailing space in value is not special in this
84 case. For example,
85 alias -s ps='gv --'
87 will cause the command `*.ps' to be expanded to `gv -- *.ps'.
89 As alias expansion is carried out earlier than globbing, the
90 `*.ps' will then be expanded. Suffix aliases constitute a dif‐
91 ferent name space from other aliases (so in the above example it
92 is still possible to create an alias for the command ps) and the
93 two sets are never listed together.
94 For each name with no value, print the value of name, if any.
96 With no arguments, print all currently defined aliases other
97 than suffix aliases. If the -m flag is given the arguments are
98 taken as patterns (they should be quoted to preserve them from
99 being interpreted as glob patterns), and the aliases matching
100 these patterns are printed. When printing aliases and one of
101 the -g, -r or -s flags is present, restrict the printing to
102 global, regular or suffix aliases, respectively; a regular alias
103 is one which is neither a global nor a suffix alias. Using `+'
104 instead of `-', or ending the option list with a single `+',
105 prevents the values of the aliases from being printed.
106 If the -L flag is present, then print each alias in a manner
108 suitable for putting in a startup script. The exit status is
109 nonzero if a name (with no value) is given for which no alias
110 has been defined.
111 For more on aliases, include common problems, see the section
113 ALIASING in zshmisc(1).
114 autoload [ {+|-}RTUXdkmrtWz ] [ -w ] [ name ... ]
116 See the section `Autoloading Functions' in zshmisc(1) for full
117 details. The fpath parameter will be searched to find the func‐
118 tion definition when the function is first referenced.
119 If name consists of an absolute path, the function is defined to
121 load from the file given (searching as usual for dump files in
122 the given location). The name of the function is the basename
123 (non-directory part) of the file. It is normally an error if
124 the function is not found in the given location; however, if the
125 option -d is given, searching for the function defaults to
126 $fpath. If a function is loaded by absolute path, any functions
127 loaded from it that are marked for autoload without an absolute
128 path have the load path of the parent function temporarily
129 prepended to $fpath.
130 If the option -r or -R is given, the function is searched for
132 immediately and the location is recorded internally for use when
133 the function is executed; a relative path is expanded using the
134 value of $PWD. This protects against a change to $fpath after
135 the call to autoload. With -r, if the function is not found, it
136 is silently left unresolved until execution; with -R, an error
137 message is printed and command processing aborted immediately
138 the search fails, i.e. at the autoload command rather than at
139 function execution..
140 The flag -X may be used only inside a shell function. It causes
142 the calling function to be marked for autoloading and then imme‐
143 diately loaded and executed, with the current array of posi‐
144 tional parameters as arguments. This replaces the previous def‐
145 inition of the function. If no function definition is found, an
146 error is printed and the function remains undefined and marked
147 for autoloading. If an argument is given, it is used as a di‐
148 rectory (i.e. it does not include the name of the function) in
149 which the function is to be found; this may be combined with the
150 -d option to allow the function search to default to $fpath if
151 it is not in the given location.
152 The flag +X attempts to load each name as an autoloaded func‐
154 tion, but does not execute it. The exit status is zero (suc‐
155 cess) if the function was not previously defined and a defini‐
156 tion for it was found. This does not replace any existing defi‐
157 nition of the function. The exit status is nonzero (failure) if
158 the function was already defined or when no definition was
159 found. In the latter case the function remains undefined and
160 marked for autoloading. If ksh-style autoloading is enabled,
161 the function created will contain the contents of the file plus
162 a call to the function itself appended to it, thus giving normal
163 ksh autoloading behaviour on the first call to the function. If
164 the -m flag is also given each name is treated as a pattern and
165 all functions already marked for autoload that match the pattern
166 are loaded.
167 With the -t flag, turn on execution tracing; with -T, turn on
169 execution tracing only for the current function, turning it off
170 on entry to any called functions that do not also have tracing
171 enabled.
172 With the -U flag, alias expansion is suppressed when the func‐
174 tion is loaded.
175 With the -w flag, the names are taken as names of files compiled
177 with the zcompile builtin, and all functions defined in them are
178 marked for autoloading.
179 The flags -z and -k mark the function to be autoloaded using the
181 zsh or ksh style, as if the option KSH_AUTOLOAD were unset or
182 were set, respectively. The flags override the setting of the
183 option at the time the function is loaded.
184 Note that the autoload command makes no attempt to ensure the
186 shell options set during the loading or execution of the file
187 have any particular value. For this, the emulate command can be
188 used:
189 emulate zsh -c 'autoload -Uz func'
191 arranges that when func is loaded the shell is in native zsh em‐
193 ulation, and this emulation is also applied when func is run.
194 Some of the functions of autoload are also provided by functions
196 -u or functions -U, but autoload is a more comprehensive inter‐
197 face.
198 bg [ job ... ]
200 job ... &
201 Put each specified job in the background, or the current job if
202 none is specified.
203 bindkey
205 See the section `Zle Builtins' in zshzle(1).
206 break [ n ]
208 Exit from an enclosing for, while, until, select or repeat loop.
209 If an arithmetic expression n is specified, then break n levels
210 instead of just one.
211 builtin name [ args ... ]
213 Executes the builtin name, with the given args.
214 bye Same as exit.
216 cap See the section `The zsh/cap Module' in zshmodules(1).
218 cd [ -qsLP ] [ arg ]
220 cd [ -qsLP ] old new
221 cd [ -qsLP ] {+|-}n
222 Change the current directory. In the first form, change the
223 current directory to arg, or to the value of $HOME if arg is not
224 specified. If arg is `-', change to the previous directory.
225 Otherwise, if arg begins with a slash, attempt to change to the
227 directory given by arg.
228 If arg does not begin with a slash, the behaviour depends on
230 whether the current directory `.' occurs in the list of directo‐
231 ries contained in the shell parameter cdpath. If it does not,
232 first attempt to change to the directory arg under the current
233 directory, and if that fails but cdpath is set and contains at
234 least one element attempt to change to the directory arg under
235 each component of cdpath in turn until successful. If `.' oc‐
236 curs in cdpath, then cdpath is searched strictly in order so
237 that `.' is only tried at the appropriate point.
238 The order of testing cdpath is modified if the option POSIX_CD
240 is set, as described in the documentation for the option.
241 If no directory is found, the option CDABLE_VARS is set, and a
243 parameter named arg exists whose value begins with a slash,
244 treat its value as the directory. In that case, the parameter
245 is added to the named directory hash table.
246 The second form of cd substitutes the string new for the string
248 old in the name of the current directory, and tries to change to
249 this new directory.
250 The third form of cd extracts an entry from the directory stack,
252 and changes to that directory. An argument of the form `+n'
253 identifies a stack entry by counting from the left of the list
254 shown by the dirs command, starting with zero. An argument of
255 the form `-n' counts from the right. If the PUSHD_MINUS option
256 is set, the meanings of `+' and `-' in this context are swapped.
257 If the POSIX_CD option is set, this form of cd is not recognised
258 and will be interpreted as the first form.
259 If the -q (quiet) option is specified, the hook function chpwd
261 and the functions in the array chpwd_functions are not called.
262 This is useful for calls to cd that do not change the environ‐
263 ment seen by an interactive user.
264 If the -s option is specified, cd refuses to change the current
266 directory if the given pathname contains symlinks. If the -P
267 option is given or the CHASE_LINKS option is set, symbolic links
268 are resolved to their true values. If the -L option is given
269 symbolic links are retained in the directory (and not resolved)
270 regardless of the state of the CHASE_LINKS option.
271 chdir Same as cd.
273 clone See the section `The zsh/clone Module' in zshmodules(1).
275 command [ -pvV ] simple command
277 The simple command argument is taken as an external command in‐
278 stead of a function or builtin and is executed. If the
279 POSIX_BUILTINS option is set, builtins will also be executed but
280 certain special properties of them are suppressed. The -p flag
281 causes a default path to be searched instead of that in $path.
282 With the -v flag, command is similar to whence and with -V, it
283 is equivalent to whence -v.
284 See also the section `Precommand Modifiers' in zshmisc(1).
286 comparguments
288 See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
289 compcall
291 See the section `The zsh/compctl Module' in zshmodules(1).
292 compctl
294 See the section `The zsh/compctl Module' in zshmodules(1).
295 compdescribe
297 See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
298 compfiles
300 See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
301 compgroups
303 See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
304 compquote
306 See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
307 comptags
309 See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
310 comptry
312 See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
313 compvalues
315 See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
316 continue [ n ]
318 Resume the next iteration of the enclosing for, while, until,
319 select or repeat loop. If an arithmetic expression n is speci‐
320 fied, break out of n-1 loops and resume at the nth enclosing
321 loop.
322 declare
324 Same as typeset.
325 dirs [ -c ] [ arg ... ]
327 dirs [ -lpv ]
328 With no arguments, print the contents of the directory stack.
329 Directories are added to this stack with the pushd command, and
330 removed with the cd or popd commands. If arguments are speci‐
331 fied, load them onto the directory stack, replacing anything
332 that was there, and push the current directory onto the stack.
333 -c clear the directory stack.
335 -l print directory names in full instead of using of using ~
337 expressions (see Dynamic and Static named directories in
338 zshexpn(1)).
339 -p print directory entries one per line.
341 -v number the directories in the stack when printing.
343 disable [ -afmprs ] name ...
345 Temporarily disable the named hash table elements or patterns.
346 The default is to disable builtin commands. This allows you to
347 use an external command with the same name as a builtin command.
348 The -a option causes disable to act on regular or global
349 aliases. The -s option causes disable to act on suffix aliases.
350 The -f option causes disable to act on shell functions. The -r
351 options causes disable to act on reserved words. Without argu‐
352 ments all disabled hash table elements from the corresponding
353 hash table are printed. With the -m flag the arguments are
354 taken as patterns (which should be quoted to prevent them from
355 undergoing filename expansion), and all hash table elements from
356 the corresponding hash table matching these patterns are dis‐
357 abled. Disabled objects can be enabled with the enable command.
358 With the option -p, name ... refer to elements of the shell's
360 pattern syntax as described in the section `Filename Genera‐
361 tion'. Certain elements can be disabled separately, as given
362 below.
363 Note that patterns not allowed by the current settings for the
365 options EXTENDED_GLOB, KSH_GLOB and SH_GLOB are never enabled,
366 regardless of the setting here. For example, if EXTENDED_GLOB
367 is not active, the pattern ^ is ineffective even if `disable -p
368 "^"' has not been issued. The list below indicates any option
369 settings that restrict the use of the pattern. It should be
370 noted that setting SH_GLOB has a wider effect than merely dis‐
371 abling patterns as certain expressions, in particular those in‐
372 volving parentheses, are parsed differently.
373 The following patterns may be disabled; all the strings need
375 quoting on the command line to prevent them from being inter‐
376 preted immediately as patterns and the patterns are shown below
377 in single quotes as a reminder.
378 '?' The pattern character ? wherever it occurs, including
380 when preceding a parenthesis with KSH_GLOB.
381 '*' The pattern character * wherever it occurs, including re‐
383 cursive globbing and when preceding a parenthesis with
384 KSH_GLOB.
385 '[' Character classes.
387 '<' (NO_SH_GLOB)
389 Numeric ranges.
390 '|' (NO_SH_GLOB)
392 Alternation in grouped patterns, case statements, or
393 KSH_GLOB parenthesised expressions.
394 '(' (NO_SH_GLOB)
396 Grouping using single parentheses. Disabling this does
397 not disable the use of parentheses for KSH_GLOB where
398 they are introduced by a special character, nor for glob
399 qualifiers (use `setopt NO_BARE_GLOB_QUAL' to disable
400 glob qualifiers that use parentheses only).
401 '~' (EXTENDED_GLOB)
403 Exclusion in the form A~B.
404 '^' (EXTENDED_GLOB)
406 Exclusion in the form A^B.
407 '#' (EXTENDED_GLOB)
409 The pattern character # wherever it occurs, both for rep‐
410 etition of a previous pattern and for indicating globbing
411 flags.
412 '?(' (KSH_GLOB)
414 The grouping form ?(...). Note this is also disabled if
415 '?' is disabled.
416 '*(' (KSH_GLOB)
418 The grouping form *(...). Note this is also disabled if
419 '*' is disabled.
420 '+(' (KSH_GLOB)
422 The grouping form +(...).
423 '!(' (KSH_GLOB)
425 The grouping form !(...).
426 '@(' (KSH_GLOB)
428 The grouping form @(...).
429 disown [ job ... ]
431 job ... &|
432 job ... &!
433 Remove the specified jobs from the job table; the shell will no
434 longer report their status, and will not complain if you try to
435 exit an interactive shell with them running or stopped. If no
436 job is specified, disown the current job.
437 If the jobs are currently stopped and the AUTO_CONTINUE option
439 is not set, a warning is printed containing information about
440 how to make them running after they have been disowned. If one
441 of the latter two forms is used, the jobs will automatically be
442 made running, independent of the setting of the AUTO_CONTINUE
443 option.
444 echo [ -neE ] [ arg ... ]
446 Write each arg on the standard output, with a space separating
447 each one. If the -n flag is not present, print a newline at the
448 end. echo recognizes the following escape sequences:
449 \a bell character
451 \b backspace
452 \c suppress subsequent characters and final newline
453 \e escape
454 \f form feed
455 \n linefeed (newline)
456 \r carriage return
457 \t horizontal tab
458 \v vertical tab
459 \\ backslash
460 \0NNN character code in octal
461 \xNN character code in hexadecimal
462 \uNNNN unicode character code in hexadecimal
463 \UNNNNNNNN
464 unicode character code in hexadecimal
465 The -E flag, or the BSD_ECHO option, can be used to disable
467 these escape sequences. In the latter case, -e flag can be used
468 to enable them.
469 Note that for standards compliance a double dash does not termi‐
471 nate option processing; instead, it is printed directly. How‐
472 ever, a single dash does terminate option processing, so the
473 first dash, possibly following options, is not printed, but ev‐
474 erything following it is printed as an argument. The single
475 dash behaviour is different from other shells. For a more por‐
476 table way of printing text, see printf, and for a more control‐
477 lable way of printing text within zsh, see print.
478 echotc See the section `The zsh/termcap Module' in zshmodules(1).
480 echoti See the section `The zsh/terminfo Module' in zshmodules(1).
482 emulate [ -lLR ] [ {zsh|sh|ksh|csh} [ flags ... ] ]
484 Without any argument print current emulation mode.
485 With single argument set up zsh options to emulate the specified
487 shell as much as possible. csh will never be fully emulated.
488 If the argument is not one of the shells listed above, zsh will
489 be used as a default; more precisely, the tests performed on the
490 argument are the same as those used to determine the emulation
491 at startup based on the shell name, see the section COMPATIBIL‐
492 ITY in zsh(1) . In addition to setting shell options, the com‐
493 mand also restores the pristine state of pattern enables, as if
494 all patterns had been enabled using enable -p.
495 If the emulate command occurs inside a function that has been
497 marked for execution tracing with functions -t then the xtrace
498 option will be turned on regardless of emulation mode or other
499 options. Note that code executed inside the function by the .,
500 source, or eval commands is not considered to be running di‐
501 rectly from the function, hence does not provoke this behaviour.
502 If the -R switch is given, all settable options are reset to
504 their default value corresponding to the specified emulation
505 mode, except for certain options describing the interactive en‐
506 vironment; otherwise, only those options likely to cause porta‐
507 bility problems in scripts and functions are altered. If the -L
508 switch is given, the options LOCAL_OPTIONS, LOCAL_PATTERNS and
509 LOCAL_TRAPS will be set as well, causing the effects of the emu‐
510 late command and any setopt, disable -p or enable -p, and trap
511 commands to be local to the immediately surrounding shell func‐
512 tion, if any; normally these options are turned off in all emu‐
513 lation modes except ksh. The -L switch is mutually exclusive
514 with the use of -c in flags.
515 If there is a single argument and the -l switch is given, the
517 options that would be set or unset (the latter indicated with
518 the prefix `no') are listed. -l can be combined with -L or -R
519 and the list will be modified in the appropriate way. Note the
520 list does not depend on the current setting of options, i.e. it
521 includes all options that may in principle change, not just
522 those that would actually change.
523 The flags may be any of the invocation-time flags described in
525 the section INVOCATION in zsh(1), except that `-o EMACS' and `-o
526 VI' may not be used. Flags such as `+r'/`+o RESTRICTED' may be
527 prohibited in some circumstances.
528 If -c arg appears in flags, arg is evaluated while the requested
530 emulation is temporarily in effect. In this case the emulation
531 mode and all options are restored to their previous values be‐
532 fore emulate returns. The -R switch may precede the name of the
533 shell to emulate; note this has a meaning distinct from includ‐
534 ing -R in flags.
535 Use of -c enables `sticky' emulation mode for functions defined
537 within the evaluated expression: the emulation mode is associ‐
538 ated thereafter with the function so that whenever the function
539 is executed the emulation (respecting the -R switch, if present)
540 and all options are set (and pattern disables cleared) before
541 entry to the function, and the state is restored after exit. If
542 the function is called when the sticky emulation is already in
543 effect, either within an `emulate shell -c' expression or within
544 another function with the same sticky emulation, entry and exit
545 from the function do not cause options to be altered (except due
546 to standard processing such as the LOCAL_OPTIONS option). This
547 also applies to functions marked for autoload within the sticky
548 emulation; the appropriate set of options will be applied at the
549 point the function is loaded as well as when it is run.
550 For example:
552 emulate sh -c 'fni() { setopt cshnullglob; }
554 fno() { fni; }'
555 fno
556 The two functions fni and fno are defined with sticky sh emula‐
558 tion. fno is then executed, causing options associated with em‐
559 ulations to be set to their values in sh. fno then calls fni;
560 because fni is also marked for sticky sh emulation, no option
561 changes take place on entry to or exit from it. Hence the op‐
562 tion cshnullglob, turned off by sh emulation, will be turned on
563 within fni and remain on return to fno. On exit from fno, the
564 emulation mode and all options will be restored to the state
565 they were in before entry to the temporary emulation.
566 The documentation above is typically sufficient for the intended
568 purpose of executing code designed for other shells in a suit‐
569 able environment. More detailed rules follow.
570 1. The sticky emulation environment provided by `emulate
571 shell -c' is identical to that provided by entry to a
572 function marked for sticky emulation as a consequence of
573 being defined in such an environment. Hence, for exam‐
574 ple, the sticky emulation is inherited by subfunctions
575 defined within functions with sticky emulation.
576 2. No change of options takes place on entry to or exit from
577 functions that are not marked for sticky emulation, other
578 than those that would normally take place, even if those
579 functions are called within sticky emulation.
580 3. No special handling is provided for functions marked for
581 autoload nor for functions present in wordcode created by
582 the zcompile command.
583 4. The presence or absence of the -R switch to emulate cor‐
584 responds to different sticky emulation modes, so for ex‐
585 ample `emulate sh -c', `emulate -R sh -c' and `emulate
586 csh -c' are treated as three distinct sticky emulations.
587 5. Difference in shell options supplied in addition to the
588 basic emulation also mean the sticky emulations are dif‐
589 ferent, so for example `emulate zsh -c' and `emulate zsh
590 -o cbases -c' are treated as distinct sticky emulations.
591 enable [ -afmprs ] name ...
593 Enable the named hash table elements, presumably disabled ear‐
594 lier with disable. The default is to enable builtin commands.
595 The -a option causes enable to act on regular or global aliases.
596 The -s option causes enable to act on suffix aliases. The -f
597 option causes enable to act on shell functions. The -r option
598 causes enable to act on reserved words. Without arguments all
599 enabled hash table elements from the corresponding hash table
600 are printed. With the -m flag the arguments are taken as pat‐
601 terns (should be quoted) and all hash table elements from the
602 corresponding hash table matching these patterns are enabled.
603 Enabled objects can be disabled with the disable builtin com‐
604 mand.
605 enable -p reenables patterns disabled with disable -p. Note
607 that it does not override globbing options; for example, `enable
608 -p "~"' does not cause the pattern character ~ to be active un‐
609 less the EXTENDED_GLOB option is also set. To enable all possi‐
610 ble patterns (so that they may be individually disabled with
611 disable -p), use `setopt EXTENDED_GLOB KSH_GLOB NO_SH_GLOB'.
612 eval [ arg ... ]
614 Read the arguments as input to the shell and execute the result‐
615 ing command(s) in the current shell process. The return status
616 is the same as if the commands had been executed directly by the
617 shell; if there are no args or they contain no commands (i.e.
618 are an empty string or whitespace) the return status is zero.
619 exec [ -cl ] [ -a argv0 ] [ command [ arg ... ] ]
621 Replace the current shell with command rather than forking. If
622 command is a shell builtin command or a shell function, the
623 shell executes it, and exits when the command is complete.
624 With -c clear the environment; with -l prepend - to the argv[0]
626 string of the command executed (to simulate a login shell); with
627 -a argv0 set the argv[0] string of the command executed. See
628 the section `Precommand Modifiers' in zshmisc(1).
629 If the option POSIX_BUILTINS is set, command is never inter‐
631 preted as a shell builtin command or shell function. This means
632 further precommand modifiers such as builtin and noglob are also
633 not interpreted within the shell. Hence command is always found
634 by searching the command path.
635 If command is omitted but any redirections are specified, then
637 the redirections will take effect in the current shell.
638 exit [ n ]
640 Exit the shell with the exit status specified by an arithmetic
641 expression n; if none is specified, use the exit status from the
642 last command executed. An EOF condition will also cause the
643 shell to exit, unless the IGNORE_EOF option is set.
644 See notes at the end of the section JOBS in zshmisc(1) for some
646 possibly unexpected interactions of the exit command with jobs.
647 export [ name[=value] ... ]
649 The specified names are marked for automatic export to the envi‐
650 ronment of subsequently executed commands. Equivalent to type‐
651 set -gx. If a parameter specified does not already exist, it is
652 created in the global scope.
653 false [ arg ... ]
655 Do nothing and return an exit status of 1.
656 fc [ -e ename ] [ -LI ] [ -m match ] [ old=new ... ] [ first [ last ] ]
659 fc -l [ -LI ] [ -nrdfEiD ] [ -t timefmt ] [ -m match ]
660 [ old=new ... ] [ first [ last ] ]
661 fc -p [ -a ] [ filename [ histsize [ savehistsize ] ] ]
662 fc -P
663 fc -ARWI [ filename ]
664 The fc command controls the interactive history mechanism. Note
665 that reading and writing of history options is only performed if
666 the shell is interactive. Usually this is detected automati‐
667 cally, but it can be forced by setting the interactive option
668 when starting the shell.
669 The first two forms of this command select a range of events
671 from first to last from the history list. The arguments first
672 and last may be specified as a number or as a string. A nega‐
673 tive number is used as an offset to the current history event
674 number. A string specifies the most recent event beginning with
675 the given string. All substitutions old=new, if any, are then
676 performed on the text of the events.
677 In addition to the number range,
679 -I restricts to only internal events (not from $HISTFILE)
680 -L restricts to only local events (not from other shells,
681 see SHARE_HISTORY in zshoptions(1) -- note that $HISTFILE
682 is considered local when read at startup)
683 -m takes the first argument as a pattern (should be quoted)
684 and only the history events matching this pattern are
685 considered
686 If first is not specified, it will be set to -1 (the most recent
688 event), or to -16 if the -l flag is given. If last is not spec‐
689 ified, it will be set to first, or to -1 if the -l flag is
690 given. However, if the current event has added entries to the
691 history with `print -s' or `fc -R', then the default last for -l
692 includes all new history entries since the current event began.
693 When the -l flag is given, the resulting events are listed on
695 standard output. Otherwise the editor program specified by -e
696 ename is invoked on a file containing these history events. If
697 -e is not given, the value of the parameter FCEDIT is used; if
698 that is not set the value of the parameter EDITOR is used; if
699 that is not set a builtin default, usually `vi' is used. If
700 ename is `-', no editor is invoked. When editing is complete,
701 the edited command is executed.
702 The flag -r reverses the order of the events and the flag -n
704 suppresses event numbers when listing.
705 Also when listing,
707 -d prints timestamps for each event
708 -f prints full time-date stamps in the US `MM/DD/YY hh:mm'
709 format
710 -E prints full time-date stamps in the European `dd.mm.yyyy
711 hh:mm' format
712 -i prints full time-date stamps in ISO8601 `yyyy-mm-dd
713 hh:mm' format
714 -t fmt prints time and date stamps in the given format; fmt is
715 formatted with the strftime function with the zsh exten‐
716 sions described for the %D{string} prompt format in the
717 section EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1). The
718 resulting formatted string must be no more than 256 char‐
719 acters or will not be printed
720 -D prints elapsed times; may be combined with one of the op‐
721 tions above
722 `fc -p' pushes the current history list onto a stack and
724 switches to a new history list. If the -a option is also speci‐
725 fied, this history list will be automatically popped when the
726 current function scope is exited, which is a much better solu‐
727 tion than creating a trap function to call `fc -P' manually. If
728 no arguments are specified, the history list is left empty,
729 $HISTFILE is unset, and $HISTSIZE & $SAVEHIST are set to their
730 default values. If one argument is given, $HISTFILE is set to
731 that filename, $HISTSIZE & $SAVEHIST are left unchanged, and the
732 history file is read in (if it exists) to initialize the new
733 list. If a second argument is specified, $HISTSIZE & $SAVEHIST
734 are instead set to the single specified numeric value. Finally,
735 if a third argument is specified, $SAVEHIST is set to a separate
736 value from $HISTSIZE. You are free to change these environment
737 values for the new history list however you desire in order to
738 manipulate the new history list.
739 `fc -P' pops the history list back to an older list saved by `fc
741 -p'. The current list is saved to its $HISTFILE before it is
742 destroyed (assuming that $HISTFILE and $SAVEHIST are set appro‐
743 priately, of course). The values of $HISTFILE, $HISTSIZE, and
744 $SAVEHIST are restored to the values they had when `fc -p' was
745 called. Note that this restoration can conflict with making
746 these variables "local", so your best bet is to avoid local dec‐
747 larations for these variables in functions that use `fc -p'.
748 The one other guaranteed-safe combination is declaring these
749 variables to be local at the top of your function and using the
750 automatic option (-a) with `fc -p'. Finally, note that it is
751 legal to manually pop a push marked for automatic popping if you
752 need to do so before the function exits.
753 `fc -R' reads the history from the given file, `fc -W' writes
755 the history out to the given file, and `fc -A' appends the his‐
756 tory out to the given file. If no filename is specified, the
757 $HISTFILE is assumed. If the -I option is added to -R, only
758 those events that are not already contained within the internal
759 history list are added. If the -I option is added to -A or -W,
760 only those events that are new since last incremental ap‐
761 pend/write to the history file are appended/written. In any
762 case, the created file will have no more than $SAVEHIST entries.
763 fg [ job ... ]
765 job ...
766 Bring each specified job in turn to the foreground. If no job
767 is specified, resume the current job.
768 float [ {+|-}Hghlprtux ] [ {+|-}EFLRZ [ n ] ] [ name[=value] ... ]
770 Equivalent to typeset -E, except that options irrelevant to
771 floating point numbers are not permitted.
772 functions [ {+|-}UkmtTuWz ] [ -x num ] [ name ... ]
774 functions -c oldfn newfn
775 functions -M [-s] mathfn [ min [ max [ shellfn ] ] ]
776 functions -M [ -m pattern ... ]
777 functions +M [ -m ] mathfn ...
778 Equivalent to typeset -f, with the exception of the -c, -x, -M
779 and -W options. For functions -u and functions -U, see au‐
780 toload, which provides additional options.
781 The -x option indicates that any functions output will have each
783 leading tab for indentation, added by the shell to show syntac‐
784 tic structure, expanded to the given number num of spaces. num
785 can also be 0 to suppress all indentation.
786 The -W option turns on the option WARN_NESTED_VAR for the named
788 function or functions only. The option is turned off at the
789 start of nested functions (apart from anonoymous functions) un‐
790 less the called function also has the -W attribute.
791 The -c option causes oldfn to be copied to newfn. The copy is
793 efficiently handled internally by reference counting. If oldfn
794 was marked for autoload it is first loaded and if this fails the
795 copy fails. Either function may subsequently be redefined with‐
796 out affecting the other. A typical idiom is that oldfn is the
797 name of a library shell function which is then redefined to call
798 newfn, thereby installing a modified version of the function.
799 Use of the -M option may not be combined with any of the options
801 handled by typeset -f.
802 functions -M mathfn defines mathfn as the name of a mathematical
804 function recognised in all forms of arithmetical expressions;
805 see the section `Arithmetic Evaluation' in zshmisc(1). By de‐
806 fault mathfn may take any number of comma-separated arguments.
807 If min is given, it must have exactly min args; if min and max
808 are both given, it must have at least min and at most max args.
809 max may be -1 to indicate that there is no upper limit.
810 By default the function is implemented by a shell function of
812 the same name; if shellfn is specified it gives the name of the
813 corresponding shell function while mathfn remains the name used
814 in arithmetical expressions. The name of the function in $0 is
815 mathfn (not shellfn as would usually be the case), provided the
816 option FUNCTION_ARGZERO is in effect. The positional parameters
817 in the shell function correspond to the arguments of the mathe‐
818 matical function call. The result of the last arithmetical ex‐
819 pression evaluated inside the shell function (even if it is a
820 form that normally only returns a status) gives the result of
821 the mathematical function.
822 If the additional option -s is given to functions -M, the argu‐
824 ment to the function is a single string: anything between the
825 opening and matching closing parenthesis is passed to the func‐
826 tion as a single argument, even if it includes commas or white
827 space. The minimum and maximum argument specifiers must there‐
828 fore be 1 if given. An empty argument list is passed as a
829 zero-length string.
830 functions -M with no arguments lists all such user-defined func‐
832 tions in the same form as a definition. With the additional op‐
833 tion -m and a list of arguments, all functions whose mathfn
834 matches one of the pattern arguments are listed.
835 function +M removes the list of mathematical functions; with the
837 additional option -m the arguments are treated as patterns and
838 all functions whose mathfn matches the pattern are removed.
839 Note that the shell function implementing the behaviour is not
840 removed (regardless of whether its name coincides with mathfn).
841 For example, the following prints the cube of 3:
843 zmath_cube() { (( $1 * $1 * $1 )) }
845 functions -M cube 1 1 zmath_cube
846 print $(( cube(3) ))
847 The following string function takes a single argument, including
849 the commas, so prints 11:
850 stringfn() { (( $#1 )) }
852 functions -Ms stringfn
853 print $(( stringfn(foo,bar,rod) ))
854 getcap See the section `The zsh/cap Module' in zshmodules(1).
856 getln [ -AclneE ] name ...
858 Read the top value from the buffer stack and put it in the shell
859 parameter name. Equivalent to read -zr.
860 getopts optstring name [ arg ... ]
862 Checks the args for legal options. If the args are omitted, use
863 the positional parameters. A valid option argument begins with
864 a `+' or a `-'. An argument not beginning with a `+' or a `-',
865 or the argument `--', ends the options. Note that a single `-'
866 is not considered a valid option argument. optstring contains
867 the letters that getopts recognizes. If a letter is followed by
868 a `:', that option requires an argument. The options can be
869 separated from the argument by blanks.
870 Each time it is invoked, getopts places the option letter it
872 finds in the shell parameter name, prepended with a `+' when arg
873 begins with a `+'. The index of the next arg is stored in
874 OPTIND. The option argument, if any, is stored in OPTARG.
875 The first option to be examined may be changed by explicitly as‐
877 signing to OPTIND. OPTIND has an initial value of 1, and is
878 normally set to 1 upon entry to a shell function and restored
879 upon exit (this is disabled by the POSIX_BUILTINS option). OP‐
880 TARG is not reset and retains its value from the most recent
881 call to getopts. If either of OPTIND or OPTARG is explicitly
882 unset, it remains unset, and the index or option argument is not
883 stored. The option itself is still stored in name in this case.
884 A leading `:' in optstring causes getopts to store the letter of
886 any invalid option in OPTARG, and to set name to `?' for an un‐
887 known option and to `:' when a required argument is missing.
888 Otherwise, getopts sets name to `?' and prints an error message
889 when an option is invalid. The exit status is nonzero when
890 there are no more options.
891 hash [ -Ldfmrv ] [ name[=value] ] ...
893 hash can be used to directly modify the contents of the command
894 hash table, and the named directory hash table. Normally one
895 would modify these tables by modifying one's PATH (for the com‐
896 mand hash table) or by creating appropriate shell parameters
897 (for the named directory hash table). The choice of hash table
898 to work on is determined by the -d option; without the option
899 the command hash table is used, and with the option the named
900 directory hash table is used.
901 A command name starting with a / is never hashed, whether by ex‐
903 plicit use of the hash command or otherwise. Such a command is
904 always found by direct look up in the file system.
905 Given no arguments, and neither the -r or -f options, the se‐
907 lected hash table will be listed in full.
908 The -r option causes the selected hash table to be emptied. It
910 will be subsequently rebuilt in the normal fashion. The -f op‐
911 tion causes the selected hash table to be fully rebuilt immedi‐
912 ately. For the command hash table this hashes all the absolute
913 directories in the PATH, and for the named directory hash table
914 this adds all users' home directories. These two options cannot
915 be used with any arguments.
916 The -m option causes the arguments to be taken as patterns
918 (which should be quoted) and the elements of the hash table
919 matching those patterns are printed. This is the only way to
920 display a limited selection of hash table elements.
921 For each name with a corresponding value, put `name' in the se‐
923 lected hash table, associating it with the pathname `value'. In
924 the command hash table, this means that whenever `name' is used
925 as a command argument, the shell will try to execute the file
926 given by `value'. In the named directory hash table, this means
927 that `value' may be referred to as `~name'.
928 For each name with no corresponding value, attempt to add name
930 to the hash table, checking what the appropriate value is in the
931 normal manner for that hash table. If an appropriate value
932 can't be found, then the hash table will be unchanged.
933 The -v option causes hash table entries to be listed as they are
935 added by explicit specification. If has no effect if used with
936 -f.
937 If the -L flag is present, then each hash table entry is printed
939 in the form of a call to hash.
940 history
942 Same as fc -l.
943 integer [ {+|-}Hghlprtux ] [ {+|-}LRZi [ n ] ] [ name[=value] ... ]
945 Equivalent to typeset -i, except that options irrelevant to in‐
946 tegers are not permitted.
947 jobs [ -dlprs ] [ job ... ]
949 jobs -Z string
950 Lists information about each given job, or all jobs if job is
951 omitted. The -l flag lists process IDs, and the -p flag lists
952 process groups. If the -r flag is specified only running jobs
953 will be listed and if the -s flag is given only stopped jobs are
954 shown. If the -d flag is given, the directory from which the
955 job was started (which may not be the current directory of the
956 job) will also be shown.
957 The -Z option replaces the shell's argument and environment
959 space with the given string, truncated if necessary to fit.
960 This will normally be visible in ps (ps(1)) listings. This fea‐
961 ture is typically used by daemons, to indicate their state.
962 kill [ -s signal_name | -n signal_number | -sig ] job ...
964 kill -l [ sig ... ]
965 Sends either SIGTERM or the specified signal to the given jobs
966 or processes. Signals are given by number or by names, with or
967 without the `SIG' prefix. If the signal being sent is not
968 `KILL' or `CONT', then the job will be sent a `CONT' signal if
969 it is stopped. The argument job can be the process ID of a job
970 not in the job list. In the second form, kill -l, if sig is not
971 specified the signal names are listed. Otherwise, for each sig
972 that is a name, the corresponding signal number is listed. For
973 each sig that is a signal number or a number representing the
974 exit status of a process which was terminated or stopped by a
975 signal the name of the signal is printed.
976 On some systems, alternative signal names are allowed for a few
978 signals. Typical examples are SIGCHLD and SIGCLD or SIGPOLL and
979 SIGIO, assuming they correspond to the same signal number. kill
980 -l will only list the preferred form, however kill -l alt will
981 show if the alternative form corresponds to a signal number.
982 For example, under Linux kill -l IO and kill -l POLL both output
983 29, hence kill -IO and kill -POLL have the same effect.
984 Many systems will allow process IDs to be negative to kill a
986 process group or zero to kill the current process group.
987 let arg ...
989 Evaluate each arg as an arithmetic expression. See the section
990 `Arithmetic Evaluation' in zshmisc(1) for a description of
991 arithmetic expressions. The exit status is 0 if the value of
992 the last expression is nonzero, 1 if it is zero, and 2 if an er‐
993 ror occurred.
994 limit [ -hs ] [ resource [ limit ] ] ...
996 Set or display resource limits. Unless the -s flag is given,
997 the limit applies only the children of the shell. If -s is
998 given without other arguments, the resource limits of the cur‐
999 rent shell is set to the previously set resource limits of the
1000 children.
1001 If limit is not specified, print the current limit placed on re‐
1003 source, otherwise set the limit to the specified value. If the
1004 -h flag is given, use hard limits instead of soft limits. If no
1005 resource is given, print all limits.
1006 When looping over multiple resources, the shell will abort imme‐
1008 diately if it detects a badly formed argument. However, if it
1009 fails to set a limit for some other reason it will continue try‐
1010 ing to set the remaining limits.
1011 resource can be one of:
1013 addressspace
1015 Maximum amount of address space used.
1016 aiomemorylocked
1017 Maximum amount of memory locked in RAM for AIO opera‐
1018 tions.
1019 aiooperations
1020 Maximum number of AIO operations.
1021 cachedthreads
1022 Maximum number of cached threads.
1023 coredumpsize
1024 Maximum size of a core dump.
1025 cputime
1026 Maximum CPU seconds per process.
1027 datasize
1028 Maximum data size (including stack) for each process.
1029 descriptors
1030 Maximum value for a file descriptor.
1031 filesize
1032 Largest single file allowed.
1033 kqueues
1034 Maximum number of kqueues allocated.
1035 maxproc
1036 Maximum number of processes.
1037 maxpthreads
1038 Maximum number of threads per process.
1039 memorylocked
1040 Maximum amount of memory locked in RAM.
1041 memoryuse
1042 Maximum resident set size.
1043 msgqueue
1044 Maximum number of bytes in POSIX message queues.
1045 posixlocks
1046 Maximum number of POSIX locks per user.
1047 pseudoterminals
1048 Maximum number of pseudo-terminals.
1049 resident
1050 Maximum resident set size.
1051 sigpending
1052 Maximum number of pending signals.
1053 sockbufsize
1054 Maximum size of all socket buffers.
1055 stacksize
1056 Maximum stack size for each process.
1057 swapsize
1058 Maximum amount of swap used.
1059 vmemorysize
1060 Maximum amount of virtual memory.
1061 Which of these resource limits are available depends on the sys‐
1063 tem. resource can be abbreviated to any unambiguous prefix. It
1064 can also be an integer, which corresponds to the integer defined
1065 for the resource by the operating system.
1066 If argument corresponds to a number which is out of the range of
1068 the resources configured into the shell, the shell will try to
1069 read or write the limit anyway, and will report an error if this
1070 fails. As the shell does not store such resources internally,
1071 an attempt to set the limit will fail unless the -s option is
1072 present.
1073 limit is a number, with an optional scaling factor, as follows:
1075 nh hours
1077 nk kilobytes (default)
1078 nm megabytes or minutes
1079 ng gigabytes
1080 [mm:]ss
1081 minutes and seconds
1082 The limit command is not made available by default when the
1084 shell starts in a mode emulating another shell. It can be made
1085 available with the command `zmodload -F zsh/rlimits b:limit'.
1086 local [ {+|-}AHUahlprtux ] [ {+|-}EFLRZi [ n ] ] [ name[=value] ... ]
1088 Same as typeset, except that the options -g, and -f are not per‐
1089 mitted. In this case the -x option does not force the use of
1090 -g, i.e. exported variables will be local to functions.
1091 log List all users currently logged in who are affected by the cur‐
1093 rent setting of the watch parameter.
1094 logout [ n ]
1096 Same as exit, except that it only works in a login shell.
1097 noglob simple command
1099 See the section `Precommand Modifiers' in zshmisc(1).
1100 popd [ -q ] [ {+|-}n ]
1102 Remove an entry from the directory stack, and perform a cd to
1103 the new top directory. With no argument, the current top entry
1104 is removed. An argument of the form `+n' identifies a stack en‐
1105 try by counting from the left of the list shown by the dirs com‐
1106 mand, starting with zero. An argument of the form -n counts
1107 from the right. If the PUSHD_MINUS option is set, the meanings
1108 of `+' and `-' in this context are swapped.
1109 If the -q (quiet) option is specified, the hook function chpwd
1111 and the functions in the array $chpwd_functions are not called,
1112 and the new directory stack is not printed. This is useful for
1113 calls to popd that do not change the environment seen by an in‐
1114 teractive user.
1115 print [ -abcDilmnNoOpPrsSz ] [ -u n ] [ -f format ] [ -C cols ]
1117 [ -v name ] [ -xX tabstop ] [ -R [ -en ]] [ arg ... ]
1118 With the `-f' option the arguments are printed as described by
1119 printf. With no flags or with the flag `-', the arguments are
1120 printed on the standard output as described by echo, with the
1121 following differences: the escape sequence `\M-x' (or `\Mx')
1122 metafies the character x (sets the highest bit), `\C-x' (or
1123 `\Cx') produces a control character (`\C-@' and `\C-?' give the
1124 characters NULL and delete), a character code in octal is repre‐
1125 sented by `\NNN' (instead of `\0NNN'), and `\E' is a synonym for
1126 `\e'. Finally, if not in an escape sequence, `\' escapes the
1127 following character and is not printed.
1128 -a Print arguments with the column incrementing first. Only
1130 useful with the -c and -C options.
1131 -b Recognize all the escape sequences defined for the bind‐
1133 key command, see the section `Zle Builtins' in zshzle(1).
1134 -c Print the arguments in columns. Unless -a is also given,
1136 arguments are printed with the row incrementing first.
1137 -C cols
1139 Print the arguments in cols columns. Unless -a is also
1140 given, arguments are printed with the row incrementing
1141 first.
1142 -D Treat the arguments as paths, replacing directory pre‐
1144 fixes with ~ expressions corresponding to directory
1145 names, as appropriate.
1146 -i If given together with -o or -O, sorting is performed
1148 case-independently.
1149 -l Print the arguments separated by newlines instead of spa‐
1151 ces. Note: if the list of arguments is empty, print -l
1152 will still output one empty line. To print a possi‐
1153 bly-empty list of arguments one per line, use print -C1,
1154 as in `print -rC1 -- "$list[@]"'.
1155 -m Take the first argument as a pattern (should be quoted),
1157 and remove it from the argument list together with subse‐
1158 quent arguments that do not match this pattern.
1159 -n Do not add a newline to the output.
1161 -N Print the arguments separated and terminated by nulls.
1163 Again, print -rNC1 -- "$list[@]" is a canonical way to
1164 print an arbitrary list as null-delimited records.
1165 -o Print the arguments sorted in ascending order.
1167 -O Print the arguments sorted in descending order.
1169 -p Print the arguments to the input of the coprocess.
1171 -P Perform prompt expansion (see EXPANSION OF PROMPT SE‐
1173 QUENCES in zshmisc(1)). In combination with `-f', prompt
1174 escape sequences are parsed only within interpolated ar‐
1175 guments, not within the format string.
1176 -r Ignore the escape conventions of echo.
1178 -R Emulate the BSD echo command, which does not process es‐
1180 cape sequences unless the -e flag is given. The -n flag
1181 suppresses the trailing newline. Only the -e and -n
1182 flags are recognized after -R; all other arguments and
1183 options are printed.
1184 -s Place the results in the history list instead of on the
1186 standard output. Each argument to the print command is
1187 treated as a single word in the history, regardless of
1188 its content.
1189 -S Place the results in the history list instead of on the
1191 standard output. In this case only a single argument is
1192 allowed; it will be split into words as if it were a full
1193 shell command line. The effect is similar to reading the
1194 line from a history file with the HIST_LEX_WORDS option
1195 active.
1196 -u n Print the arguments to file descriptor n.
1198 -v name
1200 Store the printed arguments as the value of the parameter
1201 name.
1202 -x tab-stop
1204 Expand leading tabs on each line of output in the printed
1205 string assuming a tab stop every tab-stop characters.
1206 This is appropriate for formatting code that may be in‐
1207 dented with tabs. Note that leading tabs of any argument
1208 to print, not just the first, are expanded, even if print
1209 is using spaces to separate arguments (the column count
1210 is maintained across arguments but may be incorrect on
1211 output owing to previous unexpanded tabs).
1212 The start of the output of each print command is assumed
1214 to be aligned with a tab stop. Widths of multibyte char‐
1215 acters are handled if the option MULTIBYTE is in effect.
1216 This option is ignored if other formatting options are in
1217 effect, namely column alignment or printf style, or if
1218 output is to a special location such as shell history or
1219 the command line editor.
1220 -X tab-stop
1222 This is similar to -x, except that all tabs in the
1223 printed string are expanded. This is appropriate if tabs
1224 in the arguments are being used to produce a table for‐
1225 mat.
1226 -z Push the arguments onto the editing buffer stack, sepa‐
1228 rated by spaces.
1229 If any of `-m', `-o' or `-O' are used in combination with `-f'
1231 and there are no arguments (after the removal process in the
1232 case of `-m') then nothing is printed.
1233 printf [ -v name ] format [ arg ... ]
1235 Print the arguments according to the format specification. For‐
1236 matting rules are the same as used in C. The same escape se‐
1237 quences as for echo are recognised in the format. All C conver‐
1238 sion specifications ending in one of csdiouxXeEfgGn are handled.
1239 In addition to this, `%b' can be used instead of `%s' to cause
1240 escape sequences in the argument to be recognised and `%q' can
1241 be used to quote the argument in such a way that allows it to be
1242 reused as shell input. With the numeric format specifiers, if
1243 the corresponding argument starts with a quote character, the
1244 numeric value of the following character is used as the number
1245 to print; otherwise the argument is evaluated as an arithmetic
1246 expression. See the section `Arithmetic Evaluation' in zsh‐
1247 misc(1) for a description of arithmetic expressions. With `%n',
1248 the corresponding argument is taken as an identifier which is
1249 created as an integer parameter.
1250 Normally, conversion specifications are applied to each argument
1252 in order but they can explicitly specify the nth argument is to
1253 be used by replacing `%' by `%n$' and `*' by `*n$'. It is rec‐
1254 ommended that you do not mix references of this explicit style
1255 with the normal style and the handling of such mixed styles may
1256 be subject to future change.
1257 If arguments remain unused after formatting, the format string
1259 is reused until all arguments have been consumed. With the print
1260 builtin, this can be suppressed by using the -r option. If more
1261 arguments are required by the format than have been specified,
1262 the behaviour is as if zero or an empty string had been speci‐
1263 fied as the argument.
1264 The -v option causes the output to be stored as the value of the
1266 parameter name, instead of printed. If name is an array and the
1267 format string is reused when consuming arguments then one array
1268 element will be used for each use of the format string.
1269 pushd [ -qsLP ] [ arg ]
1271 pushd [ -qsLP ] old new
1272 pushd [ -qsLP ] {+|-}n
1273 Change the current directory, and push the old current directory
1274 onto the directory stack. In the first form, change the current
1275 directory to arg. If arg is not specified, change to the second
1276 directory on the stack (that is, exchange the top two entries),
1277 or change to $HOME if the PUSHD_TO_HOME option is set or if
1278 there is only one entry on the stack. Otherwise, arg is inter‐
1279 preted as it would be by cd. The meaning of old and new in the
1280 second form is also the same as for cd.
1281 The third form of pushd changes directory by rotating the direc‐
1283 tory list. An argument of the form `+n' identifies a stack en‐
1284 try by counting from the left of the list shown by the dirs com‐
1285 mand, starting with zero. An argument of the form `-n' counts
1286 from the right. If the PUSHD_MINUS option is set, the meanings
1287 of `+' and `-' in this context are swapped.
1288 If the -q (quiet) option is specified, the hook function chpwd
1290 and the functions in the array $chpwd_functions are not called,
1291 and the new directory stack is not printed. This is useful for
1292 calls to pushd that do not change the environment seen by an in‐
1293 teractive user.
1294 If the option -q is not specified and the shell option
1296 PUSHD_SILENT is not set, the directory stack will be printed af‐
1297 ter a pushd is performed.
1298 The options -s, -L and -P have the same meanings as for the cd
1300 builtin.
1301 pushln [ arg ... ]
1303 Equivalent to print -nz.
1304 pwd [ -rLP ]
1306 Print the absolute pathname of the current working directory.
1307 If the -r or the -P flag is specified, or the CHASE_LINKS option
1308 is set and the -L flag is not given, the printed path will not
1309 contain symbolic links.
1310 r Same as fc -e -.
1312 read [ -rszpqAclneE ] [ -t [ num ] ] [ -k [ num ] ] [ -d delim ]
1315 [ -u n ] [ name[?prompt] ] [ name ... ]
1316 Read one line and break it into fields using the characters in
1317 $IFS as separators, except as noted below. The first field is
1318 assigned to the first name, the second field to the second name,
1319 etc., with leftover fields assigned to the last name. If name
1320 is omitted then REPLY is used for scalars and reply for arrays.
1321 -r Raw mode: a `\' at the end of a line does not signify
1323 line continuation and backslashes in the line don't quote
1324 the following character and are not removed.
1325 -s Don't echo back characters if reading from the terminal.
1327 -q Read only one character from the terminal and set name to
1329 `y' if this character was `y' or `Y' and to `n' other‐
1330 wise. With this flag set the return status is zero only
1331 if the character was `y' or `Y'. This option may be used
1332 with a timeout (see -t); if the read times out, or en‐
1333 counters end of file, status 2 is returned. Input is
1334 read from the terminal unless one of -u or -p is present.
1335 This option may also be used within zle widgets.
1336 -k [ num ]
1338 Read only one (or num) characters. All are assigned to
1339 the first name, without word splitting. This flag is ig‐
1340 nored when -q is present. Input is read from the termi‐
1341 nal unless one of -u or -p is present. This option may
1342 also be used within zle widgets.
1343 Note that despite the mnemonic `key' this option does
1345 read full characters, which may consist of multiple bytes
1346 if the option MULTIBYTE is set.
1347 -z Read one entry from the editor buffer stack and assign it
1349 to the first name, without word splitting. Text is
1350 pushed onto the stack with `print -z' or with push-line
1351 from the line editor (see zshzle(1)). This flag is ig‐
1352 nored when the -k or -q flags are present.
1353 -e
1355 -E The input read is printed (echoed) to the standard out‐
1356 put. If the -e flag is used, no input is assigned to the
1357 parameters.
1358 -A The first name is taken as the name of an array and all
1360 words are assigned to it.
1361 -c
1363 -l These flags are allowed only if called inside a function
1364 used for completion (specified with the -K flag to com‐
1365 pctl). If the -c flag is given, the words of the current
1366 command are read. If the -l flag is given, the whole line
1367 is assigned as a scalar. If both flags are present, -l
1368 is used and -c is ignored.
1369 -n Together with -c, the number of the word the cursor is on
1371 is read. With -l, the index of the character the cursor
1372 is on is read. Note that the command name is word number
1373 1, not word 0, and that when the cursor is at the end of
1374 the line, its character index is the length of the line
1375 plus one.
1376 -u n Input is read from file descriptor n.
1378 -p Input is read from the coprocess.
1380 -d delim
1382 Input is terminated by the first character of delim in‐
1383 stead of by newline.
1384 -t [ num ]
1386 Test if input is available before attempting to read. If
1387 num is present, it must begin with a digit and will be
1388 evaluated to give a number of seconds, which may be a
1389 floating point number; in this case the read times out if
1390 input is not available within this time. If num is not
1391 present, it is taken to be zero, so that read returns im‐
1392 mediately if no input is available. If no input is
1393 available, return status 1 and do not set any variables.
1394 This option is not available when reading from the editor
1396 buffer with -z, when called from within completion with
1397 -c or -l, with -q which clears the input queue before
1398 reading, or within zle where other mechanisms should be
1399 used to test for input.
1400 Note that read does not attempt to alter the input pro‐
1402 cessing mode. The default mode is canonical input, in
1403 which an entire line is read at a time, so usually `read
1404 -t' will not read anything until an entire line has been
1405 typed. However, when reading from the terminal with -k
1406 input is processed one key at a time; in this case, only
1407 availability of the first character is tested, so that
1408 e.g. `read -t -k 2' can still block on the second charac‐
1409 ter. Use two instances of `read -t -k' if this is not
1410 what is wanted.
1411 If the first argument contains a `?', the remainder of this word
1413 is used as a prompt on standard error when the shell is interac‐
1414 tive.
1415 The value (exit status) of read is 1 when an end-of-file is en‐
1417 countered, or when -c or -l is present and the command is not
1418 called from a compctl function, or as described for -q. Other‐
1419 wise the value is 0.
1420 The behavior of some combinations of the -k, -p, -q, -u and -z
1422 flags is undefined. Presently -q cancels all the others, -p
1423 cancels -u, -k cancels -z, and otherwise -z cancels both -p and
1424 -u.
1425 The -c or -l flags cancel any and all of -kpquz.
1427 readonly
1429 Same as typeset -r. With the POSIX_BUILTINS option set, same as
1430 typeset -gr.
1431 rehash Same as hash -r.
1433 return [ n ]
1435 Causes a shell function or `.' script to return to the invoking
1436 script with the return status specified by an arithmetic expres‐
1437 sion n. If n is omitted, the return status is that of the last
1438 command executed.
1439 If return was executed from a trap in a TRAPNAL function, the
1441 effect is different for zero and non-zero return status. With
1442 zero status (or after an implicit return at the end of the
1443 trap), the shell will return to whatever it was previously pro‐
1444 cessing; with a non-zero status, the shell will behave as inter‐
1445 rupted except that the return status of the trap is retained.
1446 Note that the numeric value of the signal which caused the trap
1447 is passed as the first argument, so the statement `return
1448 $((128+$1))' will return the same status as if the signal had
1449 not been trapped.
1450 sched See the section `The zsh/sched Module' in zshmodules(1).
1452 set [ {+|-}options | {+|-}o [ option_name ] ] ... [ {+|-}A [ name ] ]
1455 [ arg ... ]
1456 Set the options for the shell and/or set the positional parame‐
1457 ters, or declare and set an array. If the -s option is given,
1458 it causes the specified arguments to be sorted before assigning
1459 them to the positional parameters (or to the array name if -A is
1460 used). With +s sort arguments in descending order. For the
1461 meaning of the other flags, see zshoptions(1). Flags may be
1462 specified by name using the -o option. If no option name is sup‐
1463 plied with -o, the current option states are printed: see the
1464 description of setopt below for more information on the format.
1465 With +o they are printed in a form that can be used as input to
1466 the shell.
1467 If the -A flag is specified, name is set to an array containing
1469 the given args; if no name is specified, all arrays are printed
1470 together with their values.
1471 If +A is used and name is an array, the given arguments will re‐
1473 place the initial elements of that array; if no name is speci‐
1474 fied, all arrays are printed without their values.
1475 The behaviour of arguments after -A name or +A name depends on
1477 whether the option KSH_ARRAYS is set. If it is not set, all ar‐
1478 guments following name are treated as values for the array, re‐
1479 gardless of their form. If the option is set, normal option
1480 processing continues at that point; only regular arguments are
1481 treated as values for the array. This means that
1482 set -A array -x -- foo
1484 sets array to `-x -- foo' if KSH_ARRAYS is not set, but sets the
1486 array to foo and turns on the option `-x' if it is set.
1487 If the -A flag is not present, but there are arguments beyond
1489 the options, the positional parameters are set. If the option
1490 list (if any) is terminated by `--', and there are no further
1491 arguments, the positional parameters will be unset.
1492 If no arguments and no `--' are given, then the names and values
1494 of all parameters are printed on the standard output. If the
1495 only argument is `+', the names of all parameters are printed.
1496 For historical reasons, `set -' is treated as `set +xv' and `set
1498 - args' as `set +xv -- args' when in any other emulation mode
1499 than zsh's native mode.
1500 setcap See the section `The zsh/cap Module' in zshmodules(1).
1502 setopt [ {+|-}options | {+|-}o option_name ] [ -m ] [ name ... ]
1504 Set the options for the shell. All options specified either
1505 with flags or by name are set.
1506 If no arguments are supplied, the names of all options currently
1508 set are printed. The form is chosen so as to minimize the dif‐
1509 ferences from the default options for the current emulation (the
1510 default emulation being native zsh, shown as <Z> in zshop‐
1511 tions(1)). Options that are on by default for the emulation are
1512 shown with the prefix no only if they are off, while other op‐
1513 tions are shown without the prefix no and only if they are on.
1514 In addition to options changed from the default state by the
1515 user, any options activated automatically by the shell (for ex‐
1516 ample, SHIN_STDIN or INTERACTIVE) will be shown in the list.
1517 The format is further modified by the option KSH_OPTION_PRINT,
1518 however the rationale for choosing options with or without the
1519 no prefix remains the same in this case.
1520 If the -m flag is given the arguments are taken as patterns
1522 (which should be quoted to protect them from filename expan‐
1523 sion), and all options with names matching these patterns are
1524 set.
1525 Note that a bad option name does not cause execution of subse‐
1527 quent shell code to be aborted; this is behaviour is different
1528 from that of `set -o'. This is because set is regarded as a
1529 special builtin by the POSIX standard, but setopt is not.
1530 shift [ -p ] [ n ] [ name ... ]
1532 The positional parameters ${n+1} ... are renamed to $1 ...,
1533 where n is an arithmetic expression that defaults to 1. If any
1534 names are given then the arrays with these names are shifted in‐
1535 stead of the positional parameters.
1536 If the option -p is given arguments are instead removed (popped)
1538 from the end rather than the start of the array.
1539 source file [ arg ... ]
1541 Same as `.', except that the current directory is always
1542 searched and is always searched first, before directories in
1543 $path.
1544 stat See the section `The zsh/stat Module' in zshmodules(1).
1546 suspend [ -f ]
1548 Suspend the execution of the shell (send it a SIGTSTP) until it
1549 receives a SIGCONT. Unless the -f option is given, this will
1550 refuse to suspend a login shell.
1551 test [ arg ... ]
1553 [ [ arg ... ] ]
1554 Like the system version of test. Added for compatibility; use
1555 conditional expressions instead (see the section `Conditional
1556 Expressions'). The main differences between the conditional ex‐
1557 pression syntax and the test and [ builtins are: these commands
1558 are not handled syntactically, so for example an empty variable
1559 expansion may cause an argument to be omitted; syntax errors
1560 cause status 2 to be returned instead of a shell error; and
1561 arithmetic operators expect integer arguments rather than arith‐
1562 metic expressions.
1563 The command attempts to implement POSIX and its extensions where
1565 these are specified. Unfortunately there are intrinsic ambigui‐
1566 ties in the syntax; in particular there is no distinction be‐
1567 tween test operators and strings that resemble them. The stan‐
1568 dard attempts to resolve these for small numbers of arguments
1569 (up to four); for five or more arguments compatibility cannot be
1570 relied on. Users are urged wherever possible to use the `[['
1571 test syntax which does not have these ambiguities.
1572 times Print the accumulated user and system times for the shell and
1574 for processes run from the shell.
1575 trap [ arg ] [ sig ... ]
1577 arg is a series of commands (usually quoted to protect it from
1578 immediate evaluation by the shell) to be read and executed when
1579 the shell receives any of the signals specified by one or more
1580 sig args. Each sig can be given as a number, or as the name of
1581 a signal either with or without the string SIG in front (e.g. 1,
1582 HUP, and SIGHUP are all the same signal).
1583 If arg is `-', then the specified signals are reset to their de‐
1585 faults, or, if no sig args are present, all traps are reset.
1586 If arg is an empty string, then the specified signals are ig‐
1588 nored by the shell (and by the commands it invokes).
1589 If arg is omitted but one or more sig args are provided (i.e.
1591 the first argument is a valid signal number or name), the effect
1592 is the same as if arg had been specified as `-'.
1593 The trap command with no arguments prints a list of commands as‐
1595 sociated with each signal.
1596 If sig is ZERR then arg will be executed after each command with
1598 a nonzero exit status. ERR is an alias for ZERR on systems that
1599 have no SIGERR signal (this is the usual case).
1600 If sig is DEBUG then arg will be executed before each command if
1602 the option DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD is set (as it is by default), else
1603 after each command. Here, a `command' is what is described as a
1604 `sublist' in the shell grammar, see the section SIMPLE COMMANDS
1605 & PIPELINES in zshmisc(1). If DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD is set various
1606 additional features are available. First, it is possible to
1607 skip the next command by setting the option ERR_EXIT; see the
1608 description of the ERR_EXIT option in zshoptions(1). Also, the
1609 shell parameter ZSH_DEBUG_CMD is set to the string corresponding
1610 to the command to be executed following the trap. Note that
1611 this string is reconstructed from the internal format and may
1612 not be formatted the same way as the original text. The parame‐
1613 ter is unset after the trap is executed.
1614 If sig is 0 or EXIT and the trap statement is executed inside
1616 the body of a function, then the command arg is executed after
1617 the function completes. The value of $? at the start of execu‐
1618 tion is the exit status of the shell or the return status of the
1619 function exiting. If sig is 0 or EXIT and the trap statement is
1620 not executed inside the body of a function, then the command arg
1621 is executed when the shell terminates; the trap runs before any
1622 zshexit hook functions.
1623 ZERR, DEBUG, and EXIT traps are not executed inside other traps.
1625 ZERR and DEBUG traps are kept within subshells, while other
1626 traps are reset.
1627 Note that traps defined with the trap builtin are slightly dif‐
1629 ferent from those defined as `TRAPNAL () { ... }', as the latter
1630 have their own function environment (line numbers, local vari‐
1631 ables, etc.) while the former use the environment of the command
1632 in which they were called. For example,
1633 trap 'print $LINENO' DEBUG
1635 will print the line number of a command executed after it has
1637 run, while
1638 TRAPDEBUG() { print $LINENO; }
1640 will always print the number zero.
1642 Alternative signal names are allowed as described under kill
1644 above. Defining a trap under either name causes any trap under
1645 an alternative name to be removed. However, it is recommended
1646 that for consistency users stick exclusively to one name or an‐
1647 other.
1648 true [ arg ... ]
1650 Do nothing and return an exit status of 0.
1651 ttyctl [ -fu ]
1653 The -f option freezes the tty (i.e. terminal or terminal emula‐
1654 tor), and -u unfreezes it. When the tty is frozen, no changes
1655 made to the tty settings by external programs will be honored by
1656 the shell, except for changes in the size of the screen; the
1657 shell will simply reset the settings to their previous values as
1658 soon as each command exits or is suspended. Thus, stty and sim‐
1659 ilar programs have no effect when the tty is frozen. Freezing
1660 the tty does not cause the current state to be remembered: in‐
1661 stead, it causes future changes to the state to be blocked.
1662 Without options it reports whether the terminal is frozen or
1664 not.
1665 Note that, regardless of whether the tty is frozen or not, the
1667 shell needs to change the settings when the line editor starts,
1668 so unfreezing the tty does not guarantee settings made on the
1669 command line are preserved. Strings of commands run between
1670 editing the command line will see a consistent tty state. See
1671 also the shell variable STTY for a means of initialising the tty
1672 before running external commands.
1673 type [ -wfpamsS ] name ...
1675 Equivalent to whence -v.
1676 typeset [ {+|-}AHUaghlmrtux ] [ {+|-}EFLRZip [ n ] ]
1679 [ + ] [ name[=value] ... ]
1680 typeset -T [ {+|-}Uglrux ] [ {+|-}LRZp [ n ] ]
1681 [ + | SCALAR[=value] array[=(value ...)] [ sep ] ]
1682 typeset -f [ {+|-}TUkmtuz ] [ + ] [ name ... ]
1683 Set or display attributes and values for shell parameters.
1684 Except as noted below for control flags that change the behav‐
1686 ior, a parameter is created for each name that does not already
1687 refer to one. When inside a function, a new parameter is cre‐
1688 ated for every name (even those that already exist), and is un‐
1689 set again when the function completes. See `Local Parameters'
1690 in zshparam(1). The same rules apply to special shell parame‐
1691 ters, which retain their special attributes when made local.
1692 For each name=value assignment, the parameter name is set to
1694 value.
1695 If the shell option TYPESET_SILENT is not set, for each remain‐
1697 ing name that refers to a parameter that is already set, the
1698 name and value of the parameter are printed in the form of an
1699 assignment. Nothing is printed for newly-created parameters, or
1700 when any attribute flags listed below are given along with the
1701 name. Using `+' instead of minus to introduce an attribute
1702 turns it off.
1703 If no name is present, the names and values of all parameters
1705 are printed. In this case the attribute flags restrict the dis‐
1706 play to only those parameters that have the specified at‐
1707 tributes, and using `+' rather than `-' to introduce the flag
1708 suppresses printing of the values of parameters when there is no
1709 parameter name.
1710 All forms of the command handle scalar assignment. Array as‐
1712 signment is possible if any of the reserved words declare, ex‐
1713 port, float, integer, local, readonly or typeset is matched when
1714 the line is parsed (N.B. not when it is executed). In this case
1715 the arguments are parsed as assignments, except that the `+='
1716 syntax and the GLOB_ASSIGN option are not supported, and scalar
1717 values after = are not split further into words, even if ex‐
1718 panded (regardless of the setting of the KSH_TYPESET option;
1719 this option is obsolete).
1720 Examples of the differences between command and reserved word
1722 parsing:
1723 # Reserved word parsing
1725 typeset svar=$(echo one word) avar=(several words)
1726 The above creates a scalar parameter svar and an array parameter
1728 avar as if the assignments had been
1729 svar="one word"
1731 avar=(several words)
1732 On the other hand:
1734 # Normal builtin interface
1736 builtin typeset svar=$(echo two words)
1737 The builtin keyword causes the above to use the standard builtin
1739 interface to typeset in which argument parsing is performed in
1740 the same way as for other commands. This example creates a
1741 scalar svar containing the value two and another scalar parame‐
1742 ter words with no value. An array value in this case would ei‐
1743 ther cause an error or be treated as an obscure set of glob
1744 qualifiers.
1745 Arbitrary arguments are allowed if they take the form of assign‐
1747 ments after command line expansion; however, these only perform
1748 scalar assignment:
1749 var='svar=val'
1751 typeset $var
1752 The above sets the scalar parameter svar to the value val.
1754 Parentheses around the value within var would not cause array
1755 assignment as they will be treated as ordinary characters when
1756 $var is substituted. Any non-trivial expansion in the name part
1757 of the assignment causes the argument to be treated in this
1758 fashion:
1759 typeset {var1,var2,var3}=name
1761 The above syntax is valid, and has the expected effect of set‐
1763 ting the three parameters to the same value, but the command
1764 line is parsed as a set of three normal command line arguments
1765 to typeset after expansion. Hence it is not possible to assign
1766 to multiple arrays by this means.
1767 Note that each interface to any of the commands my be disabled
1769 separately. For example, `disable -r typeset' disables the re‐
1770 served word interface to typeset, exposing the builtin inter‐
1771 face, while `disable typeset' disables the builtin. Note that
1772 disabling the reserved word interface for typeset may cause
1773 problems with the output of `typeset -p', which assumes the re‐
1774 served word interface is available in order to restore array and
1775 associative array values.
1776 Unlike parameter assignment statements, typeset's exit status on
1778 an assignment that involves a command substitution does not re‐
1779 flect the exit status of the command substitution. Therefore,
1780 to test for an error in a command substitution, separate the
1781 declaration of the parameter from its initialization:
1782 # WRONG
1784 typeset var1=$(exit 1) || echo "Trouble with var1"
1785 # RIGHT
1787 typeset var1 && var1=$(exit 1) || echo "Trouble with var1"
1788 To initialize a parameter param to a command output and mark it
1790 readonly, use typeset -r param or readonly param after the pa‐
1791 rameter assignment statement.
1792 If no attribute flags are given, and either no name arguments
1794 are present or the flag +m is used, then each parameter name
1795 printed is preceded by a list of the attributes of that parame‐
1796 ter (array, association, exported, float, integer, readonly, or
1797 undefined for autoloaded parameters not yet loaded). If +m is
1798 used with attribute flags, and all those flags are introduced
1799 with +, the matching parameter names are printed but their val‐
1800 ues are not.
1801 The following control flags change the behavior of typeset:
1803 + If `+' appears by itself in a separate word as the last
1805 option, then the names of all parameters (functions with
1806 -f) are printed, but the values (function bodies) are
1807 not. No name arguments may appear, and it is an error
1808 for any other options to follow `+'. The effect of `+'
1809 is as if all attribute flags which precede it were given
1810 with a `+' prefix. For example, `typeset -U +' is equiv‐
1811 alent to `typeset +U' and displays the names of all ar‐
1812 rays having the uniqueness attribute, whereas `typeset -f
1813 -U +' displays the names of all autoloadable functions.
1814 If + is the only option, then type information (array,
1815 readonly, etc.) is also printed for each parameter, in
1816 the same manner as `typeset +m "*"'.
1817 -g The -g (global) means that any resulting parameter will
1819 not be restricted to local scope. Note that this does
1820 not necessarily mean that the parameter will be global,
1821 as the flag will apply to any existing parameter (even if
1822 unset) from an enclosing function. This flag does not
1823 affect the parameter after creation, hence it has no ef‐
1824 fect when listing existing parameters, nor does the flag
1825 +g have any effect except in combination with -m (see be‐
1826 low).
1827 -m If the -m flag is given the name arguments are taken as
1829 patterns (use quoting to prevent these from being inter‐
1830 preted as file patterns). With no attribute flags, all
1831 parameters (or functions with the -f flag) with matching
1832 names are printed (the shell option TYPESET_SILENT is not
1833 used in this case).
1834 If the +g flag is combined with -m, a new local parameter
1836 is created for every matching parameter that is not al‐
1837 ready local. Otherwise -m applies all other flags or as‐
1838 signments to the existing parameters.
1839 Except when assignments are made with name=value, using
1841 +m forces the matching parameters and their attributes to
1842 be printed, even inside a function. Note that -m is ig‐
1843 nored if no patterns are given, so `typeset -m' displays
1844 attributes but `typeset -a +m' does not.
1845 -p [ n ]
1847 If the -p option is given, parameters and values are
1848 printed in the form of a typeset command with an assign‐
1849 ment, regardless of other flags and options. Note that
1850 the -H flag on parameters is respected; no value will be
1851 shown for these parameters.
1852 -p may be followed by an optional integer argument. Cur‐
1854 rently only the value 1 is supported. In this case ar‐
1855 rays and associative arrays are printed with newlines be‐
1856 tween indented elements for readability.
1857 -T [ scalar[=value] array[=(value ...)] [ sep ] ]
1859 This flag has a different meaning when used with -f; see
1860 below. Otherwise the -T option requires zero, two, or
1861 three arguments to be present. With no arguments, the
1862 list of parameters created in this fashion is shown.
1863 With two or three arguments, the first two are the name
1864 of a scalar and of an array parameter (in that order)
1865 that will be tied together in the manner of $PATH and
1866 $path. The optional third argument is a single-character
1867 separator which will be used to join the elements of the
1868 array to form the scalar; if absent, a colon is used, as
1869 with $PATH. Only the first character of the separator is
1870 significant; any remaining characters are ignored.
1871 Multibyte characters are not yet supported.
1872 Only one of the scalar and array parameters may be as‐
1874 signed an initial value (the restrictions on assignment
1875 forms described above also apply).
1876 Both the scalar and the array may be manipulated as nor‐
1878 mal. If one is unset, the other will automatically be
1879 unset too. There is no way of untying the variables
1880 without unsetting them, nor of converting the type of one
1881 of them with another typeset command; +T does not work,
1882 assigning an array to scalar is an error, and assigning a
1883 scalar to array sets it to be a single-element array.
1884 Note that both `typeset -xT ...' and `export -T ...'
1886 work, but only the scalar will be marked for export.
1887 Setting the value using the scalar version causes a split
1888 on all separators (which cannot be quoted). It is possi‐
1889 ble to apply -T to two previously tied variables but with
1890 a different separator character, in which case the vari‐
1891 ables remain joined as before but the separator is
1892 changed.
1893 When an existing scalar is tied to a new array, the value
1895 of the scalar is preserved but no attribute other than
1896 export will be preserved.
1897 Attribute flags that transform the final value (-L, -R, -Z, -l,
1899 -u) are only applied to the expanded value at the point of a pa‐
1900 rameter expansion expression using `$'. They are not applied
1901 when a parameter is retrieved internally by the shell for any
1902 purpose.
1903 The following attribute flags may be specified:
1905 -A The names refer to associative array parameters; see `Ar‐
1907 ray Parameters' in zshparam(1).
1908 -L [ n ]
1910 Left justify and remove leading blanks from the value
1911 when the parameter is expanded. If n is nonzero, it de‐
1912 fines the width of the field. If n is zero, the width is
1913 determined by the width of the value of the first assign‐
1914 ment. In the case of numeric parameters, the length of
1915 the complete value assigned to the parameter is used to
1916 determine the width, not the value that would be output.
1917 The width is the count of characters, which may be multi‐
1919 byte characters if the MULTIBYTE option is in effect.
1920 Note that the screen width of the character is not taken
1921 into account; if this is required, use padding with pa‐
1922 rameter expansion flags ${(ml...)...} as described in
1923 `Parameter Expansion Flags' in zshexpn(1).
1924 When the parameter is expanded, it is filled on the right
1926 with blanks or truncated if necessary to fit the field.
1927 Note truncation can lead to unexpected results with nu‐
1928 meric parameters. Leading zeros are removed if the -Z
1929 flag is also set.
1930 -R [ n ]
1932 Similar to -L, except that right justification is used;
1933 when the parameter is expanded, the field is left filled
1934 with blanks or truncated from the end. May not be com‐
1935 bined with the -Z flag.
1936 -U For arrays (but not for associative arrays), keep only
1938 the first occurrence of each duplicated value. This may
1939 also be set for tied parameters (see -T) or colon-sepa‐
1940 rated special parameters like PATH or FIGNORE, etc. Note
1941 the flag takes effect on assignment, and the type of the
1942 variable being assigned to is determinative; for vari‐
1943 ables with shared values it is therefore recommended to
1944 set the flag for all interfaces, e.g. `typeset -U PATH
1945 path'.
1946 This flag has a different meaning when used with -f; see
1948 below.
1949 -Z [ n ]
1951 Specially handled if set along with the -L flag. Other‐
1952 wise, similar to -R, except that leading zeros are used
1953 for padding instead of blanks if the first non-blank
1954 character is a digit. Numeric parameters are specially
1955 handled: they are always eligible for padding with ze‐
1956 roes, and the zeroes are inserted at an appropriate place
1957 in the output.
1958 -a The names refer to array parameters. An array parameter
1960 may be created this way, but it may be assigned to in the
1961 typeset statement only if the reserved word form of type‐
1962 set is enabled (as it is by default). When displaying,
1963 both normal and associative arrays are shown.
1964 -f The names refer to functions rather than parameters. No
1966 assignments can be made, and the only other valid flags
1967 are -t, -T, -k, -u, -U and -z. The flag -t turns on exe‐
1968 cution tracing for this function; the flag -T does the
1969 same, but turns off tracing for any named (not anonymous)
1970 function called from the present one, unless that func‐
1971 tion also has the -t or -T flag. The -u and -U flags
1972 cause the function to be marked for autoloading; -U also
1973 causes alias expansion to be suppressed when the function
1974 is loaded. See the description of the `autoload' builtin
1975 for details.
1976 Note that the builtin functions provides the same basic
1978 capabilities as typeset -f but gives access to a few ex‐
1979 tra options; autoload gives further additional options
1980 for the case typeset -fu and typeset -fU.
1981 -h Hide: only useful for special parameters (those marked
1983 `<S>' in the table in zshparam(1)), and for local parame‐
1984 ters with the same name as a special parameter, though
1985 harmless for others. A special parameter with this at‐
1986 tribute will not retain its special effect when made lo‐
1987 cal. Thus after `typeset -h PATH', a function containing
1988 `typeset PATH' will create an ordinary local parameter
1989 without the usual behaviour of PATH. Alternatively, the
1990 local parameter may itself be given this attribute; hence
1991 inside a function `typeset -h PATH' creates an ordinary
1992 local parameter and the special PATH parameter is not al‐
1993 tered in any way. It is also possible to create a local
1994 parameter using `typeset +h special', where the local
1995 copy of special will retain its special properties re‐
1996 gardless of having the -h attribute. Global special pa‐
1997 rameters loaded from shell modules (currently those in
1998 zsh/mapfile and zsh/parameter) are automatically given
1999 the -h attribute to avoid name clashes.
2000 -H Hide value: specifies that typeset will not display the
2002 value of the parameter when listing parameters; the dis‐
2003 play for such parameters is always as if the `+' flag had
2004 been given. Use of the parameter is in other respects
2005 normal, and the option does not apply if the parameter is
2006 specified by name, or by pattern with the -m option.
2007 This is on by default for the parameters in the zsh/pa‐
2008 rameter and zsh/mapfile modules. Note, however, that un‐
2009 like the -h flag this is also useful for non-special pa‐
2010 rameters.
2011 -i [ n ]
2013 Use an internal integer representation. If n is nonzero
2014 it defines the output arithmetic base, otherwise it is
2015 determined by the first assignment. Bases from 2 to 36
2016 inclusive are allowed.
2017 -E [ n ]
2019 Use an internal double-precision floating point represen‐
2020 tation. On output the variable will be converted to sci‐
2021 entific notation. If n is nonzero it defines the number
2022 of significant figures to display; the default is ten.
2023 -F [ n ]
2025 Use an internal double-precision floating point represen‐
2026 tation. On output the variable will be converted to
2027 fixed-point decimal notation. If n is nonzero it defines
2028 the number of digits to display after the decimal point;
2029 the default is ten.
2030 -l Convert the result to lower case whenever the parameter
2032 is expanded. The value is not converted when assigned.
2033 -r The given names are marked readonly. Note that if name
2035 is a special parameter, the readonly attribute can be
2036 turned on, but cannot then be turned off.
2037 If the POSIX_BUILTINS option is set, the readonly attri‐
2039 bute is more restrictive: unset variables can be marked
2040 readonly and cannot then be set; furthermore, the read‐
2041 only attribute cannot be removed from any variable.
2042 It is still possible to change other attributes of the
2044 variable though, some of which like -U or -Z would affect
2045 the value. More generally, the readonly attribute should
2046 not be relied on as a security mechanism.
2047 Note that in zsh (like in pdksh but unlike most other
2049 shells) it is still possible to create a local variable
2050 of the same name as this is considered a different vari‐
2051 able (though this variable, too, can be marked readonly).
2052 Special variables that have been made readonly retain
2053 their value and readonly attribute when made local.
2054 -t Tags the named parameters. Tags have no special meaning
2056 to the shell. This flag has a different meaning when
2057 used with -f; see above.
2058 -u Convert the result to upper case whenever the parameter
2060 is expanded. The value is not converted when assigned.
2061 This flag has a different meaning when used with -f; see
2062 above.
2063 -x Mark for automatic export to the environment of subse‐
2065 quently executed commands. If the option GLOBAL_EXPORT
2066 is set, this implies the option -g, unless +g is also ex‐
2067 plicitly given; in other words the parameter is not made
2068 local to the enclosing function. This is for compatibil‐
2069 ity with previous versions of zsh.
2070 ulimit [ -HSa ] [ { -bcdfiklmnpqrsTtvwx | -N resource } [ limit ] ... ]
2072 Set or display resource limits of the shell and the processes
2073 started by the shell. The value of limit can be a number in the
2074 unit specified below or one of the values `unlimited', which re‐
2075 moves the limit on the resource, or `hard', which uses the cur‐
2076 rent value of the hard limit on the resource.
2077 By default, only soft limits are manipulated. If the -H flag is
2079 given use hard limits instead of soft limits. If the -S flag is
2080 given together with the -H flag set both hard and soft limits.
2081 If no options are used, the file size limit (-f) is assumed.
2083 If limit is omitted the current value of the specified resources
2085 are printed. When more than one resource value is printed, the
2086 limit name and unit is printed before each value.
2087 When looping over multiple resources, the shell will abort imme‐
2089 diately if it detects a badly formed argument. However, if it
2090 fails to set a limit for some other reason it will continue try‐
2091 ing to set the remaining limits.
2092 Not all the following resources are supported on all systems.
2094 Running ulimit -a will show which are supported.
2095 -a Lists all of the current resource limits.
2097 -b Socket buffer size in bytes (N.B. not kilobytes)
2098 -c 512-byte blocks on the size of core dumps.
2099 -d Kilobytes on the size of the data segment.
2100 -f 512-byte blocks on the size of files written.
2101 -i The number of pending signals.
2102 -k The number of kqueues allocated.
2103 -l Kilobytes on the size of locked-in memory.
2104 -m Kilobytes on the size of physical memory.
2105 -n open file descriptors.
2106 -p The number of pseudo-terminals.
2107 -q Bytes in POSIX message queues.
2108 -r Maximum real time priority. On some systems where this
2109 is not available, such as NetBSD, this has the same ef‐
2110 fect as -T for compatibility with sh.
2111 -s Kilobytes on the size of the stack.
2112 -T The number of simultaneous threads available to the user.
2113 -t CPU seconds to be used.
2114 -u The number of processes available to the user.
2115 -v Kilobytes on the size of virtual memory. On some systems
2116 this refers to the limit called `address space'.
2117 -w Kilobytes on the size of swapped out memory.
2118 -x The number of locks on files.
2119 A resource may also be specified by integer in the form `-N re‐
2121 source', where resource corresponds to the integer defined for
2122 the resource by the operating system. This may be used to set
2123 the limits for resources known to the shell which do not corre‐
2124 spond to option letters. Such limits will be shown by number in
2125 the output of `ulimit -a'.
2126 The number may alternatively be out of the range of limits com‐
2128 piled into the shell. The shell will try to read or write the
2129 limit anyway, and will report an error if this fails.
2130 umask [ -S ] [ mask ]
2132 The umask is set to mask. mask can be either an octal number or
2133 a symbolic value as described in chmod(1). If mask is omitted,
2134 the current value is printed. The -S option causes the mask to
2135 be printed as a symbolic value. Otherwise, the mask is printed
2136 as an octal number. Note that in the symbolic form the permis‐
2137 sions you specify are those which are to be allowed (not denied)
2138 to the users specified.
2139 unalias [ -ams ] name ...
2141 Removes aliases. This command works the same as unhash -a, ex‐
2142 cept that the -a option removes all regular or global aliases,
2143 or with -s all suffix aliases: in this case no name arguments
2144 may appear. The options -m (remove by pattern) and -s without
2145 -a (remove listed suffix aliases) behave as for unhash -a. Note
2146 that the meaning of -a is different between unalias and unhash.
2147 unfunction
2149 Same as unhash -f.
2150 unhash [ -adfms ] name ...
2152 Remove the element named name from an internal hash table. The
2153 default is remove elements from the command hash table. The -a
2154 option causes unhash to remove regular or global aliases; note
2155 when removing a global aliases that the argument must be quoted
2156 to prevent it from being expanded before being passed to the
2157 command. The -s option causes unhash to remove suffix aliases.
2158 The -f option causes unhash to remove shell functions. The -d
2159 options causes unhash to remove named directories. If the -m
2160 flag is given the arguments are taken as patterns (should be
2161 quoted) and all elements of the corresponding hash table with
2162 matching names will be removed.
2163 unlimit [ -hs ] resource ...
2165 The resource limit for each resource is set to the hard limit.
2166 If the -h flag is given and the shell has appropriate privi‐
2167 leges, the hard resource limit for each resource is removed.
2168 The resources of the shell process are only changed if the -s
2169 flag is given.
2170 The unlimit command is not made available by default when the
2172 shell starts in a mode emulating another shell. It can be made
2173 available with the command `zmodload -F zsh/rlimits b:unlimit'.
2174 unset [ -fmv ] name ...
2176 Each named parameter is unset. Local parameters remain local
2177 even if unset; they appear unset within scope, but the previous
2178 value will still reappear when the scope ends.
2179 Individual elements of associative array parameters may be unset
2181 by using subscript syntax on name, which should be quoted (or
2182 the entire command prefixed with noglob) to protect the sub‐
2183 script from filename generation.
2184 If the -m flag is specified the arguments are taken as patterns
2186 (should be quoted) and all parameters with matching names are
2187 unset. Note that this cannot be used when unsetting associative
2188 array elements, as the subscript will be treated as part of the
2189 pattern.
2190 The -v flag specifies that name refers to parameters. This is
2192 the default behaviour.
2193 unset -f is equivalent to unfunction.
2195 unsetopt [ {+|-}options | {+|-}o option_name ] [ name ... ]
2197 Unset the options for the shell. All options specified either
2198 with flags or by name are unset. If no arguments are supplied,
2199 the names of all options currently unset are printed. If the -m
2200 flag is given the arguments are taken as patterns (which should
2201 be quoted to preserve them from being interpreted as glob pat‐
2202 terns), and all options with names matching these patterns are
2203 unset.
2204 vared See the section `Zle Builtins' in zshzle(1).
2206 wait [ job ... ]
2208 Wait for the specified jobs or processes. If job is not given
2209 then all currently active child processes are waited for. Each
2210 job can be either a job specification or the process ID of a job
2211 in the job table. The exit status from this command is that of
2212 the job waited for. If job represents an unknown job or process
2213 ID, a warning is printed (unless the POSIX_BUILTINS option is
2214 set) and the exit status is 127.
2215 It is possible to wait for recent processes (specified by
2217 process ID, not by job) that were running in the background even
2218 if the process has exited. Typically the process ID will be
2219 recorded by capturing the value of the variable $! immediately
2220 after the process has been started. There is a limit on the
2221 number of process IDs remembered by the shell; this is given by
2222 the value of the system configuration parameter CHILD_MAX. When
2223 this limit is reached, older process IDs are discarded, least
2224 recently started processes first.
2225 Note there is no protection against the process ID wrapping,
2227 i.e. if the wait is not executed soon enough there is a chance
2228 the process waited for is the wrong one. A conflict implies
2229 both process IDs have been generated by the shell, as other pro‐
2230 cesses are not recorded, and that the user is potentially inter‐
2231 ested in both, so this problem is intrinsic to process IDs.
2232 whence [ -vcwfpamsS ] [ -x num ] name ...
2234 For each name, indicate how it would be interpreted if used as a
2235 command name.
2236 If name is not an alias, built-in command, external command,
2238 shell function, hashed command, or a reserved word, the exit
2239 status shall be non-zero, and -- if -v, -c, or -w was passed --
2240 a message will be written to standard output. (This is differ‐
2241 ent from other shells that write that message to standard er‐
2242 ror.)
2243 whence is most useful when name is only the last path component
2245 of a command, i.e. does not include a `/'; in particular, pat‐
2246 tern matching only succeeds if just the non-directory component
2247 of the command is passed.
2248 -v Produce a more verbose report.
2250 -c Print the results in a csh-like format. This takes
2252 precedence over -v.
2253 -w For each name, print `name: word' where word is one of
2255 alias, builtin, command, function, hashed, reserved or
2256 none, according as name corresponds to an alias, a
2257 built-in command, an external command, a shell function,
2258 a command defined with the hash builtin, a reserved word,
2259 or is not recognised. This takes precedence over -v and
2260 -c.
2261 -f Causes the contents of a shell function to be displayed,
2263 which would otherwise not happen unless the -c flag were
2264 used.
2265 -p Do a path search for name even if it is an alias, re‐
2267 served word, shell function or builtin.
2268 -a Do a search for all occurrences of name throughout the
2270 command path. Normally only the first occurrence is
2271 printed.
2272 -m The arguments are taken as patterns (pattern characters
2274 should be quoted), and the information is displayed for
2275 each command matching one of these patterns.
2276 -s If a pathname contains symlinks, print the symlink-free
2278 pathname as well.
2279 -S As -s, but if the pathname had to be resolved by follow‐
2281 ing multiple symlinks, the intermediate steps are
2282 printed, too. The symlink resolved at each step might be
2283 anywhere in the path.
2284 -x num Expand tabs when outputting shell functions using the -c
2286 option. This has the same effect as the -x option to the
2287 functions builtin.
2288 where [ -wpmsS ] [ -x num ] name ...
2290 Equivalent to whence -ca.
2291 which [ -wpamsS ] [ -x num ] name ...
2293 Equivalent to whence -c.
2294 zcompile [ -U ] [ -z | -k ] [ -R | -M ] file [ name ... ]
2296 zcompile -ca [ -m ] [ -R | -M ] file [ name ... ]
2297 zcompile -t file [ name ... ]
2298 This builtin command can be used to compile functions or
2299 scripts, storing the compiled form in a file, and to examine
2300 files containing the compiled form. This allows faster au‐
2301 toloading of functions and sourcing of scripts by avoiding pars‐
2302 ing of the text when the files are read.
2303 The first form (without the -c, -a or -t options) creates a com‐
2305 piled file. If only the file argument is given, the output file
2306 has the name `file.zwc' and will be placed in the same directory
2307 as the file. The shell will load the compiled file instead of
2308 the normal function file when the function is autoloaded; see
2309 the section `Autoloading Functions' in zshmisc(1) for a descrip‐
2310 tion of how autoloaded functions are searched. The extension
2311 .zwc stands for `zsh word code'.
2312 If there is at least one name argument, all the named files are
2314 compiled into the output file given as the first argument. If
2315 file does not end in .zwc, this extension is automatically ap‐
2316 pended. Files containing multiple compiled functions are called
2317 `digest' files, and are intended to be used as elements of the
2318 FPATH/fpath special array.
2319 The second form, with the -c or -a options, writes the compiled
2321 definitions for all the named functions into file. For -c, the
2322 names must be functions currently defined in the shell, not
2323 those marked for autoloading. Undefined functions that are
2324 marked for autoloading may be written by using the -a option, in
2325 which case the fpath is searched and the contents of the defini‐
2326 tion files for those functions, if found, are compiled into
2327 file. If both -c and -a are given, names of both defined func‐
2328 tions and functions marked for autoloading may be given. In ei‐
2329 ther case, the functions in files written with the -c or -a op‐
2330 tion will be autoloaded as if the KSH_AUTOLOAD option were un‐
2331 set.
2332 The reason for handling loaded and not-yet-loaded functions with
2334 different options is that some definition files for autoloading
2335 define multiple functions, including the function with the same
2336 name as the file, and, at the end, call that function. In such
2337 cases the output of `zcompile -c' does not include the addi‐
2338 tional functions defined in the file, and any other initializa‐
2339 tion code in the file is lost. Using `zcompile -a' captures all
2340 this extra information.
2341 If the -m option is combined with -c or -a, the names are used
2343 as patterns and all functions whose names match one of these
2344 patterns will be written. If no name is given, the definitions
2345 of all functions currently defined or marked as autoloaded will
2346 be written.
2347 Note the second form cannot be used for compiling functions that
2349 include redirections as part of the definition rather than
2350 within the body of the function; for example
2351 fn1() { { ... } >~/logfile }
2353 can be compiled but
2355 fn1() { ... } >~/logfile
2357 cannot. It is possible to use the first form of zcompile to
2359 compile autoloadable functions that include the full function
2360 definition instead of just the body of the function.
2361 The third form, with the -t option, examines an existing com‐
2363 piled file. Without further arguments, the names of the origi‐
2364 nal files compiled into it are listed. The first line of output
2365 shows the version of the shell which compiled the file and how
2366 the file will be used (i.e. by reading it directly or by mapping
2367 it into memory). With arguments, nothing is output and the re‐
2368 turn status is set to zero if definitions for all names were
2369 found in the compiled file, and non-zero if the definition for
2370 at least one name was not found.
2371 Other options:
2373 -U Aliases are not expanded when compiling the named files.
2375 -R When the compiled file is read, its contents are copied
2377 into the shell's memory, rather than memory-mapped (see
2378 -M). This happens automatically on systems that do not
2379 support memory mapping.
2380 When compiling scripts instead of autoloadable functions,
2382 it is often desirable to use this option; otherwise the
2383 whole file, including the code to define functions which
2384 have already been defined, will remain mapped, conse‐
2385 quently wasting memory.
2386 -M The compiled file is mapped into the shell's memory when
2388 read. This is done in such a way that multiple instances
2389 of the shell running on the same host will share this
2390 mapped file. If neither -R nor -M is given, the zcompile
2391 builtin decides what to do based on the size of the com‐
2392 piled file.
2393 -k
2395 -z These options are used when the compiled file contains
2396 functions which are to be autoloaded. If -z is given, the
2397 function will be autoloaded as if the KSH_AUTOLOAD option
2398 is not set, even if it is set at the time the compiled
2399 file is read, while if the -k is given, the function will
2400 be loaded as if KSH_AUTOLOAD is set. These options also
2401 take precedence over any -k or -z options specified to
2402 the autoload builtin. If neither of these options is
2403 given, the function will be loaded as determined by the
2404 setting of the KSH_AUTOLOAD option at the time the com‐
2405 piled file is read.
2406 These options may also appear as many times as necessary
2408 between the listed names to specify the loading style of
2409 all following functions, up to the next -k or -z.
2410 The created file always contains two versions of the com‐
2412 piled format, one for big-endian machines and one for
2413 small-endian machines. The upshot of this is that the
2414 compiled file is machine independent and if it is read or
2415 mapped, only one half of the file is actually used (and
2416 mapped).
2417 zformat
2419 See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in zshmodules(1).
2420 zftp See the section `The zsh/zftp Module' in zshmodules(1).
2422 zle See the section `Zle Builtins' in zshzle(1).
2424 zmodload [ -dL ] [ -s ] [ ... ]
2426 zmodload -F [ -alLme -P param ] module [ [+-]feature ... ]
2427 zmodload -e [ -A ] [ ... ]
2428 zmodload [ -a [ -bcpf [ -I ] ] ] [ -iL ] ...
2429 zmodload -u [ -abcdpf [ -I ] ] [ -iL ] ...
2430 zmodload -A [ -L ] [ modalias[=module] ... ]
2431 zmodload -R modalias ...
2432 Performs operations relating to zsh's loadable modules. Loading
2433 of modules while the shell is running (`dynamical loading') is
2434 not available on all operating systems, or on all installations
2435 on a particular operating system, although the zmodload command
2436 itself is always available and can be used to manipulate modules
2437 built into versions of the shell executable without dynamical
2438 loading.
2439 Without arguments the names of all currently loaded binary mod‐
2441 ules are printed. The -L option causes this list to be in the
2442 form of a series of zmodload commands. Forms with arguments
2443 are:
2444 zmodload [ -is ] name ...
2446 zmodload -u [ -i ] name ...
2447 In the simplest case, zmodload loads a binary module.
2448 The module must be in a file with a name consisting of
2449 the specified name followed by a standard suffix, usually
2450 `.so' (`.sl' on HPUX). If the module to be loaded is al‐
2451 ready loaded the duplicate module is ignored. If zmod‐
2452 load detects an inconsistency, such as an invalid module
2453 name or circular dependency list, the current code block
2454 is aborted. If it is available, the module is loaded if
2455 necessary, while if it is not available, non-zero status
2456 is silently returned. The option -i is accepted for com‐
2457 patibility but has no effect.
2458 The named module is searched for in the same way a com‐
2460 mand is, using $module_path instead of $path. However,
2461 the path search is performed even when the module name
2462 contains a `/', which it usually does. There is no way
2463 to prevent the path search.
2464 If the module supports features (see below), zmodload
2466 tries to enable all features when loading a module. If
2467 the module was successfully loaded but not all features
2468 could be enabled, zmodload returns status 2.
2469 If the option -s is given, no error is printed if the
2471 module was not available (though other errors indicating
2472 a problem with the module are printed). The return sta‐
2473 tus indicates if the module was loaded. This is appro‐
2474 priate if the caller considers the module optional.
2475 With -u, zmodload unloads modules. The same name must be
2477 given that was given when the module was loaded, but it
2478 is not necessary for the module to exist in the file sys‐
2479 tem. The -i option suppresses the error if the module is
2480 already unloaded (or was never loaded).
2481 Each module has a boot and a cleanup function. The mod‐
2483 ule will not be loaded if its boot function fails. Simi‐
2484 larly a module can only be unloaded if its cleanup func‐
2485 tion runs successfully.
2486 zmodload -F [ -almLe -P param ] module [ [+-]feature ... ]
2488 zmodload -F allows more selective control over the fea‐
2489 tures provided by modules. With no options apart from
2490 -F, the module named module is loaded, if it was not al‐
2491 ready loaded, and the list of features is set to the re‐
2492 quired state. If no features are specified, the module
2493 is loaded, if it was not already loaded, but the state of
2494 features is unchanged. Each feature may be preceded by a
2495 + to turn the feature on, or - to turn it off; the + is
2496 assumed if neither character is present. Any feature not
2497 explicitly mentioned is left in its current state; if the
2498 module was not previously loaded this means any such fea‐
2499 tures will remain disabled. The return status is zero if
2500 all features were set, 1 if the module failed to load,
2501 and 2 if some features could not be set (for example, a
2502 parameter couldn't be added because there was a different
2503 parameter of the same name) but the module was loaded.
2504 The standard features are builtins, conditions, parame‐
2506 ters and math functions; these are indicated by the pre‐
2507 fix `b:', `c:' (`C:' for an infix condition), `p:' and
2508 `f:', respectively, followed by the name that the corre‐
2509 sponding feature would have in the shell. For example,
2510 `b:strftime' indicates a builtin named strftime and
2511 p:EPOCHSECONDS indicates a parameter named EPOCHSECONDS.
2512 The module may provide other (`abstract') features of its
2513 own as indicated by its documentation; these have no pre‐
2514 fix.
2515 With -l or -L, features provided by the module are
2517 listed. With -l alone, a list of features together with
2518 their states is shown, one feature per line. With -L
2519 alone, a zmodload -F command that would cause enabled
2520 features of the module to be turned on is shown. With
2521 -lL, a zmodload -F command that would cause all the fea‐
2522 tures to be set to their current state is shown. If one
2523 of these combinations is given with the option -P param
2524 then the parameter param is set to an array of features,
2525 either features together with their state or (if -L alone
2526 is given) enabled features.
2527 With the option -L the module name may be omitted; then a
2529 list of all enabled features for all modules providing
2530 features is printed in the form of zmodload -F commands.
2531 If -l is also given, the state of both enabled and dis‐
2532 abled features is output in that form.
2533 A set of features may be provided together with -l or -L
2535 and a module name; in that case only the state of those
2536 features is considered. Each feature may be preceded by
2537 + or - but the character has no effect. If no set of
2538 features is provided, all features are considered.
2539 With -e, the command first tests that the module is
2541 loaded; if it is not, status 1 is returned. If the mod‐
2542 ule is loaded, the list of features given as an argument
2543 is examined. Any feature given with no prefix is simply
2544 tested to see if the module provides it; any feature
2545 given with a prefix + or - is tested to see if is pro‐
2546 vided and in the given state. If the tests on all fea‐
2547 tures in the list succeed, status 0 is returned, else
2548 status 1.
2549 With -m, each entry in the given list of features is
2551 taken as a pattern to be matched against the list of fea‐
2552 tures provided by the module. An initial + or - must be
2553 given explicitly. This may not be combined with the -a
2554 option as autoloads must be specified explicitly.
2555 With -a, the given list of features is marked for au‐
2557 toload from the specified module, which may not yet be
2558 loaded. An optional + may appear before the feature
2559 name. If the feature is prefixed with -, any existing
2560 autoload is removed. The options -l and -L may be used
2561 to list autoloads. Autoloading is specific to individual
2562 features; when the module is loaded only the requested
2563 feature is enabled. Autoload requests are preserved if
2564 the module is subsequently unloaded until an explicit
2565 `zmodload -Fa module -feature' is issued. It is not an
2566 error to request an autoload for a feature of a module
2567 that is already loaded.
2568 When the module is loaded each autoload is checked
2570 against the features actually provided by the module; if
2571 the feature is not provided the autoload request is
2572 deleted. A warning message is output; if the module is
2573 being loaded to provide a different feature, and that au‐
2574 toload is successful, there is no effect on the status of
2575 the current command. If the module is already loaded at
2576 the time when zmodload -Fa is run, an error message is
2577 printed and status 1 returned.
2578 zmodload -Fa can be used with the -l, -L, -e and -P op‐
2580 tions for listing and testing the existence of autoload‐
2581 able features. In this case -l is ignored if -L is spec‐
2582 ified. zmodload -FaL with no module name lists autoloads
2583 for all modules.
2584 Note that only standard features as described above can
2586 be autoloaded; other features require the module to be
2587 loaded before enabling.
2588 zmodload -d [ -L ] [ name ]
2590 zmodload -d name dep ...
2591 zmodload -ud name [ dep ... ]
2592 The -d option can be used to specify module dependencies.
2593 The modules named in the second and subsequent arguments
2594 will be loaded before the module named in the first argu‐
2595 ment.
2596 With -d and one argument, all dependencies for that mod‐
2598 ule are listed. With -d and no arguments, all module de‐
2599 pendencies are listed. This listing is by default in a
2600 Makefile-like format. The -L option changes this format
2601 to a list of zmodload -d commands.
2602 If -d and -u are both used, dependencies are removed. If
2604 only one argument is given, all dependencies for that
2605 module are removed.
2606 zmodload -ab [ -L ]
2608 zmodload -ab [ -i ] name [ builtin ... ]
2609 zmodload -ub [ -i ] builtin ...
2610 The -ab option defines autoloaded builtins. It defines
2611 the specified builtins. When any of those builtins is
2612 called, the module specified in the first argument is
2613 loaded and all its features are enabled (for selective
2614 control of features use `zmodload -F -a' as described
2615 above). If only the name is given, one builtin is de‐
2616 fined, with the same name as the module. -i suppresses
2617 the error if the builtin is already defined or au‐
2618 toloaded, but not if another builtin of the same name is
2619 already defined.
2620 With -ab and no arguments, all autoloaded builtins are
2622 listed, with the module name (if different) shown in
2623 parentheses after the builtin name. The -L option
2624 changes this format to a list of zmodload -a commands.
2625 If -b is used together with the -u option, it removes
2627 builtins previously defined with -ab. This is only pos‐
2628 sible if the builtin is not yet loaded. -i suppresses
2629 the error if the builtin is already removed (or never ex‐
2630 isted).
2631 Autoload requests are retained if the module is subse‐
2633 quently unloaded until an explicit `zmodload -ub builtin'
2634 is issued.
2635 zmodload -ac [ -IL ]
2637 zmodload -ac [ -iI ] name [ cond ... ]
2638 zmodload -uc [ -iI ] cond ...
2639 The -ac option is used to define autoloaded condition
2640 codes. The cond strings give the names of the conditions
2641 defined by the module. The optional -I option is used to
2642 define infix condition names. Without this option prefix
2643 condition names are defined.
2644 If given no condition names, all defined names are listed
2646 (as a series of zmodload commands if the -L option is
2647 given).
2648 The -uc option removes definitions for autoloaded condi‐
2650 tions.
2651 zmodload -ap [ -L ]
2653 zmodload -ap [ -i ] name [ parameter ... ]
2654 zmodload -up [ -i ] parameter ...
2655 The -p option is like the -b and -c options, but makes
2656 zmodload work on autoloaded parameters instead.
2657 zmodload -af [ -L ]
2659 zmodload -af [ -i ] name [ function ... ]
2660 zmodload -uf [ -i ] function ...
2661 The -f option is like the -b, -p, and -c options, but
2662 makes zmodload work on autoloaded math functions instead.
2663 zmodload -a [ -L ]
2665 zmodload -a [ -i ] name [ builtin ... ]
2666 zmodload -ua [ -i ] builtin ...
2667 Equivalent to -ab and -ub.
2668 zmodload -e [ -A ] [ string ... ]
2670 The -e option without arguments lists all loaded modules;
2671 if the -A option is also given, module aliases corre‐
2672 sponding to loaded modules are also shown. If arguments
2673 are provided, nothing is printed; the return status is
2674 set to zero if all strings given as arguments are names
2675 of loaded modules and to one if at least on string is not
2676 the name of a loaded module. This can be used to test
2677 for the availability of things implemented by modules.
2678 In this case, any aliases are automatically resolved and
2679 the -A flag is not used.
2680 zmodload -A [ -L ] [ modalias[=module] ... ]
2682 For each argument, if both modalias and module are given,
2683 define modalias to be an alias for the module module. If
2684 the module modalias is ever subsequently requested, ei‐
2685 ther via a call to zmodload or implicitly, the shell will
2686 attempt to load module instead. If module is not given,
2687 show the definition of modalias. If no arguments are
2688 given, list all defined module aliases. When listing, if
2689 the -L flag was also given, list the definition as a
2690 zmodload command to recreate the alias.
2691 The existence of aliases for modules is completely inde‐
2693 pendent of whether the name resolved is actually loaded
2694 as a module: while the alias exists, loading and unload‐
2695 ing the module under any alias has exactly the same ef‐
2696 fect as using the resolved name, and does not affect the
2697 connection between the alias and the resolved name which
2698 can be removed either by zmodload -R or by redefining the
2699 alias. Chains of aliases (i.e. where the first resolved
2700 name is itself an alias) are valid so long as these are
2701 not circular. As the aliases take the same format as
2702 module names, they may include path separators: in this
2703 case, there is no requirement for any part of the path
2704 named to exist as the alias will be resolved first. For
2705 example, `any/old/alias' is always a valid alias.
2706 Dependencies added to aliased modules are actually added
2708 to the resolved module; these remain if the alias is re‐
2709 moved. It is valid to create an alias whose name is one
2710 of the standard shell modules and which resolves to a
2711 different module. However, if a module has dependencies,
2712 it will not be possible to use the module name as an
2713 alias as the module will already be marked as a loadable
2714 module in its own right.
2715 Apart from the above, aliases can be used in the zmodload
2717 command anywhere module names are required. However,
2718 aliases will not be shown in lists of loaded modules with
2719 a bare `zmodload'.
2720 zmodload -R modalias ...
2722 For each modalias argument that was previously defined as
2723 a module alias via zmodload -A, delete the alias. If any
2724 was not defined, an error is caused and the remainder of
2725 the line is ignored.
2726 Note that zsh makes no distinction between modules that were
2728 linked into the shell and modules that are loaded dynamically.
2729 In both cases this builtin command has to be used to make avail‐
2730 able the builtins and other things defined by modules (unless
2731 the module is autoloaded on these definitions). This is true
2732 even for systems that don't support dynamic loading of modules.
2733 zparseopts
2735 See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in zshmodules(1).
2736 zprof See the section `The zsh/zprof Module' in zshmodules(1).
2738 zpty See the section `The zsh/zpty Module' in zshmodules(1).
2740 zregexparse
2742 See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in zshmodules(1).
2743 zsocket
2745 See the section `The zsh/net/socket Module' in zshmodules(1).
2746 zstyle See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in zshmodules(1).
2748 ztcp See the section `The zsh/net/tcp Module' in zshmodules(1).
2750zsh 5.8.1 February 12, 2022 ZSHBUILTINS(1)