ZSHMISC(1) General Commands Manual ZSHMISC(1)
NAME
zshmisc - everything and then some
SIMPLE COMMANDS & PIPELINES
A simple command is a sequence of optional parameter assignments fol-
lowed by blank-separated words, with optional redirections interspersed.
For a description of assignment, see the beginning of zshparam(1).
The first word is the command to be executed, and the remaining words,
if any, are arguments to the command. If a command name is given, the
parameter assignments modify the environment of the command when it is
executed. The value of a simple command is its exit status, or 128 plus
the signal number if terminated by a signal. For example,
echo foo
is a simple command with arguments.
A pipeline is either a simple command, or a sequence of two or more sim-
ple commands where each command is separated from the next by `|' or
`|&'. Where commands are separated by `|', the standard output of the
first command is connected to the standard input of the next. `|&' is
shorthand for `2>&1 |', which connects both the standard output and the
standard error of the command to the standard input of the next. The
value of a pipeline is the value of the last command, unless the
pipeline is preceded by `!' in which case the value is the logical in-
verse of the value of the last command. For example,
echo foo | sed 's/foo/bar/'
is a pipeline, where the output (`foo' plus a newline) of the first com-
mand will be passed to the input of the second.
If a pipeline is preceded by `coproc', it is executed as a coprocess; a
two-way pipe is established between it and the parent shell. The shell
can read from or write to the coprocess by means of the `>&p' and `<&p'
redirection operators or with `print -p' and `read -p'. A pipeline can-
not be preceded by both `coproc' and `!'. If job control is active, the
coprocess can be treated in other than input and output as an ordinary
background job.
A sublist is either a single pipeline, or a sequence of two or more
pipelines separated by `&&' or `||'. If two pipelines are separated by
`&&', the second pipeline is executed only if the first succeeds (re-
turns a zero status). If two pipelines are separated by `||', the sec-
ond is executed only if the first fails (returns a nonzero status).
Both operators have equal precedence and are left associative. The
value of the sublist is the value of the last pipeline executed. For
example,
dmesg | grep panic && print yes
is a sublist consisting of two pipelines, the second just a simple com-
mand which will be executed if and only if the grep command returns a
zero status. If it does not, the value of the sublist is that return
status, else it is the status returned by the print (almost certainly
zero).
A list is a sequence of zero or more sublists, in which each sublist is
terminated by `;', `&', `&|', `&!', or a newline. This terminator may
optionally be omitted from the last sublist in the list when the list
appears as a complex command inside `(...)' or `{...}'. When a sublist
is terminated by `;' or newline, the shell waits for it to finish before
executing the next sublist. If a sublist is terminated by a `&', `&|',
or `&!', the shell executes the last pipeline in it in the background,
and does not wait for it to finish (note the difference from other
shells which execute the whole sublist in the background). A back-
grounded pipeline returns a status of zero.
More generally, a list can be seen as a set of any shell commands what-
soever, including the complex commands below; this is implied wherever
the word `list' appears in later descriptions. For example, the com-
mands in a shell function form a special sort of list.
PRECOMMAND MODIFIERS
A simple command may be preceded by a precommand modifier, which will
alter how the command is interpreted. These modifiers are shell builtin
commands with the exception of nocorrect which is a reserved word.
- The command is executed with a `-' prepended to its argv[0]
string.
builtin
The command word is taken to be the name of a builtin command,
rather than a shell function or external command.
command [ -pvV ]
The command word is taken to be the name of an external command,
rather than a shell function or builtin. If the POSIX_BUILTINS
option is set, builtins will also be executed but certain special
properties of them are suppressed. The -p flag causes a default
path to be searched instead of that in $path. With the -v flag,
command is similar to whence and with -V, it is equivalent to
whence -v.
exec [ -cl ] [ -a argv0 ]
The following command together with any arguments is run in place
of the current process, rather than as a sub-process. The shell
does not fork and is replaced. The shell does not invoke
TRAPEXIT, nor does it source zlogout files. The options are pro-
vided for compatibility with other shells.
The -c option clears the environment.
The -l option is equivalent to the - precommand modifier, to
treat the replacement command as a login shell; the command is
executed with a - prepended to its argv[0] string. This flag has
no effect if used together with the -a option.
The -a option is used to specify explicitly the argv[0] string
(the name of the command as seen by the process itself) to be
used by the replacement command and is directly equivalent to
setting a value for the ARGV0 environment variable.
nocorrect
Spelling correction is not done on any of the words. This must
appear before any other precommand modifier, as it is interpreted
immediately, before any parsing is done. It has no effect in
non-interactive shells.
noglob Filename generation (globbing) is not performed on any of the
words.
COMPLEX COMMANDS
A complex command in zsh is one of the following:
if list then list [ elif list then list ] ... [ else list ] fi
The if list is executed, and if it returns a zero exit status,
the then list is executed. Otherwise, the elif list is executed
and if its status is zero, the then list is executed. If each
elif list returns nonzero status, the else list is executed.
for name ... [ in word ... ] term do list done
Expand the list of words, and set the parameter name to each of
them in turn, executing list each time. If the `in word' is
omitted, use the positional parameters instead of the words.
The term consists of one or more newline or ; which terminate the
words, and are optional when the `in word' is omitted.
More than one parameter name can appear before the list of words.
If N names are given, then on each execution of the loop the next
N words are assigned to the corresponding parameters. If there
are more names than remaining words, the remaining parameters are
each set to the empty string. Execution of the loop ends when
there is no remaining word to assign to the first name. It is
only possible for in to appear as the first name in the list,
else it will be treated as marking the end of the list.
for (( [expr1] ; [expr2] ; [expr3] )) do list done
The arithmetic expression expr1 is evaluated first (see the sec-
tion `Arithmetic Evaluation'). The arithmetic expression expr2
is repeatedly evaluated until it evaluates to zero and when
non-zero, list is executed and the arithmetic expression expr3
evaluated. If any expression is omitted, then it behaves as if
it evaluated to 1.
while list do list done
Execute the do list as long as the while list returns a zero exit
status.
until list do list done
Execute the do list as long as until list returns a nonzero exit
status.
repeat word do list done
word is expanded and treated as an arithmetic expression, which
must evaluate to a number n. list is then executed n times.
The repeat syntax is disabled by default when the shell starts in
a mode emulating another shell. It can be enabled with the com-
mand `enable -r repeat'
case word in [ [(] pattern [ | pattern ] ... ) list (;;|;&|;|) ] ...
esac
Execute the list associated with the first pattern that matches
word, if any. The form of the patterns is the same as that used
for filename generation. See the section `Filename Generation'.
Note further that, unless the SH_GLOB option is set, the whole
pattern with alternatives is treated by the shell as equivalent
to a group of patterns within parentheses, although white space
may appear about the parentheses and the vertical bar and will be
stripped from the pattern at those points. White space may ap-
pear elsewhere in the pattern; this is not stripped. If the
SH_GLOB option is set, so that an opening parenthesis can be un-
ambiguously treated as part of the case syntax, the expression is
parsed into separate words and these are treated as strict alter-
natives (as in other shells).
If the list that is executed is terminated with ;& rather than
;;, the following list is also executed. The rule for the termi-
nator of the following list ;;, ;& or ;| is applied unless the
esac is reached.
If the list that is executed is terminated with ;| the shell con-
tinues to scan the patterns looking for the next match, executing
the corresponding list, and applying the rule for the correspond-
ing terminator ;;, ;& or ;|. Note that word is not re-expanded;
all applicable patterns are tested with the same word.
select name [ in word ... term ] do list done
where term is one or more newline or ; to terminate the words.
Print the set of words, each preceded by a number. If the in
word is omitted, use the positional parameters. The PROMPT3
prompt is printed and a line is read from the line editor if the
shell is interactive and that is active, or else standard input.
If this line consists of the number of one of the listed words,
then the parameter name is set to the word corresponding to this
number. If this line is empty, the selection list is printed
again. Otherwise, the value of the parameter name is set to
null. The contents of the line read from standard input is saved
in the parameter REPLY. list is executed for each selection un-
til a break or end-of-file is encountered.
( list )
Execute list in a subshell. Traps set by the trap builtin are
reset to their default values while executing list; an exception
is that ignored signals will continue to be ignored if the option
POSIXTRAPS is set.
{ list }
Execute list.
{ try-list } always { always-list }
First execute try-list. Regardless of errors, or break or con-
tinue commands encountered within try-list, execute always-list.
Execution then continues from the result of the execution of
try-list; in other words, any error, or break or continue command
is treated in the normal way, as if always-list were not present.
The two chunks of code are referred to as the `try block' and the
`always block'.
Optional newlines or semicolons may appear after the always;
note, however, that they may not appear between the preceding
closing brace and the always.
An `error' in this context is a condition such as a syntax error
which causes the shell to abort execution of the current func-
tion, script, or list. Syntax errors encountered while the shell
is parsing the code do not cause the always-list to be executed.
For example, an erroneously constructed if block in try-list
would cause the shell to abort during parsing, so that al-
ways-list would not be executed, while an erroneous substitution
such as ${*foo*} would cause a run-time error, after which al-
ways-list would be executed.
An error condition can be tested and reset with the special inte-
ger variable TRY_BLOCK_ERROR. Outside an always-list the value
is irrelevant, but it is initialised to -1. Inside always-list,
the value is 1 if an error occurred in the try-list, else 0. If
TRY_BLOCK_ERROR is set to 0 during the always-list, the error
condition caused by the try-list is reset, and shell execution
continues normally after the end of always-list. Altering the
value during the try-list is not useful (unless this forms part
of an enclosing always block).
Regardless of TRY_BLOCK_ERROR, after the end of always-list the
normal shell status $? is the value returned from try-list. This
will be non-zero if there was an error, even if TRY_BLOCK_ERROR
was set to zero.
The following executes the given code, ignoring any errors it
causes. This is an alternative to the usual convention of pro-
tecting code by executing it in a subshell.
{
# code which may cause an error
} always {
# This code is executed regardless of the error.
(( TRY_BLOCK_ERROR = 0 ))
}
# The error condition has been reset.
When a try block occurs outside of any function, a return or a
exit encountered in try-list does not cause the execution of al-
ways-list. Instead, the shell exits immediately after any EXIT
trap has been executed. Otherwise, a return command encountered
in try-list will cause the execution of always-list, just like
break and continue.
function [ -T ] word ... [ () ] [ term ] { list }
word ... () [ term ] { list }
word ... () [ term ] command
where term is one or more newline or ;. Define a function which
is referenced by any one of word. Normally, only one word is
provided; multiple words are usually only useful for setting
traps. The body of the function is the list between the { and }.
See the section `Functions'.
The options of function have the following meanings:
-T Enable tracing for this function, as though with functions
-T. See the documentation of the -f option to the typeset
builtin, in zshbuiltins(1).
If the option SH_GLOB is set for compatibility with other shells,
then whitespace may appear between the left and right parentheses
when there is a single word; otherwise, the parentheses will be
treated as forming a globbing pattern in that case.
In any of the forms above, a redirection may appear outside the
function body, for example
func() { ... } 2>&1
The redirection is stored with the function and applied whenever
the function is executed. Any variables in the redirection are
expanded at the point the function is executed, but outside the
function scope.
time [ pipeline ]
The pipeline is executed, and timing statistics are reported on
the standard error in the form specified by the TIMEFMT parame-
ter. If pipeline is omitted, print statistics about the shell
process and its children.
[[ exp ]]
Evaluates the conditional expression exp and return a zero exit
status if it is true. See the section `Conditional Expressions'
for a description of exp.
ALTERNATE FORMS FOR COMPLEX COMMANDS
Many of zsh's complex commands have alternate forms. These are
non-standard and are likely not to be obvious even to seasoned shell
programmers; they should not be used anywhere that portability of shell
code is a concern.
The short versions below only work if sublist is of the form `{ list }'
or if the SHORT_LOOPS option is set. For the if, while and until com-
mands, in both these cases the test part of the loop must also be suit-
ably delimited, such as by `[[ ... ]]' or `(( ... ))', else the end of
the test will not be recognized. For the for, repeat, case and select
commands no such special form for the arguments is necessary, but the
other condition (the special form of sublist or use of the SHORT_LOOPS
option) still applies. The SHORT_REPEAT option is available to enable
the short version only for the repeat command.
if list { list } [ elif list { list } ] ... [ else { list } ]
An alternate form of if. The rules mean that
if [[ -o ignorebraces ]] {
print yes
}
works, but
if true { # Does not work!
print yes
}
does not, since the test is not suitably delimited.
if list sublist
A short form of the alternate if. The same limitations on the
form of list apply as for the previous form.
for name ... ( word ... ) sublist
A short form of for.
for name ... [ in word ... ] term sublist
where term is at least one newline or ;. Another short form of
for.
for (( [expr1] ; [expr2] ; [expr3] )) sublist
A short form of the arithmetic for command.
foreach name ... ( word ... ) list end
Another form of for.
while list { list }
An alternative form of while. Note the limitations on the form
of list mentioned above.
until list { list }
An alternative form of until. Note the limitations on the form
of list mentioned above.
repeat word sublist
This is a short form of repeat.
case word { [ [(] pattern [ | pattern ] ... ) list (;;|;&|;|) ] ... }
An alternative form of case.
select name [ in word ... term ] sublist
where term is at least one newline or ;. A short form of select.
function word ... [ () ] [ term ] sublist
This is a short form of function.
RESERVED WORDS
The following words are recognized as reserved words when used as the
first word of a command unless quoted or disabled using disable -r:
do done esac then elif else fi for case if while function repeat time
until select coproc nocorrect foreach end ! [[ { } declare export float
integer local readonly typeset
Additionally, `}' is recognized in any position if neither the IG-
NORE_BRACES option nor the IGNORE_CLOSE_BRACES option is set.
ERRORS
Certain errors are treated as fatal by the shell: in an interactive
shell, they cause control to return to the command line, and in a
non-interactive shell they cause the shell to be aborted. In older ver-
sions of zsh, a non-interactive shell running a script would not abort
completely, but would resume execution at the next command to be read
from the script, skipping the remainder of any functions or shell con-
structs such as loops or conditions; this somewhat illogical behaviour
can be recovered by setting the option CONTINUE_ON_ERROR.
Fatal errors found in non-interactive shells include:
• Failure to parse shell options passed when invoking the shell
• Failure to change options with the set builtin
• Parse errors of all sorts, including failures to parse mathemati-
cal expressions
• Failures to set or modify variable behaviour with typeset, local,
declare, export, integer, float
• Execution of incorrectly positioned loop control structures (con-
tinue, break)
• Attempts to use regular expression with no regular expression
module available
• Disallowed operations when the RESTRICTED options is set
• Failure to create a pipe needed for a pipeline
• Failure to create a multio
• Failure to autoload a module needed for a declared shell feature
• Errors creating command or process substitutions
• Syntax errors in glob qualifiers
• File generation errors where not caught by the option BAD_PATTERN
• All bad patterns used for matching within case statements
• File generation failures where not caused by NO_MATCH or similar
options
• All file generation errors where the pattern was used to create a
multio
• Memory errors where detected by the shell
• Invalid subscripts to shell variables
• Attempts to assign read-only variables
• Logical errors with variables such as assignment to the wrong
type
• Use of invalid variable names
• Errors in variable substitution syntax
• Failure to convert characters in $'...' expressions
If the POSIX_BUILTINS option is set, more errors associated with shell
builtin commands are treated as fatal, as specified by the POSIX stan-
dard.
COMMENTS
In non-interactive shells, or in interactive shells with the INTERAC-
TIVE_COMMENTS option set, a word beginning with the third character of
the histchars parameter (`#' by default) causes that word and all the
following characters up to a newline to be ignored.
ALIASING
Every eligible word in the shell input is checked to see if there is an
alias defined for it. If so, it is replaced by the text of the alias if
it is in command position (if it could be the first word of a simple
command), or if the alias is global. If the replacement text ends with
a space, the next word in the shell input is always eligible for pur-
poses of alias expansion.
It is an error for the function name, word, in the sh-compatible func-
tion definition syntax `word () ...' to be a word that resulted from
alias expansion, unless the ALIAS_FUNC_DEF option is set.
An alias is defined using the alias builtin; global aliases may be de-
fined using the -g option to that builtin.
A word is defined as:
• Any plain string or glob pattern
• Any quoted string, using any quoting method (note that the quotes
must be part of the alias definition for this to be eligible)
• Any parameter reference or command substitution
• Any series of the foregoing, concatenated without whitespace or
other tokens between them
• Any reserved word (case, do, else, etc.)
• With global aliasing, any command separator, any redirection op-
erator, and `(' or `)' when not part of a glob pattern
Alias expansion is done on the shell input before any other expansion
except history expansion. Therefore, if an alias is defined for the
word foo, alias expansion may be avoided by quoting part of the word,
e.g. \foo. Any form of quoting works, although there is nothing to pre-
vent an alias being defined for the quoted form such as \foo as well.
In particular, note that quoting must be used when using unalias to re-
move global aliases:
% alias -g foo=bar
% unalias foo
unalias: no such hash table element: bar
% unalias \foo
%
When POSIX_ALIASES is set, only plain unquoted strings are eligible for
aliasing. The alias builtin does not reject ineligible aliases, but
they are not expanded.
For use with completion, which would remove an initial backslash fol-
lowed by a character that isn't special, it may be more convenient to
quote the word by starting with a single quote, i.e. 'foo; completion
will automatically add the trailing single quote.
Alias difficulties
Although aliases can be used in ways that bend normal shell syntax, not
every string of non-white-space characters can be used as an alias.
Any set of characters not listed as a word above is not a word, hence no
attempt is made to expand it as an alias, no matter how it is defined
(i.e. via the builtin or the special parameter aliases described in the
section THE ZSH/PARAMETER MODULE in zshmodules(1)). However, as noted
in the case of POSIX_ALIASES above, the shell does not attempt to deduce
whether the string corresponds to a word at the time the alias is cre-
ated.
For example, an expression containing an = at the start of a command
line is an assignment and cannot be expanded as an alias; a lone = is
not an assignment but can only be set as an alias using the parameter,
as otherwise the = is taken part of the syntax of the builtin command.
It is not presently possible to alias the `((' token that introduces
arithmetic expressions, because until a full statement has been parsed,
it cannot be distinguished from two consecutive `(' tokens introducing
nested subshells. Also, if a separator such as && is aliased, \&& turns
into the two tokens \& and &, each of which may have been aliased sepa-
rately. Similarly for \<<, \>|, etc.
There is a commonly encountered problem with aliases illustrated by the
following code:
alias echobar='echo bar'; echobar
This prints a message that the command echobar could not be found. This
happens because aliases are expanded when the code is read in; the en-
tire line is read in one go, so that when echobar is executed it is too
late to expand the newly defined alias. This is often a problem in
shell scripts, functions, and code executed with `source' or `.'. Con-
sequently, use of functions rather than aliases is recommended in
non-interactive code.
QUOTING
A character may be quoted (that is, made to stand for itself) by preced-
ing it with a `\'. `\' followed by a newline is ignored.
A string enclosed between `$'' and `'' is processed the same way as the
string arguments of the print builtin, and the resulting string is con-
sidered to be entirely quoted. A literal `'' character can be included
in the string by using the `\'' escape.
All characters enclosed between a pair of single quotes ('') that is not
preceded by a `$' are quoted. A single quote cannot appear within sin-
gle quotes unless the option RC_QUOTES is set, in which case a pair of
single quotes are turned into a single quote. For example,
print ''''
outputs nothing apart from a newline if RC_QUOTES is not set, but one
single quote if it is set.
Inside double quotes (""), parameter and command substitution occur, and
`\' quotes the characters `\', ``', `"', `$', and the first character of
$histchars (default `!').
REDIRECTION
If a command is followed by & and job control is not active, then the
default standard input for the command is the empty file /dev/null.
Otherwise, the environment for the execution of a command contains the
file descriptors of the invoking shell as modified by input/output spec-
ifications.
The following may appear anywhere in a simple command or may precede or
follow a complex command. Expansion occurs before word or digit is used
except as noted below. If the result of substitution on word produces
more than one filename, redirection occurs for each separate filename in
turn.
< word Open file word for reading as standard input. It is an error to
open a file in this fashion if it does not exist.
<> word
Open file word for reading and writing as standard input. If the
file does not exist then it is created.
> word Open file word for writing as standard output. If the file does
not exist then it is created. If the file exists, and the CLOB-
BER option is unset, this causes an error; otherwise, it is trun-
cated to zero length.
>| word
>! word
Same as >, except that the file is truncated to zero length if it
exists, regardless of CLOBBER.
>> word
Open file word for writing in append mode as standard output. If
the file does not exist, and the CLOBBER and APPEND_CREATE op-
tions are both unset, this causes an error; otherwise, the file
is created.
>>| word
>>! word
Same as >>, except that the file is created if it does not exist,
regardless of CLOBBER and APPEND_CREATE.
<<[-] word
The shell input is read up to a line that is the same as word, or
to an end-of-file. No parameter expansion, command substitution
or filename generation is performed on word. The resulting docu-
ment, called a here-document, becomes the standard input.
If any character of word is quoted with single or double quotes
or a `\', no interpretation is placed upon the characters of the
document. Otherwise, parameter and command substitution occurs,
`\' followed by a newline is removed, and `\' must be used to
quote the characters `\', `$', ``' and the first character of
word.
Note that word itself does not undergo shell expansion. Back-
quotes in word do not have their usual effect; instead they be-
have similarly to double quotes, except that the backquotes them-
selves are passed through unchanged. (This information is given
for completeness and it is not recommended that backquotes be
used.) Quotes in the form $'...' have their standard effect of
expanding backslashed references to special characters.
If <<- is used, then all leading tabs are stripped from word and
from the document.
<<< word
Perform shell expansion on word and pass the result to standard
input. This is known as a here-string. Compare the use of word
in here-documents above, where word does not undergo shell expan-
sion. The result will have a trailing newline after it.
<& number
>& number
The standard input/output is duplicated from file descriptor num-
ber (see dup2(2)).
<& -
>& - Close the standard input/output.
<& p
>& p The input/output from/to the coprocess is moved to the standard
input/output.
>& word
&> word
(Except where `>& word' matches one of the above syntaxes; `&>'
can always be used to avoid this ambiguity.) Redirects both
standard output and standard error (file descriptor 2) in the
manner of `> word'. Note that this does not have the same effect
as `> word 2>&1' in the presence of multios (see the section be-
low).
>&| word
>&! word
&>| word
&>! word
Redirects both standard output and standard error (file descrip-
tor 2) in the manner of `>| word'.
>>& word
&>> word
Redirects both standard output and standard error (file descrip-
tor 2) in the manner of `>> word'.
>>&| word
>>&! word
&>>| word
&>>! word
Redirects both standard output and standard error (file descrip-
tor 2) in the manner of `>>| word'.
If one of the above is preceded by a digit, then the file descriptor re-
ferred to is that specified by the digit instead of the default 0 or 1.
The order in which redirections are specified is significant. The shell
evaluates each redirection in terms of the (file descriptor, file) asso-
ciation at the time of evaluation. For example:
... 1>fname 2>&1
first associates file descriptor 1 with file fname. It then associates
file descriptor 2 with the file associated with file descriptor 1 (that
is, fname). If the order of redirections were reversed, file descriptor
2 would be associated with the terminal (assuming file descriptor 1 had
been) and then file descriptor 1 would be associated with file fname.
The `|&' command separator described in Simple Commands & Pipelines in
zshmisc(1) is a shorthand for `2>&1 |'.
The various forms of process substitution, `<(list)', and `=(list)' for
input and `>(list)' for output, are often used together with redirec-
tion. For example, if word in an output redirection is of the form
`>(list)' then the output is piped to the command represented by list.
See Process Substitution in zshexpn(1).
OPENING FILE DESCRIPTORS USING PARAMETERS
When the shell is parsing arguments to a command, and the shell option
IGNORE_BRACES is not set, a different form of redirection is allowed:
instead of a digit before the operator there is a valid shell identifier
enclosed in braces. The shell will open a new file descriptor that is
guaranteed to be at least 10 and set the parameter named by the identi-
fier to the file descriptor opened. No whitespace is allowed between
the closing brace and the redirection character. For example:
... {myfd}>&1
This opens a new file descriptor that is a duplicate of file descriptor
1 and sets the parameter myfd to the number of the file descriptor,
which will be at least 10. The new file descriptor can be written to
using the syntax >&$myfd. The file descriptor remains open in subshells
and forked external executables.
The syntax {varid}>&-, for example {myfd}>&-, may be used to close a
file descriptor opened in this fashion. Note that the parameter given
by varid must previously be set to a file descriptor in this case.
It is an error to open or close a file descriptor in this fashion when
the parameter is readonly. However, it is not an error to read or write
a file descriptor using <&$param or >&$param if param is readonly.
If the option CLOBBER is unset, it is an error to open a file descriptor
using a parameter that is already set to an open file descriptor previ-
ously allocated by this mechanism. Unsetting the parameter before using
it for allocating a file descriptor avoids the error.
Note that this mechanism merely allocates or closes a file descriptor;
it does not perform any redirections from or to it. It is usually con-
venient to allocate a file descriptor prior to use as an argument to
exec. The syntax does not in any case work when used around complex
commands such as parenthesised subshells or loops, where the opening
brace is interpreted as part of a command list to be executed in the
current shell.
The following shows a typical sequence of allocation, use, and closing
of a file descriptor:
integer myfd
exec {myfd}>~/logs/mylogfile.txt
print This is a log message. >&$myfd
exec {myfd}>&-
Note that the expansion of the variable in the expression >&$myfd occurs
at the point the redirection is opened. This is after the expansion of
command arguments and after any redirections to the left on the command
line have been processed.
MULTIOS
If the user tries to open a file descriptor for writing more than once,
the shell opens the file descriptor as a pipe to a process that copies
its input to all the specified outputs, similar to tee, provided the
MULTIOS option is set, as it is by default. Thus:
date >foo >bar
writes the date to two files, named `foo' and `bar'. Note that a pipe
is an implicit redirection; thus
date >foo | cat
writes the date to the file `foo', and also pipes it to cat.
Note that the shell opens all the files to be used in the multio process
immediately, not at the point they are about to be written.
Note also that redirections are always expanded in order. This happens
regardless of the setting of the MULTIOS option, but with the option in
effect there are additional consequences. For example, the meaning of
the expression >&1 will change after a previous redirection:
date >&1 >output
In the case above, the >&1 refers to the standard output at the start of
the line; the result is similar to the tee command. However, consider:
date >output >&1
As redirections are evaluated in order, when the >&1 is encountered the
standard output is set to the file output and another copy of the output
is therefore sent to that file. This is unlikely to be what is in-
tended.
If the MULTIOS option is set, the word after a redirection operator is
also subjected to filename generation (globbing). Thus
: > *
will truncate all files in the current directory, assuming there's at
least one. (Without the MULTIOS option, it would create an empty file
called `*'.) Similarly, you can do
echo exit 0 >> *.sh
If the user tries to open a file descriptor for reading more than once,
the shell opens the file descriptor as a pipe to a process that copies
all the specified inputs to its output in the order specified, provided
the MULTIOS option is set. It should be noted that each file is opened
immediately, not at the point where it is about to be read: this behav-
iour differs from cat, so if strictly standard behaviour is needed, cat
should be used instead.
Thus
sort <foo <fubar
or even
sort <f{oo,ubar}
is equivalent to `cat foo fubar | sort'.
Expansion of the redirection argument occurs at the point the redirec-
tion is opened, at the point described above for the expansion of the
variable in >&$myfd.
Note that a pipe is an implicit redirection; thus
cat bar | sort <foo
is equivalent to `cat bar foo | sort' (note the order of the inputs).
If the MULTIOS option is unset, each redirection replaces the previous
redirection for that file descriptor. However, all files redirected to
are actually opened, so
echo Hello > bar > baz
when MULTIOS is unset will truncate `bar', and write `Hello' into `baz'.
There is a problem when an output multio is attached to an external pro-
gram. A simple example shows this:
cat file >file1 >file2
cat file1 file2
Here, it is possible that the second `cat' will not display the full
contents of file1 and file2 (i.e. the original contents of file repeated
twice).
The reason for this is that the multios are spawned after the cat
process is forked from the parent shell, so the parent shell does not
wait for the multios to finish writing data. This means the command as
shown can exit before file1 and file2 are completely written. As a
workaround, it is possible to run the cat process as part of a job in
the current shell:
{ cat file } >file >file2
Here, the {...} job will pause to wait for both files to be written.
REDIRECTIONS WITH NO COMMAND
When a simple command consists of one or more redirection operators and
zero or more parameter assignments, but no command name, zsh can behave
in several ways.
If the parameter NULLCMD is not set or the option CSH_NULLCMD is set, an
error is caused. This is the csh behavior and CSH_NULLCMD is set by de-
fault when emulating csh.
If the option SH_NULLCMD is set, the builtin `:' is inserted as a com-
mand with the given redirections. This is the default when emulating sh
or ksh.
Otherwise, if the parameter NULLCMD is set, its value will be used as a
command with the given redirections. If both NULLCMD and READNULLCMD
are set, then the value of the latter will be used instead of that of
the former when the redirection is an input. The default for NULLCMD is
`cat' and for READNULLCMD is `more'. Thus
< file
shows the contents of file on standard output, with paging if that is a
terminal. NULLCMD and READNULLCMD may refer to shell functions.
COMMAND EXECUTION
If a command name contains no slashes, the shell attempts to locate it.
If there exists a shell function by that name, the function is invoked
as described in the section `Functions'. If there exists a shell
builtin by that name, the builtin is invoked.
Otherwise, the shell searches each element of $path for a directory con-
taining an executable file by that name.
If execution fails: an error message is printed, and one of the follow-
ing values is returned.
127 The search was unsuccessful. The error message is `command not
found: cmd'.
126 The executable file has insufficient permissions, is a directory
or special file, or is not a script and is in a format unrecog-
nized by the operating system. The exact conditions and error
message are operating system-dependent; see execve(2).
If execution fails because the file is not in executable format, and the
file is not a directory, it is assumed to be a shell script. /bin/sh is
spawned to execute it. If the program is a file beginning with `#!',
the remainder of the first line specifies an interpreter for the pro-
gram. The shell will execute the specified interpreter on operating
systems that do not handle this executable format in the kernel.
If no external command is found but a function command_not_found_handler
exists the shell executes this function with all command line arguments.
The return status of the function becomes the status of the command.
Note that the handler is executed in a subshell forked to execute an ex-
ternal command, hence changes to directories, shell parameters, etc.
have no effect on the main shell.
FUNCTIONS
Shell functions are defined with the function reserved word or the spe-
cial syntax `funcname ()'. Shell functions are read in and stored in-
ternally. Alias names are resolved when the function is read. Func-
tions are executed like commands with the arguments passed as positional
parameters. (See the section `Command Execution'.)
Functions execute in the same process as the caller and share all files
and present working directory with the caller. A trap on EXIT set in-
side a function is executed after the function completes in the environ-
ment of the caller.
The return builtin is used to return from function calls.
Function identifiers can be listed with the functions builtin. Func-
tions can be undefined with the unfunction builtin.
AUTOLOADING FUNCTIONS
A function can be marked as undefined using the autoload builtin (or
`functions -u' or `typeset -fu'). Such a function has no body. When
the function is first executed, the shell searches for its definition
using the elements of the fpath variable. Thus to define functions for
autoloading, a typical sequence is:
fpath=(~/myfuncs $fpath)
autoload myfunc1 myfunc2 ...
The usual alias expansion during reading will be suppressed if the au-
toload builtin or its equivalent is given the option -U. This is recom-
mended for the use of functions supplied with the zsh distribution.
Note that for functions precompiled with the zcompile builtin command
the flag -U must be provided when the .zwc file is created, as the cor-
responding information is compiled into the latter.
For each element in fpath, the shell looks for three possible files, the
newest of which is used to load the definition for the function:
element.zwc
A file created with the zcompile builtin command, which is ex-
pected to contain the definitions for all functions in the direc-
tory named element. The file is treated in the same manner as a
directory containing files for functions and is searched for the
definition of the function. If the definition is not found, the
search for a definition proceeds with the other two possibilities
described below.
If element already includes a .zwc extension (i.e. the extension
was explicitly given by the user), element is searched for the
definition of the function without comparing its age to that of
other files; in fact, there does not need to be any directory
named element without the suffix. Thus including an element such
as `/usr/local/funcs.zwc' in fpath will speed up the search for
functions, with the disadvantage that functions included must be
explicitly recompiled by hand before the shell notices any
changes.
element/function.zwc
A file created with zcompile, which is expected to contain the
definition for function. It may include other function defini-
tions as well, but those are neither loaded nor executed; a file
found in this way is searched only for the definition of func-
tion.
element/function
A file of zsh command text, taken to be the definition for func-
tion.
In summary, the order of searching is, first, in the parents of directo-
ries in fpath for the newer of either a compiled directory or a direc-
tory in fpath; second, if more than one of these contains a definition
for the function that is sought, the leftmost in the fpath is chosen;
and third, within a directory, the newer of either a compiled function
or an ordinary function definition is used.
If the KSH_AUTOLOAD option is set, or the file contains only a simple
definition of the function, the file's contents will be executed. This
will normally define the function in question, but may also perform ini-
tialization, which is executed in the context of the function execution,
and may therefore define local parameters. It is an error if the func-
tion is not defined by loading the file.
Otherwise, the function body (with no surrounding `funcname() {...}') is
taken to be the complete contents of the file. This form allows the
file to be used directly as an executable shell script. If processing
of the file results in the function being re-defined, the function it-
self is not re-executed. To force the shell to perform initialization
and then call the function defined, the file should contain initializa-
tion code (which will be executed then discarded) in addition to a com-
plete function definition (which will be retained for subsequent calls
to the function), and a call to the shell function, including any argu-
ments, at the end.
For example, suppose the autoload file func contains
func() { print This is func; }
print func is initialized
then `func; func' with KSH_AUTOLOAD set will produce both messages on
the first call, but only the message `This is func' on the second and
subsequent calls. Without KSH_AUTOLOAD set, it will produce the ini-
tialization message on the first call, and the other message on the sec-
ond and subsequent calls.
It is also possible to create a function that is not marked as au-
toloaded, but which loads its own definition by searching fpath, by us-
ing `autoload -X' within a shell function. For example, the following
are equivalent:
myfunc() {
autoload -X
}
myfunc args...
and
unfunction myfunc # if myfunc was defined
autoload myfunc
myfunc args...
In fact, the functions command outputs `builtin autoload -X' as the body
of an autoloaded function. This is done so that
eval "$(functions)"
produces a reasonable result. A true autoloaded function can be identi-
fied by the presence of the comment `# undefined' in the body, because
all comments are discarded from defined functions.
To load the definition of an autoloaded function myfunc without execut-
ing myfunc, use:
autoload +X myfunc
ANONYMOUS FUNCTIONS
If no name is given for a function, it is `anonymous' and is handled
specially. Either form of function definition may be used: a `()' with
no preceding name, or a `function' with an immediately following open
brace. The function is executed immediately at the point of definition
and is not stored for future use. The function name is set to `(anon)'.
Arguments to the function may be specified as words following the clos-
ing brace defining the function, hence if there are none no arguments
(other than $0) are set. This is a difference from the way other func-
tions are parsed: normal function definitions may be followed by certain
keywords such as `else' or `fi', which will be treated as arguments to
anonymous functions, so that a newline or semicolon is needed to force
keyword interpretation.
Note also that the argument list of any enclosing script or function is
hidden (as would be the case for any other function called at this
point).
Redirections may be applied to the anonymous function in the same manner
as to a current-shell structure enclosed in braces. The main use of
anonymous functions is to provide a scope for local variables. This is
particularly convenient in start-up files as these do not provide their
own local variable scope.
For example,
variable=outside
function {
local variable=inside
print "I am $variable with arguments $*"
} this and that
print "I am $variable"
outputs the following:
I am inside with arguments this and that
I am outside
Note that function definitions with arguments that expand to nothing,
for example `name=; function $name { ... }', are not treated as anony-
mous functions. Instead, they are treated as normal function defini-
tions where the definition is silently discarded.
SPECIAL FUNCTIONS
Certain functions, if defined, have special meaning to the shell.
Hook Functions
For the functions below, it is possible to define an array that has the
same name as the function with `_functions' appended. Any element in
such an array is taken as the name of a function to execute; it is exe-
cuted in the same context and with the same arguments and same initial
value of $? as the basic function. For example, if $chpwd_functions is
an array containing the values `mychpwd', `chpwd_save_dirstack', then
the shell attempts to execute the functions `chpwd', `mychpwd' and `ch-
pwd_save_dirstack', in that order. Any function that does not exist is
silently ignored. A function found by this mechanism is referred to
elsewhere as a hook function. An error in any function causes subse-
quent functions not to be run. Note further that an error in a precmd
hook causes an immediately following periodic function not to run
(though it may run at the next opportunity).
chpwd Executed whenever the current working directory is changed.
periodic
If the parameter PERIOD is set, this function is executed every
$PERIOD seconds, just before a prompt. Note that if multiple
functions are defined using the array periodic_functions only one
period is applied to the complete set of functions, and the
scheduled time is not reset if the list of functions is altered.
Hence the set of functions is always called together.
precmd Executed before each prompt. Note that precommand functions are
not re-executed simply because the command line is redrawn, as
happens, for example, when a notification about an exiting job is
displayed.
preexec
Executed just after a command has been read and is about to be
executed. If the history mechanism is active (regardless of
whether the line was discarded from the history buffer), the
string that the user typed is passed as the first argument, oth-
erwise it is an empty string. The actual command that will be
executed (including expanded aliases) is passed in two different
forms: the second argument is a single-line, size-limited version
of the command (with things like function bodies elided); the
third argument contains the full text that is being executed.
zshaddhistory
Executed when a history line has been read interactively, but be-
fore it is executed. The sole argument is the complete history
line (so that any terminating newline will still be present).
If any of the hook functions returns status 1 (or any non-zero
value other than 2, though this is not guaranteed for future ver-
sions of the shell) the history line will not be saved, although
it lingers in the history until the next line is executed, allow-
ing you to reuse or edit it immediately.
If any of the hook functions returns status 2 the history line
will be saved on the internal history list, but not written to
the history file. In case of a conflict, the first non-zero sta-
tus value is taken.
A hook function may call `fc -p ...' to switch the history con-
text so that the history is saved in a different file from that
in the global HISTFILE parameter. This is handled specially: the
history context is automatically restored after the processing of
the history line is finished.
The following example function works with one of the options
INC_APPEND_HISTORY or SHARE_HISTORY set, in order that the line
is written out immediately after the history entry is added. It
first adds the history line to the normal history with the new-
line stripped, which is usually the correct behaviour. Then it
switches the history context so that the line will be written to
a history file in the current directory.
zshaddhistory() {
print -sr -- ${1%%$'\n'}
fc -p .zsh_local_history
}
zshexit
Executed at the point where the main shell is about to exit nor-
mally. This is not called by exiting subshells, nor when the
exec precommand modifier is used before an external command.
Also, unlike TRAPEXIT, it is not called when functions exit.
Trap Functions
The functions below are treated specially but do not have corresponding
hook arrays.
TRAPNAL
If defined and non-null, this function will be executed whenever
the shell catches a signal SIGNAL, where NAL is a signal name as
specified for the kill builtin. The signal number will be passed
as the first parameter to the function.
If a function of this form is defined and null, the shell and
processes spawned by it will ignore SIGNAL.
The return status from the function is handled specially. If it
is zero, the signal is assumed to have been handled, and execu-
tion continues normally. Otherwise, the shell will behave as in-
terrupted except that the return status of the trap is retained.
Programs terminated by uncaught signals typically return the sta-
tus 128 plus the signal number. Hence the following causes the
handler for SIGINT to print a message, then mimic the usual ef-
fect of the signal.
TRAPINT() {
print "Caught SIGINT, aborting."
return $(( 128 + $1 ))
}
The functions TRAPZERR, TRAPDEBUG and TRAPEXIT are never executed
inside other traps.
TRAPDEBUG
If the option DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD is set (as it is by default), exe-
cuted before each command; otherwise executed after each command.
See the description of the trap builtin in zshbuiltins(1) for de-
tails of additional features provided in debug traps.
TRAPEXIT
Executed when the shell exits, or when the current function exits
if defined inside a function. The value of $? at the start of
execution is the exit status of the shell or the return status of
the function exiting.
TRAPZERR
Executed whenever a command has a non-zero exit status. However,
the function is not executed if the command occurred in a sublist
followed by `&&' or `||'; only the final command in a sublist of
this type causes the trap to be executed. The function TRAPERR
acts the same as TRAPZERR on systems where there is no SIGERR
(this is the usual case).
The functions beginning `TRAP' may alternatively be defined with the
trap builtin: this may be preferable for some uses. Setting a trap
with one form removes any trap of the other form for the same signal;
removing a trap in either form removes all traps for the same signal.
The forms
TRAPNAL() {
# code
}
('function traps') and
trap '
# code
' NAL
('list traps') are equivalent in most ways, the exceptions being the
following:
• Function traps have all the properties of normal functions, ap-
pearing in the list of functions and being called with their own
function context rather than the context where the trap was trig-
gered.
• The return status from function traps is special, whereas a re-
turn from a list trap causes the surrounding context to return
with the given status.
• Function traps are not reset within subshells, in accordance with
zsh behaviour; list traps are reset, in accordance with POSIX be-
haviour.
JOBS
If the MONITOR option is set, an interactive shell associates a job with
each pipeline. It keeps a table of current jobs, printed by the jobs
command, and assigns them small integer numbers. When a job is started
asynchronously with `&', the shell prints a line to standard error which
looks like:
[1] 1234
indicating that the job which was started asynchronously was job number
1 and had one (top-level) process, whose process ID was 1234.
If a job is started with `&|' or `&!', then that job is immediately dis-
owned. After startup, it does not have a place in the job table, and is
not subject to the job control features described here.
If you are running a job and wish to do something else you may hit the
key ^Z (control-Z) which sends a TSTP signal to the current job: this
key may be redefined by the susp option of the external stty command.
The shell will then normally indicate that the job has been `suspended',
and print another prompt. You can then manipulate the state of this
job, putting it in the background with the bg command, or run some other
commands and then eventually bring the job back into the foreground with
the foreground command fg. A ^Z takes effect immediately and is like an
interrupt in that pending output and unread input are discarded when it
is typed.
A job being run in the background will suspend if it tries to read from
the terminal.
Note that if the job running in the foreground is a shell function, then
suspending it will have the effect of causing the shell to fork. This
is necessary to separate the function's state from that of the parent
shell performing the job control, so that the latter can return to the
command line prompt. As a result, even if fg is used to continue the
job the function will no longer be part of the parent shell, and any
variables set by the function will not be visible in the parent shell.
Thus the behaviour is different from the case where the function was
never suspended. Zsh is different from many other shells in this re-
gard.
One additional side effect is that use of disown with a job created by
suspending shell code in this fashion is delayed: the job can only be
disowned once any process started from the parent shell has terminated.
At that point, the disowned job disappears silently from the job list.
The same behaviour is found when the shell is executing code as the
right hand side of a pipeline or any complex shell construct such as if,
for, etc., in order that the entire block of code can be managed as a
single job. Background jobs are normally allowed to produce output, but
this can be disabled by giving the command `stty tostop'. If you set
this tty option, then background jobs will suspend when they try to pro-
duce output like they do when they try to read input.
When a command is suspended and continued later with the fg or wait
builtins, zsh restores tty modes that were in effect when it was sus-
pended. This (intentionally) does not apply if the command is continued
via `kill -CONT', nor when it is continued with bg.
There are several ways to refer to jobs in the shell. A job can be re-
ferred to by the process ID of any process of the job or by one of the
following:
%number
The job with the given number.
%string
The last job whose command line begins with string.
%?string
The last job whose command line contains string.
%% Current job.
%+ Equivalent to `%%'.
%- Previous job.
The shell learns immediately whenever a process changes state. It nor-
mally informs you whenever a job becomes blocked so that no further
progress is possible. If the NOTIFY option is not set, it waits until
just before it prints a prompt before it informs you. All such notifi-
cations are sent directly to the terminal, not to the standard output or
standard error.
When the monitor mode is on, each background job that completes triggers
any trap set for CHLD.
When you try to leave the shell while jobs are running or suspended, you
will be warned that `You have suspended (running) jobs'. You may use
the jobs command to see what they are. If you do this or immediately
try to exit again, the shell will not warn you a second time; the sus-
pended jobs will be terminated, and the running jobs will be sent a
SIGHUP signal, if the HUP option is set.
To avoid having the shell terminate the running jobs, either use the no-
hup(1) command or the disown builtin.
SIGNALS
The INT and QUIT signals for an invoked command are ignored if the com-
mand is followed by `&' and the MONITOR option is not active. The shell
itself always ignores the QUIT signal. Otherwise, signals have the val-
ues inherited by the shell from its parent (but see the TRAPNAL special
functions in the section `Functions').
Certain jobs are run asynchronously by the shell other than those ex-
plicitly put into the background; even in cases where the shell would
usually wait for such jobs, an explicit exit command or exit due to the
option ERR_EXIT will cause the shell to exit without waiting. Examples
of such asynchronous jobs are process substitution, see the section
PROCESS SUBSTITUTION in the zshexpn(1) manual page, and the handler
processes for multios, see the section MULTIOS in the zshmisc(1) manual
page.
ARITHMETIC EVALUATION
The shell can perform integer and floating point arithmetic, either us-
ing the builtin let, or via a substitution of the form $((...)). For
integers, the shell is usually compiled to use 8-byte precision where
this is available, otherwise precision is 4 bytes. This can be tested,
for example, by giving the command `print - $(( 12345678901 ))'; if the
number appears unchanged, the precision is at least 8 bytes. Floating
point arithmetic always uses the `double' type with whatever correspond-
ing precision is provided by the compiler and the library.
The let builtin command takes arithmetic expressions as arguments; each
is evaluated separately. Since many of the arithmetic operators, as
well as spaces, require quoting, an alternative form is provided: for
any command which begins with a `((', all the characters until a match-
ing `))' are treated as a double-quoted expression and arithmetic expan-
sion performed as for an argument of let. More precisely, `((...))' is
equivalent to `let "..."'. The return status is 0 if the arithmetic
value of the expression is non-zero, 1 if it is zero, and 2 if an error
occurred.
For example, the following statement
(( val = 2 + 1 ))
is equivalent to
let "val = 2 + 1"
both assigning the value 3 to the shell variable val and returning a
zero status.
Integers can be in bases other than 10. A leading `0x' or `0X' denotes
hexadecimal and a leading `0b' or `0B' binary. Integers may also be of
the form `base#n', where base is a decimal number between two and
thirty-six representing the arithmetic base and n is a number in that
base (for example, `16#ff' is 255 in hexadecimal). The base# may also
be omitted, in which case base 10 is used. For backwards compatibility
the form `[base]n' is also accepted.
An integer expression or a base given in the form `base#n' may contain
underscores (`_') after the leading digit for visual guidance; these are
ignored in computation. Examples are 1_000_000 or 0xffff_ffff which are
equivalent to 1000000 and 0xffffffff respectively.
It is also possible to specify a base to be used for output in the form
`[#base]', for example `[#16]'. This is used when outputting arithmeti-
cal substitutions or when assigning to scalar parameters, but an explic-
itly defined integer or floating point parameter will not be affected.
If an integer variable is implicitly defined by an arithmetic expres-
sion, any base specified in this way will be set as the variable's out-
put arithmetic base as if the option `-i base' to the typeset builtin
had been used. The expression has no precedence and if it occurs more
than once in a mathematical expression, the last encountered is used.
For clarity it is recommended that it appear at the beginning of an ex-
pression. As an example:
typeset -i 16 y
print $(( [#8] x = 32, y = 32 ))
print $x $y
outputs first `8#40', the rightmost value in the given output base, and
then `8#40 16#20', because y has been explicitly declared to have output
base 16, while x (assuming it does not already exist) is implicitly
typed by the arithmetic evaluation, where it acquires the output base 8.
The base may be replaced or followed by an underscore, which may itself
be followed by a positive integer (if it is missing the value 3 is
used). This indicates that underscores should be inserted into the out-
put string, grouping the number for visual clarity. The following inte-
ger specifies the number of digits to group together. For example:
setopt cbases
print $(( [#16_4] 65536 ** 2 ))
outputs `0x1_0000_0000'.
The feature can be used with floating point numbers, in which case the
base must be omitted; grouping is away from the decimal point. For ex-
ample,
zmodload zsh/mathfunc
print $(( [#_] sqrt(1e7) ))
outputs `3_162.277_660_168_379_5' (the number of decimal places shown
may vary).
If the C_BASES option is set, hexadecimal numbers are output in the
standard C format, for example `0xFF' instead of the usual `16#FF'. If
the option OCTAL_ZEROES is also set (it is not by default), octal num-
bers will be treated similarly and hence appear as `077' instead of
`8#77'. This option has no effect on the output of bases other than
hexadecimal and octal, and these formats are always understood on input.
When an output base is specified using the `[#base]' syntax, an appro-
priate base prefix will be output if necessary, so that the value output
is valid syntax for input. If the # is doubled, for example `[##16]',
then no base prefix is output.
Floating point constants are recognized by the presence of a decimal
point or an exponent. The decimal point may be the first character of
the constant, but the exponent character e or E may not, as it will be
taken for a parameter name. All numeric parts (before and after the
decimal point and in the exponent) may contain underscores after the
leading digit for visual guidance; these are ignored in computation.
An arithmetic expression uses nearly the same syntax and associativity
of expressions as in C.
In the native mode of operation, the following operators are supported
(listed in decreasing order of precedence):
+ - ! ~ ++ --
unary plus/minus, logical NOT, complement, {pre,post}{in,de}cre-
ment
<< >> bitwise shift left, right
& bitwise AND
^ bitwise XOR
| bitwise OR
** exponentiation
* / % multiplication, division, modulus (remainder)
+ - addition, subtraction
< > <= >=
comparison
== != equality and inequality
&& logical AND
|| ^^ logical OR, XOR
? : ternary operator
= += -= *= /= %= &= ^= |= <<= >>= &&= ||= ^^= **=
assignment
, comma operator
The operators `&&', `||', `&&=', and `||=' are short-circuiting, and
only one of the latter two expressions in a ternary operator is evalu-
ated. Note the precedence of the bitwise AND, OR, and XOR operators.
With the option C_PRECEDENCES the precedences (but no other properties)
of the operators are altered to be the same as those in most other lan-
guages that support the relevant operators:
+ - ! ~ ++ --
unary plus/minus, logical NOT, complement, {pre,post}{in,de}cre-
ment
** exponentiation
* / % multiplication, division, modulus (remainder)
+ - addition, subtraction
<< >> bitwise shift left, right
< > <= >=
comparison
== != equality and inequality
& bitwise AND
^ bitwise XOR
| bitwise OR
&& logical AND
^^ logical XOR
|| logical OR
? : ternary operator
= += -= *= /= %= &= ^= |= <<= >>= &&= ||= ^^= **=
assignment
, comma operator
Note the precedence of exponentiation in both cases is below that of
unary operators, hence `-3**2' evaluates as `9', not `-9'. Use paren-
theses where necessary: `-(3**2)'. This is for compatibility with other
shells.
Mathematical functions can be called with the syntax `func(args)', where
the function decides if the args is used as a string or a comma-sepa-
rated list of arithmetic expressions. The shell currently defines no
mathematical functions by default, but the module zsh/mathfunc may be
loaded with the zmodload builtin to provide standard floating point
mathematical functions.
An expression of the form `##x' where x is any character sequence such
as `a', `^A', or `\M-\C-x' gives the value of this character and an ex-
pression of the form `#name' gives the value of the first character of
the contents of the parameter name. Character values are according to
the character set used in the current locale; for multibyte character
handling the option MULTIBYTE must be set. Note that this form is dif-
ferent from `$#name', a standard parameter substitution which gives the
length of the parameter name. `#\' is accepted instead of `##', but its
use is deprecated.
Named parameters and subscripted arrays can be referenced by name within
an arithmetic expression without using the parameter expansion syntax.
For example,
((val2 = val1 * 2))
assigns twice the value of $val1 to the parameter named val2.
An internal integer representation of a named parameter can be specified
with the integer builtin. Arithmetic evaluation is performed on the
value of each assignment to a named parameter declared integer in this
manner. Assigning a floating point number to an integer results in
rounding towards zero.
Likewise, floating point numbers can be declared with the float builtin;
there are two types, differing only in their output format, as described
for the typeset builtin. The output format can be bypassed by using
arithmetic substitution instead of the parameter substitution, i.e.
`${float}' uses the defined format, but `$((float))' uses a generic
floating point format.
Promotion of integer to floating point values is performed where neces-
sary. In addition, if any operator which requires an integer (`&', `|',
`^', `<<', `>>' and their equivalents with assignment) is given a float-
ing point argument, it will be silently rounded towards zero except for
`~' which rounds down.
Users should beware that, in common with many other programming lan-
guages but not software designed for calculation, the evaluation of an
expression in zsh is taken a term at a time and promotion of integers to
floating point does not occur in terms only containing integers. A typ-
ical result of this is that a division such as 6/8 is truncated, in this
being rounded towards 0. The FORCE_FLOAT shell option can be used in
scripts or functions where floating point evaluation is required
throughout.
Scalar variables can hold integer or floating point values at different
times; there is no memory of the numeric type in this case.
If a variable is first assigned in a numeric context without previously
being declared, it will be implicitly typed as integer or float and re-
tain that type either until the type is explicitly changed or until the
end of the scope. This can have unforeseen consequences. For example,
in the loop
for (( f = 0; f < 1; f += 0.1 )); do
# use $f
done
if f has not already been declared, the first assignment will cause it
to be created as an integer, and consequently the operation `f += 0.1'
will always cause the result to be truncated to zero, so that the loop
will fail. A simple fix would be to turn the initialization into `f =
0.0'. It is therefore best to declare numeric variables with explicit
types.
CONDITIONAL EXPRESSIONS
A conditional expression is used with the [[ compound command to test
attributes of files and to compare strings. Each expression can be con-
structed from one or more of the following unary or binary expressions:
-a file
true if file exists.
-b file
true if file exists and is a block special file.
-c file
true if file exists and is a character special file.
-d file
true if file exists and is a directory.
-e file
true if file exists.
-f file
true if file exists and is a regular file.
-g file
true if file exists and has its setgid bit set.
-h file
true if file exists and is a symbolic link.
-k file
true if file exists and has its sticky bit set.
-n string
true if length of string is non-zero.
-o option
true if option named option is on. option may be a single char-
acter, in which case it is a single letter option name. (See the
section `Specifying Options'.)
When no option named option exists, and the POSIX_BUILTINS option
hasn't been set, return 3 with a warning. If that option is set,
return 1 with no warning.
-p file
true if file exists and is a FIFO special file (named pipe).
-r file
true if file exists and is readable by current process.
-s file
true if file exists and has size greater than zero.
-t fd true if file descriptor number fd is open and associated with a
terminal device. (note: fd is not optional)
-u file
true if file exists and has its setuid bit set.
-v varname
true if shell variable varname is set.
-w file
true if file exists and is writable by current process.
-x file
true if file exists and is executable by current process. If
file exists and is a directory, then the current process has per-
mission to search in the directory.
-z string
true if length of string is zero.
-L file
true if file exists and is a symbolic link.
-O file
true if file exists and is owned by the effective user ID of this
process.
-G file
true if file exists and its group matches the effective group ID
of this process.
-S file
true if file exists and is a socket.
-N file
true if file exists and its access time is not newer than its
modification time.
file1 -nt file2
true if file1 exists and is newer than file2.
file1 -ot file2
true if file1 exists and is older than file2.
file1 -ef file2
true if file1 and file2 exist and refer to the same file.
string = pattern
string == pattern
true if string matches pattern. The two forms are exactly equiv-
alent. The `=' form is the traditional shell syntax (and hence
the only one generally used with the test and [ builtins); the
`==' form provides compatibility with other sorts of computer
language.
string != pattern
true if string does not match pattern.
string =~ regexp
true if string matches the regular expression regexp. If the op-
tion RE_MATCH_PCRE is set regexp is tested as a PCRE regular ex-
pression using the zsh/pcre module, else it is tested as a POSIX
extended regular expression using the zsh/regex module. Upon
successful match, some variables will be updated; no variables
are changed if the matching fails.
If the option BASH_REMATCH is not set the scalar parameter MATCH
is set to the substring that matched the pattern and the integer
parameters MBEGIN and MEND to the index of the start and end, re-
spectively, of the match in string, such that if string is con-
tained in variable var the expression `${var[$MBEGIN,$MEND]}' is
identical to `$MATCH'. The setting of the option KSH_ARRAYS is
respected. Likewise, the array match is set to the substrings
that matched parenthesised subexpressions and the arrays mbegin
and mend to the indices of the start and end positions, respec-
tively, of the substrings within string. The arrays are not set
if there were no parenthesised subexpressions. For example, if
the string `a short string' is matched against the regular ex-
pression `s(...)t', then (assuming the option KSH_ARRAYS is not
set) MATCH, MBEGIN and MEND are `short', 3 and 7, respectively,
while match, mbegin and mend are single entry arrays containing
the strings `hor', `4' and `6', respectively.
If the option BASH_REMATCH is set the array BASH_REMATCH is set
to the substring that matched the pattern followed by the sub-
strings that matched parenthesised subexpressions within the pat-
tern.
string1 < string2
true if string1 comes before string2 based on ASCII value of
their characters.
string1 > string2
true if string1 comes after string2 based on ASCII value of their
characters.
exp1 -eq exp2
true if exp1 is numerically equal to exp2. Note that for purely
numeric comparisons use of the ((...)) builtin described in the
section `ARITHMETIC EVALUATION' is more convenient than condi-
tional expressions.
exp1 -ne exp2
true if exp1 is numerically not equal to exp2.
exp1 -lt exp2
true if exp1 is numerically less than exp2.
exp1 -gt exp2
true if exp1 is numerically greater than exp2.
exp1 -le exp2
true if exp1 is numerically less than or equal to exp2.
exp1 -ge exp2
true if exp1 is numerically greater than or equal to exp2.
( exp )
true if exp is true.
! exp true if exp is false.
exp1 && exp2
true if exp1 and exp2 are both true.
exp1 || exp2
true if either exp1 or exp2 is true.
For compatibility, if there is a single argument that is not syntacti-
cally significant, typically a variable, the condition is treated as a
test for whether the expression expands as a string of non-zero length.
In other words, [[ $var ]] is the same as [[ -n $var ]]. It is recom-
mended that the second, explicit, form be used where possible.
Normal shell expansion is performed on the file, string and pattern ar-
guments, but the result of each expansion is constrained to be a single
word, similar to the effect of double quotes.
Filename generation is not performed on any form of argument to condi-
tions. However, it can be forced in any case where normal shell expan-
sion is valid and when the option EXTENDED_GLOB is in effect by using an
explicit glob qualifier of the form (#q) at the end of the string. A
normal glob qualifier expression may appear between the `q' and the
closing parenthesis; if none appears the expression has no effect beyond
causing filename generation. The results of filename generation are
joined together to form a single word, as with the results of other
forms of expansion.
This special use of filename generation is only available with the [[
syntax. If the condition occurs within the [ or test builtin commands
then globbing occurs instead as part of normal command line expansion
before the condition is evaluated. In this case it may generate multi-
ple words which are likely to confuse the syntax of the test command.
For example,
[[ -n file*(#qN) ]]
produces status zero if and only if there is at least one file in the
current directory beginning with the string `file'. The globbing quali-
fier N ensures that the expression is empty if there is no matching
file.
Pattern metacharacters are active for the pattern arguments; the pat-
terns are the same as those used for filename generation, see zsh-
expn(1), but there is no special behaviour of `/' nor initial dots, and
no glob qualifiers are allowed.
In each of the above expressions, if file is of the form `/dev/fd/n',
where n is an integer, then the test applied to the open file whose de-
scriptor number is n, even if the underlying system does not support the
/dev/fd directory.
In the forms which do numeric comparison, the expressions exp undergo
arithmetic expansion as if they were enclosed in $((...)).
For example, the following:
[[ ( -f foo || -f bar ) && $report = y* ]] && print File exists.
tests if either file foo or file bar exists, and if so, if the value of
the parameter report begins with `y'; if the complete condition is true,
the message `File exists.' is printed.
EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES
Prompt sequences undergo a special form of expansion. This type of ex-
pansion is also available using the -P option to the print builtin.
If the PROMPT_SUBST option is set, the prompt string is first subjected
to parameter expansion, command substitution and arithmetic expansion.
See zshexpn(1).
Certain escape sequences may be recognised in the prompt string.
If the PROMPT_BANG option is set, a `!' in the prompt is replaced by the
current history event number. A literal `!' may then be represented as
`!!'.
If the PROMPT_PERCENT option is set, certain escape sequences that start
with `%' are expanded. Many escapes are followed by a single character,
although some of these take an optional integer argument that should ap-
pear between the `%' and the next character of the sequence. More com-
plicated escape sequences are available to provide conditional expan-
sion.
SIMPLE PROMPT ESCAPES
Special characters
%% A `%'.
%) A `)'.
Login information
%l The line (tty) the user is logged in on, without `/dev/' prefix.
If the name starts with `/dev/tty', that prefix is stripped.
%M The full machine hostname.
%m The hostname up to the first `.'. An integer may follow the `%'
to specify how many components of the hostname are desired. With
a negative integer, trailing components of the hostname are
shown.
%n $USERNAME.
%y The line (tty) the user is logged in on, without `/dev/' prefix.
This does not treat `/dev/tty' names specially.
Shell state
%# A `#' if the shell is running with privileges, a `%' if not.
Equivalent to `%(!.#.%%)'. The definition of `privileged', for
these purposes, is that either the effective user ID is zero, or,
if POSIX.1e capabilities are supported, that at least one capa-
bility is raised in either the Effective or Inheritable capabil-
ity vectors.
%? The return status of the last command executed just before the
prompt.
%_ The status of the parser, i.e. the shell constructs (like `if'
and `for') that have been started on the command line. If given
an integer number that many strings will be printed; zero or neg-
ative or no integer means print as many as there are. This is
most useful in prompts PS2 for continuation lines and PS4 for de-
bugging with the XTRACE option; in the latter case it will also
work non-interactively.
%^ The status of the parser in reverse. This is the same as `%_'
other than the order of strings. It is often used in RPS2.
%d
%/ Current working directory. If an integer follows the `%', it
specifies a number of trailing components of the current working
directory to show; zero means the whole path. A negative integer
specifies leading components, i.e. %-1d specifies the first com-
ponent.
%~ As %d and %/, but if the current working directory starts with
$HOME, that part is replaced by a `~'. Furthermore, if it has a
named directory as its prefix, that part is replaced by a `~'
followed by the name of the directory, but only if the result is
shorter than the full path; see Dynamic and Static named directo-
ries in zshexpn(1).
%e Evaluation depth of the current sourced file, shell function, or
eval. This is incremented or decremented every time the value of
%N is set or reverted to a previous value, respectively. This is
most useful for debugging as part of $PS4.
%h
%! Current history event number.
%i The line number currently being executed in the script, sourced
file, or shell function given by %N. This is most useful for de-
bugging as part of $PS4.
%I The line number currently being executed in the file %x. This is
similar to %i, but the line number is always a line number in the
file where the code was defined, even if the code is a shell
function.
%j The number of jobs.
%L The current value of $SHLVL.
%N The name of the script, sourced file, or shell function that zsh
is currently executing, whichever was started most recently. If
there is none, this is equivalent to the parameter $0. An inte-
ger may follow the `%' to specify a number of trailing path com-
ponents to show; zero means the full path. A negative integer
specifies leading components.
%x The name of the file containing the source code currently being
executed. This behaves as %N except that function and eval com-
mand names are not shown, instead the file where they were de-
fined.
%c
%.
%C Trailing component of the current working directory. An integer
may follow the `%' to get more than one component. Unless `%C'
is used, tilde contraction is performed first. These are depre-
cated as %c and %C are equivalent to %1~ and %1/, respectively,
while explicit positive integers have the same effect as for the
latter two sequences.
Date and time
%D The date in yy-mm-dd format.
%T Current time of day, in 24-hour format.
%t
%@ Current time of day, in 12-hour, am/pm format.
%* Current time of day in 24-hour format, with seconds.
%w The date in day-dd format.
%W The date in mm/dd/yy format.
%D{string}
string is formatted using the strftime function. See strftime(3)
for more details. Various zsh extensions provide numbers with no
leading zero or space if the number is a single digit:
%f a day of the month
%K the hour of the day on the 24-hour clock
%L the hour of the day on the 12-hour clock
In addition, if the system supports the POSIX gettimeofday system
call, %. provides decimal fractions of a second since the epoch
with leading zeroes. By default three decimal places are pro-
vided, but a number of digits up to 9 may be given following the
%; hence %6. outputs microseconds, and %9. outputs nanoseconds.
(The latter requires a nanosecond-precision clock_gettime; sys-
tems lacking this will return a value multiplied by the appropri-
ate power of 10.) A typical example of this is the format
`%D{%H:%M:%S.%.}'.
The GNU extension %N is handled as a synonym for %9..
Additionally, the GNU extension that a `-' between the % and the
format character causes a leading zero or space to be stripped is
handled directly by the shell for the format characters d, f, H,
k, l, m, M, S and y; any other format characters are provided to
the system's strftime(3) with any leading `-' present, so the
handling is system dependent. Further GNU (or other) extensions
are also passed to strftime(3) and may work if the system sup-
ports them.
Visual effects
%B (%b)
Start (stop) boldface mode.
%E Clear to end of line.
%U (%u)
Start (stop) underline mode.
%S (%s)
Start (stop) standout mode.
%F (%f)
Start (stop) using a different foreground colour, if supported by
the terminal. The colour may be specified two ways: either as a
numeric argument, as normal, or by a sequence in braces following
the %F, for example %F{red}. In the latter case the values al-
lowed are as described for the fg zle_highlight attribute; see
Character Highlighting in zshzle(1). This means that numeric
colours are allowed in the second format also.
%K (%k)
Start (stop) using a different bacKground colour. The syntax is
identical to that for %F and %f.
%{...%}
Include a string as a literal escape sequence. The string within
the braces should not change the cursor position. Brace pairs
can nest.
A positive numeric argument between the % and the { is treated as
described for %G below.
%G Within a %{...%} sequence, include a `glitch': that is, assume
that a single character width will be output. This is useful
when outputting characters that otherwise cannot be correctly
handled by the shell, such as the alternate character set on some
terminals. The characters in question can be included within a
%{...%} sequence together with the appropriate number of %G se-
quences to indicate the correct width. An integer between the
`%' and `G' indicates a character width other than one. Hence
%{seq%2G%} outputs seq and assumes it takes up the width of two
standard characters.
Multiple uses of %G accumulate in the obvious fashion; the posi-
tion of the %G is unimportant. Negative integers are not han-
dled.
Note that when prompt truncation is in use it is advisable to di-
vide up output into single characters within each %{...%} group
so that the correct truncation point can be found.
CONDITIONAL SUBSTRINGS IN PROMPTS
%v The value of the first element of the psvar array parameter.
Following the `%' with an integer gives that element of the ar-
ray. Negative integers count from the end of the array.
%(x.true-text.false-text)
Specifies a ternary expression. The character following the x is
arbitrary; the same character is used to separate the text for
the `true' result from that for the `false' result. This separa-
tor may not appear in the true-text, except as part of a %-escape
sequence. A `)' may appear in the false-text as `%)'. true-text
and false-text may both contain arbitrarily-nested escape se-
quences, including further ternary expressions.
The left parenthesis may be preceded or followed by a positive
integer n, which defaults to zero. A negative integer will be
multiplied by -1, except as noted below for `l'. The test char-
acter x may be any of the following:
! True if the shell is running with privileges.
# True if the effective uid of the current process is n.
? True if the exit status of the last command was n.
_ True if at least n shell constructs were started.
C
/ True if the current absolute path has at least n elements
relative to the root directory, hence / is counted as 0
elements.
c
.
~ True if the current path, with prefix replacement, has at
least n elements relative to the root directory, hence /
is counted as 0 elements.
D True if the month is equal to n (January = 0).
d True if the day of the month is equal to n.
e True if the evaluation depth is at least n.
g True if the effective gid of the current process is n.
j True if the number of jobs is at least n.
L True if the SHLVL parameter is at least n.
l True if at least n characters have already been printed on
the current line. When n is negative, true if at least
abs(n) characters remain before the opposite margin (thus
the left margin for RPROMPT).
S True if the SECONDS parameter is at least n.
T True if the time in hours is equal to n.
t True if the time in minutes is equal to n.
v True if the array psvar has at least n elements.
V True if element n of the array psvar is set and non-empty.
w True if the day of the week is equal to n (Sunday = 0).
%<string<
%>string>
%[xstring]
Specifies truncation behaviour for the remainder of the prompt
string. The third, deprecated, form is equivalent to
`%xstringx', i.e. x may be `<' or `>'. The string will be dis-
played in place of the truncated portion of any string; note this
does not undergo prompt expansion.
The numeric argument, which in the third form may appear immedi-
ately after the `[', specifies the maximum permitted length of
the various strings that can be displayed in the prompt. In the
first two forms, this numeric argument may be negative, in which
case the truncation length is determined by subtracting the ab-
solute value of the numeric argument from the number of character
positions remaining on the current prompt line. If this results
in a zero or negative length, a length of 1 is used. In other
words, a negative argument arranges that after truncation at
least n characters remain before the right margin (left margin
for RPROMPT).
The forms with `<' truncate at the left of the string, and the
forms with `>' truncate at the right of the string. For example,
if the current directory is `/home/pike', the prompt `%8<..<%/'
will expand to `..e/pike'. In this string, the terminating char-
acter (`<', `>' or `]'), or in fact any character, may be quoted
by a preceding `\'; note when using print -P, however, that this
must be doubled as the string is also subject to standard print
processing, in addition to any backslashes removed by a double
quoted string: the worst case is therefore `print -P
"%<\\\\<<..."'.
If the string is longer than the specified truncation length, it
will appear in full, completely replacing the truncated string.
The part of the prompt string to be truncated runs to the end of
the string, or to the end of the next enclosing group of the `%('
construct, or to the next truncation encountered at the same
grouping level (i.e. truncations inside a `%(' are separate),
which ever comes first. In particular, a truncation with argu-
ment zero (e.g., `%<<') marks the end of the range of the string
to be truncated while turning off truncation from there on. For
example, the prompt `%10<...<%~%<<%# ' will print a truncated
representation of the current directory, followed by a `%' or
`#', followed by a space. Without the `%<<', those two charac-
ters would be included in the string to be truncated. Note that
`%-0<<' is not equivalent to `%<<' but specifies that the prompt
is truncated at the right margin.
Truncation applies only within each individual line of the
prompt, as delimited by embedded newlines (if any). If the total
length of any line of the prompt after truncation is greater than
the terminal width, or if the part to be truncated contains em-
bedded newlines, truncation behavior is undefined and may change
in a future version of the shell. Use
`%-n(l.true-text.false-text)' to remove parts of the prompt when
the available space is less than n.
zsh 5.9 May 14, 2022 ZSHMISC(1)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 16 04:04:54 CET 2025.