ZSHMODULES(1) ZSHMODULES(1)
NAME
zshmodules - zsh loadable modules
DESCRIPTION
Some optional parts of zsh are in modules, separate from the core of the shell. Each of these mod-ules modules
ules may be linked in to the shell at build time, or can be dynamically linked while the shell is
running if the installation supports this feature. The modules that are bundled with the zsh distri-bution distribution
bution are:
zsh/cap
Builtins for manipulating POSIX.1e (POSIX.6) capability (privilege) sets.
zsh/clone
A builtin that can clone a running shell onto another terminal.
zsh/compctl
The compctl builtin for controlling completion.
zsh/complete
The basic completion code.
zsh/complist
Completion listing extensions.
zsh/computil
A module with utility builtins needed for the shell function based completion system.
zsh/datetime
Some date/time commands and parameters.
zsh/deltochar
A ZLE function duplicating EMACS' zap-to-char.
zsh/example
An example of how to write a module.
zsh/files
Some basic file manipulation commands as builtins.
zsh/mapfile
Access to external files via a special associative array.
zsh/mathfunc
Standard scientific functions for use in mathematical evaluations.
zsh/newuser
Arrange for files for new users to be installed.
zsh/parameter
Access to internal hash tables via special associative arrays.
zsh/pcre
Interface to the PCRE library.
zsh/sched
A builtin that provides a timed execution facility within the shell.
zsh/net/socket
Manipulation of Unix domain sockets
zsh/stat
A builtin command interface to the stat system call.
zsh/system
A builtin interface to various low-level system features.
zsh/net/tcp
Manipulation of TCP sockets
zsh/termcap
Interface to the termcap database.
zsh/terminfo
Interface to the terminfo database.
zsh/zftp
A builtin FTP client.
zsh/zle
The Zsh Line Editor, including the bindkey and vared builtins.
zsh/zleparameter
Access to internals of the Zsh Line Editor via parameters.
zsh/zprof
A module allowing profiling for shell functions.
zsh/zpty
A builtin for starting a command in a pseudo-terminal.
zsh/zselect
Block and return when file descriptors are ready.
zsh/zutil
Some utility builtins, e.g. the one for supporting configuration via styles.
THE ZSH/CAP MODULE
The zsh/cap module is used for manipulating POSIX.1e (POSIX.6) capability sets. If the operating
system does not support this interface, the builtins defined by this module will do nothing. The
builtins in this module are:
cap [ capabilities ]
Change the shell's process capability sets to the specified capabilities, otherwise display
the shell's current capabilities.
getcap filename ...
This is a built-in implementation of the POSIX standard utility. It displays the capability
sets on each specified filename.
setcap capabilities filename ...
This is a built-in implementation of the POSIX standard utility. It sets the capability sets
on each specified filename to the specified capabilities.
THE ZSH/CLONE MODULE
The zsh/clone module makes available one builtin command:
clone tty
Creates a forked instance of the current shell, attached to the specified tty. In the new
shell, the PID, PPID and TTY special parameters are changed appropriately. $! is set to zero
in the new shell, and to the new shell's PID in the original shell.
The return status of the builtin is zero in both shells if successful, and non-zero on error.
The target of clone should be an unused terminal, such as an unused virtual console or a vir-tual virtual
tual terminal created by
xterm -e sh -c 'trap : INT QUIT TSTP; tty; while :; do sleep 100000000; done'
Some words of explanation are warranted about this long xterm command line: when doing clone
on a pseudo-terminal, some other session ("session" meant as a unix session group, or SID) is
already owning the terminal. Hence the cloned zsh cannot acquire the pseudo-terminal as a con-trolling controlling
trolling tty. That means two things:
the job control signals will go to the sh-started-by-xterm process
group (that's why we disable INT QUIT and TSTP with trap; otherwise
the while loop could get suspended or killed)
the cloned shell will have job control disabled, and the job
control keys (control-C, control-\ and control-Z) will not work.
This does not apply when cloning to an unused vc.
Cloning to an used (and unprepared) terminal will result in two processes reading simultane-ously simultaneously
ously from the same terminal, with input bytes going randomly to either process.
clone is mostly useful as a shell built-in replacement for openvt.
THE ZSH/COMPCTL MODULE
The zsh/compctl module makes available two builtin commands. compctl, is the old, deprecated way to
control completions for ZLE. See zshcompctl(1). The other builtin command, compcall can be used in
user-defined completion widgets, see zshcompwid(1).
THE ZSH/COMPLETE MODULE
The zsh/complete module makes available several builtin commands which can be used in user-defined
completion widgets, see zshcompwid(1).
THE ZSH/COMPLIST MODULE
The zsh/complist module offers three extensions to completion listings: the ability to highlight
matches in such a list, the ability to scroll through long lists and a different style of menu com-pletion. completion.
pletion.
Colored completion listings
Whenever one of the parameters ZLS_COLORS or ZLS_COLOURS is set and the zsh/complist module is loaded
or linked into the shell, completion lists will be colored. Note, however, that complist will not
automatically be loaded if it is not linked in: on systems with dynamic loading, `zmodload zsh/com-plist' zsh/complist'
plist' is required.
The parameters ZLS_COLORS and ZLS_COLOURS describe how matches are highlighted. To turn on high-lighting highlighting
lighting an empty value suffices, in which case all the default values given below will be used. The
format of the value of these parameters is the same as used by the GNU version of the ls command: a
colon-separated list of specifications of the form `name=value'. The name may be one of the follow-ing following
ing strings, most of which specify file types for which the value will be used. The strings and
their default values are:
no 0 for normal text (i.e. when displaying something other than a matched file)
fi 0 for regular files
di 32 for directories
ln 36 for symbolic links
pi 31 for named pipes (FIFOs)
so 33 for sockets
bd 44;37
for block devices
cd 44;37
for character devices
ex 35 for executable files
mi none
for a non-existent file (default is the value defined for fi)
lc \e[ for the left code (see below)
rc m for the right code
tc 0 for the character indicating the file type printed after filenames if the LIST_TYPES option
is set
sp 0 for the spaces printed after matches to align the next column
ec none
for the end code
Apart from these strings, the name may also be an asterisk (`*') followed by any string. The value
given for such a string will be used for all files whose name ends with the string. The name may
also be an equals sign (`=') followed by a pattern. The value given for this pattern will be used
for all matches (not just filenames) whose display string are matched by the pattern. Definitions
for both of these take precedence over the values defined for file types and the form with the lead-ing leading
ing asterisk takes precedence over the form with the leading equal sign.
The last form also allows different parts of the displayed strings to be colored differently. For
this, the pattern has to use the `(#b)' globbing flag and pairs of parentheses surrounding the parts
of the strings that are to be colored differently. In this case the value may consist of more than
one color code separated by equal signs. The first code will be used for all parts for which no
explicit code is specified and the following codes will be used for the parts matched by the sub-pat-terns sub-patterns
terns in parentheses. For example, the specification `=(#b)(?)*(?)=0=3=7' will be used for all
matches which are at least two characters long and will use the code `3' for the first character, `7'
for the last character and `0' for the rest.
All three forms of name may be preceded by a pattern in parentheses. If this is given, the value
will be used only for matches in groups whose names are matched by the pattern given in the parenthe-ses. parentheses.
ses. For example, `(g*)m*=43' highlights all matches beginning with `m' in groups whose names begin
with `g' using the color code `43'. In case of the `lc', `rc', and `ec' codes, the group pattern is
ignored.
Note also that all patterns are tried in the order in which they appear in the parameter value until
the first one matches which is then used.
When printing a match, the code prints the value of lc, the value for the file-type or the last
matching specification with a `*', the value of rc, the string to display for the match itself, and
then the value of ec if that is defined or the values of lc, no, and rc if ec is not defined.
The default values are ISO 6429 (ANSI) compliant and can be used on vt100 compatible terminals such
as xterms. On monochrome terminals the default values will have no visible effect. The colors func-tion function
tion from the contribution can be used to get associative arrays containing the codes for ANSI termi-nals terminals
nals (see the section `Other Functions' in zshcontrib(1)). For example, after loading colors, one
could use `$colors[red]' to get the code for foreground color red and `$colors[bg-green]' for the
code for background color green.
If the completion system invoked by compinit is used, these parameters should not be set directly
because the system controls them itself. Instead, the list-colors style should be used (see the sec-tion section
tion `Completion System Configuration' in zshcompsys(1)).
Scrolling in completion listings
To enable scrolling through a completion list, the LISTPROMPT parameter must be set. Its value will
be used as the prompt; if it is the empty string, a default prompt will be used. The value may con-tain contain
tain escapes of the form `%x'. It supports the escapes `%B', `%b', `%S', `%s', `%U', `%u' and
`%{...%}' used also in shell prompts as well as three pairs of additional sequences: a `%l' or `%L'
is replaced by the number of the last line shown and the total number of lines in the form `num-ber/total'; `number/total';
ber/total'; a `%m' or `%M' is replaced with the number of the last match shown and the total number
of matches; and `%p' or `%P' is replaced with `Top', `Bottom' or the position of the first line shown
in percent of the total number of lines, respectively. In each of these cases the form with the
uppercase letter will be replaced with a string of fixed width, padded to the right with spaces,
while the lowercase form will not be padded.
If the parameter LISTPROMPT is set, the completion code will not ask if the list should be shown.
Instead it immediately starts displaying the list, stopping after the first screenful, showing the
prompt at the bottom, waiting for a keypress after temporarily switching to the listscroll keymap.
Some of the zle functions have a special meaning while scrolling lists:
send-break
stops listing discarding the key pressed
accept-line, down-history, down-line-or-history
down-line-or-search, vi-down-line-or-history
scrolls forward one line
complete-word, menu-complete, expand-or-complete
expand-or-complete-prefix, menu-complete-or-expand
scrolls forward one screenful
Every other character stops listing and immediately processes the key as usual. Any key that is not
bound in the listscroll keymap or that is bound to undefined-key is looked up in the keymap currently
selected.
As for the ZLS_COLORS and ZLS_COLOURS parameters, LISTPROMPT should not be set directly when using
the shell function based completion system. Instead, the list-prompt style should be used.
Menu selection
The zsh/complist module also offers an alternative style of selecting matches from a list, called
menu selection, which can be used if the shell is set up to return to the last prompt after showing a
completion list (see the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option in zshoptions(1)). It can be invoked directly by
the widget menu-select defined by the module. Alternatively, the parameter MENUSELECT can be set to
an integer, which gives the minimum number of matches that must be present before menu selection is
automatically turned on. This second method requires that menu completion be started, either
directly from a widget such as menu-complete, or due to one of the options MENU_COMPLETE or AUTO_MENU
being set. If MENUSELECT is set, but is 0, 1 or empty, menu selection will always be started during
an ambiguous menu completion.
When using the completion system based on shell functions, the MENUSELECT parameter should not be
used (like the ZLS_COLORS and ZLS_COLOURS parameters described above). Instead, the menu style
should be used with the select=... keyword.
After menu selection is started, the matches will be listed. If there are more matches than fit on
the screen, only the first screenful is shown. The matches to insert into the command line can be
selected from this list. In the list one match is highlighted using the value for ma from the
ZLS_COLORS or ZLS_COLOURS parameter. The default value for this is `7' which forces the selected
match to be highlighted using standout mode on a vt100-compatible terminal. If neither ZLS_COLORS
nor ZLS_COLOURS is set, the same terminal control sequence as for the `%S' escape in prompts is used.
If there are more matches than fit on the screen and the parameter MENUPROMPT is set, its value will
be shown below the matches. It supports the same escape sequences as LISTPROMPT, but the number of
the match or line shown will be that of the one where the mark is placed. If its value is the empty
string, a default prompt will be used.
The MENUSCROLL parameter can be used to specify how the list is scrolled. If the parameter is unset,
this is done line by line, if it is set to `0' (zero), the list will scroll half the number of lines
of the screen. If the value is positive, it gives the number of lines to scroll and if it is nega-tive, negative,
tive, the list will be scrolled the number of lines of the screen minus the (absolute) value.
As for the ZLS_COLORS, ZLS_COLOURS and LISTPROMPT parameters, neither MENUPROMPT nor MENUSCROLL
should be set directly when using the shell function based completion system. Instead, the
select-prompt and select-scroll styles should be used.
The completion code sometimes decides not to show all of the matches in the list. These hidden
matches are either matches for which the completion function which added them explicitly requested
that they not appear in the list (using the -n option of the compadd builtin command) or they are
matches which duplicate a string already in the list (because they differ only in things like pre-fixes prefixes
fixes or suffixes that are not displayed). In the list used for menu selection, however, even these
matches are shown so that it is possible to select them. To highlight such matches the hi and du
capabilities in the ZLS_COLORS and ZLS_COLOURS parameters are supported for hidden matches of the
first and second kind, respectively.
Selecting matches is done by moving the mark around using the zle movement functions. When not all
matches can be shown on the screen at the same time, the list will scroll up and down when crossing
the top or bottom line. The following zle functions have special meaning during menu selection:
accept-line
accepts the current match and leaves menu selection
send-break
leaves menu selection and restores the previous contents of the command line
redisplay, clear-screen
execute their normal function without leaving menu selection
accept-and-hold, accept-and-menu-complete
accept the currently inserted match and continue selection allowing to select the next match
to insert into the line
accept-and-infer-next-history
accepts the current match and then tries completion with menu selection again; in the case of
files this allows one to select a directory and immediately attempt to complete files in it;
if there are no matches, a message is shown and one can use undo to go back to completion on
the previous level, every other key leaves menu selection (including the other zle functions
which are otherwise special during menu selection)
undo removes matches inserted during the menu selection by one of the three functions before
down-history, down-line-or-history
vi-down-line-or-history, down-line-or-search
moves the mark one line down
up-history, up-line-or-history
vi-up-line-or-history, up-line-or-search
moves the mark one line up
forward-char, vi-forward-char
moves the mark one column right
backward-char, vi-backward-char
moves the mark one column left
forward-word, vi-forward-word
vi-forward-word-end, emacs-forward-word
moves the mark one screenful down
backward-word, vi-backward-word, emacs-backward-word
moves the mark one screenful up
vi-forward-blank-word, vi-forward-blank-word-end
moves the mark to the first line of the next group of matches
vi-backward-blank-word
moves the mark to the last line of the previous group of matches
beginning-of-history
moves the mark to the first line
end-of-history
moves the mark to the last line
beginning-of-buffer-or-history, beginning-of-line
beginning-of-line-hist, vi-beginning-of-line
moves the mark to the leftmost column
end-of-buffer-or-history, end-of-line
end-of-line-hist, vi-end-of-line
moves the mark to the rightmost column
complete-word, menu-complete, expand-or-complete
expand-or-complete-prefix, menu-expand-or-complete
moves the mark to the next match
reverse-menu-complete
moves the mark to the previous match
vi-insert
this toggles between normal and interactive mode; in interactive mode the keys bound to
self-insert and self-insert-unmeta insert into the command line as in normal editing mode but
without leaving menu selection; after each character completion is tried again and the list
changes to contain only the new matches; the completion widgets make the longest unambiguous
string be inserted in the command line and undo and backward-delete-char go back to the previ-ous previous
ous set of matches
history-incremental-search-forward,
history-incremental-search-backward this starts incremental searches in the list of comple-tions completions
tions displayed; in this mode, accept-line only leaves incremental search, going back to the
normal menu selection mode
All movement functions wrap around at the edges; any other zle function not listed leaves menu selec-tion selection
tion and executes that function. It is possible to make widgets in the above list do the same by
using the form of the widget with a `.' in front. For example, the widget `.accept-line' has the
effect of leaving menu selection and accepting the entire command line.
During this selection the widget uses the keymap menuselect. Any key that is not defined in this
keymap or that is bound to undefined-key is looked up in the keymap currently selected. This is used
to ensure that the most important keys used during selection (namely the cursor keys, return, and
TAB) have sensible defaults. However, keys in the menuselect keymap can be modified directly using
the bindkey builtin command (see zshmodules(1)). For example, to make the return key leave menu
selection without accepting the match currently selected one could call
bindkey -M menuselect '^M' send-break
after loading the zsh/complist module.
THE ZSH/COMPUTIL MODULE
The zsh/computil module adds several builtin commands that are used by some of the completion func-tions functions
tions in the completion system based on shell functions (see zshcompsys(1) ). Except for compquote
these builtin commands are very specialised and thus not very interesting when writing your own com-pletion completion
pletion functions. In summary, these builtin commands are:
comparguments
This is used by the _arguments function to do the argument and command line parsing. Like
compdescribe it has an option -i to do the parsing and initialize some internal state and var-ious various
ious options to access the state information to decide what should be completed.
compdescribe
This is used by the _describe function to build the displays for the matches and to get the
strings to add as matches with their options. On the first call one of the options -i or -I
should be supplied as the first argument. In the first case, display strings without the
descriptions will be generated, in the second case, the string used to separate the matches
from their descriptions must be given as the second argument and the descriptions (if any)
will be shown. All other arguments are like the definition arguments to _describe itself.
Once compdescribe has been called with either the -i or the -I option, it can be repeatedly
called with the -g option and the names of five arrays as its arguments. This will step
through the different sets of matches and store the options in the first array, the strings
with descriptions in the second, the matches for these in the third, the strings without
descriptions in the fourth, and the matches for them in the fifth array. These are then
directly given to compadd to register the matches with the completion code.
compfiles
Used by the _path_files function to optimize complex recursive filename generation (globbing).
It does three things. With the -p and -P options it builds the glob patterns to use, includ-ing including
ing the paths already handled and trying to optimize the patterns with respect to the prefix
and suffix from the line and the match specification currently used. The -i option does the
directory tests for the ignore-parents style and the -r option tests if a component for some
of the matches are equal to the string on the line and removes all other matches if that is
true.
compgroups
Used by the _tags function to implement the internals of the group-order style. This only
takes its arguments as names of completion groups and creates the groups for it (all six
types: sorted and unsorted, both without removing duplicates, with removing all duplicates and
with removing consecutive duplicates).
compquote [ -p ] names ...
There may be reasons to write completion functions that have to add the matches using the -Q
option to compadd and perform quoting themselves. Instead of interpreting the first character
of the all_quotes key of the compstate special association and using the q flag for parameter
expansions, one can use this builtin command. The arguments are the names of scalar or array
parameters and the values of these parameters are quoted as needed for the innermost quoting
level. If the -p option is given, quoting is done as if there is some prefix before the val-ues values
ues of the parameters, so that a leading equal sign will not be quoted.
The return status is non-zero in case of an error and zero otherwise.
comptags
comptry
These implement the internals of the tags mechanism.
compvalues
Like comparguments, but for the _values function.
THE ZSH/DATETIME MODULE
The zsh/datetime module makes available one builtin command:
strftime [ -s scalar ] format epochtime
strftime -r [ -q ] [ -s scalar ] format timestring
Output the date denoted by epochtime in the format specified.
With the option -r (reverse), use the format format to parse the input string timestring and
output the number of seconds since the epoch at which the time occurred. If no timezone is
parsed, the current timezone is used; other parameters are set to zero if not present. If
timestring does not match format the command returns status 1; it will additionally print an
error message unless the option -q (quiet) is given. If timestring matches format but not all
characters in timestring were used, the conversion succeeds; however, a warning is issued
unless the option -q is given. The matching is implemented by the system function strptime;
see strptime(3). This means that zsh format extensions are not available, however for reverse
lookup they are not required. If the function is not implemented, the command returns status
2 and (unless -q is given) prints a message.
If -s scalar is given, assign the date string (or epoch time in seconds if -r is given) to
scalar instead of printing it.
The zsh/datetime module makes available one parameter:
EPOCHSECONDS
An integer value representing the number of seconds since the epoch.
THE ZSH/DELTOCHAR MODULE
The zsh/deltochar module makes available two ZLE functions:
delete-to-char
Read a character from the keyboard, and delete from the cursor position up to and including
the next (or, with repeat count n, the nth) instance of that character. Negative repeat
counts mean delete backwards.
zap-to-char
This behaves like delete-to-char, except that the final occurrence of the character itself is
not deleted.
THE ZSH/EXAMPLE MODULE
The zsh/example module makes available one builtin command:
example [ -flags ] [ args ... ]
Displays the flags and arguments it is invoked with.
The purpose of the module is to serve as an example of how to write a module.
THE ZSH/FILES MODULE
The zsh/files module makes some standard commands available as builtins:
chgrp [ -Rs ] group filename ...
Changes group of files specified. This is equivalent to chown with a user-spec argument of
`:group'.
chown [ -Rs ] user-spec filename ...
Changes ownership and group of files specified.
The user-spec can be in four forms:
user change owner to user; do not change group
user:: change owner to user; do not change group
user: change owner to user; change group to user's primary group
user:group
change owner to user; change group to group
:group do not change owner; change group to group
In each case, the `:' may instead be a `.'. The rule is that if there is a `:' then the sepa-rator separator
rator is `:', otherwise if there is a `.' then the separator is `.', otherwise there is no
separator.
Each of user and group may be either a username (or group name, as appropriate) or a decimal
user ID (group ID). Interpretation as a name takes precedence, if there is an all-numeric
username (or group name).
The -R option causes chown to recursively descend into directories, changing the ownership of
all files in the directory after changing the ownership of the directory itself.
The -s option is a zsh extension to chown functionality. It enables paranoid behaviour,
intended to avoid security problems involving a chown being tricked into affecting files other
than the ones intended. It will refuse to follow symbolic links, so that (for example)
``chown luser /tmp/foo/passwd'' can't accidentally chown /etc/passwd if /tmp/foo happens to be
a link to /etc. It will also check where it is after leaving directories, so that a recursive
chown of a deep directory tree can't end up recursively chowning /usr as a result of directo-ries directories
ries being moved up the tree.
ln [ -dfis ] filename dest
ln [ -dfis ] filename ... dir
Creates hard (or, with -s, symbolic) links. In the first form, the specified destination is
created, as a link to the specified filename. In the second form, each of the filenames is
taken in turn, and linked to a pathname in the specified directory that has the same last
pathname component.
Normally, ln will not attempt to create hard links to directories. This check can be overrid-den overridden
den using the -d option. Typically only the super-user can actually succeed in creating hard
links to directories. This does not apply to symbolic links in any case.
By default, existing files cannot be replaced by links. The -i option causes the user to be
queried about replacing existing files. The -f option causes existing files to be silently
deleted, without querying. -f takes precedence.
mkdir [ -p ] [ -m mode ] dir ...
Creates directories. With the -p option, non-existing parent directories are first created if
necessary, and there will be no complaint if the directory already exists. The -m option can
be used to specify (in octal) a set of file permissions for the created directories, otherwise
mode 777 modified by the current umask (see umask(2)) is used.
mv [ -fi ] filename dest
mv [ -fi ] filename ... dir
Moves files. In the first form, the specified filename is moved to the specified destination.
In the second form, each of the filenames is taken in turn, and moved to a pathname in the
specified directory that has the same last pathname component.
By default, the user will be queried before replacing any file that the user cannot write to,
but writable files will be silently removed. The -i option causes the user to be queried
about replacing any existing files. The -f option causes any existing files to be silently
deleted, without querying. -f takes precedence.
Note that this mv will not move files across devices. Historical versions of mv, when actual
renaming is impossible, fall back on copying and removing files; if this behaviour is desired,
use cp and rm manually. This may change in a future version.
rm [ -dfirs ] filename ...
Removes files and directories specified.
Normally, rm will not remove directories (except with the -r option). The -d option causes rm
to try removing directories with unlink (see unlink(2)), the same method used for files. Typ-ically Typically
ically only the super-user can actually succeed in unlinking directories in this way. -d
takes precedence over -r.
By default, the user will be queried before removing any file that the user cannot write to,
but writable files will be silently removed. The -i option causes the user to be queried
about removing any files. The -f option causes files to be silently deleted, without query-ing, querying,
ing, and suppresses all error indications. -f takes precedence.
The -r option causes rm to recursively descend into directories, deleting all files in the
directory before removing the directory with the rmdir system call (see rmdir(2)).
The -s option is a zsh extension to rm functionality. It enables paranoid behaviour, intended
to avoid common security problems involving a root-run rm being tricked into removing files
other than the ones intended. It will refuse to follow symbolic links, so that (for example)
``rm /tmp/foo/passwd'' can't accidentally remove /etc/passwd if /tmp/foo happens to be a link
to /etc. It will also check where it is after leaving directories, so that a recursive
removal of a deep directory tree can't end up recursively removing /usr as a result of direc-tories directories
tories being moved up the tree.
rmdir dir ...
Removes empty directories specified.
sync Calls the system call of the same name (see sync(2)), which flushes dirty buffers to disk. It
might return before the I/O has actually been completed.
THE ZSH/MAPFILE MODULE
The zsh/mapfile module provides one special associative array parameter of the same name.
mapfile
This associative array takes as keys the names of files; the resulting value is the content of
the file. The value is treated identically to any other text coming from a parameter. The
value may also be assigned to, in which case the file in question is written (whether or not
it originally existed); or an element may be unset, which will delete the file in question.
For example, `vared mapfile[myfile]' works as expected, editing the file `myfile'.
When the array is accessed as a whole, the keys are the names of files in the current direc-tory, directory,
tory, and the values are empty (to save a huge overhead in memory). Thus ${(k)mapfile} has
the same affect as the glob operator *(D), since files beginning with a dot are not special.
Care must be taken with expressions such as rm ${(k)mapfile}, which will delete every file in
the current directory without the usual `rm *' test.
The parameter mapfile may be made read-only; in that case, files referenced may not be written
or deleted.
Limitations
Although reading and writing of the file in question is efficiently handled, zsh's internal memory
management may be arbitrarily baroque. Thus it should not automatically be assumed that use of map-file mapfile
file represents a gain in efficiency over use of other mechanisms. Note in particular that the whole
contents of the file will always reside physically in memory when accessed (possibly multiple times,
due to standard parameter substitution operations). In particular, this means handling of suffi-ciently sufficiently
ciently long files (greater than the machine's swap space, or than the range of the pointer type)
will be incorrect.
No errors are printed or flagged for non-existent, unreadable, or unwritable files, as the parameter
mechanism is too low in the shell execution hierarchy to make this convenient.
It is unfortunate that the mechanism for loading modules does not yet allow the user to specify the
name of the shell parameter to be given the special behaviour.
THE ZSH/MATHFUNC MODULE
The zsh/mathfunc module provides standard mathematical functions for use when evaluating mathematical
formulae. The syntax agrees with normal C and FORTRAN conventions, for example,
(( f = sin(0.3) ))
assigns the sine of 0.3 to the parameter f.
Most functions take floating point arguments and return a floating point value. However, any neces-sary necessary
sary conversions from or to integer type will be performed automatically by the shell. Apart from
atan with a second argument and the abs, int and float functions, all functions behave as noted in
the manual page for the corresponding C function, except that any arguments out of range for the
function in question will be detected by the shell and an error reported.
The following functions take a single floating point argument: acos, acosh, asin, asinh, atan, atanh,
cbrt, ceil, cos, cosh, erf, erfc, exp, expm1, fabs, floor, gamma, j0, j1, lgamma, log, log10, log1p,
logb, sin, sinh, sqrt, tan, tanh, y0, y1. The atan function can optionally take a second argument,
in which case it behaves like the C function atan2. The ilogb function takes a single floating point
argument, but returns an integer.
The function signgam takes no arguments, and returns an integer, which is the C variable of the same
name, as described in gamma(3). Note that it is therefore only useful immediately after a call to
gamma or lgamma. Note also that `signgam(RPAR' and `signgam' are distinct expressions.
The following functions take two floating point arguments: copysign, fmod, hypot, nextafter.
The following take an integer first argument and a floating point second argument: jn, yn.
The following take a floating point first argument and an integer second argument: ldexp, scalb.
The function abs does not convert the type of its single argument; it returns the absolute value of
either a floating point number or an integer. The functions float and int convert their arguments
into a floating point or integer value (by truncation) respectively.
Note that the C pow function is available in ordinary math evaluation as the `**' operator and is not
provided here.
The function rand48 is available if your system's mathematical library has the function erand48(3).
It returns a pseudo-random floating point number between 0 and 1. It takes a single string optional
argument.
If the argument is not present, the random number seed is initialised by three calls to the rand(3)
function --- this produces the same random numbers as the next three values of $RANDOM.
If the argument is present, it gives the name of a scalar parameter where the current random number
seed will be stored. On the first call, the value must contain at least twelve hexadecimal digits
(the remainder of the string is ignored), or the seed will be initialised in the same manner as for a
call to rand48 with no argument. Subsequent calls to rand48(param) will then maintain the seed in
the parameter param as a string of twelve hexadecimal digits, with no base signifier. The random
number sequences for different parameters are completely independent, and are also independent from
that used by calls to rand48 with no argument.
For example, consider
print $(( rand48(seed) ))
print $(( rand48() ))
print $(( rand48(seed) ))
Assuming $seed does not exist, it will be initialised by the first call. In the second call, the
default seed is initialised; note, however, that because of the properties of rand() there is a cor-relation correlation
relation between the seeds used for the two initialisations, so for more secure uses, you should gen-erate generate
erate your own 12-byte seed. The third call returns to the same sequence of random numbers used in
the first call, unaffected by the intervening rand48().
THE ZSH/NEWUSER MODULE
The zsh/newuser module is loaded at boot if it is available, the RCS option is set, and the PRIVI-LEGED PRIVILEGED
LEGED option is not set (all three are true by default). This takes place immediately after commands
in the global zshenv file (typically /etc/zshenv), if any, have been executed. If the module is not
available it is silently ignored by the shell; the module may safely be removed from $MODULE_PATH by
the administrator if it is not required.
On loading, the module tests if any of the start-up files .zshenv, .zprofile, .zshrc or .zlogin exist
in the directory given by the environment variable ZDOTDIR, or the user's home directory if that is
not set. The test is not performed and the module halts processing if the shell was in an emulation
mode (i.e. had been invoked as some other shell than zsh).
If none of the start-up files were found, the module then looks for the file newuser first in a
sitewide directory, usually the parent directory of the site-functions directory, and if that is not
found the module searches in a version-specific directory, usually the parent of the functions direc-tory directory
tory containing version-specific functions. (These directories can be configured when zsh is built
using the --enable-site-scriptdir=dir and --enable-scriptdir=dir flags to configure, respectively;
the defaults are prefix/share/zsh and prefix/share/zsh/$ZSH_VERSION where the default prefix is
/usr/local.)
If the file newuser is found, it is then sourced in the same manner as a start-up file. The file is
expected to contain code to install start-up files for the user, however any valid shell code will be
executed.
The zsh/newuser module is then unconditionally unloaded.
Note that it is possible to achieve exactly the same effect as the zsh/newuser module by adding code
to /etc/zshenv. The module exists simply to allow the shell to make arrangements for new users with-out without
out the need for invervention by package maintainers and system administrators.
THE ZSH/PARAMETER MODULE
The zsh/parameter module gives access to some of the internal hash tables used by the shell by defin-ing defining
ing some special parameters.
options
The keys for this associative array are the names of the options that can be set and unset
using the setopt and unsetopt builtins. The value of each key is either the string on if the
option is currently set, or the string off if the option is unset. Setting a key to one of
these strings is like setting or unsetting the option, respectively. Unsetting a key in this
array is like setting it to the value off.
commands
This array gives access to the command hash table. The keys are the names of external com-mands, commands,
mands, the values are the pathnames of the files that would be executed when the command would
be invoked. Setting a key in this array defines a new entry in this table in the same way as
with the hash builtin. Unsetting a key as in `unset "commands[foo]"' removes the entry for the
given key from the command hash table.
functions
This associative array maps names of enabled functions to their definitions. Setting a key in
it is like defining a function with the name given by the key and the body given by the value.
Unsetting a key removes the definition for the function named by the key.
dis_functions
Like functions but for disabled functions.
builtins
This associative array gives information about the builtin commands currently enabled. The
keys are the names of the builtin commands and the values are either `undefined' for builtin
commands that will automatically be loaded from a module if invoked or `defined' for builtin
commands that are already loaded.
dis_builtins
Like builtins but for disabled builtin commands.
reswords
This array contains the enabled reserved words.
dis_reswords
Like reswords but for disabled reserved words.
aliases
This maps the names of the regular aliases currently enabled to their expansions.
dis_aliases
Like aliases but for disabled regular aliases.
galiases
Like aliases, but for global aliases.
dis_galiases
Like galiases but for disabled global aliases.
saliases
Like raliases, but for suffix aliases.
dis_saliases
Like saliases but for disabled suffix aliases.
parameters
The keys in this associative array are the names of the parameters currently defined. The val-ues values
ues are strings describing the type of the parameter, in the same format used by the t parame-ter parameter
ter flag, see zshexpn(1) . Setting or unsetting keys in this array is not possible.
modules
An associative array giving information about modules. The keys are the names of the modules
loaded, registered to be autoloaded, or aliased. The value says which state the named module
is in and is one of the strings `loaded', `autoloaded', or `alias:name', where name is the
name the module is aliased to.
Setting or unsetting keys in this array is not possible.
dirstack
A normal array holding the elements of the directory stack. Note that the output of the dirs
builtin command includes one more directory, the current working directory.
history
This associative array maps history event numbers to the full history lines.
historywords
A special array containing the words stored in the history.
jobdirs
This associative array maps job numbers to the directories from which the job was started
(which may not be the current directory of the job).
jobtexts
This associative array maps job numbers to the texts of the command lines that were used to
start the jobs.
jobstates
This associative array gives information about the states of the jobs currently known. The
keys are the job numbers and the values are strings of the form `job-state:mark:pid=state...'.
The job-state gives the state the whole job is currently in, one of `running', `suspended', or
`done'. The mark is `+' for the current job, `-' for the previous job and empty otherwise.
This is followed by one `pid=state' for every process in the job. The pids are, of course, the
process IDs and the state describes the state of that process.
nameddirs
This associative array maps the names of named directories to the pathnames they stand for.
userdirs
This associative array maps user names to the pathnames of their home directories.
funcstack
This array contains the names of the functions currently being executed. The first element is
the name of the function using the parameter.
functrace
This array contains the names and line numbers of the callers corresponding to the functions
currently being executed. The format of each element is name:lineno.
THE ZSH/PCRE MODULE
The zsh/pcre module makes some commands available as builtins:
pcre_compile [ -aimx ] PCRE
Compiles a perl-compatible regular expression.
Option -a will force the pattern to be anchored. Option -i will compile a case-insensitive
pattern. Option -m will compile a multi-line pattern; that is, ^ and $ will match newlines
within the pattern. Option -x will compile an extended pattern, wherein whitespace and # com-ments comments
ments are ignored.
pcre_study
Studies the previously-compiled PCRE which may result in faster matching.
pcre_match [ -a arr ] string
Returns successfully if string matches the previously-compiled PCRE.
If the expression captures substrings within parentheses, pcre_match will set the array $match
to those substrings, unless the -a option is given, in which case it will set the array arr.
The zsh/pcre module makes available the following test condition:
expr -pcre-match pcre
Matches a string against a perl-compatible regular expression.
For example,
[[ "$text" -pcre-match ^d+$ ]] && print text variable contains only "d's".
THE ZSH/SCHED MODULE
The zsh/sched module makes available one builtin command:
sched [-o] [+]hh:mm[:ss] command ...
sched [-o] [+]seconds command ...
sched [ -item ]
Make an entry in the scheduled list of commands to execute. The time may be specified in
either absolute or relative time, and either as hours, minutes and (optionally) seconds sepa-rated separated
rated by a colon, or seconds alone. An absolute number of seconds indicates the time since
the epoch (1970/01/01 00:00); this is useful in combination with the features in the zsh/date-time zsh/datetime
time module, see the zsh/datetime module entry in zshmodules(1).
With no arguments, prints the list of scheduled commands. If the scheduled command has the -o
flag set, this is shown at the start of the command.
With the argument `-item', removes the given item from the list. The numbering of the list is
continuous and entries are in time order, so the numbering can change when entries are added
or deleted.
Commands are executed either immediately before a prompt, or while the shell's line editor is
waiting for input. In the latter case it is useful to be able to produce output that does not
interfere with the line being edited. Providing the option -o causes the shell to clear the
command line before the event and redraw it afterwards. This should be used with any sched-uled scheduled
uled event that produces visible output to the terminal; it is not needed, for example, with
output that updates a terminal emulator's title bar.
THE ZSH/NET/SOCKET MODULE
The zsh/net/socket module makes available one builtin command:
zsocket [ -altv ] [ -d fd ] [ args ]
zsocket is implemented as a builtin to allow full use of shell command line editing, file I/O,
and job control mechanisms.
Outbound Connections
zsocket [ -v ] [ -d fd ] filename
Open a new Unix domain connection to filename. The shell parameter REPLY will be set to the
file descriptor associated with that connection. Currently, only stream connections are sup-ported. supported.
ported.
If -d is specified, its argument will be taken as the target file descriptor for the connec-tion. connection.
tion.
In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
Inbound Connections
zsocket -l [ -v ] [ -d fd ] filename
zsocket -l will open a socket listening on filename. The shell parameter REPLY will be set to
the file descriptor associated with that listener.
If -d is specified, its argument will be taken as the target file descriptor for the connec-tion. connection.
tion.
In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
zsocket -a [ -tv ] [ -d targetfd ] listenfd
zsocket -a will accept an incoming connection to the socket associated with listenfd. The
shell parameter REPLY will be set to the file descriptor associated with the inbound connec-tion. connection.
tion.
If -d is specified, its argument will be taken as the target file descriptor for the connec-tion. connection.
tion.
If -t is specified, zsocket will return if no incoming connection is pending. Otherwise it
will wait for one.
In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
THE ZSH/STAT MODULE
The zsh/stat module makes available one builtin command:
stat [ -gnNolLtTrs ] [ -f fd ] [ -H hash ] [ -A array ] [ -F fmt ] [ +element ] [ file ... ]
The command acts as a front end to the stat system call (see stat(2)). If the stat call
fails, the appropriate system error message printed and status 1 is returned. The fields of
struct stat give information about the files provided as arguments to the command. In addi-tion addition
tion to those available from the stat call, an extra element `link' is provided. These ele-ments elements
ments are:
device The number of the device on which the file resides.
inode The unique number of the file on this device (`inode' number).
mode The mode of the file; that is, the file's type and access permissions. With the -s
option, this will be returned as a string corresponding to the first column in the dis-play display
play of the ls -l command.
nlink The number of hard links to the file.
uid The user ID of the owner of the file. With the -s option, this is displayed as a user
name.
gid The group ID of the file. With the -s option, this is displayed as a group name.
rdev The raw device number. This is only useful for special devices.
size The size of the file in bytes.
atime
mtime
ctime The last access, modification and inode change times of the file, respectively, as the
number of seconds since midnight GMT on 1st January, 1970. With the -s option, these
are printed as strings for the local time zone; the format can be altered with the -F
option, and with the -g option the times are in GMT.
blksize
The number of bytes in one allocation block on the device on which the file resides.
block The number of disk blocks used by the file.
link If the file is a link and the -L option is in effect, this contains the name of the
file linked to, otherwise it is empty. Note that if this element is selected (``stat
+link'') then the -L option is automatically used.
A particular element may be selected by including its name preceded by a `+' in the option
list; only one element is allowed. The element may be shortened to any unique set of leading
characters. Otherwise, all elements will be shown for all files.
Options:
-A array
Instead of displaying the results on standard output, assign them to an array, one
struct stat element per array element for each file in order. In this case neither the
name of the element nor the name of the files appears in array unless the -t or -n
options were given, respectively. If -t is given, the element name appears as a prefix
to the appropriate array element; if -n is given, the file name appears as a separate
array element preceding all the others. Other formatting options are respected.
-H hash
Similar to -A, but instead assign the values to hash. The keys are the elements listed
above. If the -n option is provided then the name of the file is included in the hash
with key name.
-f fd Use the file on file descriptor fd instead of named files; no list of file names is
allowed in this case.
-F fmt Supplies a strftime (see strftime(3)) string for the formatting of the time elements.
The -s option is implied.
-g Show the time elements in the GMT time zone. The -s option is implied.
-l List the names of the type elements (to standard output or an array as appropriate) and
return immediately; options other than -A and arguments are ignored.
-L Perform an lstat (see lstat(2)) rather than a stat system call. In this case, if the
file is a link, information about the link itself rather than the target file is
returned. This option is required to make the link element useful.
-n Always show the names of files. Usually these are only shown when output is to stan-dard standard
dard output and there is more than one file in the list.
-N Never show the names of files.
-o If a raw file mode is printed, show it in octal, which is more useful for human con-sumption consumption
sumption than the default of decimal. A leading zero will be printed in this case.
Note that this does not affect whether a raw or formatted file mode is shown, which is
controlled by the -r and -s options, nor whether a mode is shown at all.
-r Print raw data (the default format) alongside string data (the -s format); the string
data appears in parentheses after the raw data.
-s Print mode, uid, gid and the three time elements as strings instead of numbers. In
each case the format is like that of ls -l.
-t Always show the type names for the elements of struct stat. Usually these are only
shown when output is to standard output and no individual element has been selected.
-T Never show the type names of the struct stat elements.
THE ZSH/SYSTEM MODULE
The zsh/system module makes available three builtin commands and two parameters.
BUILTINS
syserror [ -e errvar ] [ -p prefix ] [ errno | errname ]
This command prints out the error message associated with errno, a system error number, fol-lowed followed
lowed by a newline to standard error.
Instead of the error number, a name errname, for example ENOENT, may be used. The set of
names is the same as the contents of the array errnos, see below.
If the string prefix is given, it is printed in front of the error message, with no interven-ing intervening
ing space.
If errvar is supplied, the entire message, without a newline, is assigned to the parameter
names errvar and nothing is output.
A return status of 0 indicates the message was successfully printed (although it may not be
useful if the error number was out of the system's range), a return status of 1 indicates an
error in the parameters, and a return status of 2 indicates the error name was not recognised
(no message is printed for this).
sysread [ -c countvar ] [ -i infd ] [ -o outfd ]
[ -s bufsize ] [ -t timeout ] [ param ]
Perform a single system read from file descriptor infd, or zero if that is not given. The
result of the read is stored in param or REPLY if that is not given. If countvar is given,
the number of bytes read is assigned to the parameter named by countvar.
The maximum number of bytes read is bufsize or 8192 if that is not given, however the command
returns as soon as any number of bytes was successfully read.
If timeout is given, it specifies a timeout in seconds, which may be zero to poll the file
descriptor. This is handled by the poll system call if available, otherwise the select system
call if available.
If outfd is given, an attempt is made to write all the bytes just read to the file descriptor
outfd. If this fails, because of a system error other than EINTR or because of an internal
zsh error during an interrupt, the bytes read but not written are stored in the parameter
named by param if supplied (no default is used in this case), and the number of bytes read but
not written is stored in the parameter named by countvar if that is supplied. If it was suc-cessful, successful,
cessful, countvar contains the full number of bytes transferred, as usual, and param is not
set.
The error EINTR (interrupted system call) is handled internally so that shell interrupts are
transparent to the caller. Any other error causes a return.
The possible return statuses are
0 At least one byte of data was successfully read and, if appropriate, written.
1 There was an error in the parameters to the command. This is the only error for which
a message is printed to standard error.
2 There was an error on the read, or on polling the input file descriptor for a timeout.
The parameter ERRNO gives the error.
3 Data were successfully read, but there was an error writing them to outfd. The parame-ter parameter
ter ERRNO gives the error.
4 The attempt to read timed out. Note this does not set ERRNO as this is not a system
error.
5 No system error occurred, but zero bytes were read. This usually indicates end of
file. The parameters are set according to the usual rules; no write to outfd is
attempted.
syswrite [ -c countvar ] [ -o outfd ] data
The data (a single string of bytes) are written to the file descriptor outfd, or 1 if that is
not given, using the write system call. Multiple write operations may be used if the first
does not write all the data.
If countvar is given, the number of byte written is stored in the parameter named by countvar;
this may not be the full length of data if an error occurred.
The error EINTR (interrupted system call) is handled internally by retrying; otherwise an
error causes the command to return. For example, if the file descriptor is set to non-block-ing non-blocking
ing output, an error EAGAIN (on some systems, EWOULDBLOCK) may result in the command returning
early.
The return status may be 0 for success, 1 for an error in the parameters to the command, or 2
for an error on the write; no error message is printed in the last case, but the parameter
ERRNO will reflect the error that occurred.
PARAMETERS
errnos A readonly array of the names of errors defined on the system. These are typically macros
defined in C by including the system header file errno.h. The index of each name (assuming
the option KSH_ARRAYS is unset) corresponds to the error number. Error numbers num before the
last known error which have no name are given the name Enum in the array.
Note that aliases for errors are not handled; only the canonical name is used.
sysparams
A readonly associative array. The keys are:
pid Returns the process ID of the current process, even in subshells. Compare $$, which returns
the process ID of the main shell process.
ppid Returns the process ID of the parent of the current process, even in subshells. Compare
$PPID, which returns the process ID of the parent of the main shell process.
THE ZSH/NET/TCP MODULE
The zsh/net/tcp module makes available one builtin command:
ztcp [ -acflLtv ] [ -d fd ] [ args ]
ztcp is implemented as a builtin to allow full use of shell command line editing, file I/O,
and job control mechanisms.
If ztcp is run with no options, it will output the contents of its session table.
If it is run with only the option -L, it will output the contents of the session table in a
format suitable for automatic parsing. The option is ignored if given with a command to open
or close a session. The output consists of a set of lines, one per session, each containing
the following elements separated by spaces:
File descriptor
The file descriptor in use for the connection. For normal inbound (I) and outbound (O)
connections this may be read and written by the usual shell mechanisms. However, it
should only be close with `ztcp -c'.
Connection type
A letter indicating how the session was created:
Z A session created with the zftp command.
L A connection opened for listening with `ztcp -l'.
I An inbound connection accepted with `ztcp -a'.
O An outbound connection created with `ztcp host ...'.
The local host
This is usually set to an all-zero IP address as the address of the localhost is irrel-evant. irrelevant.
evant.
The local port
This is likely to be zero unless the connection is for listening.
The remote host
This is the fully qualified domain name of the peer, if available, else an IP address.
It is an all-zero IP address for a session opened for listening.
The remote port
This is zero for a connection opened for listening.
Outbound Connections
ztcp [ -v ] [ -d fd ] host [ port ]
Open a new TCP connection to host. If the port is omitted, it will default to port 23. The
connection will be added to the session table and the shell parameter REPLY will be set to the
file descriptor associated with that connection.
If -d is specified, its argument will be taken as the target file descriptor for the connec-tion. connection.
tion.
In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
Inbound Connections
ztcp -l [ -v ] [ -d fd ] port
ztcp -l will open a socket listening on TCP port. The socket will be added to the session ta-ble table
ble and the shell parameter REPLY will be set to the file descriptor associated with that lis-tener. listener.
tener.
If -d is specified, its argument will be taken as the target file descriptor for the connec-tion. connection.
tion.
In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
ztcp -a [ -tv ] [ -d targetfd ] listenfd
ztcp -a will accept an incoming connection to the port associated with listenfd. The connec-tion connection
tion will be added to the session table and the shell parameter REPLY will be set to the file
descriptor associated with the inbound connection.
If -d is specified, its argument will be taken as the target file descriptor for the connec-tion. connection.
tion.
If -t is specified, ztcp will return if no incoming connection is pending. Otherwise it will
wait for one.
In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
Closing Connections
ztcp -cf [ -v ] [ fd ]
ztcp -c [ -v ] [ fd ]
ztcp -c will close the socket associated with fd. The socket will be removed from the session
table. If fd is not specified, ztcp will close everything in the session table.
Normally, sockets registered by zftp (see zshmodules(1) ) cannot be closed this way. In order
to force such a socket closed, use -f.
In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
Example
Here is how to create a TCP connection between two instances of zsh. We need to pick an unassigned
port; here we use the randomly chosen 5123.
On host1,
zmodload zsh/net/tcp
ztcp -l 5123
listenfd=$REPLY
ztcp -a $listenfd
fd=$REPLY
The second from last command blocks until there is an incoming connection.
Now create a connection from host2 (which may, of course, be the same machine):
zmodload zsh/net/tcp
ztcp host1 5123
fd=$REPLY
Now on each host, $fd contains a file descriptor for talking to the other. For example, on host1:
print This is a message >&$fd
and on host2:
read -r line <&$fd; print -r - $line
prints `This is a message'.
To tidy up, on host1:
ztcp -c $listenfd
ztcp -c $fd
and on host2
ztcp -c $fd
THE ZSH/TERMCAP MODULE
The zsh/termcap module makes available one builtin command:
echotc cap [ arg ... ]
Output the termcap value corresponding to the capability cap, with optional arguments.
The zsh/termcap module makes available one parameter:
termcap
An associative array that maps termcap capability codes to their values.
THE ZSH/TERMINFO MODULE
The zsh/terminfo module makes available one builtin command:
echoti cap [ arg ]
Output the terminfo value corresponding to the capability cap, instantiated with arg if appli-
cable.
The zsh/terminfo module makes available one parameter:
terminfo
An associative array that maps terminfo capability names to their values.
THE ZSH/ZFTP MODULE
The zsh/zftp module makes available one builtin command:
zftp subcommand [ args ]
The zsh/zftp module is a client for FTP (file transfer protocol). It is implemented as a
builtin to allow full use of shell command line editing, file I/O, and job control mechanisms.
Often, users will access it via shell functions providing a more powerful interface; a set is
provided with the zsh distribution and is described in zshzftpsys(1). However, the zftp com-mand command
mand is entirely usable in its own right.
All commands consist of the command name zftp followed by the name of a subcommand. These are
listed below. The return status of each subcommand is supposed to reflect the success or
failure of the remote operation. See a description of the variable ZFTP_VERBOSE for more
information on how responses from the server may be printed.
Subcommands
open host[:port] [ user [ password [ account ] ] ]
Open a new FTP session to host, which may be the name of a TCP/IP connected host or an IP num-ber number
ber in the standard dot notation. If the argument is in the form host:port, open a connection
to TCP port port instead of the standard FTP port 21. This may be the name of a TCP service
or a number: see the description of ZFTP_PORT below for more information.
If IPv6 addresses in colon format are used, the host should be surrounded by quoted square
brackets to distinguish it from the port, for example '[fe80::203:baff:fe02:8b56]'. For con-sistency consistency
sistency this is allowed with all forms of host.
Remaining arguments are passed to the login subcommand. Note that if no arguments beyond host
are supplied, open will not automatically call login. If no arguments at all are supplied,
open will use the parameters set by the params subcommand.
After a successful open, the shell variables ZFTP_HOST, ZFTP_PORT, ZFTP_IP and ZFTP_SYSTEM are
available; see `Variables' below.
login [ name [ password [ account ] ] ]
user [ name [ password [ account ] ] ]
Login the user name with parameters password and account. Any of the parameters can be omit-ted, omitted,
ted, and will be read from standard input if needed (name is always needed). If standard
input is a terminal, a prompt for each one will be printed on standard error and password will
not be echoed. If any of the parameters are not used, a warning message is printed.
After a successful login, the shell variables ZFTP_USER, ZFTP_ACCOUNT and ZFTP_PWD are avail-able; available;
able; see `Variables' below.
This command may be re-issued when a user is already logged in, and the server will first be
reinitialized for a new user.
params [ host [ user [ password [ account ] ] ] ]
params -Store paramsStore
Store the given parameters for a later open command with no arguments. Only those given on
the command line will be remembered. If no arguments are given, the parameters currently set
are printed, although the password will appear as a line of stars; the return status is one if
no parameters were set, zero otherwise.
Any of the parameters may be specified as a `?', which may need to be quoted to protect it
from shell expansion. In this case, the appropriate parameter will be read from stdin as with
the login subcommand, including special handling of password. If the `?' is followed by a
string, that is used as the prompt for reading the parameter instead of the default message
(any necessary punctuation and whitespace should be included at the end of the prompt). The
first letter of the parameter (only) may be quoted with a `\'; hence an argument "\\$word"
guarantees that the string from the shell parameter $word will be treated literally, whether
or not it begins with a `?'.
If instead a single `-' is given, the existing parameters, if any, are deleted. In that case,
calling open with no arguments will cause an error.
The list of parameters is not deleted after a close, however it will be deleted if the
zsh/zftp module is unloaded.
For example,
zftp params ftp.elsewhere.xx juser '?Password for juser: '
will store the host ftp.elsewhere.xx and the user juser and then prompt the user for the cor-responding corresponding
responding password with the given prompt.
test Test the connection; if the server has reported that it has closed the connection (maybe due
to a timeout), return status 2; if no connection was open anyway, return status 1; else return
status 0. The test subcommand is silent, apart from messages printed by the $ZFTP_VERBOSE
mechanism, or error messages if the connection closes. There is no network overhead for this
test.
The test is only supported on systems with either the select(2) or poll(2) system calls; oth-erwise otherwise
erwise the message `not supported on this system' is printed instead.
The test subcommand will automatically be called at the start of any other subcommand for the
current session when a connection is open.
cd directory
Change the remote directory to directory. Also alters the shell variable ZFTP_PWD.
cdup Change the remote directory to the one higher in the directory tree. Note that cd .. will
also work correctly on non-UNIX systems.
dir [ args... ]
Give a (verbose) listing of the remote directory. The args are passed directly to the server.
The command's behaviour is implementation dependent, but a UNIX server will typically inter-pret interpret
pret args as arguments to the ls command and with no arguments return the result of `ls -l'.
The directory is listed to standard output.
ls [ args ]
Give a (short) listing of the remote directory. With no args, produces a raw list of the
files in the directory, one per line. Otherwise, up to vagaries of the server implementation,
behaves similar to dir.
type [ type ]
Change the type for the transfer to type, or print the current type if type is absent. The
allowed values are `A' (ASCII), `I' (Image, i.e. binary), or `B' (a synonym for `I').
The FTP default for a transfer is ASCII. However, if zftp finds that the remote host is a
UNIX machine with 8-bit byes, it will automatically switch to using binary for file transfers
upon open. This can subsequently be overridden.
The transfer type is only passed to the remote host when a data connection is established;
this command involves no network overhead.
ascii The same as type A.
binary The same as type I.
mode [ S | B ]
Set the mode type to stream (S) or block (B). Stream mode is the default; block mode is not
widely supported.
remote files...
local [ files... ]
Print the size and last modification time of the remote or local files. If there is more than
one item on the list, the name of the file is printed first. The first number is the file
size, the second is the last modification time of the file in the format CCYYMMDDhhmmSS con-sisting consisting
sisting of year, month, date, hour, minutes and seconds in GMT. Note that this format,
including the length, is guaranteed, so that time strings can be directly compared via the [[
builtin's < and > operators, even if they are too long to be represented as integers.
Not all servers support the commands for retrieving this information. In that case, the
remote command will print nothing and return status 2, compared with status 1 for a file not
found.
The local command (but not remote) may be used with no arguments, in which case the informa-tion information
tion comes from examining file descriptor zero. This is the same file as seen by a put com-mand command
mand with no further redirection.
get file [...]
Retrieve all files from the server, concatenating them and sending them to standard output.
put file [...]
For each file, read a file from standard input and send that to the remote host with the given
name.
append file [...]
As put, but if the remote file already exists, data is appended to it instead of overwriting
it.
getat file point
putat file point
appendat file point
Versions of get, put and append which will start the transfer at the given point in the remote
file. This is useful for appending to an incomplete local file. However, note that this
ability is not universally supported by servers (and is not quite the behaviour specified by
the standard).
delete file [...]
Delete the list of files on the server.
mkdir directory
Create a new directory directory on the server.
rmdir directory
Delete the directory directory on the server.
rename old-name new-name
Rename file old-name to new-name on the server.
site args...
Send a host-specific command to the server. You will probably only need this if instructed by
the server to use it.
quote args...
Send the raw FTP command sequence to the server. You should be familiar with the FTP command
set as defined in RFC959 before doing this. Useful commands may include STAT and HELP. Note
also the mechanism for returning messages as described for the variable ZFTP_VERBOSE below, in
particular that all messages from the control connection are sent to standard error.
close
quit Close the current data connection. This unsets the shell parameters ZFTP_HOST, ZFTP_PORT,
ZFTP_IP, ZFTP_SYSTEM, ZFTP_USER, ZFTP_ACCOUNT, ZFTP_PWD, ZFTP_TYPE and ZFTP_MODE.
session [ sessname ]
Allows multiple FTP sessions to be used at once. The name of the session is an arbitrary
string of characters; the default session is called `default'. If this command is called
without an argument, it will list all the current sessions; with an argument, it will either
switch to the existing session called sessname, or create a new session of that name.
Each session remembers the status of the connection, the set of connection-specific shell
parameters (the same set as are unset when a connection closes, as given in the description of
close), and any user parameters specified with the params subcommand. Changing to a previous
session restores those values; changing to a new session initialises them in the same way as
if zftp had just been loaded. The name of the current session is given by the parameter
ZFTP_SESSION.
rmsession [ sessname ]
Delete a session; if a name is not given, the current session is deleted. If the current ses-sion session
sion is deleted, the earliest existing session becomes the new current session, otherwise the
current session is not changed. If the session being deleted is the only one, a new session
called `default' is created and becomes the current session; note that this is a new session
even if the session being deleted is also called `default'. It is recommended that sessions
not be deleted while background commands which use zftp are still active.
Parameters
The following shell parameters are used by zftp. Currently none of them are special.
ZFTP_TMOUT
Integer. The time in seconds to wait for a network operation to complete before returning an
error. If this is not set when the module is loaded, it will be given the default value 60.
A value of zero turns off timeouts. If a timeout occurs on the control connection it will be
closed. Use a larger value if this occurs too frequently.
ZFTP_IP
Readonly. The IP address of the current connection in dot notation.
ZFTP_HOST
Readonly. The hostname of the current remote server. If the host was opened as an IP number,
ZFTP_HOST contains that instead; this saves the overhead for a name lookup, as IP numbers are
most commonly used when a nameserver is unavailable.
ZFTP_PORT
Readonly. The number of the remote TCP port to which the connection is open (even if the port
was originally specified as a named service). Usually this is the standard FTP port, 21.
In the unlikely event that your system does not have the appropriate conversion functions,
this appears in network byte order. If your system is little-endian, the port then consists
of two swapped bytes and the standard port will be reported as 5376. In that case, numeric
ports passed to zftp open will also need to be in this format.
ZFTP_SYSTEM
Readonly. The system type string returned by the server in response to an FTP SYST request.
The most interesting case is a string beginning "UNIX Type: L8", which ensures maximum compat-ibility compatibility
ibility with a local UNIX host.
ZFTP_TYPE
Readonly. The type to be used for data transfers , either `A' or `I'. Use the type subcom-mand subcommand
mand to change this.
ZFTP_USER
Readonly. The username currently logged in, if any.
ZFTP_ACCOUNT
Readonly. The account name of the current user, if any. Most servers do not require an
account name.
ZFTP_PWD
Readonly. The current directory on the server.
ZFTP_CODE
Readonly. The three digit code of the last FTP reply from the server as a string. This can
still be read after the connection is closed, and is not changed when the current session
changes.
ZFTP_REPLY
Readonly. The last line of the last reply sent by the server. This can still be read after
the connection is closed, and is not changed when the current session changes.
ZFTP_SESSION
Readonly. The name of the current FTP session; see the description of the session subcommand.
ZFTP_PREFS
A string of preferences for altering aspects of zftp's behaviour. Each preference is a single
character. The following are defined:
P Passive: attempt to make the remote server initiate data transfers. This is slightly
more efficient than sendport mode. If the letter S occurs later in the string, zftp
will use sendport mode if passive mode is not available.
S Sendport: initiate transfers by the FTP PORT command. If this occurs before any P in
the string, passive mode will never be attempted.
D Dumb: use only the bare minimum of FTP commands. This prevents the variables
ZFTP_SYSTEM and ZFTP_PWD from being set, and will mean all connections default to ASCII
type. It may prevent ZFTP_SIZE from being set during a transfer if the server does not
send it anyway (many servers do).
If ZFTP_PREFS is not set when zftp is loaded, it will be set to a default of `PS', i.e. use
passive mode if available, otherwise fall back to sendport mode.
ZFTP_VERBOSE
A string of digits between 0 and 5 inclusive, specifying which responses from the server
should be printed. All responses go to standard error. If any of the numbers 1 to 5 appear
in the string, raw responses from the server with reply codes beginning with that digit will
be printed to standard error. The first digit of the three digit reply code is defined by
RFC959 to correspond to:
1. A positive preliminary reply.
2. A positive completion reply.
3. A positive intermediate reply.
4. A transient negative completion reply.
5. A permanent negative completion reply.
It should be noted that, for unknown reasons, the reply `Service not available', which forces
termination of a connection, is classified as 421, i.e. `transient negative', an interesting
interpretation of the word `transient'.
The code 0 is special: it indicates that all but the last line of multiline replies read from
the server will be printed to standard error in a processed format. By convention, servers
use this mechanism for sending information for the user to read. The appropriate reply code,
if it matches the same response, takes priority.
If ZFTP_VERBOSE is not set when zftp is loaded, it will be set to the default value 450, i.e.,
messages destined for the user and all errors will be printed. A null string is valid and
specifies that no messages should be printed.
Functions
zftp_chpwd
If this function is set by the user, it is called every time the directory changes on the
server, including when a user is logged in, or when a connection is closed. In the last case,
$ZFTP_PWD will be unset; otherwise it will reflect the new directory.
zftp_progress
If this function is set by the user, it will be called during a get, put or append operation
each time sufficient data has been received from the host. During a get, the data is sent to
standard output, so it is vital that this function should write to standard error or directly
to the terminal, not to standard output.
When it is called with a transfer in progress, the following additional shell parameters are
set:
ZFTP_FILE
The name of the remote file being transferred from or to.
ZFTP_TRANSFER
A G for a get operation and a P for a put operation.
ZFTP_SIZE
The total size of the complete file being transferred: the same as the first value pro-vided provided
vided by the remote and local subcommands for a particular file. If the server cannot
supply this value for a remote file being retrieved, it will not be set. If input is
from a pipe the value may be incorrect and correspond simply to a full pipe buffer.
ZFTP_COUNT
The amount of data so far transferred; a number between zero and $ZFTP_SIZE, if that is
set. This number is always available.
The function is initially called with ZFTP_TRANSFER set appropriately and ZFTP_COUNT set to
zero. After the transfer is finished, the function will be called one more time with
ZFTP_TRANSFER set to GF or PF, in case it wishes to tidy up. It is otherwise never called
twice with the same value of ZFTP_COUNT.
Sometimes the progress meter may cause disruption. It is up to the user to decide whether the
function should be defined and to use unfunction when necessary.
Problems
A connection may not be opened in the left hand side of a pipe as this occurs in a subshell and the
file information is not updated in the main shell. In the case of type or mode changes or closing
the connection in a subshell, the information is returned but variables are not updated until the
next call to zftp. Other status changes in subshells will not be reflected by changes to the vari-ables variables
ables (but should be otherwise harmless).
Deleting sessions while a zftp command is active in the background can have unexpected effects, even
if it does not use the session being deleted. This is because all shell subprocesses share informa-tion information
tion on the state of all connections, and deleting a session changes the ordering of that informa-tion. information.
tion.
On some operating systems, the control connection is not valid after a fork(), so that operations in
subshells, on the left hand side of a pipeline, or in the background are not possible, as they should
be. This is presumably a bug in the operating system.
THE ZSH/ZLE MODULE
The zsh/zle module contains the Zsh Line Editor. See zshzle(1).
THE ZSH/ZLEPARAMETER MODULE
The zsh/zleparameter module defines two special parameters that can be used to access internal infor-mation information
mation of the Zsh Line Editor (see zshzle(1)).
keymaps
This array contains the names of the keymaps currently defined.
widgets
This associative array contains one entry per widget defined. The name of the widget is the
key and the value gives information about the widget. It is either the string `builtin' for
builtin widgets, a string of the form `user:name' for user-defined widgets, where name is the
name of the shell function implementing the widget, or it is a string of the form `comple-tion:type:name', `completion:type:name',
tion:type:name', for completion widgets. In the last case type is the name of the builtin wid-gets widgets
gets the completion widget imitates in its behavior and name is the name of the shell function
implementing the completion widget.
THE ZSH/ZPROF MODULE
When loaded, the zsh/zprof causes shell functions to be profiled. The profiling results can be
obtained with the zprof builtin command made available by this module. There is no way to turn pro-filing profiling
filing off other than unloading the module.
zprof [ -c ]
Without the -c option, zprof lists profiling results to standard output. The format is compa-rable comparable
rable to that of commands like gprof.
At the top there is a summary listing all functions that were called at least once. This sum-mary summary
mary is sorted in decreasing order of the amount of time spent in each. The lines contain the
number of the function in order, which is used in other parts of the list in suffixes of the
form `[num]'.RE, then the number of calls made to the function. The next three columns list
the time in milliseconds spent in the function and its descendents, the average time in mil-liseconds milliseconds
liseconds spent in the function and its descendents per call and the percentage of time spent
in all shell functions used in this function and its descendents. The following three columns
give the same information, but counting only the time spent in the function itself. The final
column shows the name of the function.
After the summary, detailed information about every function that was invoked is listed,
sorted in decreasing order of the amount of time spent in each function and its descendents.
Each of these entries consists of descriptions for the functions that called the function
described, the function itself, and the functions that were called from it. The description
for the function itself has the same format as in the summary (and shows the same informa-tion). information).
tion). The other lines don't show the number of the function at the beginning and have their
function named indented to make it easier to distinguish the line showing the function
described in the section from the surrounding lines.
The information shown in this case is almost the same as in the summary, but only refers to
the call hierarchy being displayed. For example, for a calling function the column showing
the total running time lists the time spent in the described function and its descendents only
for the times when it was called from that particular calling function. Likewise, for a
called function, this columns lists the total time spent in the called function and its
descendents only for the times when it was called from the function described.
Also in this case, the column showing the number of calls to a function also shows a slash and
then the total number of invocations made to the called function.
As long as the zsh/zprof module is loaded, profiling will be done and multiple invocations of
the zprof builtin command will show the times and numbers of calls since the module was
loaded. With the -c option, the zprof builtin command will reset its internal counters and
will not show the listing. )
THE ZSH/ZPTY MODULE
The zsh/zpty module offers one builtin:
zpty [ -e ] [ -b ] name [ arg ... ]
The arguments following name are concatenated with spaces between, then executed as a command,
as if passed to the eval builtin. The command runs under a newly assigned pseudo-terminal;
this is useful for running commands non-interactively which expect an interactive environment.
The name is not part of the command, but is used to refer to this command in later calls to
zpty.
With the -e option, the pseudo-terminal is set up so that input characters are echoed.
With the -b option, input to and output from the pseudo-terminal are made non-blocking.
zpty -d [ names ... ]
The second form, with the -d option, is used to delete commands previously started, by supply-ing supplying
ing a list of their names. If no names are given, all commands are deleted. Deleting a com-mand command
mand causes the HUP signal to be sent to the corresponding process.
zpty -w [ -n ] name [ strings ... ]
The -w option can be used to send the to command name the given strings as input (separated by
spaces). If the -n option is not given, a newline is added at the end.
If no strings are provided, the standard input is copied to the pseudo-terminal; this may stop
before copying the full input if the pseudo-terminal is non-blocking.
Note that the command under the pseudo-terminal sees this input as if it were typed, so beware
when sending special tty driver characters such as word-erase, line-kill, and end-of-file.
zpty -r [ -t ] name [ param [ pattern ] ]
The -r option can be used to read the output of the command name. With only a name argument,
the output read is copied to the standard output. Unless the pseudo-terminal is non-blocking,
copying continues until the command under the pseudo-terminal exits; when non-blocking, only
as much output as is immediately available is copied. The return status is zero if any output
is copied.
When also given a param argument, at most one line is read and stored in the parameter named
param. Less than a full line may be read if the pseudo-terminal is non-blocking. The return
status is zero if at least one character is stored in param.
If a pattern is given as well, output is read until the whole string read matches the pattern,
even in the non-blocking case. The return status is zero if the string read matches the pat-tern, pattern,
tern, or if the command has exited but at least one character could still be read. As of this
writing, a maximum of one megabyte of output can be consumed this way; if a full megabyte is
read without matching the pattern, the return status is non-zero.
In all cases, the return status is non-zero if nothing could be read, and is 2 if this is
because the command has finished.
If the -r option is combined with the -t option, zpty tests whether output is available before
trying to read. If no output is available, zpty immediately returns the status 1.
zpty -t name
The -t option without the -r option can be used to test whether the command name is still run-ning. running.
ning. It returns a zero status if the command is running and a non-zero value otherwise.
zpty [ -L ]
The last form, without any arguments, is used to list the commands currently defined. If the
-L option is given, this is done in the form of calls to the zpty builtin.
THE ZSH/ZSELECT MODULE
The zsh/zselect module makes available one builtin command:
zselect [ -rwe -t timeout -a array ] [ fd ... ]
The zselect builtin is a front-end to the `select' system call, which blocks until a file
descriptor is ready for reading or writing, or has an error condition, with an optional time-out. timeout.
out. If this is not available on your system, the command prints an error message and returns
status 2 (normal errors return status 1). For more information, see your systems documenta-tion documentation
tion for select(3). Note there is no connection with the shell builtin of the same name.
Arguments and options may be intermingled in any order. Non-option arguments are file
descriptors, which must be decimal integers. By default, file descriptors are to be tested
for reading, i.e. zselect will return when data is available to be read from the file descrip-tor, descriptor,
tor, or more precisely, when a read operation from the file descriptor will not block. After
a -r, -w and -e, the given file descriptors are to be tested for reading, writing, or error
conditions. These options and an arbitrary list of file descriptors may be given in any
order.
(The presence of an `error condition' is not well defined in the documentation for many imple-mentations implementations
mentations of the select system call. According to recent versions of the POSIX specifica-tion, specification,
tion, it is really an exception condition, of which the only standard example is out-of-band
data received on a socket. So zsh users are unlikely to find the -e option useful.)
The option `-t timeout' specifies a timeout in hundredths of a second. This may be zero, in
which case the file descriptors will simply be polled and zselect will return immediately. It
is possible to call zselect with no file descriptors and a non-zero timeout for use as a
finer-grained replacement for `sleep'; not, however, the return status is always 1 for a time-out. timeout.
out.
The option `-a array' indicates that array should be set to indicate the file descriptor(s)
which are ready. If the option is not given, the array reply will be used for this purpose.
The array will contain a string similar to the arguments for zselect. For example,
zselect -t 0 -r 0 -w 1
might return immediately with status 0 and $reply containing `-r 0 -w 1' to show that both
file descriptors are ready for the requested operations.
The option `-A assoc' indicates that the associative array assoc should be set to indicate the
file descriptor(s( which are ready. This option overrides the option -a, nor will reply be
modified. The keys of assoc are the file descriptors, and the corresponding values are any of
the characters `rwe' to indicate the condition.
The command returns status 0 if some file descriptors are ready for reading. If the operation
timed out, or a timeout of 0 was given and no file descriptors were ready, or there was an
error, it returns status 1 and the array will not be set (nor modified in any way). If there
was an error in the select operation the appropriate error message is printed.
THE ZSH/ZUTIL MODULE
The zsh/zutil module only adds some builtins:
zstyle [ -L [ pattern [ style ] ] ]
zstyle [ -e | - | -- ] pattern style strings ...
zstyle -d [ pattern [ styles ... ] ]
zstyle -g name [ pattern [ style ] ]
zstyle -abs context style name [ sep ]
zstyle -Tt context style [ strings ...]
zstyle -m context style pattern
This builtin command is used to define and lookup styles. Styles are pairs of names and val-ues, values,
ues, where the values consist of any number of strings. They are stored together with pat-terns patterns
terns and lookup is done by giving a string, called the `context', which is compared to the
patterns. The definition stored for the first matching pattern will be returned.
For ordering of comparisons, patterns are searched from most specific to least specific, and
patterns that are equally specific keep the order in which they were defined. A pattern is
considered to be more specific than another if it contains more components (substrings sepa-rated separated
rated by colons) or if the patterns for the components are more specific, where simple strings
are considered to be more specific than patterns and complex patterns are considered to be
more specific than the pattern `*'.
The first form (without arguments) lists the definitions in the order zstyle will test them.
If the -L option is given, listing is done in the form of calls to zstyle. The optional first
argument is a pattern which will be matched against the string supplied as the pattern for the
context; note that this means, for example, `zstyle -L ":completion:*"' will match any sup-plied supplied
plied pattern beginning `:completion:', not just ":completion:*": use ":completion:\*" to
match that. The optional second argument limits the output to a specific style (not a pat-tern). pattern).
tern). -L is not compatible with any other options.
The other forms are the following:
zstyle [ - | -- | -e ] pattern style strings ...
Defines the given style for the pattern with the strings as the value. If the -e
option is given, the strings will be concatenated (separated by spaces) and the result-ing resulting
ing string will be evaluated (in the same way as it is done by the eval builtin com-mand) command)
mand) when the style is looked up. In this case the parameter `reply' must be assigned
to set the strings returned after the evaluation. Before evaluating the value, reply
is unset, and if it is still unset after the evaluation, the style is treated as if it
were not set.
zstyle -d [ pattern [ styles ... ] ]
Delete style definitions. Without arguments all definitions are deleted, with a pattern
all definitions for that pattern are deleted and if any styles are given, then only
those styles are deleted for the pattern.
zstyle -g name [ pattern [ style ] ]
Retrieve a style definition. The name is used as the name of an array in which the
results are stored. Without any further arguments, all patterns defined are returned.
With a pattern the styles defined for that pattern are returned and with both a pattern
and a style, the value strings of that combination is returned.
The other forms can be used to look up or test patterns.
zstyle -s context style name [ sep ]
The parameter name is set to the value of the style interpreted as a string. If the
value contains several strings they are concatenated with spaces (or with the sep
string if that is given) between them.
zstyle -b context style name
The value is stored in name as a boolean, i.e. as the string `yes' if the value has
only one string and that string is equal to one of `yes', `true', `on', or `1'. If the
value is any other string or has more than one string, the parameter is set to `no'.
zstyle -a context style name
The value is stored in name as an array. If name is declared as an associative array,
the first, third, etc. strings are used as the keys and the other strings are used as
the values.
zstyle -t context style [ strings ...]
zstyle -T context style [ strings ...]
Test the value of a style, i.e. the -t option only returns a status (sets $?). Without
any strings the return status is zero if the style is defined for at least one matching
pattern, has only one string in its value, and that is equal to one of `true', `yes',
`on' or `1'. If any strings are given the status is zero if and only if at least one of
the strings is equal to at least one of the strings in the value. If the style is not
defined, the status is 2.
The -T option tests the values of the style like -t, but it returns status zero (rather
than 2) if the style is not defined for any matching pattern.
zstyle -m context style pattern
Match a value. Returns status zero if the pattern matches at least one of the strings
in the value.
zformat -f param format specs ...
zformat -a array sep specs ...
This builtin provides two different forms of formatting. The first form is selected with the
-f option. In this case the format string will be modified by replacing sequences starting
with a percent sign in it with strings from the specs. Each spec should be of the form
`char:string' which will cause every appearance of the sequence `%char' in format to be
replaced by the string. The `%' sequence may also contain optional minimum and maximum field
width specifications between the `%' and the `char' in the form `%min.maxc', i.e. the minimum
field width is given first and if the maximum field width is used, it has to be preceded by a
dot. Specifying a minimum field width makes the result be padded with spaces to the right if
the string is shorter than the requested width. Padding to the left can be achieved by giving
a negative minimum field width. If a maximum field width is specified, the string will be
truncated after that many characters. After all `%' sequences for the given specs have been
processed, the resulting string is stored in the parameter param.
The %-escapes also understand ternary expressions in the form used by prompts. The % is fol-lowed followed
lowed by a `(' and then an ordinary format specifier character as described above. There may
be a set of digits either before or after the `('; these specify a test number, which defaults
to zero. Negative numbers are also allowed. An arbitrary delimiter character follows the
format specifier, which is followed by a piece of `true' text, the delimiter character again,
a piece of `false' text, and a closing parenthesis. The complete expression (without the dig-its) digits)
its) thus looks like `%(X.text1.text2)', except that the `.' character is arbitrary. The
value given for the format specifier in the char:string expressions is evaluated as a mathe-matical mathematical
matical expression, and compared with the test number. If they are the same, text1 is output,
else text2 is output. A parenthesis may be escaped in text2 as %). Either of text1 or text2
may contain nested %-escapes.
For example:
zformat -f REPLY "The answer is '%3(c.yes.no)'." c:3
outputs "The answer is 'yes'." to REPLY since the value for the format specifier c is 3,
agreeing with the digit argument to the ternary expression.
The second form, using the -a option, can be used for aligning strings. Here, the specs are
of the form `left:right' where `left' and `right' are arbitrary strings. These strings are
modified by replacing the colons by the sep string and padding the left strings with spaces to
the right so that the sep strings in the result (and hence the right strings after them) are
all aligned if the strings are printed below each other. All strings without a colon are left
unchanged and all strings with an empty right string have the trailing colon removed. In both
cases the lengths of the strings are not used to determine how the other strings are to be
aligned. The resulting strings are stored in the array.
zregexparse
This implements some internals of the _regex_arguments function.
zparseopts [ -D ] [ -K ] [ -E ] [ -a array ] [ -A assoc ] specs
This builtin simplifies the parsing of options in positional parameters, i.e. the set of argu-ments arguments
ments given by $*. Each spec describes one option and must be of the form `opt[=array]'. If
an option described by opt is found in the positional parameters it is copied into the array
specified with the -a option; if the optional `=array' is given, it is instead copied into
that array.
Note that it is an error to give any spec without an `=array' unless one of the -a or -A
options is used.
Unless the -E option is given, parsing stops at the first string that isn't described by one
of the specs. Even with -E, parsing always stops at a positional parameter equal to `-' or
`--'.
The opt description must be one of the following. Any of the special characters can appear in
the option name provided it is preceded by a backslash.
name
name+ The name is the name of the option without the leading `-'. To specify a GNU-style
long option, one of the usual two leading `-' must be included in name; for example, a
`--file' option is represented by a name of `-file'.
If a `+' appears after name, the option is appended to array each time it is found in
the positional parameters; without the `+' only the last occurrence of the option is
preserved.
If one of these forms is used, the option takes no argument, so parsing stops if the
next positional parameter does not also begin with `-' (unless the -E option is used).
name:
name:-name:: name:name::
name:: If one or two colons are given, the option takes an argument; with one colon, the argu-ment argument
ment is mandatory and with two colons it is optional. The argument is appended to the
array after the option itself.
An optional argument is put into the same array element as the option name (note that
this makes empty strings as arguments indistinguishable). A mandatory argument is
added as a separate element unless the `:-' form is used, in which case the argument is
put into the same element.
A `+' as described above may appear between the name and the first colon.
The options of zparseopts itself are:
-a array
As described above, this names the default array in which to store the recognised options.
-A assoc
If this is given, the options and their values are also put into an associative array with the
option names as keys and the arguments (if any) as the values.
-D If this option is given, all options found are removed from the positional parameters of the
calling shell or shell function, up to but not including any not described by the specs. This
is similar to using the shift builtin.
-K With this option, the arrays specified with the -a and -A options and with the `=array' forms
are kept unchanged when none of the specs for them is used. This allows assignment of default
values to them before calling zparseopts.
-E This changes the parsing rules to not stop at the first string that isn't described by one of
the specs. It can be used to test for or (if used together with -D) extract options and their
arguments, ignoring all other options and arguments that may be in the positional parameters.
For example,
set -- -a -bx -c y -cz baz -cend
zparseopts a=foo b:=bar c+:=bar
will have the effect of
foo=(-a)
bar=(-b x -c y -c z)
The arguments from `baz' on will not be used.
As an example for the -E option, consider:
set -- -a x -b y -c z arg1 arg2
zparseopts -E -D b:=bar
will have the effect of
bar=(-b y)
set -- -a x -c z arg1 arg2
I.e., the option -b and its arguments are taken from the positional parameters and put into the array
bar.
zsh 4.3.4 April 19, 2006 ZSHMODULES(1)
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