Table of Contents
Archive-Name: unix-faq/shell/zsh
Last-Modified: 1997/01/24
Submitted-By: pws@amtp.liv.ac.uk (Peter Stephenson)
Version: Id: zsh.FAQ,v 2.23 1997/01/24 13:21:16 pws Exp
Frequency: Monthly
Copyright: (C) P.W. Stephenson, 1995, 1996 (see end of
document)
Changes since last issue
This document contains a list of frequently-asked (or
otherwise significant) questions concerning the Z-shell, a
command interpreter for many UNIX systems which is freely
available to anyone with FTP access. Zsh is among the most
powerful freely available Bourne-like shell for interactive use.
If you have never heard of sh, csh or
ksh, then you are probably better off to start by
reading a general introduction to UNIX rather than this document.
If you just want to know how to get your hands on the
latest version, skip to question
A5; if you want to know what to do with insoluble problems, go to Z2).
Notation: Quotes `like this' are ordinary textual quotation marks.
You can also review the mark-up
conventions I (Mark
Borges) have tried to use throughout this FAQ and zsh page.
Section A: Introducing zsh and how to install it
-
-
-
A0) Sources of information
-
A1) What is it?
-
A2) What is it good at?
-
A3) On what machines
will it run? (Plus important compilation notes)
-
A4) What's the latest version?
-
A5) Where do I get it?
-
A6) I don't have root
access: how do I make zsh my login shell?
Section B: How does zsh differ from...?
-
-
-
B1) sh and ksh?
-
B2) csh?
-
B3) Why do my csh
aliases not work? (Plus other alias pitfalls.)
-
B4) tcsh?
-
B5) bash?
-
B6) Shouldn't zsh be
more/less like ksh/(t)csh?
Section C: How to get various things to work
-
-
-
C1) Why does
`
$var
' where var="foo bar"
not
do what I expect?
-
C2) How do I turn off
spelling correction/globbing for an individual
command?
-
C3) How do I get the
meta key to work on my xterm?
-
C4) How do I automatically
display the directory in my xterm title bar?
-
C5) Why does my terminal
act funny in some way?
-
C6) Why do my autoloaded
functions not autoload [the first time]?
-
C7) How does base
arithmetic work?
-
C8) How do I get a
newline in my prompt?
-
C9) Why does
bindkey ^a command-name
or stty intr
^-
do something funny?
-
C10) Why can't I bind
\C-s
and \C-q
any more?
-
C11) How do I execute
command `foo' within function `foo'?
-
C12) Why do history
substitutions with single bangs do something funny?
-
C13) Why does zsh kill
off all my background jobs when I logout?
-
C14) How do I list all
my history entries?
Section D: The mysteries of completion
-
-
-
D1) What is completion?
-
D2) What sorts of things
can be completed?
-
D3) How does zsh deal
with ambiguous completions?
-
D4) How do I get started
with programmable completion?
-
D5) And if programmable
completion isn't good enough?
-
-
-
Z1) What bugs are
currently known and unfixed? (Plus recent important
changes)
-
Z2) Where do I report
bugs, get more info / who's working on zsh?
-
Z3) What's on the
wish-list?