From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 10413 invoked from network); 24 May 1999 10:12:30 -0000 Received: from sunsite.auc.dk (130.225.51.30) by ns1.primenet.com.au with SMTP; 24 May 1999 10:12:30 -0000 Received: (qmail 14980 invoked by alias); 24 May 1999 10:11:15 -0000 Mailing-List: contact zsh-announce-help@sunsite.auc.dk; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk X-No-Archive: yes X-Seq: 95 Received: (qmail 14845 invoked from network); 24 May 1999 10:09:57 -0000 Message-Id: <9905240942.AA27494@ibmth.df.unipi.it> To: zsh-announce@sunsite.auc.dk Subject: Z-Shell (zsh) FAQ changes this month Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 11:42:21 +0200 From: Peter Stephenson This file contains general information on how to find out about zsh, (the first part of the FAQ up to item 1.1), then any other items which have changed since last month's posting, then the differences in the text version of the FAQ. If you would like a complete individual copy, email me and I will add you to the list. Changes since issue posted April 1999: *.* Orthography for option names standardised. 1.4 don't change config.h.in, change acconfig.h 1.6 email zefram@zsh.org 2.4 new widget version of tcsh run-fg-editor 3.23 new: describe PROMPT_CR option. 3.7 should have mentioned PRINT_EIGHT_BIT is new in 3.1 5.1 Description of LIST_AMBIGUOUS corrected. 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 1.6; if you want to know what to do with insoluble problems, go to 5.2. Notation: Quotes `like this' are ordinary textual quotation marks. Other uses of quotation marks are input to the shell. Contents: Chapter 1: Introducing zsh and how to install it 1.1. Sources of information 1.2. What is it? 1.3. What is it good at? 1.4. On what machines will it run? (Plus important compilation notes) 1.5. What's the latest version? 1.6. Where do I get it? 1.7. I don't have root access: how do I make zsh my login shell? Chapter 2: How does zsh differ from...? 2.1. sh and ksh? 2.2. csh? 2.3. Why do my csh aliases not work? (Plus other alias pitfalls.) 2.4. tcsh? 2.5. bash? 2.6. Shouldn't zsh be more/less like ksh/(t)csh? Chapter 3: How to get various things to work 3.1. Why does `$var' where `var="foo bar"' not do what I expect? 3.2. In which startup file do I put...? 3.3. What is the difference between `export' and the ALL_EXPORT option? 3.4. How do I turn off spelling correction/globbing for a single command? 3.5. How do I get the meta key to work on my xterm? 3.6. How do I automatically display the directory in my xterm title bar? 3.7. How do I make the completion list use eight bit characters? 3.8. Why do the cursor (arrow) keys not work? 3.9. Why does my terminal act funny in some way? 3.10. Why does zsh not work in an Emacs shell mode any more? 3.11. Why do my autoloaded functions not autoload [the first time]? 3.12. How does base arithmetic work? 3.13. How do I get a newline in my prompt? 3.14. Why does `bindkey ^a command-name' or 'stty intr ^-' do something funny? 3.15. Why can't I bind \C-s and \C-q any more? 3.16. How do I execute command `foo' within function `foo'? 3.17. Why do history substitutions with single bangs do something funny? 3.18. Why does zsh kill off all my background jobs when I logout? 3.19. How do I list all my history entries? 3.20. How does the alternative loop syntax, e.g. `while {...} {...}' work? 3.21. Why is my history not being saved? 3.22. How do I get a variable's value to be evaluated as another variable? 3.23. How do I prevent the prompt overwriting output when there is no newline? Chapter 4: The mysteries of completion 4.1. What is completion? 4.2. What sorts of things can be completed? 4.3. How does zsh deal with ambiguous completions? 4.4. How do I complete in the middle of words / just what's before the cursor? 4.5. How do I get started with programmable completion? 4.6. And if programmable completion isn't good enough? Chapter 5: The future of zsh 5.1. What bugs are currently known and unfixed? (Plus recent important changes) 5.2. Where do I report bugs, get more info / who's working on zsh? 5.3. What's on the wish-list? 5.4. Will zsh have problems in the year 2000? Acknowledgments Copyright --- End of Contents --- Chapter 1: Introducing zsh and how to install it 1.1: Sources of information Information on zsh is available via the World Wide Web. The URL is http://sunsite.auc.dk/zsh/ (note the change of address from the end of April 1998). The server provides this FAQ and much else and is now maintained by Karsten Thygesen and others (mail zsh@sunsite.auc.dk with any related messages). The FAQ is at http://sunsite.auc.dk/zsh/FAQ/ . The site also contains some contributed zsh scripts and functions; we are delighted to add more, or simply links to your own collection. This document was originally written in YODL, allowing it to be converted easily into various other formats. The master source file lives at http://sunsite.auc.dk/zsh/FAQ/zshfaq.yo and the plain text version can be found at http://sunsite.auc.dk/zsh/FAQ/zshfaq.txt . Another useful source of information is the collection of FAQ articles posted frequently to the Usenet news groups comp.unix.questions, comp.unix.shells and comp.answers with answers to general questions about UNIX. The fifth of the seven articles deals with shells, including zsh, with a brief description of differences. There is also a separate FAQ on shell differences and how to change your shell. Usenet FAQs are available via FTP from rtfm.mit.edu and mirrors and also on the World Wide Web; see USA http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/top.html UK http://www.lib.ox.ac.uk/internet/news/faq/comp.unix.shell.html Netherlands http://www.cs.uu.nl/wais/html/na-dir/unix-faq/shell/.html You can also get it via email by emailing mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with, in the body of the message, `send faqs/unix-faq/shell/zsh'. The latest version of this FAQ is also available directly from any of the zsh archive sites listed in question 1.6. There is now a preliminary version of a reference card for zsh 3.0, which you can find (while it's being developed) at http://www.ifh.de/~pws/computing/refcard.ps This is optimised for A4 paper. The LaTeX source is in the same place with the extension .tex. It is not a good place from which to learn zsh for the first time. (As a method of reading the following in Emacs, you can type \M-2 \C-x $ to make all the indented text vanish, then \M-0 \C-x $ when you are on the title you want.) For any more eclectic information, you should contact the mailing list: see question 5.2. --- End of general information, changed items follow in full --- 1.4: On what machines will it run? From version 3.0, zsh uses GNU autoconf as the installation mechanism. This considerably increases flexibility over the old `buildzsh' mechanism. Consequently, zsh should compile and run on any modern version of UNIX, and a great many not-so-modern versions too. The file Etc/MACHINES in the distribution has more details. There are also now separate ports for Windows and OS/2, see `Where do I get it' below. If you need to change something to support a new machine, it would be appreciated if you could add any necessary preprocessor code and alter configure.in and acconfig.h to configure zsh automatically, then send the required context diffs to the list (see question 5.2). Changes based on version 2.5 are very unlikely to be useful. To get it to work, retrieve the source distribution (see question 1.6), un-gzip it, un-tar it and read the INSTALL file in the top directory. Also read the Etc/MACHINES file for up-to-date information on compilation on certain architectures. *Note for users of nawk* (The following information comes from Zoltan Hidvegi): On some systems nawk is broken and produces an incorrect signames.h file. This makes the signals code unusable. This often happens on Ultrix, HP-UX, IRIX (?). Install gawk if you experience such problems. 1.6: Where do I get it? The archive is now run by Andrew Main . The following are known mirrors (kept frequently up to date); the first is the official archive site, currently in Australia. All are available by anonymous FTP. The major sites keep test versions in the 'testing' subdirectory: such up-to-the-minute development versions should only be retrieved if you actually plan to help test the latest version of the shell. The following list also appears on the WWW at http://www.zsh.org . Home site ftp://ftp.zsh.org Australia ftp://ftp.ips.gov.au/mirror/zsh/ Denmark ftp://sunsite.auc.dk/pub/unix/shells/zsh Finland ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/unix/shells/zsh/ France ftp://ftp.cenatls.cena.dgac.fr/pub/shells/zsh/ Germany ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/unix/shells/zsh/ ftp://ftp.gmd.de/packages/zsh/ ftp://ftp.uni-trier.de/pub/unix/shell/zsh/ Hungary ftp://ftp.cs.elte.hu/pub/zsh/ (also http://www.cs.elte.hu/pub/zsh/ ) Israel ftp://ftp.math.technion.ac.il/mirror/ftp.zsh.org/pub/zsh/ http://www.math.technion.ac.il/mirror/ftp.zsh.org/pub/zsh/ Japan ftp://ftp.tohoku.ac.jp/mirror/zsh/ ftp://ftp.nis.co.jp/pub/shells/zsh/ ftp://ftp.win.ne.jp/pub/shell/zsh/ Norway ftp://ftp.uit.no/pub/unix/shells/zsh/ Romania ftp://ftp.roedu.net/pub/mirrors/ftp.zsh.org/pub/zsh/ Slovenia ftp://ftp.siol.net/pub/unix/shells/zsh/ Sweden ftp://ftp.lysator.liu.se/pub/unix/zsh/ UK ftp://ftp.net.lut.ac.uk/zsh/ (also by FSP at port 21) ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/unix/shells/zsh/ USA ftp://ftp.math.gatech.edu/pub/zsh/ ftp://uiarchive.uiuc.edu/pub/packages/shells/zsh/ ftp://ftp.sterling.com/zsh/ ftp://ftp.rge.com/pub/shells/zsh/ The Windows port mentioned above is maintained separately by Amol Deshpande ; please mail Amol directly about any Windows-specific problems. This is quite new, so don't expect it to be perfect. You can get it from: ftp://ftp.blarg.net/users/amol/zsh Likewise the OS/2 port is available from TAMURA Kent at http://cgi.din.or.jp/~tkent/tmp/zsh-3.0.0-os2-a01.zip Starting from mid-October 1997, there is an archive of patches sent to the maintainers' mailing list. Note that these may not all be added to the shell, and some may already have been; you simply have to search for something you might want which is not in the version you have. Also, there may be some prerequisites earlier in the archive. It can be found on the zsh WWW pages (as described in 1.1) at: http://sunsite.auc.dk/zsh/Patches/ 2.4: Similarities with tcsh (The sections on csh apply too, of course.) Certain features have been borrowed from tcsh, including $watch, run-help, $savehist, $histlit, periodic commands etc., extended prompts, sched and which built-ins. Programmable completion was inspired by, but is entirely different to, tcsh's `complete'. (There is a perl script called lete2ctl in the Misc directory of the source distribution to convert `complete' to `compctl' statements.) This list is not definitive: some features have gone in the other direction. If you're missing the editor function run-fg-editor, try something with `bindkey -s' (which binds a string to a keystroke), e.g. bindkey -s '^z' '\eqfg %$EDITOR:t\n' which pushes the current line onto the stack and tries to bring a job with the basename of your editor into the foreground. `bindkey -s' allows limitless possibilities along these lines. You can execute any command in the middle of editing a line in the same way, corresponding to tcsh's `-c' option: bindkey -s '^p' '\eqpwd\n' In both these examples, the `\eq' saves the current input line to be restored after the command runs; a better effect with multiline buffers is achieved if you also have bindkey '\eq' push-input to save the entire buffer. In recent versions of zsh 3.1, you have the following more sophisticated option, run-fg-editor() { zle push-input BUFFER="fg %$EDITOR:t" zle accept-line } zle -N run-fg-editor and can now bind run-fg-editor just like any other editor function. 3.7: How do I make the completion list use eight bit characters? If you are sure your terminal handles this, the easiest way from version 3.1 of the shell is to set the option PRINT_EIGHT_BIT. In principle, this will work automatically if your computer uses the `locale' system and your locale variables are set properly, as zsh understands this. However, it is quite complicated, so if it isn't already set up, trying the option is a lot easier. For 3.0, you are stuck with trying to understand locales, see the setlocale(3) and zshparam(1) manual pages: the simplest possibility may be to set LC_ALL=en_US. For older versions of the shell, there is no easy way out. 3.23: How do I prevent the prompt overwriting output when there is no newline? The problem is, for example, % echo -n foo % and the foo has been overwritten by the prompt %. The answer is simple: put unsetopt promptcr in your .zshrc. The option PROMPT_CR, to print a carriage return before a new prompt, is set by default because a prompt at the right hand side (`$RPROMPT', `$RPS1') will not appear in the right place, and multi-line editing will be confused about the line position, unless the line starts in the left hand column. Apart from PROMPT_CR, you can force this to happen by putting a newline in the prompt (see question 3.13 for that). 5.1: What bugs are currently known and unfixed? (Plus recent important changes) Here are some of the more well-known ones, very roughly in decreasing order of significance. Many of these can also be counted against differences from ksh in question 2.1; note that this applies to the latest beta version and that simple bugs are often fixed quite quickly. There is a file Etc/BUGS in the source distribution with more detail. o `time' is ignored with builtins and can't be used with `{...}'. o `set -x' (`setopt xtrace') still has a few glitches. o Zsh's notion of the current line number (via $LINENO) is sometimes not well handled, particularly when using functions and traps. o In vi mode, `u' can go past the original modification point. o The singlelinezle option has problems with prompts containing escapes. o The `r' command does not work inside `$(...)' or ``...`' expansions. (This is fixed in 3.1.) o `typeset' handling is non-optimal, particularly with regard to flags, and is ksh-incompatible in unpredictable ways. o Nested closures in extended globbing and pattern matching, such as [[ fofo = (fo#)# ]] were not correctly handled, and there were problems with complicated exclusions using `^' or `~'. (These are fixed in version 3.1.3.) Note that a few recent changes introduce incompatibilities (these are not bugs): Changes after zsh 3.0 (3.1.x is still currently in beta): o The options ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT (return to the line you were editing after displaying completion lists) and LIST_AMBIGUOUS (don't do AUTO_LIST if there was an unambiguous prefix that could be inserted, i.e. only list if it is ambiguous what to insert next) are now set by default. This is in response to complaints that too many zsh features are never noticed by many users. To turn them off, just put `unsetopt alwayslastprompt listambiguous' in your .zshrc file. o history-search-{forward,backward} now only find previous lines where the first word is the same as the current one. For example, compp will find lines in the history like `comp -edit emacs', but not `compress file' any more. For this reason, `\M-n' and `\M-p' use history-beginning-search-{forward,backward} which search for a line with the same prefix up to the cursor position. From 3.1.6, there is likely to be a different implementation which makes this closer (though not identical) to the old behaviour. The story for the {up,down}-line-or-search commands is similar. o In vi insert mode, the cursor keys no longer work. The following will bind them: bindkey -M viins '^[[D' vi-backward-char '^[[C' vi-forward-char \ '^[[A' up-line-or-history '^[[B' down-line-or-history (unless your terminal requires `^[O' instead of `^[['). The rationale is that the insert mode and command mode keymaps for keys with prefixes are now separate. Changes since zsh 2.5: o The left hand of an assignment is no longer substituted. Thus, `$1=$2' will not work. You can use something like `eval "$1=\$2"', which should have the identical effect. o Signal traps established with the `trap' builtin are now called with the environment of the caller, as in ksh, instead of as a new function level. Traps established as functions (e.g. `TRAPINT() {...}') work as before. o The NO_CLOBBER option is now -C and PRINT_EXIT_VALUE -1; they used to be the other way around. (Use of names rather than letters is generally recommended.) o `[[' is a reserved word, hence must be separated from other characters by whitespace; `{' and `}' are also reserved words if the IGNORE_BRACES option is set. o The option CSH_JUNKIE_PAREN has been removed: csh-like code now always does what it looks like it does, so `if ( ... ) ...' executes the code in parentheses in a subshell. To make this useful, the syntax expected after an `if', etc., is less strict than in other shells. o `foo=*' does not perform globbing immediately on the right hand side of the assignment; the old behaviour now requires the option GLOB_ASSIGN. (`foo=(*)' is and has always been the consistent way of doing this.) o <> performs redirection of input and output to the specified file. For numeric globs, you now need <->. o The command line qualifiers exec, noglob, command, - are now treated more like builtin commands: previously they were syntactically special. This should make it easier to perform tricks with them (disabling, hiding in parameters, etc.). o The pushd builtin has been rewritten for compatibility with other shells. The old behavour can be achieved with a shell function. o The current version now uses ~'s for directory stack substitution instead of ='s. This is for consistency: all other directory substitution (~user, ~name, ~+, ...) used a tilde, while = caused problems with =program substitution. o The HISTLIT option was broken in various ways and has been removed: the rewritten history mechanism doesn't alter history lines, making the option unnecessary. o History expansion is disabled in single-quoted strings, like other forms of expansion -- hence exclamation marks there should not be backslashed. o The `$HISTCHARS' variable is now `$histchars'. Currently both are tied together for compatibility. o The PROMPT_SUBST option now performs backquote expansion -- hence you should quote these in prompts. (SPROMPT has changed as a result.) o Quoting in prompts has changed: close parentheses inside ternary expressions should be quoted with a %; history is now %!, not !. Backslashes are no longer special. --- End of changed items, diff from previous version follows --- Index: zshfaq.txt =================================================================== RCS file: /pack/anoncvs/zsh/www/FAQ/zshfaq.txt,v retrieving revision 1.13 retrieving revision 1.15 diff -u -r1.13 -r1.15 --- zshfaq.txt 1999/04/23 12:00:30 1.13 +++ zshfaq.txt 1999/05/24 10:07:31 1.15 @@ -1,15 +1,20 @@ Archive-Name: unix-faq/shell/zsh -Last-Modified: 1999/04/23 +Last-Modified: 1999/05/24 Submitted-By: pws@ibmth.df.unipi.it (Peter Stephenson) -Version: $Id: zshfaq.txt,v 1.13 1999/04/23 12:00:30 pws Exp $ +Version: $Id: zshfaq.txt,v 1.15 1999/05/24 10:07:31 pws Exp $ Posting-Frequency: Monthly Copyright: (C) P.W. Stephenson, 1995--1999 (see end of document) -Changes since issue posted March 1999: +Changes since issue posted April 1999: -1.5 Mention 3.0.6 should appear soon -5.1 Update on history-search-backward saga +*.* Orthography for option names standardised. +1.4 don't change config.h.in, change acconfig.h +1.6 email zefram@zsh.org +2.4 new widget version of tcsh run-fg-editor +3.7 should have mentioned PRINT_EIGHT_BIT is new in 3.1 +3.23 new: describe PROMPT_CR option. +5.1 Description of LIST_AMBIGUOUS corrected. This document contains a list of frequently-asked (or otherwise significant) questions concerning the Z-shell, a command interpreter @@ -69,6 +74,7 @@ 3.20. How does the alternative loop syntax, e.g. `while {...} {...}' work? 3.21. Why is my history not being saved? 3.22. How do I get a variable's value to be evaluated as another variable? +3.23. How do I prevent the prompt overwriting output when there is no newline? Chapter 4: The mysteries of completion 4.1. What is completion? @@ -209,7 +215,7 @@ If you need to change something to support a new machine, it would be appreciated if you could add any necessary preprocessor code and - alter configure.in and config.h.in to configure zsh automatically, + alter configure.in and acconfig.h to configure zsh automatically, then send the required context diffs to the list (see question 5.2). Changes based on version 2.5 are very unlikely to be useful. @@ -249,7 +255,7 @@ 1.6: Where do I get it? - The archive is now run by Andrew Main . + The archive is now run by Andrew Main . The following are known mirrors (kept frequently up to date); the first is the official archive site, currently in Australia. All are available by anonymous FTP. The major sites keep test versions in @@ -452,8 +458,8 @@ o * Failure to match a globbing pattern causes an error (use NO_NOMATCH). o * The results of parameter substitutions are treated as plain text: - `foo="*"; print $foo' prints all files in ksh but `*' in zsh. - (GLOB_SUBST has been added to fix this.) + `foo="*"; print $foo' prints all files in ksh but `*' in zsh + (uset GLOB_SUBST). o The backslash in $(echo '\$x') is treated differently: in ksh, it is not stripped, in zsh it is. (The `...` form gives the same in both shells.) @@ -644,7 +650,7 @@ heavy csh alias junkies: 5) Mapping from csh alias "parameter referencing" into zsh function - (assuming shwordsplit and ksharrays are NOT set in zsh): + (assuming SH_WORD_SPLIT and KSH_ARRAYS are NOT set in zsh): csh zsh ===== ========== @@ -723,8 +729,18 @@ bindkey '\eq' push-input - to save the entire buffer. + to save the entire buffer. In recent versions of zsh 3.1, you have + the following more sophisticated option, + run-fg-editor() { + zle push-input + BUFFER="fg %$EDITOR:t" + zle accept-line + } + zle -N run-fg-editor + + and can now bind run-fg-editor just like any other editor function. + 2.5: Similarities with bash The Bourne-Again Shell, bash, is another enhanced Bourne-like shell; @@ -770,8 +786,8 @@ are split into words when passed to a command or used in a `for foo in $var' loop. By default, zsh does not have that behaviour: the - variable remains intact. (This is not a bug! See below.) An option - (SHWORDSPLIT) exists to provide compatibility. + variable remains intact. (This is not a bug! See below.) The option + SH_WORD_SPLIT exists to provide compatibility. For example, defining the function args to show the number of its arguments: @@ -805,7 +821,7 @@ args $array - produces the output `4', regardless of the setting of SHWORDSPLIT. + produces the output `4', regardless of the setting of SH_WORD_SPLIT. Arrays are also much more versatile than single strings. Probably if this mechanism had always been available there would never have been automatic word splitting in scalars, which is a sort of @@ -824,22 +840,22 @@ after which $words is an array with the words of $sentence (note characters special to the shell, such as the `'' in this example, must already be quoted), or, less standard but more reliable, - turning on SHWORDSPLIT for one variable only: + turning on SH_WORD_SPLIT for one variable only: args ${=sentence} always returns 8 with the above definition of `args'. (In older - versions of zsh, ${=foo} toggled SHWORDSPLIT; now it forces it on.) + versions of zsh, ${=foo} toggled SH_WORD_SPLIT; now it forces it on.) Note also the "$@" method of word splitting is always available in zsh functions and scripts (though strictly this does array splitting, not word splitting). This is more portable than the $*, since it - will work regardless of the SHWORDSPLIT setting; the other + will work regardless of the SH_WORD_SPLIT setting; the other difference is that $* removes empty arguments from the array. You can fix the first half of that objection by using ${==*}, - which turns off SHWORDSPLIT for the duration of the expansion. + which turns off SH_WORD_SPLIT for the duration of the expansion. - SHWORDSPLIT is set when zsh is invoked with the names `ksh' or `sh', + SH_WORD_SPLIT is set when zsh is invoked with the names `ksh' or `sh', or (entirely equivalent) when `emulate ksh' or `emulate sh' is in effect. @@ -986,12 +1002,15 @@ 3.7: How do I make the completion list use eight bit characters? - If you are sure your terminal handles this, the easiest way is to - set the option PRINT_EIGHT_BIT. In principle, this will work - automatically if your computer uses the `locale' system and your - locale variables are set properly, as zsh understands this. - However, it is quite complicated, so if it isn't already set up, - trying the option is a lot easier. + If you are sure your terminal handles this, the easiest way from version + 3.1 of the shell is to set the option PRINT_EIGHT_BIT. In principle, + this will work automatically if your computer uses the `locale' system + and your locale variables are set properly, as zsh understands this. + However, it is quite complicated, so if it isn't already set up, trying + the option is a lot easier. For 3.0, you are stuck with trying to + understand locales, see the setlocale(3) and zshparam(1) manual + pages: the simplest possibility may be to set LC_ALL=en_US. For older + versions of the shell, there is no easy way out. 3.8: Why do the cursor (arrow) keys not work? @@ -1115,7 +1134,7 @@ incompatible with the old zsh behaviour which allowed you to redefine the function when you called it. - From version 3.1, there is an option KSHAUTOLOAD to allow full ksh + From version 3.1, there is an option KSH_AUTOLOAD to allow full ksh compatiblity, i.e. the function _must_ be in the second form above. If that is not set, zsh tries to guess which form you are using: if the file contains only a complete definition of the @@ -1354,6 +1373,22 @@ it, this works). So in `${${E}}', the internal `${...}' actually does nothing. +3.23: How do I prevent the prompt overwriting output when there is no newline? + + The problem is, for example, + + % echo -n foo + % + + and the foo has been overwritten by the prompt %. The answer is + simple: put unsetopt promptcr in your .zshrc. The option PROMPT_CR, + to print a carriage return before a new prompt, is set by default because + a prompt at the right hand side (`$RPROMPT', `$RPS1') will not appear + in the right place, and multi-line editing will be confused about the line + position, unless the line starts in the left hand column. Apart from + PROMPT_CR, you can force this to happen by putting a newline in the + prompt (see question 3.13 for that). + Chapter 4: The mysteries of completion Programmable completion using the `compctl' command is one of the most @@ -1459,25 +1494,26 @@ delete the next character and you have to use ESC-\C-D.) This can be changed by the following options, among others: - o with nobeep set, that annoying beep goes away - o with nolistbeep, beeping is only turned off for ambiguous completions - o with autolist set, when the completion is ambiguous you get a + o with NO_BEEP set, that annoying beep goes away + o with NO_LIST_BEEP, beeping is only turned off for ambiguous + completions + o with AUTO_LIST set, when the completion is ambiguous you get a list without having to type \C-D - o with listambigous, this is modified so that nothing is listed if + o with LIST_AMBIGOUS, this is modified so that nothing is listed if there is an unambiguous prefix or suffix to be inserted - o with menucomplete set, one completion is always inserted + o with MENU_COMPLETE set, one completion is always inserted completely, then when you hit TAB it changes to the next, and so on until you get back to where you started - o with automenu, you only get the menu behaviour when you hit TAB + o with AUTO_MENU, you only get the menu behaviour when you hit TAB again on the ambiguous completion. o Finally, although it affects all completion lists, including - those explicitly requested, note also alwayslastprompt, which + those explicitly requested, note also ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT, which causes the cursor to return to the line you were editing after printing the list, provided that is short enough. - Combinations of these are possible; for example, autolist and - automenu together give an intuitive combination. Note that - from version 3.1 listambiguous is set by default; if you use + Combinations of these are possible; for example, AUTO_LIST and + AUTO_MENU together give an intuitive combination. Note that + from version 3.1 LIST_AMBIGUOUS is set by default; if you use autolist, you may well want to `unsetopt listambiguous'. 4.4: How do I complete in the middle of words / just what's before the cursor? @@ -1680,9 +1716,10 @@ o The options ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT (return to the line you were editing after displaying completion lists) and LIST_AMBIGUOUS - (show matching files when there are several) are now set by - default. This is in response to complaints that too many zsh - features are never noticed by many users. To turn them off, + (don't do AUTO_LIST if there was an unambiguous prefix that could be + inserted, i.e. only list if it is ambiguous what to insert next) are + now set by default. This is in response to complaints that too many + zsh features are never noticed by many users. To turn them off, just put `unsetopt alwayslastprompt listambiguous' in your .zshrc file. o history-search-{forward,backward} now only find previous @@ -1717,8 +1754,8 @@ the environment of the caller, as in ksh, instead of as a new function level. Traps established as functions (e.g. `TRAPINT() {...}') work as before. - o The NO_CLOBBER option is now -C and PRINT_EXIT_VALUE -1; they used - to be the other way around. (Use of names rather than letters is + o The NO_CLOBBER option is now -C and PRINT_EXIT_VALUE -1; they + used to be the other way around. (Use of names rather than letters is generally recommended.) o `[[' is a reserved word, hence must be separated from other characters by whitespace; `{' and `}' are also reserved @@ -1744,7 +1781,7 @@ instead of ='s. This is for consistency: all other directory substitution (~user, ~name, ~+, ...) used a tilde, while = caused problems with =program substitution. - o The `HISTLIT' option was broken in various ways and has been removed: + o The HISTLIT option was broken in various ways and has been removed: the rewritten history mechanism doesn't alter history lines, making the option unnecessary. o History expansion is disabled in single-quoted strings, like other