why doesn't 'source *' work?

why doesn't 'source *' work?

[Timothy J Luoma]

Is there a reason why 'source *' doesn't work?

Is there a setopt I need to configure?

Thanks

TjL

ps -- I'm using zsh-3.1.4, mainly since I'm no longer sure where to get  
current source for zsh and last time I tried it bombed when trying to compile  
for NeXTStep....

Re: why doesn't 'source *' work?

[Bruce Stephens]

Timothy J Luoma <tjlists@bigfoot.com> writes:

> Is there a reason why 'source *' doesn't work?
> 
> Is there a setopt I need to configure?

In what way doesn't it work?

According to the manual:

 . file [ arg ... ]
   Read commands from file and execute them in the current shell
   environment.  If file does not contain a slash, or if PATH_DIRS is
   set, the shell looks in the components of $path to find the
   directory containing file.  Files in the current directory are not
   read unless `.' appears somewhere in $path.

   If any arguments arg are given, they become the positional
   parameters; the old positional parameters are restored when the
   file is done executing.  The exit status is the exit status of the
   last command executed.

source is approximately the same as ".".

I'm guessing you missed the bit about the positional parameters.

If you want to source all the files (giving them no parameters),
you'll need to use a loop:

for i in *
do
   source $i
done

You could wrap this in an autoloaded function, if you wanted.  But not
a shell script, obviously.  (Well, probably not.)

Re: why doesn't 'source *' work?

[Timothy J Luoma]

Replying to message of 10 Apr 1999 23:19:06 +0100
	from Bruce Stephens <bruce@cenderis.demon.co.uk>
	regarding ``Re: why doesn't 'source *' work?''
	
> > Is there a reason why 'source *' doesn't work?

> In what way doesn't it work?

$ cd /Users/tjl/Unix/zsh/source/functions/complex
$ ls
addwhite            df-sort-by-used     oeu
cd                  ej                  pine
cksub               extract-serv        replace-icon
del                 kill                replace-serv
df-sort             lkincds             unimg
df-sort-by-avail    ls-tar              untar
df-sort-by-mount    mv2lbin             verify
df-sort-by-percent  mv2scripts          whois
df-sort-by-size     oaf                 wn-to-rtf
$ which oeu
oeu not found
zsh: exit 1
$ source *
$ which oeu
oeu not found
zsh: exit 1
$ PATH=$PATH:.
$ source *
$ which oeu
oeu not found
zsh: exit 1
$ echo $PATH_DIRS

$

> According to the manual:

> If any arguments arg are given, they become the positional
> parameters; the old positional parameters are restored when the
> file is done executing.  The exit status is the exit status of the
> last command executed.
>
> I'm guessing you missed the bit about the positional parameters.

Or just don't understand what the heck that means.



> If you want to source all the files (giving them no parameters),
> you'll need to use a loop:
>
> for i in *
> do
> source $i
> done

even simpler (and seems to work):

for i in ~/Unix/zsh/source/functions/complex/*; source $i

however I still don't understand why 'source *' doesn't accomplish the same  
thing... perhaps I'm a bit dense.


> You could wrap this in an autoloaded function, if you wanted.  But not
> a shell script, obviously.  (Well, probably not.)

I added

for i in ~/Unix/zsh/source/functions/complex/*; source $i

to my .zshenv... that seems to work.


TjL

Re: why doesn't 'source *' work?

[Bruce Stephens]

Timothy J Luoma <tjlists@bigfoot.com> writes:

> > According to the manual:
> 
> > If any arguments arg are given, they become the positional
> > parameters; the old positional parameters are restored when the
> > file is done executing.  The exit status is the exit status of the
> > last command executed.
> >
> > I'm guessing you missed the bit about the positional parameters.
> 
> Or just don't understand what the heck that means.

If you do "source a b c d e", then the file "a" gets sourced, with the
positional parameters set: $1 gets set to "b", $2 to "c", $3 to "d"
and $4 to "e".

The same kind of behaviour that you get with shell functions and
things.

Re: why doesn't 'source *' work?

[Timothy J Luoma]

Replying to message of 11 Apr 1999 01:22:59 +0100
	from Bruce Stephens <bruce@cenderis.demon.co.uk>
	regarding ``Re: why doesn't 'source *' work?''
	
> If you do "source a b c d e", then the file "a" gets sourced, with the
> positional parameters set: $1 gets set to "b", $2 to "c", $3 to "d"
> and $4 to "e".
>
> The same kind of behaviour that you get with shell functions and
> things.

Ah.... as one of my teacher's used to say:

``Light dawns on marble head.''

Thanks for the explanation, I guess that does make sense.

TjL