command name '-'

command name '-'

[Daniel]

I have in my ~/bin, which is in PATH, a command named simply '-' [minus]. I
can't seem to have this one executed. Typing - at the prompt and nothing
happens. Also, whence or type yiels exactly nothing. What gives?

I like to have + and - commands for changing volume easily in console, over
ssh, however...

Re: command name '-'

[Eric Cook]

On 02/08/2015 12:48 PM, Daniel wrote:
> I have in my ~/bin, which is in PATH, a command named simply '-' [minus]. I
> can't seem to have this one executed. Typing - at the prompt and nothing
> happens. Also, whence or type yiels exactly nothing. What gives?
>
> I like to have + and - commands for changing volume easily in console, over
> ssh, however...
>
- and -- act as end of options for a lot of builtin commands, including
whence. so you want: whence - -

`-' is a precommand modifier that you can read about in zshbuiltins, but
you can disable it using the `disable'  builtin.
Again using: disable - -

Re: command name '-'

[Daniel]

Ah, I understand. And thanks for the info on disabling it, it's not obvious
from reading under "disable" under SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS in man
zshbuiltins.

Re: command name '-'

[Peter Stephenson]

On Sun, 8 Feb 2015 18:38:22 +0000
Daniel <quite@hack.org> wrote:
> Ah, I understand. And thanks for the info on disabling it, it's not obvious
> from reading under "disable" under SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS in man
> zshbuiltins.

If you mean the problem with quoting the '-', it's generic to builins
(and not just builtins) so it's described at the top of that section.

   All  builtin  commands other than precommand modifiers, even those that
   have no options, can be given the argument  `--'  to  terminate  option
   processing.   This  indicates  that  the following words are non-option
   arguments, but is otherwise ignored.  This is  useful  in  cases  where
   arguments  to  the command may begin with `-'.  For historical reasons,
   most builtin commands also recognize a single `-' in  a  separate  word
   for  this  purpose;  note  that this is less standard and use of `-- is
   recommended.

pws