Re: maintaining init files on a [t]csh influenced system

[schaefer@z-code.com (Barton E. Schaefer)]

On Sep 6, 10:16am, Toshi Isogai wrote:
} Subject: Re: maintaining init files on a [t]csh influenced system
}
} On Wed, 6 Sep 1995, Andrew Eskilsson wrote:
} 
} > Are there any possibilities to let zsh run the global [csh] files and
} > incorporate the freshly set variables into the shell?
} 
} I am in the same situation and what I did was setting my login
} shell back to csh and at the end of my .cshrc (or .login) I added
} 
} 	exec zsh

Yup, I do the same thing.  Proper startup of the IRIX 4 desktop is pretty
heavily wired into having csh (or sh) as your login shell.  My .cshrc on
IRIX 4 machines actually looks (in part) like this:

###

# Figure out if this login is from XDM on the console
setenv TTY "`tty`"
if ($?DISPLAY) then
    if ($DISPLAY == :0) then
	if (! $?CONSOLE_LOGIN) then
	    setenv CONSOLE_LOGIN "$TTY"
	endif
    endif
    setenv WINTERM xterm
    setenv XHOST `hostname`
endif
if ($?CONSOLE_LOGIN) then
    if ("$CONSOLE_LOGIN" != "$TTY") then
	unsetenv CONSOLE_LOGIN
    endif
endif

# If this is not the XDM console and is interactive, run zsh
if (! $?CONSOLE_LOGIN && $?prompt) then
    if (! $?SHLVL) then
	exec /usr/local/bin/zsh -l
    else
	exec /usr/local/bin/zsh
    endif
endif

###

On the original question, though -- there are two major syntactic barriers
to getting zsh to parse csh script files:

1.  "set" commands, because they can do any of:
    a.  assign to multiple boolean options in a single command
    b.  mix assignments of option variables with string assignments
    c.  use spaces around the "=" sign in any string assignment

	set noclobber history = 50 nonomatch prompt="`hostname`: "

2.  the "$?variable" syntax for testing whether a variable is set

You can get zsh to parse just about everything else (*) by clever use of
aliases and zsh functions, but I haven't figured out a workaround for
either of the above.

(*) "switch" statements are VERY entertaining, but possible (I think);
    anybody care to guess how?

-- 
Bart Schaefer                     Vice President, Technology, Z-Code Software
schaefer@z-code.com                  Division of NCD Software Corporation
http://www.well.com/www/barts