[PATCH] Misc. FAQ fixups, mostly for nofork substitution

[PATCH] Misc. FAQ fixups, mostly for nofork substitution

[Bart Schaefer]

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On Thu, Feb 15, 2024 at 8:55 PM Lawrence Velázquez <larryv@zsh.org> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Feb 15, 2024, at 8:53 PM, Bart Schaefer wrote:
> > If you want command substitution without word splitting, then in
> > whatever the next version ends up being called you have
> >    ${ command }
> > to do that for you
>
> Hm, I wasn't aware of this detail.  I see it's mentioned in zshexpn(1)
> but don't see anything in the FAQ.  Worth mentioning?

This patch adds some text based on Lawrence's suggestion, and I've
made an effort to normalize uses of e.g. mytt() vs. tt() and similar
formatting.

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diff --git a/Etc/FAQ.yo b/Etc/FAQ.yo
index 7d46e9192..145ef02c9 100644
--- a/Etc/FAQ.yo
+++ b/Etc/FAQ.yo
@@ -101,6 +101,10 @@ Chapter 2:  How does zsh differ from...?
 2.6. Shouldn't zsh be more/less like ksh/(t)csh?
 2.7. What is zsh's support for Unicode/UTF-8?
 2.8. Why does my bash script report an error when I run it under zsh?
+2.9. What is a `namespace' anyway?
+2.10. What about named references?
+2.11. What is zsh's support for non-forking command substitution?
+2.12. Comparisons of forking and non-forking command substitution
 
 Chapter 3:  How to get various things to work
 3.1. Why does `$var' where `var="foo bar"' not do what I expect?
@@ -1029,27 +1033,32 @@ label(211)
   This is for cases where you'd write mytt($(command)) but you don't want
   the overhead or other issues associated with forking a subshell.
   There are 3 variations:
-  enumeration(
-  myeit() Borrowed from mksh
+  itemization(
+  eit() Borrowed from mksh
    verb(
      ${| code }
    )
    Runs code in the current shell context and then substitutes mytt(${REPLY}).
+   The result is not split into words unless the tt(SH_WORD_SPLIT) option
+   is set, for example by mytt(${=${| code }}).
 
-  myeit() An extension to #1
+  eit() An extension to #1
    verb(
      ${|var| code }
    )
-   Runs code in the current shell and then substitutes mytt(${var}).
+   Runs code in the current shell and then substitutes mytt(${var}).  If
+   mytt(${var}) names an array, the result is an array of those elements,
+   but no further splitting is done without tt(SH_WORD_SPLIT).
 
-  myeit() The traditional ksh form, except that the closing mytt(;)
+  eit() The traditional ksh form, except that the closing mytt(;)
    may usually be omitted:
    verb(
      ${ code }
    )
    Runs code in the current shell and substitutes its standard output.
    (this is done with a temporary file ala mytt($(<=( code ))) but
-   without the fork implied by mytt(=(...))).
+   without the fork implied by mytt(=(...))).  The result is not split
+   into words without tt(SH_WORD_SPLIT).
   )
 
   In all three forms mytt(code) behaves myem(similarly) to an anonymous
@@ -1079,31 +1088,34 @@ sect(Comparisons of forking and non-forking command substitution)
   when substituting, whereas mytt(${ command }) and its variants do not.
   The latter is consistent with mytt(${|...}) from mksh but differs from
   bash and ksh, so in emulation modes, newlines are stripped from command
-  output (not from mytt(REPLY) assignments).
+  output (not from tt(REPLY) assignments).
+
+  When not enclosed in double quotes, the expansion of mytt($(command)) is
+  split on tt(IFS) into an array of words.  In contrast, and unlike both
+  bash and ksh, unquoted non-forking substitutions behave like parameter
+  expansions with respect to the tt(SH_WORD_SPLIT) option.
 
   When mytt(command) is myem(not) a builtin, mytt(${ command }) does fork, and
   typically forks the same number of times as mytt($(command)), because in
   the latter case zsh usually optimizes the final fork into an exec.
 
   Redirecting input from files has subtle differences:
-
-  mytt($(<file)) is optimized to read from mytt(file) without forking, but
-  per above it removes trailing newlines.
-
-  mytt(${<file}) is a substitution error.
-
-  mytt(${ <file }) copies mytt(file) using the mytt(NULLCMD) programs, then
-  reads and substitutes the contents of the copy.  Also, this fails if the
-  mytt(CSH_NULLCMD) or mytt(SH_NULLCMD) options are in effect, so it does
-  not work in emulation modes.
-
-  mytt(${|<file}) copies mytt(file) to the standard output using mytt(NULLCMD)
-  but substitutes nothing because there is no assignment to mytt(REPLY).  It
-  fails in emulation modes.
-
+  itemization(
+    it() mytt($(<file)) is optimized to read from mytt(file) without forking,
+    	 but per above it removes trailing newlines.
+    it() mytt(${<file}) is a substitution error.
+    it() mytt(${ <file }) copies mytt(file) using the mytt(NULLCMD) programs,
+    	 then reads and substitutes the contents of the copy.  Also, this
+	 fails if the tt(CSH_NULLCMD) or tt(SH_NULLCMD) options are in effect,
+	 so it does not work in emulation modes.
+    it() mytt(${|<file}) copies mytt(file) to the standard output using
+    	 tt(NULLCMD) but substitutes nothing because there is no assignment
+	 to tt(REPLY).  It also fails in emulation modes.
+    )
   mytt(${|IFS= read -rd '' <file}) is therefore the best solution for files
   that do not contain nul bytes, because it copies the file directly into
-  the local mytt(REPLY) and then substitutes that.
+  the local mytt(REPLY) and then substitutes that.  For very large files,
+  refer to mytt(Functions/Misc/zslurp).
 
 chapter(How to get various things to work)
 
@@ -1979,7 +1991,7 @@ sect(Why is my output duplicated with `tt(foo 2>&1 >foo.out | bar)'?)
   to both files when the redirector appears twice.  What's going on in the
   first example is exactly the same, however the second redirector is
   disguised as a pipe.  So if you want to turn this effect off, you need
-  to unset the option mytt(MULTIOS), or alternatively write the following:
+  to unset the option tt(MULTIOS), or alternatively write the following:
   verb(
     % { print output; print error >&2 } 2>&1 >&- >foo.out | sed 's/error/erratic/'
     erratic