Table of Contents generated with DocToc
- 16 Options
16 Options
16.1 Specifying Options
Options are primarily referred to by name. These names are case
insensitive and underscores are ignored. For example, ‘allexport
’ is
equivalent to ‘A__lleXP_ort
’.
The sense of an option name may be inverted by preceding it with ‘no
’,
so ‘setopt No_Beep
’ is equivalent to ‘unsetopt beep
’. This inversion
can only be done once, so ‘nonobeep
’ is not a synonym for ‘beep
’.
Similarly, ‘tify
’ is not a synonym for ‘nonotify
’ (the inversion of
‘notify
’).
Some options also have one or more single letter names. There are two
sets of single letter options: one used by default, and another used to
emulate sh/ksh (used when the SH_OPTION_LETTERS
option is set). The
single letter options can be used on the shell command line, or with the
set
, setopt
and unsetopt
builtins, as normal Unix options preceded
by ‘-
’.
The sense of the single letter options may be inverted by using ‘+
’
instead of ‘-
’. Some of the single letter option names refer to an
option being off, in which case the inversion of that name refers to the
option being on. For example, ‘+n
’ is the short name of ‘exec
’, and
‘-n
’ is the short name of its inversion, ‘noexec
’.
In strings of single letter options supplied to the shell at startup,
trailing whitespace will be ignored; for example the string ‘-f
’
will be treated just as ‘-f
’, but the string ‘-f i
’ is an error.
This is because many systems which implement the ‘#!
’ mechanism for
calling scripts do not strip trailing whitespace.
16.2 Description of Options
In the following list, options set by default in all emulations are
marked <D>; those set by default only in csh, ksh, sh, or zsh
emulations are marked <C>, <K>, <S>, <Z> as appropriate. When
listing options (by ‘setopt
’, ‘unsetopt
’, ‘set -o
’ or ‘set +o
’),
those turned on by default appear in the list prefixed with ‘no
’.
Hence (unless KSH_OPTION_PRINT
is set), ‘setopt
’ shows all options
whose settings are changed from the default.
16.2.1 Changing Directories
AUTO_CD
(-J
)
If a command is issued that can’t be executed as a normal command, and
the command is the name of a directory, perform the cd
command to that
directory. This option is only applicable if the option SHIN_STDIN
is
set, i.e. if commands are being read from standard input. The option is
designed for interactive use; it is recommended that cd
be used
explicitly in scripts to avoid ambiguity.
AUTO_PUSHD
(-N
)
Make cd
push the old directory onto the directory stack.
CDABLE_VARS
(-T
)
If the argument to a cd
command (or an implied cd
with the AUTO_CD
option set) is not a directory, and does not begin with a slash, try to
expand the expression as if it were preceded by a ‘~
’ (see Filename
Expansion).
CD_SILENT
Never print the working directory after a cd
(whether explicit or
implied with the AUTO_CD
option set). cd
normally prints the working
directory when the argument given to it was -
, a stack entry, or the
name of a directory found under CDPATH
. Note that this is distinct
from pushd
’s stack-printing behaviour, which is controlled by
PUSHD_SILENT
. This option overrides the printing-related effects of
POSIX_CD
.
CHASE_DOTS
When changing to a directory containing a path segment ‘..
’ which
would otherwise be treated as canceling the previous segment in the path
(in other words, ‘foo/..
’ would be removed from the path, or if ‘..
’
is the first part of the path, the last part of the current working
directory would be removed), instead resolve the path to the physical
directory. This option is overridden by CHASE_LINKS
.
For example, suppose /foo/bar
is a link to the directory /alt/rod
.
Without this option set, ‘cd /foo/bar/..
’ changes to /foo
; with it
set, it changes to /alt
. The same applies if the current directory is
/foo/bar
and ‘cd ..
’ is used. Note that all other symbolic links in
the path will also be resolved.
CHASE_LINKS
(-w
)
Resolve symbolic links to their true values when changing directory.
This also has the effect of CHASE_DOTS
, i.e. a ‘..
’ path segment
will be treated as referring to the physical parent, even if the
preceding path segment is a symbolic link.
POSIX_CD
<K> <S>
Modifies the behaviour of cd
, chdir
and pushd
commands to make
them more compatible with the POSIX standard. The behaviour with the
option unset is described in the documentation for the cd
builtin in
Shell Builtin
Commands. If the
option is set, the shell does not test for directories beneath the local
directory (‘.
’) until after all directories in cdpath
have been
tested, and the cd
and chdir
commands do not recognise arguments of
the form ‘{+
|-
}n
’ as directory stack entries.
Also, if the option is set, the conditions under which the shell prints
the new directory after changing to it are modified. It is no longer
restricted to interactive shells (although printing of the directory
stack with pushd
is still limited to interactive shells); and any use
of a component of CDPATH
, including a ‘.
’ but excluding an empty
component that is otherwise treated as ‘.
’, causes the directory to be
printed.
PUSHD_IGNORE_DUPS
Don’t push multiple copies of the same directory onto the directory stack.
PUSHD_MINUS
Exchanges the meanings of ‘+
’ and ‘-
’ when used with a number to
specify a directory in the stack.
PUSHD_SILENT
(-E
)
Do not print the directory stack after pushd
or popd
.
PUSHD_TO_HOME
(-D
)
Have pushd
with no arguments act like ‘pushd $HOME
’.
16.2.2 Completion
ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT
<D>
If unset, key functions that list completions try to return to the last prompt if given a numeric argument. If set these functions try to return to the last prompt if given no numeric argument.
ALWAYS_TO_END
If a completion is performed with the cursor within a word, and a full completion is inserted, the cursor is moved to the end of the word. That is, the cursor is moved to the end of the word if either a single match is inserted or menu completion is performed.
AUTO_LIST
(-9
) <D>
Automatically list choices on an ambiguous completion.
AUTO_MENU
<D>
Automatically use menu completion after the second consecutive request
for completion, for example by pressing the tab key repeatedly. This
option is overridden by MENU_COMPLETE
.
AUTO_NAME_DIRS
Any parameter that is set to the absolute name of a directory
immediately becomes a name for that directory, that will be used by the
‘%~
’ and related prompt sequences, and will be available when
completion is performed on a word starting with ‘~
’. (Otherwise, the
parameter must be used in the form ‘~``param
’ first.)
AUTO_PARAM_KEYS
<D>
If a parameter name was completed and a following character (normally a
space) automatically inserted, and the next character typed is one of
those that have to come directly after the name (like ‘}
’, ‘:
’,
etc.), the automatically added character is deleted, so that the
character typed comes immediately after the parameter name. Completion
in a brace expansion is affected similarly: the added character is a
‘,
’, which will be removed if ‘}
’ is typed next.
AUTO_PARAM_SLASH
<D>
If a parameter is completed whose content is the name of a directory, then add a trailing slash instead of a space.
AUTO_REMOVE_SLASH
<D>
When the last character resulting from a completion is a slash and the next character typed is a word delimiter, a slash, or a character that ends a command (such as a semicolon or an ampersand), remove the slash.
BASH_AUTO_LIST
On an ambiguous completion, automatically list choices when the
completion function is called twice in succession. This takes precedence
over AUTO_LIST
. The setting of LIST_AMBIGUOUS
is respected. If
AUTO_MENU
is set, the menu behaviour will then start with the third
press. Note that this will not work with MENU_COMPLETE
, since repeated
completion calls immediately cycle through the list in that case.
COMPLETE_ALIASES
Prevents aliases on the command line from being internally substituted before completion is attempted. The effect is to make the alias a distinct command for completion purposes.
COMPLETE_IN_WORD
If unset, the cursor is set to the end of the word if completion is started. Otherwise it stays there and completion is done from both ends.
GLOB_COMPLETE
When the current word has a glob pattern, do not insert all the words
resulting from the expansion but generate matches as for completion and
cycle through them like MENU_COMPLETE
. The matches are generated as if
a ‘*
’ was added to the end of the word, or inserted at the cursor when
COMPLETE_IN_WORD
is set. This actually uses pattern matching, not
globbing, so it works not only for files but for any completion, such as
options, user names, etc.
Note that when the pattern matcher is used, matching control (for
example, case-insensitive or anchored matching) cannot be used. This
limitation only applies when the current word contains a pattern; simply
turning on the GLOB_COMPLETE
option does not have this effect.
HASH_LIST_ALL
<D>
Whenever a command completion or spelling correction is attempted, make sure the entire command path is hashed first. This makes the first completion slower but avoids false reports of spelling errors.
LIST_AMBIGUOUS
<D>
This option works when AUTO_LIST
or BASH_AUTO_LIST
is also set. If
there is an unambiguous prefix to insert on the command line, that is
done without a completion list being displayed; in other words,
auto-listing behaviour only takes place when nothing would be inserted.
In the case of BASH_AUTO_LIST
, this means that the list will be
delayed to the third call of the function.
LIST_BEEP
<D>
Beep on an ambiguous completion. More accurately, this forces the
completion widgets to return status 1 on an ambiguous completion, which
causes the shell to beep if the option BEEP
is also set; this may be
modified if completion is called from a user-defined widget.
LIST_PACKED
Try to make the completion list smaller (occupying less lines) by printing the matches in columns with different widths.
LIST_ROWS_FIRST
Lay out the matches in completion lists sorted horizontally, that is, the second match is to the right of the first one, not under it as usual.
LIST_TYPES
(-X
) <D>
When listing files that are possible completions, show the type of each file with a trailing identifying mark.
MENU_COMPLETE
(-Y
)
On an ambiguous completion, instead of listing possibilities or beeping,
insert the first match immediately. Then when completion is requested
again, remove the first match and insert the second match, etc. When
there are no more matches, go back to the first one again.
reverse-menu-complete
may be used to loop through the list in the
other direction. This option overrides AUTO_MENU
.
REC_EXACT
(-S
)
If the string on the command line exactly matches one of the possible completions, it is accepted, even if there is another completion (i.e. that string with something else added) that also matches.
16.2.3 Expansion and Globbing
BAD_PATTERN
(+2
) <C> <Z>
If a pattern for filename generation is badly formed, print an error message. (If this option is unset, the pattern will be left unchanged.)
BARE_GLOB_QUAL
<Z>
In a glob pattern, treat a trailing set of parentheses as a qualifier
list, if it contains no ‘|
’, ‘(
’ or (if special) ‘~
’ characters.
See Filename Generation.
BRACE_CCL
Expand expressions in braces which would not otherwise undergo brace expansion to a lexically ordered list of all the characters. See Brace Expansion.
CASE_GLOB
<D>
Make globbing (filename generation) sensitive to case. Note that other
uses of patterns are always sensitive to case. If the option is unset,
the presence of any character which is special to filename generation
will cause case-insensitive matching. For example, cvs(/)
can match
the directory CVS
owing to the presence of the globbing flag (unless
the option BARE_GLOB_QUAL
is unset).
CASE_MATCH
<D>
Make regular expressions using the zsh/regex
module (including matches
with =~
) sensitive to case.
CSH_NULL_GLOB
<C>
If a pattern for filename generation has no matches, delete the pattern
from the argument list; do not report an error unless all the patterns
in a command have no matches. Overrides NOMATCH
.
EQUALS
<Z>
Perform =
filename expansion. (See Filename
Expansion.)
EXTENDED_GLOB
Treat the ‘#
’, ‘~
’ and ‘^
’ characters as part of patterns for
filename generation, etc. (An initial unquoted ‘~
’ always produces
named directory expansion.)
FORCE_FLOAT
Constants in arithmetic evaluation will be treated as floating point even without the use of a decimal point; the values of integer variables will be converted to floating point when used in arithmetic expressions. Integers in any base will be converted.
GLOB
(+F
, ksh: +f
) <D>
Perform filename generation (globbing). (See Filename Generation.)
GLOB_ASSIGN
<C>
If this option is set, filename generation (globbing) is performed on
the right hand side of scalar parameter assignments of the form
‘name``=``pattern
(e.g. ‘foo=*
’). If the result has more than one
word the parameter will become an array with those words as arguments.
This option is provided for backwards compatibility only: globbing is
always performed on the right hand side of array assignments of the form
‘name``=(``value``)
’ (e.g. ‘foo=(*)
’) and this form is recommended
for clarity; with this option set, it is not possible to predict whether
the result will be an array or a scalar.
GLOB_DOTS
(-4
)
Do not require a leading ‘.
’ in a filename to be matched explicitly.
GLOB_STAR_SHORT
When this option is set and the default zsh-style globbing is in effect,
the pattern ‘**/*
’ can be abbreviated to ‘**
’ and the pattern
‘***/*
’ can be abbreviated to ***
. Hence ‘**.c
’ finds a file
ending in .c
in any subdirectory, and ‘***.c
’ does the same while
also following symbolic links. A /
immediately after the ‘**
’ or
‘***
’ forces the pattern to be treated as the unabbreviated form.
GLOB_SUBST
<C> <K> <S>
Treat any characters resulting from parameter expansion as being eligible for filename expansion and filename generation, and any characters resulting from command substitution as being eligible for filename generation. Braces (and commas in between) do not become eligible for expansion.
HIST_SUBST_PATTERN
Substitutions using the :s
and :&
history modifiers are performed
with pattern matching instead of string matching. This occurs wherever
history modifiers are valid, including glob qualifiers and parameters.
See Modifiers.
IGNORE_BRACES
(-I
) <S>
Do not perform brace expansion. For historical reasons this also
includes the effect of the IGNORE_CLOSE_BRACES
option.
IGNORE_CLOSE_BRACES
When neither this option nor IGNORE_BRACES
is set, a sole close brace
character ‘}
’ is syntactically significant at any point on a command
line. This has the effect that no semicolon or newline is necessary
before the brace terminating a function or current shell construct. When
either option is set, a closing brace is syntactically significant only
in command position. Unlike IGNORE_BRACES
, this option does not
disable brace expansion.
For example, with both options unset a function may be defined in the following fashion:
args() { echo $# }
while if either option is set, this does not work and something equivalent to the following is required:
args() { echo $#; }
KSH_GLOB
<K>
In pattern matching, the interpretation of parentheses is affected by a
preceding ‘@
’, ‘*
’, ‘+
’, ‘?
’ or ‘!
’. See Filename
Generation.
MAGIC_EQUAL_SUBST
All unquoted arguments of the form ‘anything``=``expression
’ appearing
after the command name have filename expansion (that is, where
expression
has a leading ‘~
’ or ‘=
’) performed on expression
as
if it were a parameter assignment. The argument is not otherwise treated
specially; it is passed to the command as a single argument, and not
used as an actual parameter assignment. For example, in echo foo=~/bar:~/rod
, both occurrences of ~
would be replaced. Note that
this happens anyway with typeset
and similar statements.
This option respects the setting of the KSH_TYPESET
option. In other
words, if both options are in effect, arguments looking like assignments
will not undergo word splitting.
MARK_DIRS
(-8
, ksh: -X
)
Append a trailing ‘/
’ to all directory names resulting from filename
generation (globbing).
MULTIBYTE
<D>
Respect multibyte characters when found in strings. When this option is set, strings are examined using the system library to determine how many bytes form a character, depending on the current locale. This affects the way characters are counted in pattern matching, parameter values and various delimiters.
The option is on by default if the shell was compiled with
MULTIBYTE_SUPPORT
; otherwise it is off by default and has no effect if
turned on.
If the option is off a single byte is always treated as a single character. This setting is designed purely for examining strings known to contain raw bytes or other values that may not be characters in the current locale. It is not necessary to unset the option merely because the character set for the current locale does not contain multibyte characters.
The option does not affect the shell’s editor, which always uses the locale to determine multibyte characters. This is because the character set displayed by the terminal emulator is independent of shell settings.
NOMATCH
(+3
) <C> <Z>
If a pattern for filename generation has no matches, print an error,
instead of leaving it unchanged in the argument list. This also applies
to file expansion of an initial ‘~
’ or ‘=
’.
NULL_GLOB
(-G
)
If a pattern for filename generation has no matches, delete the pattern
from the argument list instead of reporting an error. Overrides
NOMATCH
.
NUMERIC_GLOB_SORT
If numeric filenames are matched by a filename generation pattern, sort the filenames numerically rather than lexicographically.
RC_EXPAND_PARAM
(-P
)
Array expansions of the form ‘foo``${``xx``}``bar
’, where the
parameter xx
is set to (``a b c``)
, are substituted with ‘fooabar foobbar foocbar
’ instead of the default ‘fooa b cbar
’. Note that an
empty array will therefore cause all arguments to be removed.
REMATCH_PCRE
If set, regular expression matching with the =~
operator will use
Perl-Compatible Regular Expressions from the PCRE library. (The
zsh/pcre
module must be available.) If not set, regular expressions
will use the extended regexp syntax provided by the system libraries.
SH_GLOB
<K> <S>
Disables the special meaning of ‘(
’, ‘|
’, ‘)
’ and ’<
’ for
globbing the result of parameter and command substitutions, and in some
other places where the shell accepts patterns. If SH_GLOB
is set but
KSH_GLOB
is not, the shell allows the interpretation of subshell
expressions enclosed in parentheses in some cases where there is no
space before the opening parenthesis, e.g. !(true)
is interpreted as
if there were a space after the !
. This option is set by default if
zsh is invoked as sh
or ksh
.
UNSET
(+u
, ksh: +u
) <K> <S> <Z>
Treat unset parameters as if they were empty when substituting, and as if they were zero when reading their values in arithmetic expansion and arithmetic commands. Otherwise they are treated as an error.
WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL
Print a warning message when a global parameter is created in a function
by an assignment or in math context. This often indicates that a
parameter has not been declared local when it should have been.
Parameters explicitly declared global from within a function using
typeset -g
do not cause a warning. Note that there is no warning when
a local parameter is assigned to in a nested function, which may also
indicate an error.
WARN_NESTED_VAR
Print a warning message when an existing parameter from an enclosing
function scope, or global, is set in a function by an assignment or in
math context. Assignment to shell special parameters does not cause a
warning. This is the companion to WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL
as in this case
the warning is only printed when a parameter is not created. Where
possible, use of typeset -g
to set the parameter suppresses the error,
but note that this needs to be used every time the parameter is set. To
restrict the effect of this option to a single function scope, use
‘functions -W
’.
For example, the following code produces a warning for the assignment
inside the function nested
as that overrides the value within
toplevel
toplevel() {
local foo="in fn"
nested
}
nested() {
foo="in nested"
}
setopt warn_nested_var
toplevel
16.2.4 History
APPEND_HISTORY
<D>
If this is set, zsh sessions will append their history list to the
history file, rather than replace it. Thus, multiple parallel zsh
sessions will all have the new entries from their history lists added to
the history file, in the order that they exit. The file will still be
periodically re-written to trim it when the number of lines grows 20%
beyond the value specified by $SAVEHIST
(see also the
HIST_SAVE_BY_COPY
option).
BANG_HIST
(+K
) <C> <Z>
Perform textual history expansion, csh-style, treating the character
‘!
’ specially.
EXTENDED_HISTORY
<C>
Save each command’s beginning timestamp (in seconds since the epoch) and the duration (in seconds) to the history file. The format of this prefixed data is:
‘ : ``<beginning time>``:``<elapsed seconds>``;``<command>
’.
HIST_ALLOW_CLOBBER
Add ‘|
’ to output redirections in the history. This allows history
references to clobber files even when CLOBBER
is unset.
HIST_BEEP
<D>
Beep in ZLE when a widget attempts to access a history entry which isn’t there.
HIST_EXPIRE_DUPS_FIRST
If the internal history needs to be trimmed to add the current command
line, setting this option will cause the oldest history event that has a
duplicate to be lost before losing a unique event from the list. You
should be sure to set the value of HISTSIZE
to a larger number than
SAVEHIST
in order to give you some room for the duplicated events,
otherwise this option will behave just like HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS
once
the history fills up with unique events.
HIST_FCNTL_LOCK
When writing out the history file, by default zsh uses ad-hoc file
locking to avoid known problems with locking on some operating systems.
With this option locking is done by means of the system’s fcntl
call,
where this method is available. On recent operating systems this may
provide better performance, in particular avoiding history corruption
when files are stored on NFS.
HIST_FIND_NO_DUPS
When searching for history entries in the line editor, do not display duplicates of a line previously found, even if the duplicates are not contiguous.
HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS
If a new command line being added to the history list duplicates an older one, the older command is removed from the list (even if it is not the previous event).
HIST_IGNORE_DUPS
(-h
)
Do not enter command lines into the history list if they are duplicates of the previous event.
HIST_IGNORE_SPACE
(-g
)
Remove command lines from the history list when the first character on the line is a space, or when one of the expanded aliases contains a leading space. Only normal aliases (not global or suffix aliases) have this behaviour. Note that the command lingers in the internal history until the next command is entered before it vanishes, allowing you to briefly reuse or edit the line. If you want to make it vanish right away without entering another command, type a space and press return.
HIST_LEX_WORDS
By default, shell history that is read in from files is split into words on all white space. This means that arguments with quoted whitespace are not correctly handled, with the consequence that references to words in history lines that have been read from a file may be inaccurate. When this option is set, words read in from a history file are divided up in a similar fashion to normal shell command line handling. Although this produces more accurately delimited words, if the size of the history file is large this can be slow. Trial and error is necessary to decide.
HIST_NO_FUNCTIONS
Remove function definitions from the history list. Note that the function lingers in the internal history until the next command is entered before it vanishes, allowing you to briefly reuse or edit the definition.
HIST_NO_STORE
Remove the history
(fc -l
) command from the history list when
invoked. Note that the command lingers in the internal history until the
next command is entered before it vanishes, allowing you to briefly
reuse or edit the line.
HIST_REDUCE_BLANKS
Remove superfluous blanks from each command line being added to the history list.
HIST_SAVE_BY_COPY
<D>
When the history file is re-written, we normally write out a copy of the
file named $HISTFILE.new
and then rename it over the old one. However,
if this option is unset, we instead truncate the old history file and
write out the new version in-place. If one of the history-appending
options is enabled, this option only has an effect when the enlarged
history file needs to be re-written to trim it down to size. Disable
this only if you have special needs, as doing so makes it possible to
lose history entries if zsh gets interrupted during the save.
When writing out a copy of the history file, zsh preserves the old file’s permissions and group information, but will refuse to write out a new file if it would change the history file’s owner.
HIST_SAVE_NO_DUPS
When writing out the history file, older commands that duplicate newer ones are omitted.
HIST_VERIFY
Whenever the user enters a line with history expansion, don’t execute the line directly; instead, perform history expansion and reload the line into the editing buffer.
INC_APPEND_HISTORY
This option works like APPEND_HISTORY
except that new history lines
are added to the $HISTFILE
incrementally (as soon as they are
entered), rather than waiting until the shell exits. The file will still
be periodically re-written to trim it when the number of lines grows 20%
beyond the value specified by $SAVEHIST
(see also the
HIST_SAVE_BY_COPY
option).
INC_APPEND_HISTORY_TIME
This option is a variant of INC_APPEND_HISTORY
in which, where
possible, the history entry is written out to the file after the command
is finished, so that the time taken by the command is recorded correctly
in the history file in EXTENDED_HISTORY
format. This means that the
history entry will not be available immediately from other instances of
the shell that are using the same history file.
This option is only useful if INC_APPEND_HISTORY
and SHARE_HISTORY
are turned off. The three options should be considered mutually
exclusive.
SHARE_HISTORY
<K>
This option both imports new commands from the history file, and also
causes your typed commands to be appended to the history file (the
latter is like specifying INC_APPEND_HISTORY
, which should be turned
off if this option is in effect). The history lines are also output with
timestamps ala EXTENDED_HISTORY
(which makes it easier to find the
spot where we left off reading the file after it gets re-written).
By default, history movement commands visit the imported lines as well as the local lines, but you can toggle this on and off with the set-local-history zle binding. It is also possible to create a zle widget that will make some commands ignore imported commands, and some include them.
If you find that you want more control over when commands get imported,
you may wish to turn SHARE_HISTORY
off, INC_APPEND_HISTORY
or
INC_APPEND_HISTORY_TIME
(see above) on, and then manually import
commands whenever you need them using ‘fc -RI
’.
16.2.5 Initialisation
ALL_EXPORT
(-a
, ksh: -a
)
All parameters subsequently defined are automatically exported.
GLOBAL_EXPORT
<Z>
If this option is set, passing the -x
flag to the builtins declare
,
float
, integer
, readonly
and typeset
(but not local
) will also
set the -g
flag; hence parameters exported to the environment will not
be made local to the enclosing function, unless they were already or the
flag +g
is given explicitly. If the option is unset, exported
parameters will be made local in just the same way as any other
parameter.
This option is set by default for backward compatibility; it is not
recommended that its behaviour be relied upon. Note that the builtin
export
always sets both the -x
and -g
flags, and hence its effect
extends beyond the scope of the enclosing function; this is the
GLOBAL_RCS
(-d
) <D>
If this option is unset, the startup files /etc/zprofile
,
/etc/zshrc
, /etc/zlogin
and /etc/zlogout
will not be run. It can
be disabled and re-enabled at any time, including inside local startup
files (.zshrc
, etc.).
RCS
(+f
) <D>
After /etc/zshenv
is sourced on startup, source the .zshenv
,
/etc/zprofile
, .zprofile
, /etc/zshrc
, .zshrc
, /etc/zlogin
,
.zlogin
, and .zlogout
files, as described in
Files. If this option is unset, the /etc/zshenv
file is still sourced, but any of the others will not be; it can be set
at any time to prevent the remaining startup files after the currently
executing one from being sourced.
16.2.6 Input/Output
ALIASES
<D>
Expand aliases.
CLOBBER
(+C
, ksh: +C
) <D>
Allows ‘>
’ redirection to truncate existing files. Otherwise ‘>!
’ or
‘>|
’ must be used to truncate a file.
If the option is not set, and the option APPEND_CREATE
is also not
set, ‘>>!
’ or ‘>>|
’ must be used to create a file. If either option
is set, ‘>>
’ may be used.
CORRECT
(-0
)
Try to correct the spelling of commands. Note that, when the
HASH_LIST_ALL
option is not set or when some directories in the path
are not readable, this may falsely report spelling errors the first time
some commands are used.
The shell variable CORRECT_IGNORE
may be set to a pattern to match
words that will never be offered as corrections.
CORRECT_ALL
(-O
)
Try to correct the spelling of all arguments in a line.
The shell variable CORRECT_IGNORE_FILE
may be set to a pattern to
match file names that will never be offered as corrections.
DVORAK
Use the Dvorak keyboard instead of the standard qwerty keyboard as a
basis for examining spelling mistakes for the CORRECT
and
CORRECT_ALL
options and the spell-word
editor command.
FLOW_CONTROL
<D>
If this option is unset, output flow control via start/stop characters (usually assigned to ^S/^Q) is disabled in the shell’s editor.
IGNORE_EOF
(-7
)
Do not exit on end-of-file. Require the use of exit
or logout
instead. However, ten consecutive EOFs will cause the shell to exit
anyway, to avoid the shell hanging if its tty goes away.
Also, if this option is set and the Zsh Line Editor is used, widgets implemented by shell functions can be bound to EOF (normally Control-D) without printing the normal warning message. This works only for normal widgets, not for completion widgets.
INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS
(-k
) <K> <S>
Allow comments even in interactive shells.
HASH_CMDS
<D>
Note the location of each command the first time it is executed.
Subsequent invocations of the same command will use the saved location,
avoiding a path search. If this option is unset, no path hashing is done
at all. However, when CORRECT
is set, commands whose names do not
appear in reporting them as spelling errors.
HASH_DIRS
<D>
Whenever a command name is hashed, hash the directory containing it, as
well as all directories that occur earlier in the path. Has no effect if
neither HASH_CMDS
nor CORRECT
is set.
HASH_EXECUTABLES_ONLY
When hashing commands because of HASH_CMDS
, check that the is unset by
default as if the path contains a large number of commands, or consists
of many remote files, the additional tests can take a long time. Trial
and error is needed to show if this option is beneficial.
MAIL_WARNING
(-U
)
Print a warning message if a mail file has been accessed since the shell last checked.
PATH_DIRS
(-Q
)
Perform a path search even on command names with slashes in them. Thus
if ‘/usr/local/bin
’ is in the user’s path, and he or she types
‘X11/xinit
’, the command ‘/usr/local/bin/X11/xinit
’ will be
executed (assuming it exists). Commands explicitly beginning with ‘/
’,
‘./
’ or ‘../
’ are not subject to the path search. This also applies
to the ‘.
’ and source
builtins.
Note that subdirectories of the current directory are always searched
for indicated by this option, and regardless of whether ‘.
’ or the
current directory appear in the command search path.
PATH_SCRIPT
<K> <S>
If this option is not set, a script passed as the first non-option argument to the shell must contain the name of the file to open. If this option is set, and the script does not specify a directory path, the script is looked for first in the current directory, then in the command path. See Invocation.
PRINT_EIGHT_BIT
Print eight bit characters literally in completion lists, etc. This option is not necessary if your system correctly returns the printability of eight bit characters (see man page ctype(3)).
PRINT_EXIT_VALUE
(-1
)
Print the exit value of programs with non-zero exit status. This is only available at the command line in interactive shells.
RC_QUOTES
Allow the character sequence ‘’’
’ to signify a single quote within
singly quoted strings. Note this does not apply in quoted strings using
the format $’``...``’
, where a backslashed single quote can be used.
RM_STAR_SILENT
(-H
) <K> <S>
Do not query the user before executing ‘rm *
’ or ‘rm path/*
’.
RM_STAR_WAIT
If querying the user before executing ‘rm *
’ or ‘rm path/*
’, first
wait ten seconds and ignore anything typed in that time. This avoids the
problem of reflexively answering ‘yes’ to the query when one didn’t
really mean it. The wait and query can always be avoided by expanding
the ‘*
’ in ZLE (with tab).
SHORT_LOOPS
<C> <Z>
Allow the short forms of for
, repeat
, select
, if
, and function
constructs.
SUN_KEYBOARD_HACK
(-L
)
If a line ends with a backquote, and there are an odd number of
backquotes on the line, ignore the trailing backquote. This is useful on
some keyboards where the return key is too small, and the backquote key
lies annoyingly close to it. As an alternative the variable
KEYBOARD_HACK
lets you choose the character to be removed.
16.2.7 Job Control
AUTO_CONTINUE
with the disown
builtin command are automatically sent a CONT
signal
to make them running.
AUTO_RESUME
(-W
)
Treat single word simple commands without redirection as candidates for resumption of an existing job.
BG_NICE
(-6
) <C> <Z>
Run all background jobs at a lower priority. This option is set by default.
CHECK_JOBS
<Z>
Report the status of background and suspended jobs before exiting a
shell with job control; a second attempt to exit the shell will succeed.
NO_CHECK_JOBS
is best used only in combination with NO_HUP
, else
such jobs will be killed automatically.
The check is omitted if the commands run from the previous command line
included a ‘jobs
’ command, since it is assumed the user is aware that
there are background or suspended jobs. A ‘jobs
’ command run from one
of the hook functions defined in the section Special Functions in
Functions is not counted for this purpose.
CHECK_RUNNING_JOBS
<Z>
Check for both running and suspended jobs when CHECK_JOBS
is enabled.
When this option is disabled, zsh checks only for suspended jobs, which
matches the default behavior of bash.
This option has no effect unless CHECK_JOBS
is set.
HUP
<Z>
Send the HUP
signal to running jobs when the shell exits.
LONG_LIST_JOBS
(-R
)
Print job notifications in the long format by default.
MONITOR
(-m
, ksh: -m
)
Allow job control. Set by default in interactive shells.
NOTIFY
(-5
, ksh: -b
) <Z>
Report the status of background jobs immediately, rather than waiting until just before printing a prompt.
POSIX_JOBS
<K> <S>
This option makes job control more compliant with the POSIX standard.
When the option is not set, the MONITOR
option is unset on entry to
subshells, so that job control is no longer active. When the option is
set, the MONITOR
option and job control remain active in the subshell,
but note that the subshell has no access to jobs in the parent shell.
When the option is not set, jobs put in the background or foreground
with bg
or fg
are displayed with the same information that would be
reported by jobs
. When the option is set, only the text is printed.
The output from jobs
itself is not affected by the option.
When the option is not set, job information from the parent shell is
saved for output within a subshell (for example, within a pipeline).
When the option is set, the output of jobs
is empty until a job is
started within the subshell.
In previous versions of the shell, it was necessary to enable
POSIX_JOBS
in order for the builtin command wait
to return the
status of background jobs that had already exited. This is no longer the
case.
16.2.8 Prompting
PROMPT_BANG
<K>
If set, ‘!
’ is treated specially in prompt expansion. See Prompt
Expansion.
PROMPT_CR
(+V
) <D>
Print a carriage return just before printing a prompt in the line editor. This is on by default as multi-line editing is only possible if the editor knows where the start of the line appears.
PROMPT_SP
<D>
Attempt to preserve a partial line (i.e. a line that did not end with a
newline) that would otherwise be covered up by the command prompt due to
the PROMPT_CR
option. This works by outputting some cursor-control
characters, including a series of spaces, that should make the terminal
wrap to the next line when a partial line is present (note that this is
only successful if your terminal has automatic margins, which is
typical).
When a partial line is preserved, by default you will see an
inverse+bold character at the end of the partial line: a ‘%
’ for a
normal user or a ‘#
’ for root. If set, the shell parameter
PROMPT_EOL_MARK
can be used to customize how the end of partial lines
are shown.
NOTE: if the PROMPT_CR
option is not set, enabling this option will
have no effect. This option is on by default.
PROMPT_PERCENT
<C> <Z>
If set, ‘%
’ is treated specially in prompt expansion. See Prompt
Expansion.
PROMPT_SUBST
<K> <S>
If set, parameter expansion, command substitution and arithmetic expansion are performed in prompts. Substitutions within prompts do not affect the command status.
TRANSIENT_RPROMPT
Remove any right prompt from display when accepting a command line. This may be useful with terminals with other cut/paste methods.
16.2.9 Scripts and Functions
ALIAS_FUNC_DEF
<S>
By default, zsh does not allow the definition of functions using the
‘name
()
’ syntax if name
was expanded as an alias: this causes
an error. This is usually the desired behaviour, as otherwise the
combination of an alias and a function based on the same definition can
easily cause problems.
When this option is set, aliases can be used for defining functions.
For example, consider the following definitions as they might occur in a startup file.
alias foo=bar
foo() {
print This probably does not do what you expect.
}
Here, foo
is expanded as an alias to bar
before the ()
is
encountered, so the function defined would be named bar
. By default
this is instead an error in native mode. Note that quoting any part of
the function name, or using the keyword function
, avoids the problem,
so is recommended when the function name can also be an alias.
C_BASES
Output hexadecimal numbers in the standard C format, for example
‘0xFF
’ instead of the usual ‘16#FF
’. If the option
OCTAL_ZEROES
is also set (it is not by default), octal numbers will be
treated similarly and hence appear as ‘077
’ instead of ‘8#77
’. This
option has no effect on the choice of the output base, nor on the output
of bases other than hexadecimal and octal. Note that these formats will
be understood on input irrespective of the setting of C_BASES
.
C_PRECEDENCES
This alters the precedence of arithmetic operators to be more like C and other programming languages; Arithmetic Evaluation has an explicit list.
DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD
<D>
Run the DEBUG
trap before each command; otherwise it is run after each
command. Setting this option mimics the behaviour of ksh 93; with the
option unset the behaviour is that of ksh 88.
ERR_EXIT
(-e
, ksh: -e
)
If a command has a non-zero exit status, execute the ZERR
trap, if
set, and exit. This is disabled while running initialization scripts.
The behaviour is also disabled inside DEBUG
traps. In this case the
option is handled specially: it is unset on entry to the trap. If the
option DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD
is set, as it is by default, and the option
ERR_EXIT
is found to have been set on exit, then the command for which
the DEBUG
trap is being executed is skipped. The option is restored
after the trap exits.
Non-zero status in a command list containing &&
or ||
is ignored for
commands not at the end of the list. Hence
false && true
does not trigger exit.
Exiting due to ERR_EXIT
has certain interactions with asynchronous
jobs noted in Jobs &
Signals.
ERR_RETURN
If a command has a non-zero exit status, return immediately from the
enclosing function. The logic is similar to that for ERR_EXIT
, except
that an implicit return
statement is executed instead of an exit
.
This will trigger an exit at the outermost level of a non-interactive
script.
Normally this option inherits the behaviour of ERR_EXIT
that code
followed by ‘&&
’ ‘||
’ does not trigger a return. Hence in the
following:
summit || true
no return is forced as the combined effect always has a zero return status.
Note. however, that if summit
in the above example is itself a
function, code inside it is considered separately: it may force a return
from summit
(assuming the option remains set within summit
), but not
from the enclosing context. This behaviour is different from ERR_EXIT
which is unaffected by function scope.
EVAL_LINENO
<Z>
If set, line numbers of expressions evaluated using the builtin eval
are tracked separately of the enclosing environment. This applies both
to the parameter LINENO
and the line number output by the prompt
escape %i
. If the option is set, the prompt escape %N
will output
the string ‘(eval)
’ instead of the script or function name as an
indication. (The two prompt escapes are typically used in the parameter
PS4
to be output when the option XTRACE
is set.) If EVAL_LINENO
is
unset, the line number of the surrounding script or function is retained
during the evaluation.
EXEC
(+n
, ksh: +n
) <D>
Do execute commands. Without this option, commands are read and checked
for syntax errors, but not executed. This option cannot be turned off in
an interactive shell, except when ‘-n
’ is supplied to the shell at
startup.
FUNCTION_ARGZERO
<C> <Z>
When executing a shell function or sourcing a script, set $0
temporarily to the name of the function/script. Note that toggling
FUNCTION_ARGZERO
from on to off (or off to on) does not change the
current value of $0
. Only the state upon entry to the function or
script has an effect. Compare POSIX_ARGZERO
.
LOCAL_LOOPS
When this option is not set, the effect of break
and continue
commands may propagate outside function scope, affecting loops in
calling functions. When the option is set in a calling function, a
break
or a continue
that is not caught within a called function
(regardless of the setting of the option within that function) produces
a warning and the effect is cancelled.
LOCAL_OPTIONS
<K>
If this option is set at the point of return from a shell function, most
options (including this one) which were in force upon entry to the
function are restored; options that are not restored are PRIVILEGED
and RESTRICTED
. Otherwise, only this option, and the LOCAL_LOOPS
,
XTRACE
and PRINT_EXIT_VALUE
options are restored. Hence if this is
explicitly unset by a shell function the other options in force at the
point of return will remain so. A shell function can also guarantee
itself a known shell configuration with a formulation like ‘emulate -L zsh
’; the -L
activates LOCAL_OPTIONS
.
LOCAL_PATTERNS
If this option is set at the point of return from a shell function, the
state of pattern disables, as set with the builtin command ‘disable -p
’, is restored to what it was when the function was entered. The
behaviour of this option is similar to the effect of LOCAL_OPTIONS
on
options; hence ‘emulate -L sh
’ (or indeed any other emulation with the
-L
option) activates LOCAL_PATTERNS
.
LOCAL_TRAPS
<K>
If this option is set when a signal trap is set inside a function, then
the previous status of the trap for that signal will be restored when
the function exits. Note that this option must be set prior to
altering the trap behaviour in a function; unlike LOCAL_OPTIONS
, the
value on exit from the function is irrelevant. However, it does not need
to be set before any global trap for that to be correctly restored by a
function. For example,
unsetopt localtraps
trap - INT
fn() { setopt localtraps; trap '' INT; sleep 3; }
will restore normal handling of SIGINT
after the function exits.
MULTI_FUNC_DEF
<Z>
Allow definitions of multiple functions at once in the form ‘fn1 fn2``...``()
’; if the option is not set, this causes a parse error.
Definition of multiple functions with the function
keyword is always
allowed. Multiple function definitions are not often used and can cause
obscure errors.
MULTIOS
<Z>
Perform implicit tees or cats when multiple redirections are attempted (see Redirection).
OCTAL_ZEROES
<S>
Interpret any integer constant beginning with a 0 as octal, per IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 (ISO 9945-2:1993). This is not enabled by default as it causes problems with parsing of, for example, date and time strings with leading zeroes.
Sequences of digits indicating a numeric base such as the ‘08
’
component in ‘08#77
’ are always interpreted as decimal, regardless of
leading zeroes.
PIPE_FAIL
By default, when a pipeline exits the exit status recorded by the shell
and returned by the shell variable $?
reflects that of the rightmost
element of a pipeline. If this option is set, the exit status instead
reflects the status of the rightmost element of the pipeline that was
non-zero, or zero if all elements exited with zero status.
SOURCE_TRACE
If set, zsh will print an informational message announcing the name of
each file it loads. The format of the output is similar to that for the
XTRACE
option, with the message <sourcetrace>
. A file may be loaded
by the shell itself when it starts up and shuts down (Startup/Shutdown Files
) or by the use of the ‘source
’ and ‘dot
’ builtin commands.
TYPESET_SILENT
If this is unset, executing any of the ‘typeset
’ family of commands
with no options and a list of parameters that have no values to be
assigned but already exist will display the value of the parameter. If
the option is set, they will only be shown when parameters are selected
with the ‘-m
’ option. The option ‘-p
’ is available whether or not
the option is set.
VERBOSE
(-v
, ksh: -v
)
Print shell input lines as they are read.
XTRACE
(-x
, ksh: -x
)
Print commands and their arguments as they are executed. The output is
preceded by the value of $PS4
, formatted as described in Prompt
Expansion.
16.2.10 Shell Emulation
APPEND_CREATE
<K> <S>
This option only applies when NO_CLOBBER
(-C
) is in effect.
If this option is not set, the shell will report an error when a append
redirection (>>
) is used on a file that does not already exists (the
traditional zsh behaviour of NO_CLOBBER
). If the option is set, no
error is reported (POSIX behaviour).
BASH_REMATCH
When set, matches performed with the =~
operator will set the
BASH_REMATCH
array variable, instead of the default MATCH
and
match
variables. The first element of the BASH_REMATCH
array will
contain the entire matched text and subsequent elements will contain
extracted substrings. This option makes more sense when KSH_ARRAYS
is
also set, so that the entire matched portion is stored at index 0 and
the first substring is at index 1. Without this option, the MATCH
variable contains the entire matched text and the match
array variable
contains substrings.
BSD_ECHO
<S>
Make the echo
builtin compatible with the BSD man page echo(1)
command. This disables backslashed escape sequences in echo strings
unless the -e
option is specified.
CONTINUE_ON_ERROR
If a fatal error is encountered (see Errors), and the code is running in a script, the shell will resume execution at the next statement in the script at the top level, in other words outside all functions or shell constructs such as loops and conditions. This mimics the behaviour of interactive shells, where the shell returns to the line editor to read a new command; it was the normal behaviour in versions of zsh before 5.0.1.
CSH_JUNKIE_HISTORY
<C>
A history reference without an event specifier will always refer to the previous command. Without this option, such a history reference refers to the same event as the previous history reference on the current command line, defaulting to the previous command.
CSH_JUNKIE_LOOPS
<C>
Allow loop bodies to take the form ‘list``; end
’ instead of ‘ do ``list``; done
’.
CSH_JUNKIE_QUOTES
<C>
Changes the rules for single- and double-quoted text to match that of
csh. These require that embedded newlines be preceded by a backslash;
unescaped newlines will cause an error message. In double-quoted
strings, it is made impossible to escape ‘$
’, ‘‘
’ or ‘"
’ (and
‘\
’ itself no longer needs escaping). Command substitutions are
only expanded once, and cannot be nested.
CSH_NULLCMD
<C>
Do not use the values of NULLCMD
and READNULLCMD
when running
redirections with no command. This make such redirections fail (see
Redirection).
KSH_ARRAYS
<K> <S>
Emulate ksh array handling as closely as possible. If this option is
set, array elements are numbered from zero, an array parameter without
subscript refers to the first element instead of the whole array, and
braces are required to delimit a subscript (‘${path[2]}
’ rather than
just ‘$path[2]
’) or to apply modifiers to any parameter (‘${PWD:h}
’
rather than ‘$PWD:h
’).
KSH_AUTOLOAD
<K> <S>
Emulate ksh function autoloading. This means that when a function is autoloaded, the corresponding file is merely executed, and must define the function itself. (By default, the function is defined to the contents of the file. However, the most common ksh-style case - of the file containing only a simple definition of the function - is always handled in the ksh-compatible manner.)
KSH_OPTION_PRINT
<K>
Alters the way options settings are printed: instead of separate lists of set and unset options, all options are shown, marked ‘on’ if they are in the non-default state, ‘off’ otherwise.
KSH_TYPESET
This option is now obsolete: a better appropximation to the behaviour of
other shells is obtained with the reserved word interface to declare
,
export
, float
, integer
, local
, readonly
and typeset
. Note
that the option is only applied when the reserved word interface is
not in use.
Alters the way arguments to the typeset
family of commands, including
declare
, export
, float
, integer
, local
and readonly
, are
processed. Without this option, zsh will perform normal word splitting
after command and parameter expansion in arguments of an assignment;
with it, word splitting does not take place in those cases.
KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT
Treat use of a subscript of value zero in array or string expressions as
a reference to the first element, i.e. the element that usually has the
subscript 1. Ignored if KSH_ARRAYS
is also set.
If neither this option nor KSH_ARRAYS
is set, accesses to an element
of an array or string with subscript zero return an empty element or
string, while attempts to set element zero of an array or string are
treated as an error. However, attempts to set an otherwise valid
subscript range that includes zero will succeed. For example, if
KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT
is not set,
array[0]=(element)
is an error, while
array[0,1]=(element)
is not and will replace the first element of the array.
This option is for compatibility with older versions of the shell and is not recommended in new code.
POSIX_ALIASES
<K> <S>
When this option is set, reserved words are not candidates for alias expansion: it is still possible to declare any of them as an alias, but the alias will never be expanded. Reserved words are described in Reserved Words.
Alias expansion takes place while text is being read; hence when this
option is set it does not take effect until the end of any function or
other piece of shell code parsed as one unit. Note this may cause
differences from other shells even when the option is in effect. For
example, when running a command with ‘zsh -c
’, or even ‘zsh -o posixaliases -c
’, the entire command argument is parsed as one unit, so
aliases defined within the argument are not available even in later
lines. If in doubt, avoid use of aliases in non-interactive code.
POSIX_ARGZERO
This option may be used to temporarily disable FUNCTION_ARGZERO
and
thereby restore the value of $0
to the name used to invoke the shell
(or as set by the -c
command line option). For compatibility with
previous versions of the shell, emulations use NO_FUNCTION_ARGZERO
instead of POSIX_ARGZERO
, which may result in unexpected scoping of
$0
if the emulation mode is changed inside a function or script. To
avoid this, explicitly enable POSIX_ARGZERO
in the emulate
command:
emulate sh -o POSIX_ARGZERO
Note that NO_POSIX_ARGZERO
has no effect unless FUNCTION_ARGZERO
was
already enabled upon entry to the function or script.
POSIX_BUILTINS
<K> <S>
When this option is set the command
builtin can be used to execute
shell builtin commands. Parameter assignments specified before shell
functions and special builtins are kept after the command completes
unless the special builtin is prefixed with the command
builtin.
Special builtins are .
, :
, break
, continue
, declare
, eval
,
exit
, export
, integer
, local
, readonly
, return
, set
,
shift
, source
, times
, trap
and unset
.
In addition, various error conditions associated with the above builtins
or exec
cause a non-interactive shell to exit and an interactive shell
to return to its top-level processing.
Furthermore, functions and shell builtins are not executed after an
exec
prefix; the command to be executed must be an external command
found in the path.
Furthermore, the getopts
builtin behaves in a POSIX-compatible fashion
in that the associated variable OPTIND
is not made local to functions.
Moreover, the warning and special exit code from [[ -o ``non_existent_option`` ]]
are suppressed.
POSIX_IDENTIFIERS
<K> <S>
When this option is set, only the ASCII characters a
to z
, A
to
Z
, 0
to 9
and _
may be used in identifiers (names of shell
parameters and modules).
In addition, setting this option limits the effect of parameter
substitution with no braces, so that the expression $#
is treated as
the parameter $#
even if followed by a valid parameter name. When it
is unset, zsh allows expressions of the form $#``name
to refer to the
length of $``name
, even for special variables, for example in
expressions such as $#-
and $#*
.
Another difference is that with the option set assignment to an unset
variable in arithmetic context causes the variable to be created as a
scalar rather than a numeric type. So after ‘unset t; (( t = 3 ))
’.
without POSIX_IDENTIFIERS
set t
has integer type, while with it set
it has scalar type.
When the option is unset and multibyte character support is enabled
(i.e. it is compiled in and the option MULTIBYTE
is set), then
additionally any alphanumeric characters in the local character set may
be used in identifiers. Note that scripts and functions written with
this feature are or function is parsed; setting them during execution is
not sufficient as the syntax variable``=``value
has already been
parsed as a command rather than an assignment.
If multibyte character support is not compiled into the shell this option is ignored; all octets with the top bit set may be used in identifiers. This is non-standard but is the traditional zsh behaviour.
POSIX_STRINGS
<K> <S>
This option affects processing of quoted strings. Currently it only affects the behaviour of null characters, i.e. character 0 in the
When this option is not set, null characters embedded within strings of
the form $’``...``’
are treated as ordinary characters. The entire
string is maintained within the shell and output to files where
necessary, although owing to restrictions of the library interface the
string is truncated at the null character in file names, environment
variables, or in arguments to external programs.
When this option is set, the $’``...``’
expression is truncated at the
null character. Note that remaining parts of the same string beyond the
termination of the quotes are not truncated.
For example, the command line argument a$’b\0c’d
is treated with the
option off as the characters a
, b
, null, c
, d
, and with the
option on as the characters a
, b
, d
.
POSIX_TRAPS
<K> <S>
When this option is set, the usual zsh behaviour of executing traps for
EXIT
on exit from shell functions is suppressed. In that case,
manipulating EXIT
traps always alters the global trap for exiting the
shell; the LOCAL_TRAPS
option is ignored for the EXIT
trap.
Furthermore, a return
statement executed in a trap with no argument
passes back from the function the value from the surrounding context,
not from code executed within the trap.
SH_FILE_EXPANSION
<K> <S>
Perform filename expansion (e.g., ~
expansion) before parameter
expansion, command substitution, arithmetic expansion and brace
expansion. If this option is unset, it is performed after brace
expansion, so things like ‘~$USERNAME
’ and ‘~{pfalstad,rc}
’ will
work.
SH_NULLCMD
<K> <S>
Do not use the values of NULLCMD
and READNULLCMD
when doing
redirections, use ‘:
’ instead (see
Redirection).
SH_OPTION_LETTERS
<K> <S>
If this option is set the shell tries to interpret single letter options
(which are used with set
and setopt
) like ksh does. This also
affects the value of the -
special parameter.
SH_WORD_SPLIT
(-y
) <K> <S>
Causes field splitting to be performed on unquoted parameter expansions. Note that this option has nothing to do with word splitting. (See Parameter Expansion.)
TRAPS_ASYNC
While waiting for a program to exit, handle signals and run traps immediately. Otherwise the trap is run after a child process has exited. Note this does not affect the point at which traps are run for any case other than when the shell is waiting for a child process.
16.2.11 Shell State
INTERACTIVE
(-i
, ksh: -i
)
This is an interactive shell. This option is set upon initialisation if
the standard input is a tty and commands are being read from standard
input. (See the discussion of SHIN_STDIN
.) This heuristic may be
overridden by specifying a state for this option on the command line.
The value of this option can only be changed via flags supplied at
invocation of the shell. It cannot be changed once zsh is running.
LOGIN
(-l
, ksh: -l
)
This is a login shell. If this option is not explicitly set, the shell
becomes a login shell if the first character of the argv[0]
passed to
the shell is a ‘-
’.
PRIVILEGED
(-p
, ksh: -p
)
Turn on privileged mode. Typically this is used when script is to be run
with elevated privileges. This should be done as follows directly with
the -p
option to zsh so that it takes effect during startup.
#!/bin/zsh -p
The option is enabled automatically on startup if the effective user (group) ID is not equal to the real user (group) ID. In this case, turning the option off causes the effective user and group IDs to be set to the real user and group IDs. Be aware that if that fails the shell may be running with different IDs than was intended so a script should check for failure and act accordingly, for example:
unsetopt privileged || exit
The PRIVILEGED
option disables sourcing user startup files. If zsh is
invoked as ‘sh
’ or ‘ksh
’ with this option set, /etc/suid_profile
is sourced (after /etc/profile
on interactive shells). Sourcing
~/.profile
is disabled and the contents of the ENV
variable is
ignored. This option cannot be changed using the -m
option of setopt
and unsetopt
, and changing it inside a function always changes it
globally regardless of the LOCAL_OPTIONS
option.
RESTRICTED
(-r
)
Enables restricted mode. This option cannot be changed using unsetopt
,
and setting it inside a function always changes it globally regardless
of the LOCAL_OPTIONS
option. See Restricted
Shell.
SHIN_STDIN
(-s
, ksh: -s
)
Commands are being read from the standard input. Commands are read from
standard input if no command is specified with -c
and no file of
commands is specified. If SHIN_STDIN
is set explicitly on the command
line, any argument that would otherwise have been taken as a file to run
will instead be treated as a normal positional parameter. Note that
setting or unsetting this option on the command line does not
necessarily affect the state the option will have while the shell is
running - that is purely an indicator of whether or not commands are
actually being read from standard input. The value of this option can
only be changed via flags supplied at invocation of the shell. It cannot
be changed once zsh is running.
SINGLE_COMMAND
(-t
, ksh: -t
)
If the shell is reading from standard input, it exits after a single
command has been executed. This also makes the shell non-interactive,
unless the INTERACTIVE
option is explicitly set on the command line.
The value of this option can only be changed via flags supplied at
invocation of the shell. It cannot be changed once zsh is running.
16.2.12 Zle
BEEP
(+B
) <D>
Beep on error in ZLE.
COMBINING_CHARS
Assume that the terminal displays combining characters correctly. Specifically, if a base alphanumeric character is followed by one or more zero-width punctuation characters, assume that the zero-width characters will be displayed as modifications to the base character within the same width. Not all terminals handle this. If this option is not set, zero-width characters are displayed separately with special mark-up.
If this option is set, the pattern test [[:WORD:]]
matches a
zero-width punctuation character on the assumption that it will be used
as part of a word in combination with a word character. Otherwise the
base shell does not handle combining characters specially.
EMACS
If ZLE is loaded, turning on this option has the equivalent effect of
‘bindkey -e
’. In addition, the VI option is unset. Turning it off
has no effect. The option setting is not guaranteed to reflect the
current keymap. This option is provided for compatibility; bindkey
is
the recommended interface.
OVERSTRIKE
Start up the line editor in overstrike mode.
SINGLE_LINE_ZLE
(-M
) <K>
Use single-line command line editing instead of multi-line.
Note that although this is on by default in ksh emulation it only provides superficial compatibility with the ksh line editor and reduces the effectiveness of the zsh line editor. As it has no effect on shell syntax, many users may wish to disable this option when using ksh emulation interactively.
VI
If ZLE is loaded, turning on this option has the equivalent effect of
‘bindkey -v
’. In addition, the EMACS option is unset. Turning it off
has no effect. The option setting is not guaranteed to reflect the
current keymap. This option is provided for compatibility; bindkey
is
the recommended interface.
ZLE
(-Z
)
Use the zsh line editor. Set by default in interactive shells connected to a terminal.
16.3 Option Aliases
Some options have alternative names. These aliases are never used for output, but can be used just like normal option names when specifying options to the shell.
BRACE_EXPAND
NO_IGNORE_BRACES
(ksh and bash compatibility)
DOT_GLOB
GLOB_DOTS
(bash compatibility)
HASH_ALL
HASH_CMDS
(bash compatibility)
HIST_APPEND
APPEND_HISTORY
(bash compatibility)
HIST_EXPAND
BANG_HIST
(bash compatibility)
LOG
NO_HIST_NO_FUNCTIONS
(ksh compatibility)
MAIL_WARN
MAIL_WARNING
(bash compatibility)
ONE_CMD
SINGLE_COMMAND
(bash compatibility)
PHYSICAL
CHASE_LINKS
(ksh and bash compatibility)
PROMPT_VARS
PROMPT_SUBST
(bash compatibility)
STDIN
SHIN_STDIN
(ksh compatibility)
TRACK_ALL
HASH_CMDS
(ksh compatibility)
16.4 Single Letter Options
16.4.1 Default set
-
-0
CORRECT -
-1
PRINT_EXIT_VALUE -
-2
*NO_*BAD_PATTERN -
-3
*NO_*NOMATCH -
-4
GLOB_DOTS -
-5
NOTIFY -
-6
BG_NICE -
-7
IGNORE_EOF -
-8
MARK_DIRS -
-9
AUTO_LIST -
-B
*NO_*BEEP -
-C
*NO_*CLOBBER -
-D
PUSHD_TO_HOME -
-E
PUSHD_SILENT -
-F
*NO_*GLOB -
-G
NULL_GLOB -
-H
RM_STAR_SILENT -
-I
IGNORE_BRACES -
-J
AUTO_CD -
-K
*NO_*BANG_HIST -
-L
SUN_KEYBOARD_HACK -
-M
SINGLE_LINE_ZLE -
-N
AUTO_PUSHD -
-O
CORRECT_ALL -
-P
RC_EXPAND_PARAM -
-Q
PATH_DIRS -
-R
LONG_LIST_JOBS -
-S
REC_EXACT -
-T
CDABLE_VARS -
-U
MAIL_WARNING -
-V
*NO_*PROMPT_CR -
-W
AUTO_RESUME -
-X
LIST_TYPES -
-Y
MENU_COMPLETE -
-Z
ZLE -
-a
ALL_EXPORT -
-e
ERR_EXIT -
-f
*NO_*RCS -
-g
HIST_IGNORE_SPACE -
-h
HIST_IGNORE_DUPS -
-i
INTERACTIVE -
-k
INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS -
-l
LOGIN -
-m
MONITOR -
-n
*NO_*EXEC -
-p
PRIVILEGED -
-r
RESTRICTED -
-s
SHIN_STDIN -
-t
SINGLE_COMMAND -
-u
*NO_*UNSET -
-v
VERBOSE -
-w
CHASE_LINKS -
-x
XTRACE -
-y
SH_WORD_SPLIT
16.4.2 sh/ksh emulation set
-
-C
*NO_*CLOBBER -
-T
TRAPS_ASYNC -
-X
MARK_DIRS -
-a
ALL_EXPORT -
-b
NOTIFY -
-e
ERR_EXIT -
-f
*NO_*GLOB -
-i
INTERACTIVE -
-l
LOGIN -
-m
MONITOR -
-n
*NO_*EXEC -
-p
PRIVILEGED -
-r
RESTRICTED -
-s
SHIN_STDIN -
-t
SINGLE_COMMAND -
-u
*NO_*UNSET -
-v
VERBOSE -
-x
XTRACE
16.4.3 Also note
-
-A
Used byset
for setting arrays -
-b
Used on the command line to specify end of option processing -
-c
Used on the command line to specify a single command -
-m
Used bysetopt
for pattern-matching option setting -
-o
Used in all places to allow use of long option names -
-s
Used byset
to sort positional parameters
This document was generated on February 15, 2020 using
texi2html 5.0.
Zsh version 5.8, released on February 14, 2020.