CSH(1) BSD Reference Manual CSH(1)NAME
csh - a shell (command interpreter) with C-like syntax
SYNOPSIS
csh [-bcefinstvVxX] [arg ...]
csh [-l]
DESCRIPTION
The csh is a command language interpreter incorporating a history mecha-
nism (see History Substitutions), job control facilities (see Jobs), in-
teractive file name and user name completion (see File Name Completion),
and a C-like syntax. It is used both as an interactive login shell and a
shell script command processor.
Argument list processing
If the first argument (argument 0) to the shell is `-', then this is a
login shell. A login shell also can be specified by invoking the shell
with the `-l' flag as the only argument.
The rest of the flag arguments are interpreted as follows:
-b This flag forces a ``break'' from option processing, causing any
further shell arguments to be treated as non-option arguments.
The remaining arguments will not be interpreted as shell options.
This may be used to pass options to a shell script without confu-
sion or possible subterfuge. The shell will not run a set-user ID
script without this option.
-c Commands are read from the (single) following argument which must
be present. Any remaining arguments are placed in argv.
-e The shell exits if any invoked command terminates abnormally or
yields a non-zero exit status.
-f The shell will start faster, because it will neither search for
nor execute commands from the file .cshrc in the invoker's home
directory.
-i The shell is interactive and prompts for its top-level input, even
if it appears not to be a terminal. Shells are interactive with-
out this option if their inputs and outputs are terminals.
-l The shell is a login shell (only applicable if -l is the only flag
specified).
-n Commands are parsed, but not executed. This aids in syntactic
checking of shell scripts.
-s Command input is taken from the standard input.
-t A single line of input is read and executed. A `\' may be used to
escape the newline at the end of this line and continue onto an-
other line.
-v Causes the verbose variable to be set, with the effect that com-
mand input is echoed after history substitution.
-x Causes the echo variable to be set, so that commands are echoed
immediately before execution.
-V Causes the verbose variable to be set even before .cshrc is exe-
cuted.
-X Is to -x as -V is to -v.
After processing of flag arguments, if arguments remain but none of the
-c, -i, -s, or -t options were given, the first argument is taken as the
name of a file of commands to be executed. The shell opens this file,
and saves its name for possible resubstitution by `$0'. Since many sys-
tems use either the standard version 6 or version 7 shells whose shell
scripts are not compatible with this shell, the shell will execute such a
`standard' shell if the first character of a script is not a `#', i.e.,
if the script does not start with a comment. Remaining arguments ini-
tialize the variable argv.
An instance of csh begins by executing commands from the file
/etc/csh.cshrc and, if this is a login shell, /etc/csh.login. It then ex-
ecutes commands from .cshrc in the home directory of the invoker, and, if
this is a login shell, the file .login in the same location. It is typi-
cal for users on crt's to put the command ``stty crt'' in their .login
file, and to also invoke tset(1) there.
In the normal case, the shell will begin reading commands from the termi-
nal, prompting with `% '. Processing of arguments and the use of the
shell to process files containing command scripts will be described lat-
er.
The shell repeatedly performs the following actions: a line of command
input is read and broken into words. This sequence of words is placed on
the command history list and parsed. Finally each command in the current
line is executed.
When a login shell terminates it executes commands from the files .logout
in the user's home directory and /etc/csh.logout.
Lexical structure
The shell splits input lines into words at blanks and tabs with the fol-
lowing exceptions. The characters `&' `|' `;' `<' `>' `(' `)' form sepa-
rate words. If doubled in `&&', `||', `<<' or `>>' these pairs form sin-
gle words. These parser metacharacters may be made part of other words,
or prevented their special meaning, by preceding them with `\'. A new-
line preceded by a `\' is equivalent to a blank.
Strings enclosed in matched pairs of quotations, `'', ``' or `"', form
parts of a word; metacharacters in these strings, including blanks and
tabs, do not form separate words. These quotations have semantics to be
described later. Within pairs of `'' or `"' characters, a newline pre-
ceded by a `\' gives a true newline character.
When the shell's input is not a terminal, the character `#' introduces a
comment that continues to the end of the input line. It is prevented
this special meaning when preceded by `\' and in quotations using ``',
`'', and `"'.
Commands
A simple command is a sequence of words, the first of which specifies the
command to be executed. A simple command or a sequence of simple com-
mands separated by `|' characters forms a pipeline. The output of each
command in a pipeline is connected to the input of the next. Sequences
of pipelines may be separated by `;', and are then executed sequentially.
A sequence of pipelines may be executed without immediately waiting for
it to terminate by following it with an `&'.
Any of the above may be placed in `(' `)' to form a simple command (that
may be a component of a pipeline, etc.). It is also possible to separate
pipelines with `||' or `&&' showing, as in the C language, that the sec-
ond is to be executed only if the first fails or succeeds respectively.
(See Expressions.)
Jobs
The shell associates a job with each pipeline. It keeps a table of cur-
rent jobs, printed by the jobs command, and assigns them small integer
numbers. When a job is started asynchronously with `&', the shell prints
a line that looks like:
[1] 1234
showing that the job which was started asynchronously was job number 1
and had one (top-level) process, whose process id was 1234.
If you are running a job and wish to do something else you may hit the
key ^Z (control-Z) which sends a STOP signal to the current job. The
shell will then normally show that the job has been `Stopped', and print
another prompt. You can then manipulate the state of this job, putting
it in the background with the bg command, or run some other commands and
eventually bring the job back into the foreground with the foreground
command fg. A ^Z takes effect immediately and is like an interrupt in
that pending output and unread input are discarded when it is typed.
There is another special key ^Y that does not generate a STOP signal un-
til a program attempts to read(2) it. This request can usefully be typed
ahead when you have prepared some commands for a job that you wish to
stop after it has read them.
A job being run in the background will stop if it tries to read from the
terminal. Background jobs are normally allowed to produce output, but
this can be disabled by giving the command ``stty tostop''. If you set
this tty option, then background jobs will stop when they try to produce
output like they do when they try to read input.
There are several ways to refer to jobs in the shell. The character `%'
introduces a job name. If you wish to refer to job number 1, you can
name it as `%1'. Just naming a job brings it to the foreground; thus
`%1' is a synonym for `fg %1', bringing job number 1 back into the fore-
ground. Similarly saying `%1 &' resumes job number 1 in the background.
Jobs can also be named by prefixes of the string typed in to start them,
if these prefixes are unambiguous, thus `%ex' would normally restart a
suspended ex(1) job, if there were only one suspended job whose name be-
gan with the string `ex'. It is also possible to say `%?string' which
specifies a job whose text contains string, if there is only one such
job.
The shell maintains a notion of the current and previous jobs. In output
about jobs, the current job is marked with a `+' and the previous job
with a `-'. The abbreviation `%+' refers to the current job and `%-'
refers to the previous job. For close analogy with the syntax of the
history mechanism (described below), `%%' is also a synonym for the cur-
rent job.
The job control mechanism requires that the stty(1) option new be set. It
is an artifact from a new implementation of the tty driver that allows
generation of interrupt characters from the keyboard to tell jobs to
stop. See stty(1) for details on setting options in the new tty driver.
Status reporting
This shell learns immediately whenever a process changes state. It nor-
mally informs you whenever a job becomes blocked so that no further
progress is possible, but only just before it prints a prompt. This is
done so that it does not otherwise disturb your work. If, however, you
set the shell variable notify, the shell will notify you immediately of
changes of status in background jobs. There is also a shell command
notify that marks a single process so that its status changes will be im-
mediately reported. By default notify marks the current process; simply
say `notify' after starting a background job to mark it.
When you try to leave the shell while jobs are stopped, you will be
warned that `You have stopped jobs.' You may use the jobs command to see
what they are. If you do this or immediately try to exit again, the
shell will not warn you a second time, and the suspended jobs will be
terminated.
File Name Completion
When the file name completion feature is enabled by setting the shell
variable filec (see set), csh will interactively complete file names and
user names from unique prefixes, when they are input from the terminal
followed by the escape character (the escape key, or control-[) For exam-
ple, if the current directory looks like
DSC.OLD bin cmd lib xmpl.c
DSC.NEW chaosnet cmtest mail xmpl.o
bench class dev mbox xmpl.out
and the input is
% vi ch<escape>
csh will complete the prefix ``ch'' to the only matching file name
``chaosnet'', changing the input line to
% vi chaosnet
However, given
% vi D<escape>
csh will only expand the input to
% vi DSC.
and will sound the terminal bell to indicate that the expansion is incom-
plete, since there are two file names matching the prefix ``D''.
If a partial file name is followed by the end-of-file character (usually
control-D), then, instead of completing the name, csh will list all file
names matching the prefix. For example, the input
% vi D<control-D>
causes all files beginning with ``D'' to be listed:
DSC.NEW DSC.OLD
while the input line remains unchanged.
The same system of escape and end-of-file can also be used to expand par-
tial user names, if the word to be completed (or listed) begins with the
character ``~''. For example, typing
cd ~ro<escape>
may produce the expansion
cd ~root
The use of the terminal bell to signal errors or multiple matches can be
inhibited by setting the variable nobeep.
Normally, all files in the particular directory are candidates for name
completion. Files with certain suffixes can be excluded from considera-
tion by setting the variable fignore to the list of suffixes to be ig-
nored. Thus, if fignore is set by the command
% set fignore = (.o .out)
then typing
% vi x<escape>
would result in the completion to
% vi xmpl.c
ignoring the files "xmpl.o" and "xmpl.out". However, if the only comple-
tion possible requires not ignoring these suffixes, then they are not ig-
nored. In addition, fignore does not affect the listing of file names by
control-D. All files are listed regardless of their suffixes.
Substitutions
We now describe the various transformations the shell performs on the in-
put in the order in which they occur.
History substitutions
History substitutions place words from previous command input as portions
of new commands, making it easy to repeat commands, repeat arguments of a
previous command in the current command, or fix spelling mistakes in the
previous command with little typing and a high degree of confidence.
History substitutions begin with the character `!' and may begin anywhere
in the input stream (with the proviso that they do not nest.) This `!'
may be preceded by a `\' to prevent its special meaning; for convenience,
an `!' is passed unchanged when it is followed by a blank, tab, newline,
`=' or `('. (History substitutions also occur when an input line begins
with `^'. This special abbreviation will be described later.) Any input
line that contains history substitution is echoed on the terminal before
it is executed as it could have been typed without history substitution.
Commands input from the terminal that consist of one or more words are
saved on the history list. The history substitutions reintroduce se-
quences of words from these saved commands into the input stream. The
size of the history list is controlled by the history variable; the pre-
vious command is always retained, regardless of the value of the history
variable. Commands are numbered sequentially from 1.
For definiteness, consider the following output from the history command:
9 write michael
10 ex write.c
11 cat oldwrite.c
12 diff *write.c
The commands are shown with their event numbers. It is not usually nec-
essary to use event numbers, but the current event number can be made
part of the prompt by placing an `!' in the prompt string.
With the current event 13 we can refer to previous events by event number
`!11', relatively as in `!-2' (referring to the same event), by a prefix
of a command word as in `!d' for event 12 or `!wri' for event 9, or by a
string contained in a word in the command as in `!?mic?' also referring
to event 9. These forms, without further change, simply reintroduce the
words of the specified events, each separated by a single blank. As a
special case, `!!' refers to the previous command; thus `!!' alone is a
redo.
To select words from an event we can follow the event specification by a
`:' and a designator for the desired words. The words of an input line
are numbered from 0, the first (usually command) word being 0, the second
word (first argument) being 1, etc. The basic word designators are:
0 first (command) word
n n'th argument
^ first argument, i.e., `1'
$ last argument
% word matched by (immediately preceding) ?s? search
x-y range of words
-y abbreviates `0-y'
* abbreviates `^-$', or nothing if only 1 word in event
x* abbreviates `x-$'
x- like `x*' but omitting word `$'
The `:' separating the event specification from the word designator can
be omitted if the argument selector begins with a `^', `$', `*' `-' or
`%'. After the optional word designator can be placed a sequence of mod-
ifiers, each preceded by a `:'. The following modifiers are defined:
h Remove a trailing pathname component, leaving the head.
r Remove a trailing `.xxx' component, leaving the root name.
e Remove all but the extension `.xxx' part.
s/l/r/ Substitute l for r
t Remove all leading pathname components, leaving the tail.
& Repeat the previous substitution.
g Apply the change once on each word, prefixing the above,
e.g., `g&'.
a Apply the change as many times as possible on a single
word, prefixing the above. It can be used together with `g'
to apply a substitution globally.
p Print the new command line but do not execute it.
q Quote the substituted words, preventing further substitu-
tions.
x Like q, but break into words at blanks, tabs and newlines.
Unless preceded by a `g' the change is applied only to the first modifi-
able word. With substitutions, it is an error for no word to be applica-
ble.
The left hand side of substitutions are not regular expressions in the
sense of the editors, but instead strings. Any character may be used as
the delimiter in place of `/'; a `\' quotes the delimiter into the l and
r strings. The character `&' in the right hand side is replaced by the
text from the left. A `\' also quotes `&'. A null l (`//') uses the
previous string either from an l or from a contextual scan string s in
`!?s\?'. The trailing delimiter in the substitution may be omitted if a
newline follows immediately as may the trailing `?' in a contextual scan.
A history reference may be given without an event specification, e.g.,
`!$'. Here, the reference is to the previous command unless a previous
history reference occurred on the same line in which case this form re-
peats the previous reference. Thus `!?foo?^ !$' gives the first and last
arguments from the command matching `?foo?'.
A special abbreviation of a history reference occurs when the first non-
blank character of an input line is a `^'. This is equivalent to `!:s^'
providing a convenient shorthand for substitutions on the text of the
previous line. Thus `^lb^lib' fixes the spelling of `lib' in the previ-
ous command. Finally, a history substitution may be surrounded with `{'
and `}' if necessary to insulate it from the characters that follow.
Thus, after `ls -ld ~paul' we might do `!{l}a' to do `ls -ld ~paula',
while `!la' would look for a command starting with `la'.
Quotations with ' and "
The quotation of strings by `'' and `"' can be used to prevent all or
some of the remaining substitutions. Strings enclosed in `'' are pre-
vented any further interpretation. Strings enclosed in `"' may be ex-
panded as described below.
In both cases the resulting text becomes (all or part of) a single word;
only in one special case (see Command Substitution below) does a `"'
quoted string yield parts of more than one word; `'' quoted strings never
do.
Alias substitution
The shell maintains a list of aliases that can be established, displayed
and modified by the alias and unalias commands. After a command line is
scanned, it is parsed into distinct commands and the first word of each
command, left-to-right, is checked to see if it has an alias. If it
does, then the text that is the alias for that command is reread with the
history mechanism available as though that command were the previous in-
put line. The resulting words replace the command and argument list. If
no reference is made to the history list, then the argument list is left
unchanged.
Thus if the alias for `ls' is `ls -l' the command `ls /usr' would map to
`ls -l /usr', the argument list here being undisturbed. Similarly if the
alias for `lookup' was `grep !^ /etc/passwd' then `lookup bill' would map
to `grep bill /etc/passwd'.
If an alias is found, the word transformation of the input text is per-
formed and the aliasing process begins again on the reformed input line.
Looping is prevented if the first word of the new text is the same as the
old by flagging it to prevent further aliasing. Other loops are detected
and cause an error.
Note that the mechanism allows aliases to introduce parser metasyntax.
Thus, we can `alias print 'pr \!* | lpr'' to make a command that pr's its
arguments to the line printer.
Variable substitution
The shell maintains a set of variables, each of which has as value a list
of zero or more words. Some of these variables are set by the shell or
referred to by it. For instance, the argv variable is an image of the
shell's argument list, and words of this variable's value are referred to
in special ways.
The values of variables may be displayed and changed by using the set and
unset commands. Of the variables referred to by the shell a number are
toggles; the shell does not care what their value is, only whether they
are set or not. For instance, the verbose variable is a toggle that
causes command input to be echoed. The setting of this variable results
from the -v command line option.
Other operations treat variables numerically. The `@' command permits
numeric calculations to be performed and the result assigned to a vari-
able. Variable values are, however, always represented as (zero or more)
strings. For the purposes of numeric operations, the null string is con-
sidered to be zero, and the second and additional words of multiword val-
ues are ignored.
After the input line is aliased and parsed, and before each command is
executed, variable substitution is performed keyed by `$' characters.
This expansion can be prevented by preceding the `$' with a `\' except
within `"'s where it always occurs, and within `''s where it never oc-
curs. Strings quoted by ``' are interpreted later (see Command
substitution below) so `$' substitution does not occur there until later,
if at all. A `$' is passed unchanged if followed by a blank, tab, or
end-of-line.
Input/output redirections are recognized before variable expansion, and
are variable expanded separately. Otherwise, the command name and entire
argument list are expanded together. It is thus possible for the first
(command) word (to this point) to generate more than one word, the first
of which becomes the command name, and the rest of which become argu-
ments.
Unless enclosed in `"' or given the `:q' modifier the results of variable
substitution may eventually be command and filename substituted. Within
`"', a variable whose value consists of multiple words expands to a (por-
tion of) a single word, with the words of the variables value separated
by blanks. When the `:q' modifier is applied to a substitution the vari-
able will expand to multiple words with each word separated by a blank
and quoted to prevent later command or filename substitution.
The following metasequences are provided for introducing variable values
into the shell input. Except as noted, it is an error to reference a
variable that is not set.
$name
${name}
Are replaced by the words of the value of variable name,
each separated by a blank. Braces insulate name from fol-
lowing characters that would otherwise be part of it.
Shell variables have names consisting of up to 20 letters
and digits starting with a letter. The underscore charac-
ter is considered a letter. If name is not a shell vari-
able, but is set in the environment, then that value is re-
turned (but : modifiers and the other forms given below are
not available here).
$name[selector]
${name[selector] }
May be used to select only some of the words from the value
of name. The selector is subjected to `$' substitution and
may consist of a single number or two numbers separated by
a `-'. The first word of a variables value is numbered
`1'. If the first number of a range is omitted it defaults
to `1'. If the last number of a range is omitted it de-
faults to `$#name'. The selector `*' selects all words.
It is not an error for a range to be empty if the second
argument is omitted or in range.
$#name
${#name}
Gives the number of words in the variable. This is useful
for later use in a `$argv[selector]'.
$0 Substitutes the name of the file from which command input
is being read. An error occurs if the name is not known.
$number
${number}
Equivalent to `$argv[number]'.
$* Equivalent to `$argv[*]'. The modifiers `:e', `:h', `:t',
`:r', `:q' and `:x' may be applied to the substitutions
above as may `:gh', `:gt' and `:gr'. If braces `{' '}' ap-
pear in the command form then the modifiers must appear
within the braces. The current implementation allows only
one `:' modifier on each `$' expansion.
The following substitutions may not be modified with `:' modifiers.
$?name
${?name}
Substitutes the string `1' if name is set, `0' if it is
not.
$?0 Substitutes `1' if the current input filename is known, `0'
if it is not.
$$ Substitute the (decimal) process number of the (parent)
shell.
$! Substitute the (decimal) process number of the last back-
ground process started by this shell.
$< Substitutes a line from the standard input, with no further
interpretation. It can be used to read from the keyboard
in a shell script.
Command and filename substitution
The remaining substitutions, command and filename substitution, are ap-
plied selectively to the arguments of builtin commands. By selectively,
we mean that portions of expressions which are not evaluated are not sub-
jected to these expansions. For commands that are not internal to the
shell, the command name is substituted separately from the argument list.
This occurs very late, after input-output redirection is performed, and
in a child of the main shell.
Command substitution
Command substitution is shown by a command enclosed in ``'. The output
from such a command is normally broken into separate words at blanks,
tabs and newlines, with null words being discarded; this text then re-
places the original string. Within `"'s, only newlines force new words;
blanks and tabs are preserved.
In any case, the single final newline does not force a new word. Note
that it is thus possible for a command substitution to yield only part of
a word, even if the command outputs a complete line.
Filename substitution
If a word contains any of the characters `*', `?', `[' or `{' or begins
with the character `~', then that word is a candidate for filename sub-
stitution, also known as `globbing'. This word is then regarded as a
pattern, and replaced with an alphabetically sorted list of file names
that match the pattern. In a list of words specifying filename substitu-
tion it is an error for no pattern to match an existing file name, but it
is not required for each pattern to match. Only the metacharacters `*',
`?' and `[' imply pattern matching, the characters `~' and `{' being more
akin to abbreviations.
In matching filenames, the character `.' at the beginning of a filename
or immediately following a `/', as well as the character `/' must be
matched explicitly. The character `*' matches any string of characters,
including the null string. The character `?' matches any single charac-
ter. The sequence `[...]' matches any one of the characters enclosed.
Within `[...]', a pair of characters separated by `-' matches any charac-
ter lexically between the two (inclusive).
The character `~' at the beginning of a filename refers to home directo-
ries. Standing alone, i.e., `~' it expands to the invokers home directo-
ry as reflected in the value of the variable home. When followed by a
name consisting of letters, digits and `-' characters, the shell searches
for a user with that name and substitutes their home directory; thus
`~ken' might expand to `/usr/ken' and `~ken/chmach' to `/usr/ken/chmach'.
If the character `~' is followed by a character other than a letter or
`/' or does not appear at the beginning of a word, it is left undis-
turbed.
The metanotation `a{b,c,d}e' is a shorthand for `abe ace ade'. Left to
right order is preserved, with results of matches being sorted separately
at a low level to preserve this order. This construct may be nested.
Thus, `~source/s1/{oldls,ls}.c' expands to `/usr/source/s1/oldls.c
/usr/source/s1/ls.c' without chance of error if the home directory for
`source' is `/usr/source'. Similarly `../{memo,*box}' might expand to
`../memo ../box ../mbox'. (Note that `memo' was not sorted with the re-
sults of the match to `*box'.) As a special case `{', `}' and `{}' are
passed undisturbed.
Input/output
The standard input and the standard output of a command may be redirected
with the following syntax:
< name Open file name (which is first variable, command and file-
name expanded) as the standard input.
<< word
Read the shell input up to a line that is identical to
word. Word is not subjected to variable, filename or com-
mand substitution, and each input line is compared to word
before any substitutions are done on the input line. Un-
less a quoting `\', `"', `' or ``' appears in word, vari-
able and command substitution is performed on the interven-
ing lines, allowing `\' to quote `$', `\' and ``'. Com-
mands that are substituted have all blanks, tabs, and new-
lines preserved, except for the final newline which is
dropped. The resultant text is placed in an anonymous tem-
porary file that is given to the command as its standard
input.
> name
>! name
>& name
>&! name
The file name is used as the standard output. If the file
does not exist then it is created; if the file exists, it
is truncated; its previous contents are lost.
If the variable noclobber is set, then the file must not
exist or be a character special file (e.g., a terminal or
`/dev/null') or an error results. This helps prevent acci-
dental destruction of files. Here, the `!' forms can be
used to suppress this check.
The forms involving `&' route the standard error output in-
to the specified file as well as the standard output. Name
is expanded in the same way as `<' input filenames are.
>> name
>>& name
>>! name
>>&! name
Uses file name as the standard output; like `>' but places
output at the end of the file. If the variable noclobber
is set, then it is an error for the file not to exist un-
less one of the `!' forms is given. Otherwise similar to
`>'.
A command receives the environment in which the shell was invoked as mod-
ified by the input-output parameters and the presence of the command in a
pipeline. Thus, unlike some previous shells, commands run from a file of
shell commands have no access to the text of the commands by default; in-
stead they receive the original standard input of the shell. The `<<'
mechanism should be used to present inline data. This permits shell com-
mand scripts to function as components of pipelines and allows the shell
to block read its input. Note that the default standard input for a com-
mand run detached is not modified to be the empty file /dev/null; instead
the standard input remains as the original standard input of the shell.
If this is a terminal and if the process attempts to read from the termi-
nal, then the process will block and the user will be notified (see Jobs
above).
The standard error output may be directed through a pipe with the stan-
dard output. Simply use the form `|&' instead of just `|'.
Expressions
Several of the builtin commands (to be described later) take expressions,
in which the operators are similar to those of C, with the same prece-
dence. These expressions appear in the @, exit, if, and while commands.
The following operators are available:
|| && | ^ & == != =~ !~ <= >= < > << >> + - * / %
! ~ ( )
Here the precedence increases to the right, `==' `!=' `=~' and `!~', `<='
`>=' `<' and `>', `<<' and `>>', `+' and `-', `*' `/' and `%' being, in
groups, at the same level. The `==' `!=' `=~' and `!~' operators compare
their arguments as strings; all others operate on numbers. The operators
`=~' and `!~' are like `!=' and `==' except that the right hand side is a
pattern (containing, e.g., `*'s, `?'s and instances of `[...]') against
which the left hand operand is matched. This reduces the need for use of
the switch statement in shell scripts when all that is really needed is
pattern matching.
Strings that begin with `0' are considered octal numbers. Null or miss-
ing arguments are considered `0'. The result of all expressions are
strings, which represent decimal numbers. It is important to note that
no two components of an expression can appear in the same word; except
when adjacent to components of expressions that are syntactically signif-
icant to the parser (`&' `|' `<' `>' `(' `)'), they should be surrounded
by spaces.
Also available in expressions as primitive operands are command execu-
tions enclosed in `{' and `}' and file enquiries of the form -l name
where l is one of:
r read access
w write access
x execute access
e existence
o ownership
z zero size
f plain file
d directory
The specified name is command and filename expanded and then tested to
see if it has the specified relationship to the real user. If the file
does not exist or is inaccessible then all enquiries return false, i.e.,
`0'. Command executions succeed, returning true, i.e., `1', if the com-
mand exits with status 0, otherwise they fail, returning false, i.e.,
`0'. If more detailed status information is required then the command
should be executed outside an expression and the variable status exam-
ined.
Control flow
The shell contains several commands that can be used to regulate the flow
of control in command files (shell scripts) and (in limited but useful
ways) from terminal input. These commands all operate by forcing the
shell to reread or skip in its input and, because of the implementation,
restrict the placement of some of the commands.
The foreach, switch, and while statements, as well as the if-then-else
form of the if statement require that the major keywords appear in a sin-
gle simple command on an input line as shown below.
If the shell's input is not seekable, the shell buffers up input whenever
a loop is being read and performs seeks in this internal buffer to accom-
plish the rereading implied by the loop. (To the extent that this al-
lows, backward goto's will succeed on non-seekable inputs.)
Builtin commands
Builtin commands are executed within the shell. If a builtin command oc-
curs as any component of a pipeline except the last then it is executed
in a subshell.
alias
alias name
alias name wordlist
The first form prints all aliases. The second form prints the
alias for name. The final form assigns the specified wordlist as
the alias of name; wordlist is command and filename substituted.
Name is not allowed to be alias or unalias.
alloc Shows the amount of dynamic memory acquired, broken down into
used and free memory. With an argument shows the number of free
and used blocks in each size category. The categories start at
size 8 and double at each step. This command's output may vary
across system types, since systems other than the VAX may use a
different memory allocator.
bg
bg %job ...
Puts the current or specified jobs into the background, continu-
ing them if they were stopped.
break Causes execution to resume after the end of the nearest enclosing
foreach or while. The remaining commands on the current line are
executed. Multi-level breaks are thus possible by writing them
all on one line.
breaksw
Causes a break from a switch, resuming after the endsw.
case label:
A label in a switch statement as discussed below.
cd
cd name
chdir
chdir name
Change the shell's working directory to directory name. If no ar-
gument is given then change to the home directory of the user.
If name is not found as a subdirectory of the current directory
(and does not begin with `/', `./' or `../'), then each component
of the variable cdpath is checked to see if it has a subdirectory
name. Finally, if all else fails but name is a shell variable
whose value begins with `/', then this is tried to see if it is a
directory.
continue
Continue execution of the nearest enclosing while or foreach. The
rest of the commands on the current line are executed.
default:
Labels the default case in a switch statement. The default
should come after all case labels.
dirs Prints the directory stack; the top of the stack is at the left,
the first directory in the stack being the current directory.
echo wordlist
echo -n wordlist
The specified words are written to the shell's standard output,
separated by spaces, and terminated with a newline unless the -n
option is specified.
else
end
endif
endsw See the description of the foreach, if, switch, and while state-
ments below.
eval arg ...
(As in sh(1).) The arguments are read as input to the shell and
the resulting command(s) executed in the context of the current
shell. This is usually used to execute commands generated as the
result of command or variable substitution, since parsing occurs
before these substitutions. See tset(1) for an example of using
eval.
exec command
The specified command is executed in place of the current shell.
exit
exit (expr)
The shell exits either with the value of the status variable
(first form) or with the value of the specified expr (second
form).
fg
fg %job ...
Brings the current or specified jobs into the foreground, contin-
uing them if they were stopped.
foreach name (wordlist)
...
end The variable name is successively set to each member of wordlist
and the sequence of commands between this command and the match-
ing end are executed. (Both foreach and end must appear alone on
separate lines.) The builtin command continue may be used to
continue the loop prematurely and the builtin command break to
terminate it prematurely. When this command is read from the
terminal, the loop is read once prompting with `?' before any
statements in the loop are executed. If you make a mistake typ-
ing in a loop at the terminal you can rub it out.
glob wordlist
Like echo but no `\' escapes are recognized and words are delim-
ited by null characters in the output. Useful for programs that
wish to use the shell to filename expand a list of words.
goto word
The specified word is filename and command expanded to yield a
string of the form `label'. The shell rewinds its input as much
as possible and searches for a line of the form `label:' possibly
preceded by blanks or tabs. Execution continues after the speci-
fied line.
hashstat
Print a statistics line showing how effective the internal hash
table has been at locating commands (and avoiding exec's). An
exec is attempted for each component of the path where the hash
function indicates a possible hit, and in each component that
does not begin with a `/'.
history
history n
history -r n
history -h n
Displays the history event list; if n is given only the n most
recent events are printed. The -r option reverses the order of
printout to be most recent first instead of oldest first. The -h
option causes the history list to be printed without leading num-
bers. This format produces files suitable for sourcing using the
-h option to source.
if (expr) command
If the specified expression evaluates true, then the single
command with arguments is executed. Variable substitution on
command happens early, at the same time it does for the rest of
the if command. Command must be a simple command, not a
pipeline, a command list, or a parenthesized command list. In-
put/output redirection occurs even if expr is false, i.e., when
command is not executed (this is a bug).
if (expr) then
...
else if (expr2) then
...
else
...
endif If the specified expr is true then the commands up to the first
else are executed; otherwise if expr2 is true then the commands
up to the second else are executed, etc. Any number of else-if
pairs are possible; only one endif is needed. The else part is
likewise optional. (The words else and endif must appear at the
beginning of input lines; the if must appear alone on its input
line or after an else.)
jobs
jobs -l
Lists the active jobs; the -l option lists process id's in addi-
tion to the normal information.
kill %job
kill pid
kill -sig pid ...
kill -l
Sends either the TERM (terminate) signal or the specified signal
to the specified jobs or processes. Signals are either given by
number or by names (as given in /usr/include/signal.h, stripped
of the prefix ``SIG''). The signal names are listed by ``kill
-l''. There is no default, just saying `kill' does not send a
signal to the current job. If the signal being sent is TERM
(terminate) or HUP (hangup), then the job or process will be sent
a CONT (continue) signal as well.
limit
limit resource
limit resource maximum-use
limit -h
limit -h resource
limit -h resource maximum-use
See limit(1).
login Terminate a login shell, replacing it with an instance of
/bin/login. This is one way to log off, included for compatibili-
ty with sh(1).
logout Terminate a login shell. Especially useful if ignoreeof is set.
nice
nice +number
nice command
nice +number command
The first form sets the scheduling priority for this shell to 4.
The second form sets the priority to the given number. The final
two forms run command at priority 4 and number respectively. The
greater the number, the less cpu the process will get. The su-
per-user may specify negative priority by using `nice -number
...'. Command is always executed in a sub-shell, and the re-
strictions placed on commands in simple if statements apply.
nohup
nohup command
The first form can be used in shell scripts to cause hangups to
be ignored for the remainder of the script. The second form
causes the specified command to be run with hangups ignored. All
processes detached with `&' are effectively nohup'ed.
notify
notify %job ...
Causes the shell to notify the user asynchronously when the sta-
tus of the current or specified jobs change; normally notifica-
tion is presented before a prompt. This is automatic if the
shell variable notify is set.
onintr
onintr -
onintr label
Control the action of the shell on interrupts. The first form
restores the default action of the shell on interrupts which is
to terminate shell scripts or to return to the terminal command
input level. The second form `onintr -' causes all interrupts to
be ignored. The final form causes the shell to execute a `goto
label' when an interrupt is received or a child process termi-
nates because it was interrupted.
In any case, if the shell is running detached and interrupts are
being ignored, all forms of onintr have no meaning and interrupts
continue to be ignored by the shell and all invoked commands.
Finally onintr statements are ignored in the system startup files
where interrupts are disabled (/etc/csh.cshrc, /etc/csh.login).
popd
popd +n
Pops the directory stack, returning to the new top directory.
With an argument `+ n' discards the n'th entry in the stack. The
members of the directory stack are numbered from the top starting
at 0.
pushd
pushd name
pushd n
With no arguments, pushd exchanges the top two elements of the
directory stack. Given a name argument, pushd changes to the new
directory (ala cd) and pushes the old current working directory
(as in csw) onto the directory stack. With a numeric argument,
pushd rotates the n'th argument of the directory stack around to
be the top element and changes to it. The members of the direc-
tory stack are numbered from the top starting at 0.
rehash Causes the internal hash table of the contents of the directories
in the path variable to be recomputed. This is needed if new
commands are added to directories in the path while you are
logged in. This should only be necessary if you add commands to
one of your own directories, or if a systems programmer changes
the contents of a system directory.
repeat count command
The specified command which is subject to the same restrictions
as the command in the one line if statement above, is executed
count times. I/O redirections occur exactly once, even if count
is 0.
set
set name
set name=word
set name[index]=word
set name=(wordlist)
The first form of the command shows the value of all shell vari-
ables. Variables that have other than a single word as their
value print as a parenthesized word list. The second form sets
name to the null string. The third form sets name to the single
word. The fourth form sets the index'th component of name to
word; this component must already exist. The final form sets
name to the list of words in wordlist. The value is always com-
mand and filename expanded.
These arguments may be repeated to set multiple values in a sin-
gle set command. Note however, that variable expansion happens
for all arguments before any setting occurs.
setenv
setenv name
setenv name value
The first form lists all current environment variables. It is
equivalent to printenv(1). The last form sets the value of envi-
ronment variable name to be value, a single string. The second
form sets name to an empty string. The most commonly used envi-
ronment variables USER, TERM, and PATH are automatically imported
to and exported from the csh variables user, term, and path;
there is no need to use setenv for these.
shift
shift variable
The members of argv are shifted to the left, discarding argv[1].
It is an error for argv not to be set or to have less than one
word as value. The second form performs the same function on the
specified variable.
source name
source -h name
The shell reads commands from name. Source commands may be nest-
ed; if they are nested too deeply the shell may run out of file
descriptors. An error in a source at any level terminates all
nested source commands. Normally input during source commands is
not placed on the history list; the -h option causes the commands
to be placed on the history list without being executed.
stop
stop %job ...
Stops the current or specified jobs that are executing in the
background.
suspend
Causes the shell to stop in its tracks, much as if it had been
sent a stop signal with ^Z. This is most often used to stop
shells started by su(1).
switch (string)
case str1:
...
breaksw
...
default:
...
breaksw
endsw Each case label is successively matched against the specified
string which is first command and filename expanded. The file
metacharacters `*', `?' and `[...]' may be used in the case la-
bels, which are variable expanded. If none of the labels match
before the `default' label is found, then the execution begins
after the default label. Each case label and the default label
must appear at the beginning of a line. The command breaksw
causes execution to continue after the endsw. Otherwise control
may fall through case labels and the default label as in C. If
no label matches and there is no default, execution continues af-
ter the endsw.
time
time command
With no argument, a summary of time used by this shell and its
children is printed. If arguments are given the specified simple
command is timed and a time summary as described under the time
variable is printed. If necessary, an extra shell is created to
print the time statistic when the command completes.
umask
umask value
The file creation mask is displayed (first form) or set to the
specified value (second form). The mask is given in octal. Com-
mon values for the mask are 002 giving all access to the group
and read and execute access to others or 022 giving all access
except write access for users in the group or others.
unalias pattern
All aliases whose names match the specified pattern are discard-
ed. Thus all aliases are removed by `unalias *'. It is not an
error for nothing to be unaliased.
unhash Use of the internal hash table to speed location of executed pro-
grams is disabled.
unlimit
unlimit resource
unlimit -h
unlimit -h resource
Removes the limitation on resource. If no resource is specified,
then all resource limitations are removed. If -h is given, the
corresponding hard limits are removed. Only the super-user may
do this.
unset pattern
All variables whose names match the specified pattern are re-
moved. Thus all variables are removed by `unset *'; this has no-
ticeably distasteful side-effects. It is not an error for noth-
ing to be unset.
unsetenv pattern
Removes all variables whose name match the specified pattern from
the environment. See also the setenv command above and
printenv(1).
wait Wait for all background jobs. If the shell is interactive, then
an interrupt can disrupt the wait. After the interrupt, the
shell prints names and job numbers of all jobs known to be out-
standing.
which command
Displays the resolved command that will be executed by the shell.
while (expr)
...
end While the specified expression evaluates non-zero, the commands
between the while and the matching end are evaluated. Break and
continue may be used to terminate or continue the loop premature-
ly. (The while and end must appear alone on their input lines.)
Prompting occurs here the first time through the loop as for the
foreach statement if the input is a terminal.
%job Brings the specified job into the foreground.
%job & Continues the specified job in the background.
@
@name= expr
@name[index]= expr
The first form prints the values of all the shell variables. The
second form sets the specified name to the value of expr. If the
expression contains `<', `>', `&' or `|' then at least this part
of the expression must be placed within `(' `)'. The third form
assigns the value of expr to the index'th argument of name. Both
name and its index'th component must already exist.
The operators `*=', `+=', etc are available as in C. The space separat-
ing the name from the assignment operator is optional. Spaces are, how-
ever, mandatory in separating components of expr which would otherwise be
single words.
Special postfix `++' and `--' operators increment and decrement name re-
spectively, i.e., `@ i++'.
Pre-defined and environment variables
The following variables have special meaning to the shell. Of these,
argv, cwd, home, path, prompt, shell and status are always set by the
shell. Except for cwd and status, this setting occurs only at initial-
ization; these variables will not then be modified unless done explicitly
by the user.
The shell copies the environment variable USER into the variable user,
TERM into term, and HOME into home, and copies these back into the envi-
ronment whenever the normal shell variables are reset. The environment
variable PATH is likewise handled; it is not necessary to worry about its
setting other than in the file .cshrc as inferior csh processes will im-
port the definition of path from the environment, and re-export it if you
then change it.
argv Set to the arguments to the shell, it is from this variable
that positional parameters are substituted, i.e., `$1' is re-
placed by `$argv[1]', etc.
cdpath Gives a list of alternate directories searched to find subdi-
rectories in chdir commands.
cwd The full pathname of the current directory.
echo Set when the -x command line option is given. Causes each
command and its arguments to be echoed just before it is exe-
cuted. For non-builtin commands all expansions occur before
echoing. Builtin commands are echoed before command and file-
name substitution, since these substitutions are then done se-
lectively.
filec Enable file name completion.
histchars Can be given a string value to change the characters used in
history substitution. The first character of its value is
used as the history substitution character, replacing the de-
fault character `!'. The second character of its value re-
places the character `^' in quick substitutions.
histfile Can be set to the pathname where history is going to be
saved/restored.
history Can be given a numeric value to control the size of the histo-
ry list. Any command that has been referenced in this many
events will not be discarded. Too large values of history may
run the shell out of memory. The last executed command is al-
ways saved on the history list.
home The home directory of the invoker, initialized from the envi-
ronment. The filename expansion of `~' refers to this vari-
able.
ignoreeof If set the shell ignores end-of-file from input devices which
are terminals. This prevents shells from accidentally being
killed by control-D's.
mail The files where the shell checks for mail. This checking is
done after each command completion that will result in a
prompt, if a specified interval has elapsed. The shell says
`You have new mail.' if the file exists with an access time
not greater than its modify time.
If the first word of the value of mail is numeric it specifies
a different mail checking interval, in seconds, than the de-
fault, which is 10 minutes.
If multiple mail files are specified, then the shell says `New
mail in name' when there is mail in the file name.
noclobber As described in the section on input/output, restrictions are
placed on output redirection to insure that files are not ac-
cidentally destroyed, and that `>>' redirections refer to ex-
isting files.
noglob If set, filename expansion is inhibited. This inhibition is
most useful in shell scripts that
are not dealing with filenames, or after a list of filenames
has been obtained and further expansions are not desirable.
nonomatch If set, it is not an error for a filename expansion to not
match any existing files; instead the primitive pattern is re-
turned. It is still an error for the primitive pattern to be
malformed, i.e., `echo [' still gives an error.
notify If set, the shell notifies asynchronously of job completions;
the default is to present job completions just before printing
a prompt.
path Each word of the path variable specifies a directory in which
commands are to be sought for execution. A null word speci-
fies the current directory. If there is no path variable then
only full path names will execute. The usual search path is
`.', `/bin' and `/usr/bin', but this may vary from system to
system. For the super-user the default search path is `/etc',
`/bin' and `/usr/bin'. A shell that is given neither the -c
nor the -t option will normally hash the contents of the di-
rectories in the path variable after reading .cshrc, and each
time the path variable is reset. If new commands are added to
these directories while the shell is active, it may be neces-
sary to do a rehash or the commands may not be found.
prompt The string that is printed before each command is read from an
interactive terminal input. If a `!' appears in the string it
will be replaced by the current event number unless a preced-
ing `\' is given. Default is `% ', or `# ' for the super-us-
er.
savehist Is given a numeric value to control the number of entries of
the history list that are saved in ~/.history when the user
logs out. Any command that has been referenced in this many
events will be saved. During start up the shell sources
~/.history into the history list enabling history to be saved
across logins. Too large values of savehist will slow down
the shell during start up. If savehist is just set, the shell
will use the value of history.
shell The file in which the shell resides. This variable is used in
forking shells to interpret files that have execute bits set,
but which are not executable by the system. (See the descrip-
tion of Non-builtin Command Execution below.) Initialized to
the (system-dependent) home of the shell.
status The status returned by the last command. If it terminated ab-
normally, then 0200 is added to the status. Builtin commands
that fail return exit status `1', all other builtin commands
set status to `0'.
time Controls automatic timing of commands. If set, then any com-
mand that takes more than this many cpu seconds will cause a
line giving user, system, and real times and a utilization
percentage which is the ratio of user plus system times to re-
al time to be printed when it terminates.
verbose Set by the -v command line option, causes the words of each
command to be printed after history substitution.
Non-builtin command execution
When a command to be executed is found to not be a builtin command the
shell attempts to execute the command via execve(2). Each word in the
variable path names a directory from which the shell will attempt to exe-
cute the command. If it is given neither a -c nor a -t option, the shell
will hash the names in these directories into an internal table so that
it will only try an exec in a directory if there is a possibility that
the command resides there. This shortcut greatly speeds command location
when many directories are present in the search path. If this mechanism
has been turned off (via unhash), or if the shell was given a -c or -t
argument, and in any case for each directory component of path that does
not begin with a `/', the shell concatenates with the given command name
to form a path name of a file which it then attempts to execute.
Parenthesized commands are always executed in a subshell. Thus
(cd; pwd); pwd
prints the home directory; leaving you where you were (printing this af-
ter the home directory), while
cd; pwd
leaves you in the home directory. Parenthesized commands are most often
used to prevent chdir from affecting the current shell.
If the file has execute permissions but is not an executable binary to
the system, then it is assumed to be a file containing shell commands and
a new shell is spawned to read it.
If there is an alias for shell then the words of the alias will be
prepended to the argument list to form the shell command. The first word
of the alias should be the full path name of the shell (e.g., `$shell').
Note that this is a special, late occurring, case of alias substitution,
and only allows words to be prepended to the argument list without
change.
Signal handling
The shell normally ignores quit signals. Jobs running detached (either
by & or the bg or %... & commands) are immune to signals generated from
the keyboard, including hangups. Other signals have the values which the
shell inherited from its parent. The shell's handling of interrupts and
terminate signals in shell scripts can be controlled by onintr. Login
shells catch the terminate signal; otherwise this signal is passed on to
children from the state in the shell's parent. Interrupts are not al-
lowed when a login shell is reading the file .logout.
AUTHOR
William Joy. Job control and directory stack features first implemented
by J.E. Kulp of IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria, with different syntax than
that used now. File name completion code written by Ken Greer, HP Labs.
Eight-bit implementation Christos S. Zoulas, Cornell University.
FILES
~/.cshrc Read at beginning of execution by each shell.
~/.login Read by login shell, after `.cshrc' at login.
~/.logout Read by login shell, at logout.
/bin/sh Standard shell, for shell scripts not starting with a `#'.
/tmp/sh* Temporary file for `<<'.
/etc/passwd Source of home directories for `~name'.
LIMITATIONS
Word lengths - Words can be no longer than 1024 characters. The system
limits argument lists to 10240 characters. The number of arguments to a
command that involves filename expansion is limited to 1/6'th the number
of characters allowed in an argument list. Command substitutions may
substitute no more characters than are allowed in an argument list. To
detect looping, the shell restricts the number of alias substitutions on
a single line to 20.
SEE ALSOsh(1), access(2), execve(2), fork(2), killpg(2), pipe(2),
sigvec(2), umask(2), setrlimit(2), wait(2), tty(4), environ(7),
introduction to the C shell
HISTORY
Csh appeared in 3BSD. It was a first implementation of a command language
interpreter incorporating a history mechanism (see History
Substitutions), job control facilities (see Jobs), interactive file name
and user name completion (see File Name Completion), and a C-like syntax.
There are now many shells that also have these mechanisms, plus a few
more (and maybe some bugs too), which are available through the usenet.
BUGS
When a command is restarted from a stop, the shell prints the directory
it started in if this is different from the current directory; this can
be misleading (i.e., wrong) as the job may have changed directories in-
ternally.
Shell builtin functions are not stoppable/restartable. Command sequences
of the form `a ; b ; c' are also not handled gracefully when stopping is
attempted. If you suspend `b', the shell will immediately execute `c'.
This is especially noticeable if this expansion results from an alias. It
suffices to place the sequence of commands in ()'s to force it to a sub-
shell, i.e., `( a ; b ; c )'.
Control over tty output after processes are started is primitive; perhaps
this will inspire someone to work on a good virtual terminal interface.
In a virtual terminal interface much more interesting things could be
done with output control.
Alias substitution is most often used to clumsily simulate shell proce-
dures; shell procedures should be provided instead of aliases.
Commands within loops, prompted for by `?', are not placed on the history
list. Control structure should be parsed instead of being recognized as
built-in commands. This would allow control commands to be placed any-
where, to be combined with `|', and to be used with `&' and `;' metasyn-
tax.
It should be possible to use the `:' modifiers on the output of command
substitutions.
The way the filec facility is implemented is ugly and expensive.
4th Berkeley Distribution January 21, 1994 22
