csh man page on BSDi

Man page or keyword search:  
man Server   6284 pages
apropos Keyword Search (all sections)
Output format
BSDi logo
[printable version]

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 ALSO
     sh(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
[top]

List of man pages available for BSDi

Copyright (c) for man pages and the logo by the respective OS vendor.

For those who want to learn more, the polarhome community provides shell access and support.

[legal] [privacy] [GNU] [policy] [cookies] [netiquette] [sponsors] [FAQ]
Tweet
Polarhome, production since 1999.
Member of Polarhome portal.
Based on Fawad Halim's script.
....................................................................
Vote for polarhome
Free Shell Accounts :: the biggest list on the net