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16 Options


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16.1 Specifying Options

Options are primarily referred to by name. These names are case insensitive and underscores are ignored. For example, ‘allexport’ is equivalent to ‘A__lleXP_ort’.

The sense of an option name may be inverted by preceding it with ‘no’, so ‘setopt No_Beep’ is equivalent to ‘unsetopt beep’. This inversion can only be done once, so ‘nonobeep’ is not a synonym for ‘beep’. Similarly, ‘tify’ is not a synonym for ‘nonotify’ (the inversion of ‘notify’).

Some options also have one or more single letter names. There are two sets of single letter options: one used by default, and another used to emulate sh/ksh (used when the SH_OPTION_LETTERS option is set). The single letter options can be used on the shell command line, or with the set, setopt and unsetopt builtins, as normal Unix options preceded by ‘-’.

The sense of the single letter options may be inverted by using ‘+’ instead of ‘-’. Some of the single letter option names refer to an option being off, in which case the inversion of that name refers to the option being on. For example, ‘+n’ is the short name of ‘exec’, and ‘-n’ is the short name of its inversion, ‘noexec’.

In strings of single letter options supplied to the shell at startup, trailing whitespace will be ignored; for example the string ‘-f ’ will be treated just as ‘-f’, but the string ‘-f i’ is an error. This is because many systems which implement the ‘#!’ mechanism for calling scripts do not strip trailing whitespace.


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16.2 Description of Options

In the following list, options set by default in all emulations are marked <D>; those set by default only in csh, ksh, sh, or zsh emulations are marked <C>, <K>, <S>, <Z> as appropriate. When listing options (by ‘setopt’, ‘unsetopt’, ‘set -o’ or ‘set +o’), those turned on by default appear in the list prefixed with ‘no’. Hence (unless KSH_OPTION_PRINT is set), ‘setopt’ shows all options whose settings are changed from the default.


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16.2.1 Changing Directories

AUTO_CD (-J)

If a command is issued that can’t be executed as a normal command, and the command is the name of a directory, perform the cd command to that directory. This option is only applicable if the option SHIN_STDIN is set, i.e. if commands are being read from standard input. The option is designed for interactive use; it is recommended that cd be used explicitly in scripts to avoid ambiguity.

AUTO_PUSHD (-N)

Make cd push the old directory onto the directory stack.

CDABLE_VARS (-T)

If the argument to a cd command (or an implied cd with the AUTO_CD option set) is not a directory, and does not begin with a slash, try to expand the expression as if it were preceded by a ‘~’ (see Filename Expansion).

CD_SILENT

Never print the working directory after a cd (whether explicit or implied with the AUTO_CD option set). cd normally prints the working directory when the argument given to it was -, a stack entry, or the name of a directory found under CDPATH. Note that this is distinct from pushd’s stack-printing behaviour, which is controlled by PUSHD_SILENT. This option overrides the printing-related effects of POSIX_CD.

CHASE_DOTS

When changing to a directory containing a path segment ‘..’ which would otherwise be treated as canceling the previous segment in the path (in other words, ‘foo/..’ would be removed from the path, or if ‘..’ is the first part of the path, the last part of the current working directory would be removed), instead resolve the path to the physical directory. This option is overridden by CHASE_LINKS.

For example, suppose /foo/bar is a link to the directory /alt/rod. Without this option set, ‘cd /foo/bar/..’ changes to /foo; with it set, it changes to /alt. The same applies if the current directory is /foo/bar and ‘cd ..’ is used. Note that all other symbolic links in the path will also be resolved.

CHASE_LINKS (-w)

Resolve symbolic links to their true values when changing directory. This also has the effect of CHASE_DOTS, i.e. a ‘..’ path segment will be treated as referring to the physical parent, even if the preceding path segment is a symbolic link.

POSIX_CD <K> <S>

Modifies the behaviour of cd, chdir and pushd commands to make them more compatible with the POSIX standard. The behaviour with the option unset is described in the documentation for the cd builtin in Shell Builtin Commands. If the option is set, the shell does not test for directories beneath the local directory (‘.’) until after all directories in cdpath have been tested, and the cd and chdir commands do not recognise arguments of the form ‘{+|-}n’ as directory stack entries.

Also, if the option is set, the conditions under which the shell prints the new directory after changing to it are modified. It is no longer restricted to interactive shells (although printing of the directory stack with pushd is still limited to interactive shells); and any use of a component of CDPATH, including a ‘.’ but excluding an empty component that is otherwise treated as ‘.’, causes the directory to be printed.

PUSHD_IGNORE_DUPS

Don’t push multiple copies of the same directory onto the directory stack.

PUSHD_MINUS

Exchanges the meanings of ‘+’ and ‘-’ when used with a number to specify a directory in the stack.

PUSHD_SILENT (-E)

Do not print the directory stack after pushd or popd.

PUSHD_TO_HOME (-D)

Have pushd with no arguments act like ‘pushd $HOME’.


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16.2.2 Completion

ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT <D>

If unset, key functions that list completions try to return to the last prompt if given a numeric argument. If set these functions try to return to the last prompt if given no numeric argument.

ALWAYS_TO_END

If a completion is performed with the cursor within a word, and a full completion is inserted, the cursor is moved to the end of the word. That is, the cursor is moved to the end of the word if either a single match is inserted or menu completion is performed.

AUTO_LIST (-9) <D>

Automatically list choices on an ambiguous completion.

AUTO_MENU <D>

Automatically use menu completion after the second consecutive request for completion, for example by pressing the tab key repeatedly. This option is overridden by MENU_COMPLETE.

AUTO_NAME_DIRS

Any parameter that is set to the absolute name of a directory immediately becomes a name for that directory, that will be used by the ‘%~’ and related prompt sequences, and will be available when completion is performed on a word starting with ‘~’. (Otherwise, the parameter must be used in the form ‘~param’ first.)

AUTO_PARAM_KEYS <D>

If a parameter name was completed and a following character (normally a space) automatically inserted, and the next character typed is one of those that have to come directly after the name (like ‘}’, ‘:’, etc.), the automatically added character is deleted, so that the character typed comes immediately after the parameter name. Completion in a brace expansion is affected similarly: the added character is a ‘,’, which will be removed if ‘}’ is typed next.

AUTO_PARAM_SLASH <D>

If a parameter is completed whose content is the name of a directory, then add a trailing slash instead of a space.

AUTO_REMOVE_SLASH <D>

When the last character resulting from a completion is a slash and the next character typed is a word delimiter, a slash, or a character that ends a command (such as a semicolon or an ampersand), remove the slash.

BASH_AUTO_LIST

On an ambiguous completion, automatically list choices when the completion function is called twice in succession. This takes precedence over AUTO_LIST. The setting of LIST_AMBIGUOUS is respected. If AUTO_MENU is set, the menu behaviour will then start with the third press. Note that this will not work with MENU_COMPLETE, since repeated completion calls immediately cycle through the list in that case.

COMPLETE_ALIASES

Prevents aliases on the command line from being internally substituted before completion is attempted. The effect is to make the alias a distinct command for completion purposes.

COMPLETE_IN_WORD

If unset, the cursor is set to the end of the word if completion is started. Otherwise it stays there and completion is done from both ends.

GLOB_COMPLETE

When the current word has a glob pattern, do not insert all the words resulting from the expansion but generate matches as for completion and cycle through them like MENU_COMPLETE. The matches are generated as if a ‘*’ was added to the end of the word, or inserted at the cursor when COMPLETE_IN_WORD is set. This actually uses pattern matching, not globbing, so it works not only for files but for any completion, such as options, user names, etc.

Note that when the pattern matcher is used, matching control (for example, case-insensitive or anchored matching) cannot be used. This limitation only applies when the current word contains a pattern; simply turning on the GLOB_COMPLETE option does not have this effect.

HASH_LIST_ALL <D>

Whenever a command completion or spelling correction is attempted, make sure the entire command path is hashed first. This makes the first completion slower but avoids false reports of spelling errors.

LIST_AMBIGUOUS <D>

This option works when AUTO_LIST or BASH_AUTO_LIST is also set. If there is an unambiguous prefix to insert on the command line, that is done without a completion list being displayed; in other words, auto-listing behaviour only takes place when nothing would be inserted. In the case of BASH_AUTO_LIST, this means that the list will be delayed to the third call of the function.

LIST_BEEP <D>

Beep on an ambiguous completion. More accurately, this forces the completion widgets to return status 1 on an ambiguous completion, which causes the shell to beep if the option BEEP is also set; this may be modified if completion is called from a user-defined widget.

LIST_PACKED

Try to make the completion list smaller (occupying less lines) by printing the matches in columns with different widths.

LIST_ROWS_FIRST

Lay out the matches in completion lists sorted horizontally, that is, the second match is to the right of the first one, not under it as usual.

LIST_TYPES (-X) <D>

When listing files that are possible completions, show the type of each file with a trailing identifying mark.

MENU_COMPLETE (-Y)

On an ambiguous completion, instead of listing possibilities or beeping, insert the first match immediately. Then when completion is requested again, remove the first match and insert the second match, etc. When there are no more matches, go back to the first one again. reverse-menu-complete may be used to loop through the list in the other direction. This option overrides AUTO_MENU.

REC_EXACT (-S)

If the string on the command line exactly matches one of the possible completions, it is accepted, even if there is another completion (i.e. that string with something else added) that also matches.


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16.2.3 Expansion and Globbing

BAD_PATTERN (+2) <C> <Z>

If a pattern for filename generation is badly formed, print an error message. (If this option is unset, the pattern will be left unchanged.)

BARE_GLOB_QUAL <Z>

In a glob pattern, treat a trailing set of parentheses as a qualifier list, if it contains no ‘|’, ‘(’ or (if special) ‘~’ characters. See Filename Generation.

BRACE_CCL

Expand expressions in braces which would not otherwise undergo brace expansion to a lexically ordered list of all the characters. See Brace Expansion.

CASE_GLOB <D>

Make globbing (filename generation) sensitive to case. Note that other uses of patterns are always sensitive to case. If the option is unset, the presence of any character which is special to filename generation will cause case-insensitive matching. For example, cvs(/) can match the directory CVS owing to the presence of the globbing flag (unless the option BARE_GLOB_QUAL is unset).

CASE_MATCH <D>

Make regular expressions using the zsh/regex module (including matches with =~) sensitive to case.

CSH_NULL_GLOB <C>

If a pattern for filename generation has no matches, delete the pattern from the argument list; do not report an error unless all the patterns in a command have no matches. Overrides NOMATCH.

EQUALS <Z>

Perform = filename expansion. (See Filename Expansion.)

EXTENDED_GLOB

Treat the ‘#’, ‘~’ and ‘^’ characters as part of patterns for filename generation, etc. (An initial unquoted ‘~’ always produces named directory expansion.)

FORCE_FLOAT

Constants in arithmetic evaluation will be treated as floating point even without the use of a decimal point; the values of integer variables will be converted to floating point when used in arithmetic expressions. Integers in any base will be converted.

GLOB (+F, ksh: +f) <D>

Perform filename generation (globbing). (See Filename Generation.)

GLOB_ASSIGN <C>

If this option is set, filename generation (globbing) is performed on the right hand side of scalar parameter assignments of the form ‘name=pattern (e.g. ‘foo=*’). If the result has more than one word the parameter will become an array with those words as arguments. This option is provided for backwards compatibility only: globbing is always performed on the right hand side of array assignments of the form ‘name=(value)’ (e.g. ‘foo=(*)’) and this form is recommended for clarity; with this option set, it is not possible to predict whether the result will be an array or a scalar.

GLOB_DOTS (-4)

Do not require a leading ‘.’ in a filename to be matched explicitly.

GLOB_STAR_SHORT

When this option is set and the default zsh-style globbing is in effect, the pattern ‘**/*’ can be abbreviated to ‘**’ and the pattern ‘***/*’ can be abbreviated to ***. Hence ‘**.c’ finds a file ending in .c in any subdirectory, and ‘***.c’ does the same while also following symbolic links. A / immediately after the ‘**’ or ‘***’ forces the pattern to be treated as the unabbreviated form.

GLOB_SUBST <C> <K> <S>

Treat any characters resulting from parameter expansion as being eligible for filename expansion and filename generation, and any characters resulting from command substitution as being eligible for filename generation. Braces (and commas in between) do not become eligible for expansion.

HIST_SUBST_PATTERN

Substitutions using the :s and :& history modifiers are performed with pattern matching instead of string matching. This occurs wherever history modifiers are valid, including glob qualifiers and parameters. See Modifiers.

IGNORE_BRACES (-I) <S>

Do not perform brace expansion. For historical reasons this also includes the effect of the IGNORE_CLOSE_BRACES option.

IGNORE_CLOSE_BRACES

When neither this option nor IGNORE_BRACES is set, a sole close brace character ‘}’ is syntactically significant at any point on a command line. This has the effect that no semicolon or newline is necessary before the brace terminating a function or current shell construct. When either option is set, a closing brace is syntactically significant only in command position. Unlike IGNORE_BRACES, this option does not disable brace expansion.

For example, with both options unset a function may be defined in the following fashion:

args() { echo $# }

while if either option is set, this does not work and something equivalent to the following is required:

args() { echo $#; }
KSH_GLOB <K>

In pattern matching, the interpretation of parentheses is affected by a preceding ‘@’, ‘*’, ‘+’, ‘?’ or ‘!’. See Filename Generation.

MAGIC_EQUAL_SUBST

All unquoted arguments of the form ‘anything=expression’ appearing after the command name have filename expansion (that is, where expression has a leading ‘~’ or ‘=’) performed on expression as if it were a parameter assignment. The argument is not otherwise treated specially; it is passed to the command as a single argument, and not used as an actual parameter assignment. For example, in echo foo=~/bar:~/rod, both occurrences of ~ would be replaced. Note that this happens anyway with typeset and similar statements.

This option respects the setting of the KSH_TYPESET option. In other words, if both options are in effect, arguments looking like assignments will not undergo word splitting.

MARK_DIRS (-8, ksh: -X)

Append a trailing ‘/’ to all directory names resulting from filename generation (globbing).

MULTIBYTE <D>

Respect multibyte characters when found in strings. When this option is set, strings are examined using the system library to determine how many bytes form a character, depending on the current locale. This affects the way characters are counted in pattern matching, parameter values and various delimiters.

The option is on by default if the shell was compiled with MULTIBYTE_SUPPORT; otherwise it is off by default and has no effect if turned on.

If the option is off a single byte is always treated as a single character. This setting is designed purely for examining strings known to contain raw bytes or other values that may not be characters in the current locale. It is not necessary to unset the option merely because the character set for the current locale does not contain multibyte characters.

The option does not affect the shell’s editor, which always uses the locale to determine multibyte characters. This is because the character set displayed by the terminal emulator is independent of shell settings.

NOMATCH (+3) <C> <Z>

If a pattern for filename generation has no matches, print an error, instead of leaving it unchanged in the argument list. This also applies to file expansion of an initial ‘~’ or ‘=’.

NULL_GLOB (-G)

If a pattern for filename generation has no matches, delete the pattern from the argument list instead of reporting an error. Overrides NOMATCH.

NUMERIC_GLOB_SORT

If numeric filenames are matched by a filename generation pattern, sort the filenames numerically rather than lexicographically.

RC_EXPAND_PARAM (-P)

Array expansions of the form ‘foo${xx}bar’, where the parameter xx is set to (a b c), are substituted with ‘fooabar foobbar foocbar’ instead of the default ‘fooa b cbar’. Note that an empty array will therefore cause all arguments to be removed.

REMATCH_PCRE

If set, regular expression matching with the =~ operator will use Perl-Compatible Regular Expressions from the PCRE library. (The zsh/pcre module must be available.) If not set, regular expressions will use the extended regexp syntax provided by the system libraries.

SH_GLOB <K> <S>

Disables the special meaning of ‘(’, ‘|’, ‘)’ and ’<’ for globbing the result of parameter and command substitutions, and in some other places where the shell accepts patterns. If SH_GLOB is set but KSH_GLOB is not, the shell allows the interpretation of subshell expressions enclosed in parentheses in some cases where there is no space before the opening parenthesis, e.g. !(true) is interpreted as if there were a space after the !. This option is set by default if zsh is invoked as sh or ksh.

UNSET (+u, ksh: +u) <K> <S> <Z>

Treat unset parameters as if they were empty when substituting, and as if they were zero when reading their values in arithmetic expansion and arithmetic commands. Otherwise they are treated as an error.

WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL

Print a warning message when a global parameter is created in a function by an assignment or in math context. This often indicates that a parameter has not been declared local when it should have been. Parameters explicitly declared global from within a function using typeset -g do not cause a warning. Note that there is no warning when a local parameter is assigned to in a nested function, which may also indicate an error.

WARN_NESTED_VAR

Print a warning message when an existing parameter from an enclosing function scope, or global, is set in a function by an assignment or in math context. Assignment to shell special parameters does not cause a warning. This is the companion to WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL as in this case the warning is only printed when a parameter is not created. Where possible, use of typeset -g to set the parameter suppresses the error, but note that this needs to be used every time the parameter is set. To restrict the effect of this option to a single function scope, use ‘functions -W’.

For example, the following code produces a warning for the assignment inside the function nested as that overrides the value within toplevel

toplevel() {
  local foo="in fn"
  nested
}
nested() {
     foo="in nested"
}
setopt warn_nested_var
toplevel

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16.2.4 History

APPEND_HISTORY <D>

If this is set, zsh sessions will append their history list to the history file, rather than replace it. Thus, multiple parallel zsh sessions will all have the new entries from their history lists added to the history file, in the order that they exit. The file will still be periodically re-written to trim it when the number of lines grows 20% beyond the value specified by $SAVEHIST (see also the HIST_SAVE_BY_COPY option).

BANG_HIST (+K) <C> <Z>

Perform textual history expansion, csh-style, treating the character ‘!’ specially.

EXTENDED_HISTORY <C>

Save each command’s beginning timestamp (in seconds since the epoch) and the duration (in seconds) to the history file. The format of this prefixed data is:

: <beginning time>:<elapsed seconds>;<command>’.

HIST_ALLOW_CLOBBER

Add ‘|’ to output redirections in the history. This allows history references to clobber files even when CLOBBER is unset.

HIST_BEEP <D>

Beep in ZLE when a widget attempts to access a history entry which isn’t there.

HIST_EXPIRE_DUPS_FIRST

If the internal history needs to be trimmed to add the current command line, setting this option will cause the oldest history event that has a duplicate to be lost before losing a unique event from the list. You should be sure to set the value of HISTSIZE to a larger number than SAVEHIST in order to give you some room for the duplicated events, otherwise this option will behave just like HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS once the history fills up with unique events.

HIST_FCNTL_LOCK

When writing out the history file, by default zsh uses ad-hoc file locking to avoid known problems with locking on some operating systems. With this option locking is done by means of the system’s fcntl call, where this method is available. On recent operating systems this may provide better performance, in particular avoiding history corruption when files are stored on NFS.

HIST_FIND_NO_DUPS

When searching for history entries in the line editor, do not display duplicates of a line previously found, even if the duplicates are not contiguous.

HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS

If a new command line being added to the history list duplicates an older one, the older command is removed from the list (even if it is not the previous event).

HIST_IGNORE_DUPS (-h)

Do not enter command lines into the history list if they are duplicates of the previous event.

HIST_IGNORE_SPACE (-g)

Remove command lines from the history list when the first character on the line is a space, or when one of the expanded aliases contains a leading space. Only normal aliases (not global or suffix aliases) have this behaviour. Note that the command lingers in the internal history until the next command is entered before it vanishes, allowing you to briefly reuse or edit the line. If you want to make it vanish right away without entering another command, type a space and press return.

HIST_LEX_WORDS

By default, shell history that is read in from files is split into words on all white space. This means that arguments with quoted whitespace are not correctly handled, with the consequence that references to words in history lines that have been read from a file may be inaccurate. When this option is set, words read in from a history file are divided up in a similar fashion to normal shell command line handling. Although this produces more accurately delimited words, if the size of the history file is large this can be slow. Trial and error is necessary to decide.

HIST_NO_FUNCTIONS

Remove function definitions from the history list. Note that the function lingers in the internal history until the next command is entered before it vanishes, allowing you to briefly reuse or edit the definition.

HIST_NO_STORE

Remove the history (fc -l) command from the history list when invoked. Note that the command lingers in the internal history until the next command is entered before it vanishes, allowing you to briefly reuse or edit the line.

HIST_REDUCE_BLANKS

Remove superfluous blanks from each command line being added to the history list.

HIST_SAVE_BY_COPY <D>

When the history file is re-written, we normally write out a copy of the file named $HISTFILE.new and then rename it over the old one. However, if this option is unset, we instead truncate the old history file and write out the new version in-place. If one of the history-appending options is enabled, this option only has an effect when the enlarged history file needs to be re-written to trim it down to size. Disable this only if you have special needs, as doing so makes it possible to lose history entries if zsh gets interrupted during the save.

When writing out a copy of the history file, zsh preserves the old file’s permissions and group information, but will refuse to write out a new file if it would change the history file’s owner.

HIST_SAVE_NO_DUPS

When writing out the history file, older commands that duplicate newer ones are omitted.

HIST_VERIFY

Whenever the user enters a line with history expansion, don’t execute the line directly; instead, perform history expansion and reload the line into the editing buffer.

INC_APPEND_HISTORY

This option works like APPEND_HISTORY except that new history lines are added to the $HISTFILE incrementally (as soon as they are entered), rather than waiting until the shell exits. The file will still be periodically re-written to trim it when the number of lines grows 20% beyond the value specified by $SAVEHIST (see also the HIST_SAVE_BY_COPY option).

INC_APPEND_HISTORY_TIME

This option is a variant of INC_APPEND_HISTORY in which, where possible, the history entry is written out to the file after the command is finished, so that the time taken by the command is recorded correctly in the history file in EXTENDED_HISTORY format. This means that the history entry will not be available immediately from other instances of the shell that are using the same history file.

This option is only useful if INC_APPEND_HISTORY and SHARE_HISTORY are turned off. The three options should be considered mutually exclusive.

SHARE_HISTORY <K>

This option both imports new commands from the history file, and also causes your typed commands to be appended to the history file (the latter is like specifying INC_APPEND_HISTORY, which should be turned off if this option is in effect). The history lines are also output with timestamps ala EXTENDED_HISTORY (which makes it easier to find the spot where we left off reading the file after it gets re-written).

By default, history movement commands visit the imported lines as well as the local lines, but you can toggle this on and off with the set-local-history zle binding. It is also possible to create a zle widget that will make some commands ignore imported commands, and some include them.

If you find that you want more control over when commands get imported, you may wish to turn SHARE_HISTORY off, INC_APPEND_HISTORY or INC_APPEND_HISTORY_TIME (see above) on, and then manually import commands whenever you need them using ‘fc -RI’.


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16.2.5 Initialisation

ALL_EXPORT (-a, ksh: -a)

All parameters subsequently defined are automatically exported.

GLOBAL_EXPORT <Z>

If this option is set, passing the -x flag to the builtins declare, float, integer, readonly and typeset (but not local) will also set the -g flag; hence parameters exported to the environment will not be made local to the enclosing function, unless they were already or the flag +g is given explicitly. If the option is unset, exported parameters will be made local in just the same way as any other parameter.

This option is set by default for backward compatibility; it is not recommended that its behaviour be relied upon. Note that the builtin export always sets both the -x and -g flags, and hence its effect extends beyond the scope of the enclosing function; this is the most portable way to achieve this behaviour.

GLOBAL_RCS (-d) <D>

If this option is unset, the startup files /etc/zsh/zprofile, /etc/zsh/zshrc, /etc/zsh/zlogin and /etc/zsh/zlogout will not be run. It can be disabled and re-enabled at any time, including inside local startup files (.zshrc, etc.).

RCS (+f) <D>

After /etc/zsh/zshenv is sourced on startup, source the .zshenv, /etc/zsh/zprofile, .zprofile, /etc/zsh/zshrc, .zshrc, /etc/zsh/zlogin, .zlogin, and .zlogout files, as described in Files. If this option is unset, the /etc/zsh/zshenv file is still sourced, but any of the others will not be; it can be set at any time to prevent the remaining startup files after the currently executing one from being sourced.


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16.2.6 Input/Output

ALIASES <D>

Expand aliases.

CLOBBER (+C, ksh: +C) <D>

Allows ‘>’ redirection to truncate existing files. Otherwise ‘>!’ or ‘>|’ must be used to truncate a file.

If the option is not set, and the option APPEND_CREATE is also not set, ‘>>!’ or ‘>>|’ must be used to create a file. If either option is set, ‘>>’ may be used.

CORRECT (-0)

Try to correct the spelling of commands. Note that, when the HASH_LIST_ALL option is not set or when some directories in the path are not readable, this may falsely report spelling errors the first time some commands are used.

The shell variable CORRECT_IGNORE may be set to a pattern to match words that will never be offered as corrections.

CORRECT_ALL (-O)

Try to correct the spelling of all arguments in a line.

The shell variable CORRECT_IGNORE_FILE may be set to a pattern to match file names that will never be offered as corrections.

DVORAK

Use the Dvorak keyboard instead of the standard qwerty keyboard as a basis for examining spelling mistakes for the CORRECT and CORRECT_ALL options and the spell-word editor command.

FLOW_CONTROL <D>

If this option is unset, output flow control via start/stop characters (usually assigned to ^S/^Q) is disabled in the shell’s editor.

IGNORE_EOF (-7)

Do not exit on end-of-file. Require the use of exit or logout instead. However, ten consecutive EOFs will cause the shell to exit anyway, to avoid the shell hanging if its tty goes away.

Also, if this option is set and the Zsh Line Editor is used, widgets implemented by shell functions can be bound to EOF (normally Control-D) without printing the normal warning message. This works only for normal widgets, not for completion widgets.

INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS (-k) <K> <S>

Allow comments even in interactive shells.

HASH_CMDS <D>

Note the location of each command the first time it is executed. Subsequent invocations of the same command will use the saved location, avoiding a path search. If this option is unset, no path hashing is done at all. However, when CORRECT is set, commands whose names do not appear in the functions or aliases hash tables are hashed in order to avoid reporting them as spelling errors.

HASH_DIRS <D>

Whenever a command name is hashed, hash the directory containing it, as well as all directories that occur earlier in the path. Has no effect if neither HASH_CMDS nor CORRECT is set.

HASH_EXECUTABLES_ONLY

When hashing commands because of HASH_CMDS, check that the file to be hashed is actually an executable. This option is unset by default as if the path contains a large number of commands, or consists of many remote files, the additional tests can take a long time. Trial and error is needed to show if this option is beneficial.

MAIL_WARNING (-U)

Print a warning message if a mail file has been accessed since the shell last checked.

PATH_DIRS (-Q)

Perform a path search even on command names with slashes in them. Thus if ‘/usr/local/bin’ is in the user’s path, and he or she types ‘X11/xinit’, the command ‘/usr/local/bin/X11/xinit’ will be executed (assuming it exists). Commands explicitly beginning with ‘/’, ‘./’ or ‘../’ are not subject to the path search. This also applies to the ‘.’ and source builtins.

Note that subdirectories of the current directory are always searched for executables specified in this form. This takes place before any search indicated by this option, and regardless of whether ‘.’ or the current directory appear in the command search path.

PATH_SCRIPT <K> <S>

If this option is not set, a script passed as the first non-option argument to the shell must contain the name of the file to open. If this option is set, and the script does not specify a directory path, the script is looked for first in the current directory, then in the command path. See Invocation.

PRINT_EIGHT_BIT

Print eight bit characters literally in completion lists, etc. This option is not necessary if your system correctly returns the printability of eight bit characters (see man page ctype(3)).

PRINT_EXIT_VALUE (-1)

Print the exit value of programs with non-zero exit status. This is only available at the command line in interactive shells.

RC_QUOTES

Allow the character sequence ‘''’ to signify a single quote within singly quoted strings. Note this does not apply in quoted strings using the format $'...', where a backslashed single quote can be used.

RM_STAR_SILENT (-H) <K> <S>

Do not query the user before executing ‘rm *’ or ‘rm path/*’.

RM_STAR_WAIT

If querying the user before executing ‘rm *’ or ‘rm path/*’, first wait ten seconds and ignore anything typed in that time. This avoids the problem of reflexively answering ‘yes’ to the query when one didn’t really mean it. The wait and query can always be avoided by expanding the ‘*’ in ZLE (with tab).

SHORT_LOOPS <C> <Z>

Allow the short forms of for, repeat, select, if, and function constructs.

SUN_KEYBOARD_HACK (-L)

If a line ends with a backquote, and there are an odd number of backquotes on the line, ignore the trailing backquote. This is useful on some keyboards where the return key is too small, and the backquote key lies annoyingly close to it. As an alternative the variable KEYBOARD_HACK lets you choose the character to be removed.


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16.2.7 Job Control

AUTO_CONTINUE

With this option set, stopped jobs that are removed from the job table with the disown builtin command are automatically sent a CONT signal to make them running.

AUTO_RESUME (-W)

Treat single word simple commands without redirection as candidates for resumption of an existing job.

BG_NICE (-6) <C> <Z>

Run all background jobs at a lower priority. This option is set by default.

CHECK_JOBS <Z>

Report the status of background and suspended jobs before exiting a shell with job control; a second attempt to exit the shell will succeed. NO_CHECK_JOBS is best used only in combination with NO_HUP, else such jobs will be killed automatically.

The check is omitted if the commands run from the previous command line included a ‘jobs’ command, since it is assumed the user is aware that there are background or suspended jobs. A ‘jobs’ command run from one of the hook functions defined in the section Special Functions in Functions is not counted for this purpose.

CHECK_RUNNING_JOBS <Z>

Check for both running and suspended jobs when CHECK_JOBS is enabled. When this option is disabled, zsh checks only for suspended jobs, which matches the default behavior of bash.

This option has no effect unless CHECK_JOBS is set.

HUP <Z>

Send the HUP signal to running jobs when the shell exits.

LONG_LIST_JOBS (-R)

Print job notifications in the long format by default.

MONITOR (-m, ksh: -m)

Allow job control. Set by default in interactive shells.

NOTIFY (-5, ksh: -b) <Z>

Report the status of background jobs immediately, rather than waiting until just before printing a prompt.

POSIX_JOBS <K> <S>

This option makes job control more compliant with the POSIX standard.

When the option is not set, the MONITOR option is unset on entry to subshells, so that job control is no longer active. When the option is set, the MONITOR option and job control remain active in the subshell, but note that the subshell has no access to jobs in the parent shell.

When the option is not set, jobs put in the background or foreground with bg or fg are displayed with the same information that would be reported by jobs. When the option is set, only the text is printed. The output from jobs itself is not affected by the option.

When the option is not set, job information from the parent shell is saved for output within a subshell (for example, within a pipeline). When the option is set, the output of jobs is empty until a job is started within the subshell.

In previous versions of the shell, it was necessary to enable POSIX_JOBS in order for the builtin command wait to return the status of background jobs that had already exited. This is no longer the case.


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