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diff --git a/Doc/zshroadmap.1 b/Doc/zshroadmap.1 new file mode 100644 index 000000000..35a993192 --- /dev/null +++ b/Doc/zshroadmap.1 @@ -0,0 +1,195 @@ +.TH "ZSHROADMAP" "1" "February 14, 2020" "zsh 5\&.8" +.SH "NAME" +zshroadmap \- informal introduction to the zsh manual +.\" Yodl file: Zsh/roadmap.yo +The Zsh Manual, like the shell itself, is large and often complicated\&. +This section of the manual provides some pointers to areas of the shell +that are likely to be of particular interest to new users, and indicates +where in the rest of the manual the documentation is to be found\&. +.PP +.SH "WHEN THE SHELL STARTS" +.PP +When it starts, the shell reads commands from various files\&. These can +be created or edited to customize the shell\&. See the section +Startup/Shutdown Files in \fIzsh\fP(1)\&. +.PP +If no personal initialization files exist for the current user, a function +is run to help you change some of the most common settings\&. It won\&'t +appear if your administrator has disabled the \fBzsh/newuser\fP module\&. +The function is designed to be self\-explanatory\&. You can run it by hand +with `\fBautoload \-Uz zsh\-newuser\-install; zsh\-newuser\-install \-f\fP\&'\&. +See also +the section User Configuration Functions in \fIzshcontrib\fP(1)\&. +.PP +.SH "INTERACTIVE USE" +.PP +Interaction with the shell uses the builtin Zsh Line Editor, ZLE\&. This is +described in detail in \fIzshzle\fP(1)\&. +.PP +The first decision a user must make is whether to use the Emacs or Vi +editing mode as the keys for editing are substantially different\&. Emacs +editing mode is probably more natural for beginners and can be selected +explicitly with the command \fBbindkey \-e\fP\&. +.PP +A history mechanism for retrieving previously typed lines (most simply +with the Up or Down arrow keys) is available; note that, unlike other +shells, zsh will not save these lines when the shell exits unless you +set appropriate variables, and the number of history lines retained by +default is quite small (30 lines)\&. See the description of the shell +variables (referred to in the documentation as parameters) \fBHISTFILE\fP, +\fBHISTSIZE\fP and \fBSAVEHIST\fP in \fIzshparam\fP(1)\&. Note that it\&'s +currently only possible to read and write files saving history +when the shell is interactive, i\&.e\&. it does not work from scripts\&. +.PP +The shell now supports the UTF\-8 character set (and also others if +supported by the operating system)\&. This is (mostly) handled transparently +by the shell, but the degree of support in terminal emulators is variable\&. +There is some discussion of this in the shell FAQ, +\fBhttp://www\&.zsh\&.org/FAQ/\fP\&. Note in particular that for combining +characters to be handled the option \fBCOMBINING_CHARS\fP needs to be set\&. +Because the shell is now more sensitive to the definition of the +character set, note that if you are upgrading from an older version of +the shell you should ensure that the appropriate variable, either +\fBLANG\fP (to affect all aspects of the shell\&'s operation) or +\fBLC_CTYPE\fP (to affect only the handling of character sets) is set to +an appropriate value\&. This is true even if you are using a +single\-byte character set including extensions of ASCII such as +\fBISO\-8859\-1\fP or \fBISO\-8859\-15\fP\&. See the description of \fBLC_CTYPE\fP +in +\fIzshparam\fP(1)\&. +.PP +.SS "Completion" +.PP +Completion is a feature present in many shells\&. It allows the user to +type only a part (usually the prefix) of a word and have the shell fill +in the rest\&. The completion system in zsh is programmable\&. For +example, the shell can be set to complete email addresses in +arguments to the mail command from your \fB~/\&.abook/addressbook\fP; +usernames, hostnames, and even remote paths in arguments to scp, and so +on\&. Anything that can be written in or glued together with zsh can be +the source of what the line editor offers as possible completions\&. +.PP +Zsh has two completion systems, an old, so called \fBcompctl\fP completion +(named after the builtin command that serves as its complete and only +user interface), and a new one, referred to as \fBcompsys\fP, +organized as library of builtin and user\-defined functions\&. +The two systems differ in their interface for specifying the completion +behavior\&. The new system is more customizable and is supplied with +completions for many commonly used commands; it is therefore to be +preferred\&. +.PP +The completion system must be enabled explicitly when the shell starts\&. +For more information see +\fIzshcompsys\fP(1)\&. +.PP +.SS "Extending the line editor" +.PP +Apart from completion, the line editor is highly extensible by means of +shell functions\&. Some useful functions are provided with the shell; they +provide facilities such as: +.PP +.PD 0 +.TP +.PD +\fBinsert\-composed\-char\fP +composing characters not found on the keyboard +.TP +\fBmatch\-words\-by\-style\fP +configuring what the line editor considers a word when moving or +deleting by word +.TP +\fBhistory\-beginning\-search\-backward\-end\fP, etc\&. +alternative ways of searching the shell history +.TP +\fBreplace\-string\fP, \fBreplace\-pattern\fP +functions for replacing strings or patterns globally in the command line +.TP +\fBedit\-command\-line\fP +edit the command line with an external editor\&. +.PP +See the section `ZLE Functions\&' in \fIzshcontrib\fP(1) for descriptions of these\&. +.PP +.SH "OPTIONS" +.PP +The shell has a large number of options for changing its behaviour\&. +These cover all aspects of the shell; browsing the full documentation is +the only good way to become acquainted with the many possibilities\&. See +\fIzshoptions\fP(1)\&. +.PP +.SH "PATTERN MATCHING" +.PP +The shell has a rich set of patterns which are available for file matching +(described in the documentation as `filename generation\&' and also known for +historical reasons as `globbing\&') and for use when programming\&. These are +described in the section `Filename Generation\&' in \fIzshexpn\fP(1)\&. +.PP +Of particular interest are the following patterns that are not commonly +supported by other systems of pattern matching: +.PP +.PD 0 +.TP +.PD +\fB**\fP +for matching over multiple directories +.TP +\fB|\fP +for matching either of two alternatives +.TP +\fB~\fP, \fB^\fP +the ability to exclude patterns from matching when the \fBEXTENDED_GLOB\fP +option is set +.TP +\fB(\fP\fI\&.\&.\&.\fP\fB)\fP +glob qualifiers, included in parentheses at the end of the pattern, +which select files by type (such as directories) or attribute (such as +size)\&. +.PP +.SH "GENERAL COMMENTS ON SYNTAX" +.PP +Although the syntax of zsh is in ways similar to the Korn shell, and +therefore more remotely to the original UNIX shell, the Bourne shell, +its default behaviour does not entirely correspond to those shells\&. +General shell syntax is introduced in the section `Shell Grammar\&' in +\fIzshmisc\fP(1)\&. +.PP +One commonly encountered difference is that variables substituted onto the +command line are not split into words\&. See the description of the shell option +\fBSH_WORD_SPLIT\fP in +the section `Parameter Expansion\&' in \fIzshexpn\fP(1)\&. +In zsh, you can either explicitly request the splitting (e\&.g\&. \fB${=foo}\fP) +or use an array when you want a variable to expand to more than one word\&. See +the section `Array Parameters\&' in \fIzshparam\fP(1)\&. +.PP +.SH "PROGRAMMING" +.PP +The most convenient way of adding enhancements to the shell is typically +by writing a shell function and arranging for it to be autoloaded\&. +Functions are described in the section `Functions\&' in +\fIzshmisc\fP(1)\&. Users changing from the C shell and its +relatives should notice that aliases are less used in zsh as they don\&'t +perform argument substitution, only simple text replacement\&. +.PP +A few general functions, other than those for the line editor described +above, are provided with the shell and are described in +\fIzshcontrib\fP(1)\&. Features include: +.PP +.PD 0 +.TP +.PD +\fBpromptinit\fP +a prompt theme system for changing prompts easily, see the section +`Prompt Themes\&' + +.TP +\fBzsh\-mime\-setup\fP +a MIME\-handling system which dispatches commands according to the suffix of +a file as done by graphical file managers +.TP +\fBzcalc\fP +a calculator +.TP +\fBzargs\fP +a version of \fBxargs\fP that makes the \fBfind\fP command redundant +.TP +\fBzmv\fP +a command for renaming files by means of shell patterns\&. |