General man page for tzsh (update for version 0.62)

From man pages from an IBM AIX Version 3.2
(C) Copyrights by IBM and by others 1982, 1993.
and a Sequent DYNIX/ptx 4.0 V4.1.4.

This is a Freeware shell based on the excellent Korn shell.
The file tzsh.prf may be used to initialise your environment
The following (subset of) commands are internal to tzsh for
DOS, Windows and UNIX as appropriate, otherwise the native
command is used.

Please note that UNIX style slashes ( e.g. /) can be used on all
file system commands, even for DOS & Windows builds of tzsh.
Examples are given below, delimited within single quotes.

-------- Environment and Process Commands
alias		Creates aliases for commands, e.g. 'alias ll=ls -l',
		or 'alias np=notepad'.  The command 'np myfile.txt'
		would then start the notepad program with the specified file.
		'alias' by itself displays all defined aliases.
unalias		Clears a command alias.
shift		Shifts positional parameters for shell scripts.
history		Display command history.
r		Repeat a command by specifiying it's number
		(absolute or relative e.g. r 235 or r -2).
pwd		Displays the path name of the working directory.
cd		Changes the current directory (UNIX style slashes may be used).
		'cd -' changes to previous directory.
		network aware - e.g. cd h:/mydir is possible.
ls		Displays the contents of a directory.
		Options: -s size info, -l full info, -R recurse,
		-C column format.
lp		Print file to output destination, 'lp [-d dest] file'
		or uses variable LPDEST for destination.
echo		Writes character strings to standard output. Supports special
		chars such as \n for newline, \r for carriage return,
		\c for continue on current, \t horizontal tab.
clear		Clears the terminal screen.
cat		Displays contents of file to screen.  Supports options:
		-v decimal view of non-asci, -h hex view of non-asci,
		-H hex view of all, -b process file as binary (good for
		recombining split binaries).
cp		Copy files.  Supports option -i for interactive query for
		ok to copy if file already exists, e.g. 'cp afile $MYDIR'
		will copy the 'afile' to the user directory in the
		variable MYDIR.  Note: If the destination directory is
		the current one then only the source need be specified
		(as in DOS), although UNIX style '.' is also supported.
mv		Move files.  Supports option -i.
rm		Remove files.  Supports option -i.
mkdir		Creates the named directory in mode 777.
rmdir		Removes the named directory.
touch		Update the timestamp on files.
run		Begins running an application or forces execution of the
		command, most programs can be started by simply typing
		their name.
.		Processes the specified file as a script within the current
		shell.
set		Displays, creates, changes or deletes a global environment
		variable.  Also enables options to be set using
		'set -o opt mode' syntax,
		e.g. 'set -o' and 'set -o xtrace on', the last example
		is equivalent to 'set -x' or 'set +x' for 'off' mode.
env		Displays all local environment (see = for setting, these
		have precedence over globals).
unset		Deletes a local environment variable (see = for setting).
expr		Evaluates arguments as expressions.
		e.g. v=`expr 1.2 + 3.0` would set v to 4.2,
		then v1=`expr $v + 2` would set v1 to 6.2.
		Also support $(( expr )) for expression evaluation,
		e.g. v=$(( 1.2 + 3.0 )) would be the same as above.
more		Displays continuous text one screen at a time on a screen.
		q/Q to quit more, b/B to scroll back a page,
		<Enter> for 1 line, <Space> for 1 screen,
		a forward slash then some text e.g. '/searchstring',
		will move forward until the searchstring is found.
pg, page	Similar to more but no display of percentage of file viewed.
hexview		Outputs the contents in a formatted hex (or dec) format.
man		Displays a manual page for the specified command.
exit		Terminates the shell (and for Windows closes the window).
cut		Cut out selected fields or columns of each line of a file.
		Supports extraction of columns by column (e.g. -c3-5,7) and
		by delimited field (e.g. -f4,5).  IFS or -d'char' are used
		for -f option as delimiter.
paste		Merges same lines of several files or subsequent lines
		of one file.  Supports option -s to merge subsequent lines
		from the first file horizontally.
head		Delivers the first few lines of a file, defaults to 10,
		e.g. 'head 30 afile'.
tail		Delivers the last few lines of a file, defaults to 10,
		e.g. 'tail 100 afile'.  Supports the option -f to follow a
		file, e.g. 'tail -f myfile' will continually output all new
		contents of the file as it is appended to.
grep		Searches for strings in files.  Supports options:
		-y ignore case, -n show line numbers, -c display count only,
		-l list filenames only, -h supress filenames for multiple
		selection, -p get paragraph.
diff		Differential file comparison.
exec		See read.
read		Reads input from stdin or a file if a process is exec'd on
		this, the command 'exec 2<afile' then read -u2 v1 v2 v3
		will initiate a redirection for afile to steam 2, then
		'read -u2 var ... ' will read the file into any number of
		variables, with the fields separated by an IFS character
		and the last variable taking the remainder (e.g. using
		just one variable takes in the whole line into it).
		'read myvar?"text "' syntax is also supported for getting
		input from the console.
wait		Await completion of process having process ID specified.
sleep		Suspend execution for an interval.
find		Finds files by recursively descending the directory hierarchy
		for each pathname in the path-name-list.  Supports option:
		-ls to display size info, -name for file specification
		including wildcards, -newer to date specification in
		dd/mm/ccyy format, -oindent, -prune and -depth.
date		Prints date and time information depending on format
		specifiers.  Supports quite a complex output, see full manual.
wc		Counts lines (-l), words (-w), and characters (-c) in the named
		files, an additional option for tzsh, -b, ignores blank lines
		during the count (e.g. wc -lb *.c for all non-blank lines).
which		Scans the execution path for the file specified and thus
		informs	the user which version is being used as a default.
ps		Prints information about active processes.  Without options,
		information is printed about processes associated with the
		controlling terminal.  Currently not for NT build. The -e
		option provides info on all processes and -f provides
		even more info.
kill		Terminates to the specified processes.
		For Windows16 build use hTask from 'ps' as process id,
		otherwise use the idProcess from 'ps'.
tree		A tzsh command similar to 'find' but displays an indented
		list of files within the directory tree.  A short cut to
		the find command with an -oindent option.
		Also accepts '-ls' for size info.
strings		Finds strings of characters in any file type.
split		Split a file into smaller files,
		option -b treats a file as binary.
patchit		A tzsh command which patches any sort of file (including
		binaries) allowing replacement of one text string
		with another.
==		Used for expression evaluation.
=		Used for variable assignment (set local environment variables)
		e.g. AV=Hello B=1 etc.
$		Used to access local and global environment variables
		e.g. echo $AV $B.
		Can use as v1=$v2 to set value of v1 same as another variable.
		Also used to invoke command execution and evaluation
		using $( cmd ) or $(( expression )) syntax,
		e.g. 'a=$(pwd)' would set a to the current working directory,
		'b=$(ls -C *.txt)' would set b to an IFS seperated list of
		all *.txt files, and 'v=$(( 3 + 7 ))' would set v to equal 8,
		then 'echo The answer is $(( $v + 2 ))' would output the text
		followed by 12.
`		Used to delimit commands to execute within commands
		NOTE: this is not the ' character but the ` character.
		e.g. Can use as v1=`pwd` to set value of v1 same as result
		of a command.  The archaic form of $().
{ and }		Separating variables from strings e.g. Hello$varBye, would
		be an unclear variable name, whereas Hello${var}Bye would work.
		This also allows parameter substitution using syntax such as
		${parameter:?word}, see ksh manual for more info.
		e.g.  echo ${d:-`pwd`}, if the variable d is set this is
		printed, otherwise the working directory is printed.

**** On Windows95/NT implementation also support:
df		Report number of free disk blocks and files, this command is
		network aware and will also report on mapped drives.  Can specifiy
		an individual drive (e.g. df c:) otherwise all mapped drives
		are reported on.  Supports options -s, -k and -I.
du		Summarize disk usage contained in all files and (recursively)
		directories within each directory and file specified by the
		names argument.  Defaults to only displaying directories, -a
		option also shows all the files contined within.
lpinfo		Reports on installed printers by port (default)
		or by driver (option -d).
lpstat		Reports on the status of each printer queue/device.
uname		Prints the nodename of the current system.  Currently only the
		default option of node name is supported.
id		Prints user and group IDs and names.
who		Prints who is on the system.
backdrop	Loads the specified bitmap as the wallpaper for the current
		session, does not alter the win.ini or registry.
hear		Plays the specified wave using the default sound driver.

**** Still in development are:
chmod	Only supports numbered syntax, e.g. 'chmod 740 myfile'.
test
trap	User interrupts can be captured and either handled by
		default or a user defined process.

For a full information on the commands see the main manual pages.

-------- Environment Variables
PS1		The command line prompt, a default is always set,
		modify to change value or unset to use UNIX system one.
		e.g: PS1=\"$>\" sets $> as prompt.
		     PS1=`pwd`\"$\" sets the current directory
			as prompt with a $ at the end.
IFS		The Internal Field Seperator, used by shell to delimit fields
		in a string or series of strings.
TMP		The work area directory
		(can use as TMP=$TEMP to set from another environment variable).
HOME		The home path,
		(typing cd by itself always returns you to this directory).
MANPAGES	Path for manual pages files (e.g. /utils/man).
?		Result of last command, e.g. echo result = $?
#		Number of arguments passed to a script
*		All arguments passed to a script.
@		Token (IFS) seperated list of arguments.
0 and 1..9	Scriptname and positional arguments passed to script.
RANDOM		A random number, seeded by setting RANDOM.
SECONDS		The number of seconds the shell has been active.

-------- Flow Control Script Commands
if..else..fi	Expression evaluation with branching
for		Define a set to loop through
while		Loop while expression is true e.g. while ( $myvar < 100 )
do..done	Begining and end of flow control.

-------- CommandLine Startup and Redirection Options
<, > and >>	Redirection for input (run) and output (results) files
		instead of stdin and stdout e.g. 'ls -l > afile'.
|		Piping, passing results of one command to another
		try "ls -l | more" to see this in action.
>&1		redirect to stdout, no matter what other redirections in effect
		also support /dev/tty as valid output file for stdout.
>&2		redirect to stderr, no matter what other redirections in effect.
/dev/nul	Null device, all output sent here is lost.

-------- Not Supported
The todo.txt file describes all the functionality which will be added.

The following important items are currently not supported:
There is no typeset concept, all variables are non-typed.
'*' and '?' are supported for matching, '[charlist]' is not.
There is no umask concept, uses native UNIX features on these platforms,
otherwise it is not supported.

-------- Points of Interest
If you're in a directory and find you need to do some GUI stuff,
then simply type 'winfile .' or 'explorer .', the '.' acts current
directory and opens the window in your current directory, neat,
or even better 'explorer $mydir' will also work, when 'mydir' is
a shell variable (tzsh or environment, doesn't matter).
Also, dragging a directory, file, or other text into the tzsh window
(and then wiggling the mouse - Microsoft GUIs !), copies the text
into the window.  This is useful to quickly change the shell to
the directory you're looking at with a GUI tool, then you can do
some real stuff in there.  Try typing 'cd' then drag a directory into
the shell window.  Don't will copy the name of the directory (or file
or whatever) into the window at the point where you stopped typing.