Linux in a Nutshell, Third Edition

Command-Line Manipulation

csh and tcsh offer a certain amount of functionality in manipulating the command line. Both shells offer word or command completion, and tcsh allows you to edit a command line.

Completion

Both tcsh and csh provide word completion. tcsh automatically completes words and commands when the Tab key is hit; csh does so only when the filec variable is set, after the Esc key is hit. If the completion is ambiguous (i.e., more than one file matches the provided string), the shell completes as much as possible and beeps to notify you that the completion is not finished. You may request a list of possible completions with Ctrl-D. tcsh also notifies you when a completion is finished by appending a space to complete filenames or commands and a / to complete directories.

Both csh and tcsh recognize ~ notation for home directories. The shells assume that words at the beginning of a line and subsequent to |, &, ;, ||, or && are commands and modify their search paths appropriately. Completion can be done midword; only the letters to the left of the prompt are checked for completion.

Related Shell Variables

• autolist

• fignore

• listmax

• listmaxrows

Related Command-Line Editor Commands

• complete-word-back

• complete-word-forward

• expand-glob

• list-glob

Related Shell Built-ins

• complete

• uncomplete

Command-Line Editing with tcsh

tcsh lets you move your cursor around in the command line, editing the line as you type. There are two main modes for editing the command line, based on ...