Linux in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition

Syntax

This section describes the many symbols used by tcsh. The topics are arranged as follows:

• Special files

• Filename metacharacters

• Quoting

• Command forms

• Redirection forms

Special Files

Filename	Description
~/.tcshrc or ~/.cshrc	Executed at each instance of shell startup. If no ~/.tcshrc is found, tcsh uses ~/.cshrc if present.
~/.login	Executed by login shell after .tcshrc at login.
~/.cshdirs	Executed by login shell after .login.
~/.logout	Executed by login shell at logout.
/etc/passwd	Source of home directories for ~ name abbreviations.

Filename Metacharacters

Characters	Meaning
*	Match any string of 0 or more characters.
?	Match any single character.
[ abc ...]	Match any one of the enclosed characters; a hyphen can be used to specify a range (e.g., a-z, A-Z, 0-9).
{ abc,xxx,...}	Expand each comma-separated string inside braces.
~	Home directory for the current user.
~ name	Home directory of user name.

Examples

% ls new*          
                  Match new and new.1
% cat ch?          
                  Match ch9 but not ch10
% vi [D-R]*        
                  Match files that begin with uppercase D through R
% ls {ch,app}?     
                  Expand, then match ch1, ch2, app1, app2
% cd ~tom          
                  Change to tom's home directory

Quoting

Quoting disables a character’s special meaning and allows it to be used literally, as itself. The characters in the following table have special meaning to tcsh.

Characters	Description
;	Command separator
&	Background execution
( )	Command grouping
|	Pipe
* ? [ ] ~	Filename metacharacters ...