Linux in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition

Command-Line Manipulation

tcsh offers a certain amount of functionality in manipulating the command line, including word or command completion and the ability to edit a command line.

Completion

The shell automatically completes words and commands when you press the Tab key, and notifies you when a completion is finished by appending a space to complete filenames or commands and a / to complete directories.

In addition, tcsh recognizes ~ notation for home directories; it assumes that words at the beginning of a line and subsequent to |, &, ;, ||, or && are commands, and modifies the search path 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

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 the two most common text editors: Emacs and vi. Emacs mode is the default; you can switch between the modes with:

               bindkey -e     
               Select Emacs bindings
               bindkey -v     
               Select vi bindings

The main difference between the Emacs and vi bindings is that the Emacs bindings are modeless (i.e., they always work). With the vi bindings, you must switch between input and command modes; different commands are useful ...