Scripting

3.4    Zsh as an Alternative to Bash

I mentioned at the start of this chapter, for the core topic of this book (i.e., for programming scripts), Zsh plays only a minor role. For compatibility reasons, a better approach is to use Bash for programming scripts, and even to forgo the use of some Bash-specific extensions over other shells. In this way, you can make your scripts really work in almost any environment.

The appeal of Zsh lies rather in its interactive application: Zsh takes an even smarter approach than Bash when expanding command, file, and directory names when you press (Tab). You don’t have to specify the initial letters; instead, a combination of letters that occurs somewhere in the name is sufficient. In addition, Zsh provides more ...