Shell Grammar

Simple Commands

A simple command is a sequence of optional parameter assignments followed by blank-separated words, with optional redirections interspersed. The first word is the command to be executed, and the remaining words, if any, are arguments to the command. If a command name is given, the parameter assignments modify the environment of the command when it is executed. The value of a simple command is its exit status, or 128 plus the signal number if terminated by a signal.

A pipeline is a sequence of one or more commands separated by | or |&. |& is shorthand for 2>&1 |. The standard output of each command is connected to the standard input of the next command in the pipeline. If a pipeline is preceded by coproc, it is executed as a coprocess; a two-way pipe is established between it and the parent shell. The shell can read from or write to the coprocess by means of the >&p and <&p redirection operators. The value of a pipeline is the value of the last command. If a pipeline is not preceded by !, the value of that pipeline is the logical NOT of the value of the last command.

A sublist is a sequence of one or more pipelines separated by && or ||. If two pipelines are separated by &&, the second pipeline is executed only if the first is successful (returns a zero value). If two pipelines are separated by ||, the second is executed only if the first is unsuccessful (returns a nonzero value). Both operators have equal precedence and are left associative.

A list is a sequence of zero or more sublists separated by, and optionally terminated by, ;, &, &|, &!, or a newline. Normally the shell waits for each list to finish before executing the next one. If a list is terminated by a &, &|, or &!, the shell executes it in the background, and does not wait for it to finish.

Precommand Modifiers

A simple command may be preceded by a precommand modifier which will alter how the command is interpreted. These modifiers are shell builtin commands with the exception of nocorrect which is a reserved word.

-

The command is executed with a - prepended to its argv[0] string.

noglob

Filename generation (globbing) is not performed on any of the words.

nocorrect

Spelling correction is not done on any of the words.

exec

The command is executed in the parent shell without forking.

command

The command word is taken to be the name of an external command, rather than a shell function or builtin.

Complex Commands

A complex command in zsh is one of the following:

if list then list [ elif list then list ] ... [ else list ] fi

The if list is executed, and, if it returns a zero exit status, the then list is executed. Otherwise, the elif list is executed and, if its value is zero, the then list is executed. If each elif list returns nonzero, the else list is executed.

for name [ in word ... term ] do list done

Where term is one or more newline or ;. Expand the list of words, and set the parameter name to each of them in turn, executing list each time. If the in word is omitted, use the positional parameters instead of the words.

while list do list done

Execute the do list as long as the while list returns a zero exit status.

until list do list done

Execute the do list as long as until list returns a nonzero exit status.

repeat word do list done

word is expanded and treated as an arithmetic expression, which must evaluate to a number n. list is then executed n times.

case word in [ [(] pattern [ | pattern ] ... ) list ;; ] ... esac

Execute the list associated with the first pattern that matches word, if any. The form of the patterns is the same as that used for filename generation. See section Filename Generation.

select name [ in word ... term ] do list done

Where term is one ore more newline or ;. Print the set of words, each preceded by a number. If the in word is omitted, use the positional parameters. The PROMPT3 prompt is printed and a line is read from standard input. If this line consists of the number of one of the listed words, then the parameter name is set to the word corresponding to this number. If this line is empty, the selection list is printed again. Otherwise, the value of the parameter name is set to null. The contents of the line read from standard input is saved in the parameter REPLY. list is executed for each selection until a break or end-of-file is encountered.

( list )

Execute list in a subshell. Traps set by the trap builtin are reset to their default values while executing list.

{ list }

Execute list.

function word ... [ () ] [ term ] { list }

word ... () [ term ] { list }

word ... () [ term ] command

Where term is one ore more newline or ;. Define a function which is referenced by any one of word. Normally, only one word is provided; multiple words are usually only useful for setting traps. The body of the function is the list between the { and }. See section Functions.

time [ pipeline ]

The pipeline is executed, and timing statistics are reported on the standard error in the form specified by the TIMEFMT parameter. If pipeline is omitted, print statistics about the shell process and its children.

[[ exp ]]

Evaluates the conditional expression exp and return a zero exit status if it is true. See section Conditional Expressions, for a description of exp.

Alternate Forms For Complex Commands

Many of zsh's complex commands have alternate forms. These particular versions of complex commands should be considered deprecated and may be removed in the future. The versions in the previous section should be preferred instead. The short versions below only work if sublist is of the form { list } or if the NO_SHORT_LOOPS option is not set.

if list { list } [ elif list { list } ] ... [ else { list } ]

An alternate form of if.

if list sublist

A short form of previous one.

for name ( word ... ) sublist

A short form of for.

for name [ in word ... term ] sublist

Where term is one or more newline or ;. Another short form of for.

foreach name ( word ... ) list end

Another form of for.

while list { list }

An alternative form of while.

until list { list }

An alternative form of until.

repeat word sublist

This is a short form of repeat.

case word { [ [(] pattern [ | pattern ] ... ) list ;; ] ... }

An alternative form of case.

select name [ in word term ] sublist

Where term is one or more newline or ;. A short form of select.

Reserved Words

The following words are recognized as reserved words when used as the first word of a command unless quoted or disabled using disable -r:

do done esac then elif else fi for case if while function repeat time until select coproc nocorrect foreach end ! [[ { }

Additionally } is recognized in any position if the IGNORE_BRACES option is not set.

Comments

In non-interactive shells, or in interactive shells with the INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS option set, a word beginning with the third character of the histchars parameter (# by default) causes that word and all the following characters up to a newline to be ignored.

Aliasing

Every token in the shell input is checked to see if there is an alias defined for it. If so, it is replaced by the text of the alias if it is in command position (if it could be the first word of a simple command), or if the alias is global. If the text ends with a space, the next word in the shell input is treated as though it were in command position for purposes of alias expansion. An alias is defined using the alias builtin; global aliases may be defined using the `-g' option to that builtin.

Alias substitution is done on the shell input before any other substitution except history substitution. Therefore, if an alias is defined for the word `foo', alias substitution may be avoided by quoting part of the word, e.g. `\foo'. But there is nothing to prevent an alias being defined for `\foo' as well.

Quoting

A character may be quoted (that is, made to stand for itself) by preceding it with a \. \ followed by a newline is ignored. All characters enclosed between a pair of single quotes ('') are quoted, except the first character of histchars (! by default). A single quote cannot appear within single quotes. Inside double quotes (""), parameter and command substitution occurs, and \ quotes the characters \, `, ", and $.

Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.