 |  |
| |
Overview of Features
Invoking the Shell
Syntax
Variables
Expressions
Command History
Command-Line Manipulation
Job Control
Built-in Commands
This chapter describes tcsh, an enhanced version of the C shell. On many versions of Linux, tcsh is also used as the C shell; in that case, the tcsh features described in this chapter work even when you run csh. The C shell was so named because many of its programming constructs and symbols resemble those of the C programming language.
The default shell on Linux systems is bash. If you want to use tcsh, you first need to change your default. Each user's shell preference is kept in the password table. If you are creating an account, you can set the default shell when you add the user. If the account already exists, use the chsh command to change the shell (see the command descriptions in Chapter 3).
Features of tcsh include:
Input/output redirection
Wildcard characters (metacharacters) for filename abbreviation
Shell variables for customizing your environment
Integer arithmetic
Access to previous commands (command history)
Command-name abbreviation (aliasing)
A built-in command set for writing shell programs
Job control
Command-line editing and editor commands
Word completion (tab completion)
Spellchecking
Scheduled events, such as logout or terminal locking after a set idle period and delayed commands
Read-only variables
|  | |
| 7.7. Built-in Commands |  | 8.2. Invoking the Shell |
Copyright © 2003 O'Reilly & Associates. All rights reserved.