\endhtmlonly
+
\section design-overview Overview
This is a description of the design principles that have been used to
@@ -132,3 +134,5 @@ Examples:
- The language should be uniform, so that once the user understands the command/argument syntax, he will know the whole language, and be able to use tab-completion to discover new featues.
*/
+
+\htmlonly
\endhtmlonly
diff --git a/doc_src/faq.hdr b/doc_src/faq.hdr
index 449c10f4f..c727dd5da 100644
--- a/doc_src/faq.hdr
+++ b/doc_src/faq.hdr
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
/** \page faq Frequently asked questions
+\htmlonly
+\endhtmlonly
\section introduction Introduction
@@ -376,6 +379,20 @@ Help on a specific builtin can also be obtained with the
-h
parameter. For instance, to obtain help on the \c fg builtin, either
type
fg -h or
help fg.
+\section autosuggestions Autosuggestions
+
+fish suggests commands as you type, based on command history, completions,
+and valid file paths. As you type commands, you will see a completion offered after the
+cursor, in a muted gray color (which can be changed with the
+
fish_color_autosuggestion variable).
+
+To accept the autosuggestion (replacing the command line contents),
+hit right arrow or Control-F. If the autosuggestion is not what you want,
+just ignore it: it won't execute unless you accept it.
+
+Autosuggestions are a powerful way to quickly summon frequently entered commands, by
+typing the first few characters. They are also an efficient technique for navigating
+through directory hierarchies.
\section completion Tab completion
@@ -795,7 +812,7 @@ To set the variable \c smurf_color to the value \c blue, use the command
set smurf_color blue.
After a variable has been set, you can use the value of a variable in
-the shell through
variable expansion.
+the shell through
variable expansion.
Example:
@@ -1102,57 +1119,30 @@ shortcuts.
Here are some of the commands available in the editor:
-- Tab
completes the current token
-- Home or Ctrl-A moves to the beginning of the line
-- End or Ctrl-E moves to the end of line
-- Left and Right moves one character left or right
-- Alt-Left and Alt-Right moves one word left or right, or moves forward/backward in the directory history if the commandline is empty
+- Tab
completes the current token.
+- Home or Ctrl-A moves the cursor to the beginning of the line.
+- End or Ctrl-E moves to the end of line. If the cursor is already at the end of the line, and an autosuggestion is available, End or Ctrl-E accepts the autosuggestion.
+- Left (or Ctrl-B) and Right (or Ctrl-F) move the cursor left or right by one character. If the cursor is already at the end of the line, and an autosuggestion is available, the Right key and the Ctrl-F combination accept the suggestion.
+- Alt-Left and Alt-Right move the cursor one word left or right, or moves forward/backward in the directory history if the command line is empty.
- Up and Down search the command history for the previous/next command containing the string that was specified on the commandline before the search was started. If the commandline was empty when the search started, all commands match. See the
history section for more information on history searching.
- Alt-Up and Alt-Down search the command history for the previous/next token containing the token under the cursor before the search was started. If the commandline was not on a token when the search started, all tokens match. See the
history section for more information on history searching.
-- Delete and Backspace removes one character forwards or backwards respectively
-- Ctrl-C deletes entire line
-- Ctrl-D delete one character to the right of the cursor, unless the buffer is empty, in which case the shell will exit
-- Ctrl-K moves contents from the cursor to the end of line to the
killring
-- Ctrl-U moves contents from the beginning of line to the cursor to the
killring
-- Ctrl-L clears and repaints the screen
-- Ctrl-W moves the previous word to the
killring
-- Alt-D moves the next word to the
killring
-- Alt-W prints a short description of the command under the cursor
-- Alt-L lists the contents of the current directory, unless the cursor is over a directory argument, in which case the contents of that directory will be listed
+- Delete and Backspace removes one character forwards or backwards respectively.
+- Ctrl-C deletes the entire line.
+- Ctrl-D delete one character to the right of the cursor. If the command line is empty, Ctrl-D will exit fish.
+- Ctrl-K moves contents from the cursor to the end of line to the
killring.
+- Ctrl-U moves contents from the beginning of line to the cursor to the
killring.
+- Ctrl-L clears and repaints the screen.
+- Ctrl-W moves the previous word to the
killring.
+- Alt-D moves the next word to the
killring.
+- Alt-W prints a short description of the command under the cursor.
+- Alt-L lists the contents of the current directory, unless the cursor is over a directory argument, in which case the contents of that directory will be listed.
- Alt-P adds the string
'| less;' to the end of the job under the cursor. The result is that the output of the command will be paged.
+- Alt-C capitalizes the current word.
+- Alt-U makes the current word uppercase.
You can change these key bindings using the
bind builtin command.
-
-- \c backward-char, moves one character to the left
-- \c backward-delete-char, deletes one character of input to the left of the cursor
-- \c backward-kill-line, move everything from the beginning of the line to the cursor to the killring
-- \c backward-kill-word, move the word to the left of the cursor to the killring
-- \c backward-word, move one word to the left
-- \c beginning-of-history, move to the beginning of the history
-- \c beginning-of-line, move to the beginning of the line
-- \c complete, guess the remainder of the current token
-- \c delete-char, delete one character to the right of the cursor
-- \c delete-line, delete the entire line
-- \c dump-functions, print a list of all key-bindings
-- \c end-of-history, move to the end of the history
-- \c end-of-line, move to the end of the line
-- \c explain, print a description of possible problems with the current command
-- \c forward-char, move one character to the right
-- \c forward-word, move one word to the right
-- \c history-search-backward, search the history for the previous match
-- \c history-search-forward, search the history for the next match
-- \c kill-line, move everything from the cursor to the end of the line to the killring
-- \c kill-whole-line, move the line to the killring
-- \c kill-word, move the next word to the killring
-- \c yank, insert the latest entry of the killring into the buffer
-- \c yank-pop, rotate to the previous entry of the killring
-
-If such a script produces output, the script needs to finish by
-calling 'commandline -f repaint' in order to tell fish that a repaint
-is in order.
-
\subsection killring Copy and paste (Kill Ring)
\c fish uses an Emacs style kill ring for copy and paste
@@ -1390,3 +1380,5 @@ If you have an improvement for fish, you can submit it via the mailing list
or the GitHub page.
*/
+
+\htmlonly
+
+
fish tutorial
+
+
Why fish?
+
+
fish is a fully-equipped command line shell (like bash or zsh) that is smart and user-friendly. fish supports powerful features like syntax highlighting, autosuggestions, and tab completions that just work, with nothing to learn or configure.
+
+
If you want to make your command line more productive, more useful, and more fun, without learning a bunch of arcane syntax and configuration options, then fish might be just what you're looking for!
+
+
Learning fish
+
+
This tutorial assumes a basic understanding of command line shells and Unix commands, and that you have a working copy of fish.
+
+
If you have a strong understanding of other shells, and want to know what fish does differently, search for the magic phrase unlike other shells, which is used to call out important differences.
+
+
When you start fish, you should see this:
+
+
+Welcome to fish, the friendly interactive shell
+Type help for instructions on how to use fish
+you@hostname ~>
+
+
+
fish comes with a default prompt that shows your username, hostname, and working directory. You'll see how to change your prompt further down. From now on, we'll pretend your prompt is just a '>' to save space.
+
+
Running Commands
+
+
fish runs commands like other shells: you type a command, followed by its arguments. Spaces are separators:
+
+
+> echo hello world
+hello world
+
+
+You can include a literal space in an argument with a backslash, or by using single or double quotes:
+
+
+> mkdir My\ Files
+> cp ~/Some\ File 'My Files'
+> ls "My Files"
+Some File
+
+
+Commands can be chained with semicolons.
+
+
Getting Help
+
+fish has excellent help and man pages. Run
help to open help in a web browser, and
man to open it in a man page. You can also ask for help with a specific command, for example,
help set to open in a web browser, or
man set to see it in the terminal.
+
+
+> man set
+set - handle environment variables
+ Synopsis...
+
+
+
Syntax Highlighting
+You'll quickly notice that fish performs syntax highlighting as you type. Invalid commands are colored red by default:
+
+
+> /bin/mkd
+
+
+A command may be invalid because it does not exist, or refers to a file that you cannot execute. When the command becomes valid, it is shown in a different color:
+
+
+> /bin/mkdir
+
+
+fish will underline valid file paths as you type them:
+
+
+> cat ~/somefi
+
+
+
This tells you that there exists a file that starts with 'somefi', which is useful feedback as you type.
+
+
These colors, and many more, can be changed by running fish_config, or by modifying variables directly.
+
+
Wildcards
+
+fish supports the familiar wildcard *. To list all JPEG files:
+
+
+> ls *.jpg
+lena.jpg
+meena.jpg
+santa maria.jpg
+
+
+
You can include multiple wildcards:
+
+
+> ls l*.p*
+lena.png
+lesson.pdf
+
+
+
Especially powerful is the recursive wildcard ** which searches directories recursively:
+
+
+> ls /var/**.log
+/var/log/system.log
+/var/run/sntp.log
+
+
+
If that directory traversal is taking a long time, you can control-C out of it.
+
+
Pipes and Redirections
+
+
You can pipe between commands with the usual vertical bar:
+
+
+> echo hello world | wc
+ 1 2 12
+
+
+
stdin and stdout can be redirected via the familiar < and >. Unlike other shells, stderr is redirected with a caret ^
+
+
+> grep fish < /etc/shells > ~/output.txt ^ ~/errors.txt
+
+
+
Autosuggestions
+
+fish suggests commands as you type, and shows the suggestion to the right of the cursor, in gray. For example:
+
+
+> /bin/hostname
+
+
+It knows about paths and options:
+
+
+> grep --ignore-case
+
+
+And history too. Type a command once, and you can re-summon it by just typing a few letters:
+
+
+> rsync -avze ssh . myname@somelonghost.com:/some/long/path/doo/dee/doo/dee/doo
+
+
+To accept the autosuggestion, hit right arrow or Control-F. If the autosuggestion is not what you want, just ignore it.
+
+
Tab Completions
+
+
fish comes with a rich set of tab completions, that work "out of the box."
+
+
Press tab, and fish will attempt to complete the command, argument, or path:
+
+
+> /pri<tab> → /private/
+
+
+
If there's more than one possibility, it will list them:
+
+> ~/stuff/s<tab>
+~/stuff/script.sh (Executable, 4.8kB) ~/stuff/sources/ (Directory)
+
+
+
Hit tab again to cycle through the possibilities.
+
+
fish can also complete many commands, like git branches:
+
+
+> git merge pr<tab> → git merge prompt_designer
+> git checkout b<tab>
+builtin_list_io_merge (Branch) builtin_set_color (Branch) busted_events (Tag)
+
+
+Try hitting tab and see what fish can do!
+
+
Variables
+
+
Like other shells, a dollar sign performs variable substitution:
+
+
+> echo My home directory is $HOME
+My home directory is /home/tutorial
+
+
+Variable substitution also occurs in double quotes, but not single quotes:
+
+
+> echo "My current directory is $PWD"
+My current directory is /home/tutorial
+> echo 'My current directory is $PWD'
+My current directory is $PWD
+
+
+Unlike other shells, fish has no dedicated syntax for setting variables. Instead it has an ordinary command:
set, which takes a variable name, and then its value.
+
+
+> set name 'Mister Noodle'
+> echo $name
+Mister Noodle
+
+
+
(Notice the quotes: without them, Mister and Noodle would have been separate arguments, and $name would have been made into a list of two elements.)
+
+
Unlike other shells, variables are not further split after substitution:
+
+
+> mkdir $name
+> ls
+Mister Noodle
+
+
+In bash, this would have created two directories "Mister" and "Noodle". In fish, it created only one: the variable had the value "Mister Noodle", so that is the argument that was passed to
mkdir, spaces and all.
+
+
Exit Status
+
+Unlike other shells, fish stores the exit status of the last command in
$status instead of
$?.
+
+
+> false
+> echo $status
+1
+
+
+Zero is considered success, and non-zero is failure.
+
+
Exports (Environment Variables)
+
+Unlike other shells, fish does not have an export command. Instead, a variable is exported via an option to
set, either
--export or just
-x.
+
+
+> set -x MyVariable SomeValue
+> env | grep MyVariable
+MyVariable=SomeValue
+
+
+You can erase a variable with
-e or
--erase
+
+> set -e MyVariable
+> env | grep MyVariable
+(no output)
+
+
+
Lists
+
+
The set command above used quotes to ensure that Mister Noodle was one argument. If it had been two arguments, then name would have been a list of length 2. In fact, all variables in fish are really lists, that can contain any number of values, or none at all.
+
+
Some variables, like $PWD, only have one value. By convention, we talk about that variable's value, but we really mean its first (and only) value.
+
+
Other variables, like $PATH, really do have multiple values. During variable expansion, the variable expands to become multiple arguments:
+
+
+> echo $PATH
+/usr/bin /bin /usr/sbin /sbin /usr/local/bin
+
+
+
Lists cannot contain other lists: there is no recursion. A variable is a list of strings, full stop.
+
+
Get the length of a list with count:
+
+
+> count $PATH
+5
+
+
+You can append (or prepend) to a list by setting the list to itself, with some additional arguments. Here we append /usr/local/bin to $PATH:
+
+
+> set PATH $PATH /usr/local/bin
+
+
+
+You can access individual elements with square brackets. Indexing starts at 1 from the beginning, and -1 from the end:
+
+> echo $PATH
+/usr/bin /bin /usr/sbin /sbin /usr/local/bin
+> echo $PATH[1]
+/usr/bin
+> echo $PATH[-1]
+/usr/local/bin
+
+
+You can also access ranges of elements, known as "slices:"
+
+
+> echo $PATH[1..2]
+/usr/bin /bin
+> echo $PATH[-1..2]
+/usr/local/bin /sbin /usr/sbin /bin
+
+
+You can iterate over a list (or a slice) with a
for loop:
+
+
+> for val in $PATH
+ echo "entry: $val"
+ end
+entry: usr/bin/
+entry: /bin
+entry: /usr/sbin
+entry: /sbin
+entry: /usr/local/bin
+
+
+
+
Command Substitutions
+
+Command substitutions use the output of one command as an argument to another. Unlike other shells, fish does not use backticks ` for command substitutions. Instead, it uses parentheses:
+
+
+> echo In (pwd), running (uname)
+In /home/tutorial, running FreeBSD
+
+
+A common idiom is to capture the output of a command in a variable:
+
+
+> set os (uname)
+> echo $os
+Linux
+
+
+Command substitutions are not expanded within quotes. Instead, you can temporarily close the quotes, add the command substitution, and reopen them, all in the same argument:
+
+
+> touch "testing_"(date +%s)".txt"
+> ls *.txt
+testing_1360099791.txt
+
+
+
Combiners (And, Or, Not)
+
+Unlike other shells, fish does not have special syntax like && or || to combine commands. Instead it has commands
and,
or, and
not.
+
+
+> cp file1.txt file1_bak.txt; and echo "Backup successful"; or echo "Backup failed"
+Backup failed
+
+
+
Conditionals (If, Else, Switch)
+
+Use
if,
else if, and
else to conditionally execute code, based on the exit status of a command.
+
+
+if grep fish /etc/shells
+ echo Found fish
+else if grep bash /etc/shells
+ echo Found bash
+else
+ echo Got nothing
+end
+
+
+There is also a
switch command:
+
+
+switch (uname)
+ case Linux
+ echo Hi Tux!
+ case Darwin
+ echo Hi Hexley!
+ case FreeBSD NetBSD DragonFly
+ echo Hi Beastie!
+ case '*'
+ echo Hi, stranger!
+end
+
+
+Note that
case does not fall through, and can accept multiple arguments or (quoted) wildcards.
+
+
Functions
+
+A fish function is a list of commands, which may optionally take arguments. Unlike other shells, arguments are not passed in "numbered variables" like
$1, but instead in a single list
$argv. To create a function, use the
function builtin:
+
+
+> function say_hello
+ echo Hello $argv
+ end
+> say_hello
+Hello
+> say_hello everybody!
+Hello everybody!
+
+
+
Unlike other shells, fish does not have aliases or special prompt syntax. Functions take their place.
+
+
You can list the names of all functions with the functions keyword (note the plural!). fish starts out with a number of functions:
+
+
+> functions
+alias, cd, delete-or-exit, dirh, dirs, down-or-search, eval, export, fish_command_not_found_setup, fish_config, fish_default_key_bindings, fish_prompt, fish_right_prompt, fish_sigtrap_handler, fish_update_completions, funced, funcsave, grep, help, history, isatty, ls, man, math, nextd, nextd-or-forward-word, open, popd, prevd, prevd-or-backward-word, prompt_pwd, psub, pushd, seq, setenv, sgrep, trap, type, umask, up-or-search, vared
+
+
+
You can see the source for any function by passing its name to functions:
+
+
+> functions ls
+function ls --description 'List contents of directory'
+ command ls -G $argv
+end
+
+
+
Loops
+
+While loops:
+
+
+> while true
+ echo "Loop forever"
+end
+Loop forever
+Loop forever
+Loop forever
+...
+
+
+For loops can be used to iterate over a list. For example, a list of files:
+
+
+> for file in *.txt
+ cp $file $file.bak
+end
+
+
+Iterating over a list of numbers can be done with `seq`:
+
+
+> for x in (seq 5)
+ touch file_$x.txt
+end
+
+
+
+
Prompt
+
+Unlike other shells, there is no prompt variable like PS1. To display your prompt, fish executes a function with the name
fish_prompt, and its output is used as the prompt.
+
+You can define your own prompt:
+
+> function fish_prompt
+ echo "New Prompt % "
+ end
+New Prompt %
+
+
+
+Multiple lines are OK. Colors can be set via
set_color, passing it named ANSI colors, or hex RGB values:
+
+
+> function fish_prompt
+ set_color purple
+ date "+%m/%d/%y"
+ set_color FF0
+ echo (pwd) '>'
+ set_color normal
+ end
+02/06/13
+/home/tutorial >
+
+
+
+
You can choose among some sample prompts by running fish_config prompt. fish also supports RPROMPT through fish_right_prompt.
+
+
$PATH
+
+$PATH is an environment variable containing the directories in which fish searches for commands. Instead of separating entries with a colon, $PATH is a list. You can modify $PATH in a few ways:
+
+
+- By modifying the $fish_user_paths variable, which is automatically appended to $PATH. For example, to permanently add /usr/local/bin to your $PATH, you could write:
+
+
+> set -U fish_user_paths $fish_user_paths /usr/local/bin
+
+
+
+ - Directly in config.fish (see below).
+
+
+
Startup (Where's .bashrc?)
+
+
fish starts by executing commands in ~/.config/fish/config.fish. You can create it if it does not exist.
+
+
It is possible to directly create functions and variables in config.fish file, using the commands shown above. For example:
+
+
+> cat ~/.config/fish/config.fish
+
+set -x PATH $PATH /sbin/
+
+function ll
+ ls -lh $argv
+end
+
+
+
However, it is more common and efficient to use autoloading functions and universal variables.
+
+
Autoloading Functions
+
+
When fish encounters a command, it attempts to autoload a function for that command, by looking for a file with the name of that command in ~/.config/fish/functions/.
+
+
For example, if you wanted to have a function ll, you would add a text file ll.fish to ~/.config/fish/functions:
+
+
+> cat ~/.config/fish/functions/ll.fish
+function ll
+ ls -lh $argv
+end
+
+
+This is the preferred way to define your prompt as well:
+
+
+> cat ~/.config/fish/functions/fish_prompt.fish
+function fish_prompt
+ echo (pwd) '> '
+end
+
+
+
See the documentation for funced and funcsave for ways to create these files automatically.
+
+
Universal Variables
+
+
A universal variable is a variable whose value is shared across all instances of fish, now and in the future - even after a reboot. You can make a variable universal with set -U:
+
+
+> set -U EDITOR vim
+
+
+Now in another shell:
+
+
+> echo $EDITOR
+vim
+
+
+
Ready for more?
+
+
If you want to learn more about fish, there is lots of detailed documentation, an official mailing list, the IRC channel #fish on irc.oftc.net, and the github page.
+
+