An Introduction to the Z Shell

Paul Falstad pfalstad@phoenix.princeton.edu

Department of Computer Science Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544

Introduction

zsh is a shell designed for interactive use, although it is also a powerful scripting language. Many of the useful features of bash, ksh, and tcsh were incorporated into zsh; many original features were added. This document details some of the unique features of zsh. It assumes basic knowledge of the standard UNIX shells; the intent is to show a reader already familiar with one of the other major shells what makes zsh more useful or more powerful. This document is not at all comprehensive; read the manual entry for a description of the shell that is complete and concise, although somewhat overwhelming and devoid of examples.