5. The C Shell

Contents:
Overview of Features
Syntax
Variables
Expressions
Command History
Job Control
Invoking the Shell
Built-in C Shell Commands

This chapter describes the C shell, so named because many of its programming constructs and symbols resemble those of the C programming language. The following topics are presented:

Overview of features
Syntax
Variables
Expressions
Command history
Job control
Invoking the shell
Built-in commands

For more information on the C shell, see Using csh & tcsh , which is listed in the Bibliography.

5.1 Overview of Features

Features of the C shell 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
Optional filename completion