| 1 | ---
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| 2 | title: Global Shell Options (Oils Reference)
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| 3 | all_docs_url: ..
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| 4 | body_css_class: width40
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| 5 | default_highlighter: oils-sh
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| 6 | preserve_anchor_case: yes
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| 7 | ---
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| 8 | 
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| 9 | <div class="doc-ref-header">
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| 10 | 
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| 11 | [Oils Reference](index.html) —
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| 12 | Chapter **Global Shell Options**
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| 13 | 
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| 14 | </div>
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| 15 | 
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| 16 | This chapter describes global shell options in Oils.  Some options are from
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| 17 | POSIX shell, and some are from [bash]($xref).  We also use options to turn
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| 18 | [OSH]($xref) into [YSH]($xref).
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| 19 | 
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| 20 | <span class="in-progress">(in progress)</span>
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| 21 | 
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| 22 | <div id="dense-toc">
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| 23 | </div>
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| 24 | 
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| 25 | ## Errors
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| 26 | 
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| 27 | These options are from POSIX shell:
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| 28 | 
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| 29 |     nounset -u  
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| 30 |     errexit -e
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| 31 | 
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| 32 | These are from bash:
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| 33 | 
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| 34 |     inherit_errexit:
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| 35 |     pipefail
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| 36 | 
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| 37 | ## Globbing
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| 38 | 
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| 39 | These options are from POSIX shell:
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| 40 | 
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| 41 |     noglob -f
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| 42 | 
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| 43 | From bash:
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| 44 | 
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| 45 |     nullglob   failglob   dotglob
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| 46 | 
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| 47 | From Oils:
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| 48 | 
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| 49 |     dashglob
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| 50 | 
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| 51 | Some details:
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| 52 | 
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| 53 | ### nullglob
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| 54 | 
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| 55 | When `nullglob` is on, a glob matching no files expands to no arguments:
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| 56 | 
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| 57 |     shopt -s nullglob
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| 58 |     $ echo L *.py R
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| 59 |     L R
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| 60 | 
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| 61 | Without this option, the glob string itself is returned:
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| 62 | 
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| 63 |     $ echo L *.py R  # no Python files in this dir
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| 64 |     L *.py R
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| 65 | 
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| 66 | (This option is from GNU bash.)
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| 67 | 
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| 68 | ### dashglob
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| 69 | 
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| 70 | Do globs return results that start with `-`?  It's on by default in `bin/osh`,
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| 71 | but off when YSH is enabled.
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| 72 | 
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| 73 | Turning it off prevents a command like `rm *` from being confused by a file
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| 74 | called `-rf`.
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| 75 | 
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| 76 |     $ touch -- myfile -rf
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| 77 | 
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| 78 |     $ echo *
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| 79 |     -rf myfile
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| 80 | 
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| 81 |     $ shopt -u dashglob
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| 82 |     $ echo *
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| 83 |     myfile
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| 84 | 
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| 85 | ## Debugging
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| 86 | 
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| 87 | These options are from POSIX shell:
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| 88 | 
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| 89 |     xtrace   verbose
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| 90 | 
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| 91 | From bash:
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| 92 | 
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| 93 |     extdebug
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| 94 | 
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| 95 | ## Interactive
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| 96 | 
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| 97 | These options are from bash.
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| 98 | 
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| 99 |     emacs   vi
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| 100 | 
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| 101 | ## Other Option
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| 102 | 
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| 103 |     noclobber   # Redirects don't overwrite files
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| 104 | 
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| 105 | ## Compat
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| 106 | 
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| 107 | ### eval_unsafe_arith
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| 108 | 
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| 109 | Allow dynamically parsed `a[$(echo 42)]`  For bash compatibility.
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| 110 | 
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| 111 | 
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| 112 | ## Groups
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| 113 | 
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| 114 | To turn OSH into YSH, we use three option groups.  Some of them allow new
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| 115 | features, and some disallow old features.
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| 116 | 
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| 117 | <!-- note: explicit anchor necessary because of mangling -->
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| 118 | <h3 id="strict:all">strict:all</h3>
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| 119 | 
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| 120 | Option in this group disallow problematic or confusing shell constructs.  The
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| 121 | resulting script will still run in another shell.
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| 122 | 
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| 123 |     shopt --set strict:all    # turn on all options
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| 124 |     shopt -p strict:all       # print their current state
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| 125 | 
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| 126 | Details on each option:
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| 127 | 
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| 128 |       strict_argv             No empty argv
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| 129 |       strict_arith            Fatal parse errors (on by default)
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| 130 |       strict_array            Arrays and strings aren't confused
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| 131 |       strict_control_flow     Disallow misplaced keyword, empty arg
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| 132 |       strict_errexit          Disallow code that ignores failure
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| 133 |       strict_nameref          trap invalid variable names
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| 134 |       strict_word_eval        Expose unicode and slicing errors
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| 135 |       strict_tilde            Tilde subst can result in error
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| 136 |     X strict_glob             Parse the sublanguage more strictly
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| 137 | 
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| 138 | <h3 id="ysh:upgrade">ysh:upgrade</h3>
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| 139 | 
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| 140 | Options in this group enable new YSH features.  It doesn't break existing shell
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| 141 | scripts when it's avoidable.
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| 142 | 
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| 143 | For example, `parse_at` means that `@myarray` is now the operation to splice
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| 144 | an array.  This will break scripts that expect `@` to be literal, but you can
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| 145 | simply quote it like `'@literal'` to fix the problem.
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| 146 | 
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| 147 |     shopt --set ysh:upgrade   # turn on all options
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| 148 |     shopt -p ysh:upgrade      # print their current state
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| 149 | 
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| 150 | Details on each option:
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| 151 | 
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| 152 |       parse_at                echo @array @[arrayfunc(x, y)]
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| 153 |       parse_brace             if true { ... }; cd ~/src { ... }
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| 154 |       parse_equals            x = 'val' in Caps { } config blocks
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| 155 |       parse_paren             if (x > 0) ...
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| 156 |       parse_proc              proc p { ... }
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| 157 |       parse_triple_quote      """$x"""  '''x''' (command mode)
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| 158 |     X parse_utf8_only         YSH source code must be valid UTF-8
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| 159 |       parse_ysh_string        echo r'\' u'\\' b'\\' (command mode)
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| 160 |       command_sub_errexit     Synchronous errexit check
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| 161 |       process_sub_fail        Analogous to pipefail for process subs
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| 162 |       sigpipe_status_ok       status 141 -> 0 in pipelines
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| 163 |       simple_word_eval        No splitting, static globbing
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| 164 |       xtrace_rich             Hierarchical and process tracing
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| 165 |       xtrace_details (-u)     Disable most tracing with +
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| 166 |       dashglob (-u)           Disabled to avoid files like -rf
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| 167 |     X env_dict                Copy environ into ENV dict
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| 168 | 
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| 169 | 
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| 170 | <h3 id="ysh:all">ysh:all</h3>
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| 171 | 
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| 172 | Enable the full YSH language.  This includes everything in the `ysh:upgrade`
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| 173 | group and the `strict:all` group.
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| 174 | 
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| 175 |     shopt --set ysh:all       # turn on all options
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| 176 |     shopt -p ysh:all          # print their current state
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| 177 | 
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| 178 | Details on options that are not in `ysh:upgrade` and `strict:all`:
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| 179 | 
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| 180 |       parse_at_all            @ starting any word is an operator
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| 181 |       parse_backslash (-u)    Allow bad backslashes in "" and $''
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| 182 |       parse_backticks (-u)    Allow legacy syntax `echo hi`
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| 183 |       parse_bare_word (-u)    'case unquoted' and 'for x in unquoted'
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| 184 |       parse_dollar (-u)       Allow bare $ to mean \$  (maybe $/d+/)
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| 185 |       parse_dbracket (-u)     Is legacy [[ allowed?
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| 186 |       parse_dparen (-u)       Is (( legacy arithmetic allowed?
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| 187 |       parse_ignored (-u)      Parse, but ignore, certain redirects
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| 188 |       parse_sh_arith (-u)     Allow legacy shell arithmetic
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| 189 |       expand_aliases (-u)     Whether aliases are expanded
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| 190 |     X no_env_vars             Use $[ENV.PYTHONPATH], not $PYTHONPATH
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| 191 |     X old_builtins (-u)       local/declare/etc.  pushd/popd/dirs
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| 192 |                               ... source  unset  printf  [un]alias
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| 193 |                               ... getopts
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| 194 |     X old_syntax (-u)         ( )   ${x%prefix}  ${a[@]}   $$
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| 195 |       simple_echo             echo doesn't accept flags -e -n
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| 196 |       simple_eval_builtin     eval takes exactly 1 argument
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| 197 |       simple_test_builtin     3 args or fewer; use test not [
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| 198 |     X simple_trap             Function name only
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| 199 |       verbose_errexit         Whether to print detailed errors
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| 200 | 
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| 201 | ## YSH Details
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| 202 | 
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| 203 | ### opts-redefine
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| 204 | 
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| 205 | In the interactive shell, you can redefine procs and funcs.
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| 206 | 
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| 207 |       redefine_module           'module' builtin always returns 0
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| 208 |       redefine_proc_func (-u)   Can shell func, proc and func be redefined?
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| 209 |     X redefine_const            Can consts be redefined?
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| 210 | 
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| 211 | ### opts-internal
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| 212 | 
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| 213 | These options are used by the interpreter.  You generally shouldn't set them
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| 214 | yourself.
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| 215 | 
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| 216 |     _allow_command_sub  To implement strict_errexit, eval_unsafe_arith
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| 217 |     _allow_process_sub  To implement strict_errexit
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| 218 |     dynamic_scope       To implement proc and func
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| 219 |     _no_debug_trap      Used in pipelines in job control shell
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| 220 |     _running_trap       To disable strict_errexit
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| 221 |     _running_hay        Hay evaluation
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| 222 | 
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| 223 | ## Unlinked Descriptions
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| 224 | 
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| 225 | Here are some descriptions of individual options.
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| 226 | 
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| 227 | ### strict_control_flow
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| 228 | 
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| 229 | Disallow `break` and `continue` at the top level, and disallow empty args like
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| 230 | `return $empty`.
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| 231 | 
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| 232 | ### strict_tilde
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| 233 | 
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| 234 | Failed tilde expansions cause hard errors (like zsh) rather than silently
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| 235 | evaluating to `~` or `~bad`.
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| 236 | 
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| 237 | 
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| 238 | ### strict_nameref
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| 239 | 
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| 240 | When `strict_nameref` is set, undefined references produce fatal errors:
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| 241 | 
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| 242 |     declare -n ref
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| 243 |     echo $ref  # fatal error, not empty string
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| 244 |     ref=x      # fatal error instead of decaying to non-reference
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| 245 | 
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| 246 | References that don't contain variables also produce hard errors:
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| 247 | 
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| 248 |     declare -n ref='not a var'
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| 249 |     echo $ref  # fatal
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| 250 |     ref=x      # fatal
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| 251 | 
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| 252 | ### parse_ignored
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| 253 | 
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| 254 | For compatibility, YSH will parse some constructs it doesn't execute, like:
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| 255 | 
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| 256 |     return 0 2>&1  # redirect on control flow
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| 257 | 
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| 258 | When this option is disabled, that statement is a syntax error.
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| 259 | 
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| 260 | ### parse_triple_quote
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| 261 | 
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| 262 | Parse the shell-style multi-line strings, which strip leading whitespace:
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| 263 | 
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| 264 |     echo '''    
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| 265 |       one
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| 266 |       two
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| 267 |       '''
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| 268 | 
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| 269 |     echo """
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| 270 |       hello
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| 271 |       $name
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| 272 |       """
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| 273 | 
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| 274 | (This option affects only command mode.  Such strings are always parsed in
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| 275 | expression mode.)
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| 276 | 
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| 277 | ### parse_ysh_string
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| 278 | 
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| 279 | Allow `r'\'` and `u'\\'` and `b'\\'` strings, as well as their multi-line
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| 280 | versions.
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| 281 | 
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| 282 | Since shell strings are already raw, this means that YSH just ignores the r
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| 283 | prefix:
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| 284 | 
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| 285 |     echo r'\'  # a single backslash
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| 286 | 
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| 287 | J8 unicode strings:
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| 288 | 
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| 289 |     echo u'mu \u{3bc}'  # mu char
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| 290 | 
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| 291 | J8 byte strings:
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| 292 | 
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| 293 |     echo b'byte \yff'
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| 294 | 
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| 295 | (This option affects only command mode.  Such strings are always parsed in
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| 296 | expression mode.)
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| 297 | 
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| 298 | ### sigpipe_status_ok
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| 299 | 
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| 300 | If a process that's part of a pipeline exits with status 141 when this is
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| 301 | option is on, it's turned into status 0, which avoids failure.
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| 302 | 
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| 303 | SIGPIPE errors occur in cases like 'yes | head', and generally aren't useful.
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| 304 | 
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