Re: psychiatric help

> BTW, polite of 'ls' to make multiline output when input is an array..

 First, ls doesn't know from shell arrays. It takes a list of arguments.
They show up inside the program as an array at the C level, but that's
different.

Once you get past any options (indicated by -), it interprets the arguments
as filenames. With no options it just behaves as a glorified echo and spits
those names back out to you - although unlike echo it will complain if any
of them don't exist as files.

If its output is not going to a terminal, you get the "polite" behavior
that outputs one filename per line. Any time you're doing `ls |` or `$(ls)`
or `<(ls)`, the output is not going to a terminal, so you get the
one-per-line behavior.

I still don't know why you need a string and eval instead of just using
`$out` directly.

--
Mark J. Reed <[email protected]>


On Sun, Apr 5, 2026 at 13:28 Ray Andrews <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
> On 2026-04-04 20:57, Bart Schaefer wrote:
>
> If you need to copy $@ (et al.) into another variable, use array syntax:
>
> out=( $@ )
>
> Tried this:
>
> alias tt='noglob _tt'
> function _tt ()
> {
> out=( $@ )                # Bart sez.  Array will preserve hard space, no
> backslash needed.
> _execute 'ls $~out'    # Need tilde here!
>
> foo='ls $~out'            # Literal string! Don't forget tilde, same as
> above.  Consistent.
> _execute $foo            #  Plain vanilla var sends literal string, and
> 'eval' takes care of it.
> }
>
> run:
>
> 4 /aWorking/Zsh/Source/Wk 4 % test\ ?
>
> test a
> test b
>
> test a
> test b
>
> ... so that's got it under control.  '_execute' boils down to a call to
> 'eval' as you suspect but it does a bunch of other stuff as well.  Easy to
> drop the ball tho, the chain of handoffs can be fuddled at any point.
> Gotta get it right, I was making it harder than it is. 80% clarity.
>
> Thank you Sensei.
>
> BTW, polite of 'ls' to make multiline output when input is an array.
>
>
>
>
>