Re: history expansion

Erik Wybouw <[email protected]> Sun, 12 Jul 2026 12:05:07 +0200
Newsgroups gmane.comp.shells.zsh.devel,gmane.comp.shells.zsh.user
Message-ID <[email protected]>
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I use it a lot (coming from tcsh where I developed the muscle memory for =
it).

ZLE (at least mine, but can=E2=80=99t immediately find the option) can =
expand the line for you as you hit enter, requiring a second =
confirmation enter to actually execute, so that helps, and I=E2=80=99ve =
taken the habit of tab-expanding =E2=80=98!=E2=80=99 constructs myself =
immediately as I type the line.

ps: also unclear where that tab is coming from, as I have expand-history =
only bound to ESC prefixed combinations.

Kind regards, erik.
=E2=80=94
Erik Wybouw



> On 12 Jul 2026, at 10:57, Vincent Lefevre <[email protected]> wrote:
>=20
> I'm wondering whether users use history expansion in practice, as it
> does not seem to be very useful with the power of ZLE (I suppose that
> one can do the same kind of things, with the advantage of seeing the
> immediate effect).
>=20
> It can have a surprising behavior. For instance, after "zsh -f":
>=20
> qaa% echo "foo!"
> dquote>
>=20
> Note that bash does not have any issue here. But there is the same
> behavior with the less common
>=20
>  echo "foo!!"
>=20
> --=20
> Vincent Lef=C3=A8vre <[email protected]> - Web: =
<https://www.vinc17.net/>
> 100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: =
<https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
> Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / Pascaline project (LIP, =
ENS-Lyon)
>=20


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<html aria-label=3D"message body"><head><meta http-equiv=3D"content-type" =
content=3D"text/html; charset=3Dutf-8"></head><body =
style=3D"overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; =
line-break: after-white-space;">I use it a lot (coming from tcsh where I =
developed the muscle memory for it).<div><br><div>ZLE (at least mine, =
but can=E2=80=99t immediately find the option) can expand the line for =
you as you hit enter, requiring a second confirmation enter to actually =
execute, so that helps, and I=E2=80=99ve taken the habit of =
tab-expanding =E2=80=98!=E2=80=99 constructs myself immediately as I =
type the line.</div><div><br></div><div>ps: also unclear where that tab =
is coming from, as I have expand-history only bound to ESC prefixed =
combinations.</div><div><br></div><div>Kind regards, erik.<br =
id=3D"lineBreakAtBeginningOfMessage"><div>
=E2=80=94<div>Erik Wybouw<br><br><br></div>
</div>
<div><br><blockquote type=3D"cite"><div>On 12 Jul 2026, at 10:57, =
Vincent Lefevre &lt;[email protected]&gt; wrote:</div><br =
class=3D"Apple-interchange-newline"><div><div>I'm wondering whether =
users use history expansion in practice, as it<br>does not seem to be =
very useful with the power of ZLE (I suppose that<br>one can do the same =
kind of things, with the advantage of seeing the<br>immediate =
effect).<br><br>It can have a surprising behavior. For instance, after =
"zsh -f":<br><br>qaa% echo "foo!"<br>dquote&gt;<br><br>Note that bash =
does not have any issue here. But there is the same<br>behavior with the =
less common<br><br> &nbsp;echo "foo!!"<br><br>-- <br>Vincent Lef=C3=A8vre =
&lt;[email protected]&gt; - Web: =
&lt;https://www.vinc17.net/&gt;<br>100% accessible validated (X)HTML - =
Blog: &lt;https://www.vinc17.net/blog/&gt;<br>Work: CR INRIA - computer =
arithmetic / Pascaline project (LIP, =
ENS-Lyon)<br><br></div></div></blockquote></div><br></div></div></body></h=
tml>=

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