CODEWITHSUNDEEP
zsh
WTFBBQHAX
WTFBBQHAX

Reputation: 91

What is the use case for this zsh precommand modifier '-'

So in zsh; do this

$ - ls /some/non/existent/directory/blah/blah/blah

gives you

-ls: /some/non/existent/directory/blah/blah/blah: No such file or directory

Documentation:

http://zsh.sourceforge.net/Doc/Release/Shell-Grammar.html#Precommand-Modifiers

What reasonable use case does this actualy have?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 446

Answers (1)

chepner
chepner

Reputation: 530922

From zshmisc(1):

-      The  command  is  executed  with  a `-' prepended to its argv[0]
          string.

Invoking a shell with a - prepended to its name (-sh, -bash, -zsh) is an old convention for indicating the shell should start a login session. It's up to the program itself to decide if such an invocation should mean anything. Most programs, like ls, ignore how they are called.

Upvotes: 3

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