There should be a tutorial that explains all the nice functionalities of TCSH.
And it should be written in DocBook also (to make a nice HowTo).
Well, it is not here yet. Your choices are:

a. Use this FAQ, if you have a question send it to the mailling list
so that when it is answered it will be added to this FAQ

b. Check the .tcshrc.* files, read the comments and try them at the same time!

c. Read "man tcsh". This is the definite solution and will make you wise.
I personally did this several years ago (tcsh 6.05), perhaps you will new
functionality to add to the list.

d. Check http://www.tcsh.org/. It has online tcsh books (in PostScript and PDF formats)
that are available for free. No excuse not to learn tcsh.



FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ

1. When I try the completion, it does not work!

A:
You are doing:
	cp /etc/passwd /etc/pa<TAB>

The behaviour set in the .tcshrc files is to complete only in safe mode.
This means that it is not sane to complete on existing files in this case.
Use:
	% cp /etc/passwd<ENTER>
	cp: error blah blah
	% <UP ARROW>
	% cp /etc/passwd <F7>
	% cp /etc/passwd /etc/passwd
	% cp /etc/passwd /etc/passwd<.old>

2. When I do "cd<TAB>", I only see directories. This is nice!

A:
This is part of the "completion" functionality, and it is configured
in .tcshrc.complete

3. I want slashdot on lynx quickly. How? (NOT AVAILABLE IN THIS VERSION)

A:
Do:
	% ly<TAB>
	% lynx 
	% lynx <TAB>
	slashdot.org www.freshmeat.net ...
	% lynx sl<TAB>
	% lynx slashdot.org
	% lynx slashdot.org<ENTER>

Should not take you more than one second.

4. Auto-correction confuses me.

A:
Try this:
	% cd /usr/locl/bin<ENTER>
	
	CORRECT> cd /usr/local/bin (y|n|e)?<SPACE> or <y>
	%

For the opposite, suppose you really want to make the directory /usr/locall

	% mkdir /usr/locall<ENTER>

	CORRECT> mkdir /usr/local (y|n|e)?<ENTER> or <n>
	%

5. Tell me about F7!

A:
	Without F7, you would do:
	
	% cd /tmp
	% ls demodir
	not found blah blah
	% mkdir demodir
	% cd demodir

	With F7, you do:
	
	% cd /tmp
	% ls demodir
	not found blah blah
	% mkdir <F7>
	% mkdir demodir
	% cd <F7>
	% cd demodir
	
Try several times to get used to it.
<F7> prints the last argument of the previous command.

6. What do these lines mean?

root has logged on pts/0 from :0.
root has logged on pts/1 from :0.
root has logged on tty1 from local.

A: They are part of the "watch" facility.
Whenever you run a command in tcsh, tcsh checks if someones has
logged on/off the system. If so, it will print it here.
It is quite handy to know what is going on your system.
It is even handy if you run a non-networked system, to know where you
have shells open.

7. I was compiling an application and at the end of it I got
Time spent in user mode   (CPU seconds) : 8.810s
Time spent in kernel mode (CPU seconds) : 1.030s
Total time                              : 0:11.66s
CPU utilisation (percentage)            : 84.3%
Times the process was swapped           : 0
Times of major page faults              : 29424
Times of minor page faults              : 28521

A: These are some statistics that TCSH can provide (in a human readable manner)
using a special command (time).
With the current configuration, it is printed automatically whenever
a process takes quite a bit of time to complete. It shows the time
the process spent in kernel and user mode, the total time used for the
process, the CPU utilisation (user+kernel time / total time) in %.
The swapped times is the times the whole process was swapped.
If you have plenty of memory, you usually get 0 here.
For the page faults, a small operating system tutorial. In modern operating
systems, memory is used in chunks called pages. These pages can be swapped
to the swap partition to make space for other processes. When our process
is running and it cannot find one of its "pages", it issues a "fault", or
a "page fault" and makes arrangements to have the page up. The fewer the page
faults, the better. The "page fault" terminology is a bit wierd and it comes
from long time ago.
NOTE: the amount of page faults look to me rather a lot, perhaps they are
faults regarding the presense of the page in the memory cache and not the
swap. If a kernel hacker knows about this stuff and can have a look in the
source code of TCSH, please clarify this issue.

8. I find it a bit awkward when I change back and forth directories.
Any nice trick?

A: You can use the "cd -" command. It takes you to the previous directory.
Try it once more to take you to the initial directory.

9. How can I access that "cd /usr/local/samba/lib/" command I type ages ago?

As long as you remember the beginning of the command that resides in the
history, you can access it quickly.

Do:

...
cd /usr/local/samba/lib/
...
cd /usr/bin/
...
cd /etc/
..

Now you want to go to samba/lib.

% cd <ESC p>
% cd /etc/<ESC p>
% cd /usr/bin/<ESC p>
% cd /usr/local/samba/lib/<ENTER>

That is, you press several times ESC p  to go to the Previous occurence
of a similar command. If at some point you want to go to the next command
in the history, hit ESC n

10. What does ^G mean?

Means you press Ctrl-G.
Speaking of ^G, try

% echo <^V><^G><ENTER>

You will hear a BEEP.
^V is used to "mask" the next character pressed.

11. I want F12 to beep to me!

You need to bind F12 with the beep. The beep is ^G.
Do

	% bindkey <^V><F12> <^G><ENTER>

That's it.


For more information, contact Simos Xenitellis <simos74@gmx.net>