zsh shell-builtin compgen – Command to Get Builtin Commands in Zsh

compgenshell-builtinzsh

Is there a command to get builtin commands on zsh? For example, it is possible to get all builtin commands with the compgen -b command in the bash shell.

Best Answer

See info zsh builtins:

builtins
This associative array gives information about the builtin commands currently enabled. The keys are the names of the builtin commands and the values are either 'undefined' for builtin commands that will automatically be loaded from a module if invoked or 'defined' for builtin commands that are already loaded.

But note that new builtins are made available when you load more modules with zmodload.

To print the list (the keys of that associative array) raw and ordered on 1 Column:

print -roC1 ${(k)builtins}

Or you can print the key and values on two columns to see which ones are already loaded and which ones would be automatically loaded upon first invocation:

print -raC2 ${(kv)builtins} | sort

To list all commands and reserved words along with their type, see also:

whence -wm '*'

Related Solutions

Shell – this HOME command

oh-my-zsh enable two things, which cause this behavior:

AUTO_CD: If command can not execute, and command is a directory name, perform cd to that directory
CDABLE_VARS: If the argument to a cd command (or an implied cd with the AUTO_CD option set) is not a directory, and does not begin with a slash, try to expand the expression as if it were preceded by a ~

In your case, when typing HOME, AUTO_CD made zsh performed cd HOME, CDABLE_VARS made zsh performed cd ~HOME, ~HOME was expanded to your home directory.

You can call zsh with --xtrace option to see what happened:

$ zsh --xtrace
$ HOME
...
+zsh:1> cd /home/cuonglm
~
....

Bash Shell – Use System Command Instead of Bash Builtin Without Full Path

Assuming env is in your path:

env kill -p http

env runs the executable file named by its first argument in a (possibly) modified environment; as such, it does not know about or work with shell built-in commands.

This produces some shell job control cruft, but doesn't rely on an external command:

exec kill -p bash &

exec requires an executable to replace the current shell, so doesn't use any built-ins. The job is run in the background so that you replace the forked background shell, not your current shell.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Shell – this HOME command

Bash Shell – Use System Command Instead of Bash Builtin Without Full Path

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