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This chapter describes the word language for OSH and YSH. Words evaluate to strings, or arrays of strings.

(in progress)

Expressions to Words

expr-sub

Try to turn an expression into a string. Examples:

$ echo $[3 * 2]
6

$ var s = 'foo'
$ echo $[s[1:]]
oo

Some types can't be stringified, like Dict and List:

$ var d = {k: 42}

$ echo $[d]
fatal: expected Null, Bool, Int, Float, Eggex

You can explicitly use toJson8 or toJson():

$ echo $[toJson8(d)]
{"k":42}

(This is similar to json write (d))

expr-splice

Splicing puts the elements of a List into a string array context:

$ var foods = ['ale', 'bean', 'corn']
$ echo pizza @[foods[1:]] worm
pizza bean corn worm

This syntax is enabled by shopt --set parse_at, which is part of YSH.

var-splice

$ var foods = ['ale', 'bean', 'corn']
echo @foods

This syntax is enabled by shopt --set parse_at, which is part of YSH.

Formatting Typed Data as Strings

ysh-printf

Not done.

echo ${x %.3f}

ysh-format

Not done.

echo ${x|html}

Quotes

osh-string

• Single quotes
• Double Quotes
• C-style strings: $'\n'

TODO: elaborate

ysh-string

YSH strings in the word language are the same as in the expression language.

See ysh-string in chap-expr-lang.

triple-quoted

Triple-quoted in the word language are the same as in the expression language.

See triple-quoted in chap-expr-lang.

tagged-str

Not done.

Substitutions

command-sub

Executes a command and captures its stdout.

OSH has shell-compatible command sub like $(echo hi). If a trailing newline is returned, it's removed:

$ hostname
example.com

$ echo "/tmp/$(hostname)"
/tmp/example.com

YSH has spliced command subs, enabled by shopt --set parse_at. The reuslt is a List of strings, rather than a single string.

$ write -- @(echo foo; echo 'with spaces')
foo
with-spaces

The command's stdout parsed as the "J8 Lines" format, where each line is either:

1. An unquoted string, which must be valid UTF-8. Whitespace is allowed, but not other ASCII control chars.
2. A quoted J8 string (JSON style "" or J8-style b'' u'' '')
3. An ignored empty line

See J8 Notation for more details.

var-sub

Evaluates to the value of a variable:

$ x=X
$ echo $x ${x}
X X

arith-sub

Shell has C-style arithmetic:

$ echo $(( 1 + 2*3 ))
7

tilde-sub

Used as a shortcut for a user's home directory:

~/src     # my home dir
~bob/src  # user bob's home dir

proc-sub

Open stdout as a named file in /dev/fd, which can be passed to a command:

diff <(sort L.txt) <(sort R.txt)

Open stdin as a named file in /dev/fd:

seq 3 | tee >(sleep 1; tac)

Var Ops

op-test

Shell has boolean operations within ${}. I use :- most frequently:

x=${1:-default}
osh=${OSH:-default}

This idiom is also useful:

: ${LIB_OSH=stdlib/osh}

op-strip

Remove prefixes or suffixes from strings:

echo ${y#prefix}
echo ${y##'prefix'}

echo ${y%suffix}
echo ${y%%'suffix'}

The prefix and suffix can be glob patterns, but this usage is discouraged because it may be slow.

op-patsub

Replace a substring or pattern.

The character after the first / can be / to replace all occurences:

$ x=food

$ echo ${x//o/--}      # replace 1 o with 2 --
f----d

It can be # or % for an anchored replacement:

$ echo ${x/#f/--}      # left anchored f
--ood

$ echo ${x/%d/--}      # right anchored d
foo--

The pattern can also be a glob:

$ echo ${x//[a-z]/o}   # replace 1 char with o
oooo

$ echo ${x//[a-z]+/o}  # replace multiple chars
o

op-index

echo ${a[i+1]}

op-slice

echo ${a[@]:1:2}
echo ${@:1:2}

op-format

${x@P} evaluates x as a prompt string, e.g. the string that would be printed if PS1=$x.