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Getting Started

There are many ways to use Oils!

• You can use it interactively, or you can write "shell scripts" with it. Shell is the best language for ad hoc automation.
• You can use it in compatible mode with bin/osh, or in legacy-free mode with bin/ysh.

As of 2024, OSH is mature, and YSH is under development. See blog posts tagged #FAQ for more detail.

This doc walks you through setting up Oils, explains some concepts, and links to more documentation.

Setup

Downloading Oils

The releases page links to source tarballs for every release. It also links to the documentation tree, which includes this page.

Your Configuration Dir

After running the instructions in INSTALL, run:

mkdir -p ~/.config/oils       # for oshrc and yshrc
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/oils  # for osh_history

Initialization with rc Files

Note that

• bin/osh runs ~/.config/oils/oshrc
• bin/ysh runs ~/.config/oils/yshrc

These are the only files that are "sourced". Other shells have a confusing initialization sequence involving many files (original). It's very hard to tell when and if /etc/profile, ~/.bashrc, ~/.bash_profile, etc. are executed.

OSH and YSH intentionally avoid this. If you want those files, simply source them in your oshrc.

I describe my own oshrc file on the Wiki: How To Test OSH.

Tips

• If you get tired of typing ~/.config/oils/oshrc, symlink it to ~/.oshrc.

Troubleshooting

• If you're running OSH from bash or zsh, then the prompt string $PS1 may be unintentionally inherited. Running PS1='' before bin/osh avoids this. This is also true for $PS2, $PS4, etc.
• On Arch Linux and other distros,$LANG may not get set without /etc/profile. Adding source /etc/profile to your oshrc may solve this problem.
• See OSH Compatibility Tips to configure programs that rely on eval to initialize (e.g. starship, zoxide).

sh and Bash Docs Are Useful for OSH

Existing educational materials for the Unix shell apply to OSH, because they generally don't teach the quirks that OSH disallows. For example, much of the information and advice in BashGuide can be used without worrying about which shell you're using. See the end of this manual for more resources.

For this reason, we're focusing efforts on documenting YSH.

What Is Expected to Run Under OSH

"Batch" programs are most likely to run unmodified under OSH. On the other hand, Interactive programs like .bashrc and bash completion scripts may require small changes.

• Wiki: What Is Expected to Run Under OSH

Features Unique to OSH

Dumping the AST

The -n flag tells OSH to parse the program rather than executing it. By default, it prints an abbreviated abstract syntax tree:

$ bin/osh -n -c 'ls | wc -l'
(command.Pipeline children:[(C {(ls)}) (C {(wc)} {(-l)})] negated:F)

You can also ask for the full text format:

$ bin/osh -n --ast-format text -c 'ls | wc -l'
(command.Pipeline
  children: [
    (command.Simple
      words: [
        (word.Compound
          parts: [(word_part.Literal
                   token:(token id:Lit_Chars val:ls span_id:0))]
        )
      ]
    )
    (command.Simple
      words: [
        (word.Compound
          parts: [(word_part.Literal
                   token:(token id:Lit_Chars val:wc span_id:4))]
        )
        (word.Compound
          parts: [(word_part.Literal
                   token:(token id:Lit_Chars val:-l span_id:6))]
        )
      ]
    )
  ]
  negated: F
  spids: [2]
)

This format is subject to change. It's there for debugging the parser, but sophisticated users may use it to interpret tricky shell programs without running them.

OILS_HIJACK_SHEBANG

This environment variable can be set to the path of a shell. Before OSH executes a program, it will inspect the shebang line to see if it looks like a shell script. If it does, it will use this shell instead of the one specified in the shebang line.

For example, suppose you have myscript.sh:

#!/bin/sh
# myscript.sh

./otherscript.sh --flag ...

and otherscript.sh:

#!/bin/sh
# otherscript.sh

echo 'hello world'

Then you can run myscript.sh like this:

OILS_HIJACK_SHEBANG=osh osh myscript.sh

and otherscript.sh will be executed with OSH rather than the /bin/sh.

Note that osh appears twice in that command line: once for the initial run, and once for all recursive runs.

(This is an environment variable rather than a flag because it needs to be inherited.)

--debug-file

Print internal debug logs to this file. It's useful to make it a FIFO:

mkfifo _tmp/debug
osh --debug-file _tmp/debug

Then run this in another window to see logs as you type:

cat _tmp/debug

Related:

• The OSH_DEBUG_DIR environment variable is the inherited version of --debug-file. A file named $PID-osh.log will be written in that directory for every shell process.
• The --xtrace-to-debug-file flag sends set -o xtrace output to that file instead of to stderr.

Crash Dumps

• TODO: OSH_CRASH_DUMP_DIR

This is implemented, but a JSON library isn't in the release build.

More

For more features unique to Oils, see Why Use Oils?

Appendix

Bugs

• OSH runs shell scripts too slowly. Speeding it up is a top priority.

Links

• Blog Posts Tagged #FAQ tell you why OSH exists and how it's designed.
• Known Differences lists incompatibilities between OSH and other shells. They are unlikely to appear in real programs, or there is a trivial workaround.

External:

• GNU Bash Manual. I frequently referred to this document when implementing OSH.
• BashGuide. A wiki with detailed information about bash.
  • BashPitfalls.
• Bash Cheat Sheet. A short overview.