ZOID(1)               User Contributed Perl Documentation              ZOID(1)



NAME
       zoid - a modular perl shell

SYNOPSIS
       zoid [options] [-] [files]

DESCRIPTION
       Zoidberg provides a modular Perl shell written, configured, and
       operated entirely in Perl. It aspires to be a fully operational login
       shell with all the features one normally expects. But it also gives
       direct access to Perl objects and data structures from the command
       line, and allows you to run Perl code within the scope of your
       commandline. Although Zoidberg does not do the language interpreting
       itself -- it uses perl to do this -- it supplies powerful language
       extensions aimed at creating an easy to use interface.

       By default zoid runs an interactive commandline when both STDIN and
       STDOUT are terminal devices, or reads from STDIN till End Of Line and
       execute each line like it was entered interactively.  When an action is
       specified by one of the commandline options this will suppress the
       default behavior and exit after executing that action.  If any file
       names are given, these will be interpreted as source scripts and
       suppress default behavior.  Be aware that these source scripts are
       expected to be Perl scripts and are NOT interpreted or executed the
       same way as normal input.

       This document only describes the commandline script zoid, see
       zoiduser(1) and zoidfaq(1) for help on using the zoidberg shell.

OPTIONS
       -e command, --exec=command
           Execute a string as interpreted by zoidberg. If non-interactive
           exits with exit status of command string. Multiple commands may be
           given to build up a multi-line script.  Make sure to use semicolons
           where you would in a normal multi-line script.

       -C, --config
           Print a list of configuration variable of this installation and
           exit.  Most importantly this tells you where zoid will search for
           it's configuration and data files.

       -c command, --command=command
           Does the same as --exec but this is bound to change.

       -D, -DClass --debug
           Set either the global debug bit or set the debug bit for the given
           class.  Using the global variant makes zoid output a lot of debug
           information.

       -h, --help
       -u, --usage
           Print a help message and exits.

       -Idir[,dir, ...]
           The specified directories are added to the module search path @INC.

       -i, --interactive
           Start an interactive shell. This is the default if no other options
           are supplied.

       -l, --login
           Force login behavior, this will reset your current working
           directory.  This variable is also available to plugins and scripts,
           which might act on it.

       -mmodule
       -Mmodule
       -Mmodule=args[,arg, ...]
           Import module into the eval namespace.  With -m explicit import
           empty list, with -M default arguments or specified arguments.
           Details like the equivalent perl option, see perlrun(1).

       -o setting
       -o setting=value
       +o setting
           Set (-o) or unset (+o) one or more settings.

       -s, --stdin
           Read input from stdin. This is the default if no other options are
           supplied and neither stdin or stdout are terminal devices.

       -V, --version
           Display version information.

       -v, --verbose
           Sets the shell in verbose mode. This will cause each command to be
           echoed to STDERR.

ENVIRONMENT
       The variables $PWD, $HOME and $USER are set to default values if not
       yet set by the parent process.

       The variable $ZOID will point to the location of the zoid executable,
       it is similar to $SHELL for POSIX compliant shells. zoid uses a
       different variable because some programs seem to expect $SHELL to point
       to a POSIX compliant shell.

       To switch off ansi colours on the terminal set $CLICOLOR to 0 (null).

FILES
       Zoidberg uses rc files, data files and plugin files, use the --config
       switch to check the search paths used.

       Which rcfiles are loaded is controlled be the 'rcfiles' and 'norc'
       settings, try "zoid -o norc" to skip all rcfiles or "zoid -o
       rcfiles=file1:file2:file3" to use files other then the default.

       The runtime search path for plugins etc. can be controlled with the
       'data_dirs' setting, try "zoid -o data_dirs=dir1:dir2:dir3".

DIAGNOSTICS
       Error messages may be issued either by perl or by one any of the
       modules in use. The zoid utility itself will only complain when the
       commandline options are wrong. If the error was thrown by one of zoid's
       core modules, the error message will either start with the module name
       or the name of the command that went wrong.

RESTRICTIONS
       Source files and command input are NOT interpreted the same way.

       Use -e _or_ -c, do not mix them.

BUGS
       To submit bug reports visit http://rt.cpan.org or mail the author.

SEE ALSO
       perl(1), zoiduser(1), zoidbuiltins(1), zoiddevel(1), zoidfaq(1),
       Zoidberg(3), <http://zoidberg.sourceforge.net>

AUTHORS
       Jaap Karssenberg || Pardus [Larus] <pardus@cpan.org>

       R.L. Zwart, <rlzwart@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (c) 2002 Jaap G Karssenberg and RL Zwart. All rights
       reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
       modify it under the same terms as Perl.

       This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
       WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
       MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See either the GNU
       General Public License or the Artistic License for more details.

       See <http://www.perl.com/language/misc/Artistic.html> and
       <http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html>



perl v5.12.2                      2006-02-11                           ZOID(1)
