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A Feel For YSH Syntax

A short way to describe the YSH language:

A Unix shell that's familiar to people who know Python, JavaScript, or Ruby.

This document gives you a feel for that, with brief examples. It's not a comprehensive or precise guide. Roughly speaking, YSH code has more punctuation than those 3 languages, but less than shell and Perl.

If you're totally unfamiliar with the language, read The Simplest Explanation of Oil first. (Oil was renamed YSH in 2023.)

Preliminaries

Different parts of YSH are parsed in either command or expression mode. Command mode is like shell:

echo $x 

Expression mode looks like Python or JavaScript, and appears on right-hand side of =:

var x = 42 + array[i]

The examples below aren't organized along those lines, but they use var and echo to remind you of the context. Some constructs are valid in both modes.

Sigils

Sigils are punctuation characters that precede a name, e.g. the $ in $mystr.

Unlike Perl and PHP, YSH doesn't use sigils on the LHS of assignments, or in expression mode. The syntactic concepts doc explains this difference.

Very Common

The $ and @ sigils mean roughly what they do in shell, Perl, and PowerShell.

$ means string / scalar. These shell constructs are idiomatic in YSH:

$mvar   ${myvar}
$(hostname)

And these YSH language extensions also use $:

echo $[42 + a[i]]            # string interpolation of expression
grep $/ digit+ /             # inline eggex (not implemented yet)

@ means array / splice an array:

echo "$@"                    # Legacy syntax; prefer @ARGV

YSH:

echo @strs                   # splice array

echo @[split(x)] @[glob(x)]  # splice expressions that returns arrays

for i in @(seq 3) {          # split command sub
  echo $i
}   

proc p(first, @rest) {       # named varargs in proc signatures
  write -- $first            # (procs are shell-like functions)
  write -- @rest
}

Less Common

The colon means "unquoted word" in these two lines:

var mysymbol = :key               # string, not implemented yet
var myarray = :| one two three |  # array

It's also used to pass the name of a variable to a builtin:

echo hi | read :myvar

A caret means "unevaluated":

var cmd = ^(cd /tmp; ls *.txt)
var expr = ^[42 + a[i]]  # unimplemented
var template = ^"var = $var"  # unimplemented

Opening and Closing Delimiters

The {} [] and () characters have several different meanings, but we try our best to make them consistent. They're subject to legacy constraints from Bourne shell, Korn shell, and bash.

Braces: Command Blocks and Dict Literal Expressions

In expression mode, {} are used for dict literals (aka hash tables, associative arrays), which makes YSH look like JavaScript:

var d = {name: 'Bob', age: 10}

while (x > 0) {
  setvar x -= 1
}

In command mode, they're used for blocks of code:

cd /tmp {
  echo $PWD
}

Blocks are also used for "declarative" configuration:

server www.example.com {
  port = 80
  root = '/home/www'
  section bar {
    ...
  }
}

Parens: Expression

Parens are used in expressions:

var x = (42 + a[i]) * myfunc(42, 'foo')

if (x > 0) {         # compare with if test -d /tmp
  echo 'positive'
}

And signatures:

proc p(x, y) {
  echo $x $y
}

In Eggex, they mean grouping and not capture, which is consistent with other YSH expressions:

var p = / digit+ ('seconds' | 'minutes' | 'hours' ) /

Parens with Sigil: Command Interpolation

The "sigil pairs" with parens enclose commands:

echo $(ls | wc -l)             # command sub
echo @(seq 3)                  # split command usb

var myblock = ^(echo $PWD)     # block literal in expression mode

diff <(sort left.txt) <(sort right.txt)  # bash syntax

Unlike brackets and braces, the () characters can't appear in shell commands, which makes them useful as delimiters.

Brackets: Sequence, Subscript

In expression mode, [] means sequence:

var mylist = ['one', 'two', 'three']

or subscript:

var item = mylist[1]
var item = mydict['foo']

Brackets with a Sigil: Expression

The sigil pair $[] is common in command mode:

echo $[42 + a[i]]

Quotations are valid in expression mode:

var my_expr = ^[42 + a[i]]

Pass lazy arg lists to commands with []. They're syntactic sugar for ^[]:

assert [42 === x]     # short version

assert (^[42 === x])  # same thing

Spaces Around = ?

In YSH, your own variables look like this:

const x = 42
var s = 'foo'
setvar s = 'bar'

In contrast, special shell variables are written with a single NAME=value argument:

shvar PATH=/tmp {
  temporary
}

Which is similar to the syntax of the env command:

env PYTHONPATH=/tmp ./myscript.py

Naming Conventions for Identifiers

See the Style Guide.

Other Punctuation Usage

Here are other usages of the punctuation discussed:

echo *.[ch]                    # glob char and char classes
echo {alice,bob}@example.com   # brace expansion

Eggex:

/ [a-f A-F 0-9] /         # char classes use []

/ digit+ ('ms' | 'us') /  # non-capturing group
< digit+ >                # capturing group
< digit+ :hour >          # named capture

dot{3,4} a{+ N}           # repetition

The ~ character is used in operators that mean "pattern" or "approximate":

if (s ~ /d+/) {
  echo 'number'
}   

if (s ~~ '*.py') {
  echo 'Python'
}

if (mystr ~== myint) {
  echo 'string equals number'
}

Extended globs are discouraged in YSH because they're a weird way of writing regular expressions. But they also use "sigil pairs" with parens:

,(*.py|*.sh)   # preferred synonym for @(*.py|*.sh)
+(...)         # bash/ksh-compatible
*(...)
?(...)
!(...)

Shell arithmetic is also discouraged in favor of YSH arithmetic:

echo $((1 + 2))  # shell: confusing coercions, dynamically parsed
echo $[1 + 2]    # YSH: types, statically parsed

Related Docs

• Syntactic Concepts in the YSH Language
• Language Influences

Appendix: Table of Sigil Pairs

This table is mainly for YSH language designers. Many constructs aren't implemented, but we reserve space for them. The Oils Reference is more complete.

Example      Description        What's Inside  Where Valid  Notes

$(hostname)  Command Sub        Command        cmd,expr
@(seq 3)     Split Command Sub  Command        cmd,expr     should decode J8
                                                            strings

{ echo hi }  Block Literal      Command        cmd          shell requires ;
^(echo hi)   Unevaluated Block  Command        expr         rare

>(sort -n)   Process Sub        Command        cmd          rare
<(echo hi)   Process Sub        Command        cmd          rare

:|foo $bar|  Array Literal      Words          expr

$[42 + a[i]] Stringify Expr     Expression     cmd,expr
@[glob(x)]   Array-ify Expr     Expression     cmd,expr     not implemented
^[42 + a[i]] Unevaluated Expr   Expression     expr         not implemented

^"$1 $2"     Unevaluated Str    DQ String      expr         not implemented

${x %2d}     Var Sub            Formatting     cmd,expr     not implemented
${x|html}    Var Sub            Formatting     cmd,expr     not implemented

json (x)     Typed Arg List     Argument       cmd
                                Expressions

$/d+/        Inline Eggex       Eggex Expr     cmd          not implemented

r''          Raw String         String         expr         cmd when shopt
             Literal                                        parse_raw_string

j""          JSON8 String       String         cmd,expr     not implemented
             Literal

#'a'         Char Literal       UTF-8 char     expr

Discouraged / Deprecated

${x%%pre}    Shell Var Sub      Shell          cmd,expr     mostly deprecated
$((1+2))     Shell Arith Sub    Shell Arith    cmd          deprecated

@(*.py|*.sh) Extended Glob      Glob Words     cmd          deprecated
+(...)
*(...)
?(...)
!(...)

,(*.py|*.sh) Extended Glob      Glob Words     cmd          break conflict
                                                            with split command
                                                            sub

Key to "where valid" column:

• cmd means lex_mode_e.ShCommand
• expr means lex_mode_e.Expr

Some unused sigil pairs:

~()   -()   =()   /()   _()   .()