ANNOUNCE: zsh versions 3.0.6 and 3.1.6 released

[Peter Stephenson <pws@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Versions 3.0.6 and 3.1.6 of zsh, the Z-Shell, have been released.  3.0.6 is
a maintenance release of the current production version, and user-visible
changes have been kept to a minimum; 3.1.6 is the latest development (beta)
version.  A diff file between 3.0.5 and 3.0.6 is available, however the
number of changes between 3.1.5 and 3.1.6 means it is not useful in this
case.  A list of FTP archives is given at the end of this announcement.
Please send any email regarding these releases to the maintainers' mailing
list, zsh-workers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx .

The Z-Shell is a freely available UNIX command interpreter of the Bourne
shell (sh) family, a close relative of the Korn shell (ksh).  Its major
claim to fame is the many additional features to make interactive use much
more pleasant.  Version 3.1.6's new function-based system for completing
command line arguments takes this a step further.  Below is a summary of
new features in the two versions.  Note that features listed as new to
3.0.6 are in the vast majority of cases new to 3.1.6 as well.

Bart Schaefer <schaefer@xxxxxxx> (Version 3.0.6)
Peter Stephenson <pws@xxxxxxx>   (Version 3.1.6)


New features in zsh version 3.1.6 (beta version)
------------------------------------------------

New completion system via shell functions; massive degree of
programmability and configurability:
 - ready-made function suite to use, see zshcompsys(1)
 - approximate completion and spelling correction via completion
 - control over matching for case-independence, partial word completion, etc.
 - menu selection:  choose a completion by moving the cursor
 - coloured completion lists
 - completion of filenames in quotes is now more reliable; splitting
   quoted strings into command arguments is also possible.

Other editing changes:
  - enhancements to function/editing interface:  new parameters, numeric
    arguments, string argument passing, reading keys from widgets.
  - the old history-search-{back,for}ward behaviour and bindings have
    returned (up to minor details).
  - BASH_AUTO_LIST option to show completion list only on second key press.
  - the ZBEEP parameter gives a string to output instead of beeping,
    allowing you to have a visual bell.

History changes: new options HIST_NO_FUNCTIONS, HIST_EXPIRE_DUPS_FIRST,
HIST_FIND_NO_DUPS, HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS, INC_APPEND_HISTORY,
HIST_SAVE_NO_DUPS, SHARE_HISTORY, allow better control of when history is
read and written and how duplicates are handled.  New format for history
saves.

Associative arrays plus enhanced parameter substitutions to retrieve keys
and values.

Globbing changes:
  - Case-insensitive and approximate globbing.
  - Ordering and indexing of globbing matches, e.g. *(om[1]) picks
    most recently modified file.
  - General file mode qualifier with chmod(1)-like syntax, e.g. *(f:u+wx:)

New loadable modules:
  - zftp, plus associated function suite, for turning your zsh session
    into an FTP session too
  - parameter, for examining and altering shell hash tables via an
    associative array interface.
  - mapfile, for reading and writing external files via an associative
    array interface.

Debugging and prompt enhancements:
  - $PS4 can contain %i for $LINENO as well as %N for script or function
    names (default PS4 changed), also %_ for current shell structure
    executing;
  - Prompt truncation %<...< is now more flexible: it applies to a
    whole section of the prompt, not just one escape.  You need to put
    %<< after the truncated escape to get the old behaviour.
  - %20(l.yes.no) in prompts prints yes if at least 20 characters have
    been output, else no (e.g. for outputting extra newlines).

Parameter and expansion changes
  - `typeset -t MYPATH mypath' creates tied path/PATH-like variables
  - `typeset -g' allows operations on parameters without making them local
  - New expansions
    - ${(t)param} prints type information for $param
    - ${(P)param} treats value of $param as the name of a param to
      substitute
    - ${foo:q} can quote replaced parameter text from expansion
    - ${foo/old/new} substitution, like bash; also (S) flag for shortest
      match
    - $foo[(b.2.i)bar] starts searching $foo for bar starting at 2nd match

Builtin and function changes
  - stat module: `stat -H hash foo' gives you e.g. $hash[mtime]
  - `autoload -U' autoloads functions without alias expansion.

Other new options:
  - LOCAL_TRAPS allows signal traps to be local to functions (as in ksh).
  - NO_RCS can now be turned on at any point in initialization files.
  - NO_GLOBAL_RCS can force /etc/z* files after /etc/zshenv to be skipped.
    (Please don't use this as an excuse to stuff more into /etc/zshenv!)
  - Existing MAGIC_EQUAL_SUBST option is more useful; any argument containing
    ...=~...:~... will perform filename expansion on the ~ (previously,
    the string before `=' had to look like a parameter name).

Configuration changes:
  - Generation of signal names should be more reliable
  - Customizable installation of shell functions from distribution.

New features in zsh version 3.0.6
---------------------------------

Most of these changes are designed to improve compatibility with zsh
version 3.1.6, the latest development release.  However, this release also
fixes all known Year 2000 (Y2K) bugs in zsh 3.0.

History changes:
  - whitespace between words is ignored in history searches.
  - new option HIST_REDUCE_BLANKS removes extra whitespace in the stored
    history.
  - support for reading (but not writing) version 3.1.6 history files.

Globbing changes:
  - the a, c, and m glob qualifiers can now test time in seconds.
  - globbing of number ranges behaves more like character ranges in that
    it can match a prefix of a number, e.g. `<1-5>*' matches 1, 2, 3, 4,
    5, 17, 23skiddoo, 5986, etc., but not 6, 7, 8ball, 911, etc.

Parameter and expansion changes:
  - expansion of ~ and other globbing flags via ${~param} do not depend
    upon EXTENDED_GLOB (bug fix).
  - nested parameter substitutions require braces (this was always the
    documented behavior, but previous parsers didn't enforce it).
  - quote only nested expansion, e.g. ${(f)"$(<file)"} reads complete
    `file', then splits lines into array.

Builtin and function changes:
  - `typeset -U' works on the colon-array version of linked parameters.
  - `typeset +f' and `functions +' output the names (only) of functions.
  - `emulate -L' has the effect of `setopt localoptions'.
  - in fn1() { local foo; unset foo; foo=bar; }, foo is restored at local
    level, whereas if the `unset foo' appeared in a nested function it
    would have been restored at global level, which was presumably wrong.
  - `foo=bar >&file' is a redirection, not a NULLCMD.
  - any single complex command, such as `case ... esac', parses as if
    semicolon-terminated (bug fix).
  - the shell function `preexec', if defined, is run after parsing each
    command line but before executing the command.

Other changes:
  - the option PRINT_EIGHT_BIT causes zsh to emit raw bytes in prompts
    and completion lists even if the system ctype(3) package says that
    those bytes are not "printable."

Debugging enhancements:
  - LINENO is now very much more useful in scripts and functions and is
    reported correctly in most error messages.
  - ERREXIT behavior is now consistent with newer Bourne-like shells,
    e.g. with respect to `if' tests that fail.

Configuration changes:
  - Large file and 64-bit integers on 32-bit machines supported where
    provided by OS.
  - a few more system features, such as getpwnam/getpwuid, are tested for.


Zsh is available from the following anonymous FTP sites.  These mirror
sites are kept frequently up to date; please be patient if the latest
changes have not reached your local mirror yet.  The sites marked with (H)
may be mirroring ftp.cs.elte.hu instead of the primary site.

      Primary site
            ftp://ftp.zsh.org/pub/zsh/
            http://www.zsh.org/pub/zsh/

      Australia
            ftp://ftp.zsh.org/pub/zsh/
            http://www.zsh.org/pub/zsh/
            ftp://ftp.ips.gov.au/pub/packages/zsh/  (H)

      Denmark
            ftp://sunsite.auc.dk/pub/unix/shells/zsh/

      Finland
            ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/unix/shells/zsh/

      France
            ftp://ftp.cenatls.cena.dgac.fr/pub/shells/zsh/

      Germany
            ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/unix/shells/zsh/  (H)
            ftp://ftp.gmd.de/packages/zsh/
            ftp://ftp.uni-trier.de/pub/unix/shell/zsh/

      Hungary
            ftp://ftp.cs.elte.hu/pub/zsh/
            http://www.cs.elte.hu/pub/zsh/
            ftp://ftp.kfki.hu/pub/packages/zsh/

      Israel
            ftp://ftp.math.technion.ac.il/mirror/ftp.zsh.org/pub/zsh/
            http://www.math.technion.ac.il/mirror/ftp.zsh.org/pub/zsh/

      Italy
            ftp://ftp.unina.it/pub/Unix/pkgs/shell/zsh/

      Japan
            ftp://ftp.tohoku.ac.jp/mirror/zsh/  (H)
            ftp://ftp.nisiq.net/pub/shells/zsh/  (H)
            ftp://ftp.win.ne.jp/pub/shell/zsh/

      Norway
            ftp://ftp.uit.no/pub/unix/shells/zsh/

      Poland
            ftp://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/unix/shells/zsh/

      Romania
            ftp://ftp.roedu.net/pub/mirrors/ftp.zsh.org/pub/zsh/

      Slovenia
            ftp://ftp.siol.net/mirrors/zsh/

      Sweden
            ftp://ftp.lysator.liu.se/pub/unix/zsh/

      UK
            ftp://ftp.net.lut.ac.uk/zsh/
            ftp://sunsite.org.uk/packages/zsh/

      USA
            ftp://uiarchive.uiuc.edu/pub/packages/shells/zsh/
            ftp://ftp.rge.com/pub/shells/zsh/
            ftp://foad.org/pub/zsh/
            http://foad.org/zsh/