Re: globbing index*

["Benjamin R. Haskell" <zsh@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 7 Mar 2011, zzapper wrote:

> Hi
> I'm often diffing two files with a glob knowing that only 2 files match.
> say index.php and index2.php
>
> so when I type
> > diff index*
> I can assume that I will get, (but it will always be as clear)
>
> > diff index.php index2.php
>
> but is there an option to force diff to output the names of actual 
> files compared?
>
> (Having posed myself the problem I've realized that I can always tab 
> expand)
>
> > diff index*<TAB>

Personally I prefer to keep the unexpanded form for history purposes 
(next time the glob might match different files).

To output the names beforehand, you can make a function:

diff () { echo "Diffing: $@" >&2 ; command diff "$@" }

The 'command' precommand modifier prevents 'diff' from referring again 
to the 'function' of the same name.

--
Best,
Ben