elvish

elvish [options] [script] [args]

Elvish is an expressive programming language and a powerful shell for Unix-like systems. It combines shell features with a modern programming language including namespaces, lambdas, and structured data.The shell offers pipelines that pass structured data (not just strings), built-in file manager (Ctrl-N), and comprehensive history with directory history (Ctrl-L). Its syntax is cleaner than traditional shells.Elvish provides real-time syntax highlighting, intelligent completions, and a consistent programming model for both interactive use and scripting.

SCRIPT

Script file to execute.

Execute command string.

Configuration file.

Don't load rc file.

Force interactive mode even when input is not a terminal.

Parse and compile the code but do not execute it, reporting any errors.

Print output of --compileonly as JSON.

Print the Elvish version and exit.

Display help information.

~/.config/elvish/rc.elv or ~/.elvish/rc.elv

Main configuration file loaded on shell startup.

Directory for Elvish modules and libraries.

Not POSIX-compatible. Scripts not portable to bash/zsh. Smaller community than mainstream shells. Some traditional shell patterns don't work.

Elvish was created by Qi Xiao starting around 2014 as a shell designed from scratch with modern language features rather than POSIX compatibility as the primary goal.

bash(1), zsh(1), fish(1), nushell(1)

Source code · Homepage · Documentation