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Command Separation

You can place more than one command on the command line (or more than one command within an alias) by separating the commands with ;.

cd \directory one; word "first document.doc"; cd \directory two; word "second document.doc"

Each command will be executed in turn, but Zoom Shell does not wait for each application to be done before the next is run, so the second command should not ordinarily depend on the results of the first. In the case above, each cd command will complete before the document is opened, but Word will open the second time right after the first, without waiting for you to finish the first document.

To make Zoom Shell wait for an application to finish before doing something else, use the wait command.

Conditional Execution

To run the second command only if the first was sucessful, use the double ampersand "&&". This feature is available for most internal Zoom Shell commands (the ones which operate on files). The success of external commands is checked, but not necessarily indicative of much -- all Zoom Shell knows is whether it was started successfully or not.

cd some_directory && rm * ; cd original_directory (only remove files if the cd command was successful. Go back to the original directory regardless of the success of the first cd or the rm command.)

Pipes

Zoom Shell supports "pipes" in the command line. Zoom Shell's internal implementation of the pipe is somewhat artificial; only character data are supported and the data are sent to the second program only after the first is complete.

ps | grep notepad (run the "ps" command and pass its results to the "grep" command.)

You can invoke real pipes with Zoom Shell:

sh ps.exe | grep.exe notepad (run a "ps.exe" executable and pass its results to a "grep.exe" executable.)

Notes:

  1. If you enter alias or quote as the first command on a command line, Zoom Shell will not split that command line up. That way, you can create aliases with semicolons.
  2. If you start Zoom Shell using a command line with separators you may have to include the entire command line with double quotes:
zsh "notepad; word"

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