getcommands function

Synopsis

$getcommands()

$getcommands(<pattern> [<pattern> ...])

Technical

Returns the names of registered built-in commands. With no input, all built-in command names are returned. Otherwise, each supplied pattern selects names using EPIC's case-insensitive wildcard matcher. This matches complete names, rather than doing an implicit prefix search; use prefix* for a prefix.

Patterns are ordinary whitespace-separated words. Double quotes do not group a pattern, even with /xdebug dword enabled. Multiple patterns are processed in their supplied order and their result lists are concatenated. Duplicates are not removed, so a command matching two patterns appears twice.

Each pattern's matches follow the global symbol table's sorted name order. Built-in names are returned in uppercase, without a leading slash. There is no output to the screen and no command execution.

Only symbols with a built-in command component are included. User-only aliases and alias stubs do not qualify; an alias sharing a built-in name does not hide that built-in from the list. The direct registry walk does not resolve stubs or load their scripts. Build-dependent commands appear according to what is registered in the running client.

Practical

This is useful for completion scripts and command discovery. Use $cexist() to test one exact built-in name, $getfunctions() for built-in function names, or $aliasctl() to inspect user aliases.

Returns

A space-separated list of names matching the supplied patterns, or the empty string when no names match. With no input, it returns the full registered built-in command list.

Examples

Source

Registration and GET_UNIFIED_ARRAY_FUNCTION: source/functions.c. Built-in component enumeration and wildcard selection: source/alias.c. Sorted symbol storage: source/alist.c. Built-in command registration: source/commands.c. Wildcard matching: source/reg.c.