UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I was trying to modify my .cshrc file so that the full path would always be displayed in my command prompt. After doing a search, I was able to accomplish this by adding these lines to my .cshrc file:

Code:

alias	 setprompt    'set prompt="%/% "'
setprompt

alias    cd           'chdir \!* && setprompt'
alias    pushd        'pushd \!* && setprompt'
alias    popd         'popd \!* && setprompt'

What exactly are the "\!*" characters doing (without the quotes)? I did some searching and know it has something to do with command substitution, but can anyone tell me exactly what that sequence of characters means?

It's just the arguments to your aliased command. i.e.

Code:

cd asdf

is expanded to

Code:

chdir asdf && setprompt

However, I don't believe those aliases are at all necessary to set your prompt. All you need is

Code:

set prompt = "%/% "

and tcsh will change your prompt when you change directory,