Migrating from tcsh to bash (issues)

[Simos]

Hi All,

I have been using tcsh for a long time and I plan to move to bash.
I am trying to replicate my config scripts and I have stumbled on the
following issues. My question is whether bash can do these tasks or
whether they can (hopefully) be added as features in a new version.

1. I have aliases for  "../", ".../" and "/",

alias -- ../='cd ..'
alias -- .../='cd ../..'
alias -- /='cd /'

Bash is not happy with these alias names and does not allow to set them.

The rationale for using them is that, for example for "/", it does not
do anything as a command by itself (gives error), so with an alias we
can get it to perform something reasonable.
Is it possible to set these aliases?

2. An issue with PS1 is that there is no \w or \W version that can
expand the ~. My aim is to get to show the full pathname at all times.

The rationale is that when you manage many systems, it's good to be
able to see where you are in the filesystem. You can always hit
quickly "cd" to make sure you are at the home directory, however it's
nice to see the full path (helps to copy+paste as well).

3. Is it possible, when you press first time Tab for completion, to
perform completion and show the remaining possible completions? (like
M-? does)

That is, if we have
somefile.c file.c myfilename1.c myfilename2.c myfilename3.c
and we type
vi my<TAB>

we get on the first <TAB> the output

myfilename1.c myfilename2.c myfilename3.c
vi myfilename_

which we can now type a number to resolve an ambiguity.

4. Does the 'set watch(0 any any)' command in tcsh have an equivalent
in bash; It makes the shell to keep track of /var/log/wtmp, and report
when other users login/logout.
There was a thread in 2000 at
http://www.linux.ie/old-list/17375.html
Is there a built-in command for this now?

5. Is there an option in bash to print the exit value of commands?
For example,
$ wc /tmp/qqwoieuqo
wc: /tmp/qqwoieuqo: No such file or directory
Exit 1    <----- this
$ _

Cheers,
Simos

p.s.
I have been maintaining tchsrc.sf.net and I plan to move the
functionality to http://github.com/simos/bashrc/