One of the zsh options which changes this behaviour is called CSH_NULLCMD, which seems to suggest it is possible to be csh compatible in zsh. $ setopt cshn

One of the zsh options which changes this behaviour is called CSH_NULLCMD, which seems to suggest it is possible to be csh compatible in zsh. $ setopt cshnullcmd $ < task >task2 zsh: redirection with no command `man zshmisc` and search for "REDIRECTIONS WITH NO COMMAND" for all the gory details :/ Edit: inverted csh compat logic in my head :(