1ZSHCONTRIB(1) General Commands Manual ZSHCONTRIB(1)
2
6 zshcontrib - user contributions to zsh
7
9 The Zsh source distribution includes a number of items contributed by
10 the user community. These are not inherently a part of the shell, and
11 some may not be available in every zsh installation. The most signifi‐
12 cant of these are documented here. For documentation on other contrib‐
13 uted items such as shell functions, look for comments in the function
14 source files.
15
17 Accessing On-Line Help
18 The key sequence ESC h is normally bound by ZLE to execute the run-help
19 widget (see zshzle(1)). This invokes the run-help command with the
20 command word from the current input line as its argument. By default,
21 run-help is an alias for the man command, so this often fails when the
22 command word is a shell builtin or a user-defined function. By
23 redefining the run-help alias, one can improve the on-line help pro‐
24 vided by the shell.
25 The helpfiles utility, found in the Util directory of the distribution,
27 is a Perl program that can be used to process the zsh manual to produce
28 a separate help file for each shell builtin and for many other shell
29 features as well. The autoloadable run-help function, found in Func‐
30 tions/Misc, searches for these helpfiles and performs several other
31 tests to produce the most complete help possible for the command.
32 Help files are installed by default to a subdirectory of /usr/share/zsh
34 or /usr/local/share/zsh.
35 To create your own help files with helpfiles, choose or create a direc‐
37 tory where the individual command help files will reside. For example,
38 you might choose ~/zsh_help. If you unpacked the zsh distribution in
39 your home directory, you would use the commands:
40 mkdir ~/zsh_help
42 perl ~/zsh-5.8/Util/helpfiles ~/zsh_help
43 The HELPDIR parameter tells run-help where to look for the help files.
45 When unset, it uses the default installation path. To use your own set
46 of help files, set this to the appropriate path in one of your startup
47 files:
48 HELPDIR=~/zsh_help
50 To use the run-help function, you need to add lines something like the
52 following to your .zshrc or equivalent startup file:
53 unalias run-help
55 autoload run-help
56 Note that in order for `autoload run-help' to work, the run-help file
58 must be in one of the directories named in your fpath array (see zsh‐
59 param(1)). This should already be the case if you have a standard zsh
60 installation; if it is not, copy Functions/Misc/run-help to an appro‐
61 priate directory.
62 Recompiling Functions
64 If you frequently edit your zsh functions, or periodically update your
65 zsh installation to track the latest developments, you may find that
66 function digests compiled with the zcompile builtin are frequently out
67 of date with respect to the function source files. This is not usually
68 a problem, because zsh always looks for the newest file when loading a
69 function, but it may cause slower shell startup and function loading.
70 Also, if a digest file is explicitly used as an element of fpath, zsh
71 won't check whether any of its source files has changed.
72 The zrecompile autoloadable function, found in Functions/Misc, can be
74 used to keep function digests up to date.
75 zrecompile [ -qt ] [ name ... ]
77 zrecompile [ -qt ] -p arg ... [ -- arg ... ]
78 This tries to find *.zwc files and automatically re-compile them
79 if at least one of the original files is newer than the compiled
80 file. This works only if the names stored in the compiled files
81 are full paths or are relative to the directory that contains
82 the .zwc file.
83 In the first form, each name is the name of a compiled file or a
85 directory containing *.zwc files that should be checked. If no
86 arguments are given, the directories and *.zwc files in fpath
87 are used.
88 When -t is given, no compilation is performed, but a return sta‐
90 tus of zero (true) is set if there are files that need to be
91 re-compiled and non-zero (false) otherwise. The -q option qui‐
92 ets the chatty output that describes what zrecompile is doing.
93 Without the -t option, the return status is zero if all files
95 that needed re-compilation could be compiled and non-zero if
96 compilation for at least one of the files failed.
97 If the -p option is given, the args are interpreted as one or
99 more sets of arguments for zcompile, separated by `--'. For
100 example:
101 zrecompile -p \
103 -R ~/.zshrc -- \
104 -M ~/.zcompdump -- \
105 ~/zsh/comp.zwc ~/zsh/Completion/*/_*
106 This compiles ~/.zshrc into ~/.zshrc.zwc if that doesn't exist
108 or if it is older than ~/.zshrc. The compiled file will be
109 marked for reading instead of mapping. The same is done for
110 ~/.zcompdump and ~/.zcompdump.zwc, but this compiled file is
111 marked for mapping. The last line re-creates the file
112 ~/zsh/comp.zwc if any of the files matching the given pattern is
113 newer than it.
114 Without the -p option, zrecompile does not create function
116 digests that do not already exist, nor does it add new functions
117 to the digest.
118 The following shell loop is an example of a method for creating func‐
120 tion digests for all functions in your fpath, assuming that you have
121 write permission to the directories:
122 for ((i=1; i <= $#fpath; ++i)); do
124 dir=$fpath[i]
125 zwc=${dir:t}.zwc
126 if [[ $dir == (.|..) || $dir == (.|..)/* ]]; then
127 continue
128 fi
129 files=($dir/*(N-.))
130 if [[ -w $dir:h && -n $files ]]; then
131 files=(${${(M)files%/*/*}#/})
132 if ( cd $dir:h &&
133 zrecompile -p -U -z $zwc $files ); then
134 fpath[i]=$fpath[i].zwc
135 fi
136 fi
137 done
138 The -U and -z options are appropriate for functions in the default zsh
140 installation fpath; you may need to use different options for your per‐
141 sonal function directories.
142 Once the digests have been created and your fpath modified to refer to
144 them, you can keep them up to date by running zrecompile with no argu‐
145 ments.
146 Keyboard Definition
148 The large number of possible combinations of keyboards, workstations,
149 terminals, emulators, and window systems makes it impossible for zsh to
150 have built-in key bindings for every situation. The zkbd utility,
151 found in Functions/Misc, can help you quickly create key bindings for
152 your configuration.
153 Run zkbd either as an autoloaded function, or as a shell script:
155 zsh -f ~/zsh-5.8/Functions/Misc/zkbd
157 When you run zkbd, it first asks you to enter your terminal type; if
159 the default it offers is correct, just press return. It then asks you
160 to press a number of different keys to determine characteristics of
161 your keyboard and terminal; zkbd warns you if it finds anything out of
162 the ordinary, such as a Delete key that sends neither ^H nor ^?.
163 The keystrokes read by zkbd are recorded as a definition for an asso‐
165 ciative array named key, written to a file in the subdirectory .zkbd
166 within either your HOME or ZDOTDIR directory. The name of the file is
167 composed from the TERM, VENDOR and OSTYPE parameters, joined by
168 hyphens.
169 You may read this file into your .zshrc or another startup file with
171 the `source' or `.' commands, then reference the key parameter in bind‐
172 key commands, like this:
173 source ${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zkbd/$TERM-$VENDOR-$OSTYPE
175 [[ -n ${key[Left]} ]] && bindkey "${key[Left]}" backward-char
176 [[ -n ${key[Right]} ]] && bindkey "${key[Right]}" forward-char
177 # etc.
178 Note that in order for `autoload zkbd' to work, the zkdb file must be
180 in one of the directories named in your fpath array (see zshparam(1)).
181 This should already be the case if you have a standard zsh installa‐
182 tion; if it is not, copy Functions/Misc/zkbd to an appropriate direc‐
183 tory.
184 Dumping Shell State
186 Occasionally you may encounter what appears to be a bug in the shell,
187 particularly if you are using a beta version of zsh or a development
188 release. Usually it is sufficient to send a description of the problem
189 to one of the zsh mailing lists (see zsh(1)), but sometimes one of the
190 zsh developers will need to recreate your environment in order to track
191 the problem down.
192 The script named reporter, found in the Util directory of the distribu‐
194 tion, is provided for this purpose. (It is also possible to autoload
195 reporter, but reporter is not installed in fpath by default.) This
196 script outputs a detailed dump of the shell state, in the form of
197 another script that can be read with `zsh -f' to recreate that state.
198 To use reporter, read the script into your shell with the `.' command
200 and redirect the output into a file:
201 . ~/zsh-5.8/Util/reporter > zsh.report
203 You should check the zsh.report file for any sensitive information such
205 as passwords and delete them by hand before sending the script to the
206 developers. Also, as the output can be voluminous, it's best to wait
207 for the developers to ask for this information before sending it.
208 You can also use reporter to dump only a subset of the shell state.
210 This is sometimes useful for creating startup files for the first time.
211 Most of the output from reporter is far more detailed than usually is
212 necessary for a startup file, but the aliases, options, and zstyles
213 states may be useful because they include only changes from the
214 defaults. The bindings state may be useful if you have created any of
215 your own keymaps, because reporter arranges to dump the keymap creation
216 commands as well as the bindings for every keymap.
217 As is usual with automated tools, if you create a startup file with
219 reporter, you should edit the results to remove unnecessary commands.
220 Note that if you're using the new completion system, you should not
221 dump the functions state to your startup files with reporter; use the
222 compdump function instead (see zshcompsys(1)).
223 reporter [ state ... ]
225 Print to standard output the indicated subset of the current
226 shell state. The state arguments may be one or more of:
227 all Output everything listed below.
229 aliases
230 Output alias definitions.
231 bindings
232 Output ZLE key maps and bindings.
233 completion
234 Output old-style compctl commands. New completion is
235 covered by functions and zstyles.
236 functions
237 Output autoloads and function definitions.
238 limits Output limit commands.
239 options
240 Output setopt commands.
241 styles Same as zstyles.
242 variables
243 Output shell parameter assignments, plus export commands
244 for any environment variables.
245 zstyles
246 Output zstyle commands.
247 If the state is omitted, all is assumed.
249 With the exception of `all', every state can be abbreviated by any pre‐
251 fix, even a single letter; thus a is the same as aliases, z is the same
252 as zstyles, etc.
253 Manipulating Hook Functions
255 add-zsh-hook [ -L | -dD ] [ -Uzk ] hook function
256 Several functions are special to the shell, as described in the
257 section SPECIAL FUNCTIONS, see zshmisc(1), in that they are
258 automatically called at specific points during shell execution.
259 Each has an associated array consisting of names of functions to
260 be called at the same point; these are so-called `hook func‐
261 tions'. The shell function add-zsh-hook provides a simple way
262 of adding or removing functions from the array.
263 hook is one of chpwd, periodic, precmd, preexec, zshaddhistory,
265 zshexit, or zsh_directory_name, the special functions in ques‐
266 tion. Note that zsh_directory_name is called in a different way
267 from the other functions, but may still be manipulated as a
268 hook.
269 function is name of an ordinary shell function. If no options
271 are given this will be added to the array of functions to be
272 executed in the given context. Functions are invoked in the
273 order they were added.
274 If the option -L is given, the current values for the hook
276 arrays are listed with typeset.
277 If the option -d is given, the function is removed from the
279 array of functions to be executed.
280 If the option -D is given, the function is treated as a pattern
282 and any matching names of functions are removed from the array
283 of functions to be executed.
284 The options -U, -z and -k are passed as arguments to autoload
286 for function. For functions contributed with zsh, the options
287 -Uz are appropriate.
288 add-zle-hook-widget [ -L | -dD ] [ -Uzk ] hook widgetname
290 Several widget names are special to the line editor, as
291 described in the section Special Widgets, see zshzle(1), in that
292 they are automatically called at specific points during editing.
293 Unlike function hooks, these do not use a predefined array of
294 other names to call at the same point; the shell function
295 add-zle-hook-widget maintains a similar array and arranges for
296 the special widget to invoke those additional widgets.
297 hook is one of isearch-exit, isearch-update, line-pre-redraw,
299 line-init, line-finish, history-line-set, or keymap-select, cor‐
300 responding to each of the special widgets zle-isearch-exit, etc.
301 The special widget names are also accepted as the hook argument.
302 widgetname is the name of a ZLE widget. If no options are given
304 this is added to the array of widgets to be invoked in the given
305 hook context. Widgets are invoked in the order they were added,
306 with
307 zle widgetname -Nw -- "$@"
308 Note that this means that the `WIDGET' special parameter tracks
310 the widgetname when the widget function is called, rather than
311 tracking the name of the corresponding special hook widget.
312 If the option -d is given, the widgetname is removed from the
314 array of widgets to be executed.
315 If the option -D is given, the widgetname is treated as a pat‐
317 tern and any matching names of widgets are removed from the
318 array.
319 If widgetname does not name an existing widget when added to the
321 array, it is assumed that a shell function also named widgetname
322 is meant to provide the implementation of the widget. This name
323 is therefore marked for autoloading, and the options -U, -z and
324 -k are passed as arguments to autoload as with add-zsh-hook.
325 The widget is also created with `zle -N widgetname' to cause the
326 corresponding function to be loaded the first time the hook is
327 called.
328 The arrays of widgetname are currently maintained in zstyle con‐
330 texts, one for each hook context, with a style of `widgets'. If
331 the -L option is given, this set of styles is listed with
332 `zstyle -L'. This implementation may change, and the special
333 widgets that refer to the styles are created only if
334 add-zle-hook-widget is called to add at least one widget, so if
335 this function is used for any hooks, then all hooks should be
336 managed only via this function.
337
339 The function cdr allows you to change the working directory to a previ‐
340 ous working directory from a list maintained automatically. It is sim‐
341 ilar in concept to the directory stack controlled by the pushd, popd
342 and dirs builtins, but is more configurable, and as it stores all
343 entries in files it is maintained across sessions and (by default)
344 between terminal emulators in the current session. Duplicates are
345 automatically removed, so that the list reflects the single most recent
346 use of each directory.
347 Note that the pushd directory stack is not actually modified or used by
349 cdr unless you configure it to do so as described in the configuration
350 section below.
351 Installation
353 The system works by means of a hook function that is called every time
354 the directory changes. To install the system, autoload the required
355 functions and use the add-zsh-hook function described above:
356 autoload -Uz chpwd_recent_dirs cdr add-zsh-hook
358 add-zsh-hook chpwd chpwd_recent_dirs
359 Now every time you change directly interactively, no matter which com‐
361 mand you use, the directory to which you change will be remembered in
362 most-recent-first order.
363 Use
365 All direct user interaction is via the cdr function.
366 The argument to cdr is a number N corresponding to the Nth most
368 recently changed-to directory. 1 is the immediately preceding direc‐
369 tory; the current directory is remembered but is not offered as a des‐
370 tination. Note that if you have multiple windows open 1 may refer to a
371 directory changed to in another window; you can avoid this by having
372 per-terminal files for storing directory as described for the
373 recent-dirs-file style below.
374 If you set the recent-dirs-default style described below cdr will
376 behave the same as cd if given a non-numeric argument, or more than one
377 argument. The recent directory list is updated just the same however
378 you change directory.
379 If the argument is omitted, 1 is assumed. This is similar to pushd's
381 behaviour of swapping the two most recent directories on the stack.
382 Completion for the argument to cdr is available if compinit has been
384 run; menu selection is recommended, using:
385 zstyle ':completion:*:*:cdr:*:*' menu selection
387 to allow you to cycle through recent directories; the order is pre‐
389 served, so the first choice is the most recent directory before the
390 current one. The verbose style is also recommended to ensure the
391 directory is shown; this style is on by default so no action is
392 required unless you have changed it.
393 Options
395 The behaviour of cdr may be modified by the following options.
396 -l lists the numbers and the corresponding directories in abbrevi‐
398 ated form (i.e. with ~ substitution reapplied), one per line.
399 The directories here are not quoted (this would only be an issue
400 if a directory name contained a newline). This is used by the
401 completion system.
402 -r sets the variable reply to the current set of directories.
404 Nothing is printed and the directory is not changed.
405 -e allows you to edit the list of directories, one per line. The
407 list can be edited to any extent you like; no sanity checking is
408 performed. Completion is available. No quoting is necessary
409 (except for newlines, where I have in any case no sympathy);
410 directories are in unabbreviated from and contain an absolute
411 path, i.e. they start with /. Usually the first entry should be
412 left as the current directory.
413 -p 'pattern'
415 Prunes any items in the directory list that match the given
416 extended glob pattern; the pattern needs to be quoted from imme‐
417 diate expansion on the command line. The pattern is matched
418 against each completely expanded file name in the list; the full
419 string must match, so wildcards at the end (e.g. '*removeme*')
420 are needed to remove entries with a given substring.
421 If output is to a terminal, then the function will print the new
423 list after pruning and prompt for confirmation by the user.
424 This output and confirmation step can be skipped by using -P
425 instead of -p.
426 Configuration
428 Configuration is by means of the styles mechanism that should be famil‐
429 iar from completion; if not, see the description of the zstyle command
430 in see zshmodules(1). The context for setting styles should be
431 ':chpwd:*' in case the meaning of the context is extended in future,
432 for example:
433 zstyle ':chpwd:*' recent-dirs-max 0
435 sets the value of the recent-dirs-max style to 0. In practice the
437 style name is specific enough that a context of '*' should be fine.
438 An exception is recent-dirs-insert, which is used exclusively by the
440 completion system and so has the usual completion system context
441 (':completion:*' if nothing more specific is needed), though again '*'
442 should be fine in practice.
443 recent-dirs-default
445 If true, and the command is expecting a recent directory index,
446 and either there is more than one argument or the argument is
447 not an integer, then fall through to "cd". This allows the lazy
448 to use only one command for directory changing. Completion
449 recognises this, too; see recent-dirs-insert for how to control
450 completion when this option is in use.
451 recent-dirs-file
453 The file where the list of directories is saved. The default is
454 ${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.chpwd-recent-dirs, i.e. this is in your home
455 directory unless you have set the variable ZDOTDIR to point
456 somewhere else. Directory names are saved in $'...' quoted
457 form, so each line in the file can be supplied directly to the
458 shell as an argument.
459 The value of this style may be an array. In this case, the
461 first file in the list will always be used for saving directo‐
462 ries while any other files are left untouched. When reading the
463 recent directory list, if there are fewer than the maximum num‐
464 ber of entries in the first file, the contents of later files in
465 the array will be appended with duplicates removed from the list
466 shown. The contents of the two files are not sorted together,
467 i.e. all the entries in the first file are shown first. The
468 special value + can appear in the list to indicate the default
469 file should be read at that point. This allows effects like the
470 following:
471 zstyle ':chpwd:*' recent-dirs-file \
473 ~/.chpwd-recent-dirs-${TTY##*/} +
474 Recent directories are read from a file numbered according to
476 the terminal. If there are insufficient entries the list is
477 supplemented from the default file.
478 It is possible to use zstyle -e to make the directory config‐
480 urable at run time:
481 zstyle -e ':chpwd:*' recent-dirs-file pick-recent-dirs-file
483 pick-recent-dirs-file() {
484 if [[ $PWD = ~/text/writing(|/*) ]]; then
485 reply=(~/.chpwd-recent-dirs-writing)
486 else
487 reply=(+)
488 fi
489 }
490 In this example, if the current directory is ~/text/writing or a
492 directory under it, then use a special file for saving recent
493 directories, else use the default.
494 recent-dirs-insert
496 Used by completion. If recent-dirs-default is true, then set‐
497 ting this to true causes the actual directory, rather than its
498 index, to be inserted on the command line; this has the same
499 effect as using the corresponding index, but makes the history
500 clearer and the line easier to edit. With this setting, if part
501 of an argument was already typed, normal directory completion
502 rather than recent directory completion is done; this is because
503 recent directory completion is expected to be done by cycling
504 through entries menu fashion.
505 If the value of the style is always, then only recent directo‐
507 ries will be completed; in that case, use the cd command when
508 you want to complete other directories.
509 If the value is fallback, recent directories will be tried
511 first, then normal directory completion is performed if recent
512 directory completion failed to find a match.
513 Finally, if the value is both then both sets of completions are
515 presented; the usual tag mechanism can be used to distinguish
516 results, with recent directories tagged as recent-dirs. Note
517 that the recent directories inserted are abbreviated with direc‐
518 tory names where appropriate.
519 recent-dirs-max
521 The maximum number of directories to save to the file. If this
522 is zero or negative there is no maximum. The default is 20.
523 Note this includes the current directory, which isn't offered,
524 so the highest number of directories you will be offered is one
525 less than the maximum.
526 recent-dirs-prune
528 This style is an array determining what directories should (or
529 should not) be added to the recent list. Elements of the array
530 can include:
531 parent Prune parents (more accurately, ancestors) from the
533 recent list. If present, changing directly down by any
534 number of directories causes the current directory to be
535 overwritten. For example, changing from ~pws to
536 ~pws/some/other/dir causes ~pws not to be left on the
537 recent directory stack. This only applies to direct
538 changes to descendant directories; earlier directories on
539 the list are not pruned. For example, changing from
540 ~pws/yet/another to ~pws/some/other/dir does not cause
541 ~pws to be pruned.
542 pattern:pattern
544 Gives a zsh pattern for directories that should not be
545 added to the recent list (if not already there). This
546 element can be repeated to add different patterns. For
547 example, 'pattern:/tmp(|/*)' stops /tmp or its descen‐
548 dants from being added. The EXTENDED_GLOB option is
549 always turned on for these patterns.
550 recent-dirs-pushd
552 If set to true, cdr will use pushd instead of cd to change the
553 directory, so the directory is saved on the directory stack. As
554 the directory stack is completely separate from the list of
555 files saved by the mechanism used in this file there is no obvi‐
556 ous reason to do this.
557 Use with dynamic directory naming
559 It is possible to refer to recent directories using the dynamic direc‐
560 tory name syntax by using the supplied function zsh_directory_name_cdr
561 a hook:
562 autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook
564 add-zsh-hook -Uz zsh_directory_name zsh_directory_name_cdr
565 When this is done, ~[1] will refer to the most recent directory other
567 than $PWD, and so on. Completion after ~[... also works.
568 Details of directory handling
570 This section is for the curious or confused; most users will not need
571 to know this information.
572 Recent directories are saved to a file immediately and hence are pre‐
574 served across sessions. Note currently no file locking is applied: the
575 list is updated immediately on interactive commands and nowhere else
576 (unlike history), and it is assumed you are only going to change direc‐
577 tory in one window at once. This is not safe on shared accounts, but
578 in any case the system has limited utility when someone else is chang‐
579 ing to a different set of directories behind your back.
580 To make this a little safer, only directory changes instituted from the
582 command line, either directly or indirectly through shell function
583 calls (but not through subshells, evals, traps, completion functions
584 and the like) are saved. Shell functions should use cd -q or pushd -q
585 to avoid side effects if the change to the directory is to be invisible
586 at the command line. See the contents of the function
587 chpwd_recent_dirs for more details.
588
590 The dynamic directory naming system is described in the subsection
591 Dynamic named directories of the section Filename Expansion in expn(1).
592 In this, a reference to ~[...] is expanded by a function found by the
593 hooks mechanism.
594 The contributed function zsh_directory_name_generic provides a system
596 allowing the user to refer to directories with only a limited amount of
597 new code. It supports all three of the standard interfaces for direc‐
598 tory naming: converting from a name to a directory, converting in the
599 reverse direction to find a short name, and completion of names.
600 The main feature of this function is a path-like syntax, combining
602 abbreviations at multiple levels separated by ":". As an example,
603 ~[g:p:s] might specify:
604 g The top level directory for your git area. This first component
605 has to match, or the function will return indicating another
606 directory name hook function should be tried.
607 p The name of a project within your git area.
609 s The source area within that project. This allows you to col‐
611 lapse references to long hierarchies to a very compact form,
612 particularly if the hierarchies are similar across different
613 areas of the disk.
614 Name components may be completed: if a description is shown at the top
616 of the list of completions, it includes the path to which previous com‐
617 ponents expand, while the description for an individual completion
618 shows the path segment it would add. No additional configuration is
619 needed for this as the completion system is aware of the dynamic direc‐
620 tory name mechanism.
621 Usage
623 To use the function, first define a wrapper function for your specific
624 case. We'll assume it's to be autoloaded. This can have any name but
625 we'll refer to it as zdn_mywrapper. This wrapper function will define
626 various variables and then call this function with the same arguments
627 that the wrapper function gets. This configuration is described below.
628 Then arrange for the wrapper to be run as a zsh_directory_name hook:
630 autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook zsh_diretory_name_generic zdn_mywrapper
632 add-zsh-hook -U zsh_directory_name zdn_mywrapper
633 Configuration
635 The wrapper function should define a local associative array zdn_top.
636 Alternatively, this can be set with a style called mapping. The con‐
637 text for the style is :zdn:wrapper-name where wrapper-name is the func‐
638 tion calling zsh_directory_name_generic; for example:
639 zstyle :zdn:zdn_mywrapper: mapping zdn_mywrapper_top
641 The keys in this associative array correspond to the first component of
643 the name. The values are matching directories. They may have an
644 optional suffix with a slash followed by a colon and the name of a
645 variable in the same format to give the next component. (The slash
646 before the colon is to disambiguate the case where a colon is needed in
647 the path for a drive. There is otherwise no syntax for escaping this,
648 so path components whose names start with a colon are not supported.)
649 A special component :default: specifies a variable in the form /:var
650 (the path section is ignored and so is usually empty) that will be used
651 for the next component if no variable is given for the path. Variables
652 referred to within zdn_top have the same format as zdn_top itself, but
653 contain relative paths.
654 For example,
656 local -A zdn_top=(
658 g ~/git
659 ga ~/alternate/git
660 gs /scratch/$USER/git/:second2
661 :default: /:second1
662 )
663 This specifies the behaviour of a directory referred to as ~[g:...] or
665 ~[ga:...] or ~[gs:...]. Later path components are optional; in that
666 case ~[g] expands to ~/git, and so on. gs expands to
667 /scratch/$USER/git and uses the associative array second2 to match the
668 second component; g and ga use the associative array second1 to match
669 the second component.
670 When expanding a name to a directory, if the first component is not g
672 or ga or gs, it is not an error; the function simply returns 1 so that
673 a later hook function can be tried. However, matching the first compo‐
674 nent commits the function, so if a later component does not match, an
675 error is printed (though this still does not stop later hooks from
676 being executed).
677 For components after the first, a relative path is expected, but note
679 that multiple levels may still appear. Here is an example of second1:
680 local -A second1=(
682 p myproject
683 s somproject
684 os otherproject/subproject/:third
685 )
686 The path as found from zdn_top is extended with the matching directory,
688 so ~[g:p] becomes ~/git/myproject. The slash between is added automat‐
689 ically (it's not possible to have a later component modify the name of
690 a directory already matched). Only os specifies a variable for a third
691 component, and there's no :default:, so it's an error to use a name
692 like ~[g:p:x] or ~[ga:s:y] because there's nowhere to look up the x or
693 y.
694 The associative arrays need to be visible within this function; the
696 generic function therefore uses internal variable names beginning _zdn_
697 in order to avoid clashes. Note that the variable reply needs to be
698 passed back to the shell, so should not be local in the calling func‐
699 tion.
700 The function does not test whether directories assembled by component
702 actually exist; this allows the system to work across automounted file
703 systems. The error from the command trying to use a non-existent
704 directory should be sufficient to indicate the problem.
705 Complete example
707 Here is a full fictitious but usable autoloadable definition of the
708 example function defined by the code above. So ~[gs:p:s] expands to
709 /scratch/$USER/git/myscratchproject/top/srcdir (with $USER also
710 expanded).
711 local -A zdn_top=(
713 g ~/git
714 ga ~/alternate/git
715 gs /scratch/$USER/git/:second2
716 :default: /:second1
717 )
718 local -A second1=(
720 p myproject
721 s somproject
722 os otherproject/subproject/:third
723 )
724 local -A second2=(
726 p myscratchproject
727 s somescratchproject
728 )
729 local -A third=(
731 s top/srcdir
732 d top/documentation
733 )
734 # autoload not needed if you did this at initialisation...
736 autoload -Uz zsh_directory_name_generic
737 zsh_directory_name_generic "$@
738 It is also possible to use global associative arrays, suitably named,
740 and set the style for the context of your wrapper function to refer to
741 this. Then your set up code would contain the following:
742 typeset -A zdn_mywrapper_top=(...)
744 # ... and so on for other associative arrays ...
745 zstyle ':zdn:zdn_mywrapper:' mapping zdn_mywrapper_top
746 autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook zsh_directory_name_generic zdn_mywrapper
747 add-zsh-hook -U zsh_directory_name zdn_mywrapper
748 and the function zdn_mywrapper would contain only the following:
750 zsh_directory_name_generic "$@"
752
754 In a lot of cases, it is nice to automatically retrieve information
755 from version control systems (VCSs), such as subversion, CVS or git, to
756 be able to provide it to the user; possibly in the user's prompt. So
757 that you can instantly tell which branch you are currently on, for
758 example.
759 In order to do that, you may use the vcs_info function.
761 The following VCSs are supported, showing the abbreviated name by which
763 they are referred to within the system:
764 Bazaar (bzr)
765 https://bazaar.canonical.com/
766 Codeville (cdv)
767 http://freecode.com/projects/codeville/
768 Concurrent Versioning System (cvs)
769 https://www.nongnu.org/cvs/
770 Darcs (darcs)
771 http://darcs.net/
772 Fossil (fossil)
773 https://fossil-scm.org/
774 Git (git)
775 https://git-scm.com/
776 GNU arch (tla)
777 https://www.gnu.org/software/gnu-arch/
778 Mercurial (hg)
779 https://www.mercurial-scm.org/
780 Monotone (mtn)
781 https://monotone.ca/
782 Perforce (p4)
783 https://www.perforce.com/
784 Subversion (svn)
785 https://subversion.apache.org/
786 SVK (svk)
787 https://svk.bestpractical.com/
788 There is also support for the patch management system quilt
790 (https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/quilt). See Quilt Support below
791 for details.
792 To load vcs_info:
794 autoload -Uz vcs_info
796 It can be used in any existing prompt, because it does not require any
798 specific $psvar entries to be available.
799 Quickstart
801 To get this feature working quickly (including colors), you can do the
802 following (assuming, you loaded vcs_info properly - see above):
803 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' actionformats \
805 '%F{5}(%f%s%F{5})%F{3}-%F{5}[%F{2}%b%F{3}|%F{1}%a%F{5}]%f '
806 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' formats \
807 '%F{5}(%f%s%F{5})%F{3}-%F{5}[%F{2}%b%F{5}]%f '
808 zstyle ':vcs_info:(sv[nk]|bzr):*' branchformat '%b%F{1}:%F{3}%r'
809 precmd () { vcs_info }
810 PS1='%F{5}[%F{2}%n%F{5}] %F{3}%3~ ${vcs_info_msg_0_}%f%# '
811 Obviously, the last two lines are there for demonstration. You need to
813 call vcs_info from your precmd function. Once that is done you need a
814 single quoted '${vcs_info_msg_0_}' in your prompt.
815 To be able to use '${vcs_info_msg_0_}' directly in your prompt like
817 this, you will need to have the PROMPT_SUBST option enabled.
818 Now call the vcs_info_printsys utility from the command line:
820 % vcs_info_printsys
822 ## list of supported version control backends:
823 ## disabled systems are prefixed by a hash sign (#)
824 bzr
825 cdv
826 cvs
827 darcs
828 fossil
829 git
830 hg
831 mtn
832 p4
833 svk
834 svn
835 tla
836 ## flavours (cannot be used in the enable or disable styles; they
837 ## are enabled and disabled with their master [git-svn -> git])
838 ## they *can* be used in contexts: ':vcs_info:git-svn:*'.
839 git-p4
840 git-svn
841 hg-git
842 hg-hgsubversion
843 hg-hgsvn
844 You may not want all of these because there is no point in running the
846 code to detect systems you do not use. So there is a way to disable
847 some backends altogether:
848 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' disable bzr cdv darcs mtn svk tla
850 You may also pick a few from that list and enable only those:
852 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' enable git cvs svn
854 If you rerun vcs_info_printsys after one of these commands, you will
856 see the backends listed in the disable style (or backends not in the
857 enable style - if you used that) marked as disabled by a hash sign.
858 That means the detection of these systems is skipped completely. No
859 wasted time there.
860 Configuration
862 The vcs_info feature can be configured via zstyle.
863 First, the context in which we are working:
865 :vcs_info:vcs-string:user-context:repo-root-name
866 vcs-string
868 is one of: git, git-svn, git-p4, hg, hg-git, hg-hgsubversion,
869 hg-hgsvn, darcs, bzr, cdv, mtn, svn, cvs, svk, tla, p4 or fos‐
870 sil. This is followed by `.quilt-quilt-mode' in Quilt mode (see
871 Quilt Support for details) and by `+hook-name' while hooks are
872 active (see Hooks in vcs_info for details).
873 Currently, hooks in quilt mode don't add the `.quilt-quilt-mode'
875 information. This may change in the future.
876 user-context
878 is a freely configurable string, assignable by the user as the
879 first argument to vcs_info (see its description below).
880 repo-root-name
882 is the name of a repository in which you want a style to match.
883 So, if you want a setting specific to /usr/src/zsh, with that
884 being a CVS checkout, you can set repo-root-name to zsh to make
885 it so.
886 There are three special values for vcs-string: The first is named
888 -init-, that is in effect as long as there was no decision what VCS
889 backend to use. The second is -preinit-; it is used before vcs_info is
890 run, when initializing the data exporting variables. The third special
891 value is formats and is used by the vcs_info_lastmsg for looking up its
892 styles.
893 The initial value of repo-root-name is -all- and it is replaced with
895 the actual name, as soon as it is known. Only use this part of the con‐
896 text for defining the formats, actionformats or branchformat styles, as
897 it is guaranteed that repo-root-name is set up correctly for these
898 only. For all other styles, just use '*' instead.
899 There are two pre-defined values for user-context:
901 default
902 the one used if none is specified
903 command
904 used by vcs_info_lastmsg to lookup its styles
905 You can of course use ':vcs_info:*' to match all VCSs in all user-con‐
907 texts at once.
908 This is a description of all styles that are looked up.
910 formats
912 A list of formats, used when actionformats is not used (which is
913 most of the time).
914 actionformats
916 A list of formats, used if there is a special action going on in
917 your current repository; like an interactive rebase or a merge
918 conflict.
919 branchformat
921 Some backends replace %b in the formats and actionformats styles
922 above, not only by a branch name but also by a revision number.
923 This style lets you modify how that string should look.
924 nvcsformats
926 These "formats" are set when we didn't detect a version control
927 system for the current directory or vcs_info was disabled. This
928 is useful if you want vcs_info to completely take over the gen‐
929 eration of your prompt. You would do something like
930 PS1='${vcs_info_msg_0_}' to accomplish that.
931 hgrevformat
933 hg uses both a hash and a revision number to reference a spe‐
934 cific changeset in a repository. With this style you can format
935 the revision string (see branchformat) to include either or
936 both. It's only useful when get-revision is true. Note, the full
937 40-character revision id is not available (except when using the
938 use-simple option) because executing hg more than once per
939 prompt is too slow; you may customize this behavior using hooks.
940 max-exports
942 Defines the maximum number of vcs_info_msg_*_ variables vcs_info
943 will set.
944 enable A list of backends you want to use. Checked in the -init- con‐
946 text. If this list contains an item called NONE no backend is
947 used at all and vcs_info will do nothing. If this list contains
948 ALL, vcs_info will use all known backends. Only with ALL in
949 enable will the disable style have any effect. ALL and NONE are
950 case insensitive.
951 disable
953 A list of VCSs you don't want vcs_info to test for repositories
954 (checked in the -init- context, too). Only used if enable con‐
955 tains ALL.
956 disable-patterns
958 A list of patterns that are checked against $PWD. If a pattern
959 matches, vcs_info will be disabled. This style is checked in the
960 :vcs_info:-init-:*:-all- context.
961 Say, ~/.zsh is a directory under version control, in which you
963 do not want vcs_info to be active, do:
964 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' disable-patterns "${(b)HOME}/.zsh(|/*)"
965 use-quilt
967 If enabled, the quilt support code is active in `addon' mode.
968 See Quilt Support for details.
969 quilt-standalone
971 If enabled, `standalone' mode detection is attempted if no VCS
972 is active in a given directory. See Quilt Support for details.
973 quilt-patch-dir
975 Overwrite the value of the $QUILT_PATCHES environment variable.
976 See Quilt Support for details.
977 quiltcommand
979 When quilt itself is called in quilt support, the value of this
980 style is used as the command name.
981 check-for-changes
983 If enabled, this style causes the %c and %u format escapes to
984 show when the working directory has uncommitted changes. The
985 strings displayed by these escapes can be controlled via the
986 stagedstr and unstagedstr styles. The only backends that cur‐
987 rently support this option are git, hg, and bzr (the latter two
988 only support unstaged).
989 For this style to be evaluated with the hg backend, the
991 get-revision style needs to be set and the use-simple style
992 needs to be unset. The latter is the default; the former is not.
993 With the bzr backend, lightweight checkouts only honor this
995 style if the use-server style is set.
996 Note, the actions taken if this style is enabled are potentially
998 expensive (read: they may be slow, depending on how big the cur‐
999 rent repository is). Therefore, it is disabled by default.
1000 check-for-staged-changes
1002 This style is like check-for-changes, but it never checks the
1003 worktree files, only the metadata in the .${vcs} dir. There‐
1004 fore, this style initializes only the %c escape (with stagedstr)
1005 but not the %u escape. This style is faster than
1006 check-for-changes.
1007 In the git backend, this style checks for changes in the index.
1009 Other backends do not currently implement this style.
1010 This style is disabled by default.
1012 stagedstr
1014 This string will be used in the %c escape if there are staged
1015 changes in the repository.
1016 unstagedstr
1018 This string will be used in the %u escape if there are unstaged
1019 changes in the repository.
1020 command
1022 This style causes vcs_info to use the supplied string as the
1023 command to use as the VCS's binary. Note, that setting this in
1024 ':vcs_info:*' is not a good idea.
1025 If the value of this style is empty (which is the default), the
1027 used binary name is the name of the backend in use (e.g. svn is
1028 used in an svn repository).
1029 The repo-root-name part in the context is always the default
1031 -all- when this style is looked up.
1032 For example, this style can be used to use binaries from
1034 non-default installation directories. Assume, git is installed
1035 in /usr/bin but your sysadmin installed a newer version in
1036 /usr/local/bin. Instead of changing the order of your $PATH
1037 parameter, you can do this:
1038 zstyle ':vcs_info:git:*:-all-' command /usr/local/bin/git
1039 use-server
1041 This is used by the Perforce backend (p4) to decide if it should
1042 contact the Perforce server to find out if a directory is man‐
1043 aged by Perforce. This is the only reliable way of doing this,
1044 but runs the risk of a delay if the server name cannot be found.
1045 If the server (more specifically, the host:port pair describing
1046 the server) cannot be contacted, its name is put into the asso‐
1047 ciative array vcs_info_p4_dead_servers and is not contacted
1048 again during the session until it is removed by hand. If you do
1049 not set this style, the p4 backend is only usable if you have
1050 set the environment variable P4CONFIG to a file name and have
1051 corresponding files in the root directories of each Perforce
1052 client. See comments in the function VCS_INFO_detect_p4 for
1053 more detail.
1054 The Bazaar backend (bzr) uses this to permit contacting the
1056 server about lightweight checkouts, see the check-for-changes
1057 style.
1058 use-simple
1060 If there are two different ways of gathering information, you
1061 can select the simpler one by setting this style to true; the
1062 default is to use the not-that-simple code, which is potentially
1063 a lot slower but might be more accurate in all possible cases.
1064 This style is used by the bzr and hg backends. In the case of hg
1065 it will invoke the external hexdump program to parse the binary
1066 dirstate cache file; this method will not return the local revi‐
1067 sion number.
1068 get-revision
1070 If set to true, vcs_info goes the extra mile to figure out the
1071 revision of a repository's work tree (currently for the git and
1072 hg backends, where this kind of information is not always
1073 vital). For git, the hash value of the currently checked out
1074 commit is available via the %i expansion. With hg, the local
1075 revision number and the corresponding global hash are available
1076 via %i.
1077 get-mq If set to true, the hg backend will look for a Mercurial Queue
1079 (mq) patch directory. Information will be available via the `%m'
1080 replacement.
1081 get-bookmarks
1083 If set to true, the hg backend will try to get a list of current
1084 bookmarks. They will be available via the `%m' replacement.
1085 The default is to generate a comma-separated list of all book‐
1087 mark names that refer to the currently checked out revision. If
1088 a bookmark is active, its name is suffixed an asterisk and
1089 placed first in the list.
1090 use-prompt-escapes
1092 Determines if we assume that the assembled string from vcs_info
1093 includes prompt escapes. (Used by vcs_info_lastmsg.)
1094 debug Enable debugging output to track possible problems. Currently
1096 this style is only used by vcs_info's hooks system.
1097 hooks A list style that defines hook-function names. See Hooks in
1099 vcs_info below for details.
1100 patch-format
1102 nopatch-format
1103 This pair of styles format the patch information used by the %m
1104 expando in formats and actionformats for the git and hg back‐
1105 ends. The value is subject to certain %-expansions described
1106 below. The expanded value is made available in the global back‐
1107 end_misc array as ${backend_misc[patches]} (also if a
1108 set-patch-format hook is used).
1109 get-unapplied
1111 This boolean style controls whether a backend should attempt to
1112 gather a list of unapplied patches (for example with Mercurial
1113 Queue patches).
1114 Used by the quilt and hg backends.
1116 The default values for these styles in all contexts are:
1118 formats
1120 " (%s)-[%b]%u%c-"
1121 actionformats
1122 " (%s)-[%b|%a]%u%c-"
1123 branchformat
1124 "%b:%r" (for bzr, svn, svk and hg)
1125 nvcsformats
1126 ""
1127 hgrevformat
1128 "%r:%h"
1129 max-exports
1130 2
1131 enable ALL
1132 disable
1133 (empty list)
1134 disable-patterns
1135 (empty list)
1136 check-for-changes
1137 false
1138 check-for-staged-changes
1139 false
1140 stagedstr
1141 (string: "S")
1142 unstagedstr
1143 (string: "U")
1144 command
1145 (empty string)
1146 use-server
1147 false
1148 use-simple
1149 false
1150 get-revision
1151 false
1152 get-mq true
1153 get-bookmarks
1154 false
1155 use-prompt-escapes
1156 true
1157 debug false
1158 hooks (empty list)
1159 use-quilt
1160 false
1161 quilt-standalone
1162 false
1163 quilt-patch-dir
1164 empty - use $QUILT_PATCHES
1165 quiltcommand
1166 quilt
1167 patch-format
1168 backend dependent
1169 nopatch-format
1170 backend dependent
1171 get-unapplied
1172 false
1173 In normal formats and actionformats the following replacements are
1175 done:
1176 %s The VCS in use (git, hg, svn, etc.).
1178 %b Information about the current branch.
1179 %a An identifier that describes the action. Only makes sense in
1180 actionformats.
1181 %i The current revision number or identifier. For hg the hgrevfor‐
1182 mat style may be used to customize the output.
1183 %c The string from the stagedstr style if there are staged changes
1184 in the repository.
1185 %u The string from the unstagedstr style if there are unstaged
1186 changes in the repository.
1187 %R The base directory of the repository.
1188 %r The repository name. If %R is /foo/bar/repoXY, %r is repoXY.
1189 %S A subdirectory within a repository. If $PWD is
1190 /foo/bar/repoXY/beer/tasty, %S is beer/tasty.
1191 %m A "misc" replacement. It is at the discretion of the backend to
1192 decide what this replacement expands to.
1193 The hg and git backends use this expando to display patch infor‐
1195 mation. hg sources patch information from the mq extensions;
1196 git from in-progress rebase and cherry-pick operations and from
1197 the stgit extension. The patch-format and nopatch-format styles
1198 control the generated string. The former is used when at least
1199 one patch from the patch queue has been applied, and the latter
1200 otherwise.
1201 The hg backend displays bookmark information in this expando (in
1203 addition to mq information). See the get-mq and get-bookmarks
1204 styles. Both of these styles may be enabled at the same time.
1205 If both are enabled, both resulting strings will be shown sepa‐
1206 rated by a semicolon (that cannot currently be customized).
1207 The quilt `standalone' backend sets this expando to the same
1209 value as the %Q expando.
1210 %Q Quilt series information. When quilt is used (either in `addon'
1212 mode or as a `standalone' backend), this expando is set to quilt
1213 series' patch-format string. The set-patch-format hook and
1214 nopatch-format style are honoured.
1215 See Quilt Support below for details.
1217 In branchformat these replacements are done:
1219 %b The branch name.
1221 %r The current revision number or the hgrevformat style for hg.
1222 In hgrevformat these replacements are done:
1224 %r The current local revision number.
1226 %h The current global revision identifier.
1227 In patch-format and nopatch-format these replacements are done:
1229 %p The name of the top-most applied patch; may be overridden by the
1231 applied-string hook.
1232 %u The number of unapplied patches; may be overridden by the unap‐
1233 plied-string hook.
1234 %n The number of applied patches.
1235 %c The number of unapplied patches.
1236 %a The number of all patches (%a = %n + %c).
1237 %g The names of active mq guards (hg backend).
1238 %G The number of active mq guards (hg backend).
1239 Not all VCS backends have to support all replacements. For nvcsformats
1241 no replacements are performed at all, it is just a string.
1242 Oddities
1244 If you want to use the %b (bold off) prompt expansion in formats, which
1245 expands %b itself, use %%b. That will cause the vcs_info expansion to
1246 replace %%b with %b, so that zsh's prompt expansion mechanism can han‐
1247 dle it. Similarly, to hand down %b from branchformat, use %%%%b. Sorry
1248 for this inconvenience, but it cannot be easily avoided. Luckily we do
1249 not clash with a lot of prompt expansions and this only needs to be
1250 done for those.
1251 When one of the gen-applied-string, gen-unapplied-string, and
1253 set-patch-format hooks is defined, applying %-escaping
1254 (`foo=${foo//'%'/%%}') to the interpolated values for use in the prompt
1255 is the responsibility of those hooks (jointly); when neither of those
1256 hooks is defined, vcs_info handles escaping by itself. We regret this
1257 coupling, but it was required for backwards compatibility.
1258 Quilt Support
1260 Quilt is not a version control system, therefore this is not imple‐
1261 mented as a backend. It can help keeping track of a series of patches.
1262 People use it to keep a set of changes they want to use on top of soft‐
1263 ware packages (which is tightly integrated into the package build
1264 process - the Debian project does this for a large number of packages).
1265 Quilt can also help individual developers keep track of their own
1266 patches on top of real version control systems.
1267 The vcs_info integration tries to support both ways of using quilt by
1269 having two slightly different modes of operation: `addon' mode and
1270 `standalone' mode).
1271 Quilt integration is off by default; to enable it, set the use-quilt
1273 style, and add %Q to your formats or actionformats style:
1274 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' use-quilt true
1275 Styles looked up from the Quilt support code include
1277 `.quilt-quilt-mode' in the vcs-string part of the context, where
1278 quilt-mode is either addon or standalone. Example:
1279 :vcs_info:git.quilt-addon:default:repo-root-name.
1280 For `addon' mode to become active vcs_info must have already detected a
1282 real version control system controlling the directory. If that is the
1283 case, a directory that holds quilt's patches needs to be found. That
1284 directory is configurable via the `QUILT_PATCHES' environment variable.
1285 If that variable exists its value is used, otherwise the value
1286 `patches' is assumed. The value from $QUILT_PATCHES can be overwritten
1287 using the `quilt-patches' style. (Note: you can use vcs_info to keep
1288 the value of $QUILT_PATCHES correct all the time via the post-quilt
1289 hook).
1290 When the directory in question is found, quilt is assumed to be active.
1292 To gather more information, vcs_info looks for a directory called
1293 `.pc'; Quilt uses that directory to track its current state. If this
1294 directory does not exist we know that quilt has not done anything to
1295 the working directory (read: no patches have been applied yet).
1296 If patches are applied, vcs_info will try to find out which. If you
1298 want to know which patches of a series are not yet applied, you need to
1299 activate the get-unapplied style in the appropriate context.
1300 vcs_info allows for very detailed control over how the gathered infor‐
1302 mation is presented (see the Configuration and Hooks in vcs_info sec‐
1303 tions), all of which are documented below. Note there are a number of
1304 other patch tracking systems that work on top of a certain version con‐
1305 trol system (like stgit for git, or mq for hg); the configuration for
1306 systems like that are generally configured the same way as the quilt
1307 support.
1308 If the quilt support is working in `addon' mode, the produced string is
1310 available as a simple format replacement (%Q to be precise), which can
1311 be used in formats and actionformats; see below for details).
1312 If, on the other hand, the support code is working in `standalone'
1314 mode, vcs_info will pretend as if quilt were an actual version control
1315 system. That means that the version control system identifier (which
1316 otherwise would be something like `svn' or `cvs') will be set to
1317 `-quilt-'. This has implications on the used style context where this
1318 identifier is the second element. vcs_info will have filled in a proper
1319 value for the "repository's" root directory and the string containing
1320 the information about quilt's state will be available as the `misc'
1321 replacement (and %Q for compatibility with `addon' mode).
1322 What is left to discuss is how `standalone' mode is detected. The
1324 detection itself is a series of searches for directories. You can have
1325 this detection enabled all the time in every directory that is not oth‐
1326 erwise under version control. If you know there is only a limited set
1327 of trees where you would like vcs_info to try and look for Quilt in
1328 `standalone' mode to minimise the amount of searching on every call to
1329 vcs_info, there are a number of ways to do that:
1330 Essentially, `standalone' mode detection is controlled by a style
1332 called `quilt-standalone'. It is a string style and its value can have
1333 different effects. The simplest values are: `always' to run detection
1334 every time vcs_info is run, and `never' to turn the detection off
1335 entirely.
1336 If the value of quilt-standalone is something else, it is interpreted
1338 differently. If the value is the name of a scalar variable the value of
1339 that variable is checked and that value is used in the same
1340 `always'/`never' way as described above.
1341 If the value of quilt-standalone is an array, the elements of that
1343 array are used as directory names under which you want the detection to
1344 be active.
1345 If quilt-standalone is an associative array, the keys are taken as
1347 directory names under which you want the detection to be active, but
1348 only if the corresponding value is the string `true'.
1349 Last, but not least, if the value of quilt-standalone is the name of a
1351 function, the function is called without arguments and the return value
1352 decides whether detection should be active. A `0' return value is true;
1353 a non-zero return value is interpreted as false.
1354 Note, if there is both a function and a variable by the name of
1356 quilt-standalone, the function will take precedence.
1357 Function Descriptions (Public API)
1359 vcs_info [user-context]
1360 The main function, that runs all backends and assembles all data
1361 into ${vcs_info_msg_*_}. This is the function you want to call
1362 from precmd if you want to include up-to-date information in
1363 your prompt (see Variable Description below). If an argument is
1364 given, that string will be used instead of default in the
1365 user-context field of the style context.
1366 vcs_info_hookadd
1368 Statically registers a number of functions to a given hook. The
1369 hook needs to be given as the first argument; what follows is a
1370 list of hook-function names to register to the hook. The `+vi-'
1371 prefix needs to be left out here. See Hooks in vcs_info below
1372 for details.
1373 vcs_info_hookdel
1375 Remove hook-functions from a given hook. The hook needs to be
1376 given as the first non-option argument; what follows is a list
1377 of hook-function names to un-register from the hook. If `-a' is
1378 used as the first argument, all occurrences of the functions are
1379 unregistered. Otherwise only the last occurrence is removed (if
1380 a function was registered to a hook more than once). The `+vi-'
1381 prefix needs to be left out here. See Hooks in vcs_info below
1382 for details.
1383 vcs_info_lastmsg
1385 Outputs the last ${vcs_info_msg_*_} value. Takes into account
1386 the value of the use-prompt-escapes style in ':vcs_info:for‐
1387 mats:command:-all-'. It also only prints max-exports values.
1388 vcs_info_printsys [user-context]
1390 Prints a list of all supported version control systems. Useful
1391 to find out possible contexts (and which of them are enabled) or
1392 values for the disable style.
1393 vcs_info_setsys
1395 Initializes vcs_info's internal list of available backends. With
1396 this function, you can add support for new VCSs without restart‐
1397 ing the shell.
1398 All functions named VCS_INFO_* are for internal use only.
1400 Variable Description
1402 ${vcs_info_msg_N_} (Note the trailing underscore)
1403 Where N is an integer, e.g., vcs_info_msg_0_. These variables
1404 are the storage for the informational message the last vcs_info
1405 call has assembled. These are strongly connected to the formats,
1406 actionformats and nvcsformats styles described above. Those
1407 styles are lists. The first member of that list gets expanded
1408 into ${vcs_info_msg_0_}, the second into ${vcs_info_msg_1_} and
1409 the Nth into ${vcs_info_msg_N-1_}. (See the max-exports style
1410 above.)
1411 All variables named VCS_INFO_* are for internal use only.
1413 Hooks in vcs_info
1415 Hooks are places in vcs_info where you can run your own code. That code
1416 can communicate with the code that called it and through that, change
1417 the system's behaviour.
1418 For configuration, hooks change the style context:
1420 :vcs_info:vcs-string+hook-name:user-context:repo-root-name
1421 To register functions to a hook, you need to list them in the hooks
1423 style in the appropriate context.
1424 Example:
1426 zstyle ':vcs_info:*+foo:*' hooks bar baz
1427 This registers functions to the hook `foo' for all backends. In order
1429 to avoid namespace problems, all registered function names are
1430 prepended by a `+vi-', so the actual functions called for the `foo'
1431 hook are `+vi-bar' and `+vi-baz'.
1432 If you would like to register a function to a hook regardless of the
1434 current context, you may use the vcs_info_hookadd function. To remove a
1435 function that was added like that, the vcs_info_hookdel function can be
1436 used.
1437 If something seems weird, you can enable the `debug' boolean style in
1439 the proper context and the hook-calling code will print what it tried
1440 to execute and whether the function in question existed.
1441 When you register more than one function to a hook, all functions are
1443 executed one after another until one function returns non-zero or until
1444 all functions have been called. Context-sensitive hook functions are
1445 executed before statically registered ones (the ones added by
1446 vcs_info_hookadd).
1447 You may pass data between functions via an associative array,
1449 user_data. For example:
1450 +vi-git-myfirsthook(){
1451 user_data[myval]=$myval
1452 }
1453 +vi-git-mysecondhook(){
1454 # do something with ${user_data[myval]}
1455 }
1456 There are a number of variables that are special in hook contexts:
1458 ret The return value that the hooks system will return to the call‐
1460 er. The default is an integer `zero'. If and how a changed ret
1461 value changes the execution of the caller depends on the spe‐
1462 cific hook. See the hook documentation below for details.
1463 hook_com
1465 An associated array which is used for bidirectional communica‐
1466 tion from the caller to hook functions. The used keys depend on
1467 the specific hook.
1468 context
1470 The active context of the hook. Functions that wish to change
1471 this variable should make it local scope first.
1472 vcs The current VCS after it was detected. The same values as in the
1474 enable/disable style are used. Available in all hooks except
1475 start-up.
1476 Finally, the full list of currently available hooks:
1478 start-up
1480 Called after starting vcs_info but before the VCS in this direc‐
1481 tory is determined. It can be used to deactivate vcs_info tempo‐
1482 rarily if necessary. When ret is set to 1, vcs_info aborts and
1483 does nothing; when set to 2, vcs_info sets up everything as if
1484 no version control were active and exits.
1485 pre-get-data
1487 Same as start-up but after the VCS was detected.
1488 gen-hg-bookmark-string
1490 Called in the Mercurial backend when a bookmark string is gener‐
1491 ated; the get-revision and get-bookmarks styles must be true.
1492 This hook gets the names of the Mercurial bookmarks that
1494 vcs_info collected from `hg'.
1495 If a bookmark is active, the key ${hook_com[hg-active-bookmark]}
1497 is set to its name. The key is otherwise unset.
1498 When setting ret to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[hg-book‐
1500 mark-string]} will be used in the %m escape in formats and
1501 actionformats and will be available in the global backend_misc
1502 array as ${backend_misc[bookmarks]}.
1503 gen-applied-string
1505 Called in the git (with stgit or during rebase or merge), and hg
1506 (with mq) backends and in quilt support when the applied-string
1507 is generated; the use-quilt zstyle must be true for quilt (the
1508 mq and stgit backends are active by default).
1509 This hook gets the names of all applied patches which vcs_info
1511 collected so far in the opposite order, which means that the
1512 first argument is the top-most patch and so forth.
1513 When setting ret to non-zero, the string in
1515 ${hook_com[applied-string]} will be available as %p in the
1516 patch-format and nopatch-format styles. This hook is, in con‐
1517 cert with set-patch-format, responsible for %-escaping that
1518 value for use in the prompt. (See the Oddities section.)
1519 gen-unapplied-string
1521 Called in the git (with stgit or during rebase), and hg (with
1522 mq) backend and in quilt support when the unapplied-string is
1523 generated; the get-unapplied style must be true.
1524 This hook gets the names of all unapplied patches which vcs_info
1526 collected so far in order, which means that the first argument
1527 is the patch next-in-line to be applied and so forth.
1528 When setting ret to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[unap‐
1530 plied-string]} will be available as %u in the patch-format and
1531 nopatch-format styles. This hook is, in concert with
1532 set-patch-format, responsible for %-escaping that value for use
1533 in the prompt. (See the Oddities section.)
1534 gen-mqguards-string
1536 Called in the hg backend when guards-string is generated; the
1537 get-mq style must be true (default).
1538 This hook gets the names of any active mq guards.
1540 When setting ret to non-zero, the string in
1542 ${hook_com[guards-string]} will be used in the %g escape in the
1543 patch-format and nopatch-format styles.
1544 no-vcs This hooks is called when no version control system was
1546 detected.
1547 The `hook_com' parameter is not used.
1549 post-backend
1551 Called as soon as the backend has finished collecting informa‐
1552 tion.
1553 The `hook_com' keys available are as for the set-message hook.
1555 post-quilt
1557 Called after the quilt support is done. The following informa‐
1558 tion is passed as arguments to the hook: 1. the quilt-support
1559 mode (`addon' or `standalone'); 2. the directory that contains
1560 the patch series; 3. the directory that holds quilt's status
1561 information (the `.pc' directory) or the string "-nopc-" if that
1562 directory wasn't found.
1563 The `hook_com' parameter is not used.
1565 set-branch-format
1567 Called before `branchformat' is set. The only argument to the
1568 hook is the format that is configured at this point.
1569 The `hook_com' keys considered are `branch' and `revision'.
1571 They are set to the values figured out so far by vcs_info and
1572 any change will be used directly when the actual replacement is
1573 done.
1574 If ret is set to non-zero, the string in
1576 ${hook_com[branch-replace]} will be used unchanged as the `%b'
1577 replacement in the variables set by vcs_info.
1578 set-hgrev-format
1580 Called before a `hgrevformat' is set. The only argument to the
1581 hook is the format that is configured at this point.
1582 The `hook_com' keys considered are `hash' and `localrev'. They
1584 are set to the values figured out so far by vcs_info and any
1585 change will be used directly when the actual replacement is
1586 done.
1587 If ret is set to non-zero, the string in
1589 ${hook_com[rev-replace]} will be used unchanged as the `%i'
1590 replacement in the variables set by vcs_info.
1591 pre-addon-quilt
1593 This hook is used when vcs_info's quilt functionality is active
1594 in "addon" mode (quilt used on top of a real version control
1595 system). It is activated right before any quilt specific action
1596 is taken.
1597 Setting the `ret' variable in this hook to a non-zero value
1599 avoids any quilt specific actions from being run at all.
1600 set-patch-format
1602 This hook is used to control some of the possible expansions in
1603 patch-format and nopatch-format styles with patch queue systems
1604 such as quilt, mqueue and the like.
1605 This hook is used in the git, hg and quilt backends.
1607 The hook allows the control of the %p (${hook_com[applied]}) and
1609 %u (${hook_com[unapplied]}) expansion in all backends that use
1610 the hook. With the mercurial backend, the %g
1611 (${hook_com[guards]}) expansion is controllable in addition to
1612 that.
1613 If ret is set to non-zero, the string in
1615 ${hook_com[patch-replace]} will be used unchanged instead of an
1616 expanded format from patch-format or nopatch-format.
1617 This hook is, in concert with the gen-applied-string or
1619 gen-unapplied-string hooks if they are defined, responsible for
1620 %-escaping the final patch-format value for use in the prompt.
1621 (See the Oddities section.)
1622 set-message
1624 Called each time before a `vcs_info_msg_N_' message is set. It
1625 takes two arguments; the first being the `N' in the message
1626 variable name, the second is the currently configured formats or
1627 actionformats.
1628 There are a number of `hook_com' keys, that are used here:
1630 `action', `branch', `base', `base-name', `subdir', `staged',
1631 `unstaged', `revision', `misc', `vcs' and one `miscN' entry for
1632 each backend-specific data field (N starting at zero). They are
1633 set to the values figured out so far by vcs_info and any change
1634 will be used directly when the actual replacement is done.
1635 Since this hook is triggered multiple times (once for each con‐
1637 figured formats or actionformats), each of the `hook_com' keys
1638 mentioned above (except for the miscN entries) has an `_orig'
1639 counterpart, so even if you changed a value to your liking you
1640 can still get the original value in the next run. Changing the
1641 `_orig' values is probably not a good idea.
1642 If ret is set to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[message]}
1644 will be used unchanged as the message by vcs_info.
1645 If all of this sounds rather confusing, take a look at the Examples
1647 section below and also in the Misc/vcs_info-examples file in the Zsh
1648 source. They contain some explanatory code.
1649 Examples
1651 Don't use vcs_info at all (even though it's in your prompt):
1652 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' enable NONE
1653 Disable the backends for bzr and svk:
1655 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' disable bzr svk
1656 Disable everything but bzr and svk:
1658 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' enable bzr svk
1659 Provide a special formats for git:
1661 zstyle ':vcs_info:git:*' formats ' GIT, BABY! [%b]'
1662 zstyle ':vcs_info:git:*' actionformats ' GIT ACTION! [%b|%a]'
1663 All %x expansion in all sorts of formats (formats, actionformats,
1665 branchformat, you name it) are done using the `zformat' builtin from
1666 the `zsh/zutil' module. That means you can do everything with these %x
1667 items what zformat supports. In particular, if you want something that
1668 is really long to have a fixed width, like a hash in a mercurial
1669 branchformat, you can do this: %12.12i. That'll shrink the 40 character
1670 hash to its 12 leading characters. The form is actually `%min.maxx'.
1671 More is possible. See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in zshmod‐
1672 ules(1) for details.
1673 Use the quicker bzr backend
1675 zstyle ':vcs_info:bzr:*' use-simple true
1676 If you do use use-simple, please report if it does
1678 `the-right-thing[tm]'.
1679 Display the revision number in yellow for bzr and svn:
1681 zstyle ':vcs_info:(svn|bzr):*' \
1682 branchformat '%b%{'${fg[yellow]}'%}:%r'
1683 If you want colors, make sure you enclose the color codes in %{...%} if
1685 you want to use the string provided by vcs_info in prompts.
1686 Here is how to print the VCS information as a command (not in a
1688 prompt):
1689 alias vcsi='vcs_info command; vcs_info_lastmsg'
1690 This way, you can even define different formats for output via
1692 vcs_info_lastmsg in the ':vcs_info:*:command:*' namespace.
1693 Now as promised, some code that uses hooks: say, you'd like to replace
1695 the string `svn' by `subversion' in vcs_info's %s formats replacement.
1696 First, we will tell vcs_info to call a function when populating the
1698 message variables with the gathered information:
1699 zstyle ':vcs_info:*+set-message:*' hooks svn2subversion
1700 Nothing happens. Which is reasonable, since we didn't define the actual
1702 function yet. To see what the hooks subsystem is trying to do, enable
1703 the `debug' style:
1704 zstyle ':vcs_info:*+*:*' debug true
1705 That should give you an idea what is going on. Specifically, the func‐
1707 tion that we are looking for is `+vi-svn2subversion'. Note, the `+vi-'
1708 prefix. So, everything is in order, just as documented. When you are
1709 done checking out the debugging output, disable it again:
1710 zstyle ':vcs_info:*+*:*' debug false
1711 Now, let's define the function:
1713 function +vi-svn2subversion() {
1714 [[ ${hook_com[vcs_orig]} == svn ]] && hook_com[vcs]=subversion
1715 }
1716 Simple enough. And it could have even been simpler, if only we had reg‐
1718 istered our function in a less generic context. If we do it only in the
1719 `svn' backend's context, we don't need to test which the active backend
1720 is:
1721 zstyle ':vcs_info:svn+set-message:*' hooks svn2subversion
1722 function +vi-svn2subversion() {
1723 hook_com[vcs]=subversion
1724 }
1725 And finally a little more elaborate example, that uses a hook to create
1727 a customised bookmark string for the hg backend.
1728 Again, we start off by registering a function:
1730 zstyle ':vcs_info:hg+gen-hg-bookmark-string:*' hooks hgbookmarks
1731 And then we define the `+vi-hgbookmarks' function:
1733 function +vi-hgbookmarks() {
1734 # The default is to connect all bookmark names by
1735 # commas. This mixes things up a little.
1736 # Imagine, there's one type of bookmarks that is
1737 # special to you. Say, because it's *your* work.
1738 # Those bookmarks look always like this: "sh/*"
1739 # (because your initials are sh, for example).
1740 # This makes the bookmarks string use only those
1741 # bookmarks. If there's more than one, it
1742 # concatenates them using commas.
1743 # The bookmarks returned by `hg' are available in
1744 # the function's positional parameters.
1745 local s="${(Mj:,:)@:#sh/*}"
1746 # Now, the communication with the code that calls
1747 # the hook functions is done via the hook_com[]
1748 # hash. The key at which the `gen-hg-bookmark-string'
1749 # hook looks is `hg-bookmark-string'. So:
1750 hook_com[hg-bookmark-string]=$s
1751 # And to signal that we want to use the string we
1752 # just generated, set the special variable `ret' to
1753 # something other than the default zero:
1754 ret=1
1755 return 0
1756 }
1757 Some longer examples and code snippets which might be useful are avail‐
1759 able in the examples file located at Misc/vcs_info-examples in the Zsh
1760 source directory.
1761 This concludes our guided tour through zsh's vcs_info.
1763
1765 Installation
1766 You should make sure all the functions from the Functions/Prompts
1767 directory of the source distribution are available; they all begin with
1768 the string `prompt_' except for the special function`promptinit'. You
1769 also need the `colors' and `add-zsh-hook' functions from Func‐
1770 tions/Misc. All these functions may already be installed on your sys‐
1771 tem; if not, you will need to find them and copy them. The directory
1772 should appear as one of the elements of the fpath array (this should
1773 already be the case if they were installed), and at least the function
1774 promptinit should be autoloaded; it will autoload the rest. Finally,
1775 to initialize the use of the system you need to call the promptinit
1776 function. The following code in your .zshrc will arrange for this;
1777 assume the functions are stored in the directory ~/myfns:
1778 fpath=(~/myfns $fpath)
1780 autoload -U promptinit
1781 promptinit
1782 Theme Selection
1784 Use the prompt command to select your preferred theme. This command
1785 may be added to your .zshrc following the call to promptinit in order
1786 to start zsh with a theme already selected.
1787 prompt [ -c | -l ]
1789 prompt [ -p | -h ] [ theme ... ]
1790 prompt [ -s ] theme [ arg ... ]
1791 Set or examine the prompt theme. With no options and a theme
1792 argument, the theme with that name is set as the current theme.
1793 The available themes are determined at run time; use the -l
1794 option to see a list. The special theme `random' selects at
1795 random one of the available themes and sets your prompt to that.
1796 In some cases the theme may be modified by one or more argu‐
1798 ments, which should be given after the theme name. See the help
1799 for each theme for descriptions of these arguments.
1800 Options are:
1802 -c Show the currently selected theme and its parameters, if
1804 any.
1805 -l List all available prompt themes.
1806 -p Preview the theme named by theme, or all themes if no
1807 theme is given.
1808 -h Show help for the theme named by theme, or for the prompt
1809 function if no theme is given.
1810 -s Set theme as the current theme and save state.
1811 prompt_theme_setup
1813 Each available theme has a setup function which is called by the
1814 prompt function to install that theme. This function may define
1815 other functions as necessary to maintain the prompt, including
1816 functions used to preview the prompt or provide help for its
1817 use. You should not normally call a theme's setup function
1818 directly.
1819 Utility Themes
1821 prompt off
1822 The theme `off' sets all the prompt variables to minimal values
1823 with no special effects.
1824 prompt default
1826 The theme `default' sets all prompt variables to the same state
1827 as if an interactive zsh was started with no initialization
1828 files.
1829 prompt restore
1831 The special theme `restore' erases all theme settings and sets
1832 prompt variables to their state before the first time the
1833 `prompt' function was run, provided each theme has properly
1834 defined its cleanup (see below).
1835 Note that you can undo `prompt off' and `prompt default' with
1837 `prompt restore', but a second restore does not undo the first.
1838 Writing Themes
1840 The first step for adding your own theme is to choose a name for it,
1841 and create a file `prompt_name_setup' in a directory in your fpath,
1842 such as ~/myfns in the example above. The file should at minimum con‐
1843 tain assignments for the prompt variables that your theme wishes to
1844 modify. By convention, themes use PS1, PS2, RPS1, etc., rather than
1845 the longer PROMPT and RPROMPT.
1846 The file is autoloaded as a function in the current shell context, so
1848 it may contain any necessary commands to customize your theme, includ‐
1849 ing defining additional functions. To make some complex tasks easier,
1850 your setup function may also do any of the following:
1851 Assign prompt_opts
1853 The array prompt_opts may be assigned any of "bang", "cr", "per‐
1854 cent", "sp", and/or "subst" as values. The corresponding
1855 setopts (promptbang, etc.) are turned on, all other
1856 prompt-related options are turned off. The prompt_opts array
1857 preserves setopts even beyond the scope of localoptions, should
1858 your function need that.
1859 Modify precmd and preexec
1861 Use of add-zsh-hook is recommended. The precmd and preexec
1862 hooks are automatically adjusted if the prompt theme changes or
1863 is disabled.
1864 Declare cleanup
1866 If your function makes any other changes that should be undone
1867 when the theme is disabled, your setup function may call
1868 prompt_cleanup command
1869 where command should be suitably quoted. If your theme is ever dis‐
1870 abled or replaced by another, command is executed with eval. You may
1871 declare more than one such cleanup hook.
1872 Define preview
1874 Define or autoload a function prompt_name_preview to display a
1875 simulated version of your prompt. A simple default previewer is
1876 defined by promptinit for themes that do not define their own.
1877 This preview function is called by `prompt -p'.
1878 Provide help
1880 Define or autoload a function prompt_name_help to display docu‐
1881 mentation or help text for your theme. This help function is
1882 called by `prompt -h'.
1883
1885 Widgets
1886 These functions all implement user-defined ZLE widgets (see zshzle(1))
1887 which can be bound to keystrokes in interactive shells. To use them,
1888 your .zshrc should contain lines of the form
1889 autoload function
1891 zle -N function
1892 followed by an appropriate bindkey command to associate the function
1894 with a key sequence. Suggested bindings are described below.
1895 bash-style word functions
1897 If you are looking for functions to implement moving over and
1898 editing words in the manner of bash, where only alphanumeric
1899 characters are considered word characters, you can use the func‐
1900 tions described in the next section. The following is suffi‐
1901 cient:
1902 autoload -U select-word-style
1904 select-word-style bash
1905 forward-word-match, backward-word-match
1907 kill-word-match, backward-kill-word-match
1908 transpose-words-match, capitalize-word-match
1909 up-case-word-match, down-case-word-match
1910 delete-whole-word-match, select-word-match
1911 select-word-style, match-word-context, match-words-by-style
1912 The first eight `-match' functions are drop-in replacements for
1913 the builtin widgets without the suffix. By default they behave
1914 in a similar way. However, by the use of styles and the func‐
1915 tion select-word-style, the way words are matched can be
1916 altered. select-word-match is intended to be used as a text
1917 object in vi mode but with custom word styles. For comparison,
1918 the widgets described in zshzle(1) under Text Objects use fixed
1919 definitions of words, compatible with the vim editor.
1920 The simplest way of configuring the functions is to use
1922 select-word-style, which can either be called as a normal func‐
1923 tion with the appropriate argument, or invoked as a user-defined
1924 widget that will prompt for the first character of the word
1925 style to be used. The first time it is invoked, the first eight
1926 -match functions will automatically replace the builtin ver‐
1927 sions, so they do not need to be loaded explicitly.
1928 The word styles available are as follows. Only the first char‐
1930 acter is examined.
1931 bash Word characters are alphanumeric characters only.
1933 normal As in normal shell operation: word characters are
1935 alphanumeric characters plus any characters present in
1936 the string given by the parameter $WORDCHARS.
1937 shell Words are complete shell command arguments, possibly
1939 including complete quoted strings, or any tokens special
1940 to the shell.
1941 whitespace
1943 Words are any set of characters delimited by whitespace.
1944 default
1946 Restore the default settings; this is usually the same as
1947 `normal'.
1948 All but `default' can be input as an upper case character, which
1950 has the same effect but with subword matching turned on. In
1951 this case, words with upper case characters are treated spe‐
1952 cially: each separate run of upper case characters, or an upper
1953 case character followed by any number of other characters, is
1954 considered a word. The style subword-range can supply an alter‐
1955 native character range to the default `[:upper:]'; the value of
1956 the style is treated as the contents of a `[...]' pattern (note
1957 that the outer brackets should not be supplied, only those sur‐
1958 rounding named ranges).
1959 More control can be obtained using the zstyle command, as
1961 described in zshmodules(1). Each style is looked up in the con‐
1962 text :zle:widget where widget is the name of the user-defined
1963 widget, not the name of the function implementing it, so in the
1964 case of the definitions supplied by select-word-style the appro‐
1965 priate contexts are :zle:forward-word, and so on. The function
1966 select-word-style itself always defines styles for the context
1967 `:zle:*' which can be overridden by more specific (longer) pat‐
1968 terns as well as explicit contexts.
1969 The style word-style specifies the rules to use. This may have
1971 the following values.
1972 normal Use the standard shell rules, i.e. alphanumerics and
1974 $WORDCHARS, unless overridden by the styles word-chars or
1975 word-class.
1976 specified
1978 Similar to normal, but only the specified characters, and
1979 not also alphanumerics, are considered word characters.
1980 unspecified
1982 The negation of specified. The given characters are
1983 those which will not be considered part of a word.
1984 shell Words are obtained by using the syntactic rules for gen‐
1986 erating shell command arguments. In addition, special
1987 tokens which are never command arguments such as `()' are
1988 also treated as words.
1989 whitespace
1991 Words are whitespace-delimited strings of characters.
1992 The first three of those rules usually use $WORDCHARS, but the
1994 value in the parameter can be overridden by the style
1995 word-chars, which works in exactly the same way as $WORDCHARS.
1996 In addition, the style word-class uses character class syntax to
1997 group characters and takes precedence over word-chars if both
1998 are set. The word-class style does not include the surrounding
1999 brackets of the character class; for example, `-:[:alnum:]' is a
2000 valid word-class to include all alphanumerics plus the charac‐
2001 ters `-' and `:'. Be careful including `]', `^' and `-' as
2002 these are special inside character classes.
2003 word-style may also have `-subword' appended to its value to
2005 turn on subword matching, as described above.
2006 The style skip-chars is mostly useful for transpose-words and
2008 similar functions. If set, it gives a count of characters
2009 starting at the cursor position which will not be considered
2010 part of the word and are treated as space, regardless of what
2011 they actually are. For example, if
2012 zstyle ':zle:transpose-words' skip-chars 1
2014 has been set, and transpose-words-match is called with the cur‐
2016 sor on the X of fooXbar, where X can be any character, then the
2017 resulting expression is barXfoo.
2018 Finer grained control can be obtained by setting the style
2020 word-context to an array of pairs of entries. Each pair of
2021 entries consists of a pattern and a subcontext. The shell argu‐
2022 ment the cursor is on is matched against each pattern in turn
2023 until one matches; if it does, the context is extended by a
2024 colon and the corresponding subcontext. Note that the test is
2025 made against the original word on the line, with no stripping of
2026 quotes. Special handling is done between words: the current
2027 context is examined and if it contains the string between the
2028 word is set to a single space; else if it is contains the string
2029 back, the word before the cursor is considered, else the word
2030 after cursor is considered. Some examples are given below.
2031 The style skip-whitespace-first is only used with the for‐
2033 ward-word widget. If it is set to true, then forward-word skips
2034 any non-word-characters, followed by any non-word-characters:
2035 this is similar to the behaviour of other word-orientated wid‐
2036 gets, and also that used by other editors, however it differs
2037 from the standard zsh behaviour. When using select-word-style
2038 the widget is set in the context :zle:* to true if the word
2039 style is bash and false otherwise. It may be overridden by set‐
2040 ting it in the more specific context :zle:forward-word*.
2041 It is possible to create widgets with specific behaviour by
2043 defining a new widget implemented by the appropriate generic
2044 function, then setting a style for the context of the specific
2045 widget. For example, the following defines a widget back‐
2046 ward-kill-space-word using backward-kill-word-match, the generic
2047 widget implementing backward-kill-word behaviour, and ensures
2048 that the new widget always implements space-delimited behaviour.
2049 zle -N backward-kill-space-word backward-kill-word-match
2051 zstyle :zle:backward-kill-space-word word-style space
2052 The widget backward-kill-space-word can now be bound to a key.
2054 Here are some further examples of use of the styles, actually
2056 taken from the simplified interface in select-word-style:
2057 zstyle ':zle:*' word-style standard
2059 zstyle ':zle:*' word-chars ''
2060 Implements bash-style word handling for all widgets, i.e. only
2062 alphanumerics are word characters; equivalent to setting the
2063 parameter WORDCHARS empty for the given context.
2064 style ':zle:*kill*' word-style space
2066 Uses space-delimited words for widgets with the word `kill' in
2068 the name. Neither of the styles word-chars nor word-class is
2069 used in this case.
2070 Here are some examples of use of the word-context style to
2072 extend the context.
2073 zstyle ':zle:*' word-context \
2075 "*/*" filename "[[:space:]]" whitespace
2076 zstyle ':zle:transpose-words:whitespace' word-style shell
2077 zstyle ':zle:transpose-words:filename' word-style normal
2078 zstyle ':zle:transpose-words:filename' word-chars ''
2079 This provides two different ways of using transpose-words
2081 depending on whether the cursor is on whitespace between words
2082 or on a filename, here any word containing a /. On whitespace,
2083 complete arguments as defined by standard shell rules will be
2084 transposed. In a filename, only alphanumerics will be trans‐
2085 posed. Elsewhere, words will be transposed using the default
2086 style for :zle:transpose-words.
2087 The word matching and all the handling of zstyle settings is
2089 actually implemented by the function match-words-by-style. This
2090 can be used to create new user-defined widgets. The calling
2091 function should set the local parameter curcontext to :zle:wid‐
2092 get, create the local parameter matched_words and call
2093 match-words-by-style with no arguments. On return,
2094 matched_words will be set to an array with the elements: (1) the
2095 start of the line (2) the word before the cursor (3) any
2096 non-word characters between that word and the cursor (4) any
2097 non-word character at the cursor position plus any remaining
2098 non-word characters before the next word, including all charac‐
2099 ters specified by the skip-chars style, (5) the word at or fol‐
2100 lowing the cursor (6) any non-word characters following that
2101 word (7) the remainder of the line. Any of the elements may be
2102 an empty string; the calling function should test for this to
2103 decide whether it can perform its function.
2104 If the variable matched_words is defined by the caller to
2106 match-words-by-style as an associative array (local -A
2107 matched_words), then the seven values given above should be
2108 retrieved from it as elements named start, word-before-cursor,
2109 ws-before-cursor, ws-after-cursor, word-after-cursor,
2110 ws-after-word, and end. In addition the element is-word-start
2111 is 1 if the cursor is on the start of a word or subword, or on
2112 white space before it (the cases can be distinguished by testing
2113 the ws-after-cursor element) and 0 otherwise. This form is rec‐
2114 ommended for future compatibility.
2115 It is possible to pass options with arguments to
2117 match-words-by-style to override the use of styles. The options
2118 are:
2119 -w word-style
2120 -s skip-chars
2121 -c word-class
2122 -C word-chars
2123 -r subword-range
2124 For example, match-words-by-style -w shell -c 0 may be used to
2126 extract the command argument around the cursor.
2127 The word-context style is implemented by the function
2129 match-word-context. This should not usually need to be called
2130 directly.
2131 bracketed-paste-magic
2133 The bracketed-paste widget (see subsection Miscellaneous in zsh‐
2134 zle(1)) inserts pasted text literally into the editor buffer
2135 rather than interpret it as keystrokes. This disables some com‐
2136 mon usages where the self-insert widget is replaced in order to
2137 accomplish some extra processing. An example is the contributed
2138 url-quote-magic widget described below.
2139 The bracketed-paste-magic widget is meant to replace brack‐
2141 eted-paste with a wrapper that re-enables these self-insert
2142 actions, and other actions as selected by zstyles. Therefore
2143 this widget is installed with
2144 autoload -Uz bracketed-paste-magic
2146 zle -N bracketed-paste bracketed-paste-magic
2147 Other than enabling some widget processing, brack‐
2149 eted-paste-magic attempts to replicate bracketed-paste as faith‐
2150 fully as possible.
2151 The following zstyles may be set to control processing of pasted
2153 text. All are looked up in the context `:brack‐
2154 eted-paste-magic'.
2155 active-widgets
2157 A list of patterns matching widget names that should be
2158 activated during the paste. All other key sequences are
2159 processed as self-insert-unmeta. The default is `self-*'
2160 so any user-defined widgets named with that prefix are
2161 active along with the builtin self-insert.
2162 If this style is not set (explicitly deleted) or set to
2164 an empty value, no widgets are active and the pasted text
2165 is inserted literally. If the value includes `unde‐
2166 fined-key', any unknown sequences are discarded from the
2167 pasted text.
2168 inactive-keys
2170 The inverse of active-widgets, a list of key sequences
2171 that always use self-insert-unmeta even when bound to an
2172 active widget. Note that this is a list of literal key
2173 sequences, not patterns.
2174 paste-init
2176 A list of function names, called in widget context (but
2177 not as widgets). The functions are called in order until
2178 one of them returns a non-zero status. The parameter
2179 `PASTED' contains the initial state of the pasted text.
2180 All other ZLE parameters such as `BUFFER' have their nor‐
2181 mal values and side-effects, and full history is avail‐
2182 able, so for example paste-init functions may move words
2183 from BUFFER into PASTED to make those words visible to
2184 the active-widgets.
2185 A non-zero return from a paste-init function does not
2187 prevent the paste itself from proceeding.
2188 Loading bracketed-paste-magic defines back‐
2190 ward-extend-paste, a helper function for use in
2191 paste-init.
2192 zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic paste-init \
2194 backward-extend-paste
2195 When a paste would insert into the middle of a word or
2197 append text to a word already on the line, back‐
2198 ward-extend-paste moves the prefix from LBUFFER into
2199 PASTED so that the active-widgets see the full word so
2200 far. This may be useful with url-quote-magic.
2201 paste-finish
2203 Another list of function names called in order until one
2204 returns non-zero. These functions are called after the
2205 pasted text has been processed by the active-widgets, but
2206 before it is inserted into `BUFFER'. ZLE parameters have
2207 their normal values and side-effects.
2208 A non-zero return from a paste-finish function does not
2210 prevent the paste itself from proceeding.
2211 Loading bracketed-paste-magic also defines quote-paste, a
2213 helper function for use in paste-finish.
2214 zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic paste-finish \
2216 quote-paste
2217 zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic:finish quote-style \
2218 qqq
2219 When the pasted text is inserted into BUFFER, it is
2221 quoted per the quote-style value. To forcibly turn off
2222 the built-in numeric prefix quoting of bracketed-paste,
2223 use:
2224 zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic:finish quote-style \
2226 none
2227 Important: During active-widgets processing of the paste (after
2229 paste-init and before paste-finish), BUFFER starts empty and
2230 history is restricted, so cursor motions, etc., may not pass
2231 outside of the pasted content. Text assigned to BUFFER by the
2232 active widgets is copied back into PASTED before paste-finish.
2233 copy-earlier-word
2235 This widget works like a combination of insert-last-word and
2236 copy-prev-shell-word. Repeated invocations of the widget
2237 retrieve earlier words on the relevant history line. With a
2238 numeric argument N, insert the Nth word from the history line; N
2239 may be negative to count from the end of the line.
2240 If insert-last-word has been used to retrieve the last word on a
2242 previous history line, repeated invocations will replace that
2243 word with earlier words from the same line.
2244 Otherwise, the widget applies to words on the line currently
2246 being edited. The widget style can be set to the name of
2247 another widget that should be called to retrieve words. This
2248 widget must accept the same three arguments as insert-last-word.
2249 cycle-completion-positions
2251 After inserting an unambiguous string into the command line, the
2252 new function based completion system may know about multiple
2253 places in this string where characters are missing or differ
2254 from at least one of the possible matches. It will then place
2255 the cursor on the position it considers to be the most interest‐
2256 ing one, i.e. the one where one can disambiguate between as many
2257 matches as possible with as little typing as possible.
2258 This widget allows the cursor to be easily moved to the other
2260 interesting spots. It can be invoked repeatedly to cycle
2261 between all positions reported by the completion system.
2262 delete-whole-word-match
2264 This is another function which works like the -match functions
2265 described immediately above, i.e. using styles to decide the
2266 word boundaries. However, it is not a replacement for any
2267 existing function.
2268 The basic behaviour is to delete the word around the cursor.
2270 There is no numeric argument handling; only the single word
2271 around the cursor is considered. If the widget contains the
2272 string kill, the removed text will be placed in the cutbuffer
2273 for future yanking. This can be obtained by defining
2274 kill-whole-word-match as follows:
2275 zle -N kill-whole-word-match delete-whole-word-match
2277 and then binding the widget kill-whole-word-match.
2279 up-line-or-beginning-search, down-line-or-beginning-search
2281 These widgets are similar to the builtin functions
2282 up-line-or-search and down-line-or-search: if in a multiline
2283 buffer they move up or down within the buffer, otherwise they
2284 search for a history line matching the start of the current
2285 line. In this case, however, they search for a line which
2286 matches the current line up to the current cursor position, in
2287 the manner of history-beginning-search-backward and -forward,
2288 rather than the first word on the line.
2289 edit-command-line
2291 Edit the command line using your visual editor, as in ksh.
2292 bindkey -M vicmd v edit-command-line
2294 expand-absolute-path
2296 Expand the file name under the cursor to an absolute path,
2297 resolving symbolic links. Where possible, the initial path seg‐
2298 ment is turned into a named directory or reference to a user's
2299 home directory.
2300 history-search-end
2302 This function implements the widgets history-begin‐
2303 ning-search-backward-end and history-beginning-search-for‐
2304 ward-end. These commands work by first calling the correspond‐
2305 ing builtin widget (see `History Control' in zshzle(1)) and then
2306 moving the cursor to the end of the line. The original cursor
2307 position is remembered and restored before calling the builtin
2308 widget a second time, so that the same search is repeated to
2309 look farther through the history.
2310 Although you autoload only one function, the commands to use it
2312 are slightly different because it implements two widgets.
2313 zle -N history-beginning-search-backward-end \
2315 history-search-end
2316 zle -N history-beginning-search-forward-end \
2317 history-search-end
2318 bindkey '\e^P' history-beginning-search-backward-end
2319 bindkey '\e^N' history-beginning-search-forward-end
2320 history-beginning-search-menu
2322 This function implements yet another form of history searching.
2323 The text before the cursor is used to select lines from the his‐
2324 tory, as for history-beginning-search-backward except that all
2325 matches are shown in a numbered menu. Typing the appropriate
2326 digits inserts the full history line. Note that leading zeroes
2327 must be typed (they are only shown when necessary for removing
2328 ambiguity). The entire history is searched; there is no dis‐
2329 tinction between forwards and backwards.
2330 With a numeric argument, the search is not anchored to the start
2332 of the line; the string typed by the use may appear anywhere in
2333 the line in the history.
2334 If the widget name contains `-end' the cursor is moved to the
2336 end of the line inserted. If the widget name contains `-space'
2337 any space in the text typed is treated as a wildcard and can
2338 match anything (hence a leading space is equivalent to giving a
2339 numeric argument). Both forms can be combined, for example:
2340 zle -N history-beginning-search-menu-space-end \
2342 history-beginning-search-menu
2343 history-pattern-search
2345 The function history-pattern-search implements widgets which
2346 prompt for a pattern with which to search the history backwards
2347 or forwards. The pattern is in the usual zsh format, however
2348 the first character may be ^ to anchor the search to the start
2349 of the line, and the last character may be $ to anchor the
2350 search to the end of the line. If the search was not anchored
2351 to the end of the line the cursor is positioned just after the
2352 pattern found.
2353 The commands to create bindable widgets are similar to those in
2355 the example immediately above:
2356 autoload -U history-pattern-search
2358 zle -N history-pattern-search-backward history-pattern-search
2359 zle -N history-pattern-search-forward history-pattern-search
2360 incarg Typing the keystrokes for this widget with the cursor placed on
2362 or to the left of an integer causes that integer to be incre‐
2363 mented by one. With a numeric argument, the number is incre‐
2364 mented by the amount of the argument (decremented if the numeric
2365 argument is negative). The shell parameter incarg may be set to
2366 change the default increment to something other than one.
2367 bindkey '^X+' incarg
2369 incremental-complete-word
2371 This allows incremental completion of a word. After starting
2372 this command, a list of completion choices can be shown after
2373 every character you type, which you can delete with ^H or DEL.
2374 Pressing return accepts the completion so far and returns you to
2375 normal editing (that is, the command line is not immediately
2376 executed). You can hit TAB to do normal completion, ^G to abort
2377 back to the state when you started, and ^D to list the matches.
2378 This works only with the new function based completion system.
2380 bindkey '^Xi' incremental-complete-word
2382 insert-composed-char
2384 This function allows you to compose characters that don't appear
2385 on the keyboard to be inserted into the command line. The com‐
2386 mand is followed by two keys corresponding to ASCII characters
2387 (there is no prompt). For accented characters, the two keys are
2388 a base character followed by a code for the accent, while for
2389 other special characters the two characters together form a
2390 mnemonic for the character to be inserted. The two-character
2391 codes are a subset of those given by RFC 1345 (see for example
2392 http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1345.html).
2393 The function may optionally be followed by up to two characters
2395 which replace one or both of the characters read from the key‐
2396 board; if both characters are supplied, no input is read. For
2397 example, insert-composed-char a: can be used within a widget to
2398 insert an a with umlaut into the command line. This has the
2399 advantages over use of a literal character that it is more por‐
2400 table.
2401 For best results zsh should have been built with support for
2403 multibyte characters (configured with --enable-multibyte); how‐
2404 ever, the function works for the limited range of characters
2405 available in single-byte character sets such as ISO-8859-1.
2406 The character is converted into the local representation and
2408 inserted into the command line at the cursor position. (The
2409 conversion is done within the shell, using whatever facilities
2410 the C library provides.) With a numeric argument, the character
2411 and its code are previewed in the status line
2412 The function may be run outside zle in which case it prints the
2414 character (together with a newline) to standard output. Input
2415 is still read from keystrokes.
2416 See insert-unicode-char for an alternative way of inserting Uni‐
2418 code characters using their hexadecimal character number.
2419 The set of accented characters is reasonably complete up to Uni‐
2421 code character U+0180, the set of special characters less so.
2422 However, it is very sporadic from that point. Adding new char‐
2423 acters is easy, however; see the function define-composed-chars.
2424 Please send any additions to zsh-workers@zsh.org.
2425 The codes for the second character when used to accent the first
2427 are as follows. Note that not every character can take every
2428 accent.
2429 ! Grave.
2430 ' Acute.
2431 > Circumflex.
2432 ? Tilde. (This is not ~ as RFC 1345 does not assume that
2433 character is present on the keyboard.)
2434 - Macron. (A horizontal bar over the base character.)
2435 ( Breve. (A shallow dish shape over the base character.)
2436 . Dot above the base character, or in the case of i no dot,
2437 or in the case of L and l a centered dot.
2438 : Diaeresis (Umlaut).
2439 c Cedilla.
2440 _ Underline, however there are currently no underlined
2441 characters.
2442 / Stroke through the base character.
2443 " Double acute (only supported on a few letters).
2444 ; Ogonek. (A little forward facing hook at the bottom
2445 right of the character.)
2446 < Caron. (A little v over the letter.)
2447 0 Circle over the base character.
2448 2 Hook over the base character.
2449 9 Horn over the base character.
2450 The most common characters from the Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek and
2452 Hebrew alphabets are available; consult RFC 1345 for the appro‐
2453 priate sequences. In addition, a set of two letter codes not in
2454 RFC 1345 are available for the double-width characters corre‐
2455 sponding to ASCII characters from ! to ~ (0x21 to 0x7e) by pre‐
2456 ceding the character with ^, for example ^A for a double-width
2457 A.
2458 The following other two-character sequences are understood.
2460 ASCII characters
2462 These are already present on most keyboards:
2463 <( Left square bracket
2464 // Backslash (solidus)
2465 )> Right square bracket
2466 (! Left brace (curly bracket)
2467 !! Vertical bar (pipe symbol)
2468 !) Right brace (curly bracket)
2469 '? Tilde
2470 Special letters
2472 Characters found in various variants of the Latin alpha‐
2473 bet:
2474 ss Eszett (scharfes S)
2475 D-, d- Eth
2476 TH, th Thorn
2477 kk Kra
2478 'n 'n
2479 NG, ng Ng
2480 OI, oi Oi
2481 yr yr
2482 ED ezh
2483 Currency symbols
2485 Ct Cent
2486 Pd Pound sterling (also lira and others)
2487 Cu Currency
2488 Ye Yen
2489 Eu Euro (N.B. not in RFC 1345)
2490 Punctuation characters
2492 References to "right" quotes indicate the shape (like a 9
2493 rather than 6) rather than their grammatical use. (For
2494 example, a "right" low double quote is used to open quo‐
2495 tations in German.)
2496 !I Inverted exclamation mark
2497 BB Broken vertical bar
2498 SE Section
2499 Co Copyright
2500 -a Spanish feminine ordinal indicator
2501 << Left guillemet
2502 -- Soft hyphen
2503 Rg Registered trade mark
2504 PI Pilcrow (paragraph)
2505 -o Spanish masculine ordinal indicator
2506 >> Right guillemet
2507 ?I Inverted question mark
2508 -1 Hyphen
2509 -N En dash
2510 -M Em dash
2511 -3 Horizontal bar
2512 :3 Vertical ellipsis
2513 .3 Horizontal midline ellipsis
2514 !2 Double vertical line
2515 =2 Double low line
2516 '6 Left single quote
2517 '9 Right single quote
2518 .9 "Right" low quote
2519 9' Reversed "right" quote
2520 "6 Left double quote
2521 "9 Right double quote
2522 :9 "Right" low double quote
2523 9" Reversed "right" double quote
2524 /- Dagger
2525 /= Double dagger
2526 Mathematical symbols
2528 DG Degree
2529 -2, +-, -+
2530 - sign, +/- sign, -/+ sign
2531 2S Superscript 2
2532 3S Superscript 3
2533 1S Superscript 1
2534 My Micro
2535 .M Middle dot
2536 14 Quarter
2537 12 Half
2538 34 Three quarters
2539 *X Multiplication
2540 -: Division
2541 %0 Per mille
2542 FA, TE, /0
2543 For all, there exists, empty set
2544 dP, DE, NB
2545 Partial derivative, delta (increment), del (nabla)
2546 (-, -) Element of, contains
2547 *P, +Z Product, sum
2548 *-, Ob, Sb
2549 Asterisk, ring, bullet
2550 RT, 0(, 00
2551 Root sign, proportional to, infinity
2552 Other symbols
2554 cS, cH, cD, cC
2555 Card suits: spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs
2556 Md, M8, M2, Mb, Mx, MX
2557 Musical notation: crotchet (quarter note), quaver (eighth
2558 note), semiquavers (sixteenth notes), flag sign, natural
2559 sign, sharp sign
2560 Fm, Ml Female, male
2561 Accents on their own
2563 '> Circumflex (same as caret, ^)
2564 '! Grave (same as backtick, `)
2565 ', Cedilla
2566 ': Diaeresis (Umlaut)
2567 'm Macron
2568 '' Acute
2569 insert-files
2571 This function allows you type a file pattern, and see the
2572 results of the expansion at each step. When you hit return, all
2573 expansions are inserted into the command line.
2574 bindkey '^Xf' insert-files
2576 insert-unicode-char
2578 When first executed, the user inputs a set of hexadecimal dig‐
2579 its. This is terminated with another call to insert-uni‐
2580 code-char. The digits are then turned into the corresponding
2581 Unicode character. For example, if the widget is bound to ^XU,
2582 the character sequence `^XU 4 c ^XU' inserts L (Unicode U+004c).
2583 See insert-composed-char for a way of inserting characters using
2585 a two-character mnemonic.
2586 narrow-to-region [ -p pre ] [ -P post ]
2589 [ -S statepm | -R statepm | [ -l lbufvar ] [ -r rbuf‐
2590 var ] ]
2591 [ -n ] [ start end ]
2592 narrow-to-region-invisible
2593 Narrow the editable portion of the buffer to the region between
2594 the cursor and the mark, which may be in either order. The
2595 region may not be empty.
2596 narrow-to-region may be used as a widget or called as a function
2598 from a user-defined widget; by default, the text outside the
2599 editable area remains visible. A recursive-edit is performed
2600 and the original widening status is then restored. Various
2601 options and arguments are available when it is called as a func‐
2602 tion.
2603 The options -p pretext and -P posttext may be used to replace
2605 the text before and after the display for the duration of the
2606 function; either or both may be an empty string.
2607 If the option -n is also given, pretext or posttext will only be
2609 inserted if there is text before or after the region respec‐
2610 tively which will be made invisible.
2611 Two numeric arguments may be given which will be used instead of
2613 the cursor and mark positions.
2614 The option -S statepm is used to narrow according to the other
2616 options while saving the original state in the parameter with
2617 name statepm, while the option -R statepm is used to restore the
2618 state from the parameter; note in both cases the name of the
2619 parameter is required. In the second case, other options and
2620 arguments are irrelevant. When this method is used, no recur‐
2621 sive-edit is performed; the calling widget should call this
2622 function with the option -S, perform its own editing on the com‐
2623 mand line or pass control to the user via `zle recursive-edit',
2624 then call this function with the option -R. The argument
2625 statepm must be a suitable name for an ordinary parameter,
2626 except that parameters beginning with the prefix _ntr_ are
2627 reserved for use within narrow-to-region. Typically the parame‐
2628 ter will be local to the calling function.
2629 The options -l lbufvar and -r rbufvar may be used to specify
2631 parameters where the widget will store the resulting text from
2632 the operation. The parameter lbufvar will contain LBUFFER and
2633 rbufvar will contain RBUFFER. Neither of these two options may
2634 be used with -S or -R.
2635 narrow-to-region-invisible is a simple widget which calls nar‐
2637 row-to-region with arguments which replace any text outside the
2638 region with `...'. It does not take any arguments.
2639 The display is restored (and the widget returns) upon any zle
2641 command which would usually cause the line to be accepted or
2642 aborted. Hence an additional such command is required to accept
2643 or abort the current line.
2644 The return status of both widgets is zero if the line was
2646 accepted, else non-zero.
2647 Here is a trivial example of a widget using this feature.
2649 local state
2650 narrow-to-region -p $'Editing restricted region\n' \
2651 -P '' -S state
2652 zle recursive-edit
2653 narrow-to-region -R state
2654 predict-on
2656 This set of functions implements predictive typing using history
2657 search. After predict-on, typing characters causes the editor
2658 to look backward in the history for the first line beginning
2659 with what you have typed so far. After predict-off, editing
2660 returns to normal for the line found. In fact, you often don't
2661 even need to use predict-off, because if the line doesn't match
2662 something in the history, adding a key performs standard comple‐
2663 tion, and then inserts itself if no completions were found.
2664 However, editing in the middle of a line is liable to confuse
2665 prediction; see the toggle style below.
2666 With the function based completion system (which is needed for
2668 this), you should be able to type TAB at almost any point to
2669 advance the cursor to the next ``interesting'' character posi‐
2670 tion (usually the end of the current word, but sometimes some‐
2671 where in the middle of the word). And of course as soon as the
2672 entire line is what you want, you can accept with return, with‐
2673 out needing to move the cursor to the end first.
2674 The first time predict-on is used, it creates several additional
2676 widget functions:
2677 delete-backward-and-predict
2679 Replaces the backward-delete-char widget. You do not
2680 need to bind this yourself.
2681 insert-and-predict
2682 Implements predictive typing by replacing the self-insert
2683 widget. You do not need to bind this yourself.
2684 predict-off
2685 Turns off predictive typing.
2686 Although you autoload only the predict-on function, it is neces‐
2688 sary to create a keybinding for predict-off as well.
2689 zle -N predict-on
2691 zle -N predict-off
2692 bindkey '^X^Z' predict-on
2693 bindkey '^Z' predict-off
2694 read-from-minibuffer
2696 This is most useful when called as a function from inside a wid‐
2697 get, but will work correctly as a widget in its own right. It
2698 prompts for a value below the current command line; a value may
2699 be input using all of the standard zle operations (and not
2700 merely the restricted set available when executing, for example,
2701 execute-named-cmd). The value is then returned to the calling
2702 function in the parameter $REPLY and the editing buffer restored
2703 to its previous state. If the read was aborted by a keyboard
2704 break (typically ^G), the function returns status 1 and $REPLY
2705 is not set.
2706 If one argument is supplied to the function it is taken as a
2708 prompt, otherwise `? ' is used. If two arguments are supplied,
2709 they are the prompt and the initial value of $LBUFFER, and if a
2710 third argument is given it is the initial value of $RBUFFER.
2711 This provides a default value and starting cursor placement.
2712 Upon return the entire buffer is the value of $REPLY.
2713 One option is available: `-k num' specifies that num characters
2715 are to be read instead of a whole line. The line editor is not
2716 invoked recursively in this case, so depending on the terminal
2717 settings the input may not be visible, and only the input keys
2718 are placed in $REPLY, not the entire buffer. Note that unlike
2719 the read builtin num must be given; there is no default.
2720 The name is a slight misnomer, as in fact the shell's own
2722 minibuffer is not used. Hence it is still possible to call exe‐
2723 cuted-named-cmd and similar functions while reading a value.
2724 replace-argument, replace-argument-edit
2726 The function replace-argument can be used to replace a command
2727 line argument in the current command line or, if the current
2728 command line is empty, in the last command line executed (the
2729 new command line is not executed). Arguments are as delimited
2730 by standard shell syntax,
2731 If a numeric argument is given, that specifies the argument to
2733 be replaced. 0 means the command name, as in history expansion.
2734 A negative numeric argument counts backward from the last word.
2735 If no numeric argument is given, the current argument is
2737 replaced; this is the last argument if the previous history line
2738 is being used.
2739 The function prompts for a replacement argument.
2741 If the widget contains the string edit, for example is defined
2743 as
2744 zle -N replace-argument-edit replace-argument
2746 then the function presents the current value of the argument for
2748 editing, otherwise the editing buffer for the replacement is
2749 initially empty.
2750 replace-string, replace-pattern
2752 replace-string-again, replace-pattern-again
2753 The function replace-string implements three widgets. If
2754 defined under the same name as the function, it prompts for two
2755 strings; the first (source) string will be replaced by the sec‐
2756 ond everywhere it occurs in the line editing buffer.
2757 If the widget name contains the word `pattern', for example by
2759 defining the widget using the command `zle -N replace-pattern
2760 replace-string', then the matching is performed using zsh pat‐
2761 terns. All zsh extended globbing patterns can be used in the
2762 source string; note that unlike filename generation the pattern
2763 does not need to match an entire word, nor do glob qualifiers
2764 have any effect. In addition, the replacement string can con‐
2765 tain parameter or command substitutions. Furthermore, a `&' in
2766 the replacement string will be replaced with the matched source
2767 string, and a backquoted digit `\N' will be replaced by the Nth
2768 parenthesised expression matched. The form `\{N}' may be used
2769 to protect the digit from following digits.
2770 If the widget instead contains the word `regex' (or `regexp'),
2772 then the matching is performed using regular expressions,
2773 respecting the setting of the option RE_MATCH_PCRE (see the
2774 description of the function regexp-replace below). The special
2775 replacement facilities described above for pattern matching are
2776 available.
2777 By default the previous source or replacement string will not be
2779 offered for editing. However, this feature can be activated by
2780 setting the style edit-previous in the context :zle:widget (for
2781 example, :zle:replace-string) to true. In addition, a positive
2782 numeric argument forces the previous values to be offered, a
2783 negative or zero argument forces them not to be.
2784 The function replace-string-again can be used to repeat the pre‐
2786 vious replacement; no prompting is done. As with
2787 replace-string, if the name of the widget contains the word
2788 `pattern' or `regex', pattern or regular expression matching is
2789 performed, else a literal string replacement. Note that the
2790 previous source and replacement text are the same whether pat‐
2791 tern, regular expression or string matching is used.
2792 In addition, replace-string shows the previous replacement above
2794 the prompt, so long as there was one during the current session;
2795 if the source string is empty, that replacement will be repeated
2796 without the widget prompting for a replacement string.
2797 For example, starting from the line:
2799 print This line contains fan and fond
2801 and invoking replace-pattern with the source string `f(?)n' and
2803 the replacement string `c\1r' produces the not very useful line:
2804 print This line contains car and cord
2806 The range of the replacement string can be limited by using the
2808 narrow-to-region-invisible widget. One limitation of the cur‐
2809 rent version is that undo will cycle through changes to the
2810 replacement and source strings before undoing the replacement
2811 itself.
2812 send-invisible
2814 This is similar to read-from-minibuffer in that it may be called
2815 as a function from a widget or as a widget of its own, and
2816 interactively reads input from the keyboard. However, the input
2817 being typed is concealed and a string of asterisks (`*') is
2818 shown instead. The value is saved in the parameter $INVISIBLE
2819 to which a reference is inserted into the editing buffer at the
2820 restored cursor position. If the read was aborted by a keyboard
2821 break (typically ^G) or another escape from editing such as
2822 push-line, $INVISIBLE is set to empty and the original buffer is
2823 restored unchanged.
2824 If one argument is supplied to the function it is taken as a
2826 prompt, otherwise `Non-echoed text: ' is used (as in emacs). If
2827 a second and third argument are supplied they are used to begin
2828 and end the reference to $INVISIBLE that is inserted into the
2829 buffer. The default is to open with ${, then INVISIBLE, and
2830 close with }, but many other effects are possible.
2831 smart-insert-last-word
2833 This function may replace the insert-last-word widget, like so:
2834 zle -N insert-last-word smart-insert-last-word
2836 With a numeric argument, or when passed command line arguments
2838 in a call from another widget, it behaves like insert-last-word,
2839 except that words in comments are ignored when INTERACTIVE_COM‐
2840 MENTS is set.
2841 Otherwise, the rightmost ``interesting'' word from the previous
2843 command is found and inserted. The default definition of
2844 ``interesting'' is that the word contains at least one alpha‐
2845 betic character, slash, or backslash. This definition may be
2846 overridden by use of the match style. The context used to look
2847 up the style is the widget name, so usually the context is
2848 :insert-last-word. However, you can bind this function to dif‐
2849 ferent widgets to use different patterns:
2850 zle -N insert-last-assignment smart-insert-last-word
2852 zstyle :insert-last-assignment match '[[:alpha:]][][[:alnum:]]#=*'
2853 bindkey '\e=' insert-last-assignment
2854 If no interesting word is found and the auto-previous style is
2856 set to a true value, the search continues upward through the
2857 history. When auto-previous is unset or false (the default),
2858 the widget must be invoked repeatedly in order to search earlier
2859 history lines.
2860 transpose-lines
2862 Only useful with a multi-line editing buffer; the lines here are
2863 lines within the current on-screen buffer, not history lines.
2864 The effect is similar to the function of the same name in Emacs.
2865 Transpose the current line with the previous line and move the
2867 cursor to the start of the next line. Repeating this (which can
2868 be done by providing a positive numeric argument) has the effect
2869 of moving the line above the cursor down by a number of lines.
2870 With a negative numeric argument, requires two lines above the
2872 cursor. These two lines are transposed and the cursor moved to
2873 the start of the previous line. Using a numeric argument less
2874 than -1 has the effect of moving the line above the cursor up by
2875 minus that number of lines.
2876 url-quote-magic
2878 This widget replaces the built-in self-insert to make it easier
2879 to type URLs as command line arguments. As you type, the input
2880 character is analyzed and, if it may need quoting, the current
2881 word is checked for a URI scheme. If one is found and the cur‐
2882 rent word is not already in quotes, a backslash is inserted
2883 before the input character.
2884 Styles to control quoting behavior:
2886 url-metas
2888 This style is looked up in the context
2889 `:url-quote-magic:scheme' (where scheme is that of the
2890 current URL, e.g. "ftp"). The value is a string listing
2891 the characters to be treated as globbing metacharacters
2892 when appearing in a URL using that scheme. The default
2893 is to quote all zsh extended globbing characters, exclud‐
2894 ing '<' and '>' but including braces (as in brace expan‐
2895 sion). See also url-seps.
2896 url-seps
2898 Like url-metas, but lists characters that should be con‐
2899 sidered command separators, redirections, history refer‐
2900 ences, etc. The default is to quote the standard set of
2901 shell separators, excluding those that overlap with the
2902 extended globbing characters, but including '<' and '>'
2903 and the first character of $histchars.
2904 url-globbers
2906 This style is looked up in the context
2907 `:url-quote-magic'. The values form a list of command
2908 names that are expected to do their own globbing on the
2909 URL string. This implies that they are aliased to use
2910 the `noglob' modifier. When the first word on the line
2911 matches one of the values and the URL refers to a local
2912 file (see url-local-schema), only the url-seps characters
2913 are quoted; the url-metas are left alone, allowing them
2914 to affect command-line parsing, completion, etc. The
2915 default values are a literal `noglob' plus (when the
2916 zsh/parameter module is available) any commands aliased
2917 to the helper function `urlglobber' or its alias
2918 `globurl'.
2919 url-local-schema
2921 This style is always looked up in the context `:urlglob‐
2922 ber', even though it is used by both url-quote-magic and
2923 urlglobber. The values form a list of URI schema that
2924 should be treated as referring to local files by their
2925 real local path names, as opposed to files which are
2926 specified relative to a web-server-defined document root.
2927 The defaults are "ftp" and "file".
2928 url-other-schema
2930 Like url-local-schema, but lists all other URI schema
2931 upon which urlglobber and url-quote-magic should act. If
2932 the URI on the command line does not have a scheme
2933 appearing either in this list or in url-local-schema, it
2934 is not magically quoted. The default values are "http",
2935 "https", and "ftp". When a scheme appears both here and
2936 in url-local-schema, it is quoted differently depending
2937 on whether the command name appears in url-globbers.
2938 Loading url-quote-magic also defines a helper function `urlglob‐
2940 ber' and aliases `globurl' to `noglob urlglobber'. This func‐
2941 tion takes a local URL apart, attempts to pattern-match the
2942 local file portion of the URL path, and then puts the results
2943 back into URL format again.
2944 vi-pipe
2946 This function reads a movement command from the keyboard and
2947 then prompts for an external command. The part of the buffer
2948 covered by the movement is piped to the external command and
2949 then replaced by the command's output. If the movement command
2950 is bound to vi-pipe, the current line is used.
2951 The function serves as an example for reading a vi movement com‐
2953 mand from within a user-defined widget.
2954 which-command
2956 This function is a drop-in replacement for the builtin widget
2957 which-command. It has enhanced behaviour, in that it correctly
2958 detects whether or not the command word needs to be expanded as
2959 an alias; if so, it continues tracing the command word from the
2960 expanded alias until it reaches the command that will be exe‐
2961 cuted.
2962 The style whence is available in the context :zle:$WIDGET; this
2964 may be set to an array to give the command and options that will
2965 be used to investigate the command word found. The default is
2966 whence -c.
2967 zcalc-auto-insert
2969 This function is useful together with the zcalc function
2970 described in the section Mathematical Functions. It should be
2971 bound to a key representing a binary operator such as `+', `-',
2972 `*' or `/'. When running in zcalc, if the key occurs at the
2973 start of the line or immediately following an open parenthesis,
2974 the text "ans " is inserted before the representation of the key
2975 itself. This allows easy use of the answer from the previous
2976 calculation in the current line. The text to be inserted before
2977 the symbol typed can be modified by setting the variable
2978 ZCALC_AUTO_INSERT_PREFIX.
2979 Hence, for example, typing `+12' followed by return adds 12 to
2981 the previous result.
2982 If zcalc is in RPN mode (-r option) the effect of this binding
2984 is automatically suppressed as operators alone on a line are
2985 meaningful.
2986 When not in zcalc, the key simply inserts the symbol itself.
2988 Utility Functions
2990 These functions are useful in constructing widgets. They should be
2991 loaded with `autoload -U function' and called as indicated from
2992 user-defined widgets.
2993 split-shell-arguments
2995 This function splits the line currently being edited into shell
2996 arguments and whitespace. The result is stored in the array
2997 reply. The array contains all the parts of the line in order,
2998 starting with any whitespace before the first argument, and fin‐
2999 ishing with any whitespace after the last argument. Hence (so
3000 long as the option KSH_ARRAYS is not set) whitespace is given by
3001 odd indices in the array and arguments by even indices. Note
3002 that no stripping of quotes is done; joining together all the
3003 elements of reply in order is guaranteed to produce the original
3004 line.
3005 The parameter REPLY is set to the index of the word in reply
3007 which contains the character after the cursor, where the first
3008 element has index 1. The parameter REPLY2 is set to the index
3009 of the character under the cursor in that word, where the first
3010 character has index 1.
3011 Hence reply, REPLY and REPLY2 should all be made local to the
3013 enclosing function.
3014 See the function modify-current-argument, described below, for
3016 an example of how to call this function.
3017 modify-current-argument [ expr-using-$ARG | func ]
3019 This function provides a simple method of allowing user-defined
3020 widgets to modify the command line argument under the cursor (or
3021 immediately to the left of the cursor if the cursor is between
3022 arguments).
3023 The argument can be an expression which when evaluated operates
3025 on the shell parameter ARG, which will have been set to the com‐
3026 mand line argument under the cursor. The expression should be
3027 suitably quoted to prevent it being evaluated too early.
3028 Alternatively, if the argument does not contain the string ARG,
3030 it is assumed to be a shell function, to which the current com‐
3031 mand line argument is passed as the only argument. The function
3032 should set the variable REPLY to the new value for the command
3033 line argument. If the function returns non-zero status, so does
3034 the calling function.
3035 For example, a user-defined widget containing the following code
3037 converts the characters in the argument under the cursor into
3038 all upper case:
3039 modify-current-argument '${(U)ARG}'
3041 The following strips any quoting from the current word (whether
3043 backslashes or one of the styles of quotes), and replaces it
3044 with single quoting throughout:
3045 modify-current-argument '${(qq)${(Q)ARG}}'
3047 The following performs directory expansion on the command line
3049 argument and replaces it by the absolute path:
3050 expand-dir() {
3052 REPLY=${~1}
3053 REPLY=${REPLY:a}
3054 }
3055 modify-current-argument expand-dir
3056 In practice the function expand-dir would probably not be
3058 defined within the widget where modify-current-argument is
3059 called.
3060 Styles
3062 The behavior of several of the above widgets can be controlled by the
3063 use of the zstyle mechanism. In particular, widgets that interact with
3064 the completion system pass along their context to any completions that
3065 they invoke.
3066 break-keys
3068 This style is used by the incremental-complete-word widget. Its
3069 value should be a pattern, and all keys matching this pattern
3070 will cause the widget to stop incremental completion without the
3071 key having any further effect. Like all styles used directly by
3072 incremental-complete-word, this style is looked up using the
3073 context `:incremental'.
3074 completer
3076 The incremental-complete-word and insert-and-predict widgets set
3077 up their top-level context name before calling completion. This
3078 allows one to define different sets of completer functions for
3079 normal completion and for these widgets. For example, to use
3080 completion, approximation and correction for normal completion,
3081 completion and correction for incremental completion and only
3082 completion for prediction one could use:
3083 zstyle ':completion:*' completer \
3085 _complete _correct _approximate
3086 zstyle ':completion:incremental:*' completer \
3087 _complete _correct
3088 zstyle ':completion:predict:*' completer \
3089 _complete
3090 It is a good idea to restrict the completers used in prediction,
3092 because they may be automatically invoked as you type. The
3093 _list and _menu completers should never be used with prediction.
3094 The _approximate, _correct, _expand, and _match completers may
3095 be used, but be aware that they may change characters anywhere
3096 in the word behind the cursor, so you need to watch carefully
3097 that the result is what you intended.
3098 cursor The insert-and-predict widget uses this style, in the context
3100 `:predict', to decide where to place the cursor after completion
3101 has been tried. Values are:
3102 complete
3104 The cursor is left where it was when completion finished,
3105 but only if it is after a character equal to the one just
3106 inserted by the user. If it is after another character,
3107 this value is the same as `key'.
3108 key The cursor is left after the nth occurrence of the char‐
3110 acter just inserted, where n is the number of times that
3111 character appeared in the word before completion was
3112 attempted. In short, this has the effect of leaving the
3113 cursor after the character just typed even if the comple‐
3114 tion code found out that no other characters need to be
3115 inserted at that position.
3116 Any other value for this style unconditionally leaves the cursor
3118 at the position where the completion code left it.
3119 list When using the incremental-complete-word widget, this style says
3121 if the matches should be listed on every key press (if they fit
3122 on the screen). Use the context prefix `:completion:incremen‐
3123 tal'.
3124 The insert-and-predict widget uses this style to decide if the
3126 completion should be shown even if there is only one possible
3127 completion. This is done if the value of this style is the
3128 string always. In this case the context is `:predict' (not
3129 `:completion:predict').
3130 match This style is used by smart-insert-last-word to provide a pat‐
3132 tern (using full EXTENDED_GLOB syntax) that matches an interest‐
3133 ing word. The context is the name of the widget to which
3134 smart-insert-last-word is bound (see above). The default behav‐
3135 ior of smart-insert-last-word is equivalent to:
3136 zstyle :insert-last-word match '*[[:alpha:]/\\]*'
3138 However, you might want to include words that contain spaces:
3140 zstyle :insert-last-word match '*[[:alpha:][:space:]/\\]*'
3142 Or include numbers as long as the word is at least two charac‐
3144 ters long:
3145 zstyle :insert-last-word match '*([[:digit:]]?|[[:alpha:]/\\])*'
3147 The above example causes redirections like "2>" to be included.
3149 prompt The incremental-complete-word widget shows the value of this
3151 style in the status line during incremental completion. The
3152 string value may contain any of the following substrings in the
3153 manner of the PS1 and other prompt parameters:
3154 %c Replaced by the name of the completer function that gen‐
3156 erated the matches (without the leading underscore).
3157 %l When the list style is set, replaced by `...' if the list
3159 of matches is too long to fit on the screen and with an
3160 empty string otherwise. If the list style is `false' or
3161 not set, `%l' is always removed.
3162 %n Replaced by the number of matches generated.
3164 %s Replaced by `-no match-', `-no prefix-', or an empty
3166 string if there is no completion matching the word on the
3167 line, if the matches have no common prefix different from
3168 the word on the line, or if there is such a common pre‐
3169 fix, respectively.
3170 %u Replaced by the unambiguous part of all matches, if there
3172 is any, and if it is different from the word on the line.
3173 Like `break-keys', this uses the `:incremental' context.
3175 stop-keys
3177 This style is used by the incremental-complete-word widget. Its
3178 value is treated similarly to the one for the break-keys style
3179 (and uses the same context: `:incremental'). However, in this
3180 case all keys matching the pattern given as its value will stop
3181 incremental completion and will then execute their usual func‐
3182 tion.
3183 toggle This boolean style is used by predict-on and its related widgets
3185 in the context `:predict'. If set to one of the standard `true'
3186 values, predictive typing is automatically toggled off in situa‐
3187 tions where it is unlikely to be useful, such as when editing a
3188 multi-line buffer or after moving into the middle of a line and
3189 then deleting a character. The default is to leave prediction
3190 turned on until an explicit call to predict-off.
3191 verbose
3193 This boolean style is used by predict-on and its related widgets
3194 in the context `:predict'. If set to one of the standard `true'
3195 values, these widgets display a message below the prompt when
3196 the predictive state is toggled. This is most useful in combi‐
3197 nation with the toggle style. The default does not display
3198 these messages.
3199 widget This style is similar to the command style: For widget functions
3201 that use zle to call other widgets, this style can sometimes be
3202 used to override the widget which is called. The context for
3203 this style is the name of the calling widget (not the name of
3204 the calling function, because one function may be bound to mul‐
3205 tiple widget names).
3206 zstyle :copy-earlier-word widget smart-insert-last-word
3208 Check the documentation for the calling widget or function to
3210 determine whether the widget style is used.
3211
3213 Two functions are provided to enable zsh to provide exception handling
3214 in a form that should be familiar from other languages.
3215 throw exception
3217 The function throw throws the named exception. The name is an
3218 arbitrary string and is only used by the throw and catch func‐
3219 tions. An exception is for the most part treated the same as a
3220 shell error, i.e. an unhandled exception will cause the shell to
3221 abort all processing in a function or script and to return to
3222 the top level in an interactive shell.
3223 catch exception-pattern
3225 The function catch returns status zero if an exception was
3226 thrown and the pattern exception-pattern matches its name. Oth‐
3227 erwise it returns status 1. exception-pattern is a standard
3228 shell pattern, respecting the current setting of the
3229 EXTENDED_GLOB option. An alias catch is also defined to prevent
3230 the argument to the function from matching filenames, so pat‐
3231 terns may be used unquoted. Note that as exceptions are not
3232 fundamentally different from other shell errors it is possible
3233 to catch shell errors by using an empty string as the exception
3234 name. The shell variable CAUGHT is set by catch to the name of
3235 the exception caught. It is possible to rethrow an exception by
3236 calling the throw function again once an exception has been
3237 caught.
3238 The functions are designed to be used together with the always con‐
3240 struct described in zshmisc(1). This is important as only this con‐
3241 struct provides the required support for exceptions. A typical example
3242 is as follows.
3243 {
3245 # "try" block
3246 # ... nested code here calls "throw MyExcept"
3247 } always {
3248 # "always" block
3249 if catch MyExcept; then
3250 print "Caught exception MyExcept"
3251 elif catch ''; then
3252 print "Caught a shell error. Propagating..."
3253 throw ''
3254 fi
3255 # Other exceptions are not handled but may be caught further
3256 # up the call stack.
3257 }
3258 If all exceptions should be caught, the following idiom might be
3260 preferable.
3261 {
3263 # ... nested code here throws an exception
3264 } always {
3265 if catch *; then
3266 case $CAUGHT in
3267 (MyExcept)
3268 print "Caught my own exception"
3269 ;;
3270 (*)
3271 print "Caught some other exception"
3272 ;;
3273 esac
3274 fi
3275 }
3276 In common with exception handling in other languages, the exception may
3278 be thrown by code deeply nested inside the `try' block. However, note
3279 that it must be thrown inside the current shell, not in a subshell
3280 forked for a pipeline, parenthesised current-shell construct, or some
3281 form of command or process substitution.
3282 The system internally uses the shell variable EXCEPTION to record the
3284 name of the exception between throwing and catching. One drawback of
3285 this scheme is that if the exception is not handled the variable EXCEP‐
3286 TION remains set and may be incorrectly recognised as the name of an
3287 exception if a shell error subsequently occurs. Adding unset EXCEPTION
3288 at the start of the outermost layer of any code that uses exception
3289 handling will eliminate this problem.
3290
3292 Three functions are available to provide handling of files recognised
3293 by extension, for example to dispatch a file text.ps when executed as a
3294 command to an appropriate viewer.
3295 zsh-mime-setup [ -fv ] [ -l [ suffix ... ] ]
3297 zsh-mime-handler [ -l ] command argument ...
3298 These two functions use the files ~/.mime.types and
3299 /etc/mime.types, which associate types and extensions, as well
3300 as ~/.mailcap and /etc/mailcap files, which associate types and
3301 the programs that handle them. These are provided on many sys‐
3302 tems with the Multimedia Internet Mail Extensions.
3303 To enable the system, the function zsh-mime-setup should be
3305 autoloaded and run. This allows files with extensions to be
3306 treated as executable; such files be completed by the function
3307 completion system. The function zsh-mime-handler should not
3308 need to be called by the user.
3309 The system works by setting up suffix aliases with `alias -s'.
3311 Suffix aliases already installed by the user will not be over‐
3312 written.
3313 For suffixes defined in lower case, upper case variants will
3315 also automatically be handled (e.g. PDF is automatically handled
3316 if handling for the suffix pdf is defined), but not vice versa.
3317 Repeated calls to zsh-mime-setup do not override the existing
3319 mapping between suffixes and executable files unless the option
3320 -f is given. Note, however, that this does not override exist‐
3321 ing suffix aliases assigned to handlers other than zsh-mime-han‐
3322 dler.
3323 Calling zsh-mime-setup with the option -l lists the existing
3325 mappings without altering them. Suffixes to list (which may
3326 contain pattern characters that should be quoted from immediate
3327 interpretation on the command line) may be given as additional
3328 arguments, otherwise all suffixes are listed.
3329 Calling zsh-mime-setup with the option -v causes verbose output
3331 to be shown during the setup operation.
3332 The system respects the mailcap flags needsterminal and copi‐
3334 ousoutput, see mailcap(4).
3335 The functions use the following styles, which are defined with
3337 the zstyle builtin command (see zshmodules(1)). They should be
3338 defined before zsh-mime-setup is run. The contexts used all
3339 start with :mime:, with additional components in some cases. It
3340 is recommended that a trailing * (suitably quoted) be appended
3341 to style patterns in case the system is extended in future.
3342 Some examples are given below.
3343 For files that have multiple suffixes, e.g. .pdf.gz, where the
3345 context includes the suffix it will be looked up starting with
3346 the longest possible suffix until a match for the style is
3347 found. For example, if .pdf.gz produces a match for the han‐
3348 dler, that will be used; otherwise the handler for .gz will be
3349 used. Note that, owing to the way suffix aliases work, it is
3350 always required that there be a handler for the shortest possi‐
3351 ble suffix, so in this example .pdf.gz can only be handled if
3352 .gz is also handled (though not necessarily in the same way).
3353 Alternatively, if no handling for .gz on its own is needed, sim‐
3354 ply adding the command
3355 alias -s gz=zsh-mime-handler
3357 to the initialisation code is sufficient; .gz will not be han‐
3359 dled on its own, but may be in combination with other suffixes.
3360 current-shell
3362 If this boolean style is true, the mailcap handler for
3363 the context in question is run using the eval builtin
3364 instead of by starting a new sh process. This is more
3365 efficient, but may not work in the occasional cases where
3366 the mailcap handler uses strict POSIX syntax.
3367 disown If this boolean style is true, mailcap handlers started
3369 in the background will be disowned, i.e. not subject to
3370 job control within the parent shell. Such handlers
3371 nearly always produce their own windows, so the only
3372 likely harmful side effect of setting the style is that
3373 it becomes harder to kill jobs from within the shell.
3374 execute-as-is
3376 This style gives a list of patterns to be matched against
3377 files passed for execution with a handler program. If
3378 the file matches the pattern, the entire command line is
3379 executed in its current form, with no handler. This is
3380 useful for files which might have suffixes but nonethe‐
3381 less be executable in their own right. If the style is
3382 not set, the pattern *(*) *(/) is used; hence executable
3383 files are executed directly and not passed to a handler,
3384 and the option AUTO_CD may be used to change to directo‐
3385 ries that happen to have MIME suffixes.
3386 execute-never
3388 This style is useful in combination with execute-as-is.
3389 It is set to an array of patterns corresponding to full
3390 paths to files that should never be treated as exe‐
3391 cutable, even if the file passed to the MIME handler
3392 matches execute-as-is. This is useful for file systems
3393 that don't handle execute permission or that contain exe‐
3394 cutables from another operating system. For example, if
3395 /mnt/windows is a Windows mount, then
3396 zstyle ':mime:*' execute-never '/mnt/windows/*'
3398 will ensure that any files found in that area will be
3400 executed as MIME types even if they are executable. As
3401 this example shows, the complete file name is matched
3402 against the pattern, regardless of how the file was
3403 passed to the handler. The file is resolved to a full
3404 path using the :P modifier described in the subsection
3405 Modifiers in zshexpn(1); this means that symbolic links
3406 are resolved where possible, so that links into other
3407 file systems behave in the correct fashion.
3408 file-path
3410 Used if the style find-file-in-path is true for the same
3411 context. Set to an array of directories that are used
3412 for searching for the file to be handled; the default is
3413 the command path given by the special parameter path.
3414 The shell option PATH_DIRS is respected; if that is set,
3415 the appropriate path will be searched even if the name of
3416 the file to be handled as it appears on the command line
3417 contains a `/'. The full context is :mime:.suffix:, as
3418 described for the style handler.
3419 find-file-in-path
3421 If set, allows files whose names do not contain absolute
3422 paths to be searched for in the command path or the path
3423 specified by the file-path style. If the file is not
3424 found in the path, it is looked for locally (whether or
3425 not the current directory is in the path); if it is not
3426 found locally, the handler will abort unless the han‐
3427 dle-nonexistent style is set. Files found in the path
3428 are tested as described for the style execute-as-is. The
3429 full context is :mime:.suffix:, as described for the
3430 style handler.
3431 flags Defines flags to go with a handler; the context is as for
3433 the handler style, and the format is as for the flags in
3434 mailcap.
3435 handle-nonexistent
3437 By default, arguments that don't correspond to files are
3438 not passed to the MIME handler in order to prevent it
3439 from intercepting commands found in the path that happen
3440 to have suffixes. This style may be set to an array of
3441 extended glob patterns for arguments that will be passed
3442 to the handler even if they don't exist. If it is not
3443 explicitly set it defaults to [[:alpha:]]#:/* which
3444 allows URLs to be passed to the MIME handler even though
3445 they don't exist in that format in the file system. The
3446 full context is :mime:.suffix:, as described for the
3447 style handler.
3448 handler
3450 Specifies a handler for a suffix; the suffix is given by
3451 the context as :mime:.suffix:, and the format of the han‐
3452 dler is exactly that in mailcap. Note in particular the
3453 `.' and trailing colon to distinguish this use of the
3454 context. This overrides any handler specified by the
3455 mailcap files. If the handler requires a terminal, the
3456 flags style should be set to include the word needstermi‐
3457 nal, or if the output is to be displayed through a pager
3458 (but not if the handler is itself a pager), it should
3459 include copiousoutput.
3460 mailcap
3462 A list of files in the format of ~/.mailcap and
3463 /etc/mailcap to be read during setup, replacing the
3464 default list which consists of those two files. The con‐
3465 text is :mime:. A + in the list will be replaced by the
3466 default files.
3467 mailcap-priorities
3469 This style is used to resolve multiple mailcap entries
3470 for the same MIME type. It consists of an array of the
3471 following elements, in descending order of priority;
3472 later entries will be used if earlier entries are unable
3473 to resolve the entries being compared. If none of the
3474 tests resolve the entries, the first entry encountered is
3475 retained.
3476 files The order of files (entries in the mailcap style)
3478 read. Earlier files are preferred. (Note this
3479 does not resolve entries in the same file.)
3480 priority
3482 The priority flag from the mailcap entry. The
3483 priority is an integer from 0 to 9 with the
3484 default value being 5.
3485 flags The test given by the mailcap-prio-flags option is
3487 used to resolve entries.
3488 place Later entries are preferred; as the entries are
3490 strictly ordered, this test always succeeds.
3491 Note that as this style is handled during initialisation,
3493 the context is always :mime:, with no discrimination by
3494 suffix.
3495 mailcap-prio-flags
3497 This style is used when the keyword flags is encountered
3498 in the list of tests specified by the mailcap-priorities
3499 style. It should be set to a list of patterns, each of
3500 which is tested against the flags specified in the mail‐
3501 cap entry (in other words, the sets of assignments found
3502 with some entries in the mailcap file). Earlier patterns
3503 in the list are preferred to later ones, and matched pat‐
3504 terns are preferred to unmatched ones.
3505 mime-types
3507 A list of files in the format of ~/.mime.types and
3508 /etc/mime.types to be read during setup, replacing the
3509 default list which consists of those two files. The con‐
3510 text is :mime:. A + in the list will be replaced by the
3511 default files.
3512 never-background
3514 If this boolean style is set, the handler for the given
3515 context is always run in the foreground, even if the
3516 flags provided in the mailcap entry suggest it need not
3517 be (for example, it doesn't require a terminal).
3518 pager If set, will be used instead of $PAGER or more to handle
3520 suffixes where the copiousoutput flag is set. The con‐
3521 text is as for handler, i.e. :mime:.suffix: for handling
3522 a file with the given suffix.
3523 Examples:
3525 zstyle ':mime:*' mailcap ~/.mailcap /usr/local/etc/mailcap
3527 zstyle ':mime:.txt:' handler less %s
3528 zstyle ':mime:.txt:' flags needsterminal
3529 When zsh-mime-setup is subsequently run, it will look for mail‐
3531 cap entries in the two files given. Files of suffix .txt will
3532 be handled by running `less file.txt'. The flag needsterminal
3533 is set to show that this program must run attached to a termi‐
3534 nal.
3535 As there are several steps to dispatching a command, the follow‐
3537 ing should be checked if attempting to execute a file by exten‐
3538 sion .ext does not have the expected effect.
3539 The command `alias -s ext' should show `ps=zsh-mime-handler'.
3541 If it shows something else, another suffix alias was already
3542 installed and was not overwritten. If it shows nothing, no han‐
3543 dler was installed: this is most likely because no handler was
3544 found in the .mime.types and mailcap combination for .ext files.
3545 In that case, appropriate handling should be added to
3546 ~/.mime.types and mailcap.
3547 If the extension is handled by zsh-mime-handler but the file is
3549 not opened correctly, either the handler defined for the type is
3550 incorrect, or the flags associated with it are in appropriate.
3551 Running zsh-mime-setup -l will show the handler and, if there
3552 are any, the flags. A %s in the handler is replaced by the file
3553 (suitably quoted if necessary). Check that the handler program
3554 listed lists and can be run in the way shown. Also check that
3555 the flags needsterminal or copiousoutput are set if the handler
3556 needs to be run under a terminal; the second flag is used if the
3557 output should be sent to a pager. An example of a suitable
3558 mailcap entry for such a program is:
3559 text/html; /usr/bin/lynx '%s'; needsterminal
3561 Running `zsh-mime-handler -l command line' prints the command
3563 line that would be executed, simplified to remove the effect of
3564 any flags, and quoted so that the output can be run as a com‐
3565 plete zsh command line. This is used by the completion system
3566 to decide how to complete after a file handled by zsh-mime-set‐
3567 up.
3568 pick-web-browser
3570 This function is separate from the two MIME functions described
3571 above and can be assigned directly to a suffix:
3572 autoload -U pick-web-browser
3574 alias -s html=pick-web-browser
3575 It is provided as an intelligent front end to dispatch a web
3577 browser. It may be run as either a function or a shell script.
3578 The status 255 is returned if no browser could be started.
3579 Various styles are available to customize the choice of
3581 browsers:
3582 browser-style
3584 The value of the style is an array giving preferences in
3585 decreasing order for the type of browser to use. The
3586 values of elements may be
3587 running
3589 Use a GUI browser that is already running when an
3590 X Window display is available. The browsers
3591 listed in the x-browsers style are tried in order
3592 until one is found; if it is, the file will be
3593 displayed in that browser, so the user may need to
3594 check whether it has appeared. If no running
3595 browser is found, one is not started. Browsers
3596 other than Firefox, Opera and Konqueror are
3597 assumed to understand the Mozilla syntax for open‐
3598 ing a URL remotely.
3599 x Start a new GUI browser when an X Window display
3601 is available. Search for the availability of one
3602 of the browsers listed in the x-browsers style and
3603 start the first one that is found. No check is
3604 made for an already running browser.
3605 tty Start a terminal-based browser. Search for the
3607 availability of one of the browsers listed in the
3608 tty-browsers style and start the first one that is
3609 found.
3610 If the style is not set the default running x tty is
3612 used.
3613 x-browsers
3615 An array in decreasing order of preference of browsers to
3616 use when running under the X Window System. The array
3617 consists of the command name under which to start the
3618 browser. They are looked up in the context :mime: (which
3619 may be extended in future, so appending `*' is recom‐
3620 mended). For example,
3621 zstyle ':mime:*' x-browsers opera konqueror firefox
3623 specifies that pick-web-browser should first look for a
3625 running instance of Opera, Konqueror or Firefox, in that
3626 order, and if it fails to find any should attempt to
3627 start Opera. The default is firefox mozilla netscape
3628 opera konqueror.
3629 tty-browsers
3631 An array similar to x-browsers, except that it gives
3632 browsers to use when no X Window display is available.
3633 The default is elinks links lynx.
3634 command
3636 If it is set this style is used to pick the command used
3637 to open a page for a browser. The context is
3638 :mime:browser:new:$browser: to start a new browser or
3639 :mime:browser:running:$browser: to open a URL in a
3640 browser already running on the current X display, where
3641 $browser is the value matched in the x-browsers or
3642 tty-browsers style. The escape sequence %b in the
3643 style's value will be replaced by the browser, while %u
3644 will be replaced by the URL. If the style is not set,
3645 the default for all new instances is equivalent to %b %u
3646 and the defaults for using running browsers are equiva‐
3647 lent to the values kfmclient openURL %u for Konqueror,
3648 firefox -new-tab %u for Firefox, opera -newpage %u for
3649 Opera, and %b -remote "openUrl(%u)" for all others.
3650
3652 zcalc [ -erf ] [ expression ... ]
3653 A reasonably powerful calculator based on zsh's arithmetic eval‐
3654 uation facility. The syntax is similar to that of formulae in
3655 most programming languages; see the section `Arithmetic Evalua‐
3656 tion' in zshmisc(1) for details.
3657 Non-programmers should note that, as in many other programming
3659 languages, expressions involving only integers (whether con‐
3660 stants without a `.', variables containing such constants as
3661 strings, or variables declared to be integers) are by default
3662 evaluated using integer arithmetic, which is not how an ordinary
3663 desk calculator operates. To force floating point operation,
3664 pass the option -f; see further notes below.
3665 If the file ~/.zcalcrc exists it will be sourced inside the
3667 function once it is set up and about to process the command
3668 line. This can be used, for example, to set shell options; emu‐
3669 late -L zsh and setopt extendedglob are in effect at this point.
3670 Any failure to source the file if it exists is treated as fatal.
3671 As with other initialisation files, the directory $ZDOTDIR is
3672 used instead of $HOME if it is set.
3673 The mathematical library zsh/mathfunc will be loaded if it is
3675 available; see the section `The zsh/mathfunc Module' in zshmod‐
3676 ules(1). The mathematical functions correspond to the raw sys‐
3677 tem libraries, so trigonometric functions are evaluated using
3678 radians, and so on.
3679 Each line typed is evaluated as an expression. The prompt shows
3681 a number, which corresponds to a positional parameter where the
3682 result of that calculation is stored. For example, the result
3683 of the calculation on the line preceded by `4> ' is available as
3684 $4. The last value calculated is available as ans. Full com‐
3685 mand line editing, including the history of previous calcula‐
3686 tions, is available; the history is saved in the file
3687 ~/.zcalc_history. To exit, enter a blank line or type `:q' on
3688 its own (`q' is allowed for historical compatibility).
3689 A line ending with a single backslash is treated in the same
3691 fashion as it is in command line editing: the backslash is
3692 removed, the function prompts for more input (the prompt is pre‐
3693 ceded by `...' to indicate this), and the lines are combined
3694 into one to get the final result. In addition, if the input so
3695 far contains more open than close parentheses zcalc will prompt
3696 for more input.
3697 If arguments are given to zcalc on start up, they are used to
3699 prime the first few positional parameters. A visual indication
3700 of this is given when the calculator starts.
3701 The constants PI (3.14159...) and E (2.71828...) are provided.
3703 Parameter assignment is possible, but note that all parameters
3704 will be put into the global namespace unless the :local special
3705 command is used. The function creates local variables whose
3706 names start with _, so users should avoid doing so. The vari‐
3707 ables ans (the last answer) and stack (the stack in RPN mode)
3708 may be referred to directly; stack is an array but elements of
3709 it are numeric. Various other special variables are used
3710 locally with their standard meaning, for example compcontext,
3711 match, mbegin, mend, psvar.
3712 The output base can be initialised by passing the option
3714 `-#base', for example `zcalc -#16' (the `#' may have to be
3715 quoted, depending on the globbing options set).
3716 If the option `-e' is set, the function runs non-interactively:
3718 the arguments are treated as expressions to be evaluated as if
3719 entered interactively line by line.
3720 If the option `-f' is set, all numbers are treated as floating
3722 point, hence for example the expression `3/4' evaluates to 0.75
3723 rather than 0. Options must appear in separate words.
3724 If the option `-r' is set, RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) mode is
3726 entered. This has various additional properties:
3727 Stack Evaluated values are maintained in a stack; this is con‐
3728 tained in an array named stack with the most recent value
3729 in ${stack[1]}.
3730 Operators and functions
3732 If the line entered matches an operator (+, -, *, /, **,
3733 ^, | or &) or a function supplied by the zsh/mathfunc
3734 library, the bottom element or elements of the stack are
3735 popped to use as the argument or arguments. The higher
3736 elements of stack (least recent) are used as earlier
3737 arguments. The result is then pushed into ${stack[1]}.
3738 Expressions
3740 Other expressions are evaluated normally, printed, and
3741 added to the stack as numeric values. The syntax within
3742 expressions on a single line is normal shell arithmetic
3743 (not RPN).
3744 Stack listing
3746 If an integer follows the option -r with no space, then
3747 on every evaluation that many elements of the stack,
3748 where available, are printed instead of just the most
3749 recent result. Hence, for example, zcalc -r4 shows
3750 $stack[4] to $stack[1] each time results are printed.
3751 Duplication: =
3753 The pseudo-operator = causes the most recent element of
3754 the stack to be duplicated onto the stack.
3755 pop The pseudo-function pop causes the most recent element of
3757 the stack to be popped. A `>' on its own has the same
3758 effect.
3759 >ident The expression > followed (with no space) by a shell
3761 identifier causes the most recent element of the stack to
3762 be popped and assigned to the variable with that name.
3763 The variable is local to the zcalc function.
3764 <ident The expression < followed (with no space) by a shell
3766 identifier causes the value of the variable with that
3767 name to be pushed onto the stack. ident may be an inte‐
3768 ger, in which case the previous result with that number
3769 (as shown before the > in the standard zcalc prompt) is
3770 put on the stack.
3771 Exchange: xy
3773 The pseudo-function xy causes the most recent two ele‐
3774 ments of the stack to be exchanged. `<>' has the same
3775 effect.
3776 The prompt is configurable via the parameter ZCALCPROMPT, which
3778 undergoes standard prompt expansion. The index of the current
3779 entry is stored locally in the first element of the array psvar,
3780 which can be referred to in ZCALCPROMPT as `%1v'. The default
3781 prompt is `%1v> '.
3782 The variable ZCALC_ACTIVE is set within the function and can be
3784 tested by nested functions; it has the value rpn if RPN mode is
3785 active, else 1.
3786 A few special commands are available; these are introduced by a
3788 colon. For backward compatibility, the colon may be omitted for
3789 certain commands. Completion is available if compinit has been
3790 run.
3791 The output precision may be specified within zcalc by special
3793 commands familiar from many calculators.
3794 :norm The default output format. It corresponds to the printf
3795 %g specification. Typically this shows six decimal dig‐
3796 its.
3797 :sci digits
3799 Scientific notation, corresponding to the printf %g out‐
3800 put format with the precision given by digits. This pro‐
3801 duces either fixed point or exponential notation depend‐
3802 ing on the value output.
3803 :fix digits
3805 Fixed point notation, corresponding to the printf %f out‐
3806 put format with the precision given by digits.
3807 :eng digits
3809 Exponential notation, corresponding to the printf %E out‐
3810 put format with the precision given by digits.
3811 :raw Raw output: this is the default form of the output from
3813 a math evaluation. This may show more precision than the
3814 number actually possesses.
3815 Other special commands:
3817 :!line...
3818 Execute line... as a normal shell command line. Note
3819 that it is executed in the context of the function, i.e.
3820 with local variables. Space is optional after :!.
3821 :local arg ...
3823 Declare variables local to the function. Other variables
3824 may be used, too, but they will be taken from or put into
3825 the global scope.
3826 :function name [ body ]
3828 Define a mathematical function or (with no body) delete
3829 it. :function may be abbreviated to :func or simply :f.
3830 The name may contain the same characters as a shell func‐
3831 tion name. The function is defined using zmathfuncdef,
3832 see below.
3833 Note that zcalc takes care of all quoting. Hence for
3835 example:
3836 :f cube $1 * $1 * $1
3838 defines a function to cube the sole argument. Functions
3840 so defined, or indeed any functions defined directly or
3841 indirectly using functions -M, are available to execute
3842 by typing only the name on the line in RPN mode; this
3843 pops the appropriate number of arguments off the stack to
3844 pass to the function, i.e. 1 in the case of the example
3845 cube function. If there are optional arguments only the
3846 mandatory arguments are supplied by this means.
3847 [#base]
3849 This is not a special command, rather part of normal
3850 arithmetic syntax; however, when this form appears on a
3851 line by itself the default output radix is set to base.
3852 Use, for example, `[#16]' to display hexadecimal output
3853 preceded by an indication of the base, or `[##16]' just
3854 to display the raw number in the given base. Bases them‐
3855 selves are always specified in decimal. `[#]' restores
3856 the normal output format. Note that setting an output
3857 base suppresses floating point output; use `[#]' to
3858 return to normal operation.
3859 $var Print out the value of var literally; does not affect the
3861 calculation. To use the value of var, omit the leading
3862 `$'.
3863 See the comments in the function for a few extra tips.
3865 min(arg, ...)
3867 max(arg, ...)
3868 sum(arg, ...)
3869 zmathfunc
3870 The function zmathfunc defines the three mathematical functions
3871 min, max, and sum. The functions min and max take one or more
3872 arguments. The function sum takes zero or more arguments.
3873 Arguments can be of different types (ints and floats).
3874 Not to be confused with the zsh/mathfunc module, described in
3876 the section `The zsh/mathfunc Module' in zshmodules(1).
3877 zmathfuncdef [ mathfunc [ body ] ]
3879 A convenient front end to functions -M.
3880 With two arguments, define a mathematical function named math‐
3882 func which can be used in any form of arithmetic evaluation.
3883 body is a mathematical expression to implement the function. It
3884 may contain references to position parameters $1, $2, ... to
3885 refer to mandatory parameters and ${1:-defvalue} ... to refer
3886 to optional parameters. Note that the forms must be strictly
3887 adhered to for the function to calculate the correct number of
3888 arguments. The implementation is held in a shell function named
3889 zsh_math_func_mathfunc; usually the user will not need to refer
3890 to the shell function directly. Any existing function of the
3891 same name is silently replaced.
3892 With one argument, remove the mathematical function mathfunc as
3894 well as the shell function implementation.
3895 With no arguments, list all mathfunc functions in a form suit‐
3897 able for restoring the definition. The functions have not nec‐
3898 essarily been defined by zmathfuncdef.
3899
3901 The zsh/newuser module comes with a function to aid in configuring
3902 shell options for new users. If the module is installed, this function
3903 can also be run by hand. It is available even if the module's default
3904 behaviour, namely running the function for a new user logging in with‐
3905 out startup files, is inhibited.
3906 zsh-newuser-install [ -f ]
3908 The function presents the user with various options for cus‐
3909 tomizing their initialization scripts. Currently only ~/.zshrc
3910 is handled. $ZDOTDIR/.zshrc is used instead if the parameter
3911 ZDOTDIR is set; this provides a way for the user to configure a
3912 file without altering an existing .zshrc.
3913 By default the function exits immediately if it finds any of the
3915 files .zshenv, .zprofile, .zshrc, or .zlogin in the appropriate
3916 directory. The option -f is required in order to force the
3917 function to continue. Note this may happen even if .zshrc
3918 itself does not exist.
3919 As currently configured, the function will exit immediately if
3921 the user has root privileges; this behaviour cannot be overrid‐
3922 den.
3923 Once activated, the function's behaviour is supposed to be
3925 self-explanatory. Menus are present allowing the user to alter
3926 the value of options and parameters. Suggestions for improve‐
3927 ments are always welcome.
3928 When the script exits, the user is given the opportunity to save
3930 the new file or not; changes are not irreversible until this
3931 point. However, the script is careful to restrict changes to
3932 the file only to a group marked by the lines `# Lines configured
3933 by zsh-newuser-install' and `# End of lines configured by
3934 zsh-newuser-install'. In addition, the old version of .zshrc is
3935 saved to a file with the suffix .zni appended.
3936 If the function edits an existing .zshrc, it is up to the user
3938 to ensure that the changes made will take effect. For example,
3939 if control usually returns early from the existing .zshrc the
3940 lines will not be executed; or a later initialization file may
3941 override options or parameters, and so on. The function itself
3942 does not attempt to detect any such conflicts.
3943
3945 There are a large number of helpful functions in the Functions/Misc
3946 directory of the zsh distribution. Most are very simple and do not
3947 require documentation here, but a few are worthy of special mention.
3948 Descriptions
3950 colors This function initializes several associative arrays to map
3951 color names to (and from) the ANSI standard eight-color terminal
3952 codes. These are used by the prompt theme system (see above).
3953 You seldom should need to run colors more than once.
3954 The eight base colors are: black, red, green, yellow, blue,
3956 magenta, cyan, and white. Each of these has codes for fore‐
3957 ground and background. In addition there are seven intensity
3958 attributes: bold, faint, standout, underline, blink, reverse,
3959 and conceal. Finally, there are seven codes used to negate
3960 attributes: none (reset all attributes to the defaults), normal
3961 (neither bold nor faint), no-standout, no-underline, no-blink,
3962 no-reverse, and no-conceal.
3963 Some terminals do not support all combinations of colors and
3965 intensities.
3966 The associative arrays are:
3968 color
3970 colour Map all the color names to their integer codes, and inte‐
3971 ger codes to the color names. The eight base names map
3972 to the foreground color codes, as do names prefixed with
3973 `fg-', such as `fg-red'. Names prefixed with `bg-', such
3974 as `bg-blue', refer to the background codes. The reverse
3975 mapping from code to color yields base name for fore‐
3976 ground codes and the bg- form for backgrounds.
3977 Although it is a misnomer to call them `colors', these
3979 arrays also map the other fourteen attributes from names
3980 to codes and codes to names.
3981 fg
3983 fg_bold
3984 fg_no_bold
3985 Map the eight basic color names to ANSI terminal escape
3986 sequences that set the corresponding foreground text
3987 properties. The fg sequences change the color without
3988 changing the eight intensity attributes.
3989 bg
3991 bg_bold
3992 bg_no_bold
3993 Map the eight basic color names to ANSI terminal escape
3994 sequences that set the corresponding background proper‐
3995 ties. The bg sequences change the color without changing
3996 the eight intensity attributes.
3997 In addition, the scalar parameters reset_color and bold_color
3999 are set to the ANSI terminal escapes that turn off all
4000 attributes and turn on bold intensity, respectively.
4001 fned [ -x num ] name
4003 Same as zed -f. This function does not appear in the zsh dis‐
4004 tribution, but can be created by linking zed to the name fned in
4005 some directory in your fpath.
4006 is-at-least needed [ present ]
4008 Perform a greater-than-or-equal-to comparison of two strings
4009 having the format of a zsh version number; that is, a string of
4010 numbers and text with segments separated by dots or dashes. If
4011 the present string is not provided, $ZSH_VERSION is used. Seg‐
4012 ments are paired left-to-right in the two strings with leading
4013 non-number parts ignored. If one string has fewer segments than
4014 the other, the missing segments are considered zero.
4015 This is useful in startup files to set options and other state
4017 that are not available in all versions of zsh.
4018 is-at-least 3.1.6-15 && setopt NO_GLOBAL_RCS
4020 is-at-least 3.1.0 && setopt HIST_REDUCE_BLANKS
4021 is-at-least 2.6-17 || print "You can't use is-at-least here."
4022 nslookup [ arg ... ]
4024 This wrapper function for the nslookup command requires the
4025 zsh/zpty module (see zshmodules(1)). It behaves exactly like
4026 the standard nslookup except that it provides customizable
4027 prompts (including a right-side prompt) and completion of
4028 nslookup commands, host names, etc. (if you use the func‐
4029 tion-based completion system). Completion styles may be set
4030 with the context prefix `:completion:nslookup'.
4031 See also the pager, prompt and rprompt styles below.
4033 regexp-replace var regexp replace
4035 Use regular expressions to perform a global search and replace
4036 operation on a variable. POSIX extended regular expressions are
4037 used, unless the option RE_MATCH_PCRE has been set, in which
4038 case Perl-compatible regular expressions are used (this requires
4039 the shell to be linked against the pcre library).
4040 var is the name of the variable containing the string to be
4042 matched. The variable will be modified directly by the func‐
4043 tion. The variables MATCH, MBEGIN, MEND, match, mbegin, mend
4044 should be avoided as these are used by the regular expression
4045 code.
4046 regexp is the regular expression to match against the string.
4048 replace is the replacement text. This can contain parameter,
4050 command and arithmetic expressions which will be replaced: in
4051 particular, a reference to $MATCH will be replaced by the text
4052 matched by the pattern.
4053 The return status is 0 if at least one match was performed, else
4055 1.
4056 run-help cmd
4058 This function is designed to be invoked by the run-help ZLE wid‐
4059 get, in place of the default alias. See `Accessing On-Line
4060 Help' above for setup instructions.
4061 In the discussion which follows, if cmd is a file system path,
4063 it is first reduced to its rightmost component (the file name).
4064 Help is first sought by looking for a file named cmd in the
4066 directory named by the HELPDIR parameter. If no file is found,
4067 an assistant function, alias, or command named run-help-cmd is
4068 sought. If found, the assistant is executed with the rest of
4069 the current command line (everything after the command name cmd)
4070 as its arguments. When neither file nor assistant is found, the
4071 external command `man cmd' is run.
4072 An example assistant for the "ssh" command:
4074 run-help-ssh() {
4076 emulate -LR zsh
4077 local -a args
4078 # Delete the "-l username" option
4079 zparseopts -D -E -a args l:
4080 # Delete other options, leaving: host command
4081 args=(${@:#-*})
4082 if [[ ${#args} -lt 2 ]]; then
4083 man ssh
4084 else
4085 run-help $args[2]
4086 fi
4087 }
4088 Several of these assistants are provided in the Functions/Misc
4090 directory. These must be autoloaded, or placed as executable
4091 scripts in your search path, in order to be found and used by
4092 run-help.
4093 run-help-git
4095 run-help-ip
4096 run-help-openssl
4097 run-help-p4
4098 run-help-sudo
4099 run-help-svk
4100 run-help-svn
4101 Assistant functions for the git, ip, openssl, p4, sudo,
4102 svk, and svn, commands.
4103 tetris Zsh was once accused of not being as complete as Emacs, because
4105 it lacked a Tetris game. This function was written to refute
4106 this vicious slander.
4107 This function must be used as a ZLE widget:
4109 autoload -U tetris
4111 zle -N tetris
4112 bindkey keys tetris
4113 To start a game, execute the widget by typing the keys. What‐
4115 ever command line you were editing disappears temporarily, and
4116 your keymap is also temporarily replaced by the Tetris control
4117 keys. The previous editor state is restored when you quit the
4118 game (by pressing `q') or when you lose.
4119 If you quit in the middle of a game, the next invocation of the
4121 tetris widget will continue where you left off. If you lost, it
4122 will start a new game.
4123 tetriscurses
4125 This is a port of the above to zcurses. The input handling is
4126 improved a bit so that moving a block sideways doesn't automati‐
4127 cally advance a timestep, and the graphics use unicode block
4128 graphics.
4129 This version does not save the game state between invocations,
4131 and is not invoked as a widget, but rather as:
4132 autoload -U tetriscurses
4134 tetriscurses
4135 zargs [ option ... -- ] [ input ... ] [ -- command [ arg ... ] ]
4137 This function has a similar purpose to GNU xargs. Instead of
4138 reading lines of arguments from the standard input, it takes
4139 them from the command line. This is useful because zsh, espe‐
4140 cially with recursive glob operators, often can construct a com‐
4141 mand line for a shell function that is longer than can be
4142 accepted by an external command.
4143 The option list represents options of the zargs command itself,
4145 which are the same as those of xargs. The input list is the
4146 collection of strings (often file names) that become the argu‐
4147 ments of the command, analogous to the standard input of xargs.
4148 Finally, the arg list consists of those arguments (usually
4149 options) that are passed to the command each time it runs. The
4150 arg list precedes the elements from the input list in each run.
4151 If no command is provided, then no arg list may be provided, and
4152 in that event the default command is `print' with arguments `-r
4153 --'.
4154 For example, to get a long ls listing of all non-hidden plain
4156 files in the current directory or its subdirectories:
4157 autoload -U zargs
4159 zargs -- **/*(.) -- ls -ld --
4160 The first and third occurrences of `--' are used to mark the end
4162 of options for zargs and ls respectively to guard against file‐
4163 names starting with `-', while the second is used to separate
4164 the list of files from the command to run (`ls -ld --').
4165 The first `--' would also be needed if there was a chance the
4167 list might be empty as in:
4168 zargs -r -- ./*.back(#qN) -- rm -f
4170 In the event that the string `--' is or may be an input, the -e
4172 option may be used to change the end-of-inputs marker. Note
4173 that this does not change the end-of-options marker. For exam‐
4174 ple, to use `..' as the marker:
4175 zargs -e.. -- **/*(.) .. ls -ld --
4177 This is a good choice in that example because no plain file can
4179 be named `..', but the best end-marker depends on the circum‐
4180 stances.
4181 The options -i, -I, -l, -L, and -n differ slightly from their
4183 usage in xargs. There are no input lines for zargs to count, so
4184 -l and -L count through the input list, and -n counts the number
4185 of arguments passed to each execution of command, including any
4186 arg list. Also, any time -i or -I is used, each input is pro‐
4187 cessed separately as if by `-L 1'.
4188 For details of the other zargs options, see xargs(1) (but note
4190 the difference in function between zargs and xargs) or run zargs
4191 with the --help option.
4192 zed [ -f [ -x num ] ] name
4194 zed -b This function uses the ZLE editor to edit a file or function.
4195 Only one name argument is allowed. If the -f option is given,
4197 the name is taken to be that of a function; if the function is
4198 marked for autoloading, zed searches for it in the fpath and
4199 loads it. Note that functions edited this way are installed
4200 into the current shell, but not written back to the autoload
4201 file. In this case the -x option specifies that leading tabs
4202 indenting the function according to syntax should be converted
4203 into the given number of spaces; `-x 2' is consistent with the
4204 layout of functions distributed with the shell.
4205 Without -f, name is the path name of the file to edit, which
4207 need not exist; it is created on write, if necessary.
4208 While editing, the function sets the main keymap to zed and the
4210 vi command keymap to zed-vicmd. These will be copied from the
4211 existing main and vicmd keymaps if they do not exist the first
4212 time zed is run. They can be used to provide special key bind‐
4213 ings used only in zed.
4214 If it creates the keymap, zed rebinds the return key to insert a
4216 line break and `^X^W' to accept the edit in the zed keymap, and
4217 binds `ZZ' to accept the edit in the zed-vicmd keymap.
4218 The bindings alone can be installed by running `zed -b'. This
4220 is suitable for putting into a startup file. Note that, if
4221 rerun, this will overwrite the existing zed and zed-vicmd
4222 keymaps.
4223 Completion is available, and styles may be set with the context
4225 prefix `:completion:zed'.
4226 A zle widget zed-set-file-name is available. This can be called
4228 by name from within zed using `\ex zed-set-file-name' (note,
4229 however, that because of zed's rebindings you will have to type
4230 ^j at the end instead of the return key), or can be bound to a
4231 key in either of the zed or zed-vicmd keymaps after `zed -b' has
4232 been run. When the widget is called, it prompts for a new name
4233 for the file being edited. When zed exits the file will be
4234 written under that name and the original file will be left
4235 alone. The widget has no effect with `zed -f'.
4236 While zed-set-file-name is running, zed uses the keymap zed-nor‐
4238 mal-keymap, which is linked from the main keymap in effect at
4239 the time zed initialised its bindings. (This is to make the
4240 return key operate normally.) The result is that if the main
4241 keymap has been changed, the widget won't notice. This is not a
4242 concern for most users.
4243 zcp [ -finqQvwW ] srcpat dest
4245 zln [ -finqQsvwW ] srcpat dest
4246 Same as zmv -C and zmv -L, respectively. These functions do not
4247 appear in the zsh distribution, but can be created by linking
4248 zmv to the names zcp and zln in some directory in your fpath.
4249 zkbd See `Keyboard Definition' above.
4251 zmv [ -finqQsvwW ] [ -C | -L | -M | -{p|P} program ] [ -o optstring ]
4254 srcpat dest
4255 Move (usually, rename) files matching the pattern srcpat to cor‐
4256 responding files having names of the form given by dest, where
4257 srcpat contains parentheses surrounding patterns which will be
4258 replaced in turn by $1, $2, ... in dest. For example,
4259 zmv '(*).lis' '$1.txt'
4261 renames `foo.lis' to `foo.txt', `my.old.stuff.lis' to
4263 `my.old.stuff.txt', and so on.
4264 The pattern is always treated as an EXTENDED_GLOB pattern. Any
4266 file whose name is not changed by the substitution is simply
4267 ignored. Any error (a substitution resulted in an empty string,
4268 two substitutions gave the same result, the destination was an
4269 existing regular file and -f was not given) causes the entire
4270 function to abort without doing anything.
4271 In addition to pattern replacement, the variable $f can be
4273 referrred to in the second (replacement) argument. This makes
4274 it possible to use variable substitution to alter the argument;
4275 see examples below.
4276 Options:
4278 -f Force overwriting of destination files. Not currently
4280 passed down to the mv/cp/ln command due to vagaries of
4281 implementations (but you can use -o-f to do that).
4282 -i Interactive: show each line to be executed and ask the
4283 user whether to execute it. `Y' or `y' will execute it,
4284 anything else will skip it. Note that you just need to
4285 type one character.
4286 -n No execution: print what would happen, but don't do it.
4287 -q Turn bare glob qualifiers off: now assumed by default, so
4288 this has no effect.
4289 -Q Force bare glob qualifiers on. Don't turn this on unless
4290 you are actually using glob qualifiers in a pattern.
4291 -s Symbolic, passed down to ln; only works with -L.
4292 -v Verbose: print each command as it's being executed.
4293 -w Pick out wildcard parts of the pattern, as described
4294 above, and implicitly add parentheses for referring to
4295 them.
4296 -W Just like -w, with the addition of turning wildcards in
4297 the replacement pattern into sequential ${1} .. ${N} ref‐
4298 erences.
4299 -C
4300 -L
4301 -M Force cp, ln or mv, respectively, regardless of the name
4302 of the function.
4303 -p program
4304 Call program instead of cp, ln or mv. Whatever it does,
4305 it should at least understand the form `program -- old‐
4306 name newname' where oldname and newname are filenames
4307 generated by zmv. program will be split into words, so
4308 might be e.g. the name of an archive tool plus a copy or
4309 rename subcommand.
4310 -P program
4311 As -p program, except that program does not accept a fol‐
4312 lowing -- to indicate the end of options. In this case
4313 filenames must already be in a sane form for the program
4314 in question.
4315 -o optstring
4316 The optstring is split into words and passed down verba‐
4317 tim to the cp, ln or mv command called to perform the
4318 work. It should probably begin with a `-'.
4319 Further examples:
4321 zmv -v '(* *)' '${1// /_}'
4323 For any file in the current directory with at least one space in
4325 the name, replace every space by an underscore and display the
4326 commands executed.
4327 zmv -v '* *' '${f// /_}'
4329 This does exactly the same by referring to the file name stored
4331 in $f.
4332 For more complete examples and other implementation details, see
4334 the zmv source file, usually located in one of the directories
4335 named in your fpath, or in Functions/Misc/zmv in the zsh distri‐
4336 bution.
4337 zrecompile
4339 See `Recompiling Functions' above.
4340 zstyle+ context style value [ + subcontext style value ... ]
4342 This makes defining styles a bit simpler by using a single `+'
4343 as a special token that allows you to append a context name to
4344 the previously used context name. Like this:
4345 zstyle+ ':foo:bar' style1 value1 \
4347 +':baz' style2 value2 \
4348 +':frob' style3 value3
4349 This defines style1 with value1 for the context :foo:bar as
4351 usual, but it also defines style2 with value2 for the context
4352 :foo:bar:baz and style3 with value3 for :foo:bar:frob. Any sub‐
4353 context may be the empty string to re-use the first context
4354 unchanged.
4355 Styles
4357 insert-tab
4358 The zed function sets this style in context `:completion:zed:*'
4359 to turn off completion when TAB is typed at the beginning of a
4360 line. You may override this by setting your own value for this
4361 context and style.
4362 pager The nslookup function looks up this style in the context
4364 `:nslookup' to determine the program used to display output that
4365 does not fit on a single screen.
4366 prompt
4368 rprompt
4369 The nslookup function looks up this style in the context
4370 `:nslookup' to set the prompt and the right-side prompt, respec‐
4371 tively. The usual expansions for the PS1 and RPS1 parameters
4372 may be used (see EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1)).
4373zsh 5.8 February 14, 2020 ZSHCONTRIB(1)