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 There may already be a directory of help files on your system; look in
34 /usr/share/zsh or /usr/local/share/zsh and subdirectories below those,
35 or ask your system administrator.
36 To create your own help files with helpfiles, choose or create a direc‐
38 tory where the individual command help files will reside. For example,
39 you might choose ~/zsh_help. If you unpacked the zsh distribution in
40 your home directory, you would use the commands:
41 mkdir ~/zsh_help
43 cd ~/zsh_help
44 man zshall | colcrt - | \
45 perl ~/zsh-4.3.11/Util/helpfiles
46 Next, to use the run-help function, you need to add lines something
48 like the following to your .zshrc or equivalent startup file:
49 unalias run-help
51 autoload run-help
52 HELPDIR=~/zsh_help
53 The HELPDIR parameter tells run-help where to look for the help files.
55 If your system already has a help file directory installed, set HELPDIR
56 to the path of that directory instead.
57 Note that in order for `autoload run-help' to work, the run-help file
59 must be in one of the directories named in your fpath array (see zsh‐
60 param(1)). This should already be the case if you have a standard zsh
61 installation; if it is not, copy Functions/Misc/run-help to an appro‐
62 priate directory.
63 Recompiling Functions
65 If you frequently edit your zsh functions, or periodically update your
66 zsh installation to track the latest developments, you may find that
67 function digests compiled with the zcompile builtin are frequently out
68 of date with respect to the function source files. This is not usually
69 a problem, because zsh always looks for the newest file when loading a
70 function, but it may cause slower shell startup and function loading.
71 Also, if a digest file is explicitly used as an element of fpath, zsh
72 won't check whether any of its source files has changed.
73 The zrecompile autoloadable function, found in Functions/Misc, can be
75 used to keep function digests up to date.
76 zrecompile [ -qt ] [ name ... ]
78 zrecompile [ -qt ] -p args [ -- args ... ]
79 This tries to find *.zwc files and automatically re-compile them
80 if at least one of the original files is newer than the compiled
81 file. This works only if the names stored in the compiled files
82 are full paths or are relative to the directory that contains
83 the .zwc file.
84 In the first form, each name is the name of a compiled file or a
86 directory containing *.zwc files that should be checked. If no
87 arguments are given, the directories and *.zwc files in fpath
88 are used.
89 When -t is given, no compilation is performed, but a return sta‐
91 tus of zero (true) is set if there are files that need to be
92 re-compiled and non-zero (false) otherwise. The -q option qui‐
93 ets the chatty output that describes what zrecompile is doing.
94 Without the -t option, the return status is zero if all files
96 that needed re-compilation could be compiled and non-zero if
97 compilation for at least one of the files failed.
98 If the -p option is given, the args are interpreted as one or
100 more sets of arguments for zcompile, separated by `--'. For
101 example:
102 zrecompile -p \
104 -R ~/.zshrc -- \
105 -M ~/.zcompdump -- \
106 ~/zsh/comp.zwc ~/zsh/Completion/*/_*
107 This compiles ~/.zshrc into ~/.zshrc.zwc if that doesn't exist
109 or if it is older than ~/.zshrc. The compiled file will be
110 marked for reading instead of mapping. The same is done for
111 ~/.zcompdump and ~/.zcompdump.zwc, but this compiled file is
112 marked for mapping. The last line re-creates the file
113 ~/zsh/comp.zwc if any of the files matching the given pattern is
114 newer than it.
115 Without the -p option, zrecompile does not create function
117 digests that do not already exist, nor does it add new functions
118 to the digest.
119 The following shell loop is an example of a method for creating func‐
121 tion digests for all functions in your fpath, assuming that you have
122 write permission to the directories:
123 for ((i=1; i <= $#fpath; ++i)); do
125 dir=$fpath[i]
126 zwc=${dir:t}.zwc
127 if [[ $dir == (.|..) || $dir == (.|..)/* ]]; then
128 continue
129 fi
130 files=($dir/*(N-.))
131 if [[ -w $dir:h && -n $files ]]; then
132 files=(${${(M)files%/*/*}#/})
133 if ( cd $dir:h &&
134 zrecompile -p -U -z $zwc $files ); then
135 fpath[i]=$fpath[i].zwc
136 fi
137 fi
138 done
139 The -U and -z options are appropriate for functions in the default zsh
141 installation fpath; you may need to use different options for your per‐
142 sonal function directories.
143 Once the digests have been created and your fpath modified to refer to
145 them, you can keep them up to date by running zrecompile with no argu‐
146 ments.
147 Keyboard Definition
149 The large number of possible combinations of keyboards, workstations,
150 terminals, emulators, and window systems makes it impossible for zsh to
151 have built-in key bindings for every situation. The zkbd utility,
152 found in Functions/Misc, can help you quickly create key bindings for
153 your configuration.
154 Run zkbd either as an autoloaded function, or as a shell script:
156 zsh -f ~/zsh-4.3.11/Functions/Misc/zkbd
158 When you run zkbd, it first asks you to enter your terminal type; if
160 the default it offers is correct, just press return. It then asks you
161 to press a number of different keys to determine characteristics of
162 your keyboard and terminal; zkbd warns you if it finds anything out of
163 the ordinary, such as a Delete key that sends neither ^H nor ^?.
164 The keystrokes read by zkbd are recorded as a definition for an asso‐
166 ciative array named key, written to a file in the subdirectory .zkbd
167 within either your HOME or ZDOTDIR directory. The name of the file is
168 composed from the TERM, VENDOR and OSTYPE parameters, joined by
169 hyphens.
170 You may read this file into your .zshrc or another startup file with
172 the `source' or `.' commands, then reference the key parameter in bind‐
173 key commands, like this:
174 source ${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zkbd/$TERM-$VENDOR-$OSTYPE
176 [[ -n ${key[Left]} ]] && bindkey "${key[Left]}" backward-char
177 [[ -n ${key[Right]} ]] && bindkey "${key[Right]}" forward-char
178 # etc.
179 Note that in order for `autoload zkbd' to work, the zkdb file must be
181 in one of the directories named in your fpath array (see zshparam(1)).
182 This should already be the case if you have a standard zsh installa‐
183 tion; if it is not, copy Functions/Misc/zkbd to an appropriate direc‐
184 tory.
185 Dumping Shell State
187 Occasionally you may encounter what appears to be a bug in the shell,
188 particularly if you are using a beta version of zsh or a development
189 release. Usually it is sufficient to send a description of the problem
190 to one of the zsh mailing lists (see zsh(1)), but sometimes one of the
191 zsh developers will need to recreate your environment in order to track
192 the problem down.
193 The script named reporter, found in the Util directory of the distribu‐
195 tion, is provided for this purpose. (It is also possible to autoload
196 reporter, but reporter is not installed in fpath by default.) This
197 script outputs a detailed dump of the shell state, in the form of
198 another script that can be read with `zsh -f' to recreate that state.
199 To use reporter, read the script into your shell with the `.' command
201 and redirect the output into a file:
202 . ~/zsh-4.3.11/Util/reporter > zsh.report
204 You should check the zsh.report file for any sensitive information such
206 as passwords and delete them by hand before sending the script to the
207 developers. Also, as the output can be voluminous, it's best to wait
208 for the developers to ask for this information before sending it.
209 You can also use reporter to dump only a subset of the shell state.
211 This is sometimes useful for creating startup files for the first time.
212 Most of the output from reporter is far more detailed than usually is
213 necessary for a startup file, but the aliases, options, and zstyles
214 states may be useful because they include only changes from the
215 defaults. The bindings state may be useful if you have created any of
216 your own keymaps, because reporter arranges to dump the keymap creation
217 commands as well as the bindings for every keymap.
218 As is usual with automated tools, if you create a startup file with
220 reporter, you should edit the results to remove unnecessary commands.
221 Note that if you're using the new completion system, you should not
222 dump the functions state to your startup files with reporter; use the
223 compdump function instead (see zshcompsys(1)).
224 reporter [ state ... ]
226 Print to standard output the indicated subset of the current
227 shell state. The state arguments may be one or more of:
228 all Output everything listed below.
230 aliases
231 Output alias definitions.
232 bindings
233 Output ZLE key maps and bindings.
234 completion
235 Output old-style compctl commands. New completion is
236 covered by functions and zstyles.
237 functions
238 Output autoloads and function definitions.
239 limits Output limit commands.
240 options
241 Output setopt commands.
242 styles Same as zstyles.
243 variables
244 Output shell parameter assignments, plus export commands
245 for any environment variables.
246 zstyles
247 Output zstyle commands.
248 If the state is omitted, all is assumed.
250 With the exception of `all', every state can be abbreviated by any pre‐
252 fix, even a single letter; thus a is the same as aliases, z is the same
253 as zstyles, etc.
254 Manipulating Hook Functions
256 add-zsh-hook [-dD] hook function
257 Several functions are special to the shell, as described in the
258 section SPECIAL FUNCTIONS, see zshmisc(1), in that they are
259 automatic called at a specific point during shell execution.
260 Each has an associated array consisting of names of functions to
261 be called at the same point; these are so-called `hook func‐
262 tions'. The shell function add-zsh-hook provides a simple way
263 of adding or removing functions from the array.
264 hook is one of chpwd, periodic, precmd or preexec, the special
266 functions in question.
267 functions is name of an ordinary shell function. If no options
269 are given this will be added to the array of functions to be
270 executed in the given context.
271 If the option -d is given, the function is removed from the
273 array of functions to be executed.
274 If the option -D is given, the function is treated as a pattern
276 and any matching names of functions are removed from the array
277 of functions to be executed.
278
280 The function cdr allows you to change the working directory to a previ‐
281 ous working directory from a list maintained automatically. It is sim‐
282 ilar in concept to the directory stack controlled by the pushd, popd
283 and dirs builtins, but is more configurable, and as it stores all
284 entries in files it is maintained across sessions and (by default)
285 between terminal emulators in the current session. (The pushd direc‐
286 tory stack is not actually modified or used by cdr unless you configure
287 it to do so as described in the configuration section below.)
288 Installation
290 The system works by means of a hook function that is called every time
291 the directory changes. To install the system, autoload the required
292 functions and use the add-zsh-hook function described above:
293 autoload -Uz chpwd_recent_dirs cdr add-zsh-hook
295 add-zsh-hook chpwd chpwd_recent_dirs
296 Now every time you change directly interactively, no matter which com‐
298 mand you use, the directory to which you change will be remembered in
299 most-recent-first order.
300 Use
302 All direct user interaction is via the cdr function.
303 The argument to cdr is a number N corresponding to the Nth most
305 recently changed-to directory. 1 is the immediately preceeding direc‐
306 tory; the current directory is remembered but is not offered as a des‐
307 tination. Note that if you have multiple windows open 1 may refer to a
308 directory changed to in another window; you can avoid this by having
309 per-terminal files for storing directory as described for the
310 recent-dirs-file style below.
311 If you set the recent-dirs-default style described below cdr will
313 behave the same as cd if given a non-numeric argument, or more than one
314 argument. The recent directory list is updated just the same however
315 you change directory.
316 If the argument is omitted, 1 is assumed. This is similar to pushd's
318 behaviour of swapping the two most recent directories on the stack.
319 Completion for the argument to cdr is available if compinit has been
321 run; menu selection is recommended, using:
322 zstyle ':completion:*:*:cdr:*:*' menu selection
324 to allow you to cycle through recent directories; the order is pre‐
326 served, so the first choice is the most recent directory before the
327 current one. The verbose style is also recommended to ensure the
328 directory is shown; this style is on by default so no action is
329 required unless you have changed it.
330 Options
332 The behaviour of cdr may be modified by the following options.
333 -l lists the numbers and the corresponding directories in abbrevi‐
335 ated form (i.e. with ~ substitution reapplied), one per line.
336 The directories here are not quoted (this would only be an issue
337 if a directory name contained a newline). This is used by the
338 completion system.
339 -r sets the variable reply to the current set of directories.
341 Nothing is printed and the directory is not changed.
342 -e allows you to edit the list of directories, one per line. The
344 list can be edited to any extent you like; no sanity checking is
345 performed. Completion is available. No quoting is necessary
346 (except for newlines, where I have in any case no sympathy);
347 directories are in unabbreviated from and contain an absolute
348 path, i.e. they start with /. Usually the first entry should be
349 left as the current directory.
350 Configuration
352 Configuration is by means of the styles mechanism that should be famil‐
353 iar from completion; if not, see the description of the zstyle command
354 in see zshmodules(1). The context for setting styles should be
355 ':chpwd:*' in case the meaning of the context is extended in future,
356 for example:
357 zstyle ':chpwd:*' recent-dirs-max 0
359 sets the value of the recent-dirs-max style to 0. In practice the
361 style name is specific enough that a context of '*' should be fine.
362 An exception is recent-dirs-insert, which is used exclusively by the
364 completion system and so has the usual completion system context
365 (':completion:*' if nothing more specific is needed), though again '*'
366 should be fine in practice.
367 recent-dirs-default
369 If true, and the command is expecting a recent directory index,
370 and either there is more than one argument or the argument is
371 not an integer, then fall through to "cd". This allows the lazy
372 to use only one command for directory changing. Completion
373 recognises this, too; see recent-dirs-insert for how to control
374 completion when this option is in use.
375 recent-dirs-file
377 The file where the list of directories is saved. The default is
378 ${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.chpwd-recent-dirs, i.e. this is in your home
379 directory unless you have set the variable ZDOTDIR to point
380 somewhere else. Directory names are saved in $'...' quoted
381 form, so each line in the file can be supplied directly to the
382 shell as an argument.
383 The value of this style may be an array. In this case, the
385 first file in the list will always be used for saving directo‐
386 ries while any other files are left untouched. When reading the
387 recent directory list, if there are fewer than the maximum num‐
388 ber of entries in the first file, the contents of later files in
389 the array will be appended with duplicates removed from the list
390 shown. The contents of the two files are not sorted together,
391 i.e. all the entries in the first file are shown first. The
392 special value + can appear in the list to indicate the default
393 file should be read at that point. This allows effects like the
394 following:
395 zstyle ':chpwd:*' recent-dirs-file \
397 ~/.chpwd-recent-dirs-${TTY##*/} +
398 Recent directories are read from a file numbered according to
400 the terminal. If there are insufficient entries the list is
401 supplemented from the default file.
402 It is possible to use zstyle -e to make the directory config‐
404 urable at run time:
405 zstyle -e ':chpwd:*' recent-dirs-file pick-recent-dirs-file
407 pick-recent-dirs-file() {
408 if [[ $PWD = ~/text/writing(|/*) ]]; then
409 reply=(~/.chpwd-recent-dirs-writing)
410 else
411 reply=(+)
412 fi
413 }
414 In this example, if the current directory is ~/text/writing or a
416 directory under it, then use a special file for saving recent
417 directories, else use the default.
418 recent-dirs-insert
420 Used by completion. If recent-dirs-default is true, then set‐
421 ting this to true causes the actual directory, rather than its
422 index, to be inserted on the command line; this has the same
423 effect as using the corresponding index, but makes the history
424 clearer and the line easier to edit. With this setting, if part
425 of an argument was already typed, normal directory completion
426 rather than recent directory completion is done; this is because
427 recent directory completion is expected to be done by cycling
428 through entries menu fashion.
429 If the value of the style is always, then only recent directo‐
431 ries will be completed; in that case, use the cd command when
432 you want to complete other directories.
433 If the value is fallback, recent directories will be tried
435 first, then normal directory completion is performed if recent
436 directory completion failed to find a match.
437 Finally, if the value is both then both sets of completions are
439 presented; the usual tag mechanism can be used to distinguish
440 results, with recent directories tagged as recent-dirs. Note
441 that the recent directories inserted are abbreviated with direc‐
442 tory names where appropriate.
443 recent-dirs-max
445 The maximum number of directories to save to the file. If this
446 is zero or negative there is no maximum. The default is 20.
447 Note this includes the current directory, which isn't offered,
448 so the highest number of directories you will be offered is one
449 less than the maximum.
450 recent-dirs-prune
452 This style is an array determining what directories should (or
453 should not) be added to the recent list. Elements of the array
454 can include:
455 parent Prune parents (more accurately, ancestors) from the
457 recent list. If present, changing directly down by any
458 number of directories causes the current directory to be
459 overwritten. For example, changing from ~pws to
460 ~pws/some/other/dir causes ~pws not to be left on the
461 recent directory stack. This only applies to direct
462 changes to descendant directories; earlier directories on
463 the list are not pruned. For example, changing from
464 ~pws/yet/another to ~pws/some/other/dir does not cause
465 ~pws to be pruned.
466 pattern:pattern
468 Gives a zsh pattern for directories that should not be
469 added to the recent list (if not already there). This
470 element can be repeated to add different patterns. For
471 example, 'pattern:/tmp(|/*)' stops /tmp or its descen‐
472 dants from being added. The EXTENDED_GLOB option is
473 always turned on for these patterns.
474 recent-dirs-pushd
476 If set to true, cdr will use pushd instead of cd to change the
477 directory, so the directory is saved on the directory stack. As
478 the directory stack is completely separate from the list of
479 files saved by the mechanism used in this file there is no obvi‐
480 ous reason to do this.
481 Use with dynamic directory naming
483 It is possible to refer to recent directories using the dynamic direc‐
484 tory name syntax that appeared in zsh version 4.3.7. If you create and
485 autoload a function zsh_directory_name containing the following code,
486 ~[1] will refer to the most recent directory other than $PWD, and so
487 on. This also includes completion.
488 if [[ $1 = n ]]; then
490 if [[ $2 = <-> ]]; then
491 # Recent directory
492 typeset -ga reply
493 autoload -Uz cdr
494 cdr -r
495 if [[ -n ${reply[$2]} ]]; then
496 reply=(${reply[$2]})
497 return 0
498 else
499 reply=()
500 return 1
501 fi
502 fi
503 elif [[ $1 = c ]]; then
504 if [[ $PREFIX = <-> || -z $PREFIX ]]; then
505 typeset -a keys values
506 values=(${${(f)"$(cdr -l)"}/ ##/:})
507 keys=(${values%%:*})
508 _describe -t dir-index 'recent directory index' values keys -V unsorted -S']'
509 return
510 fi
511 fi
512 return 1
513 Details of directory handling
515 This section is for the curious or confused; most users will not need
516 to know this information.
517 Recent directories are saved to a file immediately and hence are pre‐
519 served across sessions. Note currently no file locking is applied: the
520 list is updated immediately on interactive commands and nowhere else
521 (unlike history), and it is assumed you are only going to change direc‐
522 tory in one window at once. This is not safe on shared accounts, but
523 in any case the system has limited utility when someone else is chang‐
524 ing to a different set of directories behind your back.
525 To make this a little safer, only directory changes instituted from the
527 command line, either directly or indirectly through shell function
528 calls (but not through subshells, evals, traps, completion functions
529 and the like) are saved. Shell functions should use cd -q or pushd -q
530 to avoid side effects if the change to the directory is to be invisible
531 at the command line. See the contents of the function
532 chpwd_recent_dirs for more details.
533
535 In a lot of cases, it is nice to automatically retrieve information
536 from version control systems (VCSs), such as subversion, CVS or git, to
537 be able to provide it to the user; possibly in the user's prompt. So
538 that you can instantly tell which branch you are currently on, for
539 example.
540 In order to do that, you may use the vcs_info function.
542 The following VCSs are supported, showing the abbreviated name by which
544 they are referred to within the system:
545 Bazaar (bzr)
546 http://bazaar-vcs.org/
547 Codeville (cdv)
548 http://codeville.org/
549 Concurrent Versioning System (cvs)
550 http://www.nongnu.org/cvs/
551 Darcs (darcs)
552 http://darcs.net/
553 Git (git)
554 http://git-scm.com/
555 GNU arch (tla)
556 http://www.gnu.org/software/gnu-arch/
557 Mercurial (hg)
558 http://mercurial.selenic.com/
559 Monotone (mtn)
560 http://monotone.ca/
561 Perforce (p4)
562 http://www.perforce.com/
563 Subversion (svn)
564 http://subversion.tigris.org/
565 SVK (svk)
566 http://svk.bestpractical.com/
567 There is also support for the patch management system quilt
569 (http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/quilt). See Quilt Support below
570 for details.
571 To load vcs_info:
573 autoload -Uz vcs_info
575 It can be used in any existing prompt, because it does not require any
577 $psvar entries to be left available.
578 Quickstart
580 To get this feature working quickly (including colors), you can do the
581 following (assuming, you loaded vcs_info properly - see above):
582 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' actionformats '%F{5}(%f%s%F{5})%F{3}-%F{5}[%F{2}%b%F{3}|%F{1}%a%F{5}]%f '
584 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' formats '%F{5}(%f%s%F{5})%F{3}-%F{5}[%F{2}%b%F{5}]%f '
585 zstyle ':vcs_info:(sv[nk]|bzr):*' branchformat '%b%F{1}:%F{3}%r'
586 precmd () { vcs_info }
587 PS1='%F{5}[%F{2}%n%F{5}] %F{3}%3~ ${vcs_info_msg_0_}%f%# '
588 Obviously, the last two lines are there for demonstration. You need to
590 call vcs_info from your precmd function. Once that is done you need a
591 single quoted '${vcs_info_msg_0_}' in your prompt.
592 To be able to use '${vcs_info_msg_0_}' directly in your prompt like
594 this, you will need to have the PROMPT_SUBST option enabled.
595 Now call the vcs_info_printsys utility from the command line:
597 % vcs_info_printsys
599 ## list of supported version control backends:
600 ## disabled systems are prefixed by a hash sign (#)
601 bzr
602 cdv
603 cvs
604 darcs
605 git
606 hg
607 mtn
608 p4
609 svk
610 svn
611 tla
612 ## flavours (cannot be used in the enable or disable styles; they
613 ## are enabled and disabled with their master [git-svn -> git])
614 ## they *can* be used in contexts: ':vcs_info:git-svn:*'.
615 git-p4
616 git-svn
617 hg-git
618 hg-hgsubversion
619 hg-hgsvn
620 You may not want all of these because there is no point in running the
622 code to detect systems you do not use. So there is a way to disable
623 some backends altogether:
624 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' disable bzr cdv darcs mtn svk tla
626 You may also pick a few from that list and enable only those:
628 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' enable git cvs svn
630 If you rerun vcs_info_printsys after one of these commands, you will
632 see the backends listed in the disable style (or backends not in the
633 enable style - if you used that) marked as disabled by a hash sign.
634 That means the detection of these systems is skipped completely. No
635 wasted time there.
636 Configuration
638 The vcs_info feature can be configured via zstyle.
639 First, the context in which we are working:
641 :vcs_info:<vcs-string>:<user-context>:<repo-root-name>
642 <vcs-string>
644 is one of: git, git-svn, git-p4, hg, hg-git, hg-hgsubversion,
645 hg-hgsvn, darcs, bzr, cdv, mtn, svn, cvs, svk, tla or p4. When
646 hooks are active the hooks name is added after a `+'. (See Hooks
647 in vcs_info below.)
648 <user-context>
650 is a freely configurable string, assignable by the user as the
651 first argument to vcs_info (see its description below).
652 <repo-root-name>
654 is the name of a repository in which you want a style to match.
655 So, if you want a setting specific to /usr/src/zsh, with that
656 being a CVS checkout, you can set <repo-root-name> to zsh to
657 make it so.
658 There are three special values for <vcs-string>: The first is named
660 -init-, that is in effect as long as there was no decision what VCS
661 backend to use. The second is -preinit-; it is used before vcs_info is
662 run, when initializing the data exporting variables. The third special
663 value is formats and is used by the vcs_info_lastmsg for looking up its
664 styles.
665 The initial value of <repo-root-name> is -all- and it is replaced with
667 the actual name, as soon as it is known. Only use this part of the con‐
668 text for defining the formats, actionformats or branchformat styles, as
669 it is guaranteed that <repo-root-name> is set up correctly for these
670 only. For all other styles, just use '*' instead.
671 There are two pre-defined values for <user-context>:
673 default
674 the one used if none is specified
675 command
676 used by vcs_info_lastmsg to lookup its styles
677 You can of course use ':vcs_info:*' to match all VCSs in all user-con‐
679 texts at once.
680 This is a description of all styles that are looked up.
682 formats
684 A list of formats, used when actionformats is not used (which is
685 most of the time).
686 actionformats
688 A list of formats, used if there is a special action going on in
689 your current repository; like an interactive rebase or a merge
690 conflict.
691 branchformat
693 Some backends replace %b in the formats and actionformats styles
694 above, not only by a branch name but also by a revision number.
695 This style lets you modify how that string should look.
696 nvcsformats
698 These "formats" are exported when we didn't detect a version
699 control system for the current directory. This is useful if you
700 want vcs_info to completely take over the generation of your
701 prompt. You would do something like PS1='${vcs_info_msg_0_}' to
702 accomplish that.
703 hgrevformat
705 hg uses both a hash and a revision number to reference a spe‐
706 cific changeset in a repository. With this style you can format
707 the revision string (see branchformat) to include either or
708 both. It's only useful when get-revision is true.
709 max-exports
711 Defines the maximum number of vcs_info_msg_*_ variables vcs_info
712 will export.
713 enable A list of backends you want to use. Checked in the -init- con‐
715 text. If this list contains an item called NONE no backend is
716 used at all and vcs_info will do nothing. If this list contains
717 ALL vcs_info will use all known backends. Only with ALL in
718 enable will the disable style have any effect. ALL and NONE are
719 case insensitive.
720 disable
722 A list of VCSs you don't want vcs_info to test for repositories
723 (checked in the -init- context, too). Only used if enable con‐
724 tains ALL.
725 disable-patterns
727 A list of patterns that are checked against $PWD. If a pattern
728 matches, vcs_info will be disabled. This style is checked in the
729 :vcs_info:-init-:*:-all- context.
730 Say, ~/.zsh is a directory under version control, in which you
732 do not want vcs_info to be active, do:
733 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' disable-patterns "$HOME/.zsh(|/*)"
734 use-quilt
736 If enabled, the quilt support code is active in `addon' mode.
737 See Quilt Support for details.
738 quilt-standalone
740 If enabled, `standalone' mode detection is attempted if no VCS
741 is active in a given directory. See Quilt Support for details.
742 quilt-patch-dir
744 Overwrite the value of the $QUILT_PATCHES environment variable.
745 See Quilt Support for details.
746 quiltcommand
748 When quilt itself is called in quilt support the value of this
749 style is used as the command name.
750 check-for-changes
752 If enabled, this style causes the %c and %u format escapes to
753 show when the working directory has uncommitted changes. The
754 strings displayed by these escapes can be controlled via the
755 stagedstr and unstagedstr styles. The only backends that cur‐
756 rently support this option are git and hg (hg only supports
757 unstaged).
758 Note, the actions taken if this style is enabled are potentially
760 expensive (read: they may be slow, depending on how big the cur‐
761 rent repository is). Therefore, it is disabled by default.
762 stagedstr
764 This string will be used in the %c escape if there are staged
765 changes in the repository.
766 unstagedstr
768 This string will be used in the %u escape if there are unstaged
769 changes in the repository.
770 command
772 This style causes vcs_info to use the supplied string as the
773 command to use as the VCS's binary. Note, that setting this in
774 ':vcs_info:*' is not a good idea.
775 If the value of this style is empty (which is the default), the
777 used binary name is the name of the backend in use (e.g. svn is
778 used in an svn repository).
779 The repo-root-name part in the context is always the default
781 -all- when this style is looked up.
782 For example, this style can be used to use binaries from
784 non-default installation directories. Assume, git is installed
785 in /usr/bin but your sysadmin installed a newer version in
786 /usr/bin/local. Instead of changing the order of your $PATH
787 parameter, you can do this:
788 zstyle ':vcs_info:git:*:-all-' command /usr/local/bin/git
789 use-server
791 This is used by the Perforce backend (p4) to decide if it should
792 contact the Perforce server to find out if a directory is man‐
793 aged by Perforce. This is the only reliable way of doing this,
794 but runs the risk of a delay if the server name cannot be found.
795 If the server (more specifically, the host:port pair describing
796 the server) cannot be contacted, its name is put into the asso‐
797 ciative array vcs_info_p4_dead_servers and is not contacted
798 again during the session until it is removed by hand. If you do
799 not set this style, the p4 backend is only usable if you have
800 set the environment variable P4CONFIG to a file name and have
801 corresponding files in the root directories of each Perforce
802 client. See comments in the function VCS_INFO_detect_p4 for
803 more detail.
804 use-simple
806 If there are two different ways of gathering information, you
807 can select the simpler one by setting this style to true; the
808 default is to use the not-that-simple code, which is potentially
809 a lot slower but might be more accurate in all possible cases.
810 This style is used by the bzr and hg backends. In the case of hg
811 it will invoke the external hexdump program to parse the binary
812 dirstate cache file; this method will not return the local revi‐
813 sion number.
814 get-revision
816 If set to true, vcs_info goes the extra mile to figure out the
817 revision of a repository's work tree (currently for the git and
818 hg backends, where this kind of information is not always
819 vital). For git, the hash value of the currently checked out
820 commit is available via the %i expansion. With hg, the local
821 revision number and the corresponding global hash are available
822 via %i.
823 get-mq If set to true, the hg backend will look for a Mercurial Queue
825 (mq) patch directory. Information will be available via the `%m'
826 replacement.
827 get-bookmarks
829 If set to true, the hg backend will try to get a list of current
830 bookmarks. They will be available via the `%m' replacement.
831 use-prompt-escapes
833 Determines if we assume that the assembled string from vcs_info
834 includes prompt escapes. (Used by vcs_info_lastmsg.)
835 debug Enable debugging output to track possible problems. Currently
837 this style is only used by vcs_info's hooks system.
838 hooks A list style that defines hook-function names. See Hooks in
840 vcs_info below for details.
841 The default values for these styles in all contexts are:
843 formats
845 " (%s)-[%b]%u%c-"
846 actionformats
847 " (%s)-[%b|%a]%u%c-"
848 branchformat
849 "%b:%r" (for bzr, svn, svk and hg)
850 nvcsformats
851 ""
852 hgrevformat
853 "%r:%h"
854 max-exports
855 2
856 enable ALL
857 disable
858 (empty list)
859 disable-patterns
860 (empty list)
861 check-for-changes
862 false
863 stagedstr
864 (string: "S")
865 unstagedstr
866 (string: "U")
867 command
868 (empty string)
869 use-server
870 false
871 use-simple
872 false
873 get-revision
874 false
875 get-mq true
876 get-bookmarks
877 false
878 use-prompt-escapes
879 true
880 debug false
881 hooks (empty list)
882 use-quilt
883 false
884 quilt-standalone
885 false
886 quilt-patch-dir
887 empty - use $QUILT_PATCHES
888 quiltcommand
889 quilt
890 In normal formats and actionformats the following replacements are
892 done:
893 %s The VCS in use (git, hg, svn, etc.).
895 %b Information about the current branch.
896 %a An identifier that describes the action. Only makes sense in
897 actionformats.
898 %i The current revision number or identifier. For hg the hgrevfor‐
899 mat style may be used to customize the output.
900 %c The string from the stagedstr style if there are staged changes
901 in the repository.
902 %u The string from the unstagedstr style if there are unstaged
903 changes in the repository.
904 %R The base directory of the repository.
905 %r The repository name. If %R is /foo/bar/repoXY, %r is repoXY.
906 %S A subdirectory within a repository. If $PWD is
907 /foo/bar/repoXY/beer/tasty, %S is beer/tasty.
908 %m A "misc" replacement. It is at the discretion of the backend to
909 decide what this replacement expands to. It is currently used by
910 the hg and git backends to display patch information from the mq
911 and stgit extensions.
912 In branchformat these replacements are done:
914 %b The branch name.
916 %r The current revision number or the hgrevformat style for hg.
917 In hgrevformat these replacements are done:
919 %r The current local revision number.
921 %h The current 40-character changeset ID hash identifier.
922 In patch-format and nopatch-format these replacements are done:
924 %p The name of the top-most applied patch.
926 %u The number of unapplied patches.
927 %n The number of applied patches.
928 %c The number of unapplied patches.
929 %g The names of active mq guards (hg backend).
930 %G The number of active mq guards (hg backend).
931 Not all VCS backends have to support all replacements. For nvcsformats
933 no replacements are performed at all, it is just a string.
934 Oddities
936 If you want to use the %b (bold off) prompt expansion in formats, which
937 expands %b itself, use %%b. That will cause the vcs_info expansion to
938 replace %%b with %b, so that zsh's prompt expansion mechanism can han‐
939 dle it. Similarly, to hand down %b from branchformat, use %%%%b. Sorry
940 for this inconvenience, but it cannot be easily avoided. Luckily we do
941 not clash with a lot of prompt expansions and this only needs to be
942 done for those.
943 Quilt Support
945 Quilt is not a version control system, therefore this is not imple‐
946 mented as a backend. It can help keeping track of a series of patches.
947 People use it to keep a set of changes they want to use on top of soft‐
948 ware packages (which is tightly integrated into the package build
949 process - the Debian project does this for a large number of packages).
950 Quilt can also help individual developers keep track of their own
951 patches on top of real version control systems.
952 The vcs_info integration tries to support both ways of using quilt by
954 having two slightly different modes of operation: `addon' mode and
955 `standalone' mode).
956 For `addon' mode to become active vcs_info must have already detected a
958 real version control system controlling the directory. If that is the
959 case, a directory that holds quilt's patches needs to be found. That
960 directory is configurable via the `QUILT_PATCHES' environment variable.
961 If that variable exists its value is used, otherwise the value
962 `patches' is assumed. The value from $QUILT_PATCHES can be overwritten
963 using the `quilt-patches' style. (Note: you can use vcs_info to keep
964 the value of $QUILT_PATCHES correct all the time via the post-quilt
965 hook).
966 When the directory in question is found, quilt is assumed to be active.
968 To gather more information, vcs_info looks for a directory called
969 `.pc'; Quilt uses that directory to track its current state. If this
970 directory does not exist we know that quilt has not done anything to
971 the working directory (read: no patches have been applied yet).
972 If patches are applied, vcs_info will try to find out which. If you
974 want to know which patches of a series are not yet applied, you need to
975 activate the get-unapplied style in the appropriate context.
976 vcs_info allows for very detailed control over how the gathered infor‐
978 mation is presented (see the below sections, Styles and Hooks in
979 vcs_info), all of which are documented below. Note there are a number
980 of other patch tracking systems that work on top of a certain version
981 control system (like stgit for git, or mq for hg); the configuration
982 for systems like that are generally configured the same way as the
983 quilt support.
984 If the quilt support is working in `addon' mode, the produced string is
986 available as a simple format replacement (%Q to be precise), which can
987 be used in formats and actionformats; see below for details).
988 If, on the other hand, the support code is working in `standalone'
990 mode, vcs_info will pretend as if quilt were an actual version control
991 system. That means that the version control system identifier (which
992 otherwise would be something like `svn' or `cvs') will be set to
993 `-quilt-'. This has implications on the used style context where this
994 identifier is the second element. vcs_info will have filled in a proper
995 value for the "repository's" root directory and the string containing
996 the information about quilt's state will be available as the `misc'
997 replacement (and %Q for compatibility with `addon' mode.
998 What is left to discuss is how `standalone' mode is detected. The
1000 detection itself is a series of searches for directories. You can have
1001 this detection enabled all the time in every directory that is not oth‐
1002 erwise under version control. If you know there is only a limited set
1003 of trees where you would like vcs_info to try and look for Quilt in
1004 `standalone' mode to minimise the amount of searching on every call to
1005 vcs_info, there are a number of ways to do that:
1006 Essentially, `standalone' mode detection is controlled by a style
1008 called `quilt-standalone'. It is a string style and its value can have
1009 different effects. The simplest values are: `always' to run detection
1010 every time vcs_info is run, and `never' to turn the detection off
1011 entirely.
1012 If the value of quilt-standalone is something else, it is interpreted
1014 differently. If the value is the name of a scalar variable the value of
1015 that variable is checked and that value is used in the same
1016 `always'/`never' way as described above.
1017 If the value of quilt-standalone is an array, the elements of that
1019 array are used as directory names under which you want the detection to
1020 be active.
1021 If quilt-standalone is an associative array, the keys are taken as
1023 directory names under which you want the detection to be active, but
1024 only if the corresponding value is the string `true'.
1025 Last, but not least, if the value of quilt-standalone is the name of a
1027 function, the function is called without arguments and the return value
1028 decides whether detection should be active. A `0' return value is true;
1029 a non-zero return value is interpreted as false.
1030 Note, if there is both a function and a variable by the name of
1032 quilt-standalone, the function will take precedence.
1033 Function Descriptions (Public API)
1035 vcs_info [user-context]
1036 The main function, that runs all backends and assembles all data
1037 into ${vcs_info_msg_*_}. This is the function you want to call
1038 from precmd if you want to include up-to-date information in
1039 your prompt (see Variable description below). If an argument is
1040 given, that string will be used instead of default in the
1041 user-context field of the style context.
1042 vcs_info_lastmsg
1044 Outputs the last ${vcs_info_msg_*_} value. Takes into account
1045 the value of the use-prompt-escapes style in ':vcs_info:for‐
1046 mats:command:-all-'. It also only prints max-exports values.
1047 vcs_info_printsys [user-context]
1049 Prints a list of all supported version control systems. Useful
1050 to find out possible contexts (and which of them are enabled) or
1051 values for the disable style.
1052 vcs_info_setsys
1054 Initializes vcs_info's internal list of available backends. With
1055 this function, you can add support for new VCSs without restart‐
1056 ing the shell.
1057 All functions named VCS_INFO_* are for internal use only.
1059 Variable Description
1061 ${vcs_info_msg_N_} (Note the trailing underscore)
1062 Where N is an integer, e.g., vcs_info_msg_0_. These variables
1063 are the storage for the informational message the last vcs_info
1064 call has assembled. These are strongly connected to the formats,
1065 actionformats and nvcsformats styles described above. Those
1066 styles are lists. The first member of that list gets expanded
1067 into ${vcs_info_msg_0_}, the second into ${vcs_info_msg_1_} and
1068 the Nth into ${vcs_info_msg_N-1_}. These parameters are exported
1069 into the environment. (See the max-exports style above.)
1070 All variables named VCS_INFO_* are for internal use only.
1072 Hooks in vcs_info
1074 Hooks are places in vcs_info where you can run your own code. That code
1075 can communicate with the code that called it and through that, change
1076 the system's behaviour.
1077 For configuration, hooks change the style context:
1079 :vcs_info:<vcs-string>+<hook-name>:<user-context>:<repo-root-name>
1080 To register functions to a hook, you need to list them in the hooks
1082 style in the appropriate context.
1083 Example:
1085 zstyle ':vcs_info:*+foo:*' hooks bar baz
1086 This registers functions to the hook `foo' for all backends. In order
1088 to avoid namespace problems, all registered function names are
1089 prepended by a `+vi-', so the actual functions called for the `foo'
1090 hook are `+vi-bar' and `+vi-baz'.
1091 If something seems weird, you can enable the `debug' boolean style in
1093 the proper context and the hook-calling code will print what it tried
1094 to execute and whether the function in question existed.
1095 When you register more than one function to a hook, all functions are
1097 executed one after another until one function returns non-zero or until
1098 all functions have been called.
1099 You may pass data between functions via an associative array,
1101 user_data. For example:
1102 +vi-git-myfirsthook(){
1103 user_data[myval]=$myval
1104 }
1105 +vi-git-mysecondhook(){
1106 # do something with ${user_data[myval]}
1107 }
1108 There are a number of variables that are special in hook contexts:
1110 ret The return value that the hooks system will return to the call‐
1112 er. The default is an integer `zero'. If and how a changed ret
1113 value changes the execution of the caller depends on the spe‐
1114 cific hook. See the hook documentation below for details.
1115 hook_com
1117 An associated array which is used for bidirectional communica‐
1118 tion from the caller to hook functions. The used keys depend on
1119 the specific hook.
1120 context
1122 The active context of the hook. Functions that wish to change
1123 this variable should make it local scope first.
1124 vcs The current VCS after it was detected. The same values as in the
1126 enable/disable style are used. Available in all hooks except
1127 start-up.
1128 Finally, the full list of currently available hooks:
1130 start-up
1132 Called after starting vcs_info but before the VCS in this direc‐
1133 tory is determined. It can be used to deactivate vcs_info tempo‐
1134 rarily if necessary. When ret is set to 1, vcs_info aborts and
1135 does nothing; when set to 2, vcs_info sets up everything as if
1136 no version control were active and exits.
1137 pre-get-data
1139 Same as start-up but after the VCS was detected.
1140 gen-hg-bookmark-string
1142 Called in the Mercurial backend when a bookmark string is gener‐
1143 ated; the get-revision and get-bookmarks styles must be true.
1144 This hook gets the names of the Mercurial bookmarks that
1146 vcs_info collected from `hg'.
1147 When setting ret to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[hg-book‐
1149 mark-string]} will be used in the %m escape in formats and
1150 actionformats and will be availabe in the global backend_misc
1151 array as ${backend_misc[bookmarks]}.
1152 gen-applied-string
1154 Called in the git (with stgit), and hg (with mq) backends and in
1155 quilt support when the applied-string is generated; the
1156 use-quilt zstyle must be true for quilt (the mq and stgit back‐
1157 ends are active by default).
1158 This hook gets the names of all applied patches which vcs_info
1160 collected so far in the opposite order, which means that the
1161 first argument is the top-most patch and so forth.
1162 When setting ret to non-zero, the string in
1164 ${hook_com[applied-string]} will be used in the %m escape in
1165 formats and actionformats; it will be available in the global
1166 backend_misc array as $backend_misc[patches]}; and it will be
1167 available as %p in the patch-format and nopatch-format styles.
1168 gen-unapplied-string
1170 Called in the git (with stgit), and hg (with mq) backend and in
1171 quilt support when the unapplied-string is generated; the
1172 get-unapplied style must be true.
1173 This hook gets the names of all unapplied patches which vcs_info
1175 collected so far in the opposite order, which mean that the
1176 first argument is the patch next-in-line to be applied and so
1177 forth.
1178 When setting ret to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[unap‐
1180 plied-string]} will be available as %u in the patch-format and
1181 nopatch-format styles.
1182 gen-mqguards-string
1184 Called in the hg backend when guards-string is generated; the
1185 get-mq style must be true (default).
1186 This hook gets the names of any active mq guards.
1188 When setting ret to non-zero, the string in
1190 ${hook_com[guards-string]} will be used in the %g escape in the
1191 patch-format and nopatch-format styles.
1192 post-quilt
1194 Called after the quilt support is done. The following informa‐
1195 tion is passed as arguments to the hook: 1. the quilt-support
1196 mode (`addon' or `standalone'); 2. the directory that contains
1197 the patch series; 3. the directory that holds quilt's status
1198 information (the `.pc' directory) or the string "-nopc-" if that
1199 directory wasn't found.
1200 The `hook_com' parameter is not used.
1202 set-branch-format
1204 Called before `branchformat' is set. The only argument to the
1205 hook is the format that is configured at this point.
1206 The `hook_com' keys considered are `branch' and `revision'.
1208 They are set to the values figured out so far by vcs_info and
1209 any change will be used directly when the actual replacement is
1210 done.
1211 If ret is set to to non-zero, the string in
1213 ${hook_com[branch-replace]} will be used unchanged as the `%b'
1214 replacement in the variables set by vcs_info.
1215 set-hgrev-format
1217 Called before a `hgrevformat' is set. The only argument to the
1218 hook is the format that is configured at this point.
1219 The `hook_com' keys considered are `hash' and `localrev'. They
1221 are set to the values figured out so far by vcs_info and any
1222 change will be used directly when the actual replacement is
1223 done.
1224 If ret is set to to non-zero, the string in
1226 ${hook_com[rev-replace]} will be used unchanged as the `%i'
1227 replacement in the variables set by vcs_info.
1228 set-message
1230 Called each time before a `vcs_info_msg_N_' message is set. It
1231 takes two arguments; the first being the `N' in the message
1232 variable name, the second is the currently configured formats or
1233 actionformats.
1234 There are a number of `hook_com' keys, that are used here:
1236 `action', `branch', `base', `base-name', `subdir', `staged',
1237 `unstaged', `revision', `misc', `vcs' and one `miscN' entry for
1238 each backend-specific data field (N starting at zero). They are
1239 set to the values figured out so far by vcs_info and any change
1240 will be used directly when the actual replacement is done.
1241 Since this hook is triggered multiple times (once for each con‐
1243 figured formats or actionformats), each of the `hook_com' keys
1244 mentioned above (except for the miscN entries) has an `_orig'
1245 counterpart, so even if you changed a value to your liking you
1246 can still get the original value in the next run. Changing the
1247 `_orig' values is probably not a good idea.
1248 If ret is set to to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[message]}
1250 will be used unchanged as the message by vcs_info.
1251 If all of this sounds rather confusing, take a look at the Examples
1253 section below and also in the Misc/vcs_info-examples file in the Zsh
1254 source. They contain some explanatory code.
1255 Examples
1257 Don't use vcs_info at all (even though it's in your prompt):
1258 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' enable NONE
1259 Disable the backends for bzr and svk:
1261 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' disable bzr svk
1262 Disable everything but bzr and svk:
1264 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' enable bzr svk
1265 Provide a special formats for git:
1267 zstyle ':vcs_info:git:*' formats ' GIT, BABY! [%b]'
1268 zstyle ':vcs_info:git:*' actionformats ' GIT ACTION! [%b|%a]'
1269 All %x expansion in all sorts of formats ("formats", "actionformats",
1271 branchformat, you name it) are done using the `zformat' builtin from
1272 the `zsh/zutil' module. That means you can do everything with these %x
1273 items what zformat supports. In particular, if you want something that
1274 is really long to have a fixed width, like a hash in a mercurial
1275 branchformat, you can do this: %12.12i. That'll shrink the 40 character
1276 hash to its 12 leading characters. The form is actually `%min.maxx'.
1277 More is possible. See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in zshmod‐
1278 ules(1) for details.
1279 Use the quicker bzr backend
1281 zstyle ':vcs_info:bzr:*' use-simple true
1282 If you do use use-simple, please report if it does
1284 `the-right-thing[tm]'.
1285 Display the revision number in yellow for bzr and svn:
1287 zstyle ':vcs_info:(svn|bzr):*' branchformat '%b%{'${fg[yellow]}'%}:%r'
1288 If you want colors, make sure you enclose the color codes in %{...%} if
1290 you want to use the string provided by vcs_info in prompts.
1291 Here is how to print the VCS information as a command (not in a
1293 prompt):
1294 alias vcsi='vcs_info command; vcs_info_lastmsg'
1295 This way, you can even define different formats for output via
1297 vcs_info_lastmsg in the ':vcs_info:*:command:*' namespace.
1298 Now as promised, some code that uses hooks: say, you'd like to replace
1300 the string `svn' by `subversion' in vcs_info's %s formats replacement.
1301 First, we will tell vcs_info to call a function when populating the
1303 message variables with the gathered information:
1304 zstyle ':vcs_info:*+set-message:*' hooks svn2subversion
1305 Nothing happens. Which is reasonable, since we didn't define the actual
1307 function yet. To see what the hooks subsystem is trying to do, enable
1308 the `debug' style:
1309 zstyle ':vcs_info:*+*:*' debug true
1310 That should give you an idea what is going on. Specifically, the func‐
1312 tion that we are looking for is `+vi-svn2subversion'. Note, the `+vi-'
1313 prefix. So, everything is in order, just as documented. When you are
1314 done checking out the debugging output, disable it again:
1315 zstyle ':vcs_info:*+*:*' debug false
1316 Now, let's define the function:
1318 function +vi-svn2subversion() {
1319 [[ ${hook_com[vcs_orig]} == svn ]] && hook_com[vcs]=subversion
1320 }
1321 Simple enough. And it could have even been simpler, if only we had reg‐
1323 istered our function in a less generic context. If we do it only in the
1324 `svn' backend's context, we don't need to test which the active backend
1325 is:
1326 zstyle ':vcs_info:svn+set-message:*' hooks svn2subversion
1327 function +vi-svn2subversion() {
1328 hook_com[vcs]=subversion
1329 }
1330 And finally a little more elaborate example, that uses a hook to create
1332 a customised bookmark string for the hg backend.
1333 Again, we start off by registering a function:
1335 zstyle ':vcs_info:hg+gen-hg-bookmark-string:*' hooks hgbookmarks
1336 And then we define the `+vi-hgbookmarks function:
1338 function +vi-hgbookmarks() {
1339 # The default is to connect all bookmark names by
1340 # commas. This mixes things up a little.
1341 # Imagine, there's one type of bookmarks that is
1342 # special to you. Say, because it's *your* work.
1343 # Those bookmarks look always like this: "sh/*"
1344 # (because your initials are sh, for example).
1345 # This makes the bookmarks string use only those
1346 # bookmarks. If there's more than one, it
1347 # concatenates them using commas.
1348 local s i
1349 # The bookmarks returned by `hg' are available in
1350 # the functions positional parameters.
1351 (( $# == 0 )) && return 0
1352 for i in "$@"; do
1353 if [[ $i == sh/* ]]; then
1354 [[ -n $s ]] && s=$s,
1355 s=${s}$i
1356 fi
1357 done
1358 # Now, the communication with the code that calls
1359 # the hook functions is done via the hook_com[]
1360 # hash. The key, at which the `gen-hg-bookmark-string'
1361 # hook looks at is `hg-bookmark-string'. So:
1362 hook_com[hg-bookmark-string]=$s
1363 # And to signal, that we want to use the sting we
1364 # just generated, set the special variable `ret' to
1365 # something other than the default zero:
1366 ret=1
1367 return 0
1368 }
1369 Some longer examples and code snippets which might be useful are avail‐
1371 able in the examples file located at Misc/vcs_info-examples in the Zsh
1372 source directory.
1373 This concludes our guided tour through zsh's vcs_info.
1375
1377 Installation
1378 You should make sure all the functions from the Functions/Prompts
1379 directory of the source distribution are available; they all begin with
1380 the string `prompt_' except for the special function`promptinit'. You
1381 also need the `colors' function from Functions/Misc. All of these
1382 functions may already have been installed on your system; if not, you
1383 will need to find them and copy them. The directory should appear as
1384 one of the elements of the fpath array (this should already be the case
1385 if they were installed), and at least the function promptinit should be
1386 autoloaded; it will autoload the rest. Finally, to initialize the use
1387 of the system you need to call the promptinit function. The following
1388 code in your .zshrc will arrange for this; assume the functions are
1389 stored in the directory ~/myfns:
1390 fpath=(~/myfns $fpath)
1392 autoload -U promptinit
1393 promptinit
1394 Theme Selection
1396 Use the prompt command to select your preferred theme. This command
1397 may be added to your .zshrc following the call to promptinit in order
1398 to start zsh with a theme already selected.
1399 prompt [ -c | -l ]
1401 prompt [ -p | -h ] [ theme ... ]
1402 prompt [ -s ] theme [ arg ... ]
1403 Set or examine the prompt theme. With no options and a theme
1404 argument, the theme with that name is set as the current theme.
1405 The available themes are determined at run time; use the -l
1406 option to see a list. The special theme `random' selects at
1407 random one of the available themes and sets your prompt to that.
1408 In some cases the theme may be modified by one or more argu‐
1410 ments, which should be given after the theme name. See the help
1411 for each theme for descriptions of these arguments.
1412 Options are:
1414 -c Show the currently selected theme and its parameters, if
1416 any.
1417 -l List all available prompt themes.
1418 -p Preview the theme named by theme, or all themes if no
1419 theme is given.
1420 -h Show help for the theme named by theme, or for the prompt
1421 function if no theme is given.
1422 -s Set theme as the current theme and save state.
1423 prompt_theme_setup
1425 Each available theme has a setup function which is called by the
1426 prompt function to install that theme. This function may define
1427 other functions as necessary to maintain the prompt, including
1428 functions used to preview the prompt or provide help for its
1429 use. You should not normally call a theme's setup function
1430 directly.
1431
1433 Widgets
1434 These functions all implement user-defined ZLE widgets (see zshzle(1))
1435 which can be bound to keystrokes in interactive shells. To use them,
1436 your .zshrc should contain lines of the form
1437 autoload function
1439 zle -N function
1440 followed by an appropriate bindkey command to associate the function
1442 with a key sequence. Suggested bindings are described below.
1443 bash-style word functions
1445 If you are looking for functions to implement moving over and
1446 editing words in the manner of bash, where only alphanumeric
1447 characters are considered word characters, you can use the func‐
1448 tions described in the next section. The following is suffi‐
1449 cient:
1450 autoload -U select-word-style
1452 select-word-style bash
1453 forward-word-match, backward-word-match
1455 kill-word-match, backward-kill-word-match
1456 transpose-words-match, capitalize-word-match
1457 up-case-word-match, down-case-word-match
1458 select-word-style, match-word-context, match-words-by-style
1459 The eight `-match' functions are drop-in replacements for the
1460 builtin widgets without the suffix. By default they behave in a
1461 similar way. However, by the use of styles and the function
1462 select-word-style, the way words are matched can be altered.
1463 The simplest way of configuring the functions is to use
1465 select-word-style, which can either be called as a normal func‐
1466 tion with the appropriate argument, or invoked as a user-defined
1467 widget that will prompt for the first character of the word
1468 style to be used. The first time it is invoked, the eight
1469 -match functions will automatically replace the builtin ver‐
1470 sions, so they do not need to be loaded explicitly.
1471 The word styles available are as follows. Only the first char‐
1473 acter is examined.
1474 bash Word characters are alphanumeric characters only.
1476 normal As in normal shell operation: word characters are
1478 alphanumeric characters plus any characters present in
1479 the string given by the parameter $WORDCHARS.
1480 shell Words are complete shell command arguments, possibly
1482 including complete quoted strings, or any tokens special
1483 to the shell.
1484 whitespace
1486 Words are any set of characters delimited by whitespace.
1487 default
1489 Restore the default settings; this is usually the same as
1490 `normal'.
1491 All but `default' can be input as an upper case character, which
1493 has the same effect but with subword matching turned on. In
1494 this case, words with upper case characters are treated spe‐
1495 cially: each separate run of upper case characters, or an upper
1496 case character followed by any number of other characters, is
1497 considered a word. The style subword-range can supply an alter‐
1498 native character range to the default `[:upper:]'; the value of
1499 the style is treated as the contents of a `[...]' pattern (note
1500 that the outer brackets should not be supplied, only those sur‐
1501 rounding named ranges).
1502 More control can be obtained using the zstyle command, as
1504 described in zshmodules(1). Each style is looked up in the con‐
1505 text :zle:widget where widget is the name of the user-defined
1506 widget, not the name of the function implementing it, so in the
1507 case of the definitions supplied by select-word-style the appro‐
1508 priate contexts are :zle:forward-word, and so on. The function
1509 select-word-style itself always defines styles for the context
1510 `:zle:*' which can be overridden by more specific (longer) pat‐
1511 terns as well as explicit contexts.
1512 The style word-style specifies the rules to use. This may have
1514 the following values.
1515 normal Use the standard shell rules, i.e. alphanumerics and
1517 $WORDCHARS, unless overridden by the styles word-chars or
1518 word-class.
1519 specified
1521 Similar to normal, but only the specified characters, and
1522 not also alphanumerics, are considered word characters.
1523 unspecified
1525 The negation of specified. The given characters are
1526 those which will not be considered part of a word.
1527 shell Words are obtained by using the syntactic rules for gen‐
1529 erating shell command arguments. In addition, special
1530 tokens which are never command arguments such as `()' are
1531 also treated as words.
1532 whitespace
1534 Words are whitespace-delimited strings of characters.
1535 The first three of those rules usually use $WORDCHARS, but the
1537 value in the parameter can be overridden by the style
1538 word-chars, which works in exactly the same way as $WORDCHARS.
1539 In addition, the style word-class uses character class syntax to
1540 group characters and takes precedence over word-chars if both
1541 are set. The word-class style does not include the surrounding
1542 brackets of the character class; for example, `-:[:alnum:]' is a
1543 valid word-class to include all alphanumerics plus the charac‐
1544 ters `-' and `:'. Be careful including `]', `^' and `-' as
1545 these are special inside character classes.
1546 word-style may also have `-subword' appended to its value to
1548 turn on subword matching, as described above.
1549 The style skip-chars is mostly useful for transpose-words and
1551 similar functions. If set, it gives a count of characters
1552 starting at the cursor position which will not be considered
1553 part of the word and are treated as space, regardless of what
1554 they actually are. For example, if
1555 zstyle ':zle:transpose-words' skip-chars 1
1557 has been set, and transpose-words-match is called with the cur‐
1559 sor on the X of fooXbar, where X can be any character, then the
1560 resulting expression is barXfoo.
1561 Finer grained control can be obtained by setting the style
1563 word-context to an array of pairs of entries. Each pair of
1564 entries consists of a pattern and a subcontext. The shell argu‐
1565 ment the cursor is on is matched against each pattern in turn
1566 until one matches; if it does, the context is extended by a
1567 colon and the corresponding subcontext. Note that the test is
1568 made against the original word on the line, with no stripping of
1569 quotes. Special handling is done between words: the current
1570 context is examined and if it contains the string back, the word
1571 before the cursor is considered, else the word after cursor is
1572 considered. Some examples are given below.
1573 Here are some examples of use of the styles, actually taken from
1575 the simplified interface in select-word-style:
1576 zstyle ':zle:*' word-style standard
1578 zstyle ':zle:*' word-chars ''
1579 Implements bash-style word handling for all widgets, i.e. only
1581 alphanumerics are word characters; equivalent to setting the
1582 parameter WORDCHARS empty for the given context.
1583 style ':zle:*kill*' word-style space
1585 Uses space-delimited words for widgets with the word `kill' in
1587 the name. Neither of the styles word-chars nor word-class is
1588 used in this case.
1589 Here are some examples of use of the word-context style to
1591 extend the context.
1592 zstyle ':zle:*' word-context "*/*" file "[[:space:]]" whitespace
1594 zstyle ':zle:transpose-words:whitespace' word-style shell
1595 zstyle ':zle:transpose-words:filename' word-style normal
1596 zstyle ':zle:transpose-words:filename' word-chars ''
1597 This provides two different ways of using transpose-words
1599 depending on whether the cursor is on whitespace between words
1600 or on a filename, here any word containing a /. On whitespace,
1601 complete arguments as defined by standard shell rules will be
1602 transposed. In a filename, only alphanumerics will be trans‐
1603 posed. Elsewhere, words will be transposed using the default
1604 style for :zle:transpose-words.
1605 The word matching and all the handling of zstyle settings is
1607 actually implemented by the function match-words-by-style. This
1608 can be used to create new user-defined widgets. The calling
1609 function should set the local parameter curcontext to :zle:wid‐
1610 get, create the local parameter matched_words and call
1611 match-words-by-style with no arguments. On return,
1612 matched_words will be set to an array with the elements: (1) the
1613 start of the line (2) the word before the cursor (3) any
1614 non-word characters between that word and the cursor (4) any
1615 non-word character at the cursor position plus any remaining
1616 non-word characters before the next word, including all charac‐
1617 ters specified by the skip-chars style, (5) the word at or fol‐
1618 lowing the cursor (6) any non-word characters following that
1619 word (7) the remainder of the line. Any of the elements may be
1620 an empty string; the calling function should test for this to
1621 decide whether it can perform its function.
1622 It is possible to pass options with arguments to
1624 match-words-by-style to override the use of styles. The options
1625 are:
1626 -w word-style
1627 -s skip-chars
1628 -c word-class
1629 -C word-chars
1630 -r subword-range
1631 For example, match-words-by-style -w shell -c 0 may be used to
1633 extract the command argument around the cursor.
1634 The word-context style is implemented by the function
1636 match-word-context. This should not usually need to be called
1637 directly.
1638 delete-whole-word-match
1640 This is another function which works like the -match functions
1641 described immediately above, i.e. using styles to decide the
1642 word boundaries. However, it is not a replacement for any
1643 existing function.
1644 The basic behaviour is to delete the word around the cursor.
1646 There is no numeric prefix handling; only the single word around
1647 the cursor is considered. If the widget contains the string
1648 kill, the removed text will be placed in the cutbuffer for
1649 future yanking. This can be obtained by defining
1650 kill-whole-word-match as follows:
1651 zle -N kill-whole-word-match delete-whole-word-match
1653 and then binding the widget kill-whole-word-match.
1655 copy-earlier-word
1657 This widget works like a combination of insert-last-word and
1658 copy-prev-shell-word. Repeated invocations of the widget
1659 retrieve earlier words on the relevant history line. With a
1660 numeric argument N, insert the Nth word from the history line; N
1661 may be negative to count from the end of the line.
1662 If insert-last-word has been used to retrieve the last word on a
1664 previous history line, repeated invocations will replace that
1665 word with earlier words from the same line.
1666 Otherwise, the widget applies to words on the line currently
1668 being edited. The widget style can be set to the name of
1669 another widget that should be called to retrieve words. This
1670 widget must accept the same three arguments as insert-last-word.
1671 cycle-completion-positions
1673 After inserting an unambiguous string into the command line, the
1674 new function based completion system may know about multiple
1675 places in this string where characters are missing or differ
1676 from at least one of the possible matches. It will then place
1677 the cursor on the position it considers to be the most interest‐
1678 ing one, i.e. the one where one can disambiguate between as many
1679 matches as possible with as little typing as possible.
1680 This widget allows the cursor to be easily moved to the other
1682 interesting spots. It can be invoked repeatedly to cycle
1683 between all positions reported by the completion system.
1684 edit-command-line
1686 Edit the command line using your visual editor, as in ksh.
1687 bindkey -M vicmd v edit-command-line
1689 history-search-end
1691 This function implements the widgets history-begin‐
1692 ning-search-backward-end and history-beginning-search-for‐
1693 ward-end. These commands work by first calling the correspond‐
1694 ing builtin widget (see `History Control' in zshzle(1)) and then
1695 moving the cursor to the end of the line. The original cursor
1696 position is remembered and restored before calling the builtin
1697 widget a second time, so that the same search is repeated to
1698 look farther through the history.
1699 Although you autoload only one function, the commands to use it
1701 are slightly different because it implements two widgets.
1702 zle -N history-beginning-search-backward-end \
1704 history-search-end
1705 zle -N history-beginning-search-forward-end \
1706 history-search-end
1707 bindkey '\e^P' history-beginning-search-backward-end
1708 bindkey '\e^N' history-beginning-search-forward-end
1709 history-beginning-search-menu
1711 This function implements yet another form of history searching.
1712 The text before the cursor is used to select lines from the his‐
1713 tory, as for history-beginning-search-backward except that all
1714 matches are shown in a numbered menu. Typing the appropriate
1715 digits inserts the full history line. Note that leading zeroes
1716 must be typed (they are only shown when necessary for removing
1717 ambiguity). The entire history is searched; there is no dis‐
1718 tinction between forwards and backwards.
1719 With a prefix argument, the search is not anchored to the start
1721 of the line; the string typed by the use may appear anywhere in
1722 the line in the history.
1723 If the widget name contains `-end' the cursor is moved to the
1725 end of the line inserted. If the widget name contains `-space'
1726 any space in the text typed is treated as a wildcard and can
1727 match anything (hence a leading space is equivalent to giving a
1728 prefix argument). Both forms can be combined, for example:
1729 zle -N history-beginning-search-menu-space-end \
1731 history-beginning-search-menu
1732 history-pattern-search
1734 The function history-pattern-search implements widgets which
1735 prompt for a pattern with which to search the history backwards
1736 or forwards. The pattern is in the usual zsh format, however
1737 the first character may be ^ to anchor the search to the start
1738 of the line, and the last character may be $ to anchor the
1739 search to the end of the line. If the search was not anchored
1740 to the end of the line the cursor is positioned just after the
1741 pattern found.
1742 The commands to create bindable widgets are similar to those in
1744 the example immediately above:
1745 autoload -U history-pattern-search
1747 zle -N history-pattern-search-backward history-pattern-search
1748 zle -N history-pattern-search-forward history-pattern-search
1749 up-line-or-beginning-search, down-line-or-beginning-search
1751 These widgets are similar to the builtin functions
1752 up-line-or-search and down-line-or-search: if in a multiline
1753 buffer they move up or down within the buffer, otherwise they
1754 search for a history line matching the start of the current
1755 line. In this case, however, they search for a line which
1756 matches the current line up to the current cursor position, in
1757 the manner of history-beginning-search-backward and -forward,
1758 rather than the first word on the line.
1759 incarg Typing the keystrokes for this widget with the cursor placed on
1761 or to the left of an integer causes that integer to be incre‐
1762 mented by one. With a numeric prefix argument, the number is
1763 incremented by the amount of the argument (decremented if the
1764 prefix argument is negative). The shell parameter incarg may be
1765 set to change the default increment to something other than one.
1766 bindkey '^X+' incarg
1768 incremental-complete-word
1770 This allows incremental completion of a word. After starting
1771 this command, a list of completion choices can be shown after
1772 every character you type, which you can delete with ^H or DEL.
1773 Pressing return accepts the completion so far and returns you to
1774 normal editing (that is, the command line is not immediately
1775 executed). You can hit TAB to do normal completion, ^G to abort
1776 back to the state when you started, and ^D to list the matches.
1777 This works only with the new function based completion system.
1779 bindkey '^Xi' incremental-complete-word
1781 insert-composed-char
1783 This function allows you to compose characters that don't appear
1784 on the keyboard to be inserted into the command line. The com‐
1785 mand is followed by two keys corresponding to ASCII characters
1786 (there is no prompt). For accented characters, the two keys are
1787 a base character followed by a code for the accent, while for
1788 other special characters the two characters together form a
1789 mnemonic for the character to be inserted. The two-character
1790 codes are a subset of those given by RFC 1345 (see for example
1791 http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1345.html).
1792 The function may optionally be followed by up to two characters
1794 which replace one or both of the characters read from the key‐
1795 board; if both characters are supplied, no input is read. For
1796 example, insert-composed-char a: can be used within a widget to
1797 insert an a with umlaut into the command line. This has the
1798 advantages over use of a literal character that it is more por‐
1799 table.
1800 For best results zsh should have been built with support for
1802 multibyte characters (configured with --enable-multibyte); how‐
1803 ever, the function works for the limited range of characters
1804 available in single-byte character sets such as ISO-8859-1.
1805 The character is converted into the local representation and
1807 inserted into the command line at the cursor position. (The
1808 conversion is done within the shell, using whatever facilities
1809 the C library provides.) With a numeric argument, the character
1810 and its code are previewed in the status line
1811 The function may be run outside zle in which case it prints the
1813 character (together with a newline) to standard output. Input
1814 is still read from keystrokes.
1815 See insert-unicode-char for an alternative way of inserting Uni‐
1817 code characters using their hexadecimal character number.
1818 The set of accented characters is reasonably complete up to Uni‐
1820 code character U+0180, the set of special characters less so.
1821 However, it it is very sporadic from that point. Adding new
1822 characters is easy, however; see the function define-com‐
1823 posed-chars. Please send any additions to zsh-workers@zsh.org.
1824 The codes for the second character when used to accent the first
1826 are as follows. Note that not every character can take every
1827 accent.
1828 ! Grave.
1829 ' Acute.
1830 > Circumflex.
1831 ? Tilde. (This is not ~ as RFC 1345 does not assume that
1832 character is present on the keyboard.)
1833 - Macron. (A horizontal bar over the base character.)
1834 ( Breve. (A shallow dish shape over the base character.)
1835 . Dot above the base character, or in the case of i no dot,
1836 or in the case of L and l a centered dot.
1837 : Diaeresis (Umlaut).
1838 c Cedilla.
1839 _ Underline, however there are currently no underlined
1840 characters.
1841 / Stroke through the base character.
1842 " Double acute (only supported on a few letters).
1843 ; Ogonek. (A little forward facing hook at the bottom
1844 right of the character.)
1845 < Caron. (A little v over the letter.)
1846 0 Circle over the base character.
1847 2 Hook over the base character.
1848 9 Horn over the base character.
1849 The most common characters from the Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek and
1851 Hebrew alphabets are available; consult RFC 1345 for the appro‐
1852 priate sequences. In addition, a set of two letter codes not in
1853 RFC 1345 are available for the double-width characters corre‐
1854 sponding to ASCII characters from ! to ~ (0x21 to 0x7e) by pre‐
1855 ceding the character with ^, for example ^A for a double-width
1856 A.
1857 The following other two-character sequences are understood.
1859 ASCII characters
1861 These are already present on most keyboards:
1862 <( Left square bracket
1863 // Backslash (solidus)
1864 )> Right square bracket
1865 (! Left brace (curly bracket)
1866 !! Vertical bar (pipe symbol)
1867 !) Right brace (curly bracket)
1868 '? Tilde
1869 Special letters
1871 Characters found in various variants of the Latin alpha‐
1872 bet:
1873 ss Eszett (scharfes S)
1874 D-, d- Eth
1875 TH, th Thorn
1876 kk Kra
1877 'n 'n
1878 NG, ng Ng
1879 OI, oi Oi
1880 yr yr
1881 ED ezh
1882 Currency symbols
1884 Ct Cent
1885 Pd Pound sterling (also lira and others)
1886 Cu Currency
1887 Ye Yen
1888 Eu Euro (N.B. not in RFC 1345)
1889 Punctuation characters
1891 References to "right" quotes indicate the shape (like a 9
1892 rather than 6) rather than their grammatical use. (For
1893 example, a "right" low double quote is used to open quo‐
1894 tations in German.)
1895 !I Inverted exclamation mark
1896 BB Broken vertical bar
1897 SE Section
1898 Co Copyright
1899 -a Spanish feminine ordinal indicator
1900 << Left guillemet
1901 -- Soft hyphen
1902 Rg Registered trade mark
1903 PI Pilcrow (paragraph)
1904 -o Spanish masculine ordinal indicator
1905 >> Right guillemet
1906 ?I Inverted question mark
1907 -1 Hyphen
1908 -N En dash
1909 -M Em dash
1910 -3 Horizontal bar
1911 :3 Vertical ellipsis
1912 .3 Horizontal midline ellipsis
1913 !2 Double vertical line
1914 =2 Double low line
1915 '6 Left single quote
1916 '9 Right single quote
1917 .9 "Right" low quote
1918 9' Reversed "right" quote
1919 "6 Left double quote
1920 "9 Right double quote
1921 :9 "Right" low double quote
1922 9" Reversed "right" double quote
1923 /- Dagger
1924 /= Double dagger
1925 Mathematical symbols
1927 DG Degree
1928 -2, +-, -+
1929 - sign, +/- sign, -/+ sign
1930 2S Superscript 2
1931 3S Superscript 3
1932 1S Superscript 1
1933 My Micro
1934 .M Middle dot
1935 14 Quarter
1936 12 Half
1937 34 Three quarters
1938 *X Multiplication
1939 -: Division
1940 %0 Per mille
1941 FA, TE, /0
1942 For all, there exists, empty set
1943 dP, DE, NB
1944 Partial derivative, delta (increment), del (nabla)
1945 (-, -) Element of, contains
1946 *P, +Z Product, sum
1947 *-, Ob, Sb
1948 Asterisk, ring, bullet
1949 RT, 0(, 00
1950 Root sign, proportional to, infinity
1951 Other symbols
1953 cS, cH, cD, cC
1954 Card suits: spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs
1955 Md, M8, M2, Mb, Mx, MX
1956 Musical notation: crotchet (quarter note), quaver (eighth
1957 note), semiquavers (sixteenth notes), flag sign, natural
1958 sign, sharp sign
1959 Fm, Ml Female, male
1960 Accents on their own
1962 '> Circumflex (same as caret, ^)
1963 '! Grave (same as backtick, `)
1964 ', Cedilla
1965 ': Diaeresis (Umlaut)
1966 'm Macron
1967 '' Acute
1968 insert-files
1970 This function allows you type a file pattern, and see the
1971 results of the expansion at each step. When you hit return, all
1972 expansions are inserted into the command line.
1973 bindkey '^Xf' insert-files
1975 narrow-to-region [ -p pre ] [ -P post ]
1977 [ -S statepm | -R statepm ] [ -n ] [ start end ])
1978 narrow-to-region-invisible
1979 Narrow the editable portion of the buffer to the region between
1980 the cursor and the mark, which may be in either order. The
1981 region may not be empty.
1982 narrow-to-region may be used as a widget or called as a function
1984 from a user-defined widget; by default, the text outside the
1985 editable area remains visible. A recursive-edit is performed
1986 and the original widening status is then restored. Various
1987 options and arguments are available when it is called as a func‐
1988 tion.
1989 The options -p pretext and -P posttext may be used to replace
1991 the text before and after the display for the duration of the
1992 function; either or both may be an empty string.
1993 If the option -n is also given, pretext or posttext will only be
1995 inserted if there is text before or after the region respec‐
1996 tively which will be made invisible.
1997 Two numeric arguments may be given which will be used instead of
1999 the cursor and mark positions.
2000 The option -S statepm is used to narrow according to the other
2002 options while saving the original state in the parameter with
2003 name statepm, while the option -R statepm is used to restore the
2004 state from the parameter; note in both cases the name of the
2005 parameter is required. In the second case, other options and
2006 arguments are irrelevant. When this method is used, no recur‐
2007 sive-edit is performed; the calling widget should call this
2008 function with the option -S, perform its own editing on the com‐
2009 mand line or pass control to the user via `zle recursive-edit',
2010 then call this function with the option -R. The argument
2011 statepm must be a suitable name for an ordinary parameter,
2012 except that parameters beginning with the prefix _ntr_ are
2013 reserved for use within narrow-to-region. Typically the parame‐
2014 ter will be local to the calling function.
2015 narrow-to-region-invisible is a simple widget which calls nar‐
2017 row-to-region with arguments which replace any text outside the
2018 region with `...'.
2019 The display is restored (and the widget returns) upon any zle
2021 command which would usually cause the line to be accepted or
2022 aborted. Hence an additional such command is required to accept
2023 or abort the current line.
2024 The return status of both widgets is zero if the line was
2026 accepted, else non-zero.
2027 Here is a trivial example of a widget using this feature.
2029 local state
2030 narrow-to-region -p $'Editing restricted region\n' \
2031 -P '' -S state
2032 zle recursive-edit
2033 narrow-to-region -R state
2034 insert-unicode-char
2036 When first executed, the user inputs a set of hexadecimal dig‐
2037 its. This is terminated with another call to insert-uni‐
2038 code-char. The digits are then turned into the corresponding
2039 Unicode character. For example, if the widget is bound to ^XU,
2040 the character sequence `^XU 4 c ^XU' inserts L (Unicode U+004c).
2041 See insert-composed-char for a way of inserting characters using
2043 a two-character mnemonic.
2044 predict-on
2046 This set of functions implements predictive typing using history
2047 search. After predict-on, typing characters causes the editor
2048 to look backward in the history for the first line beginning
2049 with what you have typed so far. After predict-off, editing
2050 returns to normal for the line found. In fact, you often don't
2051 even need to use predict-off, because if the line doesn't match
2052 something in the history, adding a key performs standard comple‐
2053 tion, and then inserts itself if no completions were found.
2054 However, editing in the middle of a line is liable to confuse
2055 prediction; see the toggle style below.
2056 With the function based completion system (which is needed for
2058 this), you should be able to type TAB at almost any point to
2059 advance the cursor to the next ``interesting'' character posi‐
2060 tion (usually the end of the current word, but sometimes some‐
2061 where in the middle of the word). And of course as soon as the
2062 entire line is what you want, you can accept with return, with‐
2063 out needing to move the cursor to the end first.
2064 The first time predict-on is used, it creates several additional
2066 widget functions:
2067 delete-backward-and-predict
2069 Replaces the backward-delete-char widget. You do not
2070 need to bind this yourself.
2071 insert-and-predict
2072 Implements predictive typing by replacing the self-insert
2073 widget. You do not need to bind this yourself.
2074 predict-off
2075 Turns off predictive typing.
2076 Although you autoload only the predict-on function, it is neces‐
2078 sary to create a keybinding for predict-off as well.
2079 zle -N predict-on
2081 zle -N predict-off
2082 bindkey '^X^Z' predict-on
2083 bindkey '^Z' predict-off
2084 read-from-minibuffer
2086 This is most useful when called as a function from inside a wid‐
2087 get, but will work correctly as a widget in its own right. It
2088 prompts for a value below the current command line; a value may
2089 be input using all of the standard zle operations (and not
2090 merely the restricted set available when executing, for example,
2091 execute-named-cmd). The value is then returned to the calling
2092 function in the parameter $REPLY and the editing buffer restored
2093 to its previous state. If the read was aborted by a keyboard
2094 break (typically ^G), the function returns status 1 and $REPLY
2095 is not set.
2096 If one argument is supplied to the function it is taken as a
2098 prompt, otherwise `? ' is used. If two arguments are supplied,
2099 they are the prompt and the initial value of $LBUFFER, and if a
2100 third argument is given it is the initial value of $RBUFFER.
2101 This provides a default value and starting cursor placement.
2102 Upon return the entire buffer is the value of $REPLY.
2103 One option is available: `-k num' specifies that num characters
2105 are to be read instead of a whole line. The line editor is not
2106 invoked recursively in this case, so depending on the terminal
2107 settings the input may not be visible, and only the input keys
2108 are placed in $REPLY, not the entire buffer. Note that unlike
2109 the read builtin num must be given; there is no default.
2110 The name is a slight misnomer, as in fact the shell's own
2112 minibuffer is not used. Hence it is still possible to call exe‐
2113 cuted-named-cmd and similar functions while reading a value.
2114 replace-string, replace-pattern
2116 replace-string-again, replace-pattern-again
2117 The function replace-string implements three widgets. If
2118 defined under the same name as the function, it prompts for two
2119 strings; the first (source) string will be replaced by the sec‐
2120 ond everywhere it occurs in the line editing buffer.
2121 If the widget name contains the word `pattern', for example by
2123 defining the widget using the command `zle -N replace-pattern
2124 replace-string', then the matching is performed using zsh pat‐
2125 terns. All zsh extended globbing patterns can be used in the
2126 source string; note that unlike filename generation the pattern
2127 does not need to match an entire word, nor do glob qualifiers
2128 have any effect. In addition, the replacement string can con‐
2129 tain parameter or command substitutions. Furthermore, a `&' in
2130 the replacement string will be replaced with the matched source
2131 string, and a backquoted digit `\N' will be replaced by the Nth
2132 parenthesised expression matched. The form `\{N}' may be used
2133 to protect the digit from following digits.
2134 If the widget instead contains the word `regex' (or `regexp'),
2136 then the matching is performed using regular expressions,
2137 respecting the setting of the option RE_MATCH_PCRE (see the
2138 description of the function regexp-replace below). The special
2139 replacement facilities described above for pattern matching are
2140 available.
2141 By default the previous source or replacement string will not be
2143 offered for editing. However, this feature can be activated by
2144 setting the style edit-previous in the context :zle:widget (for
2145 example, :zle:replace-string) to true. In addition, a positive
2146 numeric argument forces the previous values to be offered, a
2147 negative or zero argument forces them not to be.
2148 The function replace-string-again can be used to repeat the pre‐
2150 vious replacement; no prompting is done. As with
2151 replace-string, if the name of the widget contains the word
2152 `pattern' or `regex', pattern or regular expression matching is
2153 performed, else a literal string replacement. Note that the
2154 previous source and replacement text are the same whether pat‐
2155 tern, regular expression or string matching is used.
2156 For example, starting from the line:
2158 print This line contains fan and fond
2160 and invoking replace-pattern with the source string `f(?)n' and
2162 the replacement string `c\1r' produces the not very useful line:
2163 print This line contains car and cord
2165 The range of the replacement string can be limited by using the
2167 narrow-to-region-invisible widget. One limitation of the cur‐
2168 rent version is that undo will cycle through changes to the
2169 replacement and source strings before undoing the replacement
2170 itself.
2171 smart-insert-last-word
2173 This function may replace the insert-last-word widget, like so:
2174 zle -N insert-last-word smart-insert-last-word
2176 With a numeric prefix, or when passed command line arguments in
2178 a call from another widget, it behaves like insert-last-word,
2179 except that words in comments are ignored when INTERACTIVE_COM‐
2180 MENTS is set.
2181 Otherwise, the rightmost ``interesting'' word from the previous
2183 command is found and inserted. The default definition of
2184 ``interesting'' is that the word contains at least one alpha‐
2185 betic character, slash, or backslash. This definition may be
2186 overridden by use of the match style. The context used to look
2187 up the style is the widget name, so usually the context is
2188 :insert-last-word. However, you can bind this function to dif‐
2189 ferent widgets to use different patterns:
2190 zle -N insert-last-assignment smart-insert-last-word
2192 zstyle :insert-last-assignment match '[[:alpha:]][][[:alnum:]]#=*'
2193 bindkey '\e=' insert-last-assignment
2194 If no interesting word is found and the auto-previous style is
2196 set to a true value, the search continues upward through the
2197 history. When auto-previous is unset or false (the default),
2198 the widget must be invoked repeatedly in order to search earlier
2199 history lines.
2200 transpose-lines
2202 Only useful with a multi-line editing buffer; the lines here are
2203 lines within the current on-screen buffer, not history lines.
2204 The effect is similar to the function of the same name in Emacs.
2205 Transpose the current line with the previous line and move the
2207 cursor to the start of the next line. Repeating this (which can
2208 be done by providing a positive numeric prefix argument) has the
2209 effect of moving the line above the cursor down by a number of
2210 lines.
2211 With a negative numeric prefix argument, requires two lines
2213 above the cursor. These two lines are transposed and the cursor
2214 moved to the start of the previous line. Using a numeric prefix
2215 less than -1 has the effect of moving the line above the cursor
2216 up by minus that number of lines.
2217 which-command
2219 This function is a drop-in replacement for the builtin widget
2220 which-command. It has enhanced behaviour, in that it correctly
2221 detects whether or not the command word needs to be expanded as
2222 an alias; if so, it continues tracing the command word from the
2223 expanded alias until it reaches the command that will be exe‐
2224 cuted.
2225 The style whence is available in the context :zle:$WIDGET; this
2227 may be set to an array to give the command and options that will
2228 be used to investigate the command word found. The default is
2229 whence -c.
2230 Utility Functions
2232 These functions are useful in constructing widgets. They should be
2233 loaded with `autoload -U function' and called as indicated from
2234 user-defined widgets.
2235 split-shell-arguments
2237 This function splits the line currently being edited into shell
2238 arguments and whitespace. The result is stored in the array
2239 reply. The array contains all the parts of the line in order,
2240 starting with any whitespace before the first argument, and fin‐
2241 ishing with any whitespace after the last argument. Hence (so
2242 long as the option KSH_ARRAYS is not set) whitespace is given by
2243 odd indices in the array and arguments by even indices. Note
2244 that no stripping of quotes is done; joining together all the
2245 elements of reply in order is guaranteed to produce the original
2246 line.
2247 The parameter REPLY is set to the index of the word in reply
2249 which contains the character after the cursor, where the first
2250 element has index 1. The parameter REPLY2 is set to the index
2251 of the character under the cursor in that word, where the first
2252 character has index 1.
2253 Hence reply, REPLY and REPLY2 should all be made local to the
2255 enclosing function.
2256 See the function modify-current-argument, described below, for
2258 an example of how to call this function.
2259 modify-current-argument expr-using-$ARG
2261 This function provides a simple method of allowing user-defined
2262 widgets to modify the command line argument under the cursor (or
2263 immediately to the left of the cursor if the cursor is between
2264 arguments). The argument should be an expression which when
2265 evaluated operates on the shell parameter ARG, which will have
2266 been set to the command line argument under the cursor. The
2267 expression should be suitably quoted to prevent it being evalu‐
2268 ated too early.
2269 For example, a user-defined widget containing the following code
2271 converts the characters in the argument under the cursor into
2272 all upper case:
2273 modify-current-argument '${(U)ARG}'
2275 The following strips any quoting from the current word (whether
2277 backslashes or one of the styles of quotes), and replaces it
2278 with single quoting throughout:
2279 modify-current-argument '${(qq)${(Q)ARG}}'
2281 Styles
2283 The behavior of several of the above widgets can be controlled by the
2284 use of the zstyle mechanism. In particular, widgets that interact with
2285 the completion system pass along their context to any completions that
2286 they invoke.
2287 break-keys
2289 This style is used by the incremental-complete-word widget. Its
2290 value should be a pattern, and all keys matching this pattern
2291 will cause the widget to stop incremental completion without the
2292 key having any further effect. Like all styles used directly by
2293 incremental-complete-word, this style is looked up using the
2294 context `:incremental'.
2295 completer
2297 The incremental-complete-word and insert-and-predict widgets set
2298 up their top-level context name before calling completion. This
2299 allows one to define different sets of completer functions for
2300 normal completion and for these widgets. For example, to use
2301 completion, approximation and correction for normal completion,
2302 completion and correction for incremental completion and only
2303 completion for prediction one could use:
2304 zstyle ':completion:*' completer \
2306 _complete _correct _approximate
2307 zstyle ':completion:incremental:*' completer \
2308 _complete _correct
2309 zstyle ':completion:predict:*' completer \
2310 _complete
2311 It is a good idea to restrict the completers used in prediction,
2313 because they may be automatically invoked as you type. The
2314 _list and _menu completers should never be used with prediction.
2315 The _approximate, _correct, _expand, and _match completers may
2316 be used, but be aware that they may change characters anywhere
2317 in the word behind the cursor, so you need to watch carefully
2318 that the result is what you intended.
2319 cursor The insert-and-predict widget uses this style, in the context
2321 `:predict', to decide where to place the cursor after completion
2322 has been tried. Values are:
2323 complete
2325 The cursor is left where it was when completion finished,
2326 but only if it is after a character equal to the one just
2327 inserted by the user. If it is after another character,
2328 this value is the same as `key'.
2329 key The cursor is left after the nth occurrence of the char‐
2331 acter just inserted, where n is the number of times that
2332 character appeared in the word before completion was
2333 attempted. In short, this has the effect of leaving the
2334 cursor after the character just typed even if the comple‐
2335 tion code found out that no other characters need to be
2336 inserted at that position.
2337 Any other value for this style unconditionally leaves the cursor
2339 at the position where the completion code left it.
2340 list When using the incremental-complete-word widget, this style says
2342 if the matches should be listed on every key press (if they fit
2343 on the screen). Use the context prefix `:completion:incremen‐
2344 tal'.
2345 The insert-and-predict widget uses this style to decide if the
2347 completion should be shown even if there is only one possible
2348 completion. This is done if the value of this style is the
2349 string always. In this case the context is `:predict' (not
2350 `:completion:predict').
2351 match This style is used by smart-insert-last-word to provide a pat‐
2353 tern (using full EXTENDED_GLOB syntax) that matches an interest‐
2354 ing word. The context is the name of the widget to which
2355 smart-insert-last-word is bound (see above). The default behav‐
2356 ior of smart-insert-last-word is equivalent to:
2357 zstyle :insert-last-word match '*[[:alpha:]/\\]*'
2359 However, you might want to include words that contain spaces:
2361 zstyle :insert-last-word match '*[[:alpha:][:space:]/\\]*'
2363 Or include numbers as long as the word is at least two charac‐
2365 ters long:
2366 zstyle :insert-last-word match '*([[:digit:]]?|[[:alpha:]/\\])*'
2368 The above example causes redirections like "2>" to be included.
2370 prompt The incremental-complete-word widget shows the value of this
2372 style in the status line during incremental completion. The
2373 string value may contain any of the following substrings in the
2374 manner of the PS1 and other prompt parameters:
2375 %c Replaced by the name of the completer function that gen‐
2377 erated the matches (without the leading underscore).
2378 %l When the list style is set, replaced by `...' if the list
2380 of matches is too long to fit on the screen and with an
2381 empty string otherwise. If the list style is `false' or
2382 not set, `%l' is always removed.
2383 %n Replaced by the number of matches generated.
2385 %s Replaced by `-no match-', `-no prefix-', or an empty
2387 string if there is no completion matching the word on the
2388 line, if the matches have no common prefix different from
2389 the word on the line, or if there is such a common pre‐
2390 fix, respectively.
2391 %u Replaced by the unambiguous part of all matches, if there
2393 is any, and if it is different from the word on the line.
2394 Like `break-keys', this uses the `:incremental' context.
2396 stop-keys
2398 This style is used by the incremental-complete-word widget. Its
2399 value is treated similarly to the one for the break-keys style
2400 (and uses the same context: `:incremental'). However, in this
2401 case all keys matching the pattern given as its value will stop
2402 incremental completion and will then execute their usual func‐
2403 tion.
2404 toggle This boolean style is used by predict-on and its related widgets
2406 in the context `:predict'. If set to one of the standard `true'
2407 values, predictive typing is automatically toggled off in situa‐
2408 tions where it is unlikely to be useful, such as when editing a
2409 multi-line buffer or after moving into the middle of a line and
2410 then deleting a character. The default is to leave prediction
2411 turned on until an explicit call to predict-off.
2412 verbose
2414 This boolean style is used by predict-on and its related widgets
2415 in the context `:predict'. If set to one of the standard `true'
2416 values, these widgets display a message below the prompt when
2417 the predictive state is toggled. This is most useful in combi‐
2418 nation with the toggle style. The default does not display
2419 these messages.
2420 widget This style is similar to the command style: For widget functions
2422 that use zle to call other widgets, this style can sometimes be
2423 used to override the widget which is called. The context for
2424 this style is the name of the calling widget (not the name of
2425 the calling function, because one function may be bound to mul‐
2426 tiple widget names).
2427 zstyle :copy-earlier-word widget smart-insert-last-word
2429 Check the documentation for the calling widget or function to
2431 determine whether the widget style is used.
2432
2434 Two functions are provided to enable zsh to provide exception handling
2435 in a form that should be familiar from other languages.
2436 throw exception
2438 The function throw throws the named exception. The name is an
2439 arbitrary string and is only used by the throw and catch func‐
2440 tions. An exception is for the most part treated the same as a
2441 shell error, i.e. an unhandled exception will cause the shell to
2442 abort all processing in a function or script and to return to
2443 the top level in an interactive shell.
2444 catch exception-pattern
2446 The function catch returns status zero if an exception was
2447 thrown and the pattern exception-pattern matches its name. Oth‐
2448 erwise it returns status 1. exception-pattern is a standard
2449 shell pattern, respecting the current setting of the
2450 EXTENDED_GLOB option. An alias catch is also defined to prevent
2451 the argument to the function from matching filenames, so pat‐
2452 terns may be used unquoted. Note that as exceptions are not
2453 fundamentally different from other shell errors it is possible
2454 to catch shell errors by using an empty string as the exception
2455 name. The shell variable CAUGHT is set by catch to the name of
2456 the exception caught. It is possible to rethrow an exception by
2457 calling the throw function again once an exception has been
2458 caught.
2459 The functions are designed to be used together with the always con‐
2461 struct described in zshmisc(1). This is important as only this con‐
2462 struct provides the required support for exceptions. A typical example
2463 is as follows.
2464 {
2466 # "try" block
2467 # ... nested code here calls "throw MyExcept"
2468 } always {
2469 # "always" block
2470 if catch MyExcept; then
2471 print "Caught exception MyExcept"
2472 elif catch ''; then
2473 print "Caught a shell error. Propagating..."
2474 throw ''
2475 fi
2476 # Other exceptions are not handled but may be caught further
2477 # up the call stack.
2478 }
2479 If all exceptions should be caught, the following idiom might be
2481 preferable.
2482 {
2484 # ... nested code here throws an exception
2485 } always {
2486 if catch *; then
2487 case $CAUGHT in
2488 (MyExcept)
2489 print "Caught my own exception"
2490 ;;
2491 (*)
2492 print "Caught some other exception"
2493 ;;
2494 esac
2495 fi
2496 }
2497 In common with exception handling in other languages, the exception may
2499 be thrown by code deeply nested inside the `try' block. However, note
2500 that it must be thrown inside the current shell, not in a subshell
2501 forked for a pipeline, parenthesised current-shell construct, or some
2502 form of command or process substitution.
2503 The system internally uses the shell variable EXCEPTION to record the
2505 name of the exception between throwing and catching. One drawback of
2506 this scheme is that if the exception is not handled the variable EXCEP‐
2507 TION remains set and may be incorrectly recognised as the name of an
2508 exception if a shell error subsequently occurs. Adding unset EXCEPTION
2509 at the start of the outermost layer of any code that uses exception
2510 handling will eliminate this problem.
2511
2513 Three functions are available to provide handling of files recognised
2514 by extension, for example to dispatch a file text.ps when executed as a
2515 command to an appropriate viewer.
2516 zsh-mime-setup [ -fv ] [ -l [ suffix ... ] ]
2518 zsh-mime-handler [-l] command arguments ...
2519 These two functions use the files ~/.mime.types and
2520 /etc/mime.types, which associate types and extensions, as well
2521 as ~/.mailcap and /etc/mailcap files, which associate types and
2522 the programs that handle them. These are provided on many sys‐
2523 tems with the Multimedia Internet Mail Extensions.
2524 To enable the system, the function zsh-mime-setup should be
2526 autoloaded and run. This allows files with extensions to be
2527 treated as executable; such files be completed by the function
2528 completion system. The function zsh-mime-handler should not
2529 need to be called by the user.
2530 The system works by setting up suffix aliases with `alias -s'.
2532 Suffix aliases already installed by the user will not be over‐
2533 written.
2534 For suffixes defined in lower case, upper case variants will
2536 also automatically be handled (e.g. PDF is automatically handled
2537 if handling for the suffix pdf is defined), but not vice versa.
2538 Repeated calls to zsh-mime-setup do not override the existing
2540 mapping between suffixes and executable files unless the option
2541 -f is given. Note, however, that this does not override exist‐
2542 ing suffix aliases assigned to handlers other than zsh-mime-han‐
2543 dler.
2544 Calling zsh-mime-setup with the option -l lists the existing
2546 mappings without altering them. Suffixes to list (which may
2547 contain pattern characters that should be quoted from immediate
2548 interpretation on the command line) may be given as additional
2549 arguments, otherwise all suffixes are listed.
2550 Calling zsh-mime-setup with the option -v causes verbose output
2552 to be shown during the setup operation.
2553 The system respects the mailcap flags needsterminal and copi‐
2555 ousoutput, see mailcap(4).
2556 The functions use the following styles, which are defined with
2558 the zstyle builtin command (see zshmodules(1)). They should be
2559 defined before zsh-mime-setup is run. The contexts used all
2560 start with :mime:, with additional components in some cases. It
2561 is recommended that a trailing * (suitably quoted) be appended
2562 to style patterns in case the system is extended in future.
2563 Some examples are given below.
2564 current-shell
2565 If this boolean style is true, the mailcap handler for
2566 the context in question is run using the eval builtin
2567 instead of by starting a new sh process. This is more
2568 efficient, but may not work in the occasional cases where
2569 the mailcap handler uses strict POSIX syntax.
2570 execute-as-is
2572 This style gives a list of patterns to be matched against
2573 files passed for execution with a handler program. If
2574 the file matches the pattern, the entire command line is
2575 executed in its current form, with no handler. This is
2576 useful for files which might have suffixes but nonethe‐
2577 less be executable in their own right. If the style is
2578 not set, the pattern *(*) *(/) is used; hence executable
2579 files are executed directly and not passed to a handler,
2580 and the option AUTO_CD may be used to change to directo‐
2581 ries that happen to have MIME suffixes.
2582 file-path
2584 Used if the style find-file-in-path is true for the same
2585 context. Set to an array of directories that are used
2586 for searching for the file to be handled; the default is
2587 the command path given by the special parameter path.
2588 The shell option PATH_DIRS is respected; if that is set,
2589 the appropriate path will be searched even if the name of
2590 the file to be handled as it appears on the command line
2591 contains a `/'. The full context is :mime:.suffix:, as
2592 described for the style handler.
2593 find-file-in-path
2595 If set, allows files whose names do not contain absolute
2596 paths to be searched for in the command path or the path
2597 specified by the file-path style. If the file is not
2598 found in the path, it is looked for locally (whether or
2599 not the current directory is in the path); if it is not
2600 found locally, the handler will abort unless the han‐
2601 dle-nonexistent style is set. Files found in the path
2602 are tested as described for the style execute-as-is. The
2603 full context is :mime:.suffix:, as described for the
2604 style handler.
2605 flags Defines flags to go with a handler; the context is as for
2607 the handler style, and the format is as for the flags in
2608 mailcap.
2609 handle-nonexistent
2611 By default, arguments that don't correspond to files are
2612 not passed to the MIME handler in order to prevent it
2613 from intercepting commands found in the path that happen
2614 to have suffixes. This style may be set to an array of
2615 extended glob patterns for arguments that will be passed
2616 to the handler even if they don't exist. If it is not
2617 explicitly set it defaults to [[:alpha:]]#:/* which
2618 allows URLs to be passed to the MIME handler even though
2619 they don't exist in that format in the file system. The
2620 full context is :mime:.suffix:, as described for the
2621 style handler.
2622 handler
2624 Specifies a handler for a suffix; the suffix is given by
2625 the context as :mime:.suffix:, and the format of the han‐
2626 dler is exactly that in mailcap. Note in particular the
2627 `.' and trailing colon to distinguish this use of the
2628 context. This overrides any handler specified by the
2629 mailcap files. If the handler requires a terminal, the
2630 flags style should be set to include the word needstermi‐
2631 nal, or if the output is to be displayed through a pager
2632 (but not if the handler is itself a pager), it should
2633 include copiousoutput.
2634 mailcap
2636 A list of files in the format of ~/.mailcap and
2637 /etc/mailcap to be read during setup, replacing the
2638 default list which consists of those two files. The con‐
2639 text is :mime:. A + in the list will be replaced by the
2640 default files.
2641 mailcap-priorities
2643 This style is used to resolve multiple mailcap entries
2644 for the same MIME type. It consists of an array of the
2645 following elements, in descending order of priority;
2646 later entries will be used if earlier entries are unable
2647 to resolve the entries being compared. If none of the
2648 tests resolve the entries, the first entry encountered is
2649 retained.
2650 files The order of files (entries in the mailcap style)
2652 read. Earlier files are preferred. (Note this
2653 does not resolve entries in the same file.)
2654 priority
2656 The priority flag from the mailcap entry. The
2657 priority is an integer from 0 to 9 with the
2658 default value being 5.
2659 flags The test given by the mailcap-prio-flags option is
2661 used to resolve entries.
2662 place Later entries are preferred; as the entries are
2664 strictly ordered, this test always succeeds.
2665 Note that as this style is handled during initialisation,
2667 the context is always :mime:, with no discrimination by
2668 suffix.
2669 mailcap-prio-flags
2671 This style is used when the keyword flags is encountered
2672 in the list of tests specified by the mailcap-priorities
2673 style. It should be set to a list of patterns, each of
2674 which is tested against the flags specified in the mail‐
2675 cap entry (in other words, the sets of assignments found
2676 with some entries in the mailcap file). Earlier patterns
2677 in the list are preferred to later ones, and matched pat‐
2678 terns are preferred to unmatched ones.
2679 mime-types
2681 A list of files in the format of ~/.mime.types and
2682 /etc/mime.types to be read during setup, replacing the
2683 default list which consists of those two files. The con‐
2684 text is :mime:. A + in the list will be replaced by the
2685 default files.
2686 never-background
2688 If this boolean style is set, the handler for the given
2689 context is always run in the foreground, even if the
2690 flags provided in the mailcap entry suggest it need not
2691 be (for example, it doesn't require a terminal).
2692 pager If set, will be used instead of $PAGER or more to handle
2694 suffixes where the copiousoutput flag is set. The con‐
2695 text is as for handler, i.e. :mime:.suffix: for handling
2696 a file with the given suffix.
2697 Examples:
2699 zstyle ':mime:*' mailcap ~/.mailcap /usr/local/etc/mailcap
2701 zstyle ':mime:.txt:' handler less %s
2702 zstyle ':mime:.txt:' flags needsterminal
2703 When zsh-mime-setup is subsequently run, it will look for mail‐
2705 cap entries in the two files given. Files of suffix .txt will
2706 be handled by running `less file.txt'. The flag needsterminal
2707 is set to show that this program must run attached to a termi‐
2708 nal.
2709 As there are several steps to dispatching a command, the follow‐
2711 ing should be checked if attempting to execute a file by exten‐
2712 sion .ext does not have the expected effect.
2713 The command `alias -s ext' should show `ps=zsh-mime-handler'.
2715 If it shows something else, another suffix alias was already
2716 installed and was not overwritten. If it shows nothing, no han‐
2717 dler was installed: this is most likely because no handler was
2718 found in the .mime.types and mailcap combination for .ext files.
2719 In that case, appropriate handling should be added to
2720 ~/.mime.types and mailcap.
2721 If the extension is handled by zsh-mime-handler but the file is
2723 not opened correctly, either the handler defined for the type is
2724 incorrect, or the flags associated with it are in appropriate.
2725 Running zsh-mime-setup -l will show the handler and, if there
2726 are any, the flags. A %s in the handler is replaced by the file
2727 (suitably quoted if necessary). Check that the handler program
2728 listed lists and can be run in the way shown. Also check that
2729 the flags needsterminal or copiousoutput are set if the handler
2730 needs to be run under a terminal; the second flag is used if the
2731 output should be sent to a pager. An example of a suitable
2732 mailcap entry for such a program is:
2733 text/html; /usr/bin/lynx '%s'; needsterminal
2735 Running `zsh-mime-handler -l command line' prints the command
2737 line that would be executed, simplified to remove the effect of
2738 any flags, and quoted so that the output can be run as a com‐
2739 plete zsh command line. This is used by the completion system
2740 to decide how to complete after a file handled by zsh-mime-set‐
2741 up.
2742 pick-web-browser
2744 This function is separate from the two MIME functions described
2745 above and can be assigned directly to a suffix:
2746 autoload -U pick-web-browser
2748 alias -s html=pick-web-browser
2749 It is provided as an intelligent front end to dispatch a web
2751 browser. It may be run as either a function or a shell script.
2752 The status 255 is returned if no browser could be started.
2753 Various styles are available to customize the choice of
2755 browsers:
2756 browser-style
2758 The value of the style is an array giving preferences in
2759 decreasing order for the type of browser to use. The
2760 values of elements may be
2761 running
2763 Use a GUI browser that is already running when an
2764 X Window display is available. The browsers
2765 listed in the x-browsers style are tried in order
2766 until one is found; if it is, the file will be
2767 displayed in that browser, so the user may need to
2768 check whether it has appeared. If no running
2769 browser is found, one is not started. Browsers
2770 other than Firefox, Opera and Konqueror are
2771 assumed to understand the Mozilla syntax for open‐
2772 ing a URL remotely.
2773 x Start a new GUI browser when an X Window display
2775 is available. Search for the availability of one
2776 of the browsers listed in the x-browsers style and
2777 start the first one that is found. No check is
2778 made for an already running browser.
2779 tty Start a terminal-based browser. Search for the
2781 availability of one of the browsers listed in the
2782 tty-browsers style and start the first one that is
2783 found.
2784 If the style is not set the default running x tty is
2786 used.
2787 x-browsers
2789 An array in decreasing order of preference of browsers to
2790 use when running under the X Window System. The array
2791 consists of the command name under which to start the
2792 browser. They are looked up in the context :mime: (which
2793 may be extended in future, so appending `*' is recom‐
2794 mended). For example,
2795 zstyle ':mime:*' x-browsers opera konqueror firefox
2797 specifies that pick-web-browser should first look for a
2799 running instance of Opera, Konqueror or Firefox, in that
2800 order, and if it fails to find any should attempt to
2801 start Opera. The default is firefox mozilla netscape
2802 opera konqueror.
2803 tty-browsers
2805 An array similar to x-browsers, except that it gives
2806 browsers to use use when no X Window display is avail‐
2807 able. The default is elinks links lynx.
2808 command
2810 If it is set this style is used to pick the command used
2811 to open a page for a browser. The context is
2812 :mime:browser:new:$browser: to start a new browser or
2813 :mime:browser:running:$browser: to open a URL in a
2814 browser already running on the current X display, where
2815 $browser is the value matched in the x-browsers or
2816 tty-browsers style. The escape sequence %b in the
2817 style's value will be replaced by the browser, while %u
2818 will be replaced by the URL. If the style is not set,
2819 the default for all new instances is equivalent to %b %u
2820 and the defaults for using running browsers are equiva‐
2821 lent to the values kfmclient openURL %u for Konqueror,
2822 firefox -new-tab %u for Firefox, opera -newpage %u for
2823 Opera, and %b -remote "openUrl(%u)" for all others.
2824
2826 zcalc [ expression ... ]
2827 A reasonably powerful calculator based on zsh's arithmetic eval‐
2828 uation facility. The syntax is similar to that of formulae in
2829 most programming languages; see the section `Arithmetic Evalua‐
2830 tion' in zshmisc(1) for details. The mathematical library
2831 zsh/mathfunc will be loaded if it is available; see the section
2832 `The zsh/mathfunc Module' in zshmodules(1). The mathematical
2833 functions correspond to the raw system libraries, so trigonomet‐
2834 ric functions are evaluated using radians, and so on.
2835 Each line typed is evaluated as an expression. The prompt shows
2837 a number, which corresponds to a positional parameter where the
2838 result of that calculation is stored. For example, the result
2839 of the calculation on the line preceded by `4> ' is available as
2840 $4. The last value calculated is available as ans. Full com‐
2841 mand line editing, including the history of previous calcula‐
2842 tions, is available; the history is saved in the file
2843 ~/.zcalc_history. To exit, enter a blank line or type `:q' on
2844 its own (`q' is allowed for historical compatibility).
2845 If arguments are given to zcalc on start up, they are used to
2847 prime the first few positional parameters. A visual indication
2848 of this is given when the calculator starts.
2849 The constants PI (3.14159...) and E (2.71828...) are provided.
2851 Parameter assignment is possible, but note that all parameters
2852 will be put into the global namespace.
2853 The output base can be initialised by passing the option
2855 `-#base', for example `zcalc -#16' (the `#' may have to be
2856 quoted, depending on the globbing options set).
2857 The prompt is configurable via the parameter ZCALCPROMPT, which
2859 undergoes standard prompt expansion. The index of the current
2860 entry is stored locally in the first element of the array psvar,
2861 which can be referred to in ZCALCPROMPT as `%1v'. The default
2862 prompt is `%1v> '.
2863 A few special commands are available; these are introduced by a
2865 colon. For backward compatibility, the colon may be omitted for
2866 certain commands. Completion is available if compinit has been
2867 run.
2868 The output precision may be specified within zcalc by special
2870 commands familiar from many calculators.
2871 :norm The default output format. It corresponds to the printf
2872 %g specification. Typically this shows six decimal dig‐
2873 its.
2874 :sci digits
2876 Scientific notation, corresponding to the printf %g out‐
2877 put format with the precision given by digits. This pro‐
2878 duces either fixed point or exponential notation depend‐
2879 ing on the value output.
2880 :fix digits
2882 Fixed point notation, corresponding to the printf %f out‐
2883 put format with the precision given by digits.
2884 :eng digits
2886 Exponential notation, corresponding to the printf %E out‐
2887 put format with the precision given by digits.
2888 :raw Raw output: this is the default form of the output from
2890 a math evaluation. This may show more precision than the
2891 number actually possesses.
2892 Other special commands:
2894 :!line...
2895 Execute line... as a normal shell command line. Note
2896 that it is executed in the context of the function, i.e.
2897 with local variables. Space is optional after :!.
2898 :local arg ...
2900 Declare variables local to the function. Note that cer‐
2901 tain variables are used by the function for its own pur‐
2902 poses. Other variables may be used, too, but they will
2903 be taken from or put into the global scope.
2904 :function name [ body ]
2906 Define a mathematical function or (with no body) delete
2907 it. The function is defined using zmathfuncdef, see
2908 below.
2909 Note that zcalc takes care of all quoting. Hence for
2911 example:
2912 function cube $1 * $1 * $1
2914 defines a function to cube the sole argument.
2916 [#base]
2918 This is not a special command, rather part of normal
2919 arithmetic syntax; however, when this form appears on a
2920 line by itself the default output radix is set to base.
2921 Use, for example, `[#16]' to display hexadecimal output
2922 preceded by an indication of the base, or `[##16]' just
2923 to display the raw number in the given base. Bases them‐
2924 selves are always specified in decimal. `[#]' restores
2925 the normal output format. Note that setting an output
2926 base suppresses floating point output; use `[#]' to
2927 return to normal operation.
2928 See the comments in the function for a few extra tips.
2930 zmathfuncdef [ mathfunc [ body ] ]
2932 A convenient front end to functions -M.
2933 With two arguments, define a mathematical function named math‐
2935 func which can be used in any form of arithmetic evaluation.
2936 body is a mathematical expression to implement the function. It
2937 may contain references to position parameters $1, $2, ... to
2938 refer to mandatory parameters and ${1:-defvalue} ... to refer
2939 to optional parameters. Note that the forms must be strictly
2940 adhered to for the function to calculate the correct number of
2941 arguments. The implementation is held in a shell function named
2942 zsh_math_func_mathfunc; usually the user will not need to refer
2943 to the shell function directly. Any existing function of the
2944 same name is silently replaced.
2945 With one argument, remove the mathematical function mathfunc as
2947 well as the shell function implementation.
2948 With no arguments, list all mathfunc functions in a form suit‐
2950 able for restoring the definition. The functions have not nec‐
2951 essarily been defined by zmathfuncdef.
2952
2954 The zsh/newuser module comes with a function to aid in configuring
2955 shell options for new users. If the module is installed, this function
2956 can also be run by hand. It is available even if the module's default
2957 behaviour, namely running the function for a new user logging in with‐
2958 out startup files, is inhibited.
2959 zsh-newuser-install [ -f ]
2961 The function presents the user with various options for cus‐
2962 tomizing their initialization scripts. Currently only ~/.zshrc
2963 is handled. $ZDOTDIR/.zshrc is used instead if the parameter
2964 ZDOTDIR is set; this provides a way for the user to configure a
2965 file without altering an existing .zshrc.
2966 By default the function exits immediately if it finds any of the
2968 files .zshenv, .zprofile, .zshrc, or .zlogin in the appropriate
2969 directory. The option -f is required in order to force the
2970 function to continue. Note this may happen even if .zshrc
2971 itself does not exist.
2972 As currently configured, the function will exit immediately if
2974 the user has root privileges; this behaviour cannot be overrid‐
2975 den.
2976 Once activated, the function's behaviour is supposed to be
2978 self-explanatory. Menus are present allowing the user to alter
2979 the value of options and parameters. Suggestions for improve‐
2980 ments are always welcome.
2981 When the script exits, the user is given the opportunity to save
2983 the new file or not; changes are not irreversible until this
2984 point. However, the script is careful to restrict changes to
2985 the file only to a group marked by the lines `# Lines configured
2986 by zsh-newuser-install' and `# End of lines configured by
2987 zsh-newuser-install'. In addition, the old version of .zshrc is
2988 saved to a file with the suffix .zni appended.
2989 If the function edits an existing .zshrc, it is up to the user
2991 to ensure that the changes made will take effect. For example,
2992 if control usually returns early from the existing .zshrc the
2993 lines will not be executed; or a later initialization file may
2994 override options or parameters, and so on. The function itself
2995 does not attempt to detect any such conflicts.
2996
2998 There are a large number of helpful functions in the Functions/Misc
2999 directory of the zsh distribution. Most are very simple and do not
3000 require documentation here, but a few are worthy of special mention.
3001 Descriptions
3003 colors This function initializes several associative arrays to map
3004 color names to (and from) the ANSI standard eight-color terminal
3005 codes. These are used by the prompt theme system (see above).
3006 You seldom should need to run colors more than once.
3007 The eight base colors are: black, red, green, yellow, blue,
3009 magenta, cyan, and white. Each of these has codes for fore‐
3010 ground and background. In addition there are eight intensity
3011 attributes: bold, faint, standout, underline, blink, reverse,
3012 and conceal. Finally, there are six codes used to negate
3013 attributes: none (reset all attributes to the defaults), normal
3014 (neither bold nor faint), no-standout, no-underline, no-blink,
3015 and no-reverse.
3016 Some terminals do not support all combinations of colors and
3018 intensities.
3019 The associative arrays are:
3021 color
3023 colour Map all the color names to their integer codes, and inte‐
3024 ger codes to the color names. The eight base names map
3025 to the foreground color codes, as do names prefixed with
3026 `fg-', such as `fg-red'. Names prefixed with `bg-', such
3027 as `bg-blue', refer to the background codes. The reverse
3028 mapping from code to color yields base name for fore‐
3029 ground codes and the bg- form for backgrounds.
3030 Although it is a misnomer to call them `colors', these
3032 arrays also map the other fourteen attributes from names
3033 to codes and codes to names.
3034 fg
3036 fg_bold
3037 fg_no_bold
3038 Map the eight basic color names to ANSI terminal escape
3039 sequences that set the corresponding foreground text
3040 properties. The fg sequences change the color without
3041 changing the eight intensity attributes.
3042 bg
3044 bg_bold
3045 bg_no_bold
3046 Map the eight basic color names to ANSI terminal escape
3047 sequences that set the corresponding background proper‐
3048 ties. The bg sequences change the color without changing
3049 the eight intensity attributes.
3050 In addition, the scalar parameters reset_color and bold_color
3052 are set to the ANSI terminal escapes that turn off all
3053 attributes and turn on bold intensity, respectively.
3054 fned name
3056 Same as zed -f. This function does not appear in the zsh dis‐
3057 tribution, but can be created by linking zed to the name fned in
3058 some directory in your fpath.
3059 is-at-least needed [ present ]
3061 Perform a greater-than-or-equal-to comparison of two strings
3062 having the format of a zsh version number; that is, a string of
3063 numbers and text with segments separated by dots or dashes. If
3064 the present string is not provided, $ZSH_VERSION is used. Seg‐
3065 ments are paired left-to-right in the two strings with leading
3066 non-number parts ignored. If one string has fewer segments than
3067 the other, the missing segments are considered zero.
3068 This is useful in startup files to set options and other state
3070 that are not available in all versions of zsh.
3071 is-at-least 3.1.6-15 && setopt NO_GLOBAL_RCS
3073 is-at-least 3.1.0 && setopt HIST_REDUCE_BLANKS
3074 is-at-least 2.6-17 || print "You can't use is-at-least here."
3075 nslookup [ arg ... ]
3077 This wrapper function for the nslookup command requires the
3078 zsh/zpty module (see zshmodules(1)). It behaves exactly like
3079 the standard nslookup except that it provides customizable
3080 prompts (including a right-side prompt) and completion of
3081 nslookup commands, host names, etc. (if you use the func‐
3082 tion-based completion system). Completion styles may be set
3083 with the context prefix `:completion:nslookup'.
3084 See also the pager, prompt and rprompt styles below.
3086 regexp-replace var regexp replace
3088 Use regular expressions to perform a global search and replace
3089 operation on a variable. If the option RE_MATCH_PCRE is not
3090 set, POSIX extended regular expressions are used, else Perl-com‐
3091 patible regular expressions (this requires the shell to be
3092 linked against the pcre library).
3093 var is the name of the variable containing the string to be
3095 matched. The variable will be modified directly by the func‐
3096 tion. The variables MATCH, MBEGIN, MEND, match, mbegin, mend
3097 should be avoided as these are used by the regular expression
3098 code.
3099 regexp is the regular expression to match against the string.
3101 replace is the replacement text. This can contain parameter,
3103 command and arithmetic expressions which will be replaced: in
3104 particular, a reference to $MATCH will be replaced by the text
3105 matched by the pattern.
3106 The return status is 0 if at least one match was performed, else
3108 1.
3109 run-help cmd
3111 This function is designed to be invoked by the run-help ZLE wid‐
3112 get, in place of the default alias. See `Accessing On-Line
3113 Help' above for setup instructions.
3114 In the discussion which follows, if cmd is a file system path,
3116 it is first reduced to its rightmost component (the file name).
3117 Help is first sought by looking for a file named cmd in the
3119 directory named by the HELPDIR parameter. If no file is found,
3120 an assistant function, alias, or command named run-help-cmd is
3121 sought. If found, the assistant is executed with the rest of
3122 the current command line (everything after the command name cmd)
3123 as its arguments. When neither file nor assistant is found, the
3124 external command `man cmd' is run.
3125 An example assistant for the "ssh" command:
3127 run-help-ssh() {
3129 emulate -LR zsh
3130 local -a args
3131 # Delete the "-l username" option
3132 zparseopts -D -E -a args l:
3133 # Delete other options, leaving: host command
3134 args=(${@:#-*})
3135 if [[ ${#args} -lt 2 ]]; then
3136 man ssh
3137 else
3138 run-help $args[2]
3139 fi
3140 }
3141 Several of these assistants are provided in the Functions/Misc
3143 directory. These must be autoloaded, or placed as executable
3144 scripts in your search path, in order to be found and used by
3145 run-help.
3146 run-help-git
3148 run-help-svk
3149 run-help-svn
3150 Assistant functions for the git, svk, and svn commands.
3151 tetris Zsh was once accused of not being as complete as Emacs, because
3153 it lacked a Tetris game. This function was written to refute
3154 this vicious slander.
3155 This function must be used as a ZLE widget:
3157 autoload -U tetris
3159 zle -N tetris
3160 bindkey keys tetris
3161 To start a game, execute the widget by typing the keys. What‐
3163 ever command line you were editing disappears temporarily, and
3164 your keymap is also temporarily replaced by the Tetris control
3165 keys. The previous editor state is restored when you quit the
3166 game (by pressing `q') or when you lose.
3167 If you quit in the middle of a game, the next invocation of the
3169 tetris widget will continue where you left off. If you lost, it
3170 will start a new game.
3171 zargs [ option ... -- ] [ input ... ] [ -- command [ arg ... ] ]
3173 This function works like GNU xargs, except that instead of read‐
3174 ing lines of arguments from the standard input, it takes them
3175 from the command line. This is useful because zsh, especially
3176 with recursive glob operators, often can construct a command
3177 line for a shell function that is longer than can be accepted by
3178 an external command.
3179 The option list represents options of the zargs command itself,
3181 which are the same as those of xargs. The input list is the
3182 collection of strings (often file names) that become the argu‐
3183 ments of the command, analogous to the standard input of xargs.
3184 Finally, the arg list consists of those arguments (usually
3185 options) that are passed to the command each time it runs. The
3186 arg list precedes the elements from the input list in each run.
3187 If no command is provided, then no arg list may be provided, and
3188 in that event the default command is `print' with arguments `-r
3189 --'.
3190 For example, to get a long ls listing of all plain files in the
3192 current directory or its subdirectories:
3193 autoload -U zargs
3195 zargs -- **/*(.) -- ls -l
3196 Note that `--' is used both to mark the end of the option list
3198 and to mark the end of the input list, so it must appear twice
3199 whenever the input list may be empty. If there is guaranteed to
3200 be at least one input and the first input does not begin with a
3201 `-', then the first `--' may be omitted.
3202 In the event that the string `--' is or may be an input, the -e
3204 option may be used to change the end-of-inputs marker. Note
3205 that this does not change the end-of-options marker. For exam‐
3206 ple, to use `..' as the marker:
3207 zargs -e.. -- **/*(.) .. ls -l
3209 This is a good choice in that example because no plain file can
3211 be named `..', but the best end-marker depends on the circum‐
3212 stances.
3213 For details of the other zargs options, see xargs(1) or run
3215 zargs with the --help option.
3216 zed [ -f ] name
3218 zed -b This function uses the ZLE editor to edit a file or function.
3219 Only one name argument is allowed. If the -f option is given,
3221 the name is taken to be that of a function; if the function is
3222 marked for autoloading, zed searches for it in the fpath and
3223 loads it. Note that functions edited this way are installed
3224 into the current shell, but not written back to the autoload
3225 file.
3226 Without -f, name is the path name of the file to edit, which
3228 need not exist; it is created on write, if necessary.
3229 While editing, the function sets the main keymap to zed and the
3231 vi command keymap to zed-vicmd. These will be copied from the
3232 existing main and vicmd keymaps if they do not exist the first
3233 time zed is run. They can be used to provide special key bind‐
3234 ings used only in zed.
3235 If it creates the keymap, zed rebinds the return key to insert a
3237 line break and `^X^W' to accept the edit in the zed keymap, and
3238 binds `ZZ' to accept the edit in the zed-vicmd keymap.
3239 The bindings alone can be installed by running `zed -b'. This
3241 is suitable for putting into a startup file. Note that, if
3242 rerun, this will overwrite the existing zed and zed-vicmd
3243 keymaps.
3244 Completion is available, and styles may be set with the context
3246 prefix `:completion:zed'.
3247 A zle widget zed-set-file-name is available. This can be called
3249 by name from within zed using `\ex zed-set-file-name' (note,
3250 however, that because of zed's rebindings you will have to type
3251 ^j at the end instead of the return key), or can be bound to a
3252 key in either of the zed or zed-vicmd keymaps after `zed -b' has
3253 been run. When the widget is called, it prompts for a new name
3254 for the file being edited. When zed exits the file will be
3255 written under that name and the original file will be left
3256 alone. The widget has no effect with `zed -f'.
3257 While zed-set-file-name is running, zed uses the keymap zed-nor‐
3259 mal-keymap, which is linked from the main keymap in effect at
3260 the time zed initialised its bindings. (This is to make the
3261 return key operate normally.) The result is that if the main
3262 keymap has been changed, the widget won't notice. This is not a
3263 concern for most users.
3264 zcp [ -finqQvwW ] srcpat dest
3266 zln [ -finqQsvwW ] srcpat dest
3267 Same as zmv -C and zmv -L, respectively. These functions do not
3268 appear in the zsh distribution, but can be created by linking
3269 zmv to the names zcp and zln in some directory in your fpath.
3270 zkbd See `Keyboard Definition' above.
3272 zmv [ -finqQsvwW ] [ -C | -L | -M | -p program ] [ -o optstring ] src‐
3274 pat dest
3275 Move (usually, rename) files matching the pattern srcpat to cor‐
3276 responding files having names of the form given by dest, where
3277 srcpat contains parentheses surrounding patterns which will be
3278 replaced in turn by $1, $2, ... in dest. For example,
3279 zmv '(*).lis' '$1.txt'
3281 renames `foo.lis' to `foo.txt', `my.old.stuff.lis' to
3283 `my.old.stuff.txt', and so on.
3284 The pattern is always treated as an EXTENDED_GLOB pattern. Any
3286 file whose name is not changed by the substitution is simply
3287 ignored. Any error (a substitution resulted in an empty string,
3288 two substitutions gave the same result, the destination was an
3289 existing regular file and -f was not given) causes the entire
3290 function to abort without doing anything.
3291 Options:
3293 -f Force overwriting of destination files. Not currently
3295 passed down to the mv/cp/ln command due to vagaries of
3296 implementations (but you can use -o-f to do that).
3297 -i Interactive: show each line to be executed and ask the
3298 user whether to execute it. `Y' or `y' will execute it,
3299 anything else will skip it. Note that you just need to
3300 type one character.
3301 -n No execution: print what would happen, but don't do it.
3302 -q Turn bare glob qualifiers off: now assumed by default, so
3303 this has no effect.
3304 -Q Force bare glob qualifiers on. Don't turn this on unless
3305 you are actually using glob qualifiers in a pattern.
3306 -s Symbolic, passed down to ln; only works with -L.
3307 -v Verbose: print each command as it's being executed.
3308 -w Pick out wildcard parts of the pattern, as described
3309 above, and implicitly add parentheses for referring to
3310 them.
3311 -W Just like -w, with the addition of turning wildcards in
3312 the replacement pattern into sequential ${1} .. ${N} ref‐
3313 erences.
3314 -C
3315 -L
3316 -M Force cp, ln or mv, respectively, regardless of the name
3317 of the function.
3318 -p program
3319 Call program instead of cp, ln or mv. Whatever it does,
3320 it should at least understand the form `program -- old‐
3321 name newname' where oldname and newname are filenames
3322 generated by zmv.
3323 -o optstring
3324 The optstring is split into words and passed down verba‐
3325 tim to the cp, ln or mv command called to perform the
3326 work. It should probably begin with a `-'.
3327 Further examples:
3329 zmv -v '(* *)' '${1// /_}'
3331 For any file in the current directory with at least one space in
3333 the name, replace every space by an underscore and display the
3334 commands executed.
3335 For more complete examples and other implementation details, see
3337 the zmv source file, usually located in one of the directories
3338 named in your fpath, or in Functions/Misc/zmv in the zsh distri‐
3339 bution.
3340 zrecompile
3342 See `Recompiling Functions' above.
3343 zstyle+ context style value [ + subcontext style value ... ]
3345 This makes defining styles a bit simpler by using a single `+'
3346 as a special token that allows you to append a context name to
3347 the previously used context name. Like this:
3348 zstyle+ ':foo:bar' style1 value1 \
3350 + ':baz' style2 value2 \
3351 + ':frob' style3 value3
3352 This defines `style1' with `value1' for the context :foo:bar as
3354 usual, but it also defines `style2' with `value2' for the con‐
3355 text :foo:bar:baz and `style3' with `value3' for :foo:bar:frob.
3356 Any subcontext may be the empty string to re-use the first con‐
3357 text unchanged.
3358 Styles
3360 insert-tab
3361 The zed function sets this style in context `:completion:zed:*'
3362 to turn off completion when TAB is typed at the beginning of a
3363 line. You may override this by setting your own value for this
3364 context and style.
3365 pager The nslookup function looks up this style in the context
3367 `:nslookup' to determine the program used to display output that
3368 does not fit on a single screen.
3369 prompt
3371 rprompt
3372 The nslookup function looks up this style in the context
3373 `:nslookup' to set the prompt and the right-side prompt, respec‐
3374 tively. The usual expansions for the PS1 and RPS1 parameters
3375 may be used (see EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1)).
3376zsh 4.3.11 December 20, 2010 ZSHCONTRIB(1)