1ZSHALL(1) General Commands Manual ZSHALL(1)
2
6 zshall - the Z shell meta-man page
7
9 Because zsh contains many features, the zsh manual has been split into
10 a number of sections. This manual page includes all the separate man‐
11 ual pages in the following order:
12 zsh Zsh overview
14 zshroadmap Informal introduction to the manual
15 zshmisc Anything not fitting into the other sections
16 zshexpn Zsh command and parameter expansion
17 zshparam Zsh parameters
18 zshoptions Zsh options
19 zshbuiltins Zsh built-in functions
20 zshzle Zsh command line editing
21 zshcompwid Zsh completion widgets
22 zshcompsys Zsh completion system
23 zshcompctl Zsh completion control
24 zshmodules Zsh loadable modules
25 zshcalsys Zsh built-in calendar functions
26 zshtcpsys Zsh built-in TCP functions
27 zshzftpsys Zsh built-in FTP client
28 zshcontrib Additional zsh functions and utilities
29
31 Zsh is a UNIX command interpreter (shell) usable as an interactive lo‐
32 gin shell and as a shell script command processor. Of the standard
33 shells, zsh most closely resembles ksh but includes many enhancements.
34 It does not provide compatibility with POSIX or other shells in its de‐
35 fault operating mode: see the section Compatibility below.
36 Zsh has command line editing, builtin spelling correction, programmable
38 command completion, shell functions (with autoloading), a history mech‐
39 anism, and a host of other features.
40
42 Zsh was originally written by Paul Falstad <pf@zsh.org>. Zsh is now
43 maintained by the members of the zsh-workers mailing list <zsh-work‐
44 ers@zsh.org>. The development is currently coordinated by Peter
45 Stephenson <pws@zsh.org>. The coordinator can be contacted at <coordi‐
46 nator@zsh.org>, but matters relating to the code should generally go to
47 the mailing list.
48
50 Zsh is available from the following HTTP and anonymous FTP site.
51 ftp://ftp.zsh.org/pub/
53 https://www.zsh.org/pub/
54 )
55 The up-to-date source code is available via Git from Sourceforge. See
57 https://sourceforge.net/projects/zsh/ for details. A summary of in‐
58 structions for the archive can be found at http://zsh.sourceforge.net/.
59
61 Zsh has 3 mailing lists:
62 <zsh-announce@zsh.org>
64 Announcements about releases, major changes in the shell and the
65 monthly posting of the Zsh FAQ. (moderated)
66 <zsh-users@zsh.org>
68 User discussions.
69 <zsh-workers@zsh.org>
71 Hacking, development, bug reports and patches.
72 To subscribe or unsubscribe, send mail to the associated administrative
74 address for the mailing list.
75 <zsh-announce-subscribe@zsh.org>
77 <zsh-users-subscribe@zsh.org>
78 <zsh-workers-subscribe@zsh.org>
79 <zsh-announce-unsubscribe@zsh.org>
80 <zsh-users-unsubscribe@zsh.org>
81 <zsh-workers-unsubscribe@zsh.org>
82 YOU ONLY NEED TO JOIN ONE OF THE MAILING LISTS AS THEY ARE NESTED. All
84 submissions to zsh-announce are automatically forwarded to zsh-users.
85 All submissions to zsh-users are automatically forwarded to zsh-work‐
86 ers.
87 If you have problems subscribing/unsubscribing to any of the mailing
89 lists, send mail to <listmaster@zsh.org>. The mailing lists are main‐
90 tained by Karsten Thygesen <karthy@kom.auc.dk>.
91 The mailing lists are archived; the archives can be accessed via the
93 administrative addresses listed above. There is also a hypertext ar‐
94 chive, maintained by Geoff Wing <gcw@zsh.org>, available at
95 https://www.zsh.org/mla/.
96
98 Zsh has a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), maintained by Peter
99 Stephenson <pws@zsh.org>. It is regularly posted to the newsgroup
100 comp.unix.shell and the zsh-announce mailing list. The latest version
101 can be found at any of the Zsh FTP sites, or at
102 http://www.zsh.org/FAQ/. The contact address for FAQ-related matters
103 is <faqmaster@zsh.org>.
104
106 Zsh has a web page which is located at https://www.zsh.org/. This is
107 maintained by Karsten Thygesen <karthy@zsh.org>, of SunSITE Denmark.
108 The contact address for web-related matters is <webmaster@zsh.org>.
109
111 A userguide is currently in preparation. It is intended to complement
112 the manual, with explanations and hints on issues where the manual can
113 be cabbalistic, hierographic, or downright mystifying (for example, the
114 word `hierographic' does not exist). It can be viewed in its current
115 state at http://zsh.sourceforge.net/Guide/. At the time of writing,
116 chapters dealing with startup files and their contents and the new com‐
117 pletion system were essentially complete.
118
120 The following flags are interpreted by the shell when invoked to deter‐
121 mine where the shell will read commands from:
122 -c Take the first argument as a command to execute, rather than
124 reading commands from a script or standard input. If any fur‐
125 ther arguments are given, the first one is assigned to $0,
126 rather than being used as a positional parameter.
127 -i Force shell to be interactive. It is still possible to specify
129 a script to execute.
130 -s Force shell to read commands from the standard input. If the -s
132 flag is not present and an argument is given, the first argument
133 is taken to be the pathname of a script to execute.
134 If there are any remaining arguments after option processing, and nei‐
136 ther of the options -c or -s was supplied, the first argument is taken
137 as the file name of a script containing shell commands to be executed.
138 If the option PATH_SCRIPT is set, and the file name does not contain a
139 directory path (i.e. there is no `/' in the name), first the current
140 directory and then the command path given by the variable PATH are
141 searched for the script. If the option is not set or the file name
142 contains a `/' it is used directly.
143 After the first one or two arguments have been appropriated as de‐
145 scribed above, the remaining arguments are assigned to the positional
146 parameters.
147 For further options, which are common to invocation and the set
149 builtin, see zshoptions(1).
150 The long option `--emulate' followed (in a separate word) by an emula‐
152 tion mode may be passed to the shell. The emulation modes are those
153 described for the emulate builtin, see zshbuiltins(1). The `--emulate'
154 option must precede any other options (which might otherwise be over‐
155 ridden), but following options are honoured, so may be used to modify
156 the requested emulation mode. Note that certain extra steps are taken
157 to ensure a smooth emulation when this option is used compared with the
158 emulate command within the shell: for example, variables that conflict
159 with POSIX usage such as path are not defined within the shell.
160 Options may be specified by name using the -o option. -o acts like a
162 single-letter option, but takes a following string as the option name.
163 For example,
164 zsh -x -o shwordsplit scr
166 runs the script scr, setting the XTRACE option by the corresponding
168 letter `-x' and the SH_WORD_SPLIT option by name. Options may be
169 turned off by name by using +o instead of -o. -o can be stacked up
170 with preceding single-letter options, so for example `-xo shwordsplit'
171 or `-xoshwordsplit' is equivalent to `-x -o shwordsplit'.
172 Options may also be specified by name in GNU long option style, `--op‐
174 tion-name'. When this is done, `-' characters in the option name are
175 permitted: they are translated into `_', and thus ignored. So, for ex‐
176 ample, `zsh --sh-word-split' invokes zsh with the SH_WORD_SPLIT option
177 turned on. Like other option syntaxes, options can be turned off by
178 replacing the initial `-' with a `+'; thus `+-sh-word-split' is equiva‐
179 lent to `--no-sh-word-split'. Unlike other option syntaxes, GNU-style
180 long options cannot be stacked with any other options, so for example
181 `-x-shwordsplit' is an error, rather than being treated like `-x
182 --shwordsplit'.
183 The special GNU-style option `--version' is handled; it sends to stan‐
185 dard output the shell's version information, then exits successfully.
186 `--help' is also handled; it sends to standard output a list of options
187 that can be used when invoking the shell, then exits successfully.
188 Option processing may be finished, allowing following arguments that
190 start with `-' or `+' to be treated as normal arguments, in two ways.
191 Firstly, a lone `-' (or `+') as an argument by itself ends option pro‐
192 cessing. Secondly, a special option `--' (or `+-'), which may be spec‐
193 ified on its own (which is the standard POSIX usage) or may be stacked
194 with preceding options (so `-x-' is equivalent to `-x --'). Options
195 are not permitted to be stacked after `--' (so `-x-f' is an error), but
196 note the GNU-style option form discussed above, where `--shwordsplit'
197 is permitted and does not end option processing.
198 Except when the sh/ksh emulation single-letter options are in effect,
200 the option `-b' (or `+b') ends option processing. `-b' is like `--',
201 except that further single-letter options can be stacked after the `-b'
202 and will take effect as normal.
203
205 Zsh tries to emulate sh or ksh when it is invoked as sh or ksh respec‐
206 tively; more precisely, it looks at the first letter of the name by
207 which it was invoked, excluding any initial `r' (assumed to stand for
208 `restricted'), and if that is `b', `s' or `k' it will emulate sh or
209 ksh. Furthermore, if invoked as su (which happens on certain systems
210 when the shell is executed by the su command), the shell will try to
211 find an alternative name from the SHELL environment variable and per‐
212 form emulation based on that.
213 In sh and ksh compatibility modes the following parameters are not spe‐
215 cial and not initialized by the shell: ARGC, argv, cdpath, fignore,
216 fpath, HISTCHARS, mailpath, MANPATH, manpath, path, prompt, PROMPT,
217 PROMPT2, PROMPT3, PROMPT4, psvar, status, watch.
218 The usual zsh startup/shutdown scripts are not executed. Login shells
220 source /etc/profile followed by $HOME/.profile. If the ENV environment
221 variable is set on invocation, $ENV is sourced after the profile
222 scripts. The value of ENV is subjected to parameter expansion, command
223 substitution, and arithmetic expansion before being interpreted as a
224 pathname. Note that the PRIVILEGED option also affects the execution
225 of startup files.
226 The following options are set if the shell is invoked as sh or ksh:
228 NO_BAD_PATTERN, NO_BANG_HIST, NO_BG_NICE, NO_EQUALS, NO_FUNC‐
229 TION_ARGZERO, GLOB_SUBST, NO_GLOBAL_EXPORT, NO_HUP, INTERACTIVE_COM‐
230 MENTS, KSH_ARRAYS, NO_MULTIOS, NO_NOMATCH, NO_NOTIFY, POSIX_BUILTINS,
231 NO_PROMPT_PERCENT, RM_STAR_SILENT, SH_FILE_EXPANSION, SH_GLOB, SH_OP‐
232 TION_LETTERS, SH_WORD_SPLIT. Additionally the BSD_ECHO and IG‐
233 NORE_BRACES options are set if zsh is invoked as sh. Also, the KSH_OP‐
234 TION_PRINT, LOCAL_OPTIONS, PROMPT_BANG, PROMPT_SUBST and SIN‐
235 GLE_LINE_ZLE options are set if zsh is invoked as ksh.
236
238 When the basename of the command used to invoke zsh starts with the
239 letter `r' or the `-r' command line option is supplied at invocation,
240 the shell becomes restricted. Emulation mode is determined after
241 stripping the letter `r' from the invocation name. The following are
242 disabled in restricted mode:
243 • changing directories with the cd builtin
245 • changing or unsetting the EGID, EUID, GID, HISTFILE, HISTSIZE,
247 IFS, LD_AOUT_LIBRARY_PATH, LD_AOUT_PRELOAD, LD_LIBRARY_PATH,
248 LD_PRELOAD, MODULE_PATH, module_path, PATH, path, SHELL, UID and
249 USERNAME parameters
250 • specifying command names containing /
252 • specifying command pathnames using hash
254 • redirecting output to files
256 • using the exec builtin command to replace the shell with another
258 command
259 • using jobs -Z to overwrite the shell process' argument and envi‐
261 ronment space
262 • using the ARGV0 parameter to override argv[0] for external com‐
264 mands
265 • turning off restricted mode with set +r or unsetopt RESTRICTED
267 These restrictions are enforced after processing the startup files.
269 The startup files should set up PATH to point to a directory of com‐
270 mands which can be safely invoked in the restricted environment. They
271 may also add further restrictions by disabling selected builtins.
272 Restricted mode can also be activated any time by setting the RE‐
274 STRICTED option. This immediately enables all the restrictions de‐
275 scribed above even if the shell still has not processed all startup
276 files.
277 A shell Restricted Mode is an outdated way to restrict what users may
279 do: modern systems have better, safer and more reliable ways to con‐
280 fine user actions, such as chroot jails, containers and zones.
281 A restricted shell is very difficult to implement safely. The feature
283 may be removed in a future version of zsh.
284 It is important to realise that the restrictions only apply to the
286 shell, not to the commands it runs (except for some shell builtins).
287 While a restricted shell can only run the restricted list of commands
288 accessible via the predefined `PATH' variable, it does not prevent
289 those commands from running any other command.
290 As an example, if `env' is among the list of allowed commands, then it
292 allows the user to run any command as `env' is not a shell builtin com‐
293 mand and can run arbitrary executables.
294 So when implementing a restricted shell framework it is important to be
296 fully aware of what actions each of the allowed commands or features
297 (which may be regarded as modules) can perform.
298 Many commands can have their behaviour affected by environment vari‐
300 ables. Except for the few listed above, zsh does not restrict the set‐
301 ting of environment variables.
302 If a `perl', `python', `bash', or other general purpose interpreted
304 script it treated as a restricted command, the user can work around the
305 restriction by setting specially crafted `PERL5LIB', `PYTHONPATH',
306 `BASHENV' (etc.) environment variables. On GNU systems, any command can
307 be made to run arbitrary code when performing character set conversion
308 (including zsh itself) by setting a `GCONV_PATH' environment variable.
309 Those are only a few examples.
310 Bear in mind that, contrary to some other shells, `readonly' is not a
312 security feature in zsh as it can be undone and so cannot be used to
313 mitigate the above.
314 A restricted shell only works if the allowed commands are few and care‐
316 fully written so as not to grant more access to users than intended.
317 It is also important to restrict what zsh module the user may load as
318 some of them, such as `zsh/system', `zsh/mapfile' and `zsh/files', al‐
319 low bypassing most of the restrictions.
320
322 Commands are first read from /etc/zshenv; this cannot be overridden.
323 Subsequent behaviour is modified by the RCS and GLOBAL_RCS options; the
324 former affects all startup files, while the second only affects global
325 startup files (those shown here with an path starting with a /). If
326 one of the options is unset at any point, any subsequent startup
327 file(s) of the corresponding type will not be read. It is also possi‐
328 ble for a file in $ZDOTDIR to re-enable GLOBAL_RCS. Both RCS and
329 GLOBAL_RCS are set by default.
330 Commands are then read from $ZDOTDIR/.zshenv. If the shell is a login
332 shell, commands are read from /etc/zprofile and then $ZDOTDIR/.zpro‐
333 file. Then, if the shell is interactive, commands are read from
334 /etc/zshrc and then $ZDOTDIR/.zshrc. Finally, if the shell is a login
335 shell, /etc/zlogin and $ZDOTDIR/.zlogin are read.
336 When a login shell exits, the files $ZDOTDIR/.zlogout and then /etc/zl‐
338 ogout are read. This happens with either an explicit exit via the exit
339 or logout commands, or an implicit exit by reading end-of-file from the
340 terminal. However, if the shell terminates due to exec'ing another
341 process, the logout files are not read. These are also affected by the
342 RCS and GLOBAL_RCS options. Note also that the RCS option affects the
343 saving of history files, i.e. if RCS is unset when the shell exits, no
344 history file will be saved.
345 If ZDOTDIR is unset, HOME is used instead. Files listed above as being
347 in /etc may be in another directory, depending on the installation.
348 As /etc/zshenv is run for all instances of zsh, it is important that it
350 be kept as small as possible. In particular, it is a good idea to put
351 code that does not need to be run for every single shell behind a test
352 of the form `if [[ -o rcs ]]; then ...' so that it will not be executed
353 when zsh is invoked with the `-f' option.
354 Any of these files may be pre-compiled with the zcompile builtin com‐
356 mand (see zshbuiltins(1)). If a compiled file exists (named for the
357 original file plus the .zwc extension) and it is newer than the origi‐
358 nal file, the compiled file will be used instead.
359ZSHROADMAP(1) General Commands Manual ZSHROADMAP(1)
363
367 zshroadmap - informal introduction to the zsh manual The Zsh Manual,
368 like the shell itself, is large and often complicated. This section of
369 the manual provides some pointers to areas of the shell that are likely
370 to be of particular interest to new users, and indicates where in the
371 rest of the manual the documentation is to be found.
372
374 When it starts, the shell reads commands from various files. These can
375 be created or edited to customize the shell. See the section
376 Startup/Shutdown Files in zsh(1).
377 If no personal initialization files exist for the current user, a func‐
379 tion is run to help you change some of the most common settings. It
380 won't appear if your administrator has disabled the zsh/newuser module.
381 The function is designed to be self-explanatory. You can run it by
382 hand with `autoload -Uz zsh-newuser-install; zsh-newuser-install -f'.
383 See also the section User Configuration Functions in zshcontrib(1).
384
386 Interaction with the shell uses the builtin Zsh Line Editor, ZLE. This
387 is described in detail in zshzle(1).
388 The first decision a user must make is whether to use the Emacs or Vi
390 editing mode as the keys for editing are substantially different.
391 Emacs editing mode is probably more natural for beginners and can be
392 selected explicitly with the command bindkey -e.
393 A history mechanism for retrieving previously typed lines (most simply
395 with the Up or Down arrow keys) is available; note that, unlike other
396 shells, zsh will not save these lines when the shell exits unless you
397 set appropriate variables, and the number of history lines retained by
398 default is quite small (30 lines). See the description of the shell
399 variables (referred to in the documentation as parameters) HISTFILE,
400 HISTSIZE and SAVEHIST in zshparam(1). Note that it's currently only
401 possible to read and write files saving history when the shell is in‐
402 teractive, i.e. it does not work from scripts.
403 The shell now supports the UTF-8 character set (and also others if sup‐
405 ported by the operating system). This is (mostly) handled transpar‐
406 ently by the shell, but the degree of support in terminal emulators is
407 variable. There is some discussion of this in the shell FAQ,
408 http://www.zsh.org/FAQ/. Note in particular that for combining charac‐
409 ters to be handled the option COMBINING_CHARS needs to be set. Because
410 the shell is now more sensitive to the definition of the character set,
411 note that if you are upgrading from an older version of the shell you
412 should ensure that the appropriate variable, either LANG (to affect all
413 aspects of the shell's operation) or LC_CTYPE (to affect only the han‐
414 dling of character sets) is set to an appropriate value. This is true
415 even if you are using a single-byte character set including extensions
416 of ASCII such as ISO-8859-1 or ISO-8859-15. See the description of
417 LC_CTYPE in zshparam(1).
418 Completion
420 Completion is a feature present in many shells. It allows the user to
421 type only a part (usually the prefix) of a word and have the shell fill
422 in the rest. The completion system in zsh is programmable. For exam‐
423 ple, the shell can be set to complete email addresses in arguments to
424 the mail command from your ~/.abook/addressbook; usernames, hostnames,
425 and even remote paths in arguments to scp, and so on. Anything that
426 can be written in or glued together with zsh can be the source of what
427 the line editor offers as possible completions.
428 Zsh has two completion systems, an old, so called compctl completion
430 (named after the builtin command that serves as its complete and only
431 user interface), and a new one, referred to as compsys, organized as
432 library of builtin and user-defined functions. The two systems differ
433 in their interface for specifying the completion behavior. The new
434 system is more customizable and is supplied with completions for many
435 commonly used commands; it is therefore to be preferred.
436 The completion system must be enabled explicitly when the shell starts.
438 For more information see zshcompsys(1).
439 Extending the line editor
441 Apart from completion, the line editor is highly extensible by means of
442 shell functions. Some useful functions are provided with the shell;
443 they provide facilities such as:
444 insert-composed-char
446 composing characters not found on the keyboard
447 match-words-by-style
449 configuring what the line editor considers a word when moving or
450 deleting by word
451 history-beginning-search-backward-end, etc.
453 alternative ways of searching the shell history
454 replace-string, replace-pattern
456 functions for replacing strings or patterns globally in the com‐
457 mand line
458 edit-command-line
460 edit the command line with an external editor.
461 See the section `ZLE Functions' in zshcontrib(1) for descriptions of
463 these.
464
466 The shell has a large number of options for changing its behaviour.
467 These cover all aspects of the shell; browsing the full documentation
468 is the only good way to become acquainted with the many possibilities.
469 See zshoptions(1).
470
472 The shell has a rich set of patterns which are available for file
473 matching (described in the documentation as `filename generation' and
474 also known for historical reasons as `globbing') and for use when pro‐
475 gramming. These are described in the section `Filename Generation' in
476 zshexpn(1).
477 Of particular interest are the following patterns that are not commonly
479 supported by other systems of pattern matching:
480 ** for matching over multiple directories
482 | for matching either of two alternatives
484 ~, ^ the ability to exclude patterns from matching when the EX‐
486 TENDED_GLOB option is set
487 (...) glob qualifiers, included in parentheses at the end of the pat‐
489 tern, which select files by type (such as directories) or attri‐
490 bute (such as size).
491
493 Although the syntax of zsh is in ways similar to the Korn shell, and
494 therefore more remotely to the original UNIX shell, the Bourne shell,
495 its default behaviour does not entirely correspond to those shells.
496 General shell syntax is introduced in the section `Shell Grammar' in
497 zshmisc(1).
498 One commonly encountered difference is that variables substituted onto
500 the command line are not split into words. See the description of the
501 shell option SH_WORD_SPLIT in the section `Parameter Expansion' in zsh‐
502 expn(1). In zsh, you can either explicitly request the splitting (e.g.
503 ${=foo}) or use an array when you want a variable to expand to more
504 than one word. See the section `Array Parameters' in zshparam(1).
505
507 The most convenient way of adding enhancements to the shell is typi‐
508 cally by writing a shell function and arranging for it to be au‐
509 toloaded. Functions are described in the section `Functions' in zsh‐
510 misc(1). Users changing from the C shell and its relatives should no‐
511 tice that aliases are less used in zsh as they don't perform argument
512 substitution, only simple text replacement.
513 A few general functions, other than those for the line editor described
515 above, are provided with the shell and are described in zshcontrib(1).
516 Features include:
517 promptinit
519 a prompt theme system for changing prompts easily, see the sec‐
520 tion `Prompt Themes'
521 zsh-mime-setup
524 a MIME-handling system which dispatches commands according to
525 the suffix of a file as done by graphical file managers
526 zcalc a calculator
528 zargs a version of xargs that makes the find command redundant
530 zmv a command for renaming files by means of shell patterns.
532ZSHMISC(1) General Commands Manual ZSHMISC(1)
536
540 zshmisc - everything and then some
541
543 A simple command is a sequence of optional parameter assignments fol‐
544 lowed by blank-separated words, with optional redirections inter‐
545 spersed. For a description of assignment, see the beginning of zsh‐
546 param(1).
547 The first word is the command to be executed, and the remaining words,
549 if any, are arguments to the command. If a command name is given, the
550 parameter assignments modify the environment of the command when it is
551 executed. The value of a simple command is its exit status, or 128
552 plus the signal number if terminated by a signal. For example,
553 echo foo
555 is a simple command with arguments.
557 A pipeline is either a simple command, or a sequence of two or more
559 simple commands where each command is separated from the next by `|' or
560 `|&'. Where commands are separated by `|', the standard output of the
561 first command is connected to the standard input of the next. `|&' is
562 shorthand for `2>&1 |', which connects both the standard output and the
563 standard error of the command to the standard input of the next. The
564 value of a pipeline is the value of the last command, unless the pipe‐
565 line is preceded by `!' in which case the value is the logical inverse
566 of the value of the last command. For example,
567 echo foo | sed 's/foo/bar/'
569 is a pipeline, where the output (`foo' plus a newline) of the first
571 command will be passed to the input of the second.
572 If a pipeline is preceded by `coproc', it is executed as a coprocess; a
574 two-way pipe is established between it and the parent shell. The shell
575 can read from or write to the coprocess by means of the `>&p' and `<&p'
576 redirection operators or with `print -p' and `read -p'. A pipeline
577 cannot be preceded by both `coproc' and `!'. If job control is active,
578 the coprocess can be treated in other than input and output as an ordi‐
579 nary background job.
580 A sublist is either a single pipeline, or a sequence of two or more
582 pipelines separated by `&&' or `||'. If two pipelines are separated by
583 `&&', the second pipeline is executed only if the first succeeds (re‐
584 turns a zero status). If two pipelines are separated by `||', the sec‐
585 ond is executed only if the first fails (returns a nonzero status).
586 Both operators have equal precedence and are left associative. The
587 value of the sublist is the value of the last pipeline executed. For
588 example,
589 dmesg | grep panic && print yes
591 is a sublist consisting of two pipelines, the second just a simple com‐
593 mand which will be executed if and only if the grep command returns a
594 zero status. If it does not, the value of the sublist is that return
595 status, else it is the status returned by the print (almost certainly
596 zero).
597 A list is a sequence of zero or more sublists, in which each sublist is
599 terminated by `;', `&', `&|', `&!', or a newline. This terminator may
600 optionally be omitted from the last sublist in the list when the list
601 appears as a complex command inside `(...)' or `{...}'. When a sublist
602 is terminated by `;' or newline, the shell waits for it to finish be‐
603 fore executing the next sublist. If a sublist is terminated by a `&',
604 `&|', or `&!', the shell executes the last pipeline in it in the back‐
605 ground, and does not wait for it to finish (note the difference from
606 other shells which execute the whole sublist in the background). A
607 backgrounded pipeline returns a status of zero.
608 More generally, a list can be seen as a set of any shell commands what‐
610 soever, including the complex commands below; this is implied wherever
611 the word `list' appears in later descriptions. For example, the com‐
612 mands in a shell function form a special sort of list.
613
615 A simple command may be preceded by a precommand modifier, which will
616 alter how the command is interpreted. These modifiers are shell
617 builtin commands with the exception of nocorrect which is a reserved
618 word.
619 - The command is executed with a `-' prepended to its argv[0]
621 string.
622 builtin
624 The command word is taken to be the name of a builtin command,
625 rather than a shell function or external command.
626 command [ -pvV ]
628 The command word is taken to be the name of an external command,
629 rather than a shell function or builtin. If the POSIX_BUILTINS
630 option is set, builtins will also be executed but certain spe‐
631 cial properties of them are suppressed. The -p flag causes a de‐
632 fault path to be searched instead of that in $path. With the -v
633 flag, command is similar to whence and with -V, it is equivalent
634 to whence -v.
635 exec [ -cl ] [ -a argv0 ]
637 The following command together with any arguments is run in
638 place of the current process, rather than as a sub-process. The
639 shell does not fork and is replaced. The shell does not invoke
640 TRAPEXIT, nor does it source zlogout files. The options are
641 provided for compatibility with other shells.
642 The -c option clears the environment.
644 The -l option is equivalent to the - precommand modifier, to
646 treat the replacement command as a login shell; the command is
647 executed with a - prepended to its argv[0] string. This flag
648 has no effect if used together with the -a option.
649 The -a option is used to specify explicitly the argv[0] string
651 (the name of the command as seen by the process itself) to be
652 used by the replacement command and is directly equivalent to
653 setting a value for the ARGV0 environment variable.
654 nocorrect
656 Spelling correction is not done on any of the words. This must
657 appear before any other precommand modifier, as it is inter‐
658 preted immediately, before any parsing is done. It has no ef‐
659 fect in non-interactive shells.
660 noglob Filename generation (globbing) is not performed on any of the
662 words.
663
665 A complex command in zsh is one of the following:
666 if list then list [ elif list then list ] ... [ else list ] fi
668 The if list is executed, and if it returns a zero exit status,
669 the then list is executed. Otherwise, the elif list is executed
670 and if its status is zero, the then list is executed. If each
671 elif list returns nonzero status, the else list is executed.
672 for name ... [ in word ... ] term do list done
674 Expand the list of words, and set the parameter name to each of
675 them in turn, executing list each time. If the `in word' is
676 omitted, use the positional parameters instead of the words.
677 The term consists of one or more newline or ; which terminate
679 the words, and are optional when the `in word' is omitted.
680 More than one parameter name can appear before the list of
682 words. If N names are given, then on each execution of the loop
683 the next N words are assigned to the corresponding parameters.
684 If there are more names than remaining words, the remaining pa‐
685 rameters are each set to the empty string. Execution of the
686 loop ends when there is no remaining word to assign to the first
687 name. It is only possible for in to appear as the first name in
688 the list, else it will be treated as marking the end of the
689 list.
690 for (( [expr1] ; [expr2] ; [expr3] )) do list done
692 The arithmetic expression expr1 is evaluated first (see the sec‐
693 tion `Arithmetic Evaluation'). The arithmetic expression expr2
694 is repeatedly evaluated until it evaluates to zero and when
695 non-zero, list is executed and the arithmetic expression expr3
696 evaluated. If any expression is omitted, then it behaves as if
697 it evaluated to 1.
698 while list do list done
700 Execute the do list as long as the while list returns a zero
701 exit status.
702 until list do list done
704 Execute the do list as long as until list returns a nonzero exit
705 status.
706 repeat word do list done
708 word is expanded and treated as an arithmetic expression, which
709 must evaluate to a number n. list is then executed n times.
710 The repeat syntax is disabled by default when the shell starts
712 in a mode emulating another shell. It can be enabled with the
713 command `enable -r repeat'
714 case word in [ [(] pattern [ | pattern ] ... ) list (;;|;&|;|) ] ...
716 esac
717 Execute the list associated with the first pattern that matches
718 word, if any. The form of the patterns is the same as that used
719 for filename generation. See the section `Filename Generation'.
720 Note further that, unless the SH_GLOB option is set, the whole
722 pattern with alternatives is treated by the shell as equivalent
723 to a group of patterns within parentheses, although white space
724 may appear about the parentheses and the vertical bar and will
725 be stripped from the pattern at those points. White space may
726 appear elsewhere in the pattern; this is not stripped. If the
727 SH_GLOB option is set, so that an opening parenthesis can be un‐
728 ambiguously treated as part of the case syntax, the expression
729 is parsed into separate words and these are treated as strict
730 alternatives (as in other shells).
731 If the list that is executed is terminated with ;& rather than
733 ;;, the following list is also executed. The rule for the ter‐
734 minator of the following list ;;, ;& or ;| is applied unless the
735 esac is reached.
736 If the list that is executed is terminated with ;| the shell
738 continues to scan the patterns looking for the next match, exe‐
739 cuting the corresponding list, and applying the rule for the
740 corresponding terminator ;;, ;& or ;|. Note that word is not
741 re-expanded; all applicable patterns are tested with the same
742 word.
743 select name [ in word ... term ] do list done
745 where term is one or more newline or ; to terminate the words.
746 Print the set of words, each preceded by a number. If the in
747 word is omitted, use the positional parameters. The PROMPT3
748 prompt is printed and a line is read from the line editor if the
749 shell is interactive and that is active, or else standard input.
750 If this line consists of the number of one of the listed words,
751 then the parameter name is set to the word corresponding to this
752 number. If this line is empty, the selection list is printed
753 again. Otherwise, the value of the parameter name is set to
754 null. The contents of the line read from standard input is
755 saved in the parameter REPLY. list is executed for each selec‐
756 tion until a break or end-of-file is encountered.
757 ( list )
759 Execute list in a subshell. Traps set by the trap builtin are
760 reset to their default values while executing list.
761 { list }
763 Execute list.
764 { try-list } always { always-list }
766 First execute try-list. Regardless of errors, or break or con‐
767 tinue commands encountered within try-list, execute always-list.
768 Execution then continues from the result of the execution of
769 try-list; in other words, any error, or break or continue com‐
770 mand is treated in the normal way, as if always-list were not
771 present. The two chunks of code are referred to as the `try
772 block' and the `always block'.
773 Optional newlines or semicolons may appear after the always;
775 note, however, that they may not appear between the preceding
776 closing brace and the always.
777 An `error' in this context is a condition such as a syntax error
779 which causes the shell to abort execution of the current func‐
780 tion, script, or list. Syntax errors encountered while the
781 shell is parsing the code do not cause the always-list to be ex‐
782 ecuted. For example, an erroneously constructed if block in
783 try-list would cause the shell to abort during parsing, so that
784 always-list would not be executed, while an erroneous substitu‐
785 tion such as ${*foo*} would cause a run-time error, after which
786 always-list would be executed.
787 An error condition can be tested and reset with the special in‐
789 teger variable TRY_BLOCK_ERROR. Outside an always-list the
790 value is irrelevant, but it is initialised to -1. Inside al‐
791 ways-list, the value is 1 if an error occurred in the try-list,
792 else 0. If TRY_BLOCK_ERROR is set to 0 during the always-list,
793 the error condition caused by the try-list is reset, and shell
794 execution continues normally after the end of always-list. Al‐
795 tering the value during the try-list is not useful (unless this
796 forms part of an enclosing always block).
797 Regardless of TRY_BLOCK_ERROR, after the end of always-list the
799 normal shell status $? is the value returned from try-list.
800 This will be non-zero if there was an error, even if
801 TRY_BLOCK_ERROR was set to zero.
802 The following executes the given code, ignoring any errors it
804 causes. This is an alternative to the usual convention of pro‐
805 tecting code by executing it in a subshell.
806 {
808 # code which may cause an error
809 } always {
810 # This code is executed regardless of the error.
811 (( TRY_BLOCK_ERROR = 0 ))
812 }
813 # The error condition has been reset.
814 When a try block occurs outside of any function, a return or a
816 exit encountered in try-list does not cause the execution of al‐
817 ways-list. Instead, the shell exits immediately after any EXIT
818 trap has been executed. Otherwise, a return command encountered
819 in try-list will cause the execution of always-list, just like
820 break and continue.
821 function word ... [ () ] [ term ] { list }
823 word ... () [ term ] { list }
824 word ... () [ term ] command
825 where term is one or more newline or ;. Define a function which
826 is referenced by any one of word. Normally, only one word is
827 provided; multiple words are usually only useful for setting
828 traps. The body of the function is the list between the { and
829 }. See the section `Functions'.
830 If the option SH_GLOB is set for compatibility with other
832 shells, then whitespace may appear between the left and right
833 parentheses when there is a single word; otherwise, the paren‐
834 theses will be treated as forming a globbing pattern in that
835 case.
836 In any of the forms above, a redirection may appear outside the
838 function body, for example
839 func() { ... } 2>&1
841 The redirection is stored with the function and applied whenever
843 the function is executed. Any variables in the redirection are
844 expanded at the point the function is executed, but outside the
845 function scope.
846 time [ pipeline ]
848 The pipeline is executed, and timing statistics are reported on
849 the standard error in the form specified by the TIMEFMT parame‐
850 ter. If pipeline is omitted, print statistics about the shell
851 process and its children.
852 [[ exp ]]
854 Evaluates the conditional expression exp and return a zero exit
855 status if it is true. See the section `Conditional Expressions'
856 for a description of exp.
857
859 Many of zsh's complex commands have alternate forms. These are
860 non-standard and are likely not to be obvious even to seasoned shell
861 programmers; they should not be used anywhere that portability of shell
862 code is a concern.
863 The short versions below only work if sublist is of the form `{ list }'
865 or if the SHORT_LOOPS option is set. For the if, while and until com‐
866 mands, in both these cases the test part of the loop must also be suit‐
867 ably delimited, such as by `[[ ... ]]' or `(( ... ))', else the end of
868 the test will not be recognized. For the for, repeat, case and select
869 commands no such special form for the arguments is necessary, but the
870 other condition (the special form of sublist or use of the SHORT_LOOPS
871 option) still applies.
872 if list { list } [ elif list { list } ] ... [ else { list } ]
874 An alternate form of if. The rules mean that
875 if [[ -o ignorebraces ]] {
877 print yes
878 }
879 works, but
881 if true { # Does not work!
883 print yes
884 }
885 does not, since the test is not suitably delimited.
887 if list sublist
889 A short form of the alternate if. The same limitations on the
890 form of list apply as for the previous form.
891 for name ... ( word ... ) sublist
893 A short form of for.
894 for name ... [ in word ... ] term sublist
896 where term is at least one newline or ;. Another short form of
897 for.
898 for (( [expr1] ; [expr2] ; [expr3] )) sublist
900 A short form of the arithmetic for command.
901 foreach name ... ( word ... ) list end
903 Another form of for.
904 while list { list }
906 An alternative form of while. Note the limitations on the form
907 of list mentioned above.
908 until list { list }
910 An alternative form of until. Note the limitations on the form
911 of list mentioned above.
912 repeat word sublist
914 This is a short form of repeat.
915 case word { [ [(] pattern [ | pattern ] ... ) list (;;|;&|;|) ] ... }
917 An alternative form of case.
918 select name [ in word ... term ] sublist
920 where term is at least one newline or ;. A short form of se‐
921 lect.
922 function word ... [ () ] [ term ] sublist
924 This is a short form of function.
925
927 The following words are recognized as reserved words when used as the
928 first word of a command unless quoted or disabled using disable -r:
929 do done esac then elif else fi for case if while function repeat time
931 until select coproc nocorrect foreach end ! [[ { } declare export float
932 integer local readonly typeset
933 Additionally, `}' is recognized in any position if neither the IG‐
935 NORE_BRACES option nor the IGNORE_CLOSE_BRACES option is set.
936
938 Certain errors are treated as fatal by the shell: in an interactive
939 shell, they cause control to return to the command line, and in a
940 non-interactive shell they cause the shell to be aborted. In older
941 versions of zsh, a non-interactive shell running a script would not
942 abort completely, but would resume execution at the next command to be
943 read from the script, skipping the remainder of any functions or shell
944 constructs such as loops or conditions; this somewhat illogical behav‐
945 iour can be recovered by setting the option CONTINUE_ON_ERROR.
946 Fatal errors found in non-interactive shells include:
948 • Failure to parse shell options passed when invoking the shell
950 • Failure to change options with the set builtin
952 • Parse errors of all sorts, including failures to parse mathemat‐
954 ical expressions
955 • Failures to set or modify variable behaviour with typeset, lo‐
957 cal, declare, export, integer, float
958 • Execution of incorrectly positioned loop control structures
960 (continue, break)
961 • Attempts to use regular expression with no regular expression
963 module available
964 • Disallowed operations when the RESTRICTED options is set
966 • Failure to create a pipe needed for a pipeline
968 • Failure to create a multio
970 • Failure to autoload a module needed for a declared shell feature
972 • Errors creating command or process substitutions
974 • Syntax errors in glob qualifiers
976 • File generation errors where not caught by the option BAD_PAT‐
978 TERN
979 • All bad patterns used for matching within case statements
981 • File generation failures where not caused by NO_MATCH or similar
983 options
984 • All file generation errors where the pattern was used to create
986 a multio
987 • Memory errors where detected by the shell
989 • Invalid subscripts to shell variables
991 • Attempts to assign read-only variables
993 • Logical errors with variables such as assignment to the wrong
995 type
996 • Use of invalid variable names
998 • Errors in variable substitution syntax
1000 • Failure to convert characters in $'...' expressions
1002 If the POSIX_BUILTINS option is set, more errors associated with shell
1004 builtin commands are treated as fatal, as specified by the POSIX stan‐
1005 dard.
1006
1008 In non-interactive shells, or in interactive shells with the INTERAC‐
1009 TIVE_COMMENTS option set, a word beginning with the third character of
1010 the histchars parameter (`#' by default) causes that word and all the
1011 following characters up to a newline to be ignored.
1012
1014 Every eligible word in the shell input is checked to see if there is an
1015 alias defined for it. If so, it is replaced by the text of the alias
1016 if it is in command position (if it could be the first word of a simple
1017 command), or if the alias is global. If the replacement text ends with
1018 a space, the next word in the shell input is always eligible for pur‐
1019 poses of alias expansion. An alias is defined using the alias builtin;
1020 global aliases may be defined using the -g option to that builtin.
1021 A word is defined as:
1023 • Any plain string or glob pattern
1025 • Any quoted string, using any quoting method (note that the
1027 quotes must be part of the alias definition for this to be eli‐
1028 gible)
1029 • Any parameter reference or command substitution
1031 • Any series of the foregoing, concatenated without whitespace or
1033 other tokens between them
1034 • Any reserved word (case, do, else, etc.)
1036 • With global aliasing, any command separator, any redirection op‐
1038 erator, and `(' or `)' when not part of a glob pattern
1039 Alias expansion is done on the shell input before any other expansion
1041 except history expansion. Therefore, if an alias is defined for the
1042 word foo, alias expansion may be avoided by quoting part of the word,
1043 e.g. \foo. Any form of quoting works, although there is nothing to
1044 prevent an alias being defined for the quoted form such as \foo as
1045 well.
1046 When POSIX_ALIASES is set, only plain unquoted strings are eligible for
1048 aliasing. The alias builtin does not reject ineligible aliases, but
1049 they are not expanded.
1050 For use with completion, which would remove an initial backslash fol‐
1052 lowed by a character that isn't special, it may be more convenient to
1053 quote the word by starting with a single quote, i.e. 'foo; completion
1054 will automatically add the trailing single quote.
1055 Alias difficulties
1057 Although aliases can be used in ways that bend normal shell syntax, not
1058 every string of non-white-space characters can be used as an alias.
1059 Any set of characters not listed as a word above is not a word, hence
1061 no attempt is made to expand it as an alias, no matter how it is de‐
1062 fined (i.e. via the builtin or the special parameter aliases described
1063 in the section THE ZSH/PARAMETER MODULE in zshmodules(1)). However, as
1064 noted in the case of POSIX_ALIASES above, the shell does not attempt to
1065 deduce whether the string corresponds to a word at the time the alias
1066 is created.
1067 For example, an expression containing an = at the start of a command
1069 line is an assignment and cannot be expanded as an alias; a lone = is
1070 not an assignment but can only be set as an alias using the parameter,
1071 as otherwise the = is taken part of the syntax of the builtin command.
1072 It is not presently possible to alias the `((' token that introduces
1074 arithmetic expressions, because until a full statement has been parsed,
1075 it cannot be distinguished from two consecutive `(' tokens introducing
1076 nested subshells. Also, if a separator such as && is aliased, \&&
1077 turns into the two tokens \& and &, each of which may have been aliased
1078 separately. Similarly for \<<, \>|, etc.
1079 There is a commonly encountered problem with aliases illustrated by the
1081 following code:
1082 alias echobar='echo bar'; echobar
1084 This prints a message that the command echobar could not be found.
1086 This happens because aliases are expanded when the code is read in; the
1087 entire line is read in one go, so that when echobar is executed it is
1088 too late to expand the newly defined alias. This is often a problem in
1089 shell scripts, functions, and code executed with `source' or `.'. Con‐
1090 sequently, use of functions rather than aliases is recommended in
1091 non-interactive code.
1092 Note also the unhelpful interaction of aliases and function defini‐
1094 tions:
1095 alias func='noglob func'
1097 func() {
1098 echo Do something with $*
1099 }
1100 Because aliases are expanded in function definitions, this causes the
1102 following command to be executed:
1103 noglob func() {
1105 echo Do something with $*
1106 }
1107 which defines noglob as well as func as functions with the body given.
1109 To avoid this, either quote the name func or use the alternative func‐
1110 tion definition form `function func'. Ensuring the alias is defined
1111 after the function works but is problematic if the code fragment might
1112 be re-executed.
1113
1115 A character may be quoted (that is, made to stand for itself) by pre‐
1116 ceding it with a `\'. `\' followed by a newline is ignored.
1117 A string enclosed between `$'' and `'' is processed the same way as the
1119 string arguments of the print builtin, and the resulting string is con‐
1120 sidered to be entirely quoted. A literal `'' character can be included
1121 in the string by using the `\'' escape.
1122 All characters enclosed between a pair of single quotes ('') that is
1124 not preceded by a `$' are quoted. A single quote cannot appear within
1125 single quotes unless the option RC_QUOTES is set, in which case a pair
1126 of single quotes are turned into a single quote. For example,
1127 print ''''
1129 outputs nothing apart from a newline if RC_QUOTES is not set, but one
1131 single quote if it is set.
1132 Inside double quotes (""), parameter and command substitution occur,
1134 and `\' quotes the characters `\', ``', `"', `$', and the first charac‐
1135 ter of $histchars (default `!').
1136
1138 If a command is followed by & and job control is not active, then the
1139 default standard input for the command is the empty file /dev/null.
1140 Otherwise, the environment for the execution of a command contains the
1141 file descriptors of the invoking shell as modified by input/output
1142 specifications.
1143 The following may appear anywhere in a simple command or may precede or
1145 follow a complex command. Expansion occurs before word or digit is
1146 used except as noted below. If the result of substitution on word pro‐
1147 duces more than one filename, redirection occurs for each separate
1148 filename in turn.
1149 < word Open file word for reading as standard input. It is an error to
1151 open a file in this fashion if it does not exist.
1152 <> word
1154 Open file word for reading and writing as standard input. If
1155 the file does not exist then it is created.
1156 > word Open file word for writing as standard output. If the file does
1158 not exist then it is created. If the file exists, and the CLOB‐
1159 BER option is unset, this causes an error; otherwise, it is
1160 truncated to zero length.
1161 >| word
1163 >! word
1164 Same as >, except that the file is truncated to zero length if
1165 it exists, regardless of CLOBBER.
1166 >> word
1168 Open file word for writing in append mode as standard output.
1169 If the file does not exist, and the CLOBBER and APPEND_CREATE
1170 options are both unset, this causes an error; otherwise, the
1171 file is created.
1172 >>| word
1174 >>! word
1175 Same as >>, except that the file is created if it does not ex‐
1176 ist, regardless of CLOBBER and APPEND_CREATE.
1177 <<[-] word
1179 The shell input is read up to a line that is the same as word,
1180 or to an end-of-file. No parameter expansion, command substitu‐
1181 tion or filename generation is performed on word. The resulting
1182 document, called a here-document, becomes the standard input.
1183 If any character of word is quoted with single or double quotes
1185 or a `\', no interpretation is placed upon the characters of the
1186 document. Otherwise, parameter and command substitution occurs,
1187 `\' followed by a newline is removed, and `\' must be used to
1188 quote the characters `\', `$', ``' and the first character of
1189 word.
1190 Note that word itself does not undergo shell expansion. Back‐
1192 quotes in word do not have their usual effect; instead they be‐
1193 have similarly to double quotes, except that the backquotes
1194 themselves are passed through unchanged. (This information is
1195 given for completeness and it is not recommended that backquotes
1196 be used.) Quotes in the form $'...' have their standard effect
1197 of expanding backslashed references to special characters.
1198 If <<- is used, then all leading tabs are stripped from word and
1200 from the document.
1201 <<< word
1203 Perform shell expansion on word and pass the result to standard
1204 input. This is known as a here-string. Compare the use of word
1205 in here-documents above, where word does not undergo shell ex‐
1206 pansion.
1207 <& number
1209 >& number
1210 The standard input/output is duplicated from file descriptor
1211 number (see dup2(2)).
1212 <& -
1214 >& - Close the standard input/output.
1215 <& p
1217 >& p The input/output from/to the coprocess is moved to the standard
1218 input/output.
1219 >& word
1221 &> word
1222 (Except where `>& word' matches one of the above syntaxes; `&>'
1223 can always be used to avoid this ambiguity.) Redirects both
1224 standard output and standard error (file descriptor 2) in the
1225 manner of `> word'. Note that this does not have the same ef‐
1226 fect as `> word 2>&1' in the presence of multios (see the sec‐
1227 tion below).
1228 >&| word
1230 >&! word
1231 &>| word
1232 &>! word
1233 Redirects both standard output and standard error (file descrip‐
1234 tor 2) in the manner of `>| word'.
1235 >>& word
1237 &>> word
1238 Redirects both standard output and standard error (file descrip‐
1239 tor 2) in the manner of `>> word'.
1240 >>&| word
1242 >>&! word
1243 &>>| word
1244 &>>! word
1245 Redirects both standard output and standard error (file descrip‐
1246 tor 2) in the manner of `>>| word'.
1247 If one of the above is preceded by a digit, then the file descriptor
1249 referred to is that specified by the digit instead of the default 0 or
1250 1. The order in which redirections are specified is significant. The
1251 shell evaluates each redirection in terms of the (file descriptor,
1252 file) association at the time of evaluation. For example:
1253 ... 1>fname 2>&1
1255 first associates file descriptor 1 with file fname. It then associates
1257 file descriptor 2 with the file associated with file descriptor 1 (that
1258 is, fname). If the order of redirections were reversed, file descrip‐
1259 tor 2 would be associated with the terminal (assuming file descriptor 1
1260 had been) and then file descriptor 1 would be associated with file
1261 fname.
1262 The `|&' command separator described in Simple Commands & Pipelines in
1264 zshmisc(1) is a shorthand for `2>&1 |'.
1265 The various forms of process substitution, `<(list)', and `=(list)' for
1267 input and `>(list)' for output, are often used together with redirect‐
1268 ion. For example, if word in an output redirection is of the form
1269 `>(list)' then the output is piped to the command represented by list.
1270 See Process Substitution in zshexpn(1).
1271
1273 When the shell is parsing arguments to a command, and the shell option
1274 IGNORE_BRACES is not set, a different form of redirection is allowed:
1275 instead of a digit before the operator there is a valid shell identi‐
1276 fier enclosed in braces. The shell will open a new file descriptor
1277 that is guaranteed to be at least 10 and set the parameter named by the
1278 identifier to the file descriptor opened. No whitespace is allowed be‐
1279 tween the closing brace and the redirection character. For example:
1280 ... {myfd}>&1
1282 This opens a new file descriptor that is a duplicate of file descriptor
1284 1 and sets the parameter myfd to the number of the file descriptor,
1285 which will be at least 10. The new file descriptor can be written to
1286 using the syntax >&$myfd. The file descriptor remains open in sub‐
1287 shells and forked external executables.
1288 The syntax {varid}>&-, for example {myfd}>&-, may be used to close a
1290 file descriptor opened in this fashion. Note that the parameter given
1291 by varid must previously be set to a file descriptor in this case.
1292 It is an error to open or close a file descriptor in this fashion when
1294 the parameter is readonly. However, it is not an error to read or
1295 write a file descriptor using <&$param or >&$param if param is read‐
1296 only.
1297 If the option CLOBBER is unset, it is an error to open a file descrip‐
1299 tor using a parameter that is already set to an open file descriptor
1300 previously allocated by this mechanism. Unsetting the parameter before
1301 using it for allocating a file descriptor avoids the error.
1302 Note that this mechanism merely allocates or closes a file descriptor;
1304 it does not perform any redirections from or to it. It is usually con‐
1305 venient to allocate a file descriptor prior to use as an argument to
1306 exec. The syntax does not in any case work when used around complex
1307 commands such as parenthesised subshells or loops, where the opening
1308 brace is interpreted as part of a command list to be executed in the
1309 current shell.
1310 The following shows a typical sequence of allocation, use, and closing
1312 of a file descriptor:
1313 integer myfd
1315 exec {myfd}>~/logs/mylogfile.txt
1316 print This is a log message. >&$myfd
1317 exec {myfd}>&-
1318 Note that the expansion of the variable in the expression >&$myfd oc‐
1320 curs at the point the redirection is opened. This is after the expan‐
1321 sion of command arguments and after any redirections to the left on the
1322 command line have been processed.
1323
1325 If the user tries to open a file descriptor for writing more than once,
1326 the shell opens the file descriptor as a pipe to a process that copies
1327 its input to all the specified outputs, similar to tee, provided the
1328 MULTIOS option is set, as it is by default. Thus:
1329 date >foo >bar
1331 writes the date to two files, named `foo' and `bar'. Note that a pipe
1333 is an implicit redirection; thus
1334 date >foo | cat
1336 writes the date to the file `foo', and also pipes it to cat.
1338 Note that the shell opens all the files to be used in the multio
1340 process immediately, not at the point they are about to be written.
1341 Note also that redirections are always expanded in order. This happens
1343 regardless of the setting of the MULTIOS option, but with the option in
1344 effect there are additional consequences. For example, the meaning of
1345 the expression >&1 will change after a previous redirection:
1346 date >&1 >output
1348 In the case above, the >&1 refers to the standard output at the start
1350 of the line; the result is similar to the tee command. However, con‐
1351 sider:
1352 date >output >&1
1354 As redirections are evaluated in order, when the >&1 is encountered the
1356 standard output is set to the file output and another copy of the out‐
1357 put is therefore sent to that file. This is unlikely to be what is in‐
1358 tended.
1359 If the MULTIOS option is set, the word after a redirection operator is
1361 also subjected to filename generation (globbing). Thus
1362 : > *
1364 will truncate all files in the current directory, assuming there's at
1366 least one. (Without the MULTIOS option, it would create an empty file
1367 called `*'.) Similarly, you can do
1368 echo exit 0 >> *.sh
1370 If the user tries to open a file descriptor for reading more than once,
1372 the shell opens the file descriptor as a pipe to a process that copies
1373 all the specified inputs to its output in the order specified, provided
1374 the MULTIOS option is set. It should be noted that each file is opened
1375 immediately, not at the point where it is about to be read: this behav‐
1376 iour differs from cat, so if strictly standard behaviour is needed, cat
1377 should be used instead.
1378 Thus
1380 sort <foo <fubar
1382 or even
1384 sort <f{oo,ubar}
1386 is equivalent to `cat foo fubar | sort'.
1388 Expansion of the redirection argument occurs at the point the redirect‐
1390 ion is opened, at the point described above for the expansion of the
1391 variable in >&$myfd.
1392 Note that a pipe is an implicit redirection; thus
1394 cat bar | sort <foo
1396 is equivalent to `cat bar foo | sort' (note the order of the inputs).
1398 If the MULTIOS option is unset, each redirection replaces the previous
1400 redirection for that file descriptor. However, all files redirected to
1401 are actually opened, so
1402 echo Hello > bar > baz
1404 when MULTIOS is unset will truncate `bar', and write `Hello' into
1406 `baz'.
1407 There is a problem when an output multio is attached to an external
1409 program. A simple example shows this:
1410 cat file >file1 >file2
1412 cat file1 file2
1413 Here, it is possible that the second `cat' will not display the full
1415 contents of file1 and file2 (i.e. the original contents of file re‐
1416 peated twice).
1417 The reason for this is that the multios are spawned after the cat
1419 process is forked from the parent shell, so the parent shell does not
1420 wait for the multios to finish writing data. This means the command as
1421 shown can exit before file1 and file2 are completely written. As a
1422 workaround, it is possible to run the cat process as part of a job in
1423 the current shell:
1424 { cat file } >file >file2
1426 Here, the {...} job will pause to wait for both files to be written.
1428
1430 When a simple command consists of one or more redirection operators and
1431 zero or more parameter assignments, but no command name, zsh can behave
1432 in several ways.
1433 If the parameter NULLCMD is not set or the option CSH_NULLCMD is set,
1435 an error is caused. This is the csh behavior and CSH_NULLCMD is set by
1436 default when emulating csh.
1437 If the option SH_NULLCMD is set, the builtin `:' is inserted as a com‐
1439 mand with the given redirections. This is the default when emulating
1440 sh or ksh.
1441 Otherwise, if the parameter NULLCMD is set, its value will be used as a
1443 command with the given redirections. If both NULLCMD and READNULLCMD
1444 are set, then the value of the latter will be used instead of that of
1445 the former when the redirection is an input. The default for NULLCMD
1446 is `cat' and for READNULLCMD is `more'. Thus
1447 < file
1449 shows the contents of file on standard output, with paging if that is a
1451 terminal. NULLCMD and READNULLCMD may refer to shell functions.
1452
1454 If a command name contains no slashes, the shell attempts to locate it.
1455 If there exists a shell function by that name, the function is invoked
1456 as described in the section `Functions'. If there exists a shell
1457 builtin by that name, the builtin is invoked.
1458 Otherwise, the shell searches each element of $path for a directory
1460 containing an executable file by that name. If the search is unsuc‐
1461 cessful, the shell prints an error message and returns a nonzero exit
1462 status.
1463 If execution fails because the file is not in executable format, and
1465 the file is not a directory, it is assumed to be a shell script.
1466 /bin/sh is spawned to execute it. If the program is a file beginning
1467 with `#!', the remainder of the first line specifies an interpreter for
1468 the program. The shell will execute the specified interpreter on oper‐
1469 ating systems that do not handle this executable format in the kernel.
1470 If no external command is found but a function command_not_found_han‐
1472 dler exists the shell executes this function with all command line ar‐
1473 guments. The return status of the function becomes the status of the
1474 command. If the function wishes to mimic the behaviour of the shell
1475 when the command is not found, it should print the message `command not
1476 found: cmd' to standard error and return status 127. Note that the
1477 handler is executed in a subshell forked to execute an external com‐
1478 mand, hence changes to directories, shell parameters, etc. have no ef‐
1479 fect on the main shell.
1480
1482 Shell functions are defined with the function reserved word or the spe‐
1483 cial syntax `funcname ()'. Shell functions are read in and stored in‐
1484 ternally. Alias names are resolved when the function is read. Func‐
1485 tions are executed like commands with the arguments passed as posi‐
1486 tional parameters. (See the section `Command Execution'.)
1487 Functions execute in the same process as the caller and share all files
1489 and present working directory with the caller. A trap on EXIT set in‐
1490 side a function is executed after the function completes in the envi‐
1491 ronment of the caller.
1492 The return builtin is used to return from function calls.
1494 Function identifiers can be listed with the functions builtin. Func‐
1496 tions can be undefined with the unfunction builtin.
1497
1499 A function can be marked as undefined using the autoload builtin (or
1500 `functions -u' or `typeset -fu'). Such a function has no body. When
1501 the function is first executed, the shell searches for its definition
1502 using the elements of the fpath variable. Thus to define functions for
1503 autoloading, a typical sequence is:
1504 fpath=(~/myfuncs $fpath)
1506 autoload myfunc1 myfunc2 ...
1507 The usual alias expansion during reading will be suppressed if the au‐
1509 toload builtin or its equivalent is given the option -U. This is recom‐
1510 mended for the use of functions supplied with the zsh distribution.
1511 Note that for functions precompiled with the zcompile builtin command
1512 the flag -U must be provided when the .zwc file is created, as the cor‐
1513 responding information is compiled into the latter.
1514 For each element in fpath, the shell looks for three possible files,
1516 the newest of which is used to load the definition for the function:
1517 element.zwc
1519 A file created with the zcompile builtin command, which is ex‐
1520 pected to contain the definitions for all functions in the di‐
1521 rectory named element. The file is treated in the same manner
1522 as a directory containing files for functions and is searched
1523 for the definition of the function. If the definition is not
1524 found, the search for a definition proceeds with the other two
1525 possibilities described below.
1526 If element already includes a .zwc extension (i.e. the extension
1528 was explicitly given by the user), element is searched for the
1529 definition of the function without comparing its age to that of
1530 other files; in fact, there does not need to be any directory
1531 named element without the suffix. Thus including an element
1532 such as `/usr/local/funcs.zwc' in fpath will speed up the search
1533 for functions, with the disadvantage that functions included
1534 must be explicitly recompiled by hand before the shell notices
1535 any changes.
1536 element/function.zwc
1538 A file created with zcompile, which is expected to contain the
1539 definition for function. It may include other function defini‐
1540 tions as well, but those are neither loaded nor executed; a file
1541 found in this way is searched only for the definition of func‐
1542 tion.
1543 element/function
1545 A file of zsh command text, taken to be the definition for func‐
1546 tion.
1547 In summary, the order of searching is, first, in the parents of direc‐
1549 tories in fpath for the newer of either a compiled directory or a di‐
1550 rectory in fpath; second, if more than one of these contains a defini‐
1551 tion for the function that is sought, the leftmost in the fpath is cho‐
1552 sen; and third, within a directory, the newer of either a compiled
1553 function or an ordinary function definition is used.
1554 If the KSH_AUTOLOAD option is set, or the file contains only a simple
1556 definition of the function, the file's contents will be executed. This
1557 will normally define the function in question, but may also perform
1558 initialization, which is executed in the context of the function execu‐
1559 tion, and may therefore define local parameters. It is an error if the
1560 function is not defined by loading the file.
1561 Otherwise, the function body (with no surrounding `funcname() {...}')
1563 is taken to be the complete contents of the file. This form allows the
1564 file to be used directly as an executable shell script. If processing
1565 of the file results in the function being re-defined, the function it‐
1566 self is not re-executed. To force the shell to perform initialization
1567 and then call the function defined, the file should contain initializa‐
1568 tion code (which will be executed then discarded) in addition to a com‐
1569 plete function definition (which will be retained for subsequent calls
1570 to the function), and a call to the shell function, including any argu‐
1571 ments, at the end.
1572 For example, suppose the autoload file func contains
1574 func() { print This is func; }
1576 print func is initialized
1577 then `func; func' with KSH_AUTOLOAD set will produce both messages on
1579 the first call, but only the message `This is func' on the second and
1580 subsequent calls. Without KSH_AUTOLOAD set, it will produce the ini‐
1581 tialization message on the first call, and the other message on the
1582 second and subsequent calls.
1583 It is also possible to create a function that is not marked as au‐
1585 toloaded, but which loads its own definition by searching fpath, by us‐
1586 ing `autoload -X' within a shell function. For example, the following
1587 are equivalent:
1588 myfunc() {
1590 autoload -X
1591 }
1592 myfunc args...
1593 and
1595 unfunction myfunc # if myfunc was defined
1597 autoload myfunc
1598 myfunc args...
1599 In fact, the functions command outputs `builtin autoload -X' as the
1601 body of an autoloaded function. This is done so that
1602 eval "$(functions)"
1604 produces a reasonable result. A true autoloaded function can be iden‐
1606 tified by the presence of the comment `# undefined' in the body, be‐
1607 cause all comments are discarded from defined functions.
1608 To load the definition of an autoloaded function myfunc without execut‐
1610 ing myfunc, use:
1611 autoload +X myfunc
1613
1615 If no name is given for a function, it is `anonymous' and is handled
1616 specially. Either form of function definition may be used: a `()' with
1617 no preceding name, or a `function' with an immediately following open
1618 brace. The function is executed immediately at the point of definition
1619 and is not stored for future use. The function name is set to
1620 `(anon)'.
1621 Arguments to the function may be specified as words following the clos‐
1623 ing brace defining the function, hence if there are none no arguments
1624 (other than $0) are set. This is a difference from the way other func‐
1625 tions are parsed: normal function definitions may be followed by cer‐
1626 tain keywords such as `else' or `fi', which will be treated as argu‐
1627 ments to anonymous functions, so that a newline or semicolon is needed
1628 to force keyword interpretation.
1629 Note also that the argument list of any enclosing script or function is
1631 hidden (as would be the case for any other function called at this
1632 point).
1633 Redirections may be applied to the anonymous function in the same man‐
1635 ner as to a current-shell structure enclosed in braces. The main use
1636 of anonymous functions is to provide a scope for local variables. This
1637 is particularly convenient in start-up files as these do not provide
1638 their own local variable scope.
1639 For example,
1641 variable=outside
1643 function {
1644 local variable=inside
1645 print "I am $variable with arguments $*"
1646 } this and that
1647 print "I am $variable"
1648 outputs the following:
1650 I am inside with arguments this and that
1652 I am outside
1653 Note that function definitions with arguments that expand to nothing,
1655 for example `name=; function $name { ... }', are not treated as anony‐
1656 mous functions. Instead, they are treated as normal function defini‐
1657 tions where the definition is silently discarded.
1658
1660 Certain functions, if defined, have special meaning to the shell.
1661 Hook Functions
1663 For the functions below, it is possible to define an array that has the
1664 same name as the function with `_functions' appended. Any element in
1665 such an array is taken as the name of a function to execute; it is exe‐
1666 cuted in the same context and with the same arguments as the basic
1667 function. For example, if $chpwd_functions is an array containing the
1668 values `mychpwd', `chpwd_save_dirstack', then the shell attempts to ex‐
1669 ecute the functions `chpwd', `mychpwd' and `chpwd_save_dirstack', in
1670 that order. Any function that does not exist is silently ignored. A
1671 function found by this mechanism is referred to elsewhere as a `hook
1672 function'. An error in any function causes subsequent functions not to
1673 be run. Note further that an error in a precmd hook causes an immedi‐
1674 ately following periodic function not to run (though it may run at the
1675 next opportunity).
1676 chpwd Executed whenever the current working directory is changed.
1678 periodic
1680 If the parameter PERIOD is set, this function is executed every
1681 $PERIOD seconds, just before a prompt. Note that if multiple
1682 functions are defined using the array periodic_functions only
1683 one period is applied to the complete set of functions, and the
1684 scheduled time is not reset if the list of functions is altered.
1685 Hence the set of functions is always called together.
1686 precmd Executed before each prompt. Note that precommand functions are
1688 not re-executed simply because the command line is redrawn, as
1689 happens, for example, when a notification about an exiting job
1690 is displayed.
1691 preexec
1693 Executed just after a command has been read and is about to be
1694 executed. If the history mechanism is active (regardless of
1695 whether the line was discarded from the history buffer), the
1696 string that the user typed is passed as the first argument, oth‐
1697 erwise it is an empty string. The actual command that will be
1698 executed (including expanded aliases) is passed in two different
1699 forms: the second argument is a single-line, size-limited ver‐
1700 sion of the command (with things like function bodies elided);
1701 the third argument contains the full text that is being exe‐
1702 cuted.
1703 zshaddhistory
1705 Executed when a history line has been read interactively, but
1706 before it is executed. The sole argument is the complete his‐
1707 tory line (so that any terminating newline will still be
1708 present).
1709 If any of the hook functions returns status 1 (or any non-zero
1711 value other than 2, though this is not guaranteed for future
1712 versions of the shell) the history line will not be saved, al‐
1713 though it lingers in the history until the next line is exe‐
1714 cuted, allowing you to reuse or edit it immediately.
1715 If any of the hook functions returns status 2 the history line
1717 will be saved on the internal history list, but not written to
1718 the history file. In case of a conflict, the first non-zero
1719 status value is taken.
1720 A hook function may call `fc -p ...' to switch the history con‐
1722 text so that the history is saved in a different file from the
1723 that in the global HISTFILE parameter. This is handled spe‐
1724 cially: the history context is automatically restored after the
1725 processing of the history line is finished.
1726 The following example function works with one of the options
1728 INC_APPEND_HISTORY or SHARE_HISTORY set, in order that the line
1729 is written out immediately after the history entry is added. It
1730 first adds the history line to the normal history with the new‐
1731 line stripped, which is usually the correct behaviour. Then it
1732 switches the history context so that the line will be written to
1733 a history file in the current directory.
1734 zshaddhistory() {
1736 print -sr -- ${1%%$'\n'}
1737 fc -p .zsh_local_history
1738 }
1739 zshexit
1741 Executed at the point where the main shell is about to exit nor‐
1742 mally. This is not called by exiting subshells, nor when the
1743 exec precommand modifier is used before an external command.
1744 Also, unlike TRAPEXIT, it is not called when functions exit.
1745 Trap Functions
1747 The functions below are treated specially but do not have corresponding
1748 hook arrays.
1749 TRAPNAL
1751 If defined and non-null, this function will be executed whenever
1752 the shell catches a signal SIGNAL, where NAL is a signal name as
1753 specified for the kill builtin. The signal number will be
1754 passed as the first parameter to the function.
1755 If a function of this form is defined and null, the shell and
1757 processes spawned by it will ignore SIGNAL.
1758 The return status from the function is handled specially. If it
1760 is zero, the signal is assumed to have been handled, and execu‐
1761 tion continues normally. Otherwise, the shell will behave as
1762 interrupted except that the return status of the trap is re‐
1763 tained.
1764 Programs terminated by uncaught signals typically return the
1766 status 128 plus the signal number. Hence the following causes
1767 the handler for SIGINT to print a message, then mimic the usual
1768 effect of the signal.
1769 TRAPINT() {
1771 print "Caught SIGINT, aborting."
1772 return $(( 128 + $1 ))
1773 }
1774 The functions TRAPZERR, TRAPDEBUG and TRAPEXIT are never exe‐
1776 cuted inside other traps.
1777 TRAPDEBUG
1779 If the option DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD is set (as it is by default), ex‐
1780 ecuted before each command; otherwise executed after each com‐
1781 mand. See the description of the trap builtin in zshbuiltins(1)
1782 for details of additional features provided in debug traps.
1783 TRAPEXIT
1785 Executed when the shell exits, or when the current function ex‐
1786 its if defined inside a function. The value of $? at the start
1787 of execution is the exit status of the shell or the return sta‐
1788 tus of the function exiting.
1789 TRAPZERR
1791 Executed whenever a command has a non-zero exit status. How‐
1792 ever, the function is not executed if the command occurred in a
1793 sublist followed by `&&' or `||'; only the final command in a
1794 sublist of this type causes the trap to be executed. The func‐
1795 tion TRAPERR acts the same as TRAPZERR on systems where there is
1796 no SIGERR (this is the usual case).
1797 The functions beginning `TRAP' may alternatively be defined with the
1799 trap builtin: this may be preferable for some uses. Setting a trap
1800 with one form removes any trap of the other form for the same signal;
1801 removing a trap in either form removes all traps for the same signal.
1802 The forms
1803 TRAPNAL() {
1805 # code
1806 }
1807 ('function traps') and
1809 trap '
1811 # code
1812 ' NAL
1813 ('list traps') are equivalent in most ways, the exceptions being the
1815 following:
1816 • Function traps have all the properties of normal functions, ap‐
1818 pearing in the list of functions and being called with their own
1819 function context rather than the context where the trap was
1820 triggered.
1821 • The return status from function traps is special, whereas a re‐
1823 turn from a list trap causes the surrounding context to return
1824 with the given status.
1825 • Function traps are not reset within subshells, in accordance
1827 with zsh behaviour; list traps are reset, in accordance with
1828 POSIX behaviour.
1829
1831 If the MONITOR option is set, an interactive shell associates a job
1832 with each pipeline. It keeps a table of current jobs, printed by the
1833 jobs command, and assigns them small integer numbers. When a job is
1834 started asynchronously with `&', the shell prints a line to standard
1835 error which looks like:
1836 [1] 1234
1838 indicating that the job which was started asynchronously was job number
1840 1 and had one (top-level) process, whose process ID was 1234.
1841 If a job is started with `&|' or `&!', then that job is immediately
1843 disowned. After startup, it does not have a place in the job table,
1844 and is not subject to the job control features described here.
1845 If you are running a job and wish to do something else you may hit the
1847 key ^Z (control-Z) which sends a TSTP signal to the current job: this
1848 key may be redefined by the susp option of the external stty command.
1849 The shell will then normally indicate that the job has been `sus‐
1850 pended', and print another prompt. You can then manipulate the state
1851 of this job, putting it in the background with the bg command, or run
1852 some other commands and then eventually bring the job back into the
1853 foreground with the foreground command fg. A ^Z takes effect immedi‐
1854 ately and is like an interrupt in that pending output and unread input
1855 are discarded when it is typed.
1856 A job being run in the background will suspend if it tries to read from
1858 the terminal.
1859 Note that if the job running in the foreground is a shell function,
1861 then suspending it will have the effect of causing the shell to fork.
1862 This is necessary to separate the function's state from that of the
1863 parent shell performing the job control, so that the latter can return
1864 to the command line prompt. As a result, even if fg is used to con‐
1865 tinue the job the function will no longer be part of the parent shell,
1866 and any variables set by the function will not be visible in the parent
1867 shell. Thus the behaviour is different from the case where the func‐
1868 tion was never suspended. Zsh is different from many other shells in
1869 this regard.
1870 One additional side effect is that use of disown with a job created by
1872 suspending shell code in this fashion is delayed: the job can only be
1873 disowned once any process started from the parent shell has terminated.
1874 At that point, the disowned job disappears silently from the job list.
1875 The same behaviour is found when the shell is executing code as the
1877 right hand side of a pipeline or any complex shell construct such as
1878 if, for, etc., in order that the entire block of code can be managed as
1879 a single job. Background jobs are normally allowed to produce output,
1880 but this can be disabled by giving the command `stty tostop'. If you
1881 set this tty option, then background jobs will suspend when they try to
1882 produce output like they do when they try to read input.
1883 When a command is suspended and continued later with the fg or wait
1885 builtins, zsh restores tty modes that were in effect when it was sus‐
1886 pended. This (intentionally) does not apply if the command is contin‐
1887 ued via `kill -CONT', nor when it is continued with bg.
1888 There are several ways to refer to jobs in the shell. A job can be re‐
1890 ferred to by the process ID of any process of the job or by one of the
1891 following:
1892 %number
1894 The job with the given number.
1895 %string
1896 The last job whose command line begins with string.
1897 %?string
1898 The last job whose command line contains string.
1899 %% Current job.
1900 %+ Equivalent to `%%'.
1901 %- Previous job.
1902 The shell learns immediately whenever a process changes state. It nor‐
1904 mally informs you whenever a job becomes blocked so that no further
1905 progress is possible. If the NOTIFY option is not set, it waits until
1906 just before it prints a prompt before it informs you. All such notifi‐
1907 cations are sent directly to the terminal, not to the standard output
1908 or standard error.
1909 When the monitor mode is on, each background job that completes trig‐
1911 gers any trap set for CHLD.
1912 When you try to leave the shell while jobs are running or suspended,
1914 you will be warned that `You have suspended (running) jobs'. You may
1915 use the jobs command to see what they are. If you do this or immedi‐
1916 ately try to exit again, the shell will not warn you a second time; the
1917 suspended jobs will be terminated, and the running jobs will be sent a
1918 SIGHUP signal, if the HUP option is set.
1919 To avoid having the shell terminate the running jobs, either use the
1921 nohup command (see nohup(1)) or the disown builtin.
1922
1924 The INT and QUIT signals for an invoked command are ignored if the com‐
1925 mand is followed by `&' and the MONITOR option is not active. The
1926 shell itself always ignores the QUIT signal. Otherwise, signals have
1927 the values inherited by the shell from its parent (but see the TRAPNAL
1928 special functions in the section `Functions').
1929 Certain jobs are run asynchronously by the shell other than those ex‐
1931 plicitly put into the background; even in cases where the shell would
1932 usually wait for such jobs, an explicit exit command or exit due to the
1933 option ERR_EXIT will cause the shell to exit without waiting. Examples
1934 of such asynchronous jobs are process substitution, see the section
1935 PROCESS SUBSTITUTION in the zshexpn(1) manual page, and the handler
1936 processes for multios, see the section MULTIOS in the zshmisc(1) manual
1937 page.
1938
1940 The shell can perform integer and floating point arithmetic, either us‐
1941 ing the builtin let, or via a substitution of the form $((...)). For
1942 integers, the shell is usually compiled to use 8-byte precision where
1943 this is available, otherwise precision is 4 bytes. This can be tested,
1944 for example, by giving the command `print - $(( 12345678901 ))'; if the
1945 number appears unchanged, the precision is at least 8 bytes. Floating
1946 point arithmetic always uses the `double' type with whatever corre‐
1947 sponding precision is provided by the compiler and the library.
1948 The let builtin command takes arithmetic expressions as arguments; each
1950 is evaluated separately. Since many of the arithmetic operators, as
1951 well as spaces, require quoting, an alternative form is provided: for
1952 any command which begins with a `((', all the characters until a match‐
1953 ing `))' are treated as a quoted expression and arithmetic expansion
1954 performed as for an argument of let. More precisely, `((...))' is
1955 equivalent to `let "..."'. The return status is 0 if the arithmetic
1956 value of the expression is non-zero, 1 if it is zero, and 2 if an error
1957 occurred.
1958 For example, the following statement
1960 (( val = 2 + 1 ))
1962 is equivalent to
1964 let "val = 2 + 1"
1966 both assigning the value 3 to the shell variable val and returning a
1968 zero status.
1969 Integers can be in bases other than 10. A leading `0x' or `0X' denotes
1971 hexadecimal and a leading `0b' or `0B' binary. Integers may also be of
1972 the form `base#n', where base is a decimal number between two and
1973 thirty-six representing the arithmetic base and n is a number in that
1974 base (for example, `16#ff' is 255 in hexadecimal). The base# may also
1975 be omitted, in which case base 10 is used. For backwards compatibility
1976 the form `[base]n' is also accepted.
1977 An integer expression or a base given in the form `base#n' may contain
1979 underscores (`_') after the leading digit for visual guidance; these
1980 are ignored in computation. Examples are 1_000_000 or 0xffff_ffff
1981 which are equivalent to 1000000 and 0xffffffff respectively.
1982 It is also possible to specify a base to be used for output in the form
1984 `[#base]', for example `[#16]'. This is used when outputting arith‐
1985 metical substitutions or when assigning to scalar parameters, but an
1986 explicitly defined integer or floating point parameter will not be af‐
1987 fected. If an integer variable is implicitly defined by an arithmetic
1988 expression, any base specified in this way will be set as the vari‐
1989 able's output arithmetic base as if the option `-i base' to the typeset
1990 builtin had been used. The expression has no precedence and if it oc‐
1991 curs more than once in a mathematical expression, the last encountered
1992 is used. For clarity it is recommended that it appear at the beginning
1993 of an expression. As an example:
1994 typeset -i 16 y
1996 print $(( [#8] x = 32, y = 32 ))
1997 print $x $y
1998 outputs first `8#40', the rightmost value in the given output base, and
2000 then `8#40 16#20', because y has been explicitly declared to have out‐
2001 put base 16, while x (assuming it does not already exist) is implicitly
2002 typed by the arithmetic evaluation, where it acquires the output base
2003 8.
2004 The base may be replaced or followed by an underscore, which may itself
2006 be followed by a positive integer (if it is missing the value 3 is
2007 used). This indicates that underscores should be inserted into the
2008 output string, grouping the number for visual clarity. The following
2009 integer specifies the number of digits to group together. For example:
2010 setopt cbases
2012 print $(( [#16_4] 65536 ** 2 ))
2013 outputs `0x1_0000_0000'.
2015 The feature can be used with floating point numbers, in which case the
2017 base must be omitted; grouping is away from the decimal point. For ex‐
2018 ample,
2019 zmodload zsh/mathfunc
2021 print $(( [#_] sqrt(1e7) ))
2022 outputs `3_162.277_660_168_379_5' (the number of decimal places shown
2024 may vary).
2025 If the C_BASES option is set, hexadecimal numbers are output in the
2027 standard C format, for example `0xFF' instead of the usual `16#FF'. If
2028 the option OCTAL_ZEROES is also set (it is not by default), octal num‐
2029 bers will be treated similarly and hence appear as `077' instead of
2030 `8#77'. This option has no effect on the output of bases other than
2031 hexadecimal and octal, and these formats are always understood on in‐
2032 put.
2033 When an output base is specified using the `[#base]' syntax, an appro‐
2035 priate base prefix will be output if necessary, so that the value out‐
2036 put is valid syntax for input. If the # is doubled, for example
2037 `[##16]', then no base prefix is output.
2038 Floating point constants are recognized by the presence of a decimal
2040 point or an exponent. The decimal point may be the first character of
2041 the constant, but the exponent character e or E may not, as it will be
2042 taken for a parameter name. All numeric parts (before and after the
2043 decimal point and in the exponent) may contain underscores after the
2044 leading digit for visual guidance; these are ignored in computation.
2045 An arithmetic expression uses nearly the same syntax and associativity
2047 of expressions as in C.
2048 In the native mode of operation, the following operators are supported
2050 (listed in decreasing order of precedence):
2051 + - ! ~ ++ --
2053 unary plus/minus, logical NOT, complement, {pre,post}{in,de}cre‐
2054 ment
2055 << >> bitwise shift left, right
2056 & bitwise AND
2057 ^ bitwise XOR
2058 | bitwise OR
2059 ** exponentiation
2060 * / % multiplication, division, modulus (remainder)
2061 + - addition, subtraction
2062 < > <= >=
2063 comparison
2064 == != equality and inequality
2065 && logical AND
2066 || ^^ logical OR, XOR
2067 ? : ternary operator
2068 = += -= *= /= %= &= ^= |= <<= >>= &&= ||= ^^= **=
2069 assignment
2070 , comma operator
2071 The operators `&&', `||', `&&=', and `||=' are short-circuiting, and
2073 only one of the latter two expressions in a ternary operator is evalu‐
2074 ated. Note the precedence of the bitwise AND, OR, and XOR operators.
2075 With the option C_PRECEDENCES the precedences (but no other properties)
2077 of the operators are altered to be the same as those in most other lan‐
2078 guages that support the relevant operators:
2079 + - ! ~ ++ --
2081 unary plus/minus, logical NOT, complement, {pre,post}{in,de}cre‐
2082 ment
2083 ** exponentiation
2084 * / % multiplication, division, modulus (remainder)
2085 + - addition, subtraction
2086 << >> bitwise shift left, right
2087 < > <= >=
2088 comparison
2089 == != equality and inequality
2090 & bitwise AND
2091 ^ bitwise XOR
2092 | bitwise OR
2093 && logical AND
2094 ^^ logical XOR
2095 || logical OR
2096 ? : ternary operator
2097 = += -= *= /= %= &= ^= |= <<= >>= &&= ||= ^^= **=
2098 assignment
2099 , comma operator
2100 Note the precedence of exponentiation in both cases is below that of
2102 unary operators, hence `-3**2' evaluates as `9', not `-9'. Use paren‐
2103 theses where necessary: `-(3**2)'. This is for compatibility with
2104 other shells.
2105 Mathematical functions can be called with the syntax `func(args)',
2107 where the function decides if the args is used as a string or a
2108 comma-separated list of arithmetic expressions. The shell currently de‐
2109 fines no mathematical functions by default, but the module zsh/mathfunc
2110 may be loaded with the zmodload builtin to provide standard floating
2111 point mathematical functions.
2112 An expression of the form `##x' where x is any character sequence such
2114 as `a', `^A', or `\M-\C-x' gives the value of this character and an ex‐
2115 pression of the form `#name' gives the value of the first character of
2116 the contents of the parameter name. Character values are according to
2117 the character set used in the current locale; for multibyte character
2118 handling the option MULTIBYTE must be set. Note that this form is dif‐
2119 ferent from `$#name', a standard parameter substitution which gives the
2120 length of the parameter name. `#\' is accepted instead of `##', but
2121 its use is deprecated.
2122 Named parameters and subscripted arrays can be referenced by name
2124 within an arithmetic expression without using the parameter expansion
2125 syntax. For example,
2126 ((val2 = val1 * 2))
2128 assigns twice the value of $val1 to the parameter named val2.
2130 An internal integer representation of a named parameter can be speci‐
2132 fied with the integer builtin. Arithmetic evaluation is performed on
2133 the value of each assignment to a named parameter declared integer in
2134 this manner. Assigning a floating point number to an integer results
2135 in rounding towards zero.
2136 Likewise, floating point numbers can be declared with the float
2138 builtin; there are two types, differing only in their output format, as
2139 described for the typeset builtin. The output format can be bypassed
2140 by using arithmetic substitution instead of the parameter substitution,
2141 i.e. `${float}' uses the defined format, but `$((float))' uses a
2142 generic floating point format.
2143 Promotion of integer to floating point values is performed where neces‐
2145 sary. In addition, if any operator which requires an integer (`&',
2146 `|', `^', `<<', `>>' and their equivalents with assignment) is given a
2147 floating point argument, it will be silently rounded towards zero ex‐
2148 cept for `~' which rounds down.
2149 Users should beware that, in common with many other programming lan‐
2151 guages but not software designed for calculation, the evaluation of an
2152 expression in zsh is taken a term at a time and promotion of integers
2153 to floating point does not occur in terms only containing integers. A
2154 typical result of this is that a division such as 6/8 is truncated, in
2155 this being rounded towards 0. The FORCE_FLOAT shell option can be used
2156 in scripts or functions where floating point evaluation is required
2157 throughout.
2158 Scalar variables can hold integer or floating point values at different
2160 times; there is no memory of the numeric type in this case.
2161 If a variable is first assigned in a numeric context without previously
2163 being declared, it will be implicitly typed as integer or float and re‐
2164 tain that type either until the type is explicitly changed or until the
2165 end of the scope. This can have unforeseen consequences. For example,
2166 in the loop
2167 for (( f = 0; f < 1; f += 0.1 )); do
2169 # use $f
2170 done
2171 if f has not already been declared, the first assignment will cause it
2173 to be created as an integer, and consequently the operation `f += 0.1'
2174 will always cause the result to be truncated to zero, so that the loop
2175 will fail. A simple fix would be to turn the initialization into `f =
2176 0.0'. It is therefore best to declare numeric variables with explicit
2177 types.
2178
2180 A conditional expression is used with the [[ compound command to test
2181 attributes of files and to compare strings. Each expression can be
2182 constructed from one or more of the following unary or binary expres‐
2183 sions:
2184 -a file
2186 true if file exists.
2187 -b file
2189 true if file exists and is a block special file.
2190 -c file
2192 true if file exists and is a character special file.
2193 -d file
2195 true if file exists and is a directory.
2196 -e file
2198 true if file exists.
2199 -f file
2201 true if file exists and is a regular file.
2202 -g file
2204 true if file exists and has its setgid bit set.
2205 -h file
2207 true if file exists and is a symbolic link.
2208 -k file
2210 true if file exists and has its sticky bit set.
2211 -n string
2213 true if length of string is non-zero.
2214 -o option
2216 true if option named option is on. option may be a single char‐
2217 acter, in which case it is a single letter option name. (See
2218 the section `Specifying Options'.)
2219 When no option named option exists, and the POSIX_BUILTINS op‐
2221 tion hasn't been set, return 3 with a warning. If that option
2222 is set, return 1 with no warning.
2223 -p file
2225 true if file exists and is a FIFO special file (named pipe).
2226 -r file
2228 true if file exists and is readable by current process.
2229 -s file
2231 true if file exists and has size greater than zero.
2232 -t fd true if file descriptor number fd is open and associated with a
2234 terminal device. (note: fd is not optional)
2235 -u file
2237 true if file exists and has its setuid bit set.
2238 -v varname
2240 true if shell variable varname is set.
2241 -w file
2243 true if file exists and is writable by current process.
2244 -x file
2246 true if file exists and is executable by current process. If
2247 file exists and is a directory, then the current process has
2248 permission to search in the directory.
2249 -z string
2251 true if length of string is zero.
2252 -L file
2254 true if file exists and is a symbolic link.
2255 -O file
2257 true if file exists and is owned by the effective user ID of
2258 this process.
2259 -G file
2261 true if file exists and its group matches the effective group ID
2262 of this process.
2263 -S file
2265 true if file exists and is a socket.
2266 -N file
2268 true if file exists and its access time is not newer than its
2269 modification time.
2270 file1 -nt file2
2272 true if file1 exists and is newer than file2.
2273 file1 -ot file2
2275 true if file1 exists and is older than file2.
2276 file1 -ef file2
2278 true if file1 and file2 exist and refer to the same file.
2279 string = pattern
2281 string == pattern
2282 true if string matches pattern. The two forms are exactly
2283 equivalent. The `=' form is the traditional shell syntax (and
2284 hence the only one generally used with the test and [ builtins);
2285 the `==' form provides compatibility with other sorts of com‐
2286 puter language.
2287 string != pattern
2289 true if string does not match pattern.
2290 string =~ regexp
2292 true if string matches the regular expression regexp. If the
2293 option RE_MATCH_PCRE is set regexp is tested as a PCRE regular
2294 expression using the zsh/pcre module, else it is tested as a
2295 POSIX extended regular expression using the zsh/regex module.
2296 Upon successful match, some variables will be updated; no vari‐
2297 ables are changed if the matching fails.
2298 If the option BASH_REMATCH is not set the scalar parameter MATCH
2300 is set to the substring that matched the pattern and the integer
2301 parameters MBEGIN and MEND to the index of the start and end,
2302 respectively, of the match in string, such that if string is
2303 contained in variable var the expression `${var[$MBEGIN,$MEND]}'
2304 is identical to `$MATCH'. The setting of the option KSH_ARRAYS
2305 is respected. Likewise, the array match is set to the sub‐
2306 strings that matched parenthesised subexpressions and the arrays
2307 mbegin and mend to the indices of the start and end positions,
2308 respectively, of the substrings within string. The arrays are
2309 not set if there were no parenthesised subexpressions. For ex‐
2310 ample, if the string `a short string' is matched against the
2311 regular expression `s(...)t', then (assuming the option KSH_AR‐
2312 RAYS is not set) MATCH, MBEGIN and MEND are `short', 3 and 7,
2313 respectively, while match, mbegin and mend are single entry ar‐
2314 rays containing the strings `hor', `4' and `6', respectively.
2315 If the option BASH_REMATCH is set the array BASH_REMATCH is set
2317 to the substring that matched the pattern followed by the sub‐
2318 strings that matched parenthesised subexpressions within the
2319 pattern.
2320 string1 < string2
2322 true if string1 comes before string2 based on ASCII value of
2323 their characters.
2324 string1 > string2
2326 true if string1 comes after string2 based on ASCII value of
2327 their characters.
2328 exp1 -eq exp2
2330 true if exp1 is numerically equal to exp2. Note that for purely
2331 numeric comparisons use of the ((...)) builtin described in the
2332 section `ARITHMETIC EVALUATION' is more convenient than condi‐
2333 tional expressions.
2334 exp1 -ne exp2
2336 true if exp1 is numerically not equal to exp2.
2337 exp1 -lt exp2
2339 true if exp1 is numerically less than exp2.
2340 exp1 -gt exp2
2342 true if exp1 is numerically greater than exp2.
2343 exp1 -le exp2
2345 true if exp1 is numerically less than or equal to exp2.
2346 exp1 -ge exp2
2348 true if exp1 is numerically greater than or equal to exp2.
2349 ( exp )
2351 true if exp is true.
2352 ! exp true if exp is false.
2354 exp1 && exp2
2356 true if exp1 and exp2 are both true.
2357 exp1 || exp2
2359 true if either exp1 or exp2 is true.
2360 For compatibility, if there is a single argument that is not syntacti‐
2362 cally significant, typically a variable, the condition is treated as a
2363 test for whether the expression expands as a string of non-zero length.
2364 In other words, [[ $var ]] is the same as [[ -n $var ]]. It is recom‐
2365 mended that the second, explicit, form be used where possible.
2366 Normal shell expansion is performed on the file, string and pattern ar‐
2368 guments, but the result of each expansion is constrained to be a single
2369 word, similar to the effect of double quotes.
2370 Filename generation is not performed on any form of argument to condi‐
2372 tions. However, it can be forced in any case where normal shell expan‐
2373 sion is valid and when the option EXTENDED_GLOB is in effect by using
2374 an explicit glob qualifier of the form (#q) at the end of the string.
2375 A normal glob qualifier expression may appear between the `q' and the
2376 closing parenthesis; if none appears the expression has no effect be‐
2377 yond causing filename generation. The results of filename generation
2378 are joined together to form a single word, as with the results of other
2379 forms of expansion.
2380 This special use of filename generation is only available with the [[
2382 syntax. If the condition occurs within the [ or test builtin commands
2383 then globbing occurs instead as part of normal command line expansion
2384 before the condition is evaluated. In this case it may generate multi‐
2385 ple words which are likely to confuse the syntax of the test command.
2386 For example,
2388 [[ -n file*(#qN) ]]
2390 produces status zero if and only if there is at least one file in the
2392 current directory beginning with the string `file'. The globbing qual‐
2393 ifier N ensures that the expression is empty if there is no matching
2394 file.
2395 Pattern metacharacters are active for the pattern arguments; the pat‐
2397 terns are the same as those used for filename generation, see zsh‐
2398 expn(1), but there is no special behaviour of `/' nor initial dots, and
2399 no glob qualifiers are allowed.
2400 In each of the above expressions, if file is of the form `/dev/fd/n',
2402 where n is an integer, then the test applied to the open file whose de‐
2403 scriptor number is n, even if the underlying system does not support
2404 the /dev/fd directory.
2405 In the forms which do numeric comparison, the expressions exp undergo
2407 arithmetic expansion as if they were enclosed in $((...)).
2408 For example, the following:
2410 [[ ( -f foo || -f bar ) && $report = y* ]] && print File exists.
2412 tests if either file foo or file bar exists, and if so, if the value of
2414 the parameter report begins with `y'; if the complete condition is
2415 true, the message `File exists.' is printed.
2416
2418 Prompt sequences undergo a special form of expansion. This type of ex‐
2419 pansion is also available using the -P option to the print builtin.
2420 If the PROMPT_SUBST option is set, the prompt string is first subjected
2422 to parameter expansion, command substitution and arithmetic expansion.
2423 See zshexpn(1).
2424 Certain escape sequences may be recognised in the prompt string.
2426 If the PROMPT_BANG option is set, a `!' in the prompt is replaced by
2428 the current history event number. A literal `!' may then be repre‐
2429 sented as `!!'.
2430 If the PROMPT_PERCENT option is set, certain escape sequences that
2432 start with `%' are expanded. Many escapes are followed by a single
2433 character, although some of these take an optional integer argument
2434 that should appear between the `%' and the next character of the se‐
2435 quence. More complicated escape sequences are available to provide
2436 conditional expansion.
2437
2439 Special characters
2440 %% A `%'.
2441 %) A `)'.
2443 Login information
2445 %l The line (tty) the user is logged in on, without `/dev/' prefix.
2446 If the name starts with `/dev/tty', that prefix is stripped.
2447 %M The full machine hostname.
2449 %m The hostname up to the first `.'. An integer may follow the `%'
2451 to specify how many components of the hostname are desired.
2452 With a negative integer, trailing components of the hostname are
2453 shown.
2454 %n $USERNAME.
2456 %y The line (tty) the user is logged in on, without `/dev/' prefix.
2458 This does not treat `/dev/tty' names specially.
2459 Shell state
2461 %# A `#' if the shell is running with privileges, a `%' if not.
2462 Equivalent to `%(!.#.%%)'. The definition of `privileged', for
2463 these purposes, is that either the effective user ID is zero,
2464 or, if POSIX.1e capabilities are supported, that at least one
2465 capability is raised in either the Effective or Inheritable ca‐
2466 pability vectors.
2467 %? The return status of the last command executed just before the
2469 prompt.
2470 %_ The status of the parser, i.e. the shell constructs (like `if'
2472 and `for') that have been started on the command line. If given
2473 an integer number that many strings will be printed; zero or
2474 negative or no integer means print as many as there are. This
2475 is most useful in prompts PS2 for continuation lines and PS4 for
2476 debugging with the XTRACE option; in the latter case it will
2477 also work non-interactively.
2478 %^ The status of the parser in reverse. This is the same as `%_'
2480 other than the order of strings. It is often used in RPS2.
2481 %d
2483 %/ Current working directory. If an integer follows the `%', it
2484 specifies a number of trailing components of the current working
2485 directory to show; zero means the whole path. A negative inte‐
2486 ger specifies leading components, i.e. %-1d specifies the first
2487 component.
2488 %~ As %d and %/, but if the current working directory starts with
2490 $HOME, that part is replaced by a `~'. Furthermore, if it has a
2491 named directory as its prefix, that part is replaced by a `~'
2492 followed by the name of the directory, but only if the result is
2493 shorter than the full path; see Dynamic and Static named direc‐
2494 tories in zshexpn(1).
2495 %e Evaluation depth of the current sourced file, shell function, or
2497 eval. This is incremented or decremented every time the value
2498 of %N is set or reverted to a previous value, respectively.
2499 This is most useful for debugging as part of $PS4.
2500 %h
2502 %! Current history event number.
2503 %i The line number currently being executed in the script, sourced
2505 file, or shell function given by %N. This is most useful for
2506 debugging as part of $PS4.
2507 %I The line number currently being executed in the file %x. This
2509 is similar to %i, but the line number is always a line number in
2510 the file where the code was defined, even if the code is a shell
2511 function.
2512 %j The number of jobs.
2514 %L The current value of $SHLVL.
2516 %N The name of the script, sourced file, or shell function that zsh
2518 is currently executing, whichever was started most recently. If
2519 there is none, this is equivalent to the parameter $0. An inte‐
2520 ger may follow the `%' to specify a number of trailing path com‐
2521 ponents to show; zero means the full path. A negative integer
2522 specifies leading components.
2523 %x The name of the file containing the source code currently being
2525 executed. This behaves as %N except that function and eval com‐
2526 mand names are not shown, instead the file where they were de‐
2527 fined.
2528 %c
2530 %.
2531 %C Trailing component of the current working directory. An integer
2532 may follow the `%' to get more than one component. Unless `%C'
2533 is used, tilde contraction is performed first. These are depre‐
2534 cated as %c and %C are equivalent to %1~ and %1/, respectively,
2535 while explicit positive integers have the same effect as for the
2536 latter two sequences.
2537 Date and time
2539 %D The date in yy-mm-dd format.
2540 %T Current time of day, in 24-hour format.
2542 %t
2544 %@ Current time of day, in 12-hour, am/pm format.
2545 %* Current time of day in 24-hour format, with seconds.
2547 %w The date in day-dd format.
2549 %W The date in mm/dd/yy format.
2551 %D{string}
2553 string is formatted using the strftime function. See strf‐
2554 time(3) for more details. Various zsh extensions provide num‐
2555 bers with no leading zero or space if the number is a single
2556 digit:
2557 %f a day of the month
2559 %K the hour of the day on the 24-hour clock
2560 %L the hour of the day on the 12-hour clock
2561 In addition, if the system supports the POSIX gettimeofday sys‐
2563 tem call, %. provides decimal fractions of a second since the
2564 epoch with leading zeroes. By default three decimal places are
2565 provided, but a number of digits up to 9 may be given following
2566 the %; hence %6. outputs microseconds, and %9. outputs nanosec‐
2567 onds. (The latter requires a nanosecond-precision clock_get‐
2568 time; systems lacking this will return a value multiplied by the
2569 appropriate power of 10.) A typical example of this is the for‐
2570 mat `%D{%H:%M:%S.%.}'.
2571 The GNU extension %N is handled as a synonym for %9..
2573 Additionally, the GNU extension that a `-' between the % and the
2575 format character causes a leading zero or space to be stripped
2576 is handled directly by the shell for the format characters d, f,
2577 H, k, l, m, M, S and y; any other format characters are provided
2578 to the system's strftime(3) with any leading `-' present, so the
2579 handling is system dependent. Further GNU (or other) extensions
2580 are also passed to strftime(3) and may work if the system sup‐
2581 ports them.
2582 Visual effects
2584 %B (%b)
2585 Start (stop) boldface mode.
2586 %E Clear to end of line.
2588 %U (%u)
2590 Start (stop) underline mode.
2591 %S (%s)
2593 Start (stop) standout mode.
2594 %F (%f)
2596 Start (stop) using a different foreground colour, if supported
2597 by the terminal. The colour may be specified two ways: either
2598 as a numeric argument, as normal, or by a sequence in braces
2599 following the %F, for example %F{red}. In the latter case the
2600 values allowed are as described for the fg zle_highlight attri‐
2601 bute; see Character Highlighting in zshzle(1). This means that
2602 numeric colours are allowed in the second format also.
2603 %K (%k)
2605 Start (stop) using a different bacKground colour. The syntax is
2606 identical to that for %F and %f.
2607 %{...%}
2609 Include a string as a literal escape sequence. The string
2610 within the braces should not change the cursor position. Brace
2611 pairs can nest.
2612 A positive numeric argument between the % and the { is treated
2614 as described for %G below.
2615 %G Within a %{...%} sequence, include a `glitch': that is, assume
2617 that a single character width will be output. This is useful
2618 when outputting characters that otherwise cannot be correctly
2619 handled by the shell, such as the alternate character set on
2620 some terminals. The characters in question can be included
2621 within a %{...%} sequence together with the appropriate number
2622 of %G sequences to indicate the correct width. An integer be‐
2623 tween the `%' and `G' indicates a character width other than
2624 one. Hence %{seq%2G%} outputs seq and assumes it takes up the
2625 width of two standard characters.
2626 Multiple uses of %G accumulate in the obvious fashion; the posi‐
2628 tion of the %G is unimportant. Negative integers are not han‐
2629 dled.
2630 Note that when prompt truncation is in use it is advisable to
2632 divide up output into single characters within each %{...%}
2633 group so that the correct truncation point can be found.
2634
2636 %v The value of the first element of the psvar array parameter.
2637 Following the `%' with an integer gives that element of the ar‐
2638 ray. Negative integers count from the end of the array.
2639 %(x.true-text.false-text)
2641 Specifies a ternary expression. The character following the x
2642 is arbitrary; the same character is used to separate the text
2643 for the `true' result from that for the `false' result. This
2644 separator may not appear in the true-text, except as part of a
2645 %-escape sequence. A `)' may appear in the false-text as `%)'.
2646 true-text and false-text may both contain arbitrarily-nested es‐
2647 cape sequences, including further ternary expressions.
2648 The left parenthesis may be preceded or followed by a positive
2650 integer n, which defaults to zero. A negative integer will be
2651 multiplied by -1, except as noted below for `l'. The test char‐
2652 acter x may be any of the following:
2653 ! True if the shell is running with privileges.
2655 # True if the effective uid of the current process is n.
2656 ? True if the exit status of the last command was n.
2657 _ True if at least n shell constructs were started.
2658 C
2659 / True if the current absolute path has at least n elements
2660 relative to the root directory, hence / is counted as 0
2661 elements.
2662 c
2663 .
2664 ~ True if the current path, with prefix replacement, has at
2665 least n elements relative to the root directory, hence /
2666 is counted as 0 elements.
2667 D True if the month is equal to n (January = 0).
2668 d True if the day of the month is equal to n.
2669 e True if the evaluation depth is at least n.
2670 g True if the effective gid of the current process is n.
2671 j True if the number of jobs is at least n.
2672 L True if the SHLVL parameter is at least n.
2673 l True if at least n characters have already been printed
2674 on the current line. When n is negative, true if at
2675 least abs(n) characters remain before the opposite margin
2676 (thus the left margin for RPROMPT).
2677 S True if the SECONDS parameter is at least n.
2678 T True if the time in hours is equal to n.
2679 t True if the time in minutes is equal to n.
2680 v True if the array psvar has at least n elements.
2681 V True if element n of the array psvar is set and
2682 non-empty.
2683 w True if the day of the week is equal to n (Sunday = 0).
2684 %<string<
2686 %>string>
2687 %[xstring]
2688 Specifies truncation behaviour for the remainder of the prompt
2689 string. The third, deprecated, form is equivalent to
2690 `%xstringx', i.e. x may be `<' or `>'. The string will be dis‐
2691 played in place of the truncated portion of any string; note
2692 this does not undergo prompt expansion.
2693 The numeric argument, which in the third form may appear immedi‐
2695 ately after the `[', specifies the maximum permitted length of
2696 the various strings that can be displayed in the prompt. In the
2697 first two forms, this numeric argument may be negative, in which
2698 case the truncation length is determined by subtracting the ab‐
2699 solute value of the numeric argument from the number of charac‐
2700 ter positions remaining on the current prompt line. If this re‐
2701 sults in a zero or negative length, a length of 1 is used. In
2702 other words, a negative argument arranges that after truncation
2703 at least n characters remain before the right margin (left mar‐
2704 gin for RPROMPT).
2705 The forms with `<' truncate at the left of the string, and the
2707 forms with `>' truncate at the right of the string. For exam‐
2708 ple, if the current directory is `/home/pike', the prompt
2709 `%8<..<%/' will expand to `..e/pike'. In this string, the ter‐
2710 minating character (`<', `>' or `]'), or in fact any character,
2711 may be quoted by a preceding `\'; note when using print -P, how‐
2712 ever, that this must be doubled as the string is also subject to
2713 standard print processing, in addition to any backslashes re‐
2714 moved by a double quoted string: the worst case is therefore
2715 `print -P "%<\\\\<<..."'.
2716 If the string is longer than the specified truncation length, it
2718 will appear in full, completely replacing the truncated string.
2719 The part of the prompt string to be truncated runs to the end of
2721 the string, or to the end of the next enclosing group of the
2722 `%(' construct, or to the next truncation encountered at the
2723 same grouping level (i.e. truncations inside a `%(' are sepa‐
2724 rate), which ever comes first. In particular, a truncation with
2725 argument zero (e.g., `%<<') marks the end of the range of the
2726 string to be truncated while turning off truncation from there
2727 on. For example, the prompt `%10<...<%~%<<%# ' will print a
2728 truncated representation of the current directory, followed by a
2729 `%' or `#', followed by a space. Without the `%<<', those two
2730 characters would be included in the string to be truncated.
2731 Note that `%-0<<' is not equivalent to `%<<' but specifies that
2732 the prompt is truncated at the right margin.
2733 Truncation applies only within each individual line of the
2735 prompt, as delimited by embedded newlines (if any). If the to‐
2736 tal length of any line of the prompt after truncation is greater
2737 than the terminal width, or if the part to be truncated contains
2738 embedded newlines, truncation behavior is undefined and may
2739 change in a future version of the shell. Use
2740 `%-n(l.true-text.false-text)' to remove parts of the prompt when
2741 the available space is less than n.
2742ZSHEXPN(1) General Commands Manual ZSHEXPN(1)
2746
2750 zshexpn - zsh expansion and substitution
2751
2753 The following types of expansions are performed in the indicated order
2754 in five steps:
2755 History Expansion
2757 This is performed only in interactive shells.
2758 Alias Expansion
2760 Aliases are expanded immediately before the command line is
2761 parsed as explained under Aliasing in zshmisc(1).
2762 Process Substitution
2764 Parameter Expansion
2765 Command Substitution
2766 Arithmetic Expansion
2767 Brace Expansion
2768 These five are performed in left-to-right fashion. On each ar‐
2769 gument, any of the five steps that are needed are performed one
2770 after the other. Hence, for example, all the parts of parameter
2771 expansion are completed before command substitution is started.
2772 After these expansions, all unquoted occurrences of the charac‐
2773 ters `\',`'' and `"' are removed.
2774 Filename Expansion
2776 If the SH_FILE_EXPANSION option is set, the order of expansion
2777 is modified for compatibility with sh and ksh. In that case
2778 filename expansion is performed immediately after alias expan‐
2779 sion, preceding the set of five expansions mentioned above.
2780 Filename Generation
2782 This expansion, commonly referred to as globbing, is always done
2783 last.
2784 The following sections explain the types of expansion in detail.
2786
2788 History expansion allows you to use words from previous command lines
2789 in the command line you are typing. This simplifies spelling correc‐
2790 tions and the repetition of complicated commands or arguments.
2791 Immediately before execution, each command is saved in the history
2793 list, the size of which is controlled by the HISTSIZE parameter. The
2794 one most recent command is always retained in any case. Each saved
2795 command in the history list is called a history event and is assigned a
2796 number, beginning with 1 (one) when the shell starts up. The history
2797 number that you may see in your prompt (see EXPANSION OF PROMPT SE‐
2798 QUENCES in zshmisc(1)) is the number that is to be assigned to the next
2799 command.
2800 Overview
2802 A history expansion begins with the first character of the histchars
2803 parameter, which is `!' by default, and may occur anywhere on the com‐
2804 mand line, including inside double quotes (but not inside single quotes
2805 '...' or C-style quotes $'...' nor when escaped with a backslash).
2806 The first character is followed by an optional event designator (see
2808 the section `Event Designators') and then an optional word designator
2809 (the section `Word Designators'); if neither of these designators is
2810 present, no history expansion occurs.
2811 Input lines containing history expansions are echoed after being ex‐
2813 panded, but before any other expansions take place and before the com‐
2814 mand is executed. It is this expanded form that is recorded as the
2815 history event for later references.
2816 History expansions do not nest.
2818 By default, a history reference with no event designator refers to the
2820 same event as any preceding history reference on that command line; if
2821 it is the only history reference in a command, it refers to the previ‐
2822 ous command. However, if the option CSH_JUNKIE_HISTORY is set, then
2823 every history reference with no event specification always refers to
2824 the previous command.
2825 For example, `!' is the event designator for the previous command, so
2827 `!!:1' always refers to the first word of the previous command, and
2828 `!!$' always refers to the last word of the previous command. With
2829 CSH_JUNKIE_HISTORY set, then `!:1' and `!$' function in the same manner
2830 as `!!:1' and `!!$', respectively. Conversely, if CSH_JUNKIE_HISTORY
2831 is unset, then `!:1' and `!$' refer to the first and last words, re‐
2832 spectively, of the same event referenced by the nearest other history
2833 reference preceding them on the current command line, or to the previ‐
2834 ous command if there is no preceding reference.
2835 The character sequence `^foo^bar' (where `^' is actually the second
2837 character of the histchars parameter) repeats the last command, replac‐
2838 ing the string foo with bar. More precisely, the sequence `^foo^bar^'
2839 is synonymous with `!!:s^foo^bar^', hence other modifiers (see the sec‐
2840 tion `Modifiers') may follow the final `^'. In particular,
2841 `^foo^bar^:G' performs a global substitution.
2842 If the shell encounters the character sequence `!"' in the input, the
2844 history mechanism is temporarily disabled until the current list (see
2845 zshmisc(1)) is fully parsed. The `!"' is removed from the input, and
2846 any subsequent `!' characters have no special significance.
2847 A less convenient but more comprehensible form of command history sup‐
2849 port is provided by the fc builtin.
2850 Event Designators
2852 An event designator is a reference to a command-line entry in the his‐
2853 tory list. In the list below, remember that the initial `!' in each
2854 item may be changed to another character by setting the histchars pa‐
2855 rameter.
2856 ! Start a history expansion, except when followed by a blank, new‐
2858 line, `=' or `('. If followed immediately by a word designator
2859 (see the section `Word Designators'), this forms a history ref‐
2860 erence with no event designator (see the section `Overview').
2861 !! Refer to the previous command. By itself, this expansion re‐
2863 peats the previous command.
2864 !n Refer to command-line n.
2866 !-n Refer to the current command-line minus n.
2868 !str Refer to the most recent command starting with str.
2870 !?str[?]
2872 Refer to the most recent command containing str. The trailing
2873 `?' is necessary if this reference is to be followed by a modi‐
2874 fier or followed by any text that is not to be considered part
2875 of str.
2876 !# Refer to the current command line typed in so far. The line is
2878 treated as if it were complete up to and including the word be‐
2879 fore the one with the `!#' reference.
2880 !{...} Insulate a history reference from adjacent characters (if neces‐
2882 sary).
2883 Word Designators
2885 A word designator indicates which word or words of a given command line
2886 are to be included in a history reference. A `:' usually separates the
2887 event specification from the word designator. It may be omitted only
2888 if the word designator begins with a `^', `$', `*', `-' or `%'. Word
2889 designators include:
2890 0 The first input word (command).
2892 n The nth argument.
2893 ^ The first argument. That is, 1.
2894 $ The last argument.
2895 % The word matched by (the most recent) ?str search.
2896 x-y A range of words; x defaults to 0.
2897 * All the arguments, or a null value if there are none.
2898 x* Abbreviates `x-$'.
2899 x- Like `x*' but omitting word $.
2900 Note that a `%' word designator works only when used in one of `!%',
2902 `!:%' or `!?str?:%', and only when used after a !? expansion (possibly
2903 in an earlier command). Anything else results in an error, although
2904 the error may not be the most obvious one.
2905 Modifiers
2907 After the optional word designator, you can add a sequence of one or
2908 more of the following modifiers, each preceded by a `:'. These modi‐
2909 fiers also work on the result of filename generation and parameter ex‐
2910 pansion, except where noted.
2911 a Turn a file name into an absolute path: prepends the current
2913 directory, if necessary; remove `.' path segments; and remove
2914 `..' path segments and the segments that immediately precede
2915 them.
2916 This transformation is agnostic about what is in the filesystem,
2918 i.e. is on the logical, not the physical directory. It takes
2919 place in the same manner as when changing directories when nei‐
2920 ther of the options CHASE_DOTS or CHASE_LINKS is set. For exam‐
2921 ple, `/before/here/../after' is always transformed to `/be‐
2922 fore/after', regardless of whether `/before/here' exists or what
2923 kind of object (dir, file, symlink, etc.) it is.
2924 A Turn a file name into an absolute path as the `a' modifier does,
2926 and then pass the result through the realpath(3) library func‐
2927 tion to resolve symbolic links.
2928 Note: on systems that do not have a realpath(3) library func‐
2930 tion, symbolic links are not resolved, so on those systems `a'
2931 and `A' are equivalent.
2932 Note: foo:A and realpath(foo) are different on some inputs. For
2934 realpath(foo) semantics, see the `P` modifier.
2935 c Resolve a command name into an absolute path by searching the
2937 command path given by the PATH variable. This does not work for
2938 commands containing directory parts. Note also that this does
2939 not usually work as a glob qualifier unless a file of the same
2940 name is found in the current directory.
2941 e Remove all but the part of the filename extension following the
2943 `.'; see the definition of the filename extension in the de‐
2944 scription of the r modifier below. Note that according to that
2945 definition the result will be empty if the string ends with a
2946 `.'.
2947 h [ digits ]
2949 Remove a trailing pathname component, shortening the path by one
2950 directory level: this is the `head' of the pathname. This works
2951 like `dirname'. If the h is followed immediately (with no spa‐
2952 ces or other separator) by any number of decimal digits, and the
2953 value of the resulting number is non-zero, that number of lead‐
2954 ing components is preserved instead of the final component being
2955 removed. In an absolute path the leading `/' is the first com‐
2956 ponent, so, for example, if var=/my/path/to/something, then
2957 ${var:h3} substitutes /my/path. Consecutive `/'s are treated
2958 the same as a single `/'. In parameter substitution, digits may
2959 only be used if the expression is in braces, so for example the
2960 short form substitution $var:h2 is treated as ${var:h}2, not as
2961 ${var:h2}. No restriction applies to the use of digits in his‐
2962 tory substitution or globbing qualifiers. If more components
2963 are requested than are present, the entire path is substituted
2964 (so this does not trigger a `failed modifier' error in history
2965 expansion).
2966 l Convert the words to all lowercase.
2968 p Print the new command but do not execute it. Only works with
2970 history expansion.
2971 P Turn a file name into an absolute path, like realpath(3). The
2973 resulting path will be absolute, have neither `.' nor `..' com‐
2974 ponents, and refer to the same directory entry as the input
2975 filename.
2976 Unlike realpath(3), non-existent trailing components are permit‐
2978 ted and preserved.
2979 q Quote the substituted words, escaping further substitutions.
2981 Works with history expansion and parameter expansion, though for
2982 parameters it is only useful if the resulting text is to be
2983 re-evaluated such as by eval.
2984 Q Remove one level of quotes from the substituted words.
2986 r Remove a filename extension leaving the root name. Strings with
2988 no filename extension are not altered. A filename extension is
2989 a `.' followed by any number of characters (including zero) that
2990 are neither `.' nor `/' and that continue to the end of the
2991 string. For example, the extension of `foo.orig.c' is `.c', and
2992 `dir.c/foo' has no extension.
2993 s/l/r[/]
2995 Substitute r for l as described below. The substitution is done
2996 only for the first string that matches l. For arrays and for
2997 filename generation, this applies to each word of the expanded
2998 text. See below for further notes on substitutions.
2999 The forms `gs/l/r' and `s/l/r/:G' perform global substitution,
3001 i.e. substitute every occurrence of r for l. Note that the g or
3002 :G must appear in exactly the position shown.
3003 See further notes on this form of substitution below.
3005 & Repeat the previous s substitution. Like s, may be preceded im‐
3007 mediately by a g. In parameter expansion the & must appear in‐
3008 side braces, and in filename generation it must be quoted with a
3009 backslash.
3010 t [ digits ]
3012 Remove all leading pathname components, leaving the final compo‐
3013 nent (tail). This works like `basename'. Any trailing slashes
3014 are first removed. Decimal digits are handled as described
3015 above for (h), but in this case that number of trailing compo‐
3016 nents is preserved instead of the default 1; 0 is treated the
3017 same as 1.
3018 u Convert the words to all uppercase.
3020 x Like q, but break into words at whitespace. Does not work with
3022 parameter expansion.
3023 The s/l/r/ substitution works as follows. By default the left-hand
3025 side of substitutions are not patterns, but character strings. Any
3026 character can be used as the delimiter in place of `/'. A backslash
3027 quotes the delimiter character. The character `&', in the
3028 right-hand-side r, is replaced by the text from the left-hand-side l.
3029 The `&' can be quoted with a backslash. A null l uses the previous
3030 string either from the previous l or from the contextual scan string s
3031 from `!?s'. You can omit the rightmost delimiter if a newline immedi‐
3032 ately follows r; the rightmost `?' in a context scan can similarly be
3033 omitted. Note the same record of the last l and r is maintained across
3034 all forms of expansion.
3035 Note that if a `&' is used within glob qualifiers an extra backslash is
3037 needed as a & is a special character in this case.
3038 Also note that the order of expansions affects the interpretation of l
3040 and r. When used in a history expansion, which occurs before any other
3041 expansions, l and r are treated as literal strings (except as explained
3042 for HIST_SUBST_PATTERN below). When used in parameter expansion, the
3043 replacement of r into the parameter's value is done first, and then any
3044 additional process, parameter, command, arithmetic, or brace references
3045 are applied, which may evaluate those substitutions and expansions more
3046 than once if l appears more than once in the starting value. When used
3047 in a glob qualifier, any substitutions or expansions are performed once
3048 at the time the qualifier is parsed, even before the `:s' expression
3049 itself is divided into l and r sides.
3050 If the option HIST_SUBST_PATTERN is set, l is treated as a pattern of
3052 the usual form described in the section FILENAME GENERATION below.
3053 This can be used in all the places where modifiers are available; note,
3054 however, that in globbing qualifiers parameter substitution has already
3055 taken place, so parameters in the replacement string should be quoted
3056 to ensure they are replaced at the correct time. Note also that com‐
3057 plicated patterns used in globbing qualifiers may need the extended
3058 glob qualifier notation (#q:s/.../.../) in order for the shell to rec‐
3059 ognize the expression as a glob qualifier. Further, note that bad pat‐
3060 terns in the substitution are not subject to the NO_BAD_PATTERN option
3061 so will cause an error.
3062 When HIST_SUBST_PATTERN is set, l may start with a # to indicate that
3064 the pattern must match at the start of the string to be substituted,
3065 and a % may appear at the start or after an # to indicate that the pat‐
3066 tern must match at the end of the string to be substituted. The % or #
3067 may be quoted with two backslashes.
3068 For example, the following piece of filename generation code with the
3070 EXTENDED_GLOB option:
3071 print -r -- *.c(#q:s/#%(#b)s(*).c/'S${match[1]}.C'/)
3073 takes the expansion of *.c and applies the glob qualifiers in the
3075 (#q...) expression, which consists of a substitution modifier anchored
3076 to the start and end of each word (#%). This turns on backreferences
3077 ((#b)), so that the parenthesised subexpression is available in the re‐
3078 placement string as ${match[1]}. The replacement string is quoted so
3079 that the parameter is not substituted before the start of filename gen‐
3080 eration.
3081 The following f, F, w and W modifiers work only with parameter expan‐
3083 sion and filename generation. They are listed here to provide a single
3084 point of reference for all modifiers.
3085 f Repeats the immediately (without a colon) following modifier un‐
3087 til the resulting word doesn't change any more.
3088 F:expr:
3090 Like f, but repeats only n times if the expression expr evalu‐
3091 ates to n. Any character can be used instead of the `:'; if
3092 `(', `[', or `{' is used as the opening delimiter, the closing
3093 delimiter should be ')', `]', or `}', respectively.
3094 w Makes the immediately following modifier work on each word in
3096 the string.
3097 W:sep: Like w but words are considered to be the parts of the string
3099 that are separated by sep. Any character can be used instead of
3100 the `:'; opening parentheses are handled specially, see above.
3101
3103 Each part of a command argument that takes the form `<(list)',
3104 `>(list)' or `=(list)' is subject to process substitution. The expres‐
3105 sion may be preceded or followed by other strings except that, to pre‐
3106 vent clashes with commonly occurring strings and patterns, the last
3107 form must occur at the start of a command argument, and the forms are
3108 only expanded when first parsing command or assignment arguments.
3109 Process substitutions may be used following redirection operators; in
3110 this case, the substitution must appear with no trailing string.
3111 Note that `<<(list)' is not a special syntax; it is equivalent to `<
3113 <(list)', redirecting standard input from the result of process substi‐
3114 tution. Hence all the following documentation applies. The second
3115 form (with the space) is recommended for clarity.
3116 In the case of the < or > forms, the shell runs the commands in list as
3118 a subprocess of the job executing the shell command line. If the sys‐
3119 tem supports the /dev/fd mechanism, the command argument is the name of
3120 the device file corresponding to a file descriptor; otherwise, if the
3121 system supports named pipes (FIFOs), the command argument will be a
3122 named pipe. If the form with > is selected then writing on this spe‐
3123 cial file will provide input for list. If < is used, then the file
3124 passed as an argument will be connected to the output of the list
3125 process. For example,
3126 paste <(cut -f1 file1) <(cut -f3 file2) |
3128 tee >(process1) >(process2) >/dev/null
3129 cuts fields 1 and 3 from the files file1 and file2 respectively, pastes
3131 the results together, and sends it to the processes process1 and
3132 process2.
3133 If =(...) is used instead of <(...), then the file passed as an argu‐
3135 ment will be the name of a temporary file containing the output of the
3136 list process. This may be used instead of the < form for a program
3137 that expects to lseek (see lseek(2)) on the input file.
3138 There is an optimisation for substitutions of the form =(<<<arg), where
3140 arg is a single-word argument to the here-string redirection <<<. This
3141 form produces a file name containing the value of arg after any substi‐
3142 tutions have been performed. This is handled entirely within the cur‐
3143 rent shell. This is effectively the reverse of the special form
3144 $(<arg) which treats arg as a file name and replaces it with the file's
3145 contents.
3146 The = form is useful as both the /dev/fd and the named pipe implementa‐
3148 tion of <(...) have drawbacks. In the former case, some programmes may
3149 automatically close the file descriptor in question before examining
3150 the file on the command line, particularly if this is necessary for se‐
3151 curity reasons such as when the programme is running setuid. In the
3152 second case, if the programme does not actually open the file, the sub‐
3153 shell attempting to read from or write to the pipe will (in a typical
3154 implementation, different operating systems may have different behav‐
3155 iour) block for ever and have to be killed explicitly. In both cases,
3156 the shell actually supplies the information using a pipe, so that pro‐
3157 grammes that expect to lseek (see lseek(2)) on the file will not work.
3158 Also note that the previous example can be more compactly and effi‐
3160 ciently written (provided the MULTIOS option is set) as:
3161 paste <(cut -f1 file1) <(cut -f3 file2) \
3163 > >(process1) > >(process2)
3164 The shell uses pipes instead of FIFOs to implement the latter two
3166 process substitutions in the above example.
3167 There is an additional problem with >(process); when this is attached
3169 to an external command, the parent shell does not wait for process to
3170 finish and hence an immediately following command cannot rely on the
3171 results being complete. The problem and solution are the same as de‐
3172 scribed in the section MULTIOS in zshmisc(1). Hence in a simplified
3173 version of the example above:
3174 paste <(cut -f1 file1) <(cut -f3 file2) > >(process)
3176 (note that no MULTIOS are involved), process will be run asynchronously
3178 as far as the parent shell is concerned. The workaround is:
3179 { paste <(cut -f1 file1) <(cut -f3 file2) } > >(process)
3181 The extra processes here are spawned from the parent shell which will
3183 wait for their completion.
3184 Another problem arises any time a job with a substitution that requires
3186 a temporary file is disowned by the shell, including the case where
3187 `&!' or `&|' appears at the end of a command containing a substitution.
3188 In that case the temporary file will not be cleaned up as the shell no
3189 longer has any memory of the job. A workaround is to use a subshell,
3190 for example,
3191 (mycmd =(myoutput)) &!
3193 as the forked subshell will wait for the command to finish then remove
3195 the temporary file.
3196 A general workaround to ensure a process substitution endures for an
3198 appropriate length of time is to pass it as a parameter to an anonymous
3199 shell function (a piece of shell code that is run immediately with
3200 function scope). For example, this code:
3201 () {
3203 print File $1:
3204 cat $1
3205 } =(print This be the verse)
3206 outputs something resembling the following
3208 File /tmp/zsh6nU0kS:
3210 This be the verse
3211 The temporary file created by the process substitution will be deleted
3213 when the function exits.
3214
3216 The character `$' is used to introduce parameter expansions. See zsh‐
3217 param(1) for a description of parameters, including arrays, associative
3218 arrays, and subscript notation to access individual array elements.
3219 Note in particular the fact that words of unquoted parameters are not
3221 automatically split on whitespace unless the option SH_WORD_SPLIT is
3222 set; see references to this option below for more details. This is an
3223 important difference from other shells. However, as in other shells,
3224 null words are elided from unquoted parameters' expansions.
3225 With default options, after the assignments:
3227 array=("first word" "" "third word")
3229 scalar="only word"
3230 then $array substitutes two words, `first word' and `third word', and
3232 $scalar substitutes a single word `only word'. Note that second ele‐
3233 ment of array was elided. Scalar parameters can be elided too if their
3234 value is null (empty). To avoid elision, use quoting as follows:
3235 "$scalar" for scalars and "${array[@]}" or "${(@)array}" for arrays.
3236 (The last two forms are equivalent.)
3237 Parameter expansions can involve flags, as in `${(@kv)aliases}', and
3239 other operators, such as `${PREFIX:-"/usr/local"}'. Parameter expan‐
3240 sions can also be nested. These topics will be introduced below. The
3241 full rules are complicated and are noted at the end.
3242 In the expansions discussed below that require a pattern, the form of
3244 the pattern is the same as that used for filename generation; see the
3245 section `Filename Generation'. Note that these patterns, along with
3246 the replacement text of any substitutions, are themselves subject to
3247 parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic expansion.
3248 In addition to the following operations, the colon modifiers described
3249 in the section `Modifiers' in the section `History Expansion' can be
3250 applied: for example, ${i:s/foo/bar/} performs string substitution on
3251 the expansion of parameter $i.
3252 In the following descriptions, `word' refers to a single word substi‐
3254 tuted on the command line, not necessarily a space delimited word.
3255 ${name}
3257 The value, if any, of the parameter name is substituted. The
3258 braces are required if the expansion is to be followed by a let‐
3259 ter, digit, or underscore that is not to be interpreted as part
3260 of name. In addition, more complicated forms of substitution
3261 usually require the braces to be present; exceptions, which only
3262 apply if the option KSH_ARRAYS is not set, are a single sub‐
3263 script or any colon modifiers appearing after the name, or any
3264 of the characters `^', `=', `~', `#' or `+' appearing before the
3265 name, all of which work with or without braces.
3266 If name is an array parameter, and the KSH_ARRAYS option is not
3268 set, then the value of each element of name is substituted, one
3269 element per word. Otherwise, the expansion results in one word
3270 only; with KSH_ARRAYS, this is the first element of an array.
3271 No field splitting is done on the result unless the
3272 SH_WORD_SPLIT option is set. See also the flags = and
3273 s:string:.
3274 ${+name}
3276 If name is the name of a set parameter `1' is substituted, oth‐
3277 erwise `0' is substituted.
3278 ${name-word}
3280 ${name:-word}
3281 If name is set, or in the second form is non-null, then substi‐
3282 tute its value; otherwise substitute word. In the second form
3283 name may be omitted, in which case word is always substituted.
3284 ${name+word}
3286 ${name:+word}
3287 If name is set, or in the second form is non-null, then substi‐
3288 tute word; otherwise substitute nothing.
3289 ${name=word}
3291 ${name:=word}
3292 ${name::=word}
3293 In the first form, if name is unset then set it to word; in the
3294 second form, if name is unset or null then set it to word; and
3295 in the third form, unconditionally set name to word. In all
3296 forms, the value of the parameter is then substituted.
3297 ${name?word}
3299 ${name:?word}
3300 In the first form, if name is set, or in the second form if name
3301 is both set and non-null, then substitute its value; otherwise,
3302 print word and exit from the shell. Interactive shells instead
3303 return to the prompt. If word is omitted, then a standard mes‐
3304 sage is printed.
3305 In any of the above expressions that test a variable and substitute an
3307 alternate word, note that you can use standard shell quoting in the
3308 word value to selectively override the splitting done by the
3309 SH_WORD_SPLIT option and the = flag, but not splitting by the s:string:
3310 flag.
3311 In the following expressions, when name is an array and the substitu‐
3313 tion is not quoted, or if the `(@)' flag or the name[@] syntax is used,
3314 matching and replacement is performed on each array element separately.
3315 ${name#pattern}
3317 ${name##pattern}
3318 If the pattern matches the beginning of the value of name, then
3319 substitute the value of name with the matched portion deleted;
3320 otherwise, just substitute the value of name. In the first
3321 form, the smallest matching pattern is preferred; in the second
3322 form, the largest matching pattern is preferred.
3323 ${name%pattern}
3325 ${name%%pattern}
3326 If the pattern matches the end of the value of name, then sub‐
3327 stitute the value of name with the matched portion deleted; oth‐
3328 erwise, just substitute the value of name. In the first form,
3329 the smallest matching pattern is preferred; in the second form,
3330 the largest matching pattern is preferred.
3331 ${name:#pattern}
3333 If the pattern matches the value of name, then substitute the
3334 empty string; otherwise, just substitute the value of name. If
3335 name is an array the matching array elements are removed (use
3336 the `(M)' flag to remove the non-matched elements).
3337 ${name:|arrayname}
3339 If arrayname is the name (N.B., not contents) of an array vari‐
3340 able, then any elements contained in arrayname are removed from
3341 the substitution of name. If the substitution is scalar, either
3342 because name is a scalar variable or the expression is quoted,
3343 the elements of arrayname are instead tested against the entire
3344 expression.
3345 ${name:*arrayname}
3347 Similar to the preceding substitution, but in the opposite
3348 sense, so that entries present in both the original substitution
3349 and as elements of arrayname are retained and others removed.
3350 ${name:^arrayname}
3352 ${name:^^arrayname}
3353 Zips two arrays, such that the output array is twice as long as
3354 the shortest (longest for `:^^') of name and arrayname, with the
3355 elements alternatingly being picked from them. For `:^', if one
3356 of the input arrays is longer, the output will stop when the end
3357 of the shorter array is reached. Thus,
3358 a=(1 2 3 4); b=(a b); print ${a:^b}
3360 will output `1 a 2 b'. For `:^^', then the input is repeated
3362 until all of the longer array has been used up and the above
3363 will output `1 a 2 b 3 a 4 b'.
3364 Either or both inputs may be a scalar, they will be treated as
3366 an array of length 1 with the scalar as the only element. If ei‐
3367 ther array is empty, the other array is output with no extra el‐
3368 ements inserted.
3369 Currently the following code will output `a b' and `1' as two
3371 separate elements, which can be unexpected. The second print
3372 provides a workaround which should continue to work if this is
3373 changed.
3374 a=(a b); b=(1 2); print -l "${a:^b}"; print -l "${${a:^b}}"
3376 ${name:offset}
3378 ${name:offset:length}
3379 This syntax gives effects similar to parameter subscripting in
3380 the form $name[start,end], but is compatible with other shells;
3381 note that both offset and length are interpreted differently
3382 from the components of a subscript.
3383 If offset is non-negative, then if the variable name is a scalar
3385 substitute the contents starting offset characters from the
3386 first character of the string, and if name is an array substi‐
3387 tute elements starting offset elements from the first element.
3388 If length is given, substitute that many characters or elements,
3389 otherwise the entire rest of the scalar or array.
3390 A positive offset is always treated as the offset of a character
3392 or element in name from the first character or element of the
3393 array (this is different from native zsh subscript notation).
3394 Hence 0 refers to the first character or element regardless of
3395 the setting of the option KSH_ARRAYS.
3396 A negative offset counts backwards from the end of the scalar or
3398 array, so that -1 corresponds to the last character or element,
3399 and so on.
3400 When positive, length counts from the offset position toward the
3402 end of the scalar or array. When negative, length counts back
3403 from the end. If this results in a position smaller than off‐
3404 set, a diagnostic is printed and nothing is substituted.
3405 The option MULTIBYTE is obeyed, i.e. the offset and length count
3407 multibyte characters where appropriate.
3408 offset and length undergo the same set of shell substitutions as
3410 for scalar assignment; in addition, they are then subject to
3411 arithmetic evaluation. Hence, for example
3412 print ${foo:3}
3414 print ${foo: 1 + 2}
3415 print ${foo:$(( 1 + 2))}
3416 print ${foo:$(echo 1 + 2)}
3417 all have the same effect, extracting the string starting at the
3419 fourth character of $foo if the substitution would otherwise re‐
3420 turn a scalar, or the array starting at the fourth element if
3421 $foo would return an array. Note that with the option KSH_AR‐
3422 RAYS $foo always returns a scalar (regardless of the use of the
3423 offset syntax) and a form such as ${foo[*]:3} is required to ex‐
3424 tract elements of an array named foo.
3425 If offset is negative, the - may not appear immediately after
3427 the : as this indicates the ${name:-word} form of substitution.
3428 Instead, a space may be inserted before the -. Furthermore,
3429 neither offset nor length may begin with an alphabetic character
3430 or & as these are used to indicate history-style modifiers. To
3431 substitute a value from a variable, the recommended approach is
3432 to precede it with a $ as this signifies the intention (parame‐
3433 ter substitution can easily be rendered unreadable); however, as
3434 arithmetic substitution is performed, the expression ${var:
3435 offs} does work, retrieving the offset from $offs.
3436 For further compatibility with other shells there is a special
3438 case for array offset 0. This usually accesses the first ele‐
3439 ment of the array. However, if the substitution refers to the
3440 positional parameter array, e.g. $@ or $*, then offset 0 instead
3441 refers to $0, offset 1 refers to $1, and so on. In other words,
3442 the positional parameter array is effectively extended by
3443 prepending $0. Hence ${*:0:1} substitutes $0 and ${*:1:1} sub‐
3444 stitutes $1.
3445 ${name/pattern/repl}
3447 ${name//pattern/repl}
3448 ${name:/pattern/repl}
3449 Replace the longest possible match of pattern in the expansion
3450 of parameter name by string repl. The first form replaces just
3451 the first occurrence, the second form all occurrences, and the
3452 third form replaces only if pattern matches the entire string.
3453 Both pattern and repl are subject to double-quoted substitution,
3454 so that expressions like ${name/$opat/$npat} will work, but obey
3455 the usual rule that pattern characters in $opat are not treated
3456 specially unless either the option GLOB_SUBST is set, or $opat
3457 is instead substituted as ${~opat}.
3458 The pattern may begin with a `#', in which case the pattern must
3460 match at the start of the string, or `%', in which case it must
3461 match at the end of the string, or `#%' in which case the pat‐
3462 tern must match the entire string. The repl may be an empty
3463 string, in which case the final `/' may also be omitted. To
3464 quote the final `/' in other cases it should be preceded by a
3465 single backslash; this is not necessary if the `/' occurs inside
3466 a substituted parameter. Note also that the `#', `%' and `#%
3467 are not active if they occur inside a substituted parameter,
3468 even at the start.
3469 If, after quoting rules apply, ${name} expands to an array, the
3471 replacements act on each element individually. Note also the
3472 effect of the I and S parameter expansion flags below; however,
3473 the flags M, R, B, E and N are not useful.
3474 For example,
3476 foo="twinkle twinkle little star" sub="t*e" rep="spy"
3478 print ${foo//${~sub}/$rep}
3479 print ${(S)foo//${~sub}/$rep}
3480 Here, the `~' ensures that the text of $sub is treated as a pat‐
3482 tern rather than a plain string. In the first case, the longest
3483 match for t*e is substituted and the result is `spy star', while
3484 in the second case, the shortest matches are taken and the re‐
3485 sult is `spy spy lispy star'.
3486 ${#spec}
3488 If spec is one of the above substitutions, substitute the length
3489 in characters of the result instead of the result itself. If
3490 spec is an array expression, substitute the number of elements
3491 of the result. This has the side-effect that joining is skipped
3492 even in quoted forms, which may affect other sub-expressions in
3493 spec. Note that `^', `=', and `~', below, must appear to the
3494 left of `#' when these forms are combined.
3495 If the option POSIX_IDENTIFIERS is not set, and spec is a simple
3497 name, then the braces are optional; this is true even for spe‐
3498 cial parameters so e.g. $#- and $#* take the length of the
3499 string $- and the array $* respectively. If POSIX_IDENTIFIERS
3500 is set, then braces are required for the # to be treated in this
3501 fashion.
3502 ${^spec}
3504 Turn on the RC_EXPAND_PARAM option for the evaluation of spec;
3505 if the `^' is doubled, turn it off. When this option is set,
3506 array expansions of the form foo${xx}bar, where the parameter xx
3507 is set to (a b c), are substituted with `fooabar foobbar
3508 foocbar' instead of the default `fooa b cbar'. Note that an
3509 empty array will therefore cause all arguments to be removed.
3510 Internally, each such expansion is converted into the equivalent
3512 list for brace expansion. E.g., ${^var} becomes
3513 {$var[1],$var[2],...}, and is processed as described in the sec‐
3514 tion `Brace Expansion' below: note, however, the expansion hap‐
3515 pens immediately, with any explicit brace expansion happening
3516 later. If word splitting is also in effect the $var[N] may
3517 themselves be split into different list elements.
3518 ${=spec}
3520 Perform word splitting using the rules for SH_WORD_SPLIT during
3521 the evaluation of spec, but regardless of whether the parameter
3522 appears in double quotes; if the `=' is doubled, turn it off.
3523 This forces parameter expansions to be split into separate words
3524 before substitution, using IFS as a delimiter. This is done by
3525 default in most other shells.
3526 Note that splitting is applied to word in the assignment forms
3528 of spec before the assignment to name is performed. This af‐
3529 fects the result of array assignments with the A flag.
3530 ${~spec}
3532 Turn on the GLOB_SUBST option for the evaluation of spec; if the
3533 `~' is doubled, turn it off. When this option is set, the
3534 string resulting from the expansion will be interpreted as a
3535 pattern anywhere that is possible, such as in filename expansion
3536 and filename generation and pattern-matching contexts like the
3537 right hand side of the `=' and `!=' operators in conditions.
3538 In nested substitutions, note that the effect of the ~ applies
3540 to the result of the current level of substitution. A surround‐
3541 ing pattern operation on the result may cancel it. Hence, for
3542 example, if the parameter foo is set to *, ${~foo//\*/*.c} is
3543 substituted by the pattern *.c, which may be expanded by file‐
3544 name generation, but ${${~foo}//\*/*.c} substitutes to the
3545 string *.c, which will not be further expanded.
3546 If a ${...} type parameter expression or a $(...) type command substi‐
3548 tution is used in place of name above, it is expanded first and the re‐
3549 sult is used as if it were the value of name. Thus it is possible to
3550 perform nested operations: ${${foo#head}%tail} substitutes the value
3551 of $foo with both `head' and `tail' deleted. The form with $(...) is
3552 often useful in combination with the flags described next; see the ex‐
3553 amples below. Each name or nested ${...} in a parameter expansion may
3554 also be followed by a subscript expression as described in Array Param‐
3555 eters in zshparam(1).
3556 Note that double quotes may appear around nested expressions, in which
3558 case only the part inside is treated as quoted; for example,
3559 ${(f)"$(foo)"} quotes the result of $(foo), but the flag `(f)' (see be‐
3560 low) is applied using the rules for unquoted expansions. Note further
3561 that quotes are themselves nested in this context; for example, in
3562 "${(@f)"$(foo)"}", there are two sets of quotes, one surrounding the
3563 whole expression, the other (redundant) surrounding the $(foo) as be‐
3564 fore.
3565 Parameter Expansion Flags
3567 If the opening brace is directly followed by an opening parenthesis,
3568 the string up to the matching closing parenthesis will be taken as a
3569 list of flags. In cases where repeating a flag is meaningful, the rep‐
3570 etitions need not be consecutive; for example, `(q%q%q)' means the same
3571 thing as the more readable `(%%qqq)'. The following flags are sup‐
3572 ported:
3573 # Evaluate the resulting words as numeric expressions and output
3575 the characters corresponding to the resulting integer. Note
3576 that this form is entirely distinct from use of the # without
3577 parentheses.
3578 If the MULTIBYTE option is set and the number is greater than
3580 127 (i.e. not an ASCII character) it is treated as a Unicode
3581 character.
3582 % Expand all % escapes in the resulting words in the same way as
3584 in prompts (see EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1)). If
3585 this flag is given twice, full prompt expansion is done on the
3586 resulting words, depending on the setting of the PROMPT_PERCENT,
3587 PROMPT_SUBST and PROMPT_BANG options.
3588 @ In double quotes, array elements are put into separate words.
3590 E.g., `"${(@)foo}"' is equivalent to `"${foo[@]}"' and
3591 `"${(@)foo[1,2]}"' is the same as `"$foo[1]" "$foo[2]"'. This
3592 is distinct from field splitting by the f, s or z flags, which
3593 still applies within each array element.
3594 A Convert the substitution into an array expression, even if it
3596 otherwise would be scalar. This has lower precedence than sub‐
3597 scripting, so one level of nested expansion is required in order
3598 that subscripts apply to array elements. Thus ${${(A)name}[1]}
3599 yields the full value of name when name is scalar.
3600 This assigns an array parameter with `${...=...}', `${...:=...}'
3602 or `${...::=...}'. If this flag is repeated (as in `AA'), as‐
3603 signs an associative array parameter. Assignment is made before
3604 sorting or padding; if field splitting is active, the word part
3605 is split before assignment. The name part may be a subscripted
3606 range for ordinary arrays; when assigning an associative array,
3607 the word part must be converted to an array, for example by us‐
3608 ing `${(AA)=name=...}' to activate field splitting.
3609 Surrounding context such as additional nesting or use of the
3611 value in a scalar assignment may cause the array to be joined
3612 back into a single string again.
3613 a Sort in array index order; when combined with `O' sort in re‐
3615 verse array index order. Note that `a' is therefore equivalent
3616 to the default but `Oa' is useful for obtaining an array's ele‐
3617 ments in reverse order.
3618 b Quote with backslashes only characters that are special to pat‐
3620 tern matching. This is useful when the contents of the variable
3621 are to be tested using GLOB_SUBST, including the ${~...} switch.
3622 Quoting using one of the q family of flags does not work for
3624 this purpose since quotes are not stripped from non-pattern
3625 characters by GLOB_SUBST. In other words,
3626 pattern=${(q)str}
3628 [[ $str = ${~pattern} ]]
3629 works if $str is `a*b' but not if it is `a b', whereas
3631 pattern=${(b)str}
3633 [[ $str = ${~pattern} ]]
3634 is always true for any possible value of $str.
3636 c With ${#name}, count the total number of characters in an array,
3638 as if the elements were concatenated with spaces between them.
3639 This is not a true join of the array, so other expressions used
3640 with this flag may have an effect on the elements of the array
3641 before it is counted.
3642 C Capitalize the resulting words. `Words' in this case refers to
3644 sequences of alphanumeric characters separated by non-alphanu‐
3645 merics, not to words that result from field splitting.
3646 D Assume the string or array elements contain directories and at‐
3648 tempt to substitute the leading part of these by names. The re‐
3649 mainder of the path (the whole of it if the leading part was not
3650 substituted) is then quoted so that the whole string can be used
3651 as a shell argument. This is the reverse of `~' substitution:
3652 see the section FILENAME EXPANSION below.
3653 e Perform single word shell expansions, namely parameter expan‐
3655 sion, command substitution and arithmetic expansion, on the re‐
3656 sult. Such expansions can be nested but too deep recursion may
3657 have unpredictable effects.
3658 f Split the result of the expansion at newlines. This is a short‐
3660 hand for `ps:\n:'.
3661 F Join the words of arrays together using newline as a separator.
3663 This is a shorthand for `pj:\n:'.
3664 g:opts:
3666 Process escape sequences like the echo builtin when no options
3667 are given (g::). With the o option, octal escapes don't take a
3668 leading zero. With the c option, sequences like `^X' are also
3669 processed. With the e option, processes `\M-t' and similar se‐
3670 quences like the print builtin. With both of the o and e op‐
3671 tions, behaves like the print builtin except that in none of
3672 these modes is `\c' interpreted.
3673 i Sort case-insensitively. May be combined with `n' or `O'.
3675 k If name refers to an associative array, substitute the keys (el‐
3677 ement names) rather than the values of the elements. Used with
3678 subscripts (including ordinary arrays), force indices or keys to
3679 be substituted even if the subscript form refers to values.
3680 However, this flag may not be combined with subscript ranges.
3681 With the KSH_ARRAYS option a subscript `[*]' or `[@]' is needed
3682 to operate on the whole array, as usual.
3683 L Convert all letters in the result to lower case.
3685 n Sort decimal integers numerically; if the first differing char‐
3687 acters of two test strings are not digits, sorting is lexical.
3688 Integers with more initial zeroes are sorted before those with
3689 fewer or none. Hence the array `foo1 foo02 foo2 foo3 foo20
3690 foo23' is sorted into the order shown. May be combined with `i'
3691 or `O'.
3692 o Sort the resulting words in ascending order; if this appears on
3694 its own the sorting is lexical and case-sensitive (unless the
3695 locale renders it case-insensitive). Sorting in ascending order
3696 is the default for other forms of sorting, so this is ignored if
3697 combined with `a', `i' or `n'.
3698 O Sort the resulting words in descending order; `O' without `a',
3700 `i' or `n' sorts in reverse lexical order. May be combined with
3701 `a', `i' or `n' to reverse the order of sorting.
3702 P This forces the value of the parameter name to be interpreted as
3704 a further parameter name, whose value will be used where appro‐
3705 priate. Note that flags set with one of the typeset family of
3706 commands (in particular case transformations) are not applied to
3707 the value of name used in this fashion.
3708 If used with a nested parameter or command substitution, the re‐
3710 sult of that will be taken as a parameter name in the same way.
3711 For example, if you have `foo=bar' and `bar=baz', the strings
3712 ${(P)foo}, ${(P)${foo}}, and ${(P)$(echo bar)} will be expanded
3713 to `baz'.
3714 Likewise, if the reference is itself nested, the expression with
3716 the flag is treated as if it were directly replaced by the pa‐
3717 rameter name. It is an error if this nested substitution pro‐
3718 duces an array with more than one word. For example, if
3719 `name=assoc' where the parameter assoc is an associative array,
3720 then `${${(P)name}[elt]}' refers to the element of the associa‐
3721 tive subscripted `elt'.
3722 q Quote characters that are special to the shell in the resulting
3724 words with backslashes; unprintable or invalid characters are
3725 quoted using the $'\NNN' form, with separate quotes for each
3726 octet.
3727 If this flag is given twice, the resulting words are quoted in
3729 single quotes and if it is given three times, the words are
3730 quoted in double quotes; in these forms no special handling of
3731 unprintable or invalid characters is attempted. If the flag is
3732 given four times, the words are quoted in single quotes preceded
3733 by a $. Note that in all three of these forms quoting is done
3734 unconditionally, even if this does not change the way the re‐
3735 sulting string would be interpreted by the shell.
3736 If a q- is given (only a single q may appear), a minimal form of
3738 single quoting is used that only quotes the string if needed to
3739 protect special characters. Typically this form gives the most
3740 readable output.
3741 If a q+ is given, an extended form of minimal quoting is used
3743 that causes unprintable characters to be rendered using $'...'.
3744 This quoting is similar to that used by the output of values by
3745 the typeset family of commands.
3746 Q Remove one level of quotes from the resulting words.
3748 t Use a string describing the type of the parameter where the
3750 value of the parameter would usually appear. This string con‐
3751 sists of keywords separated by hyphens (`-'). The first keyword
3752 in the string describes the main type, it can be one of
3753 `scalar', `array', `integer', `float' or `association'. The
3754 other keywords describe the type in more detail:
3755 local for local parameters
3757 left for left justified parameters
3759 right_blanks
3761 for right justified parameters with leading blanks
3762 right_zeros
3764 for right justified parameters with leading zeros
3765 lower for parameters whose value is converted to all lower case
3767 when it is expanded
3768 upper for parameters whose value is converted to all upper case
3770 when it is expanded
3771 readonly
3773 for readonly parameters
3774 tag for tagged parameters
3776 export for exported parameters
3778 unique for arrays which keep only the first occurrence of dupli‐
3780 cated values
3781 hide for parameters with the `hide' flag
3783 hideval
3785 for parameters with the `hideval' flag
3786 special
3788 for special parameters defined by the shell
3789 u Expand only the first occurrence of each unique word.
3791 U Convert all letters in the result to upper case.
3793 v Used with k, substitute (as two consecutive words) both the key
3795 and the value of each associative array element. Used with sub‐
3796 scripts, force values to be substituted even if the subscript
3797 form refers to indices or keys.
3798 V Make any special characters in the resulting words visible.
3800 w With ${#name}, count words in arrays or strings; the s flag may
3802 be used to set a word delimiter.
3803 W Similar to w with the difference that empty words between re‐
3805 peated delimiters are also counted.
3806 X With this flag, parsing errors occurring with the Q, e and #
3808 flags or the pattern matching forms such as `${name#pattern}'
3809 are reported. Without the flag, errors are silently ignored.
3810 z Split the result of the expansion into words using shell parsing
3812 to find the words, i.e. taking into account any quoting in the
3813 value. Comments are not treated specially but as ordinary
3814 strings, similar to interactive shells with the INTERACTIVE_COM‐
3815 MENTS option unset (however, see the Z flag below for related
3816 options)
3817 Note that this is done very late, even later than the `(s)'
3819 flag. So to access single words in the result use nested expan‐
3820 sions as in `${${(z)foo}[2]}'. Likewise, to remove the quotes in
3821 the resulting words use `${(Q)${(z)foo}}'.
3822 0 Split the result of the expansion on null bytes. This is a
3824 shorthand for `ps:\0:'.
3825 The following flags (except p) are followed by one or more arguments as
3827 shown. Any character, or the matching pairs `(...)', `{...}', `[...]',
3828 or `<...>', may be used in place of a colon as delimiters, but note
3829 that when a flag takes more than one argument, a matched pair of delim‐
3830 iters must surround each argument.
3831 p Recognize the same escape sequences as the print builtin in
3833 string arguments to any of the flags described below that follow
3834 this argument.
3835 Alternatively, with this option string arguments may be in the
3837 form $var in which case the value of the variable is substi‐
3838 tuted. Note this form is strict; the string argument does not
3839 undergo general parameter expansion.
3840 For example,
3842 sep=:
3844 val=a:b:c
3845 print ${(ps.$sep.)val}
3846 splits the variable on a :.
3848 ~ Strings inserted into the expansion by any of the flags below
3850 are to be treated as patterns. This applies to the string argu‐
3851 ments of flags that follow ~ within the same set of parentheses.
3852 Compare with ~ outside parentheses, which forces the entire sub‐
3853 stituted string to be treated as a pattern. Hence, for example,
3854 [[ "?" = ${(~j.|.)array} ]]
3856 treats `|' as a pattern and succeeds if and only if $array con‐
3858 tains the string `?' as an element. The ~ may be repeated to
3859 toggle the behaviour; its effect only lasts to the end of the
3860 parenthesised group.
3861 j:string:
3863 Join the words of arrays together using string as a separator.
3864 Note that this occurs before field splitting by the s:string:
3865 flag or the SH_WORD_SPLIT option.
3866 l:expr::string1::string2:
3868 Pad the resulting words on the left. Each word will be trun‐
3869 cated if required and placed in a field expr characters wide.
3870 The arguments :string1: and :string2: are optional; neither, the
3872 first, or both may be given. Note that the same pairs of delim‐
3873 iters must be used for each of the three arguments. The space
3874 to the left will be filled with string1 (concatenated as often
3875 as needed) or spaces if string1 is not given. If both string1
3876 and string2 are given, string2 is inserted once directly to the
3877 left of each word, truncated if necessary, before string1 is
3878 used to produce any remaining padding.
3879 If either of string1 or string2 is present but empty, i.e. there
3881 are two delimiters together at that point, the first character
3882 of $IFS is used instead.
3883 If the MULTIBYTE option is in effect, the flag m may also be
3885 given, in which case widths will be used for the calculation of
3886 padding; otherwise individual multibyte characters are treated
3887 as occupying one unit of width.
3888 If the MULTIBYTE option is not in effect, each byte in the
3890 string is treated as occupying one unit of width.
3891 Control characters are always assumed to be one unit wide; this
3893 allows the mechanism to be used for generating repetitions of
3894 control characters.
3895 m Only useful together with one of the flags l or r or with the #
3897 length operator when the MULTIBYTE option is in effect. Use the
3898 character width reported by the system in calculating how much
3899 of the string it occupies or the overall length of the string.
3900 Most printable characters have a width of one unit, however cer‐
3901 tain Asian character sets and certain special effects use wider
3902 characters; combining characters have zero width. Non-printable
3903 characters are arbitrarily counted as zero width; how they would
3904 actually be displayed will vary.
3905 If the m is repeated, the character either counts zero (if it
3907 has zero width), else one. For printable character strings this
3908 has the effect of counting the number of glyphs (visibly sepa‐
3909 rate characters), except for the case where combining characters
3910 themselves have non-zero width (true in certain alphabets).
3911 r:expr::string1::string2:
3913 As l, but pad the words on the right and insert string2 immedi‐
3914 ately to the right of the string to be padded.
3915 Left and right padding may be used together. In this case the
3917 strategy is to apply left padding to the first half width of
3918 each of the resulting words, and right padding to the second
3919 half. If the string to be padded has odd width the extra pad‐
3920 ding is applied on the left.
3921 s:string:
3923 Force field splitting at the separator string. Note that a
3924 string of two or more characters means that all of them must
3925 match in sequence; this differs from the treatment of two or
3926 more characters in the IFS parameter. See also the = flag and
3927 the SH_WORD_SPLIT option. An empty string may also be given in
3928 which case every character will be a separate element.
3929 For historical reasons, the usual behaviour that empty array el‐
3931 ements are retained inside double quotes is disabled for arrays
3932 generated by splitting; hence the following:
3933 line="one::three"
3935 print -l "${(s.:.)line}"
3936 produces two lines of output for one and three and elides the
3938 empty field. To override this behaviour, supply the `(@)' flag
3939 as well, i.e. "${(@s.:.)line}".
3940 Z:opts:
3942 As z but takes a combination of option letters between a follow‐
3943 ing pair of delimiter characters. With no options the effect is
3944 identical to z. (Z+c+) causes comments to be parsed as a string
3945 and retained; any field in the resulting array beginning with an
3946 unquoted comment character is a comment. (Z+C+) causes comments
3947 to be parsed and removed. The rule for comments is standard:
3948 anything between a word starting with the third character of
3949 $HISTCHARS, default #, up to the next newline is a comment.
3950 (Z+n+) causes unquoted newlines to be treated as ordinary white‐
3951 space, else they are treated as if they are shell code delim‐
3952 iters and converted to semicolons. Options are combined within
3953 the same set of delimiters, e.g. (Z+Cn+).
3954 _:flags:
3956 The underscore (_) flag is reserved for future use. As of this
3957 revision of zsh, there are no valid flags; anything following an
3958 underscore, other than an empty pair of delimiters, is treated
3959 as an error, and the flag itself has no effect.
3960 The following flags are meaningful with the ${...#...} or ${...%...}
3962 forms. The S and I flags may also be used with the ${.../...} forms.
3963 S With # or ##, search for the match that starts closest to the
3965 start of the string (a `substring match'). Of all matches at a
3966 particular position, # selects the shortest and ## the longest:
3967 % str="aXbXc"
3969 % echo ${(S)str#X*}
3970 abXc
3971 % echo ${(S)str##X*}
3972 a
3973 %
3974 With % or %%, search for the match that starts closest to the
3976 end of the string:
3977 % str="aXbXc"
3979 % echo ${(S)str%X*}
3980 aXbc
3981 % echo ${(S)str%%X*}
3982 aXb
3983 %
3984 (Note that % and %% don't search for the match that ends closest
3986 to the end of the string, as one might expect.)
3987 With substitution via ${.../...} or ${...//...}, specifies
3989 non-greedy matching, i.e. that the shortest instead of the long‐
3990 est match should be replaced:
3991 % str="abab"
3993 % echo ${str/*b/_}
3994 _
3995 % echo ${(S)str/*b/_}
3996 _ab
3997 %
3998 I:expr:
4000 Search the exprth match (where expr evaluates to a number).
4001 This only applies when searching for substrings, either with the
4002 S flag, or with ${.../...} (only the exprth match is substi‐
4003 tuted) or ${...//...} (all matches from the exprth on are sub‐
4004 stituted). The default is to take the first match.
4005 The exprth match is counted such that there is either one or
4007 zero matches from each starting position in the string, although
4008 for global substitution matches overlapping previous replace‐
4009 ments are ignored. With the ${...%...} and ${...%%...} forms,
4010 the starting position for the match moves backwards from the end
4011 as the index increases, while with the other forms it moves for‐
4012 ward from the start.
4013 Hence with the string
4015 which switch is the right switch for Ipswich?
4016 substitutions of the form ${(SI:N:)string#w*ch} as N increases
4017 from 1 will match and remove `which', `witch', `witch' and
4018 `wich'; the form using `##' will match and remove `which switch
4019 is the right switch for Ipswich', `witch is the right switch for
4020 Ipswich', `witch for Ipswich' and `wich'. The form using `%'
4021 will remove the same matches as for `#', but in reverse order,
4022 and the form using `%%' will remove the same matches as for `##'
4023 in reverse order.
4024 B Include the index of the beginning of the match in the result.
4026 E Include the index one character past the end of the match in the
4028 result (note this is inconsistent with other uses of parameter
4029 index).
4030 M Include the matched portion in the result.
4032 N Include the length of the match in the result.
4034 R Include the unmatched portion in the result (the Rest).
4036 Rules
4038 Here is a summary of the rules for substitution; this assumes that
4039 braces are present around the substitution, i.e. ${...}. Some particu‐
4040 lar examples are given below. Note that the Zsh Development Group ac‐
4041 cepts no responsibility for any brain damage which may occur during the
4042 reading of the following rules.
4043 1. Nested substitution
4045 If multiple nested ${...} forms are present, substitution is
4046 performed from the inside outwards. At each level, the substi‐
4047 tution takes account of whether the current value is a scalar or
4048 an array, whether the whole substitution is in double quotes,
4049 and what flags are supplied to the current level of substitu‐
4050 tion, just as if the nested substitution were the outermost.
4051 The flags are not propagated up to enclosing substitutions; the
4052 nested substitution will return either a scalar or an array as
4053 determined by the flags, possibly adjusted for quoting. All the
4054 following steps take place where applicable at all levels of
4055 substitution.
4056 Note that, unless the `(P)' flag is present, the flags and any
4058 subscripts apply directly to the value of the nested substitu‐
4059 tion; for example, the expansion ${${foo}} behaves exactly the
4060 same as ${foo}. When the `(P)' flag is present in a nested sub‐
4061 stitution, the other substitution rules are applied to the value
4062 before it is interpreted as a name, so ${${(P)foo}} may differ
4063 from ${(P)foo}.
4064 At each nested level of substitution, the substituted words un‐
4066 dergo all forms of single-word substitution (i.e. not filename
4067 generation), including command substitution, arithmetic expan‐
4068 sion and filename expansion (i.e. leading ~ and =). Thus, for
4069 example, ${${:-=cat}:h} expands to the directory where the cat
4070 program resides. (Explanation: the internal substitution has no
4071 parameter but a default value =cat, which is expanded by file‐
4072 name expansion to a full path; the outer substitution then ap‐
4073 plies the modifier :h and takes the directory part of the path.)
4074 2. Internal parameter flags
4076 Any parameter flags set by one of the typeset family of com‐
4077 mands, in particular the -L, -R, -Z, -u and -l options for pad‐
4078 ding and capitalization, are applied directly to the parameter
4079 value. Note these flags are options to the command, e.g. `type‐
4080 set -Z'; they are not the same as the flags used within parame‐
4081 ter substitutions.
4082 At the outermost level of substitution, the `(P)' flag (rule 4.)
4084 ignores these transformations and uses the unmodified value of
4085 the parameter as the name to be replaced. This is usually the
4086 desired behavior because padding may make the value syntacti‐
4087 cally illegal as a parameter name, but if capitalization changes
4088 are desired, use the ${${(P)foo}} form (rule 25.).
4089 3. Parameter subscripting
4091 If the value is a raw parameter reference with a subscript, such
4092 as ${var[3]}, the effect of subscripting is applied directly to
4093 the parameter. Subscripts are evaluated left to right; subse‐
4094 quent subscripts apply to the scalar or array value yielded by
4095 the previous subscript. Thus if var is an array, ${var[1][2]}
4096 is the second character of the first word, but ${var[2,4][2]} is
4097 the entire third word (the second word of the range of words two
4098 through four of the original array). Any number of subscripts
4099 may appear. Flags such as `(k)' and `(v)' which alter the re‐
4100 sult of subscripting are applied.
4101 4. Parameter name replacement
4103 At the outermost level of nesting only, the `(P)' flag is ap‐
4104 plied. This treats the value so far as a parameter name (which
4105 may include a subscript expression) and replaces that with the
4106 corresponding value. This replacement occurs later if the `(P)'
4107 flag appears in a nested substitution.
4108 If the value so far names a parameter that has internal flags
4110 (rule 2.), those internal flags are applied to the new value af‐
4111 ter replacement.
4112 5. Double-quoted joining
4114 If the value after this process is an array, and the substitu‐
4115 tion appears in double quotes, and neither an `(@)' flag nor a
4116 `#' length operator is present at the current level, then words
4117 of the value are joined with the first character of the parame‐
4118 ter $IFS, by default a space, between each word (single word ar‐
4119 rays are not modified). If the `(j)' flag is present, that is
4120 used for joining instead of $IFS.
4121 6. Nested subscripting
4123 Any remaining subscripts (i.e. of a nested substitution) are
4124 evaluated at this point, based on whether the value is an array
4125 or a scalar. As with 3., multiple subscripts can appear. Note
4126 that ${foo[2,4][2]} is thus equivalent to ${${foo[2,4]}[2]} and
4127 also to "${${(@)foo[2,4]}[2]}" (the nested substitution returns
4128 an array in both cases), but not to "${${foo[2,4]}[2]}" (the
4129 nested substitution returns a scalar because of the quotes).
4130 7. Modifiers
4132 Any modifiers, as specified by a trailing `#', `%', `/' (possi‐
4133 bly doubled) or by a set of modifiers of the form `:...' (see
4134 the section `Modifiers' in the section `History Expansion'), are
4135 applied to the words of the value at this level.
4136 8. Character evaluation
4138 Any `(#)' flag is applied, evaluating the result so far numeri‐
4139 cally as a character.
4140 9. Length
4142 Any initial `#' modifier, i.e. in the form ${#var}, is used to
4143 evaluate the length of the expression so far.
4144 10. Forced joining
4146 If the `(j)' flag is present, or no `(j)' flag is present but
4147 the string is to be split as given by rule 11., and joining did
4148 not take place at rule 5., any words in the value are joined to‐
4149 gether using the given string or the first character of $IFS if
4150 none. Note that the `(F)' flag implicitly supplies a string for
4151 joining in this manner.
4152 11. Simple word splitting
4154 If one of the `(s)' or `(f)' flags are present, or the `=' spec‐
4155 ifier was present (e.g. ${=var}), the word is split on occur‐
4156 rences of the specified string, or (for = with neither of the
4157 two flags present) any of the characters in $IFS.
4158 If no `(s)', `(f)' or `=' was given, but the word is not quoted
4160 and the option SH_WORD_SPLIT is set, the word is split on occur‐
4161 rences of any of the characters in $IFS. Note this step, too,
4162 takes place at all levels of a nested substitution.
4163 12. Case modification
4165 Any case modification from one of the flags `(L)', `(U)' or
4166 `(C)' is applied.
4167 13. Escape sequence replacement
4169 First any replacements from the `(g)' flag are performed, then
4170 any prompt-style formatting from the `(%)' family of flags is
4171 applied.
4172 14. Quote application
4174 Any quoting or unquoting using `(q)' and `(Q)' and related flags
4175 is applied.
4176 15. Directory naming
4178 Any directory name substitution using `(D)' flag is applied.
4179 16. Visibility enhancement
4181 Any modifications to make characters visible using the `(V)'
4182 flag are applied.
4183 17. Lexical word splitting
4185 If the '(z)' flag or one of the forms of the '(Z)' flag is
4186 present, the word is split as if it were a shell command line,
4187 so that quotation marks and other metacharacters are used to de‐
4188 cide what constitutes a word. Note this form of splitting is
4189 entirely distinct from that described by rule 11.: it does not
4190 use $IFS, and does not cause forced joining.
4191 18. Uniqueness
4193 If the result is an array and the `(u)' flag was present, dupli‐
4194 cate elements are removed from the array.
4195 19. Ordering
4197 If the result is still an array and one of the `(o)' or `(O)'
4198 flags was present, the array is reordered.
4199 20. RC_EXPAND_PARAM
4201 At this point the decision is made whether any resulting array
4202 elements are to be combined element by element with surrounding
4203 text, as given by either the RC_EXPAND_PARAM option or the `^'
4204 flag.
4205 21. Re-evaluation
4207 Any `(e)' flag is applied to the value, forcing it to be re-ex‐
4208 amined for new parameter substitutions, but also for command and
4209 arithmetic substitutions.
4210 22. Padding
4212 Any padding of the value by the `(l.fill.)' or `(r.fill.)' flags
4213 is applied.
4214 23. Semantic joining
4216 In contexts where expansion semantics requires a single word to
4217 result, all words are rejoined with the first character of IFS
4218 between. So in `${(P)${(f)lines}}' the value of ${lines} is
4219 split at newlines, but then must be joined again before the
4220 `(P)' flag can be applied.
4221 If a single word is not required, this rule is skipped.
4223 24. Empty argument removal
4225 If the substitution does not appear in double quotes, any re‐
4226 sulting zero-length argument, whether from a scalar or an ele‐
4227 ment of an array, is elided from the list of arguments inserted
4228 into the command line.
4229 Strictly speaking, the removal happens later as the same happens
4231 with other forms of substitution; the point to note here is sim‐
4232 ply that it occurs after any of the above parameter operations.
4233 25. Nested parameter name replacement
4235 If the `(P)' flag is present and rule 4. has not applied, the
4236 value so far is treated as a parameter name (which may include a
4237 subscript expression) and replaced with the corresponding value,
4238 with internal flags (rule 2.) applied to the new value.
4239 Examples
4241 The flag f is useful to split a double-quoted substitution line by
4242 line. For example, ${(f)"$(<file)"} substitutes the contents of file
4243 divided so that each line is an element of the resulting array. Com‐
4244 pare this with the effect of $(<file) alone, which divides the file up
4245 by words, or the same inside double quotes, which makes the entire con‐
4246 tent of the file a single string.
4247 The following illustrates the rules for nested parameter expansions.
4249 Suppose that $foo contains the array (bar baz):
4250 "${(@)${foo}[1]}"
4252 This produces the result b. First, the inner substitution
4253 "${foo}", which has no array (@) flag, produces a single word
4254 result "bar baz". The outer substitution "${(@)...[1]}" detects
4255 that this is a scalar, so that (despite the `(@)' flag) the sub‐
4256 script picks the first character.
4257 "${${(@)foo}[1]}"
4259 This produces the result `bar'. In this case, the inner substi‐
4260 tution "${(@)foo}" produces the array `(bar baz)'. The outer
4261 substitution "${...[1]}" detects that this is an array and picks
4262 the first word. This is similar to the simple case "${foo[1]}".
4263 As an example of the rules for word splitting and joining, suppose $foo
4265 contains the array `(ax1 bx1)'. Then
4266 ${(s/x/)foo}
4268 produces the words `a', `1 b' and `1'.
4269 ${(j/x/s/x/)foo}
4271 produces `a', `1', `b' and `1'.
4272 ${(s/x/)foo%%1*}
4274 produces `a' and ` b' (note the extra space). As substitution
4275 occurs before either joining or splitting, the operation first
4276 generates the modified array (ax bx), which is joined to give
4277 "ax bx", and then split to give `a', ` b' and `'. The final
4278 empty string will then be elided, as it is not in double quotes.
4279
4281 A command enclosed in parentheses preceded by a dollar sign, like
4282 `$(...)', or quoted with grave accents, like ``...`', is replaced with
4283 its standard output, with any trailing newlines deleted. If the sub‐
4284 stitution is not enclosed in double quotes, the output is broken into
4285 words using the IFS parameter.
4286 The substitution `$(cat foo)' may be replaced by the faster `$(<foo)'.
4288 In this case foo undergoes single word shell expansions (parameter ex‐
4289 pansion, command substitution and arithmetic expansion), but not file‐
4290 name generation.
4291 If the option GLOB_SUBST is set, the result of any unquoted command
4293 substitution, including the special form just mentioned, is eligible
4294 for filename generation.
4295
4297 A string of the form `$[exp]' or `$((exp))' is substituted with the
4298 value of the arithmetic expression exp. exp is subjected to parameter
4299 expansion, command substitution and arithmetic expansion before it is
4300 evaluated. See the section `Arithmetic Evaluation'.
4301
4303 A string of the form `foo{xx,yy,zz}bar' is expanded to the individual
4304 words `fooxxbar', `fooyybar' and `foozzbar'. Left-to-right order is
4305 preserved. This construct may be nested. Commas may be quoted in or‐
4306 der to include them literally in a word.
4307 An expression of the form `{n1..n2}', where n1 and n2 are integers, is
4309 expanded to every number between n1 and n2 inclusive. If either number
4310 begins with a zero, all the resulting numbers will be padded with lead‐
4311 ing zeroes to that minimum width, but for negative numbers the - char‐
4312 acter is also included in the width. If the numbers are in decreasing
4313 order the resulting sequence will also be in decreasing order.
4314 An expression of the form `{n1..n2..n3}', where n1, n2, and n3 are in‐
4316 tegers, is expanded as above, but only every n3th number starting from
4317 n1 is output. If n3 is negative the numbers are output in reverse or‐
4318 der, this is slightly different from simply swapping n1 and n2 in the
4319 case that the step n3 doesn't evenly divide the range. Zero padding
4320 can be specified in any of the three numbers, specifying it in the
4321 third can be useful to pad for example `{-99..100..01}' which is not
4322 possible to specify by putting a 0 on either of the first two numbers
4323 (i.e. pad to two characters).
4324 An expression of the form `{c1..c2}', where c1 and c2 are single char‐
4326 acters (which may be multibyte characters), is expanded to every char‐
4327 acter in the range from c1 to c2 in whatever character sequence is used
4328 internally. For characters with code points below 128 this is US ASCII
4329 (this is the only case most users will need). If any intervening char‐
4330 acter is not printable, appropriate quotation is used to render it
4331 printable. If the character sequence is reversed, the output is in re‐
4332 verse order, e.g. `{d..a}' is substituted as `d c b a'.
4333 If a brace expression matches none of the above forms, it is left un‐
4335 changed, unless the option BRACE_CCL (an abbreviation for `brace char‐
4336 acter class') is set. In that case, it is expanded to a list of the
4337 individual characters between the braces sorted into the order of the
4338 characters in the ASCII character set (multibyte characters are not
4339 currently handled). The syntax is similar to a [...] expression in
4340 filename generation: `-' is treated specially to denote a range of
4341 characters, but `^' or `!' as the first character is treated normally.
4342 For example, `{abcdef0-9}' expands to 16 words 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b
4343 c d e f.
4344 Note that brace expansion is not part of filename generation (glob‐
4346 bing); an expression such as */{foo,bar} is split into two separate
4347 words */foo and */bar before filename generation takes place. In par‐
4348 ticular, note that this is liable to produce a `no match' error if ei‐
4349 ther of the two expressions does not match; this is to be contrasted
4350 with */(foo|bar), which is treated as a single pattern but otherwise
4351 has similar effects.
4352 To combine brace expansion with array expansion, see the ${^spec} form
4354 described in the section Parameter Expansion above.
4355
4357 Each word is checked to see if it begins with an unquoted `~'. If it
4358 does, then the word up to a `/', or the end of the word if there is no
4359 `/', is checked to see if it can be substituted in one of the ways de‐
4360 scribed here. If so, then the `~' and the checked portion are replaced
4361 with the appropriate substitute value.
4362 A `~' by itself is replaced by the value of $HOME. A `~' followed by a
4364 `+' or a `-' is replaced by current or previous working directory, re‐
4365 spectively.
4366 A `~' followed by a number is replaced by the directory at that posi‐
4368 tion in the directory stack. `~0' is equivalent to `~+', and `~1' is
4369 the top of the stack. `~+' followed by a number is replaced by the di‐
4370 rectory at that position in the directory stack. `~+0' is equivalent
4371 to `~+', and `~+1' is the top of the stack. `~-' followed by a number
4372 is replaced by the directory that many positions from the bottom of the
4373 stack. `~-0' is the bottom of the stack. The PUSHD_MINUS option ex‐
4374 changes the effects of `~+' and `~-' where they are followed by a num‐
4375 ber.
4376 Dynamic named directories
4378 If the function zsh_directory_name exists, or the shell variable
4379 zsh_directory_name_functions exists and contains an array of function
4380 names, then the functions are used to implement dynamic directory nam‐
4381 ing. The functions are tried in order until one returns status zero,
4382 so it is important that functions test whether they can handle the case
4383 in question and return an appropriate status.
4384 A `~' followed by a string namstr in unquoted square brackets is
4386 treated specially as a dynamic directory name. Note that the first un‐
4387 quoted closing square bracket always terminates namstr. The shell
4388 function is passed two arguments: the string n (for name) and namstr.
4389 It should either set the array reply to a single element which is the
4390 directory corresponding to the name and return status zero (executing
4391 an assignment as the last statement is usually sufficient), or it
4392 should return status non-zero. In the former case the element of reply
4393 is used as the directory; in the latter case the substitution is deemed
4394 to have failed. If all functions fail and the option NOMATCH is set,
4395 an error results.
4396 The functions defined as above are also used to see if a directory can
4398 be turned into a name, for example when printing the directory stack or
4399 when expanding %~ in prompts. In this case each function is passed two
4400 arguments: the string d (for directory) and the candidate for dynamic
4401 naming. The function should either return non-zero status, if the di‐
4402 rectory cannot be named by the function, or it should set the array re‐
4403 ply to consist of two elements: the first is the dynamic name for the
4404 directory (as would appear within `~[...]'), and the second is the pre‐
4405 fix length of the directory to be replaced. For example, if the trial
4406 directory is /home/myname/src/zsh and the dynamic name for /home/my‐
4407 name/src (which has 16 characters) is s, then the function sets
4408 reply=(s 16)
4410 The directory name so returned is compared with possible static names
4412 for parts of the directory path, as described below; it is used if the
4413 prefix length matched (16 in the example) is longer than that matched
4414 by any static name.
4415 It is not a requirement that a function implements both n and d calls;
4417 for example, it might be appropriate for certain dynamic forms of ex‐
4418 pansion not to be contracted to names. In that case any call with the
4419 first argument d should cause a non-zero status to be returned.
4420 The completion system calls `zsh_directory_name c' followed by equiva‐
4422 lent calls to elements of the array zsh_directory_name_functions, if it
4423 exists, in order to complete dynamic names for directories. The code
4424 for this should be as for any other completion function as described in
4425 zshcompsys(1).
4426 As a working example, here is a function that expands any dynamic names
4428 beginning with the string p: to directories below /home/pws/perforce.
4429 In this simple case a static name for the directory would be just as
4430 effective.
4431 zsh_directory_name() {
4433 emulate -L zsh
4434 setopt extendedglob
4435 local -a match mbegin mend
4436 if [[ $1 = d ]]; then
4437 # turn the directory into a name
4438 if [[ $2 = (#b)(/home/pws/perforce/)([^/]##)* ]]; then
4439 typeset -ga reply
4440 reply=(p:$match[2] $(( ${#match[1]} + ${#match[2]} )) )
4441 else
4442 return 1
4443 fi
4444 elif [[ $1 = n ]]; then
4445 # turn the name into a directory
4446 [[ $2 != (#b)p:(?*) ]] && return 1
4447 typeset -ga reply
4448 reply=(/home/pws/perforce/$match[1])
4449 elif [[ $1 = c ]]; then
4450 # complete names
4451 local expl
4452 local -a dirs
4453 dirs=(/home/pws/perforce/*(/:t))
4454 dirs=(p:${^dirs})
4455 _wanted dynamic-dirs expl 'dynamic directory' compadd -S\] -a dirs
4456 return
4457 else
4458 return 1
4459 fi
4460 return 0
4461 }
4462 Static named directories
4464 A `~' followed by anything not already covered consisting of any number
4465 of alphanumeric characters or underscore (`_'), hyphen (`-'), or dot
4466 (`.') is looked up as a named directory, and replaced by the value of
4467 that named directory if found. Named directories are typically home
4468 directories for users on the system. They may also be defined if the
4469 text after the `~' is the name of a string shell parameter whose value
4470 begins with a `/'. Note that trailing slashes will be removed from the
4471 path to the directory (though the original parameter is not modified).
4472 It is also possible to define directory names using the -d option to
4474 the hash builtin.
4475 When the shell prints a path (e.g. when expanding %~ in prompts or when
4477 printing the directory stack), the path is checked to see if it has a
4478 named directory as its prefix. If so, then the prefix portion is re‐
4479 placed with a `~' followed by the name of the directory. The shorter
4480 of the two ways of referring to the directory is used, i.e. either the
4481 directory name or the full path; the name is used if they are the same
4482 length. The parameters $PWD and $OLDPWD are never abbreviated in this
4483 fashion.
4484 `=' expansion
4486 If a word begins with an unquoted `=' and the EQUALS option is set, the
4487 remainder of the word is taken as the name of a command. If a command
4488 exists by that name, the word is replaced by the full pathname of the
4489 command.
4490 Notes
4492 Filename expansion is performed on the right hand side of a parameter
4493 assignment, including those appearing after commands of the typeset
4494 family. In this case, the right hand side will be treated as a
4495 colon-separated list in the manner of the PATH parameter, so that a `~'
4496 or an `=' following a `:' is eligible for expansion. All such behav‐
4497 iour can be disabled by quoting the `~', the `=', or the whole expres‐
4498 sion (but not simply the colon); the EQUALS option is also respected.
4499 If the option MAGIC_EQUAL_SUBST is set, any unquoted shell argument in
4501 the form `identifier=expression' becomes eligible for file expansion as
4502 described in the previous paragraph. Quoting the first `=' also in‐
4503 hibits this.
4504
4506 If a word contains an unquoted instance of one of the characters `*',
4507 `(', `|', `<', `[', or `?', it is regarded as a pattern for filename
4508 generation, unless the GLOB option is unset. If the EXTENDED_GLOB op‐
4509 tion is set, the `^' and `#' characters also denote a pattern; other‐
4510 wise they are not treated specially by the shell.
4511 The word is replaced with a list of sorted filenames that match the
4513 pattern. If no matching pattern is found, the shell gives an error
4514 message, unless the NULL_GLOB option is set, in which case the word is
4515 deleted; or unless the NOMATCH option is unset, in which case the word
4516 is left unchanged.
4517 In filename generation, the character `/' must be matched explicitly;
4519 also, a `.' must be matched explicitly at the beginning of a pattern or
4520 after a `/', unless the GLOB_DOTS option is set. No filename genera‐
4521 tion pattern matches the files `.' or `..'. In other instances of pat‐
4522 tern matching, the `/' and `.' are not treated specially.
4523 Glob Operators
4525 * Matches any string, including the null string.
4526 ? Matches any character.
4528 [...] Matches any of the enclosed characters. Ranges of characters
4530 can be specified by separating two characters by a `-'. A `-'
4531 or `]' may be matched by including it as the first character in
4532 the list. There are also several named classes of characters,
4533 in the form `[:name:]' with the following meanings. The first
4534 set use the macros provided by the operating system to test for
4535 the given character combinations, including any modifications
4536 due to local language settings, see ctype(3):
4537 [:alnum:]
4539 The character is alphanumeric
4540 [:alpha:]
4542 The character is alphabetic
4543 [:ascii:]
4545 The character is 7-bit, i.e. is a single-byte character
4546 without the top bit set.
4547 [:blank:]
4549 The character is a blank character
4550 [:cntrl:]
4552 The character is a control character
4553 [:digit:]
4555 The character is a decimal digit
4556 [:graph:]
4558 The character is a printable character other than white‐
4559 space
4560 [:lower:]
4562 The character is a lowercase letter
4563 [:print:]
4565 The character is printable
4566 [:punct:]
4568 The character is printable but neither alphanumeric nor
4569 whitespace
4570 [:space:]
4572 The character is whitespace
4573 [:upper:]
4575 The character is an uppercase letter
4576 [:xdigit:]
4578 The character is a hexadecimal digit
4579 Another set of named classes is handled internally by the shell
4581 and is not sensitive to the locale:
4582 [:IDENT:]
4584 The character is allowed to form part of a shell identi‐
4585 fier, such as a parameter name
4586 [:IFS:]
4588 The character is used as an input field separator, i.e.
4589 is contained in the IFS parameter
4590 [:IFSSPACE:]
4592 The character is an IFS white space character; see the
4593 documentation for IFS in the zshparam(1) manual page.
4594 [:INCOMPLETE:]
4596 Matches a byte that starts an incomplete multibyte char‐
4597 acter. Note that there may be a sequence of more than
4598 one bytes that taken together form the prefix of a multi‐
4599 byte character. To test for a potentially incomplete
4600 byte sequence, use the pattern `[[:INCOMPLETE:]]*'. This
4601 will never match a sequence starting with a valid multi‐
4602 byte character.
4603 [:INVALID:]
4605 Matches a byte that does not start a valid multibyte
4606 character. Note this may be a continuation byte of an
4607 incomplete multibyte character as any part of a multibyte
4608 string consisting of invalid and incomplete multibyte
4609 characters is treated as single bytes.
4610 [:WORD:]
4612 The character is treated as part of a word; this test is
4613 sensitive to the value of the WORDCHARS parameter
4614 Note that the square brackets are additional to those enclosing
4616 the whole set of characters, so to test for a single alphanu‐
4617 meric character you need `[[:alnum:]]'. Named character sets
4618 can be used alongside other types, e.g. `[[:alpha:]0-9]'.
4619 [^...]
4621 [!...] Like [...], except that it matches any character which is not in
4622 the given set.
4623 <[x]-[y]>
4625 Matches any number in the range x to y, inclusive. Either of
4626 the numbers may be omitted to make the range open-ended; hence
4627 `<->' matches any number. To match individual digits, the [...]
4628 form is more efficient.
4629 Be careful when using other wildcards adjacent to patterns of
4631 this form; for example, <0-9>* will actually match any number
4632 whatsoever at the start of the string, since the `<0-9>' will
4633 match the first digit, and the `*' will match any others. This
4634 is a trap for the unwary, but is in fact an inevitable conse‐
4635 quence of the rule that the longest possible match always suc‐
4636 ceeds. Expressions such as `<0-9>[^[:digit:]]*' can be used in‐
4637 stead.
4638 (...) Matches the enclosed pattern. This is used for grouping. If
4640 the KSH_GLOB option is set, then a `@', `*', `+', `?' or `!' im‐
4641 mediately preceding the `(' is treated specially, as detailed
4642 below. The option SH_GLOB prevents bare parentheses from being
4643 used in this way, though the KSH_GLOB option is still available.
4644 Note that grouping cannot extend over multiple directories: it
4646 is an error to have a `/' within a group (this only applies for
4647 patterns used in filename generation). There is one exception:
4648 a group of the form (pat/)# appearing as a complete path segment
4649 can match a sequence of directories. For example, foo/(a*/)#bar
4650 matches foo/bar, foo/any/bar, foo/any/anyother/bar, and so on.
4651 x|y Matches either x or y. This operator has lower precedence than
4653 any other. The `|' character must be within parentheses, to
4654 avoid interpretation as a pipeline. The alternatives are tried
4655 in order from left to right.
4656 ^x (Requires EXTENDED_GLOB to be set.) Matches anything except the
4658 pattern x. This has a higher precedence than `/', so `^foo/bar'
4659 will search directories in `.' except `./foo' for a file named
4660 `bar'.
4661 x~y (Requires EXTENDED_GLOB to be set.) Match anything that matches
4663 the pattern x but does not match y. This has lower precedence
4664 than any operator except `|', so `*/*~foo/bar' will search for
4665 all files in all directories in `.' and then exclude `foo/bar'
4666 if there was such a match. Multiple patterns can be excluded by
4667 `foo~bar~baz'. In the exclusion pattern (y), `/' and `.' are
4668 not treated specially the way they usually are in globbing.
4669 x# (Requires EXTENDED_GLOB to be set.) Matches zero or more occur‐
4671 rences of the pattern x. This operator has high precedence;
4672 `12#' is equivalent to `1(2#)', rather than `[1m(12)#'. It is an
4673 error for an unquoted `#' to follow something which cannot be
4674 repeated; this includes an empty string, a pattern already fol‐
4675 lowed by `##', or parentheses when part of a KSH_GLOB pattern
4676 (for example, `!(foo)#' is invalid and must be replaced by
4677 `*(!(foo))').
4678 x## (Requires EXTENDED_GLOB to be set.) Matches one or more occur‐
4680 rences of the pattern x. This operator has high precedence;
4681 `12##' is equivalent to `1(2##)', rather than `[1m(12)##'. No more
4682 than two active `#' characters may appear together. (Note the
4683 potential clash with glob qualifiers in the form `1(2##)' which
4684 should therefore be avoided.)
4685 ksh-like Glob Operators
4687 If the KSH_GLOB option is set, the effects of parentheses can be modi‐
4688 fied by a preceding `@', `*', `+', `?' or `!'. This character need not
4689 be unquoted to have special effects, but the `(' must be.
4690 @(...) Match the pattern in the parentheses. (Like `(...)'.)
4692 *(...) Match any number of occurrences. (Like `(...)#', except that
4694 recursive directory searching is not supported.)
4695 +(...) Match at least one occurrence. (Like `(...)##', except that re‐
4697 cursive directory searching is not supported.)
4698 ?(...) Match zero or one occurrence. (Like `(|...)'.)
4700 !(...) Match anything but the expression in parentheses. (Like
4702 `(^(...))'.)
4703 Precedence
4705 The precedence of the operators given above is (highest) `^', `/', `~',
4706 `|' (lowest); the remaining operators are simply treated from left to
4707 right as part of a string, with `#' and `##' applying to the shortest
4708 possible preceding unit (i.e. a character, `?', `[...]', `<...>', or a
4709 parenthesised expression). As mentioned above, a `/' used as a direc‐
4710 tory separator may not appear inside parentheses, while a `|' must do
4711 so; in patterns used in other contexts than filename generation (for
4712 example, in case statements and tests within `[[...]]'), a `/' is not
4713 special; and `/' is also not special after a `~' appearing outside
4714 parentheses in a filename pattern.
4715 Globbing Flags
4717 There are various flags which affect any text to their right up to the
4718 end of the enclosing group or to the end of the pattern; they require
4719 the EXTENDED_GLOB option. All take the form (#X) where X may have one
4720 of the following forms:
4721 i Case insensitive: upper or lower case characters in the pattern
4723 match upper or lower case characters.
4724 l Lower case characters in the pattern match upper or lower case
4726 characters; upper case characters in the pattern still only
4727 match upper case characters.
4728 I Case sensitive: locally negates the effect of i or l from that
4730 point on.
4731 b Activate backreferences for parenthesised groups in the pattern;
4733 this does not work in filename generation. When a pattern with
4734 a set of active parentheses is matched, the strings matched by
4735 the groups are stored in the array $match, the indices of the
4736 beginning of the matched parentheses in the array $mbegin, and
4737 the indices of the end in the array $mend, with the first ele‐
4738 ment of each array corresponding to the first parenthesised
4739 group, and so on. These arrays are not otherwise special to the
4740 shell. The indices use the same convention as does parameter
4741 substitution, so that elements of $mend and $mbegin may be used
4742 in subscripts; the KSH_ARRAYS option is respected. Sets of
4743 globbing flags are not considered parenthesised groups; only the
4744 first nine active parentheses can be referenced.
4745 For example,
4747 foo="a_string_with_a_message"
4749 if [[ $foo = (a|an)_(#b)(*) ]]; then
4750 print ${foo[$mbegin[1],$mend[1]]}
4751 fi
4752 prints `string_with_a_message'. Note that the first set of
4754 parentheses is before the (#b) and does not create a backrefer‐
4755 ence.
4756 Backreferences work with all forms of pattern matching other
4758 than filename generation, but note that when performing matches
4759 on an entire array, such as ${array#pattern}, or a global sub‐
4760 stitution, such as ${param//pat/repl}, only the data for the
4761 last match remains available. In the case of global replace‐
4762 ments this may still be useful. See the example for the m flag
4763 below.
4764 The numbering of backreferences strictly follows the order of
4766 the opening parentheses from left to right in the pattern
4767 string, although sets of parentheses may be nested. There are
4768 special rules for parentheses followed by `#' or `##'. Only the
4769 last match of the parenthesis is remembered: for example, in `[[
4770 abab = (#b)([ab])# ]]', only the final `b' is stored in
4771 match[1]. Thus extra parentheses may be necessary to match the
4772 complete segment: for example, use `X((ab|cd)#)Y' to match a
4773 whole string of either `ab' or `cd' between `X' and `Y', using
4774 the value of $match[1] rather than $match[2].
4775 If the match fails none of the parameters is altered, so in some
4777 cases it may be necessary to initialise them beforehand. If
4778 some of the backreferences fail to match -- which happens if
4779 they are in an alternate branch which fails to match, or if they
4780 are followed by # and matched zero times -- then the matched
4781 string is set to the empty string, and the start and end indices
4782 are set to -1.
4783 Pattern matching with backreferences is slightly slower than
4785 without.
4786 B Deactivate backreferences, negating the effect of the b flag
4788 from that point on.
4789 cN,M The flag (#cN,M) can be used anywhere that the # or ## operators
4791 can be used except in the expressions `(*/)#' and `(*/)##' in
4792 filename generation, where `/' has special meaning; it cannot be
4793 combined with other globbing flags and a bad pattern error oc‐
4794 curs if it is misplaced. It is equivalent to the form {N,M} in
4795 regular expressions. The previous character or group is re‐
4796 quired to match between N and M times, inclusive. The form
4797 (#cN) requires exactly N matches; (#c,M) is equivalent to speci‐
4798 fying N as 0; (#cN,) specifies that there is no maximum limit on
4799 the number of matches.
4800 m Set references to the match data for the entire string matched;
4802 this is similar to backreferencing and does not work in filename
4803 generation. The flag must be in effect at the end of the pat‐
4804 tern, i.e. not local to a group. The parameters $MATCH, $MBEGIN
4805 and $MEND will be set to the string matched and to the indices
4806 of the beginning and end of the string, respectively. This is
4807 most useful in parameter substitutions, as otherwise the string
4808 matched is obvious.
4809 For example,
4811 arr=(veldt jynx grimps waqf zho buck)
4813 print ${arr//(#m)[aeiou]/${(U)MATCH}}
4814 forces all the matches (i.e. all vowels) into uppercase, print‐
4816 ing `vEldt jynx grImps wAqf zhO bUck'.
4817 Unlike backreferences, there is no speed penalty for using match
4819 references, other than the extra substitutions required for the
4820 replacement strings in cases such as the example shown.
4821 M Deactivate the m flag, hence no references to match data will be
4823 created.
4824 anum Approximate matching: num errors are allowed in the string
4826 matched by the pattern. The rules for this are described in the
4827 next subsection.
4828 s, e Unlike the other flags, these have only a local effect, and each
4830 must appear on its own: `(#s)' and `(#e)' are the only valid
4831 forms. The `(#s)' flag succeeds only at the start of the test
4832 string, and the `(#e)' flag succeeds only at the end of the test
4833 string; they correspond to `^' and `$' in standard regular ex‐
4834 pressions. They are useful for matching path segments in pat‐
4835 terns other than those in filename generation (where path seg‐
4836 ments are in any case treated separately). For example,
4837 `*((#s)|/)test((#e)|/)*' matches a path segment `test' in any of
4838 the following strings: test, test/at/start, at/end/test,
4839 in/test/middle.
4840 Another use is in parameter substitution; for example `${ar‐
4842 ray/(#s)A*Z(#e)}' will remove only elements of an array which
4843 match the complete pattern `A*Z'. There are other ways of per‐
4844 forming many operations of this type, however the combination of
4845 the substitution operations `/' and `//' with the `(#s)' and
4846 `(#e)' flags provides a single simple and memorable method.
4847 Note that assertions of the form `(^(#s))' also work, i.e. match
4849 anywhere except at the start of the string, although this actu‐
4850 ally means `anything except a zero-length portion at the start
4851 of the string'; you need to use `(""~(#s))' to match a
4852 zero-length portion of the string not at the start.
4853 q A `q' and everything up to the closing parenthesis of the glob‐
4855 bing flags are ignored by the pattern matching code. This is
4856 intended to support the use of glob qualifiers, see below. The
4857 result is that the pattern `(#b)(*).c(#q.)' can be used both for
4858 globbing and for matching against a string. In the former case,
4859 the `(#q.)' will be treated as a glob qualifier and the `(#b)'
4860 will not be useful, while in the latter case the `(#b)' is use‐
4861 ful for backreferences and the `(#q.)' will be ignored. Note
4862 that colon modifiers in the glob qualifiers are also not applied
4863 in ordinary pattern matching.
4864 u Respect the current locale in determining the presence of multi‐
4866 byte characters in a pattern, provided the shell was compiled
4867 with MULTIBYTE_SUPPORT. This overrides the MULTIBYTE option;
4868 the default behaviour is taken from the option. Compare U.
4869 (Mnemonic: typically multibyte characters are from Unicode in
4870 the UTF-8 encoding, although any extension of ASCII supported by
4871 the system library may be used.)
4872 U All characters are considered to be a single byte long. The op‐
4874 posite of u. This overrides the MULTIBYTE option.
4875 For example, the test string fooxx can be matched by the pattern
4877 (#i)FOOXX, but not by (#l)FOOXX, (#i)FOO(#I)XX or ((#i)FOOX)X. The
4878 string (#ia2)readme specifies case-insensitive matching of readme with
4879 up to two errors.
4880 When using the ksh syntax for grouping both KSH_GLOB and EXTENDED_GLOB
4882 must be set and the left parenthesis should be preceded by @. Note
4883 also that the flags do not affect letters inside [...] groups, in other
4884 words (#i)[a-z] still matches only lowercase letters. Finally, note
4885 that when examining whole paths case-insensitively every directory must
4886 be searched for all files which match, so that a pattern of the form
4887 (#i)/foo/bar/... is potentially slow.
4888 Approximate Matching
4890 When matching approximately, the shell keeps a count of the errors
4891 found, which cannot exceed the number specified in the (#anum) flags.
4892 Four types of error are recognised:
4893 1. Different characters, as in fooxbar and fooybar.
4895 2. Transposition of characters, as in banana and abnana.
4897 3. A character missing in the target string, as with the pattern
4899 road and target string rod.
4900 4. An extra character appearing in the target string, as with stove
4902 and strove.
4903 Thus, the pattern (#a3)abcd matches dcba, with the errors occurring by
4905 using the first rule twice and the second once, grouping the string as
4906 [d][cb][a] and [a][bc][d].
4907 Non-literal parts of the pattern must match exactly, including charac‐
4909 ters in character ranges: hence (#a1)??? matches strings of length
4910 four, by applying rule 4 to an empty part of the pattern, but not
4911 strings of length two, since all the ? must match. Other characters
4912 which must match exactly are initial dots in filenames (unless the
4913 GLOB_DOTS option is set), and all slashes in filenames, so that a/bc is
4914 two errors from ab/c (the slash cannot be transposed with another char‐
4915 acter). Similarly, errors are counted separately for non-contiguous
4916 strings in the pattern, so that (ab|cd)ef is two errors from aebf.
4917 When using exclusion via the ~ operator, approximate matching is
4919 treated entirely separately for the excluded part and must be activated
4920 separately. Thus, (#a1)README~READ_ME matches READ.ME but not READ_ME,
4921 as the trailing READ_ME is matched without approximation. However,
4922 (#a1)README~(#a1)READ_ME does not match any pattern of the form READ?ME
4923 as all such forms are now excluded.
4924 Apart from exclusions, there is only one overall error count; however,
4926 the maximum errors allowed may be altered locally, and this can be de‐
4927 limited by grouping. For example, (#a1)cat((#a0)dog)fox allows one er‐
4928 ror in total, which may not occur in the dog section, and the pattern
4929 (#a1)cat(#a0)dog(#a1)fox is equivalent. Note that the point at which
4930 an error is first found is the crucial one for establishing whether to
4931 use approximation; for example, (#a1)abc(#a0)xyz will not match
4932 abcdxyz, because the error occurs at the `x', where approximation is
4933 turned off.
4934 Entire path segments may be matched approximately, so that
4936 `(#a1)/foo/d/is/available/at/the/bar' allows one error in any path seg‐
4937 ment. This is much less efficient than without the (#a1), however,
4938 since every directory in the path must be scanned for a possible ap‐
4939 proximate match. It is best to place the (#a1) after any path segments
4940 which are known to be correct.
4941 Recursive Globbing
4943 A pathname component of the form `(foo/)#' matches a path consisting of
4944 zero or more directories matching the pattern foo.
4945 As a shorthand, `**/' is equivalent to `(*/)#'; note that this there‐
4947 fore matches files in the current directory as well as subdirectories.
4948 Thus:
4949 ls -ld -- (*/)#bar
4951 or
4953 ls -ld -- **/bar
4955 does a recursive directory search for files named `bar' (potentially
4957 including the file `bar' in the current directory). This form does not
4958 follow symbolic links; the alternative form `***/' does, but is other‐
4959 wise identical. Neither of these can be combined with other forms of
4960 globbing within the same path segment; in that case, the `*' operators
4961 revert to their usual effect.
4962 Even shorter forms are available when the option GLOB_STAR_SHORT is
4964 set. In that case if no / immediately follows a ** or *** they are
4965 treated as if both a / plus a further * are present. Hence:
4966 setopt GLOBSTARSHORT
4968 ls -ld -- **.c
4969 is equivalent to
4971 ls -ld -- **/*.c
4973 Glob Qualifiers
4975 Patterns used for filename generation may end in a list of qualifiers
4976 enclosed in parentheses. The qualifiers specify which filenames that
4977 otherwise match the given pattern will be inserted in the argument
4978 list.
4979 If the option BARE_GLOB_QUAL is set, then a trailing set of parentheses
4981 containing no `|' or `(' characters (or `~' if it is special) is taken
4982 as a set of glob qualifiers. A glob subexpression that would normally
4983 be taken as glob qualifiers, for example `(^x)', can be forced to be
4984 treated as part of the glob pattern by doubling the parentheses, in
4985 this case producing `((^x))'.
4986 If the option EXTENDED_GLOB is set, a different syntax for glob quali‐
4988 fiers is available, namely `(#qx)' where x is any of the same glob
4989 qualifiers used in the other format. The qualifiers must still appear
4990 at the end of the pattern. However, with this syntax multiple glob
4991 qualifiers may be chained together. They are treated as a logical AND
4992 of the individual sets of flags. Also, as the syntax is unambiguous,
4993 the expression will be treated as glob qualifiers just as long any
4994 parentheses contained within it are balanced; appearance of `|', `(' or
4995 `~' does not negate the effect. Note that qualifiers will be recog‐
4996 nised in this form even if a bare glob qualifier exists at the end of
4997 the pattern, for example `*(#q*)(.)' will recognise executable regular
4998 files if both options are set; however, mixed syntax should probably be
4999 avoided for the sake of clarity. Note that within conditions using the
5000 `[[' form the presence of a parenthesised expression (#q...) at the end
5001 of a string indicates that globbing should be performed; the expression
5002 may include glob qualifiers, but it is also valid if it is simply (#q).
5003 This does not apply to the right hand side of pattern match operators
5004 as the syntax already has special significance.
5005 A qualifier may be any one of the following:
5007 / directories
5009 F `full' (i.e. non-empty) directories. Note that the opposite
5011 sense (^F) expands to empty directories and all non-directories.
5012 Use (/^F) for empty directories.
5013 . plain files
5015 @ symbolic links
5017 = sockets
5019 p named pipes (FIFOs)
5021 * executable plain files (0100 or 0010 or 0001)
5023 % device files (character or block special)
5025 %b block special files
5027 %c character special files
5029 r owner-readable files (0400)
5031 w owner-writable files (0200)
5033 x owner-executable files (0100)
5035 A group-readable files (0040)
5037 I group-writable files (0020)
5039 E group-executable files (0010)
5041 R world-readable files (0004)
5043 W world-writable files (0002)
5045 X world-executable files (0001)
5047 s setuid files (04000)
5049 S setgid files (02000)
5051 t files with the sticky bit (01000)
5053 fspec files with access rights matching spec. This spec may be a octal
5055 number optionally preceded by a `=', a `+', or a `-'. If none of
5056 these characters is given, the behavior is the same as for `='.
5057 The octal number describes the mode bits to be expected, if com‐
5058 bined with a `=', the value given must match the file-modes ex‐
5059 actly, with a `+', at least the bits in the given number must be
5060 set in the file-modes, and with a `-', the bits in the number
5061 must not be set. Giving a `?' instead of a octal digit anywhere
5062 in the number ensures that the corresponding bits in the
5063 file-modes are not checked, this is only useful in combination
5064 with `='.
5065 If the qualifier `f' is followed by any other character anything
5067 up to the next matching character (`[', `{', and `<' match `]',
5068 `}', and `>' respectively, any other character matches itself)
5069 is taken as a list of comma-separated sub-specs. Each sub-spec
5070 may be either an octal number as described above or a list of
5071 any of the characters `u', `g', `o', and `a', followed by a `=',
5072 a `+', or a `-', followed by a list of any of the characters
5073 `r', `w', `x', `s', and `t', or an octal digit. The first list
5074 of characters specify which access rights are to be checked. If
5075 a `u' is given, those for the owner of the file are used, if a
5076 `g' is given, those of the group are checked, a `o' means to
5077 test those of other users, and the `a' says to test all three
5078 groups. The `=', `+', and `-' again says how the modes are to be
5079 checked and have the same meaning as described for the first
5080 form above. The second list of characters finally says which ac‐
5081 cess rights are to be expected: `r' for read access, `w' for
5082 write access, `x' for the right to execute the file (or to
5083 search a directory), `s' for the setuid and setgid bits, and `t'
5084 for the sticky bit.
5085 Thus, `*(f70?)' gives the files for which the owner has read,
5087 write, and execute permission, and for which other group members
5088 have no rights, independent of the permissions for other users.
5089 The pattern `*(f-100)' gives all files for which the owner does
5090 not have execute permission, and `*(f:gu+w,o-rx:)' gives the
5091 files for which the owner and the other members of the group
5092 have at least write permission, and for which other users don't
5093 have read or execute permission.
5094 estring
5096 +cmd The string will be executed as shell code. The filename will be
5097 included in the list if and only if the code returns a zero sta‐
5098 tus (usually the status of the last command).
5099 In the first form, the first character after the `e' will be
5101 used as a separator and anything up to the next matching separa‐
5102 tor will be taken as the string; `[', `{', and `<' match `]',
5103 `}', and `>', respectively, while any other character matches
5104 itself. Note that expansions must be quoted in the string to
5105 prevent them from being expanded before globbing is done.
5106 string is then executed as shell code. The string globqual is
5107 appended to the array zsh_eval_context the duration of execu‐
5108 tion.
5109 During the execution of string the filename currently being
5111 tested is available in the parameter REPLY; the parameter may be
5112 altered to a string to be inserted into the list instead of the
5113 original filename. In addition, the parameter reply may be set
5114 to an array or a string, which overrides the value of REPLY. If
5115 set to an array, the latter is inserted into the command line
5116 word by word.
5117 For example, suppose a directory contains a single file
5119 `lonely'. Then the expression `*(e:'reply=(${REPLY}{1,2})':)'
5120 will cause the words `lonely1' and `lonely2' to be inserted into
5121 the command line. Note the quoting of string.
5122 The form +cmd has the same effect, but no delimiters appear
5124 around cmd. Instead, cmd is taken as the longest sequence of
5125 characters following the + that are alphanumeric or underscore.
5126 Typically cmd will be the name of a shell function that contains
5127 the appropriate test. For example,
5128 nt() { [[ $REPLY -nt $NTREF ]] }
5130 NTREF=reffile
5131 ls -ld -- *(+nt)
5132 lists all files in the directory that have been modified more
5134 recently than reffile.
5135 ddev files on the device dev
5137 l[-|+]ct
5139 files having a link count less than ct (-), greater than ct (+),
5140 or equal to ct
5141 U files owned by the effective user ID
5143 G files owned by the effective group ID
5145 uid files owned by user ID id if that is a number. Otherwise, id
5147 specifies a user name: the character after the `u' will be taken
5148 as a separator and the string between it and the next matching
5149 separator will be taken as a user name. The starting separators
5150 `[', `{', and `<' match the final separators `]', `}', and `>',
5151 respectively; any other character matches itself. The selected
5152 files are those owned by this user. For example, `u:foo:' or
5153 `u[foo]' selects files owned by user `foo'.
5154 gid like uid but with group IDs or names
5156 a[Mwhms][-|+]n
5158 files accessed exactly n days ago. Files accessed within the
5159 last n days are selected using a negative value for n (-n).
5160 Files accessed more than n days ago are selected by a positive n
5161 value (+n). Optional unit specifiers `M', `w', `h', `m' or `s'
5162 (e.g. `ah5') cause the check to be performed with months (of 30
5163 days), weeks, hours, minutes or seconds instead of days, respec‐
5164 tively. An explicit `d' for days is also allowed.
5165 Any fractional part of the difference between the access time
5167 and the current part in the appropriate units is ignored in the
5168 comparison. For instance, `echo *(ah-5)' would echo files ac‐
5169 cessed within the last five hours, while `echo *(ah+5)' would
5170 echo files accessed at least six hours ago, as times strictly
5171 between five and six hours are treated as five hours.
5172 m[Mwhms][-|+]n
5174 like the file access qualifier, except that it uses the file
5175 modification time.
5176 c[Mwhms][-|+]n
5178 like the file access qualifier, except that it uses the file in‐
5179 ode change time.
5180 L[+|-]n
5182 files less than n bytes (-), more than n bytes (+), or exactly n
5183 bytes in length.
5184 If this flag is directly followed by a size specifier `k' (`K'),
5186 `m' (`M'), or `p' (`P') (e.g. `Lk-50') the check is performed
5187 with kilobytes, megabytes, or blocks (of 512 bytes) instead.
5188 (On some systems additional specifiers are available for giga‐
5189 bytes, `g' or `G', and terabytes, `t' or `T'.) If a size speci‐
5190 fier is used a file is regarded as "exactly" the size if the
5191 file size rounded up to the next unit is equal to the test size.
5192 Hence `*(Lm1)' matches files from 1 byte up to 1 Megabyte inclu‐
5193 sive. Note also that the set of files "less than" the test size
5194 only includes files that would not match the equality test;
5195 hence `*(Lm-1)' only matches files of zero size.
5196 ^ negates all qualifiers following it
5198 - toggles between making the qualifiers work on symbolic links
5200 (the default) and the files they point to
5201 M sets the MARK_DIRS option for the current pattern
5203 T appends a trailing qualifier mark to the filenames, analogous to
5205 the LIST_TYPES option, for the current pattern (overrides M)
5206 N sets the NULL_GLOB option for the current pattern
5208 D sets the GLOB_DOTS option for the current pattern
5210 n sets the NUMERIC_GLOB_SORT option for the current pattern
5212 Yn enables short-circuit mode: the pattern will expand to at most n
5214 filenames. If more than n matches exist, only the first n
5215 matches in directory traversal order will be considered.
5216 Implies oN when no oc qualifier is used.
5218 oc specifies how the names of the files should be sorted. If c is n
5220 they are sorted by name; if it is L they are sorted depending on
5221 the size (length) of the files; if l they are sorted by the num‐
5222 ber of links; if a, m, or c they are sorted by the time of the
5223 last access, modification, or inode change respectively; if d,
5224 files in subdirectories appear before those in the current di‐
5225 rectory at each level of the search -- this is best combined
5226 with other criteria, for example `odon' to sort on names for
5227 files within the same directory; if N, no sorting is performed.
5228 Note that a, m, and c compare the age against the current time,
5229 hence the first name in the list is the youngest file. Also note
5230 that the modifiers ^ and - are used, so `*(^-oL)' gives a list
5231 of all files sorted by file size in descending order, following
5232 any symbolic links. Unless oN is used, multiple order speci‐
5233 fiers may occur to resolve ties.
5234 The default sorting is n (by name) unless the Y glob qualifier
5236 is used, in which case it is N (unsorted).
5237 oe and o+ are special cases; they are each followed by shell
5239 code, delimited as for the e glob qualifier and the + glob qual‐
5240 ifier respectively (see above). The code is executed for each
5241 matched file with the parameter REPLY set to the name of the
5242 file on entry and globsort appended to zsh_eval_context. The
5243 code should modify the parameter REPLY in some fashion. On re‐
5244 turn, the value of the parameter is used instead of the file
5245 name as the string on which to sort. Unlike other sort opera‐
5246 tors, oe and o+ may be repeated, but note that the maximum num‐
5247 ber of sort operators of any kind that may appear in any glob
5248 expression is 12.
5249 Oc like `o', but sorts in descending order; i.e. `*(^oc)' is the
5251 same as `*(Oc)' and `*(^Oc)' is the same as `*(oc)'; `Od' puts
5252 files in the current directory before those in subdirectories at
5253 each level of the search.
5254 [beg[,end]]
5256 specifies which of the matched filenames should be included in
5257 the returned list. The syntax is the same as for array sub‐
5258 scripts. beg and the optional end may be mathematical expres‐
5259 sions. As in parameter subscripting they may be negative to make
5260 them count from the last match backward. E.g.: `*(-OL[1,3])'
5261 gives a list of the names of the three largest files.
5262 Pstring
5264 The string will be prepended to each glob match as a separate
5265 word. string is delimited in the same way as arguments to the e
5266 glob qualifier described above. The qualifier can be repeated;
5267 the words are prepended separately so that the resulting command
5268 line contains the words in the same order they were given in the
5269 list of glob qualifiers.
5270 A typical use for this is to prepend an option before all occur‐
5272 rences of a file name; for example, the pattern `*(P:-f:)' pro‐
5273 duces the command line arguments `-f file1 -f file2 ...'
5274 If the modifier ^ is active, then string will be appended in‐
5276 stead of prepended. Prepending and appending is done indepen‐
5277 dently so both can be used on the same glob expression; for ex‐
5278 ample by writing `*(P:foo:^P:bar:^P:baz:)' which produces the
5279 command line arguments `foo baz file1 bar ...'
5280 More than one of these lists can be combined, separated by commas. The
5282 whole list matches if at least one of the sublists matches (they are
5283 `or'ed, the qualifiers in the sublists are `and'ed). Some qualifiers,
5284 however, affect all matches generated, independent of the sublist in
5285 which they are given. These are the qualifiers `M', `T', `N', `D',
5286 `n', `o', `O' and the subscripts given in brackets (`[...]').
5287 If a `:' appears in a qualifier list, the remainder of the expression
5289 in parenthesis is interpreted as a modifier (see the section `Modi‐
5290 fiers' in the section `History Expansion'). Each modifier must be in‐
5291 troduced by a separate `:'. Note also that the result after modifica‐
5292 tion does not have to be an existing file. The name of any existing
5293 file can be followed by a modifier of the form `(:...)' even if no ac‐
5294 tual filename generation is performed, although note that the presence
5295 of the parentheses causes the entire expression to be subjected to any
5296 global pattern matching options such as NULL_GLOB. Thus:
5297 ls -ld -- *(-/)
5299 lists all directories and symbolic links that point to directories, and
5301 ls -ld -- *(-@)
5303 lists all broken symbolic links, and
5305 ls -ld -- *(%W)
5307 lists all world-writable device files in the current directory, and
5309 ls -ld -- *(W,X)
5311 lists all files in the current directory that are world-writable or
5313 world-executable, and
5314 print -rC1 /tmp/foo*(u0^@:t)
5316 outputs the basename of all root-owned files beginning with the string
5318 `foo' in /tmp, ignoring symlinks, and
5319 ls -ld -- *.*~(lex|parse).[ch](^D^l1)
5321 lists all files having a link count of one whose names contain a dot
5323 (but not those starting with a dot, since GLOB_DOTS is explicitly
5324 switched off) except for lex.c, lex.h, parse.c and parse.h.
5325 print -rC1 b*.pro(#q:s/pro/shmo/)(#q.:s/builtin/shmiltin/)
5327 demonstrates how colon modifiers and other qualifiers may be chained
5329 together. The ordinary qualifier `.' is applied first, then the colon
5330 modifiers in order from left to right. So if EXTENDED_GLOB is set and
5331 the base pattern matches the regular file builtin.pro, the shell will
5332 print `shmiltin.shmo'.
5333ZSHPARAM(1) General Commands Manual ZSHPARAM(1)
5337
5341 zshparam - zsh parameters
5342
5344 A parameter has a name, a value, and a number of attributes. A name
5345 may be any sequence of alphanumeric characters and underscores, or the
5346 single characters `*', `@', `#', `?', `-', `$', or `!'. A parameter
5347 whose name begins with an alphanumeric or underscore is also referred
5348 to as a variable.
5349 The attributes of a parameter determine the type of its value, often
5351 referred to as the parameter type or variable type, and also control
5352 other processing that may be applied to the value when it is refer‐
5353 enced. The value type may be a scalar (a string, an integer, or a
5354 floating point number), an array (indexed numerically), or an associa‐
5355 tive array (an unordered set of name-value pairs, indexed by name, also
5356 referred to as a hash).
5357 Named scalar parameters may have the exported, -x, attribute, to copy
5359 them into the process environment, which is then passed from the shell
5360 to any new processes that it starts. Exported parameters are called
5361 environment variables. The shell also imports environment variables at
5362 startup time and automatically marks the corresponding parameters as
5363 exported. Some environment variables are not imported for reasons of
5364 security or because they would interfere with the correct operation of
5365 other shell features.
5366 Parameters may also be special, that is, they have a predetermined
5368 meaning to the shell. Special parameters cannot have their type
5369 changed or their readonly attribute turned off, and if a special param‐
5370 eter is unset, then later recreated, the special properties will be re‐
5371 tained.
5372 To declare the type of a parameter, or to assign a string or numeric
5374 value to a scalar parameter, use the typeset builtin.
5375 The value of a scalar parameter may also be assigned by writing:
5377 name=value
5379 In scalar assignment, value is expanded as a single string, in which
5381 the elements of arrays are joined together; filename expansion is not
5382 performed unless the option GLOB_ASSIGN is set.
5383 When the integer attribute, -i, or a floating point attribute, -E or
5385 -F, is set for name, the value is subject to arithmetic evaluation.
5386 Furthermore, by replacing `=' with `+=', a parameter can be incremented
5387 or appended to. See the section `Array Parameters' and Arithmetic
5388 Evaluation (in zshmisc(1)) for additional forms of assignment.
5389 Note that assignment may implicitly change the attributes of a parame‐
5391 ter. For example, assigning a number to a variable in arithmetic eval‐
5392 uation may change its type to integer or float, and with GLOB_ASSIGN
5393 assigning a pattern to a variable may change its type to an array.
5394 To reference the value of a parameter, write `$name' or `${name}'. See
5396 Parameter Expansion in zshexpn(1) for complete details. That section
5397 also explains the effect of the difference between scalar and array as‐
5398 signment on parameter expansion.
5399
5401 To assign an array value, write one of:
5402 set -A name value ...
5404 name=(value ...)
5405 name=([key]=value ...)
5406 If no parameter name exists, an ordinary array parameter is created.
5408 If the parameter name exists and is a scalar, it is replaced by a new
5409 array.
5410 In the third form, key is an expression that will be evaluated in
5412 arithmetic context (in its simplest form, an integer) that gives the
5413 index of the element to be assigned with value. In this form any ele‐
5414 ments not explicitly mentioned that come before the largest index to
5415 which a value is assigned are assigned an empty string. The indices
5416 may be in any order. Note that this syntax is strict: [ and ]= must
5417 not be quoted, and key may not consist of the unquoted string ]=, but
5418 is otherwise treated as a simple string. The enhanced forms of sub‐
5419 script expression that may be used when directly subscripting a vari‐
5420 able name, described in the section Array Subscripts below, are not
5421 available.
5422 The syntaxes with and without the explicit key may be mixed. An im‐
5424 plicit key is deduced by incrementing the index from the previously as‐
5425 signed element. Note that it is not treated as an error if latter as‐
5426 signments in this form overwrite earlier assignments.
5427 For example, assuming the option KSH_ARRAYS is not set, the following:
5429 array=(one [3]=three four)
5431 causes the array variable array to contain four elements one, an empty
5433 string, three and four, in that order.
5434 In the forms where only value is specified, full command line expansion
5436 is performed.
5437 In the [key]=value form, both key and value undergo all forms of expan‐
5439 sion allowed for single word shell expansions (this does not include
5440 filename generation); these are as performed by the parameter expansion
5441 flag (e) as described in zshexpn(1). Nested parentheses may surround
5442 value and are included as part of the value, which is joined into a
5443 plain string; this differs from ksh which allows the values themselves
5444 to be arrays. A future version of zsh may support that. To cause the
5445 brackets to be interpreted as a character class for filename genera‐
5446 tion, and therefore to treat the resulting list of files as a set of
5447 values, quote the equal sign using any form of quoting. Example:
5448 name=([a-z]'='*)
5450 To append to an array without changing the existing values, use one of
5452 the following:
5453 name+=(value ...)
5455 name+=([key]=value ...)
5456 In the second form key may specify an existing index as well as an in‐
5458 dex off the end of the old array; any existing value is overwritten by
5459 value. Also, it is possible to use [key]+=value to append to the ex‐
5460 isting value at that index.
5461 Within the parentheses on the right hand side of either form of the as‐
5463 signment, newlines and semicolons are treated the same as white space,
5464 separating individual values. Any consecutive sequence of such charac‐
5465 ters has the same effect.
5466 Ordinary array parameters may also be explicitly declared with:
5468 typeset -a name
5470 Associative arrays must be declared before assignment, by using:
5472 typeset -A name
5474 When name refers to an associative array, the list in an assignment is
5476 interpreted as alternating keys and values:
5477 set -A name key value ...
5479 name=(key value ...)
5480 name=([key]=value ...)
5481 Note that only one of the two syntaxes above may be used in any given
5483 assignment; the forms may not be mixed. This is unlike the case of nu‐
5484 merically indexed arrays.
5485 Every key must have a value in this case. Note that this assigns to
5487 the entire array, deleting any elements that do not appear in the list.
5488 The append syntax may also be used with an associative array:
5489 name+=(key value ...)
5491 name+=([key]=value ...)
5492 This adds a new key/value pair if the key is not already present, and
5494 replaces the value for the existing key if it is. In the second form
5495 it is also possible to use [key]+=value to append to the existing value
5496 at that key. Expansion is performed identically to the corresponding
5497 forms for normal arrays, as described above.
5498 To create an empty array (including associative arrays), use one of:
5500 set -A name
5502 name=()
5503 Array Subscripts
5505 Individual elements of an array may be selected using a subscript. A
5506 subscript of the form `[exp]' selects the single element exp, where exp
5507 is an arithmetic expression which will be subject to arithmetic expan‐
5508 sion as if it were surrounded by `$((...))'. The elements are numbered
5509 beginning with 1, unless the KSH_ARRAYS option is set in which case
5510 they are numbered from zero.
5511 Subscripts may be used inside braces used to delimit a parameter name,
5513 thus `${foo[2]}' is equivalent to `$foo[2]'. If the KSH_ARRAYS option
5514 is set, the braced form is the only one that works, as bracketed ex‐
5515 pressions otherwise are not treated as subscripts.
5516 If the KSH_ARRAYS option is not set, then by default accesses to an ar‐
5518 ray element with a subscript that evaluates to zero return an empty
5519 string, while an attempt to write such an element is treated as an er‐
5520 ror. For backward compatibility the KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT option can be
5521 set to cause subscript values 0 and 1 to be equivalent; see the de‐
5522 scription of the option in zshoptions(1).
5523 The same subscripting syntax is used for associative arrays, except
5525 that no arithmetic expansion is applied to exp. However, the parsing
5526 rules for arithmetic expressions still apply, which affects the way
5527 that certain special characters must be protected from interpretation.
5528 See Subscript Parsing below for details.
5529 A subscript of the form `[*]' or `[@]' evaluates to all elements of an
5531 array; there is no difference between the two except when they appear
5532 within double quotes. `"$foo[*]"' evaluates to `"$foo[1] $foo[2]
5533 ..."', whereas `"$foo[@]"' evaluates to `"$foo[1]" "$foo[2]" ...'. For
5534 associative arrays, `[*]' or `[@]' evaluate to all the values, in no
5535 particular order. Note that this does not substitute the keys; see the
5536 documentation for the `k' flag under Parameter Expansion Flags in zsh‐
5537 expn(1) for complete details. When an array parameter is referenced as
5538 `$name' (with no subscript) it evaluates to `$name[*]', unless the
5539 KSH_ARRAYS option is set in which case it evaluates to `${name[0]}'
5540 (for an associative array, this means the value of the key `0', which
5541 may not exist even if there are values for other keys).
5542 A subscript of the form `[exp1,exp2]' selects all elements in the range
5544 exp1 to exp2, inclusive. (Associative arrays are unordered, and so do
5545 not support ranges.) If one of the subscripts evaluates to a negative
5546 number, say -n, then the nth element from the end of the array is used.
5547 Thus `$foo[-3]' is the third element from the end of the array foo, and
5548 `$foo[1,-1]' is the same as `$foo[*]'.
5549 Subscripting may also be performed on non-array values, in which case
5551 the subscripts specify a substring to be extracted. For example, if
5552 FOO is set to `foobar', then `echo $FOO[2,5]' prints `ooba'. Note that
5553 some forms of subscripting described below perform pattern matching,
5554 and in that case the substring extends from the start of the match of
5555 the first subscript to the end of the match of the second subscript.
5556 For example,
5557 string="abcdefghijklm"
5559 print ${string[(r)d?,(r)h?]}
5560 prints `defghi'. This is an obvious generalisation of the rule for
5562 single-character matches. For a single subscript, only a single char‐
5563 acter is referenced (not the range of characters covered by the match).
5564 Note that in substring operations the second subscript is handled dif‐
5566 ferently by the r and R subscript flags: the former takes the shortest
5567 match as the length and the latter the longest match. Hence in the
5568 former case a * at the end is redundant while in the latter case it
5569 matches the whole remainder of the string. This does not affect the
5570 result of the single subscript case as here the length of the match is
5571 irrelevant.
5572 Array Element Assignment
5574 A subscript may be used on the left side of an assignment like so:
5575 name[exp]=value
5577 In this form of assignment the element or range specified by exp is re‐
5579 placed by the expression on the right side. An array (but not an asso‐
5580 ciative array) may be created by assignment to a range or element. Ar‐
5581 rays do not nest, so assigning a parenthesized list of values to an el‐
5582 ement or range changes the number of elements in the array, shifting
5583 the other elements to accommodate the new values. (This is not sup‐
5584 ported for associative arrays.)
5585 This syntax also works as an argument to the typeset command:
5587 typeset "name[exp]"=value
5589 The value may not be a parenthesized list in this case; only single-el‐
5591 ement assignments may be made with typeset. Note that quotes are nec‐
5592 essary in this case to prevent the brackets from being interpreted as
5593 filename generation operators. The noglob precommand modifier could be
5594 used instead.
5595 To delete an element of an ordinary array, assign `()' to that element.
5597 To delete an element of an associative array, use the unset command:
5598 unset "name[exp]"
5600 Subscript Flags
5602 If the opening bracket, or the comma in a range, in any subscript ex‐
5603 pression is directly followed by an opening parenthesis, the string up
5604 to the matching closing one is considered to be a list of flags, as in
5605 `name[(flags)exp]'.
5606 The flags s, n and b take an argument; the delimiter is shown below as
5608 `:', but any character, or the matching pairs `(...)', `{...}',
5609 `[...]', or `<...>', may be used, but note that `<...>' can only be
5610 used if the subscript is inside a double quoted expression or a parame‐
5611 ter substitution enclosed in braces as otherwise the expression is in‐
5612 terpreted as a redirection.
5613 The flags currently understood are:
5615 w If the parameter subscripted is a scalar then this flag makes
5617 subscripting work on words instead of characters. The default
5618 word separator is whitespace. When combined with the i or I
5619 flag, the effect is to produce the index of the first character
5620 of the first/last word which matches the given pattern; note
5621 that a failed match in this case always yields 0.
5622 s:string:
5624 This gives the string that separates words (for use with the w
5625 flag). The delimiter character : is arbitrary; see above.
5626 p Recognize the same escape sequences as the print builtin in the
5628 string argument of a subsequent `s' flag.
5629 f If the parameter subscripted is a scalar then this flag makes
5631 subscripting work on lines instead of characters, i.e. with ele‐
5632 ments separated by newlines. This is a shorthand for `pws:\n:'.
5633 r Reverse subscripting: if this flag is given, the exp is taken as
5635 a pattern and the result is the first matching array element,
5636 substring or word (if the parameter is an array, if it is a
5637 scalar, or if it is a scalar and the `w' flag is given, respec‐
5638 tively). The subscript used is the number of the matching ele‐
5639 ment, so that pairs of subscripts such as `$foo[(r)??,3]' and
5640 `$foo[(r)??,(r)f*]' are possible if the parameter is not an as‐
5641 sociative array. If the parameter is an associative array, only
5642 the value part of each pair is compared to the pattern, and the
5643 result is that value.
5644 If a search through an ordinary array failed, the search sets
5646 the subscript to one past the end of the array, and hence ${ar‐
5647 ray[(r)pattern]} will substitute the empty string. Thus the
5648 success of a search can be tested by using the (i) flag, for ex‐
5649 ample (assuming the option KSH_ARRAYS is not in effect):
5650 [[ ${array[(i)pattern]} -le ${#array} ]]
5652 If KSH_ARRAYS is in effect, the -le should be replaced by -lt.
5654 R Like `r', but gives the last match. For associative arrays,
5656 gives all possible matches. May be used for assigning to ordi‐
5657 nary array elements, but not for assigning to associative ar‐
5658 rays. On failure, for normal arrays this has the effect of re‐
5659 turning the element corresponding to subscript 0; this is empty
5660 unless one of the options KSH_ARRAYS or KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT is in
5661 effect.
5662 Note that in subscripts with both `r' and `R' pattern characters
5664 are active even if they were substituted for a parameter (re‐
5665 gardless of the setting of GLOB_SUBST which controls this fea‐
5666 ture in normal pattern matching). The flag `e' can be added to
5667 inhibit pattern matching. As this flag does not inhibit other
5668 forms of substitution, care is still required; using a parameter
5669 to hold the key has the desired effect:
5670 key2='original key'
5672 print ${array[(Re)$key2]}
5673 i Like `r', but gives the index of the match instead; this may not
5675 be combined with a second argument. On the left side of an as‐
5676 signment, behaves like `r'. For associative arrays, the key
5677 part of each pair is compared to the pattern, and the first
5678 matching key found is the result. On failure substitutes the
5679 length of the array plus one, as discussed under the description
5680 of `r', or the empty string for an associative array.
5681 I Like `i', but gives the index of the last match, or all possible
5683 matching keys in an associative array. On failure substitutes
5684 0, or the empty string for an associative array. This flag is
5685 best when testing for values or keys that do not exist.
5686 k If used in a subscript on an associative array, this flag causes
5688 the keys to be interpreted as patterns, and returns the value
5689 for the first key found where exp is matched by the key. Note
5690 this could be any such key as no ordering of associative arrays
5691 is defined. This flag does not work on the left side of an as‐
5692 signment to an associative array element. If used on another
5693 type of parameter, this behaves like `r'.
5694 K On an associative array this is like `k' but returns all values
5696 where exp is matched by the keys. On other types of parameters
5697 this has the same effect as `R'.
5698 n:expr:
5700 If combined with `r', `R', `i' or `I', makes them give the nth
5701 or nth last match (if expr evaluates to n). This flag is ig‐
5702 nored when the array is associative. The delimiter character :
5703 is arbitrary; see above.
5704 b:expr:
5706 If combined with `r', `R', `i' or `I', makes them begin at the
5707 nth or nth last element, word, or character (if expr evaluates
5708 to n). This flag is ignored when the array is associative. The
5709 delimiter character : is arbitrary; see above.
5710 e This flag causes any pattern matching that would be performed on
5712 the subscript to use plain string matching instead. Hence
5713 `${array[(re)*]}' matches only the array element whose value is
5714 *. Note that other forms of substitution such as parameter sub‐
5715 stitution are not inhibited.
5716 This flag can also be used to force * or @ to be interpreted as
5718 a single key rather than as a reference to all values. It may
5719 be used for either purpose on the left side of an assignment.
5720 See Parameter Expansion Flags (zshexpn(1)) for additional ways to ma‐
5722 nipulate the results of array subscripting.
5723 Subscript Parsing
5725 This discussion applies mainly to associative array key strings and to
5726 patterns used for reverse subscripting (the `r', `R', `i', etc. flags),
5727 but it may also affect parameter substitutions that appear as part of
5728 an arithmetic expression in an ordinary subscript.
5729 To avoid subscript parsing limitations in assignments to associative
5731 array elements, use the append syntax:
5732 aa+=('key with "*strange*" characters' 'value string')
5734 The basic rule to remember when writing a subscript expression is that
5736 all text between the opening `[' and the closing `]' is interpreted as
5737 if it were in double quotes (see zshmisc(1)). However, unlike double
5738 quotes which normally cannot nest, subscript expressions may appear in‐
5739 side double-quoted strings or inside other subscript expressions (or
5740 both!), so the rules have two important differences.
5741 The first difference is that brackets (`[' and `]') must appear as bal‐
5743 anced pairs in a subscript expression unless they are preceded by a
5744 backslash (`\'). Therefore, within a subscript expression (and unlike
5745 true double-quoting) the sequence `\[' becomes `[', and similarly `\]'
5746 becomes `]'. This applies even in cases where a backslash is not nor‐
5747 mally required; for example, the pattern `[^[]' (to match any character
5748 other than an open bracket) should be written `[^\[]' in a reverse-sub‐
5749 script pattern. However, note that `\[^\[\]' and even `\[^[]' mean the
5750 same thing, because backslashes are always stripped when they appear
5751 before brackets!
5752 The same rule applies to parentheses (`(' and `)') and braces (`{' and
5754 `}'): they must appear either in balanced pairs or preceded by a back‐
5755 slash, and backslashes that protect parentheses or braces are removed
5756 during parsing. This is because parameter expansions may be surrounded
5757 by balanced braces, and subscript flags are introduced by balanced
5758 parentheses.
5759 The second difference is that a double-quote (`"') may appear as part
5761 of a subscript expression without being preceded by a backslash, and
5762 therefore that the two characters `\"' remain as two characters in the
5763 subscript (in true double-quoting, `\"' becomes `"'). However, because
5764 of the standard shell quoting rules, any double-quotes that appear must
5765 occur in balanced pairs unless preceded by a backslash. This makes it
5766 more difficult to write a subscript expression that contains an odd
5767 number of double-quote characters, but the reason for this difference
5768 is so that when a subscript expression appears inside true dou‐
5769 ble-quotes, one can still write `\"' (rather than `\\\"') for `"'.
5770 To use an odd number of double quotes as a key in an assignment, use
5772 the typeset builtin and an enclosing pair of double quotes; to refer to
5773 the value of that key, again use double quotes:
5774 typeset -A aa
5776 typeset "aa[one\"two\"three\"quotes]"=QQQ
5777 print "$aa[one\"two\"three\"quotes]"
5778 It is important to note that the quoting rules do not change when a pa‐
5780 rameter expansion with a subscript is nested inside another subscript
5781 expression. That is, it is not necessary to use additional backslashes
5782 within the inner subscript expression; they are removed only once, from
5783 the innermost subscript outwards. Parameters are also expanded from
5784 the innermost subscript first, as each expansion is encountered left to
5785 right in the outer expression.
5786 A further complication arises from a way in which subscript parsing is
5788 not different from double quote parsing. As in true double-quoting,
5789 the sequences `\*', and `\@' remain as two characters when they appear
5790 in a subscript expression. To use a literal `*' or `@' as an associa‐
5791 tive array key, the `e' flag must be used:
5792 typeset -A aa
5794 aa[(e)*]=star
5795 print $aa[(e)*]
5796 A last detail must be considered when reverse subscripting is per‐
5798 formed. Parameters appearing in the subscript expression are first ex‐
5799 panded and then the complete expression is interpreted as a pattern.
5800 This has two effects: first, parameters behave as if GLOB_SUBST were on
5801 (and it cannot be turned off); second, backslashes are interpreted
5802 twice, once when parsing the array subscript and again when parsing the
5803 pattern. In a reverse subscript, it's necessary to use four back‐
5804 slashes to cause a single backslash to match literally in the pattern.
5805 For complex patterns, it is often easiest to assign the desired pattern
5806 to a parameter and then refer to that parameter in the subscript, be‐
5807 cause then the backslashes, brackets, parentheses, etc., are seen only
5808 when the complete expression is converted to a pattern. To match the
5809 value of a parameter literally in a reverse subscript, rather than as a
5810 pattern, use `${(q)name}' (see zshexpn(1)) to quote the expanded value.
5811 Note that the `k' and `K' flags are reverse subscripting for an ordi‐
5813 nary array, but are not reverse subscripting for an associative array!
5814 (For an associative array, the keys in the array itself are interpreted
5815 as patterns by those flags; the subscript is a plain string in that
5816 case.)
5817 One final note, not directly related to subscripting: the numeric names
5819 of positional parameters (described below) are parsed specially, so for
5820 example `$2foo' is equivalent to `${2}foo'. Therefore, to use sub‐
5821 script syntax to extract a substring from a positional parameter, the
5822 expansion must be surrounded by braces; for example, `${2[3,5]}' evalu‐
5823 ates to the third through fifth characters of the second positional pa‐
5824 rameter, but `$2[3,5]' is the entire second parameter concatenated with
5825 the filename generation pattern `[3,5]'.
5826
5828 The positional parameters provide access to the command-line arguments
5829 of a shell function, shell script, or the shell itself; see the section
5830 `Invocation', and also the section `Functions'. The parameter n, where
5831 n is a number, is the nth positional parameter. The parameter `$0' is
5832 a special case, see the section `Parameters Set By The Shell'.
5833 The parameters *, @ and argv are arrays containing all the positional
5835 parameters; thus `$argv[n]', etc., is equivalent to simply `$n'. Note
5836 that the options KSH_ARRAYS or KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT apply to these arrays
5837 as well, so with either of those options set, `${argv[0]}' is equiva‐
5838 lent to `$1' and so on.
5839 Positional parameters may be changed after the shell or function starts
5841 by using the set builtin, by assigning to the argv array, or by direct
5842 assignment of the form `n=value' where n is the number of the posi‐
5843 tional parameter to be changed. This also creates (with empty values)
5844 any of the positions from 1 to n that do not already have values. Note
5845 that, because the positional parameters form an array, an array assign‐
5846 ment of the form `n=(value ...)' is allowed, and has the effect of
5847 shifting all the values at positions greater than n by as many posi‐
5848 tions as necessary to accommodate the new values.
5849
5851 Shell function executions delimit scopes for shell parameters. (Param‐
5852 eters are dynamically scoped.) The typeset builtin, and its alterna‐
5853 tive forms declare, integer, local and readonly (but not export), can
5854 be used to declare a parameter as being local to the innermost scope.
5855 When a parameter is read or assigned to, the innermost existing parame‐
5857 ter of that name is used. (That is, the local parameter hides any
5858 less-local parameter.) However, assigning to a non-existent parameter,
5859 or declaring a new parameter with export, causes it to be created in
5860 the outermost scope.
5861 Local parameters disappear when their scope ends. unset can be used to
5863 delete a parameter while it is still in scope; any outer parameter of
5864 the same name remains hidden.
5865 Special parameters may also be made local; they retain their special
5867 attributes unless either the existing or the newly-created parameter
5868 has the -h (hide) attribute. This may have unexpected effects: there
5869 is no default value, so if there is no assignment at the point the
5870 variable is made local, it will be set to an empty value (or zero in
5871 the case of integers). The following:
5872 typeset PATH=/new/directory:$PATH
5874 is valid for temporarily allowing the shell or programmes called from
5876 it to find the programs in /new/directory inside a function.
5877 Note that the restriction in older versions of zsh that local parame‐
5879 ters were never exported has been removed.
5880
5882 In the parameter lists that follow, the mark `<S>' indicates that the
5883 parameter is special. `<Z>' indicates that the parameter does not ex‐
5884 ist when the shell initializes in sh or ksh emulation mode.
5885 The following parameters are automatically set by the shell:
5887 ! <S> The process ID of the last command started in the background
5889 with &, put into the background with the bg builtin, or spawned
5890 with coproc.
5891 # <S> The number of positional parameters in decimal. Note that some
5893 confusion may occur with the syntax $#param which substitutes
5894 the length of param. Use ${#} to resolve ambiguities. In par‐
5895 ticular, the sequence `$#-...' in an arithmetic expression is
5896 interpreted as the length of the parameter -, q.v.
5897 ARGC <S> <Z>
5899 Same as #.
5900 $ <S> The process ID of this shell. Note that this indicates the
5902 original shell started by invoking zsh; all processes forked
5903 from the shells without executing a new program, such as sub‐
5904 shells started by (...), substitute the same value.
5905 - <S> Flags supplied to the shell on invocation or by the set or se‐
5907 topt commands.
5908 * <S> An array containing the positional parameters.
5910 argv <S> <Z>
5912 Same as *. Assigning to argv changes the local positional pa‐
5913 rameters, but argv is not itself a local parameter. Deleting
5914 argv with unset in any function deletes it everywhere, although
5915 only the innermost positional parameter array is deleted (so *
5916 and @ in other scopes are not affected).
5917 @ <S> Same as argv[@], even when argv is not set.
5919 ? <S> The exit status returned by the last command.
5921 0 <S> The name used to invoke the current shell, or as set by the -c
5923 command line option upon invocation. If the FUNCTION_ARGZERO
5924 option is set, $0 is set upon entry to a shell function to the
5925 name of the function, and upon entry to a sourced script to the
5926 name of the script, and reset to its previous value when the
5927 function or script returns.
5928 status <S> <Z>
5930 Same as ?.
5931 pipestatus <S> <Z>
5933 An array containing the exit statuses returned by all commands
5934 in the last pipeline.
5935 _ <S> The last argument of the previous command. Also, this parameter
5937 is set in the environment of every command executed to the full
5938 pathname of the command.
5939 CPUTYPE
5941 The machine type (microprocessor class or machine model), as de‐
5942 termined at run time.
5943 EGID <S>
5945 The effective group ID of the shell process. If you have suffi‐
5946 cient privileges, you may change the effective group ID of the
5947 shell process by assigning to this parameter. Also (assuming
5948 sufficient privileges), you may start a single command with a
5949 different effective group ID by `(EGID=gid; command)'
5950 If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be
5952 explicitly set locally.
5953 EUID <S>
5955 The effective user ID of the shell process. If you have suffi‐
5956 cient privileges, you may change the effective user ID of the
5957 shell process by assigning to this parameter. Also (assuming
5958 sufficient privileges), you may start a single command with a
5959 different effective user ID by `(EUID=uid; command)'
5960 If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be
5962 explicitly set locally.
5963 ERRNO <S>
5965 The value of errno (see errno(3)) as set by the most recently
5966 failed system call. This value is system dependent and is in‐
5967 tended for debugging purposes. It is also useful with the
5968 zsh/system module which allows the number to be turned into a
5969 name or message.
5970 FUNCNEST <S>
5972 Integer. If greater than or equal to zero, the maximum nesting
5973 depth of shell functions. When it is exceeded, an error is
5974 raised at the point where a function is called. The default
5975 value is determined when the shell is configured, but is typi‐
5976 cally 500. Increasing the value increases the danger of a run‐
5977 away function recursion causing the shell to crash. Setting a
5978 negative value turns off the check.
5979 GID <S>
5981 The real group ID of the shell process. If you have sufficient
5982 privileges, you may change the group ID of the shell process by
5983 assigning to this parameter. Also (assuming sufficient privi‐
5984 leges), you may start a single command under a different group
5985 ID by `(GID=gid; command)'
5986 If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be
5988 explicitly set locally.
5989 HISTCMD
5991 The current history event number in an interactive shell, in
5992 other words the event number for the command that caused
5993 $HISTCMD to be read. If the current history event modifies the
5994 history, HISTCMD changes to the new maximum history event num‐
5995 ber.
5996 HOST The current hostname.
5998 LINENO <S>
6000 The line number of the current line within the current script,
6001 sourced file, or shell function being executed, whichever was
6002 started most recently. Note that in the case of shell functions
6003 the line number refers to the function as it appeared in the
6004 original definition, not necessarily as displayed by the func‐
6005 tions builtin.
6006 LOGNAME
6008 If the corresponding variable is not set in the environment of
6009 the shell, it is initialized to the login name corresponding to
6010 the current login session. This parameter is exported by default
6011 but this can be disabled using the typeset builtin. The value
6012 is set to the string returned by the getlogin(3) system call if
6013 that is available.
6014 MACHTYPE
6016 The machine type (microprocessor class or machine model), as de‐
6017 termined at compile time.
6018 OLDPWD The previous working directory. This is set when the shell ini‐
6020 tializes and whenever the directory changes.
6021 OPTARG <S>
6023 The value of the last option argument processed by the getopts
6024 command.
6025 OPTIND <S>
6027 The index of the last option argument processed by the getopts
6028 command.
6029 OSTYPE The operating system, as determined at compile time.
6031 PPID <S>
6033 The process ID of the parent of the shell. As for $$, the value
6034 indicates the parent of the original shell and does not change
6035 in subshells.
6036 PWD The present working directory. This is set when the shell ini‐
6038 tializes and whenever the directory changes.
6039 RANDOM <S>
6041 A pseudo-random integer from 0 to 32767, newly generated each
6042 time this parameter is referenced. The random number generator
6043 can be seeded by assigning a numeric value to RANDOM.
6044 The values of RANDOM form an intentionally-repeatable
6046 pseudo-random sequence; subshells that reference RANDOM will re‐
6047 sult in identical pseudo-random values unless the value of RAN‐
6048 DOM is referenced or seeded in the parent shell in between sub‐
6049 shell invocations.
6050 SECONDS <S>
6052 The number of seconds since shell invocation. If this parameter
6053 is assigned a value, then the value returned upon reference will
6054 be the value that was assigned plus the number of seconds since
6055 the assignment.
6056 Unlike other special parameters, the type of the SECONDS parame‐
6058 ter can be changed using the typeset command. Only integer and
6059 one of the floating point types are allowed. For example,
6060 `typeset -F SECONDS' causes the value to be reported as a float‐
6061 ing point number. The value is available to microsecond accu‐
6062 racy, although the shell may show more or fewer digits depending
6063 on the use of typeset. See the documentation for the builtin
6064 typeset in zshbuiltins(1) for more details.
6065 SHLVL <S>
6067 Incremented by one each time a new shell is started.
6068 signals
6070 An array containing the names of the signals. Note that with
6071 the standard zsh numbering of array indices, where the first el‐
6072 ement has index 1, the signals are offset by 1 from the signal
6073 number used by the operating system. For example, on typical
6074 Unix-like systems HUP is signal number 1, but is referred to as
6075 $signals[2]. This is because of EXIT at position 1 in the ar‐
6076 ray, which is used internally by zsh but is not known to the op‐
6077 erating system.
6078 TRY_BLOCK_ERROR <S>
6080 In an always block, indicates whether the preceding list of code
6081 caused an error. The value is 1 to indicate an error, 0 other‐
6082 wise. It may be reset, clearing the error condition. See Com‐
6083 plex Commands in zshmisc(1)
6084 TRY_BLOCK_INTERRUPT <S>
6086 This variable works in a similar way to TRY_BLOCK_ERROR, but
6087 represents the status of an interrupt from the signal SIGINT,
6088 which typically comes from the keyboard when the user types ^C.
6089 If set to 0, any such interrupt will be reset; otherwise, the
6090 interrupt is propagated after the always block.
6091 Note that it is possible that an interrupt arrives during the
6093 execution of the always block; this interrupt is also propa‐
6094 gated.
6095 TTY The name of the tty associated with the shell, if any.
6097 TTYIDLE <S>
6099 The idle time of the tty associated with the shell in seconds or
6100 -1 if there is no such tty.
6101 UID <S>
6103 The real user ID of the shell process. If you have sufficient
6104 privileges, you may change the user ID of the shell by assigning
6105 to this parameter. Also (assuming sufficient privileges), you
6106 may start a single command under a different user ID by
6107 `(UID=uid; command)'
6108 If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be
6110 explicitly set locally.
6111 USERNAME <S>
6113 The username corresponding to the real user ID of the shell
6114 process. If you have sufficient privileges, you may change the
6115 username (and also the user ID and group ID) of the shell by as‐
6116 signing to this parameter. Also (assuming sufficient privi‐
6117 leges), you may start a single command under a different user‐
6118 name (and user ID and group ID) by `(USERNAME=username; com‐
6119 mand)'
6120 VENDOR The vendor, as determined at compile time.
6122 zsh_eval_context <S> <Z> (ZSH_EVAL_CONTEXT <S>)
6124 An array (colon-separated list) indicating the context of shell
6125 code that is being run. Each time a piece of shell code that is
6126 stored within the shell is executed a string is temporarily ap‐
6127 pended to the array to indicate the type of operation that is
6128 being performed. Read in order the array gives an indication of
6129 the stack of operations being performed with the most immediate
6130 context last.
6131 Note that the variable does not give information on syntactic
6133 context such as pipelines or subshells. Use $ZSH_SUBSHELL to
6134 detect subshells.
6135 The context is one of the following:
6137 cmdarg Code specified by the -c option to the command line that
6138 invoked the shell.
6139 cmdsubst
6141 Command substitution using the `...` or $(...) construct.
6142 equalsubst
6144 File substitution using the =(...) construct.
6145 eval Code executed by the eval builtin.
6147 evalautofunc
6149 Code executed with the KSH_AUTOLOAD mechanism in order to
6150 define an autoloaded function.
6151 fc Code from the shell history executed by the -e option to
6153 the fc builtin.
6154 file Lines of code being read directly from a file, for exam‐
6156 ple by the source builtin.
6157 filecode
6159 Lines of code being read from a .zwc file instead of di‐
6160 rectly from the source file.
6161 globqual
6163 Code executed by the e or + glob qualifier.
6164 globsort
6166 Code executed to order files by the o glob qualifier.
6167 insubst
6169 File substitution using the <(...) construct.
6170 loadautofunc
6172 Code read directly from a file to define an autoloaded
6173 function.
6174 outsubst
6176 File substitution using the >(...) construct.
6177 sched Code executed by the sched builtin.
6179 shfunc A shell function.
6181 stty Code passed to stty by the STTY environment variable.
6183 Normally this is passed directly to the system's stty
6184 command, so this value is unlikely to be seen in prac‐
6185 tice.
6186 style Code executed as part of a style retrieved by the zstyle
6188 builtin from the zsh/zutil module.
6189 toplevel
6191 The highest execution level of a script or interactive
6192 shell.
6193 trap Code executed as a trap defined by the trap builtin.
6195 Traps defined as functions have the context shfunc. As
6196 traps are asynchronous they may have a different hierar‐
6197 chy from other code.
6198 zpty Code executed by the zpty builtin from the zsh/zpty mod‐
6200 ule.
6201 zregexparse-guard
6203 Code executed as a guard by the zregexparse command from
6204 the zsh/zutil module.
6205 zregexparse-action
6207 Code executed as an action by the zregexparse command
6208 from the zsh/zutil module.
6209 ZSH_ARGZERO
6211 If zsh was invoked to run a script, this is the name of the
6212 script. Otherwise, it is the name used to invoke the current
6213 shell. This is the same as the value of $0 when the
6214 POSIX_ARGZERO option is set, but is always available.
6215 ZSH_EXECUTION_STRING
6217 If the shell was started with the option -c, this contains the
6218 argument passed to the option. Otherwise it is not set.
6219 ZSH_NAME
6221 Expands to the basename of the command used to invoke this in‐
6222 stance of zsh.
6223 ZSH_PATCHLEVEL
6225 The output of `git describe --tags --long' for the zsh reposi‐
6226 tory used to build the shell. This is most useful in order to
6227 keep track of versions of the shell during development between
6228 releases; hence most users should not use it and should instead
6229 rely on $ZSH_VERSION.
6230 zsh_scheduled_events
6232 See the section `The zsh/sched Module' in zshmodules(1).
6233 ZSH_SCRIPT
6235 If zsh was invoked to run a script, this is the name of the
6236 script, otherwise it is unset.
6237 ZSH_SUBSHELL
6239 Readonly integer. Initially zero, incremented each time the
6240 shell forks to create a subshell for executing code. Hence
6241 `(print $ZSH_SUBSHELL)' and `print $(print $ZSH_SUBSHELL)' out‐
6242 put 1, while `( (print $ZSH_SUBSHELL) )' outputs 2.
6243 ZSH_VERSION
6245 The version number of the release of zsh.
6246
6248 The following parameters are used by the shell. Again, `<S>' indicates
6249 that the parameter is special and `<Z>' indicates that the parameter
6250 does not exist when the shell initializes in sh or ksh emulation mode.
6251 In cases where there are two parameters with an upper- and lowercase
6253 form of the same name, such as path and PATH, the lowercase form is an
6254 array and the uppercase form is a scalar with the elements of the array
6255 joined together by colons. These are similar to tied parameters cre‐
6256 ated via `typeset -T'. The normal use for the colon-separated form is
6257 for exporting to the environment, while the array form is easier to ma‐
6258 nipulate within the shell. Note that unsetting either of the pair will
6259 unset the other; they retain their special properties when recreated,
6260 and recreating one of the pair will recreate the other.
6261 ARGV0 If exported, its value is used as the argv[0] of external com‐
6263 mands. Usually used in constructs like `ARGV0=emacs nethack'.
6264 BAUD The rate in bits per second at which data reaches the terminal.
6266 The line editor will use this value in order to compensate for a
6267 slow terminal by delaying updates to the display until neces‐
6268 sary. If the parameter is unset or the value is zero the com‐
6269 pensation mechanism is turned off. The parameter is not set by
6270 default.
6271 This parameter may be profitably set in some circumstances, e.g.
6273 for slow modems dialing into a communications server, or on a
6274 slow wide area network. It should be set to the baud rate of
6275 the slowest part of the link for best performance.
6276 cdpath <S> <Z> (CDPATH <S>)
6278 An array (colon-separated list) of directories specifying the
6279 search path for the cd command.
6280 COLUMNS <S>
6282 The number of columns for this terminal session. Used for
6283 printing select lists and for the line editor.
6284 CORRECT_IGNORE
6286 If set, is treated as a pattern during spelling correction. Any
6287 potential correction that matches the pattern is ignored. For
6288 example, if the value is `_*' then completion functions (which,
6289 by convention, have names beginning with `_') will never be of‐
6290 fered as spelling corrections. The pattern does not apply to
6291 the correction of file names, as applied by the CORRECT_ALL op‐
6292 tion (so with the example just given files beginning with `_' in
6293 the current directory would still be completed).
6294 CORRECT_IGNORE_FILE
6296 If set, is treated as a pattern during spelling correction of
6297 file names. Any file name that matches the pattern is never of‐
6298 fered as a correction. For example, if the value is `.*' then
6299 dot file names will never be offered as spelling corrections.
6300 This is useful with the CORRECT_ALL option.
6301 DIRSTACKSIZE
6303 The maximum size of the directory stack, by default there is no
6304 limit. If the stack gets larger than this, it will be truncated
6305 automatically. This is useful with the AUTO_PUSHD option.
6306 ENV If the ENV environment variable is set when zsh is invoked as sh
6308 or ksh, $ENV is sourced after the profile scripts. The value of
6309 ENV is subjected to parameter expansion, command substitution,
6310 and arithmetic expansion before being interpreted as a pathname.
6311 Note that ENV is not used unless the shell is interactive and
6312 zsh is emulating sh or ksh.
6313 FCEDIT The default editor for the fc builtin. If FCEDIT is not set,
6315 the parameter EDITOR is used; if that is not set either, a
6316 builtin default, usually vi, is used.
6317 fignore <S> <Z> (FIGNORE <S>)
6319 An array (colon separated list) containing the suffixes of files
6320 to be ignored during filename completion. However, if comple‐
6321 tion only generates files with suffixes in this list, then these
6322 files are completed anyway.
6323 fpath <S> <Z> (FPATH <S>)
6325 An array (colon separated list) of directories specifying the
6326 search path for function definitions. This path is searched
6327 when a function with the -u attribute is referenced. If an exe‐
6328 cutable file is found, then it is read and executed in the cur‐
6329 rent environment.
6330 histchars <S>
6332 Three characters used by the shell's history and lexical analy‐
6333 sis mechanism. The first character signals the start of a his‐
6334 tory expansion (default `!'). The second character signals the
6335 start of a quick history substitution (default `^'). The third
6336 character is the comment character (default `#').
6337 The characters must be in the ASCII character set; any attempt
6339 to set histchars to characters with a locale-dependent meaning
6340 will be rejected with an error message.
6341 HISTCHARS <S> <Z>
6343 Same as histchars. (Deprecated.)
6344 HISTFILE
6346 The file to save the history in when an interactive shell exits.
6347 If unset, the history is not saved.
6348 HISTORY_IGNORE
6350 If set, is treated as a pattern at the time history files are
6351 written. Any potential history entry that matches the pattern
6352 is skipped. For example, if the value is `fc *' then commands
6353 that invoke the interactive history editor are never written to
6354 the history file.
6355 Note that HISTORY_IGNORE defines a single pattern: to specify
6357 alternatives use the `(first|second|...)' syntax.
6358 Compare the HIST_NO_STORE option or the zshaddhistory hook, ei‐
6360 ther of which would prevent such commands from being added to
6361 the interactive history at all. If you wish to use HISTORY_IG‐
6362 NORE to stop history being added in the first place, you can de‐
6363 fine the following hook:
6364 zshaddhistory() {
6366 emulate -L zsh
6367 ## uncomment if HISTORY_IGNORE
6368 ## should use EXTENDED_GLOB syntax
6369 # setopt extendedglob
6370 [[ $1 != ${~HISTORY_IGNORE} ]]
6371 }
6372 HISTSIZE <S>
6374 The maximum number of events stored in the internal history
6375 list. If you use the HIST_EXPIRE_DUPS_FIRST option, setting
6376 this value larger than the SAVEHIST size will give you the dif‐
6377 ference as a cushion for saving duplicated history events.
6378 If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be
6380 explicitly set locally.
6381 HOME <S>
6383 The default argument for the cd command. This is not set auto‐
6384 matically by the shell in sh, ksh or csh emulation, but it is
6385 typically present in the environment anyway, and if it becomes
6386 set it has its usual special behaviour.
6387 IFS <S>
6389 Internal field separators (by default space, tab, newline and
6390 NUL), that are used to separate words which result from command
6391 or parameter expansion and words read by the read builtin. Any
6392 characters from the set space, tab and newline that appear in
6393 the IFS are called IFS white space. One or more IFS white space
6394 characters or one non-IFS white space character together with
6395 any adjacent IFS white space character delimit a field. If an
6396 IFS white space character appears twice consecutively in the
6397 IFS, this character is treated as if it were not an IFS white
6398 space character.
6399 If the parameter is unset, the default is used. Note this has a
6401 different effect from setting the parameter to an empty string.
6402 KEYBOARD_HACK
6404 This variable defines a character to be removed from the end of
6405 the command line before interpreting it (interactive shells
6406 only). It is intended to fix the problem with keys placed annoy‐
6407 ingly close to return and replaces the SUNKEYBOARDHACK option
6408 which did this for backquotes only. Should the chosen character
6409 be one of singlequote, doublequote or backquote, there must also
6410 be an odd number of them on the command line for the last one to
6411 be removed.
6412 For backward compatibility, if the SUNKEYBOARDHACK option is ex‐
6414 plicitly set, the value of KEYBOARD_HACK reverts to backquote.
6415 If the option is explicitly unset, this variable is set to
6416 empty.
6417 KEYTIMEOUT
6419 The time the shell waits, in hundredths of seconds, for another
6420 key to be pressed when reading bound multi-character sequences.
6421 LANG <S>
6423 This variable determines the locale category for any category
6424 not specifically selected via a variable starting with `LC_'.
6425 LC_ALL <S>
6427 This variable overrides the value of the `LANG' variable and the
6428 value of any of the other variables starting with `LC_'.
6429 LC_COLLATE <S>
6431 This variable determines the locale category for character col‐
6432 lation information within ranges in glob brackets and for sort‐
6433 ing.
6434 LC_CTYPE <S>
6436 This variable determines the locale category for character han‐
6437 dling functions. If the MULTIBYTE option is in effect this
6438 variable or LANG should contain a value that reflects the char‐
6439 acter set in use, even if it is a single-byte character set, un‐
6440 less only the 7-bit subset (ASCII) is used. For example, if the
6441 character set is ISO-8859-1, a suitable value might be
6442 en_US.iso88591 (certain Linux distributions) or en_US.ISO8859-1
6443 (MacOS).
6444 LC_MESSAGES <S>
6446 This variable determines the language in which messages should
6447 be written. Note that zsh does not use message catalogs.
6448 LC_NUMERIC <S>
6450 This variable affects the decimal point character and thousands
6451 separator character for the formatted input/output functions and
6452 string conversion functions. Note that zsh ignores this setting
6453 when parsing floating point mathematical expressions.
6454 LC_TIME <S>
6456 This variable determines the locale category for date and time
6457 formatting in prompt escape sequences.
6458 LINES <S>
6460 The number of lines for this terminal session. Used for print‐
6461 ing select lists and for the line editor.
6462 LISTMAX
6464 In the line editor, the number of matches to list without asking
6465 first. If the value is negative, the list will be shown if it
6466 spans at most as many lines as given by the absolute value. If
6467 set to zero, the shell asks only if the top of the listing would
6468 scroll off the screen.
6469 LOGCHECK
6471 The interval in seconds between checks for login/logout activity
6472 using the watch parameter.
6473 MAIL If this parameter is set and mailpath is not set, the shell
6475 looks for mail in the specified file.
6476 MAILCHECK
6478 The interval in seconds between checks for new mail.
6479 mailpath <S> <Z> (MAILPATH <S>)
6481 An array (colon-separated list) of filenames to check for new
6482 mail. Each filename can be followed by a `?' and a message that
6483 will be printed. The message will undergo parameter expansion,
6484 command substitution and arithmetic expansion with the variable
6485 $_ defined as the name of the file that has changed. The de‐
6486 fault message is `You have new mail'. If an element is a direc‐
6487 tory instead of a file the shell will recursively check every
6488 file in every subdirectory of the element.
6489 manpath <S> <Z> (MANPATH <S> <Z>)
6491 An array (colon-separated list) whose value is not used by the
6492 shell. The manpath array can be useful, however, since setting
6493 it also sets MANPATH, and vice versa.
6494 match
6496 mbegin
6497 mend Arrays set by the shell when the b globbing flag is used in pat‐
6498 tern matches. See the subsection Globbing flags in the documen‐
6499 tation for Filename Generation in zshexpn(1).
6500 MATCH
6502 MBEGIN
6503 MEND Set by the shell when the m globbing flag is used in pattern
6504 matches. See the subsection Globbing flags in the documentation
6505 for Filename Generation in zshexpn(1).
6506 module_path <S> <Z> (MODULE_PATH <S>)
6508 An array (colon-separated list) of directories that zmodload
6509 searches for dynamically loadable modules. This is initialized
6510 to a standard pathname, usually `/usr/local/lib/zsh/$ZSH_VER‐
6511 SION'. (The `/usr/local/lib' part varies from installation to
6512 installation.) For security reasons, any value set in the envi‐
6513 ronment when the shell is started will be ignored.
6514 These parameters only exist if the installation supports dynamic
6516 module loading.
6517 NULLCMD <S>
6519 The command name to assume if a redirection is specified with no
6520 command. Defaults to cat. For sh/ksh behavior, change this to
6521 :. For csh-like behavior, unset this parameter; the shell will
6522 print an error message if null commands are entered.
6523 path <S> <Z> (PATH <S>)
6525 An array (colon-separated list) of directories to search for
6526 commands. When this parameter is set, each directory is scanned
6527 and all files found are put in a hash table.
6528 POSTEDIT <S>
6530 This string is output whenever the line editor exits. It usu‐
6531 ally contains termcap strings to reset the terminal.
6532 PROMPT <S> <Z>
6534 PROMPT2 <S> <Z>
6535 PROMPT3 <S> <Z>
6536 PROMPT4 <S> <Z>
6537 Same as PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4, respectively.
6538 prompt <S> <Z>
6540 Same as PS1.
6541 PROMPT_EOL_MARK
6543 When the PROMPT_CR and PROMPT_SP options are set, the
6544 PROMPT_EOL_MARK parameter can be used to customize how the end
6545 of partial lines are shown. This parameter undergoes prompt ex‐
6546 pansion, with the PROMPT_PERCENT option set. If not set, the
6547 default behavior is equivalent to the value `%B%S%#%s%b'.
6548 PS1 <S>
6550 The primary prompt string, printed before a command is read. It
6551 undergoes a special form of expansion before being displayed;
6552 see EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1). The default is
6553 `%m%# '.
6554 PS2 <S>
6556 The secondary prompt, printed when the shell needs more informa‐
6557 tion to complete a command. It is expanded in the same way as
6558 PS1. The default is `%_> ', which displays any shell constructs
6559 or quotation marks which are currently being processed.
6560 PS3 <S>
6562 Selection prompt used within a select loop. It is expanded in
6563 the same way as PS1. The default is `?# '.
6564 PS4 <S>
6566 The execution trace prompt. Default is `+%N:%i> ', which dis‐
6567 plays the name of the current shell structure and the line num‐
6568 ber within it. In sh or ksh emulation, the default is `+ '.
6569 psvar <S> <Z> (PSVAR <S>)
6571 An array (colon-separated list) whose elements can be used in
6572 PROMPT strings. Setting psvar also sets PSVAR, and vice versa.
6573 READNULLCMD <S>
6575 The command name to assume if a single input redirection is
6576 specified with no command. Defaults to more.
6577 REPORTMEMORY
6579 If nonnegative, commands whose maximum resident set size
6580 (roughly speaking, main memory usage) in kilobytes is greater
6581 than this value have timing statistics reported. The format
6582 used to output statistics is the value of the TIMEFMT parameter,
6583 which is the same as for the REPORTTIME variable and the time
6584 builtin; note that by default this does not output memory usage.
6585 Appending " max RSS %M" to the value of TIMEFMT causes it to
6586 output the value that triggered the report. If REPORTTIME is
6587 also in use, at most a single report is printed for both trig‐
6588 gers. This feature requires the getrusage() system call, com‐
6589 monly supported by modern Unix-like systems.
6590 REPORTTIME
6592 If nonnegative, commands whose combined user and system execu‐
6593 tion times (measured in seconds) are greater than this value
6594 have timing statistics printed for them. Output is suppressed
6595 for commands executed within the line editor, including comple‐
6596 tion; commands explicitly marked with the time keyword still
6597 cause the summary to be printed in this case.
6598 REPLY This parameter is reserved by convention to pass string values
6600 between shell scripts and shell builtins in situations where a
6601 function call or redirection are impossible or undesirable. The
6602 read builtin and the select complex command may set REPLY, and
6603 filename generation both sets and examines its value when evalu‐
6604 ating certain expressions. Some modules also employ REPLY for
6605 similar purposes.
6606 reply As REPLY, but for array values rather than strings.
6608 RPROMPT <S>
6610 RPS1 <S>
6611 This prompt is displayed on the right-hand side of the screen
6612 when the primary prompt is being displayed on the left. This
6613 does not work if the SINGLE_LINE_ZLE option is set. It is ex‐
6614 panded in the same way as PS1.
6615 RPROMPT2 <S>
6617 RPS2 <S>
6618 This prompt is displayed on the right-hand side of the screen
6619 when the secondary prompt is being displayed on the left. This
6620 does not work if the SINGLE_LINE_ZLE option is set. It is ex‐
6621 panded in the same way as PS2.
6622 SAVEHIST
6624 The maximum number of history events to save in the history
6625 file.
6626 If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be
6628 explicitly set locally.
6629 SPROMPT <S>
6631 The prompt used for spelling correction. The sequence `%R' ex‐
6632 pands to the string which presumably needs spelling correction,
6633 and `%r' expands to the proposed correction. All other prompt
6634 escapes are also allowed.
6635 The actions available at the prompt are [nyae]:
6637 n (`no') (default)
6638 Discard the correction and run the command.
6639 y (`yes')
6640 Make the correction and run the command.
6641 a (`abort')
6642 Discard the entire command line without running it.
6643 e (`edit')
6644 Resume editing the command line.
6645 STTY If this parameter is set in a command's environment, the shell
6647 runs the stty command with the value of this parameter as argu‐
6648 ments in order to set up the terminal before executing the com‐
6649 mand. The modes apply only to the command, and are reset when it
6650 finishes or is suspended. If the command is suspended and con‐
6651 tinued later with the fg or wait builtins it will see the modes
6652 specified by STTY, as if it were not suspended. This (inten‐
6653 tionally) does not apply if the command is continued via `kill
6654 -CONT'. STTY is ignored if the command is run in the back‐
6655 ground, or if it is in the environment of the shell but not ex‐
6656 plicitly assigned to in the input line. This avoids running stty
6657 at every external command by accidentally exporting it. Also
6658 note that STTY should not be used for window size specifica‐
6659 tions; these will not be local to the command.
6660 TERM <S>
6662 The type of terminal in use. This is used when looking up term‐
6663 cap sequences. An assignment to TERM causes zsh to re-initial‐
6664 ize the terminal, even if the value does not change (e.g.,
6665 `TERM=$TERM'). It is necessary to make such an assignment upon
6666 any change to the terminal definition database or terminal type
6667 in order for the new settings to take effect.
6668 TERMINFO <S>
6670 A reference to your terminfo database, used by the `terminfo'
6671 library when the system has it; see terminfo(5). If set, this
6672 causes the shell to reinitialise the terminal, making the work‐
6673 around `TERM=$TERM' unnecessary.
6674 TERMINFO_DIRS <S>
6676 A colon-seprarated list of terminfo databases, used by the `ter‐
6677 minfo' library when the system has it; see terminfo(5). This
6678 variable is only used by certain terminal libraries, in particu‐
6679 lar ncurses; see terminfo(5) to check support on your system.
6680 If set, this causes the shell to reinitialise the terminal, mak‐
6681 ing the workaround `TERM=$TERM' unnecessary. Note that unlike
6682 other colon-separated arrays this is not tied to a zsh array.
6683 TIMEFMT
6685 The format of process time reports with the time keyword. The
6686 default is `%J %U user %S system %P cpu %*E total'. Recognizes
6687 the following escape sequences, although not all may be avail‐
6688 able on all systems, and some that are available may not be use‐
6689 ful:
6690 %% A `%'.
6692 %U CPU seconds spent in user mode.
6693 %S CPU seconds spent in kernel mode.
6694 %E Elapsed time in seconds.
6695 %P The CPU percentage, computed as 100*(%U+%S)/%E.
6696 %W Number of times the process was swapped.
6697 %X The average amount in (shared) text space used in kilo‐
6698 bytes.
6699 %D The average amount in (unshared) data/stack space used in
6700 kilobytes.
6701 %K The total space used (%X+%D) in kilobytes.
6702 %M The maximum memory the process had in use at any time in
6703 kilobytes.
6704 %F The number of major page faults (page needed to be
6705 brought from disk).
6706 %R The number of minor page faults.
6707 %I The number of input operations.
6708 %O The number of output operations.
6709 %r The number of socket messages received.
6710 %s The number of socket messages sent.
6711 %k The number of signals received.
6712 %w Number of voluntary context switches (waits).
6713 %c Number of involuntary context switches.
6714 %J The name of this job.
6715 A star may be inserted between the percent sign and flags print‐
6717 ing time (e.g., `%*E'); this causes the time to be printed in
6718 `hh:mm:ss.ttt' format (hours and minutes are only printed if
6719 they are not zero). Alternatively, `m' or `u' may be used
6720 (e.g., `%mE') to produce time output in milliseconds or mi‐
6721 croseconds, respectively.
6722 TMOUT If this parameter is nonzero, the shell will receive an ALRM
6724 signal if a command is not entered within the specified number
6725 of seconds after issuing a prompt. If there is a trap on
6726 SIGALRM, it will be executed and a new alarm is scheduled using
6727 the value of the TMOUT parameter after executing the trap. If
6728 no trap is set, and the idle time of the terminal is not less
6729 than the value of the TMOUT parameter, zsh terminates. Other‐
6730 wise a new alarm is scheduled to TMOUT seconds after the last
6731 keypress.
6732 TMPPREFIX
6734 A pathname prefix which the shell will use for all temporary
6735 files. Note that this should include an initial part for the
6736 file name as well as any directory names. The default is
6737 `/tmp/zsh'.
6738 TMPSUFFIX
6740 A filename suffix which the shell will use for temporary files
6741 created by process substitutions (e.g., `=(list)'). Note that
6742 the value should include a leading dot `.' if intended to be in‐
6743 terpreted as a file extension. The default is not to append any
6744 suffix, thus this parameter should be assigned only when needed
6745 and then unset again.
6746 watch <S> <Z> (WATCH <S>)
6748 An array (colon-separated list) of login/logout events to re‐
6749 port.
6750 If it contains the single word `all', then all login/logout
6752 events are reported. If it contains the single word `notme',
6753 then all events are reported as with `all' except $USERNAME.
6754 An entry in this list may consist of a username, an `@' followed
6756 by a remote hostname, and a `%' followed by a line (tty). Any
6757 of these may be a pattern (be sure to quote this during the as‐
6758 signment to watch so that it does not immediately perform file
6759 generation); the setting of the EXTENDED_GLOB option is re‐
6760 spected. Any or all of these components may be present in an
6761 entry; if a login/logout event matches all of them, it is re‐
6762 ported.
6763 For example, with the EXTENDED_GLOB option set, the following:
6765 watch=('^(pws|barts)')
6767 causes reports for activity associated with any user other than
6769 pws or barts.
6770 WATCHFMT
6772 The format of login/logout reports if the watch parameter is
6773 set. Default is `%n has %a %l from %m'. Recognizes the follow‐
6774 ing escape sequences:
6775 %n The name of the user that logged in/out.
6777 %a The observed action, i.e. "logged on" or "logged off".
6779 %l The line (tty) the user is logged in on.
6781 %M The full hostname of the remote host.
6783 %m The hostname up to the first `.'. If only the IP address
6785 is available or the utmp field contains the name of an
6786 X-windows display, the whole name is printed.
6787 NOTE: The `%m' and `%M' escapes will work only if there
6789 is a host name field in the utmp on your machine. Other‐
6790 wise they are treated as ordinary strings.
6791 %S (%s)
6793 Start (stop) standout mode.
6794 %U (%u)
6796 Start (stop) underline mode.
6797 %B (%b)
6799 Start (stop) boldface mode.
6800 %t
6802 %@ The time, in 12-hour, am/pm format.
6803 %T The time, in 24-hour format.
6805 %w The date in `day-dd' format.
6807 %W The date in `mm/dd/yy' format.
6809 %D The date in `yy-mm-dd' format.
6811 %D{string}
6813 The date formatted as string using the strftime function,
6814 with zsh extensions as described by EXPANSION OF PROMPT
6815 SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1).
6816 %(x:true-text:false-text)
6818 Specifies a ternary expression. The character following
6819 the x is arbitrary; the same character is used to sepa‐
6820 rate the text for the "true" result from that for the
6821 "false" result. Both the separator and the right paren‐
6822 thesis may be escaped with a backslash. Ternary expres‐
6823 sions may be nested.
6824 The test character x may be any one of `l', `n', `m' or
6826 `M', which indicate a `true' result if the corresponding
6827 escape sequence would return a non-empty value; or it may
6828 be `a', which indicates a `true' result if the watched
6829 user has logged in, or `false' if he has logged out.
6830 Other characters evaluate to neither true nor false; the
6831 entire expression is omitted in this case.
6832 If the result is `true', then the true-text is formatted
6834 according to the rules above and printed, and the
6835 false-text is skipped. If `false', the true-text is
6836 skipped and the false-text is formatted and printed. Ei‐
6837 ther or both of the branches may be empty, but both sepa‐
6838 rators must be present in any case.
6839 WORDCHARS <S>
6841 A list of non-alphanumeric characters considered part of a word
6842 by the line editor.
6843 ZBEEP If set, this gives a string of characters, which can use all the
6845 same codes as the bindkey command as described in the zsh/zle
6846 module entry in zshmodules(1), that will be output to the termi‐
6847 nal instead of beeping. This may have a visible instead of an
6848 audible effect; for example, the string `\e[?5h\e[?5l' on a
6849 vt100 or xterm will have the effect of flashing reverse video on
6850 and off (if you usually use reverse video, you should use the
6851 string `\e[?5l\e[?5h' instead). This takes precedence over the
6852 NOBEEP option.
6853 ZDOTDIR
6855 The directory to search for shell startup files (.zshrc, etc),
6856 if not $HOME.
6857 zle_bracketed_paste
6859 Many terminal emulators have a feature that allows applications
6860 to identify when text is pasted into the terminal rather than
6861 being typed normally. For ZLE, this means that special charac‐
6862 ters such as tabs and newlines can be inserted instead of invok‐
6863 ing editor commands. Furthermore, pasted text forms a single
6864 undo event and if the region is active, pasted text will replace
6865 the region.
6866 This two-element array contains the terminal escape sequences
6868 for enabling and disabling the feature. These escape sequences
6869 are used to enable bracketed paste when ZLE is active and dis‐
6870 able it at other times. Unsetting the parameter has the effect
6871 of ensuring that bracketed paste remains disabled.
6872 zle_highlight
6874 An array describing contexts in which ZLE should highlight the
6875 input text. See Character Highlighting in zshzle(1).
6876 ZLE_LINE_ABORTED
6878 This parameter is set by the line editor when an error occurs.
6879 It contains the line that was being edited at the point of the
6880 error. `print -zr -- $ZLE_LINE_ABORTED' can be used to recover
6881 the line. Only the most recent line of this kind is remembered.
6882 ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS
6884 ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS
6885 These parameters are used by the line editor. In certain cir‐
6886 cumstances suffixes (typically space or slash) added by the com‐
6887 pletion system will be removed automatically, either because the
6888 next editing command was not an insertable character, or because
6889 the character was marked as requiring the suffix to be removed.
6890 These variables can contain the sets of characters that will
6892 cause the suffix to be removed. If ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS is
6893 set, those characters will cause the suffix to be removed; if
6894 ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS is set, those characters will cause the
6895 suffix to be removed and replaced by a space.
6896 If ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS is not set, the default behaviour is
6898 equivalent to:
6899 ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS=$' \t\n;&|'
6901 If ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS is set but is empty, no characters
6903 have this behaviour. ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS takes precedence,
6904 so that the following:
6905 ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS=$'&|'
6907 causes the characters `&' and `|' to remove the suffix but to
6909 replace it with a space.
6910 To illustrate the difference, suppose that the option AUTO_RE‐
6912 MOVE_SLASH is in effect and the directory DIR has just been com‐
6913 pleted, with an appended /, following which the user types `&'.
6914 The default result is `DIR&'. With ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS set
6915 but without including `&' the result is `DIR/&'. With
6916 ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS set to include `&' the result is `DIR &'.
6917 Note that certain completions may provide their own suffix re‐
6919 moval or replacement behaviour which overrides the values de‐
6920 scribed here. See the completion system documentation in zsh‐
6921 compsys(1).
6922 ZLE_RPROMPT_INDENT <S>
6924 If set, used to give the indentation between the right hand side
6925 of the right prompt in the line editor as given by RPS1 or
6926 RPROMPT and the right hand side of the screen. If not set, the
6927 value 1 is used.
6928 Typically this will be used to set the value to 0 so that the
6930 prompt appears flush with the right hand side of the screen.
6931 This is not the default as many terminals do not handle this
6932 correctly, in particular when the prompt appears at the extreme
6933 bottom right of the screen. Recent virtual terminals are more
6934 likely to handle this case correctly. Some experimentation is
6935 necessary.
6936ZSHOPTIONS(1) General Commands Manual ZSHOPTIONS(1)
6940
6944 zshoptions - zsh options
6945
6947 Options are primarily referred to by name. These names are case insen‐
6948 sitive and underscores are ignored. For example, `allexport' is equiv‐
6949 alent to `A__lleXP_ort'.
6950 The sense of an option name may be inverted by preceding it with `no',
6952 so `setopt No_Beep' is equivalent to `unsetopt beep'. This inversion
6953 can only be done once, so `nonobeep' is not a synonym for `beep'. Sim‐
6954 ilarly, `tify' is not a synonym for `nonotify' (the inversion of `no‐
6955 tify').
6956 Some options also have one or more single letter names. There are two
6958 sets of single letter options: one used by default, and another used to
6959 emulate sh/ksh (used when the SH_OPTION_LETTERS option is set). The
6960 single letter options can be used on the shell command line, or with
6961 the set, setopt and unsetopt builtins, as normal Unix options preceded
6962 by `-'.
6963 The sense of the single letter options may be inverted by using `+' in‐
6965 stead of `-'. Some of the single letter option names refer to an op‐
6966 tion being off, in which case the inversion of that name refers to the
6967 option being on. For example, `+n' is the short name of `exec', and
6968 `-n' is the short name of its inversion, `noexec'.
6969 In strings of single letter options supplied to the shell at startup,
6971 trailing whitespace will be ignored; for example the string `-f '
6972 will be treated just as `-f', but the string `-f i' is an error. This
6973 is because many systems which implement the `#!' mechanism for calling
6974 scripts do not strip trailing whitespace.
6975
6977 In the following list, options set by default in all emulations are
6978 marked <D>; those set by default only in csh, ksh, sh, or zsh emula‐
6979 tions are marked <C>, <K>, <S>, <Z> as appropriate. When listing op‐
6980 tions (by `setopt', `unsetopt', `set -o' or `set +o'), those turned on
6981 by default appear in the list prefixed with `no'. Hence (unless
6982 KSH_OPTION_PRINT is set), `setopt' shows all options whose settings are
6983 changed from the default.
6984 Changing Directories
6986 AUTO_CD (-J)
6987 If a command is issued that can't be executed as a normal com‐
6988 mand, and the command is the name of a directory, perform the cd
6989 command to that directory. This option is only applicable if
6990 the option SHIN_STDIN is set, i.e. if commands are being read
6991 from standard input. The option is designed for interactive
6992 use; it is recommended that cd be used explicitly in scripts to
6993 avoid ambiguity.
6994 AUTO_PUSHD (-N)
6996 Make cd push the old directory onto the directory stack.
6997 CDABLE_VARS (-T)
6999 If the argument to a cd command (or an implied cd with the
7000 AUTO_CD option set) is not a directory, and does not begin with
7001 a slash, try to expand the expression as if it were preceded by
7002 a `~' (see the section `Filename Expansion').
7003 CD_SILENT
7005 Never print the working directory after a cd (whether explicit
7006 or implied with the AUTO_CD option set). cd normally prints the
7007 working directory when the argument given to it was -, a stack
7008 entry, or the name of a directory found under CDPATH. Note that
7009 this is distinct from pushd's stack-printing behaviour, which is
7010 controlled by PUSHD_SILENT. This option overrides the print‐
7011 ing-related effects of POSIX_CD.
7012 CHASE_DOTS
7014 When changing to a directory containing a path segment `..'
7015 which would otherwise be treated as canceling the previous seg‐
7016 ment in the path (in other words, `foo/..' would be removed from
7017 the path, or if `..' is the first part of the path, the last
7018 part of the current working directory would be removed), instead
7019 resolve the path to the physical directory. This option is
7020 overridden by CHASE_LINKS.
7021 For example, suppose /foo/bar is a link to the directory
7023 /alt/rod. Without this option set, `cd /foo/bar/..' changes to
7024 /foo; with it set, it changes to /alt. The same applies if the
7025 current directory is /foo/bar and `cd ..' is used. Note that
7026 all other symbolic links in the path will also be resolved.
7027 CHASE_LINKS (-w)
7029 Resolve symbolic links to their true values when changing direc‐
7030 tory. This also has the effect of CHASE_DOTS, i.e. a `..' path
7031 segment will be treated as referring to the physical parent,
7032 even if the preceding path segment is a symbolic link.
7033 POSIX_CD <K> <S>
7035 Modifies the behaviour of cd, chdir and pushd commands to make
7036 them more compatible with the POSIX standard. The behaviour with
7037 the option unset is described in the documentation for the cd
7038 builtin in zshbuiltins(1). If the option is set, the shell does
7039 not test for directories beneath the local directory (`.') until
7040 after all directories in cdpath have been tested, and the cd and
7041 chdir commands do not recognise arguments of the form `{+|-}n'
7042 as directory stack entries.
7043 Also, if the option is set, the conditions under which the shell
7045 prints the new directory after changing to it are modified. It
7046 is no longer restricted to interactive shells (although printing
7047 of the directory stack with pushd is still limited to interac‐
7048 tive shells); and any use of a component of CDPATH, including a
7049 `.' but excluding an empty component that is otherwise treated
7050 as `.', causes the directory to be printed.
7051 PUSHD_IGNORE_DUPS
7053 Don't push multiple copies of the same directory onto the direc‐
7054 tory stack.
7055 PUSHD_MINUS
7057 Exchanges the meanings of `+' and `-' when used with a number to
7058 specify a directory in the stack.
7059 PUSHD_SILENT (-E)
7061 Do not print the directory stack after pushd or popd.
7062 PUSHD_TO_HOME (-D)
7064 Have pushd with no arguments act like `pushd $HOME'.
7065 Completion
7067 ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT <D>
7068 If unset, key functions that list completions try to return to
7069 the last prompt if given a numeric argument. If set these func‐
7070 tions try to return to the last prompt if given no numeric argu‐
7071 ment.
7072 ALWAYS_TO_END
7074 If a completion is performed with the cursor within a word, and
7075 a full completion is inserted, the cursor is moved to the end of
7076 the word. That is, the cursor is moved to the end of the word
7077 if either a single match is inserted or menu completion is per‐
7078 formed.
7079 AUTO_LIST (-9) <D>
7081 Automatically list choices on an ambiguous completion.
7082 AUTO_MENU <D>
7084 Automatically use menu completion after the second consecutive
7085 request for completion, for example by pressing the tab key re‐
7086 peatedly. This option is overridden by MENU_COMPLETE.
7087 AUTO_NAME_DIRS
7089 Any parameter that is set to the absolute name of a directory
7090 immediately becomes a name for that directory, that will be used
7091 by the `%~' and related prompt sequences, and will be available
7092 when completion is performed on a word starting with `~'. (Oth‐
7093 erwise, the parameter must be used in the form `~param' first.)
7094 AUTO_PARAM_KEYS <D>
7096 If a parameter name was completed and a following character
7097 (normally a space) automatically inserted, and the next charac‐
7098 ter typed is one of those that have to come directly after the
7099 name (like `}', `:', etc.), the automatically added character is
7100 deleted, so that the character typed comes immediately after the
7101 parameter name. Completion in a brace expansion is affected
7102 similarly: the added character is a `,', which will be removed
7103 if `}' is typed next.
7104 AUTO_PARAM_SLASH <D>
7106 If a parameter is completed whose content is the name of a di‐
7107 rectory, then add a trailing slash instead of a space.
7108 AUTO_REMOVE_SLASH <D>
7110 When the last character resulting from a completion is a slash
7111 and the next character typed is a word delimiter, a slash, or a
7112 character that ends a command (such as a semicolon or an amper‐
7113 sand), remove the slash.
7114 BASH_AUTO_LIST
7116 On an ambiguous completion, automatically list choices when the
7117 completion function is called twice in succession. This takes
7118 precedence over AUTO_LIST. The setting of LIST_AMBIGUOUS is re‐
7119 spected. If AUTO_MENU is set, the menu behaviour will then
7120 start with the third press. Note that this will not work with
7121 MENU_COMPLETE, since repeated completion calls immediately cycle
7122 through the list in that case.
7123 COMPLETE_ALIASES
7125 Prevents aliases on the command line from being internally sub‐
7126 stituted before completion is attempted. The effect is to make
7127 the alias a distinct command for completion purposes.
7128 COMPLETE_IN_WORD
7130 If unset, the cursor is set to the end of the word if completion
7131 is started. Otherwise it stays there and completion is done from
7132 both ends.
7133 GLOB_COMPLETE
7135 When the current word has a glob pattern, do not insert all the
7136 words resulting from the expansion but generate matches as for
7137 completion and cycle through them like MENU_COMPLETE. The
7138 matches are generated as if a `*' was added to the end of the
7139 word, or inserted at the cursor when COMPLETE_IN_WORD is set.
7140 This actually uses pattern matching, not globbing, so it works
7141 not only for files but for any completion, such as options, user
7142 names, etc.
7143 Note that when the pattern matcher is used, matching control
7145 (for example, case-insensitive or anchored matching) cannot be
7146 used. This limitation only applies when the current word con‐
7147 tains a pattern; simply turning on the GLOB_COMPLETE option does
7148 not have this effect.
7149 HASH_LIST_ALL <D>
7151 Whenever a command completion or spelling correction is at‐
7152 tempted, make sure the entire command path is hashed first.
7153 This makes the first completion slower but avoids false reports
7154 of spelling errors.
7155 LIST_AMBIGUOUS <D>
7157 This option works when AUTO_LIST or BASH_AUTO_LIST is also set.
7158 If there is an unambiguous prefix to insert on the command line,
7159 that is done without a completion list being displayed; in other
7160 words, auto-listing behaviour only takes place when nothing
7161 would be inserted. In the case of BASH_AUTO_LIST, this means
7162 that the list will be delayed to the third call of the function.
7163 LIST_BEEP <D>
7165 Beep on an ambiguous completion. More accurately, this forces
7166 the completion widgets to return status 1 on an ambiguous com‐
7167 pletion, which causes the shell to beep if the option BEEP is
7168 also set; this may be modified if completion is called from a
7169 user-defined widget.
7170 LIST_PACKED
7172 Try to make the completion list smaller (occupying less lines)
7173 by printing the matches in columns with different widths.
7174 LIST_ROWS_FIRST
7176 Lay out the matches in completion lists sorted horizontally,
7177 that is, the second match is to the right of the first one, not
7178 under it as usual.
7179 LIST_TYPES (-X) <D>
7181 When listing files that are possible completions, show the type
7182 of each file with a trailing identifying mark.
7183 MENU_COMPLETE (-Y)
7185 On an ambiguous completion, instead of listing possibilities or
7186 beeping, insert the first match immediately. Then when comple‐
7187 tion is requested again, remove the first match and insert the
7188 second match, etc. When there are no more matches, go back to
7189 the first one again. reverse-menu-complete may be used to loop
7190 through the list in the other direction. This option overrides
7191 AUTO_MENU.
7192 REC_EXACT (-S)
7194 If the string on the command line exactly matches one of the
7195 possible completions, it is accepted, even if there is another
7196 completion (i.e. that string with something else added) that
7197 also matches.
7198 Expansion and Globbing
7200 BAD_PATTERN (+2) <C> <Z>
7201 If a pattern for filename generation is badly formed, print an
7202 error message. (If this option is unset, the pattern will be
7203 left unchanged.)
7204 BARE_GLOB_QUAL <Z>
7206 In a glob pattern, treat a trailing set of parentheses as a
7207 qualifier list, if it contains no `|', `(' or (if special) `~'
7208 characters. See the section `Filename Generation'.
7209 BRACE_CCL
7211 Expand expressions in braces which would not otherwise undergo
7212 brace expansion to a lexically ordered list of all the charac‐
7213 ters. See the section `Brace Expansion'.
7214 CASE_GLOB <D>
7216 Make globbing (filename generation) sensitive to case. Note
7217 that other uses of patterns are always sensitive to case. If
7218 the option is unset, the presence of any character which is spe‐
7219 cial to filename generation will cause case-insensitive match‐
7220 ing. For example, cvs(/) can match the directory CVS owing to
7221 the presence of the globbing flag (unless the option
7222 BARE_GLOB_QUAL is unset).
7223 CASE_MATCH <D>
7225 Make regular expressions using the zsh/regex module (including
7226 matches with =~) sensitive to case.
7227 CSH_NULL_GLOB <C>
7229 If a pattern for filename generation has no matches, delete the
7230 pattern from the argument list; do not report an error unless
7231 all the patterns in a command have no matches. Overrides NO‐
7232 MATCH.
7233 EQUALS <Z>
7235 Perform = filename expansion. (See the section `Filename Expan‐
7236 sion'.)
7237 EXTENDED_GLOB
7239 Treat the `#', `~' and `^' characters as part of patterns for
7240 filename generation, etc. (An initial unquoted `~' always pro‐
7241 duces named directory expansion.)
7242 FORCE_FLOAT
7244 Constants in arithmetic evaluation will be treated as floating
7245 point even without the use of a decimal point; the values of in‐
7246 teger variables will be converted to floating point when used in
7247 arithmetic expressions. Integers in any base will be converted.
7248 GLOB (+F, ksh: +f) <D>
7250 Perform filename generation (globbing). (See the section `File‐
7251 name Generation'.)
7252 GLOB_ASSIGN <C>
7254 If this option is set, filename generation (globbing) is per‐
7255 formed on the right hand side of scalar parameter assignments of
7256 the form `name=pattern (e.g. `foo=*'). If the result has more
7257 than one word the parameter will become an array with those
7258 words as arguments. This option is provided for backwards com‐
7259 patibility only: globbing is always performed on the right hand
7260 side of array assignments of the form `name=(value)' (e.g.
7261 `foo=(*)') and this form is recommended for clarity; with this
7262 option set, it is not possible to predict whether the result
7263 will be an array or a scalar.
7264 GLOB_DOTS (-4)
7266 Do not require a leading `.' in a filename to be matched explic‐
7267 itly.
7268 GLOB_STAR_SHORT
7270 When this option is set and the default zsh-style globbing is in
7271 effect, the pattern `**/*' can be abbreviated to `**' and the
7272 pattern `***/*' can be abbreviated to ***. Hence `**.c' finds a
7273 file ending in .c in any subdirectory, and `***.c' does the same
7274 while also following symbolic links. A / immediately after the
7275 `**' or `***' forces the pattern to be treated as the unabbrevi‐
7276 ated form.
7277 GLOB_SUBST <C> <K> <S>
7279 Treat any characters resulting from parameter expansion as being
7280 eligible for filename expansion and filename generation, and any
7281 characters resulting from command substitution as being eligible
7282 for filename generation. Braces (and commas in between) do not
7283 become eligible for expansion.
7284 HIST_SUBST_PATTERN
7286 Substitutions using the :s and :& history modifiers are per‐
7287 formed with pattern matching instead of string matching. This
7288 occurs wherever history modifiers are valid, including glob
7289 qualifiers and parameters. See the section Modifiers in zsh‐
7290 expn(1).
7291 IGNORE_BRACES (-I) <S>
7293 Do not perform brace expansion. For historical reasons this
7294 also includes the effect of the IGNORE_CLOSE_BRACES option.
7295 IGNORE_CLOSE_BRACES
7297 When neither this option nor IGNORE_BRACES is set, a sole close
7298 brace character `}' is syntactically significant at any point on
7299 a command line. This has the effect that no semicolon or new‐
7300 line is necessary before the brace terminating a function or
7301 current shell construct. When either option is set, a closing
7302 brace is syntactically significant only in command position.
7303 Unlike IGNORE_BRACES, this option does not disable brace expan‐
7304 sion.
7305 For example, with both options unset a function may be defined
7307 in the following fashion:
7308 args() { echo $# }
7310 while if either option is set, this does not work and something
7312 equivalent to the following is required:
7313 args() { echo $#; }
7315 KSH_GLOB <K>
7317 In pattern matching, the interpretation of parentheses is af‐
7318 fected by a preceding `@', `*', `+', `?' or `!'. See the sec‐
7319 tion `Filename Generation'.
7320 MAGIC_EQUAL_SUBST
7322 All unquoted arguments of the form `anything=expression' appear‐
7323 ing after the command name have filename expansion (that is,
7324 where expression has a leading `~' or `=') performed on expres‐
7325 sion as if it were a parameter assignment. The argument is not
7326 otherwise treated specially; it is passed to the command as a
7327 single argument, and not used as an actual parameter assignment.
7328 For example, in echo foo=~/bar:~/rod, both occurrences of ~
7329 would be replaced. Note that this happens anyway with typeset
7330 and similar statements.
7331 This option respects the setting of the KSH_TYPESET option. In
7333 other words, if both options are in effect, arguments looking
7334 like assignments will not undergo word splitting.
7335 MARK_DIRS (-8, ksh: -X)
7337 Append a trailing `/' to all directory names resulting from
7338 filename generation (globbing).
7339 MULTIBYTE <D>
7341 Respect multibyte characters when found in strings. When this
7342 option is set, strings are examined using the system library to
7343 determine how many bytes form a character, depending on the cur‐
7344 rent locale. This affects the way characters are counted in
7345 pattern matching, parameter values and various delimiters.
7346 The option is on by default if the shell was compiled with
7348 MULTIBYTE_SUPPORT; otherwise it is off by default and has no ef‐
7349 fect if turned on.
7350 If the option is off a single byte is always treated as a single
7352 character. This setting is designed purely for examining
7353 strings known to contain raw bytes or other values that may not
7354 be characters in the current locale. It is not necessary to un‐
7355 set the option merely because the character set for the current
7356 locale does not contain multibyte characters.
7357 The option does not affect the shell's editor, which always
7359 uses the locale to determine multibyte characters. This is be‐
7360 cause the character set displayed by the terminal emulator is
7361 independent of shell settings.
7362 NOMATCH (+3) <C> <Z>
7364 If a pattern for filename generation has no matches, print an
7365 error, instead of leaving it unchanged in the argument list.
7366 This also applies to file expansion of an initial `~' or `='.
7367 NULL_GLOB (-G)
7369 If a pattern for filename generation has no matches, delete the
7370 pattern from the argument list instead of reporting an error.
7371 Overrides NOMATCH.
7372 NUMERIC_GLOB_SORT
7374 If numeric filenames are matched by a filename generation pat‐
7375 tern, sort the filenames numerically rather than lexicographi‐
7376 cally.
7377 RC_EXPAND_PARAM (-P)
7379 Array expansions of the form `foo${xx}bar', where the parameter
7380 xx is set to (a b c), are substituted with `fooabar foobbar
7381 foocbar' instead of the default `fooa b cbar'. Note that an
7382 empty array will therefore cause all arguments to be removed.
7383 REMATCH_PCRE
7385 If set, regular expression matching with the =~ operator will
7386 use Perl-Compatible Regular Expressions from the PCRE library.
7387 (The zsh/pcre module must be available.) If not set, regular
7388 expressions will use the extended regexp syntax provided by the
7389 system libraries.
7390 SH_GLOB <K> <S>
7392 Disables the special meaning of `(', `|', `)' and '<' for glob‐
7393 bing the result of parameter and command substitutions, and in
7394 some other places where the shell accepts patterns. If SH_GLOB
7395 is set but KSH_GLOB is not, the shell allows the interpretation
7396 of subshell expressions enclosed in parentheses in some cases
7397 where there is no space before the opening parenthesis, e.g.
7398 !(true) is interpreted as if there were a space after the !.
7399 This option is set by default if zsh is invoked as sh or ksh.
7400 UNSET (+u, ksh: +u) <K> <S> <Z>
7402 Treat unset parameters as if they were empty when substituting,
7403 and as if they were zero when reading their values in arithmetic
7404 expansion and arithmetic commands. Otherwise they are treated
7405 as an error.
7406 WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL
7408 Print a warning message when a global parameter is created in a
7409 function by an assignment or in math context. This often indi‐
7410 cates that a parameter has not been declared local when it
7411 should have been. Parameters explicitly declared global from
7412 within a function using typeset -g do not cause a warning. Note
7413 that there is no warning when a local parameter is assigned to
7414 in a nested function, which may also indicate an error.
7415 WARN_NESTED_VAR
7417 Print a warning message when an existing parameter from an en‐
7418 closing function scope, or global, is set in a function by an
7419 assignment or in math context. Assignment to shell special pa‐
7420 rameters does not cause a warning. This is the companion to
7421 WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL as in this case the warning is only printed
7422 when a parameter is not created. Where possible, use of typeset
7423 -g to set the parameter suppresses the error, but note that this
7424 needs to be used every time the parameter is set. To restrict
7425 the effect of this option to a single function scope, use `func‐
7426 tions -W'.
7427 For example, the following code produces a warning for the as‐
7429 signment inside the function nested as that overrides the value
7430 within toplevel
7431 toplevel() {
7433 local foo="in fn"
7434 nested
7435 }
7436 nested() {
7437 foo="in nested"
7438 }
7439 setopt warn_nested_var
7440 toplevel
7441 History
7443 APPEND_HISTORY <D>
7444 If this is set, zsh sessions will append their history list to
7445 the history file, rather than replace it. Thus, multiple paral‐
7446 lel zsh sessions will all have the new entries from their his‐
7447 tory lists added to the history file, in the order that they
7448 exit. The file will still be periodically re-written to trim it
7449 when the number of lines grows 20% beyond the value specified by
7450 $SAVEHIST (see also the HIST_SAVE_BY_COPY option).
7451 BANG_HIST (+K) <C> <Z>
7453 Perform textual history expansion, csh-style, treating the char‐
7454 acter `!' specially.
7455 EXTENDED_HISTORY <C>
7457 Save each command's beginning timestamp (in seconds since the
7458 epoch) and the duration (in seconds) to the history file. The
7459 format of this prefixed data is:
7460 `: <beginning time>:<elapsed seconds>;<command>'.
7462 HIST_ALLOW_CLOBBER
7464 Add `|' to output redirections in the history. This allows his‐
7465 tory references to clobber files even when CLOBBER is unset.
7466 HIST_BEEP <D>
7468 Beep in ZLE when a widget attempts to access a history entry
7469 which isn't there.
7470 HIST_EXPIRE_DUPS_FIRST
7472 If the internal history needs to be trimmed to add the current
7473 command line, setting this option will cause the oldest history
7474 event that has a duplicate to be lost before losing a unique
7475 event from the list. You should be sure to set the value of
7476 HISTSIZE to a larger number than SAVEHIST in order to give you
7477 some room for the duplicated events, otherwise this option will
7478 behave just like HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS once the history fills up
7479 with unique events.
7480 HIST_FCNTL_LOCK
7482 When writing out the history file, by default zsh uses ad-hoc
7483 file locking to avoid known problems with locking on some oper‐
7484 ating systems. With this option locking is done by means of the
7485 system's fcntl call, where this method is available. On recent
7486 operating systems this may provide better performance, in par‐
7487 ticular avoiding history corruption when files are stored on
7488 NFS.
7489 HIST_FIND_NO_DUPS
7491 When searching for history entries in the line editor, do not
7492 display duplicates of a line previously found, even if the du‐
7493 plicates are not contiguous.
7494 HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS
7496 If a new command line being added to the history list duplicates
7497 an older one, the older command is removed from the list (even
7498 if it is not the previous event).
7499 HIST_IGNORE_DUPS (-h)
7501 Do not enter command lines into the history list if they are du‐
7502 plicates of the previous event.
7503 HIST_IGNORE_SPACE (-g)
7505 Remove command lines from the history list when the first char‐
7506 acter on the line is a space, or when one of the expanded
7507 aliases contains a leading space. Only normal aliases (not
7508 global or suffix aliases) have this behaviour. Note that the
7509 command lingers in the internal history until the next command
7510 is entered before it vanishes, allowing you to briefly reuse or
7511 edit the line. If you want to make it vanish right away without
7512 entering another command, type a space and press return.
7513 HIST_LEX_WORDS
7515 By default, shell history that is read in from files is split
7516 into words on all white space. This means that arguments with
7517 quoted whitespace are not correctly handled, with the conse‐
7518 quence that references to words in history lines that have been
7519 read from a file may be inaccurate. When this option is set,
7520 words read in from a history file are divided up in a similar
7521 fashion to normal shell command line handling. Although this
7522 produces more accurately delimited words, if the size of the
7523 history file is large this can be slow. Trial and error is nec‐
7524 essary to decide.
7525 HIST_NO_FUNCTIONS
7527 Remove function definitions from the history list. Note that
7528 the function lingers in the internal history until the next com‐
7529 mand is entered before it vanishes, allowing you to briefly re‐
7530 use or edit the definition.
7531 HIST_NO_STORE
7533 Remove the history (fc -l) command from the history list when
7534 invoked. Note that the command lingers in the internal history
7535 until the next command is entered before it vanishes, allowing
7536 you to briefly reuse or edit the line.
7537 HIST_REDUCE_BLANKS
7539 Remove superfluous blanks from each command line being added to
7540 the history list.
7541 HIST_SAVE_BY_COPY <D>
7543 When the history file is re-written, we normally write out a
7544 copy of the file named $HISTFILE.new and then rename it over the
7545 old one. However, if this option is unset, we instead truncate
7546 the old history file and write out the new version in-place. If
7547 one of the history-appending options is enabled, this option
7548 only has an effect when the enlarged history file needs to be
7549 re-written to trim it down to size. Disable this only if you
7550 have special needs, as doing so makes it possible to lose his‐
7551 tory entries if zsh gets interrupted during the save.
7552 When writing out a copy of the history file, zsh preserves the
7554 old file's permissions and group information, but will refuse to
7555 write out a new file if it would change the history file's
7556 owner.
7557 HIST_SAVE_NO_DUPS
7559 When writing out the history file, older commands that duplicate
7560 newer ones are omitted.
7561 HIST_VERIFY
7563 Whenever the user enters a line with history expansion, don't
7564 execute the line directly; instead, perform history expansion
7565 and reload the line into the editing buffer.
7566 INC_APPEND_HISTORY
7568 This option works like APPEND_HISTORY except that new history
7569 lines are added to the $HISTFILE incrementally (as soon as they
7570 are entered), rather than waiting until the shell exits. The
7571 file will still be periodically re-written to trim it when the
7572 number of lines grows 20% beyond the value specified by $SAVE‐
7573 HIST (see also the HIST_SAVE_BY_COPY option).
7574 INC_APPEND_HISTORY_TIME
7576 This option is a variant of INC_APPEND_HISTORY in which, where
7577 possible, the history entry is written out to the file after the
7578 command is finished, so that the time taken by the command is
7579 recorded correctly in the history file in EXTENDED_HISTORY for‐
7580 mat. This means that the history entry will not be available
7581 immediately from other instances of the shell that are using the
7582 same history file.
7583 This option is only useful if INC_APPEND_HISTORY and SHARE_HIS‐
7585 TORY are turned off. The three options should be considered mu‐
7586 tually exclusive.
7587 SHARE_HISTORY <K>
7589 This option both imports new commands from the history file, and
7591 also causes your typed commands to be appended to the history
7592 file (the latter is like specifying INC_APPEND_HISTORY, which
7593 should be turned off if this option is in effect). The history
7594 lines are also output with timestamps ala EXTENDED_HISTORY
7595 (which makes it easier to find the spot where we left off read‐
7596 ing the file after it gets re-written).
7597 By default, history movement commands visit the imported lines
7599 as well as the local lines, but you can toggle this on and off
7600 with the set-local-history zle binding. It is also possible to
7601 create a zle widget that will make some commands ignore imported
7602 commands, and some include them.
7603 If you find that you want more control over when commands get
7605 imported, you may wish to turn SHARE_HISTORY off, INC_AP‐
7606 PEND_HISTORY or INC_APPEND_HISTORY_TIME (see above) on, and then
7607 manually import commands whenever you need them using `fc -RI'.
7608 Initialisation
7610 ALL_EXPORT (-a, ksh: -a)
7611 All parameters subsequently defined are automatically exported.
7612 GLOBAL_EXPORT <Z>
7614 If this option is set, passing the -x flag to the builtins de‐
7615 clare, float, integer, readonly and typeset (but not local) will
7616 also set the -g flag; hence parameters exported to the environ‐
7617 ment will not be made local to the enclosing function, unless
7618 they were already or the flag +g is given explicitly. If the
7619 option is unset, exported parameters will be made local in just
7620 the same way as any other parameter.
7621 This option is set by default for backward compatibility; it is
7623 not recommended that its behaviour be relied upon. Note that
7624 the builtin export always sets both the -x and -g flags, and
7625 hence its effect extends beyond the scope of the enclosing func‐
7626 tion; this is the most portable way to achieve this behaviour.
7627 GLOBAL_RCS (-d) <D>
7629 If this option is unset, the startup files /etc/zprofile,
7630 /etc/zshrc, /etc/zlogin and /etc/zlogout will not be run. It
7631 can be disabled and re-enabled at any time, including inside lo‐
7632 cal startup files (.zshrc, etc.).
7633 RCS (+f) <D>
7635 After /etc/zshenv is sourced on startup, source the .zshenv,
7636 /etc/zprofile, .zprofile, /etc/zshrc, .zshrc, /etc/zlogin, .zlo‐
7637 gin, and .zlogout files, as described in the section `Files'.
7638 If this option is unset, the /etc/zshenv file is still sourced,
7639 but any of the others will not be; it can be set at any time to
7640 prevent the remaining startup files after the currently execut‐
7641 ing one from being sourced.
7642 Input/Output
7644 ALIASES <D>
7645 Expand aliases.
7646 CLOBBER (+C, ksh: +C) <D>
7648 Allows `>' redirection to truncate existing files. Otherwise
7649 `>!' or `>|' must be used to truncate a file.
7650 If the option is not set, and the option APPEND_CREATE is also
7652 not set, `>>!' or `>>|' must be used to create a file. If ei‐
7653 ther option is set, `>>' may be used.
7654 CORRECT (-0)
7656 Try to correct the spelling of commands. Note that, when the
7657 HASH_LIST_ALL option is not set or when some directories in the
7658 path are not readable, this may falsely report spelling errors
7659 the first time some commands are used.
7660 The shell variable CORRECT_IGNORE may be set to a pattern to
7662 match words that will never be offered as corrections.
7663 CORRECT_ALL (-O)
7665 Try to correct the spelling of all arguments in a line.
7666 The shell variable CORRECT_IGNORE_FILE may be set to a pattern
7668 to match file names that will never be offered as corrections.
7669 DVORAK Use the Dvorak keyboard instead of the standard qwerty keyboard
7671 as a basis for examining spelling mistakes for the CORRECT and
7672 CORRECT_ALL options and the spell-word editor command.
7673 FLOW_CONTROL <D>
7675 If this option is unset, output flow control via start/stop
7676 characters (usually assigned to ^S/^Q) is disabled in the
7677 shell's editor.
7678 IGNORE_EOF (-7)
7680 Do not exit on end-of-file. Require the use of exit or logout
7681 instead. However, ten consecutive EOFs will cause the shell to
7682 exit anyway, to avoid the shell hanging if its tty goes away.
7683 Also, if this option is set and the Zsh Line Editor is used,
7685 widgets implemented by shell functions can be bound to EOF (nor‐
7686 mally Control-D) without printing the normal warning message.
7687 This works only for normal widgets, not for completion widgets.
7688 INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS (-k) <K> <S>
7690 Allow comments even in interactive shells.
7691 HASH_CMDS <D>
7693 Note the location of each command the first time it is executed.
7694 Subsequent invocations of the same command will use the saved
7695 location, avoiding a path search. If this option is unset, no
7696 path hashing is done at all. However, when CORRECT is set, com‐
7697 mands whose names do not appear in the functions or aliases hash
7698 tables are hashed in order to avoid reporting them as spelling
7699 errors.
7700 HASH_DIRS <D>
7702 Whenever a command name is hashed, hash the directory containing
7703 it, as well as all directories that occur earlier in the path.
7704 Has no effect if neither HASH_CMDS nor CORRECT is set.
7705 HASH_EXECUTABLES_ONLY
7707 When hashing commands because of HASH_CMDS, check that the file
7708 to be hashed is actually an executable. This option is unset by
7709 default as if the path contains a large number of commands, or
7710 consists of many remote files, the additional tests can take a
7711 long time. Trial and error is needed to show if this option is
7712 beneficial.
7713 MAIL_WARNING (-U)
7715 Print a warning message if a mail file has been accessed since
7716 the shell last checked.
7717 PATH_DIRS (-Q)
7719 Perform a path search even on command names with slashes in
7720 them. Thus if `/usr/local/bin' is in the user's path, and he or
7721 she types `X11/xinit', the command `/usr/local/bin/X11/xinit'
7722 will be executed (assuming it exists). Commands explicitly be‐
7723 ginning with `/', `./' or `../' are not subject to the path
7724 search. This also applies to the `.' and source builtins.
7725 Note that subdirectories of the current directory are always
7727 searched for executables specified in this form. This takes
7728 place before any search indicated by this option, and regardless
7729 of whether `.' or the current directory appear in the command
7730 search path.
7731 PATH_SCRIPT <K> <S>
7733 If this option is not set, a script passed as the first non-op‐
7734 tion argument to the shell must contain the name of the file to
7735 open. If this option is set, and the script does not specify a
7736 directory path, the script is looked for first in the current
7737 directory, then in the command path. See the section INVOCATION
7738 in zsh(1).
7739 PRINT_EIGHT_BIT
7741 Print eight bit characters literally in completion lists, etc.
7742 This option is not necessary if your system correctly returns
7743 the printability of eight bit characters (see ctype(3)).
7744 PRINT_EXIT_VALUE (-1)
7746 Print the exit value of programs with non-zero exit status.
7747 This is only available at the command line in interactive
7748 shells.
7749 RC_QUOTES
7751 Allow the character sequence `''' to signify a single quote
7752 within singly quoted strings. Note this does not apply in
7753 quoted strings using the format $'...', where a backslashed sin‐
7754 gle quote can be used.
7755 RM_STAR_SILENT (-H) <K> <S>
7757 Do not query the user before executing `rm *' or `rm path/*'.
7758 RM_STAR_WAIT
7760 If querying the user before executing `rm *' or `rm path/*',
7761 first wait ten seconds and ignore anything typed in that time.
7762 This avoids the problem of reflexively answering `yes' to the
7763 query when one didn't really mean it. The wait and query can
7764 always be avoided by expanding the `*' in ZLE (with tab).
7765 SHORT_LOOPS <C> <Z>
7767 Allow the short forms of for, repeat, select, if, and function
7768 constructs.
7769 SUN_KEYBOARD_HACK (-L)
7771 If a line ends with a backquote, and there are an odd number of
7772 backquotes on the line, ignore the trailing backquote. This is
7773 useful on some keyboards where the return key is too small, and
7774 the backquote key lies annoyingly close to it. As an alterna‐
7775 tive the variable KEYBOARD_HACK lets you choose the character to
7776 be removed.
7777 Job Control
7779 AUTO_CONTINUE
7780 With this option set, stopped jobs that are removed from the job
7781 table with the disown builtin command are automatically sent a
7782 CONT signal to make them running.
7783 AUTO_RESUME (-W)
7785 Treat single word simple commands without redirection as candi‐
7786 dates for resumption of an existing job.
7787 BG_NICE (-6) <C> <Z>
7789 Run all background jobs at a lower priority. This option is set
7790 by default.
7791 CHECK_JOBS <Z>
7793 Report the status of background and suspended jobs before exit‐
7794 ing a shell with job control; a second attempt to exit the shell
7795 will succeed. NO_CHECK_JOBS is best used only in combination
7796 with NO_HUP, else such jobs will be killed automatically.
7797 The check is omitted if the commands run from the previous com‐
7799 mand line included a `jobs' command, since it is assumed the
7800 user is aware that there are background or suspended jobs. A
7801 `jobs' command run from one of the hook functions defined in the
7802 section SPECIAL FUNCTIONS in zshmisc(1) is not counted for this
7803 purpose.
7804 CHECK_RUNNING_JOBS <Z>
7806 Check for both running and suspended jobs when CHECK_JOBS is en‐
7807 abled. When this option is disabled, zsh checks only for sus‐
7808 pended jobs, which matches the default behavior of bash.
7809 This option has no effect unless CHECK_JOBS is set.
7811 HUP <Z>
7813 Send the HUP signal to running jobs when the shell exits.
7814 LONG_LIST_JOBS (-R)
7816 Print job notifications in the long format by default.
7817 MONITOR (-m, ksh: -m)
7819 Allow job control. Set by default in interactive shells.
7820 NOTIFY (-5, ksh: -b) <Z>
7822 Report the status of background jobs immediately, rather than
7823 waiting until just before printing a prompt.
7824 POSIX_JOBS <K> <S>
7826 This option makes job control more compliant with the POSIX
7827 standard.
7828 When the option is not set, the MONITOR option is unset on entry
7830 to subshells, so that job control is no longer active. When the
7831 option is set, the MONITOR option and job control remain active
7832 in the subshell, but note that the subshell has no access to
7833 jobs in the parent shell.
7834 When the option is not set, jobs put in the background or fore‐
7836 ground with bg or fg are displayed with the same information
7837 that would be reported by jobs. When the option is set, only
7838 the text is printed. The output from jobs itself is not af‐
7839 fected by the option.
7840 When the option is not set, job information from the parent
7842 shell is saved for output within a subshell (for example, within
7843 a pipeline). When the option is set, the output of jobs is
7844 empty until a job is started within the subshell.
7845 In previous versions of the shell, it was necessary to enable
7847 POSIX_JOBS in order for the builtin command wait to return the
7848 status of background jobs that had already exited. This is no
7849 longer the case.
7850 Prompting
7852 PROMPT_BANG <K>
7853 If set, `!' is treated specially in prompt expansion. See EX‐
7854 PANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1).
7855 PROMPT_CR (+V) <D>
7857 Print a carriage return just before printing a prompt in the
7858 line editor. This is on by default as multi-line editing is
7859 only possible if the editor knows where the start of the line
7860 appears.
7861 PROMPT_SP <D>
7863 Attempt to preserve a partial line (i.e. a line that did not end
7864 with a newline) that would otherwise be covered up by the com‐
7865 mand prompt due to the PROMPT_CR option. This works by out‐
7866 putting some cursor-control characters, including a series of
7867 spaces, that should make the terminal wrap to the next line when
7868 a partial line is present (note that this is only successful if
7869 your terminal has automatic margins, which is typical).
7870 When a partial line is preserved, by default you will see an in‐
7872 verse+bold character at the end of the partial line: a `%' for
7873 a normal user or a `#' for root. If set, the shell parameter
7874 PROMPT_EOL_MARK can be used to customize how the end of partial
7875 lines are shown.
7876 NOTE: if the PROMPT_CR option is not set, enabling this option
7878 will have no effect. This option is on by default.
7879 PROMPT_PERCENT <C> <Z>
7881 If set, `%' is treated specially in prompt expansion. See EX‐
7882 PANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1).
7883 PROMPT_SUBST <K> <S>
7885 If set, parameter expansion, command substitution and arithmetic
7886 expansion are performed in prompts. Substitutions within
7887 prompts do not affect the command status.
7888 TRANSIENT_RPROMPT
7890 Remove any right prompt from display when accepting a command
7891 line. This may be useful with terminals with other cut/paste
7892 methods.
7893 Scripts and Functions
7895 ALIAS_FUNC_DEF <S>
7896 By default, zsh does not allow the definition of functions using
7897 the `name ()' syntax if name was expanded as an alias: this
7898 causes an error. This is usually the desired behaviour, as oth‐
7899 erwise the combination of an alias and a function based on the
7900 same definition can easily cause problems.
7901 When this option is set, aliases can be used for defining func‐
7903 tions.
7904 For example, consider the following definitions as they might
7906 occur in a startup file.
7907 alias foo=bar
7909 foo() {
7910 print This probably does not do what you expect.
7911 }
7912 Here, foo is expanded as an alias to bar before the () is en‐
7914 countered, so the function defined would be named bar. By de‐
7915 fault this is instead an error in native mode. Note that quot‐
7916 ing any part of the function name, or using the keyword func‐
7917 tion, avoids the problem, so is recommended when the function
7918 name can also be an alias.
7919 C_BASES
7921 Output hexadecimal numbers in the standard C format, for example
7922 `0xFF' instead of the usual `16#FF'. If the option OCTAL_ZEROES
7923 is also set (it is not by default), octal numbers will be
7924 treated similarly and hence appear as `077' instead of `8#77'.
7925 This option has no effect on the choice of the output base, nor
7926 on the output of bases other than hexadecimal and octal. Note
7927 that these formats will be understood on input irrespective of
7928 the setting of C_BASES.
7929 C_PRECEDENCES
7931 This alters the precedence of arithmetic operators to be more
7932 like C and other programming languages; the section ARITHMETIC
7933 EVALUATION in zshmisc(1) has an explicit list.
7934 DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD <D>
7936 Run the DEBUG trap before each command; otherwise it is run af‐
7937 ter each command. Setting this option mimics the behaviour of
7938 ksh 93; with the option unset the behaviour is that of ksh 88.
7939 ERR_EXIT (-e, ksh: -e)
7941 If a command has a non-zero exit status, execute the ZERR trap,
7942 if set, and exit. This is disabled while running initialization
7943 scripts.
7944 The behaviour is also disabled inside DEBUG traps. In this case
7946 the option is handled specially: it is unset on entry to the
7947 trap. If the option DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD is set, as it is by de‐
7948 fault, and the option ERR_EXIT is found to have been set on
7949 exit, then the command for which the DEBUG trap is being exe‐
7950 cuted is skipped. The option is restored after the trap exits.
7951 Non-zero status in a command list containing && or || is ignored
7953 for commands not at the end of the list. Hence
7954 false && true
7956 does not trigger exit.
7958 Exiting due to ERR_EXIT has certain interactions with asynchro‐
7960 nous jobs noted in the section JOBS in zshmisc(1).
7961 ERR_RETURN
7963 If a command has a non-zero exit status, return immediately from
7964 the enclosing function. The logic is similar to that for
7965 ERR_EXIT, except that an implicit return statement is executed
7966 instead of an exit. This will trigger an exit at the outermost
7967 level of a non-interactive script.
7968 Normally this option inherits the behaviour of ERR_EXIT that
7970 code followed by `&&' `||' does not trigger a return. Hence in
7971 the following:
7972 summit || true
7974 no return is forced as the combined effect always has a zero re‐
7976 turn status.
7977 Note. however, that if summit in the above example is itself a
7979 function, code inside it is considered separately: it may force
7980 a return from summit (assuming the option remains set within
7981 summit), but not from the enclosing context. This behaviour is
7982 different from ERR_EXIT which is unaffected by function scope.
7983 EVAL_LINENO <Z>
7985 If set, line numbers of expressions evaluated using the builtin
7986 eval are tracked separately of the enclosing environment. This
7987 applies both to the parameter LINENO and the line number output
7988 by the prompt escape %i. If the option is set, the prompt es‐
7989 cape %N will output the string `(eval)' instead of the script or
7990 function name as an indication. (The two prompt escapes are
7991 typically used in the parameter PS4 to be output when the option
7992 XTRACE is set.) If EVAL_LINENO is unset, the line number of the
7993 surrounding script or function is retained during the evalua‐
7994 tion.
7995 EXEC (+n, ksh: +n) <D>
7997 Do execute commands. Without this option, commands are read and
7998 checked for syntax errors, but not executed. This option cannot
7999 be turned off in an interactive shell, except when `-n' is sup‐
8000 plied to the shell at startup.
8001 FUNCTION_ARGZERO <C> <Z>
8003 When executing a shell function or sourcing a script, set $0
8004 temporarily to the name of the function/script. Note that tog‐
8005 gling FUNCTION_ARGZERO from on to off (or off to on) does not
8006 change the current value of $0. Only the state upon entry to
8007 the function or script has an effect. Compare POSIX_ARGZERO.
8008 LOCAL_LOOPS
8010 When this option is not set, the effect of break and continue
8011 commands may propagate outside function scope, affecting loops
8012 in calling functions. When the option is set in a calling func‐
8013 tion, a break or a continue that is not caught within a called
8014 function (regardless of the setting of the option within that
8015 function) produces a warning and the effect is cancelled.
8016 LOCAL_OPTIONS <K>
8018 If this option is set at the point of return from a shell func‐
8019 tion, most options (including this one) which were in force upon
8020 entry to the function are restored; options that are not re‐
8021 stored are PRIVILEGED and RESTRICTED. Otherwise, only this op‐
8022 tion, and the LOCAL_LOOPS, XTRACE and PRINT_EXIT_VALUE options
8023 are restored. Hence if this is explicitly unset by a shell
8024 function the other options in force at the point of return will
8025 remain so. A shell function can also guarantee itself a known
8026 shell configuration with a formulation like `emulate -L zsh';
8027 the -L activates LOCAL_OPTIONS.
8028 LOCAL_PATTERNS
8030 If this option is set at the point of return from a shell func‐
8031 tion, the state of pattern disables, as set with the builtin
8032 command `disable -p', is restored to what it was when the func‐
8033 tion was entered. The behaviour of this option is similar to
8034 the effect of LOCAL_OPTIONS on options; hence `emulate -L sh'
8035 (or indeed any other emulation with the -L option) activates LO‐
8036 CAL_PATTERNS.
8037 LOCAL_TRAPS <K>
8039 If this option is set when a signal trap is set inside a func‐
8040 tion, then the previous status of the trap for that signal will
8041 be restored when the function exits. Note that this option must
8042 be set prior to altering the trap behaviour in a function; un‐
8043 like LOCAL_OPTIONS, the value on exit from the function is ir‐
8044 relevant. However, it does not need to be set before any global
8045 trap for that to be correctly restored by a function. For exam‐
8046 ple,
8047 unsetopt localtraps
8049 trap - INT
8050 fn() { setopt localtraps; trap '' INT; sleep 3; }
8051 will restore normal handling of SIGINT after the function exits.
8053 MULTI_FUNC_DEF <Z>
8055 Allow definitions of multiple functions at once in the form `fn1
8056 fn2...()'; if the option is not set, this causes a parse error.
8057 Definition of multiple functions with the function keyword is
8058 always allowed. Multiple function definitions are not often
8059 used and can cause obscure errors.
8060 MULTIOS <Z>
8062 Perform implicit tees or cats when multiple redirections are at‐
8063 tempted (see the section `Redirection').
8064 OCTAL_ZEROES <S>
8066 Interpret any integer constant beginning with a 0 as octal, per
8067 IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 (ISO 9945-2:1993). This is not enabled by
8068 default as it causes problems with parsing of, for example, date
8069 and time strings with leading zeroes.
8070 Sequences of digits indicating a numeric base such as the `08'
8072 component in `08#77' are always interpreted as decimal, regard‐
8073 less of leading zeroes.
8074 PIPE_FAIL
8076 By default, when a pipeline exits the exit status recorded by
8077 the shell and returned by the shell variable $? reflects that of
8078 the rightmost element of a pipeline. If this option is set, the
8079 exit status instead reflects the status of the rightmost element
8080 of the pipeline that was non-zero, or zero if all elements ex‐
8081 ited with zero status.
8082 SOURCE_TRACE
8084 If set, zsh will print an informational message announcing the
8085 name of each file it loads. The format of the output is similar
8086 to that for the XTRACE option, with the message <sourcetrace>.
8087 A file may be loaded by the shell itself when it starts up and
8088 shuts down (Startup/Shutdown Files) or by the use of the
8089 `source' and `dot' builtin commands.
8090 TYPESET_SILENT
8092 If this is unset, executing any of the `typeset' family of com‐
8093 mands with no options and a list of parameters that have no val‐
8094 ues to be assigned but already exist will display the value of
8095 the parameter. If the option is set, they will only be shown
8096 when parameters are selected with the `-m' option. The option
8097 `-p' is available whether or not the option is set.
8098 VERBOSE (-v, ksh: -v)
8100 Print shell input lines as they are read.
8101 XTRACE (-x, ksh: -x)
8103 Print commands and their arguments as they are executed. The
8104 output is preceded by the value of $PS4, formatted as described
8105 in the section EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1).
8106 Shell Emulation
8108 APPEND_CREATE <K> <S>
8109 This option only applies when NO_CLOBBER (-C) is in effect.
8110 If this option is not set, the shell will report an error when a
8112 append redirection (>>) is used on a file that does not already
8113 exists (the traditional zsh behaviour of NO_CLOBBER). If the
8114 option is set, no error is reported (POSIX behaviour).
8115 BASH_REMATCH
8117 When set, matches performed with the =~ operator will set the
8118 BASH_REMATCH array variable, instead of the default MATCH and
8119 match variables. The first element of the BASH_REMATCH array
8120 will contain the entire matched text and subsequent elements
8121 will contain extracted substrings. This option makes more sense
8122 when KSH_ARRAYS is also set, so that the entire matched portion
8123 is stored at index 0 and the first substring is at index 1.
8124 Without this option, the MATCH variable contains the entire
8125 matched text and the match array variable contains substrings.
8126 BSD_ECHO <S>
8128 Make the echo builtin compatible with the BSD echo(1) command.
8129 This disables backslashed escape sequences in echo strings un‐
8130 less the -e option is specified.
8131 CONTINUE_ON_ERROR
8133 If a fatal error is encountered (see the section ERRORS in zsh‐
8134 misc(1)), and the code is running in a script, the shell will
8135 resume execution at the next statement in the script at the top
8136 level, in other words outside all functions or shell constructs
8137 such as loops and conditions. This mimics the behaviour of in‐
8138 teractive shells, where the shell returns to the line editor to
8139 read a new command; it was the normal behaviour in versions of
8140 zsh before 5.0.1.
8141 CSH_JUNKIE_HISTORY <C>
8143 A history reference without an event specifier will always refer
8144 to the previous command. Without this option, such a history
8145 reference refers to the same event as the previous history ref‐
8146 erence on the current command line, defaulting to the previous
8147 command.
8148 CSH_JUNKIE_LOOPS <C>
8150 Allow loop bodies to take the form `list; end' instead of `do
8151 list; done'.
8152 CSH_JUNKIE_QUOTES <C>
8154 Changes the rules for single- and double-quoted text to match
8155 that of csh. These require that embedded newlines be preceded
8156 by a backslash; unescaped newlines will cause an error message.
8157 In double-quoted strings, it is made impossible to escape `$',
8158 ``' or `"' (and `\' itself no longer needs escaping). Command
8159 substitutions are only expanded once, and cannot be nested.
8160 CSH_NULLCMD <C>
8162 Do not use the values of NULLCMD and READNULLCMD when running
8163 redirections with no command. This make such redirections fail
8164 (see the section `Redirection').
8165 KSH_ARRAYS <K> <S>
8167 Emulate ksh array handling as closely as possible. If this op‐
8168 tion is set, array elements are numbered from zero, an array pa‐
8169 rameter without subscript refers to the first element instead of
8170 the whole array, and braces are required to delimit a subscript
8171 (`${path[2]}' rather than just `$path[2]') or to apply modifiers
8172 to any parameter (`${PWD:h}' rather than `$PWD:h').
8173 KSH_AUTOLOAD <K> <S>
8175 Emulate ksh function autoloading. This means that when a func‐
8176 tion is autoloaded, the corresponding file is merely executed,
8177 and must define the function itself. (By default, the function
8178 is defined to the contents of the file. However, the most com‐
8179 mon ksh-style case - of the file containing only a simple defi‐
8180 nition of the function - is always handled in the ksh-compatible
8181 manner.)
8182 KSH_OPTION_PRINT <K>
8184 Alters the way options settings are printed: instead of separate
8185 lists of set and unset options, all options are shown, marked
8186 `on' if they are in the non-default state, `off' otherwise.
8187 KSH_TYPESET
8189 This option is now obsolete: a better appropximation to the be‐
8190 haviour of other shells is obtained with the reserved word in‐
8191 terface to declare, export, float, integer, local, readonly and
8192 typeset. Note that the option is only applied when the reserved
8193 word interface is not in use.
8194 Alters the way arguments to the typeset family of commands, in‐
8196 cluding declare, export, float, integer, local and readonly, are
8197 processed. Without this option, zsh will perform normal word
8198 splitting after command and parameter expansion in arguments of
8199 an assignment; with it, word splitting does not take place in
8200 those cases.
8201 KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT
8203 Treat use of a subscript of value zero in array or string ex‐
8204 pressions as a reference to the first element, i.e. the element
8205 that usually has the subscript 1. Ignored if KSH_ARRAYS is also
8206 set.
8207 If neither this option nor KSH_ARRAYS is set, accesses to an el‐
8209 ement of an array or string with subscript zero return an empty
8210 element or string, while attempts to set element zero of an ar‐
8211 ray or string are treated as an error. However, attempts to set
8212 an otherwise valid subscript range that includes zero will suc‐
8213 ceed. For example, if KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT is not set,
8214 array[0]=(element)
8216 is an error, while
8218 array[0,1]=(element)
8220 is not and will replace the first element of the array.
8222 This option is for compatibility with older versions of the
8224 shell and is not recommended in new code.
8225 POSIX_ALIASES <K> <S>
8227 When this option is set, reserved words are not candidates for
8228 alias expansion: it is still possible to declare any of them as
8229 an alias, but the alias will never be expanded. Reserved words
8230 are described in the section RESERVED WORDS in zshmisc(1).
8231 Alias expansion takes place while text is being read; hence when
8233 this option is set it does not take effect until the end of any
8234 function or other piece of shell code parsed as one unit. Note
8235 this may cause differences from other shells even when the op‐
8236 tion is in effect. For example, when running a command with
8237 `zsh -c', or even `zsh -o posixaliases -c', the entire command
8238 argument is parsed as one unit, so aliases defined within the
8239 argument are not available even in later lines. If in doubt,
8240 avoid use of aliases in non-interactive code.
8241 POSIX_ARGZERO
8243 This option may be used to temporarily disable FUNCTION_ARGZERO
8244 and thereby restore the value of $0 to the name used to invoke
8245 the shell (or as set by the -c command line option). For com‐
8246 patibility with previous versions of the shell, emulations use
8247 NO_FUNCTION_ARGZERO instead of POSIX_ARGZERO, which may result
8248 in unexpected scoping of $0 if the emulation mode is changed in‐
8249 side a function or script. To avoid this, explicitly enable
8250 POSIX_ARGZERO in the emulate command:
8251 emulate sh -o POSIX_ARGZERO
8253 Note that NO_POSIX_ARGZERO has no effect unless FUNCTION_ARGZERO
8255 was already enabled upon entry to the function or script.
8256 POSIX_BUILTINS <K> <S>
8258 When this option is set the command builtin can be used to exe‐
8259 cute shell builtin commands. Parameter assignments specified
8260 before shell functions and special builtins are kept after the
8261 command completes unless the special builtin is prefixed with
8262 the command builtin. Special builtins are ., :, break, con‐
8263 tinue, declare, eval, exit, export, integer, local, readonly,
8264 return, set, shift, source, times, trap and unset.
8265 In addition, various error conditions associated with the above
8267 builtins or exec cause a non-interactive shell to exit and an
8268 interactive shell to return to its top-level processing.
8269 Furthermore, functions and shell builtins are not executed after
8271 an exec prefix; the command to be executed must be an external
8272 command found in the path.
8273 Furthermore, the getopts builtin behaves in a POSIX-compatible
8275 fashion in that the associated variable OPTIND is not made local
8276 to functions.
8277 Moreover, the warning and special exit code from [[ -o non_exis‐
8279 tent_option ]] are suppressed.
8280 POSIX_IDENTIFIERS <K> <S>
8282 When this option is set, only the ASCII characters a to z, A to
8283 Z, 0 to 9 and _ may be used in identifiers (names of shell pa‐
8284 rameters and modules).
8285 In addition, setting this option limits the effect of parameter
8287 substitution with no braces, so that the expression $# is
8288 treated as the parameter $# even if followed by a valid parame‐
8289 ter name. When it is unset, zsh allows expressions of the form
8290 $#name to refer to the length of $name, even for special vari‐
8291 ables, for example in expressions such as $#- and $#*.
8292 Another difference is that with the option set assignment to an
8294 unset variable in arithmetic context causes the variable to be
8295 created as a scalar rather than a numeric type. So after `unset
8296 t; (( t = 3 ))'. without POSIX_IDENTIFIERS set t has integer
8297 type, while with it set it has scalar type.
8298 When the option is unset and multibyte character support is en‐
8300 abled (i.e. it is compiled in and the option MULTIBYTE is set),
8301 then additionally any alphanumeric characters in the local char‐
8302 acter set may be used in identifiers. Note that scripts and
8303 functions written with this feature are not portable, and also
8304 that both options must be set before the script or function is
8305 parsed; setting them during execution is not sufficient as the
8306 syntax variable=value has already been parsed as a command
8307 rather than an assignment.
8308 If multibyte character support is not compiled into the shell
8310 this option is ignored; all octets with the top bit set may be
8311 used in identifiers. This is non-standard but is the tradi‐
8312 tional zsh behaviour.
8313 POSIX_STRINGS <K> <S>
8315 This option affects processing of quoted strings. Currently it
8316 only affects the behaviour of null characters, i.e. character 0
8317 in the portable character set corresponding to US ASCII.
8318 When this option is not set, null characters embedded within
8320 strings of the form $'...' are treated as ordinary characters.
8321 The entire string is maintained within the shell and output to
8322 files where necessary, although owing to restrictions of the li‐
8323 brary interface the string is truncated at the null character in
8324 file names, environment variables, or in arguments to external
8325 programs.
8326 When this option is set, the $'...' expression is truncated at
8328 the null character. Note that remaining parts of the same
8329 string beyond the termination of the quotes are not truncated.
8330 For example, the command line argument a$'b\0c'd is treated with
8332 the option off as the characters a, b, null, c, d, and with the
8333 option on as the characters a, b, d.
8334 POSIX_TRAPS <K> <S>
8336 When this option is set, the usual zsh behaviour of executing
8337 traps for EXIT on exit from shell functions is suppressed. In
8338 that case, manipulating EXIT traps always alters the global trap
8339 for exiting the shell; the LOCAL_TRAPS option is ignored for the
8340 EXIT trap. Furthermore, a return statement executed in a trap
8341 with no argument passes back from the function the value from
8342 the surrounding context, not from code executed within the trap.
8343 SH_FILE_EXPANSION <K> <S>
8345 Perform filename expansion (e.g., ~ expansion) before parameter
8346 expansion, command substitution, arithmetic expansion and brace
8347 expansion. If this option is unset, it is performed after brace
8348 expansion, so things like `~$USERNAME' and `~{pfalstad,rc}' will
8349 work.
8350 SH_NULLCMD <K> <S>
8352 Do not use the values of NULLCMD and READNULLCMD when doing
8353 redirections, use `:' instead (see the section `Redirection').
8354 SH_OPTION_LETTERS <K> <S>
8356 If this option is set the shell tries to interpret single letter
8357 options (which are used with set and setopt) like ksh does.
8358 This also affects the value of the - special parameter.
8359 SH_WORD_SPLIT (-y) <K> <S>
8361 Causes field splitting to be performed on unquoted parameter ex‐
8362 pansions. Note that this option has nothing to do with word
8363 splitting. (See zshexpn(1).)
8364 TRAPS_ASYNC
8366 While waiting for a program to exit, handle signals and run
8367 traps immediately. Otherwise the trap is run after a child
8368 process has exited. Note this does not affect the point at
8369 which traps are run for any case other than when the shell is
8370 waiting for a child process.
8371 Shell State
8373 INTERACTIVE (-i, ksh: -i)
8374 This is an interactive shell. This option is set upon initiali‐
8375 sation if the standard input is a tty and commands are being
8376 read from standard input. (See the discussion of SHIN_STDIN.)
8377 This heuristic may be overridden by specifying a state for this
8378 option on the command line. The value of this option can only
8379 be changed via flags supplied at invocation of the shell. It
8380 cannot be changed once zsh is running.
8381 LOGIN (-l, ksh: -l)
8383 This is a login shell. If this option is not explicitly set,
8384 the shell becomes a login shell if the first character of the
8385 argv[0] passed to the shell is a `-'.
8386 PRIVILEGED (-p, ksh: -p)
8388 Turn on privileged mode. Typically this is used when script is
8389 to be run with elevated privileges. This should be done as fol‐
8390 lows directly with the -p option to zsh so that it takes effect
8391 during startup.
8392 #!/bin/zsh -p
8394 The option is enabled automatically on startup if the effective
8396 user (group) ID is not equal to the real user (group) ID. In
8397 this case, turning the option off causes the effective user and
8398 group IDs to be set to the real user and group IDs. Be aware
8399 that if that fails the shell may be running with different IDs
8400 than was intended so a script should check for failure and act
8401 accordingly, for example:
8402 unsetopt privileged || exit
8404 The PRIVILEGED option disables sourcing user startup files. If
8406 zsh is invoked as `sh' or `ksh' with this option set,
8407 /etc/suid_profile is sourced (after /etc/profile on interactive
8408 shells). Sourcing ~/.profile is disabled and the contents of the
8409 ENV variable is ignored. This option cannot be changed using the
8410 -m option of setopt and unsetopt, and changing it inside a func‐
8411 tion always changes it globally regardless of the LOCAL_OPTIONS
8412 option.
8413 RESTRICTED (-r)
8415 Enables restricted mode. This option cannot be changed using
8416 unsetopt, and setting it inside a function always changes it
8417 globally regardless of the LOCAL_OPTIONS option. See the sec‐
8418 tion `Restricted Shell'.
8419 SHIN_STDIN (-s, ksh: -s)
8421 Commands are being read from the standard input. Commands are
8422 read from standard input if no command is specified with -c and
8423 no file of commands is specified. If SHIN_STDIN is set explic‐
8424 itly on the command line, any argument that would otherwise have
8425 been taken as a file to run will instead be treated as a normal
8426 positional parameter. Note that setting or unsetting this op‐
8427 tion on the command line does not necessarily affect the state
8428 the option will have while the shell is running - that is purely
8429 an indicator of whether or not commands are actually being read
8430 from standard input. The value of this option can only be
8431 changed via flags supplied at invocation of the shell. It can‐
8432 not be changed once zsh is running.
8433 SINGLE_COMMAND (-t, ksh: -t)
8435 If the shell is reading from standard input, it exits after a
8436 single command has been executed. This also makes the shell
8437 non-interactive, unless the INTERACTIVE option is explicitly set
8438 on the command line. The value of this option can only be
8439 changed via flags supplied at invocation of the shell. It can‐
8440 not be changed once zsh is running.
8441 Zle
8443 BEEP (+B) <D>
8444 Beep on error in ZLE.
8445 COMBINING_CHARS
8447 Assume that the terminal displays combining characters cor‐
8448 rectly. Specifically, if a base alphanumeric character is fol‐
8449 lowed by one or more zero-width punctuation characters, assume
8450 that the zero-width characters will be displayed as modifica‐
8451 tions to the base character within the same width. Not all ter‐
8452 minals handle this. If this option is not set, zero-width char‐
8453 acters are displayed separately with special mark-up.
8454 If this option is set, the pattern test [[:WORD:]] matches a
8456 zero-width punctuation character on the assumption that it will
8457 be used as part of a word in combination with a word character.
8458 Otherwise the base shell does not handle combining characters
8459 specially.
8460 EMACS If ZLE is loaded, turning on this option has the equivalent ef‐
8462 fect of `bindkey -e'. In addition, the VI option is unset.
8463 Turning it off has no effect. The option setting is not guaran‐
8464 teed to reflect the current keymap. This option is provided for
8465 compatibility; bindkey is the recommended interface.
8466 OVERSTRIKE
8468 Start up the line editor in overstrike mode.
8469 SINGLE_LINE_ZLE (-M) <K>
8471 Use single-line command line editing instead of multi-line.
8472 Note that although this is on by default in ksh emulation it
8474 only provides superficial compatibility with the ksh line editor
8475 and reduces the effectiveness of the zsh line editor. As it has
8476 no effect on shell syntax, many users may wish to disable this
8477 option when using ksh emulation interactively.
8478 VI If ZLE is loaded, turning on this option has the equivalent ef‐
8480 fect of `bindkey -v'. In addition, the EMACS option is unset.
8481 Turning it off has no effect. The option setting is not guaran‐
8482 teed to reflect the current keymap. This option is provided for
8483 compatibility; bindkey is the recommended interface.
8484 ZLE (-Z)
8486 Use the zsh line editor. Set by default in interactive shells
8487 connected to a terminal.
8488
8490 Some options have alternative names. These aliases are never used for
8491 output, but can be used just like normal option names when specifying
8492 options to the shell.
8493 BRACE_EXPAND
8495 NO_IGNORE_BRACES (ksh and bash compatibility)
8496 DOT_GLOB
8498 GLOB_DOTS (bash compatibility)
8499 HASH_ALL
8501 HASH_CMDS (bash compatibility)
8502 HIST_APPEND
8504 APPEND_HISTORY (bash compatibility)
8505 HIST_EXPAND
8507 BANG_HIST (bash compatibility)
8508 LOG NO_HIST_NO_FUNCTIONS (ksh compatibility)
8510 MAIL_WARN
8512 MAIL_WARNING (bash compatibility)
8513 ONE_CMD
8515 SINGLE_COMMAND (bash compatibility)
8516 PHYSICAL
8518 CHASE_LINKS (ksh and bash compatibility)
8519 PROMPT_VARS
8521 PROMPT_SUBST (bash compatibility)
8522 STDIN SHIN_STDIN (ksh compatibility)
8524 TRACK_ALL
8526 HASH_CMDS (ksh compatibility)
8527
8529 Default set
8530 -0 CORRECT
8531 -1 PRINT_EXIT_VALUE
8532 -2 NO_BAD_PATTERN
8533 -3 NO_NOMATCH
8534 -4 GLOB_DOTS
8535 -5 NOTIFY
8536 -6 BG_NICE
8537 -7 IGNORE_EOF
8538 -8 MARK_DIRS
8539 -9 AUTO_LIST
8540 -B NO_BEEP
8541 -C NO_CLOBBER
8542 -D PUSHD_TO_HOME
8543 -E PUSHD_SILENT
8544 -F NO_GLOB
8545 -G NULL_GLOB
8546 -H RM_STAR_SILENT
8547 -I IGNORE_BRACES
8548 -J AUTO_CD
8549 -K NO_BANG_HIST
8550 -L SUN_KEYBOARD_HACK
8551 -M SINGLE_LINE_ZLE
8552 -N AUTO_PUSHD
8553 -O CORRECT_ALL
8554 -P RC_EXPAND_PARAM
8555 -Q PATH_DIRS
8556 -R LONG_LIST_JOBS
8557 -S REC_EXACT
8558 -T CDABLE_VARS
8559 -U MAIL_WARNING
8560 -V NO_PROMPT_CR
8561 -W AUTO_RESUME
8562 -X LIST_TYPES
8563 -Y MENU_COMPLETE
8564 -Z ZLE
8565 -a ALL_EXPORT
8566 -e ERR_EXIT
8567 -f NO_RCS
8568 -g HIST_IGNORE_SPACE
8569 -h HIST_IGNORE_DUPS
8570 -i INTERACTIVE
8571 -k INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS
8572 -l LOGIN
8573 -m MONITOR
8574 -n NO_EXEC
8575 -p PRIVILEGED
8576 -r RESTRICTED
8577 -s SHIN_STDIN
8578 -t SINGLE_COMMAND
8579 -u NO_UNSET
8580 -v VERBOSE
8581 -w CHASE_LINKS
8582 -x XTRACE
8583 -y SH_WORD_SPLIT
8584 sh/ksh emulation set
8586 -C NO_CLOBBER
8587 -T TRAPS_ASYNC
8588 -X MARK_DIRS
8589 -a ALL_EXPORT
8590 -b NOTIFY
8591 -e ERR_EXIT
8592 -f NO_GLOB
8593 -i INTERACTIVE
8594 -l LOGIN
8595 -m MONITOR
8596 -n NO_EXEC
8597 -p PRIVILEGED
8598 -r RESTRICTED
8599 -s SHIN_STDIN
8600 -t SINGLE_COMMAND
8601 -u NO_UNSET
8602 -v VERBOSE
8603 -x XTRACE
8604 Also note
8606 -A Used by set for setting arrays
8607 -b Used on the command line to specify end of option processing
8608 -c Used on the command line to specify a single command
8609 -m Used by setopt for pattern-matching option setting
8610 -o Used in all places to allow use of long option names
8611 -s Used by set to sort positional parameters
8612ZSHBUILTINS(1) General Commands Manual ZSHBUILTINS(1)
8616
8620 zshbuiltins - zsh built-in commands
8621
8623 Some shell builtin commands take options as described in individual en‐
8624 tries; these are often referred to in the list below as `flags' to
8625 avoid confusion with shell options, which may also have an effect on
8626 the behaviour of builtin commands. In this introductory section, `op‐
8627 tion' always has the meaning of an option to a command that should be
8628 familiar to most command line users.
8629 Typically, options are single letters preceded by a hyphen (-). Op‐
8631 tions that take an argument accept it either immediately following the
8632 option letter or after white space, for example `print -C3 {1..9}' or
8633 `print -C 3 {1..9}' are equivalent. Arguments to options are not the
8634 same as arguments to the command; the documentation indicates which is
8635 which. Options that do not take an argument may be combined in a sin‐
8636 gle word, for example `print -rca -- *' and `print -r -c -a -- *' are
8637 equivalent.
8638 Some shell builtin commands also take options that begin with `+' in‐
8640 stead of `-'. The list below makes clear which commands these are.
8641 Options (together with their individual arguments, if any) must appear
8643 in a group before any non-option arguments; once the first non-option
8644 argument has been found, option processing is terminated.
8645 All builtin commands other than `echo' and precommand modifiers, even
8647 those that have no options, can be given the argument `--' to terminate
8648 option processing. This indicates that the following words are non-op‐
8649 tion arguments, but is otherwise ignored. This is useful in cases
8650 where arguments to the command may begin with `-'. For historical rea‐
8651 sons, most builtin commands (including `echo') also recognize a single
8652 `-' in a separate word for this purpose; note that this is less stan‐
8653 dard and use of `--' is recommended.
8654 - simple command
8656 See the section `Precommand Modifiers' in zshmisc(1).
8657 . file [ arg ... ]
8659 Read commands from file and execute them in the current shell
8660 environment.
8661 If file does not contain a slash, or if PATH_DIRS is set, the
8663 shell looks in the components of $path to find the directory
8664 containing file. Files in the current directory are not read
8665 unless `.' appears somewhere in $path. If a file named
8666 `file.zwc' is found, is newer than file, and is the compiled
8667 form (created with the zcompile builtin) of file, then commands
8668 are read from that file instead of file.
8669 If any arguments arg are given, they become the positional pa‐
8671 rameters; the old positional parameters are restored when the
8672 file is done executing. However, if no arguments are given, the
8673 positional parameters remain those of the calling context, and
8674 no restoring is done.
8675 If file was not found the return status is 127; if file was
8677 found but contained a syntax error the return status is 126;
8678 else the return status is the exit status of the last command
8679 executed.
8680 : [ arg ... ]
8682 This command does nothing, although normal argument expansions
8683 is performed which may have effects on shell parameters. A zero
8684 exit status is returned.
8685 alias [ {+|-}gmrsL ] [ name[=value] ... ]
8687 For each name with a corresponding value, define an alias with
8688 that value. A trailing space in value causes the next word to
8689 be checked for alias expansion. If the -g flag is present, de‐
8690 fine a global alias; global aliases are expanded even if they do
8691 not occur in command position.
8692 If the -s flag is present, define a suffix alias: if the command
8694 word on a command line is in the form `text.name', where text is
8695 any non-empty string, it is replaced by the text `value
8696 text.name'. Note that name is treated as a literal string, not
8697 a pattern. A trailing space in value is not special in this
8698 case. For example,
8699 alias -s ps='gv --'
8701 will cause the command `*.ps' to be expanded to `gv -- *.ps'.
8703 As alias expansion is carried out earlier than globbing, the
8704 `*.ps' will then be expanded. Suffix aliases constitute a dif‐
8705 ferent name space from other aliases (so in the above example it
8706 is still possible to create an alias for the command ps) and the
8707 two sets are never listed together.
8708 For each name with no value, print the value of name, if any.
8710 With no arguments, print all currently defined aliases other
8711 than suffix aliases. If the -m flag is given the arguments are
8712 taken as patterns (they should be quoted to preserve them from
8713 being interpreted as glob patterns), and the aliases matching
8714 these patterns are printed. When printing aliases and one of
8715 the -g, -r or -s flags is present, restrict the printing to
8716 global, regular or suffix aliases, respectively; a regular alias
8717 is one which is neither a global nor a suffix alias. Using `+'
8718 instead of `-', or ending the option list with a single `+',
8719 prevents the values of the aliases from being printed.
8720 If the -L flag is present, then print each alias in a manner
8722 suitable for putting in a startup script. The exit status is
8723 nonzero if a name (with no value) is given for which no alias
8724 has been defined.
8725 For more on aliases, include common problems, see the section
8727 ALIASING in zshmisc(1).
8728 autoload [ {+|-}RTUXdkmrtWz ] [ -w ] [ name ... ]
8730 See the section `Autoloading Functions' in zshmisc(1) for full
8731 details. The fpath parameter will be searched to find the func‐
8732 tion definition when the function is first referenced.
8733 If name consists of an absolute path, the function is defined to
8735 load from the file given (searching as usual for dump files in
8736 the given location). The name of the function is the basename
8737 (non-directory part) of the file. It is normally an error if
8738 the function is not found in the given location; however, if the
8739 option -d is given, searching for the function defaults to
8740 $fpath. If a function is loaded by absolute path, any functions
8741 loaded from it that are marked for autoload without an absolute
8742 path have the load path of the parent function temporarily
8743 prepended to $fpath.
8744 If the option -r or -R is given, the function is searched for
8746 immediately and the location is recorded internally for use when
8747 the function is executed; a relative path is expanded using the
8748 value of $PWD. This protects against a change to $fpath after
8749 the call to autoload. With -r, if the function is not found, it
8750 is silently left unresolved until execution; with -R, an error
8751 message is printed and command processing aborted immediately
8752 the search fails, i.e. at the autoload command rather than at
8753 function execution..
8754 The flag -X may be used only inside a shell function. It causes
8756 the calling function to be marked for autoloading and then imme‐
8757 diately loaded and executed, with the current array of posi‐
8758 tional parameters as arguments. This replaces the previous def‐
8759 inition of the function. If no function definition is found, an
8760 error is printed and the function remains undefined and marked
8761 for autoloading. If an argument is given, it is used as a di‐
8762 rectory (i.e. it does not include the name of the function) in
8763 which the function is to be found; this may be combined with the
8764 -d option to allow the function search to default to $fpath if
8765 it is not in the given location.
8766 The flag +X attempts to load each name as an autoloaded func‐
8768 tion, but does not execute it. The exit status is zero (suc‐
8769 cess) if the function was not previously defined and a defini‐
8770 tion for it was found. This does not replace any existing defi‐
8771 nition of the function. The exit status is nonzero (failure) if
8772 the function was already defined or when no definition was
8773 found. In the latter case the function remains undefined and
8774 marked for autoloading. If ksh-style autoloading is enabled,
8775 the function created will contain the contents of the file plus
8776 a call to the function itself appended to it, thus giving normal
8777 ksh autoloading behaviour on the first call to the function. If
8778 the -m flag is also given each name is treated as a pattern and
8779 all functions already marked for autoload that match the pattern
8780 are loaded.
8781 With the -t flag, turn on execution tracing; with -T, turn on
8783 execution tracing only for the current function, turning it off
8784 on entry to any called functions that do not also have tracing
8785 enabled.
8786 With the -U flag, alias expansion is suppressed when the func‐
8788 tion is loaded.
8789 With the -w flag, the names are taken as names of files compiled
8791 with the zcompile builtin, and all functions defined in them are
8792 marked for autoloading.
8793 The flags -z and -k mark the function to be autoloaded using the
8795 zsh or ksh style, as if the option KSH_AUTOLOAD were unset or
8796 were set, respectively. The flags override the setting of the
8797 option at the time the function is loaded.
8798 Note that the autoload command makes no attempt to ensure the
8800 shell options set during the loading or execution of the file
8801 have any particular value. For this, the emulate command can be
8802 used:
8803 emulate zsh -c 'autoload -Uz func'
8805 arranges that when func is loaded the shell is in native zsh em‐
8807 ulation, and this emulation is also applied when func is run.
8808 Some of the functions of autoload are also provided by functions
8810 -u or functions -U, but autoload is a more comprehensive inter‐
8811 face.
8812 bg [ job ... ]
8814 job ... &
8815 Put each specified job in the background, or the current job if
8816 none is specified.
8817 bindkey
8819 See the section `Zle Builtins' in zshzle(1).
8820 break [ n ]
8822 Exit from an enclosing for, while, until, select or repeat loop.
8823 If an arithmetic expression n is specified, then break n levels
8824 instead of just one.
8825 builtin name [ args ... ]
8827 Executes the builtin name, with the given args.
8828 bye Same as exit.
8830 cap See the section `The zsh/cap Module' in zshmodules(1).
8832 cd [ -qsLP ] [ arg ]
8834 cd [ -qsLP ] old new
8835 cd [ -qsLP ] {+|-}n
8836 Change the current directory. In the first form, change the
8837 current directory to arg, or to the value of $HOME if arg is not
8838 specified. If arg is `-', change to the previous directory.
8839 Otherwise, if arg begins with a slash, attempt to change to the
8841 directory given by arg.
8842 If arg does not begin with a slash, the behaviour depends on
8844 whether the current directory `.' occurs in the list of directo‐
8845 ries contained in the shell parameter cdpath. If it does not,
8846 first attempt to change to the directory arg under the current
8847 directory, and if that fails but cdpath is set and contains at
8848 least one element attempt to change to the directory arg under
8849 each component of cdpath in turn until successful. If `.' oc‐
8850 curs in cdpath, then cdpath is searched strictly in order so
8851 that `.' is only tried at the appropriate point.
8852 The order of testing cdpath is modified if the option POSIX_CD
8854 is set, as described in the documentation for the option.
8855 If no directory is found, the option CDABLE_VARS is set, and a
8857 parameter named arg exists whose value begins with a slash,
8858 treat its value as the directory. In that case, the parameter
8859 is added to the named directory hash table.
8860 The second form of cd substitutes the string new for the string
8862 old in the name of the current directory, and tries to change to
8863 this new directory.
8864 The third form of cd extracts an entry from the directory stack,
8866 and changes to that directory. An argument of the form `+n'
8867 identifies a stack entry by counting from the left of the list
8868 shown by the dirs command, starting with zero. An argument of
8869 the form `-n' counts from the right. If the PUSHD_MINUS option
8870 is set, the meanings of `+' and `-' in this context are swapped.
8871 If the POSIX_CD option is set, this form of cd is not recognised
8872 and will be interpreted as the first form.
8873 If the -q (quiet) option is specified, the hook function chpwd
8875 and the functions in the array chpwd_functions are not called.
8876 This is useful for calls to cd that do not change the environ‐
8877 ment seen by an interactive user.
8878 If the -s option is specified, cd refuses to change the current
8880 directory if the given pathname contains symlinks. If the -P
8881 option is given or the CHASE_LINKS option is set, symbolic links
8882 are resolved to their true values. If the -L option is given
8883 symbolic links are retained in the directory (and not resolved)
8884 regardless of the state of the CHASE_LINKS option.
8885 chdir Same as cd.
8887 clone See the section `The zsh/clone Module' in zshmodules(1).
8889 command [ -pvV ] simple command
8891 The simple command argument is taken as an external command in‐
8892 stead of a function or builtin and is executed. If the
8893 POSIX_BUILTINS option is set, builtins will also be executed but
8894 certain special properties of them are suppressed. The -p flag
8895 causes a default path to be searched instead of that in $path.
8896 With the -v flag, command is similar to whence and with -V, it
8897 is equivalent to whence -v.
8898 See also the section `Precommand Modifiers' in zshmisc(1).
8900 comparguments
8902 See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
8903 compcall
8905 See the section `The zsh/compctl Module' in zshmodules(1).
8906 compctl
8908 See the section `The zsh/compctl Module' in zshmodules(1).
8909 compdescribe
8911 See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
8912 compfiles
8914 See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
8915 compgroups
8917 See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
8918 compquote
8920 See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
8921 comptags
8923 See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
8924 comptry
8926 See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
8927 compvalues
8929 See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
8930 continue [ n ]
8932 Resume the next iteration of the enclosing for, while, until,
8933 select or repeat loop. If an arithmetic expression n is speci‐
8934 fied, break out of n-1 loops and resume at the nth enclosing
8935 loop.
8936 declare
8938 Same as typeset.
8939 dirs [ -c ] [ arg ... ]
8941 dirs [ -lpv ]
8942 With no arguments, print the contents of the directory stack.
8943 Directories are added to this stack with the pushd command, and
8944 removed with the cd or popd commands. If arguments are speci‐
8945 fied, load them onto the directory stack, replacing anything
8946 that was there, and push the current directory onto the stack.
8947 -c clear the directory stack.
8949 -l print directory names in full instead of using of using ~
8951 expressions (see Dynamic and Static named directories in
8952 zshexpn(1)).
8953 -p print directory entries one per line.
8955 -v number the directories in the stack when printing.
8957 disable [ -afmprs ] name ...
8959 Temporarily disable the named hash table elements or patterns.
8960 The default is to disable builtin commands. This allows you to
8961 use an external command with the same name as a builtin command.
8962 The -a option causes disable to act on regular or global
8963 aliases. The -s option causes disable to act on suffix aliases.
8964 The -f option causes disable to act on shell functions. The -r
8965 options causes disable to act on reserved words. Without argu‐
8966 ments all disabled hash table elements from the corresponding
8967 hash table are printed. With the -m flag the arguments are
8968 taken as patterns (which should be quoted to prevent them from
8969 undergoing filename expansion), and all hash table elements from
8970 the corresponding hash table matching these patterns are dis‐
8971 abled. Disabled objects can be enabled with the enable command.
8972 With the option -p, name ... refer to elements of the shell's
8974 pattern syntax as described in the section `Filename Genera‐
8975 tion'. Certain elements can be disabled separately, as given
8976 below.
8977 Note that patterns not allowed by the current settings for the
8979 options EXTENDED_GLOB, KSH_GLOB and SH_GLOB are never enabled,
8980 regardless of the setting here. For example, if EXTENDED_GLOB
8981 is not active, the pattern ^ is ineffective even if `disable -p
8982 "^"' has not been issued. The list below indicates any option
8983 settings that restrict the use of the pattern. It should be
8984 noted that setting SH_GLOB has a wider effect than merely dis‐
8985 abling patterns as certain expressions, in particular those in‐
8986 volving parentheses, are parsed differently.
8987 The following patterns may be disabled; all the strings need
8989 quoting on the command line to prevent them from being inter‐
8990 preted immediately as patterns and the patterns are shown below
8991 in single quotes as a reminder.
8992 '?' The pattern character ? wherever it occurs, including
8994 when preceding a parenthesis with KSH_GLOB.
8995 '*' The pattern character * wherever it occurs, including re‐
8997 cursive globbing and when preceding a parenthesis with
8998 KSH_GLOB.
8999 '[' Character classes.
9001 '<' (NO_SH_GLOB)
9003 Numeric ranges.
9004 '|' (NO_SH_GLOB)
9006 Alternation in grouped patterns, case statements, or
9007 KSH_GLOB parenthesised expressions.
9008 '(' (NO_SH_GLOB)
9010 Grouping using single parentheses. Disabling this does
9011 not disable the use of parentheses for KSH_GLOB where
9012 they are introduced by a special character, nor for glob
9013 qualifiers (use `setopt NO_BARE_GLOB_QUAL' to disable
9014 glob qualifiers that use parentheses only).
9015 '~' (EXTENDED_GLOB)
9017 Exclusion in the form A~B.
9018 '^' (EXTENDED_GLOB)
9020 Exclusion in the form A^B.
9021 '#' (EXTENDED_GLOB)
9023 The pattern character # wherever it occurs, both for rep‐
9024 etition of a previous pattern and for indicating globbing
9025 flags.
9026 '?(' (KSH_GLOB)
9028 The grouping form ?(...). Note this is also disabled if
9029 '?' is disabled.
9030 '*(' (KSH_GLOB)
9032 The grouping form *(...). Note this is also disabled if
9033 '*' is disabled.
9034 '+(' (KSH_GLOB)
9036 The grouping form +(...).
9037 '!(' (KSH_GLOB)
9039 The grouping form !(...).
9040 '@(' (KSH_GLOB)
9042 The grouping form @(...).
9043 disown [ job ... ]
9045 job ... &|
9046 job ... &!
9047 Remove the specified jobs from the job table; the shell will no
9048 longer report their status, and will not complain if you try to
9049 exit an interactive shell with them running or stopped. If no
9050 job is specified, disown the current job.
9051 If the jobs are currently stopped and the AUTO_CONTINUE option
9053 is not set, a warning is printed containing information about
9054 how to make them running after they have been disowned. If one
9055 of the latter two forms is used, the jobs will automatically be
9056 made running, independent of the setting of the AUTO_CONTINUE
9057 option.
9058 echo [ -neE ] [ arg ... ]
9060 Write each arg on the standard output, with a space separating
9061 each one. If the -n flag is not present, print a newline at the
9062 end. echo recognizes the following escape sequences:
9063 \a bell character
9065 \b backspace
9066 \c suppress subsequent characters and final newline
9067 \e escape
9068 \f form feed
9069 \n linefeed (newline)
9070 \r carriage return
9071 \t horizontal tab
9072 \v vertical tab
9073 \\ backslash
9074 \0NNN character code in octal
9075 \xNN character code in hexadecimal
9076 \uNNNN unicode character code in hexadecimal
9077 \UNNNNNNNN
9078 unicode character code in hexadecimal
9079 The -E flag, or the BSD_ECHO option, can be used to disable
9081 these escape sequences. In the latter case, -e flag can be used
9082 to enable them.
9083 Note that for standards compliance a double dash does not termi‐
9085 nate option processing; instead, it is printed directly. How‐
9086 ever, a single dash does terminate option processing, so the
9087 first dash, possibly following options, is not printed, but ev‐
9088 erything following it is printed as an argument. The single
9089 dash behaviour is different from other shells. For a more por‐
9090 table way of printing text, see printf, and for a more control‐
9091 lable way of printing text within zsh, see print.
9092 echotc See the section `The zsh/termcap Module' in zshmodules(1).
9094 echoti See the section `The zsh/terminfo Module' in zshmodules(1).
9096 emulate [ -lLR ] [ {zsh|sh|ksh|csh} [ flags ... ] ]
9098 Without any argument print current emulation mode.
9099 With single argument set up zsh options to emulate the specified
9101 shell as much as possible. csh will never be fully emulated.
9102 If the argument is not one of the shells listed above, zsh will
9103 be used as a default; more precisely, the tests performed on the
9104 argument are the same as those used to determine the emulation
9105 at startup based on the shell name, see the section COMPATIBIL‐
9106 ITY in zsh(1) . In addition to setting shell options, the com‐
9107 mand also restores the pristine state of pattern enables, as if
9108 all patterns had been enabled using enable -p.
9109 If the emulate command occurs inside a function that has been
9111 marked for execution tracing with functions -t then the xtrace
9112 option will be turned on regardless of emulation mode or other
9113 options. Note that code executed inside the function by the .,
9114 source, or eval commands is not considered to be running di‐
9115 rectly from the function, hence does not provoke this behaviour.
9116 If the -R switch is given, all settable options are reset to
9118 their default value corresponding to the specified emulation
9119 mode, except for certain options describing the interactive en‐
9120 vironment; otherwise, only those options likely to cause porta‐
9121 bility problems in scripts and functions are altered. If the -L
9122 switch is given, the options LOCAL_OPTIONS, LOCAL_PATTERNS and
9123 LOCAL_TRAPS will be set as well, causing the effects of the emu‐
9124 late command and any setopt, disable -p or enable -p, and trap
9125 commands to be local to the immediately surrounding shell func‐
9126 tion, if any; normally these options are turned off in all emu‐
9127 lation modes except ksh. The -L switch is mutually exclusive
9128 with the use of -c in flags.
9129 If there is a single argument and the -l switch is given, the
9131 options that would be set or unset (the latter indicated with
9132 the prefix `no') are listed. -l can be combined with -L or -R
9133 and the list will be modified in the appropriate way. Note the
9134 list does not depend on the current setting of options, i.e. it
9135 includes all options that may in principle change, not just
9136 those that would actually change.
9137 The flags may be any of the invocation-time flags described in
9139 the section INVOCATION in zsh(1), except that `-o EMACS' and `-o
9140 VI' may not be used. Flags such as `+r'/`+o RESTRICTED' may be
9141 prohibited in some circumstances.
9142 If -c arg appears in flags, arg is evaluated while the requested
9144 emulation is temporarily in effect. In this case the emulation
9145 mode and all options are restored to their previous values be‐
9146 fore emulate returns. The -R switch may precede the name of the
9147 shell to emulate; note this has a meaning distinct from includ‐
9148 ing -R in flags.
9149 Use of -c enables `sticky' emulation mode for functions defined
9151 within the evaluated expression: the emulation mode is associ‐
9152 ated thereafter with the function so that whenever the function
9153 is executed the emulation (respecting the -R switch, if present)
9154 and all options are set (and pattern disables cleared) before
9155 entry to the function, and the state is restored after exit. If
9156 the function is called when the sticky emulation is already in
9157 effect, either within an `emulate shell -c' expression or within
9158 another function with the same sticky emulation, entry and exit
9159 from the function do not cause options to be altered (except due
9160 to standard processing such as the LOCAL_OPTIONS option). This
9161 also applies to functions marked for autoload within the sticky
9162 emulation; the appropriate set of options will be applied at the
9163 point the function is loaded as well as when it is run.
9164 For example:
9166 emulate sh -c 'fni() { setopt cshnullglob; }
9168 fno() { fni; }'
9169 fno
9170 The two functions fni and fno are defined with sticky sh emula‐
9172 tion. fno is then executed, causing options associated with em‐
9173 ulations to be set to their values in sh. fno then calls fni;
9174 because fni is also marked for sticky sh emulation, no option
9175 changes take place on entry to or exit from it. Hence the op‐
9176 tion cshnullglob, turned off by sh emulation, will be turned on
9177 within fni and remain on return to fno. On exit from fno, the
9178 emulation mode and all options will be restored to the state
9179 they were in before entry to the temporary emulation.
9180 The documentation above is typically sufficient for the intended
9182 purpose of executing code designed for other shells in a suit‐
9183 able environment. More detailed rules follow.
9184 1. The sticky emulation environment provided by `emulate
9185 shell -c' is identical to that provided by entry to a
9186 function marked for sticky emulation as a consequence of
9187 being defined in such an environment. Hence, for exam‐
9188 ple, the sticky emulation is inherited by subfunctions
9189 defined within functions with sticky emulation.
9190 2. No change of options takes place on entry to or exit from
9191 functions that are not marked for sticky emulation, other
9192 than those that would normally take place, even if those
9193 functions are called within sticky emulation.
9194 3. No special handling is provided for functions marked for
9195 autoload nor for functions present in wordcode created by
9196 the zcompile command.
9197 4. The presence or absence of the -R switch to emulate cor‐
9198 responds to different sticky emulation modes, so for ex‐
9199 ample `emulate sh -c', `emulate -R sh -c' and `emulate
9200 csh -c' are treated as three distinct sticky emulations.
9201 5. Difference in shell options supplied in addition to the
9202 basic emulation also mean the sticky emulations are dif‐
9203 ferent, so for example `emulate zsh -c' and `emulate zsh
9204 -o cbases -c' are treated as distinct sticky emulations.
9205 enable [ -afmprs ] name ...
9207 Enable the named hash table elements, presumably disabled ear‐
9208 lier with disable. The default is to enable builtin commands.
9209 The -a option causes enable to act on regular or global aliases.
9210 The -s option causes enable to act on suffix aliases. The -f
9211 option causes enable to act on shell functions. The -r option
9212 causes enable to act on reserved words. Without arguments all
9213 enabled hash table elements from the corresponding hash table
9214 are printed. With the -m flag the arguments are taken as pat‐
9215 terns (should be quoted) and all hash table elements from the
9216 corresponding hash table matching these patterns are enabled.
9217 Enabled objects can be disabled with the disable builtin com‐
9218 mand.
9219 enable -p reenables patterns disabled with disable -p. Note
9221 that it does not override globbing options; for example, `enable
9222 -p "~"' does not cause the pattern character ~ to be active un‐
9223 less the EXTENDED_GLOB option is also set. To enable all possi‐
9224 ble patterns (so that they may be individually disabled with
9225 disable -p), use `setopt EXTENDED_GLOB KSH_GLOB NO_SH_GLOB'.
9226 eval [ arg ... ]
9228 Read the arguments as input to the shell and execute the result‐
9229 ing command(s) in the current shell process. The return status
9230 is the same as if the commands had been executed directly by the
9231 shell; if there are no args or they contain no commands (i.e.
9232 are an empty string or whitespace) the return status is zero.
9233 exec [ -cl ] [ -a argv0 ] [ command [ arg ... ] ]
9235 Replace the current shell with command rather than forking. If
9236 command is a shell builtin command or a shell function, the
9237 shell executes it, and exits when the command is complete.
9238 With -c clear the environment; with -l prepend - to the argv[0]
9240 string of the command executed (to simulate a login shell); with
9241 -a argv0 set the argv[0] string of the command executed. See
9242 the section `Precommand Modifiers' in zshmisc(1).
9243 If the option POSIX_BUILTINS is set, command is never inter‐
9245 preted as a shell builtin command or shell function. This means
9246 further precommand modifiers such as builtin and noglob are also
9247 not interpreted within the shell. Hence command is always found
9248 by searching the command path.
9249 If command is omitted but any redirections are specified, then
9251 the redirections will take effect in the current shell.
9252 exit [ n ]
9254 Exit the shell with the exit status specified by an arithmetic
9255 expression n; if none is specified, use the exit status from the
9256 last command executed. An EOF condition will also cause the
9257 shell to exit, unless the IGNORE_EOF option is set.
9258 See notes at the end of the section JOBS in zshmisc(1) for some
9260 possibly unexpected interactions of the exit command with jobs.
9261 export [ name[=value] ... ]
9263 The specified names are marked for automatic export to the envi‐
9264 ronment of subsequently executed commands. Equivalent to type‐
9265 set -gx. If a parameter specified does not already exist, it is
9266 created in the global scope.
9267 false [ arg ... ]
9269 Do nothing and return an exit status of 1.
9270 fc [ -e ename ] [ -LI ] [ -m match ] [ old=new ... ] [ first [ last ] ]
9273 fc -l [ -LI ] [ -nrdfEiD ] [ -t timefmt ] [ -m match ]
9274 [ old=new ... ] [ first [ last ] ]
9275 fc -p [ -a ] [ filename [ histsize [ savehistsize ] ] ]
9276 fc -P
9277 fc -ARWI [ filename ]
9278 The fc command controls the interactive history mechanism. Note
9279 that reading and writing of history options is only performed if
9280 the shell is interactive. Usually this is detected automati‐
9281 cally, but it can be forced by setting the interactive option
9282 when starting the shell.
9283 The first two forms of this command select a range of events
9285 from first to last from the history list. The arguments first
9286 and last may be specified as a number or as a string. A nega‐
9287 tive number is used as an offset to the current history event
9288 number. A string specifies the most recent event beginning with
9289 the given string. All substitutions old=new, if any, are then
9290 performed on the text of the events.
9291 In addition to the number range,
9293 -I restricts to only internal events (not from $HISTFILE)
9294 -L restricts to only local events (not from other shells,
9295 see SHARE_HISTORY in zshoptions(1) -- note that $HISTFILE
9296 is considered local when read at startup)
9297 -m takes the first argument as a pattern (should be quoted)
9298 and only the history events matching this pattern are
9299 considered
9300 If first is not specified, it will be set to -1 (the most recent
9302 event), or to -16 if the -l flag is given. If last is not spec‐
9303 ified, it will be set to first, or to -1 if the -l flag is
9304 given. However, if the current event has added entries to the
9305 history with `print -s' or `fc -R', then the default last for -l
9306 includes all new history entries since the current event began.
9307 When the -l flag is given, the resulting events are listed on
9309 standard output. Otherwise the editor program specified by -e
9310 ename is invoked on a file containing these history events. If
9311 -e is not given, the value of the parameter FCEDIT is used; if
9312 that is not set the value of the parameter EDITOR is used; if
9313 that is not set a builtin default, usually `vi' is used. If
9314 ename is `-', no editor is invoked. When editing is complete,
9315 the edited command is executed.
9316 The flag -r reverses the order of the events and the flag -n
9318 suppresses event numbers when listing.
9319 Also when listing,
9321 -d prints timestamps for each event
9322 -f prints full time-date stamps in the US `MM/DD/YY hh:mm'
9323 format
9324 -E prints full time-date stamps in the European `dd.mm.yyyy
9325 hh:mm' format
9326 -i prints full time-date stamps in ISO8601 `yyyy-mm-dd
9327 hh:mm' format
9328 -t fmt prints time and date stamps in the given format; fmt is
9329 formatted with the strftime function with the zsh exten‐
9330 sions described for the %D{string} prompt format in the
9331 section EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1). The
9332 resulting formatted string must be no more than 256 char‐
9333 acters or will not be printed
9334 -D prints elapsed times; may be combined with one of the op‐
9335 tions above
9336 `fc -p' pushes the current history list onto a stack and
9338 switches to a new history list. If the -a option is also speci‐
9339 fied, this history list will be automatically popped when the
9340 current function scope is exited, which is a much better solu‐
9341 tion than creating a trap function to call `fc -P' manually. If
9342 no arguments are specified, the history list is left empty,
9343 $HISTFILE is unset, and $HISTSIZE & $SAVEHIST are set to their
9344 default values. If one argument is given, $HISTFILE is set to
9345 that filename, $HISTSIZE & $SAVEHIST are left unchanged, and the
9346 history file is read in (if it exists) to initialize the new
9347 list. If a second argument is specified, $HISTSIZE & $SAVEHIST
9348 are instead set to the single specified numeric value. Finally,
9349 if a third argument is specified, $SAVEHIST is set to a separate
9350 value from $HISTSIZE. You are free to change these environment
9351 values for the new history list however you desire in order to
9352 manipulate the new history list.
9353 `fc -P' pops the history list back to an older list saved by `fc
9355 -p'. The current list is saved to its $HISTFILE before it is
9356 destroyed (assuming that $HISTFILE and $SAVEHIST are set appro‐
9357 priately, of course). The values of $HISTFILE, $HISTSIZE, and
9358 $SAVEHIST are restored to the values they had when `fc -p' was
9359 called. Note that this restoration can conflict with making
9360 these variables "local", so your best bet is to avoid local dec‐
9361 larations for these variables in functions that use `fc -p'.
9362 The one other guaranteed-safe combination is declaring these
9363 variables to be local at the top of your function and using the
9364 automatic option (-a) with `fc -p'. Finally, note that it is
9365 legal to manually pop a push marked for automatic popping if you
9366 need to do so before the function exits.
9367 `fc -R' reads the history from the given file, `fc -W' writes
9369 the history out to the given file, and `fc -A' appends the his‐
9370 tory out to the given file. If no filename is specified, the
9371 $HISTFILE is assumed. If the -I option is added to -R, only
9372 those events that are not already contained within the internal
9373 history list are added. If the -I option is added to -A or -W,
9374 only those events that are new since last incremental ap‐
9375 pend/write to the history file are appended/written. In any
9376 case, the created file will have no more than $SAVEHIST entries.
9377 fg [ job ... ]
9379 job ...
9380 Bring each specified job in turn to the foreground. If no job
9381 is specified, resume the current job.
9382 float [ {+|-}Hghlprtux ] [ {+|-}EFLRZ [ n ] ] [ name[=value] ... ]
9384 Equivalent to typeset -E, except that options irrelevant to
9385 floating point numbers are not permitted.
9386 functions [ {+|-}UkmtTuWz ] [ -x num ] [ name ... ]
9388 functions -c oldfn newfn
9389 functions -M [-s] mathfn [ min [ max [ shellfn ] ] ]
9390 functions -M [ -m pattern ... ]
9391 functions +M [ -m ] mathfn ...
9392 Equivalent to typeset -f, with the exception of the -c, -x, -M
9393 and -W options. For functions -u and functions -U, see au‐
9394 toload, which provides additional options.
9395 The -x option indicates that any functions output will have each
9397 leading tab for indentation, added by the shell to show syntac‐
9398 tic structure, expanded to the given number num of spaces. num
9399 can also be 0 to suppress all indentation.
9400 The -W option turns on the option WARN_NESTED_VAR for the named
9402 function or functions only. The option is turned off at the
9403 start of nested functions (apart from anonoymous functions) un‐
9404 less the called function also has the -W attribute.
9405 The -c option causes oldfn to be copied to newfn. The copy is
9407 efficiently handled internally by reference counting. If oldfn
9408 was marked for autoload it is first loaded and if this fails the
9409 copy fails. Either function may subsequently be redefined with‐
9410 out affecting the other. A typical idiom is that oldfn is the
9411 name of a library shell function which is then redefined to call
9412 newfn, thereby installing a modified version of the function.
9413 Use of the -M option may not be combined with any of the options
9415 handled by typeset -f.
9416 functions -M mathfn defines mathfn as the name of a mathematical
9418 function recognised in all forms of arithmetical expressions;
9419 see the section `Arithmetic Evaluation' in zshmisc(1). By de‐
9420 fault mathfn may take any number of comma-separated arguments.
9421 If min is given, it must have exactly min args; if min and max
9422 are both given, it must have at least min and at most max args.
9423 max may be -1 to indicate that there is no upper limit.
9424 By default the function is implemented by a shell function of
9426 the same name; if shellfn is specified it gives the name of the
9427 corresponding shell function while mathfn remains the name used
9428 in arithmetical expressions. The name of the function in $0 is
9429 mathfn (not shellfn as would usually be the case), provided the
9430 option FUNCTION_ARGZERO is in effect. The positional parameters
9431 in the shell function correspond to the arguments of the mathe‐
9432 matical function call. The result of the last arithmetical ex‐
9433 pression evaluated inside the shell function (even if it is a
9434 form that normally only returns a status) gives the result of
9435 the mathematical function.
9436 If the additional option -s is given to functions -M, the argu‐
9438 ment to the function is a single string: anything between the
9439 opening and matching closing parenthesis is passed to the func‐
9440 tion as a single argument, even if it includes commas or white
9441 space. The minimum and maximum argument specifiers must there‐
9442 fore be 1 if given. An empty argument list is passed as a
9443 zero-length string.
9444 functions -M with no arguments lists all such user-defined func‐
9446 tions in the same form as a definition. With the additional op‐
9447 tion -m and a list of arguments, all functions whose mathfn
9448 matches one of the pattern arguments are listed.
9449 function +M removes the list of mathematical functions; with the
9451 additional option -m the arguments are treated as patterns and
9452 all functions whose mathfn matches the pattern are removed.
9453 Note that the shell function implementing the behaviour is not
9454 removed (regardless of whether its name coincides with mathfn).
9455 For example, the following prints the cube of 3:
9457 zmath_cube() { (( $1 * $1 * $1 )) }
9459 functions -M cube 1 1 zmath_cube
9460 print $(( cube(3) ))
9461 The following string function takes a single argument, including
9463 the commas, so prints 11:
9464 stringfn() { (( $#1 )) }
9466 functions -Ms stringfn
9467 print $(( stringfn(foo,bar,rod) ))
9468 getcap See the section `The zsh/cap Module' in zshmodules(1).
9470 getln [ -AclneE ] name ...
9472 Read the top value from the buffer stack and put it in the shell
9473 parameter name. Equivalent to read -zr.
9474 getopts optstring name [ arg ... ]
9476 Checks the args for legal options. If the args are omitted, use
9477 the positional parameters. A valid option argument begins with
9478 a `+' or a `-'. An argument not beginning with a `+' or a `-',
9479 or the argument `--', ends the options. Note that a single `-'
9480 is not considered a valid option argument. optstring contains
9481 the letters that getopts recognizes. If a letter is followed by
9482 a `:', that option requires an argument. The options can be
9483 separated from the argument by blanks.
9484 Each time it is invoked, getopts places the option letter it
9486 finds in the shell parameter name, prepended with a `+' when arg
9487 begins with a `+'. The index of the next arg is stored in
9488 OPTIND. The option argument, if any, is stored in OPTARG.
9489 The first option to be examined may be changed by explicitly as‐
9491 signing to OPTIND. OPTIND has an initial value of 1, and is
9492 normally set to 1 upon entry to a shell function and restored
9493 upon exit (this is disabled by the POSIX_BUILTINS option). OP‐
9494 TARG is not reset and retains its value from the most recent
9495 call to getopts. If either of OPTIND or OPTARG is explicitly
9496 unset, it remains unset, and the index or option argument is not
9497 stored. The option itself is still stored in name in this case.
9498 A leading `:' in optstring causes getopts to store the letter of
9500 any invalid option in OPTARG, and to set name to `?' for an un‐
9501 known option and to `:' when a required argument is missing.
9502 Otherwise, getopts sets name to `?' and prints an error message
9503 when an option is invalid. The exit status is nonzero when
9504 there are no more options.
9505 hash [ -Ldfmrv ] [ name[=value] ] ...
9507 hash can be used to directly modify the contents of the command
9508 hash table, and the named directory hash table. Normally one
9509 would modify these tables by modifying one's PATH (for the com‐
9510 mand hash table) or by creating appropriate shell parameters
9511 (for the named directory hash table). The choice of hash table
9512 to work on is determined by the -d option; without the option
9513 the command hash table is used, and with the option the named
9514 directory hash table is used.
9515 A command name starting with a / is never hashed, whether by ex‐
9517 plicit use of the hash command or otherwise. Such a command is
9518 always found by direct look up in the file system.
9519 Given no arguments, and neither the -r or -f options, the se‐
9521 lected hash table will be listed in full.
9522 The -r option causes the selected hash table to be emptied. It
9524 will be subsequently rebuilt in the normal fashion. The -f op‐
9525 tion causes the selected hash table to be fully rebuilt immedi‐
9526 ately. For the command hash table this hashes all the absolute
9527 directories in the PATH, and for the named directory hash table
9528 this adds all users' home directories. These two options cannot
9529 be used with any arguments.
9530 The -m option causes the arguments to be taken as patterns
9532 (which should be quoted) and the elements of the hash table
9533 matching those patterns are printed. This is the only way to
9534 display a limited selection of hash table elements.
9535 For each name with a corresponding value, put `name' in the se‐
9537 lected hash table, associating it with the pathname `value'. In
9538 the command hash table, this means that whenever `name' is used
9539 as a command argument, the shell will try to execute the file
9540 given by `value'. In the named directory hash table, this means
9541 that `value' may be referred to as `~name'.
9542 For each name with no corresponding value, attempt to add name
9544 to the hash table, checking what the appropriate value is in the
9545 normal manner for that hash table. If an appropriate value
9546 can't be found, then the hash table will be unchanged.
9547 The -v option causes hash table entries to be listed as they are
9549 added by explicit specification. If has no effect if used with
9550 -f.
9551 If the -L flag is present, then each hash table entry is printed
9553 in the form of a call to hash.
9554 history
9556 Same as fc -l.
9557 integer [ {+|-}Hghlprtux ] [ {+|-}LRZi [ n ] ] [ name[=value] ... ]
9559 Equivalent to typeset -i, except that options irrelevant to in‐
9560 tegers are not permitted.
9561 jobs [ -dlprs ] [ job ... ]
9563 jobs -Z string
9564 Lists information about each given job, or all jobs if job is
9565 omitted. The -l flag lists process IDs, and the -p flag lists
9566 process groups. If the -r flag is specified only running jobs
9567 will be listed and if the -s flag is given only stopped jobs are
9568 shown. If the -d flag is given, the directory from which the
9569 job was started (which may not be the current directory of the
9570 job) will also be shown.
9571 The -Z option replaces the shell's argument and environment
9573 space with the given string, truncated if necessary to fit.
9574 This will normally be visible in ps (ps(1)) listings. This fea‐
9575 ture is typically used by daemons, to indicate their state.
9576 kill [ -s signal_name | -n signal_number | -sig ] job ...
9578 kill -l [ sig ... ]
9579 Sends either SIGTERM or the specified signal to the given jobs
9580 or processes. Signals are given by number or by names, with or
9581 without the `SIG' prefix. If the signal being sent is not
9582 `KILL' or `CONT', then the job will be sent a `CONT' signal if
9583 it is stopped. The argument job can be the process ID of a job
9584 not in the job list. In the second form, kill -l, if sig is not
9585 specified the signal names are listed. Otherwise, for each sig
9586 that is a name, the corresponding signal number is listed. For
9587 each sig that is a signal number or a number representing the
9588 exit status of a process which was terminated or stopped by a
9589 signal the name of the signal is printed.
9590 On some systems, alternative signal names are allowed for a few
9592 signals. Typical examples are SIGCHLD and SIGCLD or SIGPOLL and
9593 SIGIO, assuming they correspond to the same signal number. kill
9594 -l will only list the preferred form, however kill -l alt will
9595 show if the alternative form corresponds to a signal number.
9596 For example, under Linux kill -l IO and kill -l POLL both output
9597 29, hence kill -IO and kill -POLL have the same effect.
9598 Many systems will allow process IDs to be negative to kill a
9600 process group or zero to kill the current process group.
9601 let arg ...
9603 Evaluate each arg as an arithmetic expression. See the section
9604 `Arithmetic Evaluation' in zshmisc(1) for a description of
9605 arithmetic expressions. The exit status is 0 if the value of
9606 the last expression is nonzero, 1 if it is zero, and 2 if an er‐
9607 ror occurred.
9608 limit [ -hs ] [ resource [ limit ] ] ...
9610 Set or display resource limits. Unless the -s flag is given,
9611 the limit applies only the children of the shell. If -s is
9612 given without other arguments, the resource limits of the cur‐
9613 rent shell is set to the previously set resource limits of the
9614 children.
9615 If limit is not specified, print the current limit placed on re‐
9617 source, otherwise set the limit to the specified value. If the
9618 -h flag is given, use hard limits instead of soft limits. If no
9619 resource is given, print all limits.
9620 When looping over multiple resources, the shell will abort imme‐
9622 diately if it detects a badly formed argument. However, if it
9623 fails to set a limit for some other reason it will continue try‐
9624 ing to set the remaining limits.
9625 resource can be one of:
9627 addressspace
9629 Maximum amount of address space used.
9630 aiomemorylocked
9631 Maximum amount of memory locked in RAM for AIO opera‐
9632 tions.
9633 aiooperations
9634 Maximum number of AIO operations.
9635 cachedthreads
9636 Maximum number of cached threads.
9637 coredumpsize
9638 Maximum size of a core dump.
9639 cputime
9640 Maximum CPU seconds per process.
9641 datasize
9642 Maximum data size (including stack) for each process.
9643 descriptors
9644 Maximum value for a file descriptor.
9645 filesize
9646 Largest single file allowed.
9647 kqueues
9648 Maximum number of kqueues allocated.
9649 maxproc
9650 Maximum number of processes.
9651 maxpthreads
9652 Maximum number of threads per process.
9653 memorylocked
9654 Maximum amount of memory locked in RAM.
9655 memoryuse
9656 Maximum resident set size.
9657 msgqueue
9658 Maximum number of bytes in POSIX message queues.
9659 posixlocks
9660 Maximum number of POSIX locks per user.
9661 pseudoterminals
9662 Maximum number of pseudo-terminals.
9663 resident
9664 Maximum resident set size.
9665 sigpending
9666 Maximum number of pending signals.
9667 sockbufsize
9668 Maximum size of all socket buffers.
9669 stacksize
9670 Maximum stack size for each process.
9671 swapsize
9672 Maximum amount of swap used.
9673 vmemorysize
9674 Maximum amount of virtual memory.
9675 Which of these resource limits are available depends on the sys‐
9677 tem. resource can be abbreviated to any unambiguous prefix. It
9678 can also be an integer, which corresponds to the integer defined
9679 for the resource by the operating system.
9680 If argument corresponds to a number which is out of the range of
9682 the resources configured into the shell, the shell will try to
9683 read or write the limit anyway, and will report an error if this
9684 fails. As the shell does not store such resources internally,
9685 an attempt to set the limit will fail unless the -s option is
9686 present.
9687 limit is a number, with an optional scaling factor, as follows:
9689 nh hours
9691 nk kilobytes (default)
9692 nm megabytes or minutes
9693 ng gigabytes
9694 [mm:]ss
9695 minutes and seconds
9696 The limit command is not made available by default when the
9698 shell starts in a mode emulating another shell. It can be made
9699 available with the command `zmodload -F zsh/rlimits b:limit'.
9700 local [ {+|-}AHUahlprtux ] [ {+|-}EFLRZi [ n ] ] [ name[=value] ... ]
9702 Same as typeset, except that the options -g, and -f are not per‐
9703 mitted. In this case the -x option does not force the use of
9704 -g, i.e. exported variables will be local to functions.
9705 log List all users currently logged in who are affected by the cur‐
9707 rent setting of the watch parameter.
9708 logout [ n ]
9710 Same as exit, except that it only works in a login shell.
9711 noglob simple command
9713 See the section `Precommand Modifiers' in zshmisc(1).
9714 popd [ -q ] [ {+|-}n ]
9716 Remove an entry from the directory stack, and perform a cd to
9717 the new top directory. With no argument, the current top entry
9718 is removed. An argument of the form `+n' identifies a stack en‐
9719 try by counting from the left of the list shown by the dirs com‐
9720 mand, starting with zero. An argument of the form -n counts
9721 from the right. If the PUSHD_MINUS option is set, the meanings
9722 of `+' and `-' in this context are swapped.
9723 If the -q (quiet) option is specified, the hook function chpwd
9725 and the functions in the array $chpwd_functions are not called,
9726 and the new directory stack is not printed. This is useful for
9727 calls to popd that do not change the environment seen by an in‐
9728 teractive user.
9729 print [ -abcDilmnNoOpPrsSz ] [ -u n ] [ -f format ] [ -C cols ]
9731 [ -v name ] [ -xX tabstop ] [ -R [ -en ]] [ arg ... ]
9732 With the `-f' option the arguments are printed as described by
9733 printf. With no flags or with the flag `-', the arguments are
9734 printed on the standard output as described by echo, with the
9735 following differences: the escape sequence `\M-x' (or `\Mx')
9736 metafies the character x (sets the highest bit), `\C-x' (or
9737 `\Cx') produces a control character (`\C-@' and `\C-?' give the
9738 characters NULL and delete), a character code in octal is repre‐
9739 sented by `\NNN' (instead of `\0NNN'), and `\E' is a synonym for
9740 `\e'. Finally, if not in an escape sequence, `\' escapes the
9741 following character and is not printed.
9742 -a Print arguments with the column incrementing first. Only
9744 useful with the -c and -C options.
9745 -b Recognize all the escape sequences defined for the bind‐
9747 key command, see the section `Zle Builtins' in zshzle(1).
9748 -c Print the arguments in columns. Unless -a is also given,
9750 arguments are printed with the row incrementing first.
9751 -C cols
9753 Print the arguments in cols columns. Unless -a is also
9754 given, arguments are printed with the row incrementing
9755 first.
9756 -D Treat the arguments as paths, replacing directory pre‐
9758 fixes with ~ expressions corresponding to directory
9759 names, as appropriate.
9760 -i If given together with -o or -O, sorting is performed
9762 case-independently.
9763 -l Print the arguments separated by newlines instead of spa‐
9765 ces. Note: if the list of arguments is empty, print -l
9766 will still output one empty line. To print a possi‐
9767 bly-empty list of arguments one per line, use print -C1,
9768 as in `print -rC1 -- "$list[@]"'.
9769 -m Take the first argument as a pattern (should be quoted),
9771 and remove it from the argument list together with subse‐
9772 quent arguments that do not match this pattern.
9773 -n Do not add a newline to the output.
9775 -N Print the arguments separated and terminated by nulls.
9777 Again, print -rNC1 -- "$list[@]" is a canonical way to
9778 print an arbitrary list as null-delimited records.
9779 -o Print the arguments sorted in ascending order.
9781 -O Print the arguments sorted in descending order.
9783 -p Print the arguments to the input of the coprocess.
9785 -P Perform prompt expansion (see EXPANSION OF PROMPT SE‐
9787 QUENCES in zshmisc(1)). In combination with `-f', prompt
9788 escape sequences are parsed only within interpolated ar‐
9789 guments, not within the format string.
9790 -r Ignore the escape conventions of echo.
9792 -R Emulate the BSD echo command, which does not process es‐
9794 cape sequences unless the -e flag is given. The -n flag
9795 suppresses the trailing newline. Only the -e and -n
9796 flags are recognized after -R; all other arguments and
9797 options are printed.
9798 -s Place the results in the history list instead of on the
9800 standard output. Each argument to the print command is
9801 treated as a single word in the history, regardless of
9802 its content.
9803 -S Place the results in the history list instead of on the
9805 standard output. In this case only a single argument is
9806 allowed; it will be split into words as if it were a full
9807 shell command line. The effect is similar to reading the
9808 line from a history file with the HIST_LEX_WORDS option
9809 active.
9810 -u n Print the arguments to file descriptor n.
9812 -v name
9814 Store the printed arguments as the value of the parameter
9815 name.
9816 -x tab-stop
9818 Expand leading tabs on each line of output in the printed
9819 string assuming a tab stop every tab-stop characters.
9820 This is appropriate for formatting code that may be in‐
9821 dented with tabs. Note that leading tabs of any argument
9822 to print, not just the first, are expanded, even if print
9823 is using spaces to separate arguments (the column count
9824 is maintained across arguments but may be incorrect on
9825 output owing to previous unexpanded tabs).
9826 The start of the output of each print command is assumed
9828 to be aligned with a tab stop. Widths of multibyte char‐
9829 acters are handled if the option MULTIBYTE is in effect.
9830 This option is ignored if other formatting options are in
9831 effect, namely column alignment or printf style, or if
9832 output is to a special location such as shell history or
9833 the command line editor.
9834 -X tab-stop
9836 This is similar to -x, except that all tabs in the
9837 printed string are expanded. This is appropriate if tabs
9838 in the arguments are being used to produce a table for‐
9839 mat.
9840 -z Push the arguments onto the editing buffer stack, sepa‐
9842 rated by spaces.
9843 If any of `-m', `-o' or `-O' are used in combination with `-f'
9845 and there are no arguments (after the removal process in the
9846 case of `-m') then nothing is printed.
9847 printf [ -v name ] format [ arg ... ]
9849 Print the arguments according to the format specification. For‐
9850 matting rules are the same as used in C. The same escape se‐
9851 quences as for echo are recognised in the format. All C conver‐
9852 sion specifications ending in one of csdiouxXeEfgGn are handled.
9853 In addition to this, `%b' can be used instead of `%s' to cause
9854 escape sequences in the argument to be recognised and `%q' can
9855 be used to quote the argument in such a way that allows it to be
9856 reused as shell input. With the numeric format specifiers, if
9857 the corresponding argument starts with a quote character, the
9858 numeric value of the following character is used as the number
9859 to print; otherwise the argument is evaluated as an arithmetic
9860 expression. See the section `Arithmetic Evaluation' in zsh‐
9861 misc(1) for a description of arithmetic expressions. With `%n',
9862 the corresponding argument is taken as an identifier which is
9863 created as an integer parameter.
9864 Normally, conversion specifications are applied to each argument
9866 in order but they can explicitly specify the nth argument is to
9867 be used by replacing `%' by `%n$' and `*' by `*n$'. It is rec‐
9868 ommended that you do not mix references of this explicit style
9869 with the normal style and the handling of such mixed styles may
9870 be subject to future change.
9871 If arguments remain unused after formatting, the format string
9873 is reused until all arguments have been consumed. With the print
9874 builtin, this can be suppressed by using the -r option. If more
9875 arguments are required by the format than have been specified,
9876 the behaviour is as if zero or an empty string had been speci‐
9877 fied as the argument.
9878 The -v option causes the output to be stored as the value of the
9880 parameter name, instead of printed. If name is an array and the
9881 format string is reused when consuming arguments then one array
9882 element will be used for each use of the format string.
9883 pushd [ -qsLP ] [ arg ]
9885 pushd [ -qsLP ] old new
9886 pushd [ -qsLP ] {+|-}n
9887 Change the current directory, and push the old current directory
9888 onto the directory stack. In the first form, change the current
9889 directory to arg. If arg is not specified, change to the second
9890 directory on the stack (that is, exchange the top two entries),
9891 or change to $HOME if the PUSHD_TO_HOME option is set or if
9892 there is only one entry on the stack. Otherwise, arg is inter‐
9893 preted as it would be by cd. The meaning of old and new in the
9894 second form is also the same as for cd.
9895 The third form of pushd changes directory by rotating the direc‐
9897 tory list. An argument of the form `+n' identifies a stack en‐
9898 try by counting from the left of the list shown by the dirs com‐
9899 mand, starting with zero. An argument of the form `-n' counts
9900 from the right. If the PUSHD_MINUS option is set, the meanings
9901 of `+' and `-' in this context are swapped.
9902 If the -q (quiet) option is specified, the hook function chpwd
9904 and the functions in the array $chpwd_functions are not called,
9905 and the new directory stack is not printed. This is useful for
9906 calls to pushd that do not change the environment seen by an in‐
9907 teractive user.
9908 If the option -q is not specified and the shell option
9910 PUSHD_SILENT is not set, the directory stack will be printed af‐
9911 ter a pushd is performed.
9912 The options -s, -L and -P have the same meanings as for the cd
9914 builtin.
9915 pushln [ arg ... ]
9917 Equivalent to print -nz.
9918 pwd [ -rLP ]
9920 Print the absolute pathname of the current working directory.
9921 If the -r or the -P flag is specified, or the CHASE_LINKS option
9922 is set and the -L flag is not given, the printed path will not
9923 contain symbolic links.
9924 r Same as fc -e -.
9926 read [ -rszpqAclneE ] [ -t [ num ] ] [ -k [ num ] ] [ -d delim ]
9929 [ -u n ] [ name[?prompt] ] [ name ... ]
9930 Read one line and break it into fields using the characters in
9931 $IFS as separators, except as noted below. The first field is
9932 assigned to the first name, the second field to the second name,
9933 etc., with leftover fields assigned to the last name. If name
9934 is omitted then REPLY is used for scalars and reply for arrays.
9935 -r Raw mode: a `\' at the end of a line does not signify
9937 line continuation and backslashes in the line don't quote
9938 the following character and are not removed.
9939 -s Don't echo back characters if reading from the terminal.
9941 -q Read only one character from the terminal and set name to
9943 `y' if this character was `y' or `Y' and to `n' other‐
9944 wise. With this flag set the return status is zero only
9945 if the character was `y' or `Y'. This option may be used
9946 with a timeout (see -t); if the read times out, or en‐
9947 counters end of file, status 2 is returned. Input is
9948 read from the terminal unless one of -u or -p is present.
9949 This option may also be used within zle widgets.
9950 -k [ num ]
9952 Read only one (or num) characters. All are assigned to
9953 the first name, without word splitting. This flag is ig‐
9954 nored when -q is present. Input is read from the termi‐
9955 nal unless one of -u or -p is present. This option may
9956 also be used within zle widgets.
9957 Note that despite the mnemonic `key' this option does
9959 read full characters, which may consist of multiple bytes
9960 if the option MULTIBYTE is set.
9961 -z Read one entry from the editor buffer stack and assign it
9963 to the first name, without word splitting. Text is
9964 pushed onto the stack with `print -z' or with push-line
9965 from the line editor (see zshzle(1)). This flag is ig‐
9966 nored when the -k or -q flags are present.
9967 -e
9969 -E The input read is printed (echoed) to the standard out‐
9970 put. If the -e flag is used, no input is assigned to the
9971 parameters.
9972 -A The first name is taken as the name of an array and all
9974 words are assigned to it.
9975 -c
9977 -l These flags are allowed only if called inside a function
9978 used for completion (specified with the -K flag to com‐
9979 pctl). If the -c flag is given, the words of the current
9980 command are read. If the -l flag is given, the whole line
9981 is assigned as a scalar. If both flags are present, -l
9982 is used and -c is ignored.
9983 -n Together with -c, the number of the word the cursor is on
9985 is read. With -l, the index of the character the cursor
9986 is on is read. Note that the command name is word number
9987 1, not word 0, and that when the cursor is at the end of
9988 the line, its character index is the length of the line
9989 plus one.
9990 -u n Input is read from file descriptor n.
9992 -p Input is read from the coprocess.
9994 -d delim
9996 Input is terminated by the first character of delim in‐
9997 stead of by newline.
9998 -t [ num ]
10000 Test if input is available before attempting to read. If
10001 num is present, it must begin with a digit and will be
10002 evaluated to give a number of seconds, which may be a
10003 floating point number; in this case the read times out if
10004 input is not available within this time. If num is not
10005 present, it is taken to be zero, so that read returns im‐
10006 mediately if no input is available. If no input is
10007 available, return status 1 and do not set any variables.
10008 This option is not available when reading from the editor
10010 buffer with -z, when called from within completion with
10011 -c or -l, with -q which clears the input queue before
10012 reading, or within zle where other mechanisms should be
10013 used to test for input.
10014 Note that read does not attempt to alter the input pro‐
10016 cessing mode. The default mode is canonical input, in
10017 which an entire line is read at a time, so usually `read
10018 -t' will not read anything until an entire line has been
10019 typed. However, when reading from the terminal with -k
10020 input is processed one key at a time; in this case, only
10021 availability of the first character is tested, so that
10022 e.g. `read -t -k 2' can still block on the second charac‐
10023 ter. Use two instances of `read -t -k' if this is not
10024 what is wanted.
10025 If the first argument contains a `?', the remainder of this word
10027 is used as a prompt on standard error when the shell is interac‐
10028 tive.
10029 The value (exit status) of read is 1 when an end-of-file is en‐
10031 countered, or when -c or -l is present and the command is not
10032 called from a compctl function, or as described for -q. Other‐
10033 wise the value is 0.
10034 The behavior of some combinations of the -k, -p, -q, -u and -z
10036 flags is undefined. Presently -q cancels all the others, -p
10037 cancels -u, -k cancels -z, and otherwise -z cancels both -p and
10038 -u.
10039 The -c or -l flags cancel any and all of -kpquz.
10041 readonly
10043 Same as typeset -r. With the POSIX_BUILTINS option set, same as
10044 typeset -gr.
10045 rehash Same as hash -r.
10047 return [ n ]
10049 Causes a shell function or `.' script to return to the invoking
10050 script with the return status specified by an arithmetic expres‐
10051 sion n. If n is omitted, the return status is that of the last
10052 command executed.
10053 If return was executed from a trap in a TRAPNAL function, the
10055 effect is different for zero and non-zero return status. With
10056 zero status (or after an implicit return at the end of the
10057 trap), the shell will return to whatever it was previously pro‐
10058 cessing; with a non-zero status, the shell will behave as inter‐
10059 rupted except that the return status of the trap is retained.
10060 Note that the numeric value of the signal which caused the trap
10061 is passed as the first argument, so the statement `return
10062 $((128+$1))' will return the same status as if the signal had
10063 not been trapped.
10064 sched See the section `The zsh/sched Module' in zshmodules(1).
10066 set [ {+|-}options | {+|-}o [ option_name ] ] ... [ {+|-}A [ name ] ]
10069 [ arg ... ]
10070 Set the options for the shell and/or set the positional parame‐
10071 ters, or declare and set an array. If the -s option is given,
10072 it causes the specified arguments to be sorted before assigning
10073 them to the positional parameters (or to the array name if -A is
10074 used). With +s sort arguments in descending order. For the
10075 meaning of the other flags, see zshoptions(1). Flags may be
10076 specified by name using the -o option. If no option name is sup‐
10077 plied with -o, the current option states are printed: see the
10078 description of setopt below for more information on the format.
10079 With +o they are printed in a form that can be used as input to
10080 the shell.
10081 If the -A flag is specified, name is set to an array containing
10083 the given args; if no name is specified, all arrays are printed
10084 together with their values.
10085 If +A is used and name is an array, the given arguments will re‐
10087 place the initial elements of that array; if no name is speci‐
10088 fied, all arrays are printed without their values.
10089 The behaviour of arguments after -A name or +A name depends on
10091 whether the option KSH_ARRAYS is set. If it is not set, all ar‐
10092 guments following name are treated as values for the array, re‐
10093 gardless of their form. If the option is set, normal option
10094 processing continues at that point; only regular arguments are
10095 treated as values for the array. This means that
10096 set -A array -x -- foo
10098 sets array to `-x -- foo' if KSH_ARRAYS is not set, but sets the
10100 array to foo and turns on the option `-x' if it is set.
10101 If the -A flag is not present, but there are arguments beyond
10103 the options, the positional parameters are set. If the option
10104 list (if any) is terminated by `--', and there are no further
10105 arguments, the positional parameters will be unset.
10106 If no arguments and no `--' are given, then the names and values
10108 of all parameters are printed on the standard output. If the
10109 only argument is `+', the names of all parameters are printed.
10110 For historical reasons, `set -' is treated as `set +xv' and `set
10112 - args' as `set +xv -- args' when in any other emulation mode
10113 than zsh's native mode.
10114 setcap See the section `The zsh/cap Module' in zshmodules(1).
10116 setopt [ {+|-}options | {+|-}o option_name ] [ -m ] [ name ... ]
10118 Set the options for the shell. All options specified either
10119 with flags or by name are set.
10120 If no arguments are supplied, the names of all options currently
10122 set are printed. The form is chosen so as to minimize the dif‐
10123 ferences from the default options for the current emulation (the
10124 default emulation being native zsh, shown as <Z> in zshop‐
10125 tions(1)). Options that are on by default for the emulation are
10126 shown with the prefix no only if they are off, while other op‐
10127 tions are shown without the prefix no and only if they are on.
10128 In addition to options changed from the default state by the
10129 user, any options activated automatically by the shell (for ex‐
10130 ample, SHIN_STDIN or INTERACTIVE) will be shown in the list.
10131 The format is further modified by the option KSH_OPTION_PRINT,
10132 however the rationale for choosing options with or without the
10133 no prefix remains the same in this case.
10134 If the -m flag is given the arguments are taken as patterns
10136 (which should be quoted to protect them from filename expan‐
10137 sion), and all options with names matching these patterns are
10138 set.
10139 Note that a bad option name does not cause execution of subse‐
10141 quent shell code to be aborted; this is behaviour is different
10142 from that of `set -o'. This is because set is regarded as a
10143 special builtin by the POSIX standard, but setopt is not.
10144 shift [ -p ] [ n ] [ name ... ]
10146 The positional parameters ${n+1} ... are renamed to $1 ...,
10147 where n is an arithmetic expression that defaults to 1. If any
10148 names are given then the arrays with these names are shifted in‐
10149 stead of the positional parameters.
10150 If the option -p is given arguments are instead removed (popped)
10152 from the end rather than the start of the array.
10153 source file [ arg ... ]
10155 Same as `.', except that the current directory is always
10156 searched and is always searched first, before directories in
10157 $path.
10158 stat See the section `The zsh/stat Module' in zshmodules(1).
10160 suspend [ -f ]
10162 Suspend the execution of the shell (send it a SIGTSTP) until it
10163 receives a SIGCONT. Unless the -f option is given, this will
10164 refuse to suspend a login shell.
10165 test [ arg ... ]
10167 [ [ arg ... ] ]
10168 Like the system version of test. Added for compatibility; use
10169 conditional expressions instead (see the section `Conditional
10170 Expressions'). The main differences between the conditional ex‐
10171 pression syntax and the test and [ builtins are: these commands
10172 are not handled syntactically, so for example an empty variable
10173 expansion may cause an argument to be omitted; syntax errors
10174 cause status 2 to be returned instead of a shell error; and
10175 arithmetic operators expect integer arguments rather than arith‐
10176 metic expressions.
10177 The command attempts to implement POSIX and its extensions where
10179 these are specified. Unfortunately there are intrinsic ambigui‐
10180 ties in the syntax; in particular there is no distinction be‐
10181 tween test operators and strings that resemble them. The stan‐
10182 dard attempts to resolve these for small numbers of arguments
10183 (up to four); for five or more arguments compatibility cannot be
10184 relied on. Users are urged wherever possible to use the `[['
10185 test syntax which does not have these ambiguities.
10186 times Print the accumulated user and system times for the shell and
10188 for processes run from the shell.
10189 trap [ arg ] [ sig ... ]
10191 arg is a series of commands (usually quoted to protect it from
10192 immediate evaluation by the shell) to be read and executed when
10193 the shell receives any of the signals specified by one or more
10194 sig args. Each sig can be given as a number, or as the name of
10195 a signal either with or without the string SIG in front (e.g. 1,
10196 HUP, and SIGHUP are all the same signal).
10197 If arg is `-', then the specified signals are reset to their de‐
10199 faults, or, if no sig args are present, all traps are reset.
10200 If arg is an empty string, then the specified signals are ig‐
10202 nored by the shell (and by the commands it invokes).
10203 If arg is omitted but one or more sig args are provided (i.e.
10205 the first argument is a valid signal number or name), the effect
10206 is the same as if arg had been specified as `-'.
10207 The trap command with no arguments prints a list of commands as‐
10209 sociated with each signal.
10210 If sig is ZERR then arg will be executed after each command with
10212 a nonzero exit status. ERR is an alias for ZERR on systems that
10213 have no SIGERR signal (this is the usual case).
10214 If sig is DEBUG then arg will be executed before each command if
10216 the option DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD is set (as it is by default), else
10217 after each command. Here, a `command' is what is described as a
10218 `sublist' in the shell grammar, see the section SIMPLE COMMANDS
10219 & PIPELINES in zshmisc(1). If DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD is set various
10220 additional features are available. First, it is possible to
10221 skip the next command by setting the option ERR_EXIT; see the
10222 description of the ERR_EXIT option in zshoptions(1). Also, the
10223 shell parameter ZSH_DEBUG_CMD is set to the string corresponding
10224 to the command to be executed following the trap. Note that
10225 this string is reconstructed from the internal format and may
10226 not be formatted the same way as the original text. The parame‐
10227 ter is unset after the trap is executed.
10228 If sig is 0 or EXIT and the trap statement is executed inside
10230 the body of a function, then the command arg is executed after
10231 the function completes. The value of $? at the start of execu‐
10232 tion is the exit status of the shell or the return status of the
10233 function exiting. If sig is 0 or EXIT and the trap statement is
10234 not executed inside the body of a function, then the command arg
10235 is executed when the shell terminates; the trap runs before any
10236 zshexit hook functions.
10237 ZERR, DEBUG, and EXIT traps are not executed inside other traps.
10239 ZERR and DEBUG traps are kept within subshells, while other
10240 traps are reset.
10241 Note that traps defined with the trap builtin are slightly dif‐
10243 ferent from those defined as `TRAPNAL () { ... }', as the latter
10244 have their own function environment (line numbers, local vari‐
10245 ables, etc.) while the former use the environment of the command
10246 in which they were called. For example,
10247 trap 'print $LINENO' DEBUG
10249 will print the line number of a command executed after it has
10251 run, while
10252 TRAPDEBUG() { print $LINENO; }
10254 will always print the number zero.
10256 Alternative signal names are allowed as described under kill
10258 above. Defining a trap under either name causes any trap under
10259 an alternative name to be removed. However, it is recommended
10260 that for consistency users stick exclusively to one name or an‐
10261 other.
10262 true [ arg ... ]
10264 Do nothing and return an exit status of 0.
10265 ttyctl [ -fu ]
10267 The -f option freezes the tty (i.e. terminal or terminal emula‐
10268 tor), and -u unfreezes it. When the tty is frozen, no changes
10269 made to the tty settings by external programs will be honored by
10270 the shell, except for changes in the size of the screen; the
10271 shell will simply reset the settings to their previous values as
10272 soon as each command exits or is suspended. Thus, stty and sim‐
10273 ilar programs have no effect when the tty is frozen. Freezing
10274 the tty does not cause the current state to be remembered: in‐
10275 stead, it causes future changes to the state to be blocked.
10276 Without options it reports whether the terminal is frozen or
10278 not.
10279 Note that, regardless of whether the tty is frozen or not, the
10281 shell needs to change the settings when the line editor starts,
10282 so unfreezing the tty does not guarantee settings made on the
10283 command line are preserved. Strings of commands run between
10284 editing the command line will see a consistent tty state. See
10285 also the shell variable STTY for a means of initialising the tty
10286 before running external commands.
10287 type [ -wfpamsS ] name ...
10289 Equivalent to whence -v.
10290 typeset [ {+|-}AHUaghlmrtux ] [ {+|-}EFLRZip [ n ] ]
10293 [ + ] [ name[=value] ... ]
10294 typeset -T [ {+|-}Uglrux ] [ {+|-}LRZp [ n ] ]
10295 [ + | SCALAR[=value] array[=(value ...)] [ sep ] ]
10296 typeset -f [ {+|-}TUkmtuz ] [ + ] [ name ... ]
10297 Set or display attributes and values for shell parameters.
10298 Except as noted below for control flags that change the behav‐
10300 ior, a parameter is created for each name that does not already
10301 refer to one. When inside a function, a new parameter is cre‐
10302 ated for every name (even those that already exist), and is un‐
10303 set again when the function completes. See `Local Parameters'
10304 in zshparam(1). The same rules apply to special shell parame‐
10305 ters, which retain their special attributes when made local.
10306 For each name=value assignment, the parameter name is set to
10308 value.
10309 If the shell option TYPESET_SILENT is not set, for each remain‐
10311 ing name that refers to a parameter that is already set, the
10312 name and value of the parameter are printed in the form of an
10313 assignment. Nothing is printed for newly-created parameters, or
10314 when any attribute flags listed below are given along with the
10315 name. Using `+' instead of minus to introduce an attribute
10316 turns it off.
10317 If no name is present, the names and values of all parameters
10319 are printed. In this case the attribute flags restrict the dis‐
10320 play to only those parameters that have the specified at‐
10321 tributes, and using `+' rather than `-' to introduce the flag
10322 suppresses printing of the values of parameters when there is no
10323 parameter name.
10324 All forms of the command handle scalar assignment. Array as‐
10326 signment is possible if any of the reserved words declare, ex‐
10327 port, float, integer, local, readonly or typeset is matched when
10328 the line is parsed (N.B. not when it is executed). In this case
10329 the arguments are parsed as assignments, except that the `+='
10330 syntax and the GLOB_ASSIGN option are not supported, and scalar
10331 values after = are not split further into words, even if ex‐
10332 panded (regardless of the setting of the KSH_TYPESET option;
10333 this option is obsolete).
10334 Examples of the differences between command and reserved word
10336 parsing:
10337 # Reserved word parsing
10339 typeset svar=$(echo one word) avar=(several words)
10340 The above creates a scalar parameter svar and an array parameter
10342 avar as if the assignments had been
10343 svar="one word"
10345 avar=(several words)
10346 On the other hand:
10348 # Normal builtin interface
10350 builtin typeset svar=$(echo two words)
10351 The builtin keyword causes the above to use the standard builtin
10353 interface to typeset in which argument parsing is performed in
10354 the same way as for other commands. This example creates a
10355 scalar svar containing the value two and another scalar parame‐
10356 ter words with no value. An array value in this case would ei‐
10357 ther cause an error or be treated as an obscure set of glob
10358 qualifiers.
10359 Arbitrary arguments are allowed if they take the form of assign‐
10361 ments after command line expansion; however, these only perform
10362 scalar assignment:
10363 var='svar=val'
10365 typeset $var
10366 The above sets the scalar parameter svar to the value val.
10368 Parentheses around the value within var would not cause array
10369 assignment as they will be treated as ordinary characters when
10370 $var is substituted. Any non-trivial expansion in the name part
10371 of the assignment causes the argument to be treated in this
10372 fashion:
10373 typeset {var1,var2,var3}=name
10375 The above syntax is valid, and has the expected effect of set‐
10377 ting the three parameters to the same value, but the command
10378 line is parsed as a set of three normal command line arguments
10379 to typeset after expansion. Hence it is not possible to assign
10380 to multiple arrays by this means.
10381 Note that each interface to any of the commands my be disabled
10383 separately. For example, `disable -r typeset' disables the re‐
10384 served word interface to typeset, exposing the builtin inter‐
10385 face, while `disable typeset' disables the builtin. Note that
10386 disabling the reserved word interface for typeset may cause
10387 problems with the output of `typeset -p', which assumes the re‐
10388 served word interface is available in order to restore array and
10389 associative array values.
10390 Unlike parameter assignment statements, typeset's exit status on
10392 an assignment that involves a command substitution does not re‐
10393 flect the exit status of the command substitution. Therefore,
10394 to test for an error in a command substitution, separate the
10395 declaration of the parameter from its initialization:
10396 # WRONG
10398 typeset var1=$(exit 1) || echo "Trouble with var1"
10399 # RIGHT
10401 typeset var1 && var1=$(exit 1) || echo "Trouble with var1"
10402 To initialize a parameter param to a command output and mark it
10404 readonly, use typeset -r param or readonly param after the pa‐
10405 rameter assignment statement.
10406 If no attribute flags are given, and either no name arguments
10408 are present or the flag +m is used, then each parameter name
10409 printed is preceded by a list of the attributes of that parame‐
10410 ter (array, association, exported, float, integer, readonly, or
10411 undefined for autoloaded parameters not yet loaded). If +m is
10412 used with attribute flags, and all those flags are introduced
10413 with +, the matching parameter names are printed but their val‐
10414 ues are not.
10415 The following control flags change the behavior of typeset:
10417 + If `+' appears by itself in a separate word as the last
10419 option, then the names of all parameters (functions with
10420 -f) are printed, but the values (function bodies) are
10421 not. No name arguments may appear, and it is an error
10422 for any other options to follow `+'. The effect of `+'
10423 is as if all attribute flags which precede it were given
10424 with a `+' prefix. For example, `typeset -U +' is equiv‐
10425 alent to `typeset +U' and displays the names of all ar‐
10426 rays having the uniqueness attribute, whereas `typeset -f
10427 -U +' displays the names of all autoloadable functions.
10428 If + is the only option, then type information (array,
10429 readonly, etc.) is also printed for each parameter, in
10430 the same manner as `typeset +m "*"'.
10431 -g The -g (global) means that any resulting parameter will
10433 not be restricted to local scope. Note that this does
10434 not necessarily mean that the parameter will be global,
10435 as the flag will apply to any existing parameter (even if
10436 unset) from an enclosing function. This flag does not
10437 affect the parameter after creation, hence it has no ef‐
10438 fect when listing existing parameters, nor does the flag
10439 +g have any effect except in combination with -m (see be‐
10440 low).
10441 -m If the -m flag is given the name arguments are taken as
10443 patterns (use quoting to prevent these from being inter‐
10444 preted as file patterns). With no attribute flags, all
10445 parameters (or functions with the -f flag) with matching
10446 names are printed (the shell option TYPESET_SILENT is not
10447 used in this case).
10448 If the +g flag is combined with -m, a new local parameter
10450 is created for every matching parameter that is not al‐
10451 ready local. Otherwise -m applies all other flags or as‐
10452 signments to the existing parameters.
10453 Except when assignments are made with name=value, using
10455 +m forces the matching parameters and their attributes to
10456 be printed, even inside a function. Note that -m is ig‐
10457 nored if no patterns are given, so `typeset -m' displays
10458 attributes but `typeset -a +m' does not.
10459 -p [ n ]
10461 If the -p option is given, parameters and values are
10462 printed in the form of a typeset command with an assign‐
10463 ment, regardless of other flags and options. Note that
10464 the -H flag on parameters is respected; no value will be
10465 shown for these parameters.
10466 -p may be followed by an optional integer argument. Cur‐
10468 rently only the value 1 is supported. In this case ar‐
10469 rays and associative arrays are printed with newlines be‐
10470 tween indented elements for readability.
10471 -T [ scalar[=value] array[=(value ...)] [ sep ] ]
10473 This flag has a different meaning when used with -f; see
10474 below. Otherwise the -T option requires zero, two, or
10475 three arguments to be present. With no arguments, the
10476 list of parameters created in this fashion is shown.
10477 With two or three arguments, the first two are the name
10478 of a scalar and of an array parameter (in that order)
10479 that will be tied together in the manner of $PATH and
10480 $path. The optional third argument is a single-character
10481 separator which will be used to join the elements of the
10482 array to form the scalar; if absent, a colon is used, as
10483 with $PATH. Only the first character of the separator is
10484 significant; any remaining characters are ignored.
10485 Multibyte characters are not yet supported.
10486 Only one of the scalar and array parameters may be as‐
10488 signed an initial value (the restrictions on assignment
10489 forms described above also apply).
10490 Both the scalar and the array may be manipulated as nor‐
10492 mal. If one is unset, the other will automatically be
10493 unset too. There is no way of untying the variables
10494 without unsetting them, nor of converting the type of one
10495 of them with another typeset command; +T does not work,
10496 assigning an array to scalar is an error, and assigning a
10497 scalar to array sets it to be a single-element array.
10498 Note that both `typeset -xT ...' and `export -T ...'
10500 work, but only the scalar will be marked for export.
10501 Setting the value using the scalar version causes a split
10502 on all separators (which cannot be quoted). It is possi‐
10503 ble to apply -T to two previously tied variables but with
10504 a different separator character, in which case the vari‐
10505 ables remain joined as before but the separator is
10506 changed.
10507 When an existing scalar is tied to a new array, the value
10509 of the scalar is preserved but no attribute other than
10510 export will be preserved.
10511 Attribute flags that transform the final value (-L, -R, -Z, -l,
10513 -u) are only applied to the expanded value at the point of a pa‐
10514 rameter expansion expression using `$'. They are not applied
10515 when a parameter is retrieved internally by the shell for any
10516 purpose.
10517 The following attribute flags may be specified:
10519 -A The names refer to associative array parameters; see `Ar‐
10521 ray Parameters' in zshparam(1).
10522 -L [ n ]
10524 Left justify and remove leading blanks from the value
10525 when the parameter is expanded. If n is nonzero, it de‐
10526 fines the width of the field. If n is zero, the width is
10527 determined by the width of the value of the first assign‐
10528 ment. In the case of numeric parameters, the length of
10529 the complete value assigned to the parameter is used to
10530 determine the width, not the value that would be output.
10531 The width is the count of characters, which may be multi‐
10533 byte characters if the MULTIBYTE option is in effect.
10534 Note that the screen width of the character is not taken
10535 into account; if this is required, use padding with pa‐
10536 rameter expansion flags ${(ml...)...} as described in
10537 `Parameter Expansion Flags' in zshexpn(1).
10538 When the parameter is expanded, it is filled on the right
10540 with blanks or truncated if necessary to fit the field.
10541 Note truncation can lead to unexpected results with nu‐
10542 meric parameters. Leading zeros are removed if the -Z
10543 flag is also set.
10544 -R [ n ]
10546 Similar to -L, except that right justification is used;
10547 when the parameter is expanded, the field is left filled
10548 with blanks or truncated from the end. May not be com‐
10549 bined with the -Z flag.
10550 -U For arrays (but not for associative arrays), keep only
10552 the first occurrence of each duplicated value. This may
10553 also be set for tied parameters (see -T) or colon-sepa‐
10554 rated special parameters like PATH or FIGNORE, etc. Note
10555 the flag takes effect on assignment, and the type of the
10556 variable being assigned to is determinative; for vari‐
10557 ables with shared values it is therefore recommended to
10558 set the flag for all interfaces, e.g. `typeset -U PATH
10559 path'.
10560 This flag has a different meaning when used with -f; see
10562 below.
10563 -Z [ n ]
10565 Specially handled if set along with the -L flag. Other‐
10566 wise, similar to -R, except that leading zeros are used
10567 for padding instead of blanks if the first non-blank
10568 character is a digit. Numeric parameters are specially
10569 handled: they are always eligible for padding with ze‐
10570 roes, and the zeroes are inserted at an appropriate place
10571 in the output.
10572 -a The names refer to array parameters. An array parameter
10574 may be created this way, but it may be assigned to in the
10575 typeset statement only if the reserved word form of type‐
10576 set is enabled (as it is by default). When displaying,
10577 both normal and associative arrays are shown.
10578 -f The names refer to functions rather than parameters. No
10580 assignments can be made, and the only other valid flags
10581 are -t, -T, -k, -u, -U and -z. The flag -t turns on exe‐
10582 cution tracing for this function; the flag -T does the
10583 same, but turns off tracing for any named (not anonymous)
10584 function called from the present one, unless that func‐
10585 tion also has the -t or -T flag. The -u and -U flags
10586 cause the function to be marked for autoloading; -U also
10587 causes alias expansion to be suppressed when the function
10588 is loaded. See the description of the `autoload' builtin
10589 for details.
10590 Note that the builtin functions provides the same basic
10592 capabilities as typeset -f but gives access to a few ex‐
10593 tra options; autoload gives further additional options
10594 for the case typeset -fu and typeset -fU.
10595 -h Hide: only useful for special parameters (those marked
10597 `<S>' in the table in zshparam(1)), and for local parame‐
10598 ters with the same name as a special parameter, though
10599 harmless for others. A special parameter with this at‐
10600 tribute will not retain its special effect when made lo‐
10601 cal. Thus after `typeset -h PATH', a function containing
10602 `typeset PATH' will create an ordinary local parameter
10603 without the usual behaviour of PATH. Alternatively, the
10604 local parameter may itself be given this attribute; hence
10605 inside a function `typeset -h PATH' creates an ordinary
10606 local parameter and the special PATH parameter is not al‐
10607 tered in any way. It is also possible to create a local
10608 parameter using `typeset +h special', where the local
10609 copy of special will retain its special properties re‐
10610 gardless of having the -h attribute. Global special pa‐
10611 rameters loaded from shell modules (currently those in
10612 zsh/mapfile and zsh/parameter) are automatically given
10613 the -h attribute to avoid name clashes.
10614 -H Hide value: specifies that typeset will not display the
10616 value of the parameter when listing parameters; the dis‐
10617 play for such parameters is always as if the `+' flag had
10618 been given. Use of the parameter is in other respects
10619 normal, and the option does not apply if the parameter is
10620 specified by name, or by pattern with the -m option.
10621 This is on by default for the parameters in the zsh/pa‐
10622 rameter and zsh/mapfile modules. Note, however, that un‐
10623 like the -h flag this is also useful for non-special pa‐
10624 rameters.
10625 -i [ n ]
10627 Use an internal integer representation. If n is nonzero
10628 it defines the output arithmetic base, otherwise it is
10629 determined by the first assignment. Bases from 2 to 36
10630 inclusive are allowed.
10631 -E [ n ]
10633 Use an internal double-precision floating point represen‐
10634 tation. On output the variable will be converted to sci‐
10635 entific notation. If n is nonzero it defines the number
10636 of significant figures to display; the default is ten.
10637 -F [ n ]
10639 Use an internal double-precision floating point represen‐
10640 tation. On output the variable will be converted to
10641 fixed-point decimal notation. If n is nonzero it defines
10642 the number of digits to display after the decimal point;
10643 the default is ten.
10644 -l Convert the result to lower case whenever the parameter
10646 is expanded. The value is not converted when assigned.
10647 -r The given names are marked readonly. Note that if name
10649 is a special parameter, the readonly attribute can be
10650 turned on, but cannot then be turned off.
10651 If the POSIX_BUILTINS option is set, the readonly attri‐
10653 bute is more restrictive: unset variables can be marked
10654 readonly and cannot then be set; furthermore, the read‐
10655 only attribute cannot be removed from any variable.
10656 It is still possible to change other attributes of the
10658 variable though, some of which like -U or -Z would affect
10659 the value. More generally, the readonly attribute should
10660 not be relied on as a security mechanism.
10661 Note that in zsh (like in pdksh but unlike most other
10663 shells) it is still possible to create a local variable
10664 of the same name as this is considered a different vari‐
10665 able (though this variable, too, can be marked readonly).
10666 Special variables that have been made readonly retain
10667 their value and readonly attribute when made local.
10668 -t Tags the named parameters. Tags have no special meaning
10670 to the shell. This flag has a different meaning when
10671 used with -f; see above.
10672 -u Convert the result to upper case whenever the parameter
10674 is expanded. The value is not converted when assigned.
10675 This flag has a different meaning when used with -f; see
10676 above.
10677 -x Mark for automatic export to the environment of subse‐
10679 quently executed commands. If the option GLOBAL_EXPORT
10680 is set, this implies the option -g, unless +g is also ex‐
10681 plicitly given; in other words the parameter is not made
10682 local to the enclosing function. This is for compatibil‐
10683 ity with previous versions of zsh.
10684 ulimit [ -HSa ] [ { -bcdfiklmnpqrsTtvwx | -N resource } [ limit ] ... ]
10686 Set or display resource limits of the shell and the processes
10687 started by the shell. The value of limit can be a number in the
10688 unit specified below or one of the values `unlimited', which re‐
10689 moves the limit on the resource, or `hard', which uses the cur‐
10690 rent value of the hard limit on the resource.
10691 By default, only soft limits are manipulated. If the -H flag is
10693 given use hard limits instead of soft limits. If the -S flag is
10694 given together with the -H flag set both hard and soft limits.
10695 If no options are used, the file size limit (-f) is assumed.
10697 If limit is omitted the current value of the specified resources
10699 are printed. When more than one resource value is printed, the
10700 limit name and unit is printed before each value.
10701 When looping over multiple resources, the shell will abort imme‐
10703 diately if it detects a badly formed argument. However, if it
10704 fails to set a limit for some other reason it will continue try‐
10705 ing to set the remaining limits.
10706 Not all the following resources are supported on all systems.
10708 Running ulimit -a will show which are supported.
10709 -a Lists all of the current resource limits.
10711 -b Socket buffer size in bytes (N.B. not kilobytes)
10712 -c 512-byte blocks on the size of core dumps.
10713 -d Kilobytes on the size of the data segment.
10714 -f 512-byte blocks on the size of files written.
10715 -i The number of pending signals.
10716 -k The number of kqueues allocated.
10717 -l Kilobytes on the size of locked-in memory.
10718 -m Kilobytes on the size of physical memory.
10719 -n open file descriptors.
10720 -p The number of pseudo-terminals.
10721 -q Bytes in POSIX message queues.
10722 -r Maximum real time priority. On some systems where this
10723 is not available, such as NetBSD, this has the same ef‐
10724 fect as -T for compatibility with sh.
10725 -s Kilobytes on the size of the stack.
10726 -T The number of simultaneous threads available to the user.
10727 -t CPU seconds to be used.
10728 -u The number of processes available to the user.
10729 -v Kilobytes on the size of virtual memory. On some systems
10730 this refers to the limit called `address space'.
10731 -w Kilobytes on the size of swapped out memory.
10732 -x The number of locks on files.
10733 A resource may also be specified by integer in the form `-N re‐
10735 source', where resource corresponds to the integer defined for
10736 the resource by the operating system. This may be used to set
10737 the limits for resources known to the shell which do not corre‐
10738 spond to option letters. Such limits will be shown by number in
10739 the output of `ulimit -a'.
10740 The number may alternatively be out of the range of limits com‐
10742 piled into the shell. The shell will try to read or write the
10743 limit anyway, and will report an error if this fails.
10744 umask [ -S ] [ mask ]
10746 The umask is set to mask. mask can be either an octal number or
10747 a symbolic value as described in chmod(1). If mask is omitted,
10748 the current value is printed. The -S option causes the mask to
10749 be printed as a symbolic value. Otherwise, the mask is printed
10750 as an octal number. Note that in the symbolic form the permis‐
10751 sions you specify are those which are to be allowed (not denied)
10752 to the users specified.
10753 unalias [ -ams ] name ...
10755 Removes aliases. This command works the same as unhash -a, ex‐
10756 cept that the -a option removes all regular or global aliases,
10757 or with -s all suffix aliases: in this case no name arguments
10758 may appear. The options -m (remove by pattern) and -s without
10759 -a (remove listed suffix aliases) behave as for unhash -a. Note
10760 that the meaning of -a is different between unalias and unhash.
10761 unfunction
10763 Same as unhash -f.
10764 unhash [ -adfms ] name ...
10766 Remove the element named name from an internal hash table. The
10767 default is remove elements from the command hash table. The -a
10768 option causes unhash to remove regular or global aliases; note
10769 when removing a global aliases that the argument must be quoted
10770 to prevent it from being expanded before being passed to the
10771 command. The -s option causes unhash to remove suffix aliases.
10772 The -f option causes unhash to remove shell functions. The -d
10773 options causes unhash to remove named directories. If the -m
10774 flag is given the arguments are taken as patterns (should be
10775 quoted) and all elements of the corresponding hash table with
10776 matching names will be removed.
10777 unlimit [ -hs ] resource ...
10779 The resource limit for each resource is set to the hard limit.
10780 If the -h flag is given and the shell has appropriate privi‐
10781 leges, the hard resource limit for each resource is removed.
10782 The resources of the shell process are only changed if the -s
10783 flag is given.
10784 The unlimit command is not made available by default when the
10786 shell starts in a mode emulating another shell. It can be made
10787 available with the command `zmodload -F zsh/rlimits b:unlimit'.
10788 unset [ -fmv ] name ...
10790 Each named parameter is unset. Local parameters remain local
10791 even if unset; they appear unset within scope, but the previous
10792 value will still reappear when the scope ends.
10793 Individual elements of associative array parameters may be unset
10795 by using subscript syntax on name, which should be quoted (or
10796 the entire command prefixed with noglob) to protect the sub‐
10797 script from filename generation.
10798 If the -m flag is specified the arguments are taken as patterns
10800 (should be quoted) and all parameters with matching names are
10801 unset. Note that this cannot be used when unsetting associative
10802 array elements, as the subscript will be treated as part of the
10803 pattern.
10804 The -v flag specifies that name refers to parameters. This is
10806 the default behaviour.
10807 unset -f is equivalent to unfunction.
10809 unsetopt [ {+|-}options | {+|-}o option_name ] [ name ... ]
10811 Unset the options for the shell. All options specified either
10812 with flags or by name are unset. If no arguments are supplied,
10813 the names of all options currently unset are printed. If the -m
10814 flag is given the arguments are taken as patterns (which should
10815 be quoted to preserve them from being interpreted as glob pat‐
10816 terns), and all options with names matching these patterns are
10817 unset.
10818 vared See the section `Zle Builtins' in zshzle(1).
10820 wait [ job ... ]
10822 Wait for the specified jobs or processes. If job is not given
10823 then all currently active child processes are waited for. Each
10824 job can be either a job specification or the process ID of a job
10825 in the job table. The exit status from this command is that of
10826 the job waited for. If job represents an unknown job or process
10827 ID, a warning is printed (unless the POSIX_BUILTINS option is
10828 set) and the exit status is 127.
10829 It is possible to wait for recent processes (specified by
10831 process ID, not by job) that were running in the background even
10832 if the process has exited. Typically the process ID will be
10833 recorded by capturing the value of the variable $! immediately
10834 after the process has been started. There is a limit on the
10835 number of process IDs remembered by the shell; this is given by
10836 the value of the system configuration parameter CHILD_MAX. When
10837 this limit is reached, older process IDs are discarded, least
10838 recently started processes first.
10839 Note there is no protection against the process ID wrapping,
10841 i.e. if the wait is not executed soon enough there is a chance
10842 the process waited for is the wrong one. A conflict implies
10843 both process IDs have been generated by the shell, as other pro‐
10844 cesses are not recorded, and that the user is potentially inter‐
10845 ested in both, so this problem is intrinsic to process IDs.
10846 whence [ -vcwfpamsS ] [ -x num ] name ...
10848 For each name, indicate how it would be interpreted if used as a
10849 command name.
10850 If name is not an alias, built-in command, external command,
10852 shell function, hashed command, or a reserved word, the exit
10853 status shall be non-zero, and -- if -v, -c, or -w was passed --
10854 a message will be written to standard output. (This is differ‐
10855 ent from other shells that write that message to standard er‐
10856 ror.)
10857 whence is most useful when name is only the last path component
10859 of a command, i.e. does not include a `/'; in particular, pat‐
10860 tern matching only succeeds if just the non-directory component
10861 of the command is passed.
10862 -v Produce a more verbose report.
10864 -c Print the results in a csh-like format. This takes
10866 precedence over -v.
10867 -w For each name, print `name: word' where word is one of
10869 alias, builtin, command, function, hashed, reserved or
10870 none, according as name corresponds to an alias, a
10871 built-in command, an external command, a shell function,
10872 a command defined with the hash builtin, a reserved word,
10873 or is not recognised. This takes precedence over -v and
10874 -c.
10875 -f Causes the contents of a shell function to be displayed,
10877 which would otherwise not happen unless the -c flag were
10878 used.
10879 -p Do a path search for name even if it is an alias, re‐
10881 served word, shell function or builtin.
10882 -a Do a search for all occurrences of name throughout the
10884 command path. Normally only the first occurrence is
10885 printed.
10886 -m The arguments are taken as patterns (pattern characters
10888 should be quoted), and the information is displayed for
10889 each command matching one of these patterns.
10890 -s If a pathname contains symlinks, print the symlink-free
10892 pathname as well.
10893 -S As -s, but if the pathname had to be resolved by follow‐
10895 ing multiple symlinks, the intermediate steps are
10896 printed, too. The symlink resolved at each step might be
10897 anywhere in the path.
10898 -x num Expand tabs when outputting shell functions using the -c
10900 option. This has the same effect as the -x option to the
10901 functions builtin.
10902 where [ -wpmsS ] [ -x num ] name ...
10904 Equivalent to whence -ca.
10905 which [ -wpamsS ] [ -x num ] name ...
10907 Equivalent to whence -c.
10908 zcompile [ -U ] [ -z | -k ] [ -R | -M ] file [ name ... ]
10910 zcompile -ca [ -m ] [ -R | -M ] file [ name ... ]
10911 zcompile -t file [ name ... ]
10912 This builtin command can be used to compile functions or
10913 scripts, storing the compiled form in a file, and to examine
10914 files containing the compiled form. This allows faster au‐
10915 toloading of functions and sourcing of scripts by avoiding pars‐
10916 ing of the text when the files are read.
10917 The first form (without the -c, -a or -t options) creates a com‐
10919 piled file. If only the file argument is given, the output file
10920 has the name `file.zwc' and will be placed in the same directory
10921 as the file. The shell will load the compiled file instead of
10922 the normal function file when the function is autoloaded; see
10923 the section `Autoloading Functions' in zshmisc(1) for a descrip‐
10924 tion of how autoloaded functions are searched. The extension
10925 .zwc stands for `zsh word code'.
10926 If there is at least one name argument, all the named files are
10928 compiled into the output file given as the first argument. If
10929 file does not end in .zwc, this extension is automatically ap‐
10930 pended. Files containing multiple compiled functions are called
10931 `digest' files, and are intended to be used as elements of the
10932 FPATH/fpath special array.
10933 The second form, with the -c or -a options, writes the compiled
10935 definitions for all the named functions into file. For -c, the
10936 names must be functions currently defined in the shell, not
10937 those marked for autoloading. Undefined functions that are
10938 marked for autoloading may be written by using the -a option, in
10939 which case the fpath is searched and the contents of the defini‐
10940 tion files for those functions, if found, are compiled into
10941 file. If both -c and -a are given, names of both defined func‐
10942 tions and functions marked for autoloading may be given. In ei‐
10943 ther case, the functions in files written with the -c or -a op‐
10944 tion will be autoloaded as if the KSH_AUTOLOAD option were un‐
10945 set.
10946 The reason for handling loaded and not-yet-loaded functions with
10948 different options is that some definition files for autoloading
10949 define multiple functions, including the function with the same
10950 name as the file, and, at the end, call that function. In such
10951 cases the output of `zcompile -c' does not include the addi‐
10952 tional functions defined in the file, and any other initializa‐
10953 tion code in the file is lost. Using `zcompile -a' captures all
10954 this extra information.
10955 If the -m option is combined with -c or -a, the names are used
10957 as patterns and all functions whose names match one of these
10958 patterns will be written. If no name is given, the definitions
10959 of all functions currently defined or marked as autoloaded will
10960 be written.
10961 Note the second form cannot be used for compiling functions that
10963 include redirections as part of the definition rather than
10964 within the body of the function; for example
10965 fn1() { { ... } >~/logfile }
10967 can be compiled but
10969 fn1() { ... } >~/logfile
10971 cannot. It is possible to use the first form of zcompile to
10973 compile autoloadable functions that include the full function
10974 definition instead of just the body of the function.
10975 The third form, with the -t option, examines an existing com‐
10977 piled file. Without further arguments, the names of the origi‐
10978 nal files compiled into it are listed. The first line of output
10979 shows the version of the shell which compiled the file and how
10980 the file will be used (i.e. by reading it directly or by mapping
10981 it into memory). With arguments, nothing is output and the re‐
10982 turn status is set to zero if definitions for all names were
10983 found in the compiled file, and non-zero if the definition for
10984 at least one name was not found.
10985 Other options:
10987 -U Aliases are not expanded when compiling the named files.
10989 -R When the compiled file is read, its contents are copied
10991 into the shell's memory, rather than memory-mapped (see
10992 -M). This happens automatically on systems that do not
10993 support memory mapping.
10994 When compiling scripts instead of autoloadable functions,
10996 it is often desirable to use this option; otherwise the
10997 whole file, including the code to define functions which
10998 have already been defined, will remain mapped, conse‐
10999 quently wasting memory.
11000 -M The compiled file is mapped into the shell's memory when
11002 read. This is done in such a way that multiple instances
11003 of the shell running on the same host will share this
11004 mapped file. If neither -R nor -M is given, the zcompile
11005 builtin decides what to do based on the size of the com‐
11006 piled file.
11007 -k
11009 -z These options are used when the compiled file contains
11010 functions which are to be autoloaded. If -z is given, the
11011 function will be autoloaded as if the KSH_AUTOLOAD option
11012 is not set, even if it is set at the time the compiled
11013 file is read, while if the -k is given, the function will
11014 be loaded as if KSH_AUTOLOAD is set. These options also
11015 take precedence over any -k or -z options specified to
11016 the autoload builtin. If neither of these options is
11017 given, the function will be loaded as determined by the
11018 setting of the KSH_AUTOLOAD option at the time the com‐
11019 piled file is read.
11020 These options may also appear as many times as necessary
11022 between the listed names to specify the loading style of
11023 all following functions, up to the next -k or -z.
11024 The created file always contains two versions of the com‐
11026 piled format, one for big-endian machines and one for
11027 small-endian machines. The upshot of this is that the
11028 compiled file is machine independent and if it is read or
11029 mapped, only one half of the file is actually used (and
11030 mapped).
11031 zformat
11033 See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in zshmodules(1).
11034 zftp See the section `The zsh/zftp Module' in zshmodules(1).
11036 zle See the section `Zle Builtins' in zshzle(1).
11038 zmodload [ -dL ] [ -s ] [ ... ]
11040 zmodload -F [ -alLme -P param ] module [ [+-]feature ... ]
11041 zmodload -e [ -A ] [ ... ]
11042 zmodload [ -a [ -bcpf [ -I ] ] ] [ -iL ] ...
11043 zmodload -u [ -abcdpf [ -I ] ] [ -iL ] ...
11044 zmodload -A [ -L ] [ modalias[=module] ... ]
11045 zmodload -R modalias ...
11046 Performs operations relating to zsh's loadable modules. Loading
11047 of modules while the shell is running (`dynamical loading') is
11048 not available on all operating systems, or on all installations
11049 on a particular operating system, although the zmodload command
11050 itself is always available and can be used to manipulate modules
11051 built into versions of the shell executable without dynamical
11052 loading.
11053 Without arguments the names of all currently loaded binary mod‐
11055 ules are printed. The -L option causes this list to be in the
11056 form of a series of zmodload commands. Forms with arguments
11057 are:
11058 zmodload [ -is ] name ...
11060 zmodload -u [ -i ] name ...
11061 In the simplest case, zmodload loads a binary module.
11062 The module must be in a file with a name consisting of
11063 the specified name followed by a standard suffix, usually
11064 `.so' (`.sl' on HPUX). If the module to be loaded is al‐
11065 ready loaded the duplicate module is ignored. If zmod‐
11066 load detects an inconsistency, such as an invalid module
11067 name or circular dependency list, the current code block
11068 is aborted. If it is available, the module is loaded if
11069 necessary, while if it is not available, non-zero status
11070 is silently returned. The option -i is accepted for com‐
11071 patibility but has no effect.
11072 The named module is searched for in the same way a com‐
11074 mand is, using $module_path instead of $path. However,
11075 the path search is performed even when the module name
11076 contains a `/', which it usually does. There is no way
11077 to prevent the path search.
11078 If the module supports features (see below), zmodload
11080 tries to enable all features when loading a module. If
11081 the module was successfully loaded but not all features
11082 could be enabled, zmodload returns status 2.
11083 If the option -s is given, no error is printed if the
11085 module was not available (though other errors indicating
11086 a problem with the module are printed). The return sta‐
11087 tus indicates if the module was loaded. This is appro‐
11088 priate if the caller considers the module optional.
11089 With -u, zmodload unloads modules. The same name must be
11091 given that was given when the module was loaded, but it
11092 is not necessary for the module to exist in the file sys‐
11093 tem. The -i option suppresses the error if the module is
11094 already unloaded (or was never loaded).
11095 Each module has a boot and a cleanup function. The mod‐
11097 ule will not be loaded if its boot function fails. Simi‐
11098 larly a module can only be unloaded if its cleanup func‐
11099 tion runs successfully.
11100 zmodload -F [ -almLe -P param ] module [ [+-]feature ... ]
11102 zmodload -F allows more selective control over the fea‐
11103 tures provided by modules. With no options apart from
11104 -F, the module named module is loaded, if it was not al‐
11105 ready loaded, and the list of features is set to the re‐
11106 quired state. If no features are specified, the module
11107 is loaded, if it was not already loaded, but the state of
11108 features is unchanged. Each feature may be preceded by a
11109 + to turn the feature on, or - to turn it off; the + is
11110 assumed if neither character is present. Any feature not
11111 explicitly mentioned is left in its current state; if the
11112 module was not previously loaded this means any such fea‐
11113 tures will remain disabled. The return status is zero if
11114 all features were set, 1 if the module failed to load,
11115 and 2 if some features could not be set (for example, a
11116 parameter couldn't be added because there was a different
11117 parameter of the same name) but the module was loaded.
11118 The standard features are builtins, conditions, parame‐
11120 ters and math functions; these are indicated by the pre‐
11121 fix `b:', `c:' (`C:' for an infix condition), `p:' and
11122 `f:', respectively, followed by the name that the corre‐
11123 sponding feature would have in the shell. For example,
11124 `b:strftime' indicates a builtin named strftime and
11125 p:EPOCHSECONDS indicates a parameter named EPOCHSECONDS.
11126 The module may provide other (`abstract') features of its
11127 own as indicated by its documentation; these have no pre‐
11128 fix.
11129 With -l or -L, features provided by the module are
11131 listed. With -l alone, a list of features together with
11132 their states is shown, one feature per line. With -L
11133 alone, a zmodload -F command that would cause enabled
11134 features of the module to be turned on is shown. With
11135 -lL, a zmodload -F command that would cause all the fea‐
11136 tures to be set to their current state is shown. If one
11137 of these combinations is given with the option -P param
11138 then the parameter param is set to an array of features,
11139 either features together with their state or (if -L alone
11140 is given) enabled features.
11141 With the option -L the module name may be omitted; then a
11143 list of all enabled features for all modules providing
11144 features is printed in the form of zmodload -F commands.
11145 If -l is also given, the state of both enabled and dis‐
11146 abled features is output in that form.
11147 A set of features may be provided together with -l or -L
11149 and a module name; in that case only the state of those
11150 features is considered. Each feature may be preceded by
11151 + or - but the character has no effect. If no set of
11152 features is provided, all features are considered.
11153 With -e, the command first tests that the module is
11155 loaded; if it is not, status 1 is returned. If the mod‐
11156 ule is loaded, the list of features given as an argument
11157 is examined. Any feature given with no prefix is simply
11158 tested to see if the module provides it; any feature
11159 given with a prefix + or - is tested to see if is pro‐
11160 vided and in the given state. If the tests on all fea‐
11161 tures in the list succeed, status 0 is returned, else
11162 status 1.
11163 With -m, each entry in the given list of features is
11165 taken as a pattern to be matched against the list of fea‐
11166 tures provided by the module. An initial + or - must be
11167 given explicitly. This may not be combined with the -a
11168 option as autoloads must be specified explicitly.
11169 With -a, the given list of features is marked for au‐
11171 toload from the specified module, which may not yet be
11172 loaded. An optional + may appear before the feature
11173 name. If the feature is prefixed with -, any existing
11174 autoload is removed. The options -l and -L may be used
11175 to list autoloads. Autoloading is specific to individual
11176 features; when the module is loaded only the requested
11177 feature is enabled. Autoload requests are preserved if
11178 the module is subsequently unloaded until an explicit
11179 `zmodload -Fa module -feature' is issued. It is not an
11180 error to request an autoload for a feature of a module
11181 that is already loaded.
11182 When the module is loaded each autoload is checked
11184 against the features actually provided by the module; if
11185 the feature is not provided the autoload request is
11186 deleted. A warning message is output; if the module is
11187 being loaded to provide a different feature, and that au‐
11188 toload is successful, there is no effect on the status of
11189 the current command. If the module is already loaded at
11190 the time when zmodload -Fa is run, an error message is
11191 printed and status 1 returned.
11192 zmodload -Fa can be used with the -l, -L, -e and -P op‐
11194 tions for listing and testing the existence of autoload‐
11195 able features. In this case -l is ignored if -L is spec‐
11196 ified. zmodload -FaL with no module name lists autoloads
11197 for all modules.
11198 Note that only standard features as described above can
11200 be autoloaded; other features require the module to be
11201 loaded before enabling.
11202 zmodload -d [ -L ] [ name ]
11204 zmodload -d name dep ...
11205 zmodload -ud name [ dep ... ]
11206 The -d option can be used to specify module dependencies.
11207 The modules named in the second and subsequent arguments
11208 will be loaded before the module named in the first argu‐
11209 ment.
11210 With -d and one argument, all dependencies for that mod‐
11212 ule are listed. With -d and no arguments, all module de‐
11213 pendencies are listed. This listing is by default in a
11214 Makefile-like format. The -L option changes this format
11215 to a list of zmodload -d commands.
11216 If -d and -u are both used, dependencies are removed. If
11218 only one argument is given, all dependencies for that
11219 module are removed.
11220 zmodload -ab [ -L ]
11222 zmodload -ab [ -i ] name [ builtin ... ]
11223 zmodload -ub [ -i ] builtin ...
11224 The -ab option defines autoloaded builtins. It defines
11225 the specified builtins. When any of those builtins is
11226 called, the module specified in the first argument is
11227 loaded and all its features are enabled (for selective
11228 control of features use `zmodload -F -a' as described
11229 above). If only the name is given, one builtin is de‐
11230 fined, with the same name as the module. -i suppresses
11231 the error if the builtin is already defined or au‐
11232 toloaded, but not if another builtin of the same name is
11233 already defined.
11234 With -ab and no arguments, all autoloaded builtins are
11236 listed, with the module name (if different) shown in
11237 parentheses after the builtin name. The -L option
11238 changes this format to a list of zmodload -a commands.
11239 If -b is used together with the -u option, it removes
11241 builtins previously defined with -ab. This is only pos‐
11242 sible if the builtin is not yet loaded. -i suppresses
11243 the error if the builtin is already removed (or never ex‐
11244 isted).
11245 Autoload requests are retained if the module is subse‐
11247 quently unloaded until an explicit `zmodload -ub builtin'
11248 is issued.
11249 zmodload -ac [ -IL ]
11251 zmodload -ac [ -iI ] name [ cond ... ]
11252 zmodload -uc [ -iI ] cond ...
11253 The -ac option is used to define autoloaded condition
11254 codes. The cond strings give the names of the conditions
11255 defined by the module. The optional -I option is used to
11256 define infix condition names. Without this option prefix
11257 condition names are defined.
11258 If given no condition names, all defined names are listed
11260 (as a series of zmodload commands if the -L option is
11261 given).
11262 The -uc option removes definitions for autoloaded condi‐
11264 tions.
11265 zmodload -ap [ -L ]
11267 zmodload -ap [ -i ] name [ parameter ... ]
11268 zmodload -up [ -i ] parameter ...
11269 The -p option is like the -b and -c options, but makes
11270 zmodload work on autoloaded parameters instead.
11271 zmodload -af [ -L ]
11273 zmodload -af [ -i ] name [ function ... ]
11274 zmodload -uf [ -i ] function ...
11275 The -f option is like the -b, -p, and -c options, but
11276 makes zmodload work on autoloaded math functions instead.
11277 zmodload -a [ -L ]
11279 zmodload -a [ -i ] name [ builtin ... ]
11280 zmodload -ua [ -i ] builtin ...
11281 Equivalent to -ab and -ub.
11282 zmodload -e [ -A ] [ string ... ]
11284 The -e option without arguments lists all loaded modules;
11285 if the -A option is also given, module aliases corre‐
11286 sponding to loaded modules are also shown. If arguments
11287 are provided, nothing is printed; the return status is
11288 set to zero if all strings given as arguments are names
11289 of loaded modules and to one if at least on string is not
11290 the name of a loaded module. This can be used to test
11291 for the availability of things implemented by modules.
11292 In this case, any aliases are automatically resolved and
11293 the -A flag is not used.
11294 zmodload -A [ -L ] [ modalias[=module] ... ]
11296 For each argument, if both modalias and module are given,
11297 define modalias to be an alias for the module module. If
11298 the module modalias is ever subsequently requested, ei‐
11299 ther via a call to zmodload or implicitly, the shell will
11300 attempt to load module instead. If module is not given,
11301 show the definition of modalias. If no arguments are
11302 given, list all defined module aliases. When listing, if
11303 the -L flag was also given, list the definition as a
11304 zmodload command to recreate the alias.
11305 The existence of aliases for modules is completely inde‐
11307 pendent of whether the name resolved is actually loaded
11308 as a module: while the alias exists, loading and unload‐
11309 ing the module under any alias has exactly the same ef‐
11310 fect as using the resolved name, and does not affect the
11311 connection between the alias and the resolved name which
11312 can be removed either by zmodload -R or by redefining the
11313 alias. Chains of aliases (i.e. where the first resolved
11314 name is itself an alias) are valid so long as these are
11315 not circular. As the aliases take the same format as
11316 module names, they may include path separators: in this
11317 case, there is no requirement for any part of the path
11318 named to exist as the alias will be resolved first. For
11319 example, `any/old/alias' is always a valid alias.
11320 Dependencies added to aliased modules are actually added
11322 to the resolved module; these remain if the alias is re‐
11323 moved. It is valid to create an alias whose name is one
11324 of the standard shell modules and which resolves to a
11325 different module. However, if a module has dependencies,
11326 it will not be possible to use the module name as an
11327 alias as the module will already be marked as a loadable
11328 module in its own right.
11329 Apart from the above, aliases can be used in the zmodload
11331 command anywhere module names are required. However,
11332 aliases will not be shown in lists of loaded modules with
11333 a bare `zmodload'.
11334 zmodload -R modalias ...
11336 For each modalias argument that was previously defined as
11337 a module alias via zmodload -A, delete the alias. If any
11338 was not defined, an error is caused and the remainder of
11339 the line is ignored.
11340 Note that zsh makes no distinction between modules that were
11342 linked into the shell and modules that are loaded dynamically.
11343 In both cases this builtin command has to be used to make avail‐
11344 able the builtins and other things defined by modules (unless
11345 the module is autoloaded on these definitions). This is true
11346 even for systems that don't support dynamic loading of modules.
11347 zparseopts
11349 See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in zshmodules(1).
11350 zprof See the section `The zsh/zprof Module' in zshmodules(1).
11352 zpty See the section `The zsh/zpty Module' in zshmodules(1).
11354 zregexparse
11356 See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in zshmodules(1).
11357 zsocket
11359 See the section `The zsh/net/socket Module' in zshmodules(1).
11360 zstyle See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in zshmodules(1).
11362 ztcp See the section `The zsh/net/tcp Module' in zshmodules(1).
11364ZSHZLE(1) General Commands Manual ZSHZLE(1)
11368
11372 zshzle - zsh command line editor
11373
11375 If the ZLE option is set (which it is by default in interactive shells)
11376 and the shell input is attached to the terminal, the user is able to
11377 edit command lines.
11378 There are two display modes. The first, multiline mode, is the de‐
11380 fault. It only works if the TERM parameter is set to a valid terminal
11381 type that can move the cursor up. The second, single line mode, is
11382 used if TERM is invalid or incapable of moving the cursor up, or if the
11383 SINGLE_LINE_ZLE option is set. This mode is similar to ksh, and uses
11384 no termcap sequences. If TERM is "emacs", the ZLE option will be unset
11385 by default.
11386 The parameters BAUD, COLUMNS, and LINES are also used by the line edi‐
11388 tor. See Parameters Used By The Shell in zshparam(1).
11389 The parameter zle_highlight is also used by the line editor; see Char‐
11391 acter Highlighting below. Highlighting of special characters and the
11392 region between the cursor and the mark (as set with set-mark-command in
11393 Emacs mode, or by visual-mode in Vi mode) is enabled by default; con‐
11394 sult this reference for more information. Irascible conservatives will
11395 wish to know that all highlighting may be disabled by the following
11396 setting:
11397 zle_highlight=(none)
11399 In many places, references are made to the numeric argument. This can
11401 by default be entered in emacs mode by holding the alt key and typing a
11402 number, or pressing escape before each digit, and in vi command mode by
11403 typing the number before entering a command. Generally the numeric ar‐
11404 gument causes the next command entered to be repeated the specified
11405 number of times, unless otherwise noted below; this is implemented by
11406 the digit-argument widget. See also the Arguments subsection of the
11407 Widgets section for some other ways the numeric argument can be modi‐
11408 fied.
11409
11411 A keymap in ZLE contains a set of bindings between key sequences and
11412 ZLE commands. The empty key sequence cannot be bound.
11413 There can be any number of keymaps at any time, and each keymap has one
11415 or more names. If all of a keymap's names are deleted, it disappears.
11416 bindkey can be used to manipulate keymap names.
11417 Initially, there are eight keymaps:
11419 emacs EMACS emulation
11421 viins vi emulation - insert mode
11422 vicmd vi emulation - command mode
11423 viopp vi emulation - operator pending
11424 visual vi emulation - selection active
11425 isearch
11426 incremental search mode
11427 command
11428 read a command name
11429 .safe fallback keymap
11430 The `.safe' keymap is special. It can never be altered, and the name
11432 can never be removed. However, it can be linked to other names, which
11433 can be removed. In the future other special keymaps may be added;
11434 users should avoid using names beginning with `.' for their own
11435 keymaps.
11436 In addition to these names, either `emacs' or `viins' is also linked to
11438 the name `main'. If one of the VISUAL or EDITOR environment variables
11439 contain the string `vi' when the shell starts up then it will be `vi‐
11440 ins', otherwise it will be `emacs'. bindkey's -e and -v options pro‐
11441 vide a convenient way to override this default choice.
11442 When the editor starts up, it will select the `main' keymap. If that
11444 keymap doesn't exist, it will use `.safe' instead.
11445 In the `.safe' keymap, each single key is bound to self-insert, except
11447 for ^J (line feed) and ^M (return) which are bound to accept-line.
11448 This is deliberately not pleasant to use; if you are using it, it means
11449 you deleted the main keymap, and you should put it back.
11450 Reading Commands
11452 When ZLE is reading a command from the terminal, it may read a sequence
11453 that is bound to some command and is also a prefix of a longer bound
11454 string. In this case ZLE will wait a certain time to see if more char‐
11455 acters are typed, and if not (or they don't match any longer string) it
11456 will execute the binding. This timeout is defined by the KEYTIMEOUT
11457 parameter; its default is 0.4 sec. There is no timeout if the prefix
11458 string is not itself bound to a command.
11459 The key timeout is also applied when ZLE is reading the bytes from a
11461 multibyte character string when it is in the appropriate mode. (This
11462 requires that the shell was compiled with multibyte mode enabled; typi‐
11463 cally also the locale has characters with the UTF-8 encoding, although
11464 any multibyte encoding known to the operating system is supported.) If
11465 the second or a subsequent byte is not read within the timeout period,
11466 the shell acts as if ? were typed and resets the input state.
11467 As well as ZLE commands, key sequences can be bound to other strings,
11469 by using `bindkey -s'. When such a sequence is read, the replacement
11470 string is pushed back as input, and the command reading process starts
11471 again using these fake keystrokes. This input can itself invoke fur‐
11472 ther replacement strings, but in order to detect loops the process will
11473 be stopped if there are twenty such replacements without a real command
11474 being read.
11475 A key sequence typed by the user can be turned into a command name for
11477 use in user-defined widgets with the read-command widget, described in
11478 the subsection `Miscellaneous' of the section `Standard Widgets' below.
11479 Local Keymaps
11481 While for normal editing a single keymap is used exclusively, in many
11482 modes a local keymap allows for some keys to be customised. For exam‐
11483 ple, in an incremental search mode, a binding in the isearch keymap
11484 will override a binding in the main keymap but all keys that are not
11485 overridden can still be used.
11486 If a key sequence is defined in a local keymap, it will hide a key se‐
11488 quence in the global keymap that is a prefix of that sequence. An exam‐
11489 ple of this occurs with the binding of iw in viopp as this hides the
11490 binding of i in vicmd. However, a longer sequence in the global keymap
11491 that shares the same prefix can still apply so for example the binding
11492 of ^Xa in the global keymap will be unaffected by the binding of ^Xb in
11493 the local keymap.
11494
11496 The ZLE module contains three related builtin commands. The bindkey
11497 command manipulates keymaps and key bindings; the vared command invokes
11498 ZLE on the value of a shell parameter; and the zle command manipulates
11499 editing widgets and allows command line access to ZLE commands from
11500 within shell functions.
11501 bindkey [ options ] -l [ -L ] [ keymap ... ]
11503 bindkey [ options ] -d
11504 bindkey [ options ] -D keymap ...
11505 bindkey [ options ] -A old-keymap new-keymap
11506 bindkey [ options ] -N new-keymap [ old-keymap ]
11507 bindkey [ options ] -m
11508 bindkey [ options ] -r in-string ...
11509 bindkey [ options ] -s in-string out-string ...
11510 bindkey [ options ] in-string command ...
11511 bindkey [ options ] [ in-string ]
11512 bindkey's options can be divided into three categories: keymap
11513 selection for the current command, operation selection, and oth‐
11514 ers. The keymap selection options are:
11515 -e Selects keymap `emacs' for any operations by the current
11517 command, and also links `emacs' to `main' so that it is
11518 selected by default the next time the editor starts.
11519 -v Selects keymap `viins' for any operations by the current
11521 command, and also links `viins' to `main' so that it is
11522 selected by default the next time the editor starts.
11523 -a Selects keymap `vicmd' for any operations by the current
11525 command.
11526 -M keymap
11528 The keymap specifies a keymap name that is selected for
11529 any operations by the current command.
11530 If a keymap selection is required and none of the options above
11532 are used, the `main' keymap is used. Some operations do not
11533 permit a keymap to be selected, namely:
11534 -l List all existing keymap names; if any arguments are
11536 given, list just those keymaps.
11537 If the -L option is also used, list in the form of bind‐
11539 key commands to create or link the keymaps. `bindkey -lL
11540 main' shows which keymap is linked to `main', if any, and
11541 hence if the standard emacs or vi emulation is in effect.
11542 This option does not show the .safe keymap because it
11543 cannot be created in that fashion; however, neither is
11544 `bindkey -lL .safe' reported as an error, it simply out‐
11545 puts nothing.
11546 -d Delete all existing keymaps and reset to the default
11548 state.
11549 -D keymap ...
11551 Delete the named keymaps.
11552 -A old-keymap new-keymap
11554 Make the new-keymap name an alias for old-keymap, so that
11555 both names refer to the same keymap. The names have
11556 equal standing; if either is deleted, the other remains.
11557 If there is already a keymap with the new-keymap name, it
11558 is deleted.
11559 -N new-keymap [ old-keymap ]
11561 Create a new keymap, named new-keymap. If a keymap al‐
11562 ready has that name, it is deleted. If an old-keymap
11563 name is given, the new keymap is initialized to be a du‐
11564 plicate of it, otherwise the new keymap will be empty.
11565 To use a newly created keymap, it should be linked to main.
11567 Hence the sequence of commands to create and use a new keymap
11568 `mymap' initialized from the emacs keymap (which remains un‐
11569 changed) is:
11570 bindkey -N mymap emacs
11572 bindkey -A mymap main
11573 Note that while `bindkey -A newmap main' will work when newmap
11575 is emacs or viins, it will not work for vicmd, as switching from
11576 vi insert to command mode becomes impossible.
11577 The following operations act on the `main' keymap if no keymap
11579 selection option was given:
11580 -m Add the built-in set of meta-key bindings to the selected
11582 keymap. Only keys that are unbound or bound to self-in‐
11583 sert are affected.
11584 -r in-string ...
11586 Unbind the specified in-strings in the selected keymap.
11587 This is exactly equivalent to binding the strings to un‐
11588 defined-key.
11589 When -R is also used, interpret the in-strings as ranges.
11591 When -p is also used, the in-strings specify prefixes.
11593 Any binding that has the given in-string as a prefix, not
11594 including the binding for the in-string itself, if any,
11595 will be removed. For example,
11596 bindkey -rpM viins '^['
11598 will remove all bindings in the vi-insert keymap begin‐
11600 ning with an escape character (probably cursor keys), but
11601 leave the binding for the escape character itself (proba‐
11602 bly vi-cmd-mode). This is incompatible with the option
11603 -R.
11604 -s in-string out-string ...
11606 Bind each in-string to each out-string. When in-string
11607 is typed, out-string will be pushed back and treated as
11608 input to the line editor. When -R is also used, inter‐
11609 pret the in-strings as ranges.
11610 Note that both in-string and out-string are subject to
11612 the same form of interpretation, as described below.
11613 in-string command ...
11615 Bind each in-string to each command. When -R is used,
11616 interpret the in-strings as ranges.
11617 [ in-string ]
11619 List key bindings. If an in-string is specified, the
11620 binding of that string in the selected keymap is dis‐
11621 played. Otherwise, all key bindings in the selected
11622 keymap are displayed. (As a special case, if the -e or
11623 -v option is used alone, the keymap is not displayed -
11624 the implicit linking of keymaps is the only thing that
11625 happens.)
11626 When the option -p is used, the in-string must be
11628 present. The listing shows all bindings which have the
11629 given key sequence as a prefix, not including any bind‐
11630 ings for the key sequence itself.
11631 When the -L option is used, the list is in the form of
11633 bindkey commands to create the key bindings.
11634 When the -R option is used as noted above, a valid range con‐
11636 sists of two characters, with an optional `-' between them. All
11637 characters between the two specified, inclusive, are bound as
11638 specified.
11639 For either in-string or out-string, the following escape se‐
11641 quences are recognised:
11642 \a bell character
11644 \b backspace
11645 \e, \E escape
11646 \f form feed
11647 \n linefeed (newline)
11648 \r carriage return
11649 \t horizontal tab
11650 \v vertical tab
11651 \NNN character code in octal
11652 \xNN character code in hexadecimal
11653 \uNNNN unicode character code in hexadecimal
11654 \UNNNNNNNN
11655 unicode character code in hexadecimal
11656 \M[-]X character with meta bit set
11657 \C[-]X control character
11658 ^X control character
11659 In all other cases, `\' escapes the following character. Delete
11661 is written as `^?'. Note that `\M^?' and `^\M?' are not the
11662 same, and that (unlike emacs), the bindings `\M-X' and `\eX' are
11663 entirely distinct, although they are initialized to the same
11664 bindings by `bindkey -m'.
11665 vared [ -Aacghe ] [ -p prompt ] [ -r rprompt ]
11668 [ -M main-keymap ] [ -m vicmd-keymap ]
11669 [ -i init-widget ] [ -f finish-widget ]
11670 [ -t tty ] name
11671 The value of the parameter name is loaded into the edit buffer,
11672 and the line editor is invoked. When the editor exits, name is
11673 set to the string value returned by the editor. When the -c
11674 flag is given, the parameter is created if it doesn't already
11675 exist. The -a flag may be given with -c to create an array pa‐
11676 rameter, or the -A flag to create an associative array. If the
11677 type of an existing parameter does not match the type to be cre‐
11678 ated, the parameter is unset and recreated. The -g flag may be
11679 given to suppress warnings from the WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL and
11680 WARN_NESTED_VAR options.
11681 If an array or array slice is being edited, separator characters
11683 as defined in $IFS will be shown quoted with a backslash, as
11684 will backslashes themselves. Conversely, when the edited text
11685 is split into an array, a backslash quotes an immediately fol‐
11686 lowing separator character or backslash; no other special han‐
11687 dling of backslashes, or any handling of quotes, is performed.
11688 Individual elements of existing array or associative array pa‐
11690 rameters may be edited by using subscript syntax on name. New
11691 elements are created automatically, even without -c.
11692 If the -p flag is given, the following string will be taken as
11694 the prompt to display at the left. If the -r flag is given, the
11695 following string gives the prompt to display at the right. If
11696 the -h flag is specified, the history can be accessed from ZLE.
11697 If the -e flag is given, typing ^D (Control-D) on an empty line
11698 causes vared to exit immediately with a non-zero return value.
11699 The -M option gives a keymap to link to the main keymap during
11701 editing, and the -m option gives a keymap to link to the vicmd
11702 keymap during editing. For vi-style editing, this allows a pair
11703 of keymaps to override viins and vicmd. For emacs-style edit‐
11704 ing, only -M is normally needed but the -m option may still be
11705 used. On exit, the previous keymaps will be restored.
11706 Vared calls the usual `zle-line-init' and `zle-line-finish'
11708 hooks before and after it takes control. Using the -i and -f op‐
11709 tions, it is possible to replace these with other custom wid‐
11710 gets.
11711 If `-t tty' is given, tty is the name of a terminal device to be
11713 used instead of the default /dev/tty. If tty does not refer to
11714 a terminal an error is reported.
11715 zle
11717 zle -l [ -L | -a ] [ string ... ]
11718 zle -D widget ...
11719 zle -A old-widget new-widget
11720 zle -N widget [ function ]
11721 zle -f flag [ flag... ]
11722 zle -C widget completion-widget function
11723 zle -R [ -c ] [ display-string ] [ string ... ]
11724 zle -M string
11725 zle -U string
11726 zle -K keymap
11727 zle -F [ -L | -w ] [ fd [ handler ] ]
11728 zle -I
11729 zle -T [ tc function | -r tc | -L ]
11730 zle widget [ -n num ] [ -Nw ] [ -K keymap ] args ...
11731 The zle builtin performs a number of different actions concern‐
11732 ing ZLE.
11733 With no options and no arguments, only the return status will be
11735 set. It is zero if ZLE is currently active and widgets could be
11736 invoked using this builtin command and non-zero otherwise. Note
11737 that even if non-zero status is returned, zle may still be ac‐
11738 tive as part of the completion system; this does not allow di‐
11739 rect calls to ZLE widgets.
11740 Otherwise, which operation it performs depends on its options:
11742 -l [ -L | -a ] [ string ]
11744 List all existing user-defined widgets. If the -L option
11745 is used, list in the form of zle commands to create the
11746 widgets.
11747 When combined with the -a option, all widget names are
11749 listed, including the builtin ones. In this case the -L
11750 option is ignored.
11751 If at least one string is given, and -a is present or -L
11753 is not used, nothing will be printed. The return status
11754 will be zero if all strings are names of existing widgets
11755 and non-zero if at least one string is not a name of a
11756 defined widget. If -a is also present, all widget names
11757 are used for the comparison including builtin widgets,
11758 else only user-defined widgets are used.
11759 If at least one string is present and the -L option is
11761 used, user-defined widgets matching any string are listed
11762 in the form of zle commands to create the widgets.
11763 -D widget ...
11765 Delete the named widgets.
11766 -A old-widget new-widget
11768 Make the new-widget name an alias for old-widget, so that
11769 both names refer to the same widget. The names have
11770 equal standing; if either is deleted, the other remains.
11771 If there is already a widget with the new-widget name, it
11772 is deleted.
11773 -N widget [ function ]
11775 Create a user-defined widget. If there is already a wid‐
11776 get with the specified name, it is overwritten. When the
11777 new widget is invoked from within the editor, the speci‐
11778 fied shell function is called. If no function name is
11779 specified, it defaults to the same name as the widget.
11780 For further information, see the section `Widgets' below.
11781 -f flag [ flag... ]
11783 Set various flags on the running widget. Possible values
11784 for flag are:
11785 yank for indicating that the widget has yanked text into
11787 the buffer. If the widget is wrapping an existing inter‐
11788 nal widget, no further action is necessary, but if it has
11789 inserted the text manually, then it should also take care
11790 to set YANK_START and YANK_END correctly. yankbefore
11791 does the same but is used when the yanked text appears
11792 after the cursor.
11793 kill for indicating that text has been killed into the
11795 cutbuffer. When repeatedly invoking a kill widget, text
11796 is appended to the cutbuffer instead of replacing it, but
11797 when wrapping such widgets, it is necessary to call `zle
11798 -f kill' to retain this effect.
11799 vichange for indicating that the widget represents a vi
11801 change that can be repeated as a whole with `vi-re‐
11802 peat-change'. The flag should be set early in the func‐
11803 tion before inspecting the value of NUMERIC or invoking
11804 other widgets. This has no effect for a widget invoked
11805 from insert mode. If insert mode is active when the wid‐
11806 get finishes, the change extends until next returning to
11807 command mode.
11808 -C widget completion-widget function
11810 Create a user-defined completion widget named widget. The
11811 completion widget will behave like the built-in comple‐
11812 tion-widget whose name is given as completion-widget. To
11813 generate the completions, the shell function function
11814 will be called. For further information, see zshcomp‐
11815 wid(1).
11816 -R [ -c ] [ display-string ] [ string ... ]
11818 Redisplay the command line; this is to be called from
11819 within a user-defined widget to allow changes to become
11820 visible. If a display-string is given and not empty,
11821 this is shown in the status line (immediately below the
11822 line being edited).
11823 If the optional strings are given they are listed below
11825 the prompt in the same way as completion lists are
11826 printed. If no strings are given but the -c option is
11827 used such a list is cleared.
11828 Note that this option is only useful for widgets that do
11830 not exit immediately after using it because the strings
11831 displayed will be erased immediately after return from
11832 the widget.
11833 This command can safely be called outside user defined
11835 widgets; if zle is active, the display will be refreshed,
11836 while if zle is not active, the command has no effect.
11837 In this case there will usually be no other arguments.
11838 The status is zero if zle was active, else one.
11840 -M string
11842 As with the -R option, the string will be displayed below
11843 the command line; unlike the -R option, the string will
11844 not be put into the status line but will instead be
11845 printed normally below the prompt. This means that the
11846 string will still be displayed after the widget returns
11847 (until it is overwritten by subsequent commands).
11848 -U string
11850 This pushes the characters in the string onto the input
11851 stack of ZLE. After the widget currently executed fin‐
11852 ishes ZLE will behave as if the characters in the string
11853 were typed by the user.
11854 As ZLE uses a stack, if this option is used repeatedly
11856 the last string pushed onto the stack will be processed
11857 first. However, the characters in each string will be
11858 processed in the order in which they appear in the
11859 string.
11860 -K keymap
11862 Selects the keymap named keymap. An error message will
11863 be displayed if there is no such keymap.
11864 This keymap selection affects the interpretation of fol‐
11866 lowing keystrokes within this invocation of ZLE. Any
11867 following invocation (e.g., the next command line) will
11868 start as usual with the `main' keymap selected.
11869 -F [ -L | -w ] [ fd [ handler ] ]
11871 Only available if your system supports one of the `poll'
11872 or `select' system calls; most modern systems do.
11873 Installs handler (the name of a shell function) to handle
11875 input from file descriptor fd. Installing a handler for
11876 an fd which is already handled causes the existing han‐
11877 dler to be replaced. Any number of handlers for any num‐
11878 ber of readable file descriptors may be installed. Note
11879 that zle makes no attempt to check whether this fd is ac‐
11880 tually readable when installing the handler. The user
11881 must make their own arrangements for handling the file
11882 descriptor when zle is not active.
11883 When zle is attempting to read data, it will examine both
11885 the terminal and the list of handled fd's. If data be‐
11886 comes available on a handled fd, zle calls handler with
11887 the fd which is ready for reading as the first argument.
11888 Under normal circumstances this is the only argument, but
11889 if an error was detected, a second argument provides de‐
11890 tails: `hup' for a disconnect, `nval' for a closed or
11891 otherwise invalid descriptor, or `err' for any other con‐
11892 dition. Systems that support only the `select' system
11893 call always use `err'.
11894 If the option -w is also given, the handler is instead a
11896 line editor widget, typically a shell function made into
11897 a widget using `zle -N'. In that case handler can use
11898 all the facilities of zle to update the current editing
11899 line. Note, however, that as handling fd takes place at
11900 a low level changes to the display will not automatically
11901 appear; the widget should call `zle -R' to force redis‐
11902 play. As of this writing, widget handlers only support a
11903 single argument and thus are never passed a string for
11904 error state, so widgets must be prepared to test the de‐
11905 scriptor themselves.
11906 If either type of handler produces output to the termi‐
11908 nal, it should call `zle -I' before doing so (see below).
11909 Handlers should not attempt to read from the terminal.
11910 If no handler is given, but an fd is present, any handler
11912 for that fd is removed. If there is none, an error mes‐
11913 sage is printed and status 1 is returned.
11914 If no arguments are given, or the -L option is supplied,
11916 a list of handlers is printed in a form which can be
11917 stored for later execution.
11918 An fd (but not a handler) may optionally be given with
11920 the -L option; in this case, the function will list the
11921 handler if any, else silently return status 1.
11922 Note that this feature should be used with care. Activ‐
11924 ity on one of the fd's which is not properly handled can
11925 cause the terminal to become unusable. Removing an fd
11926 handler from within a signal trap may cause unpredictable
11927 behavior.
11928 Here is a simple example of using this feature. A con‐
11930 nection to a remote TCP port is created using the ztcp
11931 command; see the description of the zsh/net/tcp module in
11932 zshmodules(1). Then a handler is installed which simply
11933 prints out any data which arrives on this connection.
11934 Note that `select' will indicate that the file descriptor
11935 needs handling if the remote side has closed the connec‐
11936 tion; we handle that by testing for a failed read.
11937 if ztcp pwspc 2811; then
11939 tcpfd=$REPLY
11940 handler() {
11941 zle -I
11942 local line
11943 if ! read -r line <&$1; then
11944 # select marks this fd if we reach EOF,
11945 # so handle this specially.
11946 print "[Read on fd $1 failed, removing.]" >&2
11947 zle -F $1
11948 return 1
11949 fi
11950 print -r - $line
11951 }
11952 zle -F $tcpfd handler
11953 fi
11954 -I Unusually, this option is most useful outside ordinary
11956 widget functions, though it may be used within if normal
11957 output to the terminal is required. It invalidates the
11958 current zle display in preparation for output; typically
11959 this will be from a trap function. It has no effect if
11960 zle is not active. When a trap exits, the shell checks
11961 to see if the display needs restoring, hence the follow‐
11962 ing will print output in such a way as not to disturb the
11963 line being edited:
11964 TRAPUSR1() {
11966 # Invalidate zle display
11967 [[ -o zle ]] && zle -I
11968 # Show output
11969 print Hello
11970 }
11971 In general, the trap function may need to test whether
11973 zle is active before using this method (as shown in the
11974 example), since the zsh/zle module may not even be
11975 loaded; if it is not, the command can be skipped.
11976 It is possible to call `zle -I' several times before con‐
11978 trol is returned to the editor; the display will only be
11979 invalidated the first time to minimise disruption.
11980 Note that there are normally better ways of manipulating
11982 the display from within zle widgets; see, for example,
11983 `zle -R' above.
11984 The returned status is zero if zle was invalidated, even
11986 though this may have been by a previous call to `zle -I'
11987 or by a system notification. To test if a zle widget may
11988 be called at this point, execute zle with no arguments
11989 and examine the return status.
11990 -T This is used to add, list or remove internal transforma‐
11992 tions on the processing performed by the line editor. It
11993 is typically used only for debugging or testing and is
11994 therefore of little interest to the general user.
11995 `zle -T transformation func' specifies that the given
11997 transformation (see below) is effected by shell function
11998 func.
11999 `zle -Tr transformation' removes the given transformation
12001 if it was present (it is not an error if none was).
12002 `zle -TL' can be used to list all transformations cur‐
12004 rently in operation.
12005 Currently the only transformation is tc. This is used
12007 instead of outputting termcap codes to the terminal.
12008 When the transformation is in operation the shell func‐
12009 tion is passed the termcap code that would be output as
12010 its first argument; if the operation required a numeric
12011 argument, that is passed as a second argument. The func‐
12012 tion should set the shell variable REPLY to the trans‐
12013 formed termcap code. Typically this is used to produce
12014 some simply formatted version of the code and optional
12015 argument for debugging or testing. Note that this trans‐
12016 formation is not applied to other non-printing characters
12017 such as carriage returns and newlines.
12018 widget [ -n num ] [ -Nw ] [ -K keymap ] args ...
12020 Invoke the specified widget. This can only be done when
12021 ZLE is active; normally this will be within a user-de‐
12022 fined widget.
12023 With the options -n and -N, the current numeric argument
12025 will be saved and then restored after the call to widget;
12026 `-n num' sets the numeric argument temporarily to num,
12027 while `-N' sets it to the default, i.e. as if there were
12028 none.
12029 With the option -K, keymap will be used as the current
12031 keymap during the execution of the widget. The previous
12032 keymap will be restored when the widget exits.
12033 Normally, calling a widget in this way does not set the
12035 special parameter WIDGET and related parameters, so that
12036 the environment appears as if the top-level widget called
12037 by the user were still active. With the option -w, WID‐
12038 GET and related parameters are set to reflect the widget
12039 being executed by the zle call.
12040 Any further arguments will be passed to the widget; note
12042 that as standard argument handling is performed, any gen‐
12043 eral argument list should be preceded by --. If it is a
12044 shell function, these are passed down as positional pa‐
12045 rameters; for builtin widgets it is up to the widget in
12046 question what it does with them. Currently arguments are
12047 only handled by the incremental-search commands, the his‐
12048 tory-search-forward and -backward and the corresponding
12049 functions prefixed by vi-, and by universal-argument. No
12050 error is flagged if the command does not use the argu‐
12051 ments, or only uses some of them.
12052 The return status reflects the success or failure of the
12054 operation carried out by the widget, or if it is a
12055 user-defined widget the return status of the shell func‐
12056 tion.
12057 A non-zero return status causes the shell to beep when
12059 the widget exits, unless the BEEP options was unset or
12060 the widget was called via the zle command. Thus if a
12061 user defined widget requires an immediate beep, it should
12062 call the beep widget directly.
12063
12065 All actions in the editor are performed by `widgets'. A widget's job
12066 is simply to perform some small action. The ZLE commands that key se‐
12067 quences in keymaps are bound to are in fact widgets. Widgets can be
12068 user-defined or built in.
12069 The standard widgets built into ZLE are listed in Standard Widgets be‐
12071 low. Other built-in widgets can be defined by other modules (see zsh‐
12072 modules(1)). Each built-in widget has two names: its normal canonical
12073 name, and the same name preceded by a `.'. The `.' name is special: it
12074 can't be rebound to a different widget. This makes the widget avail‐
12075 able even when its usual name has been redefined.
12076 User-defined widgets are defined using `zle -N', and implemented as
12078 shell functions. When the widget is executed, the corresponding shell
12079 function is executed, and can perform editing (or other) actions. It
12080 is recommended that user-defined widgets should not have names starting
12081 with `.'.
12082
12084 User-defined widgets, being implemented as shell functions, can execute
12085 any normal shell command. They can also run other widgets (whether
12086 built-in or user-defined) using the zle builtin command. The standard
12087 input of the function is redirected from /dev/null to prevent external
12088 commands from unintentionally blocking ZLE by reading from the termi‐
12089 nal, but read -k or read -q can be used to read characters. Finally,
12090 they can examine and edit the ZLE buffer being edited by reading and
12091 setting the special parameters described below.
12092 These special parameters are always available in widget functions, but
12094 are not in any way special outside ZLE. If they have some normal value
12095 outside ZLE, that value is temporarily inaccessible, but will return
12096 when the widget function exits. These special parameters in fact have
12097 local scope, like parameters created in a function using local.
12098 Inside completion widgets and traps called while ZLE is active, these
12100 parameters are available read-only.
12101 Note that the parameters appear as local to any ZLE widget in which
12103 they appear. Hence if it is desired to override them this needs to be
12104 done within a nested function:
12105 widget-function() {
12107 # $WIDGET here refers to the special variable
12108 # that is local inside widget-function
12109 () {
12110 # This anonymous nested function allows WIDGET
12111 # to be used as a local variable. The -h
12112 # removes the special status of the variable.
12113 local -h WIDGET
12114 }
12115 }
12116 BUFFER (scalar)
12118 The entire contents of the edit buffer. If it is written to,
12119 the cursor remains at the same offset, unless that would put it
12120 outside the buffer.
12121 BUFFERLINES (integer)
12123 The number of screen lines needed for the edit buffer currently
12124 displayed on screen (i.e. without any changes to the preceding
12125 parameters done after the last redisplay); read-only.
12126 CONTEXT (scalar)
12128 The context in which zle was called to read a line; read-only.
12129 One of the values:
12130 start The start of a command line (at prompt PS1).
12132 cont A continuation to a command line (at prompt PS2).
12134 select In a select loop (at prompt PS3).
12136 vared Editing a variable in vared.
12138 CURSOR (integer)
12140 The offset of the cursor, within the edit buffer. This is in
12141 the range 0 to $#BUFFER, and is by definition equal to
12142 $#LBUFFER. Attempts to move the cursor outside the buffer will
12143 result in the cursor being moved to the appropriate end of the
12144 buffer.
12145 CUTBUFFER (scalar)
12147 The last item cut using one of the `kill-' commands; the string
12148 which the next yank would insert in the line. Later entries in
12149 the kill ring are in the array killring. Note that the command
12150 `zle copy-region-as-kill string' can be used to set the text of
12151 the cut buffer from a shell function and cycle the kill ring in
12152 the same way as interactively killing text.
12153 HISTNO (integer)
12155 The current history number. Setting this has the same effect as
12156 moving up or down in the history to the corresponding history
12157 line. An attempt to set it is ignored if the line is not stored
12158 in the history. Note this is not the same as the parameter
12159 HISTCMD, which always gives the number of the history line being
12160 added to the main shell's history. HISTNO refers to the line
12161 being retrieved within zle.
12162 ISEARCHMATCH_ACTIVE (integer)
12164 ISEARCHMATCH_START (integer)
12165 ISEARCHMATCH_END (integer)
12166 ISEARCHMATCH_ACTIVE indicates whether a part of the BUFFER is
12167 currently matched by an incremental search pattern. ISEARCH‐
12168 MATCH_START and ISEARCHMATCH_END give the location of the
12169 matched part and are in the same units as CURSOR. They are only
12170 valid for reading when ISEARCHMATCH_ACTIVE is non-zero.
12171 All parameters are read-only.
12173 KEYMAP (scalar)
12175 The name of the currently selected keymap; read-only.
12176 KEYS (scalar)
12178 The keys typed to invoke this widget, as a literal string;
12179 read-only.
12180 KEYS_QUEUED_COUNT (integer)
12182 The number of bytes pushed back to the input queue and therefore
12183 available for reading immediately before any I/O is done;
12184 read-only. See also PENDING; the two values are distinct.
12185 killring (array)
12187 The array of previously killed items, with the most recently
12188 killed first. This gives the items that would be retrieved by a
12189 yank-pop in the same order. Note, however, that the most re‐
12190 cently killed item is in $CUTBUFFER; $killring shows the array
12191 of previous entries.
12192 The default size for the kill ring is eight, however the length
12194 may be changed by normal array operations. Any empty string in
12195 the kill ring is ignored by the yank-pop command, hence the size
12196 of the array effectively sets the maximum length of the kill
12197 ring, while the number of non-zero strings gives the current
12198 length, both as seen by the user at the command line.
12199 LASTABORTEDSEARCH (scalar)
12201 The last search string used by an interactive search that was
12202 aborted by the user (status 3 returned by the search widget).
12203 LASTSEARCH (scalar)
12205 The last search string used by an interactive search; read-only.
12206 This is set even if the search failed (status 0, 1 or 2 returned
12207 by the search widget), but not if it was aborted by the user.
12208 LASTWIDGET (scalar)
12210 The name of the last widget that was executed; read-only.
12211 LBUFFER (scalar)
12213 The part of the buffer that lies to the left of the cursor posi‐
12214 tion. If it is assigned to, only that part of the buffer is re‐
12215 placed, and the cursor remains between the new $LBUFFER and the
12216 old $RBUFFER.
12217 MARK (integer)
12219 Like CURSOR, but for the mark. With vi-mode operators that wait
12220 for a movement command to select a region of text, setting MARK
12221 allows the selection to extend in both directions from the ini‐
12222 tial cursor position.
12223 NUMERIC (integer)
12225 The numeric argument. If no numeric argument was given, this pa‐
12226 rameter is unset. When this is set inside a widget function,
12227 builtin widgets called with the zle builtin command will use the
12228 value assigned. If it is unset inside a widget function, builtin
12229 widgets called behave as if no numeric argument was given.
12230 PENDING (integer)
12232 The number of bytes pending for input, i.e. the number of bytes
12233 which have already been typed and can immediately be read. On
12234 systems where the shell is not able to get this information,
12235 this parameter will always have a value of zero. Read-only.
12236 See also KEYS_QUEUED_COUNT; the two values are distinct.
12237 PREBUFFER (scalar)
12239 In a multi-line input at the secondary prompt, this read-only
12240 parameter contains the contents of the lines before the one the
12241 cursor is currently in.
12242 PREDISPLAY (scalar)
12244 Text to be displayed before the start of the editable text buf‐
12245 fer. This does not have to be a complete line; to display a
12246 complete line, a newline must be appended explicitly. The text
12247 is reset on each new invocation (but not recursive invocation)
12248 of zle.
12249 POSTDISPLAY (scalar)
12251 Text to be displayed after the end of the editable text buffer.
12252 This does not have to be a complete line; to display a complete
12253 line, a newline must be prepended explicitly. The text is reset
12254 on each new invocation (but not recursive invocation) of zle.
12255 RBUFFER (scalar)
12257 The part of the buffer that lies to the right of the cursor po‐
12258 sition. If it is assigned to, only that part of the buffer is
12259 replaced, and the cursor remains between the old $LBUFFER and
12260 the new $RBUFFER.
12261 REGION_ACTIVE (integer)
12263 Indicates if the region is currently active. It can be assigned
12264 0 or 1 to deactivate and activate the region respectively. A
12265 value of 2 activates the region in line-wise mode with the high‐
12266 lighted text extending for whole lines only; see Character High‐
12267 lighting below.
12268 region_highlight (array)
12270 Each element of this array may be set to a string that describes
12271 highlighting for an arbitrary region of the command line that
12272 will take effect the next time the command line is redisplayed.
12273 Highlighting of the non-editable parts of the command line in
12274 PREDISPLAY and POSTDISPLAY are possible, but note that the P
12275 flag is needed for character indexing to include PREDISPLAY.
12276 Each string consists of the following parts:
12278 • Optionally, a `P' to signify that the start and end off‐
12280 set that follow include any string set by the PREDISPLAY
12281 special parameter; this is needed if the predisplay
12282 string itself is to be highlighted. Whitespace may fol‐
12283 low the `P'.
12284 • A start offset in the same units as CURSOR, terminated by
12286 whitespace.
12287 • An end offset in the same units as CURSOR, terminated by
12289 whitespace.
12290 • A highlight specification in the same format as used for
12292 contexts in the parameter zle_highlight, see the section
12293 `Character Highlighting' below; for example, standout or
12294 fg=red,bold
12295 For example,
12297 region_highlight=("P0 20 bold")
12299 specifies that the first twenty characters of the text including
12301 any predisplay string should be highlighted in bold.
12302 Note that the effect of region_highlight is not saved and disap‐
12304 pears as soon as the line is accepted.
12305 The final highlighting on the command line depends on both re‐
12307 gion_highlight and zle_highlight; see the section CHARACTER
12308 HIGHLIGHTING below for details.
12309 registers (associative array)
12311 The contents of each of the vi register buffers. These are typi‐
12312 cally set using vi-set-buffer followed by a delete, change or
12313 yank command.
12314 SUFFIX_ACTIVE (integer)
12316 SUFFIX_START (integer)
12317 SUFFIX_END (integer)
12318 SUFFIX_ACTIVE indicates whether an auto-removable completion
12319 suffix is currently active. SUFFIX_START and SUFFIX_END give the
12320 location of the suffix and are in the same units as CURSOR. They
12321 are only valid for reading when SUFFIX_ACTIVE is non-zero.
12322 All parameters are read-only.
12324 UNDO_CHANGE_NO (integer)
12326 A number representing the state of the undo history. The only
12327 use of this is passing as an argument to the undo widget in or‐
12328 der to undo back to the recorded point. Read-only.
12329 UNDO_LIMIT_NO (integer)
12331 A number corresponding to an existing change in the undo his‐
12332 tory; compare UNDO_CHANGE_NO. If this is set to a value greater
12333 than zero, the undo command will not allow the line to be undone
12334 beyond the given change number. It is still possible to use
12335 `zle undo change' in a widget to undo beyond that point; in that
12336 case, it will not be possible to undo at all until UNDO_LIMIT_NO
12337 is reduced. Set to 0 to disable the limit.
12338 A typical use of this variable in a widget function is as fol‐
12340 lows (note the additional function scope is required):
12341 () {
12343 local UNDO_LIMIT_NO=$UNDO_CHANGE_NO
12344 # Perform some form of recursive edit.
12345 }
12346 WIDGET (scalar)
12348 The name of the widget currently being executed; read-only.
12349 WIDGETFUNC (scalar)
12351 The name of the shell function that implements a widget defined
12352 with either zle -N or zle -C. In the former case, this is the
12353 second argument to the zle -N command that defined the widget,
12354 or the first argument if there was no second argument. In the
12355 latter case this is the third argument to the zle -C command
12356 that defined the widget. Read-only.
12357 WIDGETSTYLE (scalar)
12359 Describes the implementation behind the completion widget cur‐
12360 rently being executed; the second argument that followed zle -C
12361 when the widget was defined. This is the name of a builtin com‐
12362 pletion widget. For widgets defined with zle -N this is set to
12363 the empty string. Read-only.
12364 YANK_ACTIVE (integer)
12366 YANK_START (integer)
12367 YANK_END (integer)
12368 YANK_ACTIVE indicates whether text has just been yanked (pasted)
12369 into the buffer. YANK_START and YANK_END give the location of
12370 the pasted text and are in the same units as CURSOR. They are
12371 only valid for reading when YANK_ACTIVE is non-zero. They can
12372 also be assigned by widgets that insert text in a yank-like
12373 fashion, for example wrappers of bracketed-paste. See also zle
12374 -f.
12375 YANK_ACTIVE is read-only.
12377 ZLE_RECURSIVE (integer)
12379 Usually zero, but incremented inside any instance of recur‐
12380 sive-edit. Hence indicates the current recursion level.
12381 ZLE_RECURSIVE is read-only.
12383 ZLE_STATE (scalar)
12385 Contains a set of space-separated words that describe the cur‐
12386 rent zle state.
12387 Currently, the states shown are the insert mode as set by the
12389 overwrite-mode or vi-replace widgets and whether history com‐
12390 mands will visit imported entries as controlled by the set-lo‐
12391 cal-history widget. The string contains `insert' if characters
12392 to be inserted on the command line move existing characters to
12393 the right or `overwrite' if characters to be inserted overwrite
12394 existing characters. It contains `localhistory' if only local
12395 history commands will be visited or `globalhistory' if imported
12396 history commands will also be visited.
12397 The substrings are sorted in alphabetical order so that if you
12399 want to test for two specific substrings in a future-proof way,
12400 you can do match by doing:
12401 if [[ $ZLE_STATE == *globalhistory*insert* ]]; then ...; fi
12403 Special Widgets
12405 There are a few user-defined widgets which are special to the shell.
12406 If they do not exist, no special action is taken. The environment pro‐
12407 vided is identical to that for any other editing widget.
12408 zle-isearch-exit
12410 Executed at the end of incremental search at the point where the
12411 isearch prompt is removed from the display. See zle-isearch-up‐
12412 date for an example.
12413 zle-isearch-update
12415 Executed within incremental search when the display is about to
12416 be redrawn. Additional output below the incremental search
12417 prompt can be generated by using `zle -M' within the widget.
12418 For example,
12419 zle-isearch-update() { zle -M "Line $HISTNO"; }
12421 zle -N zle-isearch-update
12422 Note the line output by `zle -M' is not deleted on exit from in‐
12424 cremental search. This can be done from a zle-isearch-exit wid‐
12425 get:
12426 zle-isearch-exit() { zle -M ""; }
12428 zle -N zle-isearch-exit
12429 zle-line-pre-redraw
12431 Executed whenever the input line is about to be redrawn, provid‐
12432 ing an opportunity to update the region_highlight array.
12433 zle-line-init
12435 Executed every time the line editor is started to read a new
12436 line of input. The following example puts the line editor into
12437 vi command mode when it starts up.
12438 zle-line-init() { zle -K vicmd; }
12440 zle -N zle-line-init
12441 (The command inside the function sets the keymap directly; it is
12443 equivalent to zle vi-cmd-mode.)
12444 zle-line-finish
12446 This is similar to zle-line-init but is executed every time the
12447 line editor has finished reading a line of input.
12448 zle-history-line-set
12450 Executed when the history line changes.
12451 zle-keymap-select
12453 Executed every time the keymap changes, i.e. the special parame‐
12454 ter KEYMAP is set to a different value, while the line editor is
12455 active. Initialising the keymap when the line editor starts
12456 does not cause the widget to be called.
12457 The value $KEYMAP within the function reflects the new keymap.
12459 The old keymap is passed as the sole argument.
12460 This can be used for detecting switches between the vi command
12462 (vicmd) and insert (usually main) keymaps.
12463
12465 The following is a list of all the standard widgets, and their default
12466 bindings in emacs mode, vi command mode and vi insert mode (the
12467 `emacs', `vicmd' and `viins' keymaps, respectively).
12468 Note that cursor keys are bound to movement keys in all three keymaps;
12470 the shell assumes that the cursor keys send the key sequences reported
12471 by the terminal-handling library (termcap or terminfo). The key se‐
12472 quences shown in the list are those based on the VT100, common on many
12473 modern terminals, but in fact these are not necessarily bound. In the
12474 case of the viins keymap, the initial escape character of the sequences
12475 serves also to return to the vicmd keymap: whether this happens is de‐
12476 termined by the KEYTIMEOUT parameter, see zshparam(1).
12477 Movement
12479 vi-backward-blank-word (unbound) (B) (unbound)
12480 Move backward one word, where a word is defined as a series of
12481 non-blank characters.
12482 vi-backward-blank-word-end (unbound) (gE) (unbound)
12484 Move to the end of the previous word, where a word is defined as
12485 a series of non-blank characters.
12486 backward-char (^B ESC-[D) (unbound) (unbound)
12488 Move backward one character.
12489 vi-backward-char (unbound) (^H h ^?) (ESC-[D)
12491 Move backward one character, without changing lines.
12492 backward-word (ESC-B ESC-b) (unbound) (unbound)
12494 Move to the beginning of the previous word.
12495 emacs-backward-word
12497 Move to the beginning of the previous word.
12498 vi-backward-word (unbound) (b) (unbound)
12500 Move to the beginning of the previous word, vi-style.
12501 vi-backward-word-end (unbound) (ge) (unbound)
12503 Move to the end of the previous word, vi-style.
12504 beginning-of-line (^A) (unbound) (unbound)
12506 Move to the beginning of the line. If already at the beginning
12507 of the line, move to the beginning of the previous line, if any.
12508 vi-beginning-of-line
12510 Move to the beginning of the line, without changing lines.
12511 down-line (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
12513 Move down a line in the buffer.
12514 end-of-line (^E) (unbound) (unbound)
12516 Move to the end of the line. If already at the end of the line,
12517 move to the end of the next line, if any.
12518 vi-end-of-line (unbound) ($) (unbound)
12520 Move to the end of the line. If an argument is given to this
12521 command, the cursor will be moved to the end of the line (argu‐
12522 ment - 1) lines down.
12523 vi-forward-blank-word (unbound) (W) (unbound)
12525 Move forward one word, where a word is defined as a series of
12526 non-blank characters.
12527 vi-forward-blank-word-end (unbound) (E) (unbound)
12529 Move to the end of the current word, or, if at the end of the
12530 current word, to the end of the next word, where a word is de‐
12531 fined as a series of non-blank characters.
12532 forward-char (^F ESC-[C) (unbound) (unbound)
12534 Move forward one character.
12535 vi-forward-char (unbound) (space l) (ESC-[C)
12537 Move forward one character.
12538 vi-find-next-char (^X^F) (f) (unbound)
12540 Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the next occur‐
12541 rence of it in the line.
12542 vi-find-next-char-skip (unbound) (t) (unbound)
12544 Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the position
12545 just before the next occurrence of it in the line.
12546 vi-find-prev-char (unbound) (F) (unbound)
12548 Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the previous oc‐
12549 currence of it in the line.
12550 vi-find-prev-char-skip (unbound) (T) (unbound)
12552 Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the position
12553 just after the previous occurrence of it in the line.
12554 vi-first-non-blank (unbound) (^) (unbound)
12556 Move to the first non-blank character in the line.
12557 vi-forward-word (unbound) (w) (unbound)
12559 Move forward one word, vi-style.
12560 forward-word (ESC-F ESC-f) (unbound) (unbound)
12562 Move to the beginning of the next word. The editor's idea of a
12563 word is specified with the WORDCHARS parameter.
12564 emacs-forward-word
12566 Move to the end of the next word.
12567 vi-forward-word-end (unbound) (e) (unbound)
12569 Move to the end of the next word.
12570 vi-goto-column (ESC-|) (|) (unbound)
12572 Move to the column specified by the numeric argument.
12573 vi-goto-mark (unbound) (`) (unbound)
12575 Move to the specified mark.
12576 vi-goto-mark-line (unbound) (') (unbound)
12578 Move to beginning of the line containing the specified mark.
12579 vi-repeat-find (unbound) (;) (unbound)
12581 Repeat the last vi-find command.
12582 vi-rev-repeat-find (unbound) (,) (unbound)
12584 Repeat the last vi-find command in the opposite direction.
12585 up-line (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
12587 Move up a line in the buffer.
12588 History Control
12590 beginning-of-buffer-or-history (ESC-<) (gg) (unbound)
12591 Move to the beginning of the buffer, or if already there, move
12592 to the first event in the history list.
12593 beginning-of-line-hist
12595 Move to the beginning of the line. If already at the beginning
12596 of the buffer, move to the previous history line.
12597 beginning-of-history
12599 Move to the first event in the history list.
12600 down-line-or-history (^N ESC-[B) (j) (ESC-[B)
12602 Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the bottom
12603 line, move to the next event in the history list.
12604 vi-down-line-or-history (unbound) (+) (unbound)
12606 Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the bottom
12607 line, move to the next event in the history list. Then move to
12608 the first non-blank character on the line.
12609 down-line-or-search
12611 Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the bottom
12612 line, search forward in the history for a line beginning with
12613 the first word in the buffer.
12614 If called from a function by the zle command with arguments, the
12616 first argument is taken as the string for which to search,
12617 rather than the first word in the buffer.
12618 down-history (unbound) (^N) (unbound)
12620 Move to the next event in the history list.
12621 history-beginning-search-backward
12623 Search backward in the history for a line beginning with the
12624 current line up to the cursor. This leaves the cursor in its
12625 original position.
12626 end-of-buffer-or-history (ESC->) (unbound) (unbound)
12628 Move to the end of the buffer, or if already there, move to the
12629 last event in the history list.
12630 end-of-line-hist
12632 Move to the end of the line. If already at the end of the buf‐
12633 fer, move to the next history line.
12634 end-of-history
12636 Move to the last event in the history list.
12637 vi-fetch-history (unbound) (G) (unbound)
12639 Fetch the history line specified by the numeric argument. This
12640 defaults to the current history line (i.e. the one that isn't
12641 history yet).
12642 history-incremental-search-backward (^R ^Xr) (unbound) (unbound)
12644 Search backward incrementally for a specified string. The
12645 search is case-insensitive if the search string does not have
12646 uppercase letters and no numeric argument was given. The string
12647 may begin with `^' to anchor the search to the beginning of the
12648 line. When called from a user-defined function returns the fol‐
12649 lowing statuses: 0, if the search succeeded; 1, if the search
12650 failed; 2, if the search term was a bad pattern; 3, if the
12651 search was aborted by the send-break command.
12652 A restricted set of editing functions is available in the
12654 mini-buffer. Keys are looked up in the special isearch keymap,
12655 and if not found there in the main keymap (note that by default
12656 the isearch keymap is empty). An interrupt signal, as defined
12657 by the stty setting, will stop the search and go back to the
12658 original line. An undefined key will have the same effect.
12659 Note that the following always perform the same task within in‐
12660 cremental searches and cannot be replaced by user defined wid‐
12661 gets, nor can the set of functions be extended. The supported
12662 functions are:
12663 accept-and-hold
12665 accept-and-infer-next-history
12666 accept-line
12667 accept-line-and-down-history
12668 Perform the usual function after exiting incremental
12669 search. The command line displayed is executed.
12670 backward-delete-char
12672 vi-backward-delete-char
12673 Back up one place in the search history. If the search
12674 has been repeated this does not immediately erase a char‐
12675 acter in the minibuffer.
12676 accept-search
12678 Exit incremental search, retaining the command line but
12679 performing no further action. Note that this function is
12680 not bound by default and has no effect outside incremen‐
12681 tal search.
12682 backward-delete-word
12684 backward-kill-word
12685 vi-backward-kill-word
12686 Back up one character in the minibuffer; if multiple
12687 searches have been performed since the character was in‐
12688 serted the search history is rewound to the point just
12689 before the character was entered. Hence this has the ef‐
12690 fect of repeating backward-delete-char.
12691 clear-screen
12693 Clear the screen, remaining in incremental search mode.
12694 history-incremental-search-backward
12696 Find the next occurrence of the contents of the mini-buf‐
12697 fer. If the mini-buffer is empty, the most recent previ‐
12698 ously used search string is reinstated.
12699 history-incremental-search-forward
12701 Invert the sense of the search.
12702 magic-space
12704 Inserts a non-magical space.
12705 quoted-insert
12707 vi-quoted-insert
12708 Quote the character to insert into the minibuffer.
12709 redisplay
12711 Redisplay the command line, remaining in incremental
12712 search mode.
12713 vi-cmd-mode
12715 Select the `vicmd' keymap; the `main' keymap (insert
12716 mode) will be selected initially.
12717 In addition, the modifications that were made while in vi
12719 insert mode are merged to form a single undo event.
12720 vi-repeat-search
12722 vi-rev-repeat-search
12723 Repeat the search. The direction of the search is indi‐
12724 cated in the mini-buffer.
12725 Any character that is not bound to one of the above functions,
12727 or self-insert or self-insert-unmeta, will cause the mode to be
12728 exited. The character is then looked up and executed in the
12729 keymap in effect at that point.
12730 When called from a widget function by the zle command, the in‐
12732 cremental search commands can take a string argument. This will
12733 be treated as a string of keys, as for arguments to the bindkey
12734 command, and used as initial input for the command. Any charac‐
12735 ters in the string which are unused by the incremental search
12736 will be silently ignored. For example,
12737 zle history-incremental-search-backward forceps
12739 will search backwards for forceps, leaving the minibuffer con‐
12741 taining the string `forceps'.
12742 history-incremental-search-forward (^S ^Xs) (unbound) (unbound)
12744 Search forward incrementally for a specified string. The search
12745 is case-insensitive if the search string does not have uppercase
12746 letters and no numeric argument was given. The string may begin
12747 with `^' to anchor the search to the beginning of the line. The
12748 functions available in the mini-buffer are the same as for his‐
12749 tory-incremental-search-backward.
12750 history-incremental-pattern-search-backward
12752 history-incremental-pattern-search-forward
12753 These widgets behave similarly to the corresponding widgets with
12754 no -pattern, but the search string typed by the user is treated
12755 as a pattern, respecting the current settings of the various op‐
12756 tions affecting pattern matching. See FILENAME GENERATION in
12757 zshexpn(1) for a description of patterns. If no numeric argu‐
12758 ment was given lowercase letters in the search string may match
12759 uppercase letters in the history. The string may begin with `^'
12760 to anchor the search to the beginning of the line.
12761 The prompt changes to indicate an invalid pattern; this may sim‐
12763 ply indicate the pattern is not yet complete.
12764 Note that only non-overlapping matches are reported, so an ex‐
12766 pression with wildcards may return fewer matches on a line than
12767 are visible by inspection.
12768 history-search-backward (ESC-P ESC-p) (unbound) (unbound)
12770 Search backward in the history for a line beginning with the
12771 first word in the buffer.
12772 If called from a function by the zle command with arguments, the
12774 first argument is taken as the string for which to search,
12775 rather than the first word in the buffer.
12776 vi-history-search-backward (unbound) (/) (unbound)
12778 Search backward in the history for a specified string. The
12779 string may begin with `^' to anchor the search to the beginning
12780 of the line.
12781 A restricted set of editing functions is available in the
12783 mini-buffer. An interrupt signal, as defined by the stty set‐
12784 ting, will stop the search. The functions available in the
12785 mini-buffer are: accept-line, backward-delete-char, vi-back‐
12786 ward-delete-char, backward-kill-word, vi-backward-kill-word,
12787 clear-screen, redisplay, quoted-insert and vi-quoted-insert.
12788 vi-cmd-mode is treated the same as accept-line, and magic-space
12790 is treated as a space. Any other character that is not bound to
12791 self-insert or self-insert-unmeta will beep and be ignored. If
12792 the function is called from vi command mode, the bindings of the
12793 current insert mode will be used.
12794 If called from a function by the zle command with arguments, the
12796 first argument is taken as the string for which to search,
12797 rather than the first word in the buffer.
12798 history-search-forward (ESC-N ESC-n) (unbound) (unbound)
12800 Search forward in the history for a line beginning with the
12801 first word in the buffer.
12802 If called from a function by the zle command with arguments, the
12804 first argument is taken as the string for which to search,
12805 rather than the first word in the buffer.
12806 vi-history-search-forward (unbound) (?) (unbound)
12808 Search forward in the history for a specified string. The
12809 string may begin with `^' to anchor the search to the beginning
12810 of the line. The functions available in the mini-buffer are the
12811 same as for vi-history-search-backward. Argument handling is
12812 also the same as for that command.
12813 infer-next-history (^X^N) (unbound) (unbound)
12815 Search in the history list for a line matching the current one
12816 and fetch the event following it.
12817 insert-last-word (ESC-_ ESC-.) (unbound) (unbound)
12819 Insert the last word from the previous history event at the cur‐
12820 sor position. If a positive numeric argument is given, insert
12821 that word from the end of the previous history event. If the
12822 argument is zero or negative insert that word from the left
12823 (zero inserts the previous command word). Repeating this com‐
12824 mand replaces the word just inserted with the last word from the
12825 history event prior to the one just used; numeric arguments can
12826 be used in the same way to pick a word from that event.
12827 When called from a shell function invoked from a user-defined
12829 widget, the command can take one to three arguments. The first
12830 argument specifies a history offset which applies to successive
12831 calls to this widget: if it is -1, the default behaviour is
12832 used, while if it is 1, successive calls will move forwards
12833 through the history. The value 0 can be used to indicate that
12834 the history line examined by the previous execution of the com‐
12835 mand will be reexamined. Note that negative numbers should be
12836 preceded by a `--' argument to avoid confusing them with op‐
12837 tions.
12838 If two arguments are given, the second specifies the word on the
12840 command line in normal array index notation (as a more natural
12841 alternative to the numeric argument). Hence 1 is the first
12842 word, and -1 (the default) is the last word.
12843 If a third argument is given, its value is ignored, but it is
12845 used to signify that the history offset is relative to the cur‐
12846 rent history line, rather than the one remembered after the pre‐
12847 vious invocations of insert-last-word.
12848 For example, the default behaviour of the command corresponds to
12850 zle insert-last-word -- -1 -1
12852 while the command
12854 zle insert-last-word -- -1 1 -
12856 always copies the first word of the line in the history immedi‐
12858 ately before the line being edited. This has the side effect
12859 that later invocations of the widget will be relative to that
12860 line.
12861 vi-repeat-search (unbound) (n) (unbound)
12863 Repeat the last vi history search.
12864 vi-rev-repeat-search (unbound) (N) (unbound)
12866 Repeat the last vi history search, but in reverse.
12867 up-line-or-history (^P ESC-[A) (k) (ESC-[A)
12869 Move up a line in the buffer, or if already at the top line,
12870 move to the previous event in the history list.
12871 vi-up-line-or-history (unbound) (-) (unbound)
12873 Move up a line in the buffer, or if already at the top line,
12874 move to the previous event in the history list. Then move to
12875 the first non-blank character on the line.
12876 up-line-or-search
12878 Move up a line in the buffer, or if already at the top line,
12879 search backward in the history for a line beginning with the
12880 first word in the buffer.
12881 If called from a function by the zle command with arguments, the
12883 first argument is taken as the string for which to search,
12884 rather than the first word in the buffer.
12885 up-history (unbound) (^P) (unbound)
12887 Move to the previous event in the history list.
12888 history-beginning-search-forward
12890 Search forward in the history for a line beginning with the cur‐
12891 rent line up to the cursor. This leaves the cursor in its orig‐
12892 inal position.
12893 set-local-history
12895 By default, history movement commands visit the imported lines
12896 as well as the local lines. This widget lets you toggle this on
12897 and off, or set it with the numeric argument. Zero for both lo‐
12898 cal and imported lines and nonzero for only local lines.
12899 Modifying Text
12901 vi-add-eol (unbound) (A) (unbound)
12902 Move to the end of the line and enter insert mode.
12903 vi-add-next (unbound) (a) (unbound)
12905 Enter insert mode after the current cursor position, without
12906 changing lines.
12907 backward-delete-char (^H ^?) (unbound) (unbound)
12909 Delete the character behind the cursor.
12910 vi-backward-delete-char (unbound) (X) (^H)
12912 Delete the character behind the cursor, without changing lines.
12913 If in insert mode, this won't delete past the point where insert
12914 mode was last entered.
12915 backward-delete-word
12917 Delete the word behind the cursor.
12918 backward-kill-line
12920 Kill from the beginning of the line to the cursor position.
12921 backward-kill-word (^W ESC-^H ESC-^?) (unbound) (unbound)
12923 Kill the word behind the cursor.
12924 vi-backward-kill-word (unbound) (unbound) (^W)
12926 Kill the word behind the cursor, without going past the point
12927 where insert mode was last entered.
12928 capitalize-word (ESC-C ESC-c) (unbound) (unbound)
12930 Capitalize the current word and move past it.
12931 vi-change (unbound) (c) (unbound)
12933 Read a movement command from the keyboard, and kill from the
12934 cursor position to the endpoint of the movement. Then enter in‐
12935 sert mode. If the command is vi-change, change the current
12936 line.
12937 For compatibility with vi, if the command is vi-forward-word or
12939 vi-forward-blank-word, the whitespace after the word is not in‐
12940 cluded. If you prefer the more consistent behaviour with the
12941 whitespace included use the following key binding:
12942 bindkey -a -s cw dwi
12944 vi-change-eol (unbound) (C) (unbound)
12946 Kill to the end of the line and enter insert mode.
12947 vi-change-whole-line (unbound) (S) (unbound)
12949 Kill the current line and enter insert mode.
12950 copy-region-as-kill (ESC-W ESC-w) (unbound) (unbound)
12952 Copy the area from the cursor to the mark to the kill buffer.
12953 If called from a ZLE widget function in the form `zle copy-re‐
12955 gion-as-kill string' then string will be taken as the text to
12956 copy to the kill buffer. The cursor, the mark and the text on
12957 the command line are not used in this case.
12958 copy-prev-word (ESC-^_) (unbound) (unbound)
12960 Duplicate the word to the left of the cursor.
12961 copy-prev-shell-word
12963 Like copy-prev-word, but the word is found by using shell pars‐
12964 ing, whereas copy-prev-word looks for blanks. This makes a dif‐
12965 ference when the word is quoted and contains spaces.
12966 vi-delete (unbound) (d) (unbound)
12968 Read a movement command from the keyboard, and kill from the
12969 cursor position to the endpoint of the movement. If the command
12970 is vi-delete, kill the current line.
12971 delete-char
12973 Delete the character under the cursor.
12974 vi-delete-char (unbound) (x) (unbound)
12976 Delete the character under the cursor, without going past the
12977 end of the line.
12978 delete-word
12980 Delete the current word.
12981 down-case-word (ESC-L ESC-l) (unbound) (unbound)
12983 Convert the current word to all lowercase and move past it.
12984 vi-down-case (unbound) (gu) (unbound)
12986 Read a movement command from the keyboard, and convert all char‐
12987 acters from the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement
12988 to lowercase. If the movement command is vi-down-case, swap the
12989 case of all characters on the current line.
12990 kill-word (ESC-D ESC-d) (unbound) (unbound)
12992 Kill the current word.
12993 gosmacs-transpose-chars
12995 Exchange the two characters behind the cursor.
12996 vi-indent (unbound) (>) (unbound)
12998 Indent a number of lines.
12999 vi-insert (unbound) (i) (unbound)
13001 Enter insert mode.
13002 vi-insert-bol (unbound) (I) (unbound)
13004 Move to the first non-blank character on the line and enter in‐
13005 sert mode.
13006 vi-join (^X^J) (J) (unbound)
13008 Join the current line with the next one.
13009 kill-line (^K) (unbound) (unbound)
13011 Kill from the cursor to the end of the line. If already on the
13012 end of the line, kill the newline character.
13013 vi-kill-line (unbound) (unbound) (^U)
13015 Kill from the cursor back to wherever insert mode was last en‐
13016 tered.
13017 vi-kill-eol (unbound) (D) (unbound)
13019 Kill from the cursor to the end of the line.
13020 kill-region
13022 Kill from the cursor to the mark.
13023 kill-buffer (^X^K) (unbound) (unbound)
13025 Kill the entire buffer.
13026 kill-whole-line (^U) (unbound) (unbound)
13028 Kill the current line.
13029 vi-match-bracket (^X^B) (%) (unbound)
13031 Move to the bracket character (one of {}, () or []) that matches
13032 the one under the cursor. If the cursor is not on a bracket
13033 character, move forward without going past the end of the line
13034 to find one, and then go to the matching bracket.
13035 vi-open-line-above (unbound) (O) (unbound)
13037 Open a line above the cursor and enter insert mode.
13038 vi-open-line-below (unbound) (o) (unbound)
13040 Open a line below the cursor and enter insert mode.
13041 vi-oper-swap-case (unbound) (g~) (unbound)
13043 Read a movement command from the keyboard, and swap the case of
13044 all characters from the cursor position to the endpoint of the
13045 movement. If the movement command is vi-oper-swap-case, swap
13046 the case of all characters on the current line.
13047 overwrite-mode (^X^O) (unbound) (unbound)
13049 Toggle between overwrite mode and insert mode.
13050 vi-put-before (unbound) (P) (unbound)
13052 Insert the contents of the kill buffer before the cursor. If
13053 the kill buffer contains a sequence of lines (as opposed to
13054 characters), paste it above the current line.
13055 vi-put-after (unbound) (p) (unbound)
13057 Insert the contents of the kill buffer after the cursor. If the
13058 kill buffer contains a sequence of lines (as opposed to charac‐
13059 ters), paste it below the current line.
13060 put-replace-selection (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
13062 Replace the contents of the current region or selection with the
13063 contents of the kill buffer. If the kill buffer contains a se‐
13064 quence of lines (as opposed to characters), the current line
13065 will be split by the pasted lines.
13066 quoted-insert (^V) (unbound) (unbound)
13068 Insert the next character typed into the buffer literally. An
13069 interrupt character will not be inserted.
13070 vi-quoted-insert (unbound) (unbound) (^Q ^V)
13072 Display a `^' at the cursor position, and insert the next char‐
13073 acter typed into the buffer literally. An interrupt character
13074 will not be inserted.
13075 quote-line (ESC-') (unbound) (unbound)
13077 Quote the current line; that is, put a `'' character at the be‐
13078 ginning and the end, and convert all `'' characters to `'\'''.
13079 quote-region (ESC-") (unbound) (unbound)
13081 Quote the region from the cursor to the mark.
13082 vi-replace (unbound) (R) (unbound)
13084 Enter overwrite mode.
13085 vi-repeat-change (unbound) (.) (unbound)
13087 Repeat the last vi mode text modification. If a count was used
13088 with the modification, it is remembered. If a count is given to
13089 this command, it overrides the remembered count, and is remem‐
13090 bered for future uses of this command. The cut buffer specifi‐
13091 cation is similarly remembered.
13092 vi-replace-chars (unbound) (r) (unbound)
13094 Replace the character under the cursor with a character read
13095 from the keyboard.
13096 self-insert (printable characters) (unbound) (printable characters and
13098 some control characters)
13099 Insert a character into the buffer at the cursor position.
13100 self-insert-unmeta (ESC-^I ESC-^J ESC-^M) (unbound) (unbound)
13102 Insert a character into the buffer after stripping the meta bit
13103 and converting ^M to ^J.
13104 vi-substitute (unbound) (s) (unbound)
13106 Substitute the next character(s).
13107 vi-swap-case (unbound) (~) (unbound)
13109 Swap the case of the character under the cursor and move past
13110 it.
13111 transpose-chars (^T) (unbound) (unbound)
13113 Exchange the two characters to the left of the cursor if at end
13114 of line, else exchange the character under the cursor with the
13115 character to the left.
13116 transpose-words (ESC-T ESC-t) (unbound) (unbound)
13118 Exchange the current word with the one before it.
13119 With a positive numeric argument N, the word around the cursor,
13121 or following it if the cursor is between words, is transposed
13122 with the preceding N words. The cursor is put at the end of the
13123 resulting group of words.
13124 With a negative numeric argument -N, the effect is the same as
13126 using a positive argument N except that the original cursor po‐
13127 sition is retained, regardless of how the words are rearranged.
13128 vi-unindent (unbound) (<) (unbound)
13130 Unindent a number of lines.
13131 vi-up-case (unbound) (gU) (unbound)
13133 Read a movement command from the keyboard, and convert all char‐
13134 acters from the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement
13135 to lowercase. If the movement command is vi-up-case, swap the
13136 case of all characters on the current line.
13137 up-case-word (ESC-U ESC-u) (unbound) (unbound)
13139 Convert the current word to all caps and move past it.
13140 yank (^Y) (unbound) (unbound)
13142 Insert the contents of the kill buffer at the cursor position.
13143 yank-pop (ESC-y) (unbound) (unbound)
13145 Remove the text just yanked, rotate the kill-ring (the history
13146 of previously killed text) and yank the new top. Only works
13147 following yank, vi-put-before, vi-put-after or yank-pop.
13148 vi-yank (unbound) (y) (unbound)
13150 Read a movement command from the keyboard, and copy the region
13151 from the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement into
13152 the kill buffer. If the command is vi-yank, copy the current
13153 line.
13154 vi-yank-whole-line (unbound) (Y) (unbound)
13156 Copy the current line into the kill buffer.
13157 vi-yank-eol
13159 Copy the region from the cursor position to the end of the line
13160 into the kill buffer. Arguably, this is what Y should do in vi,
13161 but it isn't what it actually does.
13162 Arguments
13164 digit-argument (ESC-0..ESC-9) (1-9) (unbound)
13165 Start a new numeric argument, or add to the current one. See
13166 also vi-digit-or-beginning-of-line. This only works if bound to
13167 a key sequence ending in a decimal digit.
13168 Inside a widget function, a call to this function treats the
13170 last key of the key sequence which called the widget as the
13171 digit.
13172 neg-argument (ESC--) (unbound) (unbound)
13174 Changes the sign of the following argument.
13175 universal-argument
13177 Multiply the argument of the next command by 4. Alternatively,
13178 if this command is followed by an integer (positive or nega‐
13179 tive), use that as the argument for the next command. Thus dig‐
13180 its cannot be repeated using this command. For example, if this
13181 command occurs twice, followed immediately by forward-char, move
13182 forward sixteen spaces; if instead it is followed by -2, then
13183 forward-char, move backward two spaces.
13184 Inside a widget function, if passed an argument, i.e. `zle uni‐
13186 versal-argument num', the numeric argument will be set to num;
13187 this is equivalent to `NUMERIC=num'.
13188 argument-base
13190 Use the existing numeric argument as a numeric base, which must
13191 be in the range 2 to 36 inclusive. Subsequent use of digit-ar‐
13192 gument and universal-argument will input a new numeric argument
13193 in the given base. The usual hexadecimal convention is used:
13194 the letter a or A corresponds to 10, and so on. Arguments in
13195 bases requiring digits from 10 upwards are more conveniently in‐
13196 put with universal-argument, since ESC-a etc. are not usually
13197 bound to digit-argument.
13198 The function can be used with a command argument inside a
13200 user-defined widget. The following code sets the base to 16 and
13201 lets the user input a hexadecimal argument until a key out of
13202 the digit range is typed:
13203 zle argument-base 16
13205 zle universal-argument
13206 Completion
13208 accept-and-menu-complete
13209 In a menu completion, insert the current completion into the
13210 buffer, and advance to the next possible completion.
13211 complete-word
13213 Attempt completion on the current word.
13214 delete-char-or-list (^D) (unbound) (unbound)
13216 Delete the character under the cursor. If the cursor is at the
13217 end of the line, list possible completions for the current word.
13218 expand-cmd-path
13220 Expand the current command to its full pathname.
13221 expand-or-complete (TAB) (unbound) (TAB)
13223 Attempt shell expansion on the current word. If that fails, at‐
13224 tempt completion.
13225 expand-or-complete-prefix
13227 Attempt shell expansion on the current word up to cursor.
13228 expand-history (ESC-space ESC-!) (unbound) (unbound)
13230 Perform history expansion on the edit buffer.
13231 expand-word (^X*) (unbound) (unbound)
13233 Attempt shell expansion on the current word.
13234 list-choices (ESC-^D) (^D =) (^D)
13236 List possible completions for the current word.
13237 list-expand (^Xg ^XG) (^G) (^G)
13239 List the expansion of the current word.
13240 magic-space
13242 Perform history expansion and insert a space into the buffer.
13243 This is intended to be bound to space.
13244 menu-complete
13246 Like complete-word, except that menu completion is used. See
13247 the MENU_COMPLETE option.
13248 menu-expand-or-complete
13250 Like expand-or-complete, except that menu completion is used.
13251 reverse-menu-complete
13253 Perform menu completion, like menu-complete, except that if a
13254 menu completion is already in progress, move to the previous
13255 completion rather than the next.
13256 end-of-list
13258 When a previous completion displayed a list below the prompt,
13259 this widget can be used to move the prompt below the list.
13260 Miscellaneous
13262 accept-and-hold (ESC-A ESC-a) (unbound) (unbound)
13263 Push the contents of the buffer on the buffer stack and execute
13264 it.
13265 accept-and-infer-next-history
13267 Execute the contents of the buffer. Then search the history
13268 list for a line matching the current one and push the event fol‐
13269 lowing onto the buffer stack.
13270 accept-line (^J ^M) (^J ^M) (^J ^M)
13272 Finish editing the buffer. Normally this causes the buffer to
13273 be executed as a shell command.
13274 accept-line-and-down-history (^O) (unbound) (unbound)
13276 Execute the current line, and push the next history event on the
13277 buffer stack.
13278 auto-suffix-remove
13280 If the previous action added a suffix (space, slash, etc.) to
13281 the word on the command line, remove it. Otherwise do nothing.
13282 Removing the suffix ends any active menu completion or menu se‐
13283 lection.
13284 This widget is intended to be called from user-defined widgets
13286 to enforce a desired suffix-removal behavior.
13287 auto-suffix-retain
13289 If the previous action added a suffix (space, slash, etc.) to
13290 the word on the command line, force it to be preserved. Other‐
13291 wise do nothing. Retaining the suffix ends any active menu com‐
13292 pletion or menu selection.
13293 This widget is intended to be called from user-defined widgets
13295 to enforce a desired suffix-preservation behavior.
13296 beep Beep, unless the BEEP option is unset.
13298 bracketed-paste
13300 This widget is invoked when text is pasted to the terminal emu‐
13301 lator. It is not intended to be bound to actual keys but instead
13302 to the special sequence generated by the terminal emulator when
13303 text is pasted.
13304 When invoked interactively, the pasted text is inserted to the
13306 buffer and placed in the cutbuffer. If a numeric argument is
13307 given, shell quoting will be applied to the pasted text before
13308 it is inserted.
13309 When a named buffer is specified with vi-set-buffer ("x), the
13311 pasted text is stored in that named buffer but not inserted.
13312 When called from a widget function as `bracketed-paste name`,
13314 the pasted text is assigned to the variable name and no other
13315 processing is done.
13316 See also the zle_bracketed_paste parameter.
13318 vi-cmd-mode (^X^V) (unbound) (^[)
13320 Enter command mode; that is, select the `vicmd' keymap. Yes,
13321 this is bound by default in emacs mode.
13322 vi-caps-lock-panic
13324 Hang until any lowercase key is pressed. This is for vi users
13325 without the mental capacity to keep track of their caps lock key
13326 (like the author).
13327 clear-screen (^L ESC-^L) (^L) (^L)
13329 Clear the screen and redraw the prompt.
13330 deactivate-region
13332 Make the current region inactive. This disables vim-style visual
13333 selection mode if it is active.
13334 describe-key-briefly
13336 Reads a key sequence, then prints the function bound to that se‐
13337 quence.
13338 exchange-point-and-mark (^X^X) (unbound) (unbound)
13340 Exchange the cursor position (point) with the position of the
13341 mark. Unless a negative numeric argument is given, the region
13342 between point and mark is activated so that it can be high‐
13343 lighted. If a zero numeric argument is given, the region is ac‐
13344 tivated but point and mark are not swapped.
13345 execute-named-cmd (ESC-x) (:) (unbound)
13347 Read the name of an editor command and execute it. Aliasing
13348 this widget with `zle -A' or replacing it with `zle -N' has no
13349 effect when interpreting key bindings, but `zle exe‐
13350 cute-named-cmd' will invoke such an alias or replacement.
13351 A restricted set of editing functions is available in the
13353 mini-buffer. Keys are looked up in the special command keymap,
13354 and if not found there in the main keymap. An interrupt signal,
13355 as defined by the stty setting, will abort the function. Note
13356 that the following always perform the same task within the exe‐
13357 cuted-named-cmd environment and cannot be replaced by user de‐
13358 fined widgets, nor can the set of functions be extended. The
13359 allowed functions are: backward-delete-char, vi-back‐
13360 ward-delete-char, clear-screen, redisplay, quoted-insert,
13361 vi-quoted-insert, backward-kill-word, vi-backward-kill-word,
13362 kill-whole-line, vi-kill-line, backward-kill-line, list-choices,
13363 delete-char-or-list, complete-word, accept-line, expand-or-com‐
13364 plete and expand-or-complete-prefix.
13365 kill-region kills the last word, and vi-cmd-mode is treated the
13367 same as accept-line. The space and tab characters, if not bound
13368 to one of these functions, will complete the name and then list
13369 the possibilities if the AUTO_LIST option is set. Any other
13370 character that is not bound to self-insert or self-insert-unmeta
13371 will beep and be ignored. The bindings of the current insert
13372 mode will be used.
13373 Currently this command may not be redefined or called by name.
13375 execute-last-named-cmd (ESC-z) (unbound) (unbound)
13377 Redo the last function executed with execute-named-cmd.
13378 Like execute-named-cmd, this command may not be redefined, but
13380 it may be called by name.
13381 get-line (ESC-G ESC-g) (unbound) (unbound)
13383 Pop the top line off the buffer stack and insert it at the cur‐
13384 sor position.
13385 pound-insert (unbound) (#) (unbound)
13387 If there is no # character at the beginning of the buffer, add
13388 one to the beginning of each line. If there is one, remove a #
13389 from each line that has one. In either case, accept the current
13390 line. The INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS option must be set for this to
13391 have any usefulness.
13392 vi-pound-insert
13394 If there is no # character at the beginning of the current line,
13395 add one. If there is one, remove it. The INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS
13396 option must be set for this to have any usefulness.
13397 push-input
13399 Push the entire current multiline construct onto the buffer
13400 stack and return to the top-level (PS1) prompt. If the current
13401 parser construct is only a single line, this is exactly like
13402 push-line. Next time the editor starts up or is popped with
13403 get-line, the construct will be popped off the top of the buffer
13404 stack and loaded into the editing buffer.
13405 push-line (^Q ESC-Q ESC-q) (unbound) (unbound)
13407 Push the current buffer onto the buffer stack and clear the buf‐
13408 fer. Next time the editor starts up, the buffer will be popped
13409 off the top of the buffer stack and loaded into the editing buf‐
13410 fer.
13411 push-line-or-edit
13413 At the top-level (PS1) prompt, equivalent to push-line. At a
13414 secondary (PS2) prompt, move the entire current multiline con‐
13415 struct into the editor buffer. The latter is equivalent to
13416 push-input followed by get-line.
13417 read-command
13419 Only useful from a user-defined widget. A keystroke is read
13420 just as in normal operation, but instead of the command being
13421 executed the name of the command that would be executed is
13422 stored in the shell parameter REPLY. This can be used as the
13423 argument of a future zle command. If the key sequence is not
13424 bound, status 1 is returned; typically, however, REPLY is set to
13425 undefined-key to indicate a useless key sequence.
13426 recursive-edit
13428 Only useful from a user-defined widget. At this point in the
13429 function, the editor regains control until one of the standard
13430 widgets which would normally cause zle to exit (typically an ac‐
13431 cept-line caused by hitting the return key) is executed. In‐
13432 stead, control returns to the user-defined widget. The status
13433 returned is non-zero if the return was caused by an error, but
13434 the function still continues executing and hence may tidy up.
13435 This makes it safe for the user-defined widget to alter the com‐
13436 mand line or key bindings temporarily.
13437 The following widget, caps-lock, serves as an example.
13439 self-insert-ucase() {
13441 LBUFFER+=${(U)KEYS[-1]}
13442 }
13443 integer stat
13445 zle -N self-insert self-insert-ucase
13447 zle -A caps-lock save-caps-lock
13448 zle -A accept-line caps-lock
13449 zle recursive-edit
13451 stat=$?
13452 zle -A .self-insert self-insert
13454 zle -A save-caps-lock caps-lock
13455 zle -D save-caps-lock
13456 (( stat )) && zle send-break
13458 return $stat
13460 This causes typed letters to be inserted capitalised until ei‐
13462 ther accept-line (i.e. typically the return key) is typed or the
13463 caps-lock widget is invoked again; the later is handled by sav‐
13464 ing the old definition of caps-lock as save-caps-lock and then
13465 rebinding it to invoke accept-line. Note that an error from the
13466 recursive edit is detected as a non-zero return status and prop‐
13467 agated by using the send-break widget.
13468 redisplay (unbound) (^R) (^R)
13470 Redisplays the edit buffer.
13471 reset-prompt (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
13473 Force the prompts on both the left and right of the screen to be
13474 re-expanded, then redisplay the edit buffer. This reflects
13475 changes both to the prompt variables themselves and changes in
13476 the expansion of the values (for example, changes in time or di‐
13477 rectory, or changes to the value of variables referred to by the
13478 prompt).
13479 Otherwise, the prompt is only expanded each time zle starts, and
13481 when the display has been interrupted by output from another
13482 part of the shell (such as a job notification) which causes the
13483 command line to be reprinted.
13484 reset-prompt doesn't alter the special parameter LASTWIDGET.
13486 send-break (^G ESC-^G) (unbound) (unbound)
13488 Abort the current editor function, e.g. execute-named-command,
13489 or the editor itself, e.g. if you are in vared. Otherwise abort
13490 the parsing of the current line; in this case the aborted line
13491 is available in the shell variable ZLE_LINE_ABORTED. If the ed‐
13492 itor is aborted from within vared, the variable
13493 ZLE_VARED_ABORTED is set.
13494 run-help (ESC-H ESC-h) (unbound) (unbound)
13496 Push the buffer onto the buffer stack, and execute the command
13497 `run-help cmd', where cmd is the current command. run-help is
13498 normally aliased to man.
13499 vi-set-buffer (unbound) (") (unbound)
13501 Specify a buffer to be used in the following command. There are
13502 37 buffers that can be specified: the 26 `named' buffers "a to
13503 "z, the `yank' buffer "0, the nine `queued' buffers "1 to "9 and
13504 the `black hole' buffer "_. The named buffers can also be spec‐
13505 ified as "A to "Z.
13506 When a buffer is specified for a cut, change or yank command,
13508 the text concerned replaces the previous contents of the speci‐
13509 fied buffer. If a named buffer is specified using a capital, the
13510 newly cut text is appended to the buffer instead of overwriting
13511 it. When using the "_ buffer, nothing happens. This can be use‐
13512 ful for deleting text without affecting any buffers.
13513 If no buffer is specified for a cut or change command, "1 is
13515 used, and the contents of "1 to "8 are each shifted along one
13516 buffer; the contents of "9 is lost. If no buffer is specified
13517 for a yank command, "0 is used. Finally, a paste command without
13518 a specified buffer will paste the text from the most recent com‐
13519 mand regardless of any buffer that might have been used with
13520 that command.
13521 When called from a widget function by the zle command, the buf‐
13523 fer can optionally be specified with an argument. For example,
13524 zle vi-set-buffer A
13526 vi-set-mark (unbound) (m) (unbound)
13528 Set the specified mark at the cursor position.
13529 set-mark-command (^@) (unbound) (unbound)
13531 Set the mark at the cursor position. If called with a negative
13532 numeric argument, do not set the mark but deactivate the region
13533 so that it is no longer highlighted (it is still usable for
13534 other purposes). Otherwise the region is marked as active.
13535 spell-word (ESC-$ ESC-S ESC-s) (unbound) (unbound)
13537 Attempt spelling correction on the current word.
13538 split-undo
13540 Breaks the undo sequence at the current change. This is useful
13541 in vi mode as changes made in insert mode are coalesced on en‐
13542 tering command mode. Similarly, undo will normally revert as
13543 one all the changes made by a user-defined widget.
13544 undefined-key
13546 This command is executed when a key sequence that is not bound
13547 to any command is typed. By default it beeps.
13548 undo (^_ ^Xu ^X^U) (u) (unbound)
13550 Incrementally undo the last text modification. When called from
13551 a user-defined widget, takes an optional argument indicating a
13552 previous state of the undo history as returned by the
13553 UNDO_CHANGE_NO variable; modifications are undone until that
13554 state is reached, subject to any limit imposed by the
13555 UNDO_LIMIT_NO variable.
13556 Note that when invoked from vi command mode, the full prior
13558 change made in insert mode is reverted, the changes having been
13559 merged when command mode was selected.
13560 redo (unbound) (^R) (unbound)
13562 Incrementally redo undone text modifications.
13563 vi-undo-change (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
13565 Undo the last text modification. If repeated, redo the modifi‐
13566 cation.
13567 visual-mode (unbound) (v) (unbound)
13569 Toggle vim-style visual selection mode. If line-wise visual mode
13570 is currently enabled then it is changed to being character-wise.
13571 If used following an operator, it forces the subsequent movement
13572 command to be treated as a character-wise movement.
13573 visual-line-mode (unbound) (V) (unbound)
13575 Toggle vim-style line-wise visual selection mode. If charac‐
13576 ter-wise visual mode is currently enabled then it is changed to
13577 being line-wise. If used following an operator, it forces the
13578 subsequent movement command to be treated as a line-wise move‐
13579 ment.
13580 what-cursor-position (^X=) (ga) (unbound)
13582 Print the character under the cursor, its code as an octal, dec‐
13583 imal and hexadecimal number, the current cursor position within
13584 the buffer and the column of the cursor in the current line.
13585 where-is
13587 Read the name of an editor command and print the listing of key
13588 sequences that invoke the specified command. A restricted set
13589 of editing functions is available in the mini-buffer. Keys are
13590 looked up in the special command keymap, and if not found there
13591 in the main keymap.
13592 which-command (ESC-?) (unbound) (unbound)
13594 Push the buffer onto the buffer stack, and execute the command
13595 `which-command cmd'. where cmd is the current command.
13596 which-command is normally aliased to whence.
13597 vi-digit-or-beginning-of-line (unbound) (0) (unbound)
13599 If the last command executed was a digit as part of an argument,
13600 continue the argument. Otherwise, execute vi-beginning-of-line.
13601 Text Objects
13603 Text objects are commands that can be used to select a block of text
13604 according to some criteria. They are a feature of the vim text editor
13605 and so are primarily intended for use with vi operators or from visual
13606 selection mode. However, they can also be used from vi-insert or emacs
13607 mode. Key bindings listed below apply to the viopp and visual keymaps.
13608 select-a-blank-word (aW)
13610 Select a word including adjacent blanks, where a word is defined
13611 as a series of non-blank characters. With a numeric argument,
13612 multiple words will be selected.
13613 select-a-shell-word (aa)
13615 Select the current command argument applying the normal rules
13616 for quoting.
13617 select-a-word (aw)
13619 Select a word including adjacent blanks, using the normal
13620 vi-style word definition. With a numeric argument, multiple
13621 words will be selected.
13622 select-in-blank-word (iW)
13624 Select a word, where a word is defined as a series of non-blank
13625 characters. With a numeric argument, multiple words will be se‐
13626 lected.
13627 select-in-shell-word (ia)
13629 Select the current command argument applying the normal rules
13630 for quoting. If the argument begins and ends with matching quote
13631 characters, these are not included in the selection.
13632 select-in-word (iw)
13634 Select a word, using the normal vi-style word definition. With a
13635 numeric argument, multiple words will be selected.
13636
13638 The line editor has the ability to highlight characters or regions of
13639 the line that have a particular significance. This is controlled by
13640 the array parameter zle_highlight, if it has been set by the user.
13641 If the parameter contains the single entry none all highlighting is
13643 turned off. Note the parameter is still expected to be an array.
13644 Otherwise each entry of the array should consist of a word indicating a
13646 context for highlighting, then a colon, then a comma-separated list of
13647 the types of highlighting to apply in that context.
13648 The contexts available for highlighting are the following:
13650 default
13652 Any text within the command line not affected by any other high‐
13653 lighting. Text outside the editable area of the command line is
13654 not affected.
13655 isearch
13657 When one of the incremental history search widgets is active,
13658 the area of the command line matched by the search string or
13659 pattern.
13660 region The currently selected text. In emacs terminology, this is re‐
13662 ferred to as the region and is bounded by the cursor (point) and
13663 the mark. The region is only highlighted if it is active, which
13664 is the case after the mark is modified with set-mark-command or
13665 exchange-point-and-mark. Note that whether or not the region is
13666 active has no effect on its use within emacs style widgets, it
13667 simply determines whether it is highlighted. In vi mode, the re‐
13668 gion corresponds to selected text in visual mode.
13669 special
13671 Individual characters that have no direct printable representa‐
13672 tion but are shown in a special manner by the line editor.
13673 These characters are described below.
13674 suffix This context is used in completion for characters that are
13676 marked as suffixes that will be removed if the completion ends
13677 at that point, the most obvious example being a slash (/) after
13678 a directory name. Note that suffix removal is configurable; the
13679 circumstances under which the suffix will be removed may differ
13680 for different completions.
13681 paste Following a command to paste text, the characters that were in‐
13683 serted.
13684 When region_highlight is set, the contexts that describe a region --
13686 isearch, region, suffix, and paste -- are applied first, then re‐
13687 gion_highlight is applied, then the remaining zle_highlight contexts
13688 are applied. If a particular character is affected by multiple speci‐
13689 fications, the last specification wins.
13690 zle_highlight may contain additional fields for controlling how termi‐
13692 nal sequences to change colours are output. Each of the following is
13693 followed by a colon and a string in the same form as for key bindings.
13694 This will not be necessary for the vast majority of terminals as the
13695 defaults shown in parentheses are widely used.
13696 fg_start_code (\e[3)
13698 The start of the escape sequence for the foreground colour.
13699 This is followed by one to three ASCII digits representing the
13700 colour. Only used for palette colors, i.e. not 24-bit colors
13701 specified via a color triplet.
13702 fg_default_code (9)
13704 The number to use instead of the colour to reset the default
13705 foreground colour.
13706 fg_end_code (m)
13708 The end of the escape sequence for the foreground colour.
13709 bg_start_code (\e[4)
13711 The start of the escape sequence for the background colour. See
13712 fg_start_code above.
13713 bg_default_code (9)
13715 The number to use instead of the colour to reset the default
13716 background colour.
13717 bg_end_code (m)
13719 The end of the escape sequence for the background colour.
13720 The available types of highlighting are the following. Note that not
13722 all types of highlighting are available on all terminals:
13723 none No highlighting is applied to the given context. It is not use‐
13725 ful for this to appear with other types of highlighting; it is
13726 used to override a default.
13727 fg=colour
13729 The foreground colour should be set to colour, a decimal inte‐
13730 ger, the name of one of the eight most widely-supported colours
13731 or as a `#' followed by an RGB triplet in hexadecimal format.
13732 Not all terminals support this and, of those that do, not all
13734 provide facilities to test the support, hence the user should
13735 decide based on the terminal type. Most terminals support the
13736 colours black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan and
13737 white, which can be set by name. In addition. default may be
13738 used to set the terminal's default foreground colour. Abbrevia‐
13739 tions are allowed; b or bl selects black. Some terminals may
13740 generate additional colours if the bold attribute is also
13741 present.
13742 On recent terminals and on systems with an up-to-date terminal
13744 database the number of colours supported may be tested by the
13745 command `echotc Co'; if this succeeds, it indicates a limit on
13746 the number of colours which will be enforced by the line editor.
13747 The number of colours is in any case limited to 256 (i.e. the
13748 range 0 to 255).
13749 Some modern terminal emulators have support for 24-bit true
13751 colour (16 million colours). In this case, the hex triplet for‐
13752 mat can be used. This consists of a `#' followed by either a
13753 three or six digit hexadecimal number describing the red, green
13754 and blue components of the colour. Hex triplets can also be used
13755 with 88 and 256 colour terminals via the zsh/nearcolor module
13756 (see zshmodules(1)).
13757 Colour is also known as color.
13759 bg=colour
13761 The background colour should be set to colour. This works simi‐
13762 larly to the foreground colour, except the background is not
13763 usually affected by the bold attribute.
13764 bold The characters in the given context are shown in a bold font.
13766 Not all terminals distinguish bold fonts.
13767 standout
13769 The characters in the given context are shown in the terminal's
13770 standout mode. The actual effect is specific to the terminal;
13771 on many terminals it is inverse video. On some such terminals,
13772 where the cursor does not blink it appears with standout mode
13773 negated, making it less than clear where the cursor actually is.
13774 On such terminals one of the other effects may be preferable for
13775 highlighting the region and matched search string.
13776 underline
13778 The characters in the given context are shown underlined. Some
13779 terminals show the foreground in a different colour instead; in
13780 this case whitespace will not be highlighted.
13781 The characters described above as `special' are as follows. The for‐
13783 matting described here is used irrespective of whether the characters
13784 are highlighted:
13785 ASCII control characters
13787 Control characters in the ASCII range are shown as `^' followed
13788 by the base character.
13789 Unprintable multibyte characters
13791 This item applies to control characters not in the ASCII range,
13792 plus other characters as follows. If the MULTIBYTE option is in
13793 effect, multibyte characters not in the ASCII character set that
13794 are reported as having zero width are treated as combining char‐
13795 acters when the option COMBINING_CHARS is on. If the option is
13796 off, or if a character appears where a combining character is
13797 not valid, the character is treated as unprintable.
13798 Unprintable multibyte characters are shown as a hexadecimal num‐
13800 ber between angle brackets. The number is the code point of the
13801 character in the wide character set; this may or may not be Uni‐
13802 code, depending on the operating system.
13803 Invalid multibyte characters
13805 If the MULTIBYTE option is in effect, any sequence of one or
13806 more bytes that does not form a valid character in the current
13807 character set is treated as a series of bytes each shown as a
13808 special character. This case can be distinguished from other
13809 unprintable characters as the bytes are represented as two hexa‐
13810 decimal digits between angle brackets, as distinct from the four
13811 or eight digits that are used for unprintable characters that
13812 are nonetheless valid in the current character set.
13813 Not all systems support this: for it to work, the system's rep‐
13815 resentation of wide characters must be code values from the Uni‐
13816 versal Character Set, as defined by IS0 10646 (also known as
13817 Unicode).
13818 Wrapped double-width characters
13820 When a double-width character appears in the final column of a
13821 line, it is instead shown on the next line. The empty space left
13822 in the original position is highlighted as a special character.
13823 If zle_highlight is not set or no value applies to a particular con‐
13825 text, the defaults applied are equivalent to
13826 zle_highlight=(region:standout special:standout
13828 suffix:bold isearch:underline paste:standout)
13829 i.e. both the region and special characters are shown in standout mode.
13831 Within widgets, arbitrary regions may be highlighted by setting the
13833 special array parameter region_highlight; see above.
13834ZSHCOMPWID(1) General Commands Manual ZSHCOMPWID(1)
13836
13840 zshcompwid - zsh completion widgets
13841
13843 The shell's programmable completion mechanism can be manipulated in two
13844 ways; here the low-level features supporting the newer, function-based
13845 mechanism are defined. A complete set of shell functions based on
13846 these features is described in zshcompsys(1), and users with no inter‐
13847 est in adding to that system (or, potentially, writing their own -- see
13848 dictionary entry for `hubris') should skip the current section. The
13849 older system based on the compctl builtin command is described in zsh‐
13850 compctl(1).
13851 Completion widgets are defined by the -C option to the zle builtin com‐
13853 mand provided by the zsh/zle module (see zshzle(1)). For example,
13854 zle -C complete expand-or-complete completer
13856 defines a widget named `complete'. The second argument is the name of
13858 any of the builtin widgets that handle completions: complete-word, ex‐
13859 pand-or-complete, expand-or-complete-prefix, menu-complete, menu-ex‐
13860 pand-or-complete, reverse-menu-complete, list-choices, or
13861 delete-char-or-list. Note that this will still work even if the widget
13862 in question has been re-bound.
13863 When this newly defined widget is bound to a key using the bindkey
13865 builtin command defined in the zsh/zle module (see zshzle(1)), typing
13866 that key will call the shell function `completer'. This function is re‐
13867 sponsible for generating the possible matches using the builtins de‐
13868 scribed below. As with other ZLE widgets, the function is called with
13869 its standard input closed.
13870 Once the function returns, the completion code takes over control again
13872 and treats the matches in the same manner as the specified builtin wid‐
13873 get, in this case expand-or-complete.
13874
13876 The parameters ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS and ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS are
13877 used by the completion mechanism, but are not special. See Parameters
13878 Used By The Shell in zshparam(1).
13879 Inside completion widgets, and any functions called from them, some pa‐
13881 rameters have special meaning; outside these functions they are not
13882 special to the shell in any way. These parameters are used to pass in‐
13883 formation between the completion code and the completion widget. Some
13884 of the builtin commands and the condition codes use or change the cur‐
13885 rent values of these parameters. Any existing values will be hidden
13886 during execution of completion widgets; except for compstate, the pa‐
13887 rameters are reset on each function exit (including nested function
13888 calls from within the completion widget) to the values they had when
13889 the function was entered.
13890 CURRENT
13892 This is the number of the current word, i.e. the word the cursor
13893 is currently on in the words array. Note that this value is
13894 only correct if the ksharrays option is not set.
13895 IPREFIX
13897 Initially this will be set to the empty string. This parameter
13898 functions like PREFIX; it contains a string which precedes the
13899 one in PREFIX and is not considered part of the list of matches.
13900 Typically, a string is transferred from the beginning of PREFIX
13901 to the end of IPREFIX, for example:
13902 IPREFIX=${PREFIX%%\=*}=
13904 PREFIX=${PREFIX#*=}
13905 causes the part of the prefix up to and including the first
13907 equal sign not to be treated as part of a matched string. This
13908 can be done automatically by the compset builtin, see below.
13909 ISUFFIX
13911 As IPREFIX, but for a suffix that should not be considered part
13912 of the matches; note that the ISUFFIX string follows the SUFFIX
13913 string.
13914 PREFIX Initially this will be set to the part of the current word from
13916 the beginning of the word up to the position of the cursor; it
13917 may be altered to give a common prefix for all matches.
13918 QIPREFIX
13920 This parameter is read-only and contains the quoted string up to
13921 the word being completed. E.g. when completing `"foo', this pa‐
13922 rameter contains the double quote. If the -q option of compset
13923 is used (see below), and the original string was `"foo bar' with
13924 the cursor on the `bar', this parameter contains `"foo '.
13925 QISUFFIX
13927 Like QIPREFIX, but containing the suffix.
13928 SUFFIX Initially this will be set to the part of the current word from
13930 the cursor position to the end; it may be altered to give a com‐
13931 mon suffix for all matches. It is most useful when the option
13932 COMPLETE_IN_WORD is set, as otherwise the whole word on the com‐
13933 mand line is treated as a prefix.
13934 compstate
13936 This is an associative array with various keys and values that
13937 the completion code uses to exchange information with the com‐
13938 pletion widget. The keys are:
13939 all_quotes
13941 The -q option of the compset builtin command (see below)
13942 allows a quoted string to be broken into separate words;
13943 if the cursor is on one of those words, that word will be
13944 completed, possibly invoking `compset -q' recursively.
13945 With this key it is possible to test the types of quoted
13946 strings which are currently broken into parts in this
13947 fashion. Its value contains one character for each quot‐
13948 ing level. The characters are a single quote or a double
13949 quote for strings quoted with these characters, a dollars
13950 sign for strings quoted with $'...' and a backslash for
13951 strings not starting with a quote character. The first
13952 character in the value always corresponds to the inner‐
13953 most quoting level.
13954 context
13956 This will be set by the completion code to the overall
13957 context in which completion is attempted. Possible values
13958 are:
13959 array_value
13961 when completing inside the value of an array pa‐
13962 rameter assignment; in this case the words array
13963 contains the words inside the parentheses.
13964 brace_parameter
13966 when completing the name of a parameter in a pa‐
13967 rameter expansion beginning with ${. This context
13968 will also be set when completing parameter flags
13969 following ${(; the full command line argument is
13970 presented and the handler must test the value to
13971 be completed to ascertain that this is the case.
13972 assign_parameter
13974 when completing the name of a parameter in a pa‐
13975 rameter assignment.
13976 command
13978 when completing for a normal command (either in
13979 command position or for an argument of the com‐
13980 mand).
13981 condition
13983 when completing inside a `[[...]]' conditional ex‐
13984 pression; in this case the words array contains
13985 only the words inside the conditional expression.
13986 math when completing in a mathematical environment such
13988 as a `((...))' construct.
13989 parameter
13991 when completing the name of a parameter in a pa‐
13992 rameter expansion beginning with $ but not ${.
13993 redirect
13995 when completing after a redirection operator.
13996 subscript
13998 when completing inside a parameter subscript.
13999 value when completing the value of a parameter assign‐
14001 ment.
14002 exact Controls the behaviour when the REC_EXACT option is set.
14004 It will be set to accept if an exact match would be ac‐
14005 cepted, and will be unset otherwise.
14006 If it was set when at least one match equal to the string
14008 on the line was generated, the match is accepted.
14009 exact_string
14011 The string of an exact match if one was found, otherwise
14012 unset.
14013 ignored
14015 The number of words that were ignored because they
14016 matched one of the patterns given with the -F option to
14017 the compadd builtin command.
14018 insert This controls the manner in which a match is inserted
14020 into the command line. On entry to the widget function,
14021 if it is unset the command line is not to be changed; if
14022 set to unambiguous, any prefix common to all matches is
14023 to be inserted; if set to automenu-unambiguous, the com‐
14024 mon prefix is to be inserted and the next invocation of
14025 the completion code may start menu completion (due to the
14026 AUTO_MENU option being set); if set to menu or automenu
14027 menu completion will be started for the matches currently
14028 generated (in the latter case this will happen because
14029 the AUTO_MENU is set). The value may also contain the
14030 string `tab' when the completion code would normally not
14031 really do completion, but only insert the TAB character.
14032 On exit it may be set to any of the values above (where
14034 setting it to the empty string is the same as unsetting
14035 it), or to a number, in which case the match whose number
14036 is given will be inserted into the command line. Nega‐
14037 tive numbers count backward from the last match (with
14038 `-1' selecting the last match) and out-of-range values
14039 are wrapped around, so that a value of zero selects the
14040 last match and a value one more than the maximum selects
14041 the first. Unless the value of this key ends in a space,
14042 the match is inserted as in a menu completion, i.e. with‐
14043 out automatically appending a space.
14044 Both menu and automenu may also specify the number of the
14046 match to insert, given after a colon. For example,
14047 `menu:2' says to start menu completion, beginning with
14048 the second match.
14049 Note that a value containing the substring `tab' makes
14051 the matches generated be ignored and only the TAB be in‐
14052 serted.
14053 Finally, it may also be set to all, which makes all
14055 matches generated be inserted into the line.
14056 insert_positions
14058 When the completion system inserts an unambiguous string
14059 into the line, there may be multiple places where charac‐
14060 ters are missing or where the character inserted differs
14061 from at least one match. The value of this key contains
14062 a colon separated list of all these positions, as indexes
14063 into the command line.
14064 last_prompt
14066 If this is set to a non-empty string for every match
14067 added, the completion code will move the cursor back to
14068 the previous prompt after the list of completions has
14069 been displayed. Initially this is set or unset according
14070 to the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option.
14071 list This controls whether or how the list of matches will be
14073 displayed. If it is unset or empty they will never be
14074 listed; if its value begins with list, they will always
14075 be listed; if it begins with autolist or ambiguous, they
14076 will be listed when the AUTO_LIST or LIST_AMBIGUOUS op‐
14077 tions respectively would normally cause them to be.
14078 If the substring force appears in the value, this makes
14080 the list be shown even if there is only one match. Nor‐
14081 mally, the list would be shown only if there are at least
14082 two matches.
14083 The value contains the substring packed if the
14085 LIST_PACKED option is set. If this substring is given for
14086 all matches added to a group, this group will show the
14087 LIST_PACKED behavior. The same is done for the
14088 LIST_ROWS_FIRST option with the substring rows.
14089 Finally, if the value contains the string explanations,
14091 only the explanation strings, if any, will be listed and
14092 if it contains messages, only the messages (added with
14093 the -x option of compadd) will be listed. If it contains
14094 both explanations and messages both kinds of explanation
14095 strings will be listed. It will be set appropriately on
14096 entry to a completion widget and may be changed there.
14097 list_lines
14099 This gives the number of lines that are needed to display
14100 the full list of completions. Note that to calculate the
14101 total number of lines to display you need to add the num‐
14102 ber of lines needed for the command line to this value,
14103 this is available as the value of the BUFFERLINES special
14104 parameter.
14105 list_max
14107 Initially this is set to the value of the LISTMAX parame‐
14108 ter. It may be set to any other value; when the widget
14109 exits this value will be used in the same way as the
14110 value of LISTMAX.
14111 nmatches
14113 The number of matches generated and accepted by the com‐
14114 pletion code so far.
14115 old_insert
14117 On entry to the widget this will be set to the number of
14118 the match of an old list of completions that is currently
14119 inserted into the command line. If no match has been in‐
14120 serted, this is unset.
14121 As with old_list, the value of this key will only be used
14123 if it is the string keep. If it was set to this value by
14124 the widget and there was an old match inserted into the
14125 command line, this match will be kept and if the value of
14126 the insert key specifies that another match should be in‐
14127 serted, this will be inserted after the old one.
14128 old_list
14130 This is set to yes if there is still a valid list of com‐
14131 pletions from a previous completion at the time the wid‐
14132 get is invoked. This will usually be the case if and
14133 only if the previous editing operation was a completion
14134 widget or one of the builtin completion functions. If
14135 there is a valid list and it is also currently shown on
14136 the screen, the value of this key is shown.
14137 After the widget has exited the value of this key is only
14139 used if it was set to keep. In this case the completion
14140 code will continue to use this old list. If the widget
14141 generated new matches, they will not be used.
14142 parameter
14144 The name of the parameter when completing in a subscript
14145 or in the value of a parameter assignment.
14146 pattern_insert
14148 Normally this is set to menu, which specifies that menu
14149 completion will be used whenever a set of matches was
14150 generated using pattern matching. If it is set to any
14151 other non-empty string by the user and menu completion is
14152 not selected by other option settings, the code will in‐
14153 stead insert any common prefix for the generated matches
14154 as with normal completion.
14155 pattern_match
14157 Locally controls the behaviour given by the GLOB_COMPLETE
14158 option. Initially it is set to `*' if and only if the
14159 option is set. The completion widget may set it to this
14160 value, to an empty string (which has the same effect as
14161 unsetting it), or to any other non-empty string. If it
14162 is non-empty, unquoted metacharacters on the command line
14163 will be treated as patterns; if it is `*', then addition‐
14164 ally a wildcard `*' is assumed at the cursor position; if
14165 it is empty or unset, metacharacters will be treated lit‐
14166 erally.
14167 Note that the matcher specifications given to the compadd
14169 builtin command are not used if this is set to a
14170 non-empty string.
14171 quote When completing inside quotes, this contains the quota‐
14173 tion character (i.e. either a single quote, a double
14174 quote, or a backtick). Otherwise it is unset.
14175 quoting
14177 When completing inside single quotes, this is set to the
14178 string single; inside double quotes, the string double;
14179 inside backticks, the string backtick. Otherwise it is
14180 unset.
14181 redirect
14183 The redirection operator when completing in a redirection
14184 position, i.e. one of <, >, etc.
14185 restore
14187 This is set to auto before a function is entered, which
14188 forces the special parameters mentioned above (words,
14189 CURRENT, PREFIX, IPREFIX, SUFFIX, and ISUFFIX) to be re‐
14190 stored to their previous values when the function exits.
14191 If a function unsets it or sets it to any other string,
14192 they will not be restored.
14193 to_end Specifies the occasions on which the cursor is moved to
14195 the end of a string when a match is inserted. On entry
14196 to a widget function, it may be single if this will hap‐
14197 pen when a single unambiguous match was inserted or match
14198 if it will happen any time a match is inserted (for exam‐
14199 ple, by menu completion; this is likely to be the effect
14200 of the ALWAYS_TO_END option).
14201 On exit, it may be set to single as above. It may also
14203 be set to always, or to the empty string or unset; in
14204 those cases the cursor will be moved to the end of the
14205 string always or never respectively. Any other string is
14206 treated as match.
14207 unambiguous
14209 This key is read-only and will always be set to the com‐
14210 mon (unambiguous) prefix the completion code has gener‐
14211 ated for all matches added so far.
14212 unambiguous_cursor
14214 This gives the position the cursor would be placed at if
14215 the common prefix in the unambiguous key were inserted,
14216 relative to the value of that key. The cursor would be
14217 placed before the character whose index is given by this
14218 key.
14219 unambiguous_positions
14221 This contains all positions where characters in the unam‐
14222 biguous string are missing or where the character in‐
14223 serted differs from at least one of the matches. The po‐
14224 sitions are given as indexes into the string given by the
14225 value of the unambiguous key.
14226 vared If completion is called while editing a line using the
14228 vared builtin, the value of this key is set to the name
14229 of the parameter given as an argument to vared. This key
14230 is only set while a vared command is active.
14231 words This array contains the words present on the command line cur‐
14233 rently being edited.
14234
14236 compadd [ -akqQfenUl12C ] [ -F array ]
14237 [-P prefix ] [ -S suffix ]
14238 [-p hidden-prefix ] [ -s hidden-suffix ]
14239 [-i ignored-prefix ] [ -I ignored-suffix ]
14240 [-W file-prefix ] [ -d array ]
14241 [-J group-name ] [ -X explanation ] [ -x message ]
14242 [-V group-name ] [ -o [ order ] ]
14243 [-r remove-chars ] [ -R remove-func ]
14244 [-D array ] [ -O array ] [ -A array ]
14245 [-E number ]
14246 [-M match-spec ] [ -- ] [ words ... ]
14247 This builtin command can be used to add matches directly and
14249 control all the information the completion code stores with each
14250 possible match. The return status is zero if at least one match
14251 was added and non-zero if no matches were added.
14252 The completion code breaks the string to complete into seven
14254 fields in the order:
14255 <ipre><apre><hpre><word><hsuf><asuf><isuf>
14257 The first field is an ignored prefix taken from the command
14259 line, the contents of the IPREFIX parameter plus the string
14260 given with the -i option. With the -U option, only the string
14261 from the -i option is used. The field <apre> is an optional pre‐
14262 fix string given with the -P option. The <hpre> field is a
14263 string that is considered part of the match but that should not
14264 be shown when listing completions, given with the -p option; for
14265 example, functions that do filename generation might specify a
14266 common path prefix this way. <word> is the part of the match
14267 that should appear in the list of completions, i.e. one of the
14268 words given at the end of the compadd command line. The suffixes
14269 <hsuf>, <asuf> and <isuf> correspond to the prefixes <hpre>,
14270 <apre> and <ipre> and are given by the options -s, -S and -I,
14271 respectively.
14272 The supported flags are:
14274 -P prefix
14276 This gives a string to be inserted before the given
14277 words. The string given is not considered as part of the
14278 match and any shell metacharacters in it will not be
14279 quoted when the string is inserted.
14280 -S suffix
14282 Like -P, but gives a string to be inserted after the
14283 match.
14284 -p hidden-prefix
14286 This gives a string that should be inserted into the com‐
14287 mand line before the match but that should not appear in
14288 the list of matches. Unless the -U option is given, this
14289 string must be matched as part of the string on the com‐
14290 mand line.
14291 -s hidden-suffix
14293 Like `-p', but gives a string to insert after the match.
14294 -i ignored-prefix
14296 This gives a string to insert into the command line just
14297 before any string given with the `-P' option. Without
14298 `-P' the string is inserted before the string given with
14299 `-p' or directly before the match.
14300 -I ignored-suffix
14302 Like -i, but gives an ignored suffix.
14303 -a With this flag the words are taken as names of arrays and
14305 the possible matches are their values. If only some ele‐
14306 ments of the arrays are needed, the words may also con‐
14307 tain subscripts, as in `foo[2,-1]'.
14308 -k With this flag the words are taken as names of associa‐
14310 tive arrays and the possible matches are their keys. As
14311 for -a, the words may also contain subscripts, as in
14312 `foo[(R)*bar*]'.
14313 -d array
14315 This adds per-match display strings. The array should
14316 contain one element per word given. The completion code
14317 will then display the first element instead of the first
14318 word, and so on. The array may be given as the name of an
14319 array parameter or directly as a space-separated list of
14320 words in parentheses.
14321 If there are fewer display strings than words, the left‐
14323 over words will be displayed unchanged and if there are
14324 more display strings than words, the leftover display
14325 strings will be silently ignored.
14326 -l This option only has an effect if used together with the
14328 -d option. If it is given, the display strings are listed
14329 one per line, not arrayed in columns.
14330 -o [ order ]
14332 This controls the order in which matches are sorted. or‐
14333 der is a comma-separated list comprising the following
14334 possible values. These values can be abbreviated to
14335 their initial two or three characters. Note that the or‐
14336 der forms part of the group name space so matches with
14337 different orderings will not be in the same group.
14338 match If given, the order of the output is determined by
14340 the match strings; otherwise it is determined by
14341 the display strings (i.e. the strings given by the
14342 -d option). This is the default if `-o' is speci‐
14343 fied but the order argument is omitted.
14344 nosort This specifies that the matches are pre-sorted and
14346 their order should be preserved. This value only
14347 makes sense alone and cannot be combined with any
14348 others.
14349 numeric
14351 If the matches include numbers, sort them numeri‐
14352 cally rather than lexicographically.
14353 reverse
14355 Arrange the matches backwards by reversing the
14356 sort ordering.
14357 -J group-name
14359 Gives the name of the group of matches the words should
14360 be stored in.
14361 -V group-name
14363 Like -J but naming an unsorted group. This option is
14364 identical to the combination of -J and -o nosort.
14365 -1 If given together with the -V option, makes only consecu‐
14367 tive duplicates in the group be removed. If combined with
14368 the -J option, this has no visible effect. Note that
14369 groups with and without this flag are in different name
14370 spaces.
14371 -2 If given together with the -J or -V option, makes all du‐
14373 plicates be kept. Again, groups with and without this
14374 flag are in different name spaces.
14375 -X explanation
14377 The explanation string will be printed with the list of
14378 matches, above the group currently selected.
14379 Within the explanation, the following sequences may be
14381 used to specify output attributes as described in the
14382 section EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1):
14383 `%B', `%S', `%U', `%F', `%K' and their lower case coun‐
14384 terparts, as well as `%{...%}'. `%F', `%K' and `%{...%}'
14385 take arguments in the same form as prompt expansion.
14386 (Note that the sequence `%G' is not available; an argu‐
14387 ment to `%{' should be used instead.) The sequence `%%'
14388 produces a literal `%'.
14389 These sequences are most often employed by users when
14391 customising the format style (see zshcompsys(1)), but
14392 they must also be taken into account when writing comple‐
14393 tion functions, as passing descriptions with unescaped
14394 `%' characters to utility functions such as _arguments
14395 and _message may produce unexpected results. If arbitrary
14396 text is to be passed in a description, it can be escaped
14397 using e.g. ${my_str//\%/%%}.
14398 -x message
14400 Like -X, but the message will be printed even if there
14401 are no matches in the group.
14402 -q The suffix given with -S will be automatically removed if
14404 the next character typed is a blank or does not insert
14405 anything, or if the suffix consists of only one character
14406 and the next character typed is the same character.
14407 -r remove-chars
14409 This is a more versatile form of the -q option. The suf‐
14410 fix given with -S or the slash automatically added after
14411 completing directories will be automatically removed if
14412 the next character typed inserts one of the characters
14413 given in the remove-chars. This string is parsed as a
14414 characters class and understands the backslash sequences
14415 used by the print command. For example, `-r "a-z\t"' re‐
14416 moves the suffix if the next character typed inserts a
14417 lower case character or a TAB, and `-r "^0-9"' removes
14418 the suffix if the next character typed inserts anything
14419 but a digit. One extra backslash sequence is understood
14420 in this string: `\-' stands for all characters that in‐
14421 sert nothing. Thus `-S "=" -q' is the same as `-S "=" -r
14422 "= \t\n\-"'.
14423 This option may also be used without the -S option; then
14425 any automatically added space will be removed when one of
14426 the characters in the list is typed.
14427 -R remove-func
14429 This is another form of the -r option. When a suffix has
14430 been inserted and the completion accepted, the function
14431 remove-func will be called after the next character
14432 typed. It is passed the length of the suffix as an argu‐
14433 ment and can use the special parameters available in or‐
14434 dinary (non-completion) zle widgets (see zshzle(1)) to
14435 analyse and modify the command line.
14436 -f If this flag is given, all of the matches built from
14438 words are marked as being the names of files. They are
14439 not required to be actual filenames, but if they are, and
14440 the option LIST_TYPES is set, the characters describing
14441 the types of the files in the completion lists will be
14442 shown. This also forces a slash to be added when the name
14443 of a directory is completed.
14444 -e This flag can be used to tell the completion code that
14446 the matches added are parameter names for a parameter ex‐
14447 pansion. This will make the AUTO_PARAM_SLASH and
14448 AUTO_PARAM_KEYS options be used for the matches.
14449 -W file-prefix
14451 This string is a pathname that will be prepended to each
14452 of the matches formed by the given words together with
14453 any prefix specified by the -p option to form a complete
14454 filename for testing. Hence it is only useful if com‐
14455 bined with the -f flag, as the tests will not otherwise
14456 be performed.
14457 -F array
14459 Specifies an array containing patterns. Words matching
14460 one of these patterns are ignored, i.e. not considered to
14461 be possible matches.
14462 The array may be the name of an array parameter or a list
14464 of literal patterns enclosed in parentheses and quoted,
14465 as in `-F "(*?.o *?.h)"'. If the name of an array is
14466 given, the elements of the array are taken as the pat‐
14467 terns.
14468 -Q This flag instructs the completion code not to quote any
14470 metacharacters in the words when inserting them into the
14471 command line.
14472 -M match-spec
14474 This gives local match specifications as described below
14475 in the section `Completion Matching Control'. This option
14476 may be given more than once. In this case all
14477 match-specs given are concatenated with spaces between
14478 them to form the specification string to use. Note that
14479 they will only be used if the -U option is not given.
14480 -n Specifies that the words added are to be used as possible
14482 matches, but are not to appear in the completion listing.
14483 -U If this flag is given, all words given will be accepted
14485 and no matching will be done by the completion code. Nor‐
14486 mally this is used in functions that do the matching
14487 themselves.
14488 -O array
14490 If this option is given, the words are not added to the
14491 set of possible completions. Instead, matching is done
14492 as usual and all of the words given as arguments that
14493 match the string on the command line will be stored in
14494 the array parameter whose name is given as array.
14495 -A array
14497 As the -O option, except that instead of those of the
14498 words which match being stored in array, the strings gen‐
14499 erated internally by the completion code are stored. For
14500 example, with a matching specification of `-M "L:|no="',
14501 the string `nof' on the command line and the string `foo'
14502 as one of the words, this option stores the string `no‐
14503 foo' in the array, whereas the -O option stores the `foo'
14504 originally given.
14505 -D array
14507 As with -O, the words are not added to the set of possi‐
14508 ble completions. Instead, the completion code tests
14509 whether each word in turn matches what is on the line.
14510 If the nth word does not match, the nth element of the
14511 array is removed. Elements for which the corresponding
14512 word is matched are retained.
14513 -C This option adds a special match which expands to all
14515 other matches when inserted into the line, even those
14516 that are added after this option is used. Together with
14517 the -d option it is possible to specify a string that
14518 should be displayed in the list for this special match.
14519 If no string is given, it will be shown as a string con‐
14520 taining the strings that would be inserted for the other
14521 matches, truncated to the width of the screen.
14522 -E number
14524 This option adds number empty matches after the words
14525 have been added. An empty match takes up space in com‐
14526 pletion listings but will never be inserted in the line
14527 and can't be selected with menu completion or menu selec‐
14528 tion. This makes empty matches only useful to format
14529 completion lists and to make explanatory string be shown
14530 in completion lists (since empty matches can be given
14531 display strings with the -d option). And because all but
14532 one empty string would otherwise be removed, this option
14533 implies the -V and -2 options (even if an explicit -J op‐
14534 tion is given). This can be important to note as it af‐
14535 fects the name space into which matches are added.
14536 -
14538 -- This flag ends the list of flags and options. All argu‐
14539 ments after it will be taken as the words to use as
14540 matches even if they begin with hyphens.
14541 Except for the -M flag, if any of these flags is given more than
14543 once, the first one (and its argument) will be used.
14544 compset -p number
14546 compset -P [ number ] pattern
14547 compset -s number
14548 compset -S [ number ] pattern
14549 compset -n begin [ end ]
14550 compset -N beg-pat [ end-pat ]
14551 compset -q
14552 This command simplifies modification of the special parameters,
14553 while its return status allows tests on them to be carried out.
14554 The options are:
14556 -p number
14558 If the value of the PREFIX parameter is at least number
14559 characters long, the first number characters are removed
14560 from it and appended to the contents of the IPREFIX pa‐
14561 rameter.
14562 -P [ number ] pattern
14564 If the value of the PREFIX parameter begins with anything
14565 that matches the pattern, the matched portion is removed
14566 from PREFIX and appended to IPREFIX.
14567 Without the optional number, the longest match is taken,
14569 but if number is given, anything up to the numberth match
14570 is moved. If the number is negative, the numberth long‐
14571 est match is moved. For example, if PREFIX contains the
14572 string `a=b=c', then compset -P '*\=' will move the
14573 string `a=b=' into the IPREFIX parameter, but compset -P
14574 1 '*\=' will move only the string `a='.
14575 -s number
14577 As -p, but transfer the last number characters from the
14578 value of SUFFIX to the front of the value of ISUFFIX.
14579 -S [ number ] pattern
14581 As -P, but match the last portion of SUFFIX and transfer
14582 the matched portion to the front of the value of ISUFFIX.
14583 -n begin [ end ]
14585 If the current word position as specified by the parame‐
14586 ter CURRENT is greater than or equal to begin, anything
14587 up to the beginth word is removed from the words array
14588 and the value of the parameter CURRENT is decremented by
14589 begin.
14590 If the optional end is given, the modification is done
14592 only if the current word position is also less than or
14593 equal to end. In this case, the words from position end
14594 onwards are also removed from the words array.
14595 Both begin and end may be negative to count backwards
14597 from the last element of the words array.
14598 -N beg-pat [ end-pat ]
14600 If one of the elements of the words array before the one
14601 at the index given by the value of the parameter CURRENT
14602 matches the pattern beg-pat, all elements up to and in‐
14603 cluding the matching one are removed from the words array
14604 and the value of CURRENT is changed to point to the same
14605 word in the changed array.
14606 If the optional pattern end-pat is also given, and there
14608 is an element in the words array matching this pattern,
14609 the parameters are modified only if the index of this
14610 word is higher than the one given by the CURRENT parame‐
14611 ter (so that the matching word has to be after the cur‐
14612 sor). In this case, the words starting with the one
14613 matching end-pat are also removed from the words array.
14614 If words contains no word matching end-pat, the testing
14615 and modification is performed as if it were not given.
14616 -q The word currently being completed is split on spaces
14618 into separate words, respecting the usual shell quoting
14619 conventions. The resulting words are stored in the words
14620 array, and CURRENT, PREFIX, SUFFIX, QIPREFIX, and QISUF‐
14621 FIX are modified to reflect the word part that is com‐
14622 pleted.
14623 In all the above cases the return status is zero if the test
14625 succeeded and the parameters were modified and non-zero other‐
14626 wise. This allows one to use this builtin in tests such as:
14627 if compset -P '*\='; then ...
14629 This forces anything up to and including the last equal sign to
14631 be ignored by the completion code.
14632 compcall [ -TD ]
14634 This allows the use of completions defined with the compctl
14635 builtin from within completion widgets. The list of matches
14636 will be generated as if one of the non-widget completion func‐
14637 tions (complete-word, etc.) had been called, except that only
14638 compctls given for specific commands are used. To force the code
14639 to try completions defined with the -T option of compctl and/or
14640 the default completion (whether defined by compctl -D or the
14641 builtin default) in the appropriate places, the -T and/or -D
14642 flags can be passed to compcall.
14643 The return status can be used to test if a matching compctl def‐
14645 inition was found. It is non-zero if a compctl was found and
14646 zero otherwise.
14647 Note that this builtin is defined by the zsh/compctl module.
14649
14651 The following additional condition codes for use within the [[ ... ]]
14652 construct are available in completion widgets. These work on the spe‐
14653 cial parameters. All of these tests can also be performed by the
14654 compset builtin, but in the case of the condition codes the contents of
14655 the special parameters are not modified.
14656 -prefix [ number ] pattern
14658 true if the test for the -P option of compset would succeed.
14659 -suffix [ number ] pattern
14661 true if the test for the -S option of compset would succeed.
14662 -after beg-pat
14664 true if the test of the -N option with only the beg-pat given
14665 would succeed.
14666 -between beg-pat end-pat
14668 true if the test for the -N option with both patterns would suc‐
14669 ceed.
14670
14672 It is possible by use of the -M option of the compadd builtin command
14673 to specify how the characters in the string to be completed (referred
14674 to here as the command line) map onto the characters in the list of
14675 matches produced by the completion code (referred to here as the trial
14676 completions). Note that this is not used if the command line contains a
14677 glob pattern and the GLOB_COMPLETE option is set or the pattern_match
14678 of the compstate special association is set to a non-empty string.
14679 The match-spec given as the argument to the -M option (see `Completion
14681 Builtin Commands' above) consists of one or more matching descriptions
14682 separated by whitespace. Each description consists of a letter fol‐
14683 lowed by a colon and then the patterns describing which character se‐
14684 quences on the line match which character sequences in the trial com‐
14685 pletion. Any sequence of characters not handled in this fashion must
14686 match exactly, as usual.
14687 The forms of match-spec understood are as follows. In each case, the
14689 form with an upper case initial character retains the string already
14690 typed on the command line as the final result of completion, while with
14691 a lower case initial character the string on the command line is
14692 changed into the corresponding part of the trial completion.
14693 m:lpat=tpat
14695 M:lpat=tpat
14696 Here, lpat is a pattern that matches on the command line, corre‐
14697 sponding to tpat which matches in the trial completion.
14698 l:lanchor|lpat=tpat
14700 L:lanchor|lpat=tpat
14701 l:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
14702 L:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
14703 b:lpat=tpat
14704 B:lpat=tpat
14705 These letters are for patterns that are anchored by another pat‐
14706 tern on the left side. Matching for lpat and tpat is as for m
14707 and M, but the pattern lpat matched on the command line must be
14708 preceded by the pattern lanchor. The lanchor can be blank to
14709 anchor the match to the start of the command line string; other‐
14710 wise the anchor can occur anywhere, but must match in both the
14711 command line and trial completion strings.
14712 If no lpat is given but a ranchor is, this matches the gap be‐
14714 tween substrings matched by lanchor and ranchor. Unlike lanchor,
14715 the ranchor only needs to match the trial completion string.
14716 The b and B forms are similar to l and L with an empty anchor,
14718 but need to match only the beginning of the word on the command
14719 line or trial completion, respectively.
14720 r:lpat|ranchor=tpat
14722 R:lpat|ranchor=tpat
14723 r:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
14724 R:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
14725 e:lpat=tpat
14726 E:lpat=tpat
14727 As l, L, b and B, with the difference that the command line and
14728 trial completion patterns are anchored on the right side. Here
14729 an empty ranchor and the e and E forms force the match to the
14730 end of the command line or trial completion string.
14731 x: This form is used to mark the end of matching specifications:
14733 subsequent specifications are ignored. In a single standalone
14734 list of specifications this has no use but where matching speci‐
14735 fications are accumulated, such as from nested function calls,
14736 it can allow one function to override another.
14737 Each lpat, tpat or anchor is either an empty string or consists of a
14739 sequence of literal characters (which may be quoted with a backslash),
14740 question marks, character classes, and correspondence classes; ordinary
14741 shell patterns are not used. Literal characters match only themselves,
14742 question marks match any character, and character classes are formed as
14743 for globbing and match any character in the given set.
14744 Correspondence classes are defined like character classes, but with two
14746 differences: they are delimited by a pair of braces, and negated
14747 classes are not allowed, so the characters ! and ^ have no special
14748 meaning directly after the opening brace. They indicate that a range
14749 of characters on the line match a range of characters in the trial com‐
14750 pletion, but (unlike ordinary character classes) paired according to
14751 the corresponding position in the sequence. For example, to make any
14752 ASCII lower case letter on the line match the corresponding upper case
14753 letter in the trial completion, you can use `m:{a-z}={A-Z}' (however,
14754 see below for the recommended form for this). More than one pair of
14755 classes can occur, in which case the first class before the = corre‐
14756 sponds to the first after it, and so on. If one side has more such
14757 classes than the other side, the superfluous classes behave like normal
14758 character classes. In anchor patterns correspondence classes also be‐
14759 have like normal character classes.
14760 The standard `[:name:]' forms described for standard shell patterns
14762 (see the section FILENAME GENERATION in zshexpn(1)) may appear in cor‐
14763 respondence classes as well as normal character classes. The only spe‐
14764 cial behaviour in correspondence classes is if the form on the left and
14765 the form on the right are each one of [:upper:], [:lower:]. In these
14766 cases the character in the word and the character on the line must be
14767 the same up to a difference in case. Hence to make any lower case
14768 character on the line match the corresponding upper case character in
14769 the trial completion you can use `m:{[:lower:]}={[:upper:]}'. Although
14770 the matching system does not yet handle multibyte characters, this is
14771 likely to be a future extension, at which point this syntax will handle
14772 arbitrary alphabets; hence this form, rather than the use of explicit
14773 ranges, is the recommended form. In other cases `[:name:]' forms are
14774 allowed. If the two forms on the left and right are the same, the
14775 characters must match exactly. In remaining cases, the corresponding
14776 tests are applied to both characters, but they are not otherwise con‐
14777 strained; any matching character in one set goes with any matching
14778 character in the other set: this is equivalent to the behaviour of or‐
14779 dinary character classes.
14780 The pattern tpat may also be one or two stars, `*' or `**'. This means
14782 that the pattern on the command line can match any number of characters
14783 in the trial completion. In this case the pattern must be anchored (on
14784 either side); in the case of a single star, the anchor then determines
14785 how much of the trial completion is to be included -- only the charac‐
14786 ters up to the next appearance of the anchor will be matched. With two
14787 stars, substrings matched by the anchor can be matched, too.
14788 Examples:
14790 The keys of the options association defined by the parameter module are
14792 the option names in all-lower-case form, without underscores, and with‐
14793 out the optional no at the beginning even though the builtins setopt
14794 and unsetopt understand option names with upper case letters, under‐
14795 scores, and the optional no. The following alters the matching rules
14796 so that the prefix no and any underscore are ignored when trying to
14797 match the trial completions generated and upper case letters on the
14798 line match the corresponding lower case letters in the words:
14799 compadd -M 'L:|[nN][oO]= M:_= M:{[:upper:]}={[:lower:]}' - \
14801 ${(k)options}
14802 The first part says that the pattern `[nN][oO]' at the beginning (the
14804 empty anchor before the pipe symbol) of the string on the line matches
14805 the empty string in the list of words generated by completion, so it
14806 will be ignored if present. The second part does the same for an under‐
14807 score anywhere in the command line string, and the third part uses cor‐
14808 respondence classes so that any upper case letter on the line matches
14809 the corresponding lower case letter in the word. The use of the upper
14810 case forms of the specification characters (L and M) guarantees that
14811 what has already been typed on the command line (in particular the pre‐
14812 fix no) will not be deleted.
14813 Note that the use of L in the first part means that it matches only
14815 when at the beginning of both the command line string and the trial
14816 completion. I.e., the string `_NO_f' would not be completed to
14817 `_NO_foo', nor would `NONO_f' be completed to `NONO_foo' because of the
14818 leading underscore or the second `NO' on the line which makes the pat‐
14819 tern fail even though they are otherwise ignored. To fix this, one
14820 would use `B:[nN][oO]=' instead of the first part. As described above,
14821 this matches at the beginning of the trial completion, independent of
14822 other characters or substrings at the beginning of the command line
14823 word which are ignored by the same or other match-specs.
14824 The second example makes completion case insensitive. This is just the
14826 same as in the option example, except here we wish to retain the char‐
14827 acters in the list of completions:
14828 compadd -M 'm:{[:lower:]}={[:upper:]}' ...
14830 This makes lower case letters match their upper case counterparts. To
14832 make upper case letters match the lower case forms as well:
14833 compadd -M 'm:{[:lower:][:upper:]}={[:upper:][:lower:]}' ...
14835 A nice example for the use of * patterns is partial word completion.
14837 Sometimes you would like to make strings like `c.s.u' complete to
14838 strings like `comp.source.unix', i.e. the word on the command line con‐
14839 sists of multiple parts, separated by a dot in this example, where each
14840 part should be completed separately -- note, however, that the case
14841 where each part of the word, i.e. `comp', `source' and `unix' in this
14842 example, is to be completed from separate sets of matches is a differ‐
14843 ent problem to be solved by the implementation of the completion wid‐
14844 get. The example can be handled by:
14845 compadd -M 'r:|.=* r:|=*' \
14847 - comp.sources.unix comp.sources.misc ...
14848 The first specification says that lpat is the empty string, while an‐
14850 chor is a dot; tpat is *, so this can match anything except for the `.'
14851 from the anchor in the trial completion word. So in `c.s.u', the
14852 matcher sees `c', followed by the empty string, followed by the anchor
14853 `.', and likewise for the second dot, and replaces the empty strings
14854 before the anchors, giving `c[omp].s[ources].u[nix]', where the last
14855 part of the completion is just as normal.
14856 With the pattern shown above, the string `c.u' could not be completed
14858 to `comp.sources.unix' because the single star means that no dot
14859 (matched by the anchor) can be skipped. By using two stars as in
14860 `r:|.=**', however, `c.u' could be completed to `comp.sources.unix'.
14861 This also shows that in some cases, especially if the anchor is a real
14862 pattern, like a character class, the form with two stars may result in
14863 more matches than one would like.
14864 The second specification is needed to make this work when the cursor is
14866 in the middle of the string on the command line and the option COM‐
14867 PLETE_IN_WORD is set. In this case the completion code would normally
14868 try to match trial completions that end with the string as typed so
14869 far, i.e. it will only insert new characters at the cursor position
14870 rather than at the end. However in our example we would like the code
14871 to recognise matches which contain extra characters after the string on
14872 the line (the `nix' in the example). Hence we say that the empty
14873 string at the end of the string on the line matches any characters at
14874 the end of the trial completion.
14875 More generally, the specification
14877 compadd -M 'r:|[.,_-]=* r:|=*' ...
14879 allows one to complete words with abbreviations before any of the char‐
14881 acters in the square brackets. For example, to complete veryverylong‐
14882 file.c rather than veryverylongheader.h with the above in effect, you
14883 can just type very.c before attempting completion.
14884 The specifications with both a left and a right anchor are useful to
14886 complete partial words whose parts are not separated by some special
14887 character. For example, in some places strings have to be completed
14888 that are formed `LikeThis' (i.e. the separate parts are determined by a
14889 leading upper case letter) or maybe one has to complete strings with
14890 trailing numbers. Here one could use the simple form with only one an‐
14891 chor as in:
14892 compadd -M 'r:|[[:upper:]0-9]=* r:|=*' LikeTHIS FooHoo 5foo123 5bar234
14894 But with this, the string `H' would neither complete to `FooHoo' nor to
14896 `LikeTHIS' because in each case there is an upper case letter before
14897 the `H' and that is matched by the anchor. Likewise, a `2' would not be
14898 completed. In both cases this could be changed by using `r:|[[:up‐
14899 per:]0-9]=**', but then `H' completes to both `LikeTHIS' and `FooHoo'
14900 and a `2' matches the other strings because characters can be inserted
14901 before every upper case letter and digit. To avoid this one would use:
14902 compadd -M 'r:[^[:upper:]0-9]||[[:upper:]0-9]=** r:|=*' \
14904 LikeTHIS FooHoo foo123 bar234
14905 By using these two anchors, a `H' matches only upper case `H's that are
14907 immediately preceded by something matching the left anchor `[^[:up‐
14908 per:]0-9]'. The effect is, of course, that `H' matches only the string
14909 `FooHoo', a `2' matches only `bar234' and so on.
14910 When using the completion system (see zshcompsys(1)), users can define
14912 match specifications that are to be used for specific contexts by using
14913 the matcher and matcher-list styles. The values for the latter will be
14914 used everywhere.
14915
14917 The first step is to define the widget:
14918 zle -C complete complete-word complete-files
14920 Then the widget can be bound to a key using the bindkey builtin com‐
14922 mand:
14923 bindkey '^X\t' complete
14925 After that the shell function complete-files will be invoked after typ‐
14927 ing control-X and TAB. The function should then generate the matches,
14928 e.g.:
14929 complete-files () { compadd - * }
14931 This function will complete files in the current directory matching the
14933 current word.
14934ZSHCOMPSYS(1) General Commands Manual ZSHCOMPSYS(1)
14938
14942 zshcompsys - zsh completion system
14943
14945 This describes the shell code for the `new' completion system, referred
14946 to as compsys. It is written in shell functions based on the features
14947 described in zshcompwid(1).
14948 The features are contextual, sensitive to the point at which completion
14950 is started. Many completions are already provided. For this reason, a
14951 user can perform a great many tasks without knowing any details beyond
14952 how to initialize the system, which is described below in INITIALIZA‐
14953 TION.
14954 The context that decides what completion is to be performed may be
14956 • an argument or option position: these describe the position on
14957 the command line at which completion is requested. For example
14958 `first argument to rmdir, the word being completed names a di‐
14959 rectory';
14960 • a special context, denoting an element in the shell's syntax.
14963 For example `a word in command position' or `an array sub‐
14964 script'.
14965 A full context specification contains other elements, as we shall de‐
14968 scribe.
14969 Besides commands names and contexts, the system employs two more con‐
14971 cepts, styles and tags. These provide ways for the user to configure
14972 the system's behaviour.
14973 Tags play a dual role. They serve as a classification system for the
14975 matches, typically indicating a class of object that the user may need
14976 to distinguish. For example, when completing arguments of the ls com‐
14977 mand the user may prefer to try files before directories, so both of
14978 these are tags. They also appear as the rightmost element in a context
14979 specification.
14980 Styles modify various operations of the completion system, such as out‐
14982 put formatting, but also what kinds of completers are used (and in what
14983 order), or which tags are examined. Styles may accept arguments and
14984 are manipulated using the zstyle command described in see zshmod‐
14985 ules(1).
14986 In summary, tags describe what the completion objects are, and style
14988 how they are to be completed. At various points of execution, the com‐
14989 pletion system checks what styles and/or tags are defined for the cur‐
14990 rent context, and uses that to modify its behavior. The full descrip‐
14991 tion of context handling, which determines how tags and other elements
14992 of the context influence the behaviour of styles, is described below in
14993 COMPLETION SYSTEM CONFIGURATION.
14994 When a completion is requested, a dispatcher function is called; see
14996 the description of _main_complete in the list of control functions be‐
14997 low. This dispatcher decides which function should be called to produce
14998 the completions, and calls it. The result is passed to one or more com‐
14999 pleters, functions that implement individual completion strategies:
15000 simple completion, error correction, completion with error correction,
15001 menu selection, etc.
15002 More generally, the shell functions contained in the completion system
15004 are of two types:
15005 • those beginning `comp' are to be called directly; there are only
15006 a few of these;
15007 • those beginning `_' are called by the completion code. The
15010 shell functions of this set, which implement completion behav‐
15011 iour and may be bound to keystrokes, are referred to as `wid‐
15012 gets'. These proliferate as new completions are required.
15013
15016 If the system was installed completely, it should be enough to call the
15017 shell function compinit from your initialization file; see the next
15018 section. However, the function compinstall can be run by a user to
15019 configure various aspects of the completion system.
15020 Usually, compinstall will insert code into .zshrc, although if that is
15022 not writable it will save it in another file and tell you that file's
15023 location. Note that it is up to you to make sure that the lines added
15024 to .zshrc are actually run; you may, for example, need to move them to
15025 an earlier place in the file if .zshrc usually returns early. So long
15026 as you keep them all together (including the comment lines at the start
15027 and finish), you can rerun compinstall and it will correctly locate and
15028 modify these lines. Note, however, that any code you add to this sec‐
15029 tion by hand is likely to be lost if you rerun compinstall, although
15030 lines using the command `zstyle' should be gracefully handled.
15031 The new code will take effect next time you start the shell, or run
15033 .zshrc by hand; there is also an option to make them take effect imme‐
15034 diately. However, if compinstall has removed definitions, you will
15035 need to restart the shell to see the changes.
15036 To run compinstall you will need to make sure it is in a directory men‐
15038 tioned in your fpath parameter, which should already be the case if zsh
15039 was properly configured as long as your startup files do not remove the
15040 appropriate directories from fpath. Then it must be autoloaded (`au‐
15041 toload -U compinstall' is recommended). You can abort the installation
15042 any time you are being prompted for information, and your .zshrc will
15043 not be altered at all; changes only take place right at the end, where
15044 you are specifically asked for confirmation.
15045 Use of compinit
15047 This section describes the use of compinit to initialize completion for
15048 the current session when called directly; if you have run compinstall
15049 it will be called automatically from your .zshrc.
15050 To initialize the system, the function compinit should be in a direc‐
15052 tory mentioned in the fpath parameter, and should be autoloaded (`au‐
15053 toload -U compinit' is recommended), and then run simply as `compinit'.
15054 This will define a few utility functions, arrange for all the necessary
15055 shell functions to be autoloaded, and will then re-define all widgets
15056 that do completion to use the new system. If you use the menu-select
15057 widget, which is part of the zsh/complist module, you should make sure
15058 that that module is loaded before the call to compinit so that that
15059 widget is also re-defined. If completion styles (see below) are set up
15060 to perform expansion as well as completion by default, and the TAB key
15061 is bound to expand-or-complete, compinit will rebind it to com‐
15062 plete-word; this is necessary to use the correct form of expansion.
15063 Should you need to use the original completion commands, you can still
15065 bind keys to the old widgets by putting a `.' in front of the widget
15066 name, e.g. `.expand-or-complete'.
15067 To speed up the running of compinit, it can be made to produce a dumped
15069 configuration that will be read in on future invocations; this is the
15070 default, but can be turned off by calling compinit with the option -D.
15071 The dumped file is .zcompdump in the same directory as the startup
15072 files (i.e. $ZDOTDIR or $HOME); alternatively, an explicit file name
15073 can be given by `compinit -d dumpfile'. The next invocation of
15074 compinit will read the dumped file instead of performing a full ini‐
15075 tialization.
15076 If the number of completion files changes, compinit will recognise this
15078 and produce a new dump file. However, if the name of a function or the
15079 arguments in the first line of a #compdef function (as described below)
15080 change, it is easiest to delete the dump file by hand so that compinit
15081 will re-create it the next time it is run. The check performed to see
15082 if there are new functions can be omitted by giving the option -C. In
15083 this case the dump file will only be created if there isn't one al‐
15084 ready.
15085 The dumping is actually done by another function, compdump, but you
15087 will only need to run this yourself if you change the configuration
15088 (e.g. using compdef) and then want to dump the new one. The name of
15089 the old dumped file will be remembered for this purpose.
15090 If the parameter _compdir is set, compinit uses it as a directory where
15092 completion functions can be found; this is only necessary if they are
15093 not already in the function search path.
15094 For security reasons compinit also checks if the completion system
15096 would use files not owned by root or by the current user, or files in
15097 directories that are world- or group-writable or that are not owned by
15098 root or by the current user. If such files or directories are found,
15099 compinit will ask if the completion system should really be used. To
15100 avoid these tests and make all files found be used without asking, use
15101 the option -u, and to make compinit silently ignore all insecure files
15102 and directories use the option -i. This security check is skipped en‐
15103 tirely when the -C option is given.
15104 The security check can be retried at any time by running the function
15106 compaudit. This is the same check used by compinit, but when it is ex‐
15107 ecuted directly any changes to fpath are made local to the function so
15108 they do not persist. The directories to be checked may be passed as
15109 arguments; if none are given, compaudit uses fpath and _compdir to find
15110 completion system directories, adding missing ones to fpath as neces‐
15111 sary. To force a check of exactly the directories currently named in
15112 fpath, set _compdir to an empty string before calling compaudit or
15113 compinit.
15114 The function bashcompinit provides compatibility with bash's program‐
15116 mable completion system. When run it will define the functions, comp‐
15117 gen and complete which correspond to the bash builtins with the same
15118 names. It will then be possible to use completion specifications and
15119 functions written for bash.
15120 Autoloaded files
15122 The convention for autoloaded functions used in completion is that they
15123 start with an underscore; as already mentioned, the fpath/FPATH parame‐
15124 ter must contain the directory in which they are stored. If zsh was
15125 properly installed on your system, then fpath/FPATH automatically con‐
15126 tains the required directories for the standard functions.
15127 For incomplete installations, if compinit does not find enough files
15129 beginning with an underscore (fewer than twenty) in the search path, it
15130 will try to find more by adding the directory _compdir to the search
15131 path. If that directory has a subdirectory named Base, all subdirecto‐
15132 ries will be added to the path. Furthermore, if the subdirectory Base
15133 has a subdirectory named Core, compinit will add all subdirectories of
15134 the subdirectories to the path: this allows the functions to be in the
15135 same format as in the zsh source distribution.
15136 When compinit is run, it searches all such files accessible via
15138 fpath/FPATH and reads the first line of each of them. This line should
15139 contain one of the tags described below. Files whose first line does
15140 not start with one of these tags are not considered to be part of the
15141 completion system and will not be treated specially.
15142 The tags are:
15144 #compdef name ... [ -{p|P} pattern ... [ -N name ... ] ]
15146 The file will be made autoloadable and the function defined in
15147 it will be called when completing names, each of which is either
15148 the name of a command whose arguments are to be completed or one
15149 of a number of special contexts in the form -context- described
15150 below.
15151 Each name may also be of the form `cmd=service'. When complet‐
15153 ing the command cmd, the function typically behaves as if the
15154 command (or special context) service was being completed in‐
15155 stead. This provides a way of altering the behaviour of func‐
15156 tions that can perform many different completions. It is imple‐
15157 mented by setting the parameter $service when calling the func‐
15158 tion; the function may choose to interpret this how it wishes,
15159 and simpler functions will probably ignore it.
15160 If the #compdef line contains one of the options -p or -P, the
15162 words following are taken to be patterns. The function will be
15163 called when completion is attempted for a command or context
15164 that matches one of the patterns. The options -p and -P are
15165 used to specify patterns to be tried before or after other com‐
15166 pletions respectively. Hence -P may be used to specify default
15167 actions.
15168 The option -N is used after a list following -p or -P; it speci‐
15170 fies that remaining words no longer define patterns. It is pos‐
15171 sible to toggle between the three options as many times as nec‐
15172 essary.
15173 #compdef -k style key-sequence ...
15175 This option creates a widget behaving like the builtin widget
15176 style and binds it to the given key-sequences, if any. The
15177 style must be one of the builtin widgets that perform comple‐
15178 tion, namely complete-word, delete-char-or-list, expand-or-com‐
15179 plete, expand-or-complete-prefix, list-choices, menu-complete,
15180 menu-expand-or-complete, or reverse-menu-complete. If the
15181 zsh/complist module is loaded (see zshmodules(1)) the widget
15182 menu-select is also available.
15183 When one of the key-sequences is typed, the function in the file
15185 will be invoked to generate the matches. Note that a key will
15186 not be re-bound if it already was (that is, was bound to some‐
15187 thing other than undefined-key). The widget created has the
15188 same name as the file and can be bound to any other keys using
15189 bindkey as usual.
15190 #compdef -K widget-name style key-sequence [ name style seq ... ]
15192 This is similar to -k except that only one key-sequence argument
15193 may be given for each widget-name style pair. However, the en‐
15194 tire set of three arguments may be repeated with a different set
15195 of arguments. Note in particular that the widget-name must be
15196 distinct in each set. If it does not begin with `_' this will
15197 be added. The widget-name should not clash with the name of any
15198 existing widget: names based on the name of the function are
15199 most useful. For example,
15200 #compdef -K _foo_complete complete-word "^X^C" \
15202 _foo_list list-choices "^X^D"
15203 (all on one line) defines a widget _foo_complete for completion,
15205 bound to `^X^C', and a widget _foo_list for listing, bound to
15206 `^X^D'.
15207 #autoload [ options ]
15209 Functions with the #autoload tag are marked for autoloading but
15210 are not otherwise treated specially. Typically they are to be
15211 called from within one of the completion functions. Any options
15212 supplied will be passed to the autoload builtin; a typical use
15213 is +X to force the function to be loaded immediately. Note that
15214 the -U and -z flags are always added implicitly.
15215 The # is part of the tag name and no white space is allowed after it.
15217 The #compdef tags use the compdef function described below; the main
15218 difference is that the name of the function is supplied implicitly.
15219 The special contexts for which completion functions can be defined are:
15221 -array-value-
15223 The right hand side of an array-assignment (`name=(...)')
15224 -brace-parameter-
15226 The name of a parameter expansion within braces (`${...}')
15227 -assign-parameter-
15229 The name of a parameter in an assignment, i.e. on the left hand
15230 side of an `='
15231 -command-
15233 A word in command position
15234 -condition-
15236 A word inside a condition (`[[...]]')
15237 -default-
15239 Any word for which no other completion is defined
15240 -equal-
15242 A word beginning with an equals sign
15243 -first-
15245 This is tried before any other completion function. The func‐
15246 tion called may set the _compskip parameter to one of various
15247 values: all: no further completion is attempted; a string con‐
15248 taining the substring patterns: no pattern completion functions
15249 will be called; a string containing default: the function for
15250 the `-default-' context will not be called, but functions de‐
15251 fined for commands will be.
15252 -math- Inside mathematical contexts, such as `((...))'
15254 -parameter-
15256 The name of a parameter expansion (`$...')
15257 -redirect-
15259 The word after a redirection operator.
15260 -subscript-
15262 The contents of a parameter subscript.
15263 -tilde-
15265 After an initial tilde (`~'), but before the first slash in the
15266 word.
15267 -value-
15269 On the right hand side of an assignment.
15270 Default implementations are supplied for each of these contexts. In
15272 most cases the context -context- is implemented by a corresponding
15273 function _context, for example the context `-tilde-' and the function
15274 `_tilde').
15275 The contexts -redirect- and -value- allow extra context-specific infor‐
15277 mation. (Internally, this is handled by the functions for each context
15278 calling the function _dispatch.) The extra information is added sepa‐
15279 rated by commas.
15280 For the -redirect- context, the extra information is in the form `-re‐
15282 direct-,op,command', where op is the redirection operator and command
15283 is the name of the command on the line. If there is no command on the
15284 line yet, the command field will be empty.
15285 For the -value- context, the form is `-value-,name,command', where name
15287 is the name of the parameter on the left hand side of the assignment.
15288 In the case of elements of an associative array, for example `as‐
15289 soc=(key <TAB>', name is expanded to `name-key'. In certain special
15290 contexts, such as completing after `make CFLAGS=', the command part
15291 gives the name of the command, here make; otherwise it is empty.
15292 It is not necessary to define fully specific completions as the func‐
15294 tions provided will try to generate completions by progressively re‐
15295 placing the elements with `-default-'. For example, when completing
15296 after `foo=<TAB>', _value will try the names `-value-,foo,' (note the
15297 empty command part), `-value-,foo,-default-' and`-value-,-default-,-de‐
15298 fault-', in that order, until it finds a function to handle the con‐
15299 text.
15300 As an example:
15302 compdef '_files -g "*.log"' '-redirect-,2>,-default-'
15304 completes files matching `*.log' after `2> <TAB>' for any command with
15306 no more specific handler defined.
15307 Also:
15309 compdef _foo -value-,-default-,-default-
15311 specifies that _foo provides completions for the values of parameters
15313 for which no special function has been defined. This is usually han‐
15314 dled by the function _value itself.
15315 The same lookup rules are used when looking up styles (as described be‐
15317 low); for example
15318 zstyle ':completion:*:*:-redirect-,2>,*:*' file-patterns '*.log'
15320 is another way to make completion after `2> <TAB>' complete files
15322 matching `*.log'.
15323 Functions
15325 The following function is defined by compinit and may be called di‐
15326 rectly.
15327 compdef [ -ane ] function name ... [ -{p|P} pattern ... [ -N name ...]]
15329 compdef -d name ...
15330 compdef -k [ -an ] function style key-sequence [ key-sequence ... ]
15331 compdef -K [ -an ] function name style key-seq [ name style seq ... ]
15332 The first form defines the function to call for completion in
15333 the given contexts as described for the #compdef tag above.
15334 Alternatively, all the arguments may have the form `cmd=ser‐
15336 vice'. Here service should already have been defined by
15337 `cmd1=service' lines in #compdef files, as described above. The
15338 argument for cmd will be completed in the same way as service.
15339 The function argument may alternatively be a string containing
15341 almost any shell code. If the string contains an equal sign,
15342 the above will take precedence. The option -e may be used to
15343 specify the first argument is to be evaluated as shell code even
15344 if it contains an equal sign. The string will be executed using
15345 the eval builtin command to generate completions. This provides
15346 a way of avoiding having to define a new completion function.
15347 For example, to complete files ending in `.h' as arguments to
15348 the command foo:
15349 compdef '_files -g "*.h"' foo
15351 The option -n prevents any completions already defined for the
15353 command or context from being overwritten.
15354 The option -d deletes any completion defined for the command or
15356 contexts listed.
15357 The names may also contain -p, -P and -N options as described
15359 for the #compdef tag. The effect on the argument list is iden‐
15360 tical, switching between definitions of patterns tried ini‐
15361 tially, patterns tried finally, and normal commands and con‐
15362 texts.
15363 The parameter $_compskip may be set by any function defined for
15365 a pattern context. If it is set to a value containing the sub‐
15366 string `patterns' none of the pattern-functions will be called;
15367 if it is set to a value containing the substring `all', no other
15368 function will be called. Setting $_compskip in this manner is
15369 of particular utility when using the -p option, as otherwise the
15370 dispatcher will move on to additional functions (likely the de‐
15371 fault one) after calling the pattern-context one, which can man‐
15372 gle the display of completion possibilities if not handled prop‐
15373 erly.
15374 The form with -k defines a widget with the same name as the
15376 function that will be called for each of the key-sequences; this
15377 is like the #compdef -k tag. The function should generate the
15378 completions needed and will otherwise behave like the builtin
15379 widget whose name is given as the style argument. The widgets
15380 usable for this are: complete-word, delete-char-or-list, ex‐
15381 pand-or-complete, expand-or-complete-prefix, list-choices,
15382 menu-complete, menu-expand-or-complete, and reverse-menu-com‐
15383 plete, as well as menu-select if the zsh/complist module is
15384 loaded. The option -n prevents the key being bound if it is al‐
15385 ready to bound to something other than undefined-key.
15386 The form with -K is similar and defines multiple widgets based
15388 on the same function, each of which requires the set of three
15389 arguments name, style and key-sequence, where the latter two are
15390 as for -k and the first must be a unique widget name beginning
15391 with an underscore.
15392 Wherever applicable, the -a option makes the function autoload‐
15394 able, equivalent to autoload -U function.
15395 The function compdef can be used to associate existing completion func‐
15397 tions with new commands. For example,
15398 compdef _pids foo
15400 uses the function _pids to complete process IDs for the command foo.
15402 Note also the _gnu_generic function described below, which can be used
15404 to complete options for commands that understand the `--help' option.
15405
15407 This section gives a short overview of how the completion system works,
15408 and then more detail on how users can configure how and when matches
15409 are generated.
15410 Overview
15412 When completion is attempted somewhere on the command line the comple‐
15413 tion system begins building the context. The context represents every‐
15414 thing that the shell knows about the meaning of the command line and
15415 the significance of the cursor position. This takes account of a num‐
15416 ber of things including the command word (such as `grep' or `zsh') and
15417 options to which the current word may be an argument (such as the `-o'
15418 option to zsh which takes a shell option as an argument).
15419 The context starts out very generic ("we are beginning a completion")
15421 and becomes more specific as more is learned ("the current word is in a
15422 position that is usually a command name" or "the current word might be
15423 a variable name" and so on). Therefore the context will vary during
15424 the same call to the completion system.
15425 This context information is condensed into a string consisting of mul‐
15427 tiple fields separated by colons, referred to simply as `the context'
15428 in the remainder of the documentation. Note that a user of the comple‐
15429 tion system rarely needs to compose a context string, unless for exam‐
15430 ple a new function is being written to perform completion for a new
15431 command. What a user may need to do is compose a style pattern, which
15432 is matched against a context when needed to look up context-sensitive
15433 options that configure the completion system.
15434 The next few paragraphs explain how a context is composed within the
15436 completion function suite. Following that is discussion of how styles
15437 are defined. Styles determine such things as how the matches are gen‐
15438 erated, similarly to shell options but with much more control. They
15439 are defined with the zstyle builtin command (see zshmodules(1)).
15440 The context string always consists of a fixed set of fields, separated
15442 by colons and with a leading colon before the first. Fields which are
15443 not yet known are left empty, but the surrounding colons appear anyway.
15444 The fields are always in the order :completion:function:completer:com‐
15445 mand:argument:tag. These have the following meaning:
15446 • The literal string completion, saying that this style is used by
15448 the completion system. This distinguishes the context from
15449 those used by, for example, zle widgets and ZFTP functions.
15450 • The function, if completion is called from a named widget rather
15453 than through the normal completion system. Typically this is
15454 blank, but it is set by special widgets such as predict-on and
15455 the various functions in the Widget directory of the distribu‐
15456 tion to the name of that function, often in an abbreviated form.
15457 • The completer currently active, the name of the function without
15460 the leading underscore and with other underscores converted to
15461 hyphens. A `completer' is in overall control of how completion
15462 is to be performed; `complete' is the simplest, but other com‐
15463 pleters exist to perform related tasks such as correction, or to
15464 modify the behaviour of a later completer. See the section
15465 `Control Functions' below for more information.
15466 • The command or a special -context-, just at it appears following
15469 the #compdef tag or the compdef function. Completion functions
15470 for commands that have sub-commands usually modify this field to
15471 contain the name of the command followed by a minus sign and the
15472 sub-command. For example, the completion function for the cvs
15473 command sets this field to cvs-add when completing arguments to
15474 the add subcommand.
15475 • The argument; this indicates which command line or option argu‐
15478 ment we are completing. For command arguments this generally
15479 takes the form argument-n, where n is the number of the argu‐
15480 ment, and for arguments to options the form option-opt-n where n
15481 is the number of the argument to option opt. However, this is
15482 only the case if the command line is parsed with standard
15483 UNIX-style options and arguments, so many completions do not set
15484 this.
15485 • The tag. As described previously, tags are used to discriminate
15488 between the types of matches a completion function can generate
15489 in a certain context. Any completion function may use any tag
15490 name it likes, but a list of the more common ones is given be‐
15491 low.
15492 The context is gradually put together as the functions are executed,
15495 starting with the main entry point, which adds :completion: and the
15496 function element if necessary. The completer then adds the completer
15497 element. The contextual completion adds the command and argument op‐
15498 tions. Finally, the tag is added when the types of completion are
15499 known. For example, the context name
15500 :completion::complete:dvips:option-o-1:files
15502 says that normal completion was attempted as the first argument to the
15504 option -o of the command dvips:
15505 dvips -o ...
15507 and the completion function will generate filenames.
15509 Usually completion will be tried for all possible tags in an order
15511 given by the completion function. However, this can be altered by us‐
15512 ing the tag-order style. Completion is then restricted to the list of
15513 given tags in the given order.
15514 The _complete_help bindable command shows all the contexts and tags
15516 available for completion at a particular point. This provides an easy
15517 way of finding information for tag-order and other styles. It is de‐
15518 scribed in the section `Bindable Commands' below.
15519 When looking up styles the completion system uses full context names,
15521 including the tag. Looking up the value of a style therefore consists
15522 of two things: the context, which is matched to the most specific (best
15523 fitting) style pattern, and the name of the style itself, which must be
15524 matched exactly. The following examples demonstrate that style pat‐
15525 terns may be loosely defined for styles that apply broadly, or as
15526 tightly defined as desired for styles that apply in narrower circum‐
15527 stances.
15528 For example, many completion functions can generate matches in a simple
15530 and a verbose form and use the verbose style to decide which form
15531 should be used. To make all such functions use the verbose form, put
15532 zstyle ':completion:*' verbose yes
15534 in a startup file (probably .zshrc). This gives the verbose style the
15536 value yes in every context inside the completion system, unless that
15537 context has a more specific definition. It is best to avoid giving the
15538 context as `*' in case the style has some meaning outside the comple‐
15539 tion system.
15540 Many such general purpose styles can be configured simply by using the
15542 compinstall function.
15543 A more specific example of the use of the verbose style is by the com‐
15545 pletion for the kill builtin. If the style is set, the builtin lists
15546 full job texts and process command lines; otherwise it shows the bare
15547 job numbers and PIDs. To turn the style off for this use only:
15548 zstyle ':completion:*:*:kill:*:*' verbose no
15550 For even more control, the style can use one of the tags `jobs' or
15552 `processes'. To turn off verbose display only for jobs:
15553 zstyle ':completion:*:*:kill:*:jobs' verbose no
15555 The -e option to zstyle even allows completion function code to appear
15557 as the argument to a style; this requires some understanding of the in‐
15558 ternals of completion functions (see see zshcompwid(1))). For example,
15559 zstyle -e ':completion:*' hosts 'reply=($myhosts)'
15561 This forces the value of the hosts style to be read from the variable
15563 myhosts each time a host name is needed; this is useful if the value of
15564 myhosts can change dynamically. For another useful example, see the
15565 example in the description of the file-list style below. This form can
15566 be slow and should be avoided for commonly examined styles such as menu
15567 and list-rows-first.
15568 Note that the order in which styles are defined does not matter; the
15570 style mechanism uses the most specific possible match for a particular
15571 style to determine the set of values. More precisely, strings are pre‐
15572 ferred over patterns (for example, `:completion::complete:::foo' is
15573 more specific than `:completion::complete:::*'), and longer patterns
15574 are preferred over shorter patterns.
15575 A good rule of thumb is that any completion style pattern that needs to
15577 include more than one wildcard (*) and that does not end in a tag name,
15578 should include all six colons (:), possibly surrounding additional
15579 wildcards.
15580 Style names like those of tags are arbitrary and depend on the comple‐
15582 tion function. However, the following two sections list some of the
15583 most common tags and styles.
15584 Standard Tags
15586 Some of the following are only used when looking up particular styles
15587 and do not refer to a type of match.
15588 accounts
15590 used to look up the users-hosts style
15591 all-expansions
15593 used by the _expand completer when adding the single string con‐
15594 taining all possible expansions
15595 all-files
15597 for the names of all files (as distinct from a particular sub‐
15598 set, see the globbed-files tag).
15599 arguments
15601 for arguments to a command
15602 arrays for names of array parameters
15604 association-keys
15606 for keys of associative arrays; used when completing inside a
15607 subscript to a parameter of this type
15608 bookmarks
15610 when completing bookmarks (e.g. for URLs and the zftp function
15611 suite)
15612 builtins
15614 for names of builtin commands
15615 characters
15617 for single characters in arguments of commands such as stty.
15618 Also used when completing character classes after an opening
15619 bracket
15620 colormapids
15622 for X colormap ids
15623 colors for color names
15625 commands
15627 for names of external commands. Also used by complex commands
15628 such as cvs when completing names subcommands.
15629 contexts
15631 for contexts in arguments to the zstyle builtin command
15632 corrections
15634 used by the _approximate and _correct completers for possible
15635 corrections
15636 cursors
15638 for cursor names used by X programs
15639 default
15641 used in some contexts to provide a way of supplying a default
15642 when more specific tags are also valid. Note that this tag is
15643 used when only the function field of the context name is set
15644 descriptions
15646 used when looking up the value of the format style to generate
15647 descriptions for types of matches
15648 devices
15650 for names of device special files
15651 directories
15653 for names of directories -- local-directories is used instead
15654 when completing arguments of cd and related builtin commands
15655 when the cdpath array is set
15656 directory-stack
15658 for entries in the directory stack
15659 displays
15661 for X display names
15662 domains
15664 for network domains
15665 email-plugin
15667 for email addresses from the `_email-plugin' backend of
15668 _email_addresses
15669 expansions
15671 used by the _expand completer for individual words (as opposed
15672 to the complete set of expansions) resulting from the expansion
15673 of a word on the command line
15674 extensions
15676 for X server extensions
15677 file-descriptors
15679 for numbers of open file descriptors
15680 files the generic file-matching tag used by functions completing file‐
15682 names
15683 fonts for X font names
15685 fstypes
15687 for file system types (e.g. for the mount command)
15688 functions
15690 names of functions -- normally shell functions, although certain
15691 commands may understand other kinds of function
15692 globbed-files
15694 for filenames when the name has been generated by pattern match‐
15695 ing
15696 groups for names of user groups
15698 history-words
15700 for words from the history
15701 hosts for hostnames
15703 indexes
15705 for array indexes
15706 jobs for jobs (as listed by the `jobs' builtin)
15708 interfaces
15710 for network interfaces
15711 keymaps
15713 for names of zsh keymaps
15714 keysyms
15716 for names of X keysyms
15717 libraries
15719 for names of system libraries
15720 limits for system limits
15722 local-directories
15724 for names of directories that are subdirectories of the current
15725 working directory when completing arguments of cd and related
15726 builtin commands (compare path-directories) -- when the cdpath
15727 array is unset, directories is used instead
15728 manuals
15730 for names of manual pages
15731 mailboxes
15733 for e-mail folders
15734 maps for map names (e.g. NIS maps)
15736 messages
15738 used to look up the format style for messages
15739 modifiers
15741 for names of X modifiers
15742 modules
15744 for modules (e.g. zsh modules)
15745 my-accounts
15747 used to look up the users-hosts style
15748 named-directories
15750 for named directories (you wouldn't have guessed that, would
15751 you?)
15752 names for all kinds of names
15754 newsgroups
15756 for USENET groups
15757 nicknames
15759 for nicknames of NIS maps
15760 options
15762 for command options
15763 original
15765 used by the _approximate, _correct and _expand completers when
15766 offering the original string as a match
15767 other-accounts
15769 used to look up the users-hosts style
15770 other-files
15772 for the names of any non-directory files. This is used instead
15773 of all-files when the list-dirs-first style is in effect.
15774 packages
15776 for packages (e.g. rpm or installed Debian packages)
15777 parameters
15779 for names of parameters
15780 path-directories
15782 for names of directories found by searching the cdpath array
15783 when completing arguments of cd and related builtin commands
15784 (compare local-directories)
15785 paths used to look up the values of the expand, ambiguous and spe‐
15787 cial-dirs styles
15788 pods for perl pods (documentation files)
15790 ports for communication ports
15792 prefixes
15794 for prefixes (like those of a URL)
15795 printers
15797 for print queue names
15798 processes
15800 for process identifiers
15801 processes-names
15803 used to look up the command style when generating the names of
15804 processes for killall
15805 sequences
15807 for sequences (e.g. mh sequences)
15808 sessions
15810 for sessions in the zftp function suite
15811 signals
15813 for signal names
15814 strings
15816 for strings (e.g. the replacement strings for the cd builtin
15817 command)
15818 styles for styles used by the zstyle builtin command
15820 suffixes
15822 for filename extensions
15823 tags for tags (e.g. rpm tags)
15825 targets
15827 for makefile targets
15828 time-zones
15830 for time zones (e.g. when setting the TZ parameter)
15831 types for types of whatever (e.g. address types for the xhost command)
15833 urls used to look up the urls and local styles when completing URLs
15835 users for usernames
15837 values for one of a set of values in certain lists
15839 variant
15841 used by _pick_variant to look up the command to run when deter‐
15842 mining what program is installed for a particular command name.
15843 visuals
15845 for X visuals
15846 warnings
15848 used to look up the format style for warnings
15849 widgets
15851 for zsh widget names
15852 windows
15854 for IDs of X windows
15855 zsh-options
15857 for shell options
15858 Standard Styles
15860 Note that the values of several of these styles represent boolean val‐
15861 ues. Any of the strings `true', `on', `yes', and `1' can be used for
15862 the value `true' and any of the strings `false', `off', `no', and `0'
15863 for the value `false'. The behavior for any other value is undefined
15864 except where explicitly mentioned. The default value may be either
15865 `true' or `false' if the style is not set.
15866 Some of these styles are tested first for every possible tag corre‐
15868 sponding to a type of match, and if no style was found, for the default
15869 tag. The most notable styles of this type are menu, list-colors and
15870 styles controlling completion listing such as list-packed and
15871 last-prompt. When tested for the default tag, only the function field
15872 of the context will be set so that a style using the default tag will
15873 normally be defined along the lines of:
15874 zstyle ':completion:*:default' menu ...
15876 accept-exact
15878 This is tested for the default tag in addition to the tags valid
15879 for the current context. If it is set to `true' and any of the
15880 trial matches is the same as the string on the command line,
15881 this match will immediately be accepted (even if it would other‐
15882 wise be considered ambiguous).
15883 When completing pathnames (where the tag used is `paths') this
15885 style accepts any number of patterns as the value in addition to
15886 the boolean values. Pathnames matching one of these patterns
15887 will be accepted immediately even if the command line contains
15888 some more partially typed pathname components and these match no
15889 file under the directory accepted.
15890 This style is also used by the _expand completer to decide if
15892 words beginning with a tilde or parameter expansion should be
15893 expanded. For example, if there are parameters foo and foobar,
15894 the string `$foo' will only be expanded if accept-exact is set
15895 to `true'; otherwise the completion system will be allowed to
15896 complete $foo to $foobar. If the style is set to `continue',
15897 _expand will add the expansion as a match and the completion
15898 system will also be allowed to continue.
15899 accept-exact-dirs
15901 This is used by filename completion. Unlike accept-exact it is
15902 a boolean. By default, filename completion examines all compo‐
15903 nents of a path to see if there are completions of that compo‐
15904 nent, even if the component matches an existing directory. For
15905 example, when completion after /usr/bin/, the function examines
15906 possible completions to /usr.
15907 When this style is `true', any prefix of a path that matches an
15909 existing directory is accepted without any attempt to complete
15910 it further. Hence, in the given example, the path /usr/bin/ is
15911 accepted immediately and completion tried in that directory.
15912 This style is also useful when completing after directories that
15914 magically appear when referenced, such as ZFS .zfs directories
15915 or NetApp .snapshot directories. When the style is set the
15916 shell does not check for the existence of the directory within
15917 the parent directory.
15918 If you wish to inhibit this behaviour entirely, set the
15920 path-completion style (see below) to `false'.
15921 add-space
15923 This style is used by the _expand completer. If it is `true'
15924 (the default), a space will be inserted after all words result‐
15925 ing from the expansion, or a slash in the case of directory
15926 names. If the value is `file', the completer will only add a
15927 space to names of existing files. Either a boolean `true' or
15928 the value `file' may be combined with `subst', in which case the
15929 completer will not add a space to words generated from the ex‐
15930 pansion of a substitution of the form `$(...)' or `${...}'.
15931 The _prefix completer uses this style as a simple boolean value
15933 to decide if a space should be inserted before the suffix.
15934 ambiguous
15936 This applies when completing non-final components of filename
15937 paths, in other words those with a trailing slash. If it is
15938 set, the cursor is left after the first ambiguous component,
15939 even if menu completion is in use. The style is always tested
15940 with the paths tag.
15941 assign-list
15943 When completing after an equals sign that is being treated as an
15944 assignment, the completion system normally completes only one
15945 filename. In some cases the value may be a list of filenames
15946 separated by colons, as with PATH and similar parameters. This
15947 style can be set to a list of patterns matching the names of
15948 such parameters.
15949 The default is to complete lists when the word on the line al‐
15951 ready contains a colon.
15952 auto-description
15954 If set, this style's value will be used as the description for
15955 options that are not described by the completion functions, but
15956 that have exactly one argument. The sequence `%d' in the value
15957 will be replaced by the description for this argument. Depend‐
15958 ing on personal preferences, it may be useful to set this style
15959 to something like `specify: %d'. Note that this may not work
15960 for some commands.
15961 avoid-completer
15963 This is used by the _all_matches completer to decide if the
15964 string consisting of all matches should be added to the list
15965 currently being generated. Its value is a list of names of com‐
15966 pleters. If any of these is the name of the completer that gen‐
15967 erated the matches in this completion, the string will not be
15968 added.
15969 The default value for this style is `_expand _old_list _correct
15971 _approximate', i.e. it contains the completers for which a
15972 string with all matches will almost never be wanted.
15973 cache-path
15975 This style defines the path where any cache files containing
15976 dumped completion data are stored. It defaults to `$ZDOT‐
15977 DIR/.zcompcache', or `$HOME/.zcompcache' if $ZDOTDIR is not de‐
15978 fined. The completion cache will not be used unless the
15979 use-cache style is set.
15980 cache-policy
15982 This style defines the function that will be used to determine
15983 whether a cache needs rebuilding. See the section on the
15984 _cache_invalid function below.
15985 call-command
15987 This style is used in the function for commands such as make and
15988 ant where calling the command directly to generate matches suf‐
15989 fers problems such as being slow or, as in the case of make can
15990 potentially cause actions in the makefile to be executed. If it
15991 is set to `true' the command is called to generate matches. The
15992 default value of this style is `false'.
15993 command
15995 In many places, completion functions need to call external com‐
15996 mands to generate the list of completions. This style can be
15997 used to override the command that is called in some such cases.
15998 The elements of the value are joined with spaces to form a com‐
15999 mand line to execute. The value can also start with a hyphen,
16000 in which case the usual command will be added to the end; this
16001 is most useful for putting `builtin' or `command' in front to
16002 make sure the appropriate version of a command is called, for
16003 example to avoid calling a shell function with the same name as
16004 an external command.
16005 As an example, the completion function for process IDs uses this
16007 style with the processes tag to generate the IDs to complete and
16008 the list of processes to display (if the verbose style is
16009 `true'). The list produced by the command should look like the
16010 output of the ps command. The first line is not displayed, but
16011 is searched for the string `PID' (or `pid') to find the position
16012 of the process IDs in the following lines. If the line does not
16013 contain `PID', the first numbers in each of the other lines are
16014 taken as the process IDs to complete.
16015 Note that the completion function generally has to call the
16017 specified command for each attempt to generate the completion
16018 list. Hence care should be taken to specify only commands that
16019 take a short time to run, and in particular to avoid any that
16020 may never terminate.
16021 command-path
16023 This is a list of directories to search for commands to com‐
16024 plete. The default for this style is the value of the special
16025 parameter path.
16026 commands
16028 This is used by the function completing sub-commands for the
16029 system initialisation scripts (residing in /etc/init.d or some‐
16030 where not too far away from that). Its values give the default
16031 commands to complete for those commands for which the completion
16032 function isn't able to find them out automatically. The default
16033 for this style are the two strings `start' and `stop'.
16034 complete
16036 This is used by the _expand_alias function when invoked as a
16037 bindable command. If set to `true' and the word on the command
16038 line is not the name of an alias, matching alias names will be
16039 completed.
16040 complete-options
16042 This is used by the completer for cd, chdir and pushd. For
16043 these commands a - is used to introduce a directory stack entry
16044 and completion of these is far more common than completing op‐
16045 tions. Hence unless the value of this style is `true' options
16046 will not be completed, even after an initial -. If it is
16047 `true', options will be completed after an initial - unless
16048 there is a preceding -- on the command line.
16049 completer
16051 The strings given as the value of this style provide the names
16052 of the completer functions to use. The available completer func‐
16053 tions are described in the section `Control Functions' below.
16054 Each string may be either the name of a completer function or a
16056 string of the form `function:name'. In the first case the com‐
16057 pleter field of the context will contain the name of the com‐
16058 pleter without the leading underscore and with all other under‐
16059 scores replaced by hyphens. In the second case the function is
16060 the name of the completer to call, but the context will contain
16061 the user-defined name in the completer field of the context. If
16062 the name starts with a hyphen, the string for the context will
16063 be build from the name of the completer function as in the first
16064 case with the name appended to it. For example:
16065 zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _complete:-foo
16067 Here, completion will call the _complete completer twice, once
16069 using `complete' and once using `complete-foo' in the completer
16070 field of the context. Normally, using the same completer more
16071 than once only makes sense when used with the `functions:name'
16072 form, because otherwise the context name will be the same in all
16073 calls to the completer; possible exceptions to this rule are the
16074 _ignored and _prefix completers.
16075 The default value for this style is `_complete _ignored': only
16077 completion will be done, first using the ignored-patterns style
16078 and the $fignore array and then without ignoring matches.
16079 condition
16081 This style is used by the _list completer function to decide if
16082 insertion of matches should be delayed unconditionally. The de‐
16083 fault is `true'.
16084 delimiters
16086 This style is used when adding a delimiter for use with history
16087 modifiers or glob qualifiers that have delimited arguments. It
16088 is an array of preferred delimiters to add. Non-special charac‐
16089 ters are preferred as the completion system may otherwise become
16090 confused. The default list is :, +, /, -, %. The list may be
16091 empty to force a delimiter to be typed.
16092 disabled
16094 If this is set to `true', the _expand_alias completer and bind‐
16095 able command will try to expand disabled aliases, too. The de‐
16096 fault is `false'.
16097 domains
16099 A list of names of network domains for completion. If this is
16100 not set, domain names will be taken from the file /etc/re‐
16101 solv.conf.
16102 environ
16104 The environ style is used when completing for `sudo'. It is set
16105 to an array of `VAR=value' assignments to be exported into the
16106 local environment before the completion for the target command
16107 is invoked.
16108 zstyle ':completion:*:sudo::' environ \
16109 PATH="/sbin:/usr/sbin:$PATH" HOME="/root"
16110 expand This style is used when completing strings consisting of multi‐
16112 ple parts, such as path names.
16113 If one of its values is the string `prefix', the partially typed
16115 word from the line will be expanded as far as possible even if
16116 trailing parts cannot be completed.
16117 If one of its values is the string `suffix', matching names for
16119 components after the first ambiguous one will also be added.
16120 This means that the resulting string is the longest unambiguous
16121 string possible. However, menu completion can be used to cycle
16122 through all matches.
16123 fake This style may be set for any completion context. It specifies
16125 additional strings that will always be completed in that con‐
16126 text. The form of each string is `value:description'; the colon
16127 and description may be omitted, but any literal colons in value
16128 must be quoted with a backslash. Any description provided is
16129 shown alongside the value in completion listings.
16130 It is important to use a sufficiently restrictive context when
16132 specifying fake strings. Note that the styles fake-files and
16133 fake-parameters provide additional features when completing
16134 files or parameters.
16135 fake-always
16137 This works identically to the fake style except that the ig‐
16138 nored-patterns style is not applied to it. This makes it possi‐
16139 ble to override a set of matches completely by setting the ig‐
16140 nored patterns to `*'.
16141 The following shows a way of supplementing any tag with arbi‐
16143 trary data, but having it behave for display purposes like a
16144 separate tag. In this example we use the features of the
16145 tag-order style to divide the named-directories tag into two
16146 when performing completion with the standard completer complete
16147 for arguments of cd. The tag named-directories-normal behaves
16148 as normal, but the tag named-directories-mine contains a fixed
16149 set of directories. This has the effect of adding the match
16150 group `extra directories' with the given completions.
16151 zstyle ':completion::complete:cd:*' tag-order \
16153 'named-directories:-mine:extra\ directories
16154 named-directories:-normal:named\ directories *'
16155 zstyle ':completion::complete:cd:*:named-directories-mine' \
16156 fake-always mydir1 mydir2
16157 zstyle ':completion::complete:cd:*:named-directories-mine' \
16158 ignored-patterns '*'
16159 fake-files
16161 This style is used when completing files and looked up without a
16162 tag. Its values are of the form `dir:names...'. This will add
16163 the names (strings separated by spaces) as possible matches when
16164 completing in the directory dir, even if no such files really
16165 exist. The dir may be a pattern; pattern characters or colons
16166 in dir should be quoted with a backslash to be treated liter‐
16167 ally.
16168 This can be useful on systems that support special file systems
16170 whose top-level pathnames can not be listed or generated with
16171 glob patterns (but see accept-exact-dirs for a more general way
16172 of dealing with this problem). It can also be used for directo‐
16173 ries for which one does not have read permission.
16174 The pattern form can be used to add a certain `magic' entry to
16176 all directories on a particular file system.
16177 fake-parameters
16179 This is used by the completion function for parameter names.
16180 Its values are names of parameters that might not yet be set but
16181 should be completed nonetheless. Each name may also be followed
16182 by a colon and a string specifying the type of the parameter
16183 (like `scalar', `array' or `integer'). If the type is given,
16184 the name will only be completed if parameters of that type are
16185 required in the particular context. Names for which no type is
16186 specified will always be completed.
16187 file-list
16189 This style controls whether files completed using the standard
16190 builtin mechanism are to be listed with a long list similar to
16191 ls -l. Note that this feature uses the shell module zsh/stat
16192 for file information; this loads the builtin stat which will re‐
16193 place any external stat executable. To avoid this the following
16194 code can be included in an initialization file:
16195 zmodload -i zsh/stat
16197 disable stat
16198 The style may either be set to a `true' value (or `all'), or one
16200 of the values `insert' or `list', indicating that files are to
16201 be listed in long format in all circumstances, or when attempt‐
16202 ing to insert a file name, or when listing file names without
16203 attempting to insert one.
16204 More generally, the value may be an array of any of the above
16206 values, optionally followed by =num. If num is present it gives
16207 the maximum number of matches for which long listing style will
16208 be used. For example,
16209 zstyle ':completion:*' file-list list=20 insert=10
16211 specifies that long format will be used when listing up to 20
16213 files or inserting a file with up to 10 matches (assuming a
16214 listing is to be shown at all, for example on an ambiguous com‐
16215 pletion), else short format will be used.
16216 zstyle -e ':completion:*' file-list \
16218 '(( ${+NUMERIC} )) && reply=(true)'
16219 specifies that long format will be used any time a numeric argu‐
16221 ment is supplied, else short format.
16222 file-patterns
16224 This is used by the standard function for completing filenames,
16225 _files. If the style is unset up to three tags are offered,
16226 `globbed-files',`directories' and `all-files', depending on the
16227 types of files expected by the caller of _files. The first two
16228 (`globbed-files' and `directories') are normally offered to‐
16229 gether to make it easier to complete files in sub-directories.
16230 The file-patterns style provides alternatives to the default
16232 tags, which are not used. Its value consists of elements of the
16233 form `pattern:tag'; each string may contain any number of such
16234 specifications separated by spaces.
16235 The pattern is a pattern that is to be used to generate file‐
16237 names. Any occurrence of the sequence `%p' is replaced by any
16238 pattern(s) passed by the function calling _files. Colons in the
16239 pattern must be preceded by a backslash to make them distin‐
16240 guishable from the colon before the tag. If more than one pat‐
16241 tern is needed, the patterns can be given inside braces, sepa‐
16242 rated by commas.
16243 The tags of all strings in the value will be offered by _files
16245 and used when looking up other styles. Any tags in the same
16246 word will be offered at the same time and before later words.
16247 If no `:tag' is given the `files' tag will be used.
16248 The tag may also be followed by an optional second colon and a
16250 description, which will be used for the `%d' in the value of the
16251 format style (if that is set) instead of the default description
16252 supplied by the completion function. If the description given
16253 here contains itself a `%d', that is replaced with the descrip‐
16254 tion supplied by the completion function.
16255 For example, to make the rm command first complete only names of
16257 object files and then the names of all files if there is no
16258 matching object file:
16259 zstyle ':completion:*:*:rm:*:*' file-patterns \
16261 '*.o:object-files' '%p:all-files'
16262 To alter the default behaviour of file completion -- offer files
16264 matching a pattern and directories on the first attempt, then
16265 all files -- to offer only matching files on the first attempt,
16266 then directories, and finally all files:
16267 zstyle ':completion:*' file-patterns \
16269 '%p:globbed-files' '*(-/):directories' '*:all-files'
16270 This works even where there is no special pattern: _files
16272 matches all files using the pattern `*' at the first step and
16273 stops when it sees this pattern. Note also it will never try a
16274 pattern more than once for a single completion attempt.
16275 During the execution of completion functions, the EXTENDED_GLOB
16277 option is in effect, so the characters `#', `~' and `^' have
16278 special meanings in the patterns.
16279 file-sort
16281 The standard filename completion function uses this style with‐
16282 out a tag to determine in which order the names should be
16283 listed; menu completion will cycle through them in the same or‐
16284 der. The possible values are: `size' to sort by the size of the
16285 file; `links' to sort by the number of links to the file; `modi‐
16286 fication' (or `time' or `date') to sort by the last modification
16287 time; `access' to sort by the last access time; and `inode' (or
16288 `change') to sort by the last inode change time. If the style
16289 is set to any other value, or is unset, files will be sorted al‐
16290 phabetically by name. If the value contains the string `re‐
16291 verse', sorting is done in the opposite order. If the value
16292 contains the string `follow', timestamps are associated with the
16293 targets of symbolic links; the default is to use the timestamps
16294 of the links themselves.
16295 file-split-chars
16297 A set of characters that will cause all file completions for the
16298 given context to be split at the point where any of the charac‐
16299 ters occurs. A typical use is to set the style to :; then ev‐
16300 erything up to and including the last : in the string so far is
16301 ignored when completing files. As this is quite heavy-handed,
16302 it is usually preferable to update completion functions for con‐
16303 texts where this behaviour is useful.
16304 filter The ldap plugin of email address completion (see _email_ad‐
16306 dresses) uses this style to specify the attributes to match
16307 against when filtering entries. So for example, if the style is
16308 set to `sn', matching is done against surnames. Standard LDAP
16309 filtering is used so normal completion matching is bypassed. If
16310 this style is not set, the LDAP plugin is skipped. You may also
16311 need to set the command style to specify how to connect to your
16312 LDAP server.
16313 force-list
16315 This forces a list of completions to be shown at any point where
16316 listing is done, even in cases where the list would usually be
16317 suppressed. For example, normally the list is only shown if
16318 there are at least two different matches. By setting this style
16319 to `always', the list will always be shown, even if there is
16320 only a single match that will immediately be accepted. The
16321 style may also be set to a number. In this case the list will
16322 be shown if there are at least that many matches, even if they
16323 would all insert the same string.
16324 This style is tested for the default tag as well as for each tag
16326 valid for the current completion. Hence the listing can be
16327 forced only for certain types of match.
16328 format If this is set for the descriptions tag, its value is used as a
16330 string to display above matches in completion lists. The se‐
16331 quence `%d' in this string will be replaced with a short de‐
16332 scription of what these matches are. This string may also con‐
16333 tain the output attribute sequences understood by compadd -X
16334 (see zshcompwid(1)).
16335 The style is tested with each tag valid for the current comple‐
16337 tion before it is tested for the descriptions tag. Hence dif‐
16338 ferent format strings can be defined for different types of
16339 match.
16340 Note also that some completer functions define additional
16342 `%'-sequences. These are described for the completer functions
16343 that make use of them.
16344 Some completion functions display messages that may be cus‐
16346 tomised by setting this style for the messages tag. Here, the
16347 `%d' is replaced with a message given by the completion func‐
16348 tion.
16349 Finally, the format string is looked up with the warnings tag,
16351 for use when no matches could be generated at all. In this case
16352 the `%d' is replaced with the descriptions for the matches that
16353 were expected separated by spaces. The sequence `%D' is re‐
16354 placed with the same descriptions separated by newlines.
16355 It is possible to use printf-style field width specifiers with
16357 `%d' and similar escape sequences. This is handled by the zfor‐
16358 mat builtin command from the zsh/zutil module, see zshmod‐
16359 ules(1).
16360 glob This is used by the _expand completer. If it is set to `true'
16362 (the default), globbing will be attempted on the words resulting
16363 from a previous substitution (see the substitute style) or else
16364 the original string from the line.
16365 global If this is set to `true' (the default), the _expand_alias com‐
16367 pleter and bindable command will try to expand global aliases.
16368 group-name
16370 The completion system can group different types of matches,
16371 which appear in separate lists. This style can be used to give
16372 the names of groups for particular tags. For example, in com‐
16373 mand position the completion system generates names of builtin
16374 and external commands, names of aliases, shell functions and pa‐
16375 rameters and reserved words as possible completions. To have
16376 the external commands and shell functions listed separately:
16377 zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:commands' \
16379 group-name commands
16380 zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:functions' \
16381 group-name functions
16382 As a consequence, any match with the same tag will be displayed
16384 in the same group.
16385 If the name given is the empty string the name of the tag for
16387 the matches will be used as the name of the group. So, to have
16388 all different types of matches displayed separately, one can
16389 just set:
16390 zstyle ':completion:*' group-name ''
16392 All matches for which no group name is defined will be put in a
16394 group named -default-.
16395 group-order
16397 This style is additional to the group-name style to specify the
16398 order for display of the groups defined by that style (compare
16399 tag-order, which determines which completions appear at all).
16400 The groups named are shown in the given order; any other groups
16401 are shown in the order defined by the completion function.
16402 For example, to have names of builtin commands, shell functions
16404 and external commands appear in that order when completing in
16405 command position:
16406 zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:*' group-order \
16408 builtins functions commands
16409 groups A list of names of UNIX groups. If this is not set, group names
16411 are taken from the YP database or the file `/etc/group'.
16412 hidden If this is set to `true', matches for the given context will not
16414 be listed, although any description for the matches set with the
16415 format style will be shown. If it is set to `all', not even the
16416 description will be displayed.
16417 Note that the matches will still be completed; they are just not
16419 shown in the list. To avoid having matches considered as possi‐
16420 ble completions at all, the tag-order style can be modified as
16421 described below.
16422 hosts A list of names of hosts that should be completed. If this is
16424 not set, hostnames are taken from the file `/etc/hosts'.
16425 hosts-ports
16427 This style is used by commands that need or accept hostnames and
16428 network ports. The strings in the value should be of the form
16429 `host:port'. Valid ports are determined by the presence of
16430 hostnames; multiple ports for the same host may appear.
16431 ignore-line
16433 This is tested for each tag valid for the current completion.
16434 If it is set to `true', none of the words that are already on
16435 the line will be considered as possible completions. If it is
16436 set to `current', the word the cursor is on will not be consid‐
16437 ered as a possible completion. The value `current-shown' is
16438 similar but only applies if the list of completions is currently
16439 shown on the screen. Finally, if the style is set to `other',
16440 all words on the line except for the current one will be ex‐
16441 cluded from the possible completions.
16442 The values `current' and `current-shown' are a bit like the op‐
16444 posite of the accept-exact style: only strings with missing
16445 characters will be completed.
16446 Note that you almost certainly don't want to set this to `true'
16448 or `other' for a general context such as `:completion:*'. This
16449 is because it would disallow completion of, for example, options
16450 multiple times even if the command in question accepts the op‐
16451 tion more than once.
16452 ignore-parents
16454 The style is tested without a tag by the function completing
16455 pathnames in order to determine whether to ignore the names of
16456 directories already mentioned in the current word, or the name
16457 of the current working directory. The value must include one or
16458 both of the following strings:
16459 parent The name of any directory whose path is already contained
16461 in the word on the line is ignored. For example, when
16462 completing after foo/../, the directory foo will not be
16463 considered a valid completion.
16464 pwd The name of the current working directory will not be
16466 completed; hence, for example, completion after ../ will
16467 not use the name of the current directory.
16468 In addition, the value may include one or both of:
16470 .. Ignore the specified directories only when the word on
16472 the line contains the substring `../'.
16473 directory
16475 Ignore the specified directories only when names of di‐
16476 rectories are completed, not when completing names of
16477 files.
16478 Excluded values act in a similar fashion to values of the ig‐
16480 nored-patterns style, so they can be restored to consideration
16481 by the _ignored completer.
16482 extra-verbose
16484 If set, the completion listing is more verbose at the cost of a
16485 probable decrease in completion speed. Completion performance
16486 will suffer if this style is set to `true'.
16487 ignored-patterns
16489 A list of patterns; any trial completion matching one of the
16490 patterns will be excluded from consideration. The _ignored com‐
16491 pleter can appear in the list of completers to restore the ig‐
16492 nored matches. This is a more configurable version of the shell
16493 parameter $fignore.
16494 Note that the EXTENDED_GLOB option is set during the execution
16496 of completion functions, so the characters `#', `~' and `^' have
16497 special meanings in the patterns.
16498 insert This style is used by the _all_matches completer to decide
16500 whether to insert the list of all matches unconditionally in‐
16501 stead of adding the list as another match.
16502 insert-ids
16504 When completing process IDs, for example as arguments to the
16505 kill and wait builtins the name of a command may be converted to
16506 the appropriate process ID. A problem arises when the process
16507 name typed is not unique. By default (or if this style is set
16508 explicitly to `menu') the name will be converted immediately to
16509 a set of possible IDs, and menu completion will be started to
16510 cycle through them.
16511 If the value of the style is `single', the shell will wait until
16513 the user has typed enough to make the command unique before con‐
16514 verting the name to an ID; attempts at completion will be unsuc‐
16515 cessful until that point. If the value is any other string,
16516 menu completion will be started when the string typed by the
16517 user is longer than the common prefix to the corresponding IDs.
16518 insert-tab
16520 If this is set to `true', the completion system will insert a
16521 TAB character (assuming that was used to start completion) in‐
16522 stead of performing completion when there is no non-blank char‐
16523 acter to the left of the cursor. If it is set to `false', com‐
16524 pletion will be done even there.
16525 The value may also contain the substrings `pending' or `pend‐
16527 ing=val'. In this case, the typed character will be inserted
16528 instead of starting completion when there is unprocessed input
16529 pending. If a val is given, completion will not be done if
16530 there are at least that many characters of unprocessed input.
16531 This is often useful when pasting characters into a terminal.
16532 Note however, that it relies on the $PENDING special parameter
16533 from the zsh/zle module being set properly which is not guaran‐
16534 teed on all platforms.
16535 The default value of this style is `true' except for completion
16537 within vared builtin command where it is `false'.
16538 insert-unambiguous
16540 This is used by the _match and _approximate completers. These
16541 completers are often used with menu completion since the word
16542 typed may bear little resemblance to the final completion. How‐
16543 ever, if this style is `true', the completer will start menu
16544 completion only if it could find no unambiguous initial string
16545 at least as long as the original string typed by the user.
16546 In the case of the _approximate completer, the completer field
16548 in the context will already have been set to one of correct-num
16549 or approximate-num, where num is the number of errors that were
16550 accepted.
16551 In the case of the _match completer, the style may also be set
16553 to the string `pattern'. Then the pattern on the line is left
16554 unchanged if it does not match unambiguously.
16555 gain-privileges
16557 If set to true, this style enables the use of commands like sudo
16558 or doas to gain extra privileges when retrieving information for
16559 completion. This is only done when a command such as sudo ap‐
16560 pears on the command-line. To force the use of, e.g. sudo or to
16561 override any prefix that might be added due to gain-privileges,
16562 the command style can be used with a value that begins with a
16563 hyphen.
16564 keep-prefix
16566 This style is used by the _expand completer. If it is `true',
16567 the completer will try to keep a prefix containing a tilde or
16568 parameter expansion. Hence, for example, the string `~/f*'
16569 would be expanded to `~/foo' instead of `/home/user/foo'. If
16570 the style is set to `changed' (the default), the prefix will
16571 only be left unchanged if there were other changes between the
16572 expanded words and the original word from the command line. Any
16573 other value forces the prefix to be expanded unconditionally.
16574 The behaviour of _expand when this style is `true' is to cause
16576 _expand to give up when a single expansion with the restored
16577 prefix is the same as the original; hence any remaining com‐
16578 pleters may be called.
16579 last-prompt
16581 This is a more flexible form of the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option.
16582 If it is `true', the completion system will try to return the
16583 cursor to the previous command line after displaying a comple‐
16584 tion list. It is tested for all tags valid for the current com‐
16585 pletion, then the default tag. The cursor will be moved back to
16586 the previous line if this style is `true' for all types of
16587 match. Note that unlike the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option this is
16588 independent of the numeric argument.
16589 known-hosts-files
16591 This style should contain a list of files to search for host
16592 names and (if the use-ip style is set) IP addresses in a format
16593 compatible with ssh known_hosts files. If it is not set, the
16594 files /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts and ~/.ssh/known_hosts are used.
16595 list This style is used by the _history_complete_word bindable com‐
16597 mand. If it is set to `true' it has no effect. If it is set to
16598 `false' matches will not be listed. This overrides the setting
16599 of the options controlling listing behaviour, in particular
16600 AUTO_LIST. The context always starts with `:completion:his‐
16601 tory-words'.
16602 list-colors
16604 If the zsh/complist module is loaded, this style can be used to
16605 set color specifications. This mechanism replaces the use of
16606 the ZLS_COLORS and ZLS_COLOURS parameters described in the sec‐
16607 tion `The zsh/complist Module' in zshmodules(1), but the syntax
16608 is the same.
16609 If this style is set for the default tag, the strings in the
16611 value are taken as specifications that are to be used every‐
16612 where. If it is set for other tags, the specifications are used
16613 only for matches of the type described by the tag. For this to
16614 work best, the group-name style must be set to an empty string.
16615 In addition to setting styles for specific tags, it is also pos‐
16617 sible to use group names specified explicitly by the group-name
16618 tag together with the `(group)' syntax allowed by the ZLS_COLORS
16619 and ZLS_COLOURS parameters and simply using the default tag.
16620 It is possible to use any color specifications already set up
16622 for the GNU version of the ls command:
16623 zstyle ':completion:*:default' list-colors \
16625 ${(s.:.)LS_COLORS}
16626 The default colors are the same as for the GNU ls command and
16628 can be obtained by setting the style to an empty string (i.e.
16629 '').
16630 list-dirs-first
16632 This is used by file completion. If set, directories to be com‐
16633 pleted are listed separately from and before completion for
16634 other files, regardless of tag ordering. In addition, the tag
16635 other-files is used in place of all-files for the remaining
16636 files, to indicate that no directories are presented with that
16637 tag.
16638 list-grouped
16640 If this style is `true' (the default), the completion system
16641 will try to make certain completion listings more compact by
16642 grouping matches. For example, options for commands that have
16643 the same description (shown when the verbose style is set to
16644 `true') will appear as a single entry. However, menu selection
16645 can be used to cycle through all the matches.
16646 list-packed
16648 This is tested for each tag valid in the current context as well
16649 as the default tag. If it is set to `true', the corresponding
16650 matches appear in listings as if the LIST_PACKED option were
16651 set. If it is set to `false', they are listed normally.
16652 list-prompt
16654 If this style is set for the default tag, completion lists that
16655 don't fit on the screen can be scrolled (see the description of
16656 the zsh/complist module in zshmodules(1)). The value, if not
16657 the empty string, will be displayed after every screenful and
16658 the shell will prompt for a key press; if the style is set to
16659 the empty string, a default prompt will be used.
16660 The value may contain the escape sequences: `%l' or `%L', which
16662 will be replaced by the number of the last line displayed and
16663 the total number of lines; `%m' or `%M', the number of the last
16664 match shown and the total number of matches; and `%p' and `%P',
16665 `Top' when at the beginning of the list, `Bottom' when at the
16666 end and the position shown as a percentage of the total length
16667 otherwise. In each case the form with the uppercase letter will
16668 be replaced by a string of fixed width, padded to the right
16669 with spaces, while the lowercase form will be replaced by a
16670 variable width string. As in other prompt strings, the escape
16671 sequences `%S', `%s', `%B', `%b', `%U', `%u' for entering and
16672 leaving the display modes standout, bold and underline, and
16673 `%F', `%f', `%K', `%k' for changing the foreground background
16674 colour, are also available, as is the form `%{...%}' for enclos‐
16675 ing escape sequences which display with zero (or, with a numeric
16676 argument, some other) width.
16677 After deleting this prompt the variable LISTPROMPT should be un‐
16679 set for the removal to take effect.
16680 list-rows-first
16682 This style is tested in the same way as the list-packed style
16683 and determines whether matches are to be listed in a rows-first
16684 fashion as if the LIST_ROWS_FIRST option were set.
16685 list-suffixes
16687 This style is used by the function that completes filenames. If
16688 it is `true', and completion is attempted on a string containing
16689 multiple partially typed pathname components, all ambiguous com‐
16690 ponents will be shown. Otherwise, completion stops at the first
16691 ambiguous component.
16692 list-separator
16694 The value of this style is used in completion listing to sepa‐
16695 rate the string to complete from a description when possible
16696 (e.g. when completing options). It defaults to `--' (two hy‐
16697 phens).
16698 local This is for use with functions that complete URLs for which the
16700 corresponding files are available directly from the file system.
16701 Its value should consist of three strings: a hostname, the path
16702 to the default web pages for the server, and the directory name
16703 used by a user placing web pages within their home area.
16704 For example:
16706 zstyle ':completion:*' local toast \
16708 /var/http/public/toast public_html
16709 Completion after `http://toast/stuff/' will look for files in
16711 the directory /var/http/public/toast/stuff, while completion
16712 after `http://toast/~yousir/' will look for files in the direc‐
16713 tory ~yousir/public_html.
16714 mail-directory
16716 If set, zsh will assume that mailbox files can be found in the
16717 directory specified. It defaults to `~/Mail'.
16718 match-original
16720 This is used by the _match completer. If it is set to only,
16721 _match will try to generate matches without inserting a `*' at
16722 the cursor position. If set to any other non-empty value, it
16723 will first try to generate matches without inserting the `*' and
16724 if that yields no matches, it will try again with the `*' in‐
16725 serted. If it is unset or set to the empty string, matching
16726 will only be performed with the `*' inserted.
16727 matcher
16729 This style is tested separately for each tag valid in the cur‐
16730 rent context. Its value is placed before any match specifica‐
16731 tions given by the matcher-list style so can override them via
16732 the use of an x: specification. The value should be in the form
16733 described in the section `Completion Matching Control' in zsh‐
16734 compwid(1). For examples of this, see the description of the
16735 tag-order style.
16736 For notes comparing the use of this and the matcher-list style,
16738 see under the description of the tag-order style.
16739 matcher-list
16741 This style can be set to a list of match specifications that are
16742 to be applied everywhere. Match specifications are described in
16743 the section `Completion Matching Control' in zshcompwid(1). The
16744 completion system will try them one after another for each com‐
16745 pleter selected. For example, to try first simple completion
16746 and, if that generates no matches, case-insensitive completion:
16747 zstyle ':completion:*' matcher-list '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'
16749 By default each specification replaces the previous one; how‐
16751 ever, if a specification is prefixed with +, it is added to the
16752 existing list. Hence it is possible to create increasingly gen‐
16753 eral specifications without repetition:
16754 zstyle ':completion:*' matcher-list \
16756 '' '+m:{a-z}={A-Z}' '+m:{A-Z}={a-z}'
16757 It is possible to create match specifications valid for particu‐
16759 lar completers by using the third field of the context. This
16760 applies only to completers that override the global
16761 matcher-list, which as of this writing includes only _prefix and
16762 _ignored. For example, to use the completers _complete and
16763 _prefix but allow case-insensitive completion only with _com‐
16764 plete:
16765 zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _prefix
16767 zstyle ':completion:*:complete:*:*:*' matcher-list \
16768 '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'
16769 User-defined names, as explained for the completer style, are
16771 available. This makes it possible to try the same completer
16772 more than once with different match specifications each time.
16773 For example, to try normal completion without a match specifica‐
16774 tion, then normal completion with case-insensitive matching,
16775 then correction, and finally partial-word completion:
16776 zstyle ':completion:*' completer \
16778 _complete _correct _complete:foo
16779 zstyle ':completion:*:complete:*:*:*' matcher-list \
16780 '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'
16781 zstyle ':completion:*:foo:*:*:*' matcher-list \
16782 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z} r:|[-_./]=* r:|=*'
16783 If the style is unset in any context no match specification is
16785 applied. Note also that some completers such as _correct and
16786 _approximate do not use the match specifications at all, though
16787 these completers will only ever be called once even if the
16788 matcher-list contains more than one element.
16789 Where multiple specifications are useful, note that the entire
16791 completion is done for each element of matcher-list, which can
16792 quickly reduce the shell's performance. As a rough rule of
16793 thumb, one to three strings will give acceptable performance.
16794 On the other hand, putting multiple space-separated values into
16795 the same string does not have an appreciable impact on perfor‐
16796 mance.
16797 If there is no current matcher or it is empty, and the option
16799 NO_CASE_GLOB is in effect, the matching for files is performed
16800 case-insensitively in any case. However, any matcher must ex‐
16801 plicitly specify case-insensitive matching if that is required.
16802 For notes comparing the use of this and the matcher style, see
16804 under the description of the tag-order style.
16805 max-errors
16807 This is used by the _approximate and _correct completer func‐
16808 tions to determine the maximum number of errors to allow. The
16809 completer will try to generate completions by first allowing one
16810 error, then two errors, and so on, until either a match or
16811 matches were found or the maximum number of errors given by this
16812 style has been reached.
16813 If the value for this style contains the string `numeric', the
16815 completer function will take any numeric argument as the maximum
16816 number of errors allowed. For example, with
16817 zstyle ':completion:*:approximate:::' max-errors 2 numeric
16819 two errors are allowed if no numeric argument is given, but with
16821 a numeric argument of six (as in `ESC-6 TAB'), up to six errors
16822 are accepted. Hence with a value of `0 numeric', no correcting
16823 completion will be attempted unless a numeric argument is given.
16824 If the value contains the string `not-numeric', the completer
16826 will not try to generate corrected completions when given a nu‐
16827 meric argument, so in this case the number given should be
16828 greater than zero. For example, `2 not-numeric' specifies that
16829 correcting completion with two errors will usually be performed,
16830 but if a numeric argument is given, correcting completion will
16831 not be performed.
16832 The default value for this style is `2 numeric'.
16834 max-matches-width
16836 This style is used to determine the trade off between the width
16837 of the display used for matches and the width used for their de‐
16838 scriptions when the verbose style is in effect. The value gives
16839 the number of display columns to reserve for the matches. The
16840 default is half the width of the screen.
16841 This has the most impact when several matches have the same de‐
16843 scription and so will be grouped together. Increasing the style
16844 will allow more matches to be grouped together; decreasing it
16845 will allow more of the description to be visible.
16846 menu If this is `true' in the context of any of the tags defined for
16848 the current completion menu completion will be used. The value
16849 for a specific tag will take precedence over that for the `de‐
16850 fault' tag.
16851 If none of the values found in this way is `true' but at least
16853 one is set to `auto', the shell behaves as if the AUTO_MENU op‐
16854 tion is set.
16855 If one of the values is explicitly set to `false', menu comple‐
16857 tion will be explicitly turned off, overriding the MENU_COMPLETE
16858 option and other settings.
16859 In the form `yes=num', where `yes' may be any of the `true' val‐
16861 ues (`yes', `true', `on' and `1'), menu completion will be
16862 turned on if there are at least num matches. In the form
16863 `yes=long', menu completion will be turned on if the list does
16864 not fit on the screen. This does not activate menu completion
16865 if the widget normally only lists completions, but menu comple‐
16866 tion can be activated in that case with the value
16867 `yes=long-list' (Typically, the value `select=long-list' de‐
16868 scribed later is more useful as it provides control over
16869 scrolling.)
16870 Similarly, with any of the `false' values (as in `no=10'), menu
16872 completion will not be used if there are num or more matches.
16873 The value of this widget also controls menu selection, as imple‐
16875 mented by the zsh/complist module. The following values may ap‐
16876 pear either alongside or instead of the values above.
16877 If the value contains the string `select', menu selection will
16879 be started unconditionally.
16880 In the form `select=num', menu selection will only be started if
16882 there are at least num matches. If the values for more than one
16883 tag provide a number, the smallest number is taken.
16884 Menu selection can be turned off explicitly by defining a value
16886 containing the string`no-select'.
16887 It is also possible to start menu selection only if the list of
16889 matches does not fit on the screen by using the value `se‐
16890 lect=long'. To start menu selection even if the current widget
16891 only performs listing, use the value `select=long-list'.
16892 To turn on menu completion or menu selection when there are a
16894 certain number of matches or the list of matches does not fit on
16895 the screen, both of `yes=' and `select=' may be given twice,
16896 once with a number and once with `long' or `long-list'.
16897 Finally, it is possible to activate two special modes of menu
16899 selection. The word `interactive' in the value causes interac‐
16900 tive mode to be entered immediately when menu selection is
16901 started; see the description of the zsh/complist module in zsh‐
16902 modules(1) for a description of interactive mode. Including the
16903 string `search' does the same for incremental search mode. To
16904 select backward incremental search, include the string
16905 `search-backward'.
16906 muttrc If set, gives the location of the mutt configuration file. It
16908 defaults to `~/.muttrc'.
16909 numbers
16911 This is used with the jobs tag. If it is `true', the shell will
16912 complete job numbers instead of the shortest unambiguous prefix
16913 of the job command text. If the value is a number, job numbers
16914 will only be used if that many words from the job descriptions
16915 are required to resolve ambiguities. For example, if the value
16916 is `1', strings will only be used if all jobs differ in the
16917 first word on their command lines.
16918 old-list
16920 This is used by the _oldlist completer. If it is set to `al‐
16921 ways', then standard widgets which perform listing will retain
16922 the current list of matches, however they were generated; this
16923 can be turned off explicitly with the value `never', giving the
16924 behaviour without the _oldlist completer. If the style is un‐
16925 set, or any other value, then the existing list of completions
16926 is displayed if it is not already; otherwise, the standard com‐
16927 pletion list is generated; this is the default behaviour of
16928 _oldlist. However, if there is an old list and this style con‐
16929 tains the name of the completer function that generated the
16930 list, then the old list will be used even if it was generated by
16931 a widget which does not do listing.
16932 For example, suppose you type ^Xc to use the _correct_word wid‐
16934 get, which generates a list of corrections for the word under
16935 the cursor. Usually, typing ^D would generate a standard list
16936 of completions for the word on the command line, and show that.
16937 With _oldlist, it will instead show the list of corrections al‐
16938 ready generated.
16939 As another example consider the _match completer: with the in‐
16941 sert-unambiguous style set to `true' it inserts only a common
16942 prefix string, if there is any. However, this may remove parts
16943 of the original pattern, so that further completion could pro‐
16944 duce more matches than on the first attempt. By using the
16945 _oldlist completer and setting this style to _match, the list of
16946 matches generated on the first attempt will be used again.
16947 old-matches
16949 This is used by the _all_matches completer to decide if an old
16950 list of matches should be used if one exists. This is selected
16951 by one of the `true' values or by the string `only'. If the
16952 value is `only', _all_matches will only use an old list and
16953 won't have any effect on the list of matches currently being
16954 generated.
16955 If this style is set it is generally unwise to call the
16957 _all_matches completer unconditionally. One possible use is for
16958 either this style or the completer style to be defined with the
16959 -e option to zstyle to make the style conditional.
16960 old-menu
16962 This is used by the _oldlist completer. It controls how menu
16963 completion behaves when a completion has already been inserted
16964 and the user types a standard completion key such as TAB. The
16965 default behaviour of _oldlist is that menu completion always
16966 continues with the existing list of completions. If this style
16967 is set to `false', however, a new completion is started if the
16968 old list was generated by a different completion command; this
16969 is the behaviour without the _oldlist completer.
16970 For example, suppose you type ^Xc to generate a list of correc‐
16972 tions, and menu completion is started in one of the usual ways.
16973 Usually, or with this style set to `false', typing TAB at this
16974 point would start trying to complete the line as it now appears.
16975 With _oldlist, it instead continues to cycle through the list of
16976 corrections.
16977 original
16979 This is used by the _approximate and _correct completers to de‐
16980 cide if the original string should be added as a possible com‐
16981 pletion. Normally, this is done only if there are at least two
16982 possible corrections, but if this style is set to `true', it is
16983 always added. Note that the style will be examined with the
16984 completer field in the context name set to correct-num or ap‐
16985 proximate-num, where num is the number of errors that were ac‐
16986 cepted.
16987 packageset
16989 This style is used when completing arguments of the Debian
16990 `dpkg' program. It contains an override for the default package
16991 set for a given context. For example,
16992 zstyle ':completion:*:complete:dpkg:option--status-1:*' \
16994 packageset avail
16995 causes available packages, rather than only installed packages,
16997 to be completed for `dpkg --status'.
16998 path The function that completes color names uses this style with the
17000 colors tag. The value should be the pathname of a file contain‐
17001 ing color names in the format of an X11 rgb.txt file. If the
17002 style is not set but this file is found in one of various stan‐
17003 dard locations it will be used as the default.
17004 path-completion
17006 This is used by filename completion. By default, filename com‐
17007 pletion examines all components of a path to see if there are
17008 completions of that component. For example, /u/b/z can be com‐
17009 pleted to /usr/bin/zsh. Explicitly setting this style to
17010 `false' inhibits this behaviour for path components up to the /
17011 before the cursor; this overrides the setting of accept-ex‐
17012 act-dirs.
17013 Even with the style set to `false', it is still possible to com‐
17015 plete multiple paths by setting the option COMPLETE_IN_WORD and
17016 moving the cursor back to the first component in the path to be
17017 completed. For example, /u/b/z can be completed to /usr/bin/zsh
17018 if the cursor is after the /u.
17019 pine-directory
17021 If set, specifies the directory containing PINE mailbox files.
17022 There is no default, since recursively searching this directory
17023 is inconvenient for anyone who doesn't use PINE.
17024 ports A list of Internet service names (network ports) to complete.
17026 If this is not set, service names are taken from the file
17027 `/etc/services'.
17028 prefix-hidden
17030 This is used for certain completions which share a common pre‐
17031 fix, for example command options beginning with dashes. If it
17032 is `true', the prefix will not be shown in the list of matches.
17033 The default value for this style is `false'.
17035 prefix-needed
17037 This style is also relevant for matches with a common prefix.
17038 If it is set to `true' this common prefix must be typed by the
17039 user to generate the matches.
17040 The style is applicable to the options, signals, jobs, func‐
17042 tions, and parameters completion tags.
17043 For command options, this means that the initial `-', `+', or
17045 `--' must be typed explicitly before option names will be com‐
17046 pleted.
17047 For signals, an initial `-' is required before signal names will
17049 be completed.
17050 For jobs, an initial `%' is required before job names will be
17052 completed.
17053 For function and parameter names, an initial `_' or `.' is re‐
17055 quired before function or parameter names starting with those
17056 characters will be completed.
17057 The default value for this style is `false' for function and pa‐
17059 rameter completions, and `true' otherwise.
17060 preserve-prefix
17062 This style is used when completing path names. Its value should
17063 be a pattern matching an initial prefix of the word to complete
17064 that should be left unchanged under all circumstances. For ex‐
17065 ample, on some Unices an initial `//' (double slash) has a spe‐
17066 cial meaning; setting this style to the string `//' will pre‐
17067 serve it. As another example, setting this style to `?:/' under
17068 Cygwin would allow completion after `a:/...' and so on.
17069 range This is used by the _history completer and the _history_com‐
17071 plete_word bindable command to decide which words should be com‐
17072 pleted.
17073 If it is a single number, only the last N words from the history
17075 will be completed.
17076 If it is a range of the form `max:slice', the last slice words
17078 will be completed; then if that yields no matches, the slice
17079 words before those will be tried and so on. This process stops
17080 either when at least one match has been found, or max words have
17081 been tried.
17082 The default is to complete all words from the history at once.
17084 recursive-files
17086 If this style is set, its value is an array of patterns to be
17087 tested against `$PWD/': note the trailing slash, which allows
17088 directories in the pattern to be delimited unambiguously by in‐
17089 cluding slashes on both sides. If an ordinary file completion
17090 fails and the word on the command line does not yet have a di‐
17091 rectory part to its name, the style is retrieved using the same
17092 tag as for the completion just attempted, then the elements
17093 tested against $PWD/ in turn. If one matches, then the shell
17094 reattempts completion by prepending the word on the command line
17095 with each directory in the expansion of **/*(/) in turn. Typi‐
17096 cally the elements of the style will be set to restrict the num‐
17097 ber of directories beneath the current one to a manageable num‐
17098 ber, for example `*/.git/*'.
17099 For example,
17101 zstyle ':completion:*' recursive-files '*/zsh/*'
17103 If the current directory is /home/pws/zsh/Src, then zle_trTAB
17105 can be completed to Zle/zle_tricky.c.
17106 regular
17108 This style is used by the _expand_alias completer and bindable
17109 command. If set to `true' (the default), regular aliases will
17110 be expanded but only in command position. If it is set to
17111 `false', regular aliases will never be expanded. If it is set
17112 to `always', regular aliases will be expanded even if not in
17113 command position.
17114 rehash If this is set when completing external commands, the internal
17116 list (hash) of commands will be updated for each search by issu‐
17117 ing the rehash command. There is a speed penalty for this which
17118 is only likely to be noticeable when directories in the path
17119 have slow file access.
17120 remote-access
17122 If set to `false', certain commands will be prevented from mak‐
17123 ing Internet connections to retrieve remote information. This
17124 includes the completion for the CVS command.
17125 It is not always possible to know if connections are in fact to
17127 a remote site, so some may be prevented unnecessarily.
17128 remove-all-dups
17130 The _history_complete_word bindable command and the _history
17131 completer use this to decide if all duplicate matches should be
17132 removed, rather than just consecutive duplicates.
17133 select-prompt
17135 If this is set for the default tag, its value will be displayed
17136 during menu selection (see the menu style above) when the com‐
17137 pletion list does not fit on the screen as a whole. The same
17138 escapes as for the list-prompt style are understood, except that
17139 the numbers refer to the match or line the mark is on. A de‐
17140 fault prompt is used when the value is the empty string.
17141 select-scroll
17143 This style is tested for the default tag and determines how a
17144 completion list is scrolled during a menu selection (see the
17145 menu style above) when the completion list does not fit on the
17146 screen as a whole. If the value is `0' (zero), the list is
17147 scrolled by half-screenfuls; if it is a positive integer, the
17148 list is scrolled by the given number of lines; if it is a nega‐
17149 tive number, the list is scrolled by a screenful minus the abso‐
17150 lute value of the given number of lines. The default is to
17151 scroll by single lines.
17152 separate-sections
17154 This style is used with the manuals tag when completing names of
17155 manual pages. If it is `true', entries for different sections
17156 are added separately using tag names of the form `manual.X',
17157 where X is the section number. When the group-name style is
17158 also in effect, pages from different sections will appear sepa‐
17159 rately. This style is also used similarly with the words style
17160 when completing words for the dict command. It allows words from
17161 different dictionary databases to be added separately. The de‐
17162 fault for this style is `false'.
17163 show-ambiguity
17165 If the zsh/complist module is loaded, this style can be used to
17166 highlight the first ambiguous character in completion lists. The
17167 value is either a color indication such as those supported by
17168 the list-colors style or, with a value of `true', a default of
17169 underlining is selected. The highlighting is only applied if the
17170 completion display strings correspond to the actual matches.
17171 show-completer
17173 Tested whenever a new completer is tried. If it is `true', the
17174 completion system outputs a progress message in the listing area
17175 showing what completer is being tried. The message will be
17176 overwritten by any output when completions are found and is re‐
17177 moved after completion is finished.
17178 single-ignored
17180 This is used by the _ignored completer when there is only one
17181 match. If its value is `show', the single match will be dis‐
17182 played but not inserted. If the value is `menu', then the sin‐
17183 gle match and the original string are both added as matches and
17184 menu completion is started, making it easy to select either of
17185 them.
17186 sort This allows the standard ordering of matches to be overridden.
17188 If its value is `true' or `false', sorting is enabled or dis‐
17190 abled. Additionally the values associated with the `-o' option
17191 to compadd can also be listed: match, nosort, numeric, reverse.
17192 If it is not set for the context, the standard behaviour of the
17193 calling widget is used.
17194 The style is tested first against the full context including the
17196 tag, and if that fails to produce a value against the context
17197 without the tag.
17198 In many cases where a calling widget explicitly selects a par‐
17200 ticular ordering in lieu of the default, a value of `true' is
17201 not honoured. An example of where this is not the case is for
17202 command history where the default of sorting matches chronologi‐
17203 cally may be overridden by setting the style to `true'.
17204 In the _expand completer, if it is set to `true', the expansions
17206 generated will always be sorted. If it is set to `menu', then
17207 the expansions are only sorted when they are offered as single
17208 strings but not in the string containing all possible expan‐
17209 sions.
17210 special-dirs
17212 Normally, the completion code will not produce the directory
17213 names `.' and `..' as possible completions. If this style is
17214 set to `true', it will add both `.' and `..' as possible comple‐
17215 tions; if it is set to `..', only `..' will be added.
17216 The following example sets special-dirs to `..' when the current
17218 prefix is empty, is a single `.', or consists only of a path be‐
17219 ginning with `../'. Otherwise the value is `false'.
17220 zstyle -e ':completion:*' special-dirs \
17222 '[[ $PREFIX = (../)#(|.|..) ]] && reply=(..)'
17223 squeeze-slashes
17225 If set to `true', sequences of slashes in filename paths (for
17226 example in `foo//bar') will be treated as a single slash. This
17227 is the usual behaviour of UNIX paths. However, by default the
17228 file completion function behaves as if there were a `*' between
17229 the slashes.
17230 stop If set to `true', the _history_complete_word bindable command
17232 will stop once when reaching the beginning or end of the his‐
17233 tory. Invoking _history_complete_word will then wrap around to
17234 the opposite end of the history. If this style is set to
17235 `false' (the default), _history_complete_word will loop immedi‐
17236 ately as in a menu completion.
17237 strip-comments
17239 If set to `true', this style causes non-essential comment text
17240 to be removed from completion matches. Currently it is only
17241 used when completing e-mail addresses where it removes any dis‐
17242 play name from the addresses, cutting them down to plain
17243 user@host form.
17244 subst-globs-only
17246 This is used by the _expand completer. If it is set to `true',
17247 the expansion will only be used if it resulted from globbing;
17248 hence, if expansions resulted from the use of the substitute
17249 style described below, but these were not further changed by
17250 globbing, the expansions will be rejected.
17251 The default for this style is `false'.
17253 substitute
17255 This boolean style controls whether the _expand completer will
17256 first try to expand all substitutions in the string (such as
17257 `$(...)' and `${...}').
17258 The default is `true'.
17260 suffix This is used by the _expand completer if the word starts with a
17262 tilde or contains a parameter expansion. If it is set to
17263 `true', the word will only be expanded if it doesn't have a suf‐
17264 fix, i.e. if it is something like `~foo' or `$foo' rather than
17265 `~foo/' or `$foo/bar', unless that suffix itself contains char‐
17266 acters eligible for expansion. The default for this style is
17267 `true'.
17268 tag-order
17270 This provides a mechanism for sorting how the tags available in
17271 a particular context will be used.
17272 The values for the style are sets of space-separated lists of
17274 tags. The tags in each value will be tried at the same time; if
17275 no match is found, the next value is used. (See the file-pat‐
17276 terns style for an exception to this behavior.)
17277 For example:
17279 zstyle ':completion:*:complete:-command-:*:*' tag-order \
17281 'commands functions'
17282 specifies that completion in command position first offers ex‐
17284 ternal commands and shell functions. Remaining tags will be
17285 tried if no completions are found.
17286 In addition to tag names, each string in the value may take one
17288 of the following forms:
17289 - If any value consists of only a hyphen, then only the
17291 tags specified in the other values are generated. Nor‐
17292 mally all tags not explicitly selected are tried last if
17293 the specified tags fail to generate any matches. This
17294 means that a single value consisting only of a single hy‐
17295 phen turns off completion.
17296 ! tags...
17298 A string starting with an exclamation mark specifies
17299 names of tags that are not to be used. The effect is the
17300 same as if all other possible tags for the context had
17301 been listed.
17302 tag:label ...
17304 Here, tag is one of the standard tags and label is an ar‐
17305 bitrary name. Matches are generated as normal but the
17306 name label is used in contexts instead of tag. This is
17307 not useful in words starting with !.
17308 If the label starts with a hyphen, the tag is prepended
17310 to the label to form the name used for lookup. This can
17311 be used to make the completion system try a certain tag
17312 more than once, supplying different style settings for
17313 each attempt; see below for an example.
17314 tag:label:description
17316 As before, but description will replace the `%d' in the
17317 value of the format style instead of the default descrip‐
17318 tion supplied by the completion function. Spaces in the
17319 description must be quoted with a backslash. A `%d' ap‐
17320 pearing in description is replaced with the description
17321 given by the completion function.
17322 In any of the forms above the tag may be a pattern or several
17324 patterns in the form `{pat1,pat2...}'. In this case all match‐
17325 ing tags will be used except for any given explicitly in the
17326 same string.
17327 One use of these features is to try one tag more than once, set‐
17329 ting other styles differently on each attempt, but still to use
17330 all the other tags without having to repeat them all. For exam‐
17331 ple, to make completion of function names in command position
17332 ignore all the completion functions starting with an underscore
17333 the first time completion is tried:
17334 zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:*' tag-order \
17336 'functions:-non-comp *' functions
17337 zstyle ':completion:*:functions-non-comp' \
17338 ignored-patterns '_*'
17339 On the first attempt, all tags will be offered but the functions
17341 tag will be replaced by functions-non-comp. The ignored-pat‐
17342 terns style is set for this tag to exclude functions starting
17343 with an underscore. If there are no matches, the second value
17344 of the tag-order style is used which completes functions using
17345 the default tag, this time presumably including all function
17346 names.
17347 The matches for one tag can be split into different groups. For
17349 example:
17350 zstyle ':completion:*' tag-order \
17352 'options:-long:long\ options
17353 options:-short:short\ options
17354 options:-single-letter:single\ letter\ options'
17355 zstyle ':completion:*:options-long' \
17356 ignored-patterns '[-+](|-|[^-]*)'
17357 zstyle ':completion:*:options-short' \
17358 ignored-patterns '--*' '[-+]?'
17359 zstyle ':completion:*:options-single-letter' \
17360 ignored-patterns '???*'
17361 With the group-names style set, options beginning with `--', op‐
17363 tions beginning with a single `-' or `+' but containing multiple
17364 characters, and single-letter options will be displayed in sepa‐
17365 rate groups with different descriptions.
17366 Another use of patterns is to try multiple match specifications
17368 one after another. The matcher-list style offers something sim‐
17369 ilar, but it is tested very early in the completion system and
17370 hence can't be set for single commands nor for more specific
17371 contexts. Here is how to try normal completion without any
17372 match specification and, if that generates no matches, try again
17373 with case-insensitive matching, restricting the effect to argu‐
17374 ments of the command foo:
17375 zstyle ':completion:*:*:foo:*:*' tag-order '*' '*:-case'
17377 zstyle ':completion:*-case' matcher 'm:{a-z}={A-Z}'
17378 First, all the tags offered when completing after foo are tried
17380 using the normal tag name. If that generates no matches, the
17381 second value of tag-order is used, which tries all tags again
17382 except that this time each has -case appended to its name for
17383 lookup of styles. Hence this time the value for the matcher
17384 style from the second call to zstyle in the example is used to
17385 make completion case-insensitive.
17386 It is possible to use the -e option of the zstyle builtin com‐
17388 mand to specify conditions for the use of particular tags. For
17389 example:
17390 zstyle -e '*:-command-:*' tag-order '
17392 if [[ -n $PREFIX$SUFFIX ]]; then
17393 reply=( )
17394 else
17395 reply=( - )
17396 fi'
17397 Completion in command position will be attempted only if the
17399 string typed so far is not empty. This is tested using the PRE‐
17400 FIX special parameter; see zshcompwid for a description of pa‐
17401 rameters which are special inside completion widgets. Setting
17402 reply to an empty array provides the default behaviour of trying
17403 all tags at once; setting it to an array containing only a hy‐
17404 phen disables the use of all tags and hence of all completions.
17405 If no tag-order style has been defined for a context, the
17407 strings `(|*-)argument-* (|*-)option-* values' and `options'
17408 plus all tags offered by the completion function will be used to
17409 provide a sensible default behavior that causes arguments
17410 (whether normal command arguments or arguments of options) to be
17411 completed before option names for most commands.
17412 urls This is used together with the urls tag by functions completing
17414 URLs.
17415 If the value consists of more than one string, or if the only
17417 string does not name a file or directory, the strings are used
17418 as the URLs to complete.
17419 If the value contains only one string which is the name of a
17421 normal file the URLs are taken from that file (where the URLs
17422 may be separated by white space or newlines).
17423 Finally, if the only string in the value names a directory, the
17425 directory hierarchy rooted at this directory gives the comple‐
17426 tions. The top level directory should be the file access
17427 method, such as `http', `ftp', `bookmark' and so on. In many
17428 cases the next level of directories will be a filename. The di‐
17429 rectory hierarchy can descend as deep as necessary.
17430 For example,
17432 zstyle ':completion:*' urls ~/.urls
17434 mkdir -p ~/.urls/ftp/ftp.zsh.org/pub
17435 allows completion of all the components of the URL
17437 ftp://ftp.zsh.org/pub after suitable commands such as `netscape'
17438 or `lynx'. Note, however, that access methods and files are
17439 completed separately, so if the hosts style is set hosts can be
17440 completed without reference to the urls style.
17441 See the description in the function _urls itself for more infor‐
17443 mation (e.g. `more $^fpath/_urls(N)').
17444 use-cache
17446 If this is set, the completion caching layer is activated for
17447 any completions which use it (via the _store_cache, _re‐
17448 trieve_cache, and _cache_invalid functions). The directory con‐
17449 taining the cache files can be changed with the cache-path
17450 style.
17451 use-compctl
17453 If this style is set to a string not equal to false, 0, no, and
17454 off, the completion system may use any completion specifications
17455 defined with the compctl builtin command. If the style is un‐
17456 set, this is done only if the zsh/compctl module is loaded. The
17457 string may also contain the substring `first' to use completions
17458 defined with `compctl -T', and the substring `default' to use
17459 the completion defined with `compctl -D'.
17460 Note that this is only intended to smooth the transition from
17462 compctl to the new completion system and may disappear in the
17463 future.
17464 Note also that the definitions from compctl will only be used if
17466 there is no specific completion function for the command in
17467 question. For example, if there is a function _foo to complete
17468 arguments to the command foo, compctl will never be invoked for
17469 foo. However, the compctl version will be tried if foo only
17470 uses default completion.
17471 use-ip By default, the function _hosts that completes host names strips
17473 IP addresses from entries read from host databases such as NIS
17474 and ssh files. If this style is `true', the corresponding IP
17475 addresses can be completed as well. This style is not use in
17476 any context where the hosts style is set; note also it must be
17477 set before the cache of host names is generated (typically the
17478 first completion attempt).
17479 users This may be set to a list of usernames to be completed. If it
17481 is not set all usernames will be completed. Note that if it is
17482 set only that list of users will be completed; this is because
17483 on some systems querying all users can take a prohibitive amount
17484 of time.
17485 users-hosts
17487 The values of this style should be of the form `user@host' or
17488 `user:host'. It is used for commands that need pairs of user-
17489 and hostnames. These commands will complete usernames from this
17490 style (only), and will restrict subsequent hostname completion
17491 to hosts paired with that user in one of the values of the
17492 style.
17493 It is possible to group values for sets of commands which allow
17495 a remote login, such as rlogin and ssh, by using the my-accounts
17496 tag. Similarly, values for sets of commands which usually refer
17497 to the accounts of other people, such as talk and finger, can be
17498 grouped by using the other-accounts tag. More ambivalent com‐
17499 mands may use the accounts tag.
17500 users-hosts-ports
17502 Like users-hosts but used for commands like telnet and contain‐
17503 ing strings of the form `user@host:port'.
17504 verbose
17506 If set, as it is by default, the completion listing is more ver‐
17507 bose. In particular many commands show descriptions for options
17508 if this style is `true'.
17509 word This is used by the _list completer, which prevents the inser‐
17511 tion of completions until a second completion attempt when the
17512 line has not changed. The normal way of finding out if the line
17513 has changed is to compare its entire contents between the two
17514 occasions. If this style is `true', the comparison is instead
17515 performed only on the current word. Hence if completion is per‐
17516 formed on another word with the same contents, completion will
17517 not be delayed.
17518
17520 The initialization script compinit redefines all the widgets which per‐
17521 form completion to call the supplied widget function _main_complete.
17522 This function acts as a wrapper calling the so-called `completer' func‐
17523 tions that generate matches. If _main_complete is called with argu‐
17524 ments, these are taken as the names of completer functions to be called
17525 in the order given. If no arguments are given, the set of functions to
17526 try is taken from the completer style. For example, to use normal com‐
17527 pletion and correction if that doesn't generate any matches:
17528 zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _correct
17530 after calling compinit. The default value for this style is `_complete
17532 _ignored', i.e. normally only ordinary completion is tried, first with
17533 the effect of the ignored-patterns style and then without it. The
17534 _main_complete function uses the return status of the completer func‐
17535 tions to decide if other completers should be called. If the return
17536 status is zero, no other completers are tried and the _main_complete
17537 function returns.
17538 If the first argument to _main_complete is a single hyphen, the argu‐
17540 ments will not be taken as names of completers. Instead, the second
17541 argument gives a name to use in the completer field of the context and
17542 the other arguments give a command name and arguments to call to gener‐
17543 ate the matches.
17544 The following completer functions are contained in the distribution,
17546 although users may write their own. Note that in contexts the leading
17547 underscore is stripped, for example basic completion is performed in
17548 the context `:completion::complete:...'.
17549 _all_matches
17551 This completer can be used to add a string consisting of all
17552 other matches. As it influences later completers it must appear
17553 as the first completer in the list. The list of all matches is
17554 affected by the avoid-completer and old-matches styles described
17555 above.
17556 It may be useful to use the _generic function described below to
17558 bind _all_matches to its own keystroke, for example:
17559 zle -C all-matches complete-word _generic
17561 bindkey '^Xa' all-matches
17562 zstyle ':completion:all-matches:*' old-matches only
17563 zstyle ':completion:all-matches::::' completer _all_matches
17564 Note that this does not generate completions by itself: first
17566 use any of the standard ways of generating a list of comple‐
17567 tions, then use ^Xa to show all matches. It is possible instead
17568 to add a standard completer to the list and request that the
17569 list of all matches should be directly inserted:
17570 zstyle ':completion:all-matches::::' completer \
17572 _all_matches _complete
17573 zstyle ':completion:all-matches:*' insert true
17574 In this case the old-matches style should not be set.
17576 _approximate
17578 This is similar to the basic _complete completer but allows the
17579 completions to undergo corrections. The maximum number of er‐
17580 rors can be specified by the max-errors style; see the descrip‐
17581 tion of approximate matching in zshexpn(1) for how errors are
17582 counted. Normally this completer will only be tried after the
17583 normal _complete completer:
17584 zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _approximate
17586 This will give correcting completion if and only if normal com‐
17588 pletion yields no possible completions. When corrected comple‐
17589 tions are found, the completer will normally start menu comple‐
17590 tion allowing you to cycle through these strings.
17591 This completer uses the tags corrections and original when gen‐
17593 erating the possible corrections and the original string. The
17594 format style for the former may contain the additional sequences
17595 `%e' and `%o' which will be replaced by the number of errors ac‐
17596 cepted to generate the corrections and the original string, re‐
17597 spectively.
17598 The completer progressively increases the number of errors al‐
17600 lowed up to the limit by the max-errors style, hence if a com‐
17601 pletion is found with one error, no completions with two errors
17602 will be shown, and so on. It modifies the completer name in the
17603 context to indicate the number of errors being tried: on the
17604 first try the completer field contains `approximate-1', on the
17605 second try `approximate-2', and so on.
17606 When _approximate is called from another function, the number of
17608 errors to accept may be passed with the -a option. The argument
17609 is in the same format as the max-errors style, all in one
17610 string.
17611 Note that this completer (and the _correct completer mentioned
17613 below) can be quite expensive to call, especially when a large
17614 number of errors are allowed. One way to avoid this is to set
17615 up the completer style using the -e option to zstyle so that
17616 some completers are only used when completion is attempted a
17617 second time on the same string, e.g.:
17618 zstyle -e ':completion:*' completer '
17620 if [[ $_last_try != "$HISTNO$BUFFER$CURSOR" ]]; then
17621 _last_try="$HISTNO$BUFFER$CURSOR"
17622 reply=(_complete _match _prefix)
17623 else
17624 reply=(_ignored _correct _approximate)
17625 fi'
17626 This uses the HISTNO parameter and the BUFFER and CURSOR special
17628 parameters that are available inside zle and completion widgets
17629 to find out if the command line hasn't changed since the last
17630 time completion was tried. Only then are the _ignored, _correct
17631 and _approximate completers called.
17632 _canonical_paths [ -A var ] [ -N ] [ -MJV12nfX ] tag descr [ paths ...
17634 ]
17635 This completion function completes all paths given to it, and
17636 also tries to offer completions which point to the same file as
17637 one of the paths given (relative path when an absolute path is
17638 given, and vice versa; when ..'s are present in the word to be
17639 completed; and some paths got from symlinks).
17640 -A, if specified, takes the paths from the array variable speci‐
17642 fied. Paths can also be specified on the command line as shown
17643 above. -N, if specified, prevents canonicalizing the paths
17644 given before using them for completion, in case they are already
17645 so. The options -M, -J, -V, -1, -2, -n, -F, -X are passed to
17646 compadd.
17647 See _description for a description of tag and descr.
17649 _cmdambivalent
17651 Completes the remaining positional arguments as an external com‐
17652 mand. The external command and its arguments are completed as
17653 separate arguments (in a manner appropriate for completing
17654 /usr/bin/env) if there are two or more remaining positional ar‐
17655 guments on the command line, and as a quoted command string (in
17656 the manner of system(...)) otherwise. See also _cmdstring and
17657 _precommand.
17658 This function takes no arguments.
17660 _cmdstring
17662 Completes an external command as a single argument, as for sys‐
17663 tem(...).
17664 _complete
17666 This completer generates all possible completions in a con‐
17667 text-sensitive manner, i.e. using the settings defined with the
17668 compdef function explained above and the current settings of all
17669 special parameters. This gives the normal completion behaviour.
17670 To complete arguments of commands, _complete uses the utility
17672 function _normal, which is in turn responsible for finding the
17673 particular function; it is described below. Various contexts of
17674 the form -context- are handled specifically. These are all men‐
17675 tioned above as possible arguments to the #compdef tag.
17676 Before trying to find a function for a specific context, _com‐
17678 plete checks if the parameter `compcontext' is set. Setting
17679 `compcontext' allows the usual completion dispatching to be
17680 overridden which is useful in places such as a function that
17681 uses vared for input. If it is set to an array, the elements are
17682 taken to be the possible matches which will be completed using
17683 the tag `values' and the description `value'. If it is set to an
17684 associative array, the keys are used as the possible completions
17685 and the values (if non-empty) are used as descriptions for the
17686 matches. If `compcontext' is set to a string containing colons,
17687 it should be of the form `tag:descr:action'. In this case the
17688 tag and descr give the tag and description to use and the action
17689 indicates what should be completed in one of the forms accepted
17690 by the _arguments utility function described below.
17691 Finally, if `compcontext' is set to a string without colons, the
17693 value is taken as the name of the context to use and the func‐
17694 tion defined for that context will be called. For this purpose,
17695 there is a special context named -command-line- that completes
17696 whole command lines (commands and their arguments). This is not
17697 used by the completion system itself but is nonetheless handled
17698 when explicitly called.
17699 _correct
17701 Generate corrections, but not completions, for the current word;
17702 this is similar to _approximate but will not allow any number of
17703 extra characters at the cursor as that completer does. The ef‐
17704 fect is similar to spell-checking. It is based on _approximate,
17705 but the completer field in the context name is correct.
17706 For example, with:
17708 zstyle ':completion:::::' completer \
17710 _complete _correct _approximate
17711 zstyle ':completion:*:correct:::' max-errors 2 not-numeric
17712 zstyle ':completion:*:approximate:::' max-errors 3 numeric
17713 correction will accept up to two errors. If a numeric argument
17715 is given, correction will not be performed, but correcting com‐
17716 pletion will be, and will accept as many errors as given by the
17717 numeric argument. Without a numeric argument, first correction
17718 and then correcting completion will be tried, with the first one
17719 accepting two errors and the second one accepting three errors.
17720 When _correct is called as a function, the number of errors to
17722 accept may be given following the -a option. The argument is in
17723 the same form a values to the accept style, all in one string.
17724 This completer function is intended to be used without the _ap‐
17726 proximate completer or, as in the example, just before it. Us‐
17727 ing it after the _approximate completer is useless since _ap‐
17728 proximate will at least generate the corrected strings generated
17729 by the _correct completer -- and probably more.
17730 _expand
17732 This completer function does not really perform completion, but
17733 instead checks if the word on the command line is eligible for
17734 expansion and, if it is, gives detailed control over how this
17735 expansion is done. For this to happen, the completion system
17736 needs to be invoked with complete-word, not expand-or-complete
17737 (the default binding for TAB), as otherwise the string will be
17738 expanded by the shell's internal mechanism before the completion
17739 system is started. Note also this completer should be called
17740 before the _complete completer function.
17741 The tags used when generating expansions are all-expansions for
17743 the string containing all possible expansions, expansions when
17744 adding the possible expansions as single matches and original
17745 when adding the original string from the line. The order in
17746 which these strings are generated, if at all, can be controlled
17747 by the group-order and tag-order styles, as usual.
17748 The format string for all-expansions and for expansions may con‐
17750 tain the sequence `%o' which will be replaced by the original
17751 string from the line.
17752 The kind of expansion to be tried is controlled by the substi‐
17754 tute, glob and subst-globs-only styles.
17755 It is also possible to call _expand as a function, in which case
17757 the different modes may be selected with options: -s for substi‐
17758 tute, -g for glob and -o for subst-globs-only.
17759 _expand_alias
17761 If the word the cursor is on is an alias, it is expanded and no
17762 other completers are called. The types of aliases which are to
17763 be expanded can be controlled with the styles regular, global
17764 and disabled.
17765 This function is also a bindable command, see the section `Bind‐
17767 able Commands' below.
17768 _extensions
17770 If the cursor follows the string `*.', filename extensions are
17771 completed. The extensions are taken from files in current direc‐
17772 tory or a directory specified at the beginning of the current
17773 word. For exact matches, completion continues to allow other
17774 completers such as _expand to expand the pattern. The standard
17775 add-space and prefix-hidden styles are observed.
17776 _external_pwds
17778 Completes current directories of other zsh processes belonging
17779 to the current user.
17780 This is intended to be used via _generic, bound to a custom key
17782 combination. Note that pattern matching is enabled so matching
17783 is performed similar to how it works with the _match completer.
17784 _history
17786 Complete words from the shell's command history. This com‐
17787 pleter can be controlled by the remove-all-dups, and sort styles
17788 as for the _history_complete_word bindable command, see the sec‐
17789 tion `Bindable Commands' below and the section `Completion Sys‐
17790 tem Configuration' above.
17791 _ignored
17793 The ignored-patterns style can be set to a list of patterns
17794 which are compared against possible completions; matching ones
17795 are removed. With this completer those matches can be rein‐
17796 stated, as if no ignored-patterns style were set. The completer
17797 actually generates its own list of matches; which completers are
17798 invoked is determined in the same way as for the _prefix com‐
17799 pleter. The single-ignored style is also available as described
17800 above.
17801 _list This completer allows the insertion of matches to be delayed un‐
17803 til completion is attempted a second time without the word on
17804 the line being changed. On the first attempt, only the list of
17805 matches will be shown. It is affected by the styles condition
17806 and word, see the section `Completion System Configuration'
17807 above.
17808 _match This completer is intended to be used after the _complete com‐
17810 pleter. It behaves similarly but the string on the command line
17811 may be a pattern to match against trial completions. This gives
17812 the effect of the GLOB_COMPLETE option.
17813 Normally completion will be performed by taking the pattern from
17815 the line, inserting a `*' at the cursor position and comparing
17816 the resulting pattern with the possible completions generated.
17817 This can be modified with the match-original style described
17818 above.
17819 The generated matches will be offered in a menu completion un‐
17821 less the insert-unambiguous style is set to `true'; see the de‐
17822 scription above for other options for this style.
17823 Note that matcher specifications defined globally or used by the
17825 completion functions (the styles matcher-list and matcher) will
17826 not be used.
17827 _menu This completer was written as simple example function to show
17829 how menu completion can be enabled in shell code. However, it
17830 has the notable effect of disabling menu selection which can be
17831 useful with _generic based widgets. It should be used as the
17832 first completer in the list. Note that this is independent of
17833 the setting of the MENU_COMPLETE option and does not work with
17834 the other menu completion widgets such as reverse-menu-complete,
17835 or accept-and-menu-complete.
17836 _oldlist
17838 This completer controls how the standard completion widgets be‐
17839 have when there is an existing list of completions which may
17840 have been generated by a special completion (i.e. a sepa‐
17841 rately-bound completion command). It allows the ordinary com‐
17842 pletion keys to continue to use the list of completions thus
17843 generated, instead of producing a new list of ordinary contex‐
17844 tual completions. It should appear in the list of completers
17845 before any of the widgets which generate matches. It uses two
17846 styles: old-list and old-menu, see the section `Completion Sys‐
17847 tem Configuration' above.
17848 _precommand
17850 Complete an external command in word-separated arguments, as for
17851 exec and /usr/bin/env.
17852 _prefix
17854 This completer can be used to try completion with the suffix
17855 (everything after the cursor) ignored. In other words, the suf‐
17856 fix will not be considered to be part of the word to complete.
17857 The effect is similar to the expand-or-complete-prefix command.
17858 The completer style is used to decide which other completers are
17860 to be called to generate matches. If this style is unset, the
17861 list of completers set for the current context is used -- ex‐
17862 cept, of course, the _prefix completer itself. Furthermore, if
17863 this completer appears more than once in the list of completers
17864 only those completers not already tried by the last invocation
17865 of _prefix will be called.
17866 For example, consider this global completer style:
17868 zstyle ':completion:*' completer \
17870 _complete _prefix _correct _prefix:foo
17871 Here, the _prefix completer tries normal completion but ignoring
17873 the suffix. If that doesn't generate any matches, and neither
17874 does the call to the _correct completer after it, _prefix will
17875 be called a second time and, now only trying correction with the
17876 suffix ignored. On the second invocation the completer part of
17877 the context appears as `foo'.
17878 To use _prefix as the last resort and try only normal completion
17880 when it is invoked:
17881 zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete ... _prefix
17883 zstyle ':completion::prefix:*' completer _complete
17884 The add-space style is also respected. If it is set to `true'
17886 then _prefix will insert a space between the matches generated
17887 (if any) and the suffix.
17888 Note that this completer is only useful if the COMPLETE_IN_WORD
17890 option is set; otherwise, the cursor will be moved to the end of
17891 the current word before the completion code is called and hence
17892 there will be no suffix.
17893 _user_expand
17895 This completer behaves similarly to the _expand completer but
17896 instead performs expansions defined by users. The styles
17897 add-space and sort styles specific to the _expand completer are
17898 usable with _user_expand in addition to other styles handled
17899 more generally by the completion system. The tag all-expansions
17900 is also available.
17901 The expansion depends on the array style user-expand being de‐
17903 fined for the current context; remember that the context for
17904 completers is less specific than that for contextual completion
17905 as the full context has not yet been determined. Elements of
17906 the array may have one of the following forms:
17907 $hash
17909 hash is the name of an associative array. Note this is
17911 not a full parameter expression, merely a $, suitably
17912 quoted to prevent immediate expansion, followed by the
17913 name of an associative array. If the trial expansion
17914 word matches a key in hash, the resulting expansion is
17915 the corresponding value.
17916 _func
17917 _func is the name of a shell function whose name must be‐
17919 gin with _ but is not otherwise special to the completion
17920 system. The function is called with the trial word as an
17921 argument. If the word is to be expanded, the function
17922 should set the array reply to a list of expansions. Op‐
17923 tionally, it can set REPLY to a word that will be used as
17924 a description for the set of expansions. The return sta‐
17925 tus of the function is irrelevant.
17927 In addition to the context-dependent completions provided, which are
17928 expected to work in an intuitively obvious way, there are a few widgets
17929 implementing special behaviour which can be bound separately to keys.
17930 The following is a list of these and their default bindings.
17931 _bash_completions
17933 This function is used by two widgets, _bash_complete-word and
17934 _bash_list-choices. It exists to provide compatibility with
17935 completion bindings in bash. The last character of the binding
17936 determines what is completed: `!', command names; `$', environ‐
17937 ment variables; `@', host names; `/', file names; `~' user
17938 names. In bash, the binding preceded by `\e' gives completion,
17939 and preceded by `^X' lists options. As some of these bindings
17940 clash with standard zsh bindings, only `\e~' and `^X~' are bound
17941 by default. To add the rest, the following should be added to
17942 .zshrc after compinit has been run:
17943 for key in '!' '$' '@' '/' '~'; do
17945 bindkey "\e$key" _bash_complete-word
17946 bindkey "^X$key" _bash_list-choices
17947 done
17948 This includes the bindings for `~' in case they were already
17950 bound to something else; the completion code does not override
17951 user bindings.
17952 _correct_filename (^XC)
17954 Correct the filename path at the cursor position. Allows up to
17955 six errors in the name. Can also be called with an argument to
17956 correct a filename path, independently of zle; the correction is
17957 printed on standard output.
17958 _correct_word (^Xc)
17960 Performs correction of the current argument using the usual con‐
17961 textual completions as possible choices. This stores the string
17962 `correct-word' in the function field of the context name and
17963 then calls the _correct completer.
17964 _expand_alias (^Xa)
17966 This function can be used as a completer and as a bindable com‐
17967 mand. It expands the word the cursor is on if it is an alias.
17968 The types of alias expanded can be controlled with the styles
17969 regular, global and disabled.
17970 When used as a bindable command there is one additional feature
17972 that can be selected by setting the complete style to `true'.
17973 In this case, if the word is not the name of an alias, _ex‐
17974 pand_alias tries to complete the word to a full alias name with‐
17975 out expanding it. It leaves the cursor directly after the com‐
17976 pleted word so that invoking _expand_alias once more will expand
17977 the now-complete alias name.
17978 _expand_word (^Xe)
17980 Performs expansion on the current word: equivalent to the stan‐
17981 dard expand-word command, but using the _expand completer. Be‐
17982 fore calling it, the function field of the context is set to
17983 `expand-word'.
17984 _generic
17986 This function is not defined as a widget and not bound by de‐
17987 fault. However, it can be used to define a widget and will then
17988 store the name of the widget in the function field of the con‐
17989 text and call the completion system. This allows custom comple‐
17990 tion widgets with their own set of style settings to be defined
17991 easily. For example, to define a widget that performs normal
17992 completion and starts menu selection:
17993 zle -C foo complete-word _generic
17995 bindkey '...' foo
17996 zstyle ':completion:foo:*' menu yes select=1
17997 Note in particular that the completer style may be set for the
17999 context in order to change the set of functions used to generate
18000 possible matches. If _generic is called with arguments, those
18001 are passed through to _main_complete as the list of completers
18002 in place of those defined by the completer style.
18003 _history_complete_word (\e/)
18005 Complete words from the shell's command history. This uses the
18006 list, remove-all-dups, sort, and stop styles.
18007 _most_recent_file (^Xm)
18009 Complete the name of the most recently modified file matching
18010 the pattern on the command line (which may be blank). If given
18011 a numeric argument N, complete the Nth most recently modified
18012 file. Note the completion, if any, is always unique.
18013 _next_tags (^Xn)
18015 This command alters the set of matches used to that for the next
18016 tag, or set of tags, either as given by the tag-order style or
18017 as set by default; these matches would otherwise not be avail‐
18018 able. Successive invocations of the command cycle through all
18019 possible sets of tags.
18020 _read_comp (^X^R)
18022 Prompt the user for a string, and use that to perform completion
18023 on the current word. There are two possibilities for the
18024 string. First, it can be a set of words beginning `_', for ex‐
18025 ample `_files -/', in which case the function with any arguments
18026 will be called to generate the completions. Unambiguous parts
18027 of the function name will be completed automatically (normal
18028 completion is not available at this point) until a space is
18029 typed.
18030 Second, any other string will be passed as a set of arguments to
18032 compadd and should hence be an expression specifying what should
18033 be completed.
18034 A very restricted set of editing commands is available when
18036 reading the string: `DEL' and `^H' delete the last character;
18037 `^U' deletes the line, and `^C' and `^G' abort the function,
18038 while `RET' accepts the completion. Note the string is used
18039 verbatim as a command line, so arguments must be quoted in ac‐
18040 cordance with standard shell rules.
18041 Once a string has been read, the next call to _read_comp will
18043 use the existing string instead of reading a new one. To force
18044 a new string to be read, call _read_comp with a numeric argu‐
18045 ment.
18046 _complete_debug (^X?)
18048 This widget performs ordinary completion, but captures in a tem‐
18049 porary file a trace of the shell commands executed by the com‐
18050 pletion system. Each completion attempt gets its own file. A
18051 command to view each of these files is pushed onto the editor
18052 buffer stack.
18053 _complete_help (^Xh)
18055 This widget displays information about the context names, the
18056 tags, and the completion functions used when completing at the
18057 current cursor position. If given a numeric argument other than
18058 1 (as in `ESC-2 ^Xh'), then the styles used and the contexts for
18059 which they are used will be shown, too.
18060 Note that the information about styles may be incomplete; it de‐
18062 pends on the information available from the completion functions
18063 called, which in turn is determined by the user's own styles and
18064 other settings.
18065 _complete_help_generic
18067 Unlike other commands listed here, this must be created as a
18068 normal ZLE widget rather than a completion widget (i.e. with zle
18069 -N). It is used for generating help with a widget bound to the
18070 _generic widget that is described above.
18071 If this widget is created using the name of the function, as it
18073 is by default, then when executed it will read a key sequence.
18074 This is expected to be bound to a call to a completion function
18075 that uses the _generic widget. That widget will be executed,
18076 and information provided in the same format that the _com‐
18077 plete_help widget displays for contextual completion.
18078 If the widget's name contains debug, for example if it is cre‐
18080 ated as `zle -N _complete_debug_generic _complete_help_generic',
18081 it will read and execute the keystring for a generic widget as
18082 before, but then generate debugging information as done by _com‐
18083 plete_debug for contextual completion.
18084 If the widget's name contains noread, it will not read a
18086 keystring but instead arrange that the next use of a generic
18087 widget run in the same shell will have the effect as described
18088 above.
18089 The widget works by setting the shell parameter
18091 ZSH_TRACE_GENERIC_WIDGET which is read by _generic. Unsetting
18092 the parameter cancels any pending effect of the noread form.
18093 For example, after executing the following:
18095 zle -N _complete_debug_generic _complete_help_generic
18097 bindkey '^x:' _complete_debug_generic
18098 typing `C-x :' followed by the key sequence for a generic widget
18100 will cause trace output for that widget to be saved to a file.
18101 _complete_tag (^Xt)
18103 This widget completes symbol tags created by the etags or ctags
18104 programmes (note there is no connection with the completion sys‐
18105 tem's tags) stored in a file TAGS, in the format used by etags,
18106 or tags, in the format created by ctags. It will look back up
18107 the path hierarchy for the first occurrence of either file; if
18108 both exist, the file TAGS is preferred. You can specify the
18109 full path to a TAGS or tags file by setting the parameter $TAGS‐
18110 FILE or $tagsfile respectively. The corresponding completion
18111 tags used are etags and vtags, after emacs and vi respectively.
18112
18114 Descriptions follow for utility functions that may be useful when writ‐
18115 ing completion functions. If functions are installed in subdirecto‐
18116 ries, most of these reside in the Base subdirectory. Like the example
18117 functions for commands in the distribution, the utility functions gen‐
18118 erating matches all follow the convention of returning status zero if
18119 they generated completions and non-zero if no matching completions
18120 could be added.
18121 _absolute_command_paths
18123 This function completes external commands as absolute paths (un‐
18124 like _command_names -e which completes their basenames). It
18125 takes no arguments.
18126 _all_labels [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr [ command arg ... ]
18128 This is a convenient interface to the _next_label function be‐
18129 low, implementing the loop shown in the _next_label example.
18130 The command and its arguments are called to generate the
18131 matches. The options stored in the parameter name will automat‐
18132 ically be inserted into the args passed to the command. Nor‐
18133 mally, they are put directly after the command, but if one of
18134 the args is a single hyphen, they are inserted directly before
18135 that. If the hyphen is the last argument, it will be removed
18136 from the argument list before the command is called. This al‐
18137 lows _all_labels to be used in almost all cases where the
18138 matches can be generated by a single call to the compadd builtin
18139 command or by a call to one of the utility functions.
18140 For example:
18142 local expl
18144 ...
18145 if _requested foo; then
18146 ...
18147 _all_labels foo expl '...' compadd ... - $matches
18148 fi
18149 Will complete the strings from the matches parameter, using com‐
18151 padd with additional options which will take precedence over
18152 those generated by _all_labels.
18153 _alternative [ -O name ] [ -C name ] spec ...
18155 This function is useful in simple cases where multiple tags are
18156 available. Essentially it implements a loop like the one de‐
18157 scribed for the _tags function below.
18158 The tags to use and the action to perform if a tag is requested
18160 are described using the specs which are of the form: `tag:de‐
18161 scr:action'. The tags are offered using _tags and if the tag is
18162 requested, the action is executed with the given description de‐
18163 scr. The actions are those accepted by the _arguments function
18164 (described below), excluding the `->state' and `=...' forms.
18165 For example, the action may be a simple function call:
18167 _alternative \
18169 'users:user:_users' \
18170 'hosts:host:_hosts'
18171 offers usernames and hostnames as possible matches, generated by
18173 the _users and _hosts functions respectively.
18174 Like _arguments, this function uses _all_labels to execute the
18176 actions, which will loop over all sets of tags. Special han‐
18177 dling is only required if there is an additional valid tag, for
18178 example inside a function called from _alternative.
18179 The option `-O name' is used in the same way as by the _argu‐
18181 ments function. In other words, the elements of the name array
18182 will be passed to compadd when executing an action.
18183 Like _tags this function supports the -C option to give a dif‐
18185 ferent name for the argument context field.
18186 _arguments [ -nswWCRS ] [ -A pat ] [ -O name ] [ -M matchspec ]
18189 [ : ] spec ...
18190 _arguments [ opt ... ] -- [ -l ] [ -i pats ] [ -s pair ]
18191 [ helpspec ...]
18192 This function can be used to give a complete specification for
18193 completion for a command whose arguments follow standard UNIX
18194 option and argument conventions.
18195 Options Overview
18197 Options to _arguments itself must be in separate words, i.e. -s
18199 -w, not -sw. The options are followed by specs that describe
18200 options and arguments of the analyzed command. To avoid ambigu‐
18201 ity, all options to _arguments itself may be separated from the
18202 spec forms by a single colon.
18203 The `--' form is used to intuit spec forms from the help output
18205 of the command being analyzed, and is described in detail below.
18206 The opts for the `--' form are otherwise the same options as the
18207 first form. Note that `-s' following `--' has a distinct mean‐
18208 ing from `-s' preceding `--', and both may appear.
18209 The option switches -s, -S, -A, -w, and -W affect how _arguments
18211 parses the analyzed command line's options. These switches are
18212 useful for commands with standard argument parsing.
18213 The options of _arguments have the following meanings:
18215 -n With this option, _arguments sets the parameter NORMARG
18217 to the position of the first normal argument in the
18218 $words array, i.e. the position after the end of the op‐
18219 tions. If that argument has not been reached, NORMARG is
18220 set to -1. The caller should declare `integer NORMARG'
18221 if the -n option is passed; otherwise the parameter is
18222 not used.
18223 -s Enable option stacking for single-letter options, whereby
18225 multiple single-letter options may be combined into a
18226 single word. For example, the two options `-x' and `-y'
18227 may be combined into a single word `-xy'. By default,
18228 every word corresponds to a single option name (`-xy' is
18229 a single option named `xy').
18230 Options beginning with a single hyphen or plus sign are
18232 eligible for stacking; words beginning with two hyphens
18233 are not.
18234 Note that -s after -- has a different meaning, which is
18236 documented in the segment entitled `Deriving spec forms
18237 from the help output'.
18238 -w In combination with -s, allow option stacking even if one
18240 or more of the options take arguments. For example, if
18241 -x takes an argument, with no -s, `-xy' is considered as
18242 a single (unhandled) option; with -s, -xy is an option
18243 with the argument `y'; with both -s and -w, -xy is the
18244 option -x and the option -y with arguments to -x (and to
18245 -y, if it takes arguments) still to come in subsequent
18246 words.
18247 -W This option takes -w a stage further: it is possible to
18249 complete single-letter options even after an argument
18250 that occurs in the same word. However, it depends on the
18251 action performed whether options will really be completed
18252 at this point. For more control, use a utility function
18253 like _guard as part of the action.
18254 -C Modify the curcontext parameter for an action of the form
18256 `->state'. This is discussed in detail below.
18257 -R Return status 300 instead of zero when a $state is to be
18259 handled, in the `->string' syntax.
18260 -S Do not complete options after a `--' appearing on the
18262 line, and ignore the `--'. For example, with -S, in the
18263 line
18264 foobar -x -- -y
18266 the `-x' is considered an option, the `-y' is considered
18268 an argument, and the `--' is considered to be neither.
18269 -A pat Do not complete options after the first non-option argu‐
18271 ment on the line. pat is a pattern matching all strings
18272 which are not to be taken as arguments. For example, to
18273 make _arguments stop completing options after the first
18274 normal argument, but ignoring all strings starting with a
18275 hyphen even if they are not described by one of the opt‐
18276 specs, the form is `-A "-*"'.
18277 -O name
18279 Pass the elements of the array name as arguments to func‐
18280 tions called to execute actions. This is discussed in
18281 detail below.
18282 -M matchspec
18284 Use the match specification matchspec for completing op‐
18285 tion names and values. The default matchspec allows par‐
18286 tial word completion after `_' and `-', such as complet‐
18287 ing `-f-b' to `-foo-bar'. The default matchspec is:
18288 r:|[_-]=* r:|=*
18289 specs: overview
18291 Each of the following forms is a spec describing individual sets
18293 of options or arguments on the command line being analyzed.
18294 n:message:action
18296 n::message:action
18297 This describes the n'th normal argument. The message
18298 will be printed above the matches generated and the ac‐
18299 tion indicates what can be completed in this position
18300 (see below). If there are two colons before the message
18301 the argument is optional. If the message contains only
18302 white space, nothing will be printed above the matches
18303 unless the action adds an explanation string itself.
18304 :message:action
18306 ::message:action
18307 Similar, but describes the next argument, whatever number
18308 that happens to be. If all arguments are specified in
18309 this form in the correct order the numbers are unneces‐
18310 sary.
18311 *:message:action
18313 *::message:action
18314 *:::message:action
18315 This describes how arguments (usually non-option argu‐
18316 ments, those not beginning with - or +) are to be com‐
18317 pleted when neither of the first two forms was provided.
18318 Any number of arguments can be completed in this fashion.
18319 With two colons before the message, the words special ar‐
18321 ray and the CURRENT special parameter are modified to re‐
18322 fer only to the normal arguments when the action is exe‐
18323 cuted or evaluated. With three colons before the message
18324 they are modified to refer only to the normal arguments
18325 covered by this description.
18326 optspec
18328 optspec:...
18329 This describes an option. The colon indicates handling
18330 for one or more arguments to the option; if it is not
18331 present, the option is assumed to take no arguments.
18332 The following forms are available for the initial opt‐
18334 spec, whether or not the option has arguments.
18335 *optspec
18337 Here optspec is one of the remaining forms below.
18338 This indicates the following optspec may be re‐
18339 peated. Otherwise if the corresponding option is
18340 already present on the command line to the left of
18341 the cursor it will not be offered again.
18342 -optname
18344 +optname
18345 In the simplest form the optspec is just the op‐
18346 tion name beginning with a minus or a plus sign,
18347 such as `-foo'. The first argument for the option
18348 (if any) must follow as a separate word directly
18349 after the option.
18350 Either of `-+optname' and `+-optname' can be used
18352 to specify that -optname and +optname are both
18353 valid.
18354 In all the remaining forms, the leading `-' may be
18356 replaced by or paired with `+' in this way.
18357 -optname-
18359 The first argument of the option must come di‐
18360 rectly after the option name in the same word.
18361 For example, `-foo-:...' specifies that the com‐
18362 pleted option and argument will look like
18363 `-fooarg'.
18364 -optname+
18366 The first argument may appear immediately after
18367 optname in the same word, or may appear as a sepa‐
18368 rate word after the option. For example,
18369 `-foo+:...' specifies that the completed option
18370 and argument will look like either `-fooarg' or
18371 `-foo arg'.
18372 -optname=
18374 The argument may appear as the next word, or in
18375 same word as the option name provided that it is
18376 separated from it by an equals sign, for example
18377 `-foo=arg' or `-foo arg'.
18378 -optname=-
18380 The argument to the option must appear after an
18381 equals sign in the same word, and may not be given
18382 in the next argument.
18383 optspec[explanation]
18385 An explanation string may be appended to any of
18386 the preceding forms of optspec by enclosing it in
18387 brackets, as in `-q[query operation]'.
18388 The verbose style is used to decide whether the
18390 explanation strings are displayed with the option
18391 in a completion listing.
18392 If no bracketed explanation string is given but
18394 the auto-description style is set and only one ar‐
18395 gument is described for this optspec, the value of
18396 the style is displayed, with any appearance of the
18397 sequence `%d' in it replaced by the message of the
18398 first optarg that follows the optspec; see below.
18399 It is possible for options with a literal `+' or `=' to
18401 appear, but that character must be quoted, for example
18402 `-\+'.
18403 Each optarg following an optspec must take one of the
18405 following forms:
18406 :message:action
18408 ::message:action
18409 An argument to the option; message and action are
18410 treated as for ordinary arguments. In the first
18411 form, the argument is mandatory, and in the second
18412 form it is optional.
18413 This group may be repeated for options which take
18415 multiple arguments. In other words, :message1:ac‐
18416 tion1:message2:action2 specifies that the option
18417 takes two arguments.
18418 :*pattern:message:action
18420 :*pattern::message:action
18421 :*pattern:::message:action
18422 This describes multiple arguments. Only the last
18423 optarg for an option taking multiple arguments may
18424 be given in this form. If the pattern is empty
18425 (i.e. :*:), all the remaining words on the line
18426 are to be completed as described by the action;
18427 otherwise, all the words up to and including a
18428 word matching the pattern are to be completed us‐
18429 ing the action.
18430 Multiple colons are treated as for the `*:...'
18432 forms for ordinary arguments: when the message is
18433 preceded by two colons, the words special array
18434 and the CURRENT special parameter are modified
18435 during the execution or evaluation of the action
18436 to refer only to the words after the option. When
18437 preceded by three colons, they are modified to re‐
18438 fer only to the words covered by this description.
18439 Any literal colon in an optname, message, or action must be pre‐
18441 ceded by a backslash, `\:'.
18442 Each of the forms above may be preceded by a list in parentheses
18444 of option names and argument numbers. If the given option is on
18445 the command line, the options and arguments indicated in paren‐
18446 theses will not be offered. For example, `(-two -three
18447 1)-one:...' completes the option `-one'; if this appears on the
18448 command line, the options -two and -three and the first ordinary
18449 argument will not be completed after it. `(-foo):...' specifies
18450 an ordinary argument completion; -foo will not be completed if
18451 that argument is already present.
18452 Other items may appear in the list of excluded options to indi‐
18454 cate various other items that should not be applied when the
18455 current specification is matched: a single star (*) for the rest
18456 arguments (i.e. a specification of the form `*:...'); a colon
18457 (:) for all normal (non-option-) arguments; and a hyphen (-) for
18458 all options. For example, if `(*)' appears before an option and
18459 the option appears on the command line, the list of remaining
18460 arguments (those shown in the above table beginning with `*:')
18461 will not be completed.
18462 To aid in reuse of specifications, it is possible to precede any
18464 of the forms above with `!'; then the form will no longer be
18465 completed, although if the option or argument appears on the
18466 command line they will be skipped as normal. The main use for
18467 this is when the arguments are given by an array, and _arguments
18468 is called repeatedly for more specific contexts: on the first
18469 call `_arguments $global_options' is used, and on subsequent
18470 calls `_arguments !$^global_options'.
18471 specs: actions
18473 In each of the forms above the action determines how completions
18475 should be generated. Except for the `->string' form below, the
18476 action will be executed by calling the _all_labels function to
18477 process all tag labels. No special handling of tags is needed
18478 unless a function call introduces a new one.
18479 The functions called to execute actions will be called with the
18481 elements of the array named by the `-O name' option as argu‐
18482 ments. This can be used, for example, to pass the same set of
18483 options for the compadd builtin to all actions.
18484 The forms for action are as follows.
18486 (single unquoted space)
18488 This is useful where an argument is required but it is
18489 not possible or desirable to generate matches for it.
18490 The message will be displayed but no completions listed.
18491 Note that even in this case the colon at the end of the
18492 message is needed; it may only be omitted when neither a
18493 message nor an action is given.
18494 (item1 item2 ...)
18496 One of a list of possible matches, for example:
18497 :foo:(foo bar baz)
18499 ((item1\:desc1 ...))
18501 Similar to the above, but with descriptions for each pos‐
18502 sible match. Note the backslash before the colon. For
18503 example,
18504 :foo:((a\:bar b\:baz))
18506 The matches will be listed together with their descrip‐
18508 tions if the description style is set with the values tag
18509 in the context.
18510 ->string
18512 In this form, _arguments processes the arguments and op‐
18513 tions and then returns control to the calling function
18514 with parameters set to indicate the state of processing;
18515 the calling function then makes its own arrangements for
18516 generating completions. For example, functions that im‐
18517 plement a state machine can use this type of action.
18518 Where _arguments encounters action in the `->string' for‐
18520 mat, it will strip all leading and trailing whitespace
18521 from string and set the array state to the set of all
18522 strings for which an action is to be performed. The ele‐
18523 ments of the array state_descr are assigned the corre‐
18524 sponding message field from each optarg containing such
18525 an action.
18526 By default and in common with all other well behaved com‐
18528 pletion functions, _arguments returns status zero if it
18529 was able to add matches and non-zero otherwise. However,
18530 if the -R option is given, _arguments will instead return
18531 a status of 300 to indicate that $state is to be handled.
18532 In addition to $state and $state_descr, _arguments also
18534 sets the global parameters `context', `line' and
18535 `opt_args' as described below, and does not reset any
18536 changes made to the special parameters such as PREFIX and
18537 words. This gives the calling function the choice of re‐
18538 setting these parameters or propagating changes in them.
18539 A function calling _arguments with at least one action
18541 containing a `->string' must therefore declare appropri‐
18542 ate local parameters:
18543 local context state state_descr line
18545 typeset -A opt_args
18546 to prevent _arguments from altering the global environ‐
18548 ment.
18549 {eval-string}
18551 A string in braces is evaluated as shell code to generate
18552 matches. If the eval-string itself does not begin with
18553 an opening parenthesis or brace it is split into separate
18554 words before execution.
18555 = action
18557 If the action starts with `= ' (an equals sign followed
18558 by a space), _arguments will insert the contents of the
18559 argument field of the current context as the new first
18560 element in the words special array and increment the
18561 value of the CURRENT special parameter. This has the ef‐
18562 fect of inserting a dummy word onto the completion com‐
18563 mand line while not changing the point at which comple‐
18564 tion is taking place.
18565 This is most useful with one of the specifiers that re‐
18567 strict the words on the command line on which the action
18568 is to operate (the two- and three-colon forms above).
18569 One particular use is when an action itself causes _argu‐
18570 ments on a restricted range; it is necessary to use this
18571 trick to insert an appropriate command name into the
18572 range for the second call to _arguments to be able to
18573 parse the line.
18574 word...
18576 word...
18577 This covers all forms other than those above. If the ac‐
18578 tion starts with a space, the remaining list of words
18579 will be invoked unchanged.
18580 Otherwise it will be invoked with some extra strings
18582 placed after the first word; these are to be passed down
18583 as options to the compadd builtin. They ensure that the
18584 state specified by _arguments, in particular the descrip‐
18585 tions of options and arguments, is correctly passed to
18586 the completion command. These additional arguments are
18587 taken from the array parameter `expl'; this will be set
18588 up before executing the action and hence may be referred
18589 to inside it, typically in an expansion of the form
18590 `$expl[@]' which preserves empty elements of the array.
18591 During the performance of the action the array `line' will be
18593 set to the normal arguments from the command line, i.e. the
18594 words from the command line after the command name excluding all
18595 options and their arguments. Options are stored in the associa‐
18596 tive array `opt_args' with option names as keys and their argu‐
18597 ments as the values. For options that have more than one argu‐
18598 ment these are given as one string, separated by colons. All
18599 colons and backslashes in the original arguments are preceded
18600 with backslashes.
18601 The parameter `context' is set when returning to the calling
18603 function to perform an action of the form `->string'. It is set
18604 to an array of elements corresponding to the elements of $state.
18605 Each element is a suitable name for the argument field of the
18606 context: either a string of the form `option-opt-n' for the n'th
18607 argument of the option -opt, or a string of the form `argu‐
18608 ment-n' for the n'th argument. For `rest' arguments, that is
18609 those in the list at the end not handled by position, n is the
18610 string `rest'. For example, when completing the argument of the
18611 -o option, the name is `option-o-1', while for the second normal
18612 (non-option-) argument it is `argument-2'.
18613 Furthermore, during the evaluation of the action the context
18615 name in the curcontext parameter is altered to append the same
18616 string that is stored in the context parameter.
18617 The option -C tells _arguments to modify the curcontext parame‐
18619 ter for an action of the form `->state'. This is the standard
18620 parameter used to keep track of the current context. Here it
18621 (and not the context array) should be made local to the calling
18622 function to avoid passing back the modified value and should be
18623 initialised to the current value at the start of the function:
18624 local curcontext="$curcontext"
18626 This is useful where it is not possible for multiple states to
18628 be valid together.
18629 Grouping Options
18631 Options can be grouped to simplify exclusion lists. A group is
18633 introduced with `+' followed by a name for the group in the sub‐
18634 sequent word. Whole groups can then be referenced in an exclu‐
18635 sion list or a group name can be used to disambiguate between
18636 two forms of the same option. For example:
18637 _arguments \
18639 '(group2--x)-a' \
18640 + group1 \
18641 -m \
18642 '(group2)-n' \
18643 + group2 \
18644 -x -y
18645 If the name of a group is specified in the form `(name)' then
18647 only one value from that group will ever be completed; more for‐
18648 mally, all specifications are mutually exclusive to all other
18649 specifications in that group. This is useful for defining op‐
18650 tions that are aliases for each other. For example:
18651 _arguments \
18653 -a -b \
18654 + '(operation)' \
18655 {-c,--compress}'[compress]' \
18656 {-d,--decompress}'[decompress]' \
18657 {-l,--list}'[list]'
18658 If an option in a group appears on the command line, it is
18660 stored in the associative array `opt_args' with 'group-option'
18661 as a key. In the example above, a key `operation--c' is used if
18662 the option `-c' is present on the command line.
18663 Specifying Multiple Sets of Arguments
18665 It is possible to specify multiple sets of options and arguments
18667 with the sets separated by single hyphens. This differs from
18668 groups in that sets are considered to be mutually exclusive of
18669 each other.
18670 Specifications before the first set and from any group are com‐
18672 mon to all sets. For example:
18673 _arguments \
18675 -a \
18676 - set1 \
18677 -c \
18678 - set2 \
18679 -d \
18680 ':arg:(x2 y2)'
18681 This defines two sets. When the command line contains the op‐
18683 tion `-c', the `-d' option and the argument will not be consid‐
18684 ered possible completions. When it contains `-d' or an argu‐
18685 ment, the option `-c' will not be considered. However, after
18686 `-a' both sets will still be considered valid.
18687 As for groups, the name of a set may appear in exclusion lists,
18689 either alone or preceding a normal option or argument specifica‐
18690 tion.
18691 The completion code has to parse the command line separately for
18693 each set. This can be slow so sets should only be used when nec‐
18694 essary. A useful alternative is often an option specification
18695 with rest-arguments (as in `-foo:*:...'); here the option -foo
18696 swallows up all remaining arguments as described by the optarg
18697 definitions.
18698 Deriving spec forms from the help output
18700 The option `--' allows _arguments to work out the names of long
18702 options that support the `--help' option which is standard in
18703 many GNU commands. The command word is called with the argument
18704 `--help' and the output examined for option names. Clearly, it
18705 can be dangerous to pass this to commands which may not support
18706 this option as the behaviour of the command is unspecified.
18707 In addition to options, `_arguments --' will try to deduce the
18709 types of arguments available for options when the form
18710 `--opt=val' is valid. It is also possible to provide hints by
18711 examining the help text of the command and adding helpspec of
18712 the form `pattern:message:action'; note that other _arguments
18713 spec forms are not used. The pattern is matched against the
18714 help text for an option, and if it matches the message and ac‐
18715 tion are used as for other argument specifiers. The special
18716 case of `*:' means both message and action are empty, which has
18717 the effect of causing options having no description in the help
18718 output to be ordered in listings ahead of options that have a
18719 description.
18720 For example:
18722 _arguments -- '*\*:toggle:(yes no)' \
18724 '*=FILE*:file:_files' \
18725 '*=DIR*:directory:_files -/' \
18726 '*=PATH*:directory:_files -/'
18727 Here, `yes' and `no' will be completed as the argument of op‐
18729 tions whose description ends in a star; file names will be com‐
18730 pleted for options that contain the substring `=FILE' in the de‐
18731 scription; and directories will be completed for options whose
18732 description contains `=DIR' or `=PATH'. The last three are in
18733 fact the default and so need not be given explicitly, although
18734 it is possible to override the use of these patterns. A typical
18735 help text which uses this feature is:
18736 -C, --directory=DIR change to directory DIR
18738 so that the above specifications will cause directories to be
18740 completed after `--directory', though not after `-C'.
18741 Note also that _arguments tries to find out automatically if the
18743 argument for an option is optional. This can be specified ex‐
18744 plicitly by doubling the colon before the message.
18745 If the pattern ends in `(-)', this will be removed from the pat‐
18747 tern and the action will be used only directly after the `=',
18748 not in the next word. This is the behaviour of a normal speci‐
18749 fication defined with the form `=-'.
18750 By default, the command (with the option `--help') is run after
18752 resetting all the locale categories (except for LC_CTYPE) to
18753 `C'. If the localized help output is known to work, the option
18754 `-l' can be specified after the `_arguments --' so that the com‐
18755 mand is run in the current locale.
18756 The `_arguments --' can be followed by the option `-i patterns'
18758 to give patterns for options which are not to be completed. The
18759 patterns can be given as the name of an array parameter or as a
18760 literal list in parentheses. For example,
18761 _arguments -- -i \
18763 "(--(en|dis)able-FEATURE*)"
18764 will cause completion to ignore the options `--enable-FEATURE'
18766 and `--disable-FEATURE' (this example is useful with GNU config‐
18767 ure).
18768 The `_arguments --' form can also be followed by the option `-s
18770 pair' to describe option aliases. The pair consists of a list
18771 of alternating patterns and corresponding replacements, enclosed
18772 in parens and quoted so that it forms a single argument word in
18773 the _arguments call.
18774 For example, some configure-script help output describes options
18776 only as `--enable-foo', but the script also accepts the negated
18777 form `--disable-foo'. To allow completion of the second form:
18778 _arguments -- -s "((#s)--enable- --disable-)"
18780 Miscellaneous notes
18782 Finally, note that _arguments generally expects to be the pri‐
18784 mary function handling any completion for which it is used. It
18785 may have side effects which change the treatment of any matches
18786 added by other functions called after it. To combine _arguments
18787 with other functions, those functions should be called either
18788 before _arguments, as an action within a spec, or in handlers
18789 for `->state' actions.
18790 Here is a more general example of the use of _arguments:
18792 _arguments '-l+:left border:' \
18794 '-format:paper size:(letter A4)' \
18795 '*-copy:output file:_files::resolution:(300 600)' \
18796 ':postscript file:_files -g \*.\(ps\|eps\)' \
18797 '*:page number:'
18798 This describes three options: `-l', `-format', and `-copy'. The
18800 first takes one argument described as `left border' for which no
18801 completion will be offered because of the empty action. Its ar‐
18802 gument may come directly after the `-l' or it may be given as
18803 the next word on the line.
18804 The `-format' option takes one argument in the next word, de‐
18806 scribed as `paper size' for which only the strings `letter' and
18807 `A4' will be completed.
18808 The `-copy' option may appear more than once on the command line
18810 and takes two arguments. The first is mandatory and will be
18811 completed as a filename. The second is optional (because of the
18812 second colon before the description `resolution') and will be
18813 completed from the strings `300' and `600'.
18814 The last two descriptions say what should be completed as argu‐
18816 ments. The first describes the first argument as a `postscript
18817 file' and makes files ending in `ps' or `eps' be completed. The
18818 last description gives all other arguments the description `page
18819 numbers' but does not offer completions.
18820 _cache_invalid cache_identifier
18822 This function returns status zero if the completions cache cor‐
18823 responding to the given cache identifier needs rebuilding. It
18824 determines this by looking up the cache-policy style for the
18825 current context. This should provide a function name which is
18826 run with the full path to the relevant cache file as the only
18827 argument.
18828 Example:
18830 _example_caching_policy () {
18832 # rebuild if cache is more than a week old
18833 local -a oldp
18834 oldp=( "$1"(Nm+7) )
18835 (( $#oldp ))
18836 }
18837 _call_function return name [ arg ... ]
18839 If a function name exists, it is called with the arguments args.
18840 The return argument gives the name of a parameter in which the
18841 return status from the function name should be stored; if return
18842 is empty or a single hyphen it is ignored.
18843 The return status of _call_function itself is zero if the func‐
18845 tion name exists and was called and non-zero otherwise.
18846 _call_program [ -l ] [ -p ] tag string ...
18848 This function provides a mechanism for the user to override the
18849 use of an external command. It looks up the command style with
18850 the supplied tag. If the style is set, its value is used as the
18851 command to execute. The strings from the call to _call_program,
18852 or from the style if set, are concatenated with spaces between
18853 them and the resulting string is evaluated. The return status
18854 is the return status of the command called.
18855 By default, the command is run in an environment where all the
18857 locale categories (except for LC_CTYPE) are reset to `C' by
18858 calling the utility function _comp_locale (see below). If the
18859 option `-l' is given, the command is run with the current lo‐
18860 cale.
18861 If the option `-p' is supplied it indicates that the command
18863 output is influenced by the permissions it is run with. If the
18864 gain-privileges style is set to true, _call_program will make
18865 use of commands such as sudo, if present on the command-line, to
18866 match the permissions to whatever the final command is likely to
18867 run under. When looking up the gain-privileges and command
18868 styles, the command component of the zstyle context will end
18869 with a slash (`/') followed by the command that would be used to
18870 gain privileges.
18871 _combination [ -s pattern ] tag style spec ... field opts ...
18873 This function is used to complete combinations of values, for
18874 example pairs of hostnames and usernames. The style argument
18875 gives the style which defines the pairs; it is looked up in a
18876 context with the tag specified.
18877 The style name consists of field names separated by hyphens, for
18879 example `users-hosts-ports'. For each field for a value is al‐
18880 ready known, a spec of the form `field=pattern' is given. For
18881 example, if the command line so far specifies a user `pws', the
18882 argument `users=pws' should appear.
18883 The next argument with no equals sign is taken as the name of
18885 the field for which completions should be generated (presumably
18886 not one of the fields for which the value is known).
18887 The matches generated will be taken from the value of the style.
18889 These should contain the possible values for the combinations in
18890 the appropriate order (users, hosts, ports in the example
18891 above). The values for the different fields are separated by
18892 colons. This can be altered with the option -s to _combination
18893 which specifies a pattern. Typically this is a character class,
18894 as for example `-s "[:@]"' in the case of the users-hosts style.
18895 Each `field=pattern' specification restricts the completions
18896 which apply to elements of the style with appropriately matching
18897 fields.
18898 If no style with the given name is defined for the given tag, or
18900 if none of the strings in style's value match, but a function
18901 name of the required field preceded by an underscore is defined,
18902 that function will be called to generate the matches. For exam‐
18903 ple, if there is no `users-hosts-ports' or no matching hostname
18904 when a host is required, the function `_hosts' will automati‐
18905 cally be called.
18906 If the same name is used for more than one field, in both the
18908 `field=pattern' and the argument that gives the name of the
18909 field to be completed, the number of the field (starting with
18910 one) may be given after the fieldname, separated from it by a
18911 colon.
18912 All arguments after the required field name are passed to com‐
18914 padd when generating matches from the style value, or to the
18915 functions for the fields if they are called.
18916 _command_names [ -e | - ]
18918 This function completes words that are valid at command posi‐
18919 tion: names of aliases, builtins, hashed commands, functions,
18920 and so on. With the -e flag, only hashed commands are com‐
18921 pleted. The - flag is ignored.
18922 _comp_locale
18924 This function resets all the locale categories other than
18925 LC_CTYPE to `C' so that the output from external commands can be
18926 easily analyzed by the completion system. LC_CTYPE retains the
18927 current value (taking LC_ALL and LANG into account), ensuring
18928 that non-ASCII characters in file names are still handled prop‐
18929 erly.
18930 This function should normally be run only in a subshell, because
18932 the new locale is exported to the environment. Typical usage
18933 would be `$(_comp_locale; command ...)'.
18934 _completers [ -p ]
18936 This function completes names of completers.
18937 -p Include the leading underscore (`_') in the matches.
18939 _describe [-12JVx] [ -oO | -t tag ] descr name1 [ name2 ] [ opt ... ]
18942 [ -- name1 [ name2 ] [ opt ... ] ... ]
18943 This function associates completions with descriptions. Multi‐
18944 ple groups separated by -- can be supplied, potentially with
18945 different completion options opts.
18946 The descr is taken as a string to display above the matches if
18948 the format style for the descriptions tag is set. This is fol‐
18949 lowed by one or two names of arrays followed by options to pass
18950 to compadd. The array name1 contains the possible completions
18951 with their descriptions in the form `completion:description'.
18952 Any literal colons in completion must be quoted with a back‐
18953 slash. If a name2 is given, it should have the same number of
18954 elements as name1; in this case the corresponding elements are
18955 added as possible completions instead of the completion strings
18956 from name1. The completion list will retain the descriptions
18957 from name1. Finally, a set of completion options can appear.
18958 If the option `-o' appears before the first argument, the
18960 matches added will be treated as names of command options (N.B.
18961 not shell options), typically following a `-', `--' or `+' on
18962 the command line. In this case _describe uses the prefix-hid‐
18963 den, prefix-needed and verbose styles to find out if the strings
18964 should be added as completions and if the descriptions should be
18965 shown. Without the `-o' option, only the verbose style is used
18966 to decide how descriptions are shown. If `-O' is used instead
18967 of `-o', command options are completed as above but _describe
18968 will not handle the prefix-needed style.
18969 With the -t option a tag can be specified. The default is `val‐
18971 ues' or, if the -o option is given, `options'.
18972 The options -1, -2, -J, -V, -x are passed to _next_label.
18974 If selected by the list-grouped style, strings with the same de‐
18976 scription will appear together in the list.
18977 _describe uses the _all_labels function to generate the matches,
18979 so it does not need to appear inside a loop over tag labels.
18980 _description [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr [ spec ... ]
18982 This function is not to be confused with the previous one; it is
18983 used as a helper function for creating options to compadd. It
18984 is buried inside many of the higher level completion functions
18985 and so often does not need to be called directly.
18986 The styles listed below are tested in the current context using
18988 the given tag. The resulting options for compadd are put into
18989 the array named name (this is traditionally `expl', but this
18990 convention is not enforced). The description for the corre‐
18991 sponding set of matches is passed to the function in descr.
18992 The styles tested are: format, hidden, matcher, ignore-line, ig‐
18994 nored-patterns, group-name and sort. The format style is first
18995 tested for the given tag and then for the descriptions tag if no
18996 value was found, while the remainder are only tested for the tag
18997 given as the first argument. The function also calls _setup
18998 which tests some more styles.
18999 The string returned by the format style (if any) will be modi‐
19001 fied so that the sequence `%d' is replaced by the descr given as
19002 the third argument without any leading or trailing white space.
19003 If, after removing the white space, the descr is the empty
19004 string, the format style will not be used and the options put
19005 into the name array will not contain an explanation string to be
19006 displayed above the matches.
19007 If _description is called with more than three arguments, the
19009 additional specs should be of the form `char:str'. These supply
19010 escape sequence replacements for the format style: every appear‐
19011 ance of `%char' will be replaced by string.
19012 If the -x option is given, the description will be passed to
19014 compadd using the -x option instead of the default -X. This
19015 means that the description will be displayed even if there are
19016 no corresponding matches.
19017 The options placed in the array name take account of the
19019 group-name style, so matches are placed in a separate group
19020 where necessary. The group normally has its elements sorted (by
19021 passing the option -J to compadd), but if an option starting
19022 with `-V', `-J', `-1', or `-2' is passed to _description, that
19023 option will be included in the array. Hence it is possible for
19024 the completion group to be unsorted by giving the option `-V',
19025 `-1V', or `-2V'.
19026 In most cases, the function will be used like this:
19028 local expl
19030 _description files expl file
19031 compadd "$expl[@]" - "$files[@]"
19032 Note the use of the parameter expl, the hyphen, and the list of
19034 matches. Almost all calls to compadd within the completion sys‐
19035 tem use a similar format; this ensures that user-specified
19036 styles are correctly passed down to the builtins which implement
19037 the internals of completion.
19038 _dir_list [ -s sep ] [ -S ]
19040 Complete a list of directory names separated by colons (the same
19041 format as $PATH).
19042 -s sep Use sep as separator between items. sep defaults to a
19044 colon (`:').
19045 -S Add sep instead of slash (`/') as an autoremoveable suf‐
19047 fix.
19048 _dispatch context string ...
19050 This sets the current context to context and looks for comple‐
19051 tion functions to handle this context by hunting through the
19052 list of command names or special contexts (as described above
19053 for compdef) given as strings. The first completion function to
19054 be defined for one of the contexts in the list is used to gener‐
19055 ate matches. Typically, the last string is -default- to cause
19056 the function for default completion to be used as a fallback.
19057 The function sets the parameter $service to the string being
19059 tried, and sets the context/command field (the fourth) of the
19060 $curcontext parameter to the context given as the first argu‐
19061 ment.
19062 _email_addresses [ -c ] [ -n plugin ]
19064 Complete email addresses. Addresses are provided by plugins.
19065 -c Complete bare localhost@domain.tld addresses, without a
19067 name part or a comment. Without this option, RFC822
19068 `Firstname Lastname <address>' strings are completed.
19069 -n plugin
19071 Complete aliases from plugin.
19072 The following plugins are available by default: _email-ldap (see
19074 the filter style), _email-local (completes user@hostname Unix
19075 addresses), _email-mail (completes aliases from ~/.mailrc),
19076 _email-mush, _email-mutt, and _email-pine.
19077 Addresses from the _email-foo plugin are added under the tag
19079 `email-foo'.
19080 Writing plugins
19082 Plugins are written as separate functions with names starting
19084 with `_email-'. They are invoked with the -c option and compadd
19085 options. They should either do their own completion or set the
19086 $reply array to a list of `alias:address' elements and return
19087 300. New plugins will be picked up and run automatically.
19088 _files The function _files is a wrapper around _path_files. It supports
19090 all of the same functionality, with some enhancements -- no‐
19091 tably, it respects the list-dirs-first style, and it allows
19092 users to override the behaviour of the -g and -/ options with
19093 the file-patterns style. _files should therefore be preferred
19094 over _path_files in most cases.
19095 This function accepts the full set of options allowed by
19097 _path_files, described below.
19098 _gnu_generic
19100 This function is a simple wrapper around the _arguments function
19101 described above. It can be used to determine automatically the
19102 long options understood by commands that produce a list when
19103 passed the option `--help'. It is intended to be used as a
19104 top-level completion function in its own right. For example, to
19105 enable option completion for the commands foo and bar, use
19106 compdef _gnu_generic foo bar
19108 after the call to compinit.
19110 The completion system as supplied is conservative in its use of
19112 this function, since it is important to be sure the command un‐
19113 derstands the option `--help'.
19114 _guard [ options ] pattern descr
19116 This function displays descr if pattern matches the string to be
19117 completed. It is intended to be used in the action for the
19118 specifications passed to _arguments and similar functions.
19119 The return status is zero if the message was displayed and the
19121 word to complete is not empty, and non-zero otherwise.
19122 The pattern may be preceded by any of the options understood by
19124 compadd that are passed down from _description, namely -M, -J,
19125 -V, -1, -2, -n, -F and -X. All of these options will be ig‐
19126 nored. This fits in conveniently with the argument-passing con‐
19127 ventions of actions for _arguments.
19128 As an example, consider a command taking the options -n and
19130 -none, where -n must be followed by a numeric value in the same
19131 word. By using:
19132 _arguments '-n-: :_guard "[0-9]#" "numeric value"' '-none'
19134 _arguments can be made to both display the message `numeric
19136 value' and complete options after `-n<TAB>'. If the `-n' is al‐
19137 ready followed by one or more digits (the pattern passed to
19138 _guard) only the message will be displayed; if the `-n' is fol‐
19139 lowed by another character, only options are completed.
19140 _message [ -r12 ] [ -VJ group ] descr
19142 _message -e [ tag ] descr
19143 The descr is used in the same way as the third argument to the
19144 _description function, except that the resulting string will al‐
19145 ways be shown whether or not matches were generated. This is
19146 useful for displaying a help message in places where no comple‐
19147 tions can be generated.
19148 The format style is examined with the messages tag to find a
19150 message; the usual tag, descriptions, is used only if the style
19151 is not set with the former.
19152 If the -r option is given, no style is used; the descr is taken
19154 literally as the string to display. This is most useful when
19155 the descr comes from a pre-processed argument list which already
19156 contains an expanded description. Note that this option does
19157 not disable the `%'-sequence parsing done by compadd.
19158 The -12VJ options and the group are passed to compadd and hence
19160 determine the group the message string is added to.
19161 The second -e form gives a description for completions with the
19163 tag tag to be shown even if there are no matches for that tag.
19164 This form is called by _arguments in the event that there is no
19165 action for an option specification. The tag can be omitted and
19166 if so the tag is taken from the parameter $curtag; this is main‐
19167 tained by the completion system and so is usually correct. Note
19168 that if there are no matches at the time this function is
19169 called, compstate[insert] is cleared, so additional matches gen‐
19170 erated later are not inserted on the command line.
19171 _multi_parts [ -i ] sep array
19173 The argument sep is a separator character. The array may be ei‐
19174 ther the name of an array parameter or a literal array in the
19175 form `(foo bar)', a parenthesised list of words separated by
19176 whitespace. The possible completions are the strings from the
19177 array. However, each chunk delimited by sep will be completed
19178 separately. For example, the _tar function uses `_multi_parts /
19179 patharray' to complete partial file paths from the given array
19180 of complete file paths.
19181 The -i option causes _multi_parts to insert a unique match even
19183 if that requires multiple separators to be inserted. This is
19184 not usually the expected behaviour with filenames, but certain
19185 other types of completion, for example those with a fixed set of
19186 possibilities, may be more suited to this form.
19187 Like other utility functions, this function accepts the `-V',
19189 `-J', `-1', `-2', `-n', `-f', `-X', `-M', `-P', `-S', `-r',
19190 `-R', and `-q' options and passes them to the compadd builtin.
19191 _next_label [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr [ option ... ]
19193 This function is used to implement the loop over different tag
19194 labels for a particular tag as described above for the tag-order
19195 style. On each call it checks to see if there are any more tag
19196 labels; if there is it returns status zero, otherwise non-zero.
19197 As this function requires a current tag to be set, it must al‐
19198 ways follow a call to _tags or _requested.
19199 The -x12VJ options and the first three arguments are passed to
19201 the _description function. Where appropriate the tag will be
19202 replaced by a tag label in this call. Any description given in
19203 the tag-order style is preferred to the descr passed to
19204 _next_label.
19205 The options given after the descr are set in the parameter given
19207 by name, and hence are to be passed to compadd or whatever func‐
19208 tion is called to add the matches.
19209 Here is a typical use of this function for the tag foo. The
19211 call to _requested determines if tag foo is required at all; the
19212 loop over _next_label handles any labels defined for the tag in
19213 the tag-order style.
19214 local expl ret=1
19216 ...
19217 if _requested foo; then
19218 ...
19219 while _next_label foo expl '...'; do
19220 compadd "$expl[@]" ... && ret=0
19221 done
19222 ...
19223 fi
19224 return ret
19225 _normal [ -P | -p precommand ]
19227 This is the standard function called to handle completion out‐
19228 side any special -context-. It is called both to complete the
19229 command word and also the arguments for a command. In the sec‐
19230 ond case, _normal looks for a special completion for that com‐
19231 mand, and if there is none it uses the completion for the -de‐
19232 fault- context.
19233 A second use is to reexamine the command line specified by the
19235 $words array and the $CURRENT parameter after those have been
19236 modified. For example, the function _precommand, which com‐
19237 pletes after precommand specifiers such as nohup, removes the
19238 first word from the words array, decrements the CURRENT parame‐
19239 ter, then calls `_normal -p $service'. The effect is that `no‐
19240 hup cmd ...' is treated in the same way as `cmd ...'.
19241 -P Reset the list of precommands. This option should be used
19243 if completing a command line which allows internal com‐
19244 mands (e.g. builtins and functions) regardless of prior
19245 precommands (e.g. `zsh -c').
19246 -p precommand
19248 Append precommand to the list of precommands. This option
19249 should be used in nearly all cases in which -P is not ap‐
19250 plicable.
19251 If the command name matches one of the patterns given by one of
19253 the options -p or -P to compdef, the corresponding completion
19254 function is called and then the parameter _compskip is checked.
19255 If it is set completion is terminated at that point even if no
19256 matches have been found. This is the same effect as in the
19257 -first- context.
19258 _options
19260 This can be used to complete the names of shell options. It
19261 provides a matcher specification that ignores a leading `no',
19262 ignores underscores and allows upper-case letters to match their
19263 lower-case counterparts (for example, `glob', `noglob',
19264 `NO_GLOB' are all completed). Any arguments are propagated to
19265 the compadd builtin.
19266 _options_set and _options_unset
19268 These functions complete only set or unset options, with the
19269 same matching specification used in the _options function.
19270 Note that you need to uncomment a few lines in the _main_com‐
19272 plete function for these functions to work properly. The lines
19273 in question are used to store the option settings in effect be‐
19274 fore the completion widget locally sets the options it needs.
19275 Hence these functions are not generally used by the completion
19276 system.
19277 _parameters
19279 This is used to complete the names of shell parameters.
19280 The option `-g pattern' limits the completion to parameters
19282 whose type matches the pattern. The type of a parameter is that
19283 shown by `print ${(t)param}', hence judicious use of `*' in pat‐
19284 tern is probably necessary.
19285 All other arguments are passed to the compadd builtin.
19287 _path_files
19289 This function is used throughout the completion system to com‐
19290 plete filenames. It allows completion of partial paths. For
19291 example, the string `/u/i/s/sig' may be completed to `/usr/in‐
19292 clude/sys/signal.h'.
19293 The options accepted by both _path_files and _files are:
19295 -f Complete all filenames. This is the default.
19297 -/ Specifies that only directories should be completed.
19299 -g pattern
19301 Specifies that only files matching the pattern should be
19302 completed.
19303 -W paths
19305 Specifies path prefixes that are to be prepended to the
19306 string from the command line to generate the filenames
19307 but that should not be inserted as completions nor shown
19308 in completion listings. Here, paths may be the name of
19309 an array parameter, a literal list of paths enclosed in
19310 parentheses or an absolute pathname.
19311 -F ignored-files
19313 This behaves as for the corresponding option to the com‐
19314 padd builtin. It gives direct control over which file‐
19315 names should be ignored. If the option is not present,
19316 the ignored-patterns style is used.
19317 Both _path_files and _files also accept the following options
19319 which are passed to compadd: `-J', `-V', `-1', `-2', `-n', `-X',
19320 `-M', `-P', `-S', `-q', `-r', and `-R'.
19321 Finally, the _path_files function uses the styles expand, am‐
19323 biguous, special-dirs, list-suffixes and file-sort described
19324 above.
19325 _pick_variant [ -b builtin-label ] [ -c command ] [ -r name ]
19328 label=pattern ... label [ arg ... ]
19329 This function is used to resolve situations where a single com‐
19330 mand name requires more than one type of handling, either be‐
19331 cause it has more than one variant or because there is a name
19332 clash between two different commands.
19333 The command to run is taken from the first element of the array
19335 words unless this is overridden by the option -c. This command
19336 is run and its output is compared with a series of patterns.
19337 Arguments to be passed to the command can be specified at the
19338 end after all the other arguments. The patterns to try in order
19339 are given by the arguments label=pattern; if the output of `com‐
19340 mand arg ...' contains pattern, then label is selected as the
19341 label for the command variant. If none of the patterns match,
19342 the final command label is selected and status 1 is returned.
19343 If the `-b builtin-label' is given, the command is tested to see
19345 if it is provided as a shell builtin, possibly autoloaded; if
19346 so, the label builtin-label is selected as the label for the
19347 variant.
19348 If the `-r name' is given, the label picked is stored in the pa‐
19350 rameter named name.
19351 The results are also cached in the _cmd_variant associative ar‐
19353 ray indexed by the name of the command run.
19354 _regex_arguments name spec ...
19356 This function generates a completion function name which matches
19357 the specifications specs, a set of regular expressions as de‐
19358 scribed below. After running _regex_arguments, the function
19359 name should be called as a normal completion function. The pat‐
19360 tern to be matched is given by the contents of the words array
19361 up to the current cursor position joined together with null
19362 characters; no quotation is applied.
19363 The arguments are grouped as sets of alternatives separated by
19365 `|', which are tried one after the other until one matches.
19366 Each alternative consists of a one or more specifications which
19367 are tried left to right, with each pattern matched being
19368 stripped in turn from the command line being tested, until all
19369 of the group succeeds or until one fails; in the latter case,
19370 the next alternative is tried. This structure can be repeated
19371 to arbitrary depth by using parentheses; matching proceeds from
19372 inside to outside.
19373 A special procedure is applied if no test succeeds but the re‐
19375 maining command line string contains no null character (implying
19376 the remaining word is the one for which completions are to be
19377 generated). The completion target is restricted to the remain‐
19378 ing word and any actions for the corresponding patterns are exe‐
19379 cuted. In this case, nothing is stripped from the command line
19380 string. The order of evaluation of the actions can be deter‐
19381 mined by the tag-order style; the various formats supported by
19382 _alternative can be used in action. The descr is used for set‐
19383 ting up the array parameter expl.
19384 Specification arguments take one of following forms, in which
19386 metacharacters such as `(', `)', `#' and `|' should be quoted.
19387 /pattern/ [%lookahead%] [-guard] [:tag:descr:action]
19389 This is a single primitive component. The function tests
19390 whether the combined pattern `(#b)((#B)pattern)look‐
19391 ahead*' matches the command line string. If so, `guard'
19392 is evaluated and its return status is examined to deter‐
19393 mine if the test has succeeded. The pattern string `[]'
19394 is guaranteed never to match. The lookahead is not
19395 stripped from the command line before the next pattern is
19396 examined.
19397 The argument starting with : is used in the same manner
19399 as an argument to _alternative.
19400 A component is used as follows: pattern is tested to see
19402 if the component already exists on the command line. If
19403 it does, any following specifications are examined to
19404 find something to complete. If a component is reached
19405 but no such pattern exists yet on the command line, the
19406 string containing the action is used to generate matches
19407 to insert at that point.
19408 /pattern/+ [%lookahead%] [-guard] [:tag:descr:action]
19410 This is similar to `/pattern/ ...' but the left part of
19411 the command line string (i.e. the part already matched by
19412 previous patterns) is also considered part of the comple‐
19413 tion target.
19414 /pattern/- [%lookahead%] [-guard] [:tag:descr:action]
19416 This is similar to `/pattern/ ...' but the actions of the
19417 current and previously matched patterns are ignored even
19418 if the following `pattern' matches the empty string.
19419 ( spec )
19421 Parentheses may be used to groups specs; note each paren‐
19422 thesis is a single argument to _regex_arguments.
19423 spec # This allows any number of repetitions of spec.
19425 spec spec
19427 The two specs are to be matched one after the other as
19428 described above.
19429 spec | spec
19431 Either of the two specs can be matched.
19432 The function _regex_words can be used as a helper function to
19434 generate matches for a set of alternative words possibly with
19435 their own arguments as a command line argument.
19436 Examples:
19438 _regex_arguments _tst /$'[^\0]#\0'/ \
19440 /$'[^\0]#\0'/ :'compadd aaa'
19441 This generates a function _tst that completes aaa as its only
19443 argument. The tag and description for the action have been
19444 omitted for brevity (this works but is not recommended in normal
19445 use). The first component matches the command word, which is
19446 arbitrary; the second matches any argument. As the argument is
19447 also arbitrary, any following component would not depend on aaa
19448 being present.
19449 _regex_arguments _tst /$'[^\0]#\0'/ \
19451 /$'aaa\0'/ :'compadd aaa'
19452 This is a more typical use; it is similar, but any following
19454 patterns would only match if aaa was present as the first argu‐
19455 ment.
19456 _regex_arguments _tst /$'[^\0]#\0'/ \( \
19458 /$'aaa\0'/ :'compadd aaa' \
19459 /$'bbb\0'/ :'compadd bbb' \) \#
19460 In this example, an indefinite number of command arguments may
19462 be completed. Odd arguments are completed as aaa and even argu‐
19463 ments as bbb. Completion fails unless the set of aaa and bbb
19464 arguments before the current one is matched correctly.
19465 _regex_arguments _tst /$'[^\0]#\0'/ \
19467 \( /$'aaa\0'/ :'compadd aaa' \| \
19468 /$'bbb\0'/ :'compadd bbb' \) \#
19469 This is similar, but either aaa or bbb may be completed for any
19471 argument. In this case _regex_words could be used to generate a
19472 suitable expression for the arguments.
19473 _regex_words tag description spec ...
19475 This function can be used to generate arguments for the
19476 _regex_arguments command which may be inserted at any point
19477 where a set of rules is expected. The tag and description give
19478 a standard tag and description pertaining to the current con‐
19479 text. Each spec contains two or three arguments separated by a
19480 colon: note that there is no leading colon in this case.
19481 Each spec gives one of a set of words that may be completed at
19483 this point, together with arguments. It is thus roughly equiva‐
19484 lent to the _arguments function when used in normal (non-regex)
19485 completion.
19486 The part of the spec before the first colon is the word to be
19488 completed. This may contain a *; the entire word, before and
19489 after the * is completed, but only the text before the * is re‐
19490 quired for the context to be matched, so that further arguments
19491 may be completed after the abbreviated form.
19492 The second part of spec is a description for the word being com‐
19494 pleted.
19495 The optional third part of the spec describes how words follow‐
19497 ing the one being completed are themselves to be completed. It
19498 will be evaluated in order to avoid problems with quoting. This
19499 means that typically it contains a reference to an array con‐
19500 taining previously generated regex arguments.
19501 The option -t term specifies a terminator for the word instead
19503 of the usual space. This is handled as an auto-removable suffix
19504 in the manner of the option -s sep to _values.
19505 The result of the processing by _regex_words is placed in the
19507 array reply, which should be made local to the calling function.
19508 If the set of words and arguments may be matched repeatedly, a #
19509 should be appended to the generated array at that point.
19510 For example:
19512 local -a reply
19514 _regex_words mydb-commands 'mydb commands' \
19515 'add:add an entry to mydb:$mydb_add_cmds' \
19516 'show:show entries in mydb'
19517 _regex_arguments _mydb "$reply[@]"
19518 _mydb "$@"
19519 This shows a completion function for a command mydb which takes
19521 two command arguments, add and show. show takes no arguments,
19522 while the arguments for add have already been prepared in an ar‐
19523 ray mydb_add_cmds, quite possibly by a previous call to
19524 _regex_words.
19525 _requested [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag [ name descr [ command [ arg ... ] ]
19527 This function is called to decide whether a tag already regis‐
19528 tered by a call to _tags (see below) has been requested by the
19529 user and hence completion should be performed for it. It re‐
19530 turns status zero if the tag is requested and non-zero other‐
19531 wise. The function is typically used as part of a loop over
19532 different tags as follows:
19533 _tags foo bar baz
19535 while _tags; do
19536 if _requested foo; then
19537 ... # perform completion for foo
19538 fi
19539 ... # test the tags bar and baz in the same way
19540 ... # exit loop if matches were generated
19541 done
19542 Note that the test for whether matches were generated is not
19544 performed until the end of the _tags loop. This is so that the
19545 user can set the tag-order style to specify a set of tags to be
19546 completed at the same time.
19547 If name and descr are given, _requested calls the _description
19549 function with these arguments together with the options passed
19550 to _requested.
19551 If command is given, the _all_labels function will be called im‐
19553 mediately with the same arguments. In simple cases this makes
19554 it possible to perform the test for the tag and the matching in
19555 one go. For example:
19556 local expl ret=1
19558 _tags foo bar baz
19559 while _tags; do
19560 _requested foo expl 'description' \
19561 compadd foobar foobaz && ret=0
19562 ...
19563 (( ret )) || break
19564 done
19565 If the command is not compadd, it must nevertheless be prepared
19567 to handle the same options.
19568 _retrieve_cache cache_identifier
19570 This function retrieves completion information from the file
19571 given by cache_identifier, stored in a directory specified by
19572 the cache-path style which defaults to ~/.zcompcache. The re‐
19573 turn status is zero if retrieval was successful. It will only
19574 attempt retrieval if the use-cache style is set, so you can call
19575 this function without worrying about whether the user wanted to
19576 use the caching layer.
19577 See _store_cache below for more details.
19579 _sep_parts
19581 This function is passed alternating arrays and separators as ar‐
19582 guments. The arrays specify completions for parts of strings to
19583 be separated by the separators. The arrays may be the names of
19584 array parameters or a quoted list of words in parentheses. For
19585 example, with the array `hosts=(ftp news)' the call `_sep_parts
19586 '(foo bar)' @ hosts' will complete the string `f' to `foo' and
19587 the string `b@n' to `bar@news'.
19588 This function accepts the compadd options `-V', `-J', `-1',
19590 `-2', `-n', `-X', `-M', `-P', `-S', `-r', `-R', and `-q' and
19591 passes them on to the compadd builtin used to add the matches.
19592 _sequence [ -s sep ] [ -n max ] [ -d ] function [ - ] ...
19594 This function is a wrapper to other functions for completing
19595 items in a separated list. The same function is used to complete
19596 each item in the list. The separator is specified with the -s
19597 option. If -s is omitted it will use `,'. Duplicate values are
19598 not matched unless -d is specified. If there is a fixed or maxi‐
19599 mum number of items in the list, this can be specified with the
19600 -n option.
19601 Common compadd options are passed on to the function. It is pos‐
19603 sible to use compadd directly with _sequence, though _values may
19604 be more appropriate in this situation.
19605 _setup tag [ group ]
19607 This function sets up the special parameters used by the comple‐
19608 tion system appropriately for the tag given as the first argu‐
19609 ment. It uses the styles list-colors, list-packed,
19610 list-rows-first, last-prompt, accept-exact, menu and force-list.
19611 The optional group supplies the name of the group in which the
19613 matches will be placed. If it is not given, the tag is used as
19614 the group name.
19615 This function is called automatically from _description and
19617 hence is not normally called explicitly.
19618 _store_cache cache_identifier param ...
19620 This function, together with _retrieve_cache and _cache_invalid,
19621 implements a caching layer which can be used in any completion
19622 function. Data obtained by costly operations are stored in pa‐
19623 rameters; this function then dumps the values of those parame‐
19624 ters to a file. The data can then be retrieved quickly from
19625 that file via _retrieve_cache, even in different instances of
19626 the shell.
19627 The cache_identifier specifies the file which the data should be
19629 dumped to. The file is stored in a directory specified by the
19630 cache-path style which defaults to ~/.zcompcache. The remaining
19631 params arguments are the parameters to dump to the file.
19632 The return status is zero if storage was successful. The func‐
19634 tion will only attempt storage if the use-cache style is set, so
19635 you can call this function without worrying about whether the
19636 user wanted to use the caching layer.
19637 The completion function may avoid calling _retrieve_cache when
19639 it already has the completion data available as parameters.
19640 However, in that case it should call _cache_invalid to check
19641 whether the data in the parameters and in the cache are still
19642 valid.
19643 See the _perl_modules completion function for a simple example
19645 of the usage of the caching layer.
19646 _tags [ [ -C name ] tag ... ]
19648 If called with arguments, these are taken to be the names of
19649 tags valid for completions in the current context. These tags
19650 are stored internally and sorted by using the tag-order style.
19651 Next, _tags is called repeatedly without arguments from the same
19653 completion function. This successively selects the first, sec‐
19654 ond, etc. set of tags requested by the user. The return status
19655 is zero if at least one of the tags is requested and non-zero
19656 otherwise. To test if a particular tag is to be tried, the _re‐
19657 quested function should be called (see above).
19658 If `-C name' is given, name is temporarily stored in the argu‐
19660 ment field (the fifth) of the context in the curcontext parame‐
19661 ter during the call to _tags; the field is restored on exit.
19662 This allows _tags to use a more specific context without having
19663 to change and reset the curcontext parameter (which has the same
19664 effect).
19665 _tilde_files
19667 Like _files, but resolve leading tildes according to the rules
19668 of filename expansion, so the suggested completions don't start
19669 with a `~' even if the filename on the command-line does.
19670 _values [ -O name ] [ -s sep ] [ -S sep ] [ -wC ] desc spec ...
19672 This is used to complete arbitrary keywords (values) and their
19673 arguments, or lists of such combinations.
19674 If the first argument is the option `-O name', it will be used
19676 in the same way as by the _arguments function. In other words,
19677 the elements of the name array will be passed to compadd when
19678 executing an action.
19679 If the first argument (or the first argument after `-O name') is
19681 `-s', the next argument is used as the character that separates
19682 multiple values. This character is automatically added after
19683 each value in an auto-removable fashion (see below); all values
19684 completed by `_values -s' appear in the same word on the command
19685 line, unlike completion using _arguments. If this option is not
19686 present, only a single value will be completed per word.
19687 Normally, _values will only use the current word to determine
19689 which values are already present on the command line and hence
19690 are not to be completed again. If the -w option is given, other
19691 arguments are examined as well.
19692 The first non-option argument, desc, is used as a string to
19694 print as a description before listing the values.
19695 All other arguments describe the possible values and their argu‐
19697 ments in the same format used for the description of options by
19698 the _arguments function (see above). The only differences are
19699 that no minus or plus sign is required at the beginning, values
19700 can have only one argument, and the forms of action beginning
19701 with an equal sign are not supported.
19702 The character separating a value from its argument can be set
19704 using the option -S (like -s, followed by the character to use
19705 as the separator in the next argument). By default the equals
19706 sign will be used as the separator between values and arguments.
19707 Example:
19709 _values -s , 'description' \
19711 '*foo[bar]' \
19712 '(two)*one[number]:first count:' \
19713 'two[another number]::second count:(1 2 3)'
19714 This describes three possible values: `foo', `one', and `two'.
19716 The first is described as `bar', takes no argument and may ap‐
19717 pear more than once. The second is described as `number', may
19718 appear more than once, and takes one mandatory argument de‐
19719 scribed as `first count'; no action is specified, so it will not
19720 be completed. The `(two)' at the beginning says that if the
19721 value `one' is on the line, the value `two' will no longer be
19722 considered a possible completion. Finally, the last value
19723 (`two') is described as `another number' and takes an optional
19724 argument described as `second count' for which the completions
19725 (to appear after an `=') are `1', `2', and `3'. The _values
19726 function will complete lists of these values separated by com‐
19727 mas.
19728 Like _arguments, this function temporarily adds another context
19730 name component to the arguments element (the fifth) of the cur‐
19731 rent context while executing the action. Here this name is just
19732 the name of the value for which the argument is completed.
19733 The style verbose is used to decide if the descriptions for the
19735 values (but not those for the arguments) should be printed.
19736 The associative array val_args is used to report values and
19738 their arguments; this works similarly to the opt_args associa‐
19739 tive array used by _arguments. Hence the function calling _val‐
19740 ues should declare the local parameters state, state_descr,
19741 line, context and val_args:
19742 local context state state_descr line
19744 typeset -A val_args
19745 when using an action of the form `->string'. With this function
19747 the context parameter will be set to the name of the value whose
19748 argument is to be completed. Note that for _values, the state
19749 and state_descr are scalars rather than arrays. Only a single
19750 matching state is returned.
19751 Note also that _values normally adds the character used as the
19753 separator between values as an auto-removable suffix (similar to
19754 a `/' after a directory). However, this is not possible for a
19755 `->string' action as the matches for the argument are generated
19756 by the calling function. To get the usual behaviour, the call‐
19757 ing function can add the separator x as a suffix by passing the
19758 options `-qS x' either directly or indirectly to compadd.
19759 The option -C is treated in the same way as it is by _arguments.
19761 In that case the parameter curcontext should be made local in‐
19762 stead of context (as described above).
19763 _wanted [ -x ] [ -C name ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr command [ arg ...]
19765 In many contexts, completion can only generate one particular
19766 set of matches, usually corresponding to a single tag. However,
19767 it is still necessary to decide whether the user requires
19768 matches of this type. This function is useful in such a case.
19769 The arguments to _wanted are the same as those to _requested,
19771 i.e. arguments to be passed to _description. However, in this
19772 case the command is not optional; all the processing of tags,
19773 including the loop over both tags and tag labels and the genera‐
19774 tion of matches, is carried out automatically by _wanted.
19775 Hence to offer only one tag and immediately add the correspond‐
19777 ing matches with the given description:
19778 local expl
19780 _wanted tag expl 'description' \
19781 compadd matches...
19782 Note that, as for _requested, the command must be able to accept
19784 options to be passed down to compadd.
19785 Like _tags this function supports the -C option to give a dif‐
19787 ferent name for the argument context field. The -x option has
19788 the same meaning as for _description.
19789 _widgets [ -g pattern ]
19791 This function completes names of zle widgets (see the section
19792 `Widgets' in zshzle(1)). The pattern, if present, is matched
19793 against values of the $widgets special parameter, documented in
19794 the section `The zsh/zleparameter Module' in zshmodules(1).
19795
19797 There are some standard variables, initialised by the _main_complete
19798 function and then used from other functions.
19799 The standard variables are:
19801 _comp_caller_options
19803 The completion system uses setopt to set a number of options.
19804 This allows functions to be written without concern for compati‐
19805 bility with every possible combination of user options. However,
19806 sometimes completion needs to know what the user's option pref‐
19807 erences are. These are saved in the _comp_caller_options asso‐
19808 ciative array. Option names, spelled in lowercase without under‐
19809 scores, are mapped to one or other of the strings `on' and
19810 `off'.
19811 _comp_priv_prefix
19813 Completion functions such as _sudo can set the
19814 _comp_priv_prefix array to a command prefix that may then
19815 be used by _call_program to match the privileges when
19816 calling programs to generate matches.
19817 Two more features are offered by the _main_complete function.
19819 The arrays compprefuncs and comppostfuncs may contain names of
19820 functions that are to be called immediately before or after com‐
19821 pletion has been tried. A function will only be called once un‐
19822 less it explicitly reinserts itself into the array.
19823
19825 In the source distribution, the files are contained in various subdi‐
19826 rectories of the Completion directory. They may have been installed in
19827 the same structure, or into one single function directory. The follow‐
19828 ing is a description of the files found in the original directory
19829 structure. If you wish to alter an installed file, you will need to
19830 copy it to some directory which appears earlier in your fpath than the
19831 standard directory where it appears.
19832 Base The core functions and special completion widgets automatically
19834 bound to keys. You will certainly need most of these, though
19835 will probably not need to alter them. Many of these are docu‐
19836 mented above.
19837 Zsh Functions for completing arguments of shell builtin commands and
19839 utility functions for this. Some of these are also used by
19840 functions from the Unix directory.
19841 Unix Functions for completing arguments of external commands and
19843 suites of commands. They may need modifying for your system,
19844 although in many cases some attempt is made to decide which ver‐
19845 sion of a command is present. For example, completion for the
19846 mount command tries to determine the system it is running on,
19847 while completion for many other utilities try to decide whether
19848 the GNU version of the command is in use, and hence whether the
19849 --help option is supported.
19850 X, AIX, BSD, ...
19852 Completion and utility function for commands available only on
19853 some systems. These are not arranged hierarchically, so, for
19854 example, both the Linux and Debian directories, as well as the X
19855 directory, may be useful on your system.
19856ZSHCOMPCTL(1) General Commands Manual ZSHCOMPCTL(1)
19860
19864 zshcompctl - zsh programmable completion
19865
19867 This version of zsh has two ways of performing completion of words on
19868 the command line. New users of the shell may prefer to use the newer
19869 and more powerful system based on shell functions; this is described in
19870 zshcompsys(1), and the basic shell mechanisms which support it are de‐
19871 scribed in zshcompwid(1). This manual entry describes the older com‐
19872 pctl command.
19873 compctl [ -CDT ] options [ command ... ]
19875 compctl [ -CDT ] options [ -x pattern options - ... -- ]
19876 [ + options [ -x ... -- ] ... [+] ] [ command ... ]
19877 compctl -M match-specs ...
19878 compctl -L [ -CDTM ] [ command ... ]
19879 compctl + command ...
19880 Control the editor's completion behavior according to the supplied set
19882 of options. Various editing commands, notably expand-or-complete-word,
19883 usually bound to tab, will attempt to complete a word typed by the
19884 user, while others, notably delete-char-or-list, usually bound to ^D in
19885 EMACS editing mode, list the possibilities; compctl controls what those
19886 possibilities are. They may for example be filenames (the most common
19887 case, and hence the default), shell variables, or words from a
19888 user-specified list.
19889
19891 Completion of the arguments of a command may be different for each com‐
19892 mand or may use the default. The behavior when completing the command
19893 word itself may also be separately specified. These correspond to the
19894 following flags and arguments, all of which (except for -L) may be com‐
19895 bined with any combination of the options described subsequently in the
19896 section `Option Flags':
19897 command ...
19899 controls completion for the named commands, which must be listed
19900 last on the command line. If completion is attempted for a com‐
19901 mand with a pathname containing slashes and no completion defi‐
19902 nition is found, the search is retried with the last pathname
19903 component. If the command starts with a =, completion is tried
19904 with the pathname of the command.
19905 Any of the command strings may be patterns of the form normally
19907 used for filename generation. These should be quoted to protect
19908 them from immediate expansion; for example the command string
19909 'foo*' arranges for completion of the words of any command be‐
19910 ginning with foo. When completion is attempted, all pattern
19911 completions are tried in the reverse order of their definition
19912 until one matches. By default, completion then proceeds as nor‐
19913 mal, i.e. the shell will try to generate more matches for the
19914 specific command on the command line; this can be overridden by
19915 including -tn in the flags for the pattern completion.
19916 Note that aliases are expanded before the command name is deter‐
19918 mined unless the COMPLETE_ALIASES option is set. Commands may
19919 not be combined with the -C, -D or -T flags.
19920 -C controls completion when the command word itself is being com‐
19922 pleted. If no compctl -C command has been issued, the names of
19923 any executable command (whether in the path or specific to the
19924 shell, such as aliases or functions) are completed.
19925 -D controls default completion behavior for the arguments of com‐
19927 mands not assigned any special behavior. If no compctl -D com‐
19928 mand has been issued, filenames are completed.
19929 -T supplies completion flags to be used before any other processing
19931 is done, even before processing for compctls defined for spe‐
19932 cific commands. This is especially useful when combined with
19933 extended completion (the -x flag, see the section `Extended Com‐
19934 pletion' below). Using this flag you can define default behav‐
19935 ior which will apply to all commands without exception, or you
19936 can alter the standard behavior for all commands. For example,
19937 if your access to the user database is too slow and/or it con‐
19938 tains too many users (so that completion after `~' is too slow
19939 to be usable), you can use
19940 compctl -T -x 's[~] C[0,[^/]#]' -k friends -S/ -tn
19942 to complete the strings in the array friends after a `~'. The
19944 C[...] argument is necessary so that this form of ~-completion
19945 is not tried after the directory name is finished.
19946 -L lists the existing completion behavior in a manner suitable for
19948 putting into a start-up script; the existing behavior is not
19949 changed. Any combination of the above forms, or the -M flag
19950 (which must follow the -L flag), may be specified, otherwise all
19951 defined completions are listed. Any other flags supplied are
19952 ignored.
19953 no argument
19955 If no argument is given, compctl lists all defined completions
19956 in an abbreviated form; with a list of options, all completions
19957 with those flags set (not counting extended completion) are
19958 listed.
19959 If the + flag is alone and followed immediately by the command list,
19961 the completion behavior for all the commands in the list is reset to
19962 the default. In other words, completion will subsequently use the op‐
19963 tions specified by the -D flag.
19964 The form with -M as the first and only option defines global matching
19966 specifications (see zshcompwid). The match specifications given will be
19967 used for every completion attempt (only when using compctl, not with
19968 the new completion system) and are tried in the order in which they are
19969 defined until one generates at least one match. E.g.:
19970 compctl -M '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'
19972 This will first try completion without any global match specifications
19974 (the empty string) and, if that generates no matches, will try case in‐
19975 sensitive completion.
19976
19978 [ -fcFBdeaRGovNAIOPZEnbjrzu/12 ]
19979 [ -k array ] [ -g globstring ] [ -s subststring ]
19980 [ -K function ]
19981 [ -Q ] [ -P prefix ] [ -S suffix ]
19982 [ -W file-prefix ] [ -H num pattern ]
19983 [ -q ] [ -X explanation ] [ -Y explanation ]
19984 [ -y func-or-var ] [ -l cmd ] [ -h cmd ] [ -U ]
19985 [ -t continue ] [ -J name ] [ -V name ]
19986 [ -M match-spec ]
19987 The remaining options specify the type of command arguments to look for
19989 during completion. Any combination of these flags may be specified;
19990 the result is a sorted list of all the possibilities. The options are
19991 as follows.
19992 Simple Flags
19994 These produce completion lists made up by the shell itself:
19995 -f Filenames and file system paths.
19997 -/ Just file system paths.
19999 -c Command names, including aliases, shell functions, builtins and
20001 reserved words.
20002 -F Function names.
20004 -B Names of builtin commands.
20006 -m Names of external commands.
20008 -w Reserved words.
20010 -a Alias names.
20012 -R Names of regular (non-global) aliases.
20014 -G Names of global aliases.
20016 -d This can be combined with -F, -B, -w, -a, -R and -G to get names
20018 of disabled functions, builtins, reserved words or aliases.
20019 -e This option (to show enabled commands) is in effect by default,
20021 but may be combined with -d; -de in combination with -F, -B, -w,
20022 -a, -R and -G will complete names of functions, builtins, re‐
20023 served words or aliases whether or not they are disabled.
20024 -o Names of shell options (see zshoptions(1)).
20026 -v Names of any variable defined in the shell.
20028 -N Names of scalar (non-array) parameters.
20030 -A Array names.
20032 -I Names of integer variables.
20034 -O Names of read-only variables.
20036 -p Names of parameters used by the shell (including special parame‐
20038 ters).
20039 -Z Names of shell special parameters.
20041 -E Names of environment variables.
20043 -n Named directories.
20045 -b Key binding names.
20047 -j Job names: the first word of the job leader's command line.
20049 This is useful with the kill builtin.
20050 -r Names of running jobs.
20052 -z Names of suspended jobs.
20054 -u User names.
20056 Flags with Arguments
20058 These have user supplied arguments to determine how the list of comple‐
20059 tions is to be made up:
20060 -k array
20062 Names taken from the elements of $array (note that the `$' does
20063 not appear on the command line). Alternatively, the argument
20064 array itself may be a set of space- or comma-separated values in
20065 parentheses, in which any delimiter may be escaped with a back‐
20066 slash; in this case the argument should be quoted. For example,
20067 compctl -k "(cputime filesize datasize stacksize
20069 coredumpsize resident descriptors)" limit
20070 -g globstring
20072 The globstring is expanded using filename globbing; it should be
20073 quoted to protect it from immediate expansion. The resulting
20074 filenames are taken as the possible completions. Use `*(/)' in‐
20075 stead of `*/' for directories. The fignore special parameter is
20076 not applied to the resulting files. More than one pattern may
20077 be given separated by blanks. (Note that brace expansion is not
20078 part of globbing. Use the syntax `(either|or)' to match alter‐
20079 natives.)
20080 -s subststring
20082 The subststring is split into words and these words are than ex‐
20083 panded using all shell expansion mechanisms (see zshexpn(1)).
20084 The resulting words are taken as possible completions. The fig‐
20085 nore special parameter is not applied to the resulting files.
20086 Note that -g is faster for filenames.
20087 -K function
20089 Call the given function to get the completions. Unless the name
20090 starts with an underscore, the function is passed two arguments:
20091 the prefix and the suffix of the word on which completion is to
20092 be attempted, in other words those characters before the cursor
20093 position, and those from the cursor position onwards. The whole
20094 command line can be accessed with the -c and -l flags of the
20095 read builtin. The function should set the variable reply to an
20096 array containing the completions (one completion per element);
20097 note that reply should not be made local to the function. From
20098 such a function the command line can be accessed with the -c and
20099 -l flags to the read builtin. For example,
20100 function whoson { reply=(`users`); }
20102 compctl -K whoson talk
20103 completes only logged-on users after `talk'. Note that `whoson'
20105 must return an array, so `reply=`users`' would be incorrect.
20106 -H num pattern
20108 The possible completions are taken from the last num history
20109 lines. Only words matching pattern are taken. If num is zero
20110 or negative the whole history is searched and if pattern is the
20111 empty string all words are taken (as with `*'). A typical use
20112 is
20113 compctl -D -f + -H 0 ''
20115 which forces completion to look back in the history list for a
20117 word if no filename matches.
20118 Control Flags
20120 These do not directly specify types of name to be completed, but manip‐
20121 ulate the options that do:
20122 -Q This instructs the shell not to quote any metacharacters in the
20124 possible completions. Normally the results of a completion are
20125 inserted into the command line with any metacharacters quoted so
20126 that they are interpreted as normal characters. This is appro‐
20127 priate for filenames and ordinary strings. However, for special
20128 effects, such as inserting a backquoted expression from a com‐
20129 pletion array (-k) so that the expression will not be evaluated
20130 until the complete line is executed, this option must be used.
20131 -P prefix
20133 The prefix is inserted just before the completed string; any
20134 initial part already typed will be completed and the whole pre‐
20135 fix ignored for completion purposes. For example,
20136 compctl -j -P "%" kill
20138 inserts a `%' after the kill command and then completes job
20140 names.
20141 -S suffix
20143 When a completion is found the suffix is inserted after the com‐
20144 pleted string. In the case of menu completion the suffix is in‐
20145 serted immediately, but it is still possible to cycle through
20146 the list of completions by repeatedly hitting the same key.
20147 -W file-prefix
20149 With directory file-prefix: for command, file, directory and
20150 globbing completion (options -c, -f, -/, -g), the file prefix is
20151 implicitly added in front of the completion. For example,
20152 compctl -/ -W ~/Mail maildirs
20154 completes any subdirectories to any depth beneath the directory
20156 ~/Mail, although that prefix does not appear on the command
20157 line. The file-prefix may also be of the form accepted by the
20158 -k flag, i.e. the name of an array or a literal list in paren‐
20159 thesis. In this case all the directories in the list will be
20160 searched for possible completions.
20161 -q If used with a suffix as specified by the -S option, this causes
20163 the suffix to be removed if the next character typed is a blank
20164 or does not insert anything or if the suffix consists of only
20165 one character and the next character typed is the same charac‐
20166 ter; this the same rule used for the AUTO_REMOVE_SLASH option.
20167 The option is most useful for list separators (comma, colon,
20168 etc.).
20169 -l cmd This option restricts the range of command line words that are
20171 considered to be arguments. If combined with one of the ex‐
20172 tended completion patterns `p[...]', `r[...]', or `R[...]' (see
20173 the section `Extended Completion' below) the range is restricted
20174 to the range of arguments specified in the brackets. Completion
20175 is then performed as if these had been given as arguments to the
20176 cmd supplied with the option. If the cmd string is empty the
20177 first word in the range is instead taken as the command name,
20178 and command name completion performed on the first word in the
20179 range. For example,
20180 compctl -x 'r[-exec,;]' -l '' -- find
20182 completes arguments between `-exec' and the following `;' (or
20184 the end of the command line if there is no such string) as if
20185 they were a separate command line.
20186 -h cmd Normally zsh completes quoted strings as a whole. With this op‐
20188 tion, completion can be done separately on different parts of
20189 such strings. It works like the -l option but makes the comple‐
20190 tion code work on the parts of the current word that are sepa‐
20191 rated by spaces. These parts are completed as if they were argu‐
20192 ments to the given cmd. If cmd is the empty string, the first
20193 part is completed as a command name, as with -l.
20194 -U Use the whole list of possible completions, whether or not they
20196 actually match the word on the command line. The word typed so
20197 far will be deleted. This is most useful with a function (given
20198 by the -K option) which can examine the word components passed
20199 to it (or via the read builtin's -c and -l flags) and use its
20200 own criteria to decide what matches. If there is no completion,
20201 the original word is retained. Since the produced possible com‐
20202 pletions seldom have interesting common prefixes and suffixes,
20203 menu completion is started immediately if AUTO_MENU is set and
20204 this flag is used.
20205 -y func-or-var
20207 The list provided by func-or-var is displayed instead of the
20208 list of completions whenever a listing is required; the actual
20209 completions to be inserted are not affected. It can be provided
20210 in two ways. Firstly, if func-or-var begins with a $ it defines
20211 a variable, or if it begins with a left parenthesis a literal
20212 array, which contains the list. A variable may have been set by
20213 a call to a function using the -K option. Otherwise it contains
20214 the name of a function which will be executed to create the
20215 list. The function will be passed as an argument list all
20216 matching completions, including prefixes and suffixes expanded
20217 in full, and should set the array reply to the result. In both
20218 cases, the display list will only be retrieved after a complete
20219 list of matches has been created.
20220 Note that the returned list does not have to correspond, even in
20222 length, to the original set of matches, and may be passed as a
20223 scalar instead of an array. No special formatting of characters
20224 is performed on the output in this case; in particular, newlines
20225 are printed literally and if they appear output in columns is
20226 suppressed.
20227 -X explanation
20229 Print explanation when trying completion on the current set of
20230 options. A `%n' in this string is replaced by the number of
20231 matches that were added for this explanation string. The expla‐
20232 nation only appears if completion was tried and there was no
20233 unique match, or when listing completions. Explanation strings
20234 will be listed together with the matches of the group specified
20235 together with the -X option (using the -J or -V option). If the
20236 same explanation string is given to multiple -X options, the
20237 string appears only once (for each group) and the number of
20238 matches shown for the `%n' is the total number of all matches
20239 for each of these uses. In any case, the explanation string will
20240 only be shown if there was at least one match added for the ex‐
20241 planation string.
20242 The sequences %B, %b, %S, %s, %U, and %u specify output at‐
20244 tributes (bold, standout, and underline), %F, %f, %K, %k specify
20245 foreground and background colours, and %{...%} can be used to
20246 include literal escape sequences as in prompts.
20247 -Y explanation
20249 Identical to -X, except that the explanation first undergoes ex‐
20250 pansion following the usual rules for strings in double quotes.
20251 The expansion will be carried out after any functions are called
20252 for the -K or -y options, allowing them to set variables.
20253 -t continue
20255 The continue-string contains a character that specifies which
20256 set of completion flags should be used next. It is useful:
20257 (i) With -T, or when trying a list of pattern completions, when
20259 compctl would usually continue with ordinary processing after
20260 finding matches; this can be suppressed with `-tn'.
20261 (ii) With a list of alternatives separated by +, when compctl
20263 would normally stop when one of the alternatives generates
20264 matches. It can be forced to consider the next set of comple‐
20265 tions by adding `-t+' to the flags of the alternative before the
20266 `+'.
20267 (iii) In an extended completion list (see below), when compctl
20269 would normally continue until a set of conditions succeeded,
20270 then use only the immediately following flags. With `-t-', com‐
20271 pctl will continue trying extended completions after the next
20272 `-'; with `-tx' it will attempt completion with the default
20273 flags, in other words those before the `-x'.
20274 -J name
20276 This gives the name of the group the matches should be placed
20277 in. Groups are listed and sorted separately; likewise, menu com‐
20278 pletion will offer the matches in the groups in the order in
20279 which the groups were defined. If no group name is explicitly
20280 given, the matches are stored in a group named default. The
20281 first time a group name is encountered, a group with that name
20282 is created. After that all matches with the same group name are
20283 stored in that group.
20284 This can be useful with non-exclusive alternative completions.
20286 For example, in
20287 compctl -f -J files -t+ + -v -J variables foo
20289 both files and variables are possible completions, as the -t+
20291 forces both sets of alternatives before and after the + to be
20292 considered at once. Because of the -J options, however, all
20293 files are listed before all variables.
20294 -V name
20296 Like -J, but matches within the group will not be sorted in
20297 listings nor in menu completion. These unsorted groups are in a
20298 different name space from the sorted ones, so groups defined as
20299 -J files and -V files are distinct.
20300 -1 If given together with the -V option, makes only consecutive du‐
20302 plicates in the group be removed. Note that groups with and
20303 without this flag are in different name spaces.
20304 -2 If given together with the -J or -V option, makes all duplicates
20306 be kept. Again, groups with and without this flag are in differ‐
20307 ent name spaces.
20308 -M match-spec
20310 This defines additional matching control specifications that
20311 should be used only when testing words for the list of flags
20312 this flag appears in. The format of the match-spec string is de‐
20313 scribed in zshcompwid.
20314
20316 compctl [ -CDT ] options + options [ + ... ] [ + ] command ...
20317 The form with `+' specifies alternative options. Completion is tried
20319 with the options before the first `+'. If this produces no matches com‐
20320 pletion is tried with the flags after the `+' and so on. If there are
20321 no flags after the last `+' and a match has not been found up to that
20322 point, default completion is tried. If the list of flags contains a -t
20323 with a + character, the next list of flags is used even if the current
20324 list produced matches.
20325 Additional options are available that restrict completion to some part
20327 of the command line; this is referred to as `extended completion'.
20328
20330 compctl [ -CDT ] options -x pattern options - ... --
20331 [ command ... ]
20332 compctl [ -CDT ] options [ -x pattern options - ... -- ]
20333 [ + options [ -x ... -- ] ... [+] ] [ command ... ]
20334 The form with `-x' specifies extended completion for the commands
20336 given; as shown, it may be combined with alternative completion using
20337 `+'. Each pattern is examined in turn; when a match is found, the cor‐
20338 responding options, as described in the section `Option Flags' above,
20339 are used to generate possible completions. If no pattern matches, the
20340 options given before the -x are used.
20341 Note that each pattern should be supplied as a single argument and
20343 should be quoted to prevent expansion of metacharacters by the shell.
20344 A pattern is built of sub-patterns separated by commas; it matches if
20346 at least one of these sub-patterns matches (they are `or'ed). These
20347 sub-patterns are in turn composed of other sub-patterns separated by
20348 white spaces which match if all of the sub-patterns match (they are
20349 `and'ed). An element of the sub-patterns is of the form `c[...][...]',
20350 where the pairs of brackets may be repeated as often as necessary, and
20351 matches if any of the sets of brackets match (an `or'). The example
20352 below makes this clearer.
20353 The elements may be any of the following:
20355 s[string]...
20357 Matches if the current word on the command line starts with one
20358 of the strings given in brackets. The string is not removed and
20359 is not part of the completion.
20360 S[string]...
20362 Like s[string] except that the string is part of the completion.
20363 p[from,to]...
20365 Matches if the number of the current word is between one of the
20366 from and to pairs inclusive. The comma and to are optional; to
20367 defaults to the same value as from. The numbers may be nega‐
20368 tive: -n refers to the n'th last word on the line.
20369 c[offset,string]...
20371 Matches if the string matches the word offset by offset from the
20372 current word position. Usually offset will be negative.
20373 C[offset,pattern]...
20375 Like c but using pattern matching instead.
20376 w[index,string]...
20378 Matches if the word in position index is equal to the corre‐
20379 sponding string. Note that the word count is made after any
20380 alias expansion.
20381 W[index,pattern]...
20383 Like w but using pattern matching instead.
20384 n[index,string]...
20386 Matches if the current word contains string. Anything up to and
20387 including the indexth occurrence of this string will not be con‐
20388 sidered part of the completion, but the rest will. index may be
20389 negative to count from the end: in most cases, index will be 1
20390 or -1. For example,
20391 compctl -s '`users`' -x 'n[1,@]' -k hosts -- talk
20393 will usually complete usernames, but if you insert an @ after
20395 the name, names from the array hosts (assumed to contain host‐
20396 names, though you must make the array yourself) will be com‐
20397 pleted. Other commands such as rcp can be handled similarly.
20398 N[index,string]...
20400 Like n except that the string will be taken as a character
20401 class. Anything up to and including the indexth occurrence of
20402 any of the characters in string will not be considered part of
20403 the completion.
20404 m[min,max]...
20406 Matches if the total number of words lies between min and max
20407 inclusive.
20408 r[str1,str2]...
20410 Matches if the cursor is after a word with prefix str1. If
20411 there is also a word with prefix str2 on the command line after
20412 the one matched by str1 it matches only if the cursor is before
20413 this word. If the comma and str2 are omitted, it matches if the
20414 cursor is after a word with prefix str1.
20415 R[str1,str2]...
20417 Like r but using pattern matching instead.
20418 q[str]...
20420 Matches the word currently being completed is in single quotes
20421 and the str begins with the letter `s', or if completion is done
20422 in double quotes and str starts with the letter `d', or if com‐
20423 pletion is done in backticks and str starts with a `b'.
20424
20426 compctl -u -x 's[+] c[-1,-f],s[-f+]' \
20427 -g '~/Mail/*(:t)' - 's[-f],c[-1,-f]' -f -- mail
20428 This is to be interpreted as follows:
20430 If the current command is mail, then
20432 if ((the current word begins with + and the previous word is -f)
20434 or (the current word begins with -f+)), then complete the
20435 non-directory part (the `:t' glob modifier) of files in the directory
20436 ~/Mail; else
20437 if the current word begins with -f or the previous word was -f, then
20439 complete any file; else
20440 complete user names.
20442ZSHMODULES(1) General Commands Manual ZSHMODULES(1)
20447
20451 zshmodules - zsh loadable modules
20452
20454 Some optional parts of zsh are in modules, separate from the core of
20455 the shell. Each of these modules may be linked in to the shell at
20456 build time, or can be dynamically linked while the shell is running if
20457 the installation supports this feature. Modules are linked at runtime
20458 with the zmodload command, see zshbuiltins(1).
20459 The modules that are bundled with the zsh distribution are:
20461 zsh/attr
20463 Builtins for manipulating extended attributes (xattr).
20464 zsh/cap
20466 Builtins for manipulating POSIX.1e (POSIX.6) capability (privi‐
20467 lege) sets.
20468 zsh/clone
20470 A builtin that can clone a running shell onto another terminal.
20471 zsh/compctl
20473 The compctl builtin for controlling completion.
20474 zsh/complete
20476 The basic completion code.
20477 zsh/complist
20479 Completion listing extensions.
20480 zsh/computil
20482 A module with utility builtins needed for the shell function
20483 based completion system.
20484 zsh/curses
20486 curses windowing commands
20487 zsh/datetime
20489 Some date/time commands and parameters.
20490 zsh/db/gdbm
20492 Builtins for managing associative array parameters tied to GDBM
20493 databases.
20494 zsh/deltochar
20496 A ZLE function duplicating EMACS' zap-to-char.
20497 zsh/example
20499 An example of how to write a module.
20500 zsh/files
20502 Some basic file manipulation commands as builtins.
20503 zsh/langinfo
20505 Interface to locale information.
20506 zsh/mapfile
20508 Access to external files via a special associative array.
20509 zsh/mathfunc
20511 Standard scientific functions for use in mathematical evalua‐
20512 tions.
20513 zsh/nearcolor
20515 Map colours to the nearest colour in the available palette.
20516 zsh/newuser
20518 Arrange for files for new users to be installed.
20519 zsh/parameter
20521 Access to internal hash tables via special associative arrays.
20522 zsh/pcre
20524 Interface to the PCRE library.
20525 zsh/param/private
20527 Builtins for managing private-scoped parameters in function con‐
20528 text.
20529 zsh/regex
20531 Interface to the POSIX regex library.
20532 zsh/sched
20534 A builtin that provides a timed execution facility within the
20535 shell.
20536 zsh/net/socket
20538 Manipulation of Unix domain sockets
20539 zsh/stat
20541 A builtin command interface to the stat system call.
20542 zsh/system
20544 A builtin interface to various low-level system features.
20545 zsh/net/tcp
20547 Manipulation of TCP sockets
20548 zsh/termcap
20550 Interface to the termcap database.
20551 zsh/terminfo
20553 Interface to the terminfo database.
20554 zsh/zftp
20556 A builtin FTP client.
20557 zsh/zle
20559 The Zsh Line Editor, including the bindkey and vared builtins.
20560 zsh/zleparameter
20562 Access to internals of the Zsh Line Editor via parameters.
20563 zsh/zprof
20565 A module allowing profiling for shell functions.
20566 zsh/zpty
20568 A builtin for starting a command in a pseudo-terminal.
20569 zsh/zselect
20571 Block and return when file descriptors are ready.
20572 zsh/zutil
20574 Some utility builtins, e.g. the one for supporting configuration
20575 via styles.
20576
20578 The zsh/attr module is used for manipulating extended attributes. The
20579 -h option causes all commands to operate on symbolic links instead of
20580 their targets. The builtins in this module are:
20581 zgetattr [ -h ] filename attribute [ parameter ]
20583 Get the extended attribute attribute from the specified file‐
20584 name. If the optional argument parameter is given, the attribute
20585 is set on that parameter instead of being printed to stdout.
20586 zsetattr [ -h ] filename attribute value
20588 Set the extended attribute attribute on the specified filename
20589 to value.
20590 zdelattr [ -h ] filename attribute
20592 Remove the extended attribute attribute from the specified file‐
20593 name.
20594 zlistattr [ -h ] filename [ parameter ]
20596 List the extended attributes currently set on the specified
20597 filename. If the optional argument parameter is given, the list
20598 of attributes is set on that parameter instead of being printed
20599 to stdout.
20600 zgetattr and zlistattr allocate memory dynamically. If the attribute
20602 or list of attributes grows between the allocation and the call to get
20603 them, they return 2. On all other errors, 1 is returned. This allows
20604 the calling function to check for this case and retry.
20605
20607 The zsh/cap module is used for manipulating POSIX.1e (POSIX.6) capabil‐
20608 ity sets. If the operating system does not support this interface, the
20609 builtins defined by this module will do nothing. The builtins in this
20610 module are:
20611 cap [ capabilities ]
20613 Change the shell's process capability sets to the specified ca‐
20614 pabilities, otherwise display the shell's current capabilities.
20615 getcap filename ...
20617 This is a built-in implementation of the POSIX standard utility.
20618 It displays the capability sets on each specified filename.
20619 setcap capabilities filename ...
20621 This is a built-in implementation of the POSIX standard utility.
20622 It sets the capability sets on each specified filename to the
20623 specified capabilities.
20624
20626 The zsh/clone module makes available one builtin command:
20627 clone tty
20629 Creates a forked instance of the current shell, attached to the
20630 specified tty. In the new shell, the PID, PPID and TTY special
20631 parameters are changed appropriately. $! is set to zero in the
20632 new shell, and to the new shell's PID in the original shell.
20633 The return status of the builtin is zero in both shells if suc‐
20635 cessful, and non-zero on error.
20636 The target of clone should be an unused terminal, such as an un‐
20638 used virtual console or a virtual terminal created by
20639 xterm -e sh -c 'trap : INT QUIT TSTP; tty;
20641 while :; do sleep 100000000; done'
20642 Some words of explanation are warranted about this long xterm
20644 command line: when doing clone on a pseudo-terminal, some other
20645 session ("session" meant as a unix session group, or SID) is al‐
20646 ready owning the terminal. Hence the cloned zsh cannot acquire
20647 the pseudo-terminal as a controlling tty. That means two things:
20648 • the job control signals will go to the
20650 sh-started-by-xterm process group (that's why we disable
20651 INT QUIT and TSTP with trap; otherwise the while loop
20652 could get suspended or killed)
20653 • the cloned shell will have job control disabled, and the
20655 job control keys (control-C, control-\ and control-Z)
20656 will not work.
20657 This does not apply when cloning to an unused vc.
20659 Cloning to a used (and unprepared) terminal will result in two
20661 processes reading simultaneously from the same terminal, with
20662 input bytes going randomly to either process.
20663 clone is mostly useful as a shell built-in replacement for
20665 openvt.
20666
20668 The zsh/compctl module makes available two builtin commands. compctl,
20669 is the old, deprecated way to control completions for ZLE. See zshcom‐
20670 pctl(1). The other builtin command, compcall can be used in user-de‐
20671 fined completion widgets, see zshcompwid(1).
20672
20674 The zsh/complete module makes available several builtin commands which
20675 can be used in user-defined completion widgets, see zshcompwid(1).
20676
20678 The zsh/complist module offers three extensions to completion listings:
20679 the ability to highlight matches in such a list, the ability to scroll
20680 through long lists and a different style of menu completion.
20681 Colored completion listings
20683 Whenever one of the parameters ZLS_COLORS or ZLS_COLOURS is set and the
20684 zsh/complist module is loaded or linked into the shell, completion
20685 lists will be colored. Note, however, that complist will not automati‐
20686 cally be loaded if it is not linked in: on systems with dynamic load‐
20687 ing, `zmodload zsh/complist' is required.
20688 The parameters ZLS_COLORS and ZLS_COLOURS describe how matches are
20690 highlighted. To turn on highlighting an empty value suffices, in which
20691 case all the default values given below will be used. The format of
20692 the value of these parameters is the same as used by the GNU version of
20693 the ls command: a colon-separated list of specifications of the form
20694 `name=value'. The name may be one of the following strings, most of
20695 which specify file types for which the value will be used. The strings
20696 and their default values are:
20697 no 0 for normal text (i.e. when displaying something other than a
20699 matched file)
20700 fi 0 for regular files
20702 di 32 for directories
20704 ln 36 for symbolic links. If this has the special value target, sym‐
20706 bolic links are dereferenced and the target file used to deter‐
20707 mine the display format.
20708 pi 31 for named pipes (FIFOs)
20710 so 33 for sockets
20712 bd 44;37
20714 for block devices
20715 cd 44;37
20717 for character devices
20718 or none
20720 for a symlink to nonexistent file (default is the value defined
20721 for ln)
20722 mi none
20724 for a non-existent file (default is the value defined for fi);
20725 this code is currently not used
20726 su 37;41
20728 for files with setuid bit set
20729 sg 30;43
20731 for files with setgid bit set
20732 tw 30;42
20734 for world writable directories with sticky bit set
20735 ow 34;43
20737 for world writable directories without sticky bit set
20738 sa none
20740 for files with an associated suffix alias; this is only tested
20741 after specific suffixes, as described below
20742 st 37;44
20744 for directories with sticky bit set but not world writable
20745 ex 35 for executable files
20747 lc \e[ for the left code (see below)
20749 rc m for the right code
20751 tc 0 for the character indicating the file type printed after file‐
20753 names if the LIST_TYPES option is set
20754 sp 0 for the spaces printed after matches to align the next column
20756 ec none
20758 for the end code
20759 Apart from these strings, the name may also be an asterisk (`*') fol‐
20761 lowed by any string. The value given for such a string will be used for
20762 all files whose name ends with the string. The name may also be an
20763 equals sign (`=') followed by a pattern; the EXTENDED_GLOB option will
20764 be turned on for evaluation of the pattern. The value given for this
20765 pattern will be used for all matches (not just filenames) whose display
20766 string are matched by the pattern. Definitions for the form with the
20767 leading equal sign take precedence over the values defined for file
20768 types, which in turn take precedence over the form with the leading as‐
20769 terisk (file extensions).
20770 The leading-equals form also allows different parts of the displayed
20772 strings to be colored differently. For this, the pattern has to use
20773 the `(#b)' globbing flag and pairs of parentheses surrounding the parts
20774 of the strings that are to be colored differently. In this case the
20775 value may consist of more than one color code separated by equal signs.
20776 The first code will be used for all parts for which no explicit code is
20777 specified and the following codes will be used for the parts matched by
20778 the sub-patterns in parentheses. For example, the specification
20779 `=(#b)(?)*(?)=0=3=7' will be used for all matches which are at least
20780 two characters long and will use the code `3' for the first character,
20781 `7' for the last character and `0' for the rest.
20782 All three forms of name may be preceded by a pattern in parentheses.
20784 If this is given, the value will be used only for matches in groups
20785 whose names are matched by the pattern given in the parentheses. For
20786 example, `(g*)m*=43' highlights all matches beginning with `m' in
20787 groups whose names begin with `g' using the color code `43'. In case
20788 of the `lc', `rc', and `ec' codes, the group pattern is ignored.
20789 Note also that all patterns are tried in the order in which they appear
20791 in the parameter value until the first one matches which is then used.
20792 Patterns may be matched against completions, descriptions (possibly
20793 with spaces appended for padding), or lines consisting of a completion
20794 followed by a description. For consistent coloring it may be necessary
20795 to use more than one pattern or a pattern with backreferences.
20796 When printing a match, the code prints the value of lc, the value for
20798 the file-type or the last matching specification with a `*', the value
20799 of rc, the string to display for the match itself, and then the value
20800 of ec if that is defined or the values of lc, no, and rc if ec is not
20801 defined.
20802 The default values are ISO 6429 (ANSI) compliant and can be used on
20804 vt100 compatible terminals such as xterms. On monochrome terminals the
20805 default values will have no visible effect. The colors function from
20806 the contribution can be used to get associative arrays containing the
20807 codes for ANSI terminals (see the section `Other Functions' in zshcon‐
20808 trib(1)). For example, after loading colors, one could use
20809 `$color[red]' to get the code for foreground color red and
20810 `$color[bg-green]' for the code for background color green.
20811 If the completion system invoked by compinit is used, these parameters
20813 should not be set directly because the system controls them itself.
20814 Instead, the list-colors style should be used (see the section `Comple‐
20815 tion System Configuration' in zshcompsys(1)).
20816 Scrolling in completion listings
20818 To enable scrolling through a completion list, the LISTPROMPT parameter
20819 must be set. Its value will be used as the prompt; if it is the empty
20820 string, a default prompt will be used. The value may contain escapes
20821 of the form `%x'. It supports the escapes `%B', `%b', `%S', `%s',
20822 `%U', `%u', `%F', `%f', `%K', `%k' and `%{...%}' used also in shell
20823 prompts as well as three pairs of additional sequences: a `%l' or `%L'
20824 is replaced by the number of the last line shown and the total number
20825 of lines in the form `number/total'; a `%m' or `%M' is replaced with
20826 the number of the last match shown and the total number of matches; and
20827 `%p' or `%P' is replaced with `Top', `Bottom' or the position of the
20828 first line shown in percent of the total number of lines, respectively.
20829 In each of these cases the form with the uppercase letter will be re‐
20830 placed with a string of fixed width, padded to the right with spaces,
20831 while the lowercase form will not be padded.
20832 If the parameter LISTPROMPT is set, the completion code will not ask if
20834 the list should be shown. Instead it immediately starts displaying the
20835 list, stopping after the first screenful, showing the prompt at the
20836 bottom, waiting for a keypress after temporarily switching to the
20837 listscroll keymap. Some of the zle functions have a special meaning
20838 while scrolling lists:
20839 send-break
20841 stops listing discarding the key pressed
20842 accept-line, down-history, down-line-or-history
20844 down-line-or-search, vi-down-line-or-history
20845 scrolls forward one line
20846 complete-word, menu-complete, expand-or-complete
20848 expand-or-complete-prefix, menu-complete-or-expand
20849 scrolls forward one screenful
20850 accept-search
20852 stop listing but take no other action
20853 Every other character stops listing and immediately processes the key
20855 as usual. Any key that is not bound in the listscroll keymap or that
20856 is bound to undefined-key is looked up in the keymap currently se‐
20857 lected.
20858 As for the ZLS_COLORS and ZLS_COLOURS parameters, LISTPROMPT should not
20860 be set directly when using the shell function based completion system.
20861 Instead, the list-prompt style should be used.
20862 Menu selection
20864 The zsh/complist module also offers an alternative style of selecting
20865 matches from a list, called menu selection, which can be used if the
20866 shell is set up to return to the last prompt after showing a completion
20867 list (see the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option in zshoptions(1)).
20868 Menu selection can be invoked directly by the widget menu-select de‐
20870 fined by this module. This is a standard ZLE widget that can be bound
20871 to a key in the usual way as described in zshzle(1).
20872 Alternatively, the parameter MENUSELECT can be set to an integer, which
20874 gives the minimum number of matches that must be present before menu
20875 selection is automatically turned on. This second method requires that
20876 menu completion be started, either directly from a widget such as
20877 menu-complete, or due to one of the options MENU_COMPLETE or AUTO_MENU
20878 being set. If MENUSELECT is set, but is 0, 1 or empty, menu selection
20879 will always be started during an ambiguous menu completion.
20880 When using the completion system based on shell functions, the MENUSE‐
20882 LECT parameter should not be used (like the ZLS_COLORS and ZLS_COLOURS
20883 parameters described above). Instead, the menu style should be used
20884 with the select=... keyword.
20885 After menu selection is started, the matches will be listed. If there
20887 are more matches than fit on the screen, only the first screenful is
20888 shown. The matches to insert into the command line can be selected
20889 from this list. In the list one match is highlighted using the value
20890 for ma from the ZLS_COLORS or ZLS_COLOURS parameter. The default value
20891 for this is `7' which forces the selected match to be highlighted using
20892 standout mode on a vt100-compatible terminal. If neither ZLS_COLORS
20893 nor ZLS_COLOURS is set, the same terminal control sequence as for the
20894 `%S' escape in prompts is used.
20895 If there are more matches than fit on the screen and the parameter
20897 MENUPROMPT is set, its value will be shown below the matches. It sup‐
20898 ports the same escape sequences as LISTPROMPT, but the number of the
20899 match or line shown will be that of the one where the mark is placed.
20900 If its value is the empty string, a default prompt will be used.
20901 The MENUSCROLL parameter can be used to specify how the list is
20903 scrolled. If the parameter is unset, this is done line by line, if it
20904 is set to `0' (zero), the list will scroll half the number of lines of
20905 the screen. If the value is positive, it gives the number of lines to
20906 scroll and if it is negative, the list will be scrolled the number of
20907 lines of the screen minus the (absolute) value.
20908 As for the ZLS_COLORS, ZLS_COLOURS and LISTPROMPT parameters, neither
20910 MENUPROMPT nor MENUSCROLL should be set directly when using the shell
20911 function based completion system. Instead, the select-prompt and se‐
20912 lect-scroll styles should be used.
20913 The completion code sometimes decides not to show all of the matches in
20915 the list. These hidden matches are either matches for which the com‐
20916 pletion function which added them explicitly requested that they not
20917 appear in the list (using the -n option of the compadd builtin command)
20918 or they are matches which duplicate a string already in the list (be‐
20919 cause they differ only in things like prefixes or suffixes that are not
20920 displayed). In the list used for menu selection, however, even these
20921 matches are shown so that it is possible to select them. To highlight
20922 such matches the hi and du capabilities in the ZLS_COLORS and
20923 ZLS_COLOURS parameters are supported for hidden matches of the first
20924 and second kind, respectively.
20925 Selecting matches is done by moving the mark around using the zle move‐
20927 ment functions. When not all matches can be shown on the screen at the
20928 same time, the list will scroll up and down when crossing the top or
20929 bottom line. The following zle functions have special meaning during
20930 menu selection. Note that the following always perform the same task
20931 within the menu selection map and cannot be replaced by user defined
20932 widgets, nor can the set of functions be extended:
20933 accept-line, accept-search
20935 accept the current match and leave menu selection (but do not
20936 cause the command line to be accepted)
20937 send-break
20939 leaves menu selection and restores the previous contents of the
20940 command line
20941 redisplay, clear-screen
20943 execute their normal function without leaving menu selection
20944 accept-and-hold, accept-and-menu-complete
20946 accept the currently inserted match and continue selection al‐
20947 lowing to select the next match to insert into the line
20948 accept-and-infer-next-history
20950 accepts the current match and then tries completion with menu
20951 selection again; in the case of files this allows one to select
20952 a directory and immediately attempt to complete files in it; if
20953 there are no matches, a message is shown and one can use undo to
20954 go back to completion on the previous level, every other key
20955 leaves menu selection (including the other zle functions which
20956 are otherwise special during menu selection)
20957 undo removes matches inserted during the menu selection by one of the
20959 three functions before
20960 down-history, down-line-or-history
20962 vi-down-line-or-history, down-line-or-search
20963 moves the mark one line down
20964 up-history, up-line-or-history
20966 vi-up-line-or-history, up-line-or-search
20967 moves the mark one line up
20968 forward-char, vi-forward-char
20970 moves the mark one column right
20971 backward-char, vi-backward-char
20973 moves the mark one column left
20974 forward-word, vi-forward-word
20976 vi-forward-word-end, emacs-forward-word
20977 moves the mark one screenful down
20978 backward-word, vi-backward-word, emacs-backward-word
20980 moves the mark one screenful up
20981 vi-forward-blank-word, vi-forward-blank-word-end
20983 moves the mark to the first line of the next group of matches
20984 vi-backward-blank-word
20986 moves the mark to the last line of the previous group of matches
20987 beginning-of-history
20989 moves the mark to the first line
20990 end-of-history
20992 moves the mark to the last line
20993 beginning-of-buffer-or-history, beginning-of-line
20995 beginning-of-line-hist, vi-beginning-of-line
20996 moves the mark to the leftmost column
20997 end-of-buffer-or-history, end-of-line
20999 end-of-line-hist, vi-end-of-line
21000 moves the mark to the rightmost column
21001 complete-word, menu-complete, expand-or-complete
21003 expand-or-complete-prefix, menu-expand-or-complete
21004 moves the mark to the next match
21005 reverse-menu-complete
21007 moves the mark to the previous match
21008 vi-insert
21010 this toggles between normal and interactive mode; in interactive
21011 mode the keys bound to self-insert and self-insert-unmeta insert
21012 into the command line as in normal editing mode but without
21013 leaving menu selection; after each character completion is tried
21014 again and the list changes to contain only the new matches; the
21015 completion widgets make the longest unambiguous string be in‐
21016 serted in the command line and undo and backward-delete-char go
21017 back to the previous set of matches
21018 history-incremental-search-forward
21020 history-incremental-search-backward
21021 this starts incremental searches in the list of completions dis‐
21022 played; in this mode, accept-line only leaves incremental
21023 search, going back to the normal menu selection mode
21024 All movement functions wrap around at the edges; any other zle function
21026 not listed leaves menu selection and executes that function. It is
21027 possible to make widgets in the above list do the same by using the
21028 form of the widget with a `.' in front. For example, the widget `.ac‐
21029 cept-line' has the effect of leaving menu selection and accepting the
21030 entire command line.
21031 During this selection the widget uses the keymap menuselect. Any key
21033 that is not defined in this keymap or that is bound to undefined-key is
21034 looked up in the keymap currently selected. This is used to ensure
21035 that the most important keys used during selection (namely the cursor
21036 keys, return, and TAB) have sensible defaults. However, keys in the
21037 menuselect keymap can be modified directly using the bindkey builtin
21038 command (see zshmodules(1)). For example, to make the return key leave
21039 menu selection without accepting the match currently selected one could
21040 call
21041 bindkey -M menuselect '^M' send-break
21043 after loading the zsh/complist module.
21045
21047 The zsh/computil module adds several builtin commands that are used by
21048 some of the completion functions in the completion system based on
21049 shell functions (see zshcompsys(1) ). Except for compquote these
21050 builtin commands are very specialised and thus not very interesting
21051 when writing your own completion functions. In summary, these builtin
21052 commands are:
21053 comparguments
21055 This is used by the _arguments function to do the argument and
21056 command line parsing. Like compdescribe it has an option -i to
21057 do the parsing and initialize some internal state and various
21058 options to access the state information to decide what should be
21059 completed.
21060 compdescribe
21062 This is used by the _describe function to build the displays for
21063 the matches and to get the strings to add as matches with their
21064 options. On the first call one of the options -i or -I should
21065 be supplied as the first argument. In the first case, display
21066 strings without the descriptions will be generated, in the sec‐
21067 ond case, the string used to separate the matches from their de‐
21068 scriptions must be given as the second argument and the descrip‐
21069 tions (if any) will be shown. All other arguments are like the
21070 definition arguments to _describe itself.
21071 Once compdescribe has been called with either the -i or the -I
21073 option, it can be repeatedly called with the -g option and the
21074 names of four parameters as its arguments. This will step
21075 through the different sets of matches and store the value of
21076 compstate[list] in the first scalar, the options for compadd in
21077 the second array, the matches in the third array, and the
21078 strings to be displayed in the completion listing in the fourth
21079 array. The arrays may then be directly given to compadd to reg‐
21080 ister the matches with the completion code.
21081 compfiles
21083 Used by the _path_files function to optimize complex recursive
21084 filename generation (globbing). It does three things. With the
21085 -p and -P options it builds the glob patterns to use, including
21086 the paths already handled and trying to optimize the patterns
21087 with respect to the prefix and suffix from the line and the
21088 match specification currently used. The -i option does the di‐
21089 rectory tests for the ignore-parents style and the -r option
21090 tests if a component for some of the matches are equal to the
21091 string on the line and removes all other matches if that is
21092 true.
21093 compgroups
21095 Used by the _tags function to implement the internals of the
21096 group-order style. This only takes its arguments as names of
21097 completion groups and creates the groups for it (all six types:
21098 sorted and unsorted, both without removing duplicates, with re‐
21099 moving all duplicates and with removing consecutive duplicates).
21100 compquote [ -p ] names ...
21102 There may be reasons to write completion functions that have to
21103 add the matches using the -Q option to compadd and perform quot‐
21104 ing themselves. Instead of interpreting the first character of
21105 the all_quotes key of the compstate special association and us‐
21106 ing the q flag for parameter expansions, one can use this
21107 builtin command. The arguments are the names of scalar or array
21108 parameters and the values of these parameters are quoted as
21109 needed for the innermost quoting level. If the -p option is
21110 given, quoting is done as if there is some prefix before the
21111 values of the parameters, so that a leading equal sign will not
21112 be quoted.
21113 The return status is non-zero in case of an error and zero oth‐
21115 erwise.
21116 comptags
21118 comptry
21119 These implement the internals of the tags mechanism.
21120 compvalues
21122 Like comparguments, but for the _values function.
21123
21125 The zsh/curses module makes available one builtin command and various
21126 parameters.
21127 Builtin
21129 zcurses init
21130 zcurses end
21131 zcurses addwin targetwin nlines ncols begin_y begin_x [ parentwin ]
21132 zcurses delwin targetwin
21133 zcurses refresh [ targetwin ... ]
21134 zcurses touch targetwin ...
21135 zcurses move targetwin new_y new_x
21136 zcurses clear targetwin [ redraw | eol | bot ]
21137 zcurses position targetwin array
21138 zcurses char targetwin character
21139 zcurses string targetwin string
21140 zcurses border targetwin border
21141 zcurses attr targetwin [ [+|-]attribute | fg_col/bg_col ] [...]
21142 zcurses bg targetwin [ [+|-]attribute | fg_col/bg_col | @char ] [...]
21143 zcurses scroll targetwin [ on | off | [+|-]lines ]
21144 zcurses input targetwin [ param [ kparam [ mparam ] ] ]
21145 zcurses mouse [ delay num | [+|-]motion ]
21146 zcurses timeout targetwin intval
21147 zcurses querychar targetwin [ param ]
21148 zcurses resize height width [ endwin | nosave | endwin_nosave ]
21149 Manipulate curses windows. All uses of this command should be
21150 bracketed by `zcurses init' to initialise use of curses, and
21151 `zcurses end' to end it; omitting `zcurses end' can cause the
21152 terminal to be in an unwanted state.
21153 The subcommand addwin creates a window with nlines lines and
21155 ncols columns. Its upper left corner will be placed at row be‐
21156 gin_y and column begin_x of the screen. targetwin is a string
21157 and refers to the name of a window that is not currently as‐
21158 signed. Note in particular the curses convention that vertical
21159 values appear before horizontal values.
21160 If addwin is given an existing window as the final argument, the
21162 new window is created as a subwindow of parentwin. This differs
21163 from an ordinary new window in that the memory of the window
21164 contents is shared with the parent's memory. Subwindows must be
21165 deleted before their parent. Note that the coordinates of sub‐
21166 windows are relative to the screen, not the parent, as with
21167 other windows.
21168 Use the subcommand delwin to delete a window created with ad‐
21170 dwin. Note that end does not implicitly delete windows, and
21171 that delwin does not erase the screen image of the window.
21172 The window corresponding to the full visible screen is called
21174 stdscr; it always exists after `zcurses init' and cannot be
21175 delete with delwin.
21176 The subcommand refresh will refresh window targetwin; this is
21178 necessary to make any pending changes (such as characters you
21179 have prepared for output with char) visible on the screen. re‐
21180 fresh without an argument causes the screen to be cleared and
21181 redrawn. If multiple windows are given, the screen is updated
21182 once at the end.
21183 The subcommand touch marks the targetwins listed as changed.
21185 This is necessary before refreshing windows if a window that was
21186 in front of another window (which may be stdscr) is deleted.
21187 The subcommand move moves the cursor position in targetwin to
21189 new coordinates new_y and new_x. Note that the subcommand
21190 string (but not the subcommand char) advances the cursor posi‐
21191 tion over the characters added.
21192 The subcommand clear erases the contents of targetwin. One (and
21194 no more than one) of three options may be specified. With the
21195 option redraw, in addition the next refresh of targetwin will
21196 cause the screen to be cleared and repainted. With the option
21197 eol, targetwin is only cleared to the end of the current cursor
21198 line. With the option bot, targetwin is cleared to the end of
21199 the window, i.e everything to the right and below the cursor is
21200 cleared.
21201 The subcommand position writes various positions associated with
21203 targetwin into the array named array. These are, in order:
21204 - The y and x coordinates of the cursor relative to the top
21205 left of targetwin
21206 - The y and x coordinates of the top left of targetwin on
21207 the screen
21208 - The size of targetwin in y and x dimensions.
21209 Outputting characters and strings are achieved by char and
21211 string respectively.
21212 To draw a border around window targetwin, use border. Note that
21214 the border is not subsequently handled specially: in other
21215 words, the border is simply a set of characters output at the
21216 edge of the window. Hence it can be overwritten, can scroll off
21217 the window, etc.
21218 The subcommand attr will set targetwin's attributes or fore‐
21220 ground/background color pair for any successive character out‐
21221 put. Each attribute given on the line may be prepended by a +
21222 to set or a - to unset that attribute; + is assumed if absent.
21223 The attributes supported are blink, bold, dim, reverse, stand‐
21224 out, and underline.
21225 Each fg_col/bg_col attribute (to be read as `fg_col on bg_col')
21227 sets the foreground and background color for character output.
21228 The color default is sometimes available (in particular if the
21229 library is ncurses), specifying the foreground or background
21230 color with which the terminal started. The color pair de‐
21231 fault/default is always available. To use more than the 8 named
21232 colors (red, green, etc.) construct the fg_col/bg_col pairs
21233 where fg_col and bg_col are decimal integers, e.g 128/200. The
21234 maximum color value is 254 if the terminal supports 256 colors.
21235 bg overrides the color and other attributes of all characters in
21237 the window. Its usual use is to set the background initially,
21238 but it will overwrite the attributes of any characters at the
21239 time when it is called. In addition to the arguments allowed
21240 with attr, an argument @char specifies a character to be shown
21241 in otherwise blank areas of the window. Owing to limitations of
21242 curses this cannot be a multibyte character (use of ASCII char‐
21243 acters only is recommended). As the specified set of attributes
21244 override the existing background, turning attributes off in the
21245 arguments is not useful, though this does not cause an error.
21246 The subcommand scroll can be used with on or off to enabled or
21248 disable scrolling of a window when the cursor would otherwise
21249 move below the window due to typing or output. It can also be
21250 used with a positive or negative integer to scroll the window up
21251 or down the given number of lines without changing the current
21252 cursor position (which therefore appears to move in the opposite
21253 direction relative to the window). In the second case, if
21254 scrolling is off it is temporarily turned on to allow the window
21255 to be scrolled.
21256 The subcommand input reads a single character from the window
21258 without echoing it back. If param is supplied the character is
21259 assigned to the parameter param, else it is assigned to the pa‐
21260 rameter REPLY.
21261 If both param and kparam are supplied, the key is read in `key‐
21263 pad' mode. In this mode special keys such as function keys and
21264 arrow keys return the name of the key in the parameter kparam.
21265 The key names are the macros defined in the curses.h or
21266 ncurses.h with the prefix `KEY_' removed; see also the descrip‐
21267 tion of the parameter zcurses_keycodes below. Other keys cause
21268 a value to be set in param as before. On a successful return
21269 only one of param or kparam contains a non-empty string; the
21270 other is set to an empty string.
21271 If mparam is also supplied, input attempts to handle mouse in‐
21273 put. This is only available with the ncurses library; mouse
21274 handling can be detected by checking for the exit status of
21275 `zcurses mouse' with no arguments. If a mouse button is clicked
21276 (or double- or triple-clicked, or pressed or released with a
21277 configurable delay from being clicked) then kparam is set to the
21278 string MOUSE, and mparam is set to an array consisting of the
21279 following elements:
21280 - An identifier to discriminate different input devices;
21281 this is only rarely useful.
21282 - The x, y and z coordinates of the mouse click relative to
21283 the full screen, as three elements in that order (i.e.
21284 the y coordinate is, unusually, after the x coordinate).
21285 The z coordinate is only available for a few unusual in‐
21286 put devices and is otherwise set to zero.
21287 - Any events that occurred as separate items; usually there
21288 will be just one. An event consists of PRESSED, RE‐
21289 LEASED, CLICKED, DOUBLE_CLICKED or TRIPLE_CLICKED fol‐
21290 lowed immediately (in the same element) by the number of
21291 the button.
21292 - If the shift key was pressed, the string SHIFT.
21293 - If the control key was pressed, the string CTRL.
21294 - If the alt key was pressed, the string ALT.
21295 Not all mouse events may be passed through to the terminal win‐
21297 dow; most terminal emulators handle some mouse events them‐
21298 selves. Note that the ncurses manual implies that using input
21299 both with and without mouse handling may cause the mouse cursor
21300 to appear and disappear.
21301 The subcommand mouse can be used to configure the use of the
21303 mouse. There is no window argument; mouse options are global.
21304 `zcurses mouse' with no arguments returns status 0 if mouse han‐
21305 dling is possible, else status 1. Otherwise, the possible argu‐
21306 ments (which may be combined on the same command line) are as
21307 follows. delay num sets the maximum delay in milliseconds be‐
21308 tween press and release events to be considered as a click; the
21309 value 0 disables click resolution, and the default is one sixth
21310 of a second. motion proceeded by an optional `+' (the default)
21311 or - turns on or off reporting of mouse motion in addition to
21312 clicks, presses and releases, which are always reported. How‐
21313 ever, it appears reports for mouse motion are not currently im‐
21314 plemented.
21315 The subcommand timeout specifies a timeout value for input from
21317 targetwin. If intval is negative, `zcurses input' waits indefi‐
21318 nitely for a character to be typed; this is the default. If
21319 intval is zero, `zcurses input' returns immediately; if there is
21320 typeahead it is returned, else no input is done and status 1 is
21321 returned. If intval is positive, `zcurses input' waits intval
21322 milliseconds for input and if there is none at the end of that
21323 period returns status 1.
21324 The subcommand querychar queries the character at the current
21326 cursor position. The return values are stored in the array
21327 named param if supplied, else in the array reply. The first
21328 value is the character (which may be a multibyte character if
21329 the system supports them); the second is the color pair in the
21330 usual fg_col/bg_col notation, or 0 if color is not supported.
21331 Any attributes other than color that apply to the character, as
21332 set with the subcommand attr, appear as additional elements.
21333 The subcommand resize resizes stdscr and all windows to given
21335 dimensions (windows that stick out from the new dimensions are
21336 resized down). The underlying curses extension (resize_term
21337 call) can be unavailable. To verify, zeroes can be used for
21338 height and width. If the result of the subcommand is 0, re‐
21339 size_term is available (2 otherwise). Tests show that resizing
21340 can be normally accomplished by calling zcurses end and zcurses
21341 refresh. The resize subcommand is provided for versatility. Mul‐
21342 tiple system configurations have been checked and zcurses end
21343 and zcurses refresh are still needed for correct terminal state
21344 after resize. To invoke them with resize, use endwin argument.
21345 Using nosave argument will cause new terminal state to not be
21346 saved internally by zcurses. This is also provided for versatil‐
21347 ity and should normally be not needed.
21348 Parameters
21350 ZCURSES_COLORS
21351 Readonly integer. The maximum number of colors the terminal
21352 supports. This value is initialised by the curses library and
21353 is not available until the first time zcurses init is run.
21354 ZCURSES_COLOR_PAIRS
21356 Readonly integer. The maximum number of color pairs
21357 fg_col/bg_col that may be defined in `zcurses attr' commands;
21358 note this limit applies to all color pairs that have been used
21359 whether or not they are currently active. This value is ini‐
21360 tialised by the curses library and is not available until the
21361 first time zcurses init is run.
21362 zcurses_attrs
21364 Readonly array. The attributes supported by zsh/curses; avail‐
21365 able as soon as the module is loaded.
21366 zcurses_colors
21368 Readonly array. The colors supported by zsh/curses; available
21369 as soon as the module is loaded.
21370 zcurses_keycodes
21372 Readonly array. The values that may be returned in the second
21373 parameter supplied to `zcurses input' in the order in which they
21374 are defined internally by curses. Not all function keys are
21375 listed, only F0; curses reserves space for F0 up to F63.
21376 zcurses_windows
21378 Readonly array. The current list of windows, i.e. all windows
21379 that have been created with `zcurses addwin' and not removed
21380 with `zcurses delwin'.
21381
21383 The zsh/datetime module makes available one builtin command:
21384 strftime [ -s scalar ] format [ epochtime [ nanoseconds ] ]
21386 strftime -r [ -q ] [ -s scalar ] format timestring
21387 Output the date in the format specified. With no epochtime, the
21388 current system date/time is used; optionally, epochtime may be
21389 used to specify the number of seconds since the epoch, and
21390 nanoseconds may additionally be used to specify the number of
21391 nanoseconds past the second (otherwise that number is assumed to
21392 be 0). See strftime(3) for details. The zsh extensions de‐
21393 scribed in the section EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zsh‐
21394 misc(1) are also available.
21395 -q Run quietly; suppress printing of all error messages de‐
21397 scribed below. Errors for invalid epochtime values are
21398 always printed.
21399 -r With the option -r (reverse), use format to parse the in‐
21401 put string timestring and output the number of seconds
21402 since the epoch at which the time occurred. The parsing
21403 is implemented by the system function strptime; see strp‐
21404 time(3). This means that zsh format extensions are not
21405 available, but for reverse lookup they are not required.
21406 In most implementations of strftime any timezone in the
21408 timestring is ignored and the local timezone declared by
21409 the TZ environment variable is used; other parameters are
21410 set to zero if not present.
21411 If timestring does not match format the command returns
21413 status 1 and prints an error message. If timestring
21414 matches format but not all characters in timestring were
21415 used, the conversion succeeds but also prints an error
21416 message.
21417 If either of the system functions strptime or mktime is
21419 not available, status 2 is returned and an error message
21420 is printed.
21421 -s scalar
21423 Assign the date string (or epoch time in seconds if -r is
21424 given) to scalar instead of printing it.
21425 Note that depending on the system's declared integral time type,
21427 strftime may produce incorrect results for epoch times greater
21428 than 2147483647 which corresponds to 2038-01-19 03:14:07 +0000.
21429 The zsh/datetime module makes available several parameters; all are
21431 readonly:
21432 EPOCHREALTIME
21434 A floating point value representing the number of seconds since
21435 the epoch. The notional accuracy is to nanoseconds if the
21436 clock_gettime call is available and to microseconds otherwise,
21437 but in practice the range of double precision floating point and
21438 shell scheduling latencies may be significant effects.
21439 EPOCHSECONDS
21441 An integer value representing the number of seconds since the
21442 epoch.
21443 epochtime
21445 An array value containing the number of seconds since the epoch
21446 in the first element and the remainder of the time since the
21447 epoch in nanoseconds in the second element. To ensure the two
21448 elements are consistent the array should be copied or otherwise
21449 referenced as a single substitution before the values are used.
21450 The following idiom may be used:
21451 for secs nsecs in $epochtime; do
21453 ...
21454 done
21455
21457 The zsh/db/gdbm module is used to create "tied" associative arrays that
21458 interface to database files. If the GDBM interface is not available,
21459 the builtins defined by this module will report an error. This module
21460 is also intended as a prototype for creating additional database inter‐
21461 faces, so the ztie builtin may move to a more generic module in the fu‐
21462 ture.
21463 The builtins in this module are:
21465 ztie -d db/gdbm -f filename [ -r ] arrayname
21467 Open the GDBM database identified by filename and, if success‐
21468 ful, create the associative array arrayname linked to the file.
21469 To create a local tied array, the parameter must first be de‐
21470 clared, so commands similar to the following would be executed
21471 inside a function scope:
21472 local -A sampledb
21474 ztie -d db/gdbm -f sample.gdbm sampledb
21475 The -r option opens the database file for reading only, creating
21477 a parameter with the readonly attribute. Without this option,
21478 using `ztie' on a file for which the user does not have write
21479 permission is an error. If writable, the database is opened
21480 synchronously so fields changed in arrayname are immediately
21481 written to filename.
21482 Changes to the file modes filename after it has been opened do
21484 not alter the state of arrayname, but `typeset -r arrayname'
21485 works as expected.
21486 zuntie [ -u ] arrayname ...
21488 Close the GDBM database associated with each arrayname and then
21489 unset the parameter. The -u option forces an unset of parame‐
21490 ters made readonly with `ztie -r'.
21491 This happens automatically if the parameter is explicitly unset
21493 or its local scope (function) ends. Note that a readonly param‐
21494 eter may not be explicitly unset, so the only way to unset a
21495 global parameter created with `ztie -r' is to use `zuntie -u'.
21496 zgdbmpath parametername
21498 Put path to database file assigned to parametername into REPLY
21499 scalar.
21500 zgdbm_tied
21502 Array holding names of all tied parameters.
21503 The fields of an associative array tied to GDBM are neither cached nor
21505 otherwise stored in memory, they are read from or written to the data‐
21506 base on each reference. Thus, for example, the values in a readonly
21507 array may be changed by a second writer of the same database file.
21508
21510 The zsh/deltochar module makes available two ZLE functions:
21511 delete-to-char
21513 Read a character from the keyboard, and delete from the cursor
21514 position up to and including the next (or, with repeat count n,
21515 the nth) instance of that character. Negative repeat counts
21516 mean delete backwards.
21517 zap-to-char
21519 This behaves like delete-to-char, except that the final occur‐
21520 rence of the character itself is not deleted.
21521
21523 The zsh/example module makes available one builtin command:
21524 example [ -flags ] [ args ... ]
21526 Displays the flags and arguments it is invoked with.
21527 The purpose of the module is to serve as an example of how to write a
21529 module.
21530
21532 The zsh/files module makes available some common commands for file ma‐
21533 nipulation as builtins; these commands are probably not needed for many
21534 normal situations but can be useful in emergency recovery situations
21535 with constrained resources. The commands do not implement all features
21536 now required by relevant standards committees.
21537 For all commands, a variant beginning zf_ is also available and loaded
21539 automatically. Using the features capability of zmodload will let you
21540 load only those names you want. Note that it's possible to load only
21541 the builtins with zsh-specific names using the following command:
21542 zmodload -m -F zsh/files b:zf_\*
21544 The commands loaded by default are:
21546 chgrp [ -hRs ] group filename ...
21548 Changes group of files specified. This is equivalent to chown
21549 with a user-spec argument of `:group'.
21550 chmod [ -Rs ] mode filename ...
21552 Changes mode of files specified.
21553 The specified mode must be in octal.
21555 The -R option causes chmod to recursively descend into directo‐
21557 ries, changing the mode of all files in the directory after
21558 changing the mode of the directory itself.
21559 The -s option is a zsh extension to chmod functionality. It en‐
21561 ables paranoid behaviour, intended to avoid security problems
21562 involving a chmod being tricked into affecting files other than
21563 the ones intended. It will refuse to follow symbolic links, so
21564 that (for example) ``chmod 600 /tmp/foo/passwd'' can't acciden‐
21565 tally chmod /etc/passwd if /tmp/foo happens to be a link to
21566 /etc. It will also check where it is after leaving directories,
21567 so that a recursive chmod of a deep directory tree can't end up
21568 recursively chmoding /usr as a result of directories being moved
21569 up the tree.
21570 chown [ -hRs ] user-spec filename ...
21572 Changes ownership and group of files specified.
21573 The user-spec can be in four forms:
21575 user change owner to user; do not change group
21577 user:: change owner to user; do not change group
21578 user: change owner to user; change group to user's primary
21579 group
21580 user:group
21581 change owner to user; change group to group
21582 :group do not change owner; change group to group
21583 In each case, the `:' may instead be a `.'. The rule is that if
21585 there is a `:' then the separator is `:', otherwise if there is
21586 a `.' then the separator is `.', otherwise there is no separa‐
21587 tor.
21588 Each of user and group may be either a username (or group name,
21590 as appropriate) or a decimal user ID (group ID). Interpretation
21591 as a name takes precedence, if there is an all-numeric username
21592 (or group name).
21593 If the target is a symbolic link, the -h option causes chown to
21595 set the ownership of the link instead of its target.
21596 The -R option causes chown to recursively descend into directo‐
21598 ries, changing the ownership of all files in the directory after
21599 changing the ownership of the directory itself.
21600 The -s option is a zsh extension to chown functionality. It en‐
21602 ables paranoid behaviour, intended to avoid security problems
21603 involving a chown being tricked into affecting files other than
21604 the ones intended. It will refuse to follow symbolic links, so
21605 that (for example) ``chown luser /tmp/foo/passwd'' can't acci‐
21606 dentally chown /etc/passwd if /tmp/foo happens to be a link to
21607 /etc. It will also check where it is after leaving directories,
21608 so that a recursive chown of a deep directory tree can't end up
21609 recursively chowning /usr as a result of directories being moved
21610 up the tree.
21611 ln [ -dfhins ] filename dest
21613 ln [ -dfhins ] filename ... dir
21614 Creates hard (or, with -s, symbolic) links. In the first form,
21615 the specified destination is created, as a link to the specified
21616 filename. In the second form, each of the filenames is taken in
21617 turn, and linked to a pathname in the specified directory that
21618 has the same last pathname component.
21619 Normally, ln will not attempt to create hard links to directo‐
21621 ries. This check can be overridden using the -d option. Typi‐
21622 cally only the super-user can actually succeed in creating hard
21623 links to directories. This does not apply to symbolic links in
21624 any case.
21625 By default, existing files cannot be replaced by links. The -i
21627 option causes the user to be queried about replacing existing
21628 files. The -f option causes existing files to be silently
21629 deleted, without querying. -f takes precedence.
21630 The -h and -n options are identical and both exist for compati‐
21632 bility; either one indicates that if the target is a symlink
21633 then it should not be dereferenced. Typically this is used in
21634 combination with -sf so that if an existing link points to a di‐
21635 rectory then it will be removed, instead of followed. If this
21636 option is used with multiple filenames and the target is a sym‐
21637 bolic link pointing to a directory then the result is an error.
21638 mkdir [ -p ] [ -m mode ] dir ...
21640 Creates directories. With the -p option, non-existing parent
21641 directories are first created if necessary, and there will be no
21642 complaint if the directory already exists. The -m option can be
21643 used to specify (in octal) a set of file permissions for the
21644 created directories, otherwise mode 777 modified by the current
21645 umask (see umask(2)) is used.
21646 mv [ -fi ] filename dest
21648 mv [ -fi ] filename ... dir
21649 Moves files. In the first form, the specified filename is moved
21650 to the specified destination. In the second form, each of the
21651 filenames is taken in turn, and moved to a pathname in the spec‐
21652 ified directory that has the same last pathname component.
21653 By default, the user will be queried before replacing any file
21655 that the user cannot write to, but writable files will be
21656 silently removed. The -i option causes the user to be queried
21657 about replacing any existing files. The -f option causes any
21658 existing files to be silently deleted, without querying. -f
21659 takes precedence.
21660 Note that this mv will not move files across devices. Histori‐
21662 cal versions of mv, when actual renaming is impossible, fall
21663 back on copying and removing files; if this behaviour is de‐
21664 sired, use cp and rm manually. This may change in a future ver‐
21665 sion.
21666 rm [ -dfiRrs ] filename ...
21668 Removes files and directories specified.
21669 Normally, rm will not remove directories (except with the -R or
21671 -r options). The -d option causes rm to try removing directo‐
21672 ries with unlink (see unlink(2)), the same method used for
21673 files. Typically only the super-user can actually succeed in
21674 unlinking directories in this way. -d takes precedence over -R
21675 and -r.
21676 By default, the user will be queried before removing any file
21678 that the user cannot write to, but writable files will be
21679 silently removed. The -i option causes the user to be queried
21680 about removing any files. The -f option causes files to be
21681 silently deleted, without querying, and suppresses all error in‐
21682 dications. -f takes precedence.
21683 The -R and -r options cause rm to recursively descend into di‐
21685 rectories, deleting all files in the directory before removing
21686 the directory with the rmdir system call (see rmdir(2)).
21687 The -s option is a zsh extension to rm functionality. It en‐
21689 ables paranoid behaviour, intended to avoid common security
21690 problems involving a root-run rm being tricked into removing
21691 files other than the ones intended. It will refuse to follow
21692 symbolic links, so that (for example) ``rm /tmp/foo/passwd''
21693 can't accidentally remove /etc/passwd if /tmp/foo happens to be
21694 a link to /etc. It will also check where it is after leaving
21695 directories, so that a recursive removal of a deep directory
21696 tree can't end up recursively removing /usr as a result of di‐
21697 rectories being moved up the tree.
21698 rmdir dir ...
21700 Removes empty directories specified.
21701 sync Calls the system call of the same name (see sync(2)), which
21703 flushes dirty buffers to disk. It might return before the I/O
21704 has actually been completed.
21705
21707 The zsh/langinfo module makes available one parameter:
21708 langinfo
21710 An associative array that maps langinfo elements to their val‐
21711 ues.
21712 Your implementation may support a number of the following keys:
21714 CODESET, D_T_FMT, D_FMT, T_FMT, RADIXCHAR, THOUSEP, YESEXPR, NO‐
21716 EXPR, CRNCYSTR, ABDAY_{1..7}, DAY_{1..7}, ABMON_{1..12},
21717 MON_{1..12}, T_FMT_AMPM, AM_STR, PM_STR, ERA, ERA_D_FMT,
21718 ERA_D_T_FMT, ERA_T_FMT, ALT_DIGITS
21719
21721 The zsh/mapfile module provides one special associative array parameter
21722 of the same name.
21723 mapfile
21725 This associative array takes as keys the names of files; the re‐
21726 sulting value is the content of the file. The value is treated
21727 identically to any other text coming from a parameter. The
21728 value may also be assigned to, in which case the file in ques‐
21729 tion is written (whether or not it originally existed); or an
21730 element may be unset, which will delete the file in question.
21731 For example, `vared mapfile[myfile]' works as expected, editing
21732 the file `myfile'.
21733 When the array is accessed as a whole, the keys are the names of
21735 files in the current directory, and the values are empty (to
21736 save a huge overhead in memory). Thus ${(k)mapfile} has the
21737 same effect as the glob operator *(D), since files beginning
21738 with a dot are not special. Care must be taken with expressions
21739 such as rm ${(k)mapfile}, which will delete every file in the
21740 current directory without the usual `rm *' test.
21741 The parameter mapfile may be made read-only; in that case, files
21743 referenced may not be written or deleted.
21744 A file may conveniently be read into an array as one line per
21746 element with the form `array=("${(f@)mapfile[filename]}")'. The
21747 double quotes and the `@' are necessary to prevent empty lines
21748 from being removed. Note that if the file ends with a newline,
21749 the shell will split on the final newline, generating an addi‐
21750 tional empty field; this can be suppressed by using `ar‐
21751 ray=("${(f@)${mapfile[filename]%$'\n'}}")'.
21752 Limitations
21754 Although reading and writing of the file in question is efficiently
21755 handled, zsh's internal memory management may be arbitrarily baroque;
21756 however, mapfile is usually very much more efficient than anything in‐
21757 volving a loop. Note in particular that the whole contents of the file
21758 will always reside physically in memory when accessed (possibly multi‐
21759 ple times, due to standard parameter substitution operations). In par‐
21760 ticular, this means handling of sufficiently long files (greater than
21761 the machine's swap space, or than the range of the pointer type) will
21762 be incorrect.
21763 No errors are printed or flagged for non-existent, unreadable, or un‐
21765 writable files, as the parameter mechanism is too low in the shell exe‐
21766 cution hierarchy to make this convenient.
21767 It is unfortunate that the mechanism for loading modules does not yet
21769 allow the user to specify the name of the shell parameter to be given
21770 the special behaviour.
21771
21773 The zsh/mathfunc module provides standard mathematical functions for
21774 use when evaluating mathematical formulae. The syntax agrees with nor‐
21775 mal C and FORTRAN conventions, for example,
21776 (( f = sin(0.3) ))
21778 assigns the sine of 0.3 to the parameter f.
21780 Most functions take floating point arguments and return a floating
21782 point value. However, any necessary conversions from or to integer
21783 type will be performed automatically by the shell. Apart from atan
21784 with a second argument and the abs, int and float functions, all func‐
21785 tions behave as noted in the manual page for the corresponding C func‐
21786 tion, except that any arguments out of range for the function in ques‐
21787 tion will be detected by the shell and an error reported.
21788 The following functions take a single floating point argument: acos,
21790 acosh, asin, asinh, atan, atanh, cbrt, ceil, cos, cosh, erf, erfc, exp,
21791 expm1, fabs, floor, gamma, j0, j1, lgamma, log, log10, log1p, log2,
21792 logb, sin, sinh, sqrt, tan, tanh, y0, y1. The atan function can op‐
21793 tionally take a second argument, in which case it behaves like the C
21794 function atan2. The ilogb function takes a single floating point argu‐
21795 ment, but returns an integer.
21796 The function signgam takes no arguments, and returns an integer, which
21798 is the C variable of the same name, as described in gamma(3). Note
21799 that it is therefore only useful immediately after a call to gamma or
21800 lgamma. Note also that `signgam()' and `signgam' are distinct expres‐
21801 sions.
21802 The functions min, max, and sum are defined not in this module but in
21804 the zmathfunc autoloadable function, described in the section `Mathe‐
21805 matical Functions' in zshcontrib(1).
21806 The following functions take two floating point arguments: copysign,
21808 fmod, hypot, nextafter.
21809 The following take an integer first argument and a floating point sec‐
21811 ond argument: jn, yn.
21812 The following take a floating point first argument and an integer sec‐
21814 ond argument: ldexp, scalb.
21815 The function abs does not convert the type of its single argument; it
21817 returns the absolute value of either a floating point number or an in‐
21818 teger. The functions float and int convert their arguments into a
21819 floating point or integer value (by truncation) respectively.
21820 Note that the C pow function is available in ordinary math evaluation
21822 as the `**' operator and is not provided here.
21823 The function rand48 is available if your system's mathematical library
21825 has the function erand48(3). It returns a pseudo-random floating point
21826 number between 0 and 1. It takes a single string optional argument.
21827 If the argument is not present, the random number seed is initialised
21829 by three calls to the rand(3) function --- this produces the same ran‐
21830 dom numbers as the next three values of $RANDOM.
21831 If the argument is present, it gives the name of a scalar parameter
21833 where the current random number seed will be stored. On the first
21834 call, the value must contain at least twelve hexadecimal digits (the
21835 remainder of the string is ignored), or the seed will be initialised in
21836 the same manner as for a call to rand48 with no argument. Subsequent
21837 calls to rand48(param) will then maintain the seed in the parameter
21838 param as a string of twelve hexadecimal digits, with no base signifier.
21839 The random number sequences for different parameters are completely in‐
21840 dependent, and are also independent from that used by calls to rand48
21841 with no argument.
21842 For example, consider
21844 print $(( rand48(seed) ))
21846 print $(( rand48() ))
21847 print $(( rand48(seed) ))
21848 Assuming $seed does not exist, it will be initialised by the first
21850 call. In the second call, the default seed is initialised; note, how‐
21851 ever, that because of the properties of rand() there is a correlation
21852 between the seeds used for the two initialisations, so for more secure
21853 uses, you should generate your own 12-byte seed. The third call re‐
21854 turns to the same sequence of random numbers used in the first call,
21855 unaffected by the intervening rand48().
21856
21858 The zsh/nearcolor module replaces colours specified as hex triplets
21859 with the nearest colour in the 88 or 256 colour palettes that are
21860 widely used by terminal emulators. By default, 24-bit true colour es‐
21861 cape codes are generated when colours are specified using hex triplets.
21862 These are not supported by all terminals. The purpose of this module
21863 is to make it easier to define colour preferences in a form that can
21864 work across a range of terminal emulators.
21865 Aside from the default colour, the ANSI standard for terminal escape
21867 codes provides for eight colours. The bright attribute brings this to
21868 sixteen. These basic colours are commonly used in terminal applications
21869 due to being widely supported. Expanded 88 and 256 colour palettes are
21870 also common and, while the first sixteen colours vary somewhat between
21871 terminals and configurations, these add a generally consistent and pre‐
21872 dictable set of colours.
21873 In order to use the zsh/nearcolor module, it only needs to be loaded.
21875 Thereafter, whenever a colour is specified using a hex triplet, it will
21876 be compared against each of the available colours and the closest will
21877 be selected. The first sixteen colours are never matched in this
21878 process due to being unpredictable.
21879 It isn't possible to reliably detect support for true colour in the
21881 terminal emulator. It is therefore recommended to be selective in load‐
21882 ing the zsh/nearcolor module. For example, the following checks the
21883 COLORTERM environment variable:
21884 [[ $COLORTERM = *(24bit|truecolor)* ]] || zmodload zsh/nearcolor
21886 Note that some terminals accept the true color escape codes but map
21888 them internally to a more limited palette in a similar manner to the
21889 zsh/nearcolor module.
21890
21892 The zsh/newuser module is loaded at boot if it is available, the RCS
21893 option is set, and the PRIVILEGED option is not set (all three are true
21894 by default). This takes place immediately after commands in the global
21895 zshenv file (typically /etc/zshenv), if any, have been executed. If
21896 the module is not available it is silently ignored by the shell; the
21897 module may safely be removed from $MODULE_PATH by the administrator if
21898 it is not required.
21899 On loading, the module tests if any of the start-up files .zshenv,
21901 .zprofile, .zshrc or .zlogin exist in the directory given by the envi‐
21902 ronment variable ZDOTDIR, or the user's home directory if that is not
21903 set. The test is not performed and the module halts processing if the
21904 shell was in an emulation mode (i.e. had been invoked as some other
21905 shell than zsh).
21906 If none of the start-up files were found, the module then looks for the
21908 file newuser first in a sitewide directory, usually the parent direc‐
21909 tory of the site-functions directory, and if that is not found the mod‐
21910 ule searches in a version-specific directory, usually the parent of the
21911 functions directory containing version-specific functions. (These di‐
21912 rectories can be configured when zsh is built using the --en‐
21913 able-site-scriptdir=dir and --enable-scriptdir=dir flags to configure,
21914 respectively; the defaults are prefix/share/zsh and pre‐
21915 fix/share/zsh/$ZSH_VERSION where the default prefix is /usr/local.)
21916 If the file newuser is found, it is then sourced in the same manner as
21918 a start-up file. The file is expected to contain code to install
21919 start-up files for the user, however any valid shell code will be exe‐
21920 cuted.
21921 The zsh/newuser module is then unconditionally unloaded.
21923 Note that it is possible to achieve exactly the same effect as the
21925 zsh/newuser module by adding code to /etc/zshenv. The module exists
21926 simply to allow the shell to make arrangements for new users without
21927 the need for intervention by package maintainers and system administra‐
21928 tors.
21929 The script supplied with the module invokes the shell function
21931 zsh-newuser-install. This may be invoked directly by the user even if
21932 the zsh/newuser module is disabled. Note, however, that if the module
21933 is not installed the function will not be installed either. The func‐
21934 tion is documented in the section User Configuration Functions in zsh‐
21935 contrib(1).
21936
21938 The zsh/parameter module gives access to some of the internal hash ta‐
21939 bles used by the shell by defining some special parameters.
21940 options
21942 The keys for this associative array are the names of the options
21943 that can be set and unset using the setopt and unsetopt
21944 builtins. The value of each key is either the string on if the
21945 option is currently set, or the string off if the option is un‐
21946 set. Setting a key to one of these strings is like setting or
21947 unsetting the option, respectively. Unsetting a key in this ar‐
21948 ray is like setting it to the value off.
21949 commands
21951 This array gives access to the command hash table. The keys are
21952 the names of external commands, the values are the pathnames of
21953 the files that would be executed when the command would be in‐
21954 voked. Setting a key in this array defines a new entry in this
21955 table in the same way as with the hash builtin. Unsetting a key
21956 as in `unset "commands[foo]"' removes the entry for the given
21957 key from the command hash table.
21958 functions
21960 This associative array maps names of enabled functions to their
21961 definitions. Setting a key in it is like defining a function
21962 with the name given by the key and the body given by the value.
21963 Unsetting a key removes the definition for the function named by
21964 the key.
21965 dis_functions
21967 Like functions but for disabled functions.
21968 functions_source
21970 This readonly associative array maps names of enabled functions
21971 to the name of the file containing the source of the function.
21972 For an autoloaded function that has already been loaded, or
21974 marked for autoload with an absolute path, or that has had its
21975 path resolved with `functions -r', this is the file found for
21976 autoloading, resolved to an absolute path.
21977 For a function defined within the body of a script or sourced
21979 file, this is the name of that file. In this case, this is the
21980 exact path originally used to that file, which may be a relative
21981 path.
21982 For any other function, including any defined at an interactive
21984 prompt or an autoload function whose path has not yet been re‐
21985 solved, this is the empty string. However, the hash element is
21986 reported as defined just so long as the function is present:
21987 the keys to this hash are the same as those to $functions.
21988 dis_functions_source
21990 Like functions_source but for disabled functions.
21991 builtins
21993 This associative array gives information about the builtin com‐
21994 mands currently enabled. The keys are the names of the builtin
21995 commands and the values are either `undefined' for builtin com‐
21996 mands that will automatically be loaded from a module if invoked
21997 or `defined' for builtin commands that are already loaded.
21998 dis_builtins
22000 Like builtins but for disabled builtin commands.
22001 reswords
22003 This array contains the enabled reserved words.
22004 dis_reswords
22006 Like reswords but for disabled reserved words.
22007 patchars
22009 This array contains the enabled pattern characters.
22010 dis_patchars
22012 Like patchars but for disabled pattern characters.
22013 aliases
22015 This maps the names of the regular aliases currently enabled to
22016 their expansions.
22017 dis_aliases
22019 Like aliases but for disabled regular aliases.
22020 galiases
22022 Like aliases, but for global aliases.
22023 dis_galiases
22025 Like galiases but for disabled global aliases.
22026 saliases
22028 Like raliases, but for suffix aliases.
22029 dis_saliases
22031 Like saliases but for disabled suffix aliases.
22032 parameters
22034 The keys in this associative array are the names of the parame‐
22035 ters currently defined. The values are strings describing the
22036 type of the parameter, in the same format used by the t parame‐
22037 ter flag, see zshexpn(1) . Setting or unsetting keys in this
22038 array is not possible.
22039 modules
22041 An associative array giving information about modules. The keys
22042 are the names of the modules loaded, registered to be au‐
22043 toloaded, or aliased. The value says which state the named mod‐
22044 ule is in and is one of the strings `loaded', `autoloaded', or
22045 `alias:name', where name is the name the module is aliased to.
22046 Setting or unsetting keys in this array is not possible.
22048 dirstack
22050 A normal array holding the elements of the directory stack. Note
22051 that the output of the dirs builtin command includes one more
22052 directory, the current working directory.
22053 history
22055 This associative array maps history event numbers to the full
22056 history lines. Although it is presented as an associative ar‐
22057 ray, the array of all values (${history[@]}) is guaranteed to be
22058 returned in order from most recent to oldest history event, that
22059 is, by decreasing history event number.
22060 historywords
22062 A special array containing the words stored in the history.
22063 These also appear in most to least recent order.
22064 jobdirs
22066 This associative array maps job numbers to the directories from
22067 which the job was started (which may not be the current direc‐
22068 tory of the job).
22069 The keys of the associative arrays are usually valid job num‐
22071 bers, and these are the values output with, for example,
22072 ${(k)jobdirs}. Non-numeric job references may be used when
22073 looking up a value; for example, ${jobdirs[%+]} refers to the
22074 current job.
22075 jobtexts
22077 This associative array maps job numbers to the texts of the com‐
22078 mand lines that were used to start the jobs.
22079 Handling of the keys of the associative array is as described
22081 for jobdirs above.
22082 jobstates
22084 This associative array gives information about the states of the
22085 jobs currently known. The keys are the job numbers and the val‐
22086 ues are strings of the form `job-state:mark:pid=state...'. The
22087 job-state gives the state the whole job is currently in, one of
22088 `running', `suspended', or `done'. The mark is `+' for the cur‐
22089 rent job, `-' for the previous job and empty otherwise. This is
22090 followed by one `:pid=state' for every process in the job. The
22091 pids are, of course, the process IDs and the state describes the
22092 state of that process.
22093 Handling of the keys of the associative array is as described
22095 for jobdirs above.
22096 nameddirs
22098 This associative array maps the names of named directories to
22099 the pathnames they stand for.
22100 userdirs
22102 This associative array maps user names to the pathnames of their
22103 home directories.
22104 usergroups
22106 This associative array maps names of system groups of which the
22107 current user is a member to the corresponding group identifiers.
22108 The contents are the same as the groups output by the id com‐
22109 mand.
22110 funcfiletrace
22112 This array contains the absolute line numbers and corresponding
22113 file names for the point where the current function, sourced
22114 file, or (if EVAL_LINENO is set) eval command was called. The
22115 array is of the same length as funcsourcetrace and functrace,
22116 but differs from funcsourcetrace in that the line and file are
22117 the point of call, not the point of definition, and differs from
22118 functrace in that all values are absolute line numbers in files,
22119 rather than relative to the start of a function, if any.
22120 funcsourcetrace
22122 This array contains the file names and line numbers of the
22123 points where the functions, sourced files, and (if EVAL_LINENO
22124 is set) eval commands currently being executed were defined.
22125 The line number is the line where the `function name' or `name
22126 ()' started. In the case of an autoloaded function the line
22127 number is reported as zero. The format of each element is file‐
22128 name:lineno.
22129 For functions autoloaded from a file in native zsh format, where
22131 only the body of the function occurs in the file, or for files
22132 that have been executed by the source or `.' builtins, the trace
22133 information is shown as filename:0, since the entire file is the
22134 definition. The source file name is resolved to an absolute
22135 path when the function is loaded or the path to it otherwise re‐
22136 solved.
22137 Most users will be interested in the information in the func‐
22139 filetrace array instead.
22140 funcstack
22142 This array contains the names of the functions, sourced files,
22143 and (if EVAL_LINENO is set) eval commands. currently being exe‐
22144 cuted. The first element is the name of the function using the
22145 parameter.
22146 The standard shell array zsh_eval_context can be used to deter‐
22148 mine the type of shell construct being executed at each depth:
22149 note, however, that is in the opposite order, with the most re‐
22150 cent item last, and it is more detailed, for example including
22151 an entry for toplevel, the main shell code being executed either
22152 interactively or from a script, which is not present in $func‐
22153 stack.
22154 functrace
22156 This array contains the names and line numbers of the callers
22157 corresponding to the functions currently being executed. The
22158 format of each element is name:lineno. Callers are also shown
22159 for sourced files; the caller is the point where the source or
22160 `.' command was executed.
22161
22163 The zsh/pcre module makes some commands available as builtins:
22164 pcre_compile [ -aimxs ] PCRE
22166 Compiles a perl-compatible regular expression.
22167 Option -a will force the pattern to be anchored. Option -i will
22169 compile a case-insensitive pattern. Option -m will compile a
22170 multi-line pattern; that is, ^ and $ will match newlines within
22171 the pattern. Option -x will compile an extended pattern,
22172 wherein whitespace and # comments are ignored. Option -s makes
22173 the dot metacharacter match all characters, including those that
22174 indicate newline.
22175 pcre_study
22177 Studies the previously-compiled PCRE which may result in faster
22178 matching.
22179 pcre_match [ -v var ] [ -a arr ] [ -n offset ] [ -b ] string
22181 Returns successfully if string matches the previously-compiled
22182 PCRE.
22183 Upon successful match, if the expression captures substrings
22185 within parentheses, pcre_match will set the array match to those
22186 substrings, unless the -a option is given, in which case it will
22187 set the array arr. Similarly, the variable MATCH will be set to
22188 the entire matched portion of the string, unless the -v option
22189 is given, in which case the variable var will be set. No vari‐
22190 ables are altered if there is no successful match. A -n option
22191 starts searching for a match from the byte offset position in
22192 string. If the -b option is given, the variable ZPCRE_OP will
22193 be set to an offset pair string, representing the byte offset
22194 positions of the entire matched portion within the string. For
22195 example, a ZPCRE_OP set to "32 45" indicates that the matched
22196 portion began on byte offset 32 and ended on byte offset 44.
22197 Here, byte offset position 45 is the position directly after the
22198 matched portion. Keep in mind that the byte position isn't nec‐
22199 essarily the same as the character position when UTF-8 charac‐
22200 ters are involved. Consequently, the byte offset positions are
22201 only to be relied on in the context of using them for subsequent
22202 searches on string, using an offset position as an argument to
22203 the -n option. This is mostly used to implement the "find all
22204 non-overlapping matches" functionality.
22205 A simple example of "find all non-overlapping matches":
22207 string="The following zip codes: 78884 90210 99513"
22209 pcre_compile -m "\d{5}"
22210 accum=()
22211 pcre_match -b -- $string
22212 while [[ $? -eq 0 ]] do
22213 b=($=ZPCRE_OP)
22214 accum+=$MATCH
22215 pcre_match -b -n $b[2] -- $string
22216 done
22217 print -l $accum
22218 The zsh/pcre module makes available the following test condition:
22220 expr -pcre-match pcre
22222 Matches a string against a perl-compatible regular expression.
22223 For example,
22225 [[ "$text" -pcre-match ^d+$ ]] &&
22227 print text variable contains only "d's".
22228 If the REMATCH_PCRE option is set, the =~ operator is equivalent
22230 to -pcre-match, and the NO_CASE_MATCH option may be used. Note
22231 that NO_CASE_MATCH never applies to the pcre_match builtin, in‐
22232 stead use the -i switch of pcre_compile.
22233
22235 The zsh/param/private module is used to create parameters whose scope
22236 is limited to the current function body, and not to other functions
22237 called by the current function.
22238 This module provides a single autoloaded builtin:
22240 private [ {+|-}AHUahlprtux ] [ {+|-}EFLRZi [ n ] ] [ name[=value] ... ]
22242 The private builtin accepts all the same options and arguments
22243 as local (zshbuiltins(1)) except for the `-T' option. Tied pa‐
22244 rameters may not be made private.
22245 If used at the top level (outside a function scope), private
22247 creates a normal parameter in the same manner as declare or
22248 typeset. A warning about this is printed if WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL
22249 is set (zshoptions(1)). Used inside a function scope, private
22250 creates a local parameter similar to one declared with local,
22251 except having special properties noted below.
22252 Special parameters which expose or manipulate internal shell
22254 state, such as ARGC, argv, COLUMNS, LINES, UID, EUID, IFS,
22255 PROMPT, RANDOM, SECONDS, etc., cannot be made private unless the
22256 `-h' option is used to hide the special meaning of the parame‐
22257 ter. This may change in the future.
22258 As with other typeset equivalents, private is both a builtin and a re‐
22260 served word, so arrays may be assigned with parenthesized word list
22261 name=(value...) syntax. However, the reserved word `private' is not
22262 available until zsh/param/private is loaded, so care must be taken with
22263 order of execution and parsing for function definitions which use pri‐
22264 vate. To compensate for this, the module also adds the option `-P' to
22265 the `local' builtin to declare private parameters.
22266 For example, this construction fails if zsh/param/private has not yet
22268 been loaded when `bad_declaration' is defined:
22269 bad_declaration() {
22270 zmodload zsh/param/private
22271 private array=( one two three )
22272 }
22273 This construction works because local is already a keyword, and the
22275 module is loaded before the statement is executed:
22276 good_declaration() {
22277 zmodload zsh/param/private
22278 local -P array=( one two three )
22279 }
22280 The following is usable in scripts but may have trouble with autoload:
22282 zmodload zsh/param/private
22283 iffy_declaration() {
22284 private array=( one two three )
22285 }
22286 The private builtin may always be used with scalar assignments and for
22288 declarations without assignments.
22289 Parameters declared with private have the following properties:
22291 • Within the function body where it is declared, the parameter be‐
22293 haves as a local, except as noted above for tied or special pa‐
22294 rameters.
22295 • The type of a parameter declared private cannot be changed in
22297 the scope where it was declared, even if the parameter is unset.
22298 Thus an array cannot be assigned to a private scalar, etc.
22299 • Within any other function called by the declaring function, the
22301 private parameter does NOT hide other parameters of the same
22302 name, so for example a global parameter of the same name is vis‐
22303 ible and may be assigned or unset. This includes calls to
22304 anonymous functions, although that may also change in the fu‐
22305 ture.
22306 • An exported private remains in the environment of inner scopes
22308 but appears unset for the current shell in those scopes. Gener‐
22309 ally, exporting private parameters should be avoided.
22310 Note that this differs from the static scope defined by compiled lan‐
22312 guages derived from C, in that the a new call to the same function cre‐
22313 ates a new scope, i.e., the parameter is still associated with the call
22314 stack rather than with the function definition. It differs from ksh
22315 `typeset -S' because the syntax used to define the function has no
22316 bearing on whether the parameter scope is respected.
22317
22319 The zsh/regex module makes available the following test condition:
22320 expr -regex-match regex
22322 Matches a string against a POSIX extended regular expression.
22323 On successful match, matched portion of the string will normally
22324 be placed in the MATCH variable. If there are any capturing
22325 parentheses within the regex, then the match array variable will
22326 contain those. If the match is not successful, then the vari‐
22327 ables will not be altered.
22328 For example,
22330 [[ alphabetical -regex-match ^a([^a]+)a([^a]+)a ]] &&
22332 print -l $MATCH X $match
22333 If the option REMATCH_PCRE is not set, then the =~ operator will
22335 automatically load this module as needed and will invoke the
22336 -regex-match operator.
22337 If BASH_REMATCH is set, then the array BASH_REMATCH will be set
22339 instead of MATCH and match.
22340
22342 The zsh/sched module makes available one builtin command and one param‐
22343 eter.
22344 sched [-o] [+]hh:mm[:ss] command ...
22346 sched [-o] [+]seconds command ...
22347 sched [ -item ]
22348 Make an entry in the scheduled list of commands to execute. The
22349 time may be specified in either absolute or relative time, and
22350 either as hours, minutes and (optionally) seconds separated by a
22351 colon, or seconds alone. An absolute number of seconds indi‐
22352 cates the time since the epoch (1970/01/01 00:00); this is use‐
22353 ful in combination with the features in the zsh/datetime module,
22354 see the zsh/datetime module entry in zshmodules(1).
22355 With no arguments, prints the list of scheduled commands. If
22357 the scheduled command has the -o flag set, this is shown at the
22358 start of the command.
22359 With the argument `-item', removes the given item from the list.
22361 The numbering of the list is continuous and entries are in time
22362 order, so the numbering can change when entries are added or
22363 deleted.
22364 Commands are executed either immediately before a prompt, or
22366 while the shell's line editor is waiting for input. In the lat‐
22367 ter case it is useful to be able to produce output that does not
22368 interfere with the line being edited. Providing the option -o
22369 causes the shell to clear the command line before the event and
22370 redraw it afterwards. This should be used with any scheduled
22371 event that produces visible output to the terminal; it is not
22372 needed, for example, with output that updates a terminal emula‐
22373 tor's title bar.
22374 To effect changes to the editor buffer when an event executes,
22376 use the `zle' command with no arguments to test whether the edi‐
22377 tor is active, and if it is, then use `zle widget' to access the
22378 editor via the named widget.
22379 The sched builtin is not made available by default when the
22381 shell starts in a mode emulating another shell. It can be made
22382 available with the command `zmodload -F zsh/sched b:sched'.
22383 zsh_scheduled_events
22385 A readonly array corresponding to the events scheduled by the
22386 sched builtin. The indices of the array correspond to the num‐
22387 bers shown when sched is run with no arguments (provided that
22388 the KSH_ARRAYS option is not set). The value of the array con‐
22389 sists of the scheduled time in seconds since the epoch (see the
22390 section `The zsh/datetime Module' for facilities for using this
22391 number), followed by a colon, followed by any options (which may
22392 be empty but will be preceded by a `-' otherwise), followed by a
22393 colon, followed by the command to be executed.
22394 The sched builtin should be used for manipulating the events.
22396 Note that this will have an immediate effect on the contents of
22397 the array, so that indices may become invalid.
22398
22400 The zsh/net/socket module makes available one builtin command:
22401 zsocket [ -altv ] [ -d fd ] [ args ]
22403 zsocket is implemented as a builtin to allow full use of shell
22404 command line editing, file I/O, and job control mechanisms.
22405 Outbound Connections
22407 zsocket [ -v ] [ -d fd ] filename
22408 Open a new Unix domain connection to filename. The shell param‐
22409 eter REPLY will be set to the file descriptor associated with
22410 that connection. Currently, only stream connections are sup‐
22411 ported.
22412 If -d is specified, its argument will be taken as the target
22414 file descriptor for the connection.
22415 In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
22417 File descriptors can be closed with normal shell syntax when no
22419 longer needed, for example:
22420 exec {REPLY}>&-
22422 Inbound Connections
22424 zsocket -l [ -v ] [ -d fd ] filename
22425 zsocket -l will open a socket listening on filename. The shell
22426 parameter REPLY will be set to the file descriptor associated
22427 with that listener. The file descriptor remains open in sub‐
22428 shells and forked external executables.
22429 If -d is specified, its argument will be taken as the target
22431 file descriptor for the connection.
22432 In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
22434 zsocket -a [ -tv ] [ -d targetfd ] listenfd
22436 zsocket -a will accept an incoming connection to the socket as‐
22437 sociated with listenfd. The shell parameter REPLY will be set
22438 to the file descriptor associated with the inbound connection.
22439 The file descriptor remains open in subshells and forked exter‐
22440 nal executables.
22441 If -d is specified, its argument will be taken as the target
22443 file descriptor for the connection.
22444 If -t is specified, zsocket will return if no incoming connec‐
22446 tion is pending. Otherwise it will wait for one.
22447 In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
22449
22451 The zsh/stat module makes available one builtin command under two pos‐
22452 sible names:
22453 zstat [ -gnNolLtTrs ] [ -f fd ] [ -H hash ] [ -A array ] [ -F fmt ]
22455 [ +element ] [ file ... ]
22456 stat ...
22457 The command acts as a front end to the stat system call (see
22458 stat(2)). The same command is provided with two names; as the
22459 name stat is often used by an external command it is recommended
22460 that only the zstat form of the command is used. This can be
22461 arranged by loading the module with the command `zmodload -F
22462 zsh/stat b:zstat'.
22463 If the stat call fails, the appropriate system error message
22465 printed and status 1 is returned. The fields of struct stat
22466 give information about the files provided as arguments to the
22467 command. In addition to those available from the stat call, an
22468 extra element `link' is provided. These elements are:
22469 device The number of the device on which the file resides.
22471 inode The unique number of the file on this device (`inode'
22473 number).
22474 mode The mode of the file; that is, the file's type and access
22476 permissions. With the -s option, this will be returned
22477 as a string corresponding to the first column in the dis‐
22478 play of the ls -l command.
22479 nlink The number of hard links to the file.
22481 uid The user ID of the owner of the file. With the -s op‐
22483 tion, this is displayed as a user name.
22484 gid The group ID of the file. With the -s option, this is
22486 displayed as a group name.
22487 rdev The raw device number. This is only useful for special
22489 devices.
22490 size The size of the file in bytes.
22492 atime
22494 mtime
22495 ctime The last access, modification and inode change times of
22496 the file, respectively, as the number of seconds since
22497 midnight GMT on 1st January, 1970. With the -s option,
22498 these are printed as strings for the local time zone; the
22499 format can be altered with the -F option, and with the -g
22500 option the times are in GMT.
22501 blksize
22503 The number of bytes in one allocation block on the device
22504 on which the file resides.
22505 block The number of disk blocks used by the file.
22507 link If the file is a link and the -L option is in effect,
22509 this contains the name of the file linked to, otherwise
22510 it is empty. Note that if this element is selected
22511 (``zstat +link'') then the -L option is automatically
22512 used.
22513 A particular element may be selected by including its name pre‐
22515 ceded by a `+' in the option list; only one element is allowed.
22516 The element may be shortened to any unique set of leading char‐
22517 acters. Otherwise, all elements will be shown for all files.
22518 Options:
22520 -A array
22522 Instead of displaying the results on standard output, as‐
22523 sign them to an array, one struct stat element per array
22524 element for each file in order. In this case neither the
22525 name of the element nor the name of the files appears in
22526 array unless the -t or -n options were given, respec‐
22527 tively. If -t is given, the element name appears as a
22528 prefix to the appropriate array element; if -n is given,
22529 the file name appears as a separate array element preced‐
22530 ing all the others. Other formatting options are re‐
22531 spected.
22532 -H hash
22534 Similar to -A, but instead assign the values to hash.
22535 The keys are the elements listed above. If the -n option
22536 is provided then the name of the file is included in the
22537 hash with key name.
22538 -f fd Use the file on file descriptor fd instead of named
22540 files; no list of file names is allowed in this case.
22541 -F fmt Supplies a strftime (see strftime(3)) string for the for‐
22543 matting of the time elements. The format string supports
22544 all of the zsh extensions described in the section EXPAN‐
22545 SION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1). The -s option is
22546 implied.
22547 -g Show the time elements in the GMT time zone. The -s op‐
22549 tion is implied.
22550 -l List the names of the type elements (to standard output
22552 or an array as appropriate) and return immediately; argu‐
22553 ments, and options other than -A, are ignored.
22554 -L Perform an lstat (see lstat(2)) rather than a stat system
22556 call. In this case, if the file is a link, information
22557 about the link itself rather than the target file is re‐
22558 turned. This option is required to make the link element
22559 useful. It's important to note that this is the exact
22560 opposite from ls(1), etc.
22561 -n Always show the names of files. Usually these are only
22563 shown when output is to standard output and there is more
22564 than one file in the list.
22565 -N Never show the names of files.
22567 -o If a raw file mode is printed, show it in octal, which is
22569 more useful for human consumption than the default of
22570 decimal. A leading zero will be printed in this case.
22571 Note that this does not affect whether a raw or formatted
22572 file mode is shown, which is controlled by the -r and -s
22573 options, nor whether a mode is shown at all.
22574 -r Print raw data (the default format) alongside string data
22576 (the -s format); the string data appears in parentheses
22577 after the raw data.
22578 -s Print mode, uid, gid and the three time elements as
22580 strings instead of numbers. In each case the format is
22581 like that of ls -l.
22582 -t Always show the type names for the elements of struct
22584 stat. Usually these are only shown when output is to
22585 standard output and no individual element has been se‐
22586 lected.
22587 -T Never show the type names of the struct stat elements.
22589
22591 The zsh/system module makes available various builtin commands and pa‐
22592 rameters.
22593 Builtins
22595 syserror [ -e errvar ] [ -p prefix ] [ errno | errname ]
22596 This command prints out the error message associated with errno,
22597 a system error number, followed by a newline to standard error.
22598 Instead of the error number, a name errname, for example ENOENT,
22600 may be used. The set of names is the same as the contents of
22601 the array errnos, see below.
22602 If the string prefix is given, it is printed in front of the er‐
22604 ror message, with no intervening space.
22605 If errvar is supplied, the entire message, without a newline, is
22607 assigned to the parameter names errvar and nothing is output.
22608 A return status of 0 indicates the message was successfully
22610 printed (although it may not be useful if the error number was
22611 out of the system's range), a return status of 1 indicates an
22612 error in the parameters, and a return status of 2 indicates the
22613 error name was not recognised (no message is printed for this).
22614 sysopen [ -arw ] [ -m permissions ] [ -o options ]
22617 -u fd file
22618 This command opens a file. The -r, -w and -a flags indicate
22619 whether the file should be opened for reading, writing and ap‐
22620 pending, respectively. The -m option allows the initial permis‐
22621 sions to use when creating a file to be specified in octal form.
22622 The file descriptor is specified with -u. Either an explicit
22623 file descriptor in the range 0 to 9 can be specified or a vari‐
22624 able name can be given to which the file descriptor number will
22625 be assigned.
22626 The -o option allows various system specific options to be spec‐
22628 ified as a comma-separated list. The following is a list of pos‐
22629 sible options. Note that, depending on the system, some may not
22630 be available.
22631 cloexec
22632 mark file to be closed when other programs are executed
22633 (else the file descriptor remains open in subshells and
22634 forked external executables)
22635 create
22637 creat create file if it does not exist
22638 excl create file, error if it already exists
22640 noatime
22642 suppress updating of the file atime
22643 nofollow
22645 fail if file is a symbolic link
22646 sync request that writes wait until data has been physically
22648 written
22649 truncate
22651 trunc truncate file to size 0
22652 To close the file, use one of the following:
22654 exec {fd}<&-
22656 exec {fd}>&-
22657 sysread [ -c countvar ] [ -i infd ] [ -o outfd ]
22660 [ -s bufsize ] [ -t timeout ] [ param ]
22661 Perform a single system read from file descriptor infd, or zero
22662 if that is not given. The result of the read is stored in param
22663 or REPLY if that is not given. If countvar is given, the number
22664 of bytes read is assigned to the parameter named by countvar.
22665 The maximum number of bytes read is bufsize or 8192 if that is
22667 not given, however the command returns as soon as any number of
22668 bytes was successfully read.
22669 If timeout is given, it specifies a timeout in seconds, which
22671 may be zero to poll the file descriptor. This is handled by the
22672 poll system call if available, otherwise the select system call
22673 if available.
22674 If outfd is given, an attempt is made to write all the bytes
22676 just read to the file descriptor outfd. If this fails, because
22677 of a system error other than EINTR or because of an internal zsh
22678 error during an interrupt, the bytes read but not written are
22679 stored in the parameter named by param if supplied (no default
22680 is used in this case), and the number of bytes read but not
22681 written is stored in the parameter named by countvar if that is
22682 supplied. If it was successful, countvar contains the full num‐
22683 ber of bytes transferred, as usual, and param is not set.
22684 The error EINTR (interrupted system call) is handled internally
22686 so that shell interrupts are transparent to the caller. Any
22687 other error causes a return.
22688 The possible return statuses are
22690 0 At least one byte of data was successfully read and, if
22691 appropriate, written.
22692 1 There was an error in the parameters to the command.
22694 This is the only error for which a message is printed to
22695 standard error.
22696 2 There was an error on the read, or on polling the input
22698 file descriptor for a timeout. The parameter ERRNO gives
22699 the error.
22700 3 Data were successfully read, but there was an error writ‐
22702 ing them to outfd. The parameter ERRNO gives the error.
22703 4 The attempt to read timed out. Note this does not set
22705 ERRNO as this is not a system error.
22706 5 No system error occurred, but zero bytes were read. This
22708 usually indicates end of file. The parameters are set
22709 according to the usual rules; no write to outfd is at‐
22710 tempted.
22711 sysseek [ -u fd ] [ -w start|end|current ] offset
22713 The current file position at which future reads and writes will
22714 take place is adjusted to the specified byte offset. The offset
22715 is evaluated as a math expression. The -u option allows the file
22716 descriptor to be specified. By default the offset is specified
22717 relative to the start or the file but, with the -w option, it is
22718 possible to specify that the offset should be relative to the
22719 current position or the end of the file.
22720 syswrite [ -c countvar ] [ -o outfd ] data
22722 The data (a single string of bytes) are written to the file de‐
22723 scriptor outfd, or 1 if that is not given, using the write sys‐
22724 tem call. Multiple write operations may be used if the first
22725 does not write all the data.
22726 If countvar is given, the number of byte written is stored in
22728 the parameter named by countvar; this may not be the full length
22729 of data if an error occurred.
22730 The error EINTR (interrupted system call) is handled internally
22732 by retrying; otherwise an error causes the command to return.
22733 For example, if the file descriptor is set to non-blocking out‐
22734 put, an error EAGAIN (on some systems, EWOULDBLOCK) may result
22735 in the command returning early.
22736 The return status may be 0 for success, 1 for an error in the
22738 parameters to the command, or 2 for an error on the write; no
22739 error message is printed in the last case, but the parameter ER‐
22740 RNO will reflect the error that occurred.
22741 zsystem flock [ -t timeout ] [ -f var ] [-er] file
22743 zsystem flock -u fd_expr
22744 The builtin zsystem's subcommand flock performs advisory file
22745 locking (via the fcntl(2) system call) over the entire contents
22746 of the given file. This form of locking requires the processes
22747 accessing the file to cooperate; its most obvious use is between
22748 two instances of the shell itself.
22749 In the first form the named file, which must already exist, is
22751 locked by opening a file descriptor to the file and applying a
22752 lock to the file descriptor. The lock terminates when the shell
22753 process that created the lock exits; it is therefore often con‐
22754 venient to create file locks within subshells, since the lock is
22755 automatically released when the subshell exits. Note that use
22756 of the print builtin with the -u option will, as a side effect,
22757 release the lock, as will redirection to the file in the shell
22758 holding the lock. To work around this use a subshell, e.g.
22759 `(print message) >> file'. Status 0 is returned if the lock
22760 succeeds, else status 1.
22761 In the second form the file descriptor given by the arithmetic
22763 expression fd_expr is closed, releasing a lock. The file de‐
22764 scriptor can be queried by using the `-f var' form during the
22765 lock; on a successful lock, the shell variable var is set to the
22766 file descriptor used for locking. The lock will be released if
22767 the file descriptor is closed by any other means, for example
22768 using `exec {var}>&-'; however, the form described here performs
22769 a safety check that the file descriptor is in use for file lock‐
22770 ing.
22771 By default the shell waits indefinitely for the lock to succeed.
22773 The option -t timeout specifies a timeout for the lock in sec‐
22774 onds; currently this must be an integer. The shell will attempt
22775 to lock the file once a second during this period. If the at‐
22776 tempt times out, status 2 is returned.
22777 If the option -e is given, the file descriptor for the lock is
22779 preserved when the shell uses exec to start a new process; oth‐
22780 erwise it is closed at that point and the lock released.
22781 If the option -r is given, the lock is only for reading, other‐
22783 wise it is for reading and writing. The file descriptor is
22784 opened accordingly.
22785 zsystem supports subcommand
22787 The builtin zsystem's subcommand supports tests whether a given
22788 subcommand is supported. It returns status 0 if so, else status
22789 1. It operates silently unless there was a syntax error (i.e.
22790 the wrong number of arguments), in which case status 255 is re‐
22791 turned. Status 1 can indicate one of two things: subcommand is
22792 known but not supported by the current operating system, or sub‐
22793 command is not known (possibly because this is an older version
22794 of the shell before it was implemented).
22795 Math Functions
22797 systell(fd)
22798 The systell math function returns the current file position for
22799 the file descriptor passed as an argument.
22800 Parameters
22802 errnos A readonly array of the names of errors defined on the system.
22803 These are typically macros defined in C by including the system
22804 header file errno.h. The index of each name (assuming the op‐
22805 tion KSH_ARRAYS is unset) corresponds to the error number. Er‐
22806 ror numbers num before the last known error which have no name
22807 are given the name Enum in the array.
22808 Note that aliases for errors are not handled; only the canonical
22810 name is used.
22811 sysparams
22813 A readonly associative array. The keys are:
22814 pid Returns the process ID of the current process, even in
22816 subshells. Compare $$, which returns the process ID of
22817 the main shell process.
22818 ppid Returns the process ID of the parent of the current
22820 process, even in subshells. Compare $PPID, which returns
22821 the process ID of the parent of the main shell process.
22822 procsubstpid
22824 Returns the process ID of the last process started for
22825 process substitution, i.e. the <(...) and >(...) expan‐
22826 sions.
22827
22829 The zsh/net/tcp module makes available one builtin command:
22830 ztcp [ -acflLtv ] [ -d fd ] [ args ]
22832 ztcp is implemented as a builtin to allow full use of shell com‐
22833 mand line editing, file I/O, and job control mechanisms.
22834 If ztcp is run with no options, it will output the contents of
22836 its session table.
22837 If it is run with only the option -L, it will output the con‐
22839 tents of the session table in a format suitable for automatic
22840 parsing. The option is ignored if given with a command to open
22841 or close a session. The output consists of a set of lines, one
22842 per session, each containing the following elements separated by
22843 spaces:
22844 File descriptor
22846 The file descriptor in use for the connection. For nor‐
22847 mal inbound (I) and outbound (O) connections this may be
22848 read and written by the usual shell mechanisms. However,
22849 it should only be close with `ztcp -c'.
22850 Connection type
22852 A letter indicating how the session was created:
22853 Z A session created with the zftp command.
22855 L A connection opened for listening with `ztcp -l'.
22857 I An inbound connection accepted with `ztcp -a'.
22859 O An outbound connection created with `ztcp host
22861 ...'.
22862 The local host
22864 This is usually set to an all-zero IP address as the ad‐
22865 dress of the localhost is irrelevant.
22866 The local port
22868 This is likely to be zero unless the connection is for
22869 listening.
22870 The remote host
22872 This is the fully qualified domain name of the peer, if
22873 available, else an IP address. It is an all-zero IP ad‐
22874 dress for a session opened for listening.
22875 The remote port
22877 This is zero for a connection opened for listening.
22878 Outbound Connections
22880 ztcp [ -v ] [ -d fd ] host [ port ]
22881 Open a new TCP connection to host. If the port is omitted, it
22882 will default to port 23. The connection will be added to the
22883 session table and the shell parameter REPLY will be set to the
22884 file descriptor associated with that connection.
22885 If -d is specified, its argument will be taken as the target
22887 file descriptor for the connection.
22888 In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
22890 Inbound Connections
22892 ztcp -l [ -v ] [ -d fd ] port
22893 ztcp -l will open a socket listening on TCP port. The socket
22894 will be added to the session table and the shell parameter REPLY
22895 will be set to the file descriptor associated with that lis‐
22896 tener.
22897 If -d is specified, its argument will be taken as the target
22899 file descriptor for the connection.
22900 In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
22902 ztcp -a [ -tv ] [ -d targetfd ] listenfd
22904 ztcp -a will accept an incoming connection to the port associ‐
22905 ated with listenfd. The connection will be added to the session
22906 table and the shell parameter REPLY will be set to the file de‐
22907 scriptor associated with the inbound connection.
22908 If -d is specified, its argument will be taken as the target
22910 file descriptor for the connection.
22911 If -t is specified, ztcp will return if no incoming connection
22913 is pending. Otherwise it will wait for one.
22914 In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
22916 Closing Connections
22918 ztcp -cf [ -v ] [ fd ]
22919 ztcp -c [ -v ] [ fd ]
22920 ztcp -c will close the socket associated with fd. The socket
22921 will be removed from the session table. If fd is not specified,
22922 ztcp will close everything in the session table.
22923 Normally, sockets registered by zftp (see zshmodules(1) ) cannot
22925 be closed this way. In order to force such a socket closed, use
22926 -f.
22927 In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
22929 Example
22931 Here is how to create a TCP connection between two instances of zsh.
22932 We need to pick an unassigned port; here we use the randomly chosen
22933 5123.
22934 On host1,
22936 zmodload zsh/net/tcp
22937 ztcp -l 5123
22938 listenfd=$REPLY
22939 ztcp -a $listenfd
22940 fd=$REPLY
22941 The second from last command blocks until there is an incoming connec‐
22942 tion.
22943 Now create a connection from host2 (which may, of course, be the same
22945 machine):
22946 zmodload zsh/net/tcp
22947 ztcp host1 5123
22948 fd=$REPLY
22949 Now on each host, $fd contains a file descriptor for talking to the
22951 other. For example, on host1:
22952 print This is a message >&$fd
22953 and on host2:
22954 read -r line <&$fd; print -r - $line
22955 prints `This is a message'.
22956 To tidy up, on host1:
22958 ztcp -c $listenfd
22959 ztcp -c $fd
22960 and on host2
22961 ztcp -c $fd
22962
22964 The zsh/termcap module makes available one builtin command:
22965 echotc cap [ arg ... ]
22967 Output the termcap value corresponding to the capability cap,
22968 with optional arguments.
22969 The zsh/termcap module makes available one parameter:
22971 termcap
22973 An associative array that maps termcap capability codes to their
22974 values.
22975
22977 The zsh/terminfo module makes available one builtin command:
22978 echoti cap [ arg ]
22980 Output the terminfo value corresponding to the capability cap,
22981 instantiated with arg if applicable.
22982 The zsh/terminfo module makes available one parameter:
22984 terminfo
22986 An associative array that maps terminfo capability names to
22987 their values.
22988
22990 The zsh/zftp module makes available one builtin command:
22991 zftp subcommand [ args ]
22993 The zsh/zftp module is a client for FTP (file transfer proto‐
22994 col). It is implemented as a builtin to allow full use of shell
22995 command line editing, file I/O, and job control mechanisms. Of‐
22996 ten, users will access it via shell functions providing a more
22997 powerful interface; a set is provided with the zsh distribution
22998 and is described in zshzftpsys(1). However, the zftp command is
22999 entirely usable in its own right.
23000 All commands consist of the command name zftp followed by the
23002 name of a subcommand. These are listed below. The return sta‐
23003 tus of each subcommand is supposed to reflect the success or
23004 failure of the remote operation. See a description of the vari‐
23005 able ZFTP_VERBOSE for more information on how responses from the
23006 server may be printed.
23007 Subcommands
23009 open host[:port] [ user [ password [ account ] ] ]
23010 Open a new FTP session to host, which may be the name of a
23011 TCP/IP connected host or an IP number in the standard dot nota‐
23012 tion. If the argument is in the form host:port, open a connec‐
23013 tion to TCP port port instead of the standard FTP port 21. This
23014 may be the name of a TCP service or a number: see the descrip‐
23015 tion of ZFTP_PORT below for more information.
23016 If IPv6 addresses in colon format are used, the host should be
23018 surrounded by quoted square brackets to distinguish it from the
23019 port, for example '[fe80::203:baff:fe02:8b56]'. For consistency
23020 this is allowed with all forms of host.
23021 Remaining arguments are passed to the login subcommand. Note
23023 that if no arguments beyond host are supplied, open will not au‐
23024 tomatically call login. If no arguments at all are supplied,
23025 open will use the parameters set by the params subcommand.
23026 After a successful open, the shell variables ZFTP_HOST,
23028 ZFTP_PORT, ZFTP_IP and ZFTP_SYSTEM are available; see `Vari‐
23029 ables' below.
23030 login [ name [ password [ account ] ] ]
23032 user [ name [ password [ account ] ] ]
23033 Login the user name with parameters password and account. Any
23034 of the parameters can be omitted, and will be read from standard
23035 input if needed (name is always needed). If standard input is a
23036 terminal, a prompt for each one will be printed on standard er‐
23037 ror and password will not be echoed. If any of the parameters
23038 are not used, a warning message is printed.
23039 After a successful login, the shell variables ZFTP_USER,
23041 ZFTP_ACCOUNT and ZFTP_PWD are available; see `Variables' below.
23042 This command may be re-issued when a user is already logged in,
23044 and the server will first be reinitialized for a new user.
23045 params [ host [ user [ password [ account ] ] ] ]
23047 params -
23048 Store the given parameters for a later open command with no ar‐
23049 guments. Only those given on the command line will be remem‐
23050 bered. If no arguments are given, the parameters currently set
23051 are printed, although the password will appear as a line of
23052 stars; the return status is one if no parameters were set, zero
23053 otherwise.
23054 Any of the parameters may be specified as a `?', which may need
23056 to be quoted to protect it from shell expansion. In this case,
23057 the appropriate parameter will be read from stdin as with the
23058 login subcommand, including special handling of password. If
23059 the `?' is followed by a string, that is used as the prompt for
23060 reading the parameter instead of the default message (any neces‐
23061 sary punctuation and whitespace should be included at the end of
23062 the prompt). The first letter of the parameter (only) may be
23063 quoted with a `\'; hence an argument "\\$word" guarantees that
23064 the string from the shell parameter $word will be treated liter‐
23065 ally, whether or not it begins with a `?'.
23066 If instead a single `-' is given, the existing parameters, if
23068 any, are deleted. In that case, calling open with no arguments
23069 will cause an error.
23070 The list of parameters is not deleted after a close, however it
23072 will be deleted if the zsh/zftp module is unloaded.
23073 For example,
23075 zftp params ftp.elsewhere.xx juser '?Password for juser: '
23077 will store the host ftp.elsewhere.xx and the user juser and then
23079 prompt the user for the corresponding password with the given
23080 prompt.
23081 test Test the connection; if the server has reported that it has
23083 closed the connection (maybe due to a timeout), return status 2;
23084 if no connection was open anyway, return status 1; else return
23085 status 0. The test subcommand is silent, apart from messages
23086 printed by the $ZFTP_VERBOSE mechanism, or error messages if the
23087 connection closes. There is no network overhead for this test.
23088 The test is only supported on systems with either the select(2)
23090 or poll(2) system calls; otherwise the message `not supported on
23091 this system' is printed instead.
23092 The test subcommand will automatically be called at the start of
23094 any other subcommand for the current session when a connection
23095 is open.
23096 cd directory
23098 Change the remote directory to directory. Also alters the shell
23099 variable ZFTP_PWD.
23100 cdup Change the remote directory to the one higher in the directory
23102 tree. Note that cd .. will also work correctly on non-UNIX sys‐
23103 tems.
23104 dir [ arg ... ]
23106 Give a (verbose) listing of the remote directory. The args are
23107 passed directly to the server. The command's behaviour is imple‐
23108 mentation dependent, but a UNIX server will typically interpret
23109 args as arguments to the ls command and with no arguments return
23110 the result of `ls -l'. The directory is listed to standard out‐
23111 put.
23112 ls [ arg ... ]
23114 Give a (short) listing of the remote directory. With no arg,
23115 produces a raw list of the files in the directory, one per line.
23116 Otherwise, up to vagaries of the server implementation, behaves
23117 similar to dir.
23118 type [ type ]
23120 Change the type for the transfer to type, or print the current
23121 type if type is absent. The allowed values are `A' (ASCII), `I'
23122 (Image, i.e. binary), or `B' (a synonym for `I').
23123 The FTP default for a transfer is ASCII. However, if zftp finds
23125 that the remote host is a UNIX machine with 8-bit byes, it will
23126 automatically switch to using binary for file transfers upon
23127 open. This can subsequently be overridden.
23128 The transfer type is only passed to the remote host when a data
23130 connection is established; this command involves no network
23131 overhead.
23132 ascii The same as type A.
23134 binary The same as type I.
23136 mode [ S | B ]
23138 Set the mode type to stream (S) or block (B). Stream mode is
23139 the default; block mode is not widely supported.
23140 remote file ...
23142 local [ file ... ]
23143 Print the size and last modification time of the remote or local
23144 files. If there is more than one item on the list, the name of
23145 the file is printed first. The first number is the file size,
23146 the second is the last modification time of the file in the for‐
23147 mat CCYYMMDDhhmmSS consisting of year, month, date, hour, min‐
23148 utes and seconds in GMT. Note that this format, including the
23149 length, is guaranteed, so that time strings can be directly com‐
23150 pared via the [[ builtin's < and > operators, even if they are
23151 too long to be represented as integers.
23152 Not all servers support the commands for retrieving this infor‐
23154 mation. In that case, the remote command will print nothing and
23155 return status 2, compared with status 1 for a file not found.
23156 The local command (but not remote) may be used with no argu‐
23158 ments, in which case the information comes from examining file
23159 descriptor zero. This is the same file as seen by a put command
23160 with no further redirection.
23161 get file ...
23163 Retrieve all files from the server, concatenating them and send‐
23164 ing them to standard output.
23165 put file ...
23167 For each file, read a file from standard input and send that to
23168 the remote host with the given name.
23169 append file ...
23171 As put, but if the remote file already exists, data is appended
23172 to it instead of overwriting it.
23173 getat file point
23175 putat file point
23176 appendat file point
23177 Versions of get, put and append which will start the transfer at
23178 the given point in the remote file. This is useful for append‐
23179 ing to an incomplete local file. However, note that this abil‐
23180 ity is not universally supported by servers (and is not quite
23181 the behaviour specified by the standard).
23182 delete file ...
23184 Delete the list of files on the server.
23185 mkdir directory
23187 Create a new directory directory on the server.
23188 rmdir directory
23190 Delete the directory directory on the server.
23191 rename old-name new-name
23193 Rename file old-name to new-name on the server.
23194 site arg ...
23196 Send a host-specific command to the server. You will probably
23197 only need this if instructed by the server to use it.
23198 quote arg ...
23200 Send the raw FTP command sequence to the server. You should be
23201 familiar with the FTP command set as defined in RFC959 before
23202 doing this. Useful commands may include STAT and HELP. Note
23203 also the mechanism for returning messages as described for the
23204 variable ZFTP_VERBOSE below, in particular that all messages
23205 from the control connection are sent to standard error.
23206 close
23208 quit Close the current data connection. This unsets the shell param‐
23209 eters ZFTP_HOST, ZFTP_PORT, ZFTP_IP, ZFTP_SYSTEM, ZFTP_USER,
23210 ZFTP_ACCOUNT, ZFTP_PWD, ZFTP_TYPE and ZFTP_MODE.
23211 session [ sessname ]
23213 Allows multiple FTP sessions to be used at once. The name of
23214 the session is an arbitrary string of characters; the default
23215 session is called `default'. If this command is called without
23216 an argument, it will list all the current sessions; with an ar‐
23217 gument, it will either switch to the existing session called
23218 sessname, or create a new session of that name.
23219 Each session remembers the status of the connection, the set of
23221 connection-specific shell parameters (the same set as are unset
23222 when a connection closes, as given in the description of close),
23223 and any user parameters specified with the params subcommand.
23224 Changing to a previous session restores those values; changing
23225 to a new session initialises them in the same way as if zftp had
23226 just been loaded. The name of the current session is given by
23227 the parameter ZFTP_SESSION.
23228 rmsession [ sessname ]
23230 Delete a session; if a name is not given, the current session is
23231 deleted. If the current session is deleted, the earliest exist‐
23232 ing session becomes the new current session, otherwise the cur‐
23233 rent session is not changed. If the session being deleted is
23234 the only one, a new session called `default' is created and be‐
23235 comes the current session; note that this is a new session even
23236 if the session being deleted is also called `default'. It is
23237 recommended that sessions not be deleted while background com‐
23238 mands which use zftp are still active.
23239 Parameters
23241 The following shell parameters are used by zftp. Currently none of
23242 them are special.
23243 ZFTP_TMOUT
23245 Integer. The time in seconds to wait for a network operation to
23246 complete before returning an error. If this is not set when the
23247 module is loaded, it will be given the default value 60. A
23248 value of zero turns off timeouts. If a timeout occurs on the
23249 control connection it will be closed. Use a larger value if
23250 this occurs too frequently.
23251 ZFTP_IP
23253 Readonly. The IP address of the current connection in dot nota‐
23254 tion.
23255 ZFTP_HOST
23257 Readonly. The hostname of the current remote server. If the
23258 host was opened as an IP number, ZFTP_HOST contains that in‐
23259 stead; this saves the overhead for a name lookup, as IP numbers
23260 are most commonly used when a nameserver is unavailable.
23261 ZFTP_PORT
23263 Readonly. The number of the remote TCP port to which the con‐
23264 nection is open (even if the port was originally specified as a
23265 named service). Usually this is the standard FTP port, 21.
23266 In the unlikely event that your system does not have the appro‐
23268 priate conversion functions, this appears in network byte order.
23269 If your system is little-endian, the port then consists of two
23270 swapped bytes and the standard port will be reported as 5376.
23271 In that case, numeric ports passed to zftp open will also need
23272 to be in this format.
23273 ZFTP_SYSTEM
23275 Readonly. The system type string returned by the server in re‐
23276 sponse to an FTP SYST request. The most interesting case is a
23277 string beginning "UNIX Type: L8", which ensures maximum compati‐
23278 bility with a local UNIX host.
23279 ZFTP_TYPE
23281 Readonly. The type to be used for data transfers , either `A'
23282 or `I'. Use the type subcommand to change this.
23283 ZFTP_USER
23285 Readonly. The username currently logged in, if any.
23286 ZFTP_ACCOUNT
23288 Readonly. The account name of the current user, if any. Most
23289 servers do not require an account name.
23290 ZFTP_PWD
23292 Readonly. The current directory on the server.
23293 ZFTP_CODE
23295 Readonly. The three digit code of the last FTP reply from the
23296 server as a string. This can still be read after the connection
23297 is closed, and is not changed when the current session changes.
23298 ZFTP_REPLY
23300 Readonly. The last line of the last reply sent by the server.
23301 This can still be read after the connection is closed, and is
23302 not changed when the current session changes.
23303 ZFTP_SESSION
23305 Readonly. The name of the current FTP session; see the descrip‐
23306 tion of the session subcommand.
23307 ZFTP_PREFS
23309 A string of preferences for altering aspects of zftp's behav‐
23310 iour. Each preference is a single character. The following are
23311 defined:
23312 P Passive: attempt to make the remote server initiate data
23314 transfers. This is slightly more efficient than sendport
23315 mode. If the letter S occurs later in the string, zftp
23316 will use sendport mode if passive mode is not available.
23317 S Sendport: initiate transfers by the FTP PORT command.
23319 If this occurs before any P in the string, passive mode
23320 will never be attempted.
23321 D Dumb: use only the bare minimum of FTP commands. This
23323 prevents the variables ZFTP_SYSTEM and ZFTP_PWD from be‐
23324 ing set, and will mean all connections default to ASCII
23325 type. It may prevent ZFTP_SIZE from being set during a
23326 transfer if the server does not send it anyway (many
23327 servers do).
23328 If ZFTP_PREFS is not set when zftp is loaded, it will be set to
23330 a default of `PS', i.e. use passive mode if available, otherwise
23331 fall back to sendport mode.
23332 ZFTP_VERBOSE
23334 A string of digits between 0 and 5 inclusive, specifying which
23335 responses from the server should be printed. All responses go
23336 to standard error. If any of the numbers 1 to 5 appear in the
23337 string, raw responses from the server with reply codes beginning
23338 with that digit will be printed to standard error. The first
23339 digit of the three digit reply code is defined by RFC959 to cor‐
23340 respond to:
23341 1. A positive preliminary reply.
23343 2. A positive completion reply.
23345 3. A positive intermediate reply.
23347 4. A transient negative completion reply.
23349 5. A permanent negative completion reply.
23351 It should be noted that, for unknown reasons, the reply `Service
23353 not available', which forces termination of a connection, is
23354 classified as 421, i.e. `transient negative', an interesting in‐
23355 terpretation of the word `transient'.
23356 The code 0 is special: it indicates that all but the last line
23358 of multiline replies read from the server will be printed to
23359 standard error in a processed format. By convention, servers
23360 use this mechanism for sending information for the user to read.
23361 The appropriate reply code, if it matches the same response,
23362 takes priority.
23363 If ZFTP_VERBOSE is not set when zftp is loaded, it will be set
23365 to the default value 450, i.e., messages destined for the user
23366 and all errors will be printed. A null string is valid and
23367 specifies that no messages should be printed.
23368 Functions
23370 zftp_chpwd
23371 If this function is set by the user, it is called every time the
23372 directory changes on the server, including when a user is logged
23373 in, or when a connection is closed. In the last case, $ZFTP_PWD
23374 will be unset; otherwise it will reflect the new directory.
23375 zftp_progress
23377 If this function is set by the user, it will be called during a
23378 get, put or append operation each time sufficient data has been
23379 received from the host. During a get, the data is sent to stan‐
23380 dard output, so it is vital that this function should write to
23381 standard error or directly to the terminal, not to standard out‐
23382 put.
23383 When it is called with a transfer in progress, the following ad‐
23385 ditional shell parameters are set:
23386 ZFTP_FILE
23388 The name of the remote file being transferred from or to.
23389 ZFTP_TRANSFER
23391 A G for a get operation and a P for a put operation.
23392 ZFTP_SIZE
23394 The total size of the complete file being transferred:
23395 the same as the first value provided by the remote and
23396 local subcommands for a particular file. If the server
23397 cannot supply this value for a remote file being re‐
23398 trieved, it will not be set. If input is from a pipe the
23399 value may be incorrect and correspond simply to a full
23400 pipe buffer.
23401 ZFTP_COUNT
23403 The amount of data so far transferred; a number between
23404 zero and $ZFTP_SIZE, if that is set. This number is al‐
23405 ways available.
23406 The function is initially called with ZFTP_TRANSFER set appro‐
23408 priately and ZFTP_COUNT set to zero. After the transfer is fin‐
23409 ished, the function will be called one more time with
23410 ZFTP_TRANSFER set to GF or PF, in case it wishes to tidy up. It
23411 is otherwise never called twice with the same value of
23412 ZFTP_COUNT.
23413 Sometimes the progress meter may cause disruption. It is up to
23415 the user to decide whether the function should be defined and to
23416 use unfunction when necessary.
23417 Problems
23419 A connection may not be opened in the left hand side of a pipe as this
23420 occurs in a subshell and the file information is not updated in the
23421 main shell. In the case of type or mode changes or closing the connec‐
23422 tion in a subshell, the information is returned but variables are not
23423 updated until the next call to zftp. Other status changes in subshells
23424 will not be reflected by changes to the variables (but should be other‐
23425 wise harmless).
23426 Deleting sessions while a zftp command is active in the background can
23428 have unexpected effects, even if it does not use the session being
23429 deleted. This is because all shell subprocesses share information on
23430 the state of all connections, and deleting a session changes the order‐
23431 ing of that information.
23432 On some operating systems, the control connection is not valid after a
23434 fork(), so that operations in subshells, on the left hand side of a
23435 pipeline, or in the background are not possible, as they should be.
23436 This is presumably a bug in the operating system.
23437
23439 The zsh/zle module contains the Zsh Line Editor. See zshzle(1).
23440
23442 The zsh/zleparameter module defines two special parameters that can be
23443 used to access internal information of the Zsh Line Editor (see zsh‐
23444 zle(1)).
23445 keymaps
23447 This array contains the names of the keymaps currently defined.
23448 widgets
23450 This associative array contains one entry per widget. The name
23451 of the widget is the key and the value gives information about
23452 the widget. It is either
23453 the string `builtin' for builtin widgets,
23454 a string of the form `user:name' for user-defined widgets,
23455 where name is the name of the shell function implementing
23456 the widget,
23457 a string of the form `completion:type:name'
23458 for completion widgets,
23459 or a null value if the widget is not yet fully defined. In
23460 the penultimate case, type is the name of the builtin widget the
23461 completion widget imitates in its behavior and name is the name
23462 of the shell function implementing the completion widget.
23463
23465 When loaded, the zsh/zprof causes shell functions to be profiled. The
23466 profiling results can be obtained with the zprof builtin command made
23467 available by this module. There is no way to turn profiling off other
23468 than unloading the module.
23469 zprof [ -c ]
23471 Without the -c option, zprof lists profiling results to standard
23472 output. The format is comparable to that of commands like
23473 gprof.
23474 At the top there is a summary listing all functions that were
23476 called at least once. This summary is sorted in decreasing or‐
23477 der of the amount of time spent in each. The lines contain the
23478 number of the function in order, which is used in other parts of
23479 the list in suffixes of the form `[num]', then the number of
23480 calls made to the function. The next three columns list the
23481 time in milliseconds spent in the function and its descendants,
23482 the average time in milliseconds spent in the function and its
23483 descendants per call and the percentage of time spent in all
23484 shell functions used in this function and its descendants. The
23485 following three columns give the same information, but counting
23486 only the time spent in the function itself. The final column
23487 shows the name of the function.
23488 After the summary, detailed information about every function
23490 that was invoked is listed, sorted in decreasing order of the
23491 amount of time spent in each function and its descendants. Each
23492 of these entries consists of descriptions for the functions that
23493 called the function described, the function itself, and the
23494 functions that were called from it. The description for the
23495 function itself has the same format as in the summary (and shows
23496 the same information). The other lines don't show the number of
23497 the function at the beginning and have their function named in‐
23498 dented to make it easier to distinguish the line showing the
23499 function described in the section from the surrounding lines.
23500 The information shown in this case is almost the same as in the
23502 summary, but only refers to the call hierarchy being displayed.
23503 For example, for a calling function the column showing the total
23504 running time lists the time spent in the described function and
23505 its descendants only for the times when it was called from that
23506 particular calling function. Likewise, for a called function,
23507 this columns lists the total time spent in the called function
23508 and its descendants only for the times when it was called from
23509 the function described.
23510 Also in this case, the column showing the number of calls to a
23512 function also shows a slash and then the total number of invoca‐
23513 tions made to the called function.
23514 As long as the zsh/zprof module is loaded, profiling will be
23516 done and multiple invocations of the zprof builtin command will
23517 show the times and numbers of calls since the module was loaded.
23518 With the -c option, the zprof builtin command will reset its in‐
23519 ternal counters and will not show the listing.
23520
23522 The zsh/zpty module offers one builtin:
23523 zpty [ -e ] [ -b ] name [ arg ... ]
23525 The arguments following name are concatenated with spaces be‐
23526 tween, then executed as a command, as if passed to the eval
23527 builtin. The command runs under a newly assigned pseudo-termi‐
23528 nal; this is useful for running commands non-interactively which
23529 expect an interactive environment. The name is not part of the
23530 command, but is used to refer to this command in later calls to
23531 zpty.
23532 With the -e option, the pseudo-terminal is set up so that input
23534 characters are echoed.
23535 With the -b option, input to and output from the pseudo-terminal
23537 are made non-blocking.
23538 The shell parameter REPLY is set to the file descriptor assigned
23540 to the master side of the pseudo-terminal. This allows the ter‐
23541 minal to be monitored with ZLE descriptor handlers (see zsh‐
23542 zle(1)) or manipulated with sysread and syswrite (see THE
23543 ZSH/SYSTEM MODULE in zshmodules(1)). Warning: Use of sysread
23544 and syswrite is not recommended; use zpty -r and zpty -w unless
23545 you know exactly what you are doing.
23546 zpty -d [ name ... ]
23548 The second form, with the -d option, is used to delete commands
23549 previously started, by supplying a list of their names. If no
23550 name is given, all commands are deleted. Deleting a command
23551 causes the HUP signal to be sent to the corresponding process.
23552 zpty -w [ -n ] name [ string ... ]
23554 The -w option can be used to send the to command name the given
23555 strings as input (separated by spaces). If the -n option is not
23556 given, a newline is added at the end.
23557 If no string is provided, the standard input is copied to the
23559 pseudo-terminal; this may stop before copying the full input if
23560 the pseudo-terminal is non-blocking. The exact input is always
23561 copied: the -n option is not applied.
23562 Note that the command under the pseudo-terminal sees this input
23564 as if it were typed, so beware when sending special tty driver
23565 characters such as word-erase, line-kill, and end-of-file.
23566 zpty -r [ -mt ] name [ param [ pattern ] ]
23568 The -r option can be used to read the output of the command
23569 name. With only a name argument, the output read is copied to
23570 the standard output. Unless the pseudo-terminal is non-block‐
23571 ing, copying continues until the command under the pseudo-termi‐
23572 nal exits; when non-blocking, only as much output as is immedi‐
23573 ately available is copied. The return status is zero if any
23574 output is copied.
23575 When also given a param argument, at most one line is read and
23577 stored in the parameter named param. Less than a full line may
23578 be read if the pseudo-terminal is non-blocking. The return sta‐
23579 tus is zero if at least one character is stored in param.
23580 If a pattern is given as well, output is read until the whole
23582 string read matches the pattern, even in the non-blocking case.
23583 The return status is zero if the string read matches the pat‐
23584 tern, or if the command has exited but at least one character
23585 could still be read. If the option -m is present, the return
23586 status is zero only if the pattern matches. As of this writing,
23587 a maximum of one megabyte of output can be consumed this way; if
23588 a full megabyte is read without matching the pattern, the return
23589 status is non-zero.
23590 In all cases, the return status is non-zero if nothing could be
23592 read, and is 2 if this is because the command has finished.
23593 If the -r option is combined with the -t option, zpty tests
23595 whether output is available before trying to read. If no output
23596 is available, zpty immediately returns the status 1. When used
23597 with a pattern, the behaviour on a failed poll is similar to
23598 when the command has exited: the return value is zero if at
23599 least one character could still be read even if the pattern
23600 failed to match.
23601 zpty -t name
23603 The -t option without the -r option can be used to test whether
23604 the command name is still running. It returns a zero status if
23605 the command is running and a non-zero value otherwise.
23606 zpty [ -L ]
23608 The last form, without any arguments, is used to list the com‐
23609 mands currently defined. If the -L option is given, this is
23610 done in the form of calls to the zpty builtin.
23611
23613 The zsh/zselect module makes available one builtin command:
23614 zselect [ -rwe ] [ -t timeout ] [ -a array ] [ -A assoc ] [ fd ... ]
23616 The zselect builtin is a front-end to the `select' system call,
23617 which blocks until a file descriptor is ready for reading or
23618 writing, or has an error condition, with an optional timeout.
23619 If this is not available on your system, the command prints an
23620 error message and returns status 2 (normal errors return status
23621 1). For more information, see your systems documentation for
23622 select(3). Note there is no connection with the shell builtin
23623 of the same name.
23624 Arguments and options may be intermingled in any order. Non-op‐
23626 tion arguments are file descriptors, which must be decimal inte‐
23627 gers. By default, file descriptors are to be tested for read‐
23628 ing, i.e. zselect will return when data is available to be read
23629 from the file descriptor, or more precisely, when a read opera‐
23630 tion from the file descriptor will not block. After a -r, -w
23631 and -e, the given file descriptors are to be tested for reading,
23632 writing, or error conditions. These options and an arbitrary
23633 list of file descriptors may be given in any order.
23634 (The presence of an `error condition' is not well defined in the
23636 documentation for many implementations of the select system
23637 call. According to recent versions of the POSIX specification,
23638 it is really an exception condition, of which the only standard
23639 example is out-of-band data received on a socket. So zsh users
23640 are unlikely to find the -e option useful.)
23641 The option `-t timeout' specifies a timeout in hundredths of a
23643 second. This may be zero, in which case the file descriptors
23644 will simply be polled and zselect will return immediately. It
23645 is possible to call zselect with no file descriptors and a
23646 non-zero timeout for use as a finer-grained replacement for
23647 `sleep'; note, however, the return status is always 1 for a
23648 timeout.
23649 The option `-a array' indicates that array should be set to in‐
23651 dicate the file descriptor(s) which are ready. If the option is
23652 not given, the array reply will be used for this purpose. The
23653 array will contain a string similar to the arguments for zse‐
23654 lect. For example,
23655 zselect -t 0 -r 0 -w 1
23657 might return immediately with status 0 and $reply containing `-r
23659 0 -w 1' to show that both file descriptors are ready for the re‐
23660 quested operations.
23661 The option `-A assoc' indicates that the associative array assoc
23663 should be set to indicate the file descriptor(s) which are
23664 ready. This option overrides the option -a, nor will reply be
23665 modified. The keys of assoc are the file descriptors, and the
23666 corresponding values are any of the characters `rwe' to indicate
23667 the condition.
23668 The command returns status 0 if some file descriptors are ready
23670 for reading. If the operation timed out, or a timeout of 0 was
23671 given and no file descriptors were ready, or there was an error,
23672 it returns status 1 and the array will not be set (nor modified
23673 in any way). If there was an error in the select operation the
23674 appropriate error message is printed.
23675
23677 The zsh/zutil module only adds some builtins:
23678 zstyle [ -L [ metapattern [ style ] ] ]
23680 zstyle [ -e | - | -- ] pattern style string ...
23681 zstyle -d [ pattern [ style ... ] ]
23682 zstyle -g name [ pattern [ style ] ]
23683 zstyle -{a|b|s} context style name [ sep ]
23684 zstyle -{T|t} context style [ string ... ]
23685 zstyle -m context style pattern
23686 This builtin command is used to define and lookup styles.
23687 Styles are pairs of names and values, where the values consist
23688 of any number of strings. They are stored together with pat‐
23689 terns and lookup is done by giving a string, called the `con‐
23690 text', which is matched against the patterns. The definition
23691 stored for the most specific pattern that matches will be re‐
23692 turned.
23693 A pattern is considered to be more specific than another if it
23695 contains more components (substrings separated by colons) or if
23696 the patterns for the components are more specific, where simple
23697 strings are considered to be more specific than patterns and
23698 complex patterns are considered to be more specific than the
23699 pattern `*'. A `*' in the pattern will match zero or more char‐
23700 acters in the context; colons are not treated specially in this
23701 regard. If two patterns are equally specific, the tie is broken
23702 in favour of the pattern that was defined first.
23703 Example
23705 For example, to define your preferred form of precipitation de‐
23707 pending on which city you're in, you might set the following in
23708 your zshrc:
23709 zstyle ':weather:europe:*' preferred-precipitation rain
23711 zstyle ':weather:europe:germany:* preferred-precipitation none
23712 zstyle ':weather:europe:germany:*:munich' preferred-precipitation snow
23713 Then, the fictional `weather' plugin might run under the hood a
23715 command such as
23716 zstyle -s ":weather:${continent}:${country}:${county}:${city}" preferred-precipitation REPLY
23718 in order to retrieve your preference into the scalar variable
23720 $REPLY.
23721 Usage
23723 The forms that operate on patterns are the following.
23725 zstyle [ -L [ metapattern [ style ] ] ]
23727 Without arguments, lists style definitions. Styles are
23728 shown in alphabetic order and patterns are shown in the
23729 order zstyle will test them.
23730 If the -L option is given, listing is done in the form of
23732 calls to zstyle. The optional first argument, metapat‐
23733 tern, is a pattern which will be matched against the
23734 string supplied as pattern when the style was defined.
23735 Note: this means, for example, `zstyle -L ":comple‐
23736 tion:*"' will match any supplied pattern beginning `:com‐
23737 pletion:', not just ":completion:*": use ':comple‐
23738 tion:\*' to match that. The optional second argument
23739 limits the output to a specific style (not a pattern).
23740 -L is not compatible with any other options.
23741 zstyle [ - | -- | -e ] pattern style string ...
23743 Defines the given style for the pattern with the strings
23744 as the value. If the -e option is given, the strings
23745 will be concatenated (separated by spaces) and the re‐
23746 sulting string will be evaluated (in the same way as it
23747 is done by the eval builtin command) when the style is
23748 looked up. In this case the parameter `reply' must be
23749 assigned to set the strings returned after the evalua‐
23750 tion. Before evaluating the value, reply is unset, and
23751 if it is still unset after the evaluation, the style is
23752 treated as if it were not set.
23753 zstyle -d [ pattern [ style ... ] ]
23755 Delete style definitions. Without arguments all defini‐
23756 tions are deleted, with a pattern all definitions for
23757 that pattern are deleted and if any styles are given,
23758 then only those styles are deleted for the pattern.
23759 zstyle -g name [ pattern [ style ] ]
23761 Retrieve a style definition. The name is used as the name
23762 of an array in which the results are stored. Without any
23763 further arguments, all patterns defined are returned.
23764 With a pattern the styles defined for that pattern are
23765 returned and with both a pattern and a style, the value
23766 strings of that combination is returned.
23767 The other forms can be used to look up or test styles for a
23769 given context.
23770 zstyle -s context style name [ sep ]
23772 The parameter name is set to the value of the style in‐
23773 terpreted as a string. If the value contains several
23774 strings they are concatenated with spaces (or with the
23775 sep string if that is given) between them.
23776 Return 0 if the style is set, 1 otherwise.
23778 zstyle -b context style name
23780 The value is stored in name as a boolean, i.e. as the
23781 string `yes' if the value has only one string and that
23782 string is equal to one of `yes', `true', `on', or `1'. If
23783 the value is any other string or has more than one
23784 string, the parameter is set to `no'.
23785 Return 0 if name is set to `yes', 1 otherwise.
23787 zstyle -a context style name
23789 The value is stored in name as an array. If name is de‐
23790 clared as an associative array, the first, third, etc.
23791 strings are used as the keys and the other strings are
23792 used as the values.
23793 Return 0 if the style is set, 1 otherwise.
23795 zstyle -t context style [ string ... ]
23797 zstyle -T context style [ string ... ]
23798 Test the value of a style, i.e. the -t option only re‐
23799 turns a status (sets $?). Without any string the return
23800 status is zero if the style is defined for at least one
23801 matching pattern, has only one string in its value, and
23802 that is equal to one of `true', `yes', `on' or `1'. If
23803 any strings are given the status is zero if and only if
23804 at least one of the strings is equal to at least one of
23805 the strings in the value. If the style is defined but
23806 doesn't match, the return status is 1. If the style is
23807 not defined, the status is 2.
23808 The -T option tests the values of the style like -t, but
23810 it returns status zero (rather than 2) if the style is
23811 not defined for any matching pattern.
23812 zstyle -m context style pattern
23814 Match a value. Returns status zero if the pattern matches
23815 at least one of the strings in the value.
23816 zformat -f param format spec ...
23818 zformat -a array sep spec ...
23819 This builtin provides two different forms of formatting. The
23820 first form is selected with the -f option. In this case the for‐
23821 mat string will be modified by replacing sequences starting with
23822 a percent sign in it with strings from the specs. Each spec
23823 should be of the form `char:string' which will cause every ap‐
23824 pearance of the sequence `%char' in format to be replaced by the
23825 string. The `%' sequence may also contain optional minimum and
23826 maximum field width specifications between the `%' and the
23827 `char' in the form `%min.maxc', i.e. the minimum field width is
23828 given first and if the maximum field width is used, it has to be
23829 preceded by a dot. Specifying a minimum field width makes the
23830 result be padded with spaces to the right if the string is
23831 shorter than the requested width. Padding to the left can be
23832 achieved by giving a negative minimum field width. If a maximum
23833 field width is specified, the string will be truncated after
23834 that many characters. After all `%' sequences for the given
23835 specs have been processed, the resulting string is stored in the
23836 parameter param.
23837 The %-escapes also understand ternary expressions in the form
23839 used by prompts. The % is followed by a `(' and then an ordi‐
23840 nary format specifier character as described above. There may
23841 be a set of digits either before or after the `('; these specify
23842 a test number, which defaults to zero. Negative numbers are
23843 also allowed. An arbitrary delimiter character follows the for‐
23844 mat specifier, which is followed by a piece of `true' text, the
23845 delimiter character again, a piece of `false' text, and a clos‐
23846 ing parenthesis. The complete expression (without the digits)
23847 thus looks like `%(X.text1.text2)', except that the `.' charac‐
23848 ter is arbitrary. The value given for the format specifier in
23849 the char:string expressions is evaluated as a mathematical ex‐
23850 pression, and compared with the test number. If they are the
23851 same, text1 is output, else text2 is output. A parenthesis may
23852 be escaped in text2 as %). Either of text1 or text2 may contain
23853 nested %-escapes.
23854 For example:
23856 zformat -f REPLY "The answer is '%3(c.yes.no)'." c:3
23858 outputs "The answer is 'yes'." to REPLY since the value for the
23860 format specifier c is 3, agreeing with the digit argument to the
23861 ternary expression.
23862 The second form, using the -a option, can be used for aligning
23864 strings. Here, the specs are of the form `left:right' where
23865 `left' and `right' are arbitrary strings. These strings are
23866 modified by replacing the colons by the sep string and padding
23867 the left strings with spaces to the right so that the sep
23868 strings in the result (and hence the right strings after them)
23869 are all aligned if the strings are printed below each other.
23870 All strings without a colon are left unchanged and all strings
23871 with an empty right string have the trailing colon removed. In
23872 both cases the lengths of the strings are not used to determine
23873 how the other strings are to be aligned. A colon in the left
23874 string can be escaped with a backslash. The resulting strings
23875 are stored in the array.
23876 zregexparse
23878 This implements some internals of the _regex_arguments function.
23879 zparseopts [ -D -E -F -K -M ] [ -a array ] [ -A assoc ] [ - ] spec ...
23881 This builtin simplifies the parsing of options in positional pa‐
23882 rameters, i.e. the set of arguments given by $*. Each spec de‐
23883 scribes one option and must be of the form `opt[=array]'. If an
23884 option described by opt is found in the positional parameters it
23885 is copied into the array specified with the -a option; if the
23886 optional `=array' is given, it is instead copied into that ar‐
23887 ray, which should be declared as a normal array and never as an
23888 associative array.
23889 Note that it is an error to give any spec without an `=array'
23891 unless one of the -a or -A options is used.
23892 Unless the -E option is given, parsing stops at the first string
23894 that isn't described by one of the specs. Even with -E, parsing
23895 always stops at a positional parameter equal to `-' or `--'. See
23896 also -F.
23897 The opt description must be one of the following. Any of the
23899 special characters can appear in the option name provided it is
23900 preceded by a backslash.
23901 name
23903 name+ The name is the name of the option without the leading
23904 `-'. To specify a GNU-style long option, one of the
23905 usual two leading `-' must be included in name; for exam‐
23906 ple, a `--file' option is represented by a name of
23907 `-file'.
23908 If a `+' appears after name, the option is appended to
23910 array each time it is found in the positional parameters;
23911 without the `+' only the last occurrence of the option is
23912 preserved.
23913 If one of these forms is used, the option takes no argu‐
23915 ment, so parsing stops if the next positional parameter
23916 does not also begin with `-' (unless the -E option is
23917 used).
23918 name:
23920 name:-
23921 name:: If one or two colons are given, the option takes an argu‐
23922 ment; with one colon, the argument is mandatory and with
23923 two colons it is optional. The argument is appended to
23924 the array after the option itself.
23925 An optional argument is put into the same array element
23927 as the option name (note that this makes empty strings as
23928 arguments indistinguishable). A mandatory argument is
23929 added as a separate element unless the `:-' form is used,
23930 in which case the argument is put into the same element.
23931 A `+' as described above may appear between the name and
23933 the first colon.
23934 In all cases, option-arguments must appear either immediately
23936 following the option in the same positional parameter or in the
23937 next one. Even an optional argument may appear in the next pa‐
23938 rameter, unless it begins with a `-'. There is no special han‐
23939 dling of `=' as with GNU-style argument parsers; given the spec
23940 `-foo:', the positional parameter `--foo=bar' is parsed as
23941 `--foo' with an argument of `=bar'.
23942 When the names of two options that take no arguments overlap,
23944 the longest one wins, so that parsing for the specs `-foo -foo‐
23945 bar' (for example) is unambiguous. However, due to the aforemen‐
23946 tioned handling of option-arguments, ambiguities may arise when
23947 at least one overlapping spec takes an argument, as in `-foo:
23948 -foobar'. In that case, the last matching spec wins.
23949 The options of zparseopts itself cannot be stacked because, for
23951 example, the stack `-DEK' is indistinguishable from a spec for
23952 the GNU-style long option `--DEK'. The options of zparseopts
23953 itself are:
23954 -a array
23956 As described above, this names the default array in which
23957 to store the recognised options.
23958 -A assoc
23960 If this is given, the options and their values are also
23961 put into an associative array with the option names as
23962 keys and the arguments (if any) as the values.
23963 -D If this option is given, all options found are removed
23965 from the positional parameters of the calling shell or
23966 shell function, up to but not including any not described
23967 by the specs. If the first such parameter is `-' or
23968 `--', it is removed as well. This is similar to using
23969 the shift builtin.
23970 -E This changes the parsing rules to not stop at the first
23972 string that isn't described by one of the specs. It can
23973 be used to test for or (if used together with -D) extract
23974 options and their arguments, ignoring all other options
23975 and arguments that may be in the positional parameters.
23976 As indicated above, parsing still stops at the first `-'
23977 or `--' not described by a spec, but it is not removed
23978 when used with -D.
23979 -F If this option is given, zparseopts immediately stops at
23981 the first option-like parameter not described by one of
23982 the specs, prints an error message, and returns status 1.
23983 Removal (-D) and extraction (-E) are not performed, and
23984 option arrays are not updated. This provides basic vali‐
23985 dation for the given options.
23986 Note that the appearance in the positional parameters of
23988 an option without its required argument always aborts
23989 parsing and returns an error as described above regard‐
23990 less of whether this option is used.
23991 -K With this option, the arrays specified with the -a option
23993 and with the `=array' forms are kept unchanged when none
23994 of the specs for them is used. Otherwise the entire ar‐
23995 ray is replaced when any of the specs is used. Individ‐
23996 ual elements of associative arrays specified with the -A
23997 option are preserved by -K. This allows assignment of
23998 default values to arrays before calling zparseopts.
23999 -M This changes the assignment rules to implement a map
24001 among equivalent option names. If any spec uses the
24002 `=array' form, the string array is interpreted as the
24003 name of another spec, which is used to choose where to
24004 store the values. If no other spec is found, the values
24005 are stored as usual. This changes only the way the val‐
24006 ues are stored, not the way $* is parsed, so results may
24007 be unpredictable if the `name+' specifier is used incon‐
24008 sistently.
24009 For example,
24011 set -- -a -bx -c y -cz baz -cend
24013 zparseopts a=foo b:=bar c+:=bar
24014 will have the effect of
24016 foo=(-a)
24018 bar=(-b x -c y -c z)
24019 The arguments from `baz' on will not be used.
24021 As an example for the -E option, consider:
24023 set -- -a x -b y -c z arg1 arg2
24025 zparseopts -E -D b:=bar
24026 will have the effect of
24028 bar=(-b y)
24030 set -- -a x -c z arg1 arg2
24031 I.e., the option -b and its arguments are taken from the posi‐
24033 tional parameters and put into the array bar.
24034 The -M option can be used like this:
24036 set -- -a -bx -c y -cz baz -cend
24038 zparseopts -A bar -M a=foo b+: c:=b
24039 to have the effect of
24041 foo=(-a)
24043 bar=(-a '' -b xyz)
24044ZSHCALSYS(1) General Commands Manual ZSHCALSYS(1)
24048
24052 zshcalsys - zsh calendar system
24053
24055 The shell is supplied with a series of functions to replace and enhance
24056 the traditional Unix calendar programme, which warns the user of immi‐
24057 nent or future events, details of which are stored in a text file (typ‐
24058 ically calendar in the user's home directory). The version provided
24059 here includes a mechanism for alerting the user when an event is due.
24060 In addition functions age, before and after are provided that can be
24062 used in a glob qualifier; they allow files to be selected based on
24063 their modification times.
24064 The format of the calendar file and the dates used there in and in the
24066 age function are described first, then the functions that can be called
24067 to examine and modify the calendar file.
24068 The functions here depend on the availability of the zsh/datetime mod‐
24070 ule which is usually installed with the shell. The library function
24071 strptime() must be available; it is present on most recent operating
24072 systems.
24073
24075 Calendar File Format
24076 The calendar file is by default ~/calendar. This can be configured by
24077 the calendar-file style, see the section STYLES below. The basic for‐
24078 mat consists of a series of separate lines, with no indentation, each
24079 including a date and time specification followed by a description of
24080 the event.
24081 Various enhancements to this format are supported, based on the syntax
24083 of Emacs calendar mode. An indented line indicates a continuation line
24084 that continues the description of the event from the preceding line
24085 (note the date may not be continued in this way). An initial ampersand
24086 (&) is ignored for compatibility.
24087 An indented line on which the first non-whitespace character is # is
24089 not displayed with the calendar entry, but is still scanned for infor‐
24090 mation. This can be used to hide information useful to the calendar
24091 system but not to the user, such as the unique identifier used by cal‐
24092 endar_add.
24093 The Emacs extension that a date with no description may refer to a num‐
24095 ber of succeeding events at different times is not supported.
24096 Unless the done-file style has been altered, any events which have been
24098 processed are appended to the file with the same name as the calendar
24099 file with the suffix .done, hence ~/calendar.done by default.
24100 An example is shown below.
24102 Date Format
24104 The format of the date and time is designed to allow flexibility with‐
24105 out admitting ambiguity. (The words `date' and `time' are both used in
24106 the documentation below; except where specifically noted this implies a
24107 string that may include both a date and a time specification.) Note
24108 that there is no localization support; month and day names must be in
24109 English and separator characters are fixed. Matching is case insensi‐
24110 tive, and only the first three letters of the names are significant,
24111 although as a special case a form beginning "month" does not match
24112 "Monday". Furthermore, time zones are not handled; all times are as‐
24113 sumed to be local.
24114 It is recommended that, rather than exploring the intricacies of the
24116 system, users find a date format that is natural to them and stick to
24117 it. This will avoid unexpected effects. Various key facts should be
24118 noted.
24119 • In particular, note the confusion between month/day/year and
24121 day/month/year when the month is numeric; these formats should
24122 be avoided if at all possible. Many alternatives are available.
24123 • The year must be given in full to avoid confusion, and only
24125 years from 1900 to 2099 inclusive are matched.
24126 The following give some obvious examples; users finding here a format
24128 they like and not subject to vagaries of style may skip the full de‐
24129 scription. As dates and times are matched separately (even though the
24130 time may be embedded in the date), any date format may be mixed with
24131 any format for the time of day provide the separators are clear (white‐
24132 space, colons, commas).
24133 2007/04/03 13:13
24135 2007/04/03:13:13
24136 2007/04/03 1:13 pm
24137 3rd April 2007, 13:13
24138 April 3rd 2007 1:13 p.m.
24139 Apr 3, 2007 13:13
24140 Tue Apr 03 13:13:00 2007
24141 13:13 2007/apr/3
24142 More detailed rules follow.
24144 Times are parsed and extracted before dates. They must use colons to
24146 separate hours and minutes, though a dot is allowed before seconds if
24147 they are present. This limits time formats to the following:
24148 • HH:MM[:SS[.FFFFF]] [am|pm|a.m.|p.m.]
24150 • HH:MM.SS[.FFFFF] [am|pm|a.m.|p.m.]
24152 Here, square brackets indicate optional elements, possibly with alter‐
24154 natives. Fractions of a second are recognised but ignored. For abso‐
24155 lute times (the normal format require by the calendar file and the age,
24156 before and after functions) a date is mandatory but a time of day is
24157 not; the time returned is at the start of the date. One variation is
24158 allowed: if a.m. or p.m. or one of their variants is present, an hour
24159 without a minute is allowed, e.g. 3 p.m..
24160 Time zones are not handled, though if one is matched following a time
24162 specification it will be removed to allow a surrounding date to be
24163 parsed. This only happens if the format of the timezone is not too un‐
24164 usual. The following are examples of forms that are understood:
24165 +0100
24167 GMT
24168 GMT-7
24169 CET+1CDT
24170 Any part of the timezone that is not numeric must have exactly three
24172 capital letters in the name.
24173 Dates suffer from the ambiguity between DD/MM/YYYY and MM/DD/YYYY. It
24175 is recommended this form is avoided with purely numeric dates, but use
24176 of ordinals, eg. 3rd/04/2007, will resolve the ambiguity as the ordinal
24177 is always parsed as the day of the month. Years must be four digits
24178 (and the first two must be 19 or 20); 03/04/08 is not recognised.
24179 Other numbers may have leading zeroes, but they are not required. The
24180 following are handled:
24181 • YYYY/MM/DD
24183 • YYYY-MM-DD
24185 • YYYY/MNM/DD
24187 • YYYY-MNM-DD
24189 • DD[th|st|rd] MNM[,] [ YYYY ]
24191 • MNM DD[th|st|rd][,] [ YYYY ]
24193 • DD[th|st|rd]/MM[,] YYYY
24195 • DD[th|st|rd]/MM/YYYY
24197 • MM/DD[th|st|rd][,] YYYY
24199 • MM/DD[th|st|rd]/YYYY
24201 Here, MNM is at least the first three letters of a month name, matched
24203 case-insensitively. The remainder of the month name may appear but its
24204 contents are irrelevant, so janissary, febrile, martial, apricot,
24205 maybe, junta, etc. are happily handled.
24206 Where the year is shown as optional, the current year is assumed.
24208 There are only two such cases, the form Jun 20 or 14 September (the
24209 only two commonly occurring forms, apart from a "the" in some forms of
24210 English, which isn't currently supported). Such dates will of course
24211 become ambiguous in the future, so should ideally be avoided.
24212 Times may follow dates with a colon, e.g. 1965/07/12:09:45; this is in
24214 order to provide a format with no whitespace. A comma and whitespace
24215 are allowed, e.g. 1965/07/12, 09:45. Currently the order of these sep‐
24216 arators is not checked, so illogical formats such as 1965/07/12, :
24217 ,09:45 will also be matched. For simplicity such variations are not
24218 shown in the list above. Otherwise, a time is only recognised as being
24219 associated with a date if there is only whitespace in between, or if
24220 the time was embedded in the date.
24221 Days of the week are not normally scanned, but will be ignored if they
24223 occur at the start of the date pattern only. However, in contexts
24224 where it is useful to specify dates relative to today, days of the week
24225 with no other date specification may be given. The day is assumed to
24226 be either today or within the past week. Likewise, the words yester‐
24227 day, today and tomorrow are handled. All matches are case-insensitive.
24228 Hence if today is Monday, then Sunday is equivalent to yesterday, Mon‐
24229 day is equivalent to today, but Tuesday gives a date six days ago.
24230 This is not generally useful within the calendar file. Dates in this
24231 format may be combined with a time specification; for example Tomorrow,
24232 8 p.m..
24233 For example, the standard date format:
24235 Fri Aug 18 17:00:48 BST 2006
24237 is handled by matching HH:MM:SS and removing it together with the
24239 matched (but unused) time zone. This leaves the following:
24240 Fri Aug 18 2006
24242 Fri is ignored and the rest is matched according to the standard rules.
24244 Relative Time Format
24246 In certain places relative times are handled. Here, a date is not al‐
24247 lowed; instead a combination of various supported periods are allowed,
24248 together with an optional time. The periods must be in order from most
24249 to least significant.
24250 In some cases, a more accurate calculation is possible when there is an
24252 anchor date: offsets of months or years pick the correct day, rather
24253 than being rounded, and it is possible to pick a particular day in a
24254 month as `(1st Friday)', etc., as described in more detail below.
24255 Anchors are available in the following cases. If one or two times are
24257 passed to the function calendar, the start time acts an anchor for the
24258 end time when the end time is relative (even if the start time is im‐
24259 plicit). When examining calendar files, the scheduled event being ex‐
24260 amined anchors the warning time when it is given explicitly by means of
24261 the WARN keyword; likewise, the scheduled event anchors a repetition
24262 period when given by the RPT keyword, so that specifications such as
24263 RPT 2 months, 3rd Thursday are handled properly. Finally, the -R argu‐
24264 ment to calendar_scandate directly provides an anchor for relative cal‐
24265 culations.
24266 The periods handled, with possible abbreviations are:
24268 Years years, yrs, ys, year, yr, y, yearly. A year is 365.25 days un‐
24270 less there is an anchor.
24271 Months months, mons, mnths, mths, month, mon, mnth, mth, monthly. Note
24273 that m, ms, mn, mns are ambiguous and are not handled. A month
24274 is a period of 30 days rather than a calendar month unless there
24275 is an anchor.
24276 Weeks weeks, wks, ws, week, wk, w, weekly
24278 Days days, dys, ds, day, dy, d, daily
24280 Hours hours, hrs, hs, hour, hr, h, hourly
24282 Minutes
24284 minutes, mins, minute, min, but not m, ms, mn or mns
24285 Seconds
24287 seconds, secs, ss, second, sec, s
24288 Spaces between the numbers are optional, but are required between
24290 items, although a comma may be used (with or without spaces).
24291 The forms yearly to hourly allow the number to be omitted; it is as‐
24293 sumed to be 1. For example, 1 d and daily are equivalent. Note that
24294 using those forms with plurals is confusing; 2 yearly is the same as 2
24295 years, not twice yearly, so it is recommended they only be used without
24296 numbers.
24297 When an anchor time is present, there is an extension to handle regular
24299 events in the form of the nth someday of the month. Such a specifica‐
24300 tion must occur immediately after any year and month specification, but
24301 before any time of day, and must be in the form n(th|st|rd) day, for
24302 example 1st Tuesday or 3rd Monday. As in other places, days are
24303 matched case insensitively, must be in English, and only the first
24304 three letters are significant except that a form beginning `month' does
24305 not match `Monday'. No attempt is made to sanitize the resulting date;
24306 attempts to squeeze too many occurrences into a month will push the day
24307 into the next month (but in the obvious fashion, retaining the correct
24308 day of the week).
24309 Here are some examples:
24311 30 years 3 months 4 days 3:42:41
24313 14 days 5 hours
24314 Monthly, 3rd Thursday
24315 4d,10hr
24316 Example
24318 Here is an example calendar file. It uses a consistent date format, as
24319 recommended above.
24320 Feb 1, 2006 14:30 Pointless bureaucratic meeting
24322 Mar 27, 2006 11:00 Mutual recrimination and finger pointing
24323 Bring water pistol and waterproofs
24324 Mar 31, 2006 14:00 Very serious managerial pontification
24325 # UID 12C7878A9A50
24326 Apr 10, 2006 13:30 Even more pointless blame assignment exercise WARN 30 mins
24327 May 18, 2006 16:00 Regular moaning session RPT monthly, 3rd Thursday
24328 The second entry has a continuation line. The third entry has a con‐
24330 tinuation line that will not be shown when the entry is displayed, but
24331 the unique identifier will be used by the calendar_add function when
24332 updating the event. The fourth entry will produce a warning 30 minutes
24333 before the event (to allow you to equip yourself appropriately). The
24334 fifth entry repeats after a month on the 3rd Thursday, i.e. June 15,
24335 2006, at the same time.
24336
24338 This section describes functions that are designed to be called di‐
24339 rectly by the user. The first part describes those functions associ‐
24340 ated with the user's calendar; the second part describes the use in
24341 glob qualifiers.
24342 Calendar system functions
24344 calendar [ -abdDsv ] [ -C calfile ] [ -n num ] [ -S showprog ]
24345 [ [ start ] end ]
24346 calendar -r [ -abdDrsv ] [ -C calfile ] [ -n num ] [ -S showprog ]
24347 [ start ]
24348 Show events in the calendar.
24349 With no arguments, show events from the start of today until the
24351 end of the next working day after today. In other words, if to‐
24352 day is Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, show up to the end of the
24353 following Monday, otherwise show today and tomorrow.
24354 If end is given, show events from the start of today up to the
24356 time and date given, which is in the format described in the
24357 previous section. Note that if this is a date the time is as‐
24358 sumed to be midnight at the start of the date, so that effec‐
24359 tively this shows all events before the given date.
24360 end may start with a +, in which case the remainder of the spec‐
24362 ification is a relative time format as described in the previous
24363 section indicating the range of time from the start time that is
24364 to be included.
24365 If start is also given, show events starting from that time and
24367 date. The word now can be used to indicate the current time.
24368 To implement an alert when events are due, include calendar -s
24370 in your ~/.zshrc file.
24371 Options:
24373 -a Show all items in the calendar, regardless of the start
24375 and end.
24376 -b Brief: don't display continuation lines (i.e. indented
24378 lines following the line with the date/time), just the
24379 first line.
24380 -B lines
24382 Brief: display at most the first lines lines of the cal‐
24383 endar entry. `-B 1' is equivalent to `-b'.
24384 -C calfile
24386 Explicitly specify a calendar file instead of the value
24387 of the calendar-file style or the default ~/calendar.
24388 -d Move any events that have passed from the calendar file
24390 to the "done" file, as given by the done-file style or
24391 the default which is the calendar file with .done ap‐
24392 pended. This option is implied by the -s option.
24393 -D Turns off the option -d, even if the -s option is also
24395 present.
24396 -n num, -num
24398 Show at least num events, if present in the calendar
24399 file, regardless of the start and end.
24400 -r Show all the remaining options in the calendar, ignoring
24402 the given end time. The start time is respected; any ar‐
24403 gument given is treated as a start time.
24404 -s Use the shell's sched command to schedule a timed event
24406 that will warn the user when an event is due. Note that
24407 the sched command only runs if the shell is at an inter‐
24408 active prompt; a foreground task blocks the scheduled
24409 task from running until it is finished.
24410 The timed event usually runs the programme calendar_show
24412 to show the event, as described in the section UTILITY
24413 FUNCTIONS below.
24414 By default, a warning of the event is shown five minutes
24416 before it is due. The warning period can be configured
24417 by the style warn-time or for a single calendar entry by
24418 including WARN reltime in the first line of the entry,
24419 where reltime is one of the usual relative time formats.
24420 A repeated event may be indicated by including RPT rel‐
24422 date in the first line of the entry. After the scheduled
24423 event has been displayed it will be re-entered into the
24424 calendar file at a time reldate after the existing event.
24425 Note that this is currently the only use made of the re‐
24426 peat count, so that it is not possible to query the
24427 schedule for a recurrence of an event in the calendar un‐
24428 til the previous event has passed.
24429 If RPT is used, it is also possible to specify that cer‐
24431 tain recurrences of an event are rescheduled or can‐
24432 celled. This is done with the OCCURRENCE keyword, fol‐
24433 lowed by whitespace and the date and time of the occur‐
24434 rence in the regular sequence, followed by whitespace and
24435 either the date and time of the rescheduled event or the
24436 exact string CANCELLED. In this case the date and time
24437 must be in exactly the "date with local time" format used
24438 by the text/calendar MIME type (RFC 2445),
24439 <YYYY><MM><DD>T<hh><mm><ss> (note the presence of the
24440 literal character T). The first word (the regular recur‐
24441 rence) may be something other than a proper date/time to
24442 indicate that the event is additional to the normal se‐
24443 quence; a convention that retains the formatting appear‐
24444 ance is XXXXXXXXTXXXXXX.
24445 Furthermore, it is useful to record the next regular re‐
24447 currence (as then the displayed date may be for a
24448 rescheduled event so cannot be used for calculating the
24449 regular sequence). This is specified by RECURRENCE and a
24450 time or date in the same format. calendar_add adds such
24451 an indication when it encounters a recurring event that
24452 does not include one, based on the headline date/time.
24453 If calendar_add is used to update occurrences the UID
24455 keyword described there should be present in both the ex‐
24456 isting entry and the added occurrence in order to iden‐
24457 tify recurring event sequences.
24458 For example,
24460 Thu May 6, 2010 11:00 Informal chat RPT 1 week
24462 # RECURRENCE 20100506T110000
24463 # OCCURRENCE 20100513T110000 20100513T120000
24464 # OCCURRENCE 20100520T110000 CANCELLED
24465 The event that occurs at 11:00 on 13th May 2010 is
24467 rescheduled an hour later. The event that occurs a week
24468 later is cancelled. The occurrences are given on a con‐
24469 tinuation line starting with a # character so will not
24470 usually be displayed as part of the event. As elsewhere,
24471 no account of time zones is taken with the times. After
24472 the next event occurs the headline date/time will be `Thu
24473 May 13, 2010 12:00' while the RECURRENCE date/time will
24474 be `20100513T110000' (note that cancelled and moved
24475 events are not taken account of in the RECURRENCE, which
24476 records what the next regular recurrence is, but they are
24477 accounted for in the headline date/time).
24478 It is safe to run calendar -s to reschedule an existing
24480 event (if the calendar file has changed, for example),
24481 and also to have it running in multiples instances of the
24482 shell since the calendar file is locked when in use.
24483 By default, expired events are moved to the "done" file;
24485 see the -d option. Use -D to prevent this.
24486 -S showprog
24488 Explicitly specify a programme to be used for showing
24489 events instead of the value of the show-prog style or the
24490 default calendar_show.
24491 -v Verbose: show more information about stages of process‐
24493 ing. This is useful for confirming that the function has
24494 successfully parsed the dates in the calendar file.
24495 calendar_add [ -BL ] event ...
24497 Adds a single event to the calendar in the appropriate location.
24498 The event can contain multiple lines, as described in the sec‐
24499 tion Calendar File Format above. Using this function ensures
24500 that the calendar file is sorted in date and time order. It
24501 also makes special arrangements for locking the file while it is
24502 altered. The old calendar is left in a file with the suffix
24503 .old.
24504 The option -B indicates that backing up the calendar file will
24506 be handled by the caller and should not be performed by calen‐
24507 dar_add. The option -L indicates that calendar_add does not
24508 need to lock the calendar file as it is already locked. These
24509 options will not usually be needed by users.
24510 If the style reformat-date is true, the date and time of the new
24512 entry will be rewritten into the standard date format: see the
24513 descriptions of this style and the style date-format.
24514 The function can use a unique identifier stored with each event
24516 to ensure that updates to existing events are treated correctly.
24517 The entry should contain the word UID, followed by whitespace,
24518 followed by a word consisting entirely of hexadecimal digits of
24519 arbitrary length (all digits are significant, including leading
24520 zeroes). As the UID is not directly useful to the user, it is
24521 convenient to hide it on an indented continuation line starting
24522 with a #, for example:
24523 Aug 31, 2007 09:30 Celebrate the end of the holidays
24525 # UID 045B78A0
24526 The second line will not be shown by the calendar function.
24528 It is possible to specify the RPT keyword followed by CANCELLED
24530 instead of a relative time. This causes any matched event or
24531 series of events to be cancelled (the original event does not
24532 have to be marked as recurring in order to be cancelled by this
24533 method). A UID is required in order to match an existing event
24534 in the calendar.
24535 calendar_add will attempt to manage recurrences and occurrences
24537 of repeating events as described for event scheduling by calen‐
24538 dar -s above. To reschedule or cancel a single event calen‐
24539 dar_add should be called with an entry that includes the correct
24540 UID but does not include the RPT keyword as this is taken to
24541 mean the entry applies to a series of repeating events and hence
24542 replaces all existing information. Each rescheduled or can‐
24543 celled occurrence must have an OCCURRENCE keyword in the entry
24544 passed to calendar_add which will be merged into the calendar
24545 file. Any existing reference to the occurrence is replaced. An
24546 occurrence that does not refer to a valid existing event is
24547 added as a one-off occurrence to the same calendar entry.
24548 calendar_edit
24550 This calls the user's editor to edit the calendar file. If
24551 there are arguments, they are taken as the editor to use (the
24552 file name is appended to the commands); otherwise, the editor is
24553 given by the variable VISUAL, if set, else the variable EDITOR.
24554 If the calendar scheduler was running, then after editing the
24556 file calendar -s is called to update it.
24557 This function locks out the calendar system during the edit.
24559 Hence it should be used to edit the calendar file if there is
24560 any possibility of a calendar event occurring meanwhile. Note
24561 this can lead to another shell with calendar functions enabled
24562 hanging waiting for a lock, so it is necessary to quit the edi‐
24563 tor as soon as possible.
24564 calendar_parse calendar-entry
24566 This is the internal function that analyses the parts of a cal‐
24567 endar entry, which is passed as the only argument. The function
24568 returns status 1 if the argument could not be parsed as a calen‐
24569 dar entry and status 2 if the wrong number of arguments were
24570 passed; it also sets the parameter reply to an empty associative
24571 array. Otherwise, it returns status 0 and sets elements of the
24572 associative array reply as follows:
24573 time The time as a string of digits in the same units as
24575 $EPOCHSECONDS
24576 schedtime
24577 The regularly scheduled time. This may differ from the
24578 actual event time time if this is a recurring event and
24579 the next occurrence has been rescheduled. Then time
24580 gives the actual time and schedtime the time of the regu‐
24581 lar recurrence before modification.
24582 text1 The text from the line not including the date and time of
24583 the event, but including any WARN or RPT keywords and
24584 values.
24585 warntime
24586 Any warning time given by the WARN keyword as a string of
24587 digits containing the time at which to warn in the same
24588 units as $EPOCHSECONDS. (Note this is an absolute time,
24589 not the relative time passed down.) Not set no WARN key‐
24590 word and value were matched.
24591 warnstr
24592 The raw string matched after the WARN keyword, else un‐
24593 set.
24594 rpttime
24595 Any recurrence time given by the RPT keyword as a string
24596 of digits containing the time of the recurrence in the
24597 same units as $EPOCHSECONDS. (Note this is an absolute
24598 time.) Not set if no RPT keyword and value were matched.
24599 schedrpttime
24600 The next regularly scheduled occurrence of a recurring
24601 event before modification. This may differ from rpttime,
24602 which is the actual time of the event that may have been
24603 rescheduled from the regular time.
24604 rptstr The raw string matched after the RPT keyword, else unset.
24605 text2 The text from the line after removal of the date and any
24606 keywords and values.
24607 calendar_showdate [ -r ] [ -f fmt ] date-spec ...
24609 The given date-spec is interpreted and the corresponding date
24610 and time printed. If the initial date-spec begins with a + or -
24611 it is treated as relative to the current time; date-specs after
24612 the first are treated as relative to the date calculated so far
24613 and a leading + is optional in that case. This allows one to
24614 use the system as a date calculator. For example, calen‐
24615 dar_showdate '+1 month, 1st Friday' shows the date of the first
24616 Friday of next month.
24617 With the option -r nothing is printed but the value of the date
24619 and time in seconds since the epoch is stored in the parameter
24620 REPLY.
24621 With the option -f fmt the given date/time conversion format is
24623 passed to strftime; see notes on the date-format style below.
24624 In order to avoid ambiguity with negative relative date specifi‐
24626 cations, options must occur in separate words; in other words,
24627 -r and -f should not be combined in the same word.
24628 calendar_sort
24630 Sorts the calendar file into date and time order. The old
24631 calendar is left in a file with the suffix .old.
24632 Glob qualifiers
24634 age The function age can be autoloaded and use separately from the
24635 calendar system, although it uses the function calendar_scandate
24636 for date formatting. It requires the zsh/stat builtin, but uses
24637 only the builtin zstat.
24638 age selects files having a given modification time for use as a
24640 glob qualifier. The format of the date is the same as that un‐
24641 derstood by the calendar system, described in the section FILE
24642 AND DATE FORMATS above.
24643 The function can take one or two arguments, which can be sup‐
24645 plied either directly as command or arguments, or separately as
24646 shell parameters.
24647 print *(e:age 2006/10/04 2006/10/09:)
24649 The example above matches all files modified between the start
24651 of those dates. The second argument may alternatively be a rel‐
24652 ative time introduced by a +:
24653 print *(e:age 2006/10/04 +5d:)
24655 The example above is equivalent to the previous example.
24657 In addition to the special use of days of the week, today and
24659 yesterday, times with no date may be specified; these apply to
24660 today. Obviously such uses become problematic around midnight.
24661 print *(e-age 12:00 13:30-)
24663 The example above shows files modified between 12:00 and 13:00
24665 today.
24666 print *(e:age 2006/10/04:)
24668 The example above matches all files modified on that date. If
24670 the second argument is omitted it is taken to be exactly 24
24671 hours after the first argument (even if the first argument con‐
24672 tains a time).
24673 print *(e-age 2006/10/04:10:15 2006/10/04:10:45-)
24675 The example above supplies times. Note that whitespace within
24677 the time and date specification must be quoted to ensure age re‐
24678 ceives the correct arguments, hence the use of the additional
24679 colon to separate the date and time.
24680 AGEREF=2006/10/04:10:15
24682 AGEREF2=2006/10/04:10:45
24683 print *(+age)
24684 This shows the same example before using another form of argu‐
24686 ment passing. The dates and times in the parameters AGEREF and
24687 AGEREF2 stay in effect until unset, but will be overridden if
24688 any argument is passed as an explicit argument to age. Any ex‐
24689 plicit argument causes both parameters to be ignored.
24690 Instead of an explicit date and time, it's possible to use the
24692 modification time of a file as the date and time for either ar‐
24693 gument by introducing the file name with a colon:
24694 print *(e-age :file1-)
24696 matches all files created on the same day (24 hours starting
24698 from midnight) as file1.
24699 print *(e-age :file1 :file2-)
24701 matches all files modified no earlier than file1 and no later
24703 than file2; precision here is to the nearest second.
24704 after
24706 before The functions after and before are simpler versions of age that
24707 take just one argument. The argument is parsed similarly to an
24708 argument of age; if it is not given the variable AGEREF is con‐
24709 sulted. As the names of the functions suggest, a file matches
24710 if its modification time is after or before the time and date
24711 specified. If a time only is given the date is today.
24712 The two following examples are therefore equivalent:
24714 print *(e-after 12:00-)
24715 print *(e-after today:12:00-)
24716
24718 The zsh style mechanism using the zstyle command is describe in zshmod‐
24719 ules(1). This is the same mechanism used in the completion system.
24720 The styles below are all examined in the context :datetime:function:,
24722 for example :datetime:calendar:.
24723 calendar-file
24725 The location of the main calendar. The default is ~/calendar.
24726 date-format
24728 A strftime format string (see strftime(3)) with the zsh exten‐
24729 sions providing various numbers with no leading zero or space if
24730 the number is a single digit as described for the %D{string}
24731 prompt format in the section EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in
24732 zshmisc(1).
24733 This is used for outputting dates in calendar, both to support
24735 the -v option and when adding recurring events back to the cal‐
24736 endar file, and in calendar_showdate as the final output format.
24737 If the style is not set, the default used is similar the stan‐
24739 dard system format as output by the date command (also known as
24740 `ctime format'): `%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Z %Y'.
24741 done-file
24743 The location of the file to which events which have passed are
24744 appended. The default is the calendar file location with the
24745 suffix .done. The style may be set to an empty string in which
24746 case a "done" file will not be maintained.
24747 reformat-date
24749 Boolean, used by calendar_add. If it is true, the date and time
24750 of new entries added to the calendar will be reformatted to the
24751 format given by the style date-format or its default. Only the
24752 date and time of the event itself is reformatted; any subsidiary
24753 dates and times such as those associated with repeat and warning
24754 times are left alone.
24755 show-prog
24757 The programme run by calendar for showing events. It will be
24758 passed the start time and stop time of the events requested in
24759 seconds since the epoch followed by the event text. Note that
24760 calendar -s uses a start time and stop time equal to one another
24761 to indicate alerts for specific events.
24762 The default is the function calendar_show.
24764 warn-time
24766 The time before an event at which a warning will be displayed,
24767 if the first line of the event does not include the text EVENT
24768 reltime. The default is 5 minutes.
24769
24771 calendar_lockfiles
24772 Attempt to lock the files given in the argument. To prevent
24773 problems with network file locking this is done in an ad hoc
24774 fashion by attempting to create a symbolic link to the file with
24775 the name file.lockfile. No other system level functions are
24776 used for locking, i.e. the file can be accessed and modified by
24777 any utility that does not use this mechanism. In particular,
24778 the user is not prevented from editing the calendar file at the
24779 same time unless calendar_edit is used.
24780 Three attempts are made to lock the file before giving up. If
24782 the module zsh/zselect is available, the times of the attempts
24783 are jittered so that multiple instances of the calling function
24784 are unlikely to retry at the same time.
24785 The files locked are appended to the array lockfiles, which
24787 should be local to the caller.
24788 If all files were successfully locked, status zero is returned,
24790 else status one.
24791 This function may be used as a general file locking function,
24793 although this will only work if only this mechanism is used to
24794 lock files.
24795 calendar_read
24797 This is a backend used by various other functions to parse the
24798 calendar file, which is passed as the only argument. The array
24799 calendar_entries is set to the list of events in the file; no
24800 pruning is done except that ampersands are removed from the
24801 start of the line. Each entry may contain multiple lines.
24802 calendar_scandate
24804 This is a generic function to parse dates and times that may be
24805 used separately from the calendar system. The argument is a
24806 date or time specification as described in the section FILE AND
24807 DATE FORMATS above. The parameter REPLY is set to the number of
24808 seconds since the epoch corresponding to that date or time. By
24809 default, the date and time may occur anywhere within the given
24810 argument.
24811 Returns status zero if the date and time were successfully
24813 parsed, else one.
24814 Options:
24816 -a The date and time are anchored to the start of the argu‐
24817 ment; they will not be matched if there is preceding
24818 text.
24819 -A The date and time are anchored to both the start and end
24821 of the argument; they will not be matched if the is any
24822 other text in the argument.
24823 -d Enable additional debugging output.
24825 -m Minus. When -R anchor_time is also given the relative
24827 time is calculated backwards from anchor_time.
24828 -r The argument passed is to be parsed as a relative time.
24830 -R anchor_time
24832 The argument passed is to be parsed as a relative time.
24833 The time is relative to anchor_time, a time in seconds
24834 since the epoch, and the returned value is the absolute
24835 time corresponding to advancing anchor_time by the rela‐
24836 tive time given. This allows lengths of months to be
24837 correctly taken into account. If the final day does not
24838 exist in the given month, the last day of the final month
24839 is given. For example, if the anchor time is during 31st
24840 January 2007 and the relative time is 1 month, the final
24841 time is the same time of day during 28th February 2007.
24842 -s In addition to setting REPLY, set REPLY2 to the remainder
24844 of the argument after the date and time have been
24845 stripped. This is empty if the option -A was given.
24846 -t Allow a time with no date specification. The date is as‐
24848 sumed to be today. The behaviour is unspecified if the
24849 iron tongue of midnight is tolling twelve.
24850 calendar_show
24852 The function used by default to display events. It accepts a
24853 start time and end time for events, both in epoch seconds, and
24854 an event description.
24855 The event is always printed to standard output. If the command
24857 line editor is active (which will usually be the case) the com‐
24858 mand line will be redisplayed after the output.
24859 If the parameter DISPLAY is set and the start and end times are
24861 the same (indicating a scheduled event), the function uses the
24862 command xmessage to display a window with the event details.
24863
24865 As the system is based entirely on shell functions (with a little sup‐
24866 port from the zsh/datetime module) the mechanisms used are not as ro‐
24867 bust as those provided by a dedicated calendar utility. Consequently
24868 the user should not rely on the shell for vital alerts.
24869 There is no calendar_delete function.
24871 There is no localization support for dates and times, nor any support
24873 for the use of time zones.
24874 Relative periods of months and years do not take into account the vari‐
24876 able number of days.
24877 The calendar_show function is currently hardwired to use xmessage for
24879 displaying alerts on X Window System displays. This should be config‐
24880 urable and ideally integrate better with the desktop.
24881 calendar_lockfiles hangs the shell while waiting for a lock on a file.
24883 If called from a scheduled task, it should instead reschedule the event
24884 that caused it.
24885ZSHTCPSYS(1) General Commands Manual ZSHTCPSYS(1)
24889
24893 zshtcpsys - zsh tcp system
24894
24896 A module zsh/net/tcp is provided to provide network I/O over TCP/IP
24897 from within the shell; see its description in zshmodules(1). This man‐
24898 ual page describes a function suite based on the module. If the module
24899 is installed, the functions are usually installed at the same time, in
24900 which case they will be available for autoloading in the default func‐
24901 tion search path. In addition to the zsh/net/tcp module, the zsh/zse‐
24902 lect module is used to implement timeouts on read operations. For
24903 troubleshooting tips, consult the corresponding advice for the zftp
24904 functions described in zshzftpsys(1).
24905 There are functions corresponding to the basic I/O operations open,
24907 close, read and send, named tcp_open etc., as well as a function
24908 tcp_expect for pattern match analysis of data read as input. The sys‐
24909 tem makes it easy to receive data from and send data to multiple named
24910 sessions at once. In addition, it can be linked with the shell's line
24911 editor in such a way that input data is automatically shown at the ter‐
24912 minal. Other facilities available including logging, filtering and
24913 configurable output prompts.
24914 To use the system where it is available, it should be enough to `au‐
24916 toload -U tcp_open' and run tcp_open as documented below to start a
24917 session. The tcp_open function will autoload the remaining functions.
24918
24920 Basic I/O
24921 tcp_open [ -qz ] host port [ sess ]
24922 tcp_open [ -qz ] [ -s sess | -l sess[,...] ] ...
24923 tcp_open [ -qz ] [ -a fd | -f fd ] [ sess ]
24924 Open a new session. In the first and simplest form, open a TCP
24925 connection to host host at port port; numeric and symbolic forms
24926 are understood for both.
24927 If sess is given, this becomes the name of the session which can
24929 be used to refer to multiple different TCP connections. If sess
24930 is not given, the function will invent a numeric name value
24931 (note this is not the same as the file descriptor to which the
24932 session is attached). It is recommended that session names not
24933 include `funny' characters, where funny characters are not
24934 well-defined but certainly do not include alphanumerics or un‐
24935 derscores, and certainly do include whitespace.
24936 In the second case, one or more sessions to be opened are given
24938 by name. A single session name is given after -s and a
24939 comma-separated list after -l; both options may be repeated as
24940 many times as necessary. A failure to open any session causes
24941 tcp_open to abort. The host and port are read from the file
24942 .ztcp_sessions in the same directory as the user's zsh initiali‐
24943 sation files, i.e. usually the home directory, but $ZDOTDIR if
24944 that is set. The file consists of lines each giving a session
24945 name and the corresponding host and port, in that order (note
24946 the session name comes first, not last), separated by white‐
24947 space.
24948 The third form allows passive and fake TCP connections. If the
24950 option -a is used, its argument is a file descriptor open for
24951 listening for connections. No function front-end is provided to
24952 open such a file descriptor, but a call to `ztcp -l port' will
24953 create one with the file descriptor stored in the parameter $RE‐
24954 PLY. The listening port can be closed with `ztcp -c fd'. A
24955 call to `tcp_open -a fd' will block until a remote TCP connec‐
24956 tion is made to port on the local machine. At this point, a
24957 session is created in the usual way and is largely indistin‐
24958 guishable from an active connection created with one of the
24959 first two forms.
24960 If the option -f is used, its argument is a file descriptor
24962 which is used directly as if it were a TCP session. How well
24963 the remainder of the TCP function system copes with this depends
24964 on what actually underlies this file descriptor. A regular file
24965 is likely to be unusable; a FIFO (pipe) of some sort will work
24966 better, but note that it is not a good idea for two different
24967 sessions to attempt to read from the same FIFO at once.
24968 If the option -q is given with any of the three forms, tcp_open
24970 will not print informational messages, although it will in any
24971 case exit with an appropriate status.
24972 If the line editor (zle) is in use, which is typically the case
24974 if the shell is interactive, tcp_open installs a handler inside
24975 zle which will check for new data at the same time as it checks
24976 for keyboard input. This is convenient as the shell consumes no
24977 CPU time while waiting; the test is performed by the operating
24978 system. Giving the option -z to any of the forms of tcp_open
24979 prevents the handler from being installed, so data must be read
24980 explicitly. Note, however, this is not necessary for executing
24981 complete sets of send and read commands from a function, as zle
24982 is not active at this point. Generally speaking, the handler is
24983 only active when the shell is waiting for input at a command
24984 prompt or in the vared builtin. The option has no effect if zle
24985 is not active; `[[ -o zle]]' will test for this.
24986 The first session to be opened becomes the current session and
24988 subsequent calls to tcp_open do not change it. The current ses‐
24989 sion is stored in the parameter $TCP_SESS; see below for more
24990 detail about the parameters used by the system.
24991 The function tcp_on_open, if defined, is called when a session
24993 is opened. See the description below.
24994 tcp_close [ -qn ] [ -a | -l sess[,...] | sess ... ]
24996 Close the named sessions, or the current session if none is
24997 given, or all open sessions if -a is given. The options -l and
24998 -s are both handled for consistency with tcp_open, although the
24999 latter is redundant.
25000 If the session being closed is the current one, $TCP_SESS is un‐
25002 set, leaving no current session, even if there are other ses‐
25003 sions still open.
25004 If the session was opened with tcp_open -f, the file descriptor
25006 is closed so long as it is in the range 0 to 9 accessible di‐
25007 rectly from the command line. If the option -n is given, no at‐
25008 tempt will be made to close file descriptors in this case. The
25009 -n option is not used for genuine ztcp session; the file de‐
25010 scriptors are always closed with the session.
25011 If the option -q is given, no informational messages will be
25013 printed.
25014 tcp_read [ -bdq ] [ -t TO ] [ -T TO ]
25017 [ -a | -u fd[,...] | -l sess[,...] | -s sess ... ]
25018 Perform a read operation on the current session, or on a list of
25019 sessions if any are given with -u, -l or -s, or all open ses‐
25020 sions if the option -a is given. Any of the -u, -l or -s op‐
25021 tions may be repeated or mixed together. The -u option speci‐
25022 fies a file descriptor directly (only those managed by this sys‐
25023 tem are useful), the other two specify sessions as described for
25024 tcp_open above.
25025 The function checks for new data available on all the sessions
25027 listed. Unless the -b option is given, it will not block wait‐
25028 ing for new data. Any one line of data from any of the avail‐
25029 able sessions will be read, stored in the parameter $TCP_LINE,
25030 and displayed to standard output unless $TCP_SILENT contains a
25031 non-empty string. When printed to standard output the string
25032 $TCP_PROMPT will be shown at the start of the line; the default
25033 form for this includes the name of the session being read. See
25034 below for more information on these parameters. In this mode,
25035 tcp_read can be called repeatedly until it returns status 2
25036 which indicates all pending input from all specified sessions
25037 has been handled.
25038 With the option -b, equivalent to an infinite timeout, the func‐
25040 tion will block until a line is available to read from one of
25041 the specified sessions. However, only a single line is re‐
25042 turned.
25043 The option -d indicates that all pending input should be
25045 drained. In this case tcp_read may process multiple lines in
25046 the manner given above; only the last is stored in $TCP_LINE,
25047 but the complete set is stored in the array $tcp_lines. This is
25048 cleared at the start of each call to tcp_read.
25049 The options -t and -T specify a timeout in seconds, which may be
25051 a floating point number for increased accuracy. With -t the
25052 timeout is applied before each line read. With -T, the timeout
25053 applies to the overall operation, possibly including multiple
25054 read operations if the option -d is present; without this op‐
25055 tion, there is no distinction between -t and -T.
25056 The function does not print informational messages, but if the
25058 option -q is given, no error message is printed for a non-exis‐
25059 tent session.
25060 A return status of 2 indicates a timeout or no data to read.
25062 Any other non-zero return status indicates some error condition.
25063 See tcp_log for how to control where data is sent by tcp_read.
25065 tcp_send [ -cnq ] [ -s sess | -l sess[,...] ] data ...
25067 tcp_send [ -cnq ] -a data ...
25068 Send the supplied data strings to all the specified sessions in
25069 turn. The underlying operation differs little from a `print -r'
25070 to the session's file descriptor, although it attempts to pre‐
25071 vent the shell from dying owing to a SIGPIPE caused by an at‐
25072 tempt to write to a defunct session.
25073 The option -c causes tcp_send to behave like cat. It reads
25075 lines from standard input until end of input and sends them in
25076 turn to the specified session(s) exactly as if they were given
25077 as data arguments to individual tcp_send commands.
25078 The option -n prevents tcp_send from putting a newline at the
25080 end of the data strings.
25081 The remaining options all behave as for tcp_read.
25083 The data arguments are not further processed once they have been
25085 passed to tcp_send; they are simply passed down to print -r.
25086 If the parameter $TCP_OUTPUT is a non-empty string and logging
25088 is enabled then the data sent to each session will be echoed to
25089 the log file(s) with $TCP_OUTPUT in front where appropriate,
25090 much in the manner of $TCP_PROMPT.
25091 Session Management
25093 tcp_alias [ -q ] alias=sess ...
25094 tcp_alias [ -q ] [ alias ... ]
25095 tcp_alias -d [ -q ] alias ...
25096 This function is not particularly well tested.
25097 The first form creates an alias for a session name; alias can
25099 then be used to refer to the existing session sess. As many
25100 aliases may be listed as required.
25101 The second form lists any aliases specified, or all aliases if
25103 none.
25104 The third form deletes all the aliases listed. The underlying
25106 sessions are not affected.
25107 The option -q suppresses an inconsistently chosen subset of er‐
25109 ror messages.
25110 tcp_log [ -asc ] [ -n | -N ] [ logfile ]
25112 With an argument logfile, all future input from tcp_read will be
25113 logged to the named file. Unless -a (append) is given, this
25114 file will first be truncated or created empty. With no argu‐
25115 ments, show the current status of logging.
25116 With the option -s, per-session logging is enabled. Input from
25118 tcp_read is output to the file logfile.sess. As the session is
25119 automatically discriminated by the filename, the contents are
25120 raw (no $TCP_PROMPT). The option -a applies as above.
25121 Per-session logging and logging of all data in one file are not
25122 mutually exclusive.
25123 The option -c closes all logging, both complete and per-session
25125 logs.
25126 The options -n and -N respectively turn off or restore output of
25128 data read by tcp_read to standard output; hence `tcp_log -cn'
25129 turns off all output by tcp_read.
25130 The function is purely a convenient front end to setting the pa‐
25132 rameters $TCP_LOG, $TCP_LOG_SESS, $TCP_SILENT, which are de‐
25133 scribed below.
25134 tcp_rename old new
25136 Rename session old to session new. The old name becomes in‐
25137 valid.
25138 tcp_sess [ sess [ command [ arg ... ] ] ]
25140 With no arguments, list all the open sessions and associated
25141 file descriptors. The current session is marked with a star.
25142 For use in functions, direct access to the parameters
25143 $tcp_by_name, $tcp_by_fd and $TCP_SESS is probably more conve‐
25144 nient; see below.
25145 With a sess argument, set the current session to sess. This is
25147 equivalent to changing $TCP_SESS directly.
25148 With additional arguments, temporarily set the current session
25150 while executing `command arg ...'. command is re-evaluated so
25151 as to expand aliases etc., but the remaining args are passed
25152 through as that appear to tcp_sess. The original session is re‐
25153 stored when tcp_sess exits.
25154 Advanced I/O
25156 tcp_command send-option ... send-argument ...
25157 This is a convenient front-end to tcp_send. All arguments are
25158 passed to tcp_send, then the function pauses waiting for data.
25159 While data is arriving at least every $TCP_TIMEOUT (default 0.3)
25160 seconds, data is handled and printed out according to the cur‐
25161 rent settings. Status 0 is always returned.
25162 This is generally only useful for interactive use, to prevent
25164 the display becoming fragmented by output returned from the con‐
25165 nection. Within a programme or function it is generally better
25166 to handle reading data by a more explicit method.
25167 tcp_expect [ -q ] [ -p var | -P var ] [ -t TO | -T TO ]
25170 [ -a | -s sess | -l sess[,...] ] pattern ...
25171 Wait for input matching any of the given patterns from any of
25172 the specified sessions. Input is ignored until an input line
25173 matches one of the given patterns; at this point status zero is
25174 returned, the matching line is stored in $TCP_LINE, and the full
25175 set of lines read during the call to tcp_expect is stored in the
25176 array $tcp_expect_lines.
25177 Sessions are specified in the same way as tcp_read: the default
25179 is to use the current session, otherwise the sessions specified
25180 by -a, -s, or -l are used.
25181 Each pattern is a standard zsh extended-globbing pattern; note
25183 that it needs to be quoted to avoid it being expanded immedi‐
25184 ately by filename generation. It must match the full line, so
25185 to match a substring there must be a `*' at the start and end.
25186 The line matched against includes the $TCP_PROMPT added by
25187 tcp_read. It is possible to include the globbing flags `#b' or
25188 `#m' in the patterns to make backreferences available in the pa‐
25189 rameters $MATCH, $match, etc., as described in the base zsh doc‐
25190 umentation on pattern matching.
25191 Unlike tcp_read, the default behaviour of tcp_expect is to block
25193 indefinitely until the required input is found. This can be
25194 modified by specifying a timeout with -t or -T; these function
25195 as in tcp_read, specifying a per-read or overall timeout, re‐
25196 spectively, in seconds, as an integer or floating-point number.
25197 As tcp_read, the function returns status 2 if a timeout occurs.
25198 The function returns as soon as any one of the patterns given
25200 match. If the caller needs to know which of the patterns
25201 matched, the option -p var can be used; on return, $var is set
25202 to the number of the pattern using ordinary zsh indexing, i.e.
25203 the first is 1, and so on. Note the absence of a `$' in front
25204 of var. To avoid clashes, the parameter cannot begin with `_ex‐
25205 pect'. The index -1 is used if there is a timeout and 0 if
25206 there is no match.
25207 The option -P var works similarly to -p, but instead of numeri‐
25209 cal indexes the regular arguments must begin with a prefix fol‐
25210 lowed by a colon: that prefix is then used as a tag to which var
25211 is set when the argument matches. The tag timeout is used if
25212 there is a timeout and the empty string if there is no match.
25213 Note it is acceptable for different arguments to start with the
25214 same prefix if the matches do not need to be distinguished.
25215 The option -q is passed directly down to tcp_read.
25217 As all input is done via tcp_read, all the usual rules about
25219 output of lines read apply. One exception is that the parameter
25220 $tcp_lines will only reflect the line actually matched by
25221 tcp_expect; use $tcp_expect_lines for the full set of lines read
25222 during the function call.
25223 tcp_proxy
25225 This is a simple-minded function to accept a TCP connection and
25226 execute a command with I/O redirected to the connection. Ex‐
25227 treme caution should be taken as there is no security whatsoever
25228 and this can leave your computer open to the world. Ideally, it
25229 should only be used behind a firewall.
25230 The first argument is a TCP port on which the function will lis‐
25232 ten.
25233 The remaining arguments give a command and its arguments to exe‐
25235 cute with standard input, standard output and standard error
25236 redirected to the file descriptor on which the TCP session has
25237 been accepted. If no command is given, a new zsh is started.
25238 This gives everyone on your network direct access to your ac‐
25239 count, which in many cases will be a bad thing.
25240 The command is run in the background, so tcp_proxy can then ac‐
25242 cept new connections. It continues to accept new connections
25243 until interrupted.
25244 tcp_spam [ -ertv ] [ -a | -s sess | -l sess[,...] ] cmd [ arg ... ]
25246 Execute `cmd [ arg ... ]' for each session in turn. Note this
25247 executes the command and arguments; it does not send the command
25248 line as data unless the -t (transmit) option is given.
25249 The sessions may be selected explicitly with the standard -a, -s
25251 or -l options, or may be chosen implicitly. If none of the
25252 three options is given the rules are: first, if the array
25253 $tcp_spam_list is set, this is taken as the list of sessions,
25254 otherwise all sessions are taken. Second, any sessions given in
25255 the array $tcp_no_spam_list are removed from the list of ses‐
25256 sions.
25257 Normally, any sessions added by the `-a' flag or when all ses‐
25259 sions are chosen implicitly are spammed in alphabetic order;
25260 sessions given by the $tcp_spam_list array or on the command
25261 line are spammed in the order given. The -r flag reverses the
25262 order however it was arrived it.
25263 The -v flag specifies that a $TCP_PROMPT will be output before
25265 each session. This is output after any modification to TCP_SESS
25266 by the user-defined tcp_on_spam function described below. (Ob‐
25267 viously that function is able to generate its own output.)
25268 If the option -e is present, the line given as `cmd [ arg ... ]'
25270 is executed using eval, otherwise it is executed without any
25271 further processing.
25272 tcp_talk
25274 This is a fairly simple-minded attempt to force input to the
25275 line editor to go straight to the default TCP_SESS.
25276 An escape string, $TCP_TALK_ESCAPE, default `:', is used to al‐
25278 low access to normal shell operation. If it is on its own at
25279 the start of the line, or followed only by whitespace, the line
25280 editor returns to normal operation. Otherwise, the string and
25281 any following whitespace are skipped and the remainder of the
25282 line executed as shell input without any change of the line edi‐
25283 tor's operating mode.
25284 The current implementation is somewhat deficient in terms of use
25286 of the command history. For this reason, many users will prefer
25287 to use some form of alternative approach for sending data easily
25288 to the current session. One simple approach is to alias some
25289 special character (such as `%') to `tcp_command --'.
25290 tcp_wait
25292 The sole argument is an integer or floating point number which
25293 gives the seconds to delay. The shell will do nothing for that
25294 period except wait for input on all TCP sessions by calling
25295 tcp_read -a. This is similar to the interactive behaviour at
25296 the command prompt when zle handlers are installed.
25297 `One-shot' file transfer
25299 tcp_point port
25300 tcp_shoot host port
25301 This pair of functions provide a simple way to transfer a file
25302 between two hosts within the shell. Note, however, that bulk
25303 data transfer is currently done using cat. tcp_point reads any
25304 data arriving at port and sends it to standard output; tcp_shoot
25305 connects to port on host and sends its standard input. Any un‐
25306 used port may be used; the standard mechanism for picking a port
25307 is to think of a random four-digit number above 1024 until one
25308 works.
25309 To transfer a file from host woodcock to host springes, on
25311 springes:
25312 tcp_point 8091 >output_file
25314 and on woodcock:
25316 tcp_shoot springes 8091 <input_file
25318 As these two functions do not require tcp_open to set up a TCP
25320 connection first, they may need to be autoloaded separately.
25321
25323 Certain functions, if defined by the user, will be called by the func‐
25324 tion system in certain contexts. This facility depends on the module
25325 zsh/parameter, which is usually available in interactive shells as the
25326 completion system depends on it. None of the functions need be de‐
25327 fined; they simply provide convenient hooks when necessary.
25328 Typically, these are called after the requested action has been taken,
25330 so that the various parameters will reflect the new state.
25331 tcp_on_alias alias fd
25333 When an alias is defined, this function will be called with two
25334 arguments: the name of the alias, and the file descriptor of the
25335 corresponding session.
25336 tcp_on_awol sess fd
25338 If the function tcp_fd_handler is handling input from the line
25339 editor and detects that the file descriptor is no longer reus‐
25340 able, by default it removes it from the list of file descriptors
25341 handled by this method and prints a message. If the function
25342 tcp_on_awol is defined it is called immediately before this
25343 point. It may return status 100, which indicates that the nor‐
25344 mal handling should still be performed; any other return status
25345 indicates that no further action should be taken and the
25346 tcp_fd_handler should return immediately with the given status.
25347 Typically the action of tcp_on_awol will be to close the ses‐
25348 sion.
25349 The variable TCP_INVALIDATE_ZLE will be a non-empty string if it
25351 is necessary to invalidate the line editor display using `zle
25352 -I' before printing output from the function.
25353 (`AWOL' is military jargon for `absent without leave' or some
25355 variation. It has no pre-existing technical meaning known to
25356 the author.)
25357 tcp_on_close sess fd
25359 This is called with the name of a session being closed and the
25360 file descriptor which corresponded to that session. Both will
25361 be invalid by the time the function is called.
25362 tcp_on_open sess fd
25364 This is called after a new session has been defined with the
25365 session name and file descriptor as arguments. If it returns a
25366 non-zero status, opening the session is assumed to fail and the
25367 session is closed again; however, tcp_open will continue to at‐
25368 tempt to open any remaining sessions given on the command line.
25369 tcp_on_rename oldsess fd newsess
25371 This is called after a session has been renamed with the three
25372 arguments old session name, file descriptor, new session name.
25373 tcp_on_spam sess command ...
25375 This is called once for each session spammed, just before a com‐
25376 mand is executed for a session by tcp_spam. The arguments are
25377 the session name followed by the command list to be executed.
25378 If tcp_spam was called with the option -t, the first command
25379 will be tcp_send.
25380 This function is called after $TCP_SESS is set to reflect the
25382 session to be spammed, but before any use of it is made. Hence
25383 it is possible to alter the value of $TCP_SESS within this func‐
25384 tion. For example, the session arguments to tcp_spam could in‐
25385 clude extra information to be stripped off and processed in
25386 tcp_on_spam.
25387 If the function sets the parameter $REPLY to `done', the command
25389 line is not executed; in addition, no prompt is printed for the
25390 -v option to tcp_spam.
25391 tcp_on_unalias alias fd
25393 This is called with the name of an alias and the corresponding
25394 session's file descriptor after an alias has been deleted.
25395
25397 The following functions are used by the TCP function system but will
25398 rarely if ever need to be called directly.
25399 tcp_fd_handler
25401 This is the function installed by tcp_open for handling input
25402 from within the line editor, if that is required. It is in the
25403 format documented for the builtin `zle -F' in zshzle(1) .
25404 While active, the function sets the parameter TCP_HANDLER_ACTIVE
25406 to 1. This allows shell code called internally (for example, by
25407 setting tcp_on_read) to tell if is being called when the shell
25408 is otherwise idle at the editor prompt.
25409 tcp_output [ -q ] -P prompt -F fd -S sess
25411 This function is used for both logging and handling output to
25412 standard output, from within tcp_read and (if $TCP_OUTPUT is
25413 set) tcp_send.
25414 The prompt to use is specified by -P; the default is the empty
25416 string. It can contain:
25417 %c Expands to 1 if the session is the current session, oth‐
25418 erwise 0. Used with ternary expressions such as
25419 `%(c.-.+)' to output `+' for the current session and `-'
25420 otherwise.
25421 %f Replaced by the session's file descriptor.
25423 %s Replaced by the session name.
25425 %% Replaced by a single `%'.
25427 The option -q suppresses output to standard output, but not to
25429 any log files which are configured.
25430 The -S and -F options are used to pass in the session name and
25432 file descriptor for possible replacement in the prompt.
25433
25435 Parameters follow the usual convention that uppercase is used for
25436 scalars and integers, while lowercase is used for normal and associa‐
25437 tive array. It is always safe for user code to read these parameters.
25438 Some parameters may also be set; these are noted explicitly. Others
25439 are included in this group as they are set by the function system for
25440 the user's benefit, i.e. setting them is typically not useful but is
25441 benign.
25442 It is often also useful to make settable parameters local to a func‐
25444 tion. For example, `local TCP_SILENT=1' specifies that data read dur‐
25445 ing the function call will not be printed to standard output, regard‐
25446 less of the setting outside the function. Likewise, `local
25447 TCP_SESS=sess' sets a session for the duration of a function, and `lo‐
25448 cal TCP_PROMPT=' specifies that no prompt is used for input during the
25449 function.
25450 tcp_expect_lines
25452 Array. The set of lines read during the last call to tcp_ex‐
25453 pect, including the last ($TCP_LINE).
25454 tcp_filter
25456 Array. May be set directly. A set of extended globbing patterns
25457 which, if matched in tcp_output, will cause the line not to be
25458 printed to standard output. The patterns should be defined as
25459 described for the arguments to tcp_expect. Output of line to
25460 log files is not affected.
25461 TCP_HANDLER_ACTIVE
25463 Scalar. Set to 1 within tcp_fd_handler to indicate to functions
25464 called recursively that they have been called during an editor
25465 session. Otherwise unset.
25466 TCP_LINE
25468 The last line read by tcp_read, and hence also tcp_expect.
25469 TCP_LINE_FD
25471 The file descriptor from which $TCP_LINE was read.
25472 ${tcp_by_fd[$TCP_LINE_FD]} will give the corresponding session
25473 name.
25474 tcp_lines
25476 Array. The set of lines read during the last call to tcp_read,
25477 including the last ($TCP_LINE).
25478 TCP_LOG
25480 May be set directly, although it is also controlled by tcp_log.
25481 The name of a file to which output from all sessions will be
25482 sent. The output is proceeded by the usual $TCP_PROMPT. If it
25483 is not an absolute path name, it will follow the user's current
25484 directory.
25485 TCP_LOG_SESS
25487 May be set directly, although it is also controlled by tcp_log.
25488 The prefix for a set of files to which output from each session
25489 separately will be sent; the full filename is
25490 ${TCP_LOG_SESS}.sess. Output to each file is raw; no prompt is
25491 added. If it is not an absolute path name, it will follow the
25492 user's current directory.
25493 tcp_no_spam_list
25495 Array. May be set directly. See tcp_spam for how this is used.
25496 TCP_OUTPUT
25498 May be set directly. If a non-empty string, any data sent to a
25499 session by tcp_send will be logged. This parameter gives the
25500 prompt to be used in a file specified by $TCP_LOG but not in a
25501 file generated from $TCP_LOG_SESS. The prompt string has the
25502 same format as TCP_PROMPT and the same rules for its use apply.
25503 TCP_PROMPT
25505 May be set directly. Used as the prefix for data read by
25506 tcp_read which is printed to standard output or to the log file
25507 given by $TCP_LOG, if any. Any `%s', `%f' or `%%' occurring in
25508 the string will be replaced by the name of the session, the ses‐
25509 sion's underlying file descriptor, or a single `%', respec‐
25510 tively. The expression `%c' expands to 1 if the session being
25511 read is the current session, else 0; this is most useful in
25512 ternary expressions such as `%(c.-.+)' which outputs `+' if the
25513 session is the current one, else `-'.
25514 If the prompt starts with %P, this is stripped and the complete
25516 result of the previous stage is passed through standard prompt
25517 %-style formatting before being output.
25518 TCP_READ_DEBUG
25520 May be set directly. If this has non-zero length, tcp_read will
25521 give some limited diagnostics about data being read.
25522 TCP_SECONDS_START
25524 This value is created and initialised to zero by tcp_open.
25525 The functions tcp_read and tcp_expect use the shell's SECONDS
25527 parameter for their own timing purposes. If that parameter is
25528 not of floating point type on entry to one of the functions, it
25529 will create a local parameter SECONDS which is floating point
25530 and set the parameter TCP_SECONDS_START to the previous value of
25531 $SECONDS. If the parameter is already floating point, it is
25532 used without a local copy being created and TCP_SECONDS_START is
25533 not set. As the global value is zero, the shell elapsed time is
25534 guaranteed to be the sum of $SECONDS and $TCP_SECONDS_START.
25535 This can be avoided by setting SECONDS globally to a floating
25537 point value using `typeset -F SECONDS'; then the TCP functions
25538 will never make a local copy and never set TCP_SECONDS_START to
25539 a non-zero value.
25540 TCP_SESS
25542 May be set directly. The current session; must refer to one of
25543 the sessions established by tcp_open.
25544 TCP_SILENT
25546 May be set directly, although it is also controlled by tcp_log.
25547 If of non-zero length, data read by tcp_read will not be written
25548 to standard output, though may still be written to a log file.
25549 tcp_spam_list
25551 Array. May be set directly. See the description of the func‐
25552 tion tcp_spam for how this is used.
25553 TCP_TALK_ESCAPE
25555 May be set directly. See the description of the function
25556 tcp_talk for how this is used.
25557 TCP_TIMEOUT
25559 May be set directly. Currently this is only used by the func‐
25560 tion tcp_command, see above.
25561
25563 The following parameters are not set by the function system, but have a
25564 special effect if set by the user.
25565 tcp_on_read
25567 This should be an associative array; if it is not, the behaviour
25568 is undefined. Each key is the name of a shell function or other
25569 command, and the corresponding value is a shell pattern (using
25570 EXTENDED_GLOB). Every line read from a TCP session directly or
25571 indirectly using tcp_read (which includes lines read by tcp_ex‐
25572 pect) is compared against the pattern. If the line matches, the
25573 command given in the key is called with two arguments: the name
25574 of the session from which the line was read, and the line it‐
25575 self.
25576 If any function called to handle a line returns a non-zero sta‐
25578 tus, the line is not output. Thus a tcp_on_read handler con‐
25579 taining only the instruction `return 1' can be used to suppress
25580 output of particular lines (see, however, tcp_filter above).
25581 However, the line is still stored in TCP_LINE and tcp_lines;
25582 this occurs after all tcp_on_read processing.
25583
25585 These parameters are controlled by the function system; they may be
25586 read directly, but should not usually be set by user code.
25587 tcp_aliases
25589 Associative array. The keys are the names of sessions estab‐
25590 lished with tcp_open; each value is a space-separated list of
25591 aliases which refer to that session.
25592 tcp_by_fd
25594 Associative array. The keys are session file descriptors; each
25595 value is the name of that session.
25596 tcp_by_name
25598 Associative array. The keys are the names of sessions; each
25599 value is the file descriptor associated with that session.
25600
25602 Here is a trivial example using a remote calculator.
25603 To create a calculator server on port 7337 (see the dc manual page for
25605 quite how infuriating the underlying command is):
25606 tcp_proxy 7337 dc
25608 To connect to this from the same host with a session also named `dc':
25610 tcp_open localhost 7337 dc
25612 To send a command to the remote session and wait a short while for out‐
25614 put (assuming dc is the current session):
25615 tcp_command 2 4 + p
25617 To close the session:
25619 tcp_close
25621 The tcp_proxy needs to be killed to be stopped. Note this will not
25623 usually kill any connections which have already been accepted, and also
25624 that the port is not immediately available for reuse.
25625 The following chunk of code puts a list of sessions into an xterm
25627 header, with the current session followed by a star.
25628 print -n "\033]2;TCP:" ${(k)tcp_by_name:/$TCP_SESS/$TCP_SESS\*} "\a"
25630
25632 The function tcp_read uses the shell's normal read builtin. As this
25633 reads a complete line at once, data arriving without a terminating new‐
25634 line can cause the function to block indefinitely.
25635 Though the function suite works well for interactive use and for data
25637 arriving in small amounts, the performance when large amounts of data
25638 are being exchanged is likely to be extremely poor.
25639ZSHZFTPSYS(1) General Commands Manual ZSHZFTPSYS(1)
25643
25647 zshzftpsys - zftp function front-end
25648
25650 This describes the set of shell functions supplied with the source dis‐
25651 tribution as an interface to the zftp builtin command, allowing you to
25652 perform FTP operations from the shell command line or within functions
25653 or scripts. The interface is similar to a traditional FTP client (e.g.
25654 the ftp command itself, see ftp(1)), but as it is entirely done within
25655 the shell all the familiar completion, editing and globbing features,
25656 and so on, are present, and macros are particularly simple to write as
25657 they are just ordinary shell functions.
25658 The prerequisite is that the zftp command, as described in zshmod‐
25660 ules(1) , must be available in the version of zsh installed at your
25661 site. If the shell is configured to load new commands at run time, it
25662 probably is: typing `zmodload zsh/zftp' will make sure (if that runs
25663 silently, it has worked). If this is not the case, it is possible zftp
25664 was linked into the shell anyway: to test this, type `which zftp' and
25665 if zftp is available you will get the message `zftp: shell built-in
25666 command'.
25667 Commands given directly with zftp builtin may be interspersed between
25669 the functions in this suite; in a few cases, using zftp directly may
25670 cause some of the status information stored in shell parameters to be‐
25671 come invalid. Note in particular the description of the variables
25672 $ZFTP_TMOUT, $ZFTP_PREFS and $ZFTP_VERBOSE for zftp.
25673
25675 You should make sure all the functions from the Functions/Zftp direc‐
25676 tory of the source distribution are available; they all begin with the
25677 two letters `zf'. They may already have been installed on your system;
25678 otherwise, you will need to find them and copy them. The directory
25679 should appear as one of the elements of the $fpath array (this should
25680 already be the case if they were installed), and at least the function
25681 zfinit should be autoloaded; it will autoload the rest. Finally, to
25682 initialize the use of the system you need to call the zfinit function.
25683 The following code in your .zshrc will arrange for this; assume the
25684 functions are stored in the directory ~/myfns:
25685 fpath=(~/myfns $fpath)
25687 autoload -U zfinit
25688 zfinit
25689 Note that zfinit assumes you are using the zmodload method to load the
25691 zftp command. If it is already built into the shell, change zfinit to
25692 zfinit -n. It is helpful (though not essential) if the call to zfinit
25693 appears after any code to initialize the new completion system, else
25694 unnecessary compctl commands will be given.
25695
25697 The sequence of operations in performing a file transfer is essentially
25698 the same as that in a standard FTP client. Note that, due to a quirk
25699 of the shell's getopts builtin, for those functions that handle options
25700 you must use `--' rather than `-' to ensure the remaining arguments are
25701 treated literally (a single `-' is treated as an argument).
25702 Opening a connection
25704 zfparams [ host [ user [ password ... ] ] ]
25705 Set or show the parameters for a future zfopen with no argu‐
25706 ments. If no arguments are given, the current parameters are
25707 displayed (the password will be shown as a line of asterisks).
25708 If a host is given, and either the user or password is not, they
25709 will be prompted for; also, any parameter given as `?' will be
25710 prompted for, and if the `?' is followed by a string, that will
25711 be used as the prompt. As zfopen calls zfparams to store the
25712 parameters, this usually need not be called directly.
25713 A single argument `-' will delete the stored parameters. This
25715 will also cause the memory of the last directory (and so on) on
25716 the other host to be deleted.
25717 zfopen [ -1 ] [ host [ user [ password [ account ] ] ] ]
25719 If host is present, open a connection to that host under user‐
25720 name user with password password (and, on the rare occasions
25721 when it is necessary, account account). If a necessary parame‐
25722 ter is missing or given as `?' it will be prompted for. If host
25723 is not present, use a previously stored set of parameters.
25724 If the command was successful, and the terminal is compatible
25726 with xterm or is sun-cmd, a summary will appear in the title
25727 bar, giving the local host:directory and the remote host:direc‐
25728 tory; this is handled by the function zftp_chpwd, described be‐
25729 low.
25730 Normally, the host, user and password are internally recorded
25732 for later re-opening, either by a zfopen with no arguments, or
25733 automatically (see below). With the option `-1', no information
25734 is stored. Also, if an open command with arguments failed, the
25735 parameters will not be retained (and any previous parameters
25736 will also be deleted). A zfopen on its own, or a zfopen -1,
25737 never alters the stored parameters.
25738 Both zfopen and zfanon (but not zfparams) understand URLs of the
25740 form ftp://host/path... as meaning to connect to the host, then
25741 change directory to path (which must be a directory, not a
25742 file). The `ftp://' can be omitted; the trailing `/' is enough
25743 to trigger recognition of the path. Note prefixes other than
25744 `ftp:' are not recognized, and that all characters after the
25745 first slash beyond host are significant in path.
25746 zfanon [ -1 ] host
25748 Open a connection host for anonymous FTP. The username used is
25749 `anonymous'. The password (which will be reported the first
25750 time) is generated as user@host; this is then stored in the
25751 shell parameter $EMAIL_ADDR which can alternatively be set manu‐
25752 ally to a suitable string.
25753 Directory management
25755 zfcd [ dir ]
25756 zfcd -
25757 zfcd old new
25758 Change the current directory on the remote server: this is im‐
25759 plemented to have many of the features of the shell builtin cd.
25760 In the first form with dir present, change to the directory dir.
25762 The command `zfcd ..' is treated specially, so is guaranteed to
25763 work on non-UNIX servers (note this is handled internally by
25764 zftp). If dir is omitted, has the effect of `zfcd ~'.
25765 The second form changes to the directory previously current.
25767 The third form attempts to change the current directory by re‐
25769 placing the first occurrence of the string old with the string
25770 new in the current directory.
25771 Note that in this command, and indeed anywhere a remote filename
25773 is expected, the string which on the local host corresponds to
25774 `~' is converted back to a `~' before being passed to the remote
25775 machine. This is convenient because of the way expansion is
25776 performed on the command line before zfcd receives a string.
25777 For example, suppose the command is `zfcd ~/foo'. The shell
25778 will expand this to a full path such as `zfcd
25779 /home/user2/pws/foo'. At this stage, zfcd recognises the ini‐
25780 tial path as corresponding to `~' and will send the directory to
25781 the remote host as ~/foo, so that the `~' will be expanded by
25782 the server to the correct remote host directory. Other named
25783 directories of the form `~name' are not treated in this fashion.
25784 zfhere Change directory on the remote server to the one corresponding
25786 to the current local directory, with special handling of `~' as
25787 in zfcd. For example, if the current local directory is
25788 ~/foo/bar, then zfhere performs the effect of `zfcd ~/foo/bar'.
25789 zfdir [ -rfd ] [ - ] [ dir-options ] [ dir ]
25791 Produce a long directory listing. The arguments dir-options and
25792 dir are passed directly to the server and their effect is imple‐
25793 mentation dependent, but specifying a particular remote direc‐
25794 tory dir is usually possible. The output is passed through a
25795 pager given by the environment variable $PAGER, or `more' if
25796 that is not set.
25797 The directory is usually cached for re-use. In fact, two caches
25799 are maintained. One is for use when there is no dir-options or
25800 dir, i.e. a full listing of the current remote directory; it is
25801 flushed when the current remote directory changes. The other is
25802 kept for repeated use of zfdir with the same arguments; for ex‐
25803 ample, repeated use of `zfdir /pub/gnu' will only require the
25804 directory to be retrieved on the first call. Alternatively,
25805 this cache can be re-viewed with the -r option. As relative di‐
25806 rectories will confuse zfdir, the -f option can be used to force
25807 the cache to be flushed before the directory is listed. The op‐
25808 tion -d will delete both caches without showing a directory
25809 listing; it will also delete the cache of file names in the cur‐
25810 rent remote directory, if any.
25811 zfls [ ls-options ] [ dir ]
25813 List files on the remote server. With no arguments, this will
25814 produce a simple list of file names for the current remote di‐
25815 rectory. Any arguments are passed directly to the server. No
25816 pager and no caching is used.
25817 Status commands
25819 zftype [ type ]
25820 With no arguments, show the type of data to be transferred, usu‐
25821 ally ASCII or binary. With an argument, change the type: the
25822 types `A' or `ASCII' for ASCII data and `B' or `BINARY', `I' or
25823 `IMAGE' for binary data are understood case-insensitively.
25824 zfstat [ -v ]
25826 Show the status of the current or last connection, as well as
25827 the status of some of zftp's status variables. With the -v op‐
25828 tion, a more verbose listing is produced by querying the server
25829 for its version of events, too.
25830 Retrieving files
25832 The commands for retrieving files all take at least two options. -G
25833 suppresses remote filename expansion which would otherwise be performed
25834 (see below for a more detailed description of that). -t attempts to
25835 set the modification time of the local file to that of the remote file:
25836 see the description of the function zfrtime below for more information.
25837 zfget [ -Gtc ] file1 ...
25839 Retrieve all the listed files file1 ... one at a time from the
25840 remote server. If a file contains a `/', the full name is
25841 passed to the remote server, but the file is stored locally un‐
25842 der the name given by the part after the final `/'. The option
25843 -c (cat) forces all files to be sent as a single stream to stan‐
25844 dard output; in this case the -t option has no effect.
25845 zfuget [ -Gvst ] file1 ...
25847 As zfget, but only retrieve files where the version on the re‐
25848 mote server is newer (has a later modification time), or where
25849 the local file does not exist. If the remote file is older but
25850 the files have different sizes, or if the sizes are the same but
25851 the remote file is newer, the user will usually be queried.
25852 With the option -s, the command runs silently and will always
25853 retrieve the file in either of those two cases. With the option
25854 -v, the command prints more information about the files while it
25855 is working out whether or not to transfer them.
25856 zfcget [ -Gt ] file1 ...
25858 As zfget, but if any of the local files exists, and is shorter
25859 than the corresponding remote file, the command assumes that it
25860 is the result of a partially completed transfer and attempts to
25861 transfer the rest of the file. This is useful on a poor connec‐
25862 tion which keeps failing.
25863 Note that this requires a commonly implemented, but non-stan‐
25865 dard, version of the FTP protocol, so is not guaranteed to work
25866 on all servers.
25867 zfgcp [ -Gt ] remote-file local-file
25869 zfgcp [ -Gt ] rfile1 ... ldir
25870 This retrieves files from the remote server with arguments be‐
25871 having similarly to the cp command.
25872 In the first form, copy remote-file from the server to the local
25874 file local-file.
25875 In the second form, copy all the remote files rfile1 ... into
25877 the local directory ldir retaining the same basenames. This as‐
25878 sumes UNIX directory semantics.
25879 Sending files
25881 zfput [ -r ] file1 ...
25882 Send all the file1 ... given separately to the remote server.
25883 If a filename contains a `/', the full filename is used locally
25884 to find the file, but only the basename is used for the remote
25885 file name.
25886 With the option -r, if any of the files are directories they are
25888 sent recursively with all their subdirectories, including files
25889 beginning with `.'. This requires that the remote machine un‐
25890 derstand UNIX file semantics, since `/' is used as a directory
25891 separator.
25892 zfuput [ -vs ] file1 ...
25894 As zfput, but only send files which are newer than their remote
25895 equivalents, or if the remote file does not exist. The logic is
25896 the same as for zfuget, but reversed between local and remote
25897 files.
25898 zfcput file1 ...
25900 As zfput, but if any remote file already exists and is shorter
25901 than the local equivalent, assume it is the result of an incom‐
25902 plete transfer and send the rest of the file to append to the
25903 existing part. As the FTP append command is part of the stan‐
25904 dard set, this is in principle more likely to work than zfcget.
25905 zfpcp local-file remote-file
25907 zfpcp lfile1 ... rdir
25908 This sends files to the remote server with arguments behaving
25909 similarly to the cp command.
25910 With two arguments, copy local-file to the server as re‐
25912 mote-file.
25913 With more than two arguments, copy all the local files lfile1
25915 ... into the existing remote directory rdir retaining the same
25916 basenames. This assumes UNIX directory semantics.
25917 A problem arises if you attempt to use zfpcp lfile1 rdir, i.e.
25919 the second form of copying but with two arguments, as the com‐
25920 mand has no simple way of knowing if rdir corresponds to a di‐
25921 rectory or a filename. It attempts to resolve this in various
25922 ways. First, if the rdir argument is `.' or `..' or ends in a
25923 slash, it is assumed to be a directory. Secondly, if the opera‐
25924 tion of copying to a remote file in the first form failed, and
25925 the remote server sends back the expected failure code 553 and a
25926 reply including the string `Is a directory', then zfpcp will
25927 retry using the second form.
25928 Closing the connection
25930 zfclose
25931 Close the connection.
25932 Session management
25934 zfsession [ -lvod ] [ sessname ]
25935 Allows you to manage multiple FTP sessions at once. By default,
25936 connections take place in a session called `default'; by giving
25937 the command `zfsession sessname' you can change to a new or ex‐
25938 isting session with a name of your choice. The new session re‐
25939 members its own connection, as well as associated shell parame‐
25940 ters, and also the host/user parameters set by zfparams. Hence
25941 you can have different sessions set up to connect to different
25942 hosts, each remembering the appropriate host, user and password.
25943 With no arguments, zfsession prints the name of the current ses‐
25945 sion; with the option -l it lists all sessions which currently
25946 exist, and with the option -v it gives a verbose list showing
25947 the host and directory for each session, where the current ses‐
25948 sion is marked with an asterisk. With -o, it will switch to the
25949 most recent previous session.
25950 With -d, the given session (or else the current one) is removed;
25952 everything to do with it is completely forgotten. If it was the
25953 only session, a new session called `default' is created and made
25954 current. It is safest not to delete sessions while background
25955 commands using zftp are active.
25956 zftransfer sess1:file1 sess2:file2
25958 Transfer files between two sessions; no local copy is made. The
25959 file is read from the session sess1 as file1 and written to ses‐
25960 sion sess2 as file file2; file1 and file2 may be relative to the
25961 current directories of the session. Either sess1 or sess2 may
25962 be omitted (though the colon should be retained if there is a
25963 possibility of a colon appearing in the file name) and defaults
25964 to the current session; file2 may be omitted or may end with a
25965 slash, in which case the basename of file1 will be added. The
25966 sessions sess1 and sess2 must be distinct.
25967 The operation is performed using pipes, so it is required that
25969 the connections still be valid in a subshell, which is not the
25970 case under versions of some operating systems, presumably due to
25971 a system bug.
25972 Bookmarks
25974 The two functions zfmark and zfgoto allow you to `bookmark' the present
25975 location (host, user and directory) of the current FTP connection for
25976 later use. The file to be used for storing and retrieving bookmarks is
25977 given by the parameter $ZFTP_BMFILE; if not set when one of the two
25978 functions is called, it will be set to the file .zfbkmarks in the di‐
25979 rectory where your zsh startup files live (usually ~).
25980 zfmark [ bookmark ]
25982 If given an argument, mark the current host, user and directory
25983 under the name bookmark for later use by zfgoto. If there is no
25984 connection open, use the values for the last connection immedi‐
25985 ately before it was closed; it is an error if there was none.
25986 Any existing bookmark under the same name will be silently re‐
25987 placed.
25988 If not given an argument, list the existing bookmarks and the
25990 points to which they refer in the form user@host:directory; this
25991 is the format in which they are stored, and the file may be
25992 edited directly.
25993 zfgoto [ -n ] bookmark
25995 Return to the location given by bookmark, as previously set by
25996 zfmark. If the location has user `ftp' or `anonymous', open the
25997 connection with zfanon, so that no password is required. If the
25998 user and host parameters match those stored for the current ses‐
25999 sion, if any, those will be used, and again no password is re‐
26000 quired. Otherwise a password will be prompted for.
26001 With the option -n, the bookmark is taken to be a nickname
26003 stored by the ncftp program in its bookmark file, which is as‐
26004 sumed to be ~/.ncftp/bookmarks. The function works identically
26005 in other ways. Note that there is no mechanism for adding or
26006 modifying ncftp bookmarks from the zftp functions.
26007 Other functions
26009 Mostly, these functions will not be called directly (apart from
26010 zfinit), but are described here for completeness. You may wish to al‐
26011 ter zftp_chpwd and zftp_progress, in particular.
26012 zfinit [ -n ]
26014 As described above, this is used to initialize the zftp function
26015 system. The -n option should be used if the zftp command is al‐
26016 ready built into the shell.
26017 zfautocheck [ -dn ]
26019 This function is called to implement automatic reopening behav‐
26020 iour, as described in more detail below. The options must ap‐
26021 pear in the first argument; -n prevents the command from chang‐
26022 ing to the old directory, while -d prevents it from setting the
26023 variable do_close, which it otherwise does as a flag for auto‐
26024 matically closing the connection after a transfer. The host and
26025 directory for the last session are stored in the variable
26026 $zflastsession, but the internal host/user/password parameters
26027 must also be correctly set.
26028 zfcd_match prefix suffix
26030 This performs matching for completion of remote directory names.
26031 If the remote server is UNIX, it will attempt to persuade the
26032 server to list the remote directory with subdirectories marked,
26033 which usually works but is not guaranteed. On other hosts it
26034 simply calls zfget_match and hence completes all files, not just
26035 directories. On some systems, directories may not even look
26036 like filenames.
26037 zfget_match prefix suffix
26039 This performs matching for completion of remote filenames. It
26040 caches files for the current directory (only) in the shell pa‐
26041 rameter $zftp_fcache. It is in the form to be called by the -K
26042 option of compctl, but also works when called from a wid‐
26043 get-style completion function with prefix and suffix set appro‐
26044 priately.
26045 zfrglob varname
26047 Perform remote globbing, as describes in more detail below.
26048 varname is the name of a variable containing the pattern to be
26049 expanded; if there were any matches, the same variable will be
26050 set to the expanded set of filenames on return.
26051 zfrtime lfile rfile [ time ]
26053 Set the local file lfile to have the same modification time as
26054 the remote file rfile, or the explicit time time in FTP format
26055 CCYYMMDDhhmmSS for the GMT timezone. This uses the shell's
26056 zsh/datetime module to perform the conversion from GMT to local
26057 time.
26058 zftp_chpwd
26060 This function is called every time a connection is opened, or
26061 closed, or the remote directory changes. This version alters
26062 the title bar of an xterm-compatible or sun-cmd terminal emula‐
26063 tor to reflect the local and remote hostnames and current direc‐
26064 tories. It works best when combined with the function chpwd.
26065 In particular, a function of the form
26066 chpwd() {
26068 if [[ -n $ZFTP_USER ]]; then
26069 zftp_chpwd
26070 else
26071 # usual chpwd e.g put host:directory in title bar
26072 fi
26073 }
26074 fits in well.
26076 zftp_progress
26078 This function shows the status of the transfer. It will not
26079 write anything unless the output is going to a terminal; how‐
26080 ever, if you transfer files in the background, you should turn
26081 off progress reports by hand using `zstyle ':zftp:*' progress
26082 none'. Note also that if you alter it, any output must be to
26083 standard error, as standard output may be a file being received.
26084 The form of the progress meter, or whether it is used at all,
26085 can be configured without altering the function, as described in
26086 the next section.
26087 zffcache
26089 This is used to implement caching of files in the current direc‐
26090 tory for each session separately. It is used by zfget_match and
26091 zfrglob.
26092
26094 Configuration
26095 Various styles are available using the standard shell style mechanism,
26096 described in zshmodules(1). Briefly, the command `zstyle ':zftp:*'
26097 style value ...'. defines the style to have value value; more than one
26098 value may be given, although that is not useful in the cases described
26099 here. These values will then be used throughout the zftp function sys‐
26100 tem. For more precise control, the first argument, which gives a con‐
26101 text in which the style applies, can be modified to include a particu‐
26102 lar function, as for example `:zftp:zfget': the style will then have
26103 the given value only in the zfget function. Values for the same style
26104 in different contexts may be set; the most specific function will be
26105 used, where strings are held to be more specific than patterns, and
26106 longer patterns and shorter patterns. Note that only the top level
26107 function name, as called by the user, is used; calling of lower level
26108 functions is transparent to the user. Hence modifications to the title
26109 bar in zftp_chpwd use the contexts :zftp:zfopen, :zftp:zfcd, etc., de‐
26110 pending where it was called from. The following styles are understood:
26111 progress
26113 Controls the way that zftp_progress reports on the progress of a
26114 transfer. If empty, unset, or `none', no progress report is
26115 made; if `bar' a growing bar of inverse video is shown; if `per‐
26116 cent' (or any other string, though this may change in future),
26117 the percentage of the file transferred is shown. The bar meter
26118 requires that the width of the terminal be available via the
26119 $COLUMNS parameter (normally this is set automatically). If the
26120 size of the file being transferred is not available, bar and
26121 percent meters will simply show the number of bytes transferred
26122 so far.
26123 When zfinit is run, if this style is not defined for the context
26125 :zftp:*, it will be set to `bar'.
26126 update Specifies the minimum time interval between updates of the
26128 progress meter in seconds. No update is made unless new data
26129 has been received, so the actual time interval is limited only
26130 by $ZFTP_TIMEOUT.
26131 As described for progress, zfinit will force this to default to
26133 1.
26134 remote-glob
26136 If set to `1', `yes' or `true', filename generation (globbing)
26137 is performed on the remote machine instead of by zsh itself; see
26138 below.
26139 titlebar
26141 If set to `1', `yes' or `true', zftp_chpwd will put the remote
26142 host and remote directory into the titlebar of terminal emula‐
26143 tors such as xterm or sun-cmd that allow this.
26144 As described for progress, zfinit will force this to default to
26146 1.
26147 chpwd If set to `1' `yes' or `true', zftp_chpwd will call the function
26149 chpwd when a connection is closed. This is useful if the remote
26150 host details were put into the terminal title bar by zftp_chpwd
26151 and your usual chpwd also modifies the title bar.
26152 When zfinit is run, it will determine whether chpwd exists and
26154 if so it will set the default value for the style to 1 if none
26155 exists already.
26156 Note that there is also an associative array zfconfig which contains
26158 values used by the function system. This should not be modified or
26159 overwritten.
26160 Remote globbing
26162 The commands for retrieving files usually perform filename generation
26163 (globbing) on their arguments; this can be turned off by passing the
26164 option -G to each of the commands. Normally this operates by retriev‐
26165 ing a complete list of files for the directory in question, then match‐
26166 ing these locally against the pattern supplied. This has the advantage
26167 that the full range of zsh patterns (respecting the setting of the op‐
26168 tion EXTENDED_GLOB) can be used. However, it means that the directory
26169 part of a filename will not be expanded and must be given exactly. If
26170 the remote server does not support the UNIX directory semantics, direc‐
26171 tory handling is problematic and it is recommended that globbing only
26172 be used within the current directory. The list of files in the current
26173 directory, if retrieved, will be cached, so that subsequent globs in
26174 the same directory without an intervening zfcd are much faster.
26175 If the remote-glob style (see above) is set, globbing is instead per‐
26177 formed on the remote host: the server is asked for a list of matching
26178 files. This is highly dependent on how the server is implemented,
26179 though typically UNIX servers will provide support for basic glob pat‐
26180 terns. This may in some cases be faster, as it avoids retrieving the
26181 entire list of directory contents.
26182 Automatic and temporary reopening
26184 As described for the zfopen command, a subsequent zfopen with no param‐
26185 eters will reopen the connection to the last host (this includes con‐
26186 nections made with the zfanon command). Opened in this fashion, the
26187 connection starts in the default remote directory and will remain open
26188 until explicitly closed.
26189 Automatic re-opening is also available. If a connection is not cur‐
26191 rently open and a command requiring a connection is given, the last
26192 connection is implicitly reopened. In this case the directory which
26193 was current when the connection was closed again becomes the current
26194 directory (unless, of course, the command given changes it). Automatic
26195 reopening will also take place if the connection was close by the re‐
26196 mote server for whatever reason (e.g. a timeout). It is not available
26197 if the -1 option to zfopen or zfanon was used.
26198 Furthermore, if the command issued is a file transfer, the connection
26200 will be closed after the transfer is finished, hence providing a
26201 one-shot mode for transfers. This does not apply to directory changing
26202 or listing commands; for example a zfdir may reopen a connection but
26203 will leave it open. Also, automatic closure will only ever happen in
26204 the same command as automatic opening, i.e a zfdir directly followed by
26205 a zfget will never close the connection automatically.
26206 Information about the previous connection is given by the zfstat func‐
26208 tion. So, for example, if that reports:
26209 Session: default
26211 Not connected.
26212 Last session: ftp.bar.com:/pub/textfiles
26213 then the command zfget file.txt will attempt to reopen a connection to
26215 ftp.bar.com, retrieve the file /pub/textfiles/file.txt, and immediately
26216 close the connection again. On the other hand, zfcd .. will open the
26217 connection in the directory /pub and leave it open.
26218 Note that all the above is local to each session; if you return to a
26220 previous session, the connection for that session is the one which will
26221 be reopened.
26222 Completion
26224 Completion of local and remote files, directories, sessions and book‐
26225 marks is supported. The older, compctl-style completion is defined
26226 when zfinit is called; support for the new widget-based completion sys‐
26227 tem is provided in the function Completion/Zsh/Command/_zftp, which
26228 should be installed with the other functions of the completion system
26229 and hence should automatically be available.
26230ZSHCONTRIB(1) General Commands Manual ZSHCONTRIB(1)
26234
26238 zshcontrib - user contributions to zsh
26239
26241 The Zsh source distribution includes a number of items contributed by
26242 the user community. These are not inherently a part of the shell, and
26243 some may not be available in every zsh installation. The most signifi‐
26244 cant of these are documented here. For documentation on other contrib‐
26245 uted items such as shell functions, look for comments in the function
26246 source files.
26247
26249 Accessing On-Line Help
26250 The key sequence ESC h is normally bound by ZLE to execute the run-help
26251 widget (see zshzle(1)). This invokes the run-help command with the
26252 command word from the current input line as its argument. By default,
26253 run-help is an alias for the man command, so this often fails when the
26254 command word is a shell builtin or a user-defined function. By re‐
26255 defining the run-help alias, one can improve the on-line help provided
26256 by the shell.
26257 The helpfiles utility, found in the Util directory of the distribution,
26259 is a Perl program that can be used to process the zsh manual to produce
26260 a separate help file for each shell builtin and for many other shell
26261 features as well. The autoloadable run-help function, found in Func‐
26262 tions/Misc, searches for these helpfiles and performs several other
26263 tests to produce the most complete help possible for the command.
26264 Help files are installed by default to a subdirectory of /usr/share/zsh
26266 or /usr/local/share/zsh.
26267 To create your own help files with helpfiles, choose or create a direc‐
26269 tory where the individual command help files will reside. For example,
26270 you might choose ~/zsh_help. If you unpacked the zsh distribution in
26271 your home directory, you would use the commands:
26272 mkdir ~/zsh_help
26274 perl ~/zsh-5.8.1/Util/helpfiles ~/zsh_help
26275 The HELPDIR parameter tells run-help where to look for the help files.
26277 When unset, it uses the default installation path. To use your own set
26278 of help files, set this to the appropriate path in one of your startup
26279 files:
26280 HELPDIR=~/zsh_help
26282 To use the run-help function, you need to add lines something like the
26284 following to your .zshrc or equivalent startup file:
26285 unalias run-help
26287 autoload run-help
26288 Note that in order for `autoload run-help' to work, the run-help file
26290 must be in one of the directories named in your fpath array (see zsh‐
26291 param(1)). This should already be the case if you have a standard zsh
26292 installation; if it is not, copy Functions/Misc/run-help to an appro‐
26293 priate directory.
26294 Recompiling Functions
26296 If you frequently edit your zsh functions, or periodically update your
26297 zsh installation to track the latest developments, you may find that
26298 function digests compiled with the zcompile builtin are frequently out
26299 of date with respect to the function source files. This is not usually
26300 a problem, because zsh always looks for the newest file when loading a
26301 function, but it may cause slower shell startup and function loading.
26302 Also, if a digest file is explicitly used as an element of fpath, zsh
26303 won't check whether any of its source files has changed.
26304 The zrecompile autoloadable function, found in Functions/Misc, can be
26306 used to keep function digests up to date.
26307 zrecompile [ -qt ] [ name ... ]
26309 zrecompile [ -qt ] -p arg ... [ -- arg ... ]
26310 This tries to find *.zwc files and automatically re-compile them
26311 if at least one of the original files is newer than the compiled
26312 file. This works only if the names stored in the compiled files
26313 are full paths or are relative to the directory that contains
26314 the .zwc file.
26315 In the first form, each name is the name of a compiled file or a
26317 directory containing *.zwc files that should be checked. If no
26318 arguments are given, the directories and *.zwc files in fpath
26319 are used.
26320 When -t is given, no compilation is performed, but a return sta‐
26322 tus of zero (true) is set if there are files that need to be
26323 re-compiled and non-zero (false) otherwise. The -q option qui‐
26324 ets the chatty output that describes what zrecompile is doing.
26325 Without the -t option, the return status is zero if all files
26327 that needed re-compilation could be compiled and non-zero if
26328 compilation for at least one of the files failed.
26329 If the -p option is given, the args are interpreted as one or
26331 more sets of arguments for zcompile, separated by `--'. For ex‐
26332 ample:
26333 zrecompile -p \
26335 -R ~/.zshrc -- \
26336 -M ~/.zcompdump -- \
26337 ~/zsh/comp.zwc ~/zsh/Completion/*/_*
26338 This compiles ~/.zshrc into ~/.zshrc.zwc if that doesn't exist
26340 or if it is older than ~/.zshrc. The compiled file will be
26341 marked for reading instead of mapping. The same is done for
26342 ~/.zcompdump and ~/.zcompdump.zwc, but this compiled file is
26343 marked for mapping. The last line re-creates the file
26344 ~/zsh/comp.zwc if any of the files matching the given pattern is
26345 newer than it.
26346 Without the -p option, zrecompile does not create function di‐
26348 gests that do not already exist, nor does it add new functions
26349 to the digest.
26350 The following shell loop is an example of a method for creating func‐
26352 tion digests for all functions in your fpath, assuming that you have
26353 write permission to the directories:
26354 for ((i=1; i <= $#fpath; ++i)); do
26356 dir=$fpath[i]
26357 zwc=${dir:t}.zwc
26358 if [[ $dir == (.|..) || $dir == (.|..)/* ]]; then
26359 continue
26360 fi
26361 files=($dir/*(N-.))
26362 if [[ -w $dir:h && -n $files ]]; then
26363 files=(${${(M)files%/*/*}#/})
26364 if ( cd $dir:h &&
26365 zrecompile -p -U -z $zwc $files ); then
26366 fpath[i]=$fpath[i].zwc
26367 fi
26368 fi
26369 done
26370 The -U and -z options are appropriate for functions in the default zsh
26372 installation fpath; you may need to use different options for your per‐
26373 sonal function directories.
26374 Once the digests have been created and your fpath modified to refer to
26376 them, you can keep them up to date by running zrecompile with no argu‐
26377 ments.
26378 Keyboard Definition
26380 The large number of possible combinations of keyboards, workstations,
26381 terminals, emulators, and window systems makes it impossible for zsh to
26382 have built-in key bindings for every situation. The zkbd utility,
26383 found in Functions/Misc, can help you quickly create key bindings for
26384 your configuration.
26385 Run zkbd either as an autoloaded function, or as a shell script:
26387 zsh -f ~/zsh-5.8.1/Functions/Misc/zkbd
26389 When you run zkbd, it first asks you to enter your terminal type; if
26391 the default it offers is correct, just press return. It then asks you
26392 to press a number of different keys to determine characteristics of
26393 your keyboard and terminal; zkbd warns you if it finds anything out of
26394 the ordinary, such as a Delete key that sends neither ^H nor ^?.
26395 The keystrokes read by zkbd are recorded as a definition for an asso‐
26397 ciative array named key, written to a file in the subdirectory .zkbd
26398 within either your HOME or ZDOTDIR directory. The name of the file is
26399 composed from the TERM, VENDOR and OSTYPE parameters, joined by hy‐
26400 phens.
26401 You may read this file into your .zshrc or another startup file with
26403 the `source' or `.' commands, then reference the key parameter in bind‐
26404 key commands, like this:
26405 source ${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zkbd/$TERM-$VENDOR-$OSTYPE
26407 [[ -n ${key[Left]} ]] && bindkey "${key[Left]}" backward-char
26408 [[ -n ${key[Right]} ]] && bindkey "${key[Right]}" forward-char
26409 # etc.
26410 Note that in order for `autoload zkbd' to work, the zkdb file must be
26412 in one of the directories named in your fpath array (see zshparam(1)).
26413 This should already be the case if you have a standard zsh installa‐
26414 tion; if it is not, copy Functions/Misc/zkbd to an appropriate direc‐
26415 tory.
26416 Dumping Shell State
26418 Occasionally you may encounter what appears to be a bug in the shell,
26419 particularly if you are using a beta version of zsh or a development
26420 release. Usually it is sufficient to send a description of the problem
26421 to one of the zsh mailing lists (see zsh(1)), but sometimes one of the
26422 zsh developers will need to recreate your environment in order to track
26423 the problem down.
26424 The script named reporter, found in the Util directory of the distribu‐
26426 tion, is provided for this purpose. (It is also possible to autoload
26427 reporter, but reporter is not installed in fpath by default.) This
26428 script outputs a detailed dump of the shell state, in the form of an‐
26429 other script that can be read with `zsh -f' to recreate that state.
26430 To use reporter, read the script into your shell with the `.' command
26432 and redirect the output into a file:
26433 . ~/zsh-5.8.1/Util/reporter > zsh.report
26435 You should check the zsh.report file for any sensitive information such
26437 as passwords and delete them by hand before sending the script to the
26438 developers. Also, as the output can be voluminous, it's best to wait
26439 for the developers to ask for this information before sending it.
26440 You can also use reporter to dump only a subset of the shell state.
26442 This is sometimes useful for creating startup files for the first time.
26443 Most of the output from reporter is far more detailed than usually is
26444 necessary for a startup file, but the aliases, options, and zstyles
26445 states may be useful because they include only changes from the de‐
26446 faults. The bindings state may be useful if you have created any of
26447 your own keymaps, because reporter arranges to dump the keymap creation
26448 commands as well as the bindings for every keymap.
26449 As is usual with automated tools, if you create a startup file with re‐
26451 porter, you should edit the results to remove unnecessary commands.
26452 Note that if you're using the new completion system, you should not
26453 dump the functions state to your startup files with reporter; use the
26454 compdump function instead (see zshcompsys(1)).
26455 reporter [ state ... ]
26457 Print to standard output the indicated subset of the current
26458 shell state. The state arguments may be one or more of:
26459 all Output everything listed below.
26461 aliases
26462 Output alias definitions.
26463 bindings
26464 Output ZLE key maps and bindings.
26465 completion
26466 Output old-style compctl commands. New completion is
26467 covered by functions and zstyles.
26468 functions
26469 Output autoloads and function definitions.
26470 limits Output limit commands.
26471 options
26472 Output setopt commands.
26473 styles Same as zstyles.
26474 variables
26475 Output shell parameter assignments, plus export commands
26476 for any environment variables.
26477 zstyles
26478 Output zstyle commands.
26479 If the state is omitted, all is assumed.
26481 With the exception of `all', every state can be abbreviated by any pre‐
26483 fix, even a single letter; thus a is the same as aliases, z is the same
26484 as zstyles, etc.
26485 Manipulating Hook Functions
26487 add-zsh-hook [ -L | -dD ] [ -Uzk ] hook function
26488 Several functions are special to the shell, as described in the
26489 section SPECIAL FUNCTIONS, see zshmisc(1), in that they are au‐
26490 tomatically called at specific points during shell execution.
26491 Each has an associated array consisting of names of functions to
26492 be called at the same point; these are so-called `hook func‐
26493 tions'. The shell function add-zsh-hook provides a simple way
26494 of adding or removing functions from the array.
26495 hook is one of chpwd, periodic, precmd, preexec, zshaddhistory,
26497 zshexit, or zsh_directory_name, the special functions in ques‐
26498 tion. Note that zsh_directory_name is called in a different way
26499 from the other functions, but may still be manipulated as a
26500 hook.
26501 function is name of an ordinary shell function. If no options
26503 are given this will be added to the array of functions to be ex‐
26504 ecuted in the given context. Functions are invoked in the order
26505 they were added.
26506 If the option -L is given, the current values for the hook ar‐
26508 rays are listed with typeset.
26509 If the option -d is given, the function is removed from the ar‐
26511 ray of functions to be executed.
26512 If the option -D is given, the function is treated as a pattern
26514 and any matching names of functions are removed from the array
26515 of functions to be executed.
26516 The options -U, -z and -k are passed as arguments to autoload
26518 for function. For functions contributed with zsh, the options
26519 -Uz are appropriate.
26520 add-zle-hook-widget [ -L | -dD ] [ -Uzk ] hook widgetname
26522 Several widget names are special to the line editor, as de‐
26523 scribed in the section Special Widgets, see zshzle(1), in that
26524 they are automatically called at specific points during editing.
26525 Unlike function hooks, these do not use a predefined array of
26526 other names to call at the same point; the shell function
26527 add-zle-hook-widget maintains a similar array and arranges for
26528 the special widget to invoke those additional widgets.
26529 hook is one of isearch-exit, isearch-update, line-pre-redraw,
26531 line-init, line-finish, history-line-set, or keymap-select, cor‐
26532 responding to each of the special widgets zle-isearch-exit, etc.
26533 The special widget names are also accepted as the hook argument.
26534 widgetname is the name of a ZLE widget. If no options are given
26536 this is added to the array of widgets to be invoked in the given
26537 hook context. Widgets are invoked in the order they were added,
26538 with
26539 zle widgetname -Nw -- "$@"
26540 Note that this means that the `WIDGET' special parameter tracks
26542 the widgetname when the widget function is called, rather than
26543 tracking the name of the corresponding special hook widget.
26544 If the option -d is given, the widgetname is removed from the
26546 array of widgets to be executed.
26547 If the option -D is given, the widgetname is treated as a pat‐
26549 tern and any matching names of widgets are removed from the ar‐
26550 ray.
26551 If widgetname does not name an existing widget when added to the
26553 array, it is assumed that a shell function also named widgetname
26554 is meant to provide the implementation of the widget. This name
26555 is therefore marked for autoloading, and the options -U, -z and
26556 -k are passed as arguments to autoload as with add-zsh-hook.
26557 The widget is also created with `zle -N widgetname' to cause the
26558 corresponding function to be loaded the first time the hook is
26559 called.
26560 The arrays of widgetname are currently maintained in zstyle con‐
26562 texts, one for each hook context, with a style of `widgets'. If
26563 the -L option is given, this set of styles is listed with
26564 `zstyle -L'. This implementation may change, and the special
26565 widgets that refer to the styles are created only if
26566 add-zle-hook-widget is called to add at least one widget, so if
26567 this function is used for any hooks, then all hooks should be
26568 managed only via this function.
26569
26571 The function cdr allows you to change the working directory to a previ‐
26572 ous working directory from a list maintained automatically. It is sim‐
26573 ilar in concept to the directory stack controlled by the pushd, popd
26574 and dirs builtins, but is more configurable, and as it stores all en‐
26575 tries in files it is maintained across sessions and (by default) be‐
26576 tween terminal emulators in the current session. Duplicates are auto‐
26577 matically removed, so that the list reflects the single most recent use
26578 of each directory.
26579 Note that the pushd directory stack is not actually modified or used by
26581 cdr unless you configure it to do so as described in the configuration
26582 section below.
26583 Installation
26585 The system works by means of a hook function that is called every time
26586 the directory changes. To install the system, autoload the required
26587 functions and use the add-zsh-hook function described above:
26588 autoload -Uz chpwd_recent_dirs cdr add-zsh-hook
26590 add-zsh-hook chpwd chpwd_recent_dirs
26591 Now every time you change directly interactively, no matter which com‐
26593 mand you use, the directory to which you change will be remembered in
26594 most-recent-first order.
26595 Use
26597 All direct user interaction is via the cdr function.
26598 The argument to cdr is a number N corresponding to the Nth most re‐
26600 cently changed-to directory. 1 is the immediately preceding directory;
26601 the current directory is remembered but is not offered as a destina‐
26602 tion. Note that if you have multiple windows open 1 may refer to a di‐
26603 rectory changed to in another window; you can avoid this by having
26604 per-terminal files for storing directory as described for the re‐
26605 cent-dirs-file style below.
26606 If you set the recent-dirs-default style described below cdr will be‐
26608 have the same as cd if given a non-numeric argument, or more than one
26609 argument. The recent directory list is updated just the same however
26610 you change directory.
26611 If the argument is omitted, 1 is assumed. This is similar to pushd's
26613 behaviour of swapping the two most recent directories on the stack.
26614 Completion for the argument to cdr is available if compinit has been
26616 run; menu selection is recommended, using:
26617 zstyle ':completion:*:*:cdr:*:*' menu selection
26619 to allow you to cycle through recent directories; the order is pre‐
26621 served, so the first choice is the most recent directory before the
26622 current one. The verbose style is also recommended to ensure the di‐
26623 rectory is shown; this style is on by default so no action is required
26624 unless you have changed it.
26625 Options
26627 The behaviour of cdr may be modified by the following options.
26628 -l lists the numbers and the corresponding directories in abbrevi‐
26630 ated form (i.e. with ~ substitution reapplied), one per line.
26631 The directories here are not quoted (this would only be an issue
26632 if a directory name contained a newline). This is used by the
26633 completion system.
26634 -r sets the variable reply to the current set of directories.
26636 Nothing is printed and the directory is not changed.
26637 -e allows you to edit the list of directories, one per line. The
26639 list can be edited to any extent you like; no sanity checking is
26640 performed. Completion is available. No quoting is necessary
26641 (except for newlines, where I have in any case no sympathy); di‐
26642 rectories are in unabbreviated from and contain an absolute
26643 path, i.e. they start with /. Usually the first entry should be
26644 left as the current directory.
26645 -p 'pattern'
26647 Prunes any items in the directory list that match the given ex‐
26648 tended glob pattern; the pattern needs to be quoted from immedi‐
26649 ate expansion on the command line. The pattern is matched
26650 against each completely expanded file name in the list; the full
26651 string must match, so wildcards at the end (e.g. '*removeme*')
26652 are needed to remove entries with a given substring.
26653 If output is to a terminal, then the function will print the new
26655 list after pruning and prompt for confirmation by the user.
26656 This output and confirmation step can be skipped by using -P in‐
26657 stead of -p.
26658 Configuration
26660 Configuration is by means of the styles mechanism that should be famil‐
26661 iar from completion; if not, see the description of the zstyle command
26662 in see zshmodules(1). The context for setting styles should be ':ch‐
26663 pwd:*' in case the meaning of the context is extended in future, for
26664 example:
26665 zstyle ':chpwd:*' recent-dirs-max 0
26667 sets the value of the recent-dirs-max style to 0. In practice the
26669 style name is specific enough that a context of '*' should be fine.
26670 An exception is recent-dirs-insert, which is used exclusively by the
26672 completion system and so has the usual completion system context
26673 (':completion:*' if nothing more specific is needed), though again '*'
26674 should be fine in practice.
26675 recent-dirs-default
26677 If true, and the command is expecting a recent directory index,
26678 and either there is more than one argument or the argument is
26679 not an integer, then fall through to "cd". This allows the lazy
26680 to use only one command for directory changing. Completion
26681 recognises this, too; see recent-dirs-insert for how to control
26682 completion when this option is in use.
26683 recent-dirs-file
26685 The file where the list of directories is saved. The default is
26686 ${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.chpwd-recent-dirs, i.e. this is in your home
26687 directory unless you have set the variable ZDOTDIR to point
26688 somewhere else. Directory names are saved in $'...' quoted
26689 form, so each line in the file can be supplied directly to the
26690 shell as an argument.
26691 The value of this style may be an array. In this case, the
26693 first file in the list will always be used for saving directo‐
26694 ries while any other files are left untouched. When reading the
26695 recent directory list, if there are fewer than the maximum num‐
26696 ber of entries in the first file, the contents of later files in
26697 the array will be appended with duplicates removed from the list
26698 shown. The contents of the two files are not sorted together,
26699 i.e. all the entries in the first file are shown first. The
26700 special value + can appear in the list to indicate the default
26701 file should be read at that point. This allows effects like the
26702 following:
26703 zstyle ':chpwd:*' recent-dirs-file \
26705 ~/.chpwd-recent-dirs-${TTY##*/} +
26706 Recent directories are read from a file numbered according to
26708 the terminal. If there are insufficient entries the list is
26709 supplemented from the default file.
26710 It is possible to use zstyle -e to make the directory config‐
26712 urable at run time:
26713 zstyle -e ':chpwd:*' recent-dirs-file pick-recent-dirs-file
26715 pick-recent-dirs-file() {
26716 if [[ $PWD = ~/text/writing(|/*) ]]; then
26717 reply=(~/.chpwd-recent-dirs-writing)
26718 else
26719 reply=(+)
26720 fi
26721 }
26722 In this example, if the current directory is ~/text/writing or a
26724 directory under it, then use a special file for saving recent
26725 directories, else use the default.
26726 recent-dirs-insert
26728 Used by completion. If recent-dirs-default is true, then set‐
26729 ting this to true causes the actual directory, rather than its
26730 index, to be inserted on the command line; this has the same ef‐
26731 fect as using the corresponding index, but makes the history
26732 clearer and the line easier to edit. With this setting, if part
26733 of an argument was already typed, normal directory completion
26734 rather than recent directory completion is done; this is because
26735 recent directory completion is expected to be done by cycling
26736 through entries menu fashion.
26737 If the value of the style is always, then only recent directo‐
26739 ries will be completed; in that case, use the cd command when
26740 you want to complete other directories.
26741 If the value is fallback, recent directories will be tried
26743 first, then normal directory completion is performed if recent
26744 directory completion failed to find a match.
26745 Finally, if the value is both then both sets of completions are
26747 presented; the usual tag mechanism can be used to distinguish
26748 results, with recent directories tagged as recent-dirs. Note
26749 that the recent directories inserted are abbreviated with direc‐
26750 tory names where appropriate.
26751 recent-dirs-max
26753 The maximum number of directories to save to the file. If this
26754 is zero or negative there is no maximum. The default is 20.
26755 Note this includes the current directory, which isn't offered,
26756 so the highest number of directories you will be offered is one
26757 less than the maximum.
26758 recent-dirs-prune
26760 This style is an array determining what directories should (or
26761 should not) be added to the recent list. Elements of the array
26762 can include:
26763 parent Prune parents (more accurately, ancestors) from the re‐
26765 cent list. If present, changing directly down by any
26766 number of directories causes the current directory to be
26767 overwritten. For example, changing from ~pws to
26768 ~pws/some/other/dir causes ~pws not to be left on the re‐
26769 cent directory stack. This only applies to direct
26770 changes to descendant directories; earlier directories on
26771 the list are not pruned. For example, changing from
26772 ~pws/yet/another to ~pws/some/other/dir does not cause
26773 ~pws to be pruned.
26774 pattern:pattern
26776 Gives a zsh pattern for directories that should not be
26777 added to the recent list (if not already there). This
26778 element can be repeated to add different patterns. For
26779 example, 'pattern:/tmp(|/*)' stops /tmp or its descen‐
26780 dants from being added. The EXTENDED_GLOB option is al‐
26781 ways turned on for these patterns.
26782 recent-dirs-pushd
26784 If set to true, cdr will use pushd instead of cd to change the
26785 directory, so the directory is saved on the directory stack. As
26786 the directory stack is completely separate from the list of
26787 files saved by the mechanism used in this file there is no obvi‐
26788 ous reason to do this.
26789 Use with dynamic directory naming
26791 It is possible to refer to recent directories using the dynamic direc‐
26792 tory name syntax by using the supplied function zsh_directory_name_cdr
26793 a hook:
26794 autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook
26796 add-zsh-hook -Uz zsh_directory_name zsh_directory_name_cdr
26797 When this is done, ~[1] will refer to the most recent directory other
26799 than $PWD, and so on. Completion after ~[... also works.
26800 Details of directory handling
26802 This section is for the curious or confused; most users will not need
26803 to know this information.
26804 Recent directories are saved to a file immediately and hence are pre‐
26806 served across sessions. Note currently no file locking is applied: the
26807 list is updated immediately on interactive commands and nowhere else
26808 (unlike history), and it is assumed you are only going to change direc‐
26809 tory in one window at once. This is not safe on shared accounts, but
26810 in any case the system has limited utility when someone else is chang‐
26811 ing to a different set of directories behind your back.
26812 To make this a little safer, only directory changes instituted from the
26814 command line, either directly or indirectly through shell function
26815 calls (but not through subshells, evals, traps, completion functions
26816 and the like) are saved. Shell functions should use cd -q or pushd -q
26817 to avoid side effects if the change to the directory is to be invisible
26818 at the command line. See the contents of the function chpwd_re‐
26819 cent_dirs for more details.
26820
26822 The dynamic directory naming system is described in the subsection Dy‐
26823 namic named directories of the section Filename Expansion in expn(1).
26824 In this, a reference to ~[...] is expanded by a function found by the
26825 hooks mechanism.
26826 The contributed function zsh_directory_name_generic provides a system
26828 allowing the user to refer to directories with only a limited amount of
26829 new code. It supports all three of the standard interfaces for direc‐
26830 tory naming: converting from a name to a directory, converting in the
26831 reverse direction to find a short name, and completion of names.
26832 The main feature of this function is a path-like syntax, combining ab‐
26834 breviations at multiple levels separated by ":". As an example,
26835 ~[g:p:s] might specify:
26836 g The top level directory for your git area. This first component
26837 has to match, or the function will return indicating another di‐
26838 rectory name hook function should be tried.
26839 p The name of a project within your git area.
26841 s The source area within that project. This allows you to col‐
26843 lapse references to long hierarchies to a very compact form,
26844 particularly if the hierarchies are similar across different ar‐
26845 eas of the disk.
26846 Name components may be completed: if a description is shown at the top
26848 of the list of completions, it includes the path to which previous com‐
26849 ponents expand, while the description for an individual completion
26850 shows the path segment it would add. No additional configuration is
26851 needed for this as the completion system is aware of the dynamic direc‐
26852 tory name mechanism.
26853 Usage
26855 To use the function, first define a wrapper function for your specific
26856 case. We'll assume it's to be autoloaded. This can have any name but
26857 we'll refer to it as zdn_mywrapper. This wrapper function will define
26858 various variables and then call this function with the same arguments
26859 that the wrapper function gets. This configuration is described below.
26860 Then arrange for the wrapper to be run as a zsh_directory_name hook:
26862 autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook zsh_diretory_name_generic zdn_mywrapper
26864 add-zsh-hook -U zsh_directory_name zdn_mywrapper
26865 Configuration
26867 The wrapper function should define a local associative array zdn_top.
26868 Alternatively, this can be set with a style called mapping. The con‐
26869 text for the style is :zdn:wrapper-name where wrapper-name is the func‐
26870 tion calling zsh_directory_name_generic; for example:
26871 zstyle :zdn:zdn_mywrapper: mapping zdn_mywrapper_top
26873 The keys in this associative array correspond to the first component of
26875 the name. The values are matching directories. They may have an op‐
26876 tional suffix with a slash followed by a colon and the name of a vari‐
26877 able in the same format to give the next component. (The slash before
26878 the colon is to disambiguate the case where a colon is needed in the
26879 path for a drive. There is otherwise no syntax for escaping this, so
26880 path components whose names start with a colon are not supported.) A
26881 special component :default: specifies a variable in the form /:var (the
26882 path section is ignored and so is usually empty) that will be used for
26883 the next component if no variable is given for the path. Variables re‐
26884 ferred to within zdn_top have the same format as zdn_top itself, but
26885 contain relative paths.
26886 For example,
26888 local -A zdn_top=(
26890 g ~/git
26891 ga ~/alternate/git
26892 gs /scratch/$USER/git/:second2
26893 :default: /:second1
26894 )
26895 This specifies the behaviour of a directory referred to as ~[g:...] or
26897 ~[ga:...] or ~[gs:...]. Later path components are optional; in that
26898 case ~[g] expands to ~/git, and so on. gs expands to
26899 /scratch/$USER/git and uses the associative array second2 to match the
26900 second component; g and ga use the associative array second1 to match
26901 the second component.
26902 When expanding a name to a directory, if the first component is not g
26904 or ga or gs, it is not an error; the function simply returns 1 so that
26905 a later hook function can be tried. However, matching the first compo‐
26906 nent commits the function, so if a later component does not match, an
26907 error is printed (though this still does not stop later hooks from be‐
26908 ing executed).
26909 For components after the first, a relative path is expected, but note
26911 that multiple levels may still appear. Here is an example of second1:
26912 local -A second1=(
26914 p myproject
26915 s somproject
26916 os otherproject/subproject/:third
26917 )
26918 The path as found from zdn_top is extended with the matching directory,
26920 so ~[g:p] becomes ~/git/myproject. The slash between is added automat‐
26921 ically (it's not possible to have a later component modify the name of
26922 a directory already matched). Only os specifies a variable for a third
26923 component, and there's no :default:, so it's an error to use a name
26924 like ~[g:p:x] or ~[ga:s:y] because there's nowhere to look up the x or
26925 y.
26926 The associative arrays need to be visible within this function; the
26928 generic function therefore uses internal variable names beginning _zdn_
26929 in order to avoid clashes. Note that the variable reply needs to be
26930 passed back to the shell, so should not be local in the calling func‐
26931 tion.
26932 The function does not test whether directories assembled by component
26934 actually exist; this allows the system to work across automounted file
26935 systems. The error from the command trying to use a non-existent di‐
26936 rectory should be sufficient to indicate the problem.
26937 Complete example
26939 Here is a full fictitious but usable autoloadable definition of the ex‐
26940 ample function defined by the code above. So ~[gs:p:s] expands to
26941 /scratch/$USER/git/myscratchproject/top/srcdir (with $USER also ex‐
26942 panded).
26943 local -A zdn_top=(
26945 g ~/git
26946 ga ~/alternate/git
26947 gs /scratch/$USER/git/:second2
26948 :default: /:second1
26949 )
26950 local -A second1=(
26952 p myproject
26953 s somproject
26954 os otherproject/subproject/:third
26955 )
26956 local -A second2=(
26958 p myscratchproject
26959 s somescratchproject
26960 )
26961 local -A third=(
26963 s top/srcdir
26964 d top/documentation
26965 )
26966 # autoload not needed if you did this at initialisation...
26968 autoload -Uz zsh_directory_name_generic
26969 zsh_directory_name_generic "$@
26970 It is also possible to use global associative arrays, suitably named,
26972 and set the style for the context of your wrapper function to refer to
26973 this. Then your set up code would contain the following:
26974 typeset -A zdn_mywrapper_top=(...)
26976 # ... and so on for other associative arrays ...
26977 zstyle ':zdn:zdn_mywrapper:' mapping zdn_mywrapper_top
26978 autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook zsh_directory_name_generic zdn_mywrapper
26979 add-zsh-hook -U zsh_directory_name zdn_mywrapper
26980 and the function zdn_mywrapper would contain only the following:
26982 zsh_directory_name_generic "$@"
26984
26986 In a lot of cases, it is nice to automatically retrieve information
26987 from version control systems (VCSs), such as subversion, CVS or git, to
26988 be able to provide it to the user; possibly in the user's prompt. So
26989 that you can instantly tell which branch you are currently on, for ex‐
26990 ample.
26991 In order to do that, you may use the vcs_info function.
26993 The following VCSs are supported, showing the abbreviated name by which
26995 they are referred to within the system:
26996 Bazaar (bzr)
26997 https://bazaar.canonical.com/
26998 Codeville (cdv)
26999 http://freecode.com/projects/codeville/
27000 Concurrent Versioning System (cvs)
27001 https://www.nongnu.org/cvs/
27002 Darcs (darcs)
27003 http://darcs.net/
27004 Fossil (fossil)
27005 https://fossil-scm.org/
27006 Git (git)
27007 https://git-scm.com/
27008 GNU arch (tla)
27009 https://www.gnu.org/software/gnu-arch/
27010 Mercurial (hg)
27011 https://www.mercurial-scm.org/
27012 Monotone (mtn)
27013 https://monotone.ca/
27014 Perforce (p4)
27015 https://www.perforce.com/
27016 Subversion (svn)
27017 https://subversion.apache.org/
27018 SVK (svk)
27019 https://svk.bestpractical.com/
27020 There is also support for the patch management system quilt
27022 (https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/quilt). See Quilt Support below
27023 for details.
27024 To load vcs_info:
27026 autoload -Uz vcs_info
27028 It can be used in any existing prompt, because it does not require any
27030 specific $psvar entries to be available.
27031 Quickstart
27033 To get this feature working quickly (including colors), you can do the
27034 following (assuming, you loaded vcs_info properly - see above):
27035 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' actionformats \
27037 '%F{5}(%f%s%F{5})%F{3}-%F{5}[%F{2}%b%F{3}|%F{1}%a%F{5}]%f '
27038 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' formats \
27039 '%F{5}(%f%s%F{5})%F{3}-%F{5}[%F{2}%b%F{5}]%f '
27040 zstyle ':vcs_info:(sv[nk]|bzr):*' branchformat '%b%F{1}:%F{3}%r'
27041 precmd () { vcs_info }
27042 PS1='%F{5}[%F{2}%n%F{5}] %F{3}%3~ ${vcs_info_msg_0_}%f%# '
27043 Obviously, the last two lines are there for demonstration. You need to
27045 call vcs_info from your precmd function. Once that is done you need a
27046 single quoted '${vcs_info_msg_0_}' in your prompt.
27047 To be able to use '${vcs_info_msg_0_}' directly in your prompt like
27049 this, you will need to have the PROMPT_SUBST option enabled.
27050 Now call the vcs_info_printsys utility from the command line:
27052 % vcs_info_printsys
27054 ## list of supported version control backends:
27055 ## disabled systems are prefixed by a hash sign (#)
27056 bzr
27057 cdv
27058 cvs
27059 darcs
27060 fossil
27061 git
27062 hg
27063 mtn
27064 p4
27065 svk
27066 svn
27067 tla
27068 ## flavours (cannot be used in the enable or disable styles; they
27069 ## are enabled and disabled with their master [git-svn -> git])
27070 ## they *can* be used in contexts: ':vcs_info:git-svn:*'.
27071 git-p4
27072 git-svn
27073 hg-git
27074 hg-hgsubversion
27075 hg-hgsvn
27076 You may not want all of these because there is no point in running the
27078 code to detect systems you do not use. So there is a way to disable
27079 some backends altogether:
27080 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' disable bzr cdv darcs mtn svk tla
27082 You may also pick a few from that list and enable only those:
27084 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' enable git cvs svn
27086 If you rerun vcs_info_printsys after one of these commands, you will
27088 see the backends listed in the disable style (or backends not in the
27089 enable style - if you used that) marked as disabled by a hash sign.
27090 That means the detection of these systems is skipped completely. No
27091 wasted time there.
27092 Configuration
27094 The vcs_info feature can be configured via zstyle.
27095 First, the context in which we are working:
27097 :vcs_info:vcs-string:user-context:repo-root-name
27098 vcs-string
27100 is one of: git, git-svn, git-p4, hg, hg-git, hg-hgsubversion,
27101 hg-hgsvn, darcs, bzr, cdv, mtn, svn, cvs, svk, tla, p4 or fos‐
27102 sil. This is followed by `.quilt-quilt-mode' in Quilt mode (see
27103 Quilt Support for details) and by `+hook-name' while hooks are
27104 active (see Hooks in vcs_info for details).
27105 Currently, hooks in quilt mode don't add the `.quilt-quilt-mode'
27107 information. This may change in the future.
27108 user-context
27110 is a freely configurable string, assignable by the user as the
27111 first argument to vcs_info (see its description below).
27112 repo-root-name
27114 is the name of a repository in which you want a style to match.
27115 So, if you want a setting specific to /usr/src/zsh, with that
27116 being a CVS checkout, you can set repo-root-name to zsh to make
27117 it so.
27118 There are three special values for vcs-string: The first is named
27120 -init-, that is in effect as long as there was no decision what VCS
27121 backend to use. The second is -preinit-; it is used before vcs_info is
27122 run, when initializing the data exporting variables. The third special
27123 value is formats and is used by the vcs_info_lastmsg for looking up its
27124 styles.
27125 The initial value of repo-root-name is -all- and it is replaced with
27127 the actual name, as soon as it is known. Only use this part of the con‐
27128 text for defining the formats, actionformats or branchformat styles, as
27129 it is guaranteed that repo-root-name is set up correctly for these
27130 only. For all other styles, just use '*' instead.
27131 There are two pre-defined values for user-context:
27133 default
27134 the one used if none is specified
27135 command
27136 used by vcs_info_lastmsg to lookup its styles
27137 You can of course use ':vcs_info:*' to match all VCSs in all user-con‐
27139 texts at once.
27140 This is a description of all styles that are looked up.
27142 formats
27144 A list of formats, used when actionformats is not used (which is
27145 most of the time).
27146 actionformats
27148 A list of formats, used if there is a special action going on in
27149 your current repository; like an interactive rebase or a merge
27150 conflict.
27151 branchformat
27153 Some backends replace %b in the formats and actionformats styles
27154 above, not only by a branch name but also by a revision number.
27155 This style lets you modify how that string should look.
27156 nvcsformats
27158 These "formats" are set when we didn't detect a version control
27159 system for the current directory or vcs_info was disabled. This
27160 is useful if you want vcs_info to completely take over the gen‐
27161 eration of your prompt. You would do something like
27162 PS1='${vcs_info_msg_0_}' to accomplish that.
27163 hgrevformat
27165 hg uses both a hash and a revision number to reference a spe‐
27166 cific changeset in a repository. With this style you can format
27167 the revision string (see branchformat) to include either or
27168 both. It's only useful when get-revision is true. Note, the full
27169 40-character revision id is not available (except when using the
27170 use-simple option) because executing hg more than once per
27171 prompt is too slow; you may customize this behavior using hooks.
27172 max-exports
27174 Defines the maximum number of vcs_info_msg_*_ variables vcs_info
27175 will set.
27176 enable A list of backends you want to use. Checked in the -init- con‐
27178 text. If this list contains an item called NONE no backend is
27179 used at all and vcs_info will do nothing. If this list contains
27180 ALL, vcs_info will use all known backends. Only with ALL in en‐
27181 able will the disable style have any effect. ALL and NONE are
27182 case insensitive.
27183 disable
27185 A list of VCSs you don't want vcs_info to test for repositories
27186 (checked in the -init- context, too). Only used if enable con‐
27187 tains ALL.
27188 disable-patterns
27190 A list of patterns that are checked against $PWD. If a pattern
27191 matches, vcs_info will be disabled. This style is checked in the
27192 :vcs_info:-init-:*:-all- context.
27193 Say, ~/.zsh is a directory under version control, in which you
27195 do not want vcs_info to be active, do:
27196 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' disable-patterns "${(b)HOME}/.zsh(|/*)"
27197 use-quilt
27199 If enabled, the quilt support code is active in `addon' mode.
27200 See Quilt Support for details.
27201 quilt-standalone
27203 If enabled, `standalone' mode detection is attempted if no VCS
27204 is active in a given directory. See Quilt Support for details.
27205 quilt-patch-dir
27207 Overwrite the value of the $QUILT_PATCHES environment variable.
27208 See Quilt Support for details.
27209 quiltcommand
27211 When quilt itself is called in quilt support, the value of this
27212 style is used as the command name.
27213 check-for-changes
27215 If enabled, this style causes the %c and %u format escapes to
27216 show when the working directory has uncommitted changes. The
27217 strings displayed by these escapes can be controlled via the
27218 stagedstr and unstagedstr styles. The only backends that cur‐
27219 rently support this option are git, hg, and bzr (the latter two
27220 only support unstaged).
27221 For this style to be evaluated with the hg backend, the get-re‐
27223 vision style needs to be set and the use-simple style needs to
27224 be unset. The latter is the default; the former is not.
27225 With the bzr backend, lightweight checkouts only honor this
27227 style if the use-server style is set.
27228 Note, the actions taken if this style is enabled are potentially
27230 expensive (read: they may be slow, depending on how big the cur‐
27231 rent repository is). Therefore, it is disabled by default.
27232 check-for-staged-changes
27234 This style is like check-for-changes, but it never checks the
27235 worktree files, only the metadata in the .${vcs} dir. There‐
27236 fore, this style initializes only the %c escape (with stagedstr)
27237 but not the %u escape. This style is faster than
27238 check-for-changes.
27239 In the git backend, this style checks for changes in the index.
27241 Other backends do not currently implement this style.
27242 This style is disabled by default.
27244 stagedstr
27246 This string will be used in the %c escape if there are staged
27247 changes in the repository.
27248 unstagedstr
27250 This string will be used in the %u escape if there are unstaged
27251 changes in the repository.
27252 command
27254 This style causes vcs_info to use the supplied string as the
27255 command to use as the VCS's binary. Note, that setting this in
27256 ':vcs_info:*' is not a good idea.
27257 If the value of this style is empty (which is the default), the
27259 used binary name is the name of the backend in use (e.g. svn is
27260 used in an svn repository).
27261 The repo-root-name part in the context is always the default
27263 -all- when this style is looked up.
27264 For example, this style can be used to use binaries from non-de‐
27266 fault installation directories. Assume, git is installed in
27267 /usr/bin but your sysadmin installed a newer version in /usr/lo‐
27268 cal/bin. Instead of changing the order of your $PATH parameter,
27269 you can do this:
27270 zstyle ':vcs_info:git:*:-all-' command /usr/local/bin/git
27271 use-server
27273 This is used by the Perforce backend (p4) to decide if it should
27274 contact the Perforce server to find out if a directory is man‐
27275 aged by Perforce. This is the only reliable way of doing this,
27276 but runs the risk of a delay if the server name cannot be found.
27277 If the server (more specifically, the host:port pair describing
27278 the server) cannot be contacted, its name is put into the asso‐
27279 ciative array vcs_info_p4_dead_servers and is not contacted
27280 again during the session until it is removed by hand. If you do
27281 not set this style, the p4 backend is only usable if you have
27282 set the environment variable P4CONFIG to a file name and have
27283 corresponding files in the root directories of each Perforce
27284 client. See comments in the function VCS_INFO_detect_p4 for
27285 more detail.
27286 The Bazaar backend (bzr) uses this to permit contacting the
27288 server about lightweight checkouts, see the check-for-changes
27289 style.
27290 use-simple
27292 If there are two different ways of gathering information, you
27293 can select the simpler one by setting this style to true; the
27294 default is to use the not-that-simple code, which is potentially
27295 a lot slower but might be more accurate in all possible cases.
27296 This style is used by the bzr and hg backends. In the case of hg
27297 it will invoke the external hexdump program to parse the binary
27298 dirstate cache file; this method will not return the local revi‐
27299 sion number.
27300 get-revision
27302 If set to true, vcs_info goes the extra mile to figure out the
27303 revision of a repository's work tree (currently for the git and
27304 hg backends, where this kind of information is not always vi‐
27305 tal). For git, the hash value of the currently checked out com‐
27306 mit is available via the %i expansion. With hg, the local revi‐
27307 sion number and the corresponding global hash are available via
27308 %i.
27309 get-mq If set to true, the hg backend will look for a Mercurial Queue
27311 (mq) patch directory. Information will be available via the `%m'
27312 replacement.
27313 get-bookmarks
27315 If set to true, the hg backend will try to get a list of current
27316 bookmarks. They will be available via the `%m' replacement.
27317 The default is to generate a comma-separated list of all book‐
27319 mark names that refer to the currently checked out revision. If
27320 a bookmark is active, its name is suffixed an asterisk and
27321 placed first in the list.
27322 use-prompt-escapes
27324 Determines if we assume that the assembled string from vcs_info
27325 includes prompt escapes. (Used by vcs_info_lastmsg.)
27326 debug Enable debugging output to track possible problems. Currently
27328 this style is only used by vcs_info's hooks system.
27329 hooks A list style that defines hook-function names. See Hooks in
27331 vcs_info below for details.
27332 patch-format
27334 nopatch-format
27335 This pair of styles format the patch information used by the %m
27336 expando in formats and actionformats for the git and hg back‐
27337 ends. The value is subject to certain %-expansions described
27338 below. The expanded value is made available in the global back‐
27339 end_misc array as ${backend_misc[patches]} (also if a
27340 set-patch-format hook is used).
27341 get-unapplied
27343 This boolean style controls whether a backend should attempt to
27344 gather a list of unapplied patches (for example with Mercurial
27345 Queue patches).
27346 Used by the quilt and hg backends.
27348 The default values for these styles in all contexts are:
27350 formats
27352 " (%s)-[%b]%u%c-"
27353 actionformats
27354 " (%s)-[%b|%a]%u%c-"
27355 branchformat
27356 "%b:%r" (for bzr, svn, svk and hg)
27357 nvcsformats
27358 ""
27359 hgrevformat
27360 "%r:%h"
27361 max-exports
27362 2
27363 enable ALL
27364 disable
27365 (empty list)
27366 disable-patterns
27367 (empty list)
27368 check-for-changes
27369 false
27370 check-for-staged-changes
27371 false
27372 stagedstr
27373 (string: "S")
27374 unstagedstr
27375 (string: "U")
27376 command
27377 (empty string)
27378 use-server
27379 false
27380 use-simple
27381 false
27382 get-revision
27383 false
27384 get-mq true
27385 get-bookmarks
27386 false
27387 use-prompt-escapes
27388 true
27389 debug false
27390 hooks (empty list)
27391 use-quilt
27392 false
27393 quilt-standalone
27394 false
27395 quilt-patch-dir
27396 empty - use $QUILT_PATCHES
27397 quiltcommand
27398 quilt
27399 patch-format
27400 backend dependent
27401 nopatch-format
27402 backend dependent
27403 get-unapplied
27404 false
27405 In normal formats and actionformats the following replacements are
27407 done:
27408 %s The VCS in use (git, hg, svn, etc.).
27410 %b Information about the current branch.
27411 %a An identifier that describes the action. Only makes sense in ac‐
27412 tionformats.
27413 %i The current revision number or identifier. For hg the hgrevfor‐
27414 mat style may be used to customize the output.
27415 %c The string from the stagedstr style if there are staged changes
27416 in the repository.
27417 %u The string from the unstagedstr style if there are unstaged
27418 changes in the repository.
27419 %R The base directory of the repository.
27420 %r The repository name. If %R is /foo/bar/repoXY, %r is repoXY.
27421 %S A subdirectory within a repository. If $PWD is /foo/bar/re‐
27422 poXY/beer/tasty, %S is beer/tasty.
27423 %m A "misc" replacement. It is at the discretion of the backend to
27424 decide what this replacement expands to.
27425 The hg and git backends use this expando to display patch infor‐
27427 mation. hg sources patch information from the mq extensions;
27428 git from in-progress rebase and cherry-pick operations and from
27429 the stgit extension. The patch-format and nopatch-format styles
27430 control the generated string. The former is used when at least
27431 one patch from the patch queue has been applied, and the latter
27432 otherwise.
27433 The hg backend displays bookmark information in this expando (in
27435 addition to mq information). See the get-mq and get-bookmarks
27436 styles. Both of these styles may be enabled at the same time.
27437 If both are enabled, both resulting strings will be shown sepa‐
27438 rated by a semicolon (that cannot currently be customized).
27439 The quilt `standalone' backend sets this expando to the same
27441 value as the %Q expando.
27442 %Q Quilt series information. When quilt is used (either in `addon'
27444 mode or as a `standalone' backend), this expando is set to quilt
27445 series' patch-format string. The set-patch-format hook and
27446 nopatch-format style are honoured.
27447 See Quilt Support below for details.
27449 In branchformat these replacements are done:
27451 %b The branch name.
27453 %r The current revision number or the hgrevformat style for hg.
27454 In hgrevformat these replacements are done:
27456 %r The current local revision number.
27458 %h The current global revision identifier.
27459 In patch-format and nopatch-format these replacements are done:
27461 %p The name of the top-most applied patch; may be overridden by the
27463 applied-string hook.
27464 %u The number of unapplied patches; may be overridden by the unap‐
27465 plied-string hook.
27466 %n The number of applied patches.
27467 %c The number of unapplied patches.
27468 %a The number of all patches (%a = %n + %c).
27469 %g The names of active mq guards (hg backend).
27470 %G The number of active mq guards (hg backend).
27471 Not all VCS backends have to support all replacements. For nvcsformats
27473 no replacements are performed at all, it is just a string.
27474 Oddities
27476 If you want to use the %b (bold off) prompt expansion in formats, which
27477 expands %b itself, use %%b. That will cause the vcs_info expansion to
27478 replace %%b with %b, so that zsh's prompt expansion mechanism can han‐
27479 dle it. Similarly, to hand down %b from branchformat, use %%%%b. Sorry
27480 for this inconvenience, but it cannot be easily avoided. Luckily we do
27481 not clash with a lot of prompt expansions and this only needs to be
27482 done for those.
27483 When one of the gen-applied-string, gen-unapplied-string, and
27485 set-patch-format hooks is defined, applying %-escaping
27486 (`foo=${foo//'%'/%%}') to the interpolated values for use in the prompt
27487 is the responsibility of those hooks (jointly); when neither of those
27488 hooks is defined, vcs_info handles escaping by itself. We regret this
27489 coupling, but it was required for backwards compatibility.
27490 Quilt Support
27492 Quilt is not a version control system, therefore this is not imple‐
27493 mented as a backend. It can help keeping track of a series of patches.
27494 People use it to keep a set of changes they want to use on top of soft‐
27495 ware packages (which is tightly integrated into the package build
27496 process - the Debian project does this for a large number of packages).
27497 Quilt can also help individual developers keep track of their own
27498 patches on top of real version control systems.
27499 The vcs_info integration tries to support both ways of using quilt by
27501 having two slightly different modes of operation: `addon' mode and
27502 `standalone' mode).
27503 Quilt integration is off by default; to enable it, set the use-quilt
27505 style, and add %Q to your formats or actionformats style:
27506 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' use-quilt true
27507 Styles looked up from the Quilt support code include
27509 `.quilt-quilt-mode' in the vcs-string part of the context, where
27510 quilt-mode is either addon or standalone. Example:
27511 :vcs_info:git.quilt-addon:default:repo-root-name.
27512 For `addon' mode to become active vcs_info must have already detected a
27514 real version control system controlling the directory. If that is the
27515 case, a directory that holds quilt's patches needs to be found. That
27516 directory is configurable via the `QUILT_PATCHES' environment variable.
27517 If that variable exists its value is used, otherwise the value
27518 `patches' is assumed. The value from $QUILT_PATCHES can be overwritten
27519 using the `quilt-patches' style. (Note: you can use vcs_info to keep
27520 the value of $QUILT_PATCHES correct all the time via the post-quilt
27521 hook).
27522 When the directory in question is found, quilt is assumed to be active.
27524 To gather more information, vcs_info looks for a directory called
27525 `.pc'; Quilt uses that directory to track its current state. If this
27526 directory does not exist we know that quilt has not done anything to
27527 the working directory (read: no patches have been applied yet).
27528 If patches are applied, vcs_info will try to find out which. If you
27530 want to know which patches of a series are not yet applied, you need to
27531 activate the get-unapplied style in the appropriate context.
27532 vcs_info allows for very detailed control over how the gathered infor‐
27534 mation is presented (see the Configuration and Hooks in vcs_info sec‐
27535 tions), all of which are documented below. Note there are a number of
27536 other patch tracking systems that work on top of a certain version con‐
27537 trol system (like stgit for git, or mq for hg); the configuration for
27538 systems like that are generally configured the same way as the quilt
27539 support.
27540 If the quilt support is working in `addon' mode, the produced string is
27542 available as a simple format replacement (%Q to be precise), which can
27543 be used in formats and actionformats; see below for details).
27544 If, on the other hand, the support code is working in `standalone'
27546 mode, vcs_info will pretend as if quilt were an actual version control
27547 system. That means that the version control system identifier (which
27548 otherwise would be something like `svn' or `cvs') will be set to
27549 `-quilt-'. This has implications on the used style context where this
27550 identifier is the second element. vcs_info will have filled in a proper
27551 value for the "repository's" root directory and the string containing
27552 the information about quilt's state will be available as the `misc' re‐
27553 placement (and %Q for compatibility with `addon' mode).
27554 What is left to discuss is how `standalone' mode is detected. The de‐
27556 tection itself is a series of searches for directories. You can have
27557 this detection enabled all the time in every directory that is not oth‐
27558 erwise under version control. If you know there is only a limited set
27559 of trees where you would like vcs_info to try and look for Quilt in
27560 `standalone' mode to minimise the amount of searching on every call to
27561 vcs_info, there are a number of ways to do that:
27562 Essentially, `standalone' mode detection is controlled by a style
27564 called `quilt-standalone'. It is a string style and its value can have
27565 different effects. The simplest values are: `always' to run detection
27566 every time vcs_info is run, and `never' to turn the detection off en‐
27567 tirely.
27568 If the value of quilt-standalone is something else, it is interpreted
27570 differently. If the value is the name of a scalar variable the value of
27571 that variable is checked and that value is used in the same `al‐
27572 ways'/`never' way as described above.
27573 If the value of quilt-standalone is an array, the elements of that ar‐
27575 ray are used as directory names under which you want the detection to
27576 be active.
27577 If quilt-standalone is an associative array, the keys are taken as di‐
27579 rectory names under which you want the detection to be active, but only
27580 if the corresponding value is the string `true'.
27581 Last, but not least, if the value of quilt-standalone is the name of a
27583 function, the function is called without arguments and the return value
27584 decides whether detection should be active. A `0' return value is true;
27585 a non-zero return value is interpreted as false.
27586 Note, if there is both a function and a variable by the name of
27588 quilt-standalone, the function will take precedence.
27589 Function Descriptions (Public API)
27591 vcs_info [user-context]
27592 The main function, that runs all backends and assembles all data
27593 into ${vcs_info_msg_*_}. This is the function you want to call
27594 from precmd if you want to include up-to-date information in
27595 your prompt (see Variable Description below). If an argument is
27596 given, that string will be used instead of default in the
27597 user-context field of the style context.
27598 vcs_info_hookadd
27600 Statically registers a number of functions to a given hook. The
27601 hook needs to be given as the first argument; what follows is a
27602 list of hook-function names to register to the hook. The `+vi-'
27603 prefix needs to be left out here. See Hooks in vcs_info below
27604 for details.
27605 vcs_info_hookdel
27607 Remove hook-functions from a given hook. The hook needs to be
27608 given as the first non-option argument; what follows is a list
27609 of hook-function names to un-register from the hook. If `-a' is
27610 used as the first argument, all occurrences of the functions are
27611 unregistered. Otherwise only the last occurrence is removed (if
27612 a function was registered to a hook more than once). The `+vi-'
27613 prefix needs to be left out here. See Hooks in vcs_info below
27614 for details.
27615 vcs_info_lastmsg
27617 Outputs the last ${vcs_info_msg_*_} value. Takes into account
27618 the value of the use-prompt-escapes style in ':vcs_info:for‐
27619 mats:command:-all-'. It also only prints max-exports values.
27620 vcs_info_printsys [user-context]
27622 Prints a list of all supported version control systems. Useful
27623 to find out possible contexts (and which of them are enabled) or
27624 values for the disable style.
27625 vcs_info_setsys
27627 Initializes vcs_info's internal list of available backends. With
27628 this function, you can add support for new VCSs without restart‐
27629 ing the shell.
27630 All functions named VCS_INFO_* are for internal use only.
27632 Variable Description
27634 ${vcs_info_msg_N_} (Note the trailing underscore)
27635 Where N is an integer, e.g., vcs_info_msg_0_. These variables
27636 are the storage for the informational message the last vcs_info
27637 call has assembled. These are strongly connected to the formats,
27638 actionformats and nvcsformats styles described above. Those
27639 styles are lists. The first member of that list gets expanded
27640 into ${vcs_info_msg_0_}, the second into ${vcs_info_msg_1_} and
27641 the Nth into ${vcs_info_msg_N-1_}. (See the max-exports style
27642 above.)
27643 All variables named VCS_INFO_* are for internal use only.
27645 Hooks in vcs_info
27647 Hooks are places in vcs_info where you can run your own code. That code
27648 can communicate with the code that called it and through that, change
27649 the system's behaviour.
27650 For configuration, hooks change the style context:
27652 :vcs_info:vcs-string+hook-name:user-context:repo-root-name
27653 To register functions to a hook, you need to list them in the hooks
27655 style in the appropriate context.
27656 Example:
27658 zstyle ':vcs_info:*+foo:*' hooks bar baz
27659 This registers functions to the hook `foo' for all backends. In order
27661 to avoid namespace problems, all registered function names are
27662 prepended by a `+vi-', so the actual functions called for the `foo'
27663 hook are `+vi-bar' and `+vi-baz'.
27664 If you would like to register a function to a hook regardless of the
27666 current context, you may use the vcs_info_hookadd function. To remove a
27667 function that was added like that, the vcs_info_hookdel function can be
27668 used.
27669 If something seems weird, you can enable the `debug' boolean style in
27671 the proper context and the hook-calling code will print what it tried
27672 to execute and whether the function in question existed.
27673 When you register more than one function to a hook, all functions are
27675 executed one after another until one function returns non-zero or until
27676 all functions have been called. Context-sensitive hook functions are
27677 executed before statically registered ones (the ones added by
27678 vcs_info_hookadd).
27679 You may pass data between functions via an associative array,
27681 user_data. For example:
27682 +vi-git-myfirsthook(){
27683 user_data[myval]=$myval
27684 }
27685 +vi-git-mysecondhook(){
27686 # do something with ${user_data[myval]}
27687 }
27688 There are a number of variables that are special in hook contexts:
27690 ret The return value that the hooks system will return to the
27692 caller. The default is an integer `zero'. If and how a changed
27693 ret value changes the execution of the caller depends on the
27694 specific hook. See the hook documentation below for details.
27695 hook_com
27697 An associated array which is used for bidirectional communica‐
27698 tion from the caller to hook functions. The used keys depend on
27699 the specific hook.
27700 context
27702 The active context of the hook. Functions that wish to change
27703 this variable should make it local scope first.
27704 vcs The current VCS after it was detected. The same values as in the
27706 enable/disable style are used. Available in all hooks except
27707 start-up.
27708 Finally, the full list of currently available hooks:
27710 start-up
27712 Called after starting vcs_info but before the VCS in this direc‐
27713 tory is determined. It can be used to deactivate vcs_info tempo‐
27714 rarily if necessary. When ret is set to 1, vcs_info aborts and
27715 does nothing; when set to 2, vcs_info sets up everything as if
27716 no version control were active and exits.
27717 pre-get-data
27719 Same as start-up but after the VCS was detected.
27720 gen-hg-bookmark-string
27722 Called in the Mercurial backend when a bookmark string is gener‐
27723 ated; the get-revision and get-bookmarks styles must be true.
27724 This hook gets the names of the Mercurial bookmarks that
27726 vcs_info collected from `hg'.
27727 If a bookmark is active, the key ${hook_com[hg-active-bookmark]}
27729 is set to its name. The key is otherwise unset.
27730 When setting ret to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[hg-book‐
27732 mark-string]} will be used in the %m escape in formats and ac‐
27733 tionformats and will be available in the global backend_misc ar‐
27734 ray as ${backend_misc[bookmarks]}.
27735 gen-applied-string
27737 Called in the git (with stgit or during rebase or merge), and hg
27738 (with mq) backends and in quilt support when the applied-string
27739 is generated; the use-quilt zstyle must be true for quilt (the
27740 mq and stgit backends are active by default).
27741 This hook gets the names of all applied patches which vcs_info
27743 collected so far in the opposite order, which means that the
27744 first argument is the top-most patch and so forth.
27745 When setting ret to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[ap‐
27747 plied-string]} will be available as %p in the patch-format and
27748 nopatch-format styles. This hook is, in concert with
27749 set-patch-format, responsible for %-escaping that value for use
27750 in the prompt. (See the Oddities section.)
27751 gen-unapplied-string
27753 Called in the git (with stgit or during rebase), and hg (with
27754 mq) backend and in quilt support when the unapplied-string is
27755 generated; the get-unapplied style must be true.
27756 This hook gets the names of all unapplied patches which vcs_info
27758 collected so far in order, which means that the first argument
27759 is the patch next-in-line to be applied and so forth.
27760 When setting ret to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[unap‐
27762 plied-string]} will be available as %u in the patch-format and
27763 nopatch-format styles. This hook is, in concert with
27764 set-patch-format, responsible for %-escaping that value for use
27765 in the prompt. (See the Oddities section.)
27766 gen-mqguards-string
27768 Called in the hg backend when guards-string is generated; the
27769 get-mq style must be true (default).
27770 This hook gets the names of any active mq guards.
27772 When setting ret to non-zero, the string in
27774 ${hook_com[guards-string]} will be used in the %g escape in the
27775 patch-format and nopatch-format styles.
27776 no-vcs This hooks is called when no version control system was de‐
27778 tected.
27779 The `hook_com' parameter is not used.
27781 post-backend
27783 Called as soon as the backend has finished collecting informa‐
27784 tion.
27785 The `hook_com' keys available are as for the set-message hook.
27787 post-quilt
27789 Called after the quilt support is done. The following informa‐
27790 tion is passed as arguments to the hook: 1. the quilt-support
27791 mode (`addon' or `standalone'); 2. the directory that contains
27792 the patch series; 3. the directory that holds quilt's status in‐
27793 formation (the `.pc' directory) or the string "-nopc-" if that
27794 directory wasn't found.
27795 The `hook_com' parameter is not used.
27797 set-branch-format
27799 Called before `branchformat' is set. The only argument to the
27800 hook is the format that is configured at this point.
27801 The `hook_com' keys considered are `branch' and `revision'.
27803 They are set to the values figured out so far by vcs_info and
27804 any change will be used directly when the actual replacement is
27805 done.
27806 If ret is set to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[branch-re‐
27808 place]} will be used unchanged as the `%b' replacement in the
27809 variables set by vcs_info.
27810 set-hgrev-format
27812 Called before a `hgrevformat' is set. The only argument to the
27813 hook is the format that is configured at this point.
27814 The `hook_com' keys considered are `hash' and `localrev'. They
27816 are set to the values figured out so far by vcs_info and any
27817 change will be used directly when the actual replacement is
27818 done.
27819 If ret is set to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[rev-re‐
27821 place]} will be used unchanged as the `%i' replacement in the
27822 variables set by vcs_info.
27823 pre-addon-quilt
27825 This hook is used when vcs_info's quilt functionality is active
27826 in "addon" mode (quilt used on top of a real version control
27827 system). It is activated right before any quilt specific action
27828 is taken.
27829 Setting the `ret' variable in this hook to a non-zero value
27831 avoids any quilt specific actions from being run at all.
27832 set-patch-format
27834 This hook is used to control some of the possible expansions in
27835 patch-format and nopatch-format styles with patch queue systems
27836 such as quilt, mqueue and the like.
27837 This hook is used in the git, hg and quilt backends.
27839 The hook allows the control of the %p (${hook_com[applied]}) and
27841 %u (${hook_com[unapplied]}) expansion in all backends that use
27842 the hook. With the mercurial backend, the %g
27843 (${hook_com[guards]}) expansion is controllable in addition to
27844 that.
27845 If ret is set to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[patch-re‐
27847 place]} will be used unchanged instead of an expanded format
27848 from patch-format or nopatch-format.
27849 This hook is, in concert with the gen-applied-string or gen-un‐
27851 applied-string hooks if they are defined, responsible for %-es‐
27852 caping the final patch-format value for use in the prompt. (See
27853 the Oddities section.)
27854 set-message
27856 Called each time before a `vcs_info_msg_N_' message is set. It
27857 takes two arguments; the first being the `N' in the message
27858 variable name, the second is the currently configured formats or
27859 actionformats.
27860 There are a number of `hook_com' keys, that are used here: `ac‐
27862 tion', `branch', `base', `base-name', `subdir', `staged', `un‐
27863 staged', `revision', `misc', `vcs' and one `miscN' entry for
27864 each backend-specific data field (N starting at zero). They are
27865 set to the values figured out so far by vcs_info and any change
27866 will be used directly when the actual replacement is done.
27867 Since this hook is triggered multiple times (once for each con‐
27869 figured formats or actionformats), each of the `hook_com' keys
27870 mentioned above (except for the miscN entries) has an `_orig'
27871 counterpart, so even if you changed a value to your liking you
27872 can still get the original value in the next run. Changing the
27873 `_orig' values is probably not a good idea.
27874 If ret is set to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[message]}
27876 will be used unchanged as the message by vcs_info.
27877 If all of this sounds rather confusing, take a look at the Examples
27879 section below and also in the Misc/vcs_info-examples file in the Zsh
27880 source. They contain some explanatory code.
27881 Examples
27883 Don't use vcs_info at all (even though it's in your prompt):
27884 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' enable NONE
27885 Disable the backends for bzr and svk:
27887 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' disable bzr svk
27888 Disable everything but bzr and svk:
27890 zstyle ':vcs_info:*' enable bzr svk
27891 Provide a special formats for git:
27893 zstyle ':vcs_info:git:*' formats ' GIT, BABY! [%b]'
27894 zstyle ':vcs_info:git:*' actionformats ' GIT ACTION! [%b|%a]'
27895 All %x expansion in all sorts of formats (formats, actionformats,
27897 branchformat, you name it) are done using the `zformat' builtin from
27898 the `zsh/zutil' module. That means you can do everything with these %x
27899 items what zformat supports. In particular, if you want something that
27900 is really long to have a fixed width, like a hash in a mercurial
27901 branchformat, you can do this: %12.12i. That'll shrink the 40 character
27902 hash to its 12 leading characters. The form is actually `%min.maxx'.
27903 More is possible. See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in zshmod‐
27904 ules(1) for details.
27905 Use the quicker bzr backend
27907 zstyle ':vcs_info:bzr:*' use-simple true
27908 If you do use use-simple, please report if it does
27910 `the-right-thing[tm]'.
27911 Display the revision number in yellow for bzr and svn:
27913 zstyle ':vcs_info:(svn|bzr):*' \
27914 branchformat '%b%{'${fg[yellow]}'%}:%r'
27915 If you want colors, make sure you enclose the color codes in %{...%} if
27917 you want to use the string provided by vcs_info in prompts.
27918 Here is how to print the VCS information as a command (not in a
27920 prompt):
27921 alias vcsi='vcs_info command; vcs_info_lastmsg'
27922 This way, you can even define different formats for output via
27924 vcs_info_lastmsg in the ':vcs_info:*:command:*' namespace.
27925 Now as promised, some code that uses hooks: say, you'd like to replace
27927 the string `svn' by `subversion' in vcs_info's %s formats replacement.
27928 First, we will tell vcs_info to call a function when populating the
27930 message variables with the gathered information:
27931 zstyle ':vcs_info:*+set-message:*' hooks svn2subversion
27932 Nothing happens. Which is reasonable, since we didn't define the actual
27934 function yet. To see what the hooks subsystem is trying to do, enable
27935 the `debug' style:
27936 zstyle ':vcs_info:*+*:*' debug true
27937 That should give you an idea what is going on. Specifically, the func‐
27939 tion that we are looking for is `+vi-svn2subversion'. Note, the `+vi-'
27940 prefix. So, everything is in order, just as documented. When you are
27941 done checking out the debugging output, disable it again:
27942 zstyle ':vcs_info:*+*:*' debug false
27943 Now, let's define the function:
27945 function +vi-svn2subversion() {
27946 [[ ${hook_com[vcs_orig]} == svn ]] && hook_com[vcs]=subversion
27947 }
27948 Simple enough. And it could have even been simpler, if only we had reg‐
27950 istered our function in a less generic context. If we do it only in the
27951 `svn' backend's context, we don't need to test which the active backend
27952 is:
27953 zstyle ':vcs_info:svn+set-message:*' hooks svn2subversion
27954 function +vi-svn2subversion() {
27955 hook_com[vcs]=subversion
27956 }
27957 And finally a little more elaborate example, that uses a hook to create
27959 a customised bookmark string for the hg backend.
27960 Again, we start off by registering a function:
27962 zstyle ':vcs_info:hg+gen-hg-bookmark-string:*' hooks hgbookmarks
27963 And then we define the `+vi-hgbookmarks' function:
27965 function +vi-hgbookmarks() {
27966 # The default is to connect all bookmark names by
27967 # commas. This mixes things up a little.
27968 # Imagine, there's one type of bookmarks that is
27969 # special to you. Say, because it's *your* work.
27970 # Those bookmarks look always like this: "sh/*"
27971 # (because your initials are sh, for example).
27972 # This makes the bookmarks string use only those
27973 # bookmarks. If there's more than one, it
27974 # concatenates them using commas.
27975 # The bookmarks returned by `hg' are available in
27976 # the function's positional parameters.
27977 local s="${(Mj:,:)@:#sh/*}"
27978 # Now, the communication with the code that calls
27979 # the hook functions is done via the hook_com[]
27980 # hash. The key at which the `gen-hg-bookmark-string'
27981 # hook looks is `hg-bookmark-string'. So:
27982 hook_com[hg-bookmark-string]=$s
27983 # And to signal that we want to use the string we
27984 # just generated, set the special variable `ret' to
27985 # something other than the default zero:
27986 ret=1
27987 return 0
27988 }
27989 Some longer examples and code snippets which might be useful are avail‐
27991 able in the examples file located at Misc/vcs_info-examples in the Zsh
27992 source directory.
27993 This concludes our guided tour through zsh's vcs_info.
27995
27997 Installation
27998 You should make sure all the functions from the Functions/Prompts di‐
27999 rectory of the source distribution are available; they all begin with
28000 the string `prompt_' except for the special function`promptinit'. You
28001 also need the `colors' and `add-zsh-hook' functions from Func‐
28002 tions/Misc. All these functions may already be installed on your sys‐
28003 tem; if not, you will need to find them and copy them. The directory
28004 should appear as one of the elements of the fpath array (this should
28005 already be the case if they were installed), and at least the function
28006 promptinit should be autoloaded; it will autoload the rest. Finally,
28007 to initialize the use of the system you need to call the promptinit
28008 function. The following code in your .zshrc will arrange for this; as‐
28009 sume the functions are stored in the directory ~/myfns:
28010 fpath=(~/myfns $fpath)
28012 autoload -U promptinit
28013 promptinit
28014 Theme Selection
28016 Use the prompt command to select your preferred theme. This command
28017 may be added to your .zshrc following the call to promptinit in order
28018 to start zsh with a theme already selected.
28019 prompt [ -c | -l ]
28021 prompt [ -p | -h ] [ theme ... ]
28022 prompt [ -s ] theme [ arg ... ]
28023 Set or examine the prompt theme. With no options and a theme
28024 argument, the theme with that name is set as the current theme.
28025 The available themes are determined at run time; use the -l op‐
28026 tion to see a list. The special theme `random' selects at ran‐
28027 dom one of the available themes and sets your prompt to that.
28028 In some cases the theme may be modified by one or more argu‐
28030 ments, which should be given after the theme name. See the help
28031 for each theme for descriptions of these arguments.
28032 Options are:
28034 -c Show the currently selected theme and its parameters, if
28036 any.
28037 -l List all available prompt themes.
28038 -p Preview the theme named by theme, or all themes if no
28039 theme is given.
28040 -h Show help for the theme named by theme, or for the prompt
28041 function if no theme is given.
28042 -s Set theme as the current theme and save state.
28043 prompt_theme_setup
28045 Each available theme has a setup function which is called by the
28046 prompt function to install that theme. This function may define
28047 other functions as necessary to maintain the prompt, including
28048 functions used to preview the prompt or provide help for its
28049 use. You should not normally call a theme's setup function di‐
28050 rectly.
28051 Utility Themes
28053 prompt off
28054 The theme `off' sets all the prompt variables to minimal values
28055 with no special effects.
28056 prompt default
28058 The theme `default' sets all prompt variables to the same state
28059 as if an interactive zsh was started with no initialization
28060 files.
28061 prompt restore
28063 The special theme `restore' erases all theme settings and sets
28064 prompt variables to their state before the first time the
28065 `prompt' function was run, provided each theme has properly de‐
28066 fined its cleanup (see below).
28067 Note that you can undo `prompt off' and `prompt default' with
28069 `prompt restore', but a second restore does not undo the first.
28070 Writing Themes
28072 The first step for adding your own theme is to choose a name for it,
28073 and create a file `prompt_name_setup' in a directory in your fpath,
28074 such as ~/myfns in the example above. The file should at minimum con‐
28075 tain assignments for the prompt variables that your theme wishes to
28076 modify. By convention, themes use PS1, PS2, RPS1, etc., rather than
28077 the longer PROMPT and RPROMPT.
28078 The file is autoloaded as a function in the current shell context, so
28080 it may contain any necessary commands to customize your theme, includ‐
28081 ing defining additional functions. To make some complex tasks easier,
28082 your setup function may also do any of the following:
28083 Assign prompt_opts
28085 The array prompt_opts may be assigned any of "bang", "cr", "per‐
28086 cent", "sp", and/or "subst" as values. The corresponding se‐
28087 topts (promptbang, etc.) are turned on, all other prompt-related
28088 options are turned off. The prompt_opts array preserves setopts
28089 even beyond the scope of localoptions, should your function need
28090 that.
28091 Modify precmd and preexec
28093 Use of add-zsh-hook is recommended. The precmd and preexec
28094 hooks are automatically adjusted if the prompt theme changes or
28095 is disabled.
28096 Declare cleanup
28098 If your function makes any other changes that should be undone
28099 when the theme is disabled, your setup function may call
28100 prompt_cleanup command
28101 where command should be suitably quoted. If your theme is ever dis‐
28102 abled or replaced by another, command is executed with eval. You may
28103 declare more than one such cleanup hook.
28104 Define preview
28106 Define or autoload a function prompt_name_preview to display a
28107 simulated version of your prompt. A simple default previewer is
28108 defined by promptinit for themes that do not define their own.
28109 This preview function is called by `prompt -p'.
28110 Provide help
28112 Define or autoload a function prompt_name_help to display docu‐
28113 mentation or help text for your theme. This help function is
28114 called by `prompt -h'.
28115
28117 Widgets
28118 These functions all implement user-defined ZLE widgets (see zshzle(1))
28119 which can be bound to keystrokes in interactive shells. To use them,
28120 your .zshrc should contain lines of the form
28121 autoload function
28123 zle -N function
28124 followed by an appropriate bindkey command to associate the function
28126 with a key sequence. Suggested bindings are described below.
28127 bash-style word functions
28129 If you are looking for functions to implement moving over and
28130 editing words in the manner of bash, where only alphanumeric
28131 characters are considered word characters, you can use the func‐
28132 tions described in the next section. The following is suffi‐
28133 cient:
28134 autoload -U select-word-style
28136 select-word-style bash
28137 forward-word-match, backward-word-match
28139 kill-word-match, backward-kill-word-match
28140 transpose-words-match, capitalize-word-match
28141 up-case-word-match, down-case-word-match
28142 delete-whole-word-match, select-word-match
28143 select-word-style, match-word-context, match-words-by-style
28144 The first eight `-match' functions are drop-in replacements for
28145 the builtin widgets without the suffix. By default they behave
28146 in a similar way. However, by the use of styles and the func‐
28147 tion select-word-style, the way words are matched can be al‐
28148 tered. select-word-match is intended to be used as a text object
28149 in vi mode but with custom word styles. For comparison, the wid‐
28150 gets described in zshzle(1) under Text Objects use fixed defini‐
28151 tions of words, compatible with the vim editor.
28152 The simplest way of configuring the functions is to use se‐
28154 lect-word-style, which can either be called as a normal function
28155 with the appropriate argument, or invoked as a user-defined wid‐
28156 get that will prompt for the first character of the word style
28157 to be used. The first time it is invoked, the first eight
28158 -match functions will automatically replace the builtin ver‐
28159 sions, so they do not need to be loaded explicitly.
28160 The word styles available are as follows. Only the first char‐
28162 acter is examined.
28163 bash Word characters are alphanumeric characters only.
28165 normal As in normal shell operation: word characters are al‐
28167 phanumeric characters plus any characters present in the
28168 string given by the parameter $WORDCHARS.
28169 shell Words are complete shell command arguments, possibly in‐
28171 cluding complete quoted strings, or any tokens special to
28172 the shell.
28173 whitespace
28175 Words are any set of characters delimited by whitespace.
28176 default
28178 Restore the default settings; this is usually the same as
28179 `normal'.
28180 All but `default' can be input as an upper case character, which
28182 has the same effect but with subword matching turned on. In
28183 this case, words with upper case characters are treated spe‐
28184 cially: each separate run of upper case characters, or an upper
28185 case character followed by any number of other characters, is
28186 considered a word. The style subword-range can supply an alter‐
28187 native character range to the default `[:upper:]'; the value of
28188 the style is treated as the contents of a `[...]' pattern (note
28189 that the outer brackets should not be supplied, only those sur‐
28190 rounding named ranges).
28191 More control can be obtained using the zstyle command, as de‐
28193 scribed in zshmodules(1). Each style is looked up in the con‐
28194 text :zle:widget where widget is the name of the user-defined
28195 widget, not the name of the function implementing it, so in the
28196 case of the definitions supplied by select-word-style the appro‐
28197 priate contexts are :zle:forward-word, and so on. The function
28198 select-word-style itself always defines styles for the context
28199 `:zle:*' which can be overridden by more specific (longer) pat‐
28200 terns as well as explicit contexts.
28201 The style word-style specifies the rules to use. This may have
28203 the following values.
28204 normal Use the standard shell rules, i.e. alphanumerics and
28206 $WORDCHARS, unless overridden by the styles word-chars or
28207 word-class.
28208 specified
28210 Similar to normal, but only the specified characters, and
28211 not also alphanumerics, are considered word characters.
28212 unspecified
28214 The negation of specified. The given characters are
28215 those which will not be considered part of a word.
28216 shell Words are obtained by using the syntactic rules for gen‐
28218 erating shell command arguments. In addition, special
28219 tokens which are never command arguments such as `()' are
28220 also treated as words.
28221 whitespace
28223 Words are whitespace-delimited strings of characters.
28224 The first three of those rules usually use $WORDCHARS, but the
28226 value in the parameter can be overridden by the style
28227 word-chars, which works in exactly the same way as $WORDCHARS.
28228 In addition, the style word-class uses character class syntax to
28229 group characters and takes precedence over word-chars if both
28230 are set. The word-class style does not include the surrounding
28231 brackets of the character class; for example, `-:[:alnum:]' is a
28232 valid word-class to include all alphanumerics plus the charac‐
28233 ters `-' and `:'. Be careful including `]', `^' and `-' as
28234 these are special inside character classes.
28235 word-style may also have `-subword' appended to its value to
28237 turn on subword matching, as described above.
28238 The style skip-chars is mostly useful for transpose-words and
28240 similar functions. If set, it gives a count of characters
28241 starting at the cursor position which will not be considered
28242 part of the word and are treated as space, regardless of what
28243 they actually are. For example, if
28244 zstyle ':zle:transpose-words' skip-chars 1
28246 has been set, and transpose-words-match is called with the cur‐
28248 sor on the X of fooXbar, where X can be any character, then the
28249 resulting expression is barXfoo.
28250 Finer grained control can be obtained by setting the style
28252 word-context to an array of pairs of entries. Each pair of en‐
28253 tries consists of a pattern and a subcontext. The shell argu‐
28254 ment the cursor is on is matched against each pattern in turn
28255 until one matches; if it does, the context is extended by a
28256 colon and the corresponding subcontext. Note that the test is
28257 made against the original word on the line, with no stripping of
28258 quotes. Special handling is done between words: the current
28259 context is examined and if it contains the string between the
28260 word is set to a single space; else if it is contains the string
28261 back, the word before the cursor is considered, else the word
28262 after cursor is considered. Some examples are given below.
28263 The style skip-whitespace-first is only used with the for‐
28265 ward-word widget. If it is set to true, then forward-word skips
28266 any non-word-characters, followed by any non-word-characters:
28267 this is similar to the behaviour of other word-orientated wid‐
28268 gets, and also that used by other editors, however it differs
28269 from the standard zsh behaviour. When using select-word-style
28270 the widget is set in the context :zle:* to true if the word
28271 style is bash and false otherwise. It may be overridden by set‐
28272 ting it in the more specific context :zle:forward-word*.
28273 It is possible to create widgets with specific behaviour by
28275 defining a new widget implemented by the appropriate generic
28276 function, then setting a style for the context of the specific
28277 widget. For example, the following defines a widget back‐
28278 ward-kill-space-word using backward-kill-word-match, the generic
28279 widget implementing backward-kill-word behaviour, and ensures
28280 that the new widget always implements space-delimited behaviour.
28281 zle -N backward-kill-space-word backward-kill-word-match
28283 zstyle :zle:backward-kill-space-word word-style space
28284 The widget backward-kill-space-word can now be bound to a key.
28286 Here are some further examples of use of the styles, actually
28288 taken from the simplified interface in select-word-style:
28289 zstyle ':zle:*' word-style standard
28291 zstyle ':zle:*' word-chars ''
28292 Implements bash-style word handling for all widgets, i.e. only
28294 alphanumerics are word characters; equivalent to setting the pa‐
28295 rameter WORDCHARS empty for the given context.
28296 style ':zle:*kill*' word-style space
28298 Uses space-delimited words for widgets with the word `kill' in
28300 the name. Neither of the styles word-chars nor word-class is
28301 used in this case.
28302 Here are some examples of use of the word-context style to ex‐
28304 tend the context.
28305 zstyle ':zle:*' word-context \
28307 "*/*" filename "[[:space:]]" whitespace
28308 zstyle ':zle:transpose-words:whitespace' word-style shell
28309 zstyle ':zle:transpose-words:filename' word-style normal
28310 zstyle ':zle:transpose-words:filename' word-chars ''
28311 This provides two different ways of using transpose-words de‐
28313 pending on whether the cursor is on whitespace between words or
28314 on a filename, here any word containing a /. On whitespace,
28315 complete arguments as defined by standard shell rules will be
28316 transposed. In a filename, only alphanumerics will be trans‐
28317 posed. Elsewhere, words will be transposed using the default
28318 style for :zle:transpose-words.
28319 The word matching and all the handling of zstyle settings is ac‐
28321 tually implemented by the function match-words-by-style. This
28322 can be used to create new user-defined widgets. The calling
28323 function should set the local parameter curcontext to :zle:wid‐
28324 get, create the local parameter matched_words and call
28325 match-words-by-style with no arguments. On return,
28326 matched_words will be set to an array with the elements: (1) the
28327 start of the line (2) the word before the cursor (3) any
28328 non-word characters between that word and the cursor (4) any
28329 non-word character at the cursor position plus any remaining
28330 non-word characters before the next word, including all charac‐
28331 ters specified by the skip-chars style, (5) the word at or fol‐
28332 lowing the cursor (6) any non-word characters following that
28333 word (7) the remainder of the line. Any of the elements may be
28334 an empty string; the calling function should test for this to
28335 decide whether it can perform its function.
28336 If the variable matched_words is defined by the caller to
28338 match-words-by-style as an associative array (local -A
28339 matched_words), then the seven values given above should be re‐
28340 trieved from it as elements named start, word-before-cursor,
28341 ws-before-cursor, ws-after-cursor, word-after-cursor, ws-af‐
28342 ter-word, and end. In addition the element is-word-start is 1
28343 if the cursor is on the start of a word or subword, or on white
28344 space before it (the cases can be distinguished by testing the
28345 ws-after-cursor element) and 0 otherwise. This form is recom‐
28346 mended for future compatibility.
28347 It is possible to pass options with arguments to
28349 match-words-by-style to override the use of styles. The options
28350 are:
28351 -w word-style
28352 -s skip-chars
28353 -c word-class
28354 -C word-chars
28355 -r subword-range
28356 For example, match-words-by-style -w shell -c 0 may be used to
28358 extract the command argument around the cursor.
28359 The word-context style is implemented by the function
28361 match-word-context. This should not usually need to be called
28362 directly.
28363 bracketed-paste-magic
28365 The bracketed-paste widget (see subsection Miscellaneous in zsh‐
28366 zle(1)) inserts pasted text literally into the editor buffer
28367 rather than interpret it as keystrokes. This disables some com‐
28368 mon usages where the self-insert widget is replaced in order to
28369 accomplish some extra processing. An example is the contributed
28370 url-quote-magic widget described below.
28371 The bracketed-paste-magic widget is meant to replace brack‐
28373 eted-paste with a wrapper that re-enables these self-insert ac‐
28374 tions, and other actions as selected by zstyles. Therefore this
28375 widget is installed with
28376 autoload -Uz bracketed-paste-magic
28378 zle -N bracketed-paste bracketed-paste-magic
28379 Other than enabling some widget processing, brack‐
28381 eted-paste-magic attempts to replicate bracketed-paste as faith‐
28382 fully as possible.
28383 The following zstyles may be set to control processing of pasted
28385 text. All are looked up in the context `:brack‐
28386 eted-paste-magic'.
28387 active-widgets
28389 A list of patterns matching widget names that should be
28390 activated during the paste. All other key sequences are
28391 processed as self-insert-unmeta. The default is `self-*'
28392 so any user-defined widgets named with that prefix are
28393 active along with the builtin self-insert.
28394 If this style is not set (explicitly deleted) or set to
28396 an empty value, no widgets are active and the pasted text
28397 is inserted literally. If the value includes `unde‐
28398 fined-key', any unknown sequences are discarded from the
28399 pasted text.
28400 inactive-keys
28402 The inverse of active-widgets, a list of key sequences
28403 that always use self-insert-unmeta even when bound to an
28404 active widget. Note that this is a list of literal key
28405 sequences, not patterns.
28406 paste-init
28408 A list of function names, called in widget context (but
28409 not as widgets). The functions are called in order until
28410 one of them returns a non-zero status. The parameter
28411 `PASTED' contains the initial state of the pasted text.
28412 All other ZLE parameters such as `BUFFER' have their nor‐
28413 mal values and side-effects, and full history is avail‐
28414 able, so for example paste-init functions may move words
28415 from BUFFER into PASTED to make those words visible to
28416 the active-widgets.
28417 A non-zero return from a paste-init function does not
28419 prevent the paste itself from proceeding.
28420 Loading bracketed-paste-magic defines backward-ex‐
28422 tend-paste, a helper function for use in paste-init.
28423 zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic paste-init \
28425 backward-extend-paste
28426 When a paste would insert into the middle of a word or
28428 append text to a word already on the line, backward-ex‐
28429 tend-paste moves the prefix from LBUFFER into PASTED so
28430 that the active-widgets see the full word so far. This
28431 may be useful with url-quote-magic.
28432 paste-finish
28434 Another list of function names called in order until one
28435 returns non-zero. These functions are called after the
28436 pasted text has been processed by the active-widgets, but
28437 before it is inserted into `BUFFER'. ZLE parameters have
28438 their normal values and side-effects.
28439 A non-zero return from a paste-finish function does not
28441 prevent the paste itself from proceeding.
28442 Loading bracketed-paste-magic also defines quote-paste, a
28444 helper function for use in paste-finish.
28445 zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic paste-finish \
28447 quote-paste
28448 zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic:finish quote-style \
28449 qqq
28450 When the pasted text is inserted into BUFFER, it is
28452 quoted per the quote-style value. To forcibly turn off
28453 the built-in numeric prefix quoting of bracketed-paste,
28454 use:
28455 zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic:finish quote-style \
28457 none
28458 Important: During active-widgets processing of the paste (after
28460 paste-init and before paste-finish), BUFFER starts empty and
28461 history is restricted, so cursor motions, etc., may not pass
28462 outside of the pasted content. Text assigned to BUFFER by the
28463 active widgets is copied back into PASTED before paste-finish.
28464 copy-earlier-word
28466 This widget works like a combination of insert-last-word and
28467 copy-prev-shell-word. Repeated invocations of the widget re‐
28468 trieve earlier words on the relevant history line. With a nu‐
28469 meric argument N, insert the Nth word from the history line; N
28470 may be negative to count from the end of the line.
28471 If insert-last-word has been used to retrieve the last word on a
28473 previous history line, repeated invocations will replace that
28474 word with earlier words from the same line.
28475 Otherwise, the widget applies to words on the line currently be‐
28477 ing edited. The widget style can be set to the name of another
28478 widget that should be called to retrieve words. This widget
28479 must accept the same three arguments as insert-last-word.
28480 cycle-completion-positions
28482 After inserting an unambiguous string into the command line, the
28483 new function based completion system may know about multiple
28484 places in this string where characters are missing or differ
28485 from at least one of the possible matches. It will then place
28486 the cursor on the position it considers to be the most interest‐
28487 ing one, i.e. the one where one can disambiguate between as many
28488 matches as possible with as little typing as possible.
28489 This widget allows the cursor to be easily moved to the other
28491 interesting spots. It can be invoked repeatedly to cycle be‐
28492 tween all positions reported by the completion system.
28493 delete-whole-word-match
28495 This is another function which works like the -match functions
28496 described immediately above, i.e. using styles to decide the
28497 word boundaries. However, it is not a replacement for any ex‐
28498 isting function.
28499 The basic behaviour is to delete the word around the cursor.
28501 There is no numeric argument handling; only the single word
28502 around the cursor is considered. If the widget contains the
28503 string kill, the removed text will be placed in the cutbuffer
28504 for future yanking. This can be obtained by defining
28505 kill-whole-word-match as follows:
28506 zle -N kill-whole-word-match delete-whole-word-match
28508 and then binding the widget kill-whole-word-match.
28510 up-line-or-beginning-search, down-line-or-beginning-search
28512 These widgets are similar to the builtin functions
28513 up-line-or-search and down-line-or-search: if in a multiline
28514 buffer they move up or down within the buffer, otherwise they
28515 search for a history line matching the start of the current
28516 line. In this case, however, they search for a line which
28517 matches the current line up to the current cursor position, in
28518 the manner of history-beginning-search-backward and -forward,
28519 rather than the first word on the line.
28520 edit-command-line
28522 Edit the command line using your visual editor, as in ksh.
28523 bindkey -M vicmd v edit-command-line
28525 expand-absolute-path
28527 Expand the file name under the cursor to an absolute path, re‐
28528 solving symbolic links. Where possible, the initial path seg‐
28529 ment is turned into a named directory or reference to a user's
28530 home directory.
28531 history-search-end
28533 This function implements the widgets history-begin‐
28534 ning-search-backward-end and history-beginning-search-for‐
28535 ward-end. These commands work by first calling the correspond‐
28536 ing builtin widget (see `History Control' in zshzle(1)) and then
28537 moving the cursor to the end of the line. The original cursor
28538 position is remembered and restored before calling the builtin
28539 widget a second time, so that the same search is repeated to
28540 look farther through the history.
28541 Although you autoload only one function, the commands to use it
28543 are slightly different because it implements two widgets.
28544 zle -N history-beginning-search-backward-end \
28546 history-search-end
28547 zle -N history-beginning-search-forward-end \
28548 history-search-end
28549 bindkey '\e^P' history-beginning-search-backward-end
28550 bindkey '\e^N' history-beginning-search-forward-end
28551 history-beginning-search-menu
28553 This function implements yet another form of history searching.
28554 The text before the cursor is used to select lines from the his‐
28555 tory, as for history-beginning-search-backward except that all
28556 matches are shown in a numbered menu. Typing the appropriate
28557 digits inserts the full history line. Note that leading zeroes
28558 must be typed (they are only shown when necessary for removing
28559 ambiguity). The entire history is searched; there is no dis‐
28560 tinction between forwards and backwards.
28561 With a numeric argument, the search is not anchored to the start
28563 of the line; the string typed by the use may appear anywhere in
28564 the line in the history.
28565 If the widget name contains `-end' the cursor is moved to the
28567 end of the line inserted. If the widget name contains `-space'
28568 any space in the text typed is treated as a wildcard and can
28569 match anything (hence a leading space is equivalent to giving a
28570 numeric argument). Both forms can be combined, for example:
28571 zle -N history-beginning-search-menu-space-end \
28573 history-beginning-search-menu
28574 history-pattern-search
28576 The function history-pattern-search implements widgets which
28577 prompt for a pattern with which to search the history backwards
28578 or forwards. The pattern is in the usual zsh format, however
28579 the first character may be ^ to anchor the search to the start
28580 of the line, and the last character may be $ to anchor the
28581 search to the end of the line. If the search was not anchored
28582 to the end of the line the cursor is positioned just after the
28583 pattern found.
28584 The commands to create bindable widgets are similar to those in
28586 the example immediately above:
28587 autoload -U history-pattern-search
28589 zle -N history-pattern-search-backward history-pattern-search
28590 zle -N history-pattern-search-forward history-pattern-search
28591 incarg Typing the keystrokes for this widget with the cursor placed on
28593 or to the left of an integer causes that integer to be incre‐
28594 mented by one. With a numeric argument, the number is incre‐
28595 mented by the amount of the argument (decremented if the numeric
28596 argument is negative). The shell parameter incarg may be set to
28597 change the default increment to something other than one.
28598 bindkey '^X+' incarg
28600 incremental-complete-word
28602 This allows incremental completion of a word. After starting
28603 this command, a list of completion choices can be shown after
28604 every character you type, which you can delete with ^H or DEL.
28605 Pressing return accepts the completion so far and returns you to
28606 normal editing (that is, the command line is not immediately ex‐
28607 ecuted). You can hit TAB to do normal completion, ^G to abort
28608 back to the state when you started, and ^D to list the matches.
28609 This works only with the new function based completion system.
28611 bindkey '^Xi' incremental-complete-word
28613 insert-composed-char
28615 This function allows you to compose characters that don't appear
28616 on the keyboard to be inserted into the command line. The com‐
28617 mand is followed by two keys corresponding to ASCII characters
28618 (there is no prompt). For accented characters, the two keys are
28619 a base character followed by a code for the accent, while for
28620 other special characters the two characters together form a mne‐
28621 monic for the character to be inserted. The two-character codes
28622 are a subset of those given by RFC 1345 (see for example
28623 http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1345.html).
28624 The function may optionally be followed by up to two characters
28626 which replace one or both of the characters read from the key‐
28627 board; if both characters are supplied, no input is read. For
28628 example, insert-composed-char a: can be used within a widget to
28629 insert an a with umlaut into the command line. This has the ad‐
28630 vantages over use of a literal character that it is more porta‐
28631 ble.
28632 For best results zsh should have been built with support for
28634 multibyte characters (configured with --enable-multibyte); how‐
28635 ever, the function works for the limited range of characters
28636 available in single-byte character sets such as ISO-8859-1.
28637 The character is converted into the local representation and in‐
28639 serted into the command line at the cursor position. (The con‐
28640 version is done within the shell, using whatever facilities the
28641 C library provides.) With a numeric argument, the character and
28642 its code are previewed in the status line
28643 The function may be run outside zle in which case it prints the
28645 character (together with a newline) to standard output. Input
28646 is still read from keystrokes.
28647 See insert-unicode-char for an alternative way of inserting Uni‐
28649 code characters using their hexadecimal character number.
28650 The set of accented characters is reasonably complete up to Uni‐
28652 code character U+0180, the set of special characters less so.
28653 However, it is very sporadic from that point. Adding new char‐
28654 acters is easy, however; see the function define-composed-chars.
28655 Please send any additions to zsh-workers@zsh.org.
28656 The codes for the second character when used to accent the first
28658 are as follows. Note that not every character can take every
28659 accent.
28660 ! Grave.
28661 ' Acute.
28662 > Circumflex.
28663 ? Tilde. (This is not ~ as RFC 1345 does not assume that
28664 character is present on the keyboard.)
28665 - Macron. (A horizontal bar over the base character.)
28666 ( Breve. (A shallow dish shape over the base character.)
28667 . Dot above the base character, or in the case of i no dot,
28668 or in the case of L and l a centered dot.
28669 : Diaeresis (Umlaut).
28670 c Cedilla.
28671 _ Underline, however there are currently no underlined
28672 characters.
28673 / Stroke through the base character.
28674 " Double acute (only supported on a few letters).
28675 ; Ogonek. (A little forward facing hook at the bottom
28676 right of the character.)
28677 < Caron. (A little v over the letter.)
28678 0 Circle over the base character.
28679 2 Hook over the base character.
28680 9 Horn over the base character.
28681 The most common characters from the Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek and
28683 Hebrew alphabets are available; consult RFC 1345 for the appro‐
28684 priate sequences. In addition, a set of two letter codes not in
28685 RFC 1345 are available for the double-width characters corre‐
28686 sponding to ASCII characters from ! to ~ (0x21 to 0x7e) by pre‐
28687 ceding the character with ^, for example ^A for a double-width
28688 A.
28689 The following other two-character sequences are understood.
28691 ASCII characters
28693 These are already present on most keyboards:
28694 <( Left square bracket
28695 // Backslash (solidus)
28696 )> Right square bracket
28697 (! Left brace (curly bracket)
28698 !! Vertical bar (pipe symbol)
28699 !) Right brace (curly bracket)
28700 '? Tilde
28701 Special letters
28703 Characters found in various variants of the Latin alpha‐
28704 bet:
28705 ss Eszett (scharfes S)
28706 D-, d- Eth
28707 TH, th Thorn
28708 kk Kra
28709 'n 'n
28710 NG, ng Ng
28711 OI, oi Oi
28712 yr yr
28713 ED ezh
28714 Currency symbols
28716 Ct Cent
28717 Pd Pound sterling (also lira and others)
28718 Cu Currency
28719 Ye Yen
28720 Eu Euro (N.B. not in RFC 1345)
28721 Punctuation characters
28723 References to "right" quotes indicate the shape (like a 9
28724 rather than 6) rather than their grammatical use. (For
28725 example, a "right" low double quote is used to open quo‐
28726 tations in German.)
28727 !I Inverted exclamation mark
28728 BB Broken vertical bar
28729 SE Section
28730 Co Copyright
28731 -a Spanish feminine ordinal indicator
28732 << Left guillemet
28733 -- Soft hyphen
28734 Rg Registered trade mark
28735 PI Pilcrow (paragraph)
28736 -o Spanish masculine ordinal indicator
28737 >> Right guillemet
28738 ?I Inverted question mark
28739 -1 Hyphen
28740 -N En dash
28741 -M Em dash
28742 -3 Horizontal bar
28743 :3 Vertical ellipsis
28744 .3 Horizontal midline ellipsis
28745 !2 Double vertical line
28746 =2 Double low line
28747 '6 Left single quote
28748 '9 Right single quote
28749 .9 "Right" low quote
28750 9' Reversed "right" quote
28751 "6 Left double quote
28752 "9 Right double quote
28753 :9 "Right" low double quote
28754 9" Reversed "right" double quote
28755 /- Dagger
28756 /= Double dagger
28757 Mathematical symbols
28759 DG Degree
28760 -2, +-, -+
28761 - sign, +/- sign, -/+ sign
28762 2S Superscript 2
28763 3S Superscript 3
28764 1S Superscript 1
28765 My Micro
28766 .M Middle dot
28767 14 Quarter
28768 12 Half
28769 34 Three quarters
28770 *X Multiplication
28771 -: Division
28772 %0 Per mille
28773 FA, TE, /0
28774 For all, there exists, empty set
28775 dP, DE, NB
28776 Partial derivative, delta (increment), del (nabla)
28777 (-, -) Element of, contains
28778 *P, +Z Product, sum
28779 *-, Ob, Sb
28780 Asterisk, ring, bullet
28781 RT, 0(, 00
28782 Root sign, proportional to, infinity
28783 Other symbols
28785 cS, cH, cD, cC
28786 Card suits: spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs
28787 Md, M8, M2, Mb, Mx, MX
28788 Musical notation: crotchet (quarter note), quaver (eighth
28789 note), semiquavers (sixteenth notes), flag sign, natural
28790 sign, sharp sign
28791 Fm, Ml Female, male
28792 Accents on their own
28794 '> Circumflex (same as caret, ^)
28795 '! Grave (same as backtick, `)
28796 ', Cedilla
28797 ': Diaeresis (Umlaut)
28798 'm Macron
28799 '' Acute
28800 insert-files
28802 This function allows you type a file pattern, and see the re‐
28803 sults of the expansion at each step. When you hit return, all
28804 expansions are inserted into the command line.
28805 bindkey '^Xf' insert-files
28807 insert-unicode-char
28809 When first executed, the user inputs a set of hexadecimal dig‐
28810 its. This is terminated with another call to insert-uni‐
28811 code-char. The digits are then turned into the corresponding
28812 Unicode character. For example, if the widget is bound to ^XU,
28813 the character sequence `^XU 4 c ^XU' inserts L (Unicode U+004c).
28814 See insert-composed-char for a way of inserting characters using
28816 a two-character mnemonic.
28817 narrow-to-region [ -p pre ] [ -P post ]
28820 [ -S statepm | -R statepm | [ -l lbufvar ] [ -r rbuf‐
28821 var ] ]
28822 [ -n ] [ start end ]
28823 narrow-to-region-invisible
28824 Narrow the editable portion of the buffer to the region between
28825 the cursor and the mark, which may be in either order. The re‐
28826 gion may not be empty.
28827 narrow-to-region may be used as a widget or called as a function
28829 from a user-defined widget; by default, the text outside the ed‐
28830 itable area remains visible. A recursive-edit is performed and
28831 the original widening status is then restored. Various options
28832 and arguments are available when it is called as a function.
28833 The options -p pretext and -P posttext may be used to replace
28835 the text before and after the display for the duration of the
28836 function; either or both may be an empty string.
28837 If the option -n is also given, pretext or posttext will only be
28839 inserted if there is text before or after the region respec‐
28840 tively which will be made invisible.
28841 Two numeric arguments may be given which will be used instead of
28843 the cursor and mark positions.
28844 The option -S statepm is used to narrow according to the other
28846 options while saving the original state in the parameter with
28847 name statepm, while the option -R statepm is used to restore the
28848 state from the parameter; note in both cases the name of the pa‐
28849 rameter is required. In the second case, other options and ar‐
28850 guments are irrelevant. When this method is used, no recur‐
28851 sive-edit is performed; the calling widget should call this
28852 function with the option -S, perform its own editing on the com‐
28853 mand line or pass control to the user via `zle recursive-edit',
28854 then call this function with the option -R. The argument
28855 statepm must be a suitable name for an ordinary parameter, ex‐
28856 cept that parameters beginning with the prefix _ntr_ are re‐
28857 served for use within narrow-to-region. Typically the parameter
28858 will be local to the calling function.
28859 The options -l lbufvar and -r rbufvar may be used to specify pa‐
28861 rameters where the widget will store the resulting text from the
28862 operation. The parameter lbufvar will contain LBUFFER and rbuf‐
28863 var will contain RBUFFER. Neither of these two options may be
28864 used with -S or -R.
28865 narrow-to-region-invisible is a simple widget which calls nar‐
28867 row-to-region with arguments which replace any text outside the
28868 region with `...'. It does not take any arguments.
28869 The display is restored (and the widget returns) upon any zle
28871 command which would usually cause the line to be accepted or
28872 aborted. Hence an additional such command is required to accept
28873 or abort the current line.
28874 The return status of both widgets is zero if the line was ac‐
28876 cepted, else non-zero.
28877 Here is a trivial example of a widget using this feature.
28879 local state
28880 narrow-to-region -p $'Editing restricted region\n' \
28881 -P '' -S state
28882 zle recursive-edit
28883 narrow-to-region -R state
28884 predict-on
28886 This set of functions implements predictive typing using history
28887 search. After predict-on, typing characters causes the editor
28888 to look backward in the history for the first line beginning
28889 with what you have typed so far. After predict-off, editing re‐
28890 turns to normal for the line found. In fact, you often don't
28891 even need to use predict-off, because if the line doesn't match
28892 something in the history, adding a key performs standard comple‐
28893 tion, and then inserts itself if no completions were found.
28894 However, editing in the middle of a line is liable to confuse
28895 prediction; see the toggle style below.
28896 With the function based completion system (which is needed for
28898 this), you should be able to type TAB at almost any point to ad‐
28899 vance the cursor to the next ``interesting'' character position
28900 (usually the end of the current word, but sometimes somewhere in
28901 the middle of the word). And of course as soon as the entire
28902 line is what you want, you can accept with return, without need‐
28903 ing to move the cursor to the end first.
28904 The first time predict-on is used, it creates several additional
28906 widget functions:
28907 delete-backward-and-predict
28909 Replaces the backward-delete-char widget. You do not
28910 need to bind this yourself.
28911 insert-and-predict
28912 Implements predictive typing by replacing the self-insert
28913 widget. You do not need to bind this yourself.
28914 predict-off
28915 Turns off predictive typing.
28916 Although you autoload only the predict-on function, it is neces‐
28918 sary to create a keybinding for predict-off as well.
28919 zle -N predict-on
28921 zle -N predict-off
28922 bindkey '^X^Z' predict-on
28923 bindkey '^Z' predict-off
28924 read-from-minibuffer
28926 This is most useful when called as a function from inside a wid‐
28927 get, but will work correctly as a widget in its own right. It
28928 prompts for a value below the current command line; a value may
28929 be input using all of the standard zle operations (and not
28930 merely the restricted set available when executing, for example,
28931 execute-named-cmd). The value is then returned to the calling
28932 function in the parameter $REPLY and the editing buffer restored
28933 to its previous state. If the read was aborted by a keyboard
28934 break (typically ^G), the function returns status 1 and $REPLY
28935 is not set.
28936 If one argument is supplied to the function it is taken as a
28938 prompt, otherwise `? ' is used. If two arguments are supplied,
28939 they are the prompt and the initial value of $LBUFFER, and if a
28940 third argument is given it is the initial value of $RBUFFER.
28941 This provides a default value and starting cursor placement.
28942 Upon return the entire buffer is the value of $REPLY.
28943 One option is available: `-k num' specifies that num characters
28945 are to be read instead of a whole line. The line editor is not
28946 invoked recursively in this case, so depending on the terminal
28947 settings the input may not be visible, and only the input keys
28948 are placed in $REPLY, not the entire buffer. Note that unlike
28949 the read builtin num must be given; there is no default.
28950 The name is a slight misnomer, as in fact the shell's own
28952 minibuffer is not used. Hence it is still possible to call exe‐
28953 cuted-named-cmd and similar functions while reading a value.
28954 replace-argument, replace-argument-edit
28956 The function replace-argument can be used to replace a command
28957 line argument in the current command line or, if the current
28958 command line is empty, in the last command line executed (the
28959 new command line is not executed). Arguments are as delimited
28960 by standard shell syntax,
28961 If a numeric argument is given, that specifies the argument to
28963 be replaced. 0 means the command name, as in history expansion.
28964 A negative numeric argument counts backward from the last word.
28965 If no numeric argument is given, the current argument is re‐
28967 placed; this is the last argument if the previous history line
28968 is being used.
28969 The function prompts for a replacement argument.
28971 If the widget contains the string edit, for example is defined
28973 as
28974 zle -N replace-argument-edit replace-argument
28976 then the function presents the current value of the argument for
28978 editing, otherwise the editing buffer for the replacement is
28979 initially empty.
28980 replace-string, replace-pattern
28982 replace-string-again, replace-pattern-again
28983 The function replace-string implements three widgets. If de‐
28984 fined under the same name as the function, it prompts for two
28985 strings; the first (source) string will be replaced by the sec‐
28986 ond everywhere it occurs in the line editing buffer.
28987 If the widget name contains the word `pattern', for example by
28989 defining the widget using the command `zle -N replace-pattern
28990 replace-string', then the matching is performed using zsh pat‐
28991 terns. All zsh extended globbing patterns can be used in the
28992 source string; note that unlike filename generation the pattern
28993 does not need to match an entire word, nor do glob qualifiers
28994 have any effect. In addition, the replacement string can con‐
28995 tain parameter or command substitutions. Furthermore, a `&' in
28996 the replacement string will be replaced with the matched source
28997 string, and a backquoted digit `\N' will be replaced by the Nth
28998 parenthesised expression matched. The form `\{N}' may be used
28999 to protect the digit from following digits.
29000 If the widget instead contains the word `regex' (or `regexp'),
29002 then the matching is performed using regular expressions, re‐
29003 specting the setting of the option RE_MATCH_PCRE (see the de‐
29004 scription of the function regexp-replace below). The special
29005 replacement facilities described above for pattern matching are
29006 available.
29007 By default the previous source or replacement string will not be
29009 offered for editing. However, this feature can be activated by
29010 setting the style edit-previous in the context :zle:widget (for
29011 example, :zle:replace-string) to true. In addition, a positive
29012 numeric argument forces the previous values to be offered, a
29013 negative or zero argument forces them not to be.
29014 The function replace-string-again can be used to repeat the pre‐
29016 vious replacement; no prompting is done. As with re‐
29017 place-string, if the name of the widget contains the word `pat‐
29018 tern' or `regex', pattern or regular expression matching is per‐
29019 formed, else a literal string replacement. Note that the previ‐
29020 ous source and replacement text are the same whether pattern,
29021 regular expression or string matching is used.
29022 In addition, replace-string shows the previous replacement above
29024 the prompt, so long as there was one during the current session;
29025 if the source string is empty, that replacement will be repeated
29026 without the widget prompting for a replacement string.
29027 For example, starting from the line:
29029 print This line contains fan and fond
29031 and invoking replace-pattern with the source string `f(?)n' and
29033 the replacement string `c\1r' produces the not very useful line:
29034 print This line contains car and cord
29036 The range of the replacement string can be limited by using the
29038 narrow-to-region-invisible widget. One limitation of the cur‐
29039 rent version is that undo will cycle through changes to the re‐
29040 placement and source strings before undoing the replacement it‐
29041 self.
29042 send-invisible
29044 This is similar to read-from-minibuffer in that it may be called
29045 as a function from a widget or as a widget of its own, and in‐
29046 teractively reads input from the keyboard. However, the input
29047 being typed is concealed and a string of asterisks (`*') is
29048 shown instead. The value is saved in the parameter $INVISIBLE
29049 to which a reference is inserted into the editing buffer at the
29050 restored cursor position. If the read was aborted by a keyboard
29051 break (typically ^G) or another escape from editing such as
29052 push-line, $INVISIBLE is set to empty and the original buffer is
29053 restored unchanged.
29054 If one argument is supplied to the function it is taken as a
29056 prompt, otherwise `Non-echoed text: ' is used (as in emacs). If
29057 a second and third argument are supplied they are used to begin
29058 and end the reference to $INVISIBLE that is inserted into the
29059 buffer. The default is to open with ${, then INVISIBLE, and
29060 close with }, but many other effects are possible.
29061 smart-insert-last-word
29063 This function may replace the insert-last-word widget, like so:
29064 zle -N insert-last-word smart-insert-last-word
29066 With a numeric argument, or when passed command line arguments
29068 in a call from another widget, it behaves like insert-last-word,
29069 except that words in comments are ignored when INTERACTIVE_COM‐
29070 MENTS is set.
29071 Otherwise, the rightmost ``interesting'' word from the previous
29073 command is found and inserted. The default definition of ``in‐
29074 teresting'' is that the word contains at least one alphabetic
29075 character, slash, or backslash. This definition may be overrid‐
29076 den by use of the match style. The context used to look up the
29077 style is the widget name, so usually the context is :in‐
29078 sert-last-word. However, you can bind this function to differ‐
29079 ent widgets to use different patterns:
29080 zle -N insert-last-assignment smart-insert-last-word
29082 zstyle :insert-last-assignment match '[[:alpha:]][][[:alnum:]]#=*'
29083 bindkey '\e=' insert-last-assignment
29084 If no interesting word is found and the auto-previous style is
29086 set to a true value, the search continues upward through the
29087 history. When auto-previous is unset or false (the default),
29088 the widget must be invoked repeatedly in order to search earlier
29089 history lines.
29090 transpose-lines
29092 Only useful with a multi-line editing buffer; the lines here are
29093 lines within the current on-screen buffer, not history lines.
29094 The effect is similar to the function of the same name in Emacs.
29095 Transpose the current line with the previous line and move the
29097 cursor to the start of the next line. Repeating this (which can
29098 be done by providing a positive numeric argument) has the effect
29099 of moving the line above the cursor down by a number of lines.
29100 With a negative numeric argument, requires two lines above the
29102 cursor. These two lines are transposed and the cursor moved to
29103 the start of the previous line. Using a numeric argument less
29104 than -1 has the effect of moving the line above the cursor up by
29105 minus that number of lines.
29106 url-quote-magic
29108 This widget replaces the built-in self-insert to make it easier
29109 to type URLs as command line arguments. As you type, the input
29110 character is analyzed and, if it may need quoting, the current
29111 word is checked for a URI scheme. If one is found and the cur‐
29112 rent word is not already in quotes, a backslash is inserted be‐
29113 fore the input character.
29114 Styles to control quoting behavior:
29116 url-metas
29118 This style is looked up in the context
29119 `:url-quote-magic:scheme' (where scheme is that of the
29120 current URL, e.g. "ftp"). The value is a string listing
29121 the characters to be treated as globbing metacharacters
29122 when appearing in a URL using that scheme. The default
29123 is to quote all zsh extended globbing characters, exclud‐
29124 ing '<' and '>' but including braces (as in brace expan‐
29125 sion). See also url-seps.
29126 url-seps
29128 Like url-metas, but lists characters that should be con‐
29129 sidered command separators, redirections, history refer‐
29130 ences, etc. The default is to quote the standard set of
29131 shell separators, excluding those that overlap with the
29132 extended globbing characters, but including '<' and '>'
29133 and the first character of $histchars.
29134 url-globbers
29136 This style is looked up in the context
29137 `:url-quote-magic'. The values form a list of command
29138 names that are expected to do their own globbing on the
29139 URL string. This implies that they are aliased to use
29140 the `noglob' modifier. When the first word on the line
29141 matches one of the values and the URL refers to a local
29142 file (see url-local-schema), only the url-seps characters
29143 are quoted; the url-metas are left alone, allowing them
29144 to affect command-line parsing, completion, etc. The de‐
29145 fault values are a literal `noglob' plus (when the
29146 zsh/parameter module is available) any commands aliased
29147 to the helper function `urlglobber' or its alias
29148 `globurl'.
29149 url-local-schema
29151 This style is always looked up in the context `:urlglob‐
29152 ber', even though it is used by both url-quote-magic and
29153 urlglobber. The values form a list of URI schema that
29154 should be treated as referring to local files by their
29155 real local path names, as opposed to files which are
29156 specified relative to a web-server-defined document root.
29157 The defaults are "ftp" and "file".
29158 url-other-schema
29160 Like url-local-schema, but lists all other URI schema
29161 upon which urlglobber and url-quote-magic should act. If
29162 the URI on the command line does not have a scheme ap‐
29163 pearing either in this list or in url-local-schema, it is
29164 not magically quoted. The default values are "http",
29165 "https", and "ftp". When a scheme appears both here and
29166 in url-local-schema, it is quoted differently depending
29167 on whether the command name appears in url-globbers.
29168 Loading url-quote-magic also defines a helper function `urlglob‐
29170 ber' and aliases `globurl' to `noglob urlglobber'. This func‐
29171 tion takes a local URL apart, attempts to pattern-match the lo‐
29172 cal file portion of the URL path, and then puts the results back
29173 into URL format again.
29174 vi-pipe
29176 This function reads a movement command from the keyboard and
29177 then prompts for an external command. The part of the buffer
29178 covered by the movement is piped to the external command and
29179 then replaced by the command's output. If the movement command
29180 is bound to vi-pipe, the current line is used.
29181 The function serves as an example for reading a vi movement com‐
29183 mand from within a user-defined widget.
29184 which-command
29186 This function is a drop-in replacement for the builtin widget
29187 which-command. It has enhanced behaviour, in that it correctly
29188 detects whether or not the command word needs to be expanded as
29189 an alias; if so, it continues tracing the command word from the
29190 expanded alias until it reaches the command that will be exe‐
29191 cuted.
29192 The style whence is available in the context :zle:$WIDGET; this
29194 may be set to an array to give the command and options that will
29195 be used to investigate the command word found. The default is
29196 whence -c.
29197 zcalc-auto-insert
29199 This function is useful together with the zcalc function de‐
29200 scribed in the section Mathematical Functions. It should be
29201 bound to a key representing a binary operator such as `+', `-',
29202 `*' or `/'. When running in zcalc, if the key occurs at the
29203 start of the line or immediately following an open parenthesis,
29204 the text "ans " is inserted before the representation of the key
29205 itself. This allows easy use of the answer from the previous
29206 calculation in the current line. The text to be inserted before
29207 the symbol typed can be modified by setting the variable
29208 ZCALC_AUTO_INSERT_PREFIX.
29209 Hence, for example, typing `+12' followed by return adds 12 to
29211 the previous result.
29212 If zcalc is in RPN mode (-r option) the effect of this binding
29214 is automatically suppressed as operators alone on a line are
29215 meaningful.
29216 When not in zcalc, the key simply inserts the symbol itself.
29218 Utility Functions
29220 These functions are useful in constructing widgets. They should be
29221 loaded with `autoload -U function' and called as indicated from
29222 user-defined widgets.
29223 split-shell-arguments
29225 This function splits the line currently being edited into shell
29226 arguments and whitespace. The result is stored in the array re‐
29227 ply. The array contains all the parts of the line in order,
29228 starting with any whitespace before the first argument, and fin‐
29229 ishing with any whitespace after the last argument. Hence (so
29230 long as the option KSH_ARRAYS is not set) whitespace is given by
29231 odd indices in the array and arguments by even indices. Note
29232 that no stripping of quotes is done; joining together all the
29233 elements of reply in order is guaranteed to produce the original
29234 line.
29235 The parameter REPLY is set to the index of the word in reply
29237 which contains the character after the cursor, where the first
29238 element has index 1. The parameter REPLY2 is set to the index
29239 of the character under the cursor in that word, where the first
29240 character has index 1.
29241 Hence reply, REPLY and REPLY2 should all be made local to the
29243 enclosing function.
29244 See the function modify-current-argument, described below, for
29246 an example of how to call this function.
29247 modify-current-argument [ expr-using-$ARG | func ]
29249 This function provides a simple method of allowing user-defined
29250 widgets to modify the command line argument under the cursor (or
29251 immediately to the left of the cursor if the cursor is between
29252 arguments).
29253 The argument can be an expression which when evaluated operates
29255 on the shell parameter ARG, which will have been set to the com‐
29256 mand line argument under the cursor. The expression should be
29257 suitably quoted to prevent it being evaluated too early.
29258 Alternatively, if the argument does not contain the string ARG,
29260 it is assumed to be a shell function, to which the current com‐
29261 mand line argument is passed as the only argument. The function
29262 should set the variable REPLY to the new value for the command
29263 line argument. If the function returns non-zero status, so does
29264 the calling function.
29265 For example, a user-defined widget containing the following code
29267 converts the characters in the argument under the cursor into
29268 all upper case:
29269 modify-current-argument '${(U)ARG}'
29271 The following strips any quoting from the current word (whether
29273 backslashes or one of the styles of quotes), and replaces it
29274 with single quoting throughout:
29275 modify-current-argument '${(qq)${(Q)ARG}}'
29277 The following performs directory expansion on the command line
29279 argument and replaces it by the absolute path:
29280 expand-dir() {
29282 REPLY=${~1}
29283 REPLY=${REPLY:a}
29284 }
29285 modify-current-argument expand-dir
29286 In practice the function expand-dir would probably not be de‐
29288 fined within the widget where modify-current-argument is called.
29289 Styles
29291 The behavior of several of the above widgets can be controlled by the
29292 use of the zstyle mechanism. In particular, widgets that interact with
29293 the completion system pass along their context to any completions that
29294 they invoke.
29295 break-keys
29297 This style is used by the incremental-complete-word widget. Its
29298 value should be a pattern, and all keys matching this pattern
29299 will cause the widget to stop incremental completion without the
29300 key having any further effect. Like all styles used directly by
29301 incremental-complete-word, this style is looked up using the
29302 context `:incremental'.
29303 completer
29305 The incremental-complete-word and insert-and-predict widgets set
29306 up their top-level context name before calling completion. This
29307 allows one to define different sets of completer functions for
29308 normal completion and for these widgets. For example, to use
29309 completion, approximation and correction for normal completion,
29310 completion and correction for incremental completion and only
29311 completion for prediction one could use:
29312 zstyle ':completion:*' completer \
29314 _complete _correct _approximate
29315 zstyle ':completion:incremental:*' completer \
29316 _complete _correct
29317 zstyle ':completion:predict:*' completer \
29318 _complete
29319 It is a good idea to restrict the completers used in prediction,
29321 because they may be automatically invoked as you type. The
29322 _list and _menu completers should never be used with prediction.
29323 The _approximate, _correct, _expand, and _match completers may
29324 be used, but be aware that they may change characters anywhere
29325 in the word behind the cursor, so you need to watch carefully
29326 that the result is what you intended.
29327 cursor The insert-and-predict widget uses this style, in the context
29329 `:predict', to decide where to place the cursor after completion
29330 has been tried. Values are:
29331 complete
29333 The cursor is left where it was when completion finished,
29334 but only if it is after a character equal to the one just
29335 inserted by the user. If it is after another character,
29336 this value is the same as `key'.
29337 key The cursor is left after the nth occurrence of the char‐
29339 acter just inserted, where n is the number of times that
29340 character appeared in the word before completion was at‐
29341 tempted. In short, this has the effect of leaving the
29342 cursor after the character just typed even if the comple‐
29343 tion code found out that no other characters need to be
29344 inserted at that position.
29345 Any other value for this style unconditionally leaves the cursor
29347 at the position where the completion code left it.
29348 list When using the incremental-complete-word widget, this style says
29350 if the matches should be listed on every key press (if they fit
29351 on the screen). Use the context prefix `:completion:incremen‐
29352 tal'.
29353 The insert-and-predict widget uses this style to decide if the
29355 completion should be shown even if there is only one possible
29356 completion. This is done if the value of this style is the
29357 string always. In this case the context is `:predict' (not
29358 `:completion:predict').
29359 match This style is used by smart-insert-last-word to provide a pat‐
29361 tern (using full EXTENDED_GLOB syntax) that matches an interest‐
29362 ing word. The context is the name of the widget to which
29363 smart-insert-last-word is bound (see above). The default behav‐
29364 ior of smart-insert-last-word is equivalent to:
29365 zstyle :insert-last-word match '*[[:alpha:]/\\]*'
29367 However, you might want to include words that contain spaces:
29369 zstyle :insert-last-word match '*[[:alpha:][:space:]/\\]*'
29371 Or include numbers as long as the word is at least two charac‐
29373 ters long:
29374 zstyle :insert-last-word match '*([[:digit:]]?|[[:alpha:]/\\])*'
29376 The above example causes redirections like "2>" to be included.
29378 prompt The incremental-complete-word widget shows the value of this
29380 style in the status line during incremental completion. The
29381 string value may contain any of the following substrings in the
29382 manner of the PS1 and other prompt parameters:
29383 %c Replaced by the name of the completer function that gen‐
29385 erated the matches (without the leading underscore).
29386 %l When the list style is set, replaced by `...' if the list
29388 of matches is too long to fit on the screen and with an
29389 empty string otherwise. If the list style is `false' or
29390 not set, `%l' is always removed.
29391 %n Replaced by the number of matches generated.
29393 %s Replaced by `-no match-', `-no prefix-', or an empty
29395 string if there is no completion matching the word on the
29396 line, if the matches have no common prefix different from
29397 the word on the line, or if there is such a common pre‐
29398 fix, respectively.
29399 %u Replaced by the unambiguous part of all matches, if there
29401 is any, and if it is different from the word on the line.
29402 Like `break-keys', this uses the `:incremental' context.
29404 stop-keys
29406 This style is used by the incremental-complete-word widget. Its
29407 value is treated similarly to the one for the break-keys style
29408 (and uses the same context: `:incremental'). However, in this
29409 case all keys matching the pattern given as its value will stop
29410 incremental completion and will then execute their usual func‐
29411 tion.
29412 toggle This boolean style is used by predict-on and its related widgets
29414 in the context `:predict'. If set to one of the standard `true'
29415 values, predictive typing is automatically toggled off in situa‐
29416 tions where it is unlikely to be useful, such as when editing a
29417 multi-line buffer or after moving into the middle of a line and
29418 then deleting a character. The default is to leave prediction
29419 turned on until an explicit call to predict-off.
29420 verbose
29422 This boolean style is used by predict-on and its related widgets
29423 in the context `:predict'. If set to one of the standard `true'
29424 values, these widgets display a message below the prompt when
29425 the predictive state is toggled. This is most useful in combi‐
29426 nation with the toggle style. The default does not display
29427 these messages.
29428 widget This style is similar to the command style: For widget functions
29430 that use zle to call other widgets, this style can sometimes be
29431 used to override the widget which is called. The context for
29432 this style is the name of the calling widget (not the name of
29433 the calling function, because one function may be bound to mul‐
29434 tiple widget names).
29435 zstyle :copy-earlier-word widget smart-insert-last-word
29437 Check the documentation for the calling widget or function to
29439 determine whether the widget style is used.
29440
29442 Two functions are provided to enable zsh to provide exception handling
29443 in a form that should be familiar from other languages.
29444 throw exception
29446 The function throw throws the named exception. The name is an
29447 arbitrary string and is only used by the throw and catch func‐
29448 tions. An exception is for the most part treated the same as a
29449 shell error, i.e. an unhandled exception will cause the shell to
29450 abort all processing in a function or script and to return to
29451 the top level in an interactive shell.
29452 catch exception-pattern
29454 The function catch returns status zero if an exception was
29455 thrown and the pattern exception-pattern matches its name. Oth‐
29456 erwise it returns status 1. exception-pattern is a standard
29457 shell pattern, respecting the current setting of the EX‐
29458 TENDED_GLOB option. An alias catch is also defined to prevent
29459 the argument to the function from matching filenames, so pat‐
29460 terns may be used unquoted. Note that as exceptions are not
29461 fundamentally different from other shell errors it is possible
29462 to catch shell errors by using an empty string as the exception
29463 name. The shell variable CAUGHT is set by catch to the name of
29464 the exception caught. It is possible to rethrow an exception by
29465 calling the throw function again once an exception has been
29466 caught.
29467 The functions are designed to be used together with the always con‐
29469 struct described in zshmisc(1). This is important as only this con‐
29470 struct provides the required support for exceptions. A typical example
29471 is as follows.
29472 {
29474 # "try" block
29475 # ... nested code here calls "throw MyExcept"
29476 } always {
29477 # "always" block
29478 if catch MyExcept; then
29479 print "Caught exception MyExcept"
29480 elif catch ''; then
29481 print "Caught a shell error. Propagating..."
29482 throw ''
29483 fi
29484 # Other exceptions are not handled but may be caught further
29485 # up the call stack.
29486 }
29487 If all exceptions should be caught, the following idiom might be
29489 preferable.
29490 {
29492 # ... nested code here throws an exception
29493 } always {
29494 if catch *; then
29495 case $CAUGHT in
29496 (MyExcept)
29497 print "Caught my own exception"
29498 ;;
29499 (*)
29500 print "Caught some other exception"
29501 ;;
29502 esac
29503 fi
29504 }
29505 In common with exception handling in other languages, the exception may
29507 be thrown by code deeply nested inside the `try' block. However, note
29508 that it must be thrown inside the current shell, not in a subshell
29509 forked for a pipeline, parenthesised current-shell construct, or some
29510 form of command or process substitution.
29511 The system internally uses the shell variable EXCEPTION to record the
29513 name of the exception between throwing and catching. One drawback of
29514 this scheme is that if the exception is not handled the variable EXCEP‐
29515 TION remains set and may be incorrectly recognised as the name of an
29516 exception if a shell error subsequently occurs. Adding unset EXCEPTION
29517 at the start of the outermost layer of any code that uses exception
29518 handling will eliminate this problem.
29519
29521 Three functions are available to provide handling of files recognised
29522 by extension, for example to dispatch a file text.ps when executed as a
29523 command to an appropriate viewer.
29524 zsh-mime-setup [ -fv ] [ -l [ suffix ... ] ]
29526 zsh-mime-handler [ -l ] command argument ...
29527 These two functions use the files ~/.mime.types and
29528 /etc/mime.types, which associate types and extensions, as well
29529 as ~/.mailcap and /etc/mailcap files, which associate types and
29530 the programs that handle them. These are provided on many sys‐
29531 tems with the Multimedia Internet Mail Extensions.
29532 To enable the system, the function zsh-mime-setup should be au‐
29534 toloaded and run. This allows files with extensions to be
29535 treated as executable; such files be completed by the function
29536 completion system. The function zsh-mime-handler should not
29537 need to be called by the user.
29538 The system works by setting up suffix aliases with `alias -s'.
29540 Suffix aliases already installed by the user will not be over‐
29541 written.
29542 For suffixes defined in lower case, upper case variants will
29544 also automatically be handled (e.g. PDF is automatically handled
29545 if handling for the suffix pdf is defined), but not vice versa.
29546 Repeated calls to zsh-mime-setup do not override the existing
29548 mapping between suffixes and executable files unless the option
29549 -f is given. Note, however, that this does not override exist‐
29550 ing suffix aliases assigned to handlers other than zsh-mime-han‐
29551 dler.
29552 Calling zsh-mime-setup with the option -l lists the existing
29554 mappings without altering them. Suffixes to list (which may
29555 contain pattern characters that should be quoted from immediate
29556 interpretation on the command line) may be given as additional
29557 arguments, otherwise all suffixes are listed.
29558 Calling zsh-mime-setup with the option -v causes verbose output
29560 to be shown during the setup operation.
29561 The system respects the mailcap flags needsterminal and copi‐
29563 ousoutput, see mailcap(4).
29564 The functions use the following styles, which are defined with
29566 the zstyle builtin command (see zshmodules(1)). They should be
29567 defined before zsh-mime-setup is run. The contexts used all
29568 start with :mime:, with additional components in some cases. It
29569 is recommended that a trailing * (suitably quoted) be appended
29570 to style patterns in case the system is extended in future.
29571 Some examples are given below.
29572 For files that have multiple suffixes, e.g. .pdf.gz, where the
29574 context includes the suffix it will be looked up starting with
29575 the longest possible suffix until a match for the style is
29576 found. For example, if .pdf.gz produces a match for the han‐
29577 dler, that will be used; otherwise the handler for .gz will be
29578 used. Note that, owing to the way suffix aliases work, it is
29579 always required that there be a handler for the shortest possi‐
29580 ble suffix, so in this example .pdf.gz can only be handled if
29581 .gz is also handled (though not necessarily in the same way).
29582 Alternatively, if no handling for .gz on its own is needed, sim‐
29583 ply adding the command
29584 alias -s gz=zsh-mime-handler
29586 to the initialisation code is sufficient; .gz will not be han‐
29588 dled on its own, but may be in combination with other suffixes.
29589 current-shell
29591 If this boolean style is true, the mailcap handler for
29592 the context in question is run using the eval builtin in‐
29593 stead of by starting a new sh process. This is more ef‐
29594 ficient, but may not work in the occasional cases where
29595 the mailcap handler uses strict POSIX syntax.
29596 disown If this boolean style is true, mailcap handlers started
29598 in the background will be disowned, i.e. not subject to
29599 job control within the parent shell. Such handlers
29600 nearly always produce their own windows, so the only
29601 likely harmful side effect of setting the style is that
29602 it becomes harder to kill jobs from within the shell.
29603 execute-as-is
29605 This style gives a list of patterns to be matched against
29606 files passed for execution with a handler program. If
29607 the file matches the pattern, the entire command line is
29608 executed in its current form, with no handler. This is
29609 useful for files which might have suffixes but nonethe‐
29610 less be executable in their own right. If the style is
29611 not set, the pattern *(*) *(/) is used; hence executable
29612 files are executed directly and not passed to a handler,
29613 and the option AUTO_CD may be used to change to directo‐
29614 ries that happen to have MIME suffixes.
29615 execute-never
29617 This style is useful in combination with execute-as-is.
29618 It is set to an array of patterns corresponding to full
29619 paths to files that should never be treated as exe‐
29620 cutable, even if the file passed to the MIME handler
29621 matches execute-as-is. This is useful for file systems
29622 that don't handle execute permission or that contain exe‐
29623 cutables from another operating system. For example, if
29624 /mnt/windows is a Windows mount, then
29625 zstyle ':mime:*' execute-never '/mnt/windows/*'
29627 will ensure that any files found in that area will be ex‐
29629 ecuted as MIME types even if they are executable. As
29630 this example shows, the complete file name is matched
29631 against the pattern, regardless of how the file was
29632 passed to the handler. The file is resolved to a full
29633 path using the :P modifier described in the subsection
29634 Modifiers in zshexpn(1); this means that symbolic links
29635 are resolved where possible, so that links into other
29636 file systems behave in the correct fashion.
29637 file-path
29639 Used if the style find-file-in-path is true for the same
29640 context. Set to an array of directories that are used
29641 for searching for the file to be handled; the default is
29642 the command path given by the special parameter path.
29643 The shell option PATH_DIRS is respected; if that is set,
29644 the appropriate path will be searched even if the name of
29645 the file to be handled as it appears on the command line
29646 contains a `/'. The full context is :mime:.suffix:, as
29647 described for the style handler.
29648 find-file-in-path
29650 If set, allows files whose names do not contain absolute
29651 paths to be searched for in the command path or the path
29652 specified by the file-path style. If the file is not
29653 found in the path, it is looked for locally (whether or
29654 not the current directory is in the path); if it is not
29655 found locally, the handler will abort unless the han‐
29656 dle-nonexistent style is set. Files found in the path
29657 are tested as described for the style execute-as-is. The
29658 full context is :mime:.suffix:, as described for the
29659 style handler.
29660 flags Defines flags to go with a handler; the context is as for
29662 the handler style, and the format is as for the flags in
29663 mailcap.
29664 handle-nonexistent
29666 By default, arguments that don't correspond to files are
29667 not passed to the MIME handler in order to prevent it
29668 from intercepting commands found in the path that happen
29669 to have suffixes. This style may be set to an array of
29670 extended glob patterns for arguments that will be passed
29671 to the handler even if they don't exist. If it is not
29672 explicitly set it defaults to [[:alpha:]]#:/* which al‐
29673 lows URLs to be passed to the MIME handler even though
29674 they don't exist in that format in the file system. The
29675 full context is :mime:.suffix:, as described for the
29676 style handler.
29677 handler
29679 Specifies a handler for a suffix; the suffix is given by
29680 the context as :mime:.suffix:, and the format of the han‐
29681 dler is exactly that in mailcap. Note in particular the
29682 `.' and trailing colon to distinguish this use of the
29683 context. This overrides any handler specified by the
29684 mailcap files. If the handler requires a terminal, the
29685 flags style should be set to include the word needstermi‐
29686 nal, or if the output is to be displayed through a pager
29687 (but not if the handler is itself a pager), it should in‐
29688 clude copiousoutput.
29689 mailcap
29691 A list of files in the format of ~/.mailcap and
29692 /etc/mailcap to be read during setup, replacing the de‐
29693 fault list which consists of those two files. The con‐
29694 text is :mime:. A + in the list will be replaced by the
29695 default files.
29696 mailcap-priorities
29698 This style is used to resolve multiple mailcap entries
29699 for the same MIME type. It consists of an array of the
29700 following elements, in descending order of priority;
29701 later entries will be used if earlier entries are unable
29702 to resolve the entries being compared. If none of the
29703 tests resolve the entries, the first entry encountered is
29704 retained.
29705 files The order of files (entries in the mailcap style)
29707 read. Earlier files are preferred. (Note this
29708 does not resolve entries in the same file.)
29709 priority
29711 The priority flag from the mailcap entry. The
29712 priority is an integer from 0 to 9 with the de‐
29713 fault value being 5.
29714 flags The test given by the mailcap-prio-flags option is
29716 used to resolve entries.
29717 place Later entries are preferred; as the entries are
29719 strictly ordered, this test always succeeds.
29720 Note that as this style is handled during initialisation,
29722 the context is always :mime:, with no discrimination by
29723 suffix.
29724 mailcap-prio-flags
29726 This style is used when the keyword flags is encountered
29727 in the list of tests specified by the mailcap-priorities
29728 style. It should be set to a list of patterns, each of
29729 which is tested against the flags specified in the mail‐
29730 cap entry (in other words, the sets of assignments found
29731 with some entries in the mailcap file). Earlier patterns
29732 in the list are preferred to later ones, and matched pat‐
29733 terns are preferred to unmatched ones.
29734 mime-types
29736 A list of files in the format of ~/.mime.types and
29737 /etc/mime.types to be read during setup, replacing the
29738 default list which consists of those two files. The con‐
29739 text is :mime:. A + in the list will be replaced by the
29740 default files.
29741 never-background
29743 If this boolean style is set, the handler for the given
29744 context is always run in the foreground, even if the
29745 flags provided in the mailcap entry suggest it need not
29746 be (for example, it doesn't require a terminal).
29747 pager If set, will be used instead of $PAGER or more to handle
29749 suffixes where the copiousoutput flag is set. The con‐
29750 text is as for handler, i.e. :mime:.suffix: for handling
29751 a file with the given suffix.
29752 Examples:
29754 zstyle ':mime:*' mailcap ~/.mailcap /usr/local/etc/mailcap
29756 zstyle ':mime:.txt:' handler less %s
29757 zstyle ':mime:.txt:' flags needsterminal
29758 When zsh-mime-setup is subsequently run, it will look for mail‐
29760 cap entries in the two files given. Files of suffix .txt will
29761 be handled by running `less file.txt'. The flag needsterminal
29762 is set to show that this program must run attached to a termi‐
29763 nal.
29764 As there are several steps to dispatching a command, the follow‐
29766 ing should be checked if attempting to execute a file by exten‐
29767 sion .ext does not have the expected effect.
29768 The command `alias -s ext' should show `ps=zsh-mime-handler'.
29770 If it shows something else, another suffix alias was already in‐
29771 stalled and was not overwritten. If it shows nothing, no han‐
29772 dler was installed: this is most likely because no handler was
29773 found in the .mime.types and mailcap combination for .ext files.
29774 In that case, appropriate handling should be added to
29775 ~/.mime.types and mailcap.
29776 If the extension is handled by zsh-mime-handler but the file is
29778 not opened correctly, either the handler defined for the type is
29779 incorrect, or the flags associated with it are in appropriate.
29780 Running zsh-mime-setup -l will show the handler and, if there
29781 are any, the flags. A %s in the handler is replaced by the file
29782 (suitably quoted if necessary). Check that the handler program
29783 listed lists and can be run in the way shown. Also check that
29784 the flags needsterminal or copiousoutput are set if the handler
29785 needs to be run under a terminal; the second flag is used if the
29786 output should be sent to a pager. An example of a suitable
29787 mailcap entry for such a program is:
29788 text/html; /usr/bin/lynx '%s'; needsterminal
29790 Running `zsh-mime-handler -l command line' prints the command
29792 line that would be executed, simplified to remove the effect of
29793 any flags, and quoted so that the output can be run as a com‐
29794 plete zsh command line. This is used by the completion system
29795 to decide how to complete after a file handled by
29796 zsh-mime-setup.
29797 pick-web-browser
29799 This function is separate from the two MIME functions described
29800 above and can be assigned directly to a suffix:
29801 autoload -U pick-web-browser
29803 alias -s html=pick-web-browser
29804 It is provided as an intelligent front end to dispatch a web
29806 browser. It may be run as either a function or a shell script.
29807 The status 255 is returned if no browser could be started.
29808 Various styles are available to customize the choice of
29810 browsers:
29811 browser-style
29813 The value of the style is an array giving preferences in
29814 decreasing order for the type of browser to use. The
29815 values of elements may be
29816 running
29818 Use a GUI browser that is already running when an
29819 X Window display is available. The browsers
29820 listed in the x-browsers style are tried in order
29821 until one is found; if it is, the file will be
29822 displayed in that browser, so the user may need to
29823 check whether it has appeared. If no running
29824 browser is found, one is not started. Browsers
29825 other than Firefox, Opera and Konqueror are as‐
29826 sumed to understand the Mozilla syntax for opening
29827 a URL remotely.
29828 x Start a new GUI browser when an X Window display
29830 is available. Search for the availability of one
29831 of the browsers listed in the x-browsers style and
29832 start the first one that is found. No check is
29833 made for an already running browser.
29834 tty Start a terminal-based browser. Search for the
29836 availability of one of the browsers listed in the
29837 tty-browsers style and start the first one that is
29838 found.
29839 If the style is not set the default running x tty is
29841 used.
29842 x-browsers
29844 An array in decreasing order of preference of browsers to
29845 use when running under the X Window System. The array
29846 consists of the command name under which to start the
29847 browser. They are looked up in the context :mime: (which
29848 may be extended in future, so appending `*' is recom‐
29849 mended). For example,
29850 zstyle ':mime:*' x-browsers opera konqueror firefox
29852 specifies that pick-web-browser should first look for a
29854 running instance of Opera, Konqueror or Firefox, in that
29855 order, and if it fails to find any should attempt to
29856 start Opera. The default is firefox mozilla netscape
29857 opera konqueror.
29858 tty-browsers
29860 An array similar to x-browsers, except that it gives
29861 browsers to use when no X Window display is available.
29862 The default is elinks links lynx.
29863 command
29865 If it is set this style is used to pick the command used
29866 to open a page for a browser. The context is
29867 :mime:browser:new:$browser: to start a new browser or
29868 :mime:browser:running:$browser: to open a URL in a
29869 browser already running on the current X display, where
29870 $browser is the value matched in the x-browsers or
29871 tty-browsers style. The escape sequence %b in the
29872 style's value will be replaced by the browser, while %u
29873 will be replaced by the URL. If the style is not set,
29874 the default for all new instances is equivalent to %b %u
29875 and the defaults for using running browsers are equiva‐
29876 lent to the values kfmclient openURL %u for Konqueror,
29877 firefox -new-tab %u for Firefox, opera -newpage %u for
29878 Opera, and %b -remote "openUrl(%u)" for all others.
29879
29881 zcalc [ -erf ] [ expression ... ]
29882 A reasonably powerful calculator based on zsh's arithmetic eval‐
29883 uation facility. The syntax is similar to that of formulae in
29884 most programming languages; see the section `Arithmetic Evalua‐
29885 tion' in zshmisc(1) for details.
29886 Non-programmers should note that, as in many other programming
29888 languages, expressions involving only integers (whether con‐
29889 stants without a `.', variables containing such constants as
29890 strings, or variables declared to be integers) are by default
29891 evaluated using integer arithmetic, which is not how an ordinary
29892 desk calculator operates. To force floating point operation,
29893 pass the option -f; see further notes below.
29894 If the file ~/.zcalcrc exists it will be sourced inside the
29896 function once it is set up and about to process the command
29897 line. This can be used, for example, to set shell options; emu‐
29898 late -L zsh and setopt extendedglob are in effect at this point.
29899 Any failure to source the file if it exists is treated as fatal.
29900 As with other initialisation files, the directory $ZDOTDIR is
29901 used instead of $HOME if it is set.
29902 The mathematical library zsh/mathfunc will be loaded if it is
29904 available; see the section `The zsh/mathfunc Module' in zshmod‐
29905 ules(1). The mathematical functions correspond to the raw sys‐
29906 tem libraries, so trigonometric functions are evaluated using
29907 radians, and so on.
29908 Each line typed is evaluated as an expression. The prompt shows
29910 a number, which corresponds to a positional parameter where the
29911 result of that calculation is stored. For example, the result
29912 of the calculation on the line preceded by `4> ' is available as
29913 $4. The last value calculated is available as ans. Full com‐
29914 mand line editing, including the history of previous calcula‐
29915 tions, is available; the history is saved in the file
29916 ~/.zcalc_history. To exit, enter a blank line or type `:q' on
29917 its own (`q' is allowed for historical compatibility).
29918 A line ending with a single backslash is treated in the same
29920 fashion as it is in command line editing: the backslash is re‐
29921 moved, the function prompts for more input (the prompt is pre‐
29922 ceded by `...' to indicate this), and the lines are combined
29923 into one to get the final result. In addition, if the input so
29924 far contains more open than close parentheses zcalc will prompt
29925 for more input.
29926 If arguments are given to zcalc on start up, they are used to
29928 prime the first few positional parameters. A visual indication
29929 of this is given when the calculator starts.
29930 The constants PI (3.14159...) and E (2.71828...) are provided.
29932 Parameter assignment is possible, but note that all parameters
29933 will be put into the global namespace unless the :local special
29934 command is used. The function creates local variables whose
29935 names start with _, so users should avoid doing so. The vari‐
29936 ables ans (the last answer) and stack (the stack in RPN mode)
29937 may be referred to directly; stack is an array but elements of
29938 it are numeric. Various other special variables are used lo‐
29939 cally with their standard meaning, for example compcontext,
29940 match, mbegin, mend, psvar.
29941 The output base can be initialised by passing the option
29943 `-#base', for example `zcalc -#16' (the `#' may have to be
29944 quoted, depending on the globbing options set).
29945 If the option `-e' is set, the function runs non-interactively:
29947 the arguments are treated as expressions to be evaluated as if
29948 entered interactively line by line.
29949 If the option `-f' is set, all numbers are treated as floating
29951 point, hence for example the expression `3/4' evaluates to 0.75
29952 rather than 0. Options must appear in separate words.
29953 If the option `-r' is set, RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) mode is
29955 entered. This has various additional properties:
29956 Stack Evaluated values are maintained in a stack; this is con‐
29957 tained in an array named stack with the most recent value
29958 in ${stack[1]}.
29959 Operators and functions
29961 If the line entered matches an operator (+, -, *, /, **,
29962 ^, | or &) or a function supplied by the zsh/mathfunc li‐
29963 brary, the bottom element or elements of the stack are
29964 popped to use as the argument or arguments. The higher
29965 elements of stack (least recent) are used as earlier ar‐
29966 guments. The result is then pushed into ${stack[1]}.
29967 Expressions
29969 Other expressions are evaluated normally, printed, and
29970 added to the stack as numeric values. The syntax within
29971 expressions on a single line is normal shell arithmetic
29972 (not RPN).
29973 Stack listing
29975 If an integer follows the option -r with no space, then
29976 on every evaluation that many elements of the stack,
29977 where available, are printed instead of just the most re‐
29978 cent result. Hence, for example, zcalc -r4 shows
29979 $stack[4] to $stack[1] each time results are printed.
29980 Duplication: =
29982 The pseudo-operator = causes the most recent element of
29983 the stack to be duplicated onto the stack.
29984 pop The pseudo-function pop causes the most recent element of
29986 the stack to be popped. A `>' on its own has the same
29987 effect.
29988 >ident The expression > followed (with no space) by a shell
29990 identifier causes the most recent element of the stack to
29991 be popped and assigned to the variable with that name.
29992 The variable is local to the zcalc function.
29993 <ident The expression < followed (with no space) by a shell
29995 identifier causes the value of the variable with that
29996 name to be pushed onto the stack. ident may be an inte‐
29997 ger, in which case the previous result with that number
29998 (as shown before the > in the standard zcalc prompt) is
29999 put on the stack.
30000 Exchange: xy
30002 The pseudo-function xy causes the most recent two ele‐
30003 ments of the stack to be exchanged. `<>' has the same
30004 effect.
30005 The prompt is configurable via the parameter ZCALCPROMPT, which
30007 undergoes standard prompt expansion. The index of the current
30008 entry is stored locally in the first element of the array psvar,
30009 which can be referred to in ZCALCPROMPT as `%1v'. The default
30010 prompt is `%1v> '.
30011 The variable ZCALC_ACTIVE is set within the function and can be
30013 tested by nested functions; it has the value rpn if RPN mode is
30014 active, else 1.
30015 A few special commands are available; these are introduced by a
30017 colon. For backward compatibility, the colon may be omitted for
30018 certain commands. Completion is available if compinit has been
30019 run.
30020 The output precision may be specified within zcalc by special
30022 commands familiar from many calculators.
30023 :norm The default output format. It corresponds to the printf
30024 %g specification. Typically this shows six decimal dig‐
30025 its.
30026 :sci digits
30028 Scientific notation, corresponding to the printf %g out‐
30029 put format with the precision given by digits. This pro‐
30030 duces either fixed point or exponential notation depend‐
30031 ing on the value output.
30032 :fix digits
30034 Fixed point notation, corresponding to the printf %f out‐
30035 put format with the precision given by digits.
30036 :eng digits
30038 Exponential notation, corresponding to the printf %E out‐
30039 put format with the precision given by digits.
30040 :raw Raw output: this is the default form of the output from
30042 a math evaluation. This may show more precision than the
30043 number actually possesses.
30044 Other special commands:
30046 :!line...
30047 Execute line... as a normal shell command line. Note
30048 that it is executed in the context of the function, i.e.
30049 with local variables. Space is optional after :!.
30050 :local arg ...
30052 Declare variables local to the function. Other variables
30053 may be used, too, but they will be taken from or put into
30054 the global scope.
30055 :function name [ body ]
30057 Define a mathematical function or (with no body) delete
30058 it. :function may be abbreviated to :func or simply :f.
30059 The name may contain the same characters as a shell func‐
30060 tion name. The function is defined using zmathfuncdef,
30061 see below.
30062 Note that zcalc takes care of all quoting. Hence for ex‐
30064 ample:
30065 :f cube $1 * $1 * $1
30067 defines a function to cube the sole argument. Functions
30069 so defined, or indeed any functions defined directly or
30070 indirectly using functions -M, are available to execute
30071 by typing only the name on the line in RPN mode; this
30072 pops the appropriate number of arguments off the stack to
30073 pass to the function, i.e. 1 in the case of the example
30074 cube function. If there are optional arguments only the
30075 mandatory arguments are supplied by this means.
30076 [#base]
30078 This is not a special command, rather part of normal
30079 arithmetic syntax; however, when this form appears on a
30080 line by itself the default output radix is set to base.
30081 Use, for example, `[#16]' to display hexadecimal output
30082 preceded by an indication of the base, or `[##16]' just
30083 to display the raw number in the given base. Bases them‐
30084 selves are always specified in decimal. `[#]' restores
30085 the normal output format. Note that setting an output
30086 base suppresses floating point output; use `[#]' to re‐
30087 turn to normal operation.
30088 $var Print out the value of var literally; does not affect the
30090 calculation. To use the value of var, omit the leading
30091 `$'.
30092 See the comments in the function for a few extra tips.
30094 min(arg, ...)
30096 max(arg, ...)
30097 sum(arg, ...)
30098 zmathfunc
30099 The function zmathfunc defines the three mathematical functions
30100 min, max, and sum. The functions min and max take one or more
30101 arguments. The function sum takes zero or more arguments. Ar‐
30102 guments can be of different types (ints and floats).
30103 Not to be confused with the zsh/mathfunc module, described in
30105 the section `The zsh/mathfunc Module' in zshmodules(1).
30106 zmathfuncdef [ mathfunc [ body ] ]
30108 A convenient front end to functions -M.
30109 With two arguments, define a mathematical function named math‐
30111 func which can be used in any form of arithmetic evaluation.
30112 body is a mathematical expression to implement the function. It
30113 may contain references to position parameters $1, $2, ... to
30114 refer to mandatory parameters and ${1:-defvalue} ... to refer
30115 to optional parameters. Note that the forms must be strictly
30116 adhered to for the function to calculate the correct number of
30117 arguments. The implementation is held in a shell function named
30118 zsh_math_func_mathfunc; usually the user will not need to refer
30119 to the shell function directly. Any existing function of the
30120 same name is silently replaced.
30121 With one argument, remove the mathematical function mathfunc as
30123 well as the shell function implementation.
30124 With no arguments, list all mathfunc functions in a form suit‐
30126 able for restoring the definition. The functions have not nec‐
30127 essarily been defined by zmathfuncdef.
30128
30130 The zsh/newuser module comes with a function to aid in configuring
30131 shell options for new users. If the module is installed, this function
30132 can also be run by hand. It is available even if the module's default
30133 behaviour, namely running the function for a new user logging in with‐
30134 out startup files, is inhibited.
30135 zsh-newuser-install [ -f ]
30137 The function presents the user with various options for cus‐
30138 tomizing their initialization scripts. Currently only ~/.zshrc
30139 is handled. $ZDOTDIR/.zshrc is used instead if the parameter
30140 ZDOTDIR is set; this provides a way for the user to configure a
30141 file without altering an existing .zshrc.
30142 By default the function exits immediately if it finds any of the
30144 files .zshenv, .zprofile, .zshrc, or .zlogin in the appropriate
30145 directory. The option -f is required in order to force the
30146 function to continue. Note this may happen even if .zshrc it‐
30147 self does not exist.
30148 As currently configured, the function will exit immediately if
30150 the user has root privileges; this behaviour cannot be overrid‐
30151 den.
30152 Once activated, the function's behaviour is supposed to be
30154 self-explanatory. Menus are present allowing the user to alter
30155 the value of options and parameters. Suggestions for improve‐
30156 ments are always welcome.
30157 When the script exits, the user is given the opportunity to save
30159 the new file or not; changes are not irreversible until this
30160 point. However, the script is careful to restrict changes to
30161 the file only to a group marked by the lines `# Lines configured
30162 by zsh-newuser-install' and `# End of lines configured by
30163 zsh-newuser-install'. In addition, the old version of .zshrc is
30164 saved to a file with the suffix .zni appended.
30165 If the function edits an existing .zshrc, it is up to the user
30167 to ensure that the changes made will take effect. For example,
30168 if control usually returns early from the existing .zshrc the
30169 lines will not be executed; or a later initialization file may
30170 override options or parameters, and so on. The function itself
30171 does not attempt to detect any such conflicts.
30172
30174 There are a large number of helpful functions in the Functions/Misc di‐
30175 rectory of the zsh distribution. Most are very simple and do not re‐
30176 quire documentation here, but a few are worthy of special mention.
30177 Descriptions
30179 colors This function initializes several associative arrays to map
30180 color names to (and from) the ANSI standard eight-color terminal
30181 codes. These are used by the prompt theme system (see above).
30182 You seldom should need to run colors more than once.
30183 The eight base colors are: black, red, green, yellow, blue, ma‐
30185 genta, cyan, and white. Each of these has codes for foreground
30186 and background. In addition there are seven intensity at‐
30187 tributes: bold, faint, standout, underline, blink, reverse, and
30188 conceal. Finally, there are seven codes used to negate at‐
30189 tributes: none (reset all attributes to the defaults), normal
30190 (neither bold nor faint), no-standout, no-underline, no-blink,
30191 no-reverse, and no-conceal.
30192 Some terminals do not support all combinations of colors and in‐
30194 tensities.
30195 The associative arrays are:
30197 color
30199 colour Map all the color names to their integer codes, and inte‐
30200 ger codes to the color names. The eight base names map
30201 to the foreground color codes, as do names prefixed with
30202 `fg-', such as `fg-red'. Names prefixed with `bg-', such
30203 as `bg-blue', refer to the background codes. The reverse
30204 mapping from code to color yields base name for fore‐
30205 ground codes and the bg- form for backgrounds.
30206 Although it is a misnomer to call them `colors', these
30208 arrays also map the other fourteen attributes from names
30209 to codes and codes to names.
30210 fg
30212 fg_bold
30213 fg_no_bold
30214 Map the eight basic color names to ANSI terminal escape
30215 sequences that set the corresponding foreground text
30216 properties. The fg sequences change the color without
30217 changing the eight intensity attributes.
30218 bg
30220 bg_bold
30221 bg_no_bold
30222 Map the eight basic color names to ANSI terminal escape
30223 sequences that set the corresponding background proper‐
30224 ties. The bg sequences change the color without changing
30225 the eight intensity attributes.
30226 In addition, the scalar parameters reset_color and bold_color
30228 are set to the ANSI terminal escapes that turn off all at‐
30229 tributes and turn on bold intensity, respectively.
30230 fned [ -x num ] name
30232 Same as zed -f. This function does not appear in the zsh dis‐
30233 tribution, but can be created by linking zed to the name fned in
30234 some directory in your fpath.
30235 is-at-least needed [ present ]
30237 Perform a greater-than-or-equal-to comparison of two strings
30238 having the format of a zsh version number; that is, a string of
30239 numbers and text with segments separated by dots or dashes. If
30240 the present string is not provided, $ZSH_VERSION is used. Seg‐
30241 ments are paired left-to-right in the two strings with leading
30242 non-number parts ignored. If one string has fewer segments than
30243 the other, the missing segments are considered zero.
30244 This is useful in startup files to set options and other state
30246 that are not available in all versions of zsh.
30247 is-at-least 3.1.6-15 && setopt NO_GLOBAL_RCS
30249 is-at-least 3.1.0 && setopt HIST_REDUCE_BLANKS
30250 is-at-least 2.6-17 || print "You can't use is-at-least here."
30251 nslookup [ arg ... ]
30253 This wrapper function for the nslookup command requires the
30254 zsh/zpty module (see zshmodules(1)). It behaves exactly like
30255 the standard nslookup except that it provides customizable
30256 prompts (including a right-side prompt) and completion of
30257 nslookup commands, host names, etc. (if you use the func‐
30258 tion-based completion system). Completion styles may be set
30259 with the context prefix `:completion:nslookup'.
30260 See also the pager, prompt and rprompt styles below.
30262 regexp-replace var regexp replace
30264 Use regular expressions to perform a global search and replace
30265 operation on a variable. POSIX extended regular expressions are
30266 used, unless the option RE_MATCH_PCRE has been set, in which
30267 case Perl-compatible regular expressions are used (this requires
30268 the shell to be linked against the pcre library).
30269 var is the name of the variable containing the string to be
30271 matched. The variable will be modified directly by the func‐
30272 tion. The variables MATCH, MBEGIN, MEND, match, mbegin, mend
30273 should be avoided as these are used by the regular expression
30274 code.
30275 regexp is the regular expression to match against the string.
30277 replace is the replacement text. This can contain parameter,
30279 command and arithmetic expressions which will be replaced: in
30280 particular, a reference to $MATCH will be replaced by the text
30281 matched by the pattern.
30282 The return status is 0 if at least one match was performed, else
30284 1.
30285 run-help cmd
30287 This function is designed to be invoked by the run-help ZLE wid‐
30288 get, in place of the default alias. See `Accessing On-Line
30289 Help' above for setup instructions.
30290 In the discussion which follows, if cmd is a file system path,
30292 it is first reduced to its rightmost component (the file name).
30293 Help is first sought by looking for a file named cmd in the di‐
30295 rectory named by the HELPDIR parameter. If no file is found, an
30296 assistant function, alias, or command named run-help-cmd is
30297 sought. If found, the assistant is executed with the rest of
30298 the current command line (everything after the command name cmd)
30299 as its arguments. When neither file nor assistant is found, the
30300 external command `man cmd' is run.
30301 An example assistant for the "ssh" command:
30303 run-help-ssh() {
30305 emulate -LR zsh
30306 local -a args
30307 # Delete the "-l username" option
30308 zparseopts -D -E -a args l:
30309 # Delete other options, leaving: host command
30310 args=(${@:#-*})
30311 if [[ ${#args} -lt 2 ]]; then
30312 man ssh
30313 else
30314 run-help $args[2]
30315 fi
30316 }
30317 Several of these assistants are provided in the Functions/Misc
30319 directory. These must be autoloaded, or placed as executable
30320 scripts in your search path, in order to be found and used by
30321 run-help.
30322 run-help-git
30324 run-help-ip
30325 run-help-openssl
30326 run-help-p4
30327 run-help-sudo
30328 run-help-svk
30329 run-help-svn
30330 Assistant functions for the git, ip, openssl, p4, sudo,
30331 svk, and svn, commands.
30332 tetris Zsh was once accused of not being as complete as Emacs, because
30334 it lacked a Tetris game. This function was written to refute
30335 this vicious slander.
30336 This function must be used as a ZLE widget:
30338 autoload -U tetris
30340 zle -N tetris
30341 bindkey keys tetris
30342 To start a game, execute the widget by typing the keys. What‐
30344 ever command line you were editing disappears temporarily, and
30345 your keymap is also temporarily replaced by the Tetris control
30346 keys. The previous editor state is restored when you quit the
30347 game (by pressing `q') or when you lose.
30348 If you quit in the middle of a game, the next invocation of the
30350 tetris widget will continue where you left off. If you lost, it
30351 will start a new game.
30352 tetriscurses
30354 This is a port of the above to zcurses. The input handling is
30355 improved a bit so that moving a block sideways doesn't automati‐
30356 cally advance a timestep, and the graphics use unicode block
30357 graphics.
30358 This version does not save the game state between invocations,
30360 and is not invoked as a widget, but rather as:
30361 autoload -U tetriscurses
30363 tetriscurses
30364 zargs [ option ... -- ] [ input ... ] [ -- command [ arg ... ] ]
30366 This function has a similar purpose to GNU xargs. Instead of
30367 reading lines of arguments from the standard input, it takes
30368 them from the command line. This is useful because zsh, espe‐
30369 cially with recursive glob operators, often can construct a com‐
30370 mand line for a shell function that is longer than can be ac‐
30371 cepted by an external command.
30372 The option list represents options of the zargs command itself,
30374 which are the same as those of xargs. The input list is the
30375 collection of strings (often file names) that become the argu‐
30376 ments of the command, analogous to the standard input of xargs.
30377 Finally, the arg list consists of those arguments (usually op‐
30378 tions) that are passed to the command each time it runs. The
30379 arg list precedes the elements from the input list in each run.
30380 If no command is provided, then no arg list may be provided, and
30381 in that event the default command is `print' with arguments `-r
30382 --'.
30383 For example, to get a long ls listing of all non-hidden plain
30385 files in the current directory or its subdirectories:
30386 autoload -U zargs
30388 zargs -- **/*(.) -- ls -ld --
30389 The first and third occurrences of `--' are used to mark the end
30391 of options for zargs and ls respectively to guard against file‐
30392 names starting with `-', while the second is used to separate
30393 the list of files from the command to run (`ls -ld --').
30394 The first `--' would also be needed if there was a chance the
30396 list might be empty as in:
30397 zargs -r -- ./*.back(#qN) -- rm -f
30399 In the event that the string `--' is or may be an input, the -e
30401 option may be used to change the end-of-inputs marker. Note
30402 that this does not change the end-of-options marker. For exam‐
30403 ple, to use `..' as the marker:
30404 zargs -e.. -- **/*(.) .. ls -ld --
30406 This is a good choice in that example because no plain file can
30408 be named `..', but the best end-marker depends on the circum‐
30409 stances.
30410 The options -i, -I, -l, -L, and -n differ slightly from their
30412 usage in xargs. There are no input lines for zargs to count, so
30413 -l and -L count through the input list, and -n counts the number
30414 of arguments passed to each execution of command, including any
30415 arg list. Also, any time -i or -I is used, each input is pro‐
30416 cessed separately as if by `-L 1'.
30417 For details of the other zargs options, see xargs(1) (but note
30419 the difference in function between zargs and xargs) or run zargs
30420 with the --help option.
30421 zed [ -f [ -x num ] ] name
30423 zed -b This function uses the ZLE editor to edit a file or function.
30424 Only one name argument is allowed. If the -f option is given,
30426 the name is taken to be that of a function; if the function is
30427 marked for autoloading, zed searches for it in the fpath and
30428 loads it. Note that functions edited this way are installed
30429 into the current shell, but not written back to the autoload
30430 file. In this case the -x option specifies that leading tabs
30431 indenting the function according to syntax should be converted
30432 into the given number of spaces; `-x 2' is consistent with the
30433 layout of functions distributed with the shell.
30434 Without -f, name is the path name of the file to edit, which
30436 need not exist; it is created on write, if necessary.
30437 While editing, the function sets the main keymap to zed and the
30439 vi command keymap to zed-vicmd. These will be copied from the
30440 existing main and vicmd keymaps if they do not exist the first
30441 time zed is run. They can be used to provide special key bind‐
30442 ings used only in zed.
30443 If it creates the keymap, zed rebinds the return key to insert a
30445 line break and `^X^W' to accept the edit in the zed keymap, and
30446 binds `ZZ' to accept the edit in the zed-vicmd keymap.
30447 The bindings alone can be installed by running `zed -b'. This
30449 is suitable for putting into a startup file. Note that, if re‐
30450 run, this will overwrite the existing zed and zed-vicmd keymaps.
30451 Completion is available, and styles may be set with the context
30453 prefix `:completion:zed'.
30454 A zle widget zed-set-file-name is available. This can be called
30456 by name from within zed using `\ex zed-set-file-name' (note,
30457 however, that because of zed's rebindings you will have to type
30458 ^j at the end instead of the return key), or can be bound to a
30459 key in either of the zed or zed-vicmd keymaps after `zed -b' has
30460 been run. When the widget is called, it prompts for a new name
30461 for the file being edited. When zed exits the file will be
30462 written under that name and the original file will be left
30463 alone. The widget has no effect with `zed -f'.
30464 While zed-set-file-name is running, zed uses the keymap zed-nor‐
30466 mal-keymap, which is linked from the main keymap in effect at
30467 the time zed initialised its bindings. (This is to make the re‐
30468 turn key operate normally.) The result is that if the main
30469 keymap has been changed, the widget won't notice. This is not a
30470 concern for most users.
30471 zcp [ -finqQvwW ] srcpat dest
30473 zln [ -finqQsvwW ] srcpat dest
30474 Same as zmv -C and zmv -L, respectively. These functions do not
30475 appear in the zsh distribution, but can be created by linking
30476 zmv to the names zcp and zln in some directory in your fpath.
30477 zkbd See `Keyboard Definition' above.
30479 zmv [ -finqQsvwW ] [ -C | -L | -M | -{p|P} program ] [ -o optstring ]
30482 srcpat dest
30483 Move (usually, rename) files matching the pattern srcpat to cor‐
30484 responding files having names of the form given by dest, where
30485 srcpat contains parentheses surrounding patterns which will be
30486 replaced in turn by $1, $2, ... in dest. For example,
30487 zmv '(*).lis' '$1.txt'
30489 renames `foo.lis' to `foo.txt', `my.old.stuff.lis' to
30491 `my.old.stuff.txt', and so on.
30492 The pattern is always treated as an EXTENDED_GLOB pattern. Any
30494 file whose name is not changed by the substitution is simply ig‐
30495 nored. Any error (a substitution resulted in an empty string,
30496 two substitutions gave the same result, the destination was an
30497 existing regular file and -f was not given) causes the entire
30498 function to abort without doing anything.
30499 In addition to pattern replacement, the variable $f can be re‐
30501 ferrred to in the second (replacement) argument. This makes it
30502 possible to use variable substitution to alter the argument; see
30503 examples below.
30504 Options:
30506 -f Force overwriting of destination files. Not currently
30508 passed down to the mv/cp/ln command due to vagaries of
30509 implementations (but you can use -o-f to do that).
30510 -i Interactive: show each line to be executed and ask the
30511 user whether to execute it. `Y' or `y' will execute it,
30512 anything else will skip it. Note that you just need to
30513 type one character.
30514 -n No execution: print what would happen, but don't do it.
30515 -q Turn bare glob qualifiers off: now assumed by default, so
30516 this has no effect.
30517 -Q Force bare glob qualifiers on. Don't turn this on unless
30518 you are actually using glob qualifiers in a pattern.
30519 -s Symbolic, passed down to ln; only works with -L.
30520 -v Verbose: print each command as it's being executed.
30521 -w Pick out wildcard parts of the pattern, as described
30522 above, and implicitly add parentheses for referring to
30523 them.
30524 -W Just like -w, with the addition of turning wildcards in
30525 the replacement pattern into sequential ${1} .. ${N} ref‐
30526 erences.
30527 -C
30528 -L
30529 -M Force cp, ln or mv, respectively, regardless of the name
30530 of the function.
30531 -p program
30532 Call program instead of cp, ln or mv. Whatever it does,
30533 it should at least understand the form `program -- old‐
30534 name newname' where oldname and newname are filenames
30535 generated by zmv. program will be split into words, so
30536 might be e.g. the name of an archive tool plus a copy or
30537 rename subcommand.
30538 -P program
30539 As -p program, except that program does not accept a fol‐
30540 lowing -- to indicate the end of options. In this case
30541 filenames must already be in a sane form for the program
30542 in question.
30543 -o optstring
30544 The optstring is split into words and passed down verba‐
30545 tim to the cp, ln or mv command called to perform the
30546 work. It should probably begin with a `-'.
30547 Further examples:
30549 zmv -v '(* *)' '${1// /_}'
30551 For any file in the current directory with at least one space in
30553 the name, replace every space by an underscore and display the
30554 commands executed.
30555 zmv -v '* *' '${f// /_}'
30557 This does exactly the same by referring to the file name stored
30559 in $f.
30560 For more complete examples and other implementation details, see
30562 the zmv source file, usually located in one of the directories
30563 named in your fpath, or in Functions/Misc/zmv in the zsh distri‐
30564 bution.
30565 zrecompile
30567 See `Recompiling Functions' above.
30568 zstyle+ context style value [ + subcontext style value ... ]
30570 This makes defining styles a bit simpler by using a single `+'
30571 as a special token that allows you to append a context name to
30572 the previously used context name. Like this:
30573 zstyle+ ':foo:bar' style1 value1 \
30575 +':baz' style2 value2 \
30576 +':frob' style3 value3
30577 This defines style1 with value1 for the context :foo:bar as
30579 usual, but it also defines style2 with value2 for the context
30580 :foo:bar:baz and style3 with value3 for :foo:bar:frob. Any sub‐
30581 context may be the empty string to re-use the first context un‐
30582 changed.
30583 Styles
30585 insert-tab
30586 The zed function sets this style in context `:completion:zed:*'
30587 to turn off completion when TAB is typed at the beginning of a
30588 line. You may override this by setting your own value for this
30589 context and style.
30590 pager The nslookup function looks up this style in the context
30592 `:nslookup' to determine the program used to display output that
30593 does not fit on a single screen.
30594 prompt
30596 rprompt
30597 The nslookup function looks up this style in the context
30598 `:nslookup' to set the prompt and the right-side prompt, respec‐
30599 tively. The usual expansions for the PS1 and RPS1 parameters
30600 may be used (see EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1)).
30601ZSHALL(1) General Commands Manual ZSHALL(1)
30605
30609 $ZDOTDIR/.zshenv
30610 $ZDOTDIR/.zprofile
30611 $ZDOTDIR/.zshrc
30612 $ZDOTDIR/.zlogin
30613 $ZDOTDIR/.zlogout
30614 ${TMPPREFIX}* (default is /tmp/zsh*)
30615 /etc/zshenv
30616 /etc/zprofile
30617 /etc/zshrc
30618 /etc/zlogin
30619 /etc/zlogout (installation-specific - /etc is the default)
30620
30622 sh(1), csh(1), tcsh(1), rc(1), bash(1), ksh(1)
30623 IEEE Standard for information Technology - Portable Operating System
30625 Interface (POSIX) - Part 2: Shell and Utilities, IEEE Inc, 1993, ISBN
30626 1-55937-255-9.
30627zsh 5.8.1 February 12, 2022 ZSHALL(1)