zshcontrib
ZSHCONTRIB(1) ZSHCONTRIB(1)
NAME
zshcontrib - user contributions to zsh
DESCRIPTION
The Zsh source distribution includes a number of items contributed by
the user community. These are not inherently a part of the shell, and
some may not be available in every zsh installation. The most signif-
icant of these are documented here. For documentation on other con-
tributed items such as shell functions, look for comments in the func-
tion source files.
UTILITIES
Accessing On-Line Help
The key sequence ESC h is normally bound by ZLE to execute the
run-help widget (see zshzle(1)). This invokes the run-help command
with the command word from the current input line as its argument. By
default, run-help is an alias for the man command, so this often fails
when the command word is a shell builtin or a user-defined function.
By redefining the run-help alias, one can improve the on-line help
provided by the shell.
The helpfiles utility, found in the Util directory of the distribu-
tion, is a Perl program that can be used to process the zsh manual to
produce a separate help file for each shell builtin and for many other
shell features as well. The autoloadable run-help function, found in
Functions/Misc, searches for these helpfiles and performs several
other tests to produce the most complete help possible for the com-
mand.
There may already be a directory of help files on your system; look in
/usr/share/zsh or /usr/local/share/zsh and subdirectories below those,
or ask your system administrator.
To create your own help files with helpfiles, choose or create a
directory where the individual command help files will reside. For
example, you might choose ~/zsh_help. If you unpacked the zsh distri-
bution in your home directory, you would use the commands:
mkdir ~/zsh_help
cd ~/zsh_help
man zshall | colcrt - | \
perl ~/zsh-4.2.0/Util/helpfiles
Next, to use the run-help function, you need to add lines something
like the following to your .zshrc or equivalent startup file:
unalias run-help
autoload run-help
HELPDIR=~/zsh_help
The HELPDIR parameter tells run-help where to look for the help files.
If your system already has a help file directory installed, set
HELPDIR to the path of that directory instead.
Note that in order for ‘autoload run-help’ to work, the run-help file
must be in one of the directories named in your fpath array (see zsh-
param(1)). This should already be the case if you have a standard zsh
installation; if it is not, copy Functions/Misc/run-help to an appro-
priate directory.
Recompiling Functions
If you frequently edit your zsh functions, or periodically update your
zsh installation to track the latest developments, you may find that
function digests compiled with the zcompile builtin are frequently out
of date with respect to the function source files. This is not usu-
ally a problem, because zsh always looks for the newest file when
loading a function, but it may cause slower shell startup and function
loading. Also, if a digest file is explicitly used as an element of
fpath, zsh won’t check whether any of its source files has changed.
The zrecompile autoloadable function, found in Functions/Misc, can be
used to keep function digests up to date.
zrecompile [ -qt ] [ name ... ]
zrecompile [ -qt ] -p args [ -- args ... ]
This tries to find *.zwc files and automatically re-compile
them if at least one of the original files is newer than the
compiled file. This works only if the names stored in the com-
piled files are full paths or are relative to the directory
that contains the .zwc file.
In the first form, each name is the name of a compiled file or
a directory containing *.zwc files that should be checked. If
no arguments are given, the directories and *.zwc files in
fpath are used.
When -t is given, no compilation is performed, but a return
status of zero (true) is set if there are files that need to be
re-compiled and non-zero (false) otherwise. The -q option qui-
ets the chatty output that describes what zrecompile is doing.
Without the -t option, the return status is zero if all files
that needed re-compilation could be compiled and non-zero if
compilation for at least one of the files failed.
If the -p option is given, the args are interpreted as one or
more sets of arguments for zcompile, separated by ‘--’. For
example:
zrecompile -p \
-R ~/.zshrc -- \
-M ~/.zcompdump -- \
~/zsh/comp.zwc ~/zsh/Completion/*/_*
This compiles ~/.zshrc into ~/.zshrc.zwc if that doesn’t exist
or if it is older than ~/.zshrc. The compiled file will be
marked for reading instead of mapping. The same is done for
~/.zcompdump and ~/.zcompdump.zwc, but this compiled file is
marked for mapping. The last line re-creates the file
~/zsh/comp.zwc if any of the files matching the given pattern
is newer than it.
Without the -p option, zrecompile does not create function
digests that do not already exist, nor does it add new func-
tions to the digest.
The following shell loop is an example of a method for creating func-
tion digests for all functions in your fpath, assuming that you have
write permission to the directories:
for ((i=1; i <= $#fpath; ++i)); do
dir=$fpath[i]
zwc=${dir:t}.zwc
if [[ $dir == (.|..) || $dir == (.|..)/* ]]; then
continue
fi
files=($dir/*(N-.))
if [[ -w $dir:h && -n $files ]]; then
files=(${${(M)files%/*/*}#/})
if ( cd $dir:h &&
zrecompile -p -U -z $zwc $files ); then
fpath[i]=$fpath[i].zwc
fi
fi
done
The -U and -z options are appropriate for functions in the default zsh
installation fpath; you may need to use different options for your
personal function directories.
Once the digests have been created and your fpath modified to refer to
them, you can keep them up to date by running zrecompile with no argu-
ments.
Keyboard Definition
The large number of possible combinations of keyboards, workstations,
terminals, emulators, and window systems makes it impossible for zsh
to have built-in key bindings for every situation. The zkbd utility,
found in Functions/Misc, can help you quickly create key bindings for
your configuration.
Run zkbd either as an autoloaded function, or as a shell script:
zsh -f ~/zsh-4.2.0/Functions/Misc/zkbd
When you run zkbd, it first asks you to enter your terminal type; if
the default it offers is correct, just press return. It then asks you
to press a number of different keys to determine characteristics of
your keyboard and terminal; zkbd warns you if it finds anything out of
the ordinary, such as a Delete key that sends neither ^H nor ^?.
The keystrokes read by zkbd are recorded as a definition for an asso-
ciative array named key, written to a file in the subdirectory .zkbd
within either your HOME or ZDOTDIR directory. The name of the file is
composed from the TERM, VENDOR and OSTYPE parameters, joined by
hyphens.
You may read this file into your .zshrc or another startup file with
the "source" or "." commands, then reference the key parameter in
bindkey commands, like this:
source ${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zkbd/$TERM-$VENDOR-$OSTYPE
[[ -n ${key[Left]} ]] && bindkey "${key[Left]}" backward-char
[[ -n ${key[Right]} ]] && bindkey "${key[Right]}" forward-char
# etc.
Note that in order for ‘autoload zkbd’ to work, the zkdb file must be
in one of the directories named in your fpath array (see zshparam(1)).
This should already be the case if you have a standard zsh installa-
tion; if it is not, copy Functions/Misc/zkbd to an appropriate direc-
tory.
Dumping Shell State
Occasionally you may encounter what appears to be a bug in the shell,
particularly if you are using a beta version of zsh or a development
release. Usually it is sufficient to send a description of the prob-
lem to one of the zsh mailing lists (see zsh(1)), but sometimes one of
the zsh developers will need to recreate your environment in order to
track the problem down.
The script named reporter, found in the Util directory of the distri-
bution, is provided for this purpose. (It is also possible to
autoload reporter, but reporter is not installed in fpath by default.)
This script outputs a detailed dump of the shell state, in the form of
another script that can be read with ‘zsh -f’ to recreate that state.
To use reporter, read the script into your shell with the ‘.’ command
and redirect the output into a file:
. ~/zsh-4.2.0/Util/reporter > zsh.report
You should check the zsh.report file for any sensitive information
such as passwords and delete them by hand before sending the script to
the developers. Also, as the output can be voluminous, it’s best to
wait for the developers to ask for this information before sending it.
You can also use reporter to dump only a subset of the shell state.
This is sometimes useful for creating startup files for the first
time. Most of the output from reporter is far more detailed than usu-
ally is necessary for a startup file, but the aliases, options, and
zstyles states may be useful because they include only changes from
the defaults. The bindings state may be useful if you have created
any of your own keymaps, because reporter arranges to dump the keymap
creation commands as well as the bindings for every keymap.
As is usual with automated tools, if you create a startup file with
reporter, you should edit the results to remove unnecessary commands.
Note that if you’re using the new completion system, you should not
dump the functions state to your startup files with reporter; use the
compdump function instead (see zshcompsys(1)).
reporter [ state ... ]
Print to standard output the indicated subset of the current
shell state. The state arguments may be one or more of:
all Output everything listed below.
aliases
Output alias definitions.
bindings
Output ZLE key maps and bindings.
completion
Output old-style compctl commands. New completion is
covered by functions and zstyles.
functions
Output autoloads and function definitions.
limits Output limit commands.
options
Output setopt commands.
styles Same as zstyles.
variables
Output shell parameter assignments, plus export commands
for any environment variables.
zstyles
Output zstyle commands.
If the state is omitted, all is assumed.
With the exception of ‘all’, every state can be abbreviated by any
prefix, even a single letter; thus a is the same as aliases, z is the
same as zstyles, etc.
PROMPT THEMES
Installation
You should make sure all the functions from the Functions/Prompts
directory of the source distribution are available; they all begin
with the string ‘prompt_’ except for the special function‘promptinit’.
You also need the ‘colors’ function from Functions/Misc. All of these
functions may already have been installed on your system; if not, you
will need to find them and copy them. The directory should appear as
one of the elements of the fpath array (this should already be the
case if they were installed), and at least the function promptinit
should be autoloaded; it will autoload the rest. Finally, to initial-
ize the use of the system you need to call the promptinit function.
The following code in your .zshrc will arrange for this; assume the
functions are stored in the directory ~/myfns:
fpath=(~/myfns $fpath)
autoload -U promptinit
promptinit
Theme Selection
Use the prompt command to select your preferred theme. This command
may be added to your .zshrc following the call to promptinit in order
to start zsh with a theme already selected.
prompt [ -c | -l ]
prompt [ -p | -h ] [ theme ... ]
prompt [ -s ] theme [ arg ... ]
Set or examine the prompt theme. With no options and a theme
argument, the theme with that name is set as the current theme.
The available themes are determined at run time; use the -l
option to see a list. The special theme ‘random’ selects at
random one of the available themes and sets your prompt to
that.
In some cases the theme may be modified by one or more argu-
ments, which should be given after the theme name. See the
help for each theme for descriptions of these arguments.
Options are:
-c Show the currently selected theme and its parameters, if
any.
-l List all available prompt themes.
-p Preview the theme named by theme, or all themes if no
theme is given.
-h Show help for the theme named by theme, or for the
prompt function if no theme is given.
-s Set theme as the current theme and save state.
prompt_theme_setup
Each available theme has a setup function which is called by
the prompt function to install that theme. This function may
define other functions as necessary to maintain the prompt,
including functions used to preview the prompt or provide help
for its use. You should not normally call a theme’s setup
function directly.
ZLE FUNCTIONS
Widgets
These functions all implement user-defined ZLE widgets (see zshzle(1))
which can be bound to keystrokes in interactive shells. To use them,
your .zshrc should contain lines of the form
autoload function
zle -N function
followed by an appropriate bindkey command to associate the function
with a key sequence. Suggested bindings are described below.
bash-style word functions
If you are looking for functions to implement moving over and
editing words in the manner of bash, where only alphanumeric
characters are considered word characters, you can use the
functions described in the next section. The following is suf-
ficient:
autoload -U select-word-style
select-word-style bash
forward-word-match, backward-word-match
kill-word-match, backward-kill-word-match
transpose-words-match, capitalize-word-match
up-case-word-match, down-case-word-match
select-word-style, match-words-by-style
The eight ‘-match’ functions are drop-in replacements for the
builtin widgets without the suffix. By default they behave in
a similar way. However, by the use of styles and the function
select-word-style, the way words are matched can be altered.
The simplest way of configuring the functions is to use
select-word-style, which can either be called as a normal func-
tion with the appropriate argument, or invoked as a
user-defined widget that will prompt for the first character of
the word style to be used. The first time it is invoked, the
eight -match functions will automatically replace the builtin
versions, so they do not need to be loaded explicitly.
The word styles available are as follows. Only the first char-
acter is examined.
bash Word characters are alphanumeric characters only.
normal As in normal shell operation: word characters are
alphanumeric characters plus any characters present in
the string given by the parameter $WORDCHARS.
shell Words are complete shell command arguments, possibly
including complete quoted strings, or any tokens special
to the shell.
whitespace
Words are any set of characters delimited by whitespace.
default
Restore the default settings; this is usually the same
as ‘normal’.
More control can be obtained using the zstyle command, as
described in zshmodules(1). Each style is looked up in the
context :zle:widget where widget is the name of the
user-defined widget, not the name of the function implementing
it, so in the case of the definitions supplied by
select-word-style the appropriate contexts are :zle:for-
ward-word, and so on. The function select-word-style itself
always defines styles for the context ‘:zle:*’ which can be
overridden by more specific (longer) patterns as well as
explicit contexts.
The style word-style specifies the rules to use. This may have
the following values.
normal Use the standard shell rules, i.e. alphanumerics and
$WORDCHARS, unless overridden by the styles word-chars
or word-class.
specified
Similar to normal, but only the specified characters,
and not also alphanumerics, are considered word charac-
ters.
unspecified
The negation of specified. The given characters are
those which will not be considered part of a word.
shell Words are obtained by using the syntactic rules for gen-
erating shell command arguments. In addition, special
tokens which are never command arguments such as ‘()’
are also treated as words.
whitespace
Words are whitespace-delimited strings of characters.
The first three of those styles usually use $WORDCHARS, but the
value in the parameter can be overridden by the style
word-chars, which works in exactly the same way as $WORDCHARS.
In addition, the style word-class uses character class syntax
to group characters and takes precedence over word-chars if
both are set. The word-class style does not include the sur-
rounding brackets of the character class; for example,
‘-:[:alnum:]’ is a valid word-class to include all alphanumer-
ics plus the characters ‘-’ and ‘:’. Be careful including ‘]’,
‘^’ and ‘-’ as these are special inside character classes.
The final style is skip-chars. This is mostly useful for
transpose-words and similar functions. If set, it gives a
count of characters starting at the cursor position which will
not be considered part of the word and are treated as space,
regardless of what they actually are. For example, if
zstyle ’:zle:transpose-words’ skip-chars 1
has been set, and transpose-words-match is called with the cur-
sor on the X of fooXbar, where X can be any character, then the
resulting expression is barXfoo.
Here are some examples of use of the styles, actually taken
from the simplified interface in select-word-style:
zstyle ’:zle:*’ word-style standard
zstyle ’:zle:*’ word-chars ’’
Implements bash-style word handling for all widgets, i.e. only
alphanumerics are word characters; equivalent to setting the
parameter WORDCHARS empty for the given context.
style ’:zle:*kill*’ word-style space
Uses space-delimited words for widgets with the word ‘kill’ in
the name. Neither of the styles word-chars nor word-class is
used in this case.
The word matching and all the handling of zstyle settings is
actually implemented by the function match-words-by-style.
This can be used to create new user-defined widgets. The call-
ing function should set the local parameter curcontext to
:zle:widget, create the local parameter matched_words and call
match-words-by-style with no arguments. On return,
matched_words will be set to an array with the elements: (1)
the start of the line (2) the word before the cursor (3) any
non-word characters between that word and the cursor (4) any
non-word character at the cursor position plus any remaining
non-word characters before the next word, including all
characters specified by the skip-chars style, (5) the word at
or following the cursor (6) any non-word characters following
that word (7) the remainder of the line. Any of the elements
may be an empty string; the calling function should test for
this to decide whether it can perform its function.
delete-whole-word-match
This is another function which works like the -match functions
described immediately above, i.e. using styles to decide the
word boundaries. However, it is not a replacement for any
existing function.
The basic behaviour is to delete the word around the cursor.
There is no numeric prefix handling; only the single word
around the cursor is considered. If the widget contains the
string kill, the removed text will be placed in the cutbuffer
for future yanking. This can be obtained by defining
kill-whole-word-match as follows:
zle -N kill-whole-word-match delete-whole-word-match
and then binding the widget kill-whole-word-match.
copy-earlier-word
This widget works like a combination of insert-last-word and
copy-prev-shell-word. Repeated invocations of the widget
retrieve earlier words on the relevant history line. With a
numeric argument N, insert the Nth word from the history line;
N may be negative to count from the end of the line.
If insert-last-word has been used to retrieve the last word on
a previous history line, repeated invocations will replace that
word with earlier words from the same line.
Otherwise, the widget applies to words on the line currently
being edited. The widget style can be set to the name of
another widget that should be called to retrieve words. This
widget must accept the same three arguments as
insert-last-word.
cycle-completion-positions
After inserting an unambiguous string into the command line,
the new function based completion system may know about multi-
ple places in this string where characters are missing or dif-
fer from at least one of the possible matches. It will then
place the cursor on the position it considers to be the most
interesting one, i.e. the one where one can disambiguate
between as many matches as possible with as little typing as
possible.
This widget allows the cursor to be easily moved to the other
interesting spots. It can be invoked repeatedly to cycle
between all positions reported by the completion system.
edit-command-line
Edit the command line using your visual editor, as in ksh.
bindkey -M vicmd v edit-command-line
history-search-end
This function implements the widgets history-begin-
ning-search-backward-end and history-beginning-search-for-
ward-end. These commands work by first calling the correspond-
ing builtin widget (see ‘History Control’ in zshzle(1)) and
then moving the cursor to the end of the line. The original
cursor position is remembered and restored before calling the
builtin widget a second time, so that the same search is
repeated to look farther through the history.
Although you autoload only one function, the commands to use it
are slightly different because it implements two widgets.
zle -N history-beginning-search-backward-end \
history-search-end
zle -N history-beginning-search-forward-end \
history-search-end
bindkey ’\e^P’ history-beginning-search-backward-end
bindkey ’\e^N’ history-beginning-search-forward-end
up-line-or-beginning-search, down-line-or-beginning-search
These widgets are similar to the builtin functions
up-line-or-search and down-line-or-search: if in a multiline
buffer they move up or down within the buffer, otherwise they
search for a history line matching the start of the current
line. In this case, however, they search for a line which
matches the current line up to the current cursor position, in
the manner of history-beginning-search-backward and -forward,
rather than the first word on the line.
incarg Typing the keystrokes for this widget with the cursor placed on
or to the left of an integer causes that integer to be incre-
mented by one. With a numeric prefix argument, the number is
incremented by the amount of the argument (decremented if the
prefix argument is negative). The shell parameter incarg may
be set to change the default increment something other than
one.
bindkey ’^X+’ incarg
incremental-complete-word
This allows incremental completion of a word. After starting
this command, a list of completion choices can be shown after
every character you type, which you can delete with ^H or DEL.
Pressing return accepts the completion so far and returns you
to normal editing (that is, the command line is not immediately
executed). You can hit TAB to do normal completion, ^G to
abort back to the state when you started, and ^D to list the
matches.
This works only with the new function based completion system.
bindkey ’^Xi’ incremental-complete-word
insert-files
This function allows you type a file pattern, and see the
results of the expansion at each step. When you hit return,
all expansions are inserted into the command line.
bindkey ’^Xf’ insert-files
narrow-to-region [ -p pre ] [ -P post ]
[ -S statepm | -R statepm ] [ -n ] [ start end ])
narrow-to-region-invisible
Narrow the editable portion of the buffer to the region between
the cursor and the mark, which may be in either order. The
region may not be empty.
narrow-to-region may be used as a widget or called as a func-
tion from a user-defined widget; by default, the text outside
the editable area remains visible. A recursive-edit is per-
formed and the original widening status is then restored. Var-
ious options and arguments are available when it is called as a
function.
The options -p pretext and -P posttext may be used to replace
the text before and after the display for the duration of the
function; either or both may be an empty string.
If the option -n is also given, pretext or posttext will only
be inserted if there is text before or after the region respec-
tively which will be made invisible.
Two numeric arguments may be given which will be used instead
of the cursor and mark positions.
The option -S statepm is used to narrow according to the other
options while saving the original state in the parameter with
name statepm, while the option -R statepm is used to restore
the state from the parameter; note in both cases the name of
the parameter is required. In the second case, other options
and arguments are irrelevant. When this method is used, no
recursive-edit is performed; the calling widget should call
this function with the option -S, perform its own editing on
the command line or pass control to the user via ‘zle recur-
sive-edit’, then call this function with the option -R. The
argument statepm must be a suitable name for an ordinary param-
eter, except that parameters beginning with the prefix _ntr_
are reserved for use within narrow-to-region. Typically the
parameter will be local to the calling function.
narrow-to-region-invisible is a simple widget which calls nar-
row-to-region with arguments which replace any text outside the
region with ‘...’.
The display is restored (and the widget returns) upon any zle
command which would usually cause the line to be accepted or
aborted. Hence an additional such command is required to
accept or abort the current line.
The return status of both widgets is zero if the line was
accepted, else non-zero.
Here is a trivial example of a widget using this feature.
local state
narrow-to-region -p $’Editing restricted region\n’ \
-P ’’ -S state
zle recursive-edit
narrow-to-region -R state
predict-on
This set of functions implements predictive typing using his-
tory search. After predict-on, typing characters causes the
editor to look backward in the history for the first line
beginning with what you have typed so far. After predict-off,
editing returns to normal for the line found. In fact, you
often don’t even need to use predict-off, because if the line
doesn’t match something in the history, adding a key performs
standard completion, and then inserts itself if no completions
were found. However, editing in the middle of a line is liable
to confuse prediction; see the toggle style below.
With the function based completion system (which is needed for
this), you should be able to type TAB at almost any point to
advance the cursor to the next ‘‘interesting’’ character posi-
tion (usually the end of the current word, but sometimes some-
where in the middle of the word). And of course as soon as the
entire line is what you want, you can accept with return, with-
out needing to move the cursor to the end first.
The first time predict-on is used, it creates several addi-
tional widget functions:
delete-backward-and-predict
Replaces the backward-delete-char widget. You do not
need to bind this yourself.
insert-and-predict
Implements predictive typing by replacing the
self-insert widget. You do not need to bind this your-
self.
predict-off
Turns off predictive typing.
Although you autoload only the predict-on function, it is nec-
essary to create a keybinding for predict-off as well.
zle -N predict-on
zle -N predict-off
bindkey ’^X^Z’ predict-on
bindkey ’^Z’ predict-off
read-from-minibuffer
This is most useful when called as a function from inside a
widget, but will work correctly as a widget in its own right.
It prompts for a value below the current command line; a value
may be input using all of the standard zle operations (and not
merely the restricted set available when executing, for exam-
ple, execute-named-cmd). The value is then returned to the
calling function in the parameter $REPLY and the editing buffer
restored to its previous state. If the read was aborted by a
keyboard break (typically ^G), the function returns status 1
and $REPLY is not set. If an argument is supplied to the func-
tion it is taken as a prompt, otherwise ‘? ’ is used.
One option is available: ‘-k num’ specifies that num characters
are to be read instead of a whole line. The line editor is not
invoked recursively in this case. Note that unlike the read
builtin num must be given; there is no default.
The name is a slight misnomer, as in fact the shell’s own
minibuffer is not used. Hence it is still possible to call
executed-named-cmd and similar functions while reading a value.
replace-string, replace-pattern
The function replace-string implements two widgets. If defined
under the same name as the function, it prompts for two
strings; the first (source) string will be replaced by the sec-
ond everywhere it occurs in the line editing buffer.
If the widget name contains the word ‘pattern’, for example by
defining the widget using the command ‘zle -N replace-pattern
replace-string’, then the replacement is done by pattern match-
ing. All zsh extended globbing patterns can be used in the
source string; note that unlike filename generation the pattern
does not need to match an entire word, nor do glob qualifiers
have any effect. In addition, the replacement string can con-
tain parameter or command substitutions. Furthermore, a ‘&’ in
the replacement string will be replaced with the matched source
string, and a backquoted digit ‘\N’ will be replaced by the Nth
parenthesised expression matched. The form ‘\{N}’ may be used
to protect the digit from following digits.
For example, starting from the line:
print This line contains fan and fond
and invoking replace-pattern with the source string ‘f(?)n’ and
the replacment string ‘c\1r’ produces the not very useful line:
print This line contains car and cord
The range of the replacement string can be limited by using the
narrow-to-region-invisible widget. One limitation of the cur-
rent version is that undo will cycle through changes to the
replacement and source strings before undoing the replacement
itself.
smart-insert-last-word
This function may replace the insert-last-word widget, like so:
zle -N insert-last-word smart-insert-last-word
With a numeric prefix, or when passed command line arguments in
a call from another widget, it behaves like insert-last-word,
except that words in comments are ignored when INTERACTIVE_COM-
MENTS is set.
Otherwise, the rightmost ‘‘interesting’’ word from the previous
command is found and inserted. The default definition of
‘‘interesting’’ is that the word contains at least one alpha-
betic character, slash, or backslash. This definition may be
overridden by use of the match style. The context used to look
up the style is the widget name, so usually the context is
:insert-last-word. However, you can bind this function to dif-
ferent widgets to use different patterns:
zle -N insert-last-assignment smart-insert-last-word
zstyle :insert-last-assignment match ’[[:alpha:]][][[:alnum:]]#=*’
bindkey ’\e=’ insert-last-assignment
Styles
The behavior of several of the above widgets can be controlled by the
use of the zstyle mechanism. In particular, widgets that interact
with the completion system pass along their context to any completions
that they invoke.
break-keys
This style is used by the incremental-complete-word widget. Its
value should be a pattern, and all keys matching this pattern
will cause the widget to stop incremental completion without
the key having any further effect. Like all styles used
directly by incremental-complete-word, this style is looked up
using the context ‘:incremental’.
completer
The incremental-complete-word and insert-and-predict widgets
set up their top-level context name before calling completion.
This allows one to define different sets of completer functions
for normal completion and for these widgets. For example, to
use completion, approximation and correction for normal comple-
tion, completion and correction for incremental completion and
only completion for prediction one could use:
zstyle ’:completion:*’ completer \
_complete _correct _approximate
zstyle ’:completion:incremental:*’ completer \
_complete _correct
zstyle ’:completion:predict:*’ completer \
_complete
It is a good idea to restrict the completers used in predic-
tion, because they may be automatically invoked as you type.
The _list and _menu completers should never be used with pre-
diction. The _approximate, _correct, _expand, and _match com-
pleters may be used, but be aware that they may change
characters anywhere in the word behind the cursor, so you need
to watch carefully that the result is what you intended.
cursor The insert-and-predict widget uses this style, in the context
‘:predict’, to decide where to place the cursor after comple-
tion has been tried. Values are:
complete
The cursor is left where it was when completion fin-
ished, but only if it is after a character equal to the
one just inserted by the user. If it is after another
character, this value is the same as ‘key’.
key The cursor is left after the nth occurrence of the char-
acter just inserted, where n is the number of times that
character appeared in the word before completion was
attempted. In short, this has the effect of leaving the
cursor after the character just typed even if the com-
pletion code found out that no other characters need to
be inserted at that position.
Any other value for this style unconditionally leaves the cur-
sor at the position where the completion code left it.
list When using the incremental-complete-word widget, this style
says if the matches should be listed on every key press (if
they fit on the screen). Use the context prefix ‘:comple-
tion:incremental’.
The insert-and-predict widget uses this style to decide if the
completion should be shown even if there is only one possible
completion. This is done if the value of this style is the
string always. In this case the context is ‘:predict’ (not
‘:completion:predict’).
match This style is used by smart-insert-last-word to provide a pat-
tern (using full EXTENDED_GLOB syntax) that matches an inter-
esting word. The context is the name of the widget to which
smart-insert-last-word is bound (see above). The default
behavior of smart-insert-last-word is equivalent to:
zstyle :insert-last-word match ’*[[:alpha:]/\\]*’
However, you might want to include words that contain spaces:
zstyle :insert-last-word match ’*[[:alpha:][:space:]/\\]*’
Or include numbers as long as the word is at least two charac-
ters long:
zstyle :insert-last-word match ’*([[:digit:]]?|[[:alpha:]/\\])*’
The above example causes redirections like "2>" to be included.
prompt The incremental-complete-word widget shows the value of this
style in the status line during incremental completion. The
string value may contain any of the following substrings in the
manner of the PS1 and other prompt parameters:
%c Replaced by the name of the completer function that gen-
erated the matches (without the leading underscore).
%l When the list style is set, replaced by ‘...’ if the
list of matches is too long to fit on the screen and
with an empty string otherwise. If the list style is
‘false’ or not set, ‘%l’ is always removed.
%n Replaced by the number of matches generated.
%s Replaced by ‘-no match-’, ‘-no prefix-’, or an empty
string if there is no completion matching the word on
the line, if the matches have no common prefix different
from the word on the line, or if there is such a common
prefix, respectively.
%u Replaced by the unambiguous part of all matches, if
there is any, and if it is different from the word on
the line.
Like ‘break-keys’, this uses the ‘:incremental’ context.
stop-keys
This style is used by the incremental-complete-word widget.
Its value is treated similarly to the one for the break-keys
style (and uses the same context: ‘:incremental’). However, in
this case all keys matching the pattern given as its value will
stop incremental completion and will then execute their usual
function.
toggle This boolean style is used by predict-on and its related wid-
gets in the context ‘:predict’. If set to one of the standard
‘true’ values, predictive typing is automatically toggled off
in situations where it is unlikely to be useful, such as when
editing a multi-line buffer or after moving into the middle of
a line and then deleting a character. The default is to leave
prediction turned on until an explicit call to predict-off.
verbose
This boolean style is used by predict-on and its related wid-
gets in the context ‘:predict’. If set to one of the standard
‘true’ values, these widgets display a message below the prompt
when the predictive state is toggled. This is most useful in
combination with the toggle style. The default does not dis-
play these messages.
widget This style is similar to the command style: For widget func-
tions that use zle to call other widgets, this style can some-
times be used to override the widget which is called. The con-
text for this style is the name of the calling widget (not the
name of the calling function, because one function may be bound
to multiple widget names).
zstyle :copy-earlier-word widget smart-insert-last-word
Check the documentation for the calling widget or function to
determine whether the widget style is used.
MIME FUNCTIONS
Three functions are available to provide handling of files recognised
by extension, for example to dispatch a file text.ps when executed as
a command to an appropriate viewer.
zsh-mime-setup [-flv]
zsh-mime-handler
These two functions use the files ~/.mime.types and
/etc/mime.types, which associate types and extensions, as well
as ~/.mailcap and /etc/mailcap files, which associate types and
the programs that handle them. These are provided on many sys-
tems with the Multimedia Internet Mail Extensions.
To enable the system, the function zsh-mime-setup should be
autoloaded and run. This allows files with extensions to be
treated as executable; such files be completed by the function
completion system. The function zsh-mime-handler should not
need to be called by the user.
The system works by setting up suffix aliases with ‘alias -s’.
Suffix aliases already installed by the user will not be over-
written.
Repeated calls to zsh-mime-setup do not override the existing
mapping between suffixes and executable files unless the option
-f is given. Note, however, that this does not override exist-
ing suffix aliases assigned to handlers other than
zsh-mime-handler. Calling zsh-mime-setup with the option -l
lists the existing mapping without altering it. Calling
zsh-mime-setup with the option -v causes verbose output to be
shown during the setup operation.
The system respects the mailcap flags needsterminal and copi-
ousoutput, see mailcap(4).
The functions use the following styles, which are defined with
the zstyle builtin command (see zshmodules(1)). They should be
defined before zsh-mime-setup is run. The contexts used all
start with :mime:, with additional components in some cases.
It is recommended that a trailing * (suitably quoted) be
appended to style patterns in case the system is extended in
future. Some examples are given below.
mime-types
A list of files in the format of ~/.mime.types and
/etc/mime.types to be read during setup, replacing the
default list which consists of those two files. The
context is :mime:.
mailcap
A list of files in the format of ~/.mailcap and
/etc/mailcap to be read during setup, replacing the
default list which consists of those two files. The
context is :mime:.
handler
Specifies a handler for a suffix; the suffix is given by
the context as :mime:.suffix:, and the format of the
handler is exactly that in mailcap. Note in particular
the ‘.’ and trailing colon to distinguish this use of
the context. This overrides any handler specified by
the mailcap files. If the handler requires a terminal,
the flags style should be set to include the word need-
sterminal, or if the output is to be displayed through a
pager (but not if the handler is itself a pager), it
should include copiousoutput.
flags Defines flags to go with a handler; the context is as
for the handler style, and the format is as for the
flags in mailcap.
pager If set, will be used instead of $PAGER or more to handle
suffixes where the copiousoutput flag is set. The con-
text is as for handler, i.e. :mime:.suffix: for handling
a file with the given suffix.
Examples:
zstyle ’:mime:*’ mailcap ~/.mailcap /usr/local/etc/mailcap
zstyle ’:mime:.txt’ handler less %s
zstyle ’:mime:.txt’ flags needsterminal
When zsh-mime-setup is subsequently run, it will look for mail-
cap entries in the two files given. Files of suffix .txt will
be handled by running ‘less file.txt’. The flag needsterminal
is set to show that this program must run attached to a termi-
nal.
As there are several steps to dispatching a command, the fol-
lowing should be checked if attempting to execute a file by
extension .ext does not have the expected effect. starteit()
eit()( The command ‘alias -s ext’ should show ‘ps=zsh-mime-han-
dler’. If it shows something else, another suffix alias was
already installed and was not overwritten. If it shows noth-
ing, no handler was installed: this is most likely because no
handler was found in the .mime.types and mailcap combination
for .ext files. In that case, appropriate handling should be
added to ~/.mime.types and mailcap. ) eit()( If the extension
is handled by zsh-mime-handler but the file is not opened cor-
rectly, either the handler defined for the type is incorrect,
or the flags associated with it are in appropriate. Running
zsh-mime-setup -l will show the handler and, if there are any,
the flags. A %s in the handler is replaced by the file (suit-
ably quoted if necessary). Check that the handler program
listed lists and can be run in the way shown. Also check that
the flags needsterminal or copiousoutput are set if the handler
needs to be run under a terminal; the second flag is used if
the output should be sent to a pager. An example of a suitable
mailcap entry for such a program is:
text/html; /usr/bin/lynx ’%s’; needsterminal
) endeit()
pick-web-browser
This function is separate from the two MIME functions described
above and can be assigned directly to a suffix:
autoload -U pick-web-browser
alias -s html=pick-web-browser
It is provided as an intelligent front end to dispatch a web
browser. It will check if an X Windows display is available,
and if so if there is already a browser running which can
accept a remote connection. In that case, the file will be
displayed in that browser; you should check explicitly if it
has appeared in the running browser’s window. Otherwise, it
will start a new browser according to a builtin set of prefer-
ences.
Alternatively, pick-web-browser can be run as a zsh script.
Two styles are available to customize the choice of browsers:
x-browsers when running under the X Windows System, and
tty-browsers otherwise. These are arrays in decreasing order
of preference consiting of the command name under which to
start the browser. They are looked up in the context :mime:
(which may be extended in future, so appending ‘*’ is recom-
mended). For example,
zstyle ’:mime:*’ x-browsers opera konqueror netscape
specifies that pick-web-browser should first look for a runing
instance of Opera, Konqueror or Netscape, in that order, and if
it fails to find any should attempt to start Opera.
OTHER FUNCTIONS
There are a large number of helpful functions in the Functions/Misc
directory of the zsh distribution. Most are very simple and do not
require documentation here, but a few are worthy of special mention.
Descriptions
colors This function initializes several associative arrays to map
color names to (and from) the ANSI standard eight-color termi-
nal codes. These are used by the prompt theme system (see
above). You seldom should need to run colors more than once.
The eight base colors are: black, red, green, yellow, blue,
magenta, cyan, and white. Each of these has codes for fore-
ground and background. In addition there are eight intensity
attributes: bold, faint, standout, underline, blink, reverse,
and conceal. Finally, there are six codes used to negate
attributes: none (reset all attributes to the defaults), normal
(neither bold nor faint), no-standout, no-underline, no-blink,
and no-reverse.
Some terminals do not support all combinations of colors and
intensities.
The associative arrays are:
color
colour Map all the color names to their integer codes, and
integer codes to the color names. The eight base names
map to the foreground color codes, as do names prefixed
with ‘fg-’, such as ‘fg-red’. Names prefixed with
‘bg-’, such as ‘bg-blue’, refer to the background codes.
The reverse mapping from code to color yields base name
for foreground codes and the bg- form for backgrounds.
Although it is a misnomer to call them ‘colors’, these
arrays also map the other fourteen attributes from names
to codes and codes to names.
fg
fg_bold
fg_no_bold
Map the eight basic color names to ANSI terminal escape
sequences that set the corresponding foreground text
properties. The fg sequences change the color without
changing the eight intensity attributes.
bg
bg_bold
bg_no_bold
Map the eight basic color names to ANSI terminal escape
sequences that set the corresponding background proper-
ties. The bg sequences change the color without chang-
ing the eight intensity attributes.
In addition, the scalar parameters reset_color and bold_color
are set to the ANSI terminal escapes that turn off all
attributes and turn on bold intensity, respectively.
fned name
Same as zed -f. This function does not appear in the zsh dis-
tribution, but can be created by linking zed to the name fned
in some directory in your fpath.
is-at-least needed [ present ]
Perform a greater-than-or-equal-to comparison of two strings
having the format of a zsh version number; that is, a string of
numbers and text with segments separated by dots or dashes. If
the present string is not provided, $ZSH_VERSION is used. Seg-
ments are paired left-to-right in the two strings with leading
non-number parts ignored. If one string has fewer segments
than the other, the missing segments are considered zero.
This is useful in startup files to set options and other state
that are not available in all versions of zsh.
is-at-least 3.1.6-15 && setopt NO_GLOBAL_RCS
is-at-least 3.1.0 && setopt HIST_REDUCE_BLANKS
is-at-least 2.6-17 || print "You can’t use is-at-least here."
nslookup [ arg ... ]
This wrapper function for the nslookup command requires the
zsh/zpty module (see zshmodules(1)). It behaves exactly like
the standard nslookup except that it provides customizable
prompts (including a right-side prompt) and completion of
nslookup commands, host names, etc. (if you use the func-
tion-based completion system). Completion styles may be set
with the context prefix ‘:completion:nslookup’.
See also the pager, prompt and rprompt styles below.
run-help
See ‘Accessing On-Line Help’ above.
tetris Zsh was once accused of not being as complete as Emacs, because
it lacked a Tetris game. This function was written to refute
this vicious slander.
This function must be used as a ZLE widget:
autoload -U tetris
zle -N tetris
bindkey keys tetris
To start a game, execute the widget by typing the keys. What-
ever command line you were editing disappears temporarily, and
your keymap is also temporarily replaced by the Tetris control
keys. The previous editor state is restored when you quit the
game (by pressing ‘q’) or when you lose.
If you quit in the middle of a game, the next invocation of the
tetris widget will continue where you left off. If you lost,
it will start a new game.
zcalc [ expression ... ]
A reasonably powerful calculator based on zsh’s arithmetic
evaluation facility. The syntax is similar to that of formulae
in most programming languages; see the section ‘Arithmetic
Evaluation’ in zshmisc(1) for details. The mathematical
library zsh/mathfunc will be loaded if it is available; see the
section ‘The zsh/mathfunc Module’ in zshmodules(1). The mathe-
matical functions correspond to the raw system libraries, so
trigonometric functions are evaluated using radians, and so on.
Each line typed is evaluated as an expression. The prompt
shows a number, which corresponds to a positional parameter
where the result of that calculation is stored. For example,
the result of the calculation on the line preceded by ‘4> ’ is
available as $4. Full command line editing, including the his-
tory of previous calculations, is available; the history is
saved in the file ~/.zcalc_history. To exit, enter a blank
line or type ‘q’ on its own.
If arguments are given to zcalc on start up, they are used to
prime the first few positional parameters. A visual indication
of this is given when the calculator starts.
The constants PI (3.14159...) and E (2.71828...) are provided.
Parameter assignment is possible, but note that all parameters
will be put into the global namespace.
An extra facility is provided for changing the default output
base. Use, for example, ‘[#16]’ to display hexadecimal output
preceded by an indication of the base, or ‘[##16]’ just to dis-
play the raw number in the given base. Bases themselves are
always specified in decimal. ‘[#]’ restores the normal output
format.
The output base can be initialised by passing the option
‘-#base’, for example ‘zcalc -#16’ (the ‘#’ may have to be
quoted, depending on the globbing options set).
The prompt is configurable via the parameter ZCALCPROMPT, which
undergoes standard prompt expansion. The index of the current
entry is stored locally in the first element of the array
psvar, which can be referred to in ZCALCPROMPT as ‘%1v’. The
default prompt is ‘%1v> ’.
See the comments in the function for a few extra tips.
zed [ -f ] name
This function uses the ZLE editor to edit a file or function.
It rebinds the return key to insert a line break, and adds
bindings for ‘^X^W’ in the emacs keymap and ‘ZZ’ in the vicmd
keymap to accept (and therefore write, in the case of a file)
the edited file or function. Keybindings are otherwise the
standard ones; completion is available, and styles may be set
with the context prefix ‘:completion:zed’.
Only one name argument is recognized (additional arguments are
ignored). If the -f option is given, the name is taken to be
that of a function; if the function is marked for autoloading,
zed searches for it in the fpath and loads it. Note that func-
tions edited this way are installed into the current shell, but
not written back to the autoload file.
Without -f, name is the path name of the file to edit, which
need not exist; it is created on write, if necessary.
zcp [ -finqQvwW ] srcpat dest
zln [ -finqQsvwW ] srcpat dest
Same as zmv -C and zmv -L, respectively. These functions do
not appear in the zsh distribution, but can be created by link-
ing zmv to the names zcp and zln in some directory in your
fpath.
zkbd See ‘Keyboard Definition’ above.
zmv [ -finqQsvwW ] [ -C | -L | -M | -p program ] [ -o optstring ] src-
pat dest
Move (usually, rename) files matching the pattern srcpat to
corresponding files having names of the form given by dest,
where srcpat contains parentheses surrounding patterns which
will be replaced in turn by $1, $2, ... in dest. For example,
zmv ’(*).lis’ ’$1.txt’
renames ‘foo.lis’ to ‘foo.txt’, ‘my.old.stuff.lis’ to
‘my.old.stuff.txt’, and so on.
The pattern is always treated as an EXTENDED_GLOB pattern. Any
file whose name is not changed by the substitution is simply
ignored. Any error (a substitution resulted in an empty
string, two substitutions gave the same result, the destination
was an existing regular file and -f was not given) causes the
entire function to abort without doing anything.
Options:
-f Force overwriting of destination files. Not currently
passed down to the mv/cp/ln command due to vagaries of
implementations (but you can use -o-f to do that).
-i Interactive: show each line to be executed and ask the
user whether to execute it. ‘Y’ or ‘y’ will execute it,
anything else will skip it. Note that you just need to
type one character.
-n No execution: print what would happen, but don’t do it.
-q Turn bare glob qualifiers off: now assumed by default,
so this has no effect.
-Q Force bare glob qualifiers on. Don’t turn this on
unless you are actually using glob qualifiers in a pat-
tern.
-s Symbolic, passed down to ln; only works with -L.
-v Verbose: print each command as it’s being executed.
-w Pick out wildcard parts of the pattern, as described
above, and implicitly add parentheses for referring to
them.
-W Just like -w, with the addition of turning wildcards in
the replacement pattern into sequential ${1} .. ${N}
references.
-C
-L
-M Force cp, ln or mv, respectively, regardless of the name
of the function.
-p program
Call program instead of cp, ln or mv. Whatever it does,
it should at least understand the form ‘program -- old-
name newname’ where oldname and newname are filenames
generated by zmv.
-o optstring
The optstring is split into words and passed down verba-
tim to the cp, ln or mv command called to perform the
work. It should probably begin with a ‘-’.
For more complete examples and other implementation details,
see the zmv source file, usually located in one of the directo-
ries named in your fpath, or in Functions/Misc/zmv in the zsh
distribution.
zrecompile
See ‘Recompiling Functions’ above.
zstyle+ context style value [ + subcontext style value ... ]
This makes defining styles a bit simpler by using a single ‘+’
as a special token that allows you to append a context name to
the previously used context name. Like this:
zstyle+ ’:foo:bar’ style1 value1 \
+ ’:baz’ style2 value2 \
+ ’:frob’ style3 value3
This defines ‘style1’ with ‘value1’ for the context :foo:bar as
usual, but it also defines ‘style2’ with ‘value2’ for the con-
text :foo:bar:baz and ‘style3’ with ‘value3’ for :foo:bar:frob.
Any subcontext may be the empty string to re-use the first con-
text unchanged.
Styles
insert-tab
The zed function sets this style in context ‘:completion:zed:*’
to turn off completion when TAB is typed at the beginning of a
line. You may override this by setting your own value for this
context and style.
pager The nslookup function looks up this style in the context
‘:nslookup’ to determine the program used to display output
that does not fit on a single screen.
prompt
rprompt
The nslookup function looks up this style in the context
‘:nslookup’ to set the prompt and the right-side prompt,
respectively. The usual expansions for the PS1 and RPS1 param-
eters may be used (see zshmisc(1)).
zsh 4.2.0 March 19, 2004 ZSHCONTRIB(1)
