zshzle
ZSHZLE(1) ZSHZLE(1)
NAME
zshzle - zsh command line editor
DESCRIPTION
If the ZLE option is set (which it is by default in interactive
shells) and the shell input is attached to the terminal, the user is
able to edit command lines.
There are two display modes. The first, multiline mode, is the
default. It only works if the TERM parameter is set to a valid termi-
nal type that can move the cursor up. The second, single line mode,
is used if TERM is invalid or incapable of moving the cursor up, or if
the SINGLE_LINE_ZLE option is set. This mode is similar to ksh, and
uses no termcap sequences. If TERM is "emacs", the ZLE option will be
unset by default.
The parameters BAUD, COLUMNS, and LINES are also used by the line edi-
tor. See Parameters Used By The Shell in zshparam(1).
KEYMAPS
A keymap in ZLE contains a set of bindings between key sequences and
ZLE commands. The empty key sequence cannot be bound.
There can be any number of keymaps at any time, and each keymap has
one or more names. If all of a keymap’s names are deleted, it disap-
pears. bindkey can be used to manipulate keymap names.
Initially, there are four keymaps:
emacs EMACS emulation
viins vi emulation - insert mode
vicmd vi emulation - command mode
.safe fallback keymap
The ‘.safe’ keymap is special. It can never be altered, and the name
can never be removed. However, it can be linked to other names, which
can be removed. In the future other special keymaps may be added;
users should avoid using names beginning with ‘.’ for their own
keymaps.
In addition to these four names, either ‘emacs’ or ‘viins’ is also
linked to the name ‘main’. If one of the VISUAL or EDITOR environment
variables contain the string ‘vi’ when the shell starts up then it
will be ‘viins’, otherwise it will be ‘emacs’. bindkey’s -e and -v
options provide a convenient way to override this default choice.
When the editor starts up, it will select the ‘main’ keymap. If that
keymap doesn’t exist, it will use ‘.safe’ instead.
In the ‘.safe’ keymap, each single key is bound to self-insert, except
for ^J (line feed) and ^M (return) which are bound to accept-line.
This is deliberately not pleasant to use; if you are using it, it
means you deleted the main keymap, and you should put it back.
Reading Commands
When ZLE is reading a command from the terminal, it may read a
sequence that is bound to some command and is also a prefix of a
longer bound string. In this case ZLE will wait a certain time to see
if more characters are typed, and if not (or they don’t match any
longer string) it will execute the binding. This timeout is defined
by the KEYTIMEOUT parameter; its default is 0.4 sec. There is no
timeout if the prefix string is not itself bound to a command.
As well as ZLE commands, key sequences can be bound to other strings,
by using ‘bindkey -s’. When such a sequence is read, the replacement
string is pushed back as input, and the command reading process starts
again using these fake keystrokes. This input can itself invoke fur-
ther replacement strings, but in order to detect loops the process
will be stopped if there are twenty such replacements without a real
command being read.
ZLE BUILTINS
The ZLE module contains three related builtin commands. The bindkey
command manipulates keymaps and key bindings; the vared command
invokes ZLE on the value of a shell parameter; and the zle command
manipulates editing widgets and allows command line access to ZLE com-
mands from within shell functions.
bindkey [ options ] -l
bindkey [ options ] -d
bindkey [ options ] -D keymap ...
bindkey [ options ] -A old-keymap new-keymap
bindkey [ options ] -N new-keymap [ old-keymap ]
bindkey [ options ] -m
bindkey [ options ] -r in-string ...
bindkey [ options ] -s in-string out-string ...
bindkey [ options ] in-string command ...
bindkey [ options ] [ in-string ]
bindkey’s options can be divided into three categories: keymap
selection, operation selection, and others. The keymap selec-
tion options are:
-e Selects keymap ‘emacs’, and also links it to ‘main’.
-v Selects keymap ‘viins’, and also links it to ‘main’.
-a Selects keymap ‘vicmd’.
-M keymap
The keymap specifies a keymap name.
If a keymap selection is required and none of the options above
are used, the ‘main’ keymap is used. Some operations do not
permit a keymap to be selected, namely:
-l List all existing keymap names. If the -L option is
also used, list in the form of bindkey commands to cre-
ate the keymaps.
-d Delete all existing keymaps and reset to the default
state.
-D keymap ...
Delete the named keymaps.
-A old-keymap new-keymap
Make the new-keymap name an alias for old-keymap, so
that both names refer to the same keymap. The names
have equal standing; if either is deleted, the other
remains. If there is already a keymap with the
new-keymap name, it is deleted.
-N new-keymap [ old-keymap ]
Create a new keymap, named new-keymap. If a keymap
already has that name, it is deleted. If an old-keymap
name is given, the new keymap is initialized to be a
duplicate of it, otherwise the new keymap will be empty.
To use a newly created keymap, it should be linked to main.
Hence the sequence of commands to create and use a new keymap
‘mymap’ initialized from the emacs keymap (which remains
unchanged) is:
bindkey -N mymap emacs
bindkey -A mymap main
Note that while ‘bindkey -A newmap main’ will work when newmap
is emacs or viins, it will not work for vicmd, as switching
from vi insert to command mode becomes impossible.
The following operations act on the ‘main’ keymap if no keymap
selection option was given:
-m Add the built-in set of meta-key bindings to the
selected keymap. Only keys that are unbound or bound to
self-insert are affected.
-r in-string ...
Unbind the specified in-strings in the selected keymap.
This is exactly equivalent to binding the strings to
undefined-key.
When -R is also used, interpret the in-strings as
ranges.
When -p is also used, the in-strings specify prefixes.
Any binding that has the given in-string as a prefix,
not including the binding for the in-string itself, if
any, will be removed. For example,
bindkey -rpM viins ’^[’
will remove all bindings in the vi-insert keymap begin-
ning with an escape character (probably cursor keys),
but leave the binding for the escape character itself
(probably vi-cmd-mode). This is incompatible with the
option -R.
-s in-string out-string ...
Bind each in-string to each out-string. When in-string
is typed, out-string will be pushed back and treated as
input to the line editor. When -R is also used, inter-
pret the in-strings as ranges.
in-string command ...
Bind each in-string to each command. When -R is used,
interpret the in-strings as ranges.
[ in-string ]
List key bindings. If an in-string is specified, the
binding of that string in the selected keymap is dis-
played. Otherwise, all key bindings in the selected
keymap are displayed. (As a special case, if the -e or
-v option is used alone, the keymap is not displayed -
the implicit linking of keymaps is the only thing that
happens.)
When the option -p is used, the in-string must be
present. The listing shows all bindings which have the
given key sequence as a prefix, not including any bind-
ings for the key sequence itself.
When the -L option is used, the list is in the form of
bindkey commands to create the key bindings.
When the -R option is used as noted above, a valid range consists of
two characters, with an optional ‘-’ between them. All characters
between the two specified, inclusive, are bound as specified.
For either in-string or out-string, the following escape sequences are
recognised:
\a bell character
\b backspace
\e, \E escape
\f form feed
\n linefeed (newline)
\r carriage return
\t horizontal tab
\v vertical tab
\NNN character code in octal
\xNN character code in hexadecimal
\M[-]X character with meta bit set
\C[-]X control character
^X control character
In all other cases, ‘\’ escapes the following character. Delete is
written as ‘^?’. Note that ‘\M^?’ and ‘^\M?’ are not the same, and
that (unlike emacs), the bindings ‘\M-X’ and ‘\eX’ are entirely dis-
tinct, although they are initialized to the same bindings by ‘bindkey
-m’.
vared [ -Aache ] [ -p prompt ] [ -r rprompt ] name
The value of the parameter name is loaded into the edit buffer,
and the line editor is invoked. When the editor exits, name is
set to the string value returned by the editor. When the -c
flag is given, the parameter is created if it doesn’t already
exist. The -a flag may be given with -c to create an array
parameter, or the -A flag to create an associative array. If
the type of an existing parameter does not match the type to be
created, the parameter is unset and recreated.
If an array or array slice is being edited, separator charac-
ters as defined in $IFS will be shown quoted with a backslash,
as will backslashes themselves. Conversely, when the edited
text is split into an array, a backslash quotes an immediately
following separator character or backslash; no other special
handling of backslashes, or any handling of quotes, is per-
formed.
Individual elements of existing array or associative array
parameters may be edited by using subscript syntax on name.
New elements are created automatically, even without -c.
If the -p flag is given, the following string will be taken as
the prompt to display at the left. If the -r flag is given,
the following string gives the prompt to display at the right.
If the -h flag is specified, the history can be accessed from
ZLE. If the -e flag is given, typing ^D (Control-D) on an empty
line causes vared to exit immediately with a non-zero return
value.
zle -l [ -L | -a ] [ string ... ]
zle -D widget ...
zle -A old-widget new-widget
zle -N widget [ function ]
zle -C widget completion-widget function
zle -R [ -c ] [ display-string ] [ string ... ]
zle -M string
zle -U string
zle -K keymap
zle -F [ -L ] [ fd [ handler ] ]
zle -I
zle widget [ -n num ] [ -N ] args ...
zle The zle builtin performs a number of different actions concern-
ing ZLE. Which operation it performs depends on its options:
-l [ -L | -a ]
List all existing user-defined widgets. If the -L
option is used, list in the form of zle commands to cre-
ate the widgets.
When combined with the -a option, all widget names are
listed, including the builtin ones. In this case the -L
option is ignored.
If at least one string is given, nothing will be printed
but the return status will be zero if all strings are
names of existing widgets (or of user-defined widgets if
the -a flag is not given) and non-zero if at least one
string is not a name of an defined widget.
-D widget ...
Delete the named widgets.
-A old-widget new-widget
Make the new-widget name an alias for old-widget, so
that both names refer to the same widget. The names
have equal standing; if either is deleted, the other
remains. If there is already a widget with the new-wid-
get name, it is deleted.
-N widget [ function ]
Create a user-defined widget. If there is already a
widget with the specified name, it is overwritten. When
the new widget is invoked from within the editor, the
specified shell function is called. If no function name
is specified, it defaults to the same name as the wid-
get. For further information, see the section Widgets
in zshzle(1).
-C widget completion-widget function
Create a user-defined completion widget named widget.
The completion widget will behave like the built-in com-
pletion-widget whose name is given as completion-widget.
To generate the completions, the shell function function
will be called. For further information, see zshcomp-
wid(1).
-R [ -c ] [ display-string ] [ string ... ]
Redisplay the command line; this is to be called from
within a user-defined widget to allow changes to become
visible. If a display-string is given and not empty,
this is shown in the status line (immediately below the
line being edited).
If the optional strings are given they are listed below
the prompt in the same way as completion lists are
printed. If no strings are given but the -c option is
used such a list is cleared.
Note that this option is only useful for widgets that do
not exit immediately after using it because the strings
displayed will be erased immediately after return from
the widget.
This command can safely be called outside user defined
widgets; if zle is active, the display will be
refreshed, while if zle is not active, the command has
no effect. In this case there will usually be no other
arguments. The status is zero if zle was active, else
one.
-M string
As with the -R option, the string will be displayed
below the command line; unlike the -R option, the string
will not be put into the status line but will instead be
printed normally below the prompt. This means that the
string will still be displayed after the widget returns
(until it is overwritten by subsequent commands).
-U string
This pushes the characters in the string onto the input
stack of ZLE. After the widget currently executed fin-
ishes ZLE will behave as if the characters in the string
were typed by the user.
As ZLE uses a stack, if this option is used repeatedly
the last string pushed onto the stack will be processed
first. However, the characters in each string will be
processed in the order in which they appear in the
string.
-K keymap
Selects the keymap named keymap. An error message will
be displayed if there is no such keymap.
This keymap selection affects the interpretation of fol-
lowing keystrokes within this invocation of ZLE. Any
following invocation (e.g., the next command line) will
start as usual with the ‘main’ keymap selected.
-F [ -L ] [ fd [ handler ] ]
Only available if your system supports one of the ‘poll’
or ‘select’ system calls; most modern systems do.
Installs handler (the name of a shell function) to han-
dle input from file descriptor fd. When zle is attempt-
ing to read data, it will examine both the terminal and
the list of handled fd’s. If data becomes available on
a handled fd, zle will call handler with the fd which is
ready for reading as the only argument. If the handler
produces output to the terminal, it should call ‘zle -I’
before doing so (see below). The handler should not
attempt to read from the terminal. Note that zle makes
no attempt to check whether this fd is actually readable
when installing the handler. The user must make their
own arrangements for handling the file descriptor when
zle is not active.
Any number of handlers for any number of readable file
descriptors may be installed. Installing a handler for
an fd which is already handled causes the existing han-
dler to be replaced.
If no handler is given, but an fd is present, any han-
dler for that fd is removed. If there is none, an error
message is printed and status 1 is returned.
If no arguments are given, or the -L option is supplied,
a list of handlers is printed in a form which can be
stored for later execution.
An fd (but not a handler) may optionally be given with
the -L option; in this case, the function will list the
handler if any, else silently return status 1.
Note that this feature should be used with care. Activ-
ity on one of the fd’s which is not properly handled can
cause the terminal to become unusable.
Here is a simple example of using this feature. A con-
nection to a remote TCP port is created using the ztcp
command; see the description of the zsh/net/tcp module
in zshmodules(1). Then a handler is installed which
simply prints out any data which arrives on this connec-
tion. Note that ‘select’ will indicate that the file
descriptor needs handling if the remote side has closed
the connection; we handle that by testing for a failed
read.
if ztcp pwspc 2811; then
tcpfd=$REPLY
handler() {
zle -I
local line
if ! read -r line <&$1; then
# select marks this fd if we reach EOF,
# so handle this specially.
print "[Read on fd $1 failed, removing.]" >&2
zle -F $1
return 1
fi
print -r - $line
}
zle -F $tcpfd handler
fi
-I Unusually, this option is most useful outside ordinary
widget functions, though it may be used within if normal
output to the terminal is required. It invalidates the
current zle display in preparation for output; typically
this will be from a trap function. It has no effect if
zle is not active. When a trap exits, the shell checks
to see if the display needs restoring, hence the follow-
ing will print output in such a way as not to disturb
the line being edited:
TRAPUSR1() {
# Invalidate zle display
[[ -o zle ]] && zle -I
# Show output
print Hello
}
In general, the trap function may need to test whether
zle is active before using this method (as shown in the
example), since the zsh/zle module may not even be
loaded; if it is not, the command can be skipped.
It is possible to call ‘zle -I’ several times before
control is returned to the editor; the display will only
be invalidated the first time to minimise disruption.
Note that there are normally better ways of manipulating
the display from within zle widgets; see, for example,
‘zle -R’ above.
The status is zero if zle is active and the current zle
display has been invalidated (even if this was by a pre-
vious call to ‘zle -I’), else one.
widget [ -n num ] [ -N ] args ...
Invoke the specified widget. This can only be done when
ZLE is active; normally this will be within a
user-defined widget.
With the options -n and -N, the current numerical argu-
ment will be saved and then restored after the call to
widget; ‘-n num’ sets the numerical argument temporarily
to num, while ‘-N’ sets it to the default, i.e. as if
there were none.
Any further arguments will be passed to the widget. If
it is a shell function, these are passed down as posi-
tional parameters; for builtin widgets it is up to the
widget in question what it does with them. Currently
arguments are only handled by the incremental-search
commands, the history-search-forward and -backward and
the corresponding functions prefixed by vi-, and by uni-
versal-argument. No error is flagged if the command
does not use the arguments, or only uses some of them.
The return status reflects the success or failure of the
operation carried out by the widget, or if it is a
user-defined widget the return status of the shell func-
tion.
A non-zero return status causes the shell to beep when
the widget exits, unless the BEEP options was unset or
the widget was called via the zle command. Thus if a
user defined widget requires an immediate beep, it
should call the beep widget directly.
With no options and no arguments, only the return status will be set.
It is zero if ZLE is currently active and widgets could be invoked
using this builtin command and non-zero if ZLE is not active.
WIDGETS
All actions in the editor are performed by ‘widgets’. A widget’s job
is simply to perform some small action. The ZLE commands that key
sequences in keymaps are bound to are in fact widgets. Widgets can be
user-defined or built in.
The standard widgets built in to ZLE are listed in Standard Widgets
below. Other built-in widgets can be defined by other modules (see
zshmodules(1)). Each built-in widget has two names: its normal canon-
ical name, and the same name preceded by a ‘.’. The ‘.’ name is spe-
cial: it can’t be rebound to a different widget. This makes the wid-
get available even when its usual name has been redefined.
User-defined widgets are defined using ‘zle -N’, and implemented as
shell functions. When the widget is executed, the corresponding shell
function is executed, and can perform editing (or other) actions. It
is recommended that user-defined widgets should not have names start-
ing with ‘.’.
USER-DEFINED WIDGETS
User-defined widgets, being implemented as shell functions, can exe-
cute any normal shell command. They can also run other widgets
(whether built-in or user-defined) using the zle builtin command. The
standard input of the function is closed to prevent external commands
from unintentionally blocking ZLE by reading from the terminal, but
read -k or read -q can be used to read characters. Finally, they can
examine and edit the ZLE buffer being edited by reading and setting
the special parameters described below.
These special parameters are always available in widget functions, but
are not in any way special outside ZLE. If they have some normal
value outside ZLE, that value is temporarily inaccessible, but will
return when the widget function exits. These special parameters in
fact have local scope, like parameters created in a function using
local.
Inside completion widgets and traps called while ZLE is active, these
parameters are available read-only.
BUFFER (scalar)
The entire contents of the edit buffer. If it is written to,
the cursor remains at the same offset, unless that would put it
outside the buffer.
BUFFERLINES (integer)
The number of screen lines needed for the edit buffer currently
displayed on screen (i.e. without any changes to the preceding
parameters done after the last redisplay); read-only.
CONTEXT (scalar)
The context in which zle was called to read a line; read-only.
One of the values:
start The start of a command line (at prompt PS1).
cont A continuation to a command line (at prompt PS2).
select In a select loop.
vared Editing a variable in vared.
CURSOR (integer)
The offset of the cursor, within the edit buffer. This is in
the range 0 to $#BUFFER, and is by definition equal to
$#LBUFFER. Attempts to move the cursor outside the buffer will
result in the cursor being moved to the appropriate end of the
buffer.
CUTBUFFER (scalar)
The last item to be cut using one of the ‘kill-’ commands; the
string which the next yank would insert in the line.
HISTNO (integer)
The current history number; read-only.
KEYMAP (scalar)
The name of the currently selected keymap; read-only.
KEYS (scalar)
The keys typed to invoke this widget, as a literal string;
read-only.
killring (array)
The array of previously killed items, with the most recently
killed first. This gives the items that would be retrieved by
a yank-pop in the same order.
The default size for the kill ring is eight, however the length
may be changed by normal array operations. Any empty string in
the kill ring is ignored by the yank-pop command, hence the
size of the array effectively sets the maximum length of the
kill ring, while the number of non-zero strings gives the cur-
rent length, both as seen by the user at the command line.
LASTSEARCH (scalar)
The last search string used by an interactive search ;
read-only.
LASTWIDGET (scalar)
The name of the last widget that was executed; read-only.
LBUFFER (scalar)
The part of the buffer that lies to the left of the cursor
position. If it is assigned to, only that part of the buffer
is replaced, and the cursor remains between the new $LBUFFER
and the old $RBUFFER.
MARK (integer)
Like CURSOR, but for the mark.
NUMERIC (integer)
The numeric argument. If no numeric argument was given, this
parameter is unset. When this is set inside a widget function,
builtin widgets called with the zle builtin command will use
the value assigned. If it is unset inside a widget function,
builtin widgets called behave as if no numeric argument was
given.
PENDING (integer)
The number of bytes pending for input, i.e. the number of bytes
which have already been typed and can immediately be read. On
systems where the shell is not able to get this information,
this parameter will always have a value of zero. Read-only.
PREBUFFER (scalar)
In a multi-line input at the secondary prompt, this read-only
parameter contains the contents of the lines before the one the
cursor is currently in.
PREDISPLAY (scalar)
Text to be displayed before the start of the editable text
buffer. This does not have to be a complete line; to display a
complete line, a newline must be appended explicitly. The
text is reset on each new invocation (but not recursive invoca-
tion) of zle.
POSTDISPLAY (scalar)
Text to be displayed after the end of the editable text buffer.
This does not have to be a complete line; to display a complete
line, a newline must be prepended explicitly. The text is
reset on each new invocation (but not recursive invocation) of
zle.
RBUFFER (scalar)
The part of the buffer that lies to the right of the cursor
position. If it is assigned to, only that part of the buffer
is replaced, and the cursor remains between the old $LBUFFER
and the new $RBUFFER.
WIDGET (scalar)
The name of the widget currently being executed; read-only.
Special Widget
There is one user-defined widget which is special to the shell. If it
does not exist, no special action is taken. The environment provided
is identical to that for any other editing widget.
zle-line-init
Executed every time the line editor is started to read a new
line of input. The following example puts the line editor into
vi command mode when it starts up.
zle-line-init() { zle -K vicmd; }
zle -N zle-line-init
(The command inside the function sets the keymap directly; it
is equivalent to zle vi-cmd-mode.)
STANDARD WIDGETS
The following is a list of all the standard widgets, and their default
bindings in emacs mode, vi command mode and vi insert mode (the
‘emacs’, ‘vicmd’ and ‘viins’ keymaps, respectively).
Note that cursor keys are bound to movement keys in all three keymaps;
the shell assumes that the cursor keys send the key sequences reported
by the terminal-handling library (termcap or terminfo). The key
sequences shown in the list are those based on the VT100, common on
many modern terminals, but in fact these are not necessarily bound.
In the case of the viins keymap, the initial escape character of the
sequences serves also to return to the vicmd keymap: whether this hap-
pens is determined by the KEYTIMEOUT parameter, see zshparam(1).
Movement
vi-backward-blank-word (unbound) (B) (unbound)
Move backward one word, where a word is defined as a series of
non-blank characters.
backward-char (^B ESC-[D) (unbound) (unbound)
Move backward one character.
vi-backward-char (unbound) (^H h ^?) (ESC-[D)
Move backward one character, without changing lines.
backward-word (ESC-B ESC-b) (unbound) (unbound)
Move to the beginning of the previous word.
emacs-backward-word
Move to the beginning of the previous word.
vi-backward-word (unbound) (b) (unbound)
Move to the beginning of the previous word, vi-style.
beginning-of-line (^A) (unbound) (unbound)
Move to the beginning of the line. If already at the beginning
of the line, move to the beginning of the previous line, if
any.
vi-beginning-of-line
Move to the beginning of the line, without changing lines.
end-of-line (^E) (unbound) (unbound)
Move to the end of the line. If already at the end of the
line, move to the end of the next line, if any.
vi-end-of-line (unbound) ($) (unbound)
Move to the end of the line. If an argument is given to this
command, the cursor will be moved to the end of the line (argu-
ment - 1) lines down.
vi-forward-blank-word (unbound) (W) (unbound)
Move forward one word, where a word is defined as a series of
non-blank characters.
vi-forward-blank-word-end (unbound) (E) (unbound)
Move to the end of the current word, or, if at the end of the
current word, to the end of the next word, where a word is
defined as a series of non-blank characters.
forward-char (^F ESC-[C) (unbound) (unbound)
Move forward one character.
vi-forward-char (unbound) (space l) (ESC-[C)
Move forward one character.
vi-find-next-char (^X^F) (f) (unbound)
Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the next occur-
rence of it in the line.
vi-find-next-char-skip (unbound) (t) (unbound)
Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the position
just before the next occurrence of it in the line.
vi-find-prev-char (unbound) (F) (unbound)
Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the previous
occurrence of it in the line.
vi-find-prev-char-skip (unbound) (T) (unbound)
Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the position
just after the previous occurrence of it in the line.
vi-first-non-blank (unbound) (^) (unbound)
Move to the first non-blank character in the line.
vi-forward-word (unbound) (w) (unbound)
Move forward one word, vi-style.
forward-word (ESC-F ESC-f) (unbound) (unbound)
Move to the beginning of the next word. The editor’s idea of a
word is specified with the WORDCHARS parameter.
emacs-forward-word
Move to the end of the next word.
vi-forward-word-end (unbound) (e) (unbound)
Move to the end of the next word.
vi-goto-column (ESC-|) (|) (unbound)
Move to the column specified by the numeric argument.
vi-goto-mark (unbound) (‘) (unbound)
Move to the specified mark.
vi-goto-mark-line (unbound) (’) (unbound)
Move to beginning of the line containing the specified mark.
vi-repeat-find (unbound) (;) (unbound)
Repeat the last vi-find command.
vi-rev-repeat-find (unbound) (,) (unbound)
Repeat the last vi-find command in the opposite direction.
History Control
beginning-of-buffer-or-history (ESC-<) (unbound) (unbound)
Move to the beginning of the buffer, or if already there, move
to the first event in the history list.
beginning-of-line-hist
Move to the beginning of the line. If already at the beginning
of the buffer, move to the previous history line.
beginning-of-history
Move to the first event in the history list.
down-line-or-history (^N ESC-[B) (j) (ESC-[B)
Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the bottom
line, move to the next event in the history list.
vi-down-line-or-history (unbound) (+) (unbound)
Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the bottom
line, move to the next event in the history list. Then move to
the first non-blank character on the line.
down-line-or-search
Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the bottom
line, search forward in the history for a line beginning with
the first word in the buffer.
If called from a function by the zle command with arguments,
the first argument is taken as the string for which to search,
rather than the first word in the buffer.
down-history (unbound) (^N) (unbound)
Move to the next event in the history list.
history-beginning-search-backward
Search backward in the history for a line beginning with the
current line up to the cursor. This leaves the cursor in its
original position.
end-of-buffer-or-history (ESC->) (unbound) (unbound)
Move to the end of the buffer, or if already there, move to the
last event in the history list.
end-of-line-hist
Move to the end of the line. If already at the end of the
buffer, move to the next history line.
end-of-history
Move to the last event in the history list.
vi-fetch-history (unbound) (G) (unbound)
Fetch the history line specified by the numeric argument. This
defaults to the current history line (i.e. the one that isn’t
history yet).
history-incremental-search-backward (^R ^Xr) (unbound) (unbound)
Search backward incrementally for a specified string. The
search is case-insensitive if the search string does not have
uppercase letters and no numeric argument was given. The
string may begin with ‘^’ to anchor the search to the beginning
of the line.
A restricted set of editing functions is available in the
mini-buffer. An interrupt signal, as defined by the stty set-
ting, will stop the search and go back to the original line.
An undefined key will have the same effect. The supported func-
tions are: backward-delete-char, vi-backward-delete-char,
clear-screen, redisplay, quoted-insert, vi-quoted-insert,
accept-and-hold, accept-and-infer-next-history, accept-line and
accept-line-and-down-history.
magic-space just inserts a space. vi-cmd-mode toggles between
the ‘main’ and ‘vicmd’ keymaps; the ‘main’ keymap (insert mode)
will be selected initially. history-incremental-search-back-
ward will get the next occurrence of the contents of the
mini-buffer. history-incremental-search-forward inverts the
sense of the search. vi-repeat-search and vi-rev-repeat-search
are similarly supported. The direction of the search is indi-
cated in the mini-buffer.
Any multi-character string that is not bound to one of the
above functions will beep and interrupt the search, leaving the
last found line in the buffer. Any single character that is not
bound to one of the above functions, or self-insert or
self-insert-unmeta, will have the same effect but the function
will be executed.
When called from a widget function by the zle command, the
incremental search commands can take a string argument. This
will be treated as a string of keys, as for arguments to the
bindkey command, and used as initial input for the command.
Any characters in the string which are unused by the incremen-
tal search will be silently ignored. For example,
zle history-incremental-search-backward forceps
will search backwards for forceps, leaving the minibuffer con-
taining the string ‘forceps’.
history-incremental-search-forward (^S ^Xs) (unbound) (unbound)
Search forward incrementally for a specified string. The
search is case-insensitive if the search string does not have
uppercase letters and no numeric argument was given. The
string may begin with ‘^’ to anchor the search to the beginning
of the line. The functions available in the mini-buffer are
the same as for history-incremental-search-backward.
history-search-backward (ESC-P ESC-p) (unbound) (unbound)
Search backward in the history for a line beginning with the
first word in the buffer.
If called from a function by the zle command with arguments,
the first argument is taken as the string for which to search,
rather than the first word in the buffer.
vi-history-search-backward (unbound) (/) (unbound)
Search backward in the history for a specified string. The
string may begin with ‘^’ to anchor the search to the beginning
of the line.
A restricted set of editing functions is available in the
mini-buffer. An interrupt signal, as defined by the stty set-
ting, will stop the search. The functions available in the
mini-buffer are: accept-line, backward-delete-char, vi-back-
ward-delete-char, backward-kill-word, vi-backward-kill-word,
clear-screen, redisplay, quoted-insert and vi-quoted-insert.
vi-cmd-mode is treated the same as accept-line, and magic-space
is treated as a space. Any other character that is not bound
to self-insert or self-insert-unmeta will beep and be ignored.
If the function is called from vi command mode, the bindings of
the current insert mode will be used.
If called from a function by the zle command with arguments,
the first argument is taken as the string for which to search,
rather than the first word in the buffer.
history-search-forward (ESC-N ESC-n) (unbound) (unbound)
Search forward in the history for a line beginning with the
first word in the buffer.
If called from a function by the zle command with arguments,
the first argument is taken as the string for which to search,
rather than the first word in the buffer.
vi-history-search-forward (unbound) (?) (unbound)
Search forward in the history for a specified string. The
string may begin with ‘^’ to anchor the search to the beginning
of the line. The functions available in the mini-buffer are the
same as for vi-history-search-backward. Argument handling is
also the same as for that command.
infer-next-history (^X^N) (unbound) (unbound)
Search in the history list for a line matching the current one
and fetch the event following it.
insert-last-word (ESC-_ ESC-.) (unbound) (unbound)
Insert the last word from the previous history event at the
cursor position. If a positive numeric argument is given,
insert that word from the end of the previous history event.
If the argument is zero or negative insert that word from the
left (zero inserts the previous command word). Repeating this
command replaces the word just inserted with the last word from
the history event prior to the one just used; numeric arguments
can be used in the same way to pick a word from that event.
When called from a shell function invoked from a user-defined
widget, the command can take one to three arguments. The first
argument specifies a history offset which applies to successive
calls to this widget: if is -1, the default behaviour is used,
while if it is 1, successive calls will move forwards through
the history. The value 0 can be used to indicate that the his-
tory line examined by the previous execution of the command
will be reexamined. Note that negative numbers should be pre-
ceded with a ‘--’ argument to avoid confusing them with
options.
If two arguments are given, the second specifies the word on
the command line in normal array index notation (as a more nat-
ural alternative to the prefix argument). Hence 1 is the first
word, and -1 (the default) is the last word.
If a third argument is given, its value is ignored, but it is
used to signify that the history offset is relative to the cur-
rent history line, rather than the one remembered after the
previous invocations of insert-last-word.
For example, the default behaviour of the command corresponds
to
zle insert-last-word -- -1 -1
while the command
zle insert-last-word -- -1 1 -
always copies the first word of the line in the history immedi-
ately before the line being edited. This has the side effect
that later invocations of the widget will be relative to that
line.
vi-repeat-search (unbound) (n) (unbound)
Repeat the last vi history search.
vi-rev-repeat-search (unbound) (N) (unbound)
Repeat the last vi history search, but in reverse.
up-line-or-history (^P ESC-[A) (k) (ESC-[A)
Move up a line in the buffer, or if already at the top line,
move to the previous event in the history list.
vi-up-line-or-history (unbound) (-) (unbound)
Move up a line in the buffer, or if already at the top line,
move to the previous event in the history list. Then move to
the first non-blank character on the line.
up-line-or-search
Move up a line in the buffer, or if already at the top line,
search backward in the history for a line beginning with the
first word in the buffer.
If called from a function by the zle command with arguments,
the first argument is taken as the string for which to search,
rather than the first word in the buffer.
up-history (unbound) (^P) (unbound)
Move to the previous event in the history list.
history-beginning-search-forward
Search forward in the history for a line beginning with the
current line up to the cursor. This leaves the cursor in its
original position.
Modifying Text
vi-add-eol (unbound) (A) (unbound)
Move to the end of the line and enter insert mode.
vi-add-next (unbound) (a) (unbound)
Enter insert mode after the current cursor position, without
changing lines.
backward-delete-char (^H ^?) (unbound) (unbound)
Delete the character behind the cursor.
vi-backward-delete-char (unbound) (X) (^H)
Delete the character behind the cursor, without changing lines.
If in insert mode, this won’t delete past the point where
insert mode was last entered.
backward-delete-word
Delete the word behind the cursor.
backward-kill-line
Kill from the beginning of the line to the cursor position.
backward-kill-word (^W ESC-^H ESC-^?) (unbound) (unbound)
Kill the word behind the cursor.
vi-backward-kill-word (unbound) (unbound) (^W)
Kill the word behind the cursor, without going past the point
where insert mode was last entered.
capitalize-word (ESC-C ESC-c) (unbound) (unbound)
Capitalize the current word and move past it.
vi-change (unbound) (c) (unbound)
Read a movement command from the keyboard, and kill from the
cursor position to the endpoint of the movement. Then enter
insert mode. If the command is vi-change, change the current
line.
vi-change-eol (unbound) (C) (unbound)
Kill to the end of the line and enter insert mode.
vi-change-whole-line (unbound) (S) (unbound)
Kill the current line and enter insert mode.
copy-region-as-kill (ESC-W ESC-w) (unbound) (unbound)
Copy the area from the cursor to the mark to the kill buffer.
copy-prev-word (ESC-^_) (unbound) (unbound)
Duplicate the word to the left of the cursor.
copy-prev-shell-word (ESC-^_) (unbound) (unbound)
Like copy-prev-word, but the word is found by using shell pars-
ing, whereas copy-prev-word looks for blanks. This makes a dif-
ference when the word is quoted and contains spaces.
vi-delete (unbound) (d) (unbound)
Read a movement command from the keyboard, and kill from the
cursor position to the endpoint of the movement. If the com-
mand is vi-delete, kill the current line.
delete-char
Delete the character under the cursor.
vi-delete-char (unbound) (x) (unbound)
Delete the character under the cursor, without going past the
end of the line.
delete-word
Delete the current word.
down-case-word (ESC-L ESC-l) (unbound) (unbound)
Convert the current word to all lowercase and move past it.
kill-word (ESC-D ESC-d) (unbound) (unbound)
Kill the current word.
gosmacs-transpose-chars
Exchange the two characters behind the cursor.
vi-indent (unbound) (>) (unbound)
Indent a number of lines.
vi-insert (unbound) (i) (unbound)
Enter insert mode.
vi-insert-bol (unbound) (I) (unbound)
Move to the first non-blank character on the line and enter
insert mode.
vi-join (^X^J) (J) (unbound)
Join the current line with the next one.
kill-line (^K) (unbound) (unbound)
Kill from the cursor to the end of the line. If already on the
end of the line, kill the newline character.
vi-kill-line (unbound) (unbound) (^U)
Kill from the cursor back to wherever insert mode was last
entered.
vi-kill-eol (unbound) (D) (unbound)
Kill from the cursor to the end of the line.
kill-region
Kill from the cursor to the mark.
kill-buffer (^X^K) (unbound) (unbound)
Kill the entire buffer.
kill-whole-line (^U) (unbound) (unbound)
Kill the current line.
vi-match-bracket (^X^B) (%) (unbound)
Move to the bracket character (one of {}, () or []) that
matches the one under the cursor. If the cursor is not on a
bracket character, move forward without going past the end of
the line to find one, and then go to the matching bracket.
vi-open-line-above (unbound) (O) (unbound)
Open a line above the cursor and enter insert mode.
vi-open-line-below (unbound) (o) (unbound)
Open a line below the cursor and enter insert mode.
vi-oper-swap-case
Read a movement command from the keyboard, and swap the case of
all characters from the cursor position to the endpoint of the
movement. If the movement command is vi-oper-swap-case, swap
the case of all characters on the current line.
overwrite-mode (^X^O) (unbound) (unbound)
Toggle between overwrite mode and insert mode.
vi-put-before (unbound) (P) (unbound)
Insert the contents of the kill buffer before the cursor. If
the kill buffer contains a sequence of lines (as opposed to
characters), paste it above the current line.
vi-put-after (unbound) (p) (unbound)
Insert the contents of the kill buffer after the cursor. If
the kill buffer contains a sequence of lines (as opposed to
characters), paste it below the current line.
quoted-insert (^V) (unbound) (unbound)
Insert the next character typed into the buffer literally. An
interrupt character will not be inserted.
vi-quoted-insert (unbound) (unbound) (^Q ^V)
Display a ‘^’ at the cursor position, and insert the next char-
acter typed into the buffer literally. An interrupt character
will not be inserted.
quote-line (ESC-’) (unbound) (unbound)
Quote the current line; that is, put a ‘’’ character at the
beginning and the end, and convert all ‘’’ characters to
‘’\’’’.
quote-region (ESC-") (unbound) (unbound)
Quote the region from the cursor to the mark.
vi-replace (unbound) (R) (unbound)
Enter overwrite mode.
vi-repeat-change (unbound) (.) (unbound)
Repeat the last vi mode text modification. If a count was used
with the modification, it is remembered. If a count is given
to this command, it overrides the remembered count, and is
remembered for future uses of this command. The cut buffer
specification is similarly remembered.
vi-replace-chars (unbound) (r) (unbound)
Replace the character under the cursor with a character read
from the keyboard.
self-insert (printable characters) (unbound) (printable characters and
some control characters)
Insert a character into the buffer at the cursor position.
self-insert-unmeta (ESC-^I ESC-^J ESC-^M) (unbound) (unbound)
Insert a character into the buffer after stripping the meta bit
and converting ^M to ^J.
vi-substitute (unbound) (s) (unbound)
Substitute the next character(s).
vi-swap-case (unbound) (~) (unbound)
Swap the case of the character under the cursor and move past
it.
transpose-chars (^T) (unbound) (unbound)
Exchange the two characters to the left of the cursor if at end
of line, else exchange the character under the cursor with the
character to the left.
transpose-words (ESC-T ESC-t) (unbound) (unbound)
Exchange the current word with the one before it.
vi-unindent (unbound) (<) (unbound)
Unindent a number of lines.
up-case-word (ESC-U ESC-u) (unbound) (unbound)
Convert the current word to all caps and move past it.
yank (^Y) (unbound) (unbound)
Insert the contents of the kill buffer at the cursor position.
yank-pop (ESC-y) (unbound) (unbound)
Remove the text just yanked, rotate the kill-ring, and yank the
new top. Only works following yank or yank-pop.
vi-yank (unbound) (y) (unbound)
Read a movement command from the keyboard, and copy the region
from the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement into
the kill buffer. If the command is vi-yank, copy the current
line.
vi-yank-whole-line (unbound) (Y) (unbound)
Copy the current line into the kill buffer.
vi-yank-eol
Copy the region from the cursor position to the end of the line
into the kill buffer. Arguably, this is what Y should do in
vi, but it isn’t what it actually does.
Arguments
digit-argument (ESC-0..ESC-9) (1-9) (unbound)
Start a new numeric argument, or add to the current one. See
also vi-digit-or-beginning-of-line. This only works if bound
to a key sequence ending in a decimal digit.
Inside a widget function, a call to this function treats the
last key of the key sequence which called the widget as the
digit.
neg-argument (ESC--) (unbound) (unbound)
Changes the sign of the following argument.
universal-argument
Multiply the argument of the next command by 4. Alternatively,
if this command is followed by an integer (positive or nega-
tive), use that as the argument for the next command. Thus
digits cannot be repeated using this command. For example, if
this command occurs twice, followed immediately by for-
ward-char, move forward sixteen spaces; if instead it is fol-
lowed by -2, then forward-char, move backward two spaces.
Inside a widget function, if passed an argument, i.e. ‘zle uni-
versal-argument num’, the numerical argument will be set to
num; this is equivalent to ‘NUMERIC=num’.
Completion
accept-and-menu-complete
In a menu completion, insert the current completion into the
buffer, and advance to the next possible completion.
complete-word
Attempt completion on the current word.
delete-char-or-list (^D) (unbound) (unbound)
Delete the character under the cursor. If the cursor is at the
end of the line, list possible completions for the current
word.
expand-cmd-path
Expand the current command to its full pathname.
expand-or-complete (TAB) (unbound) (TAB)
Attempt shell expansion on the current word. If that fails,
attempt completion.
expand-or-complete-prefix
Attempt shell expansion on the current word up to cursor.
expand-history (ESC-space ESC-!) (unbound) (unbound)
Perform history expansion on the edit buffer.
expand-word (^X*) (unbound) (unbound)
Attempt shell expansion on the current word.
list-choices (ESC-^D) (^D =) (^D)
List possible completions for the current word.
list-expand (^Xg ^XG) (^G) (^G)
List the expansion of the current word.
magic-space
Perform history expansion and insert a space into the buffer.
This is intended to be bound to space.
menu-complete
Like complete-word, except that menu completion is used. See
the MENU_COMPLETE option.
menu-expand-or-complete
Like expand-or-complete, except that menu completion is used.
reverse-menu-complete
Perform menu completion, like menu-complete, except that if a
menu completion is already in progress, move to the previous
completion rather than the next.
end-of-list
When a previous completion displayed a list below the prompt,
this widget can be used to move the prompt below the list.
Miscellaneous
accept-and-hold (ESC-A ESC-a) (unbound) (unbound)
Push the contents of the buffer on the buffer stack and execute
it.
accept-and-infer-next-history
Execute the contents of the buffer. Then search the history
list for a line matching the current one and push the event
following onto the buffer stack.
accept-line (^J ^M) (^J ^M) (^J ^M)
Finish editing the buffer. Normally this causes the buffer to
be executed as a shell command.
accept-line-and-down-history (^O) (unbound) (unbound)
Execute the current line, and push the next history event on
the the buffer stack.
beep Beep, unless the BEEP option is unset.
vi-cmd-mode (^X^V) (unbound) (^[)
Enter command mode; that is, select the ‘vicmd’ keymap. Yes,
this is bound by default in emacs mode.
vi-caps-lock-panic
Hang until any lowercase key is pressed. This is for vi users
without the mental capacity to keep track of their caps lock
key (like the author).
clear-screen (^L ESC-^L) (^L) (^L)
Clear the screen and redraw the prompt.
describe-key-briefly
Reads a key sequence, then prints the function bound to that
sequence.
exchange-point-and-mark (^X^X) (unbound) (unbound)
Exchange the cursor position with the position of the mark.
execute-named-cmd (ESC-x) (unbound) (unbound)
Read the name of an editor command and execute it. A
restricted set of editing functions is available in the
mini-buffer. An interrupt signal, as defined by the stty set-
ting, will abort the function. The allowed functions are: back-
ward-delete-char, vi-backward-delete-char, clear-screen, redis-
play, quoted-insert, vi-quoted-insert, backward-kill-word,
vi-backward-kill-word, kill-whole-line, vi-kill-line, back-
ward-kill-line, list-choices, delete-char-or-list,
complete-word, accept-line, expand-or-complete and
expand-or-complete-prefix.
kill-region kills the last word, and vi-cmd-mode is treated the
same as accept-line. The space and tab characters, if not
bound to one of these functions, will complete the name and
then list the possibilities if the AUTO_LIST option is set.
Any other character that is not bound to self-insert or
self-insert-unmeta will beep and be ignored. The bindings of
the current insert mode will be used.
execute-last-named-cmd (ESC-z) (unbound) (unbound)
Redo the last function executed with execute-named-cmd.
get-line (ESC-G ESC-g) (unbound) (unbound)
Pop the top line off the buffer stack and insert it at the cur-
sor position.
pound-insert (unbound) (#) (unbound)
If there is no # character at the beginning of the buffer, add
one to the beginning of each line. If there is one, remove a #
from each line that has one. In either case, accept the cur-
rent line. The INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS option must be set for
this to have any usefulness.
vi-pound-insert
If there is no # character at the beginning of the current
line, add one. If there is one, remove it. The INTERAC-
TIVE_COMMENTS option must be set for this to have any useful-
ness.
push-input
Push the entire current multiline construct onto the buffer
stack and return to the top-level (PS1) prompt. If the current
parser construct is only a single line, this is exactly like
push-line. Next time the editor starts up or is popped with
get-line, the construct will be popped off the top of the
buffer stack and loaded into the editing buffer.
push-line (^Q ESC-Q ESC-q) (unbound) (unbound)
Push the current buffer onto the buffer stack and clear the
buffer. Next time the editor starts up, the buffer will be
popped off the top of the buffer stack and loaded into the
editing buffer.
push-line-or-edit
At the top-level (PS1) prompt, equivalent to push-line. At a
secondary (PS2) prompt, move the entire current multiline con-
struct into the editor buffer. The latter is equivalent to
push-input followed by get-line.
recursive-edit
Only useful from a user-defined widget. At this point in the
function, the editor regains control until one of the standard
widgets which would normally cause zle to exit (typically an
accept-line caused by hitting the return key) is executed.
Instead, control returns to the user-defined widget. The sta-
tus returned is non-zero if the return was caused by an error,
but the function still continues executing and hence may tidy
up. This makes it safe for the user-defined widget to alter
the command line or key bindings temporarily.
The following widget, caps-lock, serves as an example.
self-insert-ucase() {
LBUFFER+=${(U)KEYS[-1]}
}
integer stat
zle -N self-insert self-insert-ucase
zle -A caps-lock save-caps-lock
zle -A accept-line caps-lock
zle recursive-edit
stat=$?
zle -A .self-insert self-insert
zle -A save-caps-lock caps-lock
zle -D save-caps-lock
(( stat )) && zle send-break
return $stat
This causes typed letters to be inserted capitalised until
either accept-line (i.e. typically the return key) is typed or
the caps-lock widget is invoked again; the later is handled by
saving the old definition of caps-lock as save-caps-lock and
then rebinding it to invoke accept-line. Note that an error
from the recursive edit is detected as a non-zero return status
and propagated by using the send-break widget.
redisplay (unbound) (^R) (^R)
Redisplays the edit buffer.
send-break (^G ESC-^G) (unbound) (unbound)
Abort the current editor function, e.g. execute-named-command,
or the editor itself, e.g. if you are in vared. Otherwise abort
the parsing of the current line.
run-help (ESC-H ESC-h) (unbound) (unbound)
Push the buffer onto the buffer stack, and execute the command
‘run-help cmd’, where cmd is the current command. run-help is
normally aliased to man.
vi-set-buffer (unbound) (") (unbound)
Specify a buffer to be used in the following command. There
are 35 buffers that can be specified: the 26 ‘named’ buffers "a
to "z and the nine ‘queued’ buffers "1 to "9. The named
buffers can also be specified as "A to "Z.
When a buffer is specified for a cut command, the text being
cut replaces the previous contents of the specified buffer. If
a named buffer is specified using a capital, the newly cut text
is appended to the buffer instead of overwriting it.
If no buffer is specified for a cut command, "1 is used, and
the contents of "1 to "8 are each shifted along one buffer; the
contents of "9 is lost.
vi-set-mark (unbound) (m) (unbound)
Set the specified mark at the cursor position.
set-mark-command (^@) (unbound) (unbound)
Set the mark at the cursor position.
spell-word (ESC-$ ESC-S ESC-s) (unbound) (unbound)
Attempt spelling correction on the current word.
undefined-key
This command is executed when a key sequence that is not bound
to any command is typed. By default it beeps.
undo (^_ ^Xu ^X^U) (unbound) (unbound)
Incrementally undo the last text modification.
redo Incrementally redo undone text modifications.
vi-undo-change (unbound) (u) (unbound)
Undo the last text modification. If repeated, redo the modifi-
cation.
what-cursor-position (^X=) (unbound) (unbound)
Print the character under the cursor, its code as an octal,
decimal and hexadecimal number, the current cursor position
within the buffer and the column of the cursor in the current
line.
where-is
Read the name of an editor command and and print the listing of
key sequences that invoke the specified command.
which-command (ESC-?) (unbound) (unbound)
Push the buffer onto the buffer stack, and execute the command
‘which-command cmd’. where cmd is the current command.
which-command is normally aliased to whence.
vi-digit-or-beginning-of-line (unbound) (0) (unbound)
If the last command executed was a digit as part of an argu-
ment, continue the argument. Otherwise, execute vi-begin-
ning-of-line.
zsh 4.2.0 March 19, 2004 ZSHZLE(1)
