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 significant of these are documented here. For documentation on other contributed items such as shell functions, look for comments in the function 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 distribution, 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 command.
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 distribution in your home directory, you would use the commands:
mkdir ~/zsh_help cd ~/zsh_help man zshall | colcrt - | \ perl ~/zsh-4.3.10/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 zshparam(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 appropriate 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 usually 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 wont 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 compiled 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 quiets 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:
This compiles ~/.zshrc into ~/.zshrc.zwc if that doesnt 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 functions to the digest. | |||
The following shell loop is an example of a method for creating function 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 arguments.
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-4.3.10/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 associative 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 installation; if it is not, copy Functions/Misc/zkbd to an appropriate directory.
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 problem 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 distribution, 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-4.3.10/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, its 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 usually 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 youre 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:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manipulating Hook Functions
add-zsh-hook [-dD] hook function | |
Several functions are special to the shell, as described in the section
SPECIAL FUNCTIONS, see zshmisc(1),
in that they are automatic called at a specific point during shell execution.
Each has an associated array consisting of names of functions to be
called at the same point; these are so-called hook functions.
The shell function add-zsh-hook provides a simple way of adding or
removing functions from the array.
hook is one of chpwd, periodic, precmd or preexec, the special functions in question. functions is name of an ordinary shell function. If no options are given this will be added to the array of functions to be executed. in the given context. If the option -d is given, the function is removed from the array of functions to be executed. If the option -D is given, the function is treated as a pattern and any matching names of functions are removed from the array of functions to be executed. | |
GATHERING INFORMATION FROM VERSION CONTROL SYSTEMS
In a lot of cases, it is nice to automatically retrieve information from version control systems (VCSs), such as subversion, CVS or git, to be able to provide it to the user; possibly in the users prompt. So that you can instantly tell on which branch you are currently on, for example.
In order to do that, you may use the vcs_info function.
The following VCSs are supported, showing the abbreviated name by which they are referred to within the system:
Bazaar (bzr) | |
http://bazaar-vcs.org/ | |
Codeville (cdv) | |
http://codeville.org/ | |
Concurrent Versioning System (cvs) | |
http://www.nongnu.org/cvs/ | |
darcs | http://darcs.net/ |
git | http://git.or.cz/ |
GNU arch (tla) | |
http://www.gnu.org/software/gnu-arch/ | |
Mercurial (hg) | |
http://selenic.com/mercurial/ | |
Monotone (mtn) | |
http://monotone.ca/ | |
Perforce (p4) | |
http://www.perforce.com/ | |
Subversion (svn) | |
http://subversion.tigris.org/ | |
SVK (svk) | |
http://svk.bestpractical.com/ | |
To load vcs_info:
| |
autoload -Uz vcs_info | |
Quickstart
To get this feature working quickly (including colors), you can do the following (assuming, you loaded vcs_info properly - see above):
zstyle :vcs_info:* actionformats \ %F{5}(%f%s%F{5})%F{3}-%F{5}[%F{2}%b%F{3}|%F{1}%a%F{5}]%f zstyle :vcs_info:* formats \ %F{5}(%f%s%F{5})%F{3}-%F{5}[%F{2}%b%F{5}]%f zstyle :vcs_info:(sv[nk]|bzr):* branchformat %b%F{1}:%F{3}%r precmd () { vcs_info } PS1=%F{5}[%F{2}%n%F{5}] %F{3}%3~ ${vcs_info_msg_0_}%f%#
Obviously, the last two lines are there for demonstration: You need to call vcs_info from your precmd function. Once that is done you need a single quoted ${vcs_info_msg_0_} in your prompt.
To be able to use ${vcs_info_msg_0_} directly in your prompt like this, you will need to have the PROMPT_SUBST option enabled.
Now call the vcs_info_printsys utility from the command line:
% vcs_info_printsys ## list of supported version control backends: ## disabled systems are prefixed by a hash sign (#) bzr cdv cvs darcs git hg mtn p4 svk svn tla ## flavours (cannot be used in the enable or disable styles; they ## are enabled and disabled with their master [git-svn -> git]) ## they *can* be used contexts: :vcs_info:git-svn:*. git-p4 git-svn
You may not want all of these because there is no point in running the code to detect systems you do not use. So there is a way to disable some backends altogether:
zstyle :vcs_info:* disable bzr cdv darcs mtn svk tla
You may also pick a few from that list and enable only those:
zstyle :vcs_info:* enable git cvs svn
If you rerun vcs_info_printsys after one of these commands, you will see the backends listed in the disable style (or backends not in the enable style - if you used that) marked as disabled by a hash sign. That means the detection of these systems is skipped completely. No wasted time there.
Configuration
The vcs_info feature can be configured via zstyle.
First, the context in which we are working:
:vcs_info:<vcs-string>:<user-context>:<repo-root-name>
<vcs-string> | |||
is one of: git, git-svn, git-p4, hg, darcs, bzr, cdv, mtn, svn, cvs, svk, tla or p4. | |||
<user-context> | |||
is a freely configurable string, assignable by the user as the first argument to vcs_info (see its description below). | |||
<repo-root-name> | |||
is the name of a repository in which you want a style to match. So, if you want a setting specific to /usr/src/zsh, with that being a cvs checkout, you can set <repo-root-name> to zsh to make it so. | |||
There are three special values for <vcs-string>: The first is named -init-, that is in effect as long as there was no decision what vcs backend to use. The second is -preinit-; it is used before vcs_info is run, when initializing the data exporting variables. The third special value is formats and is used by the vcs_info_lastmsg for looking up its styles. | |||
The initial value of <repo-root-name> is -all- and it is replaced with the actual name, as soon as it is known. Only use this part of the context for defining the formats, actionformats or branchformat styles. As it is guaranteed that <repo-root-name> is set up correctly for these only. For all other styles, just use * instead. | |||
There are two pre-defined values for <user-context>: | |||
default | |||
the one used if none is specified | |||
command | |||
used by vcs_info_lastmsg to lookup its styles | |||
You can of course use :vcs_info:* to match all VCSs in all user-contexts at once. | |||
This is a description of all styles that are looked up. | |||
formats | |||
A list of formats, used when actionformats is not used (which is most of the time). | |||
actionformats | |||
A list of formats, used if a there is a special action going on in your current repository; (like an interactive rebase or a merge conflict). | |||
branchformat | |||
Some backends replace %b in the formats and actionformats styles above, not only by a branch name but also by a revision number. This style lets you modify how that string should look like. | |||
nvcsformats | |||
These "formats" are exported, when we didnt detect a version control system for the current directory. This is useful, if you want vcs_info to completely take over the generation of your prompt. You would do something like PS1=${vcs_info_msg_0_} to accomplish that. | |||
stgitformat | |||
The git backend replaces %m in the formats and actionformats styles with stgit-specific information for stgit-initialized branches. This style lets you modify how that string should look like. | |||
max-exports | |||
Defines the maximum number if vcs_info_msg_*_ variables vcs_info will export. | |||
enable | A list of backends you want to use. Checked in the -init- context. If this list contains an item called NONE no backend is used at all and vcs_info will do nothing. If this list contains ALL vcs_info will use all backends known to it. Only with ALL in enable, the disable style has any effect. ALL and NONE are actually tested case insensitively. | ||
disable | |||
A list of VCSs, you dont want vcs_info to test for repositories (checked in the -init- context, too). Only used if enable contains ALL. | |||
disable-patterns | |||
A list of patterns that are checked against $PWD. If a pattern
matches, vcs_info will be disabled. This style is checked in the
:vcs_info:-init-:*:-all- context.
Say, ~/.zsh is a directory under version control, in which you do not want vcs_info to be active, do:
| |||
check-for-changes | |||
If enabled, this style (currently only used by the git backend) causes the
%c and %u format escapes to be filled with information. The strings
filled into these escapes can be controlled via the stagedstr and
unstagedstr styles.
Note, that the actions taken if this style is enabled are potentially expensive (read: they take time, depending on how big the current repository is). Therefore, it is disabled by default. | |||
stagedstr | |||
This string will be used in the %c escape if there are staged changes in the repository. | |||
unstagedstr | |||
This string will be used in the %u escape if there are unstaged changes in the repository. | |||
command | |||
This style causes vcs_info to use the supplied string as the command
to use as the vcss binary. Note, that setting this in :vcs_info:* is
not a good idea.
If the value of this style is empty (which is the default), the used binary name is the name of the backend in use (e.g. svn is used in a svn repository). The repo-root-name part in the context is always the default -all- when this style is looked up. For example, this style can be used to use binaries from non-default installation directories. Assume, git is installed in /usr/bin, but your sysadmin installed a newer version in /usr/bin/local. Now, instead of changing the order of your $PATH parameter, you can do this:
| |||
use-server | |||
This is used by the Perforce backend (p4) to decide if it should contact the Perforce server to find out if a directory is managed by Perforce. This is the only reliable way of doing this, but runs the risk of a delay if the server name cannot be found. If the server (more specifically, the host:port pair describing the server) cannot be contacted its name is put into the associative array vcs_info_p4_dead_servers and not contacted again during the session until it is removed by hand. If you do not set this style, the p4 backend is only usable if you have set the environment variable P4CONFIG to a file name and have corresponding files in the root directories of each Perforce client. See comments in the function VCS_INFO_detect_p4 for more detail. | |||
use-simple | |||
If there are two different ways of gathering information, you can select the simpler one by setting this style to true; the default is to use the not-that-simple code, which is potentially a lot slower but might be more accurate in all possible cases. This style is only used by the bzr backend. | |||
get-revision | |||
If set to true, vcs_info goes the extra mile to figure out the revision of a repositorys work tree (currently for the git and hg backends, where this kind of information is not always vital). For git, the hash value of the currently checked out commit is available via the %i expansion. With hg, the local revision number is available via %i and the corresponding global hash is available via %m. If this style is set in the hg context, the backend supports the branchformat style. | |||
use-prompt-escapes | |||
Determines if we assume that the assembled string from vcs_info includes prompt escapes. (Used by vcs_info_lastmsg.) | |||
The default values for these styles in all contexts are: | |||
formats | |||
" (%s)-[%b|%a]-" | |||
actionformats | |||
" (%s)-[%b]-" | |||
branchformat | |||
"%b:%r" (for bzr, svn and svk) | |||
nvcsformats | |||
"" | |||
stgitformat | |||
" %p (%c)" | |||
max-exports | |||
2 | |||
enable | ALL | ||
disable | |||
(empty list) | |||
disable-patterns | |||
(empty list) | |||
check-for-changes | |||
false | |||
stagedstr | |||
(string: "S") | |||
unstagedstr | |||
(string: "U") | |||
command | |||
(empty string) | |||
use-server | |||
false | |||
use-simple | |||
false | |||
get-revision | |||
false | |||
use-prompt-escapes | |||
true | |||
In normal formats and actionformats, the following replacements are done: | |||
%s | The vcs in use (git, hg, svn etc.) | ||
%b | Information about the current branch. | ||
%a | An identifier, that describes the action. Only makes sense in actionformats. | ||
%i | The current revision number or identifier. | ||
%c | The string from the stagedstr style if there are staged changes in the repository. | ||
%u | The string from the unstagedstr style if there are unstaged changes in the repository. | ||
%R | base directory of the repository. | ||
%r | repository name. If %R is /foo/bar/repoXY, %r is repoXY. | ||
%S | subdirectory within a repository. If $PWD is /foo/bar/reposXY/beer/tasty, %S is beer/tasty. | ||
%m | A "misc" replacement. It is at the discretion of the backend to decide what this replacement expands to. It is currently used by the hg and git backends. The hg backend replaces %m with the global hash value of the current revision and the git backend replaces it with the string from the stgitformat style. | ||
In branchformat these replacements are done: | |||
%b | the branch name | ||
%r | the current revision number | ||
In stgitformat these replacements are done: | |||
%p | the name of the patch currently on top of the stack | ||
%c | the number of unapplied patches | ||
Oddities
If you want to use the %b (bold off) prompt expansion in formats, which expands %b itself, use %%b. That will cause the vcs_info expansion to replace %%b with %b. So zshs prompt expansion mechanism can handle it. Similarly, to hand down %b from branchformat, use %%%%b. Sorry for this inconvenience, but it cannot be easily avoided. Luckily we do not clash with a lot of prompt expansions and this only needs to be done for those.
Function descriptions (public API)
vcs_info [user-context] | |
The main function, that runs all backends and assembles all data into ${vcs_info_msg_*_}. This is the function you want to call from precmd if you want to include up-to-date information in your prompt (see Variable description below). If an argument is given, that string will be used instead of default in the user-context field of the style context. | |
vcs_info_lastmsg | |
Outputs the last ${vcs_info_msg_*_} value. Takes into account the value of the use-prompt-escapes style in :vcs_info:formats:command:-all-. It also only prints max-exports values. | |
vcs_info_printsys [user-context] | |
Prints a list of all supported version control systems. Useful to find out possible contexts (and which of them are enabled) or values for the disable style. | |
vcs_info_setsys | |
Initializes vcs_infos internal list of available backends. With this function, you can add support for new VCSs without restarting the shell. | |
Variable description
${vcs_info_msg_N_} (Note the trailing underscore) | |
Where N is an integer, eg: vcs_info_msg_0_ These variables are the storage for the informational message the last vcs_info call has assembled. These are strongly connected to the formats, actionformats and nvcsformats styles described above. Those styles are lists. The first member of that list gets expanded into ${vcs_info_msg_0_}, the second into ${vcs_info_msg_1_} and the Nth into ${vcs_info_msg_N-1_}. These parameters are exported into the environment. (See the max-exports style above.) | |
Examples
Dont use vcs_info at all (even though its in your prompt):
zstyle :vcs_info:* enable NONE
Disable the backends for bzr and svk:
zstyle :vcs_info:* disable bzr svk
Disable everything but bzr and svk:
zstyle :vcs_info:* enable bzr svk
Provide a special formats for git:
zstyle :vcs_info:git:* formats GIT, BABY! [%b] zstyle :vcs_info:git:* actionformats GIT ACTION! [%b|%a]
Use the quicker bzr backend
zstyle :vcs_info:bzr:* use-simple true
If you do use use-simple, please report if it does the-right-thing[tm].
Display the revision number in yellow for bzr and svn:
zstyle :vcs_info:(svn|bzr):* branchformat %b%{${fg[yellow]}%}:%r
If you want colors, make sure you enclose the color codes in %{...%}, if you want to use the string provided by vcs_info in prompts.
Here is how to print the vcs information as a command (not in a prompt):
alias vcsi=vcs_info command; vcs_info_lastmsg
This way, you can even define different formats for output via vcs_info_lastmsg in the :vcs_info:formats:command:* namespace.
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 functionpromptinit. 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 initialize 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 arguments, which should be given after the theme name. See the help for each theme for descriptions of these arguments. Options are:
| |||||||||||
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 themes 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 sufficient:
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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-word-context, 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 function 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 character is examined.
The word-context style is implemented by the function match-word-context. This should not usually need to be called directly. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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:
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 multiple places in
this string where characters are missing or differ 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.
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history-search-end | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This function implements the widgets
history-beginning-search-backward-end and
history-beginning-search-forward-end. These commands work by first
calling the corresponding 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.
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history-beginning-search-menu | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This function implements yet another form of history searching. The
text before the cursor is used to select lines from the history,
as for history-beginning-search-backward except that all matches are
shown in a numbered menu. Typing the appropriate digits inserts the
full history line. Note that leading zeroes must be typed (they are only
shown when necessary for removing ambiguity). The entire history is
searched; there is no distinction between forwards and backwards.
With a prefix argument, the search is not anchored to the start of the line; the string typed by the use may appear anywhere in the line in the history. If the widget name contains -end the cursor is moved to the end of the line inserted. If the widget name contains -space any space in the text typed is treated as a wildcard and can match anything (hence a leading space is equivalent to giving a prefix argument). Both forms can be combined, for example:
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history-pattern-search | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The function history-pattern-search implements widgets which prompt
for a pattern with which to search the history backwards or forwards. The
pattern is in the usual zsh format, however the first character may be
^ to anchor the search to the start of the line, and the last character
may be $ to anchor the search to the end of the line. If the
search was not anchored to the end of the line the cursor is positioned
just after the pattern found.
The commands to create bindable widgets are similar to those in the example immediately above:
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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 incremented 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 to
something other than one.
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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.
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insert-composed-char | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This function allows you to compose characters that dont appear on the
keyboard to be inserted into the command line. The command is followed by
two keys corresponding to ASCII characters (there is no prompt). For
accented characters, the two keys are a base character followed by a code
for the accent, while for other special characters the two characters
together form a mnemonic for the character to be inserted. The
two-character codes are a subset of those given by RFC 1345 (see for
example http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1345.html).
The function may optionally be followed by up to two characters which replace one or both of the characters read from the keyboard; if both characters are supplied, no input is read. For example, insert-composed-char a: can be used within a widget to insert an a with umlaut into the command line. This has the advantages over use of a literal character that it is more portable. For best results zsh should have been built with support for multibyte characters (configured with --enable-multibyte); however, the function works for the limited range of characters available in single-byte character sets such as ISO-8859-1. The character is converted into the local representation and inserted into the command line at the cursor position. (The conversion is done within the shell, using whatever facilities the C library provides.) With a numeric argument, the character and its code are previewed in the status line The function may be run outside zle in which case it prints the character (together with a newline) to standard output. Input is still read from keystrokes. See insert-unicode-char for an alternative way of inserting Unicode characters using their hexadecimal character number. The set of accented characters is reasonably complete up to Unicode character U+0180, the set of special characters less so. However, it it is very sporadic from that point. Adding new characters is easy, however; see the function define-composed-chars. Please send any additions to zsh-workers@sunsite.dk. The codes for the second character when used to accent the first are as follows. Note that not every character can take every accent.
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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.
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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 function from a user-defined widget; by default, the text outside the editable area remains visible. A recursive-edit is performed and the original widening status is then restored. Various 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 respectively 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 recursive-edit, then call this function with the option -R. The argument statepm must be a suitable name for an ordinary parameter, 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 narrow-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.
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insert-unicode-char | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
When first executed, the user inputs a set of hexadecimal digits.
This is terminated with another call to insert-unicode-char.
The digits are then turned into the corresponding Unicode character.
For example, if the widget is bound to ^XU, the character sequence
^XU 4 c ^XU inserts L (Unicode U+004c).
See insert-composed-char for a way of inserting characters using a two-character mnemonic. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
predict-on | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This set of functions implements predictive typing using history 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 dont even need to use predict-off, because if the
line doesnt 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 position (usually the end of the current word, but sometimes somewhere in the middle of the word). And of course as soon as the entire line is what you want, you can accept with return, without needing to move the cursor to the end first. The first time predict-on is used, it creates several additional widget functions:
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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 example, 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 one argument is supplied to the function it is taken as a prompt, otherwise ? is used. If two arguments are supplied, they are the prompt and the initial value of $LBUFFER, and if a third argument is given it is the initial value of $RBUFFER. This provides a default value and starting cursor placement. Upon return the entire buffer is the value of $REPLY. 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, so depending on the terminal settings the input may not be visible, and only the input keys are placed in $REPLY, not the entire buffer. Note that unlike the read builtin num must be given; there is no default. The name is a slight misnomer, as in fact the shells 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
replace-string-again, replace-pattern-again | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 second
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 matching. 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 contain 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. By default the previous source or replacement string will not be offered for editing. However, this feature can be activated by setting the style edit-previous in the context :zle:widget (for example, :zle:replace-string) to true. In addition, a positive numeric argument forces the previous values to be offered, a negative or zero argument forces them not to be. The function replace-string-again can be used to repeat the previous replacement; no prompting is done. As with replace-string, if the name of the widget contains the word pattern, pattern matching is performed, else a literal string replacement. Note that the previous source and replacement text are the same whether pattern or string matching is used. For example, starting from the line:
and invoking replace-pattern with the source string f(?)n and the replacement string c\1r produces the not very useful line:
The range of the replacement string can be limited by using the narrow-to-region-invisible widget. One limitation of the current 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:
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_COMMENTS 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 alphabetic 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 different widgets to use different patterns:
If no interesting word is found and the auto-previous style is set to a true value, the search continues upward through the history. When auto-previous is unset or false (the default), the widget must be invoked repeatedly in order to search earlier history lines. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
which-command | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This function is a drop-in replacement for the builtin widget
which-command. It has enhanced behaviour, in that it correctly
detects whether or not the command word needs to be expanded as an
alias; if so, it continues tracing the command word from the expanded
alias until it reaches the command that will be executed.
The style whence is available in the context :zle:$WIDGET; this may be set to an array to give the command and options that will be used to investigate the command word found. The default is whence -c. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Utility Functions
These functions are useful in constructing widgets. They should be loaded with autoload -U function and called as indicated from user-defined widgets.
split-shell-arguments | |||||
This function splits the line currently being edited into shell arguments
and whitespace. The result is stored in the array reply. The array
contains all the parts of the line in order, starting with any whitespace
before the first argument, and finishing with any whitespace after the last
argument. Hence (so long as the option KSH_ARRAYS is not set)
whitespace is given by odd indices in the array and arguments by
even indices. Note that no stripping of quotes is done; joining together
all the elements of reply in order is guaranteed to produce the
original line.
The parameter REPLY is set to the index of the word in reply which contains the character after the cursor, where the first element has index 1. The parameter REPLY2 is set to the index of the character under the cursor in that word, where the first character has index 1. Hence reply, REPLY and REPLY2 should all be made local to the enclosing function. See the function modify-current-argument, described below, for an example of how to call this function. | |||||
modify-current-argument expr-using-$ARG | |||||
This function provides a simple method of allowing user-defined widgets
to modify the command line argument under the cursor (or immediately to the
left of the cursor if the cursor is between arguments). The argument
should be an expression which when evaluated operates on the shell
parameter ARG, which will have been set to the command line argument
under the cursor. The expression should be suitably quoted to prevent
it being evaluated too early.
For example, a user-defined widget containing the following code converts the characters in the argument under the cursor into all upper case:
The following strips any quoting from the current word (whether backslashes or one of the styles of quotes), and replaces it with single quoting throughout:
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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 completion, completion and correction for
incremental completion and only completion for prediction one could use:
It is a good idea to restrict the completers used in prediction, because they may be automatically invoked as you type. The _list and _menu completers should never be used with prediction. The _approximate, _correct, _expand, and _match completers 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 completion has
been tried. Values are:
| ||||||||||
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 :completion: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 pattern
(using full EXTENDED_GLOB syntax) that matches an interesting 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:
However, you might want to include words that contain spaces:
Or include numbers as long as the word is at least two characters long:
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:
| ||||||||||
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 widgets 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 widgets 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 display these messages. | |||||||||||
widget | This style is similar to the command style: For widget functions that
use zle to call other widgets, this style can sometimes be used to
override the widget which is called. The context 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).
Check the documentation for the calling widget or function to determine whether the widget style is used. | ||||||||||
EXCEPTION HANDLING
Two functions are provided to enable zsh to provide exception handling in a form that should be familiar from other languages.
throw exception | |
The function throw throws the named exception. The name is an arbitrary string and is only used by the throw and catch functions. An exception is for the most part treated the same as a shell error, i.e. an unhandled exception will cause the shell to abort all processing in a function or script and to return to the top level in an interactive shell. | |
catch exception-pattern | |
The function catch returns status zero if an exception was thrown and the pattern exception-pattern matches its name. Otherwise it returns status 1. exception-pattern is a standard shell pattern, respecting the current setting of the EXTENDED_GLOB option. An alias catch is also defined to prevent the argument to the function from matching filenames, so patterns may be used unquoted. Note that as exceptions are not fundamentally different from other shell errors it is possible to catch shell errors by using an empty string as the exception name. The shell variable CAUGHT is set by catch to the name of the exception caught. It is possible to rethrow an exception by calling the throw function again once an exception has been caught. | |
The functions are designed to be used together with the always construct
described in
zshmisc(1). This is important as only this
construct provides the required support for exceptions. A typical example
is as follows.
| |
{ # "try" block # ... nested code here calls "throw MyExcept" } always { # "always" block if catch MyExcept; then print "Caught exception MyExcept" elif catch ; then print "Caught a shell error. Propagating..." throw fi # Other exceptions are not handled but may be caught further # up the call stack. } | |
If all exceptions should be caught, the following idiom might be
preferable.
| |
{ # ... nested code here throws an exception } always { if catch *; then case $CAUGHT in (MyExcept) print "Caught my own exception" ;; (*) print "Caught some other exception" ;; esac fi } | |
The system internally uses the shell variable EXCEPTION to record the name of the exception between throwing and catching. One drawback of this scheme is that if the exception is not handled the variable EXCEPTION remains set and may be incorrectly recognised as the name of an exception if a shell error subsequently occurs. Adding unset EXCEPTION at the start of the outermost layer of any code that uses exception handling will eliminate this problem.
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 [ -fv ] [ -l [ suffix ... ] ]
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 systems 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 overwritten. For suffixes defined in lower case, upper case variants will also automatically be handled (e.g. PDF is automatically handled if handling for the suffix pdf is defined), but not vice versa. 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 existing suffix aliases assigned to handlers other than zsh-mime-handler. Calling zsh-mime-setup with the option -l lists the existing mappings without altering them. Suffixes to list (which may contain pattern characters that should be quoted from immediate interpretation on the command line) may be given as additional arguments, otherwise all suffixes are listed. 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 copiousoutput, 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.
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pick-web-browser | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This function is separate from the two MIME functions described above
and can be assigned directly to a suffix:
It is provided as an intelligent front end to dispatch a web browser. It may be run as either a function or a shell script. The status 255 is returned if no browser could be started. Various styles are available to customize the choice of browsers:
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MATHEMATICAL FUNCTIONS
zcalc [ expression ... ] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A reasonably powerful calculator based on zshs 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 mathematical 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. The last value calculated is available as ans. Full command line editing, including the history 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 (q is allowed for historical compatibility). 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. 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> . A few special commands are available; these are introduced by a colon. For backward compatibility, the colon may be omitted for certain commands. Completion is available if compinit has been run. The output precision may be specified within zcalc by special commands familiar from many calculators.
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zmathfuncdef [ mathfunc [ body ] ] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A convenient front end to functions -M.
With two arguments, define a mathematical function named mathfunc which can be used in any form of arithmetic evaluation. body is a mathematical expression to implement the function. It may contain references to position parameters $1, $2, ... to refer to mandatory parameters and ${1:-defvalue} ... to refer to optional parameters. Note that the forms must be strictly adhered to for the function to calculate the correct number of arguments. The implementation is held in a shell function named zsh_math_func_mathfunc; usually the user will not need to refer to the shell function directly. Any existing function of the same name is silently replaced. With one argument, remove the mathematical function mathfunc as well as the shell function implementation. With no arguments, list all mathfunc functions in a form suitable for restoring the definition. The functions have not necessarily been defined by zmathfuncdef. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
USER CONFIGURATION FUNCTIONS
The zsh/newuser module comes with a function to aid in configuring shell options for new users. If the module is installed, this function can also be run by hand. It is available even if the modules default behaviour, namely running the function for a new user logging in without startup files, is inhibited.
zsh-newuser-install [ -f ] | |
The function presents the user with various options for customizing
their initialization scripts. Currently only ~/.zshrc is handled.
$ZDOTDIR/.zshrc is used instead if the parameter ZDOTDIR is
set; this provides a way for the user to configure a file without
altering an existing .zshrc.
By default the function exits immediately if it finds any of the files .zshenv, .zprofile, .zshrc, or .zlogin in the appropriate directory. The option -f is required in order to force the function to continue. Note this may happen even if .zshrc itself does not exist. As currently configured, the function will exit immediately if the user has root privileges; this behaviour cannot be overridden. Once activated, the functions behaviour is supposed to be self-explanatory. Menus are present allowing the user to alter the value of options and parameters. Suggestions for improvements are always welcome. When the script exits, the user is given the opportunity to save the new file or not; changes are not irreversible until this point. However, the script is careful to restrict changes to the file only to a group marked by the lines # Lines configured by zsh-newuser-install and # End of lines configured by zsh-newuser-install. In addition, the old version of .zshrc is saved to a file with the suffix .zni appended. If the function edits an existing .zshrc, it is up to the user to ensure that the changes made will take effect. For example, if control usually returns early from the existing .zshrc the lines will not be executed; or a later initialization file may override options or parameters, and so on. The function itself does not attempt to detect any such conflicts. | |
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 terminal 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 foreground 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:
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fned name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Same as zed -f. This function does not appear in the zsh distribution, 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. Segments 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.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 function-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 cmd | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This function is designed to be invoked by the run-help ZLE widget,
in place of the default alias. See Accessing On-Line Help
above for setup instructions.
In the discussion which follows, if cmd is a filesystem path, it is first reduced to its rightmost component (the file name). Help is first sought by looking for a file named cmd in the directory named by the HELPDIR parameter. If no file is found, an assistant function, alias, or command named run-help-cmd is sought. If found, the assistant is executed with the rest of the current command line (everything after the command name cmd) as its arguments. When neither file nor assistant is found, the external command man cmd is run. An example assistant for the "ssh" command:
Several of these assistants are provided in the Functions/Misc directory. These must be autoloaded, or placed as executable scripts in your search path, in order to be found and used by run-help.
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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:
To start a game, execute the widget by typing the keys. Whatever 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. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
zargs [ option ... -- ] [ input ... ] [ -- command [ arg ... ] ] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This function works like GNU xargs, except that instead of reading lines
of arguments from the standard input, it takes them from the command line.
This is useful because zsh, especially with recursive glob operators,
often can construct a command line for a shell function that is longer
than can be accepted by an external command.
The option list represents options of the zargs command itself, which are the same as those of xargs. The input list is the collection of strings (often file names) that become the arguments of the command, analogous to the standard input of xargs. Finally, the arg list consists of those arguments (usually options) that are passed to the command each time it runs. The arg list precedes the elements from the input list in each run. If no command is provided, then no arg list may be provided, and in that event the default command is print with arguments -r --. For example, to get a long ls listing of all plain files in the current directory or its subdirectories:
Note that -- is used both to mark the end of the option list and to mark the end of the input list, so it must appear twice whenever the input list may be empty. If there is guaranteed to be at least one input and the first input does not begin with a -, then the first -- may be omitted. In the event that the string -- is or may be an input, the -e option may be used to change the end-of-inputs marker. Note that this does not change the end-of-options marker. For example, to use .. as the marker:
This is a good choice in that example because no plain file can be named .., but the best end-marker depends on the circumstances. For details of the other zargs options, see xargs(1) or run zargs with the --help option. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
zed [ -f ] name
zed -b | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This function uses the ZLE editor to edit a file or function.
Only one name argument is allowed. 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 functions 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. While editing, the function sets the main keymap to zed and the vi command keymap to zed-vicmd. These will be copied from the existing main and vicmd keymaps if they do not exist the first time zed is run. They can be used to provide special key bindings used only in zed. If it creates the keymap, zed rebinds the return key to insert a line break and ^X^W to accept the edit in the zed keymap, and binds ZZ to accept the edit in the zed-vicmd keymap. The bindings alone can be installed by running zed -b. This is suitable for putting into a startup file. Note that, if rerun, this will overwrite the existing zed and zed-vicmd keymaps. Completion is available, and styles may be set with the context prefix :completion:zed. A zle widget zed-set-file-name is available. This can be called by name from within zed using \ex zed-set-file-name (note, however, that because of zeds rebindings you will have to type ^j at the end instead of the return key), or can be bound to a key in either of the zed or zed-vicmd keymaps after zed -b has been run. When the widget is called, it prompts for a new name for the file being edited. When zed exits the file will be written under that name and the original file will be left alone. The widget has no effect with zed -f. While zed-set-file-name is running, zed uses the keymap zed-normal-keymap, which is linked from the main keymap in effect at the time zed initialised its bindings. (This is to make the return key operate normally.) The result is that if the main keymap has been changed, the widget wont notice. This is not a concern for most users. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 linking 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 ] srcpat 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,
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:
For more complete examples and other implementation details, see the zmv source file, usually located in one of the directories 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:
This defines style1 with value1 for the context :foo:bar as usual, but it also defines style2 with value2 for the context :foo:bar:baz and style3 with value3 for :foo:bar:frob. Any subcontext may be the empty string to re-use the first context 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 parameters may be used (see EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1)). |