GNU Info

(zsh.info)Utilities

---

Next: Prompt Themes Up: User Contributions

---

Enter node , (file) or (file)node

Utilities
=========

Accessing On-Line Help
----------------------

The key sequence ESC h is normally bound by ZLE to execute the run-help
widget (see Note: Zsh Line Editor).  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-4.0.5/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 Note:
Parameters Used By The Shell).  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
won't check whether any of its source files has changed.

The zrecompile autoloadable function, found in Functions/Misc, can be
used to keep function digests up to date.

zrecompile [ -qt ] [ NAME ... ]
zrecompile [ -qt ] -p ARGS [ -- ARGS ... ]
     This tries to find *.zwc files and automatically re-compile them
     if at least one of the original files is newer than the compiled
     file.  This works only if the names stored in the 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:

          zrecompile -p \
                     -R ~/.zshrc -- \
                     -M ~/.zcompdump -- \
                     ~/zsh/comp.zwc ~/zsh/Completion/*/_*

     This compiles ~/.zshrc into ~/.zshrc.zwc if that doesn't exist or
     if it is older than ~/.zshrc. The compiled file will be marked for
     reading instead of mapping. The same is done for ~/.zcompdump and
     ~/.zcompdump.zwc, but this compiled file is marked for mapping. The
     last line re-creates the file ~/zsh/comp.zwc if any of the files
     matching the given pattern is newer than it.

     Without the -p option, zrecompile does not create function digests
     that do not already exist, nor does it add new 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-4.0.5/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 Note:
Parameters Used By The Shell).  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 Note: Mailing Lists), 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-4.0.5/Util/reporter > zsh.report

You should check the zsh.report file for any sensitive information such
as passwords and delete them by hand before sending the script to the
developers.  Also, as the output can be voluminous, it's best to wait
for the developers to ask for this information before sending it.

You can also use reporter to dump only a subset of the shell state.
This is sometimes useful for creating startup files for the first time.
Most of the output from reporter is far more detailed than 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 you're using the new completion system, you should _not_
dump the functions state to your startup files with reporter; use the
compdump function instead (see Note: Completion System).

reporter [ STATE ... ]
     Print to standard output the indicated subset of the current shell
     state.  The STATE arguments may be one or more of:

    all
          Output everything listed below.

    aliases
          Output alias definitions.

    bindings
          Output ZLE key maps and bindings.

    completion
          Output old-style compctl commands.  New completion is covered
          by functions and zstyles.

    functions
          Output autoloads and function definitions.

    limits
          Output limit commands.

    options
          Output setopt commands.

    styles
          Same as zstyles.

    variables
          Output shell parameter assignments, plus export commands for
          any environment variables.

    zstyles
          Output zstyle commands.

     If the STATE is omitted, all is assumed.

     With the exception of `all', every STATE can be abbreviated by any
     prefix, even a single letter; thus a is the same as aliases, z is
     the same as zstyles, etc.