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-4.0.6/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:
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 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 ] -pargs [ --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 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-4.0.6/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:
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-4.0.6/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
zshcompsys(1)).
reporter [ state ... ]
Print to standard output the indicated subset of the current shell state.
The state arguments may be one or more of:
all
Output everything listed below.
aliases
Output alias definitions.
bindings
Output ZLE key maps and bindings.
completion
Output old-style compctl commands.
New completion is covered by functions and zstyles.
functions
Output autoloads and function definitions.
limits
Output limit commands.
options
Output setopt commands.
styles
Same as zstyles.
variables
Output shell parameter assignments, plus export
commands for any environment variables.
zstyles
Output zstyle commands.
If the state is omitted, all is assumed.
With the exception of `all', every state can be abbreviated by
any prefix, even a single letter; thus a is the same as aliases,
z is the same as zstyles, etc.
PROMPT THEMES
Installation
You should make sure all the functions from the Functions/Prompts
directory of the source distribution are available; they all begin with
the string `prompt_' except for the special function`promptinit'.
You also need the `colors' function from Functions/Misc. All of
these functions may already have been installed on your system; if not,
you will need to find them and copy them. The directory should appear as
one of the elements of the fpath array (this should already be the
case if they were installed), and at least the function promptinit
should be autoloaded; it will autoload the rest. Finally, to 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:
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:
-c
Show the currently selected theme and its parameters, if any.
-l
List all available prompt themes.
-p
Preview the theme named by theme, or all themes if no
theme is given.
-h
Show help for the theme named by theme, or for the
prompt function if no theme is given.
-s
Set theme as the current theme and save state.
prompt_theme_setup
Each available theme has a setup function which is called by the
prompt function to install that theme. This function may define
other functions as necessary to maintain the prompt, including functions
used to preview the prompt or provide help for its use. You should not
normally call a theme's setup function directly.
ZLE FUNCTIONS
Widgets
These functions all implement user-defined ZLE widgets (see
zshzle(1)) which can be bound to keystrokes in interactive shells. To use them,
your .zshrc should contain lines of the form
autoload function
zle -N function
followed by an appropriate bindkey command to associate the function
with a key sequence. Suggested bindings are described below.
bash-forward-word, bash-backward-word
bash-kill-word, bash-backward-kill-word
bash-up-case-word, bash-down-case-word
bash-transpose-words
These work similarly to the corresponding builtin zle functions without the
`bash-' prefix, but a word is considered to consist of alphanumeric
characters only. If you wish to replace your existing bindings with these
four widgets, the following is sufficient:
for widget in kill-word backward-kill-word \
forward-word backward-word \
up-case-word down-case-word \
transpose-words; do
autoload bash-$widget
zle -N $widget bash-$widget
done
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.
bindkey -M vicmd v edit-command-line
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.
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 something
other than one.
bindkey '^X+' incarg
incremental-complete-word
This allows incremental completion of a word. After starting this
command, a list of completion choices can be shown after every character
you type, which you can delete with ^H or DEL. Pressing return
accepts the completion so far and returns you to normal editing (that is,
the command line is not immediately executed). You can hit TAB to
do normal completion, ^G to abort back to the state when you started,
and ^D to list the matches.
This works only with the new function based completion system.
bindkey '^Xi' incremental-complete-word
insert-files
This function allows you type a file pattern, and see the results of the
expansion at each step. When you hit return, all expansions are inserted
into the command line.
bindkey '^Xf' insert-files
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 don't even need to use predict-off, because if the
line doesn't match something in the history, adding a key performs
standard completion, and then inserts itself if no completions were found.
However, editing in the middle of a line is liable to confuse prediction;
see the toggle style below.
With the function based completion system (which is needed for this), you
should be able to type TAB at almost any point to advance the cursor
to the next ``interesting'' character 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:
delete-backward-and-predict
Replaces the backward-delete-char
widget. You do not need to bind this yourself.
insert-and-predict
Implements predictive typing by replacing the
self-insert widget. You do not need to bind this yourself.
predict-off
Turns off predictive typing.
Although you autoload only the predict-on function, it is
necessary to create a keybinding for predict-off as well.
This function may replace the insert-last-word widget, like so:
zle -N insert-last-word smart-insert-last-word
With a numeric prefix, 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:
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:
complete
The cursor is left where it was when completion finished, but only if
it is after a character equal to the one just inserted by the user. If
it is after another character, this value is the same as `key'.
key
The cursor is left
after the nth occurrence of the character just inserted, where
n is the number of times that character appeared in the word
before completion was attempted. In short, this has the effect of
leaving the cursor after the character just typed even if the
completion code found out that no other characters need to be inserted
at that position.
Any other value for this style unconditionally leaves the cursor at the
position where the completion code left it.
list
When using the incremental-complete-word widget, this style says
if the matches should be listed on every key press (if they fit on the
screen). Use the context prefix `: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:
zstyle :insert-last-word match '*[[:alpha:]/\\]*'
However, you might want to include words that contain spaces:
zstyle :insert-last-word match '*[[:alpha:][:space:]/\\]*'
Or include numbers as long as the word is at least two characters long:
zstyle :insert-last-word match '*([[:digit:]]?|[[:alpha:]/\\])*'
The above example causes redirections like "2>" to be included.
prompt
The incremental-complete-word widget shows the value of this
style in the status line during incremental completion. The string
value may contain any of the following substrings in the manner of
the PS1 and other prompt parameters:
%c
Replaced by the name of the completer function that generated the
matches (without the leading underscore).
%l
When the list style is set,
replaced by `...' if the list of matches is too long to fit on the
screen and with an empty string otherwise. If the list style is
`false' or not set, `%l' is always removed.
%n
Replaced by the number of matches generated.
%s
Replaced by `-no match-', `-no prefix-', or an empty string
if there is no completion matching the word on the line, if the
matches have no common prefix different from the word on the line, or
if there is such a common prefix, respectively.
%u
Replaced by the unambiguous part of all matches, if there
is any, and if it is different from the word on the line.
Like `break-keys', this uses the `:incremental' context.
stop-keys
This style is used by the incremental-complete-word widget. Its value
is treated similarly to the one for the break-keys style (and uses
the same context: `:incremental'). However, in
this case all keys matching the pattern given as its value will stop
incremental completion and will then execute their usual function.
toggle
This boolean style is used by predict-on and its related 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.
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:
color
colour
Map all the color names to their integer codes, and integer codes to the
color names. The eight base names map to the foreground color codes, as
do names prefixed with `fg-', such as `fg-red'. Names prefixed
with `bg-', such as `bg-blue', refer to the background codes. The
reverse mapping from code to color yields base name for foreground codes
and the bg- form for backgrounds.
Although it is a misnomer to call them `colors', these arrays also map the
other fourteen attributes from names to codes and codes to names.
fg
fg_bold
fg_no_bold
Map the eight basic color names to ANSI terminal escape sequences that set
the corresponding foreground text properties. The fg sequences change
the color without changing the eight intensity attributes.
bg
bg_bold
bg_no_bold
Map the eight basic color names to ANSI terminal escape sequences that set
the corresponding background properties. The bg sequences change the
color without changing the eight intensity attributes.
In addition, the scalar parameters reset_color and bold_color are
set to the ANSI terminal escapes that turn off all attributes and turn on
bold intensity, respectively.
fnedname
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-leastneeded [ 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.
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
See `Accessing On-Line Help'
above.
zed [ -f ] name
This function uses the ZLE editor to edit a file or function. It rebinds
the return key to insert a line break, and adds bindings for `^X^W' in
the emacs keymap and `ZZ' in the vicmd keymap to accept (and
therefore write, in the case of a file) the edited file or function.
Keybindings are otherwise the standard ones; completion is available, and
styles may be set with the context prefix `:completion:zed'.
Only one name argument is recognized (additional arguments are
ignored). If the -f option is given, the name is taken to be that of
a function; if the function is marked for autoloading, zed searches
for it in the fpath and loads it. Note that 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.
zcp [ -finqQvw ] srcpatdest
zln [ -finqQsvw ] srcpatdest
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.
Move (usually, rename) files matching the pattern srcpat to
corresponding files having names of the form given by dest, where
srcpat contains parentheses surrounding patterns which will be
replaced in turn by $1, $2, ... in dest. For example,
zmv '(*).lis' '$1.txt'
renames `foo.lis' to `foo.txt', `my.old.stuff.lis' to
`my.old.stuff.txt', and so on.
The pattern is always treated as an EXTENDED_GLOB pattern. Any file
whose name is not changed by the substitution is simply ignored. Any
error (a substitution resulted in an empty string, two substitutions gave
the same result, the destination was an existing regular file and -f
was not given) causes the entire function to abort without doing anything.
Options:
-f
Force overwriting of destination files. Not currently
passed down to the mv/cp/ln command due to vagaries of
implementations (but you can use -o-f to do that).
-i
Interactive: show each line to be executed and ask the user
whether to execute it. `Y' or `y' will execute it, anything else will
skip it. Note that you just need to type one character.
-n
No execution: print what would happen, but don't do it.
-q
Turn bare glob qualifiers off: now assumed by default, so
this has no effect.
-Q
Force bare glob qualifiers on. Don't turn this on unless
you are actually using glob qualifiers in a pattern.
-s
Symbolic, passed down to ln; only works with -L.
-v
Verbose: print each command as it's being executed.
-w
Pick out wildcard parts of the pattern, as described above,
and implicitly add parentheses for referring to them.
-C
-L
-M
Force cp, ln or mv, respectively, regardless of
the name of the function.
-pprogram
Call program instead of cp, ln or
mv. Whatever it does, it should at least understand the form
`program--oldnamenewname'
where oldname and newname are filenames generated by zmv.
-ooptstring
The optstring is split into words and
passed down verbatim to the cp, ln or mv command called to
perform the work. It should probably begin with a `-'.
For more complete examples and other implementation details, see the
zmv source file, usually located in one of the directories named in
your fpath, or in Functions/Misc/zmv in the zsh distribution.
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
zshmisc(1)).