zshall - the Z shell meta-man page
Because zsh contains many features, the zsh manual has been split into a number
of sections. This manual page includes all the separate manual pages in the
following order:
- zshroadmap Informal introduction to the manual
- zshmisc Anything not fitting into the other sections
- zshexpn Zsh command and parameter expansion
- zshparam Zsh parameters
- zshoptions Zsh options
- zshbuiltins Zsh built-in functions
- zshzle Zsh command line editing
- zshcompwid Zsh completion widgets
- zshcompsys Zsh completion system
- zshcompctl Zsh completion control
- zshmodules Zsh loadable modules
- zshcalsys Zsh built-in calendar functions
- zshtcpsys Zsh built-in TCP functions
- zshzftpsys Zsh built-in FTP client
- zshcontrib Additional zsh functions and utilities
Zsh is a UNIX command interpreter (shell) usable as an interactive login shell
and as a shell script command processor. Of the standard shells, zsh most
closely resembles
ksh but includes many enhancements. It does not
provide compatibility with POSIX or other shells in its default operating
mode: see the section Compatibility below.
Zsh has command line editing, builtin spelling correction, programmable command
completion, shell functions (with autoloading), a history mechanism, and a
host of other features.
Zsh was originally written by Paul Falstad
<pf@zsh.org>. Zsh is now
maintained by the members of the zsh-workers mailing list
<zsh-workers@zsh.org>. The development is currently coordinated
by Peter Stephenson
<pws@zsh.org>. The coordinator can be
contacted at
<coordinator@zsh.org>, but matters relating to the
code should generally go to the mailing list.
Zsh is available from the following HTTP and anonymous FTP site.
ftp://ftp.zsh.org/pub/
https://www.zsh.org/pub/
)
The up-to-date source code is available via Git from Sourceforge. See
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zsh/ for details. A summary of
instructions for the archive can be found at
http://zsh.sourceforge.net/.
Zsh has 3 mailing lists:
- <zsh-announce@zsh.org>
- Announcements about releases, major changes in the shell and the monthly
posting of the Zsh FAQ. (moderated)
- <zsh-users@zsh.org>
- User discussions.
- <zsh-workers@zsh.org>
- Hacking, development, bug reports and patches.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send mail to the associated administrative address
for the mailing list.
- <zsh-announce-subscribe@zsh.org>
- <zsh-users-subscribe@zsh.org>
- <zsh-workers-subscribe@zsh.org>
- <zsh-announce-unsubscribe@zsh.org>
- <zsh-users-unsubscribe@zsh.org>
- <zsh-workers-unsubscribe@zsh.org>
YOU ONLY NEED TO JOIN ONE OF THE MAILING LISTS AS THEY ARE NESTED. All
submissions to
zsh-announce are automatically forwarded to
zsh-users. All submissions to
zsh-users are automatically
forwarded to
zsh-workers.
If you have problems subscribing/unsubscribing to any of the mailing lists, send
mail to
<listmaster@zsh.org>. The mailing lists are maintained by
Karsten Thygesen
<karthy@kom.auc.dk>.
The mailing lists are archived; the archives can be accessed via the
administrative addresses listed above. There is also a hypertext archive,
maintained by Geoff Wing
<gcw@zsh.org>, available at
https://www.zsh.org/mla/.
Zsh has a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), maintained by Peter
Stephenson
<pws@zsh.org>. It is regularly posted to the newsgroup
comp.unix.shell and the
zsh-announce mailing list. The latest
version can be found at any of the Zsh FTP sites, or at
http://www.zsh.org/FAQ/. The contact address for FAQ-related matters is
<faqmaster@zsh.org>.
Zsh has a web page which is located at
https://www.zsh.org/. This is
maintained by Karsten Thygesen
<karthy@zsh.org>, of SunSITE
Denmark. The contact address for web-related matters is
<webmaster@zsh.org>.
A userguide is currently in preparation. It is intended to complement the
manual, with explanations and hints on issues where the manual can be
cabbalistic, hierographic, or downright mystifying (for example, the word
`hierographic' does not exist). It can be viewed in its current state at
http://zsh.sourceforge.net/Guide/. At the time of writing, chapters
dealing with startup files and their contents and the new completion system
were essentially complete.
The following flags are interpreted by the shell when invoked to determine where
the shell will read commands from:
- -c
- Take the first argument as a command to execute, rather than reading
commands from a script or standard input. If any further arguments are
given, the first one is assigned to $0, rather than being used as a
positional parameter.
- -i
- Force shell to be interactive. It is still possible to specify a script to
execute.
- -s
- Force shell to read commands from the standard input. If the -s
flag is not present and an argument is given, the first argument is taken
to be the pathname of a script to execute.
If there are any remaining arguments after option processing, and neither of the
options
-c or
-s was supplied, the first argument is taken as
the file name of a script containing shell commands to be executed. If the
option
PATH_SCRIPT is set, and the file name does not contain a
directory path (i.e. there is no `
/' in the name), first the current
directory and then the command path given by the variable
PATH are
searched for the script. If the option is not set or the file name contains a
`
/' it is used directly.
After the first one or two arguments have been appropriated as described above,
the remaining arguments are assigned to the positional parameters.
For further options, which are common to invocation and the
set builtin,
see
zshoptions(1).
The long option `
--emulate' followed (in a separate word) by an
emulation mode may be passed to the shell. The emulation modes are those
described for the
emulate builtin, see
zshbuiltins(1). The `
- -emulate' option must precede any other options (which might
otherwise be overridden), but following options are honoured, so may be used
to modify the requested emulation mode. Note that certain extra steps are
taken to ensure a smooth emulation when this option is used compared with the
emulate command within the shell: for example, variables that conflict
with POSIX usage such as
path are not defined within the shell.
Options may be specified by name using the
-o option.
-o acts like
a single-letter option, but takes a following string as the option name. For
example,
zsh -x -o shwordsplit scr
runs the script
scr, setting the
XTRACE option by the
corresponding letter `
-x' and the
SH_WORD_SPLIT option by name.
Options may be turned
off by name by using
+o instead of
-o.
-o can be stacked up with preceding single-letter options,
so for example `
-xo shwordsplit' or `
-xoshwordsplit' is
equivalent to `
-x -o shwordsplit'.
Options may also be specified by name in GNU long option style, `
-- option-name'. When this is done, `
-' characters
in the option name are permitted: they are translated into `
_', and
thus ignored. So, for example, `
zsh --sh-word-split' invokes
zsh with the
SH_WORD_SPLIT option turned on. Like other option
syntaxes, options can be turned off by replacing the initial `
-' with
a `
+'; thus `
+-sh-word-split' is equivalent to
`
--no-sh-word-split'. Unlike other option syntaxes, GNU-style
long options cannot be stacked with any other options, so for example `
-x-shwordsplit' is an error, rather than being treated like `
-x
- -shwordsplit'.
The special GNU-style option `
--version' is handled; it sends to
standard output the shell's version information, then exits successfully. `
--help' is also handled; it sends to standard output a list of
options that can be used when invoking the shell, then exits successfully.
Option processing may be finished, allowing following arguments that start with
`
-' or `
+' to be treated as normal arguments, in two ways.
Firstly, a lone `
-' (or `
+') as an argument by itself ends
option processing. Secondly, a special option `
--' (or `
+-'), which may be specified on its own (which is the standard POSIX
usage) or may be stacked with preceding options (so `
-x-' is
equivalent to `
-x --'). Options are not permitted to be stacked
after `
--' (so `
-x-f' is an error), but note the
GNU-style option form discussed above, where `
--shwordsplit' is
permitted and does not end option processing.
Except when the
sh/
ksh emulation single-letter options are in
effect, the option `
-b' (or `
+b') ends option processing. `
-b' is like `
--', except that further single-letter
options can be stacked after the `
-b' and will take effect as normal.
Zsh tries to emulate
sh or
ksh when it is invoked as
sh or
ksh respectively; more precisely, it looks at the first letter of the
name by which it was invoked, excluding any initial `
r' (assumed to
stand for `restricted'), and if that is `
b', `
s' or `
k'
it will emulate
sh or
ksh. Furthermore, if invoked as
su
(which happens on certain systems when the shell is executed by the
su
command), the shell will try to find an alternative name from the
SHELL
environment variable and perform emulation based on that.
In
sh and
ksh compatibility modes the following parameters are not
special and not initialized by the shell:
ARGC,
argv,
cdpath,
fignore,
fpath,
HISTCHARS,
mailpath,
MANPATH,
manpath,
path,
prompt,
PROMPT,
PROMPT2,
PROMPT3,
PROMPT4,
psvar,
status,
watch.
The usual zsh startup/shutdown scripts are not executed. Login shells source
/etc/profile followed by
$HOME/.profile. If the
ENV
environment variable is set on invocation,
$ENV is sourced after the
profile scripts. The value of
ENV is subjected to parameter expansion,
command substitution, and arithmetic expansion before being interpreted as a
pathname. Note that the
PRIVILEGED option also affects the execution of
startup files.
The following options are set if the shell is invoked as
sh or
ksh:
NO_BAD_PATTERN,
NO_BANG_HIST,
NO_BG_NICE,
NO_EQUALS,
NO_FUNCTION_ARGZERO,
GLOB_SUBST,
NO_GLOBAL_EXPORT,
NO_HUP,
INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS,
KSH_ARRAYS,
NO_MULTIOS,
NO_NOMATCH,
NO_NOTIFY,
POSIX_BUILTINS,
NO_PROMPT_PERCENT,
RM_STAR_SILENT,
SH_FILE_EXPANSION,
SH_GLOB,
SH_OPTION_LETTERS,
SH_WORD_SPLIT. Additionally the
BSD_ECHO and
IGNORE_BRACES options are set if zsh is invoked as
sh. Also, the
KSH_OPTION_PRINT,
LOCAL_OPTIONS,
PROMPT_BANG,
PROMPT_SUBST and
SINGLE_LINE_ZLE options are set if zsh is
invoked as
ksh.
When the basename of the command used to invoke zsh starts with the letter `
r' or the `
-r' command line option is supplied at invocation,
the shell becomes restricted. Emulation mode is determined after stripping the
letter `
r' from the invocation name. The following are disabled in
restricted mode:
- •
- changing directories with the cd builtin
- •
- changing or unsetting the EGID, EUID, GID,
HISTFILE, HISTSIZE, IFS, LD_AOUT_LIBRARY_PATH,
LD_AOUT_PRELOAD, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, LD_PRELOAD,
MODULE_PATH, module_path, PATH, path,
SHELL, UID and USERNAME parameters
- •
- specifying command names containing /
- •
- specifying command pathnames using hash
- •
- redirecting output to files
- •
- using the exec builtin command to replace the shell with another
command
- •
- using jobs -Z to overwrite the shell process' argument and
environment space
- •
- using the ARGV0 parameter to override argv[0] for external
commands
- •
- turning off restricted mode with set +r or unsetopt
RESTRICTED
These restrictions are enforced after processing the startup files. The startup
files should set up
PATH to point to a directory of commands which can
be safely invoked in the restricted environment. They may also add further
restrictions by disabling selected builtins.
Restricted mode can also be activated any time by setting the
RESTRICTED
option. This immediately enables all the restrictions described above even if
the shell still has not processed all startup files.
Commands are first read from
/etc/zshenv; this cannot be overridden.
Subsequent behaviour is modified by the
RCS and
GLOBAL_RCS
options; the former affects all startup files, while the second only affects
global startup files (those shown here with an path starting with a
/).
If one of the options is unset at any point, any subsequent startup file(s) of
the corresponding type will not be read. It is also possible for a file in
$ZDOTDIR to re-enable
GLOBAL_RCS. Both
RCS and
GLOBAL_RCS are set by default.
Commands are then read from
$ZDOTDIR/.zshenv. If the shell is a login
shell, commands are read from
/etc/zprofile and then
$ZDOTDIR/.zprofile. Then, if the shell is interactive, commands are
read from
/etc/zshrc and then
$ZDOTDIR/.zshrc. Finally, if the
shell is a login shell,
/etc/zlogin and
$ZDOTDIR/.zlogin are
read.
When a login shell exits, the files
$ZDOTDIR/.zlogout and then
/etc/zlogout are read. This happens with either an explicit exit via
the
exit or
logout commands, or an implicit exit by reading
end-of-file from the terminal. However, if the shell terminates due to
exec'ing another process, the logout files are not read. These are also
affected by the
RCS and
GLOBAL_RCS options. Note also that the
RCS option affects the saving of history files, i.e. if
RCS is
unset when the shell exits, no history file will be saved.
If
ZDOTDIR is unset,
HOME is used instead. Files listed above as
being in
/etc may be in another directory, depending on the
installation.
As
/etc/zshenv is run for all instances of zsh, it is important that it
be kept as small as possible. In particular, it is a good idea to put code
that does not need to be run for every single shell behind a test of the form
`
if [[ -o rcs ]]; then ...' so that it will not be executed when zsh
is invoked with the `
-f' option.
Any of these files may be pre-compiled with the
zcompile builtin command
(see
zshbuiltins(1)). If a compiled file exists (named for the original
file plus the
.zwc extension) and it is newer than the original file,
the compiled file will be used instead.
zshroadmap - informal introduction to the zsh manual The Zsh Manual, like the
shell itself, is large and often complicated. This section of the manual
provides some pointers to areas of the shell that are likely to be of
particular interest to new users, and indicates where in the rest of the
manual the documentation is to be found.
When it starts, the shell reads commands from various files. These can be
created or edited to customize the shell. See the section Startup/Shutdown
Files in
zsh(1).
If no personal initialization files exist for the current user, a function is
run to help you change some of the most common settings. It won't appear if
your administrator has disabled the
zsh/newuser module. The function is
designed to be self-explanatory. You can run it by hand with `
autoload -Uz
zsh-newuser-install; zsh-newuser-install -f'. See also the section User
Configuration Functions in
zshcontrib(1).
Interaction with the shell uses the builtin Zsh Line Editor, ZLE. This is
described in detail in
zshzle(1).
The first decision a user must make is whether to use the Emacs or Vi editing
mode as the keys for editing are substantially different. Emacs editing mode
is probably more natural for beginners and can be selected explicitly with the
command
bindkey -e.
A history mechanism for retrieving previously typed lines (most simply with the
Up or Down arrow keys) is available; note that, unlike other shells, zsh will
not save these lines when the shell exits unless you set appropriate
variables, and the number of history lines retained by default is quite small
(30 lines). See the description of the shell variables (referred to in the
documentation as parameters)
HISTFILE,
HISTSIZE and
SAVEHIST in
zshparam(1). Note that it's currently only possible
to read and write files saving history when the shell is interactive, i.e. it
does not work from scripts.
The shell now supports the UTF-8 character set (and also others if supported by
the operating system). This is (mostly) handled transparently by the shell,
but the degree of support in terminal emulators is variable. There is some
discussion of this in the shell FAQ,
http://www.zsh.org/FAQ/. Note in
particular that for combining characters to be handled the option
COMBINING_CHARS needs to be set. Because the shell is now more
sensitive to the definition of the character set, note that if you are
upgrading from an older version of the shell you should ensure that the
appropriate variable, either
LANG (to affect all aspects of the shell's
operation) or
LC_CTYPE (to affect only the handling of character sets)
is set to an appropriate value. This is true even if you are using a
single-byte character set including extensions of ASCII such as
ISO-8859-1 or
ISO-8859-15. See the description of
LC_CTYPE in
zshparam(1).
Completion is a feature present in many shells. It allows the user to type only
a part (usually the prefix) of a word and have the shell fill in the rest. The
completion system in zsh is programmable. For example, the shell can be set to
complete email addresses in arguments to the mail command from your
~/.abook/addressbook; usernames, hostnames, and even remote paths in
arguments to scp, and so on. Anything that can be written in or glued together
with zsh can be the source of what the line editor offers as possible
completions.
Zsh has two completion systems, an old, so called
compctl completion
(named after the builtin command that serves as its complete and only user
interface), and a new one, referred to as
compsys, organized as library
of builtin and user-defined functions. The two systems differ in their
interface for specifying the completion behavior. The new system is more
customizable and is supplied with completions for many commonly used commands;
it is therefore to be preferred.
The completion system must be enabled explicitly when the shell starts. For more
information see
zshcompsys(1).
Apart from completion, the line editor is highly extensible by means of shell
functions. Some useful functions are provided with the shell; they provide
facilities such as:
- insert-composed-char
- composing characters not found on the keyboard
- match-words-by-style
- configuring what the line editor considers a word when moving or deleting
by word
- history-beginning-search-backward-end, etc.
- alternative ways of searching the shell history
- replace-string, replace-pattern
- functions for replacing strings or patterns globally in the command
line
- edit-command-line
- edit the command line with an external editor.
See the section `ZLE Functions' in
zshcontrib(1) for descriptions of
these.
The shell has a large number of options for changing its behaviour. These cover
all aspects of the shell; browsing the full documentation is the only good way
to become acquainted with the many possibilities. See
zshoptions(1).
The shell has a rich set of patterns which are available for file matching
(described in the documentation as `filename generation' and also known for
historical reasons as `globbing') and for use when programming. These are
described in the section `Filename Generation' in
zshexpn(1).
Of particular interest are the following patterns that are not commonly
supported by other systems of pattern matching:
- **
- for matching over multiple directories
- |
- for matching either of two alternatives
- ~, ^
- the ability to exclude patterns from matching when the
EXTENDED_GLOB option is set
- (...)
- glob qualifiers, included in parentheses at the end of the pattern, which
select files by type (such as directories) or attribute (such as
size).
Although the syntax of zsh is in ways similar to the Korn shell, and therefore
more remotely to the original UNIX shell, the Bourne shell, its default
behaviour does not entirely correspond to those shells. General shell syntax
is introduced in the section `Shell Grammar' in
zshmisc(1).
One commonly encountered difference is that variables substituted onto the
command line are not split into words. See the description of the shell option
SH_WORD_SPLIT in the section `Parameter Expansion' in
zshexpn(1). In zsh, you can either explicitly request the splitting
(e.g.
${=foo}) or use an array when you want a variable to expand to
more than one word. See the section `Array Parameters' in
zshparam(1).
The most convenient way of adding enhancements to the shell is typically by
writing a shell function and arranging for it to be autoloaded. Functions are
described in the section `Functions' in
zshmisc(1). Users changing from
the C shell and its relatives should notice that aliases are less used in zsh
as they don't perform argument substitution, only simple text replacement.
A few general functions, other than those for the line editor described above,
are provided with the shell and are described in
zshcontrib(1).
Features include:
- promptinit
- a prompt theme system for changing prompts easily, see the section `Prompt
Themes'
- zsh-mime-setup
- a MIME-handling system which dispatches commands according to the suffix
of a file as done by graphical file managers
- zcalc
- a calculator
- zargs
- a version of xargs that makes the find command
redundant
- zmv
- a command for renaming files by means of shell patterns.
zshmisc - everything and then some
A
simple command is a sequence of optional parameter assignments followed
by blank-separated words, with optional redirections interspersed. For a
description of assignment, see the beginning of
zshparam(1).
The first word is the command to be executed, and the remaining words, if any,
are arguments to the command. If a command name is given, the parameter
assignments modify the environment of the command when it is executed. The
value of a simple command is its exit status, or 128 plus the signal number if
terminated by a signal. For example,
is a simple command with arguments.
A
pipeline is either a simple command, or a sequence of two or more
simple commands where each command is separated from the next by `
|'
or `
|&'. Where commands are separated by `
|', the standard
output of the first command is connected to the standard input of the next. `
|&' is shorthand for `
2>&1 |', which connects both
the standard output and the standard error of the command to the standard
input of the next. The value of a pipeline is the value of the last command,
unless the pipeline is preceded by `
!' in which case the value is the
logical inverse of the value of the last command. For example,
echo foo | sed 's/foo/bar/'
is a pipeline, where the output (`
foo' plus a newline) of the first
command will be passed to the input of the second.
If a pipeline is preceded by `
coproc', it is executed as a coprocess; a
two-way pipe is established between it and the parent shell. The shell can
read from or write to the coprocess by means of the `
>&p' and `
<&p' redirection operators or with `
print -p' and
`
read -p'. A pipeline cannot be preceded by both `
coproc' and
`
!'. If job control is active, the coprocess can be treated in other
than input and output as an ordinary background job.
A
sublist is either a single pipeline, or a sequence of two or more
pipelines separated by `
&&' or `
||'. If two pipelines
are separated by `
&&', the second pipeline is executed only if
the first succeeds (returns a zero status). If two pipelines are separated by
`
||', the second is executed only if the first fails (returns a
nonzero status). Both operators have equal precedence and are left
associative. The value of the sublist is the value of the last pipeline
executed. For example,
dmesg | grep panic && print yes
is a sublist consisting of two pipelines, the second just a simple command which
will be executed if and only if the
grep command returns a zero status.
If it does not, the value of the sublist is that return status, else it is the
status returned by the
print (almost certainly zero).
A
list is a sequence of zero or more sublists, in which each sublist is
terminated by `
;', `
&', `
&|', `
&!',
or a newline. This terminator may optionally be omitted from the last sublist
in the list when the list appears as a complex command inside `
(...
)' or `
{...
}'. When a sublist is terminated
by `
;' or newline, the shell waits for it to finish before executing
the next sublist. If a sublist is terminated by a `
&',
`
&|', or `
&!', the shell executes the last pipeline in
it in the background, and does not wait for it to finish (note the difference
from other shells which execute the whole sublist in the background). A
backgrounded pipeline returns a status of zero.
More generally, a list can be seen as a set of any shell commands whatsoever,
including the complex commands below; this is implied wherever the word `list'
appears in later descriptions. For example, the commands in a shell function
form a special sort of list.
A simple command may be preceded by a
precommand modifier, which will
alter how the command is interpreted. These modifiers are shell builtin
commands with the exception of
nocorrect which is a reserved word.
- -
- The command is executed with a `-' prepended to its argv[0]
string.
- builtin
- The command word is taken to be the name of a builtin command, rather than
a shell function or external command.
- command [ -pvV ]
- The command word is taken to be the name of an external command, rather
than a shell function or builtin. If the POSIX_BUILTINS option is
set, builtins will also be executed but certain special properties of them
are suppressed. The -p flag causes a default path to be searched
instead of that in $path. With the -v flag, command
is similar to whence and with -V, it is equivalent to
whence -v.
- exec [ -cl ] [ -a argv0 ]
- The following command together with any arguments is run in place of the
current process, rather than as a sub-process. The shell does not fork and
is replaced. The shell does not invoke TRAPEXIT, nor does it source
zlogout files. The options are provided for compatibility with
other shells.
The
-c option clears the environment.
The
-l option is equivalent to the
- precommand modifier, to treat
the replacement command as a login shell; the command is executed with a
- prepended to its
argv[0] string. This flag has no effect if
used together with the
-a option.
The
-a option is used to specify explicitly the
argv[0] string
(the name of the command as seen by the process itself) to be used by the
replacement command and is directly equivalent to setting a value for the
ARGV0 environment variable.
- nocorrect
- Spelling correction is not done on any of the words. This must appear
before any other precommand modifier, as it is interpreted immediately,
before any parsing is done. It has no effect in non-interactive
shells.
- noglob
- Filename generation (globbing) is not performed on any of the words.
A
complex command in zsh is one of the following:
- if list then list [ elif list
then list ] ... [ else list ] fi
- The if list is executed, and if it returns a zero exit
status, the then list is executed. Otherwise, the
elif list is executed and if its status is zero, the
then list is executed. If each elif list
returns nonzero status, the else list is executed.
- for name ... [ in word ... ] term
do list done
- where term is at least one newline or ;. Expand the list of
words, and set the parameter name to each of them in turn,
executing list each time. If the in word is omitted,
use the positional parameters instead of the words.
More than one parameter
name can appear before the list of
words.
If
N names are given, then on each execution of the loop the
next
N words are assigned to the corresponding parameters. If
there are more
names than remaining
words, the remaining
parameters are each set to the empty string. Execution of the loop ends when
there is no remaining
word to assign to the first
name. It is
only possible for
in to appear as the first
name in the list,
else it will be treated as marking the end of the list.
- for (( [expr1] ; [expr2] ;
[expr3] )) do list done
- The arithmetic expression expr1 is evaluated first (see the section
`Arithmetic Evaluation'). The arithmetic expression expr2 is
repeatedly evaluated until it evaluates to zero and when non-zero,
list is executed and the arithmetic expression expr3
evaluated. If any expression is omitted, then it behaves as if it
evaluated to 1.
- while list do list done
- Execute the do list as long as the while list
returns a zero exit status.
- until list do list done
- Execute the do list as long as until list
returns a nonzero exit status.
- repeat word do list done
- word is expanded and treated as an arithmetic expression, which
must evaluate to a number n. list is then executed n
times.
The
repeat syntax is disabled by default when the shell starts in a mode
emulating another shell. It can be enabled with the command `
enable -r
repeat'
- case word in [ [(] pattern [ |
pattern ] ... ) list
(;;|;&|;|) ] ... esac
- Execute the list associated with the first pattern that
matches word, if any. The form of the patterns is the same as that
used for filename generation. See the section `Filename Generation'.
Note further that, unless the
SH_GLOB option is set, the whole pattern
with alternatives is treated by the shell as equivalent to a group of patterns
within parentheses, although white space may appear about the parentheses and
the vertical bar and will be stripped from the pattern at those points. White
space may appear elsewhere in the pattern; this is not stripped. If the
SH_GLOB option is set, so that an opening parenthesis can be
unambiguously treated as part of the case syntax, the expression is parsed
into separate words and these are treated as strict alternatives (as in other
shells).
If the
list that is executed is terminated with
;& rather than
;;, the following list is also executed. The rule for the terminator of
the following list
;;,
;& or
;| is applied unless the
esac is reached.
If the
list that is executed is terminated with
;| the shell
continues to scan the
patterns looking for the next match, executing
the corresponding
list, and applying the rule for the corresponding
terminator
;;,
;& or
;|. Note that
word is not
re-expanded; all applicable
patterns are tested with the same
word.
- select name [ in word ... term ]
do list done
- where term is one or more newline or ; to terminate the
words. Print the set of words, each preceded by a number. If
the in word is omitted, use the positional parameters. The
PROMPT3 prompt is printed and a line is read from the line editor
if the shell is interactive and that is active, or else standard input. If
this line consists of the number of one of the listed words, then
the parameter name is set to the word corresponding to this
number. If this line is empty, the selection list is printed again.
Otherwise, the value of the parameter name is set to null. The
contents of the line read from standard input is saved in the parameter
REPLY. list is executed for each selection until a break or
end-of-file is encountered.
- ( list )
- Execute list in a subshell. Traps set by the trap builtin
are reset to their default values while executing list.
- { list }
- Execute list.
- { try-list } always { always-list
}
- First execute try-list. Regardless of errors, or break,
continue, or return commands encountered within
try-list, execute always-list. Execution then continues from
the result of the execution of try-list; in other words, any error,
or break, continue, or return command is treated in
the normal way, as if always-list were not present. The two chunks
of code are referred to as the `try block' and the `always block'.
Optional newlines or semicolons may appear after the
always; note,
however, that they may
not appear between the preceding closing brace
and the
always.
An `error' in this context is a condition such as a syntax error which causes
the shell to abort execution of the current function, script, or list. Syntax
errors encountered while the shell is parsing the code do not cause the
always-list to be executed. For example, an erroneously constructed
if block in
try-list would cause the shell to abort during
parsing, so that
always-list would not be executed, while an erroneous
substitution such as
${*foo*} would cause a run-time error, after which
always-list would be executed.
An error condition can be tested and reset with the special integer variable
TRY_BLOCK_ERROR. Outside an
always-list the value is irrelevant,
but it is initialised to
-1. Inside
always-list, the value is 1
if an error occurred in the
try-list, else 0. If
TRY_BLOCK_ERROR
is set to 0 during the
always-list, the error condition caused by the
try-list is reset, and shell execution continues normally after the end
of
always-list. Altering the value during the
try-list is not
useful (unless this forms part of an enclosing
always block).
Regardless of
TRY_BLOCK_ERROR, after the end of
always-list the
normal shell status
$? is the value returned from
try-list. This
will be non-zero if there was an error, even if
TRY_BLOCK_ERROR was set
to zero.
The following executes the given code, ignoring any errors it causes. This is an
alternative to the usual convention of protecting code by executing it in a
subshell.
{
# code which may cause an error
} always {
# This code is executed regardless of the error.
(( TRY_BLOCK_ERROR = 0 ))
}
# The error condition has been reset.
An
exit command (or a
return command executed at the outermost
function level of a script) encountered in
try-list does
not
cause the execution of
always-list. Instead, the shell exits
immediately after any
EXIT trap has been executed.
- function word ... [ () ] [ term ] {
list }
- word ... () [ term ] { list
}
- word ... () [ term ] command
- where term is one or more newline or ;. Define a function
which is referenced by any one of word. Normally, only one
word is provided; multiple words are usually only useful for
setting traps. The body of the function is the list between the
{ and }. See the section `Functions'.
If the option
SH_GLOB is set for compatibility with other shells, then
whitespace may appear between the left and right parentheses when there is a
single
word; otherwise, the parentheses will be treated as forming a
globbing pattern in that case.
In any of the forms above, a redirection may appear outside the function body,
for example
The redirection is stored with the function and applied whenever the function is
executed. Any variables in the redirection are expanded at the point the
function is executed, but outside the function scope.
- time [ pipeline ]
- The pipeline is executed, and timing statistics are reported on the
standard error in the form specified by the TIMEFMT parameter. If
pipeline is omitted, print statistics about the shell process and
its children.
- [[ exp ]]
- Evaluates the conditional expression exp and return a zero exit
status if it is true. See the section `Conditional Expressions' for a
description of exp.
Many of zsh's complex commands have alternate forms. These are non-standard and
are likely not to be obvious even to seasoned shell programmers; they should
not be used anywhere that portability of shell code is a concern.
The short versions below only work if
sublist is of the form `
{
list }' or if the
SHORT_LOOPS option is set. For the
if,
while and
until commands, in both these cases the
test part of the loop must also be suitably delimited, such as by `
[[
... ]]' or `
(( ... ))', else the end of
the test will not be recognized. For the
for,
repeat,
case and
select commands no such special form for the arguments
is necessary, but the other condition (the special form of
sublist or
use of the
SHORT_LOOPS option) still applies.
- if list { list } [ elif
list { list } ] ... [ else { list
} ]
- An alternate form of if. The rules mean that
if [[ -o ignorebraces ]] {
print yes
}
works, but
if true { # Does not work!
print yes
}
does
not, since the test is not suitably delimited.
- if list sublist
- A short form of the alternate if. The same limitations on the form
of list apply as for the previous form.
- for name ... ( word ... )
sublist
- A short form of for.
- for name ... [ in word ... ] term
sublist
- where term is at least one newline or ;. Another short form
of for.
- for (( [expr1] ; [expr2] ;
[expr3] )) sublist
- A short form of the arithmetic for command.
- foreach name ... ( word ... )
list end
- Another form of for.
- while list { list }
- An alternative form of while. Note the limitations on the form of
list mentioned above.
- until list { list }
- An alternative form of until. Note the limitations on the form of
list mentioned above.
- repeat word sublist
- This is a short form of repeat.
- case word { [ [(] pattern [ |
pattern ] ... ) list
(;;|;&|;|) ] ... }
- An alternative form of case.
- select name [ in word ... term ]
sublist
- where term is at least one newline or ;. A short form of
select.
- function word ... [ () ] [ term ]
sublist
- This is a short form of function.
The following words are recognized as reserved words when used as the first word
of a command unless quoted or disabled using
disable -r:
do done esac then elif else fi for case if while function repeat time
until select coproc nocorrect foreach end ! [[ { } declare
export float integer local readonly typeset
Additionally, `
}' is recognized in any position if neither the
IGNORE_BRACES option nor the
IGNORE_CLOSE_BRACES option is set.
Certain errors are treated as fatal by the shell: in an interactive shell, they
cause control to return to the command line, and in a non-interactive shell
they cause the shell to be aborted. In older versions of zsh, a
non-interactive shell running a script would not abort completely, but would
resume execution at the next command to be read from the script, skipping the
remainder of any functions or shell constructs such as loops or conditions;
this somewhat illogical behaviour can be recovered by setting the option
CONTINUE_ON_ERROR.
Fatal errors found in non-interactive shells include:
- •
- Failure to parse shell options passed when invoking the shell
- •
- Failure to change options with the set builtin
- •
- Parse errors of all sorts, including failures to parse mathematical
expressions
- •
- Failures to set or modify variable behaviour with typeset,
local, declare, export, integer,
float
- •
- Execution of incorrectly positioned loop control structures (
continue, break)
- •
- Attempts to use regular expression with no regular expression module
available
- •
- Disallowed operations when the RESTRICTED options is set
- •
- Failure to create a pipe needed for a pipeline
- •
- Failure to create a multio
- •
- Failure to autoload a module needed for a declared shell feature
- •
- Errors creating command or process substitutions
- •
- Syntax errors in glob qualifiers
- •
- File generation errors where not caught by the option
BAD_PATTERN
- •
- All bad patterns used for matching within case statements
- •
- File generation failures where not caused by NO_MATCH or similar
options
- •
- All file generation errors where the pattern was used to create a
multio
- •
- Memory errors where detected by the shell
- •
- Invalid subscripts to shell variables
- •
- Attempts to assign read-only variables
- •
- Logical errors with variables such as assignment to the wrong type
- •
- Use of invalid variable names
- •
- Errors in variable substitution syntax
- •
- Failure to convert characters in $'...' expressions
If the
POSIX_BUILTINS option is set, more errors associated with shell
builtin commands are treated as fatal, as specified by the POSIX standard.
In non-interactive shells, or in interactive shells with the
INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS option set, a word beginning with the third
character of the
histchars parameter (`
#' by default) causes
that word and all the following characters up to a newline to be ignored.
Every eligible
word in the shell input is checked to see if there is an
alias defined for it. If so, it is replaced by the text of the alias if it is
in command position (if it could be the first word of a simple command), or if
the alias is global. If the replacement text ends with a space, the next word
in the shell input is always eligible for purposes of alias expansion. An
alias is defined using the
alias builtin; global aliases may be defined
using the
-g option to that builtin.
A
word is defined as:
- •
- Any plain string or glob pattern
- •
- Any quoted string, using any quoting method (note that the quotes must be
part of the alias definition for this to be eligible)
- •
- Any parameter reference or command substitution
- •
- Any series of the foregoing, concatenated without whitespace or other
tokens between them
- •
- Any reserved word (case, do, else, etc.)
- •
- With global aliasing, any command separator, any redirection operator, and
` (' or `)' when not part of a glob pattern
Alias expansion is done on the shell input before any other expansion except
history expansion. Therefore, if an alias is defined for the word
foo,
alias expansion may be avoided by quoting part of the word, e.g.
\foo.
Any form of quoting works, although there is nothing to prevent an alias being
defined for the quoted form such as
\foo as well.
When
POSIX_ALIASES is set, only plain unquoted strings are eligible for
aliasing. The
alias builtin does not reject ineligible aliases, but
they are not expanded.
For use with completion, which would remove an initial backslash followed by a
character that isn't special, it may be more convenient to quote the word by
starting with a single quote, i.e.
'foo; completion will automatically
add the trailing single quote.
Although aliases can be used in ways that bend normal shell syntax, not every
string of non-white-space characters can be used as an alias.
Any set of characters not listed as a word above is not a word, hence no attempt
is made to expand it as an alias, no matter how it is defined (i.e. via the
builtin or the special parameter
aliases described in the section THE
ZSH/PARAMETER MODULE in
zshmodules(1)). However, as noted in the case
of
POSIX_ALIASES above, the shell does not attempt to deduce whether
the string corresponds to a word at the time the alias is created.
For example, an expression containing an
= at the start of a command line
is an assignment and cannot be expanded as an alias; a lone
= is not an
assignment but can only be set as an alias using the parameter, as otherwise
the
= is taken part of the syntax of the builtin command.
It is not presently possible to alias the `
((' token that introduces
arithmetic expressions, because until a full statement has been parsed, it
cannot be distinguished from two consecutive `
(' tokens introducing
nested subshells. Also, if a separator such as
&& is aliased,
\&& turns into the two tokens
\& and
&,
each of which may have been aliased separately. Similarly for
\<<,
\>|, etc.
There is a commonly encountered problem with aliases illustrated by the
following code:
alias echobar='echo bar'; echobar
This prints a message that the command
echobar could not be found. This
happens because aliases are expanded when the code is read in; the entire line
is read in one go, so that when
echobar is executed it is too late to
expand the newly defined alias. This is often a problem in shell scripts,
functions, and code executed with `
source' or `
.'.
Consequently, use of functions rather than aliases is recommended in
non-interactive code.
Note also the unhelpful interaction of aliases and function definitions:
alias func='noglob func'
func() {
echo Do something with $*
}
Because aliases are expanded in function definitions, this causes the following
command to be executed:
noglob func() {
echo Do something with $*
}
which defines
noglob as well as
func as functions with the body
given. To avoid this, either quote the name
func or use the alternative
function definition form `
function func'. Ensuring the alias is
defined after the function works but is problematic if the code fragment might
be re-executed.
A character may be
quoted (that is, made to stand for itself) by
preceding it with a `
\'. `
\' followed by a newline is ignored.
A string enclosed between `
$'' and `
'' is processed the same way
as the string arguments of the
print builtin, and the resulting string
is considered to be entirely quoted. A literal `
'' character can be
included in the string by using the `
\'' escape.
All characters enclosed between a pair of single quotes (
'') that is not
preceded by a `
$' are quoted. A single quote cannot appear within
single quotes unless the option
RC_QUOTES is set, in which case a pair
of single quotes are turned into a single quote. For example,
outputs nothing apart from a newline if
RC_QUOTES is not set, but one
single quote if it is set.
Inside double quotes (
""), parameter and command substitution
occur, and `
\' quotes the characters `
\', `
`',
`
"', `
$', and the first character of
$histchars
(default `
!').
If a command is followed by
& and job control is not active, then the
default standard input for the command is the empty file
/dev/null.
Otherwise, the environment for the execution of a command contains the file
descriptors of the invoking shell as modified by input/output specifications.
The following may appear anywhere in a simple command or may precede or follow a
complex command. Expansion occurs before
word or
digit is used
except as noted below. If the result of substitution on
word produces
more than one filename, redirection occurs for each separate filename in turn.
- < word
- Open file word for reading as standard input.
- <> word
- Open file word for reading and writing as standard input. If the
file does not exist then it is created.
- > word
- Open file word for writing as standard output. If the file does not
exist then it is created. If the file exists, and the CLOBBER
option is unset, this causes an error; otherwise, it is truncated to zero
length.
- >| word
- >! word
- Same as >, except that the file is truncated to zero length if
it exists, even if CLOBBER is unset.
- >> word
- Open file word for writing in append mode as standard output. If
the file does not exist, and the CLOBBER option is unset, this
causes an error; otherwise, the file is created.
- >>| word
- >>! word
- Same as >>, except that the file is created if it does not
exist, even if CLOBBER is unset.
- <<[-] word
- The shell input is read up to a line that is the same as word, or
to an end-of-file. No parameter expansion, command substitution or
filename generation is performed on word. The resulting document,
called a here-document, becomes the standard input.
If any character of
word is quoted with single or double quotes or a `
\', no interpretation is placed upon the characters of the document.
Otherwise, parameter and command substitution occurs, `
\' followed by
a newline is removed, and `
\' must be used to quote the characters `
\', `
$', `
`' and the first character of
word.
Note that
word itself does not undergo shell expansion. Backquotes in
word do not have their usual effect; instead they behave similarly to
double quotes, except that the backquotes themselves are passed through
unchanged. (This information is given for completeness and it is not
recommended that backquotes be used.) Quotes in the form
$'...' have their standard effect of expanding
backslashed references to special characters.
If
<<- is used, then all leading tabs are stripped from
word
and from the document.
- <<< word
- Perform shell expansion on word and pass the result to standard
input. This is known as a here-string. Compare the use of
word in here-documents above, where word does not undergo
shell expansion.
- <& number
- >& number
- The standard input/output is duplicated from file descriptor number
(see dup2(2)).
- <& -
- >& -
- Close the standard input/output.
- <& p
- >& p
- The input/output from/to the coprocess is moved to the standard
input/output.
- >& word
- &> word
- (Except where `>& word' matches one of the above
syntaxes; ` &>' can always be used to avoid this ambiguity.)
Redirects both standard output and standard error (file descriptor 2) in
the manner of ` > word'. Note that this does not
have the same effect as ` > word 2>&1' in
the presence of multios (see the section below).
- >&| word
- >&! word
- &>| word
- &>! word
- Redirects both standard output and standard error (file descriptor 2) in
the manner of ` >| word'.
- >>& word
- &>> word
- Redirects both standard output and standard error (file descriptor 2) in
the manner of ` >> word'.
- >>&| word
- >>&! word
- &>>| word
- &>>! word
- Redirects both standard output and standard error (file descriptor 2) in
the manner of ` >>| word'.
If one of the above is preceded by a digit, then the file descriptor referred to
is that specified by the digit instead of the default 0 or 1. The order in
which redirections are specified is significant. The shell evaluates each
redirection in terms of the (
file descriptor,
file) association
at the time of evaluation. For example:
first associates file descriptor 1 with file
fname. It then associates
file descriptor 2 with the file associated with file descriptor 1 (that is,
fname). If the order of redirections were reversed, file descriptor 2
would be associated with the terminal (assuming file descriptor 1 had been)
and then file descriptor 1 would be associated with file
fname.
The `
|&' command separator described in
Simple Commands &
Pipelines in
zshmisc(1) is a shorthand for `
2>&1 |'.
The various forms of process substitution, `
<(list)',
and `
=(list)' for input and `
>(list)' for output, are often used together with
redirection. For example, if
word in an output redirection is of the
form `
>(list)' then the output is piped to the
command represented by
list. See
Process Substitution in
zshexpn(1).
When the shell is parsing arguments to a command, and the shell option
IGNORE_BRACES is not set, a different form of redirection is allowed:
instead of a digit before the operator there is a valid shell identifier
enclosed in braces. The shell will open a new file descriptor that is
guaranteed to be at least 10 and set the parameter named by the identifier to
the file descriptor opened. No whitespace is allowed between the closing brace
and the redirection character. For example:
This opens a new file descriptor that is a duplicate of file descriptor 1 and
sets the parameter
myfd to the number of the file descriptor, which
will be at least 10. The new file descriptor can be written to using the
syntax
>&$myfd.
The syntax
{varid}>&-, for example
{myfd}>&-, may be used to close a file descriptor opened in this
fashion. Note that the parameter given by
varid must previously be set
to a file descriptor in this case.
It is an error to open or close a file descriptor in this fashion when the
parameter is readonly. However, it is not an error to read or write a file
descriptor using
<&$param or
>&$param if
param is readonly.
If the option
CLOBBER is unset, it is an error to open a file descriptor
using a parameter that is already set to an open file descriptor previously
allocated by this mechanism. Unsetting the parameter before using it for
allocating a file descriptor avoids the error.
Note that this mechanism merely allocates or closes a file descriptor; it does
not perform any redirections from or to it. It is usually convenient to
allocate a file descriptor prior to use as an argument to
exec. The
syntax does not in any case work when used around complex commands such as
parenthesised subshells or loops, where the opening brace is interpreted as
part of a command list to be executed in the current shell.
The following shows a typical sequence of allocation, use, and closing of a file
descriptor:
integer myfd
exec {myfd}>~/logs/mylogfile.txt
print This is a log message. >&$myfd
exec {myfd}>&-
Note that the expansion of the variable in the expression
>&$myfd
occurs at the point the redirection is opened. This is after the expansion of
command arguments and after any redirections to the left on the command line
have been processed.
If the user tries to open a file descriptor for writing more than once, the
shell opens the file descriptor as a pipe to a process that copies its input
to all the specified outputs, similar to
tee, provided the
MULTIOS option is set, as it is by default. Thus:
writes the date to two files, named `
foo' and `
bar'. Note that a
pipe is an implicit redirection; thus
writes the date to the file `
foo', and also pipes it to cat.
Note also that redirections are always expanded in order. This happens
regardless of the setting of the
MULTIOS option, but with the option in
effect there are additional consequences. For example, the meaning of the
expression
>&1 will change after a previous redirection:
In the case above, the
>&1 refers to the standard output at the
start of the line; the result is similar to the
tee command. However,
consider:
As redirections are evaluated in order, when the
>&1 is
encountered the standard output is set to the file
output and another
copy of the output is therefore sent to that file. This is unlikely to be what
is intended.
If the
MULTIOS option is set, the word after a redirection operator is
also subjected to filename generation (globbing). Thus
will truncate all files in the current directory, assuming there's at least one.
(Without the
MULTIOS option, it would create an empty file called `
*'.) Similarly, you can do
If the user tries to open a file descriptor for reading more than once, the
shell opens the file descriptor as a pipe to a process that copies all the
specified inputs to its output in the order specified, similar to
cat,
provided the
MULTIOS option is set. Thus
or even
is equivalent to `
cat foo fubar | sort'.
Expansion of the redirection argument occurs at the point the redirection is
opened, at the point described above for the expansion of the variable in
>&$myfd.
Note that a pipe is an implicit redirection; thus
is equivalent to `
cat bar foo | sort' (note the order of the inputs).
If the
MULTIOS option is
unset, each redirection replaces the
previous redirection for that file descriptor. However, all files redirected
to are actually opened, so
when
MULTIOS is unset will truncate `
bar', and write
`
Hello' into `
baz'.
There is a problem when an output multio is attached to an external program. A
simple example shows this:
cat file >file1 >file2
cat file1 file2
Here, it is possible that the second `
cat' will not display the full
contents of
file1 and
file2 (i.e. the original contents of
file repeated twice).
The reason for this is that the multios are spawned after the
cat process
is forked from the parent shell, so the parent shell does not wait for the
multios to finish writing data. This means the command as shown can exit
before
file1 and
file2 are completely written. As a workaround,
it is possible to run the
cat process as part of a job in the current
shell:
{ cat file } >file >file2
Here, the
{...} job will pause to wait for both files to be
written.
When a simple command consists of one or more redirection operators and zero or
more parameter assignments, but no command name, zsh can behave in several
ways.
If the parameter
NULLCMD is not set or the option
CSH_NULLCMD is
set, an error is caused. This is the
csh behavior and
CSH_NULLCMD is set by default when emulating
csh.
If the option
SH_NULLCMD is set, the builtin `
:' is inserted as a
command with the given redirections. This is the default when emulating
sh or
ksh.
Otherwise, if the parameter
NULLCMD is set, its value will be used as a
command with the given redirections. If both
NULLCMD and
READNULLCMD are set, then the value of the latter will be used instead
of that of the former when the redirection is an input. The default for
NULLCMD is `
cat' and for
READNULLCMD is `
more'.
Thus
shows the contents of
file on standard output, with paging if that is a
terminal.
NULLCMD and
READNULLCMD may refer to shell functions.
If a command name contains no slashes, the shell attempts to locate it. If there
exists a shell function by that name, the function is invoked as described in
the section `Functions'. If there exists a shell builtin by that name, the
builtin is invoked.
Otherwise, the shell searches each element of
$path for a directory
containing an executable file by that name. If the search is unsuccessful, the
shell prints an error message and returns a nonzero exit status.
If execution fails because the file is not in executable format, and the file is
not a directory, it is assumed to be a shell script.
/bin/sh is spawned
to execute it. If the program is a file beginning with `
#!', the
remainder of the first line specifies an interpreter for the program. The
shell will execute the specified interpreter on operating systems that do not
handle this executable format in the kernel.
If no external command is found but a function
command_not_found_handler
exists the shell executes this function with all command line arguments. The
return status of the function becomes the status of the command. If the
function wishes to mimic the behaviour of the shell when the command is not
found, it should print the message `
command not found: cmd' to
standard error and return status 127. Note that the handler is executed in a
subshell forked to execute an external command, hence changes to directories,
shell parameters, etc. have no effect on the main shell.
Shell functions are defined with the
function reserved word or the
special syntax `
funcname ()'. Shell functions are read in and
stored internally. Alias names are resolved when the function is read.
Functions are executed like commands with the arguments passed as positional
parameters. (See the section `Command Execution'.)
Functions execute in the same process as the caller and share all files and
present working directory with the caller. A trap on
EXIT set inside a
function is executed after the function completes in the environment of the
caller.
The
return builtin is used to return from function calls.
Function identifiers can be listed with the
functions builtin. Functions
can be undefined with the
unfunction builtin.
A function can be marked as
undefined using the
autoload builtin
(or `
functions -u' or `
typeset -fu'). Such a function has no
body. When the function is first executed, the shell searches for its
definition using the elements of the
fpath variable. Thus to define
functions for autoloading, a typical sequence is:
fpath=(~/myfuncs $fpath)
autoload myfunc1 myfunc2 ...
The usual alias expansion during reading will be suppressed if the
autoload builtin or its equivalent is given the option
-U. This
is recommended for the use of functions supplied with the zsh distribution.
Note that for functions precompiled with the
zcompile builtin command
the flag
-U must be provided when the
.zwc file is created, as
the corresponding information is compiled into the latter.
For each
element in
fpath, the shell looks for three possible
files, the newest of which is used to load the definition for the function:
- element.zwc
- A file created with the zcompile builtin command, which is expected
to contain the definitions for all functions in the directory named
element. The file is treated in the same manner as a directory
containing files for functions and is searched for the definition of the
function. If the definition is not found, the search for a definition
proceeds with the other two possibilities described below.
If
element already includes a
.zwc extension (i.e. the extension
was explicitly given by the user),
element is searched for the
definition of the function without comparing its age to that of other files;
in fact, there does not need to be any directory named
element without
the suffix. Thus including an element such as `
/usr/local/funcs.zwc'
in
fpath will speed up the search for functions, with the disadvantage
that functions included must be explicitly recompiled by hand before the shell
notices any changes.
- element/function.zwc
- A file created with zcompile, which is expected to contain the
definition for function. It may include other function definitions
as well, but those are neither loaded nor executed; a file found in this
way is searched only for the definition of function.
- element/function
- A file of zsh command text, taken to be the definition for
function.
In summary, the order of searching is, first, in the
parents of
directories in
fpath for the newer of either a compiled directory or a
directory in
fpath; second, if more than one of these contains a
definition for the function that is sought, the leftmost in the
fpath
is chosen; and third, within a directory, the newer of either a compiled
function or an ordinary function definition is used.
If the
KSH_AUTOLOAD option is set, or the file contains only a simple
definition of the function, the file's contents will be executed. This will
normally define the function in question, but may also perform initialization,
which is executed in the context of the function execution, and may therefore
define local parameters. It is an error if the function is not defined by
loading the file.
Otherwise, the function body (with no surrounding `
funcname()
{ ...}') is taken to be the complete contents of the
file. This form allows the file to be used directly as an executable shell
script. If processing of the file results in the function being re-defined,
the function itself is not re-executed. To force the shell to perform
initialization and then call the function defined, the file should contain
initialization code (which will be executed then discarded) in addition to a
complete function definition (which will be retained for subsequent calls to
the function), and a call to the shell function, including any arguments, at
the end.
For example, suppose the autoload file
func contains
func() { print This is func; }
print func is initialized
then `
func; func' with
KSH_AUTOLOAD set will produce both
messages on the first call, but only the message `
This is func' on the
second and subsequent calls. Without
KSH_AUTOLOAD set, it will produce
the initialization message on the first call, and the other message on the
second and subsequent calls.
It is also possible to create a function that is not marked as autoloaded, but
which loads its own definition by searching
fpath, by using `
autoload -X' within a shell function. For example, the following are
equivalent:
myfunc() {
autoload -X
}
myfunc args...
and
unfunction myfunc # if myfunc was defined
autoload myfunc
myfunc args...
In fact, the
functions command outputs `
builtin autoload -X' as
the body of an autoloaded function. This is done so that
produces a reasonable result. A true autoloaded function can be identified by
the presence of the comment `
# undefined' in the body, because all
comments are discarded from defined functions.
To load the definition of an autoloaded function
myfunc without executing
myfunc, use:
If no name is given for a function, it is `anonymous' and is handled specially.
Either form of function definition may be used: a `
()' with no
preceding name, or a `
function' with an immediately following open
brace. The function is executed immediately at the point of definition and is
not stored for future use. The function name is set to `
(anon)'.
Arguments to the function may be specified as words following the closing brace
defining the function, hence if there are none no arguments (other than
$0) are set. This is a difference from the way other functions are
parsed: normal function definitions may be followed by certain keywords such
as `
else' or `
fi', which will be treated as arguments to
anonymous functions, so that a newline or semicolon is needed to force keyword
interpretation.
Note also that the argument list of any enclosing script or function is hidden
(as would be the case for any other function called at this point).
Redirections may be applied to the anonymous function in the same manner as to a
current-shell structure enclosed in braces. The main use of anonymous
functions is to provide a scope for local variables. This is particularly
convenient in start-up files as these do not provide their own local variable
scope.
For example,
variable=outside
function {
local variable=inside
print "I am $variable with arguments $*"
} this and that
print "I am $variable"
outputs the following:
I am inside with arguments this and that
I am outside
Note that function definitions with arguments that expand to nothing, for
example `
name=; function $name { ... }', are not treated
as anonymous functions. Instead, they are treated as normal function
definitions where the definition is silently discarded.
Certain functions, if defined, have special meaning to the shell.
For the functions below, it is possible to define an array that has the same
name as the function with `
_functions' appended. Any element in such
an array is taken as the name of a function to execute; it is executed in the
same context and with the same arguments as the basic function. For example,
if
$chpwd_functions is an array containing the values `
mychpwd', `
chpwd_save_dirstack', then the shell attempts to
execute the functions `
chpwd', `
mychpwd' and `
chpwd_save_dirstack', in that order. Any function that does not exist
is silently ignored. A function found by this mechanism is referred to
elsewhere as a `hook function'. An error in any function causes subsequent
functions not to be run. Note further that an error in a
precmd hook
causes an immediately following
periodic function not to run (though it
may run at the next opportunity).
- chpwd
- Executed whenever the current working directory is changed.
- periodic
- If the parameter PERIOD is set, this function is executed every
$PERIOD seconds, just before a prompt. Note that if multiple
functions are defined using the array periodic_functions only one
period is applied to the complete set of functions, and the scheduled time
is not reset if the list of functions is altered. Hence the set of
functions is always called together.
- precmd
- Executed before each prompt. Note that precommand functions are not
re-executed simply because the command line is redrawn, as happens, for
example, when a notification about an exiting job is displayed.
- preexec
- Executed just after a command has been read and is about to be executed.
If the history mechanism is active (regardless of whether the line was
discarded from the history buffer), the string that the user typed is
passed as the first argument, otherwise it is an empty string. The actual
command that will be executed (including expanded aliases) is passed in
two different forms: the second argument is a single-line, size-limited
version of the command (with things like function bodies elided); the
third argument contains the full text that is being executed.
- zshaddhistory
- Executed when a history line has been read interactively, but before it is
executed. The sole argument is the complete history line (so that any
terminating newline will still be present).
If any of the hook functions returns status 1 (or any non-zero value other than
2, though this is not guaranteed for future versions of the shell) the history
line will not be saved, although it lingers in the history until the next line
is executed, allowing you to reuse or edit it immediately.
If any of the hook functions returns status 2 the history line will be saved on
the internal history list, but not written to the history file. In case of a
conflict, the first non-zero status value is taken.
A hook function may call `
fc -p ...' to switch the history
context so that the history is saved in a different file from the that in the
global
HISTFILE parameter. This is handled specially: the history
context is automatically restored after the processing of the history line is
finished.
The following example function works with one of the options
INC_APPEND_HISTORY or
SHARE_HISTORY set, in order that the line
is written out immediately after the history entry is added. It first adds the
history line to the normal history with the newline stripped, which is usually
the correct behaviour. Then it switches the history context so that the line
will be written to a history file in the current directory.
zshaddhistory() {
print -sr -- ${1%%$'\n'}
fc -p .zsh_local_history
}
- zshexit
- Executed at the point where the main shell is about to exit normally. This
is not called by exiting subshells, nor when the exec precommand
modifier is used before an external command. Also, unlike TRAPEXIT,
it is not called when functions exit.
The functions below are treated specially but do not have corresponding hook
arrays.
- TRAPNAL
- If defined and non-null, this function will be executed whenever the shell
catches a signal SIGNAL, where NAL is a signal name
as specified for the kill builtin. The signal number will be passed
as the first parameter to the function.
If a function of this form is defined and null, the shell and processes spawned
by it will ignore
SIGNAL.
The return status from the function is handled specially. If it is zero, the
signal is assumed to have been handled, and execution continues normally.
Otherwise, the shell will behave as interrupted except that the return status
of the trap is retained.
Programs terminated by uncaught signals typically return the status 128 plus the
signal number. Hence the following causes the handler for
SIGINT to
print a message, then mimic the usual effect of the signal.
TRAPINT() {
print "Caught SIGINT, aborting."
return $(( 128 + $1 ))
}
The functions
TRAPZERR,
TRAPDEBUG and
TRAPEXIT are never
executed inside other traps.
- TRAPDEBUG
- If the option DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD is set (as it is by default),
executed before each command; otherwise executed after each command. See
the description of the trap builtin in zshbuiltins(1) for
details of additional features provided in debug traps.
- TRAPEXIT
- Executed when the shell exits, or when the current function exits if
defined inside a function. The value of $? at the start of
execution is the exit status of the shell or the return status of the
function exiting.
- TRAPZERR
- Executed whenever a command has a non-zero exit status. However, the
function is not executed if the command occurred in a sublist followed by
` &&' or `||'; only the final command in a sublist
of this type causes the trap to be executed. The function TRAPERR
acts the same as TRAPZERR on systems where there is no
SIGERR (this is the usual case).
The functions beginning `
TRAP' may alternatively be defined with the
trap builtin: this may be preferable for some uses. Setting a trap with
one form removes any trap of the other form for the same signal; removing a
trap in either form removes all traps for the same signal. The forms
('function traps') and
('list traps') are equivalent in most ways, the exceptions being the following:
- •
- Function traps have all the properties of normal functions, appearing in
the list of functions and being called with their own function context
rather than the context where the trap was triggered.
- •
- The return status from function traps is special, whereas a return from a
list trap causes the surrounding context to return with the given
status.
- •
- Function traps are not reset within subshells, in accordance with zsh
behaviour; list traps are reset, in accordance with POSIX behaviour.
If the
MONITOR option is set, an interactive shell associates a
job with each pipeline. It keeps a table of current jobs, printed by
the
jobs command, and assigns them small integer numbers. When a job is
started asynchronously with `
&', the shell prints a line to
standard error which looks like:
indicating that the job which was started asynchronously was job number 1 and
had one (top-level) process, whose process ID was 1234.
If a job is started with `
&|' or `
&!', then that job is
immediately disowned. After startup, it does not have a place in the job
table, and is not subject to the job control features described here.
If you are running a job and wish to do something else you may hit the key ^Z
(control-Z) which sends a
TSTP signal to the current job: this key may
be redefined by the
susp option of the external
stty command.
The shell will then normally indicate that the job has been `suspended', and
print another prompt. You can then manipulate the state of this job, putting
it in the background with the
bg command, or run some other commands
and then eventually bring the job back into the foreground with the foreground
command
fg. A ^Z takes effect immediately and is like an interrupt in
that pending output and unread input are discarded when it is typed.
A job being run in the background will suspend if it tries to read from the
terminal.
Note that if the job running in the foreground is a shell function, then
suspending it will have the effect of causing the shell to fork. This is
necessary to separate the function's state from that of the parent shell
performing the job control, so that the latter can return to the command line
prompt. As a result, even if
fg is used to continue the job the
function will no longer be part of the parent shell, and any variables set by
the function will not be visible in the parent shell. Thus the behaviour is
different from the case where the function was never suspended. Zsh is
different from many other shells in this regard.
One additional side effect is that use of
disown with a job created by
suspending shell code in this fashion is delayed: the job can only be disowned
once any process started from the parent shell has terminated. At that point,
the disowned job disappears silently from the job list.
The same behaviour is found when the shell is executing code as the right hand
side of a pipeline or any complex shell construct such as
if,
for, etc., in order that the entire block of code can be managed as a
single job. Background jobs are normally allowed to produce output, but this
can be disabled by giving the command `
stty tostop'. If you set this
tty option, then background jobs will suspend when they try to produce output
like they do when they try to read input.
When a command is suspended and continued later with the
fg or
wait builtins, zsh restores tty modes that were in effect when it was
suspended. This (intentionally) does not apply if the command is continued via
`
kill -CONT', nor when it is continued with
bg.
There are several ways to refer to jobs in the shell. A job can be referred to
by the process ID of any process of the job or by one of the following:
- %number
- The job with the given number.
- %string
- The last job whose command line begins with string.
- %?string
- The last job whose command line contains string.
- %%
- Current job.
- %+
- Equivalent to `%%'.
- %-
- Previous job.
The shell learns immediately whenever a process changes state. It normally
informs you whenever a job becomes blocked so that no further progress is
possible. If the
NOTIFY option is not set, it waits until just before
it prints a prompt before it informs you. All such notifications are sent
directly to the terminal, not to the standard output or standard error.
When the monitor mode is on, each background job that completes triggers any
trap set for
CHLD.
When you try to leave the shell while jobs are running or suspended, you will be
warned that `You have suspended (running) jobs'. You may use the
jobs
command to see what they are. If you do this or immediately try to exit again,
the shell will not warn you a second time; the suspended jobs will be
terminated, and the running jobs will be sent a
SIGHUP signal, if the
HUP option is set.
To avoid having the shell terminate the running jobs, either use the
nohup command (see
nohup(1)) or the
disown builtin.
The
INT and
QUIT signals for an invoked command are ignored if the
command is followed by `
&' and the
MONITOR option is not
active. The shell itself always ignores the
QUIT signal. Otherwise,
signals have the values inherited by the shell from its parent (but see the
TRAPNAL special functions in the section `Functions').
Certain jobs are run asynchronously by the shell other than those explicitly put
into the background; even in cases where the shell would usually wait for such
jobs, an explicit
exit command or exit due to the option
ERR_EXIT will cause the shell to exit without waiting. Examples of such
asynchronous jobs are process substitution, see the section PROCESS
SUBSTITUTION in the
zshexpn(1) manual page, and the handler processes
for multios, see the section MULTIOS in the
zshmisc(1) manual page.
The shell can perform integer and floating point arithmetic, either using the
builtin
let, or via a substitution of the form
$((...)). For integers, the shell is usually compiled to
use 8-byte precision where this is available, otherwise precision is 4 bytes.
This can be tested, for example, by giving the command `
print - $((
12345678901 ))'; if the number appears unchanged, the precision is at
least 8 bytes. Floating point arithmetic always uses the `double' type with
whatever corresponding precision is provided by the compiler and the library.
The
let builtin command takes arithmetic expressions as arguments; each
is evaluated separately. Since many of the arithmetic operators, as well as
spaces, require quoting, an alternative form is provided: for any command
which begins with a `
((', all the characters until a matching `
))' are treated as a quoted expression and arithmetic expansion
performed as for an argument of
let. More precisely, `
((... ))' is equivalent to `
let
"..."'. The return status is 0 if the arithmetic
value of the expression is non-zero, 1 if it is zero, and 2 if an error
occurred.
For example, the following statement
is equivalent to
both assigning the value 3 to the shell variable
val and returning a zero
status.
Integers can be in bases other than 10. A leading `
0x' or `
0X'
denotes hexadecimal and a leading `
0b' or `
0B' binary. Integers
may also be of the form `
base#n', where
base is a
decimal number between two and thirty-six representing the arithmetic base and
n is a number in that base (for example, `
16#ff' is 255 in
hexadecimal). The
base# may also be omitted, in which case base
10 is used. For backwards compatibility the form `
[base]n' is also accepted.
An integer expression or a base given in the form `
base#n'
may contain underscores (`
_') after the leading digit for visual
guidance; these are ignored in computation. Examples are
1_000_000 or
0xffff_ffff which are equivalent to
1000000 and
0xffffffff respectively.
It is also possible to specify a base to be used for output in the form `
[# base]', for example `
[#16]'. This is used when
outputting arithmetical substitutions or when assigning to scalar parameters,
but an explicitly defined integer or floating point parameter will not be
affected. If an integer variable is implicitly defined by an arithmetic
expression, any base specified in this way will be set as the variable's
output arithmetic base as if the option `
-i base' to the
typeset builtin had been used. The expression has no precedence and if
it occurs more than once in a mathematical expression, the last encountered is
used. For clarity it is recommended that it appear at the beginning of an
expression. As an example:
typeset -i 16 y
print $(( [#8] x = 32, y = 32 ))
print $x $y
outputs first `
8#40', the rightmost value in the given output base, and
then `
8#40 16#20', because
y has been explicitly declared to
have output base 16, while
x (assuming it does not already exist) is
implicitly typed by the arithmetic evaluation, where it acquires the output
base 8.
The
base may be replaced or followed by an underscore, which may itself
be followed by a positive integer (if it is missing the value 3 is used). This
indicates that underscores should be inserted into the output string, grouping
the number for visual clarity. The following integer specifies the number of
digits to group together. For example:
setopt cbases
print $(( [#16_4] 65536 ** 2 ))
outputs `
0x1_0000_0000'.
The feature can be used with floating point numbers, in which case the base must
be omitted; grouping is away from the decimal point. For example,
zmodload zsh/mathfunc
print $(( [#_] sqrt(1e7) ))
outputs `
3_162.277_660_168_379_5' (the number of decimal places shown
may vary).
If the
C_BASES option is set, hexadecimal numbers are output in the
standard C format, for example `
0xFF' instead of the usual
`
16#FF'. If the option
OCTAL_ZEROES is also set (it is not by
default), octal numbers will be treated similarly and hence appear as `
077' instead of `
8#77'. This option has no effect on the output
of bases other than hexadecimal and octal, and these formats are always
understood on input.
When an output base is specified using the `
[#base]'
syntax, an appropriate base prefix will be output if necessary, so that the
value output is valid syntax for input. If the
# is doubled, for
example `
[##16]', then no base prefix is output.
Floating point constants are recognized by the presence of a decimal point or an
exponent. The decimal point may be the first character of the constant, but
the exponent character
e or
E may not, as it will be taken for a
parameter name. All numeric parts (before and after the decimal point and in
the exponent) may contain underscores after the leading digit for visual
guidance; these are ignored in computation.
An arithmetic expression uses nearly the same syntax and associativity of
expressions as in C.
In the native mode of operation, the following operators are supported (listed
in decreasing order of precedence):
- + - ! ~ ++ --
- unary plus/minus, logical NOT, complement, {pre,post}{in,de}crement
- << >>
- bitwise shift left, right
- &
- bitwise AND
- ^
- bitwise XOR
- |
- bitwise OR
- **
- exponentiation
- * / %
- multiplication, division, modulus (remainder)
- + -
- addition, subtraction
- < > <= >=
- comparison
- == !=
- equality and inequality
- &&
- logical AND
- || ^^
- logical OR, XOR
- ? :
- ternary operator
- = += -= *= /= %= &= ^= |= <<= >>= &&= ||= ^^=
**=
- assignment
- ,
- comma operator
The operators `
&&', `
||', `
&&=', and
`
||=' are short-circuiting, and only one of the latter two expressions
in a ternary operator is evaluated. Note the precedence of the bitwise AND,
OR, and XOR operators.
With the option
C_PRECEDENCES the precedences (but no other properties)
of the operators are altered to be the same as those in most other languages
that support the relevant operators:
- + - ! ~ ++ --
- unary plus/minus, logical NOT, complement, {pre,post}{in,de}crement
- **
- exponentiation
- * / %
- multiplication, division, modulus (remainder)
- + -
- addition, subtraction
- << >>
- bitwise shift left, right
- < > <= >=
- comparison
- == !=
- equality and inequality
- &
- bitwise AND
- ^
- bitwise XOR
- |
- bitwise OR
- &&
- logical AND
- ^^
- logical XOR
- ||
- logical OR
- ? :
- ternary operator
- = += -= *= /= %= &= ^= |= <<= >>= &&= ||= ^^=
**=
- assignment
- ,
- comma operator
Note the precedence of exponentiation in both cases is below that of unary
operators, hence `
-3**2' evaluates as `
9', not `
-9'.
Use parentheses where necessary: `
-(3**2)'. This is for compatibility
with other shells.
Mathematical functions can be called with the syntax `
func(args )', where the function decides if the
args is used as a string or a comma-separated list of arithmetic
expressions. The shell currently defines no mathematical functions by default,
but the module
zsh/mathfunc may be loaded with the
zmodload
builtin to provide standard floating point mathematical functions.
An expression of the form `
##x' where
x is any character
sequence such as `
a', `
^A', or `
\M-\C-x' gives the value
of this character and an expression of the form `
#name' gives
the value of the first character of the contents of the parameter
name.
Character values are according to the character set used in the current
locale; for multibyte character handling the option
MULTIBYTE must be
set. Note that this form is different from `
$#name', a standard
parameter substitution which gives the length of the parameter
name. `
#\' is accepted instead of `
##', but its use is deprecated.
Named parameters and subscripted arrays can be referenced by name within an
arithmetic expression without using the parameter expansion syntax. For
example,
assigns twice the value of
$val1 to the parameter named
val2.
An internal integer representation of a named parameter can be specified with
the
integer builtin. Arithmetic evaluation is performed on the value of
each assignment to a named parameter declared integer in this manner.
Assigning a floating point number to an integer results in rounding towards
zero.
Likewise, floating point numbers can be declared with the
float builtin;
there are two types, differing only in their output format, as described for
the
typeset builtin. The output format can be bypassed by using
arithmetic substitution instead of the parameter substitution, i.e. `
${ float}' uses the defined format, but `
$((float ))' uses a generic floating point format.
Promotion of integer to floating point values is performed where necessary. In
addition, if any operator which requires an integer (`
&',
`
|', `
^', `
<<', `
>>' and their
equivalents with assignment) is given a floating point argument, it will be
silently rounded towards zero except for `
~' which rounds down.
Users should beware that, in common with many other programming languages but
not software designed for calculation, the evaluation of an expression in zsh
is taken a term at a time and promotion of integers to floating point does not
occur in terms only containing integers. A typical result of this is that a
division such as
6/8 is truncated, in this being rounded towards 0. The
FORCE_FLOAT shell option can be used in scripts or functions where
floating point evaluation is required throughout.
Scalar variables can hold integer or floating point values at different times;
there is no memory of the numeric type in this case.
If a variable is first assigned in a numeric context without previously being
declared, it will be implicitly typed as
integer or
float and
retain that type either until the type is explicitly changed or until the end
of the scope. This can have unforeseen consequences. For example, in the loop
for (( f = 0; f < 1; f += 0.1 )); do
# use $f
done
if
f has not already been declared, the first assignment will cause it to
be created as an integer, and consequently the operation `
f += 0.1'
will always cause the result to be truncated to zero, so that the loop will
fail. A simple fix would be to turn the initialization into `
f = 0.0'.
It is therefore best to declare numeric variables with explicit types.
A
conditional expression is used with the
[[ compound command to
test attributes of files and to compare strings. Each expression can be
constructed from one or more of the following unary or binary expressions:
- -a file
- true if file exists.
- -b file
- true if file exists and is a block special file.
- -c file
- true if file exists and is a character special file.
- -d file
- true if file exists and is a directory.
- -e file
- true if file exists.
- -f file
- true if file exists and is a regular file.
- -g file
- true if file exists and has its setgid bit set.
- -h file
- true if file exists and is a symbolic link.
- -k file
- true if file exists and has its sticky bit set.
- -n string
- true if length of string is non-zero.
- -o option
- true if option named option is on. option may be a single
character, in which case it is a single letter option name. (See the
section `Specifying Options'.)
When no option named
option exists, and the
POSIX_BUILTINS option
hasn't been set, return 3 with a warning. If that option is set, return 1 with
no warning.
- -p file
- true if file exists and is a FIFO special file (named pipe).
- -r file
- true if file exists and is readable by current process.
- -s file
- true if file exists and has size greater than zero.
- -t fd
- true if file descriptor number fd is open and associated with a
terminal device. (note: fd is not optional)
- -u file
- true if file exists and has its setuid bit set.
- -v varname
- true if shell variable varname is set.
- -w file
- true if file exists and is writable by current process.
- -x file
- true if file exists and is executable by current process. If
file exists and is a directory, then the current process has
permission to search in the directory.
- -z string
- true if length of string is zero.
- -L file
- true if file exists and is a symbolic link.
- -O file
- true if file exists and is owned by the effective user ID of this
process.
- -G file
- true if file exists and its group matches the effective group ID of
this process.
- -S file
- true if file exists and is a socket.
- -N file
- true if file exists and its access time is not newer than its
modification time.
- file1 -nt file2
- true if file1 exists and is newer than file2.
- file1 -ot file2
- true if file1 exists and is older than file2.
- file1 -ef file2
- true if file1 and file2 exist and refer to the same
file.
- string = pattern
- string == pattern
- true if string matches pattern. The two forms are exactly
equivalent. The ` =' form is the traditional shell syntax (and
hence the only one generally used with the test and [
builtins); the ` ==' form provides compatibility with other sorts
of computer language.
- string != pattern
- true if string does not match pattern.
- string =~ regexp
- true if string matches the regular expression regexp. If the
option RE_MATCH_PCRE is set regexp is tested as a PCRE
regular expression using the zsh/pcre module, else it is tested as
a POSIX extended regular expression using the zsh/regex module.
Upon successful match, some variables will be updated; no variables are
changed if the matching fails.
If the option
BASH_REMATCH is not set the scalar parameter
MATCH
is set to the substring that matched the pattern and the integer parameters
MBEGIN and
MEND to the index of the start and end, respectively,
of the match in
string, such that if
string is contained in
variable
var the expression `
${var[$MBEGIN,$MEND]}' is
identical to `
$MATCH'. The setting of the option
KSH_ARRAYS is
respected. Likewise, the array
match is set to the substrings that
matched parenthesised subexpressions and the arrays
mbegin and
mend to the indices of the start and end positions, respectively, of
the substrings within
string. The arrays are not set if there were no
parenthesised subexpresssions. For example, if the string `
a short
string' is matched against the regular expression `
s(...)t', then
(assuming the option
KSH_ARRAYS is not set)
MATCH,
MBEGIN
and
MEND are `
short',
3 and
7, respectively, while
match,
mbegin and
mend are single entry arrays containing
the strings `
hor', `
4' and `
6', respectively.
If the option
BASH_REMATCH is set the array
BASH_REMATCH is set to
the substring that matched the pattern followed by the substrings that matched
parenthesised subexpressions within the pattern.
- string1 < string2
- true if string1 comes before string2 based on ASCII value of
their characters.
- string1 > string2
- true if string1 comes after string2 based on ASCII value of
their characters.
- exp1 -eq exp2
- true if exp1 is numerically equal to exp2. Note that for
purely numeric comparisons use of the ((...)) builtin
described in the section `ARITHMETIC EVALUATION' is more convenient than
conditional expressions.
- exp1 -ne exp2
- true if exp1 is numerically not equal to exp2.
- exp1 -lt exp2
- true if exp1 is numerically less than exp2.
- exp1 -gt exp2
- true if exp1 is numerically greater than exp2.
- exp1 -le exp2
- true if exp1 is numerically less than or equal to exp2.
- exp1 -ge exp2
- true if exp1 is numerically greater than or equal to
exp2.
- ( exp )
- true if exp is true.
- ! exp
- true if exp is false.
- exp1 && exp2
- true if exp1 and exp2 are both true.
- exp1 || exp2
- true if either exp1 or exp2 is true.
For compatibility, if there is a single argument that is not syntactically
significant, typically a variable, the condition is treated as a test for
whether the expression expands as a string of non-zero length. In other words,
[[ $var ]] is the same as
[[ -n $var ]]. It is
recommended that the second, explicit, form be used where possible.
Normal shell expansion is performed on the
file,
string and
pattern arguments, but the result of each expansion is constrained to
be a single word, similar to the effect of double quotes.
Filename generation is not performed on any form of argument to conditions.
However, it can be forced in any case where normal shell expansion is valid
and when the option
EXTENDED_GLOB is in effect by using an explicit
glob qualifier of the form
(#q) at the end of the string. A normal glob
qualifier expression may appear between the `
q' and the closing
parenthesis; if none appears the expression has no effect beyond causing
filename generation. The results of filename generation are joined together to
form a single word, as with the results of other forms of expansion.
This special use of filename generation is only available with the
[[
syntax. If the condition occurs within the
[ or
test builtin
commands then globbing occurs instead as part of normal command line expansion
before the condition is evaluated. In this case it may generate multiple words
which are likely to confuse the syntax of the test command.
For example,
produces status zero if and only if there is at least one file in the current
directory beginning with the string `
file'. The globbing qualifier
N ensures that the expression is empty if there is no matching file.
Pattern metacharacters are active for the
pattern arguments; the patterns
are the same as those used for filename generation, see
zshexpn(1), but
there is no special behaviour of `
/' nor initial dots, and no glob
qualifiers are allowed.
In each of the above expressions, if
file is of the form
`
/dev/fd/n', where
n is an integer, then the test applied
to the open file whose descriptor number is
n, even if the underlying
system does not support the
/dev/fd directory.
In the forms which do numeric comparison, the expressions
exp undergo
arithmetic expansion as if they were enclosed in
$((...)).
For example, the following:
[[ ( -f foo || -f bar ) && $report = y* ]] && print File exists.
tests if either file
foo or file
bar exists, and if so, if the
value of the parameter
report begins with `
y'; if the complete
condition is true, the message `
File exists.' is printed.
Prompt sequences undergo a special form of expansion. This type of expansion is
also available using the
-P option to the
print builtin.
If the
PROMPT_SUBST option is set, the prompt string is first subjected
to
parameter expansion,
command substitution and
arithmetic
expansion. See
zshexpn(1).
Certain escape sequences may be recognised in the prompt string.
If the
PROMPT_BANG option is set, a `
!' in the prompt is replaced
by the current history event number. A literal `
!' may then be
represented as `
!!'.
If the
PROMPT_PERCENT option is set, certain escape sequences that start
with `
%' are expanded. Many escapes are followed by a single
character, although some of these take an optional integer argument that
should appear between the `
%' and the next character of the sequence.
More complicated escape sequences are available to provide conditional
expansion.
- %%
- A `%'.
- %)
- A `)'.
- %l
- The line (tty) the user is logged in on, without `/dev/' prefix. If
the name starts with ` /dev/tty', that prefix is stripped.
- %M
- The full machine hostname.
- %m
- The hostname up to the first `.'. An integer may follow the `
%' to specify how many components of the hostname are desired. With
a negative integer, trailing components of the hostname are shown.
- %n
- $USERNAME.
- %y
- The line (tty) the user is logged in on, without `/dev/' prefix.
This does not treat ` /dev/tty' names specially.
- %#
- A `#' if the shell is running with privileges, a `%' if not.
Equivalent to ` %(!.#.%%)'. The definition of `privileged', for
these purposes, is that either the effective user ID is zero, or, if
POSIX.1e capabilities are supported, that at least one capability is
raised in either the Effective or Inheritable capability vectors.
- %?
- The return status of the last command executed just before the
prompt.
- %_
- The status of the parser, i.e. the shell constructs (like `if' and
` for') that have been started on the command line. If given an
integer number that many strings will be printed; zero or negative or no
integer means print as many as there are. This is most useful in prompts
PS2 for continuation lines and PS4 for debugging with the
XTRACE option; in the latter case it will also work
non-interactively.
- %^
- The status of the parser in reverse. This is the same as `%_' other
than the order of strings. It is often used in RPS2.
- %d
- %/
- Current working directory. If an integer follows the `%', it
specifies a number of trailing components of the current working directory
to show; zero means the whole path. A negative integer specifies leading
components, i.e. %-1d specifies the first component.
- %~
- As %d and %/, but if the current working directory starts
with $HOME, that part is replaced by a `~'. Furthermore, if
it has a named directory as its prefix, that part is replaced by a `
~' followed by the name of the directory, but only if the result is
shorter than the full path; see Dynamic and Static named
directories in zshexpn(1).
- %e
- Evaluation depth of the current sourced file, shell function, or
eval. This is incremented or decremented every time the value of
%N is set or reverted to a previous value, respectively. This is
most useful for debugging as part of $PS4.
- %h
- %!
- Current history event number.
- %i
- The line number currently being executed in the script, sourced file, or
shell function given by %N. This is most useful for debugging as
part of $PS4.
- %I
- The line number currently being executed in the file %x. This is
similar to %i, but the line number is always a line number in the
file where the code was defined, even if the code is a shell
function.
- %j
- The number of jobs.
- %L
- The current value of $SHLVL.
- %N
- The name of the script, sourced file, or shell function that zsh is
currently executing, whichever was started most recently. If there is
none, this is equivalent to the parameter $0. An integer may follow
the ` %' to specify a number of trailing path components to show;
zero means the full path. A negative integer specifies leading
components.
- %x
- The name of the file containing the source code currently being executed.
This behaves as %N except that function and eval command names are
not shown, instead the file where they were defined.
- %c
- %.
- %C
- Trailing component of the current working directory. An integer may follow
the ` %' to get more than one component. Unless ` %C' is
used, tilde contraction is performed first. These are deprecated as
%c and %C are equivalent to %1~ and %1/,
respectively, while explicit positive integers have the same effect as for
the latter two sequences.
- %D
- The date in yy-mm-dd format.
- %T
- Current time of day, in 24-hour format.
- %t
- %@
- Current time of day, in 12-hour, am/pm format.
- %*
- Current time of day in 24-hour format, with seconds.
- %w
- The date in day-dd format.
- %W
- The date in mm/dd/yy format.
- %D{string}
- string is formatted using the strftime function. See
strftime(3) for more details. Various zsh extensions provide
numbers with no leading zero or space if the number is a single
digit:
- %f
- a day of the month
- %K
- the hour of the day on the 24-hour clock
- %L
- the hour of the day on the 12-hour clock
In addition, if the system supports the POSIX
gettimeofday system call,
%. provides decimal fractions of a second since the epoch with leading
zeroes. By default three decimal places are provided, but a number of digits
up to 9 may be given following the
%; hence
%6. outputs
microseconds, and
%9. outputs nanoseconds. (The latter requires a
nanosecond-precision
clock_gettime; systems lacking this will return a
value multiplied by the appropriate power of 10.) A typical example of this is
the format `
%D{%H:%M:%S.%.}'.
The GNU extension
%N is handled as a synonym for
%9..
Additionally, the GNU extension that a `
-' between the
% and the
format character causes a leading zero or space to be stripped is handled
directly by the shell for the format characters
d,
f,
H,
k,
l,
m,
M,
S and
y; any other
format characters are provided to the system's strftime(3) with any leading `
-' present, so the handling is system dependent. Further GNU (or other)
extensions are also passed to strftime(3) and may work if the system supports
them.
- %B (%b)
- Start (stop) boldface mode.
- %E
- Clear to end of line.
- %U (%u)
- Start (stop) underline mode.
- %S (%s)
- Start (stop) standout mode.
- %F (%f)
- Start (stop) using a different foreground colour, if supported by the
terminal. The colour may be specified two ways: either as a numeric
argument, as normal, or by a sequence in braces following the %F,
for example %F{red}. In the latter case the values allowed are as
described for the fg zle_highlight attribute; see
Character Highlighting in zshzle(1). This means that numeric
colours are allowed in the second format also.
- %K (%k)
- Start (stop) using a different bacKground colour. The syntax is identical
to that for %F and %f.
- %{...%}
- Include a string as a literal escape sequence. The string within the
braces should not change the cursor position. Brace pairs can nest.
A positive numeric argument between the
% and the
{ is treated as
described for
%G below.
- %G
- Within a %{...%} sequence, include a `glitch': that is,
assume that a single character width will be output. This is useful when
outputting characters that otherwise cannot be correctly handled by the
shell, such as the alternate character set on some terminals. The
characters in question can be included within a %{...%}
sequence together with the appropriate number of %G sequences to
indicate the correct width. An integer between the ` %' and
`G' indicates a character width other than one. Hence
%{seq %2G%} outputs seq and assumes it takes
up the width of two standard characters.
Multiple uses of
%G accumulate in the obvious fashion; the position of
the
%G is unimportant. Negative integers are not handled.
Note that when prompt truncation is in use it is advisable to divide up output
into single characters within each
%{...
%} group so that the
correct truncation point can be found.
- %v
- The value of the first element of the psvar array parameter.
Following the ` %' with an integer gives that element of the array.
Negative integers count from the end of the array.
- %(x.true-text.false-text)
- Specifies a ternary expression. The character following the x is
arbitrary; the same character is used to separate the text for the `true'
result from that for the `false' result. This separator may not appear in
the true-text, except as part of a %-escape sequence. A ` )'
may appear in the false-text as `%)'. true-text and
false-text may both contain arbitrarily-nested escape sequences,
including further ternary expressions.
The left parenthesis may be preceded or followed by a positive integer
n,
which defaults to zero. A negative integer will be multiplied by -1, except as
noted below for `
l'. The test character
x may be any of the
following:
- !
- True if the shell is running with privileges.
- #
- True if the effective uid of the current process is n.
- ?
- True if the exit status of the last command was n.
- _
- True if at least n shell constructs were started.
- C
- /
- True if the current absolute path has at least n elements relative
to the root directory, hence / is counted as 0 elements.
- c
- .
- ~
- True if the current path, with prefix replacement, has at least n
elements relative to the root directory, hence / is counted as 0
elements.
- D
- True if the month is equal to n (January = 0).
- d
- True if the day of the month is equal to n.
- e
- True if the evaluation depth is at least n.
- g
- True if the effective gid of the current process is n.
- j
- True if the number of jobs is at least n.
- L
- True if the SHLVL parameter is at least n.
- l
- True if at least n characters have already been printed on the
current line. When n is negative, true if at least
abs( n) characters remain before the opposite
margin (thus the left margin for RPROMPT).
- S
- True if the SECONDS parameter is at least n.
- T
- True if the time in hours is equal to n.
- t
- True if the time in minutes is equal to n.
- v
- True if the array psvar has at least n elements.
- V
- True if element n of the array psvar is set and
non-empty.
- w
- True if the day of the week is equal to n (Sunday = 0).
- %<string<
- %>string>
- %[xstring]
- Specifies truncation behaviour for the remainder of the prompt string. The
third, deprecated, form is equivalent to ` %xstringx', i.e.
x may be `<' or `>'. The string will be
displayed in place of the truncated portion of any string; note this does
not undergo prompt expansion.
The numeric argument, which in the third form may appear immediately after the `
[', specifies the maximum permitted length of the various strings that
can be displayed in the prompt. In the first two forms, this numeric argument
may be negative, in which case the truncation length is determined by
subtracting the absolute value of the numeric argument from the number of
character positions remaining on the current prompt line. If this results in a
zero or negative length, a length of 1 is used. In other words, a negative
argument arranges that after truncation at least
n characters remain
before the right margin (left margin for
RPROMPT).
The forms with `
<' truncate at the left of the string, and the forms
with `
>' truncate at the right of the string. For example, if the
current directory is `
/home/pike', the prompt `
%8<..<%/'
will expand to `
..e/pike'. In this string, the terminating character
(`
<', `
>' or `
]'), or in fact any character, may
be quoted by a preceding `
\'; note when using
print -P,
however, that this must be doubled as the string is also subject to standard
print processing, in addition to any backslashes removed by a double
quoted string: the worst case is therefore `
print -P
"%<\\\\<<..."'.
If the
string is longer than the specified truncation length, it will
appear in full, completely replacing the truncated string.
The part of the prompt string to be truncated runs to the end of the string, or
to the end of the next enclosing group of the `
%(' construct, or to
the next truncation encountered at the same grouping level (i.e. truncations
inside a `
%(' are separate), which ever comes first. In particular, a
truncation with argument zero (e.g., `
%<<') marks the end of the
range of the string to be truncated while turning off truncation from there
on. For example, the prompt `
%10<...<%~%<<%# ' will print
a truncated representation of the current directory, followed by a `
%'
or `
#', followed by a space. Without the `
%<<', those
two characters would be included in the string to be truncated. Note that `
%-0<<' is not equivalent to `
%<<' but specifies
that the prompt is truncated at the right margin.
Truncation applies only within each individual line of the prompt, as delimited
by embedded newlines (if any). If the total length of any line of the prompt
after truncation is greater than the terminal width, or if the part to be
truncated contains embedded newlines, truncation behavior is undefined and may
change in a future version of the shell. Use `
%-n(l.true-text .false-text)'
to remove parts of the prompt when the available space is less than
n.
zshexpn - zsh expansion and substitution
The following types of expansions are performed in the indicated order in five
steps:
- History Expansion
- This is performed only in interactive shells.
- Alias Expansion
- Aliases are expanded immediately before the command line is parsed as
explained under Aliasing in zshmisc(1).
- Process Substitution
- Parameter Expansion
- Command Substitution
- Arithmetic Expansion
- Brace Expansion
- These five are performed in left-to-right fashion. On each argument, any
of the five steps that are needed are performed one after the other.
Hence, for example, all the parts of parameter expansion are completed
before command substitution is started. After these expansions, all
unquoted occurrences of the characters ` \',`'' and
`"' are removed.
- Filename Expansion
- If the SH_FILE_EXPANSION option is set, the order of expansion is
modified for compatibility with sh and ksh. In that case
filename expansion is performed immediately after alias
expansion, preceding the set of five expansions mentioned above.
- Filename Generation
- This expansion, commonly referred to as globbing, is always done
last.
The following sections explain the types of expansion in detail.
History expansion allows you to use words from previous command lines in the
command line you are typing. This simplifies spelling corrections and the
repetition of complicated commands or arguments.
Immediately before execution, each command is saved in the history list, the
size of which is controlled by the
HISTSIZE parameter. The one most
recent command is always retained in any case. Each saved command in the
history list is called a history
event and is assigned a number,
beginning with 1 (one) when the shell starts up. The history number that you
may see in your prompt (see EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in
zshmisc(1)) is the number that is to be assigned to the
next
command.
A history expansion begins with the first character of the
histchars
parameter, which is `
!' by default, and may occur anywhere on the
command line, including inside double quotes (but not inside single quotes
'...' or C-style quotes
$'...' nor when escaped with a
backslash).
The first character is followed by an optional event designator (see the section
`Event Designators') and then an optional word designator (the section `Word
Designators'); if neither of these designators is present, no history
expansion occurs.
Input lines containing history expansions are echoed after being expanded, but
before any other expansions take place and before the command is executed. It
is this expanded form that is recorded as the history event for later
references.
History expansions do not nest.
By default, a history reference with no event designator refers to the same
event as any preceding history reference on that command line; if it is the
only history reference in a command, it refers to the previous command.
However, if the option
CSH_JUNKIE_HISTORY is set, then every history
reference with no event specification
always refers to the previous
command.
For example, `
!' is the event designator for the previous command, so `
!!:1' always refers to the first word of the previous command, and `
!!$' always refers to the last word of the previous command. With
CSH_JUNKIE_HISTORY set, then `
!:1' and `
!$' function in
the same manner as `
!!:1' and `
!!$', respectively. Conversely,
if
CSH_JUNKIE_HISTORY is unset, then `
!:1' and `
!$' refer
to the first and last words, respectively, of the same event referenced by the
nearest other history reference preceding them on the current command line, or
to the previous command if there is no preceding reference.
The character sequence `
^foo^bar' (where `
^'
is actually the second character of the
histchars parameter) repeats
the last command, replacing the string
foo with
bar. More
precisely, the sequence `
^foo^bar^' is
synonymous with `
!!:s^foo^bar^',
hence other modifiers (see the section `Modifiers') may follow the final `
^'. In particular, `
^foo^bar^:G'
performs a global substitution.
If the shell encounters the character sequence `
!"' in the input,
the history mechanism is temporarily disabled until the current list (see
zshmisc(1)) is fully parsed. The `
!"' is removed from the
input, and any subsequent `
!' characters have no special significance.
A less convenient but more comprehensible form of command history support is
provided by the
fc builtin.
An event designator is a reference to a command-line entry in the history list.
In the list below, remember that the initial
`!' in each item may be
changed to another character by setting the
histchars parameter.
- !
- Start a history expansion, except when followed by a blank, newline, `
=' or ` ('. If followed immediately by a word designator
(see the section `Word Designators'), this forms a history reference with
no event designator (see the section `Overview').
- !!
- Refer to the previous command. By itself, this expansion repeats the
previous command.
- !n
- Refer to command-line n.
- !-n
- Refer to the current command-line minus n.
- !str
- Refer to the most recent command starting with str.
- !?str[?]
- Refer to the most recent command containing str. The trailing `
?' is necessary if this reference is to be followed by a modifier
or followed by any text that is not to be considered part of
str.
- !#
- Refer to the current command line typed in so far. The line is treated as
if it were complete up to and including the word before the one with the `
!#' reference.
- !{...}
- Insulate a history reference from adjacent characters (if necessary).
A word designator indicates which word or words of a given command line are to
be included in a history reference. A `
:' usually separates the event
specification from the word designator. It may be omitted only if the word
designator begins with a `
^', `
$', `
*', `
-' or
`
%'. Word designators include:
- 0
- The first input word (command).
- n
- The nth argument.
- ^
- The first argument. That is, 1.
- $
- The last argument.
- %
- The word matched by (the most recent) ?str search.
- x-y
- A range of words; x defaults to 0.
- *
- All the arguments, or a null value if there are none.
- x*
- Abbreviates `x-$'.
- x-
- Like `x*' but omitting word $.
Note that a `
%' word designator works only when used in one of `
!%', `
!:%' or `
!?str?:%', and only when
used after a
!? expansion (possibly in an earlier command). Anything
else results in an error, although the error may not be the most obvious one.
After the optional word designator, you can add a sequence of one or more of the
following modifiers, each preceded by a `
:'. These modifiers also work
on the result of
filename generation and
parameter expansion,
except where noted.
- a
- Turn a file name into an absolute path: prepends the current directory, if
necessary; remove ` .' path segments; and remove `..' path
segments and the segments that immediately precede them.
This transformation is agnostic about what is in the filesystem, i.e. is on the
logical, not the physical directory. It takes place in the same manner as when
changing directories when neither of the options
CHASE_DOTS or
CHASE_LINKS is set. For example, `
/before/here/../after' is
always transformed to `
/before/after', regardless of whether
`
/before/here' exists or what kind of object (dir, file, symlink, etc.)
it is.
- A
- Turn a file name into an absolute path as the `a' modifier does,
and then pass the result through the realpath(3) library
function to resolve symbolic links.
Note: on systems that do not have a
realpath(3) library function,
symbolic links are not resolved, so on those systems `
a' and `
A' are equivalent.
Note:
foo:A and
realpath(foo) are different on some inputs. For
realpath(foo) semantics, see the `
P` modifier.
- c
- Resolve a command name into an absolute path by searching the command path
given by the PATH variable. This does not work for commands
containing directory parts. Note also that this does not usually work as a
glob qualifier unless a file of the same name is found in the current
directory.
- e
- Remove all but the part of the filename extension following the
`.'; see the definition of the filename extension in the
description of the r modifier below. Note that according to that
definition the result will be empty if the string ends with a `
.'.
- h
- Remove a trailing pathname component, leaving the head. This works like `
dirname'.
- l
- Convert the words to all lowercase.
- p
- Print the new command but do not execute it. Only works with history
expansion.
- P
- Turn a file name into an absolute path, like realpath(3). The
resulting path will be absolute, have neither ` .' nor `..'
components, and refer to the same directory entry as the input
filename.
Unlike
realpath(3), non-existent trailing components are permitted and
preserved.
- q
- Quote the substituted words, escaping further substitutions. Works with
history expansion and parameter expansion, though for parameters it is
only useful if the resulting text is to be re-evaluated such as by
eval.
- Q
- Remove one level of quotes from the substituted words.
- r
- Remove a filename extension leaving the root name. Strings with no
filename extension are not altered. A filename extension is a ` .'
followed by any number of characters (including zero) that are neither `
.' nor `/' and that continue to the end of the string. For
example, the extension of ` foo.orig.c' is `.c', and
`dir.c/foo' has no extension.
- s/l/r[/]
- Substitute r for l as described below. The substitution is
done only for the first string that matches l. For arrays and for
filename generation, this applies to each word of the expanded text. See
below for further notes on substitutions.
The forms `
gs/l/r' and
`
s/l/r/:G' perform global substitution,
i.e. substitute every occurrence of
r for
l. Note that the
g or
:G must appear in exactly the position shown.
See further notes on this form of substitution below.
- &
- Repeat the previous s substitution. Like s, may be preceded
immediately by a g. In parameter expansion the & must
appear inside braces, and in filename generation it must be quoted with a
backslash.
- t
- Remove all leading pathname components, leaving the tail. This works like
` basename'.
- u
- Convert the words to all uppercase.
- x
- Like q, but break into words at whitespace. Does not work with
parameter expansion.
The
s/l/r/ substitution works as follows. By
default the left-hand side of substitutions are not patterns, but character
strings. Any character can be used as the delimiter in place of `
/'. A
backslash quotes the delimiter character. The character `
&', in
the right-hand-side
r, is replaced by the text from the left-hand-side
l. The `
&' can be quoted with a backslash. A null
l
uses the previous string either from the previous
l or from the
contextual scan string
s from `
!?s'. You can omit the
rightmost delimiter if a newline immediately follows
r; the rightmost `
?' in a context scan can similarly be omitted. Note the same record of
the last
l and
r is maintained across all forms of expansion.
Note that if a `
&' is used within glob qualifiers an extra backslash
is needed as a
& is a special character in this case.
Also note that the order of expansions affects the interpretation of
l
and
r. When used in a history expansion, which occurs before any other
expansions,
l and
r are treated as literal strings (except as
explained for
HIST_SUBST_PATTERN below). When used in parameter
expansion, the replacement of
r into the parameter's value is done
first, and then any additional process, parameter, command, arithmetic, or
brace references are applied, which may evaluate those substitutions and
expansions more than once if
l appears more than once in the starting
value. When used in a glob qualifier, any substitutions or expansions are
performed once at the time the qualifier is parsed, even before the `
:s' expression itself is divided into
l and
r sides.
If the option
HIST_SUBST_PATTERN is set,
l is treated as a pattern
of the usual form described in the section FILENAME GENERATION below. This can
be used in all the places where modifiers are available; note, however, that
in globbing qualifiers parameter substitution has already taken place, so
parameters in the replacement string should be quoted to ensure they are
replaced at the correct time. Note also that complicated patterns used in
globbing qualifiers may need the extended glob qualifier notation
(#q:s/ .../.../) in order for the shell to
recognize the expression as a glob qualifier. Further, note that bad patterns
in the substitution are not subject to the
NO_BAD_PATTERN option so
will cause an error.
When
HIST_SUBST_PATTERN is set,
l may start with a
# to
indicate that the pattern must match at the start of the string to be
substituted, and a
% may appear at the start or after an
# to
indicate that the pattern must match at the end of the string to be
substituted. The
% or
# may be quoted with two backslashes.
For example, the following piece of filename generation code with the
EXTENDED_GLOB option:
print *.c(#q:s/#%(#b)s(*).c/'S${match[1]}.C'/)
takes the expansion of
*.c and applies the glob qualifiers in the
(#q ...) expression, which consists of a substitution
modifier anchored to the start and end of each word (
#%). This turns
on backreferences (
(#b)), so that the parenthesised subexpression is
available in the replacement string as
${match[1]}. The replacement
string is quoted so that the parameter is not substituted before the start of
filename generation.
The following
f,
F,
w and
W modifiers work only with
parameter expansion and filename generation. They are listed here to provide a
single point of reference for all modifiers.
- f
- Repeats the immediately (without a colon) following modifier until the
resulting word doesn't change any more.
- F:expr:
- Like f, but repeats only n times if the expression
expr evaluates to n. Any character can be used instead of
the ` :'; if `(', `[', or `{' is used as the
opening delimiter, the closing delimiter should be ' )',
`]', or ` }', respectively.
- w
- Makes the immediately following modifier work on each word in the
string.
- W:sep:
- Like w but words are considered to be the parts of the string that
are separated by sep. Any character can be used instead of the `
:'; opening parentheses are handled specially, see above.
Each part of a command argument that takes the form `
<(list)', `
>(list)' or `
=( list)' is subject to process substitution. The
expression may be preceded or followed by other strings except that, to
prevent clashes with commonly occurring strings and patterns, the last form
must occur at the start of a command argument, and the forms are only expanded
when first parsing command or assignment arguments. Process substitutions may
be used following redirection operators; in this case, the substitution must
appear with no trailing string.
Note that `
<<(list)' is not a special syntax; it is
equivalent to `
< <(list)', redirecting standard
input from the result of process substitution. Hence all the following
documentation applies. The second form (with the space) is recommended for
clarity.
In the case of the
< or
> forms, the shell runs the commands
in
list as a subprocess of the job executing the shell command line. If
the system supports the
/dev/fd mechanism, the command argument is the
name of the device file corresponding to a file descriptor; otherwise, if the
system supports named pipes (FIFOs), the command argument will be a named
pipe. If the form with
> is selected then writing on this special
file will provide input for
list. If
< is used, then the file
passed as an argument will be connected to the output of the
list
process. For example,
paste <(cut -f1 file1) <(cut -f3 file2) |
tee >(process1) >(process2) >/dev/null
cuts fields 1 and 3 from the files
file1 and
file2 respectively,
pastes the results together, and sends it to the processes
process1 and
process2.
If
=(...) is used instead of
<(...), then the file passed as an argument will be
the name of a temporary file containing the output of the
list process.
This may be used instead of the
< form for a program that expects to
lseek (see
lseek(2)) on the input file.
There is an optimisation for substitutions of the form
=(<<<arg ), where
arg is a single-word
argument to the here-string redirection
<<<. This form
produces a file name containing the value of
arg after any
substitutions have been performed. This is handled entirely within the current
shell. This is effectively the reverse of the special form
$(<arg ) which treats
arg as a file name and
replaces it with the file's contents.
The
= form is useful as both the
/dev/fd and the named pipe
implementation of
<(...) have drawbacks. In the former
case, some programmes may automatically close the file descriptor in question
before examining the file on the command line, particularly if this is
necessary for security reasons such as when the programme is running setuid.
In the second case, if the programme does not actually open the file, the
subshell attempting to read from or write to the pipe will (in a typical
implementation, different operating systems may have different behaviour)
block for ever and have to be killed explicitly. In both cases, the shell
actually supplies the information using a pipe, so that programmes that expect
to lseek (see
lseek(2)) on the file will not work.
Also note that the previous example can be more compactly and efficiently
written (provided the
MULTIOS option is set) as:
paste <(cut -f1 file1) <(cut -f3 file2) \
> >(process1) > >(process2)
The shell uses pipes instead of FIFOs to implement the latter two process
substitutions in the above example.
There is an additional problem with
>(process); when
this is attached to an external command, the parent shell does not wait for
process to finish and hence an immediately following command cannot
rely on the results being complete. The problem and solution are the same as
described in the section
MULTIOS in
zshmisc(1). Hence in a
simplified version of the example above:
paste <(cut -f1 file1) <(cut -f3 file2) > >(process)
(note that no
MULTIOS are involved),
process will be run
asynchronously as far as the parent shell is concerned. The workaround is:
{ paste <(cut -f1 file1) <(cut -f3 file2) } > >(process)
The extra processes here are spawned from the parent shell which will wait for
their completion.
Another problem arises any time a job with a substitution that requires a
temporary file is disowned by the shell, including the case where `
&!' or `
&|' appears at the end of a command containing
a substitution. In that case the temporary file will not be cleaned up as the
shell no longer has any memory of the job. A workaround is to use a subshell,
for example,
as the forked subshell will wait for the command to finish then remove the
temporary file.
A general workaround to ensure a process substitution endures for an appropriate
length of time is to pass it as a parameter to an anonymous shell function (a
piece of shell code that is run immediately with function scope). For example,
this code:
() {
print File $1:
cat $1
} =(print This be the verse)
outputs something resembling the following
File /tmp/zsh6nU0kS:
This be the verse
The temporary file created by the process substitution will be deleted when the
function exits.
The character `
$' is used to introduce parameter expansions. See
zshparam(1) for a description of parameters, including arrays,
associative arrays, and subscript notation to access individual array
elements.
Note in particular the fact that words of unquoted parameters are not
automatically split on whitespace unless the option
SH_WORD_SPLIT is
set; see references to this option below for more details. This is an
important difference from other shells.
In the expansions discussed below that require a pattern, the form of the
pattern is the same as that used for filename generation; see the section
`Filename Generation'. Note that these patterns, along with the replacement
text of any substitutions, are themselves subject to parameter expansion,
command substitution, and arithmetic expansion. In addition to the following
operations, the colon modifiers described in the section `Modifiers' in the
section `History Expansion' can be applied: for example,
${i:s/foo/bar/} performs string substitution on the expansion of
parameter
$i.
In the following descriptions, `word' refers to a single word substituted on the
command line, not necessarily a space delimited word. With default options,
after the assignments:
array=("first word" "second word")
scalar="only word"
then
$array substitutes two words, `
first word' and `
second
word', and
$scalar substitutes a single word `
only word'.
This may be modified by explicit or implicit word-splitting, however. The full
rules are complicated and are noted at the end.
- ${name}
- The value, if any, of the parameter name is substituted. The braces
are required if the expansion is to be followed by a letter, digit, or
underscore that is not to be interpreted as part of name. In
addition, more complicated forms of substitution usually require the
braces to be present; exceptions, which only apply if the option
KSH_ARRAYS is not set, are a single subscript or any colon
modifiers appearing after the name, or any of the characters ` ^',
` =', `~', `#' or `+' appearing before the
name, all of which work with or without braces.
If
name is an array parameter, and the
KSH_ARRAYS option is not
set, then the value of each element of
name is substituted, one element
per word. Otherwise, the expansion results in one word only; with
KSH_ARRAYS, this is the first element of an array. No field splitting
is done on the result unless the
SH_WORD_SPLIT option is set. See also
the flags
= and
s:string:.
- ${+name}
- If name is the name of a set parameter `1' is substituted,
otherwise ` 0' is substituted.
- ${name-word}
- ${name:-word}
- If name is set, or in the second form is non-null, then substitute
its value; otherwise substitute word. In the second form
name may be omitted, in which case word is always
substituted.
- ${name+word}
- ${name:+word}
- If name is set, or in the second form is non-null, then substitute
word; otherwise substitute nothing.
- ${name=word}
- ${name:=word}
- ${name::=word}
- In the first form, if name is unset then set it to word; in
the second form, if name is unset or null then set it to
word; and in the third form, unconditionally set name to
word. In all forms, the value of the parameter is then
substituted.
- ${name?word}
- ${name:?word}
- In the first form, if name is set, or in the second form if
name is both set and non-null, then substitute its value;
otherwise, print word and exit from the shell. Interactive shells
instead return to the prompt. If word is omitted, then a standard
message is printed.
In any of the above expressions that test a variable and substitute an alternate
word, note that you can use standard shell quoting in the
word
value to selectively override the splitting done by the
SH_WORD_SPLIT
option and the
= flag, but not splitting by the
s:string: flag.
In the following expressions, when
name is an array and the substitution
is not quoted, or if the `
(@)' flag or the
name[@]
syntax is used, matching and replacement is performed on each array element
separately.
- ${name#pattern}
- ${name##pattern}
- If the pattern matches the beginning of the value of name,
then substitute the value of name with the matched portion deleted;
otherwise, just substitute the value of name. In the first form,
the smallest matching pattern is preferred; in the second form, the
largest matching pattern is preferred.
- ${name%pattern}
- ${name%%pattern}
- If the pattern matches the end of the value of name, then
substitute the value of name with the matched portion deleted;
otherwise, just substitute the value of name. In the first form,
the smallest matching pattern is preferred; in the second form, the
largest matching pattern is preferred.
- ${name:#pattern}
- If the pattern matches the value of name, then substitute
the empty string; otherwise, just substitute the value of name. If
name is an array the matching array elements are removed (use the `
(M)' flag to remove the non-matched elements).
- ${name:|arrayname}
- If arrayname is the name (N.B., not contents) of an array variable,
then any elements contained in arrayname are removed from the
substitution of name. If the substitution is scalar, either because
name is a scalar variable or the expression is quoted, the elements
of arrayname are instead tested against the entire expression.
- ${name:*arrayname}
- Similar to the preceding substitution, but in the opposite sense, so that
entries present in both the original substitution and as elements of
arrayname are retained and others removed.
- ${name:^arrayname}
- ${name:^^arrayname}
- Zips two arrays, such that the output array is twice as long as the
shortest (longest for ` :^^') of name and arrayname,
with the elements alternatingly being picked from them. For ` :^',
if one of the input arrays is longer, the output will stop when the end of
the shorter array is reached. Thus,
a=(1 2 3 4); b=(a b); print ${a:^b}
will output `
1 a 2 b'. For `
:^^', then the input is repeated
until all of the longer array has been used up and the above will output `
1 a 2 b 3 a 4 b'.
Either or both inputs may be a scalar, they will be treated as an array of
length 1 with the scalar as the only element. If either array is empty, the
other array is output with no extra elements inserted.
Currently the following code will output `
a b' and `
1' as two
separate elements, which can be unexpected. The second print provides a
workaround which should continue to work if this is changed.
a=(a b); b=(1 2); print -l "${a:^b}"; print -l "${${a:^b}}"
- ${name:offset}
- ${name:offset:length}
- This syntax gives effects similar to parameter subscripting in the form
$name[start,end], but is
compatible with other shells; note that both offset and
length are interpreted differently from the components of a
subscript.
If
offset is non-negative, then if the variable
name is a scalar
substitute the contents starting
offset characters from the first
character of the string, and if
name is an array substitute elements
starting
offset elements from the first element. If
length is
given, substitute that many characters or elements, otherwise the entire rest
of the scalar or array.
A positive
offset is always treated as the offset of a character or
element in
name from the first character or element of the array (this
is different from native zsh subscript notation). Hence 0 refers to the first
character or element regardless of the setting of the option
KSH_ARRAYS.
A negative offset counts backwards from the end of the scalar or array, so that
-1 corresponds to the last character or element, and so on.
When positive,
length counts from the
offset position toward the
end of the scalar or array. When negative,
length counts back from the
end. If this results in a position smaller than
offset, a diagnostic is
printed and nothing is substituted.
The option
MULTIBYTE is obeyed, i.e. the offset and length count
multibyte characters where appropriate.
offset and
length undergo the same set of shell substitutions as
for scalar assignment; in addition, they are then subject to arithmetic
evaluation. Hence, for example
print ${foo:3}
print ${foo: 1 + 2}
print ${foo:$(( 1 + 2))}
print ${foo:$(echo 1 + 2)}
all have the same effect, extracting the string starting at the fourth character
of
$foo if the substitution would otherwise return a scalar, or the
array starting at the fourth element if
$foo would return an array.
Note that with the option
KSH_ARRAYS $foo always returns a
scalar (regardless of the use of the offset syntax) and a form such as
${foo[*]:3} is required to extract elements of an array named
foo.
If
offset is negative, the
- may not appear immediately after the
: as this indicates the
${name:-word} form of substitution.
Instead, a space may be inserted before the
-. Furthermore, neither
offset nor
length may begin with an alphabetic character or
& as these are used to indicate history-style modifiers. To
substitute a value from a variable, the recommended approach is to precede it
with a
$ as this signifies the intention (parameter substitution can
easily be rendered unreadable); however, as arithmetic substitution is
performed, the expression
${var: offs} does work, retrieving the offset
from
$offs.
For further compatibility with other shells there is a special case for array
offset 0. This usually accesses the first element of the array. However, if
the substitution refers to the positional parameter array, e.g.
$@ or
$*, then offset 0 instead refers to
$0, offset 1 refers to
$1, and so on. In other words, the positional parameter array is
effectively extended by prepending
$0. Hence
${*:0:1}
substitutes
$0 and
${*:1:1} substitutes
$1.
- ${name/pattern/repl}
- ${name//pattern/repl}
- ${name:/pattern/repl}
- Replace the longest possible match of pattern in the expansion of
parameter name by string repl. The first form replaces just
the first occurrence, the second form all occurrences, and the third form
replaces only if pattern matches the entire string. Both
pattern and repl are subject to double-quoted substitution,
so that expressions like ${name/$opat/$npat} will work, but obey
the usual rule that pattern characters in $opat are not treated
specially unless either the option GLOB_SUBST is set, or
$opat is instead substituted as ${~opat}.
The
pattern may begin with a `
#', in which case the
pattern
must match at the start of the string, or `
%', in which case it must
match at the end of the string, or `
#%' in which case the
pattern must match the entire string. The
repl may be an empty
string, in which case the final `
/' may also be omitted. To quote the
final `
/' in other cases it should be preceded by a single backslash;
this is not necessary if the `
/' occurs inside a substituted
parameter. Note also that the `
#', `
%' and `
#% are not
active if they occur inside a substituted parameter, even at the start.
If, after quoting rules apply,
${name} expands to an array,
the replacements act on each element individually. Note also the effect of the
I and
S parameter expansion flags below; however, the flags
M,
R,
B,
E and
N are not useful.
For example,
foo="twinkle twinkle little star" sub="t*e" rep="spy"
print ${foo//${~sub}/$rep}
print ${(S)foo//${~sub}/$rep}
Here, the `
~' ensures that the text of
$sub is treated as a
pattern rather than a plain string. In the first case, the longest match for
t*e is substituted and the result is `
spy star', while in the
second case, the shortest matches are taken and the result is `
spy spy
lispy star'.
- ${#spec}
- If spec is one of the above substitutions, substitute the length in
characters of the result instead of the result itself. If spec is
an array expression, substitute the number of elements of the result. This
has the side-effect that joining is skipped even in quoted forms, which
may affect other sub-expressions in spec. Note that ` ^',
`=', and `~', below, must appear to the left of ` #'
when these forms are combined.
If the option
POSIX_IDENTIFIERS is not set, and
spec is a simple
name, then the braces are optional; this is true even for special parameters
so e.g.
$#- and
$#* take the length of the string
$- and
the array
$* respectively. If
POSIX_IDENTIFIERS is set, then
braces are required for the
# to be treated in this fashion.
- ${^spec}
- Turn on the RC_EXPAND_PARAM option for the evaluation of
spec; if the ` ^' is doubled, turn it off. When this option
is set, array expansions of the form
foo${xx}bar, where the parameter
xx is set to (a b c), are substituted with `
fooabar foobbar foocbar' instead of the default ` fooa b
cbar'. Note that an empty array will therefore cause all arguments to
be removed.
Internally, each such expansion is converted into the equivalent list for brace
expansion. E.g.,
${^var} becomes
{$var[1],$var[2],...
},
and is processed as described in the section `Brace Expansion' below: note,
however, the expansion happens immediately, with any explicit brace expansion
happening later. If word splitting is also in effect the
$var[N] may themselves be split into different list
elements.
- ${=spec}
- Perform word splitting using the rules for SH_WORD_SPLIT during the
evaluation of spec, but regardless of whether the parameter appears
in double quotes; if the ` =' is doubled, turn it off. This forces
parameter expansions to be split into separate words before substitution,
using IFS as a delimiter. This is done by default in most other
shells.
Note that splitting is applied to
word in the assignment forms of
spec before the assignment to
name is performed. This
affects the result of array assignments with the
A flag.
- ${~spec}
- Turn on the GLOB_SUBST option for the evaluation of spec; if
the ` ~' is doubled, turn it off. When this option is set, the
string resulting from the expansion will be interpreted as a pattern
anywhere that is possible, such as in filename expansion and filename
generation and pattern-matching contexts like the right hand side of the `
=' and `!=' operators in conditions.
In nested substitutions, note that the effect of the
~ applies to the
result of the current level of substitution. A surrounding pattern operation
on the result may cancel it. Hence, for example, if the parameter
foo
is set to
*,
${~foo//\*/*.c} is substituted by the pattern
*.c, which may be expanded by filename generation, but
${${~foo}//\*/*.c} substitutes to the string
*.c, which will not
be further expanded.
If a
${...
} type parameter expression or a
$(...
)
type command substitution is used in place of
name above, it is
expanded first and the result is used as if it were the value of
name.
Thus it is possible to perform nested operations:
${${foo#head}%tail}
substitutes the value of
$foo with both `
head' and `
tail'
deleted. The form with
$(...
) is often useful in combination
with the flags described next; see the examples below. Each
name or
nested
${...
} in a parameter expansion may also be followed by a
subscript expression as described in
Array Parameters in
zshparam(1).
Note that double quotes may appear around nested expressions, in which case only
the part inside is treated as quoted; for example,
${(f)"$(foo)"} quotes the result of
$(foo), but the
flag `
(f)' (see below) is applied using the rules for unquoted
expansions. Note further that quotes are themselves nested in this context;
for example, in
"${(@f)"$(foo)"}", there are two
sets of quotes, one surrounding the whole expression, the other (redundant)
surrounding the
$(foo) as before.
If the opening brace is directly followed by an opening parenthesis, the string
up to the matching closing parenthesis will be taken as a list of flags. In
cases where repeating a flag is meaningful, the repetitions need not be
consecutive; for example, `(
q%q%q)' means the same thing as the more
readable `(
%%qqq)'. The following flags are supported:
- #
- Evaluate the resulting words as numeric expressions and output the
characters corresponding to the resulting integer. Note that this form is
entirely distinct from use of the # without parentheses.
If the
MULTIBYTE option is set and the number is greater than 127 (i.e.
not an ASCII character) it is treated as a Unicode character.
- %
- Expand all % escapes in the resulting words in the same way as in
prompts (see EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1)). If this
flag is given twice, full prompt expansion is done on the resulting words,
depending on the setting of the PROMPT_PERCENT, PROMPT_SUBST
and PROMPT_BANG options.
- @
- In double quotes, array elements are put into separate words. E.g., `
"${(@)foo}"' is equivalent to `
"${foo[@]}"' and ` "${(@)foo[1,2]}"' is
the same as ` "$foo[1]" "$foo[2]"'. This is
distinct from field splitting by the f, s or z
flags, which still applies within each array element.
- A
- Convert the substitution into an array expression, even if it otherwise
would be scalar. This has lower precedence than subscripting, so one level
of nested expansion is required in order that subscripts apply to array
elements. Thus ${${(A)name}[1]} yields the
full value of name when name is scalar.
This assigns an array parameter with `
${...
=...
}', `
${...
:=...
}' or `
${...
::=...
}'. If
this flag is repeated (as in `
AA'), assigns an associative array
parameter. Assignment is made before sorting or padding; if field splitting is
active, the
word part is split before assignment. The
name part
may be a subscripted range for ordinary arrays; when assigning an associative
array, the
word part
must be converted to an array, for example
by using `
${(AA)=name=...
}' to activate field
splitting.
Surrounding context such as additional nesting or use of the value in a scalar
assignment may cause the array to be joined back into a single string
again.
- a
- Sort in array index order; when combined with `O' sort in reverse
array index order. Note that ` a' is therefore equivalent to the
default but ` Oa' is useful for obtaining an array's elements in
reverse order.
- b
- Quote with backslashes only characters that are special to pattern
matching. This is useful when the contents of the variable are to be
tested using GLOB_SUBST, including the ${~...}
switch.
Quoting using one of the
q family of flags does not work for this purpose
since quotes are not stripped from non-pattern characters by
GLOB_SUBST. In other words,
pattern=${(q)str}
[[ $str = ${~pattern} ]]
works if
$str is `
a*b' but not if it is `
a b', whereas
pattern=${(b)str}
[[ $str = ${~pattern} ]]
is always true for any possible value of
$str.
- c
- With ${#name}, count the total number of characters
in an array, as if the elements were concatenated with spaces between
them. This is not a true join of the array, so other expressions used with
this flag may have an effect on the elements of the array before it is
counted.
- C
- Capitalize the resulting words. `Words' in this case refers to sequences
of alphanumeric characters separated by non-alphanumerics, not to
words that result from field splitting.
- D
- Assume the string or array elements contain directories and attempt to
substitute the leading part of these by names. The remainder of the path
(the whole of it if the leading part was not substituted) is then quoted
so that the whole string can be used as a shell argument. This is the
reverse of ` ~' substitution: see the section FILENAME EXPANSION
below.
- e
- Perform single word shell expansions, namely parameter expansion,
command substitution and arithmetic expansion, on the
result. Such expansions can be nested but too deep recursion may have
unpredictable effects.
- f
- Split the result of the expansion at newlines. This is a shorthand for `
ps:\n:'.
- F
- Join the words of arrays together using newline as a separator. This is a
shorthand for ` pj:\n:'.
- g:opts:
- Process escape sequences like the echo builtin when no options are given (
g::). With the o option, octal escapes don't take a leading
zero. With the c option, sequences like `^X' are also
processed. With the e option, processes `\M-t' and similar
sequences like the print builtin. With both of the o and e
options, behaves like the print builtin except that in none of these modes
is ` \c' interpreted.
- i
- Sort case-insensitively. May be combined with `n' or
`O'.
- k
- If name refers to an associative array, substitute the keys
(element names) rather than the values of the elements. Used with
subscripts (including ordinary arrays), force indices or keys to be
substituted even if the subscript form refers to values. However, this
flag may not be combined with subscript ranges. With the KSH_ARRAYS
option a subscript ` [*]' or `[@]' is needed to operate on
the whole array, as usual.
- L
- Convert all letters in the result to lower case.
- n
- Sort decimal integers numerically; if the first differing characters of
two test strings are not digits, sorting is lexical. Integers with more
initial zeroes are sorted before those with fewer or none. Hence the array
` foo1 foo02 foo2 foo3 foo20 foo23' is sorted into the order
shown. May be combined with ` i' or `O'.
- o
- Sort the resulting words in ascending order; if this appears on its own
the sorting is lexical and case-sensitive (unless the locale renders it
case-insensitive). Sorting in ascending order is the default for other
forms of sorting, so this is ignored if combined with ` a',
`i' or ` n'.
- O
- Sort the resulting words in descending order; `O' without
`a', ` i' or `n' sorts in reverse lexical order. May
be combined with ` a', `i' or `n' to reverse the
order of sorting.
- P
- This forces the value of the parameter name to be interpreted as a
further parameter name, whose value will be used where appropriate. Note
that flags set with one of the typeset family of commands (in
particular case transformations) are not applied to the value of
name used in this fashion.
If used with a nested parameter or command substitution, the result of that will
be taken as a parameter name in the same way. For example, if you have `
foo=bar' and `
bar=baz', the strings
${(P)foo},
${(P)${foo}}, and
${(P)$(echo bar)} will be expanded to `
baz'.
Likewise, if the reference is itself nested, the expression with the flag is
treated as if it were directly replaced by the parameter name. It is an error
if this nested substitution produces an array with more than one word. For
example, if `
name=assoc' where the parameter
assoc is an
associative array, then `
${${(P)name}[elt]}' refers to the element of
the associative subscripted `
elt'.
- q
- Quote characters that are special to the shell in the resulting words with
backslashes; unprintable or invalid characters are quoted using the
$'\ NNN' form, with separate quotes for each
octet.
If this flag is given twice, the resulting words are quoted in single quotes and
if it is given three times, the words are quoted in double quotes; in these
forms no special handling of unprintable or invalid characters is attempted.
If the flag is given four times, the words are quoted in single quotes
preceded by a
$. Note that in all three of these forms quoting is done
unconditionally, even if this does not change the way the resulting string
would be interpreted by the shell.
If a
q- is given (only a single
q may appear), a minimal form of
single quoting is used that only quotes the string if needed to protect
special characters. Typically this form gives the most readable output.
If a
q+ is given, an extended form of minmal quoting is used that causes
unprintable characters to be rendered using
$'...'. This
quoting is similar to that used by the output of values by the
typeset
family of commands.
- Q
- Remove one level of quotes from the resulting words.
- t
- Use a string describing the type of the parameter where the value of the
parameter would usually appear. This string consists of keywords separated
by hyphens (` -'). The first keyword in the string describes the
main type, it can be one of ` scalar', `array',
`integer', ` float' or `association'. The other
keywords describe the type in more detail:
- local
- for local parameters
- left
- for left justified parameters
- right_blanks
- for right justified parameters with leading blanks
- right_zeros
- for right justified parameters with leading zeros
- lower
- for parameters whose value is converted to all lower case when it is
expanded
- upper
- for parameters whose value is converted to all upper case when it is
expanded
- readonly
- for readonly parameters
- tag
- for tagged parameters
- export
- for exported parameters
- unique
- for arrays which keep only the first occurrence of duplicated values
- hide
- for parameters with the `hide' flag
- hideval
- for parameters with the `hideval' flag
- special
- for special parameters defined by the shell
- u
- Expand only the first occurrence of each unique word.
- U
- Convert all letters in the result to upper case.
- v
- Used with k, substitute (as two consecutive words) both the key and
the value of each associative array element. Used with subscripts, force
values to be substituted even if the subscript form refers to indices or
keys.
- V
- Make any special characters in the resulting words visible.
- w
- With ${#name}, count words in arrays or strings; the
s flag may be used to set a word delimiter.
- W
- Similar to w with the difference that empty words between repeated
delimiters are also counted.
- X
- With this flag, parsing errors occurring with the Q, e and
# flags or the pattern matching forms such as `
${name #pattern}' are reported. Without
the flag, errors are silently ignored.
- z
- Split the result of the expansion into words using shell parsing to find
the words, i.e. taking into account any quoting in the value. Comments are
not treated specially but as ordinary strings, similar to interactive
shells with the INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS option unset (however, see the
Z flag below for related options)
Note that this is done very late, even later than the `
(s)' flag. So to
access single words in the result use nested expansions as in `
${${(z)foo}[2]}'. Likewise, to remove the quotes in the resulting words
use `
${(Q)${(z)foo}}'.
- 0
- Split the result of the expansion on null bytes. This is a shorthand for `
ps:\0:'.
The following flags (except
p) are followed by one or more arguments as
shown. Any character, or the matching pairs `
(...
)', `
{...
}', `
[...
]', or `
<...
>',
may be used in place of a colon as delimiters, but note that when a flag takes
more than one argument, a matched pair of delimiters must surround each
argument.
- p
- Recognize the same escape sequences as the print builtin in string
arguments to any of the flags described below that follow this
argument.
Alternatively, with this option string arguments may be in the form
$var in which case the value of the variable is substituted.
Note this form is strict; the string argument does not undergo general
parameter expansion.
For example,
sep=:
val=a:b:c
print ${(ps.$sep.)val}
splits the variable on a
:.
- ~
- Strings inserted into the expansion by any of the flags below are to be
treated as patterns. This applies to the string arguments of flags that
follow ~ within the same set of parentheses. Compare with ~
outside parentheses, which forces the entire substituted string to be
treated as a pattern. Hence, for example,
[[ "?" = ${(~j.|.)array} ]]
treats `
|' as a pattern and succeeds if and only if
$array
contains the string `
?' as an element. The
~ may be repeated to
toggle the behaviour; its effect only lasts to the end of the parenthesised
group.
- j:string:
- Join the words of arrays together using string as a separator. Note
that this occurs before field splitting by the
s:string: flag or the SH_WORD_SPLIT
option.
- l:expr::string1::string2:
- Pad the resulting words on the left. Each word will be truncated if
required and placed in a field expr characters wide.
The arguments
:string1: and
:string2:
are optional; neither, the first, or both may be given. Note that the same
pairs of delimiters must be used for each of the three arguments. The space to
the left will be filled with
string1 (concatenated as often as needed)
or spaces if
string1 is not given. If both
string1 and
string2 are given,
string2 is inserted once directly to the left
of each word, truncated if necessary, before
string1 is used to produce
any remaining padding.
If either of
string1 or
string2 is present but empty, i.e. there
are two delimiters together at that point, the first character of
$IFS
is used instead.
If the
MULTIBYTE option is in effect, the flag
m may also be
given, in which case widths will be used for the calculation of padding;
otherwise individual multibyte characters are treated as occupying one unit of
width.
If the
MULTIBYTE option is not in effect, each byte in the string is
treated as occupying one unit of width.
Control characters are always assumed to be one unit wide; this allows the
mechanism to be used for generating repetitions of control characters.
- m
- Only useful together with one of the flags l or r or with
the # length operator when the MULTIBYTE option is in
effect. Use the character width reported by the system in calculating how
much of the string it occupies or the overall length of the string. Most
printable characters have a width of one unit, however certain Asian
character sets and certain special effects use wider characters; combining
characters have zero width. Non-printable characters are arbitrarily
counted as zero width; how they would actually be displayed will
vary.
If the
m is repeated, the character either counts zero (if it has zero
width), else one. For printable character strings this has the effect of
counting the number of glyphs (visibly separate characters), except for the
case where combining characters themselves have non-zero width (true in
certain alphabets).
- r:expr::string1::string2:
- As l, but pad the words on the right and insert string2
immediately to the right of the string to be padded.
Left and right padding may be used together. In this case the strategy is to
apply left padding to the first half width of each of the resulting words, and
right padding to the second half. If the string to be padded has odd width the
extra padding is applied on the left.
- s:string:
- Force field splitting at the separator string. Note that a
string of two or more characters means that all of them must match
in sequence; this differs from the treatment of two or more characters in
the IFS parameter. See also the = flag and the
SH_WORD_SPLIT option. An empty string may also be given in which
case every character will be a separate element.
For historical reasons, the usual behaviour that empty array elements are
retained inside double quotes is disabled for arrays generated by splitting;
hence the following:
line="one::three"
print -l "${(s.:.)line}"
produces two lines of output for
one and
three and elides the
empty field. To override this behaviour, supply the `
(@)' flag as
well, i.e.
"${(@s.:.)line}".
- Z:opts:
- As z but takes a combination of option letters between a following
pair of delimiter characters. With no options the effect is identical to
z. (Z+c+) causes comments to be parsed as a string and
retained; any field in the resulting array beginning with an unquoted
comment character is a comment. (Z+C+) causes comments to be parsed
and removed. The rule for comments is standard: anything between a word
starting with the third character of $HISTCHARS, default #,
up to the next newline is a comment. (Z+n+) causes unquoted
newlines to be treated as ordinary whitespace, else they are treated as if
they are shell code delimiters and converted to semicolons. Options are
combined within the same set of delimiters, e.g. (Z+Cn+).
- _:flags:
- The underscore (_) flag is reserved for future use. As of this
revision of zsh, there are no valid flags; anything following an
underscore, other than an empty pair of delimiters, is treated as an
error, and the flag itself has no effect.
The following flags are meaningful with the
${...
#...
} or
${...
%...
} forms. The
S and
I flags may
also be used with the
${...
/...
} forms.
- S
- Search substrings as well as beginnings or ends; with # start from
the beginning and with % start from the end of the string. With
substitution via ${.../...} or
${...//... }, specifies non-greedy matching, i.e.
that the shortest instead of the longest match should be replaced.
- I:expr:
- Search the exprth match (where expr evaluates to a number).
This only applies when searching for substrings, either with the S
flag, or with ${.../...} (only the exprth
match is substituted) or ${...//...} (all matches
from the exprth on are substituted). The default is to take the
first match.
The
exprth match is counted such that there is either one or zero matches
from each starting position in the string, although for global substitution
matches overlapping previous replacements are ignored. With the
${...
%...
} and
${...
%%...
} forms,
the starting position for the match moves backwards from the end as the index
increases, while with the other forms it moves forward from the start.
Hence with the string
which switch is the right switch for Ipswich?
substitutions of the form
${(
SI:N:)
string#w*ch} as
N increases
from 1 will match and remove `
which', `
witch', `
witch'
and `
wich'; the form using `
##' will match and remove `
which
switch is the right switch for Ipswich', `
witch is the right
switch for Ipswich', `
witch for Ipswich' and `
wich'.
The form using `
%' will remove the same matches as for `
#',
but in reverse order, and the form using `
%%' will remove the same
matches as for `
##' in reverse order.
- B
- Include the index of the beginning of the match in the result.
- E
- Include the index one character past the end of the match in the result
(note this is inconsistent with other uses of parameter index).
- M
- Include the matched portion in the result.
- N
- Include the length of the match in the result.
- R
- Include the unmatched portion in the result (the Rest).
Here is a summary of the rules for substitution; this assumes that braces are
present around the substitution, i.e.
${...}. Some
particular examples are given below. Note that the Zsh Development Group
accepts
no responsibility for any brain damage which may occur during
the reading of the following rules.
- 1. Nested substitution
- If multiple nested ${...} forms are present,
substitution is performed from the inside outwards. At each level, the
substitution takes account of whether the current value is a scalar or an
array, whether the whole substitution is in double quotes, and what flags
are supplied to the current level of substitution, just as if the nested
substitution were the outermost. The flags are not propagated up to
enclosing substitutions; the nested substitution will return either a
scalar or an array as determined by the flags, possibly adjusted for
quoting. All the following steps take place where applicable at all levels
of substitution.
Note that, unless the `
(P)' flag is present, the flags and any
subscripts apply directly to the value of the nested substitution; for
example, the expansion
${${foo}} behaves exactly the same as
${foo}. When the `
(P)' flag is present in a nested
substitution, the other substitution rules are applied to the value
before it is interpreted as a name, so
${${(P)foo}} may differ
from
${(P)foo}.
At each nested level of substitution, the substituted words undergo all forms of
single-word substitution (i.e. not filename generation), including command
substitution, arithmetic expansion and filename expansion (i.e. leading
~ and
=). Thus, for example,
${${:-=cat}:h} expands to
the directory where the
cat program resides. (Explanation: the internal
substitution has no parameter but a default value
=cat, which is
expanded by filename expansion to a full path; the outer substitution then
applies the modifier
:h and takes the directory part of the
path.)
- 2. Internal parameter flags
- Any parameter flags set by one of the typeset family of commands,
in particular the -L, -R, -Z, -u and -l
options for padding and capitalization, are applied directly to the
parameter value. Note these flags are options to the command, e.g. `
typeset -Z'; they are not the same as the flags used within
parameter substitutions.
At the outermost level of substitution, the `
(P)' flag (rule
4.)
ignores these transformations and uses the unmodified value of the parameter
as the name to be replaced. This is usually the desired behavior because
padding may make the value syntactically illegal as a parameter name, but if
capitalization changes are desired, use the
${${(P)foo}} form (rule
25.).
- 3. Parameter subscripting
- If the value is a raw parameter reference with a subscript, such as
${ var[3]}, the effect of subscripting is applied
directly to the parameter. Subscripts are evaluated left to right;
subsequent subscripts apply to the scalar or array value yielded by the
previous subscript. Thus if var is an array, ${var[1][2]} is
the second character of the first word, but ${var[2,4][2]} is the
entire third word (the second word of the range of words two through four
of the original array). Any number of subscripts may appear. Flags such as
` (k)' and `(v)' which alter the result of subscripting are
applied.
- 4. Parameter name replacement
- At the outermost level of nesting only, the `(P)' flag is applied.
This treats the value so far as a parameter name (which may include a
subscript expression) and replaces that with the corresponding value. This
replacement occurs later if the ` (P)' flag appears in a nested
substitution.
If the value so far names a parameter that has internal flags (rule
2.),
those internal flags are applied to the new value after replacement.
- 5. Double-quoted joining
- If the value after this process is an array, and the substitution appears
in double quotes, and neither an ` (@)' flag nor a `#'
length operator is present at the current level, then words of the value
are joined with the first character of the parameter $IFS, by
default a space, between each word (single word arrays are not modified).
If the ` (j)' flag is present, that is used for joining instead of
$IFS.
- 6. Nested subscripting
- Any remaining subscripts (i.e. of a nested substitution) are evaluated at
this point, based on whether the value is an array or a scalar. As with
3., multiple subscripts can appear. Note that ${foo[2,4][2]}
is thus equivalent to ${${foo[2,4]}[2]} and also to
"${${(@)foo[2,4]}[2]}" (the nested substitution returns
an array in both cases), but not to "${${foo[2,4]}[2]}"
(the nested substitution returns a scalar because of the quotes).
- 7. Modifiers
- Any modifiers, as specified by a trailing `#', `%',
`/' (possibly doubled) or by a set of modifiers of the form `
:...' (see the section `Modifiers' in the section `History
Expansion'), are applied to the words of the value at this level.
- 8. Character evaluation
- Any `(#)' flag is applied, evaluating the result so far numerically
as a character.
- 9. Length
- Any initial `#' modifier, i.e. in the form
${#var}, is used to evaluate the length of the
expression so far.
- 10. Forced joining
- If the `(j)' flag is present, or no `(j)' flag is present
but the string is to be split as given by rule 11., and joining did
not take place at rule 5., any words in the value are joined
together using the given string or the first character of $IFS if
none. Note that the ` (F)' flag implicitly supplies a string for
joining in this manner.
- 11. Simple word splitting
- If one of the `(s)' or `(f)' flags are present, or the
`=' specifier was present (e.g. ${=var}), the
word is split on occurrences of the specified string, or (for =
with neither of the two flags present) any of the characters in
$IFS.
If no `
(s)', `
(f)' or `
=' was given, but the word is not
quoted and the option
SH_WORD_SPLIT is set, the word is split on
occurrences of any of the characters in
$IFS. Note this step, too,
takes place at all levels of a nested substitution.
- 12. Case modification
- Any case modification from one of the flags `(L)', `(U)' or
` (C)' is applied.
- 13. Escape sequence replacement
- First any replacements from the `(g)' flag are performed, then any
prompt-style formatting from the ` (%)' family of flags is
applied.
- 14. Quote application
- Any quoting or unquoting using `(q)' and `(Q)' and related
flags is applied.
- 15. Directory naming
- Any directory name substitution using `(D)' flag is applied.
- 16. Visibility enhancement
- Any modifications to make characters visible using the `(V)' flag
are applied.
- 17. Lexical word splitting
- If the '(z)' flag or one of the forms of the '(Z)' flag is
present, the word is split as if it were a shell command line, so that
quotation marks and other metacharacters are used to decide what
constitutes a word. Note this form of splitting is entirely distinct from
that described by rule 11.: it does not use $IFS, and does
not cause forced joining.
- 18. Uniqueness
- If the result is an array and the `(u)' flag was present, duplicate
elements are removed from the array.
- 19. Ordering
- If the result is still an array and one of the `(o)' or
`(O)' flags was present, the array is reordered.
- 20. RC_EXPAND_PARAM
- At this point the decision is made whether any resulting array elements
are to be combined element by element with surrounding text, as given by
either the RC_EXPAND_PARAM option or the `^' flag.
- 21. Re-evaluation
- Any `(e)' flag is applied to the value, forcing it to be
re-examined for new parameter substitutions, but also for command and
arithmetic substitutions.
- 22. Padding
- Any padding of the value by the `(l.fill.)' or `
(r. fill.)' flags is applied.
- 23. Semantic joining
- In contexts where expansion semantics requires a single word to result,
all words are rejoined with the first character of IFS between. So
in ` ${(P)${(f)lines}}' the value of ${lines}
is split at newlines, but then must be joined again before the `
(P)' flag can be applied.
If a single word is not required, this rule is skipped.
- 24. Empty argument removal
- If the substitution does not appear in double quotes, any resulting
zero-length argument, whether from a scalar or an element of an array, is
elided from the list of arguments inserted into the command line.
Strictly speaking, the removal happens later as the same happens with other
forms of substitution; the point to note here is simply that it occurs after
any of the above parameter operations.
- 25. Nested parameter name replacement
- If the `(P)' flag is present and rule 4. has not applied,
the value so far is treated as a parameter name (which may include a
subscript expression) and replaced with the corresponding value, with
internal flags (rule 2.) applied to the new value.
The flag
f is useful to split a double-quoted substitution line by line.
For example,
${(f)"$(<file)"} substitutes
the contents of
file divided so that each line is an element of the
resulting array. Compare this with the effect of
$(<file ) alone, which divides the file up by
words, or the same inside double quotes, which makes the entire content of the
file a single string.
The following illustrates the rules for nested parameter expansions. Suppose
that
$foo contains the array
(bar baz):
- "${(@)${foo}[1]}"
- This produces the result b. First, the inner substitution
"${foo}", which has no array ( @) flag, produces a
single word result "bar baz". The outer substitution
"${(@)...[1]}" detects that this is a scalar, so that
(despite the ` (@)' flag) the subscript picks the first
character.
- "${${(@)foo}[1]}"
- This produces the result `bar'. In this case, the inner
substitution "${(@)foo}" produces the array `(bar
baz )'. The outer substitution "${...[1]}"
detects that this is an array and picks the first word. This is similar to
the simple case "${foo[1]}".
As an example of the rules for word splitting and joining, suppose
$foo
contains the array `
(ax1 bx1)'. Then
- ${(s/x/)foo}
- produces the words `a', `1 b' and `1'.
- ${(j/x/s/x/)foo}
- produces `a', `1', `b' and `1'.
- ${(s/x/)foo%%1*}
- produces `a' and ` b' (note the extra space). As
substitution occurs before either joining or splitting, the operation
first generates the modified array (ax bx), which is joined
to give "ax bx", and then split to give `a', `
b' and `'. The final empty string will then be elided, as it is not in
double quotes.
A command enclosed in parentheses preceded by a dollar sign, like `
$(...
)', or quoted with grave accents, like `
`...
`', is replaced with its standard output, with any trailing
newlines deleted. If the substitution is not enclosed in double quotes, the
output is broken into words using the
IFS parameter. The substitution `
$(cat foo)' may be replaced by the equivalent but faster
`
$(<foo)'. In either case, if the option
GLOB_SUBST is set, the output is eligible for filename generation.
A string of the form `
$[exp]' or `
$((exp))' is substituted with the value of the arithmetic
expression
exp.
exp is subjected to
parameter expansion,
command substitution and
arithmetic expansion before it is
evaluated. See the section `Arithmetic Evaluation'.
A string of the form `
foo{xx,yy,zz
}bar' is expanded to the individual words `
fooxxbar',
`
fooyybar' and `
foozzbar'. Left-to-right order is preserved.
This construct may be nested. Commas may be quoted in order to include them
literally in a word.
An expression of the form `
{n1..n2}', where
n1 and
n2 are integers, is expanded to every number between
n1 and
n2 inclusive. If either number begins with a zero, all
the resulting numbers will be padded with leading zeroes to that minimum
width, but for negative numbers the
- character is also included in the
width. If the numbers are in decreasing order the resulting sequence will also
be in decreasing order.
An expression of the form `
{n1..n2..n3 }', where
n1,
n2, and
n3 are integers, is expanded as above, but
only every
n3th number starting from
n1 is output. If
n3
is negative the numbers are output in reverse order, this is slightly
different from simply swapping
n1 and
n2 in the case that the
step
n3 doesn't evenly divide the range. Zero padding can be specified
in any of the three numbers, specifying it in the third can be useful to pad
for example `
{-99..100..01}' which is not possible to specify by
putting a 0 on either of the first two numbers (i.e. pad to two characters).
An expression of the form `
{c1..c2}', where
c1 and
c2 are single characters (which may be multibyte
characters), is expanded to every character in the range from
c1 to
c2 in whatever character sequence is used internally. For characters
with code points below 128 this is US ASCII (this is the only case most users
will need). If any intervening character is not printable, appropriate
quotation is used to render it printable. If the character sequence is
reversed, the output is in reverse order, e.g. `
{d..a}' is substituted
as `
d c b a'.
If a brace expression matches none of the above forms, it is left unchanged,
unless the option
BRACE_CCL (an abbreviation for `brace character
class') is set. In that case, it is expanded to a list of the individual
characters between the braces sorted into the order of the characters in the
ASCII character set (multibyte characters are not currently handled). The
syntax is similar to a
[...
] expression in filename generation:
`
-' is treated specially to denote a range of characters, but
`
^' or `
!' as the first character is treated normally. For
example, `
{abcdef0-9}' expands to 16 words
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b
c d e f.
Note that brace expansion is not part of filename generation (globbing); an
expression such as
*/{foo,bar} is split into two separate words
*/foo and
*/bar before filename generation takes place. In
particular, note that this is liable to produce a `no match' error if
either of the two expressions does not match; this is to be contrasted
with
*/(foo|bar), which is treated as a single pattern but otherwise
has similar effects.
To combine brace expansion with array expansion, see the
${^spec} form described in the section Parameter
Expansion above.
Each word is checked to see if it begins with an unquoted `
~'. If it
does, then the word up to a `
/', or the end of the word if there is no
`
/', is checked to see if it can be substituted in one of the ways
described here. If so, then the `
~' and the checked portion are
replaced with the appropriate substitute value.
A `
~' by itself is replaced by the value of
$HOME. A `
~'
followed by a `
+' or a `
-' is replaced by current or previous
working directory, respectively.
A `
~' followed by a number is replaced by the directory at that position
in the directory stack. `
~0' is equivalent to `
~+', and `
~1' is the top of the stack. `
~+' followed by a number is
replaced by the directory at that position in the directory stack. `
~+0' is equivalent to `
~+', and `
~+1' is the top of the
stack. `
~-' followed by a number is replaced by the directory that
many positions from the bottom of the stack. `
~-0' is the bottom of
the stack. The
PUSHD_MINUS option exchanges the effects of `
~+'
and `
~-' where they are followed by a number.
If the function
zsh_directory_name exists, or the shell variable
zsh_directory_name_functions exists and contains an array of function
names, then the functions are used to implement dynamic directory naming. The
functions are tried in order until one returns status zero, so it is important
that functions test whether they can handle the case in question and return an
appropriate status.
A `
~' followed by a string
namstr in unquoted square brackets is
treated specially as a dynamic directory name. Note that the first unquoted
closing square bracket always terminates
namstr. The shell function is
passed two arguments: the string
n (for name) and
namstr. It
should either set the array
reply to a single element which is the
directory corresponding to the name and return status zero (executing an
assignment as the last statement is usually sufficient), or it should return
status non-zero. In the former case the element of reply is used as the
directory; in the latter case the substitution is deemed to have failed. If
all functions fail and the option
NOMATCH is set, an error results.
The functions defined as above are also used to see if a directory can be turned
into a name, for example when printing the directory stack or when expanding
%~ in prompts. In this case each function is passed two arguments: the
string
d (for directory) and the candidate for dynamic naming. The
function should either return non-zero status, if the directory cannot be
named by the function, or it should set the array reply to consist of two
elements: the first is the dynamic name for the directory (as would appear
within `
~[...]'), and the second is the prefix length of
the directory to be replaced. For example, if the trial directory is
/home/myname/src/zsh and the dynamic name for
/home/myname/src
(which has 16 characters) is
s, then the function sets
The directory name so returned is compared with possible static names for parts
of the directory path, as described below; it is used if the prefix length
matched (16 in the example) is longer than that matched by any static name.
It is not a requirement that a function implements both
n and
d
calls; for example, it might be appropriate for certain dynamic forms of
expansion not to be contracted to names. In that case any call with the first
argument
d should cause a non-zero status to be returned.
The completion system calls `
zsh_directory_name c' followed by
equivalent calls to elements of the array
zsh_directory_name_functions,
if it exists, in order to complete dynamic names for directories. The code for
this should be as for any other completion function as described in
zshcompsys(1).
As a working example, here is a function that expands any dynamic names
beginning with the string
p: to directories below
/home/pws/perforce. In this simple case a static name for the directory
would be just as effective.
zsh_directory_name() {
emulate -L zsh
setopt extendedglob
local -a match mbegin mend
if [[ $1 = d ]]; then
# turn the directory into a name
if [[ $2 = (#b)(/home/pws/perforce/)([^/]##)* ]]; then
typeset -ga reply
reply=(p:$match[2] $(( ${#match[1]} + ${#match[2]} )) )
else
return 1
fi
elif [[ $1 = n ]]; then
# turn the name into a directory
[[ $2 != (#b)p:(?*) ]] && return 1
typeset -ga reply
reply=(/home/pws/perforce/$match[1])
elif [[ $1 = c ]]; then
# complete names
local expl
local -a dirs
dirs=(/home/pws/perforce/*(/:t))
dirs=(p:${^dirs})
_wanted dynamic-dirs expl 'dynamic directory' compadd -S\] -a dirs
return
else
return 1
fi
return 0
}
A `
~' followed by anything not already covered consisting of any number
of alphanumeric characters or underscore (`
_'), hyphen (`
-'),
or dot (`
.') is looked up as a named directory, and replaced by the
value of that named directory if found. Named directories are typically home
directories for users on the system. They may also be defined if the text
after the `
~' is the name of a string shell parameter whose value
begins with a `
/'. Note that trailing slashes will be removed from the
path to the directory (though the original parameter is not modified).
It is also possible to define directory names using the
-d option to the
hash builtin.
When the shell prints a path (e.g. when expanding
%~ in prompts or when
printing the directory stack), the path is checked to see if it has a named
directory as its prefix. If so, then the prefix portion is replaced with a `
~' followed by the name of the directory. The shorter of the two ways
of referring to the directory is used, i.e. either the directory name or the
full path; the name is used if they are the same length. The parameters
$PWD and
$OLDPWD are never abbreviated in this fashion.
If a word begins with an unquoted `
=' and the
EQUALS option is
set, the remainder of the word is taken as the name of a command. If a command
exists by that name, the word is replaced by the full pathname of the command.
Filename expansion is performed on the right hand side of a parameter
assignment, including those appearing after commands of the
typeset
family. In this case, the right hand side will be treated as a colon-separated
list in the manner of the
PATH parameter, so that a `
~' or an
`
=' following a `
:' is eligible for expansion. All such
behaviour can be disabled by quoting the `
~', the `
=', or the
whole expression (but not simply the colon); the
EQUALS option is also
respected.
If the option
MAGIC_EQUAL_SUBST is set, any unquoted shell argument in
the form `
identifier=expression' becomes eligible for
file expansion as described in the previous paragraph. Quoting the first `
=' also inhibits this.
If a word contains an unquoted instance of one of the characters `
*',
`
(', `
|', `
<', `
[', or `
?', it is
regarded as a pattern for filename generation, unless the
GLOB option
is unset. If the
EXTENDED_GLOB option is set, the `
^' and
`
#' characters also denote a pattern; otherwise they are not treated
specially by the shell.
The word is replaced with a list of sorted filenames that match the pattern. If
no matching pattern is found, the shell gives an error message, unless the
NULL_GLOB option is set, in which case the word is deleted; or unless
the
NOMATCH option is unset, in which case the word is left unchanged.
In filename generation, the character `
/' must be matched explicitly;
also, a `
.' must be matched explicitly at the beginning of a pattern
or after a `
/', unless the
GLOB_DOTS option is set. No filename
generation pattern matches the files `
.' or `
..'. In other
instances of pattern matching, the `
/' and `
.' are not treated
specially.
- *
- Matches any string, including the null string.
- ?
- Matches any character.
- [...]
- Matches any of the enclosed characters. Ranges of characters can be
specified by separating two characters by a ` -'. A ` -' or
` ]' may be matched by including it as the first character in the
list. There are also several named classes of characters, in the form `
[:name:]' with the following meanings. The first set
use the macros provided by the operating system to test for the given
character combinations, including any modifications due to local language
settings, see ctype(3):
- [:alnum:]
- The character is alphanumeric
- [:alpha:]
- The character is alphabetic
- [:ascii:]
- The character is 7-bit, i.e. is a single-byte character without the top
bit set.
- [:blank:]
- The character is a blank character
- [:cntrl:]
- The character is a control character
- [:digit:]
- The character is a decimal digit
- [:graph:]
- The character is a printable character other than whitespace
- [:lower:]
- The character is a lowercase letter
- [:print:]
- The character is printable
- [:punct:]
- The character is printable but neither alphanumeric nor whitespace
- [:space:]
- The character is whitespace
- [:upper:]
- The character is an uppercase letter
- [:xdigit:]
- The character is a hexadecimal digit
Another set of named classes is handled internally by the shell and is not
sensitive to the locale:
- [:IDENT:]
- The character is allowed to form part of a shell identifier, such as a
parameter name
- [:IFS:]
- The character is used as an input field separator, i.e. is contained in
the IFS parameter
- [:IFSSPACE:]
- The character is an IFS white space character; see the documentation for
IFS in the zshparam(1) manual page.
- [:INCOMPLETE:]
- Matches a byte that starts an incomplete multibyte character. Note that
there may be a sequence of more than one bytes that taken together form
the prefix of a multibyte character. To test for a potentially incomplete
byte sequence, use the pattern ` [[:INCOMPLETE:]]*'. This will
never match a sequence starting with a valid multibyte character.
- [:INVALID:]
- Matches a byte that does not start a valid multibyte character. Note this
may be a continuation byte of an incomplete multibyte character as any
part of a multibyte string consisting of invalid and incomplete multibyte
characters is treated as single bytes.
- [:WORD:]
- The character is treated as part of a word; this test is sensitive to the
value of the WORDCHARS parameter
Note that the square brackets are additional to those enclosing the whole set of
characters, so to test for a single alphanumeric character you need `
[[:alnum:]]'. Named character sets can be used alongside other types,
e.g. `
[[:alpha:]0-9]'.
- [^...]
- [!...]
- Like [...], except that it matches any character which is
not in the given set.
- <[x]-[y]>
- Matches any number in the range x to y, inclusive. Either of
the numbers may be omitted to make the range open-ended; hence `
<->' matches any number. To match individual digits, the
[... ] form is more efficient.
Be careful when using other wildcards adjacent to patterns of this form; for
example,
<0-9>* will actually match any number whatsoever at the
start of the string, since the `
<0-9>' will match the first
digit, and the `
*' will match any others. This is a trap for the
unwary, but is in fact an inevitable consequence of the rule that the longest
possible match always succeeds. Expressions such as `
<0-9>[^[:digit:]]*' can be used instead.
- (...)
- Matches the enclosed pattern. This is used for grouping. If the
KSH_GLOB option is set, then a ` @', `*', `+',
` ?' or `!' immediately preceding the ` (' is treated
specially, as detailed below. The option SH_GLOB prevents bare
parentheses from being used in this way, though the KSH_GLOB option
is still available.
Note that grouping cannot extend over multiple directories: it is an error to
have a `
/' within a group (this only applies for patterns used in
filename generation). There is one exception: a group of the form
(pat /)# appearing as a complete path segment can match a
sequence of directories. For example,
foo/(a*/)#bar matches
foo/bar,
foo/any/bar,
foo/any/anyother/bar, and so
on.
- x|y
- Matches either x or y. This operator has lower precedence
than any other. The ` |' character must be within parentheses, to
avoid interpretation as a pipeline. The alternatives are tried in order
from left to right.
- ^x
- (Requires EXTENDED_GLOB to be set.) Matches anything except the
pattern x. This has a higher precedence than ` /', so
`^foo/bar' will search directories in ` .' except
`./foo' for a file named ` bar'.
- x~y
- (Requires EXTENDED_GLOB to be set.) Match anything that matches the
pattern x but does not match y. This has lower precedence
than any operator except ` |', so ` */*~foo/bar' will search
for all files in all directories in ` .' and then exclude `
foo/bar' if there was such a match. Multiple patterns can be
excluded by ` foo~bar~baz'. In the
exclusion pattern ( y), `/' and `.' are not treated
specially the way they usually are in globbing.
- x#
- (Requires EXTENDED_GLOB to be set.) Matches zero or more
occurrences of the pattern x. This operator has high precedence; `
12#' is equivalent to `1(2#)', rather than ` (12)#'.
It is an error for an unquoted ` #' to follow something which
cannot be repeated; this includes an empty string, a pattern already
followed by ` ##', or parentheses when part of a KSH_GLOB
pattern (for example, ` !(foo)#' is invalid and must
be replaced by ` *(!(foo))').
- x##
- (Requires EXTENDED_GLOB to be set.) Matches one or more occurrences
of the pattern x. This operator has high precedence; ` 12##'
is equivalent to ` 1(2##)', rather than ` (12)##'. No more
than two active ` #' characters may appear together. (Note the
potential clash with glob qualifiers in the form ` 1(2##)' which
should therefore be avoided.)
If the
KSH_GLOB option is set, the effects of parentheses can be modified
by a preceding `
@', `
*', `
+', `
?' or `
!'.
This character need not be unquoted to have special effects, but the `
(' must be.
- @(...)
- Match the pattern in the parentheses. (Like `(...)'.)
- *(...)
- Match any number of occurrences. (Like `(...)#', except that
recursive directory searching is not supported.)
- +(...)
- Match at least one occurrence. (Like `(...)##', except that
recursive directory searching is not supported.)
- ?(...)
- Match zero or one occurrence. (Like `(|...)'.)
- !(...)
- Match anything but the expression in parentheses. (Like `
(^(...))'.)
The precedence of the operators given above is (highest) `
^',
`
/', `
~', `
|' (lowest); the remaining operators are
simply treated from left to right as part of a string, with `
#' and
`
##' applying to the shortest possible preceding unit (i.e. a
character, `
?', `
[...
]', `
<...
>',
or a parenthesised expression). As mentioned above, a `
/' used as a
directory separator may not appear inside parentheses, while a `
|'
must do so; in patterns used in other contexts than filename generation (for
example, in
case statements and tests within `
[[...
]]'),
a `
/' is not special; and `
/' is also not special after a `
~' appearing outside parentheses in a filename pattern.
There are various flags which affect any text to their right up to the end of
the enclosing group or to the end of the pattern; they require the
EXTENDED_GLOB option. All take the form
(#X) where
X may have one of the following forms:
- i
- Case insensitive: upper or lower case characters in the pattern match
upper or lower case characters.
- l
- Lower case characters in the pattern match upper or lower case characters;
upper case characters in the pattern still only match upper case
characters.
- I
- Case sensitive: locally negates the effect of i or l from
that point on.
- b
- Activate backreferences for parenthesised groups in the pattern; this does
not work in filename generation. When a pattern with a set of active
parentheses is matched, the strings matched by the groups are stored in
the array $match, the indices of the beginning of the matched
parentheses in the array $mbegin, and the indices of the end in the
array $mend, with the first element of each array corresponding to
the first parenthesised group, and so on. These arrays are not otherwise
special to the shell. The indices use the same convention as does
parameter substitution, so that elements of $mend and
$mbegin may be used in subscripts; the KSH_ARRAYS option is
respected. Sets of globbing flags are not considered parenthesised groups;
only the first nine active parentheses can be referenced.
For example,
foo="a string with a message"
if [[ $foo = (a|an)' '(#b)(*)' '* ]]; then
print ${foo[$mbegin[1],$mend[1]]}
fi
prints `
string with a'. Note that the first parenthesis is before the
(#b) and does not create a backreference.
Backreferences work with all forms of pattern matching other than filename
generation, but note that when performing matches on an entire array, such as
${array#pattern}, or a global substitution,
such as
${param//pat/repl},
only the data for the last match remains available. In the case of global
replacements this may still be useful. See the example for the
m flag
below.
The numbering of backreferences strictly follows the order of the opening
parentheses from left to right in the pattern string, although sets of
parentheses may be nested. There are special rules for parentheses followed by
`
#' or `
##'. Only the last match of the parenthesis is
remembered: for example, in `
[[ abab = (#b)([ab])# ]]', only the final
`
b' is stored in
match[1]. Thus extra parentheses may be
necessary to match the complete segment: for example, use `
X((ab|cd)#)Y' to match a whole string of either `
ab' or
`
cd' between `
X' and `
Y', using the value of
$match[1] rather than
$match[2].
If the match fails none of the parameters is altered, so in some cases it may be
necessary to initialise them beforehand. If some of the backreferences fail to
match -- which happens if they are in an alternate branch which fails to
match, or if they are followed by
# and matched zero times -- then the
matched string is set to the empty string, and the start and end indices are
set to -1.
Pattern matching with backreferences is slightly slower than without.
- B
- Deactivate backreferences, negating the effect of the b flag from
that point on.
- cN,M
- The flag (#cN,M) can be used anywhere
that the # or ## operators can be used except in the
expressions ` (*/)#' and `(*/)##' in filename generation,
where ` /' has special meaning; it cannot be combined with other
globbing flags and a bad pattern error occurs if it is misplaced. It is
equivalent to the form {N,M} in regular
expressions. The previous character or group is required to match between
N and M times, inclusive. The form
(#cN) requires exactly N matches;
(#c,M) is equivalent to specifying N as 0;
(#c N,) specifies that there is no maximum limit on
the number of matches.
- m
- Set references to the match data for the entire string matched; this is
similar to backreferencing and does not work in filename generation. The
flag must be in effect at the end of the pattern, i.e. not local to a
group. The parameters $MATCH, $MBEGIN and $MEND will
be set to the string matched and to the indices of the beginning and end
of the string, respectively. This is most useful in parameter
substitutions, as otherwise the string matched is obvious.
For example,
arr=(veldt jynx grimps waqf zho buck)
print ${arr//(#m)[aeiou]/${(U)MATCH}}
forces all the matches (i.e. all vowels) into uppercase, printing `
vEldt
jynx grImps wAqf zhO bUck'.
Unlike backreferences, there is no speed penalty for using match references,
other than the extra substitutions required for the replacement strings in
cases such as the example shown.
- M
- Deactivate the m flag, hence no references to match data will be
created.
- anum
- Approximate matching: num errors are allowed in the string matched
by the pattern. The rules for this are described in the next
subsection.
- s, e
- Unlike the other flags, these have only a local effect, and each must
appear on its own: ` (#s)' and `(#e)' are the only valid
forms. The ` (#s)' flag succeeds only at the start of the test
string, and the ` (#e)' flag succeeds only at the end of the test
string; they correspond to ` ^' and `$' in standard regular
expressions. They are useful for matching path segments in patterns other
than those in filename generation (where path segments are in any case
treated separately). For example, ` *((#s)|/)test((#e)|/)*' matches
a path segment ` test' in any of the following strings:
test, test/at/start, at/end/test,
in/test/middle.
Another use is in parameter substitution; for example `
${array/(#s)A*Z(#e)}' will remove only elements of an array which match
the complete pattern `
A*Z'. There are other ways of performing many
operations of this type, however the combination of the substitution
operations `
/' and `
//' with the `
(#s)' and
`
(#e)' flags provides a single simple and memorable method.
Note that assertions of the form `
(^(#s))' also work, i.e. match
anywhere except at the start of the string, although this actually means
`anything except a zero-length portion at the start of the string'; you need
to use `
(""~(#s))' to match a zero-length portion of the
string not at the start.
- q
- A `q' and everything up to the closing parenthesis of the globbing
flags are ignored by the pattern matching code. This is intended to
support the use of glob qualifiers, see below. The result is that the
pattern ` (#b)(*).c(#q.)' can be used both for globbing and for
matching against a string. In the former case, the ` (#q.)' will be
treated as a glob qualifier and the ` (#b)' will not be useful,
while in the latter case the ` (#b)' is useful for backreferences
and the ` (#q.)' will be ignored. Note that colon modifiers in the
glob qualifiers are also not applied in ordinary pattern matching.
- u
- Respect the current locale in determining the presence of multibyte
characters in a pattern, provided the shell was compiled with
MULTIBYTE_SUPPORT. This overrides the MULTIBYTE option; the
default behaviour is taken from the option. Compare U. (Mnemonic:
typically multibyte characters are from Unicode in the UTF-8 encoding,
although any extension of ASCII supported by the system library may be
used.)
- U
- All characters are considered to be a single byte long. The opposite of
u. This overrides the MULTIBYTE option.
For example, the test string
fooxx can be matched by the pattern
(#i )FOOXX, but not by
(#l)FOOXX,
(#i)FOO (#I)XX or
((#i)FOOX)X. The string
(#ia2)readme
specifies case-insensitive matching of
readme with up to two errors.
When using the ksh syntax for grouping both
KSH_GLOB and
EXTENDED_GLOB must be set and the left parenthesis should be preceded
by
@. Note also that the flags do not affect letters inside
[...
] groups, in other words
(#i)[a-z] still
matches only lowercase letters. Finally, note that when examining whole paths
case-insensitively every directory must be searched for all files which match,
so that a pattern of the form
(#i)/foo/bar/... is potentially
slow.
When matching approximately, the shell keeps a count of the errors found, which
cannot exceed the number specified in the
(#anum) flags.
Four types of error are recognised:
- 1.
- Different characters, as in fooxbar and fooybar.
- 2.
- Transposition of characters, as in banana and abnana.
- 3.
- A character missing in the target string, as with the pattern road
and target string rod.
- 4.
- An extra character appearing in the target string, as with stove
and strove.
Thus, the pattern
(#a3)abcd matches
dcba, with the errors
occurring by using the first rule twice and the second once, grouping the
string as
[d][cb][a] and
[a][bc][d].
Non-literal parts of the pattern must match exactly, including characters in
character ranges: hence
(#a1)??? matches strings of length four,
by applying rule 4 to an empty part of the pattern, but not strings of length
two, since all the
? must match. Other characters which must match
exactly are initial dots in filenames (unless the
GLOB_DOTS option is
set), and all slashes in filenames, so that
a/bc is two errors from
ab/c (the slash cannot be transposed with another character).
Similarly, errors are counted separately for non-contiguous strings in the
pattern, so that
(ab|cd)ef is two errors from
aebf.
When using exclusion via the
~ operator, approximate matching is treated
entirely separately for the excluded part and must be activated separately.
Thus,
(#a1)README~READ_ME matches
READ.ME but not
READ_ME, as the trailing
READ_ME is matched without
approximation. However,
(#a1)README~(#a1)READ_ME does not
match any pattern of the form
READ?ME as all such forms
are now excluded.
Apart from exclusions, there is only one overall error count; however, the
maximum errors allowed may be altered locally, and this can be delimited by
grouping. For example,
(#a1)cat((#a0)dog)fox allows one error in
total, which may not occur in the
dog section, and the pattern
(#a1 )cat(#a0)dog(#a1)fox is
equivalent. Note that the point at which an error is first found is the
crucial one for establishing whether to use approximation; for example,
(#a1)abc(#a0)xyz will not match
abcdxyz, because the error
occurs at the `
x', where approximation is turned off.
Entire path segments may be matched approximately, so that `
(#a1)/foo/d/is/available/at/the/bar' allows one error in any path
segment. This is much less efficient than without the
(#a1), however,
since every directory in the path must be scanned for a possible approximate
match. It is best to place the
(#a1) after any path segments which are
known to be correct.
A pathname component of the form `
(foo/)#' matches a path
consisting of zero or more directories matching the pattern
foo.
As a shorthand, `
**/' is equivalent to `
(*/)#'; note that this
therefore matches files in the current directory as well as subdirectories.
Thus:
or
does a recursive directory search for files named `
bar' (potentially
including the file `
bar' in the current directory). This form does not
follow symbolic links; the alternative form `
***/' does, but is
otherwise identical. Neither of these can be combined with other forms of
globbing within the same path segment; in that case, the `
*' operators
revert to their usual effect.
Even shorter forms are available when the option
GLOB_STAR_SHORT is set.
In that case if no
/ immediately follows a
** or
*** they
are treated as if both a
/ plus a further
* are present. Hence:
setopt GLOBSTARSHORT
ls **.c
is equivalent to
Patterns used for filename generation may end in a list of qualifiers enclosed
in parentheses. The qualifiers specify which filenames that otherwise match
the given pattern will be inserted in the argument list.
If the option
BARE_GLOB_QUAL is set, then a trailing set of parentheses
containing no `
|' or `
(' characters (or `
~' if it is
special) is taken as a set of glob qualifiers. A glob subexpression that would
normally be taken as glob qualifiers, for example `
(^x)', can be
forced to be treated as part of the glob pattern by doubling the parentheses,
in this case producing `
((^x))'.
If the option
EXTENDED_GLOB is set, a different syntax for glob
qualifiers is available, namely `
(#qx)' where
x
is any of the same glob qualifiers used in the other format. The qualifiers
must still appear at the end of the pattern. However, with this syntax
multiple glob qualifiers may be chained together. They are treated as a
logical AND of the individual sets of flags. Also, as the syntax is
unambiguous, the expression will be treated as glob qualifiers just as long
any parentheses contained within it are balanced; appearance of `
|',
`
(' or `
~' does not negate the effect. Note that qualifiers
will be recognised in this form even if a bare glob qualifier exists at the
end of the pattern, for example `
*(#q*)(.)' will recognise executable
regular files if both options are set; however, mixed syntax should probably
be avoided for the sake of clarity. Note that within conditions using the `
[[' form the presence of a parenthesised expression
(#q... ) at the end of a string indicates that globbing
should be performed; the expression may include glob qualifiers, but it is
also valid if it is simply
(#q). This does not apply to the right hand
side of pattern match operators as the syntax already has special
significance.
A qualifier may be any one of the following:
- /
- directories
- F
- `full' (i.e. non-empty) directories. Note that the opposite sense
(^F ) expands to empty directories and all non-directories.
Use (/^F) for empty directories.
- .
- plain files
- @
- symbolic links
- =
- sockets
- p
- named pipes (FIFOs)
- *
- executable plain files (0100 or 0010 or 0001)
- %
- device files (character or block special)
- %b
- block special files
- %c
- character special files
- r
- owner-readable files (0400)
- w
- owner-writable files (0200)
- x
- owner-executable files (0100)
- A
- group-readable files (0040)
- I
- group-writable files (0020)
- E
- group-executable files (0010)
- R
- world-readable files (0004)
- W
- world-writable files (0002)
- X
- world-executable files (0001)
- s
- setuid files (04000)
- S
- setgid files (02000)
- t
- files with the sticky bit (01000)
- fspec
- files with access rights matching spec. This spec may be a
octal number optionally preceded by a ` =', a `+', or a `
-'. If none of these characters is given, the behavior is the same
as for ` ='. The octal number describes the mode bits to be
expected, if combined with a ` =', the value given must match the
file-modes exactly, with a ` +', at least the bits in the given
number must be set in the file-modes, and with a ` -', the bits in
the number must not be set. Giving a ` ?' instead of a octal digit
anywhere in the number ensures that the corresponding bits in the
file-modes are not checked, this is only useful in combination with `
='.
If the qualifier `
f' is followed by any other character anything up to
the next matching character (`
[', `
{', and `
<' match
`
]', `
}', and `
>' respectively, any other character
matches itself) is taken as a list of comma-separated
sub-specs. Each
sub-spec may be either an octal number as described above or a list of
any of the characters `
u', `
g', `
o', and `
a',
followed by a `
=', a `
+', or a `
-', followed by a list
of any of the characters `
r', `
w', `
x', `
s', and
`
t', or an octal digit. The first list of characters specify which
access rights are to be checked. If a `
u' is given, those for the
owner of the file are used, if a `
g' is given, those of the group are
checked, a `
o' means to test those of other users, and the `
a'
says to test all three groups. The `
=', `
+', and `
-'
again says how the modes are to be checked and have the same meaning as
described for the first form above. The second list of characters finally says
which access rights are to be expected: `
r' for read access,
`
w' for write access, `
x' for the right to execute the file (or
to search a directory), `
s' for the setuid and setgid bits, and
`
t' for the sticky bit.
Thus, `
*(f70?)' gives the files for which the owner has read, write, and
execute permission, and for which other group members have no rights,
independent of the permissions for other users. The pattern `
*(f-100)'
gives all files for which the owner does not have execute permission, and `
*(f:gu+w,o-rx:)' gives the files for which the owner and the other
members of the group have at least write permission, and for which other users
don't have read or execute permission.
- estring
- +cmd
- The string will be executed as shell code. The filename will be
included in the list if and only if the code returns a zero status
(usually the status of the last command).
In the first form, the first character after the `
e' will be used as a
separator and anything up to the next matching separator will be taken as the
string; `
[', `
{', and `
<' match `
]',
`
}', and `
>', respectively, while any other character matches
itself. Note that expansions must be quoted in the
string to prevent
them from being expanded before globbing is done.
string is then
executed as shell code. The string
globqual is appended to the array
zsh_eval_context the duration of execution.
During the execution of
string the filename currently being tested is
available in the parameter
REPLY; the parameter may be altered to a
string to be inserted into the list instead of the original filename. In
addition, the parameter
reply may be set to an array or a string, which
overrides the value of
REPLY. If set to an array, the latter is
inserted into the command line word by word.
For example, suppose a directory contains a single file `
lonely'. Then
the expression `
*(e:'reply=(${REPLY}{1,2})':)' will cause the words `
lonely1' and `
lonely2' to be inserted into the command line.
Note the quoting of
string.
The form
+cmd has the same effect, but no delimiters appear around
cmd. Instead,
cmd is taken as the longest sequence of characters
following the
+ that are alphanumeric or underscore. Typically
cmd will be the name of a shell function that contains the appropriate
test. For example,
nt() { [[ $REPLY -nt $NTREF ]] }
NTREF=reffile
ls -l *(+nt)
lists all files in the directory that have been modified more recently than
reffile.
- ddev
- files on the device dev
- l[-|+]ct
- files having a link count less than ct (-), greater than
ct ( +), or equal to ct
- U
- files owned by the effective user ID
- G
- files owned by the effective group ID
- uid
- files owned by user ID id if that is a number. Otherwise, id
specifies a user name: the character after the ` u' will be taken
as a separator and the string between it and the next matching separator
will be taken as a user name. The starting separators ` [',
`{', and ` <' match the final separators ` ]',
`}', and `>', respectively; any other character matches
itself. The selected files are those owned by this user. For example, `
u:foo:' or `u[foo]' selects files owned by user `
foo'.
- gid
- like uid but with group IDs or names
- a[Mwhms][-|+]n
- files accessed exactly n days ago. Files accessed within the last
n days are selected using a negative value for n
(-n). Files accessed more than n days ago are
selected by a positive n value ( +n). Optional unit
specifiers ` M', `w', ` h', `m' or `s'
(e.g. ` ah5') cause the check to be performed with months (of 30
days), weeks, hours, minutes or seconds instead of days, respectively. An
explicit ` d' for days is also allowed.
Any fractional part of the difference between the access time and the current
part in the appropriate units is ignored in the comparison. For instance, `
echo *(ah-5)' would echo files accessed within the last five hours,
while `
echo *(ah+5)' would echo files accessed at least six hours ago,
as times strictly between five and six hours are treated as five hours.
- m[Mwhms][-|+]n
- like the file access qualifier, except that it uses the file modification
time.
- c[Mwhms][-|+]n
- like the file access qualifier, except that it uses the file inode change
time.
- L[+|-]n
- files less than n bytes (-), more than n bytes
(+), or exactly n bytes in length.
If this flag is directly followed by a
size specifier `
k'
(`
K'), `
m' (`
M'), or `
p' (`
P') (e.g.
`
Lk-50') the check is performed with kilobytes, megabytes, or blocks
(of 512 bytes) instead. (On some systems additional specifiers are available
for gigabytes, `
g' or `
G', and terabytes, `
t' or
`
T'.) If a size specifier is used a file is regarded as
"exactly" the size if the file size rounded up to the next unit is
equal to the test size. Hence `
*(Lm1)' matches files from 1 byte up to
1 Megabyte inclusive. Note also that the set of files "less than"
the test size only includes files that would not match the equality test;
hence `
*(Lm-1)' only matches files of zero size.
- ^
- negates all qualifiers following it
- -
- toggles between making the qualifiers work on symbolic links (the default)
and the files they point to
- M
- sets the MARK_DIRS option for the current pattern
- T
- appends a trailing qualifier mark to the filenames, analogous to the
LIST_TYPES option, for the current pattern (overrides
M)
- N
- sets the NULL_GLOB option for the current pattern
- D
- sets the GLOB_DOTS option for the current pattern
- n
- sets the NUMERIC_GLOB_SORT option for the current pattern
- Yn
- enables short-circuit mode: the pattern will expand to at most n
filenames. If more than n matches exist, only the first n
matches in directory traversal order will be considered.
Implies
oN when no
oc qualifier is used.
- oc
- specifies how the names of the files should be sorted. If c is
n they are sorted by name; if it is L they are sorted
depending on the size (length) of the files; if l they are sorted
by the number of links; if a, m, or c they are sorted
by the time of the last access, modification, or inode change
respectively; if d, files in subdirectories appear before those in
the current directory at each level of the search -- this is best combined
with other criteria, for example ` odon' to sort on names for files
within the same directory; if N, no sorting is performed. Note that
a, m, and c compare the age against the current time,
hence the first name in the list is the youngest file. Also note that the
modifiers ^ and - are used, so ` *(^-oL)' gives a
list of all files sorted by file size in descending order, following any
symbolic links. Unless oN is used, multiple order specifiers may
occur to resolve ties.
The default sorting is
n (by name) unless the
Y glob qualifier is
used, in which case it is
N (unsorted).
oe and
o+ are special cases; they are each followed by shell code,
delimited as for the
e glob qualifier and the
+ glob qualifier
respectively (see above). The code is executed for each matched file with the
parameter
REPLY set to the name of the file on entry and
globsort appended to
zsh_eval_context. The code should modify
the parameter
REPLY in some fashion. On return, the value of the
parameter is used instead of the file name as the string on which to sort.
Unlike other sort operators,
oe and
o+ may be repeated, but note
that the maximum number of sort operators of any kind that may appear in any
glob expression is 12.
- Oc
- like `o', but sorts in descending order; i.e. `*(^oc)' is
the same as ` *(Oc)' and `*(^Oc)' is the same as
`*(oc)'; ` Od' puts files in the current directory before
those in subdirectories at each level of the search.
- [beg[,end]]
- specifies which of the matched filenames should be included in the
returned list. The syntax is the same as for array subscripts. beg
and the optional end may be mathematical expressions. As in
parameter subscripting they may be negative to make them count from the
last match backward. E.g.: ` *(-OL[1,3])' gives a list of the names
of the three largest files.
- Pstring
- The string will be prepended to each glob match as a separate word.
string is delimited in the same way as arguments to the e
glob qualifier described above. The qualifier can be repeated; the words
are prepended separately so that the resulting command line contains the
words in the same order they were given in the list of glob
qualifiers.
A typical use for this is to prepend an option before all occurrences of a file
name; for example, the pattern `
*(P:-f:)' produces the command line
arguments `
-f file1 -f file2 ...'
If the modifier
^ is active, then
string will be appended instead
of prepended. Prepending and appending is done independently so both can be
used on the same glob expression; for example by writing `
*(P:foo:^P:bar:^P:baz:)' which produces the command line arguments `
foo baz file1 bar ...'
More than one of these lists can be combined, separated by commas. The whole
list matches if at least one of the sublists matches (they are `or'ed, the
qualifiers in the sublists are `and'ed). Some qualifiers, however, affect all
matches generated, independent of the sublist in which they are given. These
are the qualifiers `
M', `
T', `
N', `
D',
`
n', `
o', `
O' and the subscripts given in brackets (`
[...]').
If a `
:' appears in a qualifier list, the remainder of the expression in
parenthesis is interpreted as a modifier (see the section `Modifiers' in the
section `History Expansion'). Each modifier must be introduced by a separate `
:'. Note also that the result after modification does not have to be an
existing file. The name of any existing file can be followed by a modifier of
the form `
(:...)' even if no actual filename generation
is performed, although note that the presence of the parentheses causes the
entire expression to be subjected to any global pattern matching options such
as
NULL_GLOB. Thus:
lists all directories and symbolic links that point to directories, and
lists all broken symbolic links, and
lists all world-writable device files in the current directory, and
lists all files in the current directory that are world-writable or
world-executable, and
outputs the basename of all root-owned files beginning with the string `
foo' in
/tmp, ignoring symlinks, and
ls *.*~(lex|parse).[ch](^D^l1)
lists all files having a link count of one whose names contain a dot (but not
those starting with a dot, since
GLOB_DOTS is explicitly switched off)
except for
lex.c,
lex.h,
parse.c and
parse.h.
print b*.pro(#q:s/pro/shmo/)(#q.:s/builtin/shmiltin/)
demonstrates how colon modifiers and other qualifiers may be chained together.
The ordinary qualifier `
.' is applied first, then the colon modifiers
in order from left to right. So if
EXTENDED_GLOB is set and the base
pattern matches the regular file
builtin.pro, the shell will print `
shmiltin.shmo'.
zshparam - zsh parameters
A parameter has a name, a value, and a number of attributes. A name may be any
sequence of alphanumeric characters and underscores, or the single characters
`
*', `
@', `
#', `
?', `
-', `
$', or
`
!'. A parameter whose name begins with an alphanumeric or underscore
is also referred to as a
variable.
The attributes of a parameter determine the
type of its value, often
referred to as the parameter type or variable type, and also control other
processing that may be applied to the value when it is referenced. The value
type may be a
scalar (a string, an integer, or a floating point
number), an array (indexed numerically), or an
associative array (an
unordered set of name-value pairs, indexed by name, also referred to as a
hash).
Named scalar parameters may have the
exported,
-x, attribute, to
copy them into the process environment, which is then passed from the shell to
any new processes that it starts. Exported parameters are called
environment variables. The shell also
imports environment
variables at startup time and automatically marks the corresponding parameters
as exported. Some environment variables are not imported for reasons of
security or because they would interfere with the correct operation of other
shell features.
Parameters may also be
special, that is, they have a predetermined
meaning to the shell. Special parameters cannot have their type changed or
their readonly attribute turned off, and if a special parameter is unset, then
later recreated, the special properties will be retained.
To declare the type of a parameter, or to assign a string or numeric value to a
scalar parameter, use the
typeset builtin.
The value of a scalar parameter may also be assigned by writing:
In scalar assignment,
value is expanded as a single string, in which the
elements of arrays are joined together; filename expansion is not performed
unless the option
GLOB_ASSIGN is set.
When the integer attribute,
-i, or a floating point attribute,
-E
or
-F, is set for
name, the
value is subject to
arithmetic evaluation. Furthermore, by replacing `
=' with `
+=',
a parameter can be incremented or appended to. See the section `Array
Parameters' and
Arithmetic Evaluation (in
zshmisc(1)) for
additional forms of assignment.
Note that assignment may implicitly change the attributes of a parameter. For
example, assigning a number to a variable in arithmetic evaluation may change
its type to integer or float, and with
GLOB_ASSIGN assigning a pattern
to a variable may change its type to an array.
To reference the value of a parameter, write `
$name' or `
${ name}'. See
Parameter Expansion in
zshexpn(1) for complete details. That section also explains the effect
of the difference between scalar and array assignment on parameter expansion.
To assign an array value, write one of:
If no parameter
name exists, an ordinary array parameter is created. If
the parameter
name exists and is a scalar, it is replaced by a new
array.
In the third form,
key is an expression that will be evaluated in
arithmetic context (in its simplest form, an integer) that gives the index of
the element to be assigned with
value. In this form any elements not
explicitly mentioned that come before the largest index to which a value is
assigned are assigned an empty string. The indices may be in any order. Note
that this syntax is strict:
[ and
]= must not be quoted, and
key may not consist of the unquoted string
]=, but is otherwise
treated as a simple string. The enhanced forms of subscript expression that
may be used when directly subscripting a variable name, described in the
section Array Subscripts below, are not available.
The syntaxes with and without the explicit key may be mixed. An implicit
key is deduced by incrementing the index from the previously assigned
element. Note that it is not treated as an error if latter assignments in this
form overwrite earlier assignments.
For example, assuming the option
KSH_ARRAYS is not set, the following:
array=(one [3]=three four)
causes the array variable
array to contain four elements
one, an
empty string,
three and
four, in that order.
In the forms where only
value is specified, full command line expansion
is performed.
In the
[key]=value form, both
key and
value undergo all forms of expansion allowed for single word shell
expansions (this does not include filename generation); these are as performed
by the parameter expansion flag
(e) as described in
zshparam(1).
Nested parentheses may surround
value and are included as part of the
value, which is joined into a plain string; this differs from ksh which allows
the values themselves to be arrays. A future version of zsh may support that.
To cause the brackets to be interpreted as a character class for filename
generation, and therefore to treat the resulting list of files as a set of
values, quote the equal sign using any form of quoting. Example:
To append to an array without changing the existing values, use one of the
following:
In the second form
key may specify an existing index as well as an index
off the end of the old array; any existing value is overwritten by
value. Also, it is possible to use
[key]+=value to append to the existing value at
that index.
Within the parentheses on the right hand side of either form of the assignment,
newlines and semicolons are treated the same as white space, separating
individual
values. Any consecutive sequence of such characters has the
same effect.
Ordinary array parameters may also be explicitly declared with:
Associative arrays
must be declared before assignment, by using:
When
name refers to an associative array, the list in an assignment is
interpreted as alternating keys and values:
set -A name key value ...
Note that only one of the two syntaxes above may be used in any given
assignment; the forms may not be mixed. This is unlike the case of numerically
indexed arrays.
Every
key must have a
value in this case. Note that this assigns
to the entire array, deleting any elements that do not appear in the list. The
append syntax may also be used with an associative array:
This adds a new key/value pair if the key is not already present, and replaces
the value for the existing key if it is. In the second form it is also
possible to use
[key]+=value to append to the
existing value at that key. Expansion is performed identically to the
corresponding forms for normal arrays, as described above.
To create an empty array (including associative arrays), use one of:
Individual elements of an array may be selected using a subscript. A subscript
of the form `
[exp]' selects the single element
exp, where
exp is an arithmetic expression which will be subject
to arithmetic expansion as if it were surrounded by `
$((...
))'.
The elements are numbered beginning with 1, unless the
KSH_ARRAYS
option is set in which case they are numbered from zero.
Subscripts may be used inside braces used to delimit a parameter name, thus `
${foo[2]}' is equivalent to `
$foo[2]'. If the
KSH_ARRAYS
option is set, the braced form is the only one that works, as bracketed
expressions otherwise are not treated as subscripts.
If the
KSH_ARRAYS option is not set, then by default accesses to an array
element with a subscript that evaluates to zero return an empty string, while
an attempt to write such an element is treated as an error. For backward
compatibility the
KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT option can be set to cause
subscript values 0 and 1 to be equivalent; see the description of the option
in
zshoptions(1).
The same subscripting syntax is used for associative arrays, except that no
arithmetic expansion is applied to
exp. However, the parsing rules for
arithmetic expressions still apply, which affects the way that certain special
characters must be protected from interpretation. See
Subscript Parsing
below for details.
A subscript of the form `
[*]' or `
[@]' evaluates to all elements
of an array; there is no difference between the two except when they appear
within double quotes. `
"$foo[*]"' evaluates to
`
"$foo[1] $foo[2] ...
"', whereas `
"$foo[@]"' evaluates to `
"$foo[1]"
"$foo[2]" ...'. For associative arrays, `
[*]' or
`
[@]' evaluate to all the values, in no particular order. Note that
this does not substitute the keys; see the documentation for the `
k'
flag under
Parameter Expansion Flags in
zshexpn(1) for complete
details. When an array parameter is referenced as `
$name' (with
no subscript) it evaluates to `
$name[*]', unless the
KSH_ARRAYS option is set in which case it evaluates to `
${name [0]}' (for an associative array, this means the
value of the key `
0', which may not exist even if there are values for
other keys).
A subscript of the form `
[exp1,exp2]'
selects all elements in the range
exp1 to
exp2, inclusive.
(Associative arrays are unordered, and so do not support ranges.) If one of
the subscripts evaluates to a negative number, say
-n, then the
nth element from the end of the array is used. Thus `
$foo[-3]'
is the third element from the end of the array
foo, and `
$foo[1,-1]' is the same as `
$foo[*]'.
Subscripting may also be performed on non-array values, in which case the
subscripts specify a substring to be extracted. For example, if
FOO is
set to `
foobar', then `
echo $FOO[2,5]' prints `
ooba'.
Note that some forms of subscripting described below perform pattern matching,
and in that case the substring extends from the start of the match of the
first subscript to the end of the match of the second subscript. For example,
string="abcdefghijklm"
print ${string[(r)d?,(r)h?]}
prints `
defghi'. This is an obvious generalisation of the rule for
single-character matches. For a single subscript, only a single character is
referenced (not the range of characters covered by the match).
Note that in substring operations the second subscript is handled differently by
the
r and
R subscript flags: the former takes the shortest match
as the length and the latter the longest match. Hence in the former case a
* at the end is redundant while in the latter case it matches the whole
remainder of the string. This does not affect the result of the single
subscript case as here the length of the match is irrelevant.
A subscript may be used on the left side of an assignment like so:
In this form of assignment the element or range specified by
exp is
replaced by the expression on the right side. An array (but not an associative
array) may be created by assignment to a range or element. Arrays do not nest,
so assigning a parenthesized list of values to an element or range changes the
number of elements in the array, shifting the other elements to accommodate
the new values. (This is not supported for associative arrays.)
This syntax also works as an argument to the
typeset command:
typeset "name[exp]"=value
The
value may
not be a parenthesized list in this case; only
single-element assignments may be made with
typeset. Note that quotes
are necessary in this case to prevent the brackets from being interpreted as
filename generation operators. The
noglob precommand modifier could be
used instead.
To delete an element of an ordinary array, assign `
()' to that element.
To delete an element of an associative array, use the
unset command:
If the opening bracket, or the comma in a range, in any subscript expression is
directly followed by an opening parenthesis, the string up to the matching
closing one is considered to be a list of flags, as in `
name[(flags)exp]'.
The flags
s,
n and
b take an argument; the delimiter is
shown below as `
:', but any character, or the matching pairs `
(...
)', `
{...
}', `
[...
]', or `
<...
>', may be used, but note that
`
<...
>' can only be used if the subscript is inside a
double quoted expression or a parameter substitution enclosed in braces as
otherwise the expression is interpreted as a redirection.
The flags currently understood are:
- w
- If the parameter subscripted is a scalar then this flag makes subscripting
work on words instead of characters. The default word separator is
whitespace. When combined with the i or I flag, the effect
is to produce the index of the first character of the first/last word
which matches the given pattern; note that a failed match in this case
always yields 0.
- s:string:
- This gives the string that separates words (for use with the
w flag). The delimiter character : is arbitrary; see
above.
- p
- Recognize the same escape sequences as the print builtin in the
string argument of a subsequent ` s' flag.
- f
- If the parameter subscripted is a scalar then this flag makes subscripting
work on lines instead of characters, i.e. with elements separated by
newlines. This is a shorthand for ` pws:\n:'.
- r
- Reverse subscripting: if this flag is given, the exp is taken as a
pattern and the result is the first matching array element, substring or
word (if the parameter is an array, if it is a scalar, or if it is a
scalar and the ` w' flag is given, respectively). The subscript
used is the number of the matching element, so that pairs of subscripts
such as ` $foo[(r)??,3]' and `$foo[(r)??,(r)f*]' are
possible if the parameter is not an associative array. If the parameter is
an associative array, only the value part of each pair is compared to the
pattern, and the result is that value.
If a search through an ordinary array failed, the search sets the subscript to
one past the end of the array, and hence
${array[(r)pattern]} will substitute the empty string.
Thus the success of a search can be tested by using the
(i) flag, for
example (assuming the option
KSH_ARRAYS is not in effect):
[[ ${array[(i)pattern]} -le ${#array} ]]
If
KSH_ARRAYS is in effect, the
-le should be replaced by
-lt.
- R
- Like `r', but gives the last match. For associative arrays, gives
all possible matches. May be used for assigning to ordinary array
elements, but not for assigning to associative arrays. On failure, for
normal arrays this has the effect of returning the element corresponding
to subscript 0; this is empty unless one of the options KSH_ARRAYS
or KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT is in effect.
Note that in subscripts with both `
r' and `
R' pattern characters
are active even if they were substituted for a parameter (regardless of the
setting of
GLOB_SUBST which controls this feature in normal pattern
matching). The flag `
e' can be added to inhibit pattern matching. As
this flag does not inhibit other forms of substitution, care is still
required; using a parameter to hold the key has the desired effect:
key2='original key'
print ${array[(Re)$key2]}
- i
- Like `r', but gives the index of the match instead; this may not be
combined with a second argument. On the left side of an assignment,
behaves like ` r'. For associative arrays, the key part of each
pair is compared to the pattern, and the first matching key found is the
result. On failure substitutes the length of the array plus one, as
discussed under the description of ` r', or the empty string for an
associative array.
- I
- Like `i', but gives the index of the last match, or all possible
matching keys in an associative array. On failure substitutes 0, or the
empty string for an associative array. This flag is best when testing for
values or keys that do not exist.
- k
- If used in a subscript on an associative array, this flag causes the keys
to be interpreted as patterns, and returns the value for the first key
found where exp is matched by the key. Note this could be any such
key as no ordering of associative arrays is defined. This flag does not
work on the left side of an assignment to an associative array element. If
used on another type of parameter, this behaves like ` r'.
- K
- On an associative array this is like `k' but returns all values
where exp is matched by the keys. On other types of parameters this
has the same effect as ` R'.
- n:expr:
- If combined with `r', `R', `i' or `I', makes
them give the nth or nth last match (if expr
evaluates to n). This flag is ignored when the array is
associative. The delimiter character : is arbitrary; see
above.
- b:expr:
- If combined with `r', `R', `i' or `I', makes
them begin at the nth or nth last element, word, or
character (if expr evaluates to n). This flag is ignored
when the array is associative. The delimiter character : is
arbitrary; see above.
- e
- This flag causes any pattern matching that would be performed on the
subscript to use plain string matching instead. Hence `
${array[(re)*]}' matches only the array element whose value is
*. Note that other forms of substitution such as parameter
substitution are not inhibited.
This flag can also be used to force
* or
@ to be interpreted as a
single key rather than as a reference to all values. It may be used for either
purpose on the left side of an assignment.
See
Parameter Expansion Flags (
zshexpn(1)) for additional ways to
manipulate the results of array subscripting.
This discussion applies mainly to associative array key strings and to patterns
used for reverse subscripting (the `
r', `
R', `
i', etc.
flags), but it may also affect parameter substitutions that appear as part of
an arithmetic expression in an ordinary subscript.
To avoid subscript parsing limitations in assignments to associative array
elements, use the append syntax:
aa+=('key with "*strange*" characters' 'value string')
The basic rule to remember when writing a subscript expression is that all text
between the opening `
[' and the closing `
]' is interpreted
as if it were in double quotes (see
zshmisc(1)). However, unlike
double quotes which normally cannot nest, subscript expressions may appear
inside double-quoted strings or inside other subscript expressions (or both!),
so the rules have two important differences.
The first difference is that brackets (`
[' and `
]') must appear
as balanced pairs in a subscript expression unless they are preceded by a
backslash (`
\'). Therefore, within a subscript expression (and unlike
true double-quoting) the sequence `
\[' becomes `
[', and
similarly `
\]' becomes `
]'. This applies even in cases where a
backslash is not normally required; for example, the pattern `
[^[]'
(to match any character other than an open bracket) should be written `
[^\[]' in a reverse-subscript pattern. However, note that `
\[^\[\]' and even `
\[^[]' mean the
same thing, because
backslashes are always stripped when they appear before brackets!
The same rule applies to parentheses (`
(' and `
)') and braces (`
{' and `
}'): they must appear either in balanced pairs or
preceded by a backslash, and backslashes that protect parentheses or braces
are removed during parsing. This is because parameter expansions may be
surrounded by balanced braces, and subscript flags are introduced by balanced
parentheses.
The second difference is that a double-quote (`
"') may appear as
part of a subscript expression without being preceded by a backslash, and
therefore that the two characters `
\"' remain as two characters
in the subscript (in true double-quoting, `
\"' becomes
`
"'). However, because of the standard shell quoting rules, any
double-quotes that appear must occur in balanced pairs unless preceded by a
backslash. This makes it more difficult to write a subscript expression that
contains an odd number of double-quote characters, but the reason for this
difference is so that when a subscript expression appears inside true
double-quotes, one can still write `
\"' (rather than
`
\\\"') for `
"'.
To use an odd number of double quotes as a key in an assignment, use the
typeset builtin and an enclosing pair of double quotes; to refer to the
value of that key, again use double quotes:
typeset -A aa
typeset "aa[one\"two\"three\"quotes]"=QQQ
print "$aa[one\"two\"three\"quotes]"
It is important to note that the quoting rules do not change when a parameter
expansion with a subscript is nested inside another subscript expression. That
is, it is not necessary to use additional backslashes within the inner
subscript expression; they are removed only once, from the innermost subscript
outwards. Parameters are also expanded from the innermost subscript first, as
each expansion is encountered left to right in the outer expression.
A further complication arises from a way in which subscript parsing is
not different from double quote parsing. As in true double-quoting, the
sequences `
\*', and `
\@' remain as two characters when they
appear in a subscript expression. To use a literal `
*' or `
@'
as an associative array key, the `
e' flag must be used:
typeset -A aa
aa[(e)*]=star
print $aa[(e)*]
A last detail must be considered when reverse subscripting is performed.
Parameters appearing in the subscript expression are first expanded and then
the complete expression is interpreted as a pattern. This has two effects:
first, parameters behave as if
GLOB_SUBST were on (and it cannot be
turned off); second, backslashes are interpreted twice, once when parsing the
array subscript and again when parsing the pattern. In a reverse subscript,
it's necessary to use
four backslashes to cause a single backslash to
match literally in the pattern. For complex patterns, it is often easiest to
assign the desired pattern to a parameter and then refer to that parameter in
the subscript, because then the backslashes, brackets, parentheses, etc., are
seen only when the complete expression is converted to a pattern. To match the
value of a parameter literally in a reverse subscript, rather than as a
pattern, use `
${(q)name}' (see
zshexpn(1))
to quote the expanded value.
Note that the `
k' and `
K' flags are reverse subscripting for an
ordinary array, but are
not reverse subscripting for an associative
array! (For an associative array, the keys in the array itself are interpreted
as patterns by those flags; the subscript is a plain string in that case.)
One final note, not directly related to subscripting: the numeric names of
positional parameters (described below) are parsed specially, so for example `
$2foo' is equivalent to `
${2}foo'. Therefore, to use subscript
syntax to extract a substring from a positional parameter, the expansion must
be surrounded by braces; for example, `
${2[3,5]}' evaluates to the
third through fifth characters of the second positional parameter, but `
$2[3,5]' is the entire second parameter concatenated with the filename
generation pattern `
[3,5]'.
The positional parameters provide access to the command-line arguments of a
shell function, shell script, or the shell itself; see the section
`Invocation', and also the section `Functions'. The parameter
n, where
n is a number, is the
nth positional parameter. The parameter `
$0' is a special case, see the section `Parameters Set By The Shell'.
The parameters
*,
@ and
argv are arrays containing all the
positional parameters; thus `
$argv[n]', etc., is
equivalent to simply `
$n'. Note that the options
KSH_ARRAYS or
KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT apply to these arrays as well,
so with either of those options set, `
${argv[0]}' is equivalent to
`
$1' and so on.
Positional parameters may be changed after the shell or function starts by using
the
set builtin, by assigning to the
argv array, or by direct
assignment of the form `
n=value' where
n is the
number of the positional parameter to be changed. This also creates (with
empty values) any of the positions from 1 to
n that do not already have
values. Note that, because the positional parameters form an array, an array
assignment of the form `
n=(value ...
)' is
allowed, and has the effect of shifting all the values at positions greater
than
n by as many positions as necessary to accommodate the new values.
Shell function executions delimit scopes for shell parameters. (Parameters are
dynamically scoped.) The
typeset builtin, and its alternative forms
declare,
integer,
local and
readonly (but not
export), can be used to declare a parameter as being local to the
innermost scope.
When a parameter is read or assigned to, the innermost existing parameter of
that name is used. (That is, the local parameter hides any less-local
parameter.) However, assigning to a non-existent parameter, or declaring a new
parameter with
export, causes it to be created in the
outermost
scope.
Local parameters disappear when their scope ends.
unset can be used to
delete a parameter while it is still in scope; any outer parameter of the same
name remains hidden.
Special parameters may also be made local; they retain their special attributes
unless either the existing or the newly-created parameter has the
-h
(hide) attribute. This may have unexpected effects: there is no default value,
so if there is no assignment at the point the variable is made local, it will
be set to an empty value (or zero in the case of integers). The following:
typeset PATH=/new/directory:$PATH
is valid for temporarily allowing the shell or programmes called from it to find
the programs in
/new/directory inside a function.
Note that the restriction in older versions of zsh that local parameters were
never exported has been removed.
In the parameter lists that follow, the mark `<S>' indicates that the
parameter is special. `<Z>' indicates that the parameter does not exist
when the shell initializes in
sh or
ksh emulation mode.
The following parameters are automatically set by the shell:
- ! <S>
- The process ID of the last command started in the background with
&, or put into the background with the bg builtin.
- # <S>
- The number of positional parameters in decimal. Note that some confusion
may occur with the syntax $#param which substitutes the
length of param. Use ${#} to resolve ambiguities. In
particular, the sequence ` $#-...' in an arithmetic
expression is interpreted as the length of the parameter -,
q.v.
- ARGC <S> <Z>
- Same as #.
- $ <S>
- The process ID of this shell. Note that this indicates the original shell
started by invoking zsh; all processes forked from the shells
without executing a new program, such as subshells started by
(... ), substitute the same value.
- - <S>
- Flags supplied to the shell on invocation or by the set or
setopt commands.
- * <S>
- An array containing the positional parameters.
- argv <S> <Z>
- Same as *. Assigning to argv changes the local positional
parameters, but argv is not itself a local parameter.
Deleting argv with unset in any function deletes it
everywhere, although only the innermost positional parameter array is
deleted (so * and @ in other scopes are not affected).
- @ <S>
- Same as argv[@], even when argv is not set.
- ? <S>
- The exit status returned by the last command.
- 0 <S>
- The name used to invoke the current shell, or as set by the -c
command line option upon invocation. If the FUNCTION_ARGZERO option
is set, $0 is set upon entry to a shell function to the name of the
function, and upon entry to a sourced script to the name of the script,
and reset to its previous value when the function or script returns.
- status <S> <Z>
- Same as ?.
- pipestatus <S> <Z>
- An array containing the exit statuses returned by all commands in the last
pipeline.
- _ <S>
- The last argument of the previous command. Also, this parameter is set in
the environment of every command executed to the full pathname of the
command.
- CPUTYPE
- The machine type (microprocessor class or machine model), as determined at
run time.
- EGID <S>
- The effective group ID of the shell process. If you have sufficient
privileges, you may change the effective group ID of the shell process by
assigning to this parameter. Also (assuming sufficient privileges), you
may start a single command with a different effective group ID by `
(EGID= gid; command)'
If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be explicitly set
locally.
- EUID <S>
- The effective user ID of the shell process. If you have sufficient
privileges, you may change the effective user ID of the shell process by
assigning to this parameter. Also (assuming sufficient privileges), you
may start a single command with a different effective user ID by `
(EUID= uid; command)'
If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be explicitly set
locally.
- ERRNO <S>
- The value of errno (see errno(3)) as set by the most recently
failed system call. This value is system dependent and is intended for
debugging purposes. It is also useful with the zsh/system module
which allows the number to be turned into a name or message.
- FUNCNEST <S>
- Integer. If greater than or equal to zero, the maximum nesting depth of
shell functions. When it is exceeded, an error is raised at the point
where a function is called. The default value is determined when the shell
is configured, but is typically 500. Increasing the value increases the
danger of a runaway function recursion causing the shell to crash. Setting
a negative value turns off the check.
- GID <S>
- The real group ID of the shell process. If you have sufficient privileges,
you may change the group ID of the shell process by assigning to this
parameter. Also (assuming sufficient privileges), you may start a single
command under a different group ID by ` (GID=gid;
command)'
If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be explicitly set
locally.
- HISTCMD
- The current history event number in an interactive shell, in other words
the event number for the command that caused $HISTCMD to be read.
If the current history event modifies the history, HISTCMD changes
to the new maximum history event number.
- HOST
- The current hostname.
- LINENO <S>
- The line number of the current line within the current script, sourced
file, or shell function being executed, whichever was started most
recently. Note that in the case of shell functions the line number refers
to the function as it appeared in the original definition, not necessarily
as displayed by the functions builtin.
- LOGNAME
- If the corresponding variable is not set in the environment of the shell,
it is initialized to the login name corresponding to the current login
session. This parameter is exported by default but this can be disabled
using the typeset builtin. The value is set to the string returned
by the getlogin(3) system call if that is available.
- MACHTYPE
- The machine type (microprocessor class or machine model), as determined at
compile time.
- OLDPWD
- The previous working directory. This is set when the shell initializes and
whenever the directory changes.
- OPTARG <S>
- The value of the last option argument processed by the getopts
command.
- OPTIND <S>
- The index of the last option argument processed by the getopts
command.
- OSTYPE
- The operating system, as determined at compile time.
- PPID <S>
- The process ID of the parent of the shell. As for $$, the value
indicates the parent of the original shell and does not change in
subshells.
- PWD
- The present working directory. This is set when the shell initializes and
whenever the directory changes.
- RANDOM <S>
- A pseudo-random integer from 0 to 32767, newly generated each time this
parameter is referenced. The random number generator can be seeded by
assigning a numeric value to RANDOM.
The values of
RANDOM form an intentionally-repeatable pseudo-random
sequence; subshells that reference
RANDOM will result in identical
pseudo-random values unless the value of
RANDOM is referenced or seeded
in the parent shell in between subshell invocations.
- SECONDS <S>
- The number of seconds since shell invocation. If this parameter is
assigned a value, then the value returned upon reference will be the value
that was assigned plus the number of seconds since the assignment.
Unlike other special parameters, the type of the
SECONDS parameter can be
changed using the
typeset command. Only integer and one of the floating
point types are allowed. For example, `
typeset -F SECONDS' causes the
value to be reported as a floating point number. The value is available to
microsecond accuracy, although the shell may show more or fewer digits
depending on the use of
typeset. See the documentation for the builtin
typeset in
zshbuiltins(1) for more details.
- SHLVL <S>
- Incremented by one each time a new shell is started.
- signals
- An array containing the names of the signals. Note that with the standard
zsh numbering of array indices, where the first element has index 1, the
signals are offset by 1 from the signal number used by the operating
system. For example, on typical Unix-like systems HUP is signal
number 1, but is referred to as $signals[2]. This is because of
EXIT at position 1 in the array, which is used internally by zsh
but is not known to the operating system.
- TRY_BLOCK_ERROR <S>
- In an always block, indicates whether the preceding list of code
caused an error. The value is 1 to indicate an error, 0 otherwise. It may
be reset, clearing the error condition. See Complex Commands in
zshmisc(1)
- TRY_BLOCK_INTERRUPT <S>
- This variable works in a similar way to TRY_BLOCK_ERROR, but
represents the status of an interrupt from the signal SIGINT, which
typically comes from the keyboard when the user types ^C. If set to
0, any such interrupt will be reset; otherwise, the interrupt is
propagated after the always block.
Note that it is possible that an interrupt arrives during the execution of the
always block; this interrupt is also propagated.
- TTY
- The name of the tty associated with the shell, if any.
- TTYIDLE <S>
- The idle time of the tty associated with the shell in seconds or -1 if
there is no such tty.
- UID <S>
- The real user ID of the shell process. If you have sufficient privileges,
you may change the user ID of the shell by assigning to this parameter.
Also (assuming sufficient privileges), you may start a single command
under a different user ID by ` (UID=uid;
command)'
If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be explicitly set
locally.
- USERNAME <S>
- The username corresponding to the real user ID of the shell process. If
you have sufficient privileges, you may change the username (and also the
user ID and group ID) of the shell by assigning to this parameter. Also
(assuming sufficient privileges), you may start a single command under a
different username (and user ID and group ID) by `
(USERNAME=username ; command)'
- VENDOR
- The vendor, as determined at compile time.
- zsh_eval_context <S> <Z> (ZSH_EVAL_CONTEXT
<S>)
- An array (colon-separated list) indicating the context of shell code that
is being run. Each time a piece of shell code that is stored within the
shell is executed a string is temporarily appended to the array to
indicate the type of operation that is being performed. Read in order the
array gives an indication of the stack of operations being performed with
the most immediate context last.
Note that the variable does not give information on syntactic context such as
pipelines or subshells. Use
$ZSH_SUBSHELL to detect subshells.
The context is one of the following:
- cmdarg
- Code specified by the -c option to the command line that invoked
the shell.
- cmdsubst
- Command substitution using the `...` or
$(... ) construct.
- equalsubst
- File substitution using the =(...) construct.
- eval
- Code executed by the eval builtin.
- evalautofunc
- Code executed with the KSH_AUTOLOAD mechanism in order to define an
autoloaded function.
- fc
- Code from the shell history executed by the -e option to the
fc builtin.
- file
- Lines of code being read directly from a file, for example by the
source builtin.
- filecode
- Lines of code being read from a .zwc file instead of directly from
the source file.
- globqual
- Code executed by the e or + glob qualifier.
- globsort
- Code executed to order files by the o glob qualifier.
- insubst
- File substitution using the <(...) construct.
- loadautofunc
- Code read directly from a file to define an autoloaded function.
- outsubst
- File substitution using the >(...) construct.
- sched
- Code executed by the sched builtin.
- shfunc
- A shell function.
- stty
- Code passed to stty by the STTY environment variable.
Normally this is passed directly to the system's stty command, so
this value is unlikely to be seen in practice.
- style
- Code executed as part of a style retrieved by the zstyle builtin
from the zsh/zutil module.
- toplevel
- The highest execution level of a script or interactive shell.
- trap
- Code executed as a trap defined by the trap builtin. Traps defined
as functions have the context shfunc. As traps are asynchronous
they may have a different hierarchy from other code.
- zpty
- Code executed by the zpty builtin from the zsh/zpty
module.
- zregexparse-guard
- Code executed as a guard by the zregexparse command from the
zsh/zutil module.
- zregexparse-action
- Code executed as an action by the zregexparse command from the
zsh/zutil module.
- ZSH_ARGZERO
- If zsh was invoked to run a script, this is the name of the script.
Otherwise, it is the name used to invoke the current shell. This is the
same as the value of $0 when the POSIX_ARGZERO option is
set, but is always available.
- ZSH_EXECUTION_STRING
- If the shell was started with the option -c, this contains the
argument passed to the option. Otherwise it is not set.
- ZSH_NAME
- Expands to the basename of the command used to invoke this instance of
zsh.
- ZSH_PATCHLEVEL
- The output of `git describe --tags --long' for the zsh repository
used to build the shell. This is most useful in order to keep track of
versions of the shell during development between releases; hence most
users should not use it and should instead rely on
$ZSH_VERSION.
- zsh_scheduled_events
- See the section `The zsh/sched Module' in zshmodules(1).
- ZSH_SCRIPT
- If zsh was invoked to run a script, this is the name of the script,
otherwise it is unset.
- ZSH_SUBSHELL
- Readonly integer. Initially zero, incremented each time the shell forks to
create a subshell for executing code. Hence ` (print
$ZSH_SUBSHELL)' and ` print $(print $ZSH_SUBSHELL)' output 1,
while ` ( (print $ZSH_SUBSHELL) )' outputs 2.
- ZSH_VERSION
- The version number of the release of zsh.
The following parameters are used by the shell. Again, `<S>' indicates
that the parameter is special and `<Z>' indicates that the parameter
does not exist when the shell initializes in
sh or
ksh emulation
mode.
In cases where there are two parameters with an upper- and lowercase form of the
same name, such as
path and
PATH, the lowercase form is an array
and the uppercase form is a scalar with the elements of the array joined
together by colons. These are similar to tied parameters created via `
typeset -T'. The normal use for the colon-separated form is for
exporting to the environment, while the array form is easier to manipulate
within the shell. Note that unsetting either of the pair will unset the other;
they retain their special properties when recreated, and recreating one of the
pair will recreate the other.
- ARGV0
- If exported, its value is used as the argv[0] of external commands.
Usually used in constructs like ` ARGV0=emacs nethack'.
- BAUD
- The rate in bits per second at which data reaches the terminal. The line
editor will use this value in order to compensate for a slow terminal by
delaying updates to the display until necessary. If the parameter is unset
or the value is zero the compensation mechanism is turned off. The
parameter is not set by default.
This parameter may be profitably set in some circumstances, e.g. for slow modems
dialing into a communications server, or on a slow wide area network. It
should be set to the baud rate of the slowest part of the link for best
performance.
- cdpath <S> <Z> (CDPATH <S>)
- An array (colon-separated list) of directories specifying the search path
for the cd command.
- COLUMNS <S>
- The number of columns for this terminal session. Used for printing select
lists and for the line editor.
- CORRECT_IGNORE
- If set, is treated as a pattern during spelling correction. Any potential
correction that matches the pattern is ignored. For example, if the value
is ` _*' then completion functions (which, by convention, have
names beginning with ` _') will never be offered as spelling
corrections. The pattern does not apply to the correction of file names,
as applied by the CORRECT_ALL option (so with the example just
given files beginning with ` _' in the current directory would
still be completed).
- CORRECT_IGNORE_FILE
- If set, is treated as a pattern during spelling correction of file names.
Any file name that matches the pattern is never offered as a correction.
For example, if the value is ` .*' then dot file names will never
be offered as spelling corrections. This is useful with the
CORRECT_ALL option.
- DIRSTACKSIZE
- The maximum size of the directory stack, by default there is no limit. If
the stack gets larger than this, it will be truncated automatically. This
is useful with the AUTO_PUSHD option.
- ENV
- If the ENV environment variable is set when zsh is invoked as
sh or ksh, $ENV is sourced after the profile scripts.
The value of ENV is subjected to parameter expansion, command
substitution, and arithmetic expansion before being interpreted as a
pathname. Note that ENV is not used unless the shell is
interactive and zsh is emulating sh or ksh.
- FCEDIT
- The default editor for the fc builtin. If FCEDIT is not set,
the parameter EDITOR is used; if that is not set either, a builtin
default, usually vi, is used.
- fignore <S> <Z> (FIGNORE <S>)
- An array (colon separated list) containing the suffixes of files to be
ignored during filename completion. However, if completion only generates
files with suffixes in this list, then these files are completed
anyway.
- fpath <S> <Z> (FPATH <S>)
- An array (colon separated list) of directories specifying the search path
for function definitions. This path is searched when a function with the
-u attribute is referenced. If an executable file is found, then it
is read and executed in the current environment.
- histchars <S>
- Three characters used by the shell's history and lexical analysis
mechanism. The first character signals the start of a history expansion
(default ` !'). The second character signals the start of a quick
history substitution (default ` ^'). The third character is the
comment character (default ` #').
The characters must be in the ASCII character set; any attempt to set
histchars to characters with a locale-dependent meaning will be
rejected with an error message.
- HISTCHARS <S> <Z>
- Same as histchars. (Deprecated.)
- HISTFILE
- The file to save the history in when an interactive shell exits. If unset,
the history is not saved.
- HISTORY_IGNORE
- If set, is treated as a pattern at the time history files are written. Any
potential history entry that matches the pattern is skipped. For example,
if the value is ` fc *' then commands that invoke the interactive
history editor are never written to the history file.
Note that
HISTORY_IGNORE defines a single pattern: to specify
alternatives use the `
(first|second|... )' syntax.
Compare the
HIST_NO_STORE option or the
zshaddhistory hook, either
of which would prevent such commands from being added to the interactive
history at all. If you wish to use
HISTORY_IGNORE to stop history being
added in the first place, you can define the following hook:
zshaddhistory() {
emulate -L zsh
## uncomment if HISTORY_IGNORE
## should use EXTENDED_GLOB syntax
# setopt extendedglob
[[ $1 != ${~HISTORY_IGNORE} ]]
}
- HISTSIZE <S>
- The maximum number of events stored in the internal history list. If you
use the HIST_EXPIRE_DUPS_FIRST option, setting this value larger
than the SAVEHIST size will give you the difference as a cushion
for saving duplicated history events.
If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be explicitly set
locally.
- HOME <S>
- The default argument for the cd command. This is not set
automatically by the shell in sh, ksh or csh
emulation, but it is typically present in the environment anyway, and if
it becomes set it has its usual special behaviour.
- IFS <S>
- Internal field separators (by default space, tab, newline and NUL), that
are used to separate words which result from command or parameter
expansion and words read by the read builtin. Any characters from
the set space, tab and newline that appear in the IFS are called IFS
white space. One or more IFS white space characters or one non-IFS
white space character together with any adjacent IFS white space character
delimit a field. If an IFS white space character appears twice
consecutively in the IFS, this character is treated as if it were not an
IFS white space character.
If the parameter is unset, the default is used. Note this has a different effect
from setting the parameter to an empty string.
- KEYBOARD_HACK
- This variable defines a character to be removed from the end of the
command line before interpreting it (interactive shells only). It is
intended to fix the problem with keys placed annoyingly close to return
and replaces the SUNKEYBOARDHACK option which did this for
backquotes only. Should the chosen character be one of singlequote,
doublequote or backquote, there must also be an odd number of them on the
command line for the last one to be removed.
For backward compatibility, if the
SUNKEYBOARDHACK option is explicitly
set, the value of
KEYBOARD_HACK reverts to backquote. If the option is
explicitly unset, this variable is set to empty.
- KEYTIMEOUT
- The time the shell waits, in hundredths of seconds, for another key to be
pressed when reading bound multi-character sequences.
- LANG <S>
- This variable determines the locale category for any category not
specifically selected via a variable starting with ` LC_'.
- LC_ALL <S>
- This variable overrides the value of the `LANG' variable and the
value of any of the other variables starting with ` LC_'.
- LC_COLLATE <S>
- This variable determines the locale category for character collation
information within ranges in glob brackets and for sorting.
- LC_CTYPE <S>
- This variable determines the locale category for character handling
functions. If the MULTIBYTE option is in effect this variable or
LANG should contain a value that reflects the character set in use,
even if it is a single-byte character set, unless only the 7-bit subset
(ASCII) is used. For example, if the character set is ISO-8859-1, a
suitable value might be en_US.iso88591 (certain Linux
distributions) or en_US.ISO8859-1 (MacOS).
- LC_MESSAGES <S>
- This variable determines the language in which messages should be written.
Note that zsh does not use message catalogs.
- LC_NUMERIC <S>
- This variable affects the decimal point character and thousands separator
character for the formatted input/output functions and string conversion
functions. Note that zsh ignores this setting when parsing floating point
mathematical expressions.
- LC_TIME <S>
- This variable determines the locale category for date and time formatting
in prompt escape sequences.
- LINES <S>
- The number of lines for this terminal session. Used for printing select
lists and for the line editor.
- LISTMAX
- In the line editor, the number of matches to list without asking first. If
the value is negative, the list will be shown if it spans at most as many
lines as given by the absolute value. If set to zero, the shell asks only
if the top of the listing would scroll off the screen.
- LOGCHECK
- The interval in seconds between checks for login/logout activity using the
watch parameter.
- MAIL
- If this parameter is set and mailpath is not set, the shell looks
for mail in the specified file.
- MAILCHECK
- The interval in seconds between checks for new mail.
- mailpath <S> <Z> (MAILPATH <S>)
- An array (colon-separated list) of filenames to check for new mail. Each
filename can be followed by a ` ?' and a message that will be
printed. The message will undergo parameter expansion, command
substitution and arithmetic expansion with the variable $_ defined
as the name of the file that has changed. The default message is ` You
have new mail'. If an element is a directory instead of a file the
shell will recursively check every file in every subdirectory of the
element.
- manpath <S> <Z> (MANPATH <S>
<Z>)
- An array (colon-separated list) whose value is not used by the shell. The
manpath array can be useful, however, since setting it also sets
MANPATH, and vice versa.
- match
- mbegin
- mend
- Arrays set by the shell when the b globbing flag is used in pattern
matches. See the subsection Globbing flags in the documentation for
Filename Generation in zshexpn(1).
- MATCH
- MBEGIN
- MEND
- Set by the shell when the m globbing flag is used in pattern
matches. See the subsection Globbing flags in the documentation for
Filename Generation in zshexpn(1).
- module_path <S> <Z> (MODULE_PATH <S>)
- An array (colon-separated list) of directories that zmodload
searches for dynamically loadable modules. This is initialized to a
standard pathname, usually ` /usr/local/lib/zsh/$ZSH_VERSION'. (The
` /usr/local/lib' part varies from installation to installation.)
For security reasons, any value set in the environment when the shell is
started will be ignored.
These parameters only exist if the installation supports dynamic module
loading.
- NULLCMD <S>
- The command name to assume if a redirection is specified with no command.
Defaults to cat. For sh/ksh behavior, change this to
:. For csh-like behavior, unset this parameter; the shell
will print an error message if null commands are entered.
- path <S> <Z> (PATH <S>)
- An array (colon-separated list) of directories to search for commands.
When this parameter is set, each directory is scanned and all files found
are put in a hash table.
- POSTEDIT <S>
- This string is output whenever the line editor exits. It usually contains
termcap strings to reset the terminal.
- PROMPT <S> <Z>
- PROMPT2 <S> <Z>
- PROMPT3 <S> <Z>
- PROMPT4 <S> <Z>
- Same as PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4,
respectively.
- prompt <S> <Z>
- Same as PS1.
- PROMPT_EOL_MARK
- When the PROMPT_CR and PROMPT_SP options are set, the
PROMPT_EOL_MARK parameter can be used to customize how the end of
partial lines are shown. This parameter undergoes prompt expansion, with
the PROMPT_PERCENT option set. If not set, the default behavior is
equivalent to the value ` %B%S%#%s%b'.
- PS1 <S>
- The primary prompt string, printed before a command is read. It undergoes
a special form of expansion before being displayed; see EXPANSION OF
PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1). The default is `%m%# '.
- PS2 <S>
- The secondary prompt, printed when the shell needs more information to
complete a command. It is expanded in the same way as PS1. The
default is ` %_> ', which displays any shell constructs or
quotation marks which are currently being processed.
- PS3 <S>
- Selection prompt used within a select loop. It is expanded in the
same way as PS1. The default is ` ?# '.
- PS4 <S>
- The execution trace prompt. Default is `+%N:%i> ', which
displays the name of the current shell structure and the line number
within it. In sh or ksh emulation, the default is ` + '.
- psvar <S> <Z> (PSVAR <S>)
- An array (colon-separated list) whose elements can be used in
PROMPT strings. Setting psvar also sets PSVAR, and
vice versa.
- READNULLCMD <S>
- The command name to assume if a single input redirection is specified with
no command. Defaults to more.
- REPORTMEMORY
- If nonnegative, commands whose maximum resident set size (roughly
speaking, main memory usage) in kilobytes is greater than this value have
timing statistics reported. The format used to output statistics is the
value of the TIMEFMT parameter, which is the same as for the
REPORTTIME variable and the time builtin; note that by
default this does not output memory usage. Appending " max RSS
%M" to the value of TIMEFMT causes it to output the value
that triggered the report. If REPORTTIME is also in use, at most a
single report is printed for both triggers. This feature requires the
getrusage() system call, commonly supported by modern Unix-like
systems.
- REPORTTIME
- If nonnegative, commands whose combined user and system execution times
(measured in seconds) are greater than this value have timing statistics
printed for them. Output is suppressed for commands executed within the
line editor, including completion; commands explicitly marked with the
time keyword still cause the summary to be printed in this
case.
- REPLY
- This parameter is reserved by convention to pass string values between
shell scripts and shell builtins in situations where a function call or
redirection are impossible or undesirable. The read builtin and the
select complex command may set REPLY, and filename
generation both sets and examines its value when evaluating certain
expressions. Some modules also employ REPLY for similar
purposes.
- reply
- As REPLY, but for array values rather than strings.
- RPROMPT <S>
- RPS1 <S>
- This prompt is displayed on the right-hand side of the screen when the
primary prompt is being displayed on the left. This does not work if the
SINGLE_LINE_ZLE option is set. It is expanded in the same way as
PS1.
- RPROMPT2 <S>
- RPS2 <S>
- This prompt is displayed on the right-hand side of the screen when the
secondary prompt is being displayed on the left. This does not work if the
SINGLE_LINE_ZLE option is set. It is expanded in the same way as
PS2.
- SAVEHIST
- The maximum number of history events to save in the history file.
If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be explicitly set
locally.
- SPROMPT <S>
- The prompt used for spelling correction. The sequence ` %R' expands
to the string which presumably needs spelling correction, and ` %r'
expands to the proposed correction. All other prompt escapes are also
allowed.
The actions available at the prompt are
[nyae]:
- n (`no') (default)
- Discard the correction and run the command.
- y (`yes')
- Make the correction and run the command.
- a (`abort')
- Discard the entire command line without running it.
- e (`edit')
- Resume editing the command line.
- STTY
- If this parameter is set in a command's environment, the shell runs the
stty command with the value of this parameter as arguments in order
to set up the terminal before executing the command. The modes apply only
to the command, and are reset when it finishes or is suspended. If the
command is suspended and continued later with the fg or wait
builtins it will see the modes specified by STTY, as if it were not
suspended. This (intentionally) does not apply if the command is continued
via ` kill -CONT'. STTY is ignored if the command is
run in the background, or if it is in the environment of the shell but not
explicitly assigned to in the input line. This avoids running stty at
every external command by accidentally exporting it. Also note that
STTY should not be used for window size specifications; these will
not be local to the command.
- TERM <S>
- The type of terminal in use. This is used when looking up termcap
sequences. An assignment to TERM causes zsh to re-initialize the
terminal, even if the value does not change (e.g., ` TERM=$TERM').
It is necessary to make such an assignment upon any change to the terminal
definition database or terminal type in order for the new settings to take
effect.
- TERMINFO <S>
- A reference to your terminfo database, used by the `terminfo' library when
the system has it; see terminfo(5). If set, this causes the shell
to reinitialise the terminal, making the workaround ` TERM=$TERM'
unnecessary.
- TERMINFO_DIRS <S>
- A colon-seprarated list of terminfo databases, used by the `terminfo'
library when the system has it; see terminfo(5). This variable is
only used by certain terminal libraries, in particular ncurses; see
terminfo(5) to check support on your system. If set, this causes
the shell to reinitialise the terminal, making the workaround `
TERM=$TERM' unnecessary. Note that unlike other colon-separated
arrays this is not tied to a zsh array.
- TIMEFMT
- The format of process time reports with the time keyword. The
default is ` %J %U user %S system %P cpu %*E total'. Recognizes the
following escape sequences, although not all may be available on all
systems, and some that are available may not be useful:
- %%
- A `%'.
- %U
- CPU seconds spent in user mode.
- %S
- CPU seconds spent in kernel mode.
- %E
- Elapsed time in seconds.
- %P
- The CPU percentage, computed as 100*( %U+%S)/%E.
- %W
- Number of times the process was swapped.
- %X
- The average amount in (shared) text space used in kilobytes.
- %D
- The average amount in (unshared) data/stack space used in kilobytes.
- %K
- The total space used (%X+%D) in kilobytes.
- %M
- The maximum memory the process had in use at any time in kilobytes.
- %F
- The number of major page faults (page needed to be brought from
disk).
- %R
- The number of minor page faults.
- %I
- The number of input operations.
- %O
- The number of output operations.
- %r
- The number of socket messages received.
- %s
- The number of socket messages sent.
- %k
- The number of signals received.
- %w
- Number of voluntary context switches (waits).
- %c
- Number of involuntary context switches.
- %J
- The name of this job.
A star may be inserted between the percent sign and flags printing time (e.g., `
%*E'); this causes the time to be printed in `
hh:mm :ss.ttt' format (hours
and minutes are only printed if they are not zero). Alternatively, `
m'
or `
u' may be used (e.g., `
%mE') to produce time output in
milliseconds or microseconds, respectively.
- TMOUT
- If this parameter is nonzero, the shell will receive an ALRM signal
if a command is not entered within the specified number of seconds after
issuing a prompt. If there is a trap on SIGALRM, it will be
executed and a new alarm is scheduled using the value of the TMOUT
parameter after executing the trap. If no trap is set, and the idle time
of the terminal is not less than the value of the TMOUT parameter,
zsh terminates. Otherwise a new alarm is scheduled to TMOUT seconds
after the last keypress.
- TMPPREFIX
- A pathname prefix which the shell will use for all temporary files. Note
that this should include an initial part for the file name as well as any
directory names. The default is ` /tmp/zsh'.
- TMPSUFFIX
- A filename suffix which the shell will use for temporary files created by
process substitutions (e.g., ` =(list)').
Note that the value should include a leading dot ` .' if
intended to be interpreted as a file extension. The default is not
to append any suffix, thus this parameter should be assigned only
when needed and then unset again.
- watch <S> <Z> (WATCH <S>)
- An array (colon-separated list) of login/logout events to report.
If it contains the single word `
all', then all login/logout events are
reported. If it contains the single word `
notme', then all events are
reported as with `
all' except
$USERNAME.
An entry in this list may consist of a username, an `
@' followed by a
remote hostname, and a `
%' followed by a line (tty). Any of these may
be a pattern (be sure to quote this during the assignment to
watch so
that it does not immediately perform file generation); the setting of the
EXTENDED_GLOB option is respected. Any or all of these components may
be present in an entry; if a login/logout event matches all of them, it is
reported.
For example, with the
EXTENDED_GLOB option set, the following:
causes reports for activity assoicated with any user other than
pws or
barts.
- WATCHFMT
- The format of login/logout reports if the watch parameter is set.
Default is ` %n has %a %l from %m'. Recognizes the following escape
sequences:
- %n
- The name of the user that logged in/out.
- %a
- The observed action, i.e. "logged on" or "logged
off".
- %l
- The line (tty) the user is logged in on.
- %M
- The full hostname of the remote host.
- %m
- The hostname up to the first `.'. If only the IP address is
available or the utmp field contains the name of an X-windows display, the
whole name is printed.
NOTE: The `
%m' and `
%M' escapes will work only if there is
a host name field in the utmp on your machine. Otherwise they are treated as
ordinary strings.
- %S (%s)
- Start (stop) standout mode.
- %U (%u)
- Start (stop) underline mode.
- %B (%b)
- Start (stop) boldface mode.
- %t
- %@
- The time, in 12-hour, am/pm format.
- %T
- The time, in 24-hour format.
- %w
- The date in `day-dd' format.
- %W
- The date in `mm/dd/yy' format.
- %D
- The date in `yy-mm-dd' format.
- %D{string}
- The date formatted as string using the strftime function,
with zsh extensions as described by EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in
zshmisc(1).
- %(x:true-text:false-text)
- Specifies a ternary expression. The character following the x is
arbitrary; the same character is used to separate the text for the
"true" result from that for the "false" result. Both
the separator and the right parenthesis may be escaped with a backslash.
Ternary expressions may be nested.
The test character
x may be any one of `
l', `
n', `
m'
or `
M', which indicate a `true' result if the corresponding escape
sequence would return a non-empty value; or it may be `
a', which
indicates a `true' result if the watched user has logged in, or `false' if he
has logged out. Other characters evaluate to neither true nor false; the
entire expression is omitted in this case.
If the result is `true', then the
true-text is formatted according to the
rules above and printed, and the
false-text is skipped. If `false', the
true-text is skipped and the
false-text is formatted and
printed. Either or both of the branches may be empty, but both separators must
be present in any case.
- WORDCHARS <S>
- A list of non-alphanumeric characters considered part of a word by the
line editor.
- ZBEEP
- If set, this gives a string of characters, which can use all the same
codes as the bindkey command as described in the zsh/zle module
entry in zshmodules(1), that will be output to the terminal instead
of beeping. This may have a visible instead of an audible effect; for
example, the string ` \e[?5h\e[?5l' on a vt100 or xterm will have
the effect of flashing reverse video on and off (if you usually use
reverse video, you should use the string ` \e[?5l\e[?5h' instead).
This takes precedence over the NOBEEP option.
- ZDOTDIR
- The directory to search for shell startup files (.zshrc, etc), if not
$HOME.
- zle_bracketed_paste
- Many terminal emulators have a feature that allows applications to
identify when text is pasted into the terminal rather than being typed
normally. For ZLE, this means that special characters such as tabs and
newlines can be inserted instead of invoking editor commands. Furthermore,
pasted text forms a single undo event and if the region is active, pasted
text will replace the region.
This two-element array contains the terminal escape sequences for enabling and
disabling the feature. These escape sequences are used to enable bracketed
paste when ZLE is active and disable it at other times. Unsetting the
parameter has the effect of ensuring that bracketed paste remains
disabled.
- zle_highlight
- An array describing contexts in which ZLE should highlight the input text.
See Character Highlighting in zshzle(1).
- ZLE_LINE_ABORTED
- This parameter is set by the line editor when an error occurs. It contains
the line that was being edited at the point of the error. ` print -zr
-- $ZLE_LINE_ABORTED' can be used to recover the line. Only the most
recent line of this kind is remembered.
- ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS
- ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS
- These parameters are used by the line editor. In certain circumstances
suffixes (typically space or slash) added by the completion system will be
removed automatically, either because the next editing command was not an
insertable character, or because the character was marked as requiring the
suffix to be removed.
These variables can contain the sets of characters that will cause the suffix to
be removed. If
ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS is set, those characters will
cause the suffix to be removed; if
ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS is set, those
characters will cause the suffix to be removed and replaced by a space.
If
ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS is not set, the default behaviour is
equivalent to:
ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS=$' \t\n;&|'
If
ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS is set but is empty, no characters have this
behaviour.
ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS takes precedence, so that the
following:
ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS=$'&|'
causes the characters `
&' and `
|' to remove the suffix but to
replace it with a space.
To illustrate the difference, suppose that the option
AUTO_REMOVE_SLASH
is in effect and the directory
DIR has just been completed, with an
appended
/, following which the user types `
&'. The default
result is `
DIR&'. With
ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS set but
without including `
&' the result is `
DIR/&'. With
ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS set to include `
&' the result is
`
DIR &'.
Note that certain completions may provide their own suffix removal or
replacement behaviour which overrides the values described here. See the
completion system documentation in
zshcompsys(1).
- ZLE_RPROMPT_INDENT <S>
- If set, used to give the indentation between the right hand side of the
right prompt in the line editor as given by RPS1 or RPROMPT
and the right hand side of the screen. If not set, the value 1 is
used.
Typically this will be used to set the value to 0 so that the prompt appears
flush with the right hand side of the screen. This is not the default as many
terminals do not handle this correctly, in particular when the prompt appears
at the extreme bottom right of the screen. Recent virtual terminals are more
likely to handle this case correctly. Some experimentation is necessary.
zshoptions - zsh options
Options are primarily referred to by name. These names are case insensitive and
underscores are ignored. For example, `
allexport' is equivalent to
`
A__lleXP_ort'.
The sense of an option name may be inverted by preceding it with `
no',
so `
setopt No_Beep' is equivalent to `
unsetopt beep'. This
inversion can only be done once, so `
nonobeep' is
not a synonym
for `
beep'. Similarly, `
tify' is not a synonym for `
nonotify' (the inversion of `
notify').
Some options also have one or more single letter names. There are two sets of
single letter options: one used by default, and another used to emulate
sh/
ksh (used when the
SH_OPTION_LETTERS option is set).
The single letter options can be used on the shell command line, or with the
set,
setopt and
unsetopt builtins, as normal Unix options
preceded by `
-'.
The sense of the single letter options may be inverted by using `
+'
instead of `
-'. Some of the single letter option names refer to an
option being off, in which case the inversion of that name refers to the
option being on. For example, `
+n' is the short name of `
exec',
and `
-n' is the short name of its inversion, `
noexec'.
In strings of single letter options supplied to the shell at startup, trailing
whitespace will be ignored; for example the string `
-f ' will be
treated just as `
-f', but the string `
-f i' is an error. This
is because many systems which implement the `
#!' mechanism for calling
scripts do not strip trailing whitespace.
In the following list, options set by default in all emulations are marked
<D>; those set by default only in csh, ksh, sh, or zsh emulations are
marked <C>, <K>, <S>, <Z> as appropriate. When listing
options (by `
setopt', `
unsetopt', `
set -o' or `
set
+o'), those turned on by default appear in the list prefixed with `
no'. Hence (unless
KSH_OPTION_PRINT is set), `
setopt'
shows all options whose settings are changed from the default.
- AUTO_CD (-J)
- If a command is issued that can't be executed as a normal command, and the
command is the name of a directory, perform the cd command to that
directory. This option is only applicable if the option SHIN_STDIN
is set, i.e. if commands are being read from standard input. The option is
designed for interactive use; it is recommended that cd be used
explicitly in scripts to avoid ambiguity.
- AUTO_PUSHD (-N)
- Make cd push the old directory onto the directory stack.
- CDABLE_VARS (-T)
- If the argument to a cd command (or an implied cd with the
AUTO_CD option set) is not a directory, and does not begin with a
slash, try to expand the expression as if it were preceded by a `
~' (see the section `Filename Expansion').
- CHASE_DOTS
- When changing to a directory containing a path segment `..' which
would otherwise be treated as canceling the previous segment in the path
(in other words, ` foo/..' would be removed from the path, or if
`..' is the first part of the path, the last part of the current
working directory would be removed), instead resolve the path to the
physical directory. This option is overridden by CHASE_LINKS.
For example, suppose
/foo/bar is a link to the directory
/alt/rod.
Without this option set, `
cd /foo/bar/..' changes to
/foo; with
it set, it changes to
/alt. The same applies if the current directory
is
/foo/bar and `
cd ..' is used. Note that all other symbolic
links in the path will also be resolved.
- CHASE_LINKS (-w)
- Resolve symbolic links to their true values when changing directory. This
also has the effect of CHASE_DOTS, i.e. a `..' path segment
will be treated as referring to the physical parent, even if the preceding
path segment is a symbolic link.
- POSIX_CD <K> <S>
- Modifies the behaviour of cd, chdir and pushd
commands to make them more compatible with the POSIX standard. The
behaviour with the option unset is described in the documentation for the
cd builtin in zshbuiltins(1). If the option is set, the
shell does not test for directories beneath the local directory (`
.') until after all directories in cdpath have been
tested.
Also, if the option is set, the conditions under which the shell prints the new
directory after changing to it are modified. It is no longer restricted to
interactive shells (although printing of the directory stack with
pushd
is still limited to interactive shells); and any use of a component of
CDPATH, including a `
.' but excluding an empty component that
is otherwise treated as `
.', causes the directory to be printed.
- PUSHD_IGNORE_DUPS
- Don't push multiple copies of the same directory onto the directory
stack.
- PUSHD_MINUS
- Exchanges the meanings of `+' and `-' when used with a
number to specify a directory in the stack.
- PUSHD_SILENT (-E)
- Do not print the directory stack after pushd or popd.
- PUSHD_TO_HOME (-D)
- Have pushd with no arguments act like `pushd $HOME'.
- ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT <D>
- If unset, key functions that list completions try to return to the last
prompt if given a numeric argument. If set these functions try to return
to the last prompt if given no numeric argument.
- ALWAYS_TO_END
- If a completion is performed with the cursor within a word, and a full
completion is inserted, the cursor is moved to the end of the word. That
is, the cursor is moved to the end of the word if either a single match is
inserted or menu completion is performed.
- AUTO_LIST (-9) <D>
- Automatically list choices on an ambiguous completion.
- AUTO_MENU <D>
- Automatically use menu completion after the second consecutive request for
completion, for example by pressing the tab key repeatedly. This option is
overridden by MENU_COMPLETE.
- AUTO_NAME_DIRS
- Any parameter that is set to the absolute name of a directory immediately
becomes a name for that directory, that will be used by the ` %~'
and related prompt sequences, and will be available when completion is
performed on a word starting with ` ~'. (Otherwise, the parameter
must be used in the form ` ~param' first.)
- AUTO_PARAM_KEYS <D>
- If a parameter name was completed and a following character (normally a
space) automatically inserted, and the next character typed is one of
those that have to come directly after the name (like ` }',
`:', etc.), the automatically added character is deleted, so that
the character typed comes immediately after the parameter name. Completion
in a brace expansion is affected similarly: the added character is a `
,', which will be removed if ` }' is typed next.
- AUTO_PARAM_SLASH <D>
- If a parameter is completed whose content is the name of a directory, then
add a trailing slash instead of a space.
- AUTO_REMOVE_SLASH <D>
- When the last character resulting from a completion is a slash and the
next character typed is a word delimiter, a slash, or a character that
ends a command (such as a semicolon or an ampersand), remove the
slash.
- BASH_AUTO_LIST
- On an ambiguous completion, automatically list choices when the completion
function is called twice in succession. This takes precedence over
AUTO_LIST. The setting of LIST_AMBIGUOUS is respected. If
AUTO_MENU is set, the menu behaviour will then start with the third
press. Note that this will not work with MENU_COMPLETE, since
repeated completion calls immediately cycle through the list in that
case.
- COMPLETE_ALIASES
- Prevents aliases on the command line from being internally substituted
before completion is attempted. The effect is to make the alias a distinct
command for completion purposes.
- COMPLETE_IN_WORD
- If unset, the cursor is set to the end of the word if completion is
started. Otherwise it stays there and completion is done from both
ends.
- GLOB_COMPLETE
- When the current word has a glob pattern, do not insert all the words
resulting from the expansion but generate matches as for completion and
cycle through them like MENU_COMPLETE. The matches are generated as
if a ` *' was added to the end of the word, or inserted at the
cursor when COMPLETE_IN_WORD is set. This actually uses pattern
matching, not globbing, so it works not only for files but for any
completion, such as options, user names, etc.
Note that when the pattern matcher is used, matching control (for example,
case-insensitive or anchored matching) cannot be used. This limitation only
applies when the current word contains a pattern; simply turning on the
GLOB_COMPLETE option does not have this effect.
- HASH_LIST_ALL <D>
- Whenever a command completion or spelling correction is attempted, make
sure the entire command path is hashed first. This makes the first
completion slower but avoids false reports of spelling errors.
- LIST_AMBIGUOUS <D>
- This option works when AUTO_LIST or BASH_AUTO_LIST is also
set. If there is an unambiguous prefix to insert on the command line, that
is done without a completion list being displayed; in other words,
auto-listing behaviour only takes place when nothing would be inserted. In
the case of BASH_AUTO_LIST, this means that the list will be
delayed to the third call of the function.
- LIST_BEEP <D>
- Beep on an ambiguous completion. More accurately, this forces the
completion widgets to return status 1 on an ambiguous completion, which
causes the shell to beep if the option BEEP is also set; this may
be modified if completion is called from a user-defined widget.
- LIST_PACKED
- Try to make the completion list smaller (occupying less lines) by printing
the matches in columns with different widths.
- LIST_ROWS_FIRST
- Lay out the matches in completion lists sorted horizontally, that is, the
second match is to the right of the first one, not under it as usual.
- LIST_TYPES (-X) <D>
- When listing files that are possible completions, show the type of each
file with a trailing identifying mark.
- MENU_COMPLETE (-Y)
- On an ambiguous completion, instead of listing possibilities or beeping,
insert the first match immediately. Then when completion is requested
again, remove the first match and insert the second match, etc. When there
are no more matches, go back to the first one again.
reverse-menu-complete may be used to loop through the list in the
other direction. This option overrides AUTO_MENU.
- REC_EXACT (-S)
- If the string on the command line exactly matches one of the possible
completions, it is accepted, even if there is another completion (i.e.
that string with something else added) that also matches.
- BAD_PATTERN (+2) <C> <Z>
- If a pattern for filename generation is badly formed, print an error
message. (If this option is unset, the pattern will be left
unchanged.)
- BARE_GLOB_QUAL <Z>
- In a glob pattern, treat a trailing set of parentheses as a qualifier
list, if it contains no ` |', `(' or (if special) `~'
characters. See the section `Filename Generation'.
- BRACE_CCL
- Expand expressions in braces which would not otherwise undergo brace
expansion to a lexically ordered list of all the characters. See the
section `Brace Expansion'.
- CASE_GLOB <D>
- Make globbing (filename generation) sensitive to case. Note that other
uses of patterns are always sensitive to case. If the option is unset, the
presence of any character which is special to filename generation will
cause case-insensitive matching. For example, cvs(/) can match the
directory CVS owing to the presence of the globbing flag (unless
the option BARE_GLOB_QUAL is unset).
- CASE_MATCH <D>
- Make regular expressions using the zsh/regex module (including
matches with =~) sensitive to case.
- CSH_NULL_GLOB <C>
- If a pattern for filename generation has no matches, delete the pattern
from the argument list; do not report an error unless all the patterns in
a command have no matches. Overrides NOMATCH.
- EQUALS <Z>
- Perform = filename expansion. (See the section `Filename
Expansion'.)
- EXTENDED_GLOB
- Treat the `#', `~' and `^' characters as part of
patterns for filename generation, etc. (An initial unquoted ` ~'
always produces named directory expansion.)
- FORCE_FLOAT
- Constants in arithmetic evaluation will be treated as floating point even
without the use of a decimal point; the values of integer variables will
be converted to floating point when used in arithmetic expressions.
Integers in any base will be converted.
- GLOB (+F, ksh: +f) <D>
- Perform filename generation (globbing). (See the section `Filename
Generation'.)
- GLOB_ASSIGN <C>
- If this option is set, filename generation (globbing) is performed on the
right hand side of scalar parameter assignments of the form `
name=pattern (e.g. `foo=*'). If the result has
more than one word the parameter will become an array with those words as
arguments. This option is provided for backwards compatibility only:
globbing is always performed on the right hand side of array assignments
of the form ` name=(value)' (e.g. `
foo=(*)') and this form is recommended for clarity; with this
option set, it is not possible to predict whether the result will be an
array or a scalar.
- GLOB_DOTS (-4)
- Do not require a leading `.' in a filename to be matched
explicitly.
- GLOB_STAR_SHORT
- When this option is set and the default zsh-style globbing is in effect,
the pattern ` **/*' can be abbreviated to `**' and the
pattern ` ***/*' can be abbreviated to ***. Hence
`**.c' finds a file ending in .c in any subdirectory, and
`***.c' does the same while also following symbolic links. A
/ immediately after the ` **' or `***' forces the
pattern to be treated as the unabbreviated form.
- GLOB_SUBST <C> <K> <S>
- Treat any characters resulting from parameter expansion as being eligible
for filename expansion and filename generation, and any characters
resulting from command substitution as being eligible for filename
generation. Braces (and commas in between) do not become eligible for
expansion.
- HIST_SUBST_PATTERN
- Substitutions using the :s and :& history modifiers are
performed with pattern matching instead of string matching. This occurs
wherever history modifiers are valid, including glob qualifiers and
parameters. See the section Modifiers in zshexpn(1).
- IGNORE_BRACES (-I) <S>
- Do not perform brace expansion. For historical reasons this also includes
the effect of the IGNORE_CLOSE_BRACES option.
- IGNORE_CLOSE_BRACES
- When neither this option nor IGNORE_BRACES is set, a sole close
brace character ` }' is syntactically significant at any point on a
command line. This has the effect that no semicolon or newline is
necessary before the brace terminating a function or current shell
construct. When either option is set, a closing brace is syntactically
significant only in command position. Unlike IGNORE_BRACES, this
option does not disable brace expansion.
For example, with both options unset a function may be defined in the following
fashion:
while if either option is set, this does not work and something equivalent to
the following is required:
- KSH_GLOB <K>
- In pattern matching, the interpretation of parentheses is affected by a
preceding ` @', `*', `+', `?' or `!'.
See the section `Filename Generation'.
- MAGIC_EQUAL_SUBST
- All unquoted arguments of the form
`anything=expression' appearing after the command
name have filename expansion (that is, where expression has a
leading ` ~' or `=') performed on expression as if it
were a parameter assignment. The argument is not otherwise treated
specially; it is passed to the command as a single argument, and not used
as an actual parameter assignment. For example, in echo
foo=~/bar:~/rod, both occurrences of ~ would be replaced. Note
that this happens anyway with typeset and similar statements.
This option respects the setting of the
KSH_TYPESET option. In other
words, if both options are in effect, arguments looking like assignments will
not undergo word splitting.
- MARK_DIRS (-8, ksh: -X)
- Append a trailing `/' to all directory names resulting from
filename generation (globbing).
- MULTIBYTE <D>
- Respect multibyte characters when found in strings. When this option is
set, strings are examined using the system library to determine how many
bytes form a character, depending on the current locale. This affects the
way characters are counted in pattern matching, parameter values and
various delimiters.
The option is on by default if the shell was compiled with
MULTIBYTE_SUPPORT; otherwise it is off by default and has no effect if
turned on.
If the option is off a single byte is always treated as a single character. This
setting is designed purely for examining strings known to contain raw bytes or
other values that may not be characters in the current locale. It is not
necessary to unset the option merely because the character set for the current
locale does not contain multibyte characters.
The option does not affect the shell's editor, which always uses the locale to
determine multibyte characters. This is because the character set displayed by
the terminal emulator is independent of shell settings.
- NOMATCH (+3) <C> <Z>
- If a pattern for filename generation has no matches, print an error,
instead of leaving it unchanged in the argument list. This also applies to
file expansion of an initial ` ~' or `='.
- NULL_GLOB (-G)
- If a pattern for filename generation has no matches, delete the pattern
from the argument list instead of reporting an error. Overrides
NOMATCH.
- NUMERIC_GLOB_SORT
- If numeric filenames are matched by a filename generation pattern, sort
the filenames numerically rather than lexicographically.
- RC_EXPAND_PARAM (-P)
- Array expansions of the form `
foo${xx}bar', where the parameter
xx is set to (a b c), are substituted with `
fooabar foobbar foocbar' instead of the default ` fooa b
cbar'. Note that an empty array will therefore cause all arguments to
be removed.
- REMATCH_PCRE
- If set, regular expression matching with the =~ operator will use
Perl-Compatible Regular Expressions from the PCRE library. (The
zsh/pcre module must be available.) If not set, regular expressions
will use the extended regexp syntax provided by the system libraries.
- SH_GLOB <K> <S>
- Disables the special meaning of `(', `|', `)' and '
<' for globbing the result of parameter and command
substitutions, and in some other places where the shell accepts patterns.
If SH_GLOB is set but KSH_GLOB is not, the shell allows the
interpretation of subshell expressions enclosed in parentheses in some
cases where there is no space before the opening parenthesis, e.g.
!(true) is interpreted as if there were a space after the !.
This option is set by default if zsh is invoked as sh or
ksh.
- UNSET (+u, ksh: +u) <K> <S>
<Z>
- Treat unset parameters as if they were empty when substituting. Otherwise
they are treated as an error.
- WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL
- Print a warning message when a global parameter is created in a function
by an assignment or in math context. This often indicates that a parameter
has not been declared local when it should have been. Parameters
explicitly declared global from within a function using typeset -g
do not cause a warning. Note that there is no warning when a local
parameter is assigned to in a nested function, which may also indicate an
error.
- WARN_NESTED_VAR
- Print a warning message when an existing parameter from an enclosing
function scope, or global, is set in a function by an assignment or in
math context. Assignment to shell special parameters does not cause a
warning. This is the companion to WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL as in this
case the warning is only printed when a parameter is not created.
Where possible, use of typeset -g to set the parameter suppresses
the error, but note that this needs to be used every time the parameter is
set. To restrict the effect of this option to a single function scope, use
` functions -W'.
For example, the following code produces a warning for the assignment inside the
function
nested as that overrides the value within
toplevel
toplevel() {
local foo="in fn"
nested
}
nested() {
foo="in nested"
}
setopt warn_nested_var
toplevel
- APPEND_HISTORY <D>
- If this is set, zsh sessions will append their history list to the history
file, rather than replace it. Thus, multiple parallel zsh sessions will
all have the new entries from their history lists added to the history
file, in the order that they exit. The file will still be periodically
re-written to trim it when the number of lines grows 20% beyond the value
specified by $SAVEHIST (see also the HIST_SAVE_BY_COPY
option).
- BANG_HIST (+K) <C> <Z>
- Perform textual history expansion, csh-style, treating the
character ` !' specially.
- EXTENDED_HISTORY <C>
- Save each command's beginning timestamp (in seconds since the epoch) and
the duration (in seconds) to the history file. The format of this prefixed
data is:
`
: <beginning time>:<elapsed
seconds>;<command>'.
- HIST_ALLOW_CLOBBER
- Add `|' to output redirections in the history. This allows history
references to clobber files even when CLOBBER is unset.
- HIST_BEEP <D>
- Beep in ZLE when a widget attempts to access a history entry which isn't
there.
- HIST_EXPIRE_DUPS_FIRST
- If the internal history needs to be trimmed to add the current command
line, setting this option will cause the oldest history event that has a
duplicate to be lost before losing a unique event from the list. You
should be sure to set the value of HISTSIZE to a larger number than
SAVEHIST in order to give you some room for the duplicated events,
otherwise this option will behave just like HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS
once the history fills up with unique events.
- HIST_FCNTL_LOCK
- When writing out the history file, by default zsh uses ad-hoc file locking
to avoid known problems with locking on some operating systems. With this
option locking is done by means of the system's fcntl call, where
this method is available. On recent operating systems this may provide
better performance, in particular avoiding history corruption when files
are stored on NFS.
- HIST_FIND_NO_DUPS
- When searching for history entries in the line editor, do not display
duplicates of a line previously found, even if the duplicates are not
contiguous.
- HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS
- If a new command line being added to the history list duplicates an older
one, the older command is removed from the list (even if it is not the
previous event).
- HIST_IGNORE_DUPS (-h)
- Do not enter command lines into the history list if they are duplicates of
the previous event.
- HIST_IGNORE_SPACE (-g)
- Remove command lines from the history list when the first character on the
line is a space, or when one of the expanded aliases contains a leading
space. Only normal aliases (not global or suffix aliases) have this
behaviour. Note that the command lingers in the internal history until the
next command is entered before it vanishes, allowing you to briefly reuse
or edit the line. If you want to make it vanish right away without
entering another command, type a space and press return.
- HIST_LEX_WORDS
- By default, shell history that is read in from files is split into words
on all white space. This means that arguments with quoted whitespace are
not correctly handled, with the consequence that references to words in
history lines that have been read from a file may be inaccurate. When this
option is set, words read in from a history file are divided up in a
similar fashion to normal shell command line handling. Although this
produces more accurately delimited words, if the size of the history file
is large this can be slow. Trial and error is necessary to decide.
- HIST_NO_FUNCTIONS
- Remove function definitions from the history list. Note that the function
lingers in the internal history until the next command is entered before
it vanishes, allowing you to briefly reuse or edit the definition.
- HIST_NO_STORE
- Remove the history (fc -l) command from the history list
when invoked. Note that the command lingers in the internal history until
the next command is entered before it vanishes, allowing you to briefly
reuse or edit the line.
- HIST_REDUCE_BLANKS
- Remove superfluous blanks from each command line being added to the
history list.
- HIST_SAVE_BY_COPY <D>
- When the history file is re-written, we normally write out a copy of the
file named $HISTFILE.new and then rename it over the old one.
However, if this option is unset, we instead truncate the old history file
and write out the new version in-place. If one of the history-appending
options is enabled, this option only has an effect when the enlarged
history file needs to be re-written to trim it down to size. Disable this
only if you have special needs, as doing so makes it possible to lose
history entries if zsh gets interrupted during the save.
When writing out a copy of the history file, zsh preserves the old file's
permissions and group information, but will refuse to write out a new file if
it would change the history file's owner.
- HIST_SAVE_NO_DUPS
- When writing out the history file, older commands that duplicate newer
ones are omitted.
- HIST_VERIFY
- Whenever the user enters a line with history expansion, don't execute the
line directly; instead, perform history expansion and reload the line into
the editing buffer.
- INC_APPEND_HISTORY
- This option works like APPEND_HISTORY except that new history lines
are added to the $HISTFILE incrementally (as soon as they are
entered), rather than waiting until the shell exits. The file will still
be periodically re-written to trim it when the number of lines grows 20%
beyond the value specified by $SAVEHIST (see also the
HIST_SAVE_BY_COPY option).
- INC_APPEND_HISTORY_TIME
- This option is a variant of INC_APPEND_HISTORY in which, where
possible, the history entry is written out to the file after the command
is finished, so that the time taken by the command is recorded correctly
in the history file in EXTENDED_HISTORY format. This means that the
history entry will not be available immediately from other instances of
the shell that are using the same history file.
This option is only useful if
INC_APPEND_HISTORY and
SHARE_HISTORY
are turned off. The three options should be considered mutually
exclusive.
- SHARE_HISTORY <K>
This option both imports new commands from the history file, and also causes
your typed commands to be appended to the history file (the latter is like
specifying
INC_APPEND_HISTORY, which should be turned off if this
option is in effect). The history lines are also output with timestamps ala
EXTENDED_HISTORY (which makes it easier to find the spot where we left
off reading the file after it gets re-written).
By default, history movement commands visit the imported lines as well as the
local lines, but you can toggle this on and off with the set-local-history zle
binding. It is also possible to create a zle widget that will make some
commands ignore imported commands, and some include them.
If you find that you want more control over when commands get imported, you may
wish to turn
SHARE_HISTORY off,
INC_APPEND_HISTORY or
INC_APPEND_HISTORY_TIME (see above) on, and then manually import
commands whenever you need them using `
fc -RI'.
- ALL_EXPORT (-a, ksh: -a)
- All parameters subsequently defined are automatically exported.
- GLOBAL_EXPORT <Z>
- If this option is set, passing the -x flag to the builtins
declare, float, integer, readonly and
typeset (but not local) will also set the -g flag;
hence parameters exported to the environment will not be made local to the
enclosing function, unless they were already or the flag +g is
given explicitly. If the option is unset, exported parameters will be made
local in just the same way as any other parameter.
This option is set by default for backward compatibility; it is not recommended
that its behaviour be relied upon. Note that the builtin
export always
sets both the
-x and
-g flags, and hence its effect extends
beyond the scope of the enclosing function; this is the most portable way to
achieve this behaviour.
- GLOBAL_RCS (-d) <D>
- If this option is unset, the startup files /etc/zprofile,
/etc/zshrc, /etc/zlogin and /etc/zlogout will not be
run. It can be disabled and re-enabled at any time, including inside local
startup files ( .zshrc, etc.).
- RCS (+f) <D>
- After /etc/zshenv is sourced on startup, source the .zshenv,
/etc/zprofile, .zprofile, /etc/zshrc, .zshrc,
/etc/zlogin, .zlogin, and .zlogout files, as
described in the section `Files'. If this option is unset, the
/etc/zshenv file is still sourced, but any of the others will not
be; it can be set at any time to prevent the remaining startup files after
the currently executing one from being sourced.
- ALIASES <D>
- Expand aliases.
- CLOBBER (+C, ksh: +C) <D>
- Allows `>' redirection to truncate existing files. Otherwise `
>!' or `>|' must be used to truncate a file.
If the option is not set, and the option
APPEND_CREATE is also not set, `
>>!' or `
>>|' must be used to create a file. If
either option is set, `
>>' may be used.
- CORRECT (-0)
- Try to correct the spelling of commands. Note that, when the
HASH_LIST_ALL option is not set or when some directories in the
path are not readable, this may falsely report spelling errors the first
time some commands are used.
The shell variable
CORRECT_IGNORE may be set to a pattern to match words
that will never be offered as corrections.
- CORRECT_ALL (-O)
- Try to correct the spelling of all arguments in a line.
The shell variable
CORRECT_IGNORE_FILE may be set to a pattern to match
file names that will never be offered as corrections.
- DVORAK
- Use the Dvorak keyboard instead of the standard qwerty keyboard as a basis
for examining spelling mistakes for the CORRECT and
CORRECT_ALL options and the spell-word editor command.
- FLOW_CONTROL <D>
- If this option is unset, output flow control via start/stop characters
(usually assigned to ^S/^Q) is disabled in the shell's editor.
- IGNORE_EOF (-7)
- Do not exit on end-of-file. Require the use of exit or
logout instead. However, ten consecutive EOFs will cause the shell
to exit anyway, to avoid the shell hanging if its tty goes away.
Also, if this option is set and the Zsh Line Editor is used, widgets implemented
by shell functions can be bound to EOF (normally Control-D) without printing
the normal warning message. This works only for normal widgets, not for
completion widgets.
- INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS (-k) <K> <S>
- Allow comments even in interactive shells.
- HASH_CMDS <D>
- Note the location of each command the first time it is executed.
Subsequent invocations of the same command will use the saved location,
avoiding a path search. If this option is unset, no path hashing is done
at all. However, when CORRECT is set, commands whose names do not
appear in the functions or aliases hash tables are hashed in order to
avoid reporting them as spelling errors.
- HASH_DIRS <D>
- Whenever a command name is hashed, hash the directory containing it, as
well as all directories that occur earlier in the path. Has no effect if
neither HASH_CMDS nor CORRECT is set.
- HASH_EXECUTABLES_ONLY
- When hashing commands because of HASH_CMDS, check that the file to
be hashed is actually an executable. This option is unset by default as if
the path contains a large number of commands, or consists of many remote
files, the additional tests can take a long time. Trial and error is
needed to show if this option is beneficial.
- MAIL_WARNING (-U)
- Print a warning message if a mail file has been accessed since the shell
last checked.
- PATH_DIRS (-Q)
- Perform a path search even on command names with slashes in them. Thus if
` /usr/local/bin' is in the user's path, and he or she types `
X11/xinit', the command ` /usr/local/bin/X11/xinit' will be
executed (assuming it exists). Commands explicitly beginning with `
/', ` ./' or `../' are not subject to the path
search. This also applies to the ` .' and source
builtins.
Note that subdirectories of the current directory are always searched for
executables specified in this form. This takes place before any search
indicated by this option, and regardless of whether `
.' or the current
directory appear in the command search path.
- PATH_SCRIPT <K> <S>
- If this option is not set, a script passed as the first non-option
argument to the shell must contain the name of the file to open. If this
option is set, and the script does not specify a directory path, the
script is looked for first in the current directory, then in the command
path. See the section INVOCATION in zsh(1).
- PRINT_EIGHT_BIT
- Print eight bit characters literally in completion lists, etc. This option
is not necessary if your system correctly returns the printability of
eight bit characters (see ctype(3)).
- PRINT_EXIT_VALUE (-1)
- Print the exit value of programs with non-zero exit status. This is only
available at the command line in interactive shells.
- RC_QUOTES
- Allow the character sequence `''' to signify a single quote within
singly quoted strings. Note this does not apply in quoted strings using
the format $'...', where a backslashed single quote
can be used.
- RM_STAR_SILENT (-H) <K> <S>
- Do not query the user before executing `rm *' or `rm
path/*'.
- RM_STAR_WAIT
- If querying the user before executing `rm *' or `rm path/*',
first wait ten seconds and ignore anything typed in that time. This avoids
the problem of reflexively answering `yes' to the query when one didn't
really mean it. The wait and query can always be avoided by expanding the
` *' in ZLE (with tab).
- SHORT_LOOPS <C> <Z>
- Allow the short forms of for, repeat, select,
if, and function constructs.
- SUN_KEYBOARD_HACK (-L)
- If a line ends with a backquote, and there are an odd number of backquotes
on the line, ignore the trailing backquote. This is useful on some
keyboards where the return key is too small, and the backquote key lies
annoyingly close to it. As an alternative the variable
KEYBOARD_HACK lets you choose the character to be removed.
- AUTO_CONTINUE
- With this option set, stopped jobs that are removed from the job table
with the disown builtin command are automatically sent a
CONT signal to make them running.
- AUTO_RESUME (-W)
- Treat single word simple commands without redirection as candidates for
resumption of an existing job.
- BG_NICE (-6) <C> <Z>
- Run all background jobs at a lower priority. This option is set by
default.
- CHECK_JOBS <Z>
- Report the status of background and suspended jobs before exiting a shell
with job control; a second attempt to exit the shell will succeed.
NO_CHECK_JOBS is best used only in combination with NO_HUP,
else such jobs will be killed automatically.
The check is omitted if the commands run from the previous command line included
a `
jobs' command, since it is assumed the user is aware that there are
background or suspended jobs. A `
jobs' command run from one of the
hook functions defined in the section SPECIAL FUNCTIONS in
zshmisc(1)
is not counted for this purpose.
- CHECK_RUNNING_JOBS <Z>
- Check for both running and suspended jobs when CHECK_JOBS is
enabled. When this option is disabled, zsh checks only for suspended jobs,
which matches the default behavior of bash.
This option has no effect unless
CHECK_JOBS is set.
- HUP <Z>
- Send the HUP signal to running jobs when the shell exits.
- LONG_LIST_JOBS (-R)
- Print job notifications in the long format by default.
- MONITOR (-m, ksh: -m)
- Allow job control. Set by default in interactive shells.
- NOTIFY (-5, ksh: -b) <Z>
- Report the status of background jobs immediately, rather than waiting
until just before printing a prompt.
- POSIX_JOBS <K> <S>
- This option makes job control more compliant with the POSIX standard.
When the option is not set, the
MONITOR option is unset on entry to
subshells, so that job control is no longer active. When the option is set,
the
MONITOR option and job control remain active in the subshell, but
note that the subshell has no access to jobs in the parent shell.
When the option is not set, jobs put in the background or foreground with
bg or
fg are displayed with the same information that would be
reported by
jobs. When the option is set, only the text is printed. The
output from
jobs itself is not affected by the option.
When the option is not set, job information from the parent shell is saved for
output within a subshell (for example, within a pipeline). When the option is
set, the output of
jobs is empty until a job is started within the
subshell.
In previous versions of the shell, it was necessary to enable
POSIX_JOBS
in order for the builtin command
wait to return the status of
background jobs that had already exited. This is no longer the case.
- PROMPT_BANG <K>
- If set, `!' is treated specially in prompt expansion. See EXPANSION
OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1).
- PROMPT_CR (+V) <D>
- Print a carriage return just before printing a prompt in the line editor.
This is on by default as multi-line editing is only possible if the editor
knows where the start of the line appears.
- PROMPT_SP <D>
- Attempt to preserve a partial line (i.e. a line that did not end with a
newline) that would otherwise be covered up by the command prompt due to
the PROMPT_CR option. This works by outputting some cursor-control
characters, including a series of spaces, that should make the terminal
wrap to the next line when a partial line is present (note that this is
only successful if your terminal has automatic margins, which is
typical).
When a partial line is preserved, by default you will see an inverse+bold
character at the end of the partial line: a `
%' for a normal user or a
`
#' for root. If set, the shell parameter
PROMPT_EOL_MARK can
be used to customize how the end of partial lines are shown.
NOTE: if the
PROMPT_CR option is not set, enabling this option will have
no effect. This option is on by default.
- PROMPT_PERCENT <C> <Z>
- If set, `%' is treated specially in prompt expansion. See EXPANSION
OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1).
- PROMPT_SUBST <K> <S>
- If set, parameter expansion, command substitution and
arithmetic expansion are performed in prompts. Substitutions within
prompts do not affect the command status.
- TRANSIENT_RPROMPT
- Remove any right prompt from display when accepting a command line. This
may be useful with terminals with other cut/paste methods.
- ALIAS_FUNC_DEF <S>
- By default, zsh does not allow the definition of functions using the `
name ()' syntax if name was expanded as an alias:
this causes an error. This is usually the desired behaviour, as otherwise
the combination of an alias and a function based on the same definition
can easily cause problems.
When this option is set, aliases can be used for defining functions.
For example, consider the following definitions as they might occur in a startup
file.
alias foo=bar
foo() {
print This probably does not do what you expect.
}
Here,
foo is expanded as an alias to
bar before the
() is
encountered, so the function defined would be named
bar. By default
this is instead an error in native mode. Note that quoting any part of the
function name, or using the keyword
function, avoids the problem, so is
recommended when the function name can also be an alias.
- C_BASES
- Output hexadecimal numbers in the standard C format, for example
`0xFF' instead of the usual ` 16#FF'. If the option
OCTAL_ZEROES is also set (it is not by default), octal numbers will
be treated similarly and hence appear as ` 077' instead of
`8#77'. This option has no effect on the choice of the output base,
nor on the output of bases other than hexadecimal and octal. Note that
these formats will be understood on input irrespective of the setting of
C_BASES.
- C_PRECEDENCES
- This alters the precedence of arithmetic operators to be more like C and
other programming languages; the section ARITHMETIC EVALUATION in
zshmisc(1) has an explicit list.
- DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD <D>
- Run the DEBUG trap before each command; otherwise it is run after
each command. Setting this option mimics the behaviour of ksh 93; with the
option unset the behaviour is that of ksh 88.
- ERR_EXIT (-e, ksh: -e)
- If a command has a non-zero exit status, execute the ZERR trap, if
set, and exit. This is disabled while running initialization scripts.
The behaviour is also disabled inside
DEBUG traps. In this case the
option is handled specially: it is unset on entry to the trap. If the option
DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD is set, as it is by default, and the option
ERR_EXIT is found to have been set on exit, then the command for which
the
DEBUG trap is being executed is skipped. The option is restored
after the trap exits.
Non-zero status in a command list containing
&& or
|| is
ignored for commands not at the end of the list. Hence
does not trigger exit.
Exiting due to
ERR_EXIT has certain interactions with asynchronous jobs
noted in the section JOBS in
zshmisc(1).
- ERR_RETURN
- If a command has a non-zero exit status, return immediately from the
enclosing function. The logic is similar to that for ERR_EXIT,
except that an implicit return statement is executed instead of an
exit. This will trigger an exit at the outermost level of a
non-interactive script.
Normally this option inherits the behaviour of
ERR_EXIT that code
followed by `
&&' `
||' does not trigger a return. Hence
in the following:
no return is forced as the combined effect always has a zero return status.
Note. however, that if
summit in the above example is itself a function,
code inside it is considered separately: it may force a return from
summit (assuming the option remains set within
summit), but not
from the enclosing context. This behaviour is different from
ERR_EXIT
which is unaffected by function scope.
- EVAL_LINENO <Z>
- If set, line numbers of expressions evaluated using the builtin
eval are tracked separately of the enclosing environment. This
applies both to the parameter LINENO and the line number output by
the prompt escape %i. If the option is set, the prompt escape
%N will output the string ` (eval)' instead of the script or
function name as an indication. (The two prompt escapes are typically used
in the parameter PS4 to be output when the option XTRACE is
set.) If EVAL_LINENO is unset, the line number of the surrounding
script or function is retained during the evaluation.
- EXEC (+n, ksh: +n) <D>
- Do execute commands. Without this option, commands are read and checked
for syntax errors, but not executed. This option cannot be turned off in
an interactive shell, except when ` -n' is supplied to the shell at
startup.
- FUNCTION_ARGZERO <C> <Z>
- When executing a shell function or sourcing a script, set $0
temporarily to the name of the function/script. Note that toggling
FUNCTION_ARGZERO from on to off (or off to on) does not change the
current value of $0. Only the state upon entry to the function or
script has an effect. Compare POSIX_ARGZERO.
- LOCAL_LOOPS
- When this option is not set, the effect of break and
continue commands may propagate outside function scope, affecting
loops in calling functions. When the option is set in a calling function,
a break or a continue that is not caught within a called
function (regardless of the setting of the option within that function)
produces a warning and the effect is cancelled.
- LOCAL_OPTIONS <K>
- If this option is set at the point of return from a shell function, most
options (including this one) which were in force upon entry to the
function are restored; options that are not restored are PRIVILEGED
and RESTRICTED. Otherwise, only this option, and the
LOCAL_LOOPS, XTRACE and PRINT_EXIT_VALUE options are
restored. Hence if this is explicitly unset by a shell function the other
options in force at the point of return will remain so. A shell function
can also guarantee itself a known shell configuration with a formulation
like ` emulate -L zsh'; the -L activates
LOCAL_OPTIONS.
- LOCAL_PATTERNS
- If this option is set at the point of return from a shell function, the
state of pattern disables, as set with the builtin command ` disable
-p', is restored to what it was when the function was entered. The
behaviour of this option is similar to the effect of LOCAL_OPTIONS
on options; hence ` emulate -L sh' (or indeed any other emulation
with the -L option) activates LOCAL_PATTERNS.
- LOCAL_TRAPS <K>
- If this option is set when a signal trap is set inside a function, then
the previous status of the trap for that signal will be restored when the
function exits. Note that this option must be set prior to altering
the trap behaviour in a function; unlike LOCAL_OPTIONS, the value
on exit from the function is irrelevant. However, it does not need to be
set before any global trap for that to be correctly restored by a
function. For example,
unsetopt localtraps
trap - INT
fn() { setopt localtraps; trap '' INT; sleep 3; }
will restore normal handling of
SIGINT after the function exits.
- MULTI_FUNC_DEF <Z>
- Allow definitions of multiple functions at once in the form `fn1
fn2...()'; if the option is not set, this causes a
parse error. Definition of multiple functions with the function
keyword is always allowed. Multiple function definitions are not often
used and can cause obscure errors.
- MULTIOS <Z>
- Perform implicit tees or cats when multiple redirections are
attempted (see the section `Redirection').
- OCTAL_ZEROES <S>
- Interpret any integer constant beginning with a 0 as octal, per IEEE Std
1003.2-1992 (ISO 9945-2:1993). This is not enabled by default as it causes
problems with parsing of, for example, date and time strings with leading
zeroes.
Sequences of digits indicating a numeric base such as the `
08' component
in `
08#77' are always interpreted as decimal, regardless of leading
zeroes.
- PIPE_FAIL
- By default, when a pipeline exits the exit status recorded by the shell
and returned by the shell variable $? reflects that of the
rightmost element of a pipeline. If this option is set, the exit status
instead reflects the status of the rightmost element of the pipeline that
was non-zero, or zero if all elements exited with zero status.
- SOURCE_TRACE
- If set, zsh will print an informational message announcing the name of
each file it loads. The format of the output is similar to that for the
XTRACE option, with the message <sourcetrace>. A file
may be loaded by the shell itself when it starts up and shuts down (
Startup/Shutdown Files) or by the use of the ` source' and
`dot' builtin commands.
- TYPESET_SILENT
- If this is unset, executing any of the `typeset' family of commands
with no options and a list of parameters that have no values to be
assigned but already exist will display the value of the parameter. If the
option is set, they will only be shown when parameters are selected with
the ` -m' option. The option `-p' is available whether or
not the option is set.
- VERBOSE (-v, ksh: -v)
- Print shell input lines as they are read.
- XTRACE (-x, ksh: -x)
- Print commands and their arguments as they are executed. The output is
preceded by the value of $PS4, formatted as described in the
section EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1).
- APPEND_CREATE <K> <S>
- This option only applies when NO_CLOBBER (-C) is in
effect.
If this option is not set, the shell will report an error when a append
redirection (
>>) is used on a file that does not already exists
(the traditional zsh behaviour of
NO_CLOBBER). If the option is set, no
error is reported (POSIX behaviour).
- BASH_REMATCH
- When set, matches performed with the =~ operator will set the
BASH_REMATCH array variable, instead of the default MATCH
and match variables. The first element of the BASH_REMATCH
array will contain the entire matched text and subsequent elements will
contain extracted substrings. This option makes more sense when
KSH_ARRAYS is also set, so that the entire matched portion is
stored at index 0 and the first substring is at index 1. Without this
option, the MATCH variable contains the entire matched text and the
match array variable contains substrings.
- BSD_ECHO <S>
- Make the echo builtin compatible with the BSD echo(1)
command. This disables backslashed escape sequences in echo strings unless
the -e option is specified.
- CONTINUE_ON_ERROR
- If a fatal error is encountered (see the section ERRORS in
zshmisc(1)), and the code is running in a script, the shell will
resume execution at the next statement in the script at the top level, in
other words outside all functions or shell constructs such as loops and
conditions. This mimics the behaviour of interactive shells, where the
shell returns to the line editor to read a new command; it was the normal
behaviour in versions of zsh before 5.0.1.
- CSH_JUNKIE_HISTORY <C>
- A history reference without an event specifier will always refer to the
previous command. Without this option, such a history reference refers to
the same event as the previous history reference on the current command
line, defaulting to the previous command.
- CSH_JUNKIE_LOOPS <C>
- Allow loop bodies to take the form `list; end' instead of `
do list; done'.
- CSH_JUNKIE_QUOTES <C>
- Changes the rules for single- and double-quoted text to match that of
csh. These require that embedded newlines be preceded by a
backslash; unescaped newlines will cause an error message. In
double-quoted strings, it is made impossible to escape ` $',
``' or ` "' (and `\' itself no longer needs
escaping). Command substitutions are only expanded once, and cannot be
nested.
- CSH_NULLCMD <C>
- Do not use the values of NULLCMD and READNULLCMD when
running redirections with no command. This make such redirections fail
(see the section `Redirection').
- KSH_ARRAYS <K> <S>
- Emulate ksh array handling as closely as possible. If this option
is set, array elements are numbered from zero, an array parameter without
subscript refers to the first element instead of the whole array, and
braces are required to delimit a subscript (` ${path[2]}' rather
than just ` $path[2]') or to apply modifiers to any parameter (`
${PWD:h}' rather than `$PWD:h').
- KSH_AUTOLOAD <K> <S>
- Emulate ksh function autoloading. This means that when a function
is autoloaded, the corresponding file is merely executed, and must define
the function itself. (By default, the function is defined to the contents
of the file. However, the most common ksh-style case - of the file
containing only a simple definition of the function - is always handled in
the ksh-compatible manner.)
- KSH_OPTION_PRINT <K>
- Alters the way options settings are printed: instead of separate lists of
set and unset options, all options are shown, marked `on' if they are in
the non-default state, `off' otherwise.
- KSH_TYPESET
- This option is now obsolete: a better appropximation to the behaviour of
other shells is obtained with the reserved word interface to
declare, export, float, integer, local,
readonly and typeset. Note that the option is only applied
when the reserved word interface is not in use.
Alters the way arguments to the
typeset family of commands, including
declare,
export,
float,
integer,
local and
readonly, are processed. Without this option, zsh will perform normal
word splitting after command and parameter expansion in arguments of an
assignment; with it, word splitting does not take place in those cases.
- KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT
- Treat use of a subscript of value zero in array or string expressions as a
reference to the first element, i.e. the element that usually has the
subscript 1. Ignored if KSH_ARRAYS is also set.
If neither this option nor
KSH_ARRAYS is set, accesses to an element of
an array or string with subscript zero return an empty element or string,
while attempts to set element zero of an array or string are treated as an
error. However, attempts to set an otherwise valid subscript range that
includes zero will succeed. For example, if
KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT is not
set,
is an error, while
is not and will replace the first element of the array.
This option is for compatibility with older versions of the shell and is not
recommended in new code.
- POSIX_ALIASES <K> <S>
- When this option is set, reserved words are not candidates for alias
expansion: it is still possible to declare any of them as an alias, but
the alias will never be expanded. Reserved words are described in the
section RESERVED WORDS in zshmisc(1).
Alias expansion takes place while text is being read; hence when this option is
set it does not take effect until the end of any function or other piece of
shell code parsed as one unit. Note this may cause differences from other
shells even when the option is in effect. For example, when running a command
with `
zsh -c', or even `
zsh -o posixaliases -c', the entire
command argument is parsed as one unit, so aliases defined within the argument
are not available even in later lines. If in doubt, avoid use of aliases in
non-interactive code.
- POSIX_ARGZERO
- This option may be used to temporarily disable FUNCTION_ARGZERO and
thereby restore the value of $0 to the name used to invoke the
shell (or as set by the -c command line option). For compatibility
with previous versions of the shell, emulations use
NO_FUNCTION_ARGZERO instead of POSIX_ARGZERO, which may
result in unexpected scoping of $0 if the emulation mode is changed
inside a function or script. To avoid this, explicitly enable
POSIX_ARGZERO in the emulate command:
emulate sh -o POSIX_ARGZERO
Note that
NO_POSIX_ARGZERO has no effect unless
FUNCTION_ARGZERO
was already enabled upon entry to the function or script.
- POSIX_BUILTINS <K> <S>
- When this option is set the command builtin can be used to execute
shell builtin commands. Parameter assignments specified before shell
functions and special builtins are kept after the command completes unless
the special builtin is prefixed with the command builtin. Special
builtins are ., :, break, continue,
declare, eval, exit, export, integer,
local, readonly, return, set, shift,
source, times, trap and unset.
In addition, various error conditions associated with the above builtins or
exec cause a non-interactive shell to exit and an interactive shell to
return to its top-level processing.
Furthermore, functions and shell builtins are not executed after an
exec
prefix; the command to be executed must be an external command found in the
path.
Furthermore, the
getopts builtin behaves in a POSIX-compatible fashion in
that the associated variable
OPTIND is not made local to functions.
Moreover, the warning and special exit code from
[[ -o
non_existent_option ]] are suppressed.
- POSIX_IDENTIFIERS <K> <S>
- When this option is set, only the ASCII characters a to z,
A to Z, 0 to 9 and _ may be used in
identifiers (names of shell parameters and modules).
In addition, setting this option limits the effect of parameter substitution
with no braces, so that the expression
$# is treated as the parameter
$# even if followed by a valid parameter name. When it is unset, zsh
allows expressions of the form
$#name to refer to the length of
$name, even for special variables, for example in expressions
such as
$#- and
$#*.
Another difference is that with the option set assignment to an unset variable
in arithmetic context causes the variable to be created as a scalar rather
than a numeric type. So after `
unset t; (( t = 3 ))'. without
POSIX_IDENTIFIERS set
t has integer type, while with it set it
has scalar type.
When the option is unset and multibyte character support is enabled (i.e. it is
compiled in and the option
MULTIBYTE is set), then additionally any
alphanumeric characters in the local character set may be used in identifiers.
Note that scripts and functions written with this feature are not portable,
and also that both options must be set before the script or function is
parsed; setting them during execution is not sufficient as the syntax
variable =value has already been parsed as a command
rather than an assignment.
If multibyte character support is not compiled into the shell this option is
ignored; all octets with the top bit set may be used in identifiers. This is
non-standard but is the traditional zsh behaviour.
- POSIX_STRINGS <K> <S>
- This option affects processing of quoted strings. Currently it only
affects the behaviour of null characters, i.e. character 0 in the portable
character set corresponding to US ASCII.
When this option is not set, null characters embedded within strings of the form
$'...' are treated as ordinary characters. The entire
string is maintained within the shell and output to files where necessary,
although owing to restrictions of the library interface the string is
truncated at the null character in file names, environment variables, or in
arguments to external programs.
When this option is set, the
$'...' expression is truncated
at the null character. Note that remaining parts of the same string beyond the
termination of the quotes are not truncated.
For example, the command line argument
a$'b\0c'd is treated with the
option off as the characters
a,
b, null,
c,
d, and
with the option on as the characters
a,
b,
d.
- POSIX_TRAPS <K> <S>
- When this option is set, the usual zsh behaviour of executing traps for
EXIT on exit from shell functions is suppressed. In that case,
manipulating EXIT traps always alters the global trap for exiting
the shell; the LOCAL_TRAPS option is ignored for the EXIT
trap. Furthermore, a return statement executed in a trap with no
argument passes back from the function the value from the surrounding
context, not from code executed within the trap.
- SH_FILE_EXPANSION <K> <S>
- Perform filename expansion (e.g., ~ expansion) before
parameter expansion, command substitution, arithmetic expansion and brace
expansion. If this option is unset, it is performed after brace
expansion, so things like ` ~$USERNAME' and `
~{pfalstad,rc}' will work.
- SH_NULLCMD <K> <S>
- Do not use the values of NULLCMD and READNULLCMD when doing
redirections, use ` :' instead (see the section
`Redirection').
- SH_OPTION_LETTERS <K> <S>
- If this option is set the shell tries to interpret single letter options
(which are used with set and setopt) like ksh does.
This also affects the value of the - special parameter.
- SH_WORD_SPLIT (-y) <K> <S>
- Causes field splitting to be performed on unquoted parameter expansions.
Note that this option has nothing to do with word splitting. (See the
section `Parameter Expansion'.)
- TRAPS_ASYNC
- While waiting for a program to exit, handle signals and run traps
immediately. Otherwise the trap is run after a child process has exited.
Note this does not affect the point at which traps are run for any case
other than when the shell is waiting for a child process.
- INTERACTIVE (-i, ksh: -i)
- This is an interactive shell. This option is set upon initialisation if
the standard input is a tty and commands are being read from standard
input. (See the discussion of SHIN_STDIN.) This heuristic may be
overridden by specifying a state for this option on the command line. The
value of this option can only be changed via flags supplied at invocation
of the shell. It cannot be changed once zsh is running.
- LOGIN (-l, ksh: -l)
- This is a login shell. If this option is not explicitly set, the shell
becomes a login shell if the first character of the argv[0] passed
to the shell is a ` -'.
- PRIVILEGED (-p, ksh: -p)
- Turn on privileged mode. Typically this is used when script is to be run
with elevated privileges. This should be done as follows directly with the
-p option to zsh so that it takes effect during startup.
The option is enabled automatically on startup if the effective user (group) ID
is not equal to the real user (group) ID. In this case, turning the option off
causes the effective user and group IDs to be set to the real user and group
IDs. Be aware that if that fails the shell may be running with different IDs
than was intended so a script should check for failure and act accordingly,
for example:
unsetopt privileged || exit
The
PRIVILEGED option disables sourcing user startup files. If zsh is
invoked as `
sh' or `
ksh' with this option set,
/etc/suid_profile is sourced (after
/etc/profile on interactive
shells). Sourcing
~/.profile is disabled and the contents of the
ENV variable is ignored. This option cannot be changed using the
-m option of
setopt and
unsetopt, and changing it inside
a function always changes it globally regardless of the
LOCAL_OPTIONS
option.
- RESTRICTED (-r)
- Enables restricted mode. This option cannot be changed using
unsetopt, and setting it inside a function always changes it
globally regardless of the LOCAL_OPTIONS option. See the section
`Restricted Shell'.
- SHIN_STDIN (-s, ksh: -s)
- Commands are being read from the standard input. Commands are read from
standard input if no command is specified with -c and no file of
commands is specified. If SHIN_STDIN is set explicitly on the
command line, any argument that would otherwise have been taken as a file
to run will instead be treated as a normal positional parameter. Note that
setting or unsetting this option on the command line does not necessarily
affect the state the option will have while the shell is running - that is
purely an indicator of whether or not commands are actually being
read from standard input. The value of this option can only be changed via
flags supplied at invocation of the shell. It cannot be changed once zsh
is running.
- SINGLE_COMMAND (-t, ksh: -t)
- If the shell is reading from standard input, it exits after a single
command has been executed. This also makes the shell non-interactive,
unless the INTERACTIVE option is explicitly set on the command
line. The value of this option can only be changed via flags supplied at
invocation of the shell. It cannot be changed once zsh is running.
- BEEP (+B) <D>
- Beep on error in ZLE.
- COMBINING_CHARS
- Assume that the terminal displays combining characters correctly.
Specifically, if a base alphanumeric character is followed by one or more
zero-width punctuation characters, assume that the zero-width characters
will be displayed as modifications to the base character within the same
width. Not all terminals handle this. If this option is not set,
zero-width characters are displayed separately with special mark-up.
If this option is set, the pattern test
[[:WORD:]] matches a zero-width
punctuation character on the assumption that it will be used as part of a word
in combination with a word character. Otherwise the base shell does not handle
combining characters specially.
- EMACS
- If ZLE is loaded, turning on this option has the equivalent effect of `
bindkey -e'. In addition, the VI option is unset. Turning it off
has no effect. The option setting is not guaranteed to reflect the current
keymap. This option is provided for compatibility; bindkey is the
recommended interface.
- OVERSTRIKE
- Start up the line editor in overstrike mode.
- SINGLE_LINE_ZLE (-M) <K>
- Use single-line command line editing instead of multi-line.
Note that although this is on by default in ksh emulation it only provides
superficial compatibility with the ksh line editor and reduces the
effectiveness of the zsh line editor. As it has no effect on shell syntax,
many users may wish to disable this option when using ksh emulation
interactively.
- VI
- If ZLE is loaded, turning on this option has the equivalent effect of `
bindkey -v'. In addition, the EMACS option is unset. Turning it off
has no effect. The option setting is not guaranteed to reflect the current
keymap. This option is provided for compatibility; bindkey is the
recommended interface.
- ZLE (-Z)
- Use the zsh line editor. Set by default in interactive shells connected to
a terminal.
Some options have alternative names. These aliases are never used for output,
but can be used just like normal option names when specifying options to the
shell.
- BRACE_EXPAND
- NO_IGNORE_BRACES (ksh and bash compatibility)
- DOT_GLOB
- GLOB_DOTS (bash compatibility)
- HASH_ALL
- HASH_CMDS (bash compatibility)
- HIST_APPEND
- APPEND_HISTORY (bash compatibility)
- HIST_EXPAND
- BANG_HIST (bash compatibility)
- LOG
- NO_HIST_NO_FUNCTIONS (ksh compatibility)
- MAIL_WARN
- MAIL_WARNING (bash compatibility)
- ONE_CMD
- SINGLE_COMMAND (bash compatibility)
- PHYSICAL
- CHASE_LINKS (ksh and bash compatibility)
- PROMPT_VARS
- PROMPT_SUBST (bash compatibility)
- STDIN
- SHIN_STDIN (ksh compatibility)
- TRACK_ALL
- HASH_CMDS (ksh compatibility)
- -0
- CORRECT
- -1
- PRINT_EXIT_VALUE
- -2
- NO_BAD_PATTERN
- -3
- NO_NOMATCH
- -4
- GLOB_DOTS
- -5
- NOTIFY
- -6
- BG_NICE
- -7
- IGNORE_EOF
- -8
- MARK_DIRS
- -9
- AUTO_LIST
- -B
- NO_BEEP
- -C
- NO_CLOBBER
- -D
- PUSHD_TO_HOME
- -E
- PUSHD_SILENT
- -F
- NO_GLOB
- -G
- NULL_GLOB
- -H
- RM_STAR_SILENT
- -I
- IGNORE_BRACES
- -J
- AUTO_CD
- -K
- NO_BANG_HIST
- -L
- SUN_KEYBOARD_HACK
- -M
- SINGLE_LINE_ZLE
- -N
- AUTO_PUSHD
- -O
- CORRECT_ALL
- -P
- RC_EXPAND_PARAM
- -Q
- PATH_DIRS
- -R
- LONG_LIST_JOBS
- -S
- REC_EXACT
- -T
- CDABLE_VARS
- -U
- MAIL_WARNING
- -V
- NO_PROMPT_CR
- -W
- AUTO_RESUME
- -X
- LIST_TYPES
- -Y
- MENU_COMPLETE
- -Z
- ZLE
- -a
- ALL_EXPORT
- -e
- ERR_EXIT
- -f
- NO_RCS
- -g
- HIST_IGNORE_SPACE
- -h
- HIST_IGNORE_DUPS
- -i
- INTERACTIVE
- -k
- INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS
- -l
- LOGIN
- -m
- MONITOR
- -n
- NO_EXEC
- -p
- PRIVILEGED
- -r
- RESTRICTED
- -s
- SHIN_STDIN
- -t
- SINGLE_COMMAND
- -u
- NO_UNSET
- -v
- VERBOSE
- -w
- CHASE_LINKS
- -x
- XTRACE
- -y
- SH_WORD_SPLIT
- -C
- NO_CLOBBER
- -T
- TRAPS_ASYNC
- -X
- MARK_DIRS
- -a
- ALL_EXPORT
- -b
- NOTIFY
- -e
- ERR_EXIT
- -f
- NO_GLOB
- -i
- INTERACTIVE
- -l
- LOGIN
- -m
- MONITOR
- -n
- NO_EXEC
- -p
- PRIVILEGED
- -r
- RESTRICTED
- -s
- SHIN_STDIN
- -t
- SINGLE_COMMAND
- -u
- NO_UNSET
- -v
- VERBOSE
- -x
- XTRACE
- -A
- Used by set for setting arrays
- -b
- Used on the command line to specify end of option processing
- -c
- Used on the command line to specify a single command
- -m
- Used by setopt for pattern-matching option setting
- -o
- Used in all places to allow use of long option names
- -s
- Used by set to sort positional parameters
zshbuiltins - zsh built-in commands
Some shell builtin commands take options as described in individual entries;
these are often referred to in the list below as `
flags' to avoid
confusion with shell options, which may also have an effect on the behaviour
of builtin commands. In this introductory section, `
option' always has
the meaning of an option to a command that should be familiar to most command
line users.
Typically, options are single letters preceded by a hyphen (
-). Options
that take an argument accept it either immediately following the option letter
or after white space, for example `
print -C3 *' or `
print -C 3
*' are equivalent. Arguments to options are not the same as arguments to
the command; the documentation indicates which is which. Options that do not
take an argument may be combined in a single word, for example `
print -ca
*' and `
print -c -a *' are equivalent.
Some shell builtin commands also take options that begin with `
+'
instead of `
-'. The list below makes clear which commands these are.
Options (together with their individual arguments, if any) must appear in a
group before any non-option arguments; once the first non-option argument has
been found, option processing is terminated.
All builtin commands other than precommand modifiers, even those that have no
options, can be given the argument `
--' to terminate option
processing. This indicates that the following words are non-option arguments,
but is otherwise ignored. This is useful in cases where arguments to the
command may begin with `
-'. For historical reasons, most builtin
commands also recognize a single `
-' in a separate word for this
purpose; note that this is less standard and use of `
--' is
recommended.
- - simple command
- See the section `Precommand Modifiers' in zshmisc(1).
- . file [ arg ... ]
- Read commands from file and execute them in the current shell
environment.
If
file does not contain a slash, or if
PATH_DIRS is set, the
shell looks in the components of
$path to find the directory containing
file. Files in the current directory are not read unless `
.'
appears somewhere in
$path. If a file named `
file.zwc'
is found, is newer than
file, and is the compiled form (created with
the
zcompile builtin) of
file, then commands are read from that
file instead of
file.
If any arguments
arg are given, they become the positional parameters;
the old positional parameters are restored when the
file is done
executing. However, if no arguments are given, the positional parameters
remain those of the calling context, and no restoring is done.
If
file was not found the return status is 127; if
file was found
but contained a syntax error the return status is 126; else the return status
is the exit status of the last command executed.
- : [ arg ... ]
- This command does nothing, although normal argument expansions is
performed which may have effects on shell parameters. A zero exit status
is returned.
- alias [ {+|-}gmrsL ] [
name[=value] ... ]
- For each name with a corresponding value, define an alias
with that value. A trailing space in value causes the next word to
be checked for alias expansion. If the -g flag is present, define a
global alias; global aliases are expanded even if they do not occur in
command position.
If the
-s flag is present, define a suffix alias: if the command word on
a command line is in the form `
text.name', where
text is any non-empty string, it is replaced by the text `
value
text.name'. Note that
name is treated as a literal
string, not a pattern. A trailing space in
value is not special in this
case. For example,
will cause the command `
*.ps' to be expanded to `
gv *.ps'. As
alias expansion is carried out earlier than globbing, the `
*.ps' will
then be expanded. Suffix aliases constitute a different name space from other
aliases (so in the above example it is still possible to create an alias for
the command
ps) and the two sets are never listed together.
For each
name with no
value, print the value of
name, if
any. With no arguments, print all currently defined aliases other than suffix
aliases. If the
-m flag is given the arguments are taken as patterns
(they should be quoted to preserve them from being interpreted as glob
patterns), and the aliases matching these patterns are printed. When printing
aliases and one of the
-g,
-r or
-s flags is present,
restrict the printing to global, regular or suffix aliases, respectively; a
regular alias is one which is neither a global nor a suffix alias. Using `
+' instead of `
-', or ending the option list with a single `
+', prevents the values of the aliases from being printed.
If the
-L flag is present, then print each alias in a manner suitable for
putting in a startup script. The exit status is nonzero if a
name (with
no
value) is given for which no alias has been defined.
For more on aliases, include common problems, see the section ALIASING in
zshmisc(1).
- autoload [ {+|-}RTUXdkmrtWz ] [ -w ] [
name ... ]
- See the section `Autoloading Functions' in zshmisc(1) for full
details. The fpath parameter will be searched to find the function
definition when the function is first referenced.
If
name consists of an absolute path, the function is defined to load
from the file given (searching as usual for dump files in the given location).
The name of the function is the basename (non-directory part) of the file. It
is normally an error if the function is not found in the given location;
however, if the option
-d is given, searching for the function defaults
to
$fpath. If a function is loaded by absolute path, any functions
loaded from it that are marked for
autoload without an absolute path
have the load path of the parent function temporarily prepended to
$fpath.
If the option
-r or
-R is given, the function is searched for
immediately and the location is recorded internally for use when the function
is executed; a relative path is expanded using the value of
$PWD. This
protects against a change to
$fpath after the call to
autoload.
With
-r, if the function is not found, it is silently left unresolved
until execution; with
-R, an error message is printed and command
processing aborted immediately the search fails, i.e. at the
autoload
command rather than at function execution..
The flag
-X may be used only inside a shell function. It causes the
calling function to be marked for autoloading and then immediately loaded and
executed, with the current array of positional parameters as arguments. This
replaces the previous definition of the function. If no function definition is
found, an error is printed and the function remains undefined and marked for
autoloading. If an argument is given, it is used as a directory (i.e. it does
not include the name of the function) in which the function is to be found;
this may be combined with the
-d option to allow the function search to
default to
$fpath if it is not in the given location.
The flag
+X attempts to load each
name as an autoloaded function,
but does
not execute it. The exit status is zero (success) if the
function was not previously defined
and a definition for it was found.
This does
not replace any existing definition of the function. The exit
status is nonzero (failure) if the function was already defined or when no
definition was found. In the latter case the function remains undefined and
marked for autoloading. If ksh-style autoloading is enabled, the function
created will contain the contents of the file plus a call to the function
itself appended to it, thus giving normal ksh autoloading behaviour on the
first call to the function. If the
-m flag is also given each
name is treated as a pattern and all functions already marked for
autoload that match the pattern are loaded.
With the
-t flag, turn on execution tracing; with
-T, turn on
execution tracing only for the current function, turning it off on entry to
any called functions that do not also have tracing enabled.
With the
-U flag, alias expansion is suppressed when the function is
loaded.
With the
-w flag, the
names are taken as names of files compiled
with the
zcompile builtin, and all functions defined in them are marked
for autoloading.
The flags
-z and
-k mark the function to be autoloaded using the
zsh or ksh style, as if the option
KSH_AUTOLOAD were unset or were set,
respectively. The flags override the setting of the option at the time the
function is loaded.
Note that the
autoload command makes no attempt to ensure the shell
options set during the loading or execution of the file have any particular
value. For this, the
emulate command can be used:
emulate zsh -c 'autoload -Uz func'
arranges that when
func is loaded the shell is in native
zsh
emulation, and this emulation is also applied when
func is run.
Some of the functions of
autoload are also provided by
functions
-u or
functions -U, but
autoload is a more comprehensive
interface.
- bg [ job ... ]
- job ... &
- Put each specified job in the background, or the current job if
none is specified.
- bindkey
- See the section `Zle Builtins' in zshzle(1).
- break [ n ]
- Exit from an enclosing for, while, until,
select or repeat loop. If an arithmetic expression n
is specified, then break n levels instead of just one.
- builtin name [ args ... ]
- Executes the builtin name, with the given args.
- bye
- Same as exit.
- cap
- See the section `The zsh/cap Module' in zshmodules(1).
- cd [ -qsLP ] [ arg ]
- cd [ -qsLP ] old new
- cd [ -qsLP ] {+|-}n
- Change the current directory. In the first form, change the current
directory to arg, or to the value of $HOME if arg is
not specified. If arg is `-', change to the previous
directory.
Otherwise, if
arg begins with a slash, attempt to change to the directory
given by
arg.
If
arg does not begin with a slash, the behaviour depends on whether the
current directory `
.' occurs in the list of directories contained in
the shell parameter
cdpath. If it does not, first attempt to change to
the directory
arg under the current directory, and if that fails but
cdpath is set and contains at least one element attempt to change to
the directory
arg under each component of
cdpath in turn until
successful. If `
.' occurs in
cdpath, then
cdpath is
searched strictly in order so that `
.' is only tried at the
appropriate point.
The order of testing
cdpath is modified if the option
POSIX_CD is
set, as described in the documentation for the option.
If no directory is found, the option
CDABLE_VARS is set, and a parameter
named
arg exists whose value begins with a slash, treat its value as
the directory. In that case, the parameter is added to the named directory
hash table.
The second form of
cd substitutes the string
new for the string
old in the name of the current directory, and tries to change to this
new directory.
The third form of
cd extracts an entry from the directory stack, and
changes to that directory. An argument of the form `
+n'
identifies a stack entry by counting from the left of the list shown by the
dirs command, starting with zero. An argument of the form `
-n' counts from the right. If the
PUSHD_MINUS option is
set, the meanings of `
+' and `
-' in this context are swapped.
If the
-q (quiet) option is specified, the hook function
chpwd and
the functions in the array
chpwd_functions are not called. This is
useful for calls to
cd that do not change the environment seen by an
interactive user.
If the
-s option is specified,
cd refuses to change the current
directory if the given pathname contains symlinks. If the
-P option is
given or the
CHASE_LINKS option is set, symbolic links are resolved to
their true values. If the
-L option is given symbolic links are
retained in the directory (and not resolved) regardless of the state of the
CHASE_LINKS option.
- chdir
- Same as cd.
- clone
- See the section `The zsh/clone Module' in zshmodules(1).
- command [ -pvV ] simple command
- The simple command argument is taken as an external command instead of a
function or builtin and is executed. If the POSIX_BUILTINS option
is set, builtins will also be executed but certain special properties of
them are suppressed. The -p flag causes a default path to be
searched instead of that in $path. With the -v flag,
command is similar to whence and with -V, it is
equivalent to whence -v.
See also the section `Precommand Modifiers' in
zshmisc(1).
- comparguments
- See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
- compcall
- See the section `The zsh/compctl Module' in zshmodules(1).
- compctl
- See the section `The zsh/compctl Module' in zshmodules(1).
- compdescribe
- See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
- compfiles
- See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
- compgroups
- See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
- compquote
- See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
- comptags
- See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
- comptry
- See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
- compvalues
- See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zshmodules(1).
- continue [ n ]
- Resume the next iteration of the enclosing for, while,
until, select or repeat loop. If an arithmetic
expression n is specified, break out of n-1 loops and resume
at the nth enclosing loop.
- declare
- Same as typeset.
- dirs [ -c ] [ arg ... ]
- dirs [ -lpv ]
- With no arguments, print the contents of the directory stack. Directories
are added to this stack with the pushd command, and removed with
the cd or popd commands. If arguments are specified, load
them onto the directory stack, replacing anything that was there, and push
the current directory onto the stack.
- -c
- clear the directory stack.
- -l
- print directory names in full instead of using of using ~
expressions (see Dynamic and Static named directories in
zshexpn(1)).
- -p
- print directory entries one per line.
- -v
- number the directories in the stack when printing.
- disable [ -afmprs ] name ...
- Temporarily disable the named hash table elements or patterns. The
default is to disable builtin commands. This allows you to use an external
command with the same name as a builtin command. The -a option
causes disable to act on regular or global aliases. The -s
option causes disable to act on suffix aliases. The -f
option causes disable to act on shell functions. The -r
options causes disable to act on reserved words. Without arguments
all disabled hash table elements from the corresponding hash table are
printed. With the -m flag the arguments are taken as patterns
(which should be quoted to prevent them from undergoing filename
expansion), and all hash table elements from the corresponding hash table
matching these patterns are disabled. Disabled objects can be enabled with
the enable command.
With the option
-p,
name ... refer to elements of the shell's
pattern syntax as described in the section `Filename Generation'. Certain
elements can be disabled separately, as given below.
Note that patterns not allowed by the current settings for the options
EXTENDED_GLOB,
KSH_GLOB and
SH_GLOB are never enabled,
regardless of the setting here. For example, if
EXTENDED_GLOB is not
active, the pattern
^ is ineffective even if `
disable -p
"^"' has not been issued. The list below indicates any option
settings that restrict the use of the pattern. It should be noted that setting
SH_GLOB has a wider effect than merely disabling patterns as certain
expressions, in particular those involving parentheses, are parsed
differently.
The following patterns may be disabled; all the strings need quoting on the
command line to prevent them from being interpreted immediately as patterns
and the patterns are shown below in single quotes as a reminder.
- '?'
- The pattern character ? wherever it occurs, including when
preceding a parenthesis with KSH_GLOB.
- '*'
- The pattern character * wherever it occurs, including recursive
globbing and when preceding a parenthesis with KSH_GLOB.
- '['
- Character classes.
- '<' (NO_SH_GLOB)
- Numeric ranges.
- '|' (NO_SH_GLOB)
- Alternation in grouped patterns, case statements, or KSH_GLOB
parenthesised expressions.
- '(' (NO_SH_GLOB)
- Grouping using single parentheses. Disabling this does not disable the use
of parentheses for KSH_GLOB where they are introduced by a special
character, nor for glob qualifiers (use ` setopt
NO_BARE_GLOB_QUAL' to disable glob qualifiers that use parentheses
only).
- '~' (EXTENDED_GLOB)
- Exclusion in the form A~B.
- '^' (EXTENDED_GLOB)
- Exclusion in the form A^B.
- '#' (EXTENDED_GLOB)
- The pattern character # wherever it occurs, both for repetition of
a previous pattern and for indicating globbing flags.
- '?(' (KSH_GLOB)
- The grouping form ?(...). Note this is also disabled
if '?' is disabled.
- '*(' (KSH_GLOB)
- The grouping form *(...). Note this is also disabled
if '*' is disabled.
- '+(' (KSH_GLOB)
- The grouping form +(...).
- '!(' (KSH_GLOB)
- The grouping form !(...).
- '@(' (KSH_GLOB)
- The grouping form @(...).
- disown [ job ... ]
- job ... &|
- job ... &!
- Remove the specified jobs from the job table; the shell will no
longer report their status, and will not complain if you try to exit an
interactive shell with them running or stopped. If no job is
specified, disown the current job.
If the
jobs are currently stopped and the
AUTO_CONTINUE option is
not set, a warning is printed containing information about how to make them
running after they have been disowned. If one of the latter two forms is used,
the
jobs will automatically be made running, independent of the setting
of the
AUTO_CONTINUE option.
- echo [ -neE ] [ arg ... ]
- Write each arg on the standard output, with a space separating each
one. If the -n flag is not present, print a newline at the end.
echo recognizes the following escape sequences:
- \a
- bell character
- \b
- backspace
- \c
- suppress subsequent characters and final newline
- \e
- escape
- \f
- form feed
- \n
- linefeed (newline)
- \r
- carriage return
- \t
- horizontal tab
- \v
- vertical tab
- \\
- backslash
- \0NNN
- character code in octal
- \xNN
- character code in hexadecimal
- \uNNNN
- unicode character code in hexadecimal
- \UNNNNNNNN
- unicode character code in hexadecimal
The
-E flag, or the
BSD_ECHO option, can be used to disable these
escape sequences. In the latter case,
-e flag can be used to enable
them.
Note that for standards compliance a double dash does not terminate option
processing; instead, it is printed directly. However, a single dash does
terminate option processing, so the first dash, possibly following options, is
not printed, but everything following it is printed as an argument. The single
dash behaviour is different from other shells. For a more portable way of
printing text, see
printf, and for a more controllable way of printing
text within zsh, see
print.
- echotc
- See the section `The zsh/termcap Module' in zshmodules(1).
- echoti
- See the section `The zsh/terminfo Module' in zshmodules(1).
- emulate [ -lLR ] [
{zsh|sh|ksh|csh} [ flags ... ] ]
- Without any argument print current emulation mode.
With single argument set up zsh options to emulate the specified shell as much
as possible.
csh will never be fully emulated. If the argument is not
one of the shells listed above,
zsh will be used as a default; more
precisely, the tests performed on the argument are the same as those used to
determine the emulation at startup based on the shell name, see the section
COMPATIBILITY in
zsh(1) . In addition to setting shell options, the
command also restores the pristine state of pattern enables, as if all
patterns had been enabled using
enable -p.
If the
emulate command occurs inside a function that has been marked for
execution tracing with
functions -t then the
xtrace option will
be turned on regardless of emulation mode or other options. Note that code
executed inside the function by the
.,
source, or
eval
commands is not considered to be running directly from the function, hence
does not provoke this behaviour.
If the
-R switch is given, all settable options are reset to their
default value corresponding to the specified emulation mode, except for
certain options describing the interactive environment; otherwise, only those
options likely to cause portability problems in scripts and functions are
altered. If the
-L switch is given, the options
LOCAL_OPTIONS,
LOCAL_PATTERNS and
LOCAL_TRAPS will be set as well, causing the
effects of the
emulate command and any
setopt,
disable -p
or
enable -p, and
trap commands to be local to the immediately
surrounding shell function, if any; normally these options are turned off in
all emulation modes except
ksh. The
-L switch is mutually
exclusive with the use of
-c in
flags.
If there is a single argument and the
-l switch is given, the options
that would be set or unset (the latter indicated with the prefix `
no')
are listed.
-l can be combined with
-L or
-R and the list
will be modified in the appropriate way. Note the list does not depend on the
current setting of options, i.e. it includes all options that may in principle
change, not just those that would actually change.
The
flags may be any of the invocation-time flags described in the
section INVOCATION in
zsh(1), except that `
-o EMACS' and `
-o
VI' may not be used. Flags such as `
+r'/`
+o RESTRICTED' may
be prohibited in some circumstances.
If
-c arg appears in
flags,
arg is evaluated while
the requested emulation is temporarily in effect. In this case the emulation
mode and all options are restored to their previous values before
emulate returns. The
-R switch may precede the name of the shell
to emulate; note this has a meaning distinct from including
-R in
flags.
Use of
-c enables `sticky' emulation mode for functions defined within
the evaluated expression: the emulation mode is associated thereafter with the
function so that whenever the function is executed the emulation (respecting
the
-R switch, if present) and all options are set (and pattern
disables cleared) before entry to the function, and the state is restored
after exit. If the function is called when the sticky emulation is already in
effect, either within an `
emulate shell -c' expression
or within another function with the same sticky emulation, entry and exit from
the function do not cause options to be altered (except due to standard
processing such as the
LOCAL_OPTIONS option). This also applies to
functions marked for autoload within the sticky emulation; the appropriate set
of options will be applied at the point the function is loaded as well as when
it is run.
For example:
emulate sh -c 'fni() { setopt cshnullglob; }
fno() { fni; }'
fno
The two functions
fni and
fno are defined with sticky
sh
emulation.
fno is then executed, causing options associated with
emulations to be set to their values in
sh.
fno then calls
fni; because
fni is also marked for sticky
sh emulation,
no option changes take place on entry to or exit from it. Hence the option
cshnullglob, turned off by
sh emulation, will be turned on
within
fni and remain on return to
fno. On exit from
fno,
the emulation mode and all options will be restored to the state they were in
before entry to the temporary emulation.
The documentation above is typically sufficient for the intended purpose of
executing code designed for other shells in a suitable environment. More
detailed rules follow.
- 1.
- The sticky emulation environment provided by `emulate shell
-c' is identical to that provided by entry to a function marked for
sticky emulation as a consequence of being defined in such an environment.
Hence, for example, the sticky emulation is inherited by subfunctions
defined within functions with sticky emulation.
- 2.
- No change of options takes place on entry to or exit from functions that
are not marked for sticky emulation, other than those that would normally
take place, even if those functions are called within sticky
emulation.
- 3.
- No special handling is provided for functions marked for autoload
nor for functions present in wordcode created by the zcompile
command.
- 4.
- The presence or absence of the -R switch to emulate
corresponds to different sticky emulation modes, so for example `
emulate sh -c', ` emulate -R sh -c' and `emulate csh
-c' are treated as three distinct sticky emulations.
- 5.
- Difference in shell options supplied in addition to the basic emulation
also mean the sticky emulations are different, so for example ` emulate
zsh -c' and ` emulate zsh -o cbases -c' are treated as distinct
sticky emulations.
- enable [ -afmprs ] name ...
- Enable the named hash table elements, presumably disabled earlier
with disable. The default is to enable builtin commands. The
-a option causes enable to act on regular or global aliases.
The -s option causes enable to act on suffix aliases. The
-f option causes enable to act on shell functions. The
-r option causes enable to act on reserved words. Without
arguments all enabled hash table elements from the corresponding hash
table are printed. With the -m flag the arguments are taken as
patterns (should be quoted) and all hash table elements from the
corresponding hash table matching these patterns are enabled. Enabled
objects can be disabled with the disable builtin command.
enable -p reenables patterns disabled with
disable -p. Note that
it does not override globbing options; for example, `
enable -p
"~"' does not cause the pattern character
~ to be
active unless the
EXTENDED_GLOB option is also set. To enable all
possible patterns (so that they may be individually disabled with
disable
-p), use `
setopt EXTENDED_GLOB KSH_GLOB NO_SH_GLOB'.
- eval [ arg ... ]
- Read the arguments as input to the shell and execute the resulting
command(s) in the current shell process. The return status is the same as
if the commands had been executed directly by the shell; if there are no
args or they contain no commands (i.e. are an empty string or
whitespace) the return status is zero.
- exec [ -cl ] [ -a argv0 ] [ command [
arg ... ] ]
- Replace the current shell with command rather than forking. If
command is a shell builtin command or a shell function, the shell
executes it, and exits when the command is complete.
With
-c clear the environment; with
-l prepend
- to the
argv[0] string of the command executed (to simulate a login shell);
with
-a argv0 set the
argv[0] string of the command
executed. See the section `Precommand Modifiers' in
zshmisc(1).
If the option
POSIX_BUILTINS is set,
command is never interpreted
as a shell builtin command or shell function. This means further precommand
modifiers such as
builtin and
noglob are also not interpreted
within the shell. Hence
command is always found by searching the
command path.
If
command is omitted but any redirections are specified, then the
redirections will take effect in the current shell.
- exit [ n ]
- Exit the shell with the exit status specified by an arithmetic expression
n; if none is specified, use the exit status from the last command
executed. An EOF condition will also cause the shell to exit, unless the
IGNORE_EOF option is set.
See notes at the end of the section JOBS in
zshmisc(1) for some possibly
unexpected interactions of the
exit command with jobs.
- export [ name[=value] ... ]
- The specified names are marked for automatic export to the
environment of subsequently executed commands. Equivalent to typeset
-gx. If a parameter specified does not already exist, it is created in
the global scope.
- false [ arg ... ]
- Do nothing and return an exit status of 1.
- fc [ -e ename ] [ -LI ] [ -m
match ] [ old=new ... ] [ first [
last ] ]
- fc -l [ -LI ] [ -nrdfEiD ] [ -t timefmt
] [ -m match ]
- [ old=new ... ] [ first [ last
] ]
- fc -p [ -a ] [ filename [ histsize [
savehistsize ] ] ]
- fc -P
- fc -ARWI [ filename ]
- The fc command controls the interactive history mechanism. Note
that reading and writing of history options is only performed if the shell
is interactive. Usually this is detected automatically, but it can be
forced by setting the interactive option when starting the
shell.
The first two forms of this command select a range of events from
first
to
last from the history list. The arguments
first and
last may be specified as a number or as a string. A negative number is
used as an offset to the current history event number. A string specifies the
most recent event beginning with the given string. All substitutions
old =new, if any, are then performed on the text of the
events.
In addition to the number range,
- -I
- restricts to only internal events (not from $HISTFILE)
- -L
- restricts to only local events (not from other shells, see
SHARE_HISTORY in zshoptions(1) -- note that $HISTFILE
is considered local when read at startup)
- -m
- takes the first argument as a pattern (should be quoted) and only the
history events matching this pattern are considered
If
first is not specified, it will be set to -1 (the most recent event),
or to -16 if the
-l flag is given. If
last is not specified, it
will be set to
first, or to -1 if the
-l flag is given. However,
if the current event has added entries to the history with `
print -s'
or `
fc -R', then the default
last for
-l includes all
new history entries since the current event began.
When the
-l flag is given, the resulting events are listed on standard
output. Otherwise the editor program
ename is invoked on a file
containing these history events. If
ename is not given, the value of
the parameter
FCEDIT is used; if that is not set the value of the
parameter
EDITOR is used; if that is not set a builtin default, usually
`
vi' is used. If
ename is `
-', no editor is invoked.
When editing is complete, the edited command is executed.
The flag
-r reverses the order of the events and the flag
-n
suppresses event numbers when listing.
Also when listing,
- -d
- prints timestamps for each event
- -f
- prints full time-date stamps in the US `
MM/DD/ YY hh:mm'
format
- -E
- prints full time-date stamps in the European `
dd.mm.yyyy hh:mm'
format
- -i
- prints full time-date stamps in ISO8601 `
yyyy-mm- dd hh:mm'
format
- -t fmt
- prints time and date stamps in the given format; fmt is formatted
with the strftime function with the zsh extensions described for the
%D{ string} prompt format in the section EXPANSION OF
PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1). The resulting formatted string must
be no more than 256 characters or will not be printed
- -D
- prints elapsed times; may be combined with one of the options above
`
fc -p' pushes the current history list onto a stack and switches to a
new history list. If the
-a option is also specified, this history list
will be automatically popped when the current function scope is exited, which
is a much better solution than creating a trap function to call `
fc
-P' manually. If no arguments are specified, the history list is left
empty,
$HISTFILE is unset, and
$HISTSIZE &
$SAVEHIST
are set to their default values. If one argument is given,
$HISTFILE is
set to that filename,
$HISTSIZE &
$SAVEHIST are left
unchanged, and the history file is read in (if it exists) to initialize the
new list. If a second argument is specified,
$HISTSIZE &
$SAVEHIST are instead set to the single specified numeric value.
Finally, if a third argument is specified,
$SAVEHIST is set to a
separate value from
$HISTSIZE. You are free to change these environment
values for the new history list however you desire in order to manipulate the
new history list.
`
fc -P' pops the history list back to an older list saved by `
fc
-p'. The current list is saved to its
$HISTFILE before it is
destroyed (assuming that
$HISTFILE and
$SAVEHIST are set
appropriately, of course). The values of
$HISTFILE,
$HISTSIZE,
and
$SAVEHIST are restored to the values they had when `
fc -p'
was called. Note that this restoration can conflict with making these
variables "local", so your best bet is to avoid local declarations
for these variables in functions that use `
fc -p'. The one other
guaranteed-safe combination is declaring these variables to be local at the
top of your function and using the automatic option (
-a) with `
fc
-p'. Finally, note that it is legal to manually pop a push marked for
automatic popping if you need to do so before the function exits.
`
fc -R' reads the history from the given file, `
fc -W' writes
the history out to the given file, and `
fc -A' appends the history out
to the given file. If no filename is specified, the
$HISTFILE is
assumed. If the
-I option is added to
-R, only those events that
are not already contained within the internal history list are added. If the
-I option is added to
-A or
-W, only those events that
are new since last incremental append/write to the history file are
appended/written. In any case, the created file will have no more than
$SAVEHIST entries.
- fg [ job ... ]
- job ...
- Bring each specified job in turn to the foreground. If no
job is specified, resume the current job.
- float [ {+|-}Hghlprtux ] [
{+|-}EFLRZ [ n ] ] [
name[=value] ... ]
- Equivalent to typeset -E, except that options irrelevant to
floating point numbers are not permitted.
- functions [ {+|-}UkmtTuWz ] [ -x
num ] [ name ... ]
- functions -M [-s] mathfn [ min [ max [
shellfn ] ] ]
- functions -M [ -m pattern ... ]
- functions +M [ -m ] mathfn ...
- Equivalent to typeset -f, with the exception of the -x,
-M and -W options. For functions -u and functions
-U, see autoload, which provides additional options.
The
-x option indicates that any functions output will have each leading
tab for indentation, added by the shell to show syntactic structure, expanded
to the given number
num of spaces.
num can also be 0 to suppress
all indentation.
The
-W option turns on the option
WARN_NESTED_VAR for the named
function or functions only. The option is turned off at the start of nested
functions (apart from anonoymous functions) unless the called function also
has the
-W attribute.
Use of the
-M option may not be combined with any of the options handled
by
typeset -f.
functions -M mathfn defines
mathfn as the name of a
mathematical function recognised in all forms of arithmetical expressions; see
the section `Arithmetic Evaluation' in
zshmisc(1). By default
mathfn may take any number of comma-separated arguments. If
min
is given, it must have exactly
min args; if
min and
max
are both given, it must have at least
min and at most
max args.
max may be -1 to indicate that there is no upper limit.
By default the function is implemented by a shell function of the same name; if
shellfn is specified it gives the name of the corresponding shell
function while
mathfn remains the name used in arithmetical
expressions. The name of the function in
$0 is
mathfn (not
shellfn as would usually be the case), provided the option
FUNCTION_ARGZERO is in effect. The positional parameters in the shell
function correspond to the arguments of the mathematical function call. The
result of the last arithmetical expression evaluated inside the shell function
(even if it is a form that normally only returns a status) gives the result of
the mathematical function.
If the additional option
-s is given to
functions -M, the argument
to the function is a single string: anything between the opening and matching
closing parenthesis is passed to the function as a single argument, even if it
includes commas or white space. The minimum and maximum argument specifiers
must therefore be 1 if given. An empty argument list is passed as a
zero-length string.
functions -M with no arguments lists all such user-defined functions in
the same form as a definition. With the additional option
-m and a list
of arguments, all functions whose
mathfn matches one of the pattern
arguments are listed.
function +M removes the list of mathematical functions; with the
additional option
-m the arguments are treated as patterns and all
functions whose
mathfn matches the pattern are removed. Note that the
shell function implementing the behaviour is not removed (regardless of
whether its name coincides with
mathfn).
For example, the following prints the cube of 3:
zmath_cube() { (( $1 * $1 * $1 )) }
functions -M cube 1 1 zmath_cube
print $(( cube(3) ))
The following string function takes a single argument, including the commas, so
prints 11:
stringfn() { (( $#1 )) }
functions -Ms stringfn
print $(( stringfn(foo,bar,rod) ))
- getcap
- See the section `The zsh/cap Module' in zshmodules(1).
- getln [ -AclneE ] name ...
- Read the top value from the buffer stack and put it in the shell parameter
name. Equivalent to read -zr.
- getopts optstring name [ arg ... ]
- Checks the args for legal options. If the args are omitted,
use the positional parameters. A valid option argument begins with a `
+' or a ` -'. An argument not beginning with a ` +'
or a ` -', or the argument `--', ends the options.
Note that a single ` -' is not considered a valid option argument.
optstring contains the letters that getopts recognizes. If a
letter is followed by a ` :', that option requires an argument. The
options can be separated from the argument by blanks.
Each time it is invoked,
getopts places the option letter it finds in the
shell parameter
name, prepended with a `
+' when
arg
begins with a `
+'. The index of the next
arg is stored in
OPTIND. The option argument, if any, is stored in
OPTARG.
The first option to be examined may be changed by explicitly assigning to
OPTIND.
OPTIND has an initial value of
1, and is normally
set to
1 upon entry to a shell function and restored upon exit (this is
disabled by the
POSIX_BUILTINS option).
OPTARG is not reset and
retains its value from the most recent call to
getopts. If either of
OPTIND or
OPTARG is explicitly unset, it remains unset, and the
index or option argument is not stored. The option itself is still stored in
name in this case.
A leading `
:' in
optstring causes
getopts to store the
letter of any invalid option in
OPTARG, and to set
name to `
?' for an unknown option and to `
:' when a required argument is
missing. Otherwise,
getopts sets
name to `
?' and prints
an error message when an option is invalid. The exit status is nonzero when
there are no more options.
- hash [ -Ldfmrv ] [ name[=value] ]
...
- hash can be used to directly modify the contents of the command
hash table, and the named directory hash table. Normally one would modify
these tables by modifying one's PATH (for the command hash table)
or by creating appropriate shell parameters (for the named directory hash
table). The choice of hash table to work on is determined by the -d
option; without the option the command hash table is used, and with the
option the named directory hash table is used.
Given no arguments, and neither the
-r or
-f options, the selected
hash table will be listed in full.
The
-r option causes the selected hash table to be emptied. It will be
subsequently rebuilt in the normal fashion. The
-f option causes the
selected hash table to be fully rebuilt immediately. For the command hash
table this hashes all the absolute directories in the
PATH, and for the
named directory hash table this adds all users' home directories. These two
options cannot be used with any arguments.
The
-m option causes the arguments to be taken as patterns (which should
be quoted) and the elements of the hash table matching those patterns are
printed. This is the only way to display a limited selection of hash table
elements.
For each
name with a corresponding
value, put `
name' in the
selected hash table, associating it with the pathname `
value'. In the
command hash table, this means that whenever `
name' is used as a
command argument, the shell will try to execute the file given by `
value'. In the named directory hash table, this means that `
value' may be referred to as `
~name'.
For each
name with no corresponding
value, attempt to add
name to the hash table, checking what the appropriate
value is
in the normal manner for that hash table. If an appropriate
value can't
be found, then the hash table will be unchanged.
The
-v option causes hash table entries to be listed as they are added by
explicit specification. If has no effect if used with
-f.
If the
-L flag is present, then each hash table entry is printed in the
form of a call to hash.
- history
- Same as fc -l.
- integer [ {+|-}Hghlprtux ] [
{+|-} LRZi [ n ] ] [
name[=value] ... ]
- Equivalent to typeset -i, except that options irrelevant to
integers are not permitted.
- jobs [ -dlprs ] [ job ... ]
- jobs -Z string
- Lists information about each given job, or all jobs if job is
omitted. The -l flag lists process IDs, and the -p flag
lists process groups. If the -r flag is specified only running jobs
will be listed and if the -s flag is given only stopped jobs are
shown. If the -d flag is given, the directory from which the job
was started (which may not be the current directory of the job) will also
be shown.
The
-Z option replaces the shell's argument and environment space with
the given string, truncated if necessary to fit. This will normally be visible
in
ps (
ps(1)) listings. This feature is typically used by
daemons, to indicate their state.
- kill [ -s signal_name | -n
signal_number | -sig ] job ...
- kill -l [ sig ... ]
- Sends either SIGTERM or the specified signal to the given jobs or
processes. Signals are given by number or by names, with or without the `
SIG' prefix. If the signal being sent is not ` KILL' or
`CONT', then the job will be sent a ` CONT' signal if it is
stopped. The argument job can be the process ID of a job not in the
job list. In the second form, kill -l, if sig is not
specified the signal names are listed. Otherwise, for each sig that
is a name, the corresponding signal number is listed. For each sig
that is a signal number or a number representing the exit status of a
process which was terminated or stopped by a signal the name of the signal
is printed.
On some systems, alternative signal names are allowed for a few signals. Typical
examples are
SIGCHLD and
SIGCLD or
SIGPOLL and
SIGIO, assuming they correspond to the same signal number.
kill
-l will only list the preferred form, however
kill -l alt
will show if the alternative form corresponds to a signal number. For example,
under Linux
kill -l IO and
kill -l POLL both output 29, hence
kill -IO and
kill -POLL have the same effect.
Many systems will allow process IDs to be negative to kill a process group or
zero to kill the current process group.
- let arg ...
- Evaluate each arg as an arithmetic expression. See the section
`Arithmetic Evaluation' in zshmisc(1) for a description of
arithmetic expressions. The exit status is 0 if the value of the last
expression is nonzero, 1 if it is zero, and 2 if an error occurred.
- limit [ -hs ] [ resource [ limit ] ] ...
- Set or display resource limits. Unless the -s flag is given, the
limit applies only the children of the shell. If -s is given
without other arguments, the resource limits of the current shell is set
to the previously set resource limits of the children.
If
limit is not specified, print the current limit placed on
resource, otherwise set the limit to the specified value. If the
-h flag is given, use hard limits instead of soft limits. If no
resource is given, print all limits.
When looping over multiple resources, the shell will abort immediately if it
detects a badly formed argument. However, if it fails to set a limit for some
other reason it will continue trying to set the remaining limits.
resource can be one of:
- addressspace
- Maximum amount of address space used.
- aiomemorylocked
- Maximum amount of memory locked in RAM for AIO operations.
- aiooperations
- Maximum number of AIO operations.
- cachedthreads
- Maximum number of cached threads.
- coredumpsize
- Maximum size of a core dump.
- cputime
- Maximum CPU seconds per process.
- datasize
- Maximum data size (including stack) for each process.
- descriptors
- Maximum value for a file descriptor.
- filesize
- Largest single file allowed.
- kqueues
- Maximum number of kqueues allocated.
- maxproc
- Maximum number of processes.
- maxpthreads
- Maximum number of threads per process.
- memorylocked
- Maximum amount of memory locked in RAM.
- memoryuse
- Maximum resident set size.
- msgqueue
- Maximum number of bytes in POSIX message queues.
- posixlocks
- Maximum number of POSIX locks per user.
- pseudoterminals
- Maximum number of pseudo-terminals.
- resident
- Maximum resident set size.
- sigpending
- Maximum number of pending signals.
- sockbufsize
- Maximum size of all socket buffers.
- stacksize
- Maximum stack size for each process.
- swapsize
- Maximum amount of swap used.
- vmemorysize
- Maximum amount of virtual memory.
Which of these resource limits are available depends on the system.
resource can be abbreviated to any unambiguous prefix. It can also be
an integer, which corresponds to the integer defined for the resource by the
operating system.
If argument corresponds to a number which is out of the range of the resources
configured into the shell, the shell will try to read or write the limit
anyway, and will report an error if this fails. As the shell does not store
such resources internally, an attempt to set the limit will fail unless the
-s option is present.
limit is a number, with an optional scaling factor, as follows:
- nh
- hours
- nk
- kilobytes (default)
- nm
- megabytes or minutes
- ng
- gigabytes
- [mm:]ss
- minutes and seconds
The
limit command is not made available by default when the shell starts
in a mode emulating another shell. It can be made available with the command `
zmodload -F zsh/rlimits b:limit'.
- local [ {+|-}AHUahlprtux ] [
{+|-} EFLRZi [ n ] ] [
name[=value] ... ]
- Same as typeset, except that the options -g, and -f
are not permitted. In this case the -x option does not force the
use of -g, i.e. exported variables will be local to functions.
- log
- List all users currently logged in who are affected by the current setting
of the watch parameter.
- logout [ n ]
- Same as exit, except that it only works in a login shell.
- noglob simple command
- See the section `Precommand Modifiers' in zshmisc(1).
- popd [ -q ] [ {+|-}n ]
- Remove an entry from the directory stack, and perform a cd to the
new top directory. With no argument, the current top entry is removed. An
argument of the form ` +n' identifies a stack entry by
counting from the left of the list shown by the dirs command,
starting with zero. An argument of the form -n counts from
the right. If the PUSHD_MINUS option is set, the meanings of
`+' and ` -' in this context are swapped.
If the
-q (quiet) option is specified, the hook function
chpwd and
the functions in the array
$chpwd_functions are not called, and the new
directory stack is not printed. This is useful for calls to
popd that
do not change the environment seen by an interactive user.
- print [ -abcDilmnNoOpPrsSz ] [ -u n ] [
-f format ] [ -C cols ]
- [ -v name ] [ -xX tabstop ] [
-R [ -en ]] [ arg ... ]
- With the `-f' option the arguments are printed as described by
printf. With no flags or with the flag ` -', the arguments
are printed on the standard output as described by echo, with the
following differences: the escape sequence ` \M-x' (or
`\M x') metafies the character x (sets the highest
bit), ` \C-x' (or `\Cx') produces a control
character (` \C-@' and `\C-?' give the characters NULL and
delete), a character code in octal is represented by ` \NNN'
(instead of ` \0NNN'), and ` \E' is a synonym for
`\e'. Finally, if not in an escape sequence, ` \' escapes
the following character and is not printed.
- -a
- Print arguments with the column incrementing first. Only useful with the
-c and -C options.
- -b
- Recognize all the escape sequences defined for the bindkey command,
see the section `Zle Builtins' in zshzle(1).
- -c
- Print the arguments in columns. Unless -a is also given, arguments
are printed with the row incrementing first.
- -C cols
- Print the arguments in cols columns. Unless -a is also
given, arguments are printed with the row incrementing first.
- -D
- Treat the arguments as paths, replacing directory prefixes with ~
expressions corresponding to directory names, as appropriate.
- -i
- If given together with -o or -O, sorting is performed
case-independently.
- -l
- Print the arguments separated by newlines instead of spaces.
- -m
- Take the first argument as a pattern (should be quoted), and remove it
from the argument list together with subsequent arguments that do not
match this pattern.
- -n
- Do not add a newline to the output.
- -N
- Print the arguments separated and terminated by nulls.
- -o
- Print the arguments sorted in ascending order.
- -O
- Print the arguments sorted in descending order.
- -p
- Print the arguments to the input of the coprocess.
- -P
- Perform prompt expansion (see EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in
zshmisc(1)). In combination with ` -f', prompt escape
sequences are parsed only within interpolated arguments, not within the
format string.
- -r
- Ignore the escape conventions of echo.
- -R
- Emulate the BSD echo command, which does not process escape
sequences unless the -e flag is given. The -n flag
suppresses the trailing newline. Only the -e and -n flags
are recognized after -R; all other arguments and options are
printed.
- -s
- Place the results in the history list instead of on the standard output.
Each argument to the print command is treated as a single word in
the history, regardless of its content.
- -S
- Place the results in the history list instead of on the standard output.
In this case only a single argument is allowed; it will be split into
words as if it were a full shell command line. The effect is similar to
reading the line from a history file with the HIST_LEX_WORDS option
active.
- -u n
- Print the arguments to file descriptor n.
- -v name
- Store the printed arguments as the value of the parameter
name.
- -x tab-stop
- Expand leading tabs on each line of output in the printed string assuming
a tab stop every tab-stop characters. This is appropriate for
formatting code that may be indented with tabs. Note that leading tabs of
any argument to print, not just the first, are expanded, even if
print is using spaces to separate arguments (the column count is
maintained across arguments but may be incorrect on output owing to
previous unexpanded tabs).
The start of the output of each print command is assumed to be aligned with a
tab stop. Widths of multibyte characters are handled if the option
MULTIBYTE is in effect. This option is ignored if other formatting
options are in effect, namely column alignment or
printf style, or if
output is to a special location such as shell history or the command line
editor.
- -X tab-stop
- This is similar to -x, except that all tabs in the printed string
are expanded. This is appropriate if tabs in the arguments are being used
to produce a table format.
- -z
- Push the arguments onto the editing buffer stack, separated by
spaces.
If any of `
-m', `
-o' or `
-O' are used in combination with
`
-f' and there are no arguments (after the removal process in the case
of `
-m') then nothing is printed.
- printf [ -v name ] format [ arg ... ]
- Print the arguments according to the format specification. Formatting
rules are the same as used in C. The same escape sequences as for
echo are recognised in the format. All C conversion specifications
ending in one of csdiouxXeEfgGn are handled. In addition to this,
`%b' can be used instead of ` %s' to cause escape sequences
in the argument to be recognised and ` %q' can be used to quote the
argument in such a way that allows it to be reused as shell input. With
the numeric format specifiers, if the corresponding argument starts with a
quote character, the numeric value of the following character is used as
the number to print; otherwise the argument is evaluated as an arithmetic
expression. See the section `Arithmetic Evaluation' in zshmisc(1)
for a description of arithmetic expressions. With ` %n', the
corresponding argument is taken as an identifier which is created as an
integer parameter.
Normally, conversion specifications are applied to each argument in order but
they can explicitly specify the
nth argument is to be used by replacing
`
%' by `
%n$' and `
*' by
`
*n$'. It is recommended that you do not mix references
of this explicit style with the normal style and the handling of such mixed
styles may be subject to future change.
If arguments remain unused after formatting, the format string is reused until
all arguments have been consumed. With the
print builtin, this can be
suppressed by using the
-r option. If more arguments are required by
the format than have been specified, the behaviour is as if zero or an empty
string had been specified as the argument.
The
-v option causes the output to be stored as the value of the
parameter
name, instead of printed. If
name is an array and the
format string is reused when consuming arguments then one array element will
be used for each use of the format string.
- pushd [ -qsLP ] [ arg ]
- pushd [ -qsLP ] old new
- pushd [ -qsLP ] {+|-}n
- Change the current directory, and push the old current directory onto the
directory stack. In the first form, change the current directory to
arg. If arg is not specified, change to the second directory
on the stack (that is, exchange the top two entries), or change to
$HOME if the PUSHD_TO_HOME option is set or if there is only
one entry on the stack. Otherwise, arg is interpreted as it would
be by cd. The meaning of old and new in the second
form is also the same as for cd.
The third form of
pushd changes directory by rotating the directory list.
An argument of the form `
+n' identifies a stack entry by
counting from the left of the list shown by the
dirs command, starting
with zero. An argument of the form `
-n' counts from the right.
If the
PUSHD_MINUS option is set, the meanings of `
+' and
`
-' in this context are swapped.
If the
-q (quiet) option is specified, the hook function
chpwd and
the functions in the array
$chpwd_functions are not called, and the new
directory stack is not printed. This is useful for calls to
pushd that
do not change the environment seen by an interactive user.
If the option
-q is not specified and the shell option
PUSHD_SILENT is not set, the directory stack will be printed after a
pushd is performed.
The options
-s,
-L and
-P have the same meanings as for the
cd builtin.
- pushln [ arg ... ]
- Equivalent to print -nz.
- pwd [ -rLP ]
- Print the absolute pathname of the current working directory. If the
-r or the -P flag is specified, or the CHASE_LINKS
option is set and the -L flag is not given, the printed path will
not contain symbolic links.
- r
- Same as fc -e -.
- read [ -rszpqAclneE ] [ -t [ num ] ] [
-k [ num ] ] [ -d delim ]
- [ -u n ] [ name[?prompt] ] [
name ... ]
- Read one line and break it into fields using the characters in $IFS
as separators, except as noted below. The first field is assigned to the
first name, the second field to the second name, etc., with
leftover fields assigned to the last name. If name is
omitted then REPLY is used for scalars and reply for
arrays.
- -r
- Raw mode: a `\' at the end of a line does not signify line
continuation and backslashes in the line don't quote the following
character and are not removed.
- -s
- Don't echo back characters if reading from the terminal.
- -q
- Read only one character from the terminal and set name to `
y' if this character was ` y' or `Y' and to
`n' otherwise. With this flag set the return status is zero only if
the character was ` y' or `Y'. This option may be used with
a timeout (see -t); if the read times out, or encounters end of
file, status 2 is returned. Input is read from the terminal unless one of
-u or -p is present. This option may also be used within zle
widgets.
- -k [ num ]
- Read only one (or num) characters. All are assigned to the first
name, without word splitting. This flag is ignored when -q
is present. Input is read from the terminal unless one of -u or
-p is present. This option may also be used within zle
widgets.
Note that despite the mnemonic `key' this option does read full characters,
which may consist of multiple bytes if the option
MULTIBYTE is
set.
- -z
- Read one entry from the editor buffer stack and assign it to the first
name, without word splitting. Text is pushed onto the stack with `
print -z' or with push-line from the line editor (see
zshzle(1)). This flag is ignored when the -k or -q
flags are present.
- -e
- -E
- The input read is printed (echoed) to the standard output. If the
-e flag is used, no input is assigned to the parameters.
- -A
- The first name is taken as the name of an array and all words are
assigned to it.
- -c
- -l
- These flags are allowed only if called inside a function used for
completion (specified with the -K flag to compctl). If the
-c flag is given, the words of the current command are read. If the
-l flag is given, the whole line is assigned as a scalar. If both
flags are present, -l is used and -c is ignored.
- -n
- Together with -c, the number of the word the cursor is on is read.
With -l, the index of the character the cursor is on is read. Note
that the command name is word number 1, not word 0, and that when the
cursor is at the end of the line, its character index is the length of the
line plus one.
- -u n
- Input is read from file descriptor n.
- -p
- Input is read from the coprocess.
- -d delim
- Input is terminated by the first character of delim instead of by
newline.
- -t [ num ]
- Test if input is available before attempting to read. If num is
present, it must begin with a digit and will be evaluated to give a number
of seconds, which may be a floating point number; in this case the read
times out if input is not available within this time. If num is not
present, it is taken to be zero, so that read returns immediately
if no input is available. If no input is available, return status 1 and do
not set any variables.
This option is not available when reading from the editor buffer with
-z, when called from within completion with -c or -l,
with -q which clears the input queue before reading, or within zle
where other mechanisms should be used to test for input.
Note that read does not attempt to alter the input processing mode. The
default mode is canonical input, in which an entire line is read at a
time, so usually ` read -t' will not read anything until an entire
line has been typed. However, when reading from the terminal with
-k input is processed one key at a time; in this case, only
availability of the first character is tested, so that e.g. ` read -t
-k 2' can still block on the second character. Use two instances of `
read -t -k' if this is not what is wanted.
If the first argument contains a `
?', the remainder of this word is used
as a
prompt on standard error when the shell is interactive.
The value (exit status) of
read is 1 when an end-of-file is encountered,
or when
-c or
-l is present and the command is not called from a
compctl function, or as described for
-q. Otherwise the value is
0.
The behavior of some combinations of the
-k,
-p,
-q,
-u and
-z flags is undefined. Presently
-q cancels all
the others,
-p cancels
-u,
-k cancels
-z, and
otherwise
-z cancels both
-p and
-u.
The
-c or
-l flags cancel any and all of
-kpquz.
- readonly
- Same as typeset -r. With the POSIX_BUILTINS option set, same
as typeset -gr.
- rehash
- Same as hash -r.
- return [ n ]
- Causes a shell function or `.' script to return to the invoking
script with the return status specified by an arithmetic expression
n. If n is omitted, the return status is that of the last
command executed.
If
return was executed from a trap in a
TRAPNAL function,
the effect is different for zero and non-zero return status. With zero status
(or after an implicit return at the end of the trap), the shell will return to
whatever it was previously processing; with a non-zero status, the shell will
behave as interrupted except that the return status of the trap is retained.
Note that the numeric value of the signal which caused the trap is passed as
the first argument, so the statement `
return $((128+$1))' will return
the same status as if the signal had not been trapped.
- sched
- See the section `The zsh/sched Module' in zshmodules(1).
- set [ {+|-}options |
{+|-}o [ option_name ] ] ... [
{+|-} A [ name ] ]
- [ arg ... ]
- Set the options for the shell and/or set the positional parameters, or
declare and set an array. If the -s option is given, it causes the
specified arguments to be sorted before assigning them to the positional
parameters (or to the array name if -A is used). With
+s sort arguments in descending order. For the meaning of the other
flags, see zshoptions(1). Flags may be specified by name using the
-o option. If no option name is supplied with -o, the
current option states are printed: see the description of setopt
below for more information on the format. With +o they are printed
in a form that can be used as input to the shell.
If the
-A flag is specified,
name is set to an array containing
the given
args; if no
name is specified, all arrays are printed
together with their values.
If
+A is used and
name is an array, the given arguments will
replace the initial elements of that array; if no
name is specified,
all arrays are printed without their values.
The behaviour of arguments after
-A name or
+A name
depends on whether the option
KSH_ARRAYS is set. If it is not set, all
arguments following
name are treated as values for the array,
regardless of their form. If the option is set, normal option processing
continues at that point; only regular arguments are treated as values for the
array. This means that
sets
array to `
-x -- foo' if
KSH_ARRAYS is not set,
but sets the array to
foo and turns on the option `
-x' if it is
set.
If the
-A flag is not present, but there are arguments beyond the
options, the positional parameters are set. If the option list (if any) is
terminated by `
--', and there are no further arguments, the
positional parameters will be unset.
If no arguments and no `
--' are given, then the names and values
of all parameters are printed on the standard output. If the only argument is
`
+', the names of all parameters are printed.
For historical reasons, `
set -' is treated as `
set +xv' and `
set - args' as `
set +xv -- args' when in any other
emulation mode than zsh's native mode.
- setcap
- See the section `The zsh/cap Module' in zshmodules(1).
- setopt [ {+|-}options |
{+|-}o option_name ] [ -m ] [ name
... ]
- Set the options for the shell. All options specified either with flags or
by name are set.
If no arguments are supplied, the names of all options currently set are
printed. The form is chosen so as to minimize the differences from the default
options for the current emulation (the default emulation being native
zsh, shown as
<Z> in
zshoptions(1)). Options that
are on by default for the emulation are shown with the prefix
no only
if they are off, while other options are shown without the prefix
no
and only if they are on. In addition to options changed from the default state
by the user, any options activated automatically by the shell (for example,
SHIN_STDIN or
INTERACTIVE) will be shown in the list. The format
is further modified by the option
KSH_OPTION_PRINT, however the
rationale for choosing options with or without the
no prefix remains
the same in this case.
If the
-m flag is given the arguments are taken as patterns (which should
be quoted to protect them from filename expansion), and all options with names
matching these patterns are set.
Note that a bad option name does not cause execution of subsequent shell code to
be aborted; this is behaviour is different from that of `
set
-o'. This is because
set is regarded as a special builtin by the
POSIX standard, but
setopt is not.
- shift [ -p ] [ n ] [ name ... ]
- The positional parameters ${n+1} ... are renamed to
$1 ..., where n is an arithmetic expression that defaults to
1. If any names are given then the arrays with these names are
shifted instead of the positional parameters.
If the option
-p is given arguments are instead removed (popped) from the
end rather than the start of the array.
- source file [ arg ... ]
- Same as `.', except that the current directory is always searched
and is always searched first, before directories in $path.
- stat
- See the section `The zsh/stat Module' in zshmodules(1).
- suspend [ -f ]
- Suspend the execution of the shell (send it a SIGTSTP) until it
receives a SIGCONT. Unless the -f option is given, this will
refuse to suspend a login shell.
- test [ arg ... ]
- [ [ arg ... ] ]
- Like the system version of test. Added for compatibility; use
conditional expressions instead (see the section `Conditional
Expressions'). The main differences between the conditional expression
syntax and the test and [ builtins are: these commands are
not handled syntactically, so for example an empty variable expansion may
cause an argument to be omitted; syntax errors cause status 2 to be
returned instead of a shell error; and arithmetic operators expect integer
arguments rather than arithmetic expressions.
The command attempts to implement POSIX and its extensions where these are
specified. Unfortunately there are intrinsic ambiguities in the syntax; in
particular there is no distinction between test operators and strings that
resemble them. The standard attempts to resolve these for small numbers of
arguments (up to four); for five or more arguments compatibility cannot be
relied on. Users are urged wherever possible to use the `
[[' test
syntax which does not have these ambiguities.
- times
- Print the accumulated user and system times for the shell and for
processes run from the shell.
- trap [ arg ] [ sig ... ]
- arg is a series of commands (usually quoted to protect it from
immediate evaluation by the shell) to be read and executed when the shell
receives any of the signals specified by one or more sig args. Each
sig can be given as a number, or as the name of a signal either
with or without the string SIG in front (e.g. 1, HUP, and SIGHUP
are all the same signal).
If
arg is `
-', then the specified signals are reset to their
defaults, or, if no
sig args are present, all traps are reset.
If
arg is an empty string, then the specified signals are ignored by the
shell (and by the commands it invokes).
If
arg is omitted but one or more
sig args are provided (i.e. the
first argument is a valid signal number or name), the effect is the same as if
arg had been specified as `
-'.
The
trap command with no arguments prints a list of commands associated
with each signal.
If
sig is
ZERR then
arg will be executed after each command
with a nonzero exit status.
ERR is an alias for
ZERR on systems
that have no
SIGERR signal (this is the usual case).
If
sig is
DEBUG then
arg will be executed before each
command if the option
DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD is set (as it is by default),
else after each command. Here, a `command' is what is described as a `sublist'
in the shell grammar, see the section SIMPLE COMMANDS & PIPELINES in
zshmisc(1). If
DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD is set various additional
features are available. First, it is possible to skip the next command by
setting the option
ERR_EXIT; see the description of the
ERR_EXIT
option in
zshoptions(1). Also, the shell parameter
ZSH_DEBUG_CMD
is set to the string corresponding to the command to be executed following the
trap. Note that this string is reconstructed from the internal format and may
not be formatted the same way as the original text. The parameter is unset
after the trap is executed.
If
sig is
0 or
EXIT and the
trap statement is
executed inside the body of a function, then the command
arg is
executed after the function completes. The value of
$? at the start of
execution is the exit status of the shell or the return status of the function
exiting. If
sig is
0 or
EXIT and the
trap
statement is not executed inside the body of a function, then the command
arg is executed when the shell terminates; the trap runs before any
zshexit hook functions.
ZERR,
DEBUG, and
EXIT traps are not executed inside other
traps.
ZERR and
DEBUG traps are kept within subshells, while
other traps are reset.
Note that traps defined with the
trap builtin are slightly different from
those defined as `
TRAPNAL () { ... }', as the latter have their
own function environment (line numbers, local variables, etc.) while the
former use the environment of the command in which they were called. For
example,
trap 'print $LINENO' DEBUG
will print the line number of a command executed after it has run, while
TRAPDEBUG() { print $LINENO; }
will always print the number zero.
Alternative signal names are allowed as described under
kill above.
Defining a trap under either name causes any trap under an alternative name to
be removed. However, it is recommended that for consistency users stick
exclusively to one name or another.
- true [ arg ... ]
- Do nothing and return an exit status of 0.
- ttyctl [ -fu ]
- The -f option freezes the tty (i.e. terminal or terminal emulator),
and -u unfreezes it. When the tty is frozen, no changes made to the
tty settings by external programs will be honored by the shell, except for
changes in the size of the screen; the shell will simply reset the
settings to their previous values as soon as each command exits or is
suspended. Thus, stty and similar programs have no effect when the
tty is frozen. Freezing the tty does not cause the current state to be
remembered: instead, it causes future changes to the state to be
blocked.
Without options it reports whether the terminal is frozen or not.
Note that, regardless of whether the tty is frozen or not, the shell needs to
change the settings when the line editor starts, so unfreezing the tty does
not guarantee settings made on the command line are preserved. Strings of
commands run between editing the command line will see a consistent tty state.
See also the shell variable
STTY for a means of initialising the tty
before running external commands.
- type [ -wfpamsS ] name ...
- Equivalent to whence -v.
- typeset [ {+|-}AHUaghlmrtux ] [
{+|-} EFLRZip [ n ] ]
- [ + ] [ name[=value] ... ]
- typeset -T [ {+|-}Uglrux ] [
{+|-}LRZp [ n ] ]
- [ + | SCALAR[=value]
array[=( value ...)] [ sep ] ]
- typeset -f [ {+|-}TUkmtuz ] [ +
] [ name ... ]
- Set or display attributes and values for shell parameters.
Except as noted below for control flags that change the behavior, a parameter is
created for each
name that does not already refer to one. When inside a
function, a new parameter is created for every
name (even those that
already exist), and is unset again when the function completes. See `Local
Parameters' in
zshparam(1). The same rules apply to special shell
parameters, which retain their special attributes when made local.
For each
name=value assignment, the parameter
name
is set to
value.
If the shell option
TYPESET_SILENT is not set, for each remaining
name that refers to a parameter that is already set, the name and value
of the parameter are printed in the form of an assignment. Nothing is printed
for newly-created parameters, or when any attribute flags listed below are
given along with the
name. Using `
+' instead of minus to
introduce an attribute turns it off.
If no
name is present, the names and values of all parameters are
printed. In this case the attribute flags restrict the display to only those
parameters that have the specified attributes, and using `
+' rather
than `
-' to introduce the flag suppresses printing of the values of
parameters when there is no parameter name.
All forms of the command handle scalar assignment. Array assignment is possible
if any of the reserved words
declare,
export,
float,
integer,
local,
readonly or
typeset is matched
when the line is parsed (N.B. not when it is executed). In this case the
arguments are parsed as assignments, except that the `
+=' syntax and
the
GLOB_ASSIGN option are not supported, and scalar values after
= are
not split further into words, even if expanded (regardless
of the setting of the
KSH_TYPESET option; this option is obsolete).
Examples of the differences between command and reserved word parsing:
# Reserved word parsing
typeset svar=$(echo one word) avar=(several words)
The above creates a scalar parameter
svar and an array parameter
avar as if the assignments had been
svar="one word"
avar=(several words)
On the other hand:
# Normal builtin interface
builtin typeset svar=$(echo two words)
The
builtin keyword causes the above to use the standard builtin
interface to
typeset in which argument parsing is performed in the same
way as for other commands. This example creates a scalar
svar
containing the value
two and another scalar parameter
words with
no value. An array value in this case would either cause an error or be
treated as an obscure set of glob qualifiers.
Arbitrary arguments are allowed if they take the form of assignments after
command line expansion; however, these only perform scalar assignment:
var='svar=val'
typeset $var
The above sets the scalar parameter
svar to the value
val.
Parentheses around the value within
var would not cause array
assignment as they will be treated as ordinary characters when
$var is
substituted. Any non-trivial expansion in the name part of the assignment
causes the argument to be treated in this fashion:
typeset {var1,var2,var3}=name
The above syntax is valid, and has the expected effect of setting the three
parameters to the same value, but the command line is parsed as a set of three
normal command line arguments to
typeset after expansion. Hence it is
not possible to assign to multiple arrays by this means.
Note that each interface to any of the commands my be disabled separately. For
example, `
disable -r typeset' disables the reserved word interface to
typeset, exposing the builtin interface, while `
disable
typeset' disables the builtin. Note that disabling the reserved word
interface for
typeset may cause problems with the output of `
typeset -p', which assumes the reserved word interface is available in
order to restore array and associative array values.
Unlike parameter assignment statements,
typeset's exit status on an
assignment that involves a command substitution does not reflect the exit
status of the command substitution. Therefore, to test for an error in a
command substitution, separate the declaration of the parameter from its
initialization:
# WRONG
typeset var1=$(exit 1) || echo "Trouble with var1"
# RIGHT
typeset var1 && var1=$(exit 1) || echo "Trouble with var1"
To initialize a parameter
param to a command output and mark it readonly,
use
typeset -r param or
readonly param after the
parameter assignment statement.
If no attribute flags are given, and either no
name arguments are present
or the flag
+m is used, then each parameter name printed is preceded by
a list of the attributes of that parameter (
array,
association,
exported,
float,
integer,
readonly, or
undefined for autoloaded parameters not yet loaded). If
+m is
used with attribute flags, and all those flags are introduced with
+,
the matching parameter names are printed but their values are not.
The following control flags change the behavior of
typeset:
- +
- If `+' appears by itself in a separate word as the last option,
then the names of all parameters (functions with -f) are printed,
but the values (function bodies) are not. No name arguments may
appear, and it is an error for any other options to follow ` +'.
The effect of ` +' is as if all attribute flags which precede it
were given with a ` +' prefix. For example, `typeset -U +'
is equivalent to ` typeset +U' and displays the names of all arrays
having the uniqueness attribute, whereas ` typeset -f -U +'
displays the names of all autoloadable functions. If + is the only
option, then type information (array, readonly, etc.) is also printed for
each parameter, in the same manner as ` typeset +m
"*"'.
- -g
- The -g (global) means that any resulting parameter will not be
restricted to local scope. Note that this does not necessarily mean that
the parameter will be global, as the flag will apply to any existing
parameter (even if unset) from an enclosing function. This flag does not
affect the parameter after creation, hence it has no effect when listing
existing parameters, nor does the flag +g have any effect except in
combination with -m (see below).
- -m
- If the -m flag is given the name arguments are taken as
patterns (use quoting to prevent these from being interpreted as file
patterns). With no attribute flags, all parameters (or functions with the
-f flag) with matching names are printed (the shell option
TYPESET_SILENT is not used in this case).
If the
+g flag is combined with
-m, a new local parameter is
created for every matching parameter that is not already local. Otherwise
-m applies all other flags or assignments to the existing parameters.
Except when assignments are made with
name=value, using
+m forces the matching parameters and their attributes to be printed,
even inside a function. Note that
-m is ignored if no patterns are
given, so `
typeset -m' displays attributes but `
typeset -a +m'
does not.
- -p [ n ]
- If the -p option is given, parameters and values are printed in the
form of a typeset command with an assignment, regardless of other flags
and options. Note that the -H flag on parameters is respected; no
value will be shown for these parameters.
-p may be followed by an optional integer argument. Currently only the
value
1 is supported. In this case arrays and associative arrays are
printed with newlines between indented elements for readability.
- -T [ scalar[=value]
array[=(value ... )] [ sep ] ]
- This flag has a different meaning when used with -f; see below.
Otherwise the -T option requires zero, two, or three arguments to
be present. With no arguments, the list of parameters created in this
fashion is shown. With two or three arguments, the first two are the name
of a scalar and of an array parameter (in that order) that will be tied
together in the manner of $PATH and $path. The optional
third argument is a single-character separator which will be used to join
the elements of the array to form the scalar; if absent, a colon is used,
as with $PATH. Only the first character of the separator is
significant; any remaining characters are ignored. Multibyte characters
are not yet supported.
Only one of the scalar and array parameters may be assigned an initial value
(the restrictions on assignment forms described above also apply).
Both the scalar and the array may be manipulated as normal. If one is unset, the
other will automatically be unset too. There is no way of untying the
variables without unsetting them, nor of converting the type of one of them
with another
typeset command;
+T does not work, assigning an
array to
scalar is an error, and assigning a scalar to
array
sets it to be a single-element array.
Note that both `
typeset -xT ...' and `
export -T ...' work, but
only the scalar will be marked for export. Setting the value using the scalar
version causes a split on all separators (which cannot be quoted). It is
possible to apply
-T to two previously tied variables but with a
different separator character, in which case the variables remain joined as
before but the separator is changed.
Attribute flags that transform the final value (
-L,
-R,
-Z,
-l,
-u) are only applied to the expanded value at the
point of a parameter expansion expression using `
$'. They are not
applied when a parameter is retrieved internally by the shell for any purpose.
The following attribute flags may be specified:
- -A
- The names refer to associative array parameters; see `Array Parameters' in
zshparam(1).
- -L [ n ]
- Left justify and remove leading blanks from the value when the parameter
is expanded. If n is nonzero, it defines the width of the field. If
n is zero, the width is determined by the width of the value of the
first assignment. In the case of numeric parameters, the length of the
complete value assigned to the parameter is used to determine the width,
not the value that would be output.
The width is the count of characters, which may be multibyte characters if the
MULTIBYTE option is in effect. Note that the screen width of the
character is not taken into account; if this is required, use padding with
parameter expansion flags
${(ml...)...} as
described in `Parameter Expansion Flags' in
zshexpn(1).
When the parameter is expanded, it is filled on the right with blanks or
truncated if necessary to fit the field. Note truncation can lead to
unexpected results with numeric parameters. Leading zeros are removed if the
-Z flag is also set.
- -R [ n ]
- Similar to -L, except that right justification is used; when the
parameter is expanded, the field is left filled with blanks or truncated
from the end. May not be combined with the -Z flag.
- -U
- For arrays (but not for associative arrays), keep only the first
occurrence of each duplicated value. This may also be set for
colon-separated special parameters like PATH or FIGNORE,
etc. Note the flag takes effect on assignment, and the type of the
variable being assigned to is determinative; for variables with shared
values it is therefore recommended to set the flag for all interfaces,
e.g. ` typeset -U PATH path'.
This flag has a different meaning when used with
-f; see below.
- -Z [ n ]
- Specially handled if set along with the -L flag. Otherwise, similar
to -R, except that leading zeros are used for padding instead of
blanks if the first non-blank character is a digit. Numeric parameters are
specially handled: they are always eligible for padding with zeroes, and
the zeroes are inserted at an appropriate place in the output.
- -a
- The names refer to array parameters. An array parameter may be created
this way, but it may be assigned to in the typeset statement only
if the reserved word form of typeset is enabled (as it is by
default). When displaying, both normal and associative arrays are
shown.
- -f
- The names refer to functions rather than parameters. No assignments can be
made, and the only other valid flags are -t, -T, -k,
-u, -U and -z. The flag -t turns on execution
tracing for this function; the flag -T does the same, but turns off
tracing for any named (not anonymous) function called from the present
one, unless that function also has the -t or -T flag. The
-u and -U flags cause the function to be marked for
autoloading; -U also causes alias expansion to be suppressed when
the function is loaded. See the description of the ` autoload'
builtin for details.
Note that the builtin
functions provides the same basic capabilities as
typeset -f but gives access to a few extra options;
autoload
gives further additional options for the case
typeset -fu and
typeset -fU.
- -h
- Hide: only useful for special parameters (those marked `<S>' in the
table in zshparam(1)), and for local parameters with the same name
as a special parameter, though harmless for others. A special parameter
with this attribute will not retain its special effect when made local.
Thus after ` typeset -h PATH', a function containing
`typeset PATH' will create an ordinary local parameter without the
usual behaviour of PATH. Alternatively, the local parameter may
itself be given this attribute; hence inside a function ` typeset -h
PATH' creates an ordinary local parameter and the special PATH
parameter is not altered in any way. It is also possible to create a local
parameter using ` typeset +h special', where the local copy
of special will retain its special properties regardless of having
the -h attribute. Global special parameters loaded from shell
modules (currently those in zsh/mapfile and zsh/parameter)
are automatically given the -h attribute to avoid name
clashes.
- -H
- Hide value: specifies that typeset will not display the value of
the parameter when listing parameters; the display for such parameters is
always as if the ` +' flag had been given. Use of the parameter is
in other respects normal, and the option does not apply if the parameter
is specified by name, or by pattern with the -m option. This is on
by default for the parameters in the zsh/parameter and
zsh/mapfile modules. Note, however, that unlike the -h flag
this is also useful for non-special parameters.
- -i [ n ]
- Use an internal integer representation. If n is nonzero it defines
the output arithmetic base, otherwise it is determined by the first
assignment. Bases from 2 to 36 inclusive are allowed.
- -E [ n ]
- Use an internal double-precision floating point representation. On output
the variable will be converted to scientific notation. If n is
nonzero it defines the number of significant figures to display; the
default is ten.
- -F [ n ]
- Use an internal double-precision floating point representation. On output
the variable will be converted to fixed-point decimal notation. If
n is nonzero it defines the number of digits to display after the
decimal point; the default is ten.
- -l
- Convert the result to lower case whenever the parameter is expanded. The
value is not converted when assigned.
- -r
- The given names are marked readonly. Note that if name is a
special parameter, the readonly attribute can be turned on, but cannot
then be turned off.
If the
POSIX_BUILTINS option is set, the readonly attribute is more
restrictive: unset variables can be marked readonly and cannot then be set;
furthermore, the readonly attribute cannot be removed from any variable. Note
that in zsh (unlike other shells) it is still possible to create a local
variable of the same name as this is considered a different variable (though
this variable, too, can be marked readonly).
- -t
- Tags the named parameters. Tags have no special meaning to the shell. This
flag has a different meaning when used with -f; see above.
- -u
- Convert the result to upper case whenever the parameter is expanded. The
value is not converted when assigned. This flag has a different
meaning when used with -f; see above.
- -x
- Mark for automatic export to the environment of subsequently executed
commands. If the option GLOBAL_EXPORT is set, this implies the
option -g, unless +g is also explicitly given; in other
words the parameter is not made local to the enclosing function. This is
for compatibility with previous versions of zsh.
- ulimit [ -HSa ] [ { -bcdfiklmnpqrsTtvwx | -N
resource } [ limit ] ... ]
- Set or display resource limits of the shell and the processes started by
the shell. The value of limit can be a number in the unit specified
below or one of the values ` unlimited', which removes the limit on
the resource, or ` hard', which uses the current value of the hard
limit on the resource.
By default, only soft limits are manipulated. If the
-H flag is given use
hard limits instead of soft limits. If the
-S flag is given together
with the
-H flag set both hard and soft limits.
If no options are used, the file size limit (
-f) is assumed.
If
limit is omitted the current value of the specified resources are
printed. When more than one resource value is printed, the limit name and unit
is printed before each value.
When looping over multiple resources, the shell will abort immediately if it
detects a badly formed argument. However, if it fails to set a limit for some
other reason it will continue trying to set the remaining limits.
Not all the following resources are supported on all systems. Running
ulimit
-a will show which are supported.
- -a
- Lists all of the current resource limits.
- -b
- Socket buffer size in bytes (N.B. not kilobytes)
- -c
- 512-byte blocks on the size of core dumps.
- -d
- Kilobytes on the size of the data segment.
- -f
- 512-byte blocks on the size of files written.
- -i
- The number of pending signals.
- -k
- The number of kqueues allocated.
- -l
- Kilobytes on the size of locked-in memory.
- -m
- Kilobytes on the size of physical memory.
- -n
- open file descriptors.
- -p
- The number of pseudo-terminals.
- -q
- Bytes in POSIX message queues.
- -r
- Maximum real time priority. On some systems where this is not available,
such as NetBSD, this has the same effect as -T for compatibility
with sh.
- -s
- Kilobytes on the size of the stack.
- -T
- The number of simultaneous threads available to the user.
- -t
- CPU seconds to be used.
- -u
- The number of processes available to the user.
- -v
- Kilobytes on the size of virtual memory. On some systems this refers to
the limit called `address space'.
- -w
- Kilobytes on the size of swapped out memory.
- -x
- The number of locks on files.
A resource may also be specified by integer in the form `
-N
resource', where
resource corresponds to the integer defined for
the resource by the operating system. This may be used to set the limits for
resources known to the shell which do not correspond to option letters. Such
limits will be shown by number in the output of `
ulimit -a'.
The number may alternatively be out of the range of limits compiled into the
shell. The shell will try to read or write the limit anyway, and will report
an error if this fails.
- umask [ -S ] [ mask ]
- The umask is set to mask. mask can be either an octal number
or a symbolic value as described in chmod(1). If mask is
omitted, the current value is printed. The -S option causes the
mask to be printed as a symbolic value. Otherwise, the mask is printed as
an octal number. Note that in the symbolic form the permissions you
specify are those which are to be allowed (not denied) to the users
specified.
- unalias [ -ams ] name ...
- Removes aliases. This command works the same as unhash -a, except
that the -a option removes all regular or global aliases, or with
-s all suffix aliases: in this case no name arguments may
appear. The options -m (remove by pattern) and -s without
-a (remove listed suffix aliases) behave as for unhash -a.
Note that the meaning of -a is different between unalias and
unhash.
- unfunction
- Same as unhash -f.
- unhash [ -adfms ] name ...
- Remove the element named name from an internal hash table. The
default is remove elements from the command hash table. The -a
option causes unhash to remove regular or global aliases; note when
removing a global aliases that the argument must be quoted to prevent it
from being expanded before being passed to the command. The -s
option causes unhash to remove suffix aliases. The -f option
causes unhash to remove shell functions. The -d options
causes unhash to remove named directories. If the -m flag is
given the arguments are taken as patterns (should be quoted) and all
elements of the corresponding hash table with matching names will be
removed.
- unlimit [ -hs ] resource ...
- The resource limit for each resource is set to the hard limit. If
the -h flag is given and the shell has appropriate privileges, the
hard resource limit for each resource is removed. The resources of
the shell process are only changed if the -s flag is given.
The
unlimit command is not made available by default when the shell
starts in a mode emulating another shell. It can be made available with the
command `
zmodload -F zsh/rlimits b:unlimit'.
- unset [ -fmv ] name ...
- Each named parameter is unset. Local parameters remain local even if
unset; they appear unset within scope, but the previous value will still
reappear when the scope ends.
Individual elements of associative array parameters may be unset by using
subscript syntax on
name, which should be quoted (or the entire command
prefixed with
noglob) to protect the subscript from filename
generation.
If the
-m flag is specified the arguments are taken as patterns (should
be quoted) and all parameters with matching names are unset. Note that this
cannot be used when unsetting associative array elements, as the subscript
will be treated as part of the pattern.
The
-v flag specifies that
name refers to parameters. This is the
default behaviour.
unset -f is equivalent to
unfunction.
- unsetopt [ {+|-}options |
{+|-}o option_name ] [ name ... ]
- Unset the options for the shell. All options specified either with flags
or by name are unset. If no arguments are supplied, the names of all
options currently unset are printed. If the -m flag is given the
arguments are taken as patterns (which should be quoted to preserve them
from being interpreted as glob patterns), and all options with names
matching these patterns are unset.
- vared
- See the section `Zle Builtins' in zshzle(1).
- wait [ job ... ]
- Wait for the specified jobs or processes. If job is not given then
all currently active child processes are waited for. Each job can
be either a job specification or the process ID of a job in the job table.
The exit status from this command is that of the job waited for.
It is possible to wait for recent processes (specified by process ID, not by
job) that were running in the background even if the process has exited.
Typically the process ID will be recorded by capturing the value of the
variable
$! immediately after the process has been started. There is a
limit on the number of process IDs remembered by the shell; this is given by
the value of the system configuration parameter
CHILD_MAX. When this
limit is reached, older process IDs are discarded, least recently started
processes first.
Note there is no protection against the process ID wrapping, i.e. if the wait is
not executed soon enough there is a chance the process waited for is the wrong
one. A conflict implies both process IDs have been generated by the shell, as
other processes are not recorded, and that the user is potentially interested
in both, so this problem is intrinsic to process IDs.
- whence [ -vcwfpamsS ] [ -x num ] name
...
- For each name, indicate how it would be interpreted if used as a
command name.
whence is most useful when
name is only the last path component of
a command, i.e. does not include a `
/'; in particular, pattern
matching only succeeds if just the non-directory component of the command is
passed.
- -v
- Produce a more verbose report.
- -c
- Print the results in a csh-like format. This takes precedence over
-v.
- -w
- For each name, print `name: word' where
word is one of alias, builtin, command,
function, hashed, reserved or none, according
as name corresponds to an alias, a built-in command, an external
command, a shell function, a command defined with the hash builtin,
a reserved word, or is not recognised. This takes precedence over
-v and -c.
- -f
- Causes the contents of a shell function to be displayed, which would
otherwise not happen unless the -c flag were used.
- -p
- Do a path search for name even if it is an alias, reserved word,
shell function or builtin.
- -a
- Do a search for all occurrences of name throughout the command
path. Normally only the first occurrence is printed.
- -m
- The arguments are taken as patterns (pattern characters should be quoted),
and the information is displayed for each command matching one of these
patterns.
- -s
- If a pathname contains symlinks, print the symlink-free pathname as
well.
- -S
- As -s, but if the pathname had to be resolved by following multiple
symlinks, the intermediate steps are printed, too. The symlink resolved at
each step might be anywhere in the path.
- -x num
- Expand tabs when outputting shell functions using the -c option.
This has the same effect as the -x option to the functions
builtin.
- where [ -wpmsS ] [ -x num ] name
...
- Equivalent to whence -ca.
- which [ -wpamsS ] [ -x num ] name
...
- Equivalent to whence -c.
- zcompile [ -U ] [ -z | -k ] [ -R |
-M ] file [ name ... ]
- zcompile -ca [ -m ] [ -R | -M ]
file [ name ... ]
- zcompile -t file [ name ... ]
- This builtin command can be used to compile functions or scripts, storing
the compiled form in a file, and to examine files containing the compiled
form. This allows faster autoloading of functions and sourcing of scripts
by avoiding parsing of the text when the files are read.
The first form (without the
-c,
-a or
-t options) creates a
compiled file. If only the
file argument is given, the output file has
the name `
file.zwc' and will be placed in the same directory as
the
file. The shell will load the compiled file instead of the normal
function file when the function is autoloaded; see the section `Autoloading
Functions' in
zshmisc(1) for a description of how autoloaded functions
are searched. The extension
.zwc stands for `zsh word code'.
If there is at least one
name argument, all the named files are compiled
into the output
file given as the first argument. If
file does
not end in
.zwc, this extension is automatically appended. Files
containing multiple compiled functions are called `digest' files, and are
intended to be used as elements of the
FPATH/
fpath special
array.
The second form, with the
-c or
-a options, writes the compiled
definitions for all the named functions into
file. For
-c, the
names must be functions currently defined in the shell, not those marked for
autoloading. Undefined functions that are marked for autoloading may be
written by using the
-a option, in which case the
fpath is
searched and the contents of the definition files for those functions, if
found, are compiled into
file. If both
-c and
-a are
given, names of both defined functions and functions marked for autoloading
may be given. In either case, the functions in files written with the
-c or
-a option will be autoloaded as if the
KSH_AUTOLOAD
option were unset.
The reason for handling loaded and not-yet-loaded functions with different
options is that some definition files for autoloading define multiple
functions, including the function with the same name as the file, and, at the
end, call that function. In such cases the output of `
zcompile -c'
does not include the additional functions defined in the file, and any other
initialization code in the file is lost. Using `
zcompile -a' captures
all this extra information.
If the
-m option is combined with
-c or
-a, the
names are used as patterns and all functions whose names match one of
these patterns will be written. If no
name is given, the definitions of
all functions currently defined or marked as autoloaded will be written.
Note the second form cannot be used for compiling functions that include
redirections as part of the definition rather than within the body of the
function; for example
fn1() { { ... } >~/logfile }
can be compiled but
cannot. It is possible to use the first form of
zcompile to compile
autoloadable functions that include the full function definition instead of
just the body of the function.
The third form, with the
-t option, examines an existing compiled file.
Without further arguments, the names of the original files compiled into it
are listed. The first line of output shows the version of the shell which
compiled the file and how the file will be used (i.e. by reading it directly
or by mapping it into memory). With arguments, nothing is output and the
return status is set to zero if definitions for
all names were
found in the compiled file, and non-zero if the definition for at least one
name was not found.
Other options:
- -U
- Aliases are not expanded when compiling the named files.
- -R
- When the compiled file is read, its contents are copied into the shell's
memory, rather than memory-mapped (see -M). This happens
automatically on systems that do not support memory mapping.
When compiling scripts instead of autoloadable functions, it is often desirable
to use this option; otherwise the whole file, including the code to define
functions which have already been defined, will remain mapped, consequently
wasting memory.
- -M
- The compiled file is mapped into the shell's memory when read. This is
done in such a way that multiple instances of the shell running on the
same host will share this mapped file. If neither -R nor -M
is given, the zcompile builtin decides what to do based on the size
of the compiled file.
- -k
- -z
- These options are used when the compiled file contains functions which are
to be autoloaded. If -z is given, the function will be autoloaded
as if the KSH_AUTOLOAD option is not set, even if it is set
at the time the compiled file is read, while if the -k is given,
the function will be loaded as if KSH_AUTOLOAD is set. These
options also take precedence over any -k or -z options
specified to the autoload builtin. If neither of these options is
given, the function will be loaded as determined by the setting of the
KSH_AUTOLOAD option at the time the compiled file is read.
These options may also appear as many times as necessary between the listed
names to specify the loading style of all following functions, up
to the next -k or -z.
The created file always contains two versions of the compiled format, one
for big-endian machines and one for small-endian machines. The upshot of
this is that the compiled file is machine independent and if it is read or
mapped, only one half of the file is actually used (and mapped).
- zformat
- See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in zshmodules(1).
- zftp
- See the section `The zsh/zftp Module' in zshmodules(1).
- zle
- See the section `Zle Builtins' in zshzle(1).
- zmodload [ -dL ] [ -s ] [ ... ]
- zmodload -F [ -alLme -P param ] module
[ [ +-]feature ... ]
- zmodload -e [ -A ] [ ... ]
- zmodload [ -a [ -bcpf [ -I ] ] ] [ -iL
] ...
- zmodload -u [ -abcdpf [ -I ] ] [ -iL ]
...
- zmodload -A [ -L ] [
modalias[=module] ... ]
- zmodload -R modalias ...
- Performs operations relating to zsh's loadable modules. Loading of modules
while the shell is running (`dynamical loading') is not available on all
operating systems, or on all installations on a particular operating
system, although the zmodload command itself is always available
and can be used to manipulate modules built into versions of the shell
executable without dynamical loading.
Without arguments the names of all currently loaded binary modules are printed.
The
-L option causes this list to be in the form of a series of
zmodload commands. Forms with arguments are:
- zmodload [ -is ] name ...
- zmodload -u [ -i ] name ...
- In the simplest case, zmodload loads a binary module. The module
must be in a file with a name consisting of the specified name
followed by a standard suffix, usually ` .so' (`.sl' on
HPUX). If the module to be loaded is already loaded the duplicate module
is ignored. If zmodload detects an inconsistency, such as an
invalid module name or circular dependency list, the current code block is
aborted. If it is available, the module is loaded if necessary, while if
it is not available, non-zero status is silently returned. The option
-i is accepted for compatibility but has no effect.
The
named module is searched for in the same way a command is, using
$module_path instead of
$path. However, the path search is
performed even when the module name contains a `
/', which it usually
does. There is no way to prevent the path search.
If the module supports features (see below),
zmodload tries to enable all
features when loading a module. If the module was successfully loaded but not
all features could be enabled,
zmodload returns status 2.
If the option
-s is given, no error is printed if the module was not
available (though other errors indicating a problem with the module are
printed). The return status indicates if the module was loaded. This is
appropriate if the caller considers the module optional.
With
-u,
zmodload unloads modules. The same
name must be
given that was given when the module was loaded, but it is not necessary for
the module to exist in the file system. The
-i option suppresses the
error if the module is already unloaded (or was never loaded).
Each module has a boot and a cleanup function. The module will not be loaded if
its boot function fails. Similarly a module can only be unloaded if its
cleanup function runs successfully.
- zmodload -F [ -almLe -P param ] module
[ [ +-]feature ... ]
- zmodload -F allows more selective control over the features
provided by modules. With no options apart from -F, the module
named module is loaded, if it was not already loaded, and the list
of features is set to the required state. If no features are
specified, the module is loaded, if it was not already loaded, but the
state of features is unchanged. Each feature may be preceded by a +
to turn the feature on, or - to turn it off; the + is
assumed if neither character is present. Any feature not explicitly
mentioned is left in its current state; if the module was not previously
loaded this means any such features will remain disabled. The return
status is zero if all features were set, 1 if the module failed to load,
and 2 if some features could not be set (for example, a parameter couldn't
be added because there was a different parameter of the same name) but the
module was loaded.
The standard features are builtins, conditions, parameters and math functions;
these are indicated by the prefix `
b:', `
c:' (`
C:' for
an infix condition), `
p:' and `
f:', respectively, followed by
the name that the corresponding feature would have in the shell. For example,
`
b:strftime' indicates a builtin named
strftime and
p:EPOCHSECONDS indicates a parameter named
EPOCHSECONDS. The
module may provide other (`abstract') features of its own as indicated by its
documentation; these have no prefix.
With
-l or
-L, features provided by the module are listed. With
-l alone, a list of features together with their states is shown, one
feature per line. With
-L alone, a
zmodload -F command that
would cause enabled features of the module to be turned on is shown. With
-lL, a
zmodload -F command that would cause all the features to
be set to their current state is shown. If one of these combinations is given
with the option
-P param then the parameter
param is set
to an array of features, either features together with their state or (if
-L alone is given) enabled features.
With the option
-L the module name may be omitted; then a list of all
enabled features for all modules providing features is printed in the form of
zmodload -F commands. If
-l is also given, the state of both
enabled and disabled features is output in that form.
A set of features may be provided together with
-l or
-L and a
module name; in that case only the state of those features is considered. Each
feature may be preceded by
+ or
- but the character has no
effect. If no set of features is provided, all features are considered.
With
-e, the command first tests that the module is loaded; if it is not,
status 1 is returned. If the module is loaded, the list of features given as
an argument is examined. Any feature given with no prefix is simply tested to
see if the module provides it; any feature given with a prefix
+ or
- is tested to see if is provided and in the given state. If the tests
on all features in the list succeed, status 0 is returned, else status 1.
With
-m, each entry in the given list of features is taken as a pattern
to be matched against the list of features provided by the module. An initial
+ or
- must be given explicitly. This may not be combined with
the
-a option as autoloads must be specified explicitly.
With
-a, the given list of features is marked for autoload from the
specified module, which may not yet be loaded. An optional
+ may appear
before the feature name. If the feature is prefixed with
-, any
existing autoload is removed. The options
-l and
-L may be used
to list autoloads. Autoloading is specific to individual features; when the
module is loaded only the requested feature is enabled. Autoload requests are
preserved if the module is subsequently unloaded until an explicit `
zmodload -Fa module -feature' is issued. It is not
an error to request an autoload for a feature of a module that is already
loaded.
When the module is loaded each autoload is checked against the features actually
provided by the module; if the feature is not provided the autoload request is
deleted. A warning message is output; if the module is being loaded to provide
a different feature, and that autoload is successful, there is no effect on
the status of the current command. If the module is already loaded at the time
when
zmodload -Fa is run, an error message is printed and status 1
returned.
zmodload -Fa can be used with the
-l,
-L,
-e and
-P options for listing and testing the existence of autoloadable
features. In this case
-l is ignored if
-L is specified.
zmodload -FaL with no module name lists autoloads for all modules.
Note that only standard features as described above can be autoloaded; other
features require the module to be loaded before enabling.
- zmodload -d [ -L ] [ name ]
- zmodload -d name dep ...
- zmodload -ud name [ dep ... ]
- The -d option can be used to specify module dependencies. The
modules named in the second and subsequent arguments will be loaded before
the module named in the first argument.
With
-d and one argument, all dependencies for that module are listed.
With
-d and no arguments, all module dependencies are listed. This
listing is by default in a Makefile-like format. The
-L option changes
this format to a list of
zmodload -d commands.
If
-d and
-u are both used, dependencies are removed. If only one
argument is given, all dependencies for that module are removed.
- zmodload -ab [ -L ]
- zmodload -ab [ -i ] name [ builtin ...
]
- zmodload -ub [ -i ] builtin ...
- The -ab option defines autoloaded builtins. It defines the
specified builtins. When any of those builtins is called, the
module specified in the first argument is loaded and all its features are
enabled (for selective control of features use ` zmodload -F -a' as
described above). If only the name is given, one builtin is
defined, with the same name as the module. -i suppresses the error
if the builtin is already defined or autoloaded, but not if another
builtin of the same name is already defined.
With
-ab and no arguments, all autoloaded builtins are listed, with the
module name (if different) shown in parentheses after the builtin name. The
-L option changes this format to a list of
zmodload -a commands.
If
-b is used together with the
-u option, it removes builtins
previously defined with
-ab. This is only possible if the builtin is
not yet loaded.
-i suppresses the error if the builtin is already
removed (or never existed).
Autoload requests are retained if the module is subsequently unloaded until an
explicit `
zmodload -ub builtin' is issued.
- zmodload -ac [ -IL ]
- zmodload -ac [ -iI ] name [ cond ...
]
- zmodload -uc [ -iI ] cond ...
- The -ac option is used to define autoloaded condition codes. The
cond strings give the names of the conditions defined by the
module. The optional -I option is used to define infix condition
names. Without this option prefix condition names are defined.
If given no condition names, all defined names are listed (as a series of
zmodload commands if the
-L option is given).
The
-uc option removes definitions for autoloaded conditions.
- zmodload -ap [ -L ]
- zmodload -ap [ -i ] name [ parameter
... ]
- zmodload -up [ -i ] parameter ...
- The -p option is like the -b and -c options, but
makes zmodload work on autoloaded parameters instead.
- zmodload -af [ -L ]
- zmodload -af [ -i ] name [ function ...
]
- zmodload -uf [ -i ] function ...
- The -f option is like the -b, -p, and -c
options, but makes zmodload work on autoloaded math functions
instead.
- zmodload -a [ -L ]
- zmodload -a [ -i ] name [ builtin ...
]
- zmodload -ua [ -i ] builtin ...
- Equivalent to -ab and -ub.
- zmodload -e [ -A ] [ string ... ]
- The -e option without arguments lists all loaded modules; if the
-A option is also given, module aliases corresponding to loaded
modules are also shown. If arguments are provided, nothing is printed; the
return status is set to zero if all strings given as arguments are
names of loaded modules and to one if at least on string is not the
name of a loaded module. This can be used to test for the availability of
things implemented by modules. In this case, any aliases are automatically
resolved and the -A flag is not used.
- zmodload -A [ -L ] [
modalias[=module] ... ]
- For each argument, if both modalias and module are given,
define modalias to be an alias for the module module. If the
module modalias is ever subsequently requested, either via a call
to zmodload or implicitly, the shell will attempt to load
module instead. If module is not given, show the definition
of modalias. If no arguments are given, list all defined module
aliases. When listing, if the -L flag was also given, list the
definition as a zmodload command to recreate the alias.
The existence of aliases for modules is completely independent of whether the
name resolved is actually loaded as a module: while the alias exists, loading
and unloading the module under any alias has exactly the same effect as using
the resolved name, and does not affect the connection between the alias and
the resolved name which can be removed either by
zmodload -R or by
redefining the alias. Chains of aliases (i.e. where the first resolved name is
itself an alias) are valid so long as these are not circular. As the aliases
take the same format as module names, they may include path separators: in
this case, there is no requirement for any part of the path named to exist as
the alias will be resolved first. For example, `
any/old/alias' is
always a valid alias.
Dependencies added to aliased modules are actually added to the resolved module;
these remain if the alias is removed. It is valid to create an alias whose
name is one of the standard shell modules and which resolves to a different
module. However, if a module has dependencies, it will not be possible to use
the module name as an alias as the module will already be marked as a loadable
module in its own right.
Apart from the above, aliases can be used in the
zmodload command
anywhere module names are required. However, aliases will not be shown in
lists of loaded modules with a bare `
zmodload'.
- zmodload -R modalias ...
- For each modalias argument that was previously defined as a module
alias via zmodload -A, delete the alias. If any was not defined, an
error is caused and the remainder of the line is ignored.
Note that
zsh makes no distinction between modules that were linked into
the shell and modules that are loaded dynamically. In both cases this builtin
command has to be used to make available the builtins and other things defined
by modules (unless the module is autoloaded on these definitions). This is
true even for systems that don't support dynamic loading of modules.
- zparseopts
- See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in zshmodules(1).
- zprof
- See the section `The zsh/zprof Module' in zshmodules(1).
- zpty
- See the section `The zsh/zpty Module' in zshmodules(1).
- zregexparse
- See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in zshmodules(1).
- zsocket
- See the section `The zsh/net/socket Module' in zshmodules(1).
- zstyle
- See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in zshmodules(1).
- ztcp
- See the section `The zsh/net/tcp Module' in zshmodules(1).
zshzle - zsh command line editor
If the
ZLE option is set (which it is by default in interactive shells)
and the shell input is attached to the terminal, the user is able to edit
command lines.
There are two display modes. The first, multiline mode, is the default. It only
works if the
TERM parameter is set to a valid terminal type that can
move the cursor up. The second, single line mode, is used if
TERM is
invalid or incapable of moving the cursor up, or if the
SINGLE_LINE_ZLE
option is set. This mode is similar to
ksh, and uses no termcap
sequences. If
TERM is "emacs", the
ZLE option will be
unset by default.
The parameters
BAUD,
COLUMNS, and
LINES are also used by
the line editor. See
Parameters Used By The Shell in
zshparam(1).
The parameter
zle_highlight is also used by the line editor; see
Character Highlighting below. Highlighting of special characters and
the region between the cursor and the mark (as set with
set-mark-command in Emacs mode, or by
visual-mode in Vi mode) is
enabled by default; consult this reference for more information. Irascible
conservatives will wish to know that all highlighting may be disabled by the
following setting:
In many places, references are made to the
numeric argument. This can by
default be entered in emacs mode by holding the alt key and typing a number,
or pressing escape before each digit, and in vi command mode by typing the
number before entering a command. Generally the numeric argument causes the
next command entered to be repeated the specified number of times, unless
otherwise noted below. See also the
Arguments subsection of the
Widgets section for some other ways the numeric argument can be
modified. The default bindings mentioned here use the
digit-argument
widget.
A keymap in ZLE contains a set of bindings between key sequences and ZLE
commands. The empty key sequence cannot be bound.
There can be any number of keymaps at any time, and each keymap has one or more
names. If all of a keymap's names are deleted, it disappears.
bindkey
can be used to manipulate keymap names.
Initially, there are eight keymaps:
- emacs
- EMACS emulation
- viins
- vi emulation - insert mode
- vicmd
- vi emulation - command mode
- viopp
- vi emulation - operator pending
- visual
- vi emulation - selection active
- isearch
- incremental search mode
- command
- read a command name
- .safe
- fallback keymap
The `
.safe' keymap is special. It can never be altered, and the name can
never be removed. However, it can be linked to other names, which can be
removed. In the future other special keymaps may be added; users should avoid
using names beginning with `
.' for their own keymaps.
In addition to these names, either `
emacs' or `
viins' is also
linked to the name `
main'. If one of the
VISUAL or
EDITOR environment variables contain the string `
vi' when the
shell starts up then it will be `
viins', otherwise it will be
`
emacs'.
bindkey's
-e and
-v options provide a
convenient way to override this default choice.
When the editor starts up, it will select the `
main' keymap. If that
keymap doesn't exist, it will use `
.safe' instead.
In the `
.safe' keymap, each single key is bound to
self-insert,
except for ^J (line feed) and ^M (return) which are bound to
accept-line. This is deliberately not pleasant to use; if you are using
it, it means you deleted the main keymap, and you should put it back.
When ZLE is reading a command from the terminal, it may read a sequence that is
bound to some command and is also a prefix of a longer bound string. In this
case ZLE will wait a certain time to see if more characters are typed, and if
not (or they don't match any longer string) it will execute the binding. This
timeout is defined by the
KEYTIMEOUT parameter; its default is 0.4 sec.
There is no timeout if the prefix string is not itself bound to a command.
The key timeout is also applied when ZLE is reading the bytes from a multibyte
character string when it is in the appropriate mode. (This requires that the
shell was compiled with multibyte mode enabled; typically also the locale has
characters with the UTF-8 encoding, although any multibyte encoding known to
the operating system is supported.) If the second or a subsequent byte is not
read within the timeout period, the shell acts as if
? were typed and
resets the input state.
As well as ZLE commands, key sequences can be bound to other strings, by using `
bindkey -s'. When such a sequence is read, the replacement string is
pushed back as input, and the command reading process starts again using these
fake keystrokes. This input can itself invoke further replacement strings, but
in order to detect loops the process will be stopped if there are twenty such
replacements without a real command being read.
A key sequence typed by the user can be turned into a command name for use in
user-defined widgets with the
read-command widget, described in the
subsection `Miscellaneous' of the section `Standard Widgets' below.
While for normal editing a single keymap is used exclusively, in many modes a
local keymap allows for some keys to be customised. For example, in an
incremental search mode, a binding in the
isearch keymap will override
a binding in the
main keymap but all keys that are not overridden can
still be used.
If a key sequence is defined in a local keymap, it will hide a key sequence in
the global keymap that is a prefix of that sequence. An example of this occurs
with the binding of
iw in
viopp as this hides the binding of
i in
vicmd. However, a longer sequence in the global keymap that
shares the same prefix can still apply so for example the binding of
^Xa in the global keymap will be unaffected by the binding of
^Xb in the local keymap.
The ZLE module contains three related builtin commands. The
bindkey
command manipulates keymaps and key bindings; the
vared command invokes
ZLE on the value of a shell parameter; and the
zle command manipulates
editing widgets and allows command line access to ZLE commands from within
shell functions.
- bindkey [ options ] -l [ -L ] [ keymap
... ]
- bindkey [ options ] -d
- bindkey [ options ] -D keymap ...
- bindkey [ options ] -A old-keymap
new-keymap
- bindkey [ options ] -N new-keymap [
old-keymap ]
- bindkey [ options ] -m
- bindkey [ options ] -r in-string ...
- bindkey [ options ] -s in-string out-string
...
- bindkey [ options ] in-string command ...
- bindkey [ options ] [ in-string ]
- bindkey's options can be divided into three categories: keymap
selection for the current command, operation selection, and others. The
keymap selection options are:
- -e
- Selects keymap `emacs' for any operations by the current command,
and also links ` emacs' to `main' so that it is selected by
default the next time the editor starts.
- -v
- Selects keymap `viins' for any operations by the current command,
and also links ` viins' to `main' so that it is selected by
default the next time the editor starts.
- -a
- Selects keymap `vicmd' for any operations by the current
command.
- -M keymap
- The keymap specifies a keymap name that is selected for any
operations by the current command.
If a keymap selection is required and none of the options above are used, the `
main' keymap is used. Some operations do not permit a keymap to be
selected, namely:
- -l
- List all existing keymap names; if any arguments are given, list just
those keymaps.
If the
-L option is also used, list in the form of
bindkey
commands to create or link the keymaps. `
bindkey -lL main'
shows which keymap is linked to `
main', if any, and hence if the
standard emacs or vi emulation is in effect. This option does not show the
.safe keymap because it cannot be created in that fashion; however,
neither is `
bindkey -lL .safe' reported as an error, it simply outputs
nothing.
- -d
- Delete all existing keymaps and reset to the default state.
- -D keymap ...
- Delete the named keymaps.
- -A old-keymap new-keymap
- Make the new-keymap name an alias for old-keymap, so that
both names refer to the same keymap. The names have equal standing; if
either is deleted, the other remains. If there is already a keymap with
the new-keymap name, it is deleted.
- -N new-keymap [ old-keymap ]
- Create a new keymap, named new-keymap. If a keymap already has that
name, it is deleted. If an old-keymap name is given, the new keymap
is initialized to be a duplicate of it, otherwise the new keymap will be
empty.
To use a newly created keymap, it should be linked to
main. Hence the
sequence of commands to create and use a new keymap `
mymap'
initialized from the
emacs keymap (which remains unchanged) is:
bindkey -N mymap emacs
bindkey -A mymap main
Note that while `
bindkey -A newmap main' will work when
newmap is
emacs or
viins, it will not work for
vicmd, as switching from vi insert to command mode becomes impossible.
The following operations act on the `
main' keymap if no keymap selection
option was given:
- -m
- Add the built-in set of meta-key bindings to the selected keymap. Only
keys that are unbound or bound to self-insert are affected.
- -r in-string ...
- Unbind the specified in-strings in the selected keymap. This is
exactly equivalent to binding the strings to undefined-key.
When
-R is also used, interpret the
in-strings as ranges.
When
-p is also used, the
in-strings specify prefixes. Any binding
that has the given
in-string as a prefix, not including the binding for
the
in-string itself, if any, will be removed. For example,
will remove all bindings in the vi-insert keymap beginning with an escape
character (probably cursor keys), but leave the binding for the escape
character itself (probably
vi-cmd-mode). This is incompatible with the
option
-R.
- -s in-string out-string ...
- Bind each in-string to each out-string. When
in-string is typed, out-string will be pushed back and
treated as input to the line editor. When -R is also used,
interpret the in-strings as ranges.
Note that both
in-string and
out-string are subject to the same
form of interpretation, as described below.
- in-string command ...
- Bind each in-string to each command. When -R is used,
interpret the in-strings as ranges.
- [ in-string ]
- List key bindings. If an in-string is specified, the binding of
that string in the selected keymap is displayed. Otherwise, all key
bindings in the selected keymap are displayed. (As a special case, if the
-e or -v option is used alone, the keymap is not
displayed - the implicit linking of keymaps is the only thing that
happens.)
When the option
-p is used, the
in-string must be present. The
listing shows all bindings which have the given key sequence as a prefix, not
including any bindings for the key sequence itself.
When the
-L option is used, the list is in the form of
bindkey
commands to create the key bindings.
When the
-R option is used as noted above, a valid range consists of two
characters, with an optional `
-' between them. All characters between
the two specified, inclusive, are bound as specified.
For either
in-string or
out-string, the following escape sequences
are recognised:
- \a
- bell character
- \b
- backspace
- \e, \E
- escape
- \f
- form feed
- \n
- linefeed (newline)
- \r
- carriage return
- \t
- horizontal tab
- \v
- vertical tab
- \NNN
- character code in octal
- \xNN
- character code in hexadecimal
- \uNNNN
- unicode character code in hexadecimal
- \UNNNNNNNN
- unicode character code in hexadecimal
- \M[-]X
- character with meta bit set
- \C[-]X
- control character
- ^X
- control character
In all other cases, `
\' escapes the following character. Delete is
written as `
^?'. Note that `
\M^?' and `
^\M?' are not the
same, and that (unlike emacs), the bindings `
\M-X' and
`
\e X' are entirely distinct, although they are initialized to
the same bindings by `
bindkey -m'.
- vared [ -Aacghe ] [ -p prompt ] [ -r
rprompt ]
- [ -M main-keymap ] [ -m vicmd-keymap
]
- [ -i init-widget ] [ -f finish-widget
]
- [ -t tty ] name
- The value of the parameter name is loaded into the edit buffer, and
the line editor is invoked. When the editor exits, name is set to
the string value returned by the editor. When the -c flag is given,
the parameter is created if it doesn't already exist. The -a flag
may be given with -c to create an array parameter, or the -A
flag to create an associative array. If the type of an existing parameter
does not match the type to be created, the parameter is unset and
recreated. The -g flag may be given to suppress warnings from the
WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL and WARN_NESTED_VAR options.
If an array or array slice is being edited, separator characters as defined in
$IFS will be shown quoted with a backslash, as will backslashes
themselves. Conversely, when the edited text is split into an array, a
backslash quotes an immediately following separator character or backslash; no
other special handling of backslashes, or any handling of quotes, is
performed.
Individual elements of existing array or associative array parameters may be
edited by using subscript syntax on
name. New elements are created
automatically, even without
-c.
If the
-p flag is given, the following string will be taken as the prompt
to display at the left. If the
-r flag is given, the following string
gives the prompt to display at the right. If the
-h flag is specified,
the history can be accessed from ZLE. If the
-e flag is given, typing
^D (Control-D) on an empty line causes
vared to exit immediately
with a non-zero return value.
The
-M option gives a keymap to link to the
main keymap during
editing, and the
-m option gives a keymap to link to the
vicmd
keymap during editing. For vi-style editing, this allows a pair of keymaps to
override
viins and
vicmd. For emacs-style editing, only
-M is normally needed but the
-m option may still be used. On
exit, the previous keymaps will be restored.
Vared calls the usual `
zle-line-init' and `
zle-line-finish'
hooks before and after it takes control. Using the
-i and
-f
options, it is possible to replace these with other custom widgets.
If `
-t tty' is given,
tty is the name of a terminal device
to be used instead of the default
/dev/tty. If
tty does not
refer to a terminal an error is reported.
- zle
- zle -l [ -L | -a ] [ string ... ]
- zle -D widget ...
- zle -A old-widget new-widget
- zle -N widget [ function ]
- zle -f flag [ flag... ]
- zle -C widget completion-widget
function
- zle -R [ -c ] [ display-string ] [
string ... ]
- zle -M string
- zle -U string
- zle -K keymap
- zle -F [ -L | -w ] [ fd [
handler ] ]
- zle -I
- zle -T [ tc function | -r tc |
-L ]
- zle widget [ -n num ] [ -Nw ] [
-K keymap ] args ...
- The zle builtin performs a number of different actions concerning
ZLE.
With no options and no arguments, only the return status will be set. It is zero
if ZLE is currently active and widgets could be invoked using this builtin
command and non-zero otherwise. Note that even if non-zero status is returned,
zle may still be active as part of the completion system; this does not allow
direct calls to ZLE widgets.
Otherwise, which operation it performs depends on its options:
- -l [ -L | -a ] [ string ]
- List all existing user-defined widgets. If the -L option is used,
list in the form of zle commands to create the widgets.
When combined with the
-a option, all widget names are listed, including
the builtin ones. In this case the
-L option is ignored.
If at least one
string is given, and
-a is present or
-L is
not used, nothing will be printed. The return status will be zero if all
strings are names of existing widgets and non-zero if at least one
string is not a name of a defined widget. If
-a is also present,
all widget names are used for the comparison including builtin widgets, else
only user-defined widgets are used.
If at least one
string is present and the
-L option is used,
user-defined widgets matching any
string are listed in the form of
zle commands to create the widgets.
- -D widget ...
- Delete the named widgets.
- -A old-widget new-widget
- Make the new-widget name an alias for old-widget, so that
both names refer to the same widget. The names have equal standing; if
either is deleted, the other remains. If there is already a widget with
the new-widget name, it is deleted.
- -N widget [ function ]
- Create a user-defined widget. If there is already a widget with the
specified name, it is overwritten. When the new widget is invoked from
within the editor, the specified shell function is called. If no
function name is specified, it defaults to the same name as the widget.
For further information, see the section `Widgets' below.
- -f flag [ flag... ]
- Set various flags on the running widget. Possible values for flag
are:
yank for indicating that the widget has yanked text into the buffer. If
the widget is wrapping an existing internal widget, no further action is
necessary, but if it has inserted the text manually, then it should also take
care to set
YANK_START and
YANK_END correctly.
yankbefore
does the same but is used when the yanked text appears after the cursor.
kill for indicating that text has been killed into the cutbuffer. When
repeatedly invoking a kill widget, text is appended to the cutbuffer instead
of replacing it, but when wrapping such widgets, it is necessary to call `
zle -f kill' to retain this effect.
vichange for indicating that the widget represents a vi change that can
be repeated as a whole with `
vi-repeat-change'. The flag should be set
early in the function before inspecting the value of
NUMERIC or
invoking other widgets. This has no effect for a widget invoked from insert
mode. If insert mode is active when the widget finishes, the change extends
until next returning to command mode.
- -C widget completion-widget function
- Create a user-defined completion widget named widget. The
completion widget will behave like the built-in completion-widget whose
name is given as completion-widget. To generate the completions,
the shell function function will be called. For further
information, see zshcompwid(1).
- -R [ -c ] [ display-string ] [ string ...
]
- Redisplay the command line; this is to be called from within a
user-defined widget to allow changes to become visible. If a
display-string is given and not empty, this is shown in the status
line (immediately below the line being edited).
If the optional
strings are given they are listed below the prompt in the
same way as completion lists are printed. If no
strings are given but
the
-c option is used such a list is cleared.
Note that this option is only useful for widgets that do not exit immediately
after using it because the strings displayed will be erased immediately after
return from the widget.
This command can safely be called outside user defined widgets; if zle is
active, the display will be refreshed, while if zle is not active, the command
has no effect. In this case there will usually be no other arguments.
The status is zero if zle was active, else one.
- -M string
- As with the -R option, the string will be displayed below
the command line; unlike the -R option, the string will not be put
into the status line but will instead be printed normally below the
prompt. This means that the string will still be displayed after
the widget returns (until it is overwritten by subsequent commands).
- -U string
- This pushes the characters in the string onto the input stack of
ZLE. After the widget currently executed finishes ZLE will behave as if
the characters in the string were typed by the user.
As ZLE uses a stack, if this option is used repeatedly the last string pushed
onto the stack will be processed first. However, the characters in each
string will be processed in the order in which they appear in the
string.
- -K keymap
- Selects the keymap named keymap. An error message will be displayed
if there is no such keymap.
This keymap selection affects the interpretation of following keystrokes within
this invocation of ZLE. Any following invocation (e.g., the next command line)
will start as usual with the `
main' keymap selected.
- -F [ -L | -w ] [ fd [ handler ] ]
- Only available if your system supports one of the `poll' or `select'
system calls; most modern systems do.
Installs
handler (the name of a shell function) to handle input from file
descriptor
fd. Installing a handler for an
fd which is already
handled causes the existing handler to be replaced. Any number of handlers for
any number of readable file descriptors may be installed. Note that zle makes
no attempt to check whether this
fd is actually readable when
installing the handler. The user must make their own arrangements for handling
the file descriptor when zle is not active.
When zle is attempting to read data, it will examine both the terminal and the
list of handled
fd's. If data becomes available on a handled
fd,
zle calls
handler with the fd which is ready for reading as the first
argument. Under normal circumstances this is the only argument, but if an
error was detected, a second argument provides details: `
hup' for a
disconnect, `
nval' for a closed or otherwise invalid descriptor, or `
err' for any other condition. Systems that support only the `select'
system call always use `
err'.
If the option
-w is also given, the
handler is instead a line
editor widget, typically a shell function made into a widget using `
zle
-N'. In that case
handler can use all the facilities of zle to
update the current editing line. Note, however, that as handling
fd
takes place at a low level changes to the display will not automatically
appear; the widget should call `
zle -R' to force redisplay. As of this
writing, widget handlers only support a single argument and thus are never
passed a string for error state, so widgets must be prepared to test the
descriptor themselves.
If either type of handler produces output to the terminal, it should call `
zle -I' before doing so (see below). Handlers should not attempt to
read from the terminal.
If no
handler is given, but an
fd is present, any handler for that
fd is removed. If there is none, an error message is printed and status
1 is returned.
If no arguments are given, or the
-L option is supplied, a list of
handlers is printed in a form which can be stored for later execution.
An
fd (but not a
handler) may optionally be given with the
-L option; in this case, the function will list the handler if any,
else silently return status 1.
Note that this feature should be used with care. Activity on one of the
fd's which is not properly handled can cause the terminal to become
unusable. Removing an
fd handler from within a signal trap may cause
unpredictable behavior.
Here is a simple example of using this feature. A connection to a remote TCP
port is created using the ztcp command; see the description of the
zsh/net/tcp module in
zshmodules(1). Then a handler is installed
which simply prints out any data which arrives on this connection. Note that
`select' will indicate that the file descriptor needs handling if the remote
side has closed the connection; we handle that by testing for a failed read.
if ztcp pwspc 2811; then
tcpfd=$REPLY
handler() {
zle -I
local line
if ! read -r line <&$1; then
# select marks this fd if we reach EOF,
# so handle this specially.
print "[Read on fd $1 failed, removing.]" >&2
zle -F $1
return 1
fi
print -r - $line
}
zle -F $tcpfd handler
fi
- -I
- Unusually, this option is most useful outside ordinary widget functions,
though it may be used within if normal output to the terminal is required.
It invalidates the current zle display in preparation for output;
typically this will be from a trap function. It has no effect if zle is
not active. When a trap exits, the shell checks to see if the display
needs restoring, hence the following will print output in such a way as
not to disturb the line being edited:
TRAPUSR1() {
# Invalidate zle display
[[ -o zle ]] && zle -I
# Show output
print Hello
}
In general, the trap function may need to test whether zle is active before
using this method (as shown in the example), since the
zsh/zle module
may not even be loaded; if it is not, the command can be skipped.
It is possible to call `
zle -I' several times before control is returned
to the editor; the display will only be invalidated the first time to minimise
disruption.
Note that there are normally better ways of manipulating the display from within
zle widgets; see, for example, `
zle -R' above.
The returned status is zero if zle was invalidated, even though this may have
been by a previous call to `
zle -I' or by a system notification. To
test if a zle widget may be called at this point, execute
zle with no
arguments and examine the return status.
- -T
- This is used to add, list or remove internal transformations on the
processing performed by the line editor. It is typically used only for
debugging or testing and is therefore of little interest to the general
user.
`
zle -T transformation func' specifies that the given
transformation (see below) is effected by shell function
func.
`
zle -Tr transformation' removes the given
transformation
if it was present (it is not an error if none was).
`
zle -TL' can be used to list all transformations currently in
operation.
Currently the only transformation is
tc. This is used instead of
outputting termcap codes to the terminal. When the transformation is in
operation the shell function is passed the termcap code that would be output
as its first argument; if the operation required a numeric argument, that is
passed as a second argument. The function should set the shell variable
REPLY to the transformed termcap code. Typically this is used to
produce some simply formatted version of the code and optional argument for
debugging or testing. Note that this transformation is not applied to other
non-printing characters such as carriage returns and newlines.
- widget [ -n num ] [ -Nw ] [ -K
keymap ] args ...
- Invoke the specified widget. This can only be done when ZLE is
active; normally this will be within a user-defined widget.
With the options
-n and
-N, the current numeric argument will be
saved and then restored after the call to
widget; `
-n
num' sets the numeric argument temporarily to
num, while
`
-N' sets it to the default, i.e. as if there were none.
With the option
-K,
keymap will be used as the current keymap
during the execution of the widget. The previous keymap will be restored when
the widget exits.
Normally, calling a widget in this way does not set the special parameter
WIDGET and related parameters, so that the environment appears as if
the top-level widget called by the user were still active. With the option
-w,
WIDGET and related parameters are set to reflect the widget
being executed by the
zle call.
Any further arguments will be passed to the widget; note that as standard
argument handling is performed, any general argument list should be preceded
by
--. If it is a shell function, these are passed down as
positional parameters; for builtin widgets it is up to the widget in question
what it does with them. Currently arguments are only handled by the
incremental-search commands, the
history-search-forward and
-backward and the corresponding functions prefixed by
vi-, and
by
universal-argument. No error is flagged if the command does not use
the arguments, or only uses some of them.
The return status reflects the success or failure of the operation carried out
by the widget, or if it is a user-defined widget the return status of the
shell function.
A non-zero return status causes the shell to beep when the widget exits, unless
the
BEEP options was unset or the widget was called via the
zle
command. Thus if a user defined widget requires an immediate beep, it should
call the
beep widget directly.
All actions in the editor are performed by `widgets'. A widget's job is simply
to perform some small action. The ZLE commands that key sequences in keymaps
are bound to are in fact widgets. Widgets can be user-defined or built in.
The standard widgets built into ZLE are listed in Standard Widgets below. Other
built-in widgets can be defined by other modules (see
zshmodules(1)).
Each built-in widget has two names: its normal canonical name, and the same
name preceded by a `
.'. The `
.' name is special: it can't be
rebound to a different widget. This makes the widget available even when its
usual name has been redefined.
User-defined widgets are defined using `
zle -N', and implemented as
shell functions. When the widget is executed, the corresponding shell function
is executed, and can perform editing (or other) actions. It is recommended
that user-defined widgets should not have names starting with `
.'.
User-defined widgets, being implemented as shell functions, can execute any
normal shell command. They can also run other widgets (whether built-in or
user-defined) using the
zle builtin command. The standard input of the
function is redirected from /dev/null to prevent external commands from
unintentionally blocking ZLE by reading from the terminal, but
read -k
or
read -q can be used to read characters. Finally, they can examine
and edit the ZLE buffer being edited by reading and setting the special
parameters described below.
These special parameters are always available in widget functions, but are not
in any way special outside ZLE. If they have some normal value outside ZLE,
that value is temporarily inaccessible, but will return when the widget
function exits. These special parameters in fact have local scope, like
parameters created in a function using
local.
Inside completion widgets and traps called while ZLE is active, these parameters
are available read-only.
Note that the parameters appear as local to any ZLE widget in which they appear.
Hence if it is desired to override them this needs to be done within a nested
function:
widget-function() {
# $WIDGET here refers to the special variable
# that is local inside widget-function
() {
# This anonymous nested function allows WIDGET
# to be used as a local variable. The -h
# removes the special status of the variable.
local -h WIDGET
}
}
- BUFFER (scalar)
- The entire contents of the edit buffer. If it is written to, the cursor
remains at the same offset, unless that would put it outside the
buffer.
- BUFFERLINES (integer)
- The number of screen lines needed for the edit buffer currently displayed
on screen (i.e. without any changes to the preceding parameters done after
the last redisplay); read-only.
- CONTEXT (scalar)
- The context in which zle was called to read a line; read-only. One of the
values:
- start
- The start of a command line (at prompt PS1).
- cont
- A continuation to a command line (at prompt PS2).
- select
- In a select loop (at prompt PS3).
- vared
- Editing a variable in vared.
- CURSOR (integer)
- The offset of the cursor, within the edit buffer. This is in the range 0
to $#BUFFER, and is by definition equal to $#LBUFFER.
Attempts to move the cursor outside the buffer will result in the cursor
being moved to the appropriate end of the buffer.
- CUTBUFFER (scalar)
- The last item cut using one of the `kill-' commands; the string
which the next yank would insert in the line. Later entries in the kill
ring are in the array killring. Note that the command ` zle
copy-region-as-kill string' can be used to set the text of the
cut buffer from a shell function and cycle the kill ring in the same way
as interactively killing text.
- HISTNO (integer)
- The current history number. Setting this has the same effect as moving up
or down in the history to the corresponding history line. An attempt to
set it is ignored if the line is not stored in the history. Note this is
not the same as the parameter HISTCMD, which always gives the
number of the history line being added to the main shell's history.
HISTNO refers to the line being retrieved within zle.
- ISEARCHMATCH_ACTIVE (integer)
- ISEARCHMATCH_START (integer)
- ISEARCHMATCH_END (integer)
- ISEARCHMATCH_ACTIVE indicates whether a part of the BUFFER
is currently matched by an incremental search pattern.
ISEARCHMATCH_START and ISEARCHMATCH_END give the location of
the matched part and are in the same units as CURSOR. They are only
valid for reading when ISEARCHMATCH_ACTIVE is non-zero.
All parameters are read-only.
- KEYMAP (scalar)
- The name of the currently selected keymap; read-only.
- KEYS (scalar)
- The keys typed to invoke this widget, as a literal string; read-only.
- KEYS_QUEUED_COUNT (integer)
- The number of bytes pushed back to the input queue and therefore available
for reading immediately before any I/O is done; read-only. See also
PENDING; the two values are distinct.
- killring (array)
- The array of previously killed items, with the most recently killed first.
This gives the items that would be retrieved by a yank-pop in the
same order. Note, however, that the most recently killed item is in
$CUTBUFFER; $killring shows the array of previous
entries.
The default size for the kill ring is eight, however the length may be changed
by normal array operations. Any empty string in the kill ring is ignored by
the
yank-pop command, hence the size of the array effectively sets the
maximum length of the kill ring, while the number of non-zero strings gives
the current length, both as seen by the user at the command line.
- LASTABORTEDSEARCH (scalar)
- The last search string used by an interactive search that was aborted by
the user (status 3 returned by the search widget).
- LASTSEARCH (scalar)
- The last search string used by an interactive search; read-only. This is
set even if the search failed (status 0, 1 or 2 returned by the search
widget), but not if it was aborted by the user.
- LASTWIDGET (scalar)
- The name of the last widget that was executed; read-only.
- LBUFFER (scalar)
- The part of the buffer that lies to the left of the cursor position. If it
is assigned to, only that part of the buffer is replaced, and the cursor
remains between the new $LBUFFER and the old $RBUFFER.
- MARK (integer)
- Like CURSOR, but for the mark. With vi-mode operators that wait for
a movement command to select a region of text, setting MARK allows
the selection to extend in both directions from the initial cursor
position.
- NUMERIC (integer)
- The numeric argument. If no numeric argument was given, this parameter is
unset. When this is set inside a widget function, builtin widgets called
with the zle builtin command will use the value assigned. If it is
unset inside a widget function, builtin widgets called behave as if no
numeric argument was given.
- PENDING (integer)
- The number of bytes pending for input, i.e. the number of bytes which have
already been typed and can immediately be read. On systems where the shell
is not able to get this information, this parameter will always have a
value of zero. Read-only. See also KEYS_QUEUED_COUNT; the two
values are distinct.
- PREBUFFER (scalar)
- In a multi-line input at the secondary prompt, this read-only parameter
contains the contents of the lines before the one the cursor is currently
in.
- PREDISPLAY (scalar)
- Text to be displayed before the start of the editable text buffer. This
does not have to be a complete line; to display a complete line, a newline
must be appended explicitly. The text is reset on each new invocation (but
not recursive invocation) of zle.
- POSTDISPLAY (scalar)
- Text to be displayed after the end of the editable text buffer. This does
not have to be a complete line; to display a complete line, a newline must
be prepended explicitly. The text is reset on each new invocation (but not
recursive invocation) of zle.
- RBUFFER (scalar)
- The part of the buffer that lies to the right of the cursor position. If
it is assigned to, only that part of the buffer is replaced, and the
cursor remains between the old $LBUFFER and the new
$RBUFFER.
- REGION_ACTIVE (integer)
- Indicates if the region is currently active. It can be assigned 0 or 1 to
deactivate and activate the region respectively. A value of 2 activates
the region in line-wise mode with the highlighted text extending for whole
lines only; see Character Highlighting below.
- region_highlight (array)
- Each element of this array may be set to a string that describes
highlighting for an arbitrary region of the command line that will take
effect the next time the command line is redisplayed. Highlighting of the
non-editable parts of the command line in PREDISPLAY and
POSTDISPLAY are possible, but note that the P flag is needed
for character indexing to include PREDISPLAY.
Each string consists of the following parts:
- •
- Optionally, a `P' to signify that the start and end offset that
follow include any string set by the PREDISPLAY special parameter;
this is needed if the predisplay string itself is to be highlighted.
Whitespace may follow the ` P'.
- •
- A start offset in the same units as CURSOR, terminated by
whitespace.
- •
- An end offset in the same units as CURSOR, terminated by
whitespace.
- •
- A highlight specification in the same format as used for contexts in the
parameter zle_highlight, see the section `Character Highlighting'
below; for example, standout or fg=red,bold
For example,
region_highlight=("P0 20 bold")
specifies that the first twenty characters of the text including any predisplay
string should be highlighted in bold.
Note that the effect of
region_highlight is not saved and disappears as
soon as the line is accepted.
The final highlighting on the command line depends on both
region_highlight and
zle_highlight; see the section CHARACTER
HIGHLIGHTING below for details.
- registers (associative array)
- The contents of each of the vi register buffers. These are typically set
using vi-set-buffer followed by a delete, change or yank
command.
- SUFFIX_ACTIVE (integer)
- SUFFIX_START (integer)
- SUFFIX_END (integer)
- SUFFIX_ACTIVE indicates whether an auto-removable completion suffix
is currently active. SUFFIX_START and SUFFIX_END give the
location of the suffix and are in the same units as CURSOR. They
are only valid for reading when SUFFIX_ACTIVE is non-zero.
All parameters are read-only.
- UNDO_CHANGE_NO (integer)
- A number representing the state of the undo history. The only use of this
is passing as an argument to the undo widget in order to undo back
to the recorded point. Read-only.
- UNDO_LIMIT_NO (integer)
- A number corresponding to an existing change in the undo history; compare
UNDO_CHANGE_NO. If this is set to a value greater than zero, the
undo command will not allow the line to be undone beyond the given
change number. It is still possible to use ` zle undo
change' in a widget to undo beyond that point; in that case, it
will not be possible to undo at all until UNDO_LIMIT_NO is reduced.
Set to 0 to disable the limit.
A typical use of this variable in a widget function is as follows (note the
additional function scope is required):
() {
local UNDO_LIMIT_NO=$UNDO_CHANGE_NO
# Perform some form of recursive edit.
}
- WIDGET (scalar)
- The name of the widget currently being executed; read-only.
- WIDGETFUNC (scalar)
- The name of the shell function that implements a widget defined with
either zle -N or zle -C. In the former case, this is the
second argument to the zle -N command that defined the widget, or
the first argument if there was no second argument. In the latter case
this is the third argument to the zle -C command that defined the
widget. Read-only.
- WIDGETSTYLE (scalar)
- Describes the implementation behind the completion widget currently being
executed; the second argument that followed zle -C when the widget
was defined. This is the name of a builtin completion widget. For widgets
defined with zle -N this is set to the empty string.
Read-only.
- YANK_ACTIVE (integer)
- YANK_START (integer)
- YANK_END (integer)
- YANK_ACTIVE indicates whether text has just been yanked (pasted)
into the buffer. YANK_START and YANK_END give the location
of the pasted text and are in the same units as CURSOR. They are
only valid for reading when YANK_ACTIVE is non-zero. They can also
be assigned by widgets that insert text in a yank-like fashion, for
example wrappers of bracketed-paste. See also zle -f.
YANK_ACTIVE is read-only.
- ZLE_RECURSIVE (integer)
- Usually zero, but incremented inside any instance of
recursive-edit. Hence indicates the current recursion level.
ZLE_RECURSIVE is read-only.
- ZLE_STATE (scalar)
- Contains a set of space-separated words that describe the current
zle state.
Currently, the states shown are the insert mode as set by the
overwrite-mode or
vi-replace widgets and whether history
commands will visit imported entries as controlled by the set-local-history
widget. The string contains `
insert' if characters to be inserted on
the command line move existing characters to the right or `
overwrite'
if characters to be inserted overwrite existing characters. It contains `
localhistory' if only local history commands will be visited or `
globalhistory' if imported history commands will also be visited.
The substrings are sorted in alphabetical order so that if you want to test for
two specific substrings in a future-proof way, you can do match by doing:
if [[ $ZLE_STATE == *globalhistory*insert* ]]; then ...; fi
There are a few user-defined widgets which are special to the shell. If they do
not exist, no special action is taken. The environment provided is identical
to that for any other editing widget.
- zle-isearch-exit
- Executed at the end of incremental search at the point where the isearch
prompt is removed from the display. See zle-isearch-update for an
example.
- zle-isearch-update
- Executed within incremental search when the display is about to be
redrawn. Additional output below the incremental search prompt can be
generated by using ` zle -M' within the widget. For example,
zle-isearch-update() { zle -M "Line $HISTNO"; }
zle -N zle-isearch-update
Note the line output by `
zle -M' is not deleted on exit from incremental
search. This can be done from a
zle-isearch-exit widget:
zle-isearch-exit() { zle -M ""; }
zle -N zle-isearch-exit
- zle-line-pre-redraw
- Executed whenever the input line is about to be redrawn, providing an
opportunity to update the region_highlight array.
- zle-line-init
- Executed every time the line editor is started to read a new line of
input. The following example puts the line editor into vi command mode
when it starts up.
zle-line-init() { zle -K vicmd; }
zle -N zle-line-init
(The command inside the function sets the keymap directly; it is equivalent to
zle vi-cmd-mode.)
- zle-line-finish
- This is similar to zle-line-init but is executed every time the
line editor has finished reading a line of input.
- zle-history-line-set
- Executed when the history line changes.
- zle-keymap-select
- Executed every time the keymap changes, i.e. the special parameter
KEYMAP is set to a different value, while the line editor is
active. Initialising the keymap when the line editor starts does not cause
the widget to be called.
The value
$KEYMAP within the function reflects the new keymap. The old
keymap is passed as the sole argument.
This can be used for detecting switches between the vi command (
vicmd)
and insert (usually
main) keymaps.
The following is a list of all the standard widgets, and their default bindings
in emacs mode, vi command mode and vi insert mode (the `
emacs',
`
vicmd' and `
viins' keymaps, respectively).
Note that cursor keys are bound to movement keys in all three keymaps; the shell
assumes that the cursor keys send the key sequences reported by the
terminal-handling library (termcap or terminfo). The key sequences shown in
the list are those based on the VT100, common on many modern terminals, but in
fact these are not necessarily bound. In the case of the
viins keymap,
the initial escape character of the sequences serves also to return to the
vicmd keymap: whether this happens is determined by the
KEYTIMEOUT parameter, see
zshparam(1).
- vi-backward-blank-word (unbound) (B) (unbound)
- Move backward one word, where a word is defined as a series of non-blank
characters.
- vi-backward-blank-word-end (unbound) (gE) (unbound)
- Move to the end of the previous word, where a word is defined as a series
of non-blank characters.
- backward-char (^B ESC-[D) (unbound) (unbound)
- Move backward one character.
- vi-backward-char (unbound) (^H h ^?) (ESC-[D)
- Move backward one character, without changing lines.
- backward-word (ESC-B ESC-b) (unbound) (unbound)
- Move to the beginning of the previous word.
- emacs-backward-word
- Move to the beginning of the previous word.
- vi-backward-word (unbound) (b) (unbound)
- Move to the beginning of the previous word, vi-style.
- vi-backward-word-end (unbound) (ge) (unbound)
- Move to the end of the previous word, vi-style.
- beginning-of-line (^A) (unbound) (unbound)
- Move to the beginning of the line. If already at the beginning of the
line, move to the beginning of the previous line, if any.
- vi-beginning-of-line
- Move to the beginning of the line, without changing lines.
- down-line (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
- Move down a line in the buffer.
- end-of-line (^E) (unbound) (unbound)
- Move to the end of the line. If already at the end of the line, move to
the end of the next line, if any.
- vi-end-of-line (unbound) ($) (unbound)
- Move to the end of the line. If an argument is given to this command, the
cursor will be moved to the end of the line (argument - 1) lines
down.
- vi-forward-blank-word (unbound) (W) (unbound)
- Move forward one word, where a word is defined as a series of non-blank
characters.
- vi-forward-blank-word-end (unbound) (E) (unbound)
- Move to the end of the current word, or, if at the end of the current
word, to the end of the next word, where a word is defined as a series of
non-blank characters.
- forward-char (^F ESC-[C) (unbound) (unbound)
- Move forward one character.
- vi-forward-char (unbound) (space l) (ESC-[C)
- Move forward one character.
- vi-find-next-char (^X^F) (f) (unbound)
- Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the next occurrence of it
in the line.
- vi-find-next-char-skip (unbound) (t) (unbound)
- Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the position just before
the next occurrence of it in the line.
- vi-find-prev-char (unbound) (F) (unbound)
- Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the previous occurrence of
it in the line.
- vi-find-prev-char-skip (unbound) (T) (unbound)
- Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the position just after
the previous occurrence of it in the line.
- vi-first-non-blank (unbound) (^) (unbound)
- Move to the first non-blank character in the line.
- vi-forward-word (unbound) (w) (unbound)
- Move forward one word, vi-style.
- forward-word (ESC-F ESC-f) (unbound) (unbound)
- Move to the beginning of the next word. The editor's idea of a word is
specified with the WORDCHARS parameter.
- emacs-forward-word
- Move to the end of the next word.
- vi-forward-word-end (unbound) (e) (unbound)
- Move to the end of the next word.
- vi-goto-column (ESC-|) (|) (unbound)
- Move to the column specified by the numeric argument.
- vi-goto-mark (unbound) (`) (unbound)
- Move to the specified mark.
- vi-goto-mark-line (unbound) (') (unbound)
- Move to beginning of the line containing the specified mark.
- vi-repeat-find (unbound) (;) (unbound)
- Repeat the last vi-find command.
- vi-rev-repeat-find (unbound) (,) (unbound)
- Repeat the last vi-find command in the opposite direction.
- up-line (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
- Move up a line in the buffer.
- beginning-of-buffer-or-history (ESC-<) (gg)
(unbound)
- Move to the beginning of the buffer, or if already there, move to the
first event in the history list.
- beginning-of-line-hist
- Move to the beginning of the line. If already at the beginning of the
buffer, move to the previous history line.
- beginning-of-history
- Move to the first event in the history list.
- down-line-or-history (^N ESC-[B) (j)
(ESC-[B)
- Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the bottom line, move to
the next event in the history list.
- vi-down-line-or-history (unbound) (+) (unbound)
- Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the bottom line, move to
the next event in the history list. Then move to the first non-blank
character on the line.
- down-line-or-search
- Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the bottom line, search
forward in the history for a line beginning with the first word in the
buffer.
If called from a function by the
zle command with arguments, the first
argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first
word in the buffer.
- down-history (unbound) (^N) (unbound)
- Move to the next event in the history list.
- history-beginning-search-backward
- Search backward in the history for a line beginning with the current line
up to the cursor. This leaves the cursor in its original position.
- end-of-buffer-or-history (ESC->) (unbound) (unbound)
- Move to the end of the buffer, or if already there, move to the last event
in the history list.
- end-of-line-hist
- Move to the end of the line. If already at the end of the buffer, move to
the next history line.
- end-of-history
- Move to the last event in the history list.
- vi-fetch-history (unbound) (G) (unbound)
- Fetch the history line specified by the numeric argument. This defaults to
the current history line (i.e. the one that isn't history yet).
- history-incremental-search-backward (^R ^Xr) (unbound)
(unbound)
- Search backward incrementally for a specified string. The search is
case-insensitive if the search string does not have uppercase letters and
no numeric argument was given. The string may begin with ` ^' to
anchor the search to the beginning of the line. When called from a
user-defined function returns the following statuses: 0, if the search
succeeded; 1, if the search failed; 2, if the search term was a bad
pattern; 3, if the search was aborted by the send-break
command.
A restricted set of editing functions is available in the mini-buffer. Keys are
looked up in the special
isearch keymap, and if not found there in the
main keymap (note that by default the
isearch keymap is empty). An
interrupt signal, as defined by the stty setting, will stop the search and go
back to the original line. An undefined key will have the same effect. Note
that the following always perform the same task within incremental searches
and cannot be replaced by user defined widgets, nor can the set of functions
be extended. The supported functions are:
- accept-and-hold
- accept-and-infer-next-history
- accept-line
- accept-line-and-down-history
- Perform the usual function after exiting incremental search. The command
line displayed is executed.
- backward-delete-char
- vi-backward-delete-char
- Back up one place in the search history. If the search has been repeated
this does not immediately erase a character in the minibuffer.
- accept-search
- Exit incremental search, retaining the command line but performing no
further action. Note that this function is not bound by default and has no
effect outside incremental search.
- backward-delete-word
- backward-kill-word
- vi-backward-kill-word
- Back up one character in the minibuffer; if multiple searches have been
performed since the character was inserted the search history is rewound
to the point just before the character was entered. Hence this has the
effect of repeating backward-delete-char.
- clear-screen
- Clear the screen, remaining in incremental search mode.
- history-incremental-search-backward
- Find the next occurrence of the contents of the mini-buffer. If the
mini-buffer is empty, the most recent previously used search string is
reinstated.
- history-incremental-search-forward
- Invert the sense of the search.
- magic-space
- Inserts a non-magical space.
- quoted-insert
- vi-quoted-insert
- Quote the character to insert into the minibuffer.
- redisplay
- Redisplay the command line, remaining in incremental search mode.
- vi-cmd-mode
- Select the `vicmd' keymap; the ` main' keymap (insert mode)
will be selected initially.
In addition, the modifications that were made while in vi insert mode are merged
to form a single undo event.
- vi-repeat-search
- vi-rev-repeat-search
- Repeat the search. The direction of the search is indicated in the
mini-buffer.
Any character that is not bound to one of the above functions, or
self-insert or
self-insert-unmeta, will cause the mode to be
exited. The character is then looked up and executed in the keymap in effect
at that point.
When called from a widget function by the
zle command, the incremental
search commands can take a string argument. This will be treated as a string
of keys, as for arguments to the
bindkey command, and used as initial
input for the command. Any characters in the string which are unused by the
incremental search will be silently ignored. For example,
zle history-incremental-search-backward forceps
will search backwards for
forceps, leaving the minibuffer containing the
string `
forceps'.
- history-incremental-search-forward (^S ^Xs) (unbound)
(unbound)
- Search forward incrementally for a specified string. The search is
case-insensitive if the search string does not have uppercase letters and
no numeric argument was given. The string may begin with ` ^' to
anchor the search to the beginning of the line. The functions available in
the mini-buffer are the same as for
history-incremental-search-backward.
- history-incremental-pattern-search-backward
- history-incremental-pattern-search-forward
- These widgets behave similarly to the corresponding widgets with no
-pattern, but the search string typed by the user is treated as a
pattern, respecting the current settings of the various options affecting
pattern matching. See FILENAME GENERATION in zshexpn(1) for a
description of patterns. If no numeric argument was given lowercase
letters in the search string may match uppercase letters in the history.
The string may begin with ` ^' to anchor the search to the
beginning of the line.
The prompt changes to indicate an invalid pattern; this may simply indicate the
pattern is not yet complete.
Note that only non-overlapping matches are reported, so an expression with
wildcards may return fewer matches on a line than are visible by
inspection.
- history-search-backward (ESC-P ESC-p) (unbound)
(unbound)
- Search backward in the history for a line beginning with the first word in
the buffer.
If called from a function by the
zle command with arguments, the first
argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first
word in the buffer.
- vi-history-search-backward (unbound) (/) (unbound)
- Search backward in the history for a specified string. The string may
begin with ` ^' to anchor the search to the beginning of the
line.
A restricted set of editing functions is available in the mini-buffer. An
interrupt signal, as defined by the stty setting, will stop the search. The
functions available in the mini-buffer are:
accept-line,
backward-delete-char,
vi-backward-delete-char,
backward-kill-word,
vi-backward-kill-word,
clear-screen,
redisplay,
quoted-insert and
vi-quoted-insert.
vi-cmd-mode is treated the same as accept-line, and
magic-space is
treated as a space. Any other character that is not bound to self-insert or
self-insert-unmeta will beep and be ignored. If the function is called from vi
command mode, the bindings of the current insert mode will be used.
If called from a function by the
zle command with arguments, the first
argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first
word in the buffer.
- history-search-forward (ESC-N ESC-n) (unbound)
(unbound)
- Search forward in the history for a line beginning with the first word in
the buffer.
If called from a function by the
zle command with arguments, the first
argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first
word in the buffer.
- vi-history-search-forward (unbound) (?) (unbound)
- Search forward in the history for a specified string. The string may begin
with ` ^' to anchor the search to the beginning of the line. The
functions available in the mini-buffer are the same as for
vi-history-search-backward. Argument handling is also the same as
for that command.
- infer-next-history (^X^N) (unbound) (unbound)
- Search in the history list for a line matching the current one and fetch
the event following it.
- insert-last-word (ESC-_ ESC-.) (unbound) (unbound)
- Insert the last word from the previous history event at the cursor
position. If a positive numeric argument is given, insert that word from
the end of the previous history event. If the argument is zero or negative
insert that word from the left (zero inserts the previous command word).
Repeating this command replaces the word just inserted with the last word
from the history event prior to the one just used; numeric arguments can
be used in the same way to pick a word from that event.
When called from a shell function invoked from a user-defined widget, the
command can take one to three arguments. The first argument specifies a
history offset which applies to successive calls to this widget: if it is -1,
the default behaviour is used, while if it is 1, successive calls will move
forwards through the history. The value 0 can be used to indicate that the
history line examined by the previous execution of the command will be
reexamined. Note that negative numbers should be preceded by a `
--' argument to avoid confusing them with options.
If two arguments are given, the second specifies the word on the command line in
normal array index notation (as a more natural alternative to the numeric
argument). Hence 1 is the first word, and -1 (the default) is the last word.
If a third argument is given, its value is ignored, but it is used to signify
that the history offset is relative to the current history line, rather than
the one remembered after the previous invocations of
insert-last-word.
For example, the default behaviour of the command corresponds to
zle insert-last-word -- -1 -1
while the command
zle insert-last-word -- -1 1 -
always copies the first word of the line in the history immediately before the
line being edited. This has the side effect that later invocations of the
widget will be relative to that line.
- vi-repeat-search (unbound) (n) (unbound)
- Repeat the last vi history search.
- vi-rev-repeat-search (unbound) (N) (unbound)
- Repeat the last vi history search, but in reverse.
- up-line-or-history (^P ESC-[A) (k)
(ESC-[A)
- Move up a line in the buffer, or if already at the top line, move to the
previous event in the history list.
- vi-up-line-or-history (unbound) (-) (unbound)
- Move up a line in the buffer, or if already at the top line, move to the
previous event in the history list. Then move to the first non-blank
character on the line.
- up-line-or-search
- Move up a line in the buffer, or if already at the top line, search
backward in the history for a line beginning with the first word in the
buffer.
If called from a function by the
zle command with arguments, the first
argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first
word in the buffer.
- up-history (unbound) (^P) (unbound)
- Move to the previous event in the history list.
- history-beginning-search-forward
- Search forward in the history for a line beginning with the current line
up to the cursor. This leaves the cursor in its original position.
- set-local-history
- By default, history movement commands visit the imported lines as well as
the local lines. This widget lets you toggle this on and off, or set it
with the numeric argument. Zero for both local and imported lines and
nonzero for only local lines.
- vi-add-eol (unbound) (A) (unbound)
- Move to the end of the line and enter insert mode.
- vi-add-next (unbound) (a) (unbound)
- Enter insert mode after the current cursor position, without changing
lines.
- backward-delete-char (^H ^?) (unbound) (unbound)
- Delete the character behind the cursor.
- vi-backward-delete-char (unbound) (X) (^H)
- Delete the character behind the cursor, without changing lines. If in
insert mode, this won't delete past the point where insert mode was last
entered.
- backward-delete-word
- Delete the word behind the cursor.
- backward-kill-line
- Kill from the beginning of the line to the cursor position.
- backward-kill-word (^W ESC-^H ESC-^?) (unbound)
(unbound)
- Kill the word behind the cursor.
- vi-backward-kill-word (unbound) (unbound) (^W)
- Kill the word behind the cursor, without going past the point where insert
mode was last entered.
- capitalize-word (ESC-C ESC-c) (unbound) (unbound)
- Capitalize the current word and move past it.
- vi-change (unbound) (c) (unbound)
- Read a movement command from the keyboard, and kill from the cursor
position to the endpoint of the movement. Then enter insert mode. If the
command is vi-change, change the current line.
For compatibility with vi, if the command is
vi-forward-word or
vi-forward-blank-word, the whitespace after the word is not included.
If you prefer the more consistent behaviour with the whitespace included use
the following key binding:
- vi-change-eol (unbound) (C) (unbound)
- Kill to the end of the line and enter insert mode.
- vi-change-whole-line (unbound) (S) (unbound)
- Kill the current line and enter insert mode.
- copy-region-as-kill (ESC-W ESC-w) (unbound) (unbound)
- Copy the area from the cursor to the mark to the kill buffer.
If called from a ZLE widget function in the form `
zle
copy-region-as-kill string' then
string will be taken as
the text to copy to the kill buffer. The cursor, the mark and the text on the
command line are not used in this case.
- copy-prev-word (ESC-^_) (unbound) (unbound)
- Duplicate the word to the left of the cursor.
- copy-prev-shell-word
- Like copy-prev-word, but the word is found by using shell parsing,
whereas copy-prev-word looks for blanks. This makes a difference
when the word is quoted and contains spaces.
- vi-delete (unbound) (d) (unbound)
- Read a movement command from the keyboard, and kill from the cursor
position to the endpoint of the movement. If the command is
vi-delete, kill the current line.
- delete-char
- Delete the character under the cursor.
- vi-delete-char (unbound) (x) (unbound)
- Delete the character under the cursor, without going past the end of the
line.
- delete-word
- Delete the current word.
- down-case-word (ESC-L ESC-l) (unbound) (unbound)
- Convert the current word to all lowercase and move past it.
- vi-down-case (unbound) (gu) (unbound)
- Read a movement command from the keyboard, and convert all characters from
the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement to lowercase. If the
movement command is vi-down-case, swap the case of all characters
on the current line.
- kill-word (ESC-D ESC-d) (unbound) (unbound)
- Kill the current word.
- gosmacs-transpose-chars
- Exchange the two characters behind the cursor.
- vi-indent (unbound) (>) (unbound)
- Indent a number of lines.
- vi-insert (unbound) (i) (unbound)
- Enter insert mode.
- vi-insert-bol (unbound) (I) (unbound)
- Move to the first non-blank character on the line and enter insert
mode.
- vi-join (^X^J) (J) (unbound)
- Join the current line with the next one.
- kill-line (^K) (unbound) (unbound)
- Kill from the cursor to the end of the line. If already on the end of the
line, kill the newline character.
- vi-kill-line (unbound) (unbound) (^U)
- Kill from the cursor back to wherever insert mode was last entered.
- vi-kill-eol (unbound) (D) (unbound)
- Kill from the cursor to the end of the line.
- kill-region
- Kill from the cursor to the mark.
- kill-buffer (^X^K) (unbound) (unbound)
- Kill the entire buffer.
- kill-whole-line (^U) (unbound) (unbound)
- Kill the current line.
- vi-match-bracket (^X^B) (%) (unbound)
- Move to the bracket character (one of {}, () or [])
that matches the one under the cursor. If the cursor is not on a bracket
character, move forward without going past the end of the line to find
one, and then go to the matching bracket.
- vi-open-line-above (unbound) (O) (unbound)
- Open a line above the cursor and enter insert mode.
- vi-open-line-below (unbound) (o) (unbound)
- Open a line below the cursor and enter insert mode.
- vi-oper-swap-case (unbound) (g~) (unbound)
- Read a movement command from the keyboard, and swap the case of all
characters from the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement. If
the movement command is vi-oper-swap-case, swap the case of all
characters on the current line.
- overwrite-mode (^X^O) (unbound) (unbound)
- Toggle between overwrite mode and insert mode.
- vi-put-before (unbound) (P) (unbound)
- Insert the contents of the kill buffer before the cursor. If the kill
buffer contains a sequence of lines (as opposed to characters), paste it
above the current line.
- vi-put-after (unbound) (p) (unbound)
- Insert the contents of the kill buffer after the cursor. If the kill
buffer contains a sequence of lines (as opposed to characters), paste it
below the current line.
- put-replace-selection (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
- Replace the contents of the current region or selection with the contents
of the kill buffer. If the kill buffer contains a sequence of lines (as
opposed to characters), the current line will be split by the pasted
lines.
- quoted-insert (^V) (unbound) (unbound)
- Insert the next character typed into the buffer literally. An interrupt
character will not be inserted.
- vi-quoted-insert (unbound) (unbound) (^Q ^V)
- Display a `^' at the cursor position, and insert the next character
typed into the buffer literally. An interrupt character will not be
inserted.
- quote-line (ESC-') (unbound) (unbound)
- Quote the current line; that is, put a `'' character at the
beginning and the end, and convert all ` '' characters to `
'\'''.
- quote-region (ESC-") (unbound) (unbound)
- Quote the region from the cursor to the mark.
- vi-replace (unbound) (R) (unbound)
- Enter overwrite mode.
- vi-repeat-change (unbound) (.) (unbound)
- Repeat the last vi mode text modification. If a count was used with the
modification, it is remembered. If a count is given to this command, it
overrides the remembered count, and is remembered for future uses of this
command. The cut buffer specification is similarly remembered.
- vi-replace-chars (unbound) (r) (unbound)
- Replace the character under the cursor with a character read from the
keyboard.
- self-insert (printable characters) (unbound) (printable characters
and some control characters)
- Insert a character into the buffer at the cursor position.
- self-insert-unmeta (ESC-^I ESC-^J ESC-^M) (unbound)
(unbound)
- Insert a character into the buffer after stripping the meta bit and
converting ^M to ^J.
- vi-substitute (unbound) (s) (unbound)
- Substitute the next character(s).
- vi-swap-case (unbound) (~) (unbound)
- Swap the case of the character under the cursor and move past it.
- transpose-chars (^T) (unbound) (unbound)
- Exchange the two characters to the left of the cursor if at end of line,
else exchange the character under the cursor with the character to the
left.
- transpose-words (ESC-T ESC-t) (unbound) (unbound)
- Exchange the current word with the one before it.
With a positive numeric argument
N, the word around the cursor, or
following it if the cursor is between words, is transposed with the preceding
N words. The cursor is put at the end of the resulting group of words.
With a negative numeric argument
-N, the effect is the same as using a
positive argument
N except that the original cursor position is
retained, regardless of how the words are rearranged.
- vi-unindent (unbound) (<) (unbound)
- Unindent a number of lines.
- vi-up-case (unbound) (gU) (unbound)
- Read a movement command from the keyboard, and convert all characters from
the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement to lowercase. If the
movement command is vi-up-case, swap the case of all characters on
the current line.
- up-case-word (ESC-U ESC-u) (unbound) (unbound)
- Convert the current word to all caps and move past it.
- yank (^Y) (unbound) (unbound)
- Insert the contents of the kill buffer at the cursor position.
- yank-pop (ESC-y) (unbound) (unbound)
- Remove the text just yanked, rotate the kill-ring (the history of
previously killed text) and yank the new top. Only works following
yank, vi-put-before, vi-put-after or
yank-pop.
- vi-yank (unbound) (y) (unbound)
- Read a movement command from the keyboard, and copy the region from the
cursor position to the endpoint of the movement into the kill buffer. If
the command is vi-yank, copy the current line.
- vi-yank-whole-line (unbound) (Y) (unbound)
- Copy the current line into the kill buffer.
- vi-yank-eol
- Copy the region from the cursor position to the end of the line into the
kill buffer. Arguably, this is what Y should do in vi, but it isn't what
it actually does.
- digit-argument (ESC-0..ESC-9) (1-9)
(unbound)
- Start a new numeric argument, or add to the current one. See also
vi-digit-or-beginning-of-line. This only works if bound to a key
sequence ending in a decimal digit.
Inside a widget function, a call to this function treats the last key of the key
sequence which called the widget as the digit.
- neg-argument (ESC--) (unbound) (unbound)
- Changes the sign of the following argument.
- universal-argument
- Multiply the argument of the next command by 4. Alternatively, if this
command is followed by an integer (positive or negative), use that as the
argument for the next command. Thus digits cannot be repeated using this
command. For example, if this command occurs twice, followed immediately
by forward-char, move forward sixteen spaces; if instead it is
followed by -2, then forward-char, move backward two
spaces.
Inside a widget function, if passed an argument, i.e. `
zle
universal-argument num', the numeric argument will be set to
num; this is equivalent to `
NUMERIC=num'.
- argument-base
- Use the existing numeric argument as a numeric base, which must be in the
range 2 to 36 inclusive. Subsequent use of digit-argument and
universal-argument will input a new numeric argument in the given
base. The usual hexadecimal convention is used: the letter a or
A corresponds to 10, and so on. Arguments in bases requiring digits
from 10 upwards are more conveniently input with
universal-argument, since ESC-a etc. are not usually bound
to digit-argument.
The function can be used with a command argument inside a user-defined widget.
The following code sets the base to 16 and lets the user input a hexadecimal
argument until a key out of the digit range is typed:
zle argument-base 16
zle universal-argument
- accept-and-menu-complete
- In a menu completion, insert the current completion into the buffer, and
advance to the next possible completion.
- complete-word
- Attempt completion on the current word.
- delete-char-or-list (^D) (unbound) (unbound)
- Delete the character under the cursor. If the cursor is at the end of the
line, list possible completions for the current word.
- expand-cmd-path
- Expand the current command to its full pathname.
- expand-or-complete (TAB) (unbound) (TAB)
- Attempt shell expansion on the current word. If that fails, attempt
completion.
- expand-or-complete-prefix
- Attempt shell expansion on the current word up to cursor.
- expand-history (ESC-space ESC-!) (unbound) (unbound)
- Perform history expansion on the edit buffer.
- expand-word (^X*) (unbound) (unbound)
- Attempt shell expansion on the current word.
- list-choices (ESC-^D) (^D =) (^D)
- List possible completions for the current word.
- list-expand (^Xg ^XG) (^G) (^G)
- List the expansion of the current word.
- magic-space
- Perform history expansion and insert a space into the buffer. This is
intended to be bound to space.
- menu-complete
- Like complete-word, except that menu completion is used. See the
MENU_COMPLETE option.
- menu-expand-or-complete
- Like expand-or-complete, except that menu completion is used.
- reverse-menu-complete
- Perform menu completion, like menu-complete, except that if a menu
completion is already in progress, move to the previous completion
rather than the next.
- end-of-list
- When a previous completion displayed a list below the prompt, this widget
can be used to move the prompt below the list.
- accept-and-hold (ESC-A ESC-a) (unbound) (unbound)
- Push the contents of the buffer on the buffer stack and execute it.
- accept-and-infer-next-history
- Execute the contents of the buffer. Then search the history list for a
line matching the current one and push the event following onto the buffer
stack.
- accept-line (^J ^M) (^J ^M) (^J ^M)
- Finish editing the buffer. Normally this causes the buffer to be executed
as a shell command.
- accept-line-and-down-history (^O) (unbound) (unbound)
- Execute the current line, and push the next history event on the buffer
stack.
- auto-suffix-remove
- If the previous action added a suffix (space, slash, etc.) to the word on
the command line, remove it. Otherwise do nothing. Removing the suffix
ends any active menu completion or menu selection.
This widget is intended to be called from user-defined widgets to enforce a
desired suffix-removal behavior.
- auto-suffix-retain
- If the previous action added a suffix (space, slash, etc.) to the word on
the command line, force it to be preserved. Otherwise do nothing.
Retaining the suffix ends any active menu completion or menu
selection.
This widget is intended to be called from user-defined widgets to enforce a
desired suffix-preservation behavior.
- beep
- Beep, unless the BEEP option is unset.
- bracketed-paste
- This widget is invoked when text is pasted to the terminal emulator. It is
not intended to be bound to actual keys but instead to the special
sequence generated by the terminal emulator when text is pasted.
When invoked interactively, the pasted text is inserted to the buffer and placed
in the cutbuffer. If a numeric argument is given, shell quoting will be
applied to the pasted text before it is inserted.
When a named buffer is specified with
vi-set-buffer (
"x), the
pasted text is stored in that named buffer but not inserted.
When called from a widget function as `
bracketed-paste name`, the
pasted text is assigned to the variable
name and no other processing is
done.
See also the
zle_bracketed_paste parameter.
- vi-cmd-mode (^X^V) (unbound) (^[)
- Enter command mode; that is, select the `vicmd' keymap. Yes, this
is bound by default in emacs mode.
- vi-caps-lock-panic
- Hang until any lowercase key is pressed. This is for vi users without the
mental capacity to keep track of their caps lock key (like the
author).
- clear-screen (^L ESC-^L) (^L) (^L)
- Clear the screen and redraw the prompt.
- deactivate-region
- Make the current region inactive. This disables vim-style visual selection
mode if it is active.
- describe-key-briefly
- Reads a key sequence, then prints the function bound to that
sequence.
- exchange-point-and-mark (^X^X) (unbound) (unbound)
- Exchange the cursor position (point) with the position of the mark. Unless
a negative numeric argument is given, the region between point and mark is
activated so that it can be highlighted. If a zero numeric argument is
given, the region is activated but point and mark are not swapped.
- execute-named-cmd (ESC-x) (:) (unbound)
- Read the name of an editor command and execute it. Aliasing this widget
with ` zle -A' or replacing it with `zle -N' has no effect
when interpreting key bindings, but ` zle execute-named-cmd' will
invoke such an alias or replacement.
A restricted set of editing functions is available in the mini-buffer. Keys are
looked up in the special
command keymap, and if not found there in the
main keymap. An interrupt signal, as defined by the stty setting, will abort
the function. Note that the following always perform the same task within the
executed-named-cmd environment and cannot be replaced by user defined
widgets, nor can the set of functions be extended. The allowed functions are:
backward-delete-char,
vi-backward-delete-char,
clear-screen,
redisplay,
quoted-insert,
vi-quoted-insert,
backward-kill-word,
vi-backward-kill-word,
kill-whole-line,
vi-kill-line,
backward-kill-line,
list-choices,
delete-char-or-list,
complete-word,
accept-line,
expand-or-complete and
expand-or-complete-prefix.
kill-region kills the last word, and vi-cmd-mode is treated the same as
accept-line. The space and tab characters, if not bound to one of these
functions, will complete the name and then list the possibilities if the
AUTO_LIST option is set. Any other character that is not bound to
self-insert or
self-insert-unmeta will beep and be ignored. The
bindings of the current insert mode will be used.
Currently this command may not be redefined or called by name.
- execute-last-named-cmd (ESC-z) (unbound) (unbound)
- Redo the last function executed with execute-named-cmd.
Like
execute-named-cmd, this command may not be redefined, but it may be
called by name.
- get-line (ESC-G ESC-g) (unbound) (unbound)
- Pop the top line off the buffer stack and insert it at the cursor
position.
- pound-insert (unbound) (#) (unbound)
- If there is no # character at the beginning of the buffer, add one to the
beginning of each line. If there is one, remove a # from each line that
has one. In either case, accept the current line. The
INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS option must be set for this to have any
usefulness.
- vi-pound-insert
- If there is no # character at the beginning of the current line, add one.
If there is one, remove it. The INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS option must be
set for this to have any usefulness.
- push-input
- Push the entire current multiline construct onto the buffer stack and
return to the top-level ( PS1) prompt. If the current parser
construct is only a single line, this is exactly like push-line.
Next time the editor starts up or is popped with get-line, the
construct will be popped off the top of the buffer stack and loaded into
the editing buffer.
- push-line (^Q ESC-Q ESC-q) (unbound) (unbound)
- Push the current buffer onto the buffer stack and clear the buffer. Next
time the editor starts up, the buffer will be popped off the top of the
buffer stack and loaded into the editing buffer.
- push-line-or-edit
- At the top-level (PS1) prompt, equivalent to push-line. At a
secondary ( PS2) prompt, move the entire current multiline
construct into the editor buffer. The latter is equivalent to
push-input followed by get-line.
- read-command
- Only useful from a user-defined widget. A keystroke is read just as in
normal operation, but instead of the command being executed the name of
the command that would be executed is stored in the shell parameter
REPLY. This can be used as the argument of a future zle
command. If the key sequence is not bound, status 1 is returned;
typically, however, REPLY is set to undefined-key to
indicate a useless key sequence.
- recursive-edit
- Only useful from a user-defined widget. At this point in the function, the
editor regains control until one of the standard widgets which would
normally cause zle to exit (typically an accept-line caused by
hitting the return key) is executed. Instead, control returns to the
user-defined widget. The status returned is non-zero if the return was
caused by an error, but the function still continues executing and hence
may tidy up. This makes it safe for the user-defined widget to alter the
command line or key bindings temporarily.
The following widget,
caps-lock, serves as an example.
self-insert-ucase() {
LBUFFER+=${(U)KEYS[-1]}
}
integer stat
zle -N self-insert self-insert-ucase
zle -A caps-lock save-caps-lock
zle -A accept-line caps-lock
zle recursive-edit
stat=$?
zle -A .self-insert self-insert
zle -A save-caps-lock caps-lock
zle -D save-caps-lock
(( stat )) && zle send-break
return $stat
This causes typed letters to be inserted capitalised until either
accept-line (i.e. typically the return key) is typed or the
caps-lock widget is invoked again; the later is handled by saving the
old definition of
caps-lock as
save-caps-lock and then rebinding
it to invoke
accept-line. Note that an error from the recursive edit is
detected as a non-zero return status and propagated by using the
send-break widget.
- redisplay (unbound) (^R) (^R)
- Redisplays the edit buffer.
- reset-prompt (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
- Force the prompts on both the left and right of the screen to be
re-expanded, then redisplay the edit buffer. This reflects changes both to
the prompt variables themselves and changes in the expansion of the values
(for example, changes in time or directory, or changes to the value of
variables referred to by the prompt).
Otherwise, the prompt is only expanded each time zle starts, and when the
display as been interrupted by output from another part of the shell (such as
a job notification) which causes the command line to be reprinted.
- send-break (^G ESC-^G) (unbound) (unbound)
- Abort the current editor function, e.g. execute-named-command, or
the editor itself, e.g. if you are in vared. Otherwise abort the
parsing of the current line; in this case the aborted line is available in
the shell variable ZLE_LINE_ABORTED. If the editor is aborted from
within vared, the variable ZLE_VARED_ABORTED is set.
- run-help (ESC-H ESC-h) (unbound) (unbound)
- Push the buffer onto the buffer stack, and execute the command `
run-help cmd', where cmd is the current command.
run-help is normally aliased to man.
- vi-set-buffer (unbound) (") (unbound)
- Specify a buffer to be used in the following command. There are 37 buffers
that can be specified: the 26 `named' buffers "a to
"z, the `yank' buffer "0, the nine `queued'
buffers "1 to "9 and the `black hole' buffer
"_. The named buffers can also be specified as "A
to "Z.
When a buffer is specified for a cut, change or yank command, the text concerned
replaces the previous contents of the specified buffer. If a named buffer is
specified using a capital, the newly cut text is appended to the buffer
instead of overwriting it. When using the
"_ buffer, nothing
happens. This can be useful for deleting text without affecting any buffers.
If no buffer is specified for a cut or change command,
"1 is used,
and the contents of
"1 to
"8 are each shifted along
one buffer; the contents of
"9 is lost. If no buffer is specified
for a yank command,
"0 is used. Finally, a paste command without a
specified buffer will paste the text from the most recent command regardless
of any buffer that might have been used with that command.
When called from a widget function by the
zle command, the buffer can
optionally be specified with an argument. For example,
- vi-set-mark (unbound) (m) (unbound)
- Set the specified mark at the cursor position.
- set-mark-command (^@) (unbound) (unbound)
- Set the mark at the cursor position. If called with a negative numeric
argument, do not set the mark but deactivate the region so that it is no
longer highlighted (it is still usable for other purposes). Otherwise the
region is marked as active.
- spell-word (ESC-$ ESC-S ESC-s) (unbound) (unbound)
- Attempt spelling correction on the current word.
- split-undo
- Breaks the undo sequence at the current change. This is useful in vi mode
as changes made in insert mode are coalesced on entering command mode.
Similarly, undo will normally revert as one all the changes made by
a user-defined widget.
- undefined-key
- This command is executed when a key sequence that is not bound to any
command is typed. By default it beeps.
- undo (^_ ^Xu ^X^U) (u) (unbound)
- Incrementally undo the last text modification. When called from a
user-defined widget, takes an optional argument indicating a previous
state of the undo history as returned by the UNDO_CHANGE_NO
variable; modifications are undone until that state is reached, subject to
any limit imposed by the UNDO_LIMIT_NO variable.
Note that when invoked from vi command mode, the full prior change made in
insert mode is reverted, the changes having been merged when command mode was
selected.
- redo (unbound) (^R) (unbound)
- Incrementally redo undone text modifications.
- vi-undo-change (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
- Undo the last text modification. If repeated, redo the modification.
- visual-mode (unbound) (v) (unbound)
- Toggle vim-style visual selection mode. If line-wise visual mode is
currently enabled then it is changed to being character-wise. If used
following an operator, it forces the subsequent movement command to be
treated as a character-wise movement.
- visual-line-mode (unbound) (V) (unbound)
- Toggle vim-style line-wise visual selection mode. If character-wise visual
mode is currently enabled then it is changed to being line-wise. If used
following an operator, it forces the subsequent movement command to be
treated as a line-wise movement.
- what-cursor-position (^X=) (ga) (unbound)
- Print the character under the cursor, its code as an octal, decimal and
hexadecimal number, the current cursor position within the buffer and the
column of the cursor in the current line.
- where-is
- Read the name of an editor command and print the listing of key sequences
that invoke the specified command. A restricted set of editing functions
is available in the mini-buffer. Keys are looked up in the special
command keymap, and if not found there in the main keymap.
- which-command (ESC-?) (unbound) (unbound)
- Push the buffer onto the buffer stack, and execute the command `
which-command cmd'. where cmd is the current command.
which-command is normally aliased to whence.
- vi-digit-or-beginning-of-line (unbound) (0) (unbound)
- If the last command executed was a digit as part of an argument, continue
the argument. Otherwise, execute vi-beginning-of-line.
Text objects are commands that can be used to select a block of text according
to some criteria. They are a feature of the vim text editor and so are
primarily intended for use with vi operators or from visual selection mode.
However, they can also be used from vi-insert or emacs mode. Key bindings
listed below apply to the
viopp and
visual keymaps.
- select-a-blank-word (aW)
- Select a word including adjacent blanks, where a word is defined as a
series of non-blank characters. With a numeric argument, multiple words
will be selected.
- select-a-shell-word (aa)
- Select the current command argument applying the normal rules for
quoting.
- select-a-word (aw)
- Select a word including adjacent blanks, using the normal vi-style word
definition. With a numeric argument, multiple words will be selected.
- select-in-blank-word (iW)
- Select a word, where a word is defined as a series of non-blank
characters. With a numeric argument, multiple words will be selected.
- select-in-shell-word (ia)
- Select the current command argument applying the normal rules for quoting.
If the argument begins and ends with matching quote characters, these are
not included in the selection.
- select-in-word (iw)
- Select a word, using the normal vi-style word definition. With a numeric
argument, multiple words will be selected.
The line editor has the ability to highlight characters or regions of the line
that have a particular significance. This is controlled by the array parameter
zle_highlight, if it has been set by the user.
If the parameter contains the single entry
none all highlighting is
turned off. Note the parameter is still expected to be an array.
Otherwise each entry of the array should consist of a word indicating a context
for highlighting, then a colon, then a comma-separated list of the types of
highlighting to apply in that context.
The contexts available for highlighting are the following:
- default
- Any text within the command line not affected by any other highlighting.
Text outside the editable area of the command line is not affected.
- isearch
- When one of the incremental history search widgets is active, the area of
the command line matched by the search string or pattern.
- region
- The currently selected text. In emacs terminology, this is referred to as
the region and is bounded by the cursor (point) and the mark. The region
is only highlighted if it is active, which is the case after the mark is
modified with set-mark-command or exchange-point-and-mark.
Note that whether or not the region is active has no effect on its use
within emacs style widgets, it simply determines whether it is
highlighted. In vi mode, the region corresponds to selected text in visual
mode.
- special
- Individual characters that have no direct printable representation but are
shown in a special manner by the line editor. These characters are
described below.
- suffix
- This context is used in completion for characters that are marked as
suffixes that will be removed if the completion ends at that point, the
most obvious example being a slash ( /) after a directory name.
Note that suffix removal is configurable; the circumstances under which
the suffix will be removed may differ for different completions.
- paste
- Following a command to paste text, the characters that were inserted.
When
region_highlight is set, the contexts that describe a region --
isearch,
region,
suffix, and
paste -- are applied
first, then
region_highlight is applied, then the remaining
zle_highlight contexts are applied. If a particular character is
affected by multiple specifications, the last specification wins.
zle_highlight may contain additional fields for controlling how terminal
sequences to change colours are output. Each of the following is followed by a
colon and a string in the same form as for key bindings. This will not be
necessary for the vast majority of terminals as the defaults shown in
parentheses are widely used.
- fg_start_code (\e[3)
- The start of the escape sequence for the foreground colour. This is
followed by an ASCII digit representing the colour.
- fg_default_code (9)
- The number to use instead of the colour to reset the default foreground
colour.
- fg_end_code (m)
- The end of the escape sequence for the foreground colour.
- bg_start_code (\e[4)
- The start of the escape sequence for the background colour. This is
followed by an ASCII digit representing the colour.
- bg_default_code (9)
- The number to use instead of the colour to reset the default background
colour.
- bg_end_code (m)
- The end of the escape sequence for the background colour.
The available types of highlighting are the following. Note that not all types
of highlighting are available on all terminals:
- none
- No highlighting is applied to the given context. It is not useful for this
to appear with other types of highlighting; it is used to override a
default.
- fg=colour
- The foreground colour should be set to colour, a decimal integer or
the name of one of the eight most widely-supported colours.
Not all terminals support this and, of those that do, not all provide facilities
to test the support, hence the user should decide based on the terminal type.
Most terminals support the colours
black,
red,
green,
yellow,
blue,
magenta,
cyan and
white,
which can be set by name. In addition.
default may be used to set the
terminal's default foreground colour. Abbreviations are allowed;
b or
bl selects black. Some terminals may generate additional colours if the
bold attribute is also present.
On recent terminals and on systems with an up-to-date terminal database the
number of colours supported may be tested by the command `
echotc
Co'; if this succeeds, it indicates a limit on the number of colours
which will be enforced by the line editor. The number of colours is in any
case limited to 256 (i.e. the range 0 to 255).
Colour is also known as color.
- bg=colour
- The background colour should be set to colour. This works similarly
to the foreground colour, except the background is not usually affected by
the bold attribute.
- bold
- The characters in the given context are shown in a bold font. Not all
terminals distinguish bold fonts.
- standout
- The characters in the given context are shown in the terminal's standout
mode. The actual effect is specific to the terminal; on many terminals it
is inverse video. On some such terminals, where the cursor does not blink
it appears with standout mode negated, making it less than clear where the
cursor actually is. On such terminals one of the other effects may be
preferable for highlighting the region and matched search string.
- underline
- The characters in the given context are shown underlined. Some terminals
show the foreground in a different colour instead; in this case whitespace
will not be highlighted.
The characters described above as `special' are as follows. The formatting
described here is used irrespective of whether the characters are highlighted:
- ASCII control characters
- Control characters in the ASCII range are shown as ` ^' followed by
the base character.
- Unprintable multibyte characters
- This item applies to control characters not in the ASCII range, plus other
characters as follows. If the MULTIBYTE option is in effect,
multibyte characters not in the ASCII character set that are reported as
having zero width are treated as combining characters when the option
COMBINING_CHARS is on. If the option is off, or if a character
appears where a combining character is not valid, the character is treated
as unprintable.
Unprintable multibyte characters are shown as a hexadecimal number between angle
brackets. The number is the code point of the character in the wide character
set; this may or may not be Unicode, depending on the operating system.
- Invalid multibyte characters
- If the MULTIBYTE option is in effect, any sequence of one or more
bytes that does not form a valid character in the current character set is
treated as a series of bytes each shown as a special character. This case
can be distinguished from other unprintable characters as the bytes are
represented as two hexadecimal digits between angle brackets, as distinct
from the four or eight digits that are used for unprintable characters
that are nonetheless valid in the current character set.
Not all systems support this: for it to work, the system's representation of
wide characters must be code values from the Universal Character Set, as
defined by IS0 10646 (also known as Unicode).
- Wrapped double-width characters
- When a double-width character appears in the final column of a line, it is
instead shown on the next line. The empty space left in the original
position is highlighted as a special character.
If
zle_highlight is not set or no value applies to a particular context,
the defaults applied are equivalent to
zle_highlight=(region:standout special:standout
suffix:bold isearch:underline paste:standout)
i.e. both the region and special characters are shown in standout mode.
Within widgets, arbitrary regions may be highlighted by setting the special
array parameter
region_highlight; see above.
zshcompwid - zsh completion widgets
The shell's programmable completion mechanism can be manipulated in two ways;
here the low-level features supporting the newer, function-based mechanism are
defined. A complete set of shell functions based on these features is
described in
zshcompsys(1), and users with no interest in adding to
that system (or, potentially, writing their own -- see dictionary entry for
`hubris') should skip the current section. The older system based on the
compctl builtin command is described in
zshcompctl(1).
Completion widgets are defined by the
-C option to the
zle builtin
command provided by the
zsh/zle module (see
zshzle(1)). For
example,
zle -C complete expand-or-complete completer
defines a widget named `
complete'. The second argument is the name of
any of the builtin widgets that handle completions:
complete-word,
expand-or-complete,
expand-or-complete-prefix,
menu-complete,
menu-expand-or-complete,
reverse-menu-complete,
list-choices, or
delete-char-or-list. Note that this will still work even if the widget
in question has been re-bound.
When this newly defined widget is bound to a key using the
bindkey
builtin command defined in the
zsh/zle module (see
zshzle(1)),
typing that key will call the shell function `
completer'. This
function is responsible for generating the possible matches using the builtins
described below. As with other ZLE widgets, the function is called with its
standard input closed.
Once the function returns, the completion code takes over control again and
treats the matches in the same manner as the specified builtin widget, in this
case
expand-or-complete.
The parameters
ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS and
ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS
are used by the completion mechanism, but are not special. See
Parameters
Used By The Shell in
zshparam(1).
Inside completion widgets, and any functions called from them, some parameters
have special meaning; outside these functions they are not special to the
shell in any way. These parameters are used to pass information between the
completion code and the completion widget. Some of the builtin commands and
the condition codes use or change the current values of these parameters. Any
existing values will be hidden during execution of completion widgets; except
for
compstate, the parameters are reset on each function exit
(including nested function calls from within the completion widget) to the
values they had when the function was entered.
- CURRENT
- This is the number of the current word, i.e. the word the cursor is
currently on in the words array. Note that this value is only
correct if the ksharrays option is not set.
- IPREFIX
- Initially this will be set to the empty string. This parameter functions
like PREFIX; it contains a string which precedes the one in
PREFIX and is not considered part of the list of matches.
Typically, a string is transferred from the beginning of PREFIX to
the end of IPREFIX, for example:
IPREFIX=${PREFIX%%\=*}=
PREFIX=${PREFIX#*=}
causes the part of the prefix up to and including the first equal sign not to be
treated as part of a matched string. This can be done automatically by the
compset builtin, see below.
- ISUFFIX
- As IPREFIX, but for a suffix that should not be considered part of
the matches; note that the ISUFFIX string follows the SUFFIX
string.
- PREFIX
- Initially this will be set to the part of the current word from the
beginning of the word up to the position of the cursor; it may be altered
to give a common prefix for all matches.
- QIPREFIX
- This parameter is read-only and contains the quoted string up to the word
being completed. E.g. when completing ` "foo', this parameter
contains the double quote. If the -q option of compset is
used (see below), and the original string was ` "foo bar' with
the cursor on the ` bar', this parameter contains `"foo
'.
- QISUFFIX
- Like QIPREFIX, but containing the suffix.
- SUFFIX
- Initially this will be set to the part of the current word from the cursor
position to the end; it may be altered to give a common suffix for all
matches. It is most useful when the option COMPLETE_IN_WORD is set,
as otherwise the whole word on the command line is treated as a
prefix.
- compstate
- This is an associative array with various keys and values that the
completion code uses to exchange information with the completion widget.
The keys are:
- all_quotes
- The -q option of the compset builtin command (see below)
allows a quoted string to be broken into separate words; if the cursor is
on one of those words, that word will be completed, possibly invoking `
compset -q' recursively. With this key it is possible to test the
types of quoted strings which are currently broken into parts in this
fashion. Its value contains one character for each quoting level. The
characters are a single quote or a double quote for strings quoted with
these characters, a dollars sign for strings quoted with
$'... ' and a backslash for strings not starting with
a quote character. The first character in the value always corresponds to
the innermost quoting level.
- context
- This will be set by the completion code to the overall context in which
completion is attempted. Possible values are:
- array_value
- when completing inside the value of an array parameter assignment; in this
case the words array contains the words inside the
parentheses.
- brace_parameter
- when completing the name of a parameter in a parameter expansion beginning
with ${. This context will also be set when completing parameter
flags following ${(; the full command line argument is presented
and the handler must test the value to be completed to ascertain that this
is the case.
- assign_parameter
- when completing the name of a parameter in a parameter assignment.
- command
- when completing for a normal command (either in command position or for an
argument of the command).
- condition
- when completing inside a `[[...]]' conditional expression;
in this case the words array contains only the words inside the
conditional expression.
- math
- when completing in a mathematical environment such as a `
((...))' construct.
- parameter
- when completing the name of a parameter in a parameter expansion beginning
with $ but not ${.
- redirect
- when completing after a redirection operator.
- subscript
- when completing inside a parameter subscript.
- value
- when completing the value of a parameter assignment.
- exact
- Controls the behaviour when the REC_EXACT option is set. It will be
set to accept if an exact match would be accepted, and will be
unset otherwise.
If it was set when at least one match equal to the string on the line was
generated, the match is accepted.
- exact_string
- The string of an exact match if one was found, otherwise unset.
- ignored
- The number of words that were ignored because they matched one of the
patterns given with the -F option to the compadd builtin
command.
- insert
- This controls the manner in which a match is inserted into the command
line. On entry to the widget function, if it is unset the command line is
not to be changed; if set to unambiguous, any prefix common to all
matches is to be inserted; if set to automenu-unambiguous, the
common prefix is to be inserted and the next invocation of the completion
code may start menu completion (due to the AUTO_MENU option being
set); if set to menu or automenu menu completion will be
started for the matches currently generated (in the latter case this will
happen because the AUTO_MENU is set). The value may also contain
the string ` tab' when the completion code would normally not
really do completion, but only insert the TAB character.
On exit it may be set to any of the values above (where setting it to the empty
string is the same as unsetting it), or to a number, in which case the match
whose number is given will be inserted into the command line. Negative numbers
count backward from the last match (with `
-1' selecting the last
match) and out-of-range values are wrapped around, so that a value of zero
selects the last match and a value one more than the maximum selects the
first. Unless the value of this key ends in a space, the match is inserted as
in a menu completion, i.e. without automatically appending a space.
Both
menu and
automenu may also specify the number of the match to
insert, given after a colon. For example, `
menu:2' says to start menu
completion, beginning with the second match.
Note that a value containing the substring `
tab' makes the matches
generated be ignored and only the TAB be inserted.
Finally, it may also be set to
all, which makes all matches generated be
inserted into the line.
- insert_positions
- When the completion system inserts an unambiguous string into the line,
there may be multiple places where characters are missing or where the
character inserted differs from at least one match. The value of this key
contains a colon separated list of all these positions, as indexes into
the command line.
- last_prompt
- If this is set to a non-empty string for every match added, the completion
code will move the cursor back to the previous prompt after the list of
completions has been displayed. Initially this is set or unset according
to the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option.
- list
- This controls whether or how the list of matches will be displayed. If it
is unset or empty they will never be listed; if its value begins with
list, they will always be listed; if it begins with autolist
or ambiguous, they will be listed when the AUTO_LIST or
LIST_AMBIGUOUS options respectively would normally cause them to
be.
If the substring
force appears in the value, this makes the list be shown
even if there is only one match. Normally, the list would be shown only if
there are at least two matches.
The value contains the substring
packed if the
LIST_PACKED option
is set. If this substring is given for all matches added to a group, this
group will show the
LIST_PACKED behavior. The same is done for the
LIST_ROWS_FIRST option with the substring
rows.
Finally, if the value contains the string
explanations, only the
explanation strings, if any, will be listed and if it contains
messages, only the messages (added with the
-x option of
compadd) will be listed. If it contains both
explanations and
messages both kinds of explanation strings will be listed. It will be
set appropriately on entry to a completion widget and may be changed
there.
- list_lines
- This gives the number of lines that are needed to display the full list of
completions. Note that to calculate the total number of lines to display
you need to add the number of lines needed for the command line to this
value, this is available as the value of the BUFFERLINES special
parameter.
- list_max
- Initially this is set to the value of the LISTMAX parameter. It may
be set to any other value; when the widget exits this value will be used
in the same way as the value of LISTMAX.
- nmatches
- The number of matches generated and accepted by the completion code so
far.
- old_insert
- On entry to the widget this will be set to the number of the match of an
old list of completions that is currently inserted into the command line.
If no match has been inserted, this is unset.
As with
old_list, the value of this key will only be used if it is the
string
keep. If it was set to this value by the widget and there was an
old match inserted into the command line, this match will be kept and if the
value of the
insert key specifies that another match should be
inserted, this will be inserted after the old one.
- old_list
- This is set to yes if there is still a valid list of completions
from a previous completion at the time the widget is invoked. This will
usually be the case if and only if the previous editing operation was a
completion widget or one of the builtin completion functions. If there is
a valid list and it is also currently shown on the screen, the value of
this key is shown.
After the widget has exited the value of this key is only used if it was set to
keep. In this case the completion code will continue to use this old
list. If the widget generated new matches, they will not be used.
- parameter
- The name of the parameter when completing in a subscript or in the value
of a parameter assignment.
- pattern_insert
- Normally this is set to menu, which specifies that menu completion
will be used whenever a set of matches was generated using pattern
matching. If it is set to any other non-empty string by the user and menu
completion is not selected by other option settings, the code will instead
insert any common prefix for the generated matches as with normal
completion.
- pattern_match
- Locally controls the behaviour given by the GLOB_COMPLETE option.
Initially it is set to ` *' if and only if the option is set. The
completion widget may set it to this value, to an empty string (which has
the same effect as unsetting it), or to any other non-empty string. If it
is non-empty, unquoted metacharacters on the command line will be treated
as patterns; if it is ` *', then additionally a wildcard `
*' is assumed at the cursor position; if it is empty or unset,
metacharacters will be treated literally.
Note that the matcher specifications given to the
compadd builtin command
are not used if this is set to a non-empty string.
- quote
- When completing inside quotes, this contains the quotation character (i.e.
either a single quote, a double quote, or a backtick). Otherwise it is
unset.
- quoting
- When completing inside single quotes, this is set to the string
single; inside double quotes, the string double; inside
backticks, the string backtick. Otherwise it is unset.
- redirect
- The redirection operator when completing in a redirection position, i.e.
one of <, >, etc.
- restore
- This is set to auto before a function is entered, which forces the
special parameters mentioned above ( words, CURRENT,
PREFIX, IPREFIX, SUFFIX, and ISUFFIX) to be
restored to their previous values when the function exits. If a function
unsets it or sets it to any other string, they will not be restored.
- to_end
- Specifies the occasions on which the cursor is moved to the end of a
string when a match is inserted. On entry to a widget function, it may be
single if this will happen when a single unambiguous match was
inserted or match if it will happen any time a match is inserted
(for example, by menu completion; this is likely to be the effect of the
ALWAYS_TO_END option).
On exit, it may be set to
single as above. It may also be set to
always, or to the empty string or unset; in those cases the cursor will
be moved to the end of the string always or never respectively. Any other
string is treated as
match.
- unambiguous
- This key is read-only and will always be set to the common (unambiguous)
prefix the completion code has generated for all matches added so
far.
- unambiguous_cursor
- This gives the position the cursor would be placed at if the common prefix
in the unambiguous key were inserted, relative to the value of that
key. The cursor would be placed before the character whose index is given
by this key.
- unambiguous_positions
- This contains all positions where characters in the unambiguous string are
missing or where the character inserted differs from at least one of the
matches. The positions are given as indexes into the string given by the
value of the unambiguous key.
- vared
- If completion is called while editing a line using the vared
builtin, the value of this key is set to the name of the parameter given
as an argument to vared. This key is only set while a vared
command is active.
- words
- This array contains the words present on the command line currently being
edited.
- compadd [ -akqQfenUlo12C ] [ -F array ]
- [-P prefix ] [ -S suffix ]
- [-p hidden-prefix ] [ -s hidden-suffix
]
- [-i ignored-prefix ] [ -I
ignored-suffix ]
- [-W file-prefix ] [ -d array ]
- [-J name ] [ -V name ] [ -X
explanation ] [ -x message ]
- [-r remove-chars ] [ -R remove-func
]
- [-D array ] [ -O array ] [ -A
array ]
- [-E number ]
- [-M match-spec ] [ -- ] [ words
... ]
This builtin command can be used to add matches directly and control all the
information the completion code stores with each possible match. The return
status is zero if at least one match was added and non-zero if no matches were
added.
The completion code breaks the string to complete into seven fields in the
order:
<ipre><apre><hpre><word><hsuf><asuf><isuf>
The first field is an ignored prefix taken from the command line, the contents
of the
IPREFIX parameter plus the string given with the
-i
option. With the
-U option, only the string from the
-i option
is used. The field
<apre> is an optional prefix string given with
the
-P option. The
<hpre> field is a string that is
considered part of the match but that should not be shown when listing
completions, given with the
-p option; for example, functions that do
filename generation might specify a common path prefix this way.
<word> is the part of the match that should appear in the list of
completions, i.e. one of the
words given at the end of the
compadd command line. The suffixes
<hsuf>,
<asuf> and
<isuf> correspond to the prefixes
<hpre>,
<apre> and
<ipre> and are given
by the options
-s,
-S and
-I, respectively.
The supported flags are:
- -P prefix
- This gives a string to be inserted before the given words. The
string given is not considered as part of the match and any shell
metacharacters in it will not be quoted when the string is inserted.
- -S suffix
- Like -P, but gives a string to be inserted after the match.
- -p hidden-prefix
- This gives a string that should be inserted into the command line before
the match but that should not appear in the list of matches. Unless the
-U option is given, this string must be matched as part of the
string on the command line.
- -s hidden-suffix
- Like `-p', but gives a string to insert after the match.
- -i ignored-prefix
- This gives a string to insert into the command line just before any string
given with the ` -P' option. Without `-P' the string is
inserted before the string given with ` -p' or directly before the
match.
- -I ignored-suffix
- Like -i, but gives an ignored suffix.
- -a
- With this flag the words are taken as names of arrays and the
possible matches are their values. If only some elements of the arrays are
needed, the words may also contain subscripts, as in `
foo[2,-1]'.
- -k
- With this flag the words are taken as names of associative arrays
and the possible matches are their keys. As for -a, the
words may also contain subscripts, as in `
foo[(R)*bar*]'.
- -d array
- This adds per-match display strings. The array should contain one
element per word given. The completion code will then display the
first element instead of the first word, and so on. The
array may be given as the name of an array parameter or directly as
a space-separated list of words in parentheses.
If there are fewer display strings than
words, the leftover
words
will be displayed unchanged and if there are more display strings than
words, the leftover display strings will be silently ignored.
- -l
- This option only has an effect if used together with the -d option.
If it is given, the display strings are listed one per line, not arrayed
in columns.
- -o
- This option only has an effect if used together with the -d option.
If it is given, the order of the output is determined by the match
strings; otherwise it is determined by the display strings (i.e. the
strings given by the -d option).
- -J name
- Gives the name of the group of matches the words should be stored in.
- -V name
- Like -J but naming an unsorted group. These are in a different name
space than groups created with the -J flag.
- -1
- If given together with the -V option, makes only consecutive
duplicates in the group be removed. If combined with the -J option,
this has no visible effect. Note that groups with and without this flag
are in different name spaces.
- -2
- If given together with the -J or -V option, makes all
duplicates be kept. Again, groups with and without this flag are in
different name spaces.
- -X explanation
- The explanation string will be printed with the list of matches,
above the group currently selected.
- -x message
- Like -X, but the message will be printed even if there are
no matches in the group.
- -q
- The suffix given with -S will be automatically removed if the next
character typed is a blank or does not insert anything, or if the suffix
consists of only one character and the next character typed is the same
character.
- -r remove-chars
- This is a more versatile form of the -q option. The suffix given
with -S or the slash automatically added after completing
directories will be automatically removed if the next character typed
inserts one of the characters given in the remove-chars. This
string is parsed as a characters class and understands the backslash
sequences used by the print command. For example, ` -r
"a-z\t"' removes the suffix if the next character typed
inserts a lower case character or a TAB, and ` -r "^0-9"'
removes the suffix if the next character typed inserts anything but a
digit. One extra backslash sequence is understood in this string: `
\-' stands for all characters that insert nothing. Thus ` -S
"=" -q' is the same as ` -S "=" -r "=
\t\n\-"'.
This option may also be used without the
-S option; then any
automatically added space will be removed when one of the characters in the
list is typed.
- -R remove-func
- This is another form of the -r option. When a suffix has been
inserted and the completion accepted, the function remove-func will
be called after the next character typed. It is passed the length of the
suffix as an argument and can use the special parameters available in
ordinary (non-completion) zle widgets (see zshzle(1)) to analyse
and modify the command line.
- -f
- If this flag is given, all of the matches built from words are
marked as being the names of files. They are not required to be actual
filenames, but if they are, and the option LIST_TYPES is set, the
characters describing the types of the files in the completion lists will
be shown. This also forces a slash to be added when the name of a
directory is completed.
- -e
- This flag can be used to tell the completion code that the matches added
are parameter names for a parameter expansion. This will make the
AUTO_PARAM_SLASH and AUTO_PARAM_KEYS options be used for the
matches.
- -W file-prefix
- This string is a pathname that will be prepended to each of the matches
formed by the given words together with any prefix specified by the
-p option to form a complete filename for testing. Hence it is only
useful if combined with the -f flag, as the tests will not
otherwise be performed.
- -F array
- Specifies an array containing patterns. Words matching one of these
patterns are ignored, i.e. not considered to be possible matches.
The
array may be the name of an array parameter or a list of literal
patterns enclosed in parentheses and quoted, as in `
-F "(*?.o
*?.h)"'. If the name of an array is given, the elements of the
array are taken as the patterns.
- -Q
- This flag instructs the completion code not to quote any metacharacters in
the words when inserting them into the command line.
- -M match-spec
- This gives local match specifications as described below in the section
`Completion Matching Control'. This option may be given more than once. In
this case all match-specs given are concatenated with spaces
between them to form the specification string to use. Note that they will
only be used if the -U option is not given.
- -n
- Specifies that the words added are to be used as possible matches, but are
not to appear in the completion listing.
- -U
- If this flag is given, all words given will be accepted and no matching
will be done by the completion code. Normally this is used in functions
that do the matching themselves.
- -O array
- If this option is given, the words are not added to the set
of possible completions. Instead, matching is done as usual and all of the
words given as arguments that match the string on the command line
will be stored in the array parameter whose name is given as
array.
- -A array
- As the -O option, except that instead of those of the words
which match being stored in array, the strings generated internally
by the completion code are stored. For example, with a matching
specification of ` -M "L:|no="', the string `nof'
on the command line and the string ` foo' as one of the
words, this option stores the string ` nofoo' in the array,
whereas the -O option stores the ` foo' originally
given.
- -D array
- As with -O, the words are not added to the set of possible
completions. Instead, the completion code tests whether each word
in turn matches what is on the line. If the nth word does
not match, the nth element of the array is removed. Elements
for which the corresponding word is matched are retained.
- -C
- This option adds a special match which expands to all other matches when
inserted into the line, even those that are added after this option is
used. Together with the -d option it is possible to specify a
string that should be displayed in the list for this special match. If no
string is given, it will be shown as a string containing the strings that
would be inserted for the other matches, truncated to the width of the
screen.
- -E number
- This option adds number empty matches after the words have
been added. An empty match takes up space in completion listings but will
never be inserted in the line and can't be selected with menu completion
or menu selection. This makes empty matches only useful to format
completion lists and to make explanatory string be shown in completion
lists (since empty matches can be given display strings with the -d
option). And because all but one empty string would otherwise be removed,
this option implies the -V and -2 options (even if an
explicit -J option is given). This can be important to note as it
affects the name space into which matches are added.
- -
- --
- This flag ends the list of flags and options. All arguments after it will
be taken as the words to use as matches even if they begin with
hyphens.
Except for the
-M flag, if any of these flags is given more than once,
the first one (and its argument) will be used.
- compset -p number
- compset -P [ number ] pattern
- compset -s number
- compset -S [ number ] pattern
- compset -n begin [ end ]
- compset -N beg-pat [ end-pat ]
- compset -q
- This command simplifies modification of the special parameters, while its
return status allows tests on them to be carried out.
The options are:
- -p number
- If the contents of the PREFIX parameter is longer than
number characters, the first number characters are removed
from it and appended to the contents of the IPREFIX parameter.
- -P [ number ] pattern
- If the value of the PREFIX parameter begins with anything that
matches the pattern, the matched portion is removed from
PREFIX and appended to IPREFIX.
Without the optional
number, the longest match is taken, but if
number is given, anything up to the
numberth match is moved. If
the
number is negative, the
numberth longest match is moved. For
example, if
PREFIX contains the string `
a=b=c', then
compset
-P '*\=' will move the string `
a=b=' into the
IPREFIX
parameter, but
compset -P 1 '*\=' will move only the string `
a='.
- -s number
- As -p, but transfer the last number characters from the
value of SUFFIX to the front of the value of ISUFFIX.
- -S [ number ] pattern
- As -P, but match the last portion of SUFFIX and transfer the
matched portion to the front of the value of ISUFFIX.
- -n begin [ end ]
- If the current word position as specified by the parameter CURRENT
is greater than or equal to begin, anything up to the
beginth word is removed from the words array and the value
of the parameter CURRENT is decremented by begin.
If the optional
end is given, the modification is done only if the
current word position is also less than or equal to
end. In this case,
the words from position
end onwards are also removed from the
words array.
Both
begin and
end may be negative to count backwards from the
last element of the
words array.
- -N beg-pat [ end-pat ]
- If one of the elements of the words array before the one at the
index given by the value of the parameter CURRENT matches the
pattern beg-pat, all elements up to and including the matching one
are removed from the words array and the value of CURRENT is
changed to point to the same word in the changed array.
If the optional pattern
end-pat is also given, and there is an element in
the
words array matching this pattern, the parameters are modified only
if the index of this word is higher than the one given by the
CURRENT
parameter (so that the matching word has to be after the cursor). In this
case, the words starting with the one matching
end-pat are also removed
from the
words array. If
words contains no word matching
end-pat, the testing and modification is performed as if it were not
given.
- -q
- The word currently being completed is split on spaces into separate words,
respecting the usual shell quoting conventions. The resulting words are
stored in the words array, and CURRENT, PREFIX,
SUFFIX, QIPREFIX, and QISUFFIX are modified to
reflect the word part that is completed.
In all the above cases the return status is zero if the test succeeded and the
parameters were modified and non-zero otherwise. This allows one to use this
builtin in tests such as:
if compset -P '*\='; then ...
This forces anything up to and including the last equal sign to be ignored by
the completion code.
- compcall [ -TD ]
- This allows the use of completions defined with the compctl builtin
from within completion widgets. The list of matches will be generated as
if one of the non-widget completion functions ( complete-word,
etc.) had been called, except that only compctls given for specific
commands are used. To force the code to try completions defined with the
-T option of compctl and/or the default completion (whether
defined by compctl -D or the builtin default) in the appropriate
places, the -T and/or -D flags can be passed to
compcall.
The return status can be used to test if a matching
compctl definition
was found. It is non-zero if a
compctl was found and zero otherwise.
Note that this builtin is defined by the
zsh/compctl module.
The following additional condition codes for use within the
[[ ...
]] construct are available in completion widgets. These work on the
special parameters. All of these tests can also be performed by the
compset builtin, but in the case of the condition codes the contents of
the special parameters are not modified.
- -prefix [ number ] pattern
- true if the test for the -P option of compset would
succeed.
- -suffix [ number ] pattern
- true if the test for the -S option of compset would
succeed.
- -after beg-pat
- true if the test of the -N option with only the beg-pat
given would succeed.
- -between beg-pat end-pat
- true if the test for the -N option with both patterns would
succeed.
It is possible by use of the
-M option of the
compadd builtin
command to specify how the characters in the string to be completed (referred
to here as the command line) map onto the characters in the list of matches
produced by the completion code (referred to here as the trial completions).
Note that this is not used if the command line contains a glob pattern and the
GLOB_COMPLETE option is set or the
pattern_match of the
compstate special association is set to a non-empty string.
The
match-spec given as the argument to the
-M option (see
`Completion Builtin Commands' above) consists of one or more matching
descriptions separated by whitespace. Each description consists of a letter
followed by a colon and then the patterns describing which character sequences
on the line match which character sequences in the trial completion. Any
sequence of characters not handled in this fashion must match exactly, as
usual.
The forms of
match-spec understood are as follows. In each case, the form
with an upper case initial character retains the string already typed on the
command line as the final result of completion, while with a lower case
initial character the string on the command line is changed into the
corresponding part of the trial completion.
- m:lpat=tpat
- M:lpat=tpat
- Here, lpat is a pattern that matches on the command line,
corresponding to tpat which matches in the trial completion.
- l:lanchor|lpat=tpat
- L:lanchor|lpat=tpat
- l:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
- L:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
- b:lpat=tpat
- B:lpat=tpat
- These letters are for patterns that are anchored by another pattern on the
left side. Matching for lpat and tpat is as for m and
M, but the pattern lpat matched on the command line must be
preceded by the pattern lanchor. The lanchor can be blank to
anchor the match to the start of the command line string; otherwise the
anchor can occur anywhere, but must match in both the command line and
trial completion strings.
If no
lpat is given but a
ranchor is, this matches the gap between
substrings matched by
lanchor and
ranchor. Unlike
lanchor, the
ranchor only needs to match the trial completion
string.
The
b and
B forms are similar to
l and
L with an
empty anchor, but need to match only the beginning of the word on the command
line or trial completion, respectively.
- r:lpat|ranchor=tpat
- R:lpat|ranchor=tpat
- r:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
- R:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
- e:lpat=tpat
- E:lpat=tpat
- As l, L, b and B, with the difference that the
command line and trial completion patterns are anchored on the right side.
Here an empty ranchor and the e and E forms force the
match to the end of the command line or trial completion string.
- x:
- This form is used to mark the end of matching specifications: subsequent
specifications are ignored. In a single standalone list of specifications
this has no use but where matching specifications are accumulated, such as
from nested function calls, it can allow one function to override
another.
Each
lpat,
tpat or
anchor is either an empty string or
consists of a sequence of literal characters (which may be quoted with a
backslash), question marks, character classes, and correspondence classes;
ordinary shell patterns are not used. Literal characters match only
themselves, question marks match any character, and character classes are
formed as for globbing and match any character in the given set.
Correspondence classes are defined like character classes, but with two
differences: they are delimited by a pair of braces, and negated classes are
not allowed, so the characters
! and
^ have no special meaning
directly after the opening brace. They indicate that a range of characters on
the line match a range of characters in the trial completion, but (unlike
ordinary character classes) paired according to the corresponding position in
the sequence. For example, to make any ASCII lower case letter on the line
match the corresponding upper case letter in the trial completion, you can use
`
m:{a-z}={A-Z}' (however, see below for the recommended form for
this). More than one pair of classes can occur, in which case the first class
before the
= corresponds to the first after it, and so on. If one side
has more such classes than the other side, the superfluous classes behave like
normal character classes. In anchor patterns correspondence classes also
behave like normal character classes.
The standard `
[:name:]' forms described for standard shell
patterns (see the section FILENAME GENERATION in
zshexpn(1)) may appear
in correspondence classes as well as normal character classes. The only
special behaviour in correspondence classes is if the form on the left and the
form on the right are each one of
[:upper:],
[:lower:]. In these
cases the character in the word and the character on the line must be the same
up to a difference in case. Hence to make any lower case character on the line
match the corresponding upper case character in the trial completion you can
use `
m:{[:lower:]}={[:upper:]}'. Although the matching system does not
yet handle multibyte characters, this is likely to be a future extension, at
which point this syntax will handle arbitrary alphabets; hence this form,
rather than the use of explicit ranges, is the recommended form. In other
cases `
[:name:]' forms are allowed. If the two forms on
the left and right are the same, the characters must match exactly. In
remaining cases, the corresponding tests are applied to both characters, but
they are not otherwise constrained; any matching character in one set goes
with any matching character in the other set: this is equivalent to the
behaviour of ordinary character classes.
The pattern
tpat may also be one or two stars, `
*' or `
**'. This means that the pattern on the command line can match any
number of characters in the trial completion. In this case the pattern must be
anchored (on either side); in the case of a single star, the
anchor
then determines how much of the trial completion is to be included -- only the
characters up to the next appearance of the anchor will be matched. With two
stars, substrings matched by the anchor can be matched, too.
Examples:
The keys of the
options association defined by the
parameter
module are the option names in all-lower-case form, without underscores, and
without the optional
no at the beginning even though the builtins
setopt and
unsetopt understand option names with upper case
letters, underscores, and the optional
no. The following alters the
matching rules so that the prefix
no and any underscore are ignored
when trying to match the trial completions generated and upper case letters on
the line match the corresponding lower case letters in the words:
compadd -M 'L:|[nN][oO]= M:_= M:{[:upper:]}={[:lower:]}' - \
${(k)options}
The first part says that the pattern `
[nN][oO]' at the beginning (the
empty anchor before the pipe symbol) of the string on the line matches the
empty string in the list of words generated by completion, so it will be
ignored if present. The second part does the same for an underscore anywhere
in the command line string, and the third part uses correspondence classes so
that any upper case letter on the line matches the corresponding lower case
letter in the word. The use of the upper case forms of the specification
characters (
L and
M) guarantees that what has already been
typed on the command line (in particular the prefix
no) will not be
deleted.
Note that the use of
L in the first part means that it matches only when
at the beginning of both the command line string and the trial completion.
I.e., the string `
_NO_f' would not be completed to `
_NO_foo',
nor would `
NONO_f' be completed to `
NONO_foo' because of the
leading underscore or the second `
NO' on the line which makes the
pattern fail even though they are otherwise ignored. To fix this, one would
use `
B:[nN][oO]=' instead of the first part. As described above, this
matches at the beginning of the trial completion, independent of other
characters or substrings at the beginning of the command line word which are
ignored by the same or other
match-specs.
The second example makes completion case insensitive. This is just the same as
in the option example, except here we wish to retain the characters in the
list of completions:
compadd -M 'm:{[:lower:]}={[:upper:]}' ...
This makes lower case letters match their upper case counterparts. To make upper
case letters match the lower case forms as well:
compadd -M 'm:{[:lower:][:upper:]}={[:upper:][:lower:]}' ...
A nice example for the use of
* patterns is partial word completion.
Sometimes you would like to make strings like `
c.s.u' complete to
strings like `
comp.source.unix', i.e. the word on the command line
consists of multiple parts, separated by a dot in this example, where each
part should be completed separately -- note, however, that the case where each
part of the word, i.e. `
comp', `
source' and `
unix' in
this example, is to be completed from separate sets of matches is a different
problem to be solved by the implementation of the completion widget. The
example can be handled by:
compadd -M 'r:|.=* r:|=*' \
- comp.sources.unix comp.sources.misc ...
The first specification says that
lpat is the empty string, while
anchor is a dot;
tpat is
*, so this can match anything
except for the `
.' from the anchor in the trial completion word. So in
`
c.s.u', the matcher sees `
c', followed by the empty string,
followed by the anchor `
.', and likewise for the second dot, and
replaces the empty strings before the anchors, giving `
c[
omp]
.s[
ources]
.u[
nix]', where the
last part of the completion is just as normal.
With the pattern shown above, the string `
c.u' could not be completed to
`
comp.sources.unix' because the single star means that no dot (matched
by the anchor) can be skipped. By using two stars as in `
r:|.=**',
however, `
c.u' could be completed to `
comp.sources.unix'. This
also shows that in some cases, especially if the anchor is a real pattern,
like a character class, the form with two stars may result in more matches
than one would like.
The second specification is needed to make this work when the cursor is in the
middle of the string on the command line and the option
COMPLETE_IN_WORD is set. In this case the completion code would
normally try to match trial completions that end with the string as typed so
far, i.e. it will only insert new characters at the cursor position rather
than at the end. However in our example we would like the code to recognise
matches which contain extra characters after the string on the line (the `
nix' in the example). Hence we say that the empty string at the end of
the string on the line matches any characters at the end of the trial
completion.
More generally, the specification
compadd -M 'r:|[.,_-]=* r:|=*' ...
allows one to complete words with abbreviations before any of the characters in
the square brackets. For example, to complete
veryverylongfile.c rather
than
veryverylongheader.h with the above in effect, you can just type
very.c before attempting completion.
The specifications with both a left and a right anchor are useful to complete
partial words whose parts are not separated by some special character. For
example, in some places strings have to be completed that are formed `
LikeThis' (i.e. the separate parts are determined by a leading upper
case letter) or maybe one has to complete strings with trailing numbers. Here
one could use the simple form with only one anchor as in:
compadd -M 'r:|[[:upper:]0-9]=* r:|=*' LikeTHIS FooHoo 5foo123 5bar234
But with this, the string `
H' would neither complete to `
FooHoo'
nor to `
LikeTHIS' because in each case there is an upper case letter
before the `
H' and that is matched by the anchor. Likewise, a `
2' would not be completed. In both cases this could be changed by using
`
r:|[[:upper:]0-9]=**', but then `
H' completes to both `
LikeTHIS' and `
FooHoo' and a `
2' matches the other
strings because characters can be inserted before every upper case letter and
digit. To avoid this one would use:
compadd -M 'r:[^[:upper:]0-9]||[[:upper:]0-9]=** r:|=*' \
LikeTHIS FooHoo foo123 bar234
By using these two anchors, a `
H' matches only upper case `
H's
that are immediately preceded by something matching the left anchor `
[^[:upper:]0-9]'. The effect is, of course, that `
H' matches
only the string `
FooHoo', a `
2' matches only `
bar234'
and so on.
When using the completion system (see
zshcompsys(1)), users can define
match specifications that are to be used for specific contexts by using the
matcher and
matcher-list styles. The values for the latter will
be used everywhere.
The first step is to define the widget:
zle -C complete complete-word complete-files
Then the widget can be bound to a key using the
bindkey builtin command:
After that the shell function
complete-files will be invoked after typing
control-X and TAB. The function should then generate the matches, e.g.:
complete-files () { compadd - * }
This function will complete files in the current directory matching the current
word.
zshcompsys - zsh completion system
This describes the shell code for the `new' completion system, referred to as
compsys. It is written in shell functions based on the features
described in
zshcompwid(1).
The features are contextual, sensitive to the point at which completion is
started. Many completions are already provided. For this reason, a user can
perform a great many tasks without knowing any details beyond how to
initialize the system, which is described below in INITIALIZATION.
The context that decides what completion is to be performed may be
- •
- an argument or option position: these describe the position on the command
line at which completion is requested. For example `first argument to
rmdir, the word being completed names a directory';
- •
- a special context, denoting an element in the shell's syntax. For example
`a word in command position' or `an array subscript'.
A full context specification contains other elements, as we shall describe.
Besides commands names and contexts, the system employs two more concepts,
styles and
tags. These provide ways for the user to configure
the system's behaviour.
Tags play a dual role. They serve as a classification system for the matches,
typically indicating a class of object that the user may need to distinguish.
For example, when completing arguments of the
ls command the user may
prefer to try
files before
directories, so both of these are
tags. They also appear as the rightmost element in a context specification.
Styles modify various operations of the completion system, such as output
formatting, but also what kinds of completers are used (and in what order), or
which tags are examined. Styles may accept arguments and are manipulated using
the
zstyle command described in see
zshmodules(1).
In summary, tags describe
what the completion objects are, and style
how they are to be completed. At various points of execution, the
completion system checks what styles and/or tags are defined for the current
context, and uses that to modify its behavior. The full description of context
handling, which determines how tags and other elements of the context
influence the behaviour of styles, is described below in COMPLETION SYSTEM
CONFIGURATION.
When a completion is requested, a dispatcher function is called; see the
description of
_main_complete in the list of control functions below.
This dispatcher decides which function should be called to produce the
completions, and calls it. The result is passed to one or more
completers, functions that implement individual completion strategies:
simple completion, error correction, completion with error correction, menu
selection, etc.
More generally, the shell functions contained in the completion system are of
two types:
- •
- those beginning `comp' are to be called directly; there are only a
few of these;
- •
- those beginning `_' are called by the completion code. The shell
functions of this set, which implement completion behaviour and may be
bound to keystrokes, are referred to as `widgets'. These proliferate as
new completions are required.
If the system was installed completely, it should be enough to call the shell
function
compinit from your initialization file; see the next section.
However, the function
compinstall can be run by a user to configure
various aspects of the completion system.
Usually,
compinstall will insert code into
.zshrc, although if
that is not writable it will save it in another file and tell you that file's
location. Note that it is up to you to make sure that the lines added to
.zshrc are actually run; you may, for example, need to move them to an
earlier place in the file if
.zshrc usually returns early. So long as
you keep them all together (including the comment lines at the start and
finish), you can rerun
compinstall and it will correctly locate and
modify these lines. Note, however, that any code you add to this section by
hand is likely to be lost if you rerun
compinstall, although lines
using the command `
zstyle' should be gracefully handled.
The new code will take effect next time you start the shell, or run
.zshrc by hand; there is also an option to make them take effect
immediately. However, if
compinstall has removed definitions, you will
need to restart the shell to see the changes.
To run
compinstall you will need to make sure it is in a directory
mentioned in your
fpath parameter, which should already be the case if
zsh was properly configured as long as your startup files do not remove the
appropriate directories from
fpath. Then it must be autoloaded (`
autoload -U compinstall' is recommended). You can abort the
installation any time you are being prompted for information, and your
.zshrc will not be altered at all; changes only take place right at the
end, where you are specifically asked for confirmation.
This section describes the use of
compinit to initialize completion for
the current session when called directly; if you have run
compinstall
it will be called automatically from your
.zshrc.
To initialize the system, the function
compinit should be in a directory
mentioned in the
fpath parameter, and should be autoloaded (`
autoload -U compinit' is recommended), and then run simply as `
compinit'. This will define a few utility functions, arrange for all
the necessary shell functions to be autoloaded, and will then re-define all
widgets that do completion to use the new system. If you use the
menu-select widget, which is part of the
zsh/complist module,
you should make sure that that module is loaded before the call to
compinit so that that widget is also re-defined. If completion styles
(see below) are set up to perform expansion as well as completion by default,
and the TAB key is bound to
expand-or-complete,
compinit will
rebind it to
complete-word; this is necessary to use the correct form
of expansion.
Should you need to use the original completion commands, you can still bind keys
to the old widgets by putting a `
.' in front of the widget name, e.g.
`
.expand-or-complete'.
To speed up the running of
compinit, it can be made to produce a dumped
configuration that will be read in on future invocations; this is the default,
but can be turned off by calling
compinit with the option
-D.
The dumped file is
.zcompdump in the same directory as the startup
files (i.e.
$ZDOTDIR or
$HOME); alternatively, an explicit file
name can be given by `
compinit -d dumpfile'. The next
invocation of
compinit will read the dumped file instead of performing
a full initialization.
If the number of completion files changes,
compinit will recognise this
and produce a new dump file. However, if the name of a function or the
arguments in the first line of a
#compdef function (as described below)
change, it is easiest to delete the dump file by hand so that
compinit
will re-create it the next time it is run. The check performed to see if there
are new functions can be omitted by giving the option
-C. In this case
the dump file will only be created if there isn't one already.
The dumping is actually done by another function,
compdump, but you will
only need to run this yourself if you change the configuration (e.g. using
compdef) and then want to dump the new one. The name of the old dumped
file will be remembered for this purpose.
If the parameter
_compdir is set,
compinit uses it as a directory
where completion functions can be found; this is only necessary if they are
not already in the function search path.
For security reasons
compinit also checks if the completion system would
use files not owned by root or by the current user, or files in directories
that are world- or group-writable or that are not owned by root or by the
current user. If such files or directories are found,
compinit will ask
if the completion system should really be used. To avoid these tests and make
all files found be used without asking, use the option
-u, and to make
compinit silently ignore all insecure files and directories use the
option
-i. This security check is skipped entirely when the
-C
option is given.
The security check can be retried at any time by running the function
compaudit. This is the same check used by
compinit, but when it
is executed directly any changes to
fpath are made local to the
function so they do not persist. The directories to be checked may be passed
as arguments; if none are given,
compaudit uses
fpath and
_compdir to find completion system directories, adding missing ones to
fpath as necessary. To force a check of exactly the directories
currently named in
fpath, set
_compdir to an empty string before
calling
compaudit or
compinit.
The function
bashcompinit provides compatibility with bash's programmable
completion system. When run it will define the functions,
compgen and
complete which correspond to the bash builtins with the same names. It
will then be possible to use completion specifications and functions written
for bash.
The convention for autoloaded functions used in completion is that they start
with an underscore; as already mentioned, the
fpath/FPATH parameter
must contain the directory in which they are stored. If
zsh was
properly installed on your system, then
fpath/FPATH automatically
contains the required directories for the standard functions.
For incomplete installations, if
compinit does not find enough files
beginning with an underscore (fewer than twenty) in the search path, it will
try to find more by adding the directory
_compdir to the search path.
If that directory has a subdirectory named
Base, all subdirectories
will be added to the path. Furthermore, if the subdirectory
Base has a
subdirectory named
Core,
compinit will add all subdirectories of
the subdirectories to the path: this allows the functions to be in the same
format as in the
zsh source distribution.
When
compinit is run, it searches all such files accessible via
fpath/FPATH and reads the first line of each of them. This line should
contain one of the tags described below. Files whose first line does not start
with one of these tags are not considered to be part of the completion system
and will not be treated specially.
The tags are:
- #compdef name ... [ -{p|P}
pattern ... [ -N name ... ] ]
- The file will be made autoloadable and the function defined in it will be
called when completing names, each of which is either the name of a
command whose arguments are to be completed or one of a number of special
contexts in the form -context- described below.
Each
name may also be of the form `
cmd=service'.
When completing the command
cmd, the function typically behaves as if
the command (or special context)
service was being completed instead.
This provides a way of altering the behaviour of functions that can perform
many different completions. It is implemented by setting the parameter
$service when calling the function; the function may choose to
interpret this how it wishes, and simpler functions will probably ignore it.
If the
#compdef line contains one of the options
-p or
-P,
the words following are taken to be patterns. The function will be called when
completion is attempted for a command or context that matches one of the
patterns. The options
-p and
-P are used to specify patterns to
be tried before or after other completions respectively. Hence
-P may
be used to specify default actions.
The option
-N is used after a list following
-p or
-P; it
specifies that remaining words no longer define patterns. It is possible to
toggle between the three options as many times as necessary.
- #compdef -k style key-sequence ...
- This option creates a widget behaving like the builtin widget style
and binds it to the given key-sequences, if any. The style
must be one of the builtin widgets that perform completion, namely
complete-word, delete-char-or-list,
expand-or-complete, expand-or-complete-prefix,
list-choices, menu-complete, menu-expand-or-complete,
or reverse-menu-complete. If the zsh/complist module is
loaded (see zshmodules(1)) the widget menu-select is also
available.
When one of the
key-sequences is typed, the function in the file will be
invoked to generate the matches. Note that a key will not be re-bound if it
already was (that is, was bound to something other than
undefined-key).
The widget created has the same name as the file and can be bound to any other
keys using
bindkey as usual.
- #compdef -K widget-name style key-sequence [
name style seq ... ]
- This is similar to -k except that only one key-sequence
argument may be given for each widget-name style pair.
However, the entire set of three arguments may be repeated with a
different set of arguments. Note in particular that the widget-name
must be distinct in each set. If it does not begin with ` _' this
will be added. The widget-name should not clash with the name of
any existing widget: names based on the name of the function are most
useful. For example,
#compdef -K _foo_complete complete-word "^X^C" \
_foo_list list-choices "^X^D"
(all on one line) defines a widget
_foo_complete for completion, bound to
`
^X^C', and a widget
_foo_list for listing, bound to
`
^X^D'.
- #autoload [ options ]
- Functions with the #autoload tag are marked for autoloading but are
not otherwise treated specially. Typically they are to be called from
within one of the completion functions. Any options supplied will
be passed to the autoload builtin; a typical use is +X to
force the function to be loaded immediately. Note that the -U and
-z flags are always added implicitly.
The
# is part of the tag name and no white space is allowed after it. The
#compdef tags use the
compdef function described below; the main
difference is that the name of the function is supplied implicitly.
The special contexts for which completion functions can be defined are:
- -array-value-
- The right hand side of an array-assignment (`
name=(... )')
- -brace-parameter-
- The name of a parameter expansion within braces
(`${...}')
- -assign-parameter-
- The name of a parameter in an assignment, i.e. on the left hand side of an
` ='
- -command-
- A word in command position
- -condition-
- A word inside a condition (`[[...]]')
- -default-
- Any word for which no other completion is defined
- -equal-
- A word beginning with an equals sign
- -first-
- This is tried before any other completion function. The function called
may set the _compskip parameter to one of various values:
all: no further completion is attempted; a string containing the
substring patterns: no pattern completion functions will be called;
a string containing default: the function for the `
-default-' context will not be called, but functions defined for
commands will be.
- -math-
- Inside mathematical contexts, such as ` ((...))'
- -parameter-
- The name of a parameter expansion (`$...')
- -redirect-
- The word after a redirection operator.
- -subscript-
- The contents of a parameter subscript.
- -tilde-
- After an initial tilde (`~'), but before the first slash in the
word.
- -value-
- On the right hand side of an assignment.
Default implementations are supplied for each of these contexts. In most cases
the context
-context- is implemented by a corresponding
function
_context, for example the context `
-tilde-' and
the function `
_tilde').
The contexts
-redirect- and
-value- allow extra context-specific
information. (Internally, this is handled by the functions for each context
calling the function
_dispatch.) The extra information is added
separated by commas.
For the
-redirect- context, the extra information is in the form `
-redirect-, op,command', where
op is the
redirection operator and
command is the name of the command on the
line. If there is no command on the line yet, the
command field will be
empty.
For the
-value- context, the form is `
-value-,name,command', where
name is the
name of the parameter on the left hand side of the assignment. In the case of
elements of an associative array, for example `
assoc=(key
<TAB>',
name is expanded to `
name-key'.
In certain special contexts, such as completing after `
make CFLAGS=',
the
command part gives the name of the command, here
make;
otherwise it is empty.
It is not necessary to define fully specific completions as the functions
provided will try to generate completions by progressively replacing the
elements with `
-default-'. For example, when completing after `
foo=<TAB>',
_value will try the names `
-value-,foo,' (note the empty
command part), `
-value-,foo,-default-' and`
-value-,-default-,-default-', in
that order, until it finds a function to handle the context.
As an example:
compdef '_files -g "*.log"' '-redirect-,2>,-default-'
completes files matching `
*.log' after `
2> <TAB>' for
any command with no more specific handler defined.
Also:
compdef _foo -value-,-default-,-default-
specifies that
_foo provides completions for the values of parameters for
which no special function has been defined. This is usually handled by the
function
_value itself.
The same lookup rules are used when looking up styles (as described below); for
example
zstyle ':completion:*:*:-redirect-,2>,*:*' file-patterns '*.log'
is another way to make completion after `
2> <TAB>' complete
files matching `
*.log'.
The following function is defined by
compinit and may be called directly.
- compdef [ -ane ] function name ... [
-{p| P} pattern ... [ -N name
...]]
- compdef -d name ...
- compdef -k [ -an ] function style key-sequence [
key-sequence ... ]
- compdef -K [ -an ] function name style key-seq [
name style seq ... ]
- The first form defines the function to call for completion in the
given contexts as described for the #compdef tag above.
Alternatively, all the arguments may have the form `
cmd=service'. Here
service should already have
been defined by `
cmd1=service' lines in
#compdef
files, as described above. The argument for
cmd will be completed in
the same way as
service.
The
function argument may alternatively be a string containing almost any
shell code. If the string contains an equal sign, the above will take
precedence. The option
-e may be used to specify the first argument is
to be evaluated as shell code even if it contains an equal sign. The string
will be executed using the
eval builtin command to generate
completions. This provides a way of avoiding having to define a new completion
function. For example, to complete files ending in `
.h' as arguments
to the command
foo:
compdef '_files -g "*.h"' foo
The option
-n prevents any completions already defined for the command or
context from being overwritten.
The option
-d deletes any completion defined for the command or contexts
listed.
The
names may also contain
-p,
-P and
-N options as
described for the
#compdef tag. The effect on the argument list is
identical, switching between definitions of patterns tried initially, patterns
tried finally, and normal commands and contexts.
The parameter
$_compskip may be set by any function defined for a pattern
context. If it is set to a value containing the substring `
patterns'
none of the pattern-functions will be called; if it is set to a value
containing the substring `
all', no other function will be called.
The form with
-k defines a widget with the same name as the
function that will be called for each of the
key-sequences; this
is like the
#compdef -k tag. The function should generate the
completions needed and will otherwise behave like the builtin widget whose
name is given as the
style argument. The widgets usable for this are:
complete-word,
delete-char-or-list,
expand-or-complete,
expand-or-complete-prefix,
list-choices,
menu-complete,
menu-expand-or-complete, and
reverse-menu-complete, as well as
menu-select if the
zsh/complist module is loaded. The option
-n prevents the key being bound if it is already to bound to something
other than
undefined-key.
The form with
-K is similar and defines multiple widgets based on the
same
function, each of which requires the set of three arguments
name,
style and
key-sequence, where the latter two are as
for
-k and the first must be a unique widget name beginning with an
underscore.
Wherever applicable, the
-a option makes the
function
autoloadable, equivalent to
autoload -U function.
The function
compdef can be used to associate existing completion
functions with new commands. For example,
uses the function
_pids to complete process IDs for the command
foo.
Note also the
_gnu_generic function described below, which can be used to
complete options for commands that understand the `
--help'
option.
This section gives a short overview of how the completion system works, and then
more detail on how users can configure how and when matches are generated.
When completion is attempted somewhere on the command line the completion system
begins building the context. The context represents everything that the shell
knows about the meaning of the command line and the significance of the cursor
position. This takes account of a number of things including the command word
(such as `
grep' or `
zsh') and options to which the current
word may be an argument (such as the `
-o' option to
zsh which
takes a shell option as an argument).
The context starts out very generic ("we are beginning a completion")
and becomes more specific as more is learned ("the current word is in a
position that is usually a command name" or "the current word might
be a variable name" and so on). Therefore the context will vary during
the same call to the completion system.
This context information is condensed into a string consisting of multiple
fields separated by colons, referred to simply as `the context' in the
remainder of the documentation. Note that a user of the completion system
rarely needs to compose a context string, unless for example a new function is
being written to perform completion for a new command. What a user may need to
do is compose a
style pattern, which is matched against a context when
needed to look up context-sensitive options that configure the completion
system.
The next few paragraphs explain how a context is composed within the completion
function suite. Following that is discussion of how
styles are defined.
Styles determine such things as how the matches are generated, similarly to
shell options but with much more control. They are defined with the
zstyle builtin command (see
zshmodules(1)).
The context string always consists of a fixed set of fields, separated by colons
and with a leading colon before the first. Fields which are not yet known are
left empty, but the surrounding colons appear anyway. The fields are always in
the order
:completion:function:completer:command:argument:tag.
These have the following meaning:
- •
- The literal string completion, saying that this style is used by
the completion system. This distinguishes the context from those used by,
for example, zle widgets and ZFTP functions.
- •
- The function, if completion is called from a named widget rather
than through the normal completion system. Typically this is blank, but it
is set by special widgets such as predict-on and the various
functions in the Widget directory of the distribution to the name
of that function, often in an abbreviated form.
- •
- The completer currently active, the name of the function without
the leading underscore and with other underscores converted to hyphens. A
`completer' is in overall control of how completion is to be performed; `
complete' is the simplest, but other completers exist to perform
related tasks such as correction, or to modify the behaviour of a later
completer. See the section `Control Functions' below for more information.
- •
- The command or a special -context-, just at it
appears following the #compdef tag or the compdef function.
Completion functions for commands that have sub-commands usually modify
this field to contain the name of the command followed by a minus sign and
the sub-command. For example, the completion function for the cvs
command sets this field to cvs-add when completing arguments to the
add subcommand.
- •
- The argument; this indicates which command line or option argument
we are completing. For command arguments this generally takes the form
argument- n, where n is the number of the argument,
and for arguments to options the form
option-opt-n where n is the number of
the argument to option opt. However, this is only the case if the
command line is parsed with standard UNIX-style options and arguments, so
many completions do not set this.
- •
- The tag. As described previously, tags are used to discriminate
between the types of matches a completion function can generate in a
certain context. Any completion function may use any tag name it likes,
but a list of the more common ones is given below.
The context is gradually put together as the functions are executed, starting
with the main entry point, which adds
:completion: and the
function element if necessary. The completer then adds the
completer element. The contextual completion adds the
command
and
argument options. Finally, the
tag is added when the types
of completion are known. For example, the context name
:completion::complete:dvips:option-o-1:files
says that normal completion was attempted as the first argument to the option
-o of the command
dvips:
and the completion function will generate filenames.
Usually completion will be tried for all possible tags in an order given by the
completion function. However, this can be altered by using the
tag-order style. Completion is then restricted to the list of given
tags in the given order.
The
_complete_help bindable command shows all the contexts and tags
available for completion at a particular point. This provides an easy way of
finding information for
tag-order and other styles. It is described in
the section `Bindable Commands' below.
When looking up styles the completion system uses full context names, including
the tag. Looking up the value of a style therefore consists of two things: the
context, which is matched to the most specific (best fitting) style pattern,
and the name of the style itself, which must be matched exactly. The following
examples demonstrate that style patterns may be loosely defined for styles
that apply broadly, or as tightly defined as desired for styles that apply in
narrower circumstances.
For example, many completion functions can generate matches in a simple and a
verbose form and use the
verbose style to decide which form should be
used. To make all such functions use the verbose form, put
zstyle ':completion:*' verbose yes
in a startup file (probably
.zshrc). This gives the
verbose style
the value
yes in every context inside the completion system, unless
that context has a more specific definition. It is best to avoid giving the
context as `
*' in case the style has some meaning outside the
completion system.
Many such general purpose styles can be configured simply by using the
compinstall function.
A more specific example of the use of the
verbose style is by the
completion for the
kill builtin. If the style is set, the builtin lists
full job texts and process command lines; otherwise it shows the bare job
numbers and PIDs. To turn the style off for this use only:
zstyle ':completion:*:*:kill:*:*' verbose no
For even more control, the style can use one of the tags `
jobs' or `
processes'. To turn off verbose display only for jobs:
zstyle ':completion:*:*:kill:*:jobs' verbose no
The
-e option to
zstyle even allows completion function code to
appear as the argument to a style; this requires some understanding of the
internals of completion functions (see see
zshcompwid(1))). For
example,
zstyle -e ':completion:*' hosts 'reply=($myhosts)'
This forces the value of the
hosts style to be read from the variable
myhosts each time a host name is needed; this is useful if the value of
myhosts can change dynamically. For another useful example, see the
example in the description of the
file-list style below. This form can
be slow and should be avoided for commonly examined styles such as
menu
and
list-rows-first.
Note that the order in which styles are
defined does not matter; the
style mechanism uses the most specific possible match for a particular style
to determine the set of values. More precisely, strings are preferred over
patterns (for example, `
:completion::complete:::foo' is more specific
than `
:completion::complete:::*'), and longer patterns are preferred
over shorter patterns.
A good rule of thumb is that any completion style pattern that needs to include
more than one wildcard (
*) and that does not end in a tag name, should
include all six colons (
:), possibly surrounding additional wildcards.
Style names like those of tags are arbitrary and depend on the completion
function. However, the following two sections list some of the most common
tags and styles.
Some of the following are only used when looking up particular styles and do not
refer to a type of match.
- accounts
- used to look up the users-hosts style
- all-expansions
- used by the _expand completer when adding the single string
containing all possible expansions
- all-files
- for the names of all files (as distinct from a particular subset, see the
globbed-files tag).
- arguments
- for arguments to a command
- arrays
- for names of array parameters
- association-keys
- for keys of associative arrays; used when completing inside a subscript to
a parameter of this type
- bookmarks
- when completing bookmarks (e.g. for URLs and the zftp function
suite)
- builtins
- for names of builtin commands
- characters
- for single characters in arguments of commands such as stty. Also
used when completing character classes after an opening bracket
- colormapids
- for X colormap ids
- colors
- for color names
- commands
- for names of external commands. Also used by complex commands such as
cvs when completing names subcommands.
- contexts
- for contexts in arguments to the zstyle builtin command
- corrections
- used by the _approximate and _correct completers for
possible corrections
- cursors
- for cursor names used by X programs
- default
- used in some contexts to provide a way of supplying a default when more
specific tags are also valid. Note that this tag is used when only the
function field of the context name is set
- descriptions
- used when looking up the value of the format style to generate
descriptions for types of matches
- devices
- for names of device special files
- directories
- for names of directories -- local-directories is used instead when
completing arguments of cd and related builtin commands when the
cdpath array is set
- directory-stack
- for entries in the directory stack
- displays
- for X display names
- domains
- for network domains
- email-plugin
- for email addresses from the `_email-plugin' backend of
_email_addresses
- expansions
- used by the _expand completer for individual words (as opposed to
the complete set of expansions) resulting from the expansion of a word on
the command line
- extensions
- for X server extensions
- file-descriptors
- for numbers of open file descriptors
- files
- the generic file-matching tag used by functions completing filenames
- fonts
- for X font names
- fstypes
- for file system types (e.g. for the mount command)
- functions
- names of functions -- normally shell functions, although certain commands
may understand other kinds of function
- globbed-files
- for filenames when the name has been generated by pattern matching
- groups
- for names of user groups
- history-words
- for words from the history
- hosts
- for hostnames
- indexes
- for array indexes
- jobs
- for jobs (as listed by the `jobs' builtin)
- interfaces
- for network interfaces
- keymaps
- for names of zsh keymaps
- keysyms
- for names of X keysyms
- libraries
- for names of system libraries
- limits
- for system limits
- local-directories
- for names of directories that are subdirectories of the current working
directory when completing arguments of cd and related builtin
commands (compare path-directories) -- when the cdpath array
is unset, directories is used instead
- manuals
- for names of manual pages
- mailboxes
- for e-mail folders
- maps
- for map names (e.g. NIS maps)
- messages
- used to look up the format style for messages
- modifiers
- for names of X modifiers
- modules
- for modules (e.g. zsh modules)
- my-accounts
- used to look up the users-hosts style
- named-directories
- for named directories (you wouldn't have guessed that, would you?)
- names
- for all kinds of names
- newsgroups
- for USENET groups
- nicknames
- for nicknames of NIS maps
- options
- for command options
- original
- used by the _approximate, _correct and _expand
completers when offering the original string as a match
- other-accounts
- used to look up the users-hosts style
- other-files
- for the names of any non-directory files. This is used instead of
all-files when the list-dirs-first style is in effect.
- packages
- for packages (e.g. rpm or installed Debian packages)
- parameters
- for names of parameters
- path-directories
- for names of directories found by searching the cdpath array when
completing arguments of cd and related builtin commands (compare
local-directories)
- paths
- used to look up the values of the expand, ambiguous and
special-dirs styles
- pods
- for perl pods (documentation files)
- ports
- for communication ports
- prefixes
- for prefixes (like those of a URL)
- printers
- for print queue names
- processes
- for process identifiers
- processes-names
- used to look up the command style when generating the names of
processes for killall
- sequences
- for sequences (e.g. mh sequences)
- sessions
- for sessions in the zftp function suite
- signals
- for signal names
- strings
- for strings (e.g. the replacement strings for the cd builtin
command)
- styles
- for styles used by the zstyle builtin command
- suffixes
- for filename extensions
- tags
- for tags (e.g. rpm tags)
- targets
- for makefile targets
- time-zones
- for time zones (e.g. when setting the TZ parameter)
- types
- for types of whatever (e.g. address types for the xhost
command)
- urls
- used to look up the urls and local styles when completing
URLs
- users
- for usernames
- values
- for one of a set of values in certain lists
- variant
- used by _pick_variant to look up the command to run when
determining what program is installed for a particular command name.
- visuals
- for X visuals
- warnings
- used to look up the format style for warnings
- widgets
- for zsh widget names
- windows
- for IDs of X windows
- zsh-options
- for shell options
Note that the values of several of these styles represent boolean values. Any of
the strings `
true', `
on', `
yes', and `
1' can be
used for the value `true' and any of the strings `
false',
`
off', `
no', and `
0' for the value `false'. The behavior
for any other value is undefined except where explicitly mentioned. The
default value may be either `true' or `false' if the style is not set.
Some of these styles are tested first for every possible tag corresponding to a
type of match, and if no style was found, for the
default tag. The most
notable styles of this type are
menu,
list-colors and styles
controlling completion listing such as
list-packed and
last-prompt. When tested for the
default tag, only the
function field of the context will be set so that a style using the
default tag will normally be defined along the lines of:
zstyle ':completion:*:default' menu ...
- accept-exact
- This is tested for the default tag in addition to the tags valid
for the current context. If it is set to `true' and any of the trial
matches is the same as the string on the command line, this match will
immediately be accepted (even if it would otherwise be considered
ambiguous).
When completing pathnames (where the tag used is `
paths') this style
accepts any number of patterns as the value in addition to the boolean values.
Pathnames matching one of these patterns will be accepted immediately even if
the command line contains some more partially typed pathname components and
these match no file under the directory accepted.
This style is also used by the
_expand completer to decide if words
beginning with a tilde or parameter expansion should be expanded. For example,
if there are parameters
foo and
foobar, the string `
$foo'
will only be expanded if
accept-exact is set to `true'; otherwise the
completion system will be allowed to complete
$foo to
$foobar.
If the style is set to `
continue',
_expand will add the
expansion as a match and the completion system will also be allowed to
continue.
- accept-exact-dirs
- This is used by filename completion. Unlike accept-exact it is a
boolean. By default, filename completion examines all components of a path
to see if there are completions of that component, even if the component
matches an existing directory. For example, when completion after
/usr/bin/, the function examines possible completions to
/usr.
When this style is `true', any prefix of a path that matches an existing
directory is accepted without any attempt to complete it further. Hence, in
the given example, the path
/usr/bin/ is accepted immediately and
completion tried in that directory.
This style is also useful when completing after directories that magically
appear when referenced, such as ZFS
.zfs directories or NetApp
.snapshot directories. When the style is set the shell does not check
for the existence of the directory within the parent directory.
If you wish to inhibit this behaviour entirely, set the
path-completion
style (see below) to `false'.
- add-space
- This style is used by the _expand completer. If it is `true' (the
default), a space will be inserted after all words resulting from the
expansion, or a slash in the case of directory names. If the value is `
file', the completer will only add a space to names of existing
files. Either a boolean `true' or the value ` file' may be combined
with ` subst', in which case the completer will not add a space to
words generated from the expansion of a substitution of the form `
$( ...)' or `${...}'.
The
_prefix completer uses this style as a simple boolean value to decide
if a space should be inserted before the suffix.
- ambiguous
- This applies when completing non-final components of filename paths, in
other words those with a trailing slash. If it is set, the cursor is left
after the first ambiguous component, even if menu completion is in use.
The style is always tested with the paths tag.
- assign-list
- When completing after an equals sign that is being treated as an
assignment, the completion system normally completes only one filename. In
some cases the value may be a list of filenames separated by colons, as
with PATH and similar parameters. This style can be set to a list
of patterns matching the names of such parameters.
The default is to complete lists when the word on the line already contains a
colon.
- auto-description
- If set, this style's value will be used as the description for options
that are not described by the completion functions, but that have exactly
one argument. The sequence ` %d' in the value will be replaced by
the description for this argument. Depending on personal preferences, it
may be useful to set this style to something like ` specify: %d'.
Note that this may not work for some commands.
- avoid-completer
- This is used by the _all_matches completer to decide if the string
consisting of all matches should be added to the list currently being
generated. Its value is a list of names of completers. If any of these is
the name of the completer that generated the matches in this completion,
the string will not be added.
The default value for this style is `
_expand _old_list _correct
_approximate', i.e. it contains the completers for which a string with
all matches will almost never be wanted.
- cache-path
- This style defines the path where any cache files containing dumped
completion data are stored. It defaults to ` $ZDOTDIR/.zcompcache',
or ` $HOME/.zcompcache' if $ZDOTDIR is not defined. The
completion cache will not be used unless the use-cache style is
set.
- cache-policy
- This style defines the function that will be used to determine whether a
cache needs rebuilding. See the section on the _cache_invalid
function below.
- call-command
- This style is used in the function for commands such as make and
ant where calling the command directly to generate matches suffers
problems such as being slow or, as in the case of make can
potentially cause actions in the makefile to be executed. If it is set to
`true' the command is called to generate matches. The default value of
this style is `false'.
- command
- In many places, completion functions need to call external commands to
generate the list of completions. This style can be used to override the
command that is called in some such cases. The elements of the value are
joined with spaces to form a command line to execute. The value can also
start with a hyphen, in which case the usual command will be added to the
end; this is most useful for putting ` builtin' or `command'
in front to make sure the appropriate version of a command is called, for
example to avoid calling a shell function with the same name as an
external command.
As an example, the completion function for process IDs uses this style with the
processes tag to generate the IDs to complete and the list of processes
to display (if the
verbose style is `true'). The list produced by the
command should look like the output of the
ps command. The first line
is not displayed, but is searched for the string `
PID' (or
`
pid') to find the position of the process IDs in the following lines.
If the line does not contain `
PID', the first numbers in each of the
other lines are taken as the process IDs to complete.
Note that the completion function generally has to call the specified command
for each attempt to generate the completion list. Hence care should be taken
to specify only commands that take a short time to run, and in particular to
avoid any that may never terminate.
- command-path
- This is a list of directories to search for commands to complete. The
default for this style is the value of the special parameter
path.
- commands
- This is used by the function completing sub-commands for the system
initialisation scripts (residing in /etc/init.d or somewhere not
too far away from that). Its values give the default commands to complete
for those commands for which the completion function isn't able to find
them out automatically. The default for this style are the two strings `
start' and `stop'.
- complete
- This is used by the _expand_alias function when invoked as a
bindable command. If set to `true' and the word on the command line is not
the name of an alias, matching alias names will be completed.
- complete-options
- This is used by the completer for cd, chdir and
pushd. For these commands a - is used to introduce a
directory stack entry and completion of these is far more common than
completing options. Hence unless the value of this style is `true' options
will not be completed, even after an initial -. If it is `true',
options will be completed after an initial - unless there is a
preceding -- on the command line.
- completer
- The strings given as the value of this style provide the names of the
completer functions to use. The available completer functions are
described in the section `Control Functions' below.
Each string may be either the name of a completer function or a string of the
form `
function:name'. In the first case the
completer field of the context will contain the name of the completer
without the leading underscore and with all other underscores replaced by
hyphens. In the second case the
function is the name of the completer
to call, but the context will contain the user-defined
name in the
completer field of the context. If the
name starts with a
hyphen, the string for the context will be build from the name of the
completer function as in the first case with the
name appended to it.
For example:
zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _complete:-foo
Here, completion will call the
_complete completer twice, once using `
complete' and once using `
complete-foo' in the
completer
field of the context. Normally, using the same completer more than once only
makes sense when used with the `
functions:name' form,
because otherwise the context name will be the same in all calls to the
completer; possible exceptions to this rule are the
_ignored and
_prefix completers.
The default value for this style is `
_complete _ignored': only
completion will be done, first using the
ignored-patterns style and the
$fignore array and then without ignoring matches.
- condition
- This style is used by the _list completer function to decide if
insertion of matches should be delayed unconditionally. The default is
`true'.
- delimiters
- This style is used when adding a delimiter for use with history modifiers
or glob qualifiers that have delimited arguments. It is an array of
preferred delimiters to add. Non-special characters are preferred as the
completion system may otherwise become confused. The default list is
:, +, /, -, %. The list may be empty to
force a delimiter to be typed.
- disabled
- If this is set to `true', the _expand_alias completer and bindable
command will try to expand disabled aliases, too. The default is
`false'.
- domains
- A list of names of network domains for completion. If this is not set,
domain names will be taken from the file /etc/resolv.conf.
- environ
- The environ style is used when completing for `sudo'. It is set to
an array of ` VAR=value' assignments to be exported
into the local environment before the completion for the target command is
invoked.
zstyle ':completion:*:sudo::' environ \
PATH="/sbin:/usr/sbin:$PATH" HOME="/root"
- expand
- This style is used when completing strings consisting of multiple parts,
such as path names.
If one of its values is the string `
prefix', the partially typed word
from the line will be expanded as far as possible even if trailing parts
cannot be completed.
If one of its values is the string `
suffix', matching names for
components after the first ambiguous one will also be added. This means that
the resulting string is the longest unambiguous string possible. However, menu
completion can be used to cycle through all matches.
- fake
- This style may be set for any completion context. It specifies additional
strings that will always be completed in that context. The form of each
string is ` value:description'; the colon and
description may be omitted, but any literal colons in value must be
quoted with a backslash. Any description provided is shown
alongside the value in completion listings.
It is important to use a sufficiently restrictive context when specifying fake
strings. Note that the styles
fake-files and
fake-parameters
provide additional features when completing files or parameters.
- fake-always
- This works identically to the fake style except that the
ignored-patterns style is not applied to it. This makes it possible
to override a set of matches completely by setting the ignored patterns to
` *'.
The following shows a way of supplementing any tag with arbitrary data, but
having it behave for display purposes like a separate tag. In this example we
use the features of the
tag-order style to divide the
named-directories tag into two when performing completion with the
standard completer
complete for arguments of
cd. The tag
named-directories-normal behaves as normal, but the tag
named-directories-mine contains a fixed set of directories. This has
the effect of adding the match group `
extra directories' with the
given completions.
zstyle ':completion::complete:cd:*' tag-order \
'named-directories:-mine:extra\ directories
named-directories:-normal:named\ directories *'
zstyle ':completion::complete:cd:*:named-directories-mine' \
fake-always mydir1 mydir2
zstyle ':completion::complete:cd:*:named-directories-mine' \
ignored-patterns '*'
- fake-files
- This style is used when completing files and looked up without a tag. Its
values are of the form ` dir:names...'. This will add
the names (strings separated by spaces) as possible matches when
completing in the directory dir, even if no such files really
exist. The dir may be a pattern; pattern characters or colons in
dir should be quoted with a backslash to be treated literally.
This can be useful on systems that support special file systems whose top-level
pathnames can not be listed or generated with glob patterns (but see
accept-exact-dirs for a more general way of dealing with this problem).
It can also be used for directories for which one does not have read
permission.
The pattern form can be used to add a certain `magic' entry to all directories
on a particular file system.
- fake-parameters
- This is used by the completion function for parameter names. Its values
are names of parameters that might not yet be set but should be completed
nonetheless. Each name may also be followed by a colon and a string
specifying the type of the parameter (like ` scalar',
`array' or ` integer'). If the type is given, the name will
only be completed if parameters of that type are required in the
particular context. Names for which no type is specified will always be
completed.
- file-list
- This style controls whether files completed using the standard builtin
mechanism are to be listed with a long list similar to ls -l. Note
that this feature uses the shell module zsh/stat for file
information; this loads the builtin stat which will replace any
external stat executable. To avoid this the following code can be
included in an initialization file:
zmodload -i zsh/stat
disable stat
The style may either be set to a `true' value (or `
all'), or one of the
values `
insert' or `
list', indicating that files are to be
listed in long format in all circumstances, or when attempting to insert a
file name, or when listing file names without attempting to insert one.
More generally, the value may be an array of any of the above values, optionally
followed by
=num. If
num is present it gives the maximum
number of matches for which long listing style will be used. For example,
zstyle ':completion:*' file-list list=20 insert=10
specifies that long format will be used when listing up to 20 files or inserting
a file with up to 10 matches (assuming a listing is to be shown at all, for
example on an ambiguous completion), else short format will be used.
zstyle -e ':completion:*' file-list \
'(( ${+NUMERIC} )) && reply=(true)'
specifies that long format will be used any time a numeric argument is supplied,
else short format.
- file-patterns
- This is used by the standard function for completing filenames,
_files. If the style is unset up to three tags are offered, `
globbed-files',` directories' and `all-files',
depending on the types of files expected by the caller of _files.
The first two (` globbed-files' and `directories') are
normally offered together to make it easier to complete files in
sub-directories.
The
file-patterns style provides alternatives to the default tags, which
are not used. Its value consists of elements of the form `
pattern: tag'; each string may contain any number of such
specifications separated by spaces.
The
pattern is a pattern that is to be used to generate filenames. Any
occurrence of the sequence `
%p' is replaced by any pattern(s) passed
by the function calling
_files. Colons in the pattern must be preceded
by a backslash to make them distinguishable from the colon before the
tag. If more than one pattern is needed, the patterns can be given
inside braces, separated by commas.
The
tags of all strings in the value will be offered by
_files and
used when looking up other styles. Any
tags in the same word will be
offered at the same time and before later words. If no `
:tag'
is given the `
files' tag will be used.
The
tag may also be followed by an optional second colon and a
description, which will be used for the `
%d' in the value of the
format style (if that is set) instead of the default description
supplied by the completion function. If the description given here contains
itself a `
%d', that is replaced with the description supplied by the
completion function.
For example, to make the
rm command first complete only names of object
files and then the names of all files if there is no matching object file:
zstyle ':completion:*:*:rm:*:*' file-patterns \
'*.o:object-files' '%p:all-files'
To alter the default behaviour of file completion -- offer files matching a
pattern and directories on the first attempt, then all files -- to offer only
matching files on the first attempt, then directories, and finally all files:
zstyle ':completion:*' file-patterns \
'%p:globbed-files' '*(-/):directories' '*:all-files'
This works even where there is no special pattern:
_files matches all
files using the pattern `
*' at the first step and stops when it sees
this pattern. Note also it will never try a pattern more than once for a
single completion attempt.
During the execution of completion functions, the
EXTENDED_GLOB option is
in effect, so the characters `
#', `
~' and `
^' have
special meanings in the patterns.
- file-sort
- The standard filename completion function uses this style without a tag to
determine in which order the names should be listed; menu completion will
cycle through them in the same order. The possible values are: `
size' to sort by the size of the file; ` links' to sort by
the number of links to the file; ` modification' (or `time'
or ` date') to sort by the last modification time; ` access'
to sort by the last access time; and ` inode' (or `change')
to sort by the last inode change time. If the style is set to any other
value, or is unset, files will be sorted alphabetically by name. If the
value contains the string ` reverse', sorting is done in the
opposite order. If the value contains the string ` follow',
timestamps are associated with the targets of symbolic links; the default
is to use the timestamps of the links themselves.
- filter
- The ldap plugin of email address completion (see
_email_addresses) uses this style to specify the attributes to
match against when filtering entries. So for example, if the style is set
to ` sn', matching is done against surnames. Standard LDAP
filtering is used so normal completion matching is bypassed. If this style
is not set, the LDAP plugin is skipped. You may also need to set the
command style to specify how to connect to your LDAP server.
- force-list
- This forces a list of completions to be shown at any point where listing
is done, even in cases where the list would usually be suppressed. For
example, normally the list is only shown if there are at least two
different matches. By setting this style to ` always', the list
will always be shown, even if there is only a single match that will
immediately be accepted. The style may also be set to a number. In this
case the list will be shown if there are at least that many matches, even
if they would all insert the same string.
This style is tested for the default tag as well as for each tag valid for the
current completion. Hence the listing can be forced only for certain types of
match.
- format
- If this is set for the descriptions tag, its value is used as a
string to display above matches in completion lists. The sequence `
%d' in this string will be replaced with a short description of
what these matches are. This string may also contain the following
sequences to specify output attributes as described in the section
EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1): ` %B',
`%S', ` %U', `%F', `%K' and their lower case
counterparts, as well as ` %{...%}'. `%F',
`%K' and ` %{...%}' take arguments in the same form
as prompt expansion. Note that the sequence ` %G' is not available;
an argument to ` %{' should be used instead.
The style is tested with each tag valid for the current completion before it is
tested for the
descriptions tag. Hence different format strings can be
defined for different types of match.
Note also that some completer functions define additional `
%'-sequences.
These are described for the completer functions that make use of them.
Some completion functions display messages that may be customised by setting
this style for the
messages tag. Here, the `
%d' is replaced with
a message given by the completion function.
Finally, the format string is looked up with the
warnings tag, for use
when no matches could be generated at all. In this case the `
%d' is
replaced with the descriptions for the matches that were expected separated by
spaces. The sequence `
%D' is replaced with the same descriptions
separated by newlines.
It is possible to use printf-style field width specifiers with `
%d' and
similar escape sequences. This is handled by the
zformat builtin
command from the
zsh/zutil module, see
zshmodules(1).
- glob
- This is used by the _expand completer. If it is set to `true' (the
default), globbing will be attempted on the words resulting from a
previous substitution (see the substitute style) or else the
original string from the line.
- global
- If this is set to `true' (the default), the _expand_alias completer
and bindable command will try to expand global aliases.
- group-name
- The completion system can group different types of matches, which appear
in separate lists. This style can be used to give the names of groups for
particular tags. For example, in command position the completion system
generates names of builtin and external commands, names of aliases, shell
functions and parameters and reserved words as possible completions. To
have the external commands and shell functions listed separately:
zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:commands' \
group-name commands
zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:functions' \
group-name functions
As a consequence, any match with the same tag will be displayed in the same
group.
If the name given is the empty string the name of the tag for the matches will
be used as the name of the group. So, to have all different types of matches
displayed separately, one can just set:
zstyle ':completion:*' group-name ''
All matches for which no group name is defined will be put in a group named
-default-.
- group-order
- This style is additional to the group-name style to specify the
order for display of the groups defined by that style (compare
tag-order, which determines which completions appear at all). The
groups named are shown in the given order; any other groups are shown in
the order defined by the completion function.
For example, to have names of builtin commands, shell functions and external
commands appear in that order when completing in command position:
zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:*' group-order \
builtins functions commands
- groups
- A list of names of UNIX groups. If this is not set, group names are taken
from the YP database or the file ` /etc/group'.
- hidden
- If this is set to `true', matches for the given context will not be
listed, although any description for the matches set with the
format style will be shown. If it is set to ` all', not even
the description will be displayed.
Note that the matches will still be completed; they are just not shown in the
list. To avoid having matches considered as possible completions at all, the
tag-order style can be modified as described below.
- hosts
- A list of names of hosts that should be completed. If this is not set,
hostnames are taken from the file ` /etc/hosts'.
- hosts-ports
- This style is used by commands that need or accept hostnames and network
ports. The strings in the value should be of the form `
host: port'. Valid ports are determined by the
presence of hostnames; multiple ports for the same host may appear.
- ignore-line
- This is tested for each tag valid for the current completion. If it is set
to `true', none of the words that are already on the line will be
considered as possible completions. If it is set to ` current', the
word the cursor is on will not be considered as a possible completion. The
value ` current-shown' is similar but only applies if the list of
completions is currently shown on the screen. Finally, if the style is set
to ` other', all words on the line except for the current one will
be excluded from the possible completions.
The values `
current' and `
current-shown' are a bit like the
opposite of the
accept-exact style: only strings with missing
characters will be completed.
Note that you almost certainly don't want to set this to `true' or `
other' for a general context such as `
:completion:*'. This is
because it would disallow completion of, for example, options multiple times
even if the command in question accepts the option more than once.
- ignore-parents
- The style is tested without a tag by the function completing pathnames in
order to determine whether to ignore the names of directories already
mentioned in the current word, or the name of the current working
directory. The value must include one or both of the following
strings:
- parent
- The name of any directory whose path is already contained in the word on
the line is ignored. For example, when completing after foo/../,
the directory foo will not be considered a valid completion.
- pwd
- The name of the current working directory will not be completed; hence,
for example, completion after ../ will not use the name of the
current directory.
In addition, the value may include one or both of:
- ..
- Ignore the specified directories only when the word on the line contains
the substring ` ../'.
- directory
- Ignore the specified directories only when names of directories are
completed, not when completing names of files.
Excluded values act in a similar fashion to values of the
ignored-patterns style, so they can be restored to consideration by the
_ignored completer.
- extra-verbose
- If set, the completion listing is more verbose at the cost of a probable
decrease in completion speed. Completion performance will suffer if this
style is set to `true'.
- ignored-patterns
- A list of patterns; any trial completion matching one of the patterns will
be excluded from consideration. The _ignored completer can appear
in the list of completers to restore the ignored matches. This is a more
configurable version of the shell parameter $fignore.
Note that the
EXTENDED_GLOB option is set during the execution of
completion functions, so the characters `
#', `
~' and `
^'
have special meanings in the patterns.
- insert
- This style is used by the _all_matches completer to decide whether
to insert the list of all matches unconditionally instead of adding the
list as another match.
- insert-ids
- When completing process IDs, for example as arguments to the kill
and wait builtins the name of a command may be converted to the
appropriate process ID. A problem arises when the process name typed is
not unique. By default (or if this style is set explicitly to `
menu') the name will be converted immediately to a set of possible
IDs, and menu completion will be started to cycle through them.
If the value of the style is `
single', the shell will wait until the
user has typed enough to make the command unique before converting the name to
an ID; attempts at completion will be unsuccessful until that point. If the
value is any other string, menu completion will be started when the string
typed by the user is longer than the common prefix to the corresponding
IDs.
- insert-tab
- If this is set to `true', the completion system will insert a TAB
character (assuming that was used to start completion) instead of
performing completion when there is no non-blank character to the left of
the cursor. If it is set to `false', completion will be done even
there.
The value may also contain the substrings `
pending' or `
pending=val'. In this case, the typed character will be inserted
instead of starting completion when there is unprocessed input pending. If a
val is given, completion will not be done if there are at least that
many characters of unprocessed input. This is often useful when pasting
characters into a terminal. Note however, that it relies on the
$PENDING special parameter from the
zsh/zle module being set
properly which is not guaranteed on all platforms.
The default value of this style is `true' except for completion within
vared builtin command where it is `false'.
- insert-unambiguous
- This is used by the _match and _approximate completers.
These completers are often used with menu completion since the word typed
may bear little resemblance to the final completion. However, if this
style is `true', the completer will start menu completion only if it could
find no unambiguous initial string at least as long as the original string
typed by the user.
In the case of the
_approximate completer, the completer field in the
context will already have been set to one of
correct-num or
approximate- num, where
num is the number of errors that
were accepted.
In the case of the
_match completer, the style may also be set to the
string `
pattern'. Then the pattern on the line is left unchanged if it
does not match unambiguously.
- gain-privileges
- If set to true, this style enables the use of commands like
sudo or doas to gain extra privileges when retrieving
information for completion. This is only done when a command such as
sudo appears on the command-line. To force the use of, e.g.
sudo or to override any prefix that might be added due to
gain-privileges, the command style can be used with a value
that begins with a hyphen.
- keep-prefix
- This style is used by the _expand completer. If it is `true', the
completer will try to keep a prefix containing a tilde or parameter
expansion. Hence, for example, the string ` ~/f*' would be expanded
to ` ~/foo' instead of `/home/user/foo'. If the style is set
to ` changed' (the default), the prefix will only be left unchanged
if there were other changes between the expanded words and the original
word from the command line. Any other value forces the prefix to be
expanded unconditionally.
The behaviour of
_expand when this style is `true' is to cause
_expand to give up when a single expansion with the restored prefix is
the same as the original; hence any remaining completers may be called.
- last-prompt
- This is a more flexible form of the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option. If
it is `true', the completion system will try to return the cursor to the
previous command line after displaying a completion list. It is tested for
all tags valid for the current completion, then the default tag.
The cursor will be moved back to the previous line if this style is `true'
for all types of match. Note that unlike the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT
option this is independent of the numeric argument.
- known-hosts-files
- This style should contain a list of files to search for host names and (if
the use-ip style is set) IP addresses in a format compatible with
ssh known_hosts files. If it is not set, the files
/etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts and ~/.ssh/known_hosts are
used.
- list
- This style is used by the _history_complete_word bindable command.
If it is set to `true' it has no effect. If it is set to `false' matches
will not be listed. This overrides the setting of the options controlling
listing behaviour, in particular AUTO_LIST. The context always
starts with ` :completion:history-words'.
- list-colors
- If the zsh/complist module is loaded, this style can be used to set
color specifications. This mechanism replaces the use of the
ZLS_COLORS and ZLS_COLOURS parameters described in the
section `The zsh/complist Module' in zshmodules(1), but the syntax
is the same.
If this style is set for the
default tag, the strings in the value are
taken as specifications that are to be used everywhere. If it is set for other
tags, the specifications are used only for matches of the type described by
the tag. For this to work best, the
group-name style must be set to an
empty string.
In addition to setting styles for specific tags, it is also possible to use
group names specified explicitly by the
group-name tag together with
the `
(group)' syntax allowed by the
ZLS_COLORS and
ZLS_COLOURS parameters and simply using the
default tag.
It is possible to use any color specifications already set up for the GNU
version of the
ls command:
zstyle ':completion:*:default' list-colors \
${(s.:.)LS_COLORS}
The default colors are the same as for the GNU
ls command and can be
obtained by setting the style to an empty string (i.e.
'').
- list-dirs-first
- This is used by file completion. If set, directories to be completed are
listed separately from and before completion for other files, regardless
of tag ordering. In addition, the tag other-files is used in place
of all-files for the remaining files, to indicate that no
directories are presented with that tag.
- list-grouped
- If this style is `true' (the default), the completion system will try to
make certain completion listings more compact by grouping matches. For
example, options for commands that have the same description (shown when
the verbose style is set to `true') will appear as a single entry.
However, menu selection can be used to cycle through all the matches.
- list-packed
- This is tested for each tag valid in the current context as well as the
default tag. If it is set to `true', the corresponding matches
appear in listings as if the LIST_PACKED option were set. If it is
set to `false', they are listed normally.
- list-prompt
- If this style is set for the default tag, completion lists that
don't fit on the screen can be scrolled (see the description of the
zsh/complist module in zshmodules(1)). The value, if not the
empty string, will be displayed after every screenful and the shell will
prompt for a key press; if the style is set to the empty string, a default
prompt will be used.
The value may contain the escape sequences: `
%l' or `
%L', which
will be replaced by the number of the last line displayed and the total number
of lines; `
%m' or `
%M', the number of the last match shown and
the total number of matches; and `
%p' and `
%P', `
Top'
when at the beginning of the list, `
Bottom' when at the end and the
position shown as a percentage of the total length otherwise. In each case the
form with the uppercase letter will be replaced by a string of fixed width,
padded to the right with spaces, while the lowercase form will be replaced by
a variable width string. As in other prompt strings, the escape sequences `
%S', `
%s', `
%B', `
%b', `
%U', `
%u'
for entering and leaving the display modes standout, bold and underline, and `
%F', `
%f', `
%K', `
%k' for changing the foreground
background colour, are also available, as is the form `
%{...
%}'
for enclosing escape sequences which display with zero (or, with a numeric
argument, some other) width.
After deleting this prompt the variable
LISTPROMPT should be unset for
the removal to take effect.
- list-rows-first
- This style is tested in the same way as the list-packed style and
determines whether matches are to be listed in a rows-first fashion as if
the LIST_ROWS_FIRST option were set.
- list-suffixes
- This style is used by the function that completes filenames. If it is
`true', and completion is attempted on a string containing multiple
partially typed pathname components, all ambiguous components will be
shown. Otherwise, completion stops at the first ambiguous component.
- list-separator
- The value of this style is used in completion listing to separate the
string to complete from a description when possible (e.g. when completing
options). It defaults to ` --' (two hyphens).
- local
- This is for use with functions that complete URLs for which the
corresponding files are available directly from the file system. Its value
should consist of three strings: a hostname, the path to the default web
pages for the server, and the directory name used by a user placing web
pages within their home area.
For example:
zstyle ':completion:*' local toast \
/var/http/public/toast public_html
Completion after `
http://toast/stuff/' will look for files in the
directory
/var/http/public/toast/stuff, while completion after `
http://toast/~yousir/' will look for files in the directory
~yousir/public_html.
- mail-directory
- If set, zsh will assume that mailbox files can be found in the directory
specified. It defaults to ` ~/Mail'.
- match-original
- This is used by the _match completer. If it is set to only,
_match will try to generate matches without inserting a ` *'
at the cursor position. If set to any other non-empty value, it will first
try to generate matches without inserting the ` *' and if that
yields no matches, it will try again with the ` *' inserted. If it
is unset or set to the empty string, matching will only be performed with
the ` *' inserted.
- matcher
- This style is tested separately for each tag valid in the current context.
Its value is placed before any match specifications given by the
matcher-list style so can override them via the use of an x:
specification. The value should be in the form described in the section
`Completion Matching Control' in zshcompwid(1). For examples of
this, see the description of the tag-order style.
- matcher-list
- This style can be set to a list of match specifications that are to be
applied everywhere. Match specifications are described in the section
`Completion Matching Control' in zshcompwid(1). The completion
system will try them one after another for each completer selected. For
example, to try first simple completion and, if that generates no matches,
case-insensitive completion:
zstyle ':completion:*' matcher-list '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'
By default each specification replaces the previous one; however, if a
specification is prefixed with
+, it is added to the existing list.
Hence it is possible to create increasingly general specifications without
repetition:
zstyle ':completion:*' matcher-list \
'' '+m:{a-z}={A-Z}' '+m:{A-Z}={a-z}'
It is possible to create match specifications valid for particular completers by
using the third field of the context. This applies only to completers that
override the global matcher-list, which as of this writing includes only
_prefix and
_ignored. For example, to use the completers
_complete and
_prefix but allow case-insensitive completion only
with
_complete:
zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _prefix
zstyle ':completion:*:complete:*:*:*' matcher-list \
'' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'
User-defined names, as explained for the
completer style, are available.
This makes it possible to try the same completer more than once with different
match specifications each time. For example, to try normal completion without
a match specification, then normal completion with case-insensitive matching,
then correction, and finally partial-word completion:
zstyle ':completion:*' completer \
_complete _correct _complete:foo
zstyle ':completion:*:complete:*:*:*' matcher-list \
'' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'
zstyle ':completion:*:foo:*:*:*' matcher-list \
'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z} r:|[-_./]=* r:|=*'
If the style is unset in any context no match specification is applied. Note
also that some completers such as
_correct and
_approximate do
not use the match specifications at all, though these completers will only
ever be called once even if the
matcher-list contains more than one
element.
Where multiple specifications are useful, note that the
entire completion
is done for each element of
matcher-list, which can quickly reduce the
shell's performance. As a rough rule of thumb, one to three strings will give
acceptable performance. On the other hand, putting multiple space-separated
values into the same string does not have an appreciable impact on
performance.
If there is no current matcher or it is empty, and the option
NO_CASE_GLOB is in effect, the matching for files is performed
case-insensitively in any case. However, any matcher must explicitly specify
case-insensitive matching if that is required.
- max-errors
- This is used by the _approximate and _correct completer
functions to determine the maximum number of errors to allow. The
completer will try to generate completions by first allowing one error,
then two errors, and so on, until either a match or matches were found or
the maximum number of errors given by this style has been reached.
If the value for this style contains the string `
numeric', the completer
function will take any numeric argument as the maximum number of errors
allowed. For example, with
zstyle ':completion:*:approximate:::' max-errors 2 numeric
two errors are allowed if no numeric argument is given, but with a numeric
argument of six (as in `
ESC-6 TAB'), up to six errors are accepted.
Hence with a value of `
0 numeric', no correcting completion will be
attempted unless a numeric argument is given.
If the value contains the string `
not-numeric', the completer will
not try to generate corrected completions when given a numeric
argument, so in this case the number given should be greater than zero. For
example, `
2 not-numeric' specifies that correcting completion with two
errors will usually be performed, but if a numeric argument is given,
correcting completion will not be performed.
The default value for this style is `
2 numeric'.
- max-matches-width
- This style is used to determine the trade off between the width of the
display used for matches and the width used for their descriptions when
the verbose style is in effect. The value gives the number of
display columns to reserve for the matches. The default is half the width
of the screen.
This has the most impact when several matches have the same description and so
will be grouped together. Increasing the style will allow more matches to be
grouped together; decreasing it will allow more of the description to be
visible.
- menu
- If this is `true' in the context of any of the tags defined for the
current completion menu completion will be used. The value for a specific
tag will take precedence over that for the ` default' tag.
If none of the values found in this way is `true' but at least one is set to `
auto', the shell behaves as if the
AUTO_MENU option is set.
If one of the values is explicitly set to `false', menu completion will be
explicitly turned off, overriding the
MENU_COMPLETE option and other
settings.
In the form `
yes=num', where `
yes' may be any of the
`true' values (`
yes', `
true', `
on' and `
1'), menu
completion will be turned on if there are at least
num matches. In the
form `
yes=long', menu completion will be turned on if the list does
not fit on the screen. This does not activate menu completion if the widget
normally only lists completions, but menu completion can be activated in that
case with the value `
yes=long-list' (Typically, the value `
select=long-list' described later is more useful as it provides control
over scrolling.)
Similarly, with any of the `false' values (as in `
no=10'), menu
completion will
not be used if there are
num or more matches.
The value of this widget also controls menu selection, as implemented by the
zsh/complist module. The following values may appear either alongside
or instead of the values above.
If the value contains the string `
select', menu selection will be
started unconditionally.
In the form `
select=num', menu selection will only be started if
there are at least
num matches. If the values for more than one tag
provide a number, the smallest number is taken.
Menu selection can be turned off explicitly by defining a value containing the
string`
no-select'.
It is also possible to start menu selection only if the list of matches does not
fit on the screen by using the value `
select=long'. To start menu
selection even if the current widget only performs listing, use the value `
select=long-list'.
To turn on menu completion or menu selection when there are a certain number of
matches
or the list of matches does not fit on the screen, both of `
yes=' and `
select=' may be given twice, once with a number and
once with `
long' or `
long-list'.
Finally, it is possible to activate two special modes of menu selection. The
word `
interactive' in the value causes interactive mode to be entered
immediately when menu selection is started; see the description of the
zsh/complist module in
zshmodules(1) for a description of
interactive mode. Including the string `
search' does the same for
incremental search mode. To select backward incremental search, include the
string `
search-backward'.
- muttrc
- If set, gives the location of the mutt configuration file. It defaults to
` ~/.muttrc'.
- numbers
- This is used with the jobs tag. If it is `true', the shell will
complete job numbers instead of the shortest unambiguous prefix of the job
command text. If the value is a number, job numbers will only be used if
that many words from the job descriptions are required to resolve
ambiguities. For example, if the value is ` 1', strings will only
be used if all jobs differ in the first word on their command lines.
- old-list
- This is used by the _oldlist completer. If it is set to
`always', then standard widgets which perform listing will retain
the current list of matches, however they were generated; this can be
turned off explicitly with the value ` never', giving the behaviour
without the _oldlist completer. If the style is unset, or any other
value, then the existing list of completions is displayed if it is not
already; otherwise, the standard completion list is generated; this is the
default behaviour of _oldlist. However, if there is an old list and
this style contains the name of the completer function that generated the
list, then the old list will be used even if it was generated by a widget
which does not do listing.
For example, suppose you type
^Xc to use the
_correct_word widget,
which generates a list of corrections for the word under the cursor. Usually,
typing
^D would generate a standard list of completions for the word on
the command line, and show that. With
_oldlist, it will instead show
the list of corrections already generated.
As another example consider the
_match completer: with the
insert-unambiguous style set to `true' it inserts only a common prefix
string, if there is any. However, this may remove parts of the original
pattern, so that further completion could produce more matches than on the
first attempt. By using the
_oldlist completer and setting this style
to
_match, the list of matches generated on the first attempt will be
used again.
- old-matches
- This is used by the _all_matches completer to decide if an old list
of matches should be used if one exists. This is selected by one of the
`true' values or by the string ` only'. If the value is `
only', _all_matches will only use an old list and won't have
any effect on the list of matches currently being generated.
If this style is set it is generally unwise to call the
_all_matches
completer unconditionally. One possible use is for either this style or the
completer style to be defined with the
-e option to
zstyle to make the style conditional.
- old-menu
- This is used by the _oldlist completer. It controls how menu
completion behaves when a completion has already been inserted and the
user types a standard completion key such as TAB. The default
behaviour of _oldlist is that menu completion always continues with
the existing list of completions. If this style is set to `false',
however, a new completion is started if the old list was generated by a
different completion command; this is the behaviour without the
_oldlist completer.
For example, suppose you type
^Xc to generate a list of corrections, and
menu completion is started in one of the usual ways. Usually, or with this
style set to `false', typing
TAB at this point would start trying to
complete the line as it now appears. With
_oldlist, it instead
continues to cycle through the list of corrections.
- original
- This is used by the _approximate and _correct completers to
decide if the original string should be added as a possible completion.
Normally, this is done only if there are at least two possible
corrections, but if this style is set to `true', it is always added. Note
that the style will be examined with the completer field in the context
name set to correct-num or approximate-num,
where num is the number of errors that were accepted.
- packageset
- This style is used when completing arguments of the Debian `dpkg'
program. It contains an override for the default package set for a given
context. For example,
zstyle ':completion:*:complete:dpkg:option--status-1:*' \
packageset avail
causes available packages, rather than only installed packages, to be completed
for `
dpkg --status'.
- path
- The function that completes color names uses this style with the
colors tag. The value should be the pathname of a file containing
color names in the format of an X11 rgb.txt file. If the style is
not set but this file is found in one of various standard locations it
will be used as the default.
- path-completion
- This is used by filename completion. By default, filename completion
examines all components of a path to see if there are completions of that
component. For example, /u/b/z can be completed to
/usr/bin/zsh. Explicitly setting this style to `false' inhibits
this behaviour for path components up to the / before the cursor;
this overrides the setting of accept-exact-dirs.
Even with the style set to `false', it is still possible to complete multiple
paths by setting the option
COMPLETE_IN_WORD and moving the cursor back
to the first component in the path to be completed. For example,
/u/b/z
can be completed to
/usr/bin/zsh if the cursor is after the
/u.
- pine-directory
- If set, specifies the directory containing PINE mailbox files. There is no
default, since recursively searching this directory is inconvenient for
anyone who doesn't use PINE.
- ports
- A list of Internet service names (network ports) to complete. If this is
not set, service names are taken from the file `
/etc/services'.
- prefix-hidden
- This is used for certain completions which share a common prefix, for
example command options beginning with dashes. If it is `true', the prefix
will not be shown in the list of matches.
The default value for this style is `false'.
- prefix-needed
- This style is also relevant for matches with a common prefix. If it is set
to `true' this common prefix must be typed by the user to generate the
matches.
The style is applicable to the
options,
signals,
jobs,
functions, and
parameters completion tags.
For command options, this means that the initial `
-', `
+', or `
--' must be typed explicitly before option names will be
completed.
For signals, an initial `
-' is required before signal names will be
completed.
For jobs, an initial `
%' is required before job names will be completed.
For function and parameter names, an initial `
_' or `
.' is
required before function or parameter names starting with those characters
will be completed.
The default value for this style is `false' for
function and
parameter completions, and `true' otherwise.
- preserve-prefix
- This style is used when completing path names. Its value should be a
pattern matching an initial prefix of the word to complete that should be
left unchanged under all circumstances. For example, on some Unices an
initial ` //' (double slash) has a special meaning; setting this
style to the string ` //' will preserve it. As another example,
setting this style to ` ?:/' under Cygwin would allow completion
after ` a:/...' and so on.
- range
- This is used by the _history completer and the
_history_complete_word bindable command to decide which words
should be completed.
If it is a single number, only the last
N words from the history will be
completed.
If it is a range of the form `
max:slice', the last
slice words will be completed; then if that yields no matches, the
slice words before those will be tried and so on. This process stops
either when at least one match has been found, or
max words have been
tried.
The default is to complete all words from the history at once.
- recursive-files
- If this style is set, its value is an array of patterns to be tested
against ` $PWD/': note the trailing slash, which allows directories
in the pattern to be delimited unambiguously by including slashes on both
sides. If an ordinary file completion fails and the word on the command
line does not yet have a directory part to its name, the style is
retrieved using the same tag as for the completion just attempted, then
the elements tested against $PWD/ in turn. If one matches, then the
shell reattempts completion by prepending the word on the command line
with each directory in the expansion of **/*(/) in turn. Typically
the elements of the style will be set to restrict the number of
directories beneath the current one to a manageable number, for example `
*/.git/*'.
For example,
zstyle ':completion:*' recursive-files '*/zsh/*'
If the current directory is
/home/pws/zsh/Src, then
zle_trTAB can be completed to
Zle/zle_tricky.c.
- regular
- This style is used by the _expand_alias completer and bindable
command. If set to `true' (the default), regular aliases will be expanded
but only in command position. If it is set to `false', regular aliases
will never be expanded. If it is set to ` always', regular aliases
will be expanded even if not in command position.
- rehash
- If this is set when completing external commands, the internal list (hash)
of commands will be updated for each search by issuing the rehash
command. There is a speed penalty for this which is only likely to be
noticeable when directories in the path have slow file access.
- remote-access
- If set to `false', certain commands will be prevented from making Internet
connections to retrieve remote information. This includes the completion
for the CVS command.
It is not always possible to know if connections are in fact to a remote site,
so some may be prevented unnecessarily.
- remove-all-dups
- The _history_complete_word bindable command and the _history
completer use this to decide if all duplicate matches should be removed,
rather than just consecutive duplicates.
- select-prompt
- If this is set for the default tag, its value will be displayed
during menu selection (see the menu style above) when the
completion list does not fit on the screen as a whole. The same escapes as
for the list-prompt style are understood, except that the numbers
refer to the match or line the mark is on. A default prompt is used when
the value is the empty string.
- select-scroll
- This style is tested for the default tag and determines how a
completion list is scrolled during a menu selection (see the menu
style above) when the completion list does not fit on the screen as a
whole. If the value is ` 0' (zero), the list is scrolled by
half-screenfuls; if it is a positive integer, the list is scrolled by the
given number of lines; if it is a negative number, the list is scrolled by
a screenful minus the absolute value of the given number of lines. The
default is to scroll by single lines.
- separate-sections
- This style is used with the manuals tag when completing names of
manual pages. If it is `true', entries for different sections are added
separately using tag names of the form ` manual.X', where
X is the section number. When the group-name style is also
in effect, pages from different sections will appear separately. This
style is also used similarly with the words style when completing
words for the dict command. It allows words from different dictionary
databases to be added separately. The default for this style is
`false'.
- show-ambiguity
- If the zsh/complist module is loaded, this style can be used to
highlight the first ambiguous character in completion lists. The value is
either a color indication such as those supported by the
list-colors style or, with a value of `true', a default of
underlining is selected. The highlighting is only applied if the
completion display strings correspond to the actual matches.
- show-completer
- Tested whenever a new completer is tried. If it is `true', the completion
system outputs a progress message in the listing area showing what
completer is being tried. The message will be overwritten by any output
when completions are found and is removed after completion is
finished.
- single-ignored
- This is used by the _ignored completer when there is only one
match. If its value is ` show', the single match will be displayed
but not inserted. If the value is ` menu', then the single match
and the original string are both added as matches and menu completion is
started, making it easy to select either of them.
- sort
- Many completion widgets call _description at some point which
decides whether the matches are added sorted or unsorted (often indirectly
via _wanted or _requested). This style can be set explicitly
to one of the usual `true' or `false' values as an override. If it is not
set for the context, the standard behaviour of the calling widget is
used.
The style is tested first against the full context including the tag, and if
that fails to produce a value against the context without the tag.
If the calling widget explicitly requests unsorted matches, this is usually
honoured. However, the default (unsorted) behaviour of completion for the
command history may be overridden by setting the style to `true'.
In the
_expand completer, if it is set to `true', the expansions
generated will always be sorted. If it is set to `
menu', then the
expansions are only sorted when they are offered as single strings but not in
the string containing all possible expansions.
- special-dirs
- Normally, the completion code will not produce the directory names `
.' and ` ..' as possible completions. If this style is set
to `true', it will add both ` .' and `..' as possible
completions; if it is set to ` ..', only `..' will be
added.
The following example sets
special-dirs to `
..' when the current
prefix is empty, is a single `
.', or consists only of a path beginning
with `
../'. Otherwise the value is `false'.
zstyle -e ':completion:*' special-dirs \
'[[ $PREFIX = (../)#(|.|..) ]] && reply=(..)'
- squeeze-slashes
- If set to `true', sequences of slashes in filename paths (for example in `
foo//bar') will be treated as a single slash. This is the usual
behaviour of UNIX paths. However, by default the file completion function
behaves as if there were a ` *' between the slashes.
- stop
- If set to `true', the _history_complete_word bindable command will
stop once when reaching the beginning or end of the history. Invoking
_history_complete_word will then wrap around to the opposite end of
the history. If this style is set to `false' (the default),
_history_complete_word will loop immediately as in a menu
completion.
- strip-comments
- If set to `true', this style causes non-essential comment text to be
removed from completion matches. Currently it is only used when completing
e-mail addresses where it removes any display name from the addresses,
cutting them down to plain user@host form.
- subst-globs-only
- This is used by the _expand completer. If it is set to `true', the
expansion will only be used if it resulted from globbing; hence, if
expansions resulted from the use of the substitute style described
below, but these were not further changed by globbing, the expansions will
be rejected.
The default for this style is `false'.
- substitute
- This boolean style controls whether the _expand completer will
first try to expand all substitutions in the string (such as `
$(...)' and `${...}').
- suffix
- This is used by the _expand completer if the word starts with a
tilde or contains a parameter expansion. If it is set to `true', the word
will only be expanded if it doesn't have a suffix, i.e. if it is something
like ` ~foo' or `$foo' rather than `~foo/' or `
$foo/bar', unless that suffix itself contains characters eligible
for expansion. The default for this style is `true'.
- tag-order
- This provides a mechanism for sorting how the tags available in a
particular context will be used.
The values for the style are sets of space-separated lists of tags. The tags in
each value will be tried at the same time; if no match is found, the next
value is used. (See the
file-patterns style for an exception to this
behavior.)
For example:
zstyle ':completion:*:complete:-command-:*:*' tag-order \
'commands functions'
specifies that completion in command position first offers external commands and
shell functions. Remaining tags will be tried if no completions are found.
In addition to tag names, each string in the value may take one of the following
forms:
- -
- If any value consists of only a hyphen, then only the tags
specified in the other values are generated. Normally all tags not
explicitly selected are tried last if the specified tags fail to generate
any matches. This means that a single value consisting only of a single
hyphen turns off completion.
- ! tags...
- A string starting with an exclamation mark specifies names of tags that
are not to be used. The effect is the same as if all other possible
tags for the context had been listed.
- tag:label ...
- Here, tag is one of the standard tags and label is an
arbitrary name. Matches are generated as normal but the name label
is used in contexts instead of tag. This is not useful in words
starting with !.
If the
label starts with a hyphen, the
tag is prepended to the
label to form the name used for lookup. This can be used to make the
completion system try a certain tag more than once, supplying different style
settings for each attempt; see below for an example.
- tag:label:description
- As before, but description will replace the `%d' in the
value of the format style instead of the default description
supplied by the completion function. Spaces in the description must be
quoted with a backslash. A ` %d' appearing in description is
replaced with the description given by the completion function.
In any of the forms above the tag may be a pattern or several patterns in the
form `
{pat1,pat2...}'. In this case all
matching tags will be used except for any given explicitly in the same string.
One use of these features is to try one tag more than once, setting other styles
differently on each attempt, but still to use all the other tags without
having to repeat them all. For example, to make completion of function names
in command position ignore all the completion functions starting with an
underscore the first time completion is tried:
zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:*' tag-order \
'functions:-non-comp *' functions
zstyle ':completion:*:functions-non-comp' \
ignored-patterns '_*'
On the first attempt, all tags will be offered but the
functions tag will
be replaced by
functions-non-comp. The
ignored-patterns style is
set for this tag to exclude functions starting with an underscore. If there
are no matches, the second value of the
tag-order style is used which
completes functions using the default tag, this time presumably including all
function names.
The matches for one tag can be split into different groups. For example:
zstyle ':completion:*' tag-order \
'options:-long:long\ options
options:-short:short\ options
options:-single-letter:single\ letter\ options'
zstyle ':completion:*:options-long' \
ignored-patterns '[-+](|-|[^-]*)'
zstyle ':completion:*:options-short' \
ignored-patterns '--*' '[-+]?'
zstyle ':completion:*:options-single-letter' \
ignored-patterns '???*'
With the
group-names style set, options beginning with `
--', options beginning with a single `
-' or `
+'
but containing multiple characters, and single-letter options will be
displayed in separate groups with different descriptions.
Another use of patterns is to try multiple match specifications one after
another. The
matcher-list style offers something similar, but it is
tested very early in the completion system and hence can't be set for single
commands nor for more specific contexts. Here is how to try normal completion
without any match specification and, if that generates no matches, try again
with case-insensitive matching, restricting the effect to arguments of the
command
foo:
zstyle ':completion:*:*:foo:*:*' tag-order '*' '*:-case'
zstyle ':completion:*-case' matcher 'm:{a-z}={A-Z}'
First, all the tags offered when completing after
foo are tried using the
normal tag name. If that generates no matches, the second value of
tag-order is used, which tries all tags again except that this time
each has
-case appended to its name for lookup of styles. Hence this
time the value for the
matcher style from the second call to
zstyle in the example is used to make completion case-insensitive.
It is possible to use the
-e option of the
zstyle builtin command
to specify conditions for the use of particular tags. For example:
zstyle -e '*:-command-:*' tag-order '
if [[ -n $PREFIX$SUFFIX ]]; then
reply=( )
else
reply=( - )
fi'
Completion in command position will be attempted only if the string typed so far
is not empty. This is tested using the
PREFIX special parameter; see
zshcompwid for a description of parameters which are special inside completion
widgets. Setting
reply to an empty array provides the default behaviour
of trying all tags at once; setting it to an array containing only a hyphen
disables the use of all tags and hence of all completions.
If no
tag-order style has been defined for a context, the strings `
(|*-)argument-* (|*-)option-* values' and `
options' plus all
tags offered by the completion function will be used to provide a sensible
default behavior that causes arguments (whether normal command arguments or
arguments of options) to be completed before option names for most
commands.
- urls
- This is used together with the urls tag by functions completing
URLs.
If the value consists of more than one string, or if the only string does not
name a file or directory, the strings are used as the URLs to complete.
If the value contains only one string which is the name of a normal file the
URLs are taken from that file (where the URLs may be separated by white space
or newlines).
Finally, if the only string in the value names a directory, the directory
hierarchy rooted at this directory gives the completions. The top level
directory should be the file access method, such as `
http',
`
ftp', `
bookmark' and so on. In many cases the next level of
directories will be a filename. The directory hierarchy can descend as deep as
necessary.
For example,
zstyle ':completion:*' urls ~/.urls
mkdir -p ~/.urls/ftp/ftp.zsh.org/pub
allows completion of all the components of the URL
ftp://ftp.zsh.org/pub
after suitable commands such as `
netscape' or `
lynx'. Note,
however, that access methods and files are completed separately, so if the
hosts style is set hosts can be completed without reference to the
urls style.
See the description in the function
_urls itself for more information
(e.g. `
more $^fpath/_urls(N)').
- use-cache
- If this is set, the completion caching layer is activated for any
completions which use it (via the _store_cache,
_retrieve_cache, and _cache_invalid functions). The
directory containing the cache files can be changed with the
cache-path style.
- use-compctl
- If this style is set to a string not equal to false,
0, no, and off, the completion system may use any
completion specifications defined with the compctl builtin command.
If the style is unset, this is done only if the zsh/compctl module
is loaded. The string may also contain the substring ` first' to
use completions defined with ` compctl -T', and the substring `
default' to use the completion defined with ` compctl
-D'.
Note that this is only intended to smooth the transition from
compctl to
the new completion system and may disappear in the future.
Note also that the definitions from
compctl will only be used if there is
no specific completion function for the command in question. For example, if
there is a function
_foo to complete arguments to the command
foo,
compctl will never be invoked for
foo. However, the
compctl version will be tried if
foo only uses default
completion.
- use-ip
- By default, the function _hosts that completes host names strips IP
addresses from entries read from host databases such as NIS and ssh files.
If this style is `true', the corresponding IP addresses can be completed
as well. This style is not use in any context where the hosts style
is set; note also it must be set before the cache of host names is
generated (typically the first completion attempt).
- users
- This may be set to a list of usernames to be completed. If it is not set
all usernames will be completed. Note that if it is set only that list of
users will be completed; this is because on some systems querying all
users can take a prohibitive amount of time.
- users-hosts
- The values of this style should be of the form `
user@host' or ` user:host'. It
is used for commands that need pairs of user- and hostnames. These
commands will complete usernames from this style (only), and will restrict
subsequent hostname completion to hosts paired with that user in one of
the values of the style.
It is possible to group values for sets of commands which allow a remote login,
such as
rlogin and
ssh, by using the
my-accounts tag.
Similarly, values for sets of commands which usually refer to the accounts of
other people, such as
talk and
finger, can be grouped by using
the
other-accounts tag. More ambivalent commands may use the
accounts tag.
- users-hosts-ports
- Like users-hosts but used for commands like telnet and
containing strings of the form `
user@host:port'.
- verbose
- If set, as it is by default, the completion listing is more verbose. In
particular many commands show descriptions for options if this style is
`true'.
- word
- This is used by the _list completer, which prevents the insertion
of completions until a second completion attempt when the line has not
changed. The normal way of finding out if the line has changed is to
compare its entire contents between the two occasions. If this style is
`true', the comparison is instead performed only on the current word.
Hence if completion is performed on another word with the same contents,
completion will not be delayed.
The initialization script
compinit redefines all the widgets which
perform completion to call the supplied widget function
_main_complete.
This function acts as a wrapper calling the so-called `completer' functions
that generate matches. If
_main_complete is called with arguments,
these are taken as the names of completer functions to be called in the order
given. If no arguments are given, the set of functions to try is taken from
the
completer style. For example, to use normal completion and
correction if that doesn't generate any matches:
zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _correct
after calling
compinit. The default value for this style is `
_complete _ignored', i.e. normally only ordinary completion is tried,
first with the effect of the
ignored-patterns style and then without
it. The
_main_complete function uses the return status of the completer
functions to decide if other completers should be called. If the return status
is zero, no other completers are tried and the
_main_complete function
returns.
If the first argument to
_main_complete is a single hyphen, the arguments
will not be taken as names of completers. Instead, the second argument gives a
name to use in the
completer field of the context and the other
arguments give a command name and arguments to call to generate the matches.
The following completer functions are contained in the distribution, although
users may write their own. Note that in contexts the leading underscore is
stripped, for example basic completion is performed in the context `
:completion::complete: ...'.
- _all_matches
- This completer can be used to add a string consisting of all other
matches. As it influences later completers it must appear as the first
completer in the list. The list of all matches is affected by the
avoid-completer and old-matches styles described above.
It may be useful to use the
_generic function described below to bind
_all_matches to its own keystroke, for example:
zle -C all-matches complete-word _generic
bindkey '^Xa' all-matches
zstyle ':completion:all-matches:*' old-matches only
zstyle ':completion:all-matches::::' completer _all_matches
Note that this does not generate completions by itself: first use any of the
standard ways of generating a list of completions, then use
^Xa to show
all matches. It is possible instead to add a standard completer to the list
and request that the list of all matches should be directly inserted:
zstyle ':completion:all-matches::::' completer \
_all_matches _complete
zstyle ':completion:all-matches:*' insert true
In this case the
old-matches style should not be set.
- _approximate
- This is similar to the basic _complete completer but allows the
completions to undergo corrections. The maximum number of errors can be
specified by the max-errors style; see the description of
approximate matching in zshexpn(1) for how errors are counted.
Normally this completer will only be tried after the normal
_complete completer:
zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _approximate
This will give correcting completion if and only if normal completion yields no
possible completions. When corrected completions are found, the completer will
normally start menu completion allowing you to cycle through these strings.
This completer uses the tags
corrections and
original when
generating the possible corrections and the original string. The
format
style for the former may contain the additional sequences `
%e' and
`
%o' which will be replaced by the number of errors accepted to
generate the corrections and the original string, respectively.
The completer progressively increases the number of errors allowed up to the
limit by the
max-errors style, hence if a completion is found with one
error, no completions with two errors will be shown, and so on. It modifies
the completer name in the context to indicate the number of errors being
tried: on the first try the completer field contains `
approximate-1',
on the second try `
approximate-2', and so on.
When
_approximate is called from another function, the number of errors
to accept may be passed with the
-a option. The argument is in the same
format as the
max-errors style, all in one string.
Note that this completer (and the
_correct completer mentioned below) can
be quite expensive to call, especially when a large number of errors are
allowed. One way to avoid this is to set up the
completer style using
the
-e option to zstyle so that some completers are only used when
completion is attempted a second time on the same string, e.g.:
zstyle -e ':completion:*' completer '
if [[ $_last_try != "$HISTNO$BUFFER$CURSOR" ]]; then
_last_try="$HISTNO$BUFFER$CURSOR"
reply=(_complete _match _prefix)
else
reply=(_ignored _correct _approximate)
fi'
This uses the
HISTNO parameter and the
BUFFER and
CURSOR
special parameters that are available inside zle and completion widgets to
find out if the command line hasn't changed since the last time completion was
tried. Only then are the
_ignored,
_correct and
_approximate completers called.
- _canonical_paths [ -A var ] [ -N ] [
-MJV12nfX ] tag descr [ paths ... ]
- This completion function completes all paths given to it, and also tries
to offer completions which point to the same file as one of the paths
given (relative path when an absolute path is given, and vice versa; when
..'s are present in the word to be completed; and some paths got
from symlinks).
-A, if specified, takes the paths from the array variable specified.
Paths can also be specified on the command line as shown above.
-N, if
specified, prevents canonicalizing the paths given before using them for
completion, in case they are already so. The options
-M,
-J,
-V,
-1,
-2,
-n,
-F,
-X are passed to
compadd.
See
_description for a description of
tag and
descr.
- _cmdambivalent
- Completes the remaining positional arguments as an external command. The
external command and its arguments are completed as separate arguments (in
a manner appropriate for completing /usr/bin/env) if there are two
or more remaining positional arguments on the command line, and as a
quoted command string (in the manner of system(...)) otherwise. See
also _cmdstring and _precommand.
This function takes no arguments.
- _cmdstring
- Completes an external command as a single argument, as for
system(...).
- _complete
- This completer generates all possible completions in a context-sensitive
manner, i.e. using the settings defined with the compdef function
explained above and the current settings of all special parameters. This
gives the normal completion behaviour.
To complete arguments of commands,
_complete uses the utility function
_normal, which is in turn responsible for finding the particular
function; it is described below. Various contexts of the form
-context - are handled specifically. These are all
mentioned above as possible arguments to the
#compdef tag.
Before trying to find a function for a specific context,
_complete checks
if the parameter `
compcontext' is set. Setting `
compcontext'
allows the usual completion dispatching to be overridden which is useful in
places such as a function that uses
vared for input. If it is set to an
array, the elements are taken to be the possible matches which will be
completed using the tag `
values' and the description `
value'.
If it is set to an associative array, the keys are used as the possible
completions and the values (if non-empty) are used as descriptions for the
matches. If `
compcontext' is set to a string containing colons, it
should be of the form `
tag:descr:action'.
In this case the
tag and
descr give the tag and description to
use and the
action indicates what should be completed in one of the
forms accepted by the
_arguments utility function described below.
Finally, if `
compcontext' is set to a string without colons, the value
is taken as the name of the context to use and the function defined for that
context will be called. For this purpose, there is a special context named
-command-line- that completes whole command lines (commands and their
arguments). This is not used by the completion system itself but is
nonetheless handled when explicitly called.
- _correct
- Generate corrections, but not completions, for the current word; this is
similar to _approximate but will not allow any number of extra
characters at the cursor as that completer does. The effect is similar to
spell-checking. It is based on _approximate, but the completer
field in the context name is correct.
For example, with:
zstyle ':completion:::::' completer \
_complete _correct _approximate
zstyle ':completion:*:correct:::' max-errors 2 not-numeric
zstyle ':completion:*:approximate:::' max-errors 3 numeric
correction will accept up to two errors. If a numeric argument is given,
correction will not be performed, but correcting completion will be, and will
accept as many errors as given by the numeric argument. Without a numeric
argument, first correction and then correcting completion will be tried, with
the first one accepting two errors and the second one accepting three errors.
When
_correct is called as a function, the number of errors to accept may
be given following the
-a option. The argument is in the same form a
values to the
accept style, all in one string.
This completer function is intended to be used without the
_approximate
completer or, as in the example, just before it. Using it after the
_approximate completer is useless since
_approximate will at
least generate the corrected strings generated by the
_correct
completer -- and probably more.
- _expand
- This completer function does not really perform completion, but instead
checks if the word on the command line is eligible for expansion and, if
it is, gives detailed control over how this expansion is done. For this to
happen, the completion system needs to be invoked with
complete-word, not expand-or-complete (the default binding
for TAB), as otherwise the string will be expanded by the shell's
internal mechanism before the completion system is started. Note also this
completer should be called before the _complete completer
function.
The tags used when generating expansions are
all-expansions for the
string containing all possible expansions,
expansions when adding the
possible expansions as single matches and
original when adding the
original string from the line. The order in which these strings are generated,
if at all, can be controlled by the
group-order and
tag-order
styles, as usual.
The format string for
all-expansions and for
expansions may
contain the sequence `
%o' which will be replaced by the original
string from the line.
The kind of expansion to be tried is controlled by the
substitute,
glob and
subst-globs-only styles.
It is also possible to call
_expand as a function, in which case the
different modes may be selected with options:
-s for
substitute,
-g for
glob and
-o for
subst-globs-only.
- _expand_alias
- If the word the cursor is on is an alias, it is expanded and no other
completers are called. The types of aliases which are to be expanded can
be controlled with the styles regular, global and
disabled.
This function is also a bindable command, see the section `Bindable Commands'
below.
- _extensions
- If the cursor follows the string `*.', filename extensions are
completed. The extensions are taken from files in current directory or a
directory specified at the beginning of the current word. For exact
matches, completion continues to allow other completers such as
_expand to expand the pattern. The standard add-space and
prefix-hidden styles are observed.
- _external_pwds
- Completes current directories of other zsh processes belonging to the
current user.
This is intended to be used via
_generic, bound to a custom key
combination. Note that pattern matching is enabled so matching is performed
similar to how it works with the
_match completer.
- _history
- Complete words from the shell's command history. This completer can be
controlled by the remove-all-dups, and sort styles as for
the _history_complete_word bindable command, see the section
`Bindable Commands' below and the section `Completion System
Configuration' above.
- _ignored
- The ignored-patterns style can be set to a list of patterns which
are compared against possible completions; matching ones are removed. With
this completer those matches can be reinstated, as if no
ignored-patterns style were set. The completer actually generates
its own list of matches; which completers are invoked is determined in the
same way as for the _prefix completer. The single-ignored
style is also available as described above.
- _list
- This completer allows the insertion of matches to be delayed until
completion is attempted a second time without the word on the line being
changed. On the first attempt, only the list of matches will be shown. It
is affected by the styles condition and word, see the
section `Completion System Configuration' above.
- _match
- This completer is intended to be used after the _complete
completer. It behaves similarly but the string on the command line may be
a pattern to match against trial completions. This gives the effect of the
GLOB_COMPLETE option.
Normally completion will be performed by taking the pattern from the line,
inserting a `
*' at the cursor position and comparing the resulting
pattern with the possible completions generated. This can be modified with the
match-original style described above.
The generated matches will be offered in a menu completion unless the
insert-unambiguous style is set to `true'; see the description above
for other options for this style.
Note that matcher specifications defined globally or used by the completion
functions (the styles
matcher-list and
matcher) will not be
used.
- _menu
- This completer was written as simple example function to show how menu
completion can be enabled in shell code. However, it has the notable
effect of disabling menu selection which can be useful with
_generic based widgets. It should be used as the first completer in
the list. Note that this is independent of the setting of the
MENU_COMPLETE option and does not work with the other menu
completion widgets such as reverse-menu-complete, or
accept-and-menu-complete.
- _oldlist
- This completer controls how the standard completion widgets behave when
there is an existing list of completions which may have been generated by
a special completion (i.e. a separately-bound completion command). It
allows the ordinary completion keys to continue to use the list of
completions thus generated, instead of producing a new list of ordinary
contextual completions. It should appear in the list of completers before
any of the widgets which generate matches. It uses two styles:
old-list and old-menu, see the section `Completion System
Configuration' above.
- _precommand
- Complete an external command in word-separated arguments, as for
exec and /usr/bin/env.
- _prefix
- This completer can be used to try completion with the suffix (everything
after the cursor) ignored. In other words, the suffix will not be
considered to be part of the word to complete. The effect is similar to
the expand-or-complete-prefix command.
The
completer style is used to decide which other completers are to be
called to generate matches. If this style is unset, the list of completers set
for the current context is used -- except, of course, the
_prefix
completer itself. Furthermore, if this completer appears more than once in the
list of completers only those completers not already tried by the last
invocation of
_prefix will be called.
For example, consider this global
completer style:
zstyle ':completion:*' completer \
_complete _prefix _correct _prefix:foo
Here, the
_prefix completer tries normal completion but ignoring the
suffix. If that doesn't generate any matches, and neither does the call to the
_correct completer after it,
_prefix will be called a second
time and, now only trying correction with the suffix ignored. On the second
invocation the completer part of the context appears as `
foo'.
To use
_prefix as the last resort and try only normal completion when it
is invoked:
zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete ... _prefix
zstyle ':completion::prefix:*' completer _complete
The
add-space style is also respected. If it is set to `true' then
_prefix will insert a space between the matches generated (if any) and
the suffix.
Note that this completer is only useful if the
COMPLETE_IN_WORD option is
set; otherwise, the cursor will be moved to the end of the current word before
the completion code is called and hence there will be no suffix.
- _user_expand
- This completer behaves similarly to the _expand completer but
instead performs expansions defined by users. The styles add-space
and sort styles specific to the _expand completer are usable
with _user_expand in addition to other styles handled more
generally by the completion system. The tag all-expansions is also
available.
The expansion depends on the array style
user-expand being defined for
the current context; remember that the context for completers is less specific
than that for contextual completion as the full context has not yet been
determined. Elements of the array may have one of the following forms:
- $hash
-
hash is the name of an associative array. Note this is not a full
parameter expression, merely a $, suitably quoted to prevent
immediate expansion, followed by the name of an associative array. If the
trial expansion word matches a key in hash, the resulting expansion
is the corresponding value.
- _func
-
_func is the name of a shell function whose name must begin with
_ but is not otherwise special to the completion system. The
function is called with the trial word as an argument. If the word is to
be expanded, the function should set the array reply to a list of
expansions. Optionally, it can set REPLY to a word that will be
used as a description for the set of expansions. The return status of the
function is irrelevant.
In addition to the context-dependent completions provided, which are expected to
work in an intuitively obvious way, there are a few widgets implementing
special behaviour which can be bound separately to keys. The following is a
list of these and their default bindings.
- _bash_completions
- This function is used by two widgets, _bash_complete-word and
_bash_list-choices. It exists to provide compatibility with
completion bindings in bash. The last character of the binding determines
what is completed: ` !', command names; `$', environment
variables; ` @', host names; `/', file names; `~'
user names. In bash, the binding preceded by ` \e' gives
completion, and preceded by ` ^X' lists options. As some of these
bindings clash with standard zsh bindings, only ` \e~' and
`^X~' are bound by default. To add the rest, the following should
be added to .zshrc after compinit has been run:
for key in '!' '$' '@' '/' '~'; do
bindkey "\e$key" _bash_complete-word
bindkey "^X$key" _bash_list-choices
done
This includes the bindings for `
~' in case they were already bound to
something else; the completion code does not override user bindings.
- _correct_filename (^XC)
- Correct the filename path at the cursor position. Allows up to six errors
in the name. Can also be called with an argument to correct a filename
path, independently of zle; the correction is printed on standard
output.
- _correct_word (^Xc)
- Performs correction of the current argument using the usual contextual
completions as possible choices. This stores the string `
correct-word' in the function field of the context name and
then calls the _correct completer.
- _expand_alias (^Xa)
- This function can be used as a completer and as a bindable command. It
expands the word the cursor is on if it is an alias. The types of alias
expanded can be controlled with the styles regular, global
and disabled.
When used as a bindable command there is one additional feature that can be
selected by setting the
complete style to `true'. In this case, if the
word is not the name of an alias,
_expand_alias tries to complete the
word to a full alias name without expanding it. It leaves the cursor directly
after the completed word so that invoking
_expand_alias once more will
expand the now-complete alias name.
- _expand_word (^Xe)
- Performs expansion on the current word: equivalent to the standard
expand-word command, but using the _expand completer. Before
calling it, the function field of the context is set to `
expand-word'.
- _generic
- This function is not defined as a widget and not bound by default.
However, it can be used to define a widget and will then store the name of
the widget in the function field of the context and call the
completion system. This allows custom completion widgets with their own
set of style settings to be defined easily. For example, to define a
widget that performs normal completion and starts menu selection:
zle -C foo complete-word _generic
bindkey '...' foo
zstyle ':completion:foo:*' menu yes select=1
Note in particular that the
completer style may be set for the context in
order to change the set of functions used to generate possible matches. If
_generic is called with arguments, those are passed through to
_main_complete as the list of completers in place of those defined by
the
completer style.
- _history_complete_word (\e/)
- Complete words from the shell's command history. This uses the
list, remove-all-dups, sort, and stop
styles.
- _most_recent_file (^Xm)
- Complete the name of the most recently modified file matching the pattern
on the command line (which may be blank). If given a numeric argument
N, complete the Nth most recently modified file. Note the
completion, if any, is always unique.
- _next_tags (^Xn)
- This command alters the set of matches used to that for the next tag, or
set of tags, either as given by the tag-order style or as set by
default; these matches would otherwise not be available. Successive
invocations of the command cycle through all possible sets of tags.
- _read_comp (^X^R)
- Prompt the user for a string, and use that to perform completion on the
current word. There are two possibilities for the string. First, it can be
a set of words beginning ` _', for example `_files -/', in
which case the function with any arguments will be called to generate the
completions. Unambiguous parts of the function name will be completed
automatically (normal completion is not available at this point) until a
space is typed.
Second, any other string will be passed as a set of arguments to
compadd
and should hence be an expression specifying what should be completed.
A very restricted set of editing commands is available when reading the string:
`
DEL' and `
^H' delete the last character; `
^U' deletes
the line, and `
^C' and `
^G' abort the function, while
`
RET' accepts the completion. Note the string is used verbatim as a
command line, so arguments must be quoted in accordance with standard shell
rules.
Once a string has been read, the next call to
_read_comp will use the
existing string instead of reading a new one. To force a new string to be
read, call
_read_comp with a numeric argument.
- _complete_debug (^X?)
- This widget performs ordinary completion, but captures in a temporary file
a trace of the shell commands executed by the completion system. Each
completion attempt gets its own file. A command to view each of these
files is pushed onto the editor buffer stack.
- _complete_help (^Xh)
- This widget displays information about the context names, the tags, and
the completion functions used when completing at the current cursor
position. If given a numeric argument other than 1 (as in `ESC-2
^Xh'), then the styles used and the contexts for which they are used
will be shown, too.
Note that the information about styles may be incomplete; it depends on the
information available from the completion functions called, which in turn is
determined by the user's own styles and other settings.
- _complete_help_generic
- Unlike other commands listed here, this must be created as a normal ZLE
widget rather than a completion widget (i.e. with zle -N). It is
used for generating help with a widget bound to the _generic widget
that is described above.
If this widget is created using the name of the function, as it is by default,
then when executed it will read a key sequence. This is expected to be bound
to a call to a completion function that uses the
_generic widget. That
widget will be executed, and information provided in the same format that the
_complete_help widget displays for contextual completion.
If the widget's name contains
debug, for example if it is created as `
zle -N _complete_debug_generic _complete_help_generic', it will read
and execute the keystring for a generic widget as before, but then generate
debugging information as done by
_complete_debug for contextual
completion.
If the widget's name contains
noread, it will not read a keystring but
instead arrange that the next use of a generic widget run in the same shell
will have the effect as described above.
The widget works by setting the shell parameter
ZSH_TRACE_GENERIC_WIDGET
which is read by
_generic. Unsetting the parameter cancels any pending
effect of the
noread form.
For example, after executing the following:
zle -N _complete_debug_generic _complete_help_generic
bindkey '^x:' _complete_debug_generic
typing `
C-x :' followed by the key sequence for a generic widget will
cause trace output for that widget to be saved to a file.
- _complete_tag (^Xt)
- This widget completes symbol tags created by the etags or
ctags programmes (note there is no connection with the completion
system's tags) stored in a file TAGS, in the format used by
etags, or tags, in the format created by ctags. It
will look back up the path hierarchy for the first occurrence of either
file; if both exist, the file TAGS is preferred. You can specify
the full path to a TAGS or tags file by setting the
parameter $TAGSFILE or $tagsfile respectively. The
corresponding completion tags used are etags and vtags,
after emacs and vi respectively.
Descriptions follow for utility functions that may be useful when writing
completion functions. If functions are installed in subdirectories, most of
these reside in the
Base subdirectory. Like the example functions for
commands in the distribution, the utility functions generating matches all
follow the convention of returning status zero if they generated completions
and non-zero if no matching completions could be added.
- _absolute_command_paths
- This function completes external commands as absolute paths (unlike
_command_names -e which completes their basenames). It takes no
arguments.
- _all_labels [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag name
descr [ command arg ... ]
- This is a convenient interface to the _next_label function below,
implementing the loop shown in the _next_label example. The
command and its arguments are called to generate the matches. The
options stored in the parameter name will automatically be inserted
into the args passed to the command. Normally, they are put
directly after the command, but if one of the args is a
single hyphen, they are inserted directly before that. If the hyphen is
the last argument, it will be removed from the argument list before the
command is called. This allows _all_labels to be used in
almost all cases where the matches can be generated by a single call to
the compadd builtin command or by a call to one of the utility
functions.
For example:
local expl
...
if _requested foo; then
...
_all_labels foo expl '...' compadd ... - $matches
fi
Will complete the strings from the
matches parameter, using
compadd with additional options which will take precedence over those
generated by
_all_labels.
- _alternative [ -O name ] [ -C name ]
spec ...
- This function is useful in simple cases where multiple tags are available.
Essentially it implements a loop like the one described for the
_tags function below.
The tags to use and the action to perform if a tag is requested are described
using the
specs which are of the form: `
tag:descr:action'. The
tags are
offered using
_tags and if the tag is requested, the
action is
executed with the given description
descr. The
actions are those
accepted by the
_arguments function (described below), excluding the `
->state' and `
=...' forms.
For example, the
action may be a simple function call:
_alternative \
'users:user:_users' \
'hosts:host:_hosts'
offers usernames and hostnames as possible matches, generated by the
_users and
_hosts functions respectively.
Like
_arguments, this function uses
_all_labels to execute the
actions, which will loop over all sets of tags. Special handling is only
required if there is an additional valid tag, for example inside a function
called from
_alternative.
The option `
-O name' is used in the same way as by the
_arguments function. In other words, the elements of the
name
array will be passed to
compadd when executing an action.
Like
_tags this function supports the
-C option to give a
different name for the argument context field.
- _arguments [ -nswWCRS ] [ -A pat ] [ -O
name ] [ -M matchspec ]
- [ : ] spec ...
- _arguments [ opt ... ] -- [ -l ] [
-i pats ] [ -s pair ]
- [ helpspec ...]
- This function can be used to give a complete specification for completion
for a command whose arguments follow standard UNIX option and argument
conventions.
Options Overview
Options to
_arguments itself must be in separate words, i.e.
-s
-w, not
-sw. The options are followed by
specs that describe
options and arguments of the analyzed command. To avoid ambiguity, all options
to
_arguments itself may be separated from the
spec forms by a
single colon.
The `
--' form is used to intuit
spec forms from the help
output of the command being analyzed, and is described in detail below. The
opts for the `
--' form are otherwise the same options as
the first form. Note that `
-s' following `
--' has a
distinct meaning from `
-s' preceding `
--', and both may
appear.
The option switches
-s,
-S,
-A,
-w, and
-W
affect how
_arguments parses the analyzed command line's options. These
switches are useful for commands with standard argument parsing.
The options of
_arguments have the following meanings:
- -n
- With this option, _arguments sets the parameter NORMARG to
the position of the first normal argument in the $words array, i.e.
the position after the end of the options. If that argument has not been
reached, NORMARG is set to -1. The caller should declare `
integer NORMARG' if the -n option is passed; otherwise the
parameter is not used.
- -s
- Enable option stacking for single-letter options, whereby multiple
single-letter options may be combined into a single word. For example, the
two options ` -x' and `-y' may be combined into a single
word ` -xy'. By default, every word corresponds to a single option
name (` -xy' is a single option named `xy').
Options beginning with a single hyphen or plus sign are eligible for stacking;
words beginning with two hyphens are not.
Note that
-s after
-- has a different meaning, which is
documented in the segment entitled `Deriving
spec forms from the help
output'.
- -w
- In combination with -s, allow option stacking even if one or more
of the options take arguments. For example, if -x takes an
argument, with no -s, `-xy' is considered as a single
(unhandled) option; with -s, -xy is an option with the
argument ` y'; with both -s and -w, -xy is the
option -x and the option -y with arguments to -x (and
to -y, if it takes arguments) still to come in subsequent
words.
- -W
- This option takes -w a stage further: it is possible to complete
single-letter options even after an argument that occurs in the same word.
However, it depends on the action performed whether options will really be
completed at this point. For more control, use a utility function like
_guard as part of the action.
- -C
- Modify the curcontext parameter for an action of the form
`-> state'. This is discussed in detail below.
- -R
- Return status 300 instead of zero when a $state is to be handled,
in the ` ->string' syntax.
- -S
- Do not complete options after a `--' appearing on the line,
and ignore the ` --'. For example, with -S, in the
line
the `
-x' is considered an option, the `
-y' is considered an
argument, and the `
--' is considered to be neither.
- -A pat
- Do not complete options after the first non-option argument on the line.
pat is a pattern matching all strings which are not to be taken as
arguments. For example, to make _arguments stop completing options
after the first normal argument, but ignoring all strings starting with a
hyphen even if they are not described by one of the optspecs, the
form is ` -A "-*"'.
- -O name
- Pass the elements of the array name as arguments to functions
called to execute actions. This is discussed in detail below.
- -M matchspec
- Use the match specification matchspec for completing option names
and values. The default matchspec allows partial word completion
after ` _' and ` -', such as completing `-f-b' to
`-foo-bar'. The default matchspec is:
specs: overview
Each of the following forms is a
spec describing individual sets of
options or arguments on the command line being analyzed.
- n:message:act