zshcontrib - user contributions to zsh
The Zsh source distribution includes a number of items contributed by the user
community. These are not inherently a part of the shell, and some may not be
available in every zsh installation. The most significant of these are
documented here. For documentation on other contributed items such as shell
functions, look for comments in the function source files.
The key sequence
ESC h is normally bound by ZLE to execute the
run-help widget (see
zshzle(1)). This invokes the
run-help command with the command word from the current input line as
its argument. By default,
run-help is an alias for the
man
command, so this often fails when the command word is a shell builtin or a
user-defined function. By redefining the
run-help alias, one can
improve the on-line help provided by the shell.
The
helpfiles utility, found in the
Util directory of the
distribution, is a Perl program that can be used to process the zsh manual to
produce a separate help file for each shell builtin and for many other shell
features as well. The autoloadable
run-help function, found in
Functions/Misc, searches for these helpfiles and performs several other
tests to produce the most complete help possible for the command.
Help files are installed by default to a subdirectory of
/usr/share/zsh
or
/usr/local/share/zsh.
To create your own help files with
helpfiles, choose or create a
directory where the individual command help files will reside. For example,
you might choose
~/zsh_help. If you unpacked the zsh distribution in
your home directory, you would use the commands:
mkdir ~/zsh_help
perl ~/zsh-5.6.2/Util/helpfiles ~/zsh_help
The
HELPDIR parameter tells
run-help where to look for the help
files. When unset, it uses the default installation path. To use your own set
of help files, set this to the appropriate path in one of your startup files:
To use the
run-help function, you need to add lines something like the
following to your
.zshrc or equivalent startup file:
unalias run-help
autoload run-help
Note that in order for `
autoload run-help' to work, the
run-help
file must be in one of the directories named in your
fpath array (see
zshparam(1)). This should already be the case if you have a standard
zsh installation; if it is not, copy
Functions/Misc/run-help to an
appropriate directory.
If you frequently edit your zsh functions, or periodically update your zsh
installation to track the latest developments, you may find that function
digests compiled with the
zcompile builtin are frequently out of date
with respect to the function source files. This is not usually a problem,
because zsh always looks for the newest file when loading a function, but it
may cause slower shell startup and function loading. Also, if a digest file is
explicitly used as an element of
fpath, zsh won't check whether any of
its source files has changed.
The
zrecompile autoloadable function, found in
Functions/Misc, can
be used to keep function digests up to date.
- zrecompile [ -qt ] [ name ... ]
- zrecompile [ -qt ] -p arg ... [
-- arg ... ]
- This tries to find *.zwc files and automatically re-compile them if
at least one of the original files is newer than the compiled file. This
works only if the names stored in the compiled files are full paths or are
relative to the directory that contains the .zwc file.
In the first form, each
name is the name of a compiled file or a
directory containing
*.zwc files that should be checked. If no
arguments are given, the directories and
*.zwc files in
fpath
are used.
When
-t is given, no compilation is performed, but a return status of
zero (true) is set if there are files that need to be re-compiled and non-zero
(false) otherwise. The
-q option quiets the chatty output that
describes what
zrecompile is doing.
Without the
-t option, the return status is zero if all files that needed
re-compilation could be compiled and non-zero if compilation for at least one
of the files failed.
If the
-p option is given, the
args are interpreted as one or more
sets of arguments for
zcompile, separated by `
--'. For
example:
zrecompile -p \
-R ~/.zshrc -- \
-M ~/.zcompdump -- \
~/zsh/comp.zwc ~/zsh/Completion/*/_*
This compiles
~/.zshrc into
~/.zshrc.zwc if that doesn't exist or
if it is older than
~/.zshrc. The compiled file will be marked for
reading instead of mapping. The same is done for
~/.zcompdump and
~/.zcompdump.zwc, but this compiled file is marked for mapping. The
last line re-creates the file
~/zsh/comp.zwc if any of the files
matching the given pattern is newer than it.
Without the
-p option,
zrecompile does not create function digests
that do not already exist, nor does it add new functions to the digest.
The following shell loop is an example of a method for creating function digests
for all functions in your
fpath, assuming that you have write
permission to the directories:
for ((i=1; i <= $#fpath; ++i)); do
dir=$fpath[i]
zwc=${dir:t}.zwc
if [[ $dir == (.|..) || $dir == (.|..)/* ]]; then
continue
fi
files=($dir/*(N-.))
if [[ -w $dir:h && -n $files ]]; then
files=(${${(M)files%/*/*}#/})
if ( cd $dir:h &&
zrecompile -p -U -z $zwc $files ); then
fpath[i]=$fpath[i].zwc
fi
fi
done
The
-U and
-z options are appropriate for functions in the default
zsh installation
fpath; you may need to use different options for your
personal function directories.
Once the digests have been created and your
fpath modified to refer to
them, you can keep them up to date by running
zrecompile with no
arguments.
The large number of possible combinations of keyboards, workstations, terminals,
emulators, and window systems makes it impossible for zsh to have built-in key
bindings for every situation. The
zkbd utility, found in
Functions/Misc, can help you quickly create key bindings for your
configuration.
Run
zkbd either as an autoloaded function, or as a shell script:
zsh -f ~/zsh-5.6.2/Functions/Misc/zkbd
When you run
zkbd, it first asks you to enter your terminal type; if the
default it offers is correct, just press return. It then asks you to press a
number of different keys to determine characteristics of your keyboard and
terminal;
zkbd warns you if it finds anything out of the ordinary, such
as a Delete key that sends neither
^H nor
^?.
The keystrokes read by
zkbd are recorded as a definition for an
associative array named
key, written to a file in the subdirectory
.zkbd within either your
HOME or
ZDOTDIR directory. The
name of the file is composed from the
TERM,
VENDOR and
OSTYPE parameters, joined by hyphens.
You may read this file into your
.zshrc or another startup file with the
`
source' or `
.' commands, then reference the
key
parameter in bindkey commands, like this:
source ${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zkbd/$TERM-$VENDOR-$OSTYPE
[[ -n ${key[Left]} ]] && bindkey "${key[Left]}" backward-char
[[ -n ${key[Right]} ]] && bindkey "${key[Right]}" forward-char
# etc.
Note that in order for `
autoload zkbd' to work, the
zkdb file
must be in one of the directories named in your
fpath array (see
zshparam(1)). This should already be the case if you have a standard
zsh installation; if it is not, copy
Functions/Misc/zkbd to an
appropriate directory.
Occasionally you may encounter what appears to be a bug in the shell,
particularly if you are using a beta version of zsh or a development release.
Usually it is sufficient to send a description of the problem to one of the
zsh mailing lists (see
zsh(1)), but sometimes one of the zsh developers
will need to recreate your environment in order to track the problem down.
The script named
reporter, found in the
Util directory of the
distribution, is provided for this purpose. (It is also possible to
autoload reporter, but
reporter is not installed in
fpath
by default.) This script outputs a detailed dump of the shell state, in the
form of another script that can be read with `
zsh -f' to recreate that
state.
To use
reporter, read the script into your shell with the `
.'
command and redirect the output into a file:
. ~/zsh-5.6.2/Util/reporter > zsh.report
You should check the
zsh.report file for any sensitive information such
as passwords and delete them by hand before sending the script to the
developers. Also, as the output can be voluminous, it's best to wait for the
developers to ask for this information before sending it.
You can also use
reporter to dump only a subset of the shell state. This
is sometimes useful for creating startup files for the first time. Most of the
output from reporter is far more detailed than usually is necessary for a
startup file, but the
aliases,
options, and
zstyles
states may be useful because they include only changes from the defaults. The
bindings state may be useful if you have created any of your own
keymaps, because
reporter arranges to dump the keymap creation commands
as well as the bindings for every keymap.
As is usual with automated tools, if you create a startup file with
reporter, you should edit the results to remove unnecessary commands.
Note that if you're using the new completion system, you should
not
dump the
functions state to your startup files with
reporter;
use the
compdump function instead (see
zshcompsys(1)).
- reporter [ state ... ]
- Print to standard output the indicated subset of the current shell state.
The state arguments may be one or more of:
- all
- Output everything listed below.
- aliases
- Output alias definitions.
- bindings
- Output ZLE key maps and bindings.
- completion
- Output old-style compctl commands. New completion is covered by
functions and zstyles.
- functions
- Output autoloads and function definitions.
- limits
- Output limit commands.
- options
- Output setopt commands.
- styles
- Same as zstyles.
- variables
- Output shell parameter assignments, plus export commands for any
environment variables.
- zstyles
- Output zstyle commands.
If the
state is omitted,
all is assumed.
With the exception of `
all', every
state can be abbreviated by
any prefix, even a single letter; thus
a is the same as
aliases,
z is the same as
zstyles, etc.
- add-zsh-hook [ -L | -dD ] [ -Uzk ] hook
function
- Several functions are special to the shell, as described in the section
SPECIAL FUNCTIONS, see zshmisc(1), in that they are automatically
called at specific points during shell execution. Each has an associated
array consisting of names of functions to be called at the same point;
these are so-called `hook functions'. The shell function
add-zsh-hook provides a simple way of adding or removing functions
from the array.
hook is one of
chpwd,
periodic,
precmd,
preexec,
zshaddhistory,
zshexit, or
zsh_directory_name, the special functions in question. Note that
zsh_directory_name is called in a different way from the other
functions, but may still be manipulated as a hook.
function is name of an ordinary shell function. If no options are given
this will be added to the array of functions to be executed in the given
context. Functions are invoked in the order they were added.
If the option
-L is given, the current values for the hook arrays are
listed with
typeset.
If the option
-d is given, the
function is removed from the array
of functions to be executed.
If the option
-D is given, the
function is treated as a pattern
and any matching names of functions are removed from the array of functions to
be executed.
The options
-U,
-z and
-k are passed as arguments to
autoload for
function. For functions contributed with zsh, the
options
-Uz are appropriate.
- add-zle-hook-widget [ -L | -dD ] [ -Uzk ]
hook widgetname
- Several widget names are special to the line editor, as described in the
section Special Widgets, see zshzle(1), in that they are
automatically called at specific points during editing. Unlike function
hooks, these do not use a predefined array of other names to call at the
same point; the shell function add-zle-hook-widget maintains a
similar array and arranges for the special widget to invoke those
additional widgets.
hook is one of
isearch-exit,
isearch-update,
line-pre-redraw,
line-init,
line-finish,
history-line-set, or
keymap-select, corresponding to each of the
special widgets
zle-isearch-exit, etc. The special widget names are
also accepted as the
hook argument.
widgetname is the name of a ZLE widget. If no options are given this is
added to the array of widgets to be invoked in the given hook context. Widgets
are invoked in the order they were added, with
zle widgetname -Nw -- "$@"
Note that this means that the `
WIDGET' special parameter tracks the
widgetname when the widget function is called, rather than tracking the
name of the corresponding special hook widget.
If the option
-d is given, the
widgetname is removed from the
array of widgets to be executed.
If the option
-D is given, the
widgetname is treated as a pattern
and any matching names of widgets are removed from the array.
If
widgetname does not name an existing widget when added to the array,
it is assumed that a shell function also named
widgetname is meant to
provide the implementation of the widget. This name is therefore marked for
autoloading, and the options
-U,
-z and
-k are passed as
arguments to
autoload as with
add-zsh-hook. The widget is also
created with `
zle -N widgetname' to cause the corresponding
function to be loaded the first time the hook is called.
The arrays of
widgetname are currently maintained in
zstyle
contexts, one for each
hook context, with a style of `
widgets'.
If the
-L option is given, this set of styles is listed with `
zstyle -L'. This implementation may change, and the special widgets
that refer to the styles are created only if
add-zle-hook-widget is
called to add at least one widget, so if this function is used for any hooks,
then all hooks should be managed only via this function.
The function
cdr allows you to change the working directory to a previous
working directory from a list maintained automatically. It is similar in
concept to the directory stack controlled by the
pushd,
popd and
dirs builtins, but is more configurable, and as it stores all entries
in files it is maintained across sessions and (by default) between terminal
emulators in the current session. Duplicates are automatically removed, so
that the list reflects the single most recent use of each directory.
Note that the
pushd directory stack is not actually modified or used by
cdr unless you configure it to do so as described in the configuration
section below.
The system works by means of a hook function that is called every time the
directory changes. To install the system, autoload the required functions and
use the
add-zsh-hook function described above:
autoload -Uz chpwd_recent_dirs cdr add-zsh-hook
add-zsh-hook chpwd chpwd_recent_dirs
Now every time you change directly interactively, no matter which command you
use, the directory to which you change will be remembered in most-recent-first
order.
All direct user interaction is via the
cdr function.
The argument to cdr is a number
N corresponding to the
Nth most
recently changed-to directory. 1 is the immediately preceding directory; the
current directory is remembered but is not offered as a destination. Note that
if you have multiple windows open 1 may refer to a directory changed to in
another window; you can avoid this by having per-terminal files for storing
directory as described for the
recent-dirs-file style below.
If you set the
recent-dirs-default style described below
cdr will
behave the same as
cd if given a non-numeric argument, or more than one
argument. The recent directory list is updated just the same however you
change directory.
If the argument is omitted, 1 is assumed. This is similar to
pushd's
behaviour of swapping the two most recent directories on the stack.
Completion for the argument to
cdr is available if compinit has been run;
menu selection is recommended, using:
zstyle ':completion:*:*:cdr:*:*' menu selection
to allow you to cycle through recent directories; the order is preserved, so the
first choice is the most recent directory before the current one. The verbose
style is also recommended to ensure the directory is shown; this style is on
by default so no action is required unless you have changed it.
The behaviour of
cdr may be modified by the following options.
- -l
- lists the numbers and the corresponding directories in abbreviated form
(i.e. with ~ substitution reapplied), one per line. The directories
here are not quoted (this would only be an issue if a directory name
contained a newline). This is used by the completion system.
- -r
- sets the variable reply to the current set of directories. Nothing
is printed and the directory is not changed.
- -e
- allows you to edit the list of directories, one per line. The list can be
edited to any extent you like; no sanity checking is performed. Completion
is available. No quoting is necessary (except for newlines, where I have
in any case no sympathy); directories are in unabbreviated from and
contain an absolute path, i.e. they start with /. Usually the first
entry should be left as the current directory.
- -p 'pattern'
- Prunes any items in the directory list that match the given extended glob
pattern; the pattern needs to be quoted from immediate expansion on the
command line. The pattern is matched against each completely expanded file
name in the list; the full string must match, so wildcards at the end
(e.g. '*removeme*') are needed to remove entries with a given
substring.
If output is to a terminal, then the function will print the new list after
pruning and prompt for confirmation by the user. This output and confirmation
step can be skipped by using
-P instead of
-p.
Configuration is by means of the styles mechanism that should be familiar from
completion; if not, see the description of the
zstyle command in see
zshmodules(1). The context for setting styles should be
':chpwd:*' in case the meaning of the context is extended in future,
for example:
zstyle ':chpwd:*' recent-dirs-max 0
sets the value of the
recent-dirs-max style to 0. In practice the style
name is specific enough that a context of '*' should be fine.
An exception is
recent-dirs-insert, which is used exclusively by the
completion system and so has the usual completion system context (
':completion:*' if nothing more specific is needed), though again
'*' should be fine in practice.
- recent-dirs-default
- If true, and the command is expecting a recent directory index, and either
there is more than one argument or the argument is not an integer, then
fall through to "cd". This allows the lazy to use only one
command for directory changing. Completion recognises this, too; see
recent-dirs-insert for how to control completion when this option is in
use.
- recent-dirs-file
- The file where the list of directories is saved. The default is
${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.chpwd-recent-dirs, i.e. this is in your home
directory unless you have set the variable ZDOTDIR to point
somewhere else. Directory names are saved in $'...'
quoted form, so each line in the file can be supplied directly to the
shell as an argument.
The value of this style may be an array. In this case, the first file in the
list will always be used for saving directories while any other files are left
untouched. When reading the recent directory list, if there are fewer than the
maximum number of entries in the first file, the contents of later files in
the array will be appended with duplicates removed from the list shown. The
contents of the two files are not sorted together, i.e. all the entries in the
first file are shown first. The special value
+ can appear in the list
to indicate the default file should be read at that point. This allows effects
like the following:
zstyle ':chpwd:*' recent-dirs-file \
~/.chpwd-recent-dirs-${TTY##*/} +
Recent directories are read from a file numbered according to the terminal. If
there are insufficient entries the list is supplemented from the default file.
It is possible to use
zstyle -e to make the directory configurable at run
time:
zstyle -e ':chpwd:*' recent-dirs-file pick-recent-dirs-file
pick-recent-dirs-file() {
if [[ $PWD = ~/text/writing(|/*) ]]; then
reply=(~/.chpwd-recent-dirs-writing)
else
reply=(+)
fi
}
In this example, if the current directory is
~/text/writing or a
directory under it, then use a special file for saving recent directories,
else use the default.
- recent-dirs-insert
- Used by completion. If recent-dirs-default is true, then setting
this to true causes the actual directory, rather than its index, to
be inserted on the command line; this has the same effect as using the
corresponding index, but makes the history clearer and the line easier to
edit. With this setting, if part of an argument was already typed, normal
directory completion rather than recent directory completion is done; this
is because recent directory completion is expected to be done by cycling
through entries menu fashion.
If the value of the style is
always, then only recent directories will be
completed; in that case, use the
cd command when you want to complete
other directories.
If the value is
fallback, recent directories will be tried first, then
normal directory completion is performed if recent directory completion failed
to find a match.
Finally, if the value is
both then both sets of completions are
presented; the usual tag mechanism can be used to distinguish results, with
recent directories tagged as
recent-dirs. Note that the recent
directories inserted are abbreviated with directory names where
appropriate.
- recent-dirs-max
- The maximum number of directories to save to the file. If this is zero or
negative there is no maximum. The default is 20. Note this includes the
current directory, which isn't offered, so the highest number of
directories you will be offered is one less than the maximum.
- recent-dirs-prune
- This style is an array determining what directories should (or should not)
be added to the recent list. Elements of the array can include:
- parent
- Prune parents (more accurately, ancestors) from the recent list. If
present, changing directly down by any number of directories causes the
current directory to be overwritten. For example, changing from ~pws to
~pws/some/other/dir causes ~pws not to be left on the recent directory
stack. This only applies to direct changes to descendant directories;
earlier directories on the list are not pruned. For example, changing from
~pws/yet/another to ~pws/some/other/dir does not cause ~pws to be
pruned.
- pattern:pattern
- Gives a zsh pattern for directories that should not be added to the recent
list (if not already there). This element can be repeated to add different
patterns. For example, 'pattern:/tmp(|/*)' stops /tmp or its
descendants from being added. The EXTENDED_GLOB option is always
turned on for these patterns.
- recent-dirs-pushd
- If set to true, cdr will use pushd instead of cd to
change the directory, so the directory is saved on the directory stack. As
the directory stack is completely separate from the list of files saved by
the mechanism used in this file there is no obvious reason to do
this.
It is possible to refer to recent directories using the dynamic directory name
syntax by using the supplied function
zsh_directory_name_cdr a hook:
autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook
add-zsh-hook -Uz zsh_directory_name zsh_directory_name_cdr
When this is done,
~[1] will refer to the most recent directory other
than $PWD, and so on. Completion after
~[... also works.
This section is for the curious or confused; most users will not need to know
this information.
Recent directories are saved to a file immediately and hence are preserved
across sessions. Note currently no file locking is applied: the list is
updated immediately on interactive commands and nowhere else (unlike history),
and it is assumed you are only going to change directory in one window at
once. This is not safe on shared accounts, but in any case the system has
limited utility when someone else is changing to a different set of
directories behind your back.
To make this a little safer, only directory changes instituted from the command
line, either directly or indirectly through shell function calls (but not
through subshells, evals, traps, completion functions and the like) are saved.
Shell functions should use
cd -q or
pushd -q to avoid side
effects if the change to the directory is to be invisible at the command line.
See the contents of the function
chpwd_recent_dirs for more details.
The dynamic directory naming system is described in the subsection
Dynamic
named directories of the section
Filename Expansion in
expn(1). In this, a reference to
~[...] is
expanded by a function found by the hooks mechanism.
The contributed function
zsh_directory_name_generic provides a system
allowing the user to refer to directories with only a limited amount of new
code. It supports all three of the standard interfaces for directory naming:
converting from a name to a directory, converting in the reverse direction to
find a short name, and completion of names.
The main feature of this function is a path-like syntax, combining abbreviations
at multiple levels separated by ":". As an example, ~[g:p:s] might
specify:
- g
- The top level directory for your git area. This first component has to
match, or the function will retrun indicating another directory name hook
function should be tried.
- p
- The name of a project within your git area.
- s
- The source area within that project. This allows you to collapse
references to long hierarchies to a very compact form, particularly if the
hierarchies are similar across different areas of the disk.
Name components may be completed: if a description is shown at the top of the
list of completions, it includes the path to which previous components expand,
while the description for an individual completion shows the path segment it
would add. No additional configuration is needed for this as the completion
system is aware of the dynamic directory name mechanism.
To use the function, first define a wrapper function for your specific case.
We'll assume it's to be autoloaded. This can have any name but we'll refer to
it as zdn_mywrapper. This wrapper function will define various variables and
then call this function with the same arguments that the wrapper function
gets. This configuration is described below.
Then arrange for the wrapper to be run as a zsh_directory_name hook:
autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook zsh_diretory_name_generic zdn_mywrapper
add-zsh-hook -U zsh_directory_name zdn_mywrapper
The wrapper function should define a local associative array zdn_top.
Alternatively, this can be set with a style called
mapping. The context
for the style is
:zdn:wrapper-name where
wrapper-name is
the function calling zsh_directory_name_generic; for example:
zstyle :zdn:zdn_mywrapper: mapping zdn_mywrapper_top
The keys in this associative array correspond to the first component of the
name. The values are matching directories. They may have an optional suffix
with a slash followed by a colon and the name of a variable in the same format
to give the next component. (The slash before the colon is to disambiguate the
case where a colon is needed in the path for a drive. There is otherwise no
syntax for escaping this, so path components whose names start with a colon
are not supported.) A special component
:default: specifies a variable
in the form
/:var (the path section is ignored and so is usually
empty) that will be used for the next component if no variable is given for
the path. Variables referred to within
zdn_top have the same format as
zdn_top itself, but contain relative paths.
For example,
local -A zdn_top=(
g ~/git
ga ~/alternate/git
gs /scratch/$USER/git/:second2
:default: /:second1
)
This specifies the behaviour of a directory referred to as
~[g:...] or
~[ga:...] or
~[gs:...]. Later path components are optional; in
that case
~[g] expands to
~/git, and so on.
gs expands to
/scratch/$USER/git and uses the associative array
second2 to
match the second component;
g and
ga use the associative array
second1 to match the second component.
When expanding a name to a directory, if the first component is not
g or
ga or
gs, it is not an error; the function simply returns 1 so
that a later hook function can be tried. However, matching the first component
commits the function, so if a later component does not match, an error is
printed (though this still does not stop later hooks from being executed).
For components after the first, a relative path is expected, but note that
multiple levels may still appear. Here is an example of
second1:
local -A second1=(
p myproject
s somproject
os otherproject/subproject/:third
)
The path as found from
zdn_top is extended with the matching directory,
so
~[g:p] becomes
~/git/myproject. The slash between is added
automatically (it's not possible to have a later component modify the name of
a directory already matched). Only
os specifies a variable for a third
component, and there's no
:default:, so it's an error to use a name
like
~[g:p:x] or
~[ga:s:y] because there's nowhere to look up
the
x or
y.
The associative arrays need to be visible within this function; the generic
function therefore uses internal variable names beginning
_zdn_ in
order to avoid clashes. Note that the variable
reply needs to be passed
back to the shell, so should not be local in the calling function.
The function does not test whether directories assembled by component actually
exist; this allows the system to work across automounted file systems. The
error from the command trying to use a non-existent directory should be
sufficient to indicate the problem.
Here is a full fictitious but usable autoloadable definition of the example
function defined by the code above. So
~[gs:p:s] expands to
/scratch/$USER/git/myscratchproject/top/srcdir (with
$USER also
expanded).
local -A zdn_top=(
g ~/git
ga ~/alternate/git
gs /scratch/$USER/git/:second2
:default: /:second1
)
local -A second1=(
p myproject
s somproject
os otherproject/subproject/:third
)
local -A second2=(
p myscratchproject
s somescratchproject
)
local -A third=(
s top/srcdir
d top/documentation
)
# autoload not needed if you did this at initialisation...
autoload -Uz zsh_directory_name_generic
zsh_directory_name_generic "$@
It is also possible to use global associative arrays, suitably named, and set
the style for the context of your wrapper function to refer to this. Then your
set up code would contain the following:
typeset -A zdn_mywrapper_top=(...)
# ... and so on for other associative arrays ...
zstyle ':zdn:zdn_mywrapper:' mapping zdn_mywrapper_top
autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook zsh_directory_name_generic zdn_mywrapper
add-zsh-hook -U zsh_directory_name zdn_mywrapper
and the function
zdn_mywrapper would contain only the following:
zsh_directory_name_generic "$@"
In a lot of cases, it is nice to automatically retrieve information from version
control systems (VCSs), such as subversion, CVS or git, to be able to provide
it to the user; possibly in the user's prompt. So that you can instantly tell
which branch you are currently on, for example.
In order to do that, you may use the
vcs_info function.
The following VCSs are supported, showing the abbreviated name by which they are
referred to within the system:
- Bazaar (bzr)
- https://bazaar.canonical.com/
- Codeville (cdv)
- http://freecode.com/projects/codeville/
- Concurrent Versioning System (cvs)
- https://www.nongnu.org/cvs/
- Darcs (darcs)
- http://darcs.net/
- Fossil (fossil)
- https://fossil-scm.org/
- Git (git)
- https://git-scm.com/
- GNU arch (tla)
- https://www.gnu.org/software/gnu-arch/
- Mercurial (hg)
- https://www.mercurial-scm.org/
- Monotone (mtn)
- https://monotone.ca/
- Perforce (p4)
- https://www.perforce.com/
- Subversion (svn)
- https://subversion.apache.org/
- SVK (svk)
- https://svk.bestpractical.com/
There is also support for the patch management system
quilt (
https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/quilt). See
Quilt Support
below for details.
To load
vcs_info:
It can be used in any existing prompt, because it does not require any specific
$psvar entries to be available.
To get this feature working quickly (including colors), you can do the following
(assuming, you loaded
vcs_info properly - see above):
zstyle ':vcs_info:*' actionformats \
'%F{5}(%f%s%F{5})%F{3}-%F{5}[%F{2}%b%F{3}|%F{1}%a%F{5}]%f '
zstyle ':vcs_info:*' formats \
'%F{5}(%f%s%F{5})%F{3}-%F{5}[%F{2}%b%F{5}]%f '
zstyle ':vcs_info:(sv[nk]|bzr):*' branchformat '%b%F{1}:%F{3}%r'
precmd () { vcs_info }
PS1='%F{5}[%F{2}%n%F{5}] %F{3}%3~ ${vcs_info_msg_0_}%f%# '
Obviously, the last two lines are there for demonstration. You need to call
vcs_info from your
precmd function. Once that is done you need a
single quoted '${vcs_info_msg_0_}' in your prompt.
To be able to use
'${vcs_info_msg_0_}' directly in your prompt like this,
you will need to have the
PROMPT_SUBST option enabled.
Now call the
vcs_info_printsys utility from the command line:
% vcs_info_printsys
## list of supported version control backends:
## disabled systems are prefixed by a hash sign (#)
bzr
cdv
cvs
darcs
fossil
git
hg
mtn
p4
svk
svn
tla
## flavours (cannot be used in the enable or disable styles; they
## are enabled and disabled with their master [git-svn -> git])
## they *can* be used in contexts: ':vcs_info:git-svn:*'.
git-p4
git-svn
hg-git
hg-hgsubversion
hg-hgsvn
You may not want all of these because there is no point in running the code to
detect systems you do not use. So there is a way to disable some backends
altogether:
zstyle ':vcs_info:*' disable bzr cdv darcs mtn svk tla
You may also pick a few from that list and enable only those:
zstyle ':vcs_info:*' enable git cvs svn
If you rerun
vcs_info_printsys after one of these commands, you will see
the backends listed in the
disable style (or backends not in the
enable style - if you used that) marked as disabled by a hash sign.
That means the detection of these systems is skipped
completely. No
wasted time there.
The
vcs_info feature can be configured via
zstyle.
First, the context in which we are working:
:vcs_info:vcs-string:user-context:repo-root-name
- vcs-string
- is one of: git, git-svn, git-p4, hg,
hg-git, hg-hgsubversion, hg-hgsvn, darcs,
bzr, cdv, mtn, svn, cvs, svk,
tla, p4 or fossil. This is followed by `
.quilt- quilt-mode' in Quilt mode (see Quilt Support
for details) and by ` +hook-name' while hooks are active
(see Hooks in vcs_info for details).
Currently, hooks in quilt mode don't add the `
.quilt-quilt-mode'
information. This may change in the future.
- user-context
- is a freely configurable string, assignable by the user as the first
argument to vcs_info (see its description below).
- repo-root-name
- is the name of a repository in which you want a style to match. So, if you
want a setting specific to /usr/src/zsh, with that being a CVS
checkout, you can set repo-root-name to zsh to make it
so.
There are three special values for
vcs-string: The first is named
-init-, that is in effect as long as there was no decision what VCS
backend to use. The second is
-preinit-; it is used
before
vcs_info is run, when initializing the data exporting variables. The
third special value is
formats and is used by the
vcs_info_lastmsg for looking up its styles.
The initial value of
repo-root-name is
-all- and it is replaced
with the actual name, as soon as it is known. Only use this part of the
context for defining the
formats,
actionformats or
branchformat styles, as it is guaranteed that
repo-root-name is
set up correctly for these only. For all other styles, just use
'*'
instead.
There are two pre-defined values for
user-context:
- default
- the one used if none is specified
- command
- used by vcs_info_lastmsg to lookup its styles
You can of course use
':vcs_info:*' to match all VCSs in all
user-contexts at once.
This is a description of all styles that are looked up.
- formats
- A list of formats, used when actionformats is not used (which is most of
the time).
- actionformats
- A list of formats, used if there is a special action going on in your
current repository; like an interactive rebase or a merge conflict.
- branchformat
- Some backends replace %b in the formats and actionformats styles
above, not only by a branch name but also by a revision number. This style
lets you modify how that string should look.
- nvcsformats
- These "formats" are set when we didn't detect a version control
system for the current directory or vcs_info was disabled. This is
useful if you want vcs_info to completely take over the generation
of your prompt. You would do something like
PS1='${vcs_info_msg_0_}' to accomplish that.
- hgrevformat
- hg uses both a hash and a revision number to reference a specific
changeset in a repository. With this style you can format the revision
string (see branchformat) to include either or both. It's only
useful when get-revision is true. Note, the full 40-character
revision id is not available (except when using the use-simple
option) because executing hg more than once per prompt is too slow; you
may customize this behavior using hooks.
- max-exports
- Defines the maximum number of vcs_info_msg_*_ variables
vcs_info will set.
- enable
- A list of backends you want to use. Checked in the -init- context.
If this list contains an item called NONE no backend is used at all
and vcs_info will do nothing. If this list contains ALL,
vcs_info will use all known backends. Only with ALL in
enable will the disable style have any effect. ALL
and NONE are case insensitive.
- disable
- A list of VCSs you don't want vcs_info to test for repositories
(checked in the -init- context, too). Only used if enable
contains ALL.
- disable-patterns
- A list of patterns that are checked against $PWD. If a pattern
matches, vcs_info will be disabled. This style is checked in the
:vcs_info:-init-:*:-all- context.
Say,
~/.zsh is a directory under version control, in which you do not
want
vcs_info to be active, do:
zstyle ':vcs_info:*' disable-patterns "${(b)HOME}/.zsh(|/*)"
- use-quilt
- If enabled, the quilt support code is active in `addon' mode. See
Quilt Support for details.
- quilt-standalone
- If enabled, `standalone' mode detection is attempted if no VCS is active
in a given directory. See Quilt Support for details.
- quilt-patch-dir
- Overwrite the value of the $QUILT_PATCHES environment variable. See
Quilt Support for details.
- quiltcommand
- When quilt itself is called in quilt support, the value of this
style is used as the command name.
- check-for-changes
- If enabled, this style causes the %c and %u format escapes
to show when the working directory has uncommitted changes. The strings
displayed by these escapes can be controlled via the stagedstr and
unstagedstr styles. The only backends that currently support this
option are git, hg, and bzr (the latter two only
support unstaged).
For this style to be evaluated with the
hg backend, the
get-revision style needs to be set and the
use-simple style
needs to be unset. The latter is the default; the former is not.
With the
bzr backend,
lightweight checkouts only honor this style
if the
use-server style is set.
Note, the actions taken if this style is enabled are potentially expensive
(read: they may be slow, depending on how big the current repository is).
Therefore, it is disabled by default.
- check-for-staged-changes
- This style is like check-for-changes, but it never checks the
worktree files, only the metadata in the .${vcs} dir. Therefore,
this style initializes only the %c escape (with stagedstr)
but not the %u escape. This style is faster than
check-for-changes.
In the
git backend, this style checks for changes in the index. Other
backends do not currently implement this style.
This style is disabled by default.
- stagedstr
- This string will be used in the %c escape if there are staged
changes in the repository.
- unstagedstr
- This string will be used in the %u escape if there are unstaged
changes in the repository.
- command
- This style causes vcs_info to use the supplied string as the
command to use as the VCS's binary. Note, that setting this in '
:vcs_info:*' is not a good idea.
If the value of this style is empty (which is the default), the used binary name
is the name of the backend in use (e.g.
svn is used in an
svn
repository).
The
repo-root-name part in the context is always the default
-all-
when this style is looked up.
For example, this style can be used to use binaries from non-default
installation directories. Assume,
git is installed in /usr/bin but your
sysadmin installed a newer version in /usr/local/bin. Instead of changing the
order of your
$PATH parameter, you can do this:
zstyle ':vcs_info:git:*:-all-' command /usr/local/bin/git
- use-server
- This is used by the Perforce backend (p4) to decide if it should
contact the Perforce server to find out if a directory is managed by
Perforce. This is the only reliable way of doing this, but runs the risk
of a delay if the server name cannot be found. If the server (more
specifically, the host:port pair describing the
server) cannot be contacted, its name is put into the associative array
vcs_info_p4_dead_servers and is not contacted again during the
session until it is removed by hand. If you do not set this style, the
p4 backend is only usable if you have set the environment variable
P4CONFIG to a file name and have corresponding files in the root
directories of each Perforce client. See comments in the function
VCS_INFO_detect_p4 for more detail.
The Bazaar backend (
bzr) uses this to permit contacting the server about
lightweight checkouts, see the
check-for-changes style.
- use-simple
- If there are two different ways of gathering information, you can select
the simpler one by setting this style to true; the default is to use the
not-that-simple code, which is potentially a lot slower but might be more
accurate in all possible cases. This style is used by the bzr and
hg backends. In the case of hg it will invoke the external
hexdump program to parse the binary dirstate cache file; this method will
not return the local revision number.
- get-revision
- If set to true, vcs_info goes the extra mile to figure out the revision of
a repository's work tree (currently for the git and hg
backends, where this kind of information is not always vital). For
git, the hash value of the currently checked out commit is
available via the %i expansion. With hg, the local revision
number and the corresponding global hash are available via %i.
- get-mq
- If set to true, the hg backend will look for a Mercurial Queue
(mq) patch directory. Information will be available via the `
%m' replacement.
- get-bookmarks
- If set to true, the hg backend will try to get a list of current
bookmarks. They will be available via the ` %m' replacement.
The default is to generate a comma-separated list of all bookmark names that
refer to the currently checked out revision. If a bookmark is active, its name
is suffixed an asterisk and placed first in the list.
- use-prompt-escapes
- Determines if we assume that the assembled string from vcs_info
includes prompt escapes. (Used by vcs_info_lastmsg.)
- debug
- Enable debugging output to track possible problems. Currently this style
is only used by vcs_info's hooks system.
- hooks
- A list style that defines hook-function names. See Hooks in
vcs_info below for details.
- patch-format
- nopatch-format
- This pair of styles format the patch information used by the %m
expando in formats and actionformats for the git and hg
backends. The value is subject to certain %-expansions described
below. The expanded value is made available in the global
backend_misc array as ${backend_misc[patches]} (also if a
set-patch-format hook is used).
- get-unapplied
- This boolean style controls whether a backend should attempt to gather a
list of unapplied patches (for example with Mercurial Queue patches).
Used by the
quilt and
hg backends.
The default values for these styles in all contexts are:
- formats
- " (%s)-[%b]%u%c-"
- actionformats
- " (%s)-[%b|%a]%u%c-"
- branchformat
- "%b:%r" (for bzr, svn, svk and hg)
- nvcsformats
- ""
- hgrevformat
- "%r:%h"
- max-exports
- 2
- enable
- ALL
- disable
- (empty list)
- disable-patterns
- (empty list)
- check-for-changes
- false
- check-for-staged-changes
- false
- stagedstr
- (string: "S")
- unstagedstr
- (string: "U")
- command
- (empty string)
- use-server
- false
- use-simple
- false
- get-revision
- false
- get-mq
- true
- get-bookmarks
- false
- use-prompt-escapes
- true
- debug
- false
- hooks
- (empty list)
- use-quilt
- false
- quilt-standalone
- false
- quilt-patch-dir
- empty - use $QUILT_PATCHES
- quiltcommand
- quilt
- patch-format
- backend dependent
- nopatch-format
- backend dependent
- get-unapplied
- false
In normal
formats and
actionformats the following replacements are
done:
- %s
- The VCS in use (git, hg, svn, etc.).
- %b
- Information about the current branch.
- %a
- An identifier that describes the action. Only makes sense in
actionformats.
- %i
- The current revision number or identifier. For hg the
hgrevformat style may be used to customize the output.
- %c
- The string from the stagedstr style if there are staged changes in
the repository.
- %u
- The string from the unstagedstr style if there are unstaged changes
in the repository.
- %R
- The base directory of the repository.
- %r
- The repository name. If %R is /foo/bar/repoXY, %r is
repoXY.
- %S
- A subdirectory within a repository. If $PWD is
/foo/bar/repoXY/beer/tasty, %S is beer/tasty.
- %m
- A "misc" replacement. It is at the discretion of the backend to
decide what this replacement expands to.
The
hg and
git backends use this expando to display patch
information.
hg sources patch information from the
mq
extensions;
git from in-progress
rebase and
cherry-pick
operations and from the
stgit extension. The
patch-format and
nopatch-format styles control the generated string. The former is used
when at least one patch from the patch queue has been applied, and the latter
otherwise.
The
hg backend displays bookmark information in this expando (in addition
to
mq information). See the
get-mq and
get-bookmarks
styles. Both of these styles may be enabled at the same time. If both are
enabled, both resulting strings will be shown separated by a semicolon (that
cannot currently be customized).
The
quilt `standalone' backend sets this expando to the same value as the
%Q expando.
- %Q
- Quilt series information. When quilt is used (either in `addon' mode or as
a `standalone' backend), this expando is set to quilt series'
patch-format string. The set-patch-format hook and
nopatch-format style are honoured.
See
Quilt Support below for details.
In
branchformat these replacements are done:
- %b
- The branch name.
- %r
- The current revision number or the hgrevformat style for
hg.
In
hgrevformat these replacements are done:
- %r
- The current local revision number.
- %h
- The current global revision identifier.
In
patch-format and
nopatch-format these replacements are done:
- %p
- The name of the top-most applied patch (applied-string).
- %u
- The number of unapplied patches (unapplied-string).
- %n
- The number of applied patches.
- %c
- The number of unapplied patches.
- %a
- The number of all patches.
- %g
- The names of active mq guards (hg backend).
- %G
- The number of active mq guards (hg backend).
Not all VCS backends have to support all replacements. For
nvcsformats no
replacements are performed at all, it is just a string.
If you want to use the
%b (bold off) prompt expansion in
formats,
which expands
%b itself, use
%%b. That will cause the
vcs_info expansion to replace
%%b with
%b, so that zsh's
prompt expansion mechanism can handle it. Similarly, to hand down
%b
from
branchformat, use
%%%%b. Sorry for this inconvenience, but
it cannot be easily avoided. Luckily we do not clash with a lot of prompt
expansions and this only needs to be done for those.
When one of the
gen-applied-string,
gen-unapplied-string, and
set-patch-format hooks is defined, applying
%-escaping
(`
foo=${foo//'%'/%%}') to the interpolated values for use in the prompt
is the responsibility of those hooks (jointly); when neither of those hooks is
defined,
vcs_info handles escaping by itself. We regret this coupling,
but it was required for backwards compatibility.
Quilt is not a version control system, therefore this is not implemented
as a backend. It can help keeping track of a series of patches. People use it
to keep a set of changes they want to use on top of software packages (which
is tightly integrated into the package build process - the Debian project does
this for a large number of packages). Quilt can also help individual
developers keep track of their own patches on top of real version control
systems.
The
vcs_info integration tries to support both ways of using quilt by
having two slightly different modes of operation: `addon' mode and
`standalone' mode).
Quilt integration is off by default; to enable it, set the
use-quilt
style, and add
%Q to your
formats or
actionformats style:
zstyle ':vcs_info:*' use-quilt true
Styles looked up from the Quilt support code include `
.quilt-quilt-mode' in the
vcs-string part of the context,
where
quilt-mode is either
addon or
standalone. Example:
:vcs_info:git.quilt-addon:default:repo-root-name.
For `addon' mode to become active
vcs_info must have already detected a
real version control system controlling the directory. If that is the case, a
directory that holds quilt's patches needs to be found. That directory is
configurable via the `
QUILT_PATCHES' environment variable. If that
variable exists its value is used, otherwise the value `
patches' is
assumed. The value from
$QUILT_PATCHES can be overwritten using the `
quilt-patches' style. (Note: you can use
vcs_info to keep the
value of
$QUILT_PATCHES correct all the time via the
post-quilt
hook).
When the directory in question is found, quilt is assumed to be active. To
gather more information,
vcs_info looks for a directory called `.pc';
Quilt uses that directory to track its current state. If this directory does
not exist we know that quilt has not done anything to the working directory
(read: no patches have been applied yet).
If patches are applied,
vcs_info will try to find out which. If you want
to know which patches of a series are not yet applied, you need to activate
the
get-unapplied style in the appropriate context.
vcs_info allows for very detailed control over how the gathered
information is presented (see the
Configuration and
Hooks in
vcs_info sections), all of which are documented below. Note there are a
number of other patch tracking systems that work on top of a certain version
control system (like
stgit for
git, or
mq for
hg);
the configuration for systems like that are generally configured the same way
as the
quilt support.
If the
quilt support is working in `addon' mode, the produced string is
available as a simple format replacement (
%Q to be precise), which can
be used in
formats and
actionformats; see below for details).
If, on the other hand, the support code is working in `standalone' mode,
vcs_info will pretend as if
quilt were an actual version control
system. That means that the version control system identifier (which otherwise
would be something like `svn' or `cvs') will be set to `
-quilt-'. This
has implications on the used style context where this identifier is the second
element.
vcs_info will have filled in a proper value for the
"repository's" root directory and the string containing the
information about quilt's state will be available as the `misc' replacement
(and
%Q for compatibility with `addon' mode).
What is left to discuss is how `standalone' mode is detected. The detection
itself is a series of searches for directories. You can have this detection
enabled all the time in every directory that is not otherwise under version
control. If you know there is only a limited set of trees where you would like
vcs_info to try and look for Quilt in `standalone' mode to minimise the
amount of searching on every call to
vcs_info, there are a number of
ways to do that:
Essentially, `standalone' mode detection is controlled by a style called `
quilt-standalone'. It is a string style and its value can have
different effects. The simplest values are: `
always' to run detection
every time
vcs_info is run, and `
never' to turn the detection
off entirely.
If the value of
quilt-standalone is something else, it is interpreted
differently. If the value is the name of a scalar variable the value of that
variable is checked and that value is used in the same `always'/`never' way as
described above.
If the value of
quilt-standalone is an array, the elements of that array
are used as directory names under which you want the detection to be active.
If
quilt-standalone is an associative array, the keys are taken as
directory names under which you want the detection to be active, but only if
the corresponding value is the string `
true'.
Last, but not least, if the value of
quilt-standalone is the name of a
function, the function is called without arguments and the return value
decides whether detection should be active. A `0' return value is true; a
non-zero return value is interpreted as false.
Note, if there is both a function and a variable by the name of
quilt-standalone, the function will take precedence.
- vcs_info [user-context]
- The main function, that runs all backends and assembles all data into
${vcs_info_msg_*_}. This is the function you want to call from
precmd if you want to include up-to-date information in your prompt
(see Variable Description below). If an argument is given, that
string will be used instead of default in the user-context
field of the style context.
- vcs_info_hookadd
- Statically registers a number of functions to a given hook. The hook needs
to be given as the first argument; what follows is a list of hook-function
names to register to the hook. The ` +vi-' prefix needs to be left
out here. See Hooks in vcs_info below for details.
- vcs_info_hookdel
- Remove hook-functions from a given hook. The hook needs to be given as the
first non-option argument; what follows is a list of hook-function names
to un-register from the hook. If ` -a' is used as the first
argument, all occurrences of the functions are unregistered.
Otherwise only the last occurrence is removed (if a function was
registered to a hook more than once). The ` +vi-' prefix needs to
be left out here. See Hooks in vcs_info below for details.
- vcs_info_lastmsg
- Outputs the last ${vcs_info_msg_*_} value. Takes into account the
value of the use-prompt-escapes style in
':vcs_info:formats:command:-all-'. It also only prints
max-exports values.
- vcs_info_printsys [user-context]
- Prints a list of all supported version control systems. Useful to find out
possible contexts (and which of them are enabled) or values for the
disable style.
- vcs_info_setsys
- Initializes vcs_info's internal list of available backends. With
this function, you can add support for new VCSs without restarting the
shell.
All functions named
VCS_INFO_* are for internal use only.
- ${vcs_info_msg_N_} (Note the trailing
underscore)
- Where N is an integer, e.g., vcs_info_msg_0_. These
variables are the storage for the informational message the last
vcs_info call has assembled. These are strongly connected to the
formats, actionformats and nvcsformats styles
described above. Those styles are lists. The first member of that list
gets expanded into ${vcs_info_msg_0_}, the second into
${vcs_info_msg_1_} and the Nth into ${vcs_info_msg_N-1_}.
(See the max-exports style above.)
All variables named
VCS_INFO_* are for internal use only.
Hooks are places in
vcs_info where you can run your own code. That code
can communicate with the code that called it and through that, change the
system's behaviour.
For configuration, hooks change the style context:
:vcs_info:vcs-string+hook-name:user-context:repo-root-name
To register functions to a hook, you need to list them in the
hooks style
in the appropriate context.
Example:
zstyle ':vcs_info:*+foo:*' hooks bar baz
This registers functions to the hook `foo' for all backends. In order to avoid
namespace problems, all registered function names are prepended by a `
+vi-', so the actual functions called for the `foo' hook are `
+vi-bar' and `
+vi-baz'.
If you would like to register a function to a hook regardless of the current
context, you may use the
vcs_info_hookadd function. To remove a
function that was added like that, the
vcs_info_hookdel function can be
used.
If something seems weird, you can enable the `debug' boolean style in the proper
context and the hook-calling code will print what it tried to execute and
whether the function in question existed.
When you register more than one function to a hook, all functions are executed
one after another until one function returns non-zero or until all functions
have been called. Context-sensitive hook functions are executed
before
statically registered ones (the ones added by
vcs_info_hookadd).
You may pass data between functions via an associative array,
user_data.
For example:
+vi-git-myfirsthook(){
user_data[myval]=$myval
}
+vi-git-mysecondhook(){
# do something with ${user_data[myval]}
}
There are a number of variables that are special in hook contexts:
- ret
- The return value that the hooks system will return to the caller. The
default is an integer `zero'. If and how a changed ret value
changes the execution of the caller depends on the specific hook. See the
hook documentation below for details.
- hook_com
- An associated array which is used for bidirectional communication from the
caller to hook functions. The used keys depend on the specific hook.
- context
- The active context of the hook. Functions that wish to change this
variable should make it local scope first.
- vcs
- The current VCS after it was detected. The same values as in the
enable/disable style are used. Available in all hooks except
start-up.
Finally, the full list of currently available hooks:
- start-up
- Called after starting vcs_info but before the VCS in this directory
is determined. It can be used to deactivate vcs_info temporarily if
necessary. When ret is set to 1, vcs_info aborts and
does nothing; when set to 2, vcs_info sets up everything as
if no version control were active and exits.
- pre-get-data
- Same as start-up but after the VCS was detected.
- gen-hg-bookmark-string
- Called in the Mercurial backend when a bookmark string is generated; the
get-revision and get-bookmarks styles must be true.
This hook gets the names of the Mercurial bookmarks that
vcs_info
collected from `hg'.
If a bookmark is active, the key
${hook_com[hg-active-bookmark]} is set
to its name. The key is otherwise unset.
When setting
ret to non-zero, the string in
${hook_com[hg-bookmark-string]} will be used in the
%m escape in
formats and
actionformats and will be available in the global
backend_misc array as
${backend_misc[bookmarks]}.
- gen-applied-string
- Called in the git (with stgit or during rebase or merge),
and hg (with mq) backends and in quilt support when
the applied-string is generated; the use-quilt zstyle must
be true for quilt (the mq and stgit backends are
active by default).
This hook gets the names of all applied patches which
vcs_info collected
so far in the opposite order, which means that the first argument is the
top-most patch and so forth.
When setting
ret to non-zero, the string in
${hook_com[applied-string]} will be available as
%p in the
patch-format and
nopatch-format styles. This hook is, in concert
with
set-patch-format, responsible for
%-escaping that value for
use in the prompt. (See the
Oddities section.)
- gen-unapplied-string
- Called in the git (with stgit or during rebase), and
hg (with mq) backend and in quilt support when the
unapplied-string is generated; the get-unapplied style must
be true.
This hook gets the names of all unapplied patches which
vcs_info
collected so far in the opposite order, which mean that the first argument is
the patch next-in-line to be applied and so forth.
When setting
ret to non-zero, the string in
${hook_com[unapplied-string]} will be available as
%u in the
patch-format and
nopatch-format styles. This hook is, in concert
with
set-patch-format, responsible for
%-escaping that value for
use in the prompt. (See the
Oddities section.)
- gen-mqguards-string
- Called in the hg backend when guards-string is generated;
the get-mq style must be true (default).
This hook gets the names of any active
mq guards.
When setting
ret to non-zero, the string in
${hook_com[guards-string]} will be used in the
%g escape in the
patch-format and
nopatch-format styles.
- no-vcs
- This hooks is called when no version control system was detected.
The `
hook_com' parameter is not used.
- post-backend
- Called as soon as the backend has finished collecting information.
The `
hook_com' keys available are as for the
set-message
hook.
- post-quilt
- Called after the quilt support is done. The following information
is passed as arguments to the hook: 1. the quilt-support mode (`addon' or
`standalone'); 2. the directory that contains the patch series; 3. the
directory that holds quilt's status information (the `.pc' directory) or
the string "-nopc-" if that directory wasn't found.
The `hook_com' parameter is not used.
- set-branch-format
- Called before `branchformat' is set. The only argument to the hook
is the format that is configured at this point.
The `
hook_com' keys considered are `
branch' and
`
revision'. They are set to the values figured out so far by
vcs_info and any change will be used directly when the actual
replacement is done.
If
ret is set to non-zero, the string in
${hook_com[branch-replace]} will be used unchanged as the `
%b'
replacement in the variables set by
vcs_info.
- set-hgrev-format
- Called before a `hgrevformat' is set. The only argument to the hook
is the format that is configured at this point.
The `
hook_com' keys considered are `
hash' and `
localrev'.
They are set to the values figured out so far by
vcs_info and any
change will be used directly when the actual replacement is done.
If
ret is set to non-zero, the string in
${hook_com[rev-replace]}
will be used unchanged as the `
%i' replacement in the variables set by
vcs_info.
- pre-addon-quilt
- This hook is used when vcs_info's quilt functionality is active in
"addon" mode (quilt used on top of a real version control
system). It is activated right before any quilt specific action is
taken.
Setting the `
ret' variable in this hook to a non-zero value avoids any
quilt specific actions from being run at all.
- set-patch-format
- This hook is used to control some of the possible expansions in
patch-format and nopatch-format styles with patch queue
systems such as quilt, mqueue and the like.
This hook is used in the
git,
hg and
quilt backends.
The hook allows the control of the
%p (
${hook_com[applied]}) and
%u (
${hook_com[unapplied]}) expansion in all backends that use
the hook. With the mercurial backend, the
%g
(
${hook_com[guards]}) expansion is controllable in addition to that.
If
ret is set to non-zero, the string in
${hook_com[patch-replace]} will be used unchanged instead of an
expanded format from
patch-format or
nopatch-format.
This hook is, in concert with the
gen-applied-string or
gen-unapplied-string hooks if they are defined, responsible for
%-escaping the final
patch-format value for use in the prompt.
(See the
Oddities section.)
- set-message
- Called each time before a `vcs_info_msg_N_' message
is set. It takes two arguments; the first being the ` N' in the
message variable name, the second is the currently configured
formats or actionformats.
There are a number of `
hook_com' keys, that are used here: `
action', `
branch', `
base', `
base-name',
`
subdir', `
staged', `
unstaged', `
revision',
`
misc', `
vcs' and one `
miscN' entry for each
backend-specific data field (
N starting at zero). They are set to the
values figured out so far by
vcs_info and any change will be used
directly when the actual replacement is done.
Since this hook is triggered multiple times (once for each configured
formats or
actionformats), each of the `
hook_com' keys
mentioned above (except for the
miscN entries) has an `
_orig'
counterpart, so even if you changed a value to your liking you can still get
the original value in the next run. Changing the `
_orig' values is
probably not a good idea.
If
ret is set to non-zero, the string in
${hook_com[message]} will
be used unchanged as the message by
vcs_info.
If all of this sounds rather confusing, take a look at the
Examples
section below and also in the
Misc/vcs_info-examples file in the Zsh
source. They contain some explanatory code.
Don't use
vcs_info at all (even though it's in your prompt):
zstyle ':vcs_info:*' enable NONE
Disable the backends for
bzr and
svk:
zstyle ':vcs_info:*' disable bzr svk
Disable everything
but bzr and
svk:
zstyle ':vcs_info:*' enable bzr svk
Provide a special formats for
git:
zstyle ':vcs_info:git:*' formats ' GIT, BABY! [%b]'
zstyle ':vcs_info:git:*' actionformats ' GIT ACTION! [%b|%a]'
All
%x expansion in all sorts of formats (
formats,
actionformats,
branchformat, you name it) are done using the
`
zformat' builtin from the `
zsh/zutil' module. That means you
can do everything with these
%x items what zformat supports. In
particular, if you want something that is really long to have a fixed width,
like a hash in a mercurial branchformat, you can do this:
%12.12i.
That'll shrink the 40 character hash to its 12 leading characters. The form is
actually `
%min.maxx'. More is possible.
See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in
zshmodules(1) for details.
Use the quicker
bzr backend
zstyle ':vcs_info:bzr:*' use-simple true
If you do use
use-simple, please report if it does `the-right-thing[tm]'.
Display the revision number in yellow for
bzr and
svn:
zstyle ':vcs_info:(svn|bzr):*' \
branchformat '%b%{'${fg[yellow]}'%}:%r'
If you want colors, make sure you enclose the color codes in
%{...%} if you want to use the string provided by
vcs_info in prompts.
Here is how to print the VCS information as a command (not in a prompt):
alias vcsi='vcs_info command; vcs_info_lastmsg'
This way, you can even define different formats for output via
vcs_info_lastmsg in the '
:vcs_info:*:command:*' namespace.
Now as promised, some code that uses hooks: say, you'd like to replace the
string `svn' by `subversion' in
vcs_info's
%s formats
replacement.
First, we will tell
vcs_info to call a function when populating the
message variables with the gathered information:
zstyle ':vcs_info:*+set-message:*' hooks svn2subversion
Nothing happens. Which is reasonable, since we didn't define the actual function
yet. To see what the hooks subsystem is trying to do, enable the `
debug' style:
zstyle ':vcs_info:*+*:*' debug true
That should give you an idea what is going on. Specifically, the function that
we are looking for is `
+vi-svn2subversion'. Note, the `
+vi-'
prefix. So, everything is in order, just as documented. When you are done
checking out the debugging output, disable it again:
zstyle ':vcs_info:*+*:*' debug false
Now, let's define the function:
function +vi-svn2subversion() {
[[ ${hook_com[vcs_orig]} == svn ]] && hook_com[vcs]=subversion
}
Simple enough. And it could have even been simpler, if only we had registered
our function in a less generic context. If we do it only in the `
svn'
backend's context, we don't need to test which the active backend is:
zstyle ':vcs_info:svn+set-message:*' hooks svn2subversion
function +vi-svn2subversion() {
hook_com[vcs]=subversion
}
And finally a little more elaborate example, that uses a hook to create a
customised bookmark string for the
hg backend.
Again, we start off by registering a function:
zstyle ':vcs_info:hg+gen-hg-bookmark-string:*' hooks hgbookmarks
And then we define the `
+vi-hgbookmarks' function:
function +vi-hgbookmarks() {
# The default is to connect all bookmark names by
# commas. This mixes things up a little.
# Imagine, there's one type of bookmarks that is
# special to you. Say, because it's *your* work.
# Those bookmarks look always like this: "sh/*"
# (because your initials are sh, for example).
# This makes the bookmarks string use only those
# bookmarks. If there's more than one, it
# concatenates them using commas.
# The bookmarks returned by `hg' are available in
# the function's positional parameters.
local s="${(Mj:,:)@:#sh/*}"
# Now, the communication with the code that calls
# the hook functions is done via the hook_com[]
# hash. The key at which the `gen-hg-bookmark-string'
# hook looks is `hg-bookmark-string'. So:
hook_com[hg-bookmark-string]=$s
# And to signal that we want to use the string we
# just generated, set the special variable `ret' to
# something other than the default zero:
ret=1
return 0
}
Some longer examples and code snippets which might be useful are available in
the examples file located at Misc/vcs_info-examples in the Zsh source
directory.
This concludes our guided tour through zsh's
vcs_info.
You should make sure all the functions from the
Functions/Prompts
directory of the source distribution are available; they all begin with the
string `
prompt_' except for the special function`
promptinit'.
You also need the `
colors' and `
add-zsh-hook' functions from
Functions/Misc. All these functions may already be installed on your
system; if not, you will need to find them and copy them. The directory should
appear as one of the elements of the
fpath array (this should already
be the case if they were installed), and at least the function
promptinit should be autoloaded; it will autoload the rest. Finally, to
initialize the use of the system you need to call the
promptinit
function. The following code in your
.zshrc will arrange for this;
assume the functions are stored in the directory
~/myfns:
fpath=(~/myfns $fpath)
autoload -U promptinit
promptinit
Use the
prompt command to select your preferred theme. This command may
be added to your
.zshrc following the call to
promptinit in
order to start zsh with a theme already selected.
- prompt [ -c | -l ]
- prompt [ -p | -h ] [ theme ... ]
- prompt [ -s ] theme [ arg ... ]
- Set or examine the prompt theme. With no options and a theme
argument, the theme with that name is set as the current theme. The
available themes are determined at run time; use the -l option to
see a list. The special theme `random' selects at random one
of the available themes and sets your prompt to that.
In some cases the
theme may be modified by one or more arguments, which
should be given after the theme name. See the help for each theme for
descriptions of these arguments.
Options are:
- -c
- Show the currently selected theme and its parameters, if any.
- -l
- List all available prompt themes.
- -p
- Preview the theme named by theme, or all themes if no theme
is given.
- -h
- Show help for the theme named by theme, or for the prompt
function if no theme is given.
- -s
- Set theme as the current theme and save state.
- prompt_theme_setup
- Each available theme has a setup function which is called by the
prompt function to install that theme. This function may define
other functions as necessary to maintain the prompt, including functions
used to preview the prompt or provide help for its use. You should not
normally call a theme's setup function directly.
- prompt off
- The theme `off' sets all the prompt variables to minimal values
with no special effects.
- prompt default
- The theme `default' sets all prompt variables to the same state as
if an interactive zsh was started with no initialization files.
- prompt restore
- The special theme `restore' erases all theme settings and sets
prompt variables to their state before the first time the ` prompt'
function was run, provided each theme has properly defined its cleanup
(see below).
Note that you can undo `
prompt off' and `
prompt default' with `
prompt restore', but a second restore does not undo the first.
The first step for adding your own theme is to choose a name for it, and create
a file `
prompt_name_setup' in a directory in your
fpath, such as ~/myfns in the example above.
The file should at minimum contain assignments for the prompt variables
that your theme wishes to modify. By convention, themes use
PS1 , PS2, RPS1, etc., rather
than the longer PROMPT and RPROMPT.
The file is autoloaded as a function in the current shell context, so it may
contain any necessary commands to customize your theme, including defining
additional functions. To make some complex tasks easier, your setup function
may also do any of the following:
- Assign prompt_opts
- The array prompt_opts may be assigned any of
"bang", "cr",
"percent", "sp", and/or
"subst" as values. The corresponding setopts (
promptbang, etc.) are turned on, all other prompt-related options
are turned off. The prompt_opts array preserves setopts even beyond
the scope of localoptions, should your function need that.
- Modify precmd and preexec
- Use of add-zsh-hook is recommended. The precmd and
preexec hooks are automatically adjusted if the prompt theme
changes or is disabled.
- Declare cleanup
- If your function makes any other changes that should be undone when the
theme is disabled, your setup function may call
where command should be suitably quoted. If your theme is
ever disabled or replaced by another, command is executed
with eval. You may declare more than one such cleanup
hook.
- Define preview
- Define or autoload a function prompt_name_preview
to display a simulated version of your prompt. A simple default
previewer is defined by promptinit for themes that do
not define their own. This preview function is called by
`prompt -p '.
- Provide help
- Define or autoload a function prompt_name_help to
display documentation or help text for your theme. This help
function is called by ` prompt -h'.
These functions all implement user-defined ZLE widgets (see
zshzle(1))
which can be bound to keystrokes in interactive shells. To use them, your
.zshrc should contain lines of the form
autoload function
zle -N function
followed by an appropriate
bindkey command to associate the function with
a key sequence. Suggested bindings are described below.
- bash-style word functions
- If you are looking for functions to implement moving over and editing
words in the manner of bash, where only alphanumeric characters are
considered word characters, you can use the functions described in the
next section. The following is sufficient:
autoload -U select-word-style
select-word-style bash
- forward-word-match, backward-word-match
- kill-word-match, backward-kill-word-match
- transpose-words-match, capitalize-word-match
- up-case-word-match, down-case-word-match
- delete-whole-word-match, select-word-match
- select-word-style, match-word-context,
match-words-by-style
- The first eight `-match' functions are drop-in replacements for the
builtin widgets without the suffix. By default they behave in a similar
way. However, by the use of styles and the function
select-word-style, the way words are matched can be altered.
select-word-match is intended to be used as a text object in vi
mode but with custom word styles. For comparison, the widgets described in
zshzle(1) under Text Objects use fixed definitions of words,
compatible with the vim editor.
The simplest way of configuring the functions is to use
select-word-style, which can either be called as a normal function with
the appropriate argument, or invoked as a user-defined widget that will prompt
for the first character of the word style to be used. The first time it is
invoked, the first eight
-match functions will automatically replace
the builtin versions, so they do not need to be loaded explicitly.
The word styles available are as follows. Only the first character is examined.
- bash
- Word characters are alphanumeric characters only.
- normal
- As in normal shell operation: word characters are alphanumeric characters
plus any characters present in the string given by the parameter
$WORDCHARS.
- shell
- Words are complete shell command arguments, possibly including complete
quoted strings, or any tokens special to the shell.
- whitespace
- Words are any set of characters delimited by whitespace.
- default
- Restore the default settings; this is usually the same as
`normal'.
All but `
default' can be input as an upper case character, which has the
same effect but with subword matching turned on. In this case, words with
upper case characters are treated specially: each separate run of upper case
characters, or an upper case character followed by any number of other
characters, is considered a word. The style
subword-range can supply an
alternative character range to the default `
[:upper:]'; the value of
the style is treated as the contents of a `
[...]'
pattern (note that the outer brackets should not be supplied, only those
surrounding named ranges).
More control can be obtained using the
zstyle command, as described in
zshmodules(1). Each style is looked up in the context
:zle:widget where
widget is the name of the user-defined
widget, not the name of the function implementing it, so in the case of the
definitions supplied by
select-word-style the appropriate contexts are
:zle:forward-word, and so on. The function
select-word-style
itself always defines styles for the context `
:zle:*' which can be
overridden by more specific (longer) patterns as well as explicit contexts.
The style
word-style specifies the rules to use. This may have the
following values.
- normal
- Use the standard shell rules, i.e. alphanumerics and $WORDCHARS,
unless overridden by the styles word-chars or
word-class.
- specified
- Similar to normal, but only the specified characters, and
not also alphanumerics, are considered word characters.
- unspecified
- The negation of specified. The given characters are those which will
not be considered part of a word.
- shell
- Words are obtained by using the syntactic rules for generating shell
command arguments. In addition, special tokens which are never command
arguments such as ` ()' are also treated as words.
- whitespace
- Words are whitespace-delimited strings of characters.
The first three of those rules usually use
$WORDCHARS, but the value in
the parameter can be overridden by the style
word-chars, which works in
exactly the same way as
$WORDCHARS. In addition, the style
word-class uses character class syntax to group characters and takes
precedence over
word-chars if both are set. The
word-class style
does not include the surrounding brackets of the character class; for example,
`
-:[:alnum:]' is a valid
word-class to include all
alphanumerics plus the characters `
-' and `
:'. Be careful
including `
]', `
^' and `
-' as these are special inside
character classes.
word-style may also have `
-subword' appended to its value to turn
on subword matching, as described above.
The style
skip-chars is mostly useful for
transpose-words and
similar functions. If set, it gives a count of characters starting at the
cursor position which will not be considered part of the word and are treated
as space, regardless of what they actually are. For example, if
zstyle ':zle:transpose-words' skip-chars 1
has been set, and
transpose-words-match is called with the cursor on the
X of
fooXbar, where
X can be any character,
then the resulting expression is
barXfoo.
Finer grained control can be obtained by setting the style
word-context
to an array of pairs of entries. Each pair of entries consists of a
pattern and a
subcontext. The shell argument the cursor is on is
matched against each
pattern in turn until one matches; if it does, the
context is extended by a colon and the corresponding
subcontext. Note
that the test is made against the original word on the line, with no stripping
of quotes. Special handling is done between words: the current context is
examined and if it contains the string
between the word is set to a
single space; else if it is contains the string
back, the word before
the cursor is considered, else the word after cursor is considered. Some
examples are given below.
The style
skip-whitespace-first is only used with the
forward-word
widget. If it is set to true, then
forward-word skips any
non-word-characters, followed by any non-word-characters: this is similar to
the behaviour of other word-orientated widgets, and also that used by other
editors, however it differs from the standard zsh behaviour. When using
select-word-style the widget is set in the context
:zle:* to
true if the word style is
bash and
false otherwise. It
may be overridden by setting it in the more specific context
:zle:forward-word*.
Here are some examples of use of the styles, actually taken from the simplified
interface in
select-word-style:
zstyle ':zle:*' word-style standard
zstyle ':zle:*' word-chars ''
Implements bash-style word handling for all widgets, i.e. only alphanumerics are
word characters; equivalent to setting the parameter
WORDCHARS empty
for the given context.
style ':zle:*kill*' word-style space
Uses space-delimited words for widgets with the word `kill' in the name. Neither
of the styles
word-chars nor
word-class is used in this case.
Here are some examples of use of the
word-context style to extend the
context.
zstyle ':zle:*' word-context \
"*/*" filename "[[:space:]]" whitespace
zstyle ':zle:transpose-words:whitespace' word-style shell
zstyle ':zle:transpose-words:filename' word-style normal
zstyle ':zle:transpose-words:filename' word-chars ''
This provides two different ways of using
transpose-words depending on
whether the cursor is on whitespace between words or on a filename, here any
word containing a
/. On whitespace, complete arguments as defined by
standard shell rules will be transposed. In a filename, only alphanumerics
will be transposed. Elsewhere, words will be transposed using the default
style for
:zle:transpose-words.
The word matching and all the handling of
zstyle settings is actually
implemented by the function
match-words-by-style. This can be used to
create new user-defined widgets. The calling function should set the local
parameter
curcontext to
:zle:widget, create the local
parameter
matched_words and call
match-words-by-style with no
arguments. On return,
matched_words will be set to an array with the
elements: (1) the start of the line (2) the word before the cursor (3) any
non-word characters between that word and the cursor (4) any non-word
character at the cursor position plus any remaining non-word characters before
the next word, including all characters specified by the
skip-chars
style, (5) the word at or following the cursor (6) any non-word characters
following that word (7) the remainder of the line. Any of the elements may be
an empty string; the calling function should test for this to decide whether
it can perform its function.
If the variable
matched_words is defined by the caller to
match-words-by-style as an associative array (
local -A
matched_words), then the seven values given above should be retrieved
from it as elements named
start,
word-before-cursor,
ws-before-cursor,
ws-after-cursor,
word-after-cursor,
ws-after-word, and
end. In addition the element
is-word-start is 1 if the cursor is on the start of a word or subword,
or on white space before it (the cases can be distinguished by testing the
ws-after-cursor element) and 0 otherwise. This form is recommended for
future compatibility.
It is possible to pass options with arguments to
match-words-by-style to
override the use of styles. The options are:
- -w
- word-style
- -s
- skip-chars
- -c
- word-class
- -C
- word-chars
- -r
- subword-range
For example,
match-words-by-style -w shell -c 0 may be used to extract
the command argument around the cursor.
The
word-context style is implemented by the function
match-word-context. This should not usually need to be called
directly.
- bracketed-paste-magic
- The bracketed-paste widget (see subsection Miscellaneous in
zshzle(1)) inserts pasted text literally into the editor buffer
rather than interpret it as keystrokes. This disables some common usages
where the self-insert widget is replaced in order to accomplish some extra
processing. An example is the contributed url-quote-magic widget
described below.
The
bracketed-paste-magic widget is meant to replace
bracketed-paste with a wrapper that re-enables these self-insert
actions, and other actions as selected by zstyles. Therefore this widget is
installed with
autoload -Uz bracketed-paste-magic
zle -N bracketed-paste bracketed-paste-magic
Other than enabling some widget processing,
bracketed-paste-magic
attempts to replicate
bracketed-paste as faithfully as possible.
The following zstyles may be set to control processing of pasted text. All are
looked up in the context `
:bracketed-paste-magic'.
- active-widgets
- A list of patterns matching widget names that should be activated during
the paste. All other key sequences are processed as self-insert-unmeta.
The default is ` self-*' so any user-defined widgets named with
that prefix are active along with the builtin self-insert.
If this style is not set (explicitly deleted) or set to an empty value, no
widgets are active and the pasted text is inserted literally. If the value
includes `
undefined-key', any unknown sequences are discarded from the
pasted text.
- inactive-keys
- The inverse of active-widgets, a list of key sequences that always
use self-insert-unmeta even when bound to an active widget. Note
that this is a list of literal key sequences, not patterns.
- paste-init
- A list of function names, called in widget context (but not as widgets).
The functions are called in order until one of them returns a non-zero
status. The parameter ` PASTED' contains the initial state of the
pasted text. All other ZLE parameters such as ` BUFFER' have their
normal values and side-effects, and full history is available, so for
example paste-init functions may move words from BUFFER into
PASTED to make those words visible to the
active-widgets.
A non-zero return from a
paste-init function does
not prevent the
paste itself from proceeding.
Loading
bracketed-paste-magic defines
backward-extend-paste, a
helper function for use in
paste-init.
zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic paste-init \
backward-extend-paste
When a paste would insert into the middle of a word or append text to a word
already on the line,
backward-extend-paste moves the prefix from
LBUFFER into
PASTED so that the
active-widgets see the
full word so far. This may be useful with
url-quote-magic.
- paste-finish
- Another list of function names called in order until one returns non-zero.
These functions are called after the pasted text has been processed
by the active-widgets, but before it is inserted into
`BUFFER'. ZLE parameters have their normal values and
side-effects.
A non-zero return from a
paste-finish function does
not prevent
the paste itself from proceeding.
Loading
bracketed-paste-magic also defines
quote-paste, a helper
function for use in
paste-finish.
zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic paste-finish \
quote-paste
zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic:finish quote-style \
qqq
When the pasted text is inserted into
BUFFER, it is quoted per the
quote-style value. To forcibly turn off the built-in numeric prefix
quoting of
bracketed-paste, use:
zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic:finish quote-style \
none
Important: During
active-widgets processing of the paste (after
paste-init and before
paste-finish),
BUFFER starts empty
and history is restricted, so cursor motions, etc., may not pass outside of
the pasted content. Text assigned to
BUFFER by the active widgets is
copied back into
PASTED before
paste-finish.
- copy-earlier-word
- This widget works like a combination of insert-last-word and
copy-prev-shell-word. Repeated invocations of the widget retrieve
earlier words on the relevant history line. With a numeric argument
N, insert the Nth word from the history line; N may
be negative to count from the end of the line.
If
insert-last-word has been used to retrieve the last word on a previous
history line, repeated invocations will replace that word with earlier words
from the same line.
Otherwise, the widget applies to words on the line currently being edited. The
widget style can be set to the name of another widget that should be
called to retrieve words. This widget must accept the same three arguments as
insert-last-word.
- cycle-completion-positions
- After inserting an unambiguous string into the command line, the new
function based completion system may know about multiple places in this
string where characters are missing or differ from at least one of the
possible matches. It will then place the cursor on the position it
considers to be the most interesting one, i.e. the one where one can
disambiguate between as many matches as possible with as little typing as
possible.
This widget allows the cursor to be easily moved to the other interesting spots.
It can be invoked repeatedly to cycle between all positions reported by the
completion system.
- delete-whole-word-match
- This is another function which works like the -match functions
described immediately above, i.e. using styles to decide the word
boundaries. However, it is not a replacement for any existing
function.
The basic behaviour is to delete the word around the cursor. There is no numeric
argument handling; only the single word around the cursor is considered. If
the widget contains the string
kill, the removed text will be placed in
the cutbuffer for future yanking. This can be obtained by defining
kill-whole-word-match as follows:
zle -N kill-whole-word-match delete-whole-word-match
and then binding the widget
kill-whole-word-match.
- up-line-or-beginning-search,
down-line-or-beginning-search
- These widgets are similar to the builtin functions
up-line-or-search and down-line-or-search: if in a multiline
buffer they move up or down within the buffer, otherwise they search for a
history line matching the start of the current line. In this case,
however, they search for a line which matches the current line up to the
current cursor position, in the manner of
history-beginning-search-backward and -forward, rather than
the first word on the line.
- edit-command-line
- Edit the command line using your visual editor, as in ksh.
bindkey -M vicmd v edit-command-line
- expand-absolute-path
- Expand the file name under the cursor to an absolute path, resolving
symbolic links. Where possible, the initial path segment is turned into a
named directory or reference to a user's home directory.
- history-search-end
- This function implements the widgets
history-beginning-search-backward-end and
history-beginning-search-forward-end. These commands work by first
calling the corresponding builtin widget (see `History Control' in
zshzle(1)) and then moving the cursor to the end of the line. The
original cursor position is remembered and restored before calling the
builtin widget a second time, so that the same search is repeated to look
farther through the history.
Although you
autoload only one function, the commands to use it are
slightly different because it implements two widgets.
zle -N history-beginning-search-backward-end \
history-search-end
zle -N history-beginning-search-forward-end \
history-search-end
bindkey '\e^P' history-beginning-search-backward-end
bindkey '\e^N' history-beginning-search-forward-end
- history-beginning-search-menu
- This function implements yet another form of history searching. The text
before the cursor is used to select lines from the history, as for
history-beginning-search-backward except that all matches are shown
in a numbered menu. Typing the appropriate digits inserts the full history
line. Note that leading zeroes must be typed (they are only shown when
necessary for removing ambiguity). The entire history is searched; there
is no distinction between forwards and backwards.
With a numeric argument, the search is not anchored to the start of the line;
the string typed by the use may appear anywhere in the line in the history.
If the widget name contains `
-end' the cursor is moved to the end of the
line inserted. If the widget name contains `
-space' any space in the
text typed is treated as a wildcard and can match anything (hence a leading
space is equivalent to giving a numeric argument). Both forms can be combined,
for example:
zle -N history-beginning-search-menu-space-end \
history-beginning-search-menu
- history-pattern-search
- The function history-pattern-search implements widgets which prompt
for a pattern with which to search the history backwards or forwards. The
pattern is in the usual zsh format, however the first character may be
^ to anchor the search to the start of the line, and the last
character may be $ to anchor the search to the end of the line. If
the search was not anchored to the end of the line the cursor is
positioned just after the pattern found.
The commands to create bindable widgets are similar to those in the example
immediately above:
autoload -U history-pattern-search
zle -N history-pattern-search-backward history-pattern-search
zle -N history-pattern-search-forward history-pattern-search
- incarg
- Typing the keystrokes for this widget with the cursor placed on or to the
left of an integer causes that integer to be incremented by one. With a
numeric argument, the number is incremented by the amount of the argument
(decremented if the numeric argument is negative). The shell parameter
incarg may be set to change the default increment to something
other than one.
- incremental-complete-word
- This allows incremental completion of a word. After starting this command,
a list of completion choices can be shown after every character you type,
which you can delete with ^H or DEL. Pressing return accepts
the completion so far and returns you to normal editing (that is, the
command line is not immediately executed). You can hit TAB
to do normal completion, ^G to abort back to the state when you
started, and ^D to list the matches.
This works only with the new function based completion system.
bindkey '^Xi' incremental-complete-word
- insert-composed-char
- This function allows you to compose characters that don't appear on the
keyboard to be inserted into the command line. The command is followed by
two keys corresponding to ASCII characters (there is no prompt). For
accented characters, the two keys are a base character followed by a code
for the accent, while for other special characters the two characters
together form a mnemonic for the character to be inserted. The
two-character codes are a subset of those given by RFC 1345 (see for
example http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1345.html).
The function may optionally be followed by up to two characters which replace
one or both of the characters read from the keyboard; if both characters are
supplied, no input is read. For example,
insert-composed-char a: can be
used within a widget to insert an a with umlaut into the command line. This
has the advantages over use of a literal character that it is more portable.
For best results zsh should have been built with support for multibyte
characters (configured with
--enable-multibyte); however, the function
works for the limited range of characters available in single-byte character
sets such as ISO-8859-1.
The character is converted into the local representation and inserted into the
command line at the cursor position. (The conversion is done within the shell,
using whatever facilities the C library provides.) With a numeric argument,
the character and its code are previewed in the status line
The function may be run outside zle in which case it prints the character
(together with a newline) to standard output. Input is still read from
keystrokes.
See
insert-unicode-char for an alternative way of inserting Unicode
characters using their hexadecimal character number.
The set of accented characters is reasonably complete up to Unicode character
U+0180, the set of special characters less so. However, it is very sporadic
from that point. Adding new characters is easy, however; see the function
define-composed-chars. Please send any additions to
zsh-workers@zsh.org.
The codes for the second character when used to accent the first are as follows.
Note that not every character can take every accent.
- !
- Grave.
- '
- Acute.
- >
- Circumflex.
- ?
- Tilde. (This is not ~ as RFC 1345 does not assume that character is
present on the keyboard.)
- -
- Macron. (A horizontal bar over the base character.)
- (
- Breve. (A shallow dish shape over the base character.)
- .
- Dot above the base character, or in the case of i no dot, or in the
case of L and l a centered dot.
- :
- Diaeresis (Umlaut).
- c
- Cedilla.
- _
- Underline, however there are currently no underlined characters.
- /
- Stroke through the base character.
- "
- Double acute (only supported on a few letters).
- ;
- Ogonek. (A little forward facing hook at the bottom right of the
character.)
- <
- Caron. (A little v over the letter.)
- 0
- Circle over the base character.
- 2
- Hook over the base character.
- 9
- Horn over the base character.
The most common characters from the Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek and Hebrew alphabets
are available; consult RFC 1345 for the appropriate sequences. In addition, a
set of two letter codes not in RFC 1345 are available for the double-width
characters corresponding to ASCII characters from
! to
~ (0x21
to 0x7e) by preceding the character with
^, for example
^A for a
double-width
A.
The following other two-character sequences are understood.
- ASCII characters
- These are already present on most keyboards:
- <(
- Left square bracket
- //
- Backslash (solidus)
- )>
- Right square bracket
- (!
- Left brace (curly bracket)
- !!
- Vertical bar (pipe symbol)
- !)
- Right brace (curly bracket)
- '?
- Tilde
- Special letters
- Characters found in various variants of the Latin alphabet:
- ss
- Eszett (scharfes S)
- D-, d-
- Eth
- TH, th
- Thorn
- kk
- Kra
- 'n
- 'n
- NG, ng
- Ng
- OI, oi
- Oi
- yr
- yr
- ED
- ezh
- Currency symbols
- Ct
- Cent
- Pd
- Pound sterling (also lira and others)
- Cu
- Currency
- Ye
- Yen
- Eu
- Euro (N.B. not in RFC 1345)
- Punctuation characters
- References to "right" quotes indicate the shape (like a 9 rather
than 6) rather than their grammatical use. (For example, a
"right" low double quote is used to open quotations in
German.)
- !I
- Inverted exclamation mark
- BB
- Broken vertical bar
- SE
- Section
- Co
- Copyright
- -a
- Spanish feminine ordinal indicator
- <<
- Left guillemet
- --
- Soft hyphen
- Rg
- Registered trade mark
- PI
- Pilcrow (paragraph)
- -o
- Spanish masculine ordinal indicator
- >>
- Right guillemet
- ?I
- Inverted question mark
- -1
- Hyphen
- -N
- En dash
- -M
- Em dash
- -3
- Horizontal bar
- :3
- Vertical ellipsis
- .3
- Horizontal midline ellipsis
- !2
- Double vertical line
- =2
- Double low line
- '6
- Left single quote
- '9
- Right single quote
- .9
- "Right" low quote
- 9'
- Reversed "right" quote
- "6
- Left double quote
- "9
- Right double quote
- :9
- "Right" low double quote
- 9"
- Reversed "right" double quote
- /-
- Dagger
- /=
- Double dagger
- Mathematical symbols
- DG
- Degree
- -2, +-, -+
- - sign, +/- sign, -/+ sign
- 2S
- Superscript 2
- 3S
- Superscript 3
- 1S
- Superscript 1
- My
- Micro
- .M
- Middle dot
- 14
- Quarter
- 12
- Half
- 34
- Three quarters
- *X
- Multiplication
- -:
- Division
- %0
- Per mille
- FA, TE, /0
- For all, there exists, empty set
- dP, DE, NB
- Partial derivative, delta (increment), del (nabla)
- (-, -)
- Element of, contains
- *P, +Z
- Product, sum
- *-, Ob, Sb
- Asterisk, ring, bullet
- RT, 0(, 00
- Root sign, proportional to, infinity
- Other symbols
- cS, cH, cD, cC
- Card suits: spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs
- Md, M8, M2, Mb, Mx, MX
- Musical notation: crotchet (quarter note), quaver (eighth note),
semiquavers (sixteenth notes), flag sign, natural sign, sharp sign
- Fm, Ml
- Female, male
- Accents on their own
- '>
- Circumflex (same as caret, ^)
- '!
- Grave (same as backtick, `)
- ',
- Cedilla
- ':
- Diaeresis (Umlaut)
- 'm
- Macron
- ''
- Acute
- insert-files
- This function allows you type a file pattern, and see the results of the
expansion at each step. When you hit return, all expansions are inserted
into the command line.
bindkey '^Xf' insert-files
- insert-unicode-char
- When first executed, the user inputs a set of hexadecimal digits. This is
terminated with another call to insert-unicode-char. The digits are
then turned into the corresponding Unicode character. For example, if the
widget is bound to ^XU, the character sequence ` ^XU 4 c
^XU' inserts L (Unicode U+004c).
See
insert-composed-char for a way of inserting characters using a
two-character mnemonic.
- narrow-to-region [ -p pre ] [ -P post
]
- [ -S statepm | -R statepm | [
-l lbufvar ] [ -r rbufvar ] ]
- [ -n ] [ start end ]
- narrow-to-region-invisible
- Narrow the editable portion of the buffer to the region between the cursor
and the mark, which may be in either order. The region may not be
empty.
narrow-to-region may be used as a widget or called as a function from a
user-defined widget; by default, the text outside the editable area remains
visible. A
recursive-edit is performed and the original widening status
is then restored. Various options and arguments are available when it is
called as a function.
The options
-p pretext and
-P posttext may be used
to replace the text before and after the display for the duration of the
function; either or both may be an empty string.
If the option
-n is also given,
pretext or
posttext will
only be inserted if there is text before or after the region respectively
which will be made invisible.
Two numeric arguments may be given which will be used instead of the cursor and
mark positions.
The option
-S statepm is used to narrow according to the other
options while saving the original state in the parameter with name
statepm, while the option
-R statepm is used to restore
the state from the parameter; note in both cases the
name of the
parameter is required. In the second case, other options and arguments are
irrelevant. When this method is used, no
recursive-edit is performed;
the calling widget should call this function with the option
-S,
perform its own editing on the command line or pass control to the user via `
zle recursive-edit', then call this function with the option
-R.
The argument
statepm must be a suitable name for an ordinary parameter,
except that parameters beginning with the prefix
_ntr_ are reserved for
use within
narrow-to-region. Typically the parameter will be local to
the calling function.
The options
-l lbufvar and
-r rbufvar may be used to
specify parameters where the widget will store the resulting text from the
operation. The parameter
lbufvar will contain
LBUFFER and
rbufvar will contain
RBUFFER. Neither of these two options may
be used with
-S or
-R.
narrow-to-region-invisible is a simple widget which calls
narrow-to-region with arguments which replace any text outside the
region with `
...'. It does not take any arguments.
The display is restored (and the widget returns) upon any zle command which
would usually cause the line to be accepted or aborted. Hence an additional
such command is required to accept or abort the current line.
The return status of both widgets is zero if the line was accepted, else
non-zero.
Here is a trivial example of a widget using this feature.
local state
narrow-to-region -p $'Editing restricted region\n' \
-P '' -S state
zle recursive-edit
narrow-to-region -R state
- predict-on
- This set of functions implements predictive typing using history search.
After predict-on, typing characters causes the editor to look
backward in the history for the first line beginning with what you have
typed so far. After predict-off, editing returns to normal for the
line found. In fact, you often don't even need to use predict-off,
because if the line doesn't match something in the history, adding a key
performs standard completion, and then inserts itself if no completions
were found. However, editing in the middle of a line is liable to confuse
prediction; see the toggle style below.
With the function based completion system (which is needed for this), you should
be able to type
TAB at almost any point to advance the cursor to the
next ``interesting'' character position (usually the end of the current word,
but sometimes somewhere in the middle of the word). And of course as soon as
the entire line is what you want, you can accept with return, without needing
to move the cursor to the end first.
The first time
predict-on is used, it creates several additional widget
functions:
- delete-backward-and-predict
- Replaces the backward-delete-char widget. You do not need to bind
this yourself.
- insert-and-predict
- Implements predictive typing by replacing the self-insert widget.
You do not need to bind this yourself.
- predict-off
- Turns off predictive typing.
Although you
autoload only the
predict-on function, it is
necessary to create a keybinding for
predict-off as well.
zle -N predict-on
zle -N predict-off
bindkey '^X^Z' predict-on
bindkey '^Z' predict-off
- read-from-minibuffer
- This is most useful when called as a function from inside a widget, but
will work correctly as a widget in its own right. It prompts for a value
below the current command line; a value may be input using all of the
standard zle operations (and not merely the restricted set available when
executing, for example, execute-named-cmd). The value is then
returned to the calling function in the parameter $REPLY and the
editing buffer restored to its previous state. If the read was aborted by
a keyboard break (typically ^G), the function returns status 1 and
$REPLY is not set.
If one argument is supplied to the function it is taken as a prompt, otherwise `
? ' is used. If two arguments are supplied, they are the prompt and the
initial value of
$LBUFFER, and if a third argument is given it is the
initial value of
$RBUFFER. This provides a default value and starting
cursor placement. Upon return the entire buffer is the value of
$REPLY.
One option is available: `
-k num' specifies that
num
characters are to be read instead of a whole line. The line editor is not
invoked recursively in this case, so depending on the terminal settings the
input may not be visible, and only the input keys are placed in
$REPLY,
not the entire buffer. Note that unlike the
read builtin
num
must be given; there is no default.
The name is a slight misnomer, as in fact the shell's own minibuffer is not
used. Hence it is still possible to call
executed-named-cmd and similar
functions while reading a value.
- replace-argument, replace-argument-edit
- The function replace-argument can be used to replace a command line
argument in the current command line or, if the current command line is
empty, in the last command line executed (the new command line is not
executed). Arguments are as delimited by standard shell syntax,
If a numeric argument is given, that specifies the argument to be replaced. 0
means the command name, as in history expansion. A negative numeric argument
counts backward from the last word.
If no numeric argument is given, the current argument is replaced; this is the
last argument if the previous history line is being used.
The function prompts for a replacement argument.
If the widget contains the string
edit, for example is defined as
zle -N replace-argument-edit replace-argument
then the function presents the current value of the argument for editing,
otherwise the editing buffer for the replacement is initially empty.
- replace-string, replace-pattern
- replace-string-again, replace-pattern-again
- The function replace-string implements three widgets. If defined
under the same name as the function, it prompts for two strings; the first
(source) string will be replaced by the second everywhere it occurs in the
line editing buffer.
If the widget name contains the word `
pattern', for example by defining
the widget using the command `
zle -N replace-pattern
replace-string', then the matching is performed using zsh patterns. All
zsh extended globbing patterns can be used in the source string; note that
unlike filename generation the pattern does not need to match an entire word,
nor do glob qualifiers have any effect. In addition, the replacement string
can contain parameter or command substitutions. Furthermore, a `
&'
in the replacement string will be replaced with the matched source string, and
a backquoted digit `
\N' will be replaced by the
Nth
parenthesised expression matched. The form `
\{N}' may be
used to protect the digit from following digits.
If the widget instead contains the word `
regex' (or `
regexp'),
then the matching is performed using regular expressions, respecting the
setting of the option
RE_MATCH_PCRE (see the description of the
function
regexp-replace below). The special replacement facilities
described above for pattern matching are available.
By default the previous source or replacement string will not be offered for
editing. However, this feature can be activated by setting the style
edit-previous in the context
:zle:widget (for example,
:zle:replace-string) to
true. In addition, a positive numeric
argument forces the previous values to be offered, a negative or zero argument
forces them not to be.
The function
replace-string-again can be used to repeat the previous
replacement; no prompting is done. As with
replace-string, if the name
of the widget contains the word `
pattern' or `
regex', pattern
or regular expression matching is performed, else a literal string
replacement. Note that the previous source and replacement text are the same
whether pattern, regular expression or string matching is used.
In addition,
replace-string shows the previous replacement above the
prompt, so long as there was one during the current session; if the source
string is empty, that replacement will be repeated without the widget
prompting for a replacement string.
For example, starting from the line:
print This line contains fan and fond
and invoking
replace-pattern with the source string `
f(?)n' and
the replacement string `
c\1r' produces the not very useful line:
print This line contains car and cord
The range of the replacement string can be limited by using the
narrow-to-region-invisible widget. One limitation of the current
version is that
undo will cycle through changes to the replacement and
source strings before undoing the replacement itself.
- send-invisible
- This is similar to read-from-minibuffer in that it may be called as a
function from a widget or as a widget of its own, and interactively reads
input from the keyboard. However, the input being typed is concealed and a
string of asterisks (` *') is shown instead. The value is saved in
the parameter $INVISIBLE to which a reference is inserted into the
editing buffer at the restored cursor position. If the read was aborted by
a keyboard break (typically ^G) or another escape from editing such
as push-line, $INVISIBLE is set to empty and the original
buffer is restored unchanged.
If one argument is supplied to the function it is taken as a prompt, otherwise `
Non-echoed text: ' is used (as in emacs). If a second and third
argument are supplied they are used to begin and end the reference to
$INVISIBLE that is inserted into the buffer. The default is to open
with
${, then
INVISIBLE, and close with
}, but many other
effects are possible.
- smart-insert-last-word
- This function may replace the insert-last-word widget, like
so:
zle -N insert-last-word smart-insert-last-word
With a numeric argument, or when passed command line arguments in a call from
another widget, it behaves like
insert-last-word, except that words in
comments are ignored when
INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS is set.
Otherwise, the rightmost ``interesting'' word from the previous command is found
and inserted. The default definition of ``interesting'' is that the word
contains at least one alphabetic character, slash, or backslash. This
definition may be overridden by use of the
match style. The context
used to look up the style is the widget name, so usually the context is
:insert-last-word. However, you can bind this function to different
widgets to use different patterns:
zle -N insert-last-assignment smart-insert-last-word
zstyle :insert-last-assignment match '[[:alpha:]][][[:alnum:]]#=*'
bindkey '\e=' insert-last-assignment
If no interesting word is found and the
auto-previous style is set to a
true value, the search continues upward through the history. When
auto-previous is unset or false (the default), the widget must be
invoked repeatedly in order to search earlier history lines.
- transpose-lines
- Only useful with a multi-line editing buffer; the lines here are lines
within the current on-screen buffer, not history lines. The effect is
similar to the function of the same name in Emacs.
Transpose the current line with the previous line and move the cursor to the
start of the next line. Repeating this (which can be done by providing a
positive numeric argument) has the effect of moving the line above the cursor
down by a number of lines.
With a negative numeric argument, requires two lines above the cursor. These two
lines are transposed and the cursor moved to the start of the previous line.
Using a numeric argument less than -1 has the effect of moving the line above
the cursor up by minus that number of lines.
- url-quote-magic
- This widget replaces the built-in self-insert to make it easier to
type URLs as command line arguments. As you type, the input character is
analyzed and, if it may need quoting, the current word is checked for a
URI scheme. If one is found and the current word is not already in quotes,
a backslash is inserted before the input character.
Styles to control quoting behavior:
- url-metas
- This style is looked up in the context
`:url-quote-magic:scheme' (where scheme is that of
the current URL, e.g. " ftp"). The value is a string
listing the characters to be treated as globbing metacharacters when
appearing in a URL using that scheme. The default is to quote all zsh
extended globbing characters, excluding ' <' and ' >'
but including braces (as in brace expansion). See also
url-seps.
- url-seps
- Like url-metas, but lists characters that should be considered
command separators, redirections, history references, etc. The default is
to quote the standard set of shell separators, excluding those that
overlap with the extended globbing characters, but including '
<' and ' >' and the first character of
$histchars.
- url-globbers
- This style is looked up in the context `:url-quote-magic'. The
values form a list of command names that are expected to do their own
globbing on the URL string. This implies that they are aliased to use the
` noglob' modifier. When the first word on the line matches one of
the values and the URL refers to a local file (see
url-local-schema), only the url-seps characters are quoted;
the url-metas are left alone, allowing them to affect command-line
parsing, completion, etc. The default values are a literal `
noglob' plus (when the zsh/parameter module is available)
any commands aliased to the helper function ` urlglobber' or its
alias ` globurl'.
- url-local-schema
- This style is always looked up in the context `:urlglobber', even
though it is used by both url-quote-magic and urlglobber. The values form
a list of URI schema that should be treated as referring to local files by
their real local path names, as opposed to files which are specified
relative to a web-server-defined document root. The defaults are "
ftp" and "file".
- url-other-schema
- Like url-local-schema, but lists all other URI schema upon which
urlglobber and url-quote-magic should act. If the URI on the
command line does not have a scheme appearing either in this list or in
url-local-schema, it is not magically quoted. The default values
are " http", "https", and
"ftp". When a scheme appears both here and in
url-local-schema, it is quoted differently depending on whether the
command name appears in url-globbers.
Loading
url-quote-magic also defines a helper function
`
urlglobber' and aliases `
globurl' to `
noglob
urlglobber'. This function takes a local URL apart, attempts to
pattern-match the local file portion of the URL path, and then puts the
results back into URL format again.
- vi-pipe
- This function reads a movement command from the keyboard and then prompts
for an external command. The part of the buffer covered by the movement is
piped to the external command and then replaced by the command's output.
If the movement command is bound to vi-pipe, the current line is
used.
The function serves as an example for reading a vi movement command from within
a user-defined widget.
- which-command
- This function is a drop-in replacement for the builtin widget
which-command. It has enhanced behaviour, in that it correctly
detects whether or not the command word needs to be expanded as an alias;
if so, it continues tracing the command word from the expanded alias until
it reaches the command that will be executed.
The style
whence is available in the context
:zle:$WIDGET; this
may be set to an array to give the command and options that will be used to
investigate the command word found. The default is
whence -c.
- zcalc-auto-insert
- This function is useful together with the zcalc function described
in the section Mathematical Functions. It should be bound to a key
representing a binary operator such as ` +', `-', `*'
or ` /'. When running in zcalc, if the key occurs at the start of
the line or immediately following an open parenthesis, the text
"ans " is inserted before the representation of the key
itself. This allows easy use of the answer from the previous calculation
in the current line. The text to be inserted before the symbol typed can
be modified by setting the variable ZCALC_AUTO_INSERT_PREFIX.
Hence, for example, typing `
+12' followed by return adds 12 to the
previous result.
If zcalc is in RPN mode (
-r option) the effect of this binding is
automatically suppressed as operators alone on a line are meaningful.
When not in zcalc, the key simply inserts the symbol itself.
These functions are useful in constructing widgets. They should be loaded with `
autoload -U function' and called as indicated from user-defined
widgets.
- split-shell-arguments
- This function splits the line currently being edited into shell arguments
and whitespace. The result is stored in the array reply. The array
contains all the parts of the line in order, starting with any whitespace
before the first argument, and finishing with any whitespace after the
last argument. Hence (so long as the option KSH_ARRAYS is not set)
whitespace is given by odd indices in the array and arguments by even
indices. Note that no stripping of quotes is done; joining together all
the elements of reply in order is guaranteed to produce the
original line.
The parameter
REPLY is set to the index of the word in
reply which
contains the character after the cursor, where the first element has index 1.
The parameter
REPLY2 is set to the index of the character under the
cursor in that word, where the first character has index 1.
Hence
reply,
REPLY and
REPLY2 should all be made local to
the enclosing function.
See the function
modify-current-argument, described below, for an example
of how to call this function.
- modify-current-argument [ expr-using-$ARG |
func ]
- This function provides a simple method of allowing user-defined widgets to
modify the command line argument under the cursor (or immediately to the
left of the cursor if the cursor is between arguments).
The argument can be an expression which when evaluated operates on the shell
parameter
ARG, which will have been set to the command line argument
under the cursor. The expression should be suitably quoted to prevent it being
evaluated too early.
Alternatively, if the argument does not contain the string
ARG, it is
assumed to be a shell function, to which the current command line argument is
passed as the only argument. The function should set the variable
REPLY
to the new value for the command line argument. If the function returns
non-zero status, so does the calling function.
For example, a user-defined widget containing the following code converts the
characters in the argument under the cursor into all upper case:
modify-current-argument '${(U)ARG}'
The following strips any quoting from the current word (whether backslashes or
one of the styles of quotes), and replaces it with single quoting throughout:
modify-current-argument '${(qq)${(Q)ARG}}'
The following performs directory expansion on the command line argument and
replaces it by the absolute path:
expand-dir() {
REPLY=${~1}
REPLY=${REPLY:a}
}
modify-current-argument expand-dir
In practice the function
expand-dir would probably not be defined within
the widget where
modify-current-argument is called.
The behavior of several of the above widgets can be controlled by the use of the
zstyle mechanism. In particular, widgets that interact with the
completion system pass along their context to any completions that they
invoke.
- break-keys
- This style is used by the incremental-complete-word widget. Its
value should be a pattern, and all keys matching this pattern will cause
the widget to stop incremental completion without the key having any
further effect. Like all styles used directly by
incremental-complete-word, this style is looked up using the
context ` :incremental'.
- completer
- The incremental-complete-word and insert-and-predict widgets
set up their top-level context name before calling completion. This allows
one to define different sets of completer functions for normal completion
and for these widgets. For example, to use completion, approximation and
correction for normal completion, completion and correction for
incremental completion and only completion for prediction one could
use:
zstyle ':completion:*' completer \
_complete _correct _approximate
zstyle ':completion:incremental:*' completer \
_complete _correct
zstyle ':completion:predict:*' completer \
_complete
It is a good idea to restrict the completers used in prediction, because they
may be automatically invoked as you type. The
_list and
_menu
completers should never be used with prediction. The
_approximate,
_correct,
_expand, and
_match completers may be used, but
be aware that they may change characters anywhere in the word behind the
cursor, so you need to watch carefully that the result is what you
intended.
- cursor
- The insert-and-predict widget uses this style, in the context `
:predict', to decide where to place the cursor after completion has
been tried. Values are:
- complete
- The cursor is left where it was when completion finished, but only if it
is after a character equal to the one just inserted by the user. If it is
after another character, this value is the same as ` key'.
- key
- The cursor is left after the nth occurrence of the character just
inserted, where n is the number of times that character appeared in
the word before completion was attempted. In short, this has the effect of
leaving the cursor after the character just typed even if the completion
code found out that no other characters need to be inserted at that
position.
Any other value for this style unconditionally leaves the cursor at the position
where the completion code left it.
- list
- When using the incremental-complete-word widget, this style says if
the matches should be listed on every key press (if they fit on the
screen). Use the context prefix ` :completion:incremental'.
The
insert-and-predict widget uses this style to decide if the completion
should be shown even if there is only one possible completion. This is done if
the value of this style is the string
always. In this case the context
is `
:predict' (
not `
:completion:predict').
- match
- This style is used by smart-insert-last-word to provide a pattern
(using full EXTENDED_GLOB syntax) that matches an interesting word.
The context is the name of the widget to which
smart-insert-last-word is bound (see above). The default behavior
of smart-insert-last-word is equivalent to:
zstyle :insert-last-word match '*[[:alpha:]/\\]*'
However, you might want to include words that contain spaces:
zstyle :insert-last-word match '*[[:alpha:][:space:]/\\]*'
Or include numbers as long as the word is at least two characters long:
zstyle :insert-last-word match '*([[:digit:]]?|[[:alpha:]/\\])*'
The above example causes redirections like "2>" to be
included.
- prompt
- The incremental-complete-word widget shows the value of this style
in the status line during incremental completion. The string value may
contain any of the following substrings in the manner of the PS1
and other prompt parameters:
- %c
- Replaced by the name of the completer function that generated the matches
(without the leading underscore).
- %l
- When the list style is set, replaced by ` ...' if the list
of matches is too long to fit on the screen and with an empty string
otherwise. If the list style is `false' or not set, ` %l' is
always removed.
- %n
- Replaced by the number of matches generated.
- %s
- Replaced by `-no match-', `-no prefix-', or an empty string
if there is no completion matching the word on the line, if the matches
have no common prefix different from the word on the line, or if there is
such a common prefix, respectively.
- %u
- Replaced by the unambiguous part of all matches, if there is any, and if
it is different from the word on the line.
Like `
break-keys', this uses the `
:incremental' context.
- stop-keys
- This style is used by the incremental-complete-word widget. Its
value is treated similarly to the one for the break-keys style (and
uses the same context: ` :incremental'). However, in this case all
keys matching the pattern given as its value will stop incremental
completion and will then execute their usual function.
- toggle
- This boolean style is used by predict-on and its related widgets in
the context ` :predict'. If set to one of the standard `true'
values, predictive typing is automatically toggled off in situations where
it is unlikely to be useful, such as when editing a multi-line buffer or
after moving into the middle of a line and then deleting a character. The
default is to leave prediction turned on until an explicit call to
predict-off.
- verbose
- This boolean style is used by predict-on and its related widgets in
the context ` :predict'. If set to one of the standard `true'
values, these widgets display a message below the prompt when the
predictive state is toggled. This is most useful in combination with the
toggle style. The default does not display these messages.
- widget
- This style is similar to the command style: For widget functions
that use zle to call other widgets, this style can sometimes be
used to override the widget which is called. The context for this style is
the name of the calling widget ( not the name of the calling
function, because one function may be bound to multiple widget
names).
zstyle :copy-earlier-word widget smart-insert-last-word
Check the documentation for the calling widget or function to determine whether
the
widget style is used.
Two functions are provided to enable zsh to provide exception handling in a form
that should be familiar from other languages.
- throw exception
- The function throw throws the named exception. The name is
an arbitrary string and is only used by the throw and catch
functions. An exception is for the most part treated the same as a shell
error, i.e. an unhandled exception will cause the shell to abort all
processing in a function or script and to return to the top level in an
interactive shell.
- catch exception-pattern
- The function catch returns status zero if an exception was thrown
and the pattern exception-pattern matches its name. Otherwise it
returns status 1. exception-pattern is a standard shell pattern,
respecting the current setting of the EXTENDED_GLOB option. An
alias catch is also defined to prevent the argument to the function
from matching filenames, so patterns may be used unquoted. Note that as
exceptions are not fundamentally different from other shell errors it is
possible to catch shell errors by using an empty string as the exception
name. The shell variable CAUGHT is set by catch to the name
of the exception caught. It is possible to rethrow an exception by calling
the throw function again once an exception has been caught.
The functions are designed to be used together with the
always construct
described in
zshmisc(1). This is important as only this construct
provides the required support for exceptions. A typical example is as follows.
{
# "try" block
# ... nested code here calls "throw MyExcept"
} always {
# "always" block
if catch MyExcept; then
print "Caught exception MyExcept"
elif catch ''; then
print "Caught a shell error. Propagating..."
throw ''
fi
# Other exceptions are not handled but may be caught further
# up the call stack.
}
If all exceptions should be caught, the following idiom might be preferable.
{
# ... nested code here throws an exception
} always {
if catch *; then
case $CAUGHT in
(MyExcept)
print "Caught my own exception"
;;
(*)
print "Caught some other exception"
;;
esac
fi
}
In common with exception handling in other languages, the exception may be
thrown by code deeply nested inside the `try' block. However, note that it
must be thrown inside the current shell, not in a subshell forked for a
pipeline, parenthesised current-shell construct, or some form of command or
process substitution.
The system internally uses the shell variable
EXCEPTION to record the
name of the exception between throwing and catching. One drawback of this
scheme is that if the exception is not handled the variable
EXCEPTION
remains set and may be incorrectly recognised as the name of an exception if a
shell error subsequently occurs. Adding
unset EXCEPTION at the start of
the outermost layer of any code that uses exception handling will eliminate
this problem.
Three functions are available to provide handling of files recognised by
extension, for example to dispatch a file
text.ps when executed as a
command to an appropriate viewer.
- zsh-mime-setup [ -fv ] [ -l [ suffix ... ]
]
- zsh-mime-handler [ -l ] command argument ...
- These two functions use the files ~/.mime.types and
/etc/mime.types, which associate types and extensions, as well as
~/.mailcap and /etc/mailcap files, which associate types and
the programs that handle them. These are provided on many systems with the
Multimedia Internet Mail Extensions.
To enable the system, the function
zsh-mime-setup should be autoloaded
and run. This allows files with extensions to be treated as executable; such
files be completed by the function completion system. The function
zsh-mime-handler should not need to be called by the user.
The system works by setting up suffix aliases with `
alias -s'. Suffix
aliases already installed by the user will not be overwritten.
For suffixes defined in lower case, upper case variants will also automatically
be handled (e.g.
PDF is automatically handled if handling for the
suffix
pdf is defined), but not vice versa.
Repeated calls to
zsh-mime-setup do not override the existing mapping
between suffixes and executable files unless the option
-f is given.
Note, however, that this does not override existing suffix aliases assigned to
handlers other than
zsh-mime-handler.
Calling
zsh-mime-setup with the option
-l lists the existing
mappings without altering them. Suffixes to list (which may contain pattern
characters that should be quoted from immediate interpretation on the command
line) may be given as additional arguments, otherwise all suffixes are listed.
Calling
zsh-mime-setup with the option
-v causes verbose output to
be shown during the setup operation.
The system respects the
mailcap flags
needsterminal and
copiousoutput, see
mailcap(4).
The functions use the following styles, which are defined with the
zstyle
builtin command (see
zshmodules(1)). They should be defined before
zsh-mime-setup is run. The contexts used all start with
:mime:,
with additional components in some cases. It is recommended that a trailing
* (suitably quoted) be appended to style patterns in case the system is
extended in future. Some examples are given below.
For files that have multiple suffixes, e.g.
.pdf.gz, where the context
includes the suffix it will be looked up starting with the longest possible
suffix until a match for the style is found. For example, if
.pdf.gz
produces a match for the handler, that will be used; otherwise the handler for
.gz will be used. Note that, owing to the way suffix aliases work, it
is always required that there be a handler for the shortest possible suffix,
so in this example
.pdf.gz can only be handled if
.gz is also
handled (though not necessarily in the same way). Alternatively, if no
handling for
.gz on its own is needed, simply adding the command
alias -s gz=zsh-mime-handler
to the initialisation code is sufficient;
.gz will not be handled on its
own, but may be in combination with other suffixes.
- current-shell
- If this boolean style is true, the mailcap handler for the context in
question is run using the eval builtin instead of by starting a new
sh process. This is more efficient, but may not work in the
occasional cases where the mailcap handler uses strict POSIX syntax.
- disown
- If this boolean style is true, mailcap handlers started in the background
will be disowned, i.e. not subject to job control within the parent shell.
Such handlers nearly always produce their own windows, so the only likely
harmful side effect of setting the style is that it becomes harder to kill
jobs from within the shell.
- execute-as-is
- This style gives a list of patterns to be matched against files passed for
execution with a handler program. If the file matches the pattern, the
entire command line is executed in its current form, with no handler. This
is useful for files which might have suffixes but nonetheless be
executable in their own right. If the style is not set, the pattern
*(*) *(/) is used; hence executable files are executed directly and
not passed to a handler, and the option AUTO_CD may be used to
change to directories that happen to have MIME suffixes.
- execute-never
- This style is useful in combination with execute-as-is. It is set
to an array of patterns corresponding to full paths to files that should
never be treated as executable, even if the file passed to the MIME
handler matches execute-as-is. This is useful for file systems that
don't handle execute permission or that contain executables from another
operating system. For example, if /mnt/windows is a Windows mount,
then
zstyle ':mime:*' execute-never '/mnt/windows/*'
will ensure that any files found in that area will be executed as MIME types
even if they are executable. As this example shows, the complete file name is
matched against the pattern, regardless of how the file was passed to the
handler. The file is resolved to a full path using the
:P modifier
described in the subsection Modifiers in
zshexpn(1); this means that
symbolic links are resolved where possible, so that links into other file
systems behave in the correct fashion.
- file-path
- Used if the style find-file-in-path is true for the same context.
Set to an array of directories that are used for searching for the file to
be handled; the default is the command path given by the special parameter
path. The shell option PATH_DIRS is respected; if that is
set, the appropriate path will be searched even if the name of the file to
be handled as it appears on the command line contains a ` /'. The
full context is :mime:.suffix:, as described for the
style handler.
- find-file-in-path
- If set, allows files whose names do not contain absolute paths to be
searched for in the command path or the path specified by the
file-path style. If the file is not found in the path, it is looked
for locally (whether or not the current directory is in the path); if it
is not found locally, the handler will abort unless the
handle-nonexistent style is set. Files found in the path are tested
as described for the style execute-as-is. The full context is
:mime:. suffix:, as described for the style
handler.
- flags
- Defines flags to go with a handler; the context is as for the
handler style, and the format is as for the flags in
mailcap.
- handle-nonexistent
- By default, arguments that don't correspond to files are not passed to the
MIME handler in order to prevent it from intercepting commands found in
the path that happen to have suffixes. This style may be set to an array
of extended glob patterns for arguments that will be passed to the handler
even if they don't exist. If it is not explicitly set it defaults to
[[:alpha:]]#:/* which allows URLs to be passed to the MIME handler
even though they don't exist in that format in the file system. The full
context is :mime:.suffix:, as described for the style
handler.
- handler
- Specifies a handler for a suffix; the suffix is given by the context as
:mime:.suffix:, and the format of the handler is
exactly that in mailcap. Note in particular the `.' and
trailing colon to distinguish this use of the context. This overrides any
handler specified by the mailcap files. If the handler requires a
terminal, the flags style should be set to include the word
needsterminal, or if the output is to be displayed through a pager
(but not if the handler is itself a pager), it should include
copiousoutput.
- mailcap
- A list of files in the format of ~/.mailcap and /etc/mailcap
to be read during setup, replacing the default list which consists of
those two files. The context is :mime:. A + in the list will
be replaced by the default files.
- mailcap-priorities
- This style is used to resolve multiple mailcap entries for the same MIME
type. It consists of an array of the following elements, in descending
order of priority; later entries will be used if earlier entries are
unable to resolve the entries being compared. If none of the tests resolve
the entries, the first entry encountered is retained.
- files
- The order of files (entries in the mailcap style) read. Earlier
files are preferred. (Note this does not resolve entries in the same
file.)
- priority
- The priority flag from the mailcap entry. The priority is an integer from
0 to 9 with the default value being 5.
- flags
- The test given by the mailcap-prio-flags option is used to resolve
entries.
- place
- Later entries are preferred; as the entries are strictly ordered, this
test always succeeds.
Note that as this style is handled during initialisation, the context is always
:mime:, with no discrimination by suffix.
- mailcap-prio-flags
- This style is used when the keyword flags is encountered in the
list of tests specified by the mailcap-priorities style. It should
be set to a list of patterns, each of which is tested against the flags
specified in the mailcap entry (in other words, the sets of assignments
found with some entries in the mailcap file). Earlier patterns in the list
are preferred to later ones, and matched patterns are preferred to
unmatched ones.
- mime-types
- A list of files in the format of ~/.mime.types and
/etc/mime.types to be read during setup, replacing the default list
which consists of those two files. The context is :mime:. A
+ in the list will be replaced by the default files.
- never-background
- If this boolean style is set, the handler for the given context is always
run in the foreground, even if the flags provided in the mailcap entry
suggest it need not be (for example, it doesn't require a terminal).
- pager
- If set, will be used instead of $PAGER or more to handle
suffixes where the copiousoutput flag is set. The context is as for
handler, i.e. :mime:.suffix: for handling a
file with the given suffix.
Examples:
zstyle ':mime:*' mailcap ~/.mailcap /usr/local/etc/mailcap
zstyle ':mime:.txt:' handler less %s
zstyle ':mime:.txt:' flags needsterminal
When
zsh-mime-setup is subsequently run, it will look for
mailcap
entries in the two files given. Files of suffix
.txt will be handled by
running `
less file.txt'. The flag
needsterminal is set
to show that this program must run attached to a terminal.
As there are several steps to dispatching a command, the following should be
checked if attempting to execute a file by extension
.ext does
not have the expected effect.
The command `
alias -s ext' should show `
ps=zsh-mime-handler'. If it shows something else, another suffix alias
was already installed and was not overwritten. If it shows nothing, no handler
was installed: this is most likely because no handler was found in the
.mime.types and
mailcap combination for
.ext files. In
that case, appropriate handling should be added to
~/.mime.types and
mailcap.
If the extension is handled by
zsh-mime-handler but the file is not
opened correctly, either the handler defined for the type is incorrect, or the
flags associated with it are in appropriate. Running
zsh-mime-setup -l
will show the handler and, if there are any, the flags. A
%s in the
handler is replaced by the file (suitably quoted if necessary). Check that the
handler program listed lists and can be run in the way shown. Also check that
the flags
needsterminal or
copiousoutput are set if the handler
needs to be run under a terminal; the second flag is used if the output should
be sent to a pager. An example of a suitable
mailcap entry for such a
program is:
text/html; /usr/bin/lynx '%s'; needsterminal
Running `
zsh-mime-handler -l command line' prints the command
line that would be executed, simplified to remove the effect of any flags, and
quoted so that the output can be run as a complete zsh command line. This is
used by the completion system to decide how to complete after a file handled
by
zsh-mime-setup.
- pick-web-browser
- This function is separate from the two MIME functions described above and
can be assigned directly to a suffix:
autoload -U pick-web-browser
alias -s html=pick-web-browser
It is provided as an intelligent front end to dispatch a web browser. It may be
run as either a function or a shell script. The status 255 is returned if no
browser could be started.
Various styles are available to customize the choice of browsers:
- browser-style
- The value of the style is an array giving preferences in decreasing order
for the type of browser to use. The values of elements may be
- running
- Use a GUI browser that is already running when an X Window display is
available. The browsers listed in the x-browsers style are tried in
order until one is found; if it is, the file will be displayed in that
browser, so the user may need to check whether it has appeared. If no
running browser is found, one is not started. Browsers other than Firefox,
Opera and Konqueror are assumed to understand the Mozilla syntax for
opening a URL remotely.
- x
- Start a new GUI browser when an X Window display is available. Search for
the availability of one of the browsers listed in the x-browsers
style and start the first one that is found. No check is made for an
already running browser.
- tty
- Start a terminal-based browser. Search for the availability of one of the
browsers listed in the tty-browsers style and start the first one
that is found.
If the style is not set the default
running x tty is used.
- x-browsers
- An array in decreasing order of preference of browsers to use when running
under the X Window System. The array consists of the command name under
which to start the browser. They are looked up in the context
:mime: (which may be extended in future, so appending ` *'
is recommended). For example,
zstyle ':mime:*' x-browsers opera konqueror firefox
specifies that
pick-web-browser should first look for a running instance
of Opera, Konqueror or Firefox, in that order, and if it fails to find any
should attempt to start Opera. The default is
firefox mozilla netscape
opera konqueror.
- tty-browsers
- An array similar to x-browsers, except that it gives browsers to
use when no X Window display is available. The default is elinks links
lynx.
- command
- If it is set this style is used to pick the command used to open a page
for a browser. The context is :mime:browser:new:$browser: to start
a new browser or :mime:browser:running:$browser: to open a URL in a
browser already running on the current X display, where $browser is
the value matched in the x-browsers or tty-browsers style.
The escape sequence %b in the style's value will be replaced by the
browser, while %u will be replaced by the URL. If the style is not
set, the default for all new instances is equivalent to %b %u and
the defaults for using running browsers are equivalent to the values
kfmclient openURL %u for Konqueror, firefox -new-tab %u for
Firefox, opera -newpage %u for Opera, and %b -remote
"openUrl(%u)" for all others.
- zcalc [ -erf ] [ expression ... ]
- A reasonably powerful calculator based on zsh's arithmetic evaluation
facility. The syntax is similar to that of formulae in most programming
languages; see the section `Arithmetic Evaluation' in zshmisc(1)
for details.
Non-programmers should note that, as in many other programming languages,
expressions involving only integers (whether constants without a `
.',
variables containing such constants as strings, or variables declared to be
integers) are by default evaluated using integer arithmetic, which is not how
an ordinary desk calculator operates. To force floating point operation, pass
the option
-f; see further notes below.
If the file
~/.zcalcrc exists it will be sourced inside the function once
it is set up and about to process the command line. This can be used, for
example, to set shell options;
emulate -L zsh and
setopt
extendedglob are in effect at this point. Any failure to source the file
if it exists is treated as fatal. As with other initialisation files, the
directory
$ZDOTDIR is used instead of
$HOME if it is set.
The mathematical library
zsh/mathfunc will be loaded if it is available;
see the section `The zsh/mathfunc Module' in
zshmodules(1). The
mathematical functions correspond to the raw system libraries, so
trigonometric functions are evaluated using radians, and so on.
Each line typed is evaluated as an expression. The prompt shows a number, which
corresponds to a positional parameter where the result of that calculation is
stored. For example, the result of the calculation on the line preceded by `
4> ' is available as
$4. The last value calculated is
available as
ans. Full command line editing, including the history of
previous calculations, is available; the history is saved in the file
~/.zcalc_history. To exit, enter a blank line or type `
:q' on
its own (`
q' is allowed for historical compatibility).
A line ending with a single backslash is treated in the same fashion as it is in
command line editing: the backslash is removed, the function prompts for more
input (the prompt is preceded by `
...' to indicate this), and the
lines are combined into one to get the final result. In addition, if the input
so far contains more open than close parentheses
zcalc will prompt for
more input.
If arguments are given to
zcalc on start up, they are used to prime the
first few positional parameters. A visual indication of this is given when the
calculator starts.
The constants
PI (3.14159...) and
E (2.71828...) are provided.
Parameter assignment is possible, but note that all parameters will be put
into the global namespace unless the
:local special command is used.
The function creates local variables whose names start with
_, so users
should avoid doing so. The variables
ans (the last answer) and
stack (the stack in RPN mode) may be referred to directly;
stack
is an array but elements of it are numeric. Various other special variables
are used locally with their standard meaning, for example
compcontext,
match,
mbegin,
mend,
psvar.
The output base can be initialised by passing the option `
-#base', for example `
zcalc -#16' (the `
#' may
have to be quoted, depending on the globbing options set).
If the option `
-e' is set, the function runs non-interactively: the
arguments are treated as expressions to be evaluated as if entered
interactively line by line.
If the option `
-f' is set, all numbers are treated as floating point,
hence for example the expression `
3/4' evaluates to 0.75 rather than
0. Options must appear in separate words.
If the option `
-r' is set, RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) mode is
entered. This has various additional properties:
- Stack
- Evaluated values are maintained in a stack; this is contained in an array
named stack with the most recent value in ${stack[1]}.
- Operators and functions
- If the line entered matches an operator (+, -, *,
/, **, ^, | or &) or a function
supplied by the zsh/mathfunc library, the bottom element or
elements of the stack are popped to use as the argument or arguments. The
higher elements of stack (least recent) are used as earlier arguments. The
result is then pushed into ${stack[1]}.
- Expressions
- Other expressions are evaluated normally, printed, and added to the stack
as numeric values. The syntax within expressions on a single line is
normal shell arithmetic (not RPN).
- Stack listing
- If an integer follows the option -r with no space, then on every
evaluation that many elements of the stack, where available, are printed
instead of just the most recent result. Hence, for example, zcalc
-r4 shows $stack[4] to $stack[1] each time results are
printed.
- Duplication: =
- The pseudo-operator = causes the most recent element of the stack
to be duplicated onto the stack.
- pop
- The pseudo-function pop causes the most recent element of the stack
to be popped. A ` >' on its own has the same effect.
- >ident
- The expression > followed (with no space) by a shell identifier
causes the most recent element of the stack to be popped and assigned to
the variable with that name. The variable is local to the zcalc
function.
- <ident
- The expression < followed (with no space) by a shell identifier
causes the value of the variable with that name to be pushed onto the
stack. ident may be an integer, in which case the previous result
with that number (as shown before the > in the standard
zcalc prompt) is put on the stack.
- Exchange: xy
- The pseudo-function xy causes the most recent two elements of the
stack to be exchanged. ` <>' has the same effect.
The prompt is configurable via the parameter
ZCALCPROMPT, which undergoes
standard prompt expansion. The index of the current entry is stored locally in
the first element of the array
psvar, which can be referred to in
ZCALCPROMPT as `
%1v'. The default prompt is `
%1v> '.
The variable
ZCALC_ACTIVE is set within the function and can be tested by
nested functions; it has the value
rpn if RPN mode is active, else 1.
A few special commands are available; these are introduced by a colon. For
backward compatibility, the colon may be omitted for certain commands.
Completion is available if
compinit has been run.
The output precision may be specified within zcalc by special commands familiar
from many calculators.
- :norm
- The default output format. It corresponds to the printf %g
specification. Typically this shows six decimal digits.
- :sci digits
- Scientific notation, corresponding to the printf %g output format
with the precision given by digits. This produces either fixed
point or exponential notation depending on the value output.
- :fix digits
- Fixed point notation, corresponding to the printf %f output format
with the precision given by digits.
- :eng digits
- Exponential notation, corresponding to the printf %E output format
with the precision given by digits.
- :raw
- Raw output: this is the default form of the output from a math evaluation.
This may show more precision than the number actually possesses.
Other special commands:
- :!line...
- Execute line... as a normal shell command line. Note that it is
executed in the context of the function, i.e. with local variables. Space
is optional after :!.
- :local arg ...
- Declare variables local to the function. Other variables may be used, too,
but they will be taken from or put into the global scope.
- :function name [ body ]
- Define a mathematical function or (with no body) delete it.
:function may be abbreviated to :func or simply :f.
The name may contain the same characters as a shell function name.
The function is defined using zmathfuncdef, see below.
Note that
zcalc takes care of all quoting. Hence for example:
defines a function to cube the sole argument. Functions so defined, or indeed
any functions defined directly or indirectly using
functions -M,
are available to execute by typing only the name on the line in RPN mode; this
pops the appropriate number of arguments off the stack to pass to the
function, i.e. 1 in the case of the example
cube function. If there are
optional arguments only the mandatory arguments are supplied by this
means.
- [#base]
- This is not a special command, rather part of normal arithmetic syntax;
however, when this form appears on a line by itself the default output
radix is set to base. Use, for example, `[#16]' to display
hexadecimal output preceded by an indication of the base, or `
[##16]' just to display the raw number in the given base. Bases
themselves are always specified in decimal. ` [#]' restores the
normal output format. Note that setting an output base suppresses floating
point output; use ` [#]' to return to normal operation.
- $var
- Print out the value of var literally; does not affect the calculation. To
use the value of var, omit the leading ` $'.
See the comments in the function for a few extra tips.
- min(arg, ...)
- max(arg, ...)
- sum(arg, ...)
- zmathfunc
- The function zmathfunc defines the three mathematical functions
min, max, and sum. The functions min and
max take one or more arguments. The function sum takes zero
or more arguments. Arguments can be of different types (ints and
floats).
Not to be confused with the
zsh/mathfunc module, described in the section
`The zsh/mathfunc Module' in
zshmodules(1).
- zmathfuncdef [ mathfunc [ body ] ]
- A convenient front end to functions -M.
With two arguments, define a mathematical function named
mathfunc which
can be used in any form of arithmetic evaluation.
body is a
mathematical expression to implement the function. It may contain references
to position parameters
$1,
$2, ... to refer to mandatory
parameters and
${1:-defvalue} ... to refer to optional
parameters. Note that the forms must be strictly adhered to for the function
to calculate the correct number of arguments. The implementation is held in a
shell function named
zsh_math_func_mathfunc; usually the user
will not need to refer to the shell function directly. Any existing function
of the same name is silently replaced.
With one argument, remove the mathematical function
mathfunc as well as
the shell function implementation.
With no arguments, list all
mathfunc functions in a form suitable for
restoring the definition. The functions have not necessarily been defined by
zmathfuncdef.
The
zsh/newuser module comes with a function to aid in configuring shell
options for new users. If the module is installed, this function can also be
run by hand. It is available even if the module's default behaviour, namely
running the function for a new user logging in without startup files, is
inhibited.
- zsh-newuser-install [ -f ]
- The function presents the user with various options for customizing their
initialization scripts. Currently only ~/.zshrc is handled.
$ZDOTDIR/.zshrc is used instead if the parameter ZDOTDIR is
set; this provides a way for the user to configure a file without altering
an existing .zshrc.
By default the function exits immediately if it finds any of the files
.zshenv,
.zprofile,
.zshrc, or
.zlogin in the
appropriate directory. The option
-f is required in order to force the
function to continue. Note this may happen even if
.zshrc itself does
not exist.
As currently configured, the function will exit immediately if the user has root
privileges; this behaviour cannot be overridden.
Once activated, the function's behaviour is supposed to be self-explanatory.
Menus are present allowing the user to alter the value of options and
parameters. Suggestions for improvements are always welcome.
When the script exits, the user is given the opportunity to save the new file or
not; changes are not irreversible until this point. However, the script is
careful to restrict changes to the file only to a group marked by the lines `
# Lines configured by zsh-newuser-install' and `
# End of lines
configured by zsh-newuser-install'. In addition, the old version of
.zshrc is saved to a file with the suffix
.zni appended.
If the function edits an existing
.zshrc, it is up to the user to ensure
that the changes made will take effect. For example, if control usually
returns early from the existing
.zshrc the lines will not be executed;
or a later initialization file may override options or parameters, and so on.
The function itself does not attempt to detect any such conflicts.
There are a large number of helpful functions in the
Functions/Misc
directory of the zsh distribution. Most are very simple and do not require
documentation here, but a few are worthy of special mention.
- colors
- This function initializes several associative arrays to map color names to
(and from) the ANSI standard eight-color terminal codes. These are used by
the prompt theme system (see above). You seldom should need to run
colors more than once.
The eight base colors are:
black,
red,
green,
yellow,
blue,
magenta,
cyan, and
white.
Each of these has codes for foreground and background. In addition there are
seven intensity attributes:
bold,
faint,
standout,
underline,
blink,
reverse, and
conceal. Finally,
there are seven codes used to negate attributes:
none (reset all
attributes to the defaults),
normal (neither bold nor faint),
no-standout,
no-underline,
no-blink,
no-reverse,
and
no-conceal.
Some terminals do not support all combinations of colors and intensities.
The associative arrays are:
- color
- colour
- Map all the color names to their integer codes, and integer codes to the
color names. The eight base names map to the foreground color codes, as do
names prefixed with ` fg-', such as `fg-red'. Names prefixed
with ` bg-', such as `bg-blue', refer to the background
codes. The reverse mapping from code to color yields base name for
foreground codes and the bg- form for backgrounds.
Although it is a misnomer to call them `colors', these arrays also map the other
fourteen attributes from names to codes and codes to names.
- fg
- fg_bold
- fg_no_bold
- Map the eight basic color names to ANSI terminal escape sequences that set
the corresponding foreground text properties. The fg sequences
change the color without changing the eight intensity attributes.
- bg
- bg_bold
- bg_no_bold
- Map the eight basic color names to ANSI terminal escape sequences that set
the corresponding background properties. The bg sequences change
the color without changing the eight intensity attributes.
In addition, the scalar parameters
reset_color and
bold_color are
set to the ANSI terminal escapes that turn off all attributes and turn on bold
intensity, respectively.
- fned [ -x num ] name
- Same as zed -f. This function does not appear in the zsh
distribution, but can be created by linking zed to the name
fned in some directory in your fpath.
- is-at-least needed [ present ]
- Perform a greater-than-or-equal-to comparison of two strings having the
format of a zsh version number; that is, a string of numbers and text with
segments separated by dots or dashes. If the present string is not
provided, $ZSH_VERSION is used. Segments are paired left-to-right
in the two strings with leading non-number parts ignored. If one string
has fewer segments than the other, the missing segments are considered
zero.
This is useful in startup files to set options and other state that are not
available in all versions of zsh.
is-at-least 3.1.6-15 && setopt NO_GLOBAL_RCS
is-at-least 3.1.0 && setopt HIST_REDUCE_BLANKS
is-at-least 2.6-17 || print "You can't use is-at-least here."
- nslookup [ arg ... ]
- This wrapper function for the nslookup command requires the
zsh/zpty module (see zshmodules(1)). It behaves exactly like
the standard nslookup except that it provides customizable prompts
(including a right-side prompt) and completion of nslookup commands, host
names, etc. (if you use the function-based completion system). Completion
styles may be set with the context prefix `
:completion:nslookup'.
See also the
pager,
prompt and
rprompt styles below.
- regexp-replace var regexp replace
- Use regular expressions to perform a global search and replace operation
on a variable. If the option RE_MATCH_PCRE is not set, POSIX
extended regular expressions are used, else Perl-compatible regular
expressions (this requires the shell to be linked against the pcre
library).
var is the name of the variable containing the string to be matched. The
variable will be modified directly by the function. The variables
MATCH,
MBEGIN,
MEND,
match,
mbegin,
mend should be avoided as these are used by the regular expression
code.
regexp is the regular expression to match against the string.
replace is the replacement text. This can contain parameter, command and
arithmetic expressions which will be replaced: in particular, a reference to
$MATCH will be replaced by the text matched by the pattern.
The return status is 0 if at least one match was performed, else 1.
- run-help cmd
- This function is designed to be invoked by the run-help ZLE widget,
in place of the default alias. See `Accessing On-Line Help' above for
setup instructions.
In the discussion which follows, if
cmd is a file system path, it is
first reduced to its rightmost component (the file name).
Help is first sought by looking for a file named
cmd in the directory
named by the
HELPDIR parameter. If no file is found, an assistant
function, alias, or command named
run-help-cmd is
sought. If found, the assistant is executed with the rest of the
current command line (everything after the command name
cmd) as its arguments. When neither file nor assistant is
found, the external command `man cmd' is
run.
An example assistant for the "ssh" command:
run-help-ssh() {
emulate -LR zsh
local -a args
# Delete the "-l username" option
zparseopts -D -E -a args l:
# Delete other options, leaving: host command
args=(${@:#-*})
if [[ ${#args} -lt 2 ]]; then
man ssh
else
run-help $args[2]
fi
}
Several of these assistants are provided in the
Functions/Misc directory.
These must be autoloaded, or placed as executable scripts in your search path,
in order to be found and used by
run-help.
- run-help-git
- run-help-ip
- run-help-openssl
- run-help-p4
- run-help-sudo
- run-help-svk
- run-help-svn
- Assistant functions for the git, ip, openssl,
p4, sudo, svk, and svn, commands.
- tetris
- Zsh was once accused of not being as complete as Emacs, because it lacked
a Tetris game. This function was written to refute this vicious
slander.
This function must be used as a ZLE widget:
autoload -U tetris
zle -N tetris
bindkey keys tetris
To start a game, execute the widget by typing the
keys. Whatever command
line you were editing disappears temporarily, and your keymap is also
temporarily replaced by the Tetris control keys. The previous editor state is
restored when you quit the game (by pressing `
q') or when you lose.
If you quit in the middle of a game, the next invocation of the
tetris
widget will continue where you left off. If you lost, it will start a new
game.
- tetriscurses
- This is a port of the above to zcurses. The input handling is improved a
bit so that moving a block sideways doesn't automatically advance a
timestep, and the graphics use unicode block graphics.
This version does not save the game state between invocations, and is not
invoked as a widget, but rather as:
autoload -U tetriscurses
tetriscurses
- zargs [ option ... -- ] [ input ... ] [
-- command [ arg ... ] ]
- This function has a similar purpose to GNU xargs. Instead of reading lines
of arguments from the standard input, it takes them from the command line.
This is useful because zsh, especially with recursive glob operators,
often can construct a command line for a shell function that is longer
than can be accepted by an external command.
The
option list represents options of the
zargs command itself,
which are the same as those of
xargs. The
input list is the
collection of strings (often file names) that become the arguments of the
command, analogous to the standard input of
xargs. Finally, the
arg list consists of those arguments (usually options) that are passed
to the
command each time it runs. The
arg list precedes the
elements from the
input list in each run. If no
command is
provided, then no
arg list may be provided, and in that event the
default command is `
print' with arguments `
-r --'.
For example, to get a long
ls listing of all plain files in the current
directory or its subdirectories:
autoload -U zargs
zargs -- **/*(.) -- ls -l
Note that `
--' is used both to mark the end of the
option
list and to mark the end of the
input list, so it must appear twice
whenever the
input list may be empty. If there is guaranteed to be at
least one
input and the first
input does not begin with a `
-', then the first `
--' may be omitted.
In the event that the string `
--' is or may be an
input,
the
-e option may be used to change the end-of-inputs marker. Note that
this does
not change the end-of-options marker. For example, to use `
..' as the marker:
zargs -e.. -- **/*(.) .. ls -l
This is a good choice in that example because no plain file can be named `
..', but the best end-marker depends on the circumstances.
The options
-i,
-I,
-l,
-L, and
-n differ
slightly from their usage in
xargs. There are no input lines for
zargs to count, so
-l and
-L count through the
input list, and
-n counts the number of arguments passed to each
execution of
command,
including any
arg list. Also, any
time
-i or
-I is used, each
input is processed separately
as if by `
-L 1'.
For details of the other
zargs options, see
xargs(1) (but note the
difference in function between
zargs and
xargs) or run
zargs with the
--help option.
- zed [ -f [ -x num ] ] name
- zed -b
- This function uses the ZLE editor to edit a file or function.
Only one
name argument is allowed. If the
-f option is given, the
name is taken to be that of a function; if the function is marked for
autoloading,
zed searches for it in the
fpath and loads it. Note
that functions edited this way are installed into the current shell, but
not written back to the autoload file. In this case the
-x
option specifies that leading tabs indenting the function according to syntax
should be converted into the given number of spaces; `
-x 2' is
consistent with the layout of functions distributed with the shell.
Without
-f,
name is the path name of the file to edit, which need
not exist; it is created on write, if necessary.
While editing, the function sets the main keymap to
zed and the vi
command keymap to
zed-vicmd. These will be copied from the existing
main and
vicmd keymaps if they do not exist the first time
zed is run. They can be used to provide special key bindings used only
in zed.
If it creates the keymap,
zed rebinds the return key to insert a line
break and `
^X^W' to accept the edit in the
zed keymap, and
binds `
ZZ' to accept the edit in the
zed-vicmd keymap.
The bindings alone can be installed by running `
zed -b'. This is
suitable for putting into a startup file. Note that, if rerun, this will
overwrite the existing
zed and
zed-vicmd keymaps.
Completion is available, and styles may be set with the context prefix `
:completion:zed'.
A zle widget
zed-set-file-name is available. This can be called by name
from within zed using `
\ex zed-set-file-name' (note, however, that
because of zed's rebindings you will have to type
^j at the end instead
of the return key), or can be bound to a key in either of the
zed or
zed-vicmd keymaps after `
zed -b' has been run. When the widget
is called, it prompts for a new name for the file being edited. When zed exits
the file will be written under that name and the original file will be left
alone. The widget has no effect with `
zed -f'.
While
zed-set-file-name is running, zed uses the keymap
zed-normal-keymap, which is linked from the main keymap in effect at
the time zed initialised its bindings. (This is to make the return key operate
normally.) The result is that if the main keymap has been changed, the widget
won't notice. This is not a concern for most users.
- zcp [ -finqQvwW ] srcpat dest
- zln [ -finqQsvwW ] srcpat dest
- Same as zmv -C and zmv -L, respectively. These functions do
not appear in the zsh distribution, but can be created by linking
zmv to the names zcp and zln in some directory in
your fpath.
- zkbd
- See `Keyboard Definition' above.
- zmv [ -finqQsvwW ] [ -C | -L | -M |
-{p|P} program ] [ -o optstring ]
- srcpat dest
- Move (usually, rename) files matching the pattern srcpat to
corresponding files having names of the form given by dest, where
srcpat contains parentheses surrounding patterns which will be
replaced in turn by $1, $2, ... in dest. For
example,
renames `
foo.lis' to `
foo.txt', `
my.old.stuff.lis' to `
my.old.stuff.txt', and so on.
The pattern is always treated as an
EXTENDED_GLOB pattern. Any file whose
name is not changed by the substitution is simply ignored. Any error (a
substitution resulted in an empty string, two substitutions gave the same
result, the destination was an existing regular file and
-f was not
given) causes the entire function to abort without doing anything.
In addition to pattern replacement, the variable
$f can be referrred to
in the second (replacement) argument. This makes it possible to use variable
substitution to alter the argument; see examples below.
Options:
- -f
- Force overwriting of destination files. Not currently passed down to the
mv/cp/ln command due to vagaries of implementations
(but you can use -o-f to do that).
- -i
- Interactive: show each line to be executed and ask the user whether to
execute it. ` Y' or `y' will execute it, anything else will
skip it. Note that you just need to type one character.
- -n
- No execution: print what would happen, but don't do it.
- -q
- Turn bare glob qualifiers off: now assumed by default, so this has no
effect.
- -Q
- Force bare glob qualifiers on. Don't turn this on unless you are actually
using glob qualifiers in a pattern.
- -s
- Symbolic, passed down to ln; only works with -L.
- -v
- Verbose: print each command as it's being executed.
- -w
- Pick out wildcard parts of the pattern, as described above, and implicitly
add parentheses for referring to them.
- -W
- Just like -w, with the addition of turning wildcards in the
replacement pattern into sequential ${1} .. ${N}
references.
- -C
- -L
- -M
- Force cp, ln or mv, respectively, regardless of the
name of the function.
- -p program
- Call program instead of cp, ln or mv. Whatever
it does, it should at least understand the form ` program
-- oldname newname' where oldname and
newname are filenames generated by zmv. program will
be split into words, so might be e.g. the name of an archive tool plus a
copy or rename subcommand.
- -P program
- As -p program, except that program does not accept a
following -- to indicate the end of options. In this case
filenames must already be in a sane form for the program in question.
- -o optstring
- The optstring is split into words and passed down verbatim to the
cp, ln or mv command called to perform the work. It
should probably begin with a ` -'.
Further examples:
zmv -v '(* *)' '${1// /_}'
For any file in the current directory with at least one space in the name,
replace every space by an underscore and display the commands executed.
This does exactly the same by referring to the file name stored in
$f.
For more complete examples and other implementation details, see the
zmv
source file, usually located in one of the directories named in your
fpath, or in
Functions/Misc/zmv in the zsh distribution.
- zrecompile
- See `Recompiling Functions' above.
- zstyle+ context style value [ +
subcontext style value ... ]
- This makes defining styles a bit simpler by using a single `+' as a
special token that allows you to append a context name to the previously
used context name. Like this:
zstyle+ ':foo:bar' style1 value1 \
+':baz' style2 value2 \
+':frob' style3 value3
This defines
style1 with
value1 for the context
:foo:bar as
usual, but it also defines
style2 with
value2 for the context
:foo:bar:baz and
style3 with
value3 for
:foo:bar:frob. Any
subcontext may be the empty string to re-use
the first context unchanged.
- insert-tab
- The zed function sets this style in context
`:completion:zed:*' to turn off completion when TAB is typed
at the beginning of a line. You may override this by setting your own
value for this context and style.
- pager
- The nslookup function looks up this style in the context `
:nslookup' to determine the program used to display output that
does not fit on a single screen.
- prompt
- rprompt
- The nslookup function looks up this style in the context `
:nslookup' to set the prompt and the right-side prompt,
respectively. The usual expansions for the PS1 and RPS1
parameters may be used (see EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in
zshmisc(1)).