zshzle - zsh command line editor
If the
ZLE option is set (which it is by default in interactive shells)
and the shell input is attached to the terminal, the user is able to edit
command lines.
There are two display modes. The first, multiline mode, is the default. It only
works if the
TERM parameter is set to a valid terminal type that can
move the cursor up. The second, single line mode, is used if
TERM is
invalid or incapable of moving the cursor up, or if the
SINGLE_LINE_ZLE
option is set. This mode is similar to
ksh, and uses no termcap
sequences. If
TERM is "emacs", the
ZLE option will be
unset by default.
The parameters
BAUD,
COLUMNS, and
LINES are also used by
the line editor. See
Parameters Used By The Shell in
zshparam(1).
The parameter
zle_highlight is also used by the line editor; see
Character Highlighting below. Highlighting of special characters and
the region between the cursor and the mark (as set with
set-mark-command in Emacs mode, or by
visual-mode in Vi mode) is
enabled by default; consult this reference for more information. Irascible
conservatives will wish to know that all highlighting may be disabled by the
following setting:
In many places, references are made to the
numeric argument. This can by
default be entered in emacs mode by holding the alt key and typing a number,
or pressing escape before each digit, and in vi command mode by typing the
number before entering a command. Generally the numeric argument causes the
next command entered to be repeated the specified number of times, unless
otherwise noted below. See also the
Arguments subsection of the
Widgets section for some other ways the numeric argument can be
modified. The default bindings mentioned here use the
digit-argument
widget.
A keymap in ZLE contains a set of bindings between key sequences and ZLE
commands. The empty key sequence cannot be bound.
There can be any number of keymaps at any time, and each keymap has one or more
names. If all of a keymap's names are deleted, it disappears.
bindkey
can be used to manipulate keymap names.
Initially, there are eight keymaps:
- emacs
- EMACS emulation
- viins
- vi emulation - insert mode
- vicmd
- vi emulation - command mode
- viopp
- vi emulation - operator pending
- visual
- vi emulation - selection active
- isearch
- incremental search mode
- command
- read a command name
- .safe
- fallback keymap
The `
.safe' keymap is special. It can never be altered, and the name can
never be removed. However, it can be linked to other names, which can be
removed. In the future other special keymaps may be added; users should avoid
using names beginning with `
.' for their own keymaps.
In addition to these names, either `
emacs' or `
viins' is also
linked to the name `
main'. If one of the
VISUAL or
EDITOR environment variables contain the string `
vi' when the
shell starts up then it will be `
viins', otherwise it will be
`
emacs'.
bindkey's
-e and
-v options provide a
convenient way to override this default choice.
When the editor starts up, it will select the `
main' keymap. If that
keymap doesn't exist, it will use `
.safe' instead.
In the `
.safe' keymap, each single key is bound to
self-insert,
except for ^J (line feed) and ^M (return) which are bound to
accept-line. This is deliberately not pleasant to use; if you are using
it, it means you deleted the main keymap, and you should put it back.
When ZLE is reading a command from the terminal, it may read a sequence that is
bound to some command and is also a prefix of a longer bound string. In this
case ZLE will wait a certain time to see if more characters are typed, and if
not (or they don't match any longer string) it will execute the binding. This
timeout is defined by the
KEYTIMEOUT parameter; its default is 0.4 sec.
There is no timeout if the prefix string is not itself bound to a command.
The key timeout is also applied when ZLE is reading the bytes from a multibyte
character string when it is in the appropriate mode. (This requires that the
shell was compiled with multibyte mode enabled; typically also the locale has
characters with the UTF-8 encoding, although any multibyte encoding known to
the operating system is supported.) If the second or a subsequent byte is not
read within the timeout period, the shell acts as if
? were typed and
resets the input state.
As well as ZLE commands, key sequences can be bound to other strings, by using `
bindkey -s'. When such a sequence is read, the replacement string is
pushed back as input, and the command reading process starts again using these
fake keystrokes. This input can itself invoke further replacement strings, but
in order to detect loops the process will be stopped if there are twenty such
replacements without a real command being read.
A key sequence typed by the user can be turned into a command name for use in
user-defined widgets with the
read-command widget, described in the
subsection `Miscellaneous' of the section `Standard Widgets' below.
While for normal editing a single keymap is used exclusively, in many modes a
local keymap allows for some keys to be customised. For example, in an
incremental search mode, a binding in the
isearch keymap will override
a binding in the
main keymap but all keys that are not overridden can
still be used.
If a key sequence is defined in a local keymap, it will hide a key sequence in
the global keymap that is a prefix of that sequence. An example of this occurs
with the binding of
iw in
viopp as this hides the binding of
i in
vicmd. However, a longer sequence in the global keymap that
shares the same prefix can still apply so for example the binding of
^Xa in the global keymap will be unaffected by the binding of
^Xb in the local keymap.
The ZLE module contains three related builtin commands. The
bindkey
command manipulates keymaps and key bindings; the
vared command invokes
ZLE on the value of a shell parameter; and the
zle command manipulates
editing widgets and allows command line access to ZLE commands from within
shell functions.
- bindkey [ options ] -l [ -L ] [ keymap
... ]
- bindkey [ options ] -d
- bindkey [ options ] -D keymap ...
- bindkey [ options ] -A old-keymap
new-keymap
- bindkey [ options ] -N new-keymap [
old-keymap ]
- bindkey [ options ] -m
- bindkey [ options ] -r in-string ...
- bindkey [ options ] -s in-string out-string
...
- bindkey [ options ] in-string command ...
- bindkey [ options ] [ in-string ]
- bindkey's options can be divided into three categories: keymap
selection for the current command, operation selection, and others. The
keymap selection options are:
- -e
- Selects keymap `emacs' for any operations by the current command,
and also links ` emacs' to `main' so that it is selected by
default the next time the editor starts.
- -v
- Selects keymap `viins' for any operations by the current command,
and also links ` viins' to `main' so that it is selected by
default the next time the editor starts.
- -a
- Selects keymap `vicmd' for any operations by the current
command.
- -M keymap
- The keymap specifies a keymap name that is selected for any
operations by the current command.
If a keymap selection is required and none of the options above are used, the `
main' keymap is used. Some operations do not permit a keymap to be
selected, namely:
- -l
- List all existing keymap names; if any arguments are given, list just
those keymaps.
If the
-L option is also used, list in the form of
bindkey
commands to create or link the keymaps. `
bindkey -lL main'
shows which keymap is linked to `
main', if any, and hence if the
standard emacs or vi emulation is in effect. This option does not show the
.safe keymap because it cannot be created in that fashion; however,
neither is `
bindkey -lL .safe' reported as an error, it simply outputs
nothing.
- -d
- Delete all existing keymaps and reset to the default state.
- -D keymap ...
- Delete the named keymaps.
- -A old-keymap new-keymap
- Make the new-keymap name an alias for old-keymap, so that
both names refer to the same keymap. The names have equal standing; if
either is deleted, the other remains. If there is already a keymap with
the new-keymap name, it is deleted.
- -N new-keymap [ old-keymap ]
- Create a new keymap, named new-keymap. If a keymap already has that
name, it is deleted. If an old-keymap name is given, the new keymap
is initialized to be a duplicate of it, otherwise the new keymap will be
empty.
To use a newly created keymap, it should be linked to
main. Hence the
sequence of commands to create and use a new keymap `
mymap'
initialized from the
emacs keymap (which remains unchanged) is:
bindkey -N mymap emacs
bindkey -A mymap main
Note that while `
bindkey -A newmap main' will work when
newmap is
emacs or
viins, it will not work for
vicmd, as switching from vi insert to command mode becomes impossible.
The following operations act on the `
main' keymap if no keymap selection
option was given:
- -m
- Add the built-in set of meta-key bindings to the selected keymap. Only
keys that are unbound or bound to self-insert are affected.
- -r in-string ...
- Unbind the specified in-strings in the selected keymap. This is
exactly equivalent to binding the strings to undefined-key.
When
-R is also used, interpret the
in-strings as ranges.
When
-p is also used, the
in-strings specify prefixes. Any binding
that has the given
in-string as a prefix, not including the binding for
the
in-string itself, if any, will be removed. For example,
will remove all bindings in the vi-insert keymap beginning with an escape
character (probably cursor keys), but leave the binding for the escape
character itself (probably
vi-cmd-mode). This is incompatible with the
option
-R.
- -s in-string out-string ...
- Bind each in-string to each out-string. When
in-string is typed, out-string will be pushed back and
treated as input to the line editor. When -R is also used,
interpret the in-strings as ranges.
Note that both
in-string and
out-string are subject to the same
form of interpretation, as described below.
- in-string command ...
- Bind each in-string to each command. When -R is used,
interpret the in-strings as ranges.
- [ in-string ]
- List key bindings. If an in-string is specified, the binding of
that string in the selected keymap is displayed. Otherwise, all key
bindings in the selected keymap are displayed. (As a special case, if the
-e or -v option is used alone, the keymap is not
displayed - the implicit linking of keymaps is the only thing that
happens.)
When the option
-p is used, the
in-string must be present. The
listing shows all bindings which have the given key sequence as a prefix, not
including any bindings for the key sequence itself.
When the
-L option is used, the list is in the form of
bindkey
commands to create the key bindings.
When the
-R option is used as noted above, a valid range consists of two
characters, with an optional `
-' between them. All characters between
the two specified, inclusive, are bound as specified.
For either
in-string or
out-string, the following escape sequences
are recognised:
- \a
- bell character
- \b
- backspace
- \e, \E
- escape
- \f
- form feed
- \n
- linefeed (newline)
- \r
- carriage return
- \t
- horizontal tab
- \v
- vertical tab
- \NNN
- character code in octal
- \xNN
- character code in hexadecimal
- \uNNNN
- unicode character code in hexadecimal
- \UNNNNNNNN
- unicode character code in hexadecimal
- \M[-]X
- character with meta bit set
- \C[-]X
- control character
- ^X
- control character
In all other cases, `
\' escapes the following character. Delete is
written as `
^?'. Note that `
\M^?' and `
^\M?' are not the
same, and that (unlike emacs), the bindings `
\M-X' and
`
\e X' are entirely distinct, although they are initialized to
the same bindings by `
bindkey -m'.
- vared [ -Aacghe ] [ -p prompt ] [ -r
rprompt ]
- [ -M main-keymap ] [ -m vicmd-keymap
]
- [ -i init-widget ] [ -f finish-widget
]
- [ -t tty ] name
- The value of the parameter name is loaded into the edit buffer, and
the line editor is invoked. When the editor exits, name is set to
the string value returned by the editor. When the -c flag is given,
the parameter is created if it doesn't already exist. The -a flag
may be given with -c to create an array parameter, or the -A
flag to create an associative array. If the type of an existing parameter
does not match the type to be created, the parameter is unset and
recreated. The -g flag may be given to suppress warnings from the
WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL and WARN_NESTED_VAR options.
If an array or array slice is being edited, separator characters as defined in
$IFS will be shown quoted with a backslash, as will backslashes
themselves. Conversely, when the edited text is split into an array, a
backslash quotes an immediately following separator character or backslash; no
other special handling of backslashes, or any handling of quotes, is
performed.
Individual elements of existing array or associative array parameters may be
edited by using subscript syntax on
name. New elements are created
automatically, even without
-c.
If the
-p flag is given, the following string will be taken as the prompt
to display at the left. If the
-r flag is given, the following string
gives the prompt to display at the right. If the
-h flag is specified,
the history can be accessed from ZLE. If the
-e flag is given, typing
^D (Control-D) on an empty line causes
vared to exit immediately
with a non-zero return value.
The
-M option gives a keymap to link to the
main keymap during
editing, and the
-m option gives a keymap to link to the
vicmd
keymap during editing. For vi-style editing, this allows a pair of keymaps to
override
viins and
vicmd. For emacs-style editing, only
-M is normally needed but the
-m option may still be used. On
exit, the previous keymaps will be restored.
Vared calls the usual `
zle-line-init' and `
zle-line-finish'
hooks before and after it takes control. Using the
-i and
-f
options, it is possible to replace these with other custom widgets.
If `
-t tty' is given,
tty is the name of a terminal device
to be used instead of the default
/dev/tty. If
tty does not
refer to a terminal an error is reported.
- zle
- zle -l [ -L | -a ] [ string ... ]
- zle -D widget ...
- zle -A old-widget new-widget
- zle -N widget [ function ]
- zle -f flag [ flag... ]
- zle -C widget completion-widget
function
- zle -R [ -c ] [ display-string ] [
string ... ]
- zle -M string
- zle -U string
- zle -K keymap
- zle -F [ -L | -w ] [ fd [
handler ] ]
- zle -I
- zle -T [ tc function | -r tc |
-L ]
- zle widget [ -n num ] [ -Nw ] [
-K keymap ] args ...
- The zle builtin performs a number of different actions concerning
ZLE.
With no options and no arguments, only the return status will be set. It is zero
if ZLE is currently active and widgets could be invoked using this builtin
command and non-zero otherwise. Note that even if non-zero status is returned,
zle may still be active as part of the completion system; this does not allow
direct calls to ZLE widgets.
Otherwise, which operation it performs depends on its options:
- -l [ -L | -a ] [ string ]
- List all existing user-defined widgets. If the -L option is used,
list in the form of zle commands to create the widgets.
When combined with the
-a option, all widget names are listed, including
the builtin ones. In this case the
-L option is ignored.
If at least one
string is given, and
-a is present or
-L is
not used, nothing will be printed. The return status will be zero if all
strings are names of existing widgets and non-zero if at least one
string is not a name of a defined widget. If
-a is also present,
all widget names are used for the comparison including builtin widgets, else
only user-defined widgets are used.
If at least one
string is present and the
-L option is used,
user-defined widgets matching any
string are listed in the form of
zle commands to create the widgets.
- -D widget ...
- Delete the named widgets.
- -A old-widget new-widget
- Make the new-widget name an alias for old-widget, so that
both names refer to the same widget. The names have equal standing; if
either is deleted, the other remains. If there is already a widget with
the new-widget name, it is deleted.
- -N widget [ function ]
- Create a user-defined widget. If there is already a widget with the
specified name, it is overwritten. When the new widget is invoked from
within the editor, the specified shell function is called. If no
function name is specified, it defaults to the same name as the widget.
For further information, see the section `Widgets' below.
- -f flag [ flag... ]
- Set various flags on the running widget. Possible values for flag
are:
yank for indicating that the widget has yanked text into the buffer. If
the widget is wrapping an existing internal widget, no further action is
necessary, but if it has inserted the text manually, then it should also take
care to set
YANK_START and
YANK_END correctly.
yankbefore
does the same but is used when the yanked text appears after the cursor.
kill for indicating that text has been killed into the cutbuffer. When
repeatedly invoking a kill widget, text is appended to the cutbuffer instead
of replacing it, but when wrapping such widgets, it is necessary to call `
zle -f kill' to retain this effect.
vichange for indicating that the widget represents a vi change that can
be repeated as a whole with `
vi-repeat-change'. The flag should be set
early in the function before inspecting the value of
NUMERIC or
invoking other widgets. This has no effect for a widget invoked from insert
mode. If insert mode is active when the widget finishes, the change extends
until next returning to command mode.
- -C widget completion-widget function
- Create a user-defined completion widget named widget. The
completion widget will behave like the built-in completion-widget whose
name is given as completion-widget. To generate the completions,
the shell function function will be called. For further
information, see zshcompwid(1).
- -R [ -c ] [ display-string ] [ string ...
]
- Redisplay the command line; this is to be called from within a
user-defined widget to allow changes to become visible. If a
display-string is given and not empty, this is shown in the status
line (immediately below the line being edited).
If the optional
strings are given they are listed below the prompt in the
same way as completion lists are printed. If no
strings are given but
the
-c option is used such a list is cleared.
Note that this option is only useful for widgets that do not exit immediately
after using it because the strings displayed will be erased immediately after
return from the widget.
This command can safely be called outside user defined widgets; if zle is
active, the display will be refreshed, while if zle is not active, the command
has no effect. In this case there will usually be no other arguments.
The status is zero if zle was active, else one.
- -M string
- As with the -R option, the string will be displayed below
the command line; unlike the -R option, the string will not be put
into the status line but will instead be printed normally below the
prompt. This means that the string will still be displayed after
the widget returns (until it is overwritten by subsequent commands).
- -U string
- This pushes the characters in the string onto the input stack of
ZLE. After the widget currently executed finishes ZLE will behave as if
the characters in the string were typed by the user.
As ZLE uses a stack, if this option is used repeatedly the last string pushed
onto the stack will be processed first. However, the characters in each
string will be processed in the order in which they appear in the
string.
- -K keymap
- Selects the keymap named keymap. An error message will be displayed
if there is no such keymap.
This keymap selection affects the interpretation of following keystrokes within
this invocation of ZLE. Any following invocation (e.g., the next command line)
will start as usual with the `
main' keymap selected.
- -F [ -L | -w ] [ fd [ handler ] ]
- Only available if your system supports one of the `poll' or `select'
system calls; most modern systems do.
Installs
handler (the name of a shell function) to handle input from file
descriptor
fd. Installing a handler for an
fd which is already
handled causes the existing handler to be replaced. Any number of handlers for
any number of readable file descriptors may be installed. Note that zle makes
no attempt to check whether this
fd is actually readable when
installing the handler. The user must make their own arrangements for handling
the file descriptor when zle is not active.
When zle is attempting to read data, it will examine both the terminal and the
list of handled
fd's. If data becomes available on a handled
fd,
zle calls
handler with the fd which is ready for reading as the first
argument. Under normal circumstances this is the only argument, but if an
error was detected, a second argument provides details: `
hup' for a
disconnect, `
nval' for a closed or otherwise invalid descriptor, or `
err' for any other condition. Systems that support only the `select'
system call always use `
err'.
If the option
-w is also given, the
handler is instead a line
editor widget, typically a shell function made into a widget using `
zle
-N'. In that case
handler can use all the facilities of zle to
update the current editing line. Note, however, that as handling
fd
takes place at a low level changes to the display will not automatically
appear; the widget should call `
zle -R' to force redisplay. As of this
writing, widget handlers only support a single argument and thus are never
passed a string for error state, so widgets must be prepared to test the
descriptor themselves.
If either type of handler produces output to the terminal, it should call `
zle -I' before doing so (see below). Handlers should not attempt to
read from the terminal.
If no
handler is given, but an
fd is present, any handler for that
fd is removed. If there is none, an error message is printed and status
1 is returned.
If no arguments are given, or the
-L option is supplied, a list of
handlers is printed in a form which can be stored for later execution.
An
fd (but not a
handler) may optionally be given with the
-L option; in this case, the function will list the handler if any,
else silently return status 1.
Note that this feature should be used with care. Activity on one of the
fd's which is not properly handled can cause the terminal to become
unusable. Removing an
fd handler from within a signal trap may cause
unpredictable behavior.
Here is a simple example of using this feature. A connection to a remote TCP
port is created using the ztcp command; see the description of the
zsh/net/tcp module in
zshmodules(1). Then a handler is installed
which simply prints out any data which arrives on this connection. Note that
`select' will indicate that the file descriptor needs handling if the remote
side has closed the connection; we handle that by testing for a failed read.
if ztcp pwspc 2811; then
tcpfd=$REPLY
handler() {
zle -I
local line
if ! read -r line <&$1; then
# select marks this fd if we reach EOF,
# so handle this specially.
print "[Read on fd $1 failed, removing.]" >&2
zle -F $1
return 1
fi
print -r - $line
}
zle -F $tcpfd handler
fi
- -I
- Unusually, this option is most useful outside ordinary widget functions,
though it may be used within if normal output to the terminal is required.
It invalidates the current zle display in preparation for output;
typically this will be from a trap function. It has no effect if zle is
not active. When a trap exits, the shell checks to see if the display
needs restoring, hence the following will print output in such a way as
not to disturb the line being edited:
TRAPUSR1() {
# Invalidate zle display
[[ -o zle ]] && zle -I
# Show output
print Hello
}
In general, the trap function may need to test whether zle is active before
using this method (as shown in the example), since the
zsh/zle module
may not even be loaded; if it is not, the command can be skipped.
It is possible to call `
zle -I' several times before control is returned
to the editor; the display will only be invalidated the first time to minimise
disruption.
Note that there are normally better ways of manipulating the display from within
zle widgets; see, for example, `
zle -R' above.
The returned status is zero if zle was invalidated, even though this may have
been by a previous call to `
zle -I' or by a system notification. To
test if a zle widget may be called at this point, execute
zle with no
arguments and examine the return status.
- -T
- This is used to add, list or remove internal transformations on the
processing performed by the line editor. It is typically used only for
debugging or testing and is therefore of little interest to the general
user.
`
zle -T transformation func' specifies that the given
transformation (see below) is effected by shell function
func.
`
zle -Tr transformation' removes the given
transformation
if it was present (it is not an error if none was).
`
zle -TL' can be used to list all transformations currently in
operation.
Currently the only transformation is
tc. This is used instead of
outputting termcap codes to the terminal. When the transformation is in
operation the shell function is passed the termcap code that would be output
as its first argument; if the operation required a numeric argument, that is
passed as a second argument. The function should set the shell variable
REPLY to the transformed termcap code. Typically this is used to
produce some simply formatted version of the code and optional argument for
debugging or testing. Note that this transformation is not applied to other
non-printing characters such as carriage returns and newlines.
- widget [ -n num ] [ -Nw ] [ -K
keymap ] args ...
- Invoke the specified widget. This can only be done when ZLE is
active; normally this will be within a user-defined widget.
With the options
-n and
-N, the current numeric argument will be
saved and then restored after the call to
widget; `
-n
num' sets the numeric argument temporarily to
num, while
`
-N' sets it to the default, i.e. as if there were none.
With the option
-K,
keymap will be used as the current keymap
during the execution of the widget. The previous keymap will be restored when
the widget exits.
Normally, calling a widget in this way does not set the special parameter
WIDGET and related parameters, so that the environment appears as if
the top-level widget called by the user were still active. With the option
-w,
WIDGET and related parameters are set to reflect the widget
being executed by the
zle call.
Any further arguments will be passed to the widget; note that as standard
argument handling is performed, any general argument list should be preceded
by
--. If it is a shell function, these are passed down as
positional parameters; for builtin widgets it is up to the widget in question
what it does with them. Currently arguments are only handled by the
incremental-search commands, the
history-search-forward and
-backward and the corresponding functions prefixed by
vi-, and
by
universal-argument. No error is flagged if the command does not use
the arguments, or only uses some of them.
The return status reflects the success or failure of the operation carried out
by the widget, or if it is a user-defined widget the return status of the
shell function.
A non-zero return status causes the shell to beep when the widget exits, unless
the
BEEP options was unset or the widget was called via the
zle
command. Thus if a user defined widget requires an immediate beep, it should
call the
beep widget directly.
All actions in the editor are performed by `widgets'. A widget's job is simply
to perform some small action. The ZLE commands that key sequences in keymaps
are bound to are in fact widgets. Widgets can be user-defined or built in.
The standard widgets built into ZLE are listed in Standard Widgets below. Other
built-in widgets can be defined by other modules (see
zshmodules(1)).
Each built-in widget has two names: its normal canonical name, and the same
name preceded by a `
.'. The `
.' name is special: it can't be
rebound to a different widget. This makes the widget available even when its
usual name has been redefined.
User-defined widgets are defined using `
zle -N', and implemented as
shell functions. When the widget is executed, the corresponding shell function
is executed, and can perform editing (or other) actions. It is recommended
that user-defined widgets should not have names starting with `
.'.
User-defined widgets, being implemented as shell functions, can execute any
normal shell command. They can also run other widgets (whether built-in or
user-defined) using the
zle builtin command. The standard input of the
function is redirected from /dev/null to prevent external commands from
unintentionally blocking ZLE by reading from the terminal, but
read -k
or
read -q can be used to read characters. Finally, they can examine
and edit the ZLE buffer being edited by reading and setting the special
parameters described below.
These special parameters are always available in widget functions, but are not
in any way special outside ZLE. If they have some normal value outside ZLE,
that value is temporarily inaccessible, but will return when the widget
function exits. These special parameters in fact have local scope, like
parameters created in a function using
local.
Inside completion widgets and traps called while ZLE is active, these parameters
are available read-only.
Note that the parameters appear as local to any ZLE widget in which they appear.
Hence if it is desired to override them this needs to be done within a nested
function:
widget-function() {
# $WIDGET here refers to the special variable
# that is local inside widget-function
() {
# This anonymous nested function allows WIDGET
# to be used as a local variable. The -h
# removes the special status of the variable.
local -h WIDGET
}
}
- BUFFER (scalar)
- The entire contents of the edit buffer. If it is written to, the cursor
remains at the same offset, unless that would put it outside the
buffer.
- BUFFERLINES (integer)
- The number of screen lines needed for the edit buffer currently displayed
on screen (i.e. without any changes to the preceding parameters done after
the last redisplay); read-only.
- CONTEXT (scalar)
- The context in which zle was called to read a line; read-only. One of the
values:
- start
- The start of a command line (at prompt PS1).
- cont
- A continuation to a command line (at prompt PS2).
- select
- In a select loop (at prompt PS3).
- vared
- Editing a variable in vared.
- CURSOR (integer)
- The offset of the cursor, within the edit buffer. This is in the range 0
to $#BUFFER, and is by definition equal to $#LBUFFER.
Attempts to move the cursor outside the buffer will result in the cursor
being moved to the appropriate end of the buffer.
- CUTBUFFER (scalar)
- The last item cut using one of the `kill-' commands; the string
which the next yank would insert in the line. Later entries in the kill
ring are in the array killring. Note that the command ` zle
copy-region-as-kill string' can be used to set the text of the
cut buffer from a shell function and cycle the kill ring in the same way
as interactively killing text.
- HISTNO (integer)
- The current history number. Setting this has the same effect as moving up
or down in the history to the corresponding history line. An attempt to
set it is ignored if the line is not stored in the history. Note this is
not the same as the parameter HISTCMD, which always gives the
number of the history line being added to the main shell's history.
HISTNO refers to the line being retrieved within zle.
- ISEARCHMATCH_ACTIVE (integer)
- ISEARCHMATCH_START (integer)
- ISEARCHMATCH_END (integer)
- ISEARCHMATCH_ACTIVE indicates whether a part of the BUFFER
is currently matched by an incremental search pattern.
ISEARCHMATCH_START and ISEARCHMATCH_END give the location of
the matched part and are in the same units as CURSOR. They are only
valid for reading when ISEARCHMATCH_ACTIVE is non-zero.
All parameters are read-only.
- KEYMAP (scalar)
- The name of the currently selected keymap; read-only.
- KEYS (scalar)
- The keys typed to invoke this widget, as a literal string; read-only.
- KEYS_QUEUED_COUNT (integer)
- The number of bytes pushed back to the input queue and therefore available
for reading immediately before any I/O is done; read-only. See also
PENDING; the two values are distinct.
- killring (array)
- The array of previously killed items, with the most recently killed first.
This gives the items that would be retrieved by a yank-pop in the
same order. Note, however, that the most recently killed item is in
$CUTBUFFER; $killring shows the array of previous
entries.
The default size for the kill ring is eight, however the length may be changed
by normal array operations. Any empty string in the kill ring is ignored by
the
yank-pop command, hence the size of the array effectively sets the
maximum length of the kill ring, while the number of non-zero strings gives
the current length, both as seen by the user at the command line.
- LASTABORTEDSEARCH (scalar)
- The last search string used by an interactive search that was aborted by
the user (status 3 returned by the search widget).
- LASTSEARCH (scalar)
- The last search string used by an interactive search; read-only. This is
set even if the search failed (status 0, 1 or 2 returned by the search
widget), but not if it was aborted by the user.
- LASTWIDGET (scalar)
- The name of the last widget that was executed; read-only.
- LBUFFER (scalar)
- The part of the buffer that lies to the left of the cursor position. If it
is assigned to, only that part of the buffer is replaced, and the cursor
remains between the new $LBUFFER and the old $RBUFFER.
- MARK (integer)
- Like CURSOR, but for the mark. With vi-mode operators that wait for
a movement command to select a region of text, setting MARK allows
the selection to extend in both directions from the initial cursor
position.
- NUMERIC (integer)
- The numeric argument. If no numeric argument was given, this parameter is
unset. When this is set inside a widget function, builtin widgets called
with the zle builtin command will use the value assigned. If it is
unset inside a widget function, builtin widgets called behave as if no
numeric argument was given.
- PENDING (integer)
- The number of bytes pending for input, i.e. the number of bytes which have
already been typed and can immediately be read. On systems where the shell
is not able to get this information, this parameter will always have a
value of zero. Read-only. See also KEYS_QUEUED_COUNT; the two
values are distinct.
- PREBUFFER (scalar)
- In a multi-line input at the secondary prompt, this read-only parameter
contains the contents of the lines before the one the cursor is currently
in.
- PREDISPLAY (scalar)
- Text to be displayed before the start of the editable text buffer. This
does not have to be a complete line; to display a complete line, a newline
must be appended explicitly. The text is reset on each new invocation (but
not recursive invocation) of zle.
- POSTDISPLAY (scalar)
- Text to be displayed after the end of the editable text buffer. This does
not have to be a complete line; to display a complete line, a newline must
be prepended explicitly. The text is reset on each new invocation (but not
recursive invocation) of zle.
- RBUFFER (scalar)
- The part of the buffer that lies to the right of the cursor position. If
it is assigned to, only that part of the buffer is replaced, and the
cursor remains between the old $LBUFFER and the new
$RBUFFER.
- REGION_ACTIVE (integer)
- Indicates if the region is currently active. It can be assigned 0 or 1 to
deactivate and activate the region respectively. A value of 2 activates
the region in line-wise mode with the highlighted text extending for whole
lines only; see Character Highlighting below.
- region_highlight (array)
- Each element of this array may be set to a string that describes
highlighting for an arbitrary region of the command line that will take
effect the next time the command line is redisplayed. Highlighting of the
non-editable parts of the command line in PREDISPLAY and
POSTDISPLAY are possible, but note that the P flag is needed
for character indexing to include PREDISPLAY.
Each string consists of the following parts:
- •
- Optionally, a `P' to signify that the start and end offset that
follow include any string set by the PREDISPLAY special parameter;
this is needed if the predisplay string itself is to be highlighted.
Whitespace may follow the ` P'.
- •
- A start offset in the same units as CURSOR, terminated by
whitespace.
- •
- An end offset in the same units as CURSOR, terminated by
whitespace.
- •
- A highlight specification in the same format as used for contexts in the
parameter zle_highlight, see the section `Character Highlighting'
below; for example, standout or fg=red,bold
For example,
region_highlight=("P0 20 bold")
specifies that the first twenty characters of the text including any predisplay
string should be highlighted in bold.
Note that the effect of
region_highlight is not saved and disappears as
soon as the line is accepted.
The final highlighting on the command line depends on both
region_highlight and
zle_highlight; see the section CHARACTER
HIGHLIGHTING below for details.
- registers (associative array)
- The contents of each of the vi register buffers. These are typically set
using vi-set-buffer followed by a delete, change or yank
command.
- SUFFIX_ACTIVE (integer)
- SUFFIX_START (integer)
- SUFFIX_END (integer)
- SUFFIX_ACTIVE indicates whether an auto-removable completion suffix
is currently active. SUFFIX_START and SUFFIX_END give the
location of the suffix and are in the same units as CURSOR. They
are only valid for reading when SUFFIX_ACTIVE is non-zero.
All parameters are read-only.
- UNDO_CHANGE_NO (integer)
- A number representing the state of the undo history. The only use of this
is passing as an argument to the undo widget in order to undo back
to the recorded point. Read-only.
- UNDO_LIMIT_NO (integer)
- A number corresponding to an existing change in the undo history; compare
UNDO_CHANGE_NO. If this is set to a value greater than zero, the
undo command will not allow the line to be undone beyond the given
change number. It is still possible to use ` zle undo
change' in a widget to undo beyond that point; in that case, it
will not be possible to undo at all until UNDO_LIMIT_NO is reduced.
Set to 0 to disable the limit.
A typical use of this variable in a widget function is as follows (note the
additional function scope is required):
() {
local UNDO_LIMIT_NO=$UNDO_CHANGE_NO
# Perform some form of recursive edit.
}
- WIDGET (scalar)
- The name of the widget currently being executed; read-only.
- WIDGETFUNC (scalar)
- The name of the shell function that implements a widget defined with
either zle -N or zle -C. In the former case, this is the
second argument to the zle -N command that defined the widget, or
the first argument if there was no second argument. In the latter case
this is the third argument to the zle -C command that defined the
widget. Read-only.
- WIDGETSTYLE (scalar)
- Describes the implementation behind the completion widget currently being
executed; the second argument that followed zle -C when the widget
was defined. This is the name of a builtin completion widget. For widgets
defined with zle -N this is set to the empty string.
Read-only.
- YANK_ACTIVE (integer)
- YANK_START (integer)
- YANK_END (integer)
- YANK_ACTIVE indicates whether text has just been yanked (pasted)
into the buffer. YANK_START and YANK_END give the location
of the pasted text and are in the same units as CURSOR. They are
only valid for reading when YANK_ACTIVE is non-zero. They can also
be assigned by widgets that insert text in a yank-like fashion, for
example wrappers of bracketed-paste. See also zle -f.
YANK_ACTIVE is read-only.
- ZLE_RECURSIVE (integer)
- Usually zero, but incremented inside any instance of
recursive-edit. Hence indicates the current recursion level.
ZLE_RECURSIVE is read-only.
- ZLE_STATE (scalar)
- Contains a set of space-separated words that describe the current
zle state.
Currently, the states shown are the insert mode as set by the
overwrite-mode or
vi-replace widgets and whether history
commands will visit imported entries as controlled by the set-local-history
widget. The string contains `
insert' if characters to be inserted on
the command line move existing characters to the right or `
overwrite'
if characters to be inserted overwrite existing characters. It contains `
localhistory' if only local history commands will be visited or `
globalhistory' if imported history commands will also be visited.
The substrings are sorted in alphabetical order so that if you want to test for
two specific substrings in a future-proof way, you can do match by doing:
if [[ $ZLE_STATE == *globalhistory*insert* ]]; then ...; fi
There are a few user-defined widgets which are special to the shell. If they do
not exist, no special action is taken. The environment provided is identical
to that for any other editing widget.
- zle-isearch-exit
- Executed at the end of incremental search at the point where the isearch
prompt is removed from the display. See zle-isearch-update for an
example.
- zle-isearch-update
- Executed within incremental search when the display is about to be
redrawn. Additional output below the incremental search prompt can be
generated by using ` zle -M' within the widget. For example,
zle-isearch-update() { zle -M "Line $HISTNO"; }
zle -N zle-isearch-update
Note the line output by `
zle -M' is not deleted on exit from incremental
search. This can be done from a
zle-isearch-exit widget:
zle-isearch-exit() { zle -M ""; }
zle -N zle-isearch-exit
- zle-line-pre-redraw
- Executed whenever the input line is about to be redrawn, providing an
opportunity to update the region_highlight array.
- zle-line-init
- Executed every time the line editor is started to read a new line of
input. The following example puts the line editor into vi command mode
when it starts up.
zle-line-init() { zle -K vicmd; }
zle -N zle-line-init
(The command inside the function sets the keymap directly; it is equivalent to
zle vi-cmd-mode.)
- zle-line-finish
- This is similar to zle-line-init but is executed every time the
line editor has finished reading a line of input.
- zle-history-line-set
- Executed when the history line changes.
- zle-keymap-select
- Executed every time the keymap changes, i.e. the special parameter
KEYMAP is set to a different value, while the line editor is
active. Initialising the keymap when the line editor starts does not cause
the widget to be called.
The value
$KEYMAP within the function reflects the new keymap. The old
keymap is passed as the sole argument.
This can be used for detecting switches between the vi command (
vicmd)
and insert (usually
main) keymaps.
The following is a list of all the standard widgets, and their default bindings
in emacs mode, vi command mode and vi insert mode (the `
emacs',
`
vicmd' and `
viins' keymaps, respectively).
Note that cursor keys are bound to movement keys in all three keymaps; the shell
assumes that the cursor keys send the key sequences reported by the
terminal-handling library (termcap or terminfo). The key sequences shown in
the list are those based on the VT100, common on many modern terminals, but in
fact these are not necessarily bound. In the case of the
viins keymap,
the initial escape character of the sequences serves also to return to the
vicmd keymap: whether this happens is determined by the
KEYTIMEOUT parameter, see
zshparam(1).
- vi-backward-blank-word (unbound) (B) (unbound)
- Move backward one word, where a word is defined as a series of non-blank
characters.
- vi-backward-blank-word-end (unbound) (gE) (unbound)
- Move to the end of the previous word, where a word is defined as a series
of non-blank characters.
- backward-char (^B ESC-[D) (unbound) (unbound)
- Move backward one character.
- vi-backward-char (unbound) (^H h ^?) (ESC-[D)
- Move backward one character, without changing lines.
- backward-word (ESC-B ESC-b) (unbound) (unbound)
- Move to the beginning of the previous word.
- emacs-backward-word
- Move to the beginning of the previous word.
- vi-backward-word (unbound) (b) (unbound)
- Move to the beginning of the previous word, vi-style.
- vi-backward-word-end (unbound) (ge) (unbound)
- Move to the end of the previous word, vi-style.
- beginning-of-line (^A) (unbound) (unbound)
- Move to the beginning of the line. If already at the beginning of the
line, move to the beginning of the previous line, if any.
- vi-beginning-of-line
- Move to the beginning of the line, without changing lines.
- down-line (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
- Move down a line in the buffer.
- end-of-line (^E) (unbound) (unbound)
- Move to the end of the line. If already at the end of the line, move to
the end of the next line, if any.
- vi-end-of-line (unbound) ($) (unbound)
- Move to the end of the line. If an argument is given to this command, the
cursor will be moved to the end of the line (argument - 1) lines
down.
- vi-forward-blank-word (unbound) (W) (unbound)
- Move forward one word, where a word is defined as a series of non-blank
characters.
- vi-forward-blank-word-end (unbound) (E) (unbound)
- Move to the end of the current word, or, if at the end of the current
word, to the end of the next word, where a word is defined as a series of
non-blank characters.
- forward-char (^F ESC-[C) (unbound) (unbound)
- Move forward one character.
- vi-forward-char (unbound) (space l) (ESC-[C)
- Move forward one character.
- vi-find-next-char (^X^F) (f) (unbound)
- Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the next occurrence of it
in the line.
- vi-find-next-char-skip (unbound) (t) (unbound)
- Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the position just before
the next occurrence of it in the line.
- vi-find-prev-char (unbound) (F) (unbound)
- Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the previous occurrence of
it in the line.
- vi-find-prev-char-skip (unbound) (T) (unbound)
- Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the position just after
the previous occurrence of it in the line.
- vi-first-non-blank (unbound) (^) (unbound)
- Move to the first non-blank character in the line.
- vi-forward-word (unbound) (w) (unbound)
- Move forward one word, vi-style.
- forward-word (ESC-F ESC-f) (unbound) (unbound)
- Move to the beginning of the next word. The editor's idea of a word is
specified with the WORDCHARS parameter.
- emacs-forward-word
- Move to the end of the next word.
- vi-forward-word-end (unbound) (e) (unbound)
- Move to the end of the next word.
- vi-goto-column (ESC-|) (|) (unbound)
- Move to the column specified by the numeric argument.
- vi-goto-mark (unbound) (`) (unbound)
- Move to the specified mark.
- vi-goto-mark-line (unbound) (') (unbound)
- Move to beginning of the line containing the specified mark.
- vi-repeat-find (unbound) (;) (unbound)
- Repeat the last vi-find command.
- vi-rev-repeat-find (unbound) (,) (unbound)
- Repeat the last vi-find command in the opposite direction.
- up-line (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
- Move up a line in the buffer.
- beginning-of-buffer-or-history (ESC-<) (gg)
(unbound)
- Move to the beginning of the buffer, or if already there, move to the
first event in the history list.
- beginning-of-line-hist
- Move to the beginning of the line. If already at the beginning of the
buffer, move to the previous history line.
- beginning-of-history
- Move to the first event in the history list.
- down-line-or-history (^N ESC-[B) (j)
(ESC-[B)
- Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the bottom line, move to
the next event in the history list.
- vi-down-line-or-history (unbound) (+) (unbound)
- Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the bottom line, move to
the next event in the history list. Then move to the first non-blank
character on the line.
- down-line-or-search
- Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the bottom line, search
forward in the history for a line beginning with the first word in the
buffer.
If called from a function by the
zle command with arguments, the first
argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first
word in the buffer.
- down-history (unbound) (^N) (unbound)
- Move to the next event in the history list.
- history-beginning-search-backward
- Search backward in the history for a line beginning with the current line
up to the cursor. This leaves the cursor in its original position.
- end-of-buffer-or-history (ESC->) (unbound) (unbound)
- Move to the end of the buffer, or if already there, move to the last event
in the history list.
- end-of-line-hist
- Move to the end of the line. If already at the end of the buffer, move to
the next history line.
- end-of-history
- Move to the last event in the history list.
- vi-fetch-history (unbound) (G) (unbound)
- Fetch the history line specified by the numeric argument. This defaults to
the current history line (i.e. the one that isn't history yet).
- history-incremental-search-backward (^R ^Xr) (unbound)
(unbound)
- Search backward incrementally for a specified string. The search is
case-insensitive if the search string does not have uppercase letters and
no numeric argument was given. The string may begin with ` ^' to
anchor the search to the beginning of the line. When called from a
user-defined function returns the following statuses: 0, if the search
succeeded; 1, if the search failed; 2, if the search term was a bad
pattern; 3, if the search was aborted by the send-break
command.
A restricted set of editing functions is available in the mini-buffer. Keys are
looked up in the special
isearch keymap, and if not found there in the
main keymap (note that by default the
isearch keymap is empty). An
interrupt signal, as defined by the stty setting, will stop the search and go
back to the original line. An undefined key will have the same effect. Note
that the following always perform the same task within incremental searches
and cannot be replaced by user defined widgets, nor can the set of functions
be extended. The supported functions are:
- accept-and-hold
- accept-and-infer-next-history
- accept-line
- accept-line-and-down-history
- Perform the usual function after exiting incremental search. The command
line displayed is executed.
- backward-delete-char
- vi-backward-delete-char
- Back up one place in the search history. If the search has been repeated
this does not immediately erase a character in the minibuffer.
- accept-search
- Exit incremental search, retaining the command line but performing no
further action. Note that this function is not bound by default and has no
effect outside incremental search.
- backward-delete-word
- backward-kill-word
- vi-backward-kill-word
- Back up one character in the minibuffer; if multiple searches have been
performed since the character was inserted the search history is rewound
to the point just before the character was entered. Hence this has the
effect of repeating backward-delete-char.
- clear-screen
- Clear the screen, remaining in incremental search mode.
- history-incremental-search-backward
- Find the next occurrence of the contents of the mini-buffer. If the
mini-buffer is empty, the most recent previously used search string is
reinstated.
- history-incremental-search-forward
- Invert the sense of the search.
- magic-space
- Inserts a non-magical space.
- quoted-insert
- vi-quoted-insert
- Quote the character to insert into the minibuffer.
- redisplay
- Redisplay the command line, remaining in incremental search mode.
- vi-cmd-mode
- Select the `vicmd' keymap; the ` main' keymap (insert mode)
will be selected initially.
In addition, the modifications that were made while in vi insert mode are merged
to form a single undo event.
- vi-repeat-search
- vi-rev-repeat-search
- Repeat the search. The direction of the search is indicated in the
mini-buffer.
Any character that is not bound to one of the above functions, or
self-insert or
self-insert-unmeta, will cause the mode to be
exited. The character is then looked up and executed in the keymap in effect
at that point.
When called from a widget function by the
zle command, the incremental
search commands can take a string argument. This will be treated as a string
of keys, as for arguments to the
bindkey command, and used as initial
input for the command. Any characters in the string which are unused by the
incremental search will be silently ignored. For example,
zle history-incremental-search-backward forceps
will search backwards for
forceps, leaving the minibuffer containing the
string `
forceps'.
- history-incremental-search-forward (^S ^Xs) (unbound)
(unbound)
- Search forward incrementally for a specified string. The search is
case-insensitive if the search string does not have uppercase letters and
no numeric argument was given. The string may begin with ` ^' to
anchor the search to the beginning of the line. The functions available in
the mini-buffer are the same as for
history-incremental-search-backward.
- history-incremental-pattern-search-backward
- history-incremental-pattern-search-forward
- These widgets behave similarly to the corresponding widgets with no
-pattern, but the search string typed by the user is treated as a
pattern, respecting the current settings of the various options affecting
pattern matching. See FILENAME GENERATION in zshexpn(1) for a
description of patterns. If no numeric argument was given lowercase
letters in the search string may match uppercase letters in the history.
The string may begin with ` ^' to anchor the search to the
beginning of the line.
The prompt changes to indicate an invalid pattern; this may simply indicate the
pattern is not yet complete.
Note that only non-overlapping matches are reported, so an expression with
wildcards may return fewer matches on a line than are visible by
inspection.
- history-search-backward (ESC-P ESC-p) (unbound)
(unbound)
- Search backward in the history for a line beginning with the first word in
the buffer.
If called from a function by the
zle command with arguments, the first
argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first
word in the buffer.
- vi-history-search-backward (unbound) (/) (unbound)
- Search backward in the history for a specified string. The string may
begin with ` ^' to anchor the search to the beginning of the
line.
A restricted set of editing functions is available in the mini-buffer. An
interrupt signal, as defined by the stty setting, will stop the search. The
functions available in the mini-buffer are:
accept-line,
backward-delete-char,
vi-backward-delete-char,
backward-kill-word,
vi-backward-kill-word,
clear-screen,
redisplay,
quoted-insert and
vi-quoted-insert.
vi-cmd-mode is treated the same as accept-line, and
magic-space is
treated as a space. Any other character that is not bound to self-insert or
self-insert-unmeta will beep and be ignored. If the function is called from vi
command mode, the bindings of the current insert mode will be used.
If called from a function by the
zle command with arguments, the first
argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first
word in the buffer.
- history-search-forward (ESC-N ESC-n) (unbound)
(unbound)
- Search forward in the history for a line beginning with the first word in
the buffer.
If called from a function by the
zle command with arguments, the first
argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first
word in the buffer.
- vi-history-search-forward (unbound) (?) (unbound)
- Search forward in the history for a specified string. The string may begin
with ` ^' to anchor the search to the beginning of the line. The
functions available in the mini-buffer are the same as for
vi-history-search-backward. Argument handling is also the same as
for that command.
- infer-next-history (^X^N) (unbound) (unbound)
- Search in the history list for a line matching the current one and fetch
the event following it.
- insert-last-word (ESC-_ ESC-.) (unbound) (unbound)
- Insert the last word from the previous history event at the cursor
position. If a positive numeric argument is given, insert that word from
the end of the previous history event. If the argument is zero or negative
insert that word from the left (zero inserts the previous command word).
Repeating this command replaces the word just inserted with the last word
from the history event prior to the one just used; numeric arguments can
be used in the same way to pick a word from that event.
When called from a shell function invoked from a user-defined widget, the
command can take one to three arguments. The first argument specifies a
history offset which applies to successive calls to this widget: if it is -1,
the default behaviour is used, while if it is 1, successive calls will move
forwards through the history. The value 0 can be used to indicate that the
history line examined by the previous execution of the command will be
reexamined. Note that negative numbers should be preceded by a `
--' argument to avoid confusing them with options.
If two arguments are given, the second specifies the word on the command line in
normal array index notation (as a more natural alternative to the numeric
argument). Hence 1 is the first word, and -1 (the default) is the last word.
If a third argument is given, its value is ignored, but it is used to signify
that the history offset is relative to the current history line, rather than
the one remembered after the previous invocations of
insert-last-word.
For example, the default behaviour of the command corresponds to
zle insert-last-word -- -1 -1
while the command
zle insert-last-word -- -1 1 -
always copies the first word of the line in the history immediately before the
line being edited. This has the side effect that later invocations of the
widget will be relative to that line.
- vi-repeat-search (unbound) (n) (unbound)
- Repeat the last vi history search.
- vi-rev-repeat-search (unbound) (N) (unbound)
- Repeat the last vi history search, but in reverse.
- up-line-or-history (^P ESC-[A) (k)
(ESC-[A)
- Move up a line in the buffer, or if already at the top line, move to the
previous event in the history list.
- vi-up-line-or-history (unbound) (-) (unbound)
- Move up a line in the buffer, or if already at the top line, move to the
previous event in the history list. Then move to the first non-blank
character on the line.
- up-line-or-search
- Move up a line in the buffer, or if already at the top line, search
backward in the history for a line beginning with the first word in the
buffer.
If called from a function by the
zle command with arguments, the first
argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first
word in the buffer.
- up-history (unbound) (^P) (unbound)
- Move to the previous event in the history list.
- history-beginning-search-forward
- Search forward in the history for a line beginning with the current line
up to the cursor. This leaves the cursor in its original position.
- set-local-history
- By default, history movement commands visit the imported lines as well as
the local lines. This widget lets you toggle this on and off, or set it
with the numeric argument. Zero for both local and imported lines and
nonzero for only local lines.
- vi-add-eol (unbound) (A) (unbound)
- Move to the end of the line and enter insert mode.
- vi-add-next (unbound) (a) (unbound)
- Enter insert mode after the current cursor position, without changing
lines.
- backward-delete-char (^H ^?) (unbound) (unbound)
- Delete the character behind the cursor.
- vi-backward-delete-char (unbound) (X) (^H)
- Delete the character behind the cursor, without changing lines. If in
insert mode, this won't delete past the point where insert mode was last
entered.
- backward-delete-word
- Delete the word behind the cursor.
- backward-kill-line
- Kill from the beginning of the line to the cursor position.
- backward-kill-word (^W ESC-^H ESC-^?) (unbound)
(unbound)
- Kill the word behind the cursor.
- vi-backward-kill-word (unbound) (unbound) (^W)
- Kill the word behind the cursor, without going past the point where insert
mode was last entered.
- capitalize-word (ESC-C ESC-c) (unbound) (unbound)
- Capitalize the current word and move past it.
- vi-change (unbound) (c) (unbound)
- Read a movement command from the keyboard, and kill from the cursor
position to the endpoint of the movement. Then enter insert mode. If the
command is vi-change, change the current line.
For compatibility with vi, if the command is
vi-forward-word or
vi-forward-blank-word, the whitespace after the word is not included.
If you prefer the more consistent behaviour with the whitespace included use
the following key binding:
- vi-change-eol (unbound) (C) (unbound)
- Kill to the end of the line and enter insert mode.
- vi-change-whole-line (unbound) (S) (unbound)
- Kill the current line and enter insert mode.
- copy-region-as-kill (ESC-W ESC-w) (unbound) (unbound)
- Copy the area from the cursor to the mark to the kill buffer.
If called from a ZLE widget function in the form `
zle
copy-region-as-kill string' then
string will be taken as
the text to copy to the kill buffer. The cursor, the mark and the text on the
command line are not used in this case.
- copy-prev-word (ESC-^_) (unbound) (unbound)
- Duplicate the word to the left of the cursor.
- copy-prev-shell-word
- Like copy-prev-word, but the word is found by using shell parsing,
whereas copy-prev-word looks for blanks. This makes a difference
when the word is quoted and contains spaces.
- vi-delete (unbound) (d) (unbound)
- Read a movement command from the keyboard, and kill from the cursor
position to the endpoint of the movement. If the command is
vi-delete, kill the current line.
- delete-char
- Delete the character under the cursor.
- vi-delete-char (unbound) (x) (unbound)
- Delete the character under the cursor, without going past the end of the
line.
- delete-word
- Delete the current word.
- down-case-word (ESC-L ESC-l) (unbound) (unbound)
- Convert the current word to all lowercase and move past it.
- vi-down-case (unbound) (gu) (unbound)
- Read a movement command from the keyboard, and convert all characters from
the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement to lowercase. If the
movement command is vi-down-case, swap the case of all characters
on the current line.
- kill-word (ESC-D ESC-d) (unbound) (unbound)
- Kill the current word.
- gosmacs-transpose-chars
- Exchange the two characters behind the cursor.
- vi-indent (unbound) (>) (unbound)
- Indent a number of lines.
- vi-insert (unbound) (i) (unbound)
- Enter insert mode.
- vi-insert-bol (unbound) (I) (unbound)
- Move to the first non-blank character on the line and enter insert
mode.
- vi-join (^X^J) (J) (unbound)
- Join the current line with the next one.
- kill-line (^K) (unbound) (unbound)
- Kill from the cursor to the end of the line. If already on the end of the
line, kill the newline character.
- vi-kill-line (unbound) (unbound) (^U)
- Kill from the cursor back to wherever insert mode was last entered.
- vi-kill-eol (unbound) (D) (unbound)
- Kill from the cursor to the end of the line.
- kill-region
- Kill from the cursor to the mark.
- kill-buffer (^X^K) (unbound) (unbound)
- Kill the entire buffer.
- kill-whole-line (^U) (unbound) (unbound)
- Kill the current line.
- vi-match-bracket (^X^B) (%) (unbound)
- Move to the bracket character (one of {}, () or [])
that matches the one under the cursor. If the cursor is not on a bracket
character, move forward without going past the end of the line to find
one, and then go to the matching bracket.
- vi-open-line-above (unbound) (O) (unbound)
- Open a line above the cursor and enter insert mode.
- vi-open-line-below (unbound) (o) (unbound)
- Open a line below the cursor and enter insert mode.
- vi-oper-swap-case (unbound) (g~) (unbound)
- Read a movement command from the keyboard, and swap the case of all
characters from the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement. If
the movement command is vi-oper-swap-case, swap the case of all
characters on the current line.
- overwrite-mode (^X^O) (unbound) (unbound)
- Toggle between overwrite mode and insert mode.
- vi-put-before (unbound) (P) (unbound)
- Insert the contents of the kill buffer before the cursor. If the kill
buffer contains a sequence of lines (as opposed to characters), paste it
above the current line.
- vi-put-after (unbound) (p) (unbound)
- Insert the contents of the kill buffer after the cursor. If the kill
buffer contains a sequence of lines (as opposed to characters), paste it
below the current line.
- put-replace-selection (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
- Replace the contents of the current region or selection with the contents
of the kill buffer. If the kill buffer contains a sequence of lines (as
opposed to characters), the current line will be split by the pasted
lines.
- quoted-insert (^V) (unbound) (unbound)
- Insert the next character typed into the buffer literally. An interrupt
character will not be inserted.
- vi-quoted-insert (unbound) (unbound) (^Q ^V)
- Display a `^' at the cursor position, and insert the next character
typed into the buffer literally. An interrupt character will not be
inserted.
- quote-line (ESC-') (unbound) (unbound)
- Quote the current line; that is, put a `'' character at the
beginning and the end, and convert all ` '' characters to `
'\'''.
- quote-region (ESC-") (unbound) (unbound)
- Quote the region from the cursor to the mark.
- vi-replace (unbound) (R) (unbound)
- Enter overwrite mode.
- vi-repeat-change (unbound) (.) (unbound)
- Repeat the last vi mode text modification. If a count was used with the
modification, it is remembered. If a count is given to this command, it
overrides the remembered count, and is remembered for future uses of this
command. The cut buffer specification is similarly remembered.
- vi-replace-chars (unbound) (r) (unbound)
- Replace the character under the cursor with a character read from the
keyboard.
- self-insert (printable characters) (unbound) (printable characters
and some control characters)
- Insert a character into the buffer at the cursor position.
- self-insert-unmeta (ESC-^I ESC-^J ESC-^M) (unbound)
(unbound)
- Insert a character into the buffer after stripping the meta bit and
converting ^M to ^J.
- vi-substitute (unbound) (s) (unbound)
- Substitute the next character(s).
- vi-swap-case (unbound) (~) (unbound)
- Swap the case of the character under the cursor and move past it.
- transpose-chars (^T) (unbound) (unbound)
- Exchange the two characters to the left of the cursor if at end of line,
else exchange the character under the cursor with the character to the
left.
- transpose-words (ESC-T ESC-t) (unbound) (unbound)
- Exchange the current word with the one before it.
With a positive numeric argument
N, the word around the cursor, or
following it if the cursor is between words, is transposed with the preceding
N words. The cursor is put at the end of the resulting group of words.
With a negative numeric argument
-N, the effect is the same as using a
positive argument
N except that the original cursor position is
retained, regardless of how the words are rearranged.
- vi-unindent (unbound) (<) (unbound)
- Unindent a number of lines.
- vi-up-case (unbound) (gU) (unbound)
- Read a movement command from the keyboard, and convert all characters from
the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement to lowercase. If the
movement command is vi-up-case, swap the case of all characters on
the current line.
- up-case-word (ESC-U ESC-u) (unbound) (unbound)
- Convert the current word to all caps and move past it.
- yank (^Y) (unbound) (unbound)
- Insert the contents of the kill buffer at the cursor position.
- yank-pop (ESC-y) (unbound) (unbound)
- Remove the text just yanked, rotate the kill-ring (the history of
previously killed text) and yank the new top. Only works following
yank, vi-put-before, vi-put-after or
yank-pop.
- vi-yank (unbound) (y) (unbound)
- Read a movement command from the keyboard, and copy the region from the
cursor position to the endpoint of the movement into the kill buffer. If
the command is vi-yank, copy the current line.
- vi-yank-whole-line (unbound) (Y) (unbound)
- Copy the current line into the kill buffer.
- vi-yank-eol
- Copy the region from the cursor position to the end of the line into the
kill buffer. Arguably, this is what Y should do in vi, but it isn't what
it actually does.
- digit-argument (ESC-0..ESC-9) (1-9)
(unbound)
- Start a new numeric argument, or add to the current one. See also
vi-digit-or-beginning-of-line. This only works if bound to a key
sequence ending in a decimal digit.
Inside a widget function, a call to this function treats the last key of the key
sequence which called the widget as the digit.
- neg-argument (ESC--) (unbound) (unbound)
- Changes the sign of the following argument.
- universal-argument
- Multiply the argument of the next command by 4. Alternatively, if this
command is followed by an integer (positive or negative), use that as the
argument for the next command. Thus digits cannot be repeated using this
command. For example, if this command occurs twice, followed immediately
by forward-char, move forward sixteen spaces; if instead it is
followed by -2, then forward-char, move backward two
spaces.
Inside a widget function, if passed an argument, i.e. `
zle
universal-argument num', the numeric argument will be set to
num; this is equivalent to `
NUMERIC=num'.
- argument-base
- Use the existing numeric argument as a numeric base, which must be in the
range 2 to 36 inclusive. Subsequent use of digit-argument and
universal-argument will input a new numeric argument in the given
base. The usual hexadecimal convention is used: the letter a or
A corresponds to 10, and so on. Arguments in bases requiring digits
from 10 upwards are more conveniently input with
universal-argument, since ESC-a etc. are not usually bound
to digit-argument.
The function can be used with a command argument inside a user-defined widget.
The following code sets the base to 16 and lets the user input a hexadecimal
argument until a key out of the digit range is typed:
zle argument-base 16
zle universal-argument
- accept-and-menu-complete
- In a menu completion, insert the current completion into the buffer, and
advance to the next possible completion.
- complete-word
- Attempt completion on the current word.
- delete-char-or-list (^D) (unbound) (unbound)
- Delete the character under the cursor. If the cursor is at the end of the
line, list possible completions for the current word.
- expand-cmd-path
- Expand the current command to its full pathname.
- expand-or-complete (TAB) (unbound) (TAB)
- Attempt shell expansion on the current word. If that fails, attempt
completion.
- expand-or-complete-prefix
- Attempt shell expansion on the current word up to cursor.
- expand-history (ESC-space ESC-!) (unbound) (unbound)
- Perform history expansion on the edit buffer.
- expand-word (^X*) (unbound) (unbound)
- Attempt shell expansion on the current word.
- list-choices (ESC-^D) (^D =) (^D)
- List possible completions for the current word.
- list-expand (^Xg ^XG) (^G) (^G)
- List the expansion of the current word.
- magic-space
- Perform history expansion and insert a space into the buffer. This is
intended to be bound to space.
- menu-complete
- Like complete-word, except that menu completion is used. See the
MENU_COMPLETE option.
- menu-expand-or-complete
- Like expand-or-complete, except that menu completion is used.
- reverse-menu-complete
- Perform menu completion, like menu-complete, except that if a menu
completion is already in progress, move to the previous completion
rather than the next.
- end-of-list
- When a previous completion displayed a list below the prompt, this widget
can be used to move the prompt below the list.
- accept-and-hold (ESC-A ESC-a) (unbound) (unbound)
- Push the contents of the buffer on the buffer stack and execute it.
- accept-and-infer-next-history
- Execute the contents of the buffer. Then search the history list for a
line matching the current one and push the event following onto the buffer
stack.
- accept-line (^J ^M) (^J ^M) (^J ^M)
- Finish editing the buffer. Normally this causes the buffer to be executed
as a shell command.
- accept-line-and-down-history (^O) (unbound) (unbound)
- Execute the current line, and push the next history event on the buffer
stack.
- auto-suffix-remove
- If the previous action added a suffix (space, slash, etc.) to the word on
the command line, remove it. Otherwise do nothing. Removing the suffix
ends any active menu completion or menu selection.
This widget is intended to be called from user-defined widgets to enforce a
desired suffix-removal behavior.
- auto-suffix-retain
- If the previous action added a suffix (space, slash, etc.) to the word on
the command line, force it to be preserved. Otherwise do nothing.
Retaining the suffix ends any active menu completion or menu
selection.
This widget is intended to be called from user-defined widgets to enforce a
desired suffix-preservation behavior.
- beep
- Beep, unless the BEEP option is unset.
- bracketed-paste
- This widget is invoked when text is pasted to the terminal emulator. It is
not intended to be bound to actual keys but instead to the special
sequence generated by the terminal emulator when text is pasted.
When invoked interactively, the pasted text is inserted to the buffer and placed
in the cutbuffer. If a numeric argument is given, shell quoting will be
applied to the pasted text before it is inserted.
When a named buffer is specified with
vi-set-buffer (
"x), the
pasted text is stored in that named buffer but not inserted.
When called from a widget function as `
bracketed-paste name`, the
pasted text is assigned to the variable
name and no other processing is
done.
See also the
zle_bracketed_paste parameter.
- vi-cmd-mode (^X^V) (unbound) (^[)
- Enter command mode; that is, select the `vicmd' keymap. Yes, this
is bound by default in emacs mode.
- vi-caps-lock-panic
- Hang until any lowercase key is pressed. This is for vi users without the
mental capacity to keep track of their caps lock key (like the
author).
- clear-screen (^L ESC-^L) (^L) (^L)
- Clear the screen and redraw the prompt.
- deactivate-region
- Make the current region inactive. This disables vim-style visual selection
mode if it is active.
- describe-key-briefly
- Reads a key sequence, then prints the function bound to that
sequence.
- exchange-point-and-mark (^X^X) (unbound) (unbound)
- Exchange the cursor position (point) with the position of the mark. Unless
a negative numeric argument is given, the region between point and mark is
activated so that it can be highlighted. If a zero numeric argument is
given, the region is activated but point and mark are not swapped.
- execute-named-cmd (ESC-x) (:) (unbound)
- Read the name of an editor command and execute it. Aliasing this widget
with ` zle -A' or replacing it with `zle -N' has no effect
when interpreting key bindings, but ` zle execute-named-cmd' will
invoke such an alias or replacement.
A restricted set of editing functions is available in the mini-buffer. Keys are
looked up in the special
command keymap, and if not found there in the
main keymap. An interrupt signal, as defined by the stty setting, will abort
the function. Note that the following always perform the same task within the
executed-named-cmd environment and cannot be replaced by user defined
widgets, nor can the set of functions be extended. The allowed functions are:
backward-delete-char,
vi-backward-delete-char,
clear-screen,
redisplay,
quoted-insert,
vi-quoted-insert,
backward-kill-word,
vi-backward-kill-word,
kill-whole-line,
vi-kill-line,
backward-kill-line,
list-choices,
delete-char-or-list,
complete-word,
accept-line,
expand-or-complete and
expand-or-complete-prefix.
kill-region kills the last word, and vi-cmd-mode is treated the same as
accept-line. The space and tab characters, if not bound to one of these
functions, will complete the name and then list the possibilities if the
AUTO_LIST option is set. Any other character that is not bound to
self-insert or
self-insert-unmeta will beep and be ignored. The
bindings of the current insert mode will be used.
Currently this command may not be redefined or called by name.
- execute-last-named-cmd (ESC-z) (unbound) (unbound)
- Redo the last function executed with execute-named-cmd.
Like
execute-named-cmd, this command may not be redefined, but it may be
called by name.
- get-line (ESC-G ESC-g) (unbound) (unbound)
- Pop the top line off the buffer stack and insert it at the cursor
position.
- pound-insert (unbound) (#) (unbound)
- If there is no # character at the beginning of the buffer, add one to the
beginning of each line. If there is one, remove a # from each line that
has one. In either case, accept the current line. The
INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS option must be set for this to have any
usefulness.
- vi-pound-insert
- If there is no # character at the beginning of the current line, add one.
If there is one, remove it. The INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS option must be
set for this to have any usefulness.
- push-input
- Push the entire current multiline construct onto the buffer stack and
return to the top-level ( PS1) prompt. If the current parser
construct is only a single line, this is exactly like push-line.
Next time the editor starts up or is popped with get-line, the
construct will be popped off the top of the buffer stack and loaded into
the editing buffer.
- push-line (^Q ESC-Q ESC-q) (unbound) (unbound)
- Push the current buffer onto the buffer stack and clear the buffer. Next
time the editor starts up, the buffer will be popped off the top of the
buffer stack and loaded into the editing buffer.
- push-line-or-edit
- At the top-level (PS1) prompt, equivalent to push-line. At a
secondary ( PS2) prompt, move the entire current multiline
construct into the editor buffer. The latter is equivalent to
push-input followed by get-line.
- read-command
- Only useful from a user-defined widget. A keystroke is read just as in
normal operation, but instead of the command being executed the name of
the command that would be executed is stored in the shell parameter
REPLY. This can be used as the argument of a future zle
command. If the key sequence is not bound, status 1 is returned;
typically, however, REPLY is set to undefined-key to
indicate a useless key sequence.
- recursive-edit
- Only useful from a user-defined widget. At this point in the function, the
editor regains control until one of the standard widgets which would
normally cause zle to exit (typically an accept-line caused by
hitting the return key) is executed. Instead, control returns to the
user-defined widget. The status returned is non-zero if the return was
caused by an error, but the function still continues executing and hence
may tidy up. This makes it safe for the user-defined widget to alter the
command line or key bindings temporarily.
The following widget,
caps-lock, serves as an example.
self-insert-ucase() {
LBUFFER+=${(U)KEYS[-1]}
}
integer stat
zle -N self-insert self-insert-ucase
zle -A caps-lock save-caps-lock
zle -A accept-line caps-lock
zle recursive-edit
stat=$?
zle -A .self-insert self-insert
zle -A save-caps-lock caps-lock
zle -D save-caps-lock
(( stat )) && zle send-break
return $stat
This causes typed letters to be inserted capitalised until either
accept-line (i.e. typically the return key) is typed or the
caps-lock widget is invoked again; the later is handled by saving the
old definition of
caps-lock as
save-caps-lock and then rebinding
it to invoke
accept-line. Note that an error from the recursive edit is
detected as a non-zero return status and propagated by using the
send-break widget.
- redisplay (unbound) (^R) (^R)
- Redisplays the edit buffer.
- reset-prompt (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
- Force the prompts on both the left and right of the screen to be
re-expanded, then redisplay the edit buffer. This reflects changes both to
the prompt variables themselves and changes in the expansion of the values
(for example, changes in time or directory, or changes to the value of
variables referred to by the prompt).
Otherwise, the prompt is only expanded each time zle starts, and when the
display as been interrupted by output from another part of the shell (such as
a job notification) which causes the command line to be reprinted.
- send-break (^G ESC-^G) (unbound) (unbound)
- Abort the current editor function, e.g. execute-named-command, or
the editor itself, e.g. if you are in vared. Otherwise abort the
parsing of the current line; in this case the aborted line is available in
the shell variable ZLE_LINE_ABORTED. If the editor is aborted from
within vared, the variable ZLE_VARED_ABORTED is set.
- run-help (ESC-H ESC-h) (unbound) (unbound)
- Push the buffer onto the buffer stack, and execute the command `
run-help cmd', where cmd is the current command.
run-help is normally aliased to man.
- vi-set-buffer (unbound) (") (unbound)
- Specify a buffer to be used in the following command. There are 37 buffers
that can be specified: the 26 `named' buffers "a to
"z, the `yank' buffer "0, the nine `queued'
buffers "1 to "9 and the `black hole' buffer
"_. The named buffers can also be specified as "A
to "Z.
When a buffer is specified for a cut, change or yank command, the text concerned
replaces the previous contents of the specified buffer. If a named buffer is
specified using a capital, the newly cut text is appended to the buffer
instead of overwriting it. When using the
"_ buffer, nothing
happens. This can be useful for deleting text without affecting any buffers.
If no buffer is specified for a cut or change command,
"1 is used,
and the contents of
"1 to
"8 are each shifted along
one buffer; the contents of
"9 is lost. If no buffer is specified
for a yank command,
"0 is used. Finally, a paste command without a
specified buffer will paste the text from the most recent command regardless
of any buffer that might have been used with that command.
When called from a widget function by the
zle command, the buffer can
optionally be specified with an argument. For example,
- vi-set-mark (unbound) (m) (unbound)
- Set the specified mark at the cursor position.
- set-mark-command (^@) (unbound) (unbound)
- Set the mark at the cursor position. If called with a negative numeric
argument, do not set the mark but deactivate the region so that it is no
longer highlighted (it is still usable for other purposes). Otherwise the
region is marked as active.
- spell-word (ESC-$ ESC-S ESC-s) (unbound) (unbound)
- Attempt spelling correction on the current word.
- split-undo
- Breaks the undo sequence at the current change. This is useful in vi mode
as changes made in insert mode are coalesced on entering command mode.
Similarly, undo will normally revert as one all the changes made by
a user-defined widget.
- undefined-key
- This command is executed when a key sequence that is not bound to any
command is typed. By default it beeps.
- undo (^_ ^Xu ^X^U) (u) (unbound)
- Incrementally undo the last text modification. When called from a
user-defined widget, takes an optional argument indicating a previous
state of the undo history as returned by the UNDO_CHANGE_NO
variable; modifications are undone until that state is reached, subject to
any limit imposed by the UNDO_LIMIT_NO variable.
Note that when invoked from vi command mode, the full prior change made in
insert mode is reverted, the changes having been merged when command mode was
selected.
- redo (unbound) (^R) (unbound)
- Incrementally redo undone text modifications.
- vi-undo-change (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
- Undo the last text modification. If repeated, redo the modification.
- visual-mode (unbound) (v) (unbound)
- Toggle vim-style visual selection mode. If line-wise visual mode is
currently enabled then it is changed to being character-wise. If used
following an operator, it forces the subsequent movement command to be
treated as a character-wise movement.
- visual-line-mode (unbound) (V) (unbound)
- Toggle vim-style line-wise visual selection mode. If character-wise visual
mode is currently enabled then it is changed to being line-wise. If used
following an operator, it forces the subsequent movement command to be
treated as a line-wise movement.
- what-cursor-position (^X=) (ga) (unbound)
- Print the character under the cursor, its code as an octal, decimal and
hexadecimal number, the current cursor position within the buffer and the
column of the cursor in the current line.
- where-is
- Read the name of an editor command and print the listing of key sequences
that invoke the specified command. A restricted set of editing functions
is available in the mini-buffer. Keys are looked up in the special
command keymap, and if not found there in the main keymap.
- which-command (ESC-?) (unbound) (unbound)
- Push the buffer onto the buffer stack, and execute the command `
which-command cmd'. where cmd is the current command.
which-command is normally aliased to whence.
- vi-digit-or-beginning-of-line (unbound) (0) (unbound)
- If the last command executed was a digit as part of an argument, continue
the argument. Otherwise, execute vi-beginning-of-line.
Text objects are commands that can be used to select a block of text according
to some criteria. They are a feature of the vim text editor and so are
primarily intended for use with vi operators or from visual selection mode.
However, they can also be used from vi-insert or emacs mode. Key bindings
listed below apply to the
viopp and
visual keymaps.
- select-a-blank-word (aW)
- Select a word including adjacent blanks, where a word is defined as a
series of non-blank characters. With a numeric argument, multiple words
will be selected.
- select-a-shell-word (aa)
- Select the current command argument applying the normal rules for
quoting.
- select-a-word (aw)
- Select a word including adjacent blanks, using the normal vi-style word
definition. With a numeric argument, multiple words will be selected.
- select-in-blank-word (iW)
- Select a word, where a word is defined as a series of non-blank
characters. With a numeric argument, multiple words will be selected.
- select-in-shell-word (ia)
- Select the current command argument applying the normal rules for quoting.
If the argument begins and ends with matching quote characters, these are
not included in the selection.
- select-in-word (iw)
- Select a word, using the normal vi-style word definition. With a numeric
argument, multiple words will be selected.
The line editor has the ability to highlight characters or regions of the line
that have a particular significance. This is controlled by the array parameter
zle_highlight, if it has been set by the user.
If the parameter contains the single entry
none all highlighting is
turned off. Note the parameter is still expected to be an array.
Otherwise each entry of the array should consist of a word indicating a context
for highlighting, then a colon, then a comma-separated list of the types of
highlighting to apply in that context.
The contexts available for highlighting are the following:
- default
- Any text within the command line not affected by any other highlighting.
Text outside the editable area of the command line is not affected.
- isearch
- When one of the incremental history search widgets is active, the area of
the command line matched by the search string or pattern.
- region
- The currently selected text. In emacs terminology, this is referred to as
the region and is bounded by the cursor (point) and the mark. The region
is only highlighted if it is active, which is the case after the mark is
modified with set-mark-command or exchange-point-and-mark.
Note that whether or not the region is active has no effect on its use
within emacs style widgets, it simply determines whether it is
highlighted. In vi mode, the region corresponds to selected text in visual
mode.
- special
- Individual characters that have no direct printable representation but are
shown in a special manner by the line editor. These characters are
described below.
- suffix
- This context is used in completion for characters that are marked as
suffixes that will be removed if the completion ends at that point, the
most obvious example being a slash ( /) after a directory name.
Note that suffix removal is configurable; the circumstances under which
the suffix will be removed may differ for different completions.
- paste
- Following a command to paste text, the characters that were inserted.
When
region_highlight is set, the contexts that describe a region --
isearch,
region,
suffix, and
paste -- are applied
first, then
region_highlight is applied, then the remaining
zle_highlight contexts are applied. If a particular character is
affected by multiple specifications, the last specification wins.
zle_highlight may contain additional fields for controlling how terminal
sequences to change colours are output. Each of the following is followed by a
colon and a string in the same form as for key bindings. This will not be
necessary for the vast majority of terminals as the defaults shown in
parentheses are widely used.
- fg_start_code (\e[3)
- The start of the escape sequence for the foreground colour. This is
followed by an ASCII digit representing the colour.
- fg_default_code (9)
- The number to use instead of the colour to reset the default foreground
colour.
- fg_end_code (m)
- The end of the escape sequence for the foreground colour.
- bg_start_code (\e[4)
- The start of the escape sequence for the background colour. This is
followed by an ASCII digit representing the colour.
- bg_default_code (9)
- The number to use instead of the colour to reset the default background
colour.
- bg_end_code (m)
- The end of the escape sequence for the background colour.
The available types of highlighting are the following. Note that not all types
of highlighting are available on all terminals:
- none
- No highlighting is applied to the given context. It is not useful for this
to appear with other types of highlighting; it is used to override a
default.
- fg=colour
- The foreground colour should be set to colour, a decimal integer or
the name of one of the eight most widely-supported colours.
Not all terminals support this and, of those that do, not all provide facilities
to test the support, hence the user should decide based on the terminal type.
Most terminals support the colours
black,
red,
green,
yellow,
blue,
magenta,
cyan and
white,
which can be set by name. In addition.
default may be used to set the
terminal's default foreground colour. Abbreviations are allowed;
b or
bl selects black. Some terminals may generate additional colours if the
bold attribute is also present.
On recent terminals and on systems with an up-to-date terminal database the
number of colours supported may be tested by the command `
echotc
Co'; if this succeeds, it indicates a limit on the number of colours
which will be enforced by the line editor. The number of colours is in any
case limited to 256 (i.e. the range 0 to 255).
Colour is also known as color.
- bg=colour
- The background colour should be set to colour. This works similarly
to the foreground colour, except the background is not usually affected by
the bold attribute.
- bold
- The characters in the given context are shown in a bold font. Not all
terminals distinguish bold fonts.
- standout
- The characters in the given context are shown in the terminal's standout
mode. The actual effect is specific to the terminal; on many terminals it
is inverse video. On some such terminals, where the cursor does not blink
it appears with standout mode negated, making it less than clear where the
cursor actually is. On such terminals one of the other effects may be
preferable for highlighting the region and matched search string.
- underline
- The characters in the given context are shown underlined. Some terminals
show the foreground in a different colour instead; in this case whitespace
will not be highlighted.
The characters described above as `special' are as follows. The formatting
described here is used irrespective of whether the characters are highlighted:
- ASCII control characters
- Control characters in the ASCII range are shown as ` ^' followed by
the base character.
- Unprintable multibyte characters
- This item applies to control characters not in the ASCII range, plus other
characters as follows. If the MULTIBYTE option is in effect,
multibyte characters not in the ASCII character set that are reported as
having zero width are treated as combining characters when the option
COMBINING_CHARS is on. If the option is off, or if a character
appears where a combining character is not valid, the character is treated
as unprintable.
Unprintable multibyte characters are shown as a hexadecimal number between angle
brackets. The number is the code point of the character in the wide character
set; this may or may not be Unicode, depending on the operating system.
- Invalid multibyte characters
- If the MULTIBYTE option is in effect, any sequence of one or more
bytes that does not form a valid character in the current character set is
treated as a series of bytes each shown as a special character. This case
can be distinguished from other unprintable characters as the bytes are
represented as two hexadecimal digits between angle brackets, as distinct
from the four or eight digits that are used for unprintable characters
that are nonetheless valid in the current character set.
Not all systems support this: for it to work, the system's representation of
wide characters must be code values from the Universal Character Set, as
defined by IS0 10646 (also known as Unicode).
- Wrapped double-width characters
- When a double-width character appears in the final column of a line, it is
instead shown on the next line. The empty space left in the original
position is highlighted as a special character.
If
zle_highlight is not set or no value applies to a particular context,
the defaults applied are equivalent to
zle_highlight=(region:standout special:standout
suffix:bold isearch:underline paste:standout)
i.e. both the region and special characters are shown in standout mode.
Within widgets, arbitrary regions may be highlighted by setting the special
array parameter
region_highlight; see above.