Man1 - zshcontrib.1

The key sequence ESC h is normally bound by ZLE to execute the run-help widget (see /zshzle/(1)). This invokes the run-help command with the command word from the current input line as its argument. By default, run-help is an alias for the man command, so this often fails when the command word is a shell builtin or a user-defined function. By redefining the run-help alias, one can improve the on-line help provided by the shell.

The helpfiles utility, found in the Util directory of the distribution, is a Perl program that can be used to process the zsh manual to produce a separate help file for each shell builtin and for many other shell features as well. The autoloadable run-help function, found in Functions/Misc, searches for these helpfiles and performs several other tests to produce the most complete help possible for the command.

Help files are installed by default to a subdirectory of /usr/share/zsh or /usr/local/share/zsh.

To create your own help files with helpfiles, choose or create a directory where the individual command help files will reside. For example, you might choose ~/zsh_help. If you unpacked the zsh distribution in your home directory, you would use the commands:

    mkdir ~/zsh_help
    perl ~/zsh-5.8/Util/helpfiles ~/zsh_help

The HELPDIR parameter tells run-help where to look for the help files. When unset, it uses the default installation path. To use your own set of help files, set this to the appropriate path in one of your startup files:

    HELPDIR=~/zsh_help

To use the run-help function, you need to add lines something like the following to your .zshrc or equivalent startup file:

    unalias run-help
    autoload run-help

Note that in order for `*autoload run-help*’ to work, the run-help file must be in one of the directories named in your fpath array (see /zshparam/(1)). This should already be the case if you have a standard zsh installation; if it is not, copy Functions/Misc/run-help to an appropriate directory.

If you frequently edit your zsh functions, or periodically update your zsh installation to track the latest developments, you may find that function digests compiled with the zcompile builtin are frequently out of date with respect to the function source files. This is not usually a problem, because zsh always looks for the newest file when loading a function, but it may cause slower shell startup and function loading. Also, if a digest file is explicitly used as an element of fpath, zsh won’t check whether any of its source files has changed.

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

zrecompile [ -qt ] [ name … ]

zrecompile [ -qt ] -p arg … [ -- arg … ] This tries to find *.zwc files and automatically re-compile them if at least one of the original files is newer than the compiled file. This works only if the names stored in the compiled files are full paths or are relative to the directory that contains the .zwc file.

In the first form, each name is the name of a compiled file or a directory containing *.zwc files that should be checked. If no arguments are given, the directories and *.zwc files in fpath are used.

When -t is given, no compilation is performed, but a return status of zero (true) is set if there are files that need to be re-compiled and non-zero (false) otherwise. The -q option quiets the chatty output that describes what zrecompile is doing.

Without the -t option, the return status is zero if all files that needed re-compilation could be compiled and non-zero if compilation for at least one of the files failed.

If the -p option is given, the /arg/s are interpreted as one or more sets of arguments for zcompile, separated by `*–*’. For example:

#+begin_quote

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

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

Without the -p option, zrecompile does not create function digests that do not already exist, nor does it add new functions to the digest. #+end_quote

The following shell loop is an example of a method for creating function digests for all functions in your fpath, assuming that you have write permission to the directories:

    for ((i=1; i <= $#fpath; ++i)); do
      dir=$fpath[i]
      zwc=${dir:t}.zwc
      if [[ $dir == (.|..) || $dir == (.|..)/* ]]; then
        continue
      fi
      files=($dir/*(N-.))
      if [[ -w $dir:h && -n $files ]]; then
        files=(${${(M)files%/*/*}#/})
        if ( cd $dir:h &&
             zrecompile -p -U -z $zwc $files ); then
          fpath[i]=$fpath[i].zwc
        fi
      fi
    done

The -U and -z options are appropriate for functions in the default zsh installation fpath; you may need to use different options for your personal function directories.

Once the digests have been created and your fpath modified to refer to them, you can keep them up to date by running zrecompile with no arguments.

The large number of possible combinations of keyboards, workstations, terminals, emulators, and window systems makes it impossible for zsh to have built-in key bindings for every situation. The zkbd utility, found in Functions/Misc, can help you quickly create key bindings for your configuration.

Run zkbd either as an autoloaded function, or as a shell script:

    zsh -f ~/zsh-5.8/Functions/Misc/zkbd

When you run zkbd, it first asks you to enter your terminal type; if the default it offers is correct, just press return. It then asks you to press a number of different keys to determine characteristics of your keyboard and terminal; zkbd warns you if it finds anything out of the ordinary, such as a Delete key that sends neither ^H nor ^?.

The keystrokes read by zkbd are recorded as a definition for an associative array named key, written to a file in the subdirectory .zkbd within either your HOME or ZDOTDIR directory. The name of the file is composed from the TERM, VENDOR and OSTYPE parameters, joined by hyphens.

You may read this file into your .zshrc or another startup file with the `*source*’ or `*.*’ commands, then reference the key parameter in bindkey commands, like this:

    source ${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zkbd/$TERM-$VENDOR-$OSTYPE
    [[ -n ${key[Left]} ]] && bindkey "${key[Left]}" backward-char
    [[ -n ${key[Right]} ]] && bindkey "${key[Right]}" forward-char
    # etc.

Note that in order for `*autoload zkbd*’ to work, the zkdb file must be in one of the directories named in your fpath array (see /zshparam/(1)). This should already be the case if you have a standard zsh installation; if it is not, copy Functions/Misc/zkbd to an appropriate directory.

Occasionally you may encounter what appears to be a bug in the shell, particularly if you are using a beta version of zsh or a development release. Usually it is sufficient to send a description of the problem to one of the zsh mailing lists (see /zsh/(1)), but sometimes one of the zsh developers will need to recreate your environment in order to track the problem down.

The script named reporter, found in the Util directory of the distribution, is provided for this purpose. (It is also possible to autoload reporter, but reporter is not installed in fpath by default.) This script outputs a detailed dump of the shell state, in the form of another script that can be read with `*zsh -f*’ to recreate that state.

To use reporter, read the script into your shell with the `*.*’ command and redirect the output into a file:

    . ~/zsh-5.8/Util/reporter > zsh.report

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

You can also use reporter to dump only a subset of the shell state. This is sometimes useful for creating startup files for the first time. Most of the output from reporter is far more detailed than usually is necessary for a startup file, but the aliases, options, and zstyles states may be useful because they include only changes from the defaults. The bindings state may be useful if you have created any of your own keymaps, because reporter arranges to dump the keymap creation commands as well as the bindings for every keymap.

As is usual with automated tools, if you create a startup file with reporter, you should edit the results to remove unnecessary commands. Note that if you’re using the new completion system, you should not dump the functions state to your startup files with reporter; use the compdump function instead (see /zshcompsys/(1)).

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

all

Output everything listed below.

aliases

Output alias definitions.

bindings

Output ZLE key maps and bindings.

completion

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

functions

Output autoloads and function definitions.

limits

Output limit commands.

options

Output setopt commands.

styles

Same as zstyles.

variables

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

zstyles

Output zstyle commands.

If the state is omitted, all is assumed.

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

add-zsh-hook [ -L | -dD ] [ -Uzk ] hook function Several functions are special to the shell, as described in the section SPECIAL FUNCTIONS, see /zshmisc/(1), in that they are automatically called at specific points during shell execution. Each has an associated array consisting of names of functions to be called at the same point; these are so-called `hook functions’. The shell function add-zsh-hook provides a simple way of adding or removing functions from the array.

hook is one of chpwd, periodic, precmd, preexec, zshaddhistory, zshexit, or zsh_directory_name, the special functions in question. Note that zsh_directory_name is called in a different way from the other functions, but may still be manipulated as a hook.

function is name of an ordinary shell function. If no options are given this will be added to the array of functions to be executed in the given context. Functions are invoked in the order they were added.

If the option -L is given, the current values for the hook arrays are listed with typeset.

If the option -d is given, the function is removed from the array of functions to be executed.

If the option -D is given, the function is treated as a pattern and any matching names of functions are removed from the array of functions to be executed.

The options -U, -z and -k are passed as arguments to autoload for function. For functions contributed with zsh, the options -Uz are appropriate.

• add-zle-hook-widget [ -L | -dD ] [ -Uzk ] hook widgetname :: Several widget names are special to the line editor, as described in the section Special Widgets, see /zshzle/(1), in that they are automatically called at specific points during editing. Unlike function hooks, these do not use a predefined array of other names to call at the same point; the shell function add-zle-hook-widget maintains a similar array and arranges for the special widget to invoke those additional widgets.

  hook is one of isearch-exit, isearch-update, line-pre-redraw, line-init, line-finish, history-line-set, or keymap-select, corresponding to each of the special widgets zle-isearch-exit, etc. The special widget names are also accepted as the hook argument.

  widgetname is the name of a ZLE widget. If no options are given this is added to the array of widgets to be invoked in the given hook context. Widgets are invoked in the order they were added, with

        zle widgetname -Nw -- "$@"
  

  Note that this means that the `*WIDGET’ special parameter tracks the* /widgetname/* when the widget function is called, rather than tracking* the name of the corresponding special hook widget.

  If the option -d is given, the */widgetname/ is removed from* the array of widgets to be executed.

  If the option -D is given, the */widgetname/ is treated as a pattern* and any matching names of widgets are removed from the array.

  If /widgetname/* does not name an existing widget when added to the* array, it is assumed that a shell function also named /widgetname/* is* meant to provide the implementation of the widget. This name is therefore marked for autoloading, and the options -U, -z and -k are passed as arguments to autoload as with add-zsh-hook. The widget is also created with `*zle -N widgetname’ to cause the* corresponding function to be loaded the first time the hook is called.

  The arrays of /widgetname/* are currently maintained in zstyle* contexts, one for each /hook/* context, with a style of `widgets’.* If the -L option is given, this set of styles is listed with `*zstyle -L’. This implementation may change, and the special widgets* that refer to the styles are created only if add-zle-hook-widget is called to add at least one widget, so if this function is used for any hooks, then all hooks should be managed only via this function.

The system works by means of a hook function that is called every time the directory changes. To install the system, autoload the required functions and use the add-zsh-hook function described above:

    autoload -Uz chpwd_recent_dirs cdr add-zsh-hook
    add-zsh-hook chpwd chpwd_recent_dirs

Now every time you change directly interactively, no matter which command you use, the directory to which you change will be remembered in most-recent-first order.

All direct user interaction is via the cdr function.

The argument to cdr is a number /N/* corresponding to the /N/*th most recently changed-to directory. 1 is the immediately preceding directory; the current directory is remembered but is not offered as a destination. Note that if you have multiple windows open 1 may refer to a directory changed to in another window; you can avoid this by having per-terminal files for storing directory as described for the recent-dirs-file style below.

If you set the recent-dirs-default style described below cdr will behave the same as cd if given a non-numeric argument, or more than one argument. The recent directory list is updated just the same however you change directory.

If the argument is omitted, 1 is assumed. This is similar to pushd’s behaviour of swapping the two most recent directories on the stack.

Completion for the argument to cdr is available if compinit has been run; menu selection is recommended, using:

    zstyle ':completion:*:*:cdr:*:*' menu selection

to allow you to cycle through recent directories; the order is preserved, so the first choice is the most recent directory before the current one. The verbose style is also recommended to ensure the directory is shown; this style is on by default so no action is required unless you have changed it.

The behaviour of cdr may be modified by the following options.

-l lists the numbers and the corresponding directories in abbreviated form (i.e. with ~ substitution reapplied), one per line. The directories here are not quoted (this would only be an issue if a directory name contained a newline). This is used by the completion system.

-r

sets the variable reply to the current set of directories. Nothing is printed and the directory is not changed.

-e

allows you to edit the list of directories, one per line. The list can be edited to any extent you like; no sanity checking is performed. Completion is available. No quoting is necessary (except for newlines, where I have in any case no sympathy); directories are in unabbreviated from and contain an absolute path, i.e. they start with /. Usually the first entry should be left as the current directory.

-p ’*/pattern/’*

Prunes any items in the directory list that match the given extended glob pattern; the pattern needs to be quoted from immediate expansion on the command line. The pattern is matched against each completely expanded file name in the list; the full string must match, so wildcards at the end (e.g. ’*removeme’) are needed to remove entries with a given* substring.

If output is to a terminal, then the function will print the new list after pruning and prompt for confirmation by the user. This output and confirmation step can be skipped by using -P instead of -p.

Configuration is by means of the styles mechanism that should be familiar from completion; if not, see the description of the zstyle command in see /zshmodules/*(1). The context for setting styles* should be ’:chpwd:’ in case the meaning of the context is extended in* future, for example:

    zstyle ':chpwd:*' recent-dirs-max 0

sets the value of the recent-dirs-max style to 0. In practice the style name is specific enough that a context of ’*’ should be fine.

An exception is recent-dirs-insert, which is used exclusively by the completion system and so has the usual completion system context (’:completion:’ if nothing more specific is needed), though again* ’’ should be fine in practice.*

recent-dirs-default If true, and the command is expecting a recent directory index, and either there is more than one argument or the argument is not an integer, then fall through to “cd”. This allows the lazy to use only one command for directory changing. Completion recognises this, too; see recent-dirs-insert for how to control completion when this option is in use.

recent-dirs-file

The file where the list of directories is saved. The default is ${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.chpwd-recent-dirs, i.e. this is in your home directory unless you have set the variable ZDOTDIR to point somewhere else. Directory names are saved in $’*/…/’ quoted* form, so each line in the file can be supplied directly to the shell as an argument.

The value of this style may be an array. In this case, the first file in the list will always be used for saving directories while any other files are left untouched. When reading the recent directory list, if there are fewer than the maximum number of entries in the first file, the contents of later files in the array will be appended with duplicates removed from the list shown. The contents of the two files are not sorted together, i.e. all the entries in the first file are shown first. The special value + can appear in the list to indicate the default file should be read at that point. This allows effects like the following:

      zstyle ':chpwd:*' recent-dirs-file \ 
      ~/.chpwd-recent-dirs-${TTY##*/} +

Recent directories are read from a file numbered according to the terminal. If there are insufficient entries the list is supplemented from the default file.

It is possible to use zstyle -e to make the directory configurable at run time:

      zstyle -e ':chpwd:*' recent-dirs-file pick-recent-dirs-file
      pick-recent-dirs-file() {
        if [[ $PWD = ~/text/writing(|/*) ]]; then
          reply=(~/.chpwd-recent-dirs-writing)
        else
          reply=(+)
        fi
      }

In this example, if the current directory is ~/text/writing or a directory under it, then use a special file for saving recent directories, else use the default.

recent-dirs-insert

Used by completion. If recent-dirs-default is true, then setting this to true causes the actual directory, rather than its index, to be inserted on the command line; this has the same effect as using the corresponding index, but makes the history clearer and the line easier to edit. With this setting, if part of an argument was already typed, normal directory completion rather than recent directory completion is done; this is because recent directory completion is expected to be done by cycling through entries menu fashion.

If the value of the style is always, then only recent directories will be completed; in that case, use the cd command when you want to complete other directories.

If the value is fallback, recent directories will be tried first, then normal directory completion is performed if recent directory completion failed to find a match.

Finally, if the value is both then both sets of completions are presented; the usual tag mechanism can be used to distinguish results, with recent directories tagged as recent-dirs. Note that the recent directories inserted are abbreviated with directory names where appropriate.

recent-dirs-max

The maximum number of directories to save to the file. If this is zero or negative there is no maximum. The default is 20. Note this includes the current directory, which isn’t offered, so the highest number of directories you will be offered is one less than the maximum.

recent-dirs-prune

This style is an array determining what directories should (or should not) be added to the recent list. Elements of the array can include:

parent Prune parents (more accurately, ancestors) from the recent list. If present, changing directly down by any number of directories causes the current directory to be overwritten. For example, changing from ~pws to ~pws/some/other/dir causes ~pws not to be left on the recent directory stack. This only applies to direct changes to descendant directories; earlier directories on the list are not pruned. For example, changing from ~pws/yet/another to ~pws/some/other/dir does not cause ~pws to be pruned.

*pattern:*/pattern/

Gives a zsh pattern for directories that should not be added to the recent list (if not already there). This element can be repeated to add different patterns. For example, ’pattern:/tmp(|/)’*/ stops /tmp or its descendants/ from being added. The *EXTENDED_GLOB*/ option is always turned on/ for these patterns.

recent-dirs-pushd

If set to true, *cdr*/ will use pushd instead of cd to change the/ directory, so the directory is saved on the directory stack. As the directory stack is completely separate from the list of files saved by the mechanism used in this file there is no obvious reason to do this.

It is possible to refer to recent directories using the dynamic directory name syntax by using the supplied function zsh_directory_name_cdr a hook:

    autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook
    add-zsh-hook -Uz zsh_directory_name zsh_directory_name_cdr

When this is done, *~[1]*/ will refer to the most recent/ directory other than $PWD, and so on. Completion after *~[*/…/ also works.

This section is for the curious or confused; most users will not need to know this information.

Recent directories are saved to a file immediately and hence are preserved across sessions. Note currently no file locking is applied: the list is updated immediately on interactive commands and nowhere else (unlike history), and it is assumed you are only going to change directory in one window at once. This is not safe on shared accounts, but in any case the system has limited utility when someone else is changing to a different set of directories behind your back.

To make this a little safer, only directory changes instituted from the command line, either directly or indirectly through shell function calls (but not through subshells, evals, traps, completion functions and the like) are saved. Shell functions should use *cd -q*/ or pushd -q to/ avoid side effects if the change to the directory is to be invisible at the command line. See the contents of the function *chpwd_recent_dirs*/ for/ more details.

To use the function, first define a wrapper function for your specific case. We’ll assume it’s to be autoloaded. This can have any name but we’ll refer to it as zdn_mywrapper. This wrapper function will define various variables and then call this function with the same arguments that the wrapper function gets. This configuration is described below.

Then arrange for the wrapper to be run as a zsh_directory_name hook:

    autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook zsh_diretory_name_generic zdn_mywrapper
    add-zsh-hook -U zsh_directory_name zdn_mywrapper

The wrapper function should define a local associative array zdn_top. Alternatively, this can be set with a style called *mapping*/. The/ context for the style is *:zdn:*/wrapper-name where/ wrapper-name is the function calling zsh_directory_name_generic; for example:

    zstyle :zdn:zdn_mywrapper: mapping zdn_mywrapper_top

The keys in this associative array correspond to the first component of the name. The values are matching directories. They may have an optional suffix with a slash followed by a colon and the name of a variable in the same format to give the next component. (The slash before the colon is to disambiguate the case where a colon is needed in the path for a drive. There is otherwise no syntax for escaping this, so path components whose names start with a colon are not supported.) A special component *:default:*/ specifies a variable in the form/ */:*/var (the path section is ignored and so is usually empty)/ that will be used for the next component if no variable is given for the path. Variables referred to within *zdn_top*/ have the same format as/ *zdn_top*/ itself, but contain relative paths./

For example,

    local -A zdn_top=(
      g   ~/git
      ga  ~/alternate/git
      gs  /scratch/$USER/git/:second2
      :default: /:second1
    )

This specifies the behaviour of a directory referred to as ~[g:…] or *~[ga:…]*/ or ~[gs:…]. Later path components are optional;/ in that case *~[g]*/ expands to ~/git, and so on. gs expands/ to */scratch/$USER/git*/ and uses the associative array second2 to/ match the second component; *g*/ and ga use the associative array/ *second1*/ to match the second component./

When expanding a name to a directory, if the first component is not *g*/ or/ *ga*/ or gs, it is not an error; the function simply returns 1 so that a/ later hook function can be tried. However, matching the first component commits the function, so if a later component does not match, an error is printed (though this still does not stop later hooks from being executed).

For components after the first, a relative path is expected, but note that multiple levels may still appear. Here is an example of *second1*/:/

    local -A second1=(
      p   myproject
      s   somproject
      os  otherproject/subproject/:third
    )

The path as found from *zdn_top*/ is extended with the matching/ directory, so *~[g:p]*/ becomes ~/git/myproject. The slash between/ is added automatically (it’s not possible to have a later component modify the name of a directory already matched). Only *os*/ specifies/ a variable for a third component, and there’s no *:default:*/, so it’s/ an error to use a name like *~[g:p:x]*/ or ~[ga:s:y] because/ there’s nowhere to look up the *x*/ or y./

The associative arrays need to be visible within this function; the generic function therefore uses internal variable names beginning _zdn_*/ in order to avoid clashes. Note that the variable /*reply needs to be passed back to the shell, so should not be local in the calling function.

The function does not test whether directories assembled by component actually exist; this allows the system to work across automounted file systems. The error from the command trying to use a non-existent directory should be sufficient to indicate the problem.

Here is a full fictitious but usable autoloadable definition of the example function defined by the code above. So ~[gs:p:s]*/ expands/ to */scratch/$USER/git/myscratchproject/top/srcdir*/ (with /*$USER also expanded).

    local -A zdn_top=(
      g   ~/git
      ga  ~/alternate/git
      gs  /scratch/$USER/git/:second2
      :default: /:second1
    )

    local -A second1=(
      p   myproject
      s   somproject
      os  otherproject/subproject/:third
    )

    local -A second2=(
      p   myscratchproject
      s   somescratchproject
    )

    local -A third=(
      s   top/srcdir
      d   top/documentation
    )

    # autoload not needed if you did this at initialisation...
    autoload -Uz zsh_directory_name_generic
    zsh_directory_name_generic "$@

It is also possible to use global associative arrays, suitably named, and set the style for the context of your wrapper function to refer to this. Then your set up code would contain the following:

    typeset -A zdn_mywrapper_top=(...)
    # ... and so on for other associative arrays ...
    zstyle ':zdn:zdn_mywrapper:' mapping zdn_mywrapper_top
    autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook zsh_directory_name_generic zdn_mywrapper
    add-zsh-hook -U zsh_directory_name zdn_mywrapper

and the function *zdn_mywrapper*/ would contain only the following:/

    zsh_directory_name_generic "$@"

To get this feature working quickly (including colors), you can do the following (assuming, you loaded *vcs_info*/ properly - see above):/

    zstyle ':vcs_info:*' actionformats \ 
        '%F{5}(%f%s%F{5})%F{3}-%F{5}[%F{2}%b%F{3}|%F{1}%a%F{5}]%f '
    zstyle ':vcs_info:*' formats       \ 
        '%F{5}(%f%s%F{5})%F{3}-%F{5}[%F{2}%b%F{5}]%f '
    zstyle ':vcs_info:(sv[nk]|bzr):*' branchformat '%b%F{1}:%F{3}%r'
    precmd () { vcs_info }
    PS1='%F{5}[%F{2}%n%F{5}] %F{3}%3~ ${vcs_info_msg_0_}%f%# '

Obviously, the last two lines are there for demonstration. You need to call vcs_info*/ from your precmd function. Once that is done you need/ a /single quoted /’${vcs_info_msg_0_}’*/ in your prompt./

To be able to use *’${vcs_info_msg_0_}’*/ directly in your prompt like/ this, you will need to have the *PROMPT_SUBST*/ option enabled./

Now call the *vcs_info_printsys*/ utility from the command line:/

    % vcs_info_printsys
    ## list of supported version control backends:
    ## disabled systems are prefixed by a hash sign (#)
    bzr
    cdv
    cvs
    darcs
    fossil
    git
    hg
    mtn
    p4
    svk
    svn
    tla
    ## flavours (cannot be used in the enable or disable styles; they
    ## are enabled and disabled with their master [git-svn -> git])
    ## they *can* be used in contexts: ':vcs_info:git-svn:*'.
    git-p4
    git-svn
    hg-git
    hg-hgsubversion
    hg-hgsvn

You may not want all of these because there is no point in running the code to detect systems you do not use. So there is a way to disable some backends altogether:

    zstyle ':vcs_info:*' disable bzr cdv darcs mtn svk tla

You may also pick a few from that list and enable only those:

    zstyle ':vcs_info:*' enable git cvs svn

If you rerun *vcs_info_printsys*/ after one of these commands, you will/ see the backends listed in the *disable*/ style (or backends not in the/ *enable*/ style - if you used that) marked as disabled by a hash sign./ That means the detection of these systems is skipped completely. No wasted time there.

The *vcs_info*/ feature can be configured via zstyle./

First, the context in which we are working:

    :vcs_info:vcs-string:user-context:repo-root-name

vcs-string is one of: git*/, git-svn, git-p4, hg, hg-git,/ *hg-hgsubversion*/, hg-hgsvn, darcs, bzr, cdv, mtn,/ *svn*/, cvs, svk, tla, p4 or fossil./ This is followed by `.quilt-*/quilt-mode’ in Quilt mode/ (see *Quilt Support*/ for details)/ and by `*+*/hook-name’ while hooks are active/ (see *Hooks in vcs_info*/ for details)./

Currently, hooks in quilt mode don’t add the `*.quilt-*/quilt-mode’ information./ This may change in the future.

user-context

is a freely configurable string, assignable by the user as the first argument to *vcs_info*/ (see its description/ below).

repo-root-name

is the name of a repository in which you want a style to match. So, if you want a setting specific to */usr/src/zsh*/,/ with that being a CVS checkout, you can set repo-root-name to *zsh*/ to make it so./

There are three special values for vcs-string: The first is named -init-*/, that is in effect as long as there was no decision what VCS/ backend to use. The second is *-preinit-*/; it is used before/ *vcs_info*/ is run, when initializing the data exporting variables. The/ third special value is *formats*/ and is used by the /*vcs_info_lastmsg for looking up its styles.

The initial value of repo-root-name is /*-all-* and it is replaced/ with the actual name, as soon as it is known. Only use this part of the context for defining the formats*/, actionformats or/ *branchformat*/ styles, as it is guaranteed that repo-root-name is/ set up correctly for these only. For all other styles, just use *’’* instead.

There are two pre-defined values for user-context:

default

the one used if none is specified

command

used by vcs_info_lastmsg to lookup its styles

You can of course use ’:vcs_info:’*/ to match all VCSs in all/ user-contexts at once.

This is a description of all styles that are looked up.

formats A list of formats, used when actionformats is not used (which is most of the time).

actionformats

A list of formats, used if there is a special action going on in your current repository; like an interactive rebase or a merge conflict.

branchformat

Some backends replace *%b*/ in the formats and/ actionformats styles above, not only by a branch name but also by a revision number. This style lets you modify how that string should look.

nvcsformats

These “formats” are set when we didn’t detect a version control system for the current directory or *vcs_info*/ was disabled. This is useful if/ you want *vcs_info*/ to completely take over the generation of your/ prompt. You would do something like *PS1=’${vcs_info_msg_0_}’*/ to/ accomplish that.

hgrevformat

*hg*/ uses both a hash and a revision number to reference a specific/ changeset in a repository. With this style you can format the revision string (see *branchformat*/) to include either or both. It’s only/ useful when *get-revision*/ is true. Note, the full 40-character revision id/ is not available (except when using the *use-simple*/ option) because/ executing hg more than once per prompt is too slow; you may customize this behavior using hooks.

max-exports

Defines the maximum number of *vcs_info_msg_*_*/ variables vcs_info will set./

enable

A list of backends you want to use. Checked in the -init-*/ context. If/ this list contains an item called *NONE*/ no backend is used at all and/ *vcs_info*/ will do nothing. If this list contains ALL, /*vcs_info will use all known backends. Only with *ALL*/ in enable will the/ *disable*/ style have any effect. ALL and NONE are case insensitive./

disable

A list of VCSs you don’t want *vcs_info*/ to test for/ repositories (checked in the *-init-*/ context, too). Only used if/ *enable*/ contains ALL./

disable-patterns

A list of patterns that are checked against $PWD*/. If a pattern/ matches, *vcs_info*/ will be disabled. This style is checked in the/ *:vcs_info:-init-::-all-*/ context./

Say, *~/.zsh*/ is a directory under version control, in which you do/ not want *vcs_info*/ to be active, do:/

      zstyle ':vcs_info:*' disable-patterns "${(b)HOME}/.zsh(|/*)"

use-quilt

If enabled, the *quilt*/ support code is active in `addon’ mode./ See *Quilt Support*/ for details./

quilt-standalone

If enabled, `standalone’ mode detection is attempted if no VCS is active in a given directory. See *Quilt Support*/ for details./

quilt-patch-dir

Overwrite the value of the *$QUILT_PATCHES*/ environment variable. See/ *Quilt Support*/ for details./

quiltcommand

When *quilt*/ itself is called in quilt support, the value of this style/ is used as the command name.

check-for-changes

If enabled, this style causes the %c*/ and %u format escapes to show/ when the working directory has uncommitted changes. The strings displayed by these escapes can be controlled via the *stagedstr*/ and /*unstagedstr styles. The only backends that currently support this option are *git*/,/ *hg*/, and bzr (the latter two only support unstaged)./

For this style to be evaluated with the hg*/ backend, the /*get-revision style needs to be set and the *use-simple*/ style needs to be unset. The/ latter is the default; the former is not.

With the *bzr*/ backend, lightweight checkouts only honor this style if/ the *use-server*/ style is set./

Note, the actions taken if this style is enabled are potentially expensive (read: they may be slow, depending on how big the current repository is). Therefore, it is disabled by default.

check-for-staged-changes

This style is like *check-for-changes*/, but it never checks the worktree/ files, only the metadata in the *.${vcs}*/ dir. Therefore,/ this style initializes only the *%c*/ escape (with stagedstr) but/ not the *%u*/ escape. This style is faster than check-for-changes./

In the *git*/ backend, this style checks for changes in the index./ Other backends do not currently implement this style.

This style is disabled by default.

stagedstr

This string will be used in the *%c*/ escape if there are staged changes in/ the repository.

unstagedstr

This string will be used in the *%u*/ escape if there are unstaged changes/ in the repository.

command

This style causes vcs_info*/ to use the supplied string as the command/ to use as the VCS’s binary. Note, that setting this in ’:vcs_info:**/’ is/ not a good idea.

If the value of this style is empty (which is the default), the used binary name is the name of the backend in use (e.g. svn*/ is used in an /*svn repository).

The repo-root-name*/ part in the context is always the default /-all-* when this style is looked up.

For example, this style can be used to use binaries from non-default installation directories. Assume, *git*/ is installed in usr/bin but your sysadmin installed a newer version in usr/local/bin. Instead of changing the order of your $PATH parameter, you can do this:/

      zstyle ':vcs_info:git:*:-all-' command /usr/local/bin/git

use-server

This is used by the Perforce backend (p4*/) to decide if it should/ contact the Perforce server to find out if a directory is managed by Perforce. This is the only reliable way of doing this, but runs the risk of a delay if the server name cannot be found. If the server (more specifically, the *host:port*/ pair describing the/ server) cannot be contacted, its name is put into the associative array *vcs_info_p4_dead_servers*/ and is not contacted again during the session/ until it is removed by hand. If you do not set this style, the *p4 backend is only usable if you have set the environment variable *P4CONFIG*/ to a file name and have corresponding files in the root/ directories of each Perforce client. See comments in the function *VCS_INFO_detect_p4*/ for more detail./

The Bazaar backend (*bzr*/) uses this to permit contacting the server/ about lightweight checkouts, see the *check-for-changes*/ style./

use-simple

If there are two different ways of gathering information, you can select the simpler one by setting this style to true; the default is to use the not-that-simple code, which is potentially a lot slower but might be more accurate in all possible cases. This style is used by the *bzr*/ and hg backends. In the case of hg it will invoke/ the external hexdump program to parse the binary dirstate cache file; this method will not return the local revision number.

get-revision

If set to true, vcs_info goes the extra mile to figure out the revision of a repository’s work tree (currently for the git*/ and hg backends,/ where this kind of information is not always vital). For *git*/, the/ hash value of the currently checked out commit is available via the *%i expansion. With *hg*/, the local revision number and the corresponding/ global hash are available via *%i*/./

get-mq

If set to true, the *hg*/ backend will look for a Mercurial Queue (mq)/ patch directory. Information will be available via the `*%m*/’ replacement./

get-bookmarks

If set to true, the *hg*/ backend will try to get a list of current/ bookmarks. They will be available via the `*%m*/’ replacement./

The default is to generate a comma-separated list of all bookmark names that refer to the currently checked out revision. If a bookmark is active, its name is suffixed an asterisk and placed first in the list.

use-prompt-escapes

Determines if we assume that the assembled string from *vcs_info*/ includes prompt escapes. (Used by/ *vcs_info_lastmsg*/.)/

debug

Enable debugging output to track possible problems. Currently this style is only used by *vcs_info*/’s hooks system./

hooks

A list style that defines hook-function names. See Hooks in vcs_info below for details.

patch-format

nopatch-format This pair of styles format the patch information used by the *%m*/ expando in/ formats and actionformats for the *git*/ and hg backends. The value is/ subject to certain *%*/-expansions described below./ The expanded value is made available in the global *backend_misc*/ array as/ *${backend_misc[patches]}*/ (also if a set-patch-format hook is used)./

get-unapplied

This boolean style controls whether a backend should attempt to gather a list of unapplied patches (for example with Mercurial Queue patches).

Used by the *quilt*/ and hg backends./

The default values for these styles in all contexts are:

formats

“ (%s)-[%b]%u%c-”

actionformats

“ (%s)-[%b|%a]%u%c-”

branchformat

“%b:%r” (for bzr, svn, svk and hg)

nvcsformats

“”

hgrevformat

“%r:%h”

max-exports

2

enable

ALL

disable

(empty list)

disable-patterns

(empty list)

check-for-changes

false

check-for-staged-changes

false

stagedstr

(string: “S”)

unstagedstr

(string: “U”)

command

(empty string)

use-server

false

use-simple

false

get-revision

false

get-mq

true

get-bookmarks

false

use-prompt-escapes

true

debug

false

hooks

(empty list)

use-quilt

false

quilt-standalone

false

quilt-patch-dir

empty - use $QUILT_PATCHES

quiltcommand

quilt

patch-format

backend dependent

nopatch-format

backend dependent

get-unapplied

false

In normal *formats*/ and actionformats the following replacements are/ done:

%s

The VCS in use (git, hg, svn, etc.).

%b

Information about the current branch.

%a

An identifier that describes the action. Only makes sense in *actionformats*/./

%i

The current revision number or identifier. For hg the *hgrevformat*/ style may be used to customize the output./

%c

The string from the *stagedstr*/ style if there are staged/ changes in the repository.

%u

The string from the *unstagedstr*/ style if there are/ unstaged changes in the repository.

%R

The base directory of the repository.

%r

The repository name. If %R*/ is /foo/bar/repoXY, /*%r is *repoXY*/./

%S

A subdirectory within a repository. If *$PWD*/ is/ */foo/bar/repoXY/beer/tasty*/, %S is beer/tasty./

%m A “misc” replacement. It is at the discretion of the backend to decide what this replacement expands to.

The hg*/ and git backends use this expando to display patch information./ *hg*/ sources patch information from the mq extensions; git from in-progress/ *rebase*/ and cherry-pick operations and from the stgit extension. The /*patch-format and *nopatch-format*/ styles control the generated string. The former is used/ when at least one patch from the patch queue has been applied, and the latter otherwise.

The *hg*/ backend displays bookmark information in this expando (in addition/ to *mq*/ information). See the get-mq and get-bookmarks styles. Both/ of these styles may be enabled at the same time. If both are enabled, both resulting strings will be shown separated by a semicolon (that cannot currently be customized).

The *quilt*/ `standalone’ backend sets this expando to the same value as the/ *%Q*/ expando./

%Q

Quilt series information. When quilt is used (either in `addon’ mode or as a `standalone’ backend), this expando is set to quilt series’ *patch-format*/ string./ The *set-patch-format*/ hook and nopatch-format style are honoured./

See *Quilt Support*/ below for details./

In *branchformat*/ these replacements are done:/

%b

The branch name.

%r

The current revision number or the *hgrevformat*/ style for/ *hg*/./

In *hgrevformat*/ these replacements are done:/

%r

The current local revision number.

%h

The current global revision identifier.

In *patch-format*/ and nopatch-format these replacements are done:/

%p

The name of the top-most applied patch; may be overridden by the *applied-string*/ hook./

%u

The number of unapplied patches; may be overridden by the *unapplied-string*/ hook./

%n

The number of applied patches.

%c

The number of unapplied patches.

%a

The number of all patches (*%a = %n + %c*/)./

%g

The names of active *mq*/ guards (hg backend)./

%G

The number of active *mq*/ guards (hg backend)./

Not all VCS backends have to support all replacements. For nvcsformats no replacements are performed at all, it is just a string.

If you want to use the %b*/ (bold off) prompt expansion in formats,/ which expands *%b*/ itself, use %%b. That will cause the /*vcs_info expansion to replace *%%b*/ with %b, so that zsh’s prompt expansion/ mechanism can handle it. Similarly, to hand down *%b*/ from/ *branchformat*/, use %%%%b. Sorry for this inconvenience, but it/ cannot be easily avoided. Luckily we do not clash with a lot of prompt expansions and this only needs to be done for those.

When one of the *gen-applied-string*/, gen-unapplied-string, and/ *set-patch-format*/ hooks is defined,/ applying *%*/-escaping (`/*foo=${foo//’%’%%}*’) to the interpolated values/ for use in the prompt is the responsibility of those hooks (jointly); when neither of those hooks is defined, *vcs_info*/ handles escaping by itself./ We regret this coupling, but it was required for backwards compatibility.

*Quilt*/ is not a version control system, therefore this is not implemented/ as a backend. It can help keeping track of a series of patches. People use it to keep a set of changes they want to use on top of software packages (which is tightly integrated into the package build process - the Debian project does this for a large number of packages). Quilt can also help individual developers keep track of their own patches on top of real version control systems.

The *vcs_info*/ integration tries to support both ways of using quilt by/ having two slightly different modes of operation: `addon’ mode and `standalone’ mode).

Quilt integration is off by default; to enable it, set the *use-quilt*/ style,/ and add *%Q*/ to your formats or actionformats style:/

    zstyle ':vcs_info:*' use-quilt true

Styles looked up from the Quilt support code include `*.quilt-*/quilt-mode’/ in the vcs-string part of the context, where quilt-mode is either *addon*/ or standalone./ Example: *:vcs_info:git.quilt-addon:default:*/repo-root-name./

For `addon’ mode to become active *vcs_info*/ must have already detected a/ real version control system controlling the directory. If that is the case, a directory that holds quilt’s patches needs to be found. That directory is configurable via the `*QUILT_PATCHES*/’ environment variable. If that/ variable exists its value is used, otherwise the value `*patches*/’ is/ assumed. The value from *$QUILT_PATCHES*/ can be overwritten using the/ `*quilt-patches*/’ style. (Note: you can use vcs_info to keep the value/ of *$QUILT_PATCHES*/ correct all the time via the post-quilt hook)./

When the directory in question is found, quilt is assumed to be active. To gather more information, *vcs_info*/ looks for a directory called `.pc’;/ Quilt uses that directory to track its current state. If this directory does not exist we know that quilt has not done anything to the working directory (read: no patches have been applied yet).

If patches are applied, *vcs_info*/ will try to find out which. If you want/ to know which patches of a series are not yet applied, you need to activate the *get-unapplied*/ style in the appropriate context./

vcs_info*/ allows for very detailed control over how the gathered/ information is presented (see the *Configuration*/ and Hooks in vcs_info sections),/ all of which are documented below. Note there are a number of other patch tracking systems that work on top of a certain version control system (like *stgit*/ for git, or mq for hg); the configuration/ for systems like that are generally configured the same way as the *quilt support.

If the *quilt*/ support is working in `addon’ mode, the produced string is/ available as a simple format replacement (*%Q*/ to be precise), which can/ be used in *formats*/ and actionformats; see below for details)./

If, on the other hand, the support code is working in `standalone’ mode, vcs_info*/ will pretend as if quilt were an actual version control/ system. That means that the version control system identifier (which otherwise would be something like `svn’ or `cvs’) will be set to `-quilt-*/’. This has implications on the used style context where this/ identifier is the second element. *vcs_info*/ will have filled in a proper/ value for the “repository’s” root directory and the string containing the information about quilt’s state will be available as the `misc’ replacement (and *%Q*/ for compatibility with `addon’ mode)./

What is left to discuss is how `standalone’ mode is detected. The detection itself is a series of searches for directories. You can have this detection enabled all the time in every directory that is not otherwise under version control. If you know there is only a limited set of trees where you would like *vcs_info*/ to try and look for Quilt in `standalone’ mode to minimise/ the amount of searching on every call to *vcs_info*/, there are a number of/ ways to do that:

Essentially, `standalone’ mode detection is controlled by a style called `*quilt-standalone*/’. It is a string style and its value can have different/ effects. The simplest values are: `*always*/’ to run detection every time/ *vcs_info*/ is run, and `/*never*/’ to turn the detection off entirely./

If the value of *quilt-standalone*/ is something else, it is interpreted/ differently. If the value is the name of a scalar variable the value of that variable is checked and that value is used in the same `always’/`never’ way as described above.

If the value of *quilt-standalone*/ is an array, the elements of that array/ are used as directory names under which you want the detection to be active.

If *quilt-standalone*/ is an associative array, the keys are taken as/ directory names under which you want the detection to be active, but only if the corresponding value is the string `*true*/’./

Last, but not least, if the value of *quilt-standalone*/ is the name of a/ function, the function is called without arguments and the return value decides whether detection should be active. A `0’ return value is true; a non-zero return value is interpreted as false.

Note, if there is both a function and a variable by the name of *quilt-standalone*/, the function will take precedence./

vcs_info*/ [user-context]/ The main function, that runs all backends and assembles all data into *${vcs_info_msg_*_}*/. This is the function you want to call from/ *precmd*/ if you want to include up-to-date information in your prompt (see/ *Variable Description below). If an argument is given, that string will be used instead of *default*/ in the user-context field of the style/ context.

vcs_info_hookadd

Statically registers a number of functions to a given hook. The hook needs to be given as the first argument; what follows is a list of hook-function names to register to the hook. The `*+vi-’ prefix needs to be left out here. See *Hooks in vcs_info below for details.

vcs_info_hookdel

Remove hook-functions from a given hook. The hook needs to be given as the first non-option argument; what follows is a list of hook-function names to un-register from the hook. If `*-a*/’ is used as the first/ argument, all*/ occurrences of the functions are unregistered. Otherwise/ only the last occurrence is removed (if a function was registered to a hook more than once). The `*+vi-*/’ prefix needs to be left out here./ See *Hooks in vcs_info below for details.

vcs_info_lastmsg

Outputs the last ${vcs_info_msg_*_}*/ value./ Takes into account the value of the *use-prompt-escapes*/ style in/ *’:vcs_info:formats:command:-all-’*/. It also only prints /*max-exports values.

*vcs_info_printsys*/ [user-context]/

Prints a list of all supported version control systems. Useful to find out possible contexts (and which of them are enabled) or values for the *disable*/ style./

vcs_info_setsys

Initializes *vcs_info*/’s internal list of/ available backends. With this function, you can add support for new VCSs without restarting the shell.

All functions named *VCS_INFO_**/ are for internal use only./

\({vcs_info_msg_*/N/*_}*/ (Note the trailing underscore)/ Where /N is an integer, e.g., /*vcs_info_msg_0_*/. These variables/ are the storage for the informational message the last *vcs_info*/ call/ has assembled. These are strongly connected to the *formats*/,/ *actionformats*/ and /*nvcsformats*/ styles described above. Those styles/ are lists. The first member of that list gets expanded into *\){vcs_info_msg_0_}*/, the second into /*${vcs_info_msg_1_} and the Nth into ${vcs_info_msg_N-1_}*/. (See the /*max-exports style above.)

All variables named *VCS_INFO_**/ are for internal use only./

Hooks are places in *vcs_info*/ where you can run your own code. That/ code can communicate with the code that called it and through that, change the system’s behaviour.

For configuration, hooks change the style context:

    :vcs_info:vcs-string+hook-name:user-context:repo-root-name

To register functions to a hook, you need to list them in the hooks style in the appropriate context.

Example:

    zstyle ':vcs_info:*+foo:*' hooks bar baz

This registers functions to the hook `foo’ for all backends. In order to avoid namespace problems, all registered function names are prepended by a `*+vi-*/’, so the actual functions called for the `foo’ hook are/ `*+vi-bar*/’ and `/*+vi-baz*/’./

If you would like to register a function to a hook regardless of the current context, you may use the *vcs_info_hookadd*/ function. To remove/ a function that was added like that, the *vcs_info_hookdel*/ function/ can be used.

If something seems weird, you can enable the `debug’ boolean style in the proper context and the hook-calling code will print what it tried to execute and whether the function in question existed.

When you register more than one function to a hook, all functions are executed one after another until one function returns non-zero or until all functions have been called. Context-sensitive hook functions are executed *before*/ statically registered ones (the ones added by/ *vcs_info_hookadd*/)./

You may pass data between functions via an associative array, *user_data*/./ For example:

    +vi-git-myfirsthook(){
        user_data[myval]=$myval
    }
    +vi-git-mysecondhook(){
        # do something with ${user_data[myval]}
    }

There are a number of variables that are special in hook contexts:

ret The return value that the hooks system will return to the caller. The default is an integer `zero’. If and how a changed *ret*/ value changes/ the execution of the caller depends on the specific hook. See the hook documentation below for details.

hook_com

An associated array which is used for bidirectional communication from the caller to hook functions. The used keys depend on the specific hook.

context

The active context of the hook. Functions that wish to change this variable should make it local scope first.

vcs

The current VCS after it was detected. The same values as in the enable/disable style are used. Available in all hooks except *start-up*/./

Finally, the full list of currently available hooks:

start-up Called after starting *vcs_info*/ but before the VCS in this directory is/ determined. It can be used to deactivate *vcs_info*/ temporarily if/ necessary. When *ret*/ is set to 1, vcs_info aborts and does/ nothing; when set to *2*/, vcs_info sets up everything as if no/ version control were active and exits.

pre-get-data

Same as *start-up*/ but after the VCS was detected./

gen-hg-bookmark-string

Called in the Mercurial backend when a bookmark string is generated; the *get-revision*/ and get-bookmarks styles must be true./

This hook gets the names of the Mercurial bookmarks that *vcs_info*/ collected from `hg’./

If a bookmark is active, the key *${hook_com[hg-active-bookmark]}*/ is/ set to its name. The key is otherwise unset.

When setting *ret*/ to non-zero, the string in/ *\({hook_com[hg-bookmark-string]}*/ will be used in the /*%m*/ escape in/ *formats*/ and /*actionformats*/ and will be available in the global/ *backend_misc*/ array as /*\){backend_misc[bookmarks]}*/./

gen-applied-string

Called in the git*/ (with stgit or during rebase or merge), and /*hg (with mq*/) backends and in quilt support when the /*applied-string is generated; the use-quilt*/ zstyle must be true for quilt (the /*mq and *stgit*/ backends are active by default)./

This hook gets the names of all applied patches which *vcs_info*/ collected/ so far in the opposite order, which means that the first argument is the top-most patch and so forth.

When setting *ret*/ to non-zero, the string in/ *${hook_com[applied-string]}*/ will be/ available as *%p*/ in the patch-format and nopatch-format styles./ This hook is, in concert with *set-patch-format*/, responsible for/ *%*/-escaping that value for use in the prompt./ (See the *Oddities*/ section.)/

gen-unapplied-string

Called in the *git*/ (with stgit or during rebase), and hg (with/ *mq*/) backend and in quilt support when the unapplied-string is/ generated; the *get-unapplied*/ style must be true./

This hook gets the names of all unapplied patches which vcs_info collected so far in order, which means that the first argument is the patch next-in-line to be applied and so forth.

When setting *ret*/ to non-zero, the string in/ *${hook_com[unapplied-string]}*/ will be available as %u in the/ *patch-format*/ and nopatch-format styles./ This hook is, in concert with *set-patch-format*/, responsible for/ *%*/-escaping that value for use in the prompt./ (See the *Oddities*/ section.)/

gen-mqguards-string

Called in the *hg*/ backend when guards-string is generated; the/ *get-mq*/ style must be true (default)./

This hook gets the names of any active *mq*/ guards./

When setting *ret*/ to non-zero, the string in/ *${hook_com[guards-string]}*/ will be used in the %g escape in the/ *patch-format*/ and nopatch-format styles./

no-vcs

This hooks is called when no version control system was detected.

The `*hook_com*/’ parameter is not used./

post-backend

Called as soon as the backend has finished collecting information.

The `*hook_com*/’ keys available are as for the set-message hook./

post-quilt

Called after the *quilt*/ support is done. The following information/ is passed as arguments to the hook: 1. the quilt-support mode (`addon’ or `standalone’); 2. the directory that contains the patch series; 3. the directory that holds quilt’s status information (the `.pc’ directory) or the string *“-nopc-”*/ if that directory wasn’t found./

The `hook_com’ parameter is not used.

set-branch-format

Called before `*branchformat*/’ is set. The only argument to the/ hook is the format that is configured at this point.

The `*hook_com*/’ keys considered are `/*branch*/’ and `/*revision*/’./ They are set to the values figured out so far by *vcs_info*/ and any/ change will be used directly when the actual replacement is done.

If *ret*/ is set to non-zero, the string in/ *${hook_com[branch-replace]}*/ will be used unchanged as the/ `*%b*/’ replacement in the variables set by vcs_info./

set-hgrev-format

Called before a `*hgrevformat*/’ is set. The only argument to the/ hook is the format that is configured at this point.

The `*hook_com*/’ keys considered are `/*hash*/’ and `/*localrev*/’./ They are set to the values figured out so far by *vcs_info*/ and any/ change will be used directly when the actual replacement is done.

If *ret*/ is set to non-zero, the string in/ *${hook_com[rev-replace]}*/ will be used unchanged as the/ `*%i*/’ replacement in the variables set by vcs_info./

pre-addon-quilt

This hook is used when *vcs_info*/’s quilt functionality is active in “addon”/ mode (quilt used on top of a real version control system). It is activated right before any quilt specific action is taken.

Setting the `*ret*/’ variable in this hook to a non-zero value avoids any/ quilt specific actions from being run at all.

set-patch-format

This hook is used to control some of the possible expansions in *patch-format*/ and nopatch-format styles with patch queue systems such as/ quilt, mqueue and the like.

This hook is used in the *git*/, hg and quilt backends./

The hook allows the control of the %p*/ (${hook_com[applied]}) and /*%u (*\({hook_com[unapplied]}*/) expansion in all backends that use the hook. With/ the mercurial backend, the *%g*/ (/*\){hook_com[guards]}*/) expansion is/ controllable in addition to that.

If ret*/ is set to non-zero, the string in /*${hook_com[patch-replace]} will be used unchanged instead of an expanded format from *patch-format*/ or/ *nopatch-format*/./

This hook is, in concert with the *gen-applied-string*/ or/ *gen-unapplied-string*/ hooks if they are defined, responsible for/ *%*/-escaping the final patch-format value for use in the prompt./ (See the *Oddities*/ section.)/

set-message

Called each time before a `*vcs_info_msg_*/N/*_*/’ message is set./ It takes two arguments; the first being the `/N’ in the message/ variable name, the second is the currently configured *formats*/ or/ *actionformats*/./

There are a number of `*hook_com*/’ keys, that are used here:/ `*action*/’, `/*branch*/’, `/*base*/’, `/*base-name*/’, `/*subdir*/’,/ `*staged*/’, `/*unstaged*/’, `/*revision*/’, `/*misc*/’, `/*vcs*/’/ and one `*miscN*/’ entry for each backend-specific data field (N starting at zero). They are set to the values figured out so far by vcs_info and any change will be used directly when the actual/ replacement is done.

Since this hook is triggered multiple times (once for each configured *formats*/ or actionformats), each of the `/*hook_com*/’ keys mentioned/ above (except for the *miscN*/ entries) has an `/*_orig*/’ counterpart,/ so even if you changed a value to your liking you can still get the original value in the next run. Changing the `*_orig*/’ values is/ probably not a good idea.

If *ret*/ is set to non-zero, the string in/ *${hook_com[message]}*/ will be used unchanged as the message by/ *vcs_info*/./

If all of this sounds rather confusing, take a look at the *Examples*/ section below/ and also in the *Misc/vcs_info-examples*/ file in the Zsh source./ They contain some explanatory code.

Don’t use *vcs_info*/ at all (even though it’s in your prompt):/

    zstyle ':vcs_info:*' enable NONE

Disable the backends for *bzr*/ and svk:/

    zstyle ':vcs_info:*' disable bzr svk

Disable everything but /*bzr* and svk:/

    zstyle ':vcs_info:*' enable bzr svk

Provide a special formats for *git*/:/

    zstyle ':vcs_info:git:*' formats       ' GIT, BABY! [%b]'
    zstyle ':vcs_info:git:*' actionformats ' GIT ACTION! [%b|%a]'

All %x*/ expansion in all sorts of formats (formats, actionformats,/ *branchformat*/, you name it) are done using the `/*zformat*/’ builtin from/ the `*zsh/zutil*/’ module. That means you can do everything with these/ *%x*/ items what zformat supports. In particular, if you want something/ that is really long to have a fixed width, like a hash in a mercurial branchformat, you can do this: *%12.12i*/. That’ll shrink the 40 character/ hash to its 12 leading characters. The form is actually `*%*/min/.*/max/*x*/’. More is possible./ See the section `The zsh/zutil Module’ in zshmodules(1) for details.

Use the quicker *bzr*/ backend/

    zstyle ':vcs_info:bzr:*' use-simple true

If you do use *use-simple*/, please report if it does `the-right-thing[tm]’./

Display the revision number in yellow for *bzr*/ and svn:/

    zstyle ':vcs_info:(svn|bzr):*' \ 
           branchformat '%b%{'${fg[yellow]}'%}:%r'

If you want colors, make sure you enclose the color codes in %{*/…/*%} if you want to use the string provided by *vcs_info*/ in prompts./

Here is how to print the VCS information as a command (not in a prompt):

    alias vcsi='vcs_info command; vcs_info_lastmsg'

This way, you can even define different formats for output via vcs_info_lastmsg*/ in the ’/:vcs_info:*:command:**/’ namespace./

Now as promised, some code that uses hooks: say, you’d like to replace the string `svn’ by `subversion’ in *vcs_info*/’s %s formats replacement./

First, we will tell *vcs_info*/ to call a function when populating/ the message variables with the gathered information:

    zstyle ':vcs_info:*+set-message:*' hooks svn2subversion

Nothing happens. Which is reasonable, since we didn’t define the actual function yet. To see what the hooks subsystem is trying to do, enable the `*debug*/’ style:/

    zstyle ':vcs_info:*+*:*' debug true

That should give you an idea what is going on. Specifically, the function that we are looking for is `*+vi-svn2subversion*/’. Note, the `/*+vi-*/’/ prefix. So, everything is in order, just as documented. When you are done checking out the debugging output, disable it again:

    zstyle ':vcs_info:*+*:*' debug false

Now, let’s define the function:

    function +vi-svn2subversion() {
        [[ ${hook_com[vcs_orig]} == svn ]] && hook_com[vcs]=subversion
    }

Simple enough. And it could have even been simpler, if only we had registered our function in a less generic context. If we do it only in the `*svn*/’ backend’s context, we don’t need to test which the active/ backend is:

    zstyle ':vcs_info:svn+set-message:*' hooks svn2subversion

    function +vi-svn2subversion() {
        hook_com[vcs]=subversion
    }

And finally a little more elaborate example, that uses a hook to create a customised bookmark string for the *hg*/ backend./

Again, we start off by registering a function:

    zstyle ':vcs_info:hg+gen-hg-bookmark-string:*' hooks hgbookmarks

And then we define the `*+vi-hgbookmarks*/’ function:/

    function +vi-hgbookmarks() {
        # The default is to connect all bookmark names by
        # commas. This mixes things up a little.
        # Imagine, there's one type of bookmarks that is
        # special to you. Say, because it's *your* work.
        # Those bookmarks look always like this: "sh/*"
        # (because your initials are sh, for example).
        # This makes the bookmarks string use only those
        # bookmarks. If there's more than one, it
        # concatenates them using commas.
        # The bookmarks returned by `hg' are available in
        # the function's positional parameters.
        local s="${(Mj:,:)@:#sh/*}"
        # Now, the communication with the code that calls
        # the hook functions is done via the hook_com[]
        # hash. The key at which the `gen-hg-bookmark-string'
        # hook looks is `hg-bookmark-string'. So:
        hook_com[hg-bookmark-string]=$s
        # And to signal that we want to use the string we
        # just generated, set the special variable `ret' to
        # something other than the default zero:
        ret=1
        return 0
    }

Some longer examples and code snippets which might be useful are available in the examples file located at Misc/vcs_info-examples in the Zsh source directory.

This concludes our guided tour through zsh’s *vcs_info*/./

You should make sure all the functions from the Functions/Prompts directory of the source distribution are available; they all begin with the string `*prompt_*/’ except for the special function`/*promptinit*/’./ You also need the `*colors*/’ and `/*add-zsh-hook*/’ functions from/ Functions/Misc*/./ All these functions may already be installed on your system; if not, you will need to find them and copy them. The directory should appear as one of the elements of the *fpath*/ array (this should already be the/ case if they were installed), and at least the function *promptinit should be autoloaded; it will autoload the rest. Finally, to initialize the use of the system you need to call the *promptinit*/ function. The/ following code in your *.zshrc*/ will arrange for this; assume the/ functions are stored in the directory *~/myfns*/:/

    fpath=(~/myfns $fpath)
    autoload -U promptinit
    promptinit

Use the *prompt*/ command to select your preferred theme. This command/ may be added to your *.zshrc*/ following the call to promptinit in/ order to start zsh with a theme already selected.

prompt*/ [ /-c*/ | -l ]/

prompt*/ [ /-p*/ | -h ] [ theme … ]/

prompt*/ [ /-s*/ ] theme [ arg … ]/ Set or examine the prompt theme. With no options and a theme argument, the theme with that name is set as the current theme. The available themes are determined at run time; use the *-l*/ option to see/ a list. The special theme `/*random*’ selects at random one of the/ available themes and sets your prompt to that.

In some cases the theme may be modified by one or more arguments, which should be given after the theme name. See the help for each theme for descriptions of these arguments.

Options are:

-c

Show the currently selected theme and its parameters, if any.

-l

List all available prompt themes.

-p

Preview the theme named by theme, or all themes if no theme is given.

-h

Show help for the theme named by theme, or for the *prompt*/ function if no theme is given./

-s

Set theme as the current theme and save state.

prompt_*/theme/*_setup

Each available theme has a setup function which is called by the *prompt*/ function to install that theme. This function may define/ other functions as necessary to maintain the prompt, including functions used to preview the prompt or provide help for its use. You should not normally call a theme’s setup function directly.

prompt off The theme `*off*/’ sets all the prompt variables to minimal values with/ no special effects.

prompt default

The theme `*default*/’ sets all prompt variables to the same state as/ if an interactive zsh was started with no initialization files.

prompt restore

The special theme `*restore*/’ erases all theme settings and sets prompt/ variables to their state before the first time the `*prompt*/’ function/ was run, provided each theme has properly defined its cleanup (see below).

Note that you can undo `*prompt off*/’ and `/*prompt default*/’ with/ `*prompt restore*/’, but a second restore does not undo the first./

The first step for adding your own theme is to choose a name for it, and create a file `*prompt_*/name/*_setup*/’ in a directory in your/ *fpath*/, such as ~/myfns in the example above. The file should/ at minimum contain assignments for the prompt variables that your theme wishes to modify. By convention, themes use *PS1*/, PS2,/ *RPS1*/, etc., rather than the longer PROMPT and RPROMPT./

The file is autoloaded as a function in the current shell context, so it may contain any necessary commands to customize your theme, including defining additional functions. To make some complex tasks easier, your setup function may also do any of the following:

Assign prompt_opts The array prompt_opts*/ may be assigned any of /“bang”/, /“cr”, *“percent”*/, /“sp”/, and/or /“subst”*/ as values. The corresponding/ setopts (*promptbang*/, etc.) are turned on, all other prompt-related/ options are turned off. The *prompt_opts*/ array preserves setopts even/ beyond the scope of *localoptions*/, should your function need that./

Modify precmd and preexec

Use of add-zsh-hook*/ is recommended. The precmd and /*preexec hooks are automatically adjusted if the prompt theme changes or is disabled.

Declare cleanup

If your function makes any other changes that should be undone when the theme is disabled, your setup function may call

    prompt_cleanup command

where command should be suitably quoted. If your theme is ever disabled or replaced by another, command is executed with /*eval*./ You may declare more than one such cleanup hook.

Define preview

Define or autoload a function *prompt_*/name/*_preview*/ to display/ a simulated version of your prompt. A simple default previewer is defined by *promptinit*/ for themes that do not define their own./ This preview function is called by `*prompt -p*/’./

Provide help

Define or autoload a function *prompt_*/name/*_help*/ to display/ documentation or help text for your theme. This help function is called by `*prompt -h*/’./

These functions all implement user-defined ZLE widgets (see zshzle(1)) which can be bound to keystrokes in interactive shells. To use them, your *.zshrc*/ should contain lines of the form/

    autoload function
    zle -N function

followed by an appropriate *bindkey*/ command to associate the function/ with a key sequence. Suggested bindings are described below.

bash-style word functions If you are looking for functions to implement moving over and editing words in the manner of bash, where only alphanumeric characters are considered word characters, you can use the functions described in the next section. The following is sufficient:

#+begin_quote

      autoload -U select-word-style
      select-word-style bash

#+end_quote

forward-word-match*/, /*backward-word-match

kill-word-match*/, /*backward-kill-word-match

transpose-words-match*/, /*capitalize-word-match

up-case-word-match*/, /*down-case-word-match

delete-whole-word-match*/, /*select-word-match

select-word-style*/, match-word-context, /*match-words-by-style The first eight `*-match*/’ functions are drop-in replacements for the/ builtin widgets without the suffix. By default they behave in a similar way. However, by the use of styles and the function *select-word-style*/,/ the way words are matched can be altered. *select-word-match*/ is intended/ to be used as a text object in vi mode but with custom word styles. For comparison, the widgets described in zshzle(1) under Text Objects use fixed definitions of words, compatible with the *vim*/ editor./

The simplest way of configuring the functions is to use *select-word-style*/, which can either be called as a normal function with/ the appropriate argument, or invoked as a user-defined widget that will prompt for the first character of the word style to be used. The first time it is invoked, the first eight *-match*/ functions will automatically/ replace the builtin versions, so they do not need to be loaded explicitly.

The word styles available are as follows. Only the first character is examined.

bash Word characters are alphanumeric characters only.

normal

As in normal shell operation: word characters are alphanumeric characters plus any characters present in the string given by the parameter *$WORDCHARS*/./

shell

Words are complete shell command arguments, possibly including complete quoted strings, or any tokens special to the shell.

whitespace

Words are any set of characters delimited by whitespace.

default

Restore the default settings; this is usually the same as `*normal*/’./

All but `*default*/’ can be input as an upper case character, which has/ the same effect but with subword matching turned on. In this case, words with upper case characters are treated specially: each separate run of upper case characters, or an upper case character followed by any number of other characters, is considered a word. The style subword-range can supply an alternative character range to the default `*[:upper:]*/’;/ the value of the style is treated as the contents of a `*[*/…/*]*/’/ pattern (note that the outer brackets should not be supplied, only those surrounding named ranges).

More control can be obtained using the zstyle*/ command, as described in/ zshmodules(1). Each style is looked up in the context *:zle:*/widget where widget is the name of the/ user-defined widget, not the name of the function implementing it, so in the case of the definitions supplied by *select-word-style*/ the/ appropriate contexts are *:zle:forward-word*/, and so on. The function/ *select-word-style*/ itself always defines styles for the context/ `:zle:**/’ which can be overridden by more specific (longer) patterns as/ well as explicit contexts.

The style *word-style*/ specifies the rules to use. This may have the/ following values.

normal Use the standard shell rules, i.e. alphanumerics and *$WORDCHARS*/, unless/ overridden by the styles *word-chars*/ or word-class./

specified

Similar to *normal*/, but only the specified characters, and not also/ alphanumerics, are considered word characters.

unspecified

The negation of specified. The given characters are those which will not be considered part of a word.

shell

Words are obtained by using the syntactic rules for generating shell command arguments. In addition, special tokens which are never command arguments such as `*()*/’ are also treated as words./

whitespace

Words are whitespace-delimited strings of characters.

The first three of those rules usually use $WORDCHARS*/, but the value/ in the parameter can be overridden by the style *word-chars*/, which works/ in exactly the same way as *$WORDCHARS*/. In addition, the style/ *word-class*/ uses character class syntax to group characters and takes/ precedence over *word-chars*/ if both are set. The word-class style/ does not include the surrounding brackets of the character class; for example, `-:[:alnum:]*/’ is a valid word-class to include all/ alphanumerics plus the characters `*-’ and `:*/’. Be careful/ including `*]*/’, `/*^*/’ and `/*-*/’ as these are special inside/ character classes.

word-style*/ may also have `/-subword*/’ appended to its value to/ turn on subword matching, as described above.

The style *skip-chars*/ is mostly useful for/ *transpose-words*/ and similar functions. If set, it gives a count of/ characters starting at the cursor position which will not be considered part of the word and are treated as space, regardless of what they actually are. For example, if

#+begin_quote

      zstyle ':zle:transpose-words' skip-chars 1

has been set, and *transpose-words-match*/ is called with the cursor on/ the X of /*foo*/X/*bar*, where X can be any character, then/ the resulting expression is *bar*/X/*foo*/./

Finer grained control can be obtained by setting the style word-context to an array of pairs of entries. Each pair of entries consists of a pattern and a subcontext. The shell argument the cursor is on is matched against each pattern in turn until one matches; if it does, the context is extended by a colon and the corresponding subcontext. Note that the test is made against the original word on the line, with no stripping of quotes. Special handling is done between words: the current context is examined and if it contains the string *between*/ the word/ is set to a single space; else if it is contains the string *back*/,/ the word before the cursor is considered, else the word after cursor is considered. Some examples are given below.

The style skip-whitespace-first*/ is only used with the/ *forward-word*/ widget. If it is set to true, then /*forward-word skips any non-word-characters, followed by any non-word-characters: this is similar to the behaviour of other word-orientated widgets, and also that used by other editors, however it differs from the standard zsh behaviour. When using *select-word-style*/ the widget/ is set in the context *:zle:**/ to true if the word style is/ *bash*/ and false otherwise. It may be overridden by setting it in/ the more specific context *:zle:forward-word**/./

It is possible to create widgets with specific behaviour by defining a new widget implemented by the appropriate generic function, then setting a style for the context of the specific widget. For example, the following defines a widget *backward-kill-space-word*/ using/ *backward-kill-word-match*/, the generic widget implementing/ *backward-kill-word*/ behaviour, and ensures that the new widget/ always implements space-delimited behaviour.

      zle -N backward-kill-space-word backward-kill-word-match
      zstyle :zle:backward-kill-space-word word-style space

The widget *backward-kill-space-word*/ can now be bound to a key./

Here are some further examples of use of the styles, actually taken from the simplified interface in *select-word-style*/:/

      zstyle ':zle:*' word-style standard
      zstyle ':zle:*' word-chars ''

Implements bash-style word handling for all widgets, i.e. only alphanumerics are word characters; equivalent to setting the parameter *WORDCHARS*/ empty for the given context./

      style ':zle:*kill*' word-style space

Uses space-delimited words for widgets with the word `kill’ in the name. Neither of the styles *word-chars*/ nor word-class is used in this case./

Here are some examples of use of the *word-context*/ style to extend/ the context.

      zstyle ':zle:*' word-context \ 
             "*/*" filename "[[:space:]]" whitespace
      zstyle ':zle:transpose-words:whitespace' word-style shell
      zstyle ':zle:transpose-words:filename' word-style normal
      zstyle ':zle:transpose-words:filename' word-chars ''

This provides two different ways of using *transpose-words*/ depending on/ whether the cursor is on whitespace between words or on a filename, here any word containing a */*/. On whitespace, complete arguments as defined/ by standard shell rules will be transposed. In a filename, only alphanumerics will be transposed. Elsewhere, words will be transposed using the default style for *:zle:transpose-words*/./

The word matching and all the handling of zstyle*/ settings is actually/ implemented by the function *match-words-by-style*/. This can be used to/ create new user-defined widgets. The calling function should set the local parameter *curcontext*/ to /:zle:*/widget, create the local/ parameter *matched_words*/ and call match-words-by-style with no/ arguments. On return, *matched_words*/ will be set to an array with the/ elements: (1) the start of the line (2) the word before the cursor (3) any non-word characters between that word and the cursor (4) any non-word character at the cursor position plus any remaining non-word characters before the next word, including all characters specified by the *skip-chars*/ style, (5) the word at or following the cursor (6) any/ non-word characters following that word (7) the remainder of the line. Any of the elements may be an empty string; the calling function should test for this to decide whether it can perform its function.

If the variable matched_words*/ is defined by the caller to/ *match-words-by-style*/ as an associative array (/*local -A matched_words/), then the seven values given above should be retrieved/ from it as elements named *start*/, word-before-cursor,/ *ws-before-cursor*/, ws-after-cursor, word-after-cursor,/ *ws-after-word*/, and end. In addition the element/ *is-word-start*/ is 1 if the cursor is on the start of a word or/ subword, or on white space before it (the cases can be distinguished by testing the *ws-after-cursor*/ element) and 0 otherwise. This form is/ recommended for future compatibility.

It is possible to pass options with arguments to match-words-by-style to override the use of styles. The options are:

-w

word-style

-s

skip-chars

-c

word-class

-C

word-chars

-r

subword-range

For example, *match-words-by-style -w shell -c 0*/ may be used to/ extract the command argument around the cursor.

The *word-context*/ style is implemented by the function/ *match-word-context*/. This should not usually need to be called/ directly. #+end_quote

bracketed-paste-magic

The *bracketed-paste*/ widget (see subsection Miscellaneous in/ zshzle(1)) inserts pasted text literally into the editor buffer rather than interpret it as keystrokes. This disables some common usages where the self-insert widget is replaced in order to accomplish some extra processing. An example is the contributed *url-quote-magic*/ widget described below./

The bracketed-paste-magic*/ widget is meant to replace /*bracketed-paste with a wrapper that re-enables these self-insert actions, and other actions as selected by zstyles. Therefore this widget is installed with

      autoload -Uz bracketed-paste-magic
      zle -N bracketed-paste bracketed-paste-magic

Other than enabling some widget processing, bracketed-paste-magic attempts to replicate *bracketed-paste*/ as faithfully as possible./

The following zstyles may be set to control processing of pasted text. All are looked up in the context `*:bracketed-paste-magic*/’./

active-widgets A list of patterns matching widget names that should be activated during the paste. All other key sequences are processed as self-insert-unmeta. The default is `*self-**/’ so any user-defined widgets named with that/ prefix are active along with the builtin self-insert.

If this style is not set (explicitly deleted) or set to an empty value, no widgets are active and the pasted text is inserted literally. If the value includes `*undefined-key*/’, any unknown sequences are discarded/ from the pasted text.

inactive-keys

The inverse of *active-widgets*/, a list of key sequences that always use/ *self-insert-unmeta*/ even when bound to an active widget. Note that/ this is a list of literal key sequences, not patterns.

paste-init

A list of function names, called in widget context (but not as widgets). The functions are called in order until one of them returns a non-zero status. The parameter `*PASTED*/’ contains the initial state of the/ pasted text. All other ZLE parameters such as `*BUFFER*/’ have their/ normal values and side-effects, and full history is available, so for example *paste-init*/ functions may move words from BUFFER into/ *PASTED*/ to make those words visible to the active-widgets./

A non-zero return from a *paste-init*/ function does not prevent the/ paste itself from proceeding.

Loading *bracketed-paste-magic*/ defines backward-extend-paste, a/ helper function for use in *paste-init*/./

        zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic paste-init \ 
               backward-extend-paste

When a paste would insert into the middle of a word or append text to a word already on the line, *backward-extend-paste*/ moves the prefix/ from *LBUFFER*/ into PASTED so that the active-widgets see the/ full word so far. This may be useful with *url-quote-magic*/./

paste-finish

Another list of function names called in order until one returns non-zero. These functions are called after the pasted text has been processed by the *active-widgets*/, but before it is inserted into `/*BUFFER*/’./ ZLE parameters have their normal values and side-effects.

A non-zero return from a *paste-finish*/ function does not prevent/ the paste itself from proceeding.

Loading *bracketed-paste-magic*/ also defines quote-paste, a helper/ function for use in *paste-finish*/./

        zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic paste-finish \ 
               quote-paste
        zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic:finish quote-style \ 
               qqq

When the pasted text is inserted into *BUFFER*/, it is quoted per the/ *quote-style*/ value. To forcibly turn off the built-in numeric prefix/ quoting of *bracketed-paste*/, use:/

        zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic:finish quote-style \ 
               none

Important: During /*active-widgets* processing of the paste (after/ *paste-init*/ and before paste-finish), BUFFER starts empty and/ history is restricted, so cursor motions, etc., may not pass outside of the pasted content. Text assigned to *BUFFER*/ by the active widgets/ is copied back into *PASTED*/ before paste-finish./

copy-earlier-word

This widget works like a combination of *insert-last-word*/ and/ *copy-prev-shell-word*/. Repeated invocations of the widget retrieve/ earlier words on the relevant history line. With a numeric argument N, insert the Nth word from the history line; N may be negative to count from the end of the line.

If *insert-last-word*/ has been used to retrieve the last word on a/ previous history line, repeated invocations will replace that word with earlier words from the same line.

Otherwise, the widget applies to words on the line currently being edited. The *widget*/ style can be set to the name of another widget that should/ be called to retrieve words. This widget must accept the same three arguments as *insert-last-word*/./

cycle-completion-positions

After inserting an unambiguous string into the command line, the new function based completion system may know about multiple places in this string where characters are missing or differ from at least one of the possible matches. It will then place the cursor on the position it considers to be the most interesting one, i.e. the one where one can disambiguate between as many matches as possible with as little typing as possible.

This widget allows the cursor to be easily moved to the other interesting spots. It can be invoked repeatedly to cycle between all positions reported by the completion system.

delete-whole-word-match

This is another function which works like the *-match*/ functions/ described immediately above, i.e. using styles to decide the word boundaries. However, it is not a replacement for any existing function.

The basic behaviour is to delete the word around the cursor. There is no numeric argument handling; only the single word around the cursor is considered. If the widget contains the string *kill*/, the removed text/ will be placed in the cutbuffer for future yanking. This can be obtained by defining *kill-whole-word-match*/ as follows:/

      zle -N kill-whole-word-match delete-whole-word-match

and then binding the widget *kill-whole-word-match*/./

(no term)

up-line-or-beginning-search*/, /*down-line-or-beginning-search :: These widgets are similar to the builtin functions up-line-or-search and down-line-or-search*/: if in a multiline buffer they move up or/ down within the buffer, otherwise they search for a history line matching the start of the current line. In this case, however, they search for a line which matches the current line up to the current cursor position, in the manner of *history-beginning-search-backward*/ and /-forward*/, rather/ than the first word on the line.

edit-command-line

Edit the command line using your visual editor, as in *ksh*/./

      bindkey -M vicmd v edit-command-line

expand-absolute-path

Expand the file name under the cursor to an absolute path, resolving symbolic links. Where possible, the initial path segment is turned into a named directory or reference to a user’s home directory.

history-search-end

This function implements the widgets *history-beginning-search-backward-end*/ and/ *history-beginning-search-forward-end*/. These commands work by first/ calling the corresponding builtin widget (see `History Control’ in zshzle(1)) and then moving the cursor to the end of the line. The original cursor position is remembered and restored before calling the builtin widget a second time, so that the same search is repeated to look farther through the history.

Although you *autoload*/ only one function, the commands to use it are/ slightly different because it implements two widgets.

      zle -N history-beginning-search-backward-end \ 
             history-search-end
      zle -N history-beginning-search-forward-end \ 
             history-search-end
      bindkey '\e^P' history-beginning-search-backward-end
      bindkey '\e^N' history-beginning-search-forward-end

history-beginning-search-menu

This function implements yet another form of history searching. The text before the cursor is used to select lines from the history, as for *history-beginning-search-backward*/ except that all matches are/ shown in a numbered menu. Typing the appropriate digits inserts the full history line. Note that leading zeroes must be typed (they are only shown when necessary for removing ambiguity). The entire history is searched; there is no distinction between forwards and backwards.

With a numeric argument, the search is not anchored to the start of the line; the string typed by the use may appear anywhere in the line in the history.

If the widget name contains `*-end*/’ the cursor is moved to the end of/ the line inserted. If the widget name contains `*-space*/’ any space/ in the text typed is treated as a wildcard and can match anything (hence a leading space is equivalent to giving a numeric argument). Both forms can be combined, for example:

      zle -N history-beginning-search-menu-space-end \ 
             history-beginning-search-menu

history-pattern-search

The function *history-pattern-search*/ implements widgets which prompt/ for a pattern with which to search the history backwards or forwards. The pattern is in the usual zsh format, however the first character may be *^*/ to anchor the search to the start of the line, and the last character/ may be *$*/ to anchor the search to the end of the line. If the/ search was not anchored to the end of the line the cursor is positioned just after the pattern found.

The commands to create bindable widgets are similar to those in the example immediately above:

      autoload -U history-pattern-search
      zle -N history-pattern-search-backward history-pattern-search
      zle -N history-pattern-search-forward history-pattern-search

incarg

Typing the keystrokes for this widget with the cursor placed on or to the left of an integer causes that integer to be incremented by one. With a numeric argument, the number is incremented by the amount of the argument (decremented if the numeric argument is negative). The shell parameter *incarg*/ may be set to change the default increment to/ something other than one.

      bindkey '^X+' incarg

incremental-complete-word

This allows incremental completion of a word. After starting this command, a list of completion choices can be shown after every character you type, which you can delete with *^H*/ or DEL. Pressing return/ accepts the completion so far and returns you to normal editing (that is, the command line is not immediately executed). You can hit /*TAB* to/ do normal completion, *^G*/ to abort back to the state when you started,/ and *^D*/ to list the matches./

This works only with the new function based completion system.

      bindkey '^Xi' incremental-complete-word

insert-composed-char

This function allows you to compose characters that don’t appear on the keyboard to be inserted into the command line. The command is followed by two keys corresponding to ASCII characters (there is no prompt). For accented characters, the two keys are a base character followed by a code for the accent, while for other special characters the two characters together form a mnemonic for the character to be inserted. The two-character codes are a subset of those given by RFC 1345 (see for example *http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1345.html*/)./

The function may optionally be followed by up to two characters which replace one or both of the characters read from the keyboard; if both characters are supplied, no input is read. For example, *insert-composed-char a:*/ can be used within a widget to insert an a with/ umlaut into the command line. This has the advantages over use of a literal character that it is more portable.

For best results zsh should have been built with support for multibyte characters (configured with *–enable-multibyte*/); however, the function/ works for the limited range of characters available in single-byte character sets such as ISO-8859-1.

The character is converted into the local representation and inserted into the command line at the cursor position. (The conversion is done within the shell, using whatever facilities the C library provides.) With a numeric argument, the character and its code are previewed in the status line

The function may be run outside zle in which case it prints the character (together with a newline) to standard output. Input is still read from keystrokes.

See *insert-unicode-char*/ for an alternative way of inserting Unicode/ characters using their hexadecimal character number.

The set of accented characters is reasonably complete up to Unicode character U+0180, the set of special characters less so. However, it is very sporadic from that point. Adding new characters is easy, however; see the function *define-composed-chars*/. Please send any/ additions to *zsh-workers@zsh.org*/./

The codes for the second character when used to accent the first are as follows. Note that not every character can take every accent.

!

Grave.

’

Acute.

>

Circumflex.

?

Tilde. (This is not *~*/ as RFC 1345 does not assume that/ character is present on the keyboard.)

-

Macron. (A horizontal bar over the base character.)

(

Breve. (A shallow dish shape over the base character.)

.

Dot above the base character, or in the case of *i*/ no dot,/ or in the case of *L*/ and l a centered dot./

:

Diaeresis (Umlaut).

c

Cedilla.

_

Underline, however there are currently no underlined characters.

/

Stroke through the base character.

“

Double acute (only supported on a few letters).

;

Ogonek. (A little forward facing hook at the bottom right of the character.)

<

Caron. (A little v over the letter.)

0

Circle over the base character.

2

Hook over the base character.

9

Horn over the base character.

The most common characters from the Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek and Hebrew alphabets are available; consult RFC 1345 for the appropriate sequences. In addition, a set of two letter codes not in RFC 1345 are available for the double-width characters corresponding to ASCII characters from ! to *~*/ (0x21 to 0x7e) by preceding the character with ^, for/ example *^A*/ for a double-width A./

The following other two-character sequences are understood.

ASCII characters These are already present on most keyboards:

<(

Left square bracket

//

Backslash (solidus)

)>

Right square bracket

(!

Left brace (curly bracket)

!!

Vertical bar (pipe symbol)

!)

Right brace (curly bracket)

’?

Tilde

Special letters

Characters found in various variants of the Latin alphabet:

ss

Eszett (scharfes S)

D-*/, /*d-

Eth

TH*/, /*th

Thorn

kk

Kra

’n

’n

NG*/, /*ng

Ng

OI*/, /*oi

Oi

yr

yr

ED

ezh

Currency symbols

Ct

Cent

Pd

Pound sterling (also lira and others)

Cu

Currency

Ye

Yen

Eu

Euro (N.B. not in RFC 1345)

Punctuation characters

References to “right” quotes indicate the shape (like a 9 rather than 6) rather than their grammatical use. (For example, a “right” low double quote is used to open quotations in German.)

!I

Inverted exclamation mark

BB

Broken vertical bar

SE

Section

Co

Copyright

-a

Spanish feminine ordinal indicator

<<

Left guillemet

--

Soft hyphen

Rg

Registered trade mark

PI

Pilcrow (paragraph)

-o

Spanish masculine ordinal indicator

>>

Right guillemet

?I

Inverted question mark

-1

Hyphen

-N

En dash

-M

Em dash

-3

Horizontal bar

:3

Vertical ellipsis

.3

Horizontal midline ellipsis

!2

Double vertical line

=2

Double low line

’6

Left single quote

’9

Right single quote

.9

“Right” low quote

9’

Reversed “right” quote

“6

Left double quote

“9

Right double quote

:9

“Right” low double quote

9“

Reversed “right” double quote

/-

Dagger

/=

Double dagger

Mathematical symbols

DG

Degree

-2*/, +-, /-+*

- sign, - sign, - sign

2S

Superscript 2

3S

Superscript 3

1S

Superscript 1

My

Micro

.M

Middle dot

14

Quarter

12

Half

34

Three quarters

*X

Multiplication

-:

Division

%0

Per mille

FA*/, TE, /*/0

For all, there exists, empty set

dP*/, DE, /*NB

Partial derivative, delta (increment), del (nabla)

(-*/, /-)*

Element of, contains

*P*/, /*+Z

Product, sum

*-*/, Ob, /*Sb

Asterisk, ring, bullet

RT*/, 0(, /*00

Root sign, proportional to, infinity

Other symbols

cS*/, cH, cD, /*cC

Card suits: spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs

Md*/, M8, M2, Mb, Mx, /*MX

Musical notation: crotchet (quarter note), quaver (eighth note), semiquavers (sixteenth notes), flag sign, natural sign, sharp sign

Fm*/, /*Ml

Female, male

Accents on their own

’>

Circumflex (same as caret, *^*/)/

’!

Grave (same as backtick, *`*/)/

’,

Cedilla

’:

Diaeresis (Umlaut)

’m

Macron

’’

Acute

insert-files

This function allows you type a file pattern, and see the results of the expansion at each step. When you hit return, all expansions are inserted into the command line.

      bindkey '^Xf' insert-files

insert-unicode-char

When first executed, the user inputs a set of hexadecimal digits. This is terminated with another call to *insert-unicode-char*/./ The digits are then turned into the corresponding Unicode character. For example, if the widget is bound to *^XU*/, the character sequence/ `*^XU 4 c ^XU*/’ inserts L (Unicode U+004c)./

See *insert-composed-char*/ for a way of inserting characters/ using a two-character mnemonic.

narrow-to-region */[ /-p*/ pre ] [ -P post ]/

These functions are useful in constructing widgets. They should be loaded with `*autoload -U*/ function’ and called/ as indicated from user-defined widgets.

split-shell-arguments This function splits the line currently being edited into shell arguments and whitespace. The result is stored in the array *reply*/. The array/ contains all the parts of the line in order, starting with any whitespace before the first argument, and finishing with any whitespace after the last argument. Hence (so long as the option *KSH_ARRAYS*/ is not set)/ whitespace is given by odd indices in the array and arguments by even indices. Note that no stripping of quotes is done; joining together all the elements of *reply*/ in order is guaranteed to produce the/ original line.

The parameter *REPLY*/ is set to the index of the word in reply which/ contains the character after the cursor, where the first element has index 1. The parameter *REPLY2*/ is set to the index of the character under the/ cursor in that word, where the first character has index 1.

Hence *reply*/, REPLY and REPLY2 should all be made local to/ the enclosing function.

See the function *modify-current-argument*/, described below, for/ an example of how to call this function.

*modify-current-argument*/ [ expr-using-$ARG | func ]/

This function provides a simple method of allowing user-defined widgets to modify the command line argument under the cursor (or immediately to the left of the cursor if the cursor is between arguments).

The argument can be an expression which when evaluated operates on the shell parameter *ARG*/, which will have been set to the command line argument/ under the cursor. The expression should be suitably quoted to prevent it being evaluated too early.

Alternatively, if the argument does not contain the string *ARG*/, it/ is assumed to be a shell function, to which the current command line argument is passed as the only argument. The function should set the variable *REPLY*/ to the new value for the command line argument./ If the function returns non-zero status, so does the calling function.

For example, a user-defined widget containing the following code converts the characters in the argument under the cursor into all upper case:

      modify-current-argument '${(U)ARG}'

The following strips any quoting from the current word (whether backslashes or one of the styles of quotes), and replaces it with single quoting throughout:

      modify-current-argument '${(qq)${(Q)ARG}}'

The following performs directory expansion on the command line argument and replaces it by the absolute path:

      expand-dir() {
        REPLY=${~1}
        REPLY=${REPLY:a}
      }
      modify-current-argument expand-dir

In practice the function *expand-dir*/ would probably not be defined/ within the widget where *modify-current-argument*/ is called./

The behavior of several of the above widgets can be controlled by the use of the *zstyle*/ mechanism. In particular, widgets that interact with/ the completion system pass along their context to any completions that they invoke.

break-keys This style is used by the incremental-complete-word*/ widget. Its value/ should be a pattern, and all keys matching this pattern will cause the widget to stop incremental completion without the key having any further effect. Like all styles used directly by *incremental-complete-word*/, this style is looked up using the/ context `:incremental*/’./

completer

The *incremental-complete-word*/ and insert-and-predict widgets set/ up their top-level context name before calling completion. This allows one to define different sets of completer functions for normal completion and for these widgets. For example, to use completion, approximation and correction for normal completion, completion and correction for incremental completion and only completion for prediction one could use:

      zstyle ':completion:*' completer \ 
              _complete _correct _approximate
      zstyle ':completion:incremental:*' completer \ 
              _complete _correct
      zstyle ':completion:predict:*' completer \ 
              _complete

It is a good idea to restrict the completers used in prediction, because they may be automatically invoked as you type. The *_list*/ and/ *_menu*/ completers should never be used with prediction. The/ *_approximate*/, _correct, _expand, and _match completers may/ be used, but be aware that they may change characters anywhere in the word behind the cursor, so you need to watch carefully that the result is what you intended.

cursor

The insert-and-predict*/ widget uses this style, in the context/ `:predict*/’, to decide where to place the cursor after completion has/ been tried. Values are:

complete The cursor is left where it was when completion finished, but only if it is after a character equal to the one just inserted by the user. If it is after another character, this value is the same as `*key*/’./

key

The cursor is left after the nth occurrence of the character just inserted, where n is the number of times that character appeared in the word before completion was attempted. In short, this has the effect of leaving the cursor after the character just typed even if the completion code found out that no other characters need to be inserted at that position.

Any other value for this style unconditionally leaves the cursor at the position where the completion code left it.

list

When using the incremental-complete-word*/ widget, this style says/ if the matches should be listed on every key press (if they fit on the screen). Use the context prefix `:completion:incremental*/’./

The insert-and-predict*/ widget uses this style to decide if the/ completion should be shown even if there is only one possible completion. This is done if the value of this style is the string *always*/. In this/ case the context is `:predict*/’ (not `/*:completion:predict*/’)./

match

This style is used by smart-insert-last-word*/ to provide a pattern/ (using full *EXTENDED_GLOB*/ syntax) that matches an interesting word./ The context is the name of the widget to which *smart-insert-last-word is bound (see above). The default behavior of smart-insert-last-word is equivalent to:

      zstyle :insert-last-word match '*[[:alpha:]/\\]*'

However, you might want to include words that contain spaces:

      zstyle :insert-last-word match '*[[:alpha:][:space:]/\\]*'

Or include numbers as long as the word is at least two characters long:

      zstyle :insert-last-word match '*([[:digit:]]?|[[:alpha:]/\\])*'

The above example causes redirections like “2>” to be included.

prompt

The *incremental-complete-word*/ widget shows the value of this/ style in the status line during incremental completion. The string value may contain any of the following substrings in the manner of the *PS1*/ and other prompt parameters:/

%c Replaced by the name of the completer function that generated the matches (without the leading underscore).

%l

When the list*/ style is set,/ replaced by `…*/’ if the list of matches is too long to fit on the/ screen and with an empty string otherwise. If the *list*/ style is/ `false’ or not set, `*%l*/’ is always removed./

%n

Replaced by the number of matches generated.

%s

Replaced by `*-no match-’, `-no prefix-*/’, or an empty string/ if there is no completion matching the word on the line, if the matches have no common prefix different from the word on the line, or if there is such a common prefix, respectively.

%u

Replaced by the unambiguous part of all matches, if there is any, and if it is different from the word on the line.

Like `*break-keys*/’, this uses the `/*:incremental*/’ context./

stop-keys

This style is used by the incremental-complete-word*/ widget. Its value/ is treated similarly to the one for the *break-keys*/ style (and uses / the same context: `:incremental*/’). However, in/ this case all keys matching the pattern given as its value will stop incremental completion and will then execute their usual function.

toggle

This boolean style is used by predict-on*/ and its related widgets in/ the context `:predict*/’. If set to one of the standard `true’ values,/ predictive typing is automatically toggled off in situations where it is unlikely to be useful, such as when editing a multi-line buffer or after moving into the middle of a line and then deleting a character. The default is to leave prediction turned on until an explicit call to *predict-off*/./

verbose

This boolean style is used by predict-on*/ and its related widgets in/ the context `:predict*/’. If set to one of the standard `true’ values,/ these widgets display a message below the prompt when the predictive state is toggled. This is most useful in combination with the *toggle*/ style./ The default does not display these messages.

widget

This style is similar to the *command*/ style: For widget functions that/ use *zle*/ to call other widgets, this style can sometimes be used to/ override the widget which is called. The context for this style is the name of the calling widget (not the name of the calling function, because one function may be bound to multiple widget names).

      zstyle :copy-earlier-word widget smart-insert-last-word

Check the documentation for the calling widget or function to determine whether the *widget*/ style is used./

colors This function initializes several associative arrays to map color names to (and from) the ANSI standard eight-color terminal codes. These are used by the prompt theme system (see above). You seldom should need to run *colors*/ more than once./

The eight base colors are: black*/, red, green, yellow,/ *blue*/, magenta, cyan, and white. Each of these has codes for/ foreground and background. In addition there are seven intensity attributes: *bold*/, faint, standout, underline, blink, reverse,/ and *conceal*/. Finally, there are seven codes used to negate attributes:/ *none*/ (reset all attributes to the defaults), /*normal (neither bold nor faint), *no-standout*/, no-underline, no-blink,/ *no-reverse*/, and no-conceal./

Some terminals do not support all combinations of colors and intensities.

The associative arrays are:

color

colour Map all the color names to their integer codes, and integer codes to the color names. The eight base names map to the foreground color codes, as do names prefixed with `*fg-*/’, such as `/*fg-red*/’. Names prefixed/ with `*bg-*/’, such as `/*bg-blue*/’, refer to the background codes. The/ reverse mapping from code to color yields base name for foreground codes and the *bg-*/ form for backgrounds./

#+begin_quote Although it is a misnomer to call them `colors’, these arrays also map the other fourteen attributes from names to codes and codes to names.

fg

fg_bold

fg_no_bold Map the eight basic color names to ANSI terminal escape sequences that set the corresponding foreground text properties. The *fg*/ sequences change/ the color without changing the eight intensity attributes.

bg

bg_bold

bg_no_bold Map the eight basic color names to ANSI terminal escape sequences that set the corresponding background properties. The *bg*/ sequences change the/ color without changing the eight intensity attributes.

In addition, the scalar parameters *reset_color*/ and bold_color are/ set to the ANSI terminal escapes that turn off all attributes and turn on bold intensity, respectively. #+end_quote

fned*/ [ /-x*/ num ] name/

Same as zed -f*/. This function does not appear in the zsh/ distribution, but can be created by linking *zed*/ to the name /*fned in some directory in your *fpath*/./

*is-at-least*/ needed [ present ]/

Perform a greater-than-or-equal-to comparison of two strings having the format of a zsh version number; that is, a string of numbers and text with segments separated by dots or dashes. If the present string is not provided, *$ZSH_VERSION*/ is used. Segments are paired left-to-right in/ the two strings with leading non-number parts ignored. If one string has fewer segments than the other, the missing segments are considered zero.

This is useful in startup files to set options and other state that are not available in all versions of zsh.

      is-at-least 3.1.6-15 && setopt NO_GLOBAL_RCS
      is-at-least 3.1.0 && setopt HIST_REDUCE_BLANKS
      is-at-least 2.6-17 || print "You can't use is-at-least here."

*nslookup*/ [ arg … ]/

This wrapper function for the nslookup*/ command requires the/ *zsh/zpty*/ module (see/ /zshmodules(1)). It behaves exactly like the standard /*nslookup except that it provides customizable prompts (including a right-side prompt) and completion of nslookup commands, host names, etc. (if you use the function-based completion system). Completion styles may be set with the context prefix `*:completion:nslookup*/’./

See also the *pager*/, prompt and rprompt styles below./

*regexp-replace*/ var regexp replace/

Use regular expressions to perform a global search and replace operation on a variable. POSIX extended regular expressions are used, unless the option RE_MATCH_PCRE*/ has been set, in which case/ Perl-compatible regular expressions are used (this requires the shell to be linked against the *pcre library).

var is the name of the variable containing the string to be matched. The variable will be modified directly by the function. The variables MATCH*/, MBEGIN, MEND, match, mbegin, /*mend should be avoided as these are used by the regular expression code.

regexp is the regular expression to match against the string.

replace is the replacement text. This can contain parameter, command and arithmetic expressions which will be replaced: in particular, a reference to *$MATCH*/ will be replaced by the text matched by the pattern./

The return status is 0 if at least one match was performed, else 1.

*run-help*/ cmd/

This function is designed to be invoked by the *run-help*/ ZLE widget,/ in place of the default alias. See `Accessing On-Line Help’ above for setup instructions.

In the discussion which follows, if cmd is a file system path, it is first reduced to its rightmost component (the file name).

Help is first sought by looking for a file named cmd in the directory named by the *HELPDIR*/ parameter. If no file is found, an assistant/ function, alias, or command named *run-help-*/cmd is sought. If/ found, the assistant is executed with the rest of the current command line (everything after the command name cmd) as its arguments. When neither file nor assistant is found, the external command `*man*/ cmd’ is run./

An example assistant for the “ssh” command:

      run-help-ssh() {
          emulate -LR zsh
          local -a args
          # Delete the "-l username" option
          zparseopts -D -E -a args l:
          # Delete other options, leaving: host command
          args=(${@:#-*})
          if [[ ${#args} -lt 2 ]]; then
              man ssh
          else
              run-help $args[2]
          fi
      }

Several of these assistants are provided in the Functions/Misc directory. These must be autoloaded, or placed as executable scripts in your search path, in order to be found and used by *run-help*/./

run-help-git

run-help-ip

run-help-openssl

run-help-p4

run-help-sudo

run-help-svk

run-help-svn Assistant functions for the *git*/,/ *ip*/,/ *openssl*/,/ *p4*/,/ *sudo*/,/ *svk*/,/ and *svn*/,/ commands.

tetris

Zsh was once accused of not being as complete as Emacs, because it lacked a Tetris game. This function was written to refute this vicious slander.

This function must be used as a ZLE widget:

      autoload -U tetris
      zle -N tetris
      bindkey keys tetris

To start a game, execute the widget by typing the keys. Whatever command line you were editing disappears temporarily, and your keymap is also temporarily replaced by the Tetris control keys. The previous editor state is restored when you quit the game (by pressing `*q*/’) or when you lose./

If you quit in the middle of a game, the next invocation of the tetris widget will continue where you left off. If you lost, it will start a new game.

tetriscurses

This is a port of the above to zcurses. The input handling is improved a bit so that moving a block sideways doesn’t automatically advance a timestep, and the graphics use unicode block graphics.

This version does not save the game state between invocations, and is not invoked as a widget, but rather as:

      autoload -U tetriscurses
      tetriscurses

(no term)

zargs*/ [ option … /--/ ] [ input … ] [ /–*/ command [ arg … ] ]/ :: This function has a similar purpose to GNU xargs. Instead of reading lines of arguments from the standard input, it takes them from the command line. This is useful because zsh, especially with recursive glob operators, often can construct a command line for a shell function that is longer than can be accepted by an external command.

The option list represents options of the /*zargs* command itself,/ which are the same as those of xargs*/. The input list is the/ collection of strings (often file names) that become the arguments of the *command*/, analogous to the standard input of xargs. Finally, the/ arg list consists of those arguments (usually options) that are passed to the command each time it runs. The arg list precedes the elements from the *input*/ list in each run. If no command is/ provided, then no arg list may be provided, and in that event the default command is `*print*/’ with arguments `/-r –*/’./

For example, to get a long *ls*/ listing of all non-hidden plain files/ in the current directory or its subdirectories:

      autoload -U zargs
      zargs -- **/*(.) -- ls -ld --

The first and third occurrences of `*--’ are used to mark the end of options for *zargs*/ and ls respectively to guard against/ filenames starting with `-*/’, while the second is used to separate the/ list of files from the command to run (`*ls -ld –*/’)./

The first `*–*/’ would also be needed if there was a chance the/ list might be empty as in:

      zargs -r -- ./*.back(#qN) -- rm -f

In the event that the string `*--’ is or may be an input, the *-e*/ option may be used to change the end-of-inputs marker. Note that/ this does not change the end-of-options marker. For example, to use `..*/’ as the marker:/

      zargs -e.. -- **/*(.) .. ls -ld --

This is a good choice in that example because no plain file can be named `*..*/’, but the best end-marker depends on the circumstances./

The options -i*/, /-I*/, -l, -L, and -n differ slightly/ from their usage in xargs*/. There are no input lines for zargs to/ count, so *-l*/ and /-L*/ count through the input list, and -n counts the number of arguments passed to each execution of /command, including any arg list. Also, any time /*-i* or -I is used,/ each input is processed separately as if by `/*-L* 1’./

For details of the other zargs*/ options, see xargs(1) (but note/ the difference in function between *zargs*/ and xargs) or run/ *zargs*/ with the /–help*/ option./

zed*/ [ /-f*/ [ -x num ] ] name/

zed -b This function uses the ZLE editor to edit a file or function.

Only one name argument is allowed. If the -f*/ option is given, the name is taken to be that of/ a function; if the function is marked for autoloading, *zed*/ searches/ for it in the *fpath*/ and loads it. Note that functions edited this way/ are installed into the current shell, but not written back to the autoload file. In this case the *-x*/ option specifies that leading/ tabs indenting the function according to syntax should be converted into the given number of spaces; `-x 2*/’ is consistent with the layout/ of functions distributed with the shell.

Without *-f*/, name is the path name of the file to edit, which need/ not exist; it is created on write, if necessary.

While editing, the function sets the main keymap to zed*/ and the/ vi command keymap to *zed-vicmd*/. These will be copied from the existing/ *main*/ and vicmd keymaps if they do not exist the first time /*zed is run. They can be used to provide special key bindings used only in zed.

If it creates the keymap, *zed*/ rebinds the return key to insert a line/ break and `*^X^W*/’ to accept the edit in the zed keymap, and binds/ `*ZZ*/’ to accept the edit in the zed-vicmd keymap./

The bindings alone can be installed by running `*zed -b*/’. This is/ suitable for putting into a startup file. Note that, if rerun, this will overwrite the existing *zed*/ and zed-vicmd keymaps./

Completion is available, and styles may be set with the context prefix `*:completion:zed*/’./

A zle widget zed-set-file-name*/ is available. This can be called by/ name from within zed using `\ex zed-set-file-name*/’ (note, however, that/ because of zed’s rebindings you will have to type *^j*/ at the end instead/ of the return key), or can be bound to a key in either of the *zed*/ or/ *zed-vicmd*/ keymaps after `/*zed -b*/’ has been run. When the widget is/ called, it prompts for a new name for the file being edited. When zed exits the file will be written under that name and the original file will be left alone. The widget has no effect with `*zed -f*/’./

While *zed-set-file-name*/ is running, zed uses the keymap/ *zed-normal-keymap*/, which is linked from the main keymap in effect/ at the time zed initialised its bindings. (This is to make the return key operate normally.) The result is that if the main keymap has been changed, the widget won’t notice. This is not a concern for most users.

zcp*/ [ /-finqQvwW*/ ] srcpat dest/

zln*/ [ /-finqQsvwW*/ ] srcpat dest/ Same as *zmv -C*/ and zmv -L, respectively. These functions do not/ appear in the zsh distribution, but can be created by linking *zmv*/ to/ the names *zcp*/ and zln in some directory in your fpath./

zkbd

See `Keyboard Definition’ above.

zmv*/ [ /-finqQsvwW*/ ] [ -C | -L | -M | -{p*/|/*P} program ] [ -o optstring ]/

insert-tab The zed*/ function sets this style in context `/:completion:zed:**/’/ to turn off completion when *TAB*/ is typed at the beginning of a line./ You may override this by setting your own value for this context and style.

pager

The nslookup*/ function looks up this style in the context/ `:nslookup*/’ to determine the program used to display output that does/ not fit on a single screen.

prompt

rprompt The nslookup*/ function looks up this style in the context/ `:nslookup*/’ to set the prompt and the right-side prompt, respectively./ The usual expansions for the *PS1*/ and RPS1 parameters may be used/ (see EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1)).